Глава I. Грех по учению святителя Тихона
Machine translation from the original · Show original
Before we begin to present the teaching of Saint Tikhon on sin, it is necessary to make some comments regarding Christian morality as such and its understanding by the saint.
Let's look at the more general concept of “moral” from a philological point of view. “Moral,” writes V.I. Dal - is opposed to the bodily, carnal; spiritual, soulful. Relating to one half of spiritual life, opposite to the mental, but constituting a common spiritual principle with it: truth and falsehood belong to the mental, good and evil belong to the moral. Good-natured, benevolent, well-behaved; in agreement with conscience, with the laws of truth, with the dignity of man, with the duty of an honest and pure-hearted citizen... The Christian faith contains the rules of the highest morality. The morality of our faith is higher than civil morality: the first requires only strict execution of the laws, while the second puts conscience and God as the judge” (22, 558). In the works of St. Tikhon, all the indicated meanings of the category “moral” are found, although the word “morality” itself appears in Russian literature only in the 19th century.
The saint's Christian morality, like all of his theology, is entirely based on Holy Scripture 9. Why is no “autonomous ethics” possible for the saint? Morality has its beginning and foundation in God, in His word (the work “On True Christianity” begins with the chapter “The Word of God”; there are also chapters “On the Gospel”, “On reading and listening to the word of God”, etc.) and should be an active expression, “keeping” the heard word of Scripture (3, 5-6). Conscience itself, the “natural moral law” in man, appears to the saint, in accordance with the patristic tradition, as only a reflection of the Divine commandments and Divine will in the human soul, created by God and striving towards Him. Thus, Christian morality for Saint Tikhon is imperative morality, and this imperative is of divine origin.
Just as the saint divides the word of God into law and Gospel (3, 2-3), - not only into the Old and New Testaments, but also in another way: into commandments, commandments of God (law) and gracious promises 10 (Gospel), - so Christian ethics has, as it were, two “levels”: 1) “externally imperative”, normative: commandments, commands or “prohibitions” of God, by which a person must subordinate his will, and 2) “gracious”, as if “imperative internally”, when in the soul, whose feelings are trained by skill to distinguish between good and evil (Heb. 5:14), this submission loses dramatic tension, becomes free, voluntary and joyful. This is no longer obedience out of fear of punishment or the promise of reward, but free following in love.
Another consequence of the fact that Christian morality in the revelation of the saint is based on Holy Scripture is its universality (3, 5). The commandments of God are universal and obligatory for fulfillment, and the norms of Christian morality based on them are also universal and obligatory for everyone. But at the same time, its requirements are different in relation to individuals, in particular, depending on their social and family status.
Avoid evil and do good. These words of the 33rd Psalm are often found on the pages of the works of St. Tikhon. The first is not enough without the second. Just as it is not necessary to know what is good to first know what evil is. But sin is so rooted in the fallen nature of man, has spread in a world that has departed from God, that it is impossible not to start a conversation about Christian morality as if from the opposite side: what is “non-Christian morality,” or what is downright immoral. Likewise, Saint Tikhon prefaces his teaching “on true Christianity” with a comprehensive study of sin and ways to overcome it.
Using the most concise and succinct definition of sin as lawlessness in the Holy Scriptures (1 John 3:4), the saint writes: “Everything is sin, whatever is done against the holy and eternal law of God” (4:114), and does not give other definitions, perhaps considering that collected from the works of St. John Chrysostom to be sufficient: sin is a “sickness of the soul”, its “leprosy”, “severe relaxation”, "root of death"; there is a “spontaneous demon 11 and voluntary madness” (2, 124).
How is sin committed? “Sin,” writes Saint Tikhon, “can be a deed, a word, a thought, a desire and an intention.” The last two stand out from the third as a violation of the commandment “thou shalt not covet.” Sin is committed “by thought, such as: pleasure in thought, caused by lust, secret hatred, malice, etc.; desire and intention, such as: the lust of uncleanness, the desire for someone else’s good, revenge, and everything that a person wants to do against the law of God” (3, 114). Further, “sin is both that which is prohibited by the law of God, and that which is commanded by the law of God is abandoned. It is a sin to kill, but it is also a sin not to give a helping hand to those in need. For this reason, both to do evil and not to do good is sin” (3, 114–115). Finally, there is sin “possessing a person”, which “is done with will, advice, intent and knowledge and prejudice, for example, to commit fornication, steal someone else’s property, deceive, etc. This sin is called mortal, because when committed it gives birth to death (James 1:15).
With such a sin, faith and the grace of the Holy Spirit cannot be present in a person, but is expelled from him until such a sin ceases.” It is distinguished from sin, “living in man, but not possessing man,” which “is nothing other than natural weakness, with which the pious resist with the strength of faith and spirit” (4, 200–201).
How great an evil sin is, 12 the saint never tires of not only repeating, but also confirming, in the hope that his arguments will prompt the sinner to reform. Sin “offends the majesty of God”; “the law of God, eternal and immutable, is being destroyed”; “a person, when he sins, honors himself more than God, prefers his will to the will of God and His holy law” (2, 124; 3, 115). Sin “separates a person from God and deprives him of the grace of God,” as a result of which, “just as the body dies when the soul leaves it, so the soul dies when God leaves it” (2, 124). And this is after “for the sake of the destruction of sin, the Son of God came into the world,” having completed the work of salvation, to which a person is called only to join, to accept the help given to “tuna.”
“Everyone who commits sin is a servant of sin,” says the Lord (John 8:34). “How hard and vile this work is! - exclaims the saint. “It is better for every man, and the tormentor himself, as a creation of God, to work than to work against sin and the sin of the devil.” Oh, if only a poor sinner could see this work!.. Moreover, the poorest one does not recognize this poverty.” And as a “slave of sin,” the one who creates sin is the devil (1 John 3:8), who “deprives a soul that has been separated (from the source of life - God) from life and thus kills it” (3: 117–118). This dying of the soul in sin begins even in earthly life: “a conscience irritated by sin torments a person, which often leads to despair”; “sin brings about temporary punishments, such as: bloody wars, pestilences, diseases, famines, fires, etc.” and “the reason is that the innocent nature itself suffers.”
But the future of unrepentant sinners is incomparably more disastrous (both in terms of the severity of torment and in the hopelessness due to the impossibility of repentance): “For sin, Gehenna, hell and eternal torment are prepared,” who, according to the saint, “will forever be deprived of God’s mercy and His sweetest contemplation, with the devil and his evil angels, drinking the cup of God’s wrath without end, suffering in that consuming flame, but not killing” (3, 119).
The saint indicates the following reasons for sin: “1. Corruption of human nature. But Christians, by the power of holy baptism and the vows that then existed, must stand and struggle against their inclinations and passions. 2. The devil leads a person to sin. Invisible enemies are always awake to our destruction, O Christian. We shouldn’t doze either. 3. Temptations of the world, (similar to) a pestilence, which begins in a single person and infects many living nearby. 4. Unkind upbringing of children due to parental neglect. 5. Habit (which draws sinners) like a rope to sin, and like someone who is greedy for bread and thirsty for water, they strive for the sin to which they are accustomed” (6, 205-206).
What helps a Christian resist sin? “Help in the feat against sin,” according to St. Tikhon, consists of the following. – 1. Try to have a good upbringing in your early years: the young tree, to which side it is inclined, will stand until the end: so will the young heart. 2. Avoid evil and corrupt people, as the story of righteous Lot teaches. 3. Study in God’s holy word and read or listen to other books that are beneficial to the soul. 4. Do not disdain, but rather love reproof and instruction 13. 5. Often bring to mind that at baptism Satan and all his works were denied. 6. Remember the last four: death, the judgment of Christ, hell and the Kingdom of Heaven. 7. Reasoning that a short period of sin is sweetness, but eternal sorrow will follow. 8. Let the meanness (baseness - I.N.) and the abomination of sin turn a Christian away from sin. 9. To talk about Christian nobility, which is great, lofty, exalted and incomprehensible. 10. The death of Christ and His terrible suffering for our sins strongly turn a Christian away from sin. 11.
Read the examples of the saints of God who fought against sin and imitate them in this. 12. Evil thoughts that rise up and lead to sin are immediately cut off - nothing less than shaking off a fiery spark from our hands. 13. Try to always have God before you and beware of sinning and committing lawlessness before the all-seeing eye of God. 14. One must also avoid cases that lead to sin, such as conversations, disorderly meetings and feasts. In such meetings there are almost as many temptations as there are persons, and as many sins and iniquities as there are words and deeds. 15. We should not look at what people do, no matter what they are, but listen to what the word of God teaches: do not love the world, nor those who are in the world (1 John 2:15). 16. Since every temptation enters through our eyes and ears, like windows, into the church of our heart, for this reason they should not be given freedom. 17. Anyone who wants to struggle against sin absolutely needs constant prayer” (3, 120–124).
The saint also gives a well-known comparison, according to which “passion is like a dog: just as a dog runs after us and chases us when we run away from it, and when we stand against it and chase it, it runs away from us, so passion chases the one who succumbs to it and listens to it, but yields to the one who resists it” (3, 127). All the means prescribed by the saint in the fight against sin are deliberately listed here, since he advises them to resist individual sins, and they also help in acquiring virtue.
The more difficult it is to fight sin, the more it takes root in the heart. “Like a tree,” the saint writes, “the more it grows, the more it sends its roots into the ground, so the more sinful a custom grows, the deeper in the human heart its roots establish.” The habit of sin is born “from delay in sin or from its repeated repetition, from which it becomes so strong that, like a second nature, a person is drawn to what he is addicted to.” And then “cruel warfare is to defeat custom” (3, 125). The danger of sin, among other things, is that it dulls the conscience; By repeating sin, the soul is increasingly blinded by insensibility, which is why the saint calls sin “spiritual darkness.” And so “sin strikes the human heart with disastrous blindness, from which there is fearlessness, and from fearlessness all lawlessness comes!” 14 (3, 128–129).
It is difficult to resist passion, but “will, diligence and labor with the help of God can do anything.” This struggle is also helped by the memory that “passion is an internal and spiritual idolatry, because those who work with passions honor their inner hearts by subduing them, like idols,” at the same time denying “Christ and God, in whom our salvation is. And what is more unfortunate, in that which has become old, many depart for the next century without repentance and hope of salvation, and become eternal captives of hell and death” (3, 125-127). In addition to the already mentioned means of resisting sin, to help those struggling with a deep-rooted passion that finds special sympathy in the heart, the saint reminds that “he who has recognized the distress of his soul should not hesitate, but quickly leave behind the evil custom, but he who has left the evil custom should not return to that one, but stand firmly against it and overcome by the grace of God, forgetting what is behind and reaching out to what is before (Phil. 3:13)” (3, 13) 127).
It is to spiritual blindness that the saint attributes both a life spent in obvious sins and a “hypocritical” life, in which only in appearance, outwardly, the law of God is fulfilled, but either there are no works of faith (mercy, love for God and neighbor, etc.), or there is no internal spiritual life, but only the fulfillment of ritual (3, 132–135; 4, 199). The saint singles out hypocrisy not so much as a sin itself, but as a dangerous sinful state of the soul due to its duality (often at the subconscious level). “It does no good,” the saint writes, “to appear serviceable on the outside, but faulty on the inside; be humble in body and proud in soul; have faith and love on the tongue, but unbelief and its fruits in the heart” (3, 6). He is a hypocrite “who avoids evil not for the sake of the will of God, which does not want evil, but either for the sake of human fear, or for the sake of his own praise, or for the sake of some other self-interest, or who does not sin before people, but sins secretly” (3, 260). For “God does not accept half of the heart, which wants to cleave to both creation and God, but demands the whole heart from us” (3, 296).
Hypocrisy devalues all virtues, including humility (3, 260), prayer (3, 296; 4, 21, 59), love (3, 346; 4, 154), faith (4, 199), and service to God in general (4, 177), and is, according to St. Tikhon, “a sign of self-love” (3, 260) and outright unbelief (4, 19, 199).
Such a detailed conversation about sin as such will facilitate and shorten, we believe, the consideration of individual sins. In choosing them, we also follow the saint, who in his work “On True Christianity” explains why it was the sins in question that became the subject of his special attention. “I did not base my reasoning here on the sins known to everyone, which everyone, even the rudest people and nations, abhor, such as robbery, obvious violence and robbery, murder, fornication, etc. The reasoning is primarily about those vices that are also the cause of other vices, and which the current age especially does not regard as vices” (3, 153). Bearing in mind first of all the spiritual benefit of his contemporary readers, mostly “simple” people, the saint speaks especially: about pride, envy, enmity, anger and malice, about slander and condemnation, lies, flattery and deceit, about idleness, despondency, gluttony and drunkenness, about the love of money, usury, theft, insulting the poor, about the love of fame and ambition; separately - about slander, luxury, “women's jewelry.”
In various places in his works, Saint Tikhon builds several “anaxiological series” of sinful states of man:
1) pride – envy – hatred – malice – murder (§ 80, “On the true
2) anger - malice, resentment, hatred (§ 86);
3) pride - anger, malice - revenge (§ 87);
4) unbridled heart and tongue - condemnation, slander, slander (§ 91);
5) pride, envy, malice, evil habit, jealousy, impatience - condemnation - hatred, enmity,
disagreement (§ 91); suspicions
6) condemnation - sadness - weakness - death (§ 92);
7) pride - love of fame, ambition - caressing, flattery, deceit,
slander, extortion (§§ 128, 131); murder
8) pride - condemnation (27, 224).
They can be summarized in a general scheme 15 (P.19). In it, the beginning of all passions and vices will be pride, from which, when temptation is allowed (for example, resentment) and with the assistance of pride, through envy, anger, hatred, malice are born, which manifest themselves with intolerance and intemperance of the tongue in condemnation, slander, slander. The resulting hatred and enmity of some can lead to violence, for others - to sadness, which, if not healed by reconciliation, can cause physical and mental illness and even death. On the other hand, ambition and love of fame, fueled by pride, give rise to deceit, flattery, slander, often leading to sad consequences. Realizing the relativity of this “reconstruction,” we still believe that it to a certain extent reflects the course of the saint’s reasoning about the relationship of passions and the fight against them.
In the works of the saint one can notice some “inconsistency” of reasoning. For example, hatred is in one case the source of anger (§ 80, “On True Christianity”), in another - one of its consequences (through condemnation, § 91), in the third they are cited together as products of anger (§ 86). What is the reason for such discrepancies? 16 First, we will try to suggest some general mechanism for their appearance, then illustrating it with a specific example.
In a fallen state, a person is born with the beginnings in the soul of all (or almost all, at least the main ones) both good and sinful inclinations. As one grows, the processes of personality formation take place, there is a struggle between the dark and light sides of the soul, its multifaceted development in both good and evil. These processes, due to their complexity (as the human soul itself is complex and contradictory), almost never proceed “progressively” (in the sense of being rooted only in good or only in evil), just as there is no continuous ascent or fall 17 . The development of various properties, aspects of the soul (conventionally “up” or “down”) occurs rather “iteratively”. (Recall that the iterative process in mathematics is characterized by a step-by-step approach to the desired result, when at each iteration step the found solution is refined according to a certain algorithm, depending on the method, and the results obtained are used as input data for the next step).
Thus, considering the above antinomy of the cause-and-effect interdependence of the passions of anger and hatred, we can assume (and this is partly known from experience) that one of these passions, developing in the soul, strengthens the other: hatred, born in a proud heart from resentment (as a state of the heart), reveals itself outside, in the form of various manifestations of anger. Giving these manifestations freedom, without preventing anger from developing, a person is increasingly consumed by hatred, which, in turn, seeking a way out, strengthens the anger, which manifests itself more and more sharply 18. It seems that the described mechanism can be applied to the explanation of mutual development and other passions associated with each other, as well as to the process of growth in virtue. An example of the latter will be given in its place.
When encountering definitions of pride in the works of St. Tikhon, one cannot help but notice their predominant, in comparison with the definitions of other passions, closeness to the definitions of sin in general: pride is “the beginning and root of all sin” and “mortal sin” itself, “an ulcer inflicted by the enemy in the fall,” “a serious illness of the soul” and at the same time “a poison that mortifies it,” “is spiritual darkness,” “the fruit of the spirit of malice,” “the path is broad,” and, in general, “a sign of a faulty soul” (27, 220–221). This closeness testifies, first of all, to the fact that pride itself is a sin par excellence 19, which is why it can be called it in the proper sense of the word. The saint also speaks of their single source. “The beginning of pride is the devil,” to whom man is enslaved by pride (3, 157; 27, 222).
The second distinctive, in the sense of danger, feature of pride is its deep hiddenness in the heart, which is why the saint also writes about the “psychological” beginning (as well as the consequence) of pride - “man’s ignorance of himself,” which “blinds” him (6, 209). Pride “does not allow one to recognize and admit one’s wretchedness, and so man remains and remains in his poverty and wretchedness” (27, 220). Therefore, “there is nothing more difficult than pride,” and “with great inconvenience, and also not without God’s help, we defeat it” (3, 157).
Pride is also dangerous because, like vanity, “it destroys every spiritual virtue, making our entire life unclean, even if we did purity, virginity, fasting, prayer, alms and other virtues,” St. Tikhon quotes St. John Chrysostom, revealing the reason for this: “Christians who have lost faith in Christ worship pride as God,” why “It is impossible for a soul sick with pride to see the Divine” (27, 222, 225).
Using biblical examples, the saint shows “the end to which pride leads: it rises high, but falls very low (Luke 18:10-14, etc.)” 20 (3, 158).
A proud person: 1) exalts himself, “attributes the good that he has to himself, to his own diligence and labor, and to his own reason, and not to God; does not submit to superiors, equals and inferiors (the inferiors - i.e.
N.) is not inferior; in words and deeds it shows a certain arrogance and pomp; seeks glory, honor and praise in every way; everywhere and to everyone he seeks to show himself off, shamelessly praises and exalts himself, highly extols himself and his deeds; he boasts about the good he does not have; starts things beyond his own strength, and arbitrarily interferes with others; he neither submits nor obeys his parents and authorities”, always wanting to “establish and approve the will of his desire”; 2) it is difficult to endure his humiliation and therefore “he tries very hard to hide his shortcomings and vices; does not accept admonitions, reproofs, or advice; does not tolerate being in contempt and ignorance; having lost rank, honor or authority, he grumbles, is indignant, and often blasphemes; consequently, pride is angry, envious, unloving, hateful”; 3) inclined “to despise and humiliate other people; to re-judge their affairs, to exalt their mistakes, to diminish their praise, and so on” (2, 141; 3, 158; 6, 209; 27, 221).
What means does the saint offer to heal the disease of pride? This is a reflection on the “many reasons” that “destroy our pride. 1) People are most proud either for the sake of honor and glory, or for the sake of wealth, or for the sake of reason, or for the sake of strength, or for the sake of nobility. But all this is subject to change, and is not ours, but God’s. Therefore, all praise, honor, and thanksgiving are due to God who gives, and to man to humble himself, so that what he has is not taken away for the sake of pride. 2) Our birth and upbringing destroys our pride, 3) our nakedness, 4) our misfortunes, 5) the end of our life, for we are the earth and to the earth we will go. 6) The more we come to know and remember Christ, looking at the deepest humility of the Son of God, the more we will recognize our meanness (baseness - I.N.) and wretchedness, and thus humble ourselves. 7) Be afraid,” says Basil the Great to the proud, “of falling like the devil.” In addition, pride is cut off by common means of combating sin, and brought to humility by temptations 21 (3, 158–160; 27, 226).
The insidiousness of pride lies in the fact that “whoever begins to evade this deadly evil by the grace of God, this other worst evil is met with - spiritual pride and arrogance,” which “although he does not utter the words of the Pharisaes outwardly, yet inside his heart he says: I am not like other men” (Luke 18:11). Thus, the saint separates pride, which tends to show itself outwardly, akin to vanity, and pharisaism. The latter “usually tends to nest most especially in those who fast a lot, give a lot of mercy, enclose themselves in monasteries, pray often and a lot, and so on, apparently, they take pains to do good deeds. So this viper crouches everywhere for a poor man and seeks to kill him with its poison” (27, 221, 225).
In addition to the fact that “pride is not only a grave and vile sin in itself,” it, as has been shown, “can also be the cause of other sins. For God, who opposes the proud, with righteous judgment takes away His grace from the proud; Satan conveniently approaches such a house, as if marked and decorated (Matthew 12:44). Therefore, a person who is left without the grace of God, as if he is weak and prone to every evil, conveniently falls into every sin” (3, 158).
We are now talking about the immediate products of pride.
“Envy is sadness about the well-being of one’s neighbor,” St. Tikhon quotes the words of St. Basil the Great, and, remembering Cain and the elder brother from the parable of the prodigal son, he writes: “So envy and brotherly well-being imputes ill-being for its own” (3, 160).
This passion is disastrous: those blinded by it “do not see anything healthy: the envious person would rather endure endless troubles than to see his neighbor in respect, and so before himself, rather than the one whom he envies, harms.” «Мучительная страсть! - exclaims the saint. “In other sins there is some kind of sweetness, even if imaginary, but the envious one sins and suffers punishment, commits lawlessness and suffers.” The envious person does what the demon does not do: the demon envies only a person, and not a demon, but a person envies a person” (2, 127–128; 3, 161). At the same time, envy “is the devil’s own sin: it is sad and unbearable for the devil that Christians are saved and receive eternal glory, from which he is cast into eternal destruction and dishonor” (27, 379).
Envy is a particularly base sin. She “even envies those from whom she receives benefits. Nourish, clothe, protect, enrich, comfort the envious,” the saint writes, “it is unpleasant for him: even though you are prosperous, everyone loves you, praises you, honors you. This hurts his heart, which your love and good deeds cannot heal, and will continue to hurt until he sees you in disaster” (27, 378). Whether this is madness or extreme moral failure is something everyone is asked to decide.
In addition to the general means of combating sin, the saint exhorts to resist envy: “putting aside” pride 22; “learning to love one’s neighbor, for he does not envy love” (1 Cor. 13:4); remembering that “in this world there is nothing great or worthy of wonder, and there is no true bliss except eternal and heavenly”: the first will save one from envy of one’s neighbor’s earthly well-being, as temporary and therefore untrue, and the memory of the second will not allow one to seek bliss on earth, directing one’s gaze to the heavenly 23 (3, 162–163). Finally, “envy even of those it possesses leads to a disastrous end: it creates eternal torment for the guilty, and exposes them to temporary disaster. So, Cain groans and shakes; Haman was taken up on the tree that he prepared for Mordecai and perishes.” But even beyond this, the envious person is “consumed inside, tormented and tormented by his own tormentor” (27, 380).
Envy is often accompanied by anger - “a feeling of heart disease, born from the resentment of another,” the product of “immeasurable pride” (3, 163; 26, 218).
Anger blinds, which is why the saint advises: “beware of punishing in anger.” Anger torments the one possessed by it. “Look,” the saint writes, “what a person does in anger: how he becomes indignant and makes noise, curses and scolds himself, torments and beats, hits his head and face, and, as if in a fever, he shakes all over: in a word, then he appears like a demon possessed.” And what is going on in the poor soul? How is the demon tormenting her? Anger is like a storm, crushing everything, or like fire, consuming everything” (27, 217-218).
Anger, however, is not always evil. According to the saint, “he who truly loves God allows anger at sin, but not at the sinner” (27, 220).
Being held and nourished in the heart for a long time, anger turns into malice, which is disastrous, first of all, for the person himself. Someone in such a state “cannot begin the Holy Meal” (2, 127). Like envy, anger is painful. “Other sins, or some kind of gain, or sweetness, are brought to the sinner. A thief steals and satisfies his soul; the fornicator commits fornication to please his own flesh; the evil one is angry without all that. He sins and suffers; lawless and devoured; takes vengeance and endures vengeance. If it were possible to look into the heart of an evil person, then nothing less than hellish torment would appear there. Why does it happen that evil people darken and dry up? malice, like poison, consumes their flesh.” Anger so darkens a person that he begins to boast about his iniquity: “Here I will give it to him, let him know me.” It is great madness to boast about something you should regret! You have harmed your neighbor; the law of God, holy and eternal, was violated; God, the great and terrible Almighty, was angered; They have written themselves down to Satan and subjected themselves to eternal torment: and they boast about this lawless deed!
This is the smell of vile and vile malice: to rejoice and boast about the damage and destruction of others.”
Malice is “committed” by “slander and slander”, “beating, poisoning, taking away one’s health, property and other things”, “hatred and persecution of the friends of the one on whom the malice is fed”, to “taking away the life of the one on whom the evil is committed”. Many are so blinded by malice that they are not ashamed to boast about it, while others “would rather destroy themselves than abandon vengeance.” Often this destruction befalls “the evil ones themselves”: they themselves consume the “poison that they prepare for others; with the sword that they draw on others they kill themselves; and into the ditch that others dig, they themselves fall (Ps. 7:16)” (3:164; 27:396).
No matter what virtues someone has, “yet malice destroys everything. Many abstain from food and drink, do not eat meat and fish, but do not want to abstain in the slightest from envy and malice; and what good is it that the body does not consume what is not prohibited, but the soul is consumed by what is forbidden under the death penalty? Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15)” (6:124).
“The wicked destroy” society too. “If everyone took revenge on each other,” says the saint, “society would not be able to stand, for everyone would destroy each other. From mutual enmity comes mutual malice and vengeance, and from vengeance comes mutual destruction, as happens in battle. The meek ones benefit and preserve (peace) with their patience” (27, 395).
The above reasoning, as well as a practical calculation: “an insult to what has been done cannot be returned, and revenge requires a lot of work, and even then, perhaps, it will not be possible” (27, 397), - are called upon, according to the thought of the saint, to convince everyone who harbors anger to stop hostility and abandon plans for revenge.
The saint also consoles those who are innocently “suffering from the evil ones.” “Whoever follows Christ,” he writes, “is pursued by the malice of this world. The only refuge left for a pious soul is holy prayer, patience, unshakable trust in the Provider God, before Whom nothing is hidden” (3, 165–166; 27, 395).
4. Idleness, despondency, laziness, despair
“Idleness, or withdrawal from work,” writes Saint Tikhon, “is in itself a sin, for it is contrary to the commandment of God, which commands us to eat our bread in the sweat of our brow (Gen. 3:19). Consequently, those who live in idleness and feed on the labors of others will not stop sinning until they devote themselves to blessed labors” (3, 172; 27, 759).
Idleness is sinful not only in itself, but “it is the cause of many evils,” for “the enemy the devil conveniently approaches an idle heart, not otherwise than an idle house, marked and decorated. Hence drunkenness, fornication, evil conversations, condemnation, ridicule, slander, blasphemy, card games, deceptions, quarrels, fights, excessive luxury, as Solomon says: “Everyone who is idle is in lust (Proverbs 13:4)” (27, 759). Idleness harms not only the soul, but also the body. “Those who live in idleness are subject to all sorts of illnesses and infirmities, just as water is corrupted and has no flow. A person who does not work cannot take sweet food, and his sleep can be restless without difficulty.” Those who do not want to work from the lower strata “are subject to the ridicule and censure of people” and “are forced to live in poverty and misery (Proverbs 6:11)” (3:173). “The infirm, the elderly, and those in prison, whom Christians are obliged to nourish together, are excluded from this vice” (4, 226).
To avoid idleness and its consequences, we must remember that time is more valuable than any treasure, especially for a Christian, as it provides the opportunity (sometimes the last) of repentance, which will be impossible to bring after the end of earthly life. “Then the time will be judgment, not repentance, severity, not pardon. You should certainly give an answer in the very time that was wasted. For the present time is bargaining (Matthew 26:14–30)” (3:173).
“Just as not all work is useful, so not all idleness is vicious,” says the saint. The works of those who do injustice are not salutary and are downright sinful: those who steal and take away the property of others, insidious and envious flatterers, and merciless usurers. On the contrary, “there is blessed peace when the mind is free from evil and harmful thoughts, the heart is at peace from evil lusts, the eyes do not look at anything, the ears do not listen to anything, the tongue and lips do not speak anything, the hands do not do anything that is contrary to God’s holy law” (3, 174; 27, 758). But such peace in reality is work, to which the saint calls. “Always be engaged in good works, that is: either read books, or pray, or be contemplative of God, or do some manual work. The enemy approaches no one more easily than one who lives in idleness” (27, 759).
Idleness will inevitably be followed by despondency. “Fierce is this passion,” writes the saint. “She also fights those people who have bread and everything else ready, and especially those who live in solitude” (2, 237). As “inflicted” by the enemy of our salvation with the goal of turning a Christian back to the “world,” despondency hinders prayer, closes the heart, preventing it from accepting the word of God, and then God especially expects feat from a person (27, 1057). In the fight against this passion, “I advise you to do the following,” the saint writes to one monk. – 1. Convince yourself and force yourself to pray and do every good deed, even though you don’t want to. 2. Diligence will bring change: now pray, now do something with your hands, now read a book, now talk about your soul and eternal salvation, and so on. 3. The memory of death, which comes unexpectedly, the memory of the Judgment of Christ, eternal torment and eternal bliss drives away despondency. 4. Pray and sigh to the Lord. He helps those who work, and not those who lie down and doze” (2, 237).
“When you succumb to despondency and boredom,” the saint writes in another place, “then greater despondency will rise upon you and with shame will drive you out of the monastery. And when you stand against him and win in the prescribed manner, then victory will always be followed by joy, consolation and great spiritual strength; and those who strive always experience either sorrow or joy” (27, 1057–1058).
Sadness is related to despondency, and in the works of the saint they are used as synonyms. Christians should not grieve “that they do not have prosperity in this world, that they do not have wealth, glory, or honor, that the world hates, persecutes and embitters them. They must resist this sadness and give it no place in their hearts. Above all, rejoice that the children of this world, but those of God, are known.” “Worldly sorrow” is also useless, because it cannot return or give anything of what it grieves over 24 .
The saint identifies laziness with both idleness and despondency 25 . It is adjacent to the first as not doing what one should do (working both externally and in the soul); to the second - as relaxation, increasing despondency. To show the harmfulness of laziness, the saint uses the following example. “Lazy farmers living in idleness,” he writes, “having seen their brethren gathering the fruits of their labors and rejoicing, they grieve, grieve, grieve and reproach themselves for not working in the summer, and so have no fruits: so careless Christians, seeing others for the feat of faith and labor, lifted up in piety, pleased and glorified by the Lord, will weep and weep inconsolable, and they will blame themselves for not wanting to work in a temporary life.” Coming from unrepentant sins and the devil, relaxation of the soul is cured by resisting temptations allowed by God to those falling into laziness (27, 792, 447).
If not treated in a timely manner, sadness and despondency can lead to despair, which the saint speaks of as an inevitable consequence of a sinful life 26 and a grave sin against God’s mercy (27, 639). But it is precisely with the hope of God’s mercy that the saint exhorts, first of all, to resist thoughts of despair, this “heavy and final blow of the devil.” Christian hope is like an anchor that holds a ship in a storm and keeps it from sinking. “When you think about your sins,” says the saint, “think about the mercy of God, which, when you lived in sins and angered God with your sins, led you to repentance; Will he now desire to destroy you when you have ceased from your sins? In many places of Holy Scripture, the sinner striving for repentance is encouraged: for the Son of man came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10); For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but by Him the world may be saved (John 3:17).” “God himself teaches us how we should repent,” the saint continues, recalling the penitential passages of the Psalter.
“How could he not hear the repentant, Who gave the image of how to repent, ask and pray?” On the contrary, Judas, “having known the majesty of sin, but not knowing the majesty of God’s mercy, hanged himself” (27, 640).
Knowing from experience how dangerous the temptation of despair is, the saint again and again calls to resist it. “The fear of despair,” he says, “although it comes from the devil, is nevertheless allowed by God’s advice and permission” for the benefit of the person himself, so that “he knows the power of sin, the wrath of God against sin and sees how strong the torment of the devil is.” Further, such “frequent temptation of the devil creates the most dangerous and skillful (more cautious and experienced - I.N.) Christian” who resists him. One should not despair because “such thoughts occur not by will, but against our will; For this reason, they are not considered a sin to us” and cannot harm the soul. They “humble and crush the heart, turn away from the world, its vanity and charms, move to heartfelt and fervent prayer”, encourage “to ask for help and deliverance from God.” Why “the longer” such a temptation continues, “the greater the benefit it will bring to the soul” (2, 196–197; 4, 284–285; 6, 325).
Anyone who feels thoughts of despair in salvation and fights against them should not only not lose heart, but rejoice and thank God. “There is a sign,” writes the saint, “that such a person is in faith and grace. For the enemy does not fight those who obey him and work.” “Indeed, everyone complains about these thoughts that seek salvation. Woe to unrepentant sinners. But those who repent and seek their salvation through prayer and faith must expect God’s mercy” (4, 276–284; 6, 319–320; 27, 638–644).
5. Love of fame and ambition
Pride gives rise not only to envy, malice, and enmity, but also to love of glory and ambition, for “it is characteristic of pride to love praise, worship and glorification.” As in ancient times to Eve, so now “the enemy whispers to us: you will be like gods, so that you seek dominion, domination, honor and vain glory” (3, 190). But glory actually belongs only to God. “Whatever you do that is praiseworthy,” says the saint, “ascribe it all to the One God, who works in us both to will and to do good (Phil. 2:14), for without Him we cannot do anything (John 15:5). Let him alone be praised: not to us, Lord, not to us, but to Your name give glory (Ps. 113:9)” (27, 871). And man’s true glory is found only in God, already in the very title “Christian.” It must be rendered to God by a life worthy of this title. “It is not he who is glorious,” writes the saint, “whom the world glorifies, but he whom God glorifies. God glorifies the one who glorifies Him. Glory comes to the father when his sons live constantly (worthily - I.N.), and praise to the master when his slaves are correct in their rank.
Thus, glory to the Heavenly Father happens when Christians, who recognize Him as their Father and Lord, live according to the rule of God’s holy word.” In particular, Christians glorify the name of God by recognizing the divine properties revealed in the Holy Scriptures and reflecting on them: “His eternal existence, when from the heart we recognize and confess that He exists, is one and has no end or beginning. We glorify His “truth” when we sincerely believe His false promises. We glorify “His omnipresence and omniscience,” when everywhere and in every place we turn away from evil and do good” (27, 871-872). Likewise, “love of glory” can become a virtue when a Christian “loves the glory of his God” and seeks it through his life alone.
Just as the eternal glory of those who have achieved it through the feat of earthly life is unchangeable, so is human glory temporary and changeable. “Account for her like the wind that comes and goes,” the saint exhorts. – People often, who are now praised and glorified, are later blasphemed and scolded. Be like a dead man, who listens neither to blasphemy nor to praise; like a well that overflows with water, and does not become scarce through blasphemy, and does not abound through praise” (27, 872). It is impossible for a person to acquire glorification from God and from people at the same time. “Whoever seeks vain glory does not care about future eternal glory,” and vice versa, “whoever by faith foresees future glory does not care about vain glory, as it becomes an obstacle to receiving that true glory” (27, 874). He who seeks glory “puts himself up as an idol instead of God”—God, to whom “alone all glory, honor and worship are due” (3, 190).
Speaking about the properties of love of fame and ambition, the saint especially notes their insatiability. “The higher the lover of glory rises in honor, the higher he still wants to rise. Many pagans, not satisfied with the high title of king, ordered to call themselves gods; they conquered other possessions of others, and so they tried to expand their glory.” But ambition “does not rest even after receiving honor. For according to honor (so it teaches its zealots) it is necessary to have decent attire; it is necessary to expand and decorate the chambers, to have a considerable number of servants in the decoration” (27, 875). So this passion not only torments the person himself, but also brings many disasters to those around him and to himself. Love of fame teaches “to be conformed to those above, to flatter, to lie, to be deceitful, so as to insinuate love and mercy into them; teaches to slander one's neighbor, to call the good evil, and to call the evil good. It teaches covetousness: for in order to receive honor, one must give and treat many; teaches innocent human beings to shed blood,” like Herod and Absalom (3, 191; 6, 81). The tragic fate of the latter (2 Sam.
18, 9, 15) the saint predicts to all ambitious people, “who, although they get what they want, either through the intercession of their intercessors, or through bribes, however, not to their own benefit, but to destruction, although not temporary, but certainly eternal” (27, 875).
Thus, the love of glory is a deviation from the path to salvation and a matter, in the words of the saint, “reckless” and “pagan”: ambitious people are like those who “having left a bag filled with gold, they grab another, red on the outside (beautiful - I. N.), but inside empty and only arrogant with air (filled - I. N.). In this they gravely sin against God, as they are ungrateful, Who called them to high and great things, but they, leaving that, chase after the vile (low - I.N.) and imaginary things” (27, 874).
However, “there is another way to have glory and honor in this world,” the saint writes, “but there is another way to desire and seek glory and honor. Many true Christians and saints can and do have glory in this world, but they do not seek it, and even more so run away from it. The dignity or honor of a Christian should be nothing other than a yoke imposed by God. If someone is called and goes to honor for this reason, he is not subject to the vice of love of fame; but there will be no honor to seek such a thing, but honor itself will seek him. On the contrary, he who seeks honor is unworthy of honor” 27 (3, 192; 27, 872–873).
It helps to get rid of ambition by remembering that “equally glorious and not glorious, masters and slaves, respectable and vile, die and are consigned to the earth”; that there will be greater torture (Wis. 6:6); finally, that “there is no greater honor and glory than to be a true Christian, whose dignity is deprived by the love of fame” (3, 193).
6. Luxury, gluttony and drunkenness
This section will examine illnesses of the soul, which in modern science are called “diseases of addiction” - a person’s dependence on those sinful habits in which he is captive. Saint Tikhon dwells on such of them as gluttony, drunkenness, and passion for jewelry.
The saint’s special attention is drawn to the “disease” of the 18th century primarily - the love of luxury. Not so relevant for pre-Petrine Rus', this problem in the 19th century to some extent lost its urgency, characteristic especially of the era of “enlightened absolutism”, when, not yet feeling the dangers of Western civilization, reformed Russia, at least in the upper strata of society, accepted as an unconditional benefit everything that was offered to it by Europe: from the ideas of the Enlightenment (not only deistic, but also directly atheistic), to the “miracles” of technology and fashion trends. The French Revolution, then the invasion of Napoleon, brought some sobering. In the time of St. Tikhon, like a child who had not yet been burned by coal from a fire, young Russia was drawn to the light, which, having stopped looking for in the Holy Scriptures, it thought to find in the Encyclopedia. And only the simplicity of the people's faith and the voice of such archpastors as St. Tikhon resisted this almost universal and dangerous aspiration with its childish spontaneity and ignorance of danger. Con. XVII – beginning XVIII centuries
in Europe, 2nd and 3rd quarters of the 18th century. in Russia it is not just luxury in individual works of art, in the lives of individuals. The desire for pleasure, the passion for entertainment and play have become a sign of the era, for many - the meaning of life and life itself. Entire movements in art (first Baroque, then Rococo, which replaced it), in literature (satirical comedies, comic operas) create an atmosphere of “refined gallantry” that permeates the entire life of the “society”, whose frivolity indulged in these amusements so surprised their descendants and only a few contemporaries. One of them was Saint Tikhon.
The saint calls to be wary of luxury (understood in a broad sense as any excess, in general everything that is not necessary), like a pestilence or fire, “consuming souls.” “One built such and such a mansion,” he writes, “one began to wear such and such clothes, one began to ride in such and such a carriage, supply such and such a meal, and so on. The other one sees it and imitates it; everyone sees what one does, and one does what one does. And so luxury spreads everywhere and multiplies, and hour by hour it intensifies more and more” (27, 802–803). How both the “brilliant” Catherine’s era and the end of the twentieth century are recognized in this description!
Like sinful thoughts in general, “Satan, the enemy of human souls, presents whimsical and luxurious thoughts to a person, and confuses him in them: how it is good and favorable to have fun, do this and that, console yourself with this and that, go on visits and receive guests, and so on. This is what the adversary plans, so that man will have this world for his fatherland and a paradise of joy, but forget about future bliss and thus perish” (27, 802).
The evils caused by luxury are manifold. “It greatly weakens the Christian soul, steals what belongs to others, offends people, and teaches them to withhold their hand from giving alms. Luxury, like a belly, does not know satiety, and like an abyss, it devours all good things” (27, 801). Luxury removes those from God “who rejoice in wealth, in honor, in glory; who feast, make laughter, dance, get drunk, shout and produce other indecent gaiety. God departs from such people, as if he is offended by their outrages; but the evil spirit of this world comes there, as if deeds pleasing to him are being done there.” Luxury makes a person “blind” and “crazy.” And again, the similarity of times forces us to especially listen to the saint’s denunciation: “Is it possible to have fun in these sad and troubled times? Oh, how sin increases and piety diminishes! These people do it like those foolish shipbuilders whose ship breaks and they dance; or like those disorderly citizens whose city is burning and they are banqueting.
The Fatherland groans from troubles and misfortunes, but these are the only revelers who are having fun, even if they are not the sons of the Fatherland, and they rejoice with our enemies about our troubles that surround us!.. Oh luxury, luxury! How you blind, madden and harden people’s hearts!” The saint also turns to history, saying that “many cities and states perished from luxury. Joy comes to the surrounding enemies when luxury increases in a state that is hostile to them. Woe to that country and state! For with luxury all evil multiplies there. From there there is nothing else to expect but destruction” (27, 803).
For the person himself, luxury turns into “sorrows in earthly life” and “poverty in eternal life.” “The third part of worldly bliss,” says the saint, obviously referring to the words of the holy Apostle John the Theologian about the three sources of temptation (1 John 2:16), “consists of carnal knowledge, banquets, feasts, gaiety and everything that delights the senses. This imaginary bliss is shown to be something until it is accomplished and touches the feelings, but as soon as it is accomplished and the feeling ceases, then instead of true sweetness, sorrow will follow. Thus, after the commission of carnal lust, the gnawing of an evil conscience occurs; after banquets and drunkenness, relaxation of the limbs, illness in the head, trembling of the arms and legs, and various infirmities of the entire body occur. Sweetness is the bait with which Satan catches souls and throws them into hell. In the shortest possible time, the sensualists enjoy themselves, but they go down to hell to drink the cup without end of sorrowful torment,” sharing the sad fate of the gospel rich man (Luke 16:19–31) (27, 802, 876–877).
An addiction to luxury, extinguishing faith, not only makes a person constantly dissatisfied, no matter what he has (this passion “is whimsical and can never be satisfied with anything”), but also directly leads to crime. “Luxury requires a person to live expansively. And for that you need a lot of money. Where to get thuja from?.. It is necessary for the luxurious to do all sorts of lies. The ruler needs to collect from his subordinates; the landowner to impose excessive taxes on his peasants; to a merchant to sell a cheap thing for an expensive one; to withhold another mercenary's bribe; Do not give other salaries, determined by the sovereign, to your subordinates; others must resort to theft, embezzlement and all untruths. From this we see that many live in all kinds of squalor and lack, many do not have homes, daily food or clothing. All this happens because of luxury! Luxury teaches people to offend and expose” (27, 804).
Of the many “helps against sin,” the saint in this case especially highlights the following. “We will have hope of defeating the passion for luxury,” he writes, “when we reflect on a blissful and painful eternity. Then we will not demand anything except what is necessary. You need a lot of lust and luxury; nature is content with little” (27, 804).
One of the manifestations of luxury is the passion for decoration, especially in clothing. Clothing itself “is a thing that is not involved in either virtue or sin; only its use can be, as it happens, bad, and therefore turns into sin for the user. Every garment must have one end (the goal is I.N.), that is, covering nakedness and protecting a weak body from cold and bad weather” (3, 152–153).
For this reason alone, it is unreasonable to adorn oneself and be vain with clothes, because they “began by transgressing the commandment of God, for until our first parents sinned, they had no clothes, because they did not see their nakedness.” Thus, the very use of clothing should “depose our pride and lead us to humility” (3, 145).
In addition, panache is immoral, since “any bodily excess does not exist without offending God and offending our neighbor: our wealth of God is good, and not our own. For this reason, its expenditure must be repaired according to the will of God who gave it, and not according to our whims. We are given wealth not for our sake alone, but also for the sake of our neighbors who demand it.” Therefore, “although there will be a righteous estate” (which is almost impossible, since “it will not be taken away, as it is collected from such people, or, more importantly, torn off”), but “before they are (there are - I. N.) naked brethren, they are the souls of Christ, shaking from the cold and filth, they are in prison for debts and dues, prisoners and other people in need: for such the excess and excess should be used be." The luxurious “rich spendthrifts are riches, not builders; and those who keep their wealth in chests are its guardians and slaves, and not God’s servants and slaves” (3, 148).
Separately, the saint speaks about the widespread use of cosmetics in the 18th century. “It is still a great vanity and disgrace to Christianity that women smear their faces with whitewash, paints and ointments” (3, 146). In addition to vanity and injustice before God and neighbors of all luxury, here the saint also sees the “sin” that these means are used “not only to appear to people,” but “what’s worse, to please and enter into love 28 . They put up for auction what is unsaleable, and with such adornment of their faces, in addition to the fact that they have lost chastity, they transport God’s work, which is perfect and does not require correction.” Moreover, “they don’t add color to health, unless they do harm” (27, 1054).
The saint especially denounces those “who, with the same trifle, dare to enter holy churches, and expose and show themselves off to those entering. We come to holy churches to pray to God. It is not appropriate for prayer to have the kind of utensils they have on themselves: but what kind? Humility, heartfelt contrition, tenderness, tears, sadness,” and gives well-known biblical examples of holy women: Anna, mother of the prophet Samuel, Judith, Esther 29 .
The love of luxury also testifies to the internal state of those who are possessed by this passion. “Just as this adornment is vain, it is also a sign of negligence about the soul, for whoever cares about bodily adornment does not have time to care about spiritual things. This very dandy decoration shows a heart that desires vain honor and glory, which is contrary to the law of God: do not love the world, nor those in the world” (1 John 2:14). Therefore, “Christians should adorn their soul, not their body. The soul is immortal, and so is its beauty; the body is perishable, and so is its beauty. When the soul is adorned, then the body, united with the soul, will in due time perceive beauty. The more the body is now adorned, and the soul is neglected, the greater the ugliness will then appear on both the soul and the body: the human soul is like a mirror, which perceives such an appearance in itself, to which it turns.” Finally, “no matter how you decorate the body, beauty will not be added to it; But the more the soul moves away from the world and worldly lusts, the more red it becomes.” It is adorned by the one “who resists carnal lusts and cuts them off, and is devoted to virtues” (3, 151; 27, 1056).
The saint also talks about in what cases clothing is not a luxury, despite its wealth. “Many colored clothes (expensive clothes - I.N.) are used not for the sake of gaining vain glory and honor, but following the general custom and being applied to their rank and dignity. My above discussion does not concern these. Here (only) panache, pomp, worldly pride, vanity and blindness of a depraved heart are condemned, and not decency and moderation; So is excessive care for the mortal and perishable body, and neglect of the immortal soul. As for a woman’s personal adornment, it cannot have any excuse, but it is precisely one charm, intrigue, cunning and invention of an evil spirit, perpetrated to seduce and corrupt chastity.” And “although many of the wives, not for the sake of a bad end (not out of malice - I.N.), but following an outdated custom, decorate their faces, however, without temptation, this decoration does not happen to the young and themselves without sin” (3, 152-153).
The love of luxury “gives rise to envy and jealousy,” and avarice also accompanies it. About the latter, the saint writes: “Oh, luxury and stinginess are nasty (opposite - I.N.) sisters, but both fatally infect human hearts. One teaches to squander, the other to store and destroy (guard - I.N.) wealth, but both are for human destruction; one relaxes, the other binds a person, but both of them kill his soul” (3, 149).
In order to convince his readers “it is more convenient to leave vain adornment and to pursue a moderate life,” the saint partly repeats and strengthens some of the given arguments against luxury (about the negligence of his soul by those who vainly adorn themselves; about the unrighteousness, if not of wealth itself, then of its use by those who indulge in luxury; about the unchastity of those who seduce and the danger for those who might be seduced by their unchastity), and partly introduces new ones. “Remember death, that worms will walk on the face, now decorated with masks, and that now it stinks (smells - I.N.), then it will stink, and then turn to dust. It will be necessary to give an answer to God for the temptation.” To make it easier to turn away a biased gaze from your face, you need to “look with intelligent eyes at the most pure face of Christ, which for the sake of our iniquities was spat upon and beaten.”
The saint offers advice to those against whom temptation is directed (borrowed from the works of St. John Chrysostom): “When you see a red-haired woman, resplendent in appearance, adorned with noble attire and arousing your heart to lust, immediately turn your eyes to the crown offered from above to those who overcome delusion” (2, 135–136).
Overeating and drunkenness, not alien to pre-Petrine Rus', in Russia of the 18th century turned from a personal vice into a public disaster. In the works of the saint there are repeated denunciations of sumptuous feasts and other amusements that destroy the souls of those who indulge in them both through vanity and lack of mercy (to the needy, to whom they should give what is wasted), and their bodies through intemperance 30 .
For Christians, “food and drink are the strengthening of one exhausted body, and not a sweet diet. Eating, drinking, rest and other actions towards a single end (goals - I. N.) - intended to be work pleasing to God, so that, having been strengthened with food, they could work for the glory of God and the benefit of their neighbor. Having received food and drink, (Christians) remember the Giver, as if they accept everything from His generous hand, and remember the food of the eternal belly. This new birth requires from them, which is spiritual food, the word of God, prayer, etc. strengthens and grows, but is mortified and destroyed by all carnal excesses” (27, 676–677).
“Gluttony,” writes the saint, “is excessive consumption of food and burdening the belly” (2, 132). The consideration that both simple and refined food in the body becomes the same, “for the stomach does not distinguish what kind of food it will be, sweet (refined - I.N.) or simple, as long as it is healthy; he demands wholesome food, not sweet food.” In addition, after eating both, after some time the body again needs reinforcement. Refined food is harmful to health, both physical and mental. “Consider the consequences of sweet and simple food,” the saint exhorts, “and you will see that all kinds of evil will follow from sweet and varied foods. Where does more impure lust nest, if not in a luxurious (luxury-loving – I.N.) and voluptuous heart? Who is the laziest in prayer and other Christian duties, if not luxurious (in the same meaning - I.N.)? Who, in idleness, guilty of all evil, lives more like a sensualist? Just as all kinds of vermin breed in a rotten swamp, so in a voluptuous heart all kinds of sinful uncleanness will be born.
The one who lives on simple food is not so moderate: although he feels the burning of lust, he quenches it with prayer and the help of God. In matters of rank and other blessed labors, he is always alert, not lazy in prayer, and always ready for every good deed.” And how many “various foods give rise to diseases - doctors know about this. To whom else do they come with medicines, but to sensualists? There is no such danger from simple and moderate food, and although illness comes to those who abstain, it soon goes away, and abstinence, like the strongest medicine, is driven away.” As proof of this, the saint cites the difference in the strength and health of “noble children, who eat sweet food, and peasant children, who for the most part eat bread with cabbage soup or water.” “And you will see,” says the saint, “how these differ from them in strength and are red in the face, but these are decrepit, pale and as if bloodless! This difference is not due to reason, as it comes from differences in upbringing; that these are simple, and those will be brought up tenderly and in sweets” (27, 678–679).
The true scourge of all times is drunkenness, or “excessive drinking.” It happens from wine, but it also happens without it, “when a person gets drunk with the love of this world, vain thoughts and lawless endeavors and has his heart filled with passions: evil lusts, love of money, love of fame. From this, the one who, having abandoned passion, will repent will be sobered” (2, 132; 27, 780).
But the saint pays the greatest attention to the vice of drunkenness as such. “Wine,” he writes, “like every thing, was designed for our benefit by our Creator. Consequently, the sinners are: 1) those who abhor wine not for the sake of abstinence, but because it would be sinful to drink it. Thus, by blaspheming the creation, they also blaspheme the Creator; 2) who abhor wine and their brethren who drink it, despise them, but dream highly of something about themselves: I haven’t drunk wine since I was born! Satan does not drink wine or eat bread, as he is incorporeal, but he devours human souls like a lion.” And further: “not only wine, but also bread, water, fire and other creatures of God are used evilly by man. In this way he also uses his members evilly, such as: the tongue for slander, condemnation and slander, the hands for theft, the belly for gluttony and drunkenness, and so with these, as if with some kind of weapon, he kills his soul” (3, 174-175). Thus, every gift of God, good in itself, is determined by man himself to be good or evil.
The saint points out the following reasons for drunkenness. “1) An evil and intemperate heart. “Wine is the work of God, but drunkenness is the work of the devil: it is not wine that produces drunkenness, but intemperance,” St. Tikhon quotes St. John Chrysostom. 2) Idleness, as stated above. 3) Frequent feasts, company, intense treats and congratulations, which have now crept into an evil custom. 4) Treatment of the evil and intemperate: people learn drunkenness from each other. Frequent repetitions create passion and an evil custom,” enslaving the soul and leading it to death (3, 175). The responsibility of the one through whose fault a person indulges in the passion of drinking wine is also heavy; “his imaginary benefactor, or even more so a villain, since whoever opens the way to destruction is guilty of that destruction” (27, 781).
“Drunkenness is a sin in itself,” the saint writes, “for drunkards will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), so they are guilty of many serious sins” (3:175). A drunk person’s mind becomes darkened, their will and conscience weaken, which is why “a drunk person dares to do all kinds of evil, introduces all sorts of temptations,” while “a sober person would not show such temptations” (27, 781). Drunkenness “produces quarrels, fights, murders; it is blasphemy, blasphemy, blasphemy, and causes annoyance and insult to one’s neighbor. It teaches you to lie, flatter, rob and steal other people’s property, so that you have something to satisfy your passion; it kindles anger and rage; it makes people wallow in uncleanness, like pigs in a blat (swamp - I.N.); in a word, it makes a person a beast, a verbal one, dumb, so that not only the internal state, but also the external appearance of a person often changes.”
Drinking “relaxes the body and makes it weak; leads to squalor and poverty; glory and good name will be taken away; brings grief and sadness to family, relatives, friends, and ridicule to enemies; he arranges for his zealot to be incapable of any title and captivates the poor man so much that he can almost free himself from it. Neither exhortations, nor threats, nor fear, nor prayers can persuade him. He lies in the ditch of destruction, but does not feel it and does not strive to free himself, but is indignant at those who want to take him away” (3, 175; 27, 781–782).
The saint offers the following means of combating the passion for drinking wine. “1) Young people should not be allowed to drink drunkenly, for young people easily get used to it. 2) Do not allow them to hang out with drunken and depraved people. 3) Adults should not drink wine unless necessary. 4) Avoid evil companies and feasts. 5) Remember that it is very difficult to give up this passion, and many die in it. 6) Those who are accustomed to this passion should firmly arm themselves against its torment, stand, not give in, pray and call on God’s all-powerful help. 7) Bring to mind the troubles that happen during drunkenness, such as temptations, quarrels, fights, dreams, insurance, illnesses, and compare the state of a sober life with the state of a drunken one. 8) Always think that many die drunk in their sleep without repentance, etc.” (2, 132–133; 3, 176). The saint especially warns against darkening holidays with drunkenness (27, 165–166).
7. Lies, flattery, condemnation, slander
The inevitable consequence of pride, envy and malice, on the one hand, and love of glory and vanity, on the other, are lies, flattery, condemnation and slander. Saint Tikhon speaks of them together as “related vices,” “own” to the one who is the father of lies (John 8:44), and “who sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light, so that in this way he can more conveniently deceive and destroy a person” (27, 450–451). Coming from “carnal birth” and “carnal wisdom,” “these vices are possessed by those people who speak differently with their tongues and have other things in their hearts. The words of these people are like honey, but the deed itself is like poison.” Why is “a flattering man more terrible than any beast: for the beast, as it is, shows itself as such, and this one often hides its poison under the guise of humility and virtue” (2, 137; 3, 170).
There are many lies in the world. “A merchant lies when he says that his goods are worth such and such a price, but there is another way. A witness lies in court when he says something he has not seen or heard; or does not say what he saw and heard. A worker is lying who, having taken a decent price, promised to work diligently to the one who hired him, but works lazily or does not work at all. The shepherd lies, who promises and swears to shepherd the flock of Christ’s sheep, but does not shepherd or carelessly shepherds, and so on.” But the most regrettable lie of all is the Christian who in holy baptism promises to work to Christ the Lord, but does not work. There is such a one who, after holy baptism, commits lawlessness and cleaves to the vanity of this world” (27, 451).
Lies, flattery, and deceit remove a Christian from God, 31 drive faith out of the heart, hinder prayer and make eternal bliss impossible. Society suffers from the crafty and flatterers, “before: 1) loyalty, without which the union of society cannot stand, cannot exist where they will not trust each other in anything, fear each other, be afraid and have an enemy. 2) There cannot be peace there, but instead mutual hatred, enmity, quarrels, etc.; for flatterers and deceivers transfer and retell the speeches of one to another not as they heard, and do not interpret with such force as they were spoken, but differently. 3) Flattery and deceit have introduced and multiplied ungodly oaths, since many, having been deceived by false and flattering ones, do not believe those who speak the truth: for this reason, people are forced to confirm the fidelity of their words by invoking the name of God, which has become a lawless and destructive custom, and is not considered a sin” (2, 171; 27, 451).
Liars and flatterers are more dangerous the more carefully and subtly they act. From them “the simple-hearted suffer much.” But “no matter how cunning they are, their cunning is nevertheless revealed (for example, “when, either inflamed with wine or inflamed with strong anger, they spew out what was hidden in their hearts”). And even then everyone will abhor them, like lepers.” Seeing such a disgrace of flatterers and the harm they cause to society, “a simple soul, not knowing flattery and deceit, let him heed the psalmist’s admonition: do not be jealous of those who are crafty; do not be jealous of those who do iniquity” (Ps. 36:1-3) 32. The saint himself advises “to treat every person simply, as you treat yourself. As you appear on the outside, so be on the inside; and what you say to him must also be in your heart” (2, 137; 3, 171; 6, 146).
Similar to each other are “the fruits of an unbridled tongue and a heart unguarded by the fear of God,” and such vices as condemnation, slander and slander. They reveal the same deceitful structure of the soul as flattery. The saint points out some of the reasons for these passions. 1. Pride, overwhelmed by which “does not tolerate anyone being higher or equal to him,” why “he judges and destroys (humiliates – I.N.) him, or, although he hides his own sins, slander and slander others, so that those who hear him think that he does not have such sins as he condemns his neighbor for.” 2. Envy, “since the envious does not want to see his neighbor in respect and glory, he strives to darken his honorable name.” 3. Malice: “an evil person, not having anything to take revenge on the one against whom he is angry, strives to darken his glory with slander and slander.” 4. “They also happen from an evil habit, jealousy, impatience and other things” (2, 130; 3, 166).
The slanderer harms the one he slanderes; He also harms himself, because he sins gravely; He also harms those who listen to his slander: “others who hear condemn the one about whom the slander is carried; Others are also incited to an unlawful case because they hear it. The slanderer, the disseminator of evil, is guilty of all this pernicious evil.” “Oh, unbridled tongue! How much harm you do to the world!” - exclaims the saint. An intemperate tongue slanders, “dispels heresies, schisms, temptations,” slanders the authorities, bears false witness in courts, “leads the weak and sorrowful into unbearable sadness, despondency and despair,” often causes quarrels, reveals secrets, and therefore “often brings the slanderer himself into great repentance and sadness for having let the word out.” Truly Solomon wrote: he who keeps his mouth guards his soul” (Proverbs 13:3). And since “man sins in nothing more than with the tongue,” which “leaves nothing, but belches out the poison that lies in the human heart,” then “we must strive to curb it.
But diligence can do little without God’s help,” why “one must humbly pray to Almighty God to correct both the heart and the tongue, the instrument of the heart,” 33 (3, 112–114; 6, 147).
The saint gives the following reasons why condemnation and slander are sins. "1. God forbade us to judge and condemn our neighbors; because whoever condemns will himself be condemned (Matthew 7:1-2). 2. There is only one Judge - Christ, the Son of God, therefore those who condemn their neighbor steal the dignity of Christ, which is difficult and terrible. 3. Our neighbor is God's servant, not ours. How annoying it is to God when His servant is judged and slandered before His very presence! 4. All sinners are before God; the common curse of all is common. Your neighbor today, and you do the same thing in the morning, although not in deed, or in word, or in thought. 5. It often happens that many appear sinners to us, but inwardly they are righteous; on the contrary, many are righteous, but inwardly they are sinners. 6. Often a bad rumor is brought falsely by the evil or envious, and so the condemned often suffers in vain. 7. A great offense comes from someone who is close to you, no less than from whom he was beaten with a rod. From this wounding there is sorrow, from sorrow there is weakness, and from weakness there is death. 8. The more honorable and superior the person who is reviled, the greater the ulcer, and the greater the sin for the one who reproaches. 9.
When a leader is condemned and slandered, then respect for him decreases, (which will follow) disobedience and all sorts of disorder and confusion in society. 10. It often happens that although someone has truly sinned, they have already repented, and God forgives the repentant; and for this reason it is very sinful for us to condemn those whom God forgives.” Finally, the slanderers themselves “often fall into greater reproach when they plot to slander and discredit their neighbors” (Ps. 7:15-17), like Absalom, Haman, and others. “Take heed to this, you slanderers,” the saint ends his admonition, “and correct your own vices, for which you will be tortured, but do not touch strangers.” (2, 130; 3, 166–168; 5, 372).
The saint also gives practical advice on how to avoid slander and condemnation. Everyone must “1) look at himself, know himself, and not others, but look at his own vices and cleanse 34; 2) discard anger, envy, hatred; 3) avoid inappropriate conversations; 4) move away from those who have this evil habit; 5) to sympathize with a brother who has fallen or is losing spirit of love and pray to the merciful God for him; 6) those who have this evil habit of praying to the Lord: put a guardianship, O Lord, with my mouth (Ps. 140:3) 35” (2:130–131; 3:169; 5:148; 6:147).
You can finish this section with the words of St. John Chrysostom, which are cited by St. Tikhon: “Even if you condemn your neighbor and say the righteous thing against him, you will not escape punishment for that either; for God will judge you not by his works, but by your words” (2:129).
8. Love of money, covetousness, theft
The search for honor and glory inevitably entails the love of money, by which Saint Tikhon understands “not only the love of a single silver, but an insatiable desire for all earthly possessions, acquisitions and wealth” (3, 176).
Who, according to the saint, is a lover of money (as well as a covetous person and a predator)? “1) One who collects wealth in every way and keeps it for himself, without giving it to those who demand it. 2) The one who steals someone else’s property by his very deed and who desires someone else’s property unrighteously. 3) Anyone who clings to wealth with his heart.” On the other hand, “not every rich person is a lover of money,” while a beggar, “even if he had nothing, but having a love for wealth, a true lover of money.” Thus, “wealth is not a bad thing, but a bad thing is the love of money; a bad thing is covetousness. A covetous man is not rich; a covetous man lacks much. A covetous person (like a miser) is a guardian of money, not a master, a slave, not a possessor” (2, 133; 3, 176–177; 6, 281).
The love of money is painful and insatiable, and the more it is satisfied, the more and more it “inflames” and demands its own. Enslaved by this passion, according to the thought of St. John Chrysostom, quoted by St. Tikhon, “the worst are the beasts: the beasts, having had their fill, stop stealing, but these can never be satisfied.” In earthly life, the lover of money is in constant worry about how to collect wealth, multiply what is collected, and preserve what has been multiplied; always remains in sadness and fear: “in fear for what he has, and in sadness for what he does not yet have”; he is tormented, dying, because he is deprived of “his beloved treasure”, foreseeing its passing into the wrong hands (often not into the ones he would like) 36, as well as from the consciousness “that he should be tortured before the court of God and give an answer for every unrighteous penny.” And this premonition comes true: “the covetous man suffers even after death, for the predators will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10)” (2:134; 3:177–178).
The lover of money only confesses God with his lips, but with his heart he serves his wealth, “which is why the apostle calls covetousness idolatry” (Col. 3:5), and the saint calls it atheism hidden in the heart of the lover of money (3:178, 181).
The saint sees salvation from this passion: for those who are not yet captivated by it - in reminding themselves what disasters this evil brings to society and to the person himself; also that “you will leave everything in this world, no matter what you gather, but piety alone will depart from the world with you (1 Tim. 6:7-8). Blessed and wise is he who says to Job: “Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb; naked I will go to the place where all who dwell on earth go!” “The treasure of the pious,” according to Saint Tikhon, “is living faith, knowledge of God and reverence, the grace of the Holy Spirit and the hope of an eternal inheritance in heaven.” This wealth is imperishable, and it lies in the person himself, while visible wealth, in addition to “unrighteousness,” bears the stamp of temporality, and is always “external” in relation to the person himself. “Make sure that you are a stranger and a stranger here, and then you will know the beauty and will be content with what you have, although it is small,” the saint admonishes, using the often encountered image of traveling through a foreign country (earthly life) to the heavenly Jerusalem (eternal life) (6, 279–282).
The saint advises those who are already enslaved by the love of money to follow the example of Zacchaeus in order to hear with him: now salvation has come to this house (Luke 19:9) (3, 182).
The means of satisfying passion, which, according to the Holy Scriptures, is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10) 37, is theft. By this the saint understands all types of sins against the commandment “thou shalt not steal.”
This is 1) the actual abduction of someone else: secret (when “they rob houses, shops, barnyards”; steal the state treasury; steal church property; take away from a fire; do not announce (announce the found thing; when they deceive by measure or weight, sell a bad product for a good one at a higher price), open (robbery; “when a master takes a slave from a slave, the ruler takes away some thing from the subject either by force, or solicits"; when they do not give back money or an item taken for safekeeping or as a mortgage, making the excuse that they did not take it or give it back; when they use what was taken for the distribution of alms for their own purposes; when interest or interest is collected, especially from the poor, taking advantage of their plight), as well as “flattering” (by deception or fraud); use their positions for personal gain (customs officers, treasurers, secretaries, etc.) 38 ; 3) obtaining property (for example, inheritance) using forged documents; 4) excessive burden of dues and work on the peasants by landowners, failure to pay dues to servants or hired workers, and also when the latter, having received the due payment, work lazily; 5) when those who could earn their own livelihood ask for alms, pretending to be beggars, fire victims or the sick, thereby taking away alms from those who are truly in need 39 ; 6) those close to them are “hypocrites who, under the guise of feigned holiness or the lawless fabrication of relics as if they were saints, or icons as if they were miraculous, deceive the common people into giving alms”; 7) “caresses and sneakers” who profit from this; finally, this is also 8) a “card game” (“a gambler, if he wins, steals someone else’s property; if he loses, he sins by desiring someone else’s property” 40 and wastefulness 41).
Those who keep God-given wealth locked up or use it for unnecessary expenses and do not give it to the poor (as should be the case among Christians, “for God gives wealth to people not only for their own sake, but also for the sake of the poor and meager people”) also sin by stealing someone else’s property. There are many other “kinds of theft,” but it is always accompanied by insult to one’s neighbor, who is often in poverty and brought into an even more distressed state by both the confiscation of his property and the failure to provide assistance in his need.
But theft “not only does evil to others, but also plunges its caretakers into disasters,” the saint writes and gives the examples of Gehazi and Judah, adding that “even now the righteous judgment of God befalls thieves, robbers, perjurers, traitors and destroyers of the Fatherland and other covetous people. And although someone will escape temporary punishment, he will not escape eternal punishment. Then they will pay for the last codrant in the fire of Gehenna, but they will never be able to pay” (3, 180-181).
To avoid the above, following the general rule helps: “What you don’t want for yourself, don’t do to your neighbor; and whatever you want for yourself, do for your neighbor.” If a sin has been committed or is being committed, then one must “stop from that evil,” bringing repentance, correcting the offense caused, and “moreover, have a firm and never broken rule, so that someone else’s property is not appropriated unjustly, either openly, or secretly, or flatteringly, or in any way” (2, 77–82; 6, 82, 315–316).
See: “Index of places of Holy Scripture quoted in the works of St. Tikhon” in Chapter VI. applications to this work.
Already fulfilled: about the incarnation of the Son of God, the work of redemption completed by Him, etc. or still to be fulfilled, for example, about the Second Coming of Christ, Judgment and reward for the righteous and sinners.
Moreover: “The demon itself is the most evil sin, because sin made the demon a demon, who at first was a good and bright angel, but was damaged and darkened by sin,” says St. Tikhon, also quoting “Saint Chrysostom” (6, 204).
And “evil is greater than any external evil,” for “all that evil torments the body alone, and torments only temporarily, for death puts an end to all suffering... But sin torments both the body and the soul, and will torment forever and ever” (5, 204).
The saint himself sets an example of this. “The Eminence once wrote to the virtuous husband Kosma Ignatievich, asking him to come to him. When this man appeared, the Right Reverend asked if he knew Kamenev? Cosma replied that he knew, and knew well. The Reverend said: “You know, he opened my thoughts. A few days before this, the demon struck me with the thought of arrogance, and no matter how hard I tried to drive these thoughts away from myself, I just couldn’t. On the third day, after Vespers, I sat in front of my cell, on the porch, more than other days I was overwhelmed by the same thoughts. I see Kamenev running from the church, surrounded by children; passing by the porch, he suddenly hits me on the cheek and says in my ear: “Don’t be arrogant.” “I,” the saint concluded, “at that very moment felt that the demon of arrogance had retreated from me.” The legend adds that in gratitude for such healing, the saint gave the holy fool Kamenev a pension of 3 k. a day, which he gave out until his death” (6 “Notes”, 57–58).
“Sin,” says Saint Chrysostom, “until it begins, has a certain shame; When it is accomplished, then he makes those who commit it shameless” (3, 124–125).
To make it simpler, some related states (for example, anger and evil habit) were combined, and those not directly involved in cause-and-effect relationships (for example, jealousy, impatience) were omitted. Dotted arrows indicate connections that can be assumed, but which are not directly indicated by the saint.
Among others, we can note: 1) in paragraph 2, anger gives rise to malice, while in paragraph 3 they are combined; 2) in paragraph 1, pride successively produces envy, hatred, malice, and in paragraph 5 they are also placed together; 3) in paragraph 8, condemnation is born directly from pride, while in paragraph 5 (taking into account paragraph 1) it occurs sequentially from pride, envy, malice, etc. One could limit ourselves to only stating the presence of precisely such sequences in the works of the saint himself, especially since he does not stop at coordinating or bringing them together. But some points can apparently be clarified. About the first case. The saint, as will be said below, considers malice as the product of anger that was not healed in time and took root in the heart. Thus, we can assume that paragraph 2 reflects the initial stage of development of this (actually, single) passion, and in paragraph 3 they are combined due to the fact that the dyad “anger, malice” in this case means “old anger, or malice”; it is also possible that in paragraph
3, malice and anger are given together due to the larger (in comparison with paragraph 2) volume of paragraph 3, in order to avoid excessive detail of the latter, which, moreover, has already been done previously. The last explanation also applies to the relationship between pride and anger in paragraphs. 1 and 5. Having previously (in paragraph 1) revealed in detail how pride gives rise to anger, then (in paragraph 5) the saint speaks about them together, in order, without repeating himself, to show the further development of anger, which turns through condemnation into hatred and enmity. As for the third of the above “inconsistencies”, taking into account the above, having clarified the mechanism by which pride generates anger (item 1), showing that they can be combined in relation to condemnation and subsequent passions (item 5), the saint in item 8 no longer lists them, including them in the ancestral pride for all of them.
And only over long periods of time can one see the inclination of the “resultant” of the principles struggling in a person towards good or evil, especially when a person is either finally confirmed in goodness, achieves deification, holiness, or completely goes into the realm of darkness.
But since the distinction, in this case, between malice and hatred is very conditional, then in the general picture of passions (as it is presented, for example, in § 86), “malice” and “hatred” can indeed be used as synonyms, replacing each other.
In addition to the similarity of definitions, also because pride, according to the patristic teaching, is a passion that gives rise to almost all others, and replaces the few remaining in the course of the struggle against them.
“Our ancestors ascended and were forced to humble themselves in paradise; the descendants of Noah are the builders of the Tower of Babel; Korah, Dathan and Abiron; Sennacherib, king of Assyria; Olafernes, Haman, Nebuchadnezzar"; from the New Testament the saint uses the images of Capernaum and the proud Pharisee (3, 157–158).
It is good for that soul which, having realized itself infected with the tares of pride, not only does not grumble at the sorrows allowed to heal it, but also seeks them itself as the most effective cure for its illness. The cell attendant of St. Tikhon, Vasily Chebotarev, in his “Notes” mentions his excessive (as the saint himself was aware) of his exactingness towards those who served him, who “fearing such a pastoral person, moved away from him.” Seeing this, the saint “began to ask and pray to God to visit him with some kind of illness, so that he could more easily learn humility and meekness, and therefore received what he wanted. Once in a dream he sees that he supposedly enters a church; a priest comes towards him from the altar through the royal doors and in his arms carries a baby covered with thin muslin. He, being committed to babies with love (which Christ himself accepted those coming to Him), himself approached the baby lying in the arms of the priest and asked him what his name was? The priest answered: Vasily (meaning king in Greek).
Out of love for babies, putting away that white veil from his face, he kissed the baby on the right cheek; the baby hit him with his gum hand on his left cheek, and so hard that he woke up from the blow; standing up, he feels and sees his left hand shaking and his left leg weakening. Discussing the significance of the dream he had seen, he thanked God for such a fatherly visit. From that time he began to learn meekness and the deepest sense of humility, and he became so accustomed to it that even for the correct reprimand to the last cell attendant of simple and rude peasants, the cook, if he saw him offended by him, he bowed, asking for forgiveness” (6 “Notes”, 40).
According to St. Augustine, “envy is the daughter of pride: kill a mother, and her daughter will perish” (3, 162).
“Whoever strives for the eternal does not envy the temporary,” the saint writes in another place (2, 128).
“True Christian sadness is to grieve,” the saint writes, “that Christians have a high and heavenly title, but cannot walk worthy of that title; that they call God the Father, but they cannot love and please Him as perfectly as duty requires... Also, when they hear or see a neighbor sinning, they should grieve, and not condemn, as they themselves are subject to the same fall. This sadness is useful to them and favorable to God” and “every Christian needs to eat” (27, 674–675).
“Idleness or laziness is itself a sin” (4, 172). “Laziness or despondency is a mortal sin” (27, 447).
“Although this temptation can happen to any Christian, it is especially true for those who have lived in sins for a long time, and, having been corrected by God’s grace, began to repent” (6, 324).
“People don’t know what they are looking for,” says the saint. – It often happens that a person’s honor is like a madman’s sword, with which he kills himself and others. A tall tree is subject to a great wind, and when it falls, it crushes many small trees standing nearby. Likewise, a boss is subject to many temptations; will sin, and everyone knows about it” (27, 1172).
“Such wives should give an answer to the righteous Judge for temptation,” writes the saint. “It is terrible to seduce one person, much more than many for whom the blood of Christ was shed.” The saint also cites the 3rd chapter from the book of the prophet Isaiah, denouncing women for their adornment and sowing temptations (3, 149–150).
This is how the saint was in life. His second cell attendant, Ivan Efimov, recalls that when the saint saw from the window of his cell “gentlemen who had come to the fair in Zadonsk, going to church on a pilgrimage, and especially women, dressed smartly, smeared with white, rouge and powder, he used to say with tear-filled eyes: “Poor, blinded Christians! They clean and decorate their mortal body, but they hardly ever remember the kindness of their souls; blackened by sins, like a murin who does not know God and does not believe in Christ the Son of God.” It happened that women came to him in such attire to receive a blessing; in such cases, he refused strangers, allegedly because of his weak health he was unable to accept them, and sometimes (and out of his deep humility) he would say through me that it didn’t matter - they could receive a blessing from the hieromonks. When, in order to receive spiritual benefit, the landowners who lived nearby came to him with their wives, the women put aside all their attire, and especially their headdress, powder and farts, and came to him dressed in humble attire” (6 “Notes”, 22).
And these denunciations were effective. And Efimov tells how “one of the nobles, who had a wife and children, was still a young man, and in his youth had a great passion for dog hunting, and for playing cards and for frequent merry companies. Visiting the Eminence more than once and hearing Christian instructions from his lips, he abandoned his habit of dogs, cards and cheerful companies, and began to live according to his instructions, as a Christian should" (6 Notes, 30).
It is in this sense that the saint understands the words of the Savior in the Gospel of Matthew (8:20). “There is no place for Him here either, where the evil foxes have their ulcers; The Eternal Truth cannot fit with flattery, deceit, deceit, cunning and double-mindedness, which has honey on its tongue and carries gall in its heart, which promises peace in words, but prepares the sword in deeds... He leaves such as the flattering Judas” (27, 447–448).
I. Efimov tells how unbearable flattery was for the saint, recalling the following incident. The saint “loved Archimandrite Sampson. On the occasion of the arrival of the Eminence Tikhon III in Zadonsk to visit his friend, the archimandrite also came with the Eminence, and being alone in Tikhon’s cells, between conversations he began to praise him to his face for his godly life, so that he added that he could be glorified even after death by his incorruptible body, for which he, the archimandrite, was very offended, to the point that he considered him for the evil spirit that was coming and speaking in him, and from then on the great one complained about him, for he could not tolerate such words of praise from anyone. This is a living example of his deep humility! Listening to himself, he examined even his best thoughts as subtly as features and lines can be visible on the hands - he explained this to everyone who wanted to be saved” (6 “Notes”, 36). This incident also shows the antidote to flattering praise.
The saint himself tried in every possible way to avoid reasons for condemnation and to be attentive to himself, so as not to fall into this sin or to clear his conscience in time by repentance. This is what his cell attendant I. Efimov writes about this. “When, at the request of Messrs. landowners or Yelets merchants, it happened that the Right Reverend went to their houses, then, upon returning to the monastery, for two days or more he thought over all his conversations and even his very thoughts and, having examined them, if he noticed that he had made a mistake as a person, and especially tending to condemn his neighbor, he brought repentance to the Lord God. For this reason he sometimes and repeatedly refused to allow those who asked him to come into his home; He often told those who lived with him that “when you leave a solitary stay for saving circumstances, you will return no longer the same as you were in solitude. “A solitary stay,” he used to say, “gathers spiritual treasure, but absence squanders it elsewhere” (6 “Notes”, 25).
“Such consideration of one’s own sins gives rise to humility, and fear, and concern for oneself, and a prayer to God, so as not to allow one to seek out the vices of others. Testing the sins of others is the beginning of condemnation and slander.” The sin of a neighbor that has become known should move a Christian not to condemnation, but to the knowledge of his weakness; not to humiliate him, but to fear for himself and to correct himself (3, 22).
I. Efimov recalls that the saint “gave severe reprimands when anything tending toward condemnation was suggested about the leaders of the monastery or the brethren. He couldn’t stand this, but he taught everyone to listen to himself. He turned away slanderers, as well as malicious haters. He, without abhorrence, reprimanded everyone who came and came to him, no matter who he was, even from his own benefactors, who supplied him with the necessary things, if he heard in conversations condemnatory material regarding his neighbor, with a moral lesson he turned away from condemnatory speeches, and shut his mouth so that in the future he would never hear it again” (6 “Notes”, 33–34).
“The wealth collected from covetous people often goes to their enemies, and they will give an answer for it and accept execution. What great madness there is to work for the benefit of others and for the sake of one’s own harm!” (St. John Chrysostom, cited in 2, 133).
In one of his letters, the saint shows how a lover of money sins against all ten commandments of God: 1) placing his hope not in God, but in his own wealth; 2) having him as your idol; 3) to obtain wealth, often calling on the name of God in vain, in the form of an oath; 4) for the sake of profit, not properly spending holidays and Sundays; 5) leaving parents without help in old age; 6) often not disdaining murder; 7) and women and fornication; 8) not to mention overt and secret theft and 9) perjury; 10) this passion always desires everything, “whatever good it sees in anyone” (6, 277–279).
Let us cite the saint's reasoning about why such people "sin more gravely than the obvious villains themselves. Just as villains," he writes, "steal someone else's property, so do they: villains openly or secretly, but they are flattering; theft is equally theft, whatever it is. The villains did not take an oath, and they swore an oath not only to preserve the truth, but to instill and affirm. Villains are rude people, They are ignorant, but they pretend to know God’s and the monarch’s law. Villains are vile people, and they are bureaucrats, and for this reason they must show the image of good deeds to others; but they show the image of evil deeds and give others a reason for evil deeds, as the bosses and imaginary luminaries are often forced by poverty to do evil deeds, and they are such evildoers from the mere insatiable delicacy. (there is - I. N.), such people exist, and they are considered good and faithful servants of the fatherland. It is truly an unspeakable evil to commit lawlessness and have praise.”
The following case is known. “Two of the citizens of Yelets, hearing about the extraordinary good nature of the saint, conspired to deceive him for an allowance. Appearing to the saint, they said with feigned tears that they had recently lost their houses and all their property from a fire and had come to ask for help. After listening to them, the saint looked at them intently and gave them some money. That same day, satisfied with their success, they set off back to Yelets. They approach the city and see that there is a fire in the city. They rush to their houses - they are burning. Struck by the proximity of the punishing hand of God, they hastened to Saint Tikhon with sincere tears of repentance, begging him to forgive them. The saint fell to his knees in amazement before the image of the Crucifixion of Christ, quietly said a prayer, stood up and said with meekness: “Ask the Lord for forgiveness; you have already been punished for your sin; from now on you must start a new life.” Having said this, he blessed them, gave them money, and then did not leave them with his admonitions and active participation.
The one conveying this notes that after this these people, with the good participation of the saint, really changed for the better, with their honesty and hard work earning the general respect of their fellow citizens” (6 “Notes”, 56).
“In the same way, anyone who wants to steal or appropriate someone else’s thing, although he does not actually steal it, is a predator, for a person sins by will or does not sin” (6, 315).
“And how many other iniquities occur during that dirty game,” the saint writes, “such as: tricks, foul language, deceptions, quarrels, fights, unruly laughter, and how much sadness, indignation, cursing, crying and shame and dishonor follow for the loser’s family, I will keep silent about that” (2, 202-203).