Беседа 9. О том, что Бог не виновник зла

There are many types of teaching that the Spirit working in him showed us through the sacred psalmist David. Sometimes the prophet, describing his own sufferings and the courage with which he endured what he encountered in life, in his example leaves us with a clear teaching about patience. For example, when he says: “Lord, why have you multiplied the cold?” (Ps. 3:2). And sometimes he depicts God’s goodness and speed of help, which God gives to those who truly seek Him; and then he says: “Always call me, the God of my righteousness has heard me” (Ps. 4:2), expressing himself equivalently with the prophet who said: “Even as I speak, he says: Behold, I have come” (Is. 58:9), that is, before I had time to call, the ear of God had already heard the end of the calling. Also, bringing prayers and supplications to God, he teaches us how those living in sins should propitiate God. “Lord, do not rebuke me with Your wrath; do not punish me with Your wrath” (Ps. 6:2). And in the twelfth psalm he shows some duration of temptation with the words: “How long, O Lord, will you forget me completely?” (Ps. 12:2), and throughout the psalm teaches us not to lose courage in sorrows, but to expect God’s goodness, and to know that God, according to a special dispensation, gives us over to sorrows, according to the measure of each person’s faith, sending also the measure of trials. Therefore, having said: “How long, Lord, will you forget me completely? and: How long will you turn Your face away from Me? (Ps. 12:2), immediately moves on to the evil-mindedness of godless people, who, as soon as they encounter even the slightest grief in life, cannot bear the difficulty of circumstances, immediately begin to waver in their thoughts: does God care about this world, does he oversee the deeds of everyone, does he give everyone their due? Потом, когда видят, что неприятное их положение все еще продолжается, утверждают в себе лукавое мнение, и решительно говорят в сердце своем, что нет Бога. “The fool says in his heart: there is no God” (Ps. 13:1). And whoever has put this into his mind already falls into every sin without caution. Ибо ежели нет назирающего, нет воздающего каждому по достоинству того, что сделано в жизни, то воспрепятствует ли что притеснять нищего, убивать сирот, умерщвлять вдову и пришельца, отважиться на всякое нечестное дело, осквернять себя нечистыми и мерзкими страстями, всякими скотскими вожделениями? Посему как следствие мысли, что нет Бога, присовокупил: «растлеша и омерзишася в начинаниих» ( Пс. 13, 1 ). For it is impossible for one who does not suffer in his soul to forget God to turn away from the right path. Why are the pagans given over to “an unskilled mind and do wicked things” (Rom. 1:28)? Is it not because they said: “There is no God”? Why did they fall “into the passions of dishonor, and their wives changed the natural likeness into the supernatural... and husbands committed crimes against men” (Rom. 1:26, 27)? Is it because “I changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of beasts, and four-footed animals, and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23)? Therefore, as truly devoid of mind and meaning, the one who says: “There is no God” is insane. But close to him and in no way inferior to him in nonsense is the one who says that God is the author of evil. I believe that their sin is equally grave: because both equally deny the good God, one saying that there is no God, and the other claiming that He is not good. For if God is the author of evil, then obviously he is not good. And therefore, in both cases, God is denied. “What,” they say, “diseases?” Why untimely death? Why the destruction of cities, shipwrecks, wars, widespread diseases? “This is evil,” they continue, “and yet all this is God’s work.” Therefore, who else, besides God, do we recognize as responsible for what is happening?” So, since we have touched on this often repeated question, then, raising the word to some generally accepted beginning and having more carefully analyzed the proposed subject, we will try to make a clear and unambiguous explanation of it. First of all, we must confirm in our thoughts one thing: since we are creations of the good God and are in the power of Him who arranges everything that concerns us, both important and unimportant, we cannot endure anything without the will of God; and if we endure anything, it is not harmful, or such that something better can be provided for. For, although death is from God, yet, without a doubt, death is not evil; Unless anyone would call the death of a sinner evil, because for him, crossing from here is the beginning of torment in hell. But again, it is not God who is the cause of evil in hell, but we ourselves, because the beginning and root of sin is what depends on us, our freedom. By refraining from evil, we could not endure anything disastrous. But since we are caught in sin by voluptuousness, can we present any plausible proof that we have not become the cause of sorrows for ourselves? Therefore, some evil is only in our perception, and other evil is in its own nature. Evil in itself depends on us, these are: untruth, debauchery, unreason, timidity, envy, murder, poison, deceitful deeds, and all passions similar to these, which, desecrating the soul, created in the image of the Creator, usually darken its beauty. We also call evil what is difficult and painful for us to feel: bodily illness, bodily wounds, lack of necessities, disgrace, damage to property, loss of relatives. Meanwhile, the wise and good Lord sends each of these disasters to us for our own benefit. Wealth takes away from those who use it badly, and thereby crushes the instrument of their unrighteousness. Illness is sent to those for whom it is more beneficial to have bound members than to rush unhindered into sin. Death is sent to those who have reached the limit of life, which was set from the beginning in the righteous judgment of God, who from afar provided what is beneficial for each of us. And famine, drought, rain are some kind of common ulcers for entire cities and nations, which punish evil that has exceeded the limit. Therefore, just as a doctor, although he produces labor and suffering in the body, is nevertheless beneficent because he fights the disease, and not the sick, so God is good, Who arranges for the salvation of the whole through private punishments. You do not blame the doctor for cutting some things in the body, cauterizing others, and completely taking away others; on the contrary, you give him money, you call him a savior, because you stopped the disease in a small part of the body until the suffering spread throughout the whole body. And when you see that a city has collapsed on its inhabitants due to an earthquake, or that a ship with people in it has crashed at sea, you are not afraid to stir up a blasphemous tongue against the true Doctor and Savior. But you should have understood that in moderate and curable diseases, people benefit from caring for them alone; and when it turns out that suffering is not inferior to medical remedies, then it becomes necessary to separate the damaged part so that the disease, spreading to the places in contact with it, does not pass into the main members. Therefore, just as the doctor is not to blame for cutting and cauterizing, but the disease is to blame, so the destruction of cities, having their origin in the excessiveness of sins, frees God from all reproach. But they say: “If God is not guilty of evil, then why is it said: “I am the creator of the light and the creator of the darkness, the creator of the world and the creator of evil” (Isaiah 45:7)? And it also says: “An evil thing came down from the Lord upon the gates of Jerusalem” (Mic. 1:12). And: there is “evil in the city that the Lord does not do” (Am. 3:6). And in the great song of Moses it is said: “You see, you see, for I am, and there is no God except Me: I will kill and make life, I will strike and I will heal” (Deut. 32:39).” But for one who understands the meaning of Scripture, not one of these passages contains an accusation against God that He is the author and creator of evil. For He who said: “I made light and created darkness,” declares through this that he is the Creator of creation, and not the creator of evil. He called Himself the Creator and Artist of that which seems to be the opposite in creation, so that you would not think that one is the creator of light, and another is the creator of darkness, and so that you would not look for another creator of fire, another of water, another of air, another of earth; because these elements, due to their opposite qualities, seem to be somewhat antagonistic to one another; as indeed happened to some, from which they turned into polytheism. “The world is created, the evil one builds.” It especially creates peace in you when good teaching pacifies your mind and pacifies the passions that rebel in your soul. “Evil is created,” that is, it transforms evil and leads to the better, so that it, ceasing to be evil, takes on the property of good. “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Ps. 50:12). Do not create again, but renew what has become dilapidated by sin. And: “that he may create both... into one new man” (Eph. 2:15). “Yes... he will create” not in the sense of producing from nothingness, but in the sense of transforming those already existing. And: “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). And Moses also says: “Is not this your father the one who acquired thee, and created thee, and created thee?” (Deut. 32:6). Here the word “creation”, placed after the word “creation”, makes it clear to us that it is very often used in the sense of improvement. Therefore, “Create the world” creates the world through the creation of evil, that is, through education and bringing evil into the best. Moreover, if by the word “peace” you mean liberation from wars, and by evil you call the difficulties that accompany those at war - long marches, labors, vigils, worries, shedding of sweat, wounds, murders, the capture of cities, enslavement, taking captives, the pitiful appearance of prisoners and in general all the sorrowful consequences of wars, then I affirm that this happens by the righteous judgment of God; In wars, God sends executions to those worthy of punishment. Or would you like Sodom not to be burned after its lawless deeds? so that Jerusalem would not be destroyed and the church devastated after the terrible fury of the Jews against the Lord? But how else could this have justly happened, if not through the hands of the Romans, to whom the enemies of our Lord, the Jews, betrayed their lives? Therefore, sometimes justice requires that the evil generated by war be inflicted on those who deserve it. And the words: “I will kill and create life,” take, if you wish, in the first sense that appears to you. For simple people are edified by fear. “I will strike, and I will heal.” And this is useful even in the literal sense of the words; because failure inspires fear, but healing inspires love. But you can find a higher meaning in what has been said. “I will kill by sin, and I will live by righteousness.” For to the extent that “our outer man decays, the inner man is renewed” (2 Cor. 4:16). Therefore, do not understand that he kills one, and “makes life” for another; but that he revives the same person with the same thing with which he kills, and heals with the same thing with which he strikes, in accordance with the parable, which says: “You beat him with a rod, but deliver his soul from death” (Proverbs 23:14). So, the flesh is struck so that the soul can be healed; sin is put to death so that righteousness may live. And the words: “an evil thing descended from the Lord on the gates of Jerusalem” contain an explanation in themselves. Which ones are “evil”? “The noise of chariots and horsemen” (Mic. 1:13). When you hear: “there is evil in the city, which the Lord has not created,” understand the word “evil” to mean that Scripture means by it disasters sent to sinners to correct their sins. For it is said: “I made you angry and starved to death, so that I will do good for you” (Deut. 8:3,16), stopping the injustice before it spread to immensity, like a stream held back by any solid dam or barrier. Therefore, illnesses in cities and nations, dryness in the air, barrenness of the earth and disasters encountered in everyone’s life prevent the increase of sin. And all evil of this kind is sent from God to prevent the generation of true evils. For both bodily suffering and external disasters are designed to curb sin. So, God destroys evil, and evil does not come from God. And the doctor destroys the disease, and does not introduce it into the body. The destruction of cities, earthquakes, floods, the death of armies, shipwrecks, any extermination of many people, happening from land or sea, or air, or fire, or for any reason, happen in order to bring chastity to those who remain; because God curbs the vices of the people by means of executions by the people. Therefore, in the proper sense, evil, that is, sin, is the evil most worthy of this name, depends on our will; because it is in our will to either refrain from vice, or to be vicious. And among other evils, some, like feats, are needed to demonstrate courage, for example, Job - deprivation of children, destruction of all wealth in one instant of time and defeat with purulent scabs; and others are sent as a cure for sins, for example, to David - domestic shame serves as punishment for lawless lust. And we also know terrible executions of a different kind, sent by the righteous judgment of God, in order to make those who are inclined to sin chaste. For example, Dathan and Aviron were devoured by the earth into the abysses and abysses that opened beneath them. For here, by this kind of punishment, they themselves were not led to correction (is this possible for those who have descended into hell?), but by their example they made others chaste. So Pharaoh was drowned with his entire army. This is how the former inhabitants of Palestine were exterminated. Therefore, although the Apostle calls them in one place “vessels of wrath perfect for destruction” (Rom. 9:22), we should not think that the dispensation of Pharaoh was anything (in this case, the guilt would rightly fall on the one who arranged it); but on the contrary, when you hear about vessels, understand that each of us was created for something useful. And just as in a large house one vessel is gold, another is silver, another is earthen and another is wooden (2 Tim. 2:20), and the similarity with one or another substance depends on the will of each of us (a person who is morally pure and innocent is a golden vessel, and the one inferior in dignity is a silver vessel, but one who is wise in earthly things and fit for contrition is an earthen vessel, but conveniently defiled by sin and becoming food for the eternal fire - a wooden vessel); Likewise, a “vessel of wrath” is someone who, as in a vessel, has contained all the power of the devil, and due to the stench that has occurred in him from the corruption, he cannot be taken for any use, but is worthy only of destruction and destruction. Since it was necessary to crush him, the reasonable and wise Master of Souls arranged for him to become famous and known to everyone, and through this, when he himself became unhealed due to excessive depravity, he brought benefit to others with his misfortune. God hardened him, by His long-suffering and slowness in punishment, allowing his sin to intensify, so that the truth of God’s judgment would be revealed on him, when his wickedness increased to the extreme limit. Why, starting with smaller plagues and constantly multiplying and intensifying the executions, did not soften his stubbornness, but found that he despises God’s long-suffering and endures the disasters sent to him as something ordinary. Even after this, he did not put him to death until he drowned himself, in the arrogance of his heart, daring to follow the righteous path, and dreaming that the Red Sea would be passable both for the people of God and for him. So, having been taught this by God, having received the concept of the separate types of evil, knowing what real evil is, namely, sin, the end of which is destruction, and what imaginary evil is, evil that is painful for the senses, but having the power of good, such as, for example, the suffering sent to curb sin, the fruits of which are the eternal salvation of souls, stop being upset by the orders of God’s economy, and do not honor them at all. God is guilty of the existence of evil, and do not imagine that evil has its own special independence. For wickedness is not independent, like some animal, and we should not imagine its essence as something independent. Evil is the deprivation of good. The eye was created, and blindness came from the loss of the eye. Therefore, if the eye were not subject to damage by nature, blindness would not occur. Likewise, evil does not exist on its own, but appears behind damage to the soul. It is not unborn, as the wicked say, who make the evil nature equal to the good nature, recognizing both as beginningless and higher than birth; it is not and is not born, because if everything is from God, then how can evil be from the Good? Ugly is not from beauty, vice is not from virtue. Read the history of the universe, and you will find that there is “all... good”, and “very good” (Gen. 1:31). Therefore, evil was not created together with what is good. But even the intelligent creature, which originated from the Creator, was not brought into existence with an admixture of guile. For if bodily creatures did not have any inherent evil in them, then how could intelligent creatures, who are so distinguished by purity and holiness, have common independence with evil? However, there is evil, and the action shows that there is a lot of it in the whole world. Therefore they say: “Where can it come from if it is neither without beginning nor created?” Let us ask those who are looking for something similar: where do diseases come from? Where did the injuries come from? Disease is not something unborn, nor is it a creation of God. On the contrary, animals were created with such a structure as is appropriate for them by nature, and were brought into life with perfect members, but they are sick, deviating from what is natural for them; or they lose their health either from poor food, or from some other pathogenic cause. Therefore, God created the body, not the disease. That is why God created the soul, and not sin. The soul has become damaged by deviating from what is natural to it. And what was the main benefit for her? Being with God and uniting with Him through love. Having fallen away from Him, she began to suffer from various and varied ailments. Why is there a general acceptability of evil in it? due to free striving, everything more befitting of rational nature. Not being bound by any necessity, having received from the Creator a free life as created in the image of God, she understands the good, knows how to enjoy it, is endowed with freedom and strength, being in the contemplation of the beautiful and in the enjoyment of what is imagined, she can observe the life that is natural to her; but he also has the freedom to sometimes deviate from the beautiful. And this happens to her when, having had enough of blissful pleasure, and, as if weighed down by some kind of drowsiness, having fallen from the heights of heaven, she enters into communion with the flesh for the vile pleasures of voluptuousness. Grief was once Adam, not a place of residence, but a will; He was woeful when, having received a soul, he looked up to heaven, admired what was visible, loved the Benefactor, who gave him the pleasure of eternal life, placed him among the delights of paradise, gave him leadership in the likeness of the Angels, made him a worshiper of the Archangels and a hearer of the Divine voice. Despite all this, being under the protection of God and enjoying His blessings, he soon became satiated with everything, and, as if arrogant from his satiety, he preferred what seemed pleasant to carnal eyes over intellectual beauty and placed the filling of the belly above spiritual pleasures. Soon he became outside of paradise, outside of this blissful life, becoming evil not out of necessity, but out of recklessness. Therefore, just as he sinned because of bad will, he died because of sin. “Examples for sin, death” (Rom. 6:23). To the extent that he moved away from life, to the extent he approached death; therefore from God is life, and the deprivation of life is death. Therefore, Adam prepared death for himself by moving away from God, according to what is written: “For those who separate themselves from You will perish” (Ps. 72:27). Thus, it was not God who created death, but we ourselves brought it upon ourselves through evil deeds. God did not prevent our destruction for the reasons explained above, so as not to preserve the illness itself immortal in us, just as a potter would not want to put such an earthen vessel