События в шестом столетии первого тысячелетия

When 532 years passed from the beginning of the world, then the first equation of the unequally flowing celestial circles and their entry into the previous order of circulation took place. For in 532 years the solar circle, containing 28 years, managed to turn around 19 times, and the lunar circle, containing 19 years, completed its revolution 28 times; and again the sun and moon were equal in their circles, as they were at the beginning of their creation. And they again, each in their own order, make circles until 532 years are completed, according to the number of which the Easter key from the Slavic alphabet was later compiled. The first completion of these years and the revolution of the circles, which brought the sun and moon into (original) equal course, coincided with the three hundred and second year of the life of Seth and the ninety-eighth year of the life of Enosov. At present, our time of these celestial circles, ending in 532 years, is considered, according to Eastern reckoning, to be the fourteenth revolution from the beginning of the world. How many more conversions of these circles there will be before the day of the Last Judgment of God is unknown, just as our Lord said in the Gospel: “No one knows about that day and hour, not even the angels of heaven (Matthew 24:36). Let's think about the following here. During the circulation of those heavenly circles for more than seven thousand years and to this day, how many people, cities and kingdoms have turned or, better, turned, passed and turned into nothing: they were, and they are no longer there, disappeared, perished, “like the sleep of one who rises” (Ps. 72:20)! How long will the century be after the end of this visible world, a century that will have no end and which Saint David often recalls, saying: “I thought about the first days and remembered the eternal years” (Ps. 76:6)! Remembering, he says, the past summers, I also remember the eternity that has to be in endless life! And when calculating the years that have elapsed, it is not useless for us to remember the incalculable eternity of eternity, as well as the brevity of this temporary life of ours, quickly transforming and passing away. What is eternity that has no end? And what is our life, which ends after a short time? Jesus of Sirach, speaking about both, about eternity and our temporary life, says: “The number of a man’s days is many hundred years, like a drop of sea water” (Sir. 18:8). We are surprised when we hear about a hundred-year-old man, and we say: this man is long-lived! For, according to the Psalmist, “the days of our years are seventy years in them, even if we are able, eighty years” (Ps. 89:10), and few people have the opportunity to live a hundred years; however, a hundred-year life compared to eternity (according to Sirach’s reasoning) is as small as a drop of water is small compared to the entire sea. What's bigger than the ocean? And what is smaller than a single drop of water? What is longer than eternity? And what is shorter than real life? “What kind of life is ours? - says the Apostle James. “There is a couple, even if it appears a little, then it disappears” (James 4:14). Not only a hundred years, but also a thousand years compared to eternity, like a drop against the sea. St. John Chrysostom talks about this well, saying: “Tell me, if someone for a hundred years sees a good dream in one night and in the dream enjoys many dishes, and then, having awakened, is tormented for a hundred years, can you compare one night of that dream with a hundred years? No way. Think in the same way about the future life, which is a one-time dream for a hundred years, that is, the present life in comparison with the future life; even more, she is like a small drop against the immeasurable abyss; such is the millennium compared to that future endless age.” But all the times and years of the visible world, starting from Adam and even until the terrible Day of Judgment, in comparison with eternity, are like one drop against the great ocean. Who can count the water drops in the sea? And who can comprehend in his mind the number of years of eternity? Who will exhaust the whole sea with a handful? And who will comprehend the endless eternity in which we will have to live after this temporary life? But woe to our negligence, for we prefer our temporary, short and insignificant life to endless eternity and, neglecting eternal life, we delve so deeply into a short-lived life, as if we would live in it forever! We love the fleeting, we reject the everlasting; We are looking for the temporary, we are not concerned about the eternal; We have bitterness as if it were sweetness, but we never even think about or desire the true heavenly sweetness, which delights forever! Let us also consider this wisdom of Sirach, that he compares a hundred-year human life to a drop of water, not of some great river, in which the waters are sweet, pleasant and healthy to drink, but to a drop of sea water, which is bitter and which is impossible to drink. And in this Sirach depicted human life not only in its short duration, but also in the fact that it is filled with sorrow from troubles. For in it there is sickness, sorrow, sorrow, sighing and suffering; there is enmity, quarrels, persecution, bitterness, envy and hatred, partly from our own, and partly from strangers; there is poverty, poverty, hunger, nakedness and incessant labor. Even if someone is rich in property, he has no rest from the cares of life, neither day nor night, nor can he sleep peacefully, although he rests on a soft bed, and under the precious clothes that he wears, he has a heart full of thorns. Does anyone think of enjoying the sweets of this world, but in that very sweetness he is often upset, in addition to the fact that sinful sweetness prepares unbearable sorrow; for what delights here is temporary, but what will torment in hell is eternal. If anyone is a great ruler, he is on guard everywhere, fearing that some enemy will rise up against him and steal his power. And there is no happiness in the world for which one would not have to fear that it will change and fall; there is no such joy here that would not be dissolved by sadness; there is no joy that is not accompanied by sorrow; there is no joy that is not followed by lamentation; there is no laughter that is not followed by crying and sighing. All temporary life is one bitterness; she is bitter as the sea, and small as a drop: why do we love her more than eternity and the sweetness that God has prepared for those who love Him? You might be interested in: