ГРЕХ

Such is sin. When he is already committed in reality, then he reveals his greatest recklessness. Just as a drinker, when he gets drunk on strong wine, does not feel any harm from the wine, and afterward he learns through experience how destructive it is, so is sin: while it is not yet done, it darkens the mind, and like a thick cloud obscures the meaning, and then the conscience rises and torments the thought more powerfully than any accuser, revealing the vileness of the act (1). Sin is a cruel ruler, giving wicked orders and dishonoring those who obey him. Therefore, I exhort you, we will run away from his power with great zeal, we will fight with him, we will never put up with him and, having freed ourselves from him, we will abide in this freedom. If the Jews, having been freed from foreigners, were consoled, then much more should we, having been freed from sin, rejoice and admire, and preserve this joy forever, and not violate or defile it by again indulging in the same vices (2). Do not consider yourself safe if you do not grieve for your sins; but especially moan about this, that you do not feel remorse for your iniquities. Your peace of mind does not come from not being bitten by sin, but from the insensibility of a soul given over to sin. Imagine how those who feel the weight of their sins are tormented, how bitterly they cry out - more sadly than those who are cut or burned! What do they do, how do they suffer, how many tears do they shed, how much lamentation do they let out in order to free themselves from the torment of their conscience? They would not have done this if they had not suffered greatly in their souls. It’s best not to sin at all, and if someone has sinned, then you need to feel your sin and correct yourself. If this does not happen, then how will we beg God and ask for forgiveness of sins when we do not give ourselves any account of them? When you yourself, having sinned, do not want to know that you have sinned, then what sins will you ask God for forgiveness of? About those you don't know? And how can you know the greatness of a good deed? So, confess all your sins in detail in order to find out how great the debt is that is forgiven you, and thus arouse in yourself gratitude to your Benefactor. Having insulted a person, you beg friends, neighbors, and the gatekeepers themselves, spend money, waste many days, going to him and begging for forgiveness. And, even if the offended person drives you away once, and another time, and a thousand times, you do not lag behind, but the more zealously you intensify your prayers. And, having irritated the God of all, we neglect about it, remain cold, luxury, get drunk and do everything we are used to: when will we appease Him?.. On the contrary, by continuing to live like this, aren’t we irritating Him even more? And indeed, unrepentance for sins arouses His anger and indignation much more than the sin itself. We should hide underground, not see the sun and not even use the air because, having such a merciful Master, we irritate Him and, irritating, do not even repent of it. Even in His anger, He not only does not have hatred and disgust towards us, but He also becomes angry in order, at least in this way, to attract us to Himself; After all, if He, being insulted, repaid you with only good deeds, then you would begin to despise Him even more. To prevent this from happening, He turns His face away from you for a while in order to unite you with Himself forever. So, let us be inspired by the hope of his love for mankind, let us bring zealous repentance before the day comes in which repentance itself will not bring us any benefit (6). If a demon suffers when he is expelled from the body, then he suffers much more when he sees a soul freed from sin. Truly, sin is the main demonic force, because of sin Christ died in order to destroy it, death was introduced by sin, everything was transformed through sin. If you have destroyed sin in yourself, you have cut the veins of the devil, erased his head, destroyed all his power, scattered the army, created a miracle, greater than all miracles (7). Grave evil is sin, evil and destruction for the soul; and when this evil intensifies too much, it often touches the body. We remain insensitive when our soul suffers greatly, and when the body receives even the slightest damage, we use all our efforts to cure it of its illness, because we feel pain. That is why God often punishes the body for the sins of the soul, so that from punishing the lower part the higher part will receive some kind of healing. Thus, among the Corinthians, Paul corrected the fornicator, restraining the illness of the soul by executing the body; he stopped the evil by attacking the body, just as a good doctor, if water sickness or pain in the liver is not inferior to internal medicine, does cauterization externally. This is what Christ did with the paralytic. This is how He himself expresses it when he says: “Behold, you are healed; Sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14). What can we learn from here? Firstly, that his illness arose from his sins; secondly, that the doctrine of Gehenna is true; and thirdly, that the punishment in it will be long-lasting, endless. Where are those who say: I committed murder in one hour, I committed adultery for a short time, and will I really be punished forever? So the paralytic did not sin for so many years as he suffered punishment, and spent almost his entire human life in continuous torment. Sins are judged not by time, but by the very essence of the crimes. At the same time, we must take into account the fact that, even though we have suffered severe punishment for our previous sins, if we again fall into the same vices, we will be subjected again to even more severe punishment - and this is absolutely fair (8). From sin we get not so much pleasure as sorrow: here our conscience cries out, and strangers condemn, and God becomes angry, and Gehenna threatens to devour us, and our thoughts cannot calm down. Sin is heavy, truly heavy and unbearable—heavier than any lead. Anyone who is aware of it is by no means able to look straight, even if he were very insensitive. So Ahab, although he was extremely wicked, but, feeling sin, walked with his head bowed, lamented and grieved. That is why he put on sackcloth and shed fountains of tears. If we do this, if we cry like Achaab and put aside our sins like Zacchaeus, then we too will receive forgiveness (9). The body, having received even a small wound from the sword, deteriorates; the building, having cracked even a little, collapses; and a branch, having broken off even a little from the root, becomes unusable. Thus, this small is no longer small, but almost everything. Therefore, when we sin in something small or feel laziness, we will not despise this small thing, because, if left neglected, it will soon become great. So, if clothes begin to tear and are left neglected, they will all be torn; and the roof, if exposed to a few tiles and left neglected, ruins the whole house. So, imagining this, let us never neglect small sins, so as not to fall into great ones; If through negligence we fall even into the abyss of evil, then even then we will not despair, so as not to lose clarity of mind. It is no longer easy to get out of there for someone who does not carefully watch over himself, not only because of the depth of this abyss, but also because of the situation itself. Sin is an abyss that drags you down into the depths and oppresses you. Just as those who have fallen into a well cannot quickly get out of there and need others to pull them out, so is it the same for those who have fallen into the depths of sins. Let us lower a rope to them and extract them from there; or better to say, it is not only others who are needed here, but also ourselves, so that we ourselves may gird ourselves and rise not as much as we fell, but, if we want, much higher. God Himself is a helper, because He does not want the sinner to die, but for him to turn and live (Ezek. 18:23). So, no one despair, no one be subjected to this disease of the wicked, to whom this sin is characteristic: when he reaches, it is said, the wicked is to the depths of evil, he is negligent (12). Nothing is so reckless, nothing is so senseless, stupid and brazen as sin. Wherever he invades, he subverts, upsets and destroys everything; he is ugly in appearance, intolerable and disgusting. If any painter wanted to depict him, then, it seems to me, he would not have sinned by depicting him as a woman, bestial, barbaric, breathing fire, ugly and black, as external [pagan] poets depict Scylla (12). You might be interested in: