Слово 16

(1) Who is a true Christian? – (2) A Christian who loves fame, or pleasure, or money, is not a true Christian. – (3) Christians need to endure sensitive hardships and struggles in order to free themselves from these passions. – (4) Every good deed must be done for the purpose of receiving Christ’s grace and holiness. – (5) Praying with attention is a gift of God. – (6) Sinners are enemies of God, from whom He turns away. 1. A true Christian is one who sincerely confessed before God and the Angels during his Baptism that he had renounced the devil and all his satanic works and made a vow to serve Christ the Lord, fulfilling all His holy commandments, and thus was honored to mysteriously receive the hidden grace of God and feel it in the spirit, that is, to recognize in the spirit that he has accepted it. As soon as someone receives grace, he immediately turns away from carnal desires, begins to hate worldly lusts, and by the grace of God he becomes immune to them and dead to them; from which he fulfills the divine commandments of Christ with all joy and zeal, and his soul no longer lies in any carnal sweetness, or in acquisitions, or in honor and glory, as if he were outside the body and outside the world, as the Lord says: “You are not out of the world” (John 15:19). Being thus united with the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, he always rejoices and sings: I will rejoice in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Savior (Ps. 103:34; Luke 1:47). 2. And in any other way it is impossible for anyone to become a true Christian. These three - voluptuousness, love of money and love of glory - enslave a person to the devil. And a Christian who indulges in carnal pleasures is no longer a slave of Christ, but a slave of sin and the devil; also a Christian who has the love of money and loves money is no longer a Christian, but an idolater, as the divine Paul says; Likewise, the one who loves human glory is not a true Christian, but some kind of hefty warrior of the devil. Whoever possesses either each of these passions, or one of them entirely, does not have communion with God - the Most Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, even if he fasted, held vigils, slept on the bare ground, and suffered any other kind of suffering, even if he had omniscience and wisdom. For this, he must first be freed in spirit from these passions by Christ the Lord, Who says: Amen, Amen, I say to you, that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. But a servant does not remain in the house forever (John 8:34–35). This house is the kingdom of heaven. Do you see the terrible definition of Savior?! If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed, the Lord adds to this (John 8:36). So, when someone is freed from these three passions, then let him sing, then let him worship, glorifying God, then let him pray, as if he has already become a true Christian and a servant of Christ. He is honored with great mercy. For truly, whoever is enslaved to these three tyrant passions or at least one of them, even if he wanted to, cannot free himself from them, because this liberation is in the hands of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and King, according to the power that He received from God, His Father, through the cross and death, taken by Him, as He Himself certified after the Resurrection: all power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me ( Matthew 28:18). 3. Let us resort to the Liberator of all, Christ the Lord, as the only one who holds power, using all kinds of measures to be worthy of liberation from those three passions; Let us fast, pray, give alms, so that God can see how sincerely we desire freedom for ourselves and diligently seek it, doing such things for its sake, and, seeing this, He, the desirer of mercy, will grant us the desired freedom. A sign of such freedom is hatred of those passions, such that the one freed from them abhors them as an abomination, which is more disgusting to him than any material abomination. So, a good deed is to sing, pray, fast, hold vigils, give alms, keep oneself in humiliation, become a beggar, for the love of Christ. However, we see many of our brothers who have labored and are laboring in vain, doing such things. And the reason for this is obvious. Whatever someone does, he does it for a certain purpose. Since all human nature, through the transgression of the first commandment, became a corruptible and mortal nature, and for this reason weak and infirm, susceptible to all evil and foolishness, how is it possible that it alone, by itself, freed itself from corruption in its thoughts, when this corruption became in some way natural in it? - But how can it free itself? - If he fasts, performs vigils, prays, undertakes every labor and feat, distributes his property to the poor with one purpose, so as to be worthy of liberation from this corruption in thoughts, by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Liberator, Who came into the world for this purpose to take away the sins of the world. And whoever fasts, prays, works and does everything else that is good, with the goal that Christ will liberate him, will certainly be liberated, and will recognize his Liberator and thank Him, will humble himself and submit before the invincible power of Christ the Lord. And whoever does not live according to Christ with such a goal will work in vain and pass on to another life as a poor and unhappy Christian. We also need to know that the entire feat of the devil and his demons and all the intrigues that they plot for every Christian are aimed at sowing misunderstanding of this and ignorance about this among Christians, so that they do not know the goal shown, but keep in mind that they can save themselves through the good deeds that they do. Demons often even promote prayers, almsgiving, fasting, vigils, and all other good deeds, so that those who do them do it without the purpose we have indicated, keeping, however, in the thought that they are doing real good, and thus remain not healed from Christ. For the law of Christ has not been set aside, that Christ Himself cannot heal someone who does not recognize his illness, does not know a doctor and does not seek him. 4. So, a good deed is, as we said, fasting, almsgiving, etc.; It is good to grieve over the sins of both one’s own and those of one’s brothers, to also cry with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice; but all these good deeds, praiseworthy and wondrous, serve no purpose and are wasted if the one who does them does not become a participant in the holiness of God, for all good deeds must be done for this purpose, as the Apostle says about those who are worthy to be chastened by God as sons, that God disciplines them for the benefit that His holy things may partake (Heb. 12:10). If someone is not involved in the holiness of God, then his work is in vain, and his faith is in vain, especially when it is not possible to do these good deeds properly, according to the law and commandments of God, without the help of Jesus Christ our God, and the one who labors unlawfully is not married, as the divine laws determine. The law is that these things should be done in secret, with all protection and watchfulness, in the face of the one God, so that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. What is right and what is left? Listen. There is rightness when a Christian fulfills what Christ commanded in the following words: when you have done all that is commanded to you, say, for we are unworthy servants; for what we ought to create has been created (Luke 17:10). But is it possible that someone would ever be found who would create everything that he had to create? Let someone create either everything that he had to create, or a part of that who could ever do it alone, by himself, by his own power, without being supported in advance by the mysteriously divine power of Christ? Whoever does any good without Christ - alas for him and his work! And the left is when someone, doing what he should do, thinks that he is worthy of all honor from God for that. Such a one will never partake of the shrine of God, even after such exploits and such sweat, and woe to him after death! What signs are there that would show that someone has received the grace of God? When someone is without anger, not defiled by carnal pleasures, quiet and meek, has humility along with kindness and compassion, with love for others, pure and unfeigned, and faith in God, undoubted and firm, so that one can say about him: the faith of God is imputed to him as righteousness (Rom. 4:3). And whoever does not have such signs of the grace of Christ, without a doubt, does all his deeds, so that he may be glorified by people. Let him say that he does not seek human glory, but, as if reluctantly, he is greedy for it. For where there is no Christ, there are demons, and where there are demons, right thoughts are perverted and corrupted. Just as bats fly during the night, looking for food for themselves, so demons, together with their leader, the chief of darkness - the devil, during real life, corrupted and darkened, prowl the earth, and the air, and all the places under the heavens, in an instant being transported from place to place, for demons by nature are mental creatures. Anyone can understand this, judging by how our own human mind operates, which, when it has seen something once, be it far away or spread out over a large space, runs around it mentally in an instant, even though it is bound by the flesh. That is why it is impossible for a true Christian to raise his mind to God, to reflect on the divine, to converse with the All-Good Lord, and through such holy memory and mental prayer to receive enlightenment and enlightenment from God if he is not sealed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. As soon as the devil sees that the mind (spirit) of a Christian does not have the seal of God’s grace and is naked from it, and yet wants to mentally pass through the air and ascend to the Almighty God in order to talk with Him through prayer and beg Him about his sins, without fear he stands opposite him on the road along which he ascends, and as if he says to him: “Where are you going, unfortunate one? How dare you go through places that are in my power? I am the ruler of darkness, I received the name of the ruler of the world and I am the head of those who think about worldly things and think in worldly ways. I am the prince of this corrupt world, the king of the air, Satan. You have not yet left my power, Christ has not yet moved you from the realm of Satan to God (Acts 26:18). Why, as my subject, you should think about what is mine and seek what is mine. Mine is this: carnal lust, untruth, malice. I showed you all this before and proved how good it is; and you saw that it is so, tasted it, experienced it and enjoyed it. Now where are you going? Where should you ascend to heaven? Stay here – down in the world’s impurities and sins.” This is why it is written: No one can speak of the Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). 5. It can be assumed that a Christian should not pray and glorify God if his mind is not first imprinted and sanctified by Divine grace, so that he does not appear to be outwardly standing before God, but mentally doing the works of the devil, as his servant; for which reason he becomes more unclean, and for which reason his enemy begins to rape him more, leading him to do much evil, either through anger or through carnal lust, which he rushes towards with greater uncontrollability. If someone, having entered a medical clinic to receive treatment, through his own foolishness makes his wounds there worse and more dangerous, then, of course, it would be much better for him not to enter it at all. But again, how can you remain without prayer?! It's too tight for both. Take care, take upon yourself the feat of correcting and healing your mind in advance, so as not to be in danger of falling into the worst if you sing, praise God and pray without correcting and healing yourself in advance. For it is impossible for an unclean mind to stand before God, although it is clear that another stands before Him with his body and prays with his lips. And in general there is no way to truly glorify God on one’s own, but the grace of Christ, indwelling in us, glorifies and sings songs to God and prays in us. People, when they have a conversation with each other, know what they are talking about: those who speak know what they are saying, and those who listen understand what they hear. And it would be obvious foolishness not to pay due attention when someone is talking to another. But if, standing before God, talking to Him and praying, we do not pay attention to what we say, then what hope can we have of salvation, even when someone spends a long time in prayer and praises God day and night with such unreasonable inattention and thinks that he is praying and praising God as he should? For we should at least pay the same attention when we talk with God, as we do when we talk with people about worldly and vain matters. From what has been said, anyone can understand what it means that the devil mentally circles the mind of a person suffering from this serious illness. Therefore, such a person must, first of all, bring all care to his soul, trying to provide it with spiritual healing and healing, so that Jesus Christ, the only Physician of souls and bodies, seeing such care and labor, would heal his great weakness. And if he does not do this, then in vain and uselessly he sings psalms and reads prayers to God. Therefore, whoever prays inattentively, let him groan and cry for doing so, and correct himself, and forget to think that he ever prayed. If he does not weep and grieve for his inattention, then what hope of salvation does he have? 6. The word of Scripture says: praise is not fair in the mouth of a sinner (Sir.15:9). And it says this not about atheists and unbelievers (for how can an unbeliever pray to God Whom he does not know?), but about one who knows God and believes in Him, but is only wicked because of his evil deeds, and an enemy of God because of his sins. Just as a good, handsome and beautiful object attracts the eyes of people to look at it, and an ugly and disgusting object makes them turn their eyes in the other direction so as not to see it, so the praise, glorification and prayer of a sinner force God to turn His eyes away from him so as not to see it, because he only prays with his lips, but with his mind and heart he converses with the objects of his sins and passions, which both before and now strongly dominated him. holding him in their hands. For it is impossible for someone, when making prayers to God, not to think about inappropriate and shameful things, if he has not first become friends with God through repentance and confession. The union of God with the soul is God’s intimate visit to it. And a sign that the grace of God has visited a soul is if it prays with fear and reverence, stands well in prayer and pays great attention to what it is praying for. For no one can speak of the Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3). Why are those who do not pray in this way still far from God, be they priests and confessors, be teachers of the people and their mediators before God? If the sun, being warm, naturally warms the one who sits under its rays, then how could God, who is holy, not sanctify those who converse with Him through prayer? And yet, it doesn’t happen like that, and why? Because those who sit in the sun know that they have sat down to warm themselves, which is why they adjust themselves so as to feel its warmth, and those who pray without attention do not themselves know what they are praying for and what they are asking for, that is, they are not standing towards God as they should; why God doesn’t give them anything, and won’t give them anything, even if they prayed this way for a hundred years. So, since those who sing and say prayers work in vain without being sanctified in advance by the grace of God, they must go to reverent teachers and experienced confessors and learn from them how to pray and what they should ask in prayers. If they do not want to learn this and do not learn, then, whether they are wise or ignorant, they will end their lives unclean and defiled. God does not listen to those who do not know what they are asking. Why, so that we do not also suffer and remain unclean forever, let us take care from this hour to learn how we should pray and what to ask of God, so that our prayer will be acceptable to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory, honor and worship forever. Amen. You might be interested in: