Should We Believe in Luck? Are There Unlucky and Lucky People?
By Archimandrite Athanagoras Karamantzanes
By Archimandrite Athanagoras Karamantzanes
For Christianity and our Orthodox Church, luck does not exist. Nowhere in Holy Scripture or in the entire body of Patristic literature is belief in luck taught. The word luck expresses nothing other than our ignorance of the causes of the phenomena or events of life. There is no goddess and no blind force called luck (τύχη). Whatever appears to us as accidental or coincidental always springs from a deeper cause.
When we say that an event is due to luck, it is merely a manner of speaking, and we mean nothing more than that its cause was unknown to us — not that luck is the cause of things. That is why someone once said: “Luck is perhaps the pseudonym of God, when He does not wish to put His signature.”
But then what does exist? The Providence of our Almighty, All-wise, and All-good God, which is expressed as the uncreated energy of creation, preservation, and governance of the visible and invisible world. Through the Providence of God, every created being is helped to fulfill the purpose for which it was created. In the Old Testament we read: “For Your providence, O Father, governs all things, because You have given even in the sea a way and amid the waves a safe path, showing that You are able to save from every danger” (Wisdom of Solomon 14:3).
Indeed, God provides for all things: from the countless billions of stellar nebulae and suns to the most imperceptible particle of matter; from the great whales that traverse the oceans to the invisible little worm on the seabed; for the age-old and majestic oak tree as well as for the humble little flower in a mountain ravine; for the proud eagle as well as for the tiny insect. But more than anything else, God provides and cares for the king of the earth — man.
Wishing to emphasize this great truth, our Lord Himself directs us to nature and beautifully says: “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26–29).
And again: “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matthew 10:30). And this astonishing saying: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father” (ibid.).
Therefore, nothing in the world and in our lives is accidental. Everything has its deeper reason and its ultimate purpose. There is a divine plan for the world in general and for every individual creature in particular. In the case of man, of course, God combines His plan in an all-wise and mysterious way with the freedom of the will which He Himself has bestowed upon him. There is no fate, destiny, or absolute predetermination. When man often makes bad use of this freedom, he seems to frustrate God’s plans — without ever truly succeeding — yet he destroys himself.
Since, then, luck does not exist, it is clear that there should be no lucky or unlucky people, no individuals favored or disfavored by some blind fate. These are beliefs and notions from the dark pagan past and superstitious delusions, deliberately cultivated by various “charlatans” — fortune-tellers, seers, magicians, astrologers, card-readers, and the like — for their own benefit.
From all these Christ came to free us, granting us the abundant light of His Truth.
“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).
Moreover, if we wish to proceed to particular cases, by what criteria do we usually characterize a person as lucky or unlucky? By wealth, employment, career, marriage and family, health, lotteries, and so on. But these merely concern the biological aspect of life, not life as a whole. Even so, a deeper examination of these cases helps us see that:
a) Someone who may be considered lucky in one respect may be considered unlucky in others — for example, he may have wealth but not health, a good job but not a good family, and so on.
b) What we consider good luck may in fact be the greatest misfortune, and vice versa. For example, a woman marries and we say, “She is lucky!” Later, however, it turns out that this marriage was unfortunate. A young man fails his entrance examinations and we say, “Unlucky.” Yet this may become the occasion for him to turn elsewhere and excel. Great creators have not infrequently been the “victims” of such misfortunes. That is why someone said: “Unlucky is the one who cannot endure misfortune.”
c) Many times we call lucky someone who, through shrewdness, cunning, deceit, theft, or opportunism, manages to advance and stay afloat by stepping on corpses, while we call unlucky the honest and upright character who, in order not to sell his conscience, loses such “opportunities.”
But are these characterizations correct?
d) Experience testifies that each person’s fortune lies in his own hands. No one was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Diligence and honest labor create good fortune, whereas laziness and idleness are the mother of all misfortune.
e) Our life, as already stated, flows within the mystery of the good Providence of God, who, through an inconceivable variety of ways, works either “according to His good pleasure” or “by permission,” as our faith teaches, through pleasant or unpleasant events, in order pedagogically and progressively to lead us into His embrace.
Ultimately, the truly fortunate person is the one who has gained his soul, and unfortunate is the one who has lost it. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).
Source: From the book The Fathers and the Problems of Our Life, Holy Monastery of Saint Athanasius of Kolindros, 1988. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
