Fr. Arsenie Papacioc, who had endured torture in communist prisons [Romania], talks about the role of suffering in Orthodox spiritual life.
Video copyright: TRINITAS TV
Fr. Arsenie:
They wanted to kill me and they put me in a refrigerated room...
Brothers and sisters... it is terrible to see yourself dying without having any help... not even a ray of light... Terrible...
After 3 days you would die. It was a fact. I didn't die... they put me 5 days... I wasn't dying... 7 days... I wasn't dying... Nor have I murmured against it.
At my age, I can confirm the importance of this experience... It's not easy, but it's possible.
God didn't ask more of us than we can deliver... He doesn't allow you to suffer any temptation beyond your powers.
A great thing is when you get a slap in the face. You become like Christ... When you say: "Lord, forgive them..."
Well, it is not like people beat you in the street... but there are times when they offend you... and...
Whoever flees from the cross, flees from God... Everybody flees... because "cross" means to bear what you don't like...
I was imprisoned 14 years in Aiud [Romania, communist prison]... under hostile regimes...
But I benefited from it! And more "now" than "then".
Nobody accepts the cross... we cry, we scream... But God won't take it... only when He sees that you have benefited from it... and you have overcome the cross...
This is how you can see the Resurrection...
