Hieromonk Kirill (Popov)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
Beloved Christians—children of God! God reveals Himself to each person in His own way. Thus, God revealed Himself to the holy Prophet Elias in a still small voice, and to the holy Prophet Moses in the Burning Bush. And we know from personal experience that God reveals Himself in accordance with our inner distinctive features, needs, views, intelligence, in images accessible to us and, most importantly, speaks to us in our language. The Lord hides and reveals Himself to people in simplicity, and in simplicity we ourselves are able to see and hear the voice of God. Even the incarnated Lord reveals Himself to us in the form of a simple Man. We are not always able to contain the Word of God, which is Heavenly Revelation, so when we receive something from God from above, we cannot always explain and express it in a language that is accessible to us. Man is tongue-tied in Divine matters. Sometimes it’s easier for us to think of something for God, to explain it in our own way, but we can’t always be sure what exactly God wants to tell us.
Today we are solemnly celebrating the memory of the great saints of God—the 
New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia
“>New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church. God also revealed Himself to them in His own way—in suffering and martyrdom. Their experience of God in suffering is a mystery to the human mind. I’ve heard some people say, “They suffered, and today we celebrate and rejoice.” It may seem strange, but it was their suffering that was a true source of joy. In their suffering they truly felt the close presence of God in their lives, they clearly saw and heard Him in the burning abyss of pain and sorrow. Life would seem meaningless and terrible to us, a heavy burden or a cruel punishment, and our hearts would be full of doubts about God’s wisdom if it were not for the answers through the holy New Martyrs, who had to go through incredibly harsh trials.
Very often we like to flaunt high ideas, accustoming people to suffering; having no suffering, living in peace and joy, we like to say that suffering is always good and that we justly deserve suffering. No, suffering is bad; and even worse, suffering is unfair. That’s why many people struggle to fathom how a merciful God allows suffering to rule in this world. We must remember once and for all: it is not God who sends suffering to us, but we ourselves do with our own hands, through our evil deeds, stupid and thoughtless actions, trigger the mechanism of suffering for ourselves and our loved ones. But God does not forsake us for a single minute in our suffering. Even in it He tries to act and help us. When everything goes quietly and smoothly in our lives, we learn to thank God. But when a period of obstacles and difficulties comes, our faith disappears in the blink of an eye. We do not see God in suffering and do not feel Him. And the result is always twofold. Some people are broken by difficulties in life, get discouraged, start to despair, and slowly kill themselves. As for others, on the contrary, difficulties teach them to trust God.
Let’s take a look at how we can turn our “Without This Suffering I Am Nothing”Why is suffering necessary? I lived an experience of suffering which enriched my soul, and I believe that suffering is necessary for me. But it is very difficult to accept this thing.
“>suffering into joy. Sometimes hardships in life expose all our weaknesses. When we are successful and everything is fine with us, it is hard to assess our present state of soul. But when a series of problems begins—a bad patch, as we say—we start to learn a lot about ourselves. Let’s thank God for allowing us to see our true faces in these trials. He does not do it to offend us or mock us, but to make us see our true selves, draw the right conclusions, and “fill in the gaps”, correcting the shortcomings of which each one of us has plenty.
Of course, we would all like to perceive and know God as a Savior and a Deliverer. For example, we got sick, prayed—and recovered at once. We can’t find a job: we prayed—and immediately found a prestigious job. We experience financial difficulties, and after praying we immediately received a bag of cash. True, such things happen—the Lord can perform any miracle, but often He tries to turn our suffering to our good and teach us something. We think as humans, and God thinks differently—there is a deep meaning in His actions, aimed above all at the salvation of our souls.
For example, we often think, “This is my place, I feel comfortable here, and it is here that I can attain salvation.” But the Lord sees everything differently and puts us in circumstances that seem very unpleasant to us, but it is this “unpleasantness” that can turn into great joy and comfort for us.
And we see this in the example of the New Martyrs. Many of them could not have even imagined that their paths in life would be so difficult. And in an instant they found themselves squeezed into the grip of suffering, they were deprived of the peace that had been in their lives, they were torn out of the accustomed pace of life, and their new lives seemed like a real hell, but it was here that they truly contemplated and felt God. While in comfort we often distort the image of God, but the genuine picture begins to change when we feel absolutely helpless and alone. And, of course, due to human weakness, we begin to grumble and imagine God as ruthless and unfair. But is this how God wants to reveal Himself to us? Is this what He wants for us? No, He’s showing us ourselves for real.
A Christian life is often full of hardships, and we must always remember that we can’t live without God’s consolation! The verb “to comfort” is repeated many times in the New Testament, and it does not only give the meaning “sympathy” to the noun “comfort”, but is also used in its original meaning: “bravery”. Divine consolation not only gives our souls peace and relief, but also the bravery and courage to cope with all the difficulties in life.
We should also bear in mind that the trials we go through make us experienced strugglers. Having gone through these tribulations, we should not become embittered. On the contrary, our experience helps us put ourselves in the place of another and help him with advice or prayer. After going through the crucible of trials, we can help others by sharing our experience. Unfortunately, suffering mostly separates us, although in its essence it should unite us. If we see someone suffering, we should not gloat, but rather learn to lend him a helping hand.
We say all this in order to understand what lessons we should learn from trials. But we all know that suffering sometimes gets a person down so far that he is unable to raise his eyes up to Heaven; more than that, suffering leads to a desperate attack on faith. As believers, like the friends of Righteous Job the Long-SufferingThe righteous Job, God’s faithful servant, was the perfect image of every virtue. The son of Zarah and Bossorha (Job 42), Job was a fifth-generation descendent of Abraham.
“>Righteous Job the Much-Suffering, we begin to teach the suffering person instead of saying words of comfort: “It’s your own fault—the Lord has punished you,” and so on. Saying this, we don’t even realize that a living human soul is in front of us, weighed down by its sorrows. You should not show your knowledge and your “high wisdom” here, because all this blocks our path to compassion. And this leads to the main conclusion: it is not our teaching that a person in sorrow needs, but our consolation. Sometimes God works through another person to comfort and encourage us. Our task is not to reflect on suffering, but to respond to it properly. We have no right to teach another person, much less to judge him. If we were in a similar difficult situation, no one knows how we would behave.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us learn the right lessons in suffering, and most importantly, let us seek God in it. If we learn to transform our suffering into joy, experience, and help, then the All-merciful Lord will help us, seeing that we derive good from everything for ourselves and our neighbors. We also must keep in mind that the heavy cross of suffering teaches us to trust and rely on God, and teaches us sincere and genuine prayer. Therefore, let our sorrow turn into prayer. Amen.
