Беседа VI

“And God said: Let there be lights in the expanse of the heaven to give light to the earth, and to separate between day and night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years” (Gen. 1:14). 1. I want to turn to ordinary teaching, but I stop and hesitate; a cloud of despondency came over my mind, angered and upset it; or better yet, a cloud of not only despondency, but also anger, and I don’t know what to do - such confusion took possession of my soul. In fact, when I think that as soon as the devil blew a little breath, you, forgetting our continuous teaching and daily exhortation, all ran to the satanic disgrace when the horse racing happened, then can I zealously again offer you teaching when everything that was before has so quickly disappeared? What especially increases my sorrow and intensifies my anger is that you, along with our exhortation, threw out of your soul reverence for the Holy Pentecostal Day and thus yourself surrendered into the snare of the devil. How can anyone, even if he has a stony soul, easily tolerate such negligence of yours? I am ashamed, believe me, and blush when I see that we are working in vain and throwing seed on the stones. But whether you listen to my words or don’t listen, the appointed reward will be for me, because I fulfilled all my duty, gave the silver, made the suggestion. I am only afraid and worried that through this very thing I will not become the culprit of your great condemnation. “My servant,” it is said, “who knows the will of his master... and does not do it, he will be beaten many times” (Luke 12:47). None of you can plead ignorance when we daily instill in you the same thing, and show you the devil’s snares and the great ease of virtue, if only we want to be vigilant. Or don’t you know that those who are so careless about their salvation, and sometimes come here, and at other times give themselves over to the devil’s snare, are compared by Divine Scripture to dogs? A person, it says, who turns away from his sin and returns to it again, is like a dog returning “to his vomit” (Prov. 26:11). This is what those who fled to that wicked spectacle became like. Have you not heard what Christ said: “Everyone hear these words of mine, and without doing them, he will be like the deformed man who built his church on the sand... and the rivers came, and the wind blew, and polluted that church, and fell, and its great destruction came” (Matthew 7:26-27)? And those who fled to the horse lists became worse than this man. His house fell, at least after strong pressure (from rivers and winds); and by the name of rivers and winds (Christ) gives us to understand not the abundance of water and the swiftness of the winds, but the strong effect of temptations, and the destruction of the church we should attribute not to the sensual house, but to the soul, falling from the pressure of misfortunes and unable to resist them. And the wind did not rush towards you, and the rivers did not collapse, but only a light devilish wind blew - and you were all carried away. What could be worse than this recklessness? What, tell me, is the benefit of fasting? What is the fruit of coming here? Who will not weep for you and take pity on us? About you because you suddenly scattered everything that you had just collected and opened the doors of your heart to the evil demon, so that he entered and very easily took away all your spiritual wealth. And we deserve pity because we preach to dead ears and suffer such damage, sowing every day and not being able to reap any fruit. Do we try to speak just to please your ears or to earn praise from you? If you do not intend to benefit from our words, then it is better for us to shut up: I do not want to subject you to more condemnation. A merchant who has collected a large cargo of goods and filled his ship with great wealth is a pitiful sight when a sudden storm arises and a strong pressure of wind drowns his ship and his people: he suddenly appears naked, after great and incalculable wealth he finds himself in extreme poverty. The devil has now done exactly the same thing to you: having found your spiritual ship filled with great wealth and seeing the innumerable treasure that you managed to collect from fasting and continuous teachings, he brought on this fruitless and disastrous disgrace like some kind of storm, and through it he deprived you of all your wealth. 2. I know that I have used strong reproof; but forgive me, I ask: such is the already distressed soul. I am not telling you this out of enmity, but out of concern, from a soul that loves you. Therefore, having softened my severity somewhat, since I stopped the very expansion of the wound, I want to turn your love to good hopes, so that you do not lose heart and fall into despair. This is not the case here as in sensual matters. There, a rich man who has fallen to extreme poverty cannot suddenly become rich again; and here, by the grace of God, if we only want to admit the guilt of our deeds and not extend our carelessness further, we can soon become rich as before. Such is our Master, so generous and merciful is He; Here He cries out through the prophet: “I do not desire the death of the sinner... but to be converted... and I live so that he may live” (Ezek. 18:23). I know that you, being conscientious, are aware of your sin; and the awareness of the gravity of sins greatly contributes to the conversion to virtue. Just don’t tell me these devilishly seductive words again: what kind of sin is it to look at the horse lists? If you want to carefully look at everything that happens there, you will find everything filled with satanic power. There you can see not only horses running, but also hear screams, blasphemy and an abyss of indecent words; there both lewd women and effeminate young men appear before everyone. Or does this seem to you not enough to make your soul a captive? If chance encounters often serve as a stumbling block for the inattentive, overthrowing him and dragging him into the very abyss of destruction, then what should happen to those who come there precisely for this reason, feed their eyes with these criminal spectacles and come out of there as complete fornicators? Our humane Lord knew how easily our nature succumbs to temptation and how cunning and cunning the devil’s malice is, and therefore, in order to protect us from many dangers and make us elusive to his snares, he decreed the following law: “Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28), calling an immodest look adultery. So don’t anyone tell me: “What’s the harm in staying there?” Just looking at horse races can cause a lot of harm to the soul. When we waste time on useless things, which not only do not bring anything good to our soul, but also defile it, when we quarrel and utter a thousand indecent words, then how can we apologize for this, how can we justify ourselves? Here, if we spread the teaching a little, many are indignant, bored and complain of fatigue and exhaustion, although this wonderful shelter (of the church) sufficiently protects them from the cold, and from the rain, and from the cruel winds. And there, even if the rain is pouring heavily, and the fierce winds are blowing, and the sun is scorching, yet they spend not one or two hours, but most of the day; the old man is not ashamed of his gray hairs, and the young man is not ashamed to do something that inflames the old people: no, the seduction is such that they even accept this poison of souls with pleasure and do not think about the short duration of the disastrous pleasure, or the duration of the grief, or the reproaches of conscience. And now, I look at the faces of some and guess what the state of their souls is, and what repentance they come to. But so that you do not fall into the same sin again and, after such an admonition from us, do not go again to those satanic gatherings, it is necessary to use a threat 32. It is not always good to give mild medications; when the wound is persistent, then strong medicines that cause pain must be applied so that recovery follows more quickly. 3. So, let all the guilty know that if, even after this admonition of ours, they behave in the same careless manner, we will not tolerate it any longer, but, on the basis of church laws, we will teach them with great severity not to commit such offenses and not to listen to the Word of God with such carelessness. This doesn't apply to everyone, of course. Each of the listeners take the appropriate medicine: those guilty of this sin, in order to stop their carelessness and not extend it further, but with diligence after this turn and correct themselves in previous sins; and let the innocent be careful not to get carried away and ever become guilty. But in order to actually convince your love that we, out of inspiration of love and great care and strong fear regarding your salvation, were forced to say this, here again, feeding ourselves with good hope, we will offer you the usual teaching and thereby show you our fatherly disposition that we have towards you. I just ask you to listen to my words carefully so that you can receive more fruits and thus return home. You should tell your love about what was read today. “And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to give light” on the earth 33 “and to separate between day and night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years” (Gen. 1:14). “And let them be enlightened in the firmament of heaven, as they shine on the earth. And so it came to pass” (Gen. 1:15). Yesterday blessed Moses showed us how the Creator of the universe adorned the formlessness of the earth with herbs, various flowers and the growth of seeds; today he turned his word to the decoration of the sky. Just as the earth is decorated with what arose from it, so (God) made this visible sky lighter and more brilliant, dotting it with various stars and creating two great luminaries, i.e. sun and moon. “And God made,” it is said, “two great lights: the great light at the beginning of the day, and the lesser light at the beginning of the night, and the stars” (Gen. 1:16). Do you see the wisdom of the Creator? He just said - and this wonderful element appeared, i.e. Sun. He (Moses) calls him the great luminary, and says that it was created to rule the day. It makes the day clearer, casting its rays like some kind of lightning, daily showing its beauty in all its brilliance, appearing with the morning and awakening all people to carry out their deeds. Depicting his beauty, the blessed prophet says: “And he, like a bridegroom, who departs from his palace, will rejoice like a giant mother-in-law in his path. Its departure is from the end of the heavens, and its meeting to the ends of the heavens” (Ps. 19:6-7). Do you see how (David) depicted both the beauty and the speed of movement (of the sun)? With the words: “From the end of the heavens his departure, and his meeting to the ends of the heavens” (David) showed us how (the sun) instantly flows around the entire universe and pours its rays from one end to the other, thereby delivering great benefits. It not only warms, but also dries; and not only dries, but burns, giving us many and varied benefits; This is a very amazing element, and hardly anyone is able to express everything at its true worth. I say this and extol this element not so that you, beloved, will dwell on it, but so that you will ascend higher from it and transfer your surprise to the Creator of this element. The greater the element appears, the more wondrous the Creator is. 4. But the disciples of the Hellenes, being surprised and amazed at this element, could not see further and glorify the Creator, but stopped at the element and deified it. That is why blessed Paul says: “And he honored and served the creature more than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25). What could be crazier than these people who could not know the Creator from a creature, but fell into such a delusion that the creature and the creature were elevated to the level of the Creator? Therefore, the Divine Scripture, foreseeing the ease of careless people to fall into error, teaches us that this element was created three days later, after all the seeds had grown on the earth and the earth had received its decoration: after this, let no one dare to say that without the help of the sun the plants of the earth cannot ripen. Therefore (Moses) shows you that everything was accomplished before the creation of the sun; so that you attribute the ripening of fruits not to him, but to the Creator of the universe, who at the beginning said: “Let the earth produce the old herbs.” If they say that the action of the sun also contributes to the ripeness of fruits, then I will not contradict this. Just as when I say about the farmer that he contributes to fruitfulness, I do not attribute everything to the farmer, but (I say that) no matter how much the farmer works, his labors will not be successful if the One who first aroused it to this does not deign to move the earth to fruitfulness - in the same way I say that let the action of the sun and the moon and the goodness of the air be added to the labors of the farmer - and then there will be no success if the right hand of the Most High does not help; when this sovereign hand deigns, then the action of the elements will bring very great benefit. Keeping this firmly in mind, stop the mouths of those who are stuck in error and do not allow the Creator to pay respect to creatures. Therefore, Divine Scripture depicts to us not only the beauty, greatness and beneficence of the sun with the words: “like a bridegroom”, and: “like a giant mother-in-law will rejoice”, but also weakness and insignificance. Listen to what it says in another place: “What is brighter than the sun? And that disappears” (Sir.17:30). Let not the appearance (of the sun) deceive you: if the Creator wants to command, it will disappear, as if it never existed. If the disciples of the Hellenes had known this, they would not have fallen into such error, but would have seen clearly that from the consideration of creatures one must ascend to the Creator. That is why I created the sun on the fourth day, so that you would not think that it makes the day. What we said about the seeds, we will say the same about the day, namely, that three days passed before the creation of the sun. But the Lord wanted to make the light of day even clearer through this element. The same can be said about the smaller luminary, i.e. to the moon: three nights passed before its creation; however, once created, it also brings its benefits, dispelling the darkness of the night and, almost like the sun, contributing to everything else. This one is appointed “at the beginning of the day”, and this one is “at the beginning of the night”. What does it mean: “at the beginning of the day” and “at the beginning of the night?” The fact that the sun received power over the day, and the moon over the night, so that with its rays it would make the day brighter, and this one would disperse the darkness and with its light would give people the convenience of correcting their affairs, since the traveler then boldly sets out on a journey, and the swimmer lowers the ship and sails on the sea, and each artisan very freely goes about his business. Having shown us the benefits of these luminaries, Moses also speaks about the stars. “And God set me in the firmament of the heaven, to be a light on the earth, and to rule day and night, and to separate between the light and the darkness” (Gen. 1:17-18). 5. Think about the benefits (Moses) showed us in the stars. “Put it,” he says, “in the firmament of heaven.” What does "put down" mean? Isn’t that the same as “hoisted”? No; we see that they often run through a great space in an instant and never stand in one place, but complete their course, which is assigned to them by the Lord. What does “put down” mean? This means: He commanded them to be in heaven. Scripture, as we will see later, says in another place that God “placed 34 Adam” in Paradise (Gen. 2:8), not in the sense that he placed him in Paradise, but in the sense that he commanded him to be in Paradise. In the same way, we can say about the stars that God commanded them to be in the firmament of heaven and shed their light on the earth. Think, beloved, isn’t it more pleasant than any meadows and gardens to look at the starry sky at night - how it is decorated with various stars, as if with what flowers, and how these stars shed a lot of light on the earth? They are appointed for this purpose, to shine on the earth and rule day and night, which is said in general about the great luminaries. Having informed us about the creation of two luminaries and stars, Moses says about everyone in general: “and to rule the day and the night,” “and to separate between the light and the darkness.” Just as during the day the stars running across the sky and making their way are not visible (because their action hides, due to their brightness, the light of the sun), so the sun is never visible at night, because the moon sufficiently illuminates the darkness of the night with its light. Each of the elements, remaining within its own limits, never goes beyond its own line, but, observing the command of the Lord, fulfills its task. Who can count all the other benefits that these luminaries and stars bring to the human race? “Let them be,” it is said, “in signs, and in times, and in days, and in years.” What does it mean “in signs, and in times, and in days, and in years”:? Divine Scripture wants to show us that their course gives us knowledge of times and turns 35, the counting of days, the continuation of the year, and we can recognize everything by them. Observing their course, looking at the sky and carefully noting everything, the helmsman sets sail and often in the darkest night is able, by observing the stars, to guide the ship and with his art to save those sailing. From them the farmer also learns when to sow seeds, when to plow the land with a plow, when to sharpen the sickle and reap the field. And in general, knowledge of times, counting days and the annual circle provide us with many benefits for improving our lives. And one could point out a lot that these creatures produce for human well-being, but hardly anyone is able to list everything with accuracy. Therefore, concluding from a little, one must see how great their benefit is, and, marveling at the creatures, worship their Creator, glorify Him and be amazed at the ineffable love that He showed to the human race, creating all this for nothing other than for man, whom He intended, after a little, to place over all His creatures, as some kind of king and ruler. “And God saw,” it is said, “as good.” Do you see how the Divine Scripture, after each day, shows that creatures are pleasing to God, in order to take away all justification from those who dare to reproach His creatures. And that exactly for this purpose the Divine Scripture notes this about every creature is evident from its frequent repetition. It was enough, of course, to say once after the creation of everything that “everything God created was great” (Gen. 1:31); but Scripture, knowing the great weakness of our mind, does this in parts, in order to inspire us that everything was created by the highest wisdom and ineffable love. “And it was evening,” he says, “and it was morning, the fourth day” (Gen. 1:19). When (God) finished decorating the sky, dotting it with stars and creating two great luminaries, he put an end to the day and said: “There was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.” See how he says this about every day, so that by frequent repetition of the teaching, the Divine dogmas can be strengthened in our minds. 6. Having inscribed all this on the breadth of our hearts 36 and having driven out of it all carelessness, let us carefully maintain sound dogmas and teach those enslaved by Hellenic error with all meekness, so that we do not violate order and, leaving the Creator, do not worship the creatures created for our good and salvation. Let the Greeks repeat (their false teaching) even to the point of exhaustion, I cry loudly that all this was created for the human race, because, being all-pleased, the Creator had no need for any of these creatures, but in order to show His love for us, He created all this, showing us how He values ​​​​the human race, and (teaching that) so that we, guided by this, would render the worship due to Him. And what kind of madness would it be, being carried away by the beauty of creatures, to dwell on them and not raise your mental gaze to the Creator, not to listen to blessed Paul, who says: “What was invisible to Him from the creation of the world was understood by the created, but is visible” (Rom. 1:20)? What are you saying, man? Looking at the sky, are you surprised by its beauty, the variety of stars, and its excessive brilliance? Do not stop there, but reach out with your mind to their Creator. You are also amazed by the light of the sun: seeing its great benefits, you are amazed, and when you see its rays illuminating your eyes, you are amazed at the beauty of this element? But don’t stop there either, but think that if the creature is so wonderful and amazing, and exceeds every human concept, then what is He like who created it with one word and command? Think the same way about the earth: when you see the earth decorated with flowers, covered everywhere with plants, like multi-colored clothes, do not attribute these works of the earth to its power, nor to the assistance of the sun or moon, but reverently think that, even before their creation, God only said: “Let the earth bring forth the former herbs” - and immediately the entire face of the earth was decorated. If we reflect on this every day, then we ourselves will be more prudent, and we will give the Lord due, or - better said - praise commensurate with our strength. And let us glorify Him not only with this, but also with a good life, if we do not fall into the same sins, on the contrary, if, having completely rejected the devil’s deceptions, we attract heavenly favor upon ourselves by subsequent attentiveness, great zeal and constant confession. For Him, due to His great love for mankind, it is enough for us to renounce only sin. If we decide to do this, then we will easily strive for good deeds. So, in future, I ask you, do not show yourself on the horse lists; no one should even spend the day in indecent gatherings; do not indulge in the game of dice and the screaming that occurs because of it, and other disastrous pleasures. What, tell me, is the benefit of fasting when you abstain from food all day, and meanwhile indulge in playing dice and spend the whole day in idle talk, and often even in oaths and blasphemy? No, please, let us not be so careless about our salvation; on the contrary, let us always have a conversation about spiritual things, and let each one, having taken the Divine book in his hands and called his neighbors, feed both his own soul and those of his interlocutors with the Word of God, so that in this way we can avoid the snares of the evil one, and receive great benefits from fasting, and enjoy the love of God, according to the grace and love of His Only Begotten Son, with Whom to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honor, now and ever, and forever and ever. Amen. Text of Zlat.: εἰς φαῦσιν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τοῦ διαχωρίζειν ... according to Lucian. and other sp., and contrary to Alexander. sp., where φαῦσιν τῆς γῆς – “to illuminate the earth” (Elizab. Bibl.) Agreement with Lucian. sp. at Zlat. expressed here in the fact that he does not read further words: καὶ ἄρχειν τῆς ἡμέρας καὶ τἡς νυκτὸς - “to rule day and night,” as in Alex. and other lists. To the Masor. Neither the first nor the last words are read in the text. In the Slavic Bible: “introduced”, in Greek. ἔθετο, which would literally be "laid" and constitutes a closer rendering of Heb. וַיָּשֶׂם – “set”, which expression is fully consistent with the content of this Bible. narratives. τῆς τῶν τροπῶν ἀναλλαγῆς ; Of course, there are winter and summer rotations determined by the sun. (τῳ῀ πλάτει τῆς καρδίας) You might be interested in: