Elder Cleopa: On God's judgments
We are often deceived when we consider something that happens in this world to be evil or unjust. Because we don’t know God’s judgments, who are hidden and boundless.
A hermit who lived close to Emesa, a city in ancient Syria, had gifts from God, and many people felt a devotion toward him. However, he was thinking: “Lord, You are too good. I see that all goes well with evil people often, while good people have sorrows. How do You, Lord, allow this to happen, with Your boundless kindness?” And then he told himself: “I will pray to God to show me His judgments.”
There are people who judge God’s providence and care: someone is evil, a sinner, but everything goes well with him. Another one is good, but his children are bad, his wife is sick, and he goes from one sorrow to another. One person is bad and lives long, while another is good and dies young. Another Christian believer is good; he prays to God, he fasts, but he keeps running into distress, while another person is bad, curses, drinks, but God doesn’t punish him! As the Prophet Jeremiah says: “Lord, why does the way of the wicked prosper and the way of the righteous ends in sorrow?”
And so the hermit started to pray from that day: “Lord, show me Your judgments, so I can stop judging!” And while he was praying like this, he had to go back to the city of Emesa. A young man appeared to him on the way and told him:
“Father, you are going to Emesa. Pay attention, because God will show you great mysteries, but don’t be deceived!”
“Where will this happen, son?”
“When you reach the great city of Emesa, you will see a great orchard surrounded by a fence. The fence is broken in one place, and a tree with a hollow side is next to it. Next to that tree, there is a small fountain. Go to that tree, hide in its hollow side, and watch that fountain. What you’ll see will be very useful to you.”
Then, the young man disappeared. The hermit did what he was told. While he was hiding in the tree, praying to God, a nobleman appeared riding a horse and carrying a hatchet and a money bag. He stopped, dismounted the horse, drank some water from the fountain, took the money from the pouch, and counted it - there were 150 golden coins. Then he put the money back and fell asleep. When he woke up, he noticed the horse wandered away. He went to get the horse, but forgot about the money and left.
The hermit was watching from the hollow of the tree. A man came to the fountain, crossed himself, drank water, and noticed the money bag. When he saw the golden coins in it, he took it and ran away.
After a while, an old man appeared carrying a bag on his back, poorly dressed, with torn shoes, very tired. He took some dry bread from the bag and ate it with some water from the fountain. He thanked God, and then he fell asleep.
During this time, the nobleman realized he left the money bag by the fountain, so he went back to get it. He saw the old man, woke him up, and asked him:
“Old man, did you see a money bag here?”
“No, sir, I didn’t see anything.”
“Old man, give me back the money! Where did you hide it?”
“Sir, I didn’t see any money!”
“Give me back the money, or I will kill you!”
“I don’t know anything about any money, sir!”
The nobleman thought the old man had hidden the money somewhere and was lying to him. So he took out the hatchet and struck the old man over the head, killing him. He searched the old man's bag and clothes but couldn’t find any money.
When the nobleman realized he killed the poor man and found no money, he got up on the horse and left, striking himself over the head with his fists and lamenting that he had killed an innocent man.
Then, the hermit who was watching from the tree hollow said to himself: “What a great injustice! Look who lost the money, who found it, and who got killed! Woe is me! God allowed a great injustice to happen here! The nobleman killed this innocent old man, and the other man left with all the money!”
And while he was pondering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the guise of the same young man as before. “Father, get out of the hollow, and let’s talk!” The hermit got out, and the angel asked him:
“What did you think of all that happened?”
“I have seen great injustices allowed by God here at this fountain! One person lost the money, another one found the money, and another one got killed!”
“Father, you wanted to learn about God’s judgments. Know that God allowed only just deeds to happen at this fountain. Did you see that nobleman? He has many properties and orchards. And the man who found the money has a small orchard next to the nobleman. One night, the man’s wife and mother died, so he went to the nobleman to ask for a loan. The nobleman had wanted to take away the poor man’s orchard for a long time, because it was right next to his orchards and full of wonderful fruit trees.
So the poor man came to the nobleman and asked him for some money so he could bury his wife and mother. The nobleman thought that was the right moment to ask the man to sell him the orchard. At first, the man didn’t want to sell it, but then he asked for 300 golden coins to cover the funeral costs for his wife and mother. But the nobleman, seeing the poor man in distress, didn’t want to give him more than 150 coins. The poor man said: “Sir, the Lord will do justice. My orchard is worth 300 coins,” then he took the 150 coins because he really needed the money and went back home crying. But he said: “May the Lord do justice.”
And the Lord did justice. The man found the money bag by the fountain, and the bag had precisely 150 coins in it. And so the All-Just God did justice and gave him the rest of the money so he could get his 300 coins.”
The hermit then said: “All right, God did justice for this man, but what about the innocent old man who got killed?”
The angel replied: “Did you see how the nobleman struck the old man over the head with the hatchet and killed him? When the old man was young, when he was 25 years old, he was passing by a river with his oxen cart when he saw a man trying to cross the river on foot, but then started to sink, and shouted at the young man: “Help me! Don’t let me drown! I am dying!”
And instead of trying to help the man, the young man continued on his way, thinking, “It serves you well; who forced you to wade through that deep river!” And the man in the river struggled a bit more, then drowned. The young man got older and did many good deeds, but because of that sin, because he didn’t jump to save the drowning man, his soul would have gone to hell. And God was merciful to him and made him pay for his sin in this life, for that mistake from his youth. He killed that man because he didn’t save him from drowning, and now he got killed for no reason by the nobleman. God was merciful to him, because through this death, the poor man will go to the joy of Paradise.”
The hermit then asked: “What about the nobleman?”
The angel said: “Did you see the nobleman striking himself over the head with his fists? His conscience condemned him for killing the old man. He met a man and gave him his horse, he met another man and gave him his new clothes, then he found some old clothes and went to a monastery to become a monk. And he will stay there for 40 years and repent, and after that time, God will forgive him for killing an innocent man. And that nobleman will confess, do the canon given to him, and be saved.
And you said that three unjust deeds were done here next to this fountain, but God allowed three good and just deeds to be done. Because God’s judgments cannot be grasped by the human mind.
Isaiah the Prophet says: “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
And King David says: “Your judgments are a great deep” (Psalm 36:6)
How do you dare, you who are a man, to want to know God’s judgments, which not even the angels, nor the cherubim or the seraphim know? But God sent me to show you that God’s judgments are not like human judgments.
And you judged too, but God’s judgments were not like yours; instead, they were very good! So from now on, do not judge anyone, and whatever you see, say: “Lord, You know everything! I don’t know Your judgments!”
But, because you are only human, God has forgiven you; He sent me to you so that you become wiser, and so you do not dare to examine His judgments, because God’s judgments are "a great deep," and nobody can know them, not even the angels in heaven.”
***
Therefore, let us remember from this story that we are often deceived when we consider something that happens in this world to be evil or unjust. Because we don’t know God’s judgments, who are hidden and boundless.
Biographical note on Elder Cleopa (from OrthodoxWiki):
Elder Cleopa (Ilie) (April 10, 1912 -December 2, 1998) was a very well-known monk and representative of the Romanian Orthodox Church and an archimandrite and abbot of the Sihastria Monastery.
Cleopa Ilie (lay name: Constantin) was born in Suliţa, Botoşani to a family of peasants. He was the fifth of ten children born to Alexandru Ilie. He attended the primary school in his village. Afterwards he was an apprentice for three years to the monk Paisie Olaru, who lived in seclusion at the Cozancea hermitage.
Together with his elder brother, Vasile, Ilie joined the community at Sihastria hermitage in December 1929. In 1935, he joined the army in the town of Botoşani, but returned a year later to the hermitage, where he was anointed a monk on August 2, 1937, taking the name "Cleopa" (i.e. "guide") at his baptism. In June 1942, he was appointed to hegumen deputy because of abbot Ioanichie Moroi's poor health.
On December 27, 1944, he was ordained a hierodeacon (deacon-monk) and on January 23, 1945 a hieromonk (priest-monk) by the archbishop Galaction Cordun, abbot of the Neamţ Monastery at the time. Afterwards he was officially appointed hegumen of the Sihastria Hermitage.
In 1947, the hermitage became a monastery and vice-archimandrite Cleopa Ilie became archimandrite on approval of Patriarch Nicodim. Because the Communist secret service was looking for him in 1948, he disappeared into the woods surrounding the monastery, staying there for six months. On August 30, 1949, he was appointed abbot of the Slatina Monastery in Suceava county, where he joined 30 other monks from the Sihastria Monastery community as a result of Patriarch Justinian’s decision.
There he founded a community of monks with over 80 people. Between 1952 and 1954 he was being chased again by the Securitate and, together with hieromonk Arsenie Papacioc, escaped to the Stanisoara Mountains. He was brought back to the monastery after two years upon Patriarch Justinian’s order.
In 1956 he returned to Sihastria monastery, where he had been anointed, and in the spring of 1959 he retired for the third time to the Neamţ Mountains, spending the next five years there. He returned to Sihastria in the fall of 1964, as confessor for the entire community and continued to give spiritual advice to both monks and lay people for the next 34 years. He died on December 2, 1998 at Sihăstria Monastery.
Elder Cleopa’s Grave at Sihăstria Monastery