“So instead of blaspheming in difficult moments, give thanks. Instead of falling into despair, give glorification. Open your heart to the Lord, shout loudly praying, shout loudly glorifying God. Thus also your misfortune is comforted, because the devil flees far away with the thanksgiving, and God’s help comes near you and protects you.”
Saint John Chrysostom
+
“There are some, who, as soon as they make some mistake or suddenly someone swears at them or they get sick or they are hurting, they immediately blaspheme. In this way however, neither do they correct the transgression nor do they take revenge on the person cursing them nor do they soften the pain of their illness, but they furthermore lose the spiritual gain of patience as well.
Tell me, o man, for what reason are you blaspheming and spewing evil speech? Maybe will your pain become lighter? But even if we suppose that it would become lighter, would you dare sacrifice the salvation of your soul to achieve the consolation of your body?
What are you doing, my man? Are you blaspheming your Saviour and Benefactor and Protector, and Governor? Or don’t you feel that you are running towards the cliff and pushing yourself into the pit of the worst destruction? The devil crafts everything to throw you into this pit. And if he sees that with pain you blaspheme, he will immediately increase the pain and will make it greater, to throw you into despair. If he sees however that you forbear it bravely and that, the more the pain increases, the more you thank God, then he immediately departs, because he is besieging you in vain.”
Saint John Chrysostom
+
“He who in other words throws a stone upwards, in the end accepts a strong hit on his head… Thus also he who shoots blasphemies to heaven. He will never be able to ever harm God… with this action of his however he sharpens the sword against his Soul”
Saint John Chrysostom
+
“The person who is impious and blasphemes God, who goes against His laws and never wants to abandon this absurd argument, resembles the drunkard and crazy person. He acts worse than those who are in a state of intoxication and have lost their reasoning, even if he himself doesn’t seem to feel it.”
Saint John Chrysostom
+
“Blasphemy and lewd speech, even if they are born in the Soul, don’t remain however in it, but also defiles the tongue which spews them out, they also pollute the hearing which puts up with it. Like other poisons they poison both the soul and the body.”
Saint John Chrysostom
+
“No good is equal with thanksgiving, precisely as nothing is worse than blasphemy. Thanksgiving is a great treasure, great wealth, invincible good, a strong weapon. On the contrary, blasphemy makes the evil worse and deprives us of even more of the things we lost.”
Saint John Chrysostom
+
“But there”, you will justify yourself, “I am swayed in difficult circumstances and lose control”. No, the circumstances are not to blame for this, but your own indifference. But maybe is poverty supposedly to blame? Neither poverty is the cause of blasphemers. Because then all the poor ought to be blaspheming. We see however many, who live with indigence and excessive deprivations, constantly thanking, whereas others, although they enjoy both wealth and delight, not ceasing to curse and blaspheme. So let us not say that poverty and sickness and difficult circumstances force us to blaspheme. Not poverty, but foolishness. Not sickness, but scorning God. Not the repeated misfortunes, but the lack of piety leads those who are not careful both to blasphemy and to every evil.”
Saint John Chrysostom
+
The example of Job
Proof of all these things is the blessed Job, who, while he was in a great wretched state, not only didn’t blaspheme, but glorified God and was saying: “The Lord gave me the goods, the Lord them from me. As it seemed good to the Lord thus it also happened. May the Lord’s name be blessed unto the ages.” (Job 1:21).
So when the devil thought that he defeated Job, then he set out to leave ashamed, without saying a word.
Stop, o devil! Why are you leaving? Didn’t all the things you wanted happen? Didn’t you destroy all his flocks? Didn’t you kill his children? Didn’t you ruin his body too? So why are you leaving?”
“I’m leaving”, says the devil, “because while all the things I wanted happened, that which I mainly desired and for which reason I devised all the other things, I didn’t achieve. I’m leaving, because Job didn’t blaspheme. I caused him so many misfortunes, to make him blaspheme. Since however Id didn’t manage to do it, I didn’t gain anything. Instead of annihilating him, I made him brighter and more glorious”.
So Job is praised not because he suffered so many evils, but because he forbore everything thanking God. Another person suffers much less, and nevertheless blasphemes, gets frustrated, curses the whole world, gets angry at God…This person is condemned not because he suffered, but because he blasphemed. And the misfortunes didn’t force him to blaspheme, because then Job ought to have blasphemed. He blasphemed on account of his sick disposition.
So analogous with our own disposition, everything happens, either sufferable or insufferable things.
Saint John Chrysostom
+
more from the source
+