Our Justice and God's Justice

by Archimandrite Seraphim (Aleksiev) (+1993)

A sermon delivered at the Knyazhevo Monastery of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos on November 27 (14th Old Style), 1984.

 

Beloved! Surely, you have witnessed how someone close to you, unjustly accused, suddenly bursts into anger and begins a fervent self-defense, fiercely attacking his accusers. Such a person may consider himself a Christian, he may even strive for a spiritual life, but he has not yet risen to that level of patience by which souls are saved (cf. Luke 21:19). Such a stormy self-justification reveals a lack of humility in that person and the presence of pride, strong passions, and ungodly feelings, which only await an external occasion to flare up.

In the mountain streams, there are pools where pure, silvery sand lies at the bottom. If you throw a stone into such a pool, it will remain clear. But in the plains, there are also seemingly clear pools, at the bottom of which much silt has accumulated. If you throw a stone into such a pool, it becomes greatly muddied.

It is the same with people. The righteous are like the mountain pools—they are not troubled when they are accused, even unjustly. Their soul remains pure and calm when a stone is thrown at them. But sinners are like the seemingly clear pools—they react with anger and thus reveal the silt of passions that has accumulated at the bottom of their souls.

When unjustly accused, the righteous either speak the truth—that they are not guilty in this case—thus helping their accusers not to fall into the sin of slander and condemnation, or, if they are not believed, they remain silent and place their hope in God, trusting that He will defend and justify them. The righteous do not rely on their own justice to defend it by all means—both permissible and impermissible—but place their hope in God's justice. They are righteous precisely because they have chosen God's justice over human justice. They do not have their own personal justice but hunger and thirst for God's justice, according to Christ's teaching on the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:6).

Sinners, on the contrary, not knowing and trampling upon the great justice of God, fervently defend their own miserable "justice." Therefore, when accused, especially if the accusation is unfounded, they react stormily and proudly in defense of their justice. Try giving advice to a self-justifying sinner: "Endure, brother, even though you are unjustly accused! Bear the injustice done to you without complaint, and God will have mercy on you for your patience." He will immediately object: "What?! Should I endure?! If I were guilty, I wouldn't be so outraged. But how can I endure when I see that deeds I have not committed are being attributed to me! No, I cannot tolerate unjust accusations!" Such a "lover of justice" is, in reality, not a lover of God but a lover of himself.

We encounter such scenes very often in life. We observe them not only among the laity but, unfortunately, also among the clergy and in monasteries. Everyone justifies themselves. Everyone explains their irritation by the fault of others. And almost no one is willing to reproach themselves.

Where does this come from? – From our fall into sin, which began with our foreparents in paradise. After breaking the commandment to refrain from the forbidden fruit, God asked Adam, "What have you done?" Adam replied, "It was not I, but the woman!" Then God asked Eve, "What have you done?" She answered, "It was not I, but the serpent." From then until today, self-justification has spread throughout the world, always seeking the fault in others.

Despite our Christian upbringing, we actually dwell in spiritual ignorance, and therefore, according to the words of St. Mark the Ascetic, "we wage war with people over what is harmful to us, as if it were something beneficial."

Teaching us true spirituality, this holy father speaks of three states of the human mind: natural, supernatural, and unnatural.

When the mind is in its natural state, it always seeks the fault within itself and humbly confesses its sins. But when it is in an unnatural state, it forgets God's justice and wages war against people as if they were unjustly offending it. And when the mind rises to the supernatural state, it finds within itself the fruits of the Holy Spirit, as indicated by the Apostle: love, peace, joy, longsuffering, and so on (cf. Gal. 5:22).

In life, much is said about justice. But there is no justice, for everyone considers themselves right. Justice is not in us, the sinful judges, but in God—the Sinless Judge—of whom the Psalmist says: "Righteous art Thou, O Lord, and upright are Thy judgments" (Ps. 118:137). Concerning our human "justice," one of the prayers in the Holy Mystery of Unction states: "All our righteousness is before Thee, O Lord, as a defiled garment." And with such a garment, one does not enter paradise. In one of Christ’s parables, we read the following: at a feast, the king entered to see the guests seated at the table and noticed one who was not dressed in a wedding garment (that is, in the grace-filled righteousness). "Friend," he asked him, "how did you enter here without a wedding garment?" And he said to the servants: "Bind his hands and feet, take him, and cast him into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 22:11-13).

Beloved! God does not want to see us in the rags of our miserable "justice." He does not approve of us when He sees us boasting of our own righteousness and supposed virtue, for with such "justice" no one can stand before God's judgment (Ps. 142:2). Knowing this, the saints did not seek to exalt their own righteousness but, humbling themselves, prayerfully repeated the words of the Psalmist: "Thou art justified, O God, in Thy justice and pure in Thy judgment" (Ps. 50:6).

In the life of St. Maximus the Confessor, we read that when the storm of the Monothelite heresy raged, when the emperor, patriarchs, clergy, and people were carried away by it, St. Maximus, despite threats, remained steadfast in holy Orthodoxy. Neither slanders nor tortures could shake him. And instead of indignantly emphasizing the injustice of the sufferings to which he was subjected, he spoke these remarkable words before his tormentors: "I thank my God that I have been delivered into your hands and am tormented with unjust accusations, so that through them my voluntary transgressions and the vices of my life may be cleansed."

With these unforgettable words, St. Maximus has revealed to us an exceedingly important truth: by enduring innocent suffering and unjust accusations, our voluntary transgressions are covered, and long-standing vices in our lives are healed. If we knew and constantly remembered this truth and always followed it in practice, it would be sufficient for the salvation of our souls. Practically, in our circumstances, this means the following. Let us say one sister offends another who is not at fault. The one who is wronged should immediately think: "God allows me to suffer innocently because of the sins I have committed. I thank my Creator for taking such great care to cleanse my soul from all my evils and iniquities, with which I would not be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven!" As soon as the offended one thinks this, her bitterness against the offender will immediately pass and be forgotten. And most importantly: the one who did not defend her own justice will receive from God the crown of His divine justice.

Beloved, if we sincerely desire to cleanse ourselves from our sins and be healed of our vices, let us strive, with God's help, not to blame anyone or anything for our irritability and sensitivity, except for our own self-love, vanity, and pride. If we suffer "innocently," if we are accused without cause, let us thank God, just as St. Maximus the Confessor thanked Him, and let us remember that both just accusations and unjust reproaches, when borne patiently and without complaint, are of immense benefit to us, according to the words of the Apostle: "To those who love God... all things work together for good" (Rom. 8:28). Through just accusations, if we endure them without murmuring, we overcome our pride and atone for our guilt. And through unjust reproaches, we receive both forgiveness for our involuntary sins, for which we have not repented, and healing from our vices, which cannot be uprooted in any other way.

And so, when we are unjustly accused and condemned, let us not justify ourselves, but let us repentantly remain silent and secretly pray that God may forgive us our forgotten sins. And it is precisely then that from the accusations against us, our innocence will be born, and we, from sinners—without knowing how—will become righteous. Thus, through our undeserved sufferings, we will be pleasing to God, according to the words of the holy Apostle Peter: "For this is acceptable with God, if a man of conscience toward God endures grief, suffering wrongfully" (1 Peter 2:19). Amen!

 

Bulgarian source: https://bulgarian-orthodox-church.org/rr/ambo/arhimAlex_14.11.84.html