Слово 48. О различии добродетелей и о совершенстве всего поприща

The perfection of the entire field lies in the following three things: repentance, purity and self-improvement. What is repentance? Leaving the former 296 and sadness 297 about it. What is purity? Briefly put: a heart that has mercy on all created nature. What is self-improvement? The depth of humility, i.e. abandonment of everything visible and invisible (visible, i.e., everything sensory, and invisible, i.e., mental) and care about it. At another time he was again asked: “What is repentance?” - and said: “A contrite and humble heart.” - “What is humility?” - and said 298: “A severe, voluntarily accepted death for everything.” - “And what is a merciful heart?” - and said: “A person’s heart is kindled about all creation, about people, about birds, about animals, about demons and about every creature. When remembering them and looking at them, a person’s eyes shed tears from the great and strong pity that envelops the heart. And because of his great patience, his heart is diminished, and it cannot bear, or hear, or see any harm or small sorrow endured by the creature. And therefore, for the dumb, and for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm him, he offers prayer every hour with tears, so that they may be preserved and purified; and also for the nature of reptiles he prays with great pity, which is immeasurably aroused in his heart due to his likeness to God in this.” And he was also asked: “What is prayer?” - and said: “Freedom and the abolition of the mind from everything here, - a heart that has completely turned its gaze to the lust of what is hoped for in the future. But whoever is far from this sows mixed seed in his field, and is like one who yokes an ox and a donkey together” (see Deut. 22:10). And he was also asked: “How can a person acquire humility?” - and said: “By unceasing remembrance of sins, by hope approaching death, by poor attire, by always preferring the last place and in any case willingly accepting the most recent and humiliated affairs, not to be disobedient, to maintain constant silence, not to like going to meetings, to wish to remain unknown and not counted 299, not to have any business at your complete disposal 300, hate conversations with many people, do not like profits and, above all, elevate your thoughts from any censure and accusation of any person and from competition, not to be the kind of person whose hands would be on everyone and on whom everyone would have hands 301, but to go about his business alone in solitude and not take care of anything in the world except himself. In short: a wandering life 302, poverty and solitude - this is what gives birth to humility and purifies the heart.” The sign of those who have achieved perfection is this: if ten times a day they are handed over to be burned for love for people, they are not satisfied with this, as Moses said to God: “If Thou hast forgiven them their sin, forgive it: and if not, blot me out of Thy book, Thou hast written it in the book” (Ex. 32:32); and as blessed Paul said: “I prayed that I myself would be excommunicated from Christ according to my brethren,” and so on (Rom. 9:3); and again: now I rejoice in sorrow for you Gentiles (Col. 1:24). And the other apostles, for their love for human life, accepted death in all its forms. The end of all this together is God and the Lord. Out of love for creation, He gave His Son up to death on the cross. “For God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son to eat” for it to die (John 3:16), not because He could not redeem us in any other way, but He taught us His abounding love; and by the death of His Only Begotten Son He brought us closer to Himself. And if He had something more precious, He would have given it to us in order to thereby acquire our race for Himself. And, out of His great love, He did not deign to restrict our freedom, although He was strong to do this, but He deigned that through the love of our own hearts we would draw closer to Him. And Christ Himself, out of His love for us, was obedient to His Father in joyfully accepting reproach and sorrow upon Himself, as Scripture says: “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, being careless about the shame” (Heb. 12:2). That is why the Lord, on the night on which he was betrayed, said: “This is My Body, which is given” for the world to life (Luke 22:19); and: “This is My Blood, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28); and he also says: “For their sake I will sanctify Myself” (John 17:19). This is how all the saints achieve this perfection when they become perfect and become like God through the outpouring of their love and love for mankind to everyone. And the saints strive for this sign - to become like God by perfection in love for their neighbor. This is what our fathers and monks did, when for the sake of this perfection they always accepted into themselves the likeness filled with the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. They say that Blessed Anthony never decided to do anything more useful for himself than for his neighbor, in the hope that the benefit of his neighbor was the best thing for him to do. They also tell about Abba Agathon, as if he said: “I would like to find a leper and take his body from him, and give him mine.” Do you see perfect love? And also regarding what he had outside of him, he could not resist so as not to give peace to his neighbor. And one more thing: he had a knife; the brother, having come to him, wished to have it, and the abba did not allow him to leave his cell without this knife. Such and so on are written about such men. But why am I saying this? Many of them, for the sake of their neighbors, betrayed their bodies to beasts, sword and fire. No one can ascend to the level of this love unless he secretly feels his own hope. And those who love this world cannot acquire love for people. When someone acquires love, he puts on God Himself. And the one who has acquired God must not only not agree to acquire anything else with Him, but also put off his body. If someone puts on love for the world in this world and in this life, he will not put on God until he leaves this. For God Himself testified to this, saying: “Unless anyone” forsakes everything “and hates his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). You should not only leave it, but also hate it. And if someone cannot be a disciple of the Lord, then how will the Lord dwell in him? Question. Why is hope so sweet, and its life and deeds are easy, and its deeds are quickly accomplished in the soul? Answer. Because a natural desire awakens in the souls of the saints, and gives them to drink from this cup, and intoxicates them with its beauty 305. Therefore, they no longer feel labor, but become insensitive to sorrows, and throughout their procession they think that their procession is taking place through the air, and that they are not walking in human feet; because they do not see the difficulty of the path, there are no hills and streams before them, “and the sharp paths will be smooth for them,” and so on. (Isa. 40:4), and because their attention is hourly drawn to the bosom of their Father, and hope itself, as if with a finger, points out to them at every moment the distant and invisible, as if looking at it speculatively with the hidden eye of faith, and because with the desire of the distant, as if by fire, all parts of the soul are kindled, and the absent is imputed to them as present. The whole extent of their thoughts stretches there, and they always hasten to reach there; and when they approach the accomplishment of any virtue, they do not work partially on it alone, but suddenly and completely perform it in all parts, because these giants do not make their procession in a royal way, like all the others, but choose short paths for themselves, along which others clearly quickly come to the monastery. Hope itself kindles them, as it were, with fire, and they cannot give themselves rest in the rapid and incessant flow, accomplished with joy. What happens to them is what was said by the blessed Jeremiah, for he says: “I will not remember the name of the Lord, but I will say to someone in His name: and it was in my heart like a burning fire,” and piercing into my bones (Jer. 20:9). This is how remembrance of God acts in their hearts, intoxicated with the hope of God’s promises. Brief paths of virtues are universal virtues, because they do not have a large distance between many paths of life from one path to another: they do not wait for place or time, do not allow waste, but immediately get down to business and fulfill it. Question. What is human dispassion? Answer. Dispassion does not consist in not feeling passions, but in not accepting them into oneself. As a result of the many and various virtues, obvious and hidden, acquired by the saints, the passions have weakened in them and cannot easily rise up in the soul; and the mind does not need to constantly be attentive to them, because at all times it is filled with its thoughts as a result of reflection and conversation about the best images that are consciously aroused in the mind. And as soon as passions begin to be aroused, the mind is suddenly delighted by the approach to them with some understanding that has entered the mind, and the passions, as Blessed Mark said, remain in it as if idle. The mind, by the grace of God, performing virtuous deeds and approaching knowledge, feels little of what constitutes the bad 307 and unreasonable part of the soul. For knowledge delights him in height and alienates him from everything in the world. And because of the integrity of the saints and the subtlety, flexibility and sharpness of their minds, as well as because of their feat, their mind is purified and turns out to be enlightened, according to the dryness of their flesh. And, as a result of teaching them silence and a long stay in it, the inner is easily and quickly given to everyone and leads to delight in contemplation. At the same time, they usually abound in contemplations, and their minds never lack objects of understanding, and they are never without something that produces the fruit of the spirit in them. Long-term practice erases the memories in their hearts, which arouse passions in the soul, and the power of the devil’s power is abolished. For when the soul does not become friends with the passions by thinking about them, then, since it is occupied with other concerns, the power of the passions cannot hold its spiritual feelings in its claws. Question. What are the benefits of humility? Answer. Just as conceit is a waste of the soul in its daydreaming, which leads it to soar and does not prevent it from soaring in the clouds of its thoughts, so that it whirls throughout creation, so humility gathers the soul into silence, and it concentrates in itself. Just as the soul is unknowable and invisible with bodily eyes, so the humble person is not known among people. And just as the soul inside the body is hidden from sight and from communication with all people, so a truly humble person, due to his separation from everyone and deprivation 308 in everything, not only does not want to be seen and known by people, but even this is his will - if possible, from himself, plunge into himself, enter into silence and dwell in it, completely leaving all his previous thoughts and feelings, to become something as if not existing in creation, not who have yet come into existence, completely unknown even to their very soul. And while such a person is hidden, enclosed in himself and separated from the world, he remains entirely in his Master. The humble man never stops 309 to look at meetings, crowds, excitement, noise, revelry, troubles and pleasure, the consequence of which is intemperance; does not get involved in speeches, conversations, cliques and dispersion of feelings, but prefers to be separated from everyone in silence, secluded and separated from all creation, taking care of himself in a silent country. In everything, belittlement, non-covetousness, need, poverty are desirable for him. What he wants is not to have a lot for himself and to be in constant business, but to remain free at all times, not to have worries, not to be indignant at what is here, so that his thoughts do not come from outside him. For he is sure that if he gets involved in many things, he will not be able to remain without confusion of thoughts, because with many things there is a lot of worries and a collection of complex thoughts. And man no longer, in the world of his thoughts, ceases to be above all earthly concerns, with the exception of small, most necessary needs, and loses his thought, which is preoccupied with its only best thoughts. If needs do not cease to keep him from his best thoughts, then he reaches a state in which he both suffers and does harm - and from that time on, the door to passions is opened, the silence of prudence is removed, humility flees, and the door of peace is closed. For all this, the humble person constantly protects himself from many things, and then finds himself at all times in silence, in peace, in peace, in meekness, in reverence. In a humble person there is never fussiness, haste, confusion, hot and light thoughts, but at all times he remains at peace. If the sky were to cling to the earth, the humble would not be horrified. Not every silent person is humble, but every humble person is silent. He who is unhumblely wise is not humbled; but you will find many humiliated and unhumble-wise. This means what was said by the meek and humble Lord: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29). The humble person remains at peace at all times, because there is nothing to move his mind or terrify him. Just as no one can frighten a mountain, so his mind is unafraid. And, if I may put it this way (and perhaps it is not inappropriate to say it), the humble man is “not of this world” (John 8:23); because even in sorrows it is not horrified and does not change, and in joy it is not surprised and does not expand. But all his joy and true joy are in his Master. Humility is followed by meekness and concentration in oneself, that is, chastity of feelings, proportionality of voice, laconicism, neglect of oneself, poor clothing, a non-arrogant gait, lowering of the eyes, superiority in mercy, rapid outpouring of tears, a solitary soul, a contrite heart, immobility to irritation, unsquandered feelings, smallness of property, belittling in every need, enduring everything, patience, lack of fear, firmness of heart, which comes from hating temporary life, patience in temptations, weighty and not light thoughts, quenching of thoughts, keeping the secrets of chastity, modesty, reverence, and above all this, incessant silence and the constant accusation of ignorance. The humble man never encounters such a need that would lead him to confusion or embarrassment. The humble man sometimes, being alone, is ashamed of himself. I am amazed that a truly humble person does not dare to pray to God when he begins to pray, or to consider himself worthy of prayer, or to ask for anything else, and does not know what to pray for; but he is only silent with all his thoughts, awaiting only mercy and the will that will come for him from the face of the venerable Majesty, when he bows his face to the ground, and the inner vision of his heart is lifted up to the exalted gates of the Holy of Holies, where He whose habitation is darkness, Who dulls the eyes of the Seraphim, Whose virtue prompts the legions to stand their ground, Who is for everything their ranks are poured out in silence. - And he only dares to speak and pray like this: “According to Your will, Lord, be it with me!” We will say the same about ourselves. Amen. The words “what is humility - and said” are supplemented from the ancient Slavic translation. Of course, one’s own will, not subordinate to the will of another, for example, a spiritual father. 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