Беседа в понедельник 29-й недели. О чудесах и знамениях

Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 The Holy Gospel told us today that the Pharisees, not satisfied with the miracles that the Lord performed, demanded a special miracle from Him: “a sign from heaven” (Mark 8:11). The demand for such a sign, in accordance with some strange concept of signs and wonders, was repeated more than once, as the Lord testified: “this generation seeks a sign” (Mark 8:12). The Sadducees, who differed so much in their beliefs from the Pharisees (Matthew 16:1), took part in the demand of the Pharisees. The desire for a “sign from heaven” was sometimes expressed by the people. So, after the miraculous multiplication of the five loaves and the saturation of the crowded meeting with them, in which there were five thousand men, with the exception of wives and children, the eyewitnesses of this miracle, the participants in this meal, said to the Lord: “What sign have You done, so that we may see and have faith in You? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it was written: “You gave them bread from heaven to eat” (John 6:30–31). For them, the wondrous multiplication of loaves in the hands of the Savior seemed insufficient: it took place with silence, with holy humility, with which all the actions of the God-Man were imbued, and they needed a spectacle, they needed an effect. They needed the sky to be covered with thick clouds, for thunder to roar and lightning to flash, for bread to fall from the air. The demand for a miracle from the God-Man by the Jewish bishops and people's leaders was of the same nature when the God-Man was pleased to be lifted up to the cross. “The bishop swearing,” the Gospel tells us, “with the scribes and elders and Pharisees saying: ‘Save others,’ can he not save himself? If there is a king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we believe in Him” (Matthew 27:41–42). They recognize the miracles performed by the Lord as miracles and together mock them; mockingly, they reject them; rejecting miracles bestowed by the mercy of God, they demand a miracle of their own making and discretion; a miracle, which, if it had happened, would have destroyed the purpose of the coming to earth of the God-Man, and the redemption of people would not have followed. Among those who wanted to see a miracle from the Lord, with whom frivolity, curiosity, and recklessness intended to amuse themselves, Herod appears (Luke 23:8). This one needed a sign to have a good time; not receiving what he wanted, he showered the Lord with ridicule, thereby giving himself a moment of entertainment. What does it mean - a general demand for miracles from the God-Man, expressed by people of so many different directions, a demand combined with disdain for the amazing miracles performed by the God-Man? Such a requirement is an expression of the concepts of carnal wisdom about miracles. What is carnal wisdom? This is a way of thinking about God and everything spiritual, borrowed by man from his state of fall, and not from the Word of God. The property of hostility to God and resistance to God, with which carnal wisdom is infected and filled, is expressed with particular clarity in the demand from the God-man for miracles according to the concept of a false mind, with inattention to miracles, with the rejection and condemnation of the miracles that the God-man performed, according to His ineffable goodness. He accomplished them, being “God’s power and God’s wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:24). It was a grave sin to demand a miracle from the God-man, a demand made on the basis and from the principles of carnal wisdom. The God-man, hearing this impudent, blasphemous demand, “breathed in His Spirit, saying: Why is this generation seeking a sign? Amen, I say to you, if a sign is given to this generation. And leave them,” and departed (Mark 8:12–13; Matt. 12:39). There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents; so, on the contrary, the inhabitants of heaven are saddened by the fall of man into sin and the sinner’s rejection of repentance 175. In the gracious contemplation of God’s infinite goodness towards humanity, in the contemplation of God’s good will so that all men would be saved, Macarius the Great decided to say that the all-holy, impassive God himself is overcome by the cry characteristic of God for the destruction of men 176 . Weeping, which exceeds our understanding, is not alien to the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God, having entered into man, “intercedes for him with groanings that cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26). Such sighing was aroused in the Son of God by the demand for a miracle, a proud and insane demand. He “breathed in His Spirit, saying, Why does this generation seek for a sign?” This question was God’s answer to the demand for a sign that was hostile to God. What a deep cry is heard, the cry of God in this answer! In it one can hear, as it were, an expression of bewilderment caused by the absurdity and impudence of the request! It shows the loss of hope for the salvation of people who uttered a petition that is contrary to the Spirit of the Giver of salvation. Those who are sealed by carnal wisdom, who stubbornly remain in it, who are ill without healing, the Lord leaves: he gives them over to himself, he gives them over to destruction, accepted arbitrarily, held arbitrarily. “And he left them,” he departed. Exactly: “the wisdom of the flesh is death” (Rom. 8:6). It is characteristic of the dead not to feel their mortification; It is characteristic of carnal wisdom not to understand and not to feel human destruction. Due to ignorance of its destruction, it is not aware of the need for revival and, on the basis of a false consciousness of life, it has rejected and is rejecting true life - God. Can a “sign from heaven” be particularly reliable? Those who demanded such a sign, of course, demanded it, attributing to it this authenticity. Is it possible to conclude that a sign from heaven is certainly a sign from God? The opposite is clear from Divine Scripture. The very expression “a sign from heaven” is very vague; Then they attributed, and even now most people unfamiliar with the sciences, attribute to the sky what happens in the air and in the space above the air. Thus, the Sun, Moon, stars are recognized as being in the sky, while they float in space; rain, thunder, lightning (James 5:18) are called celestial phenomena, while these phenomena occur in the air, in the earth’s atmosphere, and belong positively to the earth. The Holy Scripture tells that through the action of the devil, “fire fell from heaven, and consumed the sheep and shepherds” of righteous Job (Job 1:16) 177. It is obvious that this fire was formed in the air, just as lightning is formed in it. Simon the Magus surprised the blind people with miracles, who recognized the power of Satan acting in them as the great power of God (Acts 8:10). Simon especially surprised the idolaters of the Romans when, in a large gathering of them, declaring himself a god and his intention to ascend to heaven, he suddenly began to rise in the air. Blessed Simeon Metaphrastus tells about this, borrowing the story from the most ancient Christian writers 178. A terrible disaster is the lack of true knowledge of God in man: it mistakes the works of the devil for the works of God. Before the second coming of Christ, when Christianity, spiritual knowledge and reasoning become impoverished to the extreme among people, “false Christs and false prophets will arise and give great signs and wonders, as if it were possible to deceive even the elect” (Matthew 24:24). In particular, the Antichrist himself will abundantly lavish miracles, amaze and satisfy with them carnal wisdom and ignorance: he will give them a “sign from heaven,” which they seek and thirst for. “His coming,” says the holy Apostle Paul, “will be accomplished according to the work of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all the lies of unrighteousness among those who are perishing: for love of the truth they did not receive, so that they may be saved” (2 Thess. 2:9, 10). Ignorance and carnal wisdom, having seen these miracles, will not stop at all for reflection; They will immediately accept them according to the affinity of their spirit with their spirit; out of their blindness they will recognize and confess the action of Satan as the greatest manifestation of the power of God. The Antichrist will be accepted very hastily, thoughtlessly 179. People will not realize that his miracles do not have any good, reasonable purpose, any definite meaning, that they are alien to the truth, filled with lies, that they are a monstrous, all-evil, meaningless act, trying to surprise, lead to bewilderment and self-forgetfulness, seduce, deceive, captivate with the charm of a luxurious, empty, stupid effect. It is not strange that the miracles of the Antichrist will be accepted unquestioningly and with delight by apostates from Christianity, enemies of truth, enemies of God: they prepared themselves for the open, active acceptance of the messenger and instrument of Satan, his teachings, all his actions, having well-timed entering into communication with Satan in the spirit. It is worthy of deep attention and lamentation that the miracles and deeds of the Antichrist will lead to difficulties for the very chosen ones of God. The reason for the strong influence of the Antichrist on people will lie in his hellish cunning and hypocrisy, which skillfully covers up the most terrible evil in his unbridled and shameless audacity, in the abundant assistance of fallen spirits to him, and finally, in the ability to create miracles, although false, but amazing. The human imagination is powerless to imagine the villain that the Antichrist will be; It is unusual for the human heart, even a corrupt one, to believe that evil could reach the degree that it will reach in the Antichrist. He will trumpet himself, as his forerunners and icons trumpeted themselves, and will call himself a preacher and restorer of the true knowledge of God; those who do not understand Christianity will see in him a representative and champion of the true religion and will join him. He will sound the trumpet and call himself the promised Messiah; the children of carnal wisdom will exclaim at his meeting; seeing his glory, power, genius abilities, extensive development in the elements of the world, they will proclaim him a god and become his associates 180. The Antichrist will show himself meek, merciful, full of love, full of all virtue; Those who recognize fallen human truth as truth and have not renounced it for the truth of the Gospel will recognize him as such and submit to him because of his most sublime virtue. The Antichrist will offer humanity the creation of the highest earthly well-being and prosperity, he will offer honors, wealth, splendor, carnal comforts and pleasures: seekers of earthly things will accept the Antichrist and call him their ruler 182. The Antichrist will reveal to humanity a disgrace of amazing miracles, inexplicable by modern science, similar to the cunning performances of the theater; he will instill fear with thunder and the wonder of his miracles, with them he will satisfy reckless curiosity and gross ignorance, he will satisfy human vanity and pride; will satisfy carnal wisdom, satisfy superstition, lead to bewilderment of human learning; all people guided by the light of their fallen nature, alienated from the guidance of the light of God, will be drawn into obedience to the seducer (Rev. 13:8). The signs of the Antichrist will primarily appear in the airy layer 183: Satan predominantly dominates in this layer (Eph. 2:2; Eph. 6:12). Signs will act most strongly on the sense of sight, charming and deceiving it 184. Saint John the Theologian, contemplating in Revelation the events of the world that should precede his death, says that the Antichrist will accomplish great deeds, “and cause fire to descend from heaven to earth before men” (Rev. 13:13). This sign is indicated by Scripture as the highest of the signs of the Antichrist, and the place of this sign is air; it will be a magnificent and terrible sight. The signs of the Antichrist will complement the actions of his cunning behavior: most people will be caught in following him. Opponents of the Antichrist will be considered troublemakers, enemies of the public good and order, will be subject to both covert and open persecution, torture and execution. Evil spirits, scattered throughout the universe, will arouse in people a general, lofty opinion of the Antichrist, a general delight, an irresistible attraction to him 185. Scripture depicted in many ways the severity of the last persecution of Christianity and the cruelty of the persecutor. A decisive and definite feature is the name given by Scripture to this terrible man: he is called a “beast” (Rev. 13:1), since the fallen angel is called a “serpent” (Gen. 3:1; Rev. 12:3). Both names faithfully depict the character of both enemies of God. One acts more secretly, the other more openly; but to the beast, which has similarities with all beasts, combining in itself their varied ferocity, “the serpent gave his strength, and his throne, and great authority” (Rev. 13:2). A terrible test will come for the saints of God: the wickedness, hypocrisy, and miracles of the persecutor will intensify to deceive and seduce them; refined, invented and covered by the insidious ingenuity of persecution and oppression, the unlimited power of the tormentor will put them in the most difficult position; a small number of them will seem insignificant before all humanity and their opinion will be given special weakness; general contempt, hatred, slander, oppression, violent death will become their lot. Only with the special assistance of Divine grace, under its guidance, will God’s chosen ones be able to resist the enemy of God, to confess the Lord Jesus before him and before men. The direct consequence of what has been said is that the Pharisees and Sadducees, demanding from the Lord “a sign from heaven,” demanded a miracle in the nature of the miracles of the Antichrist. The fact that they demanded just such a miracle explains the Lord’s behavior in relation to their demand. Once, at such a demand, the God-man expressed deep grief, refused the demand more than decisively, no longer wanted to be with those who allowed themselves to demand, and withdrew from them. Another time He gave them the following formidable answer: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah” (Matt. 16:1, 4; Matt. 12:38–42). All those who demanded a sign based on their affinity with each other in spirit are called clan; called an adulterous generation, because they entered into fellowship with Satan with their spirit, 186 breaking off fellowship with God; they were called an evil generation because, aware of the miracles of the God-man, they pretended not to be aware of them; disparaging and blaspheming the miracles of God, they asked for a miracle in accordance with their unhappy mood, their spirit. The request for a “sign from heaven” was not so much a request for a miracle as it was a mockery of the miracles of the God-man and an expression of an ignorant, distorted concept of miracles. The sign of the prophet Jonah, as explained by the Savior Himself (Matthew 12:40), signified the signs that accompanied His death and resurrection. Then God’s “sign from heaven” was given! Then the sun, seeing the Lord crucified, darkened at noon; there was widespread deep darkness, lasting three hours; the curtain of the Temple of Jerusalem was torn in two by itself, from the top to the bottom; there was an earthquake; the stones were dissolved, the coffins were opened; many saints were resurrected and appeared to many in the holy city (Luke 23:45; Matt. 27:45, 51–53). At the very resurrection of the Lord, an earthquake again followed; a luminous angel descended from heaven to the tomb of the Lord as a witness of the resurrection, striking with horror the guards assigned to the tomb by the seekers of “a sign from heaven” (Matthew 28:2–4). The guards announced the completed resurrection of the Lord to the Jewish Sanhedrin. Having received a “sign from heaven,” he expressed disdain and hatred for him, which he had expressed for all the previous miracles of the God-man, bribed the guards, and together with them took care to cover God’s miracle with the darkness of lies (Matthew 28:11–15). Let us now turn to consider the miracles performed by our Lord Jesus Christ. They are God's gift to humanity. The gift was not given out of obligation - it was given solely out of goodwill and mercy. People were obliged to behave towards the gift and towards the Giver of the gift with the greatest reverence and prudence, because the Giver of the gift declared Himself to be God, who accepted humanity for the salvation of people, and the gift as His testimony. The gift had undeniable dignity. But since the acceptance of salvation was left to the free will of people, it was left to people to consider the miracles of Christ, to discuss the authenticity and quality of them, to conclude from them about their Performer, so that the recognition and acceptance of the Redeemer was the result of a free, positive conviction, and not a hasty, frivolous, as if forced infatuation. The miracles of Christ were completely certain. You can say about all of them what the Lord said to the Apostle Thomas: “Bring your finger to this, and see my hand: and bring your hand and place it in my side, and be not unfaithful, but faithful” (John 20:27). The miracles of Christ were tangible; they were clear to the simplest people; there was nothing mysterious about them; everyone could comfortably examine them; there was no room for doubt and bewilderment whether this was a miracle, or just a representation of a miracle. The dead were resurrected, ailments incurable by human means were healed, lepers were cleansed, those born blind received their sight, the dumb began to speak; food was instantly multiplied for those who needed it; the waves of the sea and the winds subsided with one commanding word and those whom the storm threatened with death were delivered from death; The deeps of the fishermen, who had labored in vain in fishing for a long time, were suddenly filled with fish, obedient to the silent voice of their Lord. The miracles of the God-man had many witnesses, most of whom were either hostile to Him, or inattentive, or sought only bodily help from Him. The miracles were irrefutable. The most evil enemies of the Lord did not reject them, they only tried to humiliate them with blasphemous interpretation and all the means that were instilled in them by wickedness and malice (Matthew 12:24; John 9:24). There was no vanity, no effect in the Lord's miracles; not a single miracle was performed for show to people; all miracles were covered with the veil of Divine humility. They constitute a chain of benefits to suffering humanity. At the same time, they expressed with all satisfaction the power of the Creator over material creation and over created spirits, expressed and proved the dignity of God, who took upon Himself humanity, who appeared as a man among men. One of the miracles of the Lord, having a mysterious meaning, was not accompanied by any visible benefit to any of the people, signifying a benefit that was ready to be poured out on all humanity. The miracle was the killing of a barren fig tree rich in only leaves (Mark 11:13–14, 20). This tree is mentioned in Scripture (Gen. 3:7) among the trees of paradise in the story of the fall of the forefathers. It served them with its leaves to cover their nakedness, which the forefathers did not notice until they fell into sin, which sin revealed to them. Perhaps the fruit of the fig tree of paradise was a forbidden fruit. The Lord did not find fruit on the fig tree: He sought it on it untimely; He allowed His flesh an untimely desire for food, 187 which depicts the incorrectness of the wishes of the forefathers, which, like all the infirmities of men, the Lord bore on Himself and destroyed with Himself. Having not found fruit, the Lord rejected the leaves and destroyed the very existence of the tree: another tree, the tree of the cross, was already being prepared as an instrument for the salvation of people. The tree, the instrument of the destruction of men, is killed by the command of the Savior of men. The mysterious miracle was performed in the presence of only the confidants of the mysterious teaching, the holy apostles. It was accomplished just before the entry of the God-Man into the feat of redemptive suffering for humanity, before his ascension to the cross. The Lord's miracles had a holy meaning, a holy purpose. Although they were great blessings in themselves, in the views of divine vision they served only as evidence and proof of an incomparably higher benefit. The Lord, having accepted humanity, brought people an eternal, spiritual, priceless gift: salvation, healing from sin, resurrection from eternal death. The Word of the Lord and way of life demonstrated this gift with all satisfaction: in life the Lord was sinless, all-holy (John 8:46); His word was full of power (Mark 1:42). But people fell deep into the darkness and darkness of carnal wisdom; their hearts and minds were blinded. It turned out that special leniency towards the painful state of people was necessary; it turned out to be necessary to give the clearest evidence for their bodily feelings; It turned out to be necessary, through bodily feelings, to communicate vital knowledge to the mind and heart, which died their characteristic death, an eternal death. To help the word of God, God's miracles were given. So that people understand and accept the spiritual gift, seen only with the eyes of the soul, the Lord added to the spiritual, eternal gift a gift similar to it, a temporary, physical gift: the healing of human bodily illnesses. Sin is the cause of all ailments in man, both mental and physical, and is the cause of temporary and eternal death. The Lord, having demonstrated His power over the consequences of sin in human bodies, thereby demonstrated His power over sin in general. Carnal wisdom sees neither mental illness nor eternal death; but it sees bodily ailments and the death of the body, it recognizes them, they greatly affect it, they concern it. The Lord, healing with a single word, with a single command of all the sick, raising the dead, commanding unclean spirits, revealed His power, revealed the power of God over man, over sin, over fallen spirits, manifested it clearly for the bodily senses, for the very carnal wisdom. It, seeing and touching this power, could and should, according to a logical sequence, recognize the power of the Lord over sin, not only in relation to sin to the body, but also in relation to sin to the soul, to recognize the power of the Lord over the soul itself, especially since in some of the Lord’s miracles, such as in the resurrection of the dead, His unlimited Divine power over both body and soul was revealed. The body was revived; the soul, which had already departed to the world of spirits, was called into it from this world; united with the body from which she had already been separated forever. Signs were given to man within himself, not anywhere outside; Man was given evidence of his salvation in himself, not away from him. Evidence of the eternal salvation of soul and body was given through the temporary salvation of the body from bodily illnesses and bodily death. With a correct and pious view of the miracles of the Lord, they turn out to be filled with Divine reason: the demand for a “sign from heaven” turns out to be, as it was, devoid of meaning. There are rare cases when the power of the Lord was manifested outside of man over objects of material nature; but these cases did exist. They constitute evidence that the power of the Lord over all nature is unlimited power, the power of God. These miracles serve as an addition to those miracles that were blessings to humanity in the very composition of humanity, so that the definition of the meaning that people should have given to the appearing Redeemer of men was the most accurate. Just as the purpose of the Lord’s coming to earth was the salvation of man, the Lord’s cares were focused on man, on the Lord’s most graceful creation, on His image, on His verbal church. The land of exile and our painful wandering - the earth, all material creation, despite its enormity, was left without attention by Him. If some miracles were performed in the midst of matter, they were performed to satisfy the needs of people. This is the meaning and purpose of the miracles performed by the Lord and His apostles. The Lord declared this; the apostles proclaimed this. One day, many people gathered in the house where the Lord was. The house was filled, and a crowd pressed at the door; It was no longer possible to enter the house. At this time they brought in a paralytic who did not leave his bed. Those who brought it, seeing the crowd and cramped conditions, carried the sick man onto the roof; Having made a hole in the ceiling, they lowered him onto the bed before the Lord. Seeing the act of faith, the merciful Lord said to the paralytic: “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Some of the scribes were sitting here. As they knew the law to the letter and as they were infected with envy and hatred of the God-Man, the thought immediately came to them that blasphemy had been uttered. “Who can,” they thought, “forgive sins, except there is only one God.” The Lord, the knower of the heart, having seen their thoughts, said to them: “What are you thinking in your hearts? What is more convenient, what is easier according to your concept, saying to a weakened person: your sins are forgiven, or saying: get up, take up your bed and walk? Even a hypocrite and a deceiver can say “your sins are forgiven” without evidence. “But let you know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins: (verb to the weakened) I say to you: arise and take up your bed, and go to your house.” The paralytic was instantly healed and strengthened, took the bed and went out in front of everyone (Mark 2:2-12). The miracle is filled with Divine wisdom and goodness. Firstly, the Lord gives the suffering person an essential spiritual gift, invisible to sensory eyes: remission of sins. The giving of the gift aroused an involuntary confession among Jewish scholars that such a gift could be given by God alone. The Lord, in response to their heartfelt thoughts, gives them new proof of Himself that He is God. Finally, the spiritual gift and spiritual proof are sealed by the gift and material proof: the instant and complete healing of the sick person. The Holy Evangelist Mark, finishing his Gospel, says that the apostles, after the Ascension of the Lord, “preached the word everywhere, making progress for the Lord, and confirming the word with signs following the word” (Mark 16:20). The same thought was expressed by all the apostles in the prayer with which they resorted to God after the threats of the Sanhedrin, which forbade them to teach and act in the name of Jesus: “Grant to Thy servant,” they said, “to speak Thy word with all boldness, and at all times to stretch out Thy hand to Thee for healing, and to perform signs and wonders in the name of Thy holy servant Jesus” (Acts. 4:29–30). The signs of God were given to further the word of God. Signs testified to the power and meaning of the word (Luke 4:36). The essential agent is the word. Signs are not needed where the word is accepted, because of the understood dignity that belongs to the word. Signs are condescension to human weakness. The word works differently, and the signs act differently. The Word acts directly on the mind and heart; signs act on the mind and heart through the bodily senses. The consequences of an effective word are stronger and more definite than the consequences of the action of signs. When both the word and signs act together, then the effect of the sign remains, as it were, unnoticed, due to the abundant effect of the word. This is clearly seen from the Gospel. Nicodemus was affected by the signs, and he recognized in the Lord only “a teacher sent from God” (John 3:2). The Apostle Peter was affected by the word, and he confessed the Lord as Christ, the Son of God. “The words of the life of the eternal imashi,” he said to the God-man, “and we by faith and knowledge, that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (John 6:68–69). Saint Peter was an eyewitness to many of the Lord's miracles; the multiplication of the five loaves and the feeding of a large gathering of people with them had just taken place, but in his confession the apostle is silent about miracles, speaking only about the power and effect of the word. The same thing happened with the two disciples, who talked with the Lord without recognizing Him on the way to Emmaus, and recognized Him upon their arrival in this village, already in the house, at the breaking of bread. As soon as they recognized Him, the Lord became invisible. They did not say anything about the amazing miracle; they paid all their attention to the effect of the word. “Isn’t it our heart,” they said to each other, “that there was grief within us, when the Lord spoke to us on the way, and spoke to us the Scriptures” (Luke 24:32). The God-man blessed those who did not see the signs and those who believed (John 20:29). He expressed condolences to those who, not satisfied with words, needed miracles. “Unless you see signs and wonders, you cannot believe” (John 4:48), He said to the Capernaum nobleman. Exactly! Those who leave the word and seek conviction from miracles are worthy of regret. This need reveals a special predominance of carnal wisdom, gross ignorance, a life sacrificed to corruption and sin, lack of exercise in the study of the Law of God and in God-loving virtues, the inability of the soul to sympathize with the Holy Spirit, to feel His presence and action in the word. The signs were most intended to convince and bring to faith sensual people occupied with the cares of the world. Those who are immersed in everyday worries, constantly nailed with their souls to the earth and its deeds, are unlikely to appreciate the dignity of the word; the merciful Word attracted them to the salvation bestowed by the word, through visible signs, which, constituting a material conviction acting through the senses, led the weak soul to the omnipotent, saving Word. Those who believed because of signs constituted the lowest category of believers in Christ. When they were offered a spiritual, sublime, all-holy teaching, then many of them interpreted it according to their own concepts (John 6:60), did not want to ask God for an explanation of God’s word, condemned the word, which was “Spirit and life” (John 6:63), thereby denouncing their superficial faith, their superficial heartfelt deposit, and “many of His disciples who saw many signs, walked back, and no one walked with Him” (John 6:66). Neither the word nor the signs of the God-man had a beneficial effect on the Jewish high priests, scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, although, with the exception of the latter, they clearly knew the Law of God to the letter. They were not only alien to God, hostile to God because of the sinful infection common to all humanity, but they became such, established and imprinted themselves in such a disposition because of their own will, because of conceit, because of the desire to lead that life and succeed in that life that was forbidden by the Gospel. They could not hear the Son of God speaking to them; they did not listen, as they should, to His words, they did not listen to Him; They only caught those words that seemed convenient to them for interpreting and accusing the Lord. This is how hatred is usually set up for the words of the hated. “Why do you not understand My conversation?” - the Savior said to His enemies, who stubbornly and bitterly rejected the salvation offered to them. Why do you not understand My teaching? Why don’t you accept My healing word? Because “you cannot even hear My word” (John 8:43) it is unbearable for you. Being children of lies and workers in its direction, “you do not believe Me, because I speak the truth” (John 8:45). “Whoever is from God will hear the words of God: for this reason you will not listen, because you are not from God” (John 8:47). “Unless I do the works of My Father, do not have My faith: if I do, even if you do not believe Me, believe in My work: that you may understand and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him” (John 10:37–38). The words were in vain, which, as God’s truth, contained complete evidence in themselves (John 8:14); the miracles were in vain, which also contained complete confirmation, which were so tangible and obvious that the enemies of the God-man, with all their desire and effort to reject them, could not help but recognize them (John 9:24). A remedy that acted on people who did not know the Law of God or were very little familiar with it, who spent their lives in earthly pursuits and vanities, but did not reject the Law of God by will, this remedy had no effect on those who knew the Law of God in detail to the letter, who rejected it by life and will (John 5:46–47, 7:19). Everything that could be done to save people was done by the ineffable mercy of God. “If he had not come and spoken to them,” the Savior defines, “they would have had no sin: now they have no guilt (apology) for their sin. Though I had not done the works in them that no one else had done, they had no sin: now you have both seen and hated Me and My Father” (John 15:22–25). Christianity is taught with such certainty that there is no excuse for those who do not know it. The reason for ignorance is pure will. As the sun shines from the sky, so does Christianity shine. He who closes his eyes arbitrarily, let him attribute his lack of vision and ignorance to his own will, and not to the absence of light. The reason for the rejection of the God-man by people lies in people, just as the reason for the acceptance of the Antichrist lies in them. “I came in the name of My Father,” the Lord testified to the Jews, “and you do not accept Me: if anyone comes in his own name, him you accept” (John 5:43). They are called together both those who reject Christ and those who accept the Antichrist, although the Antichrist is mentioned as having to come. Rejecting Christ according to the mood of their spirit, they at the same time accepted the Antichrist according to the same mood of the spirit; they were numbered among those who accepted the Antichrist, although they ended their earthly wanderings many centuries before his coming. They committed his greatest deed: deicide. For the time of his appearance, for himself, no such atrocity was left. Just as their spirit was in a hostile attitude towards Christ, so it was in a state of communion with the Antichrist, separated from him by a huge space of time, now reaching the end of the second millennium. “Every spirit,” says the Theologian, “who does not confess Jesus Christ in the flesh, is not from God, and this is the Antichrist, whom you have heard is coming, and is now in the world” in spirit (1 John 4:3). Those who are led by the spirit of the Antichrist reject Christ, accepted the Antichrist in their spirit, entered into fellowship with him, submitted and worshiped him in spirit, recognizing him as their god. “For this reason, God will suffer, that is, allow them to act in deceit, so that they may believe lies: so that all who have not believed the truth, but have been well pleased with unrighteousness, may receive judgment” (2 Thessalonians 2:11–12). In His permission, God is just. Permission will be satisfaction, at the same time conviction and judgment for the human spirit. The Antichrist will come at his predetermined time. His coming will be preceded by a general retreat among the majority of people from the Christian faith. By retreating from Christ, humanity will prepare to accept the Antichrist and will accept him in its spirit. In the very mood of the human spirit there will arise a demand, an invitation to the Antichrist, sympathy for him, just as in a state of severe illness a thirst for a deadly drink arises. The invitation is spoken! A calling voice is heard in human society, expressing the urgent need for a genius of geniuses, who would raise material development and prosperity to the highest degree, establish on earth that prosperity in which heaven and paradise become unnecessary for man. The Antichrist will be a logical, just, natural consequence of the general moral and spiritual direction of people. The miracles of God incarnate constituted the greatest material blessings that humanity can imagine. What benefit can be greater than restoring life to the dead? What benefit could be more precious than the healing of an incurable disease that took away life during life, making life more like a prolonged death than like life? However, despite the beneficence, holiness, and spiritual significance of Christ’s miracles, these miracles were only temporary gifts. In the precise sense these were signs. They were signs of eternal salvation granted by the word. Those resurrected by the God-man died again in due time: they were granted only the continuation of earthly life, and not the return of this life forever. Those healed by the God-man fell ill again and also died: health was restored to them only for a period, and not forever. Temporary and material blessings are poured out as a sign of eternal and spiritual blessings. Visible gifts were distributed to people enslaved by sensuality, so that they would believe in the existence of invisible gifts and accept them. Signs were drawn from the abyss of ignorance and sensuality and led to faith: faith imparted knowledge of eternal blessings and inspired a desire to acquire them. With the help of wondrous signs, the apostles quickly spread Christianity throughout the universe: the signs were clear and strong proof of Christianity both for educated peoples and for peoples immersed in ignorance and barbarism. When faith was planted everywhere, the word was planted, then the signs were taken away as they had completed their ministry. They ceased to operate on a large scale and everywhere; They were performed by rarely chosen saints of God. John Chrysostom, father and writer of the 4th and 5th centuries, says that in his time the giving of signs had already ceased to operate, although there were still men in places, especially among monks, who carried the sign 188 . With the passage of time, standard-bearing men were constantly diminished. About the last times, the holy fathers predicted that then there would be no standard-bearing men 189. “Why, some say, are there no signs now? Listen to my answer to this with special attention, because I hear the question asked of me here from many, and often, and always. Why then did everyone who received Baptism begin to speak in foreign languages, but now this does not happen?.. Why is the grace of miracles now taken away and taken from people? God does this without subjecting us to dishonor, but even giving us great honor. How? I'll explain. The people of those times were less intelligent, as if they had just been distracted from idols; their minds were dull and dull, they were immersed in the material and devoted to it, they could not imagine the existence of immaterial gifts, they knew the meaning of spiritual grace, that everything is accepted by faith alone: ​​for this reason there were signs. Of the spiritual gifts, some are invisible and are accepted only by faith, while others are combined with some sign, subject to the senses, to arouse faith in non-believers. For example: forgiveness of sins is a spiritual and invisible gift; We do not see with our bodily eyes how our sins are cleansed. The soul is purified, but the soul is invisible to the eyes of the body. So, the cleansing of sins is a spiritual gift that cannot be revealed to the eyes of the body; the ability to speak in foreign languages, although it belongs to the spiritual actions of the Spirit, also serves as a sign subject to the senses, which is why it can easily be perceived by unbelievers; the invisible action taking place inside the soul is made visible and shown through the outer language that we hear. For this also reason Paul says: “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone to profit” (1 Cor 12:7). So, I don't need signs. Why is this? Because I learned to believe in the grace of God even without signs. The unbeliever needs proof; but I, a believer, do not need any proof or sign; although I do not speak foreign languages, I know that I am cleansed from sin. The former did not believe until they received a sign. Signs were given to them as proof of the faith they accepted. And so signs were given not to believers, but to unbelievers, so that they would become believers; This is what Paul says: “They are signs not to those who believe, but to those who are unbelieving” (1 Cor. 14:22) 190. If the signs had been necessary, they would have remained. The word remained, the installation of which was facilitated by signs. It spread, reigned, embraced the universe. It is explained with all satisfaction by the Fathers of the Church; access to it and its assimilation have become especially convenient. It is essential; it is necessary; it accomplishes the salvation of men; it teaches eternal blessings; it brings the kingdom of heaven; the most sublime spiritual signs of God are hidden in it (Ps. 119:18). “The word of the Lord abides forever: this is the word preached in you” (1 Pet. 1:25). There is life in the word, and It is life (John 1:4). It gives birth to dead people into eternal life, giving them from itself its all-holy life: hearers and doers of the word are “not begotten from the seed of corruption, but incorruptible, through the Word of the living God, and abiding forever” (1 Pet. 1:23). To know the meaning of a word, one must fulfill it. The Gospel commandments, being fulfilled, immediately begin to transform, transform, revive a person, transform his way of thinking, his heartfelt feelings, the body itself: “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, members and marrow, and judging by the mind and thought of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The Word of God contains within itself a testimony about itself. It, like celibate signs, acts in the person himself and by this action testifies to itself. It is the highest sign. It is a spiritual sign, which, being given to a person, satisfies all the needs of his salvation, making the benefit of material signs unnecessary. A Christian who does not know this property of the word exposes himself to coldness toward the word, ignorance of the word of God, or dead knowledge of one letter at a time. The desire found in modern Christian society to see miracles and even perform miracles should not be ignored. This aspiration needs careful consideration. The desire to perform miracles is greatly condemned by the holy fathers: such a desire reveals the self-delusion that lives in the soul and has taken possession of the soul, based on conceit and vanity. The great mentor of monks, Saint Isaac of Syria, discusses this subject like this: “The Lord is at all times a close intercessor to His saints; but unnecessarily does not reveal His power with any obvious deed or sensory sign, so that His intercession does not become as if ordinary for us, so that we do not lose due reverence for Him, and it does not serve as a cause of harm for us. This is what He does, providing for the saints: He allows them in every circumstance to demonstrate a feat corresponding to their strength and to work in prayer; at the same time, he shows them that his secret care for them ceases for an hour. If the difficulty of the circumstance exceeds the measure of their reason, if they are exhausted and are not able to act due to their natural insufficiency, then He Himself does what is necessary to help them, according to the majesty of His power, as it should and as He knows. He strengthens them, if possible, secretly, investing in them the strength to overcome their sorrow. He resolves complicated sorrow with the understanding that He bestows from Himself, and through the understanding of His Providence He arouses them to praise, which is useful in all respects. When a circumstance requires obvious help, then, out of need, He does this too. His means and forms of help are the wisest. They help in times of poverty, in times of need, and do not act senselessly. He who dares and prays to God to do something extraordinary, without being forced to do so by necessity, who wants miracles and signs to be performed by his hands, is tempted in his mind by the devil mocking him, and turns out to be vain and sick with his conscience. It is appropriate to ask for God’s help in grief; tempting God without the need is disastrous. He who desires this is truly unrighteous. We find examples in the lives of the saints that the Lord, expressing His displeasure, fulfilled their similar desires. He who wants and desires this spontaneously, without being forced to do so, falls from the state of self-preservation and deviates into creeping away from the mind of truth. If the one who asks for this is heard, then the evil one finds a place in him as in one who walks before God without reverence, with insolence, and plunges him into great inclinations. True righteous people not only do not want to be miracle workers, but even when given the gift of miracles, they refuse it. They not only do not want this in front of people, but also in themselves, in the secret of their hearts. Some of the holy fathers, due to his purity, received from the grace of God the gift of seeing those who came to him; but he asked God, begging his friends to pray for the same thing, so that this gift would be taken from him. If some of the saints accepted the gift, they accepted it out of necessity or because of their simplicity; others accepted at the direction of the Divine Spirit acting in them, and not at all by chance, without reason... True righteous people constantly think that they are unworthy of God. The fact that they recognize themselves as damned, undeserving of God’s care, is evidence of their truth” 191. From this holy reflection the conclusion follows that those who wish to perform signs desire this out of carnal fervor, out of infatuation with passions they do not understand, although, perhaps, it seems to them that they are guided by zeal for the cause of God. Those who want to see signs are in the same state of self-delusion and overheating. Tempting God and violating reverence for Him is prohibited in any case; one is allowed to ask for God’s help in extreme need, when one does not have one’s own means to get out of it; but the choice of means to help must be left to God, surrendering oneself to His will and mercy. The Lord always sends down a means of help that is beneficial to the soul: it provides us with the help we need, and in this very help it teaches us the holy taste of humility. Help is not combined with external splendor, as carnal wisdom would like, so that the soul is not damaged by satisfying its vanity. And in the work of God, in the very service of the Church, one must constantly call on God’s blessing and God’s help, one must believe that the only divine, spiritual methods can be useful for faith and piety, and not the methods offered by carnal wisdom. It is difficult for people to endure fame without harm to their souls 192. This is difficult not only for those who are passionate or who struggle with passions, but also for those who have overcome passions and for saints. Although they were granted victory over sin, their changeability was not taken away, the opportunity to return to sin and under the yoke of passions was not taken away, which is what happened to some due to a lack of vigilance over themselves, when they allowed trust in themselves, in their spiritual state. The tendency towards pride, as the Monk Macarius the Great notes, resides in the most purified souls 193. This inclination serves as the beginning of seduction and infatuation. Because of this, the gift of healing and other visible gifts are very dangerous for those to whom they are given as highly valued by carnal and sensual people, glorified by them. Invisible gifts of grace, incomparably higher than visible ones, such as, for example, the gift of leading souls to salvation and healing them from passions, are not understood and not noticed by the world; he not only does not glorify the servants of God who have these gifts, but also persecutes them as acting against the principles of the world, as slandering the rule of the ruler of the world 194. The merciful God gives people what they essentially need and useful, although they do not understand and do not appreciate it - he does not give what is in any case of little use, and can often be very harmful, although carnal wisdom and ignorance insatiably thirst and seek it. “Many,” says Saint Isaac of Syria, “performed signs, raised the dead, labored in converting the lost, performed great miracles, led others to the knowledge of God, and after this they themselves, having given life to others, fell into foul and abominable passions and put themselves to death” 195 . The Monk Macarius the Great narrates that a certain ascetic who lived with him received the gift of healing in such abundance that he healed the sick with just the laying on of hands; but, being glorified by men, he became proud and fell into the very depths of sin 196. The Life of St. Anthony the Great mentions a young monk who commanded wild onagers in the desert. When the Great heard about this miracle, he expressed disbelief in the spiritual structure of the miracle worker; The news of the sad fall of the monk 197 was not slow to arrive. In the fourth century, there lived in Egypt a holy elder who had a special gift for working miracles and, because of it, great fame among people. He soon noticed that pride began to take hold of him and that he was unable to overcome it through his own efforts. The elder resorted to God with the warmest prayers that he might be allowed to become possessed for the sake of humility. God fulfilled the humble request of His servant and allowed Satan to enter into him. The elder was subjected to all the attacks of the madman for five months; they were forced to put chains on him; the people, who flocked to him in large numbers, glorifying him as a great saint, left him, declaring that he had lost his mind, and the old man, having got rid of human glory and the pride arising in him about this glory, thanked God, who saved him from destruction. Salvation was achieved through minor languor and dishonor before carnal people, who did not understand that because of the signs the devil brought disaster to the old man, and through open demonic possession the old man was returned to a safe path by the wondrous mercy of God 198 . After this, it becomes clear why the great fathers - Sisoi, Pimen and others, having the most abundant gift of healing, tried to hide it: they did not trust themselves, they knew the ability of a person to conveniently change and protected themselves with humility from spiritual distress 199. The holy apostles, who were given the gift of miracles to assist in preaching, were allowed by God's Providence to suffer severe sorrows and persecutions precisely for the purpose of protecting them from exaltation. Saint Isaac of Syria says: “Gift without temptation is destruction for those who receive it. If your work is pleasing to God and He gives you a gift, then beg Him to give you the understanding of how to humble yourself when giving it, or that a guardian be assigned to the gift (the guardian of the gift of the holy apostles was the misfortunes they allowed), or that the gift be taken from you, which could be the cause of your destruction, because not everyone can preserve wealth without harm to themselves." 200 The view of the spiritual mind on bodily ailments and their miraculous healings is completely different from the view of carnal wisdom. Carnal wisdom recognizes illnesses as a disaster, and healing from them, especially miraculous ones, as the greatest well-being, caring little about whether the healing is associated with benefit to the soul or with harm to it. The spiritual mind sees both in illnesses sent by God's Providence and in healings bestowed by Divine grace, God's mercy towards man. Illuminated by the light of God’s word, spiritual reason teaches godly and soul-saving behavior in both cases. He teaches that it is permissible to seek and ask God for healing of an illness with the firm intention of using the returned health and strength in the service of God, and not in the service of vanity and sin. Otherwise, miraculous healing will only serve to increase condemnation and attract greater punishment in time and in eternity. The Lord testified to this. Having healed the paralytic, He said to him: “Behold, you are healthy: let no one sin, lest it be worse” (John 5:14). Man is weak and receptive to sin. If some saints, who had the grace-filled gift of healings and were abundant in spiritual reasoning, were tempted by sin and fell, then carnal people, who do not have a definite understanding of spiritual things, can all the more easily abuse the gift of God. And many have abused it! Having received a miraculous healing from their illness, they did not pay attention to God’s good deed and their duty to be grateful for the good deed, began to lead a sinful life, turned the gift of God to harm themselves, became alienated from God, and lost salvation. For this reason, miraculous healings of bodily ailments are rare, although carnal wisdom greatly respects them and would very much desire them. “You ask and do not receive,” says the Apostle, “you ask evilly, but depend on your desires” (James 4:3). Spiritual reason teaches that illnesses and other sorrows that God sends to people are sent out of God’s special mercy: like bitter healing treatments for the sick, they contribute to our salvation, our eternal well-being much more surely than miraculous healings. Often, very often, an illness is a greater blessing than healing, if it followed; an illness can be such a significant benefit that taking it away through healing would be taking away the greatest benefit, incomparable to the temporary benefit that is delivered by healing a physical illness. The poor, sick Lazarus, mentioned in the Gospel, was not healed of his serious illness, was not delivered from poverty, died in the position in which he languished for a long time, but for his patience he was lifted up by the angels into the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16:22). The Holy Scripture throughout its entire space testifies that God sends various sorrows, and among them bodily ailments, to those people whom He loved (Heb. 12, etc.). The Holy Scripture affirms that all the saints of God, without exception, made an earthly pilgrimage along a narrow and thorny path, filled with various sorrows and hardships (Heb. 12:2). Based on this concept of sorrows, the true servants of God behaved in relation to the sorrows that befell them with the greatest prudence and self-sacrifice. They met the sorrow that came to them, whatever it was, as their belonging, 201 believing with all their souls that sorrow would not have come if it had not been allowed by a just and all-good God in accordance with human needs. The first thing they did when grief came was to realize that they were worthy of it. They searched and always found within themselves the cause of grief. Then, if they saw that grief was preventing them from pleasing God, they turned to God with a prayer for deliverance from grief, leaving the fulfillment and non-fulfillment of the petition to the will of God, without at all recognizing their concept of grief as correct. It cannot be completely correct: the judgment of a limited, although holy, person does not embrace and see all the causes of sorrow, as the all-seeing eye of God, who allows sorrow to His servants and beloved, embraces and sees them. The Holy Apostle Paul turned three times with a prayer to God that the Satanic angel, who was hindering the Apostle in preaching Christianity, would be eliminated. Paul was not heard: God’s judgment on this matter was different from that of the divinely inspired apostle (2 Cor. 12:7–10). Surrendering oneself to the will of God, a sincere reverent desire for it to be accomplished over us, is a necessary, natural consequence of true, spiritual reasoning. Holy monks, when they were exposed to illnesses, accepted them as the greatest blessing of God, tried to remain in praise and thanksgiving to God, and did not seek healing, although miraculous healings are most often performed among holy monks. They wanted to patiently and humbly endure God’s permission, believing and confessing that it was more beneficial to the soul than any voluntary feat. The Venerable Pimen the Great said: “Three monastic deeds are equal in dignity: when someone is silent correctly, when someone is sick and thanks God, when someone undergoes obedience with a pure thought 202. In the Egyptian Skete, where the greatest holy monks stayed, lived the Monk Benjamin. For his virtuous life, God gave him the abundant gift of healing ailments. Having this gift, he himself suffered from a severe and prolonged water illness. He swelled unusually. They were forced to take him out of his own cell to another, more spacious one. To do this, the doors and jambs in his cell had to be removed. In the new room they arranged a special seat for him because he could not lie on the bed. Being in this position, the monk continued to heal others, and those who, seeing his suffering, sympathized with him, exhorted them to pray for his soul, without worrying about his body. “When my body is healthy,” he said, “then I have no particular benefit from it. Now, having been exposed to illness, it does not bring me any harm” 203. Abba Peter said that he, having once visited the Monk Isaiah the Hermit and finding him suffering from a severe illness, expressed regret. To this the monk said: “So depressed by illness, I can hardly keep in my memory the terrible time (of death and judgment of God). If my body were healthy, then the memory of this time would be completely alien to me. When the body is healthy, then it is more inclined to incite hostile actions against God. Sorrows serve as an aid for us to preserve God’s commandments” 204 ​​. When the illnesses and other sorrows befell them, the Holy Fathers, firstly, themselves tried to show the patience that depended on them: they resorted to self-reproach and self-condemnation, raping the heart with them and forcing it to be patient 205; they remembered death, the judgment of God, eternal torment, the recollection of which weakens the meaning and feeling of earthly sorrows (Matthew 10:28–31); they raised their thoughts to the Providence of God, reminded themselves of the promise of the Son of God to continually remain with his followers and protect them, thereby calling their hearts to complacency and courage (Matt. 28:20); they forced themselves to glorify and thank God for the sorrow; forced themselves to recognize their sinfulness, which required punishment and admonition because of the justice of God, because of the very goodness of God. In addition to their own feasible labor to acquire patience, they intensified diligent prayers to God for the granting of a spiritual gift - grace-filled patience, inseparable from another spiritual gift - grace-filled humility, serving together with it as a sure guarantee of salvation and eternal bliss. The great standard-bearing fathers did not teach healing, which was so convenient for them, to their disciples who were exposed to illness by permission or the Providence of God, so as not to deprive them of spiritual success, which must certainly be achieved by illness, borne according to the moral tradition of the Church. The abbot of the Gaz hostel, the Monk Serid, a disciple of the Great Barsanuphius, who remained silent in the same hostel, was ill for a long time. Some of the older brethren asked the Great One to heal the abbot. Saint Barsanuphius answered: “Some of the saints who are here could pray to God for the health of my son, of which I informed him, so that he would not be sick for a single day; but then he would not have received the fruits of patience. This illness is very useful for him for patience and gratitude” 206. Explaining the need for sorrows for the ascetic of Christ, Saint Isaac of Syria says: “Temptation is useful for every person. If it is useful to Paul, then “let every mouth be stopped, and the whole world will be guilty of God” (Rom. 3:19). Ascetics are tempted so that they increase their wealth; the weak - in order to protect themselves from what is harmful to them; sleeping - so that they awaken; those who are far away - so that they come closer to God; your own - so that they become even more assimilated. An untrained son does not take control of his father's wealth, because he will not be able to use the wealth usefully. For this reason, God first tempts and torments, and then gives the gift. Glory to the Lord, Who through bitter medicine gives us the pleasure of health. There is no person who does not grieve during training. There is no person who would not find the time bitter when he drinks the drink of temptation. But without them it is impossible to acquire spiritual strength. And it is not ours to endure. How can a clay vessel withstand the thinness of water if it is not first strengthened by Divine fire? If in reverence, in a constant desire for patience, we ask him with humility from God, then we will receive everything about Christ Jesus our Lord.” 207 Before the second coming of Christ, “there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars,” the sea will roar and be troubled (Luke 21:25). How to distinguish these signs from the signs of the Antichrist? How to distinguish these signs from the signs of the Antichrist, because he too will give signs in the sun, moon, stars, and air? 208 The first signs will be true, which will be completely different from the signs of the Antichrist, which will be made up of phenomena that deceive the senses. The performers of the signs of the Antichrist will be the Antichrist and his apostles; signs in the sun, moon and stars, signs - the messengers of the coming of Christ, will appear by themselves, without any mediation. The heavenly luminaries will fulfill their purpose, with which, at the command of the Creator, they shone in the sky (Gen. 1:14). They already fulfilled this purpose at the Nativity of Christ with a wonderful star (Matthew 2:2); They fulfilled it at the crucifixion of the God-man, when the sun was covered with a dark veil of darkness at noon (Matthew 27:45). The Holy Evangelist Matthew says that after the passing of the sorrow caused by the dominion of the Antichrist, the coming of Christ will immediately begin, and it will begin with the fact that “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven” (Matthew 24:29). These luminaries will remain in their places, notes Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria; but they will fade and appear to human eyes as having disappeared from the firmament of heaven due to the abundance of heavenly light with which the world, being prepared to receive the Lord in His glory, will be illuminated. We dare to call the teaching about miracles and signs that we have proposed the teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church, the teaching of its holy fathers. The essential need for an accurate and, if possible, detailed presentation of this teaching is obvious. True signs were the assistants of true knowledge of God and the salvation it provided; false signs were the accomplices of error and the destruction flowing from it. In particular, the effect of the signs that the Antichrist will perform will be extensive and powerful, attracting unfortunate humanity to recognize the messenger of Satan as God. It is edifying, comforting, soul-saving, pious contemplation of the miracles performed by our Lord, Jesus Christ. What holy simplicity they have! How through them the knowledge of God was made convenient for all people! What goodness they have, what humility, what irrefutable power of conviction! Contemplation of the miracles of Christ leads us to the Word, which is God. God, in order to restore communion with humanity that had fallen away from Him, deigned that His Word should clothe itself in humanity, appear, circulate among people, enter into close relationship with them and, having assimilated them to Himself, ascend to heaven. Having put on humanity, the Word remains the Word of God and acts as a word in accordance with His Divine dignity. It sits at the right hand of the Father accepted by humanity and abides everywhere as God. It is inscribed on paper, It is clothed in sounds, but, being “Spirit and life” (John 6:63), It enters the minds and hearts, recreates those united with It in the spirit, attracting the body to spiritual life. From contemplating the miracles of Christ, we ascend to the knowledge of the great meaning that lies in the Word of God, “the only thing needed” (Luke 10:42) for our salvation, in the Word that serves salvation and accomplishes salvation with all satisfaction. Knowledge of the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures, spoken by the Holy Spirit and explained by the Holy Spirit, combined with knowledge gleaned from activity directed according to the Word of God, finally overshadowed by knowledge taught by Divine grace, gives the Christian purity of mind and heart. In this purity the spiritual mind shines like the sun in a clear sky free of clouds. When day comes after darkness, the night image of sensory objects changes: some of them, which had previously remained invisible, become visible; others, which were seen indistinctly and mixed with other objects, are separated from them and designated definitely. This happens not because objects change, but because the attitude of human vision towards them changes when night darkness is replaced by daylight. Exactly the same thing happens with the attitude of the human mind to moral and spiritual objects, when the mind is illuminated by spiritual knowledge emanating from the Holy Spirit. Only with the light of spiritual intelligence can the soul see the holy path to God! Only in the light of spiritual reason can the invisible procession of the mind and heart to God be accomplished infallibly! Only with the light of spiritual reason can we avoid delusion, wilds and pernicious abysses. Where this light is not present, there is no vision of truth; where this light is not present, there is no godly virtue that saves a person, leading him into the abodes of paradise 209. The view of the soul's eye on signs and wonders must be illuminated by the light of spiritual reason in order to avoid those disasters into which the view of carnal wisdom on them can involve. We have seen the nature of the miracles of the God-man; we saw what their purpose was. The signs, having completed their ministry, left the field of service, leaving the essential worker to act - the Word, Who abides and will remain a worker until the end of the world, as It itself announced about Himself: “Behold, I am with you until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). After the widespread performance of signs, which was accompanied by the sowing of Christianity by the preaching of the apostles and men equal to the apostles, ceased, signs were performed in places by selected vessels of the Holy Spirit. Over time, with the gradual weakening of Christianity and damage to morality, standard-bearing men were diminished 210. Finally they dried up completely. Meanwhile, people, having lost reverence and respect for everything sacred, having lost humility, recognizing themselves as unworthy not only to perform signs, but also to see them, thirst for miracles more than ever. People, in the rapture of conceit, arrogance, ignorance, strive indiscriminately, recklessly, boldly towards everything miraculous, do not refuse to be participants in the performance of miracles, they decide to do it without thinking at all. This direction is more dangerous than ever. We are gradually approaching the time in which a vast disgrace of numerous and amazing false miracles should be revealed, dragging into destruction those unfortunate children of carnal wisdom who will be seduced and deceived by these miracles. The revival of the soul by the Word of God produces living faith in Christ. Living faith seems to see Christ (Heb. 11:27). For her eyes, Christianity, while remaining a secret, becomes open; remaining incomprehensible, it is clear, understandable, no longer covered by that thick, impenetrable curtain with which it is closed from dead faith. Living faith - spiritual intelligence 211. She no longer needs signs, being completely satisfied with the signs of Christ and the greatest of His signs, the crown of signs, His word. The desire to see signs is a sign of unbelief, and signs were given to unbelief in order to convert it to faith. Let us cleave to the Word of God with all our souls, let us unite with Him into one spirit, and the signs of the Antichrist will not even attract our attention. With disdain and disgust towards them, we will turn our gaze away from them, as from a demonic disgrace, as from the deeds of frantic enemies of God, as from a reproach to God, as from poison and deadly infection. Let us remember the following remark of particular importance, drawn from the experiences of ascetic activity. All demonic phenomena have the property that even the slightest attention to them is dangerous; from one such attention, allowed without any sympathy to the phenomenon, one can be imprinted with the most harmful impression, and be subjected to a grave temptation. Humility is inseparable from spiritual intelligence. Saint Isaac of Syria says: “Only he who has humility can be recognized as reasonable; he who does not have humility will never acquire intelligence" 212. Living faith opens the eyes of the soul of God; The Word of God connects the soul with God. He who has seen God in this way, who has felt God in this way, sees his own insignificance, is filled with inexpressible reverence for God, for all His works, for all His commands, for all His teachings, and acquires humility. The humble-wise will not even dare to be curious about what is happening outside the will of God, what is condemned in good time by the Word of God: the signs of the Antichrist will remain alien to the humble-wise as having nothing to do with them. The vision of one’s insignificance and one’s weakness, the vision of God, His Majesty, omnipotence and infinite goodness excites the soul to rush to God in prayer. All the hope of such a soul is concentrated in God, and therefore there is no reason for it to have fun during prayer; she prays, pooling her strength and rushing to God with all her being; She resorts to prayer as often as possible, she prays unceasingly. When the great tribulations come during the time of the Antichrist, all who truly believe in God will cry out in intense prayer to God. They will cry out for help, for intercession, for the sending of Divine grace to strengthen and guide them. The own strengths of people, although faithful to God, are not sufficient to resist the united forces of rejected angels and people who will act with frenzy and despair, anticipating their imminent destruction (Rev. 12:12). Divine grace, having overshadowed God’s chosen ones, will make for them the seductions of the seducer invalid, his threats unthreatening, his miracles despicable; she grants them to courageously confess the Savior who saved people and expose the false messiah who came to destroy people; she will place them on scaffolds, as on royal thrones, as on a wedding feast. The feeling of love for God is sweeter than the feeling of life 214. Just as the torment before death and the torment accompanying death constitute the beginning of eternal torment for a sinner, 215 so torment for Christ and violent death for Him constitute the beginning of the eternal joys of heaven. We see this clearly from the action of Divine grace in relation to the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity: initially it was left to them to show their will; After they accepted their first torment, help from Above descended to them, making both torment and death for Christ desirable for them. The Lord, foreshadowing the tribulations that would precede the second coming, commanded His disciples to watch and pray: “Watch, watch and pray,” He told them, “for you do not know when the time will be” (Mark 13:33). Prayer is always necessary and useful for a person: it keeps him in communion with God and under the protection of God; it protects him from arrogance, from the seduction of vanity and pride, both his own, vegetating from fallen nature, and brought in thoughts and dreams from the region of fallen spirits. In times of sorrows and dangers, visible and invisible, prayer is especially needed: it, being an expression of rejection of arrogance, an expression of hope in God, attracts God’s help to us. Almighty God becomes the agent of the one praying in difficult circumstances and brings His servant out of them by His wondrous Providence. Knowledge of God, living faith, grace-filled humility, pure prayer are accessories of the spiritual mind; they are its constituent parts. So, on the contrary, ignorance of God, unbelief, blindness of the spirit, pride, arrogance and conceit are accessories of carnal wisdom. It, not knowing God, not accepting and not understanding the means offered by God for obtaining the knowledge of God, constitutes for itself an erroneous, soul-destroying way to acquire the knowledge of God, in accordance with its mood: it asks for “a sign from heaven.” Amen. (Luke 15:10); Macarius the Great. Conversation 30, ch. 7 "The Evangelist", on Matt. 16 Life of the Holy Apostle Peter. Chet'i-Minei, June 29. Pinetti, who lived at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, performed similar miracles. Others have done and are doing them too Venerable Ephraim the Syrian. Word 106th. About the Antichrist, part 2 Venerable Macarius the Great. Conversation 31, ch. 4 "The Good News" Explanation on In. 5 Venerable Ephraim the Syrian. Word 106th, part 2 “It is very rarely appropriate for a devotee of prayer to look at the sky out of fear for the sake of (as a precaution) the evil spirits in the air, for this reason they are called spirits of the air, who produce many and various delights in the air.” Simeon the New Theologian. About the third way of attention. Dobrot., part 1 Venerable Ephraim the Syrian, Sermon 106 "The Good News" Explanations of the given passages from the Holy Gospel "The Good News" Explanation on Mk. 11:13–14 Explanation according to (2 Cor. 3:18) Reply to the 4th brother of Saint Niphon of Constantinople Discourse 1st by St. John Chrysostom on Pentecost. Word 36th. According to the translation of Elder Paisius Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 1st Saint Tikhon of Voronezh. Volume 15, letter 103, paragraph 4 Patrologiae 50, 73. De vitis patrum, lib. 4, cap. 13 Venerable Mark the Ascetic. 226 chapters about those who think that by works they will be justified, ch. 6 Venerable Isaiah the Hermit. Word 27th Venerable Abba Dorotheos. Lesson 7 "The Good News" On (Mark 8:11–12) Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 25, 26, 27 and 28th Ladder. Word 26th, ch. 52. Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 28th Venerable Ephraim of Syria. Word 106th Saint Isaac of Syria. Word 38th This thought belongs to the holy martyr Jacob the Persian. 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