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Brethren! Let us take a closer look in the Gospel at the character of the Lord God our Savior Jesus Christ. We will see that He is never tempted by sinners, no matter how serious their sins are. There is also no example in the entire Gospel of the holy Apostles being tempted by anyone. On the contrary, the Pharisees are constantly tempted, they are tempted by the All-Perfect Himself, by God made man; they are tempted to the point of condemning Him as a criminal, putting Him to death by blasphemy; The Savior is crucified on the cross in the midst of two thieves! From this the conclusion naturally follows that the tendency to be tempted is a serious illness of the soul, and is a sign of a Pharisee. One must carefully watch the heart and mortify in it the feeling of temptation towards one’s neighbor with spiritual reasoning gleaned from the Gospel. The Gospel is a sacred and all-holy book! Just as the sun is imprinted in clear waters, so Christ is depicted in the Gospel. Let him who wishes to see Christ purify his mind and heart by repentance! He will see in the Gospel Christ, the true God, the Savior of fallen men; will see in the Gospel what qualities a disciple of Jesus should have, called to learn meekness and humility from the Lord Himself. In these God-imitating virtues he will find blissful peace for his soul. The Lord once ascended into the house of the publican Matthew, transforming the publican into an Apostle, and the incarnate God sat down to eat with sinners. The Pharisees, seeing this, were offended. “Why,” they said to Jesus’ disciples, “why did your Teacher eat and drink from tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9:11). Tell me first, Pharisees, why do you call these people sinners? Wouldn’t it be closer to call them lucky and blessed, Angels, Cherubim, because God was pleased to recline in their company? Wouldn’t it be better for you to say: “We are sinners too!” and accept us, O merciful Jesus, at Your feet. You, the Knower of the Heart and the true Judge, preferred these sinners to us, having passed us by, You lay down with them. It is evident that our sins before You are heavier than theirs. You recline with them: allow us to at least fall at Your feet.” There is no holy stench of humility in the dark righteous, rich in the righteousness of fallen human nature, in the counterfeit righteousness of the world, in the righteousness of demons. They boldly condemn the Lord, condemn the sinners He accepts, who are thus made true righteous - they reject the Lord, saying: “Your Teacher.” They make it clear by this that they do not recognize Him as “their Teacher.” The Lord’s answer is the answer to all the beginnings of the Pharisees’ hidden illness, to the entire state of their souls. This answer contains a terrible condemnation and rejection from the face of God of all imaginary human righteousness, combined with the condemnation of one’s neighbor. “They do not demand,” said the Lord, “the doctor’s health, but those who are sick. Come and learn what to eat: I want mercy, not sacrifice. For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:12–13). One day, on the Sabbath day, the Lord walked with His holy disciples and Apostles between fields sown with grain. The disciples felt hungry and began to pick ears of corn; washing them with their hands, they cleaned the grains that they ate. The Pharisees, seeing this, said to the Lord: “Behold, your disciples are doing things that are not worthy to be done on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:2). The Lord, having mentioned David and the priests, of whom the first violated the ritual law on occasion, and the second violated the law according to the prescription of the law, again repeats to the Pharisees a formidable remark: “If they knew quickly what it is: I want mercy, and not sacrifice, they would no more quickly condemn the innocent” (Matthew 12:7). The feeling of temptation - how picky, how malicious! Pretends to adhere to the forms of the law with petty clarity, but tramples the essence of the law. Dark and blind Pharisee! Hear what the Lord says to you: “I want mercy.” Seeing your neighbor's shortcomings, have mercy on your neighbor: this is your ud! The weakness that you see in him today may become your weakness tomorrow. You are tempted only because you are proud and blind! You fulfill some external rules of the law, and for this you admire yourself; you despise and condemn your neighbors, in whom you notice the violation of certain little things, and you do not notice the fulfillment of great, hidden virtues, beloved by God, unknown to your arrogant, cruel heart. You didn't look at yourself contentedly; You didn’t see yourself: that’s the only reason you don’t recognize yourself as a sinner. This did not make your heart contrite, it did not fill you with repentance and humility; Because of this, you did not understand that, along with all other people, you need God’s mercy, salvation. It’s scary not to recognize yourself as a sinner! Jesus renounces those who do not recognize themselves as sinners: “I did not come,” He says, “to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” What bliss it is to admit that you are a sinner! Anyone who admits to being a sinner gains access to Jesus. What bliss it is to see your sins! What bliss it is to look into your heart! Whoever looks into his heart will forget that there are sinners on earth except him alone. If he ever looks at his neighbors, then everyone seems to him immaculate, beautiful, like Angels. Looking into himself, examining his sinful stains, he is convinced that for his salvation the only means is the mercy of God, that he is an inexcusable slave, not only for violation, but also for insufficient fulfillment of God’s commandments, for fulfillment that is more similar to distortion than to fulfillment. Needing mercy himself, he pours it out abundantly on his neighbors, and has only mercy for them. “If they knew quickly what it is: I want mercy, and not sacrifice, they would condemn the innocent no less quickly. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 12:7, 9:13). Our merciful Savior Lord Jesus Christ, who did not reject repentant tax collectors and harlots, did not disdain the Pharisees either: He came to heal man from all his ailments, and among them from pharisaism, which is especially incurable only because this disease recognizes and proclaims itself as a flourishing health, rejects the doctor and healing, itself wants to heal the illnesses of others, using to remove barely noticeable powder from gentle eyes are struck by heavy logs. A certain Pharisee invited the Lord to share a meal with him. “And he entered the house of the Pharisees and sat down” (Luke 7:36), the Gospel tells about the merciful Lord. It seems that the Pharisee, although he had zeal and some faith in the Lord, when receiving Him, he gave room for calculation as to what degree of greeting he would provide to the Guest. If there had been no calculation based on the consciousness of his righteousness and dignity, what would have prevented the Pharisee from running out to meet the Divine Visitor, falling with trepidation at His holy feet, placing his soul and heart under His feet. This was not done; The Pharisee missed the blessed opportunity to honor the Savior as Savior. A certain wife of that city, a well-known sinner, steals what was lost for herself. She hurries with a vessel of fragrant ointment to the house of the Pharisee, enters the church where the meal was held, begins to wash the Savior’s feet with tears, and wipe them with the hair of her head, kiss the Savior’s feet, and anoint them with the ointment. The blind Pharisee does not see the virtues taking place before his eyes, exposing the coldness and deadness of his heart. Temptation and condemnation move in his soul. He thinks: “If this were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of wife touches Him: for she is a sinner” (Luke 7:39). Why do you belittle God by calling Him only a prophet? Why do you call her a sinner who worships God better than you? Be afraid, be silent: the Creator is present! To Him belongs the judgment of His creatures; It is equally for Him to forgive five hundred and fifty denarii of a sinful debt: He is omnipotent and infinitely rich. The Pharisee usually leaves this out of his calculations! Seeing his neighbor's five hundred denarii in debt, he does not pay attention to his fifty, does not even consider them a debt, while the determination of the Divine Court proclaims that both of them have nothing to repay, that both of them equally need debt forgiveness. “To the one who has not to repay, give to both” (Luke 7:42). The lack of humility, which is the disease of Pharisaism, extremely impedes spiritual success. While those who have fallen into grave sins, with burning jealousy and contrition of spirit, bring repentance, forget the whole world, see their sin incessantly, and mourn it before God, the Pharisee’s eyes become double. His sin, which appears insignificant before him, does not attract his full attention. He remembers, knows some of his good deeds, and places hope in them. He sees the shortcomings of his neighbors; comparing them with his own, he recognizes his own as light and excusable. The more his own truth increases in his eyes, the more the grace-filled justification given to the repentant diminishes. This weakens and destroys the feeling of repentance. With the diminishing of the feeling of repentance, the procession to spiritual success becomes more difficult; with the destruction of the feeling of repentance, a person is seduced from the path of salvation to the path of conceit and self-delusion. He becomes alien to holy love for God and neighbors. “Her many sins are forgiven,” said the Lord about the blessed sinner, “for she loved much.” But little is left for him, he loves less” (Luke 7:47). Anyone infected with the disease of Pharisaism is deprived of spiritual success. The soil of his heart’s field is hard and does not bear harvest: for spiritual fruitfulness, a heart is necessary, cultivated by repentance, softened, moistened with tenderness and tears. Deprivation of prosperity is already significant damage! But the harm that comes from Pharisaism is not limited to the sterility of the soul: the deadly infection of Pharisaism is for the most part associated with the most disastrous consequences. Pharisaism not only makes a person’s good deeds fruitless, but directs them to evil in his soul, to his condemnation before God. The Lord depicted this in the parable of the “Pharisee and the tax collector” who prayed together in the church of God (Luke 18:10–14). The Pharisee, looking at himself, did not find reasons for repentance, for a feeling of heartfelt contrition; on the contrary, he found reasons to be pleased with himself, to admire himself. He saw himself as fasting, giving alms; but he did not see the vices that he saw, or thought to see in others, and by which he was tempted. I say “thought to see”: because temptation has big eyes; he also sees sins in his neighbor that are not in him at all, which his imagination, led by wickedness, invented for his neighbor. The Pharisee, in his self-delusion, brings praise to God for his state of mind. He hides his exaltation and it is hidden from him, under the guise of thanksgiving to God. Taking a superficial look at the Law, it seemed to him that he was a fulfiller of the Law, pleasing to God. He forgot that the commandment of the Lord, in the words of the Psalmist, “is very broad” (Ps. 119:96), that before God the very “heaven is unclean” (Job 15:15), that God does not take pleasure in sacrifices, or even burnt offerings, when they are not accompanied and promoted by contrition and humility of spirit (Ps. 50), that the Law of God must be implanted in the very heart in order to achieve true, blessed, spiritual righteousness. The manifestation of this righteousness begins in a person with a feeling of poverty of spirit (Ps. 39:9; Matt. 5:3). The vain Pharisee thinks of thanking and glorifying God: “God, I give you praise,” he says, “for I am not, like other men, predators, unrighteous, adulterers” (Luke 18:11). He counts the obvious sins that can be seen by everyone; but he doesn’t say a word about spiritual passions, about pride, deceit, hatred, envy, hypocrisy. And they are what constitute a Pharisee! They darken and deaden the soul, making it incapable of repentance! They destroy love for one's neighbor and give birth to temptation filled with coldness, pride and hatred! The vain Pharisee imagines thanking God for his good deeds; but God turns away from him; God pronounces a terrible sentence against him: “Everyone who exalts himself will humble himself” (Luke 18:14). When Pharisaism strengthens and matures and takes possession of the soul, its fruits are terrible. There is no lawlessness before which it would shudder, or to which it would not dare. The Pharisees dared to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees dared to call the Son of God possessed. The Pharisees allowed themselves to assert that God incarnate, the Savior who came to earth, was dangerous for the public welfare, for the civil life of the Jews. And why all these intertwined fictions? In order, under the cover of outward justice, under the guise of protecting the nationality, laws, religion, to satiate the insatiable malice with blood, to sacrifice blood to envy and vanity, in order to commit Deicide. Pharisaism is a terrible poison; Pharisaism is a terrible mental illness. Let us try to draw an image of a Pharisee, borrowing painting from the Gospel, so that everyone, peering at this terrible, monstrous image, can be carefully guarded according to the will of the Lord “from the leaven of the Pharisees” (Matthew 16:6): from the way of thinking, from the rules, from the mood of the Pharisees. The Pharisee, content with performing the outward rites of religion and performing some visible good deeds, which are not alien to the pagans, slavishly serves passions that he constantly tries to cover up, which he largely does not see in himself and does not understand, which produce in him complete blindness in relation to God and all Divine teaching. Knowledge, and therefore vision in oneself, of the actions of spiritual passions is achieved by repentance; but the Pharisee is inaccessible to the feeling of repentance. How can a heart that is satisfied with itself be contrite, touched, and humble? Incapable of repentance, he is incapable of seeing the light of God’s commandments, which enlighten the eyes of the mind. Although he is engaged in reading Scripture, although he sees these commandments in it, in his darkness he does not dwell on them: they elude his gaze, and he replaces them with his own absurd, ugly speculations. What could be stranger, more incongruous than the Pharisaic speculations mentioned in the Gospel! “Whoever swears by the church,” the Pharisees asserted, “is worth nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the church must eat” (Matthew 23:16). The Pharisee, abandoning the fulfillment of the commandments of God, which constitute the essence of the Law, strives for the refined fulfillment of external trifles, even if this was in obvious violation of the commandments. The holy commandments of God, in which there is eternal life, were left by the Pharisees without any attention, completely forgotten! “You will do ten,” the Lord told them, “the riot and copra and kimin, and forsaking the law, judgment and mercy and faith... The leaders are blind, watching out for mosquitoes, but devouring the wild ones” (Matthew 23:23-24). The most secretive of all spiritual passions is vanity. This passion, more than any other, camouflages itself before the human heart, giving it pleasure, which is often mistaken for consolation of conscience, for Divine consolation. And the Pharisee is leavened with vanity. He does everything for human praise; he loves that his alms, his fasting, and his prayer have witnesses. He cannot be a disciple of the Lord Jesus, who commands His followers to neglect human glory and to follow the path of humiliation, deprivation, and suffering. The cross of Jesus serves as a temptation for the Pharisee. He needs a Messiah, like Alexander the Great, or Napoleon I, with the loud glory of a conqueror, with trophies, with booty! The thought of heavenly, spiritual glory, of the glory of God, eternal, of eternity itself, is inaccessible to his soul, creeping on the earth, in earthly dust and decay. The Pharisee is a lover of money. His heart is where his treasure is. There is his faith, there are his feelings, there is hope, there is love! With his lips, with the edge of his tongue, he confesses God, but with his heart he rejects Him. He never feels the presence of God, does not see the providence of God, does not know by experience what the fear of God means. For his heart there is no God, and there are no neighbors. He is all earthly, all carnal, all in the power of spiritual passions, moved by them, controlled by them, drawn to all lawlessness, lives and acts solely for self-love. An idol of “I” is erected in this soul. Constant incense is burned to the idol, constant sacrifices are sacrificed. How can service to the all-holy God be combined in this soul with service to an abominable idol? This soul is in terrible desolation, in terrible darkness, in terrible deadness. This is a dark den, inhabited only by fierce beasts, or even more fierce robbers. This is a coffin, decorated on the outside for the sensual eyes of men, so easily deceived, inside filled with dead bones, stench, worms, everything unclean, God-hating. The Pharisee, being a stranger to God, has the need to appear before people as a servant of God; being filled with all iniquities, he has the need to appear virtuous before people; trying to satisfy his passions, he has the need to make his actions seem plausible. A Pharisee requires a disguise. Not at all wanting to be truly pious and virtuous, only wanting to be considered among people as such, the Pharisee clothed himself in hypocrisy. Everything in it is a composition, everything is fiction! His deeds, words, his whole life are a constant lie. His heart, like a dark hell, is filled with all passions, all vices, and continuous torment. And it is this hellish heart that breathes on its neighbor with an inhuman, murderous feeling of temptation and condemnation. The Pharisee, who cares to appear righteous before people, being at heart a child of Satan, catches some features from the Law of God, adorns himself with them, so that the inexperienced eye does not recognize him as the enemy of God and, having trusted him as a friend of God, becomes his victim. The Pharisee does not condemn evil, vice, or violation of the Law in his neighbors. No! How can he condemn evil, of whom he is the friend and confidant? His arrows are aimed at virtue. But to make the blows more accurate, he slanderes virtue, attributes evil to it, is tempted by this evil, and, apparently, striking it, kills the servant of Christ he hates. Pharisee! Are you leading an innocent man to execution for a crime that you yourself invented for him? The execution belongs to you, as does the crime! Does it really encourage you that a disciple of Christ, imitating Christ, drinks in silence the cup of suffering that you have prepared for him? Unhappy! be afraid of this very magnanimous and mysterious silence. Just as now for the sake of Jesus a follower of Jesus is silent, so at the terrible, general judgment Jesus will speak for him, expose the lawless man, unrecognized by people, and send him to eternal torment. The Pharisees invented crimes for the God-man Himself; they arranged for Him to be executed; they bought His blood; they pretended not to understand Him. The greatest crime on earth was committed by the Pharisees. They have always been faithful, and to this day they are faithful to their hellish calling. They are the main enemies and persecutors of true, Christian virtue and piety, not stopping at any means or at any crime. The Lord’s definition thunders against them: “Serpent, brood of vipers, how will you escape from the judgment of the fire of Gehenna? For this reason, behold, I will send to you prophets and wise men and scribes: and from them you will kill and crucify, and from them you will slay your hosts, and you will destroy from city to city: for may all righteous blood shed on the earth come to you, from the blood of Abel the righteous to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachi, who you killed between the church and altar. Amen I say to you, for all these things will come to this generation” (Matthew 23:33–36). The words of the Lord were fulfilled, and are still being fulfilled: those infected with the kvass of the Pharisees hitherto in irreconcilable enmity with the true disciples of Jesus, persecute them, now openly, now hiding behind slander and temptation; greedily, tirelessly seeking their blood. “Lord Jesus Christ! Help Your servants. Grant them to understand You and follow You, You Who “are led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a Lamb before its shearers is silent” (Is. 53:7). Grant them to behold You with the pure eye of their minds, and, suffering in blissful silence, as if before Your eyes, to be enriched with grace-filled gifts, to feel within themselves the peaceful breath of the Holy Spirit, which proclaims to Your servant that it is impossible to be Yours otherwise than by partaking of the cup of suffering, which You have chosen as the lot of sojourn on Your earth and Yours.” The Lord spoke in the Holy Gospel many commandments that introduce into man thoughts and feelings completely opposite to the soul-destructive, man-hating Pharisaism. These commandments destroy the very principles on which Pharisaism is based and built. “Be careful,” said the Lord, “in general from the leaven of the Pharisees” (Matthew 16:6). One of the Evangelists explains that the Lord called the “teaching” of the Pharisees by the word “leaven of the Pharisees” (Matthew 16:12), and another Evangelist means by this word their “hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1). This is one and the same thing: from hypocritical behavior arise the way of thinking and teaching of the Pharisees; on the contrary, the teachings and way of thinking of the Pharisees raise a hypocrite, for whom no sin is terrible, no virtue is respectful; he hopes to cover up every sin, to excuse, justify it, and to replace every virtue with pretense. The Lord taught His disciples direct, sincere behavior, based on holy wisdom, and not justified by wickedness - behavior from which pure virtue should shine and with its heavenly beauty attract the eyes and hearts of people. “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). The Pharisees, on the contrary, only wanted to appear righteous, cared only about presenting and presenting themselves as servants of God before the society of people, before the masses, usually unintelligible. And now one can see that the Pharisees resort to all sorts of twists so that their deeds, which have the appearance of being good, shine as brightly as possible before the eyes of people, and their atrocities are excused by political necessity, the guise of justice and wise forethought, the desire to prevent a greater evil by allowing a lesser evil, and other justifications that so abundantly flow from a heart filled with wickedness. The Lord forbids such behavior in very strong terms. “You are,” He says, “to justify yourself before men, but God knows your hearts: for whatever is high among men is an abomination to God” (Luke 16:15). The Pharisees tried to cover up their spiritual passions, actions, and their fruits with excuses. Mental passions, under the shade and coolness of justifications, usually take deep roots into the soul and become a stout tree, embracing with its branches all of a person’s activities, that is, penetrating into all his thoughts, into all feelings, into all actions. Saint Pimen the Great said: “if a person’s sinful will is helped by excuses, then he becomes corrupted and perishes” 422. With behavior in which virtue is not unselfishly sought in the eyes of God, but the glory of virtue is sought in the eyes of people, in their insignificant, fickle, changeable opinions, a person is unable to know the Christian faith, to accept the teaching of Christ, which requires a heart that recognizes itself as a sinner, confessing its sin. “How can you believe,” says the Savior to the Pharisees, “receiving glory from one another, and not seeking glory from the one God?” (John 5:44). The Lord takes away from His disciples all food for vanity. He wants the altar of the heart to be cleansed of the bad idol, of everything that belongs to the service of idols. The Lord commands to do all good deeds in secret. And alms, according to His will, be in secret! and let the fast be in secret! and prayer - in a closed cage! Our good deeds must be hidden not only from people, but also from ourselves, so that not only people do not corrupt our souls with praise, but our very heart does not flatter us or commit adultery, violating the holy union with holy humility. “Let not your fool know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3). This is not enough! The Lord commanded us to deny ourselves in a short earthly life, to trample underfoot all excuses, all truth for the truth of the Gospel. What is the truth of the Gospel? in suffering, in the cross! The Savior calls His disciple here! here He makes a difference between those who are invited! here he separates the chaff from the wheat! here marks the elect with His seal! “Whoever does not accept his cross and comes after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it: and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:38–39). Brethren! at the foot of the cross of Christ, we will fold and bury all the world’s concepts of honor, of grievances, of insults, of losses, of injustice, of human laws and of human justice. Let us become fools for Christ's sake! Let us expose our cheeks to spitting and strangling! Our earthly honor, dilapidated, may it be sprinkled with the dust of humiliation! Let us not look with mercy and sympathy at our perishable property: let the whirlwinds plunder and carry it away when they are released! We will not spare our flesh in free deeds and involuntary suffering! Let us learn from the Lord Jesus Christ His mysterious silence, which is the most sublime Theology and eloquence that astonishes the Angels! The world did not give justice to him, God incarnate: should we seek it from the world? Let us renounce it at the foot of the cross of Christ! Let us not be beasts that bite and sting hunters and other animals that attack them! Let us become like the Lamb of God here on earth, during our short earthly wanderings, and He will make us like Himself in eternity, where our bliss will have no end or measure. And here, in earthly exile, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, comes to the faithful disciple of Jesus and brings to his soul the unspeakable bliss of the future life, which takes away from him the feeling of suffering, which leads him into invisible, holy pleasure, independent of people and circumstances. Before this pleasure, all earthly pleasures, even legal ones, are insignificant. The main distinguishing feature of a hypocrite, the first arrow he shoots at his neighbor, is temptation and the condemnation of his neighbor flowing from temptation. The temptation in intentional villains is often feigned, composed as if the right pretext for an atrocity, preparing in advance both the atrocity and the justification for the atrocity; temptation in those still infected with the decay of Adam, even if they were well-intentioned and strived for salvation, is a sign of decay and a very important and persistent illness. This illness counteracts repentance, from which comes cleansing. Temptation is a painful look at the infirmities of one's neighbor, in which these infirmities increase to an immense, ugly magnitude. Temptation is a fiend of self-love, invading a soul that is alien to love for one’s neighbor and proper love for oneself. The Lord likened this illness to a log, in comparison with which any obvious sin of one’s neighbor is only a bough. “Judge not,” said the Lord, “so that you will not be judged. By whom you judge, you will be judged: and if you measure accordingly, it will be measured back to you... O hypocrite, first remove the log from your side; and then you will see to take away the speck from your brother’s side” (Matthew 7:1–2, 5). One must forcefully distract oneself from condemning one’s neighbors, protecting oneself from it with the fear of God and humility. In order to weaken and, with God’s help, completely eradicate from one’s heart the temptation to one’s neighbor, one must, in the light of the Gospel, delve deeper into oneself, observe one’s weaknesses, and examine one’s sinful aspirations, movements and states. When our sin attracts our attention to itself, we will have no time to observe the shortcomings of our neighbor, to notice them. Then all our neighbors will seem beautiful and holy to us; then each of us recognizes himself as the greatest sinner in the world, the only sinner in the world; then the gates will open wide for us, the embrace of true, real repentance. The great Pimen said: “We and our brothers are like two pictures. If a person, looking at himself, finds shortcomings in himself, then he sees perfections in his brother. If he seems perfect to himself, then, comparing his brother with himself, he finds him bad” 423. The greatest saints of God especially cared to see themselves as sinners, and so much so that the sins of their neighbors, obvious and great, seemed to them insignificant and excusable. The Monk Sisoes said to Abba Or: “Give me instruction.” “Do you have power of attorney for me?” Abba Or asked him. “I have,” answered Sisoy. “Come,” Abba Or said to him, “and do what I do.” “What is your work, Father?” Abba Sisoes asked him. The elder said: “I see myself worse than all people” 424. “If a person reaches that state,” said Pimen the Great, about which the Apostle said “all pure and pure” (Titus 1:15), he will see that he is worse than every creature.” The brother asked the elder: How can I think of myself that I am worse than a murderer? Pimen answered: “If a person reaches the state indicated by the Apostle and sees a person who has committed murder, he will say: he committed this sin once, but I kill myself every day.” The brother retold Pimen’s words to another elder. The elder answered: “If a person reaches a state of such purity and sees the sins of his brother, then his righteousness will absorb this sin.” The brother asked: What is his righteousness? The elder answered: “Always blaming yourself” 425. These are the true hearers and creators of the Gospel Law! Having expelled condemnation and temptation from their hearts, they were filled with holy love for their neighbor, pouring out mercy on everyone, and healing sinners with mercy. The Holy Fathers said about the great Macarius of Egypt that he was like an earthly god - with such powerful mercy he endured the shortcomings of his neighbors. Abba Ammon, constantly delving into himself and convicting his soul of its shortcomings, came to deep humility and holy simplicity. Because of the abundance of love for his neighbor, he did not see evil in him, he forgot about the existence of evil. One day they brought to him - since he was a bishop - a girl who had conceived in the womb, and they said: “So-and-so did this, impose penance on them.” Ammon, marking her womb with a cross, ordered her to be given six pairs of linens, saying: “When the time comes for her to give birth, she or her child would not die, and there would be something to bury them in.” Those who accused the girl said to him: What are you doing? impose penance on them! He answered: “Brothers! she is close to death! What else can we do with her?” – and let her go. One day Abba Ammon came to a certain residence of the monks to share a meal with the brethren. One of the brethren of that place was very upset in his behavior: a woman was visiting him. This became known to the other brethren; They were embarrassed and, having gathered for a meeting, decided to expel their brother from his hut. Having learned that Bishop Ammon was here, they came to him and asked him to go with them to inspect his brother’s cell. The brother also found out about this, and hid the woman under a large wooden vessel, turning the vessel bottom up. Abba Ammon understood this, and for the sake of God, he covered up his brother’s sin. Having come with many brothers to the cell, he sat down on a wooden vessel and ordered the cell to be searched. The cell was searched, but the woman was not found. "What is this? “Abba Ammon said to the brethren, “May God forgive you your sin.” After that, he prayed and ordered everyone to leave. He himself followed the brothers. On his way out, he graciously took the accused brother’s hand and said to him with love: “Brother! Pay attention to yourself! So Saint Ammon avoided condemning anyone, and healed sinners, softening their hearts with mercy, leading them to repentance with mercy. How long does the Lord lead us away from the abyss of temptation and condemnation; As much as the true servants of the Lord move away from this terrible, disastrous abyss, so much, on the contrary, the devil draws us into it, covering it with various excuses. One of Satan’s justifications is reckless zeal, mistaken by many for zeal for piety, for holy zeal. “A person led by reckless jealousy,” says Saint Isaac of Syria, “will never be able to achieve the world of thoughts. A stranger to this world is a stranger to joy. If the world of thought is perfect health, and jealousy is contrary to peace, then he who has evil jealousy suffers from a great illness. O man! Believing that you are inflamed by just jealousy against the shortcomings of others, you drive away the health of your soul. Work hard, work hard for the health of your soul! If you want to heal the weak, then understand that the sick need attentive care more than cruelty. Moreover, while you are not helping others, you are plunging yourself into a serious illness. Such jealousy in a person does not belong to signs of wisdom, but to illnesses of the soul, to a lack of spiritual intelligence, to greater ignorance. The beginning of the wisdom of God is quietness and meekness, the qualities of a great and strong soul, which appear in it from a solid way of thinking, and bearing human infirmities” 426. The sin of temptation and condemnation is so convenient for the destruction of people and therefore is so loved by the devil that he is not content with arousing in our hearts an evil jealousy that is alien to the gospel mind, arousing proud thoughts, always combined with humiliation and contempt for our neighbor; but he also arranges obvious intrigues to ensnare the inattentive into temptation and condemnation. Abba Pimen said: “The Scripture says: “Whatever your eyes have seen, speak” (Prov. 25:8). But I advise you not to even talk about what you touched with your own hands. One brother was deceived in this way: it seemed to him that his brother was sinning with a woman. For a long time he struggled with himself; Finally, coming up, he pushed them with his foot, thinking that it was definitely them, and said: “You’ve had enough, how much longer?” But it turned out that they were sheaves of wheat. That is why I told you: do not reprove, even if you touch with your own hands” 427. The sin of condemnation is so disgusting to God that He becomes angry and turns away from His saints themselves when they allow themselves to condemn their neighbor: He takes away His grace from them, as can be seen from numerous examples preserved by church writers for the benefit and edification of Christian generations. No righteousness gives the right to condemn a sinning brother, to whom the Lord can very conveniently grant significant righteousness, incomparably greater than that which we think we find in ourselves. We can be righteous by the righteousness of God; when we condemn our neighbor, we thereby reject the truth of God, replacing it with our own righteousness, or more correctly, with the disease of pharisaism. He who condemns his neighbor admires the dignity of God, to Whom alone belongs “judgment” over His creatures—he admires the dignity of Christ, who has to judge the living and the dead on the last day 428. The wondrous John Savvait told about himself: “while I was living in the desert not far from the monastery, a brother from the monastery came to visit me. I asked him: “How do the fathers and brothers live? Good for your prayers, he answered. Then I asked about one of the brethren about whom there was a bad rumor. He answered me: believe me, father: this brother continues to live as before. When I heard this, I said, “Oh!” and immediately went into a frenzy. I saw myself standing before Calvary in Jerusalem. Our Lord Jesus Christ stood on Calvary between two thieves. I rushed to worship Him. At this time - I see - the Lord turned to the Angels standing before Him and said to them: “Cast him out, because in relation to Me he is the Antichrist: anticipating My judgment, he condemned his brother.” While they were expelling me and I was leaving the doors, my robe got entangled in them and was held by them. I left her there. Immediately coming to my senses, I said to the brother who visited me: this day is cruel for me. He asked: why is this, father? I told him what I had seen, adding that the removal of the mantle meant the taking away of the protection of God and the help of God from me. From that day I went deep into the desert, and wandered in it for seven years, without eating bread, without entering under a roof, and without talking with any man. After this time, I saw the Lord again: He returned my mantle to me” 429. Brethren! Let's take care of ourselves! Let us strive to cleanse ourselves not only from bodily passions, but also from spiritual passions, from vanity, unbelief, deceit, envy, hatred, love of money and other similar ailments that apparently move and act in the soul alone, without the participation of the body, and therefore are called spiritual. I said “apparently”: they have an influence on the body, but it is subtle, not noticeable and understandable for many. By paying attention to ourselves and by cleansing ourselves of these passions, love for our neighbor will gradually be instilled in us, and from it the feeling of temptation towards our neighbor and condemnation of him will weaken and be destroyed. Let us constantly remember that there is no truth pleasing to God outside of poverty of spirit. Let us justify our neighbors and condemn ourselves, so that God will grant us His grace and mercy, which He bestows on only the humble and merciful. Amen. The Life of St. Basil the New, the ordeal of condemnation. Chetii-Minei. March on the 26th day. You might be interested in: