Беседа 14

To those who abstain from marriage (ad continentes) 1. When the Gospel was read, you heard the words of the Lord, that whoever believes in Him believes in Him who sent Him (John 12:44). True faith teaches us that the Savior of the world has been sent to us, and that Christ Himself foretells Christ, i.e. His body, spread throughout the whole world. He was in heaven, and He said to the persecutor raging on earth: “Why are you persecuting Me?” ( Acts 9:4 )? This is what the Lord said about Himself here and indicated that He is in us. Just as He abides in us here, so we abide in Him there. This is how the union of love works. He who is our head is also the Savior of His body. So, Christ foretells Christ, the Head foretells His body and protects it. That is why the world hates us, as we heard from the Lord Himself (John 15:18–21). He does not say this to the apostles, only to a few, that the world will hate them, and that they should rejoice when people revile them and slander them in every way unrighteously, because for this their reward in heaven will be great (Matthew 5:11-12). The Lord did not say this to them alone, but He spoke to His whole body, He spoke to all His members. And whoever wants to be in His body and be a member of Him, let him not be surprised if the world hates Him. 2. Many have a share in the body of Christ; but not all who take part in this body will have the place promised to its members. Almost everyone recognizes the mystery of His body, because everyone eats together in His pastures, but He will come who will divide us, and put some on the right side, others on the left. And those on both sides will say: “Lord! when did we see You... and serve You?” or: “When did we see You... and not serve You?” Both sides will talk. However, to one He will only say: “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” and to the other: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:31–44). So, beloved, who in good conscience consider themselves members of Christ, we should not consider only those as our enemies, who are strangers to us. Much worse are those who, apparently, are among us, but are alien to us. They love the world and that is why they are evil. And they want to see in us what they themselves love, and when we sigh, taking advantage of the well-being of this world, they envy us. There we are considered happy, where we see ourselves in danger. They do not understand our inner happiness, because they have not experienced it. They do not know that if the world favors us in any way, it is rather a danger for us than happiness, since they have not known other joys. 3. So, seeing us now gathered in large numbers, I turn with instructions to your love, to those who have made a high vow, i.e. in the very body of Christ they occupy the highest place by His gift, and not by their own merits, having a conscience (conscientiam) given from God. For the evil and envious among us, this conscience attracts suspicion. Because, however, she is hurt because she is being tested. And if in the feat of abstinence we seek praise from people, we weaken under the weight of their reproaches. Although you are pure before God, the world considers you, perhaps, unclean, hurts and reproaches you, and willingly dwells on your shortcomings. It is as if it is pleasant for a malicious soul when something worse is suspected in another. And if you only wanted to accept the feat of abstinence for the sake of human praise, and if you weaken in your feat because of people’s reproaches, then you ruin everything that you previously promised. If you have learned to say with the apostle: “This praise of ours is the testimony of our conscience” (2 Cor. 1:12), then not only for the sake of reproaches your reward is not reduced, but on the contrary, it becomes even greater. However, pray for the one who blasphemes you, so that he does not perish because of your reward. By this we are tested, beloved, because if we did not have enemies, we would not have anyone to pray for according to the commandment of the Lord, who says: “Love your enemies... and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). How will we know and how will we prove whether we are capable of anything, if not when we do not remember any enemy, no detractor, no offender. You see that the evil are also necessary for the good. In this world we are like in a furnace where gold is refined. If you are not gold, you will burn together. If there is gold, your enemy is chaff. If you are chaff, together you will turn to ashes. 4. However, know this first of all, beloved, that in the body of Christ there are not only the most excellent members. There is a praiseworthy marriage life, and it has its place in the body of Christ, just as in our body not only those members that are placed above have a place; so, for example, the parts of the face occupy the highest part of the body, but if there were no legs, no matter how high the other part was, it would lie on the ground. Therefore, the apostle says: “And those members which seem to us to be less noble in the body, we take more care of those... God proportioned the body... so that there would be no division in the body” (1 Cor. 12:23-25). We know members of Christ who lead married life, although they are members of Christ, although they believe in Christ, look forward to the life of the next century and know why they wear the sign of Christ, we know that they do not deprive you of honor and consider you the best of themselves. But just as they respect you, so you must show them mutual respect. And if you are holy, be afraid, lest you destroy your holiness. Through what? Through pride. Just as the purity of a pure person perishes if he becomes an adulterer, so it perishes if he becomes proud. I even dare to assert that when leading a married life, if they have humility, they are better than proud virgins. Let your love consider what I say. Think about the devil. Will fornication or intemperance be reproached against him at God's judgment? He does nothing of the kind because he has no flesh. Pride and envy alone send him into eternal fire. 5. But if pride creeps up to the servant of God, envy immediately appears there. A proud person cannot help but be envious. Envy is the daughter of pride. This mother does not know infertility. As soon as she appears, she immediately gives birth. And so that you don’t have it, remember that during the persecution not only the Virgin Agnia was awarded the crown of martyrdom, but also Christina, who was married. It may be, and this is certain, that some of those who were abstinent at that time fell, and many of those who were married struggled and prevailed. Therefore, it is not in vain that the Apostle says to all the members of Christ: “Consider each other better than yourself” (Phil. 2:3) and “warn one another in respect” (Rom. 12:10). If you think about this, you will not be conceited. You should think more about what you lack, and not about what you have; what you have, be afraid so as not to lose it. What you don't have, ask so that you can have it. You need to remember how small you are, not how big you are. If you think how superior you are to another, beware of arrogance. When you think about what you lack, you grieve. And when you grieve, you correct yourself, you become humble; then you will be calmer, you will be further from danger, you will not become proud. 6. And oh, if everyone could think about only love. She only conquers everything, without her nothing matters, and wherever she is, she attracts everything to herself. She's not jealous. Why? Because “he is not arrogant” (1 Cor. 13:4). The first among all vices is pride, as I said above, and then envy. A person does not envy if he does not have the desire to surpass everyone (nisi amor excellentiae). This desire is called pride. So, although the first in order is pride and then envy, the apostle, in the praises of love, did not want to say first: “he is not exalted.” Why is this? Because when he said: “does not envy,” he forced you, as it were, to look for the reason why he does not envy, and therefore he added: “does not exalt himself.” Consequently, if she does not envy because she is not exalted, then if she were exalted, she would envy. Grow in this, let your spirit be strengthened in this, so as not to become arrogant. What puffs us up, as the apostle says, is knowledge (1 Cor. 8:1). So what? Should you really avoid knowledge, and is it better to choose ignorance than to be arrogant? But why are we telling you this if ignorance is better than knowledge? Why are we arguing with you? Why are we discussing this? Why do we exhort what we know and communicate what we do not know, if we need to be afraid of knowledge so that it does not puff up? Love knowledge, but place love above it. Knowledge, if it is only one, puffs up. And since “love edifies” (1 Cor. 8:1), it does not allow knowledge to be puffed up. So, where knowledge puffs up, there love does not edify; where it edifies, there the knowledge is firm. There is no arrogance where there is a strong foundation (non est ibib inflatio, ubi petra est fundamentum) for knowledge. 7. How great a temptation is pride, or exaltation, is evident from the fact that even such a great apostle as Paul said that he was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan, with which he was distressed. Whoever is depressed, his head sinks and does not rise, because even there from knowledge there was a danger of pride or exaltation. “And so that I would not become exalted by the extraordinaryness of the revelations,” says the apostle, “there it was necessary to be wary of exaltation, where there was the extraordinaryness of the revelations: “And so that I would not be exalted by the extraordinaryness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, an angel of Satan, to oppress me, so that I would not become exalted. Three times I prayed to the Lord to remove him from me. But the Lord said to me: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Cor. 12:7-9). A sick person asks that what the doctor offers him for salvation be taken away from him. The doctor says: “No, it hurts you, but it helps you get healthy.” You say: “Remove what hurts.” The doctor says: “I do not remove it, because it restores health.” For why did you come to the doctor? Is it not so that you can be cured and not endure torment? So the Lord did not heed Paul’s desire, because he was concerned about his salvation. It’s not a big deal when the Lord heeds our desire. Do not think that something great is if someone prays and his prayer is satisfied. But be careful about what you need to pray for and what you want to be heard about. Do not consider it a great thing to be heard according to your desire. Consider it great when your prayers are fulfilled for your own benefit. Sometimes the prayers of demons are satisfied. According to their request, they received, for example, permission to enter a herd of pigs (Matthew 8:31–32). According to his will, the devil was heard, and his request to test Job was not rejected so that he (Job) would be glorified through this, and the devil would be put to shame (Job 1 and Job 2). According to their desire, the Israelites were heard, and while food was still in their mouths, you know what they received (Num. 11). So, do not consider it something great when your desires are fulfilled. Sometimes the Lord in anger gives you what you ask for, and sometimes, out of mercy to you, He rejects your requests. When you ask the Lord for what He approves, what He commands and what He promises in the next century, ask calmly and persistently, as much as possible, in order to receive what you ask: all this, by the grace of God, is given to us not by His anger, but by His mercy. When you ask for temporary things, ask in moderation, ask carefully. Rely on Him, so that if it is useful to us, He will give it, and if it is harmful, He will refuse our request. What is useful and what is harmful is the doctor who knows, not the patient. 8. So, there are those who are humble and abstain (from marriage), and there are also those who are proud. Let the proud not hope for the Kingdom of God. High is the place where abstinence leads. But “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled” (Luke 14:11). Why do you seek exaltation by striving for lofty things, which you can achieve only through humility? If you exalt yourself, God will bring you down. If you humiliate yourself, God exalts you. This truth revealed by God; nothing can be added or subtracted here. Other people who devote themselves to abstinence are often so exalted that they are ungrateful and proud of them not only before any other people, even before their parents. Why? Because they gave birth to them, and they themselves (virgins) despised marriage. But where would these ungrateful people who despised marriage come from if they had not given birth to them? Of course, a son who rejected marriage is better than his father. And better than her mother is a daughter who refused to marry. But if the proud one (son or daughter), in no case is better. If it is better, then, without a doubt, only on condition of humility. If you want to see yourself as the best, ask your soul if there is arrogance there. Where there is arrogance, there is emptiness. Where the devil finds an empty place, he tries to find a home for himself there. 9. Finally, I dare, my brethren, to even say that for those who abstain, but are proud, it is useful to fall in order to be humbled in the very thing by which they are exalted. Because what good does abstinence benefit anyone if pride rules? He despised that from which man is born, and strives for that from which the devil fell. You despised marriage - you did well. I chose something better, but don’t be proud. From marriage man was born, from pride angels fell. If I weigh your benefits individually, you, who despised marriage, are better than your father, and you, who refused marriage, are better than your mother. Because the holiness of virgins is better than marital chastity. If only these two goods are compared, then one is better than the other - who will doubt that? But now I add two other qualities: humility and pride - of these two, which is better, tell me, humility or pride? You answer: humility. Connect it with the holiness of virginity. And let there be no pride not only in your virginity, but also in your mother. If you have pride, and your mother has humility, then a mother will be better than a daughter. And again I compare you. Above, when I compared virginity and marriage separately, I found you the best. Now I do not hesitate to prefer a humble wife to a proud virgin. Why don't I hesitate? See why. Marital modesty is good, but virgin chastity is better. I compared two goods: not evil and good, but good and another good, better. If, further, I compare those two qualities: pride and humility, is it possible to say: goodness is pride and humility is better? But what do we say? Pride is evil, and humility is good; pride is great evil, but humility is great good. If, therefore, one of these two is evil, and the other is good, then evil is added to your greater good, and everything becomes evil. The good is added to the lesser good of your mother, and a great good is obtained. A mother who is married will have a lower place in the Kingdom of Heaven than a daughter who remains a virgin. The highest place will be taken by the daughter - a virgin, the lowest - by the married mother, however, both will be there, just as a brilliant star and a dim star - both remain in the sky. But if your mother is humble and you are proud, she will have a place there, no matter what, and you will have none. And where will he find another place who will not be there (i.e., in the Kingdom of Heaven), if not with the one who himself has fallen and overthrows those who stand? From there the devil himself fell, from where he cast down the standing man. He overthrew the standing one. Christ, having descended to earth, raised up the one who was lying down. But look how your Lord has lifted you up. By humility He raised Himself, “humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to death” (Phil. 2:8). Your Lord has humbled himself, and will you be proud? If the head is humble, should the member be proud? Let it not be so. He who loves pride does not want to participate in the body of a humble head. And if he is not in this body, let him think about where he will be. I won’t talk about it so as not to seem too intimidating. However, oh, if only we could frighten and influence in such a way that if anyone was like this or was like this, they would no longer remain like this! Oh, that I would pour these words into your hearts, and not pour them out in vain! But let us trust in the mercy of God in everything, because He (the Lord) frightens and causes sorrow; causing sadness, He also consoles. And if anyone is not comforted, let him take care of his correction. You might be interested in: