Письмо XX. Монашествующему Марину

Knowing the multitude of my own sins, and contemplating the justice of the condemnation awaiting me for them after the end of my life, and thinking in my soul how great and terrible the judgment is going to be, at which each of us will deservedly accept the reward for what we have done, I decided to make muteness my cohabitant, in every possible way avoiding speeches about the Divine, which, as it seems to me, exceed my abilities, so as not to fall under even greater and fair condemnation for what I have done. that I pronounce the word of God, deadened by my failure to do good deeds, and therefore unable to give life in grace to those who listen, and powerless to detect a virtuous disposition in the way of life of the speaker, and not to experience in the future the fulfillment of the threat for the fact that not only in myself, through the cunning of my disposition, have I killed the life-giving word of God, but also to those who listen to me, as a living and clear image of my neglect of it, my entire bad way of life. I, therefore, as I said, knowing this and being wary of this, drove away from myself the desire to speak and write about the word of God, which I do not work for, considering it the greatest injustice and disastrous damage to reap in vain the praise of those who listen. When, [348] repeatedly conjuring me with divine arguments, the wise and highly revered husband, my most holy abbot, overcame my decision to remain silent, whom I could not push away for the sake of the splendor of virtues shining in him, according to his divine prudence, and forced me to write this bad letter to your piety, with the greatest benefit telling in part about your perfections - I considered it necessary to concisely say what is useful and saving for you, and for me, and for everyone who wants to listen. David, the great prophet and king, showing the path of true knowledge to Divine virtues and opening the door of active knowledge to those who decided to love God and prefers Divine salvation to everything earthly, says: “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; all who do it have a good mind” (Ps. 110:10). Since the beginning of wisdom is fear, then the end of wisdom, of course, is the good mind of those who create it. And if this is so, then let us try, as much as we can, to gain the fear of God and a good mind. Fear is to avoid the filth of sin, for fear of eternal punishment, cleansing the soul from it, while reason is to become rational doers of God’s will. After all, whoever fears retribution for violating God’s commandments is not given captive to the passions that defile his soul, and in whom a good mind is firmly rooted, properly distinguishing the temporal from the eternal, he is richly enriched by Divine blessings, by no means allowing his knowledge to idly remain idle. After all, just as fear in those who truly fear God becomes the destroyer of impure passions, so reason in the truly rational becomes the creator of all virtues. So let us fear God, and let us not do what is not pleasing to Him, and let us love His understanding, and let us not leave anything that pleases Him unattended. For he who fears God hates all iniquity, [349] and he who has rooted a good mind in himself loves all righteousness. For just as hatred of iniquity marks the fearful, so love of righteousness marks the wise. So, let us not portray fear merely by despondent behavior and show fear of God in the outward, but in the disposition of the soul and in the humility of the heart, strengthened by deep frequent groaning, and beaten by the invisible scourge of the conscientious memory of previously committed sins, and shrinking from this within ourselves, not at all noticing the misdeeds of other people. After all, whoever portrays the fear of God by mere external behavior is in general no different from a monkey imitating people in their manner of behavior. This is a four-legged animal, which by its nature is far removed from human nature, thanks to imitation in behavior it seems to the audience to be a person who has nothing of human nature in itself; Likewise, the one who, for the sake of deceiving the audience, imitates the external habits of those who truly fear the Lord, but has not mastered the disposition of the will, imbued with fear in equal measure, is both by name and in essence a kind of new Sadducee or scribe: in appearance he maintains the appearance of reverent timidity, but in reality he is completely deprived of it because of the unclean inclination to passions lurking in the depths of his soul. Let us again neither flaunt Divine knowledge by uttering elegantly beautiful speeches, nor define good reason for ourselves by the mere empty ability to speak, without doing, but by the disposition of the soul, imbued with virtues through action, and therefore by deed kindling the light of knowledge, and by knowledge decorating diligence of deeds, so that fear, uniting with the thirst for God through the kindness of reason, would create in us the wisdom of God, which originates in abstinence, perfect. from evil through the fear of God, and finding completion in doing the commandments according to good reason. After all, whoever limits the mind to the empty utterance of Divine words is like a parrot imitating human speech. After all, this is [350] the only animal among birds that learns and imitates human speech, having by nature nothing human at all, just as the one who imitates the speeches of truly intelligent people with mere empty utterance in order to amaze his listeners, does not have persistent knowledge imbued with virtuous deeds, is truly, both in essence and by name, a certain new Pharisee, or an unworthy priest, imitating reason with mere utterance of words, but completely devoid of wisdom, the true existence of which is found in works, and therefore is very arrogant and, in the arrogance of conceit that feeds the pride of his mind, rebels against the word of truth, apparently not understanding that the knowledge of those who boast of it without doing it is clearly the Theology of demons, which Jesus clearly condemned as possessed, recognizing Him as God (Luke 4:33) - although such a person does not feel that he is stricken with illness. Therefore, let us fear God through fear, and let us free ourselves from all uncleanness of the flesh and spirit, by laudably mortifying the body, not allowing the law of the flesh to rebel against the law of the spirit, and let us not limit the greatness of the fear of God to the visible manifestations of character alone, but let us make external modesty the proclaimer of a good disposition in the depths of our souls, in order to avoid the punitive fire that threatens in the future, and let us adorn our good mind by making commandments, so as not to spread it, as they do vain people, deathly speeches, who do not have life in themselves from doing the commandments, but to put into practice the Divine words, striving for peace and love with everyone and practicing kindness, and meekness, and generosity, and patience towards everyone in everything, and enduring what happens with steadfastness and gratitude, and without hesitation accepting sorrows as gifts of God, not in any way resisting the plans of Providence, in everything with with the benefit of him who arranges our lives, so that with all the saints we may be worthy of eternal life, enjoying future blessings and lasting eternal bliss, [351] about which we heard from God: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world” (Matthew 25:34), and we will rejoice, enjoying those ineffable blessings about which it is said: “no eye has seen, no one has seen.” the ear heard, and it did not enter into the heart of man what God had prepared for those who loved Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). 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