{"id":9772,"date":"2020-03-21T12:18:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T09:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/?p=9772"},"modified":"2020-03-21T12:18:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T09:18:25","slug":"fr-zacharias-we-must-see-the-goodness-of-god-in-the-coronavirus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/9772\/fr-zacharias-we-must-see-the-goodness-of-god-in-the-coronavirus-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Fr Zacharias, We must see the goodness of God in the coronavirus pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whatever God does with us, He does it out of love.<\/em> The God of Christians is a good God, a God of mercy and loving kindness, \u2018Who loveth mankind\u2019. <\/p>\n

He allowed death to enter our life again out of goodness, so that we may not become immortal in our wickedness, but to seek for a way of salvation. <\/p>\n

This plague of Coronavirus has also a positive aspect, because we have a few weeks from the moment it will assail us until our end. Therefore, we can dedicate this time to prepare ourselves for our meeting with God, so that our departure may not occur unexpectedly and without preparation, but after we have run through our whole life each time we stand in prayer before God, at times with thanksgiving unto the end for all the things God has done for us and at other times with repentance, seeking the forgiveness of our transgressions. Nothing can harm us with such a God.<\/p>\n

As for myself, this plague is helping me. I longed to find again the prayer I had before, with which I can run through my whole life from my birth until now, thanking God for all His benefits \u2018whereof I know and whereof I know not\u2019. I am not panicking but \u2018I will be sorry for my sin\u2019 (Ps. 38:18).<\/p>\n

We must see the goodness of God in all the things that are happening now.<\/em> A similar epidemic occurred in the 4th century in the Egyptian desert, which harvested more than a third of the monks, and the Fathers were saying with great inspiration that, \u2018God is harvesting souls of saints for His Kingdom,\u2019 and they did not waver. <\/p>\n

This virus may be a means that God uses in order to bring many to themselves and to repentance, and to harvest many ready souls for His eternal Kingdom. Thus, there is no room for morbid dismay. <\/p>\n

We should do whatever the Government says, because they are not asking for us to deny our faith, they are only asking us to take a few measures for the common welfare of all people, so that this trial may pass, and this is not at all unreasonable. <\/p>\n

Some people take it too confessionally, they raise flags and play the martyrs and the confessors. For us there is no doubt: we shall show pure submission to the orders of the Government. It is unfair to disobey the Government since, when we fall ill, it is to their hospitals that we run and they are the ones who undertake all the expenses and our care. Why not listen to them?<\/p>\n

If we do not obey our governors who are not asking much, how will we obey God? If we keep the law of God we are above human laws, as the apologists of the 2nd century said during the Roman Empire which was persecuting the Christians. <\/p>\n

If they ask us to stop our Church services, let us simply surrender and bless the Providence of God. Besides, this reminds us of an old tradition that the Fathers had in Palestine: in Great Lent, on the Sunday of Cheese fare, after the mutual forgiveness, they would go out in the desert for forty days without Liturgy.<\/p>\n

And so, our present circumstances force us to live again that which existed of old in the bosom of the Church. That is to say, they force us to live a more hesychastic life, with more prayer, which will however make up for the lack of the Divine Liturgy and will prepare us to celebrate with greater desire and inspiration the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Thus, we will turn this plague into a triumph of hesychasm. In any case, whatever God allows in our life is out of His goodness for the well-being of man, for He never wants His creature to be harmed in any way.<\/p>\n

Certainly, if we will be deprived of the Divine Liturgy for a longer period of time, we can endure it. When we practice hesychastic prayer, we abide in the Presence of God with the mind in the heart calling upon the holy Name of Christ. The Divine Name brings us the grace of Christ because it is inseparable from His Person and leads us into His Presence. <\/p>\n

This Presence of Christ which is purifying, cleanses us from our transgressions and sins, it renews and illumines our heart so that the image of God our Saviour, Christ, may be formed therein.<\/p>\n

If we shall not have Easter in the Church, let us remember that every contact with Christ is Easter. <\/p>\n

We receive grace in the Divine Liturgy because the Lord Jesus is present in it, He performs the sacrament and He is the One imparted to the faithful. However, when we invoke His Name, we enter the same Presence of Christ and receive the same grace. <\/p>\n

Therefore, if we are deprived of the Liturgy, we always have His Name, we are not deprived of the Lord. Moreover, we also have His word, especially His Gospel. <\/p>\n

Furthermore, each time we show kindness to our brethren the Lord is well-pleased, He considers that we did it in His Name and He rewards us. All the things we do for God is a Liturgy, for they minister unto our salvation. <\/p>\n

Therefore, my dear brethren, it is not necessary to make heroic confessions against the Government for the prophylactic measures that it takes for the good of all people. Neither should we despair, but only wisely machinate ways so as not to lose our living communication with the Person of Christ. <\/p>\n

Nothing can harm us, we must simply be patient for a certain period of time and God will see our patience, take away every obstacle, every temptation and we shall again see the dawn of joyful days, and we shall celebrate our common hope and love that we have in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

Excerpts selected by Ellopos<\/a>, 17.03.20. Full text at Pemptousia<\/a><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Whatever God does with us, He does it out of love. The God of Christians is a good God, a God of mercy and loving kindness, \u2018Who loveth mankind\u2019. He allowed death to enter our life again out of goodness, so that we may not become immortal in our wickedness, but to seek for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[6702,10],"tags":[55,7922,3024,7921],"class_list":["post-9772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thechrist","category-orthodox-christianity","tag-faith","tag-illness","tag-temptation","tag-zacharias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}