Поучение в 29-ю неделю. О благодарении и славословии Бога

The story of the healing of ten lepers by our Lord Jesus Christ, which was read today in the Gospel (Luke 17:12-19), is ordered by the Holy Church to be read on all occasions when we bring public thanks to God for a good deed or good deeds shown to us. Of the ten lepers healed by the Savior, only one decided to give thanks to the Savior; nine, having received the blessing, having seen above them the amazing sign of God’s mercy and omnipotence, they did not give any spiritual value to either their sudden healing, or to Him, by whose command the sudden healing of an incurable disease was carried out. The act of the ungrateful, the bitter, the dead in mind and heart is condemned by the Lord. When one of the lepers, after receiving healing, returned to the Lord, glorifying God with a loud voice, fell at the feet of the Savior, giving Him thanks and glorifying Him, then the Lord said: “Are you not cleansed ten times?” where is nine? Why didn’t you find yourself returning to give glory to God?” (Luke 17:17–18) These words have a deep meaning. The God-man, according to His humanity, did not seek His glory from men: He sought so that God might be properly honored by them, for their good. Those who were disposed to true worship of God, oh miracle! they found God, hidden behind humanity, they found the Savior and in Him their salvation. Those who rejected the Savior initially rejected God in their souls. The Lord said to the Jews who hated and blasphemed Him: “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have died from God. Those who are from God will listen to the words of God: for this reason you will not listen, because you are not from God” (John 8:42, 47). Gratitude is a rare virtue among people. Unfortunately, a solemn exclamation is heard and heard between us, accompanied by solemn laughter: “I plucked such and such from so and so!” This exclamation expresses the terrible depravity of the soul. What does this exclamation mean? It signifies that a benefit was obtained through flattery, pretense and other similar means, and that a person who submitted to deception and performed a benefit is subject to reproach for his very benefit. In some bodily ailments, an inexplicable willfulness is noticed. This willfulness also exists in mental illnesses. Often good deeds sow in the recipient of the blessing a feeling of irreconcilable, frenzied hatred towards the benefactor. This unnatural oddity occurs so often that it gave rise to a popular proverb: “Without feeding, without singing, you will not make an enemy.” The poison of sin with which we are poisoned is strong; people infected with it are capable of hating not only their benefactors - people, they are capable of hating God. They proved this through numerous experiments. Enmity towards God is expressed by neglecting God’s commandments, living according to one’s own will and according to one’s own reason. The Savior said: “If you do not love Me, you will not keep My words” (John 14:24). Why do we neglect God's commandments? Why do we forget God? Why don't we know Him? Because we do not think about God or ourselves, we spend our lives frivolously, being busy with vanity. The visible creation proclaims the almighty, all-good, all-wise God; we proclaim Him with ourselves. We, without arbitrariness and our consciousness, received being and all the abilities of soul and body, all the means of material existence and the formation of our spirit. We do not make anything from nothing: we make it from prepared means; The very ability to do is embedded in our nature, and is by no means acquired by us. We are provided externally and internally with reasons to think about God and give thanks to Him. The Holy Scriptures and the writings of the holy fathers reveal to us the immense multiplicity and significance of God’s benefits to humanity, exciting us to give thanks to God. Thanking God has its own special property: it gives birth to and strengthens faith, brings us closer to God. Ingratitude and forgetfulness of God destroy faith and remove us from God. The Apostle says that those who truly believe in Christ are “rooted and built up in Him, and known through faith, abounding in thanksgiving therein” (Col. 2:7). Due to the significant spiritual benefit that thanksgiving to God brings to a person, God commanded us to carefully practice thanking Him, to cultivate in ourselves a feeling of gratitude to God. “Give thanks in everything,” says the Apostle; he declares: “For this is the will of God regarding Christ Jesus in you” (1 Thess. 5:18). The Holy Apostle, having said that the will of God proclaimed by him about thanksgiving for everything is the will of God about Christ Jesus, expressed the following: “The New Testament commandment of thanksgiving is mysterious, spiritual, divine; it flows from the sacrament of the incarnation of Christ and is based on this sacrament.” The God-man spent His earthly life in hardships and sorrows. By this He sanctified the hardships and sorrows of those who truly believe in Him, and elevated earthly hardships and sorrows above earthly prosperity. He did not take part in the latter. The commandment of thanksgiving is alien to carnal wisdom: it is understood only by spiritual reason; it is accomplished in the light of spiritual intelligence. If carnal wisdom ever gives thanks, it thanks only for material benefits; when tempted, it becomes confused; it grumbles and blasphemes; God's commandment commands thanksgiving for everything, even for sorrows. She commands thanksgiving for sorrows as a part of Christ; commands thanksgiving for prosperity and well-being as for God’s condescension to our weakness. “Jesus, may He sanctify people with His blood, without the gates of suffering as He pleases. In the same way, let us come to Him outside the camp, outside the customs of this world, bearing His reproach: for we are not the imams of the city that abides here, but we seek the one to come” (Heb. 13:12–14). “You have been given the gift, in Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him” (Phil. 1:29). The gift will naturally be followed by thanksgiving. If sorrows for Christ are a gift of God, given by God to a true Christian, then a Christian is obliged to experimentally prove his Christianity with thanksgiving for sorrows, must confess and accept the gift of God with thanksgiving for the gift. Through thanksgiving, faith is strengthened, the deep mysteries of Christianity are revealed, an extensive and clear knowledge of God is introduced into the soul through the action of grace-filled peace and spiritual consolation, which are an indispensable consequence of thanksgiving. “Mouths that constantly give thanks,” said the great father, “receive a blessing from God; Divine grace is infused into that heart that remains in gratitude. Humility precedes grace; Conceit precedes punishment. A heart that constantly strives to thank God attracts grace; the thought of murmuring, constantly moving in the heart, brings temptation to the soul 171. The thanksgiving of the one who receives gifts encourages the Giver of gifts to give even other gifts, greater than the first. Gifts remain without multiplication only when there is no thanksgiving for them. The part of a madman is small in his eyes" 172. All the Fathers of the Orthodox Church argue like the Father we cited. They instruct to thank God for everything that happens in life, both pleasant and sorrowful 173. Faith teaches us that everything that happens to us is accomplished according to the all-good and all-wise Providence of God for our essential benefit 174 . Faith thus leads to thanksgiving to God, and thanksgiving strengthens faith. According to the conviction of the mind, we begin to give thanks; thanksgiving arouses the conviction of the heart. A vast field of thanksgiving and glorification opens up before a Christian who leads a pious life according to the commandments of the Gospel, who does not allow himself to be blinded by vain passions and concerns, and who constantly looks to the haven of eternity. Everything temporary passes in its own way. The future becomes the present, the present becomes the past. Everything that happened has passed and will not return; the whole future will come in the shortest possible time in order to become past. Only one who spends his earthly life as a wanderer according to his way of thinking, according to his heartfelt feeling, according to the activity flowing from them, can constantly glorify and thank God. Saint David had this feeling; This feeling was given to him by the Holy Spirit, and he sent forth praise and thanksgiving to God from the depths of his soul, and was embraced and intoxicated with praise and thanksgiving. “Bless my soul the Lord,” says the inspired David, “and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless my soul the Lord, and do not forget all His rewards” (Ps. 103:1-2). “I will confess to You, O Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders” (Ps. 9:2). “I will exalt You, my God, my King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever. I will bless You every day, and I will praise Your name forever and ever” (Ps. 144:1-2). As the reason for glorifying God, Saint David puts forward the infinite greatness of God: “great is the Lord and greatly praised, and His greatness has no end” (Ps. 144:3). David saw the greatness of God from the works of God: “O Lord my God, you are greatly exalted; you are clothed with light like a robe, you stretch out the sky like a skin; you lay the foundation of the earth on its firmament” (Ps. 103:1–2, 5, etc.). The visible creation can very rightly be called the clothing of God; the invisible God, clothed in this robe, is seen: “thou hast clothed yourself with greatness” (Ps. 103:1). The nature we see is magnificent! She preaches the existence of God, she preaches the omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of God. Both huge creatures and the smallest creatures have their own laws; the discovery of a particle of these laws serves as glory for the human mind, which must admit that what it has discovered is insignificant compared to what has not been discovered. The slightest fraction of what could be discovered with the limited abilities of man has been discovered; countless numbers remained hidden; countless hidden things cannot be revealed due to the impossibility of discovery. The human mind, having measured and calculated the paths of the planets in the vast celestial space, stops in bewilderment in front of the insignificant grass, carelessly trampled underfoot. He cannot explain what the life of this grass is, what juices it draws from the ground with its roots, how and with what these juices decompose, giving plants different types, different smells, different colors, different tastes. What does a ray of sunshine mean? What kind of phenomenon is electricity? There are countless similar questions that can be proposed. We see action; action indicates the existence of laws; laws are hidden from the human mind by incomprehensibility. Both the open laws and the open existence of laws that exceed comprehension, constituting the work and glory of the human mind, clearly testify that they were produced and established by the highest Mind. This Mind is immense, because its product - nature - is immense. “Great are Thy works, O Lord, Thou hast done all things with wisdom” (Ps. 103:24); only madness and extravagance can proclaim that creatures that exist according to the wisest laws are products of chance, products of madness. The affairs of the Mind are slandered in madness by the atheists who boast of their mind, when they discover any law from those laws, the composition of which they attribute to mad chance. What could be more meaningless than slander that contradicts itself? The greatness of God’s works, contemplated in visible nature, leads to the glorification of God: “generation and generation will praise Your works, and will proclaim Your power. They will speak of the splendor of the glory of Your holiness, and they will proclaim Your greatness” (Ps. 145:4-6). “As soon as it is possible to understand about God, God has revealed it to them. For His invisible, from the creation of the world, was conceived by the created, the essence, and His ever-present power and Divinity are visible, even though they were unrequited” (Rom. 1:19-20) to all who did not know and did not recognize God from the contemplation of visible creatures. Visible nature is directed to serve us: the heavenly bodies, air and many other gases, earth, seas, rivers, animals, plants, metals, minerals are directed to this service. O earthly wanderer! Look at nature, at this hotel and hostel in which you are placed for the shortest possible time, for the duration of earthly life - look at it from the purity of mind formed by a virtuous life and the removal of oneself from a bestial life; look at the abundance of blessings with which you are furnished! From such a view, the soul is naturally filled with thanksgiving to God. This happened to everyone who contemplated nature out of the mood brought by Christian life. The prophet predicted about them: “They will regurgitate the memory of the multitude of Your goodness, and they will rejoice in Your righteousness. The Lord is generous and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in mercy: the Lord of all is good, and His compassions are in all His deeds. Let all Your works be confessed to You, O Lord, and Your saints bless You” (Ps. 144:7-10). To see God clearly visible in visible nature, to give Him worship, praise, and thanksgiving is left to all people; Very few saw Him: those who did not take away their ability to see through an absent-minded, sensual life, the adoption of false thoughts, who did not, under the guidance of these destructive leaders, enter into a false direction and false activity, who were decisively hostile to God, who rejected God in various forms of rejection, saw Him. God, in His infinite goodness, appeared to people in an even different way, appeared incomparably closer, so that they would come closer to Him, become assimilated to Him, unite with Him, find in Him their salvation and bliss, freeing themselves from destruction and eternal disaster into which they had been cast by an arbitrary fall. God did not appear to people in a magnificent vestment - in visible nature - while remaining, however, in this royal purple as being beyond all scope of anything; appeared in the humble form of a man, taking upon Himself humanity, taking upon Himself all our infirmities, the consequences of our fall, except for the sin that caused the fall. God appeared clothed in humanity, appeared in the country of our exile, and spent His life in it, as an exile should have spent it - in hardships, in sorrows, in persecutions. He ended this life with a violent death on the tree of the cross. The God-man confessed with life and death the justice of God, by which men were cast out of paradise to earth. He confessed the guilt of men before God, because confession of this guilt was necessary, the only condition for the reconciliation of men with God. All who want to be true Christians must certainly confess this guilt, first with their heart consciousness, then with their lips and words, and finally, with their activity or life. Everyone must take up his cross and follow Christ; without this no one can be a disciple of Christ. The Christian comes to bewilderment before the greatness of God’s goodness, contemplated in the incarnation of God the Word and in the salvation of men wrought by Him. Contemplation of this awakens abundant praise and thanksgiving to God; contemplation of this kindles a fiery zeal for living according to the commandments of the Gospel, for following Christ along the narrow and sorrowful path. When a Christian takes the narrow path, then he sees the disastrous deception that dominates the broad path. When he tastes the spiritual consolation that the Savior feeds those walking along the sorrowful path, just as He fed the Israelites with manna in the wilderness, then he will abhor the carnal and sinful pleasure that abounds in Egypt. Ineffable praise and thanksgiving to God embraces the Christian amid his hardships and sorrows, with which God’s Providence removes him from sympathy and enslavement to sin, by which he is included in the host of Christ’s followers. Man did not raise such voices of praise to God for his earthly prosperity as were raised by the holy martyrs for the torture and execution to which they were subjected, with which God granted them to seal the confession of Christ and enter into the closest union with Christ. Such praise and thanksgiving to God were not heard from the magnificent palaces, from the midst of luxurious feasts, which were heard from the wretched huts of the monks, from the midst of their deprivations and sorrows, which were heard at the table of the fasters, who ate their meager bread to strengthen the body in serving the soul, protected from satiety, which enslaves the soul to the body. God is forgotten by man, His good deeds are forgotten, the great work of redemption is closed, as if by a thick veil, by carnal wisdom and carnal life; All this is revealed to him “who has crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). From the cross we are able to confess and praise God; in earthly well-being we are capable of rejecting Him. Brethren! Let us cultivate the invisible feat of thanksgiving to God. This feat will remind us of the God we have forgotten; This feat will reveal to us the greatness of God that is hidden from us, will reveal His ineffable and innumerable benefits to people in general and to each person in particular; This feat will instill in us a living faith in God; This feat will give us God, Whom we do not have, Whom our coldness towards Him, our inattention, took from us. Evil thoughts defile and destroy a person (Matthew 15:19); holy thoughts sanctify and give life to him. “A stubborn mind separates you from God” (Wis. 1:3); holy thoughts lead to Him. From them are born words and deeds pleasing to God. The prudent leper was brought by the holy thought before the face of the Savior, gave Him praise and thanksgiving, and heard from Him the announcement of his salvation: “Your faith has saved you” (Luke 17:19). And we, with godly thoughts, among which a place of honor belongs to thanksgiving and glorification of God, can draw closer to God, we can please Him with the holy words and holy deeds He commanded, through them we can acquire living faith in God, and through living faith we can acquire salvation. Amen. Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 85th Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 2 Venerable Barsanuphius the Great. Answers 2nd, 6th and others This view of a Christian about himself is completely different from the so-called “optimism” or the teaching that “everything in the world is going for the better.” Contrary to this teaching, the Holy Scriptures affirm that every good thing gradually fades away. You might be interested in: