Слово 82

(1) About life-giving mortification. – (2) That the acquisition of virtues is bought with blood. – (3) What are the abodes of virtues? – (4) He who does not ascend into the kingdom of heaven in the proper order will not enter it. – (5) Those who are perfect are characterized by joy and gladness, not tears. – (6) And rivers of theology flow into them. – (7) One should not accept leadership over the people without proof of the grace of God. - (8) What is the main task of those who have authority over the people, and how should intelligent sheep be shepherded by shepherds? 1. Not everyone who hears about the life-giving death of Christ Jesus our God, and about the wondrous action that always comes from him in those perfect in virtue and knowledge, already knows what it is, although it seems to him that he knows it. It is known only by those who, by their very deed, clearly understood the word spoken by the holy Apostle Paul: time has ceased, and so on, and even those who have, will have their wives as if they had not. And those who weep, as if they were not weeping; and those who rejoice, as if they were not rejoicing; and those who buy, as if not containing; and those who demand this world, but they do not demand it. For the image of this world is passing away (1 Cor. 7:29–31). And one more thing: as something that is dying, yet we live... as having nothing, but containing everything (2 Cor. 6:9-10). Do not simply skim through these words, haphazardly, thinking that you immediately understood the power already hidden in them, but imagine, beloved, more precisely the inner state of your soul, and from visible things I will lead you to see the meaning of what was said, just pay good attention to what I am saying. He who has died and lies dead does not feel any of the visible things. He who has nothing is deprived of everything, needs everything and desires everything. And again, he who has everything, what else could he desire from the things of the world? For he already has everything, and there is nothing left that he would like to acquire. “But blessed is he who sought this by deed, and understood, and saw, and learned it by experience, for these words are not empty words. For just as on the roads and fields there are houses, cities, and royal chambers in their places, so on the path leading to the kingdom of heaven, the commandments of God and virtues are in their places. 2. And so I want to reveal, as much as I can, what is said about the commandments of God and about the virtues - about these visible (on the way to the kingdom) buildings - how great and how beautiful they are. However, how can one who reads about this understand and imagine these things from just words? No way. If he cannot even imagine, then how can he acquire any of them, especially when they are acquired by purchase for a certain price? What must be given to buy them is not gold or silver, but blood. Each of us who wants buys them, one after another, with his own blood. And truly, if someone does not give himself up to the slaughter, like a sheep, for every even smallest virtue, and does not shed his blood for it, he will never acquire it. So God, in his economy, ordained that we should buy eternal life through arbitrary death. – Don’t you want to die an arbitrary death and live eternal life? - And now you are dead. 3. But let’s see what and what are the essence of the dwellings of virtues, for which everyone must shed his blood in order to acquire them? – The first such abode is blessed humility, as Christ the Lord said: blessed are the poor in spirit, for among them is the kingdom of heaven. He who wishes to enter this abode of humility, and through it into the kingdom of heaven, unless he first gives himself up to the slaughter, like a sheep, bound hand and foot, and to sacrifice himself at the hands of anyone who would want to slaughter him, and unless he dies a perfect death through the mortification of his will, will never enter it and will not acquire it. If he doesn’t get this, he won’t get anything else. For anyone who abandons this virtue will be unable to succeed in any other. The Lord ordained that the virtues should follow one another in their own order and gradually. Imagine in your mind that virtues in people’s lives are like certain islands in the middle of the sea, separated from one another by water, but connected by bridges and thus interconnected. The first of these virtues is blessed humility, into which one who has entered through the western door through repentance and has spent a sufficient time in it leaves through the eastern door and, having then crossed the bridge, enters the abode of lamentation, and after staying there for quite some time, he is washed, cleansed and clothed in the beauty of lamentation, runs over and from there into the thirst and hunger of righteousness, that is, into greed and I thirst for every virtue. Then he goes to the chamber of mercy and benevolence and, having passed through it, or, better to say, going deeper and deeper into it, he finds the royal treasury of purity, which, having entered, he sees the invisible King of glory sitting inside him. This chamber is the body, the royal treasury - the soul, with which when God unites for the sake of fulfilling His commandments, makes it all divine light and God through unity with Himself and His grace. And only everyone who follows the designated path of virtues comes to this divine state. It is absolutely impossible to enter this procession from the other side or, bypassing one or another dwelling, by some artificial means to move to the next one. It is exactly as it is said that the Lord Christ determined to enter the kingdom of heaven - and it is impossible for this to be otherwise. If the limits of the sea remain motionless, and the sea has no opportunity to emerge from them, how much more will that which the Lord determined to be one way and not another in the matter of our salvation remain motionless and unchangeable? 4. In another comparison, the ascent of those who strive to ascend to heaven is like climbing a ladder, which usually has steps. Here, so that one is jealous of the ascent more than others and quickly ascends the ladder, surpassing them, is our business, the matter of everyone’s will. But to begin not from the first step and then ascend from one to another, in the order in which they are placed, but, bypassing the first, directly step on the second or third, is completely impossible for people. And those who try to deviate from this order of ascension work in vain. And one more thing: just as it is impossible to ascend to the upper dwellings without a ladder or to enter the royal inner peace, where the king practices and receives his people, without first passing through the front hall, so it is impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven for one who does not follow the path of virtues in the order indicated by us. Such people walk outside the royal path and are in delusion, without noticing it. Prayer. But, oh Lord! You are the Guide to those who have gone astray, and the unforgettable Path to those who come to You, return us all (from the crossroads), lead us to the ladder leading to You, and with Your omnipotent hand guide us to begin climbing it. Grant us the strength to rise from the ground and step on the first step, so that we realize that we have begun the ascent and have risen a little from the ground. For first it is fitting for us to ascend a little to You, so that You may descend a lot to us, our good Master, and unite with us. Show us, Lord, the outer door to Thy kingdom, so that we can push into it with patience until it opens, for the sake of our arbitrary death - so that when, having entered the vestibule, we begin to push at each inner door and open them one after another, and You, the many-hearted and many-merciful God, hearing our groaning appeals and our emphasis on the chest, quickly descended to us from the upper of Your chambers, so that we would hear the steps of Your all-pure feet and understand that You are opening the doors that exist between us and You, which are closed for us sinners, and, having come to us, asked: who is striking the doors here? We, answering with weeping and sobbing, said with fear and joy: it is we, Master, we, unworthy, poor, rejected and indecent servants of Yours, we, who hitherto walked along the crossroads and wandered through the mountains, wilds and abysses, we, who foolishly desecrated holy Baptism, we, who did not keep the promises we made, we, who ran away from You and those who willfully went over to Your enemy and the accuser of our souls. Now, remembering Your love for mankind and Your goodness, we ran away from him with great difficulty and flowed to You with great fear and trembling. Forgive us, Lord of all, and do not be angry with us, but have mercy and pity on us sinners. Open to us, Lord, and do not remember our iniquities and our ingratitude. Hear us, Thy servants, so that, having become faint-hearted, we do not turn back, for for a long time we have been standing here en masse (knocking - Ed.), and before that we worked a lot, pushing into the outer doors of Thy kingdom. Have pity on us and open to us, O Lord, who loves mankind by nature. If, opening little by little, You finally open to us completely the doors of Your mercy, who, seeing You, will not tremble? Who will not fall before You with fear and trembling and seek Your mercy? Who, seeing how You, who have around You myriads of myriads of Angels and thousands of thousands of Archangels, Thrones and Powers, left them all there, grief, and descended to us, opened the doors to us, met us and received us with cordiality, falling on our necks and kissing us. - Who, I say, seeing this, will not become beside himself with amazement, become as if dead, will not dry out and will not be spilled like water and with his bones? Who will not cry day and night, thinking about the abyss of Your love for mankind and Your goodness and seeing the glory and radiance of Your face? Glory be to You, who made this possible! Be honor and glory to You, who deigned to be visible to us and enter