Собеседование 4-е

To the prophetic saying that says: “Man walks like a ghost, every man who lives” (Ps. 39:6-7), and about alms 1. The underwater depths delight the fisherman when, having cast his nets and taking an abundant catch of marine life, he with difficulty retrieves the net; and the hunter (is pleased) with the forest that feeds the animals, when, having searched the mountains and reached a wooded peak, he returns with rich and plentiful prey. If for those who are addicted to profit and hunting, labor (connected) with them is so pleasant, then how much more (can the fishermen (casting a net) in the depths of the church, where the acquisition is not something temporary or earthly, but the heavenly kingdom itself? So, beloved, let us play the psalm melody on David’s harp and, together with David, nailing human insignificance to the pillory, we will say: “man walks like a ghost, he only worries in vain.” “He hesitates” - and dies in the end; “troubled” - and laments before rebelling; ignites like fire and goes out like reeds; rises like a storm and settles like dust; ignites like a flame and dissipates like smoke; blooms like a flower and dries like hay; rises like a cloud and resolves into a drop; inflates like a bubble and goes out like a spark; it is restless, and as a spoil of its greed it acquires a stench; worries, and leaves without any fruit from his anxiety. He worries, but pleasure (goes) to others; his labors, and the treasure to others; his are worries, and joy is for others; his are sorrows, and pleasures are others; a curse for him, but a service for others; his is theft, and others are pleasures; for him there is sorrow, but for others there is prosperity; he has tears, and others have property; he is punished in hell, and others enjoy his inheritance, singing: “man walks like a ghost, he only worries in vain.” Man is a short-term loan of life, a debt of death that cannot be postponed, an animal, unbridled of his own will, self-instructing evil, original cunning, skillful in evil, inventive in injustice, ready for covetousness, insatiably greedy, treacherous by nature, inflated spirit, arrogant insolence, empty arrogance, puffed up arrogance, cooling courage, wayward decay, rebellious dust, arrogant dust, arrogant ashes, a spark easily extinguished, a fleeting flame, a wavering lamp, rotting wood, drying grass, withering greenery, nature soon impoverished. Formidable today, dying tomorrow; today in wealth, and tomorrow in a coffin; today in a crown, and tomorrow under a tombstone; today in purple, and tomorrow in mud; today in the treasury, and tomorrow on the bed; today (surrounded) by flatterers, and tomorrow by worms; today a being, tomorrow nothing. One moment extolled, and a little later lamented; unbearable in happiness, inconsolable in misfortune; ignorant of himself, and curious about what is above him; not knowing the present, and dreaming of the future; mortal by nature, and arrogantly considering himself eternal; a nest of every disease, a convenient refuge of every passion, a common and daily gathering of fevers, an open refuge of every sorrow. Oh, what a sad spectacle of our weakness, oh, what a celebration of human insignificance! How much I have said, and I have not found anything more consistent with the prophetic saying that says: “Man walks like a ghost, he is only troubled in vain.” Finally, look, beloved, are human affairs not like the sea, are our lives intertwined with its confusion, are we not more overwhelmed on land than on the sea, are we not attacking each other stronger than the winds, are we not being pushed against each other? money, like a storm, are we not rushing back and forth in the abyss of the sea? One has seized another's field, one has taken away the other's servants, one is suing a neighbor over water, another is at enmity with his partner over the air. Some disgrace each other over an inch of land, others oppress each other over a house; capital itself is being taken away. This one suffers from lack, and the one who does not have is oppressed by abundance; He who is invested with power arouses anger against himself; whoever rules is hated; whoever belongs to the nobility is armed against him. Wars are constant, envy is continuous, greed tyrannizes, selfishness prevails, lies are exalted, mutual trust is lost, truth has left the earth, friendship is only at meals. All have lost their strength; the earth is finally unable to bear evil; the air is polluted right down to the ether. Because of money, life is not lived; We are ready to sell even free elements for money; outposts are erected on the roads, lands are divided by lot, waters are at the disposal of the masters, air is farmed out; tithes, tax collectors and farmers captured the cities; the rich are worn out by worries; moneylenders burn with worry; robbers ruin lives; covetous people corrupt the courts; merchants benefit from disasters; informers sell lies. By deceiving each other, we destroyed the sanctity of the oath; We know God only to swear. 2. So, seeing the general predominance of evil, the prophet, mourning life, says: “Man walks like a ghost, in vain he only worries.” Only man, you say, is worried? Only the confusion of the mind, O prophet, do you condemn? (Yes, he says): neither among the animals, nor among the elements I have found anything devoted to vanity. Water worries, he says, and again calms down; the earth shakes, and again it is affirmed; the winds rage, and every beast rages, and, having had its fill, the fire ignites, and, having destroyed the tree that fell to it, it goes out. Man, in his anxiety about money, never finds peace. stops collecting until he has prepared the end for himself. Obsessed with the thirst for covetousness, he becomes yellower than gold itself, (and that's all) - because of the much-desired wealth, this unfaithful and fickle friend, treacherous love, the deceiver of many masters, the mocking lover of many, the winged prisoner, the hostile corpse raging in the world of the wind; because of wealth, the founder of all absurdity, the inventor of all evil, the collaborator of soul-destroying pleasure, the opponent of abstinence, the enemy of chastity and the secret thief of all virtue. But why am I blaming wealth, leaving money-grubbers aside? It itself suffers from them, bound by them and the contents in bonds. It seems to me that it could address them with the following words: Why do you, covetous people, bind me, O wealth? Why are you imposing thousands of bonds on me, as a fugitive? Why do you embrace me as a friend and bind me as a villain, taking me into your arms straight from the bowels of the earth? If you want to make me lighter than sleep itself, let me into the hands of the poor. But the one who is accused will say: “I am collecting wealth for the children so that they do not have to experience poverty.” Well, dreamy rich man: you don’t know the present, but you care about the future; you do not know what concerns you, and you care about children; You don’t know whether they will bury you in the ground, but you are consulting about your heirs? Madman, tell me what end awaits you, and then try to provide for your children; tell me about today, and then I will believe you about tomorrow. Why do you deceive yourself even after death? Why do you want to be both dead and ridiculed? Why do you interfere with what is God's nature to do? Why do you teach Divine Providence, how to use what is given to you? You don't care what happens after you. You cannot be dead and rule over the living and judge the dead, weighing the rights of each. So, why do you, rich man, labor in vain, collecting for yourself what belongs to the poor, but you yourself do not know for whom you are collecting it? Why do you withhold what belongs to the orphans, why are you indignant at their requests, as if you were losing something of your own? They seek theirs, not yours; entrusted to you from them, and not born with you. Give back what you took and receive the benefit, since you are tasked with giving, not taking. Be satisfied that in the person of the beggar God himself extends his hand to you. He who sends rain from heaven asks you for a copper plate; He who makes thunder and lightning says to you, “Have mercy on me”; He who covers the sky with clouds asks you for rags. Be content that the poor implore you as God. Give, have mercy, have mercy, so that you may receive mercy. But you don’t even want to lift your eyebrows, and the begged one remains adamant. Give them what belongs to them before you receive admonition; give them what belongs to them, and what you will leave a little later. Their father is the King: give them what belongs to them, and receive from their father their carefree life. Which one is it? “Just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). He who pays attention to the poor and beggar not only destroys the handwriting of his sins, but also enters into a condition that says: he who gives to the beggar gives as a loan to God. We lend alms to God in order to receive from him the reward of philanthropy. But, oh, the wisest word! “He who does good to the poor lends to the Lord” (Prov. 19:17). Why didn’t he say: he who has mercy on the poor gives to God, but: “he lends”? The Scripture knows our greed, took into account the fact that our gluttony in the matter of profit seeks enrichment, and therefore did not simply say: he who has mercy on the poor gives to God, so that you do not mean simple giving and reward, but says: “he who does good to the poor lends to the Lord,” so that, hearing the name of the loan, the lover of self-interest will move himself to mercy. If God receives a loan from us, then He becomes our debtor. So, do you want to have Him as your judge or as your debtor? After all, the debtor feels respect for the one who gave the loan, and the judge is not shy with the defendant. 3. It is necessary, brethren, to look from the other side, why God said that “the poor man gives me a loan.” Of course, He saw that our covetousness reaches the extreme, as I said already, and that there is no one who has money and wants to give without security (because the lender requires either a mortgage, or a pledge, or a guarantor, and against these three types of security he entrusts his money, either by receiving a guarantee, as I said now, or on the security of movables); So, since God knew that without this no one lends, and that no one is guided by love for mankind, but everyone seeks only profit; and meanwhile the beggar is deprived of all this, having neither a mortgage (since he has nothing), nor a pledge (since he himself is naked) and not being able to provide a guarantor (since he does not enjoy anyone’s trust, like a poor one) - when God saw that in this case both the poor man, due to lack of money, and the one who has money, due to his inhumanity, were in danger, then He stood between them, as a guarantor for the poor man and as a collateral for the lender. Do you not believe him, says (God), because of his poverty? Believe Me - because of My excess. He saw the poor man and was appeased; He saw a beggar and did not despise, but made Himself a hostage for the one who had nothing, and out of His great goodness stood up for the insufficient. “He who gives to the poor lends to the Lord.” Don’t be afraid, he says, you are lending to Me. - But what benefit do I get by lending to You? - I reward you a hundredfold and (give) eternal life. But in order for You to repay this debt to me over time, I demand conditions, I want to secure myself with an agreement. Show me the time of retribution, set a deadline for return. Listen carefully to when and how the one who received it in the person of the poor will repay the debt to you. When the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, there will be sheep on His right hand and goats on His left; then He will say to those on His right side: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). For what? “For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you accepted Me; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me” (Matthew 25:35–36). To this, those who are pleased in the present century, looking at their weakness and the dignity of the debtor, say: “Lord! when did we see you hungry and feed you? or to the thirsty and gave them something to drink? when did we see you as a stranger and accept you? or naked and clothed? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and came to You?” (Matthew 25:37–39), - You, in whom the eyes of all trust? When did we see You in such need and when did we do this to you? “Because you have done this,” he says, “to one of the least of these my brothers” (Matthew 25:40). Isn’t it true that “he who does good to the poor lends to the Lord.” But, having shown those on the right side the kingdom given to them for their love for mankind, the Lord threatens those on the left side with punishment for their inhumanity: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). Why? For what? “For I was hungry, and you did not give me anything to eat” (Matthew 25:42). He did not say: because you were depraved, committed adultery, stole, bore false witness, swore falsely; although this is unanimously recognized (bad), but to a lesser extent compared with inhumanity and unmercifulness. Why, Lord, don’t you remember anything else? I don’t judge, he says, it’s a sin, but inhumanity. I do not judge those who have sinned but have not repented. I condemn you for inhumanity, because, having such a great means of salvation, alms, you did not take advantage of this benefit. I destroy inhumanity as the root of all evil and all wickedness, I praise philanthropy as the root of all good things, and for the first I threaten with eternal fire, and for the second I give the kingdom of heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and in the Patrology of Min, classified as Spuria The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: