(Yaroslav Shevchuk)
Every family goes through difficult times: the birth and raising of children, illness and financial turmoil, age-related crises, temptations of passion... And sacred oils can be spilled through carelessness, and tender love can be extinguished. But someone said that “among the many reasons why people get divorced and separated, there is the main and most terrible one - the petrification of a heart cut off from God, a heart that has lost the ability to love and forgive.” After all, as we move away from God, we begin to cheat on others. And sacred bonds are broken and lives are destroyed.
From the biography of Albert Einstein it is known that “along with incredible intellectual insight, he was also characterized by mental blindness.” The brilliant scientist was surrounded by an aura of holiness, but “he went through life, very severely crippling the fates of people close to him.” The first wife of the famous physicist could not stand her husband’s constant infidelities and filed for divorce. It was said about the author of the theory of relativity that “he loved humanity very much and did not love his loved ones enough.” “When Albert’s second wife Elsa was dying, according to the testimony of one physicist who worked side by side with Einstein, she was screaming in the next room with pain and suffering, and the scientist did not pay any attention to it” (Eldar Ryazanov). Genius of mind and callousness of heart - how many destinies have this terrible combination crippled!
“Inscrutable are the ways in which God finds man,” is the last phrase from the draft notes of Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Each of us has our own crimes and punishments, and it is good for us that the Lord tirelessly seeks us, and having found us, takes us carefully in his arms and rejoices over us, and the angels rejoice in heaven, even rejoicing over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7). I listened to the chronicles of the life of a man who had regained his sight, listened and understood that he was driven by more than just a desire to speak out. The frank speech of the famous surgeon sounded like the voice of a prophet warning all of us men: “The Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you acted treacherously, while she is your friend and your lawful wife” (Mal. 2:14). Yes, it is true that sometimes you just need to hold your breath to hear the voice of Heaven. But something else happens: you have to go through more than one “reanimation” in order to finally recover from heart blindness.
“My wife was the first to see the light and tried to reach my heart. And although I no longer “heard” her, she worked on our common grief. Because of a big love that did not want to break and die, she continued to fight. After the operation, she told me that when her soul was almost choking from hopelessness and despair, she headed to the temple...” And the wife of the famous surgeon stood late in the evening at the doors of the closed temple and prayed. “Lord, forgive me everything! - she said, feeling the impossibility of fighting” (Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina”). She prayed, and an extraordinary peace filled her lonely heart. And no one saw her except the priest, who returned to the temple late in the evening for some reason. And the priest did not dare to violate the great sacrament of communication between the suffering soul and Heaven - he blessed from afar.
Masterpieces of love are not created instantly; they appear to the world “in the throes of birth.” Oh, if we only understood that only at the altar of the Lord is blessed love found, and that even the hardest ice melts from the rays of the divine Sun. The life of the professor’s wife became humble and simple after tearful repentance, and this made her feminine appearance even more beautiful and attractive. And she rushed again to everything tender and pure, and, as before, she sang in the temple. And she was no longer ashamed of her awkward prayers, and did not hide her sincere faith. And she fell in love with her imperfect husband again, in the way that only bright souls love.
As long as I'm alive, I'll be with you, Soul and blood are indivisible, As long as I'm alive, I'll be with you, Love and death are always together.