Longanimity

 Longanimity is underrated. 

Actually, longanimity is unknown. 

Let's bring back longanimity!

I am reading about it in the spiritual classic The Sanctifier by Archbishop Luis Martinez of Mexico City in the 1950s.

From the Latin "anima" for spirit, the word means "long-spirited." It is a virtue and gift of the Holy Spirit which elevates the intellect and will to "play the long game." It is the ability to endure hardship, suffering and difficulty for long periods. So it is almost synonymous or overlaps patience, longsuffering, endurance, perseverance, tenacity, and persistence. In that it is a virtue of the will. But it is also a virtue of the intellect: to see things in the long run. In the long run, of course, we are all dead. So it is fitting to ponder this virtue and gift now, November, as we remember the last things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. And as we pray for the souls and honor the saints.

St. Mother Teresa suffered the dark night for about 40 years: longanimity.

Jimmy Lae is suffering bad health in a Hong Kong prison: longanimity.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in her recent book Listening to the Law diligently unveils the nature and workings of our constitutional system and The Court. She is emphatic: their decisions are not focused so much on the particulars of the moment, but upon the broad logic of law and the repercussions well into the future. Longanimity.

My friend Adrienne (who I saw yesterday for the first time in 50 years) is lovingly caring for her husband of 48 years who is suffering Lewy body dementia, arranging her home and schedule around his needs. Longanimity.

Our Senate Republicans recently found the courage and integrity to resist the President's pressure to discard the filibuster. They were protecting a protocol essential to the integrity of the Senate. Longanimity.

When we were raising our children, our friend (really sister-in-Christ and aunt to our children) Betty would calmly announce: "This too will pass." Longanimity.

Yesterday I spoke with an inmate in a local county jail who was just denied recourse to Recovery Court and so will spend more time in prison. He was understandably disappointed. I recalled the story of the patriarch Joseph of Egypt and the reality of Divine Providence and encouraged him to: Longanimity.

Longanimity of the intellect keeps us in communion with those who have gone before us, across the generations, and the legacy they have given us. It inclines us to view the future, well beyond our lifetimes, like Moses looking into the Promised Land, the promises to our children and theirs. It situates us well beyond our own limitations of space and time within the broader contours of family, community and Church.

I encourage you, dear Reader, as I encourage myself to practice the virtue and pray for the gift of Longanimity.

Come, Holy Spirit, giver of all good gifts. Bring patience, peace and longanimity!