Слово 71. О силе и действенности греховных зол, чем они производятся и чем прекращаются

Until someone truly hates the causes of sin from the heart, he is not freed from the pleasure produced by the action of sin. This is the most fierce struggle, resisting a person even to the point of blood; in him his freedom is tempted in the unity of his love for virtues. This is the force that is called irritation and militia, from the smell of which the damned soul is exhausted, due to the inevitable militia that occurs against it. This is the power of the greatness of sin, with which the enemy usually confuses the souls of the chaste, and forces pure movements to experience something that they have never experienced at all. Here, beloved brethren, we show our patience, heroism and zeal. For this is a time of invisible feat, about which they say that the monastic order always defeats them. When confronted with this abuse, a pious mind soon becomes confused, if not very angry. In these times - times of martyrdom - You, Lord, are the source of all help, are able to strengthen the souls who joyfully betrayed themselves to You, the Heavenly Bridegroom, and out of pure, and not insidious, motives, with reason entered into a holy covenant with You. Therefore, grant them the strength to boldly destroy fortified walls and every exaltation that rises against the truth, so that they do not remain unsuccessful in their own intentions from unbearable and intolerable coercion at a time when the struggle is about blood. In this fierce battle there is not always a victory for chastity, because a person is left without help even for the sake of temptation. But woe to the weak, who are tempted in this testing battle, because this battle has acquired the greatest strength as a result of the habit 560 it received from those who betray themselves to defeat by combining 561 with their thoughts. Beware, beloved, of idleness, because known death is hidden in it: for without it it is impossible to fall into the hands of those who seek to capture a monk. On that day God will judge us not for the psalms, not for our abandonment of prayer, but for the fact that by omitting this we give entrance to demons. And when they find a place for themselves, they enter and close the doors of our eyes, then they will painfully and uncleanly carry out on us that which subjects their workers to Divine condemnation and the most severe punishment; and we become their assistants for the omission of this unimportant 563, but which, as it is written by the wisest, for the sake of Christ becomes worthy of care. He who does not submit his will to God will submit to His adversary; and therefore this 564, which seems small to you, will be counted towards you as a wall protecting us from those who take us captive. The fulfillment of this 565 inside the cell was established by the wise, maintaining the church rite, to protect our life by the Spirit of revelation. The omission of this 566 is considered unimportant by the unwise. Because they do not take into account the harm that occurs from that, both the beginning and the middle of their path is unbridled freedom, which is the mother of passions. It is better to try not to omit these small things 567 than to give room for sin by not wanting to constrain yourself. For this inappropriate freedom will end in cruel slavery. While your feelings are alive, then to meet everything that happens, consider yourself dead; because in all your members the burning of sin will not diminish and you will not be able to acquire salvation for yourself. If one of the monks says 568 in his heart that he is wary of this, then it means he does not want to understand when they strangle him. Whoever deceives his friend is, according to the law, worthy of damnation, and whoever deceives himself, what punishment will he suffer for the fact that, knowing the evil of the evil deed, he hides behind ignorance? And what he knows, this shows a conviction of conscience. That’s what torments him, what he knows, what he pretends not to know. Oh, how sweet are the occasions for passion! A person can sometimes cut off passions; far from them he enjoys the silence and has fun when they stop; he cannot deny the causes of passions. Therefore, we are tempted and reluctantly, and grieve when we are in passions, but we love that the reasons for them remain in us. We don’t want sins for ourselves, but we accept the reasons that lead us to them with pleasure. Therefore, the latter are made guilty of the effectiveness of the former. He who loves reasons for passions, unwittingly and reluctantly becomes an assistant and enslaves to passions. He who hates his sins stops sinning; and whoever confesses them will receive remission. It is impossible for a person to abandon a sinful habit if he does not first acquire hostility towards sin, and it is impossible to receive remission before confessing his sins. For confession of sins is the cause of true humility; humility is the cause of contrition that follows in the heart from shame. If we do not hate what is worthy of reproach, then while we carry it in our souls, we cannot feel the stench and stench of its effectiveness. Until you reject from yourself what is inappropriate, until then you will not understand how much shame you are covered with, and you will not understand the shame of this. When you see your burden 569 on others, then you will understand the shame that lies on you. Get away from the world and then you will recognize its stench. And if you don’t leave, you won’t understand (how stinking it is); On the contrary, rather, you will be clothed with its stench as with a fragrance, and you will consider the nakedness of your shame a veil of glory. Blessed is the one who has withdrawn from the world and its darkness and listens to himself alone. For insight and prudence cannot act in or serve one who spends his life in vain affairs. And how will his indignant rationality be able to discern what should be? Blessed is he who has come out of the darkness of his rapture and sees in others how insatiable they are with this intoxicating child! Then he will know his own shame. In the meantime, a person carries within himself the child of the intoxication of his sins, how magnificent everything he does seems to him! For, as soon as nature leaves its rank, it makes no difference whether it is intoxicated with wine or lusts 570: because both lead it out of its proper state, and both produce the same kindling in the body that contains it; although the methods are different, the mixture 571 is one. And although the change 572 is the same, the differences in the causes are not equal, and they also differ in the susceptibility of each 573. Every joy is followed by pain, and every pain for the sake of God is followed by joy. If everything that is in this world is subject to corruption, and corruption both here and in the next century, and during the exodus, happens from opposite causes 574, and especially from indecent lust or from the suffering counteracting this lust, endured through holiness 575, then God arranges this too out of love for mankind, so that either during the journey itself, or at the end of it, we can taste this torment, and then, by His rich mercy, pass it 576 as a kind of reward, and another 577 as a pledge. For (God) does not forbid acquiring good things even until the last hour; evil is truly forbidden, in that the one worthy of torment is subjected to punishment, as it is written. The one punished here for his shame tastes his Gehenna 578. Beware of your own freedom, which precedes vicious slavery. Beware of consolation that precedes warfare. Beware of the knowledge that precedes a meeting with temptations, and what most often happens, the desire (of this meeting) before repentance. For if we are all sinners and no one is above temptation, then not one of the virtues is above repentance; because the work of repentance can never be perfect. Repentance is always appropriate for all sinners and righteous people who want to achieve salvation. And there is no limit to improvement, because perfection and the most perfect are truly imperfect. Therefore, repentance until death is determined neither by time nor by deeds. Remember that with every pleasure comes disgust and bitterness. Beware of joy that is not accompanied by a reason for change. For everything that has a hidden view from above, you cannot comprehend and know the limit and the reasons for its change. Fear those whom you assume to be on the straight path; because they, as they say, walk outside the path. He who wisely knows how to steer the ship of the world has put changeability into everything in the world; and what is outside this is a shadow. The weakening of the limbs is followed by frenzy and confusion of thoughts; behind immoderate activity there is despondency, and behind despondency there is frenzy. But one frenzy is different from another. The first frenzy from weakness is followed by prodigal warfare, and the frenzy from despondency is followed by leaving one’s silent abode and moving from place to place. Moderate work done with difficulty has no price. Derogation in this 579 increases sweetness, and excess 580 increases frenzy. Endure the folly of your nature 581 which overcomes you, brother; because you are prepared to be in this wisdom, which has the eternal crown of leadership. Do not be afraid of confusion in Adam's body, destined to be in that pleasure, the knowledge of which is here above the mind of the carnal, - to be when the heavenly Image comes, that is, the King of the world. Do not be embarrassed by the change and confusion of nature, because this is temporary suffering for those who accept it with pleasure. Passions are like little dogs that are used to being in meat markets, and they run away from one voice, and if they don’t pay attention to them, they attack like the biggest lions. Destroy small lust, so as not to harbor thoughts about the power of kindling it; because temporary patience in small things removes danger in great things. It is impossible to overcome the great unless you overcome the unimportant. Remember, brother, that rank 582 in which you will be and in which - not this life, as if moving and moving through the moisture, but a life that crushes deadness. In that life there is no ignition of dissolution 583, which, through the indulgence of voluptuousness, causes labor to the infant nature. Endure the labor of asceticism into which you were put on trial, in order to receive a crown from God and rest in peace after your departure from this world. Remember this joy, which has no end, and life, which does not indulge (the passions), and the order of perfect and immutable economy, and that captivity, which compels us to love God and dominates nature. May we also be worthy of this 584 by the grace of Christ Himself, to Whom be glory with the Originless Father and the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen. By accepting them, agreeing with them. Of course there are prayer rules. All the same, nature is outside its rank in both cases. Mixing wine and lusts with the body, that is, their effect on the body. Transition from one state to another. According to each person’s ability to perceive these reasons. There is no corruption in the next century. By corruption we mean, perhaps, a change of state: everyone will undergo it either in this life, or during the exodus from it, or in the next century: those who lived among pleasures will accept a change from fun to punishment; those who lived among sufferings for the sake of Christ, opposite to contemptible pleasures, will accept the change from sorrows to rest. God, out of His infinite love for mankind, also arranges that on this path of life or at the end of it, people receive a premonition of this change: those devoted to voluptuousness - a premonition of punishment, and those who suffered for His sake - a premonition of rest. The first is reward for voluptuousness, the second is the guarantee of eternal peace (from a note to the Greek text of Nikephoros Theotokis). That is, due to the desire for holiness. According to another reading: “one’s own shame.” In Serbian translation: “eat from your own Gehenna.” That is, do not be embarrassed during his outrage. That is, kindling nature. You might be interested in: