Слово 24

(1) God did not create anyone to be the slave of another person, much less demons. – (2) About wordless anger and lust, and why a person is exposed to them. – (3) Just as physical vision requires healthy eyes, adequate distance, clean air and the light of the sun, so mental vision requires all this mentally. The all-wise and all-good God created father and son for existence in this world, but not a slave and a mercenary. Neither our first father was a slave or a mercenary, nor our first son. For to whom would they be slaves and mercenaries? Slavery and mercenaryism appeared later: slavery came from the enmity of people among themselves, due to which they began to fight against each other and enslave each other, and mercenaryism - from poverty and shortcomings, which began to overcome the weakest because of the greed and selfishness of the strongest. Thus, both the slave and the mercenary came from the sin and evil that reigned among people, for without violence and poverty no one would be a slave or a mercenary. Who will want to be them when slaves and mercenaries do not do what they want and what they like, but what their masters want? The reason for this is the devil, an evil, intelligent force that has retreated from God. He spread anger among people and seduced them into loving her. And so they take arms against each other, thinking that they are satisfying their desires, and do not see that they are working for the devil and are in slavery to him. These trampling of each other, these thefts and seizures and all kinds of untruths are the essence of this slavery. Those who enter this rite of slavery become inhuman, proud and completely insensitive. They do not feel any compassion for others, they do not feel their plight, the fact that they are at work and in slavery to the devil. Without feeling this, they do not want deliverance; they don’t want it, and they don’t look for it. And all such, whether they are pagans and atheists, infidels or faithful Christians, because of this slavery to the devil, are part of the devil, far rejected from God, unable to abide in His house forever. Great strength is needed to free them from the hands of the devil, who enslaved them and kept them in his slavery. And there is no other such power and there cannot be, except the one Christ the Lord, Who is the power of God and the Father. So, whoever He frees is truly free, because he is pure, chaste, good, righteous, pious, philanthropic, compassionate, merciful, meek, compassionate, self-controlled - in a word, he is the person he should be. Those who are not like this are either dumb animals or demons, although in appearance they are Orthodox Christians. Such Christians are even more guilty of the most severe punishment, and Christ, who came to deliver them from slavery to the devil, benefits them in no way, not because He could not or did not want to deliver, but because they themselves do not want to be delivered and do not seek Him properly. This deliverance alone is true freedom, the attainment of which surpasses all human power. Why did Christ, this God, want to become a man and died for this alone, in order to free people from slavery to the devil. 2. Some people think that human nature is by nature passionate, by nature subject to passions, and as proof of this they point to anger and desire. But the matter is not as they say, for anger and desire were given by God to human nature not as passions, as they are now, but as good dispositions, and man received these benefits from the good God as signs showing him to be a rational creature. If anger and lust are given to dumb animals, then they are not given in the same meaning as they are given to man. And human flesh is flesh, but it is not of the same dignity as the flesh of beasts and foolish cattle. Anger and desire were given to man, but he was also given the mind, and while this mind was healthy, these movements remained in their order, namely: the desire rushed towards the mental blessings of God and lusted after them, and anger (through irritation, jealousy) again irritated this same desire and brought it into tension, so that with great zeal it longed for these divine blessings and, little by little, flowed grief, approached God and took delight in Him. But since our mind fell ill and lost the health that kept it in proper order, and, like a sick and damaged person, came out of its rank and was corrupted, and began, instead of thinking about heavenly blessings, to think only about worldly things, then for this reason it lusts for what is incongruous with it, and becomes angry unreasonably, and through this becomes like beasts and cattle. But a Christian who has become sound in mind by the grace of Christ again desires only God’s blessings, for which both anger (irritability, energy) and desire are given to human nature. The same Christian who is not like that has not yet become a Christian, and let him not deceive himself. Thus, anger and desire are not originally passions, but became such as a result of the loss of health in our minds. Because of this, anger became wordless and desire meaningless. But how did this happen? The soul, as an intelligent force, is single and simple and is not composed of different parts so that it could suffer as a result of any undue change in them - like a body composed of four elements, it necessarily suffers from excess or impoverishment of any of them beyond measure. A simple and uncomplicated soul cannot become sick and suffer in this way. How does she get sick and suffer? From a change in her thoughts and aspirations, when, being an intelligent force, she rushes towards wordless wishes and unreasonable anger. Why does this happen? This happens from outside influence. There are other mental forces, demons, which mentally approach the soul and tempt it, disturbing its natural movements, for it is always in motion, being by nature ever-moving. Thus, when the soul wants to mature correctly, demons create a certain mental darkness and prevent it from maturing correctly and infallibly, but accept ghosts and fantasies as the truth. They also outrage wishes, turning them into inappropriate things through the temptation of illusory benefits. This is how the first fall took place, and this is how people sin and go astray now. Because of Adam's crime, the powers of human nature, that is, the mind, desire, feeling, were upset. Why can he think, but he thinks wrong; may desire, but with unreasonable desires; may show zeal (anger, irritation, zeal), but it is meaningless. Because of this, his thoughts and thoughts, the way he thinks about what and how he imagines what, and what and how he feels, is all crooked and erroneous. Our enemy the devil with his minions of demons, who brought about the first fall, is mentally forced into this inner mood of ours, outrages it more and more and, keeping us in it, as if in some dark cloud, forces us to create in everything his desires for our own destruction. We are healed from such mental illness by the all-graceful bath of our Lord Jesus Christ, which restores all the abilities of the soul to its order and, giving them the proper direction, makes it possible for us to follow it with strength. So that it is clear how and where to follow, for this purpose, laws and rules are prescribed in the Gospel and the Apostle, according to which the ever-moving soul can bring into harmony and keep in order and order all the movements of its various forces, clearly seeing what is right and what is wrong in all respects. After long experience she has acquired the right to see and the right to walk, having repelled and driven far away from herself the devil, who constantly bothered her with his perverse suggestions, that is, after she has understood all the truth and is adorned with all goodness, and will always do only what is appropriate for her and delve into that - she finally attracts to herself the Lawgiver Himself - God, and He, Having come, he rests in it, fulfilling this wonderful promise of the Lord Savior, Who said: if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him; and we will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). And here is the secret of true spiritual life, which all the wisdom of this world could not understand, for this reason it is called wordless pasture, for the rational food of the soul is precisely this grace-filled spiritual mystery. 3. Each of us must know God, himself and the demons: know God that He is the Lord and Ruler of all, and that He alone can save; know yourself that you are powerless in mental warfare; demons, that they are our secret enemies and that they fight against us through ourselves, which is very strange. Just as for bodily vision, in order to accurately examine what it is looking at, four things are needed - healthy, without any damage to the eye, their purposeful movement and direction, a proportionate distance between them and the object, clean air and the light of the sun illuminating what is being observed, so for mental vision of the soul, the following are needed: a perfect mind, its purposeful movement and aspiration, or contemplation, as if by a bridle, held together by the fear of God, so that it does not go from him to inappropriate imaginations, and pure mental air, which would be illuminated by the true light that enlightens every person entering the world of virtues. This light penetrates everywhere and shines everywhere, and there is no barrier that could stop its illumination. With all this, however, for the souls of the unfaithful it is not visible and is visible only to those who are faithful to Christ. Truly faithful souls are those who, after holy and divine Baptism, do not in any way transgress a single commandment of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, and can therefore with a clear conscience sing with David, saying: having been guided by all Your commandments, I have hated every way of unrighteousness (Ps. 119:128). Thus, fidelity to the commandments serves as a line of division between the faithful and the unfaithful. For just as in every fulfillment of Christ’s commandment one sees faith and confession of Christ the Lord, so in every violation of His commandment there is unbelief in Him and renunciation of Him. To such faithful souls, who always unswervingly fulfill the commands and laws of the Lord, He, according to the measure of their faith and to the extent of their obedience to Him, gives pure and true mental vision. This vision of which I am speaking is knowledge by which they truly know what is truly good and what is not truly good, what is truly evil and what is not truly evil, so as not to look at the destruction of souls as salvation, and salvation as destruction, or not to regard truly evil as truly good, and vice versa, truly good as truly evil; but so that, just as when we see gold scattered, we run to pick it up, and when we see an abyss, we run from it, so as not to fall into it, so when we see what the will of God is, we strive towards it with desire, and when we see sin, we run from it, so that we do not fall into it and our bones, that is, the strength of our soul, are crushed, and we no longer become powerless to stand either in chastity or in righteousness, but having fallen, as weak and paralyzed, they did not begin to wallow in impurity and covetousness, not feeling their misfortune at all and not grieving over their sad state, but even more rejoicing at the fact that they were foolish and lost their minds. For just as in order to see visible creatures, sensory light is required, so in order to see mental things, intelligent light is required. Why are there two luminaries that shine: the sensual and visible luminary - the sun, giving light to the eyes of the body, so that they can see the sensual and visible, and the mental luminary - the Sun of righteousness, our Lord Jesus Christ, giving light to the mental eyes of the soul, so that mentally they can see the mental and invisible. And just as, if this sensual sun does not shine, it is impossible to see where the smooth and level places are, where the pure paths are, so if our intelligent Sun does not shine, it is impossible to see the rapids of evil and the smooth paths of truth, painted with the commandments of God. Therefore, if any Christian follows the path of evil and does only evil deeds, or mostly evil, he has not yet become a Christian, for a Christian, as soon as he is baptized, is immediately filled with divine light, which is why he is and is called enlightened. An enlightened person walks in the light and sees rapids and stumbling blocks, but whoever does not see them means he does not have light, is not enlightened: how can he be considered a Christian? If he says he sees it, he's lying. If I had seen it, I would not have fallen into the abyss of evil. He also sees, but he sees as unenlightened, that is, unbaptized. For even these distinguish good from evil, and, however, do not avoid evil, because they do not clearly see what good mainly consists of and what evil mainly consists of. Thus, anyone who does not clearly and unambiguously see what is good and what is evil is not yet a Christian. May such a one strive in lamentations, tears and fastings, in repentance and prayer to come to the true and perfect Light, enlightening every person coming into the world of virtues, so that He, having healed his intelligent eyes and strengthened the natural powers of the soul, would give him the opportunity to see the good, pleasing and perfect will of God and fulfill it with great readiness and warm desire. And in general, those who do not intelligently feel the divine power acceptable in the font of holy Baptism, which is called and is the bath of rebirth, true renewal and complete recreation of our fallen nature, such need to seek out holy and enlightening spiritual men, make a sincere confession to them, beg them to teach them what they should know and what to do as Christians, accept prayer from them (permissive for confession) and blessing with the laying on of their honest hands, and thus again receive Divine grace (renewal). For if the natural powers of the soul are not cleansed from filth and shame, with which they are filled up due to sins, and if they do not then receive proper healing, transformation and strengthening, then there is no way to fulfill the will of God with them. The sick and infirm must first be healed and strengthened in order to be fit for service, because as long as it hurts, it is not fit for anything. Due to ignorance of what we have just talked about, many Christians, despite the fact that they strive in great feats, still remain weak and sick and, it turns out, work in vain. Many die uncorrected and unhealed, and there, of course, they must experience the fire of eternal condemnation, from which may we all be delivered by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, together with His beginningless Father and the Most Holy Spirit forever. Amen. You might be interested in: