Слово 19

(1) The soul is purified through faith and fulfillment of the commandments of Christ. – (2) She is clothed from above with the descending power of the Holy Spirit and is made worthy to see God. – (3) Those who wish to receive good from God must joyfully endure all sorrow, suffering and temptation that meets them. – (4) Everyone should consider himself whether he is worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven. The mind, united with God by faith, having come to know Him through the practice of virtues and worthy to see Him through contemplation, sees wondrous and glorious miracles. He is completely illuminated and becomes like light, although he cannot understand and express what he sees. For then the mind itself is light and sees the Light of all, that is, God, and this light that it sees is life, and gives life to those who see it. The mind sees itself completely united with this light and is soberly awake. He realizes that this light is inside his soul, and is amazed; amazed, he sees him as if he were far from him; then, having come to his senses, he again finds this light within; and, thus, finds neither words nor thoughts, what to say and what to think about the light that they see. Who, hearing this sacrament, will not be surprised and, wondering, will not resort to Christ? Who wouldn’t want to see these miracles of God for themselves? And who will not love Him Who gives us such glorious gifts without price? 2. Let us strive, my beloved brothers, to gain Christ and see how marvelous He is in His beauty and sweetness. He Himself says: If you have My commandments and keep them, then you love Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and show myself to him (John 14:21). And then he adds: if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him (23). This one who loves God and keeps His commandments is clothed with the descending power of the Holy Spirit, who does not appear sensually, in the form of fire, and does not come with great noise and stormy breathing (this happened only on the Apostles - for unbelievers), but is seen intelligently, like an intelligent light, and comes with quietness, bringing joy - which is the reflection of the first eternal light and the reflection of the unceasing bliss. As soon as this light shines in the spirit, every unclean thought immediately disappears, every spiritual passion is driven out, and every bodily infirmity is healed. Then the eyes of the heart - the mind and thought - are cleansed, and they see God, as it is written in the Gospel about the beatitudes. Then the soul, as in a mirror, sees all its even the smallest sins and comes into the greatest humility; Thinking about the greatness of this glory, he is filled with all joy and gladness and, marveling at the miracle he unexpectedly saw, sheds copious tears. Thus, finally, the whole person changes completely and comes to know God, having himself first been known by God. This grace of the All-Holy Spirit alone makes a person begin to despise everything earthly and heavenly, present and future, joyful and sorrowful. She makes him a friend and a son of God and a god, as far as this is possible for a person. Oh, how majestic are the gifts of God! Almost everyone is ashamed of weak and poor people: the king of the earth does not even want to look at them, nobles turn away from them, rich people despise them. If you somehow happen to meet such people on the way, they are passed around, not paying attention to them, as if they were insignificant, and no one even considers it would be good to enter into communication with them. But the all-merciful God left the strong, wise and rich of the world and chose the weak, unwise and poor, according to His great and ineffable goodness. And who is content enough to worthily thank Him for this alone?! This God, Who is served by ten thousand angels, Who bears all things with His power (Heb. 1:3), the greatness of whose glory no one can endure, this very God deigned to become the father, and brother, and friend of such outcasts, and to take on human flesh, in order to become like us in everything except sin, and to make us partakers and heirs of His glory and His kingdom. Oh, how great and rich is the goodness, how inexpressible is the condescension towards us of our Master God! But why, brethren, do we not resort to this gracious God, who loved us so much? Why do we not give our lives to death for the love of Christ and our God, who died for us? Don’t we see how many people, out of addiction to perishable goods, endure great labors, are exposed to great dangers, go to distant places, leaving their wives and children and all sorts of worldly consolations, and do not place anything higher and more beautiful than what they desire, and do not give themselves peace until they achieve their goal? But if these, for the sake of temporary and perishable benefits, undertake such a feat and, in order to obtain them, endanger both their soul and their life, then is it not in every possible way appropriate for us to give up both our souls and our bodies to death for the sake of love for the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the Creator, Almighty and Ruler of all creatures? He Himself says in His Holy Gospel that he who has lost his soul, that is, who has prepared to sacrifice his life, for Me and for the sake of the Gospel, or who has made his soul dead for the world and does not find it occupied by any carnal lust, will save it, but he who finds his soul, that is, he who regrets to give up his life for Me or who finds his soul occupied with something sinful, will destroy it. This is what God, who is omnipresent and contains everything, says! Where will we, brothers, run away from His presence, or where will we go? If we ascend to heaven, we will find Him there; shall we descend into hell, and He is present there; Let us go into the depths of the sea, and there we will not escape from His sovereign hand, but His right hand will hold both our souls and our bodies. So, brothers, since we cannot resist the Lord, nor run away from His face, come, let us become better servants of that God, Who for our sake became a man, took on the form of a servant and died out of love for us. Come, let us bow under the strong and invincible hand of Christ, who exudes eternal and immortal life and abundantly fills with it those who seek it in Him, with the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. Come, let us seek Christ, in whom we were clothed in holy Baptism, but for the sake of our evil deeds we again put Him off. When we were baptized, we were still foolish babies, both in age and in mind, and did not understand how great we had received sanctification; Then, although we knew this, we, carried away by youth, desecrated ourselves with our sins, lost the grace of holy Baptism, and continue to defile both our souls and bodies every day, breaking the commandments of God. Let us return ourselves again to our previous rite by repentance, which now remains the only path to our salvation, and let us put it in our hearts to work hard in doing all kinds of good deeds, of which we know that they are pleasing to Christ the Lord, so that we may again be sealed with the seal of the Holy Spirit and live the rest of our lives blamelessly, having Christ the Savior as our all-powerful helper, from Whom as a result we will receive that mercy, that we will become worthy to know the secrets of our God, hidden from time immemorial and from generation to generation. 3. If we want to achieve what our soul loves, that is, the blessings of God, and, being human, become earthly angels, we must also love sorrow and bodily distress, lift up all suffering and endure temptations with joy, in the confidence that they will bring us all good. What is more beautiful than a soul that with reason and reasoning raises all kinds of sorrows and suffering, for the sake of enduring which it can also inherit all kinds of joy? What is more courageous than a contrite and humble heart, which easily defeats all demons and completely drives them away from itself? What is more glorious than mendication in spirit, which brings to man the kingdom of heaven, to which there is nothing equivalent and cannot be, either in the present or in the future life? But also, what kind of angelic state does the angelic state bring to him, and what eternal benefits does it prepare for him, that no one has any more agonizing concern for himself regarding earthly and temporary things? And then again, that someone despises everything temporary and perishable, and everything almost necessary for his body, so that he never starts disputes and quarrels because of them, but always keeps peace and love in his soul, undisturbed by this, what reward is not worthy, what crowns and gifts? Truly this commandment is above nature and its fulfillment is above the word and reason, because Christ is everything for such, instead of everything that he despises. Hearing: Christ, do not pay attention to one bare word and do not look at the smallness of the speech, but think about the glory of His Divinity, which surpasses every mind and every word, think about His ineffable beauty, about immeasurable mercy, about unimaginable wealth, which He richly gives to such with all generosity, and you will understand that He alone is sufficient for them in replacement of everything else, since they they accept God Himself, the Source and Giver of all good. Therefore, none of those who have been deemed worthy to receive Christ desire anything else, and none of those who are satiated with the love of God no longer has the urge to love anything else here on earth. Truly, my brethren, there is nothing better in the world than to have nothing of the blessings of this world, not to desire to acquire anything more than the necessary needs of the body, and not to plan to rest one’s flesh and please it, but to desire one thing - to live a spiritual life, not doing anything to please the flesh through lust (Rom. 13:14). I call the necessary needs of the body bread and water, clothing and shelter, as the Apostle teaches: if we have food and clothing, we will be satisfied with these (1 Tim. 6:8). If we need anything more than this, then in every possible way, if we believe in God and trust in Him, He, who gives us more than this and provides for all that exists, will give it to us. Let us just leave behind everything else that has come into our temporary life - vanity, envy, disputes and quarrels, deceit, murmuring, slander and everything in general that is hateful to God and causes harm to the soul, and let us love with all our hearts what God commands - spiritual poverty, or humility, and incessant day-night crying, from which joy flows into the soul every hour and comfort for those who love God. From this crying, meekness is also generated in those who struggle in the truth, from crying they hunger and thirst for truth or any virtue and always seek the kingdom of God, which surpasses all human understanding; from incessant weeping they are merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, filled with peace, and complacent in temptation; from crying they hate evil; from crying, divine jealousy is kindled in the soul, which does not for a moment allow it to indulge in the peace of carelessness or, together with the evil, to bend to evil, but fills it with courage and strength to endure to the end all kinds of temptations. 4. Let us hate, my beloved brethren, this world and everything that is in the world. Why should we have communication with the world and with worldly affairs, when our Lord tells us in the Holy Gospel: keep away from the world (John 15:19)? Let us follow the path of virtue. Let us strive until we acquire something of the ever-present and incorruptible. For all the things of this world are perishable and pass away like a dream, and there is nothing permanent and solid in them; the sun, the stars, the sky, and the earth - everything passes away and only one person remains. What now of this visible thing can serve us in favor, in the hour of mortal need, when we move from this life to our stay there, in the endless age to come, and we will leave it all here, and it will decay and pass away? Although all this visible will not immediately pass away, what good is it to us when we must be separated from it, leaving here only our dead and insensible body, and our soul will no longer have the opportunity to see anything through this body, nor be seen by anyone, but from that hour will listen to the invisible alone, having entered into other relationships and other orders of life, in order to either enjoy the kingdom of heaven and eternal glory, or inherit Gehenna and eternal fire? One of these two must be received from God as an eternal inheritance according to the deeds that someone does in this life. For this reason, my beloved brothers, let us hate, I beg you, this world, let us flee from its charms, and from the imaginary and false joys of this life, and let us resort to Christ alone, the Redeemer of our souls, trying in every possible way to find Him, the omnipresent. Having found Him, let us fall at His feet and kiss them with all the fervor of our souls. I beg you, let us strive to see Him while we are still alive. For if we are worthy to see Him here, we will not die, and death will not dominate us. Let us not wait to see Him in the future life, but now let us strive to see Him. We know, says Saint John the Theologian, that we have God in our hearts, according to the Spirit, whom we have received from Him (1 John 3:24, 4:13). So, you, who have shown your faith in Him, firm and known by your deeds, discuss with all attention what I have said to you, and carefully consider whether you are not deceived, thinking that you have Christ in you, while you have nothing and are in danger of leaving this life empty-handed, so that you can hear that terrible voice saying: Take what this evil servant thinks you have, and give to him who has more ( Luke 8:18 ; Matthew 25:29 ). Then you will weep and weep and receive eternal sorrow. But may it not be for us to hear such a voice and suffer something similar - we, who at the hour of divine Baptism renounced the devil and all his works and united with Christ, vowing to keep His commandments. Let us strive to keep the divine commandments and cleanse our hearts with tears and repentance, so that we may see Christ Himself - this Divine Light, and may we acquire Him here, in this life, as the Dweller in us, may He quicken our souls with the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, and may He nourish them with the sweetness of the desired blessings of His kingdom. Amen. You might be interested in: