Омилия XXXII 143 .

His same omilia for the 9th Sunday Gospel according to Matthew; it also talks about temptations James the Brother of God says: “Have all joy when you fall into various temptations” (James 1:2). He doesn’t just say, “rejoice,” but “have all joy,” he says; He does not admonish us not to feel sorrow, for this is impossible, but he advises us to have a godly dispensation of the soul, stronger than the feeling of sorrow. “All” he said, “joy”, i.e. perfect, greatest, unceasing, and especially when many types of temptations appear. Why is this? Because thanks to perseverance in temptations, we become stronger and become more tested before the face of God. And not only this, but we also become more experienced in temptation; because this is what the Wisdom of Solomon says regarding the Saints: “For God has tempted them, and found them worthy of Himself” (Wisdom 3:5). Isn’t such a temptation worthy of all joy? This is what God, saying to Job, freed him from sadness as a result of temptation: “Do you think that Me, having created you differently, will you appear truthful?” ( Job 40:3 ). What is the Lord saying to him? “I did this to you, testing your faith in Me, when you were in good health and good fame and prosperity, and you showed yourself to be righteous, using all this according to My will, when it gave it to you and when I wished, distributing and managing it. I did this to you, testing your faith in Me, when you were in a painful state, in disgrace and poverty, and you showed yourself to be righteous, saying: “If we receive good things from the hand of the Lord, will we not endure the evil ones?” ( Job 2:10 ). So, where does patience in temptation come from? – From the knowledge that this is sent to test faith in God; so temptations are, as it were, a means of testing the faithful. Therefore, the Brother of the Lord James, having exhorted us to rejoice when we encounter temptations, adds: “The temptation of your faith is the work of endurance, and patience,” he says, “let the work be done” (James 1:3-4). When temptations come upon you, he says, do not let your virtuous deeds become impaired, but along with patience, let the perfection of virtue increase in you. Since through that which does not depend on the will of a person, taken by itself, a person is not perfected, but it is necessary that with this should also be associated with that which depends on his will, such as: prudence, righteousness, love for God and for neighbors and manifestations of this love - because we need this for perfection - then, therefore, in his Epistle to us, this divine Apostle adds: “Patience is a complete work. so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:4), saying this directly, as if he were saying: if you want to show your faith in God to be perfect, then not only valiantly endure the adversity that comes from outside, but also do godly deeds on your own, even if they involve great difficulty; because when activity goes hand in hand with suffering for the reason of good, they make a person perfect in God. Why didn’t he say: “Rejoice when you do virtue,” but: “when you find yourself in temptation”? – Because doing virtue depends on us and is in our power; It is not up to us to fall into temptation. Since without them there is neither perfection nor the discovery of faith in God, therefore, when a person striving for the perfection of faith falls into temptation, let him rejoice as one who has found something through which he will receive perfection. Because temptations are useful to those who are perfect in faith for the sake of demonstrating their perfection; but what is even more surprising is that temptations, attacking the imperfect, make them perfect; which is clear from the most read Gospel words today. But we will offer them to your love from the very beginning: “At the time, Jesus forced His disciples to get into the ship and wait for Him on the floor until He let the nations go. And having sent the nations away, he went up to the mountain alone and prayed” (Matthew 14:22–23). What “that time” did we talk about? - About when with five loaves and two fish He fed five thousand men with their wives and children in such abundance that 12 baskets were filled with an excess of pieces - as we heard in church last Sunday. It is possible that someone is perplexed: for what reason did the Lord force the Disciples to enter the boat. One could say that He also arranges the external environment for the works for which He came to earth. I would have been at a loss if He had not forced (the Disciples to enter the boat): because by deeds desiring to present Himself as an example for everyone of all that is beautiful, He, after showing how one should have communication with crowds, so that this would benefit their souls and bodies, also had to show how one should have communication with God, namely: to raise one’s mind to Him, freed from everything base; In many ways, loneliness and the desert and the silence that exists in it encourage this. So, since there was a favorable opportunity for this testimony, i.e. that desert and silence and prayer and loneliness are a good thing, it was necessary for Him to go up the mountain so that he could pray there alone. The disciples always loved to be with Him and had difficulty being separated from Him, and therefore how could He have ascended the mountain alone if He had not forced them to enter the ship and go before Him to the other side? But it is also possible to see something else in this. Namely: just as then, after He healed and taught and nourished the multitude in a miraculous way, releasing them and ascending the mountain, He forced His Disciples to give themselves to the sea and the waves, so then, after, through His Incarnation, He healed our nature and taught and nourished Himself, 144, leaving us in body, and ascending to heaven, He sent His Disciples into the whole world, and this is But what can I say: into the sea of nations, as if full of trials, where, as if in a ship with the Gospel and the Church in the Gospel spirit, they were given. Not only did He send them, but He also forced them. If anyone knows what John, beloved of Christ the Theologian, tells; if anyone knows why the tribulation that happened under Stephen and the persecution that followed was allowed to happen; he understands what I want to say: for the Disciples did not want to leave Jerusalem, but forced by persecution, they scattered throughout the world, and thus fulfilled their mission. And not only were they forced to sail on the sea of ​​life, where there was every kind of excitement and every kind of temptation, but they had to, as it were, cross to the other shore, i.e. – overcome and pass dangers; but without Jesus they were not able to do it. For “the ship,” says the Evangelist, “was in the middle of the sea, howling with waves: for there was a contrary wind” (Matthew 14:21). The soulless wind was no more opposed to them then than later - Dometian and Trajan and Nero; but it is better to say that these and people like them were cruel and terrible waves rising against the Church, and the opposite wind that excited and raised them was the evil spirit, the devil, the everlasting enemy of the Church of Christ. “In the fourth watch of the night,” says the Evangelist, “Jesus went to them, walking on the sea” (Matthew 14:25), i.e. this was after the 9th hour of the night: because the night guards are in the habit of dividing the night time into 4 parts, according to shifts, so that with the beginning of the 10th hour of the night the 4th watch also began. He allowed them to be exposed to the storm for so long in order to accustom them to patience and make them capable of enduring hardships. But even after this, having appeared to them, He allowed Him to be mistaken for a ghost and they were so frightened that they screamed in fear, although He came to save them. You see that He did the same with ancient Israel: because when the sea was to miraculously part for them and provide them with a way to salvation, then they saw themselves reached to the extreme, pressed by inevitable death, due to the encirclement of enemies. And now, during His presence, those who are liberated from the demons that have possessed them, liberation is preceded by great confusion; Thus, not only were His blessings wonderful, but they also lived firmly in the memory of those benefited. He reveals Himself to them, calling in this storm, undoubtedly, the God of all, showing that He is God over everything, extending a helping hand to those who call on Him. He walks on the waves of the raging sea, clearly revealing that He is the One who, according to prophecy, walks on the sea as on dry land; To whom David prophetically says: “Thy ways are in the sea, and Thy paths are in many waters” (Ps. 76:20); and: - “You rule over the power of the sea; you calm the disturbance of its waves” (Ps. 89:10); – just as He later did. Because when He saw that they were afraid because they did not recognize Him, He immediately spoke to them so that they recognized Him by His very voice, saying: “I am, do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27). – I am both the ever-present God and man, who for your sake in recent times became one, Who is seen and heard, and to whom all things are possible; Therefore, in the flesh I walk on the waves, which I can give to others; - because when Peter said to Him: “Lord, if You are, command me to come to You” (Matthew 14:28), He commanded, and so it was. But let us bring our word back to the comparison we said above, when, explaining, we said that when the Apostles were sent into the worldly sea of ​​nations, then the Lord ascended, as it were, onto a mountain - to the heights of heaven, and; there he always brings prayers for us, as he who became the High Priest for us and entered into the interior behind the veil, to make atonement for the sins of the people, as the Apostle says. So, the Disciples, being sent to cross the sea, i.e. to defeat and overcome those who tempt, have not completely won: for the enemy is energetic and the peoples are furious against the Church of Christ. On the fourth watch of the night, i.e. - after the natural law 145, after the written Law 146, after the First Coming of the Lord and in it the law of grace, there will certainly be a Second Coming of Christ, which is perfectly compared with the fourth watch of the night, in which the Lord will come, trampling and abolishing and subduing every principle and authority and power: for He must clearly abolish and trample the waves that fearfully rise up against His Church. For you remember that under the “waves”, moved and excited by an opposing wind, the word mysteriously designated the princes of this world; and in order for us to consider the rest, I partially skip what happened in the interval. When they entered the ship, that is, Jesus and Peter, who came out of the boat to Him, the wind stopped, and, having crossed, they arrived on earth. So the Lord and all the Saints who passed away from us, whom Peter represented by himself, will be with us during the Second Coming of Christ, and He will finally rebuke the spiritual contrary wind, and we, having crossed the troubled sea of ​​life, will come to the land of the meek, where all sickness, sorrow and sighing will flee. “And those who were in the ships,” says the Evangelist, “came and worshiped Him, saying: Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33); because even then (during the Second Coming of Christ): “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth: and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10–11). But leaving behind the symbolic comparison, let us remember the beginning of our topic, namely: that temptations are useful not only for those who are perfect in faith, like Job and Peter and Paul and the like, but also make imperfect people perfect; because in this case, not only Peter and not only the other Disciples, who at that time were still imperfect themselves, but also all those who were in the boat, as a result of the excitement that befell them, received such benefit in relation to their faith that they were moved, coming, to worship Jesus and say to Him: “Truly you are the Son of God.” This means, the Apostle, whom we cited at the beginning, says beautifully that “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; having been skilled, he receives the crown of life” (James 1:12). I do not want you, brethren, to be ignorant of the fact that there are two types of temptations; but I won’t talk about that now; (I will only say that) temptations come to people through joy and through sorrow, through health and through illness, through glory and through dishonor, through wealth and through poverty; but of these, much worse are those that come through pleasure and through health and through fame and wealth; and this is true; but I won’t tell you about this twofold type of temptation now. But what do I want you to know today? - Listen carefully, and you will find out - This great Jacob, called in the flesh the Brother of the Lord, because of the betrothal of the Virgin Mother to Joseph, which was according to the divine economy, says: “Rejoice, when you fall into various temptations”; and: “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; having been skilled, he receives the crown of life” (James 1:12). Then, as if someone were saying to him: “But there are those who, being in temptation, blaspheme; others are completely desperate; others impose a noose on themselves; if temptations come from physical and carnal reasons, then these are passions and lusts; and some, it happened, sometimes fell into murder, while others indulged in lewdness; So how are temptations from God and the bringers of crowns? - As if answering those who say something like this, the Apostle adds, saying: “Let no one be tempted, saying that I am tempted of God: God is not a tempter of the evil, for He tempts no one” (James 1:13) 147; by “temptation” here clearly designating evil and sin and the fall into it, regarding which Christ remained not subject to temptation, although, however, he was tempted: “In him he suffered,” says the Apostle, “Having himself been tempted, he can help those who were tempted” (Heb. 2:18). But even after he was baptized in the Jordan, He ascended the mountain to be tempted, as the Gospel says (Matthew 4:1); so that “temptations” are called both the external sorrows that come to people in the flesh, and the very attack (attack) of the enemy, even if it is unsuccessful for him; So, tempting, he was amazed at the Lord. “Temptations” are also called the sins with which each of us is tempted, as James himself says: “Everyone is tempted and is drawn and enticed by his own lust; For lust, when conceived, gives birth to sin: but sin, when committed, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). What kind of death? – Eternal, which is expressed in the separation of the soul from God, caused by sin, which is now followed from Adam until the end of the world and bodily death; Then, in the next century, there will follow for those who have not repented here unbearable and endless torment of soul and body, who are rightly condemned by the power of being able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. Let us flee such temptation, brothers, as soon as we can: because it is in our power to flee from it. We will grieve for it when we see ourselves falling into it. If we grieve for him, as we should, then we will perform true repentance, leading to salvation. And I am here to remove this type of temptation from you, which causes harm and damage not in the temporary, but in the eternal. For our Lord Jesus Christ, by whose grace we are servants, is the Bishop of future, and not temporary, blessings, and through His Blood He truly entered into the Holy Place, having gained our not temporal, but eternal redemption; We also had this eternal liberation as our goal, caring, believe me, about spiritual, and not physical, misfortunes; because our weapons are not carnal, as the Apostle says, but are forces from God for the destruction of strongholds, not sensory (material), but built against us by the spiritual enemy. But you, as it seems to me, neither understand nor seek this liberation from spiritual temptations; because you especially grieve over those temptations (adversities), regarding which you should rejoice, as the ones that bring, if we only wish, eternal liberation for us; and from me you greatly seek this liberation from material adversity, and I came here to you to sympathize with you, although I attach less importance to this liberation from sensory adversity. But if we grieve over our sins more than over the disasters that befall us, we will not only gain the salvation of our souls and eternal redemption, but also liberation from temporary temptations. For why has our life become painful and sorrowful, full of struggle and disasters? – Is it not because, as a result of breaking the commandment, we plunged ourselves into a forbidden temptation, I mean sin? If we now cleanse ourselves from all sin through repentance, then here too we will need easier temptations, and in due time we will enter into a carefree and easy life. Having turned to this saving thought, let us grieve and worry not about carnal adversity and damage, but about spiritual damage, which are truly temptations, and worthy of sadness, so that we can say to God as He Himself taught us: “Do not lead us into temptation,” a forbidden temptation that completely exposes us to responsibility, “but deliver us from the evil one.” For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. PG.151:401–412. Homilia XXXII. Ejusdem homilia in Evangelium nonae Dominicae secundum Matthaeum; in qua et de tentationibus. Lat. translation: “With Your Own Body.” Those. the former Law of Moses; existing in the conscience of men (Rom. 2.). Russian translation: “When tempted, no one should say: God is tempting me; because God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. You might be interested in: