Priests regularly go to hospitals to visit the sick, pray for their recovery, anoint them with holy oil, or provide them with offerings. Every time I visit a hospital, my belief increases that God is standing at the door of every patient and knocking on his chest to console him, strengthen him, and give him patience and faith.
A while ago, I was visiting a patient in a hospital. I left him, but the sound of his pain remained in my ears. It became clear to me that it was unbearable pain. Naturally, when you enter hospitals, patients suffering from excruciating pain stand in front of you, otherwise the hospital would not be their destination, as no one enters it for a walk or for tourism and recreation, knowing that people, most of them in our country, are no longer able to knock on the doors of hospitals, due to the high cost of hospitalization and the complete absence. To support the Ministry of Health, Social Security, and some state institutions concerned with this sector. As for insurance companies, there is no problem.
As I was leaving the hospital, with the moans of patients in my ears, I tripped and fell to the ground. Then I stumbled, perhaps in order to experience some of their pain. After I gathered myself together and continued to walk with my pain, this verse from the Book of Psalms came to my mind: “The Lord has chastised me, but has not given me up to death” (Psalm 118:18).
This stumble made me wonder, is the illness a discipline or a lack of punishment from the Most High? Are the tribulations, in general, that man goes through, despite their severity, disciplines from God the Father who loves His children?
The answer came to me from the commentators and “addicts” of the dear Book, who say that God allows these disciplines, with the aim of saving His people from their weaknesses and sins. He does not cause pain or calamities, but rather allows them as if they are a test by which God tests man’s gold. The nature of man, every human being, shows his true colors in difficulties. Therefore, one can see suffering as an opportunity to experience God’s fellowship during tribulations, so that one can live and not be overcome by the death of sin, but rather enjoy a life of righteousness.
God disciplines His children in order to perfect them (Hebrews 12:5-11), this is what can be deduced from these verses in the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews. God allows tribulations not for revenge or judgment, but to support and discipline us, that is, for spiritual benefit. If God refrains from disciplining someone, this means despair of his recovery. However, the more a person matures spiritually, the more he realizes that discipline was the secret to his success.
The believer should not be disturbed by the many tribulations, for they are our path to the Kingdom, and if they are many, he will experience abundant blessings in them that he cannot taste outside of tribulations, and his heart will rejoice more than everyone around him.
We do not ask for pain, nor do we reject it, whenever it comes to us. In this context, Bishop George Khodr says: “To deliberately cause yourself pain in order to unite yourself with the suffering of Christ, this is not the teaching of our church. The world has a lot of suffering, so you do not need to intentionally increase your pain. Seeking pain and striving for it is not part of Christianity in any way. Christianity is not a religion.” Pain, as some people think, is the religion of the resurrection, that is, getting rid of pain. Our salvation from the sufferings of Christ came only because it is a promise of the resurrection.”
The Holy Bible reveals to us how to get out of suffering, by enduring it and transforming it into a force of faith and creative energy that brings us closer to the Creator. This is how we rise up the ladder of virtues to reach the Kingdom of God. It is enough for us to repeat the phrase, “Lord, have mercy on me,” as it was said by many patients who turned to Jesus Christ with absolute faith. The sick in the Bible were asking for mercy, not healing. Only God’s mercy is able to comfort the brokenhearted and the sick. Physical health does not mean a person is close to God. Those who crucified Christ were healthy in body but “sick in heart.”
Whoever discovers the depth of divine mercy, receives a blessing from the Most High, and then realizes that pain is salvation for him and not retribution.
2023-09-30 08:05:17
#Pain #retribution #salvation
