Against Complaining
January 24
(A Homily on Job and Love for the Poor.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
January 24
(A Homily on Job and Love for the Poor.)
By Archpriest Victor Guryev
Some Christians, when some misfortune befalls them, instead of bowing before the inscrutable ways of God’s Providence, remembering their sins and repenting of them, and placing all their hope in God, usually begin to complain and say: “Why is God punishing me? Does He really not see my sufferings? It seems to me that I did good to everyone — so-and-so and so-and-so, at such-and-such a time and such-and-such a time,” and so on without end. This, brethren, is not good. Such complaining reveals in a person a lack of love for God, little faith, self-love, and perhaps pride. In misfortunes one should not act this way. How then, you may ask, should one act? In this way, we reply: as the Holy Fathers teach. And how do they teach?
In the Church homily On Job and Love for the Poor we read: “Listen to what Scripture says about Job: he had possessions — seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred she-asses, and very many servants; and this man was the greatest of all the men of the East (Job 1:3). But, by God’s permission, nearly all his possessions were consumed by fire. In all this Job uttered not a single word of complaint, but said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; as it pleased the Lord, so it has come to pass’ (Job 1:21). Thus Job, in misfortune, did not complain, but showed complete submission to the will of God, and when he lost everything, he did not fall into despondency. But people nowadays, when they receive some benefit from the Lord, do not even remember Him; yet when some misfortune comes upon them, they begin to blaspheme their Creator and to enumerate all their virtues. And if at some time they gave even a single kopeck to a beggar, or gave a piece of bread, or set up a candle in church, or brought something to the Lord from their produce, they remember this and say: ‘Why then has such a calamity come upon us?’ But they ought to remember not their virtues, but their sins. You lit a candle in church? That is good. But you forgot that once a beggar, rejected by you and departing from you with sighs and tears, extinguished your candle. You gave bread to a poor man? That too is good. But remember that once your flocks of sheep destroyed the entire harvest of that poor man. Therefore, if misfortune comes upon you, do not complain, but act as Job did, glorifying God and saying: ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.’ What follows from this? That in misfortunes we must not lose heart, not despair, not boast of our virtues, not complain against God, but first of all remember the life of Job and say with him: ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!’ Then we must think not of our virtues, but of our sins, repent of them, and humble ourselves before God. And finally, we must place all our faith and hope in God and more often recall in our souls the words of David: ‘Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you’ (Ps. 54:23). ‘Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and let your heart be strengthened; wait, I say, on the Lord’ (Ps. 26:14). Amen.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
