СТРАХ БОЖИЙ

The heavenly powers fear and honor God more than people: the more they are aware, the more they fear Him. They have no stubbornness, no disobedience, no disobedience, because they are “mighty in strength, doing His word” (Ps. 102:20). Do you see that their fear is great? Those who are not subject to any punishment, see how they are seized with horror. If even the Seraphim themselves do not dare to look at Him, then how can we test Him? Just as on this earth, the more we look at the rays of the sun, the more we are forced to retreat, so then, the more we contemplate Christ, the more we need to fear Him. Look how He became glorified on the mountain: His disciples were terrified and fell on their faces. Prophets often disobeyed God, but Angels never did this. Why? For the sake of great fear (4). Just as an oak tree, deeply rooted in the bowels of the earth and carefully tied up, cannot be uprooted by any gust of wind, so similarly no one will be able to overthrow a soul nailed by the fear of God, because nailing is even stronger than rooting. This is what the prophet prays about, saying: “My flesh trembles with Thy fear” (Ps. 119:120). So you nail yourself and fasten yourself, as if with a nail driven deep. Just as it is difficult to take control of a nailed person, so, on the contrary, it is easy to take and not difficult to overthrow someone who is not nailed down (8). We are not afraid of those who are coming to judge us, but we are afraid and ashamed of those who cannot harm us in the least. And for what we are ashamed of, we are punished for it. After all, the one who is ashamed to reveal a person’s sins and is not ashamed to sin in the eyes of God, and then does not want to either confess his sins or repent, will be put to shame on that day, not before one or two, but before the whole universe (9). What excuse will we have for conquering passion with passion and not with the fear of God? For example, many, being voluptuous and money-loving, curbed their voluptuousness for the sake of saving money; others, on the contrary, neglected money for pleasure; others, carried away by vanity, despised both, spending money mercilessly and observing chastity in vain; and others, being extremely vain, neglected this passion, committing many shameful things, both because of carnal pleasures and because of money; still others, in order to satisfy their anger, decide on countless costs and do not care about anything except to do as they wish. So, what passion can do, the fear of God does not do for us. And what do I say: passion? What human shame can do, the fear of God cannot do. We do a lot of good things, we also sin a lot, being ashamed of people, but we are not afraid of God. How many have squandered their property out of shame! How many have vainly sought honor by serving their friends in evil! How many and how much have sinned in favor of friendship (10)! Let us have the true fear of God before our eyes. Nothing, nothing destroys a person more than if one lifts oneself from this anchor, and nothing saves one more than if one always stays on it. If we, having a person before our eyes, approach sins with less determination, and often do not do anything inappropriate, ashamed of more respectable servants, then consider what security we will enjoy when we have before the eyes of God. Indeed, in such a mood, the devil will not attack us anywhere, because his work would be useless. When the devil notices that we are wandering outside and wandering without a rein, he, taking advantage of our initiative, will finally have the opportunity to completely separate us from the herd. And what the careless slaves endure, who, having abandoned the necessary affairs for which they were sent by their masters to the market, unnecessarily and in vain stop with those passing by and waste their free time here, we too will suffer the same when we deviate from the commandments of God. Here we stand, amazed at the wealth, the beauty of the body and everything else that does not concern us, just as those slaves look at the performances of magicians, and then, having arrived late, suffer severe beatings at home. And many, following others who commit such indecencies, even left the path that lay before them. But let us not do this, because we have been sent to do many things that are necessary; If we, neglecting this, stop and look in surprise at useless objects, then, having spent all our time in vain and in vain, we will be subjected to cruel punishment. If you want to do something, then you have something that you should look at with amazement, something you can admire all your time, which is not worthy of laughter, but of surprise and much praise, and meanwhile, if you begin to be amazed at what is funny, you yourself will become so and even worse than the laugher. Run quickly away, so that you are not exposed to this (11). You might be interested in: