7. Промысл Божи й

“It is said: “The joy of the Lord is our strength” (Neh. 8:10)” (19–2:115) In one of my essays dedicated to revealing the instructions of the holy righteous John of Kronstadt, I already cited the definition of the Providence of God. And if this definition is applied to the works of the Kronstadt Shepherd, then, naturally and first of all, it refers to the Theology of the Moscow Archpastor. I repeat it (it would be good to remember this definition): “Divine Providence is the constant action of the omnipotence, wisdom and goodness of God, by which God preserves the existence and strength of creatures, directs them to good goals, helps every good, and suppresses the evil that arises through removal from good, or corrects and turns to good consequences.” The Lord cares for us “not according to our worth,” but according to His infinite mercy (21:41). His destinies are “unknowable, but always wise and good” (13:72). “An amazing question, you propose, Father Viceroy: should we write about healings,” the Saint addresses Archimandrite Anthony. – They write about insignificant human affairs, they are obliged to write, and write in the established elegant manner, but should they write about the affairs of God? It was not for nothing that the prophet complained that they did not look at the works of the Lord (Isa. 5:11–12). Is it necessary for him to complain about this to us? In the answer to this question you will find the answer to the question you proposed” (17:23). The Lord creates the home of our soul and fills it with His light, His silence (8:93). The Lord blesses the union of souls “in His name and in His joy” and sends “to us His true peace, which He left for His faithful disciples” (7:203). He creates - He also has the power to destroy. “I have made my neighbors, I will destroy” (Jer. 45:4), it was said in the Old Testament. “What a terrible decision,” the saint grieves and prays: Lord, don’t ruin. Smite those who deserve it, but keep Yours in Heaven. Shake the earth so that we awaken, so that we cry out to You, so that You hear our cry of repentance and so that you are not completely angry in Heaven” (4:624). And the Saint believes: “The Father, from Him the whole fatherland in Heaven and on earth is named, does not leave as orphans those who seek His adoption as sons” (4:89). “God will not betray - the beast will not eat; and if God is pleased to allow a trial to happen to a person, then He can create abundance, and not our impatience or flight” (4:406). If one turns one’s gaze to the past, “there will be truth” when one turns one “to the merciful ways of God’s Providence” (13:43). – The Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called took all the faithful “under his protection” in order to guide them “to all good and to the peace of God”, to instill words of “truth for legends about the life of the Church, which He laid the foundation” (4:51). Providence either sends great blessings, or tests and even turns away His Face. – “Everything depends on His grace” (7:83). God’s providence “does not accidentally allow amazing events to happen” (14:8). “The destinies of the Lord are wise and good in everything, but one cannot see without the participation of sorrow, when good souls are visited by sorrows, when figures who are faithful and useful to the king and the kingdom are rejected from their activities” (19-2:322). May the Lord grant “both despondency and consolation, and the desire for life and the desire for death—to lay everything at His feet and to accept from Him every good gift, and to bear it in devotion to His will” (7:83). Receiving every good gift from God, we must ourselves demonstrate good deeds. – “God gives health so that a person can act, but He also takes health to ensure continued action; and sends illness so that a person can endure inaction in calm obedience to the will of God and thereby contribute to the restoration of health” (13:48). “I don’t think that it is completely impossible to combine health care with the performance of a position. In any case, care for health should be entrusted to the mercy of God, but on our part we should not put off what can be useful to our health. We do not dare to demand miracles, surrendering ourselves to His care, but we humbly ask to bless the beneficial means that He placed in the forces of nature and which we use according to our ability and understanding. If God has given us strength for 70 years, we have no right to spend it in 7 years or less, which can happen if we completely give up caring about maintaining health, or strengthening those who have wavered” (13:50). The path to God, to Heavenly good, to the light of Christ is not easy, but we must move forward, without looking back, without succumbing to unkind thoughts. The saint complains that we ourselves are moving slowly along the holy path and are not leading others well. “It seems to me a sad sign,” he writes to Archimandrite Anthony, “that we, without trying to move people to God ourselves, do not open the way even when God Himself extends a beneficent hand and reveals His power to draw them to Himself” (7:167). Saint Philaret, with archpastoral love and persistence, both asks and exhorts: “Continue... your prayers that God will grant... to have... both heart and deeds purified by His grace” (17:78). “Christ came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15)... Remembering this and admitting your sinfulness, “come to Him and be enlightened, and your faces will not be ashamed” (Ps. 33:6), as another man of God says” (29:278–279). “Let our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the pure, essential, holy, Divine Truth, accept both from your lips and from your heart a pure confession of faith in Him; and let every word or thought of blasphemy bring down upon the head the father of lies, who slanderes, as St. John says, our brethren day and night” (John 8:44; Rev. 12:10) (29:279). “When there is a drought, you cannot overcome it by force, but you must ask and expect beneficial rain from God and endure if He does not hurry” (29:297). We must do what is “just and useful in our conscience” and at the same time surrender ourselves into the hands of Providence. “If you are blessed with success, thank God. If what is directed to good through our sins is transformed, let us humble ourselves and condemn our thoughts, and not judge others and grumble at them” (15:8). Give all the care you can, teaches Saint Philaret, “entrust the rest to Him who cares for all of us, without comparison, more than each one cares for himself” (19-1:35). “I,” he continues in another letter, “are somewhat complicated by the future, but I, unable to clarify its gloom, calm down, turning my eyes away from it, and wait until some rays fall, which should show me the way. Maybe this will be called frivolity, but I call it trust in Providence. If I desire something, and I encounter obstacles to achieving the object of desire, I think that it was not chance that pushed them against me, and therefore I hesitate without complaining and wait for what will happen next. “It seems to me that a few years of indecision are more forgivable than a minute of rashness where a whole life is at stake.” Let whoever wants to run after the wandering fire of happiness - I walk calmly, because I don’t see constant light anywhere” (12:82). We often complain about the obstacles put in place to our desires, “but if we had jumped over them, perhaps we would have cried” (12:111–112). Therefore, we need to think in time where we are being carried, and where we have already been taken, “not without the wing of Providence, there we must sit, or walk in the paths of righteousness” (19-1:115). Someone else's will has intervened in our lives - and it must be accepted as a manifestation or permission of the will of God. “It’s time for you to come to terms with God’s fate,” the saint writes to Archbishop Alexy, who was moved from Tula to Taurida. “What was done was not done without the will of God.” People make mistakes, but the all-wise Providence allows them to make mistakes in such a way as to direct events in accordance with His good intentions. What happened showed that you need to strengthen your spirit so that external winds do not shake it. – Strengthen yourself with God’s help and follow your path, looking at the instructions of Providence, and not at the actions of human passions, moreover, more suspected than proven. And if there were special relations between certain people in the Tula diocese, find relief in your removal from such a diocese” (14:226–227). What did the Holy Fathers advise? – Stop arguing and doubting. – “God knows what is beneficial” (8:125). “You say,” Saint Philaret turns to the abbot of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, Saint Anthony, “what could have happened to your coachman, what happened to his coachman, but the fact says that it happened to this one, but it didn’t happen to yours, therefore it is more likely that it would not have happened” (8:452). One must strive to “do what is understandable, so that the Lord will give the means to understand what is not understood” (7:261). The Christian’s business, his feat, is “not to live for the world and for oneself in passions, but to live for Christ according to His will and commandments... Death, usually so-called, can come sooner or slower, as will be better determined by God, and it can never be considered distant” (21:37). “We will surrender our whole life to Christ our God. Surrender both your life and your death to Him, without determining anything by guesswork. He knows what is best and has mercy on us incomparably better than we show ourselves” (19-2:310). “Pray that God’s will be done; You know that there is nothing better than the will of God” (7:86). And what we should remember most of all, the Saint repeats, as he himself testifies: “I repeat: be calm. You can lose your earthly benefactors - Heavenly Providence leaves no one. You can part with your loved ones - He who alone loves each of us more than all people together is always with us. He does good to us even when we do not want to” (12:108). A Christian should be calm under any adversity in life - after all, they teach us a lot, and therefore are not useless if they are endured with God. “Do not consider your personal misfortunes great,” teaches the holy Hierarch (10:457). The Lord sends us difficulties “for our good, although we often do not see what good and how they will bring. He does not allow one to be tempted any more than one might, and with temptation he creates excess or liberation from difficulties. With such reflections, calm your spirit and with prayer call upon the mercy of God, that it may turn sorrow into consolation and joy” (12:357). There is only one thing left for us: “Humbly surrender to the will of God” (12:357). And this is how the holy Hierarch describes the manifestation of God’s mercy during the epidemic that struck Moscow: “They said that gatherings of people in churches and in religious processions were dangerous, and they presented as an example a city in which the churches were locked. I promised some precautions - and they gave me freedom of assembly in churches. And when, after religious processions were completed in the middle of the city and near all the churches, the sovereign emperor arrived the next day and, following, of course, the judgments of the doctors, asked me whether it was dangerous for me to gather masses of people and kneel in prayer on the damp ground, Providence gave me the opportunity to immediately answer: Your Majesty, the Lord justified the church action, at least against this doubt; the number of people falling ill after religious processions is not more, but somewhat less, than in the days before the religious processions. Thus, the freedom of church prayers was further confirmed” (13:44). “Do not reproach cholera with the evil name. She respects what is good. In total, up to a hundred priests went to thirty cholera hospitals, or about this number; and for six weeks the cholera did not touch any of them. But she does not like excessive impudence or excessive timidity, especially intemperance. Consequently: teach caution, abstinence, trust in God’s Providence” (19–1:64). The Lord visits us for our sins. “And what else can we do but cry out to Him: we have sinned, we are lawless, but do not betray us to the end, O God of the Fathers; and at the same time correct our lives and exhort others to correction” (17:45). We should not blame anyone for our illnesses, but “accept them as a visitation from God for our cleansing” (21:75). The Lord visited us, according to destinies known to Him, may He give us “to accept the visit with obedience, then may He grant us healing, according to His mercy; If it pleases Him to prolong this visit, may He set such a measure of grief so that it does not exceed our patience. It is not forbidden to ask for healing: you just need to ask not out of love for temporary life, but in order to have more time for repentance” (21:76). The disease calls for wakefulness - “does not want you to doze off.” We must not complain and be afraid, but rather pray harder, trust in God, and use her days for good (21:52). “Do not complain about illness, which limits communication with people, but benefit from it, accepting it with obedience, and talking more with God than less with people” (19-2:312). If you feel the burden of life, raise your gaze to the merciful God, but you should not complain about the burden of life. God gives and continues it for our salvation, therefore it is a gift: we should thank the giver, and not complain” (21:62). And even more so, it is not good to lose heart during earthly hardships. – “Taking care of economic losses is not the most important thing. God will help reward them if He blesses the most important things” (12:359). Whatever happens, it is the Christian’s duty to “submit his thoughts and desires under the hand of God” (12:372). Sharing the grief of his mother - Evdokia Nikitichna - and daughter-in-law Anna Ksenofontovna (the wife of the brother of the priest Nikita Mikhailovich Drozdov), the saint consoles: “I ask you and Anna Ksenofontovna to peacefully accept the death of the youth John. Do not indulge in much grief that cannot be useful. Lay your sorrow at the feet of the Lord. By calming your sorrow, obey the Heavenly Father and make a sacrifice pleasing to Him. He took part of the material worries, accepting the child into His abodes, where there are no needs, no worries, no dangers. To console the mother he preserves the other children” (12:372–373). “Do not indulge in much sadness; obey the will of the Lord, without a doubt always good and acting for our salvation; trust in Him, the Father of the orphans and the Judge of widows” (12:359). When placing your hopes on God's Providence, you must be careful on your part. “It is fair to place your hope in God for yourself and for your children, but this does not exclude careful attention to how best to lead children, and the responsibility to vigilantly supervise them. Love for them should not act independently, but under the guidance of sound reasoning. And the good heart of children can be led to the wrong path. Parental experience must watch over them” (12:388). The saint also expresses the Orthodox view of God’s predestination - a special type of mercy of the Heavenly Father. – “The Apostle said that God in Christ chose us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). Consequently, your philosopher, who finds it more consistent with logic that God did not foresee the Fall and its consequences, is not guided by Apostolic logic. From the same words of the Apostle it is clear that God predestined us to salvation, but sound teaching does not say that God predestined the fall of Adam. If an astute physician foresaw a disease and prepared medicine, it cannot be concluded from this that the doctor intended the disease, or that he was the cause of the disease” (21:23-24). Having revealed God's care for us - God's Providence - and pointing out our Christian duty - to be worthy of this, to submit to the will of God in everything, to surrender to Him - the Saint again repeats and gives glory to God: “Trust in God and calm down. If He visits us because of our sins, His will be done! Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercy is great! You see what the time is like. "And have you sought the great? Seek not! For behold, says the Lord" (17:70). “May He give you His peace, ... and from you may His glory arise early, as the righteous David stirs up” (8:61). “Glory to God, who shows corruption and does not yet bring it down into incorruption. Pray at the place of the Lord’s death and resurrection, that He may grant you to remember death, resurrection and judgment” (4:306). “Glory to God, who guards His holy place and has mercy on us sinners!” (17:76). “It is said: “The joy of the Lord is our strength” (Neh. 8:10). So may it be with you for the good of your soul and your activity” (19–2:115). You might be interested in: