When Asking for Miracles Betrays Smugness and Pride
Asking for miracles in order to believe betrays a sort of smugness on our part, sort of like asking for an expensive gift from a prospective friend before considering their overture for friendship. It could hardly become a true friendship if it had a beginning like that.
God could easily create miracles that would make all people believers, but He respects our free will, and does not wish to interfere with our freedom. As God awaits our decision, are we to respond to His love, or are we not. God has the power to show forth miracles that would make us all believers, but to do so would hardly leave us with freedom, for He desires that we choose to commune with Him, not because of His power, but because of His love.
When I was a young man, in about the eighth grade, I decided that the Roman Catholic Church might possibly be the True Church. I started taking catechetical lessons from the local Roman Catholic priest. Struggling, as I was, to find the True Church, I asked my Lutheran pastor to meet together with the Catholic priest and me, so that I could have them debate. My plan was to choose the winner, and go with that church.
The Pastor declined, saying he wasn’t going to reduce truth to whomever could win a debate challenge. I’d just joined the high school debate team, and had thought it a good idea to have them debate, thus taking the pressure off myself, making my decision easier. That was a real example of copping out, and relieving myself of having to make the decision.
This is not unlike the person who would demand a miracle, asking God to prove Himself worthy of being worshiped. This would be no different than saying, “give me a car for my birthday, dad, and I’ll consider loving you as my father”. We must approach God in all humbleness of mind and heart, leaving the rest up to Him.
It is also quite possible that when miracles do come our way, our smugness and pride prevent us from seeing the miracle that is right in front of us. I once asked a young Egyptian Christian about the appearance of the Holy Virgin before crowds of people on the dome of Saint Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo. Everyone, whether they were Christians, Muslims, Jews, or atheists, were able to witness the appearance, and I wondered why such miracles happened in Egypt, but not in the West. The young man said that Christians in the Middle East live their lives in expectation of miracles, so when they come they are not surprised, but received with joy. Westerners, he said, in their collective pride, are skeptics, and ignore miracles sent by God.
If we are awaiting the day God will prove Himself to us, we fail to notice that He has been doing just that from the very beginning, but our smugness and pride have blinded us to that which has always been there.
Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Thursday November 18, 2021 / November 5, 2021
22nd Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
Martyrs Galacteon and his wife Episteme at Emesa (253).
Repose of St. Jonah, archbishop of Novgorod (1470).
St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus (Election 1917).
New Hieromartyr Gabriel priest (1937).
Apostles Patrobus, Hermas, Linus, Gaius, and Philologus of the Seventy (1st c.).
St. Gregory, archbishop of Alexandria (9th c.).
All-Russian Church Council of 1917-1918.
Martyrs Domninus, Timothy, Theophilus, Theotimus, Dorotheus, Eupsychius, Carterius, Pamphilius, Agathangelus, and Castorus of Palestine (307).
Hieromartyr Silvanus, bishop of Gaza.
St. Kea, bishop of Devon and Cornwall.
Venerable Odrada, virgin of Balen (8th c.) (Neth.).
St. Cybi, abbot in Cornwall and Wales (550) (Celtic & British).
St. Gregory of Cassano, Calabria (1002).
The Scripture Readings
Colossians 4:2-9
Christian Graces
2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; 3 meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, 4 that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.
Final Greetings
7 Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. 8 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts, 9 with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will make known to you all things which are happening here.
Luke 11:47-12:1
47 Woe to you! For you built the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore the wisdom of God also said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ 50 that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of this generation.
52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”
53 And as He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to assail Him vehemently, and to cross-examine Him about many things, 54 lying in wait for Him, and seeking to catch Him in something He might say, that they might accuse Him.
Beware of Hypocrisy
12 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.