Враг

Christians, with all their courage and readiness for patience, must not only keep in mind their own benefit, but also spare the persecutors, so that, as much as possible, they do not increase in any way the danger in which their enemies are (1). We saturate our ears with mutual insults to each other. We cannot even reason that it is unsafe to entrust weapons to the enemy, and a word against a Christian to those who hate Christians. For what we have reproached today, they will reproach us with tomorrow. The enemy kindly listens to your words, not because he praises, but because he gathers with evil intentions, so that on occasion he can vomit his poison on those who have trusted him (1). We are buried with Christ through Baptism in order to rise with Him; with Him we will descend, so that with Him we may also ascend on high; Let us ascend with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him! If after Baptism the enemy of the Light and the tempter tempt you (and he will tempt, for he tempted the Word and my God, deceived by the outer covering; he tempted the hidden Light, deceived by appearances), then you have how to defeat him. Do not be afraid of the feat, oppose the water, oppose the Spirit, with this all the fiery arrows of the evil one will be quenched (Eph. 6:16). For here is the Spirit, and even the Spirit that rends the mountains (1 Kings 19:11); There is water here, and even water that extinguishes fire. If the tempter presents you with a need (as he dared to Christ) and demands that stones become bread (see Matt. 4:3), thereby inciting hunger; prove yourself not ignorant of his intentions. Teach him what he has not yet learned; Oppose it with the word of life, which is the bread sent down from heaven and giving life to the world. If he tempts you with vanity (like Christ, erecting him on the wing of the church and saying: throw yourself down to prove the Divinity (see Matt. 4:5-6)); do not bring yourself down with arrogance. If he acquires this, he will not stop there, he is insatiable, reaches out to everything, deceives with good and ends in deceit - this is his way of scolding! This murderer is even versed in Scripture; from one place he will say: it is written about bread, from another: it is written about Angels. For it is written, he says, “He will command You with His Angel, and they will bear You up in their hands (see Matt. 4:6; Ps. 90:11-12). O, cunning for evil, why did I not finish the following (I firmly remember this, although you are silent), that, protected by the Trinity, I will step on you - the asp and the basilisk (Ps. 90:13) and will trample the snake and the scorpion (Luke 10:19)? If he begins to overcome you with insatiability, in one moment of time and vision, showing all the Kingdoms as belonging to him and demanding worship; despise him as a beggar, and with the hope of the seal 38 say: “I myself am the image of God, I have not yet destroyed the heavenly glory, like you through exaltation, I have put on Christ, I have been transformed into Christ by Baptism, you worship me.” And the enemy, as I firmly know, defeated and put to shame by these words, just as he retreated from Christ, the first Light, so he will retreat from those enlightened by him (1). The enemy... will never abandon his double-mindedness as long as he sees that we are rushing to the sky from where he fell. But you, man of God, penetrate into the malicious intent of the enemy, you are fighting with the strong and about the most important matter, do not take the enemy as an adviser, do not neglect to be named and be faithful (1). Enmity, in my opinion, is difference of opinion and discord. And enmity and war are the inventors of evil (2). Baptism and Confirmation. You might be interested in: