The Tears of Widows Especially Reach God
February 17
(A Word on Those Who Work Signs.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
February 17
(A Word on Those Who Work Signs.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
We often say that the Lord is the defender of widows and orphans. And we speak the truth; for indeed the Lord is their defender and at times reveals to them particular and extraordinary signs of His mercy.
Venerable Sisoes relates the following incident:
“When I was,” he says, “in the skete with Abba Makarios, and once, after leaving it, we went out for the harvest, a certain widow followed behind us, gathering ears of grain and weeping bitterly. Venerable Makarios called the elder of that village and asked him: ‘Why is the old woman who walks behind us gathering the ears of grain continually weeping?’
The elder answered: ‘Her husband entrusted some gold to a certain man for safekeeping, but soon afterward he suddenly died without telling his wife where the gold he had taken was kept. The owner of that gold now wishes to take her children into servitude.’
Makarios said to the elder: ‘Tell her to come to us at the time of the midday rest.’
The widow came, and the elder asked her: ‘Why are you constantly weeping?’ She told him about the gold her husband had taken.
Makarios said: ‘Go and show us the place where your husband is buried.’ And taking the brethren with him, he went to the cave where the deceased lay. When they arrived, the Venerable one said to the woman: ‘Go now to your house.’
After she had left, the monks stood in prayer. When the prayer was finished, Makarios, calling the dead man by his name, ‘Onesios,’ said to him: ‘Where did you put the other man’s gold?’
The dead man, coming back to life, answered: ‘I hid it in my house, under the board of my bed.’
After this the elder exclaimed: ‘Now sleep again until the general resurrection.’
The monks who saw this, in terror, fell at the feet of the Venerable one. But he said to them: ‘Forgive me; this is not my doing, for I am nothing. God has worked this miracle for the sake of the widow and her orphans.’
The widow found the gold in the place indicated by her husband, returned it to its owner, and freed her children from bondage."
Truly, brethren, the Lord is the defender, protector, and provider of widows and orphans! Look around you, here and there we see fathers dying, leaving behind young children without a penny, and we think: the children are lost! But in reality the opposite often happens. By some unseen direction, kind people appear to these orphaned children — people who either take them into their homes, or care for them in general, or raise them as best they can.
Who sends such benefactors to the orphans? From where do they come? The answer is simple: God sends them, and they come from God. “It was not I who worked this miracle,” said Makarios, “but God, for the sake of the widow and her orphans.”
Let us remember this and strive to be as messengers from God Himself to unfortunate widows and orphans, and perform His will toward them. Let us open our hearts to the afflicted, wipe away the tears of widows, and for their children become as fathers in place of those they have lost. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
