Поучение в субботу 32-й недели. О молитве

Beloved brothers! In order to succeed in the feat of prayer, so that in due time, by the inexpressible mercy of God, to taste the sweetest fruit of prayer, which consists in the renewal of the whole person by the Holy Spirit, one must pray constantly, one must courageously endure the difficulties and sorrows with which the feat of prayer is associated. The Lord commanded us to do this, as we heard today in the Gospel. “It is proper to always pray, and not to become cold” (Luke 18:1), that is, not to lose heart. They usually become discouraged when they have failures: therefore, the Lord commands us not to become discouraged if, after being engaged in prayer for a long time, we do not notice the desired success; if our mind, instead of praying attentively, is plundered by various vain thoughts and dreams; if our heart, instead of being filled with tenderness, which is almost always accompanied by consoling tears, is cold and hard; if during prayer obscene and violent passions suddenly flare up in us, vicious memories are brought; if our prayer is denounced by circumstances and people; if our prayer is slandered by the worst enemies of prayer, demons. All obstacles encountered in the field of prayer are overcome by constancy in prayer. The Lord deigned to clothe the teaching about the benefits and fruit of constant prayer, like many of His other teachings, in a parable. The parable is especially conveniently imprinted in the memory, and with it the teaching embodied in the parable is also imprinted in the memory. “There was a certain judge in a certain city,” said the Lord, explaining the need for constant and patient prayer, “not fearing God, and not putting man to shame. A certain widow was in that city: and she came to him, saying: take revenge on me, that is, protect me from my rival. And you don’t want too much time. Follow this speech within yourself: even if I do not fear God, and I do not put man to shame: but this widow has done my labors, I will take her revenge, so that it will not be completely, that is, constantly and endlessly coming, it will stand against me” (Luke 18:1-5). In appearance, here is a ruler who has reached the extreme degree of sinfulness. Many people who lead wicked lives have lost the fear of God; but they, sinning fearlessly before the all-seeing God, who seems to them, in their blindness and bitterness, to see nothing and not even exist, are ashamed to sin openly before people, try in every possible way to hide their iniquities from them, try to instill in them the kindest opinion of themselves. The ruler lost both the fear of God and human shame: nothing any longer bound him in his actions; he could be guided by arbitrariness alone. At the first superficial glance, the judge appears to be such a desperate sinner; but on deeper examination it turns out that, in a mysterious sense, many of the traits attributed to the judge refer to God 229 . God cannot fear Himself, and He does not accept the face of man: all people are equal before Him, all are creations, all are His servants, all equally need His mercy, are in His complete power. He is called unjust, that is, unjust, because “he did not create food for us because of our iniquities, but he repaid us because of our sins. Because He knows our creation, I will remember Him, like the dust of Himself” (Ps. 102:10, 14). In spiritual delight from contemplating the ineffable love of God, Saint Isaac of Syria exclaims: “Do not dare to call God just, because His justice is not visible to you. Although the prophet calls Him righteous and upright, His Son declared that He is more good and merciful: He is good to the ungrateful and evil (Luke 6:36). How can we call Him just if we read the parable about the payment of workers? “My friend, I do not offend you, but I want to give this last one (who barely touched the work) the same price that I agreed with you (who bore the burden of a whole hot day). Am I not master of mine? Is your eye envious because I am good? (Matthew 20:1–15) Again, how can you call God just if you read the story of the prodigal son who squandered all his wealth in debauchery? Because of one emotion expressed by the son, the father ran out to meet him, embraced him and gave him his former dignity. The Son of God Himself - no one else - testified this about God; there is no room for doubt about this. Where is the justice of God when Christ died for us while we were His enemies?” 230. In the parable, a widow is called a human soul, separated by sin from God, aware and feeling this separation. The world is called a city as a creation of God. Very few people in this city confess their spiritual widowhood; the majority remain outside the memory of death and the judgment of God, and remain completely immersed in temporary worries and pleasures. There are so few who think about eternity and prepare for it that one such person is remembered throughout the city. The state of widowhood is a state of loneliness, helplessness, a state inseparable from sadness, a state of incessant lamentation. Those who have felt their spiritual widowhood, who have lost communion with the Holy Spirit through sin, who thirst and strengthen to renew this communion through repentance, who are dead to God because of broken communion with Him, who are dead to the world because of their lack of sympathy for the world, come to this state, bring themselves, are brought by God. This state of soul is necessary for success in the feat of prayer: God listens to the prayers of some widows, that is, some poor in spirit, filled with the consciousness of their sinfulness, their weakness, their fall; alien to self-conceit, which consists in recognizing one’s merits, virtues, and righteousness. Conceit is self-delusion. Those who recognize their merits, virtues, and righteousness are called in the Holy Scriptures “those who become rich.” Those who get rich are those who actually do not have any wealth, but, deceiving themselves, think they have it, and try to present themselves as rich before people. Vain, proud concepts, from which conceit is made, destroy in a person that spiritual throne on which the Holy Spirit usually sits, destroy the only condition that attracts the mercy of God to a person. On the contrary, from the concepts of the humble, the throne for the Holy Spirit in man is built, the conditions, the guarantee for receiving God’s mercy are formed. Conceit itself destroys the possibility of success in prayer, which is why Scripture says: “Spend the proud thoughts of their hearts away. Dethrone the mighty and lift up the humble. Fill those who hunger with good things, and those who are rich let go of their vanity” (Luke 1:51–53). The prayer of the proud is destroyed by absent-mindedness. They are deprived of power over themselves: neither their thoughts nor their feelings obey them. Their mind cannot concentrate in self-conception, from which a feeling of repentance and tenderness is born in the soul. He who sows his seed on a rock does not reap any fruit; So he who prays without tenderness, who prays coldly and superficially, leaves, after completing his prayer, alien to spiritual fruit, not allowed to communicate with God. God accepts only the humble into fellowship with Him. The feat of prayer seems completely different for those who only dream about it, being content with the most meager exercise in it, than for those who have carefully engaged in the feat of prayer and have experienced it. The first recognize this feat as the easiest, completely dependent on the will of a person, becoming his property at any time, whenever he decides to take possession of this property. They believe that as soon as they leave care and enter into silence, they will be greeted there by the most abundant spiritual pleasure. “We will constantly talk with God,” they think and say, and they already create for themselves various high spiritual states, such as the state of clairvoyance, prophecy, working miracles and healing ailments. This is how ignorance dreams and wanders, guided by the incomprehensible passion of vanity. Experience shows and proves something completely different. One who has entered into a true feat of prayer is guided in it by God Himself, with wisdom incomprehensible to those who are not initiated into its mysteries. “Prayer,” said Saint John Climacus, “in itself contains a teacher, God, who teaches a person to understand (prayer), who “gives prayer to the one who prays and blesses the years of the righteous” (1 Sam. 2:9) 231. According to the distribution of Divine wisdom, those who have entered into the feat of prayer are initially given the opportunity to taste the consolation of prayer 232 . Thus, a successfully chosen medicine for any long-standing disease, touching its surface, immediately, at the first doses, brings relief. The same medicine, with further use, begins to penetrate the body, disturbs the disease and, gradually expelling it, intensifies the pain, sometimes leading the patient into a painful state. With such phenomena, an inexperienced patient can easily doubt the benefits of the medicine; but skilled doctors see its benefits in precisely these phenomena. Exactly the same thing happens during prayer. When a Christian constantly and carefully engages in it, then little by little it will begin to reveal in him his passions, the existence of which he had not previously known in himself. She will reveal to him in a striking picture the fall of human nature and its captivity. When a Christian intends to emerge from the fall and free himself from captivity, then those spirits who have enslaved us to themselves will come and stubbornly rebel against prayer, which is intensifying to bring spiritual freedom to the Christian. This serves as proof of the reality of prayer, as the same great teacher of monks said: “We conclude about the benefits of prayer by the opposition from demons that we encounter when performing it, and we conclude about its fruit by our defeat of the enemy” (Homily 28, chapter 61). In the involuntary contemplation of our fall and in the struggle against our passions and spirits of evil, very often, for a very long time, the Divine Providence keeps ascetics for their significant benefit. Seeing the passions constantly arising in oneself, seeing the constant predominance over oneself of sinful thoughts and dreams brought by spirits, the ascetic acquires the poverty of spirit commanded by the Gospel, is mortified for the world, and becomes a true widow in spiritual terms; and from the strongest feeling of widowhood, orphanhood, loneliness, homelessness, he begins with a special carelessness, with a special persistence to complain with prayer, combined with crying, to the Judge, who does not fear God and man who does not shame, to tire the Tireless One. Although this Judge, being God, does not fear God, the soul, which, due to sin and fall, has become a widow in relation to Him, does not work for Him: “He will take her vengeance from her rival” - the body and from her adversaries - the spirits" 233. How is this vengeance, this defense accomplished? The gift of the Holy Spirit to the ascetic, exhausted by the feat of prayer: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; press, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives it, and everyone who seeks finds it, and it will be opened to the one who asks... The Father who is in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:9-13), this is how the Lord confirms to us. But in order to receive the gift, it is commanded to ask, seek, and knock relentlessly on the spiritual doors of God’s mercy. The quick and easy acquisition of spiritual wealth 234 is not useful to us, even harmful: having easily received it, we will not be able to preserve it; it can serve as a reason for us to vanity, to contempt and condemnation of our neighbors, which leads the ascetic to grave falls, which usually follow pride and serve as punishment and admonition for those carried away by the most destructive passion that cast fallen angels from heaven. For this reason, God leaves devotees of prayer to languish for a long time in an unresolved struggle with passions and spirits, in the midst of hope and hopelessness, in the midst of frequent victories and defeats. “In reproaching iniquity you punished man,” says the great worker of prayer, “and you melted away his soul like a web” (Ps. 39:12). During this difficult time, ascetics thoroughly learn the experimental knowledge of various passions and demonic intrigues, thoroughly learn the Gospel commandments, which become their property through prolonged and careful study. In this difficult time, ascetics thoroughly prepare to receive and preserve Divine grace. “Doesn’t God mean,” the Gospel parable concludes with these words, “to take vengeance on his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night, and be patient for them. I tell you that he will take their vengeance quickly” (Luke 18:7–8). The long-suffering of God here refers to the duration of the struggle against sin, which is allowed to God’s chosen ones by none other than God Himself. Vengeance or protection is said to be given quickly, because even during the struggle God constantly supports his chosen ones; after the struggle has passed and after man has been renewed by the Holy Spirit, such bliss is poured into him that he immediately forgets all the languor of the struggle; it seems to him to have been in effect for the shortest possible time. “We were filled with Thy mercy in the morning, O Lord, and we rejoiced and were glad” - this is how those who made sure that their prayer was heard confessed to the Lord, who saw in their souls the appearance of the spiritual morning after the darkness of the night - “all our days we rejoiced, for the days in which you humbled us, years, in which we saw evil.” (Ps. 89:13–15). But the struggle is so difficult that the prayerful cry of the elect constantly intensifies because of it; because of her, it does not stop either day or night; the distance between prayers is destroyed, and God’s servants begin to oppress God with incessant prayer and crying, produced by that humble concept of oneself, which appears from the sight of one’s sinfulness. “I walked around lamenting all day,” says the holy prophet David, “for my body was filled with reproaches, and there was no healing in my flesh. I would be embittered by my passions and the spirits of malice, and I would humble myself to the core” (Ps. 37:7-9). “How long, Lord, will you forget me completely? How long will you turn Your face away from Me? How long will you endure? How long will You not exact Your vengeance on my adversaries? “How long will I, because of my bewilderment, put a lot of fruitless advice in my soul, illness in my heart day and night? until my enemy is exalted against me” (Ps. 12:2-3). “Defeat my soul, you possessed me! Having embraced me like a lion ready to catch, and like a skiman who dwells in the secret. Arise, O Lord, before me, and stifle them, deliver my soul from the wicked” (Ps. 16:9, 12-13). "My God! I have trusted in You, so that I will never be ashamed; let my enemies laugh at me, for all who endure You will not be ashamed” (Ps. 25:1-2). When the Lord ended the parable with the promise to “take vengeance quickly” on the one who would prayerfully “cry out to Him day and night,” then He said: “Either the Son of man, when he comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). Why are these words said? They were said, according to the interpretation of the fathers, for the following reason 235. The Lord, having counted the signs that will precede His second coming, pronounced a teaching on prayer, especially necessary in these difficult and calamitous times, as another time on the same occasion He said: “Be vigilant for those who pray at all times, so that you may be deemed worthy to flee all these who wish to be, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36). “Besides, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” This means: will He find true believers who prove their faith by deeds, especially by true and real prayer, the feat of which is based on faith and is accomplished, constantly relying on faith? Such a turn, according to its use in Scripture, is equivalent to the following: 236: The Son of God, having come to earth, will find almost no one or will find very, very few who would have true faith and the success that depends on it, demonstrating its prayerful success. And then this success is especially needed! “The end is drawing near,” says the holy Apostle Peter, “become wise and sober in your prayers” (1 Pet. 4:7). There will be no success in prayer, no true practice of prayer: all people will be engaged in material development, will be engaged in turning the earth doomed to burning into their paradise; In self-delusion they will consider temporary life eternal, they will reject and ridicule concerns about preparing themselves for eternity. For those whose thoughts are entirely directed towards the earth and are occupied with the earth, there is no God. He who ascends to God through pure and frequent prayer acquires living faith in God, sees Him with it and flies like a winged one through all the vicissitudes and disasters of earthly life. He will see “his vengeance from his rival,” and will rejoice not only in the forgiveness of his sins, but also in his cleansing from sinful passions. The holy fathers call this state holiness, blissful dispassion, Christian perfection. In this state, he will be honored to “flee all the evils that are about to be, and stand before the Son of Man,” when he will be demanded before him both by death and by that trumpet, which will gather the living and the dead for judgment before the Son of God. Amen. Interpretation of the blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria; Ladder. Word 28, etc. A Word about Abba Philemon. Dobrot., part 4 Ladder. Word 28, ch. 28 Ave. Macarius the Great. Word 4, ch. 19 Interpretation of Blessed Theophylact You might be interested in: