Collection of words and conversations "The Fall of Adam"

Contents Sermon on the Week of Cheese, Catechetical Sermon on Wednesday of the 1st week of Lent. About the commandment in paradise A word on Friday of the 1st week of Great Lent. About the serpent - the tempter Conversation on Wednesday of the 2nd week of Great Lent (On words from Genesis 3:1-5) Conversation on Friday of the 2nd week of Great Lent. In response to the words: “And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to see with the eyes and to eat as red as you could understand” (Genesis 3; 6) Conversation on Wednesday of the 3rd week of Lent. To the words: “And she (Eve) took the poison from its fruit, and gave it to her husband with him, and the poison” (Genesis 3:6) Conversation on the heel of the 3rd week of Lent. To the words: “And the eyes of both were opened, and they understood, as if the Nazis were besha: and the fig tree fell, and he made girdles for himself” (Genesis 3: 7) Conversation on Wednesday of the 4th week of Lent. Based on words from Genesis 3.8–13 Conversation on Friday of the 4th week of Lent. To the words from Genesis 3.14–15 Conversation on Wednesday of the 5th week of Lent To the words: “And I said to the woman: I will multiply your sorrows and your sighs: in sickness you will give birth to children, and to your husband you will turn, and she will have possession of you” (Genesis 3: 16) Conversation on the heel of the 5th week of Lent. On words from Genesis 3, 17–19 Homily for Saturday of the 5th week of Lent or Praise. “The ancient Adam lied, and God desired to be, but not to be: man becomes God, and makes Adam God.” Conversation on Wednesday of the 6th week of Lent. To the words: “And the Lord God made Adam and his wife garments of leather, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21) Conversation on Friday of the 6th week of Lent. Based on words from Genesis 3:22–24 Conversation on Holy Monday. To the words: “And the guardians” Lord God “Cherubim, and flaming weapons that turn, keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24) Conversation on Holy Tuesday. To the words: “And thou art the days of Adam... nine hundred and thirty years: and thou didst die” (Gen. 5:5) Word on Great Wednesday. Final Sermon on the Week of Cheese, Catechetical If ever, my brothers, it would be necessary for us to begin a conversation with you not with words, but with sighs and tears, then on this day, when the Holy Church remembers and mourns the ill-fated fall of our ancestors, and in their person - the entire human race, therefore, each of us. The Fall of Adam!.. When you utter these words, it seems that the whole world is rebelling against you: screams, groans and reproaches rush from all sides; Everywhere one can see streams of blood and tears we have shed; everything evil and criminal - in the past, present and future - is evident and demands an answer for itself; heaven and earth, sun and stars, plants and animals come to judgment against you and say: you have deprived us of primitive perfection! In fact, my brothers, was it not this ill-fated fall of our ancestors that brought down from the heights of godlikeness and bliss and plunged the entire human race into dust and corruption? Is it not this that has darkened the splendor and disturbed the order of the entire visible universe, changed the original definition of the Creator about us, deprived all earthly creatures of their primeval perfection and finally made it necessary that the earth and everything that is done on it (2 Pet. 3:10) should one day burn up, the sun and the moon should darken, the stars, like leaves, will fall from heaven, and the very Powers of Heaven will they move? (Matthew 24:29). Was it not this that finally, in some respect, disrupted the majestic peace of the seventh day for the Creator Himself, prompted the Almighty to new miracles of love and wisdom and, as it were, a new creation, forced the Son of God to descend from heaven to earth, put on poor human flesh, endure humiliation and torment, and die for us on the Cross? Terrible was the fall of the angels; but the Fall of man, in terms of its unfortunate consequences for the whole world, could have been even more terrible if the abyss of the wisdom and love of God had not found a means to restore us from the fall. But no matter how ill-fated Adam’s fall in paradise was, it is at the same time my own fall. In vain would I like to be separated this time from my ancestor: the union of nature binds me inextricably. In vain, having come into the world after many generations, I would therefore like to doubt my participation in the sin of Eden: the execution I suffer constantly reminds me of it. What kind of execution?.. Alas, this very question reveals the extreme depth of our fall!.. It means that we have fallen into such an abyss that we no longer see that holy and blessed height on which we were once placed by the Creative Right Hand, we are so stunned by the fall that we do not even feel the pain that has occurred from it, and we do not notice the abyss in which we are. What kind of execution?.. Is it a reward that we all come to this world in the most pitiful way: with a cry we leave the womb of the mother in order to appear for a short time on the face of the earth, and amid the cries we tear apart the womb of the earth in order to hide our corruption in it from among the living? What kind of execution?.. Is it a reward that most of us, created in the image of God and, apparently, destined for dominion over everything around us, are now forced to drag out our entire lives in the bonds of spiritual and physical slavery, to constantly struggle with all kinds of needs and sorrows, to atone for almost every day of existence with sweat and tears? What kind of execution?.. Is it really a reward that human brothers often torment each other like tigers, that entire tribes and kingdoms must constantly stand guard against each other and not know (more - ed.) the highest art of how to repel and defeat people like themselves? What kind of execution?.. And what is in the heart of each of us? The constant struggle of good with evil, spirit with flesh, mind and conscience with passions - and where is the victory? For the most part, on the side of sin and the flesh: I do this if I do not want (good), but if I hate (evil), I do it... Even though I want to do it, I do not find it (Rom. 7:15, 18), - this is how the best of people complain about themselves! What should the worst say?.. Alas, wherever I turn, everywhere I see traces of my fall: I see both in the destructive struggle of soulless elements, and in some kind of constant hostility against me by animate beings; I see both in the menacing phenomena of the sky above me, and in the barrenness of the land I cultivate; I see both the frailty of my mind and the fragility of my works; I see both in the strength of human passions, and in the powerlessness of human laws, and in the lack of faith and in the excess of doubts; I see it in the hut and on the throne, at the altar and the plow, in moments of joy and sadness, in reality and in the very dream... The yoke is heavy, heavy on all the sons of Adamlich! (Sir. 40:1–2). Terrible is the work of decay, from which the whole creation groans! (Rom. 8:22). Who is to blame for this? Where and how did the evil that surrounds me and the whole world come from? Didn't my Creator perhaps lack the strength and means to create me pure and righteous, immortal and blessed? But one simple glance at the immensity of the world, at the order and beauty of the universe already clearly shows that the right hand that created me was omnipotent and all-good, for it did not forget the smallest creation and provided it with everything it needed. Meanwhile, I languish and suffer; I suffer so much that I myself cannot see the end of my suffering... Isn’t that why I’m to blame? I still have within me the ability by which I can improve my condition or transform (pervert - ed.) it and destroy myself. This is my freedom!.. In it, for this very reason, it must be the reason for my disastrous state on earth. There was once, there was an ill-fated moment in which I, abusing my arbitrariness, brazenly broke the primitive union that connected me and the whole world with the Source of true life and bliss; there was a terrible moment in which I rushed madly from the heights of my natural perfections and dragged with me into the abyss of evil the creature subordinate to me. When and how did this unfortunate fall occur? It would be in vain for me to ask the nature surrounding me about this: in this case it is silent, like a field after the battle that took place on it. Traces of damage are visible everywhere; even echoes of groans and screams can be heard; but who fought and how? – unknown. I conclude one thing from everything visible in nature: that all this disaster must have happened not so long ago that it would be completely forgotten, and not so recently that it would be possible to retain a clear memory of it. I turn to history and the most ancient legends of the human race. Here, from all over the universe, I hear that the human race was not the same as we see it now; that on earth there were no such evils and disasters from which all living things now suffer; that the real order or, more precisely (more precisely - ed.), the disorder of things is a consequence of the fall of the first people. But when, not content with this, I am curious to know exactly how my fall followed, I find in the ancient legends so much diversity, contradictions and darkness that I do not know where to stop; I don’t see where true evidence ends and where fiction begins. One divinely inspired account of Moses, like a radiant lamp in the middle of the sea, rises above the muddy waves of ancient legends and the darkness covering the primitive state of the human race. Despite the brevity of this description of everyday life, there is so much light in it that all the main questions about the origin of evil in our world are resolved from it as philosophically as piously. It is this sacred story about the fall of our ancestors that we, my brothers, intend to repeat and consider together with you in the coming days of Holy and Great Lent. A sad picture awaits us! And before us, as once before the prophet, a scroll will be opened, in which weeping and pity and grief are inscribed (Ezek. 2:10). Let us see the serpent with his terrible slander - acceptable, and the Creator and Benefactor with His holy commandment - rejected; we will see the foremother of all living, frivolously stretching out her hand to the forbidden fruit and for this being condemned to give birth to a child in illness; we will see our ancestor running away from the face of God, placing the blame on the Creator Himself and for this being subjected to labor in the sweat of his brow for the rest of his life, with his return to the end of the earth, from which he was quickly taken; we will see both ashamed of their nakedness, and not of sin, from which nakedness and death, expelled from the paradise of sweetness and dragging out the rest of a miserable life amid the curse of the whole earth; We will finally see a Cherub with a flaming weapon, placed at the gates of paradise and guarding the path to the tree of life, forever lost to those who did not know how to use its fruits. But at the same time, we will hear a terrible sentence for our enemy, who carried us into crime; a sentence showing that there is an Avenger for us, that we are not defenseless; Let us hear the joyful promise about the Seed of the Woman, which has to crush the head of the serpent, that promise in which, like a tree in a seed, is contained the whole secret of our salvation. Thus, the scroll of our primordial existence, although weeping, pity and grief are inscribed in it, will finally, like the scroll of Ezekiel, be sweet in our mouths and will be able to nourish us with imperishable food. For the teaching of the word of God about the fall of Adam, in addition to explaining to us the mystery of our present existence on earth, indicates the beginning and cause of our otherwise inexplicable misfortunes and suffering, and thereby reconciles us with our difficult fate and keeps us from murmuring and blasphemy against Providence. This same teaching serves as the basis for that life-giving Gospel, which constitutes the essence of the Christian faith, that is, the teaching about the redemption of us by the Son of God, who for this purpose took on our flesh, so that he might defeat our enemy and abolish all the consequences of the Fall of Eden. In order to fully feel the price of this Divine redemption, one must first know the full magnitude of the evils that crush us. The second Adam, who is the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47), appears in all Divine majesty not before the first Adam, who is from the earth, our ancestor, appears to us in all his humiliation and oath. For this reason, without a doubt, the Holy Church, our common mother and mentor, now, just before our entry into Holy Lent, brings to our memory not any other event, but the fall of Adam. By this she seems to be saying to each of us: if you are the son of Adam, then no matter who you are, you are a fallen being; you need to rise from the abyss, heal everything broken in the fall and begin to ascend to the previous height and perfection through the Sacrament of Repentance and Communion of the Life-Giving Body and Blood of Christ. For this very purpose, that is, to create in us the consciousness of our sinful helpless state and to dispose each and every one to humility, faith and fervent prayer for help from above, during the future days of fasting the Holy Church will not cease to fill our ears daily with readings from the history of Moses. So, while dealing with the subject we have chosen, we will follow in the footsteps of the Holy Church, preaching the same thing that is inspired by it. Let us cry, my brethren, with one mouth and one heart to the Lord, so that, having once inspired his beloved servant Moses to write for us the holy story of the fall of our ancestors, he will grant us, his unworthy servants, the grace to use it as we should, to understand from it all the poverty of our fallen nature, to recognize our sinful damnation, so that later with faith and humbly turn to the One who alone is able to restore all that has fallen and raise us, as the Holy Church promises, to our first “property with dissolution,” which may we all achieve by His omnipotent grace. Amen. Homily for Wednesday of the 1st week of Lent. About the commandments in paradise The ill-fated fall of our ancestors in Eden consisted, as is known, in the transgression of God’s commandment about not eating from the forbidden fruit. Therefore, before we begin to consider this unfortunate event, it is appropriate to pay attention to this commandment and show what exactly it consisted of and why it was given. One must delve into this commandment also because there are many prejudices and opinions regarding it, which, in addition to being false, serve to criticize the holy Providence of God. Some say: why was this commandment given? Others: why not protect a person from her crime? Contrary to this, we must show that the commandment was necessary, and that everything necessary to protect a person from breaking it was done. The only thing left was to bind human freedom; but then virtue would lose all its value, and man would lose all his moral dignity. The commandment of Eden is depicted by Moses as follows: And the Lord God commanded Adam, saying: From every tree that is in paradise, you shall carry food; but from the tree, which you mean good and evil, you shall not eat from it: but if you eat one day from it, you will surely die (Gen. 2:16–17). Do you see what the commandment was? It is not to eat from the fruit of one famous tree. From here all the ease of the commandment to fulfill is immediately revealed. For what difficulty is it not to eat from the fruits of one tree, when there were thousands of them in paradise, and of all kinds? Our ancestors, even without prohibition, had not yet had time, of course, to partake of the fruit of many of the trees of paradise; the easier it was to abstain from the forbidden fruit. It is impossible to imagine that the forbidden tree was the best of all in terms of its fruits: for the best, without a doubt, was the tree of life. It is true that the forbidden tree later seemed to Eve to be good for food, pleasing to the eyes—to see and red... to understand (Gen. 3:6), but it seemed so already when curiosity and sensual lust were aroused to the highest degree in our unfortunate ancestress, from the flattering conversation with her of the tempting serpent. In this case, even the ordinary in itself seems different and attractive to a person. Moreover, the very words of Eve, if you delve deeper into them, express not so much praise for the excellent qualities of the tree, but a kind of protection from criticism and contempt, that is, that it seemed to Eve’s eyes not so disgusting that she no longer wanted to taste from it, not so ugly that she could not look at it without displeasure, and, finally, not so insignificant that she would not be curious about what was in it and why it was forbidden. Thus, no matter how you look at the commandment about the tree, the same thing comes out - that it was extremely easy to fulfill it, and, therefore, to break it, contrary to the clear command of God, is extremely shameful and insane. But what does prohibition mean after this? Why is it not commanded that we eat from this tree? The question is important, and we must consider it with due detail in order to eliminate all wrong opinions regarding this subject. Obviously, the tree is prohibited not because the Lord Himself allegedly had, so to speak, any need for this prohibition, as the serpent-tempter will slander. For what need could there be for the Lord? So that through eating from its fruits Adam and Eve would not receive new perfections and become equal to Him? This is exactly what the serpent will say; but what could be more absurd than this thought? Not to mention the fact that it is completely impossible to achieve not only godlikeness, but also any other spiritual perfection from eating any kind of fruit - what prevented the Lord from creating a tree that was dangerous for Him, if it really was such? or, having created it, should it not be placed in paradise? All this - and entirely - depended on the will of the Creator Himself. Therefore, only the serpent, or, more directly, the devil, could form such an ungodly thought in his mind that the tree was prohibited because the One who Prohibited supposedly had a need and benefit from this prohibition. This is a lie and blasphemy of the serpent! This means that the tree is prohibited for the benefit and needs of our first parents themselves. Which? Was there anything deadly in it? Weren't its fruits poisonous? A similar thought immediately appears as soon as you remember God’s threat to the first parents, that death should follow for them after eating from the tree. In this case, the prohibition itself seems not only correct, but also necessary: ​​for how can one not prohibit eating poisonous fruits? Meanwhile, this thought cannot be accepted, despite its plausibility. For, tell me, what would you think of a father who, having such a poisonous tree in his garden, would use it to test his son’s obedience? Is it not that he is thoughtlessly exposing his son to the greatest danger? For the very prohibition of the tree already directed attention to it, and, consequently, danger approached the person. Let us not think about the Heavenly Father what we cannot assume in a reasonable and good earthly father. The fruit of the forbidden tree produced death in man; but they did not produce it on their own, but because eating from them constituted a crime of God’s will for man - sin would make every tree poisonous to man. One more idea can be drawn regarding the prohibition of the tree - from its very name. Because what is it called? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Is it therefore forbidden because eating its fruits could impart to a person some kind of knowledge that was still premature for him and therefore unhelpful? But regarding this, it is enough to remember that it is not in the nature of a tree to communicate any knowledge, just as it is not in the nature of knowledge to communicate through eating something. Eating and eating are the work of the mouth and belly, but knowledge is the work of the mind and reflection. They will ask: why did the tree get such a name? Most likely, from its consequences for a person, that is, not from the immediate properties and effects of its fruits, but because of what happened in a person after eating them: for our first parents, indeed, then learned from experience what is good and what is evil, they learned the price of that good that was lost through the transgression of God’s commandment, and the power of that evil, which they did not know before and to which they were now subjected. Why is it finally banned? Because it was necessary to prohibit something for a person. Why is it necessary? To test his freedom and to exercise his will in submission to the will of God. What is this for? To finally discover whether a person is capable of standing at the height of honor and dignity to which he had to be elevated by test. Let's explain in more detail. What was man created for and what was he destined for? Is it to be the owner and keeper of the garden planted in Eden on the east side? (Gen. 2:8). If so, then it was not worth adorning the future gardener with such a great and unparalleled distinction as the image and likeness of the Creator Himself. This majestic image required for itself not a garden, but a church; Over time, not only the trees of Eden with their fruits, but all creatures, even all the elements of the earth, with their wonderful diversity, had to bow before him. Carrying the image of God within himself, man had to be like some kind of earthly god. Such a being could not have any other purpose than to be the closest confidant of its Creator, to represent Him visibly and to serve as His organ and deputy for all lower creatures, which, by the nature of their nature and the place they occupy, cannot see their Creator and talk with Him face to face. Such a high purpose had to correspond to man's power and authority over all visible creatures. That we, in affirming this, are led (guided - ed.) not by imagination and guesswork, but by actual truth - proof and guarantee for this are the deeds of holy people, who, being recreated by the grace of Christ, “imagining,” as the Holy Church puts it, “the first kindness,” stopped the sun with a single word, brought the abysses of the sea to dry land, extinguished the flame of fire, resurrected dead. Saint Paul inspires the same thing when, turning to believers, as if on the person of Christ Himself, he cries out: peace, or life, or death, either present or future, your whole essence: you are Christ’s, but Christ is God (1 Cor. 3:22-23). If so, then judge now - was it possible to suddenly raise a newly created person to such a height and give so much power into his hands, without first allowing his ability to do so to be revealed and without bringing him, through testing, to unshakable fidelity in the use of the great powers and advantages that awaited him? Although man was created innocent and by his very nature predisposed to good, but, by his freedom, this highest gift, which forms the basis of all other spiritual perfections and, more than all of them, likens man to God, by his freedom, I say, man could make of himself whatever he wanted: he could remain in an ever-present close union with his Creator, in the voluntary subordination of all his actions to His all-wise and all-holy will; but he could, like a fallen angel, go the opposite way, deviate his will from the will of God, begin to act contrary to the intentions of the Creator. And what would happen in the latter case to the host of creatures subordinate to him? Where would the enemy of God take his dominion with him?.. Therefore, before a person was elevated to the heights of honor and power that awaited him, it was necessary to subject him, like a test, to some kind of preliminary exercise in the use of his freedom. For this, it was necessary to point out to him something contrary to the will of God, so that he could make a choice and show either his complete agreement with it and complete submission to the Creator, or turn out to be disobedient and, therefore, incapable of being entrusted with dominion over the world below. This is indeed what happened (the Lord acted - ed.) with our ancestor. His dominion is limited at first to Eden alone; then all animals were brought before the future ruler of the earth to receive names from him; but we still do not see complete control of everything in the hands of Adam. This should have happened after the end of the experiment, when a person, by observing the commandments of God, would prove that he would be a faithful executor on earth of the statutes of the Heavenly Autocrat. For this purpose, our ancestor was placed in a state where the will of God and his own appeared to him not only in visible and tangible isolation, but even in some kind of opposition, so that in order to obey the will of the Creator he had to forget his own will with its wishes. And this is the source of the commandment given to him: it served man as a test - to reveal his inner strengths and exercise his freedom! As for the subject of the commandment, it could have been taken from anywhere. The truth of God could have demanded from a person endowed with all the gifts the most difficult feat and sacrifice, similar, for example, to that which was once demanded (was - ed.) from Abraham, that is, it could have demanded his very life as a sacrifice to itself: but this has not been done. On the contrary, experience and temptation are reduced to the smallest and most ordinary thing, to a sacrifice, one might say, worth nothing: only one is not ordered to eat from the fruits of one well-known tree. The commandment, however, did not lose any of its importance through this and did not move away from its purpose. The important thing was not whether or not to pick fruit from the tree, but whether to listen or not to listen to the Creator, who forbade it. For the Almighty and All-Containing Being, it was all the same whether a person plucked an apple from a tree, or the sun from the sky. All necessary precautions have not been forgotten. So that Adam, having accepted the commandment, could not be drawn in the opposite direction by some insidious suggestion, or, having stopped in thought on one surface of the object, would not consider the commandment so important and would not suffer from his own frivolity - for this purpose, the terrible consequence that inevitably had to happen from violating the will of God was clearly indicated to him. “When it is day,” it is said, “if you are carried away by it, you will die.” A greater threat and greater warning could not have been made. Thus, guarding the forbidden tree was no longer just gratitude to God, but also fear of death. They will say that Adam, having not yet actually seen death, could not imagine it in the exact form and with the same details with which death appears to us. Let's put it this way; but this could not interfere with the action of the threat, for after such words of God Adam had to imagine that for violating the commandment the greatest disasters would befall him; and our heart is such that the uncertainty of the disaster that threatens us worries and terrifies us even more. And what is most certain is that if the wisdom of God considered it necessary to protect our ancestor from crime by the threat of punishment, then, without a doubt, she made sure that this threat and this punishment were understandable to him, although we cannot now definitely show how this was done. After a terrible threat for a crime, a person had to look at the forbidden tree not only as an object of the special will of God, but also as his own enemy, as his death. The expression of Eve in a conversation with the serpent, where she says that they were supposedly forbidden not only to eat from the fruits, but also to touch this tree - while the latter is not in the words of the commandment - makes it clear that the forbidden tree was more than once the subject of thoughts and conversations between her and her husband, and that as a result of these thoughts and conversations, they formed a decision not only not to take the fruits from this tree into their hands, even if it was out of sheer curiosity, but also not come close to him in order to avoid any temptation. But, alas, what does determination and all our vows mean!.. The serpent will appear with flattering conversation, and the commandment and the Lawgiver will be forgotten; A lustful glance will be cast at the forbidden fruit, and death itself will fade from memory!.. But we’ll see next time how temptation follows, and now let’s say a few more words about the commandment. Do you see its necessity now? It serves to reveal through it the perfection of man and the ability or inability for his high purpose. A person’s stability in this experience would confirm his will in goodness and make him impregnable to new temptations. Do you now see the innocence of the forbidden tree itself? It led to death not because of any poisonousness, but because the person did not keep the commandments; in itself it could and, according to God’s intention, had to serve for life, revealing the perfections of primordial man. If he had resisted the temptation, then, probably, the prohibition from the tree would have been lifted, and it, along with all the trees of paradise, would have been given into his power and use. Thus, in this case, what the apostle said about the law of Moses is absolutely true: the commandment is holy and righteous and good! (Rom. 7:12). Is it good, - let's say in the words of the same apostle, - that I should die? Let it not be: but sin, let sin appear, causing death to those who are good, so that sin may be sinful according to the commandment (Rom. 7:13). It was not the tree, not the commandment that destroyed us, but we ourselves—our freedom, that is, its abuse. Let us imagine that there was neither a commandment nor a forbidden tree: could not a person, even without them, deviate his will from God and become a sinner? In himself, in his mind and conscience, there was no longer one commandment, but the whole law; Each of these commandments could be broken, and breaking each would be accompanied by death. The examples of all sin, external and internal, are death! (Rom. 6:23). To be completely convinced of this and leave forever grumbling about the commandment and the forbidden tree, let us remember the fate of Dennitsa and his fall. Before him, in heaven, there was neither a tree with forbidden fruits, nor a serpent with temptation, but he fell in the most terrible way - deceived by himself. The same could happen to a person. Such is the fate of free beings that they can do whatever they want out of their will. But if we ourselves were left to choose the image of our fall, then it would be much better to fall deceived from the outside, as if reluctantly and being carried away by deception, than as if we had discovered the source of evil in ourselves. Then, perhaps, the same thing would have happened to us (in the latter case - ed.) as happened to the rejected spirits, that is, we would have lost the very ability to be raised from the abyss. Amen. A word on Friday of the 1st week of Lent. About the serpent - the tempter Last time, brothers, we turned our thoughts to the kingdom of plants, among the trees of paradise, for among them was the subject of the commandment given for our testing. Now we must enter the circle of the animal kingdom, for from their host the tempter took an instrument to deceive our ancestors. Thus, in the great experience that the first man had to go through for his improvement, it was given to all kingdoms of nature to participate - each in his own way, as if in proof and visible expression of the fact that in the person of man, as a ruler, the fate of the entire earthly world under his control was decided. Having withstood the test, remaining faithful to the will of his Creator and Benefactor, Adam would not only have confirmed himself in goodness, but would have elevated the kindness and grace of all lower creatures, bringing them through himself to the Source of all perfections - God. Having fallen from the heights of godlikeness into the serpentine abyss of lies and sin, our ancestor not only suffered from the fall and lost many perfections, but, as the head and center of the world below, he upset in himself and with himself the well-being of all its parts and stopped all creatures on the path of the natural desire for perfection for all of them. Therefore, as the holy Apostle Paul notes, since the fall of our first parents, not only have we, their descendants, suffered and suffered, but the whole creation has sighed and suffered for us even to this day (Rom. 8:22). Why is he sighing? because, he answers, that from that time she, too, without the innocence and freedom of the children of God, was subjected to vanity and the work of incorruption. But let us turn to the legend of Moses. The serpent is the wisest of all the beasts that exist on earth, which the Lord God created. And the serpent said to the woman: What did God say: Do not eat from every tree of paradise? (Gen. 3:1). So, our tempter was the serpent - not a feathered one, not some kind of beast, but a reptile, the same one that, as if as a sign of the destruction inflicted on us through it, hitherto, by its very appearance, already produces in each of us an involuntary disgust towards itself. The question arises: how could an animal become an opponent of the commandment of God and an enemy of man? Just as it is incompatible with the nature of a tree to be a source of knowledge and wisdom for man, so it is incompatible with the nature of an animal to become the source and beginning of sin in the world. Sin can appear in its own form only where there is reason and will: since it is nothing more than an abuse of reason and will. And indeed, with the serpent of Eden we see both: he will question and reason, advise and propose, slander and deceive. Not only that, the conversation between the serpent and Eve shows that the speaker is not only intelligent, but also so cunning and experienced that he undertakes to be a mentor for the people themselves, and is so angry that he dares to openly go against the Creator Himself. Is all this appropriate for the serpent as a simple animal? Obviously not; and for this reason alone it must be assumed that in the serpent there was some kind of rational, but evil creature, which in this case wanted to use the animal only as its instrument, to cover with it its true essence and appearance. Moses does not tell us about this because he depicts the temptation as it was - by its visible appearance, so that we could more easily judge whether it was difficult for Eve to resist the seduction of the serpent; but in other places of Scripture this primeval enemy and our destroyer is clearly indicated to us. In the light of these indications, we now know without a doubt that this was the same evil and apostate spirit who, even in heaven, dared to rebel against the Almighty and for this rebellion was cast into the underworld. It is he who now acts in the serpent of Eden and forces it to produce what neither the serpent nor any other animal could ever produce on its own. What prompted this spirit of evil to seek our destruction? Most likely, there is an excess of internal evil in him. Just as it is pleasant for a truly good being to multiply and communicate to others the good that is contained in him, so it is pleasant for an evil being to spread and transmit his anger. In addition, revenge also acted. Unable to wound the most unapproachable face of God and touch the Throne of the Almighty, the archangel, overthrown from heaven and breathing vengeance, attempts to darken and transform (pervert - ed.), at least the precious image of God that shone in the first man, in order to cause grief to the Creator by the destruction of this new confidant and favorite of God. Benefit itself could motivate the devil to destroy a person: for, catching the human race in the net of sin, he thereby multiplied the number of his minions and servants; He even subjugated to his hellish influence everything that would constitute Adam’s future dominion. Each of these reasons and one was enough to move all hell with its ruler against us; and so, the proud Dennitsa, in order to achieve his goal, forgets his arrogance, enters the poor reptile and starts talking with Eve through his lips. Why did he choose the serpent as his instrument, and not any other animal? The answer to this comes from the very words of Moses, with which he describes the serpent-tempter: “The serpent,” he says, “is the wisest of all the beasts that exist on earth.” In fact, the serpent even now surpasses almost all animals in cunning; and before the fall of man, before the curse, which took away part of the perfections from all creatures, especially from the serpent, he could have even greater abilities. For this reason, the serpent itself was more convenient than other animals in order to serve as an instrument for the tempting spirit, which, not daring to appear in its own image, was looking for a creature as an instrument that, when tempting a person, would seem to act on its own, and not by someone else’s suggestion; for in the latter case, the tempted person would immediately become suspicious and would not be so easily deceived. “All this is so,” someone might think, “but why was it necessary to allow such a terrible creature as a rejected spirit to act on a person at such a decisive time, when his fate apparently fluctuated between heaven and evil? Let a person be tempted by one forbidden tree and his own freedom. These two tempters were enough for our weakness.” Therefore, do you see, beloved, how limited this permission is? If the spirit of evil itself appears to tempt us, then it appears as a criminal, bound hand and foot with invisible bonds. It is given to him to act, but not with all the depths of malice and guile: his cunning and intrigues are reduced, belittled, humiliated to the mode of action of a reptile; It is allowed to use only one feature that exceeds the nature of the animal - the word and human language. But this feature, while apparently strengthening the temptation, at the same time could rob him of all reality (reality and effectiveness - ed.), inspiring with its very unnaturalness the suspicion of the tempted person and the fear of danger. Meanwhile, the tempter from the outside was of no use to man in the event of his fall: for, as the direct culprit of the crime, he had to serve (as he did) as a deflection against the thunder arrows of Heavenly Justice, which punished the transgressors of the commandment. The tempter, as we will see, will be the first to accept them on his head, and our ancestors will be left with the lightning, so to speak, already almost extinguished. In any case, by allowing temptation to arise for our first parents from the outside, the terrible possibility of it occurring from within, from their very spirit and heart, was prevented, as it once happened in the tempter himself. Then evil would obviously penetrate deeper into our nature, and healing it from the poison of sin would become, perhaps, completely impossible, or a hundred times more difficult. “But the Omniscient,” someone else will say, “could not help but foresee that man would not resist the temptation of the devil.” No doubt he foresaw; but what of this? Let us imagine that He also foresaw the fall of man without a tempter - from himself; in this case, for that very reason, it was necessary to allow the temptation and fall of man through the tempter, in order to thereby prevent his fall from himself. Just as skilled doctors, foreseeing an internal deadly disease, try to ward it off by creating an external ulcer. Moreover, having foreseen and allowed the fall from the tempter, the Omniscient foresaw at the same time, or, better said, assumed the restoration of us through the Redeemer. In general, we can be completely calm that we were not exposed to danger in Eden in vain, that at the tree of knowledge they did not demand more from us than we could bear. Rather, much less is required: for, having predetermined in the event of our fall to send His Only Begotten Son, to send, moreover, not to visit only us, as Joseph visited his brothers, but to the Cross and death for our sins - the love of the Heavenly Father could not, we dare say so, not think about our fate, that is, think about it not only for the sake of us alone, but also for the sake of his own Son Yours. For the terrible decree for disobedience of the commandment: you will surely die, - as a result of the mystery of redemption, should have fallen not only on us, but also on Him, and on Him even more than on us; for, dying as a Sacrifice for the sins of the entire human race, He died the most blasphemous and most painful death. Now we should begin to consider the very actions of the serpent-tempter; but our conversation has already continued significantly, and this day calls us to something else - to confession and repentance. Do you think, my brothers, that the evil and all-evil tempter will leave us alone and allow our confession and repentance to take place as it should? No, the murderer from time immemorial (John 8:44) fears nothing so much in fallen man as true repentance, and does not try to hinder anything so much as confession, for he knows for sure that this is death to him in us. Therefore, when our conscience impresses upon us the severity of our sins and imagines the wrath of God and eternal punishment, it will speak within us completely opposite: that sin, for example, is a thing of little importance, that the Highest Being has nothing to do with our actions, that God is merciful, that it is too early for us to stop pleasing ourselves and our desires, that now our very circumstances are not especially favorable for us to change our morals and life, that there will be time for this later, both better and more convenient. Beware, my brothers, of such thoughts - these are the slander of the serpent; our ancestors perished from them; we perish from them, and if we do not take decisive measures, then we too will perish forever. Let us not, like our guilty ancestors, run away under the shade of a tree; Let us not hide the wounds of our conscience, the impurities of our hearts, when the Lord, who calls us, calls to us with the voice of a servant of the Church: Adam, where are you? (Gen. 3:9). Let us leave at the threshold of the church all the fig tree girdles, all the pretexts invented by our sin-loving nature to excuse untruths. Let us appear before the Omniscient with all our nakedness and poverty and say: behold, these are my sins! I have no one to blame for them but myself. Despite all the weakness of my nature and all the temptations from the world and the flesh, I feel that with each of them I could stand in purity and truth, if only I wanted to and was protected, as I should, by Your grace. But I, damned one, was careless about my soul and conscience; Not only did he not shy away from evil, he often sought it out himself. And behold, I come to You, Physician of souls and bodies, I come unclean, darkened and wounded, with a sign of rejection in my whole being. I have no right to Your mercy - I am the son of wrath and oath! And if I had to appear before You, as my Creator and Lord, as the Judge and Rewarder, then I am already condemned and deposed by my conscience; I would only have to turn to the mountains and abysses and pray to them: may they hide me from the face of Thy truth and glory! But I see in the middle of the earth signs of salvation for all sinners - the Cross of Your Son! For the Savior of the world, He came to seek and save not the righteous, but sinners like me. I see His hand stretched out from the Cross to everyone - and I am coming! Receive the lost, unclean, defiled, killed by sin and crimes, but repentant, desiring to be clean, healthy and faithful to You, my Lord. Cover my nakedness Yourself, cleanse the filth of my soul and body, disperse the darkness that has surrounded me, remove the bonds of sin that oppress me, touch my heart and transform it from stone into flesh, touch my spirit and renew it with the power of Your grace, establish my weak noses on the stone of Your commandments, protect me with the fear of Your Judgment, yes pardoned, cleansed, sanctified, I will never return to the obstinate path of sin and lawlessness! Amen. Conversation on Wednesday of the 2nd week of Lent (On words from Genesis 3:1–5) And the serpent said to the woman: What did God say: Do not eat from every tree of paradise? And the woman said to the serpent: We will eat from every tree of paradise: but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of paradise, God said, let us not eat from it, but touch it, lest we die. And the serpent said to the woman: You will not die by death: for God knows that if you take away the day from him, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like a god, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:1-5). Alas, how little it took to destroy us! For this is all with which the devil cast our first parents into the abyss! No signs or wonders were used to deceive us, but only a few words were spoken - and we could not resist them! And what are these words? Such that, it seemed, even a youth could defeat them victoriously. In fact, who would believe today that the Creator could, as the serpent slandered, forbid a person something out of envy and fear, so that he would not equal Him in perfection? Everyone is ready to answer such slander with the answer that the All-Good God cannot have envy, and that, on the other hand, a person cannot be a second god: for two gods are impossible. It was equally strange to think that this impossible perfection could be achieved by eating from the fruits of any tree. And here many of us would immediately say that no tree fruit in the world can do this. Meanwhile, our ancestress - although not with these thoughts and promises alone, but also with her own curiosity and the very appearance of the tree - will be moved and carried away, as we see, to the point that, forgetting the commandment of God and the fear of death, she will stretch out her hand to the forbidden fruit! the temptation to which they are subjected? No, to think in this way would mean blaming God’s Providence for bringing a warrior into battle without providing him with sufficient strength or weapons. Even prudent people do not act this way, much less God who is All-Good and All-Wise. If a person is subject to temptation, it is because he could overcome it. Why didn't he win? Because he didn't want to win. Why didn't you want to? Because he had freedom and allowed sensuality to overshadow his reason. With such an eclipse, even today the most intelligent people sometimes become more unreasonable than small children, and do such things about which everyone involuntarily asks: how could such an intelligent person do this strange thing? “But with the very eclipse of reason from sensuality,” you object, “how could one believe such improbabilities as the serpent spoke? Such trust is not consistent with the supposed perfection of the first people." And what, tell me, did this perfection consist of and what did it extend to? - We should not belittle it, but we should not exaggerate it either: both would equally lead us to wrong thoughts. What was the perfection of the first people, if you look at it without exaggeration? – Firstly, that there was no natural deficiency or damage in them; further, that they were equipped with excellent mental and physical abilities; thirdly, that their whole nature was predisposed to good and naturally turned away from all evil; finally, that in their souls, as in their natural church on earth, the grace of God was always present, filling them with a feeling of heavenly contentment and joy. But despite all their purity and good disposition, our forefathers not only were not, like the Angels, confirmed in goodness, but also did not have that moral firmness that God’s holy men have today, who, having learned the evil of sin from experience, turn away from it as from evil already known. From this side, the destructiveness of sin is a hundred times more known even to each of us than it was known to our ancestors. The advantage is bitter and sad for us, but in some respects very important! Not having it (and it was impossible to have it without experience), the first man was therefore more trusting of the most incredible. In a certain sense, what the Apostle Paul remarked about love, that it has faith in everything (1 Cor. 13:7), came true over him, because she herself, always speaking the truth, cannot, without special effort, even imagine that anyone could speak a lie. The holy Apostle Paul had a similar view of the state of Adam in paradise when he wrote to the Corinthians: I fear that lest, as the serpent deceives Eve with his wickedness, your minds will rot away from the simplicity of Christ (2 Cor. 11:3). And in Eden there was this kind of simplicity - good, desired, pure, holy - but not yet having feelings trained by long teaching in the judgment of good and evil (Heb. 5:14), which, therefore, could itself, having undergone experience, turn into spiritual art and rational inflexibility towards evil, but, carried away by sensuality, could also, although without evil intentions, heed the advice of the serpent, forget the commandment and eat from the forbidden tree. They will say: in this case, it would be better to delay the temptation. But how long should we wait? It was impossible to emerge completely from such an indefinite state of simplicity except through experience and temptation; in a hundred, two hundred years it would be the same, until the experiment was made. And the Angels in heaven, if they were confirmed in goodness, then also after a kind of experience, that is, after the indignation of Lucifer, when, having had an opportunity to seduce and be tempted, they overcame and thus moved away forever from that fatal line that, for every free being, separates, so to speak, heaven from hell. After these preliminary remarks, my brothers, it will be clearer how the serpent-tempter allows himself to tell complete lies and present unrealistic things as true, and how our ancestor does not close her ears from them, at the very beginning. Now let us transport our thoughts to Eden and pay attention to the conversation between our ancestress and the tempter. It is clear from everything that this unfortunate conversation took place at the very tree of knowledge, for after the seduced wife decided to break the commandment, it was immediately said: and took ... poison - that is, from that tree that was immediately in front of her and to which she had only to stretch out her hand. This means that Eve, before the conversation with the serpent, approached the dangerous tree by herself. Why and why? Was it because it stood on the way or was very close to the home of the ancestors? The latter is not visible; there is nothing to conclude about the first one either. Therefore, the thought involuntarily comes to mind that this in Eve was almost a consequence of some kind of curiosity, which is generally so characteristic of our nature, and from which many troubles and temptations still arise. So, our foremother is now in front of the forbidden tree!.. And the serpent has been there for a long time; and, perhaps, more than once prepared for an attack, but did not find the opportunity. Now he has appeared, and the evil enemy is using him with all his cunning. And the serpent said to the woman: What did God say: Do not eat from every tree of paradise? In these words there is cunning upon cunning. We are not talking directly about the commandment and the forbidden tree, which is before the eyes of Eve; no, the serpent doesn’t seem to care about this; he only, taking advantage of the chance meeting of Eve, wants to find out about one subject that has long been on his heart and worries him - not for himself, but for Adam and Eve, namely: what would it mean that God forbade them to eat from all the fruits of paradise? It seems there is nothing to feel sorry for these fruits - there are so many of them! and what are they worth to God? It is impossible to consider them harmful - they are so apparently beautiful and good to eat! Thus, there is nothing to punish Adam and Eve for: they have not yet done anything illegal. Meanwhile, their position therefore becomes strange and pitiful even for other creatures. To be in the garden, to be called the Lords of Eden and not dare to raise your hands to pick fruit from the tree!.. There is clearly some kind of secret and intention hidden here: what would all this mean? What did God say: Do not eat from every tree of paradise? Thus, the beginning of the conversation was apparently completely innocent and natural. The serpent is zealous for Adam and Eve as his rulers; thinks that their condition is worse than it is, and asks. Wrong in his assumption; but he makes mistakes, so to speak, from an excess of zeal. After this, how can one not enlighten the erring one and tell him that he is in vain in thinking that God forbade Adam from eating from all the trees of paradise, and that only one tree was subject to such a prohibition? Such admonition was required both by gratitude for diligence and by the very honor of God, so that the serpent would no longer think that God the Creator was too strict and unloving. One thing, apparently, could keep Him from talking with the serpent - this is his ability to speak, which is not characteristic of an animal! Such an unusualness, it would seem, should amaze her and force her to invite her husband, or, at least, first of all answer, to ask the serpent: where did his word come from? But, firstly, what is unusual for us now, perhaps it was not so unusual in Eden; that is, perhaps this was not the first experience that invisible beings put on before a person the image of visible beings, so that it would be all the more convenient to enter into communication with him, as a being, although not alien to their nature, but for a time belonging most of all to the visible and sensory world. And if this phenomenon was unusual, then the unusualness itself, in its turn, could immediately revive curiosity and the desire to enter into the conversation begun by the serpent in order to find out what would happen next. The thought could even be aroused: is not such an extraordinary and sublime state of the serpent a consequence of eating from the forbidden fruit? In this case, it was even more natural to want to continue the conversation with the serpent in order to quickly learn the secret of the treasured tree. And so Eve, without hesitation, answers the tempter: And the woman said to the serpent: We will eat from every tree of paradise: but from the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of paradise, God said, let us not eat from it, but touch it, lest we die (Gen. 3:2-3). These words are still so innocent that the Angel himself could have spoken them. For what does Eve do? He explains the truth, admonishes the ignorant serpent, and protects, although not directly, from the criticism of his Creator and Benefactor. For to say what she was saying now meant the same as saying: in vain, serpent, you worry about us, there is no place for your question at all, God did not give such a strange and strict prohibition as you think. There is only one thing unexpected in Eve’s words: God’s commandment about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil appears in her mouth with an addition that was not in it, namely: God did not forbid touching the tree, as Eve says, but only commanded not to eat from its fruits. Where did these words come from Eve? We will not be mistaken if we say, following the teachers of the Church, that they arose in it from the fear of death in the heart, and this fear came from a secret inclination towards the forbidden tree. Not a reprehensible feeling and fear (if there are any - ed.) the Lord would give us, so that we, even out of fear, remain faithful to the commandments of the Lord! - but in the heart of Eve one could expect another dominant feeling, higher and better, that is, love and respect for her Creator and Benefactor. Therefore, with these few additional words, the secret of her mental state was almost revealed, involuntarily and unnoticed by Eve herself. The serpent immediately noticed that what kept our foremother in obedience to God was the fear of death, and he immediately rushed with all his might towards this fence, so that, having refuted it, he could take possession of the gullible wife. And the serpent said to the woman: You will not die by death: for God knows that if you take away the day from him, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like a god, knowing good and evil (Gen. 3:4-5). To speak in such a language meant to throw off all the disguises, for whoever speaks in this way clearly shows himself not to be what he seemed to be before, not a being who knew little about the matter and therefore asked questions, but such an omniscient person who knows the whole secret of the tree and the commandments more than Adam and Eve themselves, who was, as it were, in the council of God Himself and knows the true reason why He forbade Adam from eating from these fruits. And what is this reason? Not regret for him because of any danger for him from the fruits of the tree (they, on the contrary, have a wonderful property - to open the eyes of those who eat and make them godlike!), but fear and envy, so that Adam, eating such wonderful food, would not learn everything and compare with his Creator. That is, just as in the previous words of the serpent there was cunning on cunning, just to plausibly start a conversation with Eve, so in the present words there was slander upon slander, in order to directly tempt her to partake of forbidden fruits: only both there and here everything continues to breathe with imaginary goodwill towards man and zeal for raising his well-being. And you believe this! - as if the serpent were speaking - do you think that the tree is forbidden because of the danger of death? how simple and short-sighted you are! die from these fruits? on the contrary, whoever eats them has his eyes opened, and he becomes like God, receiving a rare and wonderful ability - to know good and evil. God knew this, and this is the reason for the prohibition - He does not want you to compare with Him! ...judge after this whether it is worth keeping such a commandment and depriving yourself - arbitrarily - of such perfection? “My God,” someone will exclaim at this, “could this lie and slander be listened to indifferently? And the wife did not turn away her ears? Didn't strike the serpent? Didn't you immediately return to your husband? Where is the love for the Creator and Benefactor? Where is the faith in His word? Where is the shame and conscience? Where is the greatest fear of death? Obviously, this saving fear was no longer in the soul, this last anchor among the storm of thoughts that had risen in the soul. Where did he go? He disappeared among the waves of doubt, aroused by the words of the tempter, which, like a dark cloud, immediately embraced the entire soul, not allowing him to see anything behind him except the fatal tree. From each of the serpent’s words, many thoughts were born, each darker than the other, and each one obscured the bright face of the Heavenly Father in the soul. So this is the secret of the commandment, thought our already bowed, but not yet completely fallen, foremother. -Which of us could get into this? This means that the means to be like a god has long been in front of us, in our hands; and we, out of ignorance, do not use this precious remedy! Other beings, even serpents, feel sorry for us; Only we alone do not know our condition! What would we be like now if we weren’t so simple! If the tempter, having uttered terrible words, at the same time forced the serpent to eat from the fruits of this tree, then this could even more have disposed Eve to the thought that the serpent was absolutely right, which was said in vain by God, supposedly death follows after eating from it; it is more likely, on the contrary, that the tree contains a wonderful ability to impart knowledge, for the serpent who eats from it not only remains alive, but therefore also possesses special wisdom. It was to be expected during the course of the conversation that our foremother would say something in response to these last words of the serpent, would reflect them with something for the time being, or would want evidence of his slander; if they acted decisively on her, she will immediately take the fruit and taste it. And yet there was neither one nor the other. Eve does not say anything to the serpent - a sign that his words did not find a contradiction in her; does not immediately eat from the forbidden fruit - a sign that she was still in a state of indecision. A state of mind similar to that when a ship’s rigging is torn off by a sudden storm, water penetrates into it from all sides, but the helm is still in the hands of the helmsman; All you have to do is not lose heart, redouble your efforts, take measures against the cracks in the ship, wait out the dangerous moment - and sinking will be avoided. How this precious opportunity for salvation will remain without action, how our destruction and the triumph of the enemy will be completed, we will see later. Now let us draw a lesson from what we have seen for our edification. Do you see where the danger began? From the same place with which dangerous storms begin on the sea during a summer afternoon. Among the clear sky, a small, dark dot appears in the distance. Experienced sailors, noticing this, immediately give the ship a direction different from where it is heading. Otherwise, in a few minutes this point will grow into a huge cloud, run towards the ship and can crush it. So it is here. The half-light question of the serpent appeared on Eve’s bright soul: what did God say? The question itself, as we have seen, is still innocent; but look how it soon grew into a dark cloud of doubt! The most seemingly innocent questions and perplexities regarding faith are so dangerous! You will begin with a seemingly well-intentioned test, and end with an obvious blasphemy against Providence; for the path of doubt is like descending from a steep mountain: the first steps are smooth and quiet, but the subsequent steps involuntarily accelerate on their own to the point that you would like to stop, but you cannot. The path of doubt is especially dangerous for the inexperienced, as our foremother was. But instead of inexperience, Eve was protected from danger by innocence and purity of soul, which we do not have. An unclean soul, on the contrary, in this respect should be likened to a church in which many different flammable substances are scattered in all corners; therefore, one fallen spark of any doubt immediately spreads fire throughout the soul. In this case, where do questions and confusion come from? The soul becomes like a fire-breathing mountain, from which smoke and flame, water and stones fly out, under which in a few minutes what we have worked on for many years is buried irrevocably. “Well,” someone will think, “is it really not necessary to reflect on the commandments of God?” No, we are not saying this, but we only want to inspire that the best way to recognize the dignity and benefit of these commandments is not by inquisitive reflection on their reason and purpose, but by faithful and constant fulfillment of what is commanded. What would an experienced doctor tell you, who prescribed a medicine for your illness, if you began to doubt and philosophize about it? Take, he would say, the medicine as prescribed, and then judge by its effects. A person similar to us, who can make a hundred mistakes, has the right to demand this from us; How much more does God, who is omniscient and truthful in all his words, have the right to do this. Why think too much about what God Himself has reasoned about before us and for us? You need to take the medicine, and not philosophize about it. Therefore, simple souls cannot do anything better in relation to the objects of faith than, blocking their ears forever from all disputes and objections, limit themselves to the simple fulfillment of the commandments of God and the statutes of the Holy Church. For this purpose, perhaps, it will not be useless to tell you the story of one simple, but kind and firm Christian, whom the evil spirit wanted to lead to doubt about his faith. “What do you think,” he asked, “about such and such a dogma?” “The same,” he answered, “as the Holy Church thinks.” What does the Church think? – the tempter continued. - Just like me. - And you? – Just like the Church. All further similar questions received the same previous answer; and the devil, finding no place to be wounded, walked away disgraced. Here is an example of how ordinary people should protect themselves from temptations in the faith! Those of us who, by the very title, or the quality of our mind, or other circumstances, are forced to investigate the truths of faith in their basis and mutual connection, let them do this important work with reverence and fear, remembering that they had to walk a dangerous and slippery path: let them never lose sight of the ill-fated example of our ancestor, let them not forget that all the disasters from which we suffer began with the most apparently innocent question: what does God say? It is not our lot on earth to know everything: even the Angels in heaven do not know everything. The Son of God Himself, being in the days of His flesh (Heb. 5:7), said about Himself that He does not know when the last day of the world will come (Mark 13:32). Should we encroach on omniscience? The time will come, the bonds of the flesh will fall away, the veil of sensuality will be taken away, then we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2), and we will know Him as He was known (1 Cor. 13:12). Amen. Conversation on Friday of the 2nd week of Lent. To the words: And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to see with the eye, and that it was good to eat, which you knew (Gen. 3:6) Between our ancestress’s inclination to fall and the Fall itself, there was, as we saw last time, a moment of bewilderment and indecision. And having heeded the serpent, we did not suddenly stretch out our hand to the forbidden fruit. What exactly was in Eve’s soul at that moment? - God alone knows. But, obviously, it was not what it should be; It’s obvious that we didn’t know how to use this precious minute to our advantage. What should we do in the midst of the darkness of the serpent’s slander and suspicions that has surrounded us? It was necessary to turn our gaze away from the serpent and the tree, to direct their grief to God, and in His perfections and benefits we should seek peace for a heart troubled by doubts. Thus, everything needed to extinguish the kindled arrows of Satan would be found without difficulty. For is it possible for the All-Perfect Creator to envy his creation in anything? So that the All-Good One would forbid the fruits of the tree because eating from them could put a person at the highest degree of perfection? Was it not His will not to call us into the light from nothingness? What could we add by our being to His boundless perfections? But He loved us, who did not yet exist, took us out of non-existence and adorned us - not only with our mind and will, but also with His very image; made them lords of paradise and all the earth and destined them for dominion over other creatures. Is this envy and ill will? - And you, damned tempter, what good have you done for us? How did he prove the truth of his imaginary zeal? Is it because you are now slandering God and want to destroy us, treacherous one? But your malice and deceit will not go unpunished. Whoever you are - a simple serpent, or worse than a serpent, we will announce you to the Almighty, and we will pray that you never appear among our peaceful dwelling. Then - before His Face - repeat, if you can, your terrible slander; but we are the servants of the Lord and believe His word more than our own eyes. Such thoughts could dispel all bewilderment and save our ill-fated foremother from creeping into sin. But these thoughts remained unused. Why? Because the mind of tempted Eve turned in a completely different direction. For the same thing happens to our soul as to our body: where you turn your thoughts, that’s what you see; and what is behind you, no matter how close it is, is as if it does not exist for you. This same thing followed with Eve: she turned her thoughts away from God, without, however, any intention to transgress His commandment, and turned her whole mind to the forbidden tree, also without a specific intention to taste its fruits, but only as if seeking in it either confirmation or refutation of what the serpent said about it. Although this was already extremely dangerous, it still would not have been a complete disaster if Eve could have looked at the tree simply, not preoccupied with the thoughts of the serpent, without a secret predisposition to find in it what the tempter promised from it. For what was there in the tree itself that it was impossible to look at it without at the same time deciding to partake of its fruits? It is impossible to assume any special perfection in comparison with other trees of paradise, much less in comparison with the tree of life, as we saw before. Therefore, it was completely safe for someone whose eye was clear and not darkened by sensual lust to look at it. But we no longer had such purity of view and freedom from feelings. The ill-fated wife, without knowing it, will look at the tree through the glass that the tempter placed in front of her. Therefore, she will see in the tree and its fruits something that has never been seen before and will never be seen again. And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eye, and that it was good to eat, even to understand (Gen. 3:6). So much news and discoveries all of a sudden! What the Apostle sees in the whole world, saying that everything in the world is carnal lust and human lust and worldly pride (1 John 2:16), Eve now finds in one poor tree. Why? Because he looks at him, as we said, through the magnifying glass of his own sensual lust - such a glass, moreover, which is tinted with the breath of the serpent. All this, as St. John Chrysostom notes, serves as proof that the wife, having accepted this disastrous advice of the serpents, “also made her best efforts,” that is, that she did not immediately move away from the tree, but still diligently examined it from all sides. This is generally the path of temptation: at first it is wide and there are many exits from it in different directions; then it becomes narrower and there are fewer exits; finally, it forms over a person, as it were, a vault with walls, so that one inevitably has to walk, albeit bent over, further. Eve reached the final limit all the more quickly as the thought in her was more alive, and the desires, as if still unspoiled, were faster. And the wife saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to see with the eyes and eat it, as you understand. There is no longer a serpent here, but instead the temptation of one’s own lust continues. The serpent said: You will not die by death; lust continues: the tree is not only not deadly, but also good food. The serpent asserted: if you take away the day from him, your eyes will be opened; lust adds: you really want to see something. The serpent promised: and you will be like a god, knowing good and evil; lust confirms and, as it were, already sees the same thing in reality: and it is red, mind you! There are so many new temptations and reasons for sin! Why? All because the foremother fixed her gaze in the wrong place: not to God, to heaven, but to earth, to a tree. If, as we previously noticed, she had immediately moved away from the dangerous place, then nothing of the kind would have happened. It is not for nothing that one of the prophets calls our feelings the windows through which death enters the soul. Now it is death that will enter them. Saint Job knew this well when he considered it necessary to make a covenant with his eyes, so as not to look at what was forbidden. Eve did not make this covenant and thereby unspeakably strengthened the temptation for herself. But will Eve really decide to finish such an important task without her husband? And he can still correct him, bring reason to the frivolous one, hold back the half-bent. Vain hope! The serpent does not wait, lust now demands satisfaction, the tree itself seems to bow down with its fruits. Is there any time to hesitate? to test it now, to please the surprise of your spouse, to assimilate for yourself the honor of a discovery so important: and take from the fruit of the poison tree! Yade... An expression showing the completeness of the action; that is, she didn’t just taste, she tasted, but she ate what she took from the tree. We do not know for certain what kind of fruit it was; but it is clear that eating it did not last one moment, but for some time, perhaps for a considerable time, if the fruit was considerable. This was to be expected both from curiosity and from sensual lust, which were now operating in Eve. Will we blame and condemn our foremother for all this? But in order to have even a slight right to this, we must first prove that we would have acted better in her place. And which of us is able to say this? Alas, we already know all the poisonousness of sin, and yet we do not cease to be carried away by it! For although we no longer live in Eden, and the primeval tree of life is not before us, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is still numerous throughout the world. With each of them, the ancient commandment is heard: if you take a day from him... you will die! But how many of us are kept from sin by this dire warning? Our ancestor only once stretched out her hand to the forbidden fruit, but we stretch it out a hundred times - throughout our entire life. The very calamities of our sins cannot keep us from them. They often see that they are acting extremely badly; they feel, one might say, death and destruction within themselves from the forbidden fruit - and, despite this, they continue to repeat the same sin, as if not believing their own wounds. Let us not be so impudent and reckless as to madly murmur against our ancestress, remembering that we ourselves constantly repeat the same thing. Let's take a better look at how we should behave in the midst of temptations so as not to fall into the enemy's snare. For this purpose, let us leave Eden and go into the Jordan desert; for what we lost in the paradise of sweetness was again found for us in the place of tears and sighs. We want to point you, brothers, to the example of our Lord and Savior and His victory over the tempter during His fourty-day fast in the desert. The temptation of the Savior and the temptation of our first parents are obviously (obviously - ed.) in close connection with each other. The second Adam was tempted, no doubt, not for Himself, but to reward the crime of the first Adam; therefore, the very form of His temptation is very similar to the one from which Eve now fell, with the only difference that the enemy appeared before the Savior no longer in the form of a serpent, as he tempted us, but in his own person. Despite the fact that for Eve it was concentrated in the fruits of one tree, the devil for the Redeemer divided it, so to speak, into three methods, so that if one did not work, he could use another with success. If you are the Son of God, whose faces are made of stone, let there be bread (Luke 4:3; cf. Matt. 4:3), - this is the first temptation! You can judge how good the bread made from stones must have seemed to be as food after fasting for fourty days! And place Him on the church wing, and say to Him: If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down below! (Matthew 4:5–6; cn.: Luke 4:9). Here is the second temptation, no less attractive to ordinary human pride. For to what surprise all Jerusalem would have come to see Jesus, cast down harmlessly from such a height from which it was scary to even look down! Truly, this too was red, if you mean by experience. And showing Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and saying to Him: All these I will give to You, if you fall down in worship (Matthew 4:8-9; cn.: Luke 4:5-7), - here is the third temptation, just as strong, for for Him who throughout His life had no place to bow His head, it should have been very pleasing to see the whole world, with all its blessings and beauties, subject to His power! What is our Redeemer? He does not, like Eve, have many thoughts, but only one unchanging thought about the holy will and glory of the Heavenly Father. When the tempter wants to draw His attention to objects below, He every time turns to this mountain, to the Father, and from His bright face takes an answer to the enemy. To the proposal about bread, He answers: man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). When asked to throw himself down, he says: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God (Matthew 4:7). The offer of the kingdoms of the world, with submission to the enemy for dominion over them, is reflected in the words: Worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone (Matt. 4:10). And all the answers are concluded in a commanding voice: Follow Me, Satan! (Luke 4:8). But Eve let him go before her as a leader and leader, followed him frivolously, and died. But along with this firmness and this greatness of the Savior, look what deep humility is in Him! He does not say anything to the devil on His own behalf, but borrows everything from the word of God, thus striking him with a sword not made by hands: for it is written... for it is written... turning us by His example from the arrogance with which our foremother entered into a conversation with the tempter, and giving us an example of humility, with which our proud adversary is most likely to be defeated. Therefore, it is very useful for us to have in our memory a stock of sayings from the Holy Scriptures, so that in case of temptation we can immediately use them to repel the arrows of the enemy. And whoever cannot do this, in this case, at least do this: first of all, direct your thoughts to God and ask for help, for on our own, like a reed shaken by the wind, we can easily get carried away and fall without help from above. Secondly, if you can, close your eyes and run away from the object and place of temptation. For even if Eve had immediately departed from the tree and the serpent, she would not have eaten the fruit. And when it is impossible to withdraw externally, then at least try to be further internally, that is, do not, like Eve, turn your gaze and thoughts to the subject of temptation; try not to see or know him, otherwise in a moment of temptation he may seem a hundred times more attractive to you than he really is. When we watch over ourselves in this way and fight the enemy with whatever we can, fight and call on the Lord for help, then it cannot be that we will be left unheard: for the Lord, as the word of God assures, never allows us to be tempted more than we can bear. Amen. Conversation on Wednesday of the 3rd week of Lent. To the words: And she (Eve) took the poison from its fruit, and gave it to her husband with her, and ate it (Gen. 3:6) The transgression of God’s commandment by our ancestor was already extremely important and detrimental for us; but the matter of our fall was not yet over. In the person of Eve, only one half of the human race fell, and the weakest one at that. Adam had not yet participated in the transgression of the commandment. One could hope that he, as a husband and head, would resist temptation. But, alas, this very hope was already such that one almost had to fear that it would not be fulfilled. For how much joy would there have been if Adam had not fallen when Eve had already sinned? Those who were so inextricably linked in a state of innocence and bliss found it difficult to separate in punishment for it. The mutual union of the first parents was so inseparable and deep at its foundation that what happened in one could not but be reflected at the same time in the other, so that together with Eve, one might say, Adam had already fallen. This, and nothing else, explains the speed and, so to speak, unquestioningness with which, according to Moses’ description, our ancestor falls. Eve, at least, talks with the serpent, examines the forbidden tree, is perplexed, struggles with her own thoughts, and then stretches out her hand to the fruit; in Adam we see nothing like this: he is given fruit, he takes it as usual and eats it; that is, things happen as if they could no longer be otherwise. And give it to your husband... and poison. However, one should not think that all this happened completely silently: for otherwise Adam would not have known what kind of fruit was being served, therefore, by eating it, he would not have been guilty of breaking the commandment. Eve told, of course, about her meeting and conversation with the serpent, how the latter revealed to her the imaginary secret of the forbidden tree, how the very sight of its fruit affected her, and that eating from them not only does not contain anything harmful, but is also associated with pleasure. And all this necessarily leads us to assume that after eating the fatal fruit, nothing obviously bad, much less painful, actually happened in Eve for the first time, otherwise how could she have decided to bring with her own hands to her husband the poison that was tormenting her insides? In the latter case, she would rather have turned her husband away from eating the disastrous fruits, even if he, out of love for her, wanted to share her sad fate. From this imaginary harmlessness of the forbidden fruits a new and strong temptation should have arisen for Adam. Seeing his wife, and after eating from them, surviving, without any particular visible change for the worse, he could easily think that if the serpent’s promise of extraordinary actions from these fruits was exaggerated, then the threat of death for him was also disproportionate to the truth; that the tree, if not divine, as the serpent assured, is also non-lethal, as declared in the commandment of God. On the other hand, if any doubts remained in Adam’s soul, if reasons were ready to object to Eve’s words, and it seemed convenient to show that she was in error, then it was already too late to heal evil; the matter is done irrevocably; the fruit is plucked and eaten by Eve; All that remains is either to leave the fallen one to herself, or to share with her the severity of the Fall. Love for God could not resist love for his wife: and Adam chose the latter!.. And give it to your husband... and poison. This means that Eve again ate from the forbidden fruit and thus violated God’s commandment, as it were, twice. Wherever this came from - whether from her own inclination towards forbidden fruits, or from the desire to set an example for her husband - in any case, her guilt was aggravated by this, and this, as we will see, will entail severe punishment. But if Eve is more guilty in that she was the first to open her heart to the tempter, the first to eat from the forbidden tree, and she had already enticed her husband by her example, having again tasted his fruits before him, then Adam, in turn, is more guilty than his wife in that, as the head of his wife, supposed to be her leader, he was frivolously carried away by her proposal and almost without any reflection violated the commandment that he directly received from God himself. In this, of course, reason, the Apostle Paul calls one Eve deceived (1 Tim. 2:14) and one Adam a transgressor of the commandment (Rom. 5:12, 14, 19). Let us now take a look at the very act of our forefathers. In appearance, it does not seem so important. For what could be simpler than picking some fruit from a tree and eating it? “But when you delve into the essence of this act, it immediately seems extremely important. Why? Because, firstly, in this case the will and commandment of not some person, not an Angel or Archangel, but the highest and omnipotent Being, our Creator and Benefactor, was violated; because, secondly, this act revealed many bad thoughts and feelings in our ancestors, and generally showed that a terrible transformation had occurred in their godlike nature. Indeed, find a crime that does not consist, openly or secretly, in this unfortunate taste. Disbelief? Here they did not believe the clear and decisive word of their Creator and Benefactor and, contrary to His commandment, relied on the slander of such an insignificant creature as the serpent. Pride? Here they prostrated themselves in it to the point that they decided to compare themselves with God Himself. Covetousness? Here they were not satisfied with Eden and dominion over the whole earth, and did not want to give God a single tree. Carnal knowledge and intemperance? It was they who destroyed us most of all; for the tree first of all seemed good for food. Hatred and anger? But do they love Him whose commandment they violate so madly, and from Whom they want to take away, if it were possible, the very dominion? Thus, there is no sin that, openly or secretly, was not contained in the first sin of our first parents. If ever, then in this case the words of the Apostle had all the force: Whoever... sins in one, will be guilty of all (James 2:10). We must not forget that man, eating from the fruit of the forbidden, apparently decided not only to insult his Creator, but also to his own destruction, for he was directly and clearly told: if you eat one day from it... you will die. After this, stretching out your hand to the fruit meant the same as stretching it out to your death. And all this did not deter us! And we decided on all this! And we did all this!.. O sun, why didn’t you fade at that moment before our foremother, to show her the danger? Earth! Why didn’t you tremble under her feet when she stretched out her hand? Trees of paradise! Why didn’t you bow down to the ground and hold it? Tree of knowledge, why didn’t you yourself discover the secret that was hidden in you? But what could an unreasonable creature, subject to the law of necessity, do when its ruler, endowed with reason, abused his freedom? It will be her duty to share with us the unfortunate consequences of our fall; It was not her business to control our freedom and stop its effects. The Creator Himself did not want to do this. For having once given man freedom, having, so to speak, renounced all compulsory omnipotence in relation to it, He will never take His gift back. It is a great thing, my brothers, to be a free being! This in a sense means - to be like God!.. For, by freedom, every person, the poorest and the last, can do every minute what in all eternity the entire totality of irrational beings, with all the enormity of their powers and the diversity of properties, is never able to do - because these beings, being irrational, are all subject to the law of necessity and cannot deviate from the path along which they are commanded to go. A person, on the contrary, can change his thoughts and actions every minute, rush to high and low, to right and wrong, follow truth or lie, choose good or evil. Thus, although, like other creatures, he was created out of nothing by the omnipotence of God, at the same time he himself, through the use of his abilities and powers, can and should be, as it were, the creator of his own destiny. Let us recognize, my brothers, our own advantage, through reverence for the greatness of the gift that adorns us, and let us stop squandering the treasure of freedom recklessly. For this is a gift as dangerous as it is great. We can do whatever we want at any moment, in freedom; but we cannot return anything we have done. Each of our actions remains not one, but will produce an infinite series of actions according to its type. Every good action of ours throughout all eternity will produce a series of good actions; and evil - the evil and unfortunate. Therefore, whatever action you decide to take, man, remember that you are deciding on something that will last forever. By acting frivolously, in this life we ​​are already often severely punished for our frivolity: we would sometimes be happy to give everything in order to return a different action, but it is impossible. In eternity, where we must go through death, we will suffer from this a hundred times more, for our gaze on the evil of our past falls will become incomparably clearer, and the feeling of disgust for them will be more vivid. Let us see how our sins, like ourselves, do not die, but live in their evil consequences; and yet we will not be able to do anything to destroy them. Therefore, out of pity for ourselves, let us, my brothers, use our free will with extreme caution in everything; Moreover, let us try to avoid not only crimes of great magnitude, but also small violations of the law of God, remembering that the first sin, which destroyed us all and everything around us, consisted, in appearance, not in extinguishing the sun or moon in the sky, but in plucking from a tree and eating a forbidden fruit. Amen. Conversation on Friday of the 3rd week of Lent. To the words: And the eyes of both were opened, and they understood, because the Nazis were besha: and they sewed together the fig leaves, and made girdles for themselves (Genesis 3:7) What is this? Wasn't the serpent really telling the truth? For this, what the Lord threatened, apparently did not come true for our first parents; and what the serpent promised comes to pass. The Lord said: if you destroy the day... you will die, but Eve and Adam are alive! The serpent promised: when the day is over... your eyes will be opened - and behold, they really were opened! And both eyes opened. Judge, therefore, how cunningly the temptation was invented, when, even after the fall of those tempted, it is still, as it were, justified by experience... But, my brothers, if when and where, then in this case one should not stop at the surface of things, but must penetrate into their depth and essence. The words of the tempter apparently came true over the first parents; but in what form? Is it as he promised? Quite the opposite. The serpent promised, along with the opening of man’s eyes, Divine knowledge: your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil. And now what does man see with these newly opened eyes? He sees only his nakedness and poverty, that is, he sees what it would be better never to see, and which our ancestors, indeed, did not see before, because they were not the same as they are now. And the eyes of both were opened, and they understood, as if the Nazis were besha. Still, however, in this case, would you say, the same words are used about Adam and Eve that were used by the serpent? Exactly, the same words are used. But in what sense? not in the way they were used by the tempter, but in another, opposite way. The Holy Scriptures have the custom of calling the opening of a person’s eyes that state when he sees and notices something that has been with him for a long time, only he did not see or notice it, just as we say: then my eyes were opened, that is, I saw something that I had not seen or suspected before, although I could see. We especially use a similar expression in the case of open deception or cunning, previously unnoticed - a danger, previously unforeseen, into which we have been led by someone. In this sense, it is now said about the first parents that, after their fall, their eyes were opened; that is, they now saw where the serpent had led them, felt and noticed that a change as extraordinary as the unfortunate one had happened to them, that although they were apparently the same as before, but in reality they were far from the same, but much worse, that they were naked: and they became wiser, as if they were besha... It is noteworthy, however, that such an opening of the eyes and a feeling of nakedness did not occur immediately after eating from the fruit forbidden by Eve alone, as one should have expected, but now, when Adam had already tasted of this fruit. Why not?.. Because, of course, this required a complete awakening of conscience; but she could not suddenly awaken with the proper strength in her soul, occupied with the pleasure of fulfilling her passionate desires. Eve, as we saw, being in front of the tree, carried away by the flattering promises of the tempter, all, one might say, turned into sensual lust, which even now, as experience shows, with its power darkens the gaze not only of the mind, but even of the body. In such a state of mind, it was inconvenient to soon begin to act with force. In Adam it is the opposite: he was not at the tree, did not suffer such an inflammation of the soul from the desire for its fruits, was not directly charmed by the serpent’s conversation; For this reason, conscience arises in him more quickly after breaking a commandment. Meanwhile, our foremother had now had enough time to get out of her mental confusion and return to the ordinary order of thoughts and feelings. In such a state, conscience was not slow in accepting its rights over both; and with the excitement of conscience, both eyes immediately opened, and they began to understand, as if the Nazis were besha. So, the first consequence of sin in our ancestors, which they noticed, was a feeling of nakedness - not any kind of mental or physical pain, but nakedness. If we decompose this feeling into its component parts, then it gives rise to two sensations: one - bodily - a feeling of dependence on external elements, the other - mental - a feeling within oneself of shame and embarrassment. That in the feeling of real external nakedness, internal shame now participated, or rather dominated, is evident from what Moses said about the former state of the first parents before their sin: And the demons were both naked... and were not ashamed (Gen. 2:25). This means that now they were ashamed when they no longer wanted to see their nakedness. And that, in addition to shame, the need for protection from the elements was now felt along with him, this will be shown by the clothing in which the Lord will clothe sinners: for, as we will see, it will not be any other, but leather, that is, capable of protection from changes in the air. Otherwise, it would be too heavy (if, that is, it was intended to protect only from one’s own shame). But why such a great change in our first parents, that they, not previously knowing their nakedness, now not only knew it, but also began to look for a way to hide it? Obviously - from sin. How and by what means did sin produce nakedness? By depriving a person of the presence in him of the grace of God, which, penetrating and filling his entire being, made him inviolable and elevated him above everything below him. Now, after the transgression of God’s will, this Divine power and heavenly vestment are no longer in man: he is left, so to speak, alone, with himself, and therefore insufficient and naked. This unnatural and deplorable loneliness was bound to make an extraordinary difference in his situation. But along with the deprivation of grace through sin, another, no less evil occurred in man - the unity and order in his abilities disappeared: the body ceased to obey the soul, the will deviated from conscience, desires contradicted the mind; What happened to a person’s entire being was what now happens to our body during the so-called disease of relaxation, or bodily numbness. With such a dismemberment of his nature and numbness of his powers, man lost even the power that he had within himself by his very nature, high and godlike. since his attitude towards the external world and things depended on his own attitude towards God and himself, then with the transformation of the latter attitude, the attitude towards him and the entire external world immediately changed, of necessity. Remaining in their primitive, so to speak, innocence and good mood, all other creatures and things involuntarily and inevitably turned out to be disgusting and hostile to man after he became criminal and therefore upset and powerless. From here, many unpleasant phenomena should have occurred in man, which were primarily expressed in him by shame and a feeling of nakedness, that is, lack and powerlessness: he became sane, like a fool. Naked from the grace of God, which invisibly enveloped our first parents, and now has moved away from them, just as light moves away from the earth when a dark body becomes between it and the sun; naked from their innocence and purity, which also served as a cover for them, and were now lost; naked from dominion over the elements and the visible world, which was already beginning to become hostile to their bodily existence. This new sorrowful feeling of deprivation and nakedness was so strong that the ill-fated ancestors immediately began to look for means, if not to get rid of it completely, then to reduce its strength by some kind of covering for their bodies. And sew... yourself some girdles. Not the whole garment, which was suddenly inconvenient to put together, but just a girdle, for which the leaves of the same trees of paradise could serve as the substance. Such clothing satisfied, at least, what, with a sense of bodily nakedness, seemed most in need of cover. The godlike ruler of the earth suddenly reached such poverty and degradation! Looking mentally at Adam and Eve, how they hastily tear up the leaves of the tree and, with their hands still inexperienced in this matter, create girdles for themselves, embarrassed, one cannot help but sigh bitterly and weep over their ill-fated lot: for this small girdle fully expressed the entire depth of their fall. Meanwhile, do you see, my brothers, where all our clothes come from? This is a consequence of our uncleanness and transgression of the will of God! This is the fruit of our blind obedience to the serpent and insane enmity with God. This is the constant mourning since then for our primitive state of innocence and bliss! And we, foolish ones, forgetting all this, allow ourselves to be vain in clothes; have turned into an object of distinction and pride what should serve as a constant reproach for us! Ah, isn’t it the same thing to be distinguished by a multitude of clothes as to be proud of the many signs of our slavery, our infirmities, our fall? The ancestors, later putting on clothes, no doubt, each time remembered with a sigh about that blissful state when they were naked and not ashamed. This is what we all should do. When you put on clothes in the morning, bring to mind our first sin, which made them necessary for you. When you put away the same clothes in the evening, carry your thoughts towards the future resurrection from the dead, when again there will be no need for any clothing. From this purely constant memory, your unfortunate desire for reckless flaunting of dress will surely diminish, if not disappear completely: you will use it as a sad necessity, and you will stop looking for differences in what should serve as shame and reproach for all of us. Let us now look at the other side of our subject. The promise of the tempter, as we have seen, did not come true in the slightest, but the opposite followed; but apparently God’s threat also did not come true, for it was said: if you take one day from him... you will die; and our ancestors, although they were subjected to a feeling of nakedness, although they fell into an obviously worse state, they remained, however, alive and did not die. They will even remain on earth ten times longer than how long the longest living of us, their descendants, live now. What does all this mean, and how can it be reconciled with the truth? It is not at all difficult if you once again delve into the word of God and the matter itself. It is not without reason, of course, that God’s threat says not just “you will die” or “lose your life,” but: you will die by death, which will indicate some kind of abundance, variety and duration of death. Our ancestors, in accordance with the multi-part composition of human nature, actually had to undergo for their crime not one, but many deaths, of which one followed the other and seemed to emerge from the previous one, until everything ended in the grave and corruption. Thus, the human spirit had its own death, the soul had its own, the body, finally, also had its own, but each part, in accordance with its significance in the composition of man, was faced with death in a special form, and not at the same time, but sequentially and successively. Therefore, spiritual death, the most important and terrible of deaths, for from it all the others already came, followed immediately after the crime, not only on the same day, but at the same instant: for the sinner man, having transgressed the commandment of God, then died in the spirit for life in God, lost grace and with it the highest principle of his activity, stopped breathing the Spirit of God, lost true bliss and eternal life. Death in the human soul was also not slow to show its terrible face in that all mental faculties were separated, transformed, weakened and seemed to freeze: darkness and ignorance appeared in the mind and concepts, hesitation and incorrectness in judgments, ugliness and disorder in the imagination, oblivion and confusion of concepts in memory, fear and discontent in feelings, impurity and corruption in wishes. The human body, like the coarsest part of his being, less apparently revealed its corruption and mortality, but immediately, however, it revealed by the fact that it required clothing for protection - a sign that some kind of hostile and destructive force had already begun to operate over it. Thus, the entire person - from spirit to body, from the highest powers and abilities to the lowest - was subjected to the dominion of death, in accordance with the threat of God, immediately after his crime; only this dominion, by its very vastness, was not revealed everywhere and in everything suddenly, but gradually. To further understand this truth, let us imagine that someone was threatened with an immediate fire of his house for a well-known crime, and the fire would, in fact, begin immediately after his crime, only it would last not one day, but several, because the building, due to its enormity, could not burn down in one day: will anyone say after this that the threat was not fulfilled? A similar thing happened with us: human nature, created in the image of God, contained so much within itself that death, with all its cruelty, could not suddenly penetrate equally into all its compositions and take possession of all parts so as to immediately turn the body itself back into the ground, from which it was taken. “But still,” someone else will say, “God’s threat of death, even if the day is taken away from him, as if it had not been fulfilled over us in all its force; It’s as if we were all spared for something, and we were given, as it were, some kind of installment plan in paying the dues for sin, that is, death.” Perhaps, if the above does not satisfy you, then we are ready to agree with pleasure that in this case we were not dealt with with all severity (and what would have happened to us otherwise?). Only this condescension towards us does not in the least serve to criticize the truth of the words of the One who threatens us with death. For the reason for the leniency was not the weakness of the one who threatened, allegedly He could not fulfill His threat (how long would it take to take the life of two people, when even now each of us can take it from anyone?), but another, completely different one. Which? The one that at the very moment when we, having eaten from the tree and transgressed the commandment, therefore underwent death, at that same moment, I say, an Intercessor and Defender appeared for us, such a Defender, whose voice it was impossible not to heed the very justice of God, because He did not simply intercede for us, as people do, did not just ask and beg, but completely took upon Himself our sin and the punishment for it, that is our death. You know, my brothers, who this great Defender and Benefactor is: this is the Only Begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, this, as He is called by St. Paul, the second Adam, who so beneficially replaced the first Adam for the entire human race. He, we say, took upon Himself, back in Eden, both our sin and our death, so that later, at the end of time, appearing on earth in the flesh, He would ascend for us (as He ascended) to the Cross, and by His death put to death on it both human sin and human death, so that, having been delivered, as the Apostle says, from sin and curse, we would live in righteousness (Rom. 6:8-13 ). After such a mediation, completely unexpected on our part, omnipotent and extremely beneficial for us, naturally everything should have changed in our fate. With the removal of the crime of Eden from us, the execution of Eden was itself removed: death therefore no longer had its former irresistible right over us, for our sin, having passed on to our Intercessor and Redeemer, lost its accusatory power in relation to us. As a result of this, we could even be completely freed from bodily death, if it were not necessary for ourselves from many other sides, and most of all, in order to serve as a curb on our sensuality, as a barrier to our passions, and so that otherwise, that is, whenever sin is not stopped in a person by death, evil, as St. Gregory the Theologian puts it, “does not become immortal.” Therefore, death, left for our own good, is now for those who believe in the Redeemer not so much a punishment as a fence, help and healing: it puts an end to all the shortcomings and sorrows of our prisoner existence on earth; it completes the purification of our nature, infected with the poison of sin, in the depths of the earth; with it, finally, our soul, as it were, returns to the original source of its existence, God, so that from Him, in due time, it can again receive, together with the body, complete rebirth, life and eternal bliss. Let us fall, my brethren, before our Redeemer and give thanks to Him for the greatest benefit shown to all of us back in Eden, let us give thanks and remember to Whom we all owe our lives after we fell for sin to the dominion of death. Amen. Conversation on Wednesday of the 4th week of Lent. Based on Genesis 3:8–13 And she heard the voice of the Lord God going into paradise at noon: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God in the midst of the tree of paradise. And the Lord God called Adam and said to him: Adam, where are you? And he said to Him: I heard the voice of You walking into paradise, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And God said to him: who can tell you that you are naked, except from the tree of which you were commanded not to eat? And Adam said: “Woman, even as you gave with me, you gave to me from the tree, and I died.” And the Lord God said to the woman: Why have you done this? And the woman said: The serpent has deceived me, and I am poisoned (Gen. 3:8–13). No matter how great the crime of our ancestors was, no matter how deep the abyss into which the enemy the tempter cast us from the height of God-likeness, but if our disastrous state had been immediately realized and understood by us, as it should be, if instead of flight, secrecy and apologies, we ourselves hastened to appear before the Lord, sincerely confessed our sins before Him, fell with humility and love at His feet and surrendered our fate to His will. The Most Good, then, without a doubt, we would be freed from much of what now, although not to our harm, but to our benefit, weighs so heavily upon us. For if true repentance, even outside of paradise, inclines the wrath of God to mercy and produces miracles of mercy, then what could it not produce if brought in paradise, at the tree of life, immediately after the fall, when the poison of sin had not yet had time to penetrate us completely and make our wound so fierce and malignant? The corrective punishment for sin, of course, could not be removed from us altogether; but, in all likelihood, it would have been imposed on us not in its present, such a formidable and depressing form, but in another, lighter and quieter form, so that perhaps we would have been allowed to bear all our penance for sin and perform it not on this cursed land of exile, but in the midst of the same paradise of sweetness. But, alas, we apparently felt our fall into sin and did not feel it; they no longer wanted to listen to the serpent, but they did not want to see the Lord either; they were ashamed of bodily nakedness and seemed to value spiritual nakedness at nothing; We realized that things were bad with us, that we had lost a lot, but we still thought to help the terrible misfortune with our own mind and effort!.. And Adam and his wife hid from the face of the Lord God in the middle of the tree of paradise. This, my brothers, is still every sinner! We are all like that! In order to feel the full vileness of our sins, it is not enough for us to have the most subtle sensitivity, but requires the special grace of God. Without this, no matter how burdened we are with sins, no matter how much we suffer from them in our deeds and lives, a true feeling of repentance will never appear in us. We will recognize and say that we are sinners, we will appear from time to time before the servant of the altar and calmly, and sometimes with tears, talk about our failures - but we will not achieve that contrition for our sins, that repentance, as the apostle puts it, unrepentant for salvation, which consists in an irrevocable turning away from the previous paths of lawlessness and in an irreversible march to the end of life along the paths commandments of the Lord. For one of the most destructive properties of sin is that it blinds our mind, hardens our heart and makes it insensitive to truth and goodness. In order to change us in this regard, in order to take away this insensibility and numbness from our soul, this requires the action of the One who is painful in our hearts (1 John 3:20), who can, as the word of God expresses it, raise up children for Abraham from the rocks (Luke 3:8). Judging by this property of sin and by the fact that the first parents now want to hide from the face of God, one cannot help but draw the sad conclusion that if the Lord had not appeared to them after the fall, but left them to themselves, then they, perhaps, would never, at least for a long time, come to the full consciousness of their sin, would not have thought of turning to their Creator with repentance. And what would happen then? The poison of sin, not stopped in action by confession and repentance, would penetrate our nature even more and deeper; and for this, of necessity, even greater punishment and the bitterest medicine would be required to correct us. But our Lord is good and merciful: he appears to those who do not seek Him and is found by those who do not ask about Him (Isa. 65:1). This is what He did to us back in Eden, showing by His example what we should do when someone sins against us. And she heard the voice of the Lord God going to paradise at noon: and hid herself... in the middle of the tree of paradise. In vain, based on this, so to speak, flight of the first parents from the Lord, would anyone have thought that His appearance was accompanied by something terrible and striking: no, although forgotten, despised and exchanged, so to speak, for a serpent, the Creator and Benefactor had every right to appear now, clothed in horror and thunder, but there was nothing like that. The appearance of the Lord now was as meek, good and simple as before, and had all the appearance of a friendly visit. In order not to terrify the poor and sinners, who are already trembling from their pitiful situation, by the suddenness of the appearance, the Lord does not even appear suddenly, but precedes his meeting with them by walking in paradise, that is, at some distance from the place where the ancestors were. And she heard the voice of the Lord God walking into paradise. Voice of the Lord God. Not an articulate voice, as anyone might think, for the conversation will begin later, but a certain noise arising from movement, to which Adam and Eve were already so accustomed that they could immediately recognize and distinguish it from everything else. Meanwhile, this circumstance, as well as the subsequent conversation of God with them, sufficiently demonstrates that the real Epiphany took place in human form. since, of the three persons of the Divinity, it was most characteristic of the One who actually once had to be clothed with flesh, that is, the Son of God, to take on this image, then not without reason, we can say that we were interrogated and judged in paradise not by anyone else, but by our Redeemer Himself, and, therefore, not so much judged and condemned, but, as we will see, spared and merciful. The holy writer of everyday life also points to the very time of Epiphany, saying that it followed at noon, or, more precisely from the Hebrew, “in the cool of the day,” which usually happens on hot days in the evening. The Lord did not appear suddenly after the fall, so that the fallen would have time to come to their senses and think about their actions, and not long later, but on the same day, so as not to allow them to sink into insensibility and unrepentance. Love and mercy for us were visible everywhere! But, alas, sin, having made us unworthy of God’s love, at the same time took away from us the ability to feel its value and enjoy it. And she heard the voice of the Lord God going into paradise at noon: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God in the midst of the tree of paradise. They hid - that is, they deliberately retreated into the thicket of trees from the place that served as their usual stay, and where the Lord had found them until then. They thought that He would look for them, not find them, and return to heaven. The concept of the perfections of God was so darkened in the soul by sin that the Omnipresent One, only because He was now in a limited form, was looked upon as an ordinary person from whom one could run away and hide. “For such is the custom of those who sin,” notes St. Chrysostom, “that although they cannot hide, they strive to hide.” Therefore, it was necessary to seek out the lost: and the Lord called... Adam, where are you? The voice of meekness and friendliness - the former name: Adam - and the former love: where are you? One could say: where are you, transgressor of the commandment? where did you run from the shame and execution awaiting you? But there was nothing like that, not even similar. The questioner seems unaware of what happened; he came not to reprove and judge, but only to visit his favorite and friend; wants to see him, talk to him, leave him, perhaps, a new token of love and goodwill; and, not finding him at home, he searches and asks: Adam, where are you? – where, what place are you in? And even more: what condition are you in? Something special happened to you, and sadly at that. I always found you in your place; You yourself used to hurry to meet Me; Now it’s different - I come and don’t see you: what’s wrong with you? Adam, where are you? “So deep was our fall,” notes one holy father on this occasion, “that God’s very omniscience seemed to have lost sight of us and was forced to ask: where are we?” It was no longer possible not to respond to such a voice. And so, Adam and Eve come before the Lord from among the trees of paradise, but they come with a girdle - not just according to the body, but even more according to the soul; that is, with an unfortunate supply of apologies and excuses, which, as we will see, will take away almost the entire price from their self-confession of sin. In order not to seem to be running away from God Himself out of personal disgust from His presence, Adam hastens to announce the reason for his removal from the face of God and says that this reason in himself is nothing more than the fear of his nakedness: I heard Your voice and was afraid, because I was naked... I was afraid - nakedness should have been more ashamed than feared; but Adam comes into fear from her, discovering that the feeling of nakedness is combined in him with the feeling of violating the commandment. It is also noteworthy that although he was not hiding alone, but with Eve, he mentions only himself, as if Eve were not with him at all. So soon sin managed to give birth to “selfhood” in a person, to enclose his love and care in himself and separate him from his very first neighbors. We will see the same thing further - Adam and Eve will each excuse only themselves, even laying their blame on each other, not sparing anyone but themselves. I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid. If, as Adam says, I did not hasten to meet You, it was not due to lack of zeal, not due to unwillingness to see You; no, the reason for this is not in You, but in me: I am naked, I am ashamed and afraid to appear before You in this form: I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid. The same thing, although it is not said, was, without a doubt, with Eve. But, recognizing in himself the consequence of sin in this way, Adam is nevertheless slow to recognize sin itself. What would he say (what happened if he said - ed.) directly: I hid myself because I was naked, and naked because I ate of the tree, I transgressed Your commandment? This feeling, this complete frankness did not exist: until the very end we will remain unappreciative, insincere and unrepentant! Let us marvel, my brethren, at the long-suffering of the Lord. Despite such insincerity, the Lover of Humanity will still hesitate to expose and condemn us, and with a new gentle question will give us time to come to our senses, come to our senses, voluntarily reveal our wounds and ask for healing for them. And God said to him: who can tell you that you are naked, except from the tree of which he commanded you not to eat, from which you came? Who will build it? You did not hear this from Me, you yourself did not know about it, there was no one in paradise to tell this, how did you know that you were naked? There was only one remedy: have you not eaten from the forbidden tree? After pointing to the tree, it was no longer possible to hide the sin; and behold, the lips of our trembling ancestor finally open for confession; but pride and false shame immediately spoil it with a vain apology: and Adam said: wife, you gave me... you gave me from the tree, and I died. Do you see by the very arrangement of words where the sin is placed? At the very end - poison, and in front and close: the wife, behind her - the One who gave her... And what is all this for? In order to show that if Adam sinned, it was involuntarily; if there is any guilt in what happened, then it is a common one, part of which falls on God Himself. Woman, what you gave to me with me, you gave to me from the tree, and it died. I myself, as if my ancestor had said so, did not even think of breaking the commandments; but a wife appeared, the same one whom You brought to me and called me my helper, gave me the forbidden fruit, and I ate it. How was it possible, it was implied, not to eat what was served from such hands? could I think that I would perish from the one that was given by You? But, ill-fated forefather, was a wife given to you as a leader? Is it commanded to listen to her even if she served the forbidden fruit? She heard about the commandment from your lips, and could still, perhaps, think, was it (the commandment) heard by you as it should be, and was its true meaning understood? You, on the contrary, yourself accepted the commandment directly from God, and therefore could not have any doubt about it. And yet, he acted as frivolously as she did, you are weaker in everything. Nothing like this, however, was said to Adam; and since he referred to his wife, the speech is addressed to her. And the Lord God said to the woman: “Why have you done this?” Why did she taste it herself, and persuade her husband to do the same, thus falling into a serious violation of the commandment? What did you do? Do you feel how important your crime is? Do you see the abyss into which you yourself went and took a husband? What have you done? And the woman said: the serpent deceives me. And I, that is, did not conceive evil myself, but was led into sin by others. It is understood that it is free to allow serpents to take on the appearance of such cunning tempters and tell such seductive lies... Thus, Adam and Eve discovered something that could no longer be hidden; but they again immediately tried to close what was open by blaming others. It turned out, although they did not say it directly, that if Adam and Eve were to blame, then the Lawgiver Himself was wrong. Do you feel yourself, my brethren, how indecent it was for us to act in this way in violation of the commandment of God? This meant, as it were, starting a dispute in some way and wanting to argue with God Himself, supposedly we were innocent. But where is this innocence? Didn’t our very nakedness, our fear already let us know that we were both completely guilty and completely irresponsible? Meanwhile, such unrepentance of ours fully revealed how necessary punishment was for us. Otherwise, what could bring our pride to reason and turn us to humility and repentance? Our Creator and Benefactor will not justify himself before our ancestors (this would be unworthy of His greatness), but in the punishment itself he will show them that it does not so much depend on His arbitrariness, but rather directly comes of itself from their crime. – We will see this next time. Now let’s turn to ourselves and see if we, in similar circumstances, act in the same way as our ancestors. And to us, unworthy, after each new fall, the Lord Himself appears, one might say; and He seeks us, fallen in the midst of paradise, which is the Church of Christ, either with the inner voice of conscience, or with the external broadcast of our spiritual shepherds; from within, I say, and from without, a sinner, if he does not close his ears, can always hear the ancient voice: Adam, where are you? How do we respond to the mercy of the Lord who seeks us? Alas, many, like their ancestors, clearly run away from the face of God in this case and hide; and if only, like them, they were hidden in the thicket of the trees of paradise! no, they run away, one might say, into the thicket of the trees of hell, that is, into the darkness of their proud and wicked thoughts and daring wisdom about the Sacrament of Repentance and Confession. “Why am I going to confession? - they say brazenly. -Who cares about my sins? I want to repent of them; I don’t want to, I’ll remain as I am. My sins are my business.” Where does such an unhappy way of thinking come from, if not from hell, if not from the spirit of malice, this ancient pride, which is incorrigible because it does not know humility and confession? Alas, poor sinner, you and I are worried about what is busy with us, God Himself cares about us!.. And how, tell me, could the Creator forget and leave His creation, in which His image? Take off this image from yourself, if you can, and then say that no one cares about your sins. And aren’t you the one who exacts strict punishment from your servants for failure to fulfill your, often insane, commands? Shouldn't the Lord of heaven and earth demand from us an account for the fulfillment of His law, in which lies both His glory and our own bliss? “But during confession I see before me not God, but a person similar to me!” Would it be better for you if God Himself appeared to judge you? Would you not melt with your sinful impurity from the unapproachable glory of the Almighty? Moses and Elijah could not look at His appearance; Angels and Archangels hide their faces from Him; and with our sick eyes we want to look directly at this Sun? Before you in the Sacrament of Confession is a person similar to you; but he is sent from God; he has been given the right to question you and pronounce judgment on you. And what court? Not execution, which we deserve a hundred times over, but mercy and forgiveness. And after this we will hesitate to accept our own salvation? Another, most of us, willingly or unwillingly, appears, like Adam, before the Lord, that is, comes annually to confession; but with what? Not with real repentance for sins, not with a contrite heart and a humble spirit, but with insensibility and coldness, with apologies and excuses, with an obvious almost desire to hide one’s sin, if it were possible, not only from the confessor, but from God Himself! They admit, like their forefathers, their sins; but they do not feel and do not see that in these sins there is spiritual and eternal death. They say: “I have sinned - forgive me,” but not from the depths of the heart, but according to one custom and statute; They make a promise to avoid sins, but without the inner firm determination to fulfill the promise. To excuse themselves, they refer to their build and human nature, to their circumstances and position in the world, or to the examples of other people. As if there were any sin that could not be abstained from with the help of God’s grace! As if our own benefit did not require us to abandon, if necessary, all that is most kind, to decide on the most difficult sacrifices, so as not to destroy our souls and not lose a blissful eternity!.. Let us stop, my brothers, from acting in this way, so that, otherwise, the very healing, that is, the Sacrament of Repentance, does not turn into harm and does not serve to harden our spiritual wounds and ailments. Let us throw off all the fig tree girdles; Let us appear before the Lord, who seeks us, in all the nakedness of sin, and let everyone say: Behold my wretched deeds! I have no excuse for my sins; could I avoid temptation, or resist it; I could, if I wanted to remain faithful to Your law; and if I fell a hundredfold, it was from myself, from my frivolity, from my malice, from arbitrary impurity in thoughts and feelings, because, recklessly, I did not use those means that were given in abundance and indicated to me to protect myself from sin and temptation. I feel the full weight of my guilt and place my hope in Thy only mercy: have mercy on me, fallen! From now on I will love Your holy law as much as I previously loved the lawless pleasures of the flesh and the world; I will listen to my conscience in the same way as I have listened to my passions until now. Do not deprive me of Your mercy and grace, and strengthen my wavering feet on the stones of the commandments! From now on I am yours, save me! Amen. Conversation on Friday of the 4th week of Lent. Based on Genesis 3:14–15 And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed from all cattle and from all the beasts of the earth: on your forearms and belly you will walk, and you will tear away the earth all the days of your life: and I will put enmity between you and your wife, and between your seed and her seed: he will keep his head, and you will keep his heel. (Gen. 3:14–15) Last time, my brothers, we saw how the interrogation of our guilty ancestors was carried out, how the Omnipresent favored, as one of us, to look for them in Eden and call them from among the trees of paradise; how the Omniscient One appeared as if he knew nothing about what had happened to them, so that he would not lead them into confusion and would predispose them to sincere confession of their sin before Him, in the hope of pardon. Although our ancestors, due to foolishness resulting from sin, did not use the Divine blessing for the benefit of this, in all this, nevertheless, there was an abyss of love, generosity and long-suffering towards us, unworthy. “For how many rulers are there on earth,” asks St. John Chrysostom, “who themselves accept the trouble of questioning accused criminals? And here the King of heaven and earth, the Lord of Angels and Archangels, having left the throne of glory, is looking for a sinner running away from Him and offers so many questions where it would be enough to say one word: you are a criminal, this is your execution! In all this, continues St. Chrysostom, the Lord sets an example of how we should deal with the guilty: not to give in, that is, to reckless impulses of anger, to allow them to say everything they can, in their own justification, not to be offended if, due to the sinner’s inclination to deceit, they even hide something from the case, or present it differently from what it was; in general, talk meekly, remembering that we ourselves will all be questioned and judged in paradise by the Lord in the same way. Meanwhile, judging by such generosity in interrogating the guilty, it was to be expected that the serpent-tempter would not be condemned or punished - unheard. But they don’t ask him at all, but directly put him to death: and God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, cursed are you from all... the beasts of the earth. Where does this unexpected severity come from? From the sudden ignition of anger in the Judge, which (as often happens among us) made us forget impartiality and meekness? Less in total. For even with this punishment we will see in the Judge the same majestic calm and goodness that we saw before. If the serpent is not questioned, it is because, like an unreasonable animal, he in himself could neither conceive evil nor tempt anyone; tempted the serpent and forced him to slander and lie, the spirit of malice, which, having achieved its goal, now came out of him; after which the serpent, like an animal, became completely incapable of answering. It therefore remained to interrogate not the serpent, but the devil, who acted in him to destroy man; but he doesn’t ask: why? because, without a doubt, the Omniscient does not foresee in him any hope of conversion. At such a time there was no need, in the words of Holy Scripture, to cast pearls before swine; All that remained was to strike the unrepentant pride with execution. But how to strike?.. The murderer was not at all visible during the temptation; he did not act directly, but from behind a veil; before the eyes of Eve there was one simple serpent with temptation; From the serpent, from no one else, Adam, of course, produced temptation in his mind. In accordance with this, at the upcoming judgment of God, this matter will be left in the form in which it occurred in appearance: the main culprit of evil will be allowed to remain invisible in the darkness akin to him; the curtain that hid him will survive, but he, the crafty and all-evil one, will not survive behind it; Although the word of judgment and execution will be pronounced, apparently, over one sensual serpent, but, falling with one side on the animal, at the same time - through it - it will completely reach the spirit of malice and strike it mortally at the very head. Therefore, in order to fully understand the punishment now pronounced upon the serpent, one must imagine in one’s mind that the words addressed to him do not refer to him alone, but at the same time to the spiritual serpent, or the devil. And God said to the serpent: for thou hast created this; since you dared to rebel against man, My image and your ruler, dared to slander Me Myself before him, and with false promises lured him to the crime of My commandment, then you are cursed from all cattle and from all the beasts of the earth, whose peaceful kingdom is humiliated and disgraced by you forever. Although involuntarily and animated by an alien force, but since you took on what was above you and represented yourself at the same time as both a slanderer and a teacher, then from now on you will be the last of the creatures moving on the earth, and like the scum of all living things. A part of the perfections will be taken away from all creatures as a result of the fall of your common ruler, but from you more than anyone else, so that the most unreasonable animals will shun you like a monster: cursed are you from all cattle and from all the beasts of the earth! Indeed, all other animals have mutual communications and connections with each other, something similar to love and friendship; The serpent alone has nothing like this with anyone else. Everything that lives either pursues him or flees from him. You will walk on your breasts and belly, and you will carry away the earth all the days of your life, that is, you will no longer raise your head for flattering conversations and slander against your Creator; the very image of your movement will show everyone that you are a castaway and rejected being. You will no longer offer forbidden fruits as food, but you yourself will feed on rottenness and rottenness. This punishment shows that the serpent in its primitive state had some qualities that are not present in it now - that it moved and fed differently from the way it moves or, moreover, creeps and feeds now. And I will put enmity between you and between your wife, and between your seed and between that seed: that one will watch your head, and you will watch his heel, that is, if we take these words in the literal sense for now, as if the Lord had spoken to the serpent: instead of the unnatural intimacy into which you brazenly entered with your inexperienced wife, from now on I will do this: eternal things will begin between man and you mutual disgust and abuse. Everything born of a woman will be hostile to the serpent, and every offspring of the serpent will be hostile to man. Not being able to do great evil, you will watch over the heel of man in order to bite it; and man will break your very head. Constant experience miraculously confirms all this, my brothers. And all creatures came out, more or less, from obedience to fallen man; some even became dangerous to him, due to their strength and fury; but a person does not have such a natural and insurmountable aversion to any animal as to the serpent; just the sight of him already excites disgust and fear; the serpent is disgusting even in the picture. All this is all the more remarkable because there are many snakes that are not poisonous at all; There are snakes that are distinguished by the beauty of their appearance and their decoration. On the other hand, the serpent does not run away from anyone as much as from a person, even if he was not persecuted. Especially the serpent, as noted by the ancients, is afraid of a naked person, as if remembering our primitive state in paradise. This is how the serpent is punished! The sensual serpent was also punished, because he was an instrument, albeit an involuntary one, of our destruction, punished in order to henceforth serve for everyone visible as a symbol of God’s wrath for wickedness and pride. The love of the Heavenly Father acted in this case according to the custom of earthly fathers, who, in an excess of grief, curse and break the sword or knife that took the life of their beloved son. But we said that the punishment of the sensual serpent included the judgment and execution of the spiritual serpent - the devil. How? Because under every word spoken against the serpent there is a sharp and irresistible arrow against the devil. The visible serpent is relegated to the last degree among living creatures, and becomes the object of universal disgust and curse; The spiritual serpent, the devil, as a result of the present - his new crime in Eden - will now be cast down even deeper than when he once fell from heaven. The curse of all newly created and subordinate creatures to man, having burdened them for a while, will finally, from the entire world redeemed together with man, pass on to his head, as a result of which he, as an evil more intolerable, will be cast out from the bright host of God’s blessed creatures out into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20). The visible serpent is destined to creep on the earth and feed on clay; The spiritual serpent must now crawl in the underworld, feed on the sins and corruption of men - feed and not be satisfied, absorb, apparently for a while, through the lips of death, some sacrifices, but in order to return everything absorbed to the great Conqueror of death and hell on the day of resurrection. The head of the visible serpent is condemned to be the target of sensual blows; the head of the invisible serpent is placed as the target of spiritual blows. The devil imagined that through sin he would forever associate with himself the entire human race, and thus enslave it to his dark dominion; but instead of submission he met cruel abuse from the man. From the seed of the same wife whom he seduced, wondrous warriors will rise in a continuous succession to defeat him. Abel will amaze him with his innocence and purity. Enoch - by constant walking before God, Noah - by hope, Abraham - by faith, Moses - by meekness and humility, David - by extraordinary repentance, Jeremiah - by tears, the Baptist - by fasting and solitude. Finally, the promised Seed of the Woman will appear, the second Adam will appear, the Lord from heaven, and having been born precisely from the Wife alone, without a husband, he will certainly crush the very head of the hellish serpent with the cross, destroying the power of sin and death, which he imagined to be founded on the fall of man. Did our enemy understand all this?.. Did he understand all the power and cruelty of the execution awaiting him? Hardly... otherwise he would not have appeared with such impudence to tempt the second Adam in the Jordanian desert. Too many events had to be seen in order to fully understand what was being said now; and most importantly, it was necessary to foresee what, as a miracle of Divine love, went beyond all limits of probability, that is, so that God’s mercy towards fallen man would extend to the point that the Only Begotten Son of God Himself, leaving glory, having previously had no peace with the Father (John 17:5), would appear on earth in the form of a man, unite His fate with our fate, and take upon Himself only the flesh, but also our sins, he will take them with Him to the cross, endure death and descend into hell itself, so that, thus, having led all things with Himself (Eph. 1:10), He will become the ruler not only of life, but also of death, of hell itself. Could Dennitsa, blinded by pride and anger, accommodate in his mind the thought of such a miracle of love and humility? It was all the more difficult for our ancestors to enter with their understanding into the full depth of the trial and execution of the serpent. But for the first time there was no need for this. The punishment of the insidious seducer pronounced in their ears, even if at first they did not fully understand it, especially from his mysterious side, nevertheless achieved its goal in relation to them. Anticipating their own punishment, it was supposed to serve as encouragement to them, showing that the Lord values ​​them even after their fall, and still continues to look at them as His property. The enmity between man and the tempter, established by God Himself, let our ancestors know that they were not handed over as defenseless victims to an evil and hostile force that had cast them down from the heights of innocence and godlikeness, that, despite the disaster that befell them, they still had the opportunity to rise from their fall, stand against the enemy, fight with him and defeat him, borrowing (borrowing) for this both strength and means from the One who is now not only their Judge, but also their Avenger. Subsequently, when the eyes of the first parents are more cleansed by tears of repentance and enlightened by faith and hope, without a doubt, more will be revealed to them, both about the blessed Seed of the Woman and about the corruptive seed of the serpent; it will be more clearly indicated who is their enemy and who is the Redeemer than to defeat the first and how to unite with the last. But this does not concern our present subject; we must now turn our attention to something else. So, we all have an enemy, terrible, irreconcilable, who with his cunning destroyed us in Eden, and now constantly uses all means so that none of us rises from this fall, but, following his suggestions, continues to fall deeper and deeper into the abyss of hell. We all have an omnipotent Redeemer, Who saved us from eternal death back in Eden, and then, out of His unparalleled mercy, took upon Himself to blot out all traces of the fall and return to us with interest our primitive perfection. Further, neither the Redeemer nor our tempter can act on us without us: the First, despite His omnipotence, cannot put us into paradise if we resist this; the latter, despite all his malice and cunning, is not able to drag us into hell if we do not contribute to it. Therefore, the successful or ill-fated outcome of the struggle waged for us depends on us; to go to heaven or to hell, one might say, is in our will. So what do we do? who are we helping? Which side are we on?.. Alas, we have many disputes, strife and infighting; and many of us are almost unaware of the great war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, that is, between all of us and our common enemy! They do not know that this fierce dragon still constantly walks throughout the whole world with his dark minions, looking for someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Where does this destructive ignorance come from?.. From one’s own negligence. For the Gospel constantly proclaims this truth, which is important for all of us. It is known to others, but they use it not to benefit, but to the detriment of themselves and others. They know everything that Scripture tells us about our evil enemy, but they do not believe what is said. You can judge how pleased our enemy should be and how to rejoice, finding among people such disbelief in their very existence!.. He himself could not have wished for a better position for himself. For by imagining him as non-existent, they are not at all afraid of him and do not take measures against his wiles; and thus give him the opportunity to act on himself as he pleases. These are warriors who surrender without fighting! And indeed, look at those people for whom the spirit of malice does not exist! For them there is no Redeemer. For why look for a leader when there is no war? For them there is no commandment with a forbidden tree: everything is permitted! Beware, my brothers, of such false thinkers, wise only for evil - for their own and others’ destruction; close your ears to their stifling conversations and objections, so as not to suffer like our ancestress. Remember incessantly that we are all at war not only with flesh and blood, not with temptations only with the visible world, but also with the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12), and remembering this, never lay down that holy all-armor with which the word of God invests a Christian in the battle with the enemy of our salvation, that is, as the apostle of Christ says, become girding your loins with truth, and putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and putting on your shoes for the preparation of the gospel of peace: and taking upon all the shield of faith, in which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one: and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying with all prayer and supplication at all times in the Spirit ( Eph. 6:14–18). Amen. Conversation on Wednesday of the 5th week of Lent To the words: And I said to my wife: I will multiply and multiply your sorrows and your sighs: in sickness you will give birth to children, and you will turn to your husband, and she will have you (Genesis 3:16) The more we reflect, my brothers, on the legend of Moses regarding the fall of our ancestors, the more we are convinced that this holy legend, despite its brevity, contains the key to resolving all perplexities regarding our present existence on earth, to explaining the current state of the very nature that surrounds us. For let us imagine for a moment that we do not have such a legend; then we will not know how the world and man came into being, what happened later to our ancestors, how they fell and dragged with them into the abyss of evil everything that depended on them or could depend on them in the future; and without this it is impossible to say a completely satisfactory word about the real fate of the human race and everything that surrounds us; Where, for example, do those disasters with which we are all surrounded from infancy to the grave come from, and what are they for? Where does the disorder and disorder come from in the nature that surrounds us, which, on the one hand, is so beautiful, and on the other, represents the appearance of a field after a great battle? But when you remember about Eden and the forbidden fruit, about the tempting serpent and destructive food, about the fig tree girdle and the terrible, but equally merciful judgment of God, then the darkness covering the fate of the earth and man dissipates; We will find out where evil comes from in the world, for what and why everything living suffers; and, instead of grumbling and despair, we are inspired by holy patience and hope in Providence. And there were false wise men who, rejecting the legend of Moses about primitive man and his fall, thought to show their wisdom by this! What could they give in exchange for the scroll of Moses? Ridiculous dreams of a frustrated imagination, which could seem worthy of attention only to their superstitious inventors. But honor and gratitude to sound science, which, having delved into the study of nature, was not slow in standing up against false wisdom and showing the whole world that the account of Moses is beyond all doubt, because it was not written on one charter, but inscribed in indelible letters on the face of the whole earth. Having regretted this sad and almost past phenomenon, let us again follow our God-inspired leader with reverence and listen from his lips, how, following the serpent-tempter, the judgment of God also touched us, who so frivolously applied their ears to his charm. And he said to his wife: I will multiply your sorrows... in sickness, give birth to a child, and your appeal will be to your husband, and she will possess you. The interrogation began with the husband, and the punishment begins with the wife. Why is this so? Because, of course, the wife, as we saw, was the first to open her ears and heart to the tempter, and she became almost the only reason for her husband’s fall. Let wives not forget this, no matter who they are and no matter how high they stand, and let them take care to compensate their primitive frivolity and arrogance with modesty, humility and obedience to their husband! By multiplying I will multiply your sorrows and your sighs. They will be, as it were, with you on their own (for how can one not grieve and sigh for one who, with her frivolity and insolence, has subjected herself, her husband, and the entire human race to so many disasters?); but besides this, you will have many more such sorrows and sighs, from which your husband will be free, from which you, although a transgressor of the commandment, would be free if you had not shown yourself in the matter of a common crime to be so arrogant and especially zealous for common destruction. since such double curbing is necessary for your exorbitant inclination towards the sensual, then I myself will impose it; and since I impose it, no one will be able to remove it from you. Whatever you are, no matter how high you stand, sorrows and sighs will follow you everywhere: multiplying and multiplying your sorrows and sighs! After this, as it were, introduction, the wife’s punishment itself is depicted, consisting of two types: she is condemned, firstly, to the disease of birth, and secondly, to submission to her husband. Let us consider each punishment separately, for in both we will find a lesson for our edification. In illness, give birth to a child. This means that before the transgression of the commandment, in a state of innocence, children would have been born without illness. That's how it should be. For is it fitting for such a great and sacred action as the production of a person to be associated with illness and suffering? Only one sin, standing in the middle, could do this, causing sorrow and illness to appear where there should have been only pure joy and holy joy. Therefore, animals to this day are free from most of the pains of childbirth, as if to show that if a person is so subject to them, it is not by a necessary law of nature, but by a special order regarding him of God’s Providence. And since in this case the justice of God itself acted, but not without a wise, of course, intention, it turned into punishment for the wife the very thing that, in a state of innocence, had to be accompanied by pure pleasure. For the all-merciful Lord, if he punishes someone, always punishes him in such a way that the person punished by the very punishment is diverted from some evil and brought to some good. In the present case, when the fate of not Eve alone was determined, but in the person of her and all the future daughters of men, the whole half of the entire human race, all the more, what was meant was not any kind of revenge and not the desire to hit as sensitively as possible and upset the greatest joy in life, but the good of the wife herself. What is the good, someone asks? In order to keep the wife from creeping into sin in the future. With the forbidden tree, Eve, as we have seen, revealed her extreme inclination to be seduced by appearances and carried away by sensual pleasure. If, looking at a beautiful tree and sweet fruit, she became so lost and perished, then what will happen to her when she meets animate beauty? And so, in the defense of her chastity, without which the wife is like a vessel destroyed, permanent, inexorable and incorruptible guardians are placed - the diseases of childbirth, so that, carried away by passion, she will be restrained by the idea of ​​​​the duration of the burden and the pains of birth that await her for the momentary pleasure of the flesh. At the same time, through this same punishment of the wife, Providence will achieve another, no less important goal in relation to the entire human race, that goal to bind in the closest union of love those who give birth with those born from them. In fact, why are mothers so much more committed to their children than fathers? Because they got their children much more expensive than their fathers. But, on the other hand, what was the cause of sorrows and illnesses for us usually becomes unpleasant and disgusting after that, so that we subsequently cannot look indifferently at the former source of our sorrows. Therefore, one could fear that in this case, the increase in illnesses for the wife during her pregnancy and birth would produce something similar, and would force the wife, perhaps, to completely reject the married life, which would be contrary to the goals of Providence itself regarding the reproduction of the human race on earth. What does the wisdom of God do to remove this opposite extreme? Nothing more than connects the end of childbearing with such pure spiritual joy that the wife, as the Savior Himself says, no longer remembers at this time her former sorrow - for the joy that a man was born into the world (John 16:21). This is how Providence knows how to achieve Its wise and all-good goals! It is with the intention, my brethren, that we linger on this subject and go into such details in order to give women the opportunity to delve deeper into God’s definition of them and to draw from it both edification and consolation for themselves. Great are the sorrows of the wife! The baby she cherishes at her breast is dear to her! A hundred times more expensive than his father and her husband! But this is not some blind chance of fate, but the wise and holy determination of God. Therefore, none of the wives is free from birth diseases. In the magnificent palaces they suffer just as in the last hut. Wives of the highest rank and dignity are often subject to even greater dangers and torments during childbirth than the wives of ordinary people; and this is because by their too artificial way of life they deviate too far from the simple laws of nature, and by their morals - from spiritual purity, and thus for themselves they increase the severity of God’s punishment. But no matter how difficult it may be, since it is from God, it can always serve for the benefit of the soul, unless we spoil things on our part. The very idea that they suffer according to the will and direct order of God should serve as a great consolation for childbearing wives. For it was not in vain that Saint David once preferred to fall into the hands of God rather than into the hands of men. Among the diseases of childbirth, you, wives, are precisely in the hands of God; but, being in the hands of God, do not turn your gaze away from the face of God. Stretch out your hands not so much to people, weak and often unable to give you any help, but to God, strong and living. If any power can most quickly compensate for the weakness of nature and loosen the bonds of the flesh, then it is the power of faith and prayer, for which nothing is impossible. And to make your prayer itself more effective and more pleasing to God, dissolve it with the spirit of faith and repentance. Through the suffering of our flesh, the Lord always wants to drive out some illness from our heart and spirit. Therefore, sincere repentance for our past sins and a firm vow to behave in the future in a God-fearing, meek and humble manner is the most effective way to bend the truth of God to mercy, along with which all the suffering of the flesh will be reduced. Therefore, it is impossible to praise enough those God-fearing wives who, before the onset of childbearing, consult not only physical doctors, but prepare themselves for the terrible moment with prayer and the Sacraments of the Holy Church. This, one might say, is a necessity for every wife in such a situation, for who can guarantee that the hour of childbearing does not turn into the hour of death for the one giving birth? How can one not prepare for such a danger by repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries? All of this involuntarily evokes fear, albeit a salutary one. Let us not hide the fact that it can serve as great encouragement and consolation for wives amid their suffering during childbirth. What is it? The fact that birth illnesses, when they are endured in the spirit of faith and repentance, are the most effective means of erasing voluntary and involuntary falls from grace. Nature itself hints at this, for after birth illnesses the entire body of the wife is cleansed. But not only the body, but also the soul will be cleansed, as long as, while suffering in the body, they do not forget their soul. This is what, without a doubt, the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote that a woman will be saved for the sake of childbearing (1 Tim. 2:15). It is only necessary to give birth to children not according to the flesh alone, but also according to the spirit, that is, what is born should not be left to the mercy of fate, or in the care of hired guards, but to be raised by ourselves in the fear of God and obedience to the statutes of the Holy Church. For the apostle did not simply say: for the sake of childbearing she will be saved (otherwise she would have had more children, she would therefore have been saved more than others), but added: if she continues in faith and love and in holiness with chastity (1 Tim. 2:15). And in another place, praising a widow, he praises not simply, but with a condition: if she has raised a child, there is... if she has given comfort to the sorrowful, if she has followed every good deed, she has eaten (1 Tim. 5:10). With such a disposition and such behavior of wives, the task of bearing children turns to their salvation, as it is very difficult and painful, but at the same time necessary for the human race. For the wife, let us say this for the consolation of the suffering, in this case takes the place of the Creator Himself, giving birth from herself to a man who was first produced directly by God Himself. Do you see now what God's punishment is? Do you see how in it an opportunity is opened for wives to great merit, to the achievement of eternal salvation itself? What could be more important for us than this last one? So, let us be obedient and patient: patience and faith are rewarded in this case even here on earth. For if the father and mother, in relation to their children, are inspired by the spirit required by the Gospel, then their home will be no worse than paradise, and will even become, in some respects, better than it; for our first parents entered paradise as innocents, but came out of it as sinners, and spread the oath of their sin throughout the whole earth, and in such a house it will be the opposite: sinners will enter into it, by birth, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh (John 3:6), and from it, through Christian upbringing, the righteous will come, and wherever they live, they will spread peace and blessings around them everywhere. The second type of punishment imposed on a wife for breaking a commandment is taken from her attitude towards her husband: your treatment will be towards your husband, and he will have control over you. You, as the Lord says, were honored by Me with equal honor as your husband; like him she is adorned with My image; like him she was appointed mistress of paradise; and although she came into the world later than him, she received the same thing, she was even honored to come not from the earth, like him, but from his side; This honor would be enough for you, what his own love for you provided you would be enough. But you were not satisfied with all this and took on more that did not belong to you; without his consent, she entered into conversation and friendship with the serpent; Without his approval, she ate from the forbidden fruit and not only violated the commandment herself, but also gave her husband a reason to do the same, and dragged him into the abyss. This unlawful dominion of yours over your spouse will no longer exist. For appropriating what did not belong to you, you will lose most of what you rightfully possessed. Your former affection for your spouse will remain in you: and your address to your husband will remain; but there will no longer be the same benevolence in him; with all his caresses and tenderness, you will involuntarily always see your master in him: and he will possess you too. So possess that you will more than once remember with sighing the former equality between you; You will often realize your advantage over him, but even in this case you will remain dependent not only on his mind and will, but on his very whims; and no matter how much you look for a way to overthrow the heavy yoke, you will never find it in the fullness as you would like: even that one will possess you. No matter how threatening these words are in relation to wives, they do not in the least authorize husbands to tyranny over their wives, and do not mean that the latter should be given over to them into complete submission and slavery. No, this would be contrary to the intention of God, as well as to the well-being of the human race. For what kind of union would a husband and wife have if the former only always commanded, and the latter always only obeyed? Moreover, what kind of family would it be if the wife looked like a slave? Where the wife is a slave, there is no true love and peace, but only fear and coercion. Therefore, we do not see in the family of the antediluvian patriarchs not only any slavery and the so-called imprisonment of wives, but also polygamy. And after the flood, the wives of the forefathers enjoyed their freedom and influence on household affairs for quite some time. Although Sarah respects, for example, Abraham, the master of that calling (1 Pet. 3:6), as the apostle notes, this dominance of Abraham did not consist in majesty before his wife and commands, but in greater wisdom before her. Later, when with the increase in sin and passions in the human race and with a gradually greater loss of purity of morals, husbands, instead of the law of mutual love for their wives, began to follow their blind arbitrariness; Then only the lot of wives, softened hitherto by the love of their husbands, began to become heavier and more and more distressed, so that the wife, finally, from a helper, although dependent, but still close to her husband even in her own rights, fell into the state of an unrequited slave and slave, and turned into a pitiful instrument of passions. No matter how illegal and harmful to the well-being of the human race such humiliation of a wife is, but as favorable to passions, it, with the passage of time, managed to spread throughout the entire ancient world, acquired the force of not only custom, but also law, from which, as we know, the wives of almost all non-Christian peoples still groan. And who would have brought the female sex out of this unfortunate state if the Gospel of Christ had not come to the rescue? Philosophy, as is its custom, did not dare to say a single word about this. Only the Gospel, with its teaching about abstinence and spiritual freedom, banished, along with polygamy, the humiliation of the female sex, declaring in the hearing of all that in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female (Gal. 3:28), but all are one and equal before God. Only the Gospel inspired and made it obligatory for husbands to love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her (Eph. 5:25). After this, the wife could no longer be the slave of her husband, no matter how high and important he was. Do not forget this, wives, and, kissing the Gospel of Christ, thank its Author not only for the fact that by His Cross He opened for you, as well as for your husbands, the entrance to the lost paradise and the Kingdom of Heaven, but also on earth removed from you those blasphemous bonds of bondage and humiliation, in which your sex groaned, without hope, for entire millennia. Amen. Conversation on Friday of the 5th week of Lent. Based on Genesis 3:17–19 And God said to Adam: Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate from the tree, whose commandments you alone should not eat, from him you ate: the earth is cursed in your deeds, bear it in sorrow all the days of your life: thorns and thistles will grow for you, and bring down the herb of the herb: in the sweat of your face you will bear your bread until the end. having returned to the land from which you were taken: as you are the earth, you went back to the earth (Gen. 3:17–19). This is the last part of the sentence pronounced on us! On us, we say, because what was spoken to our ancestors fell on all of us, because in their person was the entire human race. Just as the blessing and blessedness that would follow from keeping the commandment of God would have gone to each of us, so the punishment for breaking the commandment would have been extended to each and every one. This last seems unfair to some, but why does it seem so?.. Because they do not delve into the connection of things, they do not want to see that the entire human race, by its very essence, constitutes a single whole, and that it was all contained in its progenitor. Damage the seed of a tree with anything, and all the trees that come from this seed will respond with damage. In order to have a good tree, you need to grow it from other seeds. So for us, in order not to participate in the sinful corruption to which human nature was subjected in Adam, it would be necessary to come not from him, but from another progenitor. But who would this other ancestor be?.. The same man as Adam, only newly created. And he, in accordance with his destiny, should have been subject, like Adam, to experience and temptation. Would he have stood the same way as our real ancestor?.. We, of course, can imagine that the new ancestor would not have violated the commandments; but the wisdom of God, without a doubt, clearly foresaw what would happen to this new progenitor; and if she did not bring him into the world, then this is a sure sign that she did not foresee in him greater courage and strength than was revealed in Adam. But let's turn from the possible to what actually happened. The punishment for the wife is taken, as we have seen, from her purpose - to give birth to children and her relationship to her husband; the husband’s punishment is now imposed partially from the range of his future deeds and activities: by the sweat of your brow, bear your bread; partly from the very composition of his body: you are earth, and you will go to earth; and all this is preceded by an indication of the reason for the punishment, so that Adam immediately sees that they are doing to him and the criminal not arbitrarily, but according to justice: as if you listened, and so on. These words are clearly opposite to Adam’s own words, with which he thought to excuse his sin before God. Adam said: woman, what you gave... and gave to me... and poison (Gen. 3:12); God's justice in this very circumstance finds Adam's guilt; because you listened to the voice of your wife and preferred it to the voice of God, which should not have been exchanged for anything, especially for the reckless suggestions of your wife. And from the tree of which you were commanded... not to eat one thing, from it you ate; that is, you did not keep the easiest commandment, for was it difficult not to eat from one tree, when the fruits of all other trees, countless and most perfect, were provided for your full use? since in all this you have shown in all this a clear lack of attention to Me, your Creator and Benefactor, and have discovered in yourself frivolity and ingratitude, pride and greed, and at the same time an inability to be what I destined you for, then here is your punishment: cursed is the earth in your deeds, bear it in sorrow all the days of your life: thorns and thistles will grow for you, and bear grass: in the sweat of your brow you will bear your bread, until you return to the land from which you were taken: as you are the earth, you will go back to the earth. It is obvious that there are so many words here, so many, one might say, different arrows and lightning; but these lightnings, as we noted before, are half-extinguished, having already lost their power on the head of the serpent. And how do they now fall on our ancestor? They fall as if in passing, that is, they do not stop at Adam, but, having touched him, they then go, as happens with material lightning, into the ground. The earth is cursed - not Adam is cursed, but the earth; the greatest difference, showing that in the abyss of God’s love and wisdom a means has already been found to save man himself from damnation. As for the earth, its curse should not seem like injustice, although the earth, as inanimate, did not participate in the crime. For for whose sake did she receive the blessing first? Not on its own, for the sake of any merit, but for the sake of man, his inhabitant and ruler. For his sake she received a blessing; for his sake now he is losing it. Notice also how wisely the power of the curse is limited! The earth is cursed not in itself, not in its essence and basic strengths (then it would become completely incapable of anything), but in the affairs of man, that is, the side with which it is turned to man and with which it will henceforth serve to support his short existence on it. Such a curse of the earth, or, what is the same, a belittlement and reduction of its powers useful to man, was necessary for man himself. For if the earth had remained with its former blessing, with the same abundance and luxury of its products, then what a vast field for the abuse of its gifts would have presented itself to human pride and greed! A sinner, already inclined towards sensuality, finding everywhere without difficulty the satisfaction of his whims, would be mired from head to toe in idleness, bliss and voluptuousness. And so, the earth is deprived, so to speak, of its festive decoration, and instead is covered with rags; and thus brought into line with the ill-fated state of man, it becomes such that, while serving for the necessary support of his life, at the same time, with its shortcomings, it will constantly remind him of his sin, which produced them, and thus lead him to repentance. What exactly, you ask, happened to the earth as a result of the curse? The depletion of productive forces followed, hence the poverty and imperfection of all earthly products; there even followed, as it were, some kind of hostility towards the man of the earth, according to which, despite all human efforts, it will often begin to produce precisely what is disgusting to him, so that years of crop failure and famine will henceforth come in succession as a punishment to man: thorns and thistles will grow for you! These thorns and thistles, no doubt, are not being created again now; they were on earth before, but they were like a small part in a great whole, and therefore served not to ugliness, but to the completeness and perfection of the whole, occupying a small and unnecessary place for other things. Now these thorns, these weeds will grow stronger to the point that they will not allow what is necessary and most perfect to grow. Previously, they grew where they were needed, for there are living creatures that they can serve as food or for other uses; now they will grow precisely for man, in the midst of a field cultivated by his hands: it will increase for you... You sow wheat, and instead of it tares will appear; you will plant a rose, and thorns will come out of the ground: thorns and thistles will grow for you! So, my brothers, when you are in the field, do not look with a cold and absent-minded gaze at the poor field of the farmer: it depicts the judgment of the entire human race! When you see thin and sparse stalks (ears), when you notice that there is more chaff in the field than wheat or grain, do not limit yourself to regretting the lost labors of the farmer, but transport your thoughts to the time when the earth began to be so, apparently, ungrateful for human labors. Alas, this is not the ingratitude of the earth, but the formidable command of heaven itself! The earth itself is burdened by its barrenness, as if it is unnatural, but cannot produce more than it produces, because sin and the curse for it have penetrated its depths deeper than all the rain and dew, and have destroyed its fruitful power. Therefore, if we want our fields not to be left without reward for our labors, then we will not limit ourselves to fertilizing them only with material things, but we will try, through fervent prayer and the purity of our hands, to bring down on them, first of all, the blessing of God. Bring down the grass: you will, that is, out of need, eat for food what was intended specifically for the dumb, for there will already be a shortage in the fruits of the tree, which you previously ate. By the sweat of your brow, bring your bread: not by taking it, as before, almost ready, from the hands of nature, but by obtaining it through exhausting labor, collecting after winter and spring what was sown in the fall, last year, and often leaving it to children and even strangers to collect what you sowed. Apparently, some of us got rid of this sweat and this labor, to which our forefather was condemned, having found the opportunity to live in complete idleness and feed on the labors of others. But how many such people are there in comparison with the whole human race? And are they really happy that they apparently escaped God’s punishment? Alas, to live in idleness and feed on the labor of others, when it is watered with the sweat, and perhaps even with the tears of our fellow men, is for one who has not destroyed his soul and heart an even greater burden and punishment than to work himself!.. If some do not feel this, then this very insensibility reveals that they no longer have the primitive dignity of human nature. And do you think that this inconspicuous to many, but in itself extremely pitiful flaw does not entail the punishment inherent in it? No, those who are merciless towards others are, without noticing it, even more merciless towards themselves; amidst idleness, bliss and luxury, they are punished in various ways and destroy themselves. How? The ones that become the playground of their own crazy passions. Let's now look at the last part of Adam's punishment: until you went into the earth, you were taken from something else: as you are earth, you went back to the earth. Man and the earth were in a state of innocence, but this earth was permeated with the grace-filled presence of the Spirit of God in man, closed and protected from everything hostile and destructive by the image of God; now, with the loss of this image, with the removal of the Divine Spirit of strength and life, man falls under the power of the elements, submits, along with inanimate matter, to the inexorable law of earthly gravity, which is not slow to be followed by weakness of the body, illness and destruction. This means where the beginning of our death, my brothers, is in sin! As long as there was no sin in the world, there was no death. since sin did not enter into us, so to speak, on its own, but was cast in by the devil, then the original culprit of death, like all evils in the world, is the devil. But through envy of the devil, says Scripture, death comes into the world (Wis. 2:24). That is why the Apostle Paul calls him having the power of death (Heb. 2:14). We note all this before you because among the wise of this age there are some who seem to be lovers of death, who, in the blindness of their minds, having rejected the holy yoke of faith, think and preach that human death is not any kind of punishment, but a matter of nature, that our body, of necessity, is subject to destruction sooner or later. Such people are obviously deceived by looking at our present body. In its present state it is precisely such that it cannot, with the continuation of a certain time, not weaken and be subject to death; but this state is not primitive: our body was far from being the same as it is now, and therefore was not subject to death. This very simple and undoubted truth is forgotten by imaginary wise men and they repeat about the inevitability of death for a person; they also forget the goodness of God, for if death is not from sin, but from nature, then it is from God. But could God create death? This is completely unworthy of either His greatness or His goodness. And a good man, if it had been entrusted to him to create the world, he would not have created death. For death, in itself, is an evil, and a great one at that. That is why among people death is punished only for the most intolerable sins and crimes. Is it possible that the entire human race could be subjected to such punishment, without any guilt? But what about our ill-fated ancestors? Do they respond in any way to the judgment and punishment of God that is now befalling them? No, they accept both silently and unrequitedly; not only are no new apologies heard, but also no requests for forgiveness or a reduction in the penalty. Why such unexpected silence and devotion? From the fact, without a doubt, that in the very Face and voice of God the complete immutability of what was spoken was already expressed. On the other hand, the awakened conscience let the forefathers know that their fate, after violating God’s commandment, could not remain in its previous form, that sin and crime must certainly be punished, and that complacent acceptance and enduring of this punishment is the best way to earn mercy and regain the love of God. Let us therefore, my brothers, fall in spirit before the Judge and our Lord and, leaving all questions and reflections, let us say in the simplicity of mind and heart with David: Thou art righteous, O Lord, and Thy judges rule! (Ps. 119:137). What you have brought upon us, you have brought with judgment and righteousness (Ps. 95:10, 13), and then with tears, thorns and thistles, we will be healed from the destructive inclination to the poisonous sweetness of sin. Grant therefore to all of us, O All-Merciful One, the spirit of faith and patience, the spirit of strength and hope, so that we may complacently bear what has been laid upon us not so much by the punishing hand, but rather by the very punishment that heals Thy right hand! Amen. Homily for Saturday of the 5th week of Lent, or Laudation. “The ancient Adam lied, and God desired to be, but not to be: man becomes God, and makes Adam God.” High theology is contained in these words, my brothers, both contemplative and active theology, calming and all-joyful for those who align their faith, deeds and life with it; menacing and all-accusatory for those who neglect it. Following the voice of the Church, we are now all the more willing to indulge in the full depth of this theology because we see in this a means, without interrupting any conversations about the subject that interests us, to give due honor to the present celebration in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary. For, delving into the meaning of this lofty church hymn, we will again meet our ancestors in Eden; and meanwhile let us praise our great Intercessor, Who served as the Chosen Leader not only for the Greeks to defeat the Scythians and Saracens, but for the entire human race, for the overthrow of that ancient, proud Kagan, who, having seduced and enslaved our ancestors in Eden, dreamed of forever keeping the entire human race in captivity. “Lying,” that is, being deceived in his expectation and intention, “ancient Adam and God desired to be, not to be.” We saw where and how the insane desire to be like a god arose in Eve and Adam (Gen. 3:5). The reason and reason for this was the serpent-tempter, or, moreover, the spirit of malice, which acted in the serpent and slandered God and with vain promises managed to arouse in our ancestress the unrealizable hope of instant deification of her nature. We further saw how Eve and Adam put their criminal intention into action and, on the advice of the serpent, ate from the forbidden fruit. In all this there was a cruel deception on the part of the serpent, for this unfortunate eating, as if contrary to the commandment of God, was a means for man not to become God, but directly to the opposite, that is, to lose that part of the likeness of God that Adam already possessed, as if created in the image of God. Bitter experience did not slow down, as we have seen, to show all this in practice. The ancestors immediately felt their hitherto unknown nakedness, shame and fear; They became incapable not only of being like God, but also of enduring the presence of God, which is why they hid from the face of God, among the trees of paradise. When those who were later called before the court of God were convicted of sin, they were condemned: the wife for the illness of childbirth and extreme submissiveness to her husband, the husband for sweat and labor on cultivating the land, both for returning to the land, taken from those who were not their own. There could not have been a more terrible mistake, a more complete deception: “ancient Adam lied!” If things had remained in this form, then what a triumph there would have been for our enemy, not only over us, but also over our Creator Himself! He has apparently achieved everything: for behold, the plan and intentions of the Almighty in the creation of man are frustrated and transformed (destroyed); His earthly image and vicegerent was humiliated, mocked, robbed and struck by death; the earth and the human race are henceforth the kingdom of sin and passions, and therefore subject to the spirit of evil. The victory is complete! And how all this was achieved quickly, easily, surely, irrevocably! We say: and irrevocably. For there seemed to be no means of restoring fallen man. Man himself - what would he do for this? The one who could not stand at the height of godlikeness, possessing all his powers, how could he ascend back to this holy height, having been broken from the fall and having lost his strength?.. Angels and pure spirits? They could impart some light and warmth to a darkened person who had cooled towards goodness, they could provide him with some help in certain cases, but to raise him from the depths of sin, death and corruption - this was beyond their strength. It seemed impossible for the Divine Himself to help fallen man and save him from sinful destruction. For the main property of sin is that it removes man from God and God from man. To give help, you need proximity to the person being helped and some kind of connection with him; and the holiness of the being of God required not the approach, but the removal from it of man, as a sinner: for what fellowship has light with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14), purity and holiness with lawlessness? All this, without a doubt, was clearly seen by our all-evil enemy; saw - and rejoiced and triumphed over us. But the triumph of the all-destroyer did not last long! In the unsearchable depths of the wisdom of God from time immemorial, a means has been found not only to restore fallen man, not only to shame the devil by destroying all his works, but to do much more: namely, to turn into truth that very thing that the tempter, as if completely unrealizable, promised to Adam - so that it would no longer be Adam, but our enemy who would lie. He promised, as we have seen, divine perfection from eating forbidden fruits, imagining, no doubt in his mind, that this was absolutely impossible. And so, the wisdom and love of God put this impossibility into reality, that is, to elevate human nature not only to the possession, as before, of the image of God, through the reflection in ourselves of some Divine perfections, but to some real participation in the Divine nature itself, so that we, as the holy Apostle Peter says, will be partakers of the Divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). To achieve such an extraordinary goal, an extraordinary means was also necessary. And indeed, for this purpose, a means was used that could not have occurred to the most well-read Seraphim: “man is God, so that he can make Adam God.” It is known, my brothers, how this mystery was accomplished, how this miracle happened. Despite the darkening of our nature by sin, the humiliation of it by passions, our uncleanness, ugliness, frailty and corruption, the Only Begotten Son of God, with all the fullness of Divine powers, descended to us, the fallen, took upon Himself our nature for all eternity, became a man like us, took upon Himself all our weaknesses, except sin, and, in satisfaction of the righteousness of God, died for us on cross. Having thus reconciled man with God, He returned to us all the lost rights, poured out the fullness of Divine powers onto the human race, opened the entrance to heaven for each of us and gave us the opportunity not only to approach God, but also to unite with Him into one spirit. This is how God Man happens, “so that he may make Adam God!” Together with this extraordinary action, of necessity, everything in our destiny had to change forever. With the incarnation of the Son of God, humanity, in His Person, appeared deified and filled with all the power of the Divine; and after the completion of the work of redemption, it was exalted not only above our primitive perfection in Eden, but above all the greatness of the Angels and Archangels, so that now God and Man in Christ are one Person, Divine and glorified. This is what the tempter led man to, without knowing it, despite his own malice! He did not tolerate seeing our nature in paradise; and now, no matter how he lifts his eyes to heaven (if he ever does), he always sees human nature, in the Person of our Redeemer, sitting at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3). But it is not this one blow that our enemy must endure, although it is quite enough to crush the entire head of the serpent. No, the Son of God became the Son of Man not only in order to deify in His one Person the humanity He had assumed, but in order through Himself and from Himself to extend, to a certain extent, this deification to all the descendants of Adam, who are now His half-brothers, so to speak. As a result of His incarnation and His deification of our nature in His Person, there should come out as many deified people as there are people who are completely blessed, so that our enemy would then look at no one of them, in each of them he would see the greatness and glory of the Divine. God is a man, so he can make Adam God! A miracle so great did not suddenly begin, nor could it end suddenly; for it is not suddenly that each of the fallen sons of Adam can be elevated to this divine height. It takes many different means, and at the same time time, for the human nature in each of the believers to be healed, purified, enlightened, elevated and made capable of being one with God. But the wisdom of our Redeemer did everything to facilitate, as much as possible, strengthen and secure for everyone this ascent to the height of not only Godlikeness, but the actual deification of human nature. And there are so many descendants of Adam who can say about themselves, following the example of St. Paul: no one lives, but Christ lives in me! (Gal. 2:20). How many souls will appear before the end of the world who can say the same about themselves! The degree of perfection achieved by true believers is still so great on earth that the Lord Himself deigns to call them not people, but gods. Thus, it is directly said about Moses: behold, you have given God to Pharaoh (Ex. 7:1). Therefore, these deified people no longer perform human deeds, but, one might say, truly divine ones: he stops the sun with a single word; this one divides the sea with a rod; the other raises the dead. But throughout this life, the glory of the deification of the faithful servants of the Lord, like once the glory of God in the tabernacle of witness, is still hidden under a veil of leather, that is, under our rough flesh. The fullness of this glory will be revealed to the whole world on the last day, when our enemy again appears, or rather is brought to judgment with us. Then, according to the majestic expression of the Psalmist, God is in the assembly of gods, but in the midst the gods will judge! (Ps. 81:1), that is, our Divine Redeemer, having entered into complete union with the gods, that is, people redeemed and deified by Him, together with them will pronounce judgment on the devil and his minions. “Do you not know,” writes Saint Paul, “how the saints of the world have to judge? (1 Cor. 6:2). All of us, my brothers, are destined to such an indescribable height as a result of the incarnation of the Son of God for us! If this height is amazing and even incredible, in comparison with our poverty and sinful insignificance, then, on the other hand, it is natural and, one might say, necessary, in comparison with the dignity and deeds of our Divine Redeemer. For as is the cause, so is the effect. since the incarnation for us and the death for us of the Son of God are supernatural and immeasurable events, then the consequences of these events must also be the same. Since God is in the flesh, then the flesh itself - in its purest form - is already in God: “man God exists, so he can make Adam God!” But who, after our Divine Redeemer, should we thank more than anyone else for such honor and dignity, if not His Most Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary? She, the only one of all the daughters of Eve, received so much grace from the Lord that she was able to contain in Her most pure womb Him Whom the heavens of heavens cannot contain; She raised from Her immaculate breasts the One who had the power to crush the head of the serpent and bring him under our feet; She fully repaid what was destroyed in Eden by Eve. Worthy and righteously Her name is sung and glorified from end to end of the universe. She is worthily and righteously proclaimed to be the highest Cherub and the most glorious, without comparison, the Seraphim. For over whom should the high goal of redemption be fulfilled sooner and with all its might, if not over Her? To whom was it more fitting to partake of the Divine nature than She from Whom human nature was taken? After the Son of God, His Most Holy Mother is the first and highest example of humanity recreated and deified by His redemption. Amen. Conversation on Wednesday of the 6th week of Lent. To the words: And the Lord God made Adam and his wife garments of leather, and clothed them (Gen. 3:21) Packs Adam and Eve together. But how come, when Adam was condemned to death, not a word was said about his wife? Is it possible that, due to the weakness of her sex, she was spared from this terrible punishment? No, whoever ate the forbidden fruit could not remain immortal. Eve was the first to stretch out her hand to him, and the first to see the Angel of Death above her. For, based on the same legend of Moses, there is reason to think that she, having preceded Adam in breaking the commandment, preceded him in death. If God’s definition is silent about her, it is because, of course, Adam represented all of humanity at that time: what was spoken to him in this capacity naturally fell on the wife taken from his side. Apparently, there is only one feature in Adam’s punishment that cannot be attributed to the wife: cultivating the soil by the sweat of her brow. But even here there are so many wives who, of necessity, share their husband’s labor on the land! If the husband tears apart the womb of the earth with his hands and throws seeds into it, then the wife with her own hands gathers what the earth produces. And how does it collect? With weariness and not without sighs, when the earth generously rewarded her husband’s work; with even greater sighs and sadness, when there is almost nothing to collect, so that she is depressed and saddened more by the lack of sweat and labor, no matter how hard it is, than by the excess of effort. And who prepares what is collected for a meal? Wife's hand. The husband's face suffers in the sun alone; The wife’s face suffers both from the sun during the harvest, and every day from the fire on which food is cooked. If we compare all this, if we take into account the great weakness of the wife’s body in front of her husband, her great sensitivity in moments of misfortune and sorrow, it turns out that the wife’s lot on earth is heavier than the husband’s lot. Therefore, it is very fair that both laws and general opinion (where it goes as it should) show greater attention and greater leniency to the wife. Only this attention and this respect should not extend, as sometimes happens, beyond the boundaries - to that reckless servility to the whims of a wife, from which our ancestor fell and many of the householders have fallen to this day. But let us turn to what Moses tells. And the Lord God made Adam and his wife garments of leather, and clothed them. So, our first vestments were not made by hands! They were made not by a man, nor by an Angel, but by God Himself! Do you see the love, do you see the care of the tender Father for the children! And at what time? When He judges and punishes them, criminals! After pronouncing the sentence on the guilty, it was to be expected that they would be left to themselves, that the Lord would not hesitate to withdraw from those who themselves, so recently, were running away and hiding from His Face. But He continues His presence, as if expecting and wanting to see what His words will produce; and, not hearing anything from the lips of us, the condemned, he immediately turns from a judge into a friend and benefactor. The ancestors, as we have seen, were so embarrassed at first by nothing as their nakedness; it embarrassed them so much that they could not stand their own gaze, and they hastened to make a girdle for themselves. This girdle did not so much hide, but rather exposed their nakedness, showing that they were not in their previous natural state of innocence. Moreover, how long would this girdle last? Was it able to protect the body from future air changes? Would unfortunate sinners soon have reached the art of constructing clothing for themselves from a more durable substance? The All-Good One sees all this - both the present situation of Adam and Eve, that is, their shame and embarrassment, and the future need for them for greater and stronger protection of their body from changes in the air, and their inability to quickly satisfy this need - sees, and immediately He Himself makes up for their shortcomings: and the Lord God made Adam and his wife garments of leather, and clothed them. But what kind of leather garments are these? Is it not our present flesh, coarse and bestial, which, as Solomon noted (Wis. 9:15), burdens the soul and burdens the mind? If we compare the human body in its current state with the way it was in the beginning, coming out of the hands of God, and with the way it once again will be, after the future general resurrection from the dead, then our present rough body can perhaps be called a garment of leather. But Moses, obviously, does not mean by them that, but the actual clothing that the most merciful Lord arranged for our first parents. But where, someone might ask, did skins come from in paradise? Perhaps, if you want, accept simply and literally the expression of Moses - and create; Then there will be no need to ask at all - where from? And if we judge by the Face and dignity of the One who now arranged clothing for Adam, then it was more fitting for Him, as the Almighty, to make it not from anything, but from nothing. And if the thought of a new creation frightens you (although the Lord continually creates new things in the Kingdom of Grace), then you can find the answer to the proposed question in another way. The same, for example, the sacred book of Genesis shows us that Abel had already brought a sacrifice to God from the firstborn and from their fat. Who, tell me, taught him to seek and find a sacrifice to God in the slaughter and death of animals? Most likely, the example of the father, Adam. And where did he get such an extraordinary thought? And how, tell me, could one dare to sacrifice to God the life of a creature created by Him? Having done this without permission, one could rather fear the wrath of God for this than the favor. since the sons of Adam already sacrifice animals and do this, as one should think, because Adam himself did the same, but he himself could not begin to do this on his own and arbitrarily, then it remains to be assumed that the sacrifice of animals was inspired to our ancestors by God Himself. Why was it suggested? The Lord Himself could not have any need for this; This means it was necessary for Adam. For what? For the same reason, of course, why sacrifices were subsequently introduced among the entire nation of Israel, so that, that is, as the Apostle Paul explained this to us in the Epistle to the Hebrews, they served as a transformation of that great Sacrifice of the Cross, by which the whole world was to be redeemed on Calvary and all sins were atoned for. When did this Divine teaching of sacrifices to Adam take place? We will not be mistaken, it seems, if we say that now, after the end of his trial, for after that it is no longer visible that the Lord would ever appear to him. In the death of a sacrificed animal, our ancestors could immediately see their future death and their future redemption through the suffering and death of the Redeemer of the world for all of us. And here is the substance for making garments for Adam and his wife: skins, that is, sacrificial animals! That is why, perhaps, even later, when the law on sacrifices was given to the Israelites, the skin from the slaughtered animal was not burned along with the sacrifice, but was given to the priest by the law. If Moses does not speak now about all this, it is, of course, because in general he says very little about what happened in Eden, only one thing that is necessary; and even more so because, having begun to talk about the first sacrifice in Eden and its mysterious meaning, it was necessary at the same time to touch upon many other truths and mysteries of God; and this would mean lifting the veil that until time hid the Holy of Holies, behind which only the high priest, that is, only the chosen few, entered. But let us return to our poor and at the same time rich and precious clothing: poor - for it replaced the grace of God and the innocence that clothed us; rich - for she came from the hands of our Creator and Lord Himself; poor, for it is made up of the death of living beings; rich - for she expressed the future merits of our Redeemer for us. Take note, brethren, of the strength and tenderness of the expression itself: make... Adam and his wife garments of leather. You could make a robe for Adam alone and say: do this for your wife too! But the Lord creates clothing for both. Further it is said: and he clothed them, that is, he not only made the clothes himself, but also put them on them, just as a mother, having made a dress for her child, herself puts it on him, showing him how to walk in it and how to wear it. Let us not forget this, beloved! Let us stop looking frivolously at our clothing: it is a profound monument both to our sin before God and to God’s mercy towards us sinners. As a sign of our fallen state, clothing, no matter what it consists of and no matter how rich it is, should always be worn with humility, and not exalted in it, as some foolishly do. And as a gift of God’s love, clothing should make us grateful to God. And how, you ask, can I thank God for her? So, beloved, if you, in gratitude, do not refuse to make clothes for God. How is this? Here's how: if you clothe your poor and naked brother. For do you hear what the Lord Himself says in the Gospel? Since you have created one of these lesser brothers of mine, you have created one for me (Matthew 25:40). Do you see to whom the clothes made for the beggar go? Let us remember and think on this occasion about one more garment. Our ancestors, having received vestments from the hands of God, no doubt, did not so much wear them later as cherish them as a jewel and a shrine. And we have clothing received from the hands of God: this is the precious robe in which the Holy Church clothed us at Baptism. To compose this robe, death was also necessary - not some dumb animal, but the death of the Son of God, our Savior. For we are clothed in Baptism with His merits, clothed, one might say, with His very death on the Cross, which He endured for us. For as many as have been baptized into Christ, says the Apostle and the Holy Church sings, have put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). And in another place it says: as we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into His death; We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead... so we too will begin to walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:3-4). Here are our clothes! See how pure and holy she is! How magnificent and divine! How desirable and at the same time terrible! For is it a small thing to put on the death of the Son of God?... Let us, my brethren, remember all this and behave as befits people clothed in Christ. Let us leave behind the vain concern about decorating our appearance, which for many of us goes beyond all limits and consumes all our time. Ah, there is no time for clothes and decorations, no time for elegant, so-called tastes and the latest fashions for those who are deprived of the image of God, expelled from the paradise of sweetness, settled on the earth of damnation, condemned to return to the earth, taken from the wrong, and for a short time only remain between life and death, heaven and hell. Thanks to eternal love, that after our fall we were able to hold on - for the time being - although in this precarious and dangerous middle! As long as we are not yet raptured from among the living, everything can be corrected: we can, if we want, return the lost paradise and receive even greater things, that is, the Kingdom of Heaven and cohabitation with Christ and the Angels. But how long will this precious opportunity last for us? Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, death will appear and call us, like our ancestors, before the Last Judgment of God. What shall we say at this Judgment if we appear without that robe of innocence in which the Lord Himself clothed us at Baptism? Let us not waste precious time in vain; Let us use everything, even endure everything, just to emerge through faith and repentance from that abyss into which sin has cast us, before it is locked over us forever. Amen. Conversation on Friday of the 6th week of Lent. Based on Genesis 3:22–24 And God said: Behold, Adam was one of Us, knowing good and evil: and now and not when he will stretch out his hand and take from the tree of life... and he will live forever. And the Lord God drove him out of the sweet paradise to make the earth, from which it was taken quickly. And from the skin of Adam, and filled him with the sweetness of paradise (Gen. 3:22–24). After the Divine verdict on our ancestors, there was still a decision to be made - where should they live? Should we continue to remain in Eden, or be transferred to another place? The wisdom of God foresaw (preferred) the latter. In fact, after his fall, immortality was no longer in favor of man, but had to return to the earth from which it had been taken; this, as we have seen, constituted both punishment for sin and, at the same time, a cure for bitterness in sin, a cure that nothing could replace for us. But in Eden, even after the fall of man, the tree of life remained: eating from its fruit could protect a sinner from bodily death. Meanwhile, whoever arbitrarily dared to eat from the fruits of a forbidden tree, it was difficult to expect that he would not attempt to eat from the fruits of an animal tree. After this, there was only one of two things left: either to destroy the tree of life, or to relocate the person from paradise. The latter was more natural already because Eden was all adapted to the habitation of an innocent man in it and, therefore, became incapable of living in it by a sinner, who henceforth had to live not from the fruits of the ancient trees of paradise, but to obtain food for himself by the sweat of his brow, from the earth, by the labor of his hands, and therefore already live outside of paradise. All these thoughts are found, my brothers, in the words of Moses, which you heard; only he depicts them not simply, but in the form of some kind of extraordinary council that the Creator holds with Himself. And God said: Behold, Adam became one of Us! Such self-interview of God occurs only twice in the narrative about our first parents: the first time before their birth, where the Lord says: Let us make man in Our image (Gen. 1:26); another time here, before their expulsion from paradise. So they were concerned not only with fate, with our very location, so that we knew that if anything was done to us, it was done not out of any kind of revenge or in anger, but, so to speak, with full reasoning, and not for any other reason, but for our own good. And God said: Behold, Adam was one of Us, knowing good and evil. It is obvious that God’s speech is addressed here to some person, or more precisely, persons. Which one?.. Is it not to the Angels?.. But the Lord says: for He is one of Us, which is unspeakably higher than every Angel. Moreover, these words from the mouth of God have a visible relation to the promise with which the tempter deceived our foremother, saying: You will be like God (Gen. 3:5). Stretching out her hand to the forbidden fruit, Eve thought that through this she would become like not the Angels, but God Himself. After this, there is no longer any doubt that the above words are addressed not to Angels, but to Divine and Consubstantial Persons; that is, God the Father says this to God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. What is said about us in this great council?.. Something is said, as if to reproach us; but since this reproach comes from the lips of God’s love, it is not so much an obvious reproach as a secret regret for us. Behold, Adam became one of Us, knowing good and evil. Adam, as the Lord would say, did, for his part, everything to achieve what the serpent advised; he now knows good and evil, he has become like God! That is, in other words, Adam has now deviated so much from his destiny, he has become so upset in his entire being, he has become so unhappy that we need to think about him again as much as we thought before when he received existence from Our hands. What should we do with it now? If you leave him to determine his own future fate before death, then he, unreasonable, will prefer, out of frivolity, to remain living in Eden, imagining that he is better off here; and having remained in paradise, he, without a doubt, will not refrain from eating the fruits of the tree of life, which would now be extremely harmful for him, for this very thing will hinder Our beneficent order for him - to return him, for a while, to the earth from where he was taken. Therefore, even now, and not someday, he will stretch out his hand and take away from the tree of life... and he will live forever, it is necessary to assign him another place of residence, where there would not be a tree of life, which is now harmful to him, and where his labor and sorrow, now necessary for him, would sooner be met: and expel... The Lord God of Adam from the paradise of sweets to make the earth from which it was taken. And from Adam. The last expression: and izrinu, suggests that the removal of the forefathers from paradise was associated with some coercion, and therefore makes us assume an effort on their part - to remain where they were. And was it possible to quickly and willingly leave paradise in order to go out to the earth, already cursed, expecting thorns and thistles from sweat and labor on it? But, without a doubt, this effort - not to part with the place of their primitive residence - consisted of nothing more than prayer and tears, as happens with children when they want to remove them forever from some favorite place. In this case, some effort from the hand of the father or mother is required. The same thing happened now: an invisible force forced the ancestors to go where they were commanded: and from the face of Adam. And filled him with the sweetness of heaven. Judging by the purpose for which the first parents were removed from paradise, one could expect that for their new residence a place would be chosen completely remote from Eden, so that there would be no temptation before their eyes to wish to return to it. But the wisdom of God acts in the opposite way - it instills Adam not in the distance, but directly in paradise, so that he always has it before his eyes. What is this for? In order, of course, so that the sight of the lost Eden would constantly remind a person of what he had lost and would dispose him to repentance. This was useful not even for Adam and Eve alone, but also for their descendants, who, no doubt, did not suddenly separate from their ancestors, but lived with them for a long time - straight from heaven. Thus, in their memory and mind, from the very sight of Eden, the legend of Adam and Eve about the primitive blissful state of humanity, about the transgression of the commandment, about the serpent-tempter, about the judgment of God and punishment for sin was confirmed. All this should have disposed Adam’s descendants to feelings of repentance and faith in God’s promise of victory over the serpent. And to this, of course, it must be attributed that the legends about the primitive innocent state of man and his fall have spread and become so established throughout the entire human race that, despite so many centuries, the destruction of the first world by the flood, the scattering of people through the Babylonian pandemonium over the entire face of the earth, are still, although unclearly, heard in the sacred beliefs of all peoples. Let us, my brothers, and we often put ourselves in our thoughts directly to heaven; Let us remember what happened to us in Eden: how we transgressed the commandment, how we lost the image of God, how we clothed ourselves first with fig leaves and then with garments of leather, how we were condemned by the sweat of our brow to earn our bread and return to the land from which we were taken. This will be a hundred times more useful for us than going through and replaying in our memory the pompous nicknames and titles of our ancestors, the distinctions and rights they acquired for us. Oh, what does all this current, so-called human nobility mean in comparison to what we all were and what we once possessed! If we had stood in the innocence of Eden, then we would all now enjoy such perfection, which in our present disastrous state is difficult to imagine. For it was not in vain that our evil enemy envied us: we possessed great things, and were destined for a hundred times greater things! Now all this has been overthrown, trampled upon, scattered, erased. But even now there is a means to correct everything, to acquire everything again, to ascend to the previous height of Godlikeness and bliss. The second Adam, our Divine Redeemer, came from heaven to earth for this, for this he took upon himself our flesh, for this he died and rose again, in order to restore everything that had fallen in the first Adam, to return to us our rights, to bestow all the strength for victory over sin and the devil. It is up to us to take advantage of this Divine blessing, to assimilate our redemption for ourselves - by using those saving means that have been delivered to us. And in order to be able to appreciate them as they should, in order to learn to value them for our salvation and immediately begin to use them for our own good, we all need to more often remember our primitive state and lost bliss. Let us, I say, put ourselves in our thoughts directly to paradise and, looking mentally at Eden, compare our present disastrous state with the primitive one, comparing, turn to our Redeemer for the means to return what we have lost, and guard ourselves from new falls. Amen. Conversation on Holy Monday. To the words: And the Lord God set up cherubim and flaming weapons to guard the way of the tree of life (Gen. 3:24) How diligently God’s love protects us! Truly, it is not without reason that it is said: “Even if your mother forgets her childhood, I will not forget you!” (cf. Isa. 49:15). We saw how in our present state it was dangerous for us to eat from the fruit of the tree of life. But, on our own, we would not soon understand this danger; a hundred times they could have attempted to partake of its fruits, which were just as unfavorable for us now in their consequences as before, in a state of innocence, the fruits of the forbidden tree were harmful to us. And so, the love of God places a guard on the path to the tree of life, a guard who by his very appearance instilled fear and destroyed any attempt to approach this tree. And the Lord God set Cherubim, and flaming weapons that can be turned, to guard the way of the tree of life. Set Cherubim. Thus sin changed the ministry of the Cherubim and Seraphim themselves! Is this what these premium beings should be doing? Their job was to stand at the throne of God, to enjoy the sight of the Most Holy Trinity, and to constantly proclaim the glory of the Almighty. Even when they descended into our lower world, they would always descend as messengers of new joy and new bliss; would treat people as if they were brothers of the one Heavenly Father, as if they were their friends and confidantes. But sin came and placed man in a hostile attitude towards his Creator and the heavenly world; and the pure spirits, with all their regret for us, had no choice but to stand against the one who had become the enemy of God - began to destroy his dark deeds, to destroy his pride and disobedience. And this is the reason why the Angels of God, these holy and loving beings, will sometimes appear on earth, as sacred history testifies, clothed in darkness and storm - even with a sword, striking with death those for whom it was better to die rather than continue to live in sins. So the Angel will strike with death the firstborn of Egypt, so that they will not be heirs of the malice of their fathers; so the Angel will strike in one night entire legions of Assyrian warriors - it would be better for them to fall from the sword of the Angel than to fulfill the evil will of their insane ruler. But let's return to Eden. And the Lord God set Cherubim, and flaming weapons that can be turned, to guard the way of the tree of life. Is the Cherub specially placed, and is the flaming weapon especially used? You can imagine the Cherub and the weapon separately, but it’s better - together. For how would a weapon turn itself without a hand turning it? And who was closer to converting him, if not the Cherubim, who stood guard? A warrior needs a weapon, and a weapon requires a warrior; but, due to the nature of sacred language, what is actually united together is often presented separately. If you ask further, what kind of fiery convertible weapon is this? - then we will say in response that the Cherubim’s weapon is not ours, but the Cherubim’s. The Word of God sometimes describes the Angels themselves as beings similar to the purest and immaterial fire. “Create,” it is said, “your servants to burn with fire (Heb. 1:7). Accordingly, the Cherubim’s weapon now looked like a flame, that is, it seemed like that to Adam and Eve. It is called convertible, of course, because it did not remain motionless in the hands of the heavenly guard, much less lie idle, as happens with human weapons, but was always in action, appearing together with the Cherubim, depending on the need, now on one side or the other of Eden, and instilling fear in those to whom the thought occurred to penetrate into Eden. Both the Cherubim and the weapons were placed, however, only to guard the path of the tree of life, and not to prohibit the reverent approach to Eden, whose proximity to the first people was probably included, as we have seen, in the plan of the very wisdom of God. Therefore, there is nothing objectionable in the idea that the Cherubim’s stay at the gates of paradise was not without beneficial consequences for our ancestors in other respects. Deprived of direct communication with God Himself, they could receive instructions from the guardian of paradise regarding what was necessary for them in life; could borrow consolation among sorrows and sorrows; He could especially have introduced into the mystery the promises about the Seed of the Woman and the breaking of the head of the serpent. Anyone who is curious to know more about this, let him turn, among other things, to the church chronicle of St. Demetrius of Rostov. How long did the Cherub stand guard with its flaming weapon? He stood, no doubt, as long as it was necessary; but it was necessary until paradise lost the tree of life, or until man completely abandoned the desire to partake of its fruits. Could it soon be both? It seems to me more likely the former than the latter. For at least Adam and Eve soon grew to understand that it is not in the tree of life, in the middle of paradise, that they should now seek healing from the disasters that oppress them, but in the promised Seed of the Woman and their own repentance; but such understanding could not suddenly be expected from the sons and daughters of Adam. It was difficult for such a person, for example, as Cain, not to encroach on the fruits of the tree of life; and the path of the Cains (Jude 1:11) never remained idle. Therefore, it must be thought that the guard of Eden ended along with Eden, or at least with the tree of life. Did this happen soon? Much sooner, perhaps, than as it seems at first glance. The beauty of Eden was not the result of natural forces, but of a special and direct dispensation of God. And planted, - it is said, - the Lord God of paradise... on the east (Genesis 2:8), that is, he used a special action of His creative power for that. By what power Eden was planted, the same, without a doubt, maintained itself in its splendor as long as it was needed for man; and when he was no longer needed, the special blessing to which he was held was taken away. Without this, having fallen under the general laws of earthly nature, paradise was even more likely to lose its perfection and be destroyed than any other garden that grew up according to the laws of present nature. Be that as it may, however, only the sacred writer of everyday life, outlining the subsequent history of the human race, never once mentions either Eden, or the tree of life, or the Cherub with a flaming weapon. The flood, no doubt, also erased the last traces of the primitive blissful human habitation. How great and destructive the effect of the flood was precisely over the place in which paradise was located, we can conclude from the fact that instead of the four rivers indicated by Moses and which originated from the same beginning in Eden, there are now only two left: the Tigris and the Euphrates, but their sources are already significantly removed from each other. Therefore, to look for traces of paradise on earth, as some others have done and perhaps still do, undertaking long and difficult journeys for this purpose, is a matter of good feeling, but of little understanding. Our paradise is not on this earth now, but on that future, perfect one, which will appear along with the new heaven, when the present earth and the present heaven will burn up and be transformed completely. Then the tree of life will appear again, and will appear without the Cherubim with a flaming weapon. In the middle of its hundred, that is, the city of God, - this is how the seer John writes, - and along both sides of the river there is an animal tree, which produces twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree are for healing with the tongue (Rev. 22:2). But we will eat from this tree of life if we are worthy to dwell in heavenly Eden. Now, in the country of arrival (stay), for us the tree of life is on Golgotha. This is the Cross of Christ, which brings us fruits not according to the number of months, but every day and every minute, so that we can eat them whenever we want. I mean the Body and Blood of Christ, from which the poisoned one... will live (John 6:58) and will not die forever (John 11:26), that is, by that eternal death, of which bodily death is one weak image, and which alone is true death for us. And look what the Cherubim and Seraphim are doing now! They no longer stand guard with flaming weapons at the gates of Eden, as before, but with us, during the performance of the Divine Mysteries, they invisibly serve the King of glory, as the Church sings. So everything is again pacified by the Cross of our Savior! So closely reunited what seemed to be forever separated by sin and the devil! It remains for all of us to use help from above - to go where the Guardian Angels lead us; and we will all come back to the tree of life. Amen. Conversation on Holy Tuesday. To the words: And all the days of Adam were... nine hundred and thirty years: and he died (Gen. 5:5) So long did the life of our forefather continue, already expelled from the paradise of sweetness, already removed from the tree of life, already condemned to return to the earth, no matter what! New and obvious proof that if we had not sinned, we would not have been subject to death and corruption. But what would happen to the human race then?.. Alas, we have all become so friendly with death that we cannot even imagine what would have happened without it! It would be that the human race, innocent and holy, would spread over the face of the entire earth, and at the same time it would all turn into a paradise of sweetness; it would be (let us allow ourselves a modest guess) that after a certain time, generations and generations of people, like Enoch and Elijah, without tasting death, would be transferred to other bright worlds, of which there are so many above our heads, and which, perhaps, are now idle for the time being, precisely because they are not those for whose residence they are intended. But in any case, do not believe, my brothers, those idle talkers who assert with an important air that if death had not abolished places for new residents, then Adam’s descendants would have nowhere to live. Those who have not delved into this subject superficially, not just to say two or three bright words on occasion, have long since calculated and shown that the globe of the earth in our time would still provide a lot of free space for the residence of the descendants of Adam, if each of them had remained alive to this day. Moreover, we must not forget that an innocent person, in the primitive state of his soul and body, as well as his entire external nature, would not have needed clothing and shelter, nor the current allowances for his subsistence; and therefore would require much less space for its existence on earth than what has become necessary for it now. If anyone were to ask why such longevity of Adam, as well as of subsequent patriarchs, came from, we answer that the reason for this longevity was, firstly, the remnant of primitive life and strength, which were concentrated to the highest degree in man, as the ruler of everything animate and inanimate; secondly, from the special state of the nature surrounding man, which at first also retained more vital forces to nourish and support human life. At the same time, it must be said that until people multiplied on earth, God’s providence itself especially cared for the continuation of human life, eliminating the destructive effects of the elements from them. But let us turn to our ancestors and ask, what did they spend such a long life on? Judging by the present, in such a long time how many different things could be done, discover the laws of nature, invent and improve the arts, found cities and villages, lay roads and mutual communications, invent various conveniences for life? But nothing like this is said about Adam. And so that we do not think that this is just the silence of the sacred writer of everyday life about subjects that did not interest him, while in fact Adam did a lot in civil and everyday matters, Moses subsequently definitively points to the beginning of all the most important inventions, naming the culprit of each by name. Thus, it is said about Cain that he builds no city (Gen. 4:17); therefore, Cain's father, Adam, did not build cities, but lived in a bush. Thus, Jabal is credited with multiplying and improving the means and comforts of a shepherd’s life (Gen. 4:20); Consequently, Adam did not care much about this convenience. Thus, Tobel is called a forger of copper and iron (Gen. 4:22); Consequently, Adam did not dismantle the bowels of the earth to extract metals from them. It is said about Jubal that he showed the harp and the harp (Gen. 4:21); Consequently, Adam did not think about amusing himself and his descendants with the jingling of strings and organs. What does this mean, in our opinion, as if the inactivity of our first ancestor? Is it that he did not have the ability for such inventions, and that the powers of the human mind developed for this only later, in his descendants? But in the one who was created in the image of God, without a doubt, there was more capacity for everything truly good than in those who had already descended from him, one might say, not so much in the image of God, but in the form of Adam himself, fallen and disfigured by sin. Adam’s mere naming of all animals, from one glance at them, already shows how he stood above us in insight into the very essence of things. Moreover, he would have the ability to build in the best possible way either his own tents, or some kind of shelter for the dumb; all the more so would it be enough to have the skill to whittle a tsunami or arrange a harp. But Adam does no such thing. Why? Because everyone was occupied with something else, higher and better, that is, in order to enter paradise again through repentance, to be quickly expelled from worthlessness, and where again neither the city of Cain, nor the copper and iron of Fovelov, nor the harp with the harp of Jubal would be needed. This view of life and everything earthly passed from Adam to the other patriarchs. Being the ancestors of tribes, enjoying the greatest respect from their numerous descendants, they, more than all subsequent conquerors and rulers, could become rulers of countries and peoples, surround themselves with all the comforts of life, build palaces and thrones for themselves; but they all lead a very simple and wandering life; have neither permanent shelter nor even their own land; Abraham, for example, is so powerful that he could defeat five kings and free his nephew Lot from their captivity, and he himself purchased a cave even for his burial. Why is this so? What made them lead a life, in our opinion, so strange? The fact that they, as the apostle notes, looked at themselves as strangers and strangers on earth, fixed their eyes on the future, expecting a city, of which God is the artist and creator (Heb. 11:10). The Cain tribe did not want to imitate the example of their holy ancestor and took a different path; indulged in the comforts of life, began to make one invention after another, extracted metals from the depths of the earth, surrounded herself with gold and silver, built houses and palaces, made harps and harps. But what finally came out of all this? Having given themselves too much body and soul to the earthly, they soon forgot the heavenly; luxury immediately followed the convenience of life; behind it sensuality and passions invaded; all this suppressed faith and conscience; the vices did not find any barrier for themselves: lawlessness and atrocities desecrated the entire earth; finally, general depravity has reached the point that the whole earth, in the words of the Writer of Genesis, is uncorrupted (Gen. 6:12); man completely became flesh and plunged into sensuality and impurity to the point that the Spirit of God could no longer dwell in him, that Spirit, without Whom there is no true life in anyone or anything. What next?.. Ordinary punishments for correcting morals and curbing wickedness were lacking not only on earth, but also in heaven. Extraordinary measures were required: and then the abysses of heaven and the springs of the abyss opened up; The flood came and washed away from the face of the earth the booths of gold, the copper and the forge, along with those who forged and sang. And the holy family of Noah, in which there lived simplicity and purity of morals, which, not distinguished by inventions and arts, faithfully followed the humble way of life of Adam and Seth, remained unharmed among the general destruction, was saved from the flood waters in the ark and, after the wrath of God and the execution, became a breeding ground for a new human race. What should we conclude from these such contrasting examples? That we are not allowed, while caring about our bodily life, to discover, multiply and improve the sources of our so-called earthly well-being? No, this would be contrary to the intentions of our Creator, Who Himself deigned to give man an example of caring for all this, when, instead of a fig tree girdle, as imperfect, He created for him garments of leather. For this reason, let us not be ungrateful to those of our brothers who have worked and are working to invent and improve various things that serve us in our lives. But at the same time, let us not forget that for us, who are all on earth only for a very short time, it would be foolish to devote our entire lives to decorating our temporary hotel, and not spend at least the same amount of time preparing a room for ourselves where we should stay forever. Our ancestor, who lived more than nine hundred years, would have been allowed to spend a hundred or two hundred years satisfying his worldly needs and earthly desires; for there were still seven hundred years left for his soul and for God; How much time can we divide between earth and heaven? The most durable ones (and how many are there?) are only a few decades old. With such a brevity of our life, it is absolute madness to spend it, as some do, on multiplying soon-to-be-perishing toys around us, and not use it to acquire eternal blessings. And Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years: and he died (Gen. 5:5). By such brevity of expression, you can judge, my brethren, how brief Moses is in general in his narrative. The death of the first man, as our common ancestor, is very important for all of us. Whoever would like to hear at least a few words about how Adam ended his life, what he bequeathed to his descendants, that is, to the entire human race, with what burial the whole world of that time honored him. But Moses doesn’t say a word about all this. Eve's death is not even mentioned at all; we can only guess that she preceded her husband in finishing his earthly career. Such are the holy writers! They say only what was given to them to see from the Holy Spirit, and therefore do not follow the usual rules of our narrative. Elevated to the rank of mentors of the entire human race, they are not driven by curiosity, but say only what is necessary for universal instruction. The narration of the details of Adam's death was not so necessary; that is why it is not in the holy books. In what country did Adam end his life? We don't know. Where is his coffin? We don't know. There is an ancient and touching legend that he was buried on Golgotha, so that the Cross of Christ was established over his ashes; and the Blood of the Savior sprinkled it with itself, as a sign of which the head of a man is depicted under the Cross. But wherever Adam was buried, the cross overshadowed him everywhere; mixed with whatever soil his ashes were, the Blood of the Redeemer of the world found him and penetrated him with its Divine power. Therefore, having in mind Adam’s faith and repentance, the Holy Church constantly recognized him as the first, in time, among the righteous. Thus, he, having the misfortune of setting an example for his descendants of violating the commandments of God, had the happiness of becoming an example of repentance for them. Let us, my brothers, imitate this last example; and neither Adam’s sin, nor even our own sins will prevent us from receiving the grace of mercy and entering heaven. Let us also guard ourselves from ungodly murmuring and reckless mockery of our holy ancestors, as unfortunately happens with some. Why grumble? If the chosen one of all fell, who among us who were not chosen would stand in his place? Amen. Word on Great Wednesday. Final The sad scroll of the fall of our ancestors is over, my brothers; Now you see for yourself whether we rightly said at the beginning that in it, as in a bitter scroll once shown to a prophet from above, weeping and pity and grief are written in it (Ezek. 2:10). Ah, if there are any disasters on earth, if the entire human race suffers from something, then it all originates from Eden, at the root of the forbidden tree! This is the beginning of our sin and passions! Here comes the origin of our death and decay! And what, with all our wisdom and all our efforts, could we do to end our misfortunes if we were left to our own devices? Who could take upon himself the terrible burden of human sins and untruths in order to stand between us and heavenly truth and turn it over to mercy? On the other hand, who could enter and penetrate our own heart, bind criminal pride, this fierce dragon nesting in it, heal us from sinful leprosy and renew the right spirit in our womb? Who could then descend into the heart of the earth, remove the curse from it, free it from the work of incorruption and lead the children of God into freedom?.. Who, finally, could descend into hell, to the souls of so many millions of our brothers who had already fallen asleep in the sleep of death, illuminate them with the light of life and joy, and show them the way to heaven?.. All this completely exceeded the strength not only of ours, but of all created beings. Let us give thanks, my brothers, to the love of God, which did not abandon us, the fallen, did not despise the unclean and lepers of sin, did not forget the dead and those living near hell. The second Adam appeared, the Lord from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47), who by death and His Cross raised up everything that had fallen in the first Adam. Starting tomorrow, the wondrous spectacle of His Divine suffering will open before us, by which our fall in Eden was healed, and we, with the assistance of the grace of the Lord, will try to delve into this miracle of love and the unparalleled providence of God for us, the unworthy. Now, so that on this day we will not be left without breaking spiritual bread and food for the heart, let us collect the remains of our past spiritual meals. From the breaking of five loaves, as the Gospel relates, twelve koshnitsa were collected, but for us, unworthy, it will be enough if we collect at least one koshnitsa for this day from the twelve-fold interview, so that the weak gospel of our word corresponds to the greatness of Holy Lent, if nothing else, then in the number of days and space of time. So, what do we, Christians, call the fall of Adam?.. This is the name of that ill-fated act of our forefathers in paradise, when, contrary to the clear commandment of God, they tasted, at the suggestion of the serpent, of the forbidden fruit and thus broke the holy and blessed union with their Creator and Benefactor. What was the importance of this crime and the essence of Adam’s fall? The fact that a weak creature rebelled against the omnipotent Creator, that man, through his foolishness, separated his will from the will of God, went against His wise intentions, encroached on a perfection that did not belong to him and was impossible for him, and entered into an alliance with the enemy of God, who, having lost heaven, maliciously intended to block it for the person destined for it. What was the consequence of the fall of Adam?.. Death, as the Lord Himself predicted, and, moreover, in all its forms: that is, the death of the spirit abandoned by the Spirit of God, ceasing to be one with the Lord; the death of the mind, closed to contemplating the truths of the spiritual world and opened to all kinds of lies and charms; the death of the will, which has lost the power to strive for good and has felt an ever-present inclination towards evil; the death of the heart, desensitized for pure spiritual pleasures and beginning to move solely according to the stormy breath of passions; finally, the death of the body, which has fallen under the destructive influence of the elements, becoming prey to disease and decay. How is the fall of Adam expressed in each of us? The fact that we are born into this world not in the form in which our ancestors came out of the hands of God; we are conceived, as Saint David says, in sins and born in iniquities, and those born in this way no longer have those perfections that our forefathers possessed in a state of innocence, and are subject to many mental and physical defilements, which, of necessity, make us an object of disgust and the wrath of God, so that if we do not return to primitive purity and are left with real corruption, then, sick and suffering in present, we cannot expect a better lot in the future. This very thing is called innate sin in Christian teaching. Is there any cure for the infection of Eden?.. There is - in the Cross of Christ. Jesus Christ, as the second Adam and the new spiritual Founder and Head of humanity, brought us from heaven truth, life and incorruptibility. By uniting with Him by faith and love through the Holy Sacraments of the Church, just as we are united with Adam by flesh and blood, we are delivered from sin and the curse for it, we are made pure and holy, capable again of life in God, of dominion over ourselves and over everything below. This, my brothers, is the teaching of the word of God about the fall of our first parents, and in their person the entire human race! The teaching is as deep as it is simple and clear - removed, of course, in its entirety, from experience, and yet only able to explain what everyone experiences in their life. Do you want to know why this teaching can and should serve us?.. Listen. The doctrine of the fall of Adam - and only this one - sufficiently clarifies for us the mystery of our ill-fated state on earth. Who among those capable of reflection, when looking at man and his condition on earth, did not plunge into deep bewilderment and sorrow? For what is our earthly existence? It represents a combination of contradictions, the most strange and pitiful - extreme greatness with extreme humiliation, considerable good with great evil, the obvious ability of everyone to bliss with incessant deprivation and tears. On the one hand, man is a God-like being, the natural ruler and ruler of the earth, the visible confidant of heaven, the heir of eternity. On the other hand, this is a son, as if forgotten by his father and not remembering his origin; This is a king, deprived of his throne, persecuted and tormented by his subjects, and what is a hundred times worse than this is a traitor to conscience and the law, a playground of the lowest and most criminal passions, it is like a kind of fallen and rejected spirit! Where does this terrible contrast come from? Without knowing its true source, one can involuntarily think, as many have thought, that there are two co-eternal principles in the world: good and evil, that man is the product of both principles, the good - in what is good in him; evil - in what is evil in him; that especially the human body, as a nest of passions, is a direct product of the evil principle. From such an incorrect view of human nature there are so many other misconceptions! So many of the most ridiculous rules in life! How many bloody rites! Some, due to a false concept of human nature, extended the severity of life almost to suicide; others, considering all our actions indifferent, destroyed all virtue and allowed a person everything. A Christian, with a clear understanding of the Fall of Eden, is free from all these errors and extremes. For he knows where sin and evil come from in the world; knows why and for what a person suffers; knows that both sin and human suffering are a consequence not of his nature and not the work of its Creator, but the product of human hands, the fruit of the abuse of our freedom. General experience fully confirms all this for us; for the abuse of freedom, or, more precisely, the weak remnant of it, even now is always accompanied by a sad consequence for a person; Meanwhile, using it wisely and well, if it does not completely stop our misfortunes, then visibly and tangibly reduces their number. Along with this, the reason for grumbling against God’s Providence, which is unfortunate in any case, is lost and disappears for us. Remembering what happened to us in Eden, instead of insane pride and despair, we naturally settle down and come to humility, patience, and trust in the goodness and help of the One who can heal all our ulcers. Secondly, the teaching about the fall of Adam clarifies the mystery of our redemption in Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, which was raised for us. God coming down to earth, putting on our flesh, suffering all kinds of humiliation, ascending the cross and dying the death of a criminal - these are events that could only follow for some overriding reason. What is all this for, if there was no fall of our first parents, if the human race is such as it came from the hands of the Creator? In this case, not only the cross, the manger and the swaddling clothes of Christ are vain and unnecessary. For everything that was decent and necessary on the part of God to do to help the human race that had not fallen, could have been done without the appearance of God in the flesh, much less without His suffering and death on the tree of the cross. Was it necessary to teach people? They could be taught through man. Was it necessary to set an example of goodness? It could be given again through a person or an Angel. But to take upon Himself the burden of our sins, to reconcile us with God and with His death to kill our death, to raise us from dust and corruption - for this the strength of created beings was clearly not enough; For this purpose it was fitting for Him to appear, Who, even in human form, as boundless in His power and merits, was able by one offering to make those who are sanctified forever (Heb. 10:14), Who, being made heir to all (Heb. 1:2) and to everything, therefore has the keys not only of Eden, but of hell and death (Rev. 1:18). Thus, the Cross of Christ appears in all its greatness only when it is looked at not from Golgotha ​​or from the city of Joseph, but from Eden, at the sight of the Cherubim, with a flaming weapon guarding the path of the tree of life. Oh, how understandable, how precious then is everything that happens on Golgotha! Here you see how, one after another, all the ulcers inflicted on us by the serpent of Eden are healed, how, finally, its very head is crushed by the death of the God-man! For what is the essence of the serpent’s wounding? The fact is that the deceived man, having deviated his will from the will of God, united it with the will of the enemy of God, and did not expect (thought) to assimilate for himself with admiration what befits the one God. And behold, on the cross the God-Man Himself, as a reward for this assassination attempt and rebellion, out of obedience to the will of God and out of pure love for people, suffers, dies and sacrifices Himself! After the completion of this sacrifice, it was appropriate not only for the Sufferer who died on the cross, but for heaven and earth together with Him to exclaim: it is accomplished! (John 19:30) For here all is done: the glory of the Creator is restored; the law is satisfied; the devil is cast down and mocked; man is redeemed; The doors to Let's Go are open!.. Thirdly, the doctrine of the fall of Adam determines in the most faithful way the rule of our behavior throughout the entire continuation of our earthly life. For what is the earth for us after our fall? Obviously, there is only a temporary premises and, moreover, similar, on the one hand, to a vast restraining house, in which self-will and violence are tamed, and on the other, to a vast hospital where those infected with leprosy and sinful ulcers are treated. Whoever looks at the earth in this way - and otherwise it is impossible to look at it from the gates of the lost Eden - will not cleave to anything earthly, will cease to make the acquisition of perishable goods the goal of his life, and will try in every possible way to take maximum advantage of the short period of stay on the land of exile to achieve the goal of his imprisonment on it, that is, he will use all his strength, abilities and means to suppress the seed of sin and iniquity in himself, to restore in your soul the image of God, to heal your mind, your will and your conscience from the poison of the serpent: from lies, carnality, anger and pride; confirm oneself in obedience to the law of the Lord, and thus make oneself capable of once again entering heaven and uniting with God. Whoever understands his fallen state will not be surprised when the Gospel demands from him not only a simple removal from vices and forcing himself to virtue, but the mortification of his will and pride, the crucifixion of the flesh, passions and desires, the destruction of his very soul. For our fall, our illness, our death consisted in the fact that we, instead of the good will of God, surrendered to our own will - evil and rebellious; in place of the creative law they put their crazy “I” in the soul and heart; from the realm of the spirit they fell under the dominion of flesh and blood; they forgot the invisible and eternal, and became enslaved to the visible and perishable; They became enemies to themselves and began to live a life that, in comparison with the true life that is appropriate for us, is a lie and death. Whoever understands, I say, all this, for him the battle with himself is the first and last duty, and the mortification of the old, carnal, sinful person within himself is the first and last victory. Finally, the teaching about the fall of our ancestors makes clear for us, already dark and incomprehensible, the current state of nature and the things surrounding us. For in visible nature, as well as in the human race, wealth, greatness, order and beauty are mixed everywhere with poverty, disorder, ugliness and suffering. On the one hand, this is a magnificent royal palace; on the other hand, it is a sad room for criminals, a vast cemetery for the dead. When did this unnatural duality occur? Who is outraged by the beautiful order of creatures? Who brought hostility and death into the peaceful kingdom of nature? The answer to these questions does not exist in nature; neither does man, if he does not know how the whole earth, after the fall of its ruler, man, lost the blessing of God; was subjected to an oath and, consequently, to the loss of primitive perfections. With all this in mind, transport yourself, my brothers, often in your thoughts to the first times of the world, visit in spirit the paradise of sweetness, stand by the tree of the forbidden, and say to yourself: “This is where the ill-fated fall took place! This is where my uncleanness, poverty and death come from!” Having left Eden, always mentally ascend to Golgotha, stand at the Cross of Christ and say: “And this is where our uprising took place! Here I am redeemed from sin and death; Paradise has been returned to me here! Thus, the bitter scroll of human existence will gradually lose its bitterness from the Cross of Christ and, washed with tears of repentance, watered with the Blood of the Redeemer, it will finally become like the scroll of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 3:3), like honey is sweet in the mouth. Amen.