ВОЛЯ

Everything depends on your will. So, what does snow, fire and storm serve in all of nature, in addition, phlegm, blood and bile serve in the body. Therefore, you need to moderate them with the greatest prudence in order to receive some benefit from them and not harm. But what am I saying about the body, when the soul also has such accessories that become diseases if you allow them to reach the point of immoderation, and when they are moderated, they serve as benefits? So anger, if you use it as you should, serves as a saving medicine, but if you use it immoderately, it becomes the cause of death. And lust, controlled with moderation, makes you a father, since it is useful for the birth of children; and if you do not moderate, it often plunges you into fornication and adultery. So, do not blame foreign objects, but always blame your will. If you neglect it, you will suffer harm from yourself, you will die from your own body; and if you improve it, you will not experience anything bad or unpleasant either from demons or the devil, and not just from animals (3). From ignorance the soul becomes timid and fearful, just as from the knowledge of heavenly dogmas it becomes great and sublime. Deprived of all care, she is somehow timid - not by nature, but by free will. When I see that a courageous person, who was once brave, becomes timid, I no longer consider this state to be natural, because everything natural is unchangeable. Likewise, when I see that timid people suddenly become bold, I again think the same thing - I attribute everything to free will. So, the disciples were very timid until they learned what they should have and were not granted the gift of the Holy Spirit; and subsequently they became more fearless than lions (9). God, having the opportunity to take everything from you against your will, does not want to do this without your will, so that you deserve a reward. For example, He can take your soul without your will, but He wants you to give it up of your own free will, saying to Paul: “I die every day” (1 Cor. 15:31). He can deprive you of honors without your will and make you humiliated, but He wants it to be according to your will, so that you receive reward. He can make you poor against your will, but He wants you to become so voluntarily in order to give you crowns. Do you see God's love for mankind and our blindness (12)? When hunger forces you to look for food, you do not expect food to come to you by itself, but use all measures to find food; also in case of thirst, cold and all similar circumstances, you are active and ready to take care of the body. Do the same in relation to the Kingdom of Heaven, and you will certainly achieve it. This is why God created you with free will, so that you would not subsequently blame God, as if he had bound you by necessity. And you are dissatisfied with precisely that which constitutes your honor? I heard many people say: why did God create me autocratic in virtue? But how to raise you to heaven, dormant, sleeping, devoted to vices, luxury and gluttony? You wouldn’t be far behind the vices there either. If even now, when the threat has been placed, you do not stop sinning, then, when He had assigned heaven as a reward for you, would you have abandoned your carelessness and would not have become much worse (12)? You might be interested in: