Беседа на Евангельское чтение, положенное в день Св. Духа (Мф. 18:10–20). Св. Иоанна Златоустого, архиепископа Константинопольского

The Lord said: Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones (Matthew 18:10). The Lord here calls small those who are truly small; but those who are considered such by many, that is, the poor, despised and ignorant, and commands us to honor them, saying: as their angels in heaven always see the face of My heavenly Father. From this we know that all Christians have Angels in heaven. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. After this, the Savior presents a new proof, stronger than the first, and adds a parable in which he shows that the Father Himself wants us not to despise our lesser brothers. What do you think? - He says, - if no man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety and nine in the mountains, and the shed seek the lost? And if he finds it, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety and nine who have not gone astray. This is not the will of your heavenly Father, that one of these little ones should perish. Therefore, do not say that such and such a blacksmith, farmer, is a stupid person, and therefore worthy of contempt; Look at how many proofs Jesus Christ convinces you and, by his own will and suffering, encourages you to care for our lowly brethren. So, if God rejoices so much about finding a younger brother, then why do you despise those for whom God cares so much, then how should you lay down your soul for one of these little ones? “But he is weak and poor”! That is why, most of all, you must do everything to save him: for the Lord Himself, leaving ninety-nine sheep, went after one, and the salvation of so many sheep could not hide from Him the death of one. There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people. Let us not despise such souls. Let us also imitate Him, and we will not refuse for our brothers any apparently humiliating and difficult tasks. But even though we had to serve an ignorant and poor person, even though it was associated with great labor, even though we had to cross mountains and rapids for this, we must endure all this for the salvation of our brother: since God cares so much about the soul that He did not spare His Son. I am talking here not so much about the physical danger, for this can hardly be called a danger, but about the spiritual danger to which the devil exposes people. We must care not only about our own salvation, but also about the salvation of our neighbors; otherwise we ourselves will not receive salvation. During a battle, that warrior who tries only to save himself by flight destroys others along with himself; on the contrary, the courageous, fighting to protect others, saves himself along with others. And since our life is also a war, and, moreover, the cruelest of all wars, a time of battle and battle: then we will enter into battle as our King commanded, with the readiness to defeat, kill and shed the blood of our enemies; caring for the salvation of all, strengthening those who stand and raising up those who fall. Many of our brethren in this battle are lying wounded, bleeding, and there is no one to help them; neither the people, nor the priests, nor anyone else, nor a patron, nor a friend, nor a brother cares about them, but everyone cares only about himself. That is why we are weak and conveniently defeated both by people and by the devil, because we seek the opposite of this, and do not strengthen each other, do not protect the love of God, but look for other opportunities for friendship: some in kinship, others in acquaintance, others in the neighborhood; and all other ties strengthen us in friendship much more than piety, whereas this alone should bind us with ties of friendship. We are more willing to enter into friendship with Jews and Greeks than with the sons of the Church. “But this one,” you say, “is angry, and that one is kind and meek.” What are you saying? Do you call your brother evil? And you are not ashamed, do not blush, reproaching your brother, who is your member, who participates in the same birth with you, and partakes of the same meal? If your brother in the flesh commits countless evils, you try to cover him up, and consider his dishonor to be your own dishonor; and you revile your spiritual brother, whom you should protect from slander, in every possible way and call him evil and intolerable. That is why you must become his friend, so that he ceases to be such, changes and turns to virtue. But you say: “He does not obey and does not accept advice.” How do you know this? Did you admonish him and try to correct him? You will say: “I admonished him many times”! How much? Twice? Ah, and that means a lot. If you did this throughout your life, then you should not weaken and give up on this. Don't you see how God constantly exhorts us through Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists? Well, are we fulfilling His commands? Do we obey them? - No. But has He stopped admonishing us? Has he fallen silent? Doesn’t he say every day: “You cannot work for God and Mammon” (Luke 16:13), and yet the passion for wealth and cruelty increases among many? Doesn’t He cry to us every day: “Let us go, and He will let you go” (Matthew 6:14), and we become even more hardened? Does He not exhort us to continually rule over lust and conquer evil pleasures; and yet many, worse than pigs, wallow in this sin? He never ceases to exhort us. Why don’t we think and tell ourselves that God admonishes us too and does not cease to admonish us, although we often do not obey His admonitions. But what do I blame for negligence about the salvation of our neighbors, when we do not care at all about our wife, children and slaves; and, like drunkards, we do not do what we should - we take care that we have many slaves, and that they serve us with great zeal, in order to leave a great inheritance for their deeds, so that the wife wears gold jewelry and precious clothes, and we never worry about themselves, but only about their property, and we act like a man who, seeing that his house is dilapidated, and the walls are ready to collapse, instead of supporting them, he pulls there is a large fence around it: or, like someone who, not caring about the healing of his sick body, prepares expensive clothes for him; that's what we do. While our soul suffers from a cruel illness, indulges in anger, slander, unreasonable desires, vanity, indignation, clings to the earth and is tormented by so many beasts, we, not caring about delivering it from passions, care about the house and slaves. If a bear secretly escapes from somewhere, then we lock the house and hide so as not to meet her; and now, despite the fact that not one beast, but many, that is, unclean thoughts, torment our soul, we don’t even feel it. Living in the city, we watch the animals very strictly, we imprison them in deserted places and in caves, and keep them on a chain not in the city square, or near the judgment seat and royal palaces, but somewhere in the distance. And into the soul - this place of council, these royal palaces, this judgment seat - animals invade and make screams and noise near the very mind and the royal throne. Because of this, everything comes into disorder, there is indignation everywhere, both inside and outside of us; The same thing happens to us as to birds when a snake takes over their nest. Emitting a plaintive voice, they fly everywhere in fear and confusion, not knowing how to free themselves from danger. Therefore, I beg you, having destroyed the serpent, let us imprison the beasts, kill them, and cut off their evil thoughts with the sword of the Spirit. If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and that one: if he listens to you, you have gained your brother (Matthew 18:15). The Savior commands to reprove, but to reprove only in private, so that, that is, the reproof in the presence of many witnesses does not seem too severe, and the person being convicted, instead of correcting himself, does not become even more impudent. What if he doesn’t listen and persists? - take one or two more with you, so that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every verb will become. The more shameless he is, the more we should resort to healing, and not to anger and indignation. And the doctor, seeing that the illness does not stop, does not leave the patient and is not angry with him, but takes greater care. The Savior commands us to do the same here. You were weak when you were alone; be stronger with the help of others: two can convict a sinner. Do you see how the Savior seeks the benefit not only of the offended, but also of the one who offended? If even then he persists, then speak, he says, to the Church. And the Savior commands to take two for reproof not suddenly, but when the offended one no longer has success; and even then he does not command to suddenly expose many, but commands to take only two, or one; when the accused despises even these, then he submits him to the judgment of the Church. Thus, the Savior takes great care to ensure that the sins of one’s neighbor are not disclosed. Although He could have given the right to tell the Church to the offended at the very beginning, so that the sin would not be disclosed, He commands this to be done after one or two denunciations. What does it mean: when there are two or three witnesses, every verb will become? This means that you did everything on your part and did not omit anything that you should have done. If the Church disobeys, be like a pagan and a tax collector. So the Savior established the first, second, and third judgment, and did not suddenly reject the sinner, so that, that is, if he does not listen to the first judgment, he would submit to the second; and if he despises that one, he would be afraid of the third; if he did not respect this, he would be horrified by the future punishment, determination and judgment of God. Again, amen, I say to you, that if two of you confer on earth about any thing, if you ask for it, it will be given to you by My Father who is in heaven. Where there are two or three congregations in My name, I am in the midst of them. See how the Lord destroys enmity, destroys petty calculations and reconciles those at war: not only by announcing execution, but also by presenting the benefits that flow from love. After threats against friendship, He announces great rewards for agreement, Those of one accord bend the Father to what they ask, and Christ dwells among them. But what? Are there really not two anywhere living in agreement with each other? There are, of course, in many places, and maybe everywhere. Why don't they get everything? – because there are many other reasons that prevent you from receiving. They don’t get it, for example, because they often ask for useless things. They do not receive it because they are not worthy of being listened to, without doing on their part what is required of them. They do not receive it because they offer prayers against those who have offended, demanding revenge and punishment for them, which is prohibited; precisely it says: pray for your enemy (Matthew 5:44). They do not receive it because unrepentant sinners ask for mercy, and it is impossible for them to receive it, even though not only they themselves asked, but even another who had boldness towards God interceded for them. If all these requirements are fulfilled, that is, if you ask for useful things, and do everything that is required of you, and lead an apostolic life, and are in harmony and love with your neighbors, then you will receive according to your prayer, because the Lord loves mankind. Further, since the Savior said: from My Father, then, in order to show that He Himself is the giver, and not the Father alone, He added: where there are two or three congregations in My name, I am one among them. So what? Doesn't it happen that two or three gather in His name? It happens, but rarely. Christ does not simply speak about the meeting, and does not only demand it. His words have the following meaning: if anyone puts Me as the first basis of love for one’s neighbor, and if, moreover, he has other virtues, I will be with him. It is difficult to find someone who would love his neighbor sincerely and as he should - for Christ. The majority are united with each other only by everyday affairs, and since they are united by transitory benefits, their love therefore has neither ardor nor constancy. On the contrary, every insult, or loss of money, or envy, or love of vanity, or anything similar easily destroys their love, which has no spiritual root; if there were such a root, then nothing worldly could destroy the spiritual. Love, which has Christ as its foundation, is firm, constant, invincible; Nothing can terminate it - neither slander, nor danger, nor death, nor anything else like that. He who loves in this way, even if he suffers a thousand defeats for his love, will not leave it. He who loves because he is loved, if trouble happens to him, will interrupt his love; and whoever is united by that love will never leave it. That is why Paul said: love no longer falls away (1 Cor. 13:8). What will you tell me in your defense? Why did he offend you who was honored by you? Or that the one who benefited you wanted to kill you? But if you love for Christ, then this very thing predisposes you to great love: what in others serves to destroy love, here the same thing serves to strengthen it. Why? - Firstly, because such a person is the source of rewards for you; secondly, because he needs more help and care for him. That is why, whoever loves so much does not consider either clan, or fatherland, or wealth, or mutual love for oneself, or anything else like that; but even if he was hated, offended, killed, he does not cease to love, having a sufficient reason for love - Christ: looking steadily at Him, he remains firm and unchanging. And Christ in the same way loved enemies, ungrateful people, offenders, slanderers, haters, who did not even want to look at Him, who preferred even wood and stones to Him - He loved them with the highest love, which cannot be found similar. He says: no one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends (John 15:13). Look how Christ cares for those who crucified Him and who showed so much fury against Him! The Savior prayed to the Father for them: let them go: for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34); and subsequently sent more disciples to them. So, let us also be jealous of this love, and we will look at it, so that, having become imitators of Christ, we will be worthy of both this and future blessings, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen 235. See 59 and 60 Bes. St. Chrysostom on Ev. Matt. in Full Collection works of St. John Chrysostom in Russian. translation vol. VII, 1901, pp. 604–623. 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