Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

It is finished — exclaimed Our Saviour, and thus He accomplished His salvific sufferings.

Suffering came into the world because of the first sin, and sin became the wall of separation between God and man depriving us of a blessed state and the Kingdom of Heaven. Man by his own devices could never heal his fallen soul, and thus we confess and believe that the Son of God was incarnate in order to redeem us and deliver us from our sinful and pitiful state. He became one of us to correct that which we spoiled, and in order to renew that which was darkened.

Suffering is always with us, and man is constantly preoccupied with the question of suffering —mainly how to avoid it. We modern people on a daily basis invent new means in order to avoid reality, and the reality of our life is frequently filled with various sorrows. One can only be amazed at the multitude of various ever-increasing distractions and new medications appearing to assuage psychological burdens.

We tremble when we recall the terrible spiritual struggle of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He, by means of His divine vision, foresaw those  sufferings incomprehensible for us which He voluntary and with love was to take upon Himself so that we might return to paradise.He overcame all difficulties, and even on the Cross He refused to alleviate His pain. And in all of this we can conclude that suffering is an inescapable fact of life. But what is its significance? And what can we as Orthodox Christians do? What should be our attitude to such an unavoidable phenomenon?

The answer lies before us in the tomb. Our Lord accepted the inescapability of suffering as the central redemptive struggle of His life, and we must accept suffering as an inescapable fact and surrender to it. Even this humble submission to an extent relieves our sorrowful state of soul.
Our Lord also showed that it is extremely important to have a God-pleasing disposition of heart towards suffering. In spite of the fact, that He is surrounded by hatred, ill-will, intrigues, treachery, ingratitude, and lack of understanding, none the less His love remains unshakeable. He preserves and defends His love with the words: “God forgive them”. And thus He crowns His redeeming struggle of love.

Genuine spirituality like true friendship demands great attention, nurturing and support. Without this our soul, like a rare flower wilts and dies. Only a firm spiritual state, without complaining, without bitterness and hard-heartedness can assist us in overcoming all sorrows and suffering sent to us for our cleansing and correction. A living witness and example of a God-pleasing attitude towards suffering is the Mother of God, who is present in Her icon, Softening of Evil Hearts or Seven swords. Without complaint, She stood by the Cross and grave of Her Son, despite Her horrendous anguish. She took no offense at the torturers and did not become hard-hearted, quite the opposite. Her heart expanded, became softer and spiritually She achieved even greater perfection.

Dear brothers and sisters, I have spoken here only briefly about the inescapability of sufferings, but we must further continually and deeply nurture within ourselves a God-pleasing and good-hearted attitude towards sorrows, which the all-wise Lord sends for our correction. It is a terrible thing to live with a darkened, gloomy, heart. Our Lord summons us to soften and cleanse our evil hearts. And only with a purified and soft heart can we like the Mother of God, inherit eternal blessedness. Amen.