ANUARUL ACADEMIC 2003-2004 - Facultatea de Teologie "Andrei ...

had around me men like poor Lazarus, hungry and full of uncared-for boils. ButI knew that angels would take them all to the bosom of Abraham. I saw them asthey would be in the future. I saw in the shabby and dirty and weak martyr nearme the splendidly crowned saint of tomorrow” 95 .This pattern of thought is also applied to the persecutors:“But looking at men like this –not as they are, but as they will be-I coulddiscover also in persecutors like Saul of Tarsus future St.Pauls…In the jailorswho whipped us we saw the possibilities of the jailor of Philippi who firstwhipped St. Paul and then became a convert. We dreamed that soon they wouldask, “What shall I do to be saved?” In those who watched mockingly whenChristians, smeared with excrement, were tied to crosses, we saw the crowd ofGolgotha who were soon to beat their breasts in fear of having sinned” 96 .Thus, for Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, hope is the framework of suffering.There is on the one hand hope in an eschatological reward, and on the other handhope that the persecutors will suffer transformation.. This hope is seen asgenerating joy.Speaking about tears in prison, Fr. Iustin says: “I have never cried for pain inprison. Most tears were those expressing joy” 97 . Explaining the joyful nature ofthese tears, Fr. Iustin says that they are the outcome of a pure heart, which is thedwelling of the Holy Spirit. Thus, according to Fr. Iustin, joy in prison is a sign ofthe Holy Spirit’s presence in a pure heart.Meditating on the source of happiness and peace, Fr. Steinhart says: “We cannot create by ourselves happiness and peace; they are given to us from above. Thisis another proof of God’s existence” 98 . Thus, for Fr. Steinhardt, the existence of joyamong the Christian prisoners is a gift from God. According to Fr. Steinhardt, LordChrist’s deeply felt presence makes the Christian prisoners feel joyful in spite ofthe contrary palpable conditions:“The treatment applied by the guards is so bad, the atmosphere is so dramatic,the possibilities for long suffering are so clear, that I can not but walk from oneside of the cave to the other in an extreme restlessness. I begin to feel that Christis present in the prison. I can’t believe that everything can be so accomplished,that I am granted so much blessed luck” 99 .95 Ibidem, p. 60.96 Ibidem, p. 60.97 A. A. Gheorghe, op. cit., p. 91.98 N. Steinhardt, op. cit., p. 50.99 Ibidem, p. 66.172