The message of the Cross

To the sick and gasping even wholesome meats are unpleasant, friends and relations burdensome, who are oftentimes not even recognized, but are rather accounted intruders. Much like this often is the case of those who are perishing in their souls.

For the things which tend to salvation they do not know; and those who are careful about them they consider to be troublesome. Now this things which tend to salvation they do not know; and those who are careful about them they consider to be not know; and those who are careful about them they consider to be troublesome.

Now this does not ensue from the nature of the thing, but from their disease. And just what the insane do, hating those who take care of them and reviling them, the same is the case with unbelievers also...

This is the nature of the thing, that its power is not recognized by those who perish. For they are beside themselves... But what do you say, O man? Christ became a slave for you, `having taken the form of a slave,` and was crucified, and rose again.

And when you ought for this reason to adore Him risen and admire His lovingkindness, because what neither father, nor friend, nor son did for you, all this the Lord wrought for you. For suppose a man, wished to make out all things by reasoning, let him try by your discourse to convince himself how we see the light... No, you cannot...

Therefore, leaving this to God’s power and boundless wisdom, let us be silent. Just so with regard to the things of God, should we desire to explain them by the wisdom which is from without, great dreision will ensue... from the folly men. For the greatest things of all no language can explain...

Do not say then, Why did He not help Himself on the Cropss? For He was hastening on to close conflict with death himself. He did not descend from the Cross, not because He could not, but because He would not.

For Him Whom the tyranny of death did not restrain, how could the nails of the Cross restrain? ...What sort of philosopher, among those who have studied logic, of those knowledgable in Jewish matters, has saved us and made known the truth? Not one.

It was the fisherman’s work, the whole of it... But how did He`destroy wiosdom?`Being made known to us by Paul and others like him, He showed it to be unprofitable...

For he means to say how by contraries God has overcome, and how the Gospel is not of man.

St. John Chrysostom

Patience in asking

Christ said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

He thus commanded us to ask, and pledged Himself to the giving. But this implies asking earnestly and sincerely, putting all other things out of our minds.

He also urges patience, warning that the door may not open immediately, but that we should persist in our knocking.

If you continue asking, though the answer is not there at once, you surely will receive. This was why the door was shut - that you would take the initiative to knock.

The answer will come. Would you, as a father, respond with a stone when your son asks for bread? Consider that if you persist in asking, yet receive not, maybe you are asking for a stone.

The fact you are the son does not assure that you will be asking for something worthy. So ask for nothing worldly. Being a son can, in fact, work to your disadvantage, since you may then be more likely to ask for that which does not have merit.

There are two essentials to effective prayer: 1) that you pray earnestly, and 2) that you ask that which you ought to ask.

If you claim to have asked for spiritual benefits, but did not receive, it is because you did not "knock at the door" with sufficient earnestness, or you have in other ways made yourself unworthy to receive what you ask, or did cease your prayers prematurely.

In no case is God responsible for prayers being unanswered. If we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, our heavenly Father knows even better how to provide for our needs.

One should not have such confidence in prayer alone that he neglects performing good works; nor should one trust only in his own efforts. We should instead seek help from above, while also contributing our own efforts.

"In all things," He said, "whatsoever you would have men do to you, you also should do to them."

Virtue is consistent with each of our natures. Each of us knows his duties, so it is not possible for us to find any excuse in being ignorant of what we should do.

Saint John Chrysostom

Spiritual Exercises

The preparation for underground work is deep spiritualization. As we peel an onion in preparation for its use, so God must "peel" from us what are mere words, sensations of our enjoyments in religion, in order to arrive at the reality of our faith. Jesus has told us "that whosoever will follow" Him will have to "take up their cross," and He, Himself, showed how heavy this cross can be. We have to be prepared for this.

We have to make the preparation now before we are imprisoned. In prison you lose everything. You are undressed and given a prisoner's suit. No more nice furniture, nice carpets or nice curtains. You do not have a wife or husband any more and you do not have your children. You do not have your library and you never see a flower. Nothing of what makes life pleasant remains. Nobody resists who has not renounced the pleasures of life beforehand.

I personally use an exercise. I live in the United States of America. Can you imagine what an American supermarket looks like? You find there many delicious things. I look at everything and say to myself, "I can go without this thing and that thing; this thing is very nice, but I can go without: this third thing I can go without, too." I visited the whole supermarket and did not spend one dollar. I had the joy of seeing many beautiful things and the second joy to know that I can go without.

Richard Wurmbrand