Слово 13. Послание к некоторому желающему отречься мира и идти во иночество, но медлящему, который не раз уже чувствовал понуждение к сему, но еще просит от преп. Максима разъяснения некоторых притчей и загадочных темных изречений

One of the wise and prudent was John, a man praiseworthy in everything, who surpassed many of his peers in comprehending parables and fortune-telling and dark sayings of both ours and external teaching; but when a spark of divine fire touched his heart, he immediately spat on everything that is considered an adornment of the outer and inner man and, following the God-speaking preacher, imputed everything for “skills” so that he, like that one (Paul), could acquire Christ. Having immediately freed himself from all vain rumors and from all worldly turmoil, he with unceasing desire strove for the highest zeal, always forgetting what is behind, but reaching out to what is before, wanting to achieve the honor of the highest calling (Phil. 3:13-14). To do this, he chose complete silence, and having gathered all his understandings and enclosed them within himself, he constantly imagined the invisible beauty of the Red One more than all the sons of men, obeying the teaching of the Apostle, who says: If you are risen with Christ, seek those on high, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God: be wise on what is on high, not on earth (Col. 3:1-2). What can we say about Dionysius the Areopagite? Didn’t he immediately spit on all the previously taught teachings of all the wise external philosophers and rhetoricians, as a result of one meek nationwide teaching of the divine preacher, and immediately followed him, like a gentle lamb follows his mother, immediately leaving the Pythagorean, Platonic, and Aristotelian wisdom, and clinging tightly to the wisdom of fishermen and tax collectors, as to the only one who can assimilate her participant to the most extreme desire, which is the most hypostatic Wisdom of God and the all-encompassing power and ever-present light - Jesus Christ, God above all. Someone said about this desire: it is good for me to cleave to God, to place the hope of my salvation in the Lord (Ps. 72:28); also: Since Thy village is beloved, O Lord of hosts, my soul desires and ends in the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God. Why is this so? - say, O most divine king! Therefore, he says, that a bird (sparrow), that is, a poor soul, weak and carnal, find yourself a church, and also the turtledove a nest for itself, where it will lay its chicks, Thy altars, O Lord of hosts (Ps. 84:2-4). The turtledove denotes a soul that loves purity and chastity, for they say about the turtledove that, after the death of its friend, it does not copulate with another, and the male sex does not look for another after the death of the first, but remains the rest of the time in chastity. The altars of the Lord are here called the saints of His churches, which serve as refuges for both categories of people, that is, for the sin-loving and for the chaste - one for the healing and healing of their long-term scabs, through confession of them, and the other - for establishing and preserving themselves for the future in the righteous corrections of the Lord. For through priestly prayers and the offering of the most pure Body and Blood of the immaculate Lamb of God, both receive remission of sins and preservation of themselves in pleasing God. These are the parables and fortune-telling and dark speeches that I have, which are very clear and useful for those who listen to them, but for those who despise them, they are not only not useful, but also very dark. You are very rich and abound in all human and divine intelligence. Seek the improvement of this, if you want to be perfect, go and sell your possessions (Matthew 19:21)... the rest is known. Do not seek or accept another adviser (except for the above saying), and you will not only find yourself superior to all philosophers, but you will also be recognized as such before the Creator and Ruler of all. Be healthy! You might be interested in: