Слово 17

(1) Whatever good a person does, it will be good for him. – (2) How can we know whether God has accepted our fasting, prayers and almsgiving? – (3) How should one sing and pray? – (4) Sanctification and freedom are given to the soul through faith. – (5) The soul of psalmody should be humility. – (6) How is the grace of God extinguished? 1. Brother! When you hear that the holy fathers tell us to fast or give alms, or do any other good thing for God, keep in mind that they say this out of condescension towards our weakness, for God has no need of any of our good, for he is all-sufficient and not stingy in anything. No matter what good deeds we do in this life, they all turn to our benefit, but they give nothing to God, and He has no need for them. Whoever fasts, suffers, holds vigils, gives alms, does all this in order to gain favor and mercy from God. For if in the field of real life, dark and full of sin, we do not arbitrarily oppress ourselves with fasts, vigils and other suffering and do not show mercy to other people, then God will not want to have mercy on us and forgive us our sins. He who is unmerciful to others, how can he expect mercy from the righteous God? Whoever, having committed sins, does not lament for them and, without fearing God, does not repent of them, does not oppress himself for them with fasting and vigils and does not pray to God for them, do not expect forgiveness from the merciful and gracious Judge God. So, no one should think that he is doing any good for God, but for his own salvation. Whoever thinks this way and holds the conviction that he does good deeds for his own salvation will in no way do any good for show to people, but will do everything so that he will be seen by the only God who knows the secrets of the heart. A Christian who strives in good deeds, if he does not keep in his thoughts that by doing so he does not intend to favor God in any way, then he ruins his work. Just as the sun has no need for a person and does not require any service or favor from him, but moreover, he himself serves all people in general and lends them all the fact that light spreads across the face of the earth, warms the fruits and contributes to their ripening, supports the life of people and everything born on earth, while no one has ever said, cannot now and will not be able to ever say that he has served or is serving the sun in any way; in the same way, God does not want any service and has no need for anyone to serve Him. And as long as anyone thinks that he is serving God in any way, until then know that he has not yet begun his entry onto the path of salvation. Such a one, let him fast, spend nights without sleep and suffer other hardships, let him fast and pray, let him do alms and other good deeds, let him preach the word of God and teach the truth, he will never have a part with God. For whoever does such good deeds must do them in order to obtain favor from God, and not in order to serve God. For all, as the divine Paul says, having sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, we will be justified by His grace (Rom. 3:23-24), when, of course, they seek and begin to pray, that they may find mercy and that the door of God’s mercy may be opened for them to receive mercy in Christ Jesus the Lord. For even at the same time it is still absolutely necessary to ask, seek, push, so that whoever does not ask, does not seek, does not push, he, according to the definition of the Almighty Christ, will not find or receive the mercy of God, and the door of God’s mercy will not be opened to him. Have ears to hear, let him hear! 2. So, whoever performs fasts, prayers and alms (for through the mediation of these three salvation is achieved for Christians), should not look at the days of his fasting, nor at the work of vigil and prayer, nor at the amount of alms, that is, do not look at how much he gave out in alms, or how long he did not sleep and stood in prayer, or how many days he fasted, but only think about this one thing, whether all this is accepted by God. If accepted, then Divine grace will be sent to him, and when he receives God’s grace, he will find himself contrite, humble, attentive to himself, touched and repentant of all the bad deeds that he had done before. And then, through such a dispensation within, he recognizes how great his weakness is and how obscene and shameful his sins are, realizing that they are characteristic of only irrational animals, while the rational soul is obscene and far from a person who has knowledge. This is the first grace and the first enlightenment given to the soul from God! Having come to such a feeling and knowing that these are precisely its sins, the soul begins to hate them and turn away from them, as from things worthy of all hatred and disgust. And this is the real path of salvation! But whoever does not know himself and does not feel what a poor state he is in (and does not look for it), the fasts and alms that he performs will be wasted. For a sacrifice pleasing to God is only a broken spirit, and only for such a sacrifice is remission of sins given, just as for such a sacrifice there is fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. This is the mystery of Christian life, and this is how every Christian should act! Fasting, prayer, almsgiving, arbitrary poverty, sleeping on bare ground and everything else that a person does, he must do in order to become friends with God. If all this does not lead him to this union, then what is the use of it? 3. A soul that has made friends with God is meek and humble, and when it prays, it thinks that it is standing before the face of God, and does not allow itself to wander here and there; so that the soul, which is not in such a state, has not yet made friends with God, is still under the power of the devil, although it sings and prays. So, it is necessary that the soul, during prayers and psalms, especially and first of all, seek fellowship with God. If she is not united with God and does not seek such a union, then she cannot hope for any other way of salvation. Those who sing psalms and say prayers, but are not united with God (and do not seek that, and sing and pray for the wrong reasons), are in self-delusion and cry out in vain at the air, inciting God to indignation and anger. For such, praying with their lips to God, think with their minds about what belongs to the realm of His enemy the devil, and for this God turns His face away from them. 4. So, sanctification of the soul and its deliverance are not given by fasting, prayer and alms alone, but before these virtues, faith in God gives them, when someone believes that only Christ the Lord can sanctify him and deliver him. We have visible evidence of this and action in the sacrament of the most pure Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Almighty, Who commands those in chains: come out, and to those in darkness: open yourselves (Is. 49:9). These Most Pure Mysteries are united with the soul and body of the person receiving communion as it should be, and they combine and unite him with God. When someone becomes friends with God in this way through faith and the Holy Mysteries, is it possible for him to no longer remain a slave of the devil and unclean? Is it possible for such a person to continue to sin as long as he remembers such great blessings from God to him and cleaves to God? Sin occurs through deprivation of God's grace and sanctification. This deprivation is caused by pride; pride comes from forgetting God; oblivion of God - from neglect of the sanctification that God bestowed, and of pleasing God, the Giver of it. Someone will forget God, who sanctified him, will cease to remember who it is who sanctified him and keeps this sanctification in him, and will fall into the conceit that he has everything from himself. For this, God's grace departs from him; here the enemy comes with temptation, entices you, and here is sin, and with sin comes destruction. All because I forgot God, stopped thanking Him and humble myself before Him. And what a great wickedness this is and what a great injustice! Someone fell into the sea. If someone else saves him from this misfortune, and he comes out of the depths of the sea alive, as if he had risen from the dead, then what gratitude will he have for his deliverer and what humility before him! It's the same here. And whoever is such, God will never leave him, as the prophet David says: in our humility the Lord will remember us (Ps. 136:23). 5. The soul of psalmody should be that the singer should be humble and do everything that leads to humility. But what is humility? To know and be aware of your human frailty. But in order for anyone to know and realize human weakness, this can only happen through enlightenment from above by Christ the Lord, sent to those who believe in Him. And there is no other way to know yourself and realize your weakness. Why do the holy fathers say that whoever is not baptized is not enlightened? Just as the eye cannot see anything without light, so the soul cannot see its weakness unless it is mysteriously enlightened by Christ. How is such enlightenment accomplished? In the unfaithful, as we said, by faith in Christ the Savior and divine Baptism, and in those who believe, who, having become blind after holy Baptism, do not see their weakness and therefore are proud and lawless, for the holy David says: the pride of the lawbreaker is to the point (Ps. 119:51); and in other places it is said: The Lord resists the proud (James 4:6); the beginning of sin is pride (Sir.10:15); the beginning of pride in a person is a departure from the Lord (Sir. 14), - in such, the enlightenment of the soul is accomplished by the renewal of the sacrament of faith in Christ, that is, by bringing to mind all the necessary members of faith and reviving faith in them (for if they had retained the first faith, they would not have gone blind). When they renew in this way all the members of faith in their memory, begin to keep them in mind with faith living in them, then they will be completely enlightened, they will see the misery of their situation and they will recognize the judgment of God, and from this, seeing how shameful and evil the deeds they have done, and realizing what immeasurable torment they are worthy of, they will repent with all their soul and with all their heart. (Shameful deeds are all the pleasures and lusts of the flesh, and evil deeds are covetousness, untruth, deceit.) Since everyone who repents humbles himself, then for this reason God gives His grace to him, as if he were humble, so that he would hate both lustful and evil deeds, and always remember his weakness and, remembering it, have compassion for people who are subservient to himself and be lenient towards their weaknesses, not condemning anyone for their sins, so that he may be meek and patient and find peace in his soul. Having reached this point, he will begin to sing a new song to the Lord, praise to our God, that is, he will begin to offer thanks to God from a pure and contrite heart, because a pure heart is a contrite and humble heart. And any other psalmody except this is in vain and useless. It is impossible for someone who does not sing in this way to converse with God through prayer, even if he worked hard and for a long time on this, but with his lips he will sing and say prayers, and with his mind he will think about what upsets God and moves Him to anger. Just as sensible and visible creatures need light in order to be visible, so all intelligent creatures need intelligent light in order to be intelligently visible and knowable. And just as no one who has produced many products can say that he produced them at night and without light, so the one who leads a life pleasing to God cannot say that he leads it without intelligent light. If anyone dares to say this, then he is clearly a liar and the son of the devil. Such a one never recognized himself and his weakness and did not enter the path of God at all. This is why it is written: Let him boast; let him boast in the Lord (2 Cor. 10:17). 6. You, my brother, enlightened from above by Christ, should pay attention to yourself, so as not to ever forget about your weakness and not think that the enlightenment that is in you, coming to your soul from above from Christ, is your own work, because it is hidden and you do not see when and how it comes. Know that as soon as you dream that it is your own work, the fruit of your mind and your efforts, it will immediately hide from your eyes and leave you again in darkness. God is invisible and enlightens invisibly, without you seeing it; This enlightenment is known from His actions, just as the invisible God is known from His works. If you find yourself contrite and humble, know that you are enlightened, and as much as you humble yourself, there is light in you, for, as the godly fathers said, the progress of the soul is its progress in humility. The degree of self-knowledge and knowledge of God is determined by the degree of humility and meekness. A soul that has been granted divine presence, that is, divine enlightenment and silence, is peaceful and serene. Such enlightenment is extinguished by unmercifulness, condemnation of the brethren and rancor. For whoever has found salvation through the goodness and mercy of God will, through his own mercy and compassion towards the brethren, preserve this salvation within himself, according to the word of Christ the Savior, who says: with whom you judge, you will be judged; and if you measure accordingly, it will be measured back to you (Matthew 7:2). Therefore, before receiving God’s mercy, one must have mercy on one’s neighbor, and again, having been deemed worthy to receive this mercy, one must have mercy on him. Whoever is healed and healed from a great and incurable mental illness, according to God’s sole care, should rejoice and be glad, and with all his soul and with all his thoughts thank God, who showed him such mercy and healed him, should be meek and humble, marveling at the great mercy shown to him by God, and, being filled with all goodness and mercy, be always Compassionate and merciful people who are obedient to themselves, do not despise anyone, and generally be humble before everyone, with all joy. So a sinner, delivered by the power of Christ from the passions that burden him, should rejoice and be glad about the salvation of Christ. If, having received such deliverance and healing, he becomes proud, then the devil is near, and the instruments of passions are still within us; The grace of Christ will again withdraw, and the devil, having come, will disturb his thoughts and direct him to do things with his body that are worse than before. May our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be honor and worship forever, deliver us from such acts. Amen. You might be interested in: