Часть 3. В неделю мясопустную

On meat-eating week (let’s draw in our minds a picture of the Last Judgment and we will wear it incessantly) Now the Holy Church reminds us of the Last Judgment. She has already sent us to learn from the publican how to cry out humbly: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). She has already inspired us not to give in to the fall, but, following the prodigal son, rising up, to go to the merciful Father and beg Him - to accept us, unworthy to be called His sons, even as mercenaries (Luke 15:18-19). But she is still afraid that someone, through inattention, will miss those lessons and, through hardness of heart, will remain stuck in sins. Therefore, now, painting the picture of the Last Judgment, she says even louder: “Repent.” If you do not repent, you will all perish. Behold, God has established a day that is about to come as a “thief in the night” (2 Pet. 3:10), when He will bring “the secret of darkness into the light,” reveal “the counsels of the heart” (1 Cor. 4:5) and reward everyone according to his deeds. Then there will be no mercy for sinners. Only the righteous and those who, having suffered the misfortune of falling into sins, then brought sincere repentance and corrected their lives will enter into the joy of the Lord. So, thinking about that terrible Day, stop sinning, repent and take on the firm intention to walk steadily in the commandments of God. And indeed, no truth is so powerful to soften an unrepentant heart as the truth about the Last Judgment of God. The enemy knows this and in every possible way manages to put us in such a state that we either do not think about this Judgment at all, or, if we do think about it, we think superficially, without bringing this thought to the heart and not allowing it to produce its full effect there. If the memory of the Judgment did not depart from us and its power were accepted with all our hearts, there would be no sinners or there would be only accidental, accidental, momentary sinners, immediately rising up after an accidental fall. But behold, we do not enter into God’s intentions, and therefore we sin and become stuck in sins through unrepentance. Come, brothers, let us outwit the enemy who darkens us and from now on let us constantly remember the Judgment, and perceive with our hearts all its power and all its fear. Let us draw in our minds a picture of the Last Judgment and let us carry it incessantly. Just as in our ordinary life we ​​see the sky above us with the Sun and other luminaries and various creatures around us, similarly we will arrange ourselves in the spirit. In Heaven we will contemplate the Lord Judge with thousands of Angels, and around us all the sons of men, from the beginning of the world to the end, standing before Him in fear and trembling. There is also a river of fire and open books (Dan. 7:10). The trial is ready! Let us fill our minds with such thoughts and will not deviate from it with attention. Rising from our bed, we will inspire our souls: “This is a terrible day, think about it, rest your soul!” and, going to sleep, we will say to ourselves: “Behold, the grave lies ahead for me, behold, death awaits me! I fear Your judgment, O Lord, and endless torment!” And at all hours of the day we will often repeat: “Lord, deliver me from eternal torment, the evil worm and Tartarus!” After all, whether we remember or don’t remember about the Judgment, this Judgment cannot be avoided. But, if we remember, we can avoid its menacing definitions. This thought will teach us to avoid what makes Judgment terrible, and the fear of Judgment will save us from terrible condemnation. Just let this thought not be idle in us; let us deepen it and accept it with our hearts—the Judgment, the condemnation, and the decision of the Court. Is there anyone today who judges himself correctly and is judged correctly by others? Self-love hides us from ourselves and our conscience; the body and decent appearance protect us from the insight of those around us. By forgetfulness of God, and without speaking, as if we were saying within ourselves: “God does not see!” Otherwise it will be there: we will all be open to ourselves, and others will see us as we are in words, deeds and thoughts. Everyone, seeing himself, will be aware that he is seen by everyone and is penetrated by the “brighter than the sun” eyes of God (Sir. 23:27). This consciousness of the universality of the vision of sins with its weight will suppress the sinner and do what would be easier for him if the mountains fell and covered him, rather than how to stand like this, constituting an open goal for the gaze of both Heavenly and earthly. Nowadays we are inventive in our indulgence and in various ways we apologize to ourselves, to others, and to God. Then there will be no room for any excuses. And our conscience will tell us: “Why did you do that?” And in the eyes of others we will read: “What have you done?” And from the Lord a reproach will be imprinted on the heart: “Is this what you should have done?” These condemnations and reproaches will press into the soul from all sides, penetrate and amaze it, but there will be nothing to justify and nowhere to hide. This new weight - the weight of unjustified universal condemnation - will weigh even more unbearably on the joyless sinner. Nowadays, delays in investigative cases often make the fate of the criminal easier and attract the hope of acquittal. It won't happen there. Everything will happen in the blink of an eye: a trial without investigations, a conviction without references to the laws, and there will be no objections. By the wave of God, the righteous will be separated from the sinners, like “sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:32), and everyone will fall silent, having nothing to say against this Judgment and condemnation. The last defeat for the sinner awaits - the decision - and behold, one hears: “Come, blessed ones!.. Depart, cursed ones, into the fire!” (Matthew 25, 34, 41). The decision is irrevocable and unchangeable, sealing the fate of everyone forever. Eternal centuries will ring in the ears of the condemned sinner: “Get away, you damned one!” How forever will the sweet word please the righteous: “Come, blessed one!” This weight of rejection is the most unbearable weight that weighs on unrepentant sinners. That's what will happen! And this is what the Holy Church now wants to impress on our hearts! Let us perceive with feeling this bleakness of the sinner’s condition on the last day - the bleakness into which the then Judgment, condemnation and decision will place him; let us accept it and take care to avoid it. No one can escape the Judgment. Everything will be as it is written. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” but the word of God that they will pass away and then there will be Judgment “will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). Are we our own enemies? Not enemies. So let us hasten to avoid the trouble, hardship and despair that the Last Day threatens us with. How to avoid? Either by righteousness or by merciful justification. If you do not have righteousness for which you could stand with those at the right hand of the Judge, then be zealous in advance to justify yourself before God, washing yourself in tears of repentance and purifying yourself through deeds of self-sacrifice, and you will be accepted among them by justifying mercy, if not by truth. Behold, the favorable time has already begun (2 Cor. 6:2)! The eve of Lent is already approaching. The reduction in the satisfaction of the needs of the flesh is then instituted in order to give more scope to the actions of the spirit. Get ready! And from what has spoiled the coming week, from the evil customs of the world, run away as much as possible due to your conditional relationships and the weaknesses of your characters, so that we are sufficiently prepared to enter the field of fasting and fasting, to be cleansed, to establish ourselves in purity and to establish for ourselves the opportunity, purified, to appear before the terrible Throne of the Judge of all - God. Amen. On meat-eating week (the secret of preparing an acquittal at the Last Judgment) So, the Judge will come. Let us all appear before His Judgment Seat, so that everyone may receive “what he has done with his body, either good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). What will happen to us then, brothers? What exactly will happen to each of us then?! Now let us transport ourselves there mentally and invite our conscience to determine this in advance. Look! Behold, before us, face to face, the Judge is righteous and impartial. All intelligent creation is around – both heavenly and earthly. In ourselves, all our deeds are clearly visible: on our forehead, on our eyes and lips, on every member and feeling that served as an instrument for them; and we ourselves will see everything in ourselves, and others will see everything in us, and the eye of God will pierce us. There is nowhere to hide. The common court of all will acquit or condemn us. This judgment will be echoed by our own court; and both will be sealed by the Judgment of God, which will remain eternally unchanged and will decide our fate forever. So what do you think? What will our ear hear at that Hour - will it be comforting: “Come, blessed one” (Matthew 25:34) or desolate: “Depart, cursed one” (Matthew 25:41)? Ah, brothers! Let us take this decisive moment to heart and think in advance about what we should do. That moment cannot be avoided and the decision cannot be undone! Let us enter into our conscience and ask it what exactly it wants to hear: “go away” or “come”? Conscience will not flatter if we sincerely want to hear its direct voice and do not mislead it with empty self-justification. So the eye of God definitely sees what we are at this Hour and what we stand for, condemnation or justification, and puts its testimony into the ear of the inner witness of our deeds, in their relation to God and His eternal Law! What kind of predetermination does this inner witness of our deeds give us about us? You will always say: “Who is clean?” But that’s the point, so that we recognize ourselves as unclean and strive to be cleansed. For if at this moment, when our conscience recognizes us as unclean, we stood at the Judgment both from ourselves, and from others, and from the Lord, we heard such a verdict about ourselves, what would happen to us? Here come the executors of judgments, tie them up and throw them into “utter darkness”, where there is “crying and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12)! This is exactly what will happen if we don’t bother to change the threatening definition that is being prepared for us into a benevolent definition. Don't ask how to do it. For who doesn’t know that? “Repent and sin no more” - that’s the whole secret of preparing an acquittal at the Last Judgment! "Repent!" Is it big and difficult? The whole point of repentance is in two words: “I have sinned, I will not!” How hard is it to say this? And yet what great power is hidden in this short word! At least someone silently, only in his heart, with his inner feeling, said: “I have sinned, I will not!” This inner word will sweep throughout Heaven and there will produce universal joy. “All the Angels rejoice