Great souls owe their greatness to the heavy blows of suffering

The path of our life is full of suffering and tears, of thorns and thistles. Everywhere are crosses, agony, and pain. Every step is a Gethsemane garden, every climb, a Golgotha, and every moment, a spear. If we could absorb the earth like a sponge, blood and tears would flow from it afterwards – man is like grass, his days like a flower of the field, so he will flourish, says the Psalmist (Psalm 102:15).

Beautiful things are gathered with pain, but pain afterwards brings joy. The rose brings forth thorns, and these, in the end, the flowers. Usually, the rainbow rises after the rain, and the starry sky is preceded by storms. The discernment of faith and Christian philosophy, helped by inspiration, has the ability to penetrate beyond phenomena. Through suffering, he sees joy and hope, as well as the victory of Christ, which sprang from the pain of passion and the cross.

The most wonderful statues receive the most blows, and great souls owe their greatness to the heavy blows of suffering. The golden ornaments first pass through the fire of the furnace. Suffering shakes human existence; it is the fire, the hearth that burns and melts, it is the whirlwind and the storm. My bowels and the sea never calm down, says the righteous Solomon. There are moments when trials come one after another, or all together, and then the cross is very heavy, and the struggle reaches its peak. The soul is burdened to the point that it is ready to bend. Everything seems black, dark, everywhere there is darkness, and no way out. Saint Gregory the Theologian says: “The good have departed, and the fearful are dry and provocative; the journey continues into the night, the lighthouse does not appear anywhere, and Christ seems to be sleeping”.

The sufferings of life are knives and thorns that tear without mercy, pierce hearts, and paralyze them to the point of exhaustion. What remains in these moments is the cry that, like a prayerful pain, is directed to God: ,,Have mercy on me, Lord, (…) my soul is greatly troubled, (…) I am exhausted in my sighing, (…) my heart has melted within me like wax. (…)Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am wretched, (…) my life has passed away in sorrow and my years in sighing, (…) I have become like a dead man, (…) my tears have become my bread day and night, (…) for my soul sighs within me and is troubled,, (Psalms).

Man is the emperor of creation, but his crown is woven of thorns. His walk is sometimes a song and a weaving of joy, and most of the time, a march of mourning, painful and without stopping.

The problem of suffering is great and eternal; philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, and many others have pondered it. The most authentic answer is given by Christianity, faith, and the law of God. And this is twofold. Theologically, suffering is a consequence of the fall, like all other evils, the consequence of the misuse of freedom. It is the fruit of disobedience. Morally, it is the occasion and means of virtue and perfection. “I will always honor God,” says Saint Gregory the Theologian, “with all the adverse things that he allows to happen to me. Pain for me is the medicine of salvation.”

Saint Basil the Great says, “Since God is preparing for us the crown of His kingdom, let suffering be a pretext for virtue.”

Saint John Chrysostom tells us in turn: “Afflictions bring us closer to God. And when we think of the eternal gain from suffering, we will no longer be troubled.”

Saint Paul the Apostle, the one so persecuted, so suffering, who bore the signs of the Lord, teaches us that God allows us, humans, to suffer tribulations for our benefit, so that we may share in His suffering (Hebrews 12:10).

God has thousands of ways to make you see His love. Christ can change unhappiness into a melodious song of praise. Your sadness will give birth to joy, said the Lord (John 16:6). He who fights, he also conquers, for in the “marketplace” of heaven there are no cheap things. Moments of suffering and sacrifice are moments of blessing, for next to every cross there is also a resurrection. And what if now we suffer and weep incessantly, for our present trouble, light and passing, brings us, above all measure, an eternal and overwhelming glory (II Corinthians 4:17). The man of suffering is the best athlete of life, with a glorious victory that will be rewarded dearly, with eternal prizes: What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, these things God has prepared for those who love Him (I Corinthians 2:9). The one who receives and faces pain through the prism of eternity is already a victor, the chosen one, who through unshakable faith in God has reached happiness, has tasted of the goodness of the Lord and is a candidate for coronation. He can repeat the victorious cry of the Apostle Paul: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. From now on, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give me on that day (II Timothy 4:7-8). With such spiritual experiences, overcoming suffering and transforming it into redemptive joy becomes a reality. This is the transformation due to the power of God, madness for the rational man, but a natural consequence for the believing Christian. This return, if for the existential atheist it remains an unresolved problem or a ghost in a dream, for the biological man, for the man of faith, it is a great miracle of God's transformation. The spiritual experience of suffering leads to the resolution of a great problem and guides the path from darkness to light.

Therefore, we are obliged to receive the suffering that comes upon us as a blessing from God. The grain of wheat is covered and rots in the ground, but then it bears fruit of life. The harvest of suffering is rich and blessed. God's blessing on the field of tears is great and is experienced by those who truly believe in the charism of discernment. May the grace of God be upon those who have passed through the furnace of many sufferings, helped by divine power and knowledge. For them awaits immortal, eternal, and blessed rest in God. Amen!

Elder Ephrem the Philotheus