Appreciate God’s mercy after the Fall; Church Fathers: Day 019

Last updated on: August 5, 2017 at 10:06 pm by Pete Socks

Appreciate God’s mercy after the Fall; Church Fathers: Day 019 2017-08-05T22:06:06-05:00 Pete Socks

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Our sin is entirely our own fault, says St. John Chrysostom. But God loves us so much that he turns our disaster into an even greater good than before.

Man threw away everything he had—his right to speak freely, his communion with God, his time in Paradise, his unclouded life—and went out naked, like a survivor from a shipwreck.

But God received him and immediately clothed him, and taking him by the hand gradually led him to heaven.

And yet the shipwreck was quite unforgivable. For this tempest was entirely due, not to the force of the winds, but to the carelessness of the sailor.

Yet God did not look at this, but had compassion for such a great disaster. He received the one who had been shipwrecked in the harbor as lovingly as if it had happened in the middle of the ocean.

Why? Because, when no sadness or care or labor or toil or countless waves of desire assaulted our nature, it was overturned and fell. And just as criminals who sail the sea often drill through the ship with a small iron tool, and let the whole sea into the ship from below, so when the devil saw the ship of Adam (by which I mean his soul) filled with many good things, he came and drilled through it with his voice alone, as if it were a little iron tool, and stole all his wealth and sank the ship itself.

But God made the gain greater than the loss, and brought our nature to the royal throne. –St. John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on the Power of Demons, 2

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Do I really trust God to take away my sin and bring an even greater good from it?

How would my life show it if I really did have that trust?

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, cast me not away from your presence, but let your servant find grace and mercy and forgiveness before you.

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