By Fr. Michael Baroudy
From The Word, December 1960
This brings us to the second important element in the nature of the Almighty, fidelity. God is truth, faithfulness, love and fidelity. Our sincerity, proneness to wander away from Him can never change His love for us. Our wayward ways grieve Him because God cannot cooperate with us when we stray from His Divine will.
You and I become very much upset when we see flagrant wrongs, when we discover that wicked people at times are most prosperous. We grieve and with righteous indignation say, “Why will God permit such people to live, why do they seem to go from strength to strength materially, socially and politically." Our misguided wisdom ascribes injustice to God, because by comparison see some good, religious, honest, sincere people who are not faring so well. The most devastating, doubt-provoking thing is that we see many good, kind, loving and lovable people who are taken before their times, while wicked peoples lives are prolonged upon this earth. Dwelling on such ideas tends to undermine our faith. Our thoughts in this matter should be guided by the knowledge that living will be judged by quality, not by quantity, adding life to our years, not years to our lives.
So then knowing that God is faithful and will remain so despite some people’s faithlessness, it is highly challenging to us to meet His faithfulness with our being faithful to Him and to others. How foolish most of our earth-bound notions are when we doubt God’s faithfulness. I wonder many times a day at the marvelous grace of God. His loving kindness and tender mercy. Were we to consider our faltering steps, our doubting habits and manners, our insulting behavior in the light of the knowledge we possess, our stubbornness and our rebellious spirits, we feel honestly constrained to say God indeed is good.
After all, it is worth much to know, that our help is in the support which God provides, the same God who had the power and the will to make heaven and earth. Translate that into action and see what it means. When I have hard, physical work to do, God releases the necessary strength through the wonderful reserve of my own body. I am amazed at my own strength at those times. When I have mental work to do which demands alertness and insight and interpretive ability, God is present to quicken my mind. When courage flags, when my energy is drained and I am overcome by weariness, God most wonderfully restores my soul and lifts my spirit.
When my faith in goodness begins to tarnish, and I begin to wonder whether, after all, the good man receives any support outside of himself, then in the darkening moment, God’s Holy Spirit takes hold of me and prompts me to say, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” Man’s darkest moments arrive when he sidesteps God; one finds himself then on a slippery slope. But on the other hand man’s brightest moments come when man feels within his soul his deep need to the Eternal Spirit. When the cry of the songwriter becomes his very own. “The Lord is my strength and my song, and is become my salvation.”
Come further and let us consider another aspect, the finality of God. God is revealed to us in the Scriptures that He is not only the Author but also the Finisher of our faith, the Alpha and Omega, the Supreme Judge whose will and words are the final authority, and from whom there will be no appeal.
We are living at a time in human history characterized by confusion and indecision. We strain our ears to catch what this or that leader has to say. We seem to think that their words are final because they are in a position of authority.
Therefore, the confusion is becoming worse confounded. The reason for that is our thought-life is at fault. If the individuals, the families and the groups which compose the bulk of this great nation of ours could or would have its thinking clarified by the reassurance that God still lives and that the final word is with Him, what a difference it would make! God’s voice would be heard in our inner conscience saying to us, “Be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted in the earth.” It will sustain, and undergird us morally, mentally and physically when such fear-defying faith becomes central in our thinking. An iron-clad faith, fear free, that is, free from doubts, skepticism, and infidelity will be adequate for this or any other time and shall, by God’s help triumph over all difficulties, then we discover that we are becoming more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
The voice of God is heard saying through the Prophets, “Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth. fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Surely God is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silent before Him.
Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
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Venerable Moses the Ethiopian, August 28
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Troparion, Tone Five
Thou didst abandon the Egypt of passions and fervently ascend the mount of virtues, and didst take Christ's Cross on thy shoulders. Thou wast glorified in thy works and wast a model for monks, O Moses summit of the Fathers. With them pray unceasingly that we may obtain great mercy.
