Abandon/Forsaken
- Michael Haldas
- Jan 30, 2024
- 4 min read
“During times of struggle or fear …we can feel abandoned. Sometimes we just feel it and sometimes we verbalize it. When we verbalize it, it usually sounds something like “where is God in all of this?” and “Why doesn’t He do something?”. The fear of abandonment is a universal fear. It is something universally unpleasant to all. Abandonment is not just the absence of a physical presence; it is also the absence of roles- such as protection and having a parent figure or caregiver being in control. Our lives today are not unlike children who feel left at home alone with something frightening going on and wondering when will mom or dad be home to take care of us…God allows us to experience times of abandonment so that we will seek Him. It is a form of spiritual warfare.” (Fr. Joshua Makoul, Fr. Michael Gillis)
“If Christ felt forsaken by God, why shouldn’t human beings experience it as well? It can be hard for us to feel God’s presence if we have no experience of overcoming God-forsakenness—this is the “dialectic” of spiritual life. At what moment was the Savior’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane uttered? When the Savior by His human nature felt that He had been forsaken by God the Father. At least that’s how He perceived the situation at that moment. It is difficult for us to comprehend this on a rational level, since Christ is the God–Man; but His human nature was manifested in Gethsemane in its entirety. That’s why He prayed to the sweating of blood. Ultimately, Christ the Savior was crucified on the Cross, endured torment, the Passion and death before He rose again in glory and trampled down death by death.” (Bishop Euthymius Moiseyev)
“Sufferings are a perfecting and a cause of salvation. Do you see that to suffer affliction is not the fate of those who are utterly forsaken, if indeed it was by leading Him through sufferings that God first honored His Son? And truly, His taking flesh to suffer what He suffered is a far greater thing than creating the world out of things that are not. This is indeed a token of his lovingkindness, but the other far more.” (St. John Chrysostom)
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” taken from the opening line of Psalm 22 [Psalm 21 LXX], should be interpreted in light of the entire psalm. Read as a whole, this psalm is a prayer of anguish but also a confession of trust in God. And it concludes with an expression of praise and thanksgiving for deliverance by God. These words reflect Jesus’ persistent trust in God even amidst the experience of darkness and the apparent failure of His mission.” (Fr. Emmanuel Clapsis)
“During the life of the Christian there are hours of inconsolable sorrow and sickness, when it seems that the Lord has completely abandoned and forsaken him, for there is not the least feeling of God’s presence in the soul. Such are the hours in which faith, hope, love and patience of the Christian are tried. But better times will soon come to him. Soon the Lord will turn him again to joy, so let him not fall when tempted in this way.” (St. John of Kronstadt)
“Even when we seem overpowered by temptations, God never abandons us. He knows our weakness makes us vulnerable, and He never allows us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist.” (Abbot Tryphon)
“Do not think that the Lord has abandoned you. No! He is always with you and invisibly sustains you, even when you forget Him. He will not burden you with trials beyond your capacity. Fear nothing, but with total humbleness and devotion bear your cross and pray.” (St. Innocent of Alaska)
“Only by sacrificing ourselves will we find ourselves in the fullness of life lived for God and for others. And to find ourselves in God and in others, we must lose our own selves. Our spirit, renewed in God, knows that human life belongs to Him and always and in all things is dependent upon Him, and that we must be in steadfast contact with Him, begging His help and living in the hope that the gracious Lord in His mercy will not abandon us in our helplessness.” (A Monk of St. Tikhon Monastery)
“When you are feeling as though the lines of communication between you and God have been disconnected, be assured the fault is not God’s, although He sometimes permits His servants to be tried through stress, tension, anxiety and even physical pain, to see how steadfast faith really is…He does not abandon us…When we think that our burdens are too heavy to bear, let us take a little time to visit a hospital, a nursing home, a Veterans rehabilitation center or a county institution and see those whose burdens are infinitely greater than ours. Our burdens will seem as nothing compared to those whom we visit, and as we see real suffering, sometimes without hope because we fail, in our own self-pity, to impart hope to them . . . let us remember that. . .” (Fr. James Meena)
“Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to abandon us.” (François Fénelon and Jeanne Guyon)
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