Слово в Великую Среду

By the grace of God, we, brothers, have also completed one Holy Pentecost. The acquisition is not small for those who carried it out as it should. And equally, the loss is not small for those who did not spend it properly. The Church does not force anyone to follow the statutes; but those who fail to comply punish themselves. When “those who have fought well in the struggle of fasting” now enter into the joy of their Lord, the weak and disobedient sons of the Church, of necessity, must feel deprivation and sorrow. It’s good if God tells them to live again until the new Pentecost and correct the current omission (although it is no longer possible to completely return what was lost); and whoever does not receive this mercy from God, for that Lent is lost forever. What prevented you from being obedient, from sowing together with others, so that you could now reap together with others? When we work, it is always more or less hard, but it is all the more pleasant when the work is completed. I think that this day is also very joyful for those who have labored well in the feat of holy fasting. May such people fall in humility before the face of the altar of the Lord and may they thank the Lord for this! Without His grace, brothers, you not only would not have accomplished, but you would not have even begun the holy feat. But while rejoicing at the end of this feat, one should not rejoice at the joy of a prisoner leaving prison; this would mean not knowing the price and sweetness of fasting: whoever knows them will not part with fasting even after the end of Lent. And how to break up? Is it possible to leave an internal fast, consisting of abstinence from passions, without harm to the soul? The end of this fast would be the end of our virtue. The appointed times exist for abstinence from foods, and not from sins. But it is also bad to limit abstinence from food to one particular time. Any food harmful to the soul is prohibited at any time, and anyone who eats it to the detriment of the soul, whenever he eats it, violates the rules of fasting. Thus, there is no need to part with physical fasting completely, as many do. A complete abandonment of fasting would be a sign that you did not like fasting; for is it possible to leave for a long time what you love with your heart? And is it possible not to love heartily what you have healed your soul with? If you leave the fast completely, then you will show that you fasted out of necessity, and not out of conviction, and wore bonds as a slave and captive. Experience should have shown you that fasting is a constant forerunner and companion of prayer, the parent of pious reflections, the educator of good enterprises, the support of difficult feats of faith and love. Therefore, you will immediately call on him in all such cases: for such is the property of proven and well-functioning medicines that they are turned to at the first need. And it’s best if you make fasting your lifelong companion. Do not be horrified by this advice: following it will not make your life, as it may seem to you, either boring or difficult; on the contrary, it will relieve you from many evils, sorrows and sorrows. You yourself will agree with this when you find out what constant fasting consists of: it does not consist in not eating foods, but in eating them, but in such a way that there is never any pleasure to the flesh, so that you get up from the meal every time with some remnant of hunger, and not with satiety, as is usually the case. Is this a difficult feat? Isn’t that what doctors also recommend monitoring? And is it not for him that they promise the health of the body? And we will promise you health of soul for it. For it must be admitted and confessed that the soul suffers from nothing so much as from the body; and the body suffers from nothing more than from excess in food and drink. What I said about fasting, the same must be said about repentance and confession: and one should not be separated from them at the end of fasting. If we sinned and fell at one certain time, then we could postpone repentance for a certain time; but we sin at different times; and when we sin, then we must repent and confess. Are we waiting for a certain time when the wound becomes dangerous? On the contrary, as soon as we receive her, we immediately try to heal her. The same should be done with spiritual wounds, with sins. It is for this very reason that the spiritual physician is always open, so that one can always come to her for healing. If a physical wound cannot be left unattended for a long time without danger, then even more so a mental one. It seems to us that there is nothing to carry sin in our soul for a long time; but this is a miserable deception! Sin is a terrible poison; if its actions are not stopped by prompt repentance, then it penetrates the entire soul and spoils it for a long time. That is why we become miserable slaves of passions, because we do not suppress them at the very beginning. Afterwards we repent and see our slavery, but often we are no longer able to break the bonds. As for communion of the Holy Mysteries, I don’t know how a true Christian can deprive himself of this Divine food for a whole year. This deprivation alone shows that they do not know the value of the Body and Blood of the Lord; and such ignorance is equal to ignorance of one’s salvation. This is not how the ancient Christians acted: they received communion every time they were at the celebration of the liturgy, a monument to which is the proclamation repeated today at every liturgy: “Come with the fear of God and faith!” This proclamation shows that all those attending the Liturgy should also begin communion. The consciousness of impurity and unworthiness, and the desire to better prepare oneself for this great sacrament, introduced the custom of receiving communion not always, but on certain days and times. But this custom should in no way serve as the head of our laziness. What if it were said that manna would be distributed daily in such and such a place? I think there would be a lot of people showing up every day to receive; and if any preparation was required for this, many would prepare for it every day. But the Church daily offers the Body and Blood of the Lord, and no one comes to receive them! Is this a good sign? Is it the health of the soul that it turns away from spiritual food? Let some not have time to prepare; but if no one appears to receive the bread of heaven, then everyone is unworthy; and if everyone is unworthy, then what can we say about our Christianity? What would the king say about a courtier who, being invited to his table every day, would appear for him only once a year? Thus, the brethren, parting with the Holy Pentecost, should not part with those means of salvation of which it consists. The Church concentrates them all together and at one time, due to our weakness and entertainment at other times: it orders them to be used once a year under its special supervision, so that even those who are most inexperienced in using them should use them as they should, and not in order to make them unusable during the rest of the year. If, however, at other times you absolutely need the call and supervision of the Church, then there is no lack of this. The Church has not one post, but four. Each of them will be great if you do not diminish him with your intemperance; each will be followed by the brightest day of Resurrection, if through repentance you rise from sins. These are the pieces of advice, brethren, which I considered it my duty to impart to you now at the end of the Holy Pentecost. Do not forget, beloved, that our entire life on earth should be for us a Lent. Without this we will not reach Easter “in the uneven days of the Kingdom”, we will not enter into the joy of the resurrection. What can I say to you, who spent the Holy Pentecost without any attention to it and did not use it in the least to heal the ulcers of your conscience? It is impossible that you do not now feel some boredom from not fulfilling the statutes of the Church; It is most likely that you did not fulfill them, not out of contempt for the authority of the Church (is it possible to despise children’s mother who cares about their eternal well-being?), no, you were overcome by your sensuality; it drowned out your hearing and did not allow you to follow the holy path along which the Church wanted to lead you. Sensuality and the devil: for where there is intemperance, there is this enemy of God and virtue; he, he is a murderer, invisibly holds you captive, and now, without a doubt, rejoices and laughs at you as at his prey. But, brothers, do you really want to be the constant laughing stock of the devil? He scolded you enough; time to quarrel with him too! Time, I say, for he is never as weak as in the present days of the Lord’s suffering and death. At this time, it is most convenient for those who were caught alive from him to emerge from his nets according to his will (2 Tim. 2:26). And you will emerge if, putting aside stubbornness and bitterness, you rush to a spiritual clinic; if, following the example of Peter, you begin to cry bitterly about your sins. He betrayed the Teacher, and yet, because of his repentance, he was one of the first to see Him after the resurrection. The same will happen to you if you convert like this apostle! Amen. You might be interested in: