Saint Luke, Archbishop of Crimea: On Grumbling against God
Saint Luke, Archbishop of Crimea
Last Sunday I tried to reveal the greatness and the depth of the words of the Apostle Paul, who calls himself a drink-offering upon the Sacrifice. I spoke to you of the countless misfortunes and torments that he suffered throughout his life for the Lord Jesus Christ, who offered Himself as a Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. Adding to what I told you then about the sufferings of this great apostle, I will now tell you also what he endured in a city of Macedonia, in Philippi, for his preaching.
Upon the denunciation of certain people who did not like his preaching, the rulers of the city gave orders for him to be beaten with rods, and then they threw him into prison and fastened his feet in the stocks of punishment. Did the apostle then lose his courage? Did he begin to weep? Certainly not.
At midnight Paul, together with his fellow worker Silas, sang psalms, glorifying God. Paul could have avoided the beatings with a single word, come out of prison, and even frightened the rulers, had he but told them that he was a Roman citizen. Yet he did not do so. He preferred humiliation for the name of Christ and rejoiced with all his heart at the floggings and the wounds, because these contributed to the conversion of the jailer and his family to faith in Christ. Let us always remember how much we fear floggings and wounds, whereas, on the contrary, how much this great servant of God rejoiced in them. He rejoiced every time he could become a drink-offering upon the sacrifice.
And in today's apostolic reading we read an even more astonishing saying of the Apostle Paul from his Epistle to the Colossians: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church" (Col. 1, 24).
Do you hear how the heart of the great apostle beats? Do you hear how he considers that he is lacking in the sufferings that he endures for the Church of Christ, which is His Body? Not only does he endure all his countless sufferings without any grumbling at all, but he also thirsts for more. O Lord!
And we, the weak Christians, how afraid we are of reproaches, afflictions and sufferings! Is it possible to find even one among us who would ask that these be multiplied? He, however, thirsted for these sufferings, so that Christ might be formed in the hearts of the gentiles, to whom he tirelessly preached the Gospel.
Let us also recall another saying of the great Paul: "Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Cor. 11, 1). To imitate the Apostle Paul in his thirst for the sufferings of Christ, only very few people can, of course – those who have received the rich gifts of the Holy Spirit. But simple Christians can also please God and receive a reward from Him, though only through the uncomplaining endurance of the afflictions that are sent to them by God. Let all of us remember the words of the great Apostle Paul from his Epistle to the Hebrews: "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." (Heb. 12, 5-8).
People often ask why, for what reason, the Lord God sends them afflictions and many times even very serious trials. It is very important for every Christian to understand that afflictions are sent to us according to the will of God, which is always good and salvific. Most of the time, moreover, they are sent not as punishments for our sins, but so that we may redefine our paths and our hearts, or as an answer to the requests that we address to God.
People often expect God to fulfil what they ask in their prayers in a way that they themselves consider best. God, however, often answers their supplications in an entirely different way, and not in the way they would wish or imagine.
If they ask, for example, that God grant them humility, they imagine that little by little, day by day, humility, under the beneficial influence of God, will grow in their hearts. The Lord, however, often does it in a different way; He sends them an unexpected, harsh blow which wounds their pride and their egoism and humbles them. Often God sends us some illness, and we complain and do not at all consider that most of the time this is a great benefaction of God, that it is perhaps God's answer to our prayers, with which we beseech Him to strengthen our faith.
Do you not know that many times the Lord sends us terrible bodily illnesses and wounds our body in order to strengthen us spiritually? This happened also with Saint Poimen the Much-suffering, who practised asceticism in the Monastery of the Caves and all his life lay on the bed of pain, suffering from an incurable illness, and in this way reached holiness.
Other people, who attach great importance to earthly goods, ask the Lord that their riches be increased. And the Lord answers them with the destruction of their property or with fires, and in this way turns them away from attachment to earthly things and from avariceand thus corrects their deviations from the right path, which the Beatitudes teach us.
God treats us as His true sons, whom He chastises for their own good. The afflictions that the Lord sends us we must receive just as the holy Apostle Peter tells us: "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." (1 Pet. 5, 6).
If we cannot, despite all our efforts, understand for what reason afflictions are sent to us by God, then let us humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will raise us up at the proper time, so that we may understand His ways by which He leads us to this end.
We must, with much humility and without the slightest grumbling, accept all the trials and afflictions that are sent to us by God, having the humble conviction that by these God is guiding us, and not that He is venting His wrath upon us. For He Himself, through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, said: "I am no longer angry about this" (Is. 27, 4). Whereas we usually think that the Lord is angry with us and for this reason sends us afflictions. No. Always remember that in God there is no wrath. "God is love" (1 John 4, 8). And perfect love is a stranger to any injustice whatsoever.
But many times, when God gives us a serious blow, through which He humbles us in order to raise us up later, we grumble against God. Do you understand, however, how grave a sin grumbling against God is? When we grumble against God, this means that we consider Him unjust, we consider that He does not treat us rightly and that He ought to treat us in a different way. But is it not a grave sin to accuse God of injustice and to slander Him? You see, then, how grave a sin grumbling against God is. Therefore "pass the time of your sojourning here in fear" (1 Pet. 1, 17). We must be very careful of the mistakes and obstacles on our way toward the Kingdom of Heaven. But more than all else, we must fear not to transgress the great commandment of Christ: "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matt. 7, 1). And grumbling against God is not only a judging of God but also a condemning of Him.
Let us leave that judgment to those wretched people who willingly destroy themselves. Whom the Lord Jesus Christ neither corrects nor punishes, because they are incorrigible and incurable. Let us only ask for His help on the road of our salvation, glorify Him and honour Him always, together with His Father who is without beginning and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
