Слово 83. О покаянии

How grace upon grace 635 - people were given repentance after baptism. For repentance is the second regeneration from God. And that gift, the pledge of which we received from faith, we accept through repentance. Repentance is the door of mercy, open to those who earnestly seek it; through this door we enter into God's mercy; Apart from this entrance we will not find mercy; “For all things,” according to the word of Divine Scripture, “we have sinned, having been justified by His grace” (Rom. 3:23–24). Repentance is the second grace and is born in the heart from faith and fear 636; fear is the fatherly rod that controls us until we reach the spiritual paradise of blessings; and when we reach it, then it leaves us and turns back. Paradise is the love of God, in which is the enjoyment of all blessings, - where blessed Paul was fed with supernatural food and, as soon as he ate from the tree of life there, he exclaimed, saying: “Whose eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor breathed into the heart of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Adam was removed from this tree by the advice of the devil. The tree of life is the love of God from which Adam fell away; and from then on joy no longer greeted him, but he worked and labored in the land of thorns. Those deprived of the love of God, even if they walk in righteousness, eat that bread of sweat in their deeds, which the first-created One was commanded to eat after his fall 637. Until we find love, our work on earth is thorns; and although our sowing is the sowing of righteousness, we both sow and reap among the thorns, and are wounded by them every hour, and, no matter what we do to justify ourselves 638, we live by the sweat of our brow. And when we find love, then we will begin to eat the bread of heaven and strengthen our strength without work and labor. The heavenly bread is Christ, who came down “from heaven” and “give life to the world” (John 6:33), and this is the food of angels. He who has found love tastes Christ every day and hour and thereby becomes immortal; for it is said: whoever eats of this bread that I will give him will never see death (see John 6:58). Blessed is he who eats of the bread of love, which is Jesus. And that he who tastes love tastes Christ, who is God above all, John testifies to this, saying: “God is loving” (1 John 4:8,16). So, he who lives in love reaps life from God, and in this still world, in what is felt here, he smells that air of resurrection. The righteous will enjoy this air after the resurrection. Love is the Kingdom; The Lord mysteriously promised the apostles about her; that they will taste it in His Kingdom. For what is said: “Let us eat and drink at the table of My kingdom” (Luke 22:30), what else does it mean if not love? Love is enough to nourish a person instead of food and drink. Here is the “wine” that gladdens the “heart of man” (Ps. 103:15). Blessed is he who drinks this wine! The intemperate drank it and were ashamed; sinners have drunk and forgotten the ways of stumbling; the drunkards drank and became fasters; the rich drank and desired poverty; the poor drank and became rich in hope; the sick drank and became strong; the ignorant drank and became wise. Just as it is impossible to cross a large sea without a ship and a boat, so no one can achieve love without fear. We can cross the stinking sea between us and the spiritual paradise only on the boat of repentance, on which there are oarsmen of fear. But if these rowers of fear do not rule the ship of repentance, on which we sail across the sea of ​​this world to God, then we will drown in this stinking sea. Repentance is a ship, and fear is its helmsman, but love is a divine harbour. Therefore, fear takes us onto the ship of repentance, transports us across the stinking sea of ​​life and guides us to the divine pier, which is love. All who labor and are burdened with repentance come to this haven. And when we achieve love, then we have reached God, and our path is complete, and we have come to the island of the other world, where the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are. Glory and power to him! And by His fear He will make us worthy of His glory and love! Amen. In Syriac this expression means: “supreme grace.” No matter how many works of righteousness they do. You might be interested in: