Instructions

The publication presents a collection of spiritual teachings and instructions from St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain. The author focuses on the key themes of Orthodox asceticism and moral theology: the struggle with passions, the meaning of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, love for God and neighbor, imitation of Christ, the path of salvation, the spiritual danger of even small sins and negligence about one’s salvation. The book is written in simple, accessible language and contains quotations from the Holy Scriptures and patristic works. Teachings of St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountain in audio format On the greatness of the Divine Eucharist Think about one gift, the preciousness of which becomes visible when three things are combined in you: awareness of the greatness of the gift, love for the One who gives it to you, and awareness of the benefit it brings. These three wonderful things reveal the gift given in the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist. Think about the greatness of this gift. God, having created the world, gave us a lot. First, He gave us ourselves, bringing us from non-existence so that we could exist created in His image and likeness. He gave us His countless creations, heavenly and earthly - not only immaterial and spiritual, but also material - so that we could take care of them. He created for us the heavens, the earth and everything that is in them. And an even greater gift was the Incarnation, in which God the Word united with human nature in order to make man a god by grace. Of all the possible gifts, only one remained, but the Lord gave it to man in the Divine Eucharist. In it He gives all people to eat His most holy Body and precious Blood, so that the soul of each person becomes deified, and in this lies wealth and good for us. This is what Rev. says about this Sacrament. John of Damascus: “This Sacrament is called “Acceptance” because through it we receive the Divinity Itself into ourselves; “Communion” - because through it we come into communion with Christ and become partakers of both His flesh and His Divinity.” In short, this Sacrament is the image of the entire Economy in the flesh. It contains both the Birth of the Lord, and His life among people, His suffering and death, descent into hell, Resurrection, Ascension, His sitting at the right hand of the Father and the Second Coming. All this is remembered in the Divine Liturgies of Saints Basil the Great and John Chrysostom. They also talk about those blessed people who, uniting with Christ in the Divine Eucharist, will receive eternal benefits. Here is what Archbishop Nicholas Kavasila of Thessaloniki says about this: “Then these blessed ones will be united with each other and with Christ, just as the members of the body are united with the head and with each other. However, even now, partaking of one Bread and one Cup, they come into this unity, as the Lord’s prayer says: “that they may be one, even as We are one” (John 17:22).” So, we have nothing more left to ask of our Savior, for like the Apostle Philip, we could only say: “Lord, it is enough for us” (John 14:8). If we start looking for what for our life? or better, then He will tell us: “The Sacrament that I have given you is the fullness of all blessings and I have nothing greater than it. I have given you all good things in this Bread and in this Wine.” What an incomparable gift! What a blessing, unsurpassed in all centuries - even the many-eyed Cherubim and six-winged Seraphim cannot comprehend it! So, beloved, should you not, before participating in this good deed and gift of God, sacrifice all of yourself to the One to whom you will offer thanks at the Liturgy? Will you really continue to remain ungrateful, despite such great gifts received from God? What will the Angels say about such ingratitude? What will the saints in heaven who have known the great love of God say about her? Be ashamed of the ingratitude that you show during the celebration of the Sacrament called Thanksgiving (Eucharist). And it is called so not only because the Lord, when he handed it over to us, gave thanks to the Father, as it is written: “he took the bread and, blessing, broke it” and “taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them” (Matthew 26:26, 27), but also because it encourages us to thank God for His many benefits and for the grace that He gives us in this Sacrament. Consider also that the punishments will be proportionate to the gifts if we do not use them as we should. That is, how great are the blessings coming from God, so great will be the punishments for you if you leave the gifts of God fruitless within yourself. Promise the Lord that you will give Him all of yourself, just as He gives everything to you. Give Him gratitude for this great and immeasurable gift and ask Him to add one more thing to all His blessings - renewal of the spirit and renewal of the heart: so that you understand His blessings as you should and can give thanks for them accordingly. Think, beloved, about the love that God shows you in the gift of Divine Communion. In this Sacrament, His love reaches the limit of perfection, as the Evangelist John says: “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). And just as the heat of a furnace is known by the flame escaping from it, so the Lord’s love for us is known by the Sacrament of the Divine Eucharist. How, beloved, can you answer God for such love? Our Lord wants one thing: to unite with your damned soul, but you do not want to unite with Him - the all-surpassing Good? The Creator shows such ardent love, but the dust shows such coldness? The Lord deigns to live in you and make you His home, but you, an ungrateful creature, slam the door in front of Him and don’t want to let Him in? By showing such ingratitude, you become like those Jews who in the desert wanted Egyptian onions and garlic, that is, carnal pleasures. What else should God do to overcome your insensibility and inhumanity? So, as you stand before the majesty of God, acknowledge your plight. Devote yourself entirely to the Lord in this Sacrament and let in your beloved Jesus, Who established this Sacrament out of His great love so that you too could express your love for Him in it, so that it would be a mediator between a loving God and you, loved by Him. What a heavenly and lovable union! Wake up, brother, stay awake and beware with all fear of any sin that defiles you. Having partaken of the most pure Mysteries, say to yourself: “Now I have become the house in which God Himself dwells. How can I then make myself a dwelling place of sin? I have united myself with God, how can I make my members the members of a harlot? “Shall I therefore take away the members of Christ to make them members of a harlot? It won’t happen!” (1 Cor. 6:15). Finally, ask the Lord, in Whom you believe and Whom you love, to increase your love, the desire for unity with Him and the burning of your love for Him. Just as the Lord on the throne in the church sacrifices Himself for your love, so you, being obliged to His love, bring to Him your thoughts and desires, as it is written: “The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit” (Ps. 50:19). The sacrifice is almsgiving, doing every good thing and cutting off passions, as the Apostle Paul says: “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1). To become a beloved, you need to love yourself, as the beloved disciple of Christ says: “Let us love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Think, beloved, about the benefits brought to you by the gift of the Divine Eucharist. This gift is called “Communion” - through it we become sharers of all goods and, above all, the Kingdom of Christ. Rev. also speaks about this. Isidore Pelusiot: “The reception of the Divine Mysteries is called “Communion” because through them we are given unity with Christ and we become partakers of His Kingdom.” Also St. Gregory the Theologian writes: “The Most Sacred Body of Christ heals the sick, preserves the healthy, strengthens the weak. Through him we become more meek in our correction, more patient in our labors, more ardent in our love for God.” Finally, through Divine Communion, Christ implants in us the seeds of immortality, as He Himself said: “He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:54). Think, beloved, about the reason for one terrible fall - the renunciation of Peter, who, although he was the first and most ardent disciple of Christ, later, despite this, with an oath renounced his Teacher. May his fall enlighten you. The main reason for Peter's denial was pride. It was she who made Peter exalt himself in his opinion above the other Apostles when he said: “even if all are offended because of You, I will never be offended” (Matthew 26:33). And even when the Lord predicted his fall, Peter did not pay attention to it: “But he said with even greater effort: even though I had to die with You, I will not deny You” (Mark 14:31). It was pride that made him impudent and disdainful of danger, not only when he entered the courtyard of the high priest, where there were many servants, but also when he sat down to warm himself with them by the fire. He was so impudent because he thought that he should not be afraid of the devil, but the devil should be afraid of him. And how could he resist at that moment when he had such great pride? “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). When Jesus was led to the high priest, His beloved disciple followed Him. He also entered the chambers of Caiaphas, but was able to avoid the danger of abdication because he did not rely on his own strength and was not brave to the point of recklessness. He did not allow pride to enter his heart, and therefore did not renounce the Teacher. It was precisely because of his humility that the Apostle John did not say in the Gospel that it was he who followed Jesus, as the blessed one writes. Theophylact: “So he hides himself out of humility.” O damned pride, the beginning and root of all sin! What evil have you brought to the unfortunate man! Woe to you, my brother, if you are impudent and rely only on your own strength! Woe to you if you want to do anything without the advice of your spiritual father, who is wiser than you and knows better what is good for you. “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and understanding in themselves!” (Isa. 5:21). Woe to you if you think in disagreement with Divine Scripture and Tradition and stubbornly break the commandments given to you by your confessor. Woe to you if you allow pride to blind you to the thought that you matter in this world. Do you want to know, unfortunate one, what you really are? Think about this: before God, as the prophet says, “the nations are like a drop from a bucket” (Isaiah 40:15). Now divide this drop by the number of all people - both the dead, the living, and those who will live after us - and see what an insignificant part falls on each of this countless multitude. So, this part, which is the same as nothing, is what you are. And your strength is as insignificant as you yourself. Just as you yourself are nothing, so your powers are nothing. Now, you have solved this problem, now be proud of yourself if you can. If even after this you think highly of yourself, then know that you are very close to falling, as the wise Sirach says: “If someone does not carefully maintain himself in the fear of the Lord, then his house will soon be ruined” (Sir. 27:3). Think about how many times you have already been close to the greatest falls, how many times because of your pride the Lord did not give you His help. Turn to Him and with all your heart hate the damned pride, which is the cause of every fall, as the Rev. says. John Climacus: “Where the fall occurred, pride was established there first” (“Ladder”, word 23, chapter 4). So, kiss humiliation and love humility, which is the source of all virtues. If you write down a piece of paper with only zeros, then it is obvious that there will be nothing other than zeros on it. But if you write other numbers in front of each of the zeros: one, two, three, then these zeros will turn into significant numbers. So it is with all virtues: if they are performed without humility, they will remain simple zeros and will be worthless. And Abba Isaac the Syrian says that of all the virtues, only humility is given the grace of God. If you do not humble yourself and become like a child, you will not be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, as the Lord determined for us: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven; Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3, 4). You should be ashamed that you have so many reasons to despise yourself, but instead, you, foolish, want others to honor you. Pray to Jesus Christ, who once illuminated the blindness of Peter with His Divine glance and made him feel his mistake, that He will enlighten your blindness, so that you may learn what the Apostle says: “If anyone thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Think, beloved, about carelessness, which was also the reason for Peter’s denial. He “followed Him from afar” (Matthew 26:58). From these words it is clear that Peter was then careless and “lukewarm” (See Rev. 3:16). He did not want to completely leave his Teacher, nor to follow Him to the end. He wanted to remain His disciple, without exposing himself to the danger that would have overtaken him if he had fought for the Teacher to the end. In contrast to Peter, the beloved disciple John stood not far away, but close to Christ and entered the courtyard of the high priest not only to see the end, but also in order, if necessary, to die for Him. He loved Christ very much and did not want to leave Him even one step. Peter did not have such ardent love as John had. Due to his carelessness, he denied the Teacher and realized this only when the Lord looked at him: “Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord” (Luke 22:61). Peter's carelessness was like the cold weather at that time. Evangelist John writes: “The slaves and servants, having lit a fire because it was cold, stood and warmed themselves. Peter also stood with them and warmed himself” (John 18:18). As Theophanes Keramevs says, Peter was then really cold in his love for Christ, and therefore he warmed himself with the flames of the fire of peace and sin, which the servants of the devil laid out for the purpose of making Peter an apostate and mocking him. John, ardent in his love for the Lord, did not need to warm himself from this damned fire. Truly, carelessness is a terrible evil. Because Rev. Mark the Ascetic very often calls her “godless”, that she makes people godless and forces them to renounce Christ. And now, beloved, test your heart: is there any vice in it, like Peter’s, and whether the light given to you by God in the Holy Scriptures has not faded out in it, from which you will learn about the falsity of the pleasures of this life. You want to follow Christ, but at the same time you choose a path that does not lead you either to Christ or to the possession of the blessings of this world. In other words, you are looking for a path that would be neither broad nor narrow for you, that would not touch your passions, that would lead you, like Peter then, to follow Christ from afar. Peter was defeated by carelessness once, but you are defeated by it every day. Do not condemn Peter for denying Christ, but rather condemn yourself for the fact that, although you profess your faith in God in words, you deny Him in deeds, as the Apostle Paul writes: “They say that they know God, but deny by deeds” (Titus 1:16). Condemn yourself for making so many false promises, for your stubbornness, for your pride and complacency. How many times, having renounced Christ, have you relied only on your own strength and worshiped money as an idol! That is why the Apostle Paul calls covetousness idolatry (Col. 3:5). To put it simply, you prefer some pin to Christ and thereby renounce Him. That is why Chrysostom said that “there are many ways in which one can renounce Christ.” And you, brother, just as you imitated Peter in sin, so imitate him in repentance. For, as the Rev. said. Nikita Stifat, the falls of the saints are described to us so that we imitate their repentance. Peter denied the Lord once, but repented of this throughout his life. Disciple of Peter St. Clement of Rome mentions in his epistle a characteristic feature: when he heard the rooster crow, he immediately remembered his renunciation and cried. And you, as soon as you remember your sins, cry about them and shed bitter tears. Blessed Jerome says: “Prayer tames God’s anger, and tears incline Him to mercy.” Also, John Chrysostom writes: “Just as after rain the air becomes clean and transparent, so after tears the soul becomes clean and the mind becomes clear.” Be like Peter, who, as soon as he heard the rooster, woke up and remembered his sin; so you too, having heard the Lord calling you to wakefulness (See Mark 13:37), wake up from carelessness, remember your sins and stay awake. After his fall, Peter brought repentance and taught us not to be arrogant and to rely not on our own strength, but on God’s help. He also taught us not to despair and to have compassion for other sinners. And you, seeing the sins you have committed, learn humility and do not condemn those who have sinned, but treat them with compassion and exhort them not to give in to despair. When Peter brought sincere repentance, his apostolic dignity was restored to him and he again became supreme among the apostles. And you, having repented, will also be able to receive the grace of sonhood that you lost and again become the son of God and the heir of His kingdom. Know that the cause of all your falls is carelessness. Repent of it in the face of your Divine Teacher and decide from now on to begin a renewed, zealous life. Understand that carelessness is a terrible thing; she is from the devil. Ask God to free you from yourself, for you are often an enemy worse than the devil, as it is written: “those who sin fight against their own lives” (See Proverbs 8:36) Our sins and ingratitude to God Let us think, beloved, about the great and terrible number of our sins; we remember only a small part of them, and forget the rest. In order to remember at least some of them, we need to remember all the places in which we lived, all our age periods and all the people with whom we communicated - then we will understand how long the chain of sins we have committed is. The end of one sin became the beginning of another, so that there was not a single aspect of our fleeting life that we had not desecrated through our negligence. We have made all our feelings the gates through which death enters the soul, as the prophet Jeremiah says: “death enters our windows, invades our palaces” (Jer. 9:21). We have turned all the inner powers of our soul into instruments of sin. There is no evil that we would not commit. The only thing we didn’t do was what we couldn’t do or for which there wasn’t a convenient time; but what evil we could do, we did. We used all the will given to us by God so that we would strive for Him - the fullness of all blessings - in order to accommodate all the abominations of the world. We turned away from God with such amazing ease - as if both divine and natural laws meant nothing to us! Let us admit to ourselves, my brothers, that in the eyes of God our entire soul is sick and covered with wounds, just as Job’s body was covered with ulcers and eaten by worms. When sin begins to dominate a person, that person is punished by the product of sin - death. How many times should we have been punished with it for all the sins that possessed us? If mortal sin could immediately plunge us into hell, then how many times should we have been cast there along with our sins? But, despite this, the Lord, out of His abundant and great mercy, does not reject us and not only tolerates us with our sins for so long, but also shows us His boundless benefits. How long will we laugh at His mercy? Let us confess all the evil we have done and, as far as possible, let us imitate the love of God. Let us ask Him for punishment for our sins and promise Him that with our daring life we ​​will no longer anger Him. Then He will support us with His grace, so that we will not fall into previous sins again, as it is written in the Wisdom of Sirach: “Lord, Father and Master of my life! Do not leave me to their will and do not allow me to fall through them” (Sir. 23:1). Let us also think about the severity of our sins, because any of them is a great and terrible evil, and mortal sin especially, since it is at enmity with the immeasurable goodness of God, with it we offend God and show contempt for Him. Any mortal sin is of such gravity that neither all the deeds of the saints, nor all the holiness of the Angels, nor all the prayers of the Blessed Virgin can blot it out. On the scales of Divine justice, nothing can outweigh the weight of one mortal sin except the Cross and the Blood of the Savior. Therefore, sin is the greatest of all evils. All the torments of hell cannot be compared in severity with one mortal sin. The Holy Spirit speaks through Sirach: hell is preferable to one mortal sin. So great is the gravity of one serious violation of the will of God! The one who dares to do this has a heart of stone; he is like a dumb animal and an insensitive tree. He sins with such ease and fearlessness, as if he wants to harm not the True and Living God, but a false and depicted one. The Christian who sins and insults Christ with such audacity is doing what the idolaters did not dare to do with their wooden and stone false gods. And after all this, what else can we do but cry with tears of repentance throughout our lives for the insolence and cruelty with which we insulted God? And in order for us to please God and give due honor to His greatness, we must decide to do one very difficult thing: we must ask the Lord with all our hearts to give us the strength to fulfill it, because without the intervention of Divine grace we will not be able to change ourselves. Let us fervently pray to the Lord Christ to have mercy on us, to send us as many sorrows as we have often shown ingratitude to His mercy and love through our sins. Let's think about our ingratitude towards God and the good deeds with which He responds to it. As soon as we recognize the wealth of blessings given to us by the Lord - both common to all people and given personally to each of us - we will immediately feel that we are unworthy of all those great blessings and gifts in which God shows us His love. And how can we repay the Lord for all that He has done for us? The Angels themselves contemplate with amazement the humility, suffering and death of Christ, which He took upon Himself for our salvation. We are debtors of God's love. Since He suffered and died for us with such love, as if we were alone in the world, now we are debtors to His death. So, now seeing ourselves surrounded by so many blessings of God, we should no longer offend Him with our sins. Let us always repeat the words spoken by the wise Joseph: “How can I do this great evil and sin before God?” (Gen. 39:9). Why should we anger our sweetest Benefactor, who has given us such rich gifts? God created us out of nothing, and we neglect Him as if He were nothing. Instead of God, we give preference to our body, which is no different from rotten stuff. God gave us His life so that we would give Him ours, crucifying our passions and not irritating His wounds with our sins, according to the words of the Apostle Paul: “they again crucify the Son of God within themselves and mock Him” (Heb. 6:6). The Lord loved us, as befits His Divine greatness, and we preferred vile pleasures to Him, although they flee from us like a shadow. As the blessed one says. Augustine: “God delivered you from many troubles. When you were mistaken, He guided you to the right path. When you were perplexed, He taught you. When you were grieving, He comforted you. When you were weak, He strengthened you. When you fell, He lifted you up. As you stood, He affirmed you. When you walked, He guided you. When you came to Him, He accepted you. When you slept, He guarded you. When you called upon Him, He bowed down to listen to you.” For all this we rewarded Him with unheard of ingratitude. Let us repent of our insolence and ingratitude, with which we disgraced the goodness of God, and from now on we will fulfill His commandments with trepidation. We confess that we are worthy for the earth to swallow us alive, for the sea to cover us with its waves, for the sun to burn us with its rays, and for hell to finally devour us and eternal torment to engulf us with a burning flame. However, while we live, our whole life can become for us a time of repentance and turning to the merciful Lord, Who is always ready to forgive us who forget about our sins and give us endless bliss in His Paradise. What God did for our salvation Let us think, beloved, about how much God has done to save us. First, He prepared His Kingdom for those who would obey His will. God did not reserve happiness and bliss only for Himself, His Son and the Holy Spirit, but prepared it for us too, wanting to make us His children by grace and partakers of the Holy Spirit. For our salvation, the heavenly armies are fighting against demons - Archangels and Angels, whose ministry is to protect people and help them to be saved. The Holy Scripture also speaks about this: Angels “are ministering spirits, sent to serve those who are to inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14) For our salvation, God “from things that do not exist” created the sensory world and made us kings in it over all His creations, commanding them to serve us, and for us to fulfill His commands in order to receive pleasure in Him in another life. In short, in order for us to be saved, “God did not appoint us to wrath, but to receive salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). For our salvation, the Lord gave the law and commandments and sent prophets who had no other purpose than to teach us the way of salvation. And the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit - the whole Trinity acts for our salvation. And as great as the work of creating the world was, just as great, no less, was the work of our salvation. For both our introduction into the world and our salvation are the result of the action of God’s omnipotence. And faith has as its goal nothing other than the salvation of our soul, as the Apostle Peter writes: “finally achieving through your faith the salvation of souls” (1 Pet. 1:9). How blind we are, my brothers, if we do not see how much God has done to save our precious soul. So, having now learned about the greatness of salvation, let us live the few remaining days of our lives, always keeping in mind the words of the Apostle Paul: “Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). After all this, is it possible to never think about what the Lord did for our salvation? Let us get together, awaken all our dormant good aspirations and use the rest of the days of our lives to save the soul. Let’s say what the lawyer asked Christ: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25). This doing is the most necessary of all the works in the world: what should I do to be saved? Everything else is harmful, useless and vain. We have already exposed our salvation to danger many times; let us be afraid to do this in the future. Let us thank God that, in His great goodness, He tolerates our neglect of His salvation. Let us pray to Him that He will help us complete the work we have begun. Let us think, my brothers, about what labors, suffering and death Christ endured in order to save us. And by doing this, He showed us that our salvation is the most precious thing for Him. Instead of punishing us for our sins, for our insolence, for the fact that we always resisted His goodness, He suffered for us - the blasphemers and apostates. And He did not regret giving us His Divinity for our salvation. In Himself, He united it with human nature and accepted such suffering that His entire Body - from head to toe - was a continuous wound, and He experienced such torment that no other person has experienced, just as the prophet Isaiah says: “A man of sorrows and acquainted with pain” (Is. 53:3). He was born in poverty, in a cave. He had no place to lay his head. “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). He died in poverty. He endured the most severe blasphemies and ended his life with a dishonorable death, “having become obedient even to death, even the death of the Cross” (Phil. 2:8), and accepted unimaginable torment with His flesh from cruel tormentors to the point that His Blood flowed like a stream onto the ground. He experienced such sorrow and struggle that no one had ever experienced: “My soul is sorrowful unto death” (Matthew 26:38). And, to put it briefly, a whole abyss of torment was poured out on Him in order to extinguish the flame of eternal torment, which we kindled with our sins, and also in order for us to reach Heaven. So, after God delivered us with such a terrible death from our disastrous condition and endured so much suffering that no one had to endure, we learn how precious our salvation is. And if we do not understand this, then how unresponsible we will be before Him! After all this, let us think, my brothers, how amazing this is: Christ shed His all-holy Blood for our salvation, but we do not want to take care of our own salvation as the Apostle Paul commanded: “Therefore, while we have time, let us do good” (Gal. 6:10). If we do not fear our negligence now, then we will certainly fear before the Throne of the Righteous Judge - Christ, when our deeds are revealed as they really were. Let us be ashamed of our foolish and sinful life, which we have lived until now, and decide to overcome all our passions and all the evil that is at war against us. And if until now we have neglected our salvation as an insignificant matter and unworthy of remembrance, now we will fervently pray to the Lord that He will enlighten us to begin at least now the work of saving our soul, because the time that we could use for our correction will not return. Let's think about the sins that some call light: although they are not mortal, they still have great severity; and we fall into them from weakness and lack of willpower. Sin, which seems light, is not such either in itself or in comparison with mortal sin. For example, a lake is called small when it is compared to a large sea, although in fact it is not small at all, because it contains a lot of water. Likewise, a small sin seems small only in comparison with a mortal sin, but taken in itself it is a great evil. Because both small and great sin stem from one source - violation of the Divine law, as the Evangelist John says: “Everyone who commits sin also commits lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). And, according to the Apostle James, “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet sins in one point is guilty of all” (James 2:10). So, my beloved, how can we call our ordinary sins small - for example, lying, or when we say: “Of two evils, let us choose the lesser, so that the greater does not happen”; or anger, relaxation in church piety, envy, the sorrow that we feel when our neighbor is ahead of us in virtue, idle talk, carelessness in words, satiety of the belly, pleasure of taste, and other similar things? How can there be small sins that incline us to great evil? Let us not assume that these seemingly petty sins are not contrary to the will of God and do not remove us from the divine glory of the Kingdom of Heaven. We are in error, in delusion, if we believe that some common sin, for example, idle talk, is not evil in the eyes of God. After all, the Lord spoke very clearly about him: “I tell you that for every idle word that people speak, they will give an answer on the day of judgment: for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36, 37). How can we say that our inappropriate laughter is not contrary to the will of God, while our Lord, when he became a Man, not only never laughed, but, on the contrary, cried four times. He also said in His teaching: “Woe to you who laugh now! for you will mourn and lament” (Luke 6:25). Basil the Great, in his rules for monks, defined a week of excommunication for laughing, inappropriate conversations or joking words: “If anyone makes a joke or laughs inappropriately, let him be excommunicated for one week.” How can we say that gluttony, drunkenness and lying are not contrary to the will of God, when the Lord Himself said that He will destroy “all who speak lies” (Ps. 5:7), and that the satiated will hunger: “Woe to you who are satiated now! for you will hunger” (Luke 6:25). And here is an image of how small sins damage virtue and diminish the divine grace in us: if a fly gets into the fragrant ointment, but is quickly removed from it, then the fragrance of the ointment will not be damaged, but if the fly remains in it, then the incense will turn into a stench, as the Holy Spirit said through the mouth of Ecclesiastes: “Dead flies spoil and make the ointment of the ointment of the ointment stink” ( Eccl. 10:1). So are small sins - when a pious and virtuous soul does not cleanse itself of them, they cause great harm to it, because if they remain in it for a long time, then it begins to incline its will towards them, and then the purity of virtue and the fragrance of divine grace are removed from it, and the achievement of perfection of such a soul becomes a very difficult matter. These sins make the soul vile and hateful before God. After all, if only one evil thought is nasty and hateful in the eyes of God, as the Proverb says: “The thoughts of evil are an abomination to the Lord” (Prov. 15:26), and if thoughts alone, when they are evil, separate the soul from God - “wrongful thinking separates one from God” (Wisdom 1:3), - then how much more does it separate from the love of God and become disgusting to His infinite goodness is that damned soul that actually commits these “small” sins? We need to run away from these “small” sins, because if we intend to simultaneously please God and not give up “light” sins, then what could be more hateful to Him than our desire to unite Heaven with hell, darkness with light, fire with water and holiness with evil? These sins, although they seem small, are extremely serious because they offend the All-Holy God. Likewise, the greatest evil caused by someone to a creature is insignificant compared to that caused to the Creator. Let us be ashamed of the ease with which we commit acts that are displeasing to God. Let us fulfill the commandments of the Lord - all without exception - and decide not only not to commit these small sins, but also not to allow our hearts to incline toward them at all. If we happen to fall into them due to the weakness of nature and will, then we will not allow our heart to be carried away by them, but let us hate them, repent and confess them and ask the Lord to strengthen us with His grace so that we do not fall into them again. Let us also think about the many evils that “light” sins bring into our souls. Just as illness weakens the body, so small sins remove all good from our soul and weaken it, destroying the virtues that give a person the fragrance of holiness. Every sin, although it seems light, removes us from the fruits of spiritual life, places us far from the Holy Mysteries and prevents our unity with the Lord Christ, just as the prophet Isaiah says: “your iniquities have created a separation between you and God” (Is. 59:2). This small, seemingly forgivable sin makes our soul cold for love, kills piety, dries up tears of tenderness, extinguishes repentance and prevents the grace of Christ from instilling in us. However, an even greater evil is when we easily move from small sins to grave, mortal sins that completely destroy an unfortunate person. These sins render the good habits of the soul powerless and prevent them from receiving help from God. Let us now dwell on how we move from small sins to large ones. It seems to us of little importance to carelessly examine someone's beautiful face. But let's see what sins are born from this. Looking at beauty gives a reason for unclean thoughts to attack us. First, they begin to attract our attention to themselves, then a determination appears in us to achieve pleasure, then we actually commit a sin, its repeated commission gives rise to a habit of it, the habit gradually turns into a permanent custom, the custom grows into the need to sin, such a state gives rise to despair, and despair plunges a person into eternal torment. The Lord gave the Nazarenes a commandment not to drink wine and not to eat not only ripe, but even unripe grapes, and also not to drink their juice. And this is because the one who eats unripe grapes gradually develops a taste for ripe ones, from it - to grape juice, from juice - to wine, and from wine - to drunkenness. Now we see what a long chain leading to, starting with a “light” sin. He who does not pay attention to small sins falls into big ones, as the Holy Spirit says in the Wisdom of Sirach: “He who values ​​little things will gradually decline” (Sir. 19:1). Finally, Saint John Chrysostom says that although the seeds are small, large trees grow from them, and foxes are also small animals, but they destroy the entire vineyard. Likewise, small passions, like foxes, eat up the clusters of virtues; a person gradually becomes corrupted and falls from small sins into great ones. Desire for pleasure To bring pleasure to the five senses is a pleasant and at the same time painful attraction that a person feels in his heart. However, no most eloquent person will ever be able to fully describe all the evil and harm that pleasure brings to the soul. If the devil offers us poison, we will not drink it, even if he mixes it with the honey of pleasures (when I talk about pleasures, I mean by them the satisfaction of carnal lusts - fornication, adultery and other similar passions). Each of us knows that impurity and shamelessness of pleasures blind the mind and tie the heart to the transitory affairs of the world. After this, the words spoken by one virtuous person will seem true, that besides infants, few will reach Paradise and be saved. Pleasures are nourished by long sleep, delicious food, beautiful clothes, soft beds and, in general, everything that brings peace to our body. Lovers of pleasure rush to feasts, to entertainment, to bad company, to shameless songs, to comedies, to holidays and do not miss a single opportunity for pleasure; their life is full of pleasures, fornication, entertainment and all kinds of sins. And if someone reproaches them for such a life, they will begin to call him an uncouth hillbilly who wants to turn cities into deserts and the laity into hermits. They will say this in order to justify themselves. They consider only one thing good - to spend time in entertainment: from the bed they move to the table, from the table to entertainment. And this is how their whole life goes - without rest they run from one sin to another, and hell opens its mouth to swallow them all, who plunge themselves into it. The Lord himself, through the mouth of the prophet Amos, spoke about how far from happiness are aristocrats and princes who sleep in soft beds, eat excellent food and have fun in all possible ways. Woe to you who are rich and have peace in this life! Woe to you who are satiated with every pleasure! Woe to you who laugh now! Woe to you when people praise and honor you! Someone will say that entertainment and pleasure are not evil until they turn into sin. But Jesus Christ says that such a way of life is preparing oneself for torment. Woe to those who, because of momentary pleasure, will suffer in eternity among endless torments! The Lord warned us that the path of pleasure is very dangerous. Think about the devastation that pleasure causes in your soul. Pleasures and pleasures render the strongest powerless. It is because of them that some Christians become so powerless that, having seen only the shadow of pleasures and temptations, they are immediately ready to turn back and give up without a fight. The calling of a Christian is the calling of a warrior. No matter how tempting pleasures may be, they should not defeat the Christian warrior. But there are also weak warriors - although they confess their powerlessness, which appeared in them from carnal sins, but then they fall into them again. You ask: is it a sin to sleep peacefully, eat and drink well, go to festivals and amusements? But with this question you only want to justify yourself, because all this may not be a sin, but by doing this you are preparing for it. All this prevents you from ever tasting the spiritual benefits that come from God. And you will suffer from them, just as Solomon once suffered, who was not careful in his pleasures and because of them fell into idolatry, or as the inhabitants of Sodom suffered, who, with their gluttony, drunkenness and love of entertainment, reached a terrible and vile state - they fell into debauchery and unnatural vices. Tertullian very often said that Christians should reject pleasures because they pamper a person and because of this his virtue becomes weak and powerless. The lethargy and impotence that appear in the soul from pleasure are contrary to the destiny of a Christian. Our goal is to become like Jesus Christ, Who is the Head of the predestinated, as the Apostle Paul teaches us: “those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29). In order to come to His Glory, Christ spent his life in poverty, sorrow and reproach, and sensualists are afraid of this way of life and that is why they do not want to repent. Did they really find some other Gospel, or did another Christ come to them, promising them, foolish ones, beautiful clothes, sweet food, peace, entertainment and honor from people? They forgot that “strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life” (Matthew 7:14). Listen to one more important thing. Once upon a time, a noble and rich nobleman who loved pleasure heard about the virtuous life of a certain man and went to him to consult with him. And so, that spiritual husband says to him: “Christ was poor, and you are rich, Christ fasted, and you are full, Christ did not have enough clothes, and you had too many, Christ endured sorrows and suffering, and you eat sweetly, rest and sleep on a soft bed.” Hearing this, the nobleman became agitated, repented, and from that time on did not stop tearfully asking the Lord for forgiveness for the life he had led before. Learn from this that it is better to endure sorrows in this life than to suffer forever in another. Saint Athanasius the Great also speaks about this: “He who has peace in this world, let him not hope to receive eternal peace, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs not to those who are here in peace, but to those who spend this life in sorrows and deprivations” (Sermon on Virginity). Be patient in this life so that you do not hear the terrible words of Christ: “child! remember that you have already received your good things in your life” (Luke 16:25). And finally understand that the Kingdom of Heaven is acquired not by those who are in idleness and comfort, but by those who force themselves, as the Lord said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force, and those who use force take it” (Matt. 11:12). So, no longer say that pleasure is not a sin, and turn to God with repentance, so that you can become truly happy. Think, beloved, that the Teacher of the Gospel is Jesus Christ, the Teacher of all teachers and preachers. He alone is the Lord and Teacher, as Nicodemus called Him, who came to Him at night: “Rabbi! we know that You are a Teacher come from God” (John 3:2), and as the Lord Himself said about Himself: “Do not call yourself teachers, for you have only one Teacher – Christ” (Matthew 23:8). He came into the world not only to redeem us, but also to teach, as He Himself says: “For this purpose... I came into the world, to testify to the truth” (John 18:37). And to further establish this truth, Heavenly Father loudly commanded us to listen to this Teacher: “Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5). But let's take a closer look at This Teacher. He, unlike other teachers, teaches not so much with words as with deeds. Think of the toil our Savior went through to teach us the truth. To create all things, it was enough for Him to say only one word: “As He spoke, and it came to pass: He commanded, and it was created” (Ps. 149:5). However, in order to teach us His will and reveal to us the treasures of His wisdom, He stripped off His majesty, “taking on the form of a servant,” as the Apostle Paul says, “being made in the likeness of men, and in appearance becoming like a man” (Phil. 2:7), and endured all those sorrows that teachers and preachers of the Divine word have always experienced. What else could the Unfalse Truth do for us, more than the fact that She revealed herself to us hypostatically and taught us the truth? “I am the truth” (John 14:6). In what other way could our sweetest Teacher show us His love than by the labors He endured: He climbed mountains and descended from them, walked all over Judea with His feet, and suffered so many disgraces! He was called a glutton, a drunkard, and a demoniac - and all this in order to show us the path leading to life. “And Jesus walked throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23). What answer or justification can you have before the Lord, sinful man, if you do not believe His Divine teaching and do not walk in His light? “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22). Be ashamed that for so long you followed the false teachings of the world and the flesh and neglected the wonderful advice of Divine Wisdom, preferring to follow the advice of earthly wisdom - bestial and devilish, never wanting anything higher than glory and respect among people, not trying to heal your feelings, your crazy passions and lusts, but instead collecting silver so that in the end you could become like a donkey loaded with money. You have been given the greatest gift - you can listen to the Incarnate Word Himself, those words of Him that the prophets and kings wanted to hear, but did not hear. “I tell you that many prophets and kings desired... to hear what you hear, but did not hear” (Luke 10:24). When you are going to read the Gospel and open it, then do it as if you were opening Heaven, since this Book, written with the greatest reverence, contains the teachings of Christ Himself. Saint John Chrysostom wrote about it this way: “Reading the Scriptures is the opening of Heaven” (Second Homily on Isaiah). Read it as if the Lord Himself was teaching you. When you read His words, you do not feel any fear, but how strongly the hard-hearted people of Israel felt this fear and, not having the strength to bear it, asked Moses: “Speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die” (Ex. 20:19). Think about the teaching of the Heavenly Teacher contained in the Gospel, especially His Sermon on the Mount, which was recorded by the Evangelist Matthew: “When He saw the people, He went up onto the mountain; and... opening His mouth, He taught them” (Matthew 5:1, 2); examine the following three properties of Divine teaching - height, truth and usefulness. The height of the teaching, previously hidden and incomprehensible to the wise, has now become clear, as the Lord said: “I will speak hidden things from the creation of the world” (Matthew 13:35). Until this time, the world believed that it would be happy only when it had wealth, fame and pleasure. Now you can imagine how surprised the human race was when it first heard that the Lord was talking about completely opposite things - that happy are the poor, the crying, the humiliated, the meek, the hungry, the peacemakers, the pure in heart, the unjustly persecuted and the accused. And on the contrary, that the rich are unhappy, whose hearts are attached to the blessings of the world, as well as those who are satiated with the pleasures of the world, having fun, laughing, and being honored by people. And who can comprehend this inexpressible height inherent in the entire teaching of the Divine Gospel?! The Apostle Bartholomew very accurately called the Gospel both small and great - small in volume and great in content and height of teaching. According to Saint Ambrose of Milan, the Gospel is like an abyss in which we can find the fullness of gifts, it is like a sea of ​​spiritual secrets in which the mysterious Fish swims - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior. Blessed Jerome calls the Gospel an abbreviated Theology, Origen - the beginning of all Holy Scripture. And if the entire Holy Scripture is called by Augustine an encyclopedia of all sciences, by Basil the Great - a forge in which souls are forged, and a granary of spiritual grains, then how excellent is the Gospel in it - the New Testament, renewed by the Blood of the Son of God! The Gospel teaching is true because it comes from the mouth of the Wisdom of the Most High, which is the truth, as it is said in the Wisdom of Sirach: “I (i.e., Wisdom) came out of the mouth of the Most High” (Sir. 24:3). And although all people - from Adam to the end of the world - turn out to be liars, God alone does not lie, but always remains true, as the apostle says Paul: “God is faithful, but every man is a liar” (Rom. 3:4). The benefit of the teaching of the Gospel is evident from the fact that it contains teaching and knowledge leading to salvation and life, as it is written: “to make His people understand His salvation” (Luke 1:77). And again: “The words that I speak to you are spirit and life” (John 6:63), because they contain all the foundations of Christian morality - they show us what is good and what is evil and clothe us with a new person, “created after Christ” (Compare Eph. 4:24). Now look what you are doing. Don't you show by your actions that your faith is completely different? When the Gospel teaches you theoretical truths and dogmas of faith, you recognize their great dignity, however, when it offers you practical advice for correcting your morals, all your lusts awaken in you and begin to put pressure on you, making you unwilling to obey the Gospel commandments. So, keep in mind that, as the Lord said, “he who does not receive My words has one who judges him: the word that I have spoken will judge him at the last day” (John 12:48). You need to put your faith into practice, because theoretically, “even the demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19). Faith in works is a characteristic feature of Christians alone: ​​“but I will show you my faith by my works” (James 2:18). Wake up and come to your senses. Rekindle your faith and love for the Divine Teacher. Repent that until now you have fed your heart with deeds contrary to those that the Lord teaches. Pray to Christ to give you a courageous heart so that you can live with it according to the words of the Apostle Paul: “It is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be justified” (Rom. 2:13). Think, beloved, about the mental warfare for which our Lord came into this world, as He Himself said: “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). In this war, our Savior Jesus Himself is the Military Leader and King, so powerful and majestic, wise and worthy of love, accompanied by all the Angels and saints. And He does not go to war in order to impose His royal tax on all the peoples who disobey Him and become richer, but He Himself becomes poor in order to enrich them. Think of Christ as the King who, through all the riches of His Divinity and Humanity, guides the lives of everyone who obeys Him. Not only a King, but also a Man is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, as St. John the Theologian speaks about this in the Apocalypse: “On His robe and on His thigh is written the name: “King of kings and Lord of lords”” (Rev. 19:16). And after that, think that this King is calling all people to war, and you too. The purpose for which He calls us is to fight with His enemies and with our enemies, that is, with the flesh, the world and the devil. In this war, the King goes ahead of everyone, as it is written: “I will go before you and level the mountains, I will crush the copper doors and break the iron bars; and I will give you the treasures kept in darkness and the hidden riches” (Isa. 45:2, 3). In all times of war, He is the first to face danger and accept the wounds of battle. However, as soon as the war is over, the glory of victory and crowns will go to all the warriors. The Lord, having come into the world, spending his life in poverty, amidst sorrows and reproaches, dying on the Cross, conquered the world, as He Himself says: “Be of good cheer: I have conquered the world” (John 16:33). He also defeated the devil - “Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). Finally, He conquered the flesh, as the Apostle Paul writes about this: “God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sacrifice for sin, and condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). And so countless souls solemnly followed the example of the Lord and now, having defeated the enemies about whom we spoke, they triumph with Him in Paradise. And one received five cities, the other ten, according to the work of each (Wed. - Luke 19:11-26). O glorious law of war! In earthly wars, warriors fight, but the king remains in a safe place, but in spiritual warfare, the king is the first to enter the battle, and the troops follow Him. What should you do now that you have been called to this war? You see that war is short, but victory and peace after it are eternal. You see that those enemies whom Jesus wants to defeat are more your enemies than His, because they cannot overthrow Him from the kingdom, but they can you if you do not defeat them. So, get up and make a firm decision to unswervingly follow the Lord, imitate Him in everything and endure everything that will be necessary to please Him. And when you become close to Him, you will find great happiness in this. Repent of your past life, which was opposite to the life of Christ, because for you those who were friends for Him were enemies, that is, poverty and the poor, sorrows and those who mourn, reproaches and those who are reproached. You looked like the morning star, who is the prince of those who are tormented, in contrast to Christ, the Prince of those who are saved. So, change your military camp and henceforth have your former enemies as friends, and your former friends as enemies, and turn all spiritual weapons against them in order to gain victory over them. And since the victory that follows this mental warfare is given from the Lord, as it is written: “A horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory is from the Lord” (Prov. 21:31), then pray to Him that He will enlighten you with His grace, so that you can clearly see both now and in the future the crosses, sorrows and hardships sent to you, and that He will give you the strength to endure them without grumbling and with gratitude, as befits Him follower, understanding that all trials are precious and desirable for you. Because he who follows Christ in this life and endures various sorrows will in the future rejoice forever with his King, as the divine Paul says: “If we endure, we will also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:12). Consider, beloved, that the people who follow Christ in this war are of three types. The first type includes those who follow Christ only in their thoughts, from afar, they admire this war, but still cannot decide to take up arms in order to fight against the enemy themselves and defeat him, since they do not want to imitate the example of Jesus Christ, but are in laziness and idleness. The second type includes people who arm themselves and go into battle, but only when they want, and do only what seems right to them, and not what is in accordance with the will of God. They believe that they can win this war by leading a quiet life, living as they please and being proud. The third type includes people who, despite everything, remain firm, because they, giving God all the strength of their souls and all the glory of victories, become imitators of Christ. In this war they do nothing without the advice of their spiritual fathers, but are always obedient to their will. So, the first rank includes the cold and idle, the second - the lukewarm and lazy, the third - the hot and zealous. What rank do you belong to, brother? If it’s the former, then woe to you. Because during Baptism you promised God to fight your passions and the devil, but you stand in the distance doing nothing, instead of taking up arms and going to war. And how have you forgotten, unfortunate one, that if you do not fight and win here, your enemies will kill you forever? Don't you know that if you don't fight, you won't receive either a crown or a reward? And who has ever, being careless and sleeping, defeated an enemy? Or on whom was the crown placed if he was in pleasure and entertainment, as Basil the Great says: “Who, by dozing, earned himself a triumphal arch? Or who, while enjoying himself or playing the flute, was adorned with crowns of victory?” So, beloved, abandon laziness and arm yourself for war against your mortal enemies. And do not look at how others fight, lest you become carefree and hear what Moses said to the sons of Gad and Reuben: “Your brothers will go to war, but will you remain here?” (Num. 32:6). If you belong to the second rank, then you are neither hot nor cold, but warm. To such people the Holy Spirit speaks in the Apocalypse: “But because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (Rev. 3:16). He will cast you out on the day of Judgment, when he meets you, who have only spoken and done nothing, with the words: “I never knew you; Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23). You want to become virtuous, but only without effort. You want to do good, but at the same time you don’t want to offend the world. You strive to get rid of your evil customs, but you do not want to grieve for this. You want to serve God, but only with words. In short, you want to see both heaven and earth at the same time with one eye. You want to fight that passion to which you are only slightly susceptible, but you don’t fight the one that has completely engulfed you. When Christ calls you to change yourself, you change only externally, without internal rebirth. It is necessary not only to fight, but to fight correctly, as the Apostle Paul says: “But if anyone strives, he will not be crowned if he struggles unlawfully” (2 Tim. 2:5). Repent of the fickleness of your thoughts and from now on surrender yourself into the hands of the Lord, saying from your whole heart: “Lord! I will follow You wherever You go” (Luke 9:57). God is the perfect good, which we must love, and sin is the extreme evil, which we must hate and abhor. God is an immeasurable abyss of perfection, and sin is an abyss of evil. God is good, infinitely higher than all good, and sin is evil, infinitely worse than all evil. God is a Being in comparison with Whom everything else is nothing, and sin is such a vile abomination that in comparison with which all other misfortunes cannot be called evil. Finally, sin is the greatest monster, both in the present and in the future life. And God Himself does not know another monster so great and terrible that would oppose His greatness and goodness. There is nothing He hates so much as sin (as the wise Sirach said, “the Lord hates sin”), because if He did not hate it, He would not be God. One can say this: hell would cease to be hell if sin were removed from it - it would turn into Paradise. This is how bitter and potent the poison of sin is! And what can we say about how vile we are before God when we commit a sin that is the enemy of the good God? By loving this monster called sin, we become evil and disgusted with the Lord Himself. We become hated by Him, for our sin is hated by Him, as the Holy Spirit says through the mouth of the wise Solomon: “The wicked man and his wickedness are equally hated by God” (Wis. 14:9). Let us recognize our woeful situation and the depth of our fall. Let us give thanks to the merciful God, who stretches out His hand to us to help us free ourselves from the vile clothing in which sin has clothed us. However, in order for us to completely get rid of sin, our will must come into unity with the will of God - only then will our sin be erased. We must use this will together with all our strength to fight sin. We also need to pray to the Lord to strengthen us with His grace - so that we can resist sin and not be its slaves. By definition, Rev. Maximus the Confessor, sin is an “unnatural movement”; it deprives the unfortunate sinner of all supernatural gifts and benefits. He also deprives the soul of the grace of sonhood - this greatest gift given to us by God. Sin exposes the soul and brings it into the most miserable state of desolation, depriving it of the reward for good deeds. And the worst thing is that it deprives a person of the opportunity to be an heir of the Kingdom of Heaven, as the Apostle Paul says: “If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). Sin destroys in the soul the blessings given to it by God - peace with conscience and purity of thoughts. He also fills the body with uncleanness and unbridled lusts, that is, he destroys the church of God, as the Apostle Paul writes: “you are the church of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16). What else can we tell you? According to Saint Athanasius the Great, “sin and evil did not come from God, were not in God, they were not originally and do not have any essence.” So, sin turns a person into nothing. And St. Augustine says: “Evil is nothing more than the absence of good.” A person who serves sin lives a sorrowful and anxious life, like Cain, who, having killed his brother, began to tremble all over with fear: it seemed to him that the hills were trembling and the earth was shaking, which is why the place in which he settled was called by him “Nod,” which means “trembling earth.” The life that man lived after the Fall cannot be called life, but death, or, more precisely, the pledge and beginning of future torment. Saint John Chrysostom, interpreting the twentieth chapter of the book of Genesis, says this: “A fornicator, or an adulterer, or one who serves another similar sin, even if he hides it, will not find peace in his life. He is afraid of suspicion, his soul constantly trembles, like shadows in winter. His sleep is not sweet, he does not feel pleasure while eating, he is filled with fears, which he cannot get rid of either by visiting friends or in any other way.” Finally, a Christian, enlightened by the word of God and faith, having recognized the evil brought upon him by sin, cannot fall into it again. Let us be ashamed, brothers, of the disastrous state to which sin has brought us, and let us make a firm decision on how we should henceforth use our body, which has tempted us. And, since the evil inflicted on us and God cannot be healed in any other way except with hot repentant tears, we will ask Him to grant us the spirit of true repentance. Let's think about another evil brought by sin - eternal torment. If we cannot endure even a minute when a small fire burns us, then what can the flames of hell compare with, how can we endure eternal fire? The Prophet Isaiah, seeing the unspeakable torment of eternal fire, being in great fear and amazement, said: “Who of us can live with the consuming fire? Which of us can live with an eternal flame? (Isa. 33:14). Let us not forget how terrible it is to be deprived of the mercy of God, who wants to give our souls eternal bliss. Let us decide to courageously resist the temptations into which the devil plunges us, so as not to fall into sin and be ready to give not one, but a thousand lives, just so as not to submit to him. Let us ask the Lord to send us His grace, so that we can shed our blood, just so as not to upset Him again with new sins. 1. His obedience to parents The life of Christ can be viewed from three angles. The first is the obedience that He maintained towards His parents until the age of thirty, the second is His works during this period of time, and the third is His love for God and neighbor after the age of thirty. Let's talk about each of these three sides separately. Let us think, brothers, that the Lord of all, to whom all things are obedient, Himself, more than anyone else, maintained obedience to His parents. He obeyed His Most Holy Mother, Who was His Mother by human nature, conceived Him from Her most pure blood, carried Him in Her womb for nine months and nourished Him with Her milk. He necessarily had to be obedient to Her, as the true Lawgiver of the fifth commandment: “Honor... your mother, that it may be good for you” (Ex. 20:12), and also: “son... do not reject your mother’s covenant” (Prov. 1:8), and also: “he who obeys the Lord will give rest to his mother” (Sir. 3:6). He also obeyed the righteous Joseph, although he could not have done this, because Joseph was not His true father by nature, and the Lord was not his true son; this fatherhood and sonship were figurative and not true. However, despite this, the Lord maintained complete obedience to both of them - both the True Mother and the so-called father, as if he were His true father. That is why the Evangelist Luke said: “and he was in subjection to them” (Luke 2:51). The Lord, by His complete obedience to them, fulfilled all the canons and natural laws. The forty-second canon of the Council of Carthage determined that children should be subject to their parents until they can think and reason rationally, that is, until they reach fifteen or even twenty years of age, as established in chapter 32 of the Book of Numbers, and after reaching this age they are free and can dispose of themselves as they please. However, Jesus not only fulfilled, but also doubled the years of obedience that children must perform, and was in subjection to their parents for thirty years. Therefore, Saint Gregory of Nisskin, interpreting the words spoken by the Lord to His Mother (“What do I and You, O woman? My hour has not yet come” - John 2:4), says that the Lord, as it were, complained to His Mother that He had not yet reached the period of independence, but wants to continue to be obedient to Her. His hour has not yet come for Him to be free and sovereign. So, He continues to be obedient to Her and does what She asks Him to do, that is, turns water into wine. Jesus submitted to His parents and obeyed them with all diligence, with all joy, with all love, and humbled himself without the slightest murmur and without any external or internal contradiction. And He was obedient to them not only in the easy, but also in the difficult and burdensome. Not only in honorable and glorious deeds, but also in low and rude ones. What indescribable condescension! The One who calls the clouds with His voice and to whom the downpours tremblingly obey, as it says in the book of Job: “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds so that the waters cover you in abundance?” (Job 38:34) - Joseph sends him to the well for water, and He immediately obeys him. The One who sends lightning, and they immediately go: “Can you send lightning, and will they go and say to you: here we are?” (Job 38:35), - Mother calls to bring wood to the hearth, and He goes and brings it. He was ready to submit to any wave and will of His parents - He, Who said only one word, and everything began to happen: “That speech came to pass” (Ps. 149:5); He, whose commands no creature can transgress: “lay down a commandment, and it does not pass by” (Ps. 149:6); – He Himself was obedient to every word of His father and Mother - when they told Him to cook dinner, clean the house or do any other dirty work. What do you say, reader? If the King of Angels was obedient to His parents, that is, to the dust that He Himself created with His own hands, then what obedience should you show to your parents! How you should honor them, what love you should have for them and with what kindness you should treat them! Every child should give back to his parents the four things we said: obedience, respect, love, kindness. And in return, accept the other four from your parents - education, help, guidance and a good example. Children especially should have great patience for those shortcomings that often appear in their parents in old age, as it is written in the Holy Scriptures: “Son! accept your father in his old age and... Even if he becomes weak in understanding, have mercy and do not neglect him in the fullness of your strength” (Sir. 3:12, 13). And how do you expect to achieve success without listening to your parents' advice? This is what you put into your mind, says the word of God: “A disobedient son is in ruin” (Prov. 13:1). If you slander your father, then you are a blasphemer. If you insult and anger your mother, then you are cursed by the Lord, because “he who deserts his father is the same as a blasphemer, and he who provokes his mother to anger is cursed of the Lord” (Sir. 3:16). If you honor your father, then your children will honor you. And if you receive a blessing from your father, the foundations of your house will be firm. “He who honors the father will have joy from his children... for the blessing of the father establishes the houses of the children, but the oath of the mother destroys to the ground” (Sir. 3:5, 9). In short, it is absolutely necessary for you to be obedient to your parents. Only in this case should you not listen to them, but prefer love for God, when they force you to do evil and violate the commandments of God. And the Lord, when his parents were looking for Him, while He was in the church, said to them: “Why did you look for Me? or did you not know that I must be concerned with the things that belong to My Father?” (Luke 2:49). And you, brother, how many times have you disobeyed your parents and your spiritual fathers? How many times have you upset them with your contradiction? Be ashamed that you are so far from the example given to you by Jesus Christ, Who is a model for you in all virtues. He was also a model of obedience, so that you could follow in His footsteps. Repent, ask for forgiveness and pray to Him that He Himself will teach you true and perfect obedience. For He, being the Son and Word of God, who did not need to learn anything, taught us obedience by His example, as the Apostle Paul says: “though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by what He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). And just as He was obedient “even to death, even the death of the Cross” (Phil. 2:8), so do you, with all faith and love, ask Him to strengthen you with His grace, to be completely obedient to your parents and your spiritual fathers, because, as Basil the Great says, “true and perfect obedience has death as its limit.” Think, beloved, that our Lord Jesus Christ, from the time He became capable of physical labor, did not spend His life in idleness, but worked with His hands, was a carpenter, was engaged in woodworking - making doors, windows and everything else that is made of wood. He did this until he was thirty years old and was called not only the son of the carpenter Joseph, as it is written by the Evangelist Matthew: “Is He not the son of carpenters?” (Matthew 13:55), but also simply a carpenter, according to the Evangelist Mark: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mark 6:3). While righteous Joseph was alive, He worked and toiled with him, doing the same craft, He helped him in everything and behaved like the wise Sirach says: “He will serve those who gave birth to him as rulers” (Sir. 3:7). And since His parents were poor and earned their daily bread through great labors, it was fitting for the Lord to work with them, as St. Basil the Great says: “According to his early age, He obeyed his parents, enduring all bodily labor with meekness and complacency. And the fact that, although they were righteous and pious people, they were at the same time poor, needy and not abounding in wealth, is quite obvious” (Monastic Rules, 4). After the death of righteous Joseph, the Lord alone continued to engage in this craft. And it was not one of the glorious ones that sciences are (physics, geometry, mathematics, music and others like them); it was rough, difficult work and did not bring wealth. The Lord did this so that He, as a person, would have something to live on and to help His poor Mother and other poor people and wanderers. He also did this to show two things. The first is to give everyone an example not to sit idle, and the second is to teach people by their own example not to disdain any craft, which, even if it is the lowest and most dishonorable, cannot be an obstacle to a person’s salvation. Any working person should remember this, and besides this, he should refrain from lying, cheating and theft. What an amazing thing! The Lord of all, to whom everything in heaven and earth is subject, who created all His creations free, humbled himself to the point of serving people and working for them all day long. Wisdom, Who arranged heaven and earth, Who enlightened the human mind to invent various arts and crafts, humbled herself to the point of engaging in rough and hard work. That Wisdom, Who with amazing art created heaven and earth and moved human thought to the invention of arts, humbled herself to the point of engaging in the most humble of them. Truly, it was amazing to see Him - holding the whole world in His palm - getting up early in the morning, taking a basket of tools and going to one house or another, sweating in the summer and freezing from the cold in the winter, returning home in the evening tired from work. He who with His Spirit feeds all living things (not only animals, but also plants) and gives them every good thing - “who fulfills every living good will” (Ps. 144:16) - works from morning to evening for the necessary income. The human mind cannot contain this! No language can describe it! At the sight of this, the blood freezes in amazement. So, the word spoken by the Lord is true: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Are you perplexed, brother, and surprised when you read about this? Know that the Lord did all this as a wise doctor, in order by His example to heal sick humanity from two diseases and passions: to encourage the idle and lazy to work, and to teach those who work to behave honestly - not to rob or deceive customers. Learn to work hard, and not from the Angels, but from the Creator Himself of all Angels and people. If you are a Patriarch, then imitate the true Ecumenical Patriarch - Christ and remember that it is useful for you to do a little work: rewrite manuscripts, or write about something yourself, or do something else spiritual, so that you can fulfill your duty to church decrees. For in this way you will be able to guard your thoughts, and you will also give a good and useful example to your flock and fulfill the apostolic commandment, which says: “We did not eat anyone’s bread for free, but we labored and labored night and day, so as not to burden any of you” (2 Thess. 3:8). Because whoever does not want to work should not eat, as the Apostle Paul commanded the Thessalonian Christians: “If anyone does not want to work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). This was also done by the ancient Patriarchs - Chrysostom, Gregory, Athanasius, Cyril, Eulogius, and with them those who lived recently - Nektarios, Dositheos, Chrysanthus, Jeremiah and His Holiness Patriarch Sylvester of Antioch, who determined for himself to spend three hours every day doing icon painting. If you are a bishop, then follow the example of the Great Bishop, as well as very many ancient and new bishops. If you are a priest or monk, then it is even more necessary for you to imitate Jesus Christ in practicing some kind of art or handicraft. Because handicraft, according to the words of Saint Isaac, is like a muzzle, it prevents the emergence of idleness. With the money you earn, you will be able to help brothers in need. Therefore, all the fathers called “workers,” such as John Climacus, Ephraim, Isaiah, Euergetes, especially Basil the Great (in many sections of his “Rules for Monks”) show from the Holy Scriptures, using the example of the Lord, the apostles and prophets, that bodily handicraft is beautiful and useful. This is what Abba Isaac writes about him: “Peace and idleness are death for the soul; they provide demons with the opportunity to harm it.” And since a person is dual, that is, consists of body and soul, then his work must also be dual. The soul should be occupied with mental and unceasing prayer, and the body with work and handicrafts. If you, reader, are rich and noble, then imitate Him who is rich in mercy, “the Ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5), who, in order to give you an example, humbled Himself to the point of being engaged in handicraft. Do not allow your wealth to lead you to idleness and laziness, but also have some small handicrafts. You can write books, like the Emperor of Theodosius, who, having copied the entire Gospel with his own hand, read it daily, or like the Emperor John Cantacuzene, who wrote two wonderful books against Jews and Muslims. If you are not learned, then serve others with love (Gal. 5:13) - visit prisoners, the sick, widows, orphans, work in works of mercy, so that you are not condemned as a lazy and worthless slave. “The Lord...took man [whom he created] and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it” (Gen. 2:15), and not for him to sit there in idleness and laziness. Manual labor strengthens the body and makes it healthy, but idleness and laziness make it powerless, lethargic and sick. The wise Sirach rightly wrote: Idleness teaches many evils. We see this in practice: those who work have fewer passions and guile, while those who remain idle are often possessed by fierce passions. So, if you previously spent your life in idleness and idleness, then finally wake up from this heavy sleep of laziness. Change your life and repent of the fact that you did not follow Jesus Christ for so long and were like insensitive idols who have hands but never take anything in them, have legs but do not walk with them. Always keep in your mind the words that one monk said at the onset of day: “Body, work to nourish yourself; soul, be sober in order to be saved.” Think, brother, that even after thirty years, after Baptism, the Lord had perfect love for God and neighbor. St. Maximus the Confessor says that the devil, as soon as he heard the voice of the Father calling the Lord His beloved Son (during Baptism in the Jordan River: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” - Matthew 3:17) and knowing from the law about the two main and great commandments - “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength yours" (Deut. 6:5) and about the other - love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18), then he wanted to test the Lord whether He really loves God and his neighbor. After the Lord was baptized and was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert, to the Forty Day Mountain, as soon as forty days and forty nights passed, during which He did not eat or drink, the devil appears before Him and, since there are three main passions - voluptuousness, love of fame and love of money, begins to tempt Him with them. First, he checks the Lord to see if He is voluptuous. He says to Him: “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:3) so that You can eat and satisfy Your hunger. But the Lord, preferring love for God to love for this life, answers: it is written: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). After this, the devil tests whether the Lord is a lover of glory. By the permission of the Lord Himself, he lifts Him up, places Him on the wing of the church and says: “If You are the Son of God, throw yourself down” (Matthew 4:6), so that people, seeing how You fell to the ground and did not suffer any harm, would glorify You as a saint and a miracle worker. However, the Lord, preferring love for God and His glory to human glory, answers him that it is impossible to tempt God unnecessarily so that He will perform some miracle: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matthew 4:7). Finally, the enemy tempts whether the Lord is subject to the love of money. Again he lifts Him up one high mountain and in the twinkling of an eye shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and says: “I will give all this to You if you fall and worship me” (Matthew 4:9). But this time too, the Lord, preferring love for God to all the riches and kingdoms of the world, answers the devil: “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone” (Matthew 4:10). Thus, the Lord, having conquered the three passions, drove away the devil, who withdrew from Him in shame. “Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and served Him” (Matthew 4:11). But the tempter did not rest on this. Seeing that the Lord had perfect love for God, he again wanted to tempt Him, and this time to test His love for his neighbor. So, he enters the hearts of the scribes, Pharisees, high priests and priests of the Jews and lights in them a fire of envy and hatred of the Lord - they begin to slander His miracles and call Him a glutton, a drunkard, a demoniac, a friend of sinners and tax collectors; the devil dictates his will to the Jews to betray the Lord into the hands of Pilate and condemn Him to death on the Cross. But the Lord, knowing all the malice of Satan, after defeating him and driving him out of the mountain, constantly gave him no rest, drove him out of the sick and possessed and healed the suffering and illnesses of people who suffered because of the sins to which the enemy pushed them. With His preaching, the Lord also enlightened the minds of people darkened by Satan. And, despite the fact that the scribes and Pharisees hated Him, He, with His meekness and great calm, turned them to His side. He loved and pitied them very much, because what they said and did was not so much their fault as the devil’s, who used them as his tools. Finally, with all the suffering that the Lord endured, He condemned the devil. And here, on the Cross, He showed His perfect love for His neighbor when He prayed to His Father to forgive the sin of those who crucified Him, saying: “Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). From this it is clear that the Lord loved his neighbor not as Himself, but much more than this, and, having completely fulfilled these two commandments of love for God and neighbor, proved to the devil that He is the true Son of God, and that indeed, “on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). But, brother, is this really how you imitate the Lord? Alas! I think that you are very far from imitating the example of Jesus Christ and do not love either God or your neighbor. By eight signs you can tell whether you love God as you should. You truly love Him if: 1) you love Him freely and not under compulsion; 2) keep His commandments; 3) you love Him with all your heart and love nothing else as much as God; 4) you often remember His name, as Gregory the Theologian says: “Those who deeply love someone remember with pleasure the name of their loved one”; 5) you shed copious tears when you remember the name of God, as Saint Isaac says: “Love has a custom - to shed tears when remembering your loved ones”; 6) during prayer, your mind easily leaves all the affairs of the world and cleaves only to the memory of God and love for Him, and feels inside sweetness and peace, surpassing any sweetness and any tranquility, and how much time you spend in prayer before God, so much love do you have for Him; 7) you rejoice when you endure reproach for loving God and for fulfilling His commandments; 8) if your love for God is not overcome by anything else, as the Apostle Paul says: “For Your sake we are put to death every day; we are counted as sheep doomed to the slaughter. But we overcome all this through the power of Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:36–39). So, test whether you have all these signs of love for God. Look, do you love God the way little children love their parents or animals love those who gave birth to them? Do you love God as someone loves his benefactor and friend? Is your love for God directed as the needle of a ship's compass always points toward the north? Test yourself to see if you keep God’s commandments, because whoever loves God fulfills His commandments, as He Himself said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). And vice versa, if someone does not love God, he does not fulfill His commandments: “He who does not love Me does not keep My words” (John 14:24). But I am afraid that even if you fulfill God’s commandments, you do it not as it should be, but with a thousand grumblings and mixed with vanity. Check whether you love God “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Luke 10:27), as He commanded us. For if your love is divided in two, when a desire for something else enters your heart, even if it is as thin as a hair, then know that you do not love God with all your soul and with all your heart. So, think how far you are from divine love, especially since your heart is divided not into two, but into many parts. How scary it is to call on the name of the Lord without reverence and in vanity, or under duress, or only once or twice a day! Your heart is so hardened that not only do you not cry when you hear the sweetest and most beloved name of God, but you do not even soften at all when you see God shedding blood and nailed to the Cross. When you stand in prayer, your mind cleaves to everything vain and worldly, it is both here and there, but not in the words of prayer. And if you stand for a while in prayer, you quickly become burdened and become despondent. This is how little you love God - as soon as you feel the slightest inconvenience, you immediately turn back and forget about your previous good thoughts. There is another important sign of love for God: when you pray with equal zeal for both friend and enemy, without making any distinction between them. Here is what Saint Gregory Palamas says about this: “When, with tenderness and sweet sorrow in your heart, you bring prayer to the Lord both for yourself and for every person - known to you and unknown, enemy and friend, who has insulted you and not - then know that you love your neighbor from the bottom of your heart. But such a dispensation of the soul occurs only when you perform deeds of love in secret” (Homily on the Evangelist John). Finally, about the need to love your neighbor as yourself, the Lord said separately: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” (John 13:34) - and did not stop there, but continued: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Test, beloved, whether you have signs of true love. It seems to me that you don't have them. For instead of loving your brother - your compatriot and fellow believer - you hate him, bite and devour him, as it is written in the Epistle to the Galatians: “If you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another” (Gal. 5:15). And instead of asking God for forgiveness of the sins you have committed, you pray that He will punish your offender, like a dog that does not rush at the one who threw a stone at it, but, being an unreasonable animal, runs and bites the stone itself. So you are not fighting against the devil, who pushed your brother and made him rush at you, as if throwing a stone, but, foolish, you begin to attack your brother. You don’t love your neighbor more than yourself, you don’t even love him just as yourself. For you have what to eat, what to drink, and what to wear, and you have peace, while your brother is hungry and thirsty, experiences all imaginable hardships and suffering, and you don’t even want to look at him. This is contrary to Christian love, as the Apostle Paul writes: “Some are hungry, and others are drunk” (1 Cor. 11:21). So, repent, change your life and ask the Lord for forgiveness for the fact that you spent it not loving either Him or your neighbor. And promise Him that from now on you will try to love both Him and your neighbor, you will force yourself to do this. Ask Him also to strengthen and preserve you with His grace and to renew with it the natural powers of love that He has invested in you. Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son Think, beloved, about the fact that the prodigal son, leaving his father’s house, acted very unreasonably. For what happened to him when his father stopped ruling him? Before that, he was constantly in his father's arms, but now he did what he wanted. Previously, all his father's servants served him, they were all kind to him, they also honored him as the heir of his father's property. He, like his father, was considered the master of the house and had power over any thing. But the desire to gain false freedom made him a slave and a mercenary, while before he was a son and heir. So, he began to be burdened by the royal life that he led when he was in obedience to his father. And this weariness from such a life and the desire for freedom prompted him to the fact that he decided to receive his part of the inheritance and leave his father’s house. “Father! give me the next portion of my estate” (Luke 15:12). The father did not want to hinder his aspiration and let him go so that he could experience what it means to be deprived of the benefits that he had at home and which he despised, as St. John Chrysostom explains: “Therefore, the father lets him go and does not prevent him from going to a foreign country, so that he would understand well from his own experience what benefits his stay at home brought him” (Homily I on repentance). And, since his father could not convince him with words, he lets him go so that he can be taught to live through suffering. The same holy father speaks about it this way: “God often stops teaching with words, so that life itself can teach a person.” As it is written: “Your wickedness will punish you, and your apostasy will expose you” (Jer. 2:19). For even Adam, while he was in Paradise, did not value his happiness, but when he was expelled, then he learned its value. So, the father divides the estate for his children. “And the father divided the estate for them. After a few days, the youngest son, having gathered everything, went to a far side” (Luke 15:12, 13). This touching parable, beloved, shows us a very clear image of the sin that you commit when you step out of submission to God. Was that son richer than you before you lost your integrity? Was he really nobler, more beautiful and more glorious than you? The whole of Paradise was destined for you to inherit. You were given the grace of sonhood, you were beautiful with the beauty that purity and sinlessness bring. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, you were beloved by the Angels, brought up together with the saints, and were an animated church of God, as the Apostle Paul says: “So you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:19). This grace was always with you, it guided you, it, like a loving mother, consoled you with heavenly sweetness and the Divine Sacraments. She often held you in her arms as if she were her only son. But you, like this reckless young man, despised all this and recklessly wanted to abuse the freedom given to you by God in order to live according to your own whims. Instead of being obedient to your Heavenly Father and receiving an inheritance in the future, you withdrew from Him and became miserable. How hard-hearted you are when you prefer creation to the Creator! The light burden of the Lord seems heavy to you. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30), but you consider your captivity to be freedom. Remove from your mind this heavy veil of darkness and deception and know that there is no other freedom except that when you submit yourself to God and surrender yourself to the will of the Heavenly Father, as the Apostle Paul says: “Now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God, your fruit is holiness, and the end is eternal life” (Rom. 6:22). Let that imprudence, guided by which you fled from the royal chambers, become vile to you; repent to the Father of your mistakes and promise Him never to leave His Divine home. But, since it is only natural for a real son to dwell in the Father’s house, and not for a slave like you, then pray to the Only Begotten Son of the Father, so that He will make you adopted by the Father, free you from slavery to sin, so that you, as a son, can dwell in the heavenly Father’s house, as He Himself promised: “a slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. Therefore, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:35, 36). Think, beloved, about the miserable life that that poor and unknown young man spent outside his father’s house, and about what he lost. He had four hardships. First, he squandered all his inheritance, second, he began to live with a very cruel owner, third, he got the dirtiest job, looking after pigs, and fourth, he became so hungry that he wanted to eat even the food of pigs, but that was not given to him either. So every sinner endures the same hardships, and even greater ones. Their deprivations are as follows: first, such an unfortunate person loses friendship with God, and with it he is deprived of heavenly blessings, wasting his mind on the works of the flesh. Second, he submits himself to his worst enemy, the devil. Third, he forgets about his nobility received in Baptism. He despises the education given to him by the Church, which nourished him with its Divine Sacraments. He renounces his adoption to God and plunges himself into the shameful affairs of the world - into bestial pleasures and carnal lusts and wallows in the swamp of these passions, like a pig. Fourth and lastly, being in these vile passions, this unfortunate person can neither be healed nor satisfy his lusts, but the more he feeds on the food of shameful deeds, the hungrier he becomes. Blessed Theophylact said this very precisely: “He who does evil cannot get enough of it. For pleasure is impermanent, it comes and goes, but this unfortunate person again remains devastated - a state worthy of tears” (Interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son). Now, having learned about how you suffered from sin, why don’t you disdain everything evil that removes you from God? Why, when you wake up, don’t you run away from the house of your inhuman and cruel master, who rejoices in nothing more than your fall? If you are thinking of finding peace while living in sin and communicating with your enemies, then know that God and your conscience will not stop shaming and convicting you. How do you want to sin and remain at peace with your conscience at the same time? So, decide to return to your Father’s heavenly house, realizing that away from Him you can only find illness, sorrow and deprivation. By staying away from God, you are deprived of the benefits bestowed by Divine grace. If you do not partake of the Most Pure Mysteries, then know that you are in an insensitive state. But so that you do not starve with spiritual hunger and are eternally satisfied with the angelic bread, which is the Word of God, always remain with God. By staying with Him, you will not go hungry. You will be able to avoid all types of sin - evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy, and live like a king next to the Heavenly King. Don't be afraid! Get up out of the mud and run to sweet Jesus, because there is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:12). Let us think, beloved, about three serious reasons that motivate, or, better yet, force us to love God. The first of these is the Lord’s command to love Him, the second is that He is most worthy of love, and the third is His call for us, through our love, to comprehend His love for us, revealed in countless benefits. The first of all commandments is the commandment of love: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind: this is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37, 38). She is the first because she is the fulfillment of all the law, the basis of Christian morality and perfection, and therefore she should be the cornerstone in the hearts of Christians. Love for one's neighbor and any other virtue stem from love for God. Any virtue that does not have love at its core is based on hatred. Love is the first of the virtues, and this is because, unlike all the others, it gives a person freedom, and also because a person, if he wants it, can endlessly improve in it. It is first because it is the highest depth that a person can achieve. And finally, it is the first because it will never have an end, it is eternal. That is why the Apostle Paul said this: “Now these three remain: faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13). Now let us think about how we should value this virtue and with what diligence and attention we should cultivate it in ourselves. If the Lord redeemed us so that we would love Him, then our duty is to constantly pray to Him that we will be able to demonstrate in practice this best of virtues. And after He commanded us to love Him, how can we ignore this commandment? And what else, if not the fulfillment of this commandment, will those tormented in hell desire? For as soon as it is announced in hell, the painful and all-consuming fire will immediately change into the sweet flame of love. Sinners will experience the greatest suffering precisely because they did not love the Lord as He commanded us. They violated His commandments and thereby shielded themselves from His love, as Saint Isaac the Syrian says: “Those who are tormented in Gehenna are scourged with the scourge of love - those who have become weak, having sinned against love, they are among torments - greater than any of the most terrible torments” (Homily 84). In the commandment about love one can see the amazing humility of the Lord, Who commands us to love Him as if He were the one who needs our love, but we remain so insensitive that we do not even notice His benefits. We need to choose one of two, there is no third option: either gratefully accept the scorching love of the Lord, both here and in Paradise, or, having rejected it, be eternally burned by hellish fire. One flame is saving and life-giving, the other is painful and deadly. How is it that we, unreasonable ones, cannot understand this and prefer the deadening fire of hell to the quickening flame of divine love? The love we should have for God is expressed in the following words: “My children! let us love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). Love for God should stand for us above any love for any person, as it is written: “love is strong as death” (Song. 8:6). Let us repent that we have hitherto sinned against God and have clung more to sin than to Him. With anger, let us drive away such wickedness from ourselves and let us love the Lord with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind (Luke 10:27), and we will try never to allow any sin into our hearts. The Lord encourages us to love in many ways - sometimes exhorting us, sometimes frightening us with the fear of eternal torment - let us pray to Him that He will give us the strength to love Him. Let us say together with Blessed Augustine: “You command to love You, give me what You command!” We must love God more than any other good, because in Him is the fullness of all the perfections of beauty, wisdom, power, holiness, greatness, goodness, infinity, life, peace, freedom, kingdom, justice and salvation. All this is not God, but is in God. He is infinitely above all this, as the Rev. says. Maximus the Confessor: “God Himself is infinitely more incomprehensible even than what He essentially is; than what is proper to Him; and than that which is His, but outside of Him.” The Lord wants us to let Him into the best part of our hearts, so that we can share in the benefits that we just talked about. If we have not yet loved Him as we should, then we will repent of this, eradicate our negligence and let Him into the very depths of our hearts - then we will be able to feel the sweetness of His Divine love. Let us mourn the time when we did not love God, because we lost him irrevocably, and say together with Blessed Augustine: “Late did I love You, such an ancient Beauty, late did I love You, alas! there is no longer a time when I did not love You.” The Lord came down from Heaven to ignite this divine fire of love in the hearts of people; “I have come to bring down fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49). Let us pray to Him that He will enlighten our minds to the knowledge that the most important thing is to love Him, for we do not love because we do not know, as the divine and irrepressible lover of God Augustine said: “Light up an eternal light in my soul, so that I may feel You, and know You, and love You.” The Apostle Paul also had such love for God, who says: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer felt the same when he wrote to the Christians of Rome: “I love Jesus, who gave Himself for me. What will I repay to the Lord for all His good deeds to me? And again: “My love has been crucified. I'm thirsty. His drink, which is imperishable love and eternal life.” How can we not love God when He first loved us? “Let us love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). He loved us with the love with which He loves Himself. The clearest proof of His love for us is that by the sacrifice of His Son He freed us from the sorrows of hell and instead gave us the happiness of His Kingdom: “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). Finally, let us not forget that neither in Heaven nor on earth is there anything more precious than the divine Blood of the Son of God. For the sake of being loved by the nine ranks of Angels, He did not shed a single drop of it. In order for us to love Him, all the Blood of the Lord was shed. How can we not want to love Him? What kind of bitterness is hidden in us if, after all the sacrifices made by God for our salvation, we remain motionless and indifferent to Him! Let us repent of our coldness and ingratitude towards the Lord. And from now on let the main basis of all our actions be love for Him. God is the God of our hearts, as David says: “The God of my heart, and my portion, God, endures forever” (Ps. 72:26). Let us say together with Blessed Augustine: “Lord, enslave all my freedom to love for You. Take for yourself my memory, my mind, my will. Grant me a heart that thinks only of what is Yours, a thought that loves You, a memory that is occupied with You, a mind that thinks about You.” Pride is a great obstacle to our salvation Of all fevers, the most dangerous is the one that is called “acute” because it is a hidden and therefore dangerous enemy of our health. So, of all the passions that are, as it were, fevers of our soul, the most dangerous is pride. For as destructive as it is, it is hidden in those who are sick with it. And very many people not only are not convicted by their conscience that they are proud, but they are literally intoxicated with pride, for them it is like some kind of decoration and a wreath. That is why the prophet Isaiah proclaims grief to them: “Woe to the crown of pride of the drunken Ephraimites!..” (Is. 28:1). Pride is an insane lust that, possessing a person, instills in him the thoughts that he is better than he really is, and that other people think the same thing about him as he does. Therefore, a proud person does not think about anyone, only about himself. Just as a spider sits at the center of the web, so he places himself at the center of everything. And just as a spider spins a web from itself, so a proud person, when he thinks or does something, always considers himself the basis of everything. He considers servants to be dumb animals, their masters to be his servants, he treats his relatives as if he had never known them, and his fellow citizens as vagabonds and strangers. The Holy Scripture perfectly depicts the mood of the proud in the crazy words of King Nebuchadnezzar: “Isn’t this majestic Babylon, which I have built as a house of the kingdom by the power of my might and for the glory of my greatness!” (Dan. 4:27). The complacency with which he reviewed his kingdom is characteristic of any proud man. Such a person is especially attentive to the way he is dressed, the way a peacock arranges his feathers when walking around Babylon. And just as Nebuchadnezzar admired himself and wanted others to admire him, so every proud person does not rest on the fact that he praises himself, but wants others to admire him and honor him. If they do not applaud him, then he considers them his enemies. Likewise, he considers any of his dignity and talent to be enormous, just as a beggar, when he is given a penny, believes that he received gold. Nebuchadnezzar's pride did not stop there, but went even further. He began to boast not only of what was true, but also of what he knew to be a lie. He claimed that it was he who built Babylon, while in reality he only made its walls higher and nothing else, and the city itself was built by another king, whose name was Bel. So are the proud: they not only boast about their deeds, talking about them, but also mix them with obvious lies in order to glorify themselves and to show that they are superior to others, while they go so far as to turn even their shortcomings into advantages. And just like the crazy Nebuchadnezzar, when he talked idlely about great deeds, as if he had accomplished them on his own, so the proud, with the folly that denounces them, believe that they themselves have achieved the good that is in them, and do not attribute any of this to God. They, perhaps not in words, but in deeds, have forgotten the crazy words of Nebuchadnezzar and arrogantly believe in their own strength, special hard work and diligence. The devastation that pride produces in the soul is indescribable. Think about this: the greatest evil that exists in the world is sin, and the greatest good is Divine grace. Pride is the root of all sin; it opposes the grace of God and brings us the greatest evil. She is the worst of mortal sins, because she easily pushes a person to any of all the others. Like a snake, if it manages to squeeze its head into a hole, then the rest of the body can follow it, and so with pride - after it, all possible evil enters a person, as the Holy Spirit says through Sirach: “the beginning of sin is pride” (Sir. 10:15). Both Christ and pride cannot be together in the heart of a Christian; when there is one, then there is certainly no other, and vice versa. That is why the Lord told the Pharisees that they, seeking human glory from each other, became unworthy to believe in Him: “How can you believe when you receive glory from each other, but do not seek the glory that is from the One God?” (John 5:44). From these words you can understand that as soon as glory enters a person’s soul, faith immediately disappears. How tragic it is that a person will be tormented forever because he despised the law of God and loved temporal glory instead. This, my brother, is how far you can go if you are guided by pride. First, your soul will be filled with impurity and passions, and then, just as dizziness occurs from lips overflowing with bad saliva, so from a conscience overflowing with the passion of pride, doubts in faith will begin to appear, and especially in the doctrine of Heaven and Hell - you will begin to consider them fiction. Divine grace is at war with pride, think about it. And in order for us to participate in this war, it is necessary that the Lord strengthen us with His grace. He Himself said this: “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And the Apostle Paul says: “God is at work in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). From this it is clear that it is God who begins and completes any good work in us. A person is not only unable to complete it, he cannot even begin something good if he decides to do without the help of grace. If we want to be saved, we must love God and virtue with all the strength of our soul. Do not forget, my brother, that pride prevents grace from entering our soul, and even if it does enter, it will immediately be driven out. If a person who was at first rich before God in his virtues allows pride to enter his heart, he immediately becomes a beggar, like the Pharisee from the Gospel parable of the publican and the Pharisee. Such a proud person is like a dove that sits in the sun and rejoices in its purity and colorful feathers, but suddenly a falcon swoops down on him and kills him. Likewise, one who boasts of his virtues is immediately kidnapped by the mental falcon - the devil. Therefore, the Divine Fathers said such wise words: “It is both easy and difficult for a person to be saved, because now he, humbling himself, ascends to Paradise, and the next minute he plunges himself into hellish torment because of arrogance and pride.” Be reasonable, my brother, and joyfully accept the advice that the Holy Spirit gives you: “Do not be exalted in heart” (Tov. 4:13). Do not allow yourself to be possessed by any kind of pride - neither internal, in the depths of your heart, nor external - in your affairs, because it gives rise to everything that is evil in the world, for in pride there is destruction and great disorder. So, humble yourself - and you can no longer be afraid of falling, because God will always be with you. How can you heal from this terrible disease - pride? It enters us, corrupts us and makes us poor and unhappy. It inflates us and we become like a full waterskin. It deprives us of all virtue, and the words of the wise Sirach become applicable to us: “My soul has hated three kinds of people, and their lives are very disgusting to me: the arrogant beggar, the deceitful rich man, and the old adulterer, weakened in reason” (Sir. 25:3, 4). When we think that we can cure ourselves of pride, this is a sign of its extreme degree. The only way to be healed from it is to turn to the Lord and, together with the prophet David, say: “Let not the foot of pride come to me” (Ps. 35:12), that is, do not allow, Lord, that damned pride trample my soul into the ground with its foot. First, our mind must be healed, so that we no longer want to be proud, and after that everything else will be healed. The mind is healed by the fact that a person stops thinking that he means something before God and the saints. Worldly glory is a fruit that does not nourish a person, but poisons him. God created the whole world and, out of His infinite goodness, gave it to people so that, having accepted it, they would glorify the Creator, Who reserved all the glory and honor for Himself, as the Angels said: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). And if the proud want to steal this glory, which belongs only to God, then this is insolence and impudence, insulting the greatness of God. Woe to the one who seeks glory from the world and whom the world considers great. This glory is empty and vain. This glory is vain because it cannot add or take anything away from us. “If I glorify Myself, then My glory is nothing” (John 8:54), which means that if a person, having done something, begins to glorify himself, then this glory of his is the same as empty space. Now you can understand how insignificant is the human praise that many people seek from the world. This glory is also vain for those who give it. Because they don’t know that inside you are sinful and damned, they only know your appearance. What other glory can they give you than that which can relate to a decorated grave, which on the outside is adorned with inscriptions and epitaphs, but inside is full of stench and rot, as the Lord said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, who are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside seem beautiful, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27). The glory of the world is also vain because it can never equal the glory of heaven. This whole vulgar world is like one moment compared to eternity. His glory is vain, for it quickly passes away. Our whole life, compared to eternity, is less than a pulse beat, less than a moment. People honor you for your beautiful clothes, but this honor rightfully belongs not to you at all, but to the silkworms from whose threads they are made. No matter how beautifully you dress, you still won’t look more beautiful than a peacock with its golden and colorful feathers or more beautiful than colorful wildflowers and lilies. “And Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like any of them” (Matthew 6:29), says the Lord. People praise you for your nobility, but this glory does not apply to you, but to your ancestors. People honor you because you are rich, but God knows by how many lies you acquired your wealth and how it prevents you from going to Heaven. The Lord said: “It is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23). People praise you for your beauty, but your real essence is hidden behind the surface, just as dung is hidden under the snow in winter. Your beauty is short-lived, like snow, in the end, “when a man dies, his inheritance is reptiles, beasts and worms” (Sir. 10:13). Having opened some coffin, you will be convinced of the falsity of the glory of this world, and such glory, despite the fact that it is nothing, is desirable in the eyes of foolish people! Do you understand, my brother, what human glory is? Now think about what the person looking for her is like. If you ask the prophet about this, he will answer you that every person - not only a simple person, but also one who is more powerful than all kings - is nothing, filled with weaknesses, powerlessness, ignorance and misfortunes. “Everything is vanity, every man who lives,” says the prophet David. And you, brother, are the same before God. If you are also proud, then you are worse than nothing, because you are stealing the glory that belongs only to God, as St. Augustine says: “All that is good is Yours, O Lord, Yours is the glory. And the one who uses Your good gifts, but seeks glory not for You, but for himself, is a thief and a robber, he is like the devil who wanted to steal Your glory.” Doesn't it occur to you to reconcile yourself? Don't you see that in your heart you carry dirt and insignificance, incomparable with the Omnipotence of God? If you are proud, you will be punished as a thief of the glory of God, because He Himself said the following words: “I will not give My glory to another” (Isaiah 42:8). How poor you are, proud man! Try to find something good that you have done on your own. Try it - and you will shame yourself, because everything good that you have, you received from God: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if you didn’t receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7). After the proud mind has been healed from all this, it is necessary to heal his will, driving away from it any desire to boast about oneself. We will succeed if we think that of all the evils brought by pride, the greatest is eternal torment. We must destroy the insensibility with which pride seduces the heart; we must understand one thing - that without humility we cannot be saved: “unless you are converted and become like children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3). In the matter of salvation, we need humility just like Baptism. And as the Lord spoke about humility, he also speaks about Baptism: “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The prophet Isaiah tells us that the strong, the glorious, the great, the rich and others like them go to hell: “And man will bow down, and the man will be without glory, and the eyes of the proud will droop” (Isaiah 5:15). Know, brother, that pride is the flag and the battle trumpet of the star. Dennitsa is the king over all the sons of pride. He is the head of unrepentant sinners, and pride, his main characteristic, is the greatest obstacle to our salvation. Come to your senses, examine your inner world, and if you find traces of pride in your heart, then take care to erase them. Do not condemn a single sinner who is proud of himself, because you yourself know that the one who is now evil can instantly change, like the gospel thief, and that you, being good now, can suddenly turn out to be bad, as happened with Judas. And condemnation itself is already a manifestation of pride. The Apostle Paul says: “Who are you, judging another man’s servant?” (Rom. 14:4). So, do not despise the poor and insignificant people, because the poor are the locums of Christ, as He Himself said about them: “inasmuch as you did it to one of... the least of My brothers, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). Do not boast about your nobility and talent, because even the little that you have is not your own, and how many times have you mixed it with evil? You look like a Negro who considers whiteness a miracle because he himself only has white teeth. Do not praise yourself and do not seek first place for yourself, do not want to appear better than other people, “for whatever is high among men is an abomination to God” (Luke 16:15). Remember that the Lord can tolerate any of your sins, except pride. Remember the reproach, insults and dishonor that Christ suffered on the Cross, and this will help you humble yourself. Faith is a force that resides in the mind and will of a person. The mind is illuminated by heavenly light and contains within itself what the Lord reveals to it. Likewise, the will is moved by God to fulfill all that is true, commanded by the mind. When faith is powerless, then the mind cannot understand the mysteries of God, and the will, even before the mind understands them, does not want to love them. St. Augustine said that a person can love what is invisible to him, but not what is unknown. We see this in some Christians who consider themselves faithful, but not because they live in accordance with the teachings of Christ, but only because they were born to Christian parents; they are faithful because they have received Baptism. In reality, they feel little about the greatness of the Sacraments, and know even less about the content of our faith and how it differs from other religions. Being in this position, they are not much different from the infidels. I appeal to every Christian. Who are you, standing here in the church? I can only tell by your name that you are a Christian; this cannot be seen from anything else. If we ask you about who Christ is, in whom you believe, it turns out that you will not be able to say anything intelligible. So, it would be fair to say that in our days faith in Christians has decreased, just as the prophet David said: “the truth has fallen away from the sons of men” (Ps. 11:1), because even if they believe in the Church Sacraments, their faith is so confused, so cold and powerless that we can say with all seriousness: they know them like that blind man who saw people like trees: “I see people passing like trees” ( Mark 8:24). God was born in a cave and placed in a manger of dumb animals in order to teach us not to get carried away by transitory goods. God lived in a carpenter’s workshop for thirty years and Himself practiced this craft so that we could learn humility. God walked the streets of Jerusalem to show us the road leading to Heaven. God suffered on the Cross to destroy sin. And all this in no way touches the conscience of Christians and does not generate trembling in their hearts. Therefore, I will repeat again what I just said: “the truth has fallen away from the sons of men.” Like the truth, faith has also diminished among modern Christians, for faith should be not only the rule “how to believe”, but also the rule “how to do”; it consists not only in us believing correctly, but also in us living in accordance with faith: “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). At the same time, those who confess that Christ is the Teacher of faith, Sacraments and dogmas, that He revealed them to us, those same people do not apply His law in their lives. And, although they hear from His lips that blessed are those who suffer for others, abstain from pleasures, and forgive dishonors and insults inflicted on them, despite this, they step over all the commandments of God, through the Divine teaching of Christ, saying in their hearts: all this is true in relation to God, but not in relation to the world. And so these unfortunates believe that by this they are truly justified before the court of the incarnate Wisdom of God. The faith of such people is like an amalgam of gold, which in appearance is very similar to real gold, but only until it is thrown into the fire. Because when it is thrown into the fire, the real gold will remain (if it was there), and the mercury will evaporate. So it is with these people - they follow the Divine Teacher only until they have to fight passions, and when the time comes for this, they leave Him alone. When Jesus Christ commands them to fight their passions and conquer them, they immediately renounce His teaching and go back. All evil comes from powerless faith. The diminution and weakness of faith leads to the impoverishment of virtue and the enrichment of evil. How modern Christians lack that wealth of virtues that were so abundant in the first centuries of Christianity! The love for God was then so ardent that, according to Tertullian, many Christians of their own free will gave themselves over to be tortured by the persecutors of the faith, and sometimes there were not even enough executioners to kill them all. Also, love for one’s neighbor was so ardent in those blessed ones that, according to Clement of Alexandria, he knew such Christians who sold not only their estates to give alms, but also sold themselves into slavery, just to be able to help their brothers. Is it possible to compare the faith of ancient and modern Christians? Truly, all modern evil comes from the weakness of faith. If you cut off the branches of a tree, they will be able to grow again, but if you cut the roots, the tree quickly dies. And what a root is to a tree, faith is to the soul. It nourishes the soul and gives it the opportunity to grow and bear fruit, which is why it is called the root of immortality. If a Christian lives, he lives by faith, as the Apostle Paul says: “The righteous will live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). If all the forces of hell rush at such a person, he can easily put them to flight. With the help of faith, a person achieves perfection in virtues, but if the root of faith is cut off, then not only the fruits, that is, the virtues, immediately perish, but also the leaves - what distinguishes a Christian outwardly from other people. When the Apostle Peter, walking on the sea, began to drown, he considered the cause of this to be a strong wind: “seeing the strong wind, he was afraid” (Matthew 14:30). But the Lord told him that the reason was his lack of faith: “You of little faith! Why did you doubt? (Matthew 14:31). Likewise, Christians consider the reason for all their evil deeds and evil life to be temptations that cannot but come. The true reason for their obscene deeds is that their faith is weak and meager. But if she had not been like that, the devil would not have been able to turn them into terrible slavery to sin. A falcon, born in the wild, accustomed to flying in clean and free air, having enormous strength in its claws and beak - how can it tolerate being pushed around, poked with a stick and kept in captivity; will it really not fight back with its claws and beak? So is the Christian, who knows that sin is disgusting to God and worse than any calamity; confessing that the God-man Jesus was crucified in order to destroy sin - how can such a Christian sin? Many Christians believe that sin is childishly naive and not a very big evil; they not only consider it a minor evil, but also laugh at it, and some of them even boast about the shameful sins they have committed. They are not afraid to sin and constantly add sin to sin. And just as we are afraid to fall asleep at night with a snake in our bed, so we will be afraid and sin, and we will pray to Jesus Christ to make our weak faith strong. Those who sin with the thought of subsequent repentance There is no such crazy merchant in the world who would throw all his goods into the sea with the hope that they will return to him. But there are Christians who are easily ready to lose the purity of soul and the grace of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts given to us from Him, and hope that they will again receive heavenly gifts, that their former purity will return to them as soon as they confess. These unfortunates, being shackled in hellish shackles, think that at their first desire they can throw them off. They, walking in front of the star, who holds the keys to their souls in his hands, believe that they can freely leave him at any moment. I will not describe this misconception further because it is not new among people. Wasn’t this what the tempter instilled in Eve when he encouraged her to break God’s commandment? What did he say? You will not die (Gen. 3:4), that is, you can do anything and nothing will happen to you, because God is very good. Eve was deceived by this, and after her Adam was deceived - he sinned, thinking about divine mercy, that is, Adam fell, believing that in fact he would not be punished by God, although He warned him about punishment. And you, my brother, what other example do you want to see the degree of impudence to which the devil has reached in his enmity against our Lord Jesus Christ? He, the unclean one, went so far as to invite the Lord to throw himself from the wing of the church with the hope that the Angels would support Him and would not allow Him to suffer any evil, as it is written: “throw yourself down, for it is written: He will command His angels concerning You, and in their hands they will bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone” (Matthew 4:6). So, there is no need to say that, instilling the same false thought, the enemy has already tempted Christians many times, urging them to throw themselves into various iniquities and add thousands of others to their first sins, including the careless hope that someday they will confess them and their spiritual fathers will forgive them everything. It is surprising that Christians do not notice such obvious and palpable lies and because of this they become completely indifferent to God. Confession of sins and repentance, mercy and goodness of God - they turn these means of salvation into means of their downfall. And just as one poisonous herb, called napelon, becomes poisonous when dew falls from the sky on it, so these unfortunates make the saving Blood of Jesus Christ a deadly poison. Because they use this Blood, which after confession is supposed to wash away and extinguish our sins, in order to inflame them even more. Could there be anything more lawless than this?! What other medicine could be abused more than this, to the greater triumph and victory of the devil? Saint Ambrose of Milan also lamented this: “Because of our abuse of this medicine, the devil sometimes simply triumphs.” I am convinced that most Christians are tormented and suffering from this evil and deceptive hope, which almost plunges them into hell. Despite the fact that sinners are destined for eternal torment, they quietly sin, believing that all this is fiction. And this is because they think that getting rid of sins is easy and simple - you just have to tell the priest about them and perform some kind of penance. Once they think about it, they again feel calm and do not care at all about their sins, believing that it is too early for them to repent. The harm that those who sin with the hope of subsequent repentance cause to themselves is that their sins become more and more vile and are committed more and more often. And this is because they, having the opportunity to confess, believe that this alone is enough for repentance to make them righteous. These unfortunates begin to plunge into their passions, cease to restrain themselves in words and curiosity and rush, like dumb animals, onto the path of destruction. Who is able to measure the depth of their fall? Whenever evil lust appears in them and an opportunity presents itself, they immediately fall into sin. Every time an evil thought comes to them, they are plunged into lawless deeds. Many of these sinners, who believe that in confession all their sins will be easily forgiven, multiply them daily - both with their evil deeds, as well as with lusts, shameless conversations, sinful pleasures, and especially by causing temptation to others and thereby killing their souls. Thus, people who constantly think this way can commit thousands of sins without noticing, and anyone can understand why the righteousness of God opens the gates of hell for such sinners. It is scary to hear the words of the Lord addressed to you, proclaimed by Him through the prophet Jeremiah: The treatment has caused you to suffer even more, it has not brought you any benefit. You are being treated, but it doesn't help. You confessed many times, you were given forgiveness of sins so that you would kill them, but instead, due to your malice, all this only served to spread them more. “If I can sin, I can repent. I am free to sin again and again - I’ll still confess later.” You are being treated, but you are not getting any benefit from it. You turn confession into a reason for countless sins, not knowing that all this multitude of sins plunges you into hell and makes you worthy of punishment, as it is written: The enemy has struck you because your sins have multiplied. About the soul that confesses and is cleansed of sins, and then sins again and from this becomes incurable and worthy of being rejected by God, the prophet in another place says this: “We healed Babylon, but was not healed; leave him... for the judgment concerning him has reached to heaven” (Jer. 51:9). Great is the harm that those who sin bring to themselves with the hope of repenting in the future, because they sin without shame and fear, and thus plunge deeper and deeper into the unclean and dirty swamp of sin, in which even pigs would not want to wallow. The harm they do to themselves is that they become indifferent to their salvation and begin to despise the commandments of God, as Solomon said: “With the coming of the wicked comes contempt” (Prov. 18:3). When they reach the final stage of wickedness, their minds become darkened, their hearts harden, and they never think about their sins. And some of them not only treat them with indifference, but even boast about them as great deeds, as Solomon says: “they rejoice in doing evil, they delight in evil depravity” (Proverbs 2:14). And those who said “if I sin, then I will repent and confess,” reach the point that they no longer want to confess or repent. Even if they ever want to, they will not be able to, because the frequent repetition of sin has become a habit for them, and the habit has become, as it were, second nature and their hearts have turned to stone, like a rock, they have become insensitive and have drowned out in themselves all hope of repentance and correction. This is how these unfortunate people die - without correcting themselves and without repenting. The devil sets many different snares in order to trap human souls in them and push them to destruction. Two of them are idleness and overzealousness. Both idleness, because of which a person sits and decays from laziness, worthy of all condemnation, and much care, which consists in the fact that a person is constantly busy with a thousand things, are obstacles to salvation. Many Christians remain idle all day long: they walk along the city streets, tell each other various news, discuss people passing by, and if they come to church, it is only because they have nothing else to do. This is how they spend day after day without any benefit to themselves. This is what the Holy Spirit says in the Wisdom of Sirach: “many” evils have been taught by idleness” (Sir. 33:28). The devil, so to speak, opened his own school of wickedness and evil and, not wanting to give lessons about evil, installed idleness in his place as a teacher, so that she would read these lectures for him. People in this school learn sins quickly and without difficulty. All people study sins there, but those whose thoughts are heavy and slow are especially successful in their studies. A person there learns to sin in thoughts, wanting with his heart what he cannot actually do: “The desires of a slothful man will kill him, because his hands refuse to work” (Proverbs 21:25). All day long he wishes evil. Often a lazy person does not actually do anything wrong, because he does not want to do anything at all, but despite this, he daily plunges his thoughts into impurity. The thoughts of idle people are a continuous chain of gossip and condemnation, one after another. As much as a lazy person is careless in his own affairs, he is so diligent and diligent in discussing the affairs of other people. As much as it is unpleasant for him to work, it gives him pleasure to chat with someone, because it does not require work. He can spend the whole day in judgment, and if he stops talking for a while, he will soon resume his nasty conversations. Although his lips are sanctified in the Sacrament of Baptism, this does not bother him at all; he calmly defiles them with condemnation. To the extent that a lazy person is the enemy of work, to the same extent he is a friend of pleasure. An idle person is often sad if he does not receive them. The ancient saying is true: “People who do nothing learn to do evil.” Standing water quickly deteriorates, still air becomes harmful, and a lazy army quickly tires. When Great Lent approaches, lovers of idleness urgently run to their confessors and, under various pretexts, ask them to relax the severity of fasting. Let us not indulge in evil and retreat from virtue at the first obstacle. This is the first snare of the devil - idleness, but there is another. This is a multitude of all sorts of affairs and intentions with which people burden themselves, giving no rest to their souls. Both idleness and many tasks, worries and troubles give rise to a lot of evil. The Lord spoke about them when he spoke about the thorns, suppressing the seed of the Divine commandments and preventing the growth of everything beautiful and good: “And those that fell among the thorns are those who listen to the word, but, going away, are overwhelmed by the cares, riches and pleasures of this life and do not bear fruit” (Luke 8:14). These people, when the time comes to pray, go to church and partake of the Holy Mysteries, do not have time for all this. They are all at work. As soon as they leave one thing, they immediately take up another, but they don’t have time to read something useful for the soul. They are like a rope tied with a thousand knots that will never be untied. And in this way the devil keeps in captivity those who, perhaps, would like to escape from his hands, but do not find a way in which to escape. And the devil brings them lower and lower to the ground, looking for more and more different things and worries for them so that they do not have time not only to do good, but also to think about it. Thus, daily worries and affairs become nets that hold people, bend them to the ground and bring them to such a degree of darkness that not a trace of piety remains in them. However, even if they had some time left, they would use it for their own affairs. What happens to hunters happens to them. Even when hunters sleep, they dream that they are awake - hunting birds and animals that either run away from them or fall into their nets. Their body rests in the bed, and their imagination lies in the forests. The same thing happens to those who are obsessed with multi-tasking. They stand in church and pronounce the words of prayers with their lips, and at this time their mind wanders here and there, immersed in everyday affairs: how best to do them. Their thoughts are on how to do one thing and finish another, but there is no time left for the soul. Although their body is in the church, their mind is on the streets. Even when they fall asleep, their thoughts will run from one task to another. If you don’t like it when you talk about something with your friend, but he doesn’t listen to you and constantly asks some inappropriate questions, then how can you want God to speak to your heart at the same time when there are a hundred vain thoughts in it? In order for you to get rid of these two troubles - idleness and overzealousness - pray to the Lord to enlighten you, so that you understand the purpose for which you were born in this world, as the prophet David says: “tell me, Lord, my end and the number of my days, so that I understand that I am deprived” (Ps. 38:5). And after that, think about how precious the time of your life is. It is so valuable that everything vitiia, if they gathered together, they would not be able to show all its preciousness and importance, and, in the end, they would only remain silent, like fools. But what am I saying? Even if the Angels wanted to explain this to us, they would not be able to say anything, because the time given to us by God so that during it we would gain Paradise is as precious as Paradise itself. Do you now understand the value of the time that the Lord gave us to change our lives? When death suddenly comes to you, you will begin to look for at least one more moment, but you will not find it. They tell about one nobleman who for many years was an adviser to his king. When he realized that he had reached the end of his life, he wept bitterly and said: “Woe is me! I spent so much paper when I wrote the royal letters, and I didn’t even find one minute to write down my sins on some unnecessary piece of paper, so that now I could remember them and repent.” And you, beloved, can also cry at the end of your life, having spent so many years in vanity. Wake up and rise from sleep. Be like a pilgrim who, having allowed himself to lie down to rest and remembering that his comrades have gone far ahead, immediately gets up and continues on his way. Be “not as foolish, but as wise, valuing time; for the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15, 16). Let us think, beloved, about the destruction in which human nature was located and due to which no internal forces remained in it. Since, as we have already said, any mortal sin is a clear contempt for God, the devastation and evil it causes cannot be erased by any created being. No person could save us from such a state, because he himself was in it - he was in captivity of the devil and, due to his sins, was abominable before God. This is also affirmed by the Apostle Paul, who says: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:23, 24). Not only people, but also Angels could not save us. They could neither heal the evil that was in us, nor even find a way to cure us. They were powerless to grant us the eternal bliss of Paradise. That is why the prophet Isaiah said: “Neither an intercessor nor an angel, but He Himself saved them” (Is. 63:9). Who is this? The Son of God and our Lord, Who has infinite powers and the greatest wisdom to find a way to free us from the tyranny of the devil and give us all the riches of His Divinity, grace and glory, making us partakers of His holiness, that is, both His Divinity and Humanity. Let us think about the great despair that human souls contained when they, condemned to eternal torment, were slaves of demons. The thought of this should encourage us to humble ourselves and give thanks with all our hearts to our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone could save us from the abyss of hell. We need to repent that until now we have forgotten about God and the great grace of salvation that He has given us. Let us turn our thoughts to Him - not an Angel and not just a man who gave Himself in order to save us. Let us glorify God for His great gift, which has delivered us from eternal torment. Let us pray to Him that He would give us His light, in which we would be able to know and thank Him together with the Apostle Paul: “giving thanks to God the Father, who has called us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, who has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:12, 13). Let us also think about the height to which the Incarnation raised us, and about which the Apostle Paul speaks like this: “having ascended to the heights, he took captivity captive and gave gifts to men” (Eph. 4:8). In order to save us from eternal torment, God could simply forgive us, as a king would forgive a criminal sentenced to death. He did not stop there, which in itself would have been an indescribable benefit, but lifted us up to Himself with His all-sanctifying grace and, having adopted us as His sons, made us heirs of all eternal blessings: “This very Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16, 17). Who can measure the distance between the darkness in which we were and this height to which the Lord has raised us? Condemned to hell, we suddenly become able to inherit the glory of the Kingdom of God. The seraphim are amazed to see such a change, but we don’t even want to feel it even a little in our hearts. The Evangelist John and the Apostle Paul were delighted with the boundless love of God that was revealed to them, and the first said: “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16), and the second: “He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (Rom. 8:32). And we don’t even want to think about all this. Truly, we need to often repeat to ourselves the words spoken by the celestial Dionysius the Areopagite, that God comes out of Himself, being moved by ineffable love for all of His creation, especially for man. The One who is above all descends to those below to give them His goodness: “For the sake of truth, we also dare to say that He Himself, who is the Cause of everything - thanks to the love of the beautiful and good in everything - due to the excess of loving goodness, finds himself outside of Himself, being attracted to everything that exists by Providence, as if by goodness, attraction and love. From a state that transcends everything, He is brought down by a super-essential force that is inseparable from Him, leading outward” (On the Divine Names. 4, 13). Let's think about another great gift given to us by the Lord. He, foreseeing madness, because of which we would lose all the wealth of our salvation given by Him and fall from the heights of grace into the abyss of sin, showed us the path of repentance, following which we can again return to our former grace. That is why Saint Isaac the Syrian called repentance “grace after grace.” How incomprehensible is God's love for people! We cannot find love like this among people. However, despite all this, we remain unreasonable and insensitive. If a person shows us some small token of love, we immediately thank him. How terrible is our unheard-of ingratitude towards God in response to all His countless benefits shown to us! Even demons do not have such ingratitude, because they, having not received gifts like us, once fell away from God and have remained in their apostasy ever since. How grateful we should be to the Lord for the fact that He showed us such leniency, while He punished the fallen angels strictly. God's love for us is so great that no sins of ours, no matter how great they may be, can extinguish it. Let us also think about how the Lord showed us this great good - His Divine Incarnation. This is the utmost humility that He took upon Himself and made human nature part of His Divinity. The prophet David calls this humility the inclination of Heaven: “And bow down the Heavens and come down” (Ps. 17:10), and the Apostle Paul calls it humiliation: “He, being the image of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:6, 7). Also, Saint Gregory the Theologian, explaining what kind of belittlement this is, says: “Fulness diminishes Its glory to the slightest degree, so that I, having accepted This Fullness, can shine with Its glory to the fullest” (“Conversation on the Nativity of Christ”). And St. Basil the Great, discussing Divine condescension and comparing it with the creation of the whole world, notes: “God was pleased to sympathize with our weaknesses and was even able to condescend to our very weakness. For the superiority of His power is demonstrated not so much by the sky, the earth, the vastness of the seas, living things in the waters and on land, plants, stars, air, seasons and the varied decoration of the universe, but rather by the fact that the inconceivable God could, through the flesh, dispassionately enter into the struggle with death, in order to give us dispassion through His own suffering” (“On the Holy Spirit,” chapter 8). By the fact that He took upon Himself human nature, He not only deprived Himself of the glory, bliss and peace that befit such a high Being, but suffered first of all from what man suffers in this world - from painful labors, from enduring reproaches, from torment and, in the end, from death on the Cross, as it is written about in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “Who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising shame" (Heb. 12:2). How much the Lord has done for us, enduring an abyss of torment and insults for our salvation! Seeing this, every mind goes into a frenzy and every tongue becomes silent. The Son of Man only had to say one word to His Heavenly Father - and help would immediately come to Him. But instead, He wanted to free us from the power of darkness by shedding His precious and Divine Blood. How can we thank Him for sacrificing Himself in order for us to live forever? Could God do anything more for us than the Sacrifice of the Cross offered by the incarnate Word of God? Did God really demand a lot from us when He commanded us to keep His commandments? Of course not. Let us repent of our ingratitude towards the God of love. Let us surrender ourselves to Him, because He created us and saved us at such a price. Let us humbly ask Him to burn away all our ingratitude with the fire of His love, so that His love will shine in us and so that we will not love anything in this world more than Him. Let us no longer offend Him with our sins, but let us serve Him with all our hearts, saying with Saint David: “Lord, I am Your servant” (Ps. 116:7). You might be interested in: