SUFFERING AND SIN

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only Lord, God and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

SUFFERING AND SIN
By Archimandrite Seraphim Aleksiev

Our Sins

IF WE COMPARE our way of responding to trials and suffering with that of the Saints, we will see how far we are from their example. It was already pointed out that Adam began to suffer because he abused THE FREE WILL GIVEN TO HIM BY GOD in subjecting it to sin. The Saints did not abuse this great gift of God—their free will–but CONFORMED THEIR ACTIONS TO GOD’S LAW, and so tasted joy even in their sufferings. Today we, like Adam, constantly misuse our free will by sinning and transgressing God’s commandments. This is where all our troubles come from, as well as our inability to be consoled in them.

With which of God’s gifts has modern man failed to sin before God? God has given us health so that we can serve Him and our neighbors with it, but we abuse this precious gift by using it for sin and evil. God has given us riches so that we will be useful to the least of His brothers, but we misuse our riches as well. God has given us abilities in order to praise Him, yet we often bring dishonor to God’s Holy Name with our abilities, it is sufficient to think of those writers who use their gift to slander God and the Saints. Do not the astounding contemporary achievements of technology represent the same kind of abuse of God’s gifts by using them to destroy from the air entire cities and to kill peaceful citizens by the hundreds and thousands instead of employing these achievements for increasing the well-being of mankind? We often put in service to Satan all the blessings and abilities which we have received from God. Through them we seek glory and pleasure for ourselves, become proud, and harm our neighbors.

In this way we walk on the wide and deadly road which leads to hell. God, the good, Loving One does not want us to perish, but to be saved and to gain a knowledge of the truth (c. 1 Timothy 2:4); yet how can He save us? If His generosity towards us, His gifts, His long-suffering do not bring us to our senses and correct us, then He turns the tables. When He sees that we abuse His goodness and generosity, He begins to send us sorrows and punishments, so that in this way, hopefully, He would turn us to Himself.

God is infinitely Wise, Good, and Holy. Everything that He does is good, even the sorrows He sends for our benefit. In this life, we cannot yet fully understand that in all its depth and justice. If we could see from heaven our sinful earthly path, if we could perceive from God’s height and with His foresightedness what hellish fires we are kindling for ourselves with our evil deeds, we ourselves would agree that there are only two possibilities left for us–either to be thrown into eternal torments or to be brought to our senses, disciplined through temporary punishments and sufferings in life. Compared to the eternal torments in hell, the latter appear to be a true blessing of God, so light and easy to bear are they, so saving necessary for our correction…

"…Looking from on high, the sufferings which God sends to us in life are a real blessing. We are yet far from God’s peaks. We are still struggling along in the lowlands of the here and now; we are still too entangled in the cares of temporary life to be able to judge accurately all the disciplinary and saving significance of suffering. Our hope is that a day will come when we will kiss the rod with which the Lord has punished us. For now though, while we are students, we still reason from this perspective and that is why our grumbling understanding of the sufferings in life is not reliable. While we are in the flesh, we value too highly our earthly benefits and interests, and we forget the soul and its eternal striving. God, Who knows that our entire earthly life will pass away like a bloom and Who teaches us that the soul–THE IMMORTAL ONE–IS THE MOST VALUABLE THING WE HAVE, OFTEN SENDS SORROWS TO THE BODY IN ORDER TO SAVE THE SOUL In the same way, the Holy Apostle Paul ordered the Corinthians to turn the man guilty of incest over to Satan "for the destructionof the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in teh dasy of the Lord Jesus (I Corinthians 5:5). If we knew how beneficial suffering is for the salvation of our souls, we ourselves would prefer it over the abundance of earthly pleasures.

Jesus Christ says: "I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He pruneth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:1-2). He pruneth it/ What does this mean? How is the vine pruned? It is pruned by being clipped and cut. It is known that when the vine is cut, tears appear at the cuts: its branches begin to cry because they are suffering. Yet, if this vine knew that the gardener was pruning it for its own good, to protect it from barrenness, so that it would not be cut down altogether and thrown into the fire; if it could see itself in the autumn, covered with heavy, sweet grapes, it would cry out: "Blessed be the tears, blessed be the sufferings which made me so fruitful!

",,,Not grumbling, but patience in suffering–this is what God wants from us. "In your patience ye possess ye your souls" (Luke 21:19), the Savior has instructed us, because "we must through much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God" (Acts 12:22). Into this Kingdom of God one cannot enter with pride which teaches us to grumble, but with HUMILITY WHICH MAKES US PATIENT. There are no greater teachers of patience than sorrows. This is precisely why God sends us sufferings: so that we will humble ourselves before Him. No one has been saved by pride, because "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble" (I Peter 5:5). The doors of the Kingdom of Heaven are too low and narrow for the proud to enter through them; only those humbled by the sufferings of life can go through them freely. [Resources: The Meaning of Suffering and Strife and Reconciliation)

____________
"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
+ Saint John Chrysostomos

+ + +

With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George