Word for Monday of the first week of Lent

Thank the Lord! Here we have entered into the feat of St. post. I say: thanks be to the Lord! For how can one not thank God for starting a holy work - fasting? I know that outside the walls of this church many people think differently about fasting. Well? Free will! But it does not depend on this will that this or that be holy. We would not even touch the self-will of those who do not belong to us if their will did not confuse the weak of our brethren. So, to confirm the feat of fasting, let us consider the holiness of fasting. What is spiritual perfection? What does it require of us? It is the fruit of the most complete self-denial; it is a feat performed for the One who humbled himself for us. If so: then tell me, what kind of sacrifice does spiritual perfection, or true Christianity, not require from us? If there is complete self-sacrifice, then its demands extend to our flesh; it instructs us not to flatter the desires of the flesh; to humble the body with deprivation, just as it requires curbing the pride of the spirit and other spiritual sins. If we begin to renounce sinful spiritual pleasures, but give full rein to sensual passions: this will not be complete self-denial, this will be insincere, hypocritical service to the Lord. Christians! What has not the Lord and our God done for us sinners? He humbled Himself in the days of the flesh through simplicity of life and physical hardships. What kind of His servants are we when we live in complete freedom of sensual desires and a whimsical body? No! One of two things: either we are true Christians, and then we will not think that the commandment to fast was not given for us, or it is completely in vain to consider ourselves evangelical Christians if we reject fasting. If in paradise there was a need for a commandment to fast; if even there physical deprivation was required for spiritual perfection; if even one in whom the body was so submissive to the spirit could not do without fasting, then it is easy to understand that spiritual perfection without physical exploits is not accessible to man, as an impossibility itself. What is a person in the present situation? The whole is a vessel of sin. Sin lives not only in our soul, it also lives in our body. He fights in our members, stirs our blood, shakes our nerves. The caressed flesh either indulges in idle laziness, which destroys the fruits of the spirit, or is restless with senseless movements, ready to plunge the soul into hell. And with such flesh do they think of going to heaven without fasting? No, why caress the flesh, which is already at war against the spirit? If our salvation is dear to us, then we cannot value the flesh because it is full of sin. It requires strict, precise rules of abstinence, rules that are trusted and justified by experience. It requires fasting as a holy deed and as a means to holiness. Fasting is a holy thing because it curbs the power of sin living in the body. Fasting is a means to holiness, because intemperance opens the door to depravity of thoughts and deeds, because abstinence imparts light to thoughts, purity to feelings, freedom and strength to the spirit. “If any king, says one experienced man, wants to take an enemy city, then first of all he withholds water and food supplies, and the enemies, dying of hunger and thirst, submit to him. The same thing happens with carnal passions. If a person lives in fasting and hunger, then the enemies, weakened, will abandon his soul” 1. St. Chrysostom teaches: “whoever fasts extinguishes evil passions. He who fasts prays with a cheerful spirit” 2. “Fasting makes the soul cheerful, lightens its wings, lifts it above earthly things, leads to thoughts of heavenly things” 3. This is what people experienced in spiritual life say about fasting! The Savior Himself appointed a fast for His disciples. Some asked him: “Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” He answered: “Can wedding guests fast when the groom is with them? ... The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days” (Mark 2:19-20). So, according to the Lord, whoever sincerely loves Him, who takes spiritual participation in His great work, just as wedding guests share the feelings of the groom: he will lament, will fast when their Lord is taken to suffering and death; he will sanctify the time of separation from the Lord with a touching fast. This is how it should be according to the nature of the love of students for the teacher, of slaves for the Lord. This is what the Orthodox Church has done to this day, sanctifying the time of Christ’s suffering with special fasting. The Gospel tells us that the Lord Himself fasted for forty days. Doesn’t His life serve as an example for us? In the works of Him Whom the Father sent us, is not every step holy for us? His life, like His teaching, is a law for us, the law of faith and piety, a law prescribed both by love for Him who loved us, and by reverence for the Messenger, the Son of God. Likewise, His forty-day fast cannot but be an indispensable rule for us, unless we bear the name of followers of Christ in vain. My brothers! Which saint preached satiety and praised intemperance? Nobody. The saints loved fasting. “In everything,” says the apostle, “we show ourselves to be servants of God... in exiles, in labors, in vigils, in fasts” (2 Cor. 6:4-5). “I enslave my body,” he writes, so that while preaching to others, I myself may not be careless.” The prophets loved fasting, the martyrs loved fasting, the saints exhausted their bodies with fasting. St. Basil the Great writes: “all the saints observed fasting as a paternal inheritance, passed on from father to son, so that this acquisition, according to the order of succession, has been preserved to us” 4 . After that, who, my listeners, speaks against fasting? Who are these preachers who dislike temperance so much? Since when and where did they appear in the Christian world? If these are not saints, then of course they are people of a different category; who are these people? Look around and you will see. These are people for whom “God is the belly,” but for this reason their end is “destruction” (Phil. 3:19). Let me ask you, my brother: who are you? Son of the Orthodox Church! Wonderful! But where are the things that would make you belong to the Orthodox Church? Look around. If you consider yourself to have the right to neglect the statutes of the church: agree, - St. The church has even more of a right to deny you its communion: no one gave you the right to change the statutes of St. churches of your choice; and she was given the right by the Lord to expel from her society those who disobey her. Do you know what the Ecumenical Council of those who do not observe the Pentecostal fast says? He says: “if they do not comply, the clergy will be cast out (from the clergy), and the laity will be excommunicated (from the church)” 5 . The Apostle says: “If food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat” (1 Cor. 8:13). This is the work of a truly Christian soul! love for one's neighbor values ​​the salvation of one's neighbor as one's own. She does not allow herself a single act that is seductive for others; she renounces anything that can harm the weak and does everything to help save him. Where is your love for your neighbor, you who infect the very air with intemperance in the days of St. abstinence? Where are your deeds that edify your neighbor? “Woe to the world because of temptation,” but doubly “woe... to him by whom temptation comes.” The strong should bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not please themselves. They are more guilty than the weak when by their example they lead the weak into temptation. Didn’t the Lord himself say about the one seducing his brother that “it would have been better” for him if they had thrown him into the water with a stone around his neck (Matthew 18:6–7). They say: “the kingdom of God is within us.” Holy truth! But do they understand how the kingdom of God dwells within us? Do they understand how His effective presence in us is revealed? They want to relocate the kingdom of God into an interior full of carnal stench. It will never work. They want to see the fragrant fruits of angelic, pure life on soil saturated with unclean moisture. Funny dream! No, “do not be deceived, brethren, whoever sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption” (Gal. 6:7–8). They say: “the rules of fasting are restrictive and insult Christian freedom.” But is Christian freedom compatible with a life of sensual arbitrariness? Why did they decide to pass off the slavish service of the flesh as spiritual freedom? What kind of fortitude is this that cannot withstand the steam of meat and the cauldrons of Egypt? “You, brothers, have been called into freedom; only... your freedom should not serve to please the flesh” (Gal. 5:13), St. tells us. apostle. Christian freedom does not mean living without rules, without obeying the law; on the contrary, it is strict service to God, humble obedience to the dictates of law and authority. Act as free people, not using freedom to cover up vice, but as servants of God (1 Peter 2:16), teaches St. Apostle Peter “During Lent, they say, we listen to the service with boredom and pray reluctantly, and in annoyance at fatigue we do not feel inclination for anything good. Why is this? Is it because of fasting? No, the best people did not see such fruits of fasting in themselves. If you feel it: look within yourself for the reason. Think and you will find. After every day you indulged the whims of the flesh, after every day you ate sweetly until you were satiated, and slept when and as much as you wanted, isn’t it natural that the pampered flesh will be annoyed with you for being denied your favorite things and habits? After you haven’t forced yourself to pray even once for a whole year, how you should pray, isn’t it natural that you get bored and tired of prayer during fasting? Agree that in that thinness, in that reluctance to do good, you notice in yourself during fasting, you yourself are to blame, your bad habits. Add also that if during fasting you notice something bad in yourself that you have not seen before, you should thank fasting for that. What then remains for you to do? Fight bad habits, patiently teach yourself goodness, but no longer condemn fasting. “Let fasting be a holy thing,” says another: but I fear for my health, my constitution is weak and disordered, and therefore I cannot observe fasting.” What tender self-care, but not legal. From what sacred rule do they not waive themselves under the pretext of weakness? If you cannot fast as much as you would like, fast as much as you can and then you will see that you can do much more than you think. Stop laziness: she is a dangerous friend. The salvation of your soul is worth the effort. Even if it were so that your health would suffer somewhat from fasting: but when you receive the health of your soul for this sacrifice, you must admit that it means a lot to you. Is your soul really so small in your eyes that it is not worth even a few drops of extra blood, a few particles of sinful flesh? How they contradict themselves, poor people! Today they are afraid for their health if they take away a few tasty dishes and a few minutes of time from the table; and at other times they mercilessly burden their body, tormenting it with extreme intemperance, thoughtless immoderation. What does it mean? Is it not a deception, is it not a mockery of ourselves? Is this caring about your health? No, if an intemperate life and passions do not ruin your health: holy abstinence will not harm it. Abstinence is a necessary remedy for poor health. No matter how strong our physical body is, from incessant work the nutritional organs become tired and weakened, become disordered and cause disorder; blood and juices, poorly processed, spoil; From now on there are hundreds of painful seizures. This post corrects everything. The digestive organs, not receiving new material, consume the old one, which burdened them with its excess; excess juices left unused and rotten are processed and turned into useful things; the blood, hitherto thick and uneven in circulation, becomes clean, subtle and calm. Modern medicine has finally become convinced that plant foods are more nutritious for the body than meat foods and that the latter adds a lot of blood, but by heating up the body, it exposes the nerves to rapid damage. So, if you feel sorry for your frailty, your weak constitution: call upon St. for help. fast. “He is a reliable doctor and a faithful assistant.” May the God of love and grace give us strength to accomplish the feats of fasting, through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and all the saints. Amen. Hon. said. about the asceticism of the saint. fathers, p. 121. M. 1846 Chrysostom, conversation 57 on Evan. Matt. Op. Vasily Velikago. 4, 5. You might be interested in: