Письмо 49

To your question about the word of Holy Scripture about sin leading to death, for which St. The Apostle does not command us to pray; I cannot give a fair answer, for I do not know, and in this I am not guilty. I do not have such boldness towards God as St. Anthony the Great, who, when asked by his brother about the scriptures from the Levitical books, asked God to send Moses to explain to him the meaning of the scriptures and then answered. Isn't it better for us to look at our sins; and not to test strangers; looking at our sins, we will see everyone as saints, and through the purity of our hearts, everyone will also seem holy to us. Read in our patericon about Abba Pimen 97, 98 and 148 legends about this; and remember Dositheus, who sought from Abba Dorotheus to understand the word of the Holy Scripture: what answer did he give him? I have never read anywhere about the epistles of St. John's interpretations; but I myself cannot know the spiritual meaning of these words. Our Church believes there are seven deadly sins: pride, love of money, fornication, envy, gluttony, anger or memory and despondency or laziness. Who among us is not involved - although not in all - but in some of these sins? So why not pray for them? Church teachers believe that the greatest mortal sin is resistance to the truth, that is, heresy; for whom they do not pray, or do not remember their names, during a bloodless sacrifice at the proskomedia; but it is ordered to pray for their conversion to the right and true path, just as the Church prays to God for the unification of everyone every day. You also mention those who are obviously sinners, living in adultery, should we pray for them? Who can know about them that they live exactly like this? Confessors cannot tell their sins, and guesses are not always true. If they are convicted in court, then the government subjects them to church penance, depending on the quality of their repentance or bitterness. But in particular, we do not dare to reject them openly: and when it is commanded to pray for the opponents of the Church for their conversion, then how can we not pray for the conversion of a sinner who resides in the bowels of the Church and sins through weakness, just as we ourselves sin daily? When the wife, who had committed adultery, was brought to Christ, did He condemn her? And she should have been stoned: “Whoever is without sin is in you,” He said, “first cast a stone on her (John 8:3, 7). Isn’t a similar teaching approaching us too? Our minds and hearts are not purified and cannot purely contemplate the mysterious meaning of Holy Scripture, then let us humble ourselves, and God is able to send us the enlightenment of true reason. In the Gospel of Matthew, in the 23rd chapter, the Lord forbids being called teachers and being called fathers and mentors: for there is only one Teacher, Christ (Matthew 23:8); the same about father and mentor (Matthew 10). How do we see the accepted titles of teacher, father and mentor attributed to people in our Church? Is this really contrary to the Lord's command? You might be interested in: