Слово 15

Spoken in the presence of the father, who was silent with grief after the hail devastated the fields Why are you upsetting the praiseworthy order 93? Why do you force us to speak a language that is subject to the law? Why do you call forth a word that is not opposed to the spirit? Why do you leave your head and turn to your feet? Why, having passed Aaron, do you come to Eleazar? I do not agree that the source should be blocked and the stream should flow, that the sun should be hidden and the star should shine, that gray hair should give way, and youth give laws, that wisdom should be silent and inexperience magnified. Without a doubt, a lot of rain is no more beneficial than a little rain; one is strong, washes away the earth and harms the farmer in everything, and the other goes quietly, penetrates into the depths, fattens the field, benefits the crop, nourishes the ear during the ripening of the fruit. Likewise, an abundant word is no more useful than a wise one: having delivered, perhaps, a little pleasure, it flies away and disappears along with the vibration of the air, producing nothing more, and only captivates the ear that is captivated by it with its eloquence; and the wise word penetrates the mind, widening the mouth, filling them with spirit, experiencing its birth and cultivating many things with a few syllables. I’m not even talking about the true and first wisdom, in which this wondrous worker and shepherd prevails 94. The first wisdom is a life of praise, purified or purified for the most pure and most luminous God, Who demands from us one sacrifice - purification - a sacrifice usually called in Scripture “a broken heart” (Ps. 51:19), “a sacrifice of praise” (Ps. 49:14, 23), “a new creature in Christ” (Gal. 6:15), “a new man” ( Eph.4:24), and the like. The first wisdom is to despise that wisdom that consists in mere words and figures of speech, in deceptive and unnecessary oppositions. It is better for me to speak five words in the Church with reason than thousands with one tongue (1 Cor. 14:13) and an incomprehensible sound of a trumpet, which does not excite my warrior to spiritual warfare. I praise and kiss that wisdom for which the lowly are glorified, for which the lowly are preferred, with which the fishermen caught the whole Universe in the net of the Gospel, defeating the abolished wisdom with a perfect and shortened word (Rom. 9:28). For me, the sage is not the one who is wise in words, whose tongue is wicked, but the soul is untrained, who is like coffins, which on the outside are handsome and beautiful, but inside are full of dead bones and hide a great stench - but the one who, although he speaks little about virtue, nevertheless shows a lot in deeds and confirms his life in words. For me, visible beauty is better than that depicted in words, better is wealth that is already in the hands than imagined in a dream, better is wisdom not shining in words, but evidenced by deeds. For it is said: “All who keep the commandments have a right mind” (Ps. 111:10), and not those who preach. The surest test of this wisdom is time, and the true “crown of glory is gray hair” (Prov. 16:31). For although one should not please a person “before death” (Sir. 11:28), as I think with Solomon, it is not known what “tomorrow will give birth” (Prov. 27:1), because our earthly life is subject to many upheavals, and the body of humility is torn here and there and changes: however, whoever has spent most of his life blamelessly and is already close to the pier of this common sea of life, is he not safer and not Are others happier who have a long voyage ahead of them? So, do not close your lips, which have spoken so much good, from which there are so many fruits and offspring of truth. How many children they have, what treasures they have - lift up your eyes around and see! You gave birth to all this people through the gospel of Christ! Do not deprive us of your useful, albeit few, words any more, do not assume that the loss is already imminent. Speak a word, although short, but for me kind and very pleasant, although imperceptible by hearing, but recognizable by that spiritual cry that God hears from the silent Moses and intelligently says to the one speaking: “Why do you cry to Me” (Ex. 14:15)? Gather this people for me, your pet, then the shepherd, and now the chief shepherd. Teach me shepherding, this people - humility. Contemplate the present disaster, the righteous judgments of God, whether we comprehend them or do not know the great abyss; about how with the Lord, according to the word of Saint Isaiah, “judgment is set by the standard” (Is. 28:17), because His goodness is not without calculation (although it seemed so to those who had earlier begun to work in the vineyard and did not notice the inequality in equality itself). Contemplate how the wrath of God, called “a cup in the hand of the Lord” (Ps. 74:9) and “the cup of the fall that is drunk” (Is. 51:17), is commensurate with sins, because the Lord, although from everyone, takes away something from the punishment they deserve and dissolves the undissolved wine of wrath through love for mankind (Ps. 74:9); however, from severity it bows to mercy only for those who are admonished by fear, and from a little sorrow “receive in the womb” conversion, and “sick” with it, and “give birth” to the perfect “spirit of salvation” (Ps. 75:9); but he watches and pours out yeast without reserve, that is, final wrath, on those who are not healed by His goodness, but are still hardened, like the hard-hearted Pharaoh, burdened with bitter works and kept as a demonstration of the power of God over the wicked (Is. 9:16). Tell me: why such blows and whips? Where is their foundation? Is this a consequence of the disorderly and irregular movement of the Universe, the uncontrollable and unreasonable flow of things, as if there is no Ruler above them, and is this a matter of chance, as unwise sages think, blindly carried away by a disorderly and dark spirit? Or is everything with reason and in order, just as at first it was produced, perfectly dissolved, combined and set in motion according to the laws known to the one One who set everything in motion, so afterward it moves and changes, controlled by the reins of Providence? Why crop failures, harmful winds, hail, our present defeat and admonition? Why is there damage in the air, disease, earthquakes, rough seas and celestial phenomena? How does creation, created for the enjoyment of people, this common and equal source of pleasure for all, turn into punishment for the wicked, so that we, with the same thing for which we were honored and for which we turned out to be ungrateful, now come to our senses and know the power of God in suffering, when we did not know it in beneficial actions? How one is repaid “double sins from the hand of the Lord” (Is. 40:2), and the measure of iniquity is replenished by this aggravation (by which Israel also becomes wise); and for others, sins are exhausted by “sevenfold recompense into their bosom” (Is. 78:12)? And what does it mean that the measure of the Amorites has not yet been fulfilled (Gen. 15:16)? How is a sinner either left without punishment, perhaps because he is being preserved for the future, or is he punished again in order for him to be cured here? And how a righteous person either suffers, and through this, perhaps, is tested, or prospers and is thereby protected, if he is poor in mind and has not risen very much above what is visible, which is what conscience teaches each of us; This is a homely and honest trial! What does the blow that befell us mean, and why is it? Is this a test of virtue or torture for sins? But even if it was not a punishment, it is better to accept it as a punishment and humble yourself under the strong hand of God, rather than to be proud of it as a test. Teach this and enlighten us, so that the real blow is not too painful for us and so that we do not despise it, falling into the depths of evil (for many suffer from such an ailment), but so that we prudently accept admonition, and by insensitivity to it we do not bring upon ourselves anything more. It is terrible to see the barrenness of the earth and the destruction of fruits, and at what time? When the fruits were already filled with hope and were close to being harvested. It is terrible to see the untimely harvest, to see how farmers grieve over their labors, and as if over the dead, they sit over the stems that the quiet rain has grown, and the strong one has reaped, from which “the reaper will not fill his hand, and the one who binds the sheaves of his handful,” over which the blessing was not heard, with which the farmers “passing by” are greeted (Ps. 129: 7-8). A pathetic sight - a land desecrated, shorn, deprived of its adornment! Blessed Joel also laments this, having more touchingly depicted the devastation of the earth and the torment of hunger than others; Another prophet also laments, contrasting the former beauty of the earth with the subsequent ugliness. Speaking about the wrath of the Lord, who devastates the earth, the Prophet says: “before him the earth is like a garden, and behind him is a desolate steppe” (Joel 2:3). It is painful, excessively painful, as long as the present one saddens and the feeling of another grave blow does not bother you, just as in illnesses, real suffering is always more painful than the one that did not occur. But even more painful than this is what the treasuries of God’s wrath contain. May you not experience this! And of course, you won’t experience it if you resort to God’s mercy, bow to yourself with tears the One who “wants mercy,” and turn away the remainder of the anger from yourself by conversion. This is still meekness and love for mankind, condescending admonition, the first blows of the mentor that forms infancy, this is still the “smoke of wrath,” that is, the first fruits of torture, and not “a flaming fire,” that is, not the very height of anger, not “hot coals,” that is, not the last blows of the scourge (Ps. 17:9). God partly threatened us, partly stretched out a scourge on us, restrained us from others by force, subjected us to others, equally admonishing us with punishment and threat, and paving the way for His anger, He, out of an abundance of goodness, begins with less, so as not to have the need for more. But He also punishes more if He is forced to do so. I know this “cleaned weapon” (Ps. 7:13), this “drunken sword in heaven” (Ps. 34:5), which is commanded to cut, “destroy,” disgrace (Ezek. 21:10), not to have mercy on bodies, brains, or bones. I know that the Impassive One is like “a bear deprived of children” and “like a lynx” who meets “on the path of the Assyrians” (Hos. 13:7–8), not only the ancients, but also everyone who is now an Assyrian through iniquity; and that it is impossible to escape from the strength and speed of His wrath, when He watches over our wickedness, and when His enemies are pursued by jealousy, ready to “devour the adversaries” (Heb. 10:27). I know this “plunder, and desolation, and ruin, and broken hearts, and weakening of the knees” (Nahum. 2:10), and other similar punishments that befall the wicked. Not to mention the judgments there, to which those spared here are subjected, why is it better to undergo admonition and purification here than to endure torture there, when the time comes for punishment, not purification. For just as “God” was “remembered” here above death (about which David speaks beautifully), so for those who have departed from here there is no “confession” and correction “in hell” (Ps. 6:6); because God limited the time of active life to staying here, and left life there to study what had been done. What will we do on the “day of visitation”, which one of the prophets fears (Is. 10:3; Sir. 2:2), or on the day of God’s contest with us (whether it will be on the mountains and hills, as we heard (Mic. 6:2), or in some other place, and in any way), when God will expose us, He Himself will confront us, bring our sins before our faces - these grave accusers - when the blessings we have received will be opposed to our iniquities, one thought will be struck by another thought, and one thing will be condemned by another, when he will exact from us the fact that we have desecrated the dignity of His image and darkened it with sin, and, finally, will put us to death after we have exposed and condemned ourselves, and it will no longer be possible to tell us that we are suffering unjustly? For those suffering here, this sometimes serves as a consolation in condemnation, but who will be the intercessor there? What fictitious pretext, what false apology, what cunningly invented probability, what slander against the truth will deceive the court and turn it into a just court, where everyone’s everything is put on the scales; - and deed, and word, and thought, where the bad is weighed with the good, so that whichever outweighs and prevails, and with whichever is greater, the verdict is taken into account, after which it is impossible to transfer the case to another court, nor to find a higher judge, nor to be justified by new deeds, nor to take oil for the extinguished lamps from wise virgins or from sellers, after which the repentance of the rich, suffering in the flame and caring about the correction of his relatives, does not help, and there is no time limit for changing your life? On the contrary, this judgment will be the only one, final and terrible, and even more righteous than terrible, or, better to say, terrible because it is righteous. Then thrones will be set up, the Ancient of Days will sit, books will be opened, a river of fire will flow, the light and darkness prepared will appear before our eyes, “and those who have done good will go forth to the resurrection of life,” who is now hidden in Christ, and will appear with Him at the end, and “those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29), by which the judge has condemned those who have already disbelieved. unto them the word (John 12:48). And the first will inherit the ineffable light and contemplation of the Holy and Royal Trinity, which will then illuminate more clearly and purer and will be completely united with the whole mind (in which alone I especially establish the kingdom of heaven); and the lot of the latter, among other things, will be torment, or, more accurately, above all else, rejection from God and shame in conscience, which will have no end. All this will happen later. What shall we do now, brothers, contrite, humiliated and intoxicated not with the ax and not with wine, which weakens and darkens for a short time, but with the disaster that the Lord brought upon us, who said: “And you, O heart, be shaken and shaken” (Hab. 2:16), and instilling the spirit of sorrow and contrition, the despisers, to whom he says: “Look and look carefully, and you You will be greatly amazed and disappear” (1:5)? How can we bear His reproof? Or what kind of answer will we give when, in addition to the many blessings for which we have not given thanks, he reproachfully points out to us these punishments, enumerates the medicines from which we were not healed, calls us, although children, but vicious, although sons, but strangers and lame because of the impassability and crookedness of our ways, and says: “How and with what should I have admonished you, and I did not admonish you? Were the easiest treatments needed? They are used by Me. I passed the first Egyptian plague - the blood that the Egyptians drank from the springs and rivers of every collection of waters; He also passed the following plagues - toads and scnips and dog flies, but began with the fifth plague - with the defeat of cattle, oxen, and sheep, struck the dumb ones, because he spared the verbal ones. But this calamity did not affect you; on the contrary, you were more foolish and senseless before Me than those who were struck. “Kept the rain away from you. One area was watered by rain, and the other, not sprinkled with rain, dried up” (Amos 4:7), but you said: “let us strengthen ourselves” (Jer. 18:12). I brought hail upon you, admonishing you with the opposite punishment; I reaped your vineyards, groves and fruits, but did not crush your malice. “But your forehead is copper, and your neck has veins of iron” (Is. 48:4), - so, perhaps, He will say to me, whom these blows do not correct. - “The robber plunders, the desolator devastates” (Is. 21:3), neither admonition from above nor heavenly punishments produced anything. “The bellows was burnt, the lead was consumed by the fire,” for which I had previously reproached you through Jeremiah, “the smelter melted in vain, for the wicked were not separated” (Jer. 6:29). “Will you endure My wrath? - says the Lord. – Or is My hand not strong enough to strike new blows? I also have purulent scabs, “inflammation from the ashes of the furnace” (Ex. 9:9), which Moses or another servant of the wrath of God like him threw to heaven, and punishes Egypt with disease. I have locusts, and tangible darkness, and the last plague, but the first in severity and strength - the defeat and death of the firstborn.” In order to avoid it and to avert the all-destroyer, it is better for us to anoint the thresholds of the mind, that is, contemplation and activity, with this great and saving seal - the blood of the New Testament, having been crucified with Christ and died with Him, so that we can rise with Him and be glorified now and at His last appearance, and not faint, not lament and not cry when the evil one strikes us untimely and still in this dark life destroyer of the first-born and consecrated to God generations and movements of our life. Oh, that I would not receive this reproach from the Good One, who comes “in rage against me” (Lev. 26:24), because I also went against him, in addition to other blows: “I struck you with rust and faded bread,” and all this is for nothing; “The sword disheartened you from without, and yet you did not turn to Me, says the Lord” (Lam. 1:20; Amos. 4:9–10)! Oh, if only I had not become that vineyard of the Beloved (Is. 5:1), which was planted and dug in, surrounded by a fence, protected by a tower and everything possible, but was abandoned and “brought wild berries,” and for this it was abandoned, so that the tower was destroyed in it, and the fence was taken away, and it was not pruned and not dug up, but was given over to everyone for plunder, every kind of plunder. reproach and trampling! This is what I am afraid of, this is what I have a word about, this is what I am suffering from in the present defeat, and I offer this prayer (which I add to what has been said): “We have sinned, we have acted lawlessly, we have acted wickedly” (Dan. 9:5), because we forgot Your commandments and walked after our evil heart, because we lived unworthy of the calling and gospel of Your Christ, and His saints for us. suffering and exhaustion, because they have become a reproach to Your Beloved. Both the priest and the people sinned in one thing: “they all strayed and became equally indecent. There is no one who practices judgment and righteousness, “there is not one” (Ps. 52:4). We have concluded for ourselves Your generosity and Your love for mankind and the merciful womb of our God with our vices, the wickedness of our undertakings. You are good, but we acted lawlessly; You are long-suffering, and we deserve punishment. Let us acknowledge Your goodness, despite all our foolishness. We have suffered punishment for a few more of our sins. “You are terrible, and who can stand before your face” (Ps. 75:8)? The mountains will tremble at You, and who can resist the greatness of Your arm? If you close the sky, who will open it? And if You dissolve Your reservoirs, who will hold it? It is easy in Your sight to “make poor and make rich, to give life and to kill” (1 Samuel 2:6.7), to smite and to heal. Your will is already a completed action. You were angry, “and we have sinned” (Is. 64:5), confesses one of the ancients; but now I must say the opposite: we sinned, and You were angry. Because of this, “we became the laughing stock of our neighbors” (Ps. 78:4). You turned Your face away from us, and we were filled with dishonor. But “stop, O Lord” (Amos.7:5), “retreat, O Lord” (Ps.39:14), “cleanse, O Lord” (Dan.9:19), do not betray us to the end for our iniquities, and without striking us, admonish others, when we ourselves can become chaste, seeing others punished! Who will we see punished? The pagans who do not know You, and the kingdoms that have not submitted to Your power. And we are Your people, O Lord, and the scepter of Your inheritance, therefore, “punish us, O Lord, but in righteousness, and not in Your anger, lest we belittled” (Jer. 19:24) and not be humiliated before all those who live on earth.” With these words I attract mercy. And if it were possible to satisfy his anger with burnt offerings and sacrifices, he would not regret this either. But you yourself imitate the frightened priest. To her, beloved children, to her, who participate with me both in punishment and in God’s love for mankind! Save your souls with tears, stop your anger by correcting your undertakings, “establish a fast, call a meeting,” as blessed Joel commands you and us, “gather together the elders and infants” - this pitiful age, especially worthy of God’s love for mankind (Joel 2:15-16). I know that the same is commanded to me, the servant of the Lord, and to you, who have been awarded the same honor: “to enter in sackcloth, to fight day and night between the porch and the altar” (Joel 1:13, 2:17) and in a pitiful form, with an even more pitiful voice, to continually cry out for yourself and for the people, sparing neither labor, nor words, nor anything else. God is propitiated, crying out: “Have mercy, O Lord, on Your people, do not give up Your inheritance to reproach” (Joel 2:17), and so on; the greater our dignity, so that by our example we can teach the people contrition and correction of a vicious life, followed by God's long-suffering and cessation of punishment. So, “come, all brethren, let us worship and fall down and weep before the Lord who created us” (Ps. 94:6); Let's make a common cry, divided by age and gender. Let us raise the voice of prayer in the ears of the Lord of hosts instead of the cry that He hates (Gen. 19:13). Let us precede His anger with confession, and just as we saw Him angry, so let us wish to see Him appeased. But you say, who knows that He will “turn and repent” (1 Samuel 15:29) and leave the blessing? I know this with certainty, I am the supporter of God’s love for mankind; I know that, leaving behind anger, which is unnatural to Him, He will give place to mercy, which is natural to Him. We force Him to anger, but He Himself strives for mercy. And if he strikes under compulsion, will he not have mercy, following His nature? Let us have mercy only on ourselves, opening the way for the Father’s righteous use. Let us sow with tears and reap with joy (Ps. 125:5). Let us be Ninevites and not Sodomites. Let us heal sin, so as not to perish with sin, let us listen to Jonah’s sermon, so that fire and bogeymen do not drown us. And if we left Sodom, then we will go to the mountain, we will flee to Zoar, we will ascend there with the rising sun; Let us not stop anywhere “in this neighborhood,” let us not “look around” (Gen. 19:17), lest we harden into a pillar of salt—a truly immortal pillar, convicting a soul turning to evil. We know that not to sin at all is truly higher than man, and belongs to God alone (I will not talk about angels, so as not to give rise to passions and not open the door with malicious contradiction); but just as incurability is characteristic of an evil and hostile nature, as well as of those who act under its influence, so, having sinned, turning is characteristic of people, however, obedient and belonging to the part of those being saved. Although this flesh entails some evil, and “the earthly church suppresses the mind” (Wisdom 9:15), striving for grief or created to strive for grief; however, let the image (of God) purify the darkness and raise the flesh associated with it to a height, lifting it on the wings of the mind. Although it would be better for us not to have the need for such purification and not to purify ourselves, preserving our primitive dignity (to which we rush from the prison of this life), it would be better not to deprive ourselves of the tree of life by the bitter taste of sin; however, it is better to turn after sinning than for the fallen to remain without punishment. “For the Lord chastises whomever he loves” (Heb. 12:6), and to inflict punishment is a fatherly affair; on the contrary, any soul left without admonition becomes incurable. Therefore, it is not so hard to endure blows, but much harder not to remain chaste under blows. One of the prophets, speaking about the hardened and uncircumcised Israel at heart, says: “Lord! You strike them, but they do not feel pain; you destroy them, but they do not want to understand” (Jer. 5:3); and again: “the people do not turn to Him who beats them” (Is. 9:13); and again: “My people are turned away by evil detestation” (8:5), which will finally crush and destroy them. And it is so “fearful,” brethren, “to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31)! “The face of the Lord is terrible against those who do evil,” which decisively destroys the memory of them (Ps. 33:17). Terrible is the hearing of God, which senses the voice of Abel, even in silent blood (Gen. 4:10). Terrible are the feet that overtake lawlessness. The fulfillment of the Universe is terrible, so that nowhere can one escape the wrath of God - neither by soaring into heaven, nor by retiring to hell, nor by moving to the east, nor by hiding in the depths or confines of the sea (Ps. 139:7-10; Jer. 23:24). Even before me, Nahum, the son of Elkash, uttering a prophecy about Nineveh, fears “the jealous God and the Lord, who takes vengeance with fury on his enemies” (Nahum 1:2), extending His severity to such an extent that there is no room left for a second vengeance on the wicked (Nahum 1:9). And when I hear how Isaiah threatens and says to the people of Sodom and the princes of Gomorrah: “What else can we beat you with, you who continue your stubbornness” (Is. 1:5); then I am filled with horror and burst into tears. He says: it is no longer possible to find new punishments for sins that are multiplying again, so you have transgressed every measure, exhausted all types of punishments, constantly calling upon yourself new and new executions with your vices. There is no longer “no scab, no ulcer, no festering wound,” the whole body has become an ulcer, and an incurable ulcer; “For there is no plaster to apply, no oil, the wounds are not bound” (Is. 1:6). I am silent about the continuation of the threat, so as not to be more painful for you than the real punishment. At least we will know the cause of the disaster. Why did the cultivated fields wither, the barns become depleted, the pastures become scarce, the fruits of the earth diminished, the plains were filled not with fatness, but with mourning, the valleys were not filled with bread, but were filled with a cry, the mountains did not drip with wine, as later the righteous (Joel 3:18), but were disfigured, dishonored and bear (in the other sense only) 95 the curse of the mountains of Gilboa? The whole earth became as it was in the beginning, until it was clothed with its ornaments. “He visited the earth and quenched its thirst” (Ps. 64:10), but with a disastrous visit and a destructive quenching. A sad sight! All our fertility is in straw, the sowing is noticeable by the small remains, and our harvest, recognizable more by the season than by the number of sheaves, barely bears the first fruits to the Lord. Such is the wealth of the wicked, such is the harvest of those who sow poorly, in fulfillment of the ancient curse: “expect much” and receive little (Hag. 10), “sow and do not reap” (Mic. 6:15), plant and do not squeeze out juices, “where ten pairs of oxen plow, there will be only one tavern” (Is. 6:10), hear about fertility from others, but be under the yoke of poverty! Why is all this, and what is the cause of the disaster? Let us not expect reproof from others, but let us test ourselves. The great cure against evil is confessing sin and moving away from it. As before, I was the first to announce to my people and fulfilled the office of a guard (for in order to win my soul and the souls of those who listened, I did not hide the coming sword); So now I will proclaim the disobedience of my people, recognizing their sins as mine, and through this, perhaps, I will receive some mercy and consolation. One of us oppressed the poor, took away part of the land, with malicious intent, either inconspicuously or forcibly crossed the boundary, pulled house to house and field to field, just to take something from his neighbor, made every effort not to have anyone as a neighbor, as if intending to live alone on the earth. Another desecrated the land with covetousness and greed, gathering where he did not sow, and reaping where he did not squander, cultivating not the land, but the needs of the poor. Some from the threshing floor and the winepress did not give back the firstfruits to God, who gave everything, and turned out to be both ungrateful and reckless, because he did not give thanks for what he received and did not try to obtain gratitude for himself, if not something else, at least future abundance. Another did not show mercy to the widow and the orphan, did not give bread and little food to the one who asked, or, better to say, Christ himself, who is fed in the face of those who are meagerly fed, while he himself has, perhaps, much beyond all expectations, while (which is the height of injustice!) many granaries become cramped for him, while he fills one, and ruins others in order to build vast ones for future fruits, not knowing that before his hopes are fulfilled he will be stolen death, and as a worthless steward of other people's goods, he will give an account of what he abounded and boasted about here. Another “way of the meek” has led astray ( Am. 2:7 ) and “has led astray the righteous in iniquity” ( Is. 29:21 ). Another hated “the one who reproaches in the gates and abhorred those who speak the truth” (Amos.5:16). Another sacrificed to his net (Hab. 1:16), which collected much, and having “plunder from the poor in his houses” (Is. 3:14), did not remember God or remembered badly, saying “Blessed is the Lord!” I became rich” (Zechariah 11:5), and planned iniquity, as if from Him I had something for which I would be punished. “For for this reason the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 5:6). For this, the sky is closed or opened, but to our own misfortune, and even greater, when we do not turn to those who are struck and do not approach what is nearby by nature (Jer. 23:23). What do we say to this, who buy and sell grain and wait for hard times in order to get rich, enjoy the misfortunes of others and unlawfully appropriate for ourselves not the property of the Egyptians (as Joseph did for the higher economy, for he knew how to collect and distribute grain well), but the property of his fellow tribesmen? What will we say, who say: “When the new moon is past for us to sell grain, and the Sabbath to open the barns” (Amos.8:5), we, who violate justice with double measures and weights (Deut.25:14; Amos.8:5), we, who bend towards ourselves the lead measure of iniquity (Zech.5:8)? What do we say to this, who know no limits in acquisition, worship gold and silver, like the ancients Baal, Ashtoreth and the vile Chemosh, put precious and shiny stones, soft and luxurious clothes in the great - this food moth and prey of robbers, torturers and thieves, are proud of the multitude of slaves and cattle, expand across the plains and mountains, they already own one, they share another intend to add to their possession, likening the “leech” mentioned by Solomon (Prov. 30:15), which cannot be satisfied with anything, like hell and earth, fire and water, desire another Universe to satisfy their covetousness and are not content with the limits set by God, because they are too narrow for our desires and greed? What will they say who are elevated to high degrees of honor, who have perched high on their commanding chair, and raised their eyebrows even higher than the place of their acting, while not thinking about God, Who is above all, and about the inaccessible height of the true kingdom, not reasoning that they themselves, having a need for the same mercy, should rule over their subordinates as over fellow servants? Look at these, who, as the divine Amos admirably ridicules them, “bask on beds of ivory and anoint themselves with the best ointments, sing to the sounds of the harp,” clinging to the fleeting as to something permanent, and do not sympathize and do not sympathize with “Joseph’s misfortune” (Amos. 6:4-6). It was necessary to show mercy to those who had previously fallen into misfortune, it was necessary to gain mercy for oneself through mercy, it was necessary to “mourn the cypress, because the cedar fell” (Zechariah 11:2), it was necessary to be admonished by the defeat of one’s neighbors, to heal one’s own evil through the misfortunes of others, and to take advantage of that advantage over one’s predecessors in order to receive salvation through others, and not to discipline others by one’s example. Converse with us about this, O divine and sacred head, who has acquired much experience over time, from which wisdom comes, instruct your people in this, teach them to divide bread for the hungry and to gather the bloodless poor into the house, to cover nakedness and not to despise those of the same blood, especially now, so that our benefit comes from scarcity, and not from excess, which fruitfulness is more pleasing to God than the abundance of what is brought. and the greatness of alms. And above all this, and most of all, now be Moses and Phinehas. Rise up for us and propitiate us, so that the plague may stop (Ps. 105:30), or with spiritual sacrifice or prayer and mental intercession, restrain the wrath of the Lord, and with your mediation stop subsequent blows. The Lord does not despise the gray hair of a father who prays for his children. Pray for past sins, vouch for the future. Present to God the people, purified by blows and fear, ask them for bodily food, and especially ask for angelic food coming from heaven. If you do this, you will reconcile God with us, soften the sky, and bring down the early and late rain. “The Lord will give good, and our land will yield its fruit” (Ps. 84:13), - this trampled by us is temporary, and our flesh is eternal, which we will put into the divine winepress through you, who offers us and our gifts, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Those. so that children do not learn in the presence of their parents. Those. Father of St. Gregory, Bishop of Nazianza. Gregory continues to address him several times in his speech. The curse of the mountains of Gilboa (2 Samuel 1:21) was that neither dew nor rain should fall on them. But here the Holy Theologian says that the mountains bear a curse in the opposite sense, that is, they are cursed for the very fact that neither rain nor dew descends on them. 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