Слово 23. О безумной гордости

1. Pride is the rejection of God, a demonic invention, the contempt of people, the mother of condemnation, the fiend of praise, a sign of the sterility of the soul, driving away the help of God, the forerunner of insanity, the culprit of falls, the cause of demons, the source of anger, the door of hypocrisy, the stronghold of demons, the repository of sins, the cause of unmercifulness, ignorance of compassion, a cruel torturer, an inhuman judge, an opponent of God, hula root. 2. The beginning of pride is the root of vanity; the middle is humiliation of one's neighbor, shameless preaching of one's works, self-praise in the heart, hatred of reproof; and the end is rejection of God’s help, reliance on one’s own diligence, and demonic disposition. 3. Let us hear all who want to avoid this pit: very often this passion receives food from thanksgiving, for it does not at first incline us shamelessly to reject God. I saw people thanking God with their lips and exalting themselves in their thoughts. The Pharisee clearly testifies to this when he said: “God, I thank You” (Luke 18:11). 4. Where the Fall took place, pride was first established there; for the herald of the first is the second. 5. One respectable man said to me: let’s assume that there are twelve dishonorable passions; if you arbitrarily love one of them, that is, pride, then this one will fill the place of the other eleven. 6. A highly wise monk will argue strongly; the humble man not only does not contradict, but does not even dare to raise his eyes. 7. The cypress tree does not bend and does not spread on the ground: so a high-hearted monk cannot have obedience. 8. A highly intelligent person wants to be in charge; Yes, otherwise he absolutely cannot die, or, more correctly, he does not want to. 9. “God opposes the proud” (James 4:6): who can have mercy on them? “Everyone who is high-hearted is not pure before the Lord” (Prov. 16:5); who can cleanse it? 10. The punishment of the proud is his fall, the annoyer is a demon; and the sign of his abandonment from God is insanity. In the first two cases, people were often healed by people; but the latter is incurable from people 67 . 11. He who rejects reproof reveals passion, but he who accepts it has been released from its bonds. 12. If from this passion alone, without any other, someone fell from heaven, then one must investigate whether it is not possible through humility, and without other virtues, to ascend to heaven? 13. Pride is the loss of wealth and labor. “You cried and do not save,” no doubt because they cried with pride; “they cried out... to the Lord and did not hear them” (Ps. 17:42), no doubt because they did not cut off the reasons for what they prayed against. 14. One wise old man spiritually admonished a proud brother: but this one, blinded, said to him: “Forgive me, father, I am not proud.” The wise old man objected: “How can you, my son, more clearly prove that you are proud, if not by saying: I am not proud.” 15. For such, obedience, cruel and despicable living, and reading about the supernatural exploits of St. fathers. Perhaps, though through this, these ill people will receive little hope of salvation. 16. It is a shame to be proud of other people’s jewelry, and it is extreme madness to be proud of God’s gifts. Exalt yourself only in those virtues that you accomplished before you were born; and those that you performed after birth were given to you by God, just like birth itself. Whatever virtues you corrected without the help of your mind are yours alone; because God has given you the mind itself. Whatever feats you showed without a body are only attributed to your diligence, for the body is not yours, but the creation of God. 17. Do not trust in yourself until you hear the last saying about you, remembering that even the one who reclined at the wedding supper was bound hand and foot, and “cast into outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13). 18. Do not lift up your neck, dear one; for many, being holy and immaterial, were cast out of heaven. 19. When the demon of pride has established itself in his servants, then appearing to them in a dream or in reality, in the form of a bright Angel or a martyr, he gives them the revelation of the sacraments, and, as it were, the gift of gifts, so that these damned ones, having been deceived, will completely lose their minds. 20. Even if we had suffered countless deaths for Christ, even then we would not have fulfilled our duty; for one is the blood of God, and another is the blood of slaves, according to dignity, and not in essence. 21. If we do not stop testing ourselves, and compare our life with the life of the saints who lived before us. Fathers and luminaries, we will find that we have not yet entered the path of true asceticism, nor have we fulfilled our vows as we should, but we are still in a worldly dispensation. 22. A monk is actually one who has a non-ascending eye of the soul and an immovable sense of the body. 23. A monk is one who calls invisible adversaries, even when they flee from him, to battle and irritates them like animals. 24. A monk is one who is in continuous admiration of the mind for God and saving sadness. 25. A monk is one who has the same skill for virtues as others have for passions. 26. A monk is a constant light in the eyes of the heart. 27. A monk is an abyss of humility into which he has cast down and in which he has drowned every evil spirit. 28. From pride comes forgetfulness of sins; and the memory of them is an intercessor for humility. 29. Pride is the extreme misery of the soul, which dreams of itself that it is rich, and being in darkness, thinks that it is in the light. 30. This bad passion not only prevents us from succeeding, but also casts us down from the heights. 31. The proud is like an apple, rotten on the inside but shining with beauty on the outside. 32. A proud monk has no need for a demon; he himself became a demon and adversary for himself. 33. Darkness is alien to light; and the proud is alien to all virtue. 34. Blasphemous words are born in the hearts of the proud, and heavenly visions in the souls of the humble. 35. The thief does not like the sun; The proud one humiliates the meek. 36. I don’t know how it happens that many of the proud, not knowing themselves, think that they have achieved dispassion, and already upon leaving this world they perceive their wretchedness. 37. He who is captivated by pride needs the help of God Himself; for human salvation is vain for such a thing. 38. I once caught this crazy charming girl in my heart, carried into it on the shoulders of her mother, vanity. Having bound both with bonds of obedience and beating them with the scourge of humility, I forced them to tell me how they entered my soul? Finally, under blows, they said: we have neither beginning nor birth, for we ourselves are the leaders and parents of all passions. Contrition of heart, born of obedience, is not a small thing that fights against us. We do not tolerate being subordinate to anyone; That is why we, desiring to be in charge in heaven, retreated from there. To put it briefly: we are the parents of everything that is contrary to humility; and what promotes it resists us. However, if we appeared in heaven in such power, then where will you run away from our presence? We very often follow the patience of reproaches, the correction of obedience and lack of anger, forgetfulness of malice and service to others. Our offspring are the downfalls of spiritual men: anger, slander, vexation, irritability, outcry, blasphemy, hypocrisy, hatred, envy, bickering, self-will, disobedience. There is only one thing that we do not have the strength to resist; Being strongly beaten by you, we will tell you this: if you sincerely reproach yourself before the Lord, then you will despise us like a spider’s web. You see, said pride, that the horse on which I ride is vanity; The venerable humility and self-reproach will laugh at the horse and its rider, and with sweetness they will sing this victorious song: “Let us drink to the Lord, for he was gloriously glorified: he cast horse and rider into the sea” (Ex. 15:1), and into the abyss of humility. Degree twenty-three. Whoever climbs it (if he can climb it) will be strong About inexplicable blasphemous thoughts 39. Above this we heard that from an evil root and an evil mother comes the most evil offspring, that is, from bad pride unspeakable blasphemy is born. Therefore, it is necessary to bring it out into the environment; for this is not something unimportant, but the most fierce of our enemies and adversaries. And, what’s even worse, we cannot say, open, or confess these thoughts to a spiritual doctor without difficulty. Therefore, they often plunged many into despair and hopelessness, destroying all their hope, like a worm in a tree. 40. Often during the Divine Liturgy, and at the most terrible hour of the Mysteries, these vile thoughts blaspheme the Lord and the holy Sacrifice being performed. From here it is clearly revealed that these ungodly, incomprehensible and inexplicable words are not uttered within us by our soul, but by a God-hating demon who was cast out of heaven because he attempted to blaspheme God there too. And if these are my dishonest and absurd sayings, then how can I, having accepted this heavenly Gift, worship? How can I bless and at the same time curse? 41. Often this seducer and murderer led many into a frenzy of mind. No thought is as difficult to confess as this one; therefore, he remained in many until old age, for nothing strengthens demons and evil thoughts against us more than the fact that we do not confess them, but conceal and nourish them in our hearts. 42. No one should think that he is guilty of blasphemous thoughts; for the Lord is a knower of the heart, and knows that such words are not ours, but those of our enemies. 43. Drunkenness is the cause of stumbling, and pride is the cause of indecent thoughts. Although the one who stumbles is not guilty of stumbling, he will undoubtedly be punished for drunkenness. 44. When we stand for prayer, these unclean and unspeakable thoughts rise up against us, and at the end of the prayer they immediately leave us; for they are not in the habit of fighting those who do not arm themselves against them. 45. This godless spirit not only blasphemes God and everything Divine, but also utters shameful and dishonorable words in us, so that we either give up prayer or fall into despair. 46. ​​This crafty and dishonest tormentor has distracted many from prayer; excommunicated many from the Holy Mysteries; some bodies were exhausted by sadness; He exhausted others with fasting, without giving them the slightest weakness. 47. He does this not only with the laity, but also with those going through monastic life, instilling in them that for them there is no hope of salvation, and that they are more damned than all infidels and pagans. 48. Whoever is troubled by the spirit of blasphemy and who wants to get rid of it, let him know without a doubt that it is not his soul that is guilty of such thoughts, but an unclean demon who once said to the Lord Himself: “I will give all this to you, if you fall down in worship” (Matthew 4:9). Therefore, we, despising him, and regarding the thoughts he puts into mind as nothing, will say to him: follow me, Satan: I will worship the Lord my God and serve Him alone; “But your illness and your words will return to your head, and your blasphemy will come to your top in this age and in the future” (Ps. 7:17). 49. Whoever would like to defeat the demon of blasphemy in any other way would be like someone trying to hold lightning with his hands. For how can one overtake, compete and fight with someone who suddenly, like the wind, flies into the heart, instantly utters a word, and immediately disappears? All other enemies stand, fight, hesitate and give time to those who struggle against them. This one is not like that: he just appeared and has already retreated; spoke - and disappeared. 50. This demon often tries to attack those who are the simplest in mind and the most gentle, who are more worried and embarrassed by this than others; It can be rightly said about them that all this happens to them not because of their exaltation, but because of the envy of demons. 51. Let us stop judging and condemning our neighbor, and we will not be afraid of blasphemous thoughts; for the cause and root of the second is the first. 52. Just as someone shut up in a house hears the words of those passing by, although he himself does not speak to them: so the soul, which is within itself, hearing the blasphemies of the devil, is embarrassed by what he utters as he passes by. 53. He who despises this enemy is freed from his torment; and whoever manages to fight him in another way will prevail. He who wants to conquer spirits with words is like someone who tries to block the winds. 54. One careful monk, suffering attacks from this demon, exhausted his body with fasting and vigil for twenty years; but since he did not receive any benefit from this, then, having described his temptation on paper, he went to a certain holy man and, handing it to him, threw himself face down on the ground, not daring to look at him. The elder, having read the scripture, smiled, and raising his brother, said to him: “Put your hand on my neck, child.” When this brother did this, the great man said to him: “On my neck, brother, let this sin be, no matter how many years it lasted and will continue in you; just charge him with nothing.” Afterwards, this monk assured that he had not yet left the elder’s cell when this passion disappeared. He himself, who was in temptation, told me this, bringing thanksgiving to God. He who has won victory over this passion has cast aside pride. God, wanting to admonish the proud man so that he would leave his devilish wickedness, leaves him to fall into sin so that he turns to God, repents and receives forgiveness. If even after this he does not want to repent, then God allows the demon to hurt him and tempt him further, admonishing him that he is being punished for his sins and that he should leave his pride so that the demon does not torment him and possess him forever. Therefore, some, as a result of the many and great temptations of demons to which they were subjected, came to their senses and were corrected. But if the wicked proud man persists in his pride, the Lord becomes angry at his great madness and disobedience, leaves him - he loses his mind and reason, and does not know what is happening to him; and then he is no longer ashamed of people, nor afraid of God, and openly and without shame fulfills his evil wishes. This evil can no longer be healed by man, but only by the Lord. (Modern Greek translation of “The Ladder” by Athanasius of Crete, p. 284.) You might be interested in: