Статья 6: О должности христианской к ближнему

This position is described in the first book, in the chapter on love, mercy, etc. Here the same position is explained from the likeness taken from the members of the human body, since Christianity is a spiritual body, according to the teaching of the Apostle Paul. “Just as we have many members in one body, but not all the members have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another” (Rom. 12:4–5). § 444. True Christians are spiritually united with Christ, like a body with a head, about which connection St. Chrysostom speaks beautifully and comfortingly: “Look, Christ is the Head, we are the body. Can there be any distance between the body and the head? He is the Foundation, we are the building. He is the Vine, we are the branches. He is the Groom, we are the Bride. He is the Shepherd, we are the sheep. He is the Way, we are the ones who walk. We are the church, He lives in it. He is the Firstborn, we are brothers. He is the Heir, we are co-heirs. He is Life, we are the living. He is the Resurrection, we are the risers. He is the Light, we are the enlightened. All this connection is revealed” (Discourse 8 on 1 Corinthians). But both with Christ and with each other, Christians are united as members of a single body and a single Head - Christ. Therefore, consistently, such an office is required of Christians towards each other. § 445. Christians must have peace and agreement among themselves about Christ. In a material body, all members agree and remain peaceful: hand to hand, foot to foot, eye to eye and other members are not at enmity, but what one member does, so do the others; Where one eye looks, the other also looks; Where one foot steps, the other follows it. Likewise, in the other bodily members there is great agreement among themselves and throughout the entire composition. This is how the Creator arranged it, otherwise the composition could not have been intact. Such agreement must also exist in the spiritual body, that is, in Christianity. The apostle lays down the reason for the union and peace of this world: “There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all” (Eph. 4:4-6). And in another place: “We were all baptized into one body by one Spirit, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink” (1 Cor. 12:13). It is to this peace that he exhorts Christians: “Be diligent to have peace with everyone and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Such a union of peace existed among the Christians of the primal Church, as St. Luke testifies to this: “The multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32). Those Christians who sin and deviate from their duties are those who quarrel with each other and are at enmity with each other, and cannot have peace with God while they remain in enmity. For anyone who wants to have peace with God must first be reconciled with his brother, according to the word of the Lord: “If you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift,” and so on (Matthew 5:23-24 et seq.). And “if you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins,” says the Lord (Matthew 6:15). The same thing is depicted in the parable of the king and his debtor and that debtor’s companion (Matthew 18:23–35). And whoever does not have remission of sins cannot have peace with God, therefore, he is subject to His wrath, and to all the temporary and eternal disaster that follows God’s wrath. § 446. There must be unfeigned love between Christians. In a material body, the members are all connected by veins, so in the spiritual body of Christianity, Christians, like members of each other, must be connected by a union of love. Christ commands this to His Christians: “I command you this, that you love one another” (John 15:17). The apostles exhort this: “Continually love one another with a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22). “Let brotherly love continue among you” (Heb. 13:1). “Beloved! If God so loved us, then we should love one another” (1 John 4:11). The fruits of love: “Love is long-suffering, it is kind, love does not envy, love does not boast, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek its own, is not angry, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:4-8). If Christians want to be true Christians and not hypocrites, they must show their Christianity by love, according to the teachings of the Lord: “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). For “he who does not love his brother remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:14-15). § 447. Christians should be merciful to each other. In a material body, if “one member suffers, then all the members suffer with it” (1 Cor. 12:26). When an arm, or a leg, or a head, or an eye, or any other member hurts, all other members sympathize with it, so in the spiritual body Christians should sympathize and sympathize with each other. When one Christian is in poverty and suffers, other Christians should be moved by his misfortune and suffering and sympathize with him. To this end, the apostle exhorts Christians: “Remember the prisoners, as if you were in bonds with them, and those who suffer, just as you yourself are in the body” (Heb. 13:3). And again: “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). And Christ says: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). To be merciful is nothing other than to sympathize with the heart of the sick, to sympathize with the needy and suffering, and to weep with the weeping (Rom. 12:15). If any Christian does not move with mercy over the misfortune of his brother, then he testifies to himself that he does not have a Christian spirit. Such are those who become angry and take revenge on others for insults; who do not help their brethren in their needs, but can help; who, having the opportunity to provide for the poor and poor, send away from them without pleasure, and do not do them other acts of mercy, which are mentioned in verses 35 and 36 (verses) of chapter 25 of Matthew. A Christian cannot be without faith, faith without love, and love without charity. For love is merciful not only over one’s brother of the same faith, but also over the infidel and one’s enemy, and cannot help but do good to everyone whom it sees in need of goodness. § 448. In a material body, one member helps another. Hand to hand, foot to foot, eye to eye, ear to ear, and other members help each other. The foot that stumbles is reinforced by the other foot; the hand washes the other hand and other members, wipes them, corrects them, and serves in other ways; the eye with vision, the ear with hearing, the nostrils with smell, the legs with movement and flight serve the other members and the whole body; The stomach and belly by boiling food and drink works for the whole body. Likewise, in the spiritual body, Christians must help and serve each other, serve each other with love (Gal. 5:13). When one is weak, another must serve him; when one is sad, the other is to console him; when one is weak in faith, another is to strengthen him; when one is led astray from the true path, the other is to guide him. And everyone, rich to the poor, reasonable to the feeble-minded, healthy to the sick, free to the prisoner, young to the old, strong to the weak, and everyone must do what he wants for himself, so for another, and what he does not want for himself, not for another. The Word of God exhorts us to this in many places. And Christ our Lord, whatever good happens to a Christian, as a Christian, imputes to himself the creation, as he says: “I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you accepted Me; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me." And “just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:35-36, 40). And those who do not help their brethren - Christians - should heed that further the same righteous Judge will say to them: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry, and you did not give Me anything to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and they did not accept Me; I was naked, and they did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and they did not visit Me. Because you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me” (Matthew 25:41–43, 45). If such a terrible answer is given to those who do not do good, then what answer will there be to those who take away from Christians what they have and do evil to them? Think about this, Christian, who not only does not do good, but also does evil to his brethren. From this you see, Christian, that just as a true and living member of the spiritual body of Christ is recognized by a Christian, so from non-charity, especially from evil-doing, a hypocritical, rotten and dead member, or even more so a cut-off member, is recognized. For the members of one body feel each other’s illness and need and therefore help each other. And when a Christian does not help another, then this is a sign that he does not feel his illness, like a member that is not connected to himself, and therefore, without feeling it, he does not sympathize or help him. Otherwise, I would not have left him without help in his need. § 449. In a material body, one member of the other warns and protects against incoming disasters. The hand protects the head, eyes and other members when disaster comes from the blow of a rod, sword and other things. The eyes warn other members with vision, the ears with hearing and clear hearing when a misfortune occurs from the hearing of evil; the tongue by tasting and testing what is harmful to the stomach and the whole body, the sense of smell by feeling the stench that is harmful to the entire composition, the legs by running save from the approaching evil, and so all members care about each other and about the integrity of the entire body. In the same way, Christians should take care of each other, as members of each other, when they see each other approaching misfortune - sometimes by word and advice, sometimes by prayer, sometimes by deed itself, to warn and protect from the coming disaster. And those who do not do this, but, moreover, cunningly arrange the path to disaster for their brethren, do not belong to this holy society bound by the bond of love, but are like trees that do not bear good fruit, which are cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10), or rather even like branches withered and cast out, which are gathered and thrown into the fire, and they are burned ( John 15:6). § 450. In a material body, the womb works for the sake of the whole body, cooks food, produces juices and turns them into blood, and so through the blood it divides into all members, and thus strengthens all members and the whole body, multiplies it and brings it to age. In the spiritual