Беседа 1. О посте 1-я

It is said: “Blow the trumpet in the new moon on the blessed day of your holiday” (Ps. 80:4). This command is prophetic. But more clearly than any trumpet and any musical instrument, what we read indicates to us the holiday that preceded these days; because from Isaiah, who rejected the Jewish image of fasting, showed us true fasting, we learned the grace of fasting. Do not “fast in judgments and conflicts, ... but resolve every form of unrighteousness” (Is. 58:4,6). And the Lord says: “Do not be... lamenting... but wash your face and anoint your head” (Matthew 6:16,17). Therefore, let us behave as we have been taught, not complaining in the coming days, but meeting them with light, as befits saints. Despondent, no one gets married; No one gains victory by being troubled in spirit. Don't complain when you are being treated. It is incongruous to not rejoice in mental health, but to grieve over the change in food and actually show that we are more inclined to delight the belly than to care for the soul; because satiety pleases one belly, but fasting benefits the soul. Rejoice that the Physician has given you medicine that destroys sin. Just as the worms that arise in the insides of children are destroyed by some of the most acute medicines, so the sin living in the depths of the soul is killed in it by the adoption of such fasting, which is truly worthy of this name. “Anoint your head and wash your face.” The word calls you to the sacraments. He who anoints himself is anointed; He who washes is washed. Apply legalization to the internal members. Wash your soul from sins. Anoint your head with holy unction to become a partaker of Christ, and so begin fasting. Do not darken your face, “like hypocrites” (Matthew 6:16). The face becomes darkened when the inner disposition is obscured by an external feigned mask, covered with lies like a veil. He is a hypocrite who takes on someone else's face during a spectacle; being a slave, it often represents the face of the master, and being a commoner - the face of the king. Likewise, in this world, many act as if it were a disgrace to their own lives, carrying some things in their hearts and putting others on display to people. Therefore, do not darken your face. As you are in yourself, so appear to be. Do not pretend to be lamenting, catching on your appearance the glory that you are abstinent. There is no benefit from charity, which is trumpeted; There is no benefit from a post that is announced to everyone. What is done for show does not bear fruit that would be observed until the next century, but is limited to human praise. Therefore, with a bright face, approach the gift of fasting. Fasting is an ancient gift, not deteriorating, not aging, but constantly renewed and blooming in all its beauty. Do you think that I consider its antiquity from the time of the origin of the law? The post is older and the law. If you wait a little, you will be convinced of the truth of what was said. Do not think that the day of atonement established for Israel “in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month” (Lev. 16:29) is the beginning of fasting. Delve into history and look for the antiquity of its origin. Fasting is not a new invention, but a treasure of the fathers. Everything distinguished by antiquity is venerable. Respect the gray hairs of fasting. He is contemporary with humanity. Fasting is legal in heaven. Adam accepted this first commandment: “from the tree... you will not take away what is good and what is evil” 3 (Gen. 2:17). And this: “you will not take it down” is the legalization of fasting and abstinence. If Eve had fasted and not eaten from the tree, then we would not now have the need for this fast. For “they do not require the health of a doctor, but those who are sick” (Matthew 9:12). We are damaged by sin - we will be healed by repentance; and repentance without fasting is not effective. “Cursed is the ground: ... thorns and thistles will grow for you” (Gen. 3, 17, 18). It is ordered to be contrite in spirit, and not to indulge in luxury. By fasting, be justified before God. But the very stay in paradise is an image of fasting, not only because man, leading a life equal to the angels, succeeded in becoming like the Angels by being content with little, but also because it did not occur to those living in paradise that it was later invented by human imagination: neither the drinking of wine, nor the slaughter of animals, nor everything that makes the human mind cloudy. Because we did not fast, we were expelled from paradise. Therefore, let us fast in order to ascend to heaven again. Don't you see how Lazarus ascended to heaven through fasting? Do not imitate Eve’s disobedience, do not again accept the serpent as an adviser, who offers food, pleasing the flesh. Do not refer to illnesses and infirmities of the body. You are not presenting these pretexts to me, but to the Leader. Tell me: you cannot fast, but you can become satiated and suppress your body with the burden of what you eat? And, as far as I know, doctors do not prescribe to patients a variety of foods, but non-eating and malnutrition. How can you do this, but say that you cannot? What is easier for the stomach: to spend the night after eating moderately, or to lie down burdened with an abundance of food, or better yet, not to lie down, but toss and turn often, because the food is crowding and bursting? Can you really say that it is more convenient for pilots to save a transport ship when it is loaded with goods than when its cargo is small and light? But even a ship, when it is heavily loaded, is flooded by a wave that has risen little. And if there is a commensurate load of goods on it, then it travels comfortably on the waves, and nothing prevents it from staying high above the water. Likewise, human bodies, burdened with constant satiety, are conveniently consumed by ailments; and if moderate and light food is consumed, then they avoid the bad consequences expected from the disease, like the uprising of a storm, and the attacks that have already begun are reflected from themselves, like a gust of a whirlwind. Consequently, in your opinion, it is more difficult to stand still than to run, and more difficult to remain calm than to fight, if you maintain that it is more decent for the sick to indulge in luxury than to take moderate food. The vital force easily digests moderate and simple food, and transforms it into the flesh of the one fed; and having taken expensive and varied foods, then being unable to digest them completely, produces various types of diseases. But let the word turn to history and show the antiquity of fasting, show that all the saints observed fasting as some kind of paternal inheritance, passed on from father to son and received successively, so that this acquisition, according to the order of succession, has been preserved to us. In paradise there was no wine, no slaughter of animals, no meat-eating. After the flood they recognized wine; after the flood it is said: eat everything “like a herbal potion” (Gen. 9:3). When there is no hope of perfection, then pleasure is allowed. And the proof that wine had not yet been tasted is Noah, who did not know the use of wine. It had not yet entered the world and was not familiar to people. Noah, not having seen its effect on others, nor having experienced it on himself, carelessly suffered harm from the wine. For Noah “planted grapes, and drank from the fruit, and sat down” (Gen. 9:20-21) not because he was addicted to wine, but because he did not know how much to eat it. So the invention of drinking wine is much later than paradise, and such is the antiquity of fasting! But we also know that Moses also ascended the mountain during Lent. And I would not have dared to approach the smoking peak, I would not have dared to ascend into the darkness, if I had not armed myself with fasting. During Lent, he accepted the commandment inscribed on the tablets by the finger of God. And at the top of the mountain fasting provided the law, and below the insatiability of the belly brought its fury to idolatry. For “the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose to play” (Ex. 32:6). The forty-day stay with God of His fasting and praying servant turned out to be useless due to one-time rapture. For those tablets inscribed by the finger of God, which he accepted fasting, were destroyed by drunkenness; because, according to the judgment of the prophet, the drunken people were unworthy of God's legislation. And this people, who through great miracles were taught the knowledge of God, will be plunged into Egyptian idolatry in an instant by the insatiability of the belly. Compare one with the other: how fasting leads one to God, and how luxury becomes a betrayer of salvation! Proceeding along the same path, descend to the following. What denigrated Esau and made him a slave to his brother? Isn’t this the only food for which he gave the championship? Was it not prayer combined with fasting that gave Samuel to his mother? What made the great warrior Sampson insurmountable? Is it not the fast with which he was conceived in his mother’s womb? Fasting made him pregnant, fasting made him rich, fasting made him a husband; the fast that the Angel prescribed to his mother: “let him not eat, and let him not eat wine or strong drink” (Judges 13:14). Fasting gives birth to prophets, strengthens the strong; fasting makes legislators wise. Fasting is a good guardian of the soul, a reliable companion for the body, a weapon for valiant people, a school for ascetics. He reflects temptations, anoints those who strive in piety; he is the companion of sobriety, the worker of chastity; He performs valiant deeds in battles, and teaches silence in times of peace; sanctifies the Nazarene 6, commits 7 the priest, for without fasting it is impossible to dare to perform sacred acts, not only in the current mysterious and true service, but also in the subordinate. Fasting made Elijah a spectator of the great vision; for having cleansed his soul by fasting for forty days, he was honored in the Horeb cave to see the Lord, as much as a person can see Him. Fasting Elijah returned his son to the widow, and through fasting he became stronger than death. The voice that came from the mouth of the fasting man locked the lawless people in heaven for three years and six months. In order to soften the unbridled heart of the stiff-necked, Elijah decided to condemn himself with them to suffering. Therefore he said: “As the Lord lives... if there be water on the earth, it will come from my mouth” 8 (1 Kings 17:1). And with the ensuing famine, he imposed a fast on the entire people in order to correct them from the vice of luxury and dissolute life. What is Eliseev’s life like? How did the prophet take advantage of the Shunammite's hospitality? How did you treat the prophets? Wasn’t it “potions of divia 9, and a little flour” (2 Kings 4:39, 41) that satisfied the desire for strangeness, when those who touched the dish were in danger from the addition of the “apple of diviago” 10, if the prayer of the faster had not destroyed the toxicity? In a word, you will find that fasting led all the saints to live according to God. There is one substance called amianth which cannot be destroyed by fire; being put into a flame, it apparently becomes charred, but when taken out of the fire, as if washed in water, it becomes purer. Such were the bodies of the three youths in Babylon, who received the property of amianth from fasting. They, in the great fire of the furnace, as if cast from gold, turned out to be inaccessible to damage from fire. Truly, they appeared stronger than gold itself, because the fire did not melt them, but kept them inviolable, when nothing could withstand this flame, which was so kindled with “naffa and pitch ... and passion” 11, so that it spread over forty-nine cubits and, devouring everything around, destroyed many Chaldeans (Dan. 3, 46-48). And this flame was trampled by the youths who entered it, strengthened by fasting; in such a strong fire they inhaled thin and irrigated air. The fire did not dare to touch the hair, which was restored by fasting. And the man of desires, Daniel, who had not eaten bread or drunk water for three weeks, taught the lions to fast, having gone down into their den. For the lions could not sink their teeth into him, as if he were made of stone, or copper, or some other solid substance. Just as iron is tempered through immersion, so fasting, having tempered Daniel’s body, made it impregnable to lions; and they did not open their mouths against the saint. Fasting extinguished the fiery power and stopped the mouths of lions. Fasting sends prayer to heaven, becoming like wings for it as the mountain ascends. Fasting is the growth of houses, the mother of health, the educator of youth, the adornment of the elders, a good companion to travelers, a reliable companion for spouses. The husband does not suspect adultery of adultery, seeing that his wife has become accustomed to fasting. The wife is not consumed by jealousy, noticing that her husband loves fasting. Who exhausted his house during the fast? Count what's in it now; consider what will happen after; Nothing will be lost from fasting in the house. Not a single animal complains about death; there is no blood anywhere; nowhere does the inexorable womb pronounce judgment on animals; the chefs' knife is ineffective; the table is content with the fact that it does not require preparation. The Jews were given the Sabbath: “Let your servant and your donkey rest, it is said” (Deut. 5:14). May fasting be a respite from incessant labor for the servants who serve you throughout the whole year. Give rest to your cook, give freedom to the one who prepares the table, stop the hand of the cupbearer; May the one who makes various cookies rest someday; let the house calm down from a thousand alarms, from smoke and stench, from the running up and down of those serving the belly, like an inexorable ruler. Of course, tax collectors sometimes allow those in their hands to enjoy freedom for a short time. Let him give some rest to his lips, let him conclude a five-day truce with them, and let this womb, which always demands and does not stop at anything, receive now and forget tomorrow; when he is full, he philosophizes about abstinence, but when he is emaciated, he does not remember those rules. Fasting does not know what borrowed means: the fasting person's meal does not smell tall 12. The son of a faster and an orphan is not strangled by his father's debts, like coiled snakes. But on the other hand, fasting also serves as a reason for fun. Just as thirst gives sweetness to drink, and previous hunger makes a meal tasty, so fasting makes eating food pleasant. When he takes over the middle between pleasures, cutting off their continuity, then he will make eating, as if he were separated from you, seem desirable to you. Therefore, if you want to make your table attractive, allow for alternating fasting. And you, by the very fact that you love pleasure too much, inconspicuously weaken it for yourself and destroy sweetness with voluptuousness. No matter how much something is desired, the continuity of pleasure makes it despicable; and what you have as a rarity, pleasure is all the more desirable. So He who created us designed us so that the pleasantness of His gifts would not decrease, because one thing is replaced by another in life. Don't you notice that the sun is brighter after night, and wakefulness is more pleasant after sleep, and health is more desirable after experiencing the opposite? Therefore, the meal after fasting is more enjoyable both for the rich, who have a good table, and for ordinary people, who are content with hastily prepared food. Fear the example of the rich man (Luke 16:19-31). His luxurious life set him on fire; because he was accused not of injustice, but of voluptuousness, and was tormented in the flames of the furnace. Therefore, to extinguish this fire, we need water. And fasting is not only useful for the future; it is also precious to the flesh. The best health is subject to change and upheaval; because nature is exhausted and cannot bear the burden of health. Be careful that you, now abhorring water, do not later ask for even a drop of it, as the rich man asked. No one got drunk from the water; no one had a headache when burdened with water; no one, accustomed to drinking water, had any need for other people's feet; no one’s legs were taken away, no one’s hands stopped working because they were saturated with water. For disorder in digestion, which necessarily accompanies sensualists, produces severe diseases in the body. The fasting person also has a respectable complexion; it does not turn into a shameless purple, but is decorated with a chaste pallor; His gaze is meek, his gait is sedate, his face is meaningful, not disfigured by immoderate laughter; he has regularity in his speech, purity in his heart. Bring to memory the saints who have been since the beginning of the century, “of whom the world is not worthy, who came in sheepskin, in goatskins, in deprivation, in sorrow, in embitterment” (Heb. 11:38, 37). Imitate their way of life if you want a part with them. What laid Lazarus to rest in the bowels of Abraham? Isn't it a post? And Ioannov’s life was one fast. He had neither a bed, nor a table, nor cultivated land, nor a farmer's ox, nor bread, nor a baker, nor anything else necessary for life. Therefore, “the pain of 13 John the Baptist does not rise for those born of women” (Matthew 11:11). And by the way, fasting, which he also mentions, boasting of his sorrows, elevated Paul to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:1-5). But the most important thing of all that has been said is that our Lord, having strengthened the flesh He had assumed for us with fasting, took upon Himself in it the attacks 14 of the devil, both teaching us to anoint ourselves with fasting and accustoming ourselves to feats in temptations, and making it convenient for the enemy to approach Him with His hunger. According to the height of the Divinity, He would have been unapproachable to the enemy, if through hunger He had not descended to human weakness. He, ascending to heaven, ate food to confirm the nature of the resurrected body; You don’t stop fattening yourself and taxing your flesh, and you don’t care at all about the fact that you exhaust your mind without feeding it with saving and life-giving teachings. Or don’t you know that just as in battle the support of one leads to the victory of the other, so the one who goes over to the side of the flesh overcomes the spirit, and the one who goes over to the side of the spirit enslaves the flesh? For they are opposed to each other. Therefore, if you want to make your mind strong, curb your flesh by fasting. This is exactly what the Apostle said: to the extent that “the outer... man decays, the inner man is renewed”; and again: “When... I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 4:16, 12:10). Will you not despise perishable food? Do you really not desire a meal in the Kingdom, which, without a doubt, is prepared by the local fast? Or don’t you know that by immoderation in satiety you are preparing for yourself a well-fed tormentor - a worm? For who, with abundant food and constant luxury, received any communication in the spiritual gift? Moses, in order to accept the second law, needed a secondary fast. If the dumb ones had not fasted with the Ninevites, they would not have escaped the foretold ruin. Whose “bones fell in the wilderness” (Heb. 3:17)? Was it not those who desired meat-eating? While they were content with manna and water from the stone, they defeated the Egyptians, traveled across the sea, “and there was no pain in their knees” 15 (Ps. 104:37). And when they remembered the pots of meat and returned to Egypt with their lust, then they did not see the land of promise. Are you really not afraid of this example? Aren’t you afraid that gluttony may prevent you from achieving your desired benefits? And the wise Daniel would not have seen the visions if he had not enlightened his soul by fasting. From fatty food, like a thick cloud, smoky vapors come out and block the path to the insights of the Holy Spirit that illuminate the mind. If the Angels have any food, then it is bread, as the prophet says: “The bread of the angels is for man” (Ps. 77:25), and not meat, not wine, not anything that the slaves of the womb are addicted to. Fasting is a weapon for militia against demons, because this generation “does not come forth except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). And so many benefits from fasting! And satiety is the beginning of all harm. For along with luxury, drunkenness and all kinds of delicacies, all types of bestial intemperance immediately arise. Because of this, people, as soon as luxury plunges its sting into the soul, become “horses of misogyny” 16 (Jer. 5:8). In those who are drunk, their nature is transformed 17: in the masculine nature they desire the feminine, and in the feminine they desire the masculine. But fasting also indicates the measure in marital affairs, restraining from immoderation even in what is permitted by law: by agreement, it sets aside time for “let them continue in... prayer” (1 Cor. 7:5). However, the benefits of fasting should not be limited to abstaining from food, because true fasting is abstinence from evil deeds. “Loose every form of unrighteousness” (Is. 58:6). Forgive your neighbor's insult; forgive him his debts. “Do not fast in judgments or conflicts” (Is. 58:4). You do not eat meat, but you eat your brother. You abstain from wine, but you do not restrain yourself from taking offense. You wait until evening to eat food, but you spend the day in court. “Woe to you for drunkenness” is not due to wine (Isa. 28:1). Irritation is the rapture of the soul; it drives her out of her mind just as much as wine does. And sorrow is also rapture; it drowns the mind. Fear is a new rapture when something happens that it shouldn’t. For it is said: “Purge my soul from the fear of the enemy” (Ps. 63:2). And in general, any passion that drives the mind crazy can rightly be called intoxication. Imagine an angry person: how intoxicated he is with passion; he is not his own master, he does not recognize himself, he does not recognize those present, as in a night battle he touches everyone, attacks everyone, says what comes to mind: he is uncontrollable, scolds, hits, threatens, swears, shouts, breaks. Avoid this intoxication, and do not become addicted to the intoxication of wine. Do not drink too much water before drinking water. It is not drunkenness that should secretly lead you to fasting. One does not enter into fasting through drunkenness, nor through covetousness into justice, not through intemperance into chastity, and, in short, not through vice into virtue. Another door to the post. Drunkenness leads to intemperance, but sobriety leads to fasting. The wrestler pre-exercises the body; the faster first abstains. Let no drunkenness precede these five days, so that you may reward yourself in advance for them or outwit the Lawgiver. For you work in vain; you crush the body, but you don’t prevent hunger. This pantry is precarious; you pour into a leaky barrel. The wine flows out, taking its course, but the sin remains. The servant runs from the master who beats him; and you don’t leave the wine that hits you in the head every day. The best measure in drinking wine is bodily need. And if you go beyond the limits, then tomorrow you will walk around with a sore head, suffering from yawning and dizziness, emitting the smell of rotten wine; It will seem to you that everything is going around, that everything is fluctuating. Intoxication produces sleep, which is the brother of death, and awakening, which is like a dream. Do you know Who you are preparing to receive? The One who promised us: I and the Father “will come and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). Why do you first resort to drunkenness and enter into the Lord? Why do you allow the enemy to occupy your strongholds in advance? Drunkenness makes no room for the Lord; drunkenness drives away the Holy Spirit. Smoke drives away bees, and excessive wine drinking drives away spiritual gifts. Fasting - the beauty of the city, the improvement of the marketplace, the peace of houses, the salvation of property. Do you want to see his integrity? Compare this evening with tomorrow and you will see a city that has turned from noise and excitement into deep silence. But I wish that this evening would be similar in honor to tomorrow, and that tomorrow would not be in the least inferior in lordship to this one. May the Lord, who brought us into this circle of time, help us, as fighters, in these preliminary feats, showing the firmness and strength of patience, to achieve the day that prepares crowns: now (the day) of the remembrance of saving suffering, and in the next century (the day) of reward for what we have done at the righteous judgment of Christ Himself, because to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen. Editor's note. When working on the text, the noted typos were corrected, and spelling and punctuation were brought as close as possible to modern standards. Red Roman numerals indicate footnotes relating to the 1911 edition; Arabic numerals indicate footnotes relating to this edition, in which the editors cite the Russian text of obscure Slavic quotations from the Holy Scriptures, and also explain some outdated words and expressions. At a spectacle, performance. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Oil, tar... and brushwood. And there was no pain in their knees. You might be interested in: