Беседа к сетующим на приключающиеся нам отовсюду разнообразные невзгоды 604

1. That evil, which in its essence is evil, and such is sin, stems from ourselves; another evil befalls our sensual nature, and this is something painful and difficult; This also happens to us from God, as if from a Doctor, who through this restrains and cures true evil; Who takes full care when those who have sinned can actually be healed; when the disease in them is incurable, it deprives them of life itself, for the sake of saving other people. Since this is the case, and we ourselves are the culprits of our misfortunes, having made ourselves worthy of cauterization, then in this too He is our Benefactor and Savior, as the Destroyer of true evil. It happens that when He represents a feat for the courageous: (to be) attacked by evil, but not evil in its essence 605. Because just as illness was not created by God, despite the fact that a living being created by Him could have become susceptible to illness, so sin did not originate from God, even if a rational soul brought into existence by Him would have voluntarily inclined to sin. Because she was honored with the gift of free will 606 and life according to her own choice (because in vain she would be rational if she did not have this honor) 607 ; therefore, having accepted a will unrelated to any coercion, if she had adhered to God and had unity with Him in love, she would have retained within herself the happy life inherent in her by nature; if, as if satiated with sacred closeness to God, she would incline towards the pleasures of the flesh, then, having been deprived of good in essence, she will become ill with evil in essence, i.e. sin; for myself, alas! creating death by his voluntary falling away from life. 2. So, since we are almost all like this and have a need for generally useful initiative and advice, then primarily on the basis of God’s words we will now speak to you so that, having learned that the culprit of the worldwide onslaught of evils is sin, we (would) reject our own sin-loving will and reorganize ourselves into everything that pleases God, and by deeds of virtue, having propitiated and honored the Divine, we would turn the wrath of the Lord on us in favor of us. Because He Himself is the One who testifies to us and speaks through Moses: “If you hear with your ears the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is pleasing in His sight, and impose His commandments, I will not bring any disease upon you: for I am the Lord who heals you” (Ex. 15:26); “If you walk in My commandments, and keep My commandments, and I will do (them), (every good thing will come to you 608) and dwell with steadfastness, and the army will not pass through your land, and I will give peace in your land, and you will fall asleep, and there will be no terror for you; and your enemies will marry, and they will be slain before you. And five of you will marry a hundred, and a hundred of you will marry tens of thousands, and your enemies will fall before you with the sword. And the good earth will demolish the old and the new. And I will not abhor you, but I will be like you, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; I am the Lord God who promises this 609. If you do not listen to Me, follow My commandments, but do not submit to them, and your soul will be indignant at My destinies, because you will not do all My commandments, and I will do this to you, and I will bring upon you all sickness and poverty, your soul will melt away, and your adversaries will eat up your blessings 610. And I will set My face on you, and you will fall before your enemies, and you will marry those who hate you, and you will flee from anyone who persecutes you. And if you have not yet listened to Me (i.e., having turned), I will,” says God, “punish you (with plagues) seven times: I will crush the vexation of your pride. And your fortress will be in vain, drought and infertility of the land and barren trees of the village will become impoverished 611. And if you still do not want to listen to Me, I will add seven more plagues to you: and I will send the beasts of the earth upon you, and they will eat you up and make you humble, and your ways will be empty. And if you are not punished by these things (learn) yet, I will strike you seven times, and I will bring the sword of avenging covenant vengeance on you: and you will flee into your cities; and I will send death upon you, and you will be betrayed in the hand of your enemy, and you will always grieve because of the scarcity of bread. If you do not listen to Me even in these, you will go to Me by country, and I will go to you by country, and I will punish you for your sins. And you will eat the flesh of your sons and daughters. And I will make your cities desolate, and I will desolate your holy places, and I will not smell the stench of your sacrifices. And I will make your land desolate, and your enemies who dwell in it will be amazed at it. And I will scatter you among the tongues, and the sword that is found will consume you, and I will put fear into those who are left behind from you, and the voice of a flying leaf will marry them, and they will flee like (fleeing) from the army, and will perish among the nations, and their land will be consumed by their enemy” (Lev. 26:3-38). 3. Do you see how far the wrath of the Lord extends, despite the fact that “He is merciful and generous, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and repent of the wickedness of men” (Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2); but this is in relation to those who repent and turn from their wickedness. Because: “Turn to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord” (Zechariah 1:3). “And you shall turn,” it says, “to the Lord your God, and hear His voice. For God is generous, the Lord your God, and will not leave you, nor will He consume anything less for you, but you will find the Lord God your Helper, when you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul in your tribulation” (Deut. 4:29-30). Discourage yourself if you obey my instructions; It is not for this reason that you suffer only, but also for the reason that you despised the Lord’s commandments and did not preserve His justification, for which you are given over to cruel adversities; and in your sorrow, really ask for deliverance from evils, promise (at the same time) to keep the commandments, and show your promise to those fulfilled in practice, so that you yourself receive God’s effective help in response. But what are these commandments of the Lord? - This is: unshakable piety towards Him and love for Him, preserving our body in purity and chastity, mutual love and non-lusting of what belongs to one’s neighbor and not doing harm to anyone, but, to the best of one’s ability, charity, and simply say: so that everyone does to their neighbor what they themselves want to see from everyone. 4. But pay attention, if you wish, to the saying that refers to the judgment on those who transgress (the commandments of the Lord). – “They provoked Me not about God, and I provoked them not about the heathen” (Deut. 32:21) 612 .; and again: “I am a jealous God, give away the sins of the fathers on the children, and on the children of the children 613 to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me” (Deut. 5:9); and: - “Cursed be he that dishonors his father or his mother: and all men say, Awake” (Deut. 26:16); and: – “Whoever curses his father or mother, let him die” (Ex.21:16. Lev.20:9); the same applies to a son who contradicts his father in a just cause 614; and: “If anyone has a disobedient son, do not listen to the voice of his father or mother, and take him up and bring him before the elders (of his city) and say: this son of ours is disobedient and a rude man, and does not listen to our speech, he drinks voluptuously: and let the men of that city beat him with stones, and take away the evil from yourselves” (Deut. 21:18-21). 5. What can be said about those who break the commandments regarding chastity? Wasn't death their punishment? - “Let there be no harlot,” it is said, “from the daughters of Israel, and let no fornicator be from the sons of Israel” (Deut. 23:17); and: “People have become defiled,” it is said, “by fornication” (Numbers 25:1); “And they died by the plague, twenty-four thousand” (Num. 25:9), and if Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, had not risen up, being jealous (of God), and pierced with a single blow of a spear, he had not killed at the scene of the crime the fornicator and the woman who had committed fornication with him, then everyone would have perished, both the innocent and the guilty, for not avenging lawlessness, standing up for the defense (of God's law); Therefore, God announced to Moses: “Phinehas satisfy my wrath, and do not consume the children of Israel in my jealousy” (Num. 25:11). If fornication is so prohibited and so (strictly) punished, then what will the adulterer endure? - Of course, he will not be freed from punishment. Therefore, the Divine Law says: “If a man is found lying with his husband’s wife, kill them both, and remove the evil from yourselves” (Deut. 22:22). 6. But this, you say, refers to the ancient Law, and what does this have to do with us, the people of the New Testament? – If you say so 615, then, consequently, you have not heard the words of the Lawgiver and Master of Christ, who says: “I did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it, and one jot or one tittle will not pass from the Law until they all remain” (Matthew 5:17). If this is the case, then, of all necessity, the one shamefully defeated (by the passions) will be killed and handed over to the enemies, and he will suffer everything terrible, subject, because of sin, to a death sentence and other threatening retributions. There is only one cure, invented by the wisdom and grace of the Only Begotten Son of God and Savior Christ, which is expressed in this: through repentance, to mortify oneself to sin, and thus paying off the debt to the sentences contained in the Law, through virtue to put on the new man in Christ, and thus to be freed from the curse imposed on us in the Law, living according to Christ, who gave Himself atonement for us. However, if, indeed, the New Testament did not prohibit sin, then, being guilty of these sentences that bring death with them, you could refer to it (i.e., the New Testament), wanting to justify yourself; Now, not only a sinful act, but also something that is much less serious than sin - namely, the very beginnings of sin, he (the New Testament) forbade, and those who succumbed to them, as if they had already committed a complete sin, condemns them to eternal death. Thus, Christ says: “It was said to the ancients: you shall not kill: whoever kills is guilty of judgment. But I say to you, that if anyone is angry with his brother in vain, he is guilty of judgment” (Matthew 5:21-22). Do you see? – He declared unrighteous anger equal to murder, placing both under the same condemnation. Anyone who would go so far in defaming his brother that he would call him “mad” is guilty of fiery hell (Matthew 5:22). And again: “Hear, as it was said: You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, for everyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27). Do you see? – And here He equated fornication with adultery: because not every woman is married; It’s better to say: not fornication itself, but the one who desires fornication, and then only in thoughts, and through passionate examination of the one who arouses passion in himself, He declares (already) to have committed adultery; because He is the Judge of the heart's desires and thoughts, and He knows the spirit that exists in us, having created it very characteristic of Himself, like a kind of speculative moon and a lesser light that can accommodate the rational ray of the Divine and Supreme Light. 7. So, turning the vessel of Divine Light into a container of shameful and truly dark pleasure, and the church of God created by God instead, due to the subjugation of passion, being the dwelling and church of demons, what limit of absurdity have not yet reached (“katalelipasin”), so as not to be called by it on the basis of the most shameful of all sins - adultery? If we are all betrothed to One Husband, One Bridegroom-Christ, as Paul calls (2 Cor. 11:2), and we have become one spirit with Him, united by the mind of the soul with His Divinity, and we are His members, invisibly fused with Him, then it seems to you: isn’t he an adulterer and deserves such a name who, by agreeing to fornication, desecrated this unity (with Christ)? - it’s better to say: much and much worse than an adulterer, as one who has broken the divine dispassionate union with God? What, again, did He command us regarding oaths? Did He not forbid it as if it were a crime of oath, and did He not clearly declare that oaths are the work of the evil one? But why am I citing this in parts, when it is possible to encapsulate everything in a single word? – “Unless your righteousness comes to pass rather than the scribe and the Pharisee (i.e., the perfect executors of the Old Law) 616, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). 8 617. We, from whom more is required than from them, are not only not equal to them in terms of deeds, but are not even close to them; Thus, having been taught to abstain from wives (“For the time has come,” says the Apostle, “they have ceased to eat other things, and even those who have wives shall be as if they had not; for the image of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:29, 7:31) 618), we who have heard this and believed, not only do not abstain from our own wives, but are possessed passion for other people's wives. Having the command not to swear even by one hair (because Christ says: “Swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair, white or black” (Matthew 5:36) 619), we do not tremble, constantly swearing by the Highest Head of all, by God Himself and God’s shrines, but even so, alas, the immeasurable audacity has come, that the most ineffable signs of the Saving Passion, the Divine Blood of the God of gods (Deut. 5:36), poured out once in the centuries for the life of the world (alas! oh, sun, how can you not set for us, how did you set then for those deicides?! 620) are attached to paper instead of a signature in ink to confirm the oaths, which the True Master declared as a whole to be the works of the evil one, and thus it turns out that we make, as it were, a collaborator of the evil one, alas, the One who destroyed his power 621. 9. But if we are like this in relation to the Divine, then how do we act in relation to our fellow slaves 622? Isn't it more like towards foreigners and enemies? Alas for me! What should I do?! How can I imagine this nationwide and general disaster? One might say that in our reputation we are famous for nothing other than the fact that we destroy each other and the strong cause harm to the weaker. It's no use talking! – One might say that the whole world has become for us a battlefield against each other: and if we soon declared an apparent mutual reconciliation, then we, who are in power (“and dynastheontes”), will oppress the poor even more, imposing even heavier taxes on those living from their labors. What warrior is now content with his food (or: salary)? Which prince does not open his mouth to the theft of other people's property? Dog walkers and swine herders, like wild boars and bloodthirsty dogs, tear to pieces the livelihood of those who have absolutely no protection. Therefore, the poor mournfully cry out against all of you: at those in power, at those behind them, at those in military service, at their servants, not enduring the merciless and misanthropic nature of the tax collectors, and the constant oppression and untruth on the part of the stronger in your land; Already, behold, the current of untruth flooding everything has reached the monks. 10. After this we wonder why God left us? How did we become the object of our enemies’ schadenfreude? How is it that every nation has gained the upper hand over us and is raiding us in order to rob us mercilessly? – It is worth marveling at the abundance of God’s patience: how did He not send fire from heaven on us, as was the case with Korah and those with him? How did he not send us alive to hell, opening the earth for us and opening the abyss and abyss, as was the case with Dathan and Abiron and their entire congregation (see Numbers 16)? How did it not completely give us over to complete destruction, as was the case with the pagan peoples? No, in fact, we were easily punished for our sins. So, since He mercifully punishes us, waiting in every possible way for our conversion, now we ourselves, after we have suffered, having come to our senses, let us turn to Him; having rejected the works of darkness, let us in every possible way become involved in the works of Light; Let us love one another, and let us show by our deeds that our love is unfeigned, so that the love of God may also abide in you, glorified in action (clearly visible) among all the nations who are at enmity against us. Let us each give up coveting the property of our neighbor, so that in this way, having renounced all unrighteousness, we may receive God’s Truth, which helps us, putting the wicked under our feet and making them our property. Let us refrain from terrible oaths, with which, thinking to seal our deeds, we nullify the Divine command, from which we tirelessly suffer failures, removing God’s protection from ourselves. If we curb our inclination to oaths, then God Himself will be among us, strengthening for our benefit every useful undertaking. Let us change our way of life to a more noble and more chaste one, so that the Father of purity, God, loves us as if His children and places us above all dishonor and corruption, assisting us in everything and fighting against our enemies. Let us arrange all our deeds, words and thoughts to please God, and thus, having converted ourselves purely (honestly) in everything, let us fall down and weep before the Lord our God, asking for remission of our previous sins. 12. Because then He, turning to us, will cleanse us from all sin, and making us white as snow (Ps. 50:9) and appearing brighter than gold, He will glorify us with Him now and forever. Through words, He showed His love for mankind in many ways: through the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), through compassion for the humble Publican (Luke 18:9–15), through care for a sheep that was lost, like us (Matt. 18:12–14, Luke 15:3–7). Through his deeds, He showed us the incomparability of His compassion through the example of the Thief who was crucified with Him and reigned with Him (Luke 23:43); on the example of Manasseh, who lived in the most lawless manner among kings, who at the last moment repented and was favorably heard (2 Kings 20,21, 21; 2 Chronicles 23); based on the example of the mercies that He showed to the Ninevites, forgiving them the multitude of their sins that had accumulated over many years, for the sake of their three-day repentance 623. He Himself is for us, oh, the incomparable greatness of goodness! Having bowed to the heavens, He descended and for our sake became a Preacher of repentance, showing by deeds and words that we should adhere to this, and to those who wished to follow this obediently He promised not only liberation from all evils, but also a heavenly and everlasting kingdom, which may all of us receive, having accomplished works of repentance with the help of the Founder of repentance, Christ, to Whom belongs glory forever and ever. Amen. According to the 1861 edition, it is listed as No. 63, pp. 279–289. “Evil in essence,” as we saw above, St. Gregory Palamas calls sin; those. God can subject a person to this or that adversity, but not to sinful temptation. The parentheses belong to the original. Most of the quotations from Holy Scripture here are given by St. Gregory in abbreviated form; So the words: “every good thing will come to you” stands instead of a long place in which the mercies of God are counted. This phrase does not appear anywhere in the Bible. This last phrase is not found in the mentioned place in Holy Scripture, but it corresponds to the general meaning of the text. What we said in the previous note also applies to this place. “They provoked Me not with God. and I will provoke them not to be a people": The expression: “for children of children” is not in the biblical text. I couldn't find where this link came from. The words: “If you say so” - I added them myself for the sake of clarity of the text. We introduced the number “8” on our own: it is omitted from the text and after §7 immediately follows §9. The Greek publisher Sophocles K. Ikonom expresses doubt that such a terrible and blasphemous deed could have happened in Thessaloniki during the time of St. Gregory Palamas. We find mention of such a case in the message of Pope Theodore (in the 6th century) and during the time of Bl. Patriarch Photius (9th century), in the message of Pope Adrian II, i.e. in Western documents and polemics with the Eastern Church. In such polemical documents in both the East and the West at that time there were also inaccuracies based only on rumors. Those. in relation to each other. Book of the Prophet Jonah. The number of days from the announcement of the destruction of Nineveh to the most threatening destruction varies between the LXX and the Massoretic text. LXX – 3 days; in the Massoretic text: 40 days. You might be interested in: