ЖИЗНЬ ЗЕМНАЯ

No one who lives in this life lives forever, except those who always live a glorious life. And sinners live, but they live in punishment, torment and gnashing of teeth; and those - in light and glory, engaged, together with ethereal forces, in offering up mysterious hymns to God. So, in order for us to enjoy this joy, let us lead such a life as to achieve that state that neither word, nor mind, nor anything else can imagine, but whose bliss can only be known by experience itself (2). Do not wish for a life that is not safe, inactive and comfortable, but not shaken by dangers. It is not equally possible to show your art while remaining calm in the pier or while swimming across the rough sea. One becomes lazy, careless and weak; and the other, having experienced many pitfalls, many rocks, many stormy winds and other sea dangers and having endured all this, makes his soul stronger. You were brought into this life not in order to be inactive, lazy, or not endure any disasters, but in order to become glorious through suffering. Let us not seek peace or a luxurious life; the desire for this is not appropriate for a courageous person, but for a worm, more of an unreasonable animal than one with reason. You pray earnestly so as not to fall into temptation, but when you fall, do not grieve, do not be embarrassed, do not become despondent, but use all your strength to become glorious. Don't you see how the most courageous of warriors, hearing the calling trumpet, look at trophies, at victories, at crowns, at valiant ancestors? So you too, at the sound of the spiritual trumpet, stand up and be more courageous than a lion, go to both fire and iron. The elements themselves are ashamed of truly courageous people. And the animals are afraid of such brave men; even if they are enraged from hunger or from their natural properties, they forget everything when they see the righteous man and restrain their rage. So, protect yourself with this weapon - and you will not be afraid even of fire, even if you saw the flame ascending to the sky (2). Our life is not a game, or, better said, our present life is a game, but our future life is not a game. Or maybe not only a game, but even worse. It does not end in laughter, but it also causes great harm to those who do not want to carefully improve themselves (6). What makes up our life? Is it the manifestation of miracles or concern for the improvement of behavior? Obviously the latter. Miracles borrow their beginning from here, and have their end here. He who leads an excellent life attracts to himself the grace of miracles. And he who accepts grace accepts it in order to correct the lives of others. And Christ performed His miracles so that through them, having appeared worthy of faith and having attracted people to Him, He would introduce virtue into the world. This is what He primarily cares about. That is why He is not content with miracles alone, but sometimes threatens Gehenna, then promises the Kingdom, then prescribes His wonderful laws and uses all means to make us equal to the Angels. But what can we say about Christ? Is he the only one who creates everything with such a purpose? Tell me yourself: if you were given a choice - either to raise the dead in His name, or to die for His name, which would you more willingly choose? Isn't it the latter without any doubt? But the first would be a miracle, and the last is a matter. And if you were offered either to turn grass into gold, or to have such willpower as to trample all wealth like grass, wouldn’t you rather choose the latter? And quite fair. With this choice you will attract more people to you. Seeing the grass turn into gold, they themselves will wish to have the same power, like Simon; and through this their covetousness will increase. On the contrary, if they saw that everyone tramples and despises gold like grass, they would have gotten rid of this disease long ago. So, do you see that life can be more rewarding? I call life not when you fast, when you put on sackcloth and ashes, but when you neglect wealth, as you should neglect it, when you abound in love, give your bread to the hungry, restrain anger, reject vanity, destroy envy in yourself (7). I beg you, let us try to correct all shortcomings and suppress the passions that increase in us according to each age. If in every part of our life we ​​sail past the works of virtue, undergoing shipwrecks everywhere, then, having reached a haven without spiritual treasures, we will be exposed to extreme disaster. Real life is a vast sea. And just as in the sea, different bays have different storms, for example, the Aegean Sea is dangerous due to winds, the Etrurian Strait - due to a bottleneck, Charybdis, near Libya - due to shoals, Propontis, near the Euxine Pontus - due to the speed and impetuousness of the waters, part of the sea near Gadir - due to empty, impassable and unknown places, and other parts of the sea are dangerous for other reasons, so it happens in our life. The first sea can be called childhood, which is subject to many disturbances due to unreason, frivolity and inconstancy. That is why we assign educators and teachers to children and with care we make up for the shortcomings of nature, just as at sea they are made up for by the skill of the helmsman. This age is followed by the sea of ​​youth, where strong winds blow, as on the Aegean Sea, because then lust intensifies in us. This age is especially incapable of correction, not only because it is subject to severe unrest, but also because misdeeds are not exposed, then there is no longer a teacher and educator. When the winds blow stronger, and yet the helmsman is weak, and no one gives help, then imagine how dangerous the storm is! Next comes the age of manhood, in which a person faces economic affairs, wife, marriage, childbirth, managing the house and a great many worries. At the same time, the love of money and envy especially intensifies. So, if we suffer shipwreck at every age, then how will we get through real life? How can we avoid future punishment? If at the first age we do not learn anything rational, in our youth we do not live abstinently, and having become men we do not overcome the love of money, then when we arrive in old age, as if at some bottom of a ship, and having weakened the boat of the soul with all these ulcers, after the destruction of the boards of the boat we will reach the pier with a lot of rubbish instead of spiritual treasures and will arouse laughter in the devil, and we will cause ourselves to cry and cause unbearable torment (7). How long will we live in vain and in vain? If we spend the time given to us here without benefit, then, when we leave here, we will be subject to severe punishment for careless spending. God gave us this present life and breathed into us a rational soul, not so that we would enjoy only this temporary life, but so that everyone would receive a future life. Unreasonable animals are given only real life, and this is why we have an immortal soul, in order to prepare for life there, in order to shine there, in order to rejoice with the Angels, in order to stand before the King always - to endless ages. For this reason, our soul is immortal, and our body will be returned to us. If, when the heavenly things are before you, you are tied to the earth, think about what kind of offense you are inflicting on your Benefactor. He offers you heavenly things, but you, not paying attention to this, prefer earth? Neglected, He threatened you with Gehenna, so that you would learn from here what blessings you were deprived of (9). Real life is a time of struggle; therefore, you need to fight, there is war and warfare. In war no one seeks peace, in war no one thinks about pleasure, no one cares about property, no one worries about his wife; but he cares only about one thing, how to defeat his enemies. We will do the same. And if we win and return with trophies, then God will give us everything. There is only one thing we need to try to do, how to overcome the devil; or better yet, this is not a matter of our efforts, but everything is the grace of God. There is only one thing we need to strive for, to acquire His grace, to gain His help for ourselves. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” - says (Rom. 8:31). Let us strive for one thing only, so that He does not become our enemy, so that He does not turn away from us (10). The great thing is life, beloved; no matter how rude someone is, even if he does not want to clearly agree with the teaching, he will also lean towards your side, praise and marvel. How, you say, can one achieve an excellent life? No other way than by the power of God. What if the Hellenes are like that? If there are such people, then some are by nature, others out of vanity. Do you want to know how important life is and what power of conviction it contains? Many of the heretics, although they contained the most corrupt teachings, had such power that many people, out of reverence for their lives, did not even examine their teachings; and others, while condemning their teaching, respected them for their lives; it's not good, but that's how it was. This weakens the importance of our faith, this distorts everything, that no one thinks at all about life, this humiliates faith. We say that Christ is God, we offer many other dogmas, among other things, we also say that He commanded everyone to live righteously; but in reality, few do. A vicious life humiliates the dogmas of the resurrection, the immortality of the soul, and the Judgment and accepts many things that are contrary, fate, necessity, and lack of faith in Providence. The soul, mired in numerous vices, tries to invent this kind of consolation for itself, so as not to grieve at the thought that there is a Judgment and that reward for good and evil awaits us. Such a life produces countless evils, makes people beasts and even more senseless than beasts; What each breed of animals contains separately, it often combines in one person and distorts everything. That’s why the devil introduced fate, that’s why he suggested that the world exists without Providence, that’s why he assumed that beings are good or evil by nature and that there is evil without beginning and material, and that’s why he does everything to corrupt our lives. Whoever is like this in life can neither renounce corrupt teaching nor remain in a sound faith, but accepts all this out of great necessity. I don’t think that it is possible to find even one person living viciously who would not hold onto any of the numerous satanic thoughts that there is fate, that everything happens by chance and is arranged without order or reasoning. Therefore, I exhort you, let us strive for a virtuous life, so as not to accept bad teaching (10). Let us continually mortify the body in its works. I say this not about the essence of the body - let it not be - but about the inclinations to vicious deeds. Not to tolerate anything human and not to serve pleasures - this is also what life consists of, or better yet, this is the only life. And the one who has submitted to pleasures can no longer live, due to the worries, fears, dangers and countless swarm of passions that arise from this. Whether the thought of death comes to him, he has already died of fear before he died; whether illness, insult, poverty or anything else unexpected appears in his mind, he is already lost and destroyed. What could be more miserable than such a life? But the one who lives by the Spirit is not like that: he stands above fears, sorrows, dangers, and any change, because he does not tolerate anything, but - what is much more important - he despises everything, no matter what happens (11). You might be interested in: