Words, teachings and conversations for the week's days (from 6 to 15 after Pentecost). Issue IX

Archpriest Ioann Ilyich Sergiev Pronounced at different times in the Kronstadt St. Andrew's Cathedral. We will continue in prayer and the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:4). 1. Homily for the sixth week after Pentecost Child, your sins are forgiven (Matthew 9:2). Today we read the Gospel of Matthew about the Lord’s healing of the paralytic, brought on his bed. It reads: “At that time Jesus arrived at Capernaum. And so they brought to Him the paralytic, lying on the bed. And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: Be of good cheer, child! your sins are forgiven you. At this some of the scribes said to themselves: He blasphemes. Jesus, seeing their thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? for which is easier to say: your sins are forgiven, or to say: get up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, then he says to the paralytic: get up, take up your bed, and go to your house. And he got up, took up his bed and went to his house. When the people saw this, they were amazed and glorified God, who had given such power to men” (Matthew 9:1–8). This is where the Gospel ends. And in the current Gospel reading, it is told about the mercy of our common Savior towards an unfortunate person, and in the Gospel of last Sunday it was also spoken about His mercy; then they talked about the healing of the possessed, who suffered terribly from evil spirits, and now they talk about the healing of the paralytic; there, the cause of trouble and misfortune was sins, as can be seen from the moral teaching of Jesus Christ to the sick man healed at the Sheep Pool: “Behold, you are healthy: let no one sin, lest it be worse” (John 5:14). And here the reason for the relaxation of the bodily members and the soul itself was sins; for the Physician of souls and bodies says to the sick: “Child! your sins are forgiven you." The entire Gospel, beloved brothers and sisters, is filled with the story of the wonderful deeds of mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ towards distressed and erring people; and there it is proclaimed everywhere that the main cause of almost all illnesses, troubles and misfortunes with people is sins - this is the greatest evil, the misfortune of the human race, this terrible root of all evils and the greatest evil - temporary and eternal death. That is why the Lord, when healing a paralytic, first heals the soul, which is sick with sins, and then the body. "Child! - He says to the paralytic, “your sins are forgiven you.” And this means this, and teaches us that in our illnesses we must humbly and deeply recognize our sins and sincerely repent of them and ask the Lord for their forgiveness, with the intention of not sinning in the future. For the main part of our being is the soul, a being in the image of God, rational, with free will, immortal, but a fallen being, sick with sin and corruption and redeemed from sin and death by the death of the Son of God; about her, about her salvation, we must take care with all our might - about pleasing God, about fulfilling His holy and blessed commandments, about her rightness and holiness. For carnal passions enslave, defile, remove the soul from God and in the end often lead to temporary and eternal destruction. Look at a drunkard: he is eternally weakened in soul and body, he has no faith or fear of God; he doesn't pray; all moral foundations in him are shaken; he is ready for anything bad: he gets angry, scolds, fights, gets dirty; and nothing goes wrong with him, all work falls out of his hands. Look at a person who likes to eat and drink a lot: he is also relaxed, and therefore lazy, clumsy; just as moderate food and drink strengthen the body, so excess burdens and weakens them. And a voluptuous person is, as it were, weakness personified; he often dies alive, body and soul. This is how sins weaken a person’s entire being, and entire societies and states! Thus, sins and social passions weaken Russia. What sins flooded Russia? Unbelief, drunkenness, cheating, lies and deceit, passion for profit, frequent murders because of the passion for profit or because of unsatisfied carnal love, passion for gambling, theft, bribery, selfishness, which wants exclusively for only him to feel good, rich and cheerful, while others even die of hunger. Yes, one cannot help but see in Russia a general relaxation of morals, and as a result of the relaxation of morals, social disasters are increasing: hunger, lack of money, impoverishment of the people, the inclination and desire to move from place to place, malicious arson, etc. What to do? I will say with the apostle: “strengthen your drooping hands and weakened knees, and walk straight with your feet, so that what is lame may not be turned aside, but rather be made whole” (Heb. 12:12-13). “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness spring up and cause harm, and thereby many become defiled” (Deut. 29:18; Heb. 12:15). Let us strengthen souls and hearts with the grace of God, as the Apostle Paul teaches: “For it is good to strengthen hearts by grace, and not waste, from which those who walked in them received no benefit” (Heb. 13:9). Let us strengthen our souls with sincere prayer - at home and in public, and in general with unceasing inner prayer, reading or listening to the Word of God or the writings of the holy God-wise Fathers, diligently reading or listening to the lives of the Holy Saints of God, so that we too can imitate their faith and life, their good deeds; also spiritual conversations, and especially sincere confession and frequent communion of the Holy Mysteries. So, let us strengthen ourselves with the grace of God while there is time and until our sins completely weaken us. For the time will soon come, and perhaps is already coming, when everyone will indulge in drowsiness and sleep, everyone will weaken morally, when faith will become impoverished, and love will dry up, and lawlessness, like the sea, will spill over the earth. But then it will be too late to improve. For a voice will be heard: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming, come out to meet Him” (Matthew 25:6); The Archangel's trumpet will sound, gathering all people living and resurrected from the dead to the place of the general Last Judgment, at which the final righteous sentence will be pronounced either to eternal life or to eternal torment. Amen. 2. Homily for the sixth week after Pentecost During this Sunday Liturgy, beloved brothers and sisters, the Gospel of Matthew was read about the healing by our Lord Jesus Christ of the paralytic who was lying on his bed. I will convey to you this Gospel story in Russian speech, copied from that Gospel itself: “At one time Jesus arrived in His city,” i.e. where he lived, in Capernaum. “And behold, they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the paralytic: Be of good cheer, child! your sins are forgiven you. At this some of the scribes said to themselves: He blasphemes. Jesus, seeing their thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? for which is easier to say: your sins are forgiven, or to say: get up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, then he says to the paralytic: get up, take up your bed and go to your house. And he got up, took up his bed and went to his house. When the people saw this, they were amazed and glorified God, who had given such power to men” (Matthew 9:1–8). Here ends the Gospel set for the present day. Have you seen the dual gift of the Lord Christ God to a weak person - the gift of forgiveness of sins and the gift of healing of the body? But in order to understand how great the gift is, especially the gift of forgiveness of sins, one must know in detail how great a loss, misfortune and destruction sin is for a person; for bodily infirmities are more visible and their misfortune is more or less obvious to everyone, but the disaster and destruction of sin for many, either through pride and unbelief, or through blindness and ignorance, are inconspicuous or unknown, or at least not obvious. So, in order to understand the greatness of the gift to the paralytic - the Lord’s forgiveness of his sins, let us understand how great a misfortune and how great a detriment for a person sin is in general. Sin, first of all, is lawlessness (1 John 3:4), according to Scripture, - i.e. violation of the law of God given to man, and above all the law of love for God and neighbor - rebellion against God, His greatness, holiness and truth, disobedience to Him and agreement and combination with the devil, the author and instigator of all sin - the rebellion of a sinner against himself, against his soul and body, against his conscience, this guardian of soul and body, their shrine and integrity; there is a distortion, perversion, desecration in us of the image of God, according to which we were created in the beginning; sin is the vile impurity of the soul, removing it from God, the Source of life, - the charm of the enemy, shameful captivity and voluntary bonds of the soul, sorrow and oppression; there is hellish darkness, moral chaos, disorder, relaxation of mental and physical strength, demonic confusion, a spiritual storm that throws the poor soul of a sinner hither and thither, the loss of a quiet spiritual refuge, which is God, there is a free illness and disease of the soul, and, if the sinner does not repent, there is petrification of the heart and death, temporary and eternal. This, in general terms, is the destruction of sin. And yet many, many sinners commit every sin, often love sin, play with sin, repeat sins, adding sins to sins. And so the Lord delivered the paralytic from such and such mental and physical trouble, just as He delivers us. Why did the Lord deliver the paralytic? For the faith of the bearers and himself: “seeing Jesus their faith, he said to the paralytic: be of good cheer, child, your sins are forgiven you.” You see how strong faith is. For one faith, deliverance from how many evils! Have faith in God; if anyone does not have it, then ask it from God, who gives to everyone simply and without reproach: “and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). With faith, life is blissful; without faith, life is hard and joyless. Having faith, you can get rid of sins seventy times seven times a day and be rewarded with the peace of God and the truth of God just as many times, but without faith it is easy to perish completely in sins, just as many perish. Thus, brothers and sisters, faith is an invaluable, imperishable heavenly treasure; Let us all take care to acquire this treasure. He who believes lives in the light; he tries to live a holy life - he avoids sin in every possible way, but if he sins due to human weakness, he immediately brings heartfelt repentance to God and is awarded pardon. But let us return to the subject we are talking about and continue our conversation about the bad consequences of sin for our body and about the benefits of the Lord for the very body of a repentant sinner, and especially for the soul. Since the consequences of sin are usually disastrous for our body, due to the close connection of soul and body, the sinner is exposed to various diseases, then the Lord, having mercy on the soul of a believer and a repentant sinner, also has mercy and heals his body. “Behold, you are healthy: let no one sin, lest any worse befall him” (John 5:14). Such are the bounties of the Lord to the repentant sinner! His whole being is healed and renewed. When the sinner is forgiven of his sins, he is already reconciled with God, and with the inhabitants of heaven, and with himself, and with the Church, this holy society of those saved in Christ, - and is again rewarded from God with sonship, or adoption, which he boldly rejected before, committing sin, and again receives grace and power to do good deeds, to which each of us is called by his Christian title, - and is rewarded with the hope of a future inheritance in the kingdom Christ God, of whom everyone who remains in sin deprives himself; heavenly peace and tranquility of conscience return to him, inner light, freedom and spaciousness of soul and body, boldness before God and people, in a word, a sinner man, pardoned by God, is renewed, changed by a good change, becoming a new creature and remains such as long as he guards himself from new inclinations to sin. But if he again falls into the same or similar sins, then his punishment is already aggravated, doubled and tripled for the fact that he rejected the grace of God and appeared ungrateful to God the Benefactor. So, you see, brothers, what a great gift was awarded to the paralytic mentioned in the Gospel read today: he was forgiven all his sins that were the cause of his illness, he was healed of the illness itself, he was reconciled with God, with his conscience, and, as one must assume, he believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, became a Christian, a child of Christ and the heir of the Heavenly Kingdom. You see what a great gift of God repentant sinners are awarded for their faith. May we, brothers, be honored by the Lord with His great mercy - forgiveness of all our sins and His future all-blessed inheritance, and joy with the saints. Amen. 3. Homily for the seventh week after Pentecost Two blind men approached Him, and Jesus said: Do you believe that I can do this? Speak to Him: Yes, Lord. Then I will touch their eyes, saying: “Awake you according to my faith” (Matthew 9:28–29). What an amazing power of faith in the Lord! By faith alone in His omnipotence, two blind men instantly receive their sight. We read about this in the Gospel today. Let's repeat what it says. “When Jesus walked away from there, two blind men followed Him and shouted: Have mercy on us, Jesus, son of David! When He came into the house, the blind came to Him. And Jesus said to them: Do you believe that I am able to do this? They say to Him: Yes, Lord! Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened; and Jesus sternly said to them: Take care that no one finds out. And they went out and spread the word about Him throughout all that land” (Matthew 9:27-31). So, I repeat: what the power of faith! What a precious treasure is sincere, firm and undoubted faith in Christ, if through it you can receive all kinds of benefits from the Ever-Flowing Source of all benefits - the Lord God! In fact, who among us has not received from the Lord, if only he approached Him with sincere faith and sincere repentance, all sorts of mental and physical benefits, and moreover, many times in one day? Christians, who always live by faith and are accustomed to turning to the Lord in all their needs, loudly testify that by their faith the Lord performs for them, in their inner world, and often outside them, countless miracles of His goodness and power, that they move mountains with God’s grace, not the mountains of the earth, although they obey the believer, but the mountains of sorrows and excuses of the enemy that weigh on the soul, that they heal their spiritual infirmities with it. and bodily ones, overcome passions, are cleansed from the filth of sins, receive moral strength that they did not have before, and accomplish all righteousness. But if faith is such a good for a person, then why doesn’t everyone have it? Why doesn’t everyone try to acquire this treasure, the most precious of all earthly treasures? Why are there more non-believers than believers? After all, God is impartial and is ready to lavish His treasures on everyone, on everyone who diligently desires and seeks. Many do not have faith, do not have faith because of their ignorance and because they do not seek it and do not ask it diligently from God; for faith is the gift of God. Others do not have faith from the pride of an arrogant mind; or because they have turned with all their minds and all their hearts to the world and to the flesh, and not to God and His Holy Law - they do not value faith as something unimportant, which they can easily do without - because, finally, they do not cleanse their hearts with sincere repentance: for faith cannot dwell in an unrepentant heart, like a pure daughter of heaven. That is why sincere, firm and unfeigned faith is considered a merit to a person and for its sake the Lord imparts to us countless benefits. And that is why the Lord Jesus Christ sought faith in people and for their faith forgave their sins, performed miracles, namely: healed all sorts of diseases, raised the dead; Yes, he gave the same power to His apostles, commanding them to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cleanse the lepers. One can also imagine the reason why the Lord demanded faith as a condition for receiving His benefits. Faith of the heart in a person serves, as it were, as hands or lips to receive God’s gifts: what a hand or mouth is in a person’s body, so is faith in the soul; faith is a tool and means for accepting God's mercies. Faith is the mouth of the soul: open your mouth with prayer and repentance - and your soul will be filled with grace. In order to destroy a person’s soul, the devil closes the lips of the heart so that a person does not talk with God, does not pray, does not ask Him, does not glorify, does not thank Him; It is clear that we must open the lips of our hearts as often as possible, rekindle the cooling faith in ourselves, and every now and then turn to God with the prayer of faith: for we are all damned, poor, blind and naked without God. And here is another reason why the Lord requires people to have faith in God. After the Fall, people became darkened and fell into ignorance about God, fell away from God, from His commandments and began to honor creatures instead of the Creator; they even considered demons to be gods and served them as gods, although demons caused them all sorts of evil. Correcting such a disastrous delusion of people and wanting to lead everyone to the knowledge of the true God, the Creator of everything, the Lord Jesus Christ as the Creator and Master appeared in the flesh, revealing His Divinity and power to everyone through his deeds, and demanded as a due tribute - faith in Himself as the Creator Almighty, “for us for man and for our salvation, He came down from heaven” - that’s why He asks the blind before performing a miracle: do you believe? Is it possible that I can do this? those. Do you believe that I am the Creator, who appeared for you in the flesh, and when I heard an affirmative answer, I said: according to my faith, be you? “And his eyes were opened.” Let us, brothers, undoubtedly believe that even now “the Lord is near” (Phil. 4:5) to us, that He is “the same yesterday and today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8): All-Good, Almighty, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Knower of the Heart, All-Merciful, All-Bountiful, Benevolent and Quick to Hear, Comforting, Gracious, and as children we will approach Him in our prayers with faith, in repentance as sinners, with hope and boldness: and we will accept from Him all mercy. God! Add faith to us too and heal our heart blindness, the blindness of our sins and passions, which have especially intensified in these corrupt times. Amen. 4. Sermon on the seventh week after Pentecost Then Jesus touched their eyes (the two blind men), and said, “According to your faith, be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened (Matthew 9:29–30). The current Gospel story tells us, beloved brothers, about the Savior’s miraculous healing of two blind men and a mute man possessed by a demon, whose tongue was tied by a demon. It happened in the vicinity of the city of Capernaum, after the resurrection from the dead of the daughter of Jairus, the leader of the Jewish synagogue. These two blind men followed Jesus Christ and shouted: have mercy on us, Jesus, son of David! “When He came into the house, the blind came to Him. And Jesus said to them: Do you believe that I am able to do this? They say to Him: Yes, Lord! Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened; and Jesus sternly said to them: Take care that no one finds out. And they went out and spread the word about Him throughout all that land” (Matthew 9:27-31). The point is clear: the blind suddenly received their sight from one word of the Savior: the Creator of man, the Light Himself and the Giver of light, spoke the word - and the word became deed. He said the creative: let it be - and the former blind are now sighted. And He gave such a wonderful gift for the faith of the blind alone, without any merit on their part: according to your faith it will be unto you. What is so pleasing to God in a person is one simple, sincere faith in the omnipotence of God! Faith works so powerfully! Such miracles happen through faith! Do you and I have faith? If we have, then we cannot help but see in ourselves the wondrous works of God, both in our souls and in our bodies: the Lord is with us even now, according to His Divine promise: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), He said to the disciples before His ascension to heaven; “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8). I see the wonders of His mercy and power in me every day and I glorify His mercies daily, for they are without number. Speaking about the blind people of the Gospel and about the miraculous healing of them by Jesus Christ for their faith, I am transported in my mind to blind people of a different kind, namely to blind people overcome by spiritual blindness, which is much more dangerous and fatal than physical blindness. This, firstly, is the blindness of half-educated or completely over-educated people of the present time, who in the wise structure of the world do not see the finger of God, who created everything and controls everything, and consider it a product of chance, like themselves, and make out of their life, as it were, a toy and amusement, and when this toy gets tired of them for some reason, they mercilessly break it, i.e. commit suicide; or they make it a series of atrocities against others and make fun of human misfortunes. This blindness is all the more disastrous for themselves and for societies because people of this kind consider themselves sighted, intelligent and almost kind people, and all other people - not from their gang - ignorant, vile. Reading in the daily news about various incidents, we encounter every now and then murders, suicides, drunkenness, debauchery, the most brazen thefts of public money, arson of cities and villages. Summing up all these incidents, we draw the necessary conclusion that these people have recoiled from God, from faith, from the Church of God, that they are blind, wandering in the dark and do not know what they are striving for, what will come of all this. O unfortunate times! O times of unbelief! O times that foretell the approach of the terrible day of judgment! Beware, brothers, of this blindness, unbelief, and tyranny. Pardon the expression, but I cannot call people who act so brazenly and recklessly any other way. Where is the light of reason and conscience in people? How did they lose the light of faith? Secondly, the blindness of the soul is the blindness of schism and superstition. Thirdly, spiritual blindness is the blindness of the common people, who do not know the most necessary truths of their faith and the rules of Christian life. But this blindness is more forgivable than the one we talked about earlier: it is involuntary. Hold on, brothers, stronger than your holy faith, the Church of God, which teaches you everything that is good, useful, holy, and soul-saving; Do not listen to today’s tyrants, who have the devil as their teacher and are trying to corrupt your simple, Christian and Russian meaning. Have the fear of God throughout your life; remember the second terrible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the terrible judgment of the entire universe, and carefully fulfill the commandments of God and the deeds of your calling. Learn the faith and its duties; be enlightened, sanctified, corrected and saved. Another miracle that the current Gospel tells about was the expulsion of a demon from a mute man who was possessed. The Lord cast out the demon, and the dumb man began to speak. Glory to Your Divine power, O Christ our God! You command the evil spirits, and they fulfill Your command with trepidation, although with the usual malice in which they remain unrepentant. God! Cast out the spirit of dumbness from us too: for we too are subject to it: when we need to earnestly repent to You, we become dumb and do not know what to say; when we need to pray fervently, we are again dumb and do not know how to pray, what to ask for, what to give thanks for and how to give thanks; When talking about everyday things, our tongue moves freely and sometimes speaks incessantly, but when it comes to the Divine, to the salvation of the soul, the tongue becomes numb. Where is it customary in society to talk about the Divine, about the salvation of a sinful soul, about eternal life? Almost nowhere. Here we are mute. God! Deliver us from the spirit of dumbness and teach us what to say and what to do is pleasing to You, God our Savior. Amen. 5. Sermon on the seventh week after Pentecost Passing from there (from the house of the ruler of the synagogue Jairus) Jesus, two blind men followed Him, calling and saying: Have mercy on us, (Jesus) Son of David (Matthew 9:27). I quoted the opening words from the Gospel read today. In the entire section of the Gospel read today, it is told about the Lord’s healing of two blind men with one touch of the hand and about the expulsion of the demon of dumbness from one possessed, about the slander of the Pharisees against the Lord, as if He cast out demons by the power of the prince of demons, and finally, about the fact that the Lord walked through cities and villages, Himself teaching people in public assemblies, “preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and all infirmity among men" (Matthew 9:27-35). Let us first of all pay attention to the faith of the blind and their persistent request. They follow the Lord and cry out loudly: have mercy on us, Jesus, Son of David, - and when the Lord entered the house, they boldly, with full hope of the mercy of the Divine Wonderworker, approach Him. In order to reveal to everyone the great faith of the blind, the Lord asks them: Do you believe that I can do this? - and receives the answer: yes, Lord! Then the Lord touched their eyes, saying: “Let it be done to you according to your faith,” and their eyes were opened. This is the reward of faith, a great reward: for two words - perfect insight; Great is the power of faith! For to him who believes all things are possible (Mark 9:23), says the Lord. But the more amazing the power of faith, the more amazing, on the other hand, is the lack of faith in people! The Pharisees looked with the same eyes at the miracles of the Lord, with the same ears as others, listened to the teaching of the Lord - and did not believe and were tempted. So pride and prejudice blind the eyes of a person’s heart! And from here it follows that in addition to physical blindness, people have spiritual blindness, which is worse than bodily blindness, since it comes from the evil will or from the evil heart of the person himself - not like bodily blindness, which does not depend on the will of a person. Beware of unbelief! Take care of faith with all your might, if anyone has it; It is good for a believer to live in the world: he is always with God. After the blind were healed, they brought a mute man who was raging to the Lord. The Lord cast out the demon: and the dumb man began to speak; The people, witnessing the miracle, were surprised, saying: such a phenomenon had never happened in Israel, but the Pharisees, i.e. scientists, Jewish teachers, who took on the role of teachers of the people, said: He casts out demons by the power of the prince of demons; as if, according to the proverb, a raven can peck out a crow’s eye, or cast out a demon. What caused such vile slander against the Lord among the Pharisees? From their pride and envy, from malice, for passions blind the eyes of the heart; if the eye of your heart is simple, then you simply look at people and their deeds as they are, without guile, without false interpretations, and if it is wicked and unclean, then people, and their words, and their deeds will appear to you as crafty, unclean, dirty, or, as they say, everything will appear inside out. To the pure all things are pure, but to the unclean all things are unclean (Titus 1:15), for both his mind and conscience are defiled. Woe to us sinners from a bad conscience! Therefore, let us be simple and sincere and let us always ask the Lord for a pure heart. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in my womb” (Ps. 50:12). The Lord, brothers, is always the same. Even now He works great miracles in people who believe, both directly Himself, and through His Most Pure Mother, the Virgin Theotokos, and through His Saints, and through His chosen ones who are still alive on earth. Oh, how often He heals the blindness of my heart's eyes; for every day sins blind the eyes of my heart, and, through the prayer of repentance, they are wonderfully cleansed, enlightened, and given sight. The thorn, the thorn of sin, brothers, lies in the eyes of our hearts; and alas! Many do not understand this; people do not see their dangerous, disastrous state; The drunkard does not see his misfortune: for drunkenness has blinded his eyes; The fornicator does not see his misfortune: for lust has blinded his eyes; The thief does not see his destruction: for easy money has blinded his eyes; The money lover does not see his spiritual misfortune: for money has blinded his eyes. Every sinner, until he sincerely repents of his sins, is spiritually blind and knows where he is going, for darkness has blinded his eyes. So, let us truly repent, let us see, let us see with our hearts. Amen. 6. Homily for the seventh week after Pentecost During the current liturgy, beloved brothers and sisters, we read from the Gospel of Matthew about Jesus Christ’s healing of two blind men for their faith and a mute demoniac. Each liturgy, the Holy Church offers to our attention short sections or lessons from the apostolic writings, from their acts or epistles, and from the Gospel in order to edify us daily with inspired instructions - to console, convict, instruct and strengthen us in the truths of the Christian faith and in a life consistent with the faith, and not to deprive us of the happiness of listening little by little to all their writings, or speeches and deeds Christ's, so that Christians would not be ignorant of the law and life, but would know the whole essence of faith and their law, and could not only know themselves, but also be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks about their hope (1 Pet. 3:15), and so that with the weapon of the word of God they could more easily fight against the enemies of salvation and against sinful habits and passions. Let's repeat today's Gospel in Russian. At the time when Jesus Christ passed through the city of Capernaum, “two blind men followed Him and shouted: have mercy on us, Jesus, son of David! When He came into the house, the blind came to Him. And Jesus said to them: Do you believe that I am able to do this? They say to Him: Yes, Lord! Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith, be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened; and Jesus sternly said to them: Take care that no one finds out. And they went out and spread the word about Him throughout all that land. When they went out, they brought to Him a mute man possessed by a demon. And when the demon was cast out, the dumb man began to speak. And the people, surprised, said: such a phenomenon has never happened in Israel. And the Pharisees said: He casts out demons by the power of the prince of demons. And Jesus went through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people” (Matthew 9:27–35). This is the end of the Sunday Gospel. What is edifying and instructive for us in this Gospel? The faith of the blind and their persistent, earnest request for mercy and healing are instructive. “Have mercy on us,” they shouted, “Jesus, son of David, i.e. the promised Messiah, King, Savior to the world! Moreover, they approached Him when He came to one house, with the firm intention not to leave Him until they received what they desired. To reveal their great faith before the people, the Lord asks them, as if not knowing, whether they believe that He can do this? They answer: yes, Lord! Then the Lord, to show everyone that nothing is impossible for a believer, “touched their eyes and said: according to your faith, be it done to you.” And their eyes were opened. O faith! Holy gift from heaven! How many miracles you create! You heard from the previous Gospel readings, my brothers, what miracles the Lord worked in people, how many diseases he healed, cast out demons, raised people who were dead by faith or for the glory of God! All things are possible to a believer (Mark 9:23); a believer can even move mountains. And for you and me, children of the Orthodox Church, the miracles of our Savior are not new in our days: we ourselves are constant witnesses of the miracles of the Lord and His Most Pure Mother in ourselves. What city, what country, what faithful Christian soul has not experienced within themselves, through the prayer of faith, the miracles of God’s mercy - deliverance from passions, healing in illnesses, help in difficult circumstances, consolation in sorrows. So, ask in prayer, believe that it will happen to you, I will tell you not in my own words, but in the words of the Savior Himself: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8). Like the blind men of the Gospel, we often cry: Lord, have mercy; because we all suffer from spiritual blindness, sinful blindness, both conceived and born and living in iniquity. The eyes of our hearts have been blinded by all the vanity of life, everyday sinful worries, sorrows and sorrows, everyday passions. We are blind when we do not care about spiritual salvation and correction of life, but care more about the body and its pleasures and whims; We are blind when we work on carnal passions, when we diligently serve mammon, but do not care about pleasing God. Let us, brothers and sisters, earnestly cry out to the Lord for the healing of our heart blindness, with an extreme desire for spiritual insight: have mercy on us, Lord Jesus, Son of God, True Light, who came into the world, so that everyone who believes in You will not remain in darkness! Also in this Gospel, the words of the Savior spoken to the blind who had received their sight are instructive: be careful that no one finds out. They teach us not to trumpet our good deeds before people in order for people to glorify us for them, but to be modest and humble, attributing all the glory to God, not to want to be idols ourselves and to admire for ourselves the glory due to the one God, who alone is the God of glory (Acts 7:2). In the legend about the healing of a demoniac, the following circumstances are remarkable: firstly, the surprise of the people when they heard the speech of the former mute, and secondly, the slander and blasphemy of the Pharisees - these Jewish scientists - who dared to attribute the miracles of Christ to the power of the prince of demons. So now the simple people, in simplicity of heart, look at the wonderful works of God and see in them what they are, and glorify God; and many scientists or our half-educated wise men reject the miracles of Christ and the saints of God and honor them either as fictitious tales, supposedly invented for the people, or as ordinary natural phenomena. O the deceit of the human heart! What won't you distort, what won't you distort? To you, light seems like darkness, and truth seems like fiction. Reward them for their wickedness, O Lord! When the dumb spirit lived in a man, until then the man could not speak, but when the Savior cast out the dumb spirit, the man began to speak. And now there is a spirit of dumbness either in the truly dumb, or in those people who should speak the truth to people according to their rank and position, but do not speak, allowing untruth to oppress people, or when they should preach the Word of God at the opportune and untimely time - and do not preach, do not instruct, do not denounce the people entrusted to them, immersed in ignorance of their faith and their duties. The Prophet calls these dogs dumb, unable to bark. We must boldly tell the truth to every person, even if it is bitter and unpleasant for those who listen to it. The spirit of dumbness also occurs in drunken people, in whom excessive fumes of wine and demons bind both the heart and the tongue for all sorts of good speeches and open them only to obscene language and foul language, curses and all sorts of outrages. Finally, in the Gospel, the Evangelist’s story is remarkable that Jesus Christ walked through all the cities and villages, teaching in synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among people. Look, the king of heaven and earth humbly walks from city to city, from village to village, working, wandering, for us; Should we not work for our eternal salvation, for deliverance from sins and all-destructive passions? Should we not serve each other in whatever way we can? That is why the Apostolic reading says: we who are strong must bear the infirmities of the weak and not please ourselves, for Christ did not please himself (Rom. 15:1-3). Jesus Christ preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, i.e. The kingdom of God is in us and deliverance from slavery to sin and the devil - the eternal, incorruptible kingdom, the kingdom of truth, peace, love, endless bliss. So, let us renounce our attachment to earthly things and lift our hearts’ eyes to heaven. He healed every disease and every infirmity in people as the Source of life and the Physician of soul and body; We will always turn to Him in illnesses and ailments of mind and body. He is the only one who is quick in intercession, quickly and surely delivering from ailments and bitter illnesses. Glory, Christ God, to Your healing power, manifested in us even now every day, tangible by us, visible and constantly glorified. Amen. 7. Homily for the seventh week after Pentecost Today, beloved brothers and sisters, the Gospel of Matthew was read about the healing by the Lord Jesus Christ of two blind men for their faith and their prayer: have mercy on us, Jesus, son of David! - and about the expulsion of a dumb demon from one man - after which the dumb man began to speak - and about the envy and evil slander of the Jewish Pharisees against Jesus Christ; at the end of the Gospel it talks about the Lord’s journey through cities and villages preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven and the healing of all kinds of illnesses and infirmities in people. You have heard, beloved, how from one touch of the Lord with His life-giving right hand to the eyes of the blind and from one word - let it be - they suddenly received their sight. “Speech and came to be,” just as at the creation of the world: the Lord only spoke the word - let this and that be: let there be light, let there be a firmament, let the waters be gathered together and the dry land appear, let the earth bring forth grass and fruit trees, let there be lamps in the firmament of heaven (Gen. 1), and so on. - and everything now appeared according to the word of the Lord. I am not exaggerating the comparison at all; for the same will and power acted both here, during healing, and there, during creation - the same Creator Almighty. It is remarkable that before giving sight to the blind, who asked the Lord to have mercy on them, He asked them: Do you believe that I can do this - i.e. give you sight? Why such a question? In order to give the blind not only physical sight, but, what is most precious, spiritual sight, in order to confirm in them faith in Him as the true Son of God and God, as the Savior of the world, as the Messiah promised from the beginning, and through this to make them worthy of eternal life and seeing God face to face: for “those who are pure in heart will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The Lord seemed to ask them this way: Do you believe that I am not only the Son of David in the flesh, but at the same time the true Son of God in Divinity, who came into the world to heal those who are blind not only with their physical, but especially with their spiritual eyes - to heal from sinful blindness, to open the light of knowledge of God to those who do not know God and to teach them to walk without stumbling, without getting lost, in the path of God’s commandments? Do you believe that I am the true eternal Light, the Creator of the heavenly lights and all creatures, who gave all animate creatures the light of eyes and all organs, preserving everything and governing everything, and creating everything? And when they believed in Him as the omnipotent Creator and Savior of the world, saying: to her, Lord, i.e. we no longer say only: Son of David, but - Lord, as the Creator of everything, - then the Lord performs a miracle, - and according to His word: be it done to you according to your faith - their eyes instantly open and become completely clear. All the works of the Lord are wonderful! Wonderful is the healing of the blind! But even more wondrous, more salutary, more majestic is the miracle of the healing of our spiritual eyes, the miracle of the salvation of our souls! Physical vision, although the noblest organ in the body and the most self-needed, is still earth and only serves us for a while, and our soul is our spiritual eye (“if our eye is pure, then your whole body will be light” (Matthew 6:22) – it is eternal, and if it remains in sinful blindness during this life, then it will not be healed and will be in total darkness forever and ever. So what? Is there spiritual blindness? Pride, deceit, hatred, envy, excessive greed, hard-heartedness and unmercifulness, gluttony, drunkenness, riotousness, foul language, bad behavior, laziness, idleness, lies, deception, slander, theft, despondency, despair, etc. Thus, during the earthly life of Jesus Christ, the scribes and Pharisees, the high priests and others suffered from spiritual blindness, who, seeing the miracles of Jesus Christ and hearing His wise teaching, did not believe in Him, even blasphemed Him, slandered Him and finally crucified Him; Seeing they did not see and hearing they did not understand, for they blinded the eyes of their hearts, and with difficulty heard with their ears, and hardened their hearts with their free will, and therefore they were rejected by God for their voluntary blindness, for their bitterness in evil. Both in our country and in our time there are many moral blindnesses, not only among the common people, among the uneducated, but also among many scientists, and among these latter the most evil blindness is especially rooted - pride, conceit and unbelief, freethinking, justification for many of one’s sins and passions, supposedly required by nature or society, customs, etc. However, we are all, to a greater or lesser extent, subject to sinful blindness: for who can boast that he has a pure heart? Nobody; and if it is unclean for everyone, then it is blind, and we must all constantly resort in prayer to the true Light, Jesus Christ, may He enlighten both our thoughts and the eyes of our hearts with the light of His grace and may He help us to see the whole multitude of our sins, covering, like dark clouds, the eyes of our souls and not allowing us to see what is the will of God, good, acceptable and perfect, and to fulfill her, and those who are inspired to do the will of their flesh and thoughts. Enough words for today. Let us try to assimilate it with our minds and hearts, and especially with our deeds and lives. Amen. 8. Homily for the eighth week after Pentecost But when I was late, His disciples came to Him, saying: The place is empty, and the hour has already passed: let the nations go, so that they may go to the village and buy food for themselves. Jesus said to them: They do not demand that you take it away: give them food. (Matthew 14:15–16). One day the Lord sailed on a ship alone to a deserted place to pray; The people, hearing about this, followed Him from the cities on foot. Coming out of the boat, Jesus saw a multitude of people, and had compassion on them, and healed their sick. When evening came, His disciples came to Him and said: This is a deserted place and the time is already late; send the people away so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves. How? What are you saying, apostles of Christ? – For the people to leave their Lord for the sake of food and drink and deprive themselves of His conversation, sweeter than honey? Wasn’t it He who said: “Do not worry about your soul: what will you eat or what will you drink? Doesn’t the soul eat more food?” (Matthew 6:25); “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness: and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Oh, no, the people will not leave the Lord: what do they care about food and drink? Food and drink are always with them; but the Lord in the flesh is not always, but He Himself is food and drink for them; see how they greedily listen to His every word, how they gaze into His Divine face: oh, this is true pleasure for them - to see and hear the Lord Himself; and they forgot about food and drink. Yes, He himself will arrange a wonderful meal for them. This Gospel teaches us that listening to the Word of God and, in general, caring for the enlightenment, sanctification and strengthening of the immortal soul is most precious to man, and that food and drink are secondary things and will be added to the person who seeks the Kingdom of God and His righteousness: “for the one who works is worthy of food” (Matthew 10:10). So in the desert, the Lord fed everyone with a wonderfully prepared meal for the labor of listening to His word. Further, the Gospel teaches that one should share one’s last good with neighbors who need it, and should not have the least bit of greed and stinginess, and that a person needs very little in order to satisfy hunger and thirst - only daily bread and something more juicy; that various delicacies and drinks do not constitute our daily sustenance and can only be consumed occasionally; otherwise they will relax our body and soul. Our soul, brothers and sisters, is immeasurably more precious and noble than the body: it is the image of God, that is, to put it simply, like a portrait of God, and is immortal; endowed with reason and free will, with the ability to be sanctified by the grace of God, to ascend higher and higher on the steps of virtue, to become more and more like God, to become deified and to achieve the greatest bliss in God. The body is earth and decay and must certainly die and turn to dust from which it was taken; at the resurrection of the dead it will rise again as a spiritual body. Meanwhile, our soul is in a state of the most miserable fall, in a state of darkening, removal from God and slavery to the devil, sin and passions. She perishes in sins and can perish forever, tormented in unquenchable fire. What do we all need to be more concerned about during this temporary wandering on earth? About the enlightenment of the soul, about its salvation, about approaching God, from whom we have moved away through sin, about the truth that we have trampled upon, to which we have become alien, about holiness in all life and the rejection of evil life. Here's what it's about; and then about food, drink, and clothing - but take care of it moderately, impartially, as if it were secondary and temporary items. Let us not, brothers and sisters, pervert God’s order; Let us care more about spiritual enlightenment, saturation, consolation, salvation, and then about earthly, so-called blessings - food, clothing, housing. Amen. 9. Teaching for the eighth week after Pentecost In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Now, my brothers, the Gospel was read about the miraculous feeding of five thousand people, not counting women and children, with five loaves and two fish. Let us repeat this story of a miracle in a language understandable to everyone. After the Lord heard about the cutting off of the head of the Baptist John, He withdrew alone into a deserted place. As can be seen further, our Lord went to pray in solitude to His Heavenly Father and through prayer to ease His heart, oppressed by grief over the violent death of His great Prophet and Forerunner. Ah, brothers, the Lord was no stranger to sorrows, and great, deadly sorrows, as He Himself said before His suffering: “my soul is sorrowful unto death” (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34). So, He went into the desert to pour out His grief in prayer before His Heavenly Father - for His friend John the Baptist. But will the people abandon the great Wonderworker and the most sweet-tongued Teacher? And so the people followed Him from the cities on foot; many multitudes follow Him. The Lord sees the crowds of people following Him, takes pity on them, and, turning, heals the sick that they had. But the people do not lag behind the Lord, and everything goes further and further from their villages. It was already evening. His disciples come up to the Savior and say: this place is deserted, and the time is already late; release the people so that they can go to the villages and buy themselves bread. “But Jesus said to them, “They need not go; you give them something to eat. They said to Him: We have here only five loaves and two fish. He said: Bring them here to Me. And he ordered the people to lie down on the grass and, taking five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven, blessed, and, having broken them, gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the people. And they all ate and were filled; and they took up the remaining pieces, twelve baskets full; and those who ate were about five thousand people, besides women and children” (Matthew 14:13-21). When I read this Gospel, brothers, many examples came to my mind of how holy men of God, while living on earth, never even dared to feed the hungry from their little wealth, and how the Lord miraculously multiplied their loaves. Here's one example: St. Tikhon, who was later the Bishop of Amafunt and a great champion of Orthodoxy, sold bread in his young years, for his father was a baker. Having a compassionate heart, the pious youth often distributed several loaves of bread to the poor without money - for which his irritated father at one time severely punished him. Then St. Tikhon said to him: “My parent! You are upset in vain: I lend your bread to God and I have a handwriting from Him in the sacred books, which specifically says: give to God and he will receive it a hundredfold. If you don’t believe this, let’s go to the granary: there you will see how God returns His debt to the lenders.” Having said this, he takes his father by the hand and leads him to the granary: and when they opened the door, they found it filled with clean and best wheat, although before there was almost nothing in it. The father was surprised and horrified; he fell to the ground, giving thanks to God, and from that time on he did not forbid his son to give alms according to his will. Brothers! Do not hesitate to always give alms: from a lot - a lot, from a little - less, and be sure that the Lord will bless your home and will never allow you to fall short of anything necessary, and, most importantly, for your mercy towards the poor He will honor you with mercy at His terrible and righteous Judgment: “Blessed are you, for you will receive mercy” (Matt. 5:7). Amen. 10. Teaching for the eighth week after Pentecost The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved the power of God is (1 Cor. 1:18). How is this word about the cross foolishness to those who are perishing? Are they really between us? Probably, the apostle is saying this not about us, but about the pagans, of whom there were so many in His time, and who, of course, considered it madness to pay veneration to the cross as an instrument of shameful execution. So, is this what they are talking about? We all honor the cross as we should, and the word about the cross is the power of God for us, and are we those who are being saved, about whom the apostle speaks after those who are perishing? For no one does the word about the cross serve as foolishness? Let everyone’s conscience answer these questions, otherwise it is true that even among Christians by name there are pagans by deed; and since faith without good works is dead, then the name of a Christian for such people is one dead sound that will not bring them any benefit. It is our duty to offer a brief word about when the cross is the saving power of God for us and how we should diligently honor it. The cross becomes the saving power of God for us when we look at it only with living faith in God and with a feeling of sincere love for God. Wonderful thing! The cross became inseparable from the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was executed on the cross for us by the eternal truth and love of God the Father for us; with the permission, however, of the Son Himself, equal and consubstantial with the Father. Therefore, brothers, wherever we see the cross, let us immediately imagine that the Son of God hangs on it, nailed for us, and without the crucified Lord we will never imagine any cross, because the cross is honored only by the Crucification on it: the crosses of the thieves crucified with Christ were similar to the cross of the Lord, but we do not honor them. Along with the presentation of the Crucified Lord on the cross, let us also imagine the most terrible suffering that those crucified had to endure, the blood flowing from hands and feet pierced by nails, and the blood and water flowing from the side of the Lord pierced by a spear, and how this blood is still being poured out and taught to all of us along with the body, broken for the remission of sins, and will continue to be poured out until the end of the world. And the Gentiles love them who love them (Luke 6:32). Shall we not love the Lord who loves us so much, who laid down His life for us? “No one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). But if anyone loves Me, says the Crucified One, he will keep My word (John 14:23). Ah, brothers! If only we fully knew how priceless the Lord’s death on the cross is for us! But we do not comprehend this as we should. This can only be partially understood by someone who has been sentenced to death for crimes and is being executed, which is now threatening him and must inevitably take place. Let a stranger give a ransom for this man, at the very time he is being led to execution, and say to the servants of execution: let this criminal go free: instead of his head, I give my head. How great would be the joy and gratitude of this man to such a deliverer! This is exactly what the Son of God did to us: before the Heavenly Father we were all criminals, guilty of eternal punishment. The road is for all of us and this is a temporary life, and no one wants to die. And how dear is eternal life! We don't know it, and therefore don't appreciate it as much as we should. But our Redeemer knows how hard eternal death is and how precious eternal life is. It was from this eternal death that He redeemed us with His cross and His death in order to give us eternal life. What love, what mercy! Therefore, brothers, let us all diligently honor the cross, kissing it with faith and love in church and at home and wherever else, correctly and reverently depicting its sign on ourselves. There are people who, out of carelessness, depict a cross on themselves in a bad way and think that it’s nothing; but this is not nothing, but a great sin. This is ingratitude for God’s blessings, inattention to a subject that is worthy of all attention. How! The Son of God suffered the cross and death for us, shed blood for us, but we don’t want to portray this saving sign on ourselves! Brothers! Let's be careful. In the Cross we will honor the Lord Crucified on it: after all, our love was crucified on it, and this love is the incarnate Son of God Himself. Amen. 11. Homily for the eighth week after Pentecost Today we, beloved brothers and sisters, are in the eighth week, i.e. the eighth Sunday after Pentecost, or Trinity Day, from which there is a special counting of the weeks and a special service with the Octoechos or Octoconic of St. John of Damascus. This Sunday we are supposed to read the Gospel of Matthew about Jesus Christ’s healing of the sick in the desert of Bethsaida and the feeding of five thousand people, not counting women and children, with five barley loaves and two fish. The Gospel in Russian reads like this: “at that time Jesus, seeing a multitude of people, took pity on them and healed their sick. When evening came, His disciples came to Him and said: This is a deserted place and the time is already late; send the people away so that they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves. But Jesus said to them: They don’t need to go, you give them something to eat. They said to Him: We have here only five loaves and two fish. He said: Bring them here to Me. And he ordered the people to lie down on the grass and, taking five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven, blessed and, breaking them, gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the people. And they all ate and were filled; and they took up the remaining pieces, twelve baskets full; and those who ate were about five thousand people, besides women and children. And Jesus immediately compelled His disciples to get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, until He let the people go” (Matthew 14:14-22). Here the reading of the Gospel ends. The Lord Jesus Christ performed an abyss of miracles, an abyss of good deeds to people during the days of His earthly life: He miraculously healed various sick, feverish, paralytic, lepers, sleepwalkers, the deaf, blind, lame, crooked, dry, then freed the possessed from evil demons, then fed the hungry by miraculously multiplying loaves and fishes, then raised the dead; to briefly say: the Lord performed so many beneficial signs or wonders that, as the Holy Evangelist John the Theologian says, if one were to tell about them one by one, the whole world would not be able to contain the books to be written (John 21:25). These miracles, performed by the powerful Word, clearly revealed in Him the Almighty, All-Good and All-Wise God, the Creator of creation, who appeared in the world in the flesh. And only the envious and evil scribes and Pharisees, elders and high priests did not want to stubbornly believe in Him as Almighty God the Creator, Provider and Savior. You and I know Him and believe in Him, because we were born of Christian parents, and born in the Christian baptismal font, and raised in the rules and regulations of the Christian faith, we are nourished and quickened by the bread of heaven, which is the flesh of Christ God, and by His blood, which flowed from His side. Let us be grateful to our Savior for these invaluable gifts, and strengthen ourselves in faith, hope and love for Him, and in mutual love. The Lord Jesus Christ, the same now, who once lived and walked the earth and performed countless miracles, only now does not walk visibly on the earth as then, but in Divine glory will sit on the throne of the Divine, ruling the whole world and filling everything with Himself. And now He heals all kinds of illnesses with His omnipotent grace, through the prayer of faith, especially in the sacrament of the Blessing of Unction, either in a natural manner through medical means, or without them, by the healing power of nature alone; and now He feeds every creature, producing in abundance all kinds of fruits of the earth; and now He grows and multiplies grain in the fields and in barns, although due to our sins, and various disorders, and our disorders in life, sometimes, and now especially, He withholds His bounties and does not grow grain seeds for people and grass for livestock in sufficient abundance. Let us correct ourselves and let us constantly remember and love Our Creator and Provider, the Physician of the soul and body, and the Nourisher of every creature, fulfilling His commandments. Because of the scarcity of grain seeds, bread has become expensive, and for many poor people life has now become extremely difficult, and in many places people are suffering real hunger. Let us try to bear each other's burdens according to our strength, and give bread to the hungry; for for the impoverishment of love in people and for the increase of hard-heartedness and other sins, the Lord causes a paucity of fruits. Let us earnestly pray to Him for an abundance of earthly fruits, and let us take care to abound in all kinds of good deeds - sincere love for each other, sincere goodwill towards every person, simplicity and purity of morals, meekness and humility, kindness, condescension and patience towards each other, self-control, sincere piety and heartfelt participation in Divine services, hard work, straightforwardness, honesty and faithfulness in trade and in all words and deeds, as becomes Christians called to righteousness and truth. When our life is abundant and adorned with Christian virtues, then the earth will abound with all kinds of fruits for our food and enjoyment; otherwise, if we do not correct ourselves and our sins multiply, then the products of the earth will become even more scarce and the cost of living will increase. This is what the Lord once said to the Jews, whose lawlessness and untruth He denounced through the Prophet Amos: for your sins “I have given you bare teeth in all your cities and a lack of bread in all your villages; but you did not turn to Me, says the Lord. And he withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest; it rained on one city, but did not rain on another city; one area was watered by rain, and the other, not sprinkled with rain, dried up” (Amos 4:6-7). “I struck you with rust and faded bread; The caterpillar has devoured many of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees, and for all this you did not turn to Me, says the Lord” (Amos 4:9). “Turn your hearts back to the time from this day and back...” (Hag.2:18). “Sometimes they came to a heap that could yield twenty measures, and there were only ten” (Hag. 2:16), says the Lord through another Prophet. So now the Lord reduces the fruits of the fields for our sins. In our time, the same thing is being done, only we must add that theft of other people’s goods, self-interest and cards have taken possession of the hearts of our townspeople. But it's time to finish the word. How shall we conclude it? In those words that the Lord said to some of the Jews who ate the miraculously multiplied loaves and fishes: “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). “I am the bread of life; He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst...” (John 6:35). “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; And the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). “...if you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:53–56). “This is the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:58). And here He is, I will add, here, on the Holy See, acting sacredly every day. Let us prepare ourselves to receive this heavenly life-giving bread - and take, eat and drink from this cup, for this is the Blood of the New Testament, shed for you and for many for the remission of sins. 1 Amen. 12. Homily for the eighth week after Pentecost This Sunday, in order and according to the flow of time, is the eighth from the day of Pentecost, or from Trinity, and in church order is called the eighth week after Pentecost. Today's Gospel talks about the miracles of mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, by the way, about His miraculous feeding of five thousand people in the desert with five small loaves of bread and two of the same fish. What does it teach us? Firstly, to the fact that Jesus Christ is an abyss, an unsearchable abyss of mercy; at every step we see Him doing good and working miracles on people in need or sinning but repenting. Secondly, he reminds us that Jesus Christ is the Creator and Nourisher of all creatures, the Creator of all the fruits of the earth, and at the same time the righteous King and Judge of all people, who, for the sins of iniquity and for the unrepentance and indifference of people in sins, punishes them, among other things, by destroying the fruits of the earth with excessive and prolonged heat, or lack of wind and excessive humidity, or hail, or various insects, such as a caterpillar or bread beetles. Thirdly, the Gospel teaches us to always take food with prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord God (1 Cor. 10:31), who, according to His sole mercy, abundantly feeds us with all kinds of fruits and all kinds of drink. Before the miraculous distribution of the miraculously multiplied loaves and fishes, the Lord looked up to heaven to the Heavenly Father, and then blessed the loaves and fishes, and with this, by the way, He wanted to teach us that before eating and drinking we should always turn to God with a prayer, for example, like this: “The eyes of all trust in You, Lord, and You give them food in due season: You open Your generous hand, and fulfill every living thing.” goodwill"; or - read the “Our Father”, and after eating food say: “We thank You, Christ our God...” Fourthly, the Gospel teaches us to take food and drink for the glory of God, not for satiety or drunkenness or for pleasure and gluttony, but in moderation, food blessed by the church, for example, in fasting - fasting, except in cases of weakness and illness or poverty, for the church allows the weak and sick and poor to fasting fast food. Fifthly, the Gospel teaches us all mercy and compassion for the needy. The Lord's disciples offer their Teacher to let the people go to the villages to buy food, and the Lord says to them: give them food; they don't have to leave. They say: we only have five loaves of bread and two fish: what does this mean for such a multitude of people? And the Lord, in response to this, orders everyone to be seated on the grass and performs the miracle of multiplying the loaves and fishes, teaching us to share with the poor and our little wealth, which He, as the Almighty Creator, can always multiply: “he who gives to the poor will not become poor” (Proverbs 28:27), according to the word of Scripture. Sixthly, since man consists of body and soul, which is incomparably more important than the body as the image of God, and it requires appropriate spiritual food and spiritual drink, namely the Most Pure Body and the Most Pure Blood of the Lord, as well as the Word of God, with which the Christian soul is nourished and strengthened, then the Gospel teaches us to care more about incorruptible food, strengthening the soul - about frequent communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord, about fulfillment the will of God and cutting off one’s whims and lusts, about teaching in the word of God and fulfilling the righteousness of God. The Lord Himself says in the Gospel: “Do not strive for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:27). “For it is good to strengthen hearts by grace, and not to waste, from which those who walked in them received no benefit” (Heb. 13:9). “Food is for the belly, and the belly is for food; but God will destroy both” (1 Cor. 6:13), says the Apostle Paul. This summer, apparently, the Lord crowns with His blessing, and gives, for the most part, a bountiful and fat harvest and has produced in abundance all sorts of fruits of the earth for our enjoyment and food. For this, as for all His mercies, we will be grateful to Him, we will love Him with all our hearts, with all our thoughts - we will prove our love for Him by fulfilling His commandments, correcting our lives, sincere and constant repentance, love and compassion for our neighbors, rightness of heart and every virtue, and in the future we will be honored by His all-good providence with all spiritual and physical gifts. Amen. 13. Homily for the eighth week after Pentecost The current Gospel reading, beloved brothers and sisters, tells us about the Lord’s mercy towards people and His Divine, almighty power, namely, it speaks of the healing of many sick people and the miraculous feeding of five thousand people with the miraculously multiplied five small loaves of bread and two fish. It teaches us the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of everything, the Giver of Life and our Nourisher, and the Physician of the soul and body; He created and creates in abundance all kinds of fruits of the earth for our food and enjoyment; He sends from heaven the early and late rains; It thunders in the circle of heaven and terribly shines with lightning; He brings forth the winds from His treasures; By him we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Therefore, beloved brothers and sisters, taking advantage of God’s various gifts every day, let us be grateful to the Lord for them and for His great love for us and His rich Providence for us, to repay Him with love, and, according to the measure of His generosity to us, we will be mutually generous to our neighbors. If we do this, then the earth will not stop growing all kinds of fruits in abundance, for, according to the fruits of our love for God and good deeds, the earth will be filled with fruits, and there will be no crop failures and famine or the heavy high cost of all needs. If we are unmerciful and hard-hearted, then the earth will be hard under our feet and will not bear fruit. The Lord demands nothing more from us, brothers and sisters, for His gifts and for His love for us, than for us to fulfill His holy will and our mutual love. What does the All-Satisfied and All-Blessed One need from us? Nothing. Look at the touching compassion the Lord shows for the people who came in large numbers to listen to His sweet, life-giving word and to be healed of their ailments! Seeing the multitude of people, says the evangelist, the Lord took pity on them and healed their sick. Doesn’t He teach us all compassion for each other and mercy? Yes, He sets us an example of all virtue. I have shown you an example, so that you also do what I do (John 13:15), says the Lord, of course, within the limits of what is possible. Can't you heal? But you can sympathize with the sick person, visit him, console him with your love, help him in whatever way you can; or you can feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked or buy him some clothes and shoes, etc. Even today’s Gospel teaches us that we should not hesitate to give to our neighbor and from a little, according to our strength: for the Lord is able to multiply even a little, so that “he who gives to the poor will not become poor” (Proverbs 28:27). The apostles had only five loaves of bread and two fish, and thought that it was not worth dividing such a small amount among such a great multitude of people. And this smallness became a great multitude; They all ate and were satisfied, and there was still forty times more left than there was. Doesn’t a similar miracle happen today to merciful people? - And quite often. As they give, the Lord gives them ten, twenty, a hundred times more. “The Lord is faithful in all his words” (Ps. 145:13). But especially today’s Gospel teaches us that our true bread, the bread of not temporary, but eternal life, is the Lord Jesus Christ and that we must take care not only about perishable food, but especially about incorruptible food that gives eternal life to the soul, namely, about the communion of the Most Pure Body and Blood of Christ, about listening and reading the Word of God, which is the spiritual food of our souls and about prayer, which sanctifies and saturates the soul by grace. When the people, after the miraculous feeding, began to follow Jesus Christ in order to eat more and more of the miraculous dinner, then the Lord said to them accusatoryly: “Truly I say to you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miracles, but because you ate bread and were filled. Do not strive for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:26,27). Truly I say to you, “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the one that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. To this they said to Him: Lord! always give us such bread. Jesus said to them: I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger, and whoever believes in Me will never thirst” (John 6:33-35). Earthly, perishable food strengthens only the body, and not the immortal soul. The Apostle says: It is good to strengthen hearts by grace, and not waste, from which those partial to them received no benefit (Heb. 13:9). Food is for the belly, and the belly is for food, but God will destroy both (1 Cor. 6:13). So, brothers and sisters, while trying to provide perishable food, let us take more care of the spiritual food that feeds our immortal soul - the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, listening and reading the Word of God, and public and domestic prayer. “May Thy Holy Body, O most gracious Lord, be the bread of the eternal life, and the venerable Blood, and the healing of manifold ailments” 2 Amen. 14. Teaching on the ninth week after Pentecost What was the Gospel read about today? Did you listen to it with attention, did you understand it, did you keep it in your memory, did you put it on your heart, did you apply it to yourself? And all this should be done. What was the gospel about? About the Savior's prayer in solitude; about His walking on the sea as on dry land; about the fear of His disciples when they saw a man walking on water; about how the Savior encouraged them; about Petrova’s request to come to Him on the water and about the Lord’s permission; about Peter's lack of faith and fear; about drowning; about the rescue of a drowned person by the life-giving Hand; about the Lord’s reproach to Peter for his lack of faith; about calming the wind; about the disciples' confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. In detail, the matter was like this: the Lord, after the miraculous feeding of four thousand people, not counting women and children, ordered His disciples to get into the boat and go before Him to the other side of the Sea of ​​Gennesaret, and He Himself, meanwhile, began to bless the people to disperse, having taught them. “And having dismissed the people, He went up into the mountain to pray in private; and in the evening he remained there alone. And the boat was already in the middle of the sea, and it was beaten by waves, because the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And the disciples, seeing Him walking on the sea, were alarmed and said: this is a ghost; and they cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately spoke to them and said, “Be of good cheer; It's me, don't be afraid. Peter answered Him: Lord! If it is You, command me to come to You on the water. He said: go. And, getting out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to approach Jesus, but, seeing a strong wind, he was afraid and, beginning to drown, cried out: Lord! save me. Jesus immediately stretched out his hand, supported him and said to him: you of little faith! why did you doubt? And when they entered the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat came up, worshiped Him and said: Truly You are the Son of God. And having crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret” (Matthew 14:22–34). Here is the entire Gospel: and everything is clear and understandable! Now we need to apply from it what each of us can and should do to ourselves. After all, the Gospel was written for our edification, consolation and salvation. And the first thing you need to apply to yourself is prayer. The Lord, according to humanity, often prayed in solitude, at night. We should certainly pray, at all times. “Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into misfortune” (Matthew 26:41), says the Lord. We have many sins; there are many mental and physical needs; there are many temptations; That’s why you need to pray unceasingly, of course, most internally. And on holidays - openly, in the church. Further, what is edifying and comforting in this Gospel is that Jesus Christ, seeing the disastrous voyage of His disciples, whose boat was being beaten by strong waves in the middle of the sea, went to their aid, and as the Creator and Lord of the sea, he walked along the ridge of the sea as if on dry land. Seeing a man walking on the sea, which seemed impossible to them, they considered Him to be a ghost and cried out in fear. But the Lord, who came to their aid, calmed them down and said that it was He and that they had nothing to fear. And we, brothers, floating in the sea of ​​life, are often rushed by the opposite winds of temptation and various passions - and we, like the apostles, are often in poverty. Let us not forget in the hours of temptation and trouble that the Savior is near us (Phil. 4:5) and is ready to save us, if only we would cry out to Him for salvation with faith and sincere repentance of sins. We are often frightened by the ghosts that the evil one presents to us; we are confused by the machinations of the crafty adversary. But let us cry to the Lord with all our hearts: and all ghosts will be scattered; and the contrary winds will subside. This is always the case with believers, and so it will be. The boldness of the Apostle Peter is remarkable. Encouraged by the words of the Lord, he asks permission to walk to Him on the water, as if forgetting for a while the difference between himself - a man - and between the God-Man. The Lord, however, does not reject boldness and says: go. And a wonderful miracle! An omnipotent command sustains Peter as he walks on the water: he walks on the water, marveling at himself. But Petrov’s boldness did not last long: seeing the strong wind, he got scared, and, starting to drown, shouted: Lord, save me! Jesus immediately stretched out his hand, supported him, and said to him: you of little faith! Why did you doubt? Do not be surprised at Peter’s lack of faith: at that time he was not yet renewed by the life-giving, fiery breath of the Holy Spirit and therefore showed human weaknesses. But after the descent of the Holy Spirit, Saint Peter was above all doubts and had the faith of God, with which he raised the dead. And we ourselves will take care of our faith. Peter just began to drown and immediately cried out for salvation: Lord, save me! But many of us are completely drowning in sins, but do not come to the Savior and say: Lord, save me. How close is the Savior to all of us? Just look to Him, brother, with the eyes of your heart, with faith, with the hope that He is right here in front of you, and will save you, if you really want salvation - He will save you, He will certainly save you: you will see for yourself how He will save you, you will see, of course, with the eyes of your heart. Now, brother or sister, learn from the Apostle Peter, with the same faith and hope as He, to cry out to the Savior in troubles, sorrows, in sins: Lord, save me, and you will certainly be saved. That’s what the Savior is for, to save us sinners. And when he saves you, then you will say: yes, truly you are the Son of God, and you will worship Him with love. Amen. 15. Homily for the ninth week after Pentecost Today, beloved brothers, the deacon read the Gospel about the solitary prayer of the Savior on the mountain; about commanding His apostles to cross in a boat to the other side of the sea; about their difficult navigation in adverse winds; about Jesus Christ walking on the sea as if it were dry land; about the fear of the apostles at the sight of a man walking on water, and about their encouragement from the Lord; about the bold request of the Apostle Peter to come to the Lord on water and permission to do so; about Petrov walking on water at the beginning, before his fright, and drowning after the fright; about the helping hand given by the Lord and the reprimand to Peter for his lack of faith and doubt; about a sudden cessation of wind; and, finally, about the confession by those in the boat of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. The Gospel is extremely instructive and edifying, especially when you think about the fact that the persons and objects depicted in it, excluding the face of the Lord Himself, depict you and me. Firstly, today’s Gospel teaches about the benefits and necessity of solitary prayer. Jesus Christ himself, God and man, often prayed as a man, in solitude. In solitude, a person can completely, with all his heart, devote himself to prayer, because then no one and nothing prevents him from praying, whereas among people devoted to their ordinary everyday vanity, it is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to completely devote themselves to prayer. Of course, solitary prayer can sometimes happen among people, when someone prays in his heart, as in a solitary cell, and such prayer is pleasing to the Lord; but not everyone can pray this way, but experienced ones who have learned to talk with God everywhere, in every place. Secondly, the Gospel of this day teaches us courage and fearlessness in difficult circumstances of life, or in dangers, temptations, misfortunes, in the confidence that the Lord is always with us and will not allow those who trust in Him and love Him to perish untimely. Thus, the apostles were in a very difficult situation when they were in a boat in the middle of the sea, with an opposing wind; and the Lord, wanting to get them out of a difficult situation, went to them across the sea, and they, seeing the extraordinary phenomenon of a man walking on the water, considered him to be a ghost, and cried out in fear - when Jesus spoke to them in a voice familiar to them: be of good cheer; It’s me, don’t be afraid,” they calmed down. The apostles, who were then imperfect, but still only beginners in faith and life, portray you and me; the sea means the here, vain, agitated by the devil’s machinations, everyday passions and misfortunes, life; the boat means our destructible body, in which, together with our soul, our spirit swims across the sea of ​​this life and which the enemy of our salvation is always ready to drown with carnal passions. So, my brothers, we all experience, to varying degrees, a storm of troubles and misfortunes in life, like swimmers in the sea, and our imagination, thoughts, hearts, and will are painfully tuned by sins and everyday temptations; sometimes we are afraid of everything and everyone, our own shadow, the noise of tree leaves, but this is because our faith in Jesus Christ is still weak, that we have not yet united with Him; He who believes in Him with all his heart and is closely united with Him fears no one, neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor in the underworld. “The Lord is my enlightenment and my Savior, whom will I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, from whom shall I fear?” (Ps. 26:1). Even if a demonic army attacks me, my heart will not fear; Even if demonic warfare arises against me, I will trust in Him. This is how bold and courageous, how undaunted is the believer and lover of the Lord! Further, the Gospel speaks of the bold request of the Apostle Peter to come on water to the Lord, for which permission was given, about his walking on water before being frightened and drowning after fright. Peter’s request, on the one hand, is worthy of approval as the fruit of his faith in Christ and love for Him, but on the other hand, it is unreasonable; for, not yet established in faith and love, but only having the beginnings of faith and love, he unnecessarily wanted a miracle, which would give him a reason to rise in thought before the other Apostles, who did not dare to ask the Lord for anything like that. Therefore, when the Lord allowed him to walk on the water, he walked on the water, but then soon his faith weakened, he doubted and began to drown. This often happens to us: when we do or say something with faith and confidence, then the speech flows smoothly and the work is done properly; but if we begin to hesitate, doubt, fear, then the word will freeze and things will not go well. Let's take prayer as an example. When we pray with faith, hope and zeal, see how ardent, easy, and useful your prayer is; but if we doubt or forget about the presence of God, or if we entertain ourselves with extraneous thoughts, dreams, and prayer goes out, and we feel spiritual collapse, heart drowning, spiritual death. Lack of faith and doubt are so harmful and disastrous! Faith means so much! Let us not be of those who waver to destruction, but of those who believe to the salvation of our souls (Heb. 10:39). God! save me,” Peter exclaimed as he began to drown. The Lord stretched out his hand to him, supported him and said to him: you have little faith! why did you doubt? We are all drowning in sins, like in the sea; Therefore, we, like Peter, need to turn to the Savior with a strong cry of repentance: Lord! Save me; Peter drowning means us who are perishing in the sea of ​​life. And the Lord will never leave those who sincerely repent and pray to Him to perish: He will immediately extend a helping hand; this has been and is being constantly experienced by millions of repentant sinners, of whom I am the first. “Who came to You weeping and was not quickly saved? Who cried out loudly and was not heard? But oh Master! You will soon be found for the salvation of all those who pray to You, as invincible in mercy,” says the general service throughout all days to our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord convicted Peter of his lack of faith, showing that if he had not wavered in faith, he would not have drowned, but would have walked firmly on the water and reached the Lord. Petrovo's own lack of faith was the reason for his drowning. How many troubles and sins do we experience because of lack of faith? There are no numbers for our falls, our drownings! If we always believed in our hearts, we would walk firmly towards the Lord by fulfilling His commandments, by loving God and our neighbor; but because we have little faith, every day we fall into the depths of sin and drown, sometimes in intemperance, sometimes in anger and rage, sometimes in envy, sometimes in worldly luxury, sometimes in love of money and hardness of heart, sometimes in carnal impurity. Oh, let us at least turn to the Lord more often in repentance with the prayer: Lord, save me: I am perishing. When the Lord entered the boat, the wind immediately died down. So the storm of sin in us immediately subsides when we turn to Christ with sincere repentance; The desired silence of thoughts and feelings will become within us. Oh, how good it is for the soul then! Then she too, in a deep sense of faith and gratitude to the Lord, approaches Him, falls before Him and says to Him, like the apostles in the boat: Truly You are the Son of God! You are my Savior! You are my life. You are my God! Amen. 16. Conversation on the ninth week after Pentecost The Gospel read today, beloved brothers and sisters, tells about the testing of the disciples by placing them in various difficult circumstances, so that they would not rely on themselves, but on God in everything, and in order to confirm them in faith and trust in Him. Let us repeat this Gospel word by word in Russian. “On time it is,” i.e. at that time (after the miraculous feeding of the people, miraculously multiplied by five loaves and two fish), Jesus forced His disciples to enter the boat and go before Him to the other side until He let the people go. And, having dismissed the people, He went up to the mountain to pray in private; and in the evening he remained there alone. And the boat was already in the middle of the sea, and it was beaten by waves, because the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And the disciples, seeing Him walking on the sea, were alarmed and said: this is a ghost; and they cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately spoke to them and said, “Be of good cheer; It's me, don't be afraid. Peter answered Him: Lord! If it is You, command me to come to You on the water. He said: go. And, getting out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to approach Jesus, but, seeing a strong wind, he was afraid and, beginning to drown, cried out: Lord! save me. Jesus immediately stretched out his hand, supported him and said to him: you of little faith! why did you doubt? And when they entered the boat, the wind died down. Those who were in the boat came up, worshiped Him and said: Truly You are the Son of God. And having crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret” (Matthew 14:22–34). Here is the end of the reading from the Gospel. The Gospel we read instills in us, first of all, the need and necessity of prayer. You hear many times from the Gospel throughout the year that Jesus Christ often prayed to His heavenly Father, prayed for humanity, of course, and not for His Divinity - both day and night, especially at night, because during the day He preached and did good to people, performing countless miracles. If He, God and man, prayed often, then how should we, sinners and weaklings, constantly tempted and exposed to all sorts of dangers, pray? The Holy Apostle Paul says: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), i.e. both externally and internally. The Holy Apostle Peter says: be sober (in prayers), watch, for your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Neither day nor night are we free from his temptations. And this is where the need especially for morning prayers and for those going to bed comes from. We must both begin and end the day with fervent prayer, i.e. Be sure to pray both in the morning and at night; in addition, at the beginning and end of business; also before and after meals; which is now completely out of the norm for many. Prayer refreshes and strengthens the soul, cleanses, sanctifies, consoles, enlightens, nourishes, and unites with God, if it is done intelligently, from the soul, with sincere faith. So, everyone pray. Prayer is the source of all blessings; Through prayer everything works out. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive (Matthew 21:22), says the Lord. Jesus Christ prayed especially often on the mountain. He teaches us to renounce earthly thoughts and passions during prayer and lift up our minds and hearts to grief; mountain, i.e. Think about heavenly things, and not about earthly things (Col. 3:2), says the Apostle. Woe (to heaven), we have hearts, 3 proclaims the Church, i.e. let us direct our hearts; This is especially necessary during the Liturgy, when such a great, heavenly, terrible Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is performed. Further, beloved brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel teaches us not to be faint-hearted, not to be afraid, not to lose heart during the dangers, temptations and various worries of life. The Gospel says that the Apostles in the fourth watch of the night (i.e., between three and six o'clock in the morning), seeing a man walking on the sea, became alarmed and said: a ghost; and they cried out in fear. Why were they so scared? - From lack of faith and lack of trust in God: for they were still imperfect. The Holy Spirit has not yet transformed them. They became bound with courage after the descent of the Holy Spirit; now the Lord, accustoming them to courage and fearlessness, said: take heart; It's me, don't be afraid. In fact: who and what should a believer in the Lord fear? The Lord is my enlightenment and my Savior, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, whom shall I fear? (Ps.26:1) Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me (Ps.22:4), says King Prophet David. We should not waver in faith and lose heart during storms and waves of temptation from evil spirits and in difficult circumstances in general, but firmly trust in the mercy and almighty power of God: for “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23), says the Lord. The Apostle Peter asked the Lord for permission to come to Him on the water, and the Lord allowed it; Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water as on dry land; and the waves did not hinder him, and his feet did not sink; but, seeing the strong wind, he got scared and, starting to drown, shouted: Lord! save me. Jesus immediately stretched out his hand, supported him, and said to him: you of little faith! why did you doubt? This means that if I had not doubted and were not afraid, I would have freely reached the Lord across the waves; but lack of faith deprived him of the power of grace; and when he cried out for help, the Lord supported him and did not allow him to plunge into the depths. The Apostle Peter portrays us. We are drowned by demonic temptations and our sins from our lack of faith and unbelief, from worldly addictions and from a lack of Christian love; this deprives us of the power of God, we are often afraid of fear where there is no fear; we are afraid of ghosts and demonic dreams. But when we are strengthened in faith and cry from the bottom of our hearts to the Lord for help, this help will not delay, and we will overcome temptations. When the Lord entered the boat, the wind died down. The boat represents our soul. When the Lord dwells in us, then the storm of temptation subsides and great silence settles in us. Those in the boat confessed Jesus Christ as the Son of God, for they saw His almighty power. And with great faith we confess the Divinity of Jesus Christ whenever we feel peace in our souls after a storm of passions, tamed by calling on His name. Glory to Thee, Christ our God, who calms the storm of our passions and creates peace in our hearts! Amen. 17. Homily for the tenth week after Pentecost Today the Gospel was read about Jesus Christ’s healing of a demon-possessed lunatic, and at the very end of the Gospel - the Lord’s prediction about His suffering and death in Jerusalem. The Gospel shows how strong a person can be by faith in the Lord, namely, so strong that he can move mountains, and how weak, powerless and pitiful a non-believer is, for he can be a pitiful playground of demons and the passions of his own and those of others; it also shows the great power of prayer and fasting when they go hand in hand, mutually reinforcing each other. Let us repeat this Gospel so that it becomes more firmly established in your memory. When Jesus Christ and His disciples, after the transfiguration on Mount Tabor, came “to the people, a man approached Him and, kneeling before Him, said: Lord! have mercy on my son; On new moons he goes berserk and suffers greatly, for he often throws himself into fire and often into water. I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him. Jesus answered and said: O faithless and perverse generation! How long will I be with you? How long will I tolerate you? bring him here to Me. And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him; and the boy was healed at that hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we drive him out?” Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief; For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed and say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you; this race is driven out only by prayer and fasting. While they were in Galilee, Jesus said to them: The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and on the third day he will rise again” (Matthew 17:14-23). This is the end of the current Gospel. With your mental eyes in this Gospel you see the unfortunate father, exhausted by the suffering of his unfortunate demon-possessed son, whom from childhood the evil spirit terribly tormented on new moons and often threw him into fire, then into water. The father asks the Lord for mercy to heal his son, adding that the disciples of the Lord, whom he asked for this, could not heal him. The Lord, having exposed and reproached people with his righteous word for unbelief and corruption, orders the demoniac to be brought to Himself and now with one prohibition heals him. What kind of possessed lunatic is this? This is a person subject to the action of an evil spirit who tormented on new moons - with an insidious intent so that this evil would be attributed not to him, the evil spirit, but to the innocent creation of God - the Moon, and thereby blaspheme the Creator of the Moon. This is how Saint Chrysostom interprets it. Evil spirits, causing a variety of evil to people, want to hide their harmful actions from people, so that people do not hate them and turn away from them and their harmful deeds completely - and turn their intrigues on the beautiful and multi-useful creation of God - on the Moon, the night star. But the evil spirit cannot hide with its destructive machinations! A God-enlightened person will now recognize his dirty tricks and, by the grace of God, will destroy them. Those who disbelieve are careless; They are still caught in its net and suffer from it, like the indicated lunatic. And how many of these demoniacs are there in our age, the age of unbelief and depravity? I call demoniac all those who are subject to drunkenness, unhappy and insane carnal love, or rather, carnal passion, all the so-called nihilists, who, having lost the most precious human treasure - faith, do not believe in the future life and in the immortality of our soul, do not expect the resurrection of the dead and the universal Judgment, who do not believe in the existence of God Himself, and in His eternal truth, and in His formidable, incorruptible justice, and, to their great misfortune, they do not believe in evil spirits. These unfortunate, lost people, entangled in the snares of the enemy, often, like the demoniac mentioned in the Gospel, also resort to fire and water, i.e. to a firearm in order to shoot oneself, or to drowning, or to strangulation. And notice how truly evil this violent, terrible death is now! Every day people either shoot themselves, or drown themselves, or hang themselves, or kill others. Many people don’t give a damn about human life. What is the terrible reason for this? What terrible lever drives these unfortunates to violent death? This is, firstly, unbelief and a depraved or perverse life, and secondly, evil demons, the original killers of the human race. I myself have heard from many unfortunate people who are subject to binge drinking or despondency due to some difficult circumstances that an evil demon is annoyingly whispering to them: hang yourself, hang yourself! or: drown, drown! or: shoot yourself, shoot yourself! or kill so and so. Oh, damned adversaries! How many human, Christian souls did you destroy in the ill-fated nineteenth century by violent death through your all-destructive charm? They are to blame for being seduced by your deceits, but you are a thousand times more guilty and for all your destruction you will receive retribution from the righteous Judge on the day of retribution. What is the remedy against enemies - charmers, tormentors and destroyers? – Faith in Christ, who trampled down the power of the devil with the cross, and fasting and prayer. Prayer and fasting cleanse, enlighten and strengthen the soul; on the contrary, without prayer and fasting our soul is an easy prey for the devil, because it is not protected and protected from him. Fasting and prayer are spiritual weapons against the devil, which is why the Lord says in this Gospel that the demonic race comes only through prayer and fasting. The Holy Church, knowing the power of this spiritual weapon, calls us to fast twice every week - on Wednesday and Friday, by the way, in remembrance of the suffering and death of our Savior, and throughout the year - many times during all multi-day fasts, and connects Great Lent with special touching prayers of repentance. Fasting and prayer also have the spiritual benefit that, strengthening our souls, they strengthen our very faith, hope and love and unite us with God. In the Gospel read today, there is a remarkable reproof from the Lord of His disciples of unbelief. Did the apostles really waver in their faith at first? Yes, and they were sometimes weak before the Holy Spirit descended on them - and sometimes they believed, sometimes they fell into unbelief and lack of faith; at least this must be said about nine, excluding three, the so-called pillars of faith: Peter, James and John. By faith they healed all sorts of diseases, raised the dead, cleansed lepers, cast out demons, and when grace left one of them for lack of faith and unbelief, then they could not cast out demons, as is mentioned in today’s Gospel. Therefore, the Lord, through them, teaches us all to have undoubted faith and says: if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, and say to this mountain: move from here to there, then it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. Indeed, all true believers, all saints, performed many miracles by faith, and by faith made the impossible possible. Read the descriptions of their lives, and you will see for yourself how strong faith is! Meanwhile, the people of our century flaunt and boast of unbelief! Is this an enlightened age? How! We owe all the successes of enlightenment in all fields to our faith, which has shed abundant light into human minds, and yet we reject faith?! Children - their Mother, who gave birth to and raised them? Crazy and ungrateful! Brothers and sisters, cherish your faith! Guard your faith. Without faith there is no salvation; without faith a person will perish forever. Amen. 18. Homily for the eleventh week after Pentecost Today, beloved brothers, the Gospel parable of the Savior was read, in which He, the Lord our God, likened the Kingdom of Heaven or His righteous Judgment over people to a king, “who wanted to settle accounts with his servants; when he began to reckon, someone was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and since he did not have anything to pay with, his sovereign ordered him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and everything that he had, and to pay; then that slave fell, and, bowing to him, said: sir! Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything. The Emperor, having mercy on that slave, released him and forgave him the debt. That servant went out and found one of his companions who owed him a hundred denarii, and he grabbed him and strangled him, saying, “Give me what you owe.” Then his comrade fell at his feet, begged him and said: have patience with me, and I will give you everything. But he didn’t want to, but went and put him in prison until he paid off the debt. His comrades, seeing what had happened, were very upset and, when they came, they told their sovereign everything that had happened. Then his sovereign calls him and says: evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me; Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your companion, just as I had mercy on you? And, angry, his sovereign handed him over to the torturers until he paid him all the debt. So will My Heavenly Father do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart for his sins (Matthew 18:23-35). I repeated the entire Gospel I read so that you would remember it better. It is not to our credit that this Gospel depicts the extreme hardness and malice of the human heart towards our neighbors. From the very time when people, through sin, surrendered to the leader of evil, the devil, he built a solid nest in their hearts, planting in it his hellish malice, which he has since shown very often in very rude, violent forms. Biblical and civil history and the diaries of our time are full of examples of this malice and hard-heartedness, either because of self-interest, because of the desire to take predatory advantage of one’s neighbor’s property, or because of offended pride, because of wild whim, because of unsatisfied animal love; many, and very often, do not think about plunging a knife into the heart or throat of their neighbor, or otherwise taking his life in some way, not to mention quarrels, disputes, curses, trials and other expressions of human malice. Let us pay attention to the act of the hard-hearted lender mentioned in this Gospel. He himself owed his sovereign a huge sum, which he could never pay him, and, according to the justice of the country, he had to be sold with his wife and children and all his property in order to pay at least part of the debt. A disaster that can no longer exist. The debtor began to beg the king for forgiveness, and he was forgiven. It seems that we should remember such unparalleled mercy and show similar mercy to our neighbor on occasion. But the incident with his neighbor showed the bad side of the former debtor, his extreme malice and hard-heartedness: having just received the greatest mercy from the king, he meets a comrade who owes him the smallest amount of money, immediately attacks him with rage, strangles him, and says to him: pay me back. He asks to be patient. The lender does not tolerate it and puts him in prison. Is this extreme cruelty? Is it extreme insensitivity and ingratitude? And very, very many of us are inclined and capable of this. We are sometimes extremely tough in dealing with our neighbors who owe us something, if possible! Yes, our nature is extremely prone to evil and lynching or to reprisal by our own courts, probably because this satisfies our pride and malice more quickly and easily than established courts. But with us, Christians, born in the font of baptism with water and the Holy Spirit, adopted by God and received from God grace or heavenly help for every virtue, this should not happen; we must cultivate in ourselves the spirit of meekness, humility, kindness, patience and long-suffering, moderation in all actions. And in order to have such a disposition of spirit in oneself, one must remember the general weakness of man, the general tendency to sin, especially our great infirmities and sins and God’s endless mercy towards us, which has forgiven and forgives us many and serious sins for our repentance and supplication. Yes, the very feeling of gratitude to God for His countless mercies towards us obliges us to be condescending and merciful to our neighbors, who are of the same flesh and blood with us and have the same infirmities, passions, and stumbling blocks. But the greatest motivation for our condescending and meek treatment of our neighbors should, of course, most of all, be the extreme condescension towards us of the Son of God, for us as a man and for our salvation, who came down from heaven, became incarnate and became human - His example, His commandments and advice, His meekness and kindness towards sinners, His long-suffering, His suffering and death for all of us. If He laid down His life for us, we should lay down our lives for each other (1 John 3:16), says the Apostle. Another Apostle says: be good to one another, merciful, not returning evil for evil, or annoyance for annoyance, enduring each other with love (1 Pet. 3:8-9). The Lord tells us: “I want mercy, not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). He, the much-merciful One, also wants from us mercy or mercy, kindness and patience towards our neighbors; He is always ready to help us in every good deed. If you have an evil heart, ask in repentance that He soften your heart, make you meek and patient: and it will be so. He tells us: son, give me your heart. Nothing is impossible for a believer and one who sincerely prays. Just make up your mind, firmly make up your mind to leave your anger behind. At the very beginning, one must curb any passion that arises in oneself, especially malice and anger, and not allow a spark to become a fire, which, of course, is much more difficult to extinguish than one spark. So, I will conclude this word: let us forgive our neighbors from our hearts for their sins against us, remembering our common weakness, infirmity, sinfulness and God’s endless mercy towards us. Amen. 19. Discourse on the twelfth week after Pentecost about the rich young man “A certain rich young man, approaching the Savior, asked Him: “Good Teacher! What good thing can I do to have eternal life? He said to him: Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. If you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments. He says to Him: which ones? Jesus said: Do not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; don't steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; and: love your neighbor as yourself. The young man says to Him: I have kept all this from my youth; what else am I missing? Jesus said to him: if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me. Hearing this word, the young man went away sad, because he had great possessions. Jesus said to His disciples: Truly I say to you, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; And again I tell you: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Hearing this, His disciples were greatly amazed and said: So who can be saved? And Jesus looked up and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:16–26). Let us explain this part of the Gospel, with God’s help, as briefly as possible. A rich young man, having learned from experience the sweetness of earthly, temporary life and the benefits of possessing earthly goods, languishes with a thirst for eternal life, eternal bliss, approaches the Source of life and asks Him: Good Teacher, what good thing can I do to have eternal life? Who among us would not desire to inherit eternal life? Nothing terrifies us more than death, like separation from all the pleasures of life, and nothing attracts us more than life, and life that has no end, an all-blessed life. So, let's listen carefully to the conversation of the rich young man with the Savior and see what is needed to inherit eternal life? The Lord does not answer his question directly, but remarks to him: Why do you call Me good? For no one is good except God alone. How are You not good, Lord? Are you not God, are you not the co-beginning Son of the beginningless Father-God? Are not You and Your Father one? What does it mean that the Lord, as it were, denies from Himself the name good, when He, He Himself, is eternal love and goodness? The Lord removes the title of good from Himself not as God, but as a man: since the young man turned to Him only as a good Teacher, as an ordinary person, and not as God: then the Lord answers him as a man, and not as God; for none of the people can be called the ever-flowing source of goodness, goodness itself: for there is only one self-good eternally, uniquely, only one God. This is how we must understand the words of the Lord: “Why do you say that I am good? No one is good except God alone.” Next, the Lord directly answers the question of the rich young man: if you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments - do you all hear, beloved brothers? – to inherit eternal life, it is necessary to keep the commandments of God, and without keeping them it is impossible to inherit eternal life. “Whoever created that man will live in them” (Rom. 10:5). “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but do the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). What commandments? - the young man asks the Lord; Jesus said: Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself. Place these commandments of God on your hearts, the fulfillment of which leads to eternal life. Thou shalt not kill, i.e. not only do not kill anyone, do not take life, but also do not offend anyone, do not humiliate, do not condemn, do not slander, do not be angry with anyone in vain, do not curse, do not harbor hatred or ill will towards anyone, do not wish harm, misfortune, or death to anyone; do not kill in any way - cruelty, beatings, flattery, cunning, deceit, persecution; Do not kill others with any material weapon, much less yourself. Treasure the peace and well-being of everyone as if it were your own. Do not commit adultery, i.e. Do not have carnal, unclean, sinful, animal love in your heart for a person, do not transgress the limits of love indicated by God and do not look at anyone’s face with lust, with an unclean thought, not only do not allow yourself to have a sinful connection with any person. Don't steal; and in order not to steal, do not want to live luxuriously, lightly, richly, cheerfully, being content with the small and necessary. Honor your father and mother, in your father and mother honor and love God, who through them gave you existence and upbringing, honor them as the culprits of your existence after God, the culprits of your happiness; and love your neighbor as yourself: what you wish for yourself, wish for others; What you don’t want for yourself, don’t wish for someone else. As you want people to do to you, do so to them (Matthew 7:12). The young man said to Him: I have kept all this from my youth; what else am I missing? Jesus said to him: if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me. It seems that after such words of the Lord, the good Teacher, the young man should go and sell his property and give it to the poor in order to have his treasure in heaven; then come and follow the Savior. But no: these are not Peter and Andrew, not James and John, the fishermen of Galilee, who followed Christ immediately after their calling by the Lord and left everything. Wealth confused and confused the young man. Suddenly he felt a sorrow in his soul, hitherto perhaps unknown. His heart ached and ached, sensing the imaginary deprivation of his pieces of silver and gold, and various possessions; and in all this is his soul, his life, his hope; With all this, his hardened heart was firmly, firmly united. What then, rich young man? Where has your courage gone, with which you approached the Savior of men? Wealth, or addiction to it, destroyed her; it became weak, plunged him into shame, sorrow and despondency. Such is the soulless mammon! She plunges those addicted to wealth into such shame, humiliation and confusion! Hearing the word of the Savior, the young man - alas - went away with sadness, because he had great property. So much for love for your neighbor as for yourself, of which the young man only boasted, saying to the Lord: “I have kept all this from my youth.” As soon as the matter of distributing money to the poor was touched upon, my heart began to ache; and eternal life became not sweet; and it became unpleasant to be together and talk with the good Teacher; and he, full of shame and confusion, walked away, withdrew from the good Teacher. The Lord, as the Knower of the Heart, saw in advance, without waiting for the outcome of the case, the young man’s passionate attachment to wealth, and now he only called it out in order to show the young man himself what kind of snake he carries and warms in his heart, eating away at his life and destroying all the noblest aspirations of his soul, and how necessary it is for him to shake this snake from his heart so that it does not kill him at all. All who are sick with the love of money, apply these words to your heart, and leave the stifling love of money! Something similar to what the rich young man stumbled on still happens to many of us today. Some people think about themselves, and others say about themselves that they love their neighbors, and when it comes to helping their neighbors, for example, they need to lend money, or give money to a beggar, or invite a stranger to their house, feed and drink, comfort and calm him down: so the heart turns back from the neighbor - it becomes unkind, and often even disgusting to the eye, the heart only says: come on in, come on in, my dear, I don’t care about you no; You are not my matchmaker or my brother; such and such an acquaintance or relative is lying sick: I don’t want to visit or talk; someone has fallen into trouble or misfortune: somehow his heart is alienated; in happiness he was a friend, but in misfortune he was not. So much for loving your neighbor as you love yourself. We have everything in abundance for ourselves, for all our whims there is money and everything; for the neighbor - no, although the neighbor is our member; I have enough money for myself: I have money for a rich table, I have money for wine, I have money for rich clothes, I have money for cards, I have money for tobacco, I have money for the theatre, and for all sorts of whims, but I don’t have enough money for my neighbor: it’s a pity for him: it’s a pity for a penny, and it’s a pity for decent clothes and shoes, as if the beggar is not a person like us in every way, as if he is a soulless statue, as if he doesn’t need anything; If we live like this, then we will surely no longer deserve eternal bliss: because we did not accept the love of the truth, that we might be saved (2 Thess. 2:10). Jesus, regarding the young man’s sadness over separation from his wealth and his removal from the Lord, said to His disciples: Truly I say to you, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; and again I tell you: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Why is this? Because wealth for the rich is an idol to which he bows, in whom he hopes, in him, and not in God; because it hardens his heart, his soul, making it seem earthly, rude, dumb, a slave of corruption, incapable of the love of God. Therefore, the Apostle writes to his disciple Timothy: “Forbid the rich in this world not to be arrogant, to put their trust in perishing wealth, but in God who lives, who richly gives us all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). Hearing the Savior’s words about the difficulty for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, His disciples were greatly amazed and said: So who can be saved? And Jesus looked up and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” This means that the rich should not despair of their salvation, just like the poor; We just need to use our wealth for the benefit of ourselves and our neighbors, consider it not our own, but God’s good, which was given to us not for us alone, but also for others, for those who themselves, due to illness or for some other reason, are not able to get themselves the necessary food, as well as the necessary clothing or shelter. Let us all, to the best of our ability, share our goods with the poor and needy, so that we may have treasure in heaven, and, by the grace of Christ God, receive eternal life for this small mercy towards our brothers. For mercy will yield mercy (Matthew 5:7). Amen. 20. Homily for the twelfth week after Pentecost In this Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ solves an important question proposed to Him by a rich young man: what should I do to inherit eternal life? The Lord points him to the commandments given to people from God through Moses, moreover, to the commandments about love for neighbors, bypassing the commandments regarding the Lord God Himself, of course, because love for God is based on love for neighbors, and without love for one’s neighbor it is impossible to love God: for he who does not love a brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? (1 John 4:20) - says the Holy Apostle John the Theologian. So the Lord says to the rich young man: “If you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments. He says to Him: which ones? Jesus said: Do not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; don't steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; and: love your neighbor as yourself. The young man says to Him: I have kept all this from my youth; what else am I missing? Jesus said to him: if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me. Hearing this word, the young man went away sad, because he had great possessions. Jesus said to His disciples: Truly I say to you, it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; And again I tell you: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Hearing this, His disciples were greatly amazed and said: So who can be saved? And Jesus looked up and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:16–26). This is the end of the current Gospel. Yes, the Lord solves an important question for us in this Gospel, the question of how, in what ways to achieve eternal life? There is nothing more certain than death, we will all die and with our bodies we will turn to dust, to the earth from which we were created in the first place, and our immortal souls, created in the image and likeness of God, will be caught up for judgment to God: for man must die once, and then the judgment (Heb. 9:27), says the Apostle, a private judgment on the soul of every person who departs from here; it decides the fate of man until the last general Judgment of the whole world after the resurrection of all the dead. Therefore, in view of the inevitability of death for each of us in the body, it is very important and necessary for each of us to satisfactorily resolve the question: what to do in order to inherit eternal life? – Eternal life beyond the grave is undoubtedly, just as there is undoubtedly eternal torment, and this short life here was given to us by God to prepare for the future life, but there will be no end to it forever and ever. The Lord decides this most important question of life for the completely rich young man, and with him for all of us. If you want, he says, to enter eternal life, then keep the commandments. Which? - asks the young man. And the Lord answers him: do not kill, do not commit adultery, and so on, as you have already heard. There are not many words, not many commandments, but how important they are, because the eternal life of each of us depends on their fulfillment. “For the man who created them shall live in them” (Rom. 10:5), says Scripture. So, it is necessary to dwell on these commandments and go deeper into their meaning in order to see all the necessity and benefit of their fulfillment and the breadth of their application to life. The first word is said: do not kill; it means many other similar commands, namely: do not offend; don't get annoyed; do not quarrel; don't be angry; don't fight; do not be hateful: “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15) - says the Apostle; do not be presumptuous with word or hand; do not be hard-hearted towards the poor and stingy; do not torment your assistants with backbreaking labor; save the dying if you can, for example, the hungry, the drowning; Do not exhaust yourself with backbreaking labor or upset your health with passions and vices; do not tempt others and do not betray to the devil the souls of those redeemed by the priceless blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the broad meaning of this commandment. Further, the Lord says: do not commit adultery, not only in deed, but also in thought, unclean sight, lust: give up all lustful dreams and imagination and everything that leads to adultery: delicacy, satiety and drunkenness; immodest, seductive conversations, reading immodest seductive books; immodest treatment of persons of the opposite sex, immodest paintings, etc. And just looking at a woman with lust is already adultery (Matthew 5:28), according to the word of the Savior. Try for the purity of thoughts and feelings, for the purity of morals of yourself and your neighbors, your children and servants, subordinates and everyone with whom you have connections and close relationships. It goes on to say: Thou shalt not steal; This is, of course, not just theft; but also parasitism, and bribery, or bribery; and extortion, or interest that is ruinous for the poor, which the lender takes; and various unjust gains: accepting things known to be stolen; a ruinous gambling game through which the gambler steals money or family property from his parents and relatives, or from his wife and children, and simply from himself; and finally, the one who does not give alms to the poor, having every opportunity to do so, for the Lord gives excesses to help the poor; If someone who is sufficient does not do this, then he steals the property of his neighbors and conceals the gift of God. Further the Lord says: do not bear false witness or slander your neighbor; for from slander, condemnation, slander, ridicule and false testimony, people suffer very much, they are deprived of their good name, sympathy, they are persecuted, oppressed, deprived of a place of service and means of living, and sometimes, not having the strength to endure the slander, they take their own lives. Because of false witness and slander, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was brought to the cross and death, the most blasphemous. A terrible evil - slander! And the holy prophet king prays to God to deliver him from slander: “Deliver me from the slander of men, and I will keep Your commandments” (Ps. 119:134). Honor your father and mother, it goes on to say. 3a respect for parents, the Lord promises prosperity and longevity in this life and eternal bliss in the future. We owe our lives and, for the most part, our very upbringing, at least the initial one, to our parents, and it would seem that there is nothing easier and more natural than to honor our parents. Meanwhile, in reality, especially in the present time, the opposite is often the case: children are burdened by their parents, even with the means to live, they refuse them due respect, they are rude to them and insult them to their face, they never consider their love, cares and concerns that were about them for anything; do not help them, do not support them in poverty, old age and illness. But woe to them if they do not come to their senses: it will be bad for them in this life, and eternal torment in the future life; the troublemakers, says the Apostle, will not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10). Love your neighbor as yourself, says the commandment, i.e. take care of him as you take care of yourself; wish him the same as you wish for yourself; do with him the same way as you would like to be treated with you; pray for him the same way as for yourself, for the living or for the dead; and do something good and useful for him, just as you do for yourself; for we are all children of one Father God, redeemed by one Blood; children of one mother - the Church, we await the Universal Kingdom. These are the commandments that lead to eternal life! The young man boasted that he had kept all these commandments, but in reality it turned out that he was far from achieving perfection in fulfilling them: for with all his heart he was attached to wealth, and that means he did not sincerely love either God or his neighbor; for the Lord says, and experience confirms, that it is impossible to work for God and wealth (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13), just as it is impossible to serve two masters. He departed from the Savior with sadness when the Lord, for the sake of his perfection, offered to sell his property and give it to the poor, for he saw that it was binding his spiritual feet. That is why the Lord said that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, more difficult than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But what is difficult and impossible for people is convenient for God: for God can make a rich man merciful, just as many of the rich are truly merciful, and he can make a rich man virtuous and an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven, if he does not resist the will of God, but diligently fulfills it. Here is the interpretation for today's Gospel. Remember and try to fulfill it to the best of your ability. Amen. 21. Teaching on the twelfth week after Pentecost Good teacher, what good will I do, and the imam will have eternal life? He said to him... if you want to take it into your belly, keep the commandments. (Matthew 19:16–17) We, brothers, think little about eternal life, and many, many do not think at all, completely immersed in the worries of life or carried away by voluptuousness and self-interest. We do not take the trouble to think carefully about what eternal life is, that we were created precisely for eternal life. Eternal life, brothers, is a life that, having begun after the resurrection of the dead, will never end; this life will be in heaven, where our Lord Jesus Christ ascended, where the Mother of God was ascended, where the holy Apostles, prophets, martyrs, hierarchs, saints and all the saints are. Is it not reckless on our part not to care about how to more accurately achieve this life? Extremely reckless. In today's Gospel, some rich young man, approaching Jesus Christ, asks Him: “Good teacher, what good will I do, so that the Imam will have eternal life?” - what good deeds must he do in order to be worthy of eternal life? What good will I do? The Savior, who has the verbs of eternal life, answers him: if you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments. Which? - asks the young man. The Lord of life answers: do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself. The young man says: I have kept all this from my youth; what else am I missing? What do you think he still lacked? It seems that he has fulfilled everything that God requires. Yes, brothers, this is our trouble, that it often seems to us that we have fulfilled the whole law in such a way that they write us as righteous. But in reality - no. It seemed to the evangelical youth that he had fulfilled all the commandments, but in reality it turned out differently. When the Lord said: if you want to be perfect, go, sell your property, and give it to the poor: and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me, then the young man went away sad, because he had a lot of property, and it turned out that the young man lied, as if he had kept all the commandments. In fact, if he had loved his neighbor as himself, he would not have collected much property and would not have had much property, given the multitude of beggars whom he himself saw every day: he would have given his property to the poor: he would have fed the hungry every day, clothed the half-naked, provided shelter for the poor, would have tried, if possible, to serve with his property to distressed humanity - and the collected property would not have lain with him. But he did not do this: he accumulated wealth and did not care about alms, about love for his neighbor; and he was more selfish than God-loving, he loved himself much more than his neighbor. Oh, this is greed! What a strong obstacle it represents to our true good! What an enemy he is - of God and men! It is an idol which the rich man worships, which he loves with all his soul, which he serves diligently; the rich man trusts in his wealth and not in God; the rich are hard-hearted and look with pleasure at their gold and silver when the poor are dying of hunger. And the richest people are often the most stingy, the most hard-hearted. However, we will not condemn the rich, who often do a lot of good, but rather let us each turn to ourselves and reproach ourselves for lust, selfishness, and hardness of heart. For here we have many poor people of all kinds - I mean the truly poor - and we are drowning in voluptuousness and gluttony, in luxury, in pleasures, as if there is no eternal life, as if earthly life was given to us in order to eat and drink, luxuriate and have fun and neglect the Divine statutes. When will we take into account that present life is only a path to another life, eternal, that present life, strictly speaking, is not life, but, as it were, an embryo, the firstfruits of life, which, due to our inattention and negligence, can freeze and become the firstfruits, the embryo of eternal death? When will we leave carnal life and lead a spiritual life according to the commandments of the Gospel? Don’t we know that the Apostle commands to crucify the sinful, multi-passionate flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24)? How long is voluptuousness, how long is greed, how long is the noisy joy in this vale of tears? How long will self-love dry up our love for God and neighbor? Are there still enough disasters for our sinful lives? Doesn’t the smoking fire everywhere teach us that everything on earth is subject to decay and destruction? Doesn’t it also remind us of the eternal fire, in which not houses, not forests, not earth, but unrepentant sinners will burn - and burn without end? And the smoke of their torment, it is said, ascends forever and ever (Rev. 14:11). Brothers! If we wish to enter into eternal life, we will urgently keep the commandments. God's commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3). His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). Amen. 22. Homily for the thirteenth week after Pentecost Today during the liturgy, beloved brothers and sisters, the parable of Christ the Savior was read from the Gospel about the owner of the house, who “planted a vineyard, surrounded it with a fence, dug a winepress in it, built a tower and, having given it to the vinedressers, went away. When the time for fruit approached, he sent his servants to the vinedressers to take their fruit; the winegrowers seized his servants, beat some, killed others, and stoned others. Again he sent other servants, more than before; and they did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son to them, saying: They will be ashamed of my son. But the vinedressers, seeing their son, said to each other: This is the heir; Let's go, kill him and take possession of his inheritance. And they seized him, took him out of the vineyard and killed him. So, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do with these vinedressers? They say to Him: These evildoers will be put to an evil death, and the vineyard will be given to other vinedressers, who will give him the fruit in their own time. Jesus says to them: Have you never read in the Scriptures: the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner? Is this from the Lord, and is it marvelous in our eyes? ( Ps. 118:22–23 ). Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who bear the fruits thereof” (Matthew 21:33–42). This ends today's Gospel reading. What does this parable mean? And, firstly, who is the owner of the house who planted the vineyard? The owner of the house is God, the Heavenly Father; vineyard – Jewish church, i.e. all Jews who lived before Christ and during Christ; the fence of the vineyard is the law of God given to the Jews; a winepress, or a vice - a trough in which grapes are trampled, expelling the juice - means the altar, around which animals were slaughtered, and on which blood was poured as a sign of the atoning Blood of the Son of God shed for the salvation of the world; the tower in the vineyard means the temple of Jerusalem; the vinedressers are the high priests and elders of the Jews; the fruits of the vineyard are the fruits of good deeds, which the Lord expected, both from the high priests and scribes themselves, and from the common people who were entrusted by God to their leadership; the servants sent by the owner of the garden to the vinedressers for the fruit are the prophets of God, whose denunciations the Jews did not like so much, and whom they beat, killed and stoned; the owner’s son is the Only Begotten Son of the Heavenly Father Jesus Christ, whom the high priests, elders and scribes, having nailed to the cross with the hands of the lawless pagan Romans, killed. The cornerstone or main stone at the foundation of the building, rejected by the builders, is Jesus Christ, who became the Head of the Church of God and the true Shepherd, Redeemer, Savior and Visitor of our souls. Taking away the Kingdom of God from the Jews means depriving them of the benefits of the true faith - depriving them of the church, the priesthood, true worship, their fatherland and all the fruits of grace - which is all that happened to them and continues to this day. However, this parable in some parts or words can and should be applied to us: for the Gospel is given for all times and peoples, and, precisely, it must be applied, firstly, to us, priests, not talking about other rulers and teachers of the people, and to the flock entrusted to us by God to guide them to a virtuous life and to salvation and the Kingdom of Heaven. The parable of Christ teaches that shepherds themselves must bring to the Lord and the Beginning of the Shepherd the fruits of good teaching and all virtue and serve for the flock as a rule of faith, an example of meekness, abstinence, mercy, non-covetousness, sincere goodwill towards everyone and concern for pleasing God and the salvation of the soul, and those entrusted to them by God for guidance to faith and a virtuous life, constantly teach the law of God and Christian virtues, so that they too bring God the fruits of virtues and live godly, working with fear for their salvation and awaiting the fulfillment of Christ’s promise about His second coming, the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and eternal life or eternal torment. It is known that faith or lack of faith and unbelief itself, as well as the life and behavior of the flock, depend very much on the lifestyle of the shepherd, on his zeal or negligence in fulfilling his high and holy pastoral duties, as well as the life and behavior of his flock - and as he (i.e., the shepherd) is, so is the parish, according to popular rumor. The shepherd is instructive and pious, and his flock is pious and God-fearing. So, beloved brothers and sisters, if we do not want the terrible word of the Savior spoken to the Jewish high priests and elders and the Jewish people to be fulfilled over us, so that the Kingdom of God is not taken away from us, i.e. God's gracious help, helping us in everything - so that we do not fall into the abyss of unbelief and debauchery, and all sorts of vices, and not be deprived of the benefits of community and all abundance and contentment, earthly and heavenly blessings, and not fall into poverty and poverty of body and soul, into which many people are stuck, let us hasten to bring to God the fruits of true repentance, correction of life, constant care about the only thing needed, i.e. about the salvation of immortal souls redeemed by the Blood of Christ - and every virtue according to one’s strength. Amen. 23. Lesson for the thirteenth week after Pentecost The worker... decided within himself: come, let us kill him, and keep his property; and eat it... kill it. (Matthew 21:38–39). These words are taken from the Gospel read today about a home-loving man and about the vineyard he planted, the managers of which were extremely selfish, careless and evil, and instead of taking care of the vineyard entrusted to them, so that it would bear more fruit, and giving them to the owner of the vineyard, they completely neglected it, and made it a wild desert, and even how evil were they? When the owner sent his servants to them for fruits, they killed all his servants. This parable at one time applied to the Jews, to the Jewish high priests, scribes and Pharisees, and it was exactly fulfilled on them; and now it can be fully applied to the fanatical Islamites of the Turks. According to the inscrutable destinies of God, they were entrusted with the possession of God's vineyard - the Slavic and Greek peoples, of course, for the sins of these tribes, just as the Russian people in ancient times were betrayed or given into captivity to the Tatars. Instead of cultivating the vineyard of God, taking care of his well-being, growth and prosperity, in order to provide him with all the benefits of citizenship or civilization: a right and equal court for all, personal and property security; the education of all nationalities and classes, the free exercise of worship, and finally, trade and industry - the Turks, throughout their reign over Christians for 500 years, trampled and finally, in our time, completely trampled all human rights of the Christians under their control; everything about them, the poor, became a victim of the arbitrariness and wild brutal passions of the Muslims: there was no justice or protection for them anywhere, everything was taken away from them, they were robbed, they themselves were killed without any mercy. For what? In order to exterminate subject tribes from the face of the earth and take possession of their property. What then? Is the vineyard of the Lord given over to the infidel Turks for complete destruction? Are the Slavic tribes really given over to be devoured by these beasts, the followers of the Antichrist - Mohammed? No: when the measure of justice over the Orthodox and other Christians subject to the Turks and the measure of God's long-suffering towards the unfaithful Turks are fulfilled, then other times will come, and the old times of tyranny will remain only in the memory of peoples, and the map of Europe will change: and now observant, intelligent people notice and say that the Turks are greatly dying out from various unfavorable political and moral conditions, and Slavic tribes are quickly emerging, like the Jews under Egyptian pharaohs. But in addition, Christian Europe, or better to say, the Lord God Himself will soon put an end to the atrocities of the Turks. Let us listen to what judgment the Lord pronounces over the evil stewards of His vineyard: “When the lord of the vine comes, what will the worker do?” – the Lord asked His listeners. And the officers themselves, who were among His listeners, pronounced righteous judgment on themselves! They answered: “The wicked will be destroyed by evil; and he will betray the grapes to another worker, who will reward him with the fruit in their own time.” So, the Lord Himself, by His righteous judgment, has made the most evil Turks and Circassians evil, i.e. he will destroy his grapes terribly, cruelly, and he will betray his grapes, the Christian peoples subject to the Turks, to other workers or rulers, who will reward him with the fruits, i.e. the fruits of legal truth, the truth of life, the fruits of faith, enlightenment, citizenship in their own times: and the vineyard of God - the Slavic and Greek Church - will flourish and strengthen, and the Turks will remain only one memory in history, and God willing. Do this, Lord, soon, for the righteous joy of all Orthodox Christians! But at the present moment I still dare to invite you, my brothers, to provide all possible assistance to the Slavic brothers, who never cease to suffer terribly from Turkish atrocities; Let the sacrifice be feasible, only let it be a willing sacrifice, from the heart. For “God loves a good giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). Give, and it will be given to you. For with the measure with which you measure it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:38), i.e. God will surely return it in abundance. Amen. 24. Sermon on the thirteenth week after Pentecost On this Sunday, my beloved brothers, the church is supposed to read from the Gospel a parable about a certain householder who planted a vineyard, and the winegrowers to whom the householder entrusted his vineyard. The vineyard was built magnificently, with all the accessories, with a vice, on beautiful land, surrounded by a fence, but the winegrowers turned out to be extremely crafty and evil, and not only did not give fruit to the owner at the appointed time, but also beat the servants sent by the owner, or completely killed and stoned, and finally they killed the owner’s only son. By householder we mean the Father; under the vineyard - the Jewish church, under the vinedressers - the high priests, priests and rulers, to whom the Jewish church was entrusted; by servants we mean the prophets, whom God often sent to the Jewish people and who, for the most part, were beaten by the Jews; By the son of the householder we mean the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But this parable, brothers, does not apply to the Jews alone, but also applies to us, concerns us too. The vineyard of the Lord can and should also mean every Christian soul; under the fence is the law of God, by which every soul is protected or should be protected from sins; the winepress or vice in the vineyard is our heart or our womb, with which we receive the Most Pure Blood of the Lamb of God, who was slain for us; by the pillar or upper room we mean the Church of Christ or the grace of the Holy Spirit, acting in the Church, confirming our hearts in faith and love and good deeds and elevating us from earth to heaven, as it is said: philosophize on things above, and not on earthly things (Col. 3:2). So, the vineyard of God is all of us, brothers. And the vine garden should bear abundant fruit: do we bring to the Lord, our supreme Vinedresser, the fruits of good deeds, the fruits of repentance, faith, love, humility, meekness, goodness, mercy, abstinence, purity, patience and long-suffering and other virtues? We bring very, very little, and sometimes not at all: but we bring the fruits of wild grapes, the grapes of Sodom and Gomorrah, i.e. all kinds of bad deeds: pride, malice, envy, greed, fornication, adultery, drunkenness, unbelief, atheism, murder and suicide. The Lord expects from us the fruits of repentance, correction, virtue, and often waits in vain: we remain the same sinners, the same barren, dry trees that we were. Many Christians rape and kill their conscience, this servant of God in our soul: and without fear they indulge in lawlessness; many justify their sins or excuse themselves by the weakness of nature or the need of our sinful nature, without distinguishing their whims or lusts from real needs. Many are not even ashamed to slander the Gospel and say that it demands the impossible, and live completely contrary to it, and thus, like the Jewish high priests and scribes, they crucify the Son of God within themselves for the second time. But why say vaguely: many crucify the Son of God? - You and I often crucify the Son of God within ourselves - with our lack of faith, our malice, envy, intemperance, overeating, drunkenness, uncleanness of our hearts, negligence, unrepentance, laziness and other vices. What will the owner of our vineyard, neglected and wild through our negligence, do when He comes to take account of our deeds, of all our uncleanness and evil? The answer to this is the same as that which the high priests and scribes uttered to themselves: these evildoers will be put to an evil death, and the vineyard will be given to other tenants, i.e. the greatest gift of faith, grace, will be given to people who will give it fruits in their time, i.e. They will, with the help of grace, excel in every virtue constantly throughout their entire lives. So, brothers, as long as the Lord gives us time, until the soul is in the body, and our vineyard is not taken away from us, we will carefully look after it, cultivate it, water it with tearful rain, cleanse it with repentance, so that it bears more fruit. Amen. 25. Lesson for the thirteenth week after Pentecost I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to the tongue that produces its fruits. (Matthew 21:43). Christians who live carelessly will not enter the Kingdom of God, but those who fulfill God’s commandments will enter it. Who does this word of God threaten with the taking away of the Kingdom of God? - Christians who do not live like Christians, who do not create the fruits of the Kingdom of God. Who is promised the Kingdom of Heaven instead of careless Christians? – To the people who produce the fruits of the Kingdom of God: what are the fruits of the Kingdom of God? – Living faith in the Lord God, hope in Him and in the future union with Him, ardent love for God and neighbor. Now each one carefully delve into himself, into his life, and ask your heart: does it have firm faith in the Lord God, hope in Him and for a future life with Him and in Him, does it have ardent love for God and for neighbor? Don’t lie to God and to yourself: this question is very important. If you have faith in the Lord God, then it will certainly be reflected in life: you will always walk before the eyes of the Lord God, you will always have His commandments in your heart, you will try in every possible way to fulfill them and you will be diligent in prayer; If you have hope in God and in union with Him in the future life, then by all means you will turn your heart away from attachment to earthly goods: to wealth, to the pleasures of the womb, to elegant clothes and various vain decorations and pleasures. In sorrows, illnesses and various misfortunes you will be patient, and not faint-hearted, cheerful, and not sad; you will not worry or grumble, no matter what happens to you, in the hope that the Heavenly Father is always with you; You will not relax or become lazy in happiness, nor will you lose heart in misfortune; you will always have in mind the future life, which will have no end; if you have love for God and your neighbor, you will certainly show it in zeal for the glory of the name of God, you yourself will try to glorify it and excite others to this glorification, and stop the lips of those who blaspheme; you will be zealous for the church of God as for the dwelling place of His glory; You will wholeheartedly wish spiritual salvation for everyone, as for yourself; you will try to help everyone in need as much as you can. But if you have neither faith, nor hope, nor love for God, then you will live only for your own pleasure, just to eat well, drink, dress or dress up in the latest fashion, build vast houses in order to get rich in every possible way, entertain yourself with all kinds of pleasures, spend time in idle speeches - in general, spend your earthly life in all kinds of coolness; You either won’t remember about the future life, or you will, but rarely, and then only in passing, and it will be hard for you to remember about the future life while being content in the present; you will love not your neighbor, but yourself, your sinful flesh, and everything that serves to nourish, fatten, decorate and cool it; you will often be ready to exchange your neighbor for the most insignificant thing, especially if you need it: what, you say, in my neighbor, when I myself want to eat sweetly, drink, dress, live richly, in all contentment? What do I care if my neighbor is hungry, cold, what do I care about his vices and errors - let him live as he knows; It would just make me feel good. This is how a person who does not have faith, hope and love in his heart lives and speaks this way. And what is the benefit in the fact that such a person sometimes goes to church and partakes of the Holy Mysteries of Christ for the sake of appearance? What is the use of being called a Christian? There is no benefit at all. He is like a pagan, even worse than a pagan, and is subject to greater condemnation in court than a pagan; It will be better for Tire and Sidon at the trial than for him. The Kingdom of God will be taken away from him. I say this because today there is a noticeable lack of faith, hope and love among Christians; people live in the visible and the present; faith in invisible blessings is either weak or completely extinguished; everyone wants to live in this life as cheerfully as possible, without caring what will happen after short-term joys when we move into eternity; We call ourselves Christians, but we forget that Christ left the cross or various misfortunes and sufferings to His followers in His will; “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me” (Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; Matthew 16:24). We are called Christians, i.e. as if we followed Christ and put everything earthly for unimportant things, as if we put all our hope in Christ, but in fact we don’t: we follow wealth, after pleasures, after all kinds of earthly coolness, we put our hope in earthly blessings. We call ourselves Christians, but we irritate each other, we envy each other, we take from each other, we do not provide for each other. We call ourselves Christians, but loving Christ with all our hearts and pleasing Christ with our whole lives is a completely unfamiliar thing for many. The Lord wants us to philosophize on things above (Col. 3:2), but we philosophize all about earthly things; The Lord commands Christians to pay attention to Himself so that their hearts are not weighed down by overeating and drunkenness and the worries of this life (Luke 21:34), but for us every now and then our hearts are weighed down by overeating and drunkenness and the worries of this life. Christians became very strong; There are few among them who walk in the Spirit and do not commit carnal lusts. What kind of Christians are these who do not want to celebrate the Lord’s feasts spiritually, but certainly carnally - they get drunk, wander around the streets, sing obscene songs, utter various obscene words? What kind of Christians are they who, even on holidays, do not want to come to church and pray earnestly, or if they come, it is only to not change their habit, to show off their attire, or to talk about something with an acquaintance or friend? Brothers! I warn you with the true and terrible word of the Lord: for the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to the tongue that creates its fruits. Do not consider yourself saved because you were born and live in a saving faith: saving faith will not save you if you yourself do not take care of salvation, if you do not live as those who are being saved should live. I warn you, brothers: the Lord will burn you like stubble and like tares with unquenchable fire (Luke 3:17), if you live in the flesh and not in the spirit. So, I beg you: save yourself, the eternal fire is ready; and the abodes of the Kingdom are not yet filled. Do not allow the Lord to take away the Kingdom of God from you and give it to the tongue that creates its fruits. Amen. 26. Conversation on the fourteenth week after Pentecost before the Exaltation No one has ascended into heaven except the Son of Man who came down from heaven and is in heaven (John 3:13). So, before Jesus Christ, no one from earthly descent ascended into heaven, except He, the Son of Man who descended from heaven. No one has ascended to heaven, because it has been closed to the human race since the time of Adam's crime: for Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, and the wicked will not dwell with Him, and the wicked will not abide in His sight (Ps. 5:5-6). Only the Son of Man, who came down from heaven and is in heaven, ascended into heaven with His humanity, for He, with His humanity, united with the Divine, fulfilled all righteousness for us, and when He was baptized in the Jordan and prayed, the heavens, closed by the sin of Adam, were opened to Him first; and He, finally, after His suffering, death and resurrection, ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father God, showing us the way to ascend there. You will say that Enoch and Elijah were taken to heaven. No: not to heaven, but only to the villages of the righteous, only as if to heaven, according to the expression of Holy Scripture. What follows from what has been said? That heaven, our true fatherland, for which we were created, has now been opened again for the human race by the Son of God and people have become children of God in Christ. Strive, brothers, into the open heaven, in the likeness of the saints, who have pleased God from time immemorial and inherited the heavenly fatherland; do not dream that the earth is your fatherland, live as wanderers and strangers and be ready every hour to move through death there - to your fatherland. “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so it is fitting for the Son of Man to be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). What kind of sacrament is this? Just as Moses lifted up a copper serpent on a tree in the desert to heal the Jews bitten by snakes, so it was fitting that the Son of God should have ascended to the cross and been nailed to the cross. Remember the first commandment to Adam and Eve and their crime: they, contrary to the commandment of God, stretched out their hands to the forbidden tree and plucked the forbidden fruit, and for their disobedience, for the pride of the devil, for falling away from God, for the corruption of their mind, heart and will, they were condemned to death. “You will die to death” (Gen. 2:17). An infinite injustice was committed before God by the crime of a man who was given an infinite number of gifts from God (for He was created in the image and likeness of God), and in gratitude to God for all the gifts, infinitely little was required of him: just not to touch the fruits of one tree. It was necessary, in fairness, to determine a worthy punishment for the criminal - damnation and eternal death. But man did not fall initially (Wis. 2:24): he was deceived by the devil, and, in addition, he felt repentance for his guilt and therefore deserved leniency. And so, before the truth of God the Father, the mercy of God the Son intercedes to pardon the criminal under the condition of satisfaction for his guilt, for the guilt of the entire human race, by Himself, the Son of God, who was incarnate. And so, for stretching out his hands to the forbidden tree by the first people, for clinging, for nailing people to earthly things and pleasures, the Son of God, made man, is nailed to the tree of the cross, for our addiction to carnal pleasures, he suffers terribly on the cross, for our nakedness from richly woven clothing and for our passion for vain clothes, he is naked on the cross, and instead of our eternal death, he tastes death himself, although short-lived, for even the minute of the death of the Son of God, without beginning, is worth an entire eternity, may he save us from eternal death. This is the mystery of Moses lifting up the serpent in the desert and the ascension of the Son of God to the cross! And just as the Jews, bitten by natural snakes in the desert, were healed by just looking at the copper serpent, which was the image of the Lord crucified for us on the cross, so we, looking with the eyes of faith at Him crucified on the cross, are healed from the bite of spiritual snakes - demons, and from our passions, from spiritual, temporary and eternal death. “In this way it becomes the Son of Man to be exalted, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). The death of the Son of God on the cross saves those who believe in Him from eternal destruction and gives the right to the inheritance of eternal life, from which we have fallen through sin: for the Son of God died for us, and by His death put to death our death, and by His resurrection gave us eternal life. So, my brothers, do not cleave to the earth, avoid attachment to earthly things, for our addiction to them nailed the Son of God to the cross, but cleave entirely to God, trampling on the passion for earthly things with the will of your heart, for everything earthly is from the earth and will return to the earth, and the soul will return to God (Eccl. 12:7). “For God loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son to eat, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but through Him the world might be saved” (John 3:16-17). If God loved us so much, then of course we, in response to God’s inexpressible love for us, must love Him most of all. What can we say about those who do not love even after He made such a great sacrifice to save them? What can we say about those who do not believe in the Son of God - they crucify Him a second time - what can we say about those who are cold to the faith and the Church of Christ, who do not consider it necessary to know the Gospel and live by faith? The answer to them is pronounced in the Gospel: they will perish forever. For just as he who believes will not perish, but will have eternal life, so he who does not believe will not receive eternal life, but will perish forever. The unbeliever “has already been condemned, because he has not faith in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). The fate of unbelievers is terrible, brothers! The strong enemies of the faith of Christ are our addictions to earthly things, this materialism in life, which now dominates with particular force - this is covetousness, this love of love, this gluttony, this drunkenness, this debauchery, this passion for public amusements, games, for stealing the things of others - this passion for a large life, this, in particular, the passion for a bright, cheerful life. For all this nails us to the ground, but we are called to the Heavenly Kingdom. Brothers and sisters! Believe in the Son of God sincerely, believe in the Gospel, fulfill the Gospel, be corrected, renewed, do works of repentance - and you will not perish. “For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). Amen. 27. Homily for the fourteenth week after Pentecost In the Gospel read today, the Lord Jesus Christ likens the Kingdom of Heaven to “a man king, who held a wedding feast for his son and sent his servants to call those invited to the wedding feast; and didn't want to come. Again he sent other slaves, saying: Tell those who are invited: behold, I have prepared my dinner, my bullocks and what is fattened, slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast. But they, despising this, went, some to their field, and some to their trade; the others, seizing his slaves, insulted and killed them. Hearing about this, the king became angry, and, sending his troops, destroyed their killers and burned their city. Then he says to his servants: The wedding feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy; So, go to the crossroads and invite everyone you find to the wedding feast. And those slaves, going out onto the roads, gathered everyone they found, both evil and good; and the wedding feast was filled with those reclining. The king, entering to look at those reclining, saw a man there, not dressed in wedding clothes, and said to him: friend! How did you come here not wearing wedding clothes? He was silent. Then the king said to the servants: Having tied his hands and feet, take him and throw him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth; For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:2-14). Here is the end of the current reading from the Gospel. This story is called a parable, i.e. likeness or as if a riddle. We need to guess it. Who is this king who held a wedding feast for his son? This is God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth and King of every creature. Who is the king's son? This is the only begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ; and the bride is His Church, and firstly, the Jewish people chosen by God, and secondly, the soul of every believer, Christian; Christ loved the Church, it is said, and gave Himself for her (Eph. 5:25); The Apostle Paul says: I have betrothed you to one husband, in order to present a pure virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). The wedding feast refers to the Kingdom of Heaven, in which true believers will be united forever with the Lord Jesus. To this marriage, or to the Kingdom of Heaven, the Jews were first of all invited through the prophets and apostles, but they refused the invitation; Moreover, they even insulted the messengers of God and killed many of them. For this, God subsequently destroyed the Jewish people with the weapons of the Romans and destroyed their city and church. Instead of the Jews, God called pagan peoples, including us Russians, to marriage, or to His Church, through the apostles and equals of the apostles. But Christians from the pagans and the Christian generations that follow them will also not all enter the Kingdom of Christ. Those of them who do not preserve the purity of the bright wedding garment of innocence and holiness, which they received at baptism, or, after desecration by sins, do not cleanse it with tears of repentance, will be cast out into utter darkness at the Last Judgment, where there will be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth. Here is the interpretation of the above parable! But there may be another, similar, equally correct interpretation, and already in a closer application to you and me, brothers and sisters. The wedding feast, which is spoken of in the current Gospel, is the Divine Liturgy, at which the faithful are offered not a slain calf, but the Lamb of God Himself, slain as a sacrifice for the salvation of us sinners, may we be fed with His most pure Body and Blood, may we be united with Him in the closest union, may we be flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. Here is the marriage of the royal son - the union of Christian souls with Christ in the sacrament of communion! Here is a feast - eating His Flesh and Blood! Divine, most holy, incorruptible, heavenly and deifying feast! But how many people still rush to this Divine feast? Is it true that even now the majority of people avoid attending this heavenly supper due to carelessness and laziness and various everyday calculations, for example: because of trade, or because of lack of faith and arrogance, or because of long sleep, etc. Who doesn’t see this, doesn’t notice, doesn’t know? Such is our lack of faith, such is our spiritual feeble-mindedness, such is our addiction to the world, such is our inattention to the greatest mystery of faith, to the mystery of immortality and deification? Such is the vanity and ingratitude of Christians towards the Lord, who offers Himself as food and drink for the sake of purification, sanctification and immortal life! What are they worthy of? Is it not rejection from God - since we ourselves have been rejecting Him almost all our lives? But those who come to this marriage of the Lamb, to the Divine Liturgy - for the remembrance of His life, preaching, miracles, benefits, suffering, death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven - or for communion of His most pure Body and Blood - do they come in wedding clothes, with a pure soul, with a pure heart? Are you with high thoughts, or in a holy mood? Is it not with earthly dreams and passions that many come to the church, to this, as it were, the bridal chamber of Jesus Christ? Do we ourselves, the performers of a terrible, heavenly, bloodless sacrifice, always come to the church in wedding clothes of purity and dispassion of soul and serve in it? Alas! Often we do not have wedding clothes and reverent thoughts and thoughts of the heart, and we often enter in the unclean rags of passions. Oh, let us all hasten to repent and whiten the garments of our souls with tears of repentance and deeds of righteousness, especially alms, which cleanses sins. I see Your palace, my Savior, adorned, and I have no clothes, but I will go into it: enlighten the robe of my soul, O Light-Giver, and save me. Amen. 28. Homily for the fifteenth week after Pentecost In this Sunday's Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ, in His answer to the question of one Pharisee lawyer, offers for fulfillment by all people two essential commandments of the entire law of God: about love for God and neighbors. “Thou shalt love,” he says, “the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself; on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37–50). There are not many words, but there is great power in them, their meaning and application to life are extremely broad; not many words, but it is extremely important and necessary to understand them, to understand them in all their fullness and their sign. Let us explain them with God's help. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This means: love God and His eternal truth, so that neither in your heart, nor in thoughts, nor in words, nor in deeds, nor in your whole life there is a place for sin and untruth - love truth and hate lawlessness; for what do truth and lawlessness have in common, do light and sinful darkness, Christ and beliar, i.e. the devil? Nothing. For even one unrighteous thought in the soul is an abomination to the Lord (Prov. 15:26), how much more an evil, crafty, unclean word or deed! Therefore, whether you pray to God, whether you repent, whether you give thanks, or whether you do anything else for the sake of God, always pray with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength; bring repentance with all your heart, with all your mind, with a decisive aversion to sin, with a sincere willingness to love and do things that are pleasing to God and saving you; do everything you do for God with all your soul, all your strength and mind. If you offer any sacrifice to God, make it with all your heart, with all your zeal and willingness. Whether you need to stand against the temptation of sin or keep the truth, the law - stand against sin with all your might, with all your heart and mind, and stand for the truth to death, like the great prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, John, celebrated today, who suffered to death for exposing the incestuous cohabitation of King Herod with the wife of his brother Philip, and you will receive the crown of life. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? It means respecting him as yourself, without distinction of rank, condition, gender, quality of person, wishing him every good thing, as yourself, doing with him as you would like to be treated with you - pitying him, praying for him, helping him in any way you can - when he is mistaken, sins, sick, needs the necessities of life - for example, labor, food, clothing, money, a kind word, consolation and encouragement - because this often means a lot and can have a beneficial effect on a person’s life. To love your neighbor as yourself means to try and pray for his salvation, just as pious people try and pray for their salvation - to desire salvation for both the living and the dead, to pray for both; There is no greater love for our neighbors than if we ardently wish and pray for their salvation as we do for ourselves. If you do something for your neighbor, do it as you would for yourself, sincerely, truly, fairly. By doing this, we will first of all attract God’s blessing to ourselves; “For with the measure you use,” said the Lord, “the same will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38), and all the good done to our neighbor will be returned to us, if not in this, then in the next century. Amen 29. Sermon on the fifteenth week after Pentecost Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy thought: this is the first and greatest commandment: but the second is similar to it: thou shalt love thy sincere one as thyself: unto this both commandment hang the whole law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37–40). Did everyone, my brothers, listen with attention to the Gospel read today? In it, by the way, the Lord Jesus Christ, in response to a question from one lawyer, told everyone what are the main commandments in the law of God that every person must know and fulfill. Namely, He said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself; “On these two commandments,” said the Lord, “all the law and the prophets are established.” Since these two commandments contain the whole law, then, obviously, every Christian must know and understand them well. What does it mean to love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind? What it means to love God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself explained to us. He says in the Gospel: “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he loves Me” (John 14:21). He who does not love Me does not keep My commandments. So, he loves God who constantly has the commandments of God in his thoughts and heart and keeps them. On the other hand, he who hates lawlessness with all his heart loves God with all his heart, as it is said: “thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness” (Ps. 44:8); He loves God with all his heart and with all his thought who constantly thinks about God as his own and the whole world’s Creator and Provider, Savior, Judge, and unceasingly looks to God; pleases Him with all his heart; prays to Him with all his heart at home or in church and during prayer is not entertained by any worldly worries or generally earthly, much less sinful, thoughts; he seeks first of all the Kingdom of God and righteousness (Matthew 6:33); cares first of all and most of all about the salvation of his soul and the souls of his neighbors; He remembers God in everything he does and does everything for Him diligently, honestly, accurately. That's who loves God with all his heart! Is this how we live and act? Do we really love God, who gave us life and with life everything we need for life and enjoyment: who saved and is saving us from sin, curse and death? Who is our breath, light, strength, deliverance, purification, sanctification, peace, joy, Helper and Helper in all good works? Hey, not like that! When you look at our lives and deeds, it seems that many of us have completely forgotten God and do not love Him at all. I will not mention who does not love God and is a stranger to God: let everyone’s conscience tell him. I will continue about the second commandment of the law; she says: love the sincere, i.e. your neighbor, every man, as yourself. In other words: wish every person good as much as you wish for yourself, for example, wish for him the salvation of his soul as much as for yourself; success in business as well as in yourself; well-being in life, as for yourself; wish him a good name, as you wish for yourself, and do not dishonor him in any way: for he was created in the image of God, just like you, for a good name is dear to him; treat him sincerely, simply, cordially; In general, whatever you want people to do to you, do the same to them (Matthew 7:12). Is this what we do? Not so. We love ourselves, but we often don’t love our neighbors: we don’t wish them well, we envy them; we humiliate, dishonor, and revile our neighbors; We often don’t help our neighbors; We care little about their salvation, as well as about our own, and thus every day we violate and destroy God’s commandments; We anger the Lord God and bring His righteous wrath upon ourselves. Let us hasten to correct ourselves and let us firmly remember and observe God’s commandments. And now, out of love for our brothers the Serbs and Montenegrins, who are offended by the wicked Turks, we will also help with our fraternal offerings. May your hand and your heart not grow weary of good deeds! Good deeds are the same as good seeds: they will give you fruit a hundredfold. May the Lord grant you all an abundance of earthly blessings and spiritual salvation. Amen. 30. Homily for the week after the Exaltation and the fifteenth week after Pentecost If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me. (Mark 8:34). On this Sunday, called in the church order the week after the Exaltation of the Cross, the Church Rules dictate that the Gospel be read about the self-sacrifice and cross-bearing required by the Gospel from everyone who wants to follow Christ. So, let’s talk about this now, for the glory of Christ and for our enlightenment and salvation. “If anyone wants to come after Me,” says the Lord, “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” The Lord does not force anyone to follow Him, but leaves everyone to their own free will - to follow or not to follow Him, whether to live for Him, for truth and holiness, for an eternal kingdom with Him, or for themselves, for the flesh, to please their passions, the adulterous and sinful world, and the devil, and for eternal shame and torment. The Lord leaves our free will intact; for he wants us to voluntarily, according to the conviction of our hearts, love Him, fulfill His commandments and turn away from absurd, destructive passions; and not as slaves, under coercion and involuntary servitude. But how can we not follow You, Sweetest Jesus, our eternal Life, our Breath, our Light, our Joy and Bliss! Whoever follows You irrevocably, here also anticipates heavenly bliss and will certainly inherit eternal bliss with You. This truth is immutable, all-joyful, striking, so to speak, in everyone’s eyes with its obviousness. Thus: the apostles, martyrs, saints, righteous people and all the saints of ancient and modern times followed Christ with joy; they willingly sacrificed for the Lord all the blessings of the world, their very lives - and did not sin in their hope, were not deceived in their hope, and inherited an unshakable, eternal kingdom. Why don't most people follow Christ? Through unbelief or lack of faith; by addiction to temporary life and its fleeting benefits; through pride and arrogance of worldly education, only not enlightened by grace; due to the impurity of the passionate heart and the established inclination of the will to pursue only earthly goals; due to spiritual ignorance; due to the lack of development of taste for spiritual goods, which require preparation, exercise of thought and heart in spiritual subjects, such as: in prayer, contemplation of God, reading the word of God, and in deeds of Christian love and mercy, and teaching the flesh - abstinence. But what is deprived of, what wonderful blessings, what peace, what spiritual sweetness, what spiritual light, what bliss, a person who does not follow Christ, but follows only his sinful desires, habits, passions, inclinations? What in the world can replace Christ, the immortal Belly? Nothing. No treasures, no pleasures and joys. “Deny yourself,” says the Lord further, “and take up your cross and follow Me.” Deny yourself - this means, renounce your sinful will, your vicious inclinations, inclinations, passions, in a word - all sin that lives in you, acts, binds you, darkens, defiles, humiliates and dishonors you, preventing you from following Christ to heaven - strive for true repentance, for pure virtue and Christian perfection, and making you a slave of corruption and death: perverting your nature, created by God in truth and holiness, preparing for you eternal separation from God and eternal torment. Yes, brothers and sisters! You absolutely must deny yourself. If we impartially, with a clear conscience, delve into ourselves, into our conscience, into our heart, into our deeds, into our idleness and into our whole vain life, then now we will find that for the most part we think, and desire, and say, and do not what is essential for us; not according to the intention and will of our all-good and wise Creator and Lord, but contrary to His intentions, according to our own perverse, vicious will. Look carefully into your heart. What is it doing? What does it love? What does it gravitate towards? Is it towards your Creator, towards goodness, towards truth and holiness, towards true well-being and bliss, towards mutual love and help? No. Hearts are mostly occupied with themselves, imbued with selfishness. How many passions are there in one heart! How many sources of death! Every passion is a source of death: for each can kill a person forever, if he does not repent and change, and does not abandon it. So, man, deny yourself. But it's hard; passions have become your second nature. What to do! And cutting off members of the body can be very painful, but when it is necessary, they give an arm, a leg, and even an eye to be cut off. You need to do the same with your passions. If your right hand offends you, cut it off and throw it away from you (that is, not the hand of the body, but the passion that is in your soul, which has become like your hand, i.e., like your natural member); it will be painful for you, like being crucified on the cross, but it will be saving and will lead you to eternal life: you will get rid of the all-destructive poison - sin, from the power of the devil, from the fire of hell. Take up your cross and follow Christ, i.e. do His will, His commandments, statutes, advice. And warriors in war firmly follow the commander’s instructions in order to win, and they win; You too will win if you follow Your almighty Leader, Christ. “For whoever wants to save his life,” says the Lord, “will lose it” (Mark 8:35). What does it mean to take care of your soul here? This means not touching the passions of the soul, leaving them alone, letting them live and grow stronger, and control our mind and our heart, and our will, in a word, soul and body; live unrepentantly, without thinking about death and eternal judgment. To take care of yourself in this way means to eternally destroy your soul, to lose it. It should be noted that the Lord, in saying this, meant primarily the time of persecution for faith in Him and the cases of confessing His name before the persecutors: for there were some Christians who, in order to preserve temporary life, wealth, honors, renounced Christ and the Christian faith, and thereby lost their soul, perished through their renunciation, through addiction to earthly goods. But even now there are many who, excessively loving temporary life and its blessings and carnal life, refuse to follow Christ, to fulfill His commandments, live contrary to the duties of their calling and do not repent of it - and thus lose their soul for eternity. “Whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel,” says the Lord in today’s Gospel, “will save it” (Mark 8:35). Here again we mainly refer to the cases of martyrs who, for Christ, in order to preserve faith in Him and love for Him, voluntarily lost their property, ranks, relatives and their very lives and thus saved their lives for eternity, for Christ and His eternal kingdom. “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul?” (Mark 8:36–37). This is said to clarify the previous thought, i.e. that it is better to lose all wealth, honors, relatives, life itself according to the flesh, than to destroy your soul forever through renunciation of God, in order to preserve temporary life and temporary benefits that will soon leave us. The soul is incomparably dearer than the whole world as it was created in the image of God and destined for immortality - and nothing can redeem it from eternal torment unless we redeem it here by faith in the merits of the Redeemer, in the atoning blood, by courageous confession of His name and a good life. “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words,” says the Lord, “in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). Here we speak about the need for boldness or boldness and courage in confessing Christ, the Son of God, about not sparing one’s life for Christ and about following His will, because if anyone here considers it a shame to follow Him, to fulfill His commandments, or is ashamed to follow the decrees of His Church for the sake of pleasing the world, the flesh and the devil, neither will the Son of God recognize him as his own at His second coming and at His Last Judgment. A terrible word, brothers and sisters! Let us cast aside false shame and laziness towards piety, towards attending divine services, laziness towards reading the Word of God and teaching in it, let us deny ourselves, abandon the pleasure of the multi-passionate flesh, the world lying in evil and the ruler of the world - the devil, let us take up our cross and follow Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, our King and The Lord, who prepared for us the kingdom in heaven from the foundation of the world. Amen. Canon of following to Holy Communion, hymn 1, troparion 1.