О чтении Евангелия

When reading the Gospel, do not seek pleasure, do not seek delight, do not seek brilliant thoughts: seek to see the infallibly holy Truth. Do not be content with one fruitless reading of the Gospel; try to fulfill his commandments, read his deeds. This is the book of life, and one must read it with life. Do not think that without reason the most sacred of books, the Four Gospels, begins with the Gospel of Matthew and ends with the Gospel of John. Matthew teaches more how to do the will of God, and his instructions are especially appropriate for those beginning the path of God; John sets out an image of the union of God with man, renewed by the commandments, which is available to those who have succeeded on the path of God. When opening a book to read - the Holy Gospel, remember that it will decide your eternal fate. We will be judged by it, and, depending on how we were here on earth in relation to it, we will receive either eternal bliss or eternal executions (John 12:48). God revealed His will to an insignificant speck of dust - man! The book in which this great and all-holy will is set forth is in your hands. You can accept or reject the will of your Creator and Savior, depending on how you please. Your eternal life and eternal death are in your hands: judge how much you need to be careful and prudent. Don't play with your eternal fate! In contrition of spirit, pray to the Lord that He will open your eyes to see the wonders hidden in His law (Ps. 119:18), which is the Gospel. Eyes are opened and one sees the miraculous healing of the soul from sin accomplished by the Word of God. The healing of bodily ailments was only proof of the healing of the soul, proof for carnal people, for minds blinded by sensuality (Luke 5:24). Read the Gospel with extreme reverence and attention. Do not consider anything in it unimportant or unworthy of consideration. Every iota of it emits a ray of life. Neglect of life is death. Reading about the lepers, the paralytic, the blind, the lame and the demoniac, whom the Lord healed, think that your soul, bearing the many different sores of sin, being held captive by demons, is like these sick people. Learn from the Gospel to believe that the Lord, who healed them, will heal you too if you diligently beg Him for your healing. Acquire such a disposition of soul that you will be able to receive healing. Those who confess their sinfulness and decide to leave it are able to receive it (John 9:39, 41). A proud righteous person, that is, a sinner who does not see his sinfulness, does not need a Savior, he is useless (Matthew 9:13). The sight of sins, the sight of the fall in which the entire human race finds itself, is a special gift of God. Ask for this gift for yourself, and the book of the Heavenly Doctor – the Gospel – will become clearer to you. Try to assimilate the Gospel to your mind and heart, so that your mind, so to speak, floats in it, lives in it: then your activity will conveniently become evangelical. This can be achieved by constant reverent reading and study of the Gospel. The Monk Pachomius the Great, one of the most famous ancient Fathers, knew the Holy Gospel by heart and charged his disciples, by the revelation of God, with an indispensable duty to memorize it. Thus, the Gospel accompanied them everywhere, constantly guiding them 13. And now why shouldn’t Christian educators decorate the memory of an innocent child with the Gospel, rather than litter it with the study of Esop’s fables and other insignificant things? What happiness, what wealth - acquiring the Gospel by memory! It is impossible to foresee the upheavals and disasters that could happen to us during our earthly life. The Gospel, which belongs to memory, is read to the blind, accompanies the prisoner to prison, speaks to the farmer in the field irrigated by his sweat, instructs the judge during his presence, guides the merchant at the auction, amuses the sick during tedious insomnia and severe loneliness. Do not dare to interpret the Gospel and other books of Holy Scripture yourself. The Scripture was pronounced by the holy Prophets and Apostles, not spoken arbitrarily, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). How could it not be crazy to interpret it arbitrarily? The Holy Spirit, who spoke the Word of God through the Prophets and Apostles, interpreted it through the Holy Fathers. Both the Word of God and its interpretation are the gift of the Holy Spirit. Only this one interpretation is accepted by the Holy Orthodox Church! Only this one interpretation is accepted by her true children! Whoever explains the Gospel and all Scripture arbitrarily, thereby rejects the interpretation of it by the Holy Fathers and the Holy Spirit. Whoever rejects the interpretation of Scripture by the Holy Spirit, without any doubt, rejects Holy Scripture itself. And the word of God, the word of salvation, comes to the daring interpreters of it as a two-edged sword, with which they pierce themselves into eternal destruction (2 Pet. 3:16, 2 Cor. 2:15-16). With it Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches and other heretics who fell into blasphemy through an arbitrary and impudent interpretation of Scripture killed themselves forever. “On whom will I look but to him who is meek and silent and trembles at My words” (Is. 66:2), says the Lord. Be this way regarding the Gospel and the Lord present in it. Leave your sinful life, leave earthly passions and pleasures, renounce your soul, then the Gospel will become accessible and understandable to you. “Hate your souls in this world,” said the Lord - the soul for which, from the fall, the love of sin became as if natural, as if it were life - “it will preserve it into eternal life” (John 12:25). For one who loves his soul, for one who does not dare to self-sacrifice, the Gospel is closed: he reads the letter; but the word of life, like the Spirit, remains for him under an impenetrable veil. When the Lord was on earth in His most holy flesh, many saw Him and, together, did not see Him. What is the use when a person looks with the eyes of his body, which he has in common with animals, but sees nothing with the eyes of his soul - with his mind and heart? And now many read the Gospel every day, and have never read it together, do not know it at all. The Gospel, said a certain desert dweller, can be read with a pure mind; is understood as the commandments are fulfilled by his very deed. But the exact and perfect revelation of the Gospel cannot be acquired within oneself through one’s own efforts: this is the gift of Christ 14 . The Holy Spirit, having indwelled His true and faithful servant, makes him both a perfect reader and a true doer of the Gospel. The Gospel is a depiction of the properties of the new man, who is “the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47). This new man is God by nature. He makes His holy race of people, who believe in Him and are transformed by Him, into gods by grace. You, who are wallowing in the stinking and dirty swamp of sins, find pleasure in it! Raise your heads, look at the clear sky: there is your place! God gives you the dignity of gods; you, rejecting this dignity, choose for yourself another: the dignity of animals - and the most unclean ones. Come to your senses! Leave the stinking swamp; cleanse yourself by confessing your sins; wash yourself with tears of repentance; beautify yourself with tears of tenderness; rise up from the earth; ascend to heaven: the Gospel will take you there. “As long as there is light” - the Gospel in which Christ is hidden - “believe in the light, so that you may be sons of the Light - Christ” (John 12:36). Life of Pachomius the Great. Vies des Peres des deserts d’Orient par le R. P. Michel-Ange-Manin. Saint Tikhon of Voronezh knew the Gospel by heart. St. Mark the Ascetic on the spiritual law ch. XXXII. Dobrot., part 1. You might be interested in: