As a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, life on earth has taught me one consistent lesson which I have turned into a saying in my mind, "It's not when I find myself in trouble, but when I find everything going my way, that I feel afraid." This saying, of course, is just how Romanós expresses what he has ingested and internalized from the Word of God. "Alas for you when the world speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets." (Luke 6:26) "If the world hates you, remember that it hated Me before you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because My choice withdrew you from the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the words I said to you: If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you too…" (John 15:18-20)Elder Ephrem, a contemporary Greek monastic from Mount Athos, has written…
God loves us and through involuntary pain seeks to count us worthy to participate in His most perfect blessings. Unfortunately, we do not love our soul in a spiritual way. If we loved it we would endure trials of both soul and body without complaining, in order to attain the eternal blessings.
Pain softens the heart and removes its hardness. As the heart is softened in this manner, the ground is prepared for the sowing of genuine repentance and correction. We who are cowardly in every affliction chase away, so to speak, the grace of God.
When man is prospering, he cannot remember God, and if he remembers Him, it is only faintly. When affliction or pain approaches, he remembers Him vividly and with fervor, then he prays most ardently. And our holy God is pleased with this, just as a mother is pleased when her child seeks her with heartfelt pain, for in this she discerns love.
No matter how man is tried, he always benefits when he shows the corresponding patience and gratitude during the trial. This is revealed at the end of the trial, when he sees the lightness of his soul, the clarity of his mind, and the sweetness that comes to his inner self.
Man in his prosperity forfeits intelligence:
he is one with the cattle doomed to slaughter.
Psalm 49:20
Jerusalem Bible
Physical pain also limits life: limits activity and mobility, such that turning to God is the only option. To feel gratitude for pain--this is something which I still need to learn or develop. It is logical though, it makes sense: if pain provides the path, if this is grace, then gratitude should be the response.
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