Conversation in the 3rd week of Lent

“Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it; and whoever destroys his soul for the sake of Me and the Gospel, he will save it” (Mark 8:35). The Lord Jesus offers us a strange teaching, apparently, in the Gospel we are reading today. Whoever wants, He says, to save his soul will destroy it, and whoever destroys it for My sake will save it. Why is this so? Why is it not possible, without destroying the soul, to save it and, while saving it, not to destroy it? And how is this so? By saving a soul you destroy it, but by destroying you save it? Isn't it the other way around? It seems that the one who decided to save the soul, who decided to use all his abilities to preserve it and overcome all the obstacles that may be encountered, will sooner or later achieve the goal - to save the soul. In order not to be in bewilderment, which can sometimes end in false convictions harmful to spiritual salvation, let us consider carefully what the words of the Savior, pronounced for us now at His cross, mean: “Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it: and whoever will destroy his soul for My sake will save it” (Mark 8:35). What soul is the Savior talking about here? Does He not have only temporary life in mind, demanding its sacrifice for His name before those who persecute His name? This meaning is simple and the Savior’s words in this case would have little relevance to us, who do not live in times of open persecution for the faith. But truly, does the Savior mean only sacrifice of life? If this were so, then it was to be expected that all the beloved of Christ would die no other way than the death of martyrdom; and at the same time, the reward for the feat of martyrdom would not be very significant - the return of physical life outside the grave. As much as the first, by the way, disagrees with the command of the Savior - to leave the place where they do not accept a faithful disciple of Christ, so much the second is incompatible with the goodness of the heavenly Father. What kind of soul is the Savior talking about? Let us take a closer look at His words. “Whoever wants”: the words show that these words have a connection with the previous one. What was said before? “And having called the nations with his disciples, he said to them: If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me. Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it” (Mark 8:34,35). So, the Savior first offers the commandment about self-sacrifice, about bearing one’s cross, and following Him; and then he presents the motivation for this - that whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it. Will you now say that the commandment about self-sacrifice and bearing the cross must be observed because otherwise, while preserving bodily life, you can destroy it? But isn’t it clear that the impulse, taken in this sense, applies in its strength only to cases when it is necessary to sacrifice life: what will motivate us to self-sacrifice, to bear the cross, to follow Jesus at all other times, that is, throughout all earthly life, excluding the dangers of death? Moreover, in this case the incentive would be too weak in comparison with the commandment of self-sacrifice alone. What does preserving bodily life, even the longest, mean in comparison with the feat of self-denial? What does an acquisition mean in comparison with such a feat, what is the feat of enduring all your life, enduring sorrows, suffering, deprivations of various kinds? On the contrary, both the power of motivation and the naturalness of the meaning of the words are completely revealed to us when we say that the words: whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it means that whoever wants to save himself for himself will probably destroy himself. The triple commandment about self-denial, about bearing the cross, about following Jesus, in its content, is one commandment about complete self-denial. You must fulfill this commandment, you must completely deny yourself - why? The natural meaning of the Savior’s answer is this: if you act otherwise, you will perish, but if you act according to the commandment, you will be saved; or: whoever wants to take care of himself will destroy himself, and whoever destroys himself for the Lord will save himself. So, not to renounce yourself and to take care of your soul is the same thing. Each time the Savior, speaking about the salvation or destruction of the soul, adds to the word about the soul the word: his. Who wants to save his soul; who will destroy his soul. What does this mean? The fact is that in man, as he is now, there are two lives: he lives one life for himself, for his desires, for his passions, for his inclinations; and the other life is that which he lives and breathes for the Lord. Living one first life, he can cleave to his body to such an extent that only flesh will come out of his entire composition, as such a person is called in scripture (1 Cor. 15:50); or - he can be so deceived by pride and conceit that he approaches the position of the rejected spirit: the devil, having become proud, will fall into judgment. Another life - of a completely different kind; she does not live for the flesh, she only humbles herself, sighs over sins, cries over infirmities, prays for help and is all in the Lord. There is nothing in the world, there is nothing in the desires and dispositions of the heart that she would not be ready to offer to her Lord, since the Lord Himself did everything for her, renounced the glory of the Son of God and, in the form of a servant, gave Himself up to death on the cross. In one and the same person these two kinds of life remain until the grave: but in another, life for the Lord predominates, and only from time to time does life for oneself appear; in another, life for oneself predominates, and life for the Lord is barely noticeable. There is “another law in my heart, warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive by the law of sin” (Rom. 7:23), the celestial Paul confesses about himself. Now it’s clear why, by saving our soul, we can destroy it, but by destroying it we can save it? Let life for yourself be life for the flesh, what will come of it? Death of the soul, eternal destruction. “Do not be flattered: God cannot be mocked; For whatever a man sows, he will also reap: as if he sows in his flesh, from the flesh he will reap corruption” (Gal. 6:7-8). Carelessness can live for the flesh in complete forgetfulness of the consequences of such a life; brazen wickedness can even say: “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3, 4). Both, as if in a sleepy drowsiness, say: everything will pass and we will live in peace. But let carelessness and wickedness not delude themselves with empty dreams. The laws of the eternal are immutable and His truth has assigned to everyone their due. Whoever sowed the seeds of deeds in the soil of the flesh will also receive the harvest of the flesh—corruption, destruction. To the enemies of the cross of Christ, “death is destruction” (Phil. 3:19). Let life for yourself be a life of blinded pride, vanity, curiosity: what will be the end of such a life? It is impossible to be anything other than what the spirit of pride has comprehended. “God opposes the proud” (James 4:6). Everyone who is proud is an abomination to the Lord. Pride lives outside of God; Why should there be outside of God, except hell and Gehenna? Secret pride protects others from base actions and forces them to decide even on acts of generosity, visible selflessness, and honesty. But He is faithful who said, “Unless your righteousness comes out any more than the scribe and the Pharisee, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). Your whole essence, “you are Christ’s, but Christ is God” (1 Cor. 3:23), teaches St. apostle. This is the connection of everything that exists! Everything is ready for us, both the means for earthly life and the means for eternal life. Who can measure the boundless love of God for us sinners? Your whole essence: but so that you are Christ’s, while Christ is God’s, the Savior sent from God, saving all sinners. If we are Christ’s, if all of ours is sacrificed to Christ the Lord, then His life becomes our life, He dwells in our hearts; and with Christ, what can we need? The self-sacrifice that the Lord requires of us is, first of all, the mortification of sin within oneself and all sinful lusts; and sin and death are inseparable, just like truth and life. Hence, as much as “our outer man decays,... only... the inner man is renewed all the days” (2 Cor. 4:16). By cutting off our own will, we give place in the soul to the will of the Lord; dying to ourselves, we live to the Lord; by destroying the life of self-love, an insignificant, low life, you acquire eternal life by the grace of the life-giving Spirit of the comforter; This feat is not without illness: but “the power of Christ... is made perfect... in weakness,” (2 Cor. 12:9) “The Spirit obeys our spirit, for we are children of God” (Rom. 8:16). For the deeds of godly, but temporary, self-sacrifice, eternal joy and peace in heaven are prepared. “To him who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on the throne,” says the faithful and true (Rev. 3:21). “Then, brothers, we must not live according to the flesh. If you live according to the flesh, you are about to die; if you put to death the deeds of the flesh with the Spirit, you will live” (Rom. 8:12-13). Brethren! Let's not take care of souls? earthly, carnal, thirsty for sensual pleasures. Otherwise, we will be cruelly deceived: she, fed and irritated by us, will lead us to destruction. Let us curb her with fasting, let us cool her lusts with strict abstinence. Let us be vigilant: she is crafty, covering her demands either with our weakness or with the thought of the unimportance of bodily abstinence; do not believe her, but believe the true word: “The kingdom of God... is not... food and drink, but truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). Let us firmly remember the fate of the rich man, who was having a great time here and there in vain asking for one drop of water to cool his tongue (Luke 16:24-25). The earthly soul hungers for riches; she has little of what she needs for life, she demands silver, gold, more and more from day to day - and commits thousands of injustices, insults, lawlessness, insults. Oh, how destructive this insatiable greed is for us! Brethren! hurry to curb this thirst in yourself, so that it does not turn into Gehenna. Hurry to repay it with deeds of mercy, with thoughts about the terrible fate of the insatiable rich people of the world. Repeat, often repeat to yourself the words of the Apostle of Christ: “Come now rich, weep and howl for your fierce sorrows that are coming upon you. Throw away your wealth, and destroy your garments. Your gold and silver will rust, and their rust will be a testimony against you, and your flesh will be consumed like fire, which you will receive in the last days" (James 5:1-3). Beloved brother! If a thought of worldly or spiritual pride comes to you; if your soul begins to dream about itself, to take comfort in this or that property, to exalt itself before this or that brother; if she begins to feel bored that you lack this or that honor, that you are humiliated among others, hasten to remember that this is the whispering of a serpent seeking your destruction. “You will be like gods,” he said to the innocent ancestors (Gen. 3:5), “and what have they become? And with your soul, already wounded by sin, and with your soul, whose poverty you need to mourn so much, what will happen from the breath of the ancient dragon? ABOUT! Do not spare your pride! reprove it, humiliate it, put it to shame, strike it with the thought of your countless sins, so that otherwise it does not bring you down into eternal fire, assigned to rejected spirits. If it is too painful for us to bear the unpleasant word of a brother, a sharp mockery, a well-aimed reproach: let us be sure, brethren, that this is also an instillation of the same destructive spirit of pride. Who can insult me ​​as I insulted and wounded myself with sins? From head to feet everything is covered in sores; Is it time to think about what my brother says about me? Is there a time for anger at others when there is so much need for indignation against oneself? And what can my brother’s word do to me if it is unjust? And if it’s fair: shouldn’t I be grateful for the exposure of my injustice, which, perhaps, I did not see in myself due to pride? The glory of the world, which our self-love so covets, will bring us nothing; it will bring us nothing except repentance for the loss of glory before the Lord. Why are we so blind in our vanity? Why this desire to shine with something that neither our strength nor our means give us? Why are we merciless to our own soul, disturbing it with such insignificant desires? And yet we think of taking care of it when we are destroying it! Brethren! Living for ourselves, we only destroy ourselves, no matter how we look at such a life. So, doesn’t the very need force us to devote as many works as possible, as many days as possible, as much as possible, as much of our property as possible, for our Lord? It hurts us to part with the passions of our heart: what do the sorrows of time mean in comparison with eternal joy, or with endless torment? ABOUT! rather, rather, to our Lord. “My soul thirsts for the mighty, living God. When will I come and appear before the face of God?” (Ps. 41:3). “Why art thou my soul, and why dost thou confuse me? Trust in God, for we will confess to Him: the salvation of my face and my God? (Ps. 41:6). Brethren! It is not easy for us to fight our sins. But – a little courage, a little patience! It’s still a little, it’s still a little, and the feat will end, and crowns of glory will be given to us. Isn’t it sweet, isn’t it joyful to sacrifice everything to the Lord when He is ready to give us everything that we can accept? To Him, to Him alone, will we offer our labors, our sighs, our illnesses and deprivations. We will rejoice and mourn over Him, and in His name we will sanctify our evening and morning, midnight and noon. We will give him what we can. Nothing of ours will be lost from Him, not even a cup of cold water, not even the mite of a poor widow. He will return everything that is ours to us. For us, He demands ours from us. For us, He demands from us - us, in order to give Himself to us. Oh, how limitless is His mercy towards us! Do we not belong to Him also because of the dependence of our existence on Him? But He wants, He convinces us that we belong to Him according to our will - and for what? Only in order to enrich us with the blessings of both time and eternity; only in order to endow us with bounties, incomprehensibly great and endless, for a short-term feat of self-sacrifice. Lord Jesus, crucified for us! By the grace-filled power of Your cross, strengthen our “weak hands and feeble knees” (Isa. 35:3). Lead us “to follow You ... and to follow the stream” (Song. 1, 3), so that here and there we can glorify Your name with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.