By Father Valery Zakharov
Sometimes it
may seem to us that God does not hear us. We cannot understand why this of that
happens, or why it does not happen, when we anticipate it. We try to understand
the God’s providence with our human mind. In vain, of course. However, there is
an easier way – to humble yourself and accept everything that God sends you.
Unfortunately, we cannot do this as well, because we oppose and resist God, against everything He wants us to do. How much time do we need to become
like children – to accept humbly what is given, to rejoice about what is sent
to us and feel sad of what we cannot change?..
The humble are
in Heaven while on earth. But how can we achieve this? How can we accept what
God sends? Even today, despite the fact we have joined the Church a long time
ago, we continue to consider sorrows and diseases to be some bad and sad
moments of our lives, and death to be our main punishment. Earlier the faithful
people took another a different view: people were afraid when everything was
good for long. They thought that God had stepped aside and forgot about them,
because they understood that there was the reason for all their sorrows. They
understood that if is they could humbly endure those problems, then God’s grace
would bless them, that it was the lesson they had to learn to grow spiritually
and move to the next class – to the academy of love. But a person cannot skip
nursery, school and university and enter the academy at once. We understand
this in “earthly” sense, but at the same time we may assume us to be ready
spiritually to accept the greatest gift – the gift of love. We may even think
that we have already got this gift. And we become so disappointed when we
realize that in fact we are not ready to bear what God sends us! Instead to
rejoice that God lets us see our condition and get free from this through
repentance, we become sad because of our weaknesses. Of course, our way in not
clear and easy, but God said: “My burden is light” (Matthew, 11:30). Thus he makes
us stronger, helps us not to despair, but to make a step towards Him, although
we suffer from diseases and sorrows. We should not turn away, hide somewhere or
despond, but should accept everything with our heart.
If we bear our
burden or any sorrows, then we get the reward, the medal which God Himself
gives to each who follows Him. As we know, at the last times people will be
saved not through their great feats, but through sufferings. I wish that we
have enough strength and do not lose out hope in God and His presence in our
life. Thus we let Him act through us. We cannot separate from God while we
think about Him.
St. Elisabeth Convent,
December 16, 2016
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