Word on the text: Let go, and they will let you go (Luke 6:37)

This word is among the ten teachings of Blessed Augustine, the manuscripts of which were recently found in the library belonging to the monastery of Cassino, and published in Rome in 1819. We heard in the Holy Gospel the most saving commandment to forgive a brother who sins against us. It is not enough to do this once; on the contrary, every time our neighbor sins against us, we must forgive him if he asks us for forgiveness. And if he sins against you for a day of the week, and he turns back for a day of the week, saying: I repent, leave it to him (Luke 17:4). When you hear that you should forgive seven times a day; then understand that this always means: for the septenary number is usually accepted in the meaning of universality. In this sense it is said: the righteous will fall sevenfold and rise again (Proverbs 24:16); that is, no matter how many misfortunes a righteous person is exposed to, he is never left without help, but is delivered from all his misfortunes. In the same sense it is said: by the day of the seven days we praised Thee (Ps. 119:164). The expression: seven days, is synonymous with another passage of Scripture: I will bring His praise into my mouth (Ps. 33:2). For it is not only then that we glorify the Lord when we utter praise to Him with our lips, but when we remain silent, as if we no longer praise Him; on the contrary, with all our good thoughts, all our actions and dispositions, we praise Him from Whom we received these gifts. We know that the Apostles asked that faith be added to them (Luke 17:5). Could it be that they themselves had produced the beginnings of faith in themselves, and only asked God to increase it? No, they prayed that the One who began would Himself complete what he began, as the Apostle says: the work that was begun in you would complete it (Phil. 1:6). And what else does the psalm we recently sang show, beloved: guide me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in Thy truth (Ps. 85:11)? David does not say: lead me to Your path, although the Lord Himself does this; but he prays that God, having led him on his path, will never leave him again. Consequently, it is not enough to introduce only the path; it is also necessary to guide him along this path and bring him to the fatherland. So, since every good thing is received by us from God; then every time we do a good deed, with the thought of the Giver of all good things, we praise God. If, while leading a virtuous life, we constantly praise God, then let us bless the Lord at all times, and let His praise be in our mouths. “We praise Thee with the sevenfold number during the day,” says the Prophet, meaning by the sevenfold number all time. So, if during the week your brother sins against you for a day, and after the week he turns back, saying: I repent, leave it to him. Do not be burdened to forgive a repentant brother. If you yourself were not a debtor, then without any fear you could be a strict tormentor of your neighbor. But you, who have a debtor, are a debtor yourself, and a debtor to Him who owes nothing to anyone: see how you deal with your debtor, so God will deal with you. Listen and tremble: let my heart rejoice in fearing Your name, says Scripture (Ps. 85:11). If you are happy when forgiveness is granted to you; then tremble together when you yourself refuse forgiveness. And how great your trepidation should be, the Savior showed this in the Gospel parable about that servant with whom the master began to reckon with, and found that he owed him one hundred thousand talents: the master, it is said, commanded to sell him, and his wife, and children, and everything that he had, and to repay the debt (Matthew 18:25). But the slave, throwing himself at the master’s feet, began to ask him for a reprieve, and received forgiveness. Having left his master free from all his debt, this servant received one from his slander, who owed him a hundred fines, and I ate it by crushing, saying: Give me back what you owe (Matthew 18:28). Look, the servant, having received forgiveness, rejoiced in his heart; - but nevertheless he did not fear the name of the Lord his God! – A fellow debtor told him the same thing as he told his master: have patience with me, and I will repay you everything (Matthew 18:29). But the servant said: no, give it to me now. When this was announced to the master; then, as you know, he not only reproached this hard-hearted slave, but also the debt from which he had previously freed him, again imposed it on him, and ordered him to pay everything that he had given him. - Oh, what trepidation should penetrate us at this, my brothers, if we have faith, if we listen to the Gospel, if we are convinced of the truth of the Lord’s words! Let's be afraid; Let's be careful; Let's take care of ourselves; we will forgive. And what do you lose when you forgive your neighbor? You do not give money, but forgiveness; although even when spending money you should not be like a dry tree. Through money, you help the poor; through forgiveness, you remove the guilt from the sinner: the Lord sees both, for both he rewards, he inspires to do both with these words: forgive, and they will forgive you: give, and it will be given to you (Luke 6:37,38). But you neither forgive nor give to those who ask, but you nourish anger in your heart and protect your wealth. At least refrain from anger if you cannot make amends by distributing wealth. The treasures of the wicked are not used (Proverbs 10:2), - this is not my thought, but God’s. Anyone who has read it knows this. I have read and said, believed and preached, that treasures do not save the wicked. They only seem useful, but in reality they are not. Are they really useless in real life? – Useful, but not enough; and on the last day they won’t help at all! If you guard treasures, you will not receive any benefit from them; and if you neglect them, they will bring you benefit. You will turn out to be righteous when you love the truth: for without love for it, you can have neither firmness, nor self-control, nor purity, nor tenderness. Yes, and you can take advantage of other spiritual benefits, if only you have love for them; You will make the best use of wealth when you do not love it. And if you love wealth, then at least arrange a storehouse for it in heaven. When you are afraid that it will die; hide it in the safest place. Do not think that your servant is more faithful than the Lord in guarding your treasures. Do you not hear what He says: hide for yourselves treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:20)? You see, the Lord commands you not to lose treasures, but only to transfer them to another place: lay up for yourself treasures in heaven, where the thief does not steal and where the moth does not destroy; Where your treasure is, there your heart will also be (Matthew 6:21). But you hide your wealth in the ground; and together with it you bury your heart in the ground. What will happen to your heart lying in the ground? It will rot there, decay, and turn to dust. Grief lift up what you love; direct your love there, and do not think that you will one day receive the same thing that you now believe. You put mortal, but you will receive immortal; You think it’s temporary, but you get something eternal; you put earthly things, but you will receive heavenly things; finally, you distribute what your Lord has given you, and again you will receive a reward for this from your Lord himself. But you say: how can I lay treasures in heaven? By means of what machines will I go up there with my silver and gold? Why should you care about cars? You will be transported to heaven without them. The poor will carry you there; they have been given such strength for enduring the sorrows of the world. And in this case you are doing nothing more than an exchange; you give here and you receive there. Exactly, if you give here, you will receive there, and you will receive from the One to whom you gave. Just when giving alms, do not think about the poor, dressed in rags - remember what is said: Because you have created one for the least of these brothers of Mine, you have created for Me (Matthew 25:40). In the person of the poor, the rich receives Him who created the poor; He who created the rich man accepts from the rich, and accepts what he himself gave him. So you are not giving Christ what is yours, but you are giving Him His own property. Why are you proud that you have collected great wealth on earth? Remember what you were like when you came here. You acquired all your property on earth, and, moreover, abusing your great acquisitions, you are still arrogant! Did you not come naked from your mother's womb? - Give, give, so as not to lose your acquisitions. Whatever you give on earth, you will return in heaven; and if you don’t give it, you’ll leave it here; However, whether you give or not, you will still move from here. But a miser who does not want to give the poor from his surplus will always find some excuse, albeit an absurd one, worthy of reproach, and hard for the ears of believers. He says: “If I give to another, I myself will not have; having endowed many, I myself will be in need, and after that I will be forced to seek help for myself from others: no, I need to have an abundance of everything I need, not only for food and clothing, not only for my home and family, but also for any unforeseen event - so that I have something to protect myself from an evil person, something to save myself from trouble (for what cases do not happen in human life!); I must take care of what my safety depends on.” This is what you say, wanting to protect your treasures! But what can you say in your own defense when you do not want to forgive the sinner? If it is hard for you to give alms to the poor; at least do not refuse forgiveness to the repentant. What will you lose by doing this? I know what you are losing; I know that you are destroying; but this loss is for your good. You destroy anger, lose indignation, drive out hatred of your fellow man from your heart. But if all this remains in your heart, then where will you be? If anger, indignation, and enmity remain in you, what will they make of you? What evil will you not be the culprit of then? Listen to what Scripture says: everyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15). So, if my brother sins against me seven times a day, should I forgive him? Sorry; Christ commanded this, that Truth to which you sang commanded: guide me, O Lord, in Thy path, and I will walk in Thy truth. Don't be afraid; – she is not deceiving you. But in this case, you say, there will be no correction; all vices will remain unpunished; and it is known that a person sins fearlessly when he is sure that he will receive forgiveness at any time. No; let severity be awake, let benevolence not sleep. Why think that you are repaying evil for evil when you admonish a sinner? In this case you repay good for evil; and you would have acted badly if you had not used punishment. Sometimes, however, the punishment itself is tempered by mercy; however, it must be used. It’s another matter not to use punishment due to negligence at all; and it is quite another to temper punishment with mercy. So let severity be vigilant: farewell and punish together! Look to the Lord himself; listen to the Lord himself; Think about Who we, the poor, cry to every day: forgive us our debts (Matthew 6:12)! You miss it when your brother relentlessly begs you: “Forgive me, I repent before you!” And how many times do you tell God this? During what prayer do you not say this petition? Do you really want God to say to you: “I forgave you yesterday, I forgave you the day before, I forgave you for so many days; How long will it continue to forgive? Do you really want Him to tell you: “You always come to Me with this prayer, you always say: forgive us our debts; You always strike your heart, but it, like hard iron, does not soften?” But since in our speech we mentioned punishment, we can also ask: does the Lord our God not forgive us our sins when we cry to Him with faith: forgive us our debts? If He forgives us; then how is it said and written about Him: whom the Lord loves and punishes (Heb. 12:6)? But maybe he punishes only with words? he beats every son he accepts. So that the sinful son would not resist enduring scourging, then for this purpose the Only Begotten Himself, the sinless one, deigned to undergo it. So punish, just drive the anger out of your heart. For the Lord Himself, in the parable of the debtor who received forgiveness of all his debt and did not have mercy on his minion, said: So will My heavenly Father do to you, if you do not let each of your brothers go from your hearts (Matthew 18:35). God sees the heart, forgive your brother in it; do not expel love from there; use saving severity; love and amaze; love and punish! Your caresses are sometimes worse than severity. When exactly? When you do not expose sins, and these sins destroy the one to whom you, by indulging, show reckless love. Let your word be sometimes harsh, sometimes cruel: whatever correction requires, so you must do. Sin devastates the heart, disturbs the inside, mortifies the mind, destroys the soul: have pity on the sinner, defeat sin! To understand my words more clearly, imagine, beloved, the following example. One careless boy wanted to sit on the grass, in which a snake was hiding. If he had sat here, he would certainly have been wounded and died. Two people saw this. One of them told the boy: “don’t sit here”; but he did not hear him, and went to the place where he was threatened with death. Another said: “The boy doesn’t want to listen to us; you need to grab it, hold it, reject it; it is necessary to use blows; Let’s do what we can - save a person!” - But the comrade answered: “leave him, don’t hit him, don’t upset him, and don’t insult him.” Which of these two people is truly merciful? Is he lenient, who was ready to allow a person to die from a snake; or strict, who tried to save him from danger? – So you too punish your subordinates with prudence; use strict measures to correct morals. Be kind; forgive from the heart; let there be no place for anger in him. At the beginning, anger is like a small twig that you shouldn’t pay any attention to. At first it disturbs the eye, like a twig: my eye is troubled with rage (Ps. 6:8), and then this twig feeds on suspicion, becomes stronger over time, and finally becomes a great log. Inveterate anger becomes hatred; and where there is hatred, there is murder: everyone who hates his brother, says Scripture, is a murderer (1 John 3:15). And yet there are people who, harboring hatred in their hearts, sometimes reproach others for being angry! How! Do you yourself harbor hatred and reproach the angry one? Why do you see the bitch that is in your brother's eye, but do you not sense the log that is in your eye (Matthew 7:3)? In conclusion, let us pray to the Lord, that He may be pleased to grant us what He Himself commands: let go, and they will let you go; give, and it will be given to you (Luke 6:37,38).