Благость божия

The sun emits heat equally to all things. But some things melt from its heat like wax, while others harden like clay. So God equally does good to everyone and sends down the warmth of His goodness, but some people soften and repent through His goodness, while others become hardened and perish, as, for example, Pharaoh became hardened and perished - similar things are happening in the world today. O man! Or do you neglect the riches of God’s goodness, meekness and long-suffering, not realizing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance (Rom. 2:4)? Beware, man, of becoming hardened by the goodness of God, but rather move toward repentance and think about God’s long-suffering for your salvation! God's ineffable blessings make us obligated to God the Benefactor and require a very grateful heart from us: but what shall we render to the Lord for everything that He has given us (Ps. 115:3)? For the one thing that we were created by Him, brought from non-existence into being and honored by our rational soul, created in the image and likeness, we must give all of ourselves, that is, soul and body, to Him. And what can we give for the fact that those who have sinned have been pardoned, those who have perished have been recovered, those who have fallen have been restored in such a miraculous way? What is it for the fact that for our sake He took on the form of a slave, lived on earth, hungered, thirsted, toiled, cried, was sick, grieved, received dishonor, reproach, slander, condemnation, spitting, strangulation, beating, wounds, crucifixion and shameful death? What, I say, will we repay for this such wonderful love? We can't find anything! What is it for the fact that He gave those who believe in His name the power to become children of God (John 1:12), to be citizens of the highest Jerusalem, to be counted among the holy Angels, to be participants in the eternal and Heavenly Kingdom? Nothing! Remember, Christian, how much you owe the Lord God on top of that! Consider how many times since your youth you have sinned before the Lord God; how many times after Baptism did you break His holy law; how many times have you broken your vows that you made upon entering Christianity; How many times have you turned away from your Lord in your heart! You committed every crime in the face of God, and His all-seeing eye looked at your crimes. God is everywhere, and whatever we do, we do it before God. You sinned, and God looked at you; He looked and saw, but He endured you because of the riches of His goodness (Rom. 2:4). What kind of king could be so good, so meek, so merciful that he would see his servant before his eyes breaking his law and meekly tolerate it? Soon human meekness turns into anger and patience turns into indignation. But the king is the same person as his subjects, often breaking the law itself as a person, but does not tolerate it when he sees his law being violated by his subjects. But not so God, the one Sinless, God, the King of heaven and earth, the one Just and eternal Truth. Although he sees a person’s sin, out of the richness of His goodness he endures it, does not execute him, does not reward him then according to his deeds, and not only endures, but also protects the sinner, so that he does not perish while waiting for his repentance. Remember the apostolic word that our enemy, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). This enemy of ours, how many times have you sinned since your youth, how many times was he ready to destroy you, how many times, like a giant, he rushed at you, like a lion rushing at prey (Ps. 16:12), wanted to kidnap your soul and bring you to hell. But the goodness of God forbade him to do this. You have ruined the commandment of God, but God has not ruined His mercy on you. You angered God, but the goodness of God protected you from your enemy, who stood by you, sinning, and wanted to destroy you. You retreated from God with your heart and approached your enemy, but the goodness of God forbade him and forbade him, so that he would not steal your soul. For how long, having sinned, you remained in unrepentance, all this time he put snares under your feet, looking for a way to kill you and betray your soul to eternal destruction, but the goodness of God stopped his evil intentions. Remember how many of them were kidnapped into fornication, robbery, embezzlement, theft, drunkenness and sleep, without repentance, but the goodness of God saved you from this. Oh, how much in this part of God's goodness you owe! That you live, that you have not yet perished, that you will not be cast into hell, that you can repent and be saved—all this you must gratefully attribute to the goodness of God. Have you come to your senses and are you in true repentance? This is a work of God's grace. Are you unrepentant and unrepentant? The goodness of God is that you are not yet lost. Satan watches all your paths, your entrances and exits, wants to put an obstacle in front of you and steal your defective soul from you and bring you to hell, but the goodness of God does not yet allow him to destroy you, still tolerates you, still awaits your conversion, leads you to repentance. But listen to what the apostle says to the careless and faulty: or do you neglect the riches of God’s goodness, meekness and long-suffering, not realizing that God’s goodness leads you to repentance? But, due to your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of righteous judgment from God (Rom. 2:4-5). You see, beloved Christian, how amazing is the goodness of God towards us, which not only created us, and created us not like other things, senseless and insensitive, but honored us with feelings and reason, nourishes, clothes, warms, preserves and illuminates the created ones; not only did she have mercy on us who sinned, but she also tolerates us who sin, and not only tolerates us, but also preserves us from the machinations of our enemy, who seeks our destruction, as you saw above. But how great is God’s goodness towards us, how great is His love for us, so much do we owe to Him. Our mind is not able to comprehend this love of God for us, O people, or to invent how to repay it. We can only know and admit from our hearts that we cannot repay anything, no matter what we do for His sake. What shall we render to the Lord for all that he has given us (Ps. 115:3)? This is how one should always confess with a prophet with humility. Everything that our Lord did or does not do to us is for nothing, out of love alone. But although we lack the strength for worthy thanksgiving, we must, however much we have the strength to do so, try to always be grateful to Him with our hearts and lips. May the infinite and ineffable goodness of God, about which Saint Paul speaks thus: or do you despise the riches of the goodness, meekness and long-suffering of God, not realizing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance (Rom. 2:4)? The goodness of God is that we have not yet perished, that we still live in the world and can be saved by His grace, for thus His goodness leads us to repentance. From this goodness of Him it comes that He so kindly and favorably calls us to repentance and so wants to pour out His goodness on us and create eternal bliss as participants in us: return, O apostate daughter of Israel, says the Lord. I will not pour out My wrath on you; for I am merciful, says the Lord, I will not be angry forever (Jer. 3:12)… How many idolaters, blasphemers, robbers, robbers, rapists, predators, flatterers, wicked people, fornicators, adulterers, defilers and other lawless people exist, but God does not destroy them, although they are the enemies of God. What is this if not the goodness of God that leads them to repentance? And not only does he endure and not destroy them, but he also protects them from the slander of the enemy, although they do not feel it. Our enemy the devil, who walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8), would not have allowed them to live for even a minute, but he would have immediately captured their souls and cast them into hell; but the goodness of God does not give it to him, for God does not want the death of a sinner, but awaits conversion (Ezek. 33, 11; 18, 23, 32). Oh, the incomprehensible kindness of God to sinners! The sinner leaves God, but God does not leave him. The sinner, having departed from God, his Creator and Provider, adhered to the enemy of God - the devil, but God does not command him to destroy the sinner, His enemy. Who wouldn’t be surprised by such goodness of God, who could describe it in words! Thus, the goodness of God leads the sinner to repentance. Not only through long-suffering, but also through the very blessings that He pours out daily on all flesh, God leads us to repentance. Just as a child-loving father, wanting to make his son a participant in the inheritance, not only teaches him with words an orderly and constant life, but also with love and affection attracts him to make him good in every way and thus create him as his heir, so our humane and merciful Heavenly Father, wanting to make us participants in eternal bliss and the Heavenly Kingdom, not only with His words, but also with sensory benefits, attracts us to true repentance and piety. The blessings of God, for example, the sun, moon, stars, air, various fruits of the earth, fish, birds, livestock, etc., are like streams flowing from a source. Just as streams lead and show us a source so that we can draw water from it and drink, so God’s created goods lead us to God, the Source of goods, and point us to Him so that we can love Him and taste how good the Lord is, who created it. The sun, moon and stars point and silently preach to us: “See how good the Lord is, who created us for your light.” The fruits of the earth, birds, fish and livestock point and say: “taste and see how good the Lord is (Ps. 33:9), who created us for food for you,” and so on. But just as the Father, seeing his son faulty, is forced to threaten him with punishment and excommunication from the inheritance and in fact inflicts wounds on him in order to correct him, so the gracious Heavenly Father acts with the sons of men: he threatens them with temporary and eternal punishment... The merciful God threatens us with punishment, so that punishment does not befall us; threatens Gehenna so that they do not fall into Gehenna; punishes us so that we improve. And this is the meaning of the misfortunes and troubles sent to us, which, like messengers, silently cry out and silently exhort, let us create fruits worthy of repentance. Thus, the goodness of God, not only through prophetic and apostolic words, but also through long-suffering, the outpouring of temporary blessings and the sending of temporary evil, that is, troubles and misfortunes, leads us to repentance, calls us and expects us. And how kindly he calls and patiently waits for the sinner to repent, how kindly and favorably he accepts him when he turns, as Christ depicted in the parable of the Prodigal Son: when he (the Prodigal Son) was still far away. His father saw him and took pity; and, running, fell on his neck and kissed him (Luke 15:20). This is how the Heavenly Father looks at a sinner who has returned from a distant country to which he has withdrawn from Him; He sees one coming to Him, from whom He was separated by lawless living; He looks kindly, and he who turns and comes is dear to Him, and embraces him with the embrace of His goodness, and kisses him with the kiss of His Divine love. Oh, the most merciful eyes of the Heavenly Father, mercifully beholding the conversion of a sinner! Oh, the beneficent paternal embrace that embraces the sinner! Oh, the holiest and sweetest kiss that a sinner is granted! The endless Shrine does not disdain and does not turn away from the sinner, dressed as in vile rags. He does not drive away the one who came from Himself, whom He did not leave behind; accepts with love the one whose conversion he earnestly desired; does not reprimand him for the fact that he absented himself from Him without permission, that he squandered the wealth given to him. There is none of this! But [the convert] dresses in the best clothing, and puts a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet, and so is numbered among His holy family (see Luke 15:22). A fatherly voice of joy is heard: my son was dead and is alive, he was lost and is found (Luke 15:24). His heavenly Angels rejoice over this: there is joy among the Angels of God over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). Who would not marvel at such goodness of God, to which a sinner is honored both in aversion, in excommunication, and in conversion? A truly stony human heart, which is not softened by such goodness!.. So a man angers the good God and the gracious Father, even goodness itself, with sin, and especially with unrepentant life! God wants and thirsts for his salvation, for which he did not spare His Son, but sent him into the world and gave him up to death for him, but the unrepentant sinner resists such a great desire and favor of God. And this is the cunning and malice of the devil, who himself has turned away from his Creator, and remains in bitterness, and constantly angers Him, and teaches the same to a person who, being blinded, does not see that he is listening to the devil, and with him resists God, and perishes forever, which greatly offends God as a Lover of mankind. Let us, Christians, hate sin, the work of the devil, by which our good and gracious God is offended, and let us show our gratitude to Him, Who so earnestly desires our salvation. We don’t want to offend a benefactor who does us some good, much less offend God, whose countless benefits we experience in ourselves. If we neglect this, then we will learn for ourselves the work of His righteousness, which will reward everyone according to his deeds (Rom. 2:6). When a person sins, Satan is next to him and wants to capture his soul and cast him to the bottom of hell, but the merciful God does not allow him. And while a person remains in unrepentance and corruption, the same spiritual enemy watches all his paths and wants to destroy him, for this envious and evil spirit hungers and thirsts for our destruction, like a dog of blood, but God forbids him and holds him by His power. Do you see, man, what is the goodness and love of God towards the sinner! A sinner angers and grieves God, but God does not abandon him and does not deliver him into the hands of his enemy. The sinner retreats from God and gives himself over to his enemy the devil, but God forbids him to destroy him. Oh, the goodness of God, invincible by our sins! Oh, the foolishness and insensibility of sinners!.. Who can comprehend this goodness of God towards us sinners? A sinful and lost soul does not understand this and does not care about it! Consider and be amazed at the goodness and love of God, Christian. Man, an apostate, rejected, defiled by sin and to His adversary and enemy - Satan - who deviated, who listened to his evil advice and despised the command of his Creator, was mercifully and philanthropically elevated to such a height of dignity! We may be surprised, but we cannot understand this goodness of God towards us, unworthy, and with the prophet we say: Lord! What kind of person is this that You have revealed yourself to him? or the son of man, what do you think about him (Ps. 143:3)? If the king of the earth had mercy on any villain, rebel, enemy of the fatherland and his own, imprisoned in prison and sentenced to death according to the laws, had mercy, forgiven sin and delivered from death, moreover, honored him with high honor and accepted him as his son, then this case would seem like a miracle to the whole world and would be discussed with amazement in all centuries. The man who desired divine honor and to become God became an enemy of God, a rebel and an apostate, and therefore by the judgment of God’s unchangeable truth he was sentenced to eternal prison and condemned to eternal death. He had to drink this cup of sorrow and eternal suffering, for the truth of God, saddened by sin, certainly demanded this. For the truth of God demands that even the slightest sin should not be left unpunished, for every sin offends the infinite greatness of God, especially such a vile and grave sin of apostasy, which our ancestors committed in paradise and thus doomed themselves and us to anger and an oath to God. But God, rich in mercy, had mercy on us, delivered us from such a great calamity and elevated us by His grace to such a high dignity that our mind cannot comprehend. This great mercy and grace was earned for us, the unworthy and rejected, by the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, our Lord; The Heavenly Father gives it to believers in the name of His Only Begotten Son, and it is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. We, dear Christian, who have been granted such mercy of God, must: 1. Always remember this great goodness and thank the Benefactor from a sincere heart. 2. To live in a new spiritual birth, that is, to live not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit; to remember our promises given at Holy Baptism, by which we pledged to serve God with faith and truth, to show holy obedience to Him, without which there cannot be true thanksgiving and Baptism does not give anything useful. 3. Those who, through fearlessness and negligence, have ruined the gift of holy Baptism, turn with all their hearts to God, repent and pray to Him to again receive His high mercy - so that, remaining in the power of the devil, they will not suffer with him in eternal fire. The goodness of God is preached to us in almost all of Holy Scripture, and there is almost no chapter in which it is not mentioned. For God, the knower of the heart, knows the weakness of our hearts, and the tendency toward despair, and the cunning of evil spirits, and therefore He reminds us everywhere of His goodness and love for mankind. The goodness of God is shown by His works. 1. He commands His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). 2. He does not immediately execute the sinner, but waits for repentance, as the apostle says: the goodness of God leads you to repentance (Rom. 2:4). 3. He conveniently accepts the penitent and forgives his sins (Luke 15:4). 4. He punishes the sinner, but mercifully and philanthropically. 5. He Whom the Angels sing and praise with fear does not disdain our prayer and singing and praise, but even calls and commands us to pray and ask Him for everything that pleases His will. 6. He Himself surprisingly and kindly talks to us in His holy Word. Read the Scripture and you will see: not a single king treats his subjects as our God treats us. There is no such thing and there has never been such a thing in the world. Taste and see how good the Lord is (Ps. 33:9). 7. Most of all, the goodness of God was revealed to us in the incarnation of the Only Begotten Son of God. Here the whole treasure of His goodness was revealed, which we cannot even comprehend. Our Savior Himself preaches about this: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). This is the Gospel, this is joyful news, this is our hope and eternal life. We dare and boast about this, we stop the mouths of our slanderers: the Only Begotten Son of God came into the world for our sake, suffered and died. If God is for us, who can be against us (Rom. 8:31)? Glory to the favored Father and the suffering Son and the Holy Comforter Spirit. The glory of the Lord will be forever. 8. Although here we taste and see the goodness of God, we will taste and see and enjoy abundantly in eternal life, according to His true promise: eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). Reasoning and tasting the goodness of God: 1. Inflames love for God in our hearts. For conscience itself convinces us to love the One who loves us and does good to us. 2. Produces true gratitude to the Benefactor in the heart. 3. Produces indescribable spiritual joy and exclamation. 4. It produces in the repentant sinner true sadness for God and indignation at himself, because God did good to the sinner, but he insulted and angered the Benefactor, and madly despised His goodness. Reasoning about this, he will be stung, like an arrow, by sorrow for God, his Benefactor, whom he despised. 5. From there will follow shame for ingratitude, which is needed in repentance, as the prophet confesses: With You, O Lord, is righteousness, but on our faces there is shame (Dan. 9:7). Truly, shame and disgrace befits us for the fact that we, being creatures, earth and ashes, insult our Creator, and due to our insignificant meanness we do not realize His greatness, and besides, being always satisfied with His benefits, we do not thank our Benefactor. God does good to us, but we do not love Him. Shame and disgrace to the man who does not honor or love a person, his benefactor. All the more, we should be ashamed that we do not love and do not honor God, our Creator, Provider and Father. All creation convicts us of this, for with all zeal they serve Him as their Creator. Therefore, with You, Lord, there is truth, but on our faces there is shame (Dan. 9:7). 6. Patience in punishment will follow, since the person will admit that he deserves to suffer punishment as an ungrateful person. Reasoning about how much God's goodness has been poured out on him, and about his ingratitude towards Him, he recognizes himself as worthy of any punishment. 7. Self-humiliation and humility will follow, since he recognizes himself as unworthy of any of God’s blessings, although everyone should recognize this. For God freely gives His blessings to everyone. 8. By reasoning about the goodness of God we are confirmed in hope, when we are tempted by Satan and driven to despair. Diligent reasoning about the goodness of God will not allow one to despair, for God, being good, wants the salvation of everyone and does not want the death of the sinner. 9 . He who feels the goodness of God on himself is good to his neighbors. From the blessings of God given to him, he gives to his brethren, feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, and so on, for he knows that all good is God’s. Receiving forgiveness of sins from God and experiencing His mercy, he himself becomes merciful to those who have sinned and forgives their sins. Truly, if a person considers how much mercy he receives from God every day, he will not be able to be unmerciful towards his neighbor, and especially in the forgiveness of sins. Reason and taste the goodness of God, but at the same time omnipresent, and omniscience, and let His truth appear before the eyes of your soul.