January: Day 14: Teaching 1: The Venerable Fathers Killed in Sinai and Raithou

January: Day 14: Teaching 1:
The Venerable Fathers Killed in Sinai and Raithou
 
(Why Does the Lord Allow the Righteous to Suffer From the Wicked, and Also to Endure Other Troubles?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Reading the lives of the saints, we see that the saints often suffered misfortunes - some of them suffered cruelty and persecution, while others received wounds and even death from wicked people. To the majority of them, without exaggeration, we can apply the words of the Holy Apostle Paul: "Some were slain, receiving no deliverance... But others received trial with mockings and stripes, and also with bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were struck down, they were tested, they died with the slaughter of the sword" (Heb. 11:35-37). What does this mean? Whose life was more blameless than these persecuted saints? Who knew God better than they and served Him more zealously? Who helped their neighbors more selflessly than they, were more compassionate, peace-loving and more pious? Why did the Lord allow the wicked to hurt them? Or was He not strong enough to deliver them from the hands of the wicked? Or does He not have love and compassion?

II. Disasters are sent by the wise and good will of Providence. Once the Venerable Nilus the Faster, who was a companion of the Holy Fathers who were slain at Sinai and Raithou, whose memory is celebrated today, having seen their slaughter and suffering from the barbarians, and himself having barely escaped the sword of the villains, asked why they were suffering? “Where,” he said, “blessed fathers, are the labors of your abstinence? Where is the reward for your patience in sorrows? Where is the crown for many exploits? Is this the reward for your monasticism? Or did you rush in vain to the exploit that lay before you? Or is it fair to accept sorrow as virtue, and that God’s providence left you without help when you were being killed? And so defilement has taken hold of your holy bodies, and malice boasts that it has overcome you.” Thus, in deep sorrow, the Venerable Nilus asked himself questions; but to his consolation, he soon received answers to them.

a) The wounded and barely breathing Elder Theodoulos said to him and to those monks with him who had escaped the sword of the villains, "Why does the attack that has come upon us disturb you? Do you not already know why the Lord gives His ascetics over to the enemy? Is it not for the sake of rewarding with the greatest rewards those who endure to the end, as He rewarded Job doubly for what He had lost? But there, in heaven, He will certainly reward incomparably more, for 'eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which the Lord has prepared for those who love Him' (1 Cor. 2:9) and endure to the end!”

There can be no better answer to our questions, brethren, about the cause of innocent suffering.

b) But what shall we say when we see that a righteous man sometimes suffers, and not from people? Some of the virtuous have nowhere to lay their heads all their lives; and another, which is even more terrible, sometimes suffers a cruel and horrible death. And we, too, are perplexed: what does this mean? Why does a righteous man suffer? O brethren! Do not be confused here; for although the ways of God's providence are inscrutable, they always lead to good ends, always serve for our salvation and blessedness.

A certain monk, having come to the city to sell his handicrafts, saw the burial of a certain evil nobleman and was amazed that the wicked man was escorted with great ecclesiastical and civil honor. He was even more struck by the sight which he saw upon returning to the desert: the pious elder, his mentor, lay there torn to pieces by a hyena. "Lord," cried the orphaned hermit, "why was this evil nobleman deemed worthy of such a glorious death, while this holy man was torn to pieces by a beast?" An angel appeared to the weeping man and said: "Do not weep for your teacher. The evil nobleman had one good deed and for that he was deemed worthy of an honorable burial: but his reward is only here, while there awaits him punishment for all his evil deeds. On the contrary, your teacher, although he was pleasing to God in everything, had one vice, from which he was cleansed by an evil death" (Prologue, July 21).

III. Therefore, brethren, it is clear that he has no idea of the infinite love of the Heavenly Father for us who dares to reproach Him for injustice and lack of compassion. Let us believe that momentary sorrow leads to infinite blessedness, if it is borne with patience and for God's sake; and let us remember that the time will come when the Lord will wipe away all tears from the eyes of His servants forever (Rev. 7:17). "Do not grieve," says Saint Dimitri of Rostov, "if something is done in the world not according to the will of your heart: for not all things can be done according to your thoughts, as you wish, since not all your desires are good, nor all your knowledge beneficial... God's will is one, and yours is another, and His judgments are different, which you do not know, for you cannot understand everything. For this reason, do not grieve over a single thing, but place everything on the Lord: 'Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”  

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.