Беседа 17

Proof of the Truth of the Resurrection. - Where is the cause of sin? 1 Corinthians 6:12. Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible for me, but nothing should possess me. 1. Here (the apostle) refers to gluttons. Intending again to expose the one who has given himself over to adultery, which comes from satiety and immoderation, he strongly strikes this passion. Here he is not talking about forbidden foods - they are not permissible - but about those that seem indifferent. For example: you can, he says, eat and drink, but you shouldn’t – with excess. And here’s what’s wonderful and surprising: as he does in many other places, so here he shows the other side of the subject and explains that sometimes what is in our power is not only useless, but also reveals not power, but slavery. And firstly, he rejects this as unhelpful, saying: not useful, and secondly, as leading to the opposite: “nothing should possess me.” The meaning of his words is as follows: you, he says, have power; maintain your power and be careful not to become a slave to this desire. Whoever uses it properly has power over it; and whoever indulges in it immoderately has no power, but becomes a slave, and immoderation rules over him. Do you see how he proved that he who considers himself a ruler is himself under power? So, Paul often, as I said earlier, turns objections in the opposite direction - he did the same here. Look: each of the Corinthians says: I have the power to be satisfied; and he says: you do this, not as a ruler, but as one under authority. If you are incontinent, then it is not you who has power over the womb, but it has power over you. The same can be said about money and everything else. “Food for the belly” (1 Cor. 6:13). Here he calls the belly not the stomach, but gluttony, as in another place when he says: “their god is the belly” (Phil. 3:19), meaning not a member (of the body), but satiety. And that this is so, listen to the further words: “and the belly for food. The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord." The womb is also a body. But He makes two combinations: meat and gluttony, which He called the womb, Christ and the body. What does it mean: “food for the belly”? Food, he says, has a close connection with gluttony, and gluttony with food; therefore it cannot lead us to Christ, but attracts us to food. This is a cruel and wild passion; she enslaves and forces to serve herself. Why are you, man, addicted to food? This is how this service ends and no longer leads to anything; it, subduing, as if to some mistress, keeps us in this slavery and produces nothing else except this vanity alone. Moreover, by mutually connecting, they mutually destroy themselves, “the belly of the belly and the belly of the belly,” performing a useless rotation, just as a rotting body gives birth to worms, and the worms destroy this body, or like a wave, rising, descends and produces nothing more. He does not say this about food and the body, but condemns the passion of gluttony and immoderation in food, as further words show: “but God will destroy both,” does not mean the stomach, but immoderate desire, not food, but satiety. He does not condemn the first, but also prescribes the following rule regarding it: “having food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Tim. 6:8). He condemns the (vicious) action and at the end of his conversation corrects it with prayer. And some say that his words contain a prediction about the state in the next century, i.e. that we will neither eat nor drink there. If moderate consumption of food will come to an end, then all the more should one abstain from immoderation. Then, lest anyone think that he condemns the body, lest he conclude that he partly transfers the condemnation to the whole, and say that the body by its nature is the cause of adultery, listen to what he says next: I, he says, condemn not the nature of the body, but the immoderate voluptuousness of the soul; That’s why he adds: “the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord.” It was not created for you to live intemperately and commit adultery, just as the womb is not for you to indulge in gluttony, but so that it serves Christ as the head, and He is the Lord of the body. Let us be ashamed and afraid that we, having been awarded such an honor, having become members of Him who rules over us, dishonor ourselves with such vices! Thus, having sufficiently exposed the gluttons, (the apostle) further keeps them from this vice with hope in the future: “God,” he says, “has raised up the Lord, will raise us also by His power” (1 Cor. 6:14). 2. Do you see again the wisdom of the apostle? He always proves the authenticity of the resurrection by the example of Christ, and especially now. If our body is a member of Christ, and Christ has risen, then the body, without a doubt, will follow the Head. "By His strength". Since he mentioned an incomprehensible and inexplicable subject by considerations of reason, he attributes the resurrection of Christ to the incomprehensible power of God, not a little refuting unbelievers with this evidence. About the resurrection of Christ, he did not say: God will raise the Lord too, because it has already happened, but how? “God raised the Lord”; and there was no need to prove it. About our resurrection, which has not yet happened, he said something wrong, but how? “He will also resurrect us with his power”; with the undoubted power of the Author of the Resurrection, he stops the mouths of his opponents. And that he attributes the resurrection of Christ to the Father, do not be embarrassed by this. Such an expression does not mean that Christ is powerless, because He himself said: “Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19); and again: “I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it up again” (John 10:17–18). And Luke in Acts says: “to whom he showed himself alive” (Acts 1:3). Why does Paul use this expression? Because what is characteristic of the Son is attributed to the Father, and what is characteristic of the Father is attributed to the Son: “for whatever He does, these things the Son also does” (John 5:19). And very opportunely he mentions the resurrection here; With such hopes he curbs the power of gluttony and, as it were, says: you eat and drink incontinently - what is the end of this? None, except one smoldering. You have united yourself with Christ - what is the end of this? Great and wondrous: the future resurrection, glorious and beyond all description. So let no one doubt the truth of the resurrection. If anyone does not believe, then let him think how many (creatures God) created out of nothing, and take this as proof of the truth of the resurrection: after all, what has already happened is much more amazing and represents an incomprehensible miracle. Look: God took the earth, mixed it and formed man - an earth that did not exist before. How did the earth become man? How is it brought into existence from non-existence? How did everything come from it: countless genera of animals, seeds, plants, while there were no birth diseases, no rain fell, there was no agriculture, no oxen, no plow, and nothing else that would contribute to their appearance? This is why God created in the beginning from inanimate and senseless matter so many kinds of plants and dumb animals, so that he could then instill in you the truth of the resurrection. Creation is more incomprehensible than resurrection; It is not the same thing to light a candle that has gone out, or to produce a fire that never existed; It is not the same thing to restore a destroyed house or to create one that did not exist at all. Here there is at least a ready-made substance, but there was no substance there. That’s why He made the most difficult things happen in advance, so that you would allow the easiest things to happen—the most difficult things, I say, not for God, but for our imagination. Nothing is difficult for God, but just as a painter who painted one picture can easily paint many, so God can create countless worlds even more easily; or better, just as it is easy for you to imagine a city and many worlds, so it is easy for God to create them, or even much easier. You at least spend some time on the idea, but God doesn’t even that, but as much as stones are heavier than the lightest things or, better, our mind, so much is our mind inferior in speed to the creative power of God. Are you surprised at His power on earth? Think again, how did the sky come into being, which did not exist before, like the countless stars, like the sun, like the moon, which all did not exist before? Also, tell me, how after creation they are supported and on what? What foundation do they have, as well as the earth? What's behind the earth? What is behind the earth again? Do you see how bewildered your mental gaze falls, how quickly you do not resort to faith and the incomprehensible power of the Creator? If you want to explain this by human deeds, then you can in this way give some inspiration to your mind. What kind of human deeds would you say? Do you not see how potters make a vessel from a mixed and formless substance, how miners extract gold, iron and copper from metal-bearing earth, how glass makers turn sand into a solid and transparent body? Shall we speak of the rawhide workers and the dyers of purple garments, how they give them one color instead of another? Should we talk about our birth? Is it not a small seed, which at first has no form or shape, that is communicated into the womb that receives it? How does a living being appear? What about wheat? Is it not bare grain that is thrown into the ground? Doesn't it rot when sown? Where does the ear, stems and everything else come from? How does a small fig tree seed, falling to the ground, often produce roots, branches and fruit? You allow all this and do not question it, but demand from God an account only of how he transforms our body? Can this be forgiven? 3. All this and similar things we say to the pagans; but to those who believe in the Scriptures, I don’t need to say anything. If you wanted to investigate all the works of God, then in what way would God be greater than man? We don’t even study the affairs of many people. If we act this way towards people and do not examine their deeds, then much less should we examine the wisdom of God and demand an account from it; and firstly, because the One who proclaimed is worthy of faith; secondly, because His very deeds are not accessible to the judgments of reason. God is not so weak as to produce only what can be comprehended by your weak mind. If you do not understand the works of an artist, then even less so the highest Artist, God. So, do not doubt the truth of the resurrection; otherwise you will be very far from the hope (goods) of the future. And how do the objectors express their wisdom or, better yet, their madness? How, they say, will a body be resurrected when it is mixed with the earth, turned to dust and scattered to different places? For you this seems incomprehensible, but not for the waking Eye; everything is clear to Him. You do not see separately what is mixed, but It sees everything; You don’t even know what’s in your neighbor’s heart, but It knows everything. If you do not believe in the resurrection because you do not know how God will accomplish the resurrection, then it means that you do not believe that He knows the thoughts of the heart, which are also invisible. The substance of the body remains visible even after destruction, but thoughts are invisible. Therefore, He who sees the invisible with all clarity really does not see the visible and cannot easily restore the composition of the body? Obviously it can. So do not doubt (the truth of) the resurrection; This (doubt) is a suggestion from the devil. The devil tries to instill this not only so that they will not believe in the resurrection, but so that deeds of virtue will cease and perish. In fact, a person who does not expect the resurrection and the upcoming account of his deeds is unlikely to be virtuous, and one who does not practice virtue will not believe in the resurrection; both are mutually reinforced: vice by unbelief and unbelief by vice. A conscience burdened with sins, fearing and trembling before future retribution and not wanting to find consolation in a change for the better, tries to calm itself down with unbelief. If you insist that there is neither resurrection nor judgment, he will say: therefore, I will not give an account of my sins. But what does Christ say? “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29). God would not have done such things if he did not want to resurrect us, but (presumed) to destroy us and reduce us to nothing; I would not have spread out the sky, I would not have founded the earth, I would not have created everything else for only one real short-term life. If He did so much for this life, then what will He not do for the future? And if there is no future life, then we are much more despicable (the creatures) created for us; after all, the sky, and the earth, and the sea, and the rivers, and even some of the dumb animals are more durable than us. Thus the raven, the breed of elephant, and many other animals have enjoyed real life longer than we have. Our life is short and difficult, but theirs is long and more alien to worries and sorrows. Well, tell me, did God really create slaves better than their masters? No, I exhort you, man, do not think so, do not be foolish and do not doubt the power of God, your Master. God was pleased to create you immortal in the beginning, but you did not want to be like that. Signs of immortality were a conversation with God and a trouble-free life, alien to sorrows, worries, labors and everything temporary. Adam had no need for clothing, or a roof, or other similar things, but was like the angels, foresaw much in the future and was filled with great wisdom; He also knew what God had done in secret, specifically regarding his wife; That’s why he said: “Behold, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). Labor came after, exhaustion came after, shame, fear and trembling came after, but before there was no sadness, no illness, no sighing. But (Adam) did not resist this dignity. 4. Why, you say, do I suffer and die for him? No, not for him; and you yourself are not without sin, but you have committed, if not the same, then another sin. Moreover, the punishment did not bring you harm, but benefit. Your words, perhaps, would have some basis if you remained mortal forever; and now you are immortal and, if you want, you can shine more than the sun. But, you say, if I had a non-mortal body, I would not have sinned. And he (Adam), tell me, did he have a mortal body when he sinned? No, if his body were mortal, then death would not be assigned to him as punishment. However, the mortal body does not serve as an obstacle to virtue, but still instructs and contributes very much, as can be seen from the following: if the mere expectation of immortality made Adam so proud, then if he really were immortal, what kind of pride would he not fall into? Now, having sinned, you can correct yourself because your body is humiliated, weak and subject to destruction; these thoughts can bring some sense to you; and if you had sinned in an immortal body, then your sins might have remained incorrigible. So, mortality is not the cause of sin - do not blame it - but evil will is the root of evil. Why did the body not harm Abel? Why did disembodiment bring no benefit to evil spirits? Do you want to know how a mortal body not only does no harm, but also brings benefit? Listen to how much good you can get from him if you are vigilant. It deflects and distracts you from evil with illnesses, sorrows, labors and the like. But, you say, does it also lead to adultery? No, not the body, but unbridledness: the body is characterized only by what I said above. It is impossible for a person who has entered this life not to endure illnesses, sorrows and sorrows; but it is possible not to commit fornication. Therefore, if vices depended on the nature of the body, then they would be common to everyone: everything natural is like that; but adultery is not like that; illnesses come from here, and adultery comes from arbitrariness. So, do not blame the body, lest the devil take away from you the honor that God has given you. If we want, the body can be a wonderful bridle, taming the lusts of the soul, subduing pride, putting down vanity, helping us to perform great virtues. Do not tell me about (people) intemperate: we often see how horses rush along rapids, overthrowing the driver along with the bridle, but we do not blame the bridle for that. It was not she who caused this, but the driver, who could not restrain her, ruined everything. Think the same way here. If you see a young man living intemperately and indulging in vices, then blame not the body, but the driven driver, i.e. intelligence. Just as it is not the reins that cause harm to the driver, but he himself is guilty of everything, not holding them well - that is why they subject him to punishment, entangling him, dragging him away and forcing him to share their disastrous fate, so it is here. We, they say, bridled the horse while you held us; and when you let it out of your hands, we subject you to punishment for negligence, confuse and drag you away so that the same thing does not happen in the future. So, no one blames the reins, but yourself and your corrupted will. Our driver is the mind, the reins connecting the horses to the driver are the body. If they are held well, then nothing bad will be tolerated; and if you let it out of your hands, you will spoil and destroy everything. Let us be prudent and begin to blame not the body, but the evil disposition. The devil tries in every possible way to instill in the unreasonable that they blame the body, or God, or their neighbor, and not their corrupted will, so that, having comprehended the true cause of evil, they do not uproot it. But you, knowing his deceit, direct your anger at him and, leaving the yoke to the driver, turn your mental gaze to God. In other matters, the one who appoints feats does not contribute at all, but only waits for the end; Here the hero God accomplishes everything. Let us ask for His mercy, and undoubtedly we will be worthy of future blessings, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honor, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. These conversations were delivered by the saint in Antioch around 390. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” Gr. παρεστησεν – put – I.I. You might be interested in: