Why does God allow so much injustice, pain, and suffering in the world? In this video, Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol addresses one of life’s most difficult spiritual questions. He explains why God respects human freedom, how God views human trials from the perspective of eternity rather than our brief earthly lifespan, and how believers can transform life’s greatest trials into spiritual blessings through patience and prayer. He also shares a moving true story of an elderly mother whose husband and son were murdered, illustrating the immense power of forgiveness and Christ-like peace in the face of evil.
This is a talk recorded on May 25th, 2023 in the event hall of the Holy Metropolis of Limassol, Cyprus
Watch the full sermon on ΙΕΡΑ ΜΗΤΡΟΠΟΛΗ ΛΕΜΕΣΟΥ ΡΑΔΙΟΦΩΝΙΚΟΣ ΣΤΑΘΜΟΣ channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtrMk9kmMu8
Question: Why is there so much injustice around us, and why does God allow it?
Metropolitan Athanasios: Of course, there is much injustice around us. A great deal of injustice. Yet as to “why God permits it,” that is something we must ask ourselves. Why do we commit so many injustices? And we know from the very beginning that God does not cooperate with injustice, with sin, and with evil. God has no synergy whatsoever with such things. He neither desires them, nor blesses them, nor tolerates them, nor works alongside them. Yet He permits them to exist because God created man free, and it is man’s freedom that works so much evil around us and throughout the whole world.
And what does God do in this case? God beholds things in their eternal perspective. He does not see them within the temporal span of eighty or a hundred years that a man lives in this world, but He sees them eternally. Temporal injustice has a limit: it lasts a hundred years—as long as a man lives—or a hundred and ten, a hundred and twenty years. Now that I have grown older, I no longer say fifty or sixty years, since I have passed those milestones. Formerly, when I was younger and heard of someone being fifty, I thought that was old. Now I say seventy or eighty, and as I draw near to seventy, I say ninety or a hundred—if, of course, I live and reach such an age.
Therefore, God sees all things in relation to eternity, and He will eternally vindicate every wronged person. Whoever suffers injustice in this life will receive eternal justification from the righteous God. God will not allow any injustice to endure forever. Yet it is certain that in this world there exist injustices that a man must endure throughout his whole life—in this earthly life, which is passing away.
This happens for many and varied reasons. We cannot know in every instance why a thing takes place. Calamities occur, and we say: “Why should this tragedy happen?” We do not know. We might have known had we possessed such a spiritual state and spiritual power that we could pray and have God reveal to us why He permitted an evil thing, a tragedy, an injustice, or an affliction to take place. Certainly, God knows the reasons; we do not know them. Yet because we are unable and lack that spiritual strength which the saints possessed, God grants us the power to endure. And through patient endurance and long-suffering, God works out our eternal salvation.
If we banish eternity from our life, my children, our life becomes dreadfully sorrowful and deeply bitter. Then we merely arrive at the grave, and along with us perish all our dreams and everything we carry within ourselves; and the injustices we endure become endless. Whereas, when we gaze upon them from the perspective of eternity, things completely change their hue. They are illumined by eternity, and a man acquires patience, takes courage, and endures with long-suffering—and those very injustices become blessings for him. We see many people who endure wrongs and tribulations, yet they already derive spiritual benefit and grow spiritually.
The entire spiritual art consists in transforming this burden into a blessing: turning bitterness into sweetness, poison into medicine, and vinegar into sweet wine. These things are accomplished with God’s blessing, through patience and prayer. I have seen many people who, having passed through deep afflictions, became truly powerful souls, holy people who lived their spiritual life in a perfected manner in this world, and in the Kingdom of God they have shone forth and shine like the stars of heaven.
If a man does not believe in eternal life, there is certainly no answer. There is no answer. If you do not believe in eternity, then when others wrong you, wrong them in return! Slay them, destroy them, trample over corpses! Yet even if you do so, you will still not be happy. You will be wretched! That is to say, when you do evil to another, even if you believe neither in eternity nor in God, that evil in itself will cause you suffering and torment. One who works evil never tastes joy, nor does he ever feel happy or at peace. Only the person who lives close to God has peace in his heart and possesses within himself abundant light, joy, and rest.
I have known people truly tested by severe hardships. I knew an elderly grandmother from a village near us whose husband and son were murdered. It happened in the fields: the villagers quarreled over irrigation water and land, and they killed both her husband and her son. She herself was present; she saw who murdered her child and her husband. Later, when the police questioned her, she said: “I did not see.” And not only that, but she came forward to confess the sins of those men as if they were her own.
She told me that every day she prayed that Christ would grant them repentance. That grandmother would offer prayers and prostrations to the ground for the souls of those men, because she felt genuine love for them and felt deep sorrow that they had committed such a great evil and had harmed their own souls for eternity. She was an unlettered woman, a simple and humble grandmother, yet she lived in the light of God, for she refused to let herself be enslaved by malice. Thus she entered into the grace of God, and she was truly joyful and deeply at peace. That grievous trial which she underwent was turned to spiritual profit, becoming the means of profound spiritual growth within her.
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