into living communication with us! Glory be to You, by Your great compassion, revealing and appearing to us, while by nature You are invisible to the very Angels! Glory be to You for your unspeakable mercy, by which You deign to dwell and walk in us for the sake of our repentance! O greatness of glory inexplicable! O abundance of love! He who contains all things dwells in corruptible and mortal man, so that everything in him is then preserved by the power of God who dwells in him! Oh, an amazing miracle - both the deeds and the unimaginable mysteries of the incomprehensible God! Mortal man consciously carries within himself, like light, God, who created all things and this very man who bears Him - carries within himself as an inexpressible, unspeakable, qualityless, quantityless, formless, substanceless, formless treasure, shaped only by indescribable beauty, marvelous and all-simple, like light - one that is above all light! - And such a person, concentrating entirely within himself, rotates, however, among us, not being known by anyone from those who have intercourse with him! 5. And who is able to describe the joy that fills such a person? And is there anything else that could be wished for? What king is not more blessed and more glorious? What world, or how many worlds are not richer? And what could he sometimes lack? It is truly impossible for him to lack in any good that is from God. But you, brother, who have been deemed worthy to become such, you who have all of God dwelling within you, take good care not to do or say anything unworthy of His holy will; otherwise He will immediately withdraw from you, and you will lose the treasure hidden within you. Honor Him as much as you can, and do not bring into His dwelling anything that is displeasing to Him and alien to His nature, so that He does not become angry with you and run away, leaving you empty. Do not talk too much before Him and do not make requests to Him without reverent composure. Do not think within yourself and do not say: let me show Him the abundant warmth and great zeal of love, so that He may accept my good will, and may He know how much I love and honor Him; because before you think so, He already knows your thoughts, and nothing is hidden from Him. Don’t try to hold Him with your mental hands yet, for He is ungraspable, and as soon as you dare to grab Him or even think about holding Him, you will no longer find anything inside yourself. He will immediately move away from you and become imperceptible to you. Then, if, lamenting, tormenting and beating yourself, you begin to repent and cry a lot, you will not receive any benefit. Truly so, for He is joy and does not agree to enter a house where they are sad and mourning, just as the industrious bee does not tolerate a place filled with smoke. But if you arrange yourself with carelessness and devotion to His will, then He will again be found within you. Then leave your Master to rest serenely in your soul, as on some kind of bed, and do not begin to say to yourself that if I do not cry, then He will turn away from me, as from a negligent and despiser. If God wanted you, who had reached perfection, to cry like someone who is still at the stage of repentance cries, then He would have seen you from afar, or completely hidden from you, or illuminated you from afar, and thus gave you and irritated you to cry for the purification and improvement of your house. But now, after repentance and cleansing, which you received through tears, He came into you to give you peace from your labors and sighs and to fill you with joy and gladness instead of sorrow. Stand straight, not with your body, but with the movements and aspirations of your soul. Establish quiet silence within yourself, for the King of kings is coming to your house. Say sternly to all the doorkeepers of your house, that is, to your feelings: The King is coming; Stand kindly at the door, stand still and watch with great fear, so that no one comes to the door and begins to knock, and so that no one’s voice passes inside, neither from near nor from afar. Take good care that no one deceives you and sneaks in secretly, and the King does not immediately leave us again and does not leave in a hurry. - Say so, and stand in the joy and joy of your soul, looking inside yourself at your indescribable Master, who deigned to be indescribably described in you, and contemplate His beauty, incomparable with anything. Contemplating His inconceivably holy face, unapproachable for the Angels, and for the Archangels, and for all the ranks of heaven, be amazed, rejoice and, spiritually jumping, rejoice, listening, however, to Him with reverence, in order to hear what He commands you to say or do. Pay attention to what He tells you. He has no need to demand anything from His servants for His own rest, as earthly kings have, because He lacks nothing, and if He does not enrich His servants in advance, He does not enter their house. 6. So, since He lacks nothing, as I said, but enriched you and made you lacking by His coming to you, then listen, so that you know what He is saying within you, Who inseparably came from the bosom of His blessed Father, descended from heaven even to your insignificance. For you cannot find and think that He ever did this as if in passing. No, our good and philanthropic Master usually does this for the salvation of many others. So, if you honor Him, accept Him and give Him a place and peace within yourself, then you know well that you will hear His ineffable secrets from the treasures of the Spirit. Not falling to the breasts of the Lord Christ, as His beloved disciple John once fell, but having the whole word of God inside your breasts, you will theologize the theology new and old and you will understand well all the theologies that have been spoken and written until now, and you will become an organ of the Spirit with good accord, emitting melodies more pleasant than any music. But if you allow sorrow to come from somewhere and enter your house, joy will immediately flee. If you allow anger or irritation to enter, the Quiet and Meek One will immediately leave. If you allow hatred and enmity towards someone to enter, He who is called and is self-existent and hypostatic Love will immediately flee. If you allow strife or envy to approach, immediately the kind and good God will become invisible, for He cannot tolerate this. If He notices that wickedness or busybodies are walking around your house with curiosity, and you do not quickly drive them away with anger, but meekly accept these evils that He hates, while you allow them to approach Him, then He will not notify you in advance when He will move away from you, Simple, Gentle and Inquisitive, but will immediately leave you without allowing you to notice. If you, too, who have been honored sincerely (in the same way. - Ed.) to unite with such a Master, see such glory and acquire such wealth, I mean the kingdom of heaven (which is God Himself), take care that none of the above-mentioned passions enter the house of your soul, and try in every possible way to bring the King great peace from them; But if you turn your face, that is, your mind, in the other direction and converse with others, turning your back to the unapproachable God, to Whom all ranks of angels look with fear and trembling, then won’t He, in all justice, immediately leave you as a despiser and unworthy? But He is humane, you say. And I say that too. But He is philanthropic towards those who feel His philanthropy, honor Him and thank Him as it should be. If you, placing His all-delighting love in nothing, love something else and with that you completely connect all the aspirations of your soul, and begin to delight in some other sweetness, or food, or drink, or clothing, or some beautiful face, or gold, or silver, or something else, and your soul desires that one and is overcome by the love of that, then is it possible that God, naturally pure and who made you so by the grace of the Holy Spirit continued to be in fellowship and treat you when your heart turned to something else, and did not immediately leave you? “It goes without saying that He will definitely leave you.” 7. Let us now assume that you will not do anything that I have said, but you will drive away from yourself all passion, all evil lust, all partiality and natural love for relatives and every person and, acting in this way, you will finally achieve perfect sinlessness and purity, as we presented above, and you will accept into yourself God, who exists above all heavens; as a result of which you will not be disturbed by any passion and you will no longer have any inclination or love for anything, but you will always begin to abide with God, having your mind constantly sorrowful in His heavenly kingdom. Let us further assume that while you are in this state, someone will suddenly call you and lead you into some city, where there are a lot of people, houses, decorated and spacious chambers, where the churches are large and beautiful, bishops, priests, the king with the whole synclite of nobles and bodyguards. Then (I’m skipping over all the other methods that you yourself can use to obtain the bishopric and care for the people), then, I say, all these, that is, the king, and the nobles, and the whole multitude of the people, will begin with many tears to invite and ask you to take upon yourself the care of their souls, so that you can shepherd them and use your teaching - and you, having not received a signal to do so from God, will despise Him, who has made you worthy of grace. co-reign with Him, and leaving the heavenly and eternal blessings He has given you, you will descend to these impermanent and temporary ones and connect with those who invited you to shepherd them. What do you think? Would it really not be righteous if God, when you do this, leaves you to enjoy only these temporary benefits that you desired, depriving you of spiritual benefits both in this life and in the next? Of course not. Even if God Himself commanded you to take upon yourself the shepherding of human souls, you should, falling before Him, cry and say with great fear and sorrow: Sovereign Lord! How can I leave the sweetness of being alone with You and go into that hectic and difficult life? Hey, Lord! Do not be angry with me, Thy servant, and from such a height of Thy glory do not overthrow me into that disastrous chaos. No, my Lord, do not deprive me of such Thy light and do not bring poor me into such darkness. Or have I sinned in something before You, Lord, without knowing it, and for this You again return me to that chaos from which You, in Your great compassion, humanely extracted me and brought me out? Do not upset me so much, You, who have taken so many of my sins and iniquities upon Your shoulders, but if I have sinned in any way before You, punish me here where I am. If you find it blessed, better cut off all my members, just don’t send me there, into that chaos. If God began to say to you again: go, feed my sheep, go, turn your brethren to me with the word of your teaching, you should again answer: alas for me, Lord! And how can I, unworthy, separate from You? If again and for the third time He said to you: no, you will not be separated from Me; I will be with you there inseparably, then you too should fall again, weep and, mentally wetting His most pure feet with tears, say: how is it possible for You to remain with me, Lord, if I descend there and become darkened? How is it possible for You to be with me if my heart, bent on all evil, is inclined towards the flattery and praise of men? How is it possible for You to be pleased to be with me if I am lifted up in pride? Is it possible that You will not withdraw from me if I do not boldly and righteously denounce kings and other authorities for their iniquities and untruths? Where can I fulfill this and everything else that lies with the shepherd, in the way that pleases You, so that You would be with me and strengthen me, and not accuse me as a sinner, and therefore not withdraw from me as from an unworthy person, leaving me alone, cast down there? I am afraid, Lord, that the love of money will not overcome me; I am afraid that the will of the flesh will not take possession of me, that the sweetness of sin will not seduce me, that my mind will not be darkened by concern for the flock, that the honor of kings and authorities will not make me proud, that the greatness of power will not puff up me and will not persuade me (prompted. - Ed. ) despise my brothers; I am afraid that I might step out of the rank appropriate to my rank from feasting and drinking wine, that my flesh, refined by abstinence, might again become fattened with sweets, that human threats would frighten me and make me a transgressor of Your commandments; I am afraid that the requests of my fellow bishops and friends will not incline me to become a participant in their sins, and when they unjustify others or do other evil things, to remain silent or even assist them, without reproaching them with boldness and without showing resistance to them for Your commandments, as befits. And where can I, my Lord, set forth all the dangers of this calling, which are countless and which You, God, know better than me? I beg You, do not let me fall into them. You yourself know, O Lover of Mankind, how difficult it is to please people, how difficult, mocking, judgmental and slanderous they can be, especially among the literate and learned, those who have gained wisdom through external wisdom. Spare me, O Lover of Mankind, and do not send me there - down to preside over the people, in the midst of such and such troubles and evils. You should have all this and many other things in your mind and, fearing the difficulties and troubles that you will encounter, beg God to allow you not to descend from your heaven to earth, again into worldly affairs. Even if God, praising your love and your humility, said to you: do not be afraid, you will not be overcome by anything contrary, for I promise you to always be with you, and you will have Me as your assistant in every matter, I will glorify you there too, and you will return here again with even greater glory and in greater light and you will reign with Me for endless centuries; - Even if, I say, the humane and all-good King had given you such a promise, then even then you should not have dared and be completely careless, but you should have been in great fear and trembling, thinking that you were descending from a great height into the depths of the deepest well, full of various animals and reptiles, - and in such a mood, with great fear, ascend to the the throne of the patriarch, or metropolitan, or bishop, or any other primacy over the people. If you realize that you are not as we said above, but, on the contrary, it seems to you that, by accepting authority over the people, you are ascending from below and from below to great heights, then woe to you for such insolence, woe to you because of the blindness of your mind, woe to you because of your great ignorance! For such thoughts and thoughts are unusual for thinking and rational people, but for senseless pagans, or, better said, dead people, who do not see, do not feel, do not live and do not know at all that there is God and that there is the judgment of God that is about to meet us. 8. That shepherding the people and caring for the salvation of the brethren is a matter of great salvation, as the completion of love, which is the head of the law and the prophets, no one can deny this. For when the Lord asked Peter three times whether he loved Him, he answered: yes, Lord! You know how much I love you; - then the Lord, in response to this, said to him: if you love Me, Peter, feed My sheep. Again, what should not be for any person, simply and no matter how it happens, thoughtlessly take upon himself authority over others - this is obvious to anyone whose mind is not completely darkened. However, many do not know either what the above word of the Lord means, or how the Lord commanded Peter to feed His sheep. But they boldly (alas!) ascend to this level of dignity and are not ashamed to arbitrarily shepherd the flock of Christ. Why, if it seems blessed to you, let us discuss what this word of the Lord means and what is the meaning in it. When the Lord said to Peter: Feed my sheep, he did not indicate anything else but the leadership and care that should be given to the flock of Christ, through words and teaching. This is confirmed by other words spoken to the same Peter: Simone, Simone, behold, Satan asks you to sow you like wheat. I have prayed for you, so that your faith will not fail; and once you have been converted, strengthen your brethren (Luke 22:31–32). For what do the words mean: strengthen your brethren? This is what: by your own example, assure them that they should not despair, no matter what sin someone may fall into, for what other sin is worse than yours, when you rejected Me, the Lord of all? However, I forgave you immediately, as soon as you bitterly repented, and, despite the fact that you did not have boldness because of your renunciation, I called you by name through the Angel to come to Me along with the other Apostles on Mount Galilee, without reproaching you with a single word for your renunciation. Convert yourself to this and strengthen your brethren. Feed my sheep. But know that you will truly shepherd them not when you begin to move them from pasture to pasture so that they become physically fat, as shepherds of dumb sheep do, nor when you lock them in the walls and fences of sheepfolds, but when you teach them to observe everything that I have commanded. This is what the Lord then specifically commanded to all the Apostles, saying: Go and teach all languages, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep everything according to the commandments given to you (Matthew 28:19-20), adding also: whoever has faith and is baptized will be saved; and those who do not have faith will be condemned (Mark 16:16). Feed, he says, My sheep. The shepherd of dumb sheep does not care about agriculture, nor about trade, nor about houses, nor about various and valuable dishes, nor about fame and honor; He doesn’t care about anything else worldly, and he has no desire to use it; but, leaving everything - home, wife, and children - he turns all his care to his flock alone, spending the night without sleep for their sake and going with them to distant places, having neither shelter nor bed, enduring the heat of the day and the cold of the night and struggling with air changes; He watches over some sheep and takes full care of them. But for you, the shepherd of the verbal sheep, it is possible to be under the roof of your home, to have a bed, a bed, a meal, and at the same time feed My sheep. How to graze? - Teaching them to have faith in Me (says the Lord) bright, pure, unwavering, and to love Me with all my soul and with all my heart, just as I loved them, out of love for them I gave myself up to death and died for them. By delivering to them, instead of pasture, the life-giving food of My commandments, explain to them that they will only taste the life-giving nature of this food when they actually begin to fulfill My commandments, and encourage them to eat from this food every hour, so that they are always satisfied with My blessings. And what are My blessings and by what deeds they acquire them, teach them to know this from My following words: sell your possessions and give alms. Create for yourself a treasure that never wears out, a treasure in heaven that will not fail (Luke 12:33). Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who harm you (Matthew 5:44). Yes, none (of you) repays evil for evil (1 Thess. 5:15). Let go, and they will let you go (Luke 6:37). If you do not forgive men their sins, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive you your sins (Mark 11:26; Matt. 6:15). Become poor in money so that you may be rich in the grace of the Holy Spirit; despise earthly glory in order to receive heavenly glory. Also tell them the following: before you are two opposite limits - life and death, and two worlds - the present, visible and temporal, and the future, invisible and eternal, and two opposite agents in these worlds - God and the devil, opposing Him, of which God always cares about our salvation, calling us to life and the eternal kingdom, and the devil desires the destruction and death of our soul, and prowls day and night, looking for whom to attract with the bait of temporary pleasures and devour, making him guilty of eternal torment. Since God and the devil are thus before us, we, as thinking and rational ones, must flee from our enemy and run under the shelter of our Master, asking for help from Him, so that the prince of darkness does not dominate over us, catching us in his net and snare, and through this we do not become slaves to him and sin. That the devil is the prince of the world and eternal darkness, listen to Christ Himself, who says: the prince of this world is coming, and in me he will have nothing (John 14:30). He is not called the Prince of Peace as the ruler and lord of the world. Yes, such a blasphemous thought comes from us! “And how is it possible for someone who doesn’t even have power over pigs to rule the world?” But he is called the prince of peace because, irritating the desire for wealth and other things of this world, he enslaves those who cling to them and takes power over them. He is called the prince of darkness because he fell from the light of divine glory, because of his pride, and became the heir of eternal darkness. But our God and Lord, as the Creator and Organizer of the whole world, is naturally and powerfully the prince of all - heavenly, earthly and underworld, being the unevening and unapproachable light and the Lord of everything - both the present and the future. So, those who submit to God and unswervingly keep His commandments partake of temporal blessings in moderation and with abstinence, thanking God for them, and from these visible and temporary blessings are raised to these invisible and eternal ones for the fact that they obeyed the King of all God and kept His commandments. Those who act contrary to the commandments of God are on the opposite side to God, together with the devil, because they have become His enemies, as He Himself says: what is not with Me is on Me; and those who do not gather with Me scatter (Luke 11:23). Therefore, beloved, let none of you listen to the prince of darkness and the ruler of the world, the devil; let no one associate with him; Let no one become a warrior of the devil and fight against God and our Savior; Let no one become an enemy of his soul and strive to inherit eternal fire. I beg you, my fathers and brothers and children, do not do this. It is a terrible thing for even one’s hearing to become enemies and adversaries of God. And how someone becomes an enemy of Christ and strives for his own destruction, I will tell you this now. If, for example, someone scolds you, rightly or unjustly, or condemns you, or slanderes you, and you do not endure such dishonor with meekness, but, being offended by this in your heart, you do not restrain your irritation, but you scold the one who scolded you, or condemn him, or do something else that is unpleasant to him, or, without doing anything like that, you keep the passion of hostility against him in your heart, and do not forgive him with all your soul and do not pray to God for him, then you have become an enemy of Christ, because you are acting contrary to His commandments; You have become an enemy to yourself and are destroying your soul by making (due to such unforgiveness to your brother) all your previous sins ineradicable and unforgivable. Again: if someone hit you on the right cheek, and you not only do not turn to him with your left, but hit him yourself, then behold, you have again become a warrior and a slave of the devil. You struck not only your brother, but through the brother whom you struck, you struck Christ Himself, Who commanded not to strike him, but to turn the other cheek to him. Again, if someone secretly or openly takes a gold or other thing from you, or you lend it to someone, or someone steals something from you and does not want to give it back later, either because he no longer has anything, or out of greed and malice - and you do not tolerate such theft with kindness and kindness, but drag the culprit to the courts, throw him into prison and do everything possible to get back what is his, then tell me, are you not a clear enemy of God and your soul by doing all this? For if you are commanded to visit those in prison and serve them according to your strength, - not to demand what is yours from the one who took it, to give the swearing to the one who wants to sue you and take your robe, to give up your body to death for the commandment of God - if, I say, you, to whom such commands have been given, go to court because of corruptible things, violating the command of God, if you grieve, become angry and cast brother to prison, isn’t it obvious that you are losing your mind (Christian sanity), angering God by opposing Him, and depriving yourself of eternal life? So (returning again to shepherding), whoever wants to shepherd the flock of Christ and feed the intelligent sheep, teaching them everything that we have said in order to make them fat with good deeds and many virtues, how can he at the same time take care of the fields and vineyards and take care of his other acquisitions, in order to preserve them from theft and damage, driving away those who encroach on it? When should he go to court and start contests, sometimes being the cause of oaths and false oaths for others? For if he is right, then his opponents need to resort to obvious lies and false oaths, which how can a God-loving soul bear? And how can it be pleasing to God, Who said: I tell you not to swear in any way... Let your word be: to her, to her; neither, nor; I sow too much out of hostility (Matthew 5:34,37). And again: I say to you, that every idle word that men speak will be given back on the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). So, due to all such accidents harmful to the soul, I beg you, my brothers and fathers, if you believe in the Self-Truth of Christ and the words I have spoken, do not seek thrones and dioceses, abbesses and presidencies over others for the sake of human glory and for bodily peace, fearing the judgment of God and that terrible sentence, which through the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel He pronounced against those who do not shepherd His sheep properly: this says Adonai the Lord: O ole shepherds of Israel! The shepherds feed their own food; do not the shepherds feed the sheep? Behold, you eat the milk and clothe yourself with the waves, and slaughter the fat, but you do not feed my sheep. You didn’t take care of the weak, and you didn’t heal the sick, and you didn’t oblige the broken, and you didn’t turn back the erring, and you didn’t recover the lost, and you seriously insulted the person with labor, and with the authorities, with punishment and abuse. And my sheep were scattered, having no shepherds. And a little further down He says again: Behold, I am a shepherd, and I will exact my sheep from their hands, and I will leave them from pasturing my sheep (Ezek. 34:3–5,10). And one more thing: even if the guard sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet... and having found a sword, it will take away from them the soul that took iniquity for its own sake, and I will exact its blood from the hand of the guard (Ezek. 33:6). “Terrifying, my brothers, are these words spoken by God to the shepherds. Therefore, let us take better care to shepherd ourselves well, like the flock of Christ, like the royal priesthood, subordinating the flesh to the spirit, so that the best is not overcome by the worse, that is, the soul and body. When we delve into the depths of humility, we wash away the defilement of our sins with our tears, we acquire meekness through contrition of heart and humility, with a great thirst for the truth of God we will attract its quenching with the ineffable blessings of the kingdom of heaven through the consolation of the Holy Spirit; then, when we have received the wombs of generosity and compassion, we have acquired a pure heart with perfect dispassion and we see the light of God, that is, the Holy Spirit Himself working in us and speaking about the hidden mysteries of the kingdom of God, as persons who, through deep peace, united soul and body in one mind, - when we pacify ourselves and make our soul and body a willing instrument of God in one spirit - when we endure many temptations for the sake of Christ, sorrows and misfortunes and learn to bless those who are reproached, to endure persecutions, to pray with blasphemies (1 Cor. 4:12-13), not remembering any evil, but graciously accepting and enduring all this and trying in every possible way to pass this test safely, without the slightest hesitation, in patience, which is the basis of virtues - when thus, through all the above-mentioned virtues, we grow in stature according to Christ and grow into a man perfect, to the extent of the age of fulfillment of Christ, with the acquisition of perfect knowledge of God and the wisdom of the words and mysteries thereof, which are given by the Holy Spirit - when, I say, all this is accomplished in us, and we achieve complete perfection in everything, then, perhaps, we will surrender ourselves for the benefit of our brothers. However, even then we should not seek this ourselves, but yield if we are called by God to do so, not for the sake of exaltation, but in order to be slaves of all, as the Lord says: whoever wants to be greatest in you must be a slave of all and a servant of all (Mark 10:43,44). But until we achieve perfection and dispassion, until then let us be in charge of others, I ask you. Let us be better in obedience to our spiritual fathers and to God, who holds everything in His power, let us repent every day and purify ourselves with tears for God, so that we may know God that He is false in everything that He has promised to bestow on those who love Him and fulfill His divine commands. He will fulfill everyone according to His works in His kingdom. To him is due all glory, honor and worship, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: