Беседа 15

Spoken to the people in the Church of St. Paul the Apostle on the sixteenth week. Reading the Holy Gospel: Luke 8.5–15. Luke 8.5–15. A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the road and was trampled, and the birds of the air devoured it; and some fell on a stone and, having sprung up, dried up, because they had no moisture; and some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew and choked it; and others fell on good soil and sprang up and bore fruit a hundredfold. Having said this, he exclaimed: whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! His disciples asked Him: what does this parable mean? He said: To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but to others in parables, so that seeing they do not see and hearing they do not understand. This is what this parable means: the seed is the word of God; and those who fell along the way are the listeners, to whom the devil then comes and takes the word from their hearts, so that they do not believe and are saved; and those who fell on the stone are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy, but who have no root, and believe for a time, but fall away during temptation; and those who fell among the thorns are those who listen to the word, but, leaving, are overwhelmed by the worries, wealth and pleasures of life and do not bear fruit; and those who fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word, keep it in a good and pure heart and bear fruit with patience. Having said this, He exclaimed: whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! 1. The reading of the Holy Gospel, which you, beloved brethren, have just heard, does not need explanation, but (needs) exhortation. For the reading that the Truth Itself has explained cannot be explained by human weakness. But in this very explanation of the Lord there is something to which you must pay careful attention, because if we told you that the seed is the word, the field is the world, the birds are demons, the thorns are wealth, then it might happen that your mind would doubt to believe us. That is why the same Lord deigned to personally explain what he said, so that you could find the meaning of things even in those that He did not deign to explain personally. So, explaining what he said allegorically, He made what He said understandable, in order to assure you when our weakness would reveal to you the meaning of His words. For who would ever believe me if I wanted to explain thorns as wealth, especially when these prick and these delight? – And yet (riches) are thorns, because with the pricking of their thoughts they torment the spirit, and when they are brought to sin, then they bleed, as if from an inflicted wound. However, in this place, according to the testimony of another Evangelist, the Lord calls (thorns) not wealth, but “the flattery of wealth” (Matthew 13.22). For flattery is something that cannot remain with us for long; flattery is something that does not fill the deficiency of our mind. But true wealth is that which enriches us with virtues. So, beloved brethren, if you want to be rich, then love true wealth. If you desire the highest honor, then strive for the Kingdom of Heaven. If you love the glory of virtues, then hasten to be assigned to that highest Court of Angels. 2. Keep the words of the Lord, received by ear, in your mind. For the Word of God is food for the mind. And, as if food had been taken, when the stomach is exhausted, it is thrown out, when the heard word is not retained in the stomach of memory. But whoever does not hold back food, his life is truly in danger. So, fear the danger of eternal death if you, although you take the food of holy exhortation, do not keep in your memory the words of life, that is, the food for justification. Everything you do passes by, and you, albeit reluctantly, daily rush to the final judgment, without stopping for a single second. So, why do they love what they leave behind? Why do they despise what is acquired? Remember what it says: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” For all who were there had bodily ears. But the One who, when everyone has ears, says: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” undoubtedly requires the ears of the heart. So, try to keep the received word in the ear of the heart. Try not to let the seed fall along the way, so that an evil spirit does not come and take the words from your memory. Try to ensure that the seed is not received by rocky soil and does not produce the fruit of a good deed without well-rooted roots. For many people like what they hear: they assume the beginning of a good deed, but as soon as they begin to be exposed to misfortunes, they immediately abandon what they started. So, the rocky earth had no moisture, it did not bring to fruition the permanence of what it produced. For many, when they listen against stinginess, then condemn this very stinginess, praise the contempt of all things, but as soon as their soul sees what it has a strong desire for, it immediately forgets what it praised. Many, when they listen to the word against lust, not only do not want to commit defilements of the flesh, but also blush for those that they have committed, but as soon as the sight of the flesh appears to their eyes, the mind is immediately carried away to the desire, as if nothing had previously been decided against these very desires - and commits such crimes that he remembers that he has decided and condemned himself. Often we also lament misdeeds; and yet, after contrition, we return to the same offenses. So Balaam, looking at the tabernacles of the people of Israel, wept, and promised in death to be like them, saying: “Let my soul die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like theirs!” (Numbers 23.10), but as soon as the hour of contrition passed, he immediately again decided on the wickedness of selfishness. For for the promised gifts, he gave advice on the death of that people whose death he wished for himself, and forgot about what he cried about when he did not want to destroy what he strongly desired out of love of money. 3. But it should be noted that the Lord in His explanation says that the worries, wealth and pleasures of life choke the word. – They suppress it because with their untimely thoughts they capture the throat of the mind, and when they do not allow good desire to enter the heart, then they seem to kill the entrance of the vital breath. It should also be noted that He adds two (obstacles) to wealth, namely: the worries and pleasures of life, because these actually constrain the spirit with care and produce unbridled excess. For the nasty thing makes its owners both unhappy and creepy. But since pleasure cannot coincide with unhappiness, at other times they are tormented by the concern of preserving themselves, and at other times they are disposed to voluptuousness by abundance. 4. But the good earth produces fruit through “patience” precisely because the good deeds we perform are insignificant if we do not indifferently endure the vices of our neighbors. For the higher one has ascended to the degree of perfection, the more he finds in this world that which must be difficult to bear, because when the love of our heart is detached from the present age, then the misfortune on the part of that same age increases. For this is why it happens that we see many doing good, and yet they are weighed down under the heavy yoke of adversity. For, although they already run away from earthly desires, the blows still come with the most severe blows. But, according to the word of the Lord, they bear fruit in patience, because if they humbly accept blows, then after the blows they are accepted into heavenly tranquility. This is how the grapes are trampled underfoot and turned into delicious wine. Thus, the olive, squeezed by blows, leaves its foam and turns into liquid oil. So, through threshing on a current, the grains are separated from the straw and the cleaned ones enter the granary. So, whoever wants to completely conquer vices must try to humbly endure the blows of his purification, so that later he will appear cleaner before the Judge, the more now the fire of disaster cleanses his rust. 5. In the gallery through which those going to the Church of Blessed Clement pass, there was someone named Servul, whom many of you knew along with me, poor in things, rich in merit, whose long illness consisted of relaxation (Book 4. conversation, chapter 14). For from the first age until the end of his life he lay relaxed. Should we say that he could not stand? He could never even get up on his bed in order to at least sit, he could never raise his hand to his mouth, he could not turn from one side to the other. For his servants, his mother and brother were with him, and whatever he could get from alms, he gave it to the poor with his hands. He didn’t know how to read at all, but he bought himself books of the Holy Scriptures, and in the hospital, when he received some devout people, he forced them to read incessantly in front of him. And what happened was that, to the best of his ability, he fully studied the Holy Scriptures, while, as I said, he did not know how to read and write. In his illness, he always tried to thank God, to offer songs and praises to Him throughout the days and nights. But when the time came for such patience to receive its reward, then the weakened limbs were revived. When he realized that his death was near, he begged the foreign men received at the hotel to stand up and sing psalms with him in anticipation of their outcome. And when the dying man himself sang with them, then he suddenly stopped the voices of the singers, saying with fear of a great cry: “Be silent! Do you not hear the praises they sing in heaven?” When he directed the ear of his heart to these very praises that he heard internally, then this holy soul renounced the body. But at her departure, such a fragrance spread there that everyone who was there was filled with invaluable pleasure, so much so that they clearly recognized that the praises had received her in heaven. At this event there was our monk, who is alive to this day, and with great weeping usually testifies that until his body was buried, the smell of this fragrance did not cease to emanate from his nostrils. This is the death of the one who indifferently endured the blows in this life! So, according to the word of the Lord, with patience the good soil produces fruit, which, being plowed with the plow of teaching, reaches the harvest of reward. But I ask you, beloved brethren, pay attention to what an excuse we will have at this righteous judgment, who, being lazy in good deeds, have both things and hands, if the poor and armless one fulfilled the commandments of the Lord! Will the Lord then show the Apostles against us, who with their preaching attracted crowds of believers to the Kingdom? Will the Martyrs, who through the shedding of blood reached the Heavenly Fatherland, be brought against us? What will we say then when we see this Servulus of whom we spoke, whose muscles were bound by prolonged relaxation, and yet did not bind them to do good? You, brethren, do this to yourselves: so encourage yourself to do good, so that whoever of the good you designate for yourself to imitate, you will then have the opportunity to be partakers of it. You might be interested in: