Часть 10. В неделю крестопоклонную

On the week of veneration of the cross (either die, or be on the cross of self-crucifixion) In the midst of the Holy Pentecost, the Holy Church offers our honor and worship the Holy Cross of the Lord. This shows Her maternal care for us... She wants to strengthen those who are weakening in the exploits of fasting and self-correction, to inspire those who are zealous to great exploits, and to instill in everyone the thought and intention to relentlessly and unwaveringly march after the Lord until the end of their lives under the cross, which everyone takes upon themselves at the hour of determination to please the Lord. Remember what was in your soul when you repented of your sins and, turning away from passions and passionate deeds, said to the Lord through your spiritual father: “I will not”? If this was said sincerely, then it is true that you then felt completely ready to the point of blood in a feat against the enemies of the Lord and yours, to enter into a struggle with passions and lusts without any self-pity and self-indulgence, with the sacrifice of everything dear, but sinful, with complete selflessness. There is no doubt that following Confession, having been honored with Holy Communion, you, departing from the Chalice of the Lord, immediately entered into this battle, or into this work of mental and heartfelt fidelity to the Lord, with which temptations began to present themselves to you at every step, according to the usual order of our affairs. This battle, you know now, is not easy, and most importantly, like a living thing, it is too sensitive. You had to deny yourself what lay deep in your heart, and in order to succeed in this, keep both soul and body in tension. You can spend one day like this almost without difficulty, but in a week you will get tired, in two you will get even more tired. When we think that we must live like this until the end of Lent and throughout our lives, our hands involuntarily begin to give up and our legs begin to break, that is, the feeling of the burden of achievement will begin to suppress and shake the first determination, or at least call for benefits and relaxation. Since both are detrimental, for they mean flight from the battlefield, turning back, then, foreseeing such a situation for us, our holy mother, the Church, hastens to help us revive our zeal by vividly imprinting in our attention the face of the crucified Lord. Offering the Cross of the Lord to our worship, she hereby says to each of us: “Look at the Lord hanging on the Cross. You see that, having ascended to the Cross, He never left it until He surrendered His spirit to God and the Father. So you, having entered into the feat of fighting passions in ways of pleasing the Lord, begin to feel as if you were crucified on the cross. That's how it is. Look, remain calm on this cross, do not rush or rush, and especially cut off every thought of leaving it until the moment comes and you say: “Father, in Your hands I commend my spirit!” (Luke 23:46).” The meaning of the word is this: do not weaken your resolve, do not indulge yourself, do not change the deeds you have begun, walk firmly on the painful path of self-sacrifice. He will lead you to blissful veneration in the bosom of the Heavenly Father. This lesson is simple and clear. And how for many it may be the most timely lesson! Let us pray that the Lord grants us all to remain in this mood forever. Having decided to please the Lord, we will not deviate from this determination; Having entered into a feat, we will not change it. And when weakness begins to take its toll and shake our spirit, let us hasten to surround it with stimulating thoughts every time. Let us tell him this: “It is impossible to do otherwise—either perish or be on the cross of self-crucifixion while the breath of life is in us.” And the Lord was on the Cross, and all the saints walked the path of the cross. “There is a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us... and looking to Jesus, the author of our faith and finisher... let us strive with patience for the fight that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1-2). Exactly, difficult and painful! But is this work without promise? ABOUT! “We are unworthy of the passions of the present time for the glory that desires to appear in us!” (Rom. 8:18). It's far! But let us endure a little in the constancy of self-mortification, and here we will begin to anticipate the bliss that awaits us in the future. Have we worked hard? And there’s nothing to see, but we want to reap the pleasant benefits. Let's get inspired! We get hit and we strike. But by the very fact that we strike, we ourselves become stronger, and we deplete the enemy, and the more we give these counterattacks, the stronger we will become, and the enemy weaker. Then, one after another, those who fight us will begin to drop out of the enemy horde; finally, the most evil and persistent ones will fall behind, and perhaps from afar, indirectly, will attack us. Here is “peace,” and after peace “and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). And it may come soon. Let’s just make it a law not to give in and not make concessions. But this, brothers, is where all our trouble lies! Who is our first enemy? Self-pity is the most flattering and most dangerous enemy. “Loosen up,” he says, “a little, I’m tired!” You see, it stands for us. But listen to him and cut yourself some slack? One relaxation will lead to another, another to a third, and so on, and then everything will relax, and all strictness will go away, and all the orders of a pious life will fall into oblivion. Nowadays, thoughts will dissipate and lusts will be irritated, and the zeal of the spirit will cool. In this disorder, a favorite passion will come - to lure first attention, then sympathy, and then consent. After this, only chance, and sin is ready. Here comes the fall again, again the darkening of the mind, again the languor of conscience, again disorder, both internal and external. Further, fall after fall: and again everything will go as before, as if the work of self-government had not begun. And what am I saying: the old way? It will be worse. For just as after lightning the same darkness of the night becomes darker, so after uprisings from sin, new and repeated falls lead the poor soul into greater and greater disorder. The Lord Himself presented our warning about this, saying: “When... an unclean spirit comes out of a person, passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find it. Then he says: I will return to my house, from nowhere I have breathed. And when he comes he will find himself empty, marked and adorned. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits that are most cruel to himself, and they who enter live; and the latter will be worse for that man than the first” (Matthew 12:43–45). “A handful of firsts!” And according to the law of God’s truth, it should be so. How long have you repented and cried? The Lord accepted repentance and forgave everything, again returned His former favor and gave Himself into Communion in Holy Communion. Man - what is all this? He behaved a little sedately and gave up and again indulged in sin. How can you indulge this? So listen to the strict verdict of the court: “Whoever rejects the law of Moses dies without mercy in the presence of two or three witnesses. How much do you think that the worst one will be worthy of torment, having trampled upon the Son of God, and having considered the Blood of the Covenant defilement, by which he was sanctified, and who rebuked the Spirit of grace? We know that Rexhago: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord... It is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of the Living God” (Heb. 10:28-31). In another place, the holy Apostle intensifies this intimidation and justifies it by the fact that those who fall again, after receiving grace, puts them on a par with those who crucified the Lord, calling them “second crucifiers” (Heb. 6:6) of Him, and pronounces an even more terrible judgment about them, saying that it is impossible for such who fall after partaking of the gift of Heaven to be “renewed again to repentance” (Heb. 6:6), of course, not thus expressing the impoverishment of God’s mercy, but the final relaxation of those who fall. For from repeated falls the soul becomes coarser, the sense of conscience - repentance - becomes dull, and the surrender of oneself into the hands of one’s fall, the investment in “hope”, becomes dull (Eph. 4:19). Why does the holy Apostle then pronounce: “The earth... which has drunk the rain that falls in abundance... and wears out thorns and thistles, it is indecent to eat oaths, even to its end by burning” (Heb. 6:7-8). It happens that, for example, a watch is repaired, and then it comes to the point where it is impossible to repair it. It’s the same with falls: some will get to such a point that nothing can correct him. The Lord presents such intimidations to us in His word not in order to plunge anyone into a desperate state, but then so that, knowing this, we have cautious concern, lest we actually bring ourselves to it; then, so that if someone falls, he does not wallow in the fall, but hastens to get up, and whoever gets up, irritates in himself the jealousy to always stand, does not allow himself to become lazy and fall again into previous sins and indulgences to passions. After all, you can’t stay in the fall. We need to get up. The Lord helped, get up - and stand. What's the point of dragging yourself into falling again, knowing that you have to get up again and that this uprising will be more difficult? Has the business started? Don't quit. Is it difficult? Get over it, day by day everything will get easier and easier. And there it’s quite easy. Not all labor and illness and consolation are sent by the Lord, but then death is soon, and the end of everything. Grant, Lord, that she finds us on the good path of repentance and in the works of self-correction! Bringing all this to our minds, brothers, now, before the Cross of the Lord, let us set it in our hearts not to change our intended intention to please the Lord and to remain faithful to Him to the point of our lives in the labors of self-sacrifice and self-correction. Amen. On the week of veneration of the cross (about three types of crosses: about external crosses) “Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14), says the holy Apostle Paul. How did the holy Apostle reach such a disposition that he did not want to boast about anything else except the cross of Christ? The cross is in every way sorrow, oppression, humiliation: how can one boast about it? And so, however, the Apostle Paul boasts about him; along with him, of course, all the Apostles boasted, and after them all the other crusaders. Why is this so? God-wise men saw the great significance of the cross, highly valued it and boasted that they were worthy to wear it. They saw in him, instead of crampedness, breadth, instead of sorrow, sweetness, instead of humiliation, greatness, instead of dishonor, glory, and they boasted of him, as someone else boasts of some magnificent decoration and distinction. Oh, when the Lord would grant us such meaning and disposition to understand and feel the power of the cross and begin to boast about it! About the meaning of the cross, here is a brief general explanation: the Lord accomplished our salvation by His death on the cross, on the cross He tore to pieces the handwriting of our sins, by the cross He reconciled us to God and the Father, through the cross He brought down upon us the gifts of grace and all the blessings of heaven. But such is the cross of the Lord in himself. Each of us becomes a participant in his saving power only through our own cross. Each person’s own cross, when united with the cross of Christ, transfers the power and effect of this latter to us, becoming, as it were, a channel through which from the cross of Christ “every good gift is poured out onto us and every perfect gift” (James 1:17). From this it is clear that each person’s own crosses are as necessary in the matter of salvation as the cross of Christ is necessary. And you will not find a single one saved who was not a crusader. For this reason, everyone is fully covered with crosses, so as not to be difficult in seeking to bear the cross and not be far from the saving power of the cross of Christ. You can say this: look around you and within yourself, see your cross, carry it as you should, united with the cross of Christ, and you will be saved. Although not everyone bears his own cross, and the cross for the most part is not simple, but complex, not everyone looks at it through the cross of Christ, not everyone turns it into the dispensation of his salvation, and therefore not everyone’s cross is a saving cross. Let's review all possible crosses and figure out how each of them should be carried so that it can be a force for salvation. There are many crosses, but there are three types of them: the first type is external crosses, made up of sorrows and troubles, and in general from the bitter fate of earthly existence; the second is internal crosses, born from the struggle with passions and lusts for the sake of virtue; the third is crosses of spiritual grace, placed with perfect devotion to the will of God. Now I will tell you a few words about external crosses. These are the most complex and varied crosses. They are scattered along all our paths and meet at almost every step. These include: sorrows, misfortunes, misfortunes, illnesses, losses of loved ones, failures in the service, all kinds of deprivations and damages, family troubles, unfavorable external relationships, insults, insults, false accusations and in general the earthly lot, which is more or less difficult for everyone. Who doesn't have any of these crosses? And it’s impossible not to be. Neither nobility, nor wealth, nor glory, nor any earthly greatness can relieve them. They have grown together with our earthly existence from the moment the earthly paradise concluded, and will not depart from it until the heavenly paradise opens. If you want these crosses to be your salvation, use them according to God’s intention when assigning them in relation to man in general and in relation to you in particular. Why did the Lord arrange it so that there is no one on earth without sorrows and hardships? Then, so that a person does not forget that he is an exile, and would live on earth not as a relative on his native side, but as a wanderer and stranger in a foreign land, and seek a return to his true fatherland. As soon as a person has sinned, he is immediately expelled from paradise and, outside of paradise, is surrounded by sorrows and deprivations and all kinds of inconveniences, so that he remembers that he is not in his place, but is under punishment and takes care to seek pardon and return to his rank. So, seeing sorrows, misfortunes and tears, do not be surprised and, enduring them, do not be annoyed. That's how it should be. Complete prosperity and happiness do not suit the criminal and the disobedient. Take this to heart and bear your share complacently. “But why,” you say, “I have more, and the other has less? Why am I burdened by troubles, while others are almost happy in everything? Am I torn by grief, while another is comforted? If this is a common fate, then everyone, without exception, should share it.” Yes, that’s how it sounds. Look closely and you will see. It’s hard for you now, but it was hard for someone else yesterday or will be hard tomorrow, but now the Lord allows him to rest. Why do you look at the hours and days? Look at your whole life, from beginning to end, and you will see that it is hard for everyone, and very hard. Find who rejoices their whole life? The kings themselves often do not sleep at night because of the pain of their hearts. It’s hard for you now, but haven’t you seen joyful days before? God willing, you'll see. Be patient! The sky above you will also clear. In life, as in nature, there are sometimes bright and sometimes dark days. Has it ever happened that a menacing cloud did not pass? And was there anyone in the world who would think so? Don’t think about your grief like that, and you will delight yourself with hope. It's hard for you. But is this an accident without cause? Raise your head a little and remember that there is a Lord who cares for you like a father and does not take his eyes off you. If grief befalls you, it is not otherwise than with His consent and will. No one like He sent it to you. And He knows very precisely what, to whom, when and how to send, and when He sends, He sends for the good of the one who is subject to grief. So look around and see God’s good intentions for you in the sorrow that has befallen you. Either the Lord wants to cleanse some sin, or take away a sinful deed, or cover it up with a smaller grief from a greater one, or give you an opportunity to show patience and fidelity to the Lord, so that later he can show you the glory of His mercy. Some of this certainly comes to you. Find out what exactly it is, and apply it to your wound like a plaster, and its burning sensation will be quenched. If, however, you do not clearly see what exactly God wants to give you through the grief that has befallen you, build up a general, unthinking belief in your heart that everything is from the Lord, and that everything that comes from the Lord is for our good, and interpret to your restless soul: “This is what God pleases.” Be patient! Whoever He punishes is like a son to Him! Most of all, pay attention to your moral state and corresponding eternal fate. If you are a sinner—as, of course, you are a sinner—then rejoice that the fire of sorrow has come and will burn away your sins. You keep looking at the mountain from the ground. And you are transported to another life. Stand in court. Look at the eternal fire prepared for sins. And from there, look at your grief. If he has to be condemned there, what sorrows would you not want to endure here, just so as not to fall under this condemnation? I would wish that they cut and burn every day now, rather than fall into indescribable and incessant torment. Isn’t it better, so as not to experience this there, now and not bear so much grief so that through this you can get rid of the eternal fire? Say to yourself: “Because of my sins, such blows were sent to me,” and thank the Lord that His goodness leads you to repentance. Then, instead of fruitless grief, recognize what sin you have, repent and stop sinning. When you settle down like this, you will of course say: “I still don’t have enough. Because of my sins I’m not even worth it!” So, whether you bear a common bitter share, or you experience private sorrows and sorrows, endure them complacently, gratefully accepting them from the hand of the Lord, as a cure for sins, as a key that opens the door to the Kingdom of Heaven. But don’t grumble, don’t envy others, and don’t indulge in senseless grief. For in grief it happens that some people begin to be annoyed and grumble, others are completely lost and fall into despair, and others are plunged into their grief and only grieve, without moving their thoughts around and without raising their hearts to the grief - to God. All such do not use the crosses sent to them as they should, and miss the favorable time and the day of salvation. The Lord puts the work of salvation into their hands, but they reject it. Trouble and grief befell. You are already carrying the cross. Make sure that this bearing is for salvation and not for destruction. For this, it is not necessary to remove mountains, but to make a small change in the thoughts of the mind and the disposition of the heart. Arouse gratitude, humble yourself under a strong hand, repent, correct your life. If faith in God’s rule of all has departed, return it to your bosom and kiss the right hand of God. If the connection between grief and your sins has been hidden, sharpen the eye of your conscience and see, you will mourn the sin and moisten the dryness of grief with tears of repentance. If you have forgotten that the bitterness of this fate redeems you from the bitterest eternal fate, revive the memory of that, and add to complacency the desire for sorrows, so that for the small sorrows here we may receive eternal mercy from the Lord. Is all this much and difficult? Meanwhile, such thoughts and feelings are the threads by which our cross is connected with the cross of Christ and from it flow the forces that save us. Without them, the cross remains on us and weighs us down, but has no salvation, being separated from the cross of Christ. Then we are unsaveable crusaders and can no longer “boast... in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). Having told you little of the many things about external crosses, I invite you, brothers, to walk in wisdom, redeeming the time of grief and sorrow with complacent, grateful and repentant patience. Then we will feel the saving effect of sorrowful crosses and we will rejoice, being exposed to them, seeing through them the light of glory, and learn to boast about them not only for the sake of the future, but also for the present fruit from them. Amen. On the week of veneration of the cross (about three types of crosses: about internal crosses) Of the three types of crosses, I told you a few words about one, namely, external crosses: sorrows, troubles and deprivations. Now I will say something about the second type of crosses - internal crosses. We encounter internal crosses during our struggle with passions and lusts. The Holy Apostle says: “They are Christ’s, having crucified the flesh with passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). Crucified? It became a cross on which these passions and lusts were crucified. What kind of cross is this? Fight them. To crucify passions means to weaken them, suppress them, and eradicate them. If a person overcomes a passion several times, he will weaken it; will fight a few more, suppress; He will still overcome it and completely eradicate it, with the help of God. Just as this struggle is difficult, regrettable and painful, it is truly a cross planted within us. For someone struggling with passions, sometimes it’s as if his hands are nailed, a crown of thorns is put on his head, and his living heart is pierced. So it becomes difficult and painful for him. Labor and pain cannot but exist, for although the passions are alien to us, having come from outside, they have grown so close to the body and soul that their roots have penetrated into all their structures and forces. Start pulling it out, and it hurts. It is painful, but it is saving, and this saving power can only be achieved through pain. There is a polyp disease: some body alien to us is born in our body, grows and takes root. If you don’t cut it out, you won’t be healed, but if you start cutting it out, it will hurt. It may hurt, but this pain restores health. But leave it, don’t cut it out - it will also hurt, only this pain does not lead to health, but to an increase in the disease, maybe even to death. So how is Siberian disease treated? They will cut out the pimple and burn the area and then smear and rub something else poisonous on it. It hurts, but it's healing. But leave it like this, pain will be pain, and death will not be avoided. Likewise, the fight against passions, or their eradication, is painful, but salutary. But leave the passions, do not eradicate them - they, too, will cause burden, pain, suffering, but not for salvation, but for destruction and spiritual death, for “the rewards... of sin are the death” (Rom. 6:23). What passion is not painful? Anger burns, envy dries, lust weakens, stinginess does not allow us to eat or sleep, offended pride murderously consumes the heart, and every other passion - hatred, suspicion, grumpiness, man-pleasing, addiction to things and persons - causes us torment, so that living in passions is the same as walking on knives or coals with bare feet or being in the position of a person whose heart is being sucked by snakes. And again, who doesn't have passions? Everyone has it. As soon as there is self-love, all passions are there, for it is the mother of passions and cannot exist without its daughters. But not everyone has them all to the same degree: for one, one, for another, the other predominates and rules the others. And when everyone has passions, there is also torment from them. Everyone is tormented and crucified by passions - only not for salvation, but for destruction. So, carrying passions, you are tormented by them and die. Isn’t it better to take charge of yourself and create suffering within yourself, also due to passions, but not for destruction, but for salvation. One has only to turn the knife and, instead of satisfying the passions, hitting oneself with them, hitting the passions with them, starting a fight with them and going against them in everything. And here there will be pain and suffering of the heart, but healing pain, which will immediately be followed by a joyful calm, as happens when a healing plaster gets on a wound. For example, someone will make you angry: it is difficult to overcome anger and it is unpleasant, but when you overcome it, you will calm down, and when you satisfy it, you will worry for a long time. Anyone who is offended: it is difficult to overcome yourself and forgive, but when you forgive, you will have peace, and when you take revenge, you will not see peace. An addiction has caught fire: it’s difficult to extinguish, but when you extinguish it, you will see the light of God, but if you don’t extinguish it, you will walk like one killed. So in relation to any passion. And passion torments, and the struggle with it causes sorrow. But the first destroys, and the second saves and heals. Anyone who is passionate must be told: “You are perishing on the cross of passions. Destroy this cross and build another one - a cross to fight them. And crucification on him will be your salvation!” All this is clear as day, and the choice, it seems, should be very easy. And, however, he is not always justified by deeds. And we should be surprised at our blindness. Another suffers from passion - and still satisfies it. He sees that with satisfaction he causes himself more and more harm - and he satisfies everything. Inexplicable hostility against ourselves! Some people are going to rebel against passion, but as soon as passion awakens with its demands, it immediately follows it. He gets his act together again and gives in again. This happens several times, and the success is always the same. An incomprehensible relaxation of moral strength! What is flattery and deception? The fact is that passion promises mountains of pleasure for self-satisfaction, but the fight against it promises nothing. But how many times has it been experienced that the satisfaction of passion does not bring happiness and peace, but torment and languor. It promises a lot, but gives nothing, and the struggle promises nothing, but gives everything. If you have not experienced this, try it and you will see. But it’s our grief that we can’t muster the strength to experience it. The reason for this is self-pity. Self-pity is our most flattering traitor and enemy. The first manifestation of pride. We feel sorry for ourselves and destroy ourselves. We think that we are doing good to ourselves, but we are doing evil, and the more evil we do, the more desirable it is for us to do evil. That is why evil grows and brings our final destruction closer to us. Let us be inspired, brothers, and courageously go to the cross of self-crucifixion, through crucifixion and the eradication of passions and lusts. Let us reject self-pity and kindle the jealousy of self-torment. Let us take the heart of a doctor who, in need, makes cruel cuts and cauterizations to loved and revered persons. I will not tell you the method and the entire course of the struggle. Get down to business, and it will explain everything and teach you everything. Bring to mind that peace, that joy and that light that will settle in the heart after overcoming the passions, and thereby kindle your jealousy to rebel against them. Light, peace and joy arise from the very beginning of entering into this struggle, and they all grow and rise until at the end they culminate in a peaceful dispensation of the heart in which God rests. And the God of peace truly abides with those who reach this degree. Then it turns out that the cross is definitely the tree of life. The heavenly tree of life remained in paradise; the tree of the cross was erected on the ground in its place. The goal of this is the same: a person will eat and live. Come, cling to him with your lips and drink life from him. You will cling to the cross when, having rejected self-pity, you become jealous of self-crucifixion, and you will begin to drink life from it when you enter into a struggle with passions. Each overcoming of passion will be the same as receiving life-giving juices from the life-giving cross. Keep it up, you'll sooner get drunk and full of life. Marvelous is the property of self-crucifixion! It seems to take away, but while taking away, it gives; it seems to cut off, but by cutting off, it grafts in; it seems to kill, but by killing, it lives. Exactly the Cross of Christ, by which death is trampled upon and life is granted. What a blessing, but what a lot of work!!! The first step is difficult - the first overcoming of oneself, the first determination to fight, and then, no matter the battle in battle, it becomes easier and easier. And jealousy will flare up more strongly, and the ability to overcome will increase, and the enemy will weaken. Just as in ordinary warfare warriors are afraid just to begin, and then they no longer look at anything, everything becomes handy and easy for them, so in spiritual warfare: just start, then the battle will heat up and ease itself. And then, the more zealous and lively the fights, the sooner the end of the battle and the closer the peace. Don't have enough strength to start? Pray. The Lord will send. Surround yourself with thoughts about the danger of remaining in passions, and you will drive yourself out of their darkness towards the light of freedom from them. Revive the feeling of torment and you will be inflamed with annoyance at them and the desire to get rid of them. But most of all, having confessed your weakness before the Lord, stand and push at the door of His mercy, crying out for help. Help is coming! The Lord will look at you and the light from His eyes will burn self-pity in you and kindle jealousy to cheerfully arm yourself against the passions. And then, even if the Lord is with us, who is against us? Heroic Lord! Having inspired us with zeal to enter into the feat of struggle against passions, grant us strength to resist it, so that under the sign of Your Cross we may wage good warfare, looking to You, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who through the cross has arranged salvation for us and given us life in it. Amen. On the week of veneration of the cross (about three types of crosses: about the cross of devotion to the will of God) It remains to explain to you the third type of cross that saves us - the cross of devotion to the will of God. I’ll say a word or two about him. A word or two to you, because the full teaching about it exceeds my strength. The most perfect Christians ascend to this cross. They know him and could speak about him clearly, completely and with power. Where can others say this? And it is impossible not to remember that any of you, having overcome one or two passions and somewhat calmed down from the anxieties from within, would not think that you have already done everything that should and is expected of Christians. No, and not everything is done yet. Those who have even completely cleansed themselves of passions have not yet performed the main Christian action, but have only prepared for it. You have cleansed yourself of passions - now offer yourself pure to God as a pure and immaculate sacrifice, which is the only one befitting Him the Most Pure. Look at Calvary. There, the cross of a prudent thief is the cross of cleansing oneself from passions, and the Cross of the Lord is the cross of a pure and immaculate sacrifice. And this is the fruit of devotion to the will of God - unquestioning, complete, irrevocable. Who lifted our Savior to the cross? This devotion. In the Garden of Gethsemane, our Lord Jesus Christ prayed, “let... the cup pass by,” but he uttered a decisive definition about this: “Not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). From His word: “I am” (John 18:6), those who came to bind Him fall. But then they knit Him. Why? Because He first bound Himself to devotion to the will of God. Under the cross, all creation trembles and the dead accept life, but He remained motionless on the cross, for He gave up His spirit to God. Such are all those who have grown “to a perfect man,” who have reached “the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). They are all crucified, so to speak, according to the will of God. Every personal movement, thought, and desire is nailed onto it. Or these latter, in the usual sense and form, they do not have at all: everything that belonged to them died, being sacrificed by the will of God. What moves them is God's beck, God's inspiration, which, in only one way known to them, is imprinted in their hearts and determines all their activities. The Holy Apostle Paul depicts this state in relation to himself as follows: “You have been crucified with Christ. Now no one lives, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:19-20). As soon as he was crucified with Christ, he, an Apostle, a most perfect man, ceased to live himself, but Christ began to live in him. Or he became in such a position, about which he writes in another place: “God... is the one who works in us both to will and to do good will” (Phil. 2:13). This is the height of Christian perfection that a person can achieve. He is the forerunner of the future state after the resurrection, when God will be “all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). Why is it that everyone who is worthy of achieving it often contradicts all the orders of earthly existence and either suffers persecution and torment, or becomes and is revered as holy fools, or retires to the desert. But in all these types of external fate, their inner one is the same: they are united, with one God abiding in the heart, they live and act in Him alone, hiding in the inner, deepest silence, in the complete absence of any movements of their own. They say that high in the last reaches of our atmosphere, all movement of the earthly elements ceases. One universal element rests calmly there. This is an image of those who were crucified with Christ, who ceased to live their own lives and began to live only by Christ, or otherwise, who ascended to the cross of devotion to the will of God, which alone qualifies and acts in them with the denial of all personal considerations and actions. I have nothing more to tell you about this. And this is said just to hint to you that this is where the end is, this is where we need to be and what to achieve, and so that, knowing this, you are disposed to consider everything that you have and do good as nothing if you have not reached this height of spiritual life defined and expected from us. Many people think that Christianity is the same as other types of life, but it is not the same. It begins with repentance, culminates in the struggle with passions, and ends through the co-crucifixion of the pure inner man with Christ, immersion in God. “You have died...,” says the Apostle, “and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Here everything happens inside, invisible to people and known only to conscience and God. There is nothing external here. It is, of course, a decent shell, but not a decisive witness, much less a producer of the inner. External good behavior is often the beautiful appearance of a coffin full of bones! Knowing this, let us stand, brethren, on Golgotha ​​at the crosses and begin to apply ourselves to them and them to ourselves, as we may to each. Simon of Cyrene, who carried the cross of the Lord, is the image of those crusaders who are subject to external sorrows and hardships. Whom the prudent thief crucified and whom the Lord depicts on the cross, I just said before this: the first depicts those struggling with passions, and the Lord depicts perfect men, crucified in devotion to God. And who does the cross of the evil thief represent? Depicts those who work for passions. Their passions torment them, torment them, crucify them to death, without giving any consolation and any good hope. By these signs, everyone try on crosses for yourself and determine for yourself who you are - Simon of Cyrene, or a prudent thief, or an imitator of Christ the Lord, or an evil thief, according to the passions that consume you? Whatever you find yourself, expect that to be the end for you. I will only add: get out of your head that through a life of comfort you can become what we should be in Christ. If true Christians experience joy, it is completely by accident; the most distinctive character of their life is suffering and illness, internal and external, voluntary and involuntary. “Through many tribulations it is necessary... to enter into the kingdom” (Acts 14:22) and into that which is “inside” (Luke 17:21). The first step here - the turning of the will from bad to good, which constitutes the heart of repentance - is reflected by mortal pain from the wound of contrition, from which blood then oozes throughout the continuation of the struggle with passions and which closes after the acquisition of purity, which elevates the Christian to the cross of co-crucifixion with Christ in the will of God. Everything is sorrow and illness and hardship. We can say this: consolation is evidence of the indirect path, and sorrow is evidence of the right path. Considering this, rejoice, crusaders! What about you, those who are consoled? Abraham's word to the rich man in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:25). Here you are comforted, while others suffer for the sake of Christ and His holy law, but in the next world it will be the other way around: those who follow the path of the cross will be comforted, and those who were comforted will suffer. You usually say: “It’s like you can’t have fun or allow yourself any pleasure.” Yes, you do the main thing first, and then allow that too. Otherwise, the only thing someone has to do is - now there’s a ball, tomorrow there’s a theater, there’s a walk, and cheerful reading and conversation, and various entertainments - a transition from one pleasure to another. But about the main thing, about how to achieve what every Christian should be, there is no thought. What fruit can you expect from such a life? It’s as if our inner relationship to God in Christ will mature on its own, despite these external disturbances?! How can he mature? Does a candle burn in the wind? Will life end from taking poison? No. If you want good for yourself, give up pleasure, enter the path of the cross of repentance, burn out in the fire of self-crucifixion, temper yourself in tears of heartfelt contrition, and you will become gold or silver, or precious stone, and in due time you will be taken by the heavenly Master to decorate His most radiant and most worldly palaces. Amen. On the week of veneration of the cross (you ascended the cross, allowing yourself to resist sin) You know why the Honorable Cross of the Lord is offered to us for honor and worship during Great Lent. To those who have not yet repented, this is said: “If the Just God did not spare His Only Begotten Son, then what mercy can you expect if you remain unrepentant in your sins? Give up sin and turn to the right path.” And to those who have already repented and began to work on correcting their lives, this is said: “You see what sin costs. See that you no longer give in to sin and do not betray the vow you made in repentance to henceforth be correct before the Lord.” To these latter I would now like to turn my word and repeat to them the apostolic encouragement: “Stand fast...brothers, take courage, be strong” (1 Cor. 16:13). Look at the Lord, who was crucified on the Cross for your sake. Having ascended to the Cross, He did not descend from it until He surrendered His spirit to God the Father. So you also ascended to the Cross, having made a vow to resist sin and entered into the struggle with passions and lusts. Do not come down from this cross, no matter what temptations and passions you are exposed to. The enemies of the Lord, surrounding His Cross, shouted: “Let him come down now from the Cross, that we may see and believe Him” (Matthew 27:42). passions and lusts. Stand, brothers, and do not give in. Having made a vow not to sin and having received forgiveness of sins for this and having been granted the Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, to again fall into ordinary sins means to commit a terrible and terrible crime. Look what the Apostle says about this. He says that those who are “enlightened” have tasted the “heavenly gift”, become “partakers of the Holy Spirit” and “good” have tasted “the word of God and the power of the coming age” (Heb. 6:4-5), crucify “the Son of God to themselves” for the second time if they again fall away from God and indulge in uncleanness and lasciviousness (Heb. 6:6). Do not let any of you who have repented ignore this terrible word, but rather sit down and think about whether this sentence is coming directly to you if you fall again. Aren't you now enlightened only in Repentance? Yes, enlightened. You were blindsided. Grace came, enlightened your mental eyes, you saw the abyss of destruction, came to your senses and came to your senses. Have you not tasted the “good... word of God”? Yes, you have tasted it when you heard the comforting resolution of all your sins. Have you not become a partaker of the Holy Spirit and the Gift of Heaven? Yes, he did when he received the Holy Mysteries of Christ and received the Lord Himself with this Communion. If all this comes directly to you, then when you fall again, what is condemned to fall away again after such mercies will also come straight to you. That is, if you, having been granted such graces, again fall into sin, then you will “second” crucify the Son of God (Heb. 6:6). Enter into this with feeling and fear sin. Will anyone think that the holy Apostle wrote this only to intimidate? For how can one now crucify the Lord again, glorified and seated at the right hand of God the Father? Exactly, no one can do this anymore, but this is not what the Apostle wants to say, but wants to prove how great the severity of sin is when one falls into it after renewal in Baptism or in Repentance, which is the second Baptism. And he says that the severity of this sin is as great as the severity of the sin of those who actually crucified the Lord. Falling again into sin, you become one of those who crucified the Lord, one of those who strangled Him, spat on Him, beat Him on the cheeks, scourged Him, placed a crown of thorns on His head, nailed Him to the Cross, cursed at Him, and pierced His ribs with a spear. After all, when the Lord suffered, He took away our sins. Some aspect of suffering cleanses the sin of each of us. Let us suppose that some kind of blow, for example, was for your past sins. When you repented and turned to the Lord, for the sake of that blow all your sins were forgiven. And when you fall into sin again and repeat all your sins again, how will you cover them up again and why should you forgive them again? Not otherwise than for the sake of some other trait of suffering, for the sake of the next, for example, blow with a whip. It became, this blow will be for you, for your sin. It is needed for the sake of your sin, your sin will give it. If it were not for your new sin, a new blow for you would not be needed. Even though the next blow has already been given, it will no longer be for you, but for someone else. You are cleansed by the previous blow. Do not repeat the sin again, and because of you there will be no new wound in the suffering Lord. This is what you will imprint more vividly on your mind, in your struggle with your sin. When sin approaches and begins to attract you, imagine that if you agree to it, you will, while committing a sin, strangle, or scourge, or spit on the Savior, and you will recoil from sin as from a monster. It is told in Fatherland books that in Egypt there was one sinner who, after Confession and Holy Communion, did not take care of himself at all, but, as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he again fell into his former sins after each fast. But since he was not evil, but his weakness overcame him, the Lord took pity on him and, to admonish him, gave him the following vision: he was walking somewhere alone and saw that some kind of monster was approaching him, similar to a man, of exorbitant height, shaggy, ugly, unclean, with sparkling eyes. It came up, patted him on the shoulder, and said: “What are you afraid of, you and I are friends, we’ll be in the same place.” Although the sinner was very frightened, he asked him: “Who are you?” “I,” he says, “are the one who hit Jesus Christ on the cheek, and everyone who sins again after Confession and Holy Communion stands on the same line with Judas and other tormentors and crucifiers of the Lord.” He said so and walked in the other direction. This vision struck the sinner so much that he immediately, leaving everything, withdrew into the desert and there, until the end of his life, in strict deeds, he mourned his sins. From this case, take for yourself confirmation that those who sin again after Repentance and Holy Communion are exactly placing themselves in the ranks of the Lord’s crucifiers, and with this conviction, frighten your soul and repel from it every inclination to sin that arises in the lusts of the heart and disturbs your good intention to keep yourself pure and unfallen in the future. This is said not to plunge anyone into despair, but to prevent them from falling into sin. One should not despair, no matter how much one sins. But what a joy it is to arbitrarily place yourself on the line on which Judas and the crucifiers stand, even knowing that returning from such a community is impossible. Perhaps many of the crucifiers came to their senses, like the centurion (Mark 15:39). And Judas would certainly have been forgiven if he had repented. But everyone will say that it would be much better not to be in the crowd of crucifiers than, having been there, to go back home, beating your breasts. Moreover, these repentant ones did not know Whom they were crucifying. Can you say about us that we don’t know? How much does a deliberate fall make sin worse? Of course, at the moment of being carried away by sin, blindness sets in and the soul is taken over by frivolity, due to which nothing matters, but this is not an excuse. For the first time, someone who is clouded by sin can still apologize, but whoever has been exposed to this misfortune several times and knows well what it is, how it fits, what produces this confusion, how can he apologize? The feeling of inexcusability produces hardening of the heart, and hardening of the heart leads to unrepentance. They say about Judas that when he betrayed the Lord, he did not think that He would suffer, but expected that with His miraculous power he would dispel all misfortunes. But then, when I saw how things had gone, I lost heart, became hardened in heart and despaired. If he had known such an outcome of his betrayal, he would hardly have decided on it. For us, even without testing, all such outcomes are visible. Isn’t it therefore better for us not to follow this path of Judas, although we cannot say that the Lord will not again show us the miracles of His mercy. The Lord is always ready to reveal them, but here’s what we cannot predict: wouldn’t our heart accept a turn to hardness and from hardness to decisive unrepentance after the sin to which passion now leads us? If we fall again, we are lost. Isn’t it better not to take a step at all that could expose us to such extreme danger, and not to tempt God’s mercy? Protect yourself with such thoughts and sober up your soul when the whim of sin comes and begins to tempt you. After all, now you are on a good path. Try to resist. And what is worth using, you see this from the trouble into which you will fall if you do not resist. May the Lord make you all wise for salvation and grant you the strength and courage of your heart to resist passions and lusts, so that you may receive some of those who are being saved, and not those about whom it is written: “They will look to Him, who is the cause of death!” (John 19:37). Amen. You might be interested in: