You are not alone; you are surrounded by Divine assistance
People constantly love to hear about hope; they want a kind word that comforts their souls. They want to be continually assured that the Kingdom is not difficult, and that the way to reach it is easy.
Therefore, if they hear about Christian perfection and the requirements of holiness, they may grow weary; and if they hear about the narrow gate, and about human weakness and the possibility of falling, they become troubled!! So what shall we say to these?
We say that you are required to attain perfection and holiness. The way may appear difficult, but Divine assistance is able to grant you everything…
You are not alone; you are surrounded by Divine assistance
The gate is narrow:
The Lord was frank with us. He said to us, “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it!” (Matthew 7:14).
And He said: “Be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Be holy, for your Father in heaven is holy.”
Thus we are required to be perfect, and required to pursue “holiness, without which no one will see the Lord,” required to be the image and likeness of God.
Indeed, the Lord says to us: “When you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants.’” (Luke 17:10). To the extent that I once said in one of the sermons:
“The rank of ‘unprofitable servants’ is a great rank that we have not yet reached.” And we cannot compliment people at the expense of the truth…
Sin is exceedingly sinful. The slightest fall may ruin a person. In this, Saint Basil said: “What do I profit if I practice all righteousness, yet say to my brother, ‘You fool,’ and thus become worthy of the fire of Gehenna, according to the Scripture” (Matthew 5:22).
Yet the Apostle John says: “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). How then can we reconcile the two matters?!
Divine assistance:
The most important thing I say to you is that Christian perfection, if separated from Divine assistance, cannot be attained. We do not struggle alone; rather, we have Divine assistance that can accomplish everything in us.
If we place before us only the weakness of human nature, we will not have a true picture of our spiritual work. Beside our weakness there is grace, of which the Apostle Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
With us are grace, the love of God, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is the blessing you receive at the end of every meeting: “The love of God the Father, the grace of His Only-Begotten Son, and the communion and gift of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” This is the Divine assistance. The Holy Trinity in Its entirety is with you: the Father with His love, the Son with His grace, and the Spirit with His gifts and communion.
God’s blessing is with you. He blesses the little that you have so that it becomes much. He blesses your will and your strength. The Lord takes you as dust from the earth and makes you the image and likeness of God. He raises the poor from the dust and seats him with the princes of His people. The poor one is your poor nature; God raises it from sin and seats it with the princes of His people among the angels and the saints.
Do not say that the road is long. Say that God will walk with me on the road. Do not say the commandment is heavy, but say, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Do not mention your weakness, but the power of God.
You will not fulfill these commandments by your humanity, but by the Spirit of God dwelling in you, Christ who “leads us in triumph.”
He has promised us, saying, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” And He said, “I will not leave you orphans,” “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
He also said, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,” “You shall be clothed with power from on high,” you who “have put on Christ.”
The Lord has not left us; rather, He promised to give us a new spirit and to put a new heart within us. We pray to Him and say:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Is this creation not a Divine work in us for our salvation?!
You live in the communion of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God shares with you in every good work. In the litanies we say: “Participate in the work with Your servants.” God is the One holding our hands, walking with us on the road. We do not walk alone; rather, we say, “Hold my hand and lead me.”
Even in details, in mere speech, the Lord says to us:
“It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you,” “I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to resist.”
How beautiful is the Lord’s word to Jeremiah the prophet: “I have put My words in your mouth.” How beautiful also is David’s saying: “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.” He gives a word to the preachers. And as Paul said, “that utterance may be given to me when I open my mouth.”
You are required to attain perfection, but do not look at perfection separated from the work of grace, or separated from God working in you.
You receive assistance from God, and also from His angels, of whom it was said:
“Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” Therefore, He encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them.
Two angels seized Lot and his family and brought them out of the land of Sodom. They were urging them strongly to leave. Had Lot been left to himself, he might not have departed before the burning, but it was Divine assistance that brought him out without his asking, just as another assistance reached him through the intercession of Abraham.
There are many unseen powers working for your salvation, and you do not know: the spirits of the saints, the angels, and the grace of the Lord.
Do not think that you are alone on the road, but say, “I am not alone, because the Father is with me.” And the Spirit also intercedes in us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Believe me.
The Divine assistances that come to us without our asking are far more than those that come by request.
Likewise, the trials we resist are far fewer than the trials that could have befallen us, had God not prevented them before they reached us. Many dangers the Lord has kept away from us, and we do not feel it.
And as you carry your cross on the way to Golgotha, God sends a Cyrenian to carry it for you, without your asking.
The commandment of God is not heavy, because it carries a power that helps in its fulfillment. The work you do, you do not do alone; rather, God does it in you and with you.
No matter how dark or difficult the road appears before you, and no matter how frightening the power of Satan may seem, trust that those who are with us are more than those who are against us.
Say to Him: You, O Lord, are with me; You will not leave me, even if I leave You. And You will not deal with me according to the childishness of my actions. I am weak, but You have chosen the weak things of the world and have put to shame the strong who are the demons.
We ask God in our prayers that He Himself purify and sanctify us. We say, “Purify our souls, our bodies, and our spirits,” “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
It is not I who wash myself, but You who wash me that I may be clean. “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” I do not possess this clean heart, and You will create it; You will bring it into existence from nothing. You renew a right spirit within me. “Turn me, O Lord, and I shall be turned.”
It is the nature of Satan to plant despair and fear in hearts.
But we shall not believe him. He says the way is difficult; as for us, it is enough that God is on this way. He says that human nature is weak; we believe that it can do all things in Christ.
Satan’s method is to make us forget the work of the Spirit and grace and to make us feel alone before him, so that he may isolate us, and we fear him and surrender.
Gehazi feared the power of the enemy and did not see the assisting power of God. So Elisha prayed for him: “O Lord, open the eyes of the young man, that he may see that those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And whenever you grow weak on the spiritual path, remember this prayer.
When Isaiah said, “Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips,” immediately one of the seraphim hurried to him, took a live coal from the altar, and touched Isaiah’s lips, and he was purified.
The angel could not at all bear to hear Isaiah say, “Woe is me, for I am undone.” Though he was one of the angels of praise and not of service, he hastened to serve Isaiah without being asked, merely at his cry.
In the book of Zechariah the prophet, we see Joshua the high priest, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Then an angel advanced and said, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”
A piece of wood fell into the fire and ignited, but before it was consumed, the mercy of the Lord reached it and snatched it from the fire without its asking.
Thus we also see the angel commanding that Joshua’s filthy garments be removed from him and that he be clothed with rich robes. The man stands astonished, contemplating the work of the Lord in him!
Do you think that all our works are the result of our own will? No. There are works the Lord does for us without our asking and without our knowing, just as when the Lord brought Lot out of Sodom, and as He brought back the lost sheep, and as He saved sinners who love sin and do not want to leave it.
The Lord says, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” And what does He work except our care and our salvation? He is not only with us, but also in us, dwelling in our depths.
Whenever a demon fights you, say to him: Do you know who I am? I am the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in me. Can you stand against the Holy Spirit and resist Him? Thus take pride in the indwelling of God within you.
If he fights you with pride, say to him: I am poor and weak.
Remember God’s work for you. Remember His word to Jeremiah the prophet: “See, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar and bronze walls against the whole land… They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.” (Jeremiah 1:18).
Truly, God does not leave the rod of the wicked to rest on the lot of the righteous.
Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Year Seven (Issue Forty-Two) – 15-10-1976
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