Слово 28. О клятвах.

Let us not, beloved, neglect the virtue of the soul. In fact, tell me, what is the torment of leaving anger on the offender? On the contrary, torment is to remember evil and not put up with it. How hard is it not to slander anyone? How hard is it to be free from envy, quarrels and ill-will? What is the difficulty of loving your neighbor? What is the burden of not swearing? Often, in a fit of anger and rage, we swear never to make peace with offenders, and then, when the anger subsides, although we want to make peace, we do not dare to do this, being held back, as if by some kind of trap, by the necessity of this oath. Therefore, one of two things must happen to us: either, having made peace, we break the oath; or, without reconciliation, we will make ourselves guilty of punishment for rancor. Isn’t it unreasonable on our part that, having clothes that are better than others, we do not allow ourselves to constantly use them, while we talk about the name of God everywhere without any respect or reason. Not every sin entails the same punishment; sins that can be easily corrected bring upon us greater punishment; those who swear cannot present any justification in their favor other than disdain for the name of God. I know that I already seem burdensome and hateful to you, bothering you, apparently, with constant admonitions; and yet I will not stop bothering you so that you, even if you are ashamed of my shamelessness, stop the bad habit of swearing. If the inexorable and cruel judge spoken of in the Gospel, ashamed of the persistent requests of the widow, changed his behavior (Luke 18:1-8), then you will do it much more, and especially when the one convincing you does it not for his own sake, but for the sake of your own salvation. However, I would not refuse to do this for my own sake, because I consider your good deeds to be my own merits. If there were no Gehenna or punishment, and I approached you and asked you to do this as a mercy, would you not agree? Would you not have granted such a simple request to someone who so begs your mercy? When God asks the same thing, and moreover for the sake of you, who give, and not for the sake of Himself, who receives, then who is so ungrateful, who is so pitiful and miserable that he will not give to God who asks for mercy? So, I beg you, that you, having accepted the beheaded head of John, still bleeding with warm blood, return with it each to your home, and have it mentally before your eyes, and hear it say: “Hate my murderer - the oath.” It often happens that a master swears to his student that he will not give him anything to eat or drink until he finishes all the work given to him. A teacher often acts in exactly the same way with a young man, and a mistress with a maidservant. And when evening comes and the work is not finished, it turns out that it is necessary either for those who have not completed the task to die of hunger, or for those who have sworn to break their oath. It also often happens that when we are having dinner at home and one of the servants does something wrong, the wife swears to punish him, but the husband swears on the contrary, raises an argument and does not allow this to be done. In this case, no matter what they do, they must commit perjury in every possible way: no matter what happens, one or the other of them will certainly be guilty of perjury, or rather, both. Well, I’ll explain it – because it seems quite strange. The one who swore to punish a servant or maid, and was then restrained from doing so, himself commits perjury by not doing what he swore, and the one who restrained him and forced him to break the fidelity of the oath is charged with perjury, because not only those who break the oath themselves, but also those who force others to do it deserve the same accusation. Isn’t it strange that a servant does not dare, on every convenient and inconvenient occasion, to call his master by name, while we everywhere remember the Lord of Angels frivolously and with complete disdain? Do you want to know how you can free yourself from the bad habit of swearing? I will teach you one method, and if you apply it, you will certainly overcome this habit. Exactly. When you see that either you yourself or someone else is captivated by this bad passion, and, despite constant admonitions, is not correcting yourself, then tell him to go to bed without having dinner. Inflict this punishment on both yourself and the other - a punishment that does not bring harm, but benefit. The tongue, being constantly subject to such torture, even if no one reminds, receives sufficient suggestion; and even if we were completely insensitive, yet, receiving a reminder from such torture all day long, we will have no need for any other advice or admonition. “For just as a servant,” it is said, “who is constantly being punished, does not get rid of his wounds, so he who constantly swears by the name of the Holy One will not be cleansed from sin” (Sir. 23:10). So, let’s force ourselves to give up the habit of swearing and change for the better. Although I talked with you yesterday and the day before about this subject, I will not cease to inspire the same thing today, and tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. And what do I say: tomorrow and the day after tomorrow? I will not leave until I see you corrected. It is not the speaker who is to blame if he constantly reminds of the same thing, but the listeners who need constant teaching. What could be easier than swearing? This is just a matter of habit; not any physical labor. Let the one who has already managed to improve reproach the one who lags behind in order to motivate him more strongly with reproaches; let the one who is late and has not yet corrected himself look at the successful one and try to quickly become equal to him. And let them not say to me: “What if someone forces us to swear? What if he doesn't believe it? No; where the law is violated, there should be absolutely no mention of necessity, because there is only one inevitable necessity - not to offend God. However, now I am only talking about stopping unnecessary oaths, pronounced without reason or necessity - at home, in front of friends, in front of servants. And if you destroy these oaths, then for those you will no longer have any need for me, because the lips themselves, having learned to fear and avoid oaths, will never allow themselves to fall into this habit, even if they were forced to do so a thousand times. It is said that one of the pagan rhetoricians had the strange habit of constantly moving his right shoulder while walking; and yet he overcame this habit, placing sharp swords on both shoulders in order to restrain his moving member through fear of a prick. Do the same with your tongue, and instead of the sword put the fear of punishment on it, and you will certainly win. It is impossible, truly impossible, that those who care and try to do this should ever fail. What excuse will we have, what forgiveness will we have if after so many admonitions we still indulge in the vice of swearing? How will we ask God for deliverance from the calamities that beset us when we find ourselves unable to fulfill even one commandment? How can we expect a good change in circumstances? How shall we pray? In what language will we call on God? Isn’t it reckless, when the king orders, to endure even the most difficult things, and when God commands commandments that are not at all heavy and difficult, to neglect them and refer to a bad habit? Let us not, I beg you, let us not neglect our salvation to such an extent: let us fear God as we fear man. It is foolish to observe the royal laws with precision, and it is reckless to disregard the laws of God and those that came down from Heaven. Why does God strike with the sword not only the swearer himself, but also his house? Because He wants punishments for the most serious sins to remain forever, so that all subsequent generations will become more careful. In fact, after death, an oathbreaker must necessarily be buried and committed to the bowels of the earth. And so, so as not to bury wickedness along with his body, God makes his house a burial mound, so that all those who pass away, seeing it and recognizing the cause of destruction, will flee to imitate sin. This is what happened to the Sodomites. When they were kindled with lust for each other, the nature of the earth was also kindled, and the sight of this earth, clearer than any voice, exhorts all subsequent generations, as if calling out and saying to them: do not do such things, lest you suffer the same punishment. What are you doing, man? Do you swear at the sacred table, and where the slain Christ lies, will you kill your brother there? At least robbers kill on the roads; and you kill her son in front of your mother, committing a more criminal murder than Cain; he killed his brother in the desert with a real death, and you kill your brother in the middle of the church with a future death. Does the church exist for us to swear to it? It is for us to pray in it. Is a sacred meal worth making one swear before it? This is why it stands so that we resolve our sins, and not bind them. Be ashamed, if not of anything else, then at least of the very book that you hold out for an oath; open the Gospel, which, holding in your hands, you command to swear, and having heard what Christ commands there regarding oaths, tremble and renounce your demand. What does He say there about oaths? “But I say to you, do not swear at all” (Matthew 5:34). And you make the very law that prohibits swearing an oath a witness? What an insult! What an illegality! After all, you are doing the same thing as if you took as your accomplice the legislator who prohibits killing, and in his presence ordered the murder to be committed. So, just as during a battle we often calmly endure insults and say to the offender: “What should I do with you? So-and-so, your protector, offended me; he holds my hands"; and this is enough for our consolation - just like in the case when you are thinking of making someone swear, restrain yourself and not allow this, and tell the one who is about to swear: “What should I do with you? God did not command me to swear, nor to require others to swear: He is holding me back now.” This is enough to honor both the Lawgiver, and to give a reliable guarantee to you, and to instill fear in those who intended to swear. Let me say to those leaving here: in no other city can one observe what is in Antioch: the inhabitants of this city would rather tear out their tongues than let an oath pass from their lips. If the one who acquires one or two receives a great reward from God, then what rewards will not those who instruct the whole universe receive? But often, out of habit, the tongue tries to utter this bad word. And you, when he struggles, bite him firmly on all sides with your teeth before he utters a word: it is better for him to bleed now than to thirst for a drop of water and not be able to receive consolation. What are you doing, man, blaspheming your Benefactor, Savior, Intercessor and Trustee? Or don’t you notice that you are rushing into rapids and expecting your own misfortune if you blaspheme God? On the contrary, you only strengthen it and make your torment more severe. This is why the devil causes countless troubles to plunge you into this abyss; and if he sees that you are blaspheming God, he easily multiplies and makes your grief more severe, so that you again lose patience from grief; and if he sees that you are enduring courageously, and the more the suffering intensifies, the more you thank God, then he immediately lags behind, feeling that he is plotting in vain and aimlessly. And just as a dog standing near the table, if it sees that the person sitting at the table is constantly throwing something to eat at it, constantly remains at the table, and if, after standing once or twice, it leaves without receiving anything, then it finally lags behind, seeing that it is waiting in vain, so the devil constantly looks at us: if you throw a blasphemous word at him, like a dog, he, having received it, will pester again, and if you constantly If you thank him, you will choke him with hunger, soon you will remove him from you and force him to leave. And that this is so, I’ll tell you one ancient story. Once, when the Jews were attacked by enemies, and Jonathan (he was the son of Saul) killed some and put others to flight, his father Saul, wanting to incite as many troops as possible against those who remained and force them not to stop pursuing until they overcome everyone, did the opposite of what he wanted, swearing that no one would eat bread until revenge on his enemies (1 Sam. 14:24). Could anything be more reckless than this? Instead of giving the tired and weary soldiers a rest and sending fresh forces to the enemy, he treated them worse than the enemies themselves, dooming them with a violent oath to severe hunger. It is even dangerous to swear about yourself, because we often encounter obstacles in external circumstances: it is all the more dangerous to bind the freedom of others with the bonds of your oaths, as Saul imprudently did then. The army passed through a forest in which there was a beekeeper, and the honey was before the eyes of the people; and the people entered the bee-house and passed through it, speaking of honey. Do you see what an abyss it is: an unexpected meal; and the ease of getting it, and the pleasantness of the food, and the hope of remaining unnoticed attracted them to break the oath. And “Jonathan..., who did not hear when his father adjured the people, and stretching out the end of the stick that was in his hand, dipped it in honeycomb and turned it with his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were brightened” (1 Samuel 14:27). Look, who was pushed by the evil one to commit oath-breaking? Not any of the ordinary warriors, but the son of the sworn king himself. He wanted not only to commit perjury, but also prepared for filicide, and tried to arm nature itself against himself; and what he had once done to Jephthah, he hoped to do the same now. And he, after all, having promised to sacrifice to God the first person who met him after the victory over the enemy, fell into infanticide, because he sacrificed his daughter, who was the first to meet him (Judges 11). What am I saying: infanticide? This evil one managed to find a murder that was even more criminal. In fact, if he had deliberately sinned and been killed, then only infanticide would have been committed; now, when he sinned out of ignorance (since he did not hear the oath) and would have been killed, he would have caused his father doubly grief. Then, it is said, one of the soldiers, seeing this, said: “Your father cursed the people who will eat (“bread on this day: and the people faint”), saying: “Cursed is whoever eats food today”; the people are tired of this. And Jonathan said, “My father has destroyed them all” (1 Samuel 14:28–29). So, despite the fact that the oath was broken, everyone was silent about it, and no one dared to point out the culprit. Meanwhile, this also constituted a new and significant crime, because not only those who break the oath, but also those who know and harbor them become guilty of a crime. “The priest said: let us approach God here. And Saul asked God: Shall I go after the Philistines? and will you deliver them into my hands? But He did not answer him that day” (1 Samuel 14:36–37). Look at the mercy and condescension of the Lover of Mankind: He did not send lightning, He did not shake the earth, but as friends act towards friends when they are insulted, so did the Master with his servant. “Then Saul said, “Let all the leaders of the people come here and spy out and find out who is the sin this day?” For, as the Lord lives, who saved Israel, if it happens to Jonathan my son, he too will certainly die” (1 Samuel 14:38-39). The sinner had not yet been revealed, but he had already carried out judgment on him; not knowing the culprit, he pronounced a condemnation; the father became an executioner, and before examining the case, he pronounced a guilty verdict. And why say too much? He left the matter to be decided by lot. “Then Saul said, Cast lots between me and... Jonathan... And Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me, what have you done? And... Jonathan said: I tasted a little honey with the end of the stick that was in my hand; and behold, I must die” (1 Samuel 14:42–43). Who would not be touched, in whom would not these words arouse regret? Imagine what a storm Saul was experiencing now, when his womb was torn apart, and the deepest abyss opened up before him on both sides. But despite this, he did not come to his senses, but what did he say? “May God do this and that for me, and even more; You, Jonathan, must die today! But the people said to Saul: “Let God do this and that for us, and do even more if by death “he who created salvation... great... dies” (“Shall Jonathan die, who brought such a great salvation to Israel?”). “As the Lord lives, neither will a hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day” (1 Samuel 14:44–45). So the people swore a second time, and swore otherwise to the king. It is necessary to finally break the oath, because it is impossible for them all to take the correct oath. In fact, if the king wanted to insist on his own and fulfill his oath, then the whole people would rebel against this, and terrible violence would result; on the other hand, if the son, saving his life, wanted to surrender to the protection of the army, he would immediately become a parricide. Do you see violence, and filicide, and patricide, and internecine war, and warfare, and murder, and streams of blood, and thousands of corpses because of one oath? Do you see what a pit of destruction the oath has created? So, so that the same thing does not happen to us as to them, let us give up the bad habit of swearing, so that, having thereby attracted the favor of God to ourselves, we may pass through this present life safely, and be rewarded with future blessings, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, with the Father and the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Ἐκλογαί άπό διαφόρων λόγων . Under this name are known collections of conversations compiled by various persons after the death of Chrysostom on certain topics, from those related to the topics and especially liked by the compilers of the works of the saint. The passages are given partly in a literal presentation, partly in a free retelling and are borrowed both from the original works of Chrysostom, and from works only attributed to Chrysostom, which have not only survived to this day, but have also been lost. These Eclogues (selections) were widespread and were used by both private individuals and kings. Known, for example, is the luxurious collection of Eclogues, owned by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Botaniatus (1078–1081), registered among the codices of the Koalene Library under No. LXXIX. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: