Monk Moses the Athonite
I have previously said that God is not wrathful, punitive, revengeful. If He had been like this, He would have been malicious. But in God there is not even the slightest trace of malice. Any trial is a divine teaching and represents a form of asceticism, asceticism that we deliberately drove away from our life. The most kind God tries in so many ways to draw us near Him. We should all be some ascetics before Him.
The economic crisis of nowadays is a great trial, a test and lesson. We are tried for our own benefit and victory. Our homeland is exposed, unsafe, frightened and troubled. It is not strengthened spiritually, it is attracted by self demonism, abundance, consumerism, wealth and lewd entertainments. The attraction for material things in our actual life has led to sadness and bitter despair. The man became interested only in what to eat and what to drink. There are plenty of books with strange recipes. The man persistently seeking joy everywhere, found sorrow, unhappiness, corruption and arbitrariness. Unemployment, poverty and suffering are continuously growing and the man feels alone and hopeless. Without God all these are alarmingly getting worse. But even with God these cannot be solved in a magical way. If the man feels the presence of God, His Love and Grace, His comfort and the hope He gives, he is able even in the middle of the daily difficulties to keep his courage steady and live in the world without being attracted by anything sacrilegious or shameless. His unshaken faith gives him hopefulness. True love will develop into philanthropy and mercy. And in this way the heart of the hurt man will be enlightened and warmed.
All those who still worship the false gods and will make gods from politicians, artists, scientists, will be awfully deceived. Without God each crisis will oppress the souls and will cause them terrible pains, deceits and misfortunes.
All the cunning men who spell the people with their illusions, the futurists and all those who are against Christ wrong and sin. It is needed to have heed, discernment and seriousness.
It is the time to decide to forgive sincerely, from the bottom of our heart, to become merciful and humble, to love and follow nobleness, tolerance, friendliness, kindness. Kindness is missing, the smile is absent. The faces, the movements, the words, the decisions are tainted by roughness, by sadness. The difficult situation f our country will not be improved by adding more difficulties, wrong measures, rejections and revenges. The policemen should arrest when it is necessary but not to beat men. The judges should not show severity only to some people. They seem to be unyielding defenders of the laws but sometimes it is proven that they are terribly wrong. The teachers from all kind of schools won’t help their students with their fierceness, exaggerate severity and irony. The politicians led us to humiliation and to a bad government.
The actual crisis is an opportunity to look critically to ourselves and leniently to the others. Kindness is beautiful. Mutual understanding, respect and appreciation are the most needed things nowadays. In the closed house there is an open window, a window which brings sun, light and fresh air. Spring is a beautiful season. The darkness vanishes even when a single candle is lit. Let us open the window of our heart with the kindness and amiability we all need.
