Омилия XXVI 110 .

Spoken during the harvest; it also talks about spiritual harvest The Creator and Lord of everything, having created everything out of goodness, according to the abundance of His power and the unspeakable and unimaginable wealth of wisdom and goodness, created man, combining in one and insignificant creature and, as it were, presenting in its main features the whole work of His creation. For this reason, He created him as the last, having both from one and the other world and decorating (with himself) both the one and the other world, I mean the visible and invisible world; because in an indescribable way He combined in man the spiritual and sensual (material) principles, which He connected, as it were, with bonds, by the mediating aspects most characteristic (of both principles): imagination and the ability to imagine and think, and thus created a being together, both spiritual and visible, as well as the ever-moving sky He combined with the earth through what is between them, so that He created the same world both static and at the same time always in motion: because, just as man and the world are the work of the creation of One Artist, so in the manner of their structure they have great affinity with each other; They are superior to each other: one is superior in size, and the other in intelligence. And in relation to the world, a person is a treasure: just as in a big house, a certain valuable thing is more valuable than that which surpasses it in size; and how, for example, in the royal palace a certain royal robe is decorated and multi-honored: that one is created from huge stones, but inexpensive and found everywhere, and she is decorated with small stones, but difficult to obtain and very precious. Oh, how much better is the human mind 111 than heaven; he is the image of God and knows God and, if you want, he is unique 112 in the whole world, elevating the humble body with himself! Oh, how different human perception by the senses is from the earth, which not only embraces its dimensions and varied qualities, but through knowledge reaches, behold, the celestial spheres and cognizes their various and multiform movements, and, perhaps, the diverse collections of planets and stars and their divergences, and on the basis of this the principles for scientific knowledge are accepted! And those who are between heaven and earth are less in dignity than those who are within the boundaries of the mind and feelings; by the concept of correlation they are one and the same, but by their bodies they are very different (from each other) 113. So God adorned our nature to such an extent, as if His future clothing, for He had to put on it from the blood of the Virgins and transform it into something better and place it on a height, above every principle and power and every name that is called, both in the present age and in the future. Having wisely and humanely arranged this in advance, He thus honored our nature with many, or better yet, the most varied blessings. Since He also gave us a double, or better yet, a diverse power of cognition: He gave us the mind and feelings and, between those two, the abilities, then, therefore, He created each of these abilities, invested in us, for the sake of knowledge and action, in a double and diverse form. Now, it is precisely the time of harvest for us, but there is no harvest in ourselves! For we have not only a sensory (material) harvest, but also a mental and spiritual harvest. So, as we now stand within the enclosure of the church, 114 from here let us lift up our spirits a little, place our hopes in Him and lift our minds to heaven and mentally abide in our mental and spiritual harvest; We will tell your love a little about this, from here providing you with a starting point for salvation. Because every time at this time of year, when this time comes, seeing many coming out of the cities and working on the harvest, as well as gathering the fruits of the earth and harvesting them, I harbor the following thoughts in myself: since there is also a harvest of people, mowing them down from this temporary and fleeting life and transferring them to another, future and abiding life, then is it really the one who reaps lifeless ears of corn or hires others for this? deeds, and chooses the fruits or buys them from the gatherers, and collects them in storehouses, - will not imagine in his memory another harvest, namely, that which will comprehend him, and will not think about the Farmer of souls, and will not wish in due time to become revealed and be worthy of being accepted into the heavenly granaries? or has everyone completely bowed down to the ground, as the workers bowed their bodies (over the harvest), so that he cannot raise his head and his spirit is not able to rise from earthly things? – But if this is so, then we are no different from the pagans, for it was common for them to be absorbed in earthly concerns with all the powers of soul and body; and this is for the reason that they had no concept of the future, absolutely no hope, no knowledge of heavenly things. Therefore, as it is written: the whole life of a wicked person is spent worrying about profane and perishable things. Therefore, Christ in the Gospels, telling us: “Do not worry about your soul, what you eat or what you drink, or what you wear,” added: “For all these the Gentiles are looking for” (Matthew 6:31-32). It does not keep us from work, but it removes us from care, transferring our hope to God, so that our work would not be hopeless or that during work our hope would not have the wrong orientation. “Don’t worry about saying: what are the pits, or what are we drinking, or what are we wearing?”, constantly thinking about this and when a reason is invented, then, as if having an excuse for this, we (with all our) souls plunge into it and sink, and do not allow ourselves to look at heaven. For this reason, God designed our nature in such a way that with a body that is not motionless, but can move and move around and do everything that would be needed, the spirit could be occupied with something else: so that with the body we would act what is proper to it, and with the soul, looking to God, we would seek heavenly blessings from Him; therefore, exhorting not to be anxious in soul - because this is characteristic of the pagans - He added: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33), showing that if the attention of your soul is directed to God, then from this you will not suffer any harm regarding bodily needs; but moreover, God will arrange it in such a way that, along with the salvation of your soul, you will undoubtedly possess these (necessary earthly blessings). For it is He who opens His hand and fills every living thing with good will; To whom David also says: “I am the one who created the harvest and the spring” (Ps. 73:17), speaking not only about visible things, but also about spiritual things, therefore he placed the “harvest” before the “spring”: because if you are not first cut off from unfaithful or bad deeds and people, you will not reach spring, blooming with virtues. So, brothers, there is harvest and spring and seed, not only in the material sense, but also in the mental sense; and not only mental, but also spiritual; as well as planting (or “growth”) and harvest time; as well as agriculture and arable land. The tiller of this arable land is God, as the Apostle says to the Corinthians: “God’s work, God’s building is natural” (1 Cor. 3:9); and the Lord Himself said to the Disciples: “I am the Vine, but you are the generation, My Father is the Worker” (John 15:1, 5). And in another place he again said about Himself: “He went out, sowed his seed” (Luke 8:5); the seed is the word of teaching. So if the word of doctrine contains the concept of spiritual sowing, then, of course, the harvest 115 of this seed occurs through faith; and again revealing this, when people from everywhere began to come to faith in Him, the Lord said to His Disciples: “Lift up your eyes, and see the fields, as if the waters are already ready for harvest. And he reaps, and accepts the reward, and gathers up the fruit into an everlasting belly” (John 4:35–6). Because just as, as a result of the warmth of the sensual sun, the ears of corn, ripening and freed from moisture, acquire a white color and become ready for harvest and harvesting, so then by the Sun of Truth, the flesh of the one who dwells on the earth, the souls of people, purified by the power of His coming, become white when the darkening and “liquefaction” that had befallen them as a result of a licentious and passionate life subsides, and thus they become ready for spiritual harvest, so that when wickedness and unbelief are even more completely eradicated, through true faith they may be gathered into eternal life. And if anyone wishes to reflect on the truth of this word: how the power then of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ made the hearts of people, as it were, whiter and purer and ready for faith in the worship of God, then let him take into account that all the pagans did not then confess God as the only Lord and Creator of everything, but the sun and the moon, and the planets and other creatures and their idols, as gods, bowed; the power of Christ’s coming prompted everyone to confess the One God - the Lord of all and the Creator. And what Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and that Moses and the Law given to them were able to do in relation to the only Jewish people, convincing them to honor the one God, and even in relation to this only people they were not able to finally accomplish, although the Divine command was given to them for a long time - this is what the coming of Christ did in relation to all peoples and generations, and thus they became fields ready for spiritual harvest, when from every nation there appeared those who believed in the one Creator of all, willingly coming to Christ and true worship of God, consciously listening to prophetic and apostolic preaching and studying the Scriptures. So by His very appearance on earth, the Lord awakened the entire human race from error, although He did not make everyone pious; for in the next century the power of His Second Coming will raise everyone from death, although not everyone will be worthy of true life; because the wicked and unbelievers, and those who did not receive here, through confession and repentance, the forgiveness of sins, as well as those who did not preserve and cleanse themselves from inappropriate carnal lusts, which are: gluttony and immoderate consumption of wine, and drunkenness, and pleasures, as a result of which comes the immoderation of hypogastric passions, malakia, fornication, adultery and all licentiousness, making vile words and songs attractive, and self-adornment and the tricks of cosmetics 116; and all this requires costs, theft, predation, violation of the truth, making those captured by robbers (by these passions). And what does the resulting abominations, quarrels, countless swarm of dishonest passions and thoughts in the soul lead to? So, those who did not preserve themselves from this, or who did not appease God through confession and repentance, will indeed be resurrected, but will experience a life worse than death: given over to sorrow and suffering and oppression and eternal shame, living with everlasting worms and being burned by a dark and unquenchable fire, just as the Prophet Isaiah says: “The wicked and sinners will be burned together, and there will be no quench” (Isaiah 1:31). Therefore, the Apostle says to the Ephesians: “Let this be known, that every one who is fornicating, or unclean, or covetous, even an idolater, shall have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5). And further confirming this, and forcing those who teach otherwise to be silent, he adds: “Let no one flatter you with vain words: for for these sakes the wrath of God is coming on the disobedient sons. Do not therefore be partakers of this” (Eph.5:6). Similarly, in his letter to the Corinthians, he says: “Do not flatter yourselves: neither harlots, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor defilers, nor harlots, nor sodomites, nor the covetous, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9). Orthodox believers in our Lord Jesus Christ and who manifest their faith in practice and preserve themselves, or, through confession and repentance, cleanse themselves from the filth of the above sins, and commit virtues contrary to these sins: - abstinence, chastity, love, giving alms, justice, truthfulness - all such, having been resurrected, will hear from the Heavenly King Himself: “Come, blessings of the Father Mine, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34); and thus they will co-reign with Christ, inheriting the heavenly and unshakable kingdom and living ever in the ineffable and unevening light, and never interrupted by any night, and living together with the Saints from the ages in unspeakable pleasure in the bosom of Abraham, “where all sickness, sorrow and sighing have fled.” And, behold, in relation to soulless ears of corn there is one harvest, but in relation to spiritual ears of corn, I mean the human race, there are two harvests 117: one is the one about which we spoke before, i.e. reaping (separating) from unbelief and gathering into faith those who have accepted the Gospel preaching; and the reapers of this harvest, behold, are the Lord’s Apostles and their successors, and, according to the circumstances, the teachers of the Church, about whom Christ spoke above, saying that: “He who reaps the bribe receives and gathers the fruit into eternal life”; for the teachers of piety will also receive this reward from God, as having gathered the believers for eternal life. The other harvest is expressed in the movement of each of us, through death, from this life to the future life; this harvest has as reapers not the Apostles, but Angels, who have certain greater prerogatives than the Apostles: because after the harvest they select and separate, like tares from wheat, the bad from the good, and send the good into the kingdom of heaven, and throw the bad into fiery hell. But we will provide an exposition of these subjects on the basis of the Gospel of Christ another time, when time and opportunity are provided for this. May we, just as now we are the chosen people of God, a holy race, the Church of the Living God, separated from all the ungodly and godless, so in the next century, be found separated from the tares, numbered among the portion of those who are saved, in Christ our Lord Himself, Who is blessed forever. Amen. PG.151:320–332. Homilia XXVI. Dicta messis tempore; ubide spirituali messe. “Nus” – “mind”, “spirit”, “the highest principle in man”. It is possible that the word “Theos” is missing here, because in the Latin translation this passage reads: “and, if you like, one is the god of earthly things, wearing a humble body.” "Those. heavenly bodies - planets and stars, in their dignity in the rank of God's creation are less than man, created directly in the image and likeness of God; since both they and man are together creations of God’s hand, then in this respect they are equal; but in their appearance and body they are very different.” – A.A. Lat. trans.: “So, when today we are within the walls of the church and stand before God...” That is - ripening for harvest. Lat. translation: “and all kinds of excesses that delight, vile for speaking and hearing, at shows and dances.” We do not find that the original Greek allows such a translation. We added this phrase on our own, because it makes it easier to understand what follows. You might be interested in: