Chrysostom
Beloved
The afflictions you describe are indeed a great and terrible warfare, not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual hosts of wickedness. When a man cries out daily that he wishes to die, and his soul is consumed by anger, the enemy has woven a triple snare of despair, bitterness, and bodily pain. This is a battle that requires strong arms, continual vigilance, and the weapon of unceasing prayer. Do not think that these trials have fallen upon you by chance; they are permitted by the Lord’s wisdom to refine faith and to bring your whole household to the foot of His cross.
Consider the Samaritan woman. When our Lord said to her, “Go, call thy husband,” He was not merely speaking of the man she lived with, He was drawing into the light that which was hidden, so that true healing might begin. So now, the Holy Spirit calls you to bring your husband’s hidden anguish, his unspoken sins, and even his desperate wish for death before the throne of grace. There can be no true healing while the wounds remain covered. Urge him, with all gentleness and patience, to lay bare his soul before the great Physician. The implant, the medicines, the case before the judge, these are but outward remedies if the inward man is not made whole by Christ. Yet our Lord is tender; He did not revile the woman for her five husbands, but gently named her sin and offered her living water. So you, by your meek and quiet conduct, may become a vessel of that living water to your husband. An angry man is not won by loud remonstrance, but by a wife’s propriety and peaceable spirit; this is a beauty that never fades and may even disarm the fiercest resentment.
Be on guard against that most cunning snare of the devil, where he disguises sin as devotion. You might be tempted to withdraw from your husband in your sorrow, or to think that death would be a release, but this is no holy thought. It is a grievous wrong to desire an escape that God has not ordained. The marriage bond is sacred: you are bound to each other as long as both shall live, and this mystery speaks of Christ and the Church. As the Church is subject to Christ, so the wife to her husband, not in slavish fear but in a saving love that mirrors His own. Therefore, stand beside him in this dark valley, not as a judge but as a fellow soldier in the good warfare. Pray without ceasing for his bodily healing, for the success of the implant, for his salvation, and for the safe completion of your journey. The Lord who calmed the storm with a word can certainly bring a favorable outcome to your case and provide for your finances. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these lesser things will be added.
Your elderly father and younger brother also are in the hands of the same merciful God. Commend them daily to His care, and trust that He who clothes the lilies of the field will not neglect them. The Holy Spirit indeed intercedes for you with groanings too deep for words, even when your own strength fails. Therefore, do not lose heart. Wage this warfare with patience, with thanksgiving, and with the firm hope that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the bridegroom of the Church and the Saviour of the body, will yet visit your home with salvation and peace. May He grant you the grace to persevere, and may your household become a living testimony that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
Consider the Samaritan woman. When our Lord said to her, “Go, call thy husband,” He was not merely speaking of the man she lived with, He was drawing into the light that which was hidden, so that true healing might begin. So now, the Holy Spirit calls you to bring your husband’s hidden anguish, his unspoken sins, and even his desperate wish for death before the throne of grace. There can be no true healing while the wounds remain covered. Urge him, with all gentleness and patience, to lay bare his soul before the great Physician. The implant, the medicines, the case before the judge, these are but outward remedies if the inward man is not made whole by Christ. Yet our Lord is tender; He did not revile the woman for her five husbands, but gently named her sin and offered her living water. So you, by your meek and quiet conduct, may become a vessel of that living water to your husband. An angry man is not won by loud remonstrance, but by a wife’s propriety and peaceable spirit; this is a beauty that never fades and may even disarm the fiercest resentment.
Be on guard against that most cunning snare of the devil, where he disguises sin as devotion. You might be tempted to withdraw from your husband in your sorrow, or to think that death would be a release, but this is no holy thought. It is a grievous wrong to desire an escape that God has not ordained. The marriage bond is sacred: you are bound to each other as long as both shall live, and this mystery speaks of Christ and the Church. As the Church is subject to Christ, so the wife to her husband, not in slavish fear but in a saving love that mirrors His own. Therefore, stand beside him in this dark valley, not as a judge but as a fellow soldier in the good warfare. Pray without ceasing for his bodily healing, for the success of the implant, for his salvation, and for the safe completion of your journey. The Lord who calmed the storm with a word can certainly bring a favorable outcome to your case and provide for your finances. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these lesser things will be added.
Your elderly father and younger brother also are in the hands of the same merciful God. Commend them daily to His care, and trust that He who clothes the lilies of the field will not neglect them. The Holy Spirit indeed intercedes for you with groanings too deep for words, even when your own strength fails. Therefore, do not lose heart. Wage this warfare with patience, with thanksgiving, and with the firm hope that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the bridegroom of the Church and the Saviour of the body, will yet visit your home with salvation and peace. May He grant you the grace to persevere, and may your household become a living testimony that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
