365- The Broken Handed

The Sad Mother

 Father Gawargios Kolta narrated the following real story:

A mother came grieving over her only pious son who was deceived by a divorced woman. He was concerned with her out of pity. As they used to meet each other for a long time, their passions kindled and their thoughts became sinful. In the summer vacation, the son asked his wife to take her children and spend the holiday with her family. He did not accompany them pretending to have no vacations. On a certain day the mother opened her son’s flat, to tide it and prepare food for him, to find it unorganized. The son came out of his bedroom asking his mother to leave for he did not want to talk to her then. Mother realized what was going on and as she begged him to let her in, he kicked her out. When she went out weeping, she met the doorkeeper who said to her, “I’m really sad, your son spends the nights with a divorced woman who’s not as fair as his wife.”

She told Fr. Gawargios, weeping, that her son sinned and became a son of Satan. She asked him to accompany her to her son’s house but he did not let them in. They had no other choice save to fast and pray.

The Mother’s Fight

 The mother went with the priest to her son for a second time. This time she asked the doorkeeper to knock the door. When the son opened, the mother rushed inside the flat while the priest kept standing outside. He asked the priest to have a seat. The mother screamed unconsciously, “This woman should leave. My son is married and has children, why do you want to ruin the family?” The son slapped his mother. The priest was hurt and took her hands to get her out. However, she fell down unconsciously crying, “Do you slap your mother for an adulteress!” The priest said to him, “You increase your sins by slapping your mother. Fear the anger of God.”

The priest went out with the mother consoling her, “Fasting and prayers will release him from the trap of sin. The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.”

He asked her to tell nobody even her husband and just cry to God. The priest kept asking God bitterly to save this man. Few days later, he met the man by chance and reproached him seriously. The man listened to him silently and then said, “Pray for me so that God may save me from her. After a while, I’ll ask her to leave but not now.”

Mother asked her daughter in law to return soon saying that her husband was sick and needed care. Her son complained of his mother for the priest saying that she was not wise for, his wife’s coming would complicate the matter.

The wife came to find her husband not welcoming her. She realized the disappearance of many of her perfumes and make-up; she felt that he betrayed her.

→ English translation of the story here at St-Takla.org: صاحب اليد المكسورة.

Strict Fasting

 The wife wisely told the priest what she saw and felt and asked for his counsel. She handed him some of the belongings of this adulteress that she found. The man came to the priest asking for these belongings. The priest reminded him quietly of his first love to God and the purity of his holy garment, his body, which he profaned. He asked him to think of his wife and children. However, he felt that the man had fallen with the harlot into a deep pit. (Prov. 23. 27). The priest told the wife that fasting and prayers would save her husband. She decided to fast everyday till sunset until he repents. A month later, the husband begged the priest to make his wife stop fasting for her body had weakened exceedingly and he was on his way to break his sinful relationship. The priest asked him, “Are you concerned with your wife’s health and unconcerned with the destruction of your soul and your family! Ask God to grant you His fear before He punishes you.”

Fr. Gawargios Concluded with the verse, “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand” (Rev. 2.5).

A True Repentance

 Few days later, the man attended the vespers prayers. He sat at the last seat bending down his head. He made confession with tears and asked the priest to pray for him and allow him to partake in Holy Communion which would support him.

He saw God’s love manifested in his wife’s strict fasting and his mother’s tears and sufferings for his salvation. He wanted to be chastened to feel the bitterness of the sin. Though the divorced women tried to drag him to sin by all means, his concern for his salvation and his hope in his Savior along with fasting and prayers supported him. Later on, he partook of Holy Communion with his hand broken. When the priest asked him about the reason behind breaking his hand, he said, “Two days ago on my way to work, I was driving fast. Approaching a square, I tried to put on the breaks yet the car collided with a tree and my right arm was broken. It’s the punishment of God that the hand which slapped my mother was broken.”

Peace was restored to the family and the man traveled abroad with his family. On the other hand, his mother praised God who accepted her prayers. Some weeks later, the mother fell sick for two weeks. Then, the second Monica reposed rejoicing for the salvation of her son. The son always remembered his mother’s love and sacrifice for him.

He, whose mother is rich in piety, is not poor.

The son of tears will never perish.

Grant me motherhood to desire the salvation of all.

May my tears not stop, till all people are saved.

May my body weaken with fasting,

Hoping Your Grace, so that my soul will not perish by sin.

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