The notes in this series are translated from the Telegram channel of Metropolitan Luke (Kovalenko) of Zaphorozhie and Melitopol.
Photo: Sretensky Monastery Christ is in our midst, dear readers!
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28). The apostle Paul knew that God can turn even evil into something good. One example of this is the life of the patriarch Joseph. And all of this is possible only if the person loves God. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me (Jn. 14:21). To love Christ is to follow Him, carry our cross, and endure all the sorrows that He sends us according to His Providence. Then what the body perceives as evil will be received by the soul as good.
But people’s big problem is that their understanding of “goodness” differs from God’s understanding of the same. For man, goodness is, as a rule, satiety, comfort, sufficiency, health, and so on. But the saints, who know God’s will, say that such a life is death for the soul. Living in this kind of “goodness” the soul is condemned to degradation, and the spirit to death. Our cross is the only saving sign, and by carrying it we can receive true and eternal goodness. The Holy Royal Martyrs could have emigrated from Russia, saved themselves by fleeing, by leaving as far as possible away from the war, and ended their lives in relative peace and prosperity. But instead, they showed us all an example not only of how we need to carry our crosses, but how to relate to those who cause us pain and suffering along this path. They didn’t utter a single word of judgment, murmuring, or blasphemy.
Doctor Eugene Botkin also had an opportunity to leave the Royal Family, as the majority of their servants did, but his conscience did not allow him to. Now we see these people on icons in many churches. But if these people had chosen a different path, who other than historians would now know about them? Thus did God turn evil into good.
And conversely, an evil heart turns even goodness into evil. Love itself became Man and came into the world, bringing people happiness. But what did evil hearts do with it? They betrayed it, slandered and crucified it! The godly labor that the martyrs and passion-bearers performed is closest to us when sorrows and calamities come to the world. Precisely they show the true path of human hearts. Therefore, I would like for us to extract the maximum benefit for our souls from the events of these sorrowful times, through our labors of sacrificial love and suffering. Our times are special: Someone gets rich from other’s woes, bringing down a curse on their own heads, while another, to the contrary, weaves for himself the golden crown of martyrdom and passion-bearing. Thus, everyone chooses his own eternal lot.
