Глава 1. Человек и мир в богодарованной красоте и гармонии. Человеческая природа; красота души и тела человека

How many times has the sun risen and set in the sky over you and for you, or has a clear moon circled above you, and the wonderful face of countless stars has adorned the firmament of heaven for you, and every spring and summer the earth has been dressed in your astonished eyes with a variety of greenery and flowers, and the trees have been covered with countless tasty fruits? How many diverse, countless animate creatures of different breeds your eye has seen and sees; creatures endowed by the Creator with various amazing properties? Do you think about this wondrous order of the universe, established by a creative hand and apparently, but silently, teaching you order in your life and gratitude and glorification of your Creator, who called you to a rational, active life? Haven’t you been captivated many times by the beauty and diversity of all creatures, animate and inanimate, on earth: animals, birds, insects and crawling things, and especially the diversity and multitude of races, tribes and peoples inhabiting the globe; a variety of languages ​​and dialects, with which, as an external form, the Creator clothed the invisible, rich, diverse human thought and through which he taught people to understand each other and open the inner spiritual world of human thought, feelings of gratitude, surprise, love, praise to the Creator?!! Honored by the Creator with reason, freedom, equipped from Him with internal and external law, do you use them for your true good and the glory of the Creator, do you use reason, freedom for good, conscience and the clear, wise commands of your Creator? – And if you don’t use it as you should, then why? Are you not senselessly sinning against yourself and against your Creator - and what do you deserve for thoughtlessness, inattention, lack of reasoning and disobedience? Man, for whom is this wondrous, unchanging order, the order of nature, the order of heaven and earth? This orderly flow of the sun, moon and stars, these changes of spring, summer, autumn and winter? For whom is this endless variety and abundance of earthly fruits, with countless pleasant tastes? For whom is this sunny, life-giving, joyful and fruitful light? For whom is this life-giving air, often full of wondrous aromas of plants? For whom is this element of water, quenching your thirst, cleansing your impurities and wonderfully transformed by the Creator into countless juices of the fruits of the earth; dripping abundantly onto the ground for the growth of all kinds of fruits, of which there is no number in number and variety, and beautiful fragrant flowers that adorn the earth and your gardens? For whom are domestic animals, for whom is there an abundance of all kinds of fish - great and small, feathered birds that delight your ears with pleasant singing and glorify the Creator of creatures, or are prepared to satisfy your hunger or greed for food? For whom are metals, minerals, precious stones? – Isn’t it for you, man, the king of the creatures of the earth? Is it not you who uses all this wealth of nature for benefit, pleasure, wealth, luxury? Isn’t this whole wonderful structure of nature, this wondrous order, this harmony of all creation for you? And if all the wealth of creation is for you, this wonderful order, this harmony - and you use it for your own good and contentment - then why do you violate the commandments of the Creator, given to you for your good and bliss; Why do you violate the order of nature and allow countless outrages in your life, and bring groans and grief to the earth without end? Is this what you were created for? After all, you have been given reason, conscience, the commandments of the Creator, so that you voluntarily fulfill them and be blissful! What punishments do you deserve for your iniquities, for your ingratitude, for your lack of understanding, negligence, laziness, malice! Do you see this wonderful harmony or agreement, the order of creatures great and small throughout the universe, the wonderful order of all creation, established by the laws of the Creator: and you be in harmony, in agreement with the eternal, wise and righteous laws of the all-good Creator, destined for you before your creation and the human race; be in harmony with your conscience, with people - as far as the eternal laws of God are concerned. And you will be happy here and in eternity. I thank You, Lord, supreme, wise, magnificent, most beautiful, omnipotent Creator and Artist of all creatures, who created everyone and everything with amazing splendor and amazing beauty, and especially the crown of earthly creatures - man and especially created from the rib! You created everything purely, beautifully, usefully, unblamely... But grant us the grace to look purely, unblamely, sinlessly at all Your works and at the most beautiful work of Your hands - man; to love You, the Artist, with all my heart, to cleave to You, to admire You, to love You with all my heart, with all my soul! In all creation, verbal and wordless, animate and inanimate, strict purposefulness, precision, peace, purity, perfection are visible, and through this the well-being and integrity of creatures is achieved. In man, these qualities are implanted by the Creator with special advantage, as in the rational crown of creatures, to which all visible earthly creatures are subordinate, and he, as a rational being, must especially willingly, intelligently, freely and diligently obey these laws of the Creator for his well-being; and therefore, man, be meek, humble, good, merciful, compassionate, obedient, self-controlled, chaste, patient, devoted to the Creator of creation with all your being constantly, all your life, so that you may inherit eternal life with God in heaven. I thank You, Lord, that You have gifted and honored me with mind and word, creating me as a rational, verbal and free being, self-determining in life and activity, capable of sublime, holy thoughts and feelings that enliven me - understanding Yours - having a high goal in life. Man is god and man is nothing. Az rekh: you are gods by nature and sons of the Most High (Ps. 81:6). If I am not an imam of love, I am nothing (1 Cor. 13:2). God is love; man was created in the image of God, with a soul that loves its prototype - God and the one who is in the image - man. Dennitsa, having freely become the devil - the source of malice and envy, all sinful delusions, perverted a loving being - man - through disobedience to God and likened him to himself. Human nature was beautiful, truly divine at the beginning of creation, then fallen and corrupted. At the end of centuries, the most beautiful uncreated Word of God, the Hypostasis, deigned to take upon itself our human nature, except for sin, and lived among people for 33 and a half years, bore our infirmities, lived on earth, showing everyone an example of righteous living; went around preaching the true, heavenly teaching to everyone, but was subjected to reproaches, ridicule, and beatings; suffered, died on the cross and was resurrected according to humanity and again ascended to heaven with spiritual and immortal flesh, and will come again to earth to judge the living and the dead. With what respect should people treat their nature, redeemed from sin, curse and death, sanctified and strengthened, enlightened, exalted and deified by the grace of God, the word of God and the sacraments! How we must protect ourselves from all worldly confusion, all defilement (passion) of the flesh and spirit; what holiness to live in, what mutual love! (2 Cor. 7:1). God's intention for you, man, for your spiritual and physical life is always irrevocable and unchangeable: and the purpose for which you were created - with soul and body: remember why you were given mind and reason, heart, will, memory, the ability to imagine, imagine absent objects and faces, or seas, lakes, rivers, valleys, cities, etc.; remember with what intention the Creator gave you the senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch; why did he give you eyes, mouth, tongue, hands, feet, reproductive members, from which rational existence is given to creatures like you; remember the purpose of all the external and internal organs of the human body, wisely, expediently, unblemished, purely, graciously created, and use all your abilities, all organs and bodily feelings for the glory of God, wisely, expediently, in moderation, on time, purely, without mocking, without irritating them immoderately, illegally, contrary to the intention and will of Your Creator - and you will receive for your reasonable arrangement of earthly life long and prosperous life on earth and eternally blessed in heaven. The human soul was created in the image and likeness of God - the highest honor and dignity: holiness and light, righteousness, simplicity, goodness, prayer, fiery love for God were innate to it; God Himself dwelt in the first men until their shameful and disastrous fall; The Holy Spirit adorned them, enlightened them, and consoled them. Through the fall, the soul completely changed: it became sinful, gloomy, crafty, self-loving, and not God-loving, carnal, proud, evil, envious, disobedient, unloving, self-seeking, lascivious. But she was granted repentance, as if she had been deceived, stolen from the fallen murderer the devil; and she can brightly rise from her fall by the grace and bounties of God. Brothers and sisters who repent! I draw your attention to the nature and qualities of our soul: our soul is an immortal spirit, created by God in His image and likeness. And God is infinite truth, truth and beauty unspeakable. And the human soul must be all righteous, true, and not false, not hypocritical; everything is beautiful, just as beautiful is the Divine, who created all creatures wisely and beautifully. But she extremely disfigured herself, corrupted herself with sin and surrendered to temporary and eternal death; and it could and could remain so forever and ever, if the Lord, who created us, had not had mercy on us and saved us with His passion and death, if He had not planted His Holy Church on earth for enlightenment, purification, sanctification and salvation, giving it shepherds and all the saving sacraments and worship, all the means of grace for salvation. We are members of this Church, we are the verbal sheep of this holy and chosen flock, we must live in accordance with our high election. The beauty of the human soul consists of: sincere and true faith, prayer, meekness, humility, kindness, humility, obedience, goodness, unhypocrisy, simplicity, abstinence, purity, chastity, patience, willing service to others in righteousness and truth, love and devotion to God, perfect, selfless. The righteous souls will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of Heaven, so beautiful they will be. Read the lives of the saints and see how beautiful their souls were. Sins and passions disgrace and defile the soul: pride, conceit, deceit, self-love, self-pity, anger, malice, irritability, envy, greed, earthly addiction, love of things, ambition, intemperance, gluttony, laziness, deceit, insincerity, coldness towards God and neighbors, fornication lusts and all adultery. The human soul is wide and deep. Deep is the heart of man above all others, and who searches it? it is like a deep river, clean or unclean, or a deep lake, or a rotten swamp, in which all sorts of reptiles live. Everything that Your hands have created, Lord, is pure, beautiful, wholesome, unblemished, convenient for use and action, intended in the thoughts of the Creator and Creator and our God, especially the body of man, man and woman, this marvelously beautiful and pure church of the Divine. Do you not know, it is said, that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, which you have from God, and which you carry your own? (1 Cor. 6:19). Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Cor. 3:16). - Why does it seem to a person to be a tempting occasion and an incitement to sin, especially the body of a woman - this animated, beautiful laboratory church, in which, by the wisdom of the Creator, the truly marvelous, wise and beautiful organism of the human body is conceived and created, the church to which we all owe our lives and our bodily church, in which our immortal, rational soul lives, which must eternally glorify its Creator, who gives us rational existence and who showed us His world - heaven and earth, with everything that is on them, to the glory of His Holy Name; the church through which we do so many useful, necessary and beautiful things in the community! The enemy, through depraved people, lets women's charms into the eyes of everyone without any shyness or fear; female nudity in all sorts of seductive and bizarre forms is published in many magazines. Today I tore up a sheet of a magazine that depicted this seductive nudity. But did the Lord create such a magnificent woman’s body for seduction? Isn’t she our shrine, praise and honor? Isn't this our universal human blindness? Shouldn’t everyone reverence the works of the Creator’s hands—the most pure works of the most pure hands? Do we have respect for ourselves, for our personality? Do we forget whose hands we are? The crown of Whose creation and Which Creator? Holy saints and saints of God, holy men and women and virgins of all centuries and all peoples, who honored their nature with a virtuous life and shone on earth and in heaven with the lightness and holiness of their life - come, denounce modern frivolous men and women who have gone wild due to passions, feeding on their temptations and lusts and disgracing human nature! Announce to them the terrible judgment of God for the trampling and desecration of their churches not made by hands, and protect still uncorrupted people from the threatening corruption through the modern free and shameless press! The environment is to blame - home, comradely, social, in which it is not customary to have and read the Word of God; Only secular, vain reading is accepted, and only secular conversations are conducted, for whoever is rich in something shares that in conversation. All members of the human body, like all animate creatures, planted according to the reason and will of the all-good, all-wise, most pure Artist of the Lord God, are useful and holy, pure, unblemished, necessary for the existence and well-being of people and animals, as well as for their decoration and splendor. All the good that the Lord has created. Here before my eyes is a picture with the naked most beautiful women in the most tempting poses. Passionate flesh is agitated, irritated by voluptuousness, inflamed by lust. And spiritual wisdom says: why are you worried, stupid? Calm down: glorify the Creator at the sight of this wonderful beauty, this wondrous plasticity of the human body, because here the wisdom, goodness, beauty, and greatness of the Artist-Creator were revealed, Who created such a body holy, pure, wholesome, unblemished, incorruptible, not for the sake of bliss, but for pure, righteous, honest, holy use and for the glorification of the Creator. After all, the body of a woman is an artist’s model for you, human being, prepared to form you according to this artistic, wise, beautiful model, tempting you with your own, essentially, body; for in such a body, as in an artist’s studio, your own body, male or female, will be poured out or exhausted. When I said this to myself, all lust disappeared. I became calm and was no longer at all tempted by the naked body of a woman, but glorified the Lord, who wisely created everything. What a close connection between man, his physical nature, and all visible nature! In winter, the body anticipates thaws or frosts, snow and storms, clear days and bad weather. Before storms or snow, your teeth or head hurt, or sometimes you feel pain in your side; and in spring, summer and autumn - before the winds and rains, especially the northern winds make you feel heavy. And in calm, clear, windy weather you feel good, light, cheerful. Through nature, the Lord both punishes and has mercy on us.