Часть 4. В неделю сыропустную

On the week of raw food (about the matter of remembering where we fell from) “Remember... from where you fell!” (Rev. 2:5). This is what the Lord says to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus in the Revelation of John the Theologian. But “remember” not frivolously and indifferently, but in such a way as to find in this an incentive to repentance and return to previous good deeds. “Remember... from where you fell, and repent, and your former deeds create” (Rev. 2:5). This commandment should be constantly instilled in every person and all fallen humanity. Remember the primeval bliss of the primordial, great and indescribable, lost through the fall, and thereby irritate in yourself jealousy and care for the rebellion and restoration of what was lost. Thus, the sick person, remembering the pleasant state of health, more earnestly desires recovery; the captive, remembering the joy of freedom, seeks liberation; the impoverished, remembering the peace of contentment, uses all sorts of ways to become rich again. Of course, this memory could plunge us into despair if we did not have at hand the means to improve our condition. But the protective goodness of God established an image of rebellion on earth and brought it closer to us - a trustworthy image of rebellion, already tested by many and showing its wondrous power over them. In such a situation, the matter of remembering where we fell from is the same as the arousal of thirst when a clean source of water is before one’s eyes, or the arousal of hunger when a plentiful meal is before one’s eyes. And this is the intention with which every year the story of the fall of our ancestors is offered to us before the beginning of holy fasting. We are told through this: “Remember what you were before, what you have become now, and be jealous to rebel!” “Behold, now is the time favorable; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor. 6:2). But, as if in defiance of God’s care for us, of all the saving truths that are little remembered, the least remembered is our fall, in the person of our forefathers. As if everything should be the way it is. Pity-worthy oblivion! As if the royal daughter, being carried away by low affairs and therefore having lost the favor of the king-father and fallen into a low state, became so insensitive that she forgot that she was not in her place and not in her form, this would be pitiful: and all the more so since the royal house is in sight, and there is a way to appease the king, and the king’s readiness to again accept his daughter and return everything to her is known and declared; This is precisely the situation in which our soul, created in the image and likeness of God, does not contain in its thoughts what it was initially and what it has become now, and does not want to take advantage of the means given to it to return to its first dignity. It was placed in the light of knowledge, but is now surrounded by the darkness of ignorance, doubt and error. She was filled with a world of thoughts, desires and conscience, but now there is a struggle in her between thoughts and desires, thoughts and desires with conscience, a struggle that leaves wound after wound. There was sweet peace and complete contentment in her, but now one passion after another strikes her heart, at the same time as she seeks to gain self-pleasure by satisfying the passion. From this internal disorder comes external sorrows, needs, illnesses, failures, disorder. Is this the paradise of sweetness in which you, soul, should be, according to your kind and purpose? Remember where you fell from and repent! It seems that everyone should feel the unnaturalness of our present situation, living in poverty all their lives and experiencing all kinds of inconveniences and deprivations, but this is not the case. Others are so close to their situation in the fall that they do not even think that this should not have been, they even prove that it should not have been otherwise. What a shame! Everyone is pitiful who does not feel the fall and does not seek rebellion. All the more pitiful are Christians and those who live in the face of Christianity. Before us is the house of salvation, and in it we have already partaken of the healing powers operating in it; it would be a pity if we came out of it having tasted the food that destroyed us. But it is even more pitiful if, standing outside, we indifferently look at the loss and, in carelessness, do not strive to go inside again and enjoy the good things there. Awake your souls, brothers, if they have fallen asleep. Be there, saying: “Arise, sleeping and sin-stricken soul, arise, and Christ will sanctify you! You have already been sanctified and you know how great the bliss of the sanctified! Be jealous about the same thing again and rise up! “Behold, now is the time favorable; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor. 6:2). We have fallen by eating, we will force ourselves to rise by fasting; fallen by conceit, we will rise by self-abasement; We fell through impenitence, we will rise with tears of contrition; We have fallen through carelessness and forgetfulness of God; we will rise through concern for salvation and the fear of God; we fell by giving ourselves over to pleasures, we will rise by the cruelty of life and voluntary deprivation; we fell by alienation from the Church, let us rise by drawing towards the house of God; we fell listening to shameful songs and allowing ourselves to dance, let us rise by listening to church songs and frequent bows; We fell with verbosity, we will rise with silence; We have fallen into absent-mindedness, let us rise through solitude and attention; We fell by listening to empty speeches and reading empty books; we will rise by listening to the word of God and reading soul-saving books. Just a few more hours, and the saving time of fasting will come, inviting an uprising. Let us use it according to the instructions of our wise and caring mother, the Holy Church. Let us take advantage, for we do not know whether such time will be given to us, but who wants to remain in the fall and die fallen into another life? Maybe this is already our last year that we are left alive to experience whether we will bear the fruit of repentance, whether we will correct ourselves. And, therefore, if we don’t correct ourselves now, we will be flogged and thrown into the fire. Having this in mind, let us now set the intention, when entering into fasting, to join together in the feats of rising from our falls. This is what the Lord demands from us, this is what the Holy Church expects, this is what all the saints of God desire, who thoughtfully think about us and look sympathetically at the deviations of our paths! Amen! During the week of raw food (in Lent, we are given time for repentance for the last time) The Holy Church now reminds us of the fall of our ancestors. Her goal here is that, remembering that we are in a place of exile, we should become less broad and towering, and more humble and contrite, but especially so that, moving from the fall of our ancestors in thought to our own personal fall, we would flare up in the spirit of jealousy for the uprising and return of what was lost in the fall. Then remembering this is established before the beginning of holy fasting, which is primarily a time of repentance and self-correction. In this we must hear the tender voice of the Mother Church, who is compassionate towards us, with which she seems to be saying to each of us: “Have you fallen? Get up! Now the door of fasting and repentance is opening for you: take heart, enter with boldness and run in this field without self-pity.” The children of the Church should not have to be persuaded much to heed this call, but what should we do with our careless and careless soul? She does not listen, or, having heard, does not heed, or, having listened, uses various twists and turns to talk herself out of the matter to which she is invited for her own good. Let us go in to our soul and let us persuade it not to miss the present fast as a gift, but to use it for repentance and correction. Somehow it has worked out for us that only by fasting do we calm down a little, and only by fasting do we find thoughts of concern for salvation. At other times, we allow ourselves liberties, sometimes on a very wide scale, not without sin, considering them sinless, and by fasting the thought is somehow sobered by itself, desires recognize the lawfulness of the measure that curbs them and submit to it, although not always without grumbling. And many worries fall silent, and concern for “the one thing... needed” comes into the picture (Luke 10:42), although, like a frightened child, timidly presenting its demands. Such a good mood usually brings us to a holy fast, and it would be difficult to believe that anyone missed it fruitlessly. It happens, however, that, despite the saving influence of fasting, despite even the compulsion to self-correction felt during it, for others it is not counted among the days of salvation. Who does not need and who does not feel the need to correct what is faulty in themselves? But self-pity comes - the friend of carelessness and negligence - and drowns out these good movements. And so we begin to postpone the fulfillment of these demands: first from the first day to the second, from the second to the third, then from the first week to the second or third, from the third to the fourth or last, and on the last something will interfere or some excuse and delay will come up with crafty laziness. So the entire fast passes without fasting, Confession and Holy Communion. But just skip the post - at any other time there is nothing to expect that we will take up the work of salvation. If through fasting, when everything is adapted to this, and not only church, but also everyday orders are directed towards this, we do not do this, where should we gather to take up this matter after fasting? So you will have to live again in carelessness and negligence, in the same sinful habits and passions and in the same anger of God until the next Lent. And who knows whether we will live to see it? What will happen if we die in a sinful and unrepentant state?! We have almost reached this post - let us thank the Lord for this mercy, but we will also hasten to take advantage of it with all readiness. Of course, the Lord so favored our salvation for our sake, despite our careless and careless life. The duration of our life is not in our power, but at the disposal of God. The Lord extends or shortens our days, judging by whether any good can be expected from us or not. The wicked and sinners “will not half their days” (Ps. 54:24), that is, they will not live even half as long as they would have lived if they had pleased God. Each of us in the Church of God is like a tree in the garden: those who live in a manner pleasing to God are good-fruitful trees, but those who are careless and careless are the same as barren trees. A gardener looks at a barren tree one year, and looks another year, a third looks, and then chops it down and throws it into the fire. The same thing happens to us: the Lord waits for us for the fruit of repentance for another year, waits for another and a third, and then, seeing that there is nothing good from us, he delivers us into the hands of death and through it leads us to the righteous reward that awaits the careless. Remember the Savior’s parable about the barren fig tree (Luke 13:6–9). The householder says to the gardener: “Behold, this is the third summer I come and see no fruit on this fig tree, cut it, why is it taking up space?” (Luke 13:7). The gardener begged him to leave the barren tree for another year, maybe it would bear fruit, and if after that it didn’t bear fruit, then cut it. This is an image of how the mercy of God begs the truth for us, the careless, year after year in hope - will we finally bear the fruits of repentance? Oh, brothers, who knows, maybe this is the last time this fast is given to us! Perhaps even now justice is walking around us and with its ax, touching the root of our life, demands the cutting of us, the barren, and the mercy of God begs him to give us at least this fast: will we not repent, will we correct our lives and then do some good. Let us help mercy to surpass the truth, from now on making it a point in our hearts to take care of ourselves properly during this fast and correct everything that is faulty in our life, in our deeds, in our feelings and intentions. As we enter into Lent, let us think that this is the last time we have been given time for repentance: if we miss it, don’t wait for such mercy any more. Let us imprison ourselves in this cramped situation, which means either labors of repentance or death, and after death – Judgment and eternal torment! Perhaps the sleep of carelessness will escape and at least the feeling of self-preservation will arouse the spirit to its characteristic tension and liveliness of action! And so that this may have a stronger impact on us, let the following words of the Apostle constantly ring in our ears: “Or are you negligent about the riches of God’s goodness and meekness and long-suffering, not knowing how the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Because of your cruelty... and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath and revelation of God’s righteous judgment” (Rom. 2:4-5). Of course, many, many of you are inclined to act in this way, but are there those who waver in spirit and relax in heart? Have pity on yourself, brothers! Put aside for a moment the harmful inattention to the matter of salvation and let's reason! There are those and those - and how many there are! - from the very first days they are going to take up the labors of fasting and fasting, and you and I do not think of disturbing and worrying ourselves, but we are planning to spend our time as usual, “doing the will of the flesh and mind” (Eph. 2:3). It looks like they are losing, and we are gaining, but in reality, we are losing, and they are gaining! They will receive forgiveness of sins, be pacified in conscience, enter into peace with God, unite with the Lord in the Holy Mysteries and begin to taste the joy of life in pleasing God, but we will be left with the same confusion and disorder inside, the same tightness and discontent, the same burden of sins and passions, the same hopelessness and languor, which, however, will increase the severity of our situation in view of those who have corrected themselves and are glad for their correction life. Just as a shadow seems thicker when the lightness of the adjacent parts increases, so those parts will ascend more and more, and we will descend more and more. Why do we allow ourselves to do this? Isn't our nature the same? Isn't this also our calling? Are we not promised everything that they too will receive? Why do we allow ourselves to experience such hardships? Are we feeling sorry for ourselves? Oh, the pity worthy of pity, with which we destroy ourselves forever! Are we afraid of work? But what kind of work is this? This work seems difficult until we enter into it. And as soon as we begin to work, all the difficulty will disappear, because it is not we alone who will work, but also the grace of God, which helps zealous workers in every good deed. And even if it’s really difficult for someone, is it possible to put this into perspective, thinking about what is given for this little work?! And how can you do it without difficulty? Yesterday the Holy Church glorified all those who labored in salvation. Look! Everyone worked: young men, and virgins, and wives, secular and spiritual, desert dwellers and those living in the world, and without labor no one has yet entered the Kingdom of God! What can we say about work, when without it you can only improve destruction? And don’t the pernicious also bear labor and hardship? Oh, how many and what more! So, doesn’t it turn out that we are ready to remain in destructive work, but don’t want to listen to saving work? Another will say: “Affairs and circumstances are getting in the way.” And don’t say, as soon as you want, everything will be redone, and circumstances will be settled favorably, and the work of fasting and fasting will be accomplished in a soul-saving way. God gave man the freedom by which he can make everything move around him. The hindrance is not in business, but in our pride, self-pity and forgetfulness of God, in our blindness, insensibility and negligence. With them, like captives and bonds, Satan bound us and left us to wallow in sin, although, apparently, such a situation is not for our good. Let us arise (free ourselves) from these nets with which Satan traps us, the living, into his will. Let us better listen to the voice of the apostle, awakening us from the sleep of carelessness: “It is now time for us to rise from sleep... The night has passed, and the day is drawing near. Let us therefore put aside dark works and put on the weapons of light” (Rom. 13:11-12). “Behold, now is the time favorable! Behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). “Arise, sleep and rise from the dead, and Christ will illuminate you!” (Eph.5, 14). Amen. In the week of cheese fasting (fasting seems gloomy until one enters its field) Glory to Thee, Lord! We are still honored to live to see holy fasting, we are still given time to come to our senses, and they are still expressing their readiness to accept us into the Fatherly embrace of mercy. For three weeks we prayed: “Open the doors of repentance, O Life-Giver!” Behold, this saving time of repentance has approached! We stand at the entrance to holy fasting - the field of repentance and God's mercy towards us. Let us approach with boldness and enter with desire. Don't refuse anyone. No one should shy away from inuda (somewhere, to another place). Fasting seems gloomy until one enters into its field, but start and you will see that it is light after night, freedom after bonds, privilege after a painful life. Have you heard that the current Apostle said: “The night has passed away, and the day is drawing near” (Rom. 13:12)? Night is the time before fasting, and day is fasting. The Apostle wants us to greet fasting just as happily as we greet the day after a long night. Just take to heart what fasting requires, what it gives, and what it promises, and you will see that it cannot be otherwise. For what does fasting require? Repentance and correction of life. What does it give? Forgiveness and return of all God's mercies. What does it promise? Joy in the Holy Spirit here and eternal bliss there. Take all this into your heart and you will not be able to help but desire fasting. Only flesh rises up to fast, and those who are not favorable to fasting are carnal, although they do not want to put themselves in this category and they explain their alienation from fasting somewhat more plausibly: they do not want to leave a life free for the flesh, so they raise complaints about fasting. Our spiritual side loves fasting, longs for fasting, and is at ease in it. One should say: “Arouse and develop the spiritual side in yourself, and you will be in harmony with fasting, as with your friend,” but it is for the revelation of this side that the Lord legitimized fasting. So self-compulsion is necessary in advance, unsweet labor is necessary in advance, so that later you can taste the sweet fruits. Let carnal reasoning shun fasting, submit under the yoke of faith and heed the apostolic teaching: “Carnal wisdom is death, but spiritual wisdom is life and peace: for carnal wisdom is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, it can do less.” Why are those who follow this wisdom “unable to please God” (Rom. 8:6-8). This is what alienation from fasting out of pleasing the flesh and subordinating oneself to carnal “wisdom” borders on: the loss of the opportunity to please God and even enmity against God! Why, whoever has even a small spark of fear of God will not shun fasting and, in the light of this fear, will repel all false pretexts for breaking it. One could say: “Revive the fear of God in yourself - and you will willingly enter the field of fasting, and without difficulty you will go through it all - from beginning to end,” but again, how can you revive fear without fasting? Vanity, worries, empty entertainment, pleasures, passionate hobbies, or even just the hustle and bustle of established relationships, do not allow you to enter into yourself, come to your senses and vividly recognize your obligatory relationship with God! Therefore, we must force ourselves to enter the field of fasting and fulfill all its requirements. Then vain desires, thoughts and passions will subside, the voice of conscience will be clearly heard and the consciousness of God and responsibility before Him will vividly arise. And after this, perhaps, ordinary Lenten labors will even seem insufficient, for the fear of God, having come to life in this way, will become an irresistible force that knows no barriers, the action of which is directly directed against every pleasure of the flesh, supported by self-pity. When you enter this state, then all the rights of the flesh to the benefits that we provide it in ordinary life will naturally seem strange and ridiculous, but until you enter, there is no point in exposing the falsity of pretexts for pleasing the flesh that distract from fasting. These accusations have nothing to attach themselves to in order to produce their effect. One thing can be advised: go through your whole life, no matter how long you promised yourself, stand at your deathbed and judge whether your conscience can promise you a good outcome if it immediately finds you as you are now? If it cannot, then know in advance that at that moment you will be ready to lift the burden of ten, hundreds, thousands of fasts at once, just to gain pardon, and this will not be given to you. So, instead of then experiencing such a bitter refusal, here you are given a fast, which alone is enough to receive pardon: enter into it cheerfully and carry it out according to God’s intention. Who knows, maybe this is your last post and your last mercy? If you miss it, don't wait any longer. And why miss it? We have lived long enough, doing the will of our flesh and our minds: it is time, “having forgotten sin, to live in righteousness” (1 Pet. 2:24). “The time that has passed away is enough for you...” says the Apostle, “who walked in uncleanness, in lusts, in drunkenness, in goat-speaking, in covetousness and in excess of fornication” (1 Pet. 4:3-4). It's time to put aside “dark matters” and put on “weapons of light.” It's time to start walking “in good manners”, as “in the days”, and stop “pleasing the flesh... to work in lust” (Rom. 13:12-14). For if we live according to the flesh, then we “have to die,” and if we begin to put to death “the deeds of the flesh” through the “Spirit,” then “we will live” (Rom. 8:13). Now we remember the fall of our ancestors, and in them the common fall of all of us. What was it mediated by? Indulgence of the flesh and violation of fasting and abstinence. Fall - death, uprising - Belly. If you want to enter into the Belly, enter into the feat of fasting, and especially since you cannot help but realize that your own falls came from the same source. It seems that there would be enough motivation to decide to embitter the flesh in feats of self-mortification during the upcoming fast. But a strange thing is happening here: those who could be given benefits make themselves the most embittered by fasting, and those who should be made most embittered by fasting give themselves the most extensive benefits. The righteous work hard for themselves, but sinners allow themselves benefits after benefits. Is it not because the righteous person feels like a sinner, and sinners place themselves in the ranks of the righteous? And if so, then what is better than an indication of the self-blindness in which the love of the flesh keeps us, and what is a more reasonable basis for not listening to it and acting contrary to it? Let us courageously enter the field of fasting. Let there be no timid carnivores among us, who tremble for their lives if they are deprived of any dish or any joy! May there not be among us even the worldly carnivores who have turned the cherishing of the flesh into law, by virtue of some of their special teachings. The Apostle put such people to shame at the beginning, calling them enemies of “the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose belly is God, and whose glory is in their cold, who are wise on earth” (Phil. 3:18-19). Nowadays we hear a lot of teachings that expand the paths of life, and many customs have already entered into which our flesh is at ease. But let us remember the true word of the Lord: “Enter through the narrow gate: for the wide gate and the broad way lead into destruction, and many are those who enter through it. That you bring a narrow gate and a strait path into the stomach, and those who find it eat few” (Matthew 7:13-14). Let us also cleave to those few and enter the gates of oppressive fasting that are opening before us cheerfully, not allowing ourselves fussy interpretations and willful deviations from what was legitimized so wisely and what was so savingly fulfilled and is being fulfilled by all who understood and understand the purpose and price of life in the flesh not for the sake of the flesh (Rom. 8:12). Amen. You might be interested in: