О терпении

Whoever wants to please God and become an heir of God by faith, so that he too may be called the son of God, born of the Holy Spirit, must first of all, taking up generosity and patience, courageously endure the sorrows, disasters and needs that he encounters - whether it be bodily illnesses and suffering, or reproaches and insults from people, or various invisible sorrows that evil spirits bring to the soul with the intention of leading it into relaxation and negligence. and impatience, and thereby prevent it from entering life; They guide God’s economy, allowing each soul to be tempted by various sorrows, so that those who love God with all their souls will become evident if they courageously endure everything that the evil one brings, and do not lose hope in God, but always, by grace, with faith and great patience, await deliverance; therefore, such people come to a state capable of withstanding any temptation and, thus, having received the promise, they become worthy of the Kingdom. Therefore, the soul, following the Word of the Lord, must, according to what is written, daily take upon itself its cross (Matthew 10:38), that is, be ready to endure for Christ all sorrow and every temptation, open or secret, and always be confirmed in the Lord by trust, because it is in His power that the soul, by His permission, be subjected to sorrow, and by Him be delivered from all temptation and sorrow. And if the soul does not take courage and does not endure with firmness every temptation and every sorrow, but becomes upset, despondent, indignant, anxious and careless about the feat, or even despairs, as if it no longer has hope for deliverance (plunging the soul into despondency and negligence is the trick of the same evil one), then such a soul, not retaining within itself the hope that awaits the mercy of God with undoubted faith, of course, does not is made worthy of life because she did not follow all the saints and did not walk in the footsteps of the Lord. Look and observe how from ancient times the fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles and martyrs, having gone through this path of sorrows and temptations, were able to please God with this, courageously enduring every temptation and every sorrow, in difficult situations they rejoiced, trusting in the expected reward, as the Scripture says: “Son, if you begin to work for the Lord God, prepare your soul guide your heart and endure it” (Sir. 2:1-2). And the apostle also says: “If you are partakers of all things, then you are adulterers and not sons” (Heb. 12:8); And the Lord says: “Blessed are you, when they revile you and destroy you and say all kinds of evil things against you, rejoice and be glad for My sake, for your reward is abundant in heaven.” Of course, they are expelled either openly from people, or secretly from evil spirits, because they oppose the soul that loves God, plunge it into various sorrows in order to prevent it from “entering the belly” (Matthew 18:8). We are also subjected to exile so that by enduring all sorrow, maintaining hope to the end and witnessing that souls long for deliverance, we may be tested to see whether we really love God. On the contrary, a soul that is despondent, careless and weakened in hope will turn out to really not love God. Various sorrows and temptations show which souls are worthy and which are unworthy, which have faith, hope and patience and which do not; so that if souls turn out to be skillful in everything, faithful and worthy, enduring to the end and maintaining the hope of faith, then, having been granted deliverance by grace, in all justice they will become heirs of the Kingdom. Therefore, every soul that desires to please God must first of all maintain courageous patience and hope; in this case she will be able to resist every uprising of the evil one and sorrow. For God does not allow a soul that trusts in Him and is patient to be tempted to such an extent that it reaches despair and falls into such temptations and sorrows that it cannot endure, as the apostle says: “But God is faithful, who will not leave you to be tempted more... but will also create with the temptation an excess, so that you are able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13), because the evil one does not he tempts the soul to the extent and suppresses it with grief to the extent he wants, but to the extent allowed to him by God. Only the soul, enduring everything courageously, holds on to the hope of faith, expecting help and intercession from God; and it is impossible that she should be abandoned. On the contrary, the more the soul strives, resorting to God with faith and hope and undoubtedly expecting help and deliverance from Him, the sooner the Lord delivers it from all sorrow that possesses (possesses) it. For He knows how much the soul must be subjected to testing and temptation, and He allows it so much, if only it remains patient to the end and is not put to shame, as it is said: “Tribulation is the work of endurance, but patience is a skill, and skill is hope; but hope does not put you to shame” (Rom. 5:3-5). And again: “like God’s servants, in great patience, in sorrows, in troubles, in troubles...”. (2 Cor. 6:4). And the Lord says: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22); and again: “In your patience gain your souls” (Luke 21:19). And in another place he says: “Who is the faith of the Lord and is ashamed? Or who would abide in His fear and remain? Or who called Him and despised Him” (Sir.2:10)? People who do not have much sense and intelligence are able to test and discern what kind of weight and load each animal, for example, a hinny or a camel, can carry, and they lay the burden according to the animal’s strength. If the potter, having made the vessels, does not put them in the oven to burn them to make them hard, then they are not fit for human use, but he knows how long they need to be kept in the fire until they become fit, and does not leave them in the oven beyond the proper time, so that they do not become unfinished and unfit for use. So, if people have so much discernment and knowledge in the reasoning of the corruptible and the visible, then how much more does God, incomprehensible in knowledge and understanding and perfect Wisdom, know how much need the souls have in trials and temptations, desiring to please Him and desiring to gain eternal life, so that, thus, courageously, with readiness and hope, having endured all sorrow to the end, then become well-skilled and capable of receiving the Kingdom of Heaven? Just as hemp is not suitable for spinning the thinnest threads from it unless it is beaten many times, and the more it is beaten, the purer and more convenient it becomes for yarn, so the God-loving soul, being subjected to many trials and temptations and courageously enduring sorrows, becomes purer and more suitable for the spiritual work of thinning, and, finally, is worthy to inherit the Heavenly region of the Kingdom. Just as a newly made vessel, just thrown into the fire, is still unsuitable for human use, or as a baby is not capable of worldly affairs, because he does not build cities, cannot plant, sow, or do any other worldly work, for he is still a baby, so souls who have become partakers of God’s grace, due to their infancy, are left by the grace of the Lord in the delight and peace of the spirit, since they have not yet They have experienced various temptations and tribulations from evil spirits, in which patience is revealed, but they are still infancy and, I will say, unfit for the Kingdom, as it is said: “If you are without punishment, you are all partakers of Him, for you are adulterers, and not sons” (Heb. 8:12). Thus, sorrows and temptations are useful to a person, they make the soul skillful and strong if it courageously, willingly, with trust in God and with hope endures everything that happens, with undoubted faith expecting deliverance from the Lord and His mercy. And it is impossible for her not to receive the promises of the Spirit and deliverance from vicious passions, but she will be granted this as she is well-skilled and faithful in patience, maintaining her trust in the Lord to the end. The holy martyrs, as we see, endured many torments and, approaching death, with trust in the Lord they stood firm in their good confession, and thus, having proven themselves well-skilled, they were deemed worthy to receive crowns of righteousness. And those who endured more torment, and moreover, the most painful ones, acquired greater glory and boldness before God; and those who, fearing sorrows and scourgings, apostatized from the faith, not fully maintaining a good confession, turn out to be timid and embarrassed both here and on the day of Judgment. In the same way, souls given over to sorrows for testing, invisibly and in various ways tormented by evil spirits, both secretly, by the internal burden of sorrows, or by evil thoughts, and openly, by bodily suffering - if they courageously endure, maintain hope and wait for reward from the Lord, then they will be awarded the crowns of righteousness, having within themselves the same deliverance, and on the day of Judgment they will acquire the same boldness before God as the martyrs. For the torment in sorrows is the same, some suffer on the cross, others suffer from evil spirits acting on them. And the more sorrows and attacks from the evil one endure, maintaining hope to the end, the more glory they acquire for themselves from God. And here again, in the hope of their aspirations, they will be delivered and will be granted the consolations of the Spirit, and there they will become heirs of eternal blessings and the Kingdom. And those souls who succumb to timidity and fear, unable to endure sorrows, and even reach the point of negligence, impatience and despair, are led astray from the righteous path and do not wait until the end for the Lord’s mercy. How will those who have turned out to be unrighteous, be able to obtain eternal life? For every soul, for the sake of the Lord, who died for us, until death itself is obliged to be generous, endure to the end and maintain hope in Him, in order to thus be worthy of eternal salvation. For everyone who wants to completely get rid of eternal Gehenna, in which sinners are tormented, and to gain the eternal Kingdom, here constantly endures the sorrows of Gehenna, due to temptations brought by the evil one. And if they endure to the end, expecting the Lord’s mercy with faith, then, by grace, they are delivered from temptations and sorrows, rewarded with internal communion with the Holy Spirit, and there they will be delivered from eternal Gehenna and inherit the eternal Kingdom of the Lord. The Lord Himself determined that this was “the way that leads into the belly,” according to what is written: “a narrow gate and a strait way,” so there are “few” who walk along it (Matthew 7:14). Therefore, since such hope is set before us and such promises are given by the untruthful God, let us courageously endure every rebellion of the evil one and every sorrow, trusting in what has been prepared for us in heaven. For whatever sorrows you endure for the Lord’s sake, do they have any comparison with the future, eternal life promised to us, or with the consolation of the Holy Spirit, given from above to souls who remain in patience, or with deliverance from sinful darkness and with those debts that lie on us from the multitude of our sins, as it is said: “We are judged, we are punished from the Lord, lest we be condemned with the world” ( 1 Corinthians 11:32); and again: “the passions of this present time are unworthy of the glory that desires to be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). As courageous warriors, we will be ready to die for our King. When we were in the world, when we were busy with everyday affairs, then we did not endure so much, we were not subjected to such sorrows, but now, since we decided to please the Lord, the evil one raises such uprisings, temptations, and sorrows against us. Do you see what we endure for the sake of the Lord, because the evil one is jealous of us, trying to seduce us from the path of life, lead us into relaxation and negligence, so that, having pleased God, we would not be saved. So, no matter how much the evil one rises up against us, we can find courage in patience. If we are firm, zealous, ready, having made a vow, to endure even to death, out of trust in Christ, then all the machinations of the enemies will be destroyed, because our protector and intercessor is Christ, who gives patience to us who grieve and trust in Him, but puts them to shame, while from the Lord we accept a reward for our labors, that is, the Kingdom. Let us be like anvils; even if they beat us, we will not show even traces of relaxation, negligence and despondency from the scourges and temptations. Taking blows and being persecuted, we will defeat the enemy with patience. For this is how our Lord accomplished the feat: scourged, reviled, driven out, ridiculed, spat upon, and finally, He was betrayed by the lawless to a dishonorable death on the Cross; and He endured all this for the sake of our salvation, leaving us a model of life, so that along the path of sorrow, temptation and death He walked, those who truly believe in Him and want to be joint heirs with Him would follow the same path. So that just as He, after many sufferings, later died on the Cross, crucified, won, and was slain, killed and condemned sin, putting down the opposing forces in the flesh, as it is said: “He brought down the principalities and powers, and brought them to shame with boldness, exposing them in Himself” (Col. 2:15), so we courageously and willingly, even to the point of death, endure every uprising of the evil one and every sorrow. If we resist the enemy with faith, patience and trust in the Lord, then, having become well-skilled through this, here too we will be worthy of His deliverance and filled with the holiness of the Spirit, and there we will become heirs of eternal life, because in spiritual struggle, victory over the opponent is acquired through suffering and death. By willingly suffering and killing ourselves for the sake of the Lord, we will defeat the enemy. Therefore, consider all sorrow and all temptations not difficult and cruel, but easy. Let us resist every uprising of the enemy, with lust always before our eyes death for the Lord; and as the Lord said, daily lifting up the cross, that is, death, we will follow Him and easily endure all sorrow, both secret and obvious. For if we expect to endure death for the Lord and always have it before our eyes with desire, then how much more will we endure sorrows with ease, willingness and joy, no matter how severe they may be. For if we impatiently consider sorrows to be heavy and burdensome, it is because we do not have before our eyes death for the Lord, and our thoughts are not always directed towards Him with love. Whoever desires to be an heir of Christ, in accordance with this, let him desire to suffer as Christ suffered. Those who love Christ are recognized by this, that they endure every sorrow that befalls them courageously and willingly, out of trust in Christ. So, let us pray to the Lord that He will give us the understanding to know His will and to zealously carry it out with all patience and generosity, in the joy that He Himself gives us, strengthening us for every pleasing work, so that, being found to be skillful and worthy of Him, we may receive eternal salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be glory, power and strength forever and ever! Amen. What will careless, lazy and indifferent people boast about? Is it really his effeminacy, carelessness and destruction? Woe to them for being careless. Come, my friends, let us make an effort; Come, let us fall before God, let us continually weep and shed tears before Him, so that He may grant us spiritual enlightenment. Understand the machinations of our enemy and adversary, this hater of good, who arranges in our path inclinations and temptations, the harm of covetousness, the exaltation of this age, carnal pleasure, as well as the desire for a long-term continuation of this life, fear of exploits, laziness in prayer, sleep during psalmody and carnal peace. As diligent as he is, we are so careless and careless; no matter how insidious he is, so careless are we - although we know that our days are shortened, the time has come, the Lord of glory is coming in the splendor of His beauty, with the terrible Powers of His Kingdom, to reward everyone according to his deeds. I am afraid, my brothers, that the word of the Lord will not be fulfilled on us: “from the east and the west they will come and sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven.” But you will be “cast out” (Matthew 8:11–12). I beg You, Christ, the Light of truth, the birth of the Blessed Father, the image and radiance of His hypostasis, sitting at the right hand of His majesty, the incomprehensible Son, the unsearchable (incomprehensible) Christ, the unknown God, the praise and joy of those who love You, my life, Christ, save me, a sinner, in Your Kingdom and do not reward me according to my deeds, but save me according to Thy grace and merciful me according to Thy compassion. For You are blessed and glorified forever and ever! Amen. You might be interested in: