Teachings, words and conversations for the weekly days (from 1 to 5 after Pentecost). Issue VIII

Archpriest Ioann Ilyich Sergiev Pronounced at different times in the Kronstadt St. Andrew's Cathedral. Let us continue in prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). 1. Lesson for the Sunday of All Saints Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). Now we celebrate the memory of all the Saints who fought the good fight of faith and virtue on earth and moved to heaven - for eternal peace and joy. The annual return to us of the real feast of memory of all the Saints is, brethren, nothing other than the many times repeated appeal of the Saints who have passed away to us, living on earth and struggling with the enemies of salvation for the sake of the future incorruptible Kingdom, an appeal to follow in their footsteps. They tell us: you, our little brothers, strive without laziness for the future Kingdom, as we strived; let no obstacles stop you on the path to salvation, just as nothing stopped us; be courageous, firm in the fight against your lazy and sinful flesh, against the lures of a deceptive, fleeting light, against the machinations of the invisible enemy the devil, remember constantly that the Kingdom of Heaven is acquired through effort and only strong seekers will inherit it (Matthew 11:12), that through many sorrows you must enter into it (Acts 14:22). We fought a lot, endured a lot, and for that we now rest in eternal and indestructible peace. You too will endure many struggles: eternal peace will come for you too. Living on earth, we heard the words of our Savior and Reposer: come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and with faith and hope you hastened to His call, came to Him, endured everything for Him, and now have received from Him the promised rest; follow also: He will rest you in the bosom of His eternal love. But what? Whereas the Master Himself and all the Saints unanimously call us to eternal rest: we barely or not at all pay attention to their unanimous invitation and become attached to the earth with all our might; – we become attached to covetousness, carnal pleasures, and the search for temporary honors. How few people there are who would always have a future life in their thoughts and strive for it with all the strength of their souls! The primordial enemy has entangled Christians in his net because of their addiction to the blessings of the earth and extreme inattention to the benefits of their souls - having bound their minds, imagination and hearts, so that they would no longer think or imagine, and would not desire future blessings, which the eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard, and has not risen in the heart of man (so they are superior to everything that is subject to the senses), which God has prepared for those who love Him ( 1 Cor. 2:9). So, he closed the sky from them and turned them completely to the earth: on earth they seek all kinds of coolness and bliss and all the blessings, and not in heaven, for which they were created and redeemed by the most pure blood of Jesus Christ. But there is no peace for the heart on earth: from earthly pleasures, after short-term carnal pleasure, the heart becomes empty, sad, and languid - and this is because it was created for life in God and for enjoying the pure, spiritual joys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and not for the earth and the enjoyment of earthly, perishing goods. In Me have peace (John 16:33), says the Lord, that is, besides the Lord there is no true peace of heart anywhere on earth. Let us not forget, brethren, to more often recall the end of the holy confession (symbol) of our faith: “the tea of ​​the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come” and to kindle in our hearts the faith that the general resurrection of the dead will certainly take place and reward for each according to his deeds will immediately follow. Behold, I am coming quickly, says the Lord, and My reward is with Me, to reward everyone according to his deeds. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that their territory may be upon the living tree, and that the gates may enter into the city, that is, into the heavenly city of Jerusalem (Rev. 22:12, 14). Brethren! Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world, becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4), says the Apostle James. Therefore, do not love the world, nor what is in the world: for all that is in the world is carnal lust, and the lust of desire, and the pride of life. And the world passes away, and so does its lust; but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15–17). Cling your heart not to what is visible, but to what is invisible: for what is visible is temporary, but what is invisible is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). Amen. 2. Lesson for the Sunday of All Saints This Sunday is called the Sunday of All Saints. Celebrating in honor of all the Saints, we remember all people sanctified by the Holy Spirit, namely: the forefathers and patriarchs, prophets and apostles, martyrs and hierarchs, holy martyrs and venerable martyrs, saints and righteous ones, fools in Christ, also all the Holy Wives and other nameless Saints, and with all and above all the Most Holy One, surpassing all the ranks of Angels, Our Lady and Mother of God, Ever-Virgin Mary. Celebrating all the Saints soon after the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Church intends to show us the glory and grace of the Holy Spirit - God, who sanctifies, enlightens, strengthens and glorifies all the saints of the human race, in the Old and New Testaments; He especially intends to show us the fruits that the coming of the Holy Spirit brought through the Apostles - how it sanctified people like us, made them wise, raised them to the level of Angels and led them to God: some were crowned for the exploits of martyrdom, others for a virtuous life. The All-Holy Spirit does what is above the laws of nature. Having descended on the Apostles in the form of fire that strives upward, He ignites the frozen earthly hearts of men, drooping into the ground, and lifts them to heaven. This is the first reason for celebrating All Saints. The second reason why it is necessary to celebrate all the Saints together is the following: there are many Saints who pleased God with perfect virtue, who, however, having received great honor from God, remain unknown to people; Moreover, the Fathers also had in mind the future Saints; and therefore they established the feast of all Saints, in order to honor together all, both those who were before, and those who will be and after, the revealed and unmanifested Saints. Third reason: The Saints, who are specially remembered every day, needed to be remembered on one day in order to show that they all labored by the power of one Savior, Jesus Christ, and for that all, as servants of the one Lord, are crowned with dignity, that they all constitute one Church, live in the same heavenly world, and thus encourage us to strive in every virtue for the sake of the future life. When reading the Apostle on the Sunday of All Saints, the Church proclaims that by faith they defeated enemies visible and invisible: they patiently endured poverty, bitterness, persecution, torment and various types of death, that through them or for their sake countless miracles were and are being performed, that the whole world is unworthy of them; By reading the Gospel this week, the Church testifies that they are all true confessors of the Holy Faith; in the name of the Lord they abandoned everything that removed them from serving God and blissful union with Him; for this reason the Lord Jesus Christ confesses the Saints - before His Father in heaven and through the mouth of the Church confesses them on earth before men. The Gospel of today in Russian reads like this: “The Lord says: everyone who confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Heavenly Father. And whoever denies Me before men; I also will deny this before My Heavenly Father. Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Then Peter answered and said to Him: Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what will happen to us? Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And whoever leaves houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or land for My name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and those who are last will be first” (Matthew 10:32–33, 37–38; 19:27–30). And at the present time, we can and must be, brothers and sisters, confessors of Jesus Christ before people - and firstly, especially we, the clergy, must openly and boldly preach the glory of Jesus Christ, His miracles and powers in us and in all believers, His eternal truths set forth in the Gospel and cast down every human thought that is boldly raised against the mind of God; to overthrow and suppress the mocking, absurd speeches of freethinkers, who have now multiplied more than bad grass; Also, public and private Divine services should be performed with sincere piety, without haste, without pandering to the laziness of the rich and powerful of the earth, without adapting to their tastes, or rather to their spiritual tastelessness. But you, brothers and sisters, must always be sincere confessors of Jesus Christ, visiting the church of God without laziness and with zeal, stand in it with reverence, earnestly and attentively depicting the sign of the cross, and not be ashamed to bow and genuflect, boldly confessing and proclaiming to those who should the mercies of God manifested on yourself and on others, in order to confirm others in faith and trust in God; engage in edifying conversations in society, without fear of being branded a hypocrite and a saint, or a Pharisee; - for the mockery and slander of the people of the world over the pious people is the usual reward for the pious; Blessed, it is said, when they reproach you (Matthew 5:11). But what does it mean to love father or mother or son or daughter more than the Lord Jesus Christ? This means - to please them, not to fulfill the commandments of God, but to fulfill their orders and whims, contrary to the will of God, or to live and raise children for the world, for connections, for wealth, for pleasures, for the glory of the world, and not for God, not for the salvation of the soul, not for eternity. What does it mean to take up your cross and follow Christ? It means walking a narrow and sorrowful path - a constant struggle with passions and lusts, with the temptations of the world, with the temptations of the devil, enduring the occasional illnesses, troubles, misfortunes, persecutions, expulsions. For the Apostles’ abandonment of all the blessings of the world and for their following to Christ, the Lord promised them the greatest honor - thrones of judgment over the whole world in His future coming to earth; to all people who left the blessings of the world for Christ, a hundredfold reward and eternal life. Such an infinitely great reward for devotion, for short-term devotion to the Lord, for abandoning insignificant earthly goods, for short-term patience, deprivation! How, beloved brothers and sisters, can we not surrender ourselves to the Lord with all our hearts, how can we not endure sorrows in this momentary life! Let us betray, we will certainly betray ourselves and each other and our whole life to Christ our God. Many who were first here will be last there, and those who were last here will be first there. God is no respecter of persons: before Him the king and the warrior will appear together, the priests and the laity, the learned and the ignorant, the noble and the simple, the rich and the poor, male and female - all in equal dignity; Each one will either be glorified or put to shame by his own deeds (1 Cor. 3:8, 14, 15). Amen. 3. Word for the Week of All Saints Be holy, for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16). Now we have the week of all saints, i.e. a Sunday day dedicated to the remembrance and glorification of all the holy saints of God and especially the holy martyrs for the faith of Christ, their ardent love for God and neighbor, their every patience, self-sacrifice, abstinence, obedience to faith, unshakable devotion to the Lord and the Holy Church, their strength and humility, simplicity and kindness, their holiness and perfection. So they were people subservient to us, but through faith, love and zeal for God, patience and forcing themselves to every virtue, repentance and removal from all sin and lawlessness, they pleased God and achieved eternal peace and bliss; and we are invited to follow them, praying day and night to God for the salvation of us all. They seem to tell us from heaven: here we have labored, by the grace of God, temporarily for God and our souls, and now we rejoice forever; we did not spare our multi-passionate, corruptible flesh, we exhausted it with fasting, labor, and unceasing prayers, or we were oppressed and tortured in every possible way by unrighteous persecutors; now we are crowned with crowns of incorruption from the life-giving right hand of Christ God; we hated the all-flattering and all-destructive sin and clung with all our hearts to God and His Holy commandments, and thereby became blessed forever. Work diligently for God and your souls, despise your sinful flesh, which incites you to constantly despise God’s commandments, love sin and despise virtue, please the devil and resist God; compel her, the careless and lazy one, to fasting, prayer, patience, meekness, mercy and all virtues - until the end of your life, which is not far off, but very close, hate with all your soul every sin and love the truth of God, life-giving, eternal: and you will also forever rest and rejoice. So, brethren, the holy saints of God, who are countless, call us to follow them to the heavenly fatherland, where the eternal Glory of God shines, where there is no untruth, where life is without work, sorrows and illnesses, life is endless. Let us follow, we will certainly follow them, with God’s help: so God commands. Come, He says, to Me, all who labor in the struggle against sins and are burdened with iniquities - come with zealous repentance and virtue: and I will give you rest; take My yoke, the yoke of My holy commandments, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls: for My yoke is good and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30) - that is, not like the yoke and burden of your sins and passions, which is heavy, charming, fruitless and destructive. Be holy, for I am holy, the Lord your God (Lev.19:2). St. Apostle Paul tells us all: we do not have an abiding, i.e., permanent city here, but we are looking for the future (Heb. 13:14), whose Builder and Artist is God Himself. So, let us try to follow the Saints, that is, to live virtuously, like them, each according to his own strength, and to carefully flee from all sin, which lives and reigns in us, and seeks with hellish, unsleeping malice and cunning to destroy our souls forever. Against the cunning of sin and its father the devil, we too will be wise and careful; We will be vigilant against his vigilance and we will be vigilant in the fight against him; we will be against his stubbornness and constancy and we will always be stubborn and constant in the fight against him; We will, if necessary, stand guard day and night against crafty sins and crafty demons, who do not leave a person with their machinations even at night, but with various sleepy dreams forcing him to work against sins even at this time: for even at night the same weaknesses and passions are active in the sinner’s soul, to which he indulges in reality. Let us use all our might to save ourselves and our neighbors; Let us be diligent to every virtue: for for this we were created by God, for this we live in the world, for this we were baptized and St. anointed with the world, - for this they were churched and became members of God's Church, this Kingdom of God on earth, in order to do good deeds, in order to be a holy and chosen flock - God's lot, the royal priesthood, the holy priesthood, a holy people, renewed people. Otherwise, what will be the benefit to us from our baptism and the seal of the Holy Spirit, from the fact that we are members of the Church by name. What is the use of communion of the Body and Blood of Christ if we are careless about virtue and diligently sin every day? What is the benefit to us from the title of Orthodox Christians? - gracious sons of God and children of the Church, - from the name of the holy and chosen flock, - if every day we indulge in all lawlessness, envy and malice, self-love, pride, deceit, intemperance, uncleanness, lies, deception and other sins? Our life should also be by name: those who are Christ’s, says the Apostle, have crucified the flesh with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24), that is, true Christians must mortify in themselves all passions, all sins. You will say: it is very difficult to conquer yourself, to conquer all the passions in yourself. There is no doubt: it is difficult, not easy, to break oneself, one’s sinful nature, but God, our Helper, is omnipotent; and from Him are given to the Christian in the Church all Divine powers for holy life and piety (2 Pet. 1:3); with God all things are possible; I can do all things, says the Apostle Paul, through Jesus Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13). And all the Saints, whose memory we now commemorate and whose deeds we glorify, serve us as an excellent example and encouragement to a holy, Christian life and to the fight against sin: they were, as has already been said, people similar to us in everything, but by faith and love, diligence and labor in good deeds, they defeated sin, the world and the ruler of the world and their passions and now eternally triumph in their victory. And among them there were not only monks, but also lay people - married and married women, people of every rank, condition, gender and age. And with them was the same devil, the tempter of sins, and the same sinful world with its temptations, the same people with their temptations. We cannot be dissuaded from living a holy life, that in the present time it is as if it is impossible to be saved, that it is as if now times are not the same as previous times, that people now have become like demons, only tempting them into sins, and life has supposedly become completely different, not as before. No, friends, it is not true that it is impossible to be saved now: it is possible now. The Lord Himself said as He ascended into heaven to His disciples, and with them to all of us: behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). And since he is always with us, then we have nothing to fear: He will help us in everything; He will defeat our enemies like the omnipotent; He will raise, He will save; He will crown us if we remain faithful to Him until death. Amen. 4. Lesson for the Sunday of All Saints If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Mark 8:34). What do you say, Lord: whoever wants, you say, to follow You, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me? Each of us would like to be where You are, but not everyone wants to follow the path that You have walked, that is, the narrow, sorrowful, suffering path; It is especially rare, rarely, for Your sake, that anyone will decide to deny himself, his sinful, corrupted will, his many-passionate heart or passions and lusts, although we are tired of them, although they are disastrous for us, and everyone seems to be dear to us, it is all difficult and painful to finally part with them. No: it is not desirable for a sinner to follow You, Lord, but to follow his heart, its destructive desires and the world lying in evil. But the word of the Lord is true and immutable. Whoever wants to follow the Lord, that is, the path of righteousness and truth, the path leading to eternal life, must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Him. But why does the Lord say: if anyone wants? - Because he does not force anyone to follow Him, but gives it to everyone’s free will to choose the path of salvation, everyone is given the will to choose good and evil, life and death. It is said: let him deny himself: what does this mean? It means to reject everything evil and evil in oneself, to renounce all communication with sin, which has penetrated through and through our soul, our mind, our heart, our will, our body, all feelings, all movements; to declare war on oneself, to constantly fight with oneself, with one’s sinful inclinations, passions, habits, untruths, to hate one’s soul for its constant violations of the law of God, for its wickedness, for its entire internal, ungodly way of life, for all the evil thoughts of this visible life and for rejecting care for the life of the next century. The demand is absolutely fair. The human soul is full of all untruths: vanity, partiality, self-will, pride, lack of faith, pride, envy, hostility, malice, gloating, rancor, blasphemy, grumbling, impatience, greed, litigation, untruth, resentment and oppression of one’s neighbor, lust, intemperance and all uncleanness. Sometimes it is difficult to recognize in a person a soul created in the image and likeness of God; This is how sin distorts it! But man, by his own free will, disfigures himself and destroys himself. It is clear that he must save himself voluntarily, with the help of God: that is why the Lord grants salvation to our will. Whoever wants, he says, to follow Me, must deny himself, that is, throw away sin, hate the sin that you have chosen and loved. But, since it is difficult for you to give up sin, because it has become a habit, it has become, as it were, your second nature, and since bad people will persecute you if you move away from their community, and the devil will cruelly persecute you, then you will need to endure grief, troubles, insults, labors, exploits, struggles - you will, as it were, be crucified on the cross. In this sense, the Lord said that whoever wants to follow Him must take up his cross. Everyone has their own cross; who does not have his own mental or physical weakness? Who does not have sorrow, or illness, or enemies visible and invisible, secret and obvious? Pray, endure everything unpleasant, sorrowful, difficult without complaining. Here is your cross; but having taken up your cross, follow the Lord, that is, carry it patiently, uncomplainingly, constantly, to the end; adhere to the truth to the end and hate untruth to the end, expose untruth, fight for the truth to the end: and you will be given a crown of righteousness from the Righteous Judge. Amen. 5. Teaching on the 2nd week after Pentecost Passing near the Sea of Galilee, Jesus Christ saw two brothers: Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately left their nets and followed Him (Matthew 4:18–20). The Gospel read now, my beloved brethren in Christ, tells about the calling by Jesus Christ to the apostolic rank of two brothers Peter and Andrew, and two other brothers - James and John, later called by Jesus Christ the sons of thunder, about their unquestioning following of the Savior - and about the fact that the Lord went throughout the whole country of Galilee preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven, healing every disease and every infirmity among people (Matthew 4:23). My brethren, the Lord calls to the apostleship of two like-minded and half-blooded brothers, to portray the character of His future followers - Christians, who should all be brothers in Christ in the spirit of mutual love, you are all brethren (Matthew 23:8), says Jesus Christ to His followers. Calls to the high and greatest feat of apostleship simple and unlearned people - firstly, for their simplicity and gullibility, for their humble, unwise and gentle disposition, for their hard work and patience - and secondly, in order to show that planting faith and the Church of Christ in the world was not a matter of human wisdom and power, but the work of God, and so that no flesh should boast before God (1 Cor. 1:29) so that no person can boast that the Christian faith is due to his wisdom, patience and labors; God Himself performed the greatest miracle on them: He made them wise from ignoramuses; from timid and fearful - courageous and undaunted, from carnal - spiritual, from earthly - heavenly, from vessels of sin - vessels of righteousness and temples of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, the Lord can transform us from sinners into righteous people if we have living faith in the Lord and firmly decide to love righteousness and hate lawlessness. Thus, the Lord can make a drunkard or a glutton abstinent, a money-lover merciful and God-loving, a depraved person chaste, and in general can deliver us easily and quickly from our sinful habits and passions, if only we ourselves, like the fishermen now mentioned in the Gospel, have faith in the Lord and a firm, unchanging determination not to follow our criminal will, but to follow the commandments of God, the wise, holy and salutary. There are many examples of this in the lives of saints. These are: the example of the prudent thief who repented on the cross and inherited paradise, Mary of Egypt, Peter the publican and examples of many others. So, the Lord called ordinary people to the apostolic feat, and not the wise and reasonable of this age. The Holy Apostle Paul says: God has chosen the foolish things of the world, i.e. God chose simple and unlearned people to confound the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong; And God chose the base things of the world and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should boast before God; and so that it may be as it is written: He who boasts, boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:27-29, 31). The same Apostle cites in his letter to the Corinthians the words of the Lord from the prophet Isaiah about the highly intelligent and sinful wisdom of earthly sages: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and reject the understanding of the prudent (Is. 29:14). Where is the sage? Where is the scribe? Where is the questioner of this century? Has not God turned the wisdom of this world into foolishness (Is. 33:18, 1 Cor. 1:19–20). In fact, the wise men of this age often despise the holy, immaculate faith of Christ and its guardian, the Holy Church of Christ. What could one expect from them for the faith and the Church? If they do not humble their obstinate mind and do not subjugate it to Christ, they can only destroy faith, and not create and spread it. It is extremely surprising that learned people, the so-called intelligent people today, are infected with unbelief, which amounts to madness, insanity, just as Scripture says that the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God (1 Cor. 3:19); their unbelief comes from their pride, learned ignorance, which knows a lot of empty things and does not know what is most necessary; God opposes the proud (James 4:6). It is also surprising that simple, uneducated people, but with common sense and a kind, simple heart, turn out to be much smarter than the wise men of this age and pleasing to God, because in the simplicity of their hearts, without further ado, they believe in the faith of God, in the word of God, accepting it with a kind and simple heart, trying to fulfill it to the best of their ability, with the help of grace. Look, brethren, I will tell you in the words of the Apostle: who are you who have come to this church: not many of you are wise according to the flesh (i.e., learned), not many of you are strong (i.e., the mighty of the world, noble and rich), not many of you are noble; and the majority are all simple, uneducated, semi-literate or only literate. So, my brethren, like the fishermen now mentioned in the Gospel, believe with all your heart in the Lord and in His Gospel, accept with all your heart the word of eternal life, justify with your whole life that you are Christians, Christ’s disciples and followers; do not abandon church meetings and worship services; read, listen to the word of God more often, gain wisdom and be saved. The Gospel of Christ is now accessible to everyone and always, especially to the literate, because it has been translated into the Russian dialect and the book of the Gospel is sold at the cheapest price. God! Enlighten the minds of all with the light of reason of Your holy Gospel, teach us to do Your will, save us and bring us into Your Heavenly Kingdom. Amen. 6. Teaching on the 2nd week after Pentecost The verb is: He is coming after Me, and I will make you a fisher of man (Matthew 4:19). These words were spoken, my brothers, by Jesus Christ to two fishermen and brothers: Peter, later the chief apostle, and Andrew, later called the First-Called. He is coming after Me, and I will make you... Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men; after Me, that is, in My footsteps, in the footsteps of non-covetousness, complete love for God and for the human race, for the true, heavenly, eternal fatherland; in the footsteps of meekness, humility, patience, kindness, complete self-sacrifice: and I will make you fishers of men, that is, I will do that instead of fish you will catch people from the abyss of sin into holiness, from the troubled sea of ​​this life - into the Kingdom of Heaven. But why did the Lord tell Peter and Andrew that He would make them fishers of men? He said this in relation to their craft, or to their trade, so that they could more easily understand their future calling from His short words, and in order, so to speak, to make it more convenient for them to move from one occupation to another, from like to like, from catching fish to catching people. Today we will talk with you, brethren, about what spiritual entrapment of people is - and what it is like, what kind it should be desired, and what kind it should be run away from. You know, of course, everything that in the beginning the serpent, the wisest of all the beasts of the earth, or, more clearly, the devil in the form of a serpent, caught the first people Eve and then Adam in his hellish nets, and both them and through them the entire human race was drawn into sin, curse and death, and even to this day we languish in these nets of sin, we are still dying by sin. After a long time, the Deliverer promised to the first people, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth precisely in order to deliver people from the snares of the ancient enemy, from sins and temporary and eternal death, into which the human race was drawn by its terrible hunter, the fallen angel of light, the Lucifer, who became Satan, an apostate from God, the king of death, the chief of darkness, the fire of Gehenna. But in order to snatch people from the snares of the ancient murderer, who darkened their souls and desecrated them with his evil breath, it was necessary to enlighten them with the light of heavenly truth, to wash away their sinful filth with repentance, baptism and other sacraments, and to constantly, in all ages, guide them to the Heavenly Kingdom. Therefore, the Savior, the God-man, needed to choose helpers and continuers of His great work of saving mankind, and He chose them from the common people, for their simplicity and humility, called them apostles and sent them to enlighten people, lead them to repentance, baptize, perform other sacraments, and lead them to eternal life. By doing this, they were fishers of men, that is, they brought people caught by the devil into sinful darkness into the light of God - from eternal destruction into eternal life. And now, when we preach the Word of God to you, perform divine services and sacraments, what else are we doing if not the same as they? We cast a spiritual net, according to the word of the Lord, and expect that by the grace of God someone will soon fall into this spiritual, saving net; perhaps one or the other of you will leave the path of sin and destruction, and return to the path of truth and virtue, and receive eternal life. But this is a saving network, a divine network, this network must be desired. You have to stay in it. But there is another network - the destructive, satanic one, which we talked about at the beginning; this network must be avoided at all costs. Yes, my brothers, the evil fisher, I mean the devil, daily catches each of us in his hellish nets! And how many of these networks there are, and how many unwary people fall into these networks! These are the more ordinary networks in which he catches us: a network of anger and enmity; network of covetousness; network of addiction to pleasures, entertainment; a network of pride, doubts about the truths of faith, a network of unbelief; a network of envy of one's neighbor and ill will; the network of stinginess or the passion to hoard money; network of gluttony, drunkenness; network of prodigal passion; a network of addiction to clothes, when a person thinks only about decorating the body, but does not even think about decorating the soul with virtues; network of despondency, murmuring; a network of false shame, fear, laughter, a network of condemnation of one’s neighbor; network of idle talk and slander. And you never know these networks! Just take a good look with your spiritual eyes at this invisible spiritual trap of the enemy, and you yourself will see how many snares the enemy of the human race is throwing for the destruction of our souls. Brothers and sisters! Beware of the enemy's snares. Be constantly attentive to yourself: save your souls diligently, with the help of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ; visit the church of God more often, this quiet refuge, where the grace of God catches us in the saving net of the Word of God, the Divine service itself and the sacraments performed into eternal life. Amen. 7. Word for the 2nd week after Pentecost And they (Peter and Andrew) immediately left their nets and followed Him (i.e., Christ) (Matthew 4:20). The Gospel of Matthew read today tells of the calling to the apostolic rank of four simple and unlearned fishermen, namely: the two brothers Peter and Andrew, the sons of Jonah, and James and John, the sons of Zebedee the fisherman - about their immediate and decisive following of the Savior to the great work of saving people; about the preaching of Jesus Christ throughout Galilee of the Gospel of the Kingdom and His healing of all kinds of illnesses and infirmities among people. Let us try, through pious reflection and conversation, to benefit from the Gospel read today. What is instructive for us in this Gospel? Very instructive for us is the wonderful act of simple fishermen in relation to Jesus Christ, their firm, unquestioning, irrevocable determination to immediately follow Christ in everything and everywhere, their perfect obedience, without any hesitation, their selflessness and impartiality to earthly, so-called goods, so dear to everyone - namely: to home, to parents, to wives, to other relatives, to a fishery so cheerful and honest, what kind of fishing industry and others. But you will say: we cannot imitate the apostles, we cannot leave everything and follow Christ, Who no longer walks visibly on earth. It is true that we cannot imitate the holy apostles in everything, because their position and ministry at that time was special, exceptional, extraordinary, but in many ways we can and should imitate them. Can and should we now follow Christ, of course, without walking with Him and following Him visibly, for He is now in heaven with deified humanity, and is invisibly on earth with us? And we can and must follow Christ, that is, live and act according to His heavenly teaching and commandments, imitate Him: His truth, holiness, His love, mercy, meekness, humility, peacefulness, gentleness, non-covetousness and free poverty, His abstinence, prayer, contemplation of God, humility, obedience, devotion to the perfect will of the Heavenly Father, His unceasing labors in teaching and enlightening people, doing good to people; His patience and long-suffering. And if we, as Christians, must follow the teachings and life of Christ, then we can and must imitate the example of His disciples, or His first followers. They left everything for Him and followed Him. The Lord does not command us all to leave everything to follow Him; He allows us to use both houses and acquired property: He leaves us to live with our loved ones and relatives, but He commands us not to have an addiction to earthly goods, because they alienate us from God, darken our soul, stumble our spiritual feet on the path to God and to salvation; They distort our life and turn everything, so to speak, upside down. It is impossible to serve two masters: God and wealth (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13), God and the multi-passionate flesh; for the rebellious, sinful flesh demands most of what is contrary to God; for example, it requires frequent pleasures, pleasures - in a word, any kind of self-pleasure; strives to enrich himself and does not heed the needs of his neighbors, on the contrary, he is still ready to offend them, to take away from them what belongs to them; prone to anger, pride, envy, stinginess, satiety, intemperance and drunkenness, idleness and laziness. A Christian must leave all these passions and lusts, or sins, and follow Christ, i.e. to live according to His teaching in meekness, humility and all virtue, in abstinence, non-covetousness, in sincere goodwill towards every person, benevolence, in purity and chastity, in working for one’s own and others’ spiritual salvation, in all righteousness and truth. Yes, we would have to leave a lot, a lot, in order to follow the teachings of Christ and be worthy disciples and followers of Christ our God; one must abandon, mortify in oneself all sins, passions, bad habits and inclinations - uproot all sinful thorns from the soul, and sow in it only the seeds of virtues, and grow them with tears of repentance and prayers, unceasing vigilance over oneself, sorrows and hard work, unquestioning obedience and complacent patience. Let us, with God's help, each of us leave behind our sins, passions and lusts, such as: our pride, our malice, pride, deceit, envy, ill-will, condemnation, hard-heartedness, stinginess, selfishness, untruth and deceit, voluptuousness, intemperance, laziness, especially in prayer; for prayer is necessary for a Christian just as air is for the body - and then, only then can we follow our heavenly Teacher and Savior. So we will follow. Otherwise, we will not follow Him forever, and we will perish in sins: for the rent of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Amen. 8. Sermon on the 2nd week after Pentecost The Gospel read today tells, beloved brothers and sisters, about the calling of the Lord to the apostolic rank of two Galilean fishermen Simon Peter and Andrew, his brother, and the other two brothers - James and John, the sons of Zebedee the fisherman; - then about the Lord’s walk preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom throughout the country of Galilee and about the healing of all kinds of illnesses and infirmities among people. This short Gospel reading contains many subjects for our edification. Very edifying for us are the actions of the fishermen, who unquestioningly, immediately at the voice of the Savior, followed Him, not yet knowing definitely why the Lord was calling them; What is remarkable about them is their childlike simplicity of character and faith and their dispassion for the usual and tempting fishing industry and fishing tools; remarkable is the sovereign power in the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, who subdues simple hearts to Himself for life. But what is especially instructive for us is the immeasurable condescension towards us, people, of the Lord of glory, the Creator of heaven and earth, beginningless, omnipotent, living in the unapproachable light: He is the eternal King of Angels and all creatures, taking the form of a servant, walks from city to city, from village to village, works daily with His most pure feet, teaches the ignorant and erring, preaches the Gospel of the Kingdom to everyone, reconciliation of people with God and eternal bliss prepared in heaven for those who love God; heals all kinds of illnesses and infirmities in people, does not disdain those possessed by unclean and contagious diseases; From early morning until late evening, He is surrounded by countless crowds of people, crowding, crushing Him, attacking Him: and He treats everyone meekly and patiently, teaching accessiblely, humbly, lovingly and with authority, forgetting about food and peace. What condescension! What love! What patience! What a lesson for us, shepherds, so lazy in teaching and teaching, so impatient and irritable in serving the spiritual and physical needs of our lesser brothers, so careless about the glory of God and about the salvation of immortal human souls gifted with reason and free will! What a lesson for you, brothers and sisters, in this daily and whole-day walking of the Lord through cities and villages for the sake of saving people, for the sake of teaching them the saving truth and for the sake of healing their infirmities! Do you value your spiritual salvation as much as our Lord did and always values ​​it? Do you care about your immortal souls as much as Jesus Christ, who did not spare His life for us and shed all His blood for us in terrible agony, cared for them and constantly cares? Can you imagine all the horror of God's eternal justice, which we all would undoubtedly have to experience - and those unbearable eternal torments into which we would all have plunged if His Only Begotten Son had not become an Intercessor for us with His Heavenly Father, if He had not become for us the Lamb of God, taking away the sins of the world? Can you imagine how disgusting the abomination of sin is for God and how destructive it is for us in all its countless forms and manifestations; How absurd, insane, how impudent is this devilish invention, i.e., sin, which has perverted everything, placed everything upside down in the moral world, and distorted God’s beautiful creation—man—beyond recognition? No, we still didn’t want to, we were careless, we were too lazy to find out properly what exactly sin is, that it is so vile, disgusting, insane, absurd, all-destructive; otherwise we would not be friends with him, we would not warm this snake in our bosom, although it stings us, torments us, kills our souls. Finally, be ashamed, man, of such a wonderful, ineffable condescension of God for the sake of your salvation! Imagine how the eternal Son of God Himself in the flesh walked the earth from city to city, from village to village for the sake of our salvation, for the sake of teaching people God’s commandments and holy, godly life, and in order to help them, heal them, console them, turn them onto the path leading to eternal life; - how He chose His helpers, disciples or apostles, Himself carefully, with love and meekness, taught them all truth, performed miracles, healed all kinds of diseases, cast out demons, raised the dead, cleansed lepers; - how, on the fiftieth day after His resurrection from the dead and on the tenth day from His ascension into heaven, He sent down to them from God the Father the Holy Spirit, who made them wise and sanctified and made them fiery, and earthly heavenly, ardently loving God and all people and ready for all kinds of work and sorrow for the sake of their eternal salvation; taught them all the secrets of the Kingdom of God and sent them to preach the Gospel, giving them the power to perform all kinds of miracles. Be jealous, beloved, for your own salvation, awaken, rise from your sinful sleep; not today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, in a year or even after a longer period, and you will face a lot - death, and now judgment will follow it; stock up on the oil of good works, prepare a good answer to the righteous Judge, who judges with righteous measures the whole earth (Ps. 9:9). Test yourself, are you ready? The Lord did everything for you, for your salvation: what did you do? Answer. But you are silent and don’t answer. You are obviously not ready: all your time is spent on vanity, on trifles, on passions, on whims. Listen, brother, sister: I will also remind you of what the Lord did for your salvation: He poured out a whole sea of ​​saving grace in His Church - from the time the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles - that is, He gave you all the Divine powers for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), so that you could be saved in every possible way; for you the grace of baptism, - for you the birth of sons or adoption of you to God, - you, a criminal creature; for you the seal of the Holy Spirit, i.e. sacrament of anointing; for you the grace of repentance, forgiveness and remission of your sins; for you - oh miracle of miracles! The most pure Body and the most pure Blood of the Lord for the remission of your sins and eternal life; for you, the Church is a heavenly school and a heavenly physician, and a house of spiritual food, and a house of consolation, and a church of praise and prayer to the Trinitarian Divinity, who gives life and mercy to us, and a treasury of all grace-filled gifts. What are you doing to save yourself? I’ll also ask you: tell me, in all honesty, and are you doing anything? Are you not with all your heart and all your being, soul and body, devoted to the world and its sinful customs? Have you not long ago extinguished the grace of the Holy Spirit within yourself? Have you not humiliated yourself to dumb cattle and are you not driven only by animal passions, like a slave and a slave - for it is said: a man who is ignorant of honor, has become like dumb cattle and become like them (Ps. 49:13, 21). Brother and sister! Let us hasten to devote the rest of our time to the works of our salvation. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus Christ preached and to which he still calls everyone, is worth using all your strength to achieve it. The beginnings of this Kingdom, felt by us from time to time here on earth, during, for example, sincere prayer, or contemplation of God, or tearful repentance, or when we do good deeds, are extremely sweet; What is the sweetness of the Kingdom of Heaven there - in heaven? Let us all reach the Kingdom of God. Amen. 9. Teaching on the 2nd week after Pentecost Today, beloved brothers and sisters, we read from the Gospel of Matthew about the calling by Jesus Christ to the apostleship of the Galilean fishermen brothers Peter and Andrew, and also the brothers James and John Zebedee; about the walk of Jesus Christ preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven throughout Galilee and about His healing of all illnesses and all infirmities among people. The Evangelist notes that Peter and Andrew immediately left their nets and followed Christ, and James and John, immediately leaving the boat and their father, followed Him. So the Apostles left everything for Christ and for the sake of the future life and the Kingdom: parents, relatives, homes, innocents, favorite activities, what kind of fishing, the tools with which they acquired their means of living, their habits and affections of the heart. They give us a wonderful lesson by their obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. They left everything for God. Have we, beloved brothers and sisters, abandoned even one sinful habit, or passion, favorite sin, for the sake of Christ, for the sake of Christian piety, for the sake of our spiritual salvation? Do we willingly sacrifice even a small possession for Christ in order to show mercy to the poor? Do we sacrifice even a little time for God and our salvation in order to pray fervently at home and in church, to pour out our souls before God in repentance, thanksgiving and praise? Do we sacrifice our heart to Him, for it is said (Proverbs 23:26): son, give me your heart - faith, hope and love for God and neighbor. The Lord calls us all, like the Apostles, although not in the same way as them, to follow Him, to imitate Him. What to imitate? - In simplicity, non-covetousness, abstinence, meekness, humility, obedience, in holiness, in love, kindness, mercy, patience for righteousness and long-suffering? Do we imitate Him to the best of our ability in these virtues? He came to deliver us from sin, curse and death, to sanctify, to renew us, to make us His sons and daughters (2 Cor. 6:18) and citizens of His eternal, heavenly Kingdom: are we zealous for truth and holiness, for the acquisition of His eternal blessing - come, it is said, the blessing of My Father (Matt. 25:34), sonship: are we striving diligently for eternal life, not too loving the here, short-lived life and looking at it only as a preparation for the future, and seeking the true fatherland? How do you respond to this? How would you answer if now Christ the Lord Himself personally appeared and asked you about this? I leave you all to secretly answer these questions to the Lord Himself, who knows the secret of hearts (Ps. 43:22). Remember how the martyrs, martyrs and holy martyrs did not spare for the sake of the Gospel of Christ, for the sake of the Christian faith and truth and for the sake of eternal life, not only material goods, but also life itself, and joyfully went to cruel torment. Remember how the venerable fathers and venerable women abandoned all pleasures of the flesh, all the beauty and glory of the world for the sake of the fulfillment of the Gospel of Christ, and walked the difficult path of constant fasting, vigil and prayer and progress in every virtue - and did not sin in their hope - they achieved eternal, desired peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Further, the Gospel says that Jesus Christ walked throughout Galilee, teaching in the synagogues of the Jews and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity among people. What condescension! what patience! what work, what zeal both in the end and in the beginning - what love for sinful humanity, perishing in sins! Do we care as diligently about our salvation as Christ did and cares about ours? Do we really care about saving each other? With similar zeal and love? Oh no, no! We all doze and sleep, fussed in a sinful life; We folded our hands, laid down our weapons, thinking that salvation would come to us on its own, forgetting the teaching of our Savior about walking on the narrow path - about sorrows and patience, unceasing prayer, constant repentance - the parable of the talents, about the laborers in the vineyard of the Lord. Let us wake up and imitate the apostles, martyrs, saints and all the saints, and especially Jesus Christ Himself, our Lord, who gave us the image, and let us follow His footsteps, and who thirsts for our correction, enlightenment, sanctification, renewal and salvation. Amen. 10. Sermon on the 2nd week after Pentecost And the verb was: He is coming after Me, and I will make you a fisher of man. They abandoned the wilderness and idolized Him (Matthew 4:19–20). Today, beloved brethren, the Gospel was read during the liturgy about the calling of the Lord to the apostolic rank of the siblings of the fishermen Peter and Andrew and also siblings - James and John, the sons of Zebedee, also fishermen. It was like this: Jesus Christ, “passing near the Sea of ​​Galilee,” otherwise called the Lake of Galilee and Tiberias, “saw two brothers: Simon, called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen, and he said to them: follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately left their nets and followed Him. From there, going further, He saw two other brothers, James Zebedee and John his brother, in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and called them. And they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him” (Matthew 4:18–22). Then, the Gospel speaks of Jesus Christ’s walk through the Galilee region, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing all kinds of sicknesses and infirmities of people. The same Gospel is read at the all-night vigil on our church feast of St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle. By calling Peter and Andrew, James and John, the Lord laid the foundation in His Church for the apostolic and priestly rank - a high, heavenly, angelic rank, even higher - the rank of Christ: for the apostles and clergy continue the work of Jesus Christ the Savior Himself, that is, the work of saving people, the work of reconciling them with God. Let us now talk, for our common benefit, about why Jesus Christ called simple and unlearned, poor people to the apostleship. So, why did the Lord call to the apostolic title not the noble and powerful or rich of this world, not the wise and reasonable, or learned, but people of low status, unlearned and poor? The Holy Apostle Paul, called to the apostleship from the persecutors of the Church of God and from the scientists, explains the reason why the Lord called ordinary people to the title of apostle. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty things; And God chose the base things of the world and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should boast before God (1 Cor. 1:27-29). The Apostle Paul himself says about himself, called from among the wise of the world, that God sent him to preach the gospel not in the wisdom of words, but in simplicity, so as not to abolish the cross of Christ (1 Cor. 1:17), that is, the power of the cross merits of Christ our Savior, which even without our vain wisdom are strong to save believers. So, this is why the Lord called the Apostles from ordinary people, that is, so that it would be obvious to everyone that the Christian faith and the salvation it gives to people, its miraculous spread throughout the earth, is the power of God, but not the work of wisdom and human strength. This is the first reason. The second reason is that, since the Lord came into the world in our flesh to heal our nature, which had fallen through pride and the wickedness of the enemy and the incontinence of the womb, then, wanting to teach all humanity a lesson in simplicity, humility and moderation in everything - and in the very election of future doctors and fishers of humanity, He chooses them from simple and poor people, who limited themselves only to the necessary, and who did not at all dream of themselves highly. That is why He Himself, as the Doctor of ailing humanity, was born from a poor Virgin and in a wretched den and had a poor imaginary father, and lived in poverty, not having anywhere to lay His head. This is the second reason. The third reason why the Lord chose the Apostles from a simple and poor rank, and not from a noble and rich one, is that, as you all know, wealth binds human hearts to itself and tears them away from God, and gives rise to many, many sins. The Lord Himself says: you cannot work for God and wealth (Matthew 6:24); It is easier for a camel to go through the ears of needles than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 19:24). The Holy Apostle John the Theologian says: whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father, that is, for God, our Heavenly Father, for all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-16). How could the Apostles, chosen from rich people and lovers of wealth, be able to lead people to God, kindle in the hearts of people a fiery love for Him, without having love for Him in their hearts? That is why the Apostles were chosen from poor people, that is, so that for the love of God they could more easily break ties with the world and with sin and cleave to God with all their hearts. The fourth reason why the Apostles were chosen from poor and simple people is so that they could more easily accept into their hearts the wealth of God’s grace, which is abundantly poured into the hearts of the humble and simple, hungry and thirsty for the justification of God, and cannot be contained in the hearts of the proud and arrogant with their imaginary righteousness. Without rejecting narrow self-love and earthly acquisitions, or imaginary earthly wisdom, they could not have love for God and for all humanity, and without love they could not be capable of apostolic service, which required ardent love for humanity, saved by God the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit: they had to enter into the Spirit of the love of Christ and be bearers and distributors of this spirit to others: the spirit of truth and holiness, the spirit of meekness and humility, gentleness and patience, abstinence and incorruption. They would become salt, having lost their strength and therefore unable to protect humanity from the corruption of sin, if they themselves were rich and noble. And the apostolic hearts abundantly received the grace of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and filled the whole world with this grace, and it has reached to this day and will be poured out on the worthy until the end of time. Note from this Gospel how the fishermen Peter and Andrew, James and John hastily and irrevocably left their homes and their meager property and followed Jesus Christ; How simply and courteously they acted! If they were rich, they would not have left their homes and property so easily. One rich young man approached Jesus Christ to ask for advice on how to achieve eternal life, but when he heard that he needed to give away his wealth to the poor, he walked away from Jesus Christ in sorrow. But in the Apostles, the decisive abandonment of earthly and perishable goods was, by the grace of God, the reason for their fiery love for God and neighbor and for their high calling and their work; it was their spiritual wealth, their strength, glory, their decoration and light. What will separate us from the love of God, says the Apostle Paul? Nothing; neither tribulation, nor distress, nor persecution, nor sword, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor death, nor life, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, not even angels, nor principalities, nor anything (Rom. 8:35-39). And how they loved their neighbors! Not our way, but we never even dreamed that we loved anyone the way the apostles loved: they were ready to lay down their souls for people every hour; but pious people loved them so much that they were ready to turn their eyes and give them to them. The apostles had nothing, but possessed everything - they were like beggars, but they enriched many with the grace of God. I have no silver or gold, says the Apostle Peter to the lame from birth, but what I have I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk: and the lame man arose and began to walk and jump (Acts 3:6–8). This is the power they have: they healed all sorts of diseases, raised the dead, cast out demons, stepped on the serpent and the scorpion and all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19), that is, the demonic, without any harm to themselves; they could comfort anyone who was sad with the consolation with which they themselves were comforted from God. Isn't this strength? What is their glory? While still in mortal flesh, or out of the flesh, they were caught up to the third heaven and heard unspeakable words (2 Cor. 12:4)! Even in the flesh, they were considered gods who had descended from heaven and they wanted to honor them with sacrifices and incense! All the people of Jerusalem called them (Acts 5:13), says the Holy Evangelist Luke in the Acts of the Apostles about the apostles and the first Christians. The fifth reason why the Lord called simple people to the apostleship is the following: since the apostles had to teach people on earth the heavenly life - dispassionate, unashamed, holy, in the hope of a future blessed life, ageless forever, then they themselves had to show everyone on earth an example of dispassion and holiness, non-covetousness and heavenly life on earth, so that it would be all the more convenient to teach believers by the example of their life and their dispassion. When God, who chose me from my mother’s womb, deigned to reveal His Son in me, I did not consult flesh and blood (Gal. 1:15–16), that is, I abandoned all worldly passions. Sixth reason: The Holy Apostles, as preachers of spiritual freedom in Christ, had to themselves be clothed in spiritual freedom through complete impartiality to everything temporary; and one who is addicted to earthly things cannot be spiritually free: he is a slave to his whims. The apostles, by the will of God and their own will, were free from all earthly attachments; they taught a new life in Christ and they themselves were, first of all, a new creation. The apostles were soldiers of Christ, who had to fight not only with people or their passions and iniquities, but also with the kingdom of Satan, with the principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world, with the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12). What should Christ's warriors be like? They must be spiritually invulnerable from all the forces of the enemy, and they could be invulnerable only if they had no attachment to anything earthly, or to their life itself: for the enemy usually causes wounds through carnal and worldly attachments; There will be no such addictions in us - and we are invulnerable, by the grace of God. Such were the apostles and all the holy martyrs, saints, saints, unmercenaries, all the saints. They were strong in their impartiality, in their mortification of the flesh with its passions and lusts. No one who has been a warrior is bound by the purchases of life, so that he may be pleasing to the commander (2 Tim. 2:4). The hellish malice of the tormentors and the terrible torments to which they subjected the confessors of the name of Christ were powerless to break their courage and patience: they were above all fears and torments. This is what their impartiality to the flesh and to the world meant! Finally, the seventh reason is that God rests in simple hearts, but He has no place in wicked ones. Let us, according to our strength, imitate the dispassion of the apostles in order to serve God with a pure heart, to achieve more and more in love for God and our neighbors, encouraging each other to good deeds (Heb. 10:24). Amen. 11. Conversation on the 3rd week after Pentecost The eye is a lamp for the body: if your eye is simple, your whole body will be light; if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark (Matthew 6:22-23). The words of the Lord are a true lamp for us on the path of life; so are the words of the Gospel now read; you just need to think about them more carefully. Let's think about it. The lamp of the body is the eye, says the Lord, i.e. the eye or eye is the lamp of the body; Why is it not said: eyes, but an eye? Because here the Lord does not mean the bodily eyes, but the spiritual eye, or our heart, which controls both the bodily eyes and with two eyes sees objects not double, but individually. So, by eye we mean the heart, in which conscience or internal law is implanted, indicating what is good and what is evil; that is why it is said: eye, not eyes; By body we mean our entire inner life, thoughts, desires, intentions, all our deeds that we do during our earthly life. This means that the meaning of the Savior’s words will be this: the heart or conscience is a lamp for a person on the path of his life, in all his thoughts, desires, intentions, words, in all his deeds. Further the Lord says: therefore, if your eye is simple, then your whole body will be light: i.e. if your heart, your conscience, is simple, pure, then all your thoughts, your desires, your deeds, intentions, your undertakings will be bright, right, pure; if your eye, your conscience, is evil, then your whole body will be dark, that is, all your thoughts, desires, intentions, undertakings, your whole life, all your deeds will be dark, wrong, evil. So, if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness? If your heart, your conscience, which was given to you from the Lord instead of a lamp, through your negligence has become darkness itself, then what will your whole life, all your deeds be like? Isn't this how it happens in life? Don't we see constant examples of this? Let's take an example from life. Let's take a person with a simple heart, with a straight conscience, with a direct outlook on life, with a view of the Gospel, and a person with an evil heart, or an evil conscience and partial to the world, to the flesh. All the actions of the former are imprinted with justice, diligence, straightforwardness of character, and goodwill towards one’s neighbor. The actions of the second bear the stamp of untruth, deception, hypocrisy, cunning, deceit, and insults of the other. The first is satisfied with very little and is not consumed by a thirst for much, for example, he does not desire a luxurious table, many elegant and expensive clothes, a thirst for wealth, a wide and richly decorated home, etc.; he has his daily bread and stew, a few changes of clean and decent clothing, a constant, although perhaps not rich, income or salary, or money earned through hard work: honest trade, industry, handicrafts; a healthy home, although not wide, without rich furniture: he is pleased and thanks God; he doesn’t want more: because he considers it unnecessary; if he sees a small surplus, he would rather give it to his neighbors in need, but will not use it for any of his own whims. But look at the life of another person with an evil heart and an indirect, evil conscience. He is not happy with anything: his table is not a table, clothes are not clothes, housing is not housing, furniture is not furniture, and with a full cup he wants it to be even fuller, his own is not enough for him, he needs to seize someone else’s, even with an insult to his neighbor; for him this food is not good, he needs better, or his daily bread and stew are not enough, he needs wine, although there is no need for it at all; Yes, not just a little, that wouldn’t be a problem, otherwise someone needs a lot to get drunk; these clothes are not good, they are out of fashion, they need to be better; this housing is not so spacious and comfortable, it needs to be wider; this furniture is not good, we need new one; this income, this salary, this income is not enough, he needs more - and he is hardly satisfied with anything: everything seems to be good with him, there is enough of everything - the man is well-fed and satiated, dressed luxuriously and whimsically and he has a lot of excess - but he is still dissatisfied; Another, with his means of living, and even with less, and enough for himself, will have enough to spend on food and clothing for his neighbors in need, but he has little for himself and nothing for others. Why? Because his heart is deceitful, darkened, unreasonable, insatiable, passionate. Why is it like this? – Because he does not know the commandments of the Lord or does not want to know, he is not guided by the light of the Gospel of Christ. Because he does the will of his blind, passionate flesh and his thoughts. No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other; or one will be zealous, and the other will be neglectful. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). What are the two masters here who cannot be served at the same time? One is the Lord God, the other is wealth, or our sinful flesh, in which the devil operates, trying to chain it to the world. Obviously, it is impossible for God and the sinful flesh to work together: precisely because God demands from us holiness, the unwavering and precise fulfillment of His will, and the flesh constantly incites us to sin - to gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, envy, enmity, covetousness and love of money, laziness, etc. How to reconcile serving God and the flesh? Obviously you can't; The word of God directly says that those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24) - and by no means serve the sinful flesh, do not please it. Do not please the flesh through lust (Rom. 13:14), says the Holy Apostle Paul. And it always happens that whoever pleases his flesh is negligent about pleasing God, about the salvation of his soul, about his correction, about a virtuous life, does not correct his heart, does not strive in spirit for the heavenly fatherland, but is completely chained to the earth, to earthly pleasures. He who loves his sinful flesh does not love God, His commandments seem burdensome to him, he does not love his neighbor: he will not care about his salvation, because he does not care about his own, he will not help him in need: because he loves himself too much and would rather fulfill his own whims than give up his property for the needs of his neighbor. Therefore I say to you, continues the Lord: do not worry about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing? (Matthew 6:25). Inappropriate, unreasonable, too much concern for food, drink, clothing is very, very harmful to Christian life: it is what the Lord previously called serving mammon. This wrong concern of ours about food, drink and clothing turns, so to speak, our whole life upside down: instead of caring mainly about the soul, about its cleansing, correction, sanctification, and salvation in general, we worry every day about pleasing our greedy belly, and about what to wear, and leave the soul - this immortal being created in the image and likeness of God, and perishing alive in sins. neglect, without correction, or even - daily we add sins to sins, satiate and satiate the body, and leave the soul to starve; We decorate the body, but disgrace the soul; We revive the body, but kill the soul. Therefore, the Lord, denouncing our folly, says: Is not the soul more than food, and the body than clothing? (Matthew 6:25). If the soul is obviously greater than food, then why do you leave the soul without care, worrying about something as insignificant as food and drink: for food is for the belly, and the belly is for food; but God will destroy both (1 Cor. 6:13). Or again: is not the body greater than the clothing? If the Lord gave you more, i.e. body, then will he not take care to give less, will he not take care of covering it, and will he not give you the means to cover his nakedness, as he covered the nakedness of Eve and Adam? Are you not worrying about empty things, leaving the most necessary, the only thing you need? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your Father in heaven feeds them. Aren't you much better than them? (Matthew 6:26). The Lord points to birds to us, those of little faith, in order to show the never-slumbering, unceasing Providence of the Heavenly Father for all the creatures of the earth, which from the beginning of the world until now has not ceased and does not cease to preserve and nourish every creature - and especially - the crown of all creatures - man, created in the image and likeness of God, and so that by the example of birds who are always well-fed, although they do not sow or reap bread, we We were convinced to rely with certainty on the Providence of God. Of course, these words of the Lord do not teach us to sit idly by and only hope in God, but teach us to practice blessed labors and, while laboring, hope for God’s blessing, for success in business, for the gift of everything we need. Further, the Lord says: and which of you, by caring, can add even one cubit to his height? (Matthew 6:27). Doesn't everything depend on God? If our body in all functions - both in nutrition and in growth - depends on God, as the work of His hands, His wisdom, goodness, omnipotence: then isn’t our food also dependent on Him? Doesn't He also provide food for our growth and strengthening? Why do we consider food as alien to His Providence? Oh, truly His Providence feeds not only us, but also every worm, every insect! And why do you care about clothes? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like any of them; But if God clothes the grass of the field, which exists today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, God clothes it so much more than you, O you of little faith! (Matthew 6:28–30). In words: what do you care about clothes - the Lord teaches us not to have an addiction to clothes, as he previously told us not to have an addiction to food and drink. It is impossible not to take care of clothes at all: we must take care that our clothes are decent and clean; should, whoever should, engage in spinning, weaving, sewing. The Most Pure Virgin Mary Herself wove and sewed with Her most pure hands, as is shown by the Savior's tunic, woven with Her virgin hands. But the incessant worries about outfits that spin our heads are completely contrary to the spirit of the Gospel: they make us vain, petty, and give rise to unchastity and pride in many. If beautiful clothing were necessary for us, as its flower is necessary for any cereal, then the Heavenly Father would not leave us to dress us a thousand times better than roses and lilies, or peacocks; but it is known that our clothing is a temporary covering, or a temporary bandage on a wound: because clothing appeared as a result of sin, when people recognized their nakedness; Is it worth decorating bandages on a wound? Shouldn’t we be concerned about how to heal the wound as quickly as possible, that is, how to cleanse ourselves from sin as quickly as possible? Is it reasonable to sew expensive bandages on these sinful wounds, and still boast of these bandages as something laudable? Isn’t that why there is more of a sinful stench? Let us remember that in baptism we all received the robe of incorruptibility, the robe of the righteousness of Christ. Let us take care of this garment of truth; We will keep these clothes; Let it be our decoration. If we preserve it, then in the next century the Lord will clothe us with the robe of glory, clothe us with eternal light, just as He Himself is clothed with light, like a robe. So, I will end the conversation with the words of the Savior: do not worry and do not say: what shall we eat? or what to drink? or what to wear? because the pagans are looking for all this, and because your Heavenly Father knows that you need all this (Matthew 6:31-32). Hear: according to the word of the Lord, all those are pagans, and not Christians, who worry about what to eat and drink, or what to wear, but do not think about the works of God, about fulfilling His commandments. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). Every owner, master, feeds, waters, and clothes his servants; How much more will the Lord God feed and clothe us if we are His servants? If He feeds and clothes those who do not serve Him, who do not know Him, how much more will He not forget those who serve Him? Amen. 12. Lesson for the 3rd week after Pentecost The lamp for the body is the eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye is evil, then your whole body will be dark (Matthew 6:22-23). The meaning of the Gospel read today can be presented in abbreviated form as follows: the human soul is darkened by the darkness of countless sins and therefore is in extreme poverty, threatened, in case of unrepentance and non-correction, with eternal torment. Meanwhile, people least of all think and care about the enlightenment and salvation of their soul, and put all their care into the short-lived and fleeting body and bodily benefits: food, drink, clothing, housing, to the obvious, disastrous detriment or harm of their soul. In this Gospel, the Lord meekly exposes this foolishness of ours and teaches us to first and foremost take care of the soul: is not the soul more valuable than food? (Matthew 6:25) and seek primarily the Kingdom of God, which is within us (Luke 17:21) and must be, as in those created in the image and likeness of God - and the righteousness of God, since we live in all unrighteousness, burdened with countless sins. For clarity and persuasiveness, the Lord makes comparisons from visible things in his speech. Takes our eye and our body as an example. The lamp for the body says there is an eye. So, if your eye is clean, your whole body will be bright. If your eye is bad, then your whole body will be dark. So, if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness? (Matthew 6:22–23). By eye or eye we should mean our heart or mind, by body our being, our life, for which the heart is the same as the eye for the body. If a person’s heart is pure, his conscience is clear, then our whole being is pure and bright, all life is holy, all deeds are good and impeccable. If the heart is wicked and unclean, and the conscience is wicked, then the whole being is wicked, all life is wicked, all thoughts, feelings, and actions. So, if your heart, your conscience, is already darkness, then what should your whole life be like, how dark, bad, evil, disastrous it should be? Clear? Yes: after all, we are all convinced of this by the experiences of life: we see it either in ourselves or in other people. No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other; or he will be zealous for one and neglectful of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). Saint Chrysostom explains these words of the Savior this way: God once and forever said that serving God and mammon cannot be combined together. Therefore, don’t say that both can be connected. For when Mammon commands to steal someone else’s property, and God commands to give away one’s own property; when God commands to lead a chaste life, and mammon commands to live a prodigal life; when mammon commands one to get drunk and be satiated, and God, on the contrary, commands one to bridle the belly; when God commands us to despise real worldly goods, and mammon to cleave to them heartily; when mammon makes one marvel at marbles, walls and carpets, and God despises all this and honors true wisdom: how then do you say that the service of God and mammon can be united together? Therefore, the Savior adds: do not worry about your soul, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the soul more than food, and the body than clothing?.. (Matthew 6:25) and a little lower he says: the pagans seek all this; Your Heavenly Father knows that you need all this. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:32–33). From the connection of the speech, it is obvious that the Lord does not forbid taking care of acquiring or procuring earthly goods for life food, for paying duties, but only prohibits excess, exclusive care for earthly things - a care that absorbs a person completely and removes him from God, from the Church, from Divine services, from fulfilling the Christian duty of fasting, confession, communion of the Holy Mysteries, from works of mercy - a care that does not allow him to think about eternal life, about future eternal fate. Brothers, Christians! Let us philosophize more about heavenly things than about earthly things, where Christ sits at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1-2). After death, we will not need anything earthly: neither food, nor clothing, nor money, nor houses, but we will need only love and deeds of love. The belly is empty, and the belly is empty; God will abolish both this and that (1 Cor. 6:13). Amen. 13. Conversation on the 3rd week after Pentecost 1 First of all, I thank the Lord that He called me through His faithful servant, the high-ranking Head of the Mother See of this Russian capital, to serve the Divine Liturgy in this cozy, splendid church, where he is accustomed to always pour out his soul before God in prayer; for without having already performed a bloodless sacrifice for five days and without partaking of the Divine meat, I feel the impoverishment of God’s grace within me. What I wanted is what I got. The Liturgy is completed; Divine meat is prepared; I was honored to taste the Mystical Supper. Glory to You, Lord, who has been so kind to me. Now I dare to say a few words for the edification and spiritual benefit of myself and everyone present, regarding the Gospel read today, in which the Divine Mentor and Head of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, speaks about the darkening of the eyes of our hearts by worldly passions and sinful inclinations and about the unnatural duality in our soul, generated by our excessive inappropriate worries and worries about everyday objects, often empty and insignificant, - a duality that poses strong forces to a person, insurmountable for him without the special help of God, - an obstacle to the fulfillment of those works of truth and holiness for which he was created in the beginning, - subverting the order of life indicated to us by God. At the conclusion of the day's Gospel, the Lord proclaims to us: seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things, that is, earthly blessings: food, clothing, etc., will be added to you (Matthew 6:33), that is, they will be given as if in addition, without special worries and cares. The Lord preaches: the lamp of the body is the eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye is bad, then your whole body will be dark. So, if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness? (Matthew 6:22–23). Here is a parable and a comparison. The Lord likens our soul or our life with its deeds to a human body, and our mind and heart to an eye or an eye. As the eye is in the body, so is the mind or heart in our soul. If the mind and heart are enlightened, purified, strengthened in faith, hope and love, in goodness, then the whole soul, the whole life of a person shines with the light of knowledge, faith, righteousness and good deeds; if our eye, that is, the mind and heart, is bad and crafty, that is, if the mind and heart are not enlightened, not educated, not cleansed from superstitions, prejudices, passions - not free from lack of faith, unbelief and religious ignorance, then the whole soul and the whole life of a person will be bad and gloomy, full of stumbling blocks, mistakes, passions and ugliness. Confirmation of this obvious truth can be seen always and everywhere. What is it that darkens the eye of our heart? It is darkened by self-love, conceit and pride, voluptuousness, carnality and greed, lies and untruths, love of love, - in general, an intensified love for earthly life, with oblivion of eternity - partiality and contemplation, hostility and envy, reliance on one’s own mind or on scientific research in the field of religion, which is given higher significance than revelation God - despondency, cowardice, despair, laziness and idleness, intemperance, drunkenness and all kinds of sins. No one can serve two masters, says the Lord: for either he will hate one and love the other; or he will be zealous for one and neglectful of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24), that is, God and wealth. God and the world with its corrupt customs. This is an eternal, immutable, unchangeable law. Our soul is by nature divine and immortal; her greatness is immeasurable; one human soul, taken separately, is more valuable than the entire visible world, both material and transitory; the salvation of our soul was purchased at an immeasurable price - the blood and death of the Son of God; she must serve entirely with faith and love God the Redeemer, and not the adulterous and sinful world, not corruptible and fleeting wealth, which often opens the way to all worldly pleasures and vices; not to the ruler of the world, the devil, in whose hands the wealth of this world is often a dangerous trap for the destruction of a person. You cannot serve God and mammon: why? Because our soul, like a spirit, is simple, alien to any complexity or duality, just as our Lord God is simple - and cannot double without perverting its nature: duality is the greatest falsehood of life: the one who doubles destroys himself. Nowhere is anyone believed in a person whose soul is double, as soon as they learn that he is double, and not one and complete; on the contrary, the holy simplicity and directness in a person is respected by all honest and well-meaning people. Therefore, I say to you, continues the Lord: do not worry about your life, what you will eat and what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing? (Matthew 6:25). Man, in the blindness of his mind, is so carried away by the worries and cares of this life that he places his immortal soul and its spiritual needs below the corruptible and decaying body and its needs: he values ​​food more than his soul, and he places the clothing that covers the body, created by the Creator with such wisdom, above the body. If the Lord gave us a body and put into its nature certain needs, then, of course, He will not deprive us of what we need for the body, and will give us everything in abundance, if we ourselves do not pervert God’s order and first of all take care of fulfilling our high destiny, and not about the pleasures of the flesh and satisfying our vanity. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your Father in heaven feeds them. Aren't you much better than them? (Matthew 6:26). The Lord points us to His Providence for these carefree animals, of course, not so that we do not care at all about the lower ones, but in order to show us His vigorous and special, extraordinary Providence for man: if God gave man incomparably more - he gave us all of Himself, even His Divine Body and Blood for food and drink, then how can He not give less, insignificant - food and drink of the body! And which of you, by caring, can add even one cubit to his height? (Matthew 6:27). As ridiculous as it would be for any of us to care about increasing our physical height, even if by one cubit, so no less ridiculous and pitiful are your incessant worries about only one body, for which the Lord created and provides everything needed in abundance. And why do you care about clothes? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like any of them; But if God clothes the grass of the field, which exists today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, God clothes it so much more than you, O you of little faith! (Matthew 6:28–30). Here the Lord points to beautiful but perishable flowers of the field as an example for us so that we should not worry too much about perishable clothing, about the perishable adornment of our perishable body, but rather care about the imperishable adornment of our incorruptible souls through faith and good deeds, meekness, righteousness, and love; and so that we remember that incorruptible, incomparable, eternal beauty and glory in heaven are prepared for us - such beauty and glory, before which all earthly beauty and glory are insignificant: for the Lord will clothe us with His own glory, and the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). At the conclusion of the Gospel, the Lord says: therefore, do not worry and say: what shall we eat? or what to drink? or what to wear? because the pagans are looking for all this, and because your Heavenly Father knows that you need all this (Matthew 6:31-32). Pagans, and not Christians, tend to care only about earthly needs and pleasures. Christians are called to eternal, incorruptible life; and the pagans are darkened by meaning, what is not revealed to them is what is to us, they do not know the loving Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit; They do not know the sweetest and most faithful promises of God that are given to us, and therefore they act in a darkened mind. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, says the Lord, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33). This is what we must first of all seek, strive with all our might: for the Lord to reign in our hearts with His eternal righteousness, to rule our thoughts, desires, intentions, actions, and all our lives. The voice of our Divine Mentor fell silent; I also stop my weak words. Amen. 14. Homily for the 3rd week after Pentecost I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing? (Matthew 6:25). In this Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ offers us all very useful and necessary instructions and fatherly consolation, instilling in us that heavenly Providence constantly and especially cares for all of us. In order to fully and clearly understand today’s Sunday Gospel, I will convey it to you in Russian from beginning to end. Here it is: “The Lord said: the lamp of the body is the eye. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye is bad, then your whole body will be dark. So, if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness? No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate one and love the other; or he will be zealous for one and neglectful of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your Father in heaven feeds them. Aren't you much better than them? And which of you, by caring, can add even one cubit to his height? And why do you care about clothes? Look at the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you that Solomon in all his glory did not dress like any of them; But if God clothes the grass of the field, which exists today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, God clothes it so much more than you, O you of little faith! So do not worry and say, “What shall we eat?” or what to drink? or what to wear? because the pagans seek all this, and because your Heavenly Father knows that you need all this. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:22-33). The end of the gospel. And here is its interpretation: the Lord speaks at the beginning about the simplicity of the being of our soul, created in the image and likeness of God: if your eye is simple, says the Lord, your whole body will be bright (Matthew 6:22), and about the impossibility of working together with God and mammon, good and evil. For just as God is a simple, indivisible being in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so the human soul is also a simple being, although in three powers: mind, word and spirit, or: mind, heart and will; - for these three powers are one soul; and these three forces must be inseparable in people, that is, for example: we must love God with all our mind or thought, with all our heart, with all our willpower, with all our strength, and not with just our mind or thought. Our mind or heart is the same as the eye for the body, the Lord further says, if the eye is clean and clear, then the whole body is light; we walk without stumbling; if a person’s heart is simple, pure, then all his thoughts, desires, words, and actions are also simple, pure, well-intentioned, holy, sealed with the spirit of love, meekness, righteousness and truth. If the eye is thin, unclean, dark, then the whole body is dark. If a person’s heart is unclean, crafty, evil, then all his thoughts, desires, words and his whole life, all his actions are crafty, unclean, and often malicious. Because if your mind, your heart, your conscience - these are your lights that the Lord gave you so that they would be light for you, in the light of the Gospel, if they already become darkness for you, then what kind of darkness will there be - what will be your thoughts, desires, enterprises, all your deeds? It will be a terrible darkness, a harbinger of hellish darkness, pitch darkness. And, indeed, people with a corrupted mind and heart, with a burned conscience, with a corrupted will are ready for anything bad. So, Christian, take care of your lamp - your soul and heart, so that your lamp always burns brightly; see constantly that it is not darkened by wickedness or envy, pride and carnality, anger and rage, pride and vanity, laziness and negligence, or despondency and cowardice, overeating and drunkenness, and other works of darkness. Darkness, hellish darkness is constantly increasing to darken the lamps of our souls; you need constant attention to yourself, vigilance over yourself; we need love for the truth of God, for the commandments of God, in the fulfillment of which our eternal life consists - our peace, our honor and glory, even here on earth, and the fulfillment of which reveals our love for God. No one can, the Lord further says, serve two masters (Matthew 6:24), that is, God and the devil - his sinful, multi-passionate flesh, the adulterous and sinful world. If you love your sinful flesh and fulfill its whims and passions, then you will hate God, who demands from us truth and holiness, life in the spirit, mortification of the flesh with passions and lusts. The bad master is our flesh; for good does not live in it, says the apostle, but evil dwells (Rom. 7:18-21), we must hate it and its lusts, for the sake of pleasing God, who seeks our holiness and gives us resurrection and eternal life: do not worry about pleasing your flesh in lust, Christian, so that you may please the Lord, for those who are in the flesh cannot please God ( Rom.8:8), says the Apostle. Therefore I say to you, says the Lord, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food and the body than clothing? (Matthew 6:25). The Lord forbids us excessive concern for food, drink, clothing, addiction to them, but does not forbid ordinary prudent care for the preparation of food and clothing; does not prohibit prudent care for decency in clothing and home furnishings. But we, due to our sins, due to our addiction to earthly life and to our body, have perverted and are perverting the order of life established by God: God commands, first of all, to take care of the soul, to fulfill the commandments of God, to do God’s righteousness, to acquire meekness, kindness, mutual love, holiness, to have constant repentance and generally strive for the future life; but we, on the contrary, first of all take care of the body, food and drink, various exquisite and elegant attire, neglecting the soul, and even when we come to the church of God, even here, during the Divine service, we do not abandon our vain concerns about food and clothing; and here the vanity of life invades our hearts, cools them, does not allow us to sincerely and earnestly pray to God, to repent of our countless sins, or to thank the Lord with a warm soul for His countless blessings. Excessive worries about the flesh have such a harmful effect on our soul: they do not allow us to sincerely pray in church for our soul, for its salvation; they do not allow us to ascend to Him with all our hearts, to love Him with all our soul. Addiction to our sinful flesh has turned the entire life of a Christian, so to speak, upside down. Because of the addiction to the flesh, all our sins: pride, envy, ill will, stinginess, greed, hard-heartedness, man-pleasing, servility, intemperance, partiality, hypocrisy, greed, drunkenness, extravagance, gambling, shows, laziness and negligence about the salvation of the soul, laziness to prayer, to repentance, uncleanness, debauchery, everything a horde of sins due to addiction to the flesh - everything has been distorted by our multi-passionate flesh, the entire circle of life. So, Christians, whoever of you wants to be Christ’s must crucify his flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24). Let us not be overly concerned about the flesh, and think only about what to eat and drink and what to wear; This is sought only by pagans who have no concept of the Kingdom of God and do not seek it; and you and I were born in baptism for the Kingdom of God; we are children of God and heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:16–17); An incorruptible and unfading inheritance is prepared for us in heaven; we will seek it, and everything else will be added to us from the Lord: food, and drink, and clothing, and if necessary, glory and honor even on earth, for glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good (Rom. 2:10). Amen. 15. Homily for the 3rd week after Pentecost The eye is a lamp for the body: if your eye is simple, your whole body will be light; if your eye is evil, your whole body will be dark. If there is darkness in you, then how much darkness is there? (Matthew 6:22–23). Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ offers us moral, saving lessons in the Gospel read today, and for greater clarity and intelligibility he speaks in similes and parables. We are talking about a lamp given to every person as a guide in the field of earthly life, or about the mind and conscience and the human heart. This lamp of man, that is, reason and conscience, are likened to the bodily eye, to which was given the ability from God to see objects of the visible world and distinguish white from black, or different colors from one another, also things great or small, rough or smooth, good and bad, real or false, light or dark. A healthy, clean eye distinguishes things well; but the sick or damaged person sees them unclearly and vaguely, or incorrectly, or does not distinguish at all, does not see anything at all. This also happens in spiritual things, with the human soul. If the mind is truly enlightened by the light of the Gospel, if a person’s conscience is good, direct, truthful, he sees people and all things in their natural form and light, his attitude towards people is direct, sincere, conscientious, sincere, Christian, and if a person’s mind is unenlightened, or not in a Christian way, falsely enlightened, if his conscience is unclean and crafty, his heart is unclean, bad, then his view of people and things is also incorrect and false; and his thoughts, feelings and actions are crafty, unclean, unchristian. Whatever his conscience and heart are, simple or crafty, such are his thoughts, feelings, words and actions, such is his whole life. We see this all the time in ourselves and others, every day. So, if your eye is clean, then your whole body will be bright; if your eye is bad, then your whole body will be dark. So, if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness? (Matthew 6:22–23). However, the human heart is extremely fickle and is subject to all kinds of changes: both simple and evil, good and evil in one and the same person. Living faith, repentance and prayer sometimes completely change the human heart in a good direction, and from an indecent vessel they turn it into something useful and pleasing to God. The Lord speaks through the prophet Isaiah: take away wickedness from your souls... learn to do good (Is. 1:16-17), or promises to give people a new heart and a new spirit: a new heart and a new spirit will I give you (Ezek. 36:26). Why is it that in man, created in the image of God, the conscience and heart are evil, instead of being blameless and righteous? – A man’s mind must be diligent against evil from his youth (Gen. 8:21). Firstly, from our initial damage in our ancestors, for after their fall, the primordial people acquired an unclean conscience, and an unclean heart, and passed on this unfortunate inheritance to all their descendants; secondly, we ourselves, through voluntary and involuntary sins, multiply this natural corruption in ourselves, especially as a result of dealing with vicious people, or from a lack of decent upbringing, from reading bad books, from temptations and bad examples; For there is a need, says the Lord, to come with temptation: otherwise woe to the man to whom the temptation comes (Matthew 18:7). The evil heart is a common ailment, a common sin of the descendants of Adam, excluding the righteous, who, through constant teaching in Holy Scripture and the deeds of their entire lives, cleansed their soul and heart from an evil conscience and acquired a pure heart and an immaculate conscience. What happens from the deceit of the human heart is that our whole life goes somehow wrongly, inside out, contrary to the commandments of God, for example, the Gospel says: seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this (i.e. necessary earthly blessings) will be added to you (Matthew 6:33), and our earthly mind, the evil one, and the earthly heart, the evil one, tell us: seek first the pleasures of the flesh, collect riches by all means, look at the beauty of the earth, at the treasures of the earth, acquire wisdom or experience only earthly, worldly, and put the salvation of the soul, the Kingdom of Heaven, pleasing God in the last priority or completely leave it and leave it to the monks, or people of clergy. The Gospel says: everything on earth is perishable, will pass, end, disappear, like a dream, like a ghost, like steam or smoke, but the soul is immortal and eternal, like God is eternal; but the evil heart looks at things completely opposite, everything earthly seems to it as if permanent, contrary to the clear evidence of experience, and the soul seems to be a mortal being, spreading like air. That is why the whole life of people with such an evil conscience is vicious, gloomy, hopeless. They indulge in earthly pleasures with insatiability, indulge in greed for money with frenzy, enrich themselves by illegal means, oppression, robbery, bribery, theft of public money. The Gospel says: give, and it will be given to you (Luke 6:39), but a person with an evil heart, self-seeking, unbelieving, trusting in money and not in the living God, who gives us everything richly for enjoyment (1 Tim. 6:17), says: no: let it be given to me, but I will not give it to others, but I will take it all for myself, let wealth flow to me like a river, but only from this river will I I will draw, and do not approach it with another, and do not take a drop from it. This was the rich man's attitude toward Lazarus. The Word of God requires that we conform our will to the will of God, Thy will be done (Matthew 6:10; Luke 11:2), says the Lord, but the evil heart, on the contrary, does its own will, the will of the devil; You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father (John 8:44), the Lord rebukes the Jews. The Gospel says: love your enemies (Matthew 5:44), but the evil man says: this is impossible, I must take revenge on my enemies, repay evil for evil, dishonor for dishonor, insult for insult. The evil eye sees only the bad in a good person and does not want to see the qualities that are good, honorable and worthy of respect; so the scribes and Pharisees even thought to see in the God-man a liar who outraged the people: he flatters the people, they said, he forbids giving tribute to Caesar; in general, the evil eye suspects everything unkind, unclean, and evil in people; it evaluates a person not by his true dignity, but by his speeches, by his wealth and his position in the world, by external unimportant advantages; a man with a wicked eye slavishly bows before tinsel splendor and often humiliates, persecutes, and reviles humble virtue that is not brilliant in appearance, because it is not accomplished according to his appearance and thoughts. Who does not have the evil eye? – It is noticeable even in infants, and it seems to them that a piece in the hands of a peer is often larger and better than his piece; and envy, selfishness, deceit, anger and disobedience are noticed in them, although they are not aware of it. Let us all try, beloved brothers and sisters, to be simple-hearted, resembling divine simplicity, for our God, Trinity in persons, who created us in His image, is a simple Being, pure Goodness, Holiness; the purest Light, in which there is not a single darkness, for which sin is impossible, for which an unrighteous thought is vile. Amen. 16. Conversation on the 4th week after Pentecost The Gospel of Matthew read today tells how the Roman centurion asked Jesus Christ to heal him, the centurion’s servant, about the centurion’s great faith in the omnipotence of the Lord and His almighty power - to create whatever he wants, to heal all kinds of diseases with one word and command, to raise the dead, etc., etc.; further - that the Lord was surprised by the centurion’s simple, unsubtle faith and at the same time uttered very important, instructive words for all of us, and - finally, that the Lord rewarded the centurion’s faith with the healing of his servant through one word. Here is the Gospel in Russian: “At that time Jesus entered Capernaum (a seaside town), a centurion approached Him and asked Him: Lord! my servant lies at home in relaxation and suffers cruelly. Jesus says to him: I will come and heal him. The centurion, answering, said: Lord! I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will recover; for I am a subordinate man, but, having soldiers under my command, I say to one: go, and he goes; and to another: come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does. When Jesus heard this, he was surprised and said to those following Him, “Truly I say to you, even in Israel I have not found such faith.” I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; and the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said to the centurion, Go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you. And his servant was healed that very hour” (Matthew 8:5-13). Here is the end of the Gospel of this day. How kind, amiable and humbly simple the centurion is in his request to the Lord for his sick servant! The Lord answers his request that he will come personally to his house and heal his servant; and the centurion said to Him: I am not worthy for You to enter my house; but You just say the word, Your almighty word, and my servant will recover. My words and orders, he says, are carried out by my subordinates; and You are the beginningless, omnipotent God, who brought the whole world from non-existence into existence by Your command and who contains and governs everything with Your word: therefore, one creative, sovereign word of Yours is completely enough for my servant to be healed, for the illness to run away and health to return. The Lord was surprised, it is said, at such faith, and said the following moral teaching to the people following Him: Truly I say to you, even in Israel I did not find such faith (Matthew 8:10), that is, in the Jews, the chosen people, brought up in the true faith, who saw the miracles performed in them, the many and countless blessings of God. I tell you, the Lord continues, that many will come from the east and west, i.e. from different countries and peoples, and will lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (the forefathers of the Jews) in the Kingdom of Heaven, and the sons of the kingdom, that is, the Jews, will be expelled into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:11–12). We all know what the Jews did to Christ the Savior when He lived and spoke among people on earth; many of them did not believe in His Divinity, interpreted His words and His miracles at random, for example, that He was deceiving the people, that He was working miracles by the power of Beelzebub, etc., finally they slandered Him before the Roman authorities and condemned Him to a blasphemous death; and for this, the unrepentant among them were condemned to exile into utter darkness; instead of them, the Jews, the pagans were called to the faith of Christ, including us, Russians, and from these newly called peoples, many who pleased God inherited the Kingdom of Heaven. How many saints have shone forth in faith and life from the people of Greek, Roman, Persian, Russian and many other languages. Let us be grateful from the bottom of our hearts to the Lord that He called us into His faith and gave us countless blessings with it; Let us avoid Jewish unbelief and hardness of heart, Jewish treachery, in order to avoid their terrible fate. Because of the centurion’s faith, the Lord said to him: Go, and as you have believed, so be it for you. And his servant was healed that hour (Matthew 8:13). Such is the power of faith! That's how she was then, that's how she is now; for the simplicity of faith, as always, so now - the Lord works miracles both in the believers themselves, and according to their faith - he works miracles in other people. And in fact, beloved brothers and sisters, how often, every day, according to our faith alone, according to one repentant prayer of faith - the Lord revives us, deadened by sins, has mercy and saves. How often and incessantly, every day, he heals our souls, sick with passions! How often does our faith heal bodily illnesses! How He reveals to us countless benefits for one invocation with faith of His saving, wonderful name! It is impossible to count all the many miracles of the Lord’s mercy that the Lord performed in us for our faith in His goodness, wisdom, and omnipotence, when we called upon Him diligently! The Lord especially performs miracles of His mercy in us when we live by faith, in repentance and virtue, in simplicity, humility, abstinence, in mutual love, mutual sympathy and mutual help. For He Himself exhorts us: Be ye therefore merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). So, let us firmly hold to our faith in Christ, the Son of God, and try to live by faith in all goodness and in doing good deeds. Otherwise, the same thing will happen to us as to the Jews - and we, the new Israel, the sons of the Kingdom, will be expelled into utter darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; Our Orthodox faith will not save us if we are of little faith and unfaithful, proud and hard-hearted - intemperate, unclean, foul-mouthed, quarrelsome, disobedient, treacherous, deceitful, disrespectful, lazy, if we do not bear each other’s burdens and help each other in everyday needs. Faith without good works is dead (James 2:20) and will not save us; after all, demons believe in the Lord and tremble at Him, but everyone remains the same demons, and eternal torment and eternal fire are prepared for them. So, let us test ourselves, are we in faith, and do we live by faith, do we sincerely repent, do we correct ourselves, do we become illuminated, do we exercise ourselves in blessed works and deeds every day? – Today’s Gospel further teaches us how much intercession for others before God means if it is combined with faith and love. The believing centurion petitioned the Lord for the gift of health to his sick servant; and the servant, no doubt, gave glory to God for his healing and said a hearty “thank you” to his master. This is a lesson for us to diligently resort to the intercession of the holy saints of God for us, for the intense prayer of the righteous can do much (James 5:16), says the Apostle, and in general to the intercession of the Church for us. And we daily ask for the intercession of the Mother of God, the Holy Guardian Angel and all the saints, through whose prayers and intercession may the Lord God save us all. Amen. 17. Teaching for the 4th week after Pentecost Hearing Jesus (the centurion's answer), he was amazed, and said to those coming after Him: Amen, I say to you: I have not found much faith in Israel (Matthew 8:10). In this Gospel, brethren, the Lord praised the faith of one centurion, who asked the Lord to heal his servant who was very ill. It happened like this: the Savior entered the city of Capernaum: His disciples and a multitude of people followed Him. Here the centurion comes to Him with a bow and says to Him: “Lord! My servant lies at home in relaxation and suffers cruelly. Jesus says to him: I will come and heal him. The centurion, answering, said: Lord! I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will recover; for I am a subordinate man, but, having soldiers under my command, I say to one: go, and he goes; and to another: come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does. When Jesus heard this, he was surprised and said to those following Him, “Truly I say to you, even in Israel I have not found such faith.” And Jesus said to the centurion, Go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you. And his servant was healed that very hour” (Matthew 8:6–10, 13). - Why was the Lord surprised at the centurion’s faith and praised it so much that he said: I did not find such faith among the Jews, who, according to the scriptures, knew about the coming to earth in the flesh of the almighty Son of God? - Because, brethren, the centurion’s faith was the most reasonable (not blind) and the simplest, most sublime and firm. His words to the Lord are simple; spoken from the heart; What seems to be special about them? But no: in these simple words of the centurion one can see his firmest confidence in the Divine sovereignty and omnipotence of the Lord. And I, Lord, as if he were saying so to the Lord, am a person of authority; but my superiors are an insignificant resemblance to Your universal superiors; and even if I, an insignificant boss, order this or that subordinate to do this or that: and they do it; then will not Your word bring about everything that You please? You are the Creator and Lord of everything; all creation obeys Your word. So, say only a word, and my child will be healed. Do you see, brethren, how bright, simple and firm the centurion’s faith is in the Divine omnipotence of the Savior? The Lord Jesus Christ seeks such faith among us too. And whoever has such faith, hope to receive from Him everything that you do not ask. Do you need cleansing of sins? You will receive it. Healing from illness? - You will heal. Do you need help in your affairs? You will receive it. So, brethren, when you ask God for something, then have the strongest faith, without the slightest doubt, be absolutely sure that for God, as the beginningless King of glory, from Whom everything received being and by Whom everything exists, nothing is impossible, that everything obeys Him, from Seraphim to the last existence. He is the God of spirits and of all flesh, and if He pleases, the non-existent will become existing, the uncreated will create again. He calls things that are not, as if they are (Rom. 4:17). You know everything that an unlimited king does whatever he wants in his state; He will speak his royal word to his subjects: and the whole kingdom will respond with a readiness to obey him and do what the king wants; for example, the Tsar said his word so that the lower agricultural class in our fatherland would be free and millions of people would be free and bless the Tsar for his good power. If the word of the king, who is a man like all of us, does so much in his kingdom and everyone obeys his word, then what will not the word of God do in His endless Kingdom? If the king of irregularities in his kingdom corrects and what is corrected is protected by laws: then what kind of irregularities will not the Lord of all correct, especially when these irregularities in His creation come precisely from our incorrect, illegal life, and as punishment for our irregularities, for our iniquities? So, believe everything simply, firmly, without a doubt, that for God in His endless Kingdom nothing is impossible and everything obeys His word. Is it necessary to stop the sun, extinguish the stars, move mountains from place to place, turn fire into dew, turn water into wine or wine into blood, stones into people, make the sick healthy, bring the dead to life, justify the repentant sinner, make the humble and poor noble and rich; rich to poor - everything will be, has happened and is happening according to His word. So believe when you pray to God and you will receive everything and, like that centurion, the Lord will say to you: go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you (Matthew 8:13). Amen. 18. Homily for the 4th week after Pentecost Go, and as thou hast believed, thou shalt be healed: and the lad healed him in that hour (Matthew 8:13). Today, the Holy Church, in the Gospel read during the liturgy, sends us to learn godly faith and love for our neighbor - to the Roman centurion. In the city of Capernaum, a centurion, who was a pagan or idolater by name, but a theologian in his wisdom and deeds, had a servant who became seriously ill. Although, as can be seen from the centurion’s words, he had many soldiers and servants in his obedience, he himself goes to ask the almighty Doctor of men for his sick man to heal him. Notice what a kind master he was for his subordinates, simple, loving them like a father to his children; what firm faith he has with hope and humility. The servant fell ill: and he turns for help to the Lord in whom he believed, and says: “Lord! my servant lies at home in relaxation and suffers cruelly. Jesus says to him: I will come and heal him. The centurion, answering, said: Lord! I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will recover; for I am a subordinate man, but, having soldiers under my command, I say to one: go, and he goes; and to another: come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does it” (Matthew 8:6–9). Notice here also what a simple, strong faith the centurion has in the almighty power of the Lord: I, he says, am a subordinate man, but all my subordinates and my servants obey me and do what I want, and You are the beginningless Lord of creatures; You created everything: all creation is subject to You; Everything is possible for you: say just one word, and my servant will recover. Having heard the centurion’s request, “Jesus was surprised and said to those following Him: Truly I say to you, I have not found such faith in Israel” (Matthew 8:10); in Israel, that is, among Jews who were raised in the true faith from childhood; “I tell you,” the Lord continues, “that many will come from the east and west and lie down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven; and the sons of the kingdom - that is, the Jews (and some future Christians) - will be cast out into outer darkness: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said to the centurion, Go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you. And his servant was healed that very hour” (Matthew 8:11-13). This is the great reward for the centurion’s faith! The servant immediately recovered! This is how we will believe and this is how we will ask, whether for ourselves or for others. But let us take a good look at what exactly the centurion’s request was pleasing to the Lord: firstly, because it was from the centurion’s kind and simple heart; secondly, because he, the centurion, asked the Lord with firm, undoubted faith in His almighty word; thirdly, that he asked the Lord from a loving heart, for he loved his servant and his subordinates in general, like a father of children. Let us believe this way and ask this way, for ourselves and for others, I will repeat again: and - we will receive from the Lord what we ask, if only this request is good and useful for our souls and bodies, and not some kind of whim. Let us now test ourselves and see: what is our faith, is it the same as that of the Roman centurion? And is our simplicity of heart like this, is our love for our neighbors like that of the centurion for his servants? Alas! Nowadays, many Christians have no faith at all, and Christian love has become rare. - Not only that: many blaspheme the faith, the Church, and believers, why do they believe, why don’t they live the way they live - non-believers; Why don’t they go to destruction as they do? So, I repeat: learn, brothers, faith from the centurion, learn to ask the Lord for everything, as he asked Him for the recovery of his servant; learn to live in such simplicity, in such humility, in such meekness and love, in which he lived. The Lord is the same now as He was then; and is now as close to us as then; and now He is the same omnipotent Wonderworker, Doctor, Savior, Helper, as then. And now he is just as approachable to all who come to Him with faith and repentance as then; and now He is the same rich Giver of all the blessings of heaven and earth, as then and before and forever. Let us always pray to God for ourselves and for others for every gift in simplicity and kindness of heart, with firm faith and hope in heartfelt repentance, with humility and love: and we will never be ashamed of our trust. So we prayed to the Lord publicly in the church a week ago for the granting of rain to a parched, thirsty land, and He, quick to obey and abundantly merciful, sent abundant rain, which fell for several days and brought joy to the face of the earth, had mercy, and showed mercy to people and livestock. Let us thank Him heartily for the fulfillment of our requests, praying that His Goodness will not forsake us in everything that we pray to Him for in our needs. And how many of these needs we all have! There is no number for them: our soul has its own numerous needs, and our body has its own. But the needs of the soul are infinitely more important than the needs of the body, for the soul is immortal and the image of God, but the body is perishable; Therefore, we must first ask the Lord for the fulfillment of spiritual needs, for example, to increase faith in us, hope, Christian love, to grant us a pure heart, a contrite and humble spirit, true repentance, full of the fruits of good deeds, and then - for the gift of everything necessary for the body - health, good air, an abundance of earthly fruits, the cheapness of all everyday needs, success in earthly affairs and enterprises needed for the good of the common and one's private, and so on. If we ask this way, we will never be put to shame in our prayer and in our hope. May the Lord be the glory of all forever. Amen. 19. Teaching for the 4th week after Pentecost The centurion, answering the Lord, said: Lord! I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; but just say the word, and my servant will be healed (Matthew 8:8). In the Gospel read today, I was offered to you, my brothers, the sacred story of the miraculous healing by Jesus Christ of the servant of the Roman centurion in the city of Capernaum. The servant was healed by one word of the Savior through great faith and the humble request of the centurion, a pagan, who personally came to the Divine Physician. God! The centurion said to Him, “My servant lies at home in relaxation and suffers severely. Jesus says to him: I will come and heal him. The centurion, answering, said: Lord! I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will recover; for, he continued, I am a subordinate man, but, having soldiers under my command, I say to one: go, and he goes; and to another: come, and he comes; and to my servant: Do this, and he does. Hearing this, the Gospel further says, Jesus was surprised and said to those following Him: Truly I say to you, even in Israel, that is, among the Jews, I did not find such faith; and a little further, the Lord says to him, go, and as you have believed, so be it done to you. And his servant was healed that hour (Matthew 8:5-13). Happy is the servant that he had such a good, kind, believing master! The master who loved his servant like a father and in the simplicity of faith looked at Jesus Christ and His works is worthy of all praise! He, both now and at the Last Judgment, at the second coming of the Lord, will serve as an accuser of unbelief and wickedness to many, many of today's Christians who do not believe in the Lord and boldly reject His miracles and His second coming, and who say: where is the promise of His coming (2 Pet. 3:4) and the end of the age? (Matthew 24:3). Or, what is the same thing – supposedly there will be no second coming at all. But let’s leave these stupid and proud unbelievers, and we will talk better about faith in our edification and salvation, and how harmful unbelief is; how it pushes away from us the right hand of God that saves us. What exactly do we say now about faith? And the fact that faith in the Lord, in His word, living, undoubted faith, is the key to the inexhaustible treasury of all the gifts of God - a life-giving power bestowed from God by simple, wisely wise, humble souls, and attracting to them the wealth of God’s bounties. Let's prove this with examples. The example of the Roman centurion is before our eyes: his simple, firm faith in the omnipotence of Jesus Christ surprised the Lord Himself; and immediately attracted the mercy of God to the centurion and his sick servant: go, and as you have believed, so be it for you. And his servant was healed that hour (Matthew 8:13). Two blind men cry out to Jesus Christ for the healing of their eyes: Son of David, have mercy on us! The Lord commands to bring them to Himself and asks them: Do you believe that I can do this? And when they answered, “We believe,” He healed them, saying, “According to your faith, be it done to you,” and immediately their eyes were opened. (Matthew 9:27–30). One day they bring a paralytic to Jesus Christ, and the Lord, seeing the faith of the bearers, according to their faith, said to the paralytic: be of good cheer, child: your sins are forgiven you; get up, take your bed and go to your house; and the sick man got up, took up his bed and went home (Matthew 9:2, 6, 7). The Lord healed the bleeding woman, who had been ill with her illness for twelve years, by her faith through her touching His clothes, saying: Be of good cheer, daughter! your faith has saved you (Matthew 9:22). But one day there was an incident with the Savior’s disciples: one father had a demon-possessed son and brought him to them for healing, but they could not heal him. Why? Due to the unbelief of the father of this sick man and the disciples of Christ. O faithless and corrupt generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I tolerate you? - the Lord said to this father and those ahead. Bring him here to me. And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed that hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and asked Him: Why could we not drive him out? Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief; and he added: I say to you, if you have faith as big as a mustard seed and say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” then it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. This generation is driven out only by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:14-21). However, the apostles sometimes fell into the temptation of unbelief only before the descent of the Holy Spirit on them on the day of Pentecost; and after the descent of the Holy Spirit, they never fell into unbelief, but always had unshakable faith and with it they performed countless miracles: they healed all sorts of diseases, cast out demons with words, raised the dead. The holy saints of God of ancient and modern times performed many miracles by faith, as you yourself have heard and read. How many even today, through their faith, have received numerous healings, wondrous deliverance from troubles and misfortunes, from the torment of demons. How many were miraculously healed from communion of the Life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ. How many healings have been and are happening from the relics of the Holy Saints of God, or from the miraculous Holy icons, or simply from sincere, with faith in repentance, prayer to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother, or to the Holy Saints of God? One pious shepherd, an acquaintance of mine, told me sincerely that through the prayer of faith, in the simplicity of his heart, he asked the Lord and the Most Pure Mother of God for many miraculous benefits of God to ordinary people who asked for his prayerful help, and, as proof, he was ready to personally present to me all those who were honored with the merciful visit of God and could testify with a living voice to the truth of his words. I, he said about himself, am an ordinary mortal, a man of many sins, I do not differ from other people in any deeds: neither by fasting, nor by standing all night in prayer, I allow myself to eat and drink what is permitted - in myself and among people - but I have only faith in the Lord, I live in constant repentance, I thank the Lord for everything, whatever I receive from His bounties: and I do not remain in shame. Every day I receive salvation from the life-giving right hand of God, every day the Lord surrounds me with the joys of deliverance. If someone asks me to pray with him for him, I do not refuse, if only I notice in the person asking sincere faith and a sincere desire for salvation: both faith and hope do not put him to shame. You see, brethren, even in our time, when faith is poor, believers can ask the Lord for everything they need for salvation. Believe everything undoubtedly in the Lord, who abides with us and will abide all days until the end of the age, live piously, repent sincerely, correct your life, ask the Lord with undoubted faith for what is good and useful - and you will receive. Amen. 20. Homily for the 5th week after Pentecost Today’s reading from the Gospel tells of the expulsion of demons from two demoniacs who came out of the tomb caves of the country of Gergesin, so fierce that no one dared to pass along the path where they were. This is the Gospel in Russian. At that time, Jesus Christ arrived on the other side of the Sea of ​​Galilee in the country of Gergesin, and then He was met by two demoniacs who came out of the tombs, that is, from the caves, very fierce, so that no one dared to pass that way. And so they cried out: What have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? You came here ahead of time to torment us. Far from them, a large herd of pigs was grazing. And the demons asked Him: if you drive us out, then send us into the herd of pigs. And He said to them: Go. And they went out and went into the swine herd. And so, the entire herd of pigs rushed down a steep slope into the sea and died in the water. The shepherds ran and, having come to the city, told about everything, and about what had happened to the possessed. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they asked Him to depart from their borders. Then He, entering the boat, crossed back and arrived at His city (Matthew 8:28–34, 9:1), i.e. Capernaum. End of Gospel reading. So, the Gospel speaks about the possessed, about the expulsion of demons, about their introduction, with the permission of Jesus Christ, into the swine herd and the destruction of the herd in the sea, - about the request of the citizens of the city of Gadara, so that the Lord would move away from them, and about His return crossing to the other shore - and arrival in Capernaum. The story itself is clear. It tells the story of two unfortunate people possessed by evil spirits. This means, contrary to the stubborn disbelief and false belief of some overeducated and lost people, evil spirits exist in the world and do their destructive deeds, which mainly consist of the destruction of people and inflicting various vile dirty tricks on them. Jesus Christ himself, the Only Begotten Son of God, came into the world in order to destroy the works of the devil and defeat him with all his army. For this reason, the Son of God has appeared, so that he may destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), says the Apostle John the Theologian. Half-educated wise men will not assure us that there are supposedly no evil spirits; for to reject their existence means to reject the entire Holy Scripture, to reject Christianity, to consider as if unnecessary the faith of Christ and the coming to earth of Christ God and all His Divine economy; finally, it means rejecting obvious facts; for evil spirits have previously corrupted and destroyed people, and now they corrupt people in various ways and destroy the unwary, by the permission of God, or as before they were driven out of people by the Lord or by His grace, by holy people - so they are now driven out. So, there were demons and the possessed, and they still exist now. What kind of demoniacs are there today? There are two kinds of demoniacs: real demoniacs, like those mentioned in the Gospel, who are locked in insane asylums, demoniacs who are corrupted, who are tormented by demons especially when this kind of sick is brought to some shrine, or when the Cherubic song is sung in the church at the Great Entrance, and demoniacs - under the guise of being worried and darkened and maddened by various passions, anger and malice, envy, strong carnal passion, from drunkenness or from a passion for profit, for accumulating money and increasing it with interest, from pride, ambition and vanity, etc.; The so-called liberal people should be included in a special class of demoniacs: i.e. too freely, contrary to Christian and all common sense of those who think, the so-called nihilists, who reject both the Christian faith, and Christ and the Church, prayer and sacraments, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the dead, judgment and reward according to each person’s deeds; Among them there are such, so evil demons in human form that they set out to subvert the state structure, overthrow the thrones of kings, sacrilegiously encroach on the lives of the most anointed of God, whose life and safety should be inviolable; set fire to houses and all kinds of buildings and destroy people's property and turn the earth into hell, a place of tears and lamentation. These are the kind of demoniacs we have in our time, demoniacs consciously, of their own free will, of their own evil heart. Oh, may the Lord deliver us from these evil creatures, who are destined for eternal fire along with the devil. And we will beware of another kind of demonic possession - inflated pride, envy, anger, malice, hatred, irritability, carnal passion, drunkenness, gluttony, foul language, greed, hard-heartedness, oppression of neighbors, cursing, quarrels, strife, despondency, despair and other passions that remove us from God and plunge us into the power of the devil. In the Gospel we read, let us also pay attention to the audacity of demons and their recognition of the eternal torment prepared for them. When the demon-possessed met Jesus Christ, the demons that were in them cried out: What have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of God! You came here before the time to torment us (Matthew 8:29). Look, what devilish pride and insolence! what do you care about us? - They say; as if they are not subject to the power of God, which extends to the entire satanic kingdom! However, soon, feeling the unbearable torment of the presence of Jesus Christ and His invincible power, they lowered their tone and said: if you drive us out, then send us to the herd of pigs; a worthy request - the unclean are asked to enter into the unclean; Apparently, those who were possessed by demons were also subjected to demon possession for their unclean lives. The Lord commanded them: and they entered the swine herd, and drowned them all in water. What if they were allowed to do the same to people? They would have killed everyone in an instant. But they do not dare to do this to them, but torment them, by God’s permission, just enough to bring them to their senses. The Lord allowed the pigs to be destroyed in order to show the cruelty and ferocity of demons, and so that the inhabitants of Gergesin, idolaters, would know what awaits them if they do not repent and believe in Him, Jesus Christ - namely, that eternal torment awaits them along with the demons. It is remarkable that the demons themselves expect eternal torment and tremble, but other people do not believe in them and do not tremble at them, and are not afraid to sin. So the Gergesin residents did not believe in Him and asked to move away from them: and He crossed to the other side. Ah, brothers and sisters, woe would be for us, eternal woe, without Jesus Christ, without faith in Him, without His grace, without good deeds, without unfeigned repentance. A person who lives without faith in Jesus Christ, without repentance and good deeds, becomes a plaything of disastrous passions, one more tormenting than the other - a church full of demons, like the demon-possessed ones mentioned above, guilty of eternal torment, kindling for eternal fire. Let us live in repentance and virtue. Let us always be with Jesus Christ. Amen. 21. Homily for the 5th week after Pentecost Today during the liturgy, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, the Gospel of Matthew was read about the Lord casting out demons from two very ferocious demons. Word for word, this Gospel reads like this in the Russian dialect: at that time (at the time), when Jesus Christ arrived on the other side of Lake Gennesaret, in the country of Gergesin, He was met by two demoniacs who came out of the tombs, that is, from the caves where the dead were buried, very ferocious, so that no one dared to pass that way. And so they cried out: What have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? You came here ahead of time to torment us. Far from them, a large herd of pigs was grazing. And the demons asked Him: if you drive us out, then send us into the herd of pigs. And He said to them: Go. And they went out and went into the swine herd. And so, the entire herd of pigs rushed down a steep slope into the sea and died in the water. The shepherds ran and, having come to the city, told about everything, and about what had happened to the possessed. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they asked Him to depart from their borders. Then He, entering the boat, crossed back and arrived at His city (Matthew 8:28–34, 9:1), i.e. Capernaum. This concludes the Gospel for this Sunday. What does it teach us, brothers? – Firstly, the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the almighty Creator and Ruler of all creatures, visible and invisible, angels and men, every animate creature and the very demons, who in the beginning were created good, but then themselves fell into malice and wickedness, fell away from God and were cast out of heaven into the underworld; secondly, it teaches the truth that without God’s permission demons cannot cause evil to any creature, and if they are allowed by God to torment people, then they are allowed to punish and admonish people who sin, for their various untruths and sins and for their correction, as can be seen from the instructions to the demoniac from the Lord, after healing him, according to the legend of the Evangelist Luke; thirdly, it teaches the truth that there will be a resurrection of the dead and a Last Judgment from the Lord for all people living and dead and all evil spirits, and a worthy reward for all - evil spirits is eternal fire, in accordance with their spiritual, incorporeal nature, like all unrepentant sinners, and for righteous people and those who truly repented - eternal life. The demons say to the Lord through the demon-possessed: what have you to do with us, Jesus, Son of God? You came here before the time to torment us (Matthew 8:29). You see, the demons also believe in Him as the Son of God and as their future terrible and righteous Judge, who has prepared eternal torment for them; - but today's nihilists surpass demons in their madness, because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, nor in the Church, nor in the immortality of the human soul, they do not believe in either the resurrection or the future judgment, - they do not recognize the existence of angels and evil spirits; That is why they are such desperate people, capable of all kinds of evil - murder, arson, kidnapping - do not recognize God-appointed earthly authorities and do only the devil and their own destructive will. Fourthly, the Gospel teaches that the power of every breath, every life is in God's hands; and to whom the Lord wants, He gives life, and from whom He wants to take, He takes away. Thus, possessed people could have died from demonic malice in one minute, but the Lord did not allow demons to destroy them, but only to torture them for their admonition and correction. He allowed pigs to be destroyed, perhaps as a punishment for the unbelieving inhabitants of the Gadarene country, just as now, for example, the Lord allows the death of livestock to punish and admonish people so that they would repent. Fifthly, the Gospel admonishes us to avoid in every possible way the all-destructive passions - pride, envy, hatred, intemperance, drunkenness, foul language, gluttony, fornication, covetousness, hard-heartedness and stinginess, and the whole horde of passions; because every human passion, every vice is demonic possession; Every hater, proud person, envious person, drunkard, glutton, fornicator, covetous person, miser is demon-possessed, a playground of demons, and if he does not repent and correct himself, he will inherit the eternal torment prepared for demons; Depart from Me, the curse, the Lord will say to sinners, into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). But not only, brethren, must we flee from sin, but also strive diligently to acquire every virtue: for the Lord created us for good works, which God first prepared, that we might walk in them (Eph. 2:10); Not only should we not sin, but we should also try to be holy, as befits Christians, children of God, called to holiness and incorruptibility. Be holy, as I am holy, the Lord your God (Lev.19:2), says the Lord; or: be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48), says Jesus Christ. Let us remember, brothers, the lesson offered by the current Gospel and apply it to life; for this is why the Gospel is read, so that we may learn and be corrected while we have time to learn and be corrected. Amen. Pronounced in Moscow, in the home church of Prince V. A. Dolgoruky.