WHY DON'T MIRACLES HAPPEN TO EVERYBODY? Metropolitan Nektarios (Antonopoulos)

 

The Lord is often silent out of love. But the question arises: Why don’t miracles happen to everybody? How many sick people and their relatives entreat God and the saints with faith for healing! But we don’t always see miracles happening to them! Why is that?

There can’t be a definite answer to this question. God’s ways are unfathomable.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord? (1 Cor. 2:16), the holy Apostle Paul asks.

The Lord alone can give an exact answer to this question. It is very hard to explain Divine Providence, God’s will and silence. We can’t say that “the faith of this person is stronger than the faith of that one” or that “the Lord loves this person more than that one.” As the Almighty Himself says through the holy Prophet Isaiah: For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts (Is. 55:9).

Of course, the following should be noted here. The Lord is often silent out of love for people. God allows a person to undergo severe temptations for his salvation. In His omniscience, the Lord sees perfectly clearly that temptation, illness, or pain will lead a person to salvation.

The Apostle Paul, who himself cured the sick and performed miracles, suffered from a serious chronic illness, a thorn in the flesh (cf. 2 Cor. 12:7). He begged the Lord to heal him three times, but the Lord did not give him what he requested. His answer was as follows: My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9).

That is, “My gift is enough for you” because His power is fully manifested in our weakness.

Many saints who performed miracles over people suffered from various diseases and other temptations. They did not ask the Lord to heal them, but they asked Him to give them patience. Our modern saints, Elders Porphyrios and Paisios, reached the point of asking God to send them cancer. And, while suffering from this disease, they both rejoiced and glorified the Lord. Fr. Paisios used to say:

“In illness I learned things that many years of ascetic labor could not give me.”

Nevertheless, this does not mean that we should not seek Divine intervention! Otherwise we reject His commandment, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you (Mt. 7:7), and question the gift and grace that He gave His saints: He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do (Jn. 14:12).

And our business is prayer and the contrite heart. In other words, let us allow God to enter our hearts and our lives. Because without our voluntary consent He cannot enter in. He always waits humbly and respects our personality. The Lord knocks at our hearts but does not enter them by force.

We must respond to him. And we should share our requests with Him, doing it not as ill-mannered children but quietly and humbly. When we ask for something, we should always be ready to fulfil His will and not force Him.

Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt… Thy will be done (Mt. 26:39, 42).

Metropolitan Nektarios (Antonopoulos)

Translation from the Russian version

by Dmitry Lapa

2/26/2021