over one sinner who repents” (Luke 15:7), says the Lord. They rejoice, but for what? They rejoice for that indescribable joy with which the repentant sinner will be delighted on the Day of Judgment. That oppression, that grief, that misfortune that awaits the sinner at the Judgment is completely removed by this small word of repentance: “I have sinned, I will not!” Sin is imprinted in our nature, is imprinted in everything around us and is written in the Book of the Belly. In all these places it will be visible on the Day of Judgment and, reflected on us, will attract condemnation to us. But a repentant and contrite sigh: “I have sinned, I will not!” blots it out from everywhere, so that not a single trace of it will remain anywhere to expose us. Just as a black dress is washed, beaten, rinsed and thus whitened so that no trace of the former blackness remains in it, so tears of repentant contrition and Confession whiten our nature, erase traces of sin everywhere, erase them from the very book of Judgment, so that at the Judgment the greatest sinner, for the sake of repentance, will appear sinless and no reason will be found anywhere to condemn him, because repentance destroys them all. Sins, remaining in us not purified through repentance, are still preparing a punitive determination for us at the Judgment. Repentance, blotting out sins, still cancels this definition. Such is the power of repentance. God sent the Prophet to the Ninevites with the threat that three more days and Nineveh would be transformed, but the Ninevites repented, and God’s decree was canceled (Jon. 3, 4–5, 10). Another Prophet brought God’s decree about the hour of death to King Hezekiah, but the king sighed, prayed with tears, and he was still given time to repent (2 Kings 20:1–6). You see how repentance and tearful appeal to God changed the already established definition of God. Likewise, the determination that our sins are preparing for us at the Last Judgment, and which has already been predetermined by the state in which we now find ourselves, will completely cancel tearful repentance and confession of our sins. Exactly, it will cancel the definition, but if we do not change ourselves, it will remain unchanged, although the time has not come for it to be so. Our obstinacy in sin confirms God’s definition, and repentance evaporates it and destroys it. Let us hasten to this saving repentance while there is still time! While there is time: this time will end with the end of our life. And who can say when this will end? So we need to start repentance now. Then the Lord revealed to us the secret of the Judgment, so that, hearing about those condemned at it, everyone would look at himself, feel sorry for himself and hasten through repentance to save himself from eternal destruction. Is it desirable for the Lord to condemn us? If it were desirable, He would not have come to earth and endure suffering and death for our salvation. But since it is impossible not to have a Judgment, He announced it in advance, as if saying to us: “Look, this is what will happen! And this is what you need to do to avoid the trouble that lies ahead there!” The Lord speaks about the Judgment, so that no one would fall under condemnation. Just as a good judge informs residents in advance that he is coming to them to sort out cases, so that they prepare for the answers and do not get confused, so the Lord informed us about the Judgment, so that we knew in advance what would happen there, and so prepared ourselves in order to withstand the answers. How can you resist? Then there will be no questions if here, at Confession, to all questions that relate to our actual sins, we express sincere confession and repentance, saying from the heart: “I have sinned, I will not!” Let us enter, brothers, into these good intentions of God for us. Let us paint a picture of the Judgment in our memory and walk under it as if under a canopy. She will teach us how to avoid condemnation at this Judgment. The Holy Fathers, zealous for Christian perfection, implanted the memory of the Judgment so deeply in their minds that they constantly remained with it, no matter what they did. And they began to pray in no other way than by mentally establishing themselves at the Last Judgment, before the face of the Lord Judge, ready to pronounce the final verdict on them, and, recognizing themselves in this situation, they silently cried out: “Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!” Waking up from sleep, they sang: “Behold, the Bridegroom comes!” (Matthew 25:6). As they went to sleep, they cried out: “I fear your judgment, O Lord, and endless torment!” And at every hour of the day, with every task, constantly meeting with the picture of the Judgment, carried in their minds, they intensified their cry to the Lord: “Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!” Through this they acquired a “contrite and humble heart” that will not be humbled (Ps. 50:19). Continuous tears of tenderness washed their souls from all impurity and revealed them pure and perfect before the merciful Lord, desiring salvation. Let us also follow the same path of remembering the Last Judgment! It will give rise to contrition, tenderness and tears, which will extinguish the fire prepared for us by our sins if they remain unmourned. Amen. On the meat-eating week (about the Second and terrible Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ - abbreviated from the words of our holy father Ephraim the Syrian on the Second Coming) My Christ-loving brothers! Listen to the Second and terrible coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I remembered this hour and trembled with great fear, thinking about what would be revealed then. Who will describe this? What language will it express? What kind of hearing will contain what is heard? Then the King of kings, having risen from the Throne of His glory, will come down to visit all the inhabitants of the Universe, make settlements with them and, as a Judge should, give a good reward to those worthy, and subject those who deserve punishment to execution. When I think about this, my limbs are filled with fear and I become completely exhausted, my eyes shed tears, my voice disappears, my lips close, my tongue becomes numb and my thoughts learn silence. Such great and terrible miracles have not happened since the beginning of creation and will not happen in all generations! Time will be fulfilled, the last hour of the world’s existence will strike: the fiery river will flow with fury, like a fierce sea, girdle the mountains and wilds and burn the entire earth and the affairs on it. Then, from this fire, the rivers will become scarce and the springs will dry up, while there, woefully, “the stars will fall,” the sun will darken, the moon will pass by and the sky will “roll up like a scroll” (Is. 34:4). Who will find within himself enough strength to bear the thought of this terrible change in the face of all creation without a crushing shock? Then the voice of a trumpet will be heard, surpassing all thunder - a voice that calls and awakens everyone who has fallen asleep for centuries, both the righteous and the unrighteous. And in the twinkling of an eye, every breath of man will rise from its place, and all people from the four corners of the earth will be gathered for Judgment. For the great King, who has power over all flesh, will command, and immediately with trembling and diligence they will give: the earth its dead, and the sea its own. What the beasts tore to pieces, what the fish crushed, what the birds plundered - all this will appear in the twinkling of an eye, and not a single hair will be missing. Behold, everyone has gathered - and in trembling silence they are waiting for the “appearance of the Glory of the great God” the Judge (Titus 2:13), whose descent will be revealed by the appearance of the “sign of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:30), the appearance of the Cross, this scepter of the great King, having seen which everyone will understand that after him the King Himself will appear. And sure enough, soon it will be heard from the heights of heaven: “Behold, the Bridegroom comes” (Matthew 25:6), behold, the Judge is approaching, behold, the King appears, behold, the God of all is coming to judge the living and the dead! Then, my brethren, from this voice the foundations of the earth will tremble - from end to end, then oppression and fear and frenzy from the expectation of what is coming to the Universe will come to every person. Then the Angels will flow, the faces of the Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim will gather, and all the many-eyed will exclaim with strength and power: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts! Here... like you... and coming... Almighty!” (Rev. 4:8). Then every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth will cry out with trembling: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9). Then the heavens will open, and the King of kings, our wondrous and glorious God, will be revealed, like terrible lightning, with great power and incomparable glory, as John the Theologian preached, saying: “Behold, he is coming from the clouds of heaven, and every eye will see Him, and those who are like Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn for Him” (Rev. 1, 7). What fear and trembling and frenzy there will be in that Hour! Who will bear this vision? And whoever endures the sight of Him, from whose face “heaven and earth” will flee (Rev. 20:11). Heaven and earth will run! Who is able to resist after this? And where will we, sinners, run when we see thrones set up and the Lord of all ages seated, when we see countless armies standing in fear around the Throne? For then the prophecy of Daniel will be fulfilled: “In vain, until the thrones were set up, and the Ancient One was standing... Thousands of thousands served Him, and these stood before Him: the judgment was seated, and the books were opened” (Dan. 7:9-10). Oh, tightness, oh, tightness and languor of spirit! The impartial Judgment Seat opens and these terrible Books are opened, where our words and deeds are written, and everything that we said and did in this life and that we thought to hide from God, who tests “hearts and wombs” (Rev. 2:23). Oh, how many tears we need for the sake of that Hour! Then with our own eyes we will see, on the one hand, the indescribable Kingdom of Heaven, and on the other, the terrible torments that are opening, and in the middle – every knee and every breath of man, from the progenitor Adam to the one born after all. There All humanity will be placed in the midst of the Kingdom and condemnation, in the midst of Life and Death, in the midst of Heaven and Hell. Everyone will be waiting for the terrible Hour of Judgment, and no one will be able to help anyone. Then a confession of faith will be required from everyone, an obligation to Baptism, a faith pure from all heresy. Whether anyone is great or small, we still confessed the faith and accepted the holy seal, we all equally renounced the devil by blowing on him, and we all equally made a promise to Christ by worshiping Him. The renunciation that we give at Holy Baptism is expressed in few words, but in terms of the thought contained in it, it is vast. For in a few words we renounce everything, we renounce not one, not two, not ten bad deeds, but everything that is called bad, everything that is hateful to God, we renounce Satan and all his works. What's going on? Listen to: fornication, adultery, uncleanness, lies, theft, envy, poisoning, anger, blasphemy, enmity, quarrels, jealousy, drunkenness, idle talk, pride, idleness, mockery, drunkenness, demonic songs, child molestation, fortune telling, calling on spirits. We renounce all this and the like, everything that everyone knows is the works and teachings of the devil through renunciation at Holy Baptism. This renunciation and good confession will be required of each of us in that Hour and Day, for it is written: “By your words you will be justified” (Matthew 12:37), and the Lord also says: “Out of your mouth I judge you, O wicked servant” (Luke 19:22). These are our words that will either condemn or justify us in that Hour. They will interrogate everyone according to them, and each one in his own rank. The bishops will be asked about their own lives and about their flock: each will be asked for the verbal sheep that he received from the Chief Shepherd Christ. In the same way, the elders will give an answer for their Church, and together with the deacons. And every believer will give an answer for himself and for his house, for his wife, for his children, for his male and female servants, whether he raised them “in the discipline and teaching of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4), as the Apostle commanded? Then kings and princes, rich and poor, great and small, will be asked about all the deeds that they have done, for it is written that “all... let us stand before the judgment seat of Christ” (Rom. 14:10), “that everyone may receive what he has done with his body, either good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). What will happen after the deeds of everyone are investigated and announced before Angels and people, it is impossible to tell without tears and lamentations, because this will be the last. Then the Judge will separate us “from one another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:32). Those who have good deeds and good fruits will be separated from the barren and sinners and will be enlightened like the sun. These are those who loved the commandments of the Lord, were merciful, loving of the poor, loving of the orphans, clothed the naked, visited prisoners in prisons, stood up for the oppressed, looked after the sick who cried, as the Lord said (Matthew 5:4), became poor for the sake of the wealth kept in Heaven, forgave the sins of the brethren, kept the seal of faith indestructible and pure from all heresy. These the Lord will place “at the right hand... and goats with their heels” (Matthew 25:33), namely, those who were: barren, angered the Good Shepherd, did not heed the words of the Chief Shepherd, were arrogant, self-seeking, lustful, who at the present time of repentance, like goats, play and bask and spend the entire time of their lives in gluttony, drunkenness and all sorts of joys and amusements, and they are unmerciful to those in need, like the rich man who showed no pity for poor Lazarus (Luke 16:19-21). Having thus divided everyone, the Lord will say to those standing at the right hand: “Come, blessed ones of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!” (Matthew 25, 34). Those standing on their heels will hear this bitter and severe sentence: “Depart from Me, the curse, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel... And these go into eternal torment, but the righteous into the Eternal Life” (Matthew 25, 41, 46). I remembered this disastrous separation and cannot bear it. Whoever has tears and contrition, cry, because in that terrible Hour everyone will be separated from each other by disastrous separation and everyone will go into migration from which there is no return. Then parents will be separated from children, friends from friends, spouses from spouses, and even those who swore not to be separated from each other forever. Then the sinners will finally be expelled from the Judgment Seat and will be led to the place of torment by unmerciful angels, receiving pushes and beatings from them, gnashing their teeth, turning more and more often to see the righteous and the joy from which they themselves are excommunicated. And they will see this unspeakable light, they will see the beauties of paradise, they will see the great gifts that those who labor in goodness receive from the King of Glory. Then, gradually moving away from all the righteous, and friends, and acquaintances, they will finally hide from God Himself, having already lost the opportunity to see joy and that true light. Finally, they will approach places of indescribable torment and there they will be scattered and wasted. Then they will see that they are completely abandoned, that all hope for them is lost and no one can help them or intercede for them. Then, finally, in bitter tears, they will sob and say: “Oh, how much time we have wasted in negligence and how our blindness has deceived us! There God spoke through the Scriptures, and we did not listen; here we cry, and He turns His face away from us! What benefit have the ends of the world brought us? Where is the father who gave birth to us? Where is the mother who brought us into the world? Where are the brothers? Where are your friends? Where is the wealth? Where is the word of mouth? Where are the feasts? Where are the crowded walks?" There is no help from anywhere, abandoned by everyone: both God and the saints. And there is no time for repentance, and there is no benefit from tears. They would cry out: “Save us, righteous ones! Save, Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs! Save the face of the Patriarchs! Save the rank of those who labored! Save, Honest and Life-giving Cross! Save You too, Lady Theotokos, Mother of the Lover of God!” I would cry out like that, but they won’t hear me anymore! And if they hear, what good is it? For there is an end to all intercession. In such torment of joyless despair, everyone will finally and reluctantly be taken to the place of torment that he has prepared for himself with his evil deeds, “even though their worm does not die, and their fire does not go out” (Mark 9:48). Now, have you found out what we are preparing for ourselves? Behold, have you heard what the careless, the lazy, the unrepentant gain? Have you heard how those who mock the commandments of the Lord will be ridiculed? Have you heard how this soul-corrupting life deceives and seduces many? Let us take care of how we may appear before the Last Judgment without condemnation at that tremulous and terrible Hour. The Holy Prophets and Apostles predicted about this terrible Day and Hour, about this terrible Day and Hour the Divine Scriptures cry out and testify from the end to the end of the Universe, in churches and in every place. For what? In order to beg everyone: look, watch, listen, be sober, pray, be merciful, repent and be ready, “for you do not know the hour of the day, when the Son of Man will come” (Matthew 25:13). “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness and the sorrows of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly” (Luke 21:34). Leave the “way... wide” that leads to destruction, and enter the “way... narrow” leading to the Belly (Matthew 7:13-14). The journey along this path is sorrowful, but the rest is blissful; the procession is cruel, but the reward is joy; the procession is shy, but the place of rest is spacious. The procession along it: repentance, fasting, prayer, vigil, humility, neglect of the flesh, longing for the soul, almsgiving, crying, sighing, kneeling, labor and all suffering. The procession along this path: to be reproached and endure, to be hated and not to harbor hatred, to suffer and repay for this with good, to forgive, to lay down one’s life for friends, and finally, to shed one’s blood for Christ, if circumstances require it. If anyone follows this narrow path, he will receive a blessed reward that will never end. And the wide path and spacious gates lead to destruction. The procession along it is joyful in the present, but mournful there. Here it’s easy, but there it’s hard and painful. Here it is sweet, but there it is more bitter than bile. This walking along the long path includes: fornication, adultery, uncleanness, zeal, envy, rage, strife, as well as laughter, cries, fun, pipes, dancing, luxurious clothing, costly suppers, lawless singing, soft beds, gluttony, brotherly hatred and, what is worst of all, unrepentance and failure to remember the departure from this life. Many follow this path, and everyone will find a refuge worthy of it: instead of pleasure - hunger, instead of peace - illness, instead of laughter - weeping, instead of merry feasts - staying with demons, instead of bright and luxurious dwellings - pitch darkness and fiery hell. Thinking about this end of the broad path, brethren, let us turn away from it and listen to the Lord, Who says: “Strive to enter through the strait gate” (Luke 13:24). Let the memory of the Last Judgment teach us this. Keeping this Day in mind, the holy martyrs did not spare their bodies, while others labored in the deserts and mountains and are now laboring in fasting and virginity. Having this Day in mind, blessed David every night wet his bed with tears and begged God, saying: “Lord... do not enter into judgment with Your servant! For if you want to do it, then no one living will be justified before You” (Ps. 142: 1-2). Let us begin, brethren, to this feat before that Day comes. Let us precede the face of our God with confession, repentance, prayers, fasting, tears, and hospitality. Let us anticipate before He apparently came and found us unprepared. Let us not cease to repent, constantly beg and prepare to meet the Lord - all together: men and women, rich and poor, slaves and free, old and young. Look, no one says: “I have sinned a lot, there is no forgiveness for me!” Whoever says this does not know that God is the God of the repentant and came to earth to call “not... the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32). But look, let no one dare to say: “I have not sinned!” Whoever says this is blind. No one is sinless, no one is pure from filth, no one is free from guilt, except the One Who for our sake “has become poor, He is rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). Thus, let us not suffer from self-righteousness, but we will not despair of salvation, recognizing our sins. Have we sinned? Let's repent. Have you sinned a thousand times? Let us repent a thousandfold. God rejoices over every good deed, especially over the soul that repents, for everyone bows to it, accepts it with their own hands and calls on it, saying: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!” (Matthew 11:28). Hearing these good promises and this sweetest voice of the Savior of our souls, come, let us worship and fall down to Him, confessing our sins. Let us not be lazy and let us not stop crying day and night with tears, for He is merciful and undeceitful and will undoubtedly take vengeance for those who cry to Him day and night. He is the God of penitents, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To him be glory forever. Amen. You might be interested in: