August 25, 2013 - Involuntary humility

August 25, 2013

Involuntary humility

When someone has been put down by his passions, by an illness, a difficult situation or a disaster, many times he feels humiliated and believes that God has forsaken him, something that is not true. He forgets that in the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great we say: “ For You did not forever reject Your creature whom You made, O Good One, nor did You forget the work of Your hands, but because of Your tender compassion, You visited him in various ways.”

Thus, “Elder Paisios, the cell dweller, said: ‘Whenever a person is humbled, even involuntarily, the Grace of God is obligated to come upon him’. Using this phrase as a standard and a criterion, we “in part” can understand how God saves people that never even suspected that they are saved – those that are baptized in the Church, people of another heritage or race and those of another religion.” (Christos Giannaras, Syzygias enkomion – ypo anonymou tinos eggamou, Periodical Epigosi, Vol. 109, p. 3)

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