Грех

Let us arm ourselves with patience against irritability, like a beast, against the tongue, like a sharp sword, and let us extinguish voluptuousness, like fire. Let us set doors to our hearing that open and close in good time, let us keep our eyes in check, let us not let the sense of touch infuriate us, let us not let the taste torment us, so that death may not enter our windows (Jer. 9:21) (as in my opinion the feelings are called), and let us ridicule the immoderation of laughter, let us not bow the knee to Baal because of poverty, let us not bow down let us fear the golden image out of fear, lest we fear anything more than God, and lest we disgrace His image with sin. Let us take up the shield of faith in everything and avoid all the arrows of the evil one (1). 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, who are obedient and belong 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 striving for grief, nevertheless, let the image (of God) cleanse the darkness and let the flesh associated with it rise 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 back after sinning than for the fallen to remain without punishment. For the Lord disciplines whomever He loves (Heb. 12:6), and to punish is a fatherly matter; on the contrary, every soul left without admonition remains unhealed. 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, but they do not want to accept understanding (Jer. 5:3); and one more thing: the people do not turn to Him who beats them (Is. 9:13); and again: My people have turned away with an evil disgust (Isa. 8:5), which will finally crush them and destroy them. And it’s so scary, 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 destroys the memory of them from the earth (Ps. 33:17). Terrible is the ear of God, which hears the voice of Abel even in silent blood (see: 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 limits of the sea (see 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 secondary vengeance on the wicked (see Nahum 1:9). And when I hear Isaiah threatening and saying to the people of Sodom and the princes of Gomorrah: Why should we beat you again, you who continue your stubbornness (Isaiah 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 a 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, no bandages (cf. Isa. 1:6). I am silent about the continuation of the threat, so as not to be more painful for you than the real punishment... Why is all this and what is the cause of the disaster? Let us not expect reproof from others, but let us examine 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, or quietly or forcibly crossed the boundary, added 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. Someone 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, then 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, 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 destroys others in order to build vast ones for future fruits, not knowing that before his hopes are fulfilled he will be stolen by death, and as a worthless steward of other people's goods, he will give an account of what he abounded and boasted about here. The other way perverts the meek (Am. 2:7) and pushes away the upright (see Isa. 29:21). Another hated the accuser at the gate and abhorred those who speak the truth (Amos 5:10). Another brought sacrifices to his net (Hab. 1:16), collecting much, and had the spoils of the poor in their homes (Isa. 3:14), did not remember God or remembered badly, saying: Blessed is the Lord (1)! Sin is not the kind of venom of a viper, from which immediately upon being wounded one suffers excruciating pain or death itself, so that you would be excused in fleeing from the beast or killing it. On the contrary, if you can, heal your brother; and if not, at least you yourself will not be in danger of participating in any way with him in his depravity. Your brother’s illness is some kind of unpleasant stench, and perhaps your overpowering fragrance will drive it away. And you could willingly decide for your fellow servant and relative to do something similar to what Paul the zealot dared to think and say, compassionately for the Israelites, that is, that instead of him, if possible, Israel would be brought to Christ - and to you, I say, who often, on the mere suspicion, excommunicates a brother from himself and whom, perhaps, he would have gained favor with, he destroys with his insolence, he destroys his own member, for which Christ died. So, although you are strong, says Paul, discussing food, and trustworthy in speech and courage of faith, nevertheless, edify your brother and do not destroy with your food (Rom. 14:15) the one who is honored by Christ through common suffering. For although this is a different matter, the word of exhortation is equally useful (1). According to my teaching, there is one God without beginning, who does not fight with anyone, there is one good Light, the power of high-ranking minds, simple and conjugate, heavenly and earthly, and darkness arose subsequently and is not some easily described independent nature, but our own sin. Sin is a violation of the commandment, just as night is the setting of the sun, feeble old age is the passing of youth, and terrible winter is a consequence of the sun’s retreat upward. The first of the heavenly lights, having lost its light and glory through its pride, haunts the human race with everlasting hatred. From him the first man tasted murderous sin and death, which, through his cunning, fanned the flame in me. Such is the nature of the high-born evil of which he is the father! Rust is a detriment to solid iron, and I, a suicide, planted the detriment in myself - sin, at will, following the insidious suggestions of an envious person (2). I am afraid of sin and tremble day and night, seeing how the soul falls from God to earth, drawing closer and closer to the dust that I wanted to avoid. So, on the banks of an autumn river, a proud pine tree or an evergreen plane tree, having been undermined by its roots, was destroyed by a neighboring stream. First, he shook all the supports and placed a tall tree on the rapids, and then tilted it towards the river, still supported by thin roots, and, tearing it off the rapids, threw it into the middle of the whirlpool, dragged it with a great noise and gave it to the stones, where the rain beats incessantly, and now a rotten, worthless stump lies near the banks from the dampness. And my soul, blooming for Christ the King, was attacked by a greedy, indomitable enemy, brought it down to the ground and destroyed most of it, and the little that remained wanders here and there. Oh, if God would resurrect her again, Who created those who do not exist, and then will recreate those who were destroyed and bring her into another life, so that they would meet either fire or the luminous God (2)! Oh, miserable tributaries of death! Oh, the human race - we, who, being consumed by sins, are consoled by our demons, do not respect the intelligence that God invested in us at birth, when he gave us the seed of life; We are not afraid of the law that King Christ inscribed, first on stone tablets, covering the truth with writing, and finally on our hearts - with the radiance of the Holy Spirit! With our undertakings we are opposing the sufferings of Christ, with which Christ delivered us from painful passions, when he took on flesh and was nailed to the Cross, to which he nailed together both the black sin of the creature and the power of Belial, so that we, having been reborn and risen from the grave, with the great Christ would perceive the heavenly glory (2). He is a sighted blind man who does not see how destructive his sin is. Being able to discover the tracks of an animal is a sign of acute vision (2). Oh, I'm miserable! What will happen to me? How can I avoid vices by hiding my life in the depths or in the clouds? They say that there is a country where there are no animals or diseases; Oh, if only there were somewhere a place free from sin so that I could escape there! One took refuge on land from the troubled sea, the other escaped under a shield from a spear and under the roof of a house from the cold snow. And sin is comprehensive - a vast and inevitable kingdom. Elijah ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire. Moses once escaped the definition of a child murderer-torturer. Innocent Jonah escaped from an unknown death in the belly of a whale. Daniel was delivered from the beasts, and the youths from the tribe. But how can I get rid of sin? Save me, my King Christ (2)! Having escaped from Sodom, having escaped from the ashes of this life and from the terrible threats of God’s fire, do not look back at Sodom, otherwise you will suddenly harden into stone and remain a monument to sin and terrible death. Your feet are no longer on the soil of Sodom, do not hesitate on the neighboring plains, close to the fire, but escape to the mountain as quickly as possible so that the fiery rain does not overtake you (2)! Consider sin to be base and filthy (2). Sin is a deviation from the good, not permitted by either the law or nature (2). You might be interested in: