54. О борьбе со страстями

I continue. Passions are in us, but they have no independence in us. The mind, for example, is an essential part of the soul, and it cannot be taken away without destroying the soul. But passions are not like that. They have entered into our nature and can be expelled from it without preventing a person from being a person, but, on the contrary, having been expelled, they leave a person as a real person, while with their presence they spoil him and make him into a person, in many cases worse than animals. When they possess a person and a person loves them, they become so close to human nature that when a person acts on them, it seems as if he is acting from his nature. It seems so because a person, having submitted to them, acts on them self-willingly and is even convinced that it is impossible otherwise: nature. All of them (passions) come from self-indulgence, selfishness, self-love and are based on them. As soon as, having denied himself, a person is inspired by the determination to please the One God, then in this very act of spiritual passion everyone loses their support, becomes outside the consciousness and will that they previously possessed. Having lost their support, they are already deprived of their former determining force, by which a person was drawn after them, like a donkey on a scrap of paper after its owner. Previously, as soon as a passionate impulse appeared, a person immediately rushed with all his strength to satisfy it, but now it’s not the same. They still show themselves, but instead of rushing to please them as quickly as possible, man rebuffs them and drives them out of his sight. This is what is now in you, after you have so fervently set out to work for the Lord, without sparing yourself. Passions, it’s true, had not yet had time to grow in you and become stronger, but they were all there and you acted on them, not realizing that you were going against yourself, and even at times proud of yourself, for example, with your noble indignation or your noble pride, whereas in a noble form they are just as ignoble as in any other. They were there before, and sometimes without your consciousness they took possession of you; They will still appear now, but they should not take possession of you. I would say: they won’t, because now, with that determination of yours, all their power is stopped - stopped at the same time as you decided not to spare yourself for God. But I don’t know how this matter will go for you, because it is not only necessary to put it down, but also to fulfill it, to fulfill it constantly, without concession. Self-pity is so flattering, passions sometimes take on such plausibility that it would not be surprising if you again work with passions in the old way, although not so clearly recognizing and noticing this. You see from this that, despite the fact that you have already decided to please the One God and have clearly understood for yourself what God’s holy and perfect will requires of you, you must strictly adhere to the following rules: “Be careful... how dangerously you walk, not as if you were unwise, but as if you were wise, redeeming time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15-16). These evil days are an evil time, an evil state and position in which we are due to the evil passions that are evil within us. “Be sober, be vigilant” (1 Pet. 5:8). “Watch, watch and pray” (Mark 13:33). What is it to be vigilant over and what to watch over? Keep a watchful eye so that no passion creeps in, and be careful that it does not deceive you and force you to do anything to please it - big or small. Even though you will quietly follow a passionate path and inadvertently do something according to it, it will all be a bad thing, done to please the enemy, and not God. You must arrange yourself in such a way that the enemy does not profit from anything around you, even the slightest. And for this purpose be vigilant, vigilant, sober and watchful. All these actions mean one thing: watch out for the enemy to sneak up. To be vigilant and awake means not to sleep, not to indulge in negligence, but to keep both soul and body in tension. To be sober means not to attach your heart to anything other than God. This clinging makes the soul drunk, and it begins to do things without knowing what. To watch means to strictly watch so that nothing evil appears in the heart. When you, keeping your strength in tension and not putting your heart into anything, keep a watchful eye on everything that is happening inside, then you will truly fulfill the Lord’s and apostolic instructions given above - you will stand on guard. This is the first thing in the fight against passions. As soon as the enemy is seen and missed, then expect either a wound or complete defeat. An enemy who is noticed is not terrible. Just threaten and he will run. Such is the trick of our spiritual enemies that as soon as they see that they are open, they will now run away, although this, of course, does not always happen. There are also mischievous people here who, no matter what, keep climbing and climbing. Before all this we will agree again. Now - save yourself! You might be interested in: