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When the sun shines in the sky, everything is clear. Everyone sees the path to follow and where to go, what to do and what to avoid. He sees, distinguishes one thing from another and useful from harmful, and so on. The man then goes out to his work and to his work until evening (Ps. 103:23). So it happens in the soul, which Christ, the righteous Sun, enlightens. Such a soul sees everything clearly, knows the charm and vanity of this world, knows good and evil, vice and virtue, harm and benefit, the path to destruction and the path to eternal life leading, does deeds that are pleasing to God and useful to oneself. The Word of God is as sweet to such a soul as God Himself. Such a soul considers everything pleasant and dear in this world to be nothing, remembering the word of the Savior: what good is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but damages his own soul (Matthew 16:26)? - and always strives for blissful eternity. She has only one thing on her mind, how to please God, her Creator, and be among those saved. Blessed is the soul that is illuminated by the Divine Light! When the sun goes down, there is night and darkness. Then people see nothing, do not distinguish one thing from another and walk like blind people, fall into a ditch and do not know how to avoid harm. This is the state of those souls in whom the light of Christ did not shine! They touch like blind people, do not separate good from evil, do not distinguish between benefit and harm, and fall from sin to sin. They grab hold of what is in itself nothing, and put aside what is great. They think that they are following the straight path, but they do not know that it is leading them into the pit of destruction. Know, Christian, the nobility, honor, dignity and advantage of the human soul. For the sake of her deliverance and redemption, not an Angel, not some other intercessor sent from God, but God and the Lord Himself came. He himself honored her with His coming and visited her. And He redeemed her from the devil, death, hell and other enemies, not with silver, or gold, or any other perishable price, but with His honest Blood. He honored us in our creation, when He created us in His image and likeness. But he honored us more when He Himself came to us, fallen and perished, in our image, and suffered and died for us. The Lord placed the human soul so dearly that He Himself came to seek it and shed His Blood to acquire it. The more expensive the thing, the higher the price given for it. And since there is and cannot be anything more precious than Christ and His Blood, then from here the preciousness of the human soul is recognized, that for its sake Christ, the Son of God, did not spare Himself and His Blood. Know, Christian, the preciousness of your soul and do not be seduced by the charming ranks and titles of this world, with which the sons of this age are seduced and fall into madness. The honor, glory and dignity of your soul is greater than the glory of the whole world. Your soul is a bride, with Christ, the Son of God, forever betrothed and redeemed by His holy Blood. Understand her nobility. The Noble Bridegroom is the noble and bride associated with Him. You don’t see this nobility and dignity now, but you will see it when the children of God are revealed. It has not yet been revealed what we will be. We only know that when it is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). All the nobility, dignity and advantage of this world, collected together, are pus before the honor and nobility of the human soul. We see that what is depicted in the mirror is what it addresses. So is the human soul: what it turns to and joins with love is depicted in it. In the mirror, when it turns to the sky, the sky is seen, when it turns to the earth, the earth is seen. So is the human soul: when it turns to heaven, the heavenly image is depicted in it, when it cleaves to the earthly with its love, the earthly and bestial image is depicted in it, and thereby it destroys its nobility and its heavenly beauty. Therefore, the Holy Spirit exhorts us through the Apostle: do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father. For everything that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from this world (1 John 2:15-16). God in His holy word says to the human soul: I am the Lord your God, and so on; says to the soul: turn away from evil and do good (1 Pet. 3:11): believe, humble yourself, love, endure, etc. The soul must listen to the voice of God, obey, repent, believe, love, endure, and so on. And when evil thoughts arise, do not accept them, and when good advice is felt within, follow it. 1. There is no benefit in appearing good on the outside but being faulty on the inside; to humble yourself in body and be proud of your soul; to have faith and love on the tongue, but unbelief and its fruits in the heart - all this is hypocrisy. 2. Every sin first appears in the soul, and then manifests itself externally and physically and is committed through the body. For example, murder, theft, fornication, etc. happen in the soul. For the hand will not kill or steal, the tongue will not slander or slander; The eye will not look, the ear will not hear obscene things, the belly will not overeat, the feet will not walk towards evil, if the soul does not want. In the same way, every virtue must be in the soul and, on occasion, appear outwardly and manifest its effect. For example, faith must be in the soul and, on occasion, show itself by confession; love must be in the soul and, on occasion, manifest itself through acts of mercy, and so on. He who has true love for his neighbor will not refuse the one who asks. And God, when he says to a person: do not kill, do not steal, is not speaking to the hands, but to the soul, from which murder and theft occur and are committed through the hands; He also does not say to the tongue: Do not bear false witness (Rom. 13:9), but to the soul, which uses the tongue to bear false witness, and so on. Therefore, the apostle calls bodily members instruments of righteousness or instruments of unrighteousness (Rom. 6:13). They become instruments of righteousness when the soul uses them to do justice; instruments of unrighteousness - when the soul uses them to create untruth. 3. Not only the murderer, or the predator, or the adulterer, etc., who sins by deed, does evil, but also the one who wants to do evil. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18), says Christ. Therefore, in God’s word, murder is attributed not only to the one who kills a person by deed, but also to the one who hates a person. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer (1 John 3:15), says Saint John. Likewise, lust for fornication is called fornication by Christ. Anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). And although the civil court does not execute evil lusts, the court of God will execute them, since they were committed against His holy and eternal law: you shall not covet. God not only judges external sins, but also internal ones, at least externally, they did not appear before people. Man in himself is blind and therefore requires enlightenment; forgetful - and therefore requires frequent reminders; lazy - and therefore he needs encouragement; he was decrepit and sad - and therefore he needed consolation; prone to falling - and therefore requires reinforcement; prone to doubt - and therefore requires guidance. And all this is drawn from Holy Scripture. All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16-17). As a result of deprivation of all this, there is nothing more than a disastrous and deplorable state of the soul. Physical hunger is terrible, but mental hunger is worse. Physical hunger causes physical death, but mental hunger causes death to the soul, which is much more terrible than physical death. Just as the soul is more honest than the body, so the misfortune of the soul is more terrible than the body. No one, neither the righteous nor the sinner, can escape physical death, but with God’s help we will avoid spiritual death if we adhere to the words of His saint. And although the body dies, however, if the soul lives by faith, it will come to life again at the general resurrection, uniting with the soul. And if the soul dies, then both body and soul will perish forever. The dead do not remain among the living and should not be, but are taken out of the house and city and buried in the ground. So is the soul that has died from sin: it is taken out or even cast out from the community of saints, from the house and city of the living God, that is, the Holy Church, which is the house of the Living God (1 Tim. 3:15). For it is indecent for her to be together with the living, who live and serve God with faith and love. Just as for the body life is the soul, so for the soul life is the grace of God. And just as the life of the body is known from bodily actions, for example, movement, speech and other things, so the life of the soul is known from spiritual actions, that is, true repentance, prayer, love and fear of God. Test your soul, Christian, to see if it is dead. Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead (James 2:26), says the apostle. A house that does not have a master living within itself is unclean, full of rubbish, dust and cobwebs; the earth without a worker becomes desolate, becomes barren and gives birth to obscene herbs; the garden and grapes are lost without a worker; a ship without a good helmsman is sunk by storms and sea waves, and so on. So the human soul without Christ is like a desolate house, filled with stench, uncleanness and cobwebs, spread out by the devil and demons, that is, evil lusts, plans and undertakings; like uncultivated land, producing only thorns and thorns and subject to curses (see Heb. 6:8); like a garden and vineyards, desolate without a worker, bearing no fruit, and good for nothing, and subject to scourging and burning; like a ship floating without a helmsman, tossed about by storms and waves, and near sinking. For what is the master of a house, a worker of the land and vines, and a helmsman of a ship, that is Christ to our soul. After the fall, Christ retreated from the human soul and it became like a house without an owner, land and grapes without a worker, a ship without a helmsman. There is no Christ in that soul, which, although it was reborn by water and the Spirit in Baptism, but, following the first Adam, rejected the commandment of God and followed its own will after the evil enemy the devil, that ancient serpent. And if he remains in that disastrous state to the end, he will be without Christ forever; and since Christ is life for the soul, then without Christ, Who is Life, abiding, he will forever be in death. Let us repent, Christians, and cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1), so that we may be worthy to receive Christ into the homes of our souls. For this purpose He came into this world, so that we would greet Him gratefully and, having cleansed the houses of our souls, would accept Him. He stands and strikes the doors of our hearts, so that they open to Him, so that He may rest in our souls, so that we too can anoint His holy feet with myrrh and wash with our tears (see Luke 7:37-38) and so that He makes an abode with us (John 14:23). “Behold, I stand at the door,” He says Himself, “and I knock: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him (Rev. 3:20). Woe to us if now we do not listen to Him, for the sake of Him who came into the world and was pleased to wander in it, we will not receive us into our homes! Listen to what He will say at His Second Coming to those standing on His left: I was hungry, and did you not give Me something to eat? I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and they did not accept Me (Matthew 25:42–43). It will be a shame and fear to endure this reprimand from Him. What’s worse is to be separated from Him forever and to go with the devil into eternal fire. Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). The more the soul is adorned now, the more beauty the body will be honored with after the resurrection. Then the glory will be to some like the sun, to others like the moon, to others like the stars (1 Cor. 15:41). The more the body is now adorned, and the soul is neglected, the greater the ugliness will then appear on both soul and body. The vileness of the careless soul will then appear on the body, to expose it and to show everyone that she did not live in the world for the sake of God, but followed her own whims and did not serve Christ, but served the world. Then the peace-loving sinner, like some kind of terrible monster, will appear before the whole world, the Angels and the chosen ones of God, and will be ashamed, horrified, hate himself, and will want to turn into nothing, but will not be able to; He will scold himself, reproach and mourn, but it’s too late. The human soul is like a mirror, which perceives such a form in itself, what it turns to. So the soul, whatever it turns to, receives such an image in itself. Whether she turns to God and seeks God, loves and cleaves to God - the image of God in her is depicted and written by the Holy Spirit. Will she turn to the world and love its vanity - such is the image in her. And what is in it now will then appear outwardly. Just as there is beauty in a God-loving soul, so vileness and ugliness will then appear outwardly to a peace-loving soul. The human soul is like a mirror. Just as in a mirror facing the sun, the clearer the sun is seen, the purer the mirror, so in the human soul, turning to God, the eternal Sun, the clearer the image of God is depicted and seen, the more it is cleansed from sins and follows God’s holy properties and morals. And just as the likeness of the sun will not be depicted in a mirror unless one turns to the sun or is smoked and dirty, so the image of God will not be depicted in the human soul unless a person turns to God and is not cleansed of sins. We turn to God when we change our heart, mind and life and begin a new life, and thus we put off the old and put on the new man, who was created in the image and likeness of God (see Gen. 1:26-27). The beauty and dignity of the human soul is known from the fact that God and our Creator printed His Divine image in it. And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him (Gen. 1:27). Oh, how wondrous and magnificent the beauty and dignity of the soul! The human soul is honored and adorned with the image of God! All created things are marvelous and are evidence of the omnipotence and wisdom of God, but man has the image and likeness of his Creator in his soul! In the creation of all other things, the omnipotence and wisdom of God are revealed, but in the human soul, in addition, the likeness and image of God is written. What greater adornment and advantage could there be for a creature than to have the image of its Creator in itself? Who can understand this beauty and advantage and depict it in words? The image must be similar to the prototype, just as the image of someone looking into a mirror is similar to someone looking into a mirror; Such is the image that appears in the mirror, such as the face that looks in the mirror. Consider what beauty and splendor the uncreated Nature - God - has, then you will somewhat recognize the beauty and goodness of the nature created from Him, in the image of Him created. God is infinite Beauty, which the holy angels from the beginning cannot get enough of and praise. And this especially eternal bliss for God’s elect consists in the fact that they will endlessly and insatiably see and enjoy this infinite kindness face to face (see 1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2). Lord, my God! You are wonderfully great, You have clothed yourself with glory and splendor. You are clothed with light as with clothing (Ps. 103:1-2), Saint David sings to Him. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness (1 John 1:5). When you consider the beauty and infinite splendor of the greatness of God, then you will know how great, wondrous the beauty and splendor of the human soul is, in which the image and likeness of God exists. The Son of God, having clothed himself in flesh similar to ours, lived on earth for thirty-three years and more as one of the people and as a slave and alone from the poor and the poor, toiled, suffered, wept, hungered, thirsted, endured dishonor and blasphemy for the sake of our souls, and finally endured terrible torment, and among the evildoers, as one of the evildoers, the only Righteous and Holy One was hanged with indescribable dishonor on the tree of the cross and died. All this was done by the Lover of Mankind, Christ, in order to free our souls from the power of the devil. So dear is the human soul to God and Christ the Son of God! The priceless price of God's Blood was given for it (see Acts 20:28). From here you see that the value, importance and dignity of one human soul surpasses the whole world. Oh, how greatly a man sins when, for a small and short-lived sweetness, or for silver and sensual gold, or for the imaginary honor and glory of this world, or for something else similar to this, he sells such a dear and noble soul and gives it over to the power of the devil! This is what the holy prophet mourns: man, being in honor, did not understand this, became equal to senseless beasts and became like them (Ps. 48:13,21). A faithful soul has indescribable beauty, splendor and nobility. For such a soul is a bride, betrothed to the Son of God, the King of heaven and earth, as it is said: I have betrothed you to one husband, in order to present you to Christ as a pure virgin (2 Cor. 11:2), daughter of the Heavenly Father and temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore she receives great beauty and dignity. Just as an ignoble and simple wife, coupled with a noble husband, receives glory, nobility and adornment from him, so a soul defiled by sin, when it is cleansed by the Blood of Christ and coupled with faith in Him, becomes noble, glorious and beautiful. And just as a pure, crystal vessel, when it has fire inside it, emits a wondrous radiance and brilliance, so the soul, which has been purified by the Blood of the Son of God, and has become espoused by faith to Him, and has become a temple of the Holy Spirit - immaterial and purifying Fire - is marvelously enlightened and radiates light. We read that when holy Moses on Mount Sinai talked with God, his face became so illuminated that the children of Israel could not look at him (see 2 Cor. 3:7; Exodus 34:30 et seq.). The radiance of Moses’ face meant nothing more than the beauty, kindness and glory of his holy soul, enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The same should be understood about other souls of saints who, by faith and love, cleave to their immortal Bridegroom - Christ. Such a soul is called a queen and a daughter of a king, all whose glory is within Her: she is dressed with golden fringe, adorned (Ps. 44: 10, 14). This beauty of the soul is not visible now, when the righteous and sinners have the same appearance, but it will appear in the resurrection of the dead, when its beauty and goodness will appear on the resurrected body in which the beautiful soul lived, but by some signs it is recognizable as fire from heat, and honey from taste, and reason from the word. The human soul is like a mirror. In the mirror, when it turns to the sky, the sky is depicted, and when it turns to the earth, the earth is depicted, so in the soul what it loves and thinks about is depicted. Does this world love what is in the world - glory, honor, praise, wealth, sweetness - this is depicted in it. Whether the kingdom of heaven also loves God is depicted in it. And what the soul loves, that is what it seeks, that is what it cares about, that is what it thinks about. So, where a person’s beloved treasure is, there his heart will also be (Mor. 6:21). And what the soul loved while living in this world, what it sought, then with it what is depicted in it will appear in the next century. Thus, deeds, words and thoughts will follow a person in this age and will appear at the Judgment of Christ before all Angels and men and the Judge God Himself; and the person himself will then see what he did, loved, sought, cared about and thought about in the world. It is necessary for the soul, just as it came naked from God, so naked from sin and from the love of this world to return to God again.