Great Lent (words, conversations, teachings)

Contents A Weekly Conversation about the Publican and the Pharisee A Weekly Conversation about the Publican and a Pharisee A Weekly Conversation about the Prodigal Son A Weekly Conversation about the Prodigal Son A Weekly Conversation about the Prodigal Son A Weekly Conversation A Meat-Fasting Week A Meat-Fasting Week A Word for a Cheese-Fasting Week A Word for a Cheese-Fasting Week A Lesson for a Cheese-Fasting Week A Cheese-Fasting Lesson for a Week Raw food Teaching on Wednesday of the 1st week of Great Lent Conversation on repentance Conversation on communion of the Holy Mysteries A word on the 1st week of Great Lent, on the week of Orthodoxy A word on the week of Orthodoxy A conversation on the 2nd week of Great Lent A conversation on the 2nd week of Great Lent A lesson on the 2nd week of Great Lent A word on the 2nd week of Great Lent Lent A lesson for the 3rd week of Great Lent A word for the week of the Veneration of the Cross A word for the week of the Veneration of the Cross A lesson for the heels of the middle - Veneration of the Cross week A lesson for the week of the Veneration of the Cross A word for the week of the Veneration of the Cross A word for the week of the 4th week of Lent A lesson for the week of the 5th week of Great Lent A word for the 5th week of Great Lent Conversation on the song “Behold, the bridegroom comes in midnight" Conversation on Holy Monday Lesson on Great Wednesday Lesson on Holy and Great Friday before the shroud Lesson before the shroud on Great Friday Lesson on Great Friday before the shroud Lesson before the holy shroud on Great Friday Lesson on Holy and Great Friday Word on Holy and Great Friday Lesson on the week of St. Thomas Lesson on the week of To Thomas A weekly lesson about Thomas A weekly lesson about Thomas A weekly lesson to Thomas And he became a Pharisee, praying to himself: God, I give you praise, for I am not like other men, predators, unrighteous, adulterers, or like this publican. (Luke 18:11) Being teachers of faith among the Jewish people, the Pharisees boasted of their knowledge of the law, and yet, more than anyone else, they dishonored God by breaking the law and by their extreme hypocrisy. The Savior rated them well, saying that they love presiding over congregations and kissing in marketplaces (cf. Matt. 23:6,7). This unfortunate passion of exaltation arose in them from a false exaggeration of their merits, since, being public teachers of the faith, they knew well the law of Moses, which many of the Jews did not know. Publicans were tax collectors and, due to their rank, very often resorted to illegal means of their exactions. In the Gospel we see an amazing example of the humility and self-sacrifice of one publican in Zacchaeus, the foreman of publicans. When the Savior came to his house, Zacchaeus, in a deep feeling of repentance, said to the Lord: Behold, half of my property, Lord, will I give to the poor, and whoever I have offended, I will repay in quadruples (Luke 19:8). There are still Pharisees and tax collectors, not by name, but by deed. The passion of exaltation and self-praise still prevails in the sons of fallen Adam. Let's talk, at the call of the mother of our Church, about how destructive this passion is, and about incentives for humility. Where does our passion for exaltation and self-praise come from? From where all our sins came from: from the first ancestral sin. Man was created so that he would love God as the author of his existence, most of all, so that he would look at His perfections and imitate them, holyly fulfilling His will. But he loved himself more than God, he wanted to appropriate His perfection for himself, he wanted to be as great as God, he wanted to be a self-righteous man, he was subjected to self-love and pride, and he fell. Thus, pride is enmity against God and contempt for neighbors. Can God look with favor on a creature that is puffed up with some of its own perfections and not find an equal in them, as if we had something of our own? Like passion, pride is naturally a disease of our soul, which infected it in the moments of the fall of the first people. As a false opinion about one’s perfections, as an illegal movement of the will, it is, at the same time, the fruit of the suggestions of an evil spirit, which, having itself fallen through pride and envy, carried away man to the fall of the same sins. We know that people did not fall on their own, but through temptation from the devil. Is it necessary to spread the word that pride or self-praise, combined with the humiliation of others, is a disease of our soul? To be convinced of this, you only need to look at a proud man - with the eye of holy faith. What is a person in his present position? A fallen man, broken, covered in wounds. Do you think this comparison is exaggerated? Remember the parable of the Samaritan and the man who fell among the robbers (Luke 10:30–37). Who does this man represent, falling into the hands of robbers, beaten and wounded? Who else if not us, tormented by passions, the world and the devil? If such a person were to claim that he is completely healthy and does not feel any pain, what would we say about him? We would not say that he is too sick and close to death; because in his body there is no longer sensitivity that reveals the presence of vital forces in him. This is certainly the same thing we must say about a proud man. Pride, further, is the fruit of the suggestions of an evil spirit. Is it difficult to be sure of this? Pride is a false, exaggerated opinion of one’s own perfections, true or imaginary, combined with offensive humiliation of others. False opinion; – where does the lie come from in the world? God is truth. The Holy Scripture shows us one source, one father of lies: you are of your father the devil, says the Savior to the Jews, and you want to do the lusts of your father. He is a murderer from time immemorial, and does not stand in the truth: for there is no truth in him; Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own people; for lies are also the father of lies (John 8:44). He whispers to a person busy with himself, with his good deeds, that he is the most perfect being, at whom all others should be amazed, that many people are despicable creatures who live in vain in the world. But judge for yourself how false this is. Is this impudent self-praise really the most perfect being, and is his neighbor, whom he condemns, really like this? Perhaps at the very time he was condemned, he repented, shed tears about his sins before God, who searches the hearts (Apoc. 2:23), and received forgiveness. Meanwhile, the perfections of one who exalts himself are suspicious already by the very fact that he proclaims and trumpets about them. True perfection, true virtue is modest: it loves to hide in secret and does not dare to attribute its own perfections to itself, much less humiliate others. You say about yourself that you are kind, merciful to everyone, zealous for the faith and the Holy Church, and exhaust your flesh with fasting. Wonderful. But who declared you to be kind, merciful, zealous for the Church and its holy statutes? God? Angel? Or have you assessed your own virtue? How can we evaluate our deeds? How are we going to weigh them? What measure should we take in this case? Do we know well our unclean heart, which always, or at least for the most part, takes a great part in doing good deeds? Do our virtues not include calculations of pride or other unseemly motives? How easily sometimes the evil impulse that was the cause of our good deed hides from our own consciousness. The poison of sin has penetrated deeply into our soul, and, unbeknownst to us, it poisons almost all our virtues. Isn’t it better to look at yourself more often and more closely and notice your shortcomings in the depths of your soul in order to correct them, rather than show off your perfections? And why put them on display, evaluate them ourselves, when there is the most impartial appraiser in heaven - the Lord God, Who, having to reward everyone according to their deeds (cf. Apoc. 22:12; Jer. 17:10), of course knows how to evaluate our deeds. Let us leave it to Him to judge our virtues, and in the fear of God, without exaltation, we will work out our own salvation (Phil. 2:12). We should not be proud of others, but humble ourselves. And how many incentives to humility for each of us! Man has nothing of his own: everything he has is God’s - soul, body, and everything he has, except sin. Every good deed is also from God. What can he boast about? Why did Imashi, man, even accept it? Have you also accepted that you boasted as if it were not accepted? (1 Cor. 4:7). If he boasts of his virtues, then he sacrilegiously appropriates to himself the glory that belongs to the only God. Further, every person is more or less in a state of sinful relaxation, and at least very many are in a state of sinful insensitivity. How unbearable is this painful, false confidence in them that they are completely healthy and have no need for a doctor. What incentive does this have to not highly value our good deeds, which, perhaps, are nothing more than the delirium of our soul. The heavenly, omniscient Judge took upon himself and will evaluate our deeds and reward everyone for them in due time. How necessary it is, therefore, to perform every good deed of ours in the eyes of God and leave judgment about it to Him alone, not daring to touch it with our own, sinful judgment. But it should be noted that we have very few good deeds, incomparably more bad ones. A new and powerful incentive to humility. I am a sinner, but God is just: how can I not have in my thoughts the judgment of God, which may be ready to take place on us this very day, and not forget, perhaps, the most insignificant good deeds, which in comparison with the multitude of sins do not mean anything: because we certainly sin every day, every hour, in word, deed, thought and feelings. ABOUT! Grant us, God, to constantly have before our eyes our complete dependence on You, our weakness, our sinfulness, in order to constantly humble ourselves before You and before our neighbors. Brothers and sisters! You, without any doubt, cannot help but like the example of the publican’s humility presented in the current Gospel, since it portrays us as sinners who repent: and we easily recognize and love our image, outlined for us in the Holy Scriptures; You can’t help but like it especially because you saw how he was pardoned by God for his humility, and although he was a great sinner, because tax collectors, in general, lived by oppression and bribery, he was justified when he went down to his house (Luke 18:14). Let us try to imitate this example of humility. No one, of course, will say that he is not a sinful person who has no reason, like the tax collector, to lament his sins, strike himself on the chest and humbly ask for forgiveness: God, be merciful to me a sinner (Luke 18:13). We are all, all sinners and in need of God's mercy. If the blood of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, had not interceded for us, then every day and hour the blows of heavenly justice would have thundered over us: we would have been in misery every day and would have died with our sinful soul, and we would have experienced neither peace nor joy forever. But the Son of God intercedes for us: and our sins do not cry so loudly for vengeance on us; for the sake of His merits, God forgives us for them, if only we would recognize them ourselves and repent of them. Yes, God forgives us our sins. We just need to grieve for them, ask with all our hearts for forgiveness from the Lord Jesus, and He, through the grace and generosity of His love for mankind, will forgive us through His servant all the sins that burden our conscience. Imitating the publican in humility, let us avoid in every possible way the self-exaltation of the Pharisee. What unpleasant features are depicted by the Pharisee mentioned in the Gospel, enjoying the sight of his virtues. I, he says, am like this and like this, not like other people or like this tax collector. Thank you, he says, for this. You are doing well in thanking God for good deeds: they are not from us, but from God; but why do you boast, exalt yourself in them before the face of God Himself, as if He does not know their dignity? Why do you humiliate your brother? Are you not the same condemned and sinful person as the publican; did your virtues suddenly make you a pure and sinless angel? Did you fulfill them yourself? How is it that you suddenly forgot about your weaknesses and see only perfections and don’t think at all about the humility that is necessary for you! Why do you think that you are a great, virtuous person? Why don’t you, even with your virtues, think that you have only done what was due and will remain the same unimpeachable servant, according to the Savior’s commandment: when you have done all that is commanded to you, say as unimpaired servants of this: for whatever you ought to do, let it be done (Luke 17:10). God! Without You we can do nothing (John 15:5). Give us this humility of a publican and drive out from us every thought of Pharisee pride. May we always remember that we are all Yours with everything that we have and that we see around us, and we have nothing, absolutely nothing to boast about. Amen. The current week in the church order of weeks is called the week of the publican and the Pharisee. It is so named because today the parable of the Lord about the publican and the Pharisee is read from the Gospel. In the parable, using the example of the publican and the Pharisee, the Lord teaches us with what disposition of spirit we need to pray in church or anywhere else. Let us listen to how the Pharisee prayed and how the publican prayed; which of them pleased God with his prayer and which did not; what pleased one and what did not please the other, so that we too can learn to always pray in a way pleasing to God, and not in condemnation. Prayer is a great thing: through prayer a person communicates with God, receives from Him various gifts of grace, thanks Him as a Benefactor for His constant mercies or glorifies Him as the all-perfect Creator. The Pharisee and the publican were praying in the church. Two people, it is said, went into the church to pray: one was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee prayed like this: “God! I thank You that I am not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, or like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give 10th of everything I acquire.” The publican prayed quite differently. He spoke little, but grieved a lot for his sins; He did not raise his head in front of others, but, bowing his face to the ground, struck himself on the chest out of intense grief and only said: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Which of them the prayer was pleasing to the Lord and which was not, everyone knows: the publican went home from church more justified, although he was a sinner; but the Pharisee did not, although he did legal works of righteousness (Luke 18:10-14). Why was the publican’s prayer pleasing to God? Because he was humble and had a contrite heart in prayer; and long ago it was said by the holy prophet and king David that God will not despise a broken and humble heart (Ps. 50:19). Why did the Pharisee’s prayer turn out to be displeasing to God? Oh! It takes a little intelligence to answer this correctly. Woe to those who are wise within themselves and understand themselves (Is. 5:21), says God through the prophet. The Pharisee, in blind conceit and pride, forgot who he was and with whom he was speaking: the sinner imagined himself to be righteous; the sinner forgot that he was speaking with the All-Seeing and the All-Righteous. My God, what do our good deeds mean, which we sometimes dare to boast before people and before You? Every good deed of ours is of little importance: because it, passing through an unclean heart, borrows from it for the most part some kind of impurity, for example, the impurity of lack of faith, unbelief, self-love, pretense, vanity, pride, impatience, irritability, etc., and right at the same time, a good deed is done by us with God’s help, so that without the Lord, according to His word, we cannot do nothing (John 15:5). There is no doubt that each of us has incomparably more sins than good deeds. How can I remember in prayer about my few good deeds, and those done with God’s help, when I have incomparably more bad deeds? No: I’d rather shed a tear of contrition for my sins, I’d rather shed a warm prayer to the Lord, and to Him I will proclaim my sorrows, for my soul is filled with evil, and my stomach is approaching hell, 1 and about my good deeds, if any I have done, I will remain silent or completely forget before the face of God, so as not to imagine that I am a righteous person and deserve a reward from Him for my virtues. I must remember the words of the Lord, which must be spoken to me after I have completed every good deed: when you have done all that is commanded you, say, as we are unworthy servants: for whatever we ought to do, we have done (Luke 17:10). How can I list the sins of others when I have countless of my own? No. I won’t act so crazy: I won’t be so deluded by pride and see only the good in myself, ignoring the bad, otherwise the passion of self-love and pride will easily take over me, and I will really see only the good in myself, like the Pharisee, and I will forget a lot of bad things. No, I’d rather say to the Lord more often: grant me to see my sins and not condemn my brother 2 . In this frame of mind, brothers and sisters, let us all pray: and our prayer will be pleasing to the Lord and will serve us for salvation. In church or home prayer, humility is absolutely necessary before God and before people: should a sinner humble himself? The Lord has mercy and saves the humble. Humble yourself, and save me (Ps. 114:5), says David. God, be merciful to us sinners. Amen. I rise up and go to my father (Luke 15:18) (The words of the prodigal son from the Gospel parable read today). Brethren! The parable of the prodigal son should occupy all our attention. In it, as in a mirror, we are all visible. The Lord, the knower of the heart, in a few words and in the person of one person, presented how the deceptive sweetness of sin removes us from the truly sweet life according to God, and how the severity of sin we have experienced for soul and body prompts us, through the action of God’s grace, to turn and actually turns many again to God, to a virtuous life. Let’s repeat it and talk about how necessary and how convenient it is for a sinner to turn to God, says David, God, be merciful to us sinners. Amen. One man had two sons. When they came of age, the younger one said to his father: give me the next part of the estate. And the father divided the estate. The eldest son did not take his share and stayed with his father: a sign that he loved his father with a pure heart, found pleasure in doing his will (I have transgressed none of your commandments (Luke 15:29)) and considered it madness to move away from him. And the younger one, a few days after this, having collected all his property, left his parents’ house to a distant place and there squandered his property, living dissolutely. From this it is clear that he had an unkind and unclean heart, was not cordially disposed towards his good father, was burdened by his supervision and dreamed of living better according to the will of his depraved heart. But let’s listen further to what happened to him after he was removed from his parents’ house. When he lived on the foreign side in an unkind manner, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. And he went and pestered one of the inhabitants of that country, and he sent him to his fields to feed pigs. And he was glad to fill his belly with food (acorns and chaff) that the pigs ate: but no one gave him this either. Having come to his senses, he said: How many of my father’s hired servants are content with bread in abundance, but I am dying of hunger. I will get up, go to my father and say to him: parent! I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son; accept me as one of your hired servants. He got up and went to his father; and while he was still far away, his father saw him, and took pity on him, and went to meet him, embraced him and kissed him; forgave him for his guilt, brought him into his house, dressed him in the best clothes and held a feast on the occasion of his return (Luke 15:11-32). So the lost son entered again into the love of his father. Brethren! This is what the heavenly father does to us. He does not keep us with him by force if we, having a depraved and ungrateful heart, do not want to live according to His commandments, but allows us to move away from him and learn from experience how dangerous it is to live according to the will of our hearts, and what a painful feeling of lack of peace and tranquility a soul, given over to passions, experiences, what shameful food it feeds on: for what could be more shameful than the food of passions? But God forbid anyone to remain forever in this distance from God; far from God there is certain and eternal destruction. Behold, those who separate themselves from You will perish (Ps. 73:27), says the holy king and prophet David. It is imperative to turn from the disastrous path of sin to God with all your heart; and let everyone be confident that God will see his sincere conversion, meet him with love and continue to accept him as one of His children. Have you sinned? Say with full determination in your heart: I have risen to go to my Father (Luke 15:18), and go to Him in action. And as soon as you have time to utter these words in your Heart, as soon as you decide to firmly live according to His will, He will immediately see that you are returning to Him: He is always not far from each of us (Acts 17:27); Now He will shed His peace into your heart: suddenly it will be so easy and pleasant for you, as, for example, it is pleasant for an insolvent debtor when his debt is forgiven, or as it is pleasant for a beggar who is suddenly dressed in the best clothes or seated at a rich table. But at the same time, notice, brethren, how many types of sins or passions there are, so many return paths to the Heavenly Father: every sin or passion is a path to a country far from God. You have left along the path of unbelief: turn back and recognize all its recklessness, feel in your heart all its heaviness, emptiness, destruction, and stand firmly on the path of faith that is soothing, sweet and life-giving for the human heart, and hold on to it with all your heart. You have gone along the path of pride: turn back and take the path of humility, and hate pride, knowing that God opposes the proud. He went along the path of envy: turn back from this hellish road and be satisfied with what God sent, and remember whose offspring she was: - the first envier was the devil, and to envy the devil brought death into the world below (Wisdom 2:24); be kind to everyone. If you left the path of enmity and anger: return and take the path of meekness and love. Remember that if you hate your brother, you are a murderer (1 John 3:15); or have you wandered away from God through gluttony and debauchery: turn back and take the path of moderation and chastity, and always remember, for guidance in life, the words of the Savior: listen to yourself, and let not your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness and the sorrows of this life (Luke 21:34), and the words of the repentant prodigal son: we have sinned before You and are no longer worthy to be called Thy sons: accept us at least as mercenaries; and He will faithfully receive us as children. Amen. And he went to cleave to one of the inhabitants of that country; and he sent him to his village to feed a pig. And he desires to satisfy his belly with the flesh of a swine; and no one gave to him (Luke 15:15–16) This is what the younger prodigal son, mentioned in the Gospel parable, finally came to, who, due to incomprehensible willfulness, did not want to stay in his father’s house, from whom, as he himself later confessed, even a hired hand ran out of bread (Luke 15:17). Instead of a truly friendly community with his older, intelligent and well-behaved brother, he now clings to one inhuman resident of that unfortunate side to which he withdrew from his father and in which he squandered his property, living fornication. A cruel resident sends him to his village to graze a pig. Instead of the perfect contentment and abundance that he previously found in his father’s house, he suddenly now suffers extreme and shameful poverty - the fruit of a dissolute life, so that he wants to fill his belly with mugs, or acorns, like the meat of a pig. It was so disastrous, brethren, for the prodigal son to be removed from his parental home, with the property he had inherited through division, to a distant and alien country! Need I say that the prodigal son mentioned in the Holy Gospel portrays us as sinners? Exactly, our abilities: mind, will and heart, our body with its health, with its wise, beautiful structure; our titles, to which one is called, our wealth, all our well-being, even the piece of land on which we live, all this inherited to us by division of the property of the Heavenly Father, Who, solely by His goodness, undeservedly on our part, allocated to each of us a portion of the benefits from His rich treasury and gave us the will to go in all four directions. Rarely do any of us remain with our property under our father's roof; many, having taken their part, seem to leave the all-good Father to a distant side - into the sinful world and live there dissolutely in captivity of passions, until finally their cruelty and obvious destruction convinces them to return to their Father. Yes, our passions, our sins are real tyrants for us. Let's talk about this. The Lord our God is the most perfect being, so that our thought can never rise to the full representation of His perfections. Since He is all-perfect, therefore He is all-pleased and all-blessed. The all-perfect and eternally blissful God created us not so that anyone would torment and tyrannize us, but so that it would be eternally good for us, so that we would be eternally blissful; but just as only one who tries to be perfect and holy, like God, can be blessed, the Creator has given us free will and commanded us to be holy as He is holy: be holy, for I am holy, the Lord your God (1 Peter 1:16; Lev. 19:2). Try to imitate Him in holiness with your mind, will and feeling; know His perfections, love Him and all people in Him, do the works of God: and you will be holy, and you will be blessed. If you do not try to know Him, love Him and do what He commanded, you will be an unhappy sinner, an everlasting captive, a martyr of passions; because bliss is in God and from God; Outside of Him there can be no bliss: there is only the tyrannical rule of the passions. What a labor it seems to be for a person to know and love God with all his soul and with all his heart! Even if his soul were some alien creation for God, otherwise it is His Creation, the breath of His mouth, His image; How can she not love her Creator, her everlasting and eternal Benefactor, completely, inseparably! Our body is the work of His wise mind, His creative hands, our title, wealth, everything we have, except sin, His property; How can one not know and not love with all one’s soul such a Benefactor, Who gives us life and breath and everything; By whom we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:25, 28). How can we not love our neighbors with Him, as brothers, as children of the same Father! One should, it seems, rightly be surprised how we know and love anything other than Him! How can we move away from Him, the Source of life and bliss, how can we be hostile to His law and statutes, and do something displeasing to Him! However, we love many other things besides Him, we do not do what He pleases, and we move away from Him. For that, look at what is happening to us, who we sometimes resemble. Here is a daring freethinker who speaks not in the heart, but already in the ear, proclaiming: there is no God (Ps. 13:1), or: there is no God-man Redeemer; there is no Church and heavenly gifts taught in the sacraments for our spiritual life, perfection and salvation! What then? Have you rejected everything spiritual, sacred and heavenly? So you are flesh, earth, you have no soul, you do not know heaven, hell is your eternal destiny. Where is your soul, tell me? Every soul is from God and knows Him, strives for Him, but for your soul there is no God, it does not know Him: it is easier to believe that your soul does not exist than God, the Creator of everything that exists. Oh, I see how pathetic is what you call your soul. In an unknown distance from the Father of spirits and all flesh, she languishes, poor thing, in the realm of flesh, darkness and destruction, with an irresistible longing for some loss, for something dear; what emptiness and darkness she feels within herself, how bleak she finds her situation! To be a spirit, to have spiritual needs and aspirations and not find satisfaction for them - what torment for the soul! To see how others come running to the churches of God with fervent prayers to God, how they receive from there the gifts of heavenly grace, and at the same time to feel in oneself the struggle of a proud mind, disobedient to the holy truth - with the natural aspirations of one’s soul: - how deadly it is for the soul. Return home, prodigal son: where have you gone? Why are you wasting your heavenly Father’s wealth far from Him, living fornication? Your mind is not yours: it is a gift from God: why do you use it for evil? God gave it to you so that you would know Him and try to become like Him; and yet you make of it a destructive means of getting away from Him, of forgetting and not knowing Him. Return to your Father, unfortunate one; You have gone far: in this distance there is nothing but eternal death. Here is an ambitious man for whom earthly honors are the goal of life. Instead of striving for the eternal honor of a heavenly calling in Christ Jesus, he exhausts all efforts to obtain as much honor from people as possible. But on the way to his goal, he meets many rivals who admire the virtues that, in his opinion, belong to him! What a shame, how hard it is not to receive what you strive so hard for and what you sometimes consider to be yours! How many nights does an ambitious man sometimes spend insomnia! Turn back too, don’t you notice that you are going to a country far away; further and further from your heavenly Father. The love of this world, the love of its honors and distinctions, there is enmity against God (James 4:4). Why do you want to be higher than others? Do you not know that the glory of man is like the flower of grass: the grass is gone, and its flower is fallen away (1 Peter 1:24; Isa. 40:6, 7), that we have been given eternal glory in heaven with Christ? You have been given a heart in which, by the way, the love of good glory burns - not so that you eternally strive for fleeting honors, but so that you love the spiritual ascent from glory to glory, turning away in every possible way from sin, as the most powerful obstacle to your spiritual perfection. Return to your Father’s house, give up petty ambition. Here is a money lover, into whose hands a lot of light earthen sparkles have already passed and who wants to accumulate as many of them as possible. Silver and gold are his idol. And he withdrew from God to a country far away: tiresome worries day and night about acquiring and saving his treasure haunt him: he sometimes hears the word of God, but the thought of wealth suppresses it: he has no time to think about God, about his soul, about its afterlife fate. How many and what means does he sometimes use in order to acquire for himself as much beautiful, shiny land as his unlimited desires can contain! Where are you going, why do you need so much silver and gold? For a rainy day, to provide for your family? But in the life of a true Christian there should not be black days, that is, unhappy days, according to worldly concepts; can we call black those days when we greatly sin and anger the all-good Lord of our life. We live in the kingdom of our loving and caring Father, the eternal Mediator of the Son of God and the Comforter of the Holy Spirit - our God. Trinity of one essence. What are the dark days in such a kingdom? To provide for the family? Fine. But for the family you need much less than what you collected. And you want to provide for your family completely alone for the future! Why don’t you leave it to God to arrange the future good of your children, leaving them almost exclusively to soulless metal? What if the shiny metal falls into the hands of wasteful and dissolute children, if it spoils them? Then you have double trouble: from the fact that, having collected, you did not use your wealth as it should, and from the fact that you destroyed your children. Return also to your Father's house. It seems to you that you are increasing the property that you received from your Heavenly Father: no, you are squandering it. To increase one's possessions means to multiply it through use in accordance with God's intention. How? multiply by use? When you use, you do not multiply, but waste, you say. In the world this really happens, but with God it is not so. But you don’t use it as you should, therefore, you waste it, you certainly waste it willy-nilly, sometimes, perhaps, unnoticed by yourself. Return, too, to the house of the Heavenly Father: find out here that all earthly wealth is His property, that we are the guardians and distributors of this property; make sure that, having given as much of our wealth as possible to the poor, we do not waste it, but acquire it. But here is a slave of bliss and voluptuousness. What is this? Does he think of returning to the Heavenly Father? Or has his soul's torment and bodily suffering not yet reached its final limit? But why wait for the time when the soul has already completely weakened from the meager deeds of voluptuousness, and the body is exhausted from the constant stress that kills it. You have forgotten, my dear fellow, that the soul and body are not yours, but God’s: because, belonging to God entirely, as the work of His hands, we, moreover, have been redeemed from sins at the price of the blood of the Son of God; have you forgotten that we must glorify God in our bodies and in our souls, even the essence of God (1 Cor. 6:20)? You have gone far from God; You rarely go to church, you are ashamed to appear with your uncleanness before the all-holy God. Cleanse yourself and return to the Heavenly Father: bad things will happen to you in a distant land with a cruel master - your shameful passion. Come to Me, the heavenly Father and His beloved Son say to you: I am well. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28, 30). It’s true, your passion gives you nothing to eat except the face that a pig eats; your painful, imaginary pleasure, come to Me: I have enough of everything, I have bread even for hirelings (Luke 15:16-17). And here is the pitiful victim of an insatiable belly: a person, from excessive love for hot drinks and tasty dishes, consumed in excess, is eternally sick in both soul and body. Come too. Heavenly Father has been looking for you for a long time. He does not want you to perish irrevocably, but to be saved, sobered up, and instead of a carnal man, opposed to God, to become a spiritual man, pleasing to God. Hate serving the belly, love golden moderation, be spiritual and do not waste the property of your heavenly Father, your mental and physical strength, by living dissolutely. Look at yourself: you almost only eat and drink, constantly drowning in the pleasures of sensuality; and the Heavenly Father endures you all on His earth: all His sun shines on you; everything does not completely take away its benefits from you. Like a barren fig tree, you should have been cut down long ago and thrown into the fire; meanwhile you are still standing. Turn back: and the Holy Church is waiting for you. You have long forgotten her, your mother. Meanwhile, she worries about you as if she were her child, worrying about how to save you, the rebellious one. The Lord now calls everyone, through the voice of His Holy Church, into the arms of His fatherly love; He wants to save everyone. The days of fasting and repentance will soon come; Let us all hasten to cleanse ourselves of our sins and passions in order to become new and spiritual people. Almost all of us live prodigal lives - in a distant country - on a sinful earth, completely forgetting about our longed-for and true fatherland in heaven. Oh, holy faith! Come to the aid of us who are lost, tell us that there is undoubtedly another life for us on the other side of the grave, an endless life, blissful or painful - depending on who lives here; Is it like a faithful son of the Heavenly Father in constant communion with God, in purity, holiness and love, or like a prodigal son away from God in lusts and impurity? Say that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50). Brethren, think for yourselves that sin should be dead, but God alive in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let sin not reign in your dead body, if you obey it in its lusts; Below, imagine your hooks as weapons of unrighteousness to sin, but imagine God’s as from the living dead, and your hooks as weapons of God’s righteousness. Let sin not possess you: you are not under the law, but under grace. Do you not know that you imagine that your servants will obey him, and you naturally obey him, either sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness (Rom. 6:11-14, 16). Let us put aside dark deeds and put on the weapons of light. For in the days let us walk decently, not by goat-talking and drunkenness, not by fornication and adultery, not by zeal and envy; But be clothed with our Lord Jesus Christ, and do not please the flesh through lust (Rom. 13:12–14). Amen. Father, I have sinned in heaven and before you (Luke 15:18) Beloved brethren, which of us has not worked and does not work against sin every day, willy-nilly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, consciously or unconsciously? – Who has not angered the Lord, the infinite Truth and Love? Who has not been wounded by the blade of sin and has not experienced the sharpness and harshness of sin, severe confusion of conscience, sorrow and oppression, these usual companions of sin? “All of us, from least to greatest, are sinners before God, and therefore are subject to punishment and excommunication from God, and if the Lord, out of His infinite love and mercy for fallen man, had not given him repentance and remission of sins for the sake of the sacrifice of His only begotten Son on the cross, then all people would have descended into hell, into a place of eternal torment. But, glory to the all-good and all-wise God, who gave repentance to sinners - to the eternal life. Countless multitudes of sinners were washed with words of repentance, justified and sanctified by the most pure blood of the Lamb of God Jesus Christ, who took upon Himself our sins and bore for them all the punishments prepared for us - and now rejoice with the Angels in the villages of the saints. All of you, sinners like me, who stand here, do you value this priceless gift of the Lord, the gift of repentance? Do you sigh like the publican, do you cry like the harlot, do you wash your bed with tears like David the forefather, do you return to the Heavenly Father with sincere, deep repentance, like the prodigal son, about whom you heard in the gospel you just read? Sinners have no other way to life and to regaining the grace and mercy of the Heavenly Father, except the path of sincere, honest repentance, with the fruits of repentance. And the Holy Church, the bearer and interpreter of the Spirit of Christ, His infinite love and mercy, excites us all to repentance every day, and in these days, on the occasion of the approach of the great days of fasting and repentance, it excites us especially, having established on this Sunday to read the touching parable of the Savior about the Prodigal Son and to sing touching repentant hymns. As good children, let us all respond to the gentle, loving voice of the holy mother of the Church: let us awaken from the sleep of sin, as in days, let us walk gracefully (Rom. 13:13); let us leave voluptuousness to the flesh; let us take care of the immortal soul; Let us begin to do the works of God: and then we will enjoy peace of mind and the consolations of a clear conscience. Oh, how merciful and quick to obey we have a Father, Lord and Judge - God! He immediately rushes with rich mercy to every sincerely repentant sinner, delivers him from troubles, sorrows and misfortunes that befall him for his sins, gives peace and breadth to the heart, turns sadness into joy. Every truly repentant sinner has experienced this; This is also shown by the gospel read today about the repentant prodigal son. As soon as he firmly decided to return with repentance to his father’s house, and went, his father saw him and took pity; and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. And the father said to his servants: Bring the best clothes and dress him, and put a ring on his hand and boots on his feet; and bring the fatted calf, and kill it: let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to have fun (Luke 15:17-32). A touching picture of fatherly love, on the one hand, and sincere repentance, on the other. This is a parable in which a father, a man, although good and merciful, and a dissolute, repentant son are presented. But delve into the deep inner meaning of this parable: imagine instead of an ordinary father - God, the common Father of men, and His boundless love for a world perishing in sins. What meal did He prepare for the sinners whom He adopted as His sons through faith and baptism? He did not slay a calf, but gave His only begotten Son to be slaughtered freely; He did not prepare the flesh of a bull for a feast, but He gave and is giving the flesh and blood of His Son to us for food and drink, for the remission of sins and eternal life. Here is a spiritual, life-giving, saving, wonderful feast of faith and salvation! This is the father's immeasurable love for us sinners! Do you feel this love, sinner? Do you respond to love with love? Do you sincerely repent of your iniquities, so that you too may be rewarded with the same spiritual feast for your salvation, and enjoy the love of the Heavenly Father, His only begotten Son and the Holy Spirit of the Comforter? And without repentance there will be no sacrament for salvation. And what are the first clothes, a ring on your hand and boots on your feet? The first garment, in which the father clothed his prodigal son, means the garment of righteousness, in which Jesus Christ clothes us, or it is Christ Himself, according to what is written; You were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ (Gal.3:27). This means that we must live in all righteousness and truth. What is a hand ring? This is the betrothal of the Holy Spirit given into the hearts of believers. Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Cor. 3:16). But the church of God must be kept holy all the days: let us live holy. Boots on feet are the grace to walk straight along the path of Christ’s commandments: direct my feet, it is said, according to Your word, and let not all iniquity possess me (Ps. 119:133), for without grace-filled shoes, we cannot walk in the straight paths of God’s commandments. Turn every one from your evil ways, and from your evil intentions (Jer. 25:5), says the word of God. So, in spiritual shoes, in spiritual zeal, let us hasten to God, let us put off sinful sleep, laziness and negligence. Soon Great Lent will come - the time of fasting, confession of sins and communion of saints, life-giving Mysteries; Let us cleanse our souls and bodies with fasting, prayer and sincere repentance and prepare ourselves for the church of the Lord, who wants to dwell and live in us. Look how those who wanted to meet the king or a high-ranking person prepare everything to meet him. They level and clear all the roads along which he must travel, decorate the houses with multi-colored flags or multi-colored lights and show all kinds of signs of zeal and joy, they try to see him and get enough of him, and if anyone was lucky enough to receive the king into their home, then such a person would be beside himself with delight. If those who wanted to meet the king of the earth, a man similar to themselves, prepare in this way, meet and accept him in this way, then you and I, who are preparing to meet the heavenly King, Creator and God, with what care and zeal should we prepare to receive Him? – For the infinitely higher the heavenly King is than the earthly one, the infinitely more righteous the heavenly King is than the earthly king, the greater and more thorough the preparation must be, and the more different from the preparation for the meeting of the earthly king. For the heavenly King needs our pure souls and bodies, adorned with virtues, and not magnificently decorated houses, not multi-colored flags, but a variety of virtues, according to the ability and condition of each, not brightly burning fires, but our souls burning brightly with faith and love. Let us all prepare such a meeting for the Heavenly King, so that we may be honored with joy to receive Him into our emotional homes, into our hearts. Amen. I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ - who will come with glory to judge the living and the dead (7th article of the Creed) So who's talking? This is what every Christian says. But if everyone is a Christian, then without a doubt, so am I, and each of us. So, brothers and sisters, do you sincerely believe that Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge of all earthly beings, will come to judge all people living and dead, who will all come to life either for eternal bliss or for eternal damnation? Are you ready to meet the world Judge and give an answer at the Last Judgment of Christ in every deed and word? Do you have any good deeds? Why ask more? From the life and actions of Christians it is clearly clear that they have forgotten about the righteous Judge, about the Last Judgment, about eternal life, and every day they are rapidly rushing towards eternal destruction, which they cannot even imagine. They rush to receive their consolation on earth, only to lose it forever - in heaven. The concern is how to kill precious time, how to spend it pleasantly, but no one cares about spending it with benefit for the soul, in order to prepare for the outcome of their affairs (cf. Proverbs 24:27). He who desires eternal joys tastes little of earthly 3, says St. Gennady, Patriarch of Constantinople, and with us earthly joys are almost continuous. Many of us live as if we will never have to die and give account for our lives. What does it mean? Does this not happen because they think to repent only before death and receive complete forgiveness? Certainly. God does not reject those who come to Him at the eleventh hour, that is, those who turn to Him with all their hearts. But if your heart was far from God during the greatest part of your life, do you think that you can easily move it towards God, arouse in it feelings of repentance before death? Oh brothers! This is where it will turn against you, to your destruction. I have seen more than once how difficult it is to hear the word about repentance, and how lost in confession before their departure are those who did not think about their correction and did not know how to repent during life. No, brothers! Christian death is a reward for true Christians. Repent, if possible, throughout your life: and you will be greeted by a peaceful death with sincere repentance. So, prepare for judgment, for terrible judgment, for righteous judgment, for the only and final judgment, after which there will be either eternal bliss or endless torment. Do not be surprised that I say so decisively: the truth is royal, you have the right to say so. At the same time, there is an urgent need to speak decisively about preparations for the trial. When there is an obvious eternal destruction of souls from carelessness and negligence, then it is necessary to act decisively, then more decisively than at other times, it is necessary to express the truth. When they see that a person is in clear danger of dying in a fire or drowning in water, don’t they then act with all decisiveness? Yes, because if those who want to save a dying person from death are indecisive, he may now die. Likewise, we must save many, through determination and fear of future judgment, from the fire admiringly (Jude 1:23): after all, we are very close to the eternal fire, and for many, perhaps, one step away from it. Brother! think, perhaps this night your soul will be taken from you (Luke 12:20): and you are in hell, in torment... in this flame. So, get ready for the judgment, get ready from today; do good works, until the day is gone: the night of death will come, when no one can do it (John 9:4). We've been working pretty hectic. It's time to look at the poor soul with the eyes of trial. Attend church, sigh over your sins, wait with her in fear for the great day of judgment. The church constantly thinks about judgment: in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening; every day, early and late, she reminds her children about this great day, which decides the fate of the entire human race, and her children’s thoughts are occupied with what pleasantly turns their heads for a few minutes, cheers their hearts, passionate about earthly joys. The Lord, the Truth, the Life, thunders with His voice about His judgment, which is sure to take place, commands us to watch and pray at all times in the spirit (Mark 13:33; Luke 21:36; Eph. 6:18), in order to make us worthy to escape the terrible fate of the condemned; the apostles assure that the Judge is before the doors (James 5:9); and it’s as if we don’t even want to hear about it. Others think and even say: what a terrible judgment! The Lord is merciful: He will have mercy; after all, we sin more out of weakness, and not out of malice, not out of bitterness... But they will not think that only through mercy will we receive mercy (Matthew 5:7), that judgment without mercy will be for those who have not shown mercy (James 2:13). Where are your works of mercy when you obviously only care about yourself? Brethren, God forbid that anyone should appear where the rich man found himself, rejoicing brightly every day. If we find ourselves there, then it will be too late to ask for a drop of water from there to cool our tongue, and it will be too late to send from there to our relatives, so that they do not come there too (Luke 16:19-31). Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour, when the Son of Man will come (Matthew 25:13). Amen. My brothers and sisters, beloved in the Lord! Today we read from the Gospel of Matthew the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself about His second, glorious and terrible coming to earth: about how He will sit on the throne of His glory to judge the world, and all the nations that have ever lived will be gathered before Him, as well as those that now exist, and that will still exist, all down to one person. “And the Lord will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; And he will put the sheep on the right hand, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you accepted Me; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him: Lord! when did we see you hungry and feed you? or to the thirsty and gave them something to drink? When did we see You as a stranger and accept You? or naked and clothed? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and came to You? And the King will answer them, “Truly I say to you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did it to Me.” Then He will also say to those on His left side: Depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and they did not accept Me; I was naked, and they did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and they did not visit Me. Then they too will answer Him: Lord! When did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not serve You? Then he will answer them, “Truly I say to you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life” (Matthew 25:31–46). This is how the Lord concluded His words about the terrible, final judgment on the human race! What a sweet and all-joyful saying the righteous will hear, and what a bitter and terrible saying, unchangeable forever, will hard-hearted sinners hear! So, the merciful will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7). Those who have stocked themselves with the oil of good works will enter the bridal chamber, but those who are unmerciful will have judgment without mercy (James 2:13). Now, brothers and sisters, it is useful for us to ask ourselves and reflect: to which side will you and I belong - to the right or to the left, to the sheep or to the goats, to the blessed or to the damned? You will say: who can know this except the Lord, who searches hearts and wombs (Ps. 7:10) and has the most faithful scales of justice? Thus, the perfect title of every person belongs to the one Lord. He alone knows which of us will stand on the right side and which on the left, He alone knows which righteous person will stand here in his righteousness, and which one will not, which sinner will sincerely turn and repent and turn from a goat into a sheep, and which one will become completely stubborn in sins. But it has been given to us, brothers, at least now to know about ourselves: who we are, sheep or goats; Our conscience, an incorruptible judge and witness of our thoughts, words and deeds, shows us whether we are humble and gentle sheep of the verbal flock, willingly giving up our goods to others in need, or proud, selfish, evil, vengeful, unmerciful, stinking like goats with our uncleanness, sinners? We can know this about ourselves here, throughout our earthly life, and therefore we can judge which side we may find ourselves on at the Last Judgment: that is, we can find ourselves on the left side if we remain unrepentant, uncorrected sinners, with pride and malice, with sinful impurities in our hearts and bodies, but we can hope with faith, repentance and good deeds to become on the right side; the choice of sides is up to us. Time has been given to each of us by the merciful Savior to come to our senses, repent, correct ourselves, and stock up on the oil of mercy and every virtue in abundance, so as not to be ashamed at judgment. So, let us take care to acquire the lamb’s meekness and kindness, love and mercy, patience and long-suffering, humility and obedience, self-control and purity, and let us avoid qualities that are contrary to these virtues. The indicated virtues in this life gain us the blessing of the Heavenly Father, and in the future they will place us on the right side. So, I repeat, it is up to us to be worthy of standing at the Last Judgment on the right side and avoiding the left: to hear the all-blessed voice of the Savior calling us to the kingdom of heaven, and to avoid the terrible voice that sends us into eternal fire. We ourselves here write, so to speak, by our deeds, eternal justification or eternal condemnation for ourselves at the Last Judgment; and in this, by the way, sense, the future judgment is called written: do in them, it is said, the judgment is written (Ps. 149:9). Our conscience books will either justify us or condemn us, and we will only have to listen to the righteous eternal verdict of the Judge of the world. Rather, through diligent repentance and almsgiving, let us blot out all our sins, voluntary or involuntary, from our conscience, and write into it all kinds of good deeds. For their works go with them (Rev. 14:13), says Scripture. Amen. Whenever you fast, do not be like hypocrites and complain: for they darken their faces, for they may be seen to be a man who fasts (Matthew 6:16) At present, there are very few people who, out of hypocrisy, would want to appear to others during Lent as great fasters in order to earn glory for themselves from people. Most likely, there will now be people who do not want to be or appear to be fasters: because they consider fasting to be a useless and unnecessary thing for themselves, and to appear to others to be fasters is a stupid and ridiculous thing. But despite these extremes, there are, without a doubt, among Christians those who adhere to the golden mean and, without deviating either to the right or to the left, follow the path of fasting straight and even, like true fasters, fasting in a pleasant fast, pleasing to the Lord. Tomorrow begins the Great Lent, or Great Lent, a truly precious time for people who know how to fast as they should in the Christian spirit. So that this time may serve us for spiritual benefit and salvation, let us now talk about the necessity and benefits of fasting. Is fasting necessary, that is, abstinence not only from certain foods not consumed during fasting, but also abstinence from consuming them in large quantities? Is fasting necessary as abstinence from the pleasures of gross sensuality? Is fasting necessary as abstinence from disordered thoughts and movements of the heart and disapproving actions? – Do you want, beloved, to inherit blessed eternity, or the kingdom of heaven, which also undoubtedly exists, just as it is certain that we now live on earth, because the incarnate God the Word Himself, His prophets, apostles and all His saints assure us of this? How can you not want to! There, according to the faithful and immutable word of God, truth and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit live forever and ever (Rom. 14:17), there is God, there are blessed spirits, there are righteous people; and on earth, for a little over seventy years, you almost see sins, turmoil and disasters everywhere. If you want, then you must certainly fast: since flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:50), because the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink (Rom. 14:17). Flesh and blood, food and drink, as rough, elemental, earthly things, must remain on earth and undergo the common fate of earthly bodies - decay. In heaven there is not and cannot be a place for coarse flesh and blood precisely because there is heaven, not earth, and the creatures of the world there have properties completely different from the properties of people living in the lusts of the world, spiritual, luminous properties. Should I talk to you about God himself, the Father of the blessed inhabitants of heaven? He is the purest Spirit, Who abhors, as if filthy, the deeds of the flesh that go beyond the boundaries of law, moderation and decency. My Spirit shall not dwell in these men forever, He said about the people who offended Him with their attachment to sensual pleasures. Why? Zane, he says, are flesh (Gen. 6:3), because they are rough flesh, a piece of earth in which there is nothing spiritual akin to Me. Look, about us, He also now says: My Spirit must not abide in these men, because they are white flesh, in which My Spirit cannot rest, since sin and uncleanness live in it, and I am righteous and holy. Should we talk about created spirits? These are the second lights according to God, which, also being alien to all materiality, pure and holy, can accept into their blessed community only those who throw off the yoke of carnal slavery and, living on earth, think about heaven, do not serve the whims of their flesh, knowing that it will decay over time in the earth. Should we talk about the holy men of God who passed from the corruptible earth to the eternal abodes of heaven? – These are earthly angels who, either through fasting and vigil, or through feats of martyrdom and various virtues, rose above their flesh, made their nature so venerable that the bodies of many of them, having partaken of divine grace, became higher than the common fate of all material things, that is, corruption. They knew that our body is a house built by the hand of a skilled Artist, in which a being of heavenly origin lives only for a while, who in a short time will leave his earthly hut and soar to his own place, and therefore they lived not for the body, but for the soul. Yes, in order to make our existence most blissful, the Lord was pleased to settle us in this world only for a short time - so that, enjoying on earth and from earth the contemplation of the material creations of God, heavenly and earthly - their beauty, correctness, harmony and diverse, innumerable multitude, we would love their Creator, desire union with him - the initial Beauty - and by deeds of holiness and love we would deserve it here eternal unity. It is as if He were saying this to every person living here and contemplating His creations: look how vast My creations are, but at the same time how slender and beautiful. Look at yourself, how small and unnoticeable you are in My creation, and I promise you - insignificant - the inheritance of heaven - with its infinity, with its eternity: I promise it to you on certain conditions; and you know that I am the Truth, and I cannot lie; Why aren’t you trying to fulfill these conditions, why are you clinging to the ground, and so much so that you can’t tear yourself away from it? Don’t you really want to come to Me so that, in union with Me, the Creator of everything that you see, you can receive eternal pleasure from the knowledge and contemplation of My innumerable creations, and most of all, be blissful in Me, the Source of bliss for all rational creatures. How could you not soar with your soul to heaven, not be robbed of carnal lusts, which war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11), and not take over your sin-loving flesh, which pulls you to the earth, and over time will certainly fall into it like a block of earth? What good do you benefit from delicious food and drinks, aren’t you ashamed to burden yourself with them? Why do you give yourself up to the power of sensuality? Or do you enjoy it? Look: the imaginary sweetness of your pleasures is a dangerous lure of the flesh, through which it easily takes over your soul and does not give you the opportunity to think about heaven and strive there. Beware of this bait. Like a fly in honey, you will get stuck in it and remain to die. Is fasting necessary as abstinence from disordered thoughts and movements of the heart and disapproving actions? If you agree that God is your Lawgiver and a righteous Judge, Who knows how to punish those who violate His laws; if your conscience tells you that your soul - not in its rank - has more than once violated the order of moral life, gone out of obedience to the laws of the Creator: then you must agree that you need to restore the order of your moral life, bring your thoughts into the correct order from the disorderly fermentation here and there, force your heart to break away from unworthy objects to which, due to your inattention and oversight, it clung so tightly that it forgot about the first object of your love - God: behave in such a way that your actions would not be ashamed to expose both to the judgment of your conscience and to the judgment of people and God. – You know that an unrighteous thought is an abomination to the Lord, that God asks Himself for your heart, which you have given to the will of passions, that no one who is deceitful (Ps. 5:5) and unclean will settle down with Him. If you want to be with God, if you want to be eternally prosperous, then you must agree that you need to fast with your soul, collect your mind, correct your thoughts, cleanse your thoughts, and instead of the sackcloth of unrighteous deeds, adorn yourself with the precious clothing of good deeds. Physical fasting was established to make it easier for the soul to fast. Should we still talk after this about the benefits of fasting, since, having spoken about its necessity, we also pointed out in part its benefits? He pacifies our sinful, whimsical flesh, frees the soul from under its weight, giving it, as it were, wings to soar freely to the sky; gives room for the action of God's grace. He who fasts freely and correctly knows how light and bright the soul is during fasting; then good thoughts come easily to the head, and the heart becomes purer, more tender, more compassionate - we feel the desire for good deeds; Contrition for sins appears, the soul begins to feel the disastrousness of its situation and begins to lament for sins. And when we do not fast, when thoughts are in disarray, feelings are not curbed and the will allows itself everything, then you rarely see a saving change in a person, then he is dead in his soul: all its forces act in the wrong direction; the main goal of action - the goal of life - is lost sight of; there are many private goals, almost as many as each person has passions or whims. A strange work takes place in the soul, the result of which, apparently, is some kind of creation: you see the materials for construction, the beginning, middle and end of the work, but in fact the end of everything is nothing. The soul goes against itself, against its own salvation, with all its might: mind, will, and feeling. Whoever fasts in a Christian way, wisely, freely, according to the false promise of the Lord, is rewarded with reward for his feat from the Heavenly Father. Your Father, the Savior said about the true faster, seeing in secret, will reward you in reality (Matthew 6:4). And this reward, without a doubt, is always generous, truly fatherly, serving our most significant benefit. Brethren! We recognize that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, that we are not our own, but God’s, because we were bought at the price of the blood of the Son of God. Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you, which you have from God, but you carry it with your own? The purchase is of a natural price (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). Let us respect our nature, exalted to the communion of the divine nature; Let us eat and drink as much as is necessary to maintain life and strengthen our strength; We will not give it over to the power of unclean passions, we will make it a shrine, which we ourselves would not be ashamed to look at, and in which God would recognize the work of His hands. Hitherto we have sinned and indulged in the pleasures of gross sensuality; Let us live chastely and holyly now. Until now we were far from God in our carnal affairs; although now let us draw closer to Him; Let's find out how good He is. Look, He gives us His flesh and blood to eat. If you are convinced that on your own, without God, you are nothing more than unclean decay, dust, a sinner, alien to a life of grace, then you will understand how great the goodness of the Lord is in feeding us with His flesh and blood. He is the Source of life of all creatures and wants to settle in you, through union with Him in the sacrament of communion, His life, His perfections, His peace, His bliss, and make you eternally alive. Let us always keep in mind that our soul must strive for godlike perfection, for dear freedom of spirit, and that it cannot achieve this perfection if we earth it with carnal deeds, fettering it with close and heavy chains of matter. May the Lord help us to meet Lent with joy. Amen. If you forgive men their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you (Matthew 6:14) This Sunday is called among the Russian Orthodox people Forgiveness Sunday from the good and pious custom of saying goodbye to each other, that is, asking each other for forgiveness before Great Lent and fasting. And this custom came into force from the command of the Savior, who commands us in the present Gospel to forgive each other’s sins, if we wish for our sins to be forgiven by the Heavenly Father, whom we grieve and anger without number every day and hour. Since Great Lent begins tomorrow, and we are all, according to Christian custom, going to throw off the heavy burden of sins, and since this casting off the sinful burden requires some selflessness on our part and some kindness, the Lord teaches us what exactly is required of ourselves so that our sins will be forgiven us all, without a trace, or what we must sacrifice on our part, since the Lord God, with For my part, I am always ready to have mercy and save repentant sinners; namely, He says that what is required of us is simplicity and forgetfulness of malice, lack of anger, forgetfulness of grievances, friendliness, love for enemies. Your salvation is in your hands, in your power, man. You will forgive others for their insults, mistakes, annoyances, and begging; and your sins will be forgiven, and you, with your worries and frequent petitions from God, will never leave Him empty-handed, and you will be rewarded with great and rich mercies from Him. You will forgive a few sins of your neighbor, compared to your sins before God, and God will forgive you countless sins, you will forgive a hundred denarii, and the Lord will forgive you a thousand talents. But what rancor people often have! While the Lord demands little from us - forgiveness and forgetting the insults of our neighbors - which are like drops in the ocean in comparison with our sins before God, and demands for our own good and wanting to accustom us to meekness, kindness, patience, humility, brotherly love, forbearance and peacefulness - we lose our temper, present our rights, violated by our neighbors, kindle in ourselves and the flame of enmity towards our neighbors, and thus we madly and boldly push away from ourselves the right hand of God that saves us, add sins to sins, and rush headlong into destruction. A great good, a great virtue, is gentleness before God and people: it covers a multitude of sins. In the Old Testament, the following were especially loved and glorified by God for this virtue: Abel Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David the Father of God, king and prophet, and many others; and in the new Testament there are countless righteous people who imitated the meek and humble Lord and God our Savior Jesus Christ, who says in the Gospel to all of us: learn from Me, for I am meek and humble in heart: and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:29). So, let us not obey the devil, who teaches us to harbor evil against our neighbors, but in the simplicity of our hearts we will forgive the insults caused by our neighbors, also at the instigation of the enemy. Let no one think evil against each other; Let no one be carried away by evil suspicion regarding one’s neighbor: for this is the charm of the enemy of our salvation, who is worldwide intensifying to destroy the union of love and brotherhood in us and to instill demonic enmity and hostility. Let us remember the Savior’s commandment: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another (John 13:34), and the words of the Apostle Paul: love one another, and fulfill the law. So, the fulfillment of the law is love (Rom. 13:8, 10). Further, the Lord teaches us unhypocritical fasting and tells us that we should enter the field of fasting not with sad, but with cheerful faces, like true and faithful warriors of Christ, who entered into the fight against sin and our many-passionate flesh, with the help and assistance of the omnipotent grace of Christ, and before the face of the Heavenly Father, with whom a reward is ready for all who truly struggle against the charms of sin. Anoint your head, says the Savior, and wash your face; anoint your head, that is, anoint your soul with the oil of alms, and wash the face of your soul with the oil of purity, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly (Matthew 6:17-18). Further, the Lord teaches us to renounce our hearts from earthly treasures and from earthly passions and encourages us to desire and seek heavenly treasures, firstly because our souls are of heavenly origin and immortal, and earthly blessings, being rough, corruptible and transitory, are unworthy of us, created and redeemed by the blood of the Son of God for the enjoyment of spiritual and eternal blessings - and secondly because, clinging with our hearts to earthly goods, through this we make them earthly, rude, low, passionate, and ourselves - incapable of loving God and our neighbor, whereas love is the main goal and duty of our life. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break through and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19-21). St. John Chrysostom speaks about it this way: it will be a great harm to you if you cling to earthly things, become a slave instead of a free one, fall away from heavenly things, and be unable to think about heavenly things, but only about money, about interest, about debts, about profits and vile greed. What could be worse than this? Such a person falls into slavery, the worst slavery of any slave, and, what is most disastrous of all, arbitrarily rejects the nobility and freedom inherent in man. No matter how much I talk to you, but you, having a mind nailed to wealth, cannot hear anything useful and necessary for you... for where your treasure is, there is your heart... But if you lay the treasure through alms - in heaven, then you will not only be awarded heavenly honors for this, but you will also receive a reward here, ascending to heaven, thinking and caring about heavenly things. For it is obvious that you will transfer your mind there too, where you will place your treasure; and on the contrary, you will experience something completely opposite when you place your treasure on the ground 4 . So, let us apply to our hearts the teaching of our Savior, offered to us in this Gospel regarding the forgiveness of offenses, regarding godly fasting and the detachment of our hearts from earthly treasures, and love for heavenly, incorruptible blessings. Let us try, in the words of Chrysostom, to prepare ourselves for leaving here. For although the day of universal death has not yet arrived, the end of everyone, both old and young, is already at the door... So, while we have time, let us prepare for ourselves boldness before God; Let us store up oil in abundance and transfer everything to heaven, so that in due time and when we especially have need, we may enjoy all this through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion, now and ever and unto ages of ages. (Chrysostom). Amen. If you forgive people their sins, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their trespasses, then your Father will not forgive you your trespasses, says the Lord (Matthew 6:14–15) This Sunday is colloquially called Forgiveness Sunday, because today we are supposed to read the Gospel, commanding us to forgive the sins of our neighbors, so that our heavenly Father will forgive us our countless sins. As a result, since ancient times, it has been a custom among pious Christians on this day, and throughout Cheese Week, to ask each other for forgiveness for what one has sinned against the other. This is a wonderful custom, truly Christian, because who among us does not sin against his neighbor either in word, or in deed, or in thought; and asking forgiveness from another proves our faith in the Gospel, our humility, kindness and peacefulness; on the contrary, the reluctance to ask for forgiveness from those against whom we are really guilty shows in those who do not want reconciliation a lack of faith, pride, conceit, remembrance, disobedience to the Gospel, resistance to God, agreement with the devil. And we are all children of the heavenly Father by grace, members of Christ God, members of the one body of the Church, which is His body, and members of each other: God is love (1 John 4:8), and more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices He requires from us mutual love, love that is long-suffering, kind, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not act outrageously, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices with one another. truth. He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and never fails (1 Cor. 13:4-8). The whole law of God is contained in two words; love God and your neighbor. Meanwhile, the human heart is extremely proud, impatient, capricious, evil and vindictive: it is ready to be angry with a neighbor not only for direct evil, but also for imaginary, not only for an offensive word, but also for an unpleasant or truthful, harsh, even for a glance that seemed unkind, or ambiguous, crafty, proud, it almost becomes angry even for the very thoughts of the neighbor that it imagines in one's neighbor. The Lord, the knower of the heart, says this about the human heart: from the heart come evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, malice, deceit, lasciviousness, an envious eye, blasphemy, pride, madness (Mark 7:21-22). But against a strong illness there must be strong means; The great evil of man is contrasted with the infinite goodness and omnipotent grace of God: with its help it is convenient to defeat all evil both in oneself and in others - with meekness, kindness, compliance, patience and long-suffering. I tell you, says the Savior, do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him; and whoever wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your outer clothing too (Matthew 5:39-40)... For the forgiveness of our neighbors’ sins, we are promised forgiveness of sins by the Heavenly Father, pardon at the Last Judgment - eternal bliss: the merciful will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7). And irreconcilable malice is threatened by God’s righteous judgment and eternal torment. Listen to one story, from which you can see how God punishes people here who are evil and irreconcilable with each other. In the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, in ancient times there were two monks, that is, monks, priest Titus and deacon Evagrius. Having lived amicably with each other for several years, for some reason they later developed enmity and hatred towards each other; mutual anger continued for a very long time; and they, without reconciliation with each other, dared to offer a bloodless sacrifice to God. No matter how much the brothers advised them to put aside their anger and live among themselves in peace and harmony, it was all in vain. One day the priest Titus fell seriously ill. Despairing of life, he began to cry bitterly about his sin and sent to his enemy to ask for forgiveness; but Evagrius did not want to hear about it and began to cruelly curse him. The brethren, condoling over such a grave error, forcibly drew him to the dying man. Titus, seeing his enemy, with the help of others, got up from his bed and fell before him, tearfully begging him to forgive him; but Evagrius was so inhuman that he turned away from him and exclaimed in frenzy: “I don’t want to be reconciled with him either in this life or in the future!” He escaped from the hands of the brothers and fell to the ground. The monks wanted to raise him, but how amazed they were to see him dead and so cold, as if he had died long before! Their amazement increased even more when the priest Titus, at the same time, rose from his sick bed healthy, as if he had never been sick. Horrified by such an extraordinary incident, they surrounded Titus and asked one another: what does this mean? He answered: being in a serious illness, while I, a sinner, was angry with my brother, I saw the Angels retreating from me and crying about the destruction of my soul, and the unclean spirits rejoicing, this is the reason why I most of all wanted to be reconciled with him. But as soon as they brought him here, and I bowed to him, and he began to curse me, I saw that one formidable Angel struck him with a fiery spear, and the unfortunate one fell dead to the ground; and the same Angel gave me his hand and restored me from the bed of illness. The monks mourned the cruel death of Evagrius and from that time began to watch out more than ever so that the sun would never set on their anger. Brothers and sisters! Memory malice is a most terrible vice, and just as it is abominable before God, it is also destructive in society. We are created in the image and likeness of God: meekness and gentleness should be our unchanging properties; for God always deals with us according to His meekness, is patient and forgives us without number. And we must forgive. “And the one who is malicious in memory does not have in himself the image and likeness of God: he is more a beast than a man.” Amen. Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:19–21) (Words from the gospel read today). This is the saving commandment of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for all of us. Who among people has not sinned against this will of our most loving Lord? Whose heart is not more or less attached to earthly things, to earthly treasures, of whatever kind they may be? Whoever, for example, is not partial to his flesh, to earthly honor and glory, to earthly wealth, to earthly beauty, to earthly pleasures of various kinds, in general to all sorts of earthly objects, sometimes to the point of forgetting God and His holy commandments and His saving intentions regarding us, to the point of forgetting the heavenly nature of his soul, its image and likeness of God, its destination for eternal life in God and with God - her deep fall and the need for her uprising through sincere, deep and irrevocable repentance - her correction, purification and sanctification by grace? Who has one treasure - God and His holy laws - holy virtue, and the flesh with its passions and lusts in contempt and humiliation, as transitory and constantly occupying its mistress - the soul, and only enjoys the attention and care of the soul to the extent that it serves its highest, spiritual goals? – Who does not have various idols of the heart placed in this holy place, which should always be the throne of the Lord Almighty? - So, we must all admit this, beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord, - that we are collecting treasures on earth, in this temporary shelter of ours, which must pass and disappear - and where the moth and rust of pride and passions, sins, destroy these treasures, as corruptible and unclean, and where thieves-demons, and, perhaps, people, dig in and steal - both the heart itself and its treasure. Here, approximately, is your treasure - money, or carnal pleasures, or impersonal personalities, which your bestial passions made impersonal and turned into an object of crude pleasure, and you yourself were made an immoral and impersonal being: or - is your treasure - only earthly knowledge, arts, industry, crafts? Well, how long will these treasures belong to you? - Not today - tomorrow, or not long after, your earthly church - your body will be destroyed, and your treasures, and with your body, will leave you: - what will be left of them for you, your soul? - Nothing. But she is eternal and in that century she will need eternal treasures that are characteristic of her, such as: in Christ, hope and love for God and neighbor, mercy, humility, purity, righteousness, kindness, in general - works of virtue. Where do you have them? Have you stocked up on spiritual oil? Have you stocked up on spiritual treasures? Oh, stock up quickly while there is still time. Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:20): since, I will add, there is a kingdom of incorruptibility, a kingdom of righteousness, there is no devil there. For, says the Lord, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21). Here is a great truth that we often forget, and others always forget: where our treasure is, there is our heart. And since our treasures are on earth, then our hearts are right there - on earth - with earthly treasures, pleasures, mostly coarse and unclean; they passionately clung to them - and therefore not in heaven, not with God, not with His holy commandments, advice, promises, consolations. Here the priest, during the liturgy, on behalf of the Church, proclaims before the celebration of the heavenly sacrament; woe are our hearts! that is, let us raise our hearts to God - let us renounce everything earthly: - and who is able to decisively rise above grief, even in these terrible and all-saving moments, if our thoughts and hearts are so occupied with earthly treasures and pleasures, worries, the objects of our worldly passions? – How often in these moments do spiritual thieves undermine our hearts and steal our attention, our faith and love for God and our reverence for the saving sacrament, for this universal Sacrifice - intercessory, propitiatory and grateful? - Why? - Because where our treasures are, there are our hearts. Because, going to the church to be present at the celebration of the heavenly sacrament, we did not prepare our souls for a worthy stand in the church, did not put aside all everyday worries and worries, did not cleanse our hearts from vicious passions, did not leave all sin behind the threshold of the church, forgot that, standing in the church, we must stand as in heaven; for here is the throne of God and the heavenly, terrible and saving Sacrifice; here, invisibly, the Heavenly Powers serve with us, - and with us - the Most Holy Queen of heaven and earth - the Most Holy Theotokos and all the saints who are remembered secretly at the liturgy - before and after the consecration of the Holy Gifts; for even for them a sacrifice of thanksgiving from the Church to God is offered. Here come the days of fasting and repentance, in which we must recognize our sins, bring them to memory, grieve over them, break our hearts, repent and correct ourselves. What will our fast be? What will repentance be like? – If God is our treasure, His holy will, His truth and eternal life with its endless blessings, then our fast will be sincere, unhypocritical, and our repentance will be sincere, ardent, firm, unchanging; for only such repentance again returns to us our priceless treasure lost by sins - the Lord God and His grace; but if our treasure, our idol, continues to be our many-passionate flesh, the adulterous and sinful world with its charming, tempting, although soon disappearing, blessings, then our fasting will be insincere, or there will be none at all, and repentance will be only superficial, and therefore insincere, indecisive, mediocre, fruitless - from which God will deliver each of us; for such repentance is sinful insensibility, ingratitude before God, who, out of infinite mercy, gave the gift of repentance to sinners for the sake of eternal life - it is trampling on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, who cleanses our sins for the sake of the merits of Christ and sanctifies our souls and bodies. So, all of you, pay careful attention to where your treasure is: on earth or in heaven? “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Amen. Now, beloved, we have been fasting for the 4th day and going to divine services for the 4th day. Is there any benefit for our soul from fasting? Each of us needs to ask ourselves this question and then pay attention to our heart: is there a holy change in it, does it cease to love and commit sin? Next, you need to give yourself an account: does the divine service have any effect on me, do I leave the church in a pious mood, or does it pass by as something alien to me, so I stand in the church with cold indifference, pray only out of habit, bow to the ground without heartfelt contrition for my sins. So, beloved brethren, we must certainly give ourselves an account of the holy work of fasting: is it going successfully, is the labor not being wasted in vain. We give ourselves an account of mundane, often unimportant matters; why not look at this holy work with the eye of testing? Just remember, beloved, what you are preparing for. You are preparing to begin the heavenly, most pure, life-giving and terrible Mysteries of the body and blood of Christ our God, you are preparing to unite with the most pure God Himself. Oh! After this, how can you not turn all your attention to fasting! So, beloved, let us take a stern look at our fasting and take care to turn it with all our might to the benefit of our souls. How can we turn it to our advantage? The main thing, let’s do this: let’s each take control of our own hearts, - the greatest attention should be paid to the heart: - here is all the evil of man: or better - this is the sinful, godless person, this is the workhouse of sin. Our heart, beloved, has completely turned away from God, its Creator, and has turned completely to the world and its delights; in it are all our lusts, all our passions, everything contrary to God. As you can see, you need to make an important change in yourself: from love for the world, for its pleasures, for sin, - you need to turn yourself to love for God, Whom first and most of all we need to love: and this is not an easy task, especially for one who loves the world very much: for the love of this world, according to the word of the Apostle, is direct enmity against God (James 4:4). But let us not be afraid of difficulties: what is difficult and impossible for us is easy and possible for God: with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). And first of all, in our holy work of turning from the world to God, the divine service will help you: just stand and listen to everything with attention, and with a humble spirit, and holy thoughts and feelings will certainly come to you: it cannot be that a humble and attentive person, desiring to unite with God, would not be visited by a spirit of contrition and tenderness. But there is a lot you don't understand; but you understand at least something, and it is true that you understand a lot: and this is what you understand, absorb into your heart, reflect on it; from the holy words of the Church, produce your holy thoughts and feelings, and with God’s help the matter will go successfully. After all, our soul is not entirely a barren land for good. Is this possible when she drank the rain of God’s grace that fell upon her in abundance? Further, consider that many of you may now be fasting for the last time, and perhaps death will soon overtake you by accident, and they will not have to confess and partake of the Holy Mysteries before death. And in fact: even the ax lies at the root of the tree, and the tree is us: every tree that does not produce the fruit of good, that is, people who do not do good deeds, are whipped and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:10). With what attention to oneself must each person perform his fasting, in order to certainly be cleansed of his sins, perhaps for the last time. Next, imagine more often that after fasting and confession you will begin the most pure Mysteries. But if you approach with an uncorrected heart, unworthily, then you will receive communion in judgment and condemnation for yourself and you will be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:27), and after communion you will not be any better, but on the contrary, you will become even worse. With these and similar thoughts, strengthen yourself in your feat of fasting and pray in church as sincerely as possible, with all your heart; As sincerely as possible, say more often to the Lord who listens to you: God, be merciful to me, a sinner! God, cleanse me, a sinner! Without number of sinners, Lord, forgive! Remember that these words alone: ​​God, be merciful to me, a sinner (Luke 18:13), acquitted the publican. Why? Because they were said without any pretense, from the depths of the heart, from a complete recognition of one’s guilt before God and the determination to certainly correct oneself. And all of us, beloved, are so sinful that there is no point in answering God in apology; we are not worthy of raising our eyes to heaven. How can we not say with all our hearts: God, be merciful to us sinners! God, cleanse us sinners! Innumerable sins, Lord, forgive! Amen. If anyone sins, the imams will intercede with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and by Him there is cleansing for our sins (1 John 2:1-2) Today, beloved brethren, you will go to repent. Out of duty as a pastor, I want to instill in you what is required of someone who begins confession - so that his confession is true, pleasing to God and soul-saving. – Namely, what is required from the repentant is contrition for his sins, the intention to correct his life, faith in Christ and hope in His mercy. So, first of all, contrition for your sins is required. But this is something that we, confessors, very often do not see in our spiritual children. Quite a lot of people come to the spirit with complete indifference, and if they had not been asked anything, they would either say nothing or only say in general that the spiritual father has sinned in all his sins. And if they had also said this with a heartfelt consciousness of their guilt: - no, then woe is that without consciousness of their sins, and so - in order to quickly finish with confession. Beloved! Let us not turn God’s extreme mercy towards us sinners into a reason for God’s wrath. How insensitive we are! Don't we have anything to grieve about in confession? We don’t have enough sins: if we began to cry all our lives about our sins, then we would not do anything unnecessary, but only what should be done. Oh! If any of us said that he has no sin, he would deceive himself, and in that person anyone would seek the truth in vain. Can't you see your sins? pray to God that He will let you see them: was it in vain that you often said behind the priest in church: Lord! grant me to see my sins! “Let us try now with our common strength to see our sins, so that later in confession we can confess them with heartfelt contrition.” And here is our first very important sin, the fact that we, being great sinners, do not feel that we are sinners who deserve not mercy, but God’s punishment! Let us condemn ourselves first of all for this insensibility and say to the Lord with all our souls: here I am, Lord and Master of my life, an insensitive sinner, I am the greatest sinner, but I do not feel my sins; It must be because my sins have multiplied more than the sand of the sea, and I am all in sins, like a smallpox patient - in smallpox. I repent to You, my Lord God, with all my heart for my insensibility, and I pray to You: Grant me to feel with all my heart how much I have angered and am angering You. - ABOUT! This imaginary, Pharisaic righteousness of ours, how many people it has destroyed and is destroying! And to our evil, it strikes our heart precisely during fasting, during the very sacrament of repentance and before the sacrament of Holy Communion. But let's look further - what sins did we sin against God the most? But if we are people of little faith, we live on earth not for heaven, not for God and the salvation of our souls, but for the earth and everything pleasant on earth, in a word - we live for the flesh, for its pleasures, and not for our immortal soul, not for its future life - is this not a great sin? Have we forgotten the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ for us? The Son of God, His most pure blood, shed for us on the cross. – His glorious resurrection? Was it not for us, that is, in order to raise us to heaven, removed from heaven by sin, His descent to earth, His divine teaching, His miracles, His prophecies - for example, about the future terrible judgment, about the resurrection of the dead on the last day of the world, about the bliss of the righteous and the eternal torment of sinners? - finally, His suffering, His resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven? - So, if it is true that we must live here for the life of the next century, then is it not a sin not to live for that life, but to live with all our thoughts and with all our hearts on earth and for the earth? And how much sin comes from the fact that we only want to live well on earth and do not believe with all our hearts in the future blissful life? - How much anger, hatred, love of money, envy, stinginess, deception comes from that? Hence all the vices: all carnal lusts, all passions of the soul. So let us repent of this, that is, we will repent that we are of little faith, if not unbelievers, and that for God and for the salvation of our souls, we either do not live here, or we live very little; also that there is little hope in our hearts, if not none at all - for a future life. – We also suffer from the greatest sin of ingratitude to God, dislike for Him for His countless, ineffable mercies. This, I think, is something everyone is aware of at least from time to time. Here are all of you who move on your own feet, all of you are healthy in body and soul, honored by the mind of God the Creator, by free will, and what were we so recently? - Nothing; but the Lord brought you all from non-existence into existence - and from that time on he gave you everything; gave you a soul with its abilities, a body with its wise and beautiful structure, gave you and is constantly giving you food to nourish your body, clothes to clothe it, gave you a corner on His earth, and shelter for your dwelling; feeds you - with the priceless, life-giving food of His Body and Blood, delights and reassures you with it; makes you glad by hearing His word, forgives you your sins without number, constantly preserves your life - like a mother the life of a child; He gives us His future kingdom, and you never know what He does out of His love for us sinners and ungrateful people. It is impossible to list. So what? How do we respond to His love for us - a love that has no number or measure? - Just lawlessness, just bad behavior, just ingratitude. - So, let us repent with tears of our ingratitude before God, of our dislike for Him, and also with tears we will ask Him for the gift of love. ABOUT! Bless my soul the Lord, and do not forget all His rewards (Ps. 102:2). The repentant is also required to have the intention to correct his life: and pay attention to this. When going to confession, say to yourself: after confession, I will try with all my might to correct myself from those sins that I now want to repent of. I won't deceive myself any longer; I will not lie to God; I will no longer insult the sacrament of repentance. Help, Lord, strengthen my spiritual strength, Lord! What is the benefit of such repentance, after which again, without a twinge of conscience, they indulge in the same sins of which they repented? On such people the proverb is fulfilled: a dog returns to its vomit, and a pig, having washed, returns to its puddle (cf. 2 Peter 2:22). Finally, faith in Christ and hope in His mercy are also required from the repentant. Anyone approaching confession must believe that during the sacrament Christ Himself stands invisibly and accepts his confession; that only Christ can forgive sins, since He, through His suffering, His honest blood and His death, sought for Himself the right from the Heavenly Father to forgive us all our iniquities, without offending divine justice, and that He, in His mercy, is always ready to forgive us all kinds of sins, if only we would admit them with contrition of heart; If only we had the intention to live better from now on, if only we had faith in Him in our hearts. Your faith will save you; Go in peace (Mark 5:34). This is what He says internally to everyone, after permission from the priest, who repents as they should. Let us all repent sincerely; Let’s do everything we can to improve our lives; Let us bring God the fruits of repentance. Amen. Receive the Body of Christ, taste the immortal Source (Participated) Before you, Christ's flock, in this chalice is the divine Body and divine Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ - and you have prepared by fasting and confession to receive these holy, immortal and life-giving Mysteries. In order to accept them worthily, it is required from each of you: 1) childlike, simple-hearted faith that you accept, under the guise of bread and wine, the most pure body and the most pure blood of the Savior - that you accept the Savior Himself with your lips into your heart, become one flesh and blood with Him, one spirit, as it is said: you are His body, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. 5:30); He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him (John 6:56); and - cleave unto the Lord; there is one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17); for in this part of the body and blood of Christ God, which you receive, the whole Jesus Christ is found, as a soul in a body. What is required of you, 2nd, is complete, unshakable trust in the mercy of the Savior, that He, like divine fire, will burn and cleanse with His blood all your sins; therefore, each of you, recognizing your unworthiness to accept the divine Mysteries, surrender yourself completely to the mercy of the Lord, so that He Himself, by His grace, makes you worthy of receiving His holy Mysteries; everyone be trustworthy; no one hesitates, do not be faint-hearted, do not become despondent, presenting your wretchedness and lewdness; from the cup the mercy of the ruler and great forgiveness and cleansing of sins are given to everyone. Just believe and trust. It is required in 3, great, ardent, angelic love of the participants in the Savior; Each of you must respond to the love of the Lord with love; for, tell me, what kind of love of God for us sinners was revealed in the fact that God himself, having become incarnate for us, having suffered, died and risen, gave us His divine Body and Blood for food and drink, and through this He united with us in the closest union, dissolved or mixed with us, making us sharers of His divine nature! What mother, what father ever loved their children as much as the Lord loved us? – And why does the Lord unite with us in the Holy Mysteries? In order to cleanse us from the filth of sins, from a filth that is no more disgusting and murderous - in order to impart to us His holiness, His divine life, peace, consolation, joy, lightness, sweetness, freedom, of which there is nothing more precious, more desirable in the world: - so that we, cleansed from sins, changed, renewed, may be taken to Himself to heaven, to eternal life, to eternal bliss; for with sins, with passions, no one can be in paradise: whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood will have eternal life, says the Lord, and I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:54). So, you who have to partake of the Divine Mysteries, inflame your hearts with love for the Savior. Holy Soul, Comforter, Treasure of the good, pour Thy love into our hearts! What is required of you is 4) a change of heart. Until now, many of you loved sin, yet - willingly or unwillingly - you indulged in sin; now try to hate him with all your might: for sin is the product of the devil, resistance to God; try to change everything in the very depths of your soul. You have the opportunity to taste the body and blood of the divine Lamb, the meek and gentle Lord Jesus Christ: be meek lambs yourself, gentle, patient, submissive to the will of God, the Church, the will of your parents, superiors, and elders. You will accept the body and blood of the Savior, and He is all love, and enmity and malice are disgusting to Him; Let us also try to live in mutual love; forgive insults, do not repay evil for evil, or annoyance for annoyance. Come to the Lord, the Heavenly King, who leads us all to heaven; – try to think about heavenly things; strive to acquire heavenly morals; give up your addiction to earthly things, which are perishable and enslave and corrupt souls; love the mountainous fatherland, the mountainous city of Jerusalem, where the Mother of God and all the saints are, and where we should all strive; leave all impurities and sinful passions; everyone show a change for the better, everyone show a correction; everyone bring any good fruit of good deeds to the Lord; everyone create fruits worthy of repentance. God! You yourself change us, renew us yourself! Finally, in order for us to preserve this heavenly gift - the most pure body and blood of Christ - it is required of us - 5) attention to ourselves, to our thoughts, to our heart, to all its feelings and inclinations, curbing our sinful desires and aspirations, as well as abstinence in food and drink; abstinence from idle talk, profanity, desecration and all lies; in a word: - everyone, take care of yourself from everything that is contrary to Christ, the Savior of our souls; remember that through communion the Lord adores you, making you divine; divinely and try to live in all holiness, righteousness and truth. You are children of God and Christ; What kind of life is appropriate for the children of God? May the Lord vouchsafe all of you to accept the Divine Mysteries worthily and fruitfully. Whoever eats and drinks the divine Body and divine Blood unworthily eats and drinks condemnation for himself (1 Cor. 11:29), says St. Apostle Paul. So, let us draw near by faith and love, so that we may be partakers of eternal life. Amen. From now on you will see the heavens opened (John 1:51) I congratulate myself and many of you, beloved brothers and sisters, on the ineffable mercy of God, on the spiritual renewal received through the feat of fasting, prayer, fasting and repentance, and especially through the communion of the most pure and life-giving Mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord. And in this short time we could experience for ourselves the benefits of fasting and prayer, not to mention the benefits of fasting, confession and communion; if, of course, we sincerely took advantage of this time to our salvation and sincerely fulfilled the conditions of fasting and fasting; if you abstained from excess in food and drink, sincerely prayed, humbled yourself before God and your neighbors, were merciful, recognized many of your untruths and iniquities and deeply regretted them, accepting the firm intention not to do them anymore, and, finally, sincerely confessed to them and received permission and forgiveness of them, and were honored to taste the life-giving Brashn. But did we all really benefit from the past week? Have our hearts become closer to God, to the Most Pure Mother of the Belly, to the Church, to the holy Guardian Angel and to the saints of God; have we sincerely loved truth and virtue, and hated all untruth and lawlessness; Do we sincerely love God and our neighbors; Do we feel a greater spiritual affinity with each other, as members of the one body of Christ, as the ouds of Christ, for there is one bread of the sacrament, one body we are many: for we all partake of one bread (1 Cor. 10:17)? Do we feel in our hearts that the streams of iniquity do not flow with such impudence and violence into our soul as they did before fasting and communion, and have they significantly dried up in us, and have we become purer, freer, calmer, more dispassionate, kinder, more kind-hearted, more inclined to everything good and useful? Has our greed for carnal pleasures and self-interest become less? Have you become meeker, more patient, more condescending towards your neighbors? Have we begun to look more often at heaven, at the true and eternal fatherland, and with less passion do we turn our gaze to everything earthly, as temporary, momentary, transitory? “For look how many people among us are delighted with death in a short time, and death constantly carries away its victims. If so, if we have become the best and most prudent, then I again congratulate myself and you on the great mercy of God, and together I pray that the Lord will confirm this good disposition and mood of the heart in me and in you; - but let none of us be deceived by the evil thought that now, thank God, we have thrown off the burden of sins and can again live as we lived, and sin as we sinned, for who is without sin - we would say! It is true, brothers and sisters, that no one is without sin, but living as you lived and sinning as before, after renewal through repentance and communion, should not, should not, is indecent for a Christian. The Holy Church, through the confessor, gives the following admonition to everyone who has repented: from now on, you must guard yourself from all these sins, having already been baptized with the second baptism, according to the Christian sacrament, and make a good beginning, with the help of God, and, moreover, do not mock the sameness by turning, and do not make people laugh, because this is not proper for a Christian; but live honestly, rightly, and reverently, may God help you with His grace (Rite of Confession, Testament). This is what the Church instills in the repentant. Yes, and common sense also instills in us; for who, having washed himself, would want to deliberately get dirty again? Only the pig, having washed himself, goes back to wallowing in the mud; It is only natural for a dog to return to his own vomit (cf. 2 Peter 2:22). Be healthy; Let no one sin, lest it be worse (John 5:14), says the Lord to the healed paralytic. And something very bad can also happen to us if we neglect virtue after repentance; then the grace of God will leave us for our inattention and carelessness about ourselves. Repentance and communion opens heaven and the kingdom of heaven to us, for, says the Lord, he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood will have eternal life—and he abides in me, and I in him (John 6:54, 56). How can we not value the gift we have received—eternal life and Christ’s abiding in us, and our abiding in Him? Heaven has been opened to us through repentance and communion, according to Scripture; From now on you will see the sky open; what wonderful mercy! It was concluded by our sins, like the strongest gates and castles, but by repentance it was opened; - let us take advantage of this mercy of God before it is closed again for us: for God knows whether it will open again for us when we again close it with arbitrary sins. For many it was concluded forever. The foolish virgins knocked on the closed doors, saying: Lord, Lord, open to us; and they were told; Amen I say to you, I know you not; and we are all told: watch for you, for you do not know the hour of the day, in the same day the Son of man will come (Matthew 25:11-13). Amen. Behold, he is truly an Israelite; in him there is no flattery (John 1:47) Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke the words just spoken about one Israeli, a resident of the city of Cana in Galilee, Nathanael, when he, on the advice of his acquaintance Philip, went to meet Jesus Christ to make sure whether He was the Messiah promised to Israel. Philip said to Nathanael: We have found the One about whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth. But Nathanael said to him: Can anything good come from Nazareth? Philip says to him: come and see. Jesus, seeing Nathanael coming to Him, said of him: Behold, he is truly an Israelite, in whom there is no guile. Nathanael says to Him: Why do you know me? - Jesus answered him: before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you, that is, I knew all your thoughts, your faith, your aspirations for the Messiah, your future ministry. The Lord, the knower of the heart, apparently touched the most living string of Nathanael’s heart, his most sincere thought, sincere desire, aspiration, showing him with his own eyes His divine omniscience; and so Nathanael was caught into the faith of Christ. He exclaims: Rabbi! You are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel - and then you become His disciple, under the name Bartholomew, which means - one of the twelve (John 1:45-50). But why is it that on this Sunday, called the Week of Orthodoxy, that the Church is supposed to read this Gospel, which tells about the Lord’s conversation with Nathanael? – Because the Lord’s words to Nathanael show the character of a true, or Orthodox Christian, and the character, in general, of the true Orthodox Church of Christ. “Behold, a true Israelite,” the Lord said about Nathanael, in whom there is no guile, that is, here is a man who rightly and directly, firmly thinks, reasons, believes, hopes, speaks and acts, just as Nathanael directly, immediately believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and never again wavered in faith and hope, did not change his thoughts regarding His divine Face. Isn’t this how a true Christian should be? Isn’t this how the entire God-established society of Orthodox Christians should be? Isn’t this how the Orthodox Church should be, as it is? What high praise to Nathanael from the One who searches the heart and womb in the words: here is a truly Israeli, in whom there is no guile! What high praise is there for that Christian about whom the Lord said: here is a true Christian, in whom there is no guile, and for that Church about which the Lord says: here is a Church in which there is no guile or vain inventions of men, that is, which is all true in all its teaching, sacraments, worship, administration, in all its structure. And that’s exactly what all our saints are; such is the entire Orthodox Church from its beginning to the present, as evidenced by the impartial history of the Church and by God Himself through various signs and wonders performed in the Church. She is, to the apostle, the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15); there is a glorious Church, not having filth or vice, or anything from such (Eph. 5:27). And by what bloody deeds, by what struggle with the enemies of the truth, by what and how many deaths of the zealots of the purity, holiness and Orthodoxy of the faith and the Church, you and I, my brothers, acquired the Orthodoxy of our faith, our guide to eternal life! Just as for the preservation and integrity of our fatherland and in it our Orthodox faith, rivers of blood were shed by our ancestors - Russian soldiers and leaders who fought with pagans, and with Mohammedans, and with Christians alien to the Orthodox Church - so for the preservation of the Orthodox faith, rivers of apostolic, prophetic, martyr's blood were shed; The reverend fathers and other champions of the faith endured much suffering. But what about us, children of the Orthodox Church? Do we preserve this most precious heritage - the Orthodox faith, do we follow its teachings, commandments, rules, statutes, advice? Do we love to offer service to God, the fruit of those who confess His name with their lips (Heb. 13:15)? Are we renewed by it, are we sanctified every day, do we correct ourselves, do we achieve the perfection that the saints achieved? Do we improve in love for God and our neighbors: do we value our faith: do we consider it the greatest mercy of God, the greatest and primary good of life, that we have the happiness of belonging to the Orthodox Church, which is one, holy, catholic and apostolic? How do we answer these questions if we want to answer according to our conscience? To our shame, we must admit that many, many Orthodox Christians not only do not have the Orthodox faith in their hearts and lives, but not even on their tongues, and it has completely evaporated for them or has turned into complete indifference regarding any faith: Catholic, Lutheran, Jewish, Mohammedan, even pagan. We hear from many that in every faith one can please God, that is, as if every faith is pleasing to God, and as if lies and truth, truth and untruth are indifferent to God. This is what ignorance of their faith has reached for many, ignorance of the spirit and history of their Church, alienation from its life and Divine services, to what extent the concept of Orthodoxy, non-Orthodoxy and other faiths has become eclipsed! The chronicle of modern incidents tells the story of how somewhere in Russia one boss, while testing his students, called the story of the sacrifice of Isaac absurd. This is darkness, chaos, disastrous ignorance! A Christian, as a member of the Church, must know his faith and try to live by faith, be saved by his faith, because the enemies of our salvation do not sleep and seek our destruction at every hour - and not throw away his faith as a specialty of some people, or as an unnecessary toy, characteristic only of childhood, or as the property of supposedly only the uneducated mob. Those who dream in this way would do well to remember the venerable antiquity of our faith, contemporary with the beginning of the human race, and its direct origin from God, and the fact that in this faith people of every kind, rank, condition, gender lived and were saved: glorious kings, wise philosophers, legislators, and the greatest leaders, noble and simple, rich and poor, male and female, the beauty and glory of humanity. It should also be said to the glory of the Orthodox faith that no religion other than the Orthodox faith can lead a person to moral perfection, or holiness and perfect pleasing to God, as shown by both the history of the Church and the incorruptible, miraculous remains of St. saints of God, and the wondrous deeds of the saints of the Orthodox Church, with which they completely pleased God, having been seers and miracle workers during their lifetime. This is how it should be according to common sense: only perfect faith with all the divine powers, with all the spiritual armor of God against the passionate flesh, the world and the devil can lead to perfection. If today many Orthodox Christians live worse than Mohammedans and pagans, so that the head of the Mohammedans in Russia publicly and publicly recently in St. Petersburg proclaimed praise to his fellow believers for the fact that among them there are no such wicked people as among Christians who encroach on the lives of kings: then such a truly wicked life of Christians should not, of course, be in the least reproached the Orthodox faith, which is unshakable in its principles of truth and holiness, according to the promise of the Savior Himself and according to the testimony of history. Although such people came from us, they were not ours in essence, but only in name. Yes, my brethren, only the Orthodox faith cleanses and sanctifies human nature, defiled by sin, and renews corrupted nature, especially through the sacraments of baptism, repentance and communion; the darkened enlightens; He heals those wounded by sins; the icy warms; what stinks of passions is made fragrant by the grace of the Holy Spirit; what is dead is brought to life; what has been rejected from God reunites, what is alienated from Him is appropriated to Him; what is weakened strengthens; what is disfigured represents and beautifies; restores the fallen; work makes you free; He fulfills hostility with love, like Paul the Apostle and many others; he fulfills blasphemy with constant praise to God; the desperate is filled with hope; the sad is comforting; guilt saves you from condemnation and punishment in Gehenna; the troubled calms; strengthens the weak; the oppressed spreads; unrighteousness enriches with righteousness; makes the evil simple; evil - good; He corrects what is corrupt; He does the greedy to the abstinent; prodigal to chaste; stingy to generous; the foolish makes wise; what is earthly creates heavenly; the rough is refined; the flesh spiritualizes; the lover of things makes the lover of God; self-loving selfless and all-loving; incomparable to godlike and - lo and behold! - divine! These are the miracles the Orthodox faith works in a person! Want to make sure of this? Read the history of the lives of the saints, the history of the Church, and you will see with your own eyes all these miracles in the lives of the saints. You will see wolves turned into lambs, fornicators and harlots into righteous people and equals of angels; you will see lovers of money as merciful ones, lovers of sensibility as abstinent people, people of power and earthly greatness and luxury in the humble attire of a monk. These were truly true Christians; here are angels in the flesh; on earth - heavenly citizens, and together - faithful servants of the earthly fatherland, just like the 40 martyrs of Sebaste remembered today! This is what our Orthodox faith can do with those people who sincerely support it and follow its guidance! – Why doesn’t it produce such a saving change in us? – From our lack of faith or lack of faith, from frivolity, from depravity and unrepentance of the heart; from the passions that have intensified in us and taken possession of us, from moving away from the Church, from the fact that many are not in the least imbued with the spirit and life of the Church, and many only weakly and more formally, insincerely adhere to it. From the same thing, all modern social vices have degenerated among us: murder, suicide, regicide, arson, theft of public property, excessive luxury, debauchery, extravagance, the pursuit of all kinds of sensual pleasures. In order for us to be true Orthodox Christians, we first of all need to have living, constant communication with the Orthodox Church, or participation in its prayers, teachings, sacraments: - to diligently study our faith and be imbued with and live by its spirit, to be guided by its rules, commandments, statutes, and most importantly - to restore in ourselves, through true and deep repentance, the image of a true, Orthodox Christian in the image of the ancient and modern saints, or better - in the image of our Lord Jesus Himself Christ, saying: I have given you an image, even as I created, you also do (John 13:15), so that the Lord may also say about us, as He once did about Nathanael: Behold, truly a new Israelite, in him there is no flattery. Amen. Child, your sins are forgiven (Mark 2:5) The paralytic was brought to Jesus Christ apparently for healing from the disease of paralysis that had beset him. And Jesus Christ first heals his soul from sins, and then his body from illness. Child, He says to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, and after the forgiveness of your sins He said to him: Arise, and take up your bed, and go to your house (Mark 2:11). What does this method of healing mean? This means that the diseases that befall us are the consequences of our sins and that it is impossible to completely get rid of diseases without first being cleansed of sins, just as it is impossible to destroy the consequences without destroying the cause. Since even now there are often many sick people among us who are looking for a cure for their illness, then, for general edification and benefit, let us now talk about the close connection of our sins with bodily illnesses. Is there really such a close connection between sins and bodily illnesses and sufferings that illnesses of the body, more or less severe and prolonged, are the consequences of sins? Truly, there is such a connection between illnesses and sins: sin is destructive for the soul, at the same time it is destructive for the body. The Holy Apostle speaks about sin: the pattern of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), that is, sin, like a cruel tyrant, collects tribute from the people who work for him - and everyone works for him. This tribute is death. So, death is our necessary tribute to sin, and death is almost always preceded by illness, more or less prolonged. Hence it is clear that there is a very close connection between sin and illness. When there is no sin, then there will be no disease and death. That is why there will be no diseases in the next century. There will be no death for anyone, no crying, no crying, no sickness (Rev. 21:4), testifies the seer John, in Divine Revelation. Often, for human sins, God sends diseases, for example, handing them over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor. 5:5), as was the case with the incest mentioned in the letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, or depriving them of the use of certain senses and members, or subjecting them to various other diseases. In this case, illness is the work of the goodness of the Lord, who does not want the eternal death of the sinner, but rather that the wicked should turn from his way, and live to be him (Ezek. 33:11). People are extremely seduced by the temporary sweetness of sin and perish, but God, in His goodness, does not want our eternal destruction, but wants to make everyone participants in bliss. But how can this be done when a person does not want to pay attention to future bliss or eternal torment, and when with his whole being he is devoted to earthly entertainment and pleasures? He feels full of strength and thinks that he must live here as he wants while he lives. How to make him think about God, about eternal life for which he was created, how to make him resort to faith and virtue so that they turn into the life of his heart? Illness and suffering in this case are the best remedy. One has only to look at someone who is sick or subject to some other misfortune to be convinced of how beneficial illnesses and misfortunes are sometimes for us here. Man comes to his senses at this visitation of God, enters into himself, sees that he is insignificant and quickly passes away, like grass,... like a flower of the field (Is. 40:6), that everything earthly is dust and vanity, that only God and virtue are eternal, that man needs in this life to serve God in spirit and truth and stock up on good deeds for eternal life. Brethren! We are all sick or unhappy in some way and we all want, by our own law of self-preservation, to be healthy and prosperous. Let us remember that our illnesses, being often the fruit of our iniquities, our own carelessness or intemperate life at the beginning, are very often God's punishment in their strength and duration for our sins. If we want to be free from diseases, we must first destroy their internal cause - sins: then the external misfortune will pass by itself. Let us remember that sickness and death would not have existed in the human race if sin had not entered the world through the first man. Let others imagine the causes of disease as they please; but if they delve deeper into the essence of the matter, then in their explanation they will come to the same main reason for them, namely, that the bodily nature of man was once greatly damaged and is now being damaged by some internal, hostile force, and that is why it is so sensitive to the slightest spontaneous changes, that is why it has become so weak and easily destructible. Now is the time for spiritual healing. Let us move away from the sins with which the soul painfully suffers, and our healings will soon shine forth (Is. 58:8). Amen. Jesus went into Capernaum: and it was heard that there was food in the house; and many gathered together, as if none could be accommodated at the door: and you spoke a word to them. And she came to Him, wearing loose sinews, carried by four (Mark 2:1-3) If the king of the earth or the king’s son visits any city or village and stays in some house, then huge crowds of people gather around that house, because everyone wants to see the clear royal eyes, carefully turned to the entire vast kingdom and all the subject peoples, everyone wants to hear the merciful royal word. So high is the rank of the king, so important is his service to God and people on earth, that everyone feels an involuntary reverence for his person; and often the sight of him delights him. But there was a time when the Heavenly King Himself, the King of the whole world, the beginningless God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the King of the kings of the earth, appeared on earth and lived with people, wandering from city to city, from village to village. Oh, what happiness, what bliss it was to see the King of Heaven Himself; these bright, unsleeping eyes, looking at the whole universe, this gaze, joyful to the Angels and terrible for demons, and to hear from His sweetest lips His words, giving life, peace, joy, joy to every sincere, direct soul! You envy these happy people who lived during Jesus Christ's stay on earth. Don't be jealous. Even now He is inseparably with us through His Divinity, His grace, His life-giving Mysteries, His divine body and most pure blood: we are not at all offended in this regard compared to the contemporaries of Jesus Christ; they were not deprived of anything, they even received more than them; because they did not have the bliss of eating His life-giving Body and Blood, but we eat them and are adored. The liturgy during which this sacrament is performed depicts before us the entire life of Jesus Christ from His cradle to His ascension to heaven; - and the holy Mysteries reveal His personal presence, the immeasurable love of the Lord for His rational creation; and the sublime appearance of God in the flesh and in the form of man shows, my brethren, the dignity of human nature, created in the image of God, but humiliated, disfigured, weakened and mortified by sin. It certifies us that if a person lives on earth righteously and holy, then he will be equal to the Angels and will live with them forever and rejoice for endless centuries; that with God, after the Mother of God and the holy Angels, there is no one else higher and dearer than man - the man to whom He was likened, for whom He suffered, died and was resurrected; that all heaven and the kingdom of heaven is the inheritance of man, and besides him there are no more heirs to whom it would be said: come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). But let us turn to what is said in the Gospel. Below, it is said, Jesus was in Capernaum, and it was heard that there were people in the house, and many people had gathered, as if there was no room for anyone at the door. The Jewish city of Capernaum was located at Lake Gennesaret near the confluence of the Jordan River and was one of the flourishing and populous cities of Galilee under Jesus Christ. The Lord, during His three-year public ministry for the salvation of the human race, repeatedly visited Capernaum, preached in Jewish synagogues and performed many miracles. By the way, a paralytic man who was unable to walk, about whom we read in the Gospel today, was healed here. Here the following were healed: the servant of one Roman centurion, the mother-in-law of the Apostle Peter with many others; a bleeding woman, two blind men, a demoniac, and the daughter of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, was resurrected. Happy, a hundred times happy, you say, are the inhabitants of this city, in which Jesus Christ had His frequent stay. - But I won’t say that. No, I cannot call the inhabitants of Capernaum happy just because the Son of God often stayed with them; I can’t because the inhabitants of Capernaum, who had seen His miracles many times, His benefits to their fellow citizens, remained ungrateful before their Benefactor and Wonderworker - unfaithful, unrepentant sinners. The Lord Himself convicted this city of unrepentance, saying to it: and you, Capernaum, who ascended to heaven, will be cast down to hell; for if the powers had been shown in Sodom, that is, the miracles that were performed in you, then he would have remained to this day, that is, he would have repented; but I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you (Matthew 11:23–24). Now you see that the inhabitants of Capernaum are unhappy people, because, often seeing the miracles of the Lord and hearing His teaching, they remained unrepentant sinners and were condemned to hell. My brothers! Let's think about ourselves: are we less blessed by the Lord than the inhabitants of Capernaum? We were born in baptism with water and the Holy Spirit and adopted as sons of God; in confirmation they are sanctified by the Holy Spirit; in communion we are worthy to partake of the most pure body and the most pure blood of the Lord; in repentance we are granted forgiveness of sins after sincere repentance for them; in the priesthood we have constant teachers of faith and Christian life, performers of saving sacraments and leaders to God and eternal life; in the consecration of oil we have healing for bodily diseases through repentance of sins. What do we render to the Lord for all His mercies towards us, for all the miracles of His long-suffering towards us? - Ingratitude, ill-will, hard-heartedness, unbelief, absent-mindedness, obstinacy and unrepentance for sins. But will it always be like this? Will not the measure of God's long-suffering toward us soon be fulfilled? Does not the sword of God already hang over our heads? Is not the mortal ax already stretched to the root of the tree, to our heart? Has not the pitch-black hell opened its mouth to swallow us? Let us come to our senses, come to our senses, and repent from the heart while we still have time to repent. Let us study the word of God, diligently visiting the church of God, and engage in charity and almsgiving. It is true that during Great Lent, our church is sometimes filled with people praying, like the house in which Jesus Christ was, and the people can barely fit in it. God bless! Oh, if only it were filled with Christians more often! But still the theater fills up much more often. But let’s continue with the explanation of the Gospel. And speak to them the word. Everywhere the Lord appeared with a word - and this word was sweeter than honey from the honeycomb; it healed souls and bodies; bowed and transformed hearts, as in Saul; revived the dead, drove away demons, threw the daring to the ground, commanded all the elements; and they obeyed the voice of the Almighty; transformed the creature into an instant; this word is heard in the church even now. Why are there so few people listening and performing? From our absent-mindedness, from love for the world, for vain goods and pleasures. You cannot, the Lord said once and for all, work for God and mammon (Matthew 6:24), that is, for the world. But remember: this word will judge us on the last day. Let us pay more attention to what we hear, lest we fall away (Heb. 2:1) inwardly from God. This is why the Holy Church demands our attention when the Gospel is read. And she came to Him, weakened by her sinews, carried by four: and those who were unable to approach Him for the sake of the people, opening the cover where they were, and having dug a bed, he lay relaxed on it (Mark 2:3-4). How pitiful is a person when, although fully conscious, he cannot walk on his own due to extreme weakness and must constantly use the services of others; he is a burden to himself and others. Such was the paralytic mentioned in today's Gospel, such are those among us who are afflicted with paralysis and some other diseases. But there is spiritual relaxation from sins, from passions, which is incomparably more dangerous and more worthy of regret than relaxation of the body, because it often entails eternal death. In this regard, every sinner is a paralytic. Every sin is accompanied by relaxation of the soul, as a consequence of falling away from God, in Whom is our life and strength, as a fall into death. And just as we all sin, we are all paralyzed. How to heal from this relaxation, from this predestination of eternal death? – Through sincere, deep, complete repentance for sins. Therefore, of course, it is now necessary to read the Gospel about the paralytic, so that his situation, which was a consequence of sins, touches our hearts and disposes us to fervent repentance. That is why Jesus Christ healed the paralytic, granting him forgiveness of sins in advance. Seeing their faith, that is, the bearers, he said to the paralytic: child, your sins are forgiven you (Mark 2:5). Hence it is clear that the patient suffered for his sins. My brothers! When you are sick, first of all, bring repentance to God for your sins, resort to the Almighty Physician - eat His life-giving Body and life-giving Blood. There is a secret and close connection between sin and illness. But the scribe sat and thought in his heart, “Why is this one speaking blasphemy?” Who can forgive sins except God alone? (Mark 2:6–7). To the crafty, envious and ambitious scribes, that is, to the learned Jewish teachers, the good deed of Jesus Christ seemed blasphemous and confused them. So now, brethren, the evil person is led into temptation by good deeds: you go to church to pray to God, read holy books, move away from entertainment, amusements, shows, companies; They say: what a hypocrite. You give alms; they say: he breeds parasites. But isn’t it better for these crafty people to look at themselves for what they are, rather than to judge and condemn others? We must remember the words of the righteous Judge: Judge not, lest ye be judged (Matthew 7:1). Иисус Христос, как Сердцеведец, обличил лукавые помыслы своих противников; Он сказал им: что помышляете в сердцах ваших? What is more convenient? Рещи расслабленному: отпущаются тебе греси? или рещи: востани, и возми одр твой, и ходи? (Mark 2:8–9) Indeed: isn’t it equally impossible for a simple person to forgive sins against God to a person similar to himself and to heal illnesses with words? Само собою разумеется, что невозможно. Who can do this? – Only to God; therefore, if the word of Jesus Christ was a deed, that is, if it resolved sins, healed all sorts of illnesses, as all people saw this, including the scribes, then how could they reproach the Lord for blasphemy? Looking at the matter simply, they had to believe that Jesus Christ is God, because He forgives sins and heals all diseases with His word; а они говорят: глаголет хулы . What did the Lord answer them? But let you know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, saying to the paralytic: I say to you: Arise, and take up your bed, and go to your house. And he arose, and from his bed, he went out before everyone, as if to marvel at everything, and to glorify God, who said that he had seen nothing like this (Mk. 2.10-12). You see, the word has become deed; sins are forgiven, relaxation has passed, the person has become completely healthy and strong; and forgiveness of sins and healing of illness - both showed that Jesus Christ is the Judge, the Giver of Life and God, and not a blasphemer, as the scribes thought. My brothers! The power to forgive the sins of people belongs to God alone, as the Creator and Lawgiver, and who among you has not experienced for yourself that Jesus Christ forgives and absolves us from all sin? Oh, how easy and calm and joyful your soul can be when you repent with all your heart of your sins before the Lord and hear the word of forgiveness: child, your sins are forgiven you. How joyful it is in the soul when with faith and love you taste His divine Brush - His most pure body and blood! As now, the sick are often healed soon after they repent before the priest and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ! We have all experienced without number that Jesus Christ is our Judge, Savior, Life-Giver and God: let us always diligently run to Him with faith, so that we may receive from His ordinary, proven mercy - forgiveness of sins, peace of mind and, at the same time, health to the body. The treasury of mercy is always open to everyone: draw from it at least a thousand times a day; our countless sins will not defeat the infinite mercy of the Lord, unless we are sinners - sincerely repentant. May there be glory to Your mercy, O Lord, forever and ever! But we, brothers, will also be merciful to our neighbors. I turn again to your love with a word about alms to the poor of our parish care. Deign to do this in the name of God: whoever gives to the poor, by God's mercy, will not fail (Prov. 28:27). Amen. Having seen their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic: “Son, your sins are forgiven you” (Mark 2:5) Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, going around the cities and towns preaching about the kingdom of heaven, once entered the house of a resident of the city of Capernaum and, as usual, spoke a word here. Many people had gathered, so that it was impossible to reach the door of the house. Four people bring to this house a sick person with a weakened vein on a bed in order to lay him before the eyes of the One who healed every ailment and every disease among people (Matthew 9:35). But since there was no way to move the crowd apart and get through to Christ; Then they climbed with the sick man to the roof of the house, dismantled the tiled roof and, having made a hole large enough to let the sick man down, hung him with his bed on the floor before the Lord Himself. The Lord, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: child, your sins are forgiven, and then, in order to show the unbelieving scribes by an obvious miracle of healing that he is the God-man who has the power on earth to forgive sins, he said to him: I say to you: get up, take up your bed, and go to your house. And he stood up and, taking up his bed, went out before everyone (Mark 2:11-12). All the people, witnesses to this miracle, were surprised, and glorifying God, testified that they had never seen anything like it. This is the reward from the God-man to the faith of those who brought the paralytic! If this paralytic were brought to an earthly doctor, he would no doubt consider it unnecessary to pay attention to his sins and would begin to treat him for bodily relaxation with material rather than spiritual means. But the divine Wonderworker does it differently: He heals bodily relaxation through the forgiveness of sins: child, your sins are forgiven. Why is this so? Because, of course, mental relaxation, i.e. sins, was the cause of bodily relaxation. And indeed, all illnesses and death began from the sinful relaxation of the human soul. And for many thousands of years sin has been producing all the diseases of the soul and body. But why has the Holy Church now established the reading of the Gospel story about the paralytic? Of course, because she sees all of us as sick with relaxation, namely, with spiritual relaxation, that is, with sins, and wants us all to rush to Jesus Christ for healing. And for sure, we are all relaxed. Whatever sin we have, it is relaxation. And that sin is truly mental relaxation, everyone has learned for themselves. Every sin weakens our heart, our mind becomes dull for everything spiritual, the will to good weakens, and, so to speak, all the foundations of our life weaken, because when the heart, the main engine of our life, weakens, then the whole person relaxes. That is why the Holy Church, knowing how important it is for a person to have firmness of heart and immobility on the rock of faith and God’s commandments, sings in our ears: establish, O Lord, my heart that has moved on the rock of Thy commandments 5 . So, we are relaxed. And some of us, prompted by conscience, ourselves recognize our illness and go to Christ to be treated for our sinful relaxation, but for others - alas! - we need outside, diligent help so that they sincerely acknowledge their illness and with all their hearts wish for healing from Jesus Christ. Oh! Who would even place these people, like the paralytic one, by the power of his faith and his heartfelt advice in heartfelt contrition before the face of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who took upon Himself our sins and our ailments? He would have done the greatest Christian service to such people. And there are many among us who are weakened in spirit and who really need the sincere help of others. They themselves are so weak in faith, their hearts have been so weakened by various passions, that on their own they are unable to take a single step in faith and Christian life. What then? Are there really no people among you, beloved, who would help their weak, weak brothers in faith? Are there really no sincere believers among you who, with their living faith, would help unbelievers? Are there really no people among you who would enlighten a poor or disorderly brother and advise him to turn to Christ with sincere repentance and faith? Brothers who are weak in faith and disorderly and dissolutely living, tell me, would you like to get rid of your pathetic mental relaxation, the end of which will be eternal torment in the fire of Gehenna? Do you want to fall before Jesus Christ Himself and be healed by Him? It's quite convenient. Here Jesus Christ in this holy church on all days, and if necessary, on other days, receives to Himself all those paralyzed by sins and, by faith, heals them through the mediation of the priest. Every time a sinner sincerely repents of his sins, the Lord Himself internally says to him: child, your sins are forgiven. What prevents you from approaching Jesus Christ by faith and receiving healing from Him? Come, be healed: reception has now been announced for everyone - throughout the Holy Pentecost. Christ Himself accepts everyone. Priests are only witnesses before Him, mediators between Him and you. Just don’t forget that you need to come to Jesus Christ with a living consciousness that you are sinners, that you are powerless and dead in soul without Him, and believe with all your heart that He is your Creator and Judge and He alone has the power on earth to forgive sins (Mark 2:10). Also, do not forget that after healing from sinful relaxation, it is reckless and dangerous to intentionally fall into a new relaxation. Behold, you are healthy, says the Lord, let no one sin, lest it be worse (John 5:14). Amen. Child, your sins are forgiven (Mark 2:5) Today, beloved children and brothers in Christ, the Gospel about the forgiveness of sins by our Savior was read to a man weakened in body and soul, who was lowered through the roof of the house onto the floor at the feet of Jesus Christ by four porters. Child, your sins are forgiven, the Lord told him, an abyss of mercy. Here, in this house, some of the scribes sat and thought in their hearts: Why does He blaspheme so much? Who can forgive sins except God alone? - Pitiful and senseless, despite the great miracles of the Savior, they did not believe, out of their pride and guile, that He was the God-Man, and had thoughts unworthy of Him. Jesus, immediately knowing in His spirit that they were thinking this way in themselves, said to them, “Why are you thinking this way in your hearts?” What's easier? Should I say to the paralytic: your sins are forgiven? or should I say: get up, take your bed, and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, he says to the paralytic: I say to you, get up, take up your bed, and go to your house. He immediately got up and, taking the bed, went out in front of everyone, so that everyone was amazed and glorified God, saying: we have never seen anything like this (Mark 2:1-12). Today's Gospel ends with these words. The Holy Church established the reading of this Gospel in a timely and very edifying manner - on the second Sunday of Great Lent, after very many of us were privileged to hear after confession the same sweet voice of the Lord in our souls: child, your sins are forgiven, for the same Lord, who now stands invisibly at confession and then forgave the sins of the sick man, absolves the sins of sincerely repentant sinners who confess their sins before the priest. I want to draw your attention here, brothers and sisters, to the greatness and triumph of God’s mercy towards us, repentant sinners, and to the stony insensibility of many sinners to this wondrous mercy of God, those sinners, of whom I am the first, who continue, even after confession and communion of the body and blood of Christ, to commit the same, and sometimes even worse, sins. Great and incomprehensible, immense is God’s mercy towards repentant sinners. In order to see more clearly for us the immensity of this mercy, let us think about what sin is? “Sin is rebellion, the rebellion of a creature against the Creator, disobedience to the Creator, betrayal of Him, admiration of divine honor for oneself, or self-adoration: you will be like gods (Gen. 3:5), - the serpent whispered in the ears of Eve, - just as he whispers to the sinner now; - perversion of one’s nature, free madness, ugly absurdity, arbitrary fall from goodness into evil, from truth into untruth: from simplicity into wickedness; from light - into darkness; from strength to weakness; from space - into tightness; from the world - into confusion; from life to death; sin is a disgusting filth, a godless charm, a choking poison. Sin gave rise to all the disasters in the world and all the diseases, as in the paralytic mentioned today - famines, destruction, or general diseases, wars, fires, earthquakes and death, temporary and eternal. The sin of the highest angel became the devil, the Lucifer - Satan, and all the spirits who rebelled against God, who were angels of light and indescribable beauty - the darkest and most disgusting demons. Sin has produced and is producing terrible evil, terrible disasters, terrible upheavals in the world, in the human race; Because of sin, all nature is in turmoil. It is impossible to describe, it is impossible to mourn enough—there are not enough tears for the entire human race to mourn—the terrible consequences of sin in the world. If the mercy of the Son of God, by the good will of God the Father and the intercession of the Holy Spirit, had not sought the lost sinners, what would have happened to all of us, to all people? - And it’s terrible to think, not only to experience, even for a minute, even for a second, that misfortune, that torment that would befall rejected sinners: they would be swallowed up forever by the terrible, ever-bubbling, unquenchable flame of hell. But the Son of man, the Son of God, came to seek and save the lost (Matthew 18:11). And so, you and I are punished - and we are saved; The doors of mercy are open to us. Come each one with your soul depressed by sins to the servant of God: repent sincerely, grieve from your heart for your sins, abhor them, hate them with all your soul - which is what they deserve, have a firm intention of correction, believe in Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world; - and you will hear the longed-for voice of the Lord: child, your sins are forgiven. And along with the forgiveness of sins, you will be delivered from condemnation for sins and from the eternal torment prepared for unrepentant sinners, only from now on do not sin (John 8:11). However, if you still sin through weakness and evil habit, for everyone has the thought of evil from youth (cf. Gen. 8:21), and you still repent sincerely, then you will again receive forgiveness, according to the word of the Apostle: if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2). The Lord commanded to forgive those who fall into sins seventy times; for, just as His greatness is immeasurable, immeasurable, incomparable, so is His mercy immeasurable. But do we use this greatest mercy of God with gratitude? Are we improving, are we becoming better day by day or year by year? Do we strive for perfection, as the Lord commands us: be you perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48)? Do we try to see sins in all their ugly nakedness: do we take off the mask with which he always tries to cover himself, so as not to frighten and push us away from himself? - No, brethren, - to our shame we must admit that we abuse the mercy of our God day after day and, after repentance, again add sins to sins - we do not heed how dangerously we walk (cf. Eph. 5:15); Without fear, we often go towards sin and often fall into even more serious sins. Where is our mind? Where is our faith? Where is our repentance? Everything seemed to go to dust. So Satan laughs at us and applauds us. But someday the end of our treachery will come, and we, having tempted God’s mercy so many times, will finally experience His terrible justice. It is impossible, says the holy Apostle Paul, for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the next age, and have fallen away, to renew them again with repentance, when they again crucify the Son of God within themselves, and reproach Him. The land... which produces thorns and thistles is unprofitable and is close to a curse, the end of which is burning (Heb. 6:4-8). If we, having received the knowledge of the truth, says the same Apostle, sin voluntarily, then there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrible expectation of judgment and the fury of fire, ready to devour our opponents. If he who rejects the law of Moses, in the presence of two or three witnesses, is punished without mercy with death, then how severe a punishment do you think will be guilty of the one who tramples on the Son of God and does not consider holy the Blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace? We know the One who said: Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord. And one more thing: The Lord will judge His people (Heb. 10:26–30). So, my brothers, let us take advantage of God’s immeasurable mercy for our salvation and let us be afraid to abuse it, lest we perish forever. Amen. To facilitate the feat of fasting, the Holy Church established the wearing of the life-giving cross of the Lord in the very middle of fasting. Whoever truly fasts must inevitably endure the sorrow of the flesh, the persistent struggle of the spirit against it, and, to top it all, the machinations of the devil, who acts on our soul through various crafts that bring great sadness, especially to those who are not yet firm and perfect in the Christian life. May the life-giving cross of the Lord, now brought out for worship and for heartfelt contemplation and kissing, comfort such fasting people and make their feat easier. May all those who do not fast with true fasting, and those who do not fast at all, not be deprived of its consolations; Let everyone come with faith and love and kiss the Savior on him. May the divine Sufferer teach everyone from His cross the important duty of a Christian - fasting and mortification of our sin-loving flesh. Since the cross itself evokes a word about love, we will now say something about the greatness of God’s love for us, revealed on the cross, in order to arouse in the cold hearts of Christians love for God and for a life worthy of a Christian. Indeed, what an abyss of love the Creator God expressed on the cross for His creation, man! Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible, He who shone the sun, the month and countless stars in the sky; He who poured out the air for all living things to breathe. Who poured water over the face of the earth, Who covers the whole earth with vegetation and - bears fruit, grows and nourishes all living creatures, the only begotten Son of God deigned to become man to save man who fell by his own will from life to death; endures for him the most painful sufferings on the cross and the most blasphemous death, so that His sufferings would be inflicted by the just Father in heaven, as if the own sufferings of all humanity of all times and places, and so that, thus, humanity devoted to Him with faith and love would be delivered from unimaginable eternal torments in hell and from the second death. A person with undimmed heart eyes, seeing such endless love of the great, omnipotent God for sinful man, cannot help but cry from the feeling of God’s boundless love - and sheds tears of love and gratitude, having nothing more to bring than his own tears to the One to whom our tears of love are dear. But how do most of us respond to such love of God? Insensibility, readiness to crucify the Son of God a second time with all possible vices, the most intensified servility of our sinful flesh, so that most of us, as if forgetting about the sufferings of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, live not at all for heaven and not for our soul, but for the earth and for our body, and barely, according to the establishment of the Church, agrees to deny our flesh excess food and drink for only a few days. So, we ourselves are moving away from our salvation by all means; The Savior suffered for us on the cross, but we do not want to know this suffering; He commanded us for our salvation to each take up our crosses and follow him to heavenly glory, but we don’t even want to hear; It was indicated to us as a medicine - the mortification of our flesh with passions and lusts - but we try even harder to satisfy our passions, to fulfill our lusts. What then? this will be the end. And we will be consumed by eternal fire and will not receive a single drop of coolness in the flames of Gehenna - because here we had all possible coolness, all possible pleasures for the sinful flesh. God forbid! rather, for the cross, while the Crucified One still continues his mercies to us. Amen. Today, beloved brothers and sisters, I will offer you, with God’s help, a conversation on the apostolic reading for this day. In it, the Apostle Paul speaks of the great High Priest who has passed through heaven, Jesus the Son of God, and exhorts us to hold fast to the confession of our faith, that is, not to faint in temptations, tribulations and persecutions for the faith, for we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with us in our weaknesses, but who, like us, has been tempted in everything, except by sin, and just as He Himself suffered to the cross and on the cross, being tempted; then he can help those who are tempted (cf. Heb. 2:18); then the Apostle convinces us to approach with boldness the throne of grace, that is, to the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the throne, in order to receive mercy and find grace for help in time of need. And what else do you, brothers and sisters, do when you often gather in this church for public prayer or begin to repent of your sins and partake of the Holy Mysteries, if not the very thing that today’s apostolic reading convinces us to do? You approach the throne of grace with faith and hope in order to receive mercy from the Lord, forgiveness of sins in repentance and communion of the divine Mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord, sanctification, reinforcement for future life, or for further deeds, and deification of the soul. Come, come, brothers and sisters, often to the throne of grace, so that you may be worthy of great and rich mercy from the all-good and all-powerful eternal King and High Priest of our Lord Jesus Christ, who sits on the throne. But approach God more through earthly priests, from among the people chosen for you to serve God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins; resort to their prayer that mediates between you and God and the sacrifice they make; for they bear the office of the eternal High Priest of Jesus Christ, and do His work for you; oh, God forbid! only that they always do it sincerely, with zeal and reverence; and it is not by themselves that they accept the honor of the priesthood, but by calling from God, as once upon a time the high priest Aaron in the Old Testament. Honor them and love them for their dignity, for their great, highest service, above all earthly ministries, for their saving, intercessory, beneficial service, bringing souls created in the image of God to God and to eternal life. The Lord did not make holy, bright, formidable, strong angels your mediators and performers of heavenly mysteries, but people like you, burdened with infirmities or sins just like you, and therefore lenient towards your common infirmities and delusions. This is what the Apostle speaks about, by the way, in this reading. Every high priest, chosen from among men, is appointed for men to serve God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins, able to condescend to the ignorant and erring; because he himself is burdened with weakness, and therefore he must offer sacrifices for sins both for the people and for himself. And no one accepts this honor of his own accord, but is called by God, like Aaron. So Christ did not assign to Himself the glory of being a high priest; but He who said to Him: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. In the days of His flesh, with a strong cry and with tears, He offered prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save Him from death; and was heard for His reverence, although He was the Son, yet He learned obedience through suffering, and, having been perfected, became for all those who obeyed Him the author of eternal salvation, having been named by God High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:1-10). Here is the content of the apostle with his interpretation, teaching and edifying application to us. It, I repeat, speaks of the only and eternal High Priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, before the creation of the world, determined to officiate Himself on the altar of the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, of all people. He offered Himself as a sacrifice to God His Father, according to His will, for us sinners, as propitiation for us, without number of sinners every day and hour; and we, earthly priests, burdened with infirmities, bear the dignity of Christ and continue with the grace of the Holy Spirit His great, terrible and saving work of reconciling ourselves and you with God; and He Himself, through us, offers in propitiation for us the terrible and life-giving sacrifice of His Body and Blood on the throne. Always revere this sacrifice and the Lord who offers it; pray for us, His servants and your prayer books and intercessors; remember His cross, tomb, three-day resurrection and ascension into heaven, His second and terrible coming; and let everyone take up his cross and follow Him, and crucify his flesh with passions and lusts. Amen. Since before our eyes the cross of the Lord is presented for reverent worship and kissing, whose power is often glorified in church prayers and hymns; then I want, beloved, to tell you now a few words about his power, or about his miracles. Intending to talk about this, on the one hand, I see its miraculous power everywhere and I don’t know where to stop, what case to take as an example of the life-giving power of the cross; I also see the great reverence that ancient people paid to the life-giving cross; on the other hand - alas! - I see very few experiences of his power in people of the present time - and right now I see the reason why he exerts so little of his miraculous power; - precisely because the Lord did few miracles in his fatherland, that is, because of ignorance, because of the lawless, non-Christian life of Christians. Thus, beloved brethren, the history of the Christian Church presents many experiences of the miraculous power of the cross because then there was more faith in people, more true Christians; The life-giving cross is gloriously glorified even today, but today we see much fewer examples of its miraculous power - namely, we see examples of its life-giving power only in those few people who live by faith. The holy ascetics of Christ were amazed at the constant, life-giving power of the Cross of the Lord operating in their lives, and in humility of heart, fearing that such power would not leave them, weak and sinful in themselves, always surrounded by invisible enemies, and often visible, they prayed only: invincible, incomprehensible, divine power of the Honest and Life-giving Cross, do not forsake us sinners (cf. Prayer at Great Compline). With full confidence in its miraculousness and in the astonishment of its power to drive away invisible enemies, rejoicing in their hearts, they cried out to the cross: Rejoice, Most Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, drive away the demons with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ... and who gave us to you, His Honest Cross, to drive away every adversary, and without any doubt they spoke to him as if he were alive: O Most Honest and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord! help us with the Most Holy Virgin Mary and with all the saints forever 6. You involuntarily touch your heart when you read with what praises they exalted the life-giving cross; they called it four-pointed power, the omnipotent cross, the glory of the apostles, the fortress of martyrs, the stronghold of reverend men, the weak - health, the resurrection of the dead, the correction of those who fall, the mortification of passions, the driving away of unclean thoughts, the foundation of piety, the destroyer of demons, the destruction of wicked people, the shame of enemies on the terrible day of judgment. As if he were alive, they said to him: “Cross, you be for me strength, fortress and power, a deliverer and an advanced warrior against the enemies who fight me, a shield and protector, my victory and stronghold, always protecting and covering me” (cf. Canon of the Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord. Song 1). In general, they called the image of the cross indescribable in its power, the sanctification of waters, the purification of the air, sanctification and enlightenment for every faithful Christian, a sign of courage and the scepter of Christ, trampling opponents into the ground. Not knowing how to adequately glorify his power, they cry out: “Who will list all your actions, the Cross, dear to the world, the powers and miracles, and the rising of the dead from your power? You lifted up with you the whole world, that is, the chosen Christians, having yourself ascended to God” (cf. ibid., Song 9). Do you, beloved, find the cross of the Lord for yourselves as it was for the holy men? No, I will answer for your majority. The cross does not do miracles in your life. Why? Because of your lack of faith. The cross in itself is always wonderful and life-giving. For Christians who are still faithful to him with their faith and reverence, he is also faithful, like the most faithful and constant friend. ABOUT! who will give me the zeal of God and the power of the word to arouse in Christians of the present time a living faith and due reverence for the cross and Him crucified on it! I know that many are inattentive to the cross and the sign of the cross. Sometimes inattention and disrespect for the cross extends to the point that they do not accept a servant of Christ coming into the house with a cross and in the name of the cross; others do not want, as they should, to depict the signs of the cross on their sinful body, or they neglect the priestly blessing, or the priests themselves neglect it; sometimes this is done out of inattention, and sometimes - oh horror! - from false, damned shame. Are you ashamed of the cross, beloved, which is our praise and glory? I warn you in good time: even the Son of man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels (cf. Mark 8:38). Beloved! Let us always honor the cross of the Lord with faith and love; and he will be our friend, savior, not by himself, but by the power of Him Crucified on him. Amen. Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal.6:14) Last time, beloved, we heard with what praise the holy men of God spoke about the cross. Now, together with the apostle and with them, I, a great sinner, want to boast in the power of the life-giving cross; for is it possible for a priest, who performed all services and all sacraments by the power of the cross and with the participation of the cross, not to experience its saving power on himself: the power of God is the cross for the salvation of everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). And I would be very ungrateful before my Savior and Lord if I were silent before the church meeting about the miraculous power of His cross, which has so often shown and constantly shows its power on me: keep the king’s secret for good, but reveal the works of God gloriously (Tob. 12:11). In fact, how do I live and remain, sinful and weak? By the power of the cross. Who protects me from invisible enemies who fight against me? Cross. Who is my helper in the fight against passions? Since my youth, many passions have fought me 7. Cross of the Lord. The cross protects me from enemies. A Christian, beloved, who wants to live godly in Christ Jesus, if not outwardly, then inwardly, and often both outwardly and inwardly, is always persecuted. But it would be strange to hear from the lips of a priest and the priest himself say that he does not want to live piously; because if anyone, then the priest should try more than anyone else to live a pious life. So, those who want to live godly in Christ Jesus are, according to the word of Scripture, persecuted (cf. 2 Timothy 3:12). I'm not talking about external enemies. They are easier to defeat precisely because they are visible; when they persecute, remember only with faith what Christ suffered for us, and then you will easily endure their persecution. It is impossible to pass in silence the internal enemies - demons: for our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers and the authorities, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12); their persecution is always extremely vicious, precise, poisonous, and murderous. Meanwhile, it takes place inside – in the heart. What is a Christian to do here? How to drive away the invisible villains who have occupied the very heart? No material weapon will help drive them out of there; Meanwhile, the torment they cause is extremely painful for the soul: it is a fire that mercilessly devours the insides. What remedy is to drive them away and instantly destroy the torment they cause? The Cross of the Lord, or the sign of the life-giving cross, depicted on the chest or on the belly with living faith in the one crucified on it and with heartfelt repentance, will be removed as if by hand: suddenly the internal torment will disappear, the demons will run away. This is where you involuntarily exclaim with joy: Rejoice, most honorable and life-giving cross of the Lord, driving away demons by the power of our drunken Lord Jesus Christ 8. And many times I, humble and sinful, drove invisible villains away from me. If some passion strikes my heart and I immediately turn my mind’s eye to Christ and with living faith depict on myself the sign of the cross; passion will immediately disappear, and the inner fire, the inseparable companion of any passion, will also disappear. But sometimes, alas! passions carry me away for some time, and only their torments, internally endured, force me to sincerely turn to Christ and His life-giving cross. So the cross, beloved, is my victory over invisible enemies. Where I cannot penetrate to drive them away, my Christ penetrates there in the image of His cross and accomplishes the desired victory for me. Marvelous is the Lord in me, marvelous is His life-giving Cross! The power of God is made perfect in my weakness (cf. 2 Cor. 12:9). Invisible enemies, invisibly and mercilessly striking my soul with flaming arrows, killing my spirit with sorrow and oppression, are fleeing from the terrible name of Jesus Christ and the sign of the cross for them: it scorches them, as they scorch me, and for equals the Lord rewards them with equals for me. Suddenly there is lightness in my soul, and it becomes clearer, as after threatening and gloomy clouds. Let us, beloved, with great faith depict on ourselves the sign of the cross: and it will always be our shield and guardian. Amen. We worship Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy resurrection (Troparion for the Worship of the Cross. Tone 6). The Holy Church, taking the life-giving cross of the Lord from the depths of the altar from the throne and offering it for the worship and kissing of the faithful, what thought does it have? That thought, so that her true children, who go through the field of fasting and struggle with their many-passionate flesh and with the devil, who during fasting especially kindles his arrows in their flesh - looking at the cross and vividly imagining the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, ours for the sake of salvation endured by Him in His most pure flesh - would be strengthened through this to fight their flesh with its passions and lusts, and so that they regretted crucifying her in her passions and courageously fought against the enemy, who was attacking us with many different temptations. See how the Lord tells us from the cross that I have endured for you in My most pure flesh, inviolable for any sin; Will you refuse to crucify various passions and lusts in your flesh? Can't you bear some of the bitterness of fasting? Will you not tolerate deprivation of sweets for a while in order to tame the flesh, which, the more you delight and satiate it, the more it becomes enraged? Will you not tolerate the fiery arrows of the enemy when I have allowed him to pierce My divine flesh with all kinds of arrows? This is the thought with which the cross is now brought out for worship and kissing. So, do not lose heart from fasting and from the fight against passions and the devil; but fight courageously, calling for help on the One who suffered for us and defeated our enemies with the cross, and win. Amen. If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Mark 8:34) This week of Lent is called the veneration of the cross because of the worship of the cross and the passion of us crucified on it for the sake of the Lord's glory, and also because the Church has decided to read on this day the Gospel about each of us bearing our own cross, or suffering and sorrow, inseparable in this world from following Christ. If anyone wants to follow Me, Jesus Christ said to the people with His disciples, deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his soul will lose it; and whoever loses his soul, that is, his life, - that is, dies all his passions and lusts, for the sake of Me and the Gospel, he will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy Angels (Mark 8:34–38). The Lord Jesus Christ commands us to completely deny ourselves, i.e. from Satan acting in us, and from all his works, and from all his service, and all his pride, - and take up your cross, that is, endure the inevitable, severe hardships, illnesses, suffering and sorrows sent to us for our cleansing, admonition, strengthening in virtue, and - temptations caused to us by demons and people. We are extremely partial to the life of the flesh; we have become accustomed to our sins, are accustomed to them, and are afraid to declare a decisive war on them, to break off any alliance with them; We take only half measures against them, as if we protect ourselves with them, because they have become our natural resources, and therefore we always remain with them, and they take root in us more and more, the fight against them becomes more difficult and persistent, we often lose ourselves for God and become the daily prey and acquisition of the enemy. The words of the Lord: whoever wants to save his soul will lose it, are fulfilled over us every day. We are daily sold to our enemy by all kinds of sins that live and act in us; we die spiritually every day, and oh! if only they rose up every day and came to life for God through tearful repentance. After all, our sins temporarily separate us from the Lord (cf. Is. 59:2). They can separate us forever and ever if we do not turn around and repent with all our hearts. But look at the examples of many sinners who have become saints; Look, in general, at the examples of the saints, how they decisively and irrevocably entered into the struggle with sin, with passions, with the devil; how sincerely they loved God and His truth and, having renounced the carnal life for Christ and the Gospel, saved their souls for ever and ever. Why don’t we have a decisive struggle against sin? We love temporary life very much, we are afraid to upset the flesh, we are afraid of strong temptations, we extremely love the world and its blessings, forgetting the inevitability of death and the transition to a new life; we expect to live for many years in unused prosperity; in the pursuit of sensual pleasures, we forget the divine nobility of our soul, its purpose for immortality and eternal bliss; we forget that it is infinitely more valuable than the whole world with all its treasures, which, like a shadow, will pass. Condemning our crazy behavior, the Lord says: what good is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul (Mark 8:36–37)? There is another reason why we resolutely do not abandon our sinful way of life and remain slaves of the world and its habits, customs and the entire pattern of secular, vain life; - because many of us are secretly ashamed of our faith, ashamed to confess the Lord, to live according to His commandments, according to His Gospel, to follow Him, so as not to lose respect in the world, honor in an adulterous and sinful world - and so they allow themselves to be carried away by the stream of worldly, sinful, vain, often stupid and harmful life. They realize that they are spending such precious time recklessly, to their detriment; They also know the highest goal of human life on earth, they also know about the sacrifice of atonement made for them on the cross - but the established way of life, the concepts of the world, the peculiar, perverted views of their comrades on life, on faith, on the Church, do not allow them to leave the crossroads at which they have placed themselves, and do not allow them to come to their senses and come to their senses, to think about their fate. They are miserable slaves of their environment, slaves of a sinful world that lies in evil. But if you want, Christian, to follow Christ and enter into His glory, then you must certainly follow Him, fulfill His commandments, humble yourself, pray, love Him, suffer and endure. By your patience save your souls (Luke 21:19). A terrible retribution awaits unfaithful Christians because they rejected God’s great care for themselves and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, made for them on the cross. They were ashamed of Him, His Gospel, living according to the Gospel. He too will be ashamed of them when He comes to judge the world in the glory of His Father, will not recognize them as His own, and will forever cast them away from His presence. Whoever is ashamed of Me, says the Lord, in this adulterous and sinful generation, and the Son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:38). A terrible fate! So, while we have time, let us reject the passions, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, let us not fear the cross, which leads us into eternal glory, and let us irrevocably follow Christ wherever He commands, for where He is, there His servant will also be (cf. John 12:26). Amen. Today, beloved brothers and sisters, the Gospel story from Mark was read about Jesus Christ’s healing of a demon-possessed deaf and dumb boy, for whom his father prayed, through the expulsion of the evil unclean spirit that was causing the unfortunate youth deafness and dumbness. The spirit is dumb and deaf! The Lord said to the unclean one, I command you, come out of him, and do not enter him again. And, screaming and shaking him violently, the evil spirit came out; and the boy became as if dead, so that many said that he had died. But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up; and he stood up (Mark 9:25–27). But listen, how angry the demon who tormented the boy was. The father of this youth told the Lord that wherever the demon grabbed him, he threw him to the ground, and the unfortunate man foamed at the mouth, gnashed his teeth, and became completely numb. The same happened the time his father brought him to the Savior. And when the Lord asked the father, as if not knowing, although, like God, he knew everything: How long ago did this happen to him? He said that since childhood, and added that the demon had thrown him into fire and water many times in order to destroy him: and he asked the Lord to have mercy on him and his son, and to help if he could. Jesus said to him: if you can believe as much as possible, all things are possible to him who believes. And the unfortunate father of little faith exclaimed with tears: I believe, Lord! help my unbelief. You see what power the Lord attributes to faith and to the believer: all things are possible to the believer, He says. A believer can cast out demons and heal all kinds of diseases. And how powerless and pitiful is the unbeliever! He cannot control himself and cannot overcome his sins, but, like a slave, he serves them and is tormented by them. Since the unfortunate father first brought his demon-possessed son to the apostles and they could not cast this demon out of him, they privately asked the Lord: why could we not cast him out? The Lord said to them: this generation cannot come out except through prayer and fasting (Mark 9:17-29). This is praise from the Lord for fasting and prayer. This is the gospel basis of fasting. Why did those who call themselves followers of the Gospel banish fasting from the community, as if it were unnecessary! Is it not because passions and iniquities and demons of various kinds have multiplied among us now that some of the Christians have broken off the union with the Church and rejected prayer and fasting as unnecessary work and live in the likeness of dumb animals, driven only by various lusts, while others - in their anger, foaming at the mouth, like true demoniacs, rushed to all sorts of atrocities: murders, suicides, arson, mines, explosions, etc. Yes, beloved brothers and sisters, such people have reached such a terrible frenzy precisely because of unbelief, intemperance, uncleanness and all the harmful consequences of this unbelief. The meek evangelical faith does not preach murder, regicide, undermining and explosions - it says: let every soul obey those in power. There is no power that comes from God; The existing authorities were established by God, and that we must obey them not only out of fear, but also out of conscience (Rom. 13:1, 5), and commands us to pray for the king and for all who are honored by the authorities, so that we may live a quiet and silent life in all godliness and purity (1 Tim. 2:2). Lord, enlighten the eyes of these unfortunate demoniacs of our ill-fated times, blinded by malice, who are rebelling against the God-appointed authorities, so that they may know what a terrible abyss they are digging under themselves, what a terrible hellish abyss they are ready to fall into. In the old pre-Christian times, some unfortunate Jews rebelled against the established authorities - against Moses and Aaron, reproaching them for imaginary lust for power, and only grumbled: and what befell them, what punishment of God? - The earth opened up under them, and - they descended alive into hell with their families; and others, less guilty, were burned by fire that came from the church (Num. 16:1-35). That's how serious a sin it is - rebellion against your superiors. What awaits our nihilists, what is God's judgment? The more terrible they are, the more they trample on the gifts of God. For who are our nihilists and terrorists? Baptized people, Christians, reach such fury - such murders and suicides, such satanic atrocities! Oh, why were they born? Why didn't they die in their mother's womb? It would be better if they were not born. It is so ungrateful, so wicked, so insane to trample on the gifts of God - the grace of baptism, confirmation, communion of the body and blood of the Lord - this is truly terrible! Oh, unfortunate parents of such children! What shame they must suffer! Brothers and sisters! Let us with all our hearts cling to the faith and the Church of God, this only saving ark, saving from the worldwide fiery flood, which in due time will befall all the lawless. Let us adhere to the sacred institutions of the Church, which lead us to salvation, let us constantly fast and pray, and be zealous in the service of God! The devil, the enemy of our salvation, does not sleep, but like a roaring lion, he walks around us, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), and how many he has devoured! Fasting and prayer with zeal, with humility, with faith and love are a powerful weapon against the devil and against all the passions that war within us. Amen. Beloved brothers and sisters! I want to tell you today and somewhat explain today’s reading from the Apostle and the Gospel. From the Apostle - there was a reading of part of the letter of the holy Apostle Paul to the Jews about the cleansing power of the blood of Christ the Savior, who offered Himself as a sacrifice to God the Father for the sins of the whole world (Heb. 9:11-14); and from the Gospel - the story of the Evangelist Mark was read about how the Lord Jesus Christ predicted in advance to His twelve apostles, including Judas the traitor, that He, our Lord, would be betrayed by the bishop and scribe of the Jews, and they would condemn Him to death, and hand Him over to the pagans; and they will mock Him, and beat Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him; and on the third day he will rise again. Further, in the Gospel it was read about the inappropriate request of two disciples - brothers James and John - that they should take first places when Jesus Christ was glorified, and how the Lord meekly convicted them, saying that the path to His glory is the path of the cross, suffering and death; about the indignation of the other disciples at the claims of James and John and about the instruction that the Lord gave them all on this matter, namely, that those who wish to be greater than others should be servants of all, and whoever wants to be first would be slaves of all, just as He Himself did not come to be served, but to serve and give His soul as a ransom for many (Mark 10:32-45). Now let's return to the Apostle. So, the holy Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews, says about Christ that “He, the High Priest of good things to come, once entered into the sanctuary with His Blood, and obtained eternal redemption (for all who believe in Him); and if in the Old Testament the blood of bulls and goats that were sacrificed, and the ashes of a heifer, sanctified the defiled through sprinkling, so that the body might be pure, how much more should the Blood of Christ, Who through the Holy Spirit offered Himself spotless to God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, that is, from sins of which death was condemned, for the service of the living God and true." So, the meaning of the apostolic reading is that if the transformative blood of the Old Testament, the blood of sacrificial animals, sanctified the defiled, so that the body was pure, then how much more will the blood of Christ cleanse our conscience, our soul and body, from all sin. And the Apostle John the Theologian says that the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin (cf. 1 John 1:7). So, let no sinner lose heart, no matter how sinful he may be, but hope to receive forgiveness and cleansing of all his sins; for we have a Savior by grace who is always present with us in His Church, especially in the Holy Mysteries, Who condescended to cleanse us from all sin, if only we would believe in Him, sincerely and irrevocably repent, and partake with faith and love of His most pure body and blood. Thus, the now remembered Saint Mary of Egypt was originally plunged into the abyss of evil, into the depths of depravity; but repentance, faith and love, feats of fasting and prayer, communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ cleansed her, made her holy and equal to the angels. Let us also imitate her faith, zeal in repentance and prayer and love for God, her thirst for communion of the body and blood of Christ - and the Lord will cleanse us from all sin, for with the Lord is mercy, and with Him is much deliverance; and He will deliver us from all our iniquities (Ps. 129:6). In the Gospel of this day, our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the instruction that we should not seek primacy and superiority over others from forms of ambition and self-love, but would seek the only honor pleasing to God - to serve others for salvation, just as Christ God Himself came not to be served, but to serve Himself and give His soul for the ransom of many. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant; and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave of all (Mark 10:43–45). Bear each other's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ (Gal.6:2). Amen. The Son of Man did not come and let them serve Him, but let Him serve and give His soul redemption for many (Mark 10:45) The memorable days of the world-saving sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ will soon come, and on this Sunday the Church has decided to read the Gospel, in which the Lord predicted His future sufferings as if they were present. Namely, He said: behold, we are ascending to Jerusalem, and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the pagans; and they will mock Him, and beat Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him; and on the third day he will rise again (Mark 10:33–34). So the Lord knew in advance everything that would happen to Him in Jerusalem - all the details of His humiliation, His suffering and death, and did not shy away from them, but cheerfully and cheerfully went to drink the bitter cup of suffering for the world and for the ungrateful Jews themselves who crucified Him, in order to serve the common salvation of all. Oh, immeasurable love! oh, immeasurable condescension! oh, wonderful patience! The entire life of Jesus Christ, from infancy to death on the cross and resurrection, is His wonderful, most loving service to the salvation of the human race. But even from His ascension into heaven, when He sat down at the right hand of God the Father, hitherto the Lord, who reigned over all tongues, has served to save the human race, especially the Christian race, as He Himself said: Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20), or - in the Gospel now read: The Son of man did not come, and let them serve Him, but let Him serve, and give His soul deliverance for many. He still cleanses, regenerates and renews us in holy baptism; sanctifies and confirms by the grace of the Holy Spirit in confirmation; He officiates in the liturgy as an eternal High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and gives His most pure Body and Blood under the image of bread and wine; in repentance - He Himself listens to our repentance and forgives the sins of those who sincerely repent; in the priesthood, hierarchy or shepherd, He Himself enlightens, shepherds, guides, judges and punishes His spiritually verbal sheep; in marriage - blesses the marital union of husband and wife for the blessed birth and upbringing of children; in the consecration of oil, as a Physician of souls and bodies, he heals spiritual and physical infirmities. Every service He is present with us invisibly, according to His own promise: where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20), and He accepts our service Himself, miraculously, effectively, tangibly serving our salvation, producing in us wondrous divine powers that destroy the iron bonds and shackles of sin and spiritual death, healing infirmities, redeeming us every day for repentance and faith from immeasurable sins, sweetly reviving souls satiated with the bitterness of sin. We are now in Lent, which lasts forty days. What is this Lent? He is a precious gift to us from our Savior, who Himself fasted for forty days and nights, neither eating nor drinking, a truly precious gift for all who seek salvation, as a mortifier of spiritual passions. By His word and example, the Lord legitimized it to His followers. And with what love, with what divine powers of grace the Lord serves all those who truly fast! He enlightens them, purifies them, renews them, strengthens them in the fight against passions and invisible enemies - with the principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this age (cf. Eph. 6:12); teaches every virtue and leads to perfection, to incorruption and heavenly bliss. All who truly fast have experienced and are experiencing this. Fasting with prayer is a sure weapon against the devil and the multi-passionate flesh. Let no one pretend that fasting is not necessary. – But now the days of suffering of our sweetest Savior are coming. What is suffering, the passions of the Lord? – This is the last perfect sacrifice of our Savior for the sins of the world, culminating in His death on the cross, before which He exclaimed: it is finished (John 19:30)! This is His last final service on earth to our salvation, so that through His suffering and death we could get rid of righteous, eternal torment for our sins, - so that He could give us His most pure, long-suffering body and His most pure blood, shed for us, for food and drink - for cleansing, sanctification, revitalization and renewal of ours - in order to clothe us with His righteousness, His merits, to deify and bless us forever. Oh, if only it were so! If only everyone would always look at His suffering this way and internalize it with faith and love! If only they would crucify themselves with Him, crucifying themselves to the world and passions! – Or, the liturgy is celebrated almost all year round. What is liturgy? It is the Lord’s daily service to our salvation and the salvation of the world - for everyone and for everything. He Himself serves for us and with us in the liturgy, celebrating the Sacrament of His body and blood. He has hitherto been slain for us, remaining Himself unslain in His incorruptible, deified flesh; pours out His blood, breaks His body and gives them to us for the remission of sins, for sanctification and eternal life; His living and life-giving blood still smokes on the altars of Orthodox Christian churches! Oh, wonderful, divine gift of love! ABOUT! the bliss of true Christians! Thus, the Lord still serves our salvation in diverse and life-giving ways. But He left us an image, an example, so that we too could serve each other with love. He said: whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant; and whoever wants to be first among you must be slave of all (Mark 10:43–44). So each of us, my brothers, must serve each other with our talents, abilities, strengths, our official position, property, education - and not only to please ourselves. Thus, the king and the government serve the people, taking care of their education, the direction of their moral and physical strength, and their agricultural and economic life. Shepherds serve their flock, or should serve as a good example of Christian virtues, with a word of teaching and edification, reverently performing the sacraments, - the saving guidance of their flock to a virtuous life and to salvation in God; educated people, leaders and mentors, authors, writers, in general, the press, must serve for the glory of God and the benefit of the people or those entrusted to their leadership with their educational influence on the principles of the Christian Orthodox Church. Rich people should serve the poor, not parasites, of course, who do not want to work, but want to eat bread for nothing, for if someone does not want to work, he does not eat (2 Thess. 3:10), says the Apostle, - but to those poor who would like to, but cannot work, or whose work does not work at all, the work is exhausting and thankless, or - to those who cannot get work anywhere. We are all members of each other in Christ, both by faith, and by duty, and by the conviction of mind and heart, we must serve each other in whatever way anyone can; - yes, brethren, - to serve your neighbors, and not to live only for yourself, not only for your own pleasures, - not only to collect for yourself, not to spend time in idleness and laziness, not to consider life a toy or just a chain of games and pleasures. It would not be Christianity, but paganism. We, the strong, must endure the weaknesses of the powerless and not please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbor for good and edification (Rom. 15:1-2). Serving our neighbors, of course, cannot be without self-sacrifice and the cross, and the sometimes more, the higher the good we deliver to our neighbors, the more difficult the cross often is, for example. the cross of ingratitude and malice from those who have benefited. Such is the cross of our good and beloved Sovereign. But one should not become discouraged because of this, become sad beyond measure and give up the work of ministry. For whose cross was heavier than the cross of Christ, which he endured for us? May the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who terribly exhausted Himself for us, serve as a strong motivation for us not to be afraid and not to run away from self-sacrifice and for the common good. And this selflessness and this good are so needed especially now, in view of so many great adversities and misfortunes of our people, although believing and kind, they are uneducated, sometimes superstitious, riotous, careless, often short-sighted, free, but have not yet learned to understand and appreciate the gift of true freedom. But in order to sincerely serve your neighbors, for this you must absolutely stop serving your passions, you need self-sacrifice; for passions do not allow one to sincerely and diligently serve one’s neighbors, but teach one to please only oneself. Amen. You have just heard, beloved, a touching song: behold, the bridegroom comes at midnight, which is sung at matins in the first three days of Passion Week. So that it is understandable to everyone and brings the desired benefit to everyone, let me offer your love an explanation of it. The song: Behold, the bridegroom comes at midnight reminds us of the parable of the Savior, in which He likens the kingdom of heaven to ten virgins, who, according to ancient custom, took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. The composer of the song had this parable in mind. We will present it here and explain it briefly. The Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, says the Savior, who, taking their lamps, went out to meet the groom; five of them were wise and five were foolish. These foolish ones, having taken their lamps, took no oil with them; The wise took oil in the vessels with their lamps. And as the groom slowed down, everyone dozed off and fell asleep. But at midnight a cry was heard: behold, the groom is coming, go out to meet him. Then all the virgins stood up and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish said to the wise, Give us your oil, for our lamps are going out. The wise answered, saying: so that there is no shortage for both us and you, you better go to those who sell and buy for yourself. And when they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut; then other virgins come and say: Lord! God! open to us. He answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, I do not know you.” Therefore, watch, because you do not know either the day or the hour in which the Son of Man will come (Matthew 25:1-13). Explanation of the parable: ten virgins, five wise and five holy fools, mean us Christians; Of us, some are wise - in their faith, virtuous life and readiness for death; others are unreasonable because of their lack of faith or cold indifference to faith, because of their vicious carnal life, because of their unpreparedness for death and the judgment immediately following it, since it lies with man alone to die, then the judgment (Heb. 9:27). The foolish, it is said, took their lamps and took no oil with them. What kind of lamps are these and what does oil mean for these lamps? Lamps are our souls. I will come to you soon and will remove your lamp from its place, unless you repent (Rev. 2:5), the Lord said to the primate of the Ephesian church. Oil is alms, according to St. Chrysostom, or in general, good deeds. So, foolish Christians, having gone out to meet the groom, did not prepare good deeds for their souls that could support their spiritual life. The wise, it is said, took oil in vessels with their lamps, that is, they stocked up on good deeds in order to meet the groom with dignity. Who is the groom? – Jesus Christ. When and how do we go out to meet Him? Our whole life must be a preparation from the beginning for a private meeting with Him, because every soul, after its death, must appear to Him with an answer, as to the Head of life, and therefore throughout our lives we must take care of acquiring and preserving in our hearts a living faith and ardent love for the Lord, so that after our death we may appear shamelessly and uncondemned at the terrible throne of the Lord of glory; We will come out to a common meeting with Him after our resurrection from the dead, when all who are in the tombs hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29). The groom will touch, i.e. Jesus Christ hesitates to put an end to our life by death, not that some may perish in sins, but that all may come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9); He equally delays His second glorious and terrible coming - so that the sons of the kingdom of heaven may multiply more and more; Meanwhile, people, seduced by the temporary sweetness of sin, its impunity, and seeing that the world stands firmly, and thinking that it will stand like that indefinitely, and even enjoying strong health and other material benefits, plunge into spiritual slumber, do not care about their correction and sleep in a sinful sleep. But at the very midnight of sinful sleep, when none of the sinners even thinks about their terrible danger, a loud voice is heard: behold, the bridegroom is coming, come out to meet Him. Then everyone perked up and lit their lamps, that is, they strained their spiritual attention. It will be good for wise Christians at this time; their souls will burn with the fire of the sweetest love for the Lord; but it is bad for the foolish: the souls of these latter, like lamps without oil, will go out, i.e. they will grow dark and cold from lack of love for God, the source of love, and will begin to anticipate the torments of hell. They will ask for oil, that is, good deeds, from wise Christians, but they will not give, so that they too will not lack; They will go to buy from those selling, that is, they will realize to do good deeds and will go to look for an opportunity for this, but at this very time the bridegroom will come, that is, at the very time when they want to do good deeds, death will overtake them and put them before the heavenly Judge without any virtues, stinking with their iniquities. If they want to enter the palace of the heavenly kingdom, to which we are all destined from our very birth, for which we live, the Lord will not let them in and will say to them: I do not know you. So, watch, the Lord concludes the parable, because you do not know either the day or the hour at which the Son of Man will come. Now the church hymn will be clear to all of us: behold, the bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant, that is, every Christian who will find him vigilantly; Take care, my soul, not to be burdened with sleep (i.e. do not be burdened with spiritual sinful sleep), lest you be given over to (eternal) death, and be shut out of the kingdom; but arise, calling: holy, holy, holy art thou, O God, have mercy on us through the Mother of God. Amen. Today, beloved brethren, three parables were read at the morning service: the first is about the barren fig tree, the second is about a father who had two sons: one, in response to the father’s request: child, go today, work in my vineyard, answered: I don’t want to, and then he changed his mind and went; another, in response to the same request, said, “I’m going,” but he didn’t go; and, finally, the third parable is about a homely man who, having a vineyard, surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, gave it to the workers and left, and then, when the time came for harvesting the fruits, he sent his servants to the workers of the vineyard to receive the fruits. The workers, in their bitterness, beat some of the slaves, killed others, and finally killed His only begotten Son (Matthew 21:17-44). Let's talk this time about the first parable. “Having spent the night in the village of Bethany, in the morning the Lord,” says the evangelist Matthew, returning to the city of Jerusalem, became hungry: and he saw a fig tree on the road, went up to it and, finding nothing on it except some leaves, said to it: “Let there be no fruit from you henceforth forever.” And the fig tree immediately withered. Seeing this, the disciples were surprised and said: how did the fig tree suddenly wither? Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but if you also say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” it will happen. and whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive. A barren fig tree by the road with only leaves is me and you, beloved brother and sister. The Planter of our life, the Lord Jesus Christ, hungry for our salvation, often comes to you and me, early and late, to satisfy the hunger of our soul, to become the bread of life for it. And - alas, almost always finds in us only worries about everyday things - only leaves, but the fruits of faith, all-powerful care for the salvation of our souls are completely absent. Meanwhile, each of us was planted on earth to bear spiritual fruit. What are these particular fruits that every person, especially a Christian, should bear? To this the holy Apostle answers this way: the fruit of the spiritual is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, mercy, faith (Gal. 5:22). Here, brother and sister, are the fruits we must certainly bear to the Planter of our lives, the Lord Jesus Christ, every day. Now look, everyone: are you a fruitful fig tree or a barren one? If fertile, good, move forward; bring more and more fruits to the Lord, so that He may feed you with them in eternity; if you are barren, tremble: you are threatened by the curse of the Lord of your life, and perhaps very soon He will say to you: let there be no fruit from you forever. And you will immediately dry up; all your spiritual powers will be extinguished: your faith, hope and love will completely dry up, and every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into eternal fire (Matthew 3:10). These words are true and clear as day. They will be fulfilled without fail, for heaven and earth will pass away, just as days, months, and years pass by, but the words of the Lord will not pass away (cf. Mark 13:31). So, brother and sister, ask yourself: do you daily bring to the Lord of your life the fruits of good deeds, and most importantly, do you have the queen of virtues - love - ardent love for your Creator and love for your neighbor as for yourself? Do you want to know what deeds love shows itself to be? The holy Apostle Paul will answer you for me: love is patient, merciful, love does not envy, love does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. He covers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. Love never fails. Love is so necessary for a Christian that if he speaks all the languages ​​of men and angels, but does not have love, then he is like ringing brass, with all his eloquence and verbosity, or like a sounding cymbal. If he has the gift of prophecy and knows all the secrets and meaning of all the scriptures, and even, what is most amazing, if he has all the faith, so that mountains will move from place to place from his words, but has no love; then he is nothing: all his knowledge is in vain, all his labors without love (1 Cor. 13:1-8). Why do we need love so much? Because God Himself is a network of love (1 John 4:8), and we are created in His image, and God abides in the Christian man. Or do you not know that Christ is in you; Are you really inexperienced? (2 Cor. 13:5). Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you (1 Cor. 3:16). He who has ardent love for God and his neighbor has in his soul other fruits counted by the Apostle, joy in the Holy Spirit, peace, long-suffering, kindness, mercy, faith; for in love, as in a seed, all virtues are contained: for where there is love, there is God, all-perfect perfection, eternal goodness, infinite goodness, infinite omnipotence. He who has ardent love for God also has such faith that he can move mountains, as the Lord said: and whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive (cf. Matt. 21:22). So, if we do not want to dry up like the fig tree cursed by the Lord or like the grass and be thrown into eternal fire, let us try, beloved brethren, to bring the fruits of good deeds to the Planter of our lives while we have time, strength, means, and opportunity. Perhaps the time will come when you would like to do good, but it will be impossible. Now is the time, imams, let us do good to everyone, especially to those close to us in the faith (Gal. 6:10). Amen. Brethren! This day is the day of betrayal for the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Faithful souls who know how to appreciate and feel the greatest self-sacrifice for our salvation, our common Lord and friend! Mainly from this day forward, guard your heart in the most careful way for Him alone and do not let anything worldly, corruptible, or any passion take possession of you. Prove that you also know how to respond to love with love, that you are true Christians and out of love for Christ you can watch with Him, that is, watch over your heart, even for a few hours in which He alone drank the cup of heavenly wrath for us. Bring by faith into your hearts Christ the Lord, who suffers for us, suffer there in your heart - together with Him; Bring your sins to memory, lament and, if you can, cry for them. Weep for yourself (Luke 23:28), says the Lord. Send your sighs and tears to Christ, and this will be the most pleasant sacrifice to the Lord who suffers for us: you will soon feel in your heart His favor towards you for your heartfelt gift: peace in your soul, surpassing all understanding (Phil. 4:7), and heavenly quiet joy will announce to you that your sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart is not humiliated, but accepted by the Lord in His heavenly and mental altar. Having cleansed yourself from sins this evening in the sacrament of repentance, if anyone has not yet cleansed yourself before, tomorrow you will be honored to partake of His body and blood; may this supper of love unite you with Him who commanded it to be celebrated in His remembrance, may it always remind you of His boundless love for us, and may it give you the strength to spend the coming great days holy, in the spirit of fiery love for the Lord, who laid down His soul for us. Amen. This is how our sinless and most holy Lord Jesus Christ was mocked, ulcerated, and martyred! What need was there for the impassive God to suffer so terribly from people in His flesh? What need did the God-Man Himself have to endure these seemingly hellish torments on earth? There was no need, brethren, for God to expose Himself to such dishonor and such suffering on earth; His self-sacrifice is completely voluntary - and He could not incarnate, not suffer and not die. Only then would we all, as sinners and as enemies of God, be forever captives and slaves of the devil and would all perish forever; Then it would not have been said: these two sides: right and left, it would not have been said: the righteous will go into eternal life, and sinners into eternal torment (Matthew 25:46), but there would have been one terrible definition for everyone - eternal torment. And it’s scary to think about! But the Lord, out of His infinite mercy, not patient to see the human race tormented by the devil, came to free us from slavery to him and from eternal torment. And in order to free us from the work of the enemy, to whom we have given ourselves up and are giving ourselves up, He wanted to become for us, according to humanity, the most obedient servant of His heavenly Father, to whom we have become and are now constantly disobedient, and in human flesh and human soul, with human powers, supported by the deity, to defeat the devil - the tempter, to whom we so easily surrendered into captivity and are now surrendering ourselves through our sins; further, to free us from the eternal torment of hell, which, in fairness, our immortal souls, captured by the devil, should have been subjected to. He, the eternal God, wanted to endure our eternal torment Himself with His human being. And so, as you see, as you hear from the Gospel. He endured this torment for us. He endured all the shame and all the cruelty of torment from people and from demons in order to get us out of hell, where without the Savior we would have to suffer forever. “But Christ got us out of hell, and we ourselves are going to hell; We walk fearlessly, closing our eyes so as not to see the light and so as to quickly rush into it. Many of us fearlessly indulge in all kinds of sins and do not think of correcting ourselves, as if Christ is a servant of sin and as if he will lead everyone, even unrepentant sinners who have not changed in heart and deeds, into heaven. Incomprehensible hard-heartedness and insensitivity possesses many of us. During the suffering and death of Christ the Savior, all creation trembled with fear - the earth shook, stones disintegrated, the dead were resurrected, but our souls do not tremble with fear at the sight of the suffering and death of the God-Man, at the memory of the eternal and fierce torment to which we would have been subjected if the Lord had not suffered and died for us. Our hearts do not disintegrate, do not soften, and do not part with lack of faith, unbelief, hardness of heart, pride, anger at our neighbor, envy of his well-being, condemnation, gluttony, gluttony and drunkenness, stinginess, love of money, and carnal impurity. How many people are there who, even in this sacred and terrible time, do not stop working for the devil and harboring malice against their neighbor; envy each other; they think about silver coins, about theft, about drunkenness, about uncleanness. How many are there who, as soon as they wait for the holiday, immediately get drunk and indulge in revelry and corrupt the church of their body, which was, albeit for a short time, the church of the Lord after receiving and partaking of the Holy Mysteries of the body and blood of the Lord! But what am I talking about - about the holiday? Don’t we see, even before the holiday, even now, when we remember the suffering of Christ for us, people drunk and indulging in debauchery? They are a lawless people who now bless Christ with their lips, but tomorrow or even today they will blaspheme Him with their deeds. Oh, ungrateful, insensitive, senseless, stony-hearted people, who today seem to sympathize with Christ and crucify Him, and tomorrow or the day after tomorrow they will crucify Him? But how long will this be with us, brothers? How long shall we remain hypocrites? How long shall we work for the devil and insult the Lord in the most sensitive way? This is what, brethren, - if our stony hearts do not disintegrate with their many different malices, their addictions, their impurities, if we do not take away from them their lack of faith, unbelief, coldness, gluttony and drunkenness, adultery, malice, pride, envy, laziness and idleness and other passions - then we will once be condemned by those stones that disintegrated during the death of Christ. If we do not repent and turn to God with all our hearts, we will fall into the hell from which the Son of God came to deliver us. Yes, brothers, it is true! Unless you repent, you will all perish (Luke 13:3). As you remember, the worst one will be rewarded with torment, having trampled upon the Son of God, and having taken the cherished defilement of the Blood, by it he was sanctified, and the Spirit of grace was reproached. We know that Rexhago: Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God (Heb. 10:29–31). Amen. Behold, Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world (John 1:29) Behold, my brethren, the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself our sins, my sins, the sins of each of you. Here is the incarnate Son of God, the only begotten, tormented by human envy and malice! What humanity! Oh, how gloomy and disgusting is the picture of human malice! Let us fall down before Him in confession and weep before the Lord, who created us and at the end of the ages suffered and died for us. With fear and love, let us fall with our hearts and lips to these plagues - with fear: for until now our sins stink before Him and cry out for punishment for us; - with love: for these plagues and His death were raised by Him out of inexpressible love for us and, naturally, call us to love! Behold, Lamb of God, take away the sins of the world. How gratifying these words are for the soul of a believer! In them lies our strong hope for the infinite mercy of the Heavenly Father, who was reconciled with us lawless people through the sacrifice of righteousness offered on the cross for our sins, that is, the endless sacrifice of His Son. How many times have we sinned in one day and hour, not to mention the sins of our entire accursed life! How our sins tormented us! But now we repented with faith and hope of our hearts, looked up to the Savior, sighed, shed tears over our sins; and they are cleansed, washed, forgiven; we have found peace, freedom, joy. What does it mean? This means that the Lamb of God, every day, every hour of all the days of our life, takes away our sins, takes away, cleanses, forgets them, saving us from eternal condemnation for them. Who hasn't experienced this? And that’s why, in front of such a bloody, soul-shaking spectacle, we stand reliably, and although with sadness, it is a sadness imbued with tenderness, joy and some kind of solemnity: for we are sure that in this Dead Man lies the life of all living, reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life. Throughout the entire universe, with the most reverent tenderness, Christians now bow to the wounds of the Savior and tenderly kiss them, and everywhere, with all the hearts of believers, the life-giving power of the saving suffering and death of the Lord is felt: for He continually and everywhere takes away the sins of all repentant sinners, has mercy, cleanses, renews, and saves. O our Savior! From how many spiritual deaths You saved me and each of us. I confess today, at this hour, before this pious assembly, O my Savior, Your mercies, revealed to me, a sinner more than all people, that You saved me from countless spiritual deaths, saved and are saving me from all sorrows, from all falls. And it is only by Your mercy that until now I am not in the pit of destruction, for I will say with the prophet David: mortal diseases have overcome me, and the sweat of iniquity has crushed me, the diseases of hell have overcome me, having preceded me to the snares of death. And when I was in sorrow, I called on the Lord, and cried out to my God (Ps. 17:5-7); and He always bowed mercifully to the cry of my heart, showed me His wonderful salvation, forgave my sins, destroyed my sorrows and brought me out of terrible cramped conditions into the open. Behold, Lamb of God, take away my sins! Behold, Lamb of God, take away your sins! Come, let us kiss the wounds of this Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world, with tears of repentance and with love. But You, O innumerable Grace, Lord of heaven and earth, send Your blessing upon us, awaken in us sincere repentance and unfeigned love; Be patient with the world that is perishing in sins, and with Your shaking banners awaken it from the heavy sleep of sin. Amen. If I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Me (John 12:32), that is, if I am lifted up on the cross, then with My sufferings on the cross I will redeem the whole world, and by the power of My cross I will draw to Me many chosen ones. This is what our Lord Jesus Christ said, by the way, shortly before suffering for us. Oh, our love, Christ, and I will also say: oh, our love, Christ! What has your love for us brought You to? You were spat upon, strangled, ulcerated, and died in the unspeakable suffering of the godfathers. Oh, our love Christ! How deeply You loved us! Your sufferings for the world are immeasurably great, but the fruits of your sufferings are immeasurably great: by your plague we are all healed (cf. 1 Pet. 2:24; Is. 53:5). You endure suffering in order to free us from passions, you accepted the crown of thorns so that our hearts are not tormented joylessly, like prickly and burning needles, thorns of sins; accepted ulcers so that repentant sinners could take refuge in Your ulcers from the arrows of heavenly wrath; endured the cross in order to give us a strong weapon against our invisible enemies, who are strongly fighting against us, and I will say - finally, you endure the fierce torment of the cross in order to deliver Your faithful followers from the cruel, unceasing torments of hell, and the end of all this is one, in order to attract us to Himself and unite us with Him forever. Thus, beloved, our Head, Christ, suffers so that His whole body may suffer. that is, it was easy for us; Our head is burned with the fire of the torment of the cross in order to deliver His members from sins and from the eternal fire of hell. Who will comprehend with his mind, feel with his heart the whole value of this good deed? He alone knows fully how great His sacrifice for us is: because He alone knew, saw, as if real, the eternal torment of sinners and all the cruelty of eternal torment, when He spoke about sinners: these go into eternal torment (Matthew 25:46), which will inevitably befall unrepentant sinners. But we, we barely understand, even on earth, and even in our hands with difficulty, we do not very often understand all the misery of our present situation - and even in heaven, that is, what will happen after death - who can understand (Wis. 9:16)? Oh, our most beloved Savior! What will we offer to You for Your infinitely great sacrifice for us? - Faith and love. So, beloved, believe with all your heart, without the slightest doubt, that the only begotten, incarnate Son of God suffered for you, namely, for you, in order to deliver you from the eternal torment that we had to undergo according to the justice of the heavenly Father and will now undergo if we do not wholeheartedly believe in His Son, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, and keep His commandments; bring His torments closer to your heart, appreciate them as much as possible with your weak minds and endure generously, without grumbling, with gratitude to God, each in your own life, your own sorrows, illnesses and sufferings, and let the fire of love burn in your hearts for the One who, out of love for you, endures the painful fire of bodily and mental suffering. Let each of you avoid dislike, hatred and discord among one another; because our mutual dislike and hatred, like arrows, pierces the heart of the Lord, who loved us to the cross and death, and excludes us from among His followers; Let no one attach his heart to the world, to its pleasures: for us there is no place in this world, no, our place is in heaven: where I am, they also will be with Me (John 17:24), the Savior said about His followers. Our life is in heaven (Phil. 3:20), says the apostle. The world with its blessings is not worthy of us: heaven should be in our thoughts and hearts. We will transfer our thoughts and desires there more often. Who suffered for us willingly, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God! You said, going to suffer: if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everything to Myself. Draw us to Thy kingdom by Thy grace. Amen. I see a man tortured, killed, wrapped in linen and placed in a coffin. But who is it? Who is this victim of malice and revenge? Not only man, but the God-man, the Son of the living God, Jesus Christ. Why was the innocent, sinless, righteous and immeasurably loving God-man killed? Who killed and where are the killers? Killed because He loved people as no one had ever loved, and those who needed to understand this love did not want to understand; because He did them many, countless benefits that no one else had done, and yet these benefits were interpreted incorrectly; for the fact that he performed many of the greatest, beneficial miracles that no one had done, and people looked at these miracles slyly; for the fact that He called Himself, when necessary, that He is. that is, the Son of God, who came to save those who were perishing; for exposing blatant untruths; for the fact that the whole world followed Him, the whole people were spectators of His miracles and participants in His blessings, however, they soon forgot these blessings and miracles; This is why the God-man was killed. Killed by whom? The Jews, those who killed the prophets who exposed their untruth and iniquity before the coming of the Savior; the Jews, God's chosen people, to whom countless benefits were shown from God; amazing miracles, still sung daily by the Orthodox Church. But, however, here is the greatest mystery, which now we all especially need to delve into: the tormentors and murderers of the Son of God were not only pagan Jews and Romans; in this torment and in this murder, we are all very much to blame. Why? Because the Son of God Jesus Christ, as the Savior of the world, was the victim of our sins; suffering and dying, He accepted from the all-righteous Heavenly Father, according to humanity, punishment for the sins of us all. The Jews did to the God-Man what perhaps we would have done with our passions if we were in their place, and, to tell the truth, we do only to a lesser extent and in a different form to other neighbors even now. So, look more closely at this divine Sufferer and Dead Man of three days. This is the sacrifice of our sins. This is a sacrifice of God’s infinite love for a world perishing in sins, and, therefore, for me and for you, beloved brother. The Son of God took upon Himself, instead of me and instead of you, the horrors of eternal justice, the eternal punishment that was due to me and you, and drank the cup of the righteous wrath and wrath of God Almighty, which should have been drunk by me and you; He took upon Himself all the red-hot sharp arrows from God’s quiver, prepared for sinners, who should have forever struck and scorched me and you, an ungrateful and malicious sinner. The eternal truth and wisdom of God through people punished the God-man for men. In horror and reverence I bow before the justice of God, before the holiness of the Trinitarian Divinity, which, in sweeping away the untruth of sin and in the sanctification of sinner man, created in the image and likeness of God, in the person of the Father deigned to punish the most holy God-Man for men, in the person of the Son deigned to be incarnate and take upon Himself the punishment for all human unrighteousness, and in the person of the Holy Spirit - to sanctify repentant sinners, to renew them, to pour out the most tender and holiest love into their hearts. Brethren! listen to the mystery. Consider how terrible, disgusting, and hateful to God is the sin that has entered into men, how terrible the punishment for sin is, when the all-holy and righteous Lord did not spare His beloved Son, but gave Him up for us to such suffering and death. If the truth of God did this to the green tree, that is, to the God-man, then what will happen to the dry, barren one, like us sinners? So, fellow sinners! Be still afraid of adding sins to sins, lawlessness to lawlessness. Looking at this divine Sufferer, learn to hate and loathe now and forever all sin and love truth and virtue. If we add sins to sins intentionally and with consciousness and thus crucify the Son of God within ourselves often and repeatedly; if we repent hypocritically and partake of the Divine Mysteries unworthily; if, having confessed and received the Holy Mysteries for purification and sanctification, we live fearlessly, according to the whims of a corrupted heart, then these very ulcers on the hands and feet and in the side of our Savior will not be for our salvation, but for our condemnation, and even then no one will ever and ever deliver us from the torments of Gehenna. My brothers! Let us bring to the Lord, who suffered and died for us, tears of sincere repentance and tenderness, and we will live in constant repentance and good deeds. Amen. Believe me, how are you dying? (Stichera on Holy Saturday) Come, all creation: let us bring the original songs to the Creator. Countless hosts of heavenly powers! all earthly intelligent inhabitants! come: let us bring the original songs to our common Creator, who, after the most severe suffering, rests peacefully in the tomb! Let us draw closer to Him and begin to ask Him: “Why are You imputed among the dead, alive in the highest and uncontained by the heavens, and strangely accepted in the grave?” How is it that You, the immortal Head of life, yourself tasted death and, like a mortal, were laid in the tomb? How did it happen that Your weak but evil creatures, people, brought You to the grave? Apparently You willingly deigned the flesh to ascend to the cross: otherwise, who would dare to touch You, O Almighty? Apparently there is a great secret here, which Your villains and the prince of darkness himself did not know. And in fact, people did not know what they were doing to Jesus. It is clear that from this extreme condescension of Yours towards people, much good will happen for them; because You do everything only to increase the goodness and bliss of creatures. You must have suffered out of great need, with the most gracious and wise purpose: You have created all things with wisdom (Ps. 103:24), and you are good to all (Ps. 144:9); Could it be that Your suffering and Your death were not the work of Your infinite wisdom and goodness? Hear, brethren, the answer to this from the Lord Himself who suffered for us: unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit (John 12:24). So, this, brethren, is the mystery of the death of Jesus Christ, God and man; like a grain of wheat, if it does not die, it bears much fruit; so the Savior died in order to bring the greatest benefit to people by His death, as He really did. Christ the Savior, the Son of God, took upon Himself the great task of redeeming and justifying you, sinners, by His suffering and death before the Heavenly Father: He is our justification (Rom. 4:25), says the apostle, and therefore His death for us, with the preceding sufferings, will give a work of the greatest love and wisdom of God towards us, which no created mind will appreciate; and since this death is a work of the wisdom of God, it is also the greatest mystery. What a comforting truth! The death of the Savior is a cleansing sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. This is cleansing, says the holy Apostle John the Theologian, about our sins, not about ours specifically, but also about the whole world (1 John 2:2). He died, and His death on the cross destroyed our curse, which we deserved from the Heavenly Father with our sins. He died, and eternal death, which was inevitably supposed to befall us without a Redeemer, now no longer possesses us. He is our truth in the midst of our iniquities, our deliverance in the time of our despair; our sanctification in the midst of our uncleanness; He is light in our darkness, life in our death. Does the righteous judgment of God frighten you when you present your iniquities, and there is no peace in your bones from the presence of your sins (cf. Ps. 37:4); the suffering and death of Jesus Christ will justify you before the Heavenly Father. God justify; who is judging? Christ Jesus died, and much more also rose again, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us (Rom. 8:33-34). Do you despair of receiving the kingdom of heaven, finding yourself unworthy of it? Exactly, none of the people deserves him. But Christ our Lord is worthy; He earned it for us with His priceless blood. Our dignity depends on His dignity. With his dignity, He made us, the unworthy, worthy; and by His grace, the good and man-loving Heavenly Father, according to His unconditional mercy, honors people with the kingdom of heaven. You will say: I am a great sinner. But Christ the Savior came into the world to save sinners (cf. 1 Tim. 1:15). Just don’t sin intentionally and with malice for the future. You say: where can I be and rejoice with the saints who have shone on earth with such virtues? But the saints were also saved by the grace of Christ. If it seems like a lot to be with the saints, then pray to be at least with the thief, crying: remember me, Lord, in Thy kingdom (cf. Luke 23:42), and try to live as a Christian should. We are all, brothers, sinners, but if we believe in Christ our Lord, crucified for us, and try to live according to His teaching, if we resist sin or, although we fall, we rise again, then the death of the Savior, His stripes are our defense (Rom. 3:25); we will escape the torment of hell and be worthy of the kingdom of heaven. If we generously endure sorrows, illnesses, deprivations and various misfortunes in life and consider them to be due reward for our sins, remembering with faith and love the terrible passions of the Savior, endured for our sake, then blessed are we: the crucified Lord will save us. But woe to those who are Christians only in name and trample His saving teaching by their disdain for Him or arrogant speculation about Him (Rom. 2:8), who live according to the will of their hearts in untruth, in impurity, in forgetfulness of God; they should be horrified by their terrible situation: it is terrible to fall into the hands of the Living God (Heb. 10:31). God will destroy the wicked (Matthew 21:41). The death of the Life-Giver will not save unrepentant sinners, but will condemn them; but sinners who sincerely repent of their sins, who have heartfelt faith in the Lord and hope in Him and who cleanse themselves from sins, will be saved by Him: with His suffering on the cross the Savior will cover their sins committed through human weakness. Crucified, O Christ God, who trampled down death by death, save us! Amen. My God, my God, have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) Thus, he who was nailed to the cross cried out for the sins of the world, and therefore for you and me, brothers and sisters, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus. My God, My God! Why did you leave me? He cried out because of His human nature, which has weaknesses and not sins. But how could God the Father, who sent Him into the world to save the world, abandon His only begotten, His beloved Son? The Divinity was inseparable and will forever remain inseparable from the human nature of Jesus Christ. This abandonment means, beloved brethren, that human nature in Jesus Christ was exposed to all the torment, all the horror of the sufferings on the cross, all the terrible, mortal grief that He experienced back in the Garden of Gethsemane before His capture by a gang of villains led by Judas Iscariot. He then began to be horrified and grieved and said to his disciples: My soul grieves to death; abide here and watch with Me (Matthew 26:38). Imagine what the physical torment was, what was the sorrow of the all-righteous and all-loving, sensitive soul of the God-man, who suffered execution for all human sins, for the sins of Adam and Eve and all their descendants without exception, and therefore for you and me! And you and I, brothers, are great sinners and are guilty of countless punishments for our countless iniquities. Judge, I say, judge, what was the sharpness, bitterness and burning intensity of the torment of the cross, - what was the spiritual grief of the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself the sins of the world, how hard it was for God to abandon Him, that is, to leave His humanity with all the bitterness of suffering, His soul - with all the overwhelming, boundless, terrible sorrow. After this, you will understand in what state the soul of the God-man was hanging on the cross when He cried out: My God, why have You forsaken Me? Yes, she was, together with His most pure body, in a state of terrible, unimaginable and indescribable suffering. Know from here, man, whoever you are, the bitterness, absurdity, ugliness, abomination, madness, disgusting, painful, deadly nature of sin; know how unnatural it is to us, uncharacteristic of our divine nature, created in the image of God; and how they abhor the all-holy, all-perfect, all-good Divinity - and after this judge, everyone, how we should deal with sin, which seduces us and defiles and perverts our nature - corrupting it, plunging it into eternal dishonor, into eternal sorrow, into eternal torment, if we do not hate it, that is, sin with all our souls, unless we repent of iniquities, if we do not completely turn away from sin. Imagine, imagine what would happen to us if the only begotten Son of God had not suffered for our sins and did not satisfy the righteousness of God - and if God had left us forever with His grace? Oh, one imagination, one light idea of ​​it chills the blood and plunges the soul into trembling. Oh, if only I and all sinners would always remember this abandonment of unrepentant sinners by God, especially when sin tempts us, and - everyone would flee from sin more than from a snake, than from a bloodthirsty beast, - than from a cruel enemy! Oh, then there would be many more people being saved; then the earth would not be struck by terrible disasters for the sins of man: crop failures, floods, destructive earthquakes affecting thousands of human lives, widespread diseases, damage to fruits, destructive fires. Then it would be God's paradise, abounding in truth and all sorts of natural gifts of God. Then there would be peace and security on earth: there would not be these terrible atrocities, among which we recently saw the most terrible of the terrible - the brazen and vicious murder of a peace-loving and loving king, meek, in broad daylight. Oh, how the world is now filled with lawless men and iniquities! But how long will it continue to exist, this sinful world, this earth - the dwelling place of sin, stained with the blood of innocent victims, this accumulation of all sorts of abominations? Isn’t the time of worldwide fiery cleansing already approaching? Yes, it is, of course, already close. If the apostles in their time spoke about its nearness, then we can speak even more decisively about the closeness of the end of the age. Brothers and sisters! While we still have time, let us approach the Savior of the world with ardent repentance and kiss His wounds endured for us with love and tears. Let us love truth, let us love mercy, that we may receive mercy. Amen. Beloved brethren, now the bright week has passed and taken with it our deeds to the throne of the heavenly Lord and Judge: there, brethren, there now are our deeds. I say this in order to frighten with the fear of heavenly judgment those who spent the holiday of the Bright Resurrection of Christ unworthily and in an unChristian manner, and to console those who spent it in abstinence and spiritual joy. How did many people celebrate and spend the holiday of Bright Resurrection? I would not like to bring to mind the bad deeds of men, but we must remember them and condemn them on behalf of God, along with the persons who committed them. The all-bright holiday was greeted after the bright Easter service with dark deeds: intemperance and drunkenness, fights, foul language and every kind of sin. You might think that we fasted before the holiday only in order to rush with greater greed into all carnal sinful deeds, so that with greater shamelessness and impudence we could indulge in all kinds of lawlessness. Alas! woe, woe to us! All those who celebrated the holiday with intemperance and drunkenness, adultery, foul language and other similar carnal deeds, lost all the benefit that they received (if only they received) from fasting, lost the benefit from repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries, trampled them under their feet like foolish animals, lost the favorable time for salvation given to us by the mercy of the Lord, and will no longer turn back this time. Behold, now is the time favorable, behold, now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2), it was fitting to tell you during holy fasting; for then only did you begin the saving bath of repentance and the all-cleansing Mysteries of the faithful of the body and blood of the Lord. From now on, your confession and communion have been postponed until a future fast, and who knows whether the Lord will vouchsafe you or not to confess and receive communion? Who knows whether you will not die in those very iniquities with which you again defiled yourself after the bath of repentance? How painful, how pitiful, beloved brethren, that so soon you turned out to be traitors to Christ and gave yourself over to the side of the devil in order to serve him, the original murderer, the author and teacher of all sin! You, I tell you in the words of the Savior, and I, too, am a great sinner, you are of your father the devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father (John 8:44). What remains for us to do, beloved brothers? Pray and cry for your sins. Cry over the fact that many of us celebrated the holiday not in a Christian or even human way, but like vile idolaters and like wild animals who were not allowed to eat for a long time, who were not fed their favorite food for a long time; to cry because the greatest, soul-saving sacraments of Christ - repentance and communion - have been trampled underfoot and they have been imputed to nothing; cry that the time given for salvation was recklessly lost. Let us weep and pray to the Lord, so that He will not be completely angry with us, and will not destroy us with our iniquities, 9 but will turn us to the path of repentance and make us skillful fulfillers of His commandments. Let us firmly decide from now on not to indulge in intemperance and drunkenness and all the sins that result from them, and with tears we will ask the Lord to strengthen us with the grace of the Holy Spirit in our intentions and good deeds. Brethren! Let us all shed tears, for we all unworthily celebrated the greatest feast of the Lord and we all angered our Lord: this is not how, this is not how we all truly need to celebrate the feasts of the Lord. We must meet them with spiritual joy in the Lord about our deliverance from sins and eternal salvation through Christ, the Son of God, through works of mercy, abstinence from passions, and visiting the church of God in spirit and truth. The one who truly celebrates the resurrection is the one who himself rose from dead works for works of virtue, for faith and Christian love, who trampled on intemperance, luxury and all passions. Brethren! Let us celebrate the feasts of the Lord as Christians, and not as pagans! Amen. So our holiday of holidays has passed; and the royal doors in the churches of the Lord were closed, and the service became not as solemn as it was on Bright Week. What, brothers, has this holiday left in our souls? After all, Christian holidays pass in their regular order before us not in order to leave our souls idle, but in order to abolish, free us from the worries and affairs of everyday vanity, in other words: the Lord gives us holidays for this reason, so that we temporarily stop thinking, caring, rejoicing or grieving about everyday things, about earthly, fleeting things, and think, care, and rejoice about heavenly, eternal things. This is precisely why the past holiday was given to us. The all-world feast of the Resurrection of Christ is for this reason that the Lord has vouchsafed us to see in it the firstfruits of the general resurrection of the entire human race on the last day of the world: Christ is risen from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor. 15:20), says the Word of God. For us, the Lord suffered, died, was buried and rose again; and His death, burial and resurrection are, as it were, our own death, burial and resurrection. That is why we sang at matins on Bright Week: yesterday I was buried in You, Christ, today I am risen to You 10. Yes, we will certainly all rise again, and we all expect, that is, we expect the resurrection of the dead. This is as certain as it is certain that tomorrow will be a day. Has this ever occurred to you, have you thought about it during the holiday? But I definitely had to think about it. All great holidays are church holidays, and the holiday of Easter especially reminds us of our redemption through Jesus Christ from eternal death and of our resurrection for the life of the next century. But whoever believes in his resurrection from the dead prepares here for the future life, tries to live according to the commandments of the Lord, honors the Lord’s feasts and is extremely careful not to offend their holiness by deeds of carnal uncleanness. What did we do on this bright holiday, we Orthodox Christians? And it’s shameful to talk; but it is necessary to speak. Out of the bright days of Easter week, Christians turned, to the greatest sorrow of the holy mother of the Church, into dark days, days worthy of tears and lamentation. Very many celebrated not the holiday of the Resurrection of Christ and our own resurrection from dead deeds, but the holiday of the demonic resurrection in their souls. Lent for the devil was defeat, death, because he ran away from many souls and, as it were, died for them after heartfelt repentance and communion of the Holy Mysteries; and on the feast of Easter he rose again in very many souls. How was he resurrected? Through satiety, drunkenness, riotousness and other vices to which drunkenness leads and to which many Christians indulged. This is how Christians love Christ; This is how they celebrated the greatest holiday of the year! What benefit do such people have in the name of Christians? Many pagans live better than them and, without a doubt, are more worthy than them in the eyes of God. Gentiles and non-Orthodox people living in our city are surprised at their behavior on such a great holiday and say: here are you Christians, here are you Orthodox! They celebrate like true pagans, and what a holiday! This is what Gentiles and non-Orthodox people say about us. But what does the Lord Himself say about our holidays, or more precisely, about our celebration? My soul hates your holidays, and I will not endure this great day, says the Lord, that I will quickly be satisfied, for whom I will not endure your sins (Is. 1:14). Brethren! Who have we become like? How far have we forgotten? And the word of Scripture is fulfilled on us with all its power: a man who is in honor without understanding, is likened to foolish cattle, and becomes like them (Ps. 49:13, 21). Christ the Lord honored us with His name, washed us with His blood, made us chosen people, with a holy tongue (1 Pet. 2:9); but we have boldly, madly neglected the mercy of God and dishonored ourselves with various indecent acts. Do not flatter yourselves, brothers; neither drunkards, nor thieves, nor molesters, nor harlots, nor adulterers will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Yes, if you do not stop behaving this way, especially on holidays, which according to the commandment of the Lord must be kept holy, then you will not see the Kingdom of God. Brethren! It is extremely necessary for us to be more prudent and more attentive to ourselves on the Lord’s feasts. The Lord will severely punish us for our unreasonable celebration. We must celebrate our holidays not according to the flesh, like idolaters, but according to the spirit, although physical celebration, if it happens together with the spiritual, is allowed and is not contrary to the Lord; but in this case it should never go beyond the bounds of moderation. God is Spirit (John 4:24; 2 Cor. 3:17); our soul, redeemed by the Savior, is spirit; That’s why our holidays should be more spiritual than carnal. He who celebrates only according to the flesh celebrates not God, but his idol, his womb, or, what is the same, the demon of intemperance. God save everyone from such holidays! An abundance of carnal food is allowed to Christians on holidays for the glory of God in order, that is, so that we eat and drink with moderation, thanking God. Who with spiritual joy sends us physical consolation in the variety and sweetness of foods and drinks, so that our joy may not be lacking. But spiritual joy on a holiday should always be higher than physical joy: but with us it’s the opposite. It is said in the commandment of God: remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8); in our New Testament language this means: remember Sunday, do not forget its holiness and try to sanctify it yourself with your good deeds. God! grant us to always remember Your commandment about the celebration of holidays, to keep it sacred and to please You with spiritual celebration. Amen. To the verb of his (Thomas) friends the disciples: I have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Unless I see the mark of the nails in His hand, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I have no faith (John 20:25) Beloved! The holy Apostle Thomas, with his unbelief and the most sincere faith that followed him in the risen Lord, teaches those of little faith and all non-believers to sincerely believe in Jesus Christ. He especially teaches faith to people - Christians of the present time, who are very, too cautious in faith and are very afraid that they will not believe what they think may actually not be, and do not believe much that actually is. All such people are beautifully taught by the example of the Holy Apostle Thomas; - The Lord intentionally allowed him to doubt His resurrection from the dead so much precisely because He, as God, saw in the future a multitude of unbelievers who needed to be convinced of His Divinity by the example of a person similar to them in unbelief; and such and such a person is Saint Thomas. He does not believe that Jesus Christ, as God, was resurrected by the power of His Divinity, although all ten apostles unanimously told him: I have seen the Lord, and promises to believe this only when he sees the wounds from the nails on him, when he puts his hand into the marks of the nails and into His ribs. Look what the unbelieving Apostle Thomas wants; he wants to put his hand into the wounds of the Lord and into His pierced side. This seems like too much. But what won’t the Lord do for us? Having endured the cross and death, He will also endure this unbelief of Thomas, if only everyone firmly believed that He, our Lord, had risen. And now, beloved, the risen Life-Giver condescends to the desire of the unbeliever; He deliberately appears to the apostles when they were all together, and Thomas is with them, and says to Thomas: bring your finger here, look at My hands; raise your hand and place it in My side; and do not remain in unbelief, but believe. Thomas answered Him: My Lord and my God! After this, the Lord said to him: You believed when you had already seen Me; Blessed are those who, having not seen, believe (John 20:19-29). Beloved! many of us act like Thomas. Do we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as we should, wholeheartedly and consistently? We can probably say that we don’t believe so sincerely. Our life confirms this. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ more only when we see Him, that is, when we take advantage of His obvious mercies towards us, when we receive from Him the permission of our sins, when the good and easy yoke of Christ is on our soul, when our affairs are going well, when we are healthy, prosperous in everything. But when passions torment our souls and our souls bear a heavy burden of sinful flesh and the devil, when heartbreaks, bodily illnesses, failures in work and in business in general make our life painful, then we very often lose faith in the Lord - the Benefactor and often dare to think that there is no loving Father and Provider - God - above us. Thus, the fickle human heart is ready every time to sincerely believe in the Lord in favorable circumstances and is capable of unbelief in sorrowful and unfavorable circumstances, while the truth of the Lord remains unchanged forever. The Lord is always the same Lord, whether He has mercy on us or punishes us. The Lord Jesus Christ is yesterday and today, the same and forever (Heb. 13:8). Remember the Lord who rose from the dead. He is eternally unchanged. Let us take every possible care to ensure the constancy and immutability of our faith. Let us often remember the Lord who rose from the dead. Let us remember that we will all rise in the general resurrection from the dead and at the Last Judgment of Christ we will give an answer about our lives - and then we will go either to eternal bliss or to eternal torment. Amen. And Thomas answered and said to Him: My Lord and my God! (John 20:28) So decisively did Thomas believe in the resurrection of the Lord from the dead when he touched His wounds on his hands and His wound in his most pure rib: You are my Lord and my God! that is, he who, by the power of His Divinity, defeated the death of the fallen Adam and gave the Resurrection to the entire human race. You are the conqueror of hell; You have again opened the doors of paradise to the fallen human race restored by You! This is how the previously unfaithful Thomas believed! Is this how we now believe in the risen Lord? Do we have evidence that we really believe? Do we feel the divine actions of our Savior in ourselves and on ourselves? Are we not only, like Thomas, touching our Savior? but we taste His most pure Body and Blood. What then? Do we feel His Divinity at this time as the Apostle Thomas felt it by touch? Does our soul then cry out internally, like the Apostle Thomas: My Lord and my God! i.e. I see that You are in me, my Lord and my God, and I in You; for You have taken away the burden of sins from me; broke the bonds of sin and death within me; healed my spiritual ulcers; miraculously revived my soul and body, giving me divine peace, boldness, light, strength, and all blessings. Thus, the Lord is now known tangibly by all who truly partake of His most pure Body and Blood. This is our bliss, our joy, our strength! We do not envy Thomas, who touched the Lord after His resurrection and became convinced by touch and convinced the whole world with his blessed unbelief in the resurrection of our sweetest Lord! We ourselves constantly touch and see the Lord, we see Him with the eyes of our hearts and always feel Him within ourselves. May God grant that everyone has such tangible faith. May God grant us all to live and act by faith, and to love the Lord as the Father who loved us, and to love one another, as He commanded, and to keep His commandments. Amen. Today, my beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, I want to offer you a word about today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Its content is as follows: by the hands of the Apostles many signs and wonders were performed among the people (i.e., those in Jerusalem); and they all remained with one accord in Solomon's porch. No one from outsiders dared to pester them, and the people glorified them. The believers more and more joined the Lord, a multitude of men and women, so that they carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and beds, so that at least the shadow of Peter passing by would overshadow any of them. Many from the surrounding cities also converged on Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those possessed by unclean spirits, who were all healed. The high priest and all with him who belonged to the Sadducee heresy were filled with envy, and laid their hands on the apostles, and imprisoned them in the people's prison. But the Angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison at night and, bringing them out, said: Go, and stand in the church, speak to the people all these words of life (Acts 5:12-20). Here the reading from the Apostle ends. What was the strength of the first small society of Christians? – Strongly with my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, with my unanimity and love, with the spirit of truth, holiness, mercy and unanimous desire for one high goal, for the honor of the heavenly calling. Since the first Christian society was exemplary in spirit, we Christians must imitate it. We also have in our city a similar society of Christians, strong in spirit, unanimity, truth, striving for one charitable goal, and I am sure that God will help him in his good intentions, enterprises and deeds. For ever the Lord did not disgrace those who united together to do work for the glory of His name. And Russia will be strong inside and outside only by its internal truth, unanimity and mutual assistance of all classes, selfless devotion to the Church, the royal throne and the fatherland, for truth exalts the tongue, that is, the people, but the tribes of sin degrade (Proverbs 14:34). The wondrous power of grace, beloved brothers and sisters, shone in the apostles of Christ after the descent on them of the Holy Spirit, sent down from the Father by the Lord Jesus Christ. Simple, ignorant, unlearned fishermen are rewarded with such wisdom that they suddenly glorify the greatness of God in different languages, they receive such strong lips that block the lips of all opponents, such supernatural power that they heal all sorts of diseases with one word and a touch or with just the shadow of their body: with prayer and command they raise the dead, drive away demons; - are filled with such ardent love for God and neighbors that for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ they are ready to go to prison and to death, to endure countless torments, just so as not to lose fellowship with Christ, or are ready to be in eternal torment, if only the people to whom they preached the Word of God received eternal life. I also repeat: the marvelous power of grace in the apostles! But what a wonderful life was the first apostolic Christians and apostolic disciples! They all had one heart and one soul - there was not a single beggar among them, for everyone was given everything that anyone needed (Acts 4:32-35). Thus, the first society of Christians was very strong and glorious for its unshakable faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, its unanimity and love, the abundance of miracles that testified to the presence in them of the almighty Spirit of God, the spirit of truth and holiness, mercy and generosity, and its friendly common desire for one high goal - for the honor of the heavenly calling of God. Every Christian society or, generally speaking, every Christian state, especially our Orthodox fatherland, which from the beginning accepted the Orthodox Christian faith and was raised in it for over a thousand years, should strive for such virtues. The more zealous a society or state is in Christian adherence to the Gospel, the firmer it is in Christian love, the stronger and more prosperous it will be, the more successfully it will develop and improve in all respects; The truth exalts the people, says the Wise One, but the tribes are degraded by sin. Trace the history of any nation and you will now see that it was then especially great, rich, strong and invincible, when it was pious led by its king, and never fell so low, never reached such poverty and political impotence, did not fall into the depths of all kinds of evils, as when it forgot God and fell into the abyss of unbelief and vices. So it was, so it is, so it should always be; for the Christian faith, the holy, heavenly, life-giving faith, brings into the life of civil societies the principles of wisdom, the principles of all order and strength, all virtue, makes it wise, strengthens, creates and renews them, perfecting them in all respects. Our time is an evil time. Sins and iniquities are growing and multiplying in the Russian land, among us who bear the name of Christ and are called Orthodox, the holy faith is overwhelmed and weakened, the commandments of piety are not fulfilled, fidelity to church charters and orders is violated, good customs are abandoned, paternal traditions are imputed to nothing. Discord and discord entered family life, relaxation and indulgence entered into the upbringing of children, negligence and self-interest entered into state and public service, unbridled freethinking entered into science, pride, covetousness, thirst for pleasure, intemperance and envy entered into the soul of everyone. But if the life of Christians is ugly, then it is up to us to correct the ugly and make it beautiful. How to do this? Just as the ancient inhabitants of the great city of Nineveh did in a similar case, sincerely repenting according to the word of the prophet Jonah, who predicted the destruction of the entire city if its inhabitants did not repent within 40 days. And they all, from the least to the greatest, brought sincere repentance to the Lord and corrected their corrupt morals (Jon. 3). Let us also repent and take the first apostolic Christians as an example. Let us learn from them unanimity, mutual love, mutual mercy, non-covetousness, abstinence, truth and honesty, purity and holiness. This is the image of true Christianity! Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Be merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). Amen. You might be interested in: