Поучение 38. О том, чтобы мужественно переносить все, с нами встречающееся, дабы сделаться подражателями Христу, много пострадавшему за нас.

My fathers, brothers and children! If people, when the king calls them to glory, wealth, prosperity, pleasure and a luxurious meal, go without laziness, hastily and with joy; Moreover, we, whom the King Himself and the God of all are calling, not for the temporal and perishable blessings counted above, but into the kingdom of heaven, into the never-evening light, into endless life, for the adoption and inheritance of eternal blessings, we must strive with diligence, joy and great zeal, daily and hourly, we must fight and strive, and not be afraid and not run away from sorrows, cramped conditions, hunger and thirst, trouble, sword and death, but to follow the path of asceticism, courageously, without fear and with joy, and to endure everything as easy and convenient, for the sake of our present and blessed hope. Relaxation and laziness towards achievements is the sleep of the soul. Therefore, I beg you, my children and brothers, knowing the end that completes this feat of ours, how great, divine, indescribable and blessed it is, let us labor and endure in our good obedience and in its great exploits, in cutting off our will, in obedience and service, in annoyance from our brethren, inflicting many blows and many wounds, and in reproach from higher and lower. Truly, the apostolic word must also be spoken about you: “Until this present hour, we hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are reproached, and we are bummed, and we mourn; but in all these we are victorious because we love God” (1 Cor. 4:11, see Rom. 8:37). Strengthen yourself, much-desired children, in the power of His strength, and add to your previous deeds, both present and future, having all the joy that you were deemed worthy to suffer such things for Christ the Savior and to be imitators of His passions. For those who understand, this alone will amount to a lot to achieve reward. Remember how much He suffered for our salvation. Was He not a child in the flesh? Didn't he flee from Herod's treacherous murder? Did you disobey your parents? When you were twelve years old, did you not reprove those who were in the church without having learned the books? (This is for the unlearned, so that they do not grieve). Have you not traveled often, and become weary, and sought fruit on the fig tree? Didn't the Jews reproach Him? Did they not say to Him: You have demons, and: O Beelzebub, prince of demons, cast out the demons? Didn't they throw stones at Him, and He fled from those throwing stones at Him? And before that, didn’t he fast for forty days, and wasn’t he, like a man, tempted by the devil, when he said to Him: “I will give all this to You, if you fall down in worship,” and heard from Him: “Follow me, Satan” (Matthew 4:9-10) and so on? Didn’t he, like a servant, wash the disciples’ feet? Was he betrayed by a traitor? Was he captured by the Jews? Was he not condemned by Annas and Caiaphas? Was he not strangled by the hand of a slave? Was he not beaten with a rod by Pilate? Was he not beaten by hands created by Him, and did he not wear a crown of thorns as a reproach? Didn't he go to the cross? Were His most pure hands and feet nailed? Was He not rooted on the cross? Was not His holy rib pierced by a spear? Was He not filled with gall? Was he not buried and, like God, resurrected on the third day? Can we say about ourselves that we have suffered just as much? Show me, brother, wounded shoulders, in the likeness of Christ, bruised cheeks, ridicule, reproach and abuse without number, all your members, sanctified by the passions of Christ; but you undoubtedly do not have this. So, at least accept little things with patience, and the Lover of Mankind will glorify you according to His great goodness at His second coming, through this (monastic) image. For this image means nothing more than a promise to endure the cross and His death. So we briefly reminded you of this, without fulfilling anything of what we talked about; but through this reminder let us arouse zeal in ourselves, again we will rise up, again we will force ourselves, again we will be careful in obedience, going through with zeal and doing whatever is necessary, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belongs glory and dominion forever. Amen. You might be interested in: