Глава 4. Пастырское душепопечение по святителю Димитрию

God's mercy does not deprive sinning people of the opportunity to regain their former holiness and righteousness through repentance. This sacrament, established by the Lord Jesus Christ, is a gift of God's mercy for the salvation of sinners. The first condition and guarantee of a person’s salvation is repentance. It reveals and awakens in the soul a feeling of lost bliss and the joy of being with God - the source of true happiness. “Our ancestors Adam and Eve, not despairing of God’s mercy,” writes the saint, “but, trusting in His compassion for mankind, in their repentance began to invent ways of serving God. They began to bow to the east, where paradise was planted, and to pray to their Creator... which was an omen of the sacrament of new grace” 153. True repentance consists not only in confessing one’s sins and illnesses of the soul to God. It should become for a Christian the beginning of healing and his personal feat in the matter of salvation, as a means necessary for assimilation of the fruits of redemption accomplished by the Savior, Who calls every sinner to cleansing. “Repent,” it is said, “for the Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near.” (Matthew 4:17). He who does not confess his sins has the doors of his heart locked. Christ will not enter to him and will not live with him... Therefore, if we, my brothers, confess our sins, with which we have angered our Creator, and make satisfaction for them, then we also open the doors of our hearts, then He will come to us to live like a King in beautiful chambers” 154. Saint Demetrius pointed to the sacrament of repentance as the greatest instrument of salvation and, using numerous examples, revealed its power. First of all, he tried to arouse in his flock a feeling of repentance, which is the beginning of all Christian deeds. “What returns the grace of God to our souls and revitalizes them? Truly, there is nothing else, says the saint, but true repentance. When a person repents, he is resurrected. And just as sin is to blame for the death of the soul, so the resurrection of the soul is caused by repentance” 155. For weak human nature, disfigured by the disease of sin, independent rebellion is a very difficult task and requires God’s help: “The most severe thief on this path is sinful habits. It cannot be overcome and overcome quickly, not easily, but only with great difficulty, for if sinful habits take root in someone, they become, as it were, a second nature and even a necessity... On this path you need to be a fighter and have God’s grace” 156. As a loving Father, God calls sinners to repentance in various ways: by reminding them of the hour of death, through reproaches of conscience, and awakening them from the sleep of death by sending down temporary disasters and punishments. “This voice of the Son of God,” the saint writes, “cries out to us constantly, day and night, cries out every hour, putting into our minds and hearts the memory of death... Listen and know that this is also the voice of God” 157. In one of his Lenten teachings, he compares repentance to cleansing vessels with ashes: “Dishes and vessels are cleaned with ashes, whether they be tin, copper or silver. If they have turned black due to something, then as soon as they are rubbed with ash, they regain their shine. Through holy repentance, sinners are cleansed and brighten before the eyes of God like the sun” 158. According to the saint, repentance is the door to resurrection. Until a person repents, he, although physically alive, is spiritually dead. Therefore, through repentance he must be resurrected during his lifetime. This resurrection - repentance must be done throughout life, “for when a person sins, he dies in soul, and when he repents, he is resurrected” 159. Grace, infused into the heart, renews it and adorns it with the fruits of virtues, which are evidence of spiritual and moral renewal. They are necessary for a Christian to be strengthened in righteousness on the path to salvation. “The repentance of one who wants to cover up frequent overeating with short-term abstinence from food and fasting is vain,” the saint teaches, “the repentance of one who, with a short sigh and stress on the chest, wants to justify many lies, thefts, murders, thefts, and insults is in vain. Repentance and justification are hopeless for those who want to wash away great defilements and iniquities with small tears. If you want to delight yourself before the Lord and receive forgiveness of sins... create fruits worthy of repentance, compare your labors with your previous sins, even surpass them, and then expect forgiveness and salvation” 160. He who does not care about acquiring the fruits of repentance, but repeats previous sins, is far from salvation, is seduced by the false hope that there is still time for correction and does not know God 161. “Such a person,” the saint concludes, “is sick both with his mind—the outward appearance of his soul—and with his conscience—with his inner being. He humiliates himself with reason, and completely destroys himself with hope” 162. And moreover, no efforts of the sinner and his imaginary virtues are pleasing to God. Sinful evil deprives a person of temporal and eternal blessings 163. And the one who performs a real feat of repentance, with all his might avoids sinful inclinations, endures all adversity and wishes to accept death rather than offend God and fall from His mercies, becomes the heir of eternal life, receives a reward, is awarded crowns along with virgins: “Let him judge as he wishes. I am not ashamed to put it in the image of virgins and write it with virgins” 164. Therefore, “no one should fall into despair, even if he is burdened with many sins, but having repented, it is graceful to reunite with God in order to be numbered among the saints” 165. The saving virtue for a Christian is the fear of God - “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). On it, according to the teachings of St. Demetrius, rests “the beginning and foundation of a godly life” 166. Without it, a person cannot achieve unity with God and eternal bliss. The absence of the fear of God is the cause of all sins, evils and troubles of man, for “he who does not have the fear of God commits himself to every evil deed” 167. The presence of the fear of God in a person “is, as it were, a rein and bridle that leads a sinner away from his lawless path” 168. If a person leads a godly life, seeks God, then he is given this gift of God 169. A necessary condition for accepting it is strong faith in the Lord 170; this virtue develops in a person and strengthens in him with the desire for a pious life. With the appropriate spiritual disposition, a Christian overcomes sinful inclinations and is confirmed in the fear of God. “Thus, from the fear of God,” the saint teaches, “human salvation begins, for he who fears the Lord God walks in His ways, that is, keeps all His commandments, and loves Him, and works diligently for Him” 171. The fear of God develops and is established in the human heart from the knowledge of God's truth, spiritual laws, from reflection on the destinies of mankind and the fate of sinners. A God-fearing person always, in any place and at any time, feels God’s presence, and this helps him remain unharmed from sin: “If for the sake of His presence, fear and love for Him, he does or speaks, or thinks, then he does all this pleasing to God... and he spends his entire life, which is, as it were, before the eyes of God, virtuously and soul-savingly, often repeating in himself with fear the following words of the holy prophets Elijah and Elisha: The Lord lives, before whose all-seeing eyes I walk, stand, sit, eat, drink, speak, talk, think, and everything I do, I do for Him, who is looking at me” 172. On the other hand, forgetting about God's omnipresence deprives a person of fear; The saint emphasizes that this is extreme madness and stupidity, pushing a person to do godless deeds 173. Thus, the fear of God is the strongest Christian weapon in the fight against sin and a saving means for strengthening in piety, and contributes to the development of other Christian virtues, the highest of which is love. “The fear of the Lord is the guide to salvation and the beginning of the love of God, in the words of the same Moses: “Now for Israel what the Lord your God asks of you, that is to fear the Lord your God and walk in all His ways, and love Him, and serve the Lord your God with all your heart” (Deut. 10:12)” 174. Without the fear of God, salvation is impossible: “When there is a great war ahead, when there are many obstacles on the path to salvation, how can you be saved without fear?” - asks the saint 175. The Lord especially generously pours out His gifts of grace on those His servants who do every deed and life in the fear of God. “Whoever has it in his heart will truly succeed in every good deed, for at every time and hour he is ready to please God, moving away from every evil and tempting thing” 176. The fear of God is the Christian's teacher on the path to salvation. He who has it will achieve eternal life and find peace in the Kingdom of Heaven, having avoided temptations and sin on earth. Therefore, the saint once again calls on his listeners to have the fear of God, since “it is fitting for all of us to appear in the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor. 5:10) 177. Salvation is achieved through constant struggle in the process of internal renewal and struggle against sin. A Christian must put on Christ, imagine Him in his heart. To do this, he needs to put off the old man, free himself from sin and all filth. In holy baptism, a person receives the opportunity for such renewal, he becomes a new creation, is born for eternal life, but he needs to be established in holiness. Often, having grace-filled means of salvation, a person again moves away from God because of his sins: “Spiritual leprosy, that is, sin, is very similar to bodily leprosy, it interferes with God-like beauty, the grace of God” 178. This is facilitated by the sinful nature of man, who more often follows his own lust than the will of God, 179 the delights of the world and the devil. “The sinner is blinded by his spiritual eyes through his bodily senses, through which, as through doors or windows, spiritual enemies, the world and the demon with the helping flesh, first blind the soul with their arrows, and then kill it” 180. In spiritual warfare, the saint advises Christians not to weaken in spirit, no matter how difficult or insurmountable the trials may seem to them. Gradually, a Christian not only becomes stronger in the struggle, but also gains experience: “Anyone who wants to cast out a seven-headed and multi-faceted demon must have many feats of virtue, but not without Peter, James and John, that is, not without firm faith, not without a persistent struggle with passions, not without the special grace of God, which is given to those who diligently seek God and truly love Him” 181. A person’s struggle against sin and the slander of the devil can be successful if he has strong faith and has God as his helper. The holy apostles could not cast out the demon “because of the unbelief of that man himself. Faith can do anything, but unbelief even creates an obstacle to what is possible” 182. A person who does not have firm faith and remembrance of God cannot lag behind a sinful life, from vices that remove him from the Source of life, offend Divine majesty, and lead to eternal destruction. Such a person “spends his ways and his life prodigal, because there is no God before him, his mind is far from God, and God is far from him. When the sun sets, night comes: similarly, our life becomes dark and bad when God retreats far from us or we retreat far from God” 183. A strong and effective means in the matter of salvation, according to the teachings of the saint, is the fear of God, which “one must learn to have, and seek a teacher, and listen to, and obey him, as God’s builder” 184 . Due to sinfulness, human nature is upset and its spiritual powers are weakened to the point that a person cannot control himself and his feelings, often following sinful habits. In order to defeat the tendency to sin and eradicate passions, the Holy Father advises rejecting all the delights of the world. “It is appropriate to fight and despise everything with the courage of the heart that enjoys honor among people, for all this enslaves the sons of Adam, that is, acquisition, honor, idleness, glory, physical beauty and other similar things that excite lust” 185. As a warrior of Christ, when fighting an enemy, a Christian must always be fully armed, ready to repel any attack, and must not fall into despair or despondency, but firmly trust in God’s help. “The world gave up the holy martyrs to desecration, the most severe torment and death, for they were displeasing to it. They were disliked because they were kind, meek, and pleasing to God, they moved away from all worldly uncleanness and exposed the errors and failures of the wicked. But what has the hated world achieved by hating and destroying the saints? He himself perishes, and they live forever, and their reward is from the Lord: they were destroyed by the world in many different ways, but not only did they not perish, but they did not even lose a single hair from their heads.” 186 And if a Christian becomes accustomed to goodness, strengthens himself in God, and remains in hope in Him, then he will receive a reward from the Chief Shepherd. Subject to a person’s personal aspiration and with the help of God’s grace, which promotes salvation, he can overcome sinful passions and overcome the devil. Therefore, the saint advises the Christian to turn for help to the Physician of souls and bodies, “to pray to God that He will raise us to true repentance and arm us weak against demonic power, girding us with His Divine power from above” 187 . In the process of spiritual and moral revival, fasting is important, as a necessary means for healing the soul and curing ailments. Christ the Savior Himself, entering His service to humanity, began His feat with fasting, “so that we could leave an image and, by His example, arm us with fasting against the devil, for otherwise we are not able to defeat him” 188. Fasting is necessary as a healing means for putting off the old man with all his sinful nature, which hinders spiritual growth. “Fasting and abstinence dry up our body, kill carnal lusts and sinful passions in us... tame all the power of the enemy” 189. Saint Demetrius, explaining the laws of spiritual life, pays great attention to this virtue. This difficult feat for a Christian must be accompanied not only by physical abstinence, but also by spiritual abstinence, which consists of moving away from all evil, for “if someone, while fasting, embitters his neighbor, fasts in litigation and quarrels, such fasting does not find grace from God” 190. True fasting helps the spirit to dominate the physical nature and makes a person a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. Fasting, as the saint noted, is also useful for physical health 191. The food taken by a person should be consumed in moderation, not to please the flesh, but to maintain physical health, so that a person is able to work and do deeds useful for his salvation and for the glory of God. It is very important in fasting, says the saint, abstinence from anger, vanity, alienation from evil, abstinence of the tongue, putting aside rage, excommunication from lusts and eradication of lies and perjury - abandoning all this is true and favorable fasting 192. As we see, spiritual fasting is given the most importance; it should occupy more of a Christian’s attention in order to serve to mortify passions and create favorable conditions for the planting and growth of high spiritual qualities. Only such fasting is saving for a person and pleasing to God 193. If the Lord led the people of Israel in the desert for many years in order to destroy from their memory “all the evil that was in Egypt before He brought them into the Promised Land, then all the more necessary is this for those entering the open heaven” 194 . Thus, fasting, according to the teaching of St. Demetrius, assists a Christian in the matter of salvation and pleasing God. Prayer occupies an important place in Christian spiritual and moral development. It contributes to the spiritualization of a Christian, the purification of his heart and the enlightenment of his mind, strengthens him in heroism, in the fight against passions. Saint Demetrius draws the attention of his listeners to the fact that prayer is evidence of God’s great mercy and love for humanity, for the Lord has endowed intelligent creatures with the ability to turn in prayer to their Creator 195. Through prayer, people can communicate with Him, the Provider, the Savior and the Giver of all blessings, “this is the key to the treasures of God, through which anyone who wishes opens the door of God’s mercy for himself and enters and leaves and finds pasture” 196. Prayer is an essential necessity in a person’s spiritual life, an expression of faith and hope in God. Prayer is food for the soul. It “is as necessary for a person as daily food is for the body: bread strengthens the flesh, prayer strengthens the soul. And just as the body becomes weak without food, so does the soul without prayer. The soul cannot receive grace from God for its strengthening and revitalization if it does not ask for it through prayer. “Ask,” it is said, “and it will be given to you, for everyone who asks accepts” (Matthew 7:7)” 197. Prayer, the skill to perform it, is sent down to man from God, therefore, “let everyone ask from God Himself for the gift of prayer, who Himself teaches prayer to the one praying: “We must not pray as we should, unless He guides us with His Holy Spirit.”198 In his teachings, the saint points out the need for prayer for every believer. Numerous misfortunes from external and internal enemies, sorrows, needs, troubles, temptations prompt a Christian to turn to God in prayer; prayer is necessary for the soul, like walls are for a city besieged by foreigners. “For the soul is the city of the great King God, and in this city good deeds dwell as citizens, and the gifts of God are kept as royal treasures... Truly, only a prayer wall, when it is strong and has boldness towards God, can drive away their many insidious powers” ​​199. Prayer is an indicator of a Christian’s striving for perfection and holiness, the level of his spiritual and moral state. Great is her strength. Like “a shield and a weapon in battle against enemies, she not only arms weak men against strong men, but also takes up weak vessels against brave men... To show the power of prayer, I will say the following. Prayer not only defeats the laws of nature, but even restrains the hand of the omnipotent God Himself, raised to defeat sinners” 200. Turning to God in prayer gives consolation in sorrows and disasters, delivers from troubles and inclines to the mercy of the righteous Judge and Rewarder of sinners 201. But in order to find real prayer, effort and exercise in it are necessary, a tearful appeal to God, good deeds, “it is necessary to add to prayer undoubted faith in receiving what is asked, hope... kindness, mercy” 202. Living faith, firm hope, unfeigned love for God awaken in the soul of a Christian a feeling of complete devotion to His all-holy will, an undoubted confidence that the Lord knows all his spiritual and bodily needs and is ready to satisfy them, if only they are useful for his salvation. Therefore, a Christian must with great diligence and zeal ask with faith, seek with hope, knock with love. “And you all ask by prayer, seek by good conduct and knock with great diligence,” the saint teaches 203. The power and meaning of prayer lie not only in the mechanical pronunciation of words, but in the attentive turning of thoughts and feelings to God, for “prayer without attention is like a censer without fire and incense, a lamp without oil, a body without a soul. Such prayer is an abomination, and not pleasing to our Master Christ, for it is not the words emanating from the mouth that implore Him, but the mind, wholly turned to Him. It is not the voice of the larynx that reaches the ears of the Lord of hosts, but the groaning of a contrite heart, and the Lord does not bow to the many words of the one who prays.” 204 Saint Demetrius distinguishes two types of prayer: external and internal. The first is apparently performed, this is a conciliar prayer, performed according to church rules, to which people are called by ringing. The second, “an arbitrary prayer done in secret, happens untimely, when someone wants, without any call, only according to the movement of the spirit itself... The first is pronounced aloud with the lips and voice, the second - only with the mind. The second is solitary and takes place in a closed cell” 205. The external environment is of great importance for attentive prayer. Solitude is the best way to promote a prayerful mood and concentration. A Christian’s personal desire, spiritual experience, and skill also provide important assistance in acquiring prayer. Therefore, the saint believes, “a short, but often performed prayer is more useful than a long one. Let your frequent but short prayer not be multiplied by unnecessary words, as the holy fathers teach about this." 206 Learning to pray is inextricably linked with the moral perfection of a Christian. To become accustomed to true prayer, one needs not only mental composure, but also an active desire for God, a firm intention to fulfill His commandments, His will, if we want Him to hear our petitions. Only prayerful work and an exemplary virtuous life, inextricably linked with each other, are favorable to God. Pharisee prayer, without a holy life, will not only not be heard by God, but will also turn into sin 207. Before fulfilling your prayer and pouring out your petition before God, you need to make amends for previous sins, unevenness, and prepare yourself by practicing all sorts of virtues: humility, fasting, alms. Virtues are “the wings of prayer, on which it flies to the Most High, sitting on six-winged seraphim” 208. Prayer is facilitated by petitions with tears that ascend to heaven and appease God 209. Sincere and constant prayer is necessary for everyone: both righteous and sinners. Therefore, when gaining experience in prayer, it is necessary to remember that it is a Divine gift. Anyone who wants to acquire it must make his own efforts and ask the Holy Spirit to give him the joy of “enjoying the Lord” (Ps. 36:4).