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(1) No one should be told that in modern times it is impossible for anyone who wants to rise to the heights of virtue and imitate the ancient saints. 1. Every day I hear many Christians say that if we were in the time of the Apostles and were worthy to see Christ the Lord, like they were, then we too would be holy, like them. And they do not know that the One who spoke then during the time of the Apostles, He also speaks now throughout the whole world. And not only this, but He is the same in His actions now as He was in that ancient time, as He Himself attests, saying that just as the Father is always in the Son, so is the Son in the Father, that as My Father always does, so I always do. But perhaps someone will say that it is not at all the same thing to see Christ the Lord Himself bodily, as the Apostles saw Him then, and to hear only His words, as we hear now and learn from others everything that is said in the Gospels about Christ and His kingdom. And I also say that what is now is not at all equal to what was then, but that it is incomparably greater than that, and more conveniently leads us to the most perfect faith than then, as we saw the Lord bodily and heard His word. For then our Lord appeared as a simple, humble and humble man, as the ungrateful Jews recognized Him, and now He is preached to us by the true God. Then, dealing with people physically, He ate with tax collectors and sinners, and now He sits at the right hand of God the Father and feeds, as we believe, the whole world, and not only that, but we believe and say that without Him nothing happens. Then the most insignificant people humiliated Him, saying: Is this not Tekton, the son of Mary? (Mark 6:3), and now kings and princes worship Him as the Son of the true God and the true God, and He glorified and glorifies all those who worship Him in spirit and truth, although He sometimes punishes them if they sin, in order to make them from those who are poor and weak, iron and strong, above all the tongues that are under heaven. Then they revered Him as one of the people, corruptible and mortal, and it was great and wonderful if anyone was His, when He, being the formless and invisible God, invariably and immutably took on the form of a servant through taking on the human body and in everything was visible as a man who had nothing special from all other people - for he ate, drank, slept, toiled, sweated and did everything human, except sin; It was, I say, great and wonderful if anyone recognized Him as such with full faith as the Creator of heaven and earth and everything that is in them. Why, when Peter confessed: You are the Son of the living God, the Lord Christ blessed him, saying: Blessed are you Simon, var Jonah, for you have not shown flesh and blood, that is, so that you, seeing the truth, should say so, but My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16:16-17). But now there is nothing marvelous in this, when the Lord Jesus is preached to those who exist in glory. I even believe that whoever now, listening to Christ, daily calling to him in the Holy Gospels and declaring the will of His blessed Father, does not obey Him with fear and trembling and does not observe what He commands him, even if he had been then, had seen Christ Himself and listened to His teaching, would not have believed in Him, I’m afraid that he would even begin to revile and slander Him. This is what those who are more dense and coarse in mind say, but what do people who are more respectable and respectable say? These say that if we had lived in the times of the holy fathers, then we too would have labored. For, looking at their good life and exploits, they would imitate them. And now, by treating the lazy and careless, we reluctantly conform to them and together with them we destroy ourselves. But they, as I see, do not know that we are in a safer haven than the holy fathers. Then there were many heresies, many false Christs, many traders of Christ, many false apostles, many false teachers, who, wandering around towns and villages, boldly sowed the tares of the evil devil and deceived many, entangling them with cunning words and dragging them into the destruction of their souls. That this is true, you can see from the lives of Saints Anthony, Euthymius and Sava. It is written about Saint Anthony that when persecution began, he, fearing that someone would renounce the faith out of fear, was forced to leave the desert and, moving among the tortured, inspire them with his presence. Again, isn’t it written about Saint Euthymius and Saint Sava, how much they fought for the faith and the Church against the heresies that existed then? And how many monks were then seduced and carried away by heretics? Also, during the time of St. Stephen the New, how severe and cruel was the persecution? What storm and what waves disturbed not only the monks, but also all Christians? When I remember what happened before, during the time of Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom and other saints after them, then I reproach myself and grieve for those who, without thinking about all this, speak the above speeches. They probably do not know that all the past time was much worse than the present, full of troubles and the snares of the evil one. It is true that even now there are many heretics, wolves, asps and serpents moving among us, but they do not have the power to openly attack us, but hide in the darkness of their malice and wickedness, and only those who themselves enter their darkness are delighted and devoured. But for those who walk in the light of the Divine Scriptures and follow the path of God’s commandments, they do not dare to come forward, and if they see them walking anywhere, they run from them like from fire. But what kind of heretics are you thinking about, I say? About the Eunomians? Or Arians? Or the Doukhobors? Or the Sabellians? Or the Apollinarians, or the Dioscorians? - No, I am not talking about these wicked and atheists, and not about another one of the other heretics who appeared like darkness, but disappeared from the brilliance of the luminous holy fathers, in whom the grace of the Holy Spirit abundantly shone and dispersed the darkness of the said heresies, and whose God-wise writings even to this day shine more than the rays of the sun, and no one dares to contradict them. But I am talking about those heretics who say that in our present times there is no one among us who could keep the commandments of the Gospel and be, as the holy fathers were, firstly, faithful and active, for faith is revealed in deeds, just as the likeness of a face appears in a mirror; and then to be contemplative, or a God-viewer, that is, to see God through enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, or by receiving the Spirit, by His grace to see the Son with the Father. So those who consider this impossible are heretics and have not just one particular heresy, but, one might say, all heresies, since this heresy surpasses and eclipses all others in its wickedness and blasphemy, and whoever says so degrades (ruins to the ground. - Ed.) all the Divine Scriptures. It seems to me that such a vain person is saying: the Holy Gospel is now proclaimed in vain, the works of Basil the Great and our other holy fathers are read in vain or even written in vain. For if it is impossible for us to do and keep what God and all the saints say, who first did it, and then wrote it and left it for us to learn, then why did they bother to write it then? Why is it read in churches now? Is it not obvious that those who say this are closing up heaven, which Christ the Lord opened for us with His descent to earth, and are blocking the ascent to heaven, which the same Christ the Lord renewed for us? For when God, who is above all, standing on the mountain, as if at the gates of heaven, and looking down, and being seen as faithful Christians, calls through the Holy Gospel: come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28), these fighters against God, or, better to say, antichrists, cry out: this is impossible, impossible. The Lord Christ Himself loudly denounces such people, saying: woe to you, scribes and hypocrites, woe to you, blind leaders of the blind, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven from men: for you do not enter, nor leave those who enter to be taken in (Matt. 23:13, 24). The Lord clearly pleases those who cry and shed tears now, in real life, but these say: it is impossible now to cry and shed tears every day. O insensibility! O doorless lips, emitting wicked voices against the Most High God and Christ Jesus, our Lord, and into the mouth of the predatory wolf, the devil, pushing against the sheep of Christ, for whom the Only Begotten Son of God shed His most pure blood! Truly the Godfather David prophesies good things about such people: the sons of humanity, the teeth of their weapons and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword (Ps. 56:5). Tell me, man, why is it impossible to cry every day? In what other ways did the saints shine in the world and become luminaries for it? If this had been impossible, then they would not have been able to cope with it, because they were people, like us, and had nothing special before us except good will and zeal for all good, patience, humility and love for God. So acquire this for yourself, and your soul, instead of petrified and bitter, will become a source of tears; if you don’t want to lament and sigh, then at least don’t say that this is impossible. He who speaks thus denies purification, for since the ages it has been unheard of for any soul that has sinned after Baptism to be purified without tears; Meanwhile, God, who richly gives through the holy Baptism of the Holy Spirit, has taken away every tear from the face of the earth. However, even during holy Baptism, as I read in the writings of the holy fathers, some of those baptized in adulthood were greatly overwhelmed by the grace of the Holy Spirit and shed abundant tears, not bitter, but sweet, not difficult to squeeze out, but freely flowing without difficulty and pouring quiet peace into the heart. Those who have been worthy to experience such tears will recognize as true what I said, and will confirm it, as confirmed by the testimony of St. Gregory the Theologian, who, having said: let each of us bring this and that, the other that, and, having listed many things, finally cries out: “all the same - tears, all purity, all the ascent to the mountain and prostration to the one before.” So, in these words, did the Theologian separate some so that they would cry, and others so that they would not cry? And about those he said that it was possible for them, and about these that it was impossible for them to cry? Or perhaps, as you say, that there are those who are naturally hard-hearted and cannot come into contrition and cry - doesn’t the Great Gregory say the same? - Yes, it won’t. It is unnatural for a person not to cry, sob and shed tears; neither this saint nor any other saint said or wrote. And that it is natural for all people to cry, let the most born babies teach you, who, as soon as they leave their mother’s womb and fall to the ground, cry and thereby show that they are alive, and those who do not cry, give the idea that they are not alive. From this it is clear that as soon as a person is born, he already naturally has crying and tears. Our holy father Simeon Studit used to say that a person must live his whole real life crying, and die crying, if he wants to be saved and lead into a blessed life. Crying, which appears immediately after a person is born, shows that tears are inseparable companions of real life. Just as food and drink are necessary for the body, so tears are necessary for the soul; so if someone does not cry every day - I don’t say every hour, lest I make it aggravate - it clearly shows that his soul is in disorder and is perishing, as if exhausted by famine. So, if, as has been proven, crying and tears are companions of human nature, then let no one be denied this natural good; Let no one deprive himself of this good through laziness and negligence; Let no one be hard-hearted out of malice and deceit, and out of pride of soul, and let no one allow himself to fall into the state of the cruelty of a stone; but let everyone be jealous, I ask you, with all zeal and diligence to hold crying and tears, as the commandment of God, and to keep them with attention in your heart, protecting them there with poverty, humility, simplicity and gentleness of soul, patience with temptations and unceasing teaching in the Divine Scriptures, always repenting and remembering your sins - and let no one be negligent about this the saving work of crying. If anyone neglects this, becoming lazy and despairing of his salvation, at least let him not say that this is impossible even for those who are jealous and careful. He who says this closes the gates of the kingdom of heaven, for whoever says that it is impossible to cry and lament, clearly affirms that it is impossible to purify oneself, and without purification no one is saved, no one is pleased with the Lord, no one will see God. If such are the consequences for those who do not cry according to the commandment of the Lord, then how, tell me, will this heresy not be worse than all other heresies? But in addition, from such wisdom it also follows that the most embodied economy of God was accomplished in vain and without benefit, and the preaching of the Apostles is fruitless and useless, and the announcements and teachings of the holy fathers, which always move us to tears, are also, in their opinion, in vain. For those who philosophize in this way, all Divine Scripture, as I see, has become useless. They stopped their ears and became deaf, like asps, and I think they believe all their salvation in one external and visible Christian order, and some of them are priests and monks - in black robes and kamilavkas, or even in large beards and long hair. Exalted by such good looks, they dare to put themselves among those being saved. But let them dare, let them be comforted by all this, as well as by the way of their wisdom. We will appear naked before the judgment seat of Christ, so that everyone may receive what he has done with his body, either good or evil (2 Cor. 5:10). Thus, every day the Divine Scripture loudly calls to us, although they do not want to hear it. If we appear naked before the judgment seat of Christ, then where will these vestments be with which we now cover and adorn our bodies? Where are these shiny robes? Where are the elegant kamilavkas? Where are the fancy boots? Where are the decorated belts? Where are the great performances? Where are the elegant greetings? Where is the precedence at gatherings? Where are the multi-course meals? Where is our vanity, pride and lust for power? Where are the spacious cells, decorated as if they were newlyweds’ chambers? Where are the uncontrollable riotous laughter, timeless conversations and idle talk? Where is our shrine, how are we called and how do we love to be called? Where are the flatterers who call us saints (saying: Holy Father), and trouble the soles of our feet? Where are the ranks that make us rush to get ahead of each other? Where is the boasting of kinship and acquaintance with the authorities? Where is the worldly glory and the adornment of the title of sage of this age? Where is the rhetorical language from which flowery speech flows like a source? Where then, or, better to say, where now is the sage, where is the scribe, where is the co-questioner of this century, so that we can sit together and confer about that terrible day and hour, investigate everything and judge both with ourselves and with the Divine Scripture, in order to definitely determine what can help us then, and then undertake to do it with all zeal and zeal? Truly, my beloved brethren, great need and distress, great fear and trembling will seize at that hour those who, like me, are careless and careless here. But blessed and blessed is he who now considers himself the lowest of every creature, humbles himself and laments, weeps and weeps days and nights before God, because he will stand in good adornment at His right hand. Blessed is the one who, having heard about all this, will not only groan, meanwhile putting off correction from now until tomorrow and continuing to spend the time of his life uselessly, but as soon as he hears the Lord calling: repent, he immediately begins to repent. For such a one will meet with mercy as an obedient and grateful servant, and will not be condemned with the disobedient, but in this life will receive forgiveness of sins, and, clothed with the power of grace, will overcome all passions and succeed in every virtue, and in the next century he will be worthy of unspeakable blessings, together with those who have always pleased God, which may we all receive by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom the Father and The Holy Spirit has power, honor and worship, now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen. You might be interested in: