5. Порядок преуспеяния в добродетелях

Today, September 1st, the memory of the Venerable Simeon the Stylite and his mother Martha, the Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos in Miasine, the holy martyr Aifalas, the holy martyrs of the forty women and their teacher Saint Ammun - the deacon, the holy martyr Evoda and Hermogenes, the self-brothers, and Saint Callista, and the righteous Joshua. – What a host of saints! And what virtues does he not represent as a model?! Virginity is with the Mother of Virginity, the Most Pure Lady; the Venerable Simeon has perfect self-sacrifice and aspiration to heaven; high patience and firmness of faith among the holy martyrs and martyrs; friendship - among the self-brothers, devotion to God among Joshua. Here are examples of virtues; - and the Apostle, now read (Col. 3:12-17), in the form of commandments, presents to us another outline of the union of virtues, even more attractive and lofty. Here we are commanded to put on the womb of generosity, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, forgiveness of offenses, love - as a union of perfection, the establishment of peace in the hearts, gratitude, enrichment and wisdom of ourselves in the word of God, spiritual singing in our hearts to the Lord, and vocal psalms and songs to Him in our mouths, and, finally, dedicating everything to the glory of the name of the Lord Jesus. If we liken virtues to flowers; then we must say: what delightful spiritual colors now delight the vision of our minds! And I would like to say: like bees, rush to these spiritual flowers and drink from them the sweetness characteristic of them, according to their kind. “But something else comes to my mind.” When, going out into the field, you encounter an area strewn with flowers, you usually say: the field is spread with flowers like a carpet. By imitation of this saying, we can say that now in the examples of the saints of the day and in the commandments of the Apostle, a carpet of virtues is spread out before us. And you probably guess why I dwell on this comparison. – It is consonant with the name of your city, and I cannot consider such a coincidence to be a coincidence on my first visit to you and my first service with you. – On the contrary, I see in this an obligatory incentive to tell you: residents of Kovrov! transfer to yourself the carpet of virtues indicated by the present day and the Apostle, and decorate yourself with them so brightly that everyone who sees and recognizes you will cry out in amazement: various flowers of virtues are spreading across the Carpet, so that your life will be in this way after your name. – How best to do this, I will offer you some instructions. 1) I find it unnecessary to convince you to be virtuous. Who doesn’t know that you need to be like that - and who among you doesn’t have some kind of good qualities and deeds. But it is never superfluous to talk and remind about the combination of virtues and their mutual relationship. The virtues also have their own order and structure, according to which one does not precede the other and one does not lag behind the other. – Just as between ordinary colors, a known color can only be combined with a known color, and when this simple rule is not followed, the combination of colors hurts the eyes. Experts in this matter reach amazing subtleties. – The same thing happens between virtues; - and those who diligently practice acquiring them very subtly distinguish which virtues fit in with which and which cannot stand together with which. The solitary has his own virtues, the family man has his own, the business man has his own, the artisan has his own, and so on. Although here the deeds characteristic of one or the other are clearly visible, it happens, however, that another runs into someone else’s circle - and thereby spoils the matter. If the one who inevitably needs to talk a lot imposes silence on himself, if the one who is needed at home becomes jealous of succeeding in wandering, if the one who needs bodily strength begins to fast like strict hermits, and the like; then the order of virtue will be disturbed and have an unpleasant effect on outsiders, among whom those who are narrow-minded in their judgments will attribute these discords to virtue itself and blame it as a reproach, as if it were not possible to maintain any order in it. - Take this into account! 2) This law of propriety of known virtues to known persons has no less place in the establishment of virtues in the same person. All the virtues do not suddenly enter the heart, but one after another. And of them there are primary ones, there are subordinate ones, there are, as it were, roots and there are, as it were, branches. Everything begins with repentance; repentance brings two fruits; in it a person throws away the sins and passions with which he has worked, and flares up with zeal to succeed in virtues, both contrary to his previous passions, and in all others. The repentant begins the work of doing good in his circle and the feat of fighting passions and lusts. In fulfilling this, he arms himself with patience, humility, self-mortification, prayer, church services, and the sacraments. The law here is continuity, ascent from lesser to greater, and - everything has its time and place. But the driving spirit is still the same as in the beginning - zeal for salvation and spiritual perfection - and the character of this spirit is the same - contrition and tender crying. Just as in colored materials there is a color that makes up the background on which all other colors seem to lie; - so it is in the matter of success in virtues. as a background, constitutes crushed jealousy. It is a sign of Orthodox Christian life and at the same time its source. Without it, a person is morally dead, just as a body is dead without a soul. 3) There are two sides to virtues - deeds and dispositions. The location is in the heart; deeds are carried out externally by the body. We have to do it. “But deeds alone have no value without dispositions, just as dispositions alone are neither strong nor firm without deeds.” He who is jealous of active success in goodness must be most concerned about combining, as he should, deeds with dispositions, or the external with the internal - warming the internal with the external, and inspiring the external with the internal. – The danger here is that the external is easier. Someone else wants to achieve everything this easy way, and loses everything; for the external alone mars the internal, cools and cuts off jealousy, without which everything stops. This is what we should be most afraid of. 4) And again you need to look, and not give everything to the flow of events. There are virtues that need application and exercise every minute, and there are virtues that are rarely applied. “If you leave it like this, then in one part a person will become perfected, while the other will remain untrained, just as in a tree sometimes one side is multi-branched, and the other is branchless and bare.” One holy ascetic said: I would like every person to have a little of every virtue. – Just as the body is slender, so should the totality of the virtues of the heart be slender. 5) The root of virtues is love. But don’t think that it all starts with her. – With the fall, man became passionate. Passions are the opposite of love. Conquer passions and love will come. It exists even while the passions are still active, but it does not rule over all movements, and sometimes gives way when the passion that fights it rises up with force. When the heart is cleansed of passions, then love rises victoriously above everything, like a queen sitting on the throne of the heart, and above all other virtues. 6) So pure, and upon leaving the body it directly soars into the pure regions of heaven. – And those who have not managed to cleanse themselves of passions linger on the earth, or in the air spaces, until the prayer of the Church and the kindness they themselves have acquired make him clean from every admixture of impurity and sin. That is why we must hurry to complete the course of success in goodness, while we are still here on earth. The saints of God inspired themselves most of all with the memory of this trouble, which an imperfect person will encounter after death, saying to themselves and to all others who want and seek salvation: remember your last and never sin again. So, thought by thought, I briefly conveyed to you the entire path of success in virtues and decorating your heart with them. He indicated the beginning of this saving work, and the continuation, and the end. – Whoever works, work according to this instruction. Those who are not working, start working. Do it while it is day, and night will come when no one can do it. May the Lord bless you and make you wise to do this work. - Amen. You might be interested in: