Слово 15. Сказанное в присутствии отца, который безмолвствовал от скорби, после того как град опустошил поля

1. Why are you upsetting the praiseworthy order 108? Why do you force us to speak a language that is subject to the law? Why do you call forth a word that does not war against the spirit? Why do you leave your head and turn to your feet? Why, having passed Aaron, do you come to Eleazar? I do not agree that the source should be blocked and the stream should flow, that the sun should be hidden and the star should shine, that gray hair should give way, and youth give laws, that wisdom should be silent and inexperience magnified. Without a doubt, a big rain is no more beneficial than a small one: one is strong, washes away the earth and harms the farmer in everything, while the other comes quietly, penetrates into the depths, fattens the field, benefits the crop, nourishes the ear during the ripening of the fruit. Likewise, an abundant word is no more useful than a wise one: having delivered, perhaps, a little pleasure, it flies away and disappears along with the vibration of the air, producing nothing more, and only captivates the ear that is captivated by it with its eloquence; and the wise word penetrates the mind, widening the mouth, filling them with spirit, experiencing its birth and cultivating many things with a few syllables. 2. I am not yet talking about the true and first wisdom, in which this wondrous worker and shepherd 109 prevails. The first wisdom is a praiseworthy life, purified or purified for the most pure and most luminous God, Who requires from us one sacrifice - purification; sacrifice, usually called in Scripture a broken heart (Ps. 50:19), a sacrifice of praise (Ps. 49:14, 23), a new creature in Christ (Gal. 6:15), a new man (Eph. 4:24) and the like. The first wisdom is to despise that wisdom that consists in mere words and figures of speech, in deceptive and unnecessary oppositions. It is better for me to say five words in the Church with reason than thousands with one tongue (1 Cor. 14:13) and an incomprehensible sound of a trumpet, which does not excite my warrior to spiritual warfare. I praise and kiss that wisdom for which the lowly are glorified, for which the lowly are preferred, with which the fishermen caught the whole universe in the net of the Gospel, defeating the abolished wisdom with a perfect and shortened word (Rom. 9:28). For me, the sage is not the one who is wise in words, whose tongue is wicked, but the soul is not trained, who is like coffins, which on the outside are fine and beautiful, but inside are full of dead bones and hide a great stench, but the one who, although he speaks little about virtue, nevertheless shows a lot in deeds and confirms his life in words. 3. For me, visible beauty is better than that depicted in words, better is wealth that is already in the hands than imagined in a dream, better is wisdom that does not shine in words, but is evidenced by deeds. For it is said: understanding is good for all who do and (Ps. 110:10), and not for those who preach. The surest test of this wisdom is time, and the true crown of praise is old age (Proverbs 16:31). For although one should not please a person before death (Sir. 11:28), as I think with Solomon, it is not known what the next day will give birth to (Prov. 27:1), because our earthly life is subject to many upheavals and the body of humility is torn here and there and changes: however, whoever has spent most of his life blamelessly and is already close to the pier of this common sea of life, is he not safer and happier? others who have a long voyage ahead of them? 4. So, do not close your lips, which have spoken so much good, from which there are so many fruits and offspring of righteousness. How many children they have, what treasures they have - lift up your eyes around and see! You gave birth to all this people by the gospel in Christ! Do not deprive us of your useful, albeit few, words any more, do not assume that the loss is already imminent. Speak a word, albeit short, but for me kind and very pleasant, although not felt by hearing, but recognizable by that spiritual cry that God hears from the silent Moses and says intelligently to the one speaking: why do you cry to Me (Ex. 14:15)? Gather this people for me, your pet, then the shepherd, and now the chief shepherd. Teach me shepherding, this people - humility. Contemplate the present disaster, the righteous judgments of God, whether we comprehend them or do not know the great abyss; about how the Lord, according to the word of Saint Isaiah, has mercy upon measure (Is. 28:17); because His goodness is not without calculation (although it seemed so to those who had earlier begun to work in the vineyard and did not notice the inequality in equality itself). Contemplate how the wrath of God, called the cup in the hand of the Lord (Ps. 74:9) and the cup of the fall that is drunk (Is. 51:17), is commensurate with sins; because the Lord, although from everyone, takes away something from the punishment they deserve and dissolves the undissolved wine of wrath through love for mankind (Ps. 74:9); however, from severity it bends to mercy only for those who are admonished by fear, and from a little sorrow accept conversion in the womb, and suffer from it, and give birth to the perfect spirit of salvation (Isa. 26:18); but he watches and without a trace pours out trembling, that is, final wrath, on those who are not healed by His goodness, but are still hardened, like the hard-hearted Pharaoh, burdened with bitter works and kept as a demonstration of the power of God over the wicked (Ex. 9:16). 5. Tell me: why such blows and whips? Where is their foundation? Is this a consequence of the disorderly and irregular movement of the universe, the uncontrollable and unreasonable flow of things, as if there is no Ruler above them, and is this a matter of chance, as unwise sages think, blindly carried away by a disorderly and dark spirit? Or is everything with reason and in order, just as at first it was produced, perfectly dissolved, combined and set in motion according to the laws known to the one One who set everything in motion, so afterward it moves and changes, controlled by the reins of Providence? Why crop failures, harmful winds, hail, our present defeat and admonition? Why is there damage in the air, disease, earthquakes, rough seas and celestial phenomena? How does creation, created for the enjoyment of people, this common and equal source of pleasure for all, turn into the punishment of the wicked, so that we, with the same thing for which we were honored and for which we turned out to be ungrateful, now come to our senses and know the power of God in suffering, when we did not know it in beneficial actions? How the sins of some are repaid at the hand of the Lord (Isa. 40:2) and the measure of iniquity is replenished by this aggravation (by which Israel also becomes wise), while for others the sins are exhausted by a sevenfold reward in their bosom (Ps. 79:12)? And what does the measure of the Amorites mean, which has not yet been fulfilled (Gen. 15:16)? How is a sinner either left without punishment, perhaps because he is being preserved for the future, or is he punished again in order for him to be healed here? And how a righteous person either suffers, and through this, perhaps, is tested, or prospers and is thereby protected, if he is poor in mind and has not risen very much above what is visible, what conscience teaches each of us is a homely and unfalse judgment! What does the blow that befell us mean and why is it? Is this a test of virtue or torture for sins? But even if it was not a punishment, it is better to accept it as a punishment and humble yourself under the strong hand of God, rather than to be proud of it as a test. Teach this and enlighten us, so that the real blow is not too painful for us and so that we do not despise it, falling into the depths of evil (for many suffer from such an ailment), but so that we prudently accept admonition and by insensitivity to it do not bring upon ourselves anything more. 6. It is terrible to see the barrenness of the earth and the destruction of fruits, and at what time? When the fruits were already filled with hope and were close to being harvested. It is terrible to see the untimely harvest; to see how farmers grieve over their labors and as if they were sitting over the dead over the stems, which the quiet rain had grown, and the strong one had reaped, from which you did not reap with your hand, and gathered the depths of your handle, over which the blessing was not heard, with which a passing greeter greets the farmers (Ps. 129: 7-8). A pathetic sight - a land desecrated, shorn, deprived of its adornment! This is also mourned by blessed Joel, who more touchingly depicted the devastation of the earth and the torment of hunger; Another prophet also mourns, contrasting the former beauty of the earth with its subsequent ugliness. Speaking about the wrath of the Lord, who devastates the earth, the prophet says: before him is a paradise of sweetness, and behind him is a field of destruction (Joel 2:3). This is painful, beyond measure, as long as the present one saddens and the feeling of another, gravest blow does not bother you, just as in illnesses, real suffering is always more painful than the one that did not occur. But even more painful than this is what the treasuries of God’s wrath contain. May you not experience this! And, of course, you will not experience it if you resort to God’s mercy, with your tears incline Him who desires mercy, and turn away the remainder of the anger from yourself by conversion. This is still meekness and philanthropy, condescending admonition, the first blows of the pestun that forms infancy, this is still the smoke of wrath, that is, the firstfruits of torture, and not the ignited fire, that is, not the very top of anger, not the burning coals, that is, not the last blows of the scourge (Ps. 17:9). God partly threatened us, partly stretched out a scourge on us, restrained us from others by force, subjected us to others, equally admonishing us with punishment and threat, and paving the way for His wrath. Out of the abundance of His goodness, He begins with less, so as not to have the need for more. But He also punishes more if He is forced to do so. 7. I know this purified weapon (Ps. 7:13), this drunken sword in heaven (Is. 34:5), which is commanded to cut, destroy, disgrace (Ezek. 21:10), not to have mercy on flesh, brains, or bones. I know that the Passionate One is deprived like a bear and like a lynx who meets the Assyrians on the way (Hos. 13:7-8), not only the ancients, but also everyone who is now an Assyrian through iniquity, and that it is impossible to escape from the strength and speed of His wrath when He is vigilant over our wickedness and when His enemies are pursued by jealousy, ready to destroy the resistance (Heb. 10:27). I know this shaking, and shaking, and boiling, and contrition of hearts, and weakening of the knees (Nahum. 2:10), and other similar punishments that befall the wicked. Not to mention the trials there, to which those spared here are subjected; why is it better to undergo admonition and purification here than to undergo torture there, when the time comes for punishment and not purification. For just as you remember God here above death (about which David speaks beautifully), so for those who have departed from here there is no confession and correction in hell (Ps. 6:6), because God limited the time of active life to being here, and left life there to study what had been done. 8. What will we do on the day of guidance, which one of the prophets fears (Isa. 10:3; Sir. 2:2), or on the day of God’s contest with us (whether it will be on the mountains and hills, as we heard (Mic. 6:2), or in some other place and in any way), when God will expose us, He Himself will confront us, bring our sins before our faces - these grave accusers, - when the blessings we have received are opposed to our iniquities, one of our thoughts will be struck by another thought and one thing will be condemned by another, when he will exact from us the fact that we have desecrated the dignity of His image and darkened it with sin, and, finally, will put us to death after we have exposed and condemned ourselves, and it will no longer be possible to tell us that we are suffering unjustly? For those suffering here, this sometimes serves as a consolation in condemnation; but who will be the intercessor there? 9. What a fictitious pretext, what a false apology, what a cunningly invented probability, what slander against the truth will deceive the court and turn the court into a just one, where everyone puts everything on the scales - deed, word, and thought, where the bad is weighed with the good, so that what outweighs and has the upper hand, and with what is greater, the verdict, after which it is impossible neither to transfer the case to another court nor to find a higher one the judge, neither to be justified by new works, nor to take oil for the extinguished lamps from wise virgins or from sellers, after which the repentance of the rich, suffering in the flame and caring about the correction of his relatives, does not help, and no time is given for a change in life? On the contrary, this judgment will be unique, final and terrible, and even more righteous than terrible, or, better to say, terrible because it is righteous. Then thrones will be set up, the Ancient One will sit down, the books will be opened, the river of fire will flow, the light and darkness prepared will appear before the eyes: and those who have done good will come out for the resurrection of the life that is now hidden in Christ, and will appear with Him in the end, and those who have done evil will come out for the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29), by which they have already condemned those who disbelieved, the word that judged them (Isa. 12:48). And the first will inherit the ineffable light and contemplation of the Holy and Royal Trinity, which will then illuminate more clearly and purer and will be completely united with the whole mind (in which alone I especially establish the Kingdom of Heaven); and the lot of the latter, among other things, will be torment or, more accurately, above all else, rejection from God and shame in conscience, which will have no end. 10. All this will happen later. What shall we do now, brethren, contrite, humiliated and intoxicated, not with strong drink and not with wine, which weakens and darkens for a short time, but with the disaster that the Lord brought upon us, who said: and you, O heart, were shaken and shaken (Hab. 2:16), and infusing the spirit of sorrow and contrition on the despisers, to whom he says: see, you despisers, and look, and wonder and disappear (Hab. 1:5)? How can we bear His reproof? Or what answer will we give when, in addition to the many blessings for which we have not given thanks, he reproachfully points out to us these punishments, enumerates the healings from which we were not healed, calls us, although children, but vicious, although sons, but strangers and churches because of the impassability and obstinacy of our ways and says: “How and with what should I have admonished you, and I did not admonish you? Was light medicine needed? They are used by Me. I passed the first Egyptian plague - the blood that the Egyptians drank from springs, and rivers, and every collection of waters; He also passed the following plagues - frogs, and scnips, and dog flies, but began with the fifth plague - with the defeat of cattle, oxen, and sheep, struck a blow to the dumb, because he spared the verbal ones. But this calamity did not affect you; on the contrary, you were before Me more foolish and senseless than those who were struck down. Keep the rain away from you. One part was needed, and one part was not needed any more (Amos 4:7); but you said: let us be strong (Jer. 18:12). I brought hail upon you, admonishing you with the opposite punishment; I reaped your vineyards, groves and fruits, but did not crush your malice. 11. We know that you are cruel, and your neck is of iron (Is. 48:4), - so, perhaps, He will say to me, whom these blows do not correct. He who transgresses transgresses, he who does wrong does wrong (Isa. 21:2); Neither admonition from above nor heavenly punishments produced anything. The skin of the fire has become scarce, the tin has rotted away - for which I also reproached you through Jeremiah before - the forger forges silver in vain, for your wickedness has not faded away (Jer. 6:29). Will you endure My wrath? - says the Lord. Or is My hand not strong enough to strike again? I also have purulent scabs, burning from the ashes of the cave (Ex. 9:9-10), which Moses or another similar servant of the wrath of God scattered to heaven and punishes Egypt with disease. I have locusts, and tangible darkness, and plagues, the latter is in order, but the first in severity and strength is the defeat and death of the firstborn. In order to avoid it and to avert the all-destroyer, it is better for us to anoint the prayers of the mind, that is, contemplation and activity, with this great and saving seal - the blood of the New Testament, having been crucified with Christ and died with Him, so that we can rise with Him and be glorified now and at His last appearance, and not faint, not lament and not cry when untimely and still in this dark life it strikes us the evil destroyer of the first-born and consecrated to God generations and movements of our life. 12. Oh, that I would not receive this reproach from the Good One, who comes to me in rage in the land (Lev. 26:24), because I also walked before Him in the land, in addition to other blows: you were beaten by the golden woman of enmity, by the yellow woman, and all this is worthless; from without, you have been deprived of your children by the sword, and so turn to Me, says the Lord (Lam. 1:20; Am. 4:9,10)! Oh, if only I had not become that vineyard of the Beloved (Isa. 5:1), which was planted and dug in, surrounded by a fence, protected by a tower and everything possible, but was desolate and created thorns, and for this was abandoned, so that the tower was destroyed in it, and the fence was taken away, and it was not pruned and not dug up, but was given over to everyone for plunder, every kind of plunder. reproach and trampling! This is what I am afraid of, this is what I have a word about, this is why I am sick in the present defeat, and I offer this prayer (which I will add to what has been said): I have sinned, I have sinned, I have committed wickedness (Dan. 9:5), because they forgot Thy commandments and walked after their evil heart, because they lived unworthy of the calling and gospel of Thy Christ and His holy suffering and exhaustion for us, because they became a reproach to Thy Beloved. Both the priest and the people sinned in one thing: they all deviated, together with the indecency of Bysha. Do not do justice and righteousness, not even one (Ps. 52:4). We have sealed Thy generosity, and Thy love for mankind, and the merciful womb of our God for ourselves with our vices, the cunning of our undertakings. You are good, but we acted lawlessly; You are long-suffering, and we deserve punishment. Let us acknowledge Your goodness, despite all our foolishness. We have suffered punishment for a few more of our sins. You are terrible, and who will resist You (Ps. 75:8)? The mountains will tremble because of You, and who can resist the greatness of Your arm? If you close the sky, who will open it? And if You dissolve Your reservoirs, who will hold it? It is convenient in Your sight to bring ruin and to make rich, to live and to kill (1 Samuel 2:6-7), to smite and to heal. Your will is already a completed action. Thou art angry, and we have sinned (Isa. 64:5), - one of the ancients confesses; but now I must say the opposite: we sinned, and You were angry. Because of this, our neighbor was reproached (Ps. 78:4). You turned Your face away from us, and we were filled with dishonor. But stop, Lord (Am. 7:5), weaken, Lord (Ps. 39:14), cleanse, Lord (Dan. 9:19), do not completely betray us for our iniquities and, without striking us, admonish others, when we ourselves can become chaste, seeing others punished! Who will we see punished? The pagans who do not know You, and the kingdoms that have not submitted to Your power. And we are Your people, O Lord, and the scepter of Your inheritance; Therefore, punish us, both in kindness, and not in Your wrath, so that you do not make us humble (Jer. 10:24) and do not humiliate us before all those who live on earth. 13. With such words I attract mercy. And if it were possible to satisfy anger with burnt offerings and sacrifices, he would not regret it either. But you yourself imitate the frightened priest. To her, beloved children, to her, who participate with me both in punishment and in God’s love for mankind! Save your souls with tears, stop the anger by correcting your undertakings, sanctify fasting, preach celibacy, as blessed Joel commands you and us, gather the elders, the babies, the sucklings - this pitiful age, especially worthy of God’s love for mankind (Joel 2:15-16). I know that the same is commanded to me, the servant of the Lord, and to you, who have been awarded the same honor: to wear sackcloth, fight day and night between the levels of the altar (Joel 1:13, 2:17) and in a pitiful form, with an even more pitiful voice, relentlessly cry out for yourself and for the people, sparing neither labor, nor words, nor anything else. God is propitiated, cry out: have mercy, O Lord, on your people and do not give your inheritance to reproach (Joel. 2:17) and so on, the more we indulge in sorrow, the higher our dignity, in order to teach the people by our example contrition and correction of a vicious life, followed by God's long-suffering and cessation of punishment. 14. So, come, all brethren, let us worship and fall down and weep before the Lord who created us (Ps. 95:6); Let's make a common cry, divided by age and gender. Let us raise the voice of prayer in the ears of the Lord of hosts instead of the cry that He hates (Gen. 19:13). Let us precede His anger with confession and, just as we saw Him angry, let us wish to see Him appeased. But you say: who knows that He will turn and repent (1 Sam. 15:29) and leave the blessing? I know this with certainty, the supporter of God’s love for mankind; I know that, leaving behind anger, which is unnatural to Him, He will give place to mercy, which is natural to Him. We force Him to anger, but He Himself strives for mercy. And if he beats under compulsion, will he really not have mercy, following His nature? Let us have mercy only on ourselves, opening the way to the righteous compassion of the Father. Let us sow with tears that we may reap with joy (Ps. 125:5). Let us be Ninevites and not Sodomites. Let us heal sin, so as not to perish with sin, let us listen to Jonah’s sermon, so that fire and bogeymen do not drown us. And if we left Sodom, then we will go to the mountain, we will flee to Zoar, we will ascend there with the rising sun; Let us not stop throughout, let us not look around (Gen. 19:17), so as not to harden into a glorious pillar - a truly immortal pillar, convicting the soul that turns to evil. 15. We know that not to sin at all is, indeed, higher than man and belongs to God alone (I will not talk about Angels, so as not to give rise to passions and not open the door to malicious contradictions); but just as incurability is characteristic of an evil and hostile nature, as well as of those who act under its influence, so, having sinned, it is characteristic of people who, however, are obedient and belong to the part of those being saved. Although this dust carries with it some evil, and the earthly dwelling burdens the mind (Wis. 9:15), striving for grief or the created one striving for grief, let the image (of God) cleanse the mud and raise the flesh associated with it to a height, lifting it on the wings of the mind. Although it would be better for us not to have the need for such purification and not to purify ourselves, preserving our primitive dignity (to which we hasten from the school of this life), it would be better not to deprive ourselves of the tree of life by the bitter taste of sin, however, it is better to turn after sinning than for the fallen to remain without punishment. For the Lord loves him and punishes him (Heb. 12:6), and to inflict punishment is a fatherly matter; on the contrary, any soul left without admonition becomes unhealed. Therefore, it is not so hard to endure blows, but much harder not to remain chaste under blows. One of the prophets, speaking about the hardened and uncircumcised Israel at heart, says: Lord, you beat them, and without being sick, you punished them, and did not want to accept punishment (Jer. 5:3); and one more thing: the people did not turn until the plague of God (Isa. 9:13); and again: My people have turned away from everything with an evil disgust (Jer. 8:5), which will finally crush and destroy them. 16. So, it is terrible, brethren, to fall into the hand of the living God (Heb. 10:31)! The face of the Lord is terrible at those who do evil, which decisively destroys evil (Ps. 33:17). Terrible is the hearing of God, which senses the voice of Abel even in silent blood (Gen. 4:10). Terrible are the feet that overtake lawlessness. The fulfillment of the universe is terrible, so that nowhere can one escape the wrath of God: neither by soaring into heaven, nor by retiring to hell, nor by moving to the east, nor by hiding in the depths or limits of the sea (Ps. 139:7-10; Jer. 23:24). Even before me, Nahum, the son of Elkash, uttering a prophecy about Nineveh, fears a jealous God and the Lord avenging himself with fury (Nahum. 1:2), extending His severity to such an extent that there is no room left for secondary vengeance on the wicked (Nahum. 1:9). And when I hear how Isaiah threatens and says to the people of Sodom and the princes of Gomorrah: why are you still wounded, adding iniquity (Is. 1:5), then I am filled with horror and burst into tears. He says: it is no longer possible to find new punishments for sins that are multiplying again - so you have transgressed every measure, exhausted all types of punishments, constantly calling upon yourself with your vices new and new executions. There is no longer a scab, no ulcer, no scorching wound, the whole body has become an ulcer, and an incurable ulcer; for there is no plaster to apply, lower than oil, lower than duty (Isa. 1:6). I am silent about the continuation of the threat, so as not to be more painful for you than the real punishment. At least we will know the cause of the disaster. 18. Why the cultivated fields withered, the granaries were exhausted, the pastures became scarce, the fruits of the earth diminished, the plains were filled not with fatness, but with lamentation, the valleys were not filled with bread, but were filled with cries, the mountains were not dug for sweetness, as later the righteous (Joel 3:18), but were disfigured, dishonored and bear the curse of the mountains (in the other sense only) 110 Gelbuiskie? The whole earth became as it was in the beginning, until it was clothed with its ornaments. You visited the earth and made it drunk (Ps. 64:10), but with a disastrous visit and a destructive intoxication. A sad sight! All our fertility is in the straw, the sowing is noticeable by the small remains, and our harvest, recognizable more by the time of the months than by the number of sheaves, barely bears the first fruits to the Lord. Such is the wealth of the wicked, such is the harvest of those who sow badly, in fulfillment of the ancient curse: to look upon much and bring in little (Hag. 1:9), to sow and not to reap (Mic. 6:15), to plant and not to squeeze out the juice where ten wives of oxen look, to create one pot (Is. 5:10), to hear about the fertility of others, but to be under the oppression of poverty! Why is all this and what is the cause of the disaster? Let us not expect reproof from others, but let us test ourselves. The great remedy against evil is confessing sin and moving away from it. Just as I was the first to announce to my people and fulfilled the office of a guard (for in order to win my soul and the souls of those listening, I did not hide the coming sword), so now I will proclaim about the disobedience of my people, recognizing their sins as mine, and through this, perhaps, I will receive some mercy and joy. One of us oppressed the poor, took away part of the land, with malicious intent either unnoticed or forcibly crossed the boundary, pulled house to house and field to field, just to take something from his neighbor, made every effort not to have anyone as a neighbor, as if intending to live alone on the earth. Another desecrated the land with covetousness and greed, gathering where he did not sow, and reaping where he did not squander, cultivating not the land, but the needs of the poor. Some from the threshing floor and the winepress did not give the firstfruits to God, who gave everything, and turned out to be both ungrateful and reckless; because he did not give thanks for what he received, and did not try to obtain gratitude for himself, if not something else, at least future abundance. Another did not show mercy to the widow and the orphan, did not give bread and little food to the one who asked, or, better to say, Christ himself, fed in the face of those who are meagerly fed, while he himself has, perhaps, much beyond all expectations, while (which is the height of injustice!) And many granaries become cramped for him, while he fills some, and ruins others in order to build vast ones for future fruits, not knowing that before his hopes are fulfilled he will be stolen by death. and, like a bad steward of other people’s goods, he will give an account of what he abounded and boasted about here. Another way has led astray the humble (Am. 2:7) and has led astray the righteous in unrighteousness (Is. 29:21). Another hated the punisher at the gate and abhorred the word of the righteous (Am. 5:10). Another offered sacrifices to his flesh (Hab. 1:16), gathering a lot, and, having plundered the poor in the houses (Isa. 3:14), did not remember God or remembered badly, saying: Blessed is the Lord, we have become rich (Zech. 11:5), and conceived iniquity, as if from Him we had something for which we would be punished. For these sakes the wrath of God is coming on the disobedient sons (Eph. 5:6). For this reason the sky is closed or opened, but to our own misfortune, and even greater, when we do not turn to those who are struck, and do not approach those close to us by nature (Jer. 23:23). 19. What do we say to this, who buy and sell grain and wait for hard times in order to get rich, enjoy other people’s misfortunes and unlawfully appropriate for ourselves not the property of the Egyptians (as Joseph did for the higher House-building, for he knew how to collect and distribute grain well), but the property of his fellow tribesmen? What will we say, who say: when the month is past, and we will sell, and the Sabbaths, and open the treasures (Amos 8:5), we, who violate justice with double measures and weights (Deut. 25:14; Amos 8:5), we, who bend towards ourselves the lead measure of iniquity (Zechariah 5:8)? What can we say to this, who know no limit in acquisition, we worship gold and silver, like the ancients Baal, Ashtoreth and the vile Chemosh, we place precious and shiny stones, soft and luxurious clothes in the great - this food and prey of robbers, tormentors and thieves, we are proud of the multitude of slaves and cattle, we are expanding across the plains and mountains, we already own one, we share another We intend to add other things to our possession, likening the leech mentioned by Solomon (Prov. 30:15), which cannot be satisfied with anything, like hell and earth, fire and water, do we desire another universe to satisfy our covetousness and are not content with the limits set by God, because they are too narrow for our desires and greed? What will they say who are elevated to high degrees of honor, who have perched high on their commanding chair, and raised their eyebrows even higher than the place of their acting, while not thinking about God, Who is above all, and about the inaccessible height of the true Kingdom, not reasoning that they themselves, having the need for the same mercy, should rule over their subordinates as over fellow servants? Look at these, who, as the divine Amos admirably ridicules them, are kindly hearted at the death of ivory bones and smear themselves with the first stench, splash at the sound of arquebuses, cling to the fleeting as to something permanent, and do not sympathize and do not sympathize with Joseph’s contrition (Amos 6:4-6). It was necessary to show mercy to those who had previously fallen into misfortune, it was necessary to gain mercy for oneself through mercy, it was necessary to weep for the pitis, for the fall of the cedar (Zech. 11:2), it was necessary to be admonished by the defeat of others, to heal one’s own evil through the misfortunes of others and to take advantage of that advantage over one’s predecessors, so that oneself through others could receive salvation, and not others to be chastened by one’s example. 20. Converse with us about this, O divine and sacred head, who has acquired through long experience much experience, from which wisdom comes; Instruct your people in this, teach them to divide bread for the hungry and to gather the bloodless poor into their homes, to cover their nakedness and not to despise those of the same blood, especially now, so that our beneficence comes from scarcity, and not from excess, which fruitfulness is more pleasing to God than the abundance of what is brought and the greatness of alms. And above all this, and above all, be now Moses and Phinehas. Stand for us and propitiate, so that the flogging will cease (Ps. 105:30), or by spiritual sacrifice, or by prayer and mental intercession, restrain the wrath of the Lord; with your mediation stop subsequent attacks. The Lord does not despise the gray hair of a father praying for his children. Pray for past sins, vouch for the future. Present to God a people purified by blows and fear; ask him for bodily food, and even more so, ask for angelic food descending from heaven. If you do this, you will reconcile God with us, soften the sky, and bring down the early and late rain. The Lord will give goodness, and our land will give its fruit (Ps. 84:13): this, which we trample upon, is temporary, but our dust is eternal, which we will put into the Divine wine press through you, who offers us and our gifts in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Those. so that children do not learn in the presence of their parents. Those. father of St. Gregory, Bishop of Nazianza. Gregory continues to address him several times in his speech. The curse of the mountains of Gilboa (2 Samuel 1:21) was that neither dew nor rain should fall on them. But here St. Gregory the Theologian says that mountains bear a curse in the opposite sense, that is, they are cursed for the very fact that neither rain nor dew descends on them.