Борьба (брань)

We do not fight with visible people, from whom, by looking around, you can bring yourself to safety. Those who fight us are invisible. Therefore, the danger is great for those who are careless, and the reward for the winners is great. Not without skill we will enter into battle with them, and we will defeat them. If the enemy—I’ll say this as an example—incites gluttony, let’s attack him with fasting. If lust for a woman irritates us, then, using patience, we will overcome the feeling, and the enemy will immediately run away from us. If it prompts us to anger, let us arm ourselves with peace. If it brings us to irritation, let us take up gentleness. If hatred inflames us, let us cleave to love. If it incites people to seek honor, we will show humiliation. If it incites us to seek glory, let us embrace our insignificance. If dreamily leads us to heights, let us write before us the humility of the Lord. If it prompts us to compete with our brother, let us think about the fall of Cain, and if it leads to envy, let us think about the death of Esau. If we are inclined to slander, we will protect ourselves by silence. For if we resist the enemy in this way, he will not stand against us and will flee, and grace will return to us). Since the enemy does not stop fighting day or night, let him not catch your mind not practicing the study of God’s commandments, let him not sow his tares, let him not make the last worse than the first (Matthew 12:45), so that, having lost earthly things, you will lose heavenly things. Everyone knows that our age is like a race and that a strong serpent enters into battle with everyone. By others he is conquered and trampled upon, and by others he himself conquers and tramples; by others he is deposed and ridiculed, and others he himself deposes and ridicules. Some are crowned for their struggle with him, while others in that struggle yield victory over themselves; Some, for the bitterness of it [this earthly age], acquire the sweetness of eternal life, while others, for its sweetness and their relaxation, receive the bitterness of eternal torment. Some people conveniently overcome it with their high non-acquisitiveness, while others it overcomes it with their attachment to earthly things. For those who love God with all their souls, fighting with him is the same as nothing, but for those who love the world it is difficult and unbearable. In this life we ​​are waging a great war, and our enemy is furious. One should not give up the fight. At the very least, let’s physically defeat the enemy’s dreams and let him rush out of frustration... And who lives in peace with passions, how can he fight with them, having already sold himself as a slave to pleasure and willingly paying tribute to the tormentor? Where there is enmity, there is abuse; and where there is battle, there is struggle; Where there is struggle, there will be crowns. If anyone wants to free himself from bitter slavery, then let him enter into battle with the devil. The saints were awarded heavenly blessings only by becoming winners in this battle. Be sober every hour, because at an hour when you don’t expect it, the Lord will send for you to take you into the granary of life, into the assembly of the righteous, so that you will finally rest and have no worries where there is no battle or enemy. For there the enemy who fights with us and all the reasons for war will be destroyed. The reason for warfare is the lust for beauty and the desire to possess it, but in heaven they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but remain like the Angels of God (Matthew 22:30). Another reason for warfare is wealth and earthly glory. But all this is perishable and will end on earth. Since it is desirable for everyone to achieve and master the good without labor, let them know that on the path to the good there is a great struggle and struggle, and that out of many, only a few have achieved it. Therefore, only the victorious went out to meet the peaceful and meek King, who willingly did good to people. Both in the world and in the ascetic life, no one gets married without a struggle; without struggle, no one can receive an unfading crown and eternal life, for real life is always like a race. Perfect warriors, of their own accord, without excuses, appear in the field themselves, but timid and pampered ones, due to their pampering, always avoid fighting. Perfect fighters and abstinent ascetics have a sweet paradise before their eyes, expecting to enjoy its benefits in eternal light and immortal life. Do you want to be in the fight and be perfect? – Always be clothed in virtue as in clothing! Have you put on virtue? – Constantly make an effort not to let go of it! Your abuse, brother, is not some ordinary one, not worthy of laughter; on the contrary, all the Angels and their Lord are looking at your battle, which you are waging with the enemy. So, when you become the conqueror of the enemy, God and the Angels will applaud you, and the Angels, rejoicing, will glorify God, who has given you the power to defeat the evil one. This is why the warfare intensifies more and more, so that you become well-skilled, and God is glorified, and people become your imitators. With what vigilance should we guard our hearts and feelings? Our war is great, the one who is at war with us is very furious, but we must not give up the fight, but, on the contrary, we must not carry out the enemy’s suggestions in practice, even if he is torn with vexation. The Lord knows our oppressor, knows with what inflammatory means he acts on our hearts. However, the fighter’s job is to be careful and avoid the blow. The sons of men are all in constant struggle. He who is far from sensual lusts is driven by pride, and he who is free from arrogance serves mammon. Some say that God requires from man only obvious fruits, but God Himself makes the hidden things in man manifest. But this is not how it happens in reality; on the contrary, just as someone brings himself to safety according to the external person, so he must fight and wage war in his thoughts, because God requires of you that you be angry with yourself, wage war with your mind, do not agree with vicious thoughts and do not enjoy them. To eradicate sin and innate evil, to overcome the enemy is already God’s work. For if you yourself were able to do this, then what would be the need for the Lord's coming? Just as it is impossible to see with eyes without light, or to speak without a tongue, or to hear without an ear, or to walk without legs, or to work without hands, so it is impossible for a person to be saved or to enter the Kingdom of Heaven without the Lord Jesus. If you say about obvious deeds: “I am not a fornicator, not an adulterer, not a lover of money, and, therefore, I am righteous,” then you are mistaken in this, thinking that you have already done everything. There are not only three parts of sin from which a person must bring himself to safety, but there are thousands of them. For, tell me, where does fearlessness, blindness, unbelief, hatred, envy, deceit, hypocrisy come from? Shouldn't you fight with them in secret and in your thoughts? If you have a robber in your house, then this already worries you and does not allow you to be calm. And if you begin to resist him and even strike him, then he will attack and beat you. So the soul must resist, strike, fight. She takes on herself, and inflicts blows herself, is amazed and reflects. The will, now opposing, now becoming exhausted and cramped, finally begins to prevail, and the soul, with great difficulty, begins to gain the upper hand. Satan falls, rises against the soul, builds loopholes, and the soul destroys them. It also happens that sin overcomes and overthrows the soul in ten or twenty struggles, but in the same way the soul over time overcomes sin in some kind of deed. And again, if she stands firm and does not relax, then she begins to gradually take advantage, strengthen and gain victories over sin. However, sin, although it does not overthrow a person, nevertheless remains in him until a person reaches a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13), and until he conquers death. For it is written: The last enemy that will be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15:26). And only this person is above death and becomes its winner. If, as we said earlier, someone says: “I am not a fornicator, not an adulterer, not a lover of money, and this is enough for me,” then he fought with three parts of sin and did not touch twenty. Sin did not fight with his whole soul, although he was often defeated. Therefore, one must fight and strive in everything, because the mind, as we have repeatedly said, is a fighter, and within itself has the strength to argue with sin and resist thoughts. If you say that the opposing force is stronger and completely possesses a person, then you are unfairly accusing God, Who condemns humanity for listening to Satan. If the enemy is stronger than us, if he is some kind of compelling force, then it turns out that You yourself created a being that is stronger than human souls and you command me not to obey him, and this is very unfair. Therefore, we affirm that our mind is a fighter, and an equal fighter, because the soul that seeks God enjoys help and protection and is rewarded. Struggle and feat are possible only with equal strength.