Четверг

(1 John 4:20–5:21; Mark 15:1–15) “This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith” (1 John 5:4), the Christian faith. What is it to win the world? It’s not that you want to kill all peace-loving people and exterminate and destroy everything peaceful, but, living among peace-loving people and moving among peaceful customs, to live and be alien to everyone and everything. Since you have rejected the world and everything worldly, then by this very action you have conquered the world. And who teaches you to renounce the world, and who gives you the strength to do this? Our faith. It reveals the destructiveness of the charms of the world and gives rise to the desire to free oneself from their networks. Then, when someone decides to break these bonds, repents and begins the sacraments of renewal - baptism or repentance, she makes it possible to mysteriously feel in this action the sweetness of a life opposite to the world, such that all the sweets of the world cannot be compared. From here, disgust for everything worldly is established in the heart, which in fact is victory over the world. But in the same mysterious action, as a result of which disgust for the world is born, strength is also given to unshakably remain in this disgust and alienation from the world; and this is a decisive and lasting victory. You might be interested in: