Часть 8. В неделю первую Великого поста

On the first week of Great Lent (which should be in every communicant of the Mysteries of Christ who has received the Lord in them; and in whom the Lord is not) Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56). Rejoice, reverent communicants! As much as the word of the Lord is not false, it is just as certain that the Lord is in you, through the Communion of His Holy, Most Pure and Life-giving Mysteries. But, brethren, the Lord, having come and dwelt in us, cannot remain unwitnessed in this internal action within us, just as He does not leave Himself unwitnessed in the external Providence of us, “from heaven giving us rain and times of abundant fruitfulness” (Acts 14:17). He Himself says: “Whoever opens the door of his heart, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). So, do you sup with the Lord and the Lord with you? I offer this question to you because of the fact that of you present here, perhaps there is not a single one who has not already partaken of the Mysteries of Christ. Well, has what should be the obvious fruit of this glorious Sacrament begun in you? The Lord, having come, brings the Supper with Himself: He brings all spiritual blessings for salvation, of which He is the only Source, and gives them to the soul to eat. Come inside and look. The Lord is light. He brings light with Him and into the soul that receives Him. Just as when a lamp, abundantly shining, is brought into a dark room, that room and all the objects in it, from large to small, become visible with the lamp itself and with the one who brought it, in the same way spiritual light illuminates the soul that has received the Lord. This is the light of knowledge and understanding of the entire Economy of our salvation. It clearly recognizes our insignificance and helplessness and God's great condescension towards us, saving us with all the truths related to it: about the Consubstantial Trinity, about creation and Providence, our fall, the Incarnation of God the Word, His death on the cross and Resurrection, about the structure of the Holy Church, the communion of Heavenly with earthly and the inheritance prepared in Heaven for believers and those who labor in life according to faith - in a word, with the entire totality of saving truths. These truths are always known to us as Christians, but until we enter into life according to Christ, this knowledge remains external. The Lord, having come, dissolves them not only with the mind, but with the entire being of our spirit, to the point that after this there remains neither a shadow of doubt nor a moment of oblivion. But just as it is true that the light now surrounds us and illuminates everything around us, and we are irresistibly aware of this, so he who has accepted the Lord with his mind consciously stands in those truths and persistently abides in them, acting in his own circle. This should be the case for every participant in the Mysteries of Christ who has received the Lord in them. But is this the case with you and me, brothers? The Lord is the all-giving power. He brings spiritual strength with Him and into the soul that receives Him. A sick paralytic, lying in bed, barely raises his hands, barely speaks, barely shakes his eyes, but having received healing, in a feeling of strength and strength, he begins to walk and act not only without pain, but also willingly, like the paralytic healed by the Savior, who, taking up his bed, walked, jumping and praising God (John 5:9, 15). Likewise, the sinful soul is morally weakened, but when it receives the Lord into itself, it feels spiritual strength and strength within itself, that is, it feels an inspired zeal for every good and for the fulfillment of every commandment of God, not overcome by any obstacles, neither external nor internal, erected from passions and bad habits, and not stopped by either negligence or procrastination. And we always do a little good, but we do it when it comes to hand, so to speak, and does not require sacrifices or special efforts to perform. But here a strong energy is revived with the direction of all thoughts, desires and intentions towards one thing pleasing to God, which is expressed not only by liveliness, but by a certain uncontrollability in the works of goodness and piety, not feeling tired and full. This is how it should be in every communicant of the Mysteries of Christ who has received the Lord in them. But is this so with you and me, brothers? The Lord is peace. He brings peace with Him and to the soul that receives Him. Just as a strong storm arose on the Sea of Tiberias, agitated the sea and led the Apostles into confusion, the Lord, with His omnipotent word, tamed and established a great silence, calming and cheering everyone (Mark 4:39), so in the soul, usually agitated by many thoughts, desires, undertakings and movements of the heart, after the coming of the Lord, a deep spiritual silence, undisturbed by anything either from outside or from within - silence that makes it possible to clearly hear a light voice, either from heaven or from earth. This is not immobility, but the harmony and regularity of all the actions of our spirit, in all its forms, which, having quality within, are expressed externally by the degree of all movements and the arrangement of their affairs without any disturbance of the encountered orders. This should be the case for every participant in the Mysteries of Christ who has received the Lord in them. But is this the case with you and me, brothers? The Lord is a warming fire. He brings spiritual warmth with Himself and into the soul that receives Him. Just as someone who enters a warm room from the outside cold feels a warmth pleasantly enveloping him throughout his entire body, so the soul is clothed with spiritual warmth, like clothing, after receiving the Lord in the Most Pure Mysteries. From above is the favor of the reconciled God, behind is the atonement of sins, in the future is confidence in an unspeakable inheritance, from everywhere is peaceful communication with the invisible and visible: these are the rays of this spiritual warmth, which, converging in the heart, produce in it a burning of the spirit, attracting there all the forces of our nature, thereby creating a strong abode in it to contain the inconceivable. This warmth gives sweetness, a paradise of sweetness, a spiritual treasure for which a person is ready to give everything, just not to lose it, but to always possess it. This is how it should be in every participant in the Mysteries of Christ, who receives the Lord in them. But is this so with you and me, brothers? Thus, the light of knowledge, the power of inspiration for good, spiritual peace, sweet warmth - these are the main witnesses of the Lord’s installation in the hearts of true participants, the Supper with which He nourishes the soul that has received Him. Hearing this, perhaps more than one of you will be troubled in spirit and ask: “Well, if someone does not see such evidence in himself, then the Lord is not in him?” I will not falsely reassure you: yes, the Lord is not in it. And I will carry this word even further: if the Lord is not in him, then there is no salvation for him. However, be careful not to worry yourself with false insurances. Perhaps these blessings are not perfect, but they are in the beginnings. Then it must still be said that they exist. The day does not suddenly shine, but as soon as it begins to dawn, everyone knows that the night has passed and the day will come. A flower or a tree does not suddenly grow, but as soon as the seed sprouts, we know that the life of the new plant has already begun. The patient does not suddenly rise to his feet, however, as soon as the medicine is found and receives strength, we know that recovery is already in effect. So also understand the fruits of the Reception of the Most Pure Mysteries, which testify to the indwelling of the Lord in us. They are not in power, but perhaps they are in the beginnings. Be patient and remain in the order in which you can expect them to appear perfectly, and you will receive what you expect. Ask: “How can we know if we have at least these beginnings?” I answer: if there is concern for salvation with the labor of fulfilling everything that requires salvation, know that the Lord has already begun His work in us. Continue the work you have begun with patience and see what the one who begins will accomplish. But if this is not there, then there are no firstfruits. Neglect and carelessness about salvation is a clear sign that the life of the spirit has not yet begun. And everything needs to be redone again. Do not despair, however, in this case either. Then life is also given to us so that we can come to our senses and repent. This is what needs to be done. There is still a favorable time for holy fasting. Let's use it and take care to complete the course of healing for ourselves during the retreat in the proper way! Then, having reconciled with the Lord in the Sacrament of Repentance and having received Him in the Most Pure Mysteries, we will begin the work of living, which will finally lead to light and perfection of spiritual blessings, testifying that the Lord is in us and we are in Him. Amen. On the first week of Lent (how to behave in order to avoid new falls into sins) So, we have finally passed the stage of our fasting. The Lord blessed us to work in preparation for the Holy Sacraments, and for this small labor He forgave us all the sins we had confessed, and He deigned Himself to come and dwell in the pure and thus marked cage of our hearts through the Most Pure Body and His Most Pure Blood that we had received. “What shall we render to the Lord for all that he has rendered to us?” (Ps.115:3). Let us render what He now expects from us. And He expects nothing more than what they themselves promised Him when they asked for forgiveness of sins. We promised not to indulge our love of sin any more and to make every effort to steadily remain in the fulfillment of His holy commandments. And we will do so. And if we exactly fulfill this promise, then the Lord will fulfill in relation to us what he promised to all true participants of the Most Pure Mysteries: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56). The Lord is not faithful in His word. As I said, so it will be. But our word is not always true. No matter how sincere we are when we give it, there is always room for doubt whether we will fulfill it. At first our resolve is firm, but then our thoughts become loosened and our strength falls. How many times have they promised, and they all fell again! That is why we need to persuade ourselves to use care and work in order to resist, at least this time. Perhaps, with God’s help, we will resist this time. There are people who get tired and do not succumb to their previous desires. Why can’t we finally achieve this good? The Lord is near. His help is ready. All that remains is for us, on our part, to do everything necessary. It seems to me that we can very easily succeed in this if we keep unquenchable the heat of zeal for pleasing God, with which our heart, grateful to the Lord, is now filled. If we always had this jealousy in us, no bad thought would confuse us, no temptation would shake us, no obstacle would put an obstacle in our good undertakings and labors. And the enemies would have fled far from us, and passions would have been in no hurry to appear with their demands. That this is exactly the power of jealousy, Saint Isaac the Syrian writes at length about this in the 60th word “On the various methods of warfare...”. “Who,” he says, “are courageous, strong, do not count death as anything, go to work with great zeal, give themselves up to every temptation and death, neglect worldly and bodily life and all temptations, the devil does not suddenly come out to meet them and does not show himself to them for a long time, restrains himself, gives them a place and does not meet with them at their first aspiration, and does not enter into battle with them. For he knows that every beginning of a battle is hot, and he knows that the ascetic has great zeal and zealous warriors are not easily defeated. The devil does this, not being afraid of them themselves, but he is afraid of the Divine power surrounding them, terrible for him. Therefore, while he sees them as such, he does not even dare to touch them until he sees that they have cooled in their jealousy.” Do you see the power of zeal for a holy and godly life? Divine power surrounds her and reflects any enemy action far away. Whose heart is filled with such zeal, the Lord is with him, and with whom the Lord is, there is strength for all good and courage against all evil. So keep your zeal faithfully and you will fulfill your promise not to indulge in sin and to walk in a manner pleasing to God. On the contrary, as soon as you allow jealousy to cool, you cannot avoid falling. For this is what Saint Isaac says further: “During their laziness (when, that is, the zealots who have grown cold) become lazy, the enemy pays attention to them, when they deviate somewhat from their first ardent thoughts and begin to invent from themselves what serves to overcome them in themselves with the oozing caresses of their wisdom, and from themselves they dig a ditch for their souls of destruction from laziness with the resulting soaring of thoughts from which in them coldness reigns." That's the whole secret! If we keep our zeal strong, we will avoid new falls, and we will succeed and become stronger in goodness. On the contrary, as soon as our jealousy weakens and cools, attention to ourselves weakens, thoughts begin to soar, movements of passions begin to arise, internal agreements appear on them, and then the matter is not far off. So they fell again. And again darkness and confusion, and falling away from the Lord, and again destruction in slavery to sin and Satan. Why is this what Saint Isaac then advises each of us: “And you, a man who sets out after God, at every time of your heroic deed, always remember your first zeal and those fiery thoughts with which you set out and entered the military ranks. Test yourself every day, so that the ardor of your soul does not cool down in the jealousy that flared up in you at the beginning, and so that you do not lose the tools with which you were invested at the beginning of the feat.” I believe that with these words a desire is born in your soul to know how we can really preserve our jealousy, and with a short answer I want to satisfy your manifestation. Here's what you do. Every morning, as soon as you open your eyes, always consider the first thing to be to restore this jealousy in all its strength. This can be accomplished by just gathering oneself inward and mentally turning to the Lord. If it is weak, apply bows, large and small, and in proportionate quantities. If this does not produce the full effect, stand and go through the memory of how in the current fast you came to the decision to change your life, trying to reproduce all those thoughts and feelings that were then and acted on you, and especially the thought that struck you most. At the same time, place yourself at the hour of death or at the Judgment of God, when a decisive ruling about you is ready to come from the mouth of God. If you sincerely carry out this mental work, your search and prayer to the Lord will bear fruit, your zeal will arise, with which you will then confidently proceed “to your deeds and to your doings until the evening” (Ps. 103:23). If for some reason, or rather, due to an enemy slander, a urge appears in your soul to make yourself some kind of indulgence in this regard, not to bother yourself with the proposed work, then sober it up with the fear of falling. For if you leave your jealousy unrestored in the morning, then you will become completely cold about the affairs of the day! It’s not surprising that you will fall. Will you fall? Lose grace and God knows whether it will return to you and whether you will rise again. “For the earth, which has drunk the rain that descends upon it in abundance... and wears down thorns and thistles, is indecent to eat and curses near, even to its end by burning” (Heb. 6:7-8). This terrible word: “oaths are near,” that is, that the Lord will abandon you completely and leave you in the hands of your fall, if you still allow yourself to grow cold and fall, let it ring in your ears more often. It will resurrect every time a feeling of fear for oneself and bring into tension weakening forces. Having resurrected the heat of your jealousy in the morning, maintain it later and throughout the day. And for this, keep your attention undistracted. Stand with your mind and heart before the face of the Lord and do not allow your thoughts to wander in vain in dreamy ideas. Wandering thoughts alienate a person from himself and thereby cool him down, and moreover, they can easily lead him to the objects of his passion and, before you come to your senses, awaken a dormant passion and, perhaps, lure consent to it. And after this, how far is it before the fall? To help this inner mood, take care to rebuild your entire life according to the requirements of the new life, and give all your affairs and activities their place, their time and their measure. Let everything be determined for you: how to be alone, how to be with your family, how to be with outsiders, how to organize the affairs of your craft, title and position - and everything is directed towards one thing, so as to please the Lord with everyone and fulfill His one holy will in everything. Nevertheless, resolutely put aside anything that can irritate your passion and your previous bad habits. By establishing such an order, you will protect your life from all cases of fall and will ensure that it will all be harmonious for you, without violating, but more and more strengthening your internal structure. Having settled in this way internally and externally, you will constantly be zealous about pleasing God, or move from one godly deed to another. All that remains is the struggle with suddenly arising thoughts, desires, passionate movements and external obstacles to your good undertakings. With attention and unflagging zeal, this will not put you in great difficulty, and not only will not weaken your jealousy, on the contrary, it will constantly irritate it and thereby elevate and strengthen it, just as a warrior is not cooled down, but heated up by the fight against enemies attacking him. I do not remember that one should not indulge in empty entertainment and avoid in every possible way temptations or near and distant reasons and occasions for sin. This will go away by itself when you rearrange all the orders of your life according to the spirit of the new life. As for private circumstances and matters that may endanger the goodness of your life, seek admonition regarding them in the holy books and in paternal or fraternal advice. Make it your law to turn more often to the spiritual father whom your soul chooses, and with him review everything that happens in your soul and what happens in your life outside. “Salvation...” says the Wise One, “is in much counsel” (Proverbs 11:14). Those who know how to read, have soul-saving books at hand and in them look for admonition and enlightenment of your thoughts in the right (difficult) troubled time. In many cases they can replace the lack of experienced external guidance. Here is a general outline of how you need to behave in order to maintain your zeal and avoid new falls into sins. By acting in this way, you will faithfully fulfill what you promised to the Lord when you said: “I have sinned, I will not.” Seeing your work, the Lord will fulfill His promise to be with you and work in you for your salvation, throughout the entire breadth, length and height of your devotion to Him and readiness to turn everything to His glory. Amen. In the first week of Lent (if you fall again, who knows whether you will get up?) “Behold, you are healthy, let no one sin, lest it be worse” (John 5:14), the Lord said to the paralytic after healing him. We all heard this comforting and intelligible voice when, at confession, we received permission for our sins. Now all those who have repented and been resolved have been restored to spiritual health and everyone has returned to their order and rank. What else is required? You need to be careful not to fall into the same trouble again. If you give up sin, don’t return to it. If you have received a pardon, do not be subjected to anger and condemnation again. You have entered the right path - do not deviate from it. Once again the enemy will draw you into his region of darkness - do not give in. He will contrive to deceive you with flattering promises - do not fall into deception. You know how evil sin is, you know how difficult it is to overcome it - do not enter into fellowship with it again. The Lord helped you, you got up - stand still and take courage and let your Heart be strengthened. The enemy will whisper to you: “If you fall, you will rise again.” And you contrast your speech with him: “Now I have risen, thanks be to the Lord! But if I fall again, I can’t say whether I’ll get up. I don’t want to remain in the hands of fall forever, I don’t want to be a slave to sin and a victim of the flames of hell.” So repel the enemy's flattery. And with this fear of a new fall into sins, sober up your soul and inspire it to move forward through self-correction. Confirm in yourself that very probable thought that if you fall again, who knows whether you will get up? And if you remain in the fall, you will die. The enemy will confuse you with the assurance that the Lord is merciful. He has had mercy and will have mercy again. Indeed, the Lord is merciful, but there is a measure of His mercy towards us. There is a measure to God's long-suffering. He forgives and forgives, and finally seeing that the sinner is still giving himself over to sin, he completely leaves him in the hands of his fall. Unfold the Book of the Prophet Amos and start reading. In the 1st and 2nd chapters he depicts the judgments of God on Damascus, Gaza, Idumea, on the Jews, Israelites and other nations. The word of the Lord is the same to all of them. “Damascus sinned once, twice and three times: I forgave him. Now when he has shown his wickedness for the fourth time, will I not turn away from him?” (Am. 1, 3–4). He turned away and sent punishment. “Once, twice and three times I forgave Gaza; on the fourth time will I not turn away from her?” (Am.1, 6–7). He turned away and ordered execution. “Once, twice and three times I spared the Jews and the Israelites; on the fourth time will I not turn them away?” (Am.2, 4–5). He was disgusted and punished. This happens to us too. If anyone sins and repents, the Lord will forgive. He will still sin and repent, he will still forgive. And he will also forgive. And he will also forgive. Finally, seeing that everything is the same with us, he makes the following decision: “I have forgiven so much and so much, if he starts doing the same again, I will turn away from him.” Let everyone who is again drawn to sin write this judgment in their hearts. The Lord has forgiven until now, but now, if you fall, be afraid that He will not completely turn away from you. How many times did God forgive Pharaoh for his stubbornness? Finally, he abandoned him and ordered the Israelis to leave, without waiting for his consent. And even though Pharaoh later came to his senses and hastily ordered: “Go tell them to come out quickly” (Ex. 12, 31, 33), this did not help him and did not avert God’s judgment against him. Thus, God’s mercy may finally be exhausted for everyone. And what is most terrible is that we cannot say exactly when the hour of this exhaustion will strike. That rejection of God for the fourth crime, which is mentioned by the prophet Amos, and this execution of Pharaoh after resisting God ten times does not mean that one can calmly indulge in the bonds of sin, breaking a vow up to two or three times, but only show that there is a limit to God’s mercy: it is unknown when it will overtake someone. Better affirm in your thoughts that for you it will follow immediately after the fall to which you are ready to surrender, and thereby sober up your thoughts and give courage to your heart to resist the impulses that arise. Bring to mind Sampson's misfortune. Once and twice the power came into him to break the bonds with which the Philistines entangled him through the betrayal of Delilah, but even the last time, when his hair was cut, he did not expect that the same power would not come to him, but it turned out differently. The Lord departed from him and gave him into the hands of his enemies. Sampson himself did not even think that God’s retreat had already befallen him; on the contrary, he woke up and said: “I will go out as before and shake myself off,” that is, I will shake off these bonds, “and not knowing that the Lord has departed from him” (Judges 16:20). So the Lord had mercy and mercy on the Jewish people, but finally what did he say? “Behold, your house is left to you empty” (Matthew 23:38). But neither the high priests, nor the elders, nor the scribes, nor anyone else thought that this terrible decree had already befallen them. Fear this terrible judgment when sin begins to attract you again. Be afraid that the Lord will finally say about you: “Behold, your house is left empty.” The Lord is merciful to all sinners and with an oath assures that he does not want “the death of the sinner, but that he should be converted... and live to him” (Ezek. 33:11). But you yourself, with your frequent falls, will bring yourself to the point where nothing can be done with you. Resurrection from falls is that It happens that something is repaired and repaired, and finally abandoned because there is nothing to put hands on. The same can happen with the soul, the Lord corrects it, and finally abandons it completely because with its frequent failures it finally upsets itself that it cannot be repaired. us remaining, despite the fact that we work against sin. Grace descends on this good, revives it and gives it superiority over evil, and man rises. But each new fall consumes our good more and more; after each fall, less and less of it remains in us, and, consequently, there is less and less space left where grace can descend in order to restore us. What wonder if we finally spend all our goods in slavery to sin and thus lose the possibility of rebellion. There will be no means left for us to do this. Remember the last time you came to your senses and stood up. Saving thoughts came and sobered me up. Either the fear of death and Judgment, or the destructiveness of sin, or shame before the Lord the Savior, or something else that had a strong effect on the soul, struck her. The soul came to its senses and, with the help of God, abandoned sin, repented and now stands with the intention of no longer offending God by falling into sin. If you fall into sin again, then with what thoughts will you shock yourself, when everything that can shake you has already been tried and you have spent your shocking power on your current uprising? There is no strength left in them for the next arousal of you. The same thing happens with saving thoughts as with medicines. Just as the frequent use of drugs in the body dulls the sensitivity to them, so in relation to shocking and exciting truths the soul finally loses all feeling. Neither threats, nor promises, nor death, nor hell, nor heaven, nor the poison and bitterness of sin - nothing strikes or sets the soul in motion. She will become like a stone. And what will happen to her then? The same thing that the Apostle awards to the land, which drank “in abundance” the rain that fell on it and wore out only “thorns and thistles”: “it is indecent to eat... oaths are near, even to their end by burning” (Heb. 6:7-8). Add to this that frequent falling into sin forms the habit of sinning, which binds the poor soul and tyrannically holds it in slavery to itself. Even if one sin turns into a habit, it captivates the entire soul and tormentingly dominates everything. Look what the spider does with its prey? Piece by piece he entangles her in a thin web until he confuses her all, after which she at least makes some more movements, but they are powerless to free her. Likewise, sin, to which a person becomes accustomed by frequent falls, penetrates him force by force until it fills both soul and body and imposes bonds of slavery on all their functions. Although sometimes a person sometimes comes to the idea of giving up his sin, the soul, seeing how intricately entangled it is in it, does not dare to raise its hands in order to untangle itself, and abandons itself to complete hopelessness of overcoming sin, as the Apostle writes about the pagans, that they “involved themselves in despair (insensibility), giving themselves over to debauchery (licentiousness), to doing all kinds of uncleanness in covetousness” (Eph. 4, 19), and how the Jews, exhausted by Egyptian slavery, even when Moses brought them the promise of freedom on behalf of God, did not believe that this could happen. So, those who have repented and entered on the good path, be afraid of falling into sin again. See through the charm of sin, which is trying to entice you again, its decisive destruction. Do not look at it lightly, but as a gaping abyss, like hell, open and ready to swallow you up irrevocably. And with the fear of such a bitter fate, sober up your thoughts and turn away the feelings of your heart from sin. The struggle, of course, is inevitable. But it is easier for one who stands to fight than one who has fallen. Are you up? Stand and fight. The Lord will be your Helper. Day by day the struggle will become easier. Finally, it will completely subside. Good will prevail - and your life will flow peacefully, through godly acts of goodness, and will lead you to a blissful outcome from here to eternal heavenly abodes. And if you fall again, there will be confusion of thoughts and feelings again, again darkness and languor, again fears and torment of conscience, again tightness and all sorts of disorder. You will begin to suffer again in slavery to sin, perhaps endlessly, and, having suffered here, you will be plunged into endless torment after death in sins unmourned and uncorrected. The Lord, who gave you to arise from the devil’s snare, “may he complete you, may he establish you, may he strengthen you, may he establish you” (1 Pet. 5:10). And it will be so if you yourself are sober and watchful, knowing that “our adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walks around, looking for someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). Amen. You might be interested in: