Lent with the Early Church Fathers Day 3

Lent with the Early Church Fathers

A daily post from Tom Bandy 

Based on Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers (Eds. Christopher D. Hudson, J. Alan Sharrer, and Lindsay Vanker: Hendrickson Press, 1999) 

Day 3 

Against Our Will

Chrysostom 

Paul says to let this be your work: to give thanks in your prayers for the seen and the unseen benefits and for God’s goodness to the willing and the unwilling. I know a certain holy man who prayed this way: 

“We thank you for all the goodness you have shown us from the first day until now even when we are so unworthy. We thank you for what we know you have done, and what we don’t know, for gifts seen and unseen, for gifts of word and action, whether we have received them willingly or not – for all these things that have been given to us, the unworthy.  

We give thanks for tribulations and refreshments, for hell, for punishment, and the kingdom of heaven. We beg of you to keep our souls holy, and our consciences pure, worthy of your loving kindness. You who gave us the only begotten for us and sent your Holy Spirit to wipe out our sins, if we have willingly or unwillingly disobeyed you, forgive us. Don’t attribute our sins to us. Remember everyone who called on your name in truth. Remember everyone who wishes us well, or the contrary, for we are all human.” 

He prayed this because God gives us many benefits even against our will and maybe even without our knowing it. When we pray for one thing and he does the reverse, it is plain that he is doing good even when we don’t know it. 

TGB: To be grateful to God for all things, we must see God within all events. Chrysostom has the Psalmist in mind: 

O LORD, where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there.

if I make my bed in hell, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me, your hands hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night”,

even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day. Psalm 139:1-11