Слово 19. Против предающихся безумно богомерзким скверным содомским грехам, низводящим в погибель и в муку вечную

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, but understanding is good for all who create (Ps. 110:10), says the divine psalmist. What kind of person is he who is led by the fear of the Lord? and again: How sweet is Your word to my throat, more than honey to my mouth (Ps. 119:97, 103). If reason is good for all who practice the fear of the Lord, that is, for those who fulfill His holy commandments with deeds, then for those who violate them there is no good reason, but there is extreme madness and eternal destruction, as the same prophet says: You will save far from sinners, for you have not sought Your justifications (Ps. 119:155); also: Thou hast brought to nothing all those who depart from Thy justifications, for their thoughts are unrighteous (Ps. 119:118). If those who deviate from God’s justifications are humiliated by Him, then it is obvious that they will go into eternal destruction. What others will be most humiliated and alienated from God, if not those who, due to their great madness, reason that the lawless will not be condemned on a par with the ancient ungodly Sodomites, whom the judgment of God incinerated along with their cities with fire and a bogeyman, making them an indication for those who subsequently want to ungodly like them, as the supreme divine Apostle Peter says in his second epistle. Therefore, Christians, and, moreover, those who have such a terrible indication of the wrath of God, should not only abhor such godless filth, which, above all other iniquities, angers the Most High, but should burn with fire and anathematize those who create such filth and do not consider it a crime, while this godless filth kindles the unbearable wrath of God on the Orthodox, as cursed by God, Who says: Cursed is everyone who sleeps with males (Lev. 18:22); If this filth had not been very hateful to God, then He would not have burned the cities of Sodom with unbearable anger, and would not have turned their land into a stinking lake to demonstrate and expose their vile filth. How vile and ungodly the sin of Sodom’s filth is, the divine Apostle Paul showed in his letter to the Romans, saying: Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, so that they defiled their own bodies. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature instead of the Creator, Who is blessed forever, amen. Therefore, God gave them over to shameful passions: their women replaced natural use with unnatural; Likewise, men, abandoning the natural use of the female sex, were inflamed with lust for one another, men committing shame on men (Rom. 1:24-27). And if in this life God gave them over to the passions of dishonor and impurity, then it is clear that in the future He will imprison them in eternal torment and unbearable torment, along with their ancient accomplices, the Sodomites. Oh, what wretchedness, what insane and unparalleled depravity! Know yourselves, you damned ones, what vile pleasure you have indulged in! Get away from him quickly while the ineffable goodness of God gives you time to repent! While you voluntarily remain in dishonor, don’t you really understand that you dig a dung pit, take the stinking feces coming from there, feed on it and swallow it? Oh, what unprecedented insensibility and damnation! Oh, what unbearable torments into which you will be plunged! By inflicting on each other such vile iniquity, which even dumb beasts do not have, you have become more dumb than the most dumb. Know yourself, most wretched ones, know that you were created in the image and likeness of God for good deeds, so that God, who created you, would be glorified by you, and you would also be mutually glorified by Him through the spiritual gifts you receive from Him. But you, being blinded and seduced by your godless carnal lust, not only are deprived of this dignity and beauty of the image of God, with which you were honored, but you also become more foolish and dumber than the most dumb beasts, shamelessly daring before the most pure eyes of the One who created you to engage in godless defilement, which is not even found among dumb beasts. It seems to me that those who shamelessly dare to commit such abominable defilement will be given up to more severe torment than the ancient Sodomites: for they, even before the law and before the commandment was laid down prohibiting this vile defilement, were dishonored before God out of ignorance. And those who now, like them, commit this vile deed, sin not out of ignorance, but because of their greatest insensibility and madness, with full consciousness of the terrible judgment of God that is about to take place. Therefore, they will be given over to more severe torments, according to the terrible word of the Gospel, which says: A slave, knowing the will of his master, and having not done it, will be beaten a lot, that is, he will be tormented greatly and endlessly; the ignorant, having created something worthy of wounds, will suffer little punishment, that is, he will be more easily tested by eternal torment (Luke 12:47–48). Therefore, the ancient and ever-memorable king Justinian the Great is worthy of great praise, who, being inspired by the great jealousy of God, subjected to various torments those who committed this vile defilement during his reign. No less worthy of praise is a certain prince of the glorious city of Venice, who also, out of divine jealousy, burned many of them with fire, adding to them his son, who was slandered to him by one youth he raped, and he did not spare him at all, but, as the legend goes, hanged him, using a gold chain for this. There is a belief that evidence received from the opposing party is considered the most reliable. Therefore, I will not keep silent about what I heard from the Christ-hating Hagarites. Although they have such filth in great use, those who are more reasonable among them claim that those who create this filth will not see the face of God, that is, without any judgment and without testing they will be condemned to destruction. Hear and be ashamed, you fools who consider this godless filth innocent - and if no divinely inspired scripture, threatening eternal torment, can correct you, then at least with this short answer of the Christ-hating Hagarians, come to your senses and leave behind this godless fornication. Accept punishment quickly, and not when the Lord is angry, and you will perish from the path of the righteous, when His wrath will soon flare up (Ps. 2:12). It’s scary to fall into the hands of the Zhivago God. And how is it not scary when nowhere can one hide from Him, according to the word of the righteous David: Where can I go from Thy spirit? and will I flee from Thy presence? , - that is, from Your wrath and from Your unbearable righteous anger, from which if I ascend to heaven, or go down to hell, or dwell in the last seas, I will not be able to escape Your hands, but even there Your hand will guide me and Your right hand will hold me (Ps. 139: 7-10). Fear not, says the Lord, from those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul: fear rather than him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). When you hear Gehenna, do not consider it purgatory fire, as the evil Latins, who follow the heretic Origen, claim, but know that it is an unquenchable fire, tormenting the wicked and unrepentant sinners for endless centuries, in proportion to their depravity. For the Lord did not say: He who is able to cleanse both soul and body in Gehenna, but to destroy, that is, to torment him endlessly and put him to eternal death. If you like to be given over to such death and the most severe torment for endless centuries: then hold on to this vile and stingy pleasure of yours and wallow in it with pleasure, like a stinking pig in the foul mud. If, however, sincerely, as pious Christians, you wish to receive eternal enjoyment of the blessings prepared for the saints, then try to quickly get away from this most vile and most foul of pleasures of yours, to hate it, and whoever claims that it is innocent, consign him to eternal anathema, as an opponent of the gospel of Christ the Savior and one who corrupts its teaching. Purify yourself with sincere repentance, warm tears, feasible alms and pure, undistracted prayer, so that you may be deemed worthy to enter, together with the wise virgins who have burning lamps, into the mental chamber of the immortal Bridegroom, Who says: Come to Me, all you who labor in the vanities of this life and are burdened with various sins, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). I have already said many times and will not stop saying: hate this wickedness with all your soul, lest you become the sons of curse and eternal destruction. You are Christians and are called such, having received this excellent name from Christ, the most pure and all-holy God: live worthy of Christ in all holiness and chastity, being content with the natural likeness of the female sex given to you by the good Creator. Do not be like the wicked Ishmaelites, descended from the slave Hagar, who have no share in the heavenly inheritance with Isaac, the son of a free woman. Do not deprive yourself without such a mind of such a God-given inheritance of ineffable eternal blessings because of the vile, godless and nasty pleasure of this damned filth of yours. Do not be like a horse and a horse, which has no reason, so that your jaws are not tightened by the reins and bridle, that is, by the wrath of God and His wrath, that is, because of the disobedience of your souls, you would not be deprived of freedom, as those who do not want to voluntarily approach Him through true and complete repentance, which alone cleanses the sinfulness of the soul in the present life, and not by future cleansing fire. For the present life is a time of doing, that is, a time for the manifestation of good deeds, and the future age is a time of reward, and not of purification. Divine Apostle, you command us not to be seduced by empty hopes and deceptive speeches of heretical people; therefore, let us firmly adhere to the Gospel and Apostolic teachings and the traditions of the fathers, and thus we will be worthy to receive the pleasures of eternal blessings, by the mercy and love of mankind of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom befits glory, honor and worship for endless ages. Amen. You might be interested in: