Monk Moses the Athonite
Monk Moses the Athonite answers at the question asked so often by the people who suffer.
It is true that the lips of any grieving man utter this known and profound question: Why me, my Lord? We think there is no easy and fast answer for this human why. The answer will come later from the God-Man, the Crucified One. The man may become worthy to share His Cross but do not imagine that is such a small thing.
When the prayers are streaming from pain, for sure they will be more humble, more fervent, better received. They bring the peace of patience in trial, lessen the exigencies, humble indeed, offer the peace of hope and the health of soul. We shall find God in ourselves. The sooner we meet Him, the faster we shall free ourselves and we shall really rejoice.
Someone said it nicely that God before sending us the cross we shall have to bear, weighs it, examines it well with His wisdom, love and justice. His gentle gaze inspected it and His large heart warmed it, after having it weighed again with his boundless affection.
You think that it is heavier than you can bear, but you have inside yourself unknown and unrevealed powers. Do not lose your courage, do not oppose God, for He knows well what He does. Before placing it on your shoulders, He blessed it that is why you will surely be able to bear it. Do not forget that always before the empty tomb is Golgotha and the Resurrection comes after the Crucifixion.
It is known the fact that our life is made of tears that come from the pain of sickness, of afflictions, of pains, of forsaking and loneliness. These have become the inseparable companions of man. The Word of God, the Holy Scripture tells us very explicitly that sickness, pain, grief, death had not existed from the times of Creation, but they appeared after the transgression of the commandment. Decrepitude, sickness, pain are the consequences of the disobedience of our protoparents and of their listening to the devil.
The separation of man from God has terrible consequences. The liberation of the believer from the demonic bonds may make him find the spiritual meaning of his trial and then his trial becomes a major opportunity to know and encounter God.
