Бедствия

What shall we do now, brothers, contrite, humiliated and intoxicated not with the ax and not with wine, which relaxes and darkens the mind for a short time, but with the disaster that the Lord brought upon us, who said: the cup of the right hand of the Lord will turn to you too (Hab. 2:16) - and who gives the spirit of sorrow and contrition to the despisers, to whom he says: look... and look carefully, and you will you be greatly amazed and disappear (Hab. 1:5)? How can we bear His reproof? Or what kind of answer will we give when, in addition to the many blessings for which we have not given thanks, he reproachfully points out to us these punishments, enumerates the medicines from which we were not healed, calls us, although children, but vicious, although sons, but strangers and lame because of the impassability and crookedness of our ways, and says: “How and with what should I have admonished you, and I did not admonish you? Were the easiest treatments needed? They are used by Me. I passed the first Egyptian plague - the blood that the Egyptians drank from the springs and rivers of every collection of waters; He also passed the following plagues - frogs and scnips 10 and dog flies 11, but began with the fifth plague - with the defeat of cattle, oxen, and sheep, struck the dumb, because he spared the verbal ones. But this calamity did not affect you; on the contrary, you were more foolish and senseless before Me than those who were struck. He withheld the rain from you... One area was watered with rain, and the other, not sprinkled with rain, dried up (Am. 4:7), but you said: we will persist (see Jer. 18:12). I brought hail upon you, admonishing you with the opposite punishment; I reaped your vineyards, groves and fruits, but did not crush your malice. But your forehead is copper, and your neck has iron veins (see Isa. 48:4),” perhaps He will say so to me, who is not corrected by such blows. - The robber plunders, the desolator devastates (Is. 21:2), neither admonition from above nor heavenly punishments produced anything. The bellows burned, the lead was destroyed by the fire, for which He had previously reproached you through Jeremiah; the smelter melted in vain, for the wicked were not separated (Jer. 6:29). “Will you endure My wrath? - says the Lord. – Or is My hand not strong enough to strike new blows? I also have purulent scabs, inflammation from the ashes of the furnace (see Ex. 9:9), which Moses or another similar servant of the wrath of God scattered in the air, and punishes Egypt with disease. I have locusts, and tangible darkness, and the last plague, but the first in severity and strength - the defeat and death of the firstborn.” To avoid it and to avert the all-destroyer, it is better for us to anoint the thresholds of the mind, that is, contemplation and activity, with this great and saving seal - the Blood of the New Testament, having been crucified with Christ and dying with Him, so that with Him we can rise and be glorified now and at His last appearance, and not faint, not lament and not cry when the evil destroyer strikes us untimely and still in this dark life. the first-born and consecrated generations and movements of our life. Oh, that I would not receive this reproach from the Good One, who comes in rage against me (see Lev. 26:24), because I also went against him, in addition to other blows: I struck you with rust and faded bread, and all this was for nothing; The sword has disheartened you from without, and despite all this you have not turned to Me, says the Lord (see Lamentations 1:20; Am. 4:9-10)! Oh, if only I could not become that vineyard of the Beloved, which was planted and dug in, surrounded by a fence, protected by a tower and everything possible, but was abandoned and brought wild berries, and for this it was abandoned, so that the tower was destroyed in it, and the fence was taken away, and it was not pruned and not dug up, but was given over to everyone for plunder, every reproach and trampling (see. Isa. 5, 1–7)! This is what I am afraid of, this is what I have a word about, this is what I am sick of in the present defeat, and I offer this prayer (which I add to what has been said): “We have sinned, acted lawlessly, acted wickedly (Dan. 9:5), because we forgot Your commandments and followed our evil heart, because we lived unworthy of the calling and gospel of Your Christ and suffering and exhaustion for us. His saints, because they have become a reproach to Your Beloved. Both the priest and the people sinned in one thing: they all strayed, they became completely worthless: there is no one who does good, not even one (Ps. 53:4). We have sealed Thy generosity and Thy love for mankind and the merciful womb of our God for ourselves with our vices and the cunning of our undertakings. You are good, but we acted lawlessly; You are long-suffering, and we deserve punishment. Let us acknowledge Your goodness despite all our foolishness. We have suffered punishment for a few more of our sins. You are terrible, and who will resist You (Ps. 75:8)? The mountains will tremble at You, and who can resist the greatness of Your arm? If you close the sky, who will open it? And if You open Your reservoirs, who will hold back? It is easy in Your sight to make poor and rich, to give life and to die (see 1 Samuel 2:6-7), to smite and to heal. Your will is already a completed action. You were angry, we sinned (Isa. 64:5), - one of the ancients confesses; but now I must say the opposite: we sinned, and You were angry. This made us a laughing stock among our neighbors (see Ps. 78:4). You turned Your face away from us, and we were filled with dishonor. But, Lord, stop (Am. 7:5), Lord, give me relief (Ps. 38:14), Lord, forgive (Dan. 9:19), do not betray us completely for our iniquities and, without striking us, admonish others, when we ourselves can become chaste, seeing others punished! Who will we see punished? The pagans who do not know You, and the kingdoms that have not submitted to Your power. And we are Your people, O Lord, and the scepter of Your inheritance, so punish us, O Lord, but in righteousness, and not in Your anger, so as not to belittle us (Jer. 10:24) and not to humiliate us before all those living on earth” (1). The height of disaster is to find protection not in one’s own strength, but in someone else’s powerlessness (1). I know the cure for everything: for hunger - food, for intemperance - poverty, for water sickness - releasing water, for someone else's eye - darkness, for tears - prudence or a friend, for sorrow - time; and for swimmers in difficulty, a fire or a pier appears on the shore, and for those who are tired, anointing their limbs is a lifesaver. But for the wicked there is no other medicine except God’s judgment and wounds. But the wicked do not feel even this; in their satiety they despise judgment. Their worker covers their minds with darkness, and their backbone with copper, so that, like an iron anvil, it does not soften even in the midst of disasters (2). What does this mean, my Christ? Why do you allow wicked people to see the stumbling blocks of the virtuous, so that they can find refuge in them for their evil nature? No one pays attention to a good deed, although it is great, but a bad deed, no matter how small, becomes some kind of sign for reckless and evil people. For good deeds they are iron, and for bad deeds they are wax and easily imprint everything bad on themselves. “I am not chaste,” says the vicious one. Well, aren't there others like me? And alas! He will name one of the wise. Am I a killer? Well, aren’t there people like me in this too, both ancient and modern? Am I enriching myself unrighteously? And others seized entire nations and cities into their power. Who doesn’t know how much worse than an oath is renunciation? And therefore he pretends to be someone else’s renunciation in order to cover up his own smaller wounds. In response to this, I want to tell you one fable (if only one can joke in the midst of disasters), a fable that is very consistent with your false thinking. Someone laughed at the owl. And the owl dodged every ridicule with a clever answer. “What a head you have!” - they told her. “What is Diya’s? 12,” she answered. “What bright eyes!” - “Exactly like the light-eyed one.” - “The voice is not euphonious!” - “And the magpie’s is even more discordant.” - “And the legs are thin!” - “What do you think the starling looks like?” But having easily reflected all this, no matter how smart the owl was, it concedes in one thing. They say to her: “You are so smart, just judge: everyone has one thing, but you have everything together and everything in moderation, and your eyes are bright, your voice is rough, your legs are thin, and your head is large.” And the dear owl, having heard this, went away in shame. And you won’t expect even this from you; on the contrary, the bird in the fable is much smarter than you. Everything is in one thing - that’s your trouble. To get carried away once or twice and fall, and at something unimportant, is still excusable. Let us yield something to the darkness of the flesh. It is characteristic of the One God not to stumble in anything. But to fall intentionally, to boast about a bad deed, to fall repeatedly, to fall into important vices and not to be ashamed, but to laugh at it, not to want to become chaste and with the punishments with which the most pitiful people are admonished, but rush into danger with an open head - this is the most terrible and malignant disease. Consider your affairs, consider what you are ordered to do and not to do. And in those matters, pay attention to the time and to what they serve as an image. Then faith had barely begun; people, like babies, needed support and tender food, and therefore those who fell found an excuse for themselves. But it is unforgivable for you to fall, because you accepted the perfect word, and Christ suffered much for your sins. On the contrary, execution awaits you for previous sins. What am I saying: for the previous ones? And for those into which you are now plunging. I don’t even mention the hopes there; justice finds much to punish here too. You have a house, a wife, children, there is something else, especially kind (for with all your pride you are attached to this), as well as property itself, luxury, freedom and, in conclusion, your own body. Therefore, having this, that is, such a burden of life, swim carefully. “But what? Don’t you also have illnesses and disasters? Isn’t your life too meager and homeless?” Again you are grasping at other people's misfortunes. What do you care about this? These are my misfortunes, because you yourself call them misfortunes. Do you really feel your illness less when you suffer if your neighbor is also suffering at the same time? But listen again: you and I have unequal suffering. From this I myself chose one thing for myself, and not to suffer involuntarily. I voluntarily want to be a beggar and a wanderer in order to free myself from bonds and have my permanent home not on earth. For you all this is expensive, but for me it’s the opposite. Don’t set a long-tailed monkey as a model for a lion. Do you consider this a disaster? It really is a disaster for you. And for me, although it is painful, because I, as a person (I will not deny this), have a dusty composition, I carry within me traces of the tree and the pleasure it brings, but I endure it and even endure it with love. My suffering is better than your strength. Let's look at it again this way. We both suffer evil. But your suffering is a punishment for your evil behavior. Your accuser is your morality, this is bitter, internal and clear evidence. But for me, disaster is a certain cleansing even from accidental denigration. I’m not even talking about the fact that what is distressing is sometimes a test and a struggle, in which one can receive a crown for victory (2). For everything - both good and bad - we will praise the great God, which is characteristic of sons worthy of love (2). Sknipa is a louse. – Approx. ed. Dog flies are greenish biting flies (Dahl). – Approx. ed. Diy - Zeus - the supreme Greek god, the father of gods and people. He was depicted with very shaggy hair. – Approx. ed. You might be interested in: