On Suffering and Despair
God is not glorified by that person who reverently honors Him in words only, but by the one, who for His sake and His commandments, patiently endures sufferings and trials. He glorifies God with his life. In receiving the blessing of not having passions — as a reward for attaching himself to the Savior’s virtues — such a person is reciprocally exalted by God’s glory. Because, everybody who glorifies God within himself through sufferings for righteousness, and while in a contemplative state — is himself glorified through God’s pure rays of enlightenment. That is why our Lord, in voluntarily submitting Himself to sufferings, said: "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself" (John 13:31-32).
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In remembering God’s greatness and boundlessness, let us not despair and think that we are too insignificant for His love. Similarly, in recollecting the frightening depth of our fall, let us not doubt the possibility of restoring within us virtues that have been deadened by sin. Both one and the other are possible with God: to descend and enlighten our mind through guidance, and also to restore virtues within us.
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