The path to salvation. Brief sketch of asceticism

The “Outline of Christian Moral Teaching” depicts the feelings and dispositions that are obligatory for us, but this does not say everything that is necessary for arranging our salvation. The main thing for us is real life in the spirit of Christ. And just touch on this, how many bewilderments will arise and how many, therefore, instructions will be needed, and, moreover, at almost every step! True, there the last goal of man is indicated - in communication with God - and the path to it is depicted: this is faith with walking in the commandments, with the help of the grace of God. If only I could add the word: this is the way! Go! It's easy to say: this is the way, go! But how to do this? Mostly there is a lack of desire to go. The soul, carried away by some passion, stubbornly rejects every compulsion and every call; He turns his eyes away from God and does not want to look at Him. The law of Christ is not to my heart; she has no inclination to listen about him: her soul, as they say, does not lie. The question arises: how can we get to the point where the desire to go to God the way of Christ is born? How can we make sure that the law is imprinted in the heart and that a person, acting according to this law, acts on his own, spontaneously, so that this law does not lie on him, but seems to emanate from him? But let anyone turn to God, let him love His law; Is the very procession to God, the very walking along the path of the law of Christ already necessary and will be successful only because we have desired it? No. In addition to desire, you also need to have the strength and ability to act: you need active wisdom. Whoever embarks on the true path of pleasing God or begins, with the help of grace, to strive for God, through the predetermined law of Christ, he will inevitably be in danger of straying at crossroads, getting lost and perishing, imagining himself to be saved. These crossroads are inevitable due to the remaining, even in conversion, sinful urge and disorder of forces, which even in this state are capable of presenting things in a distorted form - to seduce and destroy a person. Added to this is flattery from Satan, who is reluctant to part with his victims, and when someone from his region goes to the light of Christ, he chases after him and lays all sorts of nets to catch him again, and often actually catches him. Consequently, the one who already has a desire to follow the indicated path to the Lord must also indicate all the deviations possible on this path, so that the one who goes ahead will be aware of this, see the dangers that may arise and know how to avoid them. These common inevitabilities on the path of salvation make necessary special guiding rules in Christian life, which must determine: how to reach the saving desire for communion with God and zeal to remain in it and how to safely go to God, among all the crossroads possible on this path at all degrees - otherwise: how to begin to live like a Christian and how, having begun, to become perfect in this. This leadership must take a person outside of God, turn him to Him and then bring him before His face; must trace Christian life in its phenomena, in fact, from beginning to end, i.e. how it is seeded, develops, matures and comes to fullness, or - what is the same - to write the history of the active life of every Christian, showing how in what case he should act in order to maintain his rank. The seeding and development of Christian life is significantly different from the seeding and development of natural life. This depends on the special character of the Christian life and its relation to our nature. A person is not born a Christian, but becomes one after birth. The seed of Christ falls to the ground of an already beating heart. But just as a naturally born person is damaged and contrary to the requirements of Christianity, then - whereas, for example, in a plant, the beginning of life is the awakening of the sprout of a seed, the awakening of seemingly dormant forces - the beginning of a truly Christian life in a person is a certain re-creation, the bestowal of new forces, new life. Further, let Christianity be accepted as a law, i.e. the determination to live like a Christian is laid down: this seed of life (determination) is not surrounded in a person by elements favorable to it; and at the same time the whole person, his body and soul, remains unadapted to the new life, disobedient to the yoke of Christ; therefore, from this moment a person begins the sweaty labor of forming all of himself, all of his strength, in a Christian way. That is why, while growth, for example, in plants is a gradual development of strength, easy, unconstrained, in a Christian it is a laborious struggle with himself, intense and sorrowful, and he must tune his strength to something for which they have no inclination: he, like a warrior, every step of the ground, although his own, must take away from his enemies by war with the double-edged sword of self-compulsion and self-resistance. Finally, after much work and effort, the Christian principles are victorious, ruling without resistance, penetrating the entire composition of human nature, displacing from it hostile demands and aspirations, and placing it in a state of dispassion and purity, granting the bliss of the pure in heart - to see God within oneself in sincere communion with Him. This is the state of Christian life in us. It has three degrees, which, according to their properties, can be called as follows: 1st - turning to God, 2nd - purification or self-correction, 3rd - sanctification. On the first, a person turns from darkness to light, from the realm of Satan to God; on the second, he cleanses the church of his heart from all impurities in order to receive Christ the Lord coming to him; on the third, the Lord comes, dwells in the heart and sups with it. This state of blissful communion with God is the goal of all labors and exploits! To depict all this and define it with rules will mean to indicate the path to salvation. Complete guidance in this matter takes a person at the crossroads of sin, leads him through a fiery path of purification and raises him to the degree of perfection possible for him, to the measure of the age of fulfillment of Christ. Otherwise, it should show: how Christian life begins in us; how it improves - it matures and grows stronger, and what it is in its full perfection. You might be interested in: