Беседа LV

“And Laban said to Jacob: Because you are my brother, you have not worked for me: tell me what your reward is 547” (Gen. 29:15). 1. Enough yesterday showed us the beginning of the journey of the righteous man, how great was his wisdom, for which he was awarded such a great promise from God. Further, having become encouraged, he, through the petition and prayer that he raised to the God of all, delivered no small lesson to all of us, if only we wanted to move towards imitation of the virtue of the righteous. And truly, one must marvel at how he, knowing the omnipotence of the Promised One and hearing such great promises from Him, with all this, decided to ask not for something great and extraordinary, but asked, as you heard yesterday, only what could be sufficient for him for daily food, what could serve him to cover his body, and also made a vow to dedicate to God a tenth of everything that he receives from Him, if God grants him, as promised, return to your land! In everything he shows his piety, recognizes God as the giver of all blessings and teaches us to give thanks to Him alone for all. The righteous man, knowing the abundance of God’s ineffable love for mankind and judging by the benefits shown to his father, was confident that God would also give him much abundance; although he does not ask the Lord for any of this and does not even allow himself to mention it in prayer, yet by promising to dedicate a tenth of everything to God he showed how firmly he trusts in everything in the power of the Promised One. For this reason, God Himself, talking with him, said: “I am the God of Abraham and Isaac your father, do not be afraid” (Gen. 28:13). Reflections, he says that the patriarch came to this land as a stranger, unknown to anyone, but achieved such glory that now everyone is talking about him. Think about your father, how, having been born to his father in extreme old age, he became so exalted that he became the envy of the inhabitants of this country. And you expect the same and, putting aside all fear, all anxiety, continue your journey. Reasoning in this way, the righteous man did not look at his then situation (because he had nothing with him - and how could he have, being alone and forced to take a long journey?), but with the eyes of faith already foreseeing his future well-being, he shows his characteristic gratitude (to God). Having not yet received anything, he already makes a vow to God, recognizing the promise of the Lord as truer than the possession of goods itself: after all, we should not rely so much on what we see and what we hold in our hands, but on the promises of God, even if they do not come to fulfillment soon. So, the righteous man, having received the greatest encouragement from what God had told him, set off on his journey. And how could he not be encouraged when he heard these words: “Behold, I am with you, keep you on every path, and even if you go, I will multiply your seed and bring you back to this land, and I will not leave you” until I deign to fulfill what was announced 548 (Gen. 28:15)! But, as I said yesterday, think here both about the providential wisdom of God, and about the great patience and gratitude of the righteous. After these promises, he rebelled and rushed to Harran and again makes his way as a wanderer and wanderer; but in everything he sees favor towards himself from above, because God, the Lover of mankind, prepared everything for him along the way, fulfilling His promise in practice. The One who said: “Behold, I am with you, keep you on the way, even if you go,” He led and led the righteous man to the well, where the natives watered their flocks. Having asked them about Laban, his mother’s brother, and having learned everything that was needed about him, and then seeing his daughter and the flock herself, as well as the fact that the inhabitants of that place were not able to move the stone from the well and water the sheep, he ran up and, with help from above, did what those were powerless to do, warns Laban of good deeds, by watering the sheep that Rachel was tending. Having greeted the girl, telling her about himself, who he was and where he came from, he remained in place. But since God had prepared everything for the righteous man, He caused the maiden to run away with great haste and tell about Jacob to his father, who was his mother’s brother, to tell about the service he had rendered to her and her flocks, and that he was not a stranger, not an unknown person, but his sister’s son. Look, beloved, with what care and how clearly the Divine Scripture conveys all this to us, depicting to us the customs of the ancients and the zeal with which they showed hospitality to strangers. To show the maiden’s zeal, Scripture does not simply say: “she went” and told her father about what had happened, but “flowed” 549, says Scripture, thereby expressing her great joy. It is also said later about Laban, her father, that as soon as he heard this from his daughter, he immediately ran to meet Jacob and, lovingly greeting him, brought him into his house. 2. Laban, having carefully learned everything from Jacob, said to him: “You are of my bones and of my flesh 550” (Gen. 29:14); You, he says, as the son of my sister, are nothing more than our flesh, you are our brother. “And be with him,” it is said, “a month of days.” How a righteous man lived at home, safe and without any care. Meanwhile, God, arranging everything for the benefit of the righteous and giving him His help in everything, aroused affection towards him in Laban, who, seeing the meekness of Jacob, said to him: “Because you are my brother, you will not work for me: tell me what your reward is?” (Gen.29:15). Note that he himself did not solicit anything; Laban, solely on his own behalf, offers this to the righteous. You see how successful everything 551 happens to the one who is helped by the right hand of the highest. “If you don’t work for me,” he says, “tell me what your reward is.” Although this blessed one was content only with the fact that he received daily food, and for this he was much grateful, but since he showed special meekness, Laban volunteered to give him a reward, which he himself would appoint. What about the righteous? Notice in this case also how great his prudence was, and how, having no desire at all to collect wealth, he does not negotiate with Laban, like some mercenary, and does not demand anything else, but remembering his mother and his father’s commandment and showing his extraordinary modesty, he says to Laban: “I will work for you seven years for Rachel, your youngest daughter” (Gen. 29:18); I fell in love with her the first time I saw her at the well. Note also the good-naturedness of this husband: he assigns himself both the time of work, and during this time a sufficient test of his modesty. Why are you surprised, beloved, when you hear that Jacob promised to work for seven years for his beloved girl? To show how strong love reduced both labor and length of time for him, Divine Scripture says: “And Jacob labored for Rachel seven years; and before him the days were as short as those that loved her” (Gen. 29:20). Seven years seemed to him only a few days, due to his extreme love for the girl: if someone is wounded by the passion of love, he does not look at any difficulties, and no matter how many dangers there are, no matter what kind of misfortunes, he endures everything easily, having only one thing in mind - to fulfill his desire. Let us listen to this, careless, careless ones, who show great ingratitude before the Lord! If this righteous man, out of love for the girl, decided to work for seven years, endures all the difficulties of a shepherd’s life and did not feel either labor or length of time, and everything turned out to be easy and convenient for him, if, fueled by the hope of getting what he wanted, he considered such a long time as if it were a few days, then what excuse will we have for not showing similar love for our Lord, Benefactor, Provider, who is everything to us? Where worldly gain presents itself, we willingly decide to endure everything, whether it be hard work or any other difficulty, whether shame or punishment, temporary or even eternal, threatens us. But in order to save ourselves, in order to gain favor from above, we are weak, careless, and relaxed. What condescension will we have, what justification for us in such complete carelessness, when we do not want to show to God and such love as the righteous man had for the girl, and moreover, when we see such great benefits shown to us and still sent down every day? We are so ungrateful. But Paul was not like that: he was so ardent in spirit, so burning with love for God that, expressing himself in words worthy of his soul, he said: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ” (Rom. 8:35)? Look, what expressiveness is in this saying, what power of the dominant feeling of the soul, what fiery love! “Who will separate us” - i.e., could there be anything that would deprive us of the love of God, something visible or invisible? 3. Wanting to count all the cases in detail for us, and to show all the irresistible power of his love for the Lord, he adds the following words: “Is it tribulation, or distress, or famine, or persecution, or nakedness, or trouble, or a sword?” O soul, flaming with delight, which is the mother of humility! 552 What misfortunes, he says, can remove us from the love of God? Are there daily sorrows? No way. Difficult circumstances? No! Persecution? Not at all. What then? Hunger? No. Dangers? But what am I talking about hunger, nakedness, danger? Isn't it a sword? But death, he says, if it threatened me, would not be able to do this: everything would be unsuccessful, everything would be powerless. No one else was worthy to love the Lord as much as this blessed soul. He says everything as if he had already renounced; from the body, soared, so to speak, to Heaven and no longer thinks that he is still walking on earth. The desire for God and fiery love for Him moved his mind from the sensory to the spiritual, from the present to the future, from the visible to the invisible. Such is faith and love for God! And in order to really see his good-naturedness, look at how he, having loved the Lord so much and ardently striving for Him, in exile, in persecutions, scourgings, enduring thousands of all kinds of horrors, spoke about himself: “In many labors, in painful wounds,... in many deaths: from the Jews five times fourty were the only ones who struck, struck with clubs, I was struck with a single stone,... I created night and day in the depths: in the journeys there were many, troubles in the rivers,... troubles in false brethren, in labors and struggles” (2 Cor. 11:23-27). And while enduring all this, he still rejoiced and had fun: he knew and was fully convinced that temporary labors would lead him to the greatest rewards, that disasters were preparing crowns for him. If Jacob, out of love for Rachel, counted seven years in a few days, then blessed Paul considered everything even more as nothing, once forever inflamed with love for God and enduring everything for Christ, whom he loved. Let us try, I beg you, to love Christ. Christ, according to His saying (Matthew 22:37), does not require anything else from you other than to love Him with all your heart and to fulfill His commandments. He who loves Him as he should love, of course, tries to keep His commandments, because if someone is sincerely disposed towards someone, he tries to do everything that can attract the love of his beloved. Thus, if we truly love the Lord, we will fulfill His commandments, and we will not do anything that can irritate the Beloved. To be worthy of loving Him sincerely and as one should, this is the Kingdom of Heaven, this is the taste of bliss, and in this there are innumerable benefits. And our love for Him will be sincere when, out of love for Him, we show love to our neighbors - “for this,” He said, “to both commandments hang the whole law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40), i.e. is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your thought, and your neighbor as yourself. This is the main of all virtues, this is the basis of all the commandments of God. With love for God, love for one’s neighbor is itself united, because whoever loves God will not despise his brother, will not prefer wealth to his fellow member, but will do him every kind of good, remembering Him who said: “He who made these least of my brothers one, do it to me” (Matthew 25:40). Thinking that the Lord of all will appropriate for himself the services rendered to his neighbor, he will do everything with great zeal and show all his generosity in mercy, looking not at the wretchedness of the person who appears to him, but at the greatness of the One who promises to appropriate to himself what is done for the poor. Let us not ignore, I ask you, this benefit of our souls, this medicine for our ulcers. This medicine will be of the greatest benefit to us: it will so close the wounds of our soul that no trace, no sign of them will remain. In relation to bodily wounds, this is impossible, because even if someone applies thousands of medicines compiled by doctors to his wound, a scar will certainly remain on the body; and this should be so, since the body is healed here. But here, when the soul is healed, then everyone, if he shows his own good disposition, experiences a great change for the better, all the scabs disappear, like dust from a strong wind. The Holy Scriptures are filled with such examples. So blessed Paul, from a persecutor, became an apostle, and the one who first destroyed the Church, then became her bride-leader. 4. Do you see what a decisive change? Do you see what an extraordinary transformation? So the robber, who committed countless murders, in an instant, with a few words, cleansed all his sins, so that he heard from the Lord: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). So the publican, who beat his breasts and confessed his sins, “was justified more than the Pharisee” (Luke 18:13-14). Each of these people showed a good disposition of soul, confessed their previous sins, and thus received forgiveness. Let us consider the meaning of this commandment and what great power generous alms have, so that, having learned the benefit that flows from it, we will give it away all the more willingly. It is even so fruitful that it not only cleanses sins, but also drives away death itself. I'll tell you how it is. Who, you say, by giving alms, has become above death? We see how everyone remains under the power of death. Don’t worry, beloved, but learn from experience how the power of alms conquered the power of death. There was one woman - Tabitha, a name that, when translated, means “chamois”; Every day she did nothing but give out alms, and through this collected wealth for herself; she clothed, as the Scripture says, widows, and provided them with all other benefits (Acts 9:36). It happened that she fell ill and died. Look now, beloved, how those who were blessed by her and dressed by her, in turn, rewarded their benefactor: they appeared to the apostle, showed him, as the Scripture says, the very clothes and everything that Serna did for them during her life, they called their nurse back to them, shedding tears, and thus bowed the apostle to compassion. What about blessed Peter? “Kneel,” it says, “pray: and turn to the body, saying: Tavitho, arise; She opened her eyes, and saw Peter, and sat down. Having given her his hand, he raised her up, and called the saints and widows, and made her live” (Acts 9:40-41). Do you see the power of the apostle, or better yet, the Lord working in him? Do you see what kind of reward there was in the present century for good deeds to widows? And what did she do for widows to the extent that they repaid her? She provided them with clothing and food, and they restored life to her and drove death away from her, or more precisely, not they, but our Humane-loving Lord for caring for them. Do you see the power of (spiritual) healing, beloved? Let us all prepare it for ourselves; it is not expensive, although it has such great power; it is even very cheap and does not require large expenses, because the importance of alms is valued not by the amount of money (distributed), but by the diligence of the givers. And he who gave a cup of cold water (Matthew 10:42) and who put in two mites are approved, so that we know that the Lord of all in any case requires only a pure intention. It often happens that even a poor person shows great generosity in almsgiving, when there is complete zeal; and vice versa, those who have acquired a lot turn out to be worse than those who have little, due to the poverty of their disposition. So, I convince you, with spiritual generosity we will give to those in need what we have, what the Lord has given us, the very thing that He has given us, we will give back to Him, so that in this way we will again receive what is ours with a greater increase. He is so generous that, accepting His gifts from us, He does not consider that He is receiving His property, but promises to return them to us with even greater generosity, if only we want to show our readiness and give away our goods to the poor as if we were handing them over to God Himself, 553 knowing that the right hand of God will return to us not only what we received from us, but will bestow it to an even greater extent, since She always and in everything shows her generosity. And what I say: he will reward again even more! That hand rewards not only this, but at the same time bestows the Kingdom of Heaven, glorifies, crowns, gives countless benefits if we sacrifice even a little of what it has given us. And does the Lord require something difficult or burdensome from us? He wants us to make the excess beyond what is necessary suitable for ourselves, so that we ourselves will well distribute what is in vain and unnecessarily lying in our storerooms, so that this will serve as a reason for Him to give us a bright crown. He Himself hastens and compels us, and He does and directs everything in order to honor us with the blessings He himself promised. 5. So, I beg you, let us not deprive ourselves of such great benefits. If those who work to cultivate the land exhaust their reserves by throwing seeds into the ground and scattering what they previously collected, and do this with pleasure, consoling themselves with the hope of getting more and knowing how often their expectations are deceived by changes in the weather, and the infertility of the soil, and various other circumstances, or a multitude of locusts, or the attack of harmful dew, and yet, feeding on good hopes, they entrust to the earth what was collected in the granaries, then all the more should we to scatter what is simply lying around to feed the poor; here one can never be deceived in the (good) end and one cannot fear the failure that occurs when (cultivating) the land. “Waste,” it is said, “give to the poor”; and listen to what follows: “his righteousness endures forever” (Ps. 112:9). What an amazing waste? He distributed it in a short time and his truth endures forever. Can there be anything more blissful than this? So, I beg you, let us acquire righteousness for ourselves through alms, so that it can be said worthily about us: they lavished, they gave to the needy, and their righteousness endures forever and ever. Since it is said: “waste, give,” so that you would not think that what is wasted perishes, it was immediately added: “his righteousness endures forever and ever,” - i.e. after the squandering of temporary treasures, there remains an unsquandered truth, extending throughout eternity and never ending. And together with mercy, let us apply diligent care for other virtues - we will tame the passions of the flesh, we will drive out from our souls every indecent desire, every evil thought, anger, rage, envy and we will decorate with everything the beauty of the soul, so that, having acquired a bright and shining spiritual beauty, we will attract the Lord of Heaven to ourselves, and He will deign to create an abode for Himself in us: and He, where only When he sees a beautiful soul, he immediately comes there. He himself said: “On whom..., only on the meek and silent, and humble 554, and trembling at my words?” (Isa.66:2). You see that He Himself shows us all the spiritual decorations that can brighten our spiritual well-being! “For the meek,” he says, “and silent and humble,” and then he adds that from which all other virtues come: “and trembling at my words.” What does this mean: “my words trembling”? This means - such a person who in his very deeds shows obedience to the commandments of God, as it is said in another place: “Blessed is the man who fears everyone for the sake of reverence” (Prov. 28:14). And we, when we see that our servant carries out our orders with great care, with fear and trembling, we show him more favor and favor; and our good Lord will show us much more mercy. That is why He said: “I will look upon him who is meek, silent and trembles at my words.” Let us therefore tremble at His words and fulfill them with all fear. And His words are the commandments given to us from Him. Knowing what pleases Him, what is pleasing, we will do and try to be like that, to show silent obedience, meekness, humility, fulfilling all His commandments with great reverence and fear, so that He, the Lord of all, having accepted the good disposition of our intentions and being pleased with our obedience, would deign to look upon us. If He is pleased to do this, He will bring us into a state of perfect security. “I will look,” He says, i.e. I will honor you with my care, I will stretch out my hand, I will help you in everything, I will pour out my generosity in abundance. Let us, I beg, do all this so that the Lord will look upon us too, so that we can spend our present life carefree, and achieve future blessings, through the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory, power, honor, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Zlat.: Καὶ εἶπε Λάβαν τῷ ᾿Ιακὼβ: ὄτι γὰρ ἀδελφός μου εἶ συ, οὐ δουλεύσεις μοι δωρεαν: ἀπάγγειλόν μοι τίς ὁ μισθός σου. Here καὶ εἶπε – “and speech” according to Cotton., Bodleian. (“Swete”) and some. other sp. (“Holmes”) instead of εἶπε δἑ – “speech” in Lucian., Alex. and other sp.; γὰρ – “bo”, read in Lucian. and other sp., absent from sp. Dorothea; in the same joint at the end of the verse it reads ἔσται - “will be”, in Lucian. and other sp. instead ἔστιν – “is” (Slav. B.); at Zlat. here there is neither one nor the other, as in Hebrew. T.; further, however, in Zlat. ἔστιν is read in these words (see section 2 of this demon). ἕως οὖ πάντα εὐδοκήσω εἰς ἔργον ἀγαγεῖν τὰ ἐπαγγελθέντα, says the saint, conveying with his words the end of the 15th century, read in Greek. sp. without changes: ἕως τοῦ ποιῆσαί με πάντα ὅσα ἐλάλησά σοι - “until then will I create everything that is great for you” (Slav. B.). Zlat. ἐκ τώ῀ν σαρκῶν – (lit.) “from the flesh” according to sp. Dorothea and others other instead of: ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς – “from the flesh” in Lucian., Alex. and other sp. κατὰ ῥοῦν πρόεισιν - “goes with the flow.” Ὦ ψυχῆς μαινομένης μανίαν σωφροσύνης μητέρα! τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ χειρί ταῦτα παρακατὶθέμενοι – (lit.) “transferring it into the hand of God.” ᾿Επὶ τὸν πρᾶον καὶ ἡσύχιον καὶ ταπεινὸν in ancient times Vatican. and Alex. sp.: ἐπὶ τὸν ταπεινὸν καὶ ἡσύχιον - “on the humble and silent.” You might be interested in: