Greek abbot: Trials are the medicine of salvation if we endure them

Hegumen Dositheos. Photo: UOJ

Abbot Dositheos, father superior of the Agia Skepi Monastery of the Church of Greece, shared his thoughts in an interview with the UOJ on how a Christian should respond to today’s trials – such as war and disease.

According to him, “all these events happening to humanity show us that we are living in the last times, and so we must stay watchful and ready.”

“How is a person ready? When a person repents of their sins, goes to confession, lives a spiritual life – meaning they go to church, receive Communion, fast, and follow the law of Christ – then they benefit from these events, not suffer from them.

The Lord allows all of this so that we remain alert. If He were to take away all trials and we had no suffering, no one would be saved. Trials are necessary for those who want salvation. Unfortunately, not all people desire to be saved. But that is a personal matter, and God respects everyone’s freedom,” the elder said.

He emphasized that unlike the devil, Christ does not impose Himself on a person, “even though He loves us more than we love ourselves.”

“He shows us the path that is good for us, and then He leaves us complete freedom. That is our God – the true one. This is real love, not coercion to make someone do something supposedly for their own good,” the abbot explained.

He placed special emphasis on the spiritual benefit of severe illnesses such as cancer.

“If God didn’t allow illness, especially cancer, paradise would be empty. Paradise is filled with cancer patients. Christ allows these trials and diseases so that we may enter paradise – because a person’s goal is not to live here. We came into this world to die, and by dying – to live,” he said.

He affirmed that “trials are the medicine of salvation – if you endure them, they draw you closer to Christ.”

“It’s like with small children: when they run from their mother’s arms and head towards a cliff, and a stone along the path causes them to stumble, fall, feel pain, and run back to their mother saved thanks to that stone. In the same way, trials are the stones Christ places to save us,” Abbot Dositheos concluded.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Abbot Dositheos called on Ukrainians and Russians to love one another.

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