Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs, spent a total of 14 years in prison during two long confinements in communist Romania. During the time between his two prison sentences, he spoke boldly of his faith, including a series of lectures in the university town of Cluj shortly before his second arrest.
There were about 50 students and a few teachers of theology present for the first lecture, on Monday. The audience doubled on Tuesday, and by the end of the week of lectures more than 1,000 people crowded in to hear the bold pastor. Wurmbrand recounts the story in his book, In God's Underground:
I looked out at the silent congregation. It was, for a moment, as if I were back in my church during the war on the day when the Iron Guard bullies filed in with their guns. Menace was around us; not only in the place where Rugojanu [a government spy sent to monitor the meetings] was taking notes.
I continued: "Don't let suffering take you by surprise! Meditate on it often. Take the virtues of Christ and His saints to yourself, by thought. The pastor I spoke of, my teacher who died for his faith, gave me a recipe for a tea against suffering, and I will give it to you."
I told them the story of a doctor of early Christian times who was unjustly imprisoned by the emperor. After some weeks his family was allowed to see him, and at first they wept. His clothes were rags, his nourishment a slice of bread with a cup of water every day. His wife wondered and asked, "How is it you look so well? You have the air of one who has just come from a wedding!" The doctor smilingly replied that he found a remedy for all troubles, and his family asked him what it was. The doctor told them, "I have discovered a tea which is good against all suffering and sorrow. It contains seven herbs, and I shall number them for you.
"The first herb is called contentedness: be satisfied with what you have. I may shiver in my rags as I gnaw on a crust, but how much worse off I should be if the emperor had thrown me naked into a dungeon with nothing at all to eat!
"The second herb is common sense. Whether I rejoice or worry, I shall still be in prison, so why repine?
"The third is remembrance of past sins: count them, and on the supposition that every sin deserves a day in prison, reckon how many lives you would spend behind bars—you have been let off lightly!
"The fourth is the thought of the sorrows which Christ bore gladly for us. If the only man who ever could choose his fate on earth chose pain, what great value He must have seen in it! So we observe that, borne with serenity and joy, suffering redeems.
"The fifth herb is the knowledge that suffering has been given to us by God as from a father, not to harm us, but to cleanse and sanctify us. The suffering through which we pass has the purpose of purifying us, and preparing us for heaven.
"The sixth is the knowledge that no suffering can harm a Christian life. If the pleasures of the flesh are all, then pain and prison bring an end to a man's aim in living; but if the core of life is truth, that is something which no prison cell can change. In prison or out of it two and two make four. Prison cannot stop me from loving; iron bars cannot exclude faith. If these ideals make up my life, I can be serene anywhere.
"The last herb in the recipe is hope. The wheel of life may put the emperor's physician in prison, but it goes on turning. It may put me back into the palace, and even put me on the throne."
I paused for a moment. The crowded church was still.
"I have drunk barrels of this tea since then," I said, "and I can recommend it to you all. It has proved good."
This cup I will also learn to drink from. I am visiting my home before my studies commences again and there is a pub that operates loudly into the morning hours next door to us. I am blessed by this text to learn to endure without bitterness,and to act in inclusive love. Thank you for this post I will read it when I can't sleep tonight, maybe I will also be sent to minister to the lost children in the pub.
Posted by: Danielinthelionsden | January 11, 2013 at 08:06 AM