Chrysostom
Good and Faithful Servant
Your prayer for your son rises from the depths of a parent’s love, and such love is itself a gift from the Father who knows how to give good things to those who ask Him. Yet remember that the God who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, sometimes permits trials for a greater purpose. When you pray for protection from seen and unseen danger, do not mistake this for a guarantee that no harm will ever touch him. The apostles themselves, fresh from stripes and imprisonment at Philippi, pressed on into further conflict to speak the Gospel. They did not cast themselves into needless peril to test whether God would save them, that would have been a diabolical thing, but they trusted that even in danger, the Lord was their refuge.
Endure, then, as seeing Him who is invisible. Do not love ease or security more than the growth of faith that often comes through hardship. If your son is granted recovery and peace, give thanks; if the healing tarries or comes in a form you did not expect, know that the Physician of souls may be working a deeper cure. The surest proof of love for Christ is not a life free from affliction, but hearing His commandments and keeping them. That is the healing you must desire above all: that he may be touched in spirit, made obedient to the word, and sealed by grace. For what profit is there if the body thrives while the soul perishes? Practice what is good while there is time, and do not let remissness increase his infirmity. Lamentation offered in faith can itself become a kind of medicine, but let it be joined to a steadfast walk.
Lay hold of the confidence that He who suffered a slave to be called His father, that He might make the Lord a Father to you a slave, will not despise your cry. He has begotten you in trials, and like a son of sorrow, you are dear to Him. So commit your son into those hands, and let your prayer be not only for the removing of every thorn, but that whether in calm or in storm, he may be found faithful.
Endure, then, as seeing Him who is invisible. Do not love ease or security more than the growth of faith that often comes through hardship. If your son is granted recovery and peace, give thanks; if the healing tarries or comes in a form you did not expect, know that the Physician of souls may be working a deeper cure. The surest proof of love for Christ is not a life free from affliction, but hearing His commandments and keeping them. That is the healing you must desire above all: that he may be touched in spirit, made obedient to the word, and sealed by grace. For what profit is there if the body thrives while the soul perishes? Practice what is good while there is time, and do not let remissness increase his infirmity. Lamentation offered in faith can itself become a kind of medicine, but let it be joined to a steadfast walk.
Lay hold of the confidence that He who suffered a slave to be called His father, that He might make the Lord a Father to you a slave, will not despise your cry. He has begotten you in trials, and like a son of sorrow, you are dear to Him. So commit your son into those hands, and let your prayer be not only for the removing of every thorn, but that whether in calm or in storm, he may be found faithful.
