Слово 62. О словесах Божественного Писания, побуждающих к покаянию, и о том, что изречены оные по немощи человеческой, чтобы люди не погибли, отпав от Бога живаго, и что не должно понимать оные как повод к тому, чтобы грешить

That courage in repentance, which the fathers showed by their deeds 532 and laid down in their divine writings 533, and that power of it, which is depicted in the Writings of the apostles and prophets, we should not understand as an aid to sinning and destroying the inviolable decrees of the Lord, which from the days of old by the mouth of all the saints, in all scriptures and laws, were determined by the power of God for destruction sin. For in order to gain us hope through repentance, they came up with the idea of ​​removing the fear of despair from our feelings, so that every person would hasten to repent and would not sin fearlessly. For God by all means in all the Scriptures instilled fear and showed that sin was hateful to Him. For how did the race of Noah’s generation perish in the flood? Was it not for lust, when people furiously desired the beauty of the daughters of Cain? At that time there was no love of money, idolatry, sorcery 534 and wars. Why were the cities of Sodom burned with fire? Is it not because they gave up their members to lust and impurity, which, by their will, controlled them all 535 in all their foul and reckless deeds? Was it not because of the fornication of one man that twenty-five thousand sons of the firstborn of God, Israel, fell into death in an instant? Why was this giant Samson rejected by God? Is it not because he desecrated his holy members by living with a harlot? For this reason God withdrew from him and gave him over to his enemies. But David, a man after God’s heart, who for his virtues was deemed worthy to bring forth from his seed the Promise of the Fathers and that Christ might shine from him for the salvation of the entire universe, was not punished for committing adultery with one wife, when he saw her beauty with his own eyes and took an arrow into his soul? For this, God raised up a battle against him in his house and drove him out from his loins, although David repented with many tears, so that he wet his bed with tears, and God spoke to him through the prophet: “The Lord has taken away your transgression” (2 Samuel 12:13). I intend to remember some before him. Why did the wrath of God and death come to the house of the priest Eli, a righteous elder who had shone with the priesthood for forty years? Is it not because of the iniquity of his children, Hophni and Phinehas? For he himself did not sin, and they sinned against his will; but because he was not jealous to punish them for their crime before the Lord, and the father loved them more than the commandments of the Lord. So, so that no one thinks that the Lord shows His anger on those alone who spent all the days of their lives in iniquity for this reckless sin, He shows His zeal on those close to Him, on priests, judges, princes, people sanctified by Him, to whom He entrusted miracles. This makes it known that God never ignores how quickly those who have transgressed His statutes appear, as it is written in Ezekiel: He said to the man whom I commanded to destroy Jerusalem with an invisible sword: begin with those who stand before My altar and do not pass by the old man and the young man (see Ezek. 9:6). And this shows that those who walk in fear and reverence before Him and do His will are close and dear to Him, and that valiant deeds and a clear conscience are acceptable before God. He also humiliates those who despise the ways of the Lord, and rejects them from His presence, and takes away His grace from them. For why did the sentence suddenly come out on Belshazzar and strike him as if with a hand? Was it because he encroached on the inviolable offerings 536 to Him, which he stole in Jerusalem, and he and his concubines drank from them? Likewise, those who have dedicated their members to God and again dare to use them for worldly affairs perish from an invisible blow. Therefore, in the hope of repentance, with the courage given to us by the Divine Scriptures, let us not despise the words and threats of God, and anger God by the incongruity of our actions, and desecrate the members that we once forever consecrated to the service of God. For behold, we too are sanctified to Him, like Elijah and Elisha, like the sons of the prophets and other saints and virgins, who performed great miracles and talked face to face with God, and all those who were after them, such as: John the virgin, Saint Peter and the rest of the evangelists and preachers of the New Testament, who dedicated themselves to the Lord and received mysteries from Him, some from His mouth, others through revelation, and became mediators of God and men and preachers of the Kingdom in the universe. The words: “they showed by their deeds” are not in the Greek text; they are taken from the translation of Rev. Paisia. The words: “idolatry”, “magic” are added from the ancient Slavic translation. You might be interested in: