Against the backdrop of the numerous crises, mistrust and, above all, the uncertainty that currently characterise humanity and obscure the experience of divine providence, the deification of humankind and the transfiguration of creation, a theological reflection is called for to rediscover the tenderness of the Heavenly Father’s all-encompassing love, which guides humankind towards likeness to and communion with God.
God’s providential action is founded on His wisdom and love, and providential grace has been manifest from the very first moment of creation, which reveals the reality of Providence and shows the world’s condition to be in the hands of God, Who is ever-present: ‘Where can I go from Your Spirit, and where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there’ (Psalm 138:7–8).
God has “made all things with wisdom”, “beautiful and in their time; He has set eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and divinely governs all things, for ‘through Creation, He has given the world the purpose of its unity in Him’1 according to His eternal plan, that of the ‘mystery hidden from ages past’ concerning the salvation and perfection of the world, whilst respecting the freedom of rational beings.
Divine Providence is the all-saving and sustaining authority over His creations, both sensible and intelligible 2, present and future, and, “it must be known,” writes Saint John of Damascus, “that there are numerous modes of divine Providence and that they can neither be explained in words nor fathomed by the mind”3. The relationship between God’s Providence and the freedom of rational beings is revealed through “the mystical theology which only a pure mind receives in ineffable ecstasy through prayer, (which) has encountered God ineffably in ignorance as ina darkness, and has received within itself, in the mind, the imprint of the dogmas of the true faith, and on the outside, like the tablets of Moses, the graces of the virtues, through the finger of God, that is, through the Holy Spirit’4.
To understand the way in which God’s providence manifests itself, it is necessary to cultivate an inner gaze, starting from the data of revelation in relation to an iconic representation of God, a liberation ‘from the transitory’, in which man ‘has become his own, has discovered himself, sees his own mysterious and infinitely deep self, (and) has put his all-seeing mind to work, and through his self or through his all-seeing mind sees God’s providence at work in all things’5.
We recognise Providence as evidence of God’s endless love for the world, for ‘He causes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5:45) and “no one is a creator except in the freedom of the spirit, and no one creates without love”6, and “God’s love for humankind is so great that it cannot coerce, for there can be no love without respect for the other. The divine will will always yield to the quests, deviations, and even rebellions of the human will, in order to lead it towards free consent. This is Divine Providence’7.
Thomas Spidlik shows that the primary purpose of Providence lies in the salvation and deification of creation 8. Without God’s help, the world could not fulfil the purpose for which it was created, and for this reason the Creator of all things revealed Himself as the Provider, both for the purpose of preserving creation and to reveal the mystery of His presence—which had never been fully revealed before 9—and His desire for communion with Himself.
And ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). The Son of God became incarnate; through His perfect obedience to the Father, through His Sacrifice on the cross and His Resurrection, ‘ascending into heaven, He bestowed the ineffable grace of the Holy Spirit’10). The entire period of preparation of humanity for the birth of the Son of God undeniably reveals the constant care of God, Who guides the people to fulfil His will: “He gave a law, sent prophets, chastised, comforted, led into captivity, granted freedom, and from the beginning to the end never ceased to do all things for our salvation”11. Moreover, in the light of faith, we understand, in fact, that every providential moment in the Old Testament prophetically foreshadows the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
“…God, Who is unchanging in His goodness, neither destroys nor hinders freedom. He always finds a way to provide for everything so that the freedom of rational beings is not diminished…”
Thus, whilst preserving the unchanging identity of the whole of creation, 12 Providence has manifested itself in the gift and act of God’s co-operation for the deification of creation and continues through the guidance of the world towards the new heaven and the new earth of the Kingdom of Heaven. ‘The world is not governed by the force of brute matter, nor by the force of blind fate or fatal chance, but by the divine moral force of Providence, which works in such a way as to reconcile authority with freedom, love with law, and goodness with justice’13
However, God reveals Himself gradually and pours out His love in proportion to our spiritual progress and our desire to share in His love, so that we may attain the Kingdom of Heaven, which is not ‘subject to or created, for it alone among all things is not ruled or dependent, beyond all time and all ages, and has neither a beginning to start it nor an end beneath the ages or time’14. Saint Justin Popovich shows that ‘Providence helps rational and free beings, but through this help it does not alter, nor does it destroy, nor does it hinder their freedom, for freedom is itself a gift from God, a gift which lies at the very heart of the nature of rational beings, a gift which makes them what they are, a gift through which they have been granted a kind of personal and irrevocable identity. There is no conflict or misunderstanding here, nor can there be, for God, Who is unchanging in His goodness, neither destroys nor hinders freedom. He always finds a way to provide for everything so that the freedom of rational beings is not diminished’15
God does not nullify the freedom of creatures, but permits the exercise of freedom of action and desires the manifestation of free will, blessing those things He wills and allowing those things He permits to come to pass. However, the will is in harmony with the state of the soul, with the virtues and passions of the creature. Through sin, man turns away from God’s divine providence and draws near to the ‘source of all evils’, observing, over time, the ‘corruption’ of the mind, the sickness of the body, and the destruction of nature and material things, so that, in experiencing the suffering that naturally ensues from his actions, he laments the fulfilment of God’s punishment. Encountering suffering and life’s disappointments often leads to a ‘diminishment’ of faith and hope, as certainly happened to Job, who suffered greatly: ‘Even if I call to Him and He hears me, I do not believe He has taken any notice of me. Will He not crush me with darkness? Yet He has inflicted many wounds upon me in vain’ (Job 9:16–17).
Job’s life confirms our belief that we must keep our hope in God amidst our troubles 16, and Saint John Chrysostom has also assured us of this through the exemplary lives of Joseph and David, both chosen by God, filled with His grace and having received great promises from Him, yet enduring so many injustices. Yet they were not scandalised, ‘but waited for the end, knowing the skill and abundance of means by which God’s wisdom can bring one out of hopeless situations’17.
On the other hand, God’s long-suffering does not nullify His justice 18. We know that God allows punishment to befall sinners; yet, even then, His providence is evident, for ‘God does not punish all people, nor does He punish them according to the gravity of their sins. His punishments are gradual, methodical, and serve a specific purpose. Often, by punishing one person, He brings many to their senses’19
More than punishment, God desires the sinner’s repentance, for ‘if the wicked man turns away from all the wickedness he has committed, and keeps all My commandments, and practises justice and mercy, he shall live and not die. All his iniquities, whatever he has done, shall not be remembered; but because of the righteousness he has practised, he shall live. ‘Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?’ says the Lord. ‘Is it not rather that he should turn from his evil ways and live?’ (Ezekiel 18:21–23). Here we see the care of God, Who waits for and helps those who show a desire to do good, to change their will, in a constant call to conversion, to a return to the path of life, goodness and communion.
God’s plans for each of us individually are little known, as is ‘His holy pedagogy’ for guiding us along the paths of salvation; and for this reason, we also need spiritual insight to understand the meaning of what is happening and, as Saint Maximus the Confessor says, ‘he who, at the moment of trial, does not show long-suffering towards the troubles of life, has neither perfect love nor has he known God’s providence in depth’20 Those things which God permits to happen, many of which arise as consequences of human deeds and actions, and are objectively perceived as evil, are, through God’s love and power, directed towards the good and the fulfilment of His will, when they are received with patience and humility, and they provide a blessed opportunity to manifest brotherly love and mutual support, kindness and courage, as well as a careful learning of spiritual matters and an opening of hearts to the work of the Holy Spirit’s grace. ‘How wise is the divine providence, which takes the evil will as a means of salvation for the faithful,’ wrote Saint Cyril of Jerusalem. For just as He took the hatred of Joseph’s brothers towards their brother as the occasion for His economy, and by permitting them to sell their brother out of hatred, He provided the means for the one He had chosen to rule over them, so too did He permit men to struggle against the devil so that they might be crowned through victory. And through this victory, the devil may be put to greater shame, for he has been defeated by beings weaker than himself, whilst people may be greatly honoured for having defeated the archangel of old21
Those things which God permits to happen, …and which are objectively perceived as evil, are, through God’s love and power, placed in the service of the good and the fulfilment of His will, when they are received with patience and humility, and constitute a blessed opportunity for the manifestation of brotherly love and mutual aid, of kindness and courage, but also for a careful learning of spiritual matters…
Thus, the connection between divine providence and human reason is affirmed with great clarity, in the sense that reason is strengthened and becomes capable of correctly discerning God’s providence—manifested through people and things—from the work of the devil, which seeks to obscure the light of reason and extinguish the light of faith. It falls to man to purify his senses and, with them, his reason, so that his participation in and acceptance of God’s providence may help him to know God 22 in the context of the practice of the virtues, in which there is a complete convergence between the work of grace—shared through God’s love and care—and the will, through which human nature is progressively established in goodness.
God’s economy, which is full of love for humanity, accommodates both saints and sinners alike, yet provides the right path for us to receive ‘far more than all we ask or imagine’ (Ephesians 3:20), for God ‘wills that all people should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth’ (1 Timothy 2:4).
God guides us, without infringing upon our freedom, preparing us to receive, in freedom, the work of His grace. The deification to which man aspires—having been created in the image of God and with a view to becoming like Him—does not occur by nature, that is, naturally, but by grace, through the cultivation of virtue.
God guides us, without infringing upon our freedom, preparing us to receive, in freedom, the work of His grace. ‘Those who bear God within them bear witness that God has many works, just as He has many providential acts and creative acts of goodness’23 which allow us to feel His nearness and to bear witness: ‘You are near, O Lord!’ (Psalms 118:151). The deification to which man aspires—having been created in the image of God and with a view to becoming like Him—does not occur by nature, that is, naturally, but by grace, through the cultivation of virtue, as a steadfast habit of making grace effective through faith and good deeds.
Divine Providence permits not only our drawing near to God, but also our knowledge of Him, for ‘we know the greatness and power of God, His wisdom, goodness and the care He has for us’24). We confess in the Creed that God is the All-Sustaining One, that is to say, He sustains all things, is the foundation of every element of creation without being of the same nature as it, and, through the rational faculties which He shapes in such a way that each may discover its ultimate, perfect and enduring meaning in the Paschal glory of Christ. He reveals Himself as the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, ‘the beginning and the end’ (Revelation 22:13).
As the Logos, or Reason and Word of God, Christ governs invisibly, from within, the entire history of humanity, yet, at the same time, He stands above it, as we see in the icon of the Pantocrator, as ‘the chief cornerstone’, who watches over and protects all the faithful gathered in the Eucharistic assembly. On a lower level, all around, the scene of the Angelic Liturgy is depicted, an icon of the cosmic liturgy of the visible and invisible world. This theological exegesis does nothing other than reveal to us a truth that has been passed down discreetly, yet with profound resonance, amongst Orthodox Christians: that in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, God’s care for the world—which He leads towards the spiritual banquet in the Kingdom of Heaven—is revealed to the highest degree.
- 1
Rev. Prof. Dr Dumitru Stăniloae, The Immortal Image of God, Complete Works, Vol. 5, Basilica, Bucharest, 2013, p. 531.
- 2
“When You open Your hand, all things are filled with good things. But when You turn Your face away, they are thrown into confusion; You take away their breath and they perish, and they return to the dust. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created anew, and You shall renew the face of the earth’ (Ps. 103:29–31).
- 3
Saint John of Damascus, Dogmatics II, 29.
- 4
Word 36: Another spiritual interpretation of the same (Moses), in St Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua, Translated from Ancient Greek, with an introduction and notes by the Reverend Professor Dumitru Stăniloae, published by the Biblical and Missionary Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 2006, pp. 222–223.
- 5
Note 179 by Father Dumitru Stăniloae on Word 36: ‘Another spiritual interpretation of the same (Moses)’, in St Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua, p. 223.
- 6
Nichifor Crainic, Nostalgia for Paradise, p. 25.
- 7
Vladimir Losski, An Introduction to Orthodox Theology, pp. 99–100.
- 8
Thomas Spidlik, The Spirituality of the Christian East, trans. I. Ică Jr., 1997, p. 163.
- 9
“Truly, you are the hidden God, the God of Israel, the Saviour” (Isaiah XLV:15).
- 10
St John Chrysostom, Letters from Exile: on depression, suffering and providence. To Olympias and those who remained faithful, edited by Deacon Ioan I. Ică Jr., Deisis Publishing, Sibiu, 2003, p. 288.
- 11
St John Chrysostom, Letters from Exile, on depression, suffering and providence. To Olympias and those who remained faithful, edited by Deacon Ioan I. Ică Jr., Deisis Publishing, Sibiu, 2003, p. 287.
- 12
Rev. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, ‘The Translator’s Introduction’ in St Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua, p. 34.
- 13
Ilarion V. Felea, The Religion of Love, Reîntregirea, Alba-Iulia, 2009, p. 150.
- 14
Saint Gregory Palamas, ‘Homily 34. On the Uncreated Light’, 8, in Homilies II, pp. 188–189.
- 15
Father Justin Popovitch, Orthodox Philosophy of Truth. Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church, ‘La Lumière du Thabor’ series, L’age d’homme, Paris, translated by Brother Grigore, ‘St John the Baptist’ Monastery, Alba Iulia, in Epifania no. 3, 1998.
- 16
‘remembering God’s blessings and His great care’, cf. St Anthony the Great, Teachings on the Moral Life of Men and on Good Conduct, in 170 chapters, 170, in The Philokalia, or a Collection from the Writings of the Holy Fathers Showing How a Man May Be Purified, Enlightened and Perfected, vol. 1, Translation, introduction and notes by Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Bucharest, EIBMO, 2008, p. 48.
- 17
Ibid., p. 300.
- 18
“I will punish the world for its transgressions and the wicked for their sins. I will humble the pride of the arrogant and bring the insolence of the cruel to the ground” (Isaiah 13:11).
- 19
St John Chrysostom, The Problems of Life, Egumenița Publishing House, Galați, p. 21.
- 20
St Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love, fourth centuria, 16.
- 21
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses, published by the Orthodox Bible and Mission Institute of the Romanian Orthodox Church, translated and annotated by Rev. Prof. Dumitru Fecioru, Bucharest, 2003, p. 116.
- 22
St Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love, First Centurie, 96.
- 23
Saint Gregory Palamas, 150 Chapters on Natural Knowledge, 99, in FR, vol. VII, p. 447.
- 24
St Basil the Great, ‘Letter 234’, in Letters I, PSB vol. 3, 2010, pp. 374–375.