Temporal
Do Visit Sick People.
by the blogger who 're-posted'
by the blogger who 're-posted'
margin alt.
Apr. 6th, 2014 at 11:57 AM
Dear
Orthodox – do visit hospitals, visit the sick who are unable to provide aid to
themselves; who knows, maybe it will be your help exactly that will make them
healthy, affect their fate in the material world, and if it fails to cure them,
then it will [at least] give
their souls relief from hospital anguish and the grave thoughts about their
fate. One must know that every sick person has one’s angel who looks at [takes care after] the
man and tries to help him – he has been given to him exactly for that [purpose] – but, alas, has no material
connections with the ailing. So, do help his angel, and he shall remember about
you at the Judgement.
Even this
thought alone may be important for understanding the essence of charity – about
how many phenomena in the human world are inter-related, and how this world is linked
with the spiritual world... You should try and see at least once that in each
lonely ailing, ailing for a long time, aching terribly, ailing hopelessly… –
that it is in such a creature exactly that Christ is also suffering, seeing no
help from His creation, only and if occasionally without sympathy by the one gazing
at the one voicelessly begging for help...
“Thou
art my Creator”– we say at the morning prayers [Prayer III of St.
Macarius the Great], and hence each and every one such ailing
abandoned by people is also made by Him. His image is in him. And if we are serious
[take ourselves seriously], as this
is granted by faith, when we consider ourselves the image and creation of God,
then why not also go nearer to the this image
seen in the ailing, why not bow down to
him with our help – [bow] to
another man, whatever this help may be?
Once a man
grows stronger in faith, he begins to look for himself what he has enjoyed so much in it – [namely] the presence of the light of
Truth, Christ himself. The true manifestation of faith is in this, when the desire
for communion [becoming part of] the object of one’s disinterested longing becomes domineering. It was
then exactly that personified for a true believer is the arisen desire for
acquiring Truth, discovering Him in many things. And the soul seeks more light,
more goodness, and comfort. But where is
Christ, wherein is He?...
However,
to seek God everywhere is not so difficult; at that, one can easily see Him – it
turns out – where he is in reality, where He cannot but be – in His creation...
Therefore, to help a sick man is to justify one’s having the image of God [in oneself]. Can it be that God is incapable
to help, even through human means? The same as no prayer is lost – a prayer sincere,
uttered from the bottom of one’s heart, a prayer full of love for the Creator, just
so any help here is never lost. Many do see that there are illnesses and there
are ailing people, and they are not somewhere far far away [beyond 3 times 9 lands] but
close by, so a believer can easily understand that in their form God comes to one
of this knowledge. And here, Christ coming to man in the form of a worn-out and
suffering sick people reminds of Himself: “is there within man his exculpation
from one’s deeds?” “Does he have indeed His image and likeness, and what are
they in?”
One needs
to visit those who still need your help. Until God has not yet reminded – in
His single [one] and original,
and of no beginning form – of Himself, to man – but already not in His image, but
in a consistent, of one form [uniform], Actual Being [presence], – until He has not yet reminded that He is; by the way, with no benefit
to man. I was “sick,
and in prison, and ye visited me not.” [Matt. 25:43]...
May we
never hear those dreaded words when nothing may be fixed any longer – as in
fact it’s better to be terrified now by our helplessness and hardness of heart,
and [then]
straighten up [correct] whatever
can still be done – whatever the Lord may grant
us.
