|| Pope Shenouda || Father Matta || Bishop Mattaous || Fr. Tadros Malaty || Bishop Moussa || Bishop Alexander || Habib Gerguis || Bishop Angealos || Metropolitan Bishoy ||
All things work together for good to those who love God
God is the beneficent. All what he makes for
you is good.
But if you were hit by evil acts from evil people:
so long as your life is in God’s hands, He is capable of
converting the evil to good. And that is clear from
what Joseph the Righteous said to his brothers: “But
as for you, you meant evil against me; but God
meant it for good… to save many people alive” (Gn
50:20).
Joseph was sold as a slave. And in Egypt he faced
an unjust accusation from his master’s wife and he
was thrown in prison… All this was evil, but God
converted it all to Good. Then Pharaoh got to know
him though his dream interpretations and made him
the Second in the Kingdom. And Joseph became “a
father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a
ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” (Gn 45:8).
The spiritual concept: All things work
together for good, is found in the Holy Bible
storied as we find it in our common life too.
We also find it in many chapters of the Church
History and life stories of saints:
The imprisoning of St. Paul the Apostle in Philippi
seemed as if it was evil but God converted it into
good through the miracle of saving this great apostle
and making the Jailer believe in Jesus and baptizing
him and all his family (Ac 16).
Sending St. Paul the Apostle to be judged before
Caesar in Rome also was converted to good and was
a reason behind the establishment of the Church in
Rome by this apostle because there he “dwelt two
whole years in his own rented house, and received all
who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and
teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus
Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” (Ac
28:30, 31).
Exiling St Athanasius, the Apostolic, four
times to countries in the west by the order of the
Emperor and conspiracies of the Arians seemed as
evil, conspiracy and abuse of authority against him
but God converted all this to good because Pope
Athansius was preaching the right faith in every place
he gets exiled to and establishes churches and groups
of believers. And the traces of St. Athansius are still
there in these countries until today…
Also all the persecutions that Christianity
faced from the Roman Empire in the days of Nero
and Decius and others and all the brutality, injustice
and torture that seemed evil in itself… but God
converted all this to good so it resulted in giving us a
group of the Great Martyrs we have like St. George,
St. Mina, St. Theodore, and St. Boctor… All these
through whom we supplicate, and those who left us
very high examples to follow in courage and
steadiness on faith and in God’s hands supporting
them with miracles…
Even hardships in general, even those that
seem evil, God makes out of them good. They
become a reason for depth in prayers and spirituality
in fasting and closeness to God who sends help.
There is no doubt that the death of the father
of St. Antony the great had a great impact but God
turned it into good and made out of it a reason to
start monastical life. For Antony looked at his father’s
dead body and said to him: “Where is your greatness,
power and richness? You left the world unwillingly but
I will leave it with my own will and I will not wait until
they force me out of it”… so he started in the way of
monasticism…
And the same effect can be said about any death
case, people who love the Lord can benefit out of it
spiritually.
God’s order of offering Isaac as a burnt
offering when God said to Abraham: “Take now your
son, your only son Isaac, whom you love… and offer
him there as a burnt offering on one of the
mountains…” (Gn 22:2). Which father can bear such a
trial?! But God turned it into good by saving Isaac on
one side and on the other side saying to Abraham:
“because you have done this thing, and have not
withheld your son, your only son-- blessing I will
bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your
descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the
sand which is on the seashore” (Gn 22:16, 17). Yes,
it is good, but to those who love the Lord.
Herod’s order to kill the children of
Bethlehem (Mt 2)… was undoubtedly evil in itself,
indicating extreme cruelty, dictatorship and violence.
But God made out of it good through the escape of
John son of Zachariah to the desert and his life in the
desert (Lk 1:80) and his acquiring the spirit and
power of Elijah. And another good thing coming out of
this was the coming of the Lord Christ and the Holy
Family to Egypt and His blessing to our country for
more than three years.
We would like to also mention the persecution
of Saul the King to David the anointed of the
Lord:
It was an evil coming from Saul’s envy against
David and his fear from David’s courage and the love
people had to him. It is the ego that is filled with evil,
greed and revenge… Yet, God turned all this into
good. And David who “was ruddy, with bright eyes”
(1 S 16:12) who is a skillful player on the harp… to
David the mighty man of valor who can lead an army
and run a kingdom. He became tougher through
Saul’s persecution to him…
Then what can we also say about David’s huge
sin:
It was evil. And God punished him for it harshly
(2 S 12).As for the good coming out of it, was what it
came out with of deep repentance and tears with
great humility of David’s soul which was reflected in
his psalms that we still use until today and benefit
from them spiritually.
We would also like to mention Thomas doubt in
the Resurrection. It was something against the faith
and the Lord reproached him for it. But the good part
was in proving the Lord’s Resurrection and Thomas’
confession saying: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn
20:28).
We also say about Heretics and their opposing
faith that:
All their thoughts were full of evil, ignorance,
doubts and trials to tear apart the church. But the
good in this was the response of saints to the doubts
that Heretics spread. So they established the faith
with proofs and convincing evidences. And St.
Aughestinous was truthful when he said: “We offer
our thanks to heretics because they made us get
deeper in studying the Holy Bible to respond to
them”.
We notice the conversion of evil to good in
our general life too.
The presence of problems leads to trying to find
solutions for them and that is good. Even mysteries
and complicated questions lead to deepening thinking
and more mind and intelligence exercising. Even the
hard to understand bible verses result in going deeper
in interpretation, explanation and clarification…
And truthful is the saying that says: “the
need is the mother of invention”.
The need represents part of the hardship but the
good coming out of it is in the invention that covers
all needs.
The sight weakness led to inventing glasses. And
the hearing weakness led to inventing ear phones.
And the western countries need to find an easy
way to reach India and its spices is what led finally to
discovering America with the scientists reaching the
belief in the fact the Earth is a globe.
Also the existence of diseases led to more
scientific research to discover remedies for these
diseases. And discovering ways to prevent them. No
doubt, microbes and germs are evil in themselves but
their presence helped in aiming to discover
Antibiotics. And the scientists discovering Penicillin, Streptomycin, Sulpha and others. Added to all this,
the discovery of all medical equipment that was
caused by the need…
Disasters also were motives for social
service which is good.
Accidents resulted in reaching the idea of using
ambulances and the efforts done by the Red Cross
and the Red Crescent Associations. Also fires lead to
thinking of all methods to extinguish them.
The orphan was the reason behind establishing
orphanages to protect orphans.
And similarly was the need of behind thinking
of building shelter centers: either for expatriate
students, or establishing homes for elders.
Also disabilities lead to finding different ways of
serving the disabled whether they were deaf, mute,
blind or mentally disabled… also lead to all the social
activities that serve those and similar cases which is
good that God wants with all those who have loving
heart feelings in serving others.
Shall we also say that assaults lead to putting
laws and a renaissance in the judicial system? And all
this is good.
Even the spread of corruption, lead to a wakeup
in human conscience, cautious scrutiny and
punishment to prevent corruption and deviation.
Pain may be seen by people as evil, but it
works for the good: for if it was not for the pain
that the body feels, the disease would have never
been discovered and treated. And the evilest
diseases are the ones that spread without causing
pain or with a pain that comes at later stages after it
is too late…
Also many times, the pain of the patient leads to
his repentance and draws him closer to God if it was
used in the right way.
Also the soul pain purifies the soul, and elevates
it and truthful was the Prince of Poets, Ahmed
Shawky when he said:
And I was entertained with the genius pain
and the most genius thing in life is pain
Poverty: if man benefited from it, it leads to
fighting and making a self-made person who is
independent.
And in all this the bible says: “All things work
together for good to those who love God”. Meaning,
this is not applicable for whiners or the unwise but to
those who try to benefit from every situation they find
themselves in so it leads them to good. What also
leads to good is faith in God, patience and waiting on
God in hope and without despair.
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