that leaks into the fire until the defect in it was corrected by alteration. But they say: “Why is it that in the structure itself we are not given sinlessness, so that it would be impossible for us to sin, even if we wanted to?” This is why you do not recognize servants as serviceable when you keep them tied up, but when you see that they are voluntarily fulfilling their duties to you. Therefore, God pleases not what is forced, but what is done out of virtue. Virtue comes from will, and not from necessity; and will depends on what is in us; and what is in us is free. Therefore, whoever blames the Creator for not making us sinless by nature does nothing more than prefer the irrational nature to a rational nature, to a nature endowed with will and self-activity, motionless and having no aspirations. This is said as a digression, but out of necessity, so that if you fall into the abyss of thoughts and lose what you desire, you will not lose God at the same time. Therefore, let us stop correcting the Wise One. Let us stop searching for what would be better than what He created. Although the reasons for His private orders are hidden from us, let us affirm in our souls the following proposition: no evil comes from Good. To this question, due to the connection of concepts, comes another: about the devil. “Where does the devil come from if evil is not from God?” What can we say to this? The fact is that for this question it is enough for us to use the same reasoning that is presented about wickedness in man. For why is man wicked? By my own free will. Why is the devil angry? For the same reason, because he also had a free life, and he was given the power to either remain with God or withdraw from the Good. Gabriel is an Angel and always stands before God. Satan is an angel and has completely fallen from his own rank. And the first was kept by will in those above, and the last was cast down by free will. And the first could become an apostate, and the last could not fall away. But one was saved by his insatiable love for God, and the other was made an outcast by his distance from God. And this, alienation from God, is evil. A slight turning of the eye produces that we are either on the side of the sun or on the side of the shadow of our body. And there enlightenment is ready for him who looks straight; Obscuration is necessary for those who turn their gaze away from the shadow. Likewise, the devil is wicked, having wickedness from his will, and not his nature is opposite to good. “Why is he fighting with us?” Because, having become a container of every vice, he accepted the disease of envy and envied our honor. Our carefree life in paradise was unbearable for him. Having deceived man by cunning and cunning and using the same desire that man had to become like God as a means of deception, he showed the tree and promised that through eating this fruit man would become like God. For he said: “if... you take away... you will be like a god, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Therefore, he was not created by our enemy, but through envy he was brought into enmity with us. For seeing that he himself had been cast down from the Angels, he could not watch with indifference how the earth-born through success rose to angelic dignity. And since he became an enemy, God ensured that we resisted him when, referring the threat to himself, he said to the beast that served him as an instrument: “I will put enmity between you... and between that seed” (Gen. 3:15). For, indeed, intimacy with vice is harmful; because among those who come together, such a union of friendship usually arises as a result of likening each other. Therefore, what is said is true: “good customs are corrupted by evil conversations” (1 Cor. 15:33). Just as in unhealthy countries little by little the inhaled air imperceptibly gives rise to illness in the inhabitants, so a bad community introduces great evil into the soul, although the harm is currently imperceptible to the senses. Therefore, enmity with the serpent is irreconcilable. If the instrument is worthy of such hatred, then shouldn’t we be even more hostile towards the one who acted as the instrument? But they say: “Why was there a tree in paradise, with the help of which the devil could have time to plot against us? For if he had not had a seductive bait, how could he have led us into death through disobedience?” It was because a commandment was needed to test our obedience. For this purpose there was a plant that bore beautiful fruits, so that we, in deviating from the pleasant, showing the superiority of abstinence, would rightfully receive crowns for patience. Eating was followed not only by disobeying the commandment, but also by the knowledge of nakedness. For it is said: “They were poisonous, and their eyes were opened, and they understood, as if they were besha” (Gen. 3:6-7). But it was not necessary to know nakedness, so that the human mind, inventing clothes and protections from nakedness for itself, should not be distracted by the concern of replenishing what is missing, and so that, in general, care for the flesh should not be distracted from attentive striving towards God. But why was clothing not arranged for him immediately after creation? Because neither natural nor artificial clothes were decent. Natural clothing is characteristic of the dumb; These are: feathers, hair and rough skin, capable of protecting from cold and withstanding heat. And in this one animal does not have any advantage over another, because in all the nature of the same dignity. And it was fitting for a person, in proportion to his love for God, to receive excellent gifts of blessings. Exercises in the arts would lead to lack of leisure, which should be especially avoided as harmful to humans. Therefore, the Lord, again calling us to heavenly life, destroys the care in our souls, saying: “Do not worry about your soul, what you eat ... or about your body, what you put on” (Matthew 6:25). Therefore, it was not proper for a person to have both natural and artificial coverings. On the contrary, if he showed his valor, other coverings were prepared for him, which, by God’s grace, would adorn the person and begin to shine on him in the form of light clothes, similar to angels, surpassing the diversity of flowers, the lightness and radiance of the stars. For this reason, man was not suddenly given clothes, because they were assigned to him as a reward for virtue, but the anger of the devil did not allow man to receive them. So, the devil became our adversary as a result of the fall to which we were brought in ancient times by his malice. And according to the Lord’s economy, we have a struggle with him, so that we overcome him by obedience and triumph over the enemy. It would be a different matter if he had not become a devil, but remained in the rank in which the Chief of Officials first placed him! But since he became an apostate, an enemy of God and an enemy of men created in the image of God (for the same reason he is a hater of man, for which he is a fighter against God: he hates us as the creatures of the Lord, and hates us as God’s likeness), then the wise and prudent Steward of human affairs took advantage of his cunning to teach our souls, just as a doctor uses the venom of a viper in the composition of saving medicine. “Who is the devil? What is his rank? what dignity? And why, in fact, is he called Satan?” He is Satan because he opposes good. For this is the meaning of the Hebrew word, as we know from the book of Kings. For it is said: “The Lord raises up against Solomon the enemy (satan), Ader,” the king of Syria (1 Kings 11:14). He is the devil because he is both an accomplice and an accuser of our sin; rejoices at our destruction and makes a mockery of our deeds. And his nature is incorporeal, according to the Apostle, who said: “Our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but... against spiritual malice” (Eph. 6:12). And his dignity is commanding. For it is said: “to the beginning, and to the powers, and to the ruler of the world” of sowing (Eph. 6:12). The place of command is in the air, as the same Apostle says: “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, which now works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Therefore he is also called the prince of peace, because his rulers are in the above-ground countries. So the Lord says: “Today is judgment for this world: now the prince of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). And again: “The prince of this world is coming, and in Me he will find nothing” (John 14:30). When it is said about the army of the devil that these are “spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Eph. 6:12), then you need to know that Scripture usually calls the air heaven; for example: “birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26); and: “they ascend to the heavens” (Ps. 106:26), that is, they rise high in the air. Therefore, the Lord saw “Satan falling like lightning from heaven” (Luke 10:18), that is, overthrown from his own leadership, cast down to the ground, to be trampled upon by those who placed their trust in Christ. For He gave His disciples “power to tread on the serpent, and on the scorpion, and on all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). Since his evil torment has been overthrown and the above-earth places have been purified by the saving suffering of the One who pacified “both on earth and in heaven” (Col. 1:16), then the Kingdom of God is already preached to us. So John says: “The kingdom of heaven is drawing near” (Matthew 3:2); and the Lord everywhere preaches the “Gospel of the Kingdom” (Matthew 4:23); and even before that the Angels proclaim: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace” (Luke 2:14); and those who rejoice at the entry of our Lord into Jerusalem exclaim: “peace in heaven and glory in the highest” (Luke 19:38). And in general there are thousands of victorious voices testifying to the final overthrow of the enemy; why there is no struggle left for us and no achievement in the things above, no one resists or diverts us from the blessed life, but we can blithely stretch forward to always enjoy the tree of life, which the cunning of the serpent initially prevented us from partaking of; because “God provide flaming weapons... guard the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). And having completed this path without hindrance, let us enter into the enjoyment of the blessings of Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever! Amen. You might be interested in: