Поучение в субботу 4-й недели. Условие усвоения Христу

Our Lord Jesus Christ said to the Pharisees: “They do not demand the health of a doctor, but the sick. Go ahead and learn what to eat: I want mercy, not sacrifice; For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:12–13; Hos. 6:6). Beloved brothers! Whoever wants to be a true Christian, that is, to believe in Christ, to appropriate Christ for himself and to be appropriated by Christ, must deny himself (Matthew 16:24). He must recognize his sins as sins, and the truth as the stinking sack of a harlot - a soul that has entered into criminal communion with sin. This is how the great prophet expressed himself about the truths of fallen man (Is. 64:6). Our truth, so elegant in the state of purity before the fall, was desecrated by the fall, became obscene, just as a beautiful, precious fabric is deprived of all dignity when it is saturated with a malignant, fetid substance. The one who denies himself and comes to Christ from a state of self-sacrifice, Christ accepts: he redeems him, replacing him with himself; saves by uniting with Himself. By maintaining your sinfulness, it is impossible to become assimilated to Christ. It is assimilated by one who is pure, that is, by those who from the unclean have become pure through repentance. Assimilation to Christ becomes impossible not only when a person does not abandon his sinfulness; It is also impossible when a person does not abandon his righteousness. Christ is denied by his righteousness from the righteous and rejects them 116. “Go ahead,” He says, “learn what to eat? I want mercy, not sacrifice: for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” “Shedshe”! this word conveys the following thoughts: “Get away! you are unable to approach me. Your way of thinking, the mood of your spirit make it unusual for you to accept Me. You need preparation. You need to first understand, feel, recognize, study, confess your fall.” It's scary. God’s words “I want mercy, not sacrifice” explain it. These words have the following meaning: “You cannot make sacrifices: all your thoughts, feelings, actions are sealed, saturated with sin, combined, mixed with it; all your thoughts, feelings, actions are unworthy of the all-holy God, cannot be favorable to Him. And therefore God declares to you that He not only does not require sacrifices from you, but also does not deign that you should make them. Do not deceive yourself with deception that is disastrous for you; God is pleased to have mercy on you; God is pleased to save you; God is pleased to redeem you with Himself. Neither humans nor angels have the means to correct humanity damaged by sin. God alone, by His omnipotence, can heal the incurable ulcer of eternal death. Know the depth of your fall; recognize the cruelty of your damage, completely reject trust in yourself; feel compassion for yourself, which you do not have only because of your conceit, self-delusion, bitterness, and blindness! Acquire mercy: combine your action regarding you with the action of God; Contribute with your action to the action of God. Hardened hearts, soften! Have mercy on yourself and on all humanity: you, like all people without exception, are creatures rejected by the Creator for arbitrarily rejecting the Creator, unhappy creatures, reptiles, restless, suffering on earth, in this threshold of hell; creatures constantly multiplying on the earth, constantly reaped by death, devoured by the earth; creatures cast down to earth from paradise for rebelling in paradise against God. Hate your sins, leave your sinful life. This is not enough; admit that your very nature is perverted by sin, that the truths born in it and emanating from it correspond to a disfigured, distorted nature (Ps. 50:7). Consider your righteousnesses as sins; count them not as gain, but as the greatest loss to yourself (Phil. 3:7-9). These truths, in those who want to keep them behind them, serve as an insurmountable obstacle to receiving the truth of God (Rom. 10:3). Reverently and humbly bow your proud, false mind before the righteousness of God. It was brought from heaven to people, brought by God incarnate: it elevates to heaven those people who, having renounced themselves, renounced their sins and their truths, will be completely immersed in the cleansing font of repentance, and will enter under the exclusive guidance of Divine truth 117. Let your good deeds be the only implementation of the all-holy will of God, and not your corrupted will! May they be the payment of your debt to God, an unpayable debt, both according to the perfection of Him to whom you owe, and according to your limitations, weakness, and sinfulness.” Humility and the repentance born from it are the only condition under which Christ is accepted! Humility and repentance are the only price that buys the knowledge of Christ! Humility and repentance are the only moral states from which one can approach Christ and become assimilated to Him! Humility and repentance are the only sacrifice that God requires and accepts from fallen humanity (Ps. 51:18–19). Those infected with a proud, erroneous opinion about themselves, who recognize repentance as unnecessary for themselves, and who exclude themselves from the ranks of sinners, are rejected by the Lord. They cannot be Christians. “Those who falsely consider and proclaim themselves healthy do not demand health, the doctor is the Lord, but he who is sick,” those who recognize themselves as sick. In the hearing of all mankind, the Savior of the world proclaims about Himself: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Amen. Venerable Macarius the Great. Conversation 20 Venerable Macarius the Great. Conversation 37, ch. 2, 3 You might be interested in: