Eknath Easwaran's Commentary
Dealing with acrimonious situations with a calm patience requires toughness as well as love. Sometimes a little creativity helps, too.
A story about one of Saint Francis of Assisi’s earliest disciples, Brother Juniper, illustrates this. Once, when a superior had reprimanded him with great severity, Brother Juniper was so disturbed that he could not sleep. He got up in the middle of the night and prepared some porridge with a big lump of butter on top, and took it to his superior’s room. “Father, I have prepared this porridge for you and beg you to eat it.” The superior told him to go away and let him sleep. “Well,” said Brother Juniper simply, “would you be so kind as to hold the light while I eat it?” The superior laughed in spite of himself, and was sporting enough to sit down with Brother Juniper so they could eat the porridge together.
We may not be so ingenuous as Brother Juniper, but we can still learn to head off resentment in every way possible.