Apologetics
What can I say to get my husband to come to church?
So many times as a priest I hear from people: Father, what can I say to my spouse? What can I say to a family member? What can I say to a coworker? You hear these things, or, I've talked with them several times, but they're not receptive. People often forget that our Lord encountered people in his life, he being perfect God, having the perfect word and knowing the person's soul perfectly, would give them a word of instruction, and they would not listen. This is how profound and powerful our free will is. God has truly made us like himself, in the fact that we can make real decisions. God does not manipulate people into belief. Saint Paisios said that God could cause the whole world to repent in five minutes by sending such calamities and wonders on the earth that everyone would turn to him, but he doesn't want to do this. Just like us: we don't force people to love us, we don't force people to accept us, and neither does our Lord. We do it in imitation of him, because he honors the dignity of each person. And so it is that we hear that, upon the first, it's not that the word of God is not good, but that the ground that it falls on is not receptive. Many times the people around us, there is not a perfect word for them. There is not some kind of magical thing that you can say to change people's hearts and sway them to the truth. It doesn't exist. It's not like that. And so many times people find this almost frustrating. They come and they say, Father, what should I say to my husband? And I'm like, nothing. Just pray for him. And they find that deeply unsatisfying, because they want to speak a word that's more akin to an incantation, like a magical saying that somehow is going to get him to change his heart and change himself, and it's going to work perfectly. And so they come to you and they say, give me the magical spell. And I say, I have nothing for you. It doesn't exist. Because the person that you are speaking to is made in the image of God, and their soul is very noble, even if they don't treat it as such. And so it is that God has given them to have free will.
Edited from his answer on camera. The clip has the full thing.
From “Homily, 10.31.21, On the Sower and the Seeds”
Questions like this are what the Brotherhood is for.
Join the Brotherhood