Поучение 59 70 . В пяток средней недели. Когда мы умертвим плотские страсти и воскреснем добродетелями, тогда будем праздновать пасху Господу Богу нашему.

Brothers and Fathers! Easter Day is approaching, for with God’s help we have crossed the middle of Lent. But why do we so strongly desire to wait for this Easter, which comes and goes? Haven't we celebrated it many times in (previous) years? So now this Easter will pass and end, for in the present time there is nothing permanent and everlasting, but everything is temporary and transitory. And the days and times of our life disappear like a shadow, pass like a dream, and run by like a fast-moving vehicle until they bring each of us to the end of our lives. Maybe someone will say to this: isn’t Easter longed for? She is truly desired. For is it possible to say no? But I say, that Easter is desired, which happens not once a year, but always and every day. What kind of Easter is this? Cleansing of sins, contrition and humility of the heart, tears of tenderness, purity of conscience, elimination of carnal passions, i.e. fornication, uncleanness, evil lust and all other sins and passions. Whoever is worthy to achieve virtues in such deeds celebrates Easter to the Lord and celebrates a bright and much-desired holiday, not just once a year, as we said, but throughout his entire life. On the contrary, whoever does not have what we have said, but is a slave to passions and carnal lusts, cannot celebrate as he should. For how, in fact, can one who has a belly with God celebrate? How can one rejoice spiritually who is burned and scorched by the lust of the flesh? How will he triumph divinely, whose heart is consumed and corrupted by envious jealousy and rancor? How will someone who is immersed in the love of money, or enslaved by vanity, or entangled in other passions, feel the spiritual joy of the holiday? Such people cannot celebrate. Would anyone really think of saying about someone lying on his bed in a severe illness that he is resting, or about someone whose ship has crashed and is in danger of drowning that he is making a happy voyage? But this is impossible; for just as it is impossible for one who is in darkness to see the light, so it is impossible for one who commits sins to celebrate and celebrate Easter. O your love, brethren, I trust in God that you are in a better, praiseworthy, and saving condition. Our life is nothing more than preparation for the holiday. You see what we are doing! Singing follows singing, reading after reading, spiritual teaching 71 after teaching, prayer after prayer; all this, like some kind of circle, carries and connects us with the Lord. Is there any other life more blessed and more blessed than our life? No, not one. And since we have learned what the constant and daily Easter desired for us consists of, let us try, my most honest brethren, to achieve it, so that we can celebrate it according to our strength, that is, by the mortification of passions and the resurrection of virtues. Let us keep in memory our Lord Jesus Christ; for He also suffered for our sake, leaving us an example and image, so that we too would follow His path. I said this not so that we could torture the sins of others and condemn them - for this is a grave sin, and exposes us to torment. On the contrary, everyone should condemn and blame himself, and not another; for the Apostle says: “everyone... will bear his own burden, that is, the weight of his sins” (Gal. 6:5). But let us only recognize the grace of God that He has given to us, and let us always thank Him and glorify Him as a benefactor; for He not only gives us real blessings, but He will also give heavenly blessings to those who work for Him to the end, and they will inherit the eternal, heavenly Easter. Oh, that we may all achieve it through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom belongs glory and power with the Father and the Holy. Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. See Patrol. Vol. 99. Page 599. According to Greek μελέτη. In Lat. lane meditatio. You might be interested in: