Слово 20. О том, какое исповедание надлежало бы епископу Тверскому принести Создателю всего, после того, как сгорел соборный храм и весь двор его, со всем имуществом, также самый город Тверь, где сгорело множество иных храмов, обывательских домов и людей, казнимых гневом Божиим, что было 22 июля 153

Forgive me, be merciful to me, Master, who dares to express before Your Majesty words of sadness and madness, due to the great sorrow from the evils that beset me. I have never neglected, - You are my witness, O Lord, - about Your divine songs and about the splendor of Your services, always performing Your spiritual celebrations with blessed singing, with many beautiful clergy, with the ringing of loud sonorous bells, while smoking various fragrant aromas; Your honorable icons and those of Your Most Pure Mother are magnificently decorated by me with gold and silver and precious stones. But in what way I thought to please You, the King, it turned out that by doing this I angered You more; which is why I experienced Your righteous wrath. Being righteous and good by nature, unspeakably generous and loving of mankind, You would in no way have immediately destroyed with an all-consuming fire all the beauty and all this kindness, if we ourselves had not angered Your extreme goodness by breaking Your commandments. Therefore, we beseech You, Thy servants: tell us what we have sinned so that we can, through repentance worthy of our sins, appease You, our righteous and terrible Judge? To this the Lord and Creator of all answered in a meek voice: Why do you, oh men, ungratefully and in vain slander My righteous judgment? While you should have repented to Me of what you always shamelessly sin, you anger My goodness even more by presenting to Me your good-harmony singing and ringing of bells, the valuable decoration of icons and the smoking of various incense, which, if you bring them from your lawful acquisitions and righteous labors, with a righteous disposition, like ancient Abel, then they are pleasing to Me, and I look upon I reward you with My divine gifts; for I am a righteous rewarder and do not leave even a cup of cold water without a reward. If you, oh, people, bring me this from unrighteous and godless covetousness and from acquisitions obtained through the theft of other people’s estates, then this is not only hateful to Me, as it is combined with the tears of orphans and weeping widows and with the blood of the poor, but it also arouses My indignation against you, as those who bring this to Me with an insult to My truth and My love for mankind, and forces you to either destroy it with strong fire, or give it to the barbarians for plunder, as I allowed, out of My righteous anger, regarding other nations, incomparably better than you, who, like you, committed lawlessness through drunkenness, pride, covetousness and all sorts of debauchery. The sudden destruction of the magnificent and powerful Greek kingdom, which befell it due to My righteous wrath several years before this, let it force you to lag behind My wrath, if you do not want to be subjected to the same thing. Remember what magnificent singing, and with what euphonious ringing of bells and with what fragrant incense, was abundantly performed for Me there every day; how many all-night vigils were performed on church holidays and solemn days; what beautiful, lofty and wonderful churches were erected there for Me, and in them how many apostolic martyr’s relics were kept, draining abundant sources of healing; what treasures of the highest wisdom and all intelligence were kept there. And all this did not bring them any benefit, since they killed the widow and the sire and killed the stranger, as it is written (Ps. 94:6). Abandoning their trust in My bounties, they attributed everything to the stars: their health, their well-being, the abundance of earthly fruits and victories over their enemies; Having been overcome by the love of gold, they hated every law of justice, justifying every offender for bribes, and they also elevated to sacred ranks those who were not worthy of it, but whoever brought the greatest reward, they appointed him as a teacher over My people. Fear this example, stop committing lawlessness, and try to quench My righteous wrath with Ninevit’s active repentance, for I, God, do not want iniquity (Ps. 5:5), and with all my heart I hate all those who do it, and I will consume their name from the earth; I love the righteous, and I protect them in the present age, and in the future I will glorify them. By what service can you please Me? Seeing Me depicted on the icon, you decorate My image with a golden crown, and you leave Me, who lives among you, to perish by hunger and cold, while you yourself always eat deliciously and get drunk and adorn yourself with various clothes. Provide Me with what I need! I don’t ask you for a golden crown; for My golden ornament and the crown forged for Me is to visit the poor, orphans and widows, and provide them with sufficient food, just as, on the contrary, their poverty in necessities constitutes for Me an annoyance on your part and extreme dishonor, even if you thundered in My churches with countless voices and beautiful singing; for I do not want sacrifice, but mercy. What joy can your sweet-voiced singing, combined with the sobs and sighs of My poor crying out to Me because of severe hunger, bring Me? I am the Judge of widows and the Father of orphans and am called the protector of the miserable beggars. Imitate Me in word and deed, and take care of them as I take care of them, and do not despise them, seeing that they suffer extreme need from hunger and cold, but, like your brothers, give them what they need with a generous hand. And then I will look at you with a meek face and a merciful eye and protect you in this life and glorify you in the future. And since you boast that you solemnly honor Me with various incense and the euphony of bells, then listen carefully and with zeal to this saving teaching of Mine and firmly preserve it in your hearts. Not in need of sweet bells and chants and precious aromas, O people, did I descend to earth, put on your form, endure severe suffering, annoyances and a three-day burial. Mine is the universe and its fulfillment (Ps. 49:12), according to the divine saying. I fill the heavens and the earth with every good thing and every fragrance, I open My hand and perform every living pleasure, as it is written (Ps. 144:16); Countless ethereal singers constantly thunder around My throne with beautiful singing and wondrous praises. But, strongly desiring your salvation, more honest than which there is nothing for Me out of all that exists, I lovingly endured all those sufferings in order to deliver you from demonic enslavement and all evil, and through pure and infallible faith, praiseworthy life and morals equal to the angels, lead you to the One true, ever-present, all-wise and incorruptible God. For this purpose, I commanded that My saving commandments, teachings and punishments be written into the books, so that you would know how you should please Me. You abundantly decorate the book of My words inside and outside with silver and gold, but you do not accept the power of My commands written in it and do not want to fulfill it, but, on the contrary, by your actions you show that you recognize everything as false and empty. While I command you to walk the narrow and sorrowful path, leading into the belly of those who live in abstinence and weeping, in the endurance of sorrows and misfortunes, you choose the broad path that savage peoples also follow: you eat deliciously and plentifully every day and spend your time in laughter and drunkenness, in various games and applause, not allowing any of this to be tested at My terrible judgment, and completely banishing the memory of this from your souls. Also: I bring joy to those who weep for themselves, and to those who are satisfied and live depravedly I foretell woe; but you, by playing the harp, timbrels and tambourines, and the vile choruses of depraved people, always console yourselves like the pagans. It is worthy of great lamentation that you, daring to commit such soul-destroying and abominable acts, always remain without repentance, hoping to be justified before Me by cold repentance at your very last breath. I will also accept this offering of yours if it is sealed with My commandment, that is, if what was taken away by robbery and mercilessness, return it to the offended; if you cleanse your soul with warm tears with sighing from the depths of your heart, sincere confession of your bad deeds and alms to the poor; if, leaving drunkenness and all sorts of bad deeds, you love a chaste life. Repentance, devoid of these good deeds, is not repentance, but reproach from demons, who are intensifying through this soul-destroying network to bring you down with them to the underworld of the earth. And again: I have commanded you not to hide treasures of gold and silver for yourself on earth; also through My Prophet I bequeathed to you: Even if wealth flows in an abundant stream, do not attach your heart to it and do not trust in destructive unrighteousness, and do not rejoice at the plunder of other people’s estates - do not desire admiration (Ps. 61:11): but have all your love and all your mind always directed towards the sky; You mercilessly and mercilessly plunder the poor and orphans and widows (as if I have no care for them), offend and kill them in various ways of godless extortion. I, through the mouth of the Prophet, strictly threaten, saying: Passion for the sake of the poor and the sighing of the wretched will now rise again (Ps. 11:6) to avenge them; But you remain deaf to every threat of Mine and to every commandment, like a deaf asp, you offend them and rob them insatiably, not at all ashamed and without fear of Me, and not only do you not give them the wealth that you consider yours, seeing that they suffer greatly from hunger, cold and all sorts of hardships, but you unlawfully deprive them completely of the very part that is assigned to them by My church, as received from the faithful princes to feed the poor, wretched, orphans and widows; you use it for your various pleasures, for decorating yourself with vestments, for luxurious feasts and rich gifts to noble dignitaries and rich nobles. I especially strictly and commanded you not to invite rich neighbors, or your relatives, or friends to the feast, but to invite the blind, the weak, the lame, the needy and, in general, all the poor (Luke 14:12-13); and this commandment of Mine has been trampled upon, and with the rich you always make luxurious and costly feasts, and generously present them with gifts from the estates of the poor and orphans, and Me, melting away from hunger and cold, standing outside your gates and bitterly crying because of my poverty, you, having first showered them with heavy abuse, drive away Me, throwing a piece of rotten bread; but through foul and lawless gains and covetousness, you accumulate for yourself silver for silver and gold for gold, placing your trust in this, more than in God, and boasting in this, which you expose yourself to. If you would obediently obey My words, trust in My bounties and love My eternal blessings with all your soul, then you would not unmercifully offend each other because of the desire to accumulate great wealth, but you would not keep what you have accumulated tightly in inaccessible places and in the bowels of the earth, but, like My divinely wise preacher (Paul), you would count it all for pus and dung in order to acquire ever abiding true wealth and life that never ceases. Now, like the pagans who do not know Me, God, you have clung with all your soul to the accumulation of wealth, given yourself over to drunkenness, untruths, debauchery, as if you did not at all think of being judged for this by Me, the terrible Judge. And again, I praise the peacemakers and call them sons of God; You envy each other, you are jealous of each other, and, like wild animals, you rebel against each other with rage and endless enmity, and even those who are called My priests, the teachers of My new Israel, who should be light by their exemplary life, and salt by their teaching, and should be a model of a chaste life for both believers and unbelievers, do the same. You now - oh, what an unspeakable shame! - have become teachers of all wickedness, a stumbling block and an object of temptation for the faithful and the unfaithful, for, just like simple and ignorant people, you overeat and get drunk without any abstinence, and with great rage you annoy each other when, from drinking a lot of wine, a dispute arises between you, which drives you into a strong rage. And this happens to you on the days of My divine holidays, when you should be sober, live decently, and attract others to your saving competition by the example of your sober life. But you, established by My command, for My glory and honor, and for your sanctification and for the correction of a good life - holidays, have made yourself a reason for drunkenness and revelry, acting in an extremely indecent manner on these days. Is this how you reward Me for My kindness towards you, for My death and three-day burial, which I endured for the sake of your salvation? Are you really trying to worthily glorify and honor Me, who glorified you with My divine glory? Truly, you constantly turn out to be ungrateful to Me and very opposed, not caring about My divine glory. You are famous and honest among everyone, and you have been enriched in abundance with all sorts of good things; My faith and divine glory turn into great laughter among the pagans, who see your morals and your life as directed not according to My commandments, but, on the contrary, in accordance with their lawless morals and filled with all sorts of vices: drunkenness, pride, covetousness, debauchery, for their sake, as it is written (Col. 3:6), My wrath is coming upon you and will not stop coming until it has completely destroyed all evil from you. If it pleases you to always receive beatings and all kinds of wounds from Me, the righteous Judge, then continue to abide in your usual iniquities; If, when you are beaten, you feel pain, then stop committing lawlessness. For loving you as a father does his children, I punish you a little so that you may receive eternal joy: you have heard that the Lord loves him, punishes him, beats every son, but accepts him (Proverbs 3:12). But I am not in a parable, but I clearly cry: Unless you are converted and become like unkind children, you will not enter into My heavenly kingdom (Matthew 18:3). But you have neglected this terrible threat, and are trying to surpass each other in sweet food, honor and fleeting glory, also in vestment decoration and a multitude of servants, and, desiring all this with all your soul, you always try to achieve greater degrees - and this is not in order to glorify Me more with your praiseworthy life and glory, and in order to convert people to the fulfillment of My commandments, but in order to save for yourself more treasures and more glory from people. And you allow yourself all this, despite the fact that you hear My clear word about the rich man who ate intemperately and dressed in purple and fine linen, that for his inhumanity he burns in fire and is not worthy of even a drop of water; and about poor Lazarus, that for his courageous patience, with thanksgiving, extreme poverty and terrible illness, he was installed in the bowels of Abraham! How many are there now who, just like this wretched one, endure cold and hunger and various ailments and, despised by you, lie on the streets, and you, like that hater of the poor, show off and eat various meals at the expense of the property of the poor and orphans, without trembling and not paying any attention to My threat - to cut in half and condemn to unquenchable fire the wicked slave who beats his minions, that is, the poor and orphans, leaving them to endure poverty in everyday needs! What answer can you give against all this when you appear naked and trembling before Me, when I judge you and test you severely in everything in which you have sinned? Or do you hope to be justified by faith in Me, or by baptism, or by these black rags that you put on yourself at your last breath? Remember what was written by My disciples, and try to stay away from all evil: for My divine and terrible judgment is applied without mercy to those who have not shown mercy (James 2:13); and not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, as you have heard, will enter the kingdom of heaven along with the wise virgins, but only he who does the will of My Father (Matthew 7:21), that is, who keeps My commandments. Therefore, in addition to your faith and black clothes, try to acquire godly deeds. Faith and black rags will not help anyone who does not have good and saving deeds, for the Judge does not look at perishable garments, but at the virtues that adorn the soul. Fear the cutting of a barren fig tree, which did not benefit from being planted in a vineyard when it did not bear the fruits of virtue to its owner (Luke 13:6). Fear also the example of someone expelled from the palace of spiritual marriages because they did not acquire a robe appropriate for such marriages. Under the robe worthy of divine marriages, understand the grace of saving baptism, which you, with your great madness and laziness, and disobedience to My words to you, defile and make vile and indecent with all sorts of vile lusts of the flesh. Fear My terrible judgment seat, which does not even justify virginity and working miracles, if they did not acquire oil in their vessels, that is, they did not take care of the poor, suffering from hunger, cold and all kinds of need; for right faith and good deeds, being deprived of one another, separately do not bring any benefit. Behold, you have heard in short words the reasons for My righteous anger at you: try to get behind them if you sincerely desire to remain harmless in the future and always be worthy of My intercession. If, due to your great foolishness and disobedience, you turn away from this saving and generous teaching of Mine and remain insensibly in your vices, sins and depravity, then I will also turn My face away from you, as I turned away My other peoples, who, like you, angered Me with drunkenness, debauchery and all sorts of untruths, and My right hand covering you from many troubles I'll take it away from you. And then you will learn in practice what evils and disasters are caused by the wrath of God. As much as I am generous and humane by nature, so is the terrible Judge, looking not at faces and not at vestments, but at the sincere conversion of the soul and at the hatred with which it hated its vices. I am a God who does not destroy, but saves and regrets the sins of those who turn to Me before their death and show fruits worthy of repentance. And those who, due to great shamelessness, voluntarily trample on My honest commandments, hoping through their last cold confession of sins to get rid of My condemnation - I will not stop beating them in this life until I completely destroy their malice, and in the future I will not stop doing this if they do not give up their godless thoughts and their evil disposition. I have said once and for all that a slave who knows the will of his master and has not done according to his will will suffer many beatings in the future; but the ignorant, having done something worthy of wounds, will suffer few punishments (Luke 12:47–48). But you, who know My will and sin shamelessly and very lawlessly, how do you hope to avoid My trials, by which every righteous person is severely tortured and is barely saved, as it is written (1 Pet. 4:18)? Take heed and be horrified, O foolish ones, and try to retreat from your charm! For if someone who lives righteously and reverently is barely saved from hell and eternal torment, then you, who are always filled with all sorts of filth and vile lawless deeds, how do you hope to receive salvation without producing fruits worthy of this? Or have you not heard and know the preacher crying that every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut off by the roots and thrown into the fire (Luke 3:9)? Try, before your departure, to bear fruits worthy of repentance, so that you may be like the blossoming phoenix planted in My house, like the cedar tree in Lebanon, multiplying in My courts (Ps. 92:13-14). You might be interested in: