An Accepted History

A few days ago, my daughter-in-law asked me about my younger days. I told her, in detail, about my father, about his death, which taught me, early on, to put a distance between myself and all people. My father handed me the responsibility for his household early on. I set out to the working world early on. I got married early on. I became a father early on. Metropolitan George Khodr called me, early on, to study in preparation for the priestly ministry. I was ordained a deacon and then a priest early on… She asked me, once again: “would you have wished for something else for yourself?”. I answered her: “I will leave aside my father’s death. Had I had a say in my history, I would have said that what happened to me throughout my entire life is more than I deserve”. Spending life in complaints is a kind of hell. Peace lies in the ingenuity of surrender. It lies in the steadfast awareness that we always live by the grace of God. Am I saying that I am satisfied with myself in everything that happened to me, in all of it? I know myself to be the chief of sinners. However, despite everything I know about myself, I also know that the essence of life is to spend it thanking God that He does not hold back anything from us, not a thing.