126. Нищий

We see in the world that there are many beggars. A beggar is one who has nothing for himself: no bread, no clothes, no house, no money, no other things necessary for life, but asks everything from people and receives from them. In such poverty, every person, from high to low, and from rich to poor, and from masters to slaves, is truly poor, although he does not know his poverty. 1) Every person, whatever he has, does not have his own, but God’s; he does not have it from himself, but receives it from God (See 1 Cor. 1:7). God, as the Good and Generous One, opens His treasures, and gives everything with His generous hand to everyone, like the poor and wretched. Gold, silver and copper are God’s good and serve us in our needs. The bread with which we eat, the drink with which we get drunk, we cool ourselves and are comforted; clothes with which we cover ourselves and keep warm; a house in which we calm down and protect ourselves from bad weather and storms; the fire with which we warm ourselves and on which our food is cooked; the air that preserves our life; the light with which we are enlightened; cattle, animals, birds and fish that serve our needs, and everything else is God's good (See Ps. 23:1). He, as the Lover of Mankind, gives all this to the poor, the needy and the needy according to His goodness alone. Therefore, we ask Him for all that is necessary for our life in prayer: Give us this day our daily bread. Bread here means everything we need to support our lives. You see, man, your poverty. God gives you everything, as if you were poor and needy. Gives you everything of His own, since you have nothing of your own. Otherwise you would not be able to live even the slightest time. God anticipates your poverty and poverty, and opens His treasures, and from there gives His blessings to you to support and preserve your life. Shows your poverty and the hour of your birth and the hour of your departure. You are born naked and enter the world with nothing; you come out of the world naked and go away empty-handed (See Job 1:21; 1 Timothy 6:7). Everything you have, from birth to death, only serves you, and all this is God’s good, not yours. God gives all this to you as if you were poor and needy, because you cannot live without it. To recognize your poverty and poverty and thus humble yourself. You are poor and needy because you have nothing of your own, but you receive everything from God. To know God's goodness, which gives everything to us, the poor and wretched. Thank God, as the Giver of all good things, for everything. From Him we receive all good things, like the poor and wretched, and we receive them without any merit of ours. It is worthy and righteous to thank Him for everything and always. Glory to God the Benefactor for everything! From here you see that all people, like the poor and wretched, are equal. Equal poverty makes everyone equal. Whether someone has a lot or a little, they have other people's goods and not their own. Therefore, no one should exalt himself above others and should not despise anyone. He has everything that belongs to others, not his own. Why should strangers be proud? It follows from this that we must help each other in need. We have all God's goodness, and we must spend it according to God's will. Our home and our neighbors must serve as a place of repose. Our bread should nourish our neighbors and ours, our silver and gold should help our neighbors’ needs, our livestock should serve other people, and so on. We learn this and other things from the knowledge of poverty and God’s goodness to us. And this is the bodily poverty that we all have. 2) When a person looks inside his heart and judges his inner state, he will see spiritual poverty, worse than physical poverty, for he has nothing in himself except poverty, repentance, sin and darkness. He does not have true and living faith, true and heartfelt prayer, true and heartfelt thanksgiving, his truth, love, purity, goodness, mercy, meekness, patience, peace, silence, peace and other spiritual goodness. Such a poor and wretched man! But whoever has this treasure receives it from God, and does not have it from himself. I must attribute this to the grace of God, and not to my own strength. Therefore, all this treasure is called the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the word of God. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Let us recognize, Christians, our spiritual poverty, and let us seek our spiritual treasure from Christ, who, being rich, became poor for our sakes, so that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). If we don’t have heartfelt faith, let us seek and may He enrich us with faith. God! Help my unbelief (Mark 9:24). If we don’t have heartfelt prayer, let us seek it from Him, that He may teach us through His Holy Spirit to pray. God! Teach us to pray (Luke 11:1). We don’t know how to truly and heartily give thanks; let us ask Him for this too, so that He may teach us to thank and sing. We do not have the fear of God and love, and other spiritual treasures - let us knock on the doors of His mercy, so that His heavenly treasure will open. He Himself commanded us to pray about all this and promised to give us all this. Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Matthew 7:7–8). Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear me, for I am poor and wretched (Ps. 85:1). Look upon me and have mercy on me, according to the judgment of those who love Your name (Ps. 119:132), and so on. “Who will I look at? Only against him who is meek, and silent, and who trembles at My word,” says the Lord (Isa. 66:2). He respected the prayer of the humble and did not despise their prayers. Let it be written about this to the next generation (Ps. 101:18–19). 3) A person is poor because he does not have true and sincere friends. True friendship cannot exist without mutual and heartfelt love, without unanimity and agreement. Love is rare in the sons of men. Cunning, cunning, lies, hypocrisy are shown in almost everyone. There is little truth among the sons of men. Each one spoke vain things to his neighbor; flattering lips speak from the heart, and evil from the heart (Ps. 11:2-3). One will deceive, another will lie, a third and a fourth will do the same, and so one must fear and be afraid of everyone. The human heart is deep and deceitful (Jer. 17:9). It happens a lot to us to have friends, but then they soon become our enemies; so we find out that they were false friends to us. A sincere friend is always a friend. In our happiness we have many friends, they are like a shadow during the radiance, but when the radiance of our happiness disappears and the day of our well-being darkens, then they, like a shadow, retreat from us and hide. And from here it is clear that their friendship was false. True love is always united with the beloved, both in happiness and in misfortune. Since true love makes two one, and therefore where one is, there the other is inseparably present, although not always with the body, but always with the heart. Our true friend is the one who does not leave us in misfortune. Look for such a friend, especially in this day and age, when people are learning to deceive and seduce each other, to laugh at and slander each other. Oh, poor Christians, how far you have departed from those Christians who had one heart and one soul (Acts 4:32). And from here you see for yourself that your Christianity is false. The father of lies, the devil, teaches people to lie to each other, deceive and deceive each other, and so all loyalty and love would dry up from human hearts. Spare, O Lord, Thy heritage and preserve the remains of Israel! Everyone speaks vain things to his neighbor, everyone learns to lie, everyone sharpens his tongue like a razor, sharpens it for slander, ridicule, destruction and reproach. Save me, Lord, for I am in need of the venerable one (Ps. 11:2). Christian, what kind of friends can we hope for here? Here there is obvious trouble for a person: trouble from neighbors, trouble from family, trouble from friends, trouble from brethren, trouble from servants and slaves. There can be no greater friendship than between husband and wife; but even here we see so much hostility, how many complaints we hear from them against each other, and slander, and other evil! What kind of friendship is this – complaining and slandering each other? You see, Christian, that we do not have true and sincere friends, and therefore we are beggars, and there is nowhere to find them. Let us turn to Christ, unite with Him and draw closer with our hearts. Without a doubt, He loves us and the unworthy, as a Lover of mankind, so He laid down His life for us. Let us also love Him as the One who loves us, and so there will be friendship between us, but faithful, true, sincere, unceasing, blessed and eternal, for mutual love makes friendship. Then, although the whole world will be at enmity with us, truly nothing will harm us. You are My friends, O goodness, O love of Jesus for mankind, O honor and Christian dignity, if you do what I command you, says the Lord (John 15:14). Hear, O Lord, my voice in which I cried, have mercy on me and hear me. My heart says to you: “I will seek the Lord.” I will seek Your face, O Lord, I will seek Your face. Do not turn Your Face away from Me, and do not turn away from Your servant with anger. Be my helper, do not reject me and do not forsake me, O God, my Savior (Ps. 27:7–9). It is good for me to unite with God, to place my trust in the Lord (Ps. 72:28). Beggars and poor people, living in all kinds of poverty and lack, knowing a certain rich and generous person, everyone resorts to him and everyone asks him for help in their poverty. One asks him for money for his needs, another for bread, another for clothing, another for something else - and they receive what they ask for. Christians! We are all beggars, poor and damned, as stated above. No one can help our poverty, especially our spiritual one, except Christ. We know that He is rich, like God, and Generous, and Merciful, and Humane. He can and wants to give us everything. For our sake He became poor, so that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). He took our poverty upon Himself - may He give us the riches of His goodness. He is for us, the poor, the poor and the wretched, a Refuge and an Enricher. Our ancestors and fathers turned to Him in their poverty, poverty, squalor and wretchedness, and received help in what they lacked, and were enriched by His all-generous hand. Even now, everyone who knows Him resorts to Him and receives what they need. Let us also land and join this pious squad, and run to Him with faith and hope, so that we too will receive mercy from Him, and He will enrich us with His grace. He does not drive anyone away from Himself. He who comes to Me, he says, I will not cast out (John 6:37). He who trusts in the Lord will be surrounded by mercy (Ps. 31:10). Most of all, He calls us, the poor and wretched, to Himself: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). He gives bodily and temporal blessings to everyone - to everyone who knows Him and to those who do not. Everyone receives them from His generous hand. He gives it to us, and we get everything we need. Glory to His goodness! However, we must all ask Him, as the poor and wretched, so that we may know and acknowledge our poverty, and the treasure of His goodness, which is revealed to us, the poor, and so we will thank Him. He gives spiritual blessings only to those who know Him and believe in Him, and with faith ask them from Him. We too will recognize His inexhaustible treasure and Him, our Redeemer, Savior and Enricher. His Heavenly Father sent him to us to enrich us, the poor and poor. All the treasure of our bliss is contained in Him. Let us run to Him with faith and declare to Him our poverty and poverty - may He look upon us and give us at our request, and instead of our poverty give us the wealth of His goodness. But it is absolutely required of us that everyone recognize and acknowledge their poverty, and without this we will get nothing. Because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5). There cannot be humility without knowledge and recognition of poverty and poverty. O poor and wretched people! What should we be proud of and exalt? We are poor in body, poor and soul. Although we have physical and temporary wealth, it is someone else’s wealth, not ours. Everything is God, for the earth is the Lord's and what fills it (Ps. 23:1). We have no spiritual treasure. But we are the poorer because we do not know this poverty of ours. We are blind - and we do not know blindness, poor - and we do not know poverty, wretched - and we do not know wretchedness, wretched - and we do not know our wretchedness. The riches of God’s grace are ready for everyone and are revealed to everyone, but man does not want to recognize and acknowledge his poverty and humble himself, and thus receive God’s grace. Grace is given to the humble. Oh, how fiercely sin infected and blinded the poor man! The image of God has fallen into such lowness! A poor person does not recognize or recognize his poverty, and therefore receives nothing. God wants to enrich him, but he does not want to admit his poverty. Christians! All the power lies in this, so that we know and acknowledge our poverty and poverty before God, and the riches of His grace are ready for us. Our fault is that we do not have spiritual treasure. Let us look around and recognize our poverty, may the Lord fill our poverty and shortcomings with His grace. 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