July: Day 5: Teaching 1: Venerable Athanasios the Athonite

July: Day 5: Teaching 1:
Venerable Athanasios the Athonite

(Why Do the Righteous Sometimes Die an Unfortunate Death?)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Venerable Athanasios of Athos, who is commemorated today, lived in the tenth century. Orphaned in his infancy, he was raised by a devout nun; later, his time in Constantinople provided him the opportunity to advance in the sciences. From a young age, his foremost desire was to serve God through monastic labors. He became a disciple of the Venerable Michael, took the name Athanasios (he was previously called Abraham), and, retreating to Mount Athos, began to lead a life of great hardship and humility, striving to conceal both his scholarship and his extraordinary gifts from all. However, this was impossible, and he began to receive great honors. Two of the most important dignitaries and commanders of the empire, Leo and Nikephoros, held him in high regard; and Nikephoros, who later became emperor, greatly assisted Venerable Athanasios in the construction and expansion of the monasteries of Athos. The holy ascetic received from God the gift of miraculous power.

Death overtook the Venerable One amid his labors. One day, while inspecting the monastery's constructions with the brethren, he ascended to the top of a building under construction, which collapsed, burying five people, including Athanasios, beneath the stones. The others hurried to excavate the rubble, but they retrieved the Venerable One already dead.

II. The sad demise of the righteous compels us to reflect on why the Lord sometimes allows the just to endure violent and tragic deaths. Was He unable to save them from this? Or does He lack love and compassion?

a) Once, the Venerable Nilus the Faster, a companion of the holy fathers, who were beaten in Sinai and Raifa, whose memory is celebrated on December 14, witnessing their beating and suffering at the hands of the barbarians, also questioned: why do they suffer? 'Where, he said, are the labors of your asceticism, blessed fathers? Where is the reward for your patience in tribulations? Where is the crown for your many endeavors? Is this the recompense for your monastic life? Or have you labored in vain for the undertaking set before you? Or is it just that those who strive for virtue should suffer, and that the Divine Providence has left you, the slaughtered, without aid? And behold, evil has gained power over your holy bodies, and malice boasts that it has prevailed.'

Once the Venerable Nilus the Faster, who was a companion of the Holy Fathers who were massacred in Sinai and Raithu, whose memory is celebrated on December 14, seeing their beating and suffering from the barbarians, also asked: why do they suffer? “Where,” he said, “are the labors of your asceticism, blessed fathers? Where is the reward for your patience in sorrows? Where is the crown for many feats? Is this the reward for your monasticism? Or did you rush in vain to the undertaking that lay before you? Or is it just that those who strive for virtue should suffer, and that Divine Providence has left you, the slaughtered, without aid? And behold, evil has gained power over your holy bodies, and malice boasts that it has prevailed." 

Thus, in deep sorrow, the Venerable Nilus asked himself questions similar to ours, but to his consolation he soon received an answer to them. “Why,” said the wounded and barely breathing elder Theodoulos to him and to those with him who had escaped the sword of the villains, “why does the attack that has come upon us disturb you? Do you really not know why the Lord gives up His ascetics to their adversaries? Is it not in order to reward with the greatest rewards those who endure to the end, as He doubled to Job for what he had lost? But to us, of course, He will reward incomparably more, for “eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which the Lord has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9) and for those who "endure to the end.” There can be no better answer to our questions, brethren, about the cause of innocent suffering.

b) But what shall we say when we see that a righteous man sometimes suffers, and not from people? Some of the virtuous have nowhere to lay their heads their whole lives, and another, which is even more terrible, sometimes suffers a cruel and sudden death. And we, too, are perplexed: what does this mean? Why does a righteous man suffer? O brethren! Do not be confused here; for although the ways of God's Providence are inscrutable, they always lead to good ends, always serve for our salvation and blessedness. 

A certain monk, having come to the city to sell his handicrafts, saw the burial of a certain evil nobleman and was amazed that the wicked man was escorted with great ecclesiastical and civil honor. He was even more struck by the sight he saw when he returned to the desert: the pious elder, his mentor, lay there torn to pieces by a hyena. "Lord," cried the orphaned hermit, "why was this evil nobleman deemed worthy of such a glorious death, while this holy man was torn to pieces by a beast?" An angel appeared to the hermit and said, "Do not weep for your teacher. The evil nobleman had one good deed and for that he was deemed worthy of an honorable burial; but his reward is only here, while there awaits him the punishment for all his evil deeds. On the contrary, your teacher, although he was pleasing to God in everything, had one vice, from which he was cleansed by an evil death" (Prologue July 21).

III. Therefore, brethren, it is clear that he has no idea of the infinite love of the Heavenly Father for us who dares to reproach Him for injustice or lack of compassion. Let us believe that momentary sorrow leads to infinite blessedness, if it is borne with patience and for God's sake; and let us remember that the time will come when the Lord will wipe away all tears from the eyes of His servants (Rev. 7:17) forever, that with God nothing happens without purpose. Amen.

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.