body, shepherds should be like the belly in its work: first, the food of the word of God within themselves by reading, teaching, meditation and attention, one place with another ratio, as if chewed and boiled, and turned into juice and spiritual blood, and so to divide their brethren, the spiritual members, and thereby strengthen the paralytic, bring the infant to age, “until we all come to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). And those shepherds who do not do this sin against their office and bear the name of shepherd in vain. For the shepherd is not his own shepherd, but a shepherd for the sheep. Therefore, they will give an answer to the Chief of the Shepherds, Jesus Christ on the day of judgment, who will then seek His sheep at their hand. § 451. We see that in the material body all the members work for the sake of the belly, everyone serves it, they provide food and drink for it to become stronger, since it works and cooks food for the common benefit of the members. For if the belly weakens by not eating food, then all the members will weaken, and so the whole person will become weak, which we notice in the weak who do not accept food, and those who melt away from hunger, and everyone recognizes it in themselves during times of hunger and thirst. This is how it should be in the spiritual body, that is, Christianity. Since shepherds and teachers work for the common good, all Christians should feed them together. We must, I say, feed them so that they have time to work for the common Christian benefit, to exercise in reading and meditating on God’s word, and, as it were, to share the cooked food of God’s word for the benefit of their listeners. For “the worker is worthy of his reward” (1 Timothy 5:18). If shepherds sow spiritual things, is it great if they reap bodily things from the hearers (1 Cor. 9:11)? If they feed the souls of their listeners with the word of God and thus provide for their eternal salvation, is it great to eat when they receive bodily food from them to support their temporary life? To the extent that the soul differs from the body and eternal life from temporary life, so much the food of God’s word, with which the shepherds feed the souls of their listeners, is more valuable than the bodily food that they accept from their listeners. “If you are taught by the word, share every good thing with those who teach” (Gal.6:6). “What warrior ever serves on his own pay? Who, having planted grapes, does not eat its fruit? Who, tending a flock, does not eat milk from the flock? (1 Cor.9:7) § 452. From what has been described above we see that a Christian: 1) How great is the union of the faithful with Christ, the Son of God - namely, the same as that of the whole body and members with the head - in which lies their great honor, glory and joy. 2) How Christians must obey Christ, their Head, and not do anything against His will. We see that the members of the natural body all obey their head and do nothing against it. The hands do nothing, the legs do not walk, the belly does not accept food, the tongue does not speak, and the whole body does not move unless the head thinks and wants, and when the head wants, and whatever it thinks and wants, then its members do, and each member does its job: the eyes look, and where it wants, they turn; the tongue says what and as much as she wants and as much as she wants; the legs go where they want; hands do what they want. Likewise, other members obey the will of their head. Christians undertake to show such obedience and obedience to Christ, their holy Head: not to do anything that He does not want, and to do everything that He wants. Thus they will show that they are truly united with Him by faith and love, as members with the Head. 3) From this it is clear that those Christians are cut off and separated from Christ and His holy Church, who do not obey Him, but live according to their own whims. Members obey their own head, but they do not obey the head of another body. For example, the members of Peter’s body do not do what Pavlov’s head thinks and wants, since Peter’s members are not connected to Pavlov’s head. Thus, that Christian who does not obey Christ testifies to himself that he has broken away from Christ and is not a true and living member of His holy Church, but is a dead member, and like a branch withered and cut off from the vine (John 15:6), although he professes the name of Christ, and goes to church with the faithful, and does other things. 4) You also see how a Christian should treat his Christian brother, namely, how he treats himself, that is, not flatteringly, not insidiously, not hypocritically, but simply and sincerely; what he doesn’t want to do for himself, he shouldn’t do; and what he wants for himself, he can do as well; what he says with his tongue is what he says in his heart; and just as outwardly he appears to be supportive, affectionate, loving and charitable, so should he be so within himself. All this is required by the union of members united in a single body. 5) Whoever treats his neighbor not lovingly, but cunningly and hypocritically and unmercifully, is not a true Christian, as stated above, but is a hypocrite. 6) Let such Christians heed what the prophet proclaims to them: “Already even the ax lies at the root of the trees: every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Luke 3:9). You might be interested in: