The moment when God withdraws His Grace – Saint Symeon the New Theologian

 

There is a dreadful and sacred moment in the course of every soul, when God secretly withdraws His grace. He does not do this out of anger, nor to punish, but in order to educate. Saint Symeon the New Theologian says that God allows grace to depart so that man may be tested, to reveal whether he truly loves Him, or if he loves Him only for His gifts. It is the hour of the desert, of God's silence. The hour when the soul is tested in the deepest part of its being. When God withdraws His grace, man suddenly feels deserted, dry, cold. Where before he wept with tears of repentance and gratitude, now he cannot even utter a single word of prayer. Where before he overflowed with light and peace, now he feels darkness and confusion. This moment, however painful it may be, hides within it the greatest mystery of spiritual life—how God works the purity of the soul through His absence.

Saint Symeon teaches that God withdraws His grace, not always because the soul has sinned, but many times because He wishes to raise it to a higher degree of knowledge and humility. Man, as long as he feels grace, thinks that he stands well, believes that he truly loves God, that he has faith and patience—but when grace departs, then the truth is revealed. The heart is unveiled, weakness is made manifest, self-confidence collapses, and there, in nakedness and pain, man learns to cling only to God, without consolations. The absence of grace is the mirror of life; it is the mirror of the soul. If pride exists within us, it will overflow; if humility is present, it will be revealed through patience and silence. The Saint says that just as iron is purified in the fire, so the soul is purified when God withdraws His grace. It is the cross of interior silence.

The soul that lives in the grace of God experiences a sweetness that is incomparable. It is as if it sees within itself an uncreated light, which warms, illumines, and gives life. Yet just as the dawn prepares the soul for the sun, so too does the absence of grace prepare man for his deeper union with God. Saint Symeon explains that God withdraws His grace in order to test faith. When all is bright, it is easy to believe; but when night comes, when you feel nothing, then it becomes evident whether you love Him for Himself or for His gifts. When God is silent, the heart reveals its authenticity. If it remains steadfast, then grace returns stronger, purer, deeper.

Man often cannot bear the silence of God. He thinks he has been abandoned, feels that everything has collapsed, that his prayer reaches nowhere—but God is there, hidden. Saint Symeon says that God is then closer to us, precisely when we think we have lost Him. He is like the sun that hides behind the clouds: it does not cease to give light, we simply do not see it. The soul that truly loves God is not troubled. It weeps, it suffers, but it does not despair. It knows that this trial is necessary; it knows that God is educating it in order to make it a pure vessel of His grace. The Saint likens this moment to a mother who hides for a while from her child so that the child may learn to seek her. The child cries out, weeps, searches—and then, when the mother appears again, the joy is doubled. God does not withdraw because He wants to wound us, but because He wants to teach us humility. As long as grace operates perceptibly within us, there is always the danger that we might become proud, thinking we have achieved something. Then God withdraws, so that we may understand that without Him we can do nothing. When man realizes this deeply, then his soul is crushed—and through that contrition, grace returns. Not to support him in his pride, but to illumine him in humility. True grace abides only where there is a humble heart: “To whom will I look, if not to the one who is humble and quiet and trembles at My words?” says the Lord through Isaiah.

The trial of the absence of grace is a form of cross. Saint Symeon speaks of divine abandonments—those moments when man lives in spiritual desolation. Yet just as Christ on the Cross cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”, so too does every believer undergo his own abandonment—not because God has left him, but because He desires to make him a partaker of His Passion. If man remains faithful within the desolation, then he is deemed worthy of the Resurrection. The trial becomes light. God does not abandon, but hides for a little while, like the Bridegroom who wishes to see whether the bride will seek Him with tears—and when she finds Him again, her love will be stronger than before.

When man loses grace, he must not be disturbed, nor believe that God has rejected him. If he begins to despair, then he opens the door to temptation. The Saint advises us to wait with patience, to pray with humility, to not cease the struggle—because grace has not departed forever; it has simply hidden itself in order to cleanse us from self-reliance. God does not seek perfection—He seeks the heart that longs for Him. He desires that we love Him not for the joy He gives us, but for Himself.

The experience of the absence of grace is also a blessing, because it makes us understand the difference between the false peace of the world and the true peace of God. When God withdraws His grace, man realizes how poor he is without Him, and this leads him to deep humility, unceasing prayer, and sincere repentance. The Saint says that whoever has not passed through divine abandonment does not know what true grace means, because only when you taste His absence do you understand the magnitude of His presence. The silence of God becomes a teacher, and pain becomes an opening toward the uncreated light.

The person who has learned to endure the moment when God withdraws His grace is spiritually mature. He does not complain, he does not judge, he does not despair. He is silent, he prays, he waits. Saint Symeon says that when God sees that man seeks Him with tears and faith, then His grace returns suddenly and fills the soul with inexpressible joy. This joy is not emotional—it is divine; it is the experience of the light of God within the heart. And then man understands that the entire trial was worth it, because through absence he came to know presence, through darkness he saw the light, through poverty he tasted true riches. The moment when God withdraws His grace is the moment when the soul learns to love without exchange, to believe without proofs, to hope without light. It is the deepest moment of the spiritual life, because there is born the pure love for God. The Saint calls it a “bright night,” because within its darkness is hidden the beginning of eternal union with God. God withdraws His grace for a little while so that we may long for Him eternally—and when we find Him again, we no longer let Him go. Then the soul says, as the bride in the Song, “I sought the beloved of my soul; I found Him and I will not let Him go.”

The silence of God is not abandonment, but a calling. The absence of grace is not punishment, but education. God withdraws His grace so that we may see what lies within us, that we may learn to love without self-interest, that we may be crushed in order to be illumined. Saint Symeon the New Theologian teaches us that this moment—if we accept it with humility—becomes the beginning of a new spiritual resurrection, because then we understand that the grace of God is never lost; it is merely hidden until we learn to hold it with a pure heart.

 

Greek source: https://entoytwnika1.blogspot.com/2025/12/blog-post_6.html