Archbishop Zosime (Shioshvili)
You know, brethren, that often our prayers and supplications offered up to God are not fulfilled, as if the Lord were leaving them unheeded, and this breeds a feeling of discontent in us. To explain the reason for this, let us turn to the great father and teacher of the Church, St John Chrysostom, who writes in one place: “Many come to church, say and sing a great many prayers and hymns, and leave the church without even knowing what they were reading or what they were singing. Their lips moved, but their hearing heard nothing; their eyes seemed to look, yet they did not see what was to be seen; their ears listened to the word of God, yet they did not hear what was to be heard. O man, you yourself do not understand your prayer and your singing, and how do you want God to hear and understand you? You, brother, bowed your head before the most holy icon, but your mind ran off elsewhere; your body was in the church, but your thoughts were far, very far from the church. Your lips spoke the word of God, but in your mind you were taken up with worldly affairs.”
Tell me then, brother, how will the Lord God hear such a heartless, lifeless supplication of yours? True, the Lord knows better than you what you are asking for; the Lord knows what troubles you and what goes well with you; but He wants a person to rise up to God himself. The Lord wants a person's spiritual growth and development, and this happens only through sincere and fervent prayer. The evil power, however, knows that through prayer we achieve great progress in the work of the soul, and so it tries in every way to tear a person away from it. We are often calm and at peace, we feel well, as if no bad thoughts or ideas were troubling us; but we have only to wish to pray and actually begin, and at once a thousand unseemly thoughts and cares arise in us. We may even complete our prayer, but we ourselves will realise that God does not hear a supplication we have uttered thoughtlessly and heartlessly, because we ourselves do not hear it. As we see, one of the chief reasons why the Lord sometimes does not hear us turns out to be our own inattention and indifference.
Prayer, brethren, is a great mystery. When we pray, we must know well Whom we are calling upon and what we are asking for. God, the Creator of heaven and earth, Whom even the highest angels serve with trembling, must be addressed with fear and reverence. We should not ask of God more than we need. For it may happen that excessive mercy does us harm and even burns us up altogether. God knows all things for the good, and so He gives each of us what we are worthy of. Remember, brother, that nothing under heaven happens without God; even punishment and hindrance are given us by God for our good, because from Him, as from the highest Good, only good can come forth. To be convinced of this, let us recall the vision of the great prophet of the Hebrews, Ezekiel: while the Jews were in captivity in Babylon, the Lord showed Ezekiel His glory on the bank of the river Chebar. The King of glory, seated on the heavenly throne, revealed to him that the Lord was sending him to the Hebrews — a rebellious people — so that they would hear the word of God and repent. God commanded Ezekiel to eat what He would give him. Ezekiel saw before him a rolled-up scroll on which these words were written: lamentation, mourning and woe. Ezekiel ate this bitter scroll and felt in his mouth a sweetness as pleasant as honey. Then the prophet Ezekiel understood that everything in heaven and on earth is done as God wills, and that even the bitter punishment prepared by God for people, such as lamentation, mourning and woe, is as sweet as honey.
The holy apostle Paul says in his Epistle to the Corinthians: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.” This is how the holy apostles looked on the sorrows and trials they endured while spreading the Christian teaching. And although the apostles often exposed themselves to trials and dangers, poverty and hardship, far from giving way to sorrow and despair, they rejoiced, filled with the greatest love for the Saviour, and endured everything with meekness.
We too, brethren, must endure trials with meekness and thanksgiving, and must always believe in the mercy of God. Let us not show faint-heartedness, but pray unceasingly that He may deliver us from evil and make us worthy of the eternal joy prepared for the righteous by the Lord, to Whom belongs all glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.
1984, Svetitskhoveli
