RADIO CONVERSATION BY FR. GEORGY CHISTYAKOV

09.04.96

(HOLY TUESDAY)

(cassette 10, side A)

Tomorrow is Holy Wednesday, and during the service, among other readings from the Holy Scriptures, we will read the second chapter from the Book of Job. The passage where it is told how Job, stricken with severe leprosy from the sole of his foot to the very top of his head, to the words of his wife, who suggests to him: "Curse God, and die," replies in response: "You speak like one of the fools; shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:9–10) It is on this day, precisely on Great Wednesday, that both the Holy Scriptures and the Church raise the question of human destiny, of the problem of evil in the world. Where does evil come from in the world? If God is all-good and loves us, then how does He allow this evil? People often say: God punishes, there is even a folk proverb: God punished.

But God is not a ruthless demon to punish so terribly, to punish children—innocent babies—for the sins of their parents, to allow children to die of cancer, of leukemia, to endure the wars that are going on everywhere, to endure all the calamities that so terribly destroy the world around us. If God is not a ruthless demon, then how does He allow all this? Can He really punish us in this way, or tolerate all this, or teach us in this way?! No, this is impossible. But if God is such a ruthless demon who teaches us so, then we really need to do what his wife advises Job: blaspheme God and die.

We see how much trouble and grief there is in the world – it's a real hell. But we also feel well that the source of this trouble, the source of this grief, is not God. At the same time, no one has yet succeeded in building some kind of theory of the justification of evil within the framework of theology, although many have tried to do this. Why? Because God is greater than any system and any theory. Moreover, regardless of the evil that we actually see in the world in great numbers and very often endure on ourselves, regardless of all this evil, we feel God's presence in the very world around us.

We feel that we are very often unaware of this, that we very often forget that God is present in this world, as He promised us through the mouth of Jesus: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt.  28:20), but nevertheless we feel that He is really with us. We feel and understand not with our minds, but with our hearts, that the Lord shares with us our misfortune in all its fullness, that He shares with us the fullness of our misfortune. He is really with us where things are bad – and this is the main thing. And, descending with us into the depths of trouble, into the depths of evil and despair, He leads us out of these depths, gives us strength, wisdom and patience in situations of trouble. But, I repeat, where this misfortune comes from, where this evil comes from, who is the source of this evil, it is impossible to explain. And when we want to explain this, we are probably faced with some kind of satanic attempt. In fact, indeed, if we believe in God, if we feel His presence, then it is easy to understand that He does not need to be justified.

The dominant feature of our relationship with God is not logic, but love. In the person of Jesus, God is among us. Strengthening and supporting us, giving us strength, giving us wisdom, patience, humility and, I repeat, once again, strength to overcome all the troubles in which we find ourselves, in order to break through those misfortunes and trials that befall us. He's with us, here, He's with us where it's hard, and He's leading us through the jungle to finally bring us to the light. This is the main thing in Christianity.

But neither Orthodox nor any other theology gives an answer to the question "Where does evil come from?" Perhaps the time has not yet come to give an answer. Because now, towards the end of the twentieth century, some sources of evil are becoming partially clear. First of all, it becomes clear that in many respects the source of evil is our human sin, our human irresponsibility and our human disorder. Sometimes we see that, say, the causes of the ecological crisis, the causes of environmental pollution, lie precisely in this, precisely in our human irresponsibility – in the irresponsibility of mankind. And many diseases and other troubles occur from environmental pollution.

We see that wars occur in the world again because of human irresponsibility, and we understand that all of us in the world are connected to each other to such an extent that the sin of one inevitably destroys the world around hundreds. St. Seraphim of Sarov once said: "Save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved," but this wonderful saying has a reverse side: and if you destroy yourself, then you will destroy thousands of people. Your sin is terrible not because it destroys you, your sin is terrible because it destroys the world around you and the lives of people around you. Everyone knows, after all, that it is not so much the smoker who poisons his own body as the bodies of those people who inhale the air filled with smoke from smoking. But this is a very simple example, and we can probably cite much more complex and difficult examples: if we pour some rubbish, some chemical waste, or just water with washing powder into the water, then by doing so we poison the fish that live in this water, an innocent fisherman catches this fish, then feeds it to his children, and they get sick because of this. This is an extremely simplified model of how the sin of one falls on the shoulders of other people.

This means that it is not God's fault, but our irresponsibility. But this is only in some aspects of life, in general, we cannot yet say where evil in the world comes from, although we gradually come to the terrible thought that it is not God who is to blame, but we are to blame. And God, in the person of Jesus, comes into the world to help us overcome and conquer our irresponsibility, to help us overcome our sinfulness. Not just to cry out in terror, feeling one's sinfulness and one's fall, but to rise after the fall, to grow out of one's sinfulness, to outgrow it, to throw it off oneself, as one throws off one's old clothes and no longer poisons the world with them. That's what Christ came for: to give us strength. He, the Conqueror of death, gives us the strength and wisdom to be overcomers. He unites with us in life and death so that we too

follow His path and take responsibility for those people who surround us.