Disaster as shared correction and test

Evils also come upon a whole people because of a few, and a people suffers from someone's wickedness. Achan committed sacrilege, and the whole army was scourged. Zimri in turn committed fornication with the Midianite women, and Israel fell under punishment. Let us all therefore examine our lives, both privately and together, so that we may attend to the drought as to a tutor, reminding each of us of his own sin. Let us also say with feeling the words of the noble Job: “The hand of the Lord has touched me” (Job 19:21). And above all, let us reckon the disaster as primarily due to our own sins. But if we must add another point, such hardships of life are sometimes brought upon people as a test for their souls, so that in difficulty the approved may be proved, whether poor or rich; for both are tested precisely through endurance. And especially at this time it is revealed whether one is generous and loving toward others, or whether he is thankful and not, on the contrary, blasphemous, quickly changing his mind along with life's reversals. I know many people—not from hearsay, but from knowing them by experience—who, as long as their life is measured out toward prosperity and runs, as the saying goes, with a fair wind, at least moderately, if not perfectly, acknowledge the grace of their benefactor. But if their affairs are turned around by the opposite condition, and the rich man becomes poor, and bodily strength becomes sickness, and glory and distinction become shame and dishonor, then they are ungrateful, uttering blasphemies, shrinking from prayer; complaining against God as against a creditor who is slow, not as people should feel toward a Master who is angry. But away with such a thought from your minds! Whenever you see God not granting the usual things, reason thus within yourself: Is God unable to supply food? And how could that be? He is Lord of heaven and of all its order, a wise steward of hours and seasons, the pilot of all things, who has ordained that the hours and the turns of the year yield to one another like a well-ordered chorus, so that by their variety they may supply our different needs; and now in season the moisture comes, and again the heat takes its turn, and the cold is blended into the year, and we do not lack the service of the dry season. Therefore God is able. And since the able is present and acknowledged, has the good then failed? This argument does not stand either. For what necessity persuaded him who was not good to create man in the beginning? Who compelled the Creator, though unwilling, to take dust and fashion such beauty from clay? Who compelled him by necessity to grant the Word to man according to his own image, so that setting out from there he might receive the learning of arts, and learn to philosophize about the highest things, which he does not grasp by sense? And if you reason thus, you will find that goodness is with God, and even now has not departed. For tell me, what prevented what we see from being not a drought but a complete conflagration? What prevented him from slightly shifting the sun from its customary course, bringing it near to the bodies on earth, and in an instant burning up everything visible? Or from raining fire from heaven, in the likeness of the punishments already inflicted on sinners? Come to yourself and your own thoughts, man; do not act like foolish children, who, when rebuked by their teacher, tear up his tablets; and when their father delays their food for their benefit, they rip their clothing, or scratch their mother's face with their nails.