Why do the righteous suffer? Why does God allow it? St. Cassian and St. Germanus posed these questions to Abba Theodore after two Palestinian monks had been killed by bandits (6.1.1). These monks were so beloved by the people that two nearby towns fought over the right to their burial and relics (6.1.2). We ask in our frustration, "Why were these righteous monks allowed to be brutally murdered?"We have to look no farther than ourselves to discover why we are so disturbed by such evil occurrences. Souls with "little faith and knowledge" are troubled when evil befalls the righteous, because they assume that the righteous get their rewards in this life rather than the next (6.2.1). If this erroneous assumption were true, we would be the most miserable of men. Instead of ignorantly and faithlessly assuming in despair we must rather focus on the nature of how things are between God and His creation. Only then will we gain true understanding about this perceived problem.
Things in this world are good, bad, or indifferent. The only good is the virtue of the soul--divine faith that makes us cling to the unchanging Good. The only bad in this world is sin, which separates us from the unchanging Good God and unites us with the devil (6.3.1). These ontological truths are fixed and unchanging (6.4.1). Therefore, we must properly understand these truths so that our faith can be strengthened by real knowledge and remain undamaged by temptations.
Indifferent things are either good or bad depending on the desire and will of the user (6.3.2). Riches, beauty, strength, death, sickness, poverty, and health are examples of things that are by their nature indifferent. An example of how life and death are indifferent things is seen in the lives of St. John the Forerunner and Judas Iscariot (6.3.4). St. John's birth and death were good, while the life and death of Judas were bad. The same indifference regarding material wealth is especially important in today's western society. For "those who are exalted by the greatest wealth and honor and power in this world must not be believed to have thereby obtained the chief good, which is understood in terms of virtue alone, but rather something indifferent. For just as these resources are seen as beneficial and good to the righteous who use them correctly and unavoidably, since they offer the possibility of a good work and of fruit in eternal life, so likewise they are valueless and bad and offer an occasion of death and sin to those who misuse them in bad fashion" (6.3.7).
Since we make many indifferent things good or bad by our will, we see that God has never permitted evil to be brought upon His holy ones. For "no one has ever been able to bring the evil of sin upon someone who was unwilling and resistant, but only upon one who accepted it in himself due to a slothful heart and a corrupt will" (6.4.1). We have to look no further to confirm this truth than the blessed Job who remained faithful and spiritually unharmed during the devil's attacks.
To this teaching St. Germanus asked why the Scriptures read that God created evil or brought it upon human beings. This question causes many problems for modern Christians, yet Abba Theodore points out how God speaks loosely of evils rather than afflictions, not because they are evil by nature but because they are thought to be evil by those who fall into their grasp (6.6.1). In fact when God appears to be repenting from bringing afflictions on us, He is actually sorry that He is obligated to do so on account of our sins. We commonly mistaken these tribulations and hardships of discipline brought upon us by the Lord for evil. Nevertheless, in reality God inflicts us with sorrows and desolation in order to hasten us to Him in times of trouble, because we would have otherwise continued to despise Him in times of prosperity (6.6.3). His aim is to always return us to Him by means of true repentance. For He is love and goodness and in Him there is no evil.
Only within Abba Theodore's understanding of the good, bad, and indifferent can we make sense of the Apostle Paul's statement that everything works together for the good. The righteous, like Ehud, are ambidextrous treating both hands--the left (turmoil of trials) and the right (spiritual achievements)--as though they were the right. We must become like St. Job who made the left hand into the right hand by snatching "the palm of victory from the left as much as from the right" (6.10.4).
In learning to be content under various trials and afflictions we must not forget the various reasons why these hardships come upon us. God brings us trials in order to prove us, cleanse us, reveal our sins to us, show forth His glory, correct us, inspire fear in us, and occasionally to make us an example for others (6.11.1, 4, 9, 11). We are likened unto stamps in this life. We can choose to have the mind of an unrighteous man who takes the shape of whatever it is stamped with, or we can possess the mind of a righteous man who when stamped by various trials, his thoughts, like adamant steel, transform everything that touches him (6.12). We must struggle to keep vigil at all times constantly abiding in our cells, so that we might never stray from crying, "Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me" (6.15).
"But if the body suffers only a little, we make every effort to be free of the illness and its pain. Therefore, God corrects the body for the sins of the soul, so that by chastising the body, the soul might also receive some healing.... Christ did this with the Paralytic when He said: Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. What do we learn from this? That the Paralytic's disease had been produced by his sins." - St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain
"We know that the Lord, while in the flesh, was kind to all people, even
those who persecuted Him -- Him, the Almighty God. He showed us how to
avoid evil and not oppose it. He said so Himself [cf. Matt. 5:39]. Not
opposing evil means preserving one’s inner peace. Opposing evil is evil;
it involves a desire to return evil for evil, on which the fallen
spirits thrive. However, when they attack us and find that we do not
oppose them, then our peacefulness disarms them; and they are defeated.
Therefore, we must try to always pray like this: ‘Lord, help me to
preserve my inner peace, teach me to be calm and peaceful and kind, just
like Thine angels." - Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
"Stay in your cell and your cell will teach you everything." - Abba Moses
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