Слово 76

(1) One must observe and maintain a saving fast not only in the first week of Holy Pentecost, but also in all others. 1. What I have to say to your love now, I should have said last Sunday. But as I knew that in the first week of Lent, almost all Christians with joy and great zeal hold a good and saving fast, everyone willingly places its yoke on their neck, and you will not find even one of those who, not expecting salvation for themselves, spend their lives in fearlessness and carelessness about pleasing God, who would not observe the law of fasting during this week and would not maintain abstinence together with other Christians for as long as this he can do it, then I decided to postpone until now my conversation with you about fasting during the other weeks of Great Lent. All Christians, as I said, strive during the first week of Lent. But just as on Saturday we celebrate the glorious deliverance from desecration that happened to the Christian people through the Holy Great Martyr Theodore Tyrone, and on Sunday we celebrate a holiday in remembrance of Orthodoxy and thank the All-Good God with praises and songs, then at this time the evil devil, envious of all our good, secretly approaches every Christian and, binding him with negligence and laziness, inspires us to turn away from holy fasting, which is so saving for us, and again fall back into our former evil customs. For this reason, I now remind you and ask your love, do not at all listen to our enemy the devil, do not again begin to follow the evil habit of insatiable gluttony, and do not return again to the satisfaction of unkind desires, which you previously satisfied for such a long time, but as we honored the first week of this Great Lent, so let us honor the second, and then successively all the others. Yes, my beloved brethren, let us take pity on ourselves and not allow ourselves to destroy in the coming week what we have collected in the past week. On the contrary, we should be more jealous of adding something else to what we have acquired first, and not throwing away the evil (bad - Ed.) that we have previously saved for the good. For this, everyone remember how great the benefit fasting brought him and how great grace he received from God in these few days of the first week, and thereby kindle zeal for the further feat of fasting. Fasting, as a doctor of our souls, pacifies the flesh of one Christian, tames anger of another, drives away sleep from one, excites another to greater good deeds, cleanses the mind of one and makes it free from evil thoughts, binds the uncontrollable tongue of another and the fear of God, like a bridle, holds it back, not allowing it to speak idle and rotten words, and of another does not allow the eyes to look here and there and be curious about what does one or the other, but everyone is disposed to listen to himself and consider his own sins and shortcomings. Fasting little by little thins the sinful veil that lies on the soul and dispels its mental darkness, like the sun dispels fog. Fasting makes us capable of intelligently discerning the spiritual air in which the intelligent Sun of Truth, our Lord Jesus Christ, always shines. Fasting, taking vigil as its assistant, drives away the hardening of the heart, and from the one who was formerly an eater and a drinker (a lover of eating and drinking - Ed.), draws streams of tears of contrition - what we take care of, I ask you, brothers, to have for all of us. For if we come to contrition, then, with the help of God’s grace, we will easily get rid of every rebellion of passions and the storm of enemy temptations, and we will reach the serene haven of dispassion. This, my brethren, is not achieved in one day or in one week, but is corrected, with the help of the grace of God, over a more or less long period of time through labor and sweat, depending on the zeal and zeal of each, also depending on the extent of his renunciation from everything visible and mental, and also depending on the fervor of his repentance and unceasing mental activity, that is, mental prayer, constantly moving in the depths of his heart. This is how this is corrected - faster for one, slower for another. Without fasting, no one can ever correct anything that I have said, nor can one succeed in any other virtue, for fasting is the beginning and foundation of all spiritual work. Whatever virtues you create on the basis of fasting, they will all be unshakable and unshakable, like those written on solid stone. And when you accept this foundation, that is, fasting, and in its place you put satiation of the belly and other inappropriate desires, then all the virtues will be shaken and blown away from bad thoughts and from the flow of passions, like sand blown by the wind - and the entire edifice of virtue collapses. So, so that this does not happen to us, let us stand with joy on the solid foundation of fasting, let us stand, my good brothers, let us stand with all our desire. For whoever is forced by others to ascend the stone of fasting without his own desire will not stand, but will be moved from this foundation by lust and plunge into secret eating, beginning to eat secretly; the one who begins to eat secretly will be devoured by the evil devil. Fasting is the law and command of God, and those who transgress this law of God are taken into his power by the first criminal of God's will, the devil, and torment them like a tyrant. Although this does not happen immediately, because God is patient with us, waiting for our repentance, we will not escape from the hands of this enemy of ours, either in this life or in the future, if we remain in sin and do not repent. For if we remain in such a state (secret eating), then we will be condemned by the righteous judgment of God to eternal torment together with the devil, because although we hide from people and can do it secretly, we cannot hide from our Master and God: He will reward us according to our deeds. Let us, my brethren, take every possible care not only from secret eating, but also from satiation with the dishes offered at the meal. Hey, do it like that, I beg you. Remember the past holy week, look at the benefits brought by fasting in conjunction with vigil, prayer, and psalmody. What contrition everyone had, what reverence and silence! That week, all Christians seemed to me not like people, but like Angels, because then I didn’t hear any other word except the doxology that you all sent to God - which is the work of Angels. I believe that just as you did the work of the Angels, so the Angels moved among you invisibly and sang along with you. Do not separate yourself from the congregation of the Angels through your verbosity and idle talk, and with your disorderly voices and immeasurable cries, do not drive away the Angels from yourself and do not bring demons closer to you, but let everyone pay attention to himself, doing his handicraft and fulfilling his obedience, as if he were before the face of God. Do not give up, my brothers, church services and reading the Divine Scriptures, and encourage one another to do this. For just as at an ordinary material meal we encourage those sitting near us and those whom we love to eat, so at this spiritual meal that nourishes our souls, we have a duty to listen ourselves and to encourage our brethren to listen, so as not to be condemned by God as not loving one another, and not to lose the honor we have received of being disciples of Christ, Who speaks thus in the Holy Gospel: of this all understand, as Mine. You are natural disciples if you have love for one another (John 13:35). He who does not force his friend to eat at a material meal often brings him great benefit, but he who does not force his friend to eat a spiritual meal, that is, to listen to divine words, causes him great harm. For satiety with material foods can corrupt and damage both the soul and the body, but what is said by the saints at the readings enlightens the mind, sanctifies the soul, and through it transfers sanctification to the body, making it healthier and stronger. Listen, everyone, to the reading, because the words of the saints are the words of God, and not of men; put them in your heart and guard them well, because the words of God are the words of life, and the one who has them in himself and keeps them has an eternal life. When we sit at a meal at which various dishes are presented, I think that no one yawns or dozes, but everyone cares not only to eat enough, but also to take with him for tomorrow or to give something to friends or the poor, and when the words of God are read, giving life and making immortal those who feed on them, tell me, I ask you, is it proper for anyone to doze off and even fall asleep, like the living dead? O negligence! oh insensibility! oh loss! Anyone who, while sitting at a regular meal, has no desire to eat the food presented there, is obviously unhealthy. So the one who, listening to the divine reading, does not accept these divine words into his soul with delight and complete pleasure and does not mentally saturate all his feelings with their sweetness, is sick with faith, hungry for spiritual gifts and dies of spiritual hunger and thirst, despite being surrounded by all sorts of blessings. Just as a dead person, when he is washed with water, does not feel anything, so a spiritually dead person, being watered by the life-giving and divine currents of the word, does not feel it in his spirit. So, you who have in you the words of life, who have reached the words of the animal before eating this bread, who are not dead, but rose from the dead, have tasted true life and have acquired the wombs of generosity towards your neighbors, do not cease to urge, beg and convince your brothers, if possible, all of them, to listen to the reading; Reprove and rebuke the careless as your own members, or, better to say, members of Christ, not so that you cause grief to them, but let them be delivered from the wrath of their father’s indignation - not so that you cause any harm to them, but let you use them greatly, disposing them to fulfill the will and command of God and their Father. If you do this, if each of you encourages his brother to love and good deeds, then we will all soon rise to the heights of virtues and fulfill all the commandments of Christ, for which we will all be worthy to receive together the kingdom of heaven in Christ our God, to whom belongs all glory, honor and worship, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: