РОСА ИЗБАВЛЕНИЯ ОТ СЛЕЗ

“As his mother comforts someone, so will I comfort you” (Is. 66:13). In the Chernigov castle lived the captain of the army of His Tsar's Majesty Andrei Rachkevich with his wife of the Roman faith. His daughter, in swaddling clothes from a severe illness, was mute and blind, her eyes were covered with scabs and were swollen with pus... Her father and mother, already approaching death, brought her, crying, with faith to the Elias Monastery and laid her in front of the miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, warmly praying for the healing of their daughter. At that time, according to custom, the Akathist to the Mother of God was read collectively; it was Saturday. And so, while reading it, this young woman, wrapped in shrouds, began to emit a plaintive voice and, freeing her hands from the shrouds, began to wipe her eyes. The parents rejoiced and, having lifted their daughter from the ground, discovered that the scales of scabs from her eyes had fallen off, and the child herself became healthy throughout her body. Seeing this, everyone who happened here gave glory to God and the Mother of God. Isaiah prophesied: “At this mountain they will drink joy, they will drink wine” (Is. 25:6). I don’t ask you, prophet, at which mountain “they will drink joy, drink wine,” when I see such drinking in Mount Boldinskaya. The drink I’m talking about is the grace of the Most Holy Virgin, miraculously flowing from Her icon. This is our joy, this is our wine, which everyone drinks, flowing undoubtedly. The sad person comes here and drinks joy, the mourner comes here and drinks consolation, the sick person comes here and drinks health, the weak person comes here and drinks strength, the sinner comes here and drinks salvation. The righteous come and drink hope, the wicked come and drink chastity, the hopeless come and drink hope, the ignorant come and drink reason. All those who flow in drink from the abundance of grace, Her stream of spiritual sweetness. She is the river of God, filled with gifts, from Her fullness we too will receive. David narrates that “wine makes glad the heart of a man” (Ps. 103:15). But what wine gladdens the heart as much as You, O Mary, Vine of the true Grape! You are “the cup that draws joy” (Akathist, ikos 11). The cup is good, shaken down, and abundant in abundance. You water the righteous with a whole cup of joy, and the sinners with those drops that pour out from the fullness of the cup. But at least give us thirsty drops to drink, for if “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (Mark 7:28), those same dogs also drink from the drops spilling from the cup of Your mercy—and that is enough for them. After all, a single drop of Your grace is as powerful as a whole cup to gladden the heart. Saint John writes that “Jesus began miracles in Cana of Galilee” (John 2:11), turning water into wine, and revealed His glory. May I be allowed to say that my Lord created the beginning of His miracles in the Most Pure Virgin Mary. So the Church reads to Her, praising: “Rejoice, the miracles of Christ have begun!” (Akathist, ikos 2). Here is the basis of all signs and wonders: “Rejoice, His commandments are chief!” (Akathist, ikos 2). Here the Lord revealed His glory, Seraphim moved into the womb of the Most Glorious without comparison and created the beginning of our salvation and the manifestation of the eternal mystery. There, He placed His best wine at the end of the wedding feast, when many might already be drunk. Here, this mental Wine, His Most Pure Mother, puts at the beginning of our thirst, when we thirst for salvation, when we thirst for help in troubles, when we thirst for consolation in sorrows - it gives it to us who are thirsty, as thirsty as “a doe thirsts for springs of water” (Ps. 41:2). The wedding wine temporarily cheered the grooms’ friends, the same Wine cheers forever. If wine was made from water there, then here all the waters of our sorrows, sorrows and ailments are transformed into wine of joy, joy and health. O Most Pure One! “Fill my heart with joy, giving birth to Your incorruptible joy, giving birth to the guilty one!” (Canon, canto 5). There are two blindnesses - physical and mental, but the second is worse than the first. Although bodily blindness seems evil to everyone because, along with the light, it takes away all joy, as Tobit said: “What joy will it be for me if I sit in darkness and do not see the heavenly light” (Tob. 10), however, it is temporary, like human life. Life will end, and after death a person will begin to see “unflickering light” (3 Ezra 2:35). There is no evil in that bodily blindness, for it benefits the soul and helps salvation: by taking away sight, the reason for sin is taken away - the heart never lusts if the eye does not show, and when something reaches the heart through the eye, it will not soon come out of it. That’s why Saint Gregory says: “An image that has entered through the eyes and become attached to the heart, even out of great need you cannot tear it off with your hands.” And the ancient Roman wise man Seneca, consoling a certain blind man, says that blindness is partly innocence, and the eyes are the leaders of sins. “You cry,” he says, “that you have ruined your eyes, - oh, how many lusts are blocked from reaching you, how many things you will not see that you should not see! Or don’t you know that blindness is partly innocence? The eyes show uncleanness to whom, to whom houses, to whom possessions and all kinds of evil - truly, they are the leaders of sins.” If the eyes are so harmful to the soul, then blindness, which removes the cause of the harm, is not unhelpful, but even salutary. And spiritual blindness... Oh, how evil and harmful to the soul! It takes away that in which all the joy, all the blissful pleasure of the saints of God, in which all their labors have peace, all their deeds wear crowns, all virtues receive praise and reward - this is the vision of the face of the Lord, for it is the end and refuge of the entire sorrowful path along which someone walks for nothing else, but only to see the face of the Lord. “When will I come and appear before the face of God? I will be satisfied when Your glory appears to me” (Ps. 41:3, 16:15). Spiritual blindness deprives us of all this. The wicked will not see Your glory, O Christ our God (see Isa. 26:10), which in itself is worse than any evil. For just as seeing the face of the Lord is more blessed than all heavenly bliss, so not seeing Him is more cruel than all the torments of hell. This is how Saint Chrysostom reasons: “If someone saw a thousand hells, he would say that there is nothing more cruel than to be expelled from the blessed glory, and to be hated by Christ, and to hear from Him: “I don’t know you” (Matthew 25:12).” Mental blindness is not self-knowledge, not foreseeing future troubles: death, judgment, Gehenna - and all mortal sins and passions, when someone gets used to them and does not want to come to their senses. About such spiritual blindness, Wisdom says: “Their malice blinded them, and they did not know the mysteries of God, and did not expect reward for holiness” (Wisdom 2:21-22). And the prophet Daniel: “They perverted their minds and turned away their eyes, so as not to look at heaven” (Dan. 13:9). And the psalmist: “They fixed their eyes to rush to the ground” (Ps. 16:11). Thus the Lord does not show His face to the blind, for He says in Jeremiah: “I will turn my back to them, not my face” (Jer. 18:17). Doctors do not order a healthy person to peer into a sick or blind person, so that the eyes of healthy people are not damaged. And the heavenly Physician turns away His face with His bright eyes from our blindness: “I will hide,” He says, “My face [from them] on that day, for all their iniquities that they will commit” (Deut. 31:18). When the Lord turns His face away from us, then all troubles befall us, which He Himself reveals to us: “My anger will burn against them in that day, and I will leave them and hide My face from them, and they (the people of Israel) will be destroyed, and many disasters and sorrows will befall them” (Deut. 31:17). That is why David complains: “But You turned away Your face, and I was confused: “When You turn away Your face, they will be troubled” (Ps. 29:8, 103:29). Let us also rise up to the good Doctor, who enlightens every person, with our spiritual blindness, praying: “Blinded by the eyes of my soul, I come to You, Christ, as blind from birth. “Do not cast me away from Your presence. Do not turn Your face away from Your servant, for I grieve. My heart said to you: I will seek the Lord. My face has sought you; I will seek your face, O Lord” (Ps. 50:13, 68:18, 26:8). He who is blinded by his soul is also blinded by his body. The grave thief stole away, having come to his senses of illness. Abba John told us the following: One day, having entered with Father Sophronius into the vestibule of the great Alexandrian church and finding no one there except three sitting blind men, we quietly approached them and sat down in silence. The blind men, not expecting any outside presence, talked among themselves. And one said to the other: “In truth, brother, tell me, how did you become blind?” He answered: “Back in my youth, when I was a shipowner and we were sailing from Africa, during a storm I became blind because of a thorn in my eyes.” And he said to another blind man: “How are you blind?” He answered: “I was a gutter (stove maker) and became blind from fiery rage.” And they asked the third: “How are you blind?” He answered: “I will tell you the truth, brothers: when I was young, I did not want to do anything with my hands and, not having anything to eat, I stole. One day, having already done a lot of evil, I stood in the market place and saw that they were carrying a dead man for burial, dressed in rich vestments. I followed them to see where he would be buried. They brought it to St. John's Church and laid it there. Arriving at night, I took off the robe that was on him, leaving only the tunic, and was about to leave when the evil spirit began to inspire me: “Take the tunic too, it is very good.” Damned, I returned, intending to take off my tunic and leave my naked body. Suddenly the dead man rose up, sat down in front of me and extended his hands to me; with his fingers he tore my face and took out both eyes. Then, damned, I left everything with much sorrow and barely ran away from the tomb. Behold, my brethren, I have told you how I became blind.” As soon as we heard this, Father Sophrony took me and we left. And my father said to me: “Truly, Father John, we have received much benefit today.” This was written for the benefit of those who hear: so that everyone will see that he who does evil will not hide from God. You might be interested in: