Слово 6

(1) What is sickness in the body, is sin in the soul. – (2) Just as we have a bodily sense, it is necessary for the soul to have a spiritual sense and feel both its illness and health. – (3) Whoever does not have a sense of spirituality and does not feel whether his soul is sick or healthy is still not a Christian, although he is called a Christian, for the direct fruit of the Christian faith is the health of the soul. 1. As illness is in the body, sin is in the soul. When the body is sick, the patient no longer cares about anything else, neither about wealth, nor about fame, nor about pleasures, but only about healing the body and restoring health. Likewise, when the soul is sick from sin, all care should be directed neither to anything else, nor to wealth, nor to fame, nor to pleasure, but only to healing the mental illness and returning the soul to health. What will I say, the all-damned one, in my justification, on the day of the Last Judgment, if then my soul turns out to be sick with many and various diseases? Why didn’t you take any care for the health of your soul, but all your life you worked and worried only about wealth, fame and pleasure? 2. The reason for this, it seems, is that the sinner does not know about the illnesses of his soul and does not feel in real life what evil they cause to the soul; not knowing and not feeling this, he is deceived and, believing that everything is fine with him, does not worry at all about the health of his soul. And is it not because a sinner, that is, a mentally ill person, is proud because he is insensitive and does not feel the evil caused to him by his sins? And what else? The more insensitive someone is, the more proud he is, as the divine David says: I will take away the pride of those who hate You (Ps. 73:23). Being proud, he does not even allow the thought that he is sick, and repays with hatred anyone who would tell him about his illness or offer healing, while a true Christian, feeling the wounds and illnesses of his soul, seeks a doctor and willingly submits to his healing. When our body gets sick, we feel pain and, feeling it, we seek medicine, so that we may be healed. If we did not have feelings, we would not feel pain; If we didn’t feel pain, we wouldn’t feel the need for medicine. The same should be true in the soul, that is, so that with its spiritual feeling it should feel its spiritual illness. But it happens differently - he doesn’t feel it. Without feeling the disease, he is not burdened by it and does not seek treatment. That is why the sinner, without feeling pain in his soul, lives cheerfully and does not grieve over his sins. Crying is a worthy state, for while he is like this, he is incurable and, as incurable, he is lost, hated by God and the holy Angels. Therefore, we must, as much as possible, take care to come to our senses with our souls, to grieve over our sins and to seek the doctor of souls and bodies, the Lord Jesus Christ, and, falling to Him, beg Him to heal the illnesses of our souls. These diseases of the soul are the lusts of wealth, fame and pleasure, due to which people are angry, vexatious, indifferent to good, idle, covetous, predatory, unrighteous, vain, proud, envious, misanthropic, vindictive. What do you say about all this?! Are these mental illnesses small and insignificant?! And is it blessed for a soul who believes in Christ not to feel them and not to grieve over them? Shouldn’t she, on the contrary, cry and weep and let out pitiful cries, so that our Doctor, seeing this, would take pity on her and let her see and feel her illnesses? For until she sees them and feels them, the almighty Doctor Himself cannot heal her. And what is healing the soul? There is a certain wondrous change in the soul, according to which the healed soul begins to consider the evil lusts, which were previously so desirable to it, as an abomination and an infection, and for this it hates them not in itself, but through the grace of the Physician who healed it, Whom it then always thanks and about Whom it loudly preaches to everyone, crying out: this is the betrayal of the right hand of the Most High (Ps. 77:11). But for the Doctor to come, one must call Him; to call, you need to see the disease and feel it. 3. Just as a person recognizes and feels his external state, namely, whether he is weak or strong, healthy or unhealthy, happy or unhappy, suffers an insult or receives a benefit - just as he knows and feels all this, so every Christian should see and feel his inner state, whether he is healthy or sick at heart, happy or unhappy, prosperous or suffering. And if he does not feel this internally within himself, then he bears the name of Christian in vain, and although he is called that, he is not really one. For if he were a true Christian and had communion with the Lord Christ, he would have participated in His life and light, since Christ is life and light. Consequently, he would see himself and feel everything that is his, because seeing and feeling is a natural property of the living, so whoever does not have this is dead. Thus, whoever does not see and does not feel spiritually the good and evil that comes into him and leaves him is still dead and not enlightened by the rays of the intelligent Sun of truth. Let such a one quickly try and fall mentally to Jesus Christ, begging Him to take pity on him, to revive him and enlighten him, to let him come to his senses and know his condition, and then from Him alone may he seek salvation for himself. For even God Himself, who can create everything, cannot save an insensitive person. Man was created consisting of two natures, mental and sensory, soul and body. Why was it necessary for him to undergo double healing after he fell into a great illness after the great health he had before? Illness is a loss of health, and a person who became ill as a result of a crime became ill by nature. A disease that has taken root in nature and become natural is irreplaceable, like nature. Judge now, how great a force is required to change a sick nature into health, when this is the same as placing it above the nature as it is in it in its present state? To indicate this, God-inspired Scripture was given to us, which is for us medical science. The art of medicine, which heals the human body, cannot in any way heal the initial root disease, that is, corruption, but uses all its methods only to heal secondary diseases, when a naturally sick body comes out of this naturally painful state and falls into some kind of secondary disease, dropsy, for example, or a fever; this healing does not come from the letters with which the doctor prescribes the medicine, but from the use of what is prescribed to them; They are prescribed various substances, which, with varying healing power and effectiveness, are all homogeneous, however, with the diseased body, so that they can influence this body and heal it. So, if the art of medicine, having exhausted all the methods of healing and having used all the healing substances, only comes to the point of healing secondary diseases of the body and putting the diseased body only in the state that preceded this disease, which is a naturally painful state of decay, then where can we get the strength to heal this last fundamental disease? She is above nature. In order to heal sick human nature and restore in it the true health inherent in it according to its original dispensation, this requires supernatural and essential power. What kind of supernatural and essential force is this that can restore us to our original health? This is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who, in order to heal like with like, deigned to assume healthy human nature. And so, when someone cleaves to Christ by faith, then Christ is united with him both in the Divinity and in healthy humanity, and through such unity restores in him the original true health. But just as when healing the body, restoring health in it is not the letters with which the medicine is prescribed, but the power of the prescribed substances, so in relation to the healing of the soul, its healing and saving influence on it is carried out not by the letters of the Divine Scripture, but by the power of Christ, Who is prescribed in the Scripture. For the kingdom of God is not in words, but in power (1 Cor. 4:20). For all Divine Scripture, Old and New, leads naturally sick human nature to Jesus Christ, Who is the only Physician of our souls and bodies. Whoever remains unparticipated in His Divine grace remains unhealed, and whoever partakes of His grace, his soul ceases to be sick. For the fruit of our Christian faith is the health of the soul. Then God became man, so that the soul through Him could perceive its health. Consequently, anyone whose soul is not healthy has not yet become a real Christian. The soul is made healthy by the power of God and the light of grace given by Christ for faith. The soul is invisible, and it is not visible whether it is healthy or not, not only for others, but often for itself. But there are visible signs by which her condition is obvious to everyone. I will point out the most prominent one, the ordering and correction of the five senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. When someone keeps them in order and wields them intelligently, it is clear that his soul is in its order, healthy, and the person is then a real rational animal and acts according to reason and reasoning, and not like senseless animals, dominated by their feelings. Mastery of the five senses seems to be a very simple matter; but I will tell you that whoever rules over the five senses rules over the entire universe and everything that is in it, for with us everything happens from them and through them. But whoever is such, he himself is ruled by God and completely submits to the will of God in everything. Thus, the kingdom of God is established and the original order is restored, for man in the beginning was determined to be the king of the world. This is a feature of the image of God and likeness. Thus, whoever does not control the five senses is not in the image of God and likeness; and even if he absorbed all the wisdom of the world and knew everything that exists, the sentence about him is not heavy: be like the foolish cattle and become like them (Ps. 48:13). He lives to blaspheme God, the Creator of all things, as it is written: The name of God is blasphemed among the nations by you (Rom. 2:24). And the name of Christ is blasphemed by such, and the Christian faith is reviled by infidels who say: if the Christian God were the true God, then Christians would not be the same as us; Meanwhile, many of them live much worse than us, in untruths and shameful lusts. May the grace of Christ enlighten us, may it give us health to our souls, and may it give us the strength to hold the five senses in our power and live as we should, so that the name of God is glorified through us. To him be glory and worship now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: