Благодеяния Божии

All creation preaches God's benefits to us. The sun preaches, warming and illuminating us. The moon and stars preach, illuminating the night. Preaches the air, preserving our life. The clouds preach, showering us with rain. The earth preaches, giving us fruits for food. They preach herbs, healing our illnesses and nourishing our livestock. Beasts preach, some clothing us, others feeding us, others serving us. Birds preach, some amusing us with singing, others feeding us. They preach the waters, giving us water to drink and giving us fish to eat. In a word, all creation, created to serve us, preaches God’s goodness to us. But if we look at the beginning of our existence, we will see that we are a wondrous, intelligent creature, venerable in the image of God, exalted above all creation, lowered than the Angels (Ps. 8:6) and, having fallen, again miraculously restored. Just take the book of the Holy Gospel in your hands and you will see that God became a Man for man, lived with people on earth and endured human passions, except sin: he endured reproach, blasphemy, the most severe suffering - and, finally, accepted a dishonorable death for the sake of man from sinners. O the depth of the wealth, and wisdom, and mind of God! Who will speak forth the powers of the Lord? What shall we repay for all that He has given us (Ps. 115:3)? But these are benefits common to the human race. And how much each of us separately, every day, every hour and every minute, receives God’s blessings, and we ourselves cannot know, not only list them. How many deadly cases happen to everyone at any time, how many intrigues the devil plots! But the Humane God protects us from all of them, just as a compassionate mother warns her small and foolish child from all dangerous situations. But the fact that we sin every day and are subject to God’s punishment, but are not punished, do not immediately perceive according to our deeds—isn’t this a great blessing of God and fatherly love? For if God punished us for every crime according to His justice, we would not be able to live for the slightest time, according to the words of the prophet: if you see iniquity, Lord, Lord, who can stand (Ps. 129:3)? And if he punishes us, but like the Father of his children, he executes and has mercy, strikes and heals, insults and amuses, wounds and heals; yet he does this only out of love, so that we can correct ourselves and thus be saved forever. If a small benefactor is worthy of love, even more so is a great one. If the one who saves us from temporary misfortune, misfortune and death, and does temporary and earthly good to us, is worthy of love, how much more worthy is our Christ, O Christians, Who delivered us not from temporary misfortune and death, but from eternal life, not temporary, but eternal life, not temporary and earthly, but eternal honor and glory for us. Oh, how insensitive you are, sinful soul, when you don’t feel this! It is truly insensible when you have lent a person a temporary and small loan (little, I say, for everything temporary is nothing compared to the eternal), but you love such a benefactor, you thank him, you honor him, you serve him and do everything that pleases him, but Christ, Who eternally and endlessly lent you, whose beneficence shown to you cannot be rewarded with anything, is not even awarded from you what a benefactor. This is how you basely place Christ’s incarnation, birth, life on earth, patience, humility, suffering and death on the cross, which were for your sake, but the Angels are surprised at such grace, sing, glorify and magnify (see Luke 2:14). Christian! Everything and every good thing that you have is God’s good and blessing. All this excites you to remember God. Whatever you see, think and say to yourself like this: this is the house in which I live and rest; this food which I eat and am strengthened; this is the drink with which I cool myself and console myself; these clothes with which I cover myself and keep warm; these cattle that serve me; this fire that warms me and cooks food for me, these luminaries (sun, moon and stars) that shine for me and all creation, and so on are God’s goodness and blessing. You always receive good deeds from God and always take advantage of God’s goodness and are so comforted that you cannot live even a minute without it. Always and at all times you must remember God, and thank Him for everything, and bless Him with the psalmist: I will glorify the Lord at all times, His praise will always be on my lips (Ps. 33:2). That time, day, hour and minute perishes in which the Lord does not bless us, since the blessings of God continually flow like rivers and are generously poured out on us. He redeemed you from eternal death not with gold and silver or at any other price, but with His honest Blood; which, when you think about it, you will certainly be convinced to thank Him from a pure heart and out of gratitude to please Him as your great benefactor. There is not and cannot be a greater good deed than this. This good deed of Christ, shown to us unworthy, is so great that it is impossible to repay it in any way or ever, so even if you lived for a hundred or two hundred years and suffered and endured the most severe torment every day for the sake of the name and honor of Christ, this would be nothing against His good deed. Because I, and you, and all people are nothing against such a high and great person - Christ. For we people are earth and ashes, and He is our Lord and God, Who showed such condescension towards us. Diligent thanksgiving is also required from us for that. The greater the benefit, the greater the gratitude for it. God's blessings to us are not only innumerable, but also incomprehensible to the mind. 1. He brought us from non-existence into being, for which alone no one can give thanks as they should. 2. He honored us with His rational soul and His Divine image. 3. He gave us the fruit of the earth for food. 4. He assigned every animal to serve us. 5. He placed the sun, moon and stars in the sky to illuminate us. 6. The air was shed to preserve our lives. 7. He commanded the clouds to irrigate the air so that we would have coolness, and the earth - for vegetation and fruitfulness, so that we and our livestock would have food. 8. I planted various trees and grasses for our different needs and needs. 9 . He produced various birds, like sweet music that amuses us. 10. Fire was given to us for warmth and illumination at night. 11. He shed waters, seas, lakes, springs and rivers with various fish and other animals for our benefit and need. 12. He showed the way of sailing across the seas, so that one country with another, east with west, north with south, would have the most convenient communication and exchange His benefits among themselves. 13. He created day and night, winter and summer, spring and autumn for our sake. 14. He commanded His angels to guard us around us and, like guards, to guard us (see Ps. 33:8). 15. He does not immediately execute us who sin, but awaits, calls and exhorts us to conversion and repentance. 16. Warns and preserves us from the slander and intrigues of our enemy the devil. 17. But the top of all good deeds is that through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, He arranged for us the path to eternal bliss. He, being the image of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God; but he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men, and becoming in appearance like a man; He humbled himself, becoming obedient even to the point of death, even death on the cross (Phil. 2:6-8), as the apostle teaches. And He who held the universe with his hand was swaddled in a manger (see Luke 2:7). And He who measured the sky with a span had no place to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). And the Rich One became poor, so that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). And He who wanted to come on the clouds to judge the living and the dead was judged unjustly by the wicked (Luke 23:1-24). And He, whom the ranks of angels do not dare to look upon, was buffeted and spat on (Matthew 26:27). And He who clothed the sky with clouds was dressed in clothes of reproach (Luke 23:11; Mark 15:17). And He who was clothed with light, as with a robe, was naked (Matthew 27:27, 31). And He Whom the Cherubim and Seraphim serve deigned to serve people (John 13:5). And he allowed the hands with which he performed miracles to be nailed to the cross (see Luke 23:33). And He, Who did no harm to anyone, was beaten (Mark 15:19). And He who raised the dead with a wave, by His will endured death on the cross (John 19:30; 10:18). Yet our good Lord endured these sufferings for the sake of our eternal salvation. But, having shown us so many and great benefits, he does not require anything else from us other than one grateful heart. For as a gift, from love alone for us, unworthy, our Benefactor created these good deeds. For He is good by nature and cannot help but do good. The property of goodness is to communicate and give oneself to others. So, all these blessings of God: our existence, which we received from Him; the rational soul, by which we are honored by Him; the earth that holds and nourishes us; the water that drinks and washes us; cattle, animals, fish, trees and herbs that serve our needs; birds that amuse us; the sun, moon and stars that illuminate us; the air that preserves our life; the fire that warms us; the clouds that rain on us and on our fields; the day that shines for us for our work; the night, which was arranged for us for the sake of the repose of our weak flesh; the undoubted hope of a future life, so miraculously arranged, the hope that all good things have been taken away and the end that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord - all this, I say, and His other unknown benefits encourage and, as it were, force us with the zeal of God, the Benefactor, to give thanks and be grateful to Him.