НЕДЕЛЯ 6-Я ПО ПЯТИДЕСЯТНИЦЕ

One day Jesus arrived in Capernaum, which he looked upon as His city, and came to the house, probably of the holy Apostle Peter, where he stayed every time during His stay in this city. Immediately many gathered into the house, so that there was no room at the door, and He spoke the word to them. Here sat the Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from all the places of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And so they brought to Him the paralytic, laid on a bed. Being one of those who want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven by force, the sick man, together with his friends, decided to achieve a meeting with Jesus. Four porters, not finding where to carry him, due to the crowd, climbed onto the top of the house, opened the roof of the house and, having dug through it (taking out several tiles), through the roof and lowered the paralytic before Jesus. Frightened, probably, by his actions, which gave him the opportunity to approach the Savior, the paralytic remained silent, but Jesus, seeing the faith actually shown by the paralytic and his friends, said: dare, child! Your sins are forgiven you (Matthew 9:2). At the same time, some of the scribes and Pharisees thought in their hearts: Why is He blaspheming? Who can forgive sins except God alone? (Mark 2:7). The Savior forgave the sins of the sick man, as having full authority to do so, and showed His equal dignity with God the Father. The scribes, consumed by malice and thinking of accusing Him of blasphemy, involuntarily glorified Him for healing the soul, saying that the power to forgive sins belongs to God alone. Wanting to show that He is God, equal to God the Father, the Savior revealed what the scribes thought only in themselves and which, fearing the people, they did not dare to reveal to everyone. “Why do you think evil in your hearts?” - the Lord unexpectedly told them. If anyone could be indignant, it could only be a sick person, as if he had been deceived in his hope. He could say: “I came so that You would heal me from relaxation, but You heal something else; How can I be sure that my sins will be absolved?” But he does not say anything like that, but betrays himself into the power of the Healer. The scribes, being proud and envious, condemn His very good deeds shown to others. That is why the Savior reproaches them, however, with meekness. “If you do not believe the first proof of My Divinity and consider My words to be vanity, then I add something else - I reveal your secrets,” finally, I ask you: what is easier? Shall I say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven?” or should I say: get up, take up your bed and walk? (Mark 2:8–9). Anyone can say the first, despite the non-existence of the possibility of verifying whether sins have been forgiven or not. But whoever can say the second expression, and his words will be followed by execution, should probably be endowed with authority from above. If I can heal a paralytic with one word, then isn’t it clear that I have the power on earth to forgive sins? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic: I say to you, get up, take up your bed and go to your house (Luke 5:24). With this word, strength returned to the weakened limbs and peace to the broken soul; the paralytic instantly recovered and immediately stood up in front of them, took up his bed and went to his house, glorifying God. Having healed the paralytic, the Lord sends him to the house, again showing His humility and confirming that the miracle He created is not a dream, for those who witnessed the illness of the paralytic makes witnesses of his health. Thus, the Lord shows that He is the Creator of soul and body, and, healing the sick from spiritual and physical relaxation, reveals the invisible through the visible. But the witnesses to this still grovel. Although they exchanged exclamations of surprise with each other, not without an admixture of fear: we have seen wonderful things today! We have never seen anything like this, but the flesh prevented them from ascending the mountain, for they, says the Evangelist, glorified God, who gave such power to people, still not realizing that God Himself was before them. From the Chronicle of St. Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov Sin is a great evil, and much evil comes from it. The sin of the bright Angel turned him into dark Satan and cast him down from heaven. Adam's sin drove him out of paradise and brought curse and death to the entire human race. The sins that multiplied among the people of the first world covered countless nations with flood waters. Evil sins destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities with fire. Sins struck Egypt with many plagues and plunged Pharaoh and all his army into the sea. Because of their sins, all those Israelites whom God brought out of Egypt did not enter the promised land, but died in the desert. Sins opened up the very earth under Dathan and Aviron to hell, they turned people into cattle, like Nebuchadnezzar, and into insensitive pillars, like Lot’s wife, and never spared anyone, but, on the contrary, they prepared judgment and punishment from God for every sinner. Human sins nailed to the Cross the innocent, Righteous and Holy Son of God Himself, for if He did not commit sin, flattery would be found in His mouth (cf. Isa. 53:9). Will they spare any sinner? Grave sins overthrew the mighty of the earth from the thrones, ravaged kingdoms, destroyed cities, destroyed well-organized regiments of troops, devastated entire countries, and even now they are doing the same thing... Oh, how cruel is every sin! Scripture exhorts well: as from the face of the serpent, flee sin: if you approach it, it will bite you (Sir. 21:2). There is no evil in heaven more evil than sin. Whether there is illness or some misfortune, poverty or persecution, misfortune or suffering - all this is not as great an evil as mortal sin. Saint John Chrysostom says: “What is disease? What is blindness? All this is nothing; The greatest evil is sin! Why is it that all the sorrows and troubles in the world are nothing against sin? Yes, because all this is temporary, and sin prepares eternal torment. Even if he is forgiven, he will still remain in the memory of the one who committed it forever. Just as a wound on the body, even if it was healed, leaves a mark, so in the soul that has sinned and received forgiveness from the mercy of God, although it will dwell in the Kingdom of Heaven, the memory of sin will remain in it, as a sign of its former wound. For this reason, the pardoned sinner will glorify and thank God forever and ever, that God has forgiven him so many grave sins and iniquities. Thus, even after death, a person will forever remember his sins. Will there be any difference that the condemned sinner will remember his sins in eternal torment to greater torment of his conscience, and the one who has received the mercy of God will remember them to greater glorification of God’s mercy, which forgave him his sins. Sin is such a great evil for which a person himself, without the assistance of God’s mercy, can never completely satisfy the truth of God, even if he lived a thousand years and spent all these years in the works of repentance, in fasting, prayers and tears. “If,” says St. John Climacus, “if a sinner made the whole universe weep for himself, if he turned the entire Jordan into tears and brought drops from his eyes, if he suffered a thousand deaths for Christ, then he himself cannot pay the debt for his sins, for his blood cannot be equal to the Blood of the Son of God, who suffered for us sinners.” One sin of Adam was so grave that all the tears of the forefathers, all the blood of the prophets, innocently shed, could not atone for it; it was necessary for the Son of God Himself to descend from heaven, become incarnate, suffer, and with His Blood pay the debt to God’s justice for human sin. What should we do with not just one, but with the countless multitude of our grave sins? What shall we offer to God for them? How will we pay if we do not seek God’s mercy? But although we will seek this mercy, we will not find it unless we first part with our sins, for it is impossible to appease God while sinning! Sin is such a great evil that it not only destroys the sinner himself, but also exposes others who are innocent of sin to misfortune. Because of Jonah's sin, everyone who was with him in the ship was in danger and despaired of their lives. And during the flood, animals, cattle, and birds perished along with wicked people, having not sinned in anything before God. And now in the world, as in a stormy sea, how many troubles there are for the sins of people! And all these troubles, along with the guilty, are suffered by the innocent, and those who have not sinned suffer for the sins of others, as was the case under David: David alone sinned, and the whole kingdom suffered punishment for sin. During illness, confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ When relatives advise a sick person to invite a priest for parting words with confession and the Holy Mysteries, some of the patients consider such an invitation from the priest to be a sign of their imminent death and respond with grief to the kind advice of their relatives: “What are you preparing me for death, I am still able; So, the hour of my death is near when you send for the priest? And if, after the requests of his relatives, the patient finally agrees to accept the pastor of the church with the Holy Mysteries, then as soon as he sees him entering, he becomes faint-hearted and gets scared, thinking that the hour of his death has already come. Those who think like this are in great blindness! Death entered the world as a result of sin: the patterns of sin are death (Rom. 6:23), it is said in Scripture, and the priest comes to you in order to cleanse you by repentance from sin and unite you through the communion of the Holy Mysteries with the Lord. Why do you look at the priest as a harbinger of death? Do repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries really have the destructive power to kill? It's embarrassing to even think about it! God often punishes a person for his sins with illness, and repentance often returns a person to health. God promised Manasseh, the king of Israel, through the prophet, health if Manasseh repented of his sins; Manasseh repented of his sins and was healed. The Savior Himself, when healing the sick, first of all absolved them of their sins as the causes of their illness. So He, healing a sick man who was weakened by the veins, first of all forgave him his sins, then healed him. First he said: child, your sins are forgiven, then he said: arise, take up your bed and walk (cf. Matt. 9:2,6; Mark. 2:5,11); He said the same thing to another, 38-year-old sick man, healing him from the illness of relaxation: behold, you are healthy, let no one sin, lest it be worse (John 5:14). If repentance for sins is the cause not of illness and death, but of life and health, then even more so the communion of the Holy Mysteries. Don’t you yourself read after the priest: “Let the communion of Your Holy Mysteries, Lord, not be for judgment or condemnation, but for the healing of soul and body.” The apostles of Christ rejoiced when they saw the Lord, but are you sad when the priest brings you His Most Pure Body? This disastrous thought is instilled in you by the ancient murderer - Satan, so that you would die without confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries or having accepted the Holy Gifts without living faith and sincere repentance for sins. And what will happen if you, afraid to invite a priest at the right time, go to your grave without repentance or, due to increased illnesses, become incapable of true repentance? Then your eternal destruction is inevitable. No, Orthodox Christians, do not be afraid to invite a priest during your illness for confession and communion of the Holy Body and Blood of Christ; through this, apparently, the miraculous power of God was sometimes revealed, healing the sick. As an example, we will tell you what is written in the life of St. Alypius. “There was someone in Kyiv, a rich man, who suffered from the most serious disease - leprosy. After being treated by doctors for a long time, he did not receive any benefit. Then one of his friends advised him to go to the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and ask the venerable fathers of the Pechersks, Anthony and Theodosius, that God would give him health through their prayers. The sick man, forced by the strong requests of his friend, although he went to the Pechersk monastery, did not fully believe in the power of the prayers of the Monks Anthony and Theodosius. As soon as he was presented to the abbot of the Pechersk monastery, he ordered to give him something to drink and wash his face and head with water from the well of St. Theodosius. As soon as the sick man drank water and washed himself, he immediately became covered with pus because he did not come to the monastery with full faith in the prayers of Saints Anthony and Theodosius; the illness became so intensified that everyone began to avoid him, because due to the stench emanating from him, it was impossible to be near him. In such a terrible situation, with tears and sadness, he returned to his home and did not leave it for several days. He admitted to his friends that God punished him for not believing in the power of the prayers of Saints Anthony and Theodosius, but the illness did not go away. Finally, after reflection, he decided to go to the priest and confess all his sins to him. Therefore, having returned to the Pechersk monastery, he appeared to our then-priest, now reverend, Father Alypius, and confessed all his sins. Alypius, having heard his confession, said to him: “You have done well, child, in confessing your sins to God before my unworthiness, for so the Prophet testifies of himself, saying before the Lord: Let us confess my iniquity to the Lord, and You have forsaken the wickedness of my heart (Ps. 31:5).” Then he led him into the church and introduced him to the Holy Mysteries; after this he commanded to wash himself with the water with which priests wash their mouths after communion of the Holy Mysteries, and he received perfect bodily health. A certain person, passing through the monastery, entered the medical clinic located near it. Seeing many sick people lying in it, he approached the doctor and asked: “Are there plants that heal sins?” “There are,” answered the doctor, “and I will show them to you. Take the root of obedience, the branch of patience, the flower of purity and the fruit of good deeds; wipe it all out in a vessel of humility, sift it through the sieve of sanity, pour it into the konob (i.e. cauldron) of hope (hope), pour in sighs and add a few tear water; then light the fire of divine love, cover the horse with alms and cover it with the wood of hard work. When the prepared mixture is completely boiled, then treat it with brotherly love and accept it with the spoon of repentance. By accepting this medicine with pure faith, with the aid of abstinence and fasting, you will be cured of every sinful illness and will be healthy both in body and soul.” Punished and pardoned sinner One of the church writers, Symeon Metaphrastus, says: “Equal is evil and the hedgehog to speak inappropriately and the hedgehog to remain silent that is useful and honest. Just as a dishonest word harms the thoughts of those who hear it, so a good one who is silent deprives the pious of benefits.” In a person’s life there are often cases that go beyond the ordinary, and, looking carefully at them, you see, as if in a pure source, evidence of the all-governing Providence of God, and the more you penetrate into the essence of what is happening, the more clearly you see the manifestation of the highest creative power, you bow before the Almighty Provider, you realize your unworthiness, your sinfulness, which constantly offends the mercy of God, and from the depths of your soul you cry out By the Prophet King David: What is man that you remember him? (Ps. 8:5). At the end of the sixties of the 19th century, by the will of the diocesan authorities, I was ordained a priest in the Novo-Borisoglebsk central convict prison established by the government at that time. My service was not easy, since every single one of my parishioners was deprived of all rights and exiled here, some for certain periods, others for an indefinite period, and many for life. Most of them consisted of terrible robbers and murderers; There were also quite a few “educated” political criminals. Some of them boasted of their daring in robberies and extreme cynicism in immoral acts; others were proud of their unbelief or denial of the existence of God; and others flaunted one another's blatant blasphemy over the teachings of the Orthodox faith, its sacraments, rituals, and so on. And I had to visit all of them (and there were up to five hundred souls) every day in their cells, notice their mental illnesses and pastorally heal them. Of all the prisoners, the ones who most aroused pity in me, and therefore a special heartfelt participation in their sad fate, were the so-called eternal prisoners, that is, those imprisoned in cells for life. I sometimes sat with them for an hour. When asked how they were faring, whether they grumbled at the authorities and at God for their bitter lot, some responded with silence, others with the consciousness of their guilt and well-deserved punishment, while some were directly offended by the proposed question and objected with a grin: “What, father, if you were to come here, to join us for company, to be incubated until your death, and deprived of all hope of any kind of vegetation in this world until the end of your life?” life - so that you would sing then? When you remember your hopeless situation, you don’t know what you would do to yourself; So we call on witches, brownies, and the devil for help, but there is no deliverer: we even took the crosses off our necks, broke them in half and carried them in our shoes under our heels, so that Satan would not be afraid of the cross, would love us and would pay us a visit... Now we no longer think about God and do not place hope in Him; if He existed, then, looking at our suffering, He could not resist helping us; Perhaps in the old days He existed, but now He is not, no, He is not.” “Brothers! - one convict objected to this, quite young, pretty and with refined manners, who turned out to be a student at the University of Dorpat, a political criminal. - Brothers! you are naughty like children. God exists, but you just shouldn’t bother Him: they say, Lord, don’t leave me, give me generosity, I will shed tears like a river before You and make countless bows to the ground for my whole life, just save me - this is all unnecessary for now. For example, me! Why would I prematurely climb to God with requests, torment myself with groans and sighs, tear my soul with tears, exhaust myself with bows, fasting and prayer? I am young, my life is strong, my muscles are elephantine, we will live boldly for probably sixty years; Think, father, is it possible for me to play the role of a crybaby for so many decades? - this way you will tire of God and disgust people; to do this is typical only of small, unreasonable children who give their mother no rest day or night; And for us, and for me, three days is enough for all this. When I’m eighty years old, then, lying on my deathbed, I will say from the bottom of my heart: Lord! You are infinitely merciful, have mercy on me, as a thief who repented and hung with You on the cross; remember me with him in Your Kingdom.” Having given a decent instruction to everyone, as I was leaving the cell, I especially remarked to the young man not to philosophize any more than he should philosophize; that it is not ours to understand the times and years of our life, which God has placed in His power. “You see for yourself,” I continued, “that in this prison in just four months 200 souls died of scurvy, why not assume that you will be the 201st death victim? May the Lord enlighten you!” A week after this, when, after the Liturgy, I consumed the Holy Gifts at the altar, the prison guard reported to me that some prisoner wanted to see me and was waiting at the church door; coming out, I saw, to my considerable surprise, the young speaker, who had recently dreamed of a long life, emaciated, pale, pitiful. “What’s wrong with you,” I asked, “and why do you need me?” “After you left our cell,” he answered, “I was suddenly struck down by an illness - bloody diarrhea; I haven’t slept for a whole week, I haven’t eaten anything, I’m melting like wax. Help me, save me, I would like to live longer.” “I don’t have any medicine,” was my answer, “and even if I did, then, according to the prison rules, I cannot give you any powders, no vials, nothing except religious and moral books. The only medicine I have is prayer. Try this remedy too, and add repentance and tears to it.” He was not entirely willing to listen to my advice and went into the cell with a downcast face. A few days later, at the end of the service, they again reported to me about a prisoner who had very urgent and important business with me. I go out and see the same patient, trembling, with sunken eyes, leaning on his knees against the wall; barely taking a breath, he says to me in a broken voice, kissing my hands: “Father! my illness does not subside at all; the last strength is exhausted; death apparently raises its hand over me; the idea of ​​her terrifies me... And to move into boundless eternity without doing good... Oh, scary! Oh, Lord, have mercy and save me!” - and began to sob like a child. Then he continued: “Do you know, father, what came to my mind: bless me with proskomedia prosphora: I hope that if I eat it with faith, my illness will go away.” Rejoicing at such a good thought, I immediately took the requested prosphora from the altar and, handing it to him, added: “According to your faith, be it done to you: go in peace.” And, oh wonderful miracle! The grace inherent in the holy bread revived the terminally ill man: three days later he came to me in the church, shining with joy, and, in an abundance of grateful feelings, like the Evangelical Samaritan, he either prostrated himself before the holy icons, pressing them to himself and kissing them, then threw himself at my feet and hugged them tightly, then grabbed the parts of the sacred clothes and kissed them. I could not compare any of the most pleasant moments in my life with what my soul experienced at that time. Behold, I thought, how tangibly one can see the Providence of God and the great mercy of God towards sinners! He does not reject the one who turns and does not completely defeat, but preserves and strengthens the exhausted one. “Child,” I told him from the icon of the Savior, “behold, you are in good health: let no one sin, lest it be worse for him (John 5:14). The Lord gives you, and in your person and others, a lesson and warning that you should never rely on your own strength; that the soul of everyone is in the hand of God, and God wills him to live and wills him to die, brings him down to hell and raises him up; that one should never postpone the salvation of the soul to the distant future and that strong faith in God can create great, wonderful and glorious things not only from the proskomedia prosphora, but also from moving mountains from place to place, and nothing is impossible for it.” Blasphemous thoughts do not harm those who neglect them One bishop, having come to Rome, announced to Pope Gregory that he was confused and overwhelmed by numerous blasphemous thoughts against God, so that he was weak in the flesh from great sorrow and was already coming to despair. Hearing this, the pope said: “You are a bishop, but you do not know the wiles of demons. Our constant enemy, the devil, when he sees someone doing good and cannot seduce him into the path of sin, then begins to act on him with blasphemous thoughts in order to outrage him, upset his mind, deviate him from virtue and cast him into the depths of despair. But know that blasphemous thoughts have no meaning and cannot in the least harm those who neglect them and are not embarrassed. They cause harm only to those who, being cowardly and inexperienced, impute them to themselves as sin and fall into exhaustion from vain grief. On the same cowardly people the word of the prophet David comes true: there they were afraid of fear, where there was no fear (Ps. 13:5).” Thinking about blasphemous thoughts One of the most severe temptations to which people who stand on the good path of Christian life are often exposed is the internal thought of blasphemy against all that is holy, implanted in the soul of a person by the enemy of our salvation. This state becomes all the more painful for a person because he feels powerless to drive away blasphemous thoughts from himself even while standing in prayer before God. On the contrary, at this very time they seem to have an even stronger effect on a person, overwhelming his mind with all sorts of doubts and vile images. But what is most remarkable is that not only those who begin to lead a life according to God are exposed to such a grave temptation, but also people who have labored for a long time in the cause of salvation—often the highest ascetics of piety. To those experiencing such a gloomy state of spirit, Saint Theophan the Recluse, Bishop of Tambov, gives the following advice: "...The spirit of blasphemy torments you. The demon... produces them. He does this in order to confuse you and deprive you of the courage to pray. And what he means is whether you will agree to some kind of blasphemy in order to plunge you into the sin of blasphemy, and then into despair. The first thing to do against this demon is... not to be embarrassed and not at all to think that these are our thoughts, but to directly attribute them to the demon. Then - against thoughts and words - think and say the opposite. He inspires evil about the saint, and you say: you’re lying, you sly man: this is what he is like... So against this, and you keep saying it until they leave. Turn to the Lord with this prayer: I open my soul before You, Lord! You see that I do not want such thoughts and do not favor them. The enemy controls everything; drive him away from me. Saint Niphon was tormented for four years by a spirit that buzzed in his ears: there is no God, there is no Christ, and so on, but he said: God exists, and Christ, and I worship Him and serve with all my soul... God finally delivered him... Saint Demetrius of Rostov has a very intelligible and comforting article about this in the first volume.” “...Here is an obligatory confirmation for you that there is an enemy spirit of blasphemy in you: with what hostility does he treat the Lord Savior?! This is natural to him, for the Lord has destroyed their power, so that His name alone is terrible for them. Why should we listen to these crops of enemy potions! Pray that the Lord will remove from your heart the very possibility of such thoughts. Communion of the Holy Mysteries is very good! Help you, Lord! You need to confess fully... Tell your confessor everything and ask for prayers.” “...The elders write that when temptation attacks, one must fight it off from the heart with hostility towards it, and then, or at the same time, turn to the Lord with prayer. This is a strong, unpleasant remedy for the enemy. – We must prepare for it in a peaceful state. We must truly arouse in ourselves hatred against the enemy and his attacks.” How the monks freed themselves from blasphemous thoughts One pious monk, having suffered attacks from a blasphemous demon for twenty years, exhausted his body with fasting and vigil, but seeing that he was not getting any benefit from it, he wrote down on paper all his temptation and confusion and, coming to a certain holy man, handed him this paper, throwing his face to the ground and not daring to look at him. The elder, having read the paper, smiled and, raising his brother, said to him: “Put your hand on my neck, child”; and when the brother did this, the great man said to him: “On my neck, brother, let this sin be, both for the past and for the future; Just don’t worry about him anymore.” After this, the monk saw that before he had time to leave the elder’s cell, the passion had disappeared... “I heard this story,” says Saint John of the Climacus, “from the lips of that very monk who endured this temptation and (who), telling about it, sent thanks to God.” Another brother, being outraged by the demons of blasphemy, went to Abba Pimen with the intention of revealing his thoughts. But, without saying anything to the elder, he returned to his cell. However, seeing that the evil spirit greatly outraged him, he again went to the elder, but, ashamed to open up to him, he returned again without telling him anything. And he did this several times, coming to the elder to confess his thoughts to him, but out of shame he returned without saying anything. The elder learned that his brother was tormented by blasphemous thoughts, but was ashamed to open them, and when the brother came to him again and, without saying anything, wanted to leave, Abba Pimen said to him: “What’s wrong with you, brother, why are you leaving without telling me anything?” The brother answered: “What can I tell you, Abba?” The elder tells him: “I feel that thoughts are struggling with you, but you do not want to open up to me, fearing that I will not tell them to someone. Believe me, brother, just as this wall cannot speak, I do not reveal anyone else’s thoughts to anyone.” Encouraged by the elder’s promise, the brother told him: “Father, I am in danger of perishing from the spirit of blasphemy; for he is trying to convince me that there is no God, which even the pagans do not admit or think.” Abba tells him: “Do not be indignant at this thought, for although carnal warfare often happens to us from our negligence, this thought comes upon us not from our negligence, but is an obsession of the serpent himself. Therefore, when such a thought comes to you, get up and pray, and, having protected yourself with the sign of the cross, say to yourself, as if to your enemy yourself: anathema to you and your obsession, let your blasphemy be upon you, Satan, I myself believe that there is a God who takes care of everything, and this thought does not come from me, but from you, the evil-wisher.” And I believe, the elder added, that God will deliver you from such sorrow. Leaving the elder, the brother withdrew and acted according to his instructions. The demon, seeing that his intention had been discovered, by the grace of God, retreated from his brother. You might be interested in: