Слово в неделю сыропустную, огласительное

“Arise from sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14) By the mercy of the Lord, we are again at the stage of Holy fasting and repentance! – Some of us, who together with us last year began confession and the holy meal, delighted by the Angel of Death, now stand before the Throne of God’s Truth; and we stand again before the Throne of Mercy!.. Behind them, or in front of them, the doors of the Royal Palace have already closed; and there are still openings before us!.. Their lot may have already been decided irrevocably; and ours is still in our own hands! Let us thank the Lord, who did not destroy us with our iniquities, and who again gives us all the means for repentance! How and with what shall we give thanks? - By strictly and faithfully using these very means for your salvation. Speaking in this way, we do not assume, brethren, that any of you spent the previous Holy Pentecosts in a completely unChristian manner; all the more so that any of you deliberately withdraw from the Holy Sacraments of the Church: on the contrary, we believe that each of you, every year, flocked to the holy altar to receive absolution and for a mysterious union with your Lord and Savior through the communion of His Body and Blood; We even think that all this each time did not remain fruitless for the soul, and left a beneficial trace in your entire life... But, my brethren, despite all this, let me now ask you one question: having come to the spiritual clinic so many times, going through the entire course of heart healing so many times, so many times leaving the church of God, apparently justified and healed - did you, however, feel, at least once, perfect spiritual health? And if you felt it, how long did this precious feeling last?.. And here, we do not assume that after seven days of fasting and abstinence, you suddenly become completely sinless (this is the holy destiny of those who have already been released from the bonds of flesh and blood); but after that you should have been as free from sin as possible; a decisive change for the better was due to take place in you; the light of grace had to be in your soul like the morning sun, to rise higher and higher, to disperse all the clouds of error, to dry up all the channels of sensuality, in order, finally, to produce a full day of knowledge of God and piety. Was this the case with you? Have you noticed in yourself, after the feat of fasting and repentance, a constant withdrawal from the world and closer to God, the weakening and disappearance of previous bad habits, and the entry into their place of good and Christian customs? – It is not difficult to answer this question if all this has happened and is happening in you. A person who has recovered from a serious illness will not find it difficult to say whether he is healthy. Even someone who has just begun to recover will immediately say that he is recovering. But among us, brethren, is it not true that for many it is very difficult to answer the question: have they become healthy in spirit and conscience? Many, on the contrary, are forced to admit with grief, like the ancient Israelites, that the opposite is happening in them: “I am waiting for peace, and not behold good things: a time of healing, and behold, fear!” (Jer. 8:15). Before each fasting, confession and communion, we hoped to receive spiritual health through them, and received these sacraments with joy, meanwhile, to this day we remain the same as we were before: our souls are cold towards good and inclined towards evil; old passions in all their former and, often, greater strength; conscience with the same ulcers, heart with the same heaviness; our entire inner man is still dead, or extremely weakened. “Waiting for peace, and not a good thing: a time of healing, and behold, fear!” . What does this mean? “Is there food in Gilead?; or is there a doctor there? Why is it that the wound of my people’s daughter was healed?” (Jer. 8:22) - the prophet once asked, seeing the continuation of the painful state of the people of Israel. In a similar way, brothers, we will ask you and we, bearing in mind the still continuing unhealing of your souls. “Is there food to eat in our spiritual Gilead?”; or “is there a doctor there?” . Is it possible that the entire weak healing hand of God has shrunk, and the Sacraments of the Holy Church have lost their power? Or did the pastors of the Church, when they spoke forgiveness to you, not speak it from the heart? No, what is forgiven “here” will not be remembered “there”, unless you yourself revive it by repeating previous sins! – Or did the Savior, when teaching you the Body and Blood, teach someone else’s, and not His own? No, He will not give up His Body and His Blood, if only you knew how to preserve this gift... Many people like you, even grave sinners, using the same means, managed to wash themselves from all the impurities of sin, were completely healed from the leprosy of hell, became saints, pleasing to God, and are now preparing to finish their earthly career in the world, or are already enjoying the grace of pardon in the kingdom of glory: and you, brethren, using the same means so many times, remain hitherto on the bed of spiritual death, or drag out the miserable remnants of your spiritual life in the bonds of sin! What does this mean?.. Ah, brothers, isn’t this the same thing that the same prophet once complained about, looking at the desperate state of Babylon? “Babylon,” he said, “is falling; the day of his trial and execution is near and inevitable. But who is to blame? – Did Babylon lack the means to avert disaster? Did he not have medicine and responsibilities for the wound? And they are all used over him; but to no avail; “Physicians of Babylon, and you were not healed.” (Jer. 51:9). So, perhaps, brethren, our Guardian Angels have long been speaking about us before the Throne of God’s Truth: Your wisdom, Lord, has appointed us to guard their souls and bodies, to guide and strengthen them on the path to heaven. Zrishi yourself, have we omitted anything that could enlighten their minds, excite and warm their hearts, and keep their feet on the path to destruction? But what can all the means of salvation, all our efforts and care, do for them when they either reject them with pride or use them carelessly? - “Physicians of Babylon, and you will not be healed”! He did not heal because he loved his sinful wound, constantly poisons it with new iniquities, and decided to live and die in his sins. In fact, brothers, how do we use spiritual healing, how do we approach the most decisive of them - confession and Holy Communion? We approach almost everything as a temporary means, and not as a decisive measure; We look at the most holy sacrament as a pious rite, useful in some respects, and not as a sacrament of rebirth, which should regenerate us completely for the rest of our lives. And therefore we begin, albeit with superficial preparations that do not penetrate to the depths of our spirit, to the root of the evil that lives in us; – we accept the Body and Blood of Christ, although with reverence, but without at all thinking about those extraordinary actions that should happen in us; we leave the Throne of Grace with good thoughts, but by no means with a firm determination to change completely in our lives; briefly: we fast, confess, and receive communion for the remission of past sins, without thinking about leaving sinful behavior in the future, for a good, eternal life in heaven, without thinking about a virtuous life in time, on earth. Can one expect decisive healing forever when one does not think about this healing at all? But the best of us do this. What can we say about the other confessors and communicants? – Leaving ordinary affairs and activities for a few days, going to church during this time; then a few minutes spent in confession; then a few minutes for communion; then a few pious thoughts and heartfelt sighs - that’s all fasting, all sacrifice to God! And then? - An immediate return to previous affairs, again the same kind of life, again the same fun, the same sinful pleasures, the same service to the most shameful passions: tell yourself, what to expect after such a, one might say, fleeting fast? Are they fleeting fruits? and they definitely happen: several animals are saved from slaughter at this time, several bad habits remain for a while without satisfaction; the lips do not utter the same shameful words; gazes do not wander for some time over the delights of the world; the very heart, not suppressed by worries, begins to beat more calmly. But then evil, constrained for a while, opens up even more and grows fiercer; with those who superficially repent, the same thing happens as with the sick after false healing: the disease becomes more and more severe!.. You yourself feel, brethren, that I am not changing things, I am not increasing our guilt, but I am portraying the matter as it is. Why am I depicting? For the fact that the course of spiritual healing is now opening again. If we recklessly follow the same path, we will achieve the same goal, that is, we will not achieve anything. Again, the wounds of conscience will close for a while, only to open up even more later; Let us again lay down the weight of sins, so that later we can sink even deeper under it. What will finally come out of this course of action? The fact that we, having been healing all our lives, will finally die in our sins. And for others this misfortune may not be so close yet: they will have several Pentecostals to heal their souls; and for some, “judgment is already written” (Ps. 149:9) and “the judge is before the doors” (James 5:9). I want to say, brothers, that no matter how limited the number of us who are now here is; but, without a doubt, there are those among us for whom the coming Pentecost is coming for the last time. Who are these doomed victims of death? Perhaps you, the listener, are the least thinking about this now; maybe I, proclaiming to you this terrible, but saving truth for all of us... So, brothers, let us all unite now in the sincere desire for our salvation; Let us each enter the holy field of repentance as if it were opening before him for the first and last time. And it will definitely be the first and the last for us, as long as during its continuation we change completely and leave our sinful life forever. For, no matter how much someone has repented before, if he has not been healed in soul before, he will now be healed for the first time. And whoever receives health, if he does not lose it, will not need to receive it another time, but only preserve and strengthen it. Lord and Master of our life! Doctor of our souls and bodies! You, Who again opened the door of repentance for us unworthy! Bring us forth with Thy all-powerful right hand from the Egypt of spiritual slavery and lead us into the wilderness of holy fasting! Whatever awaits us in this desert, we commit our souls and hearts to You: guide us with a pillar of cloud or fire, feed us with manna, or water us with merrah; Just lead us into Canaan with heavenly purity and Godlikeness! Amen. You might be interested in: