Беседа 12

Eph.4:17–18. Therefore I speak and charge by the Lord, that you no longer walk as other nations do, in the vanity of their minds, being darkened in mind, alienated from the life of God, due to their ignorance and the hardness of their hearts. Money is vain when it is wasted on pleasure. - Against fire worshipers. – Against belief in fate and in the transmigration of souls. 1. The teacher must edify and correct the souls of his students not only with advice and admonition, but also with fear and reminders of God. After all, when the words of a person, like a fellow slave, are not able to influence the soul, then it is already necessary to remind about the Lord himself. This is what Paul does. Having spoken about humility and unity, as well as about the fact that one should not rebel against another, listen to what (then) he says: “Therefore I say and charge by the Lord that you no longer act as other nations do.” He did not say: “so that you no longer do” as you want, since this could have offended them, but pointed to others, although he expressed the same thing. He also does the same in his letter to the Thessalonians when he says: “and not in the passion of lust, like other pagans” (1 Thess. 4:5). You left, he says, their (pagan) beliefs; but this depended entirely on God; but I demand what depends on you, namely: life and walking according to God. This is your duty; and I call the Lord as a witness of my words, that I do not kept silent, but said how you should behave. “According to the vanity,” he says, “of his mind.” What is vanity of the mind? Dealing with vanity objects. And what is vanity if not everything that is real, as Ecclesiastes says: “vanity of vanities—all is vanity!” ( Eccl. 1:2 )? But someone will say: if (this or that) is vain and leads to vanity, then why does it exist? If this is God’s work, then how can it be vain? And there are many objections regarding this subject. But listen, beloved! (Ecclesiastes) did not call the works of God vain, no; The sky is not vain, the earth is not vain, no; not the sun, not the moon, not the stars, not our body. All this is “very good”. What's so vain? Let's listen to what Ecclesiastes himself says: “I planted vineyards for myself,... made myself ponds,... bought myself cattle and flocks,... collected for myself silver and gold,... got myself singers and female singers... And I said in my heart that this too is vanity” (Eccl. 2:4, 6-8, 15); again: “vanity of vanities, all is vanity!” . Listen to what the prophet says: “A man gathers and does not know who will get it” (Ps. 38:7). Therefore, “vanity of vanities” - magnificent buildings, abundance and excess of gold, crowds of servants noisily running around the square, pride and vanity, arrogance and arrogance. All this is vanity, because it did not come from God, but was produced by people. Why, however, is this vanity? Because it has no good purpose. Money is vain when it is wasted on pleasures; but they are not vain when they are used to help the poor. When you spend it on pleasure, let’s see what the consequence is. Body fatness, belching, wind, copious amounts of feces, headache, bodily relaxation, fever and exhaustion. Just as someone who would pour water into a drilled vessel would work in vain, so a person who indulges in pleasure pours water into a drilled vessel. Unrealistic ambitious plans are also called vain: they are really vain, unreliable, futile; In general, something that is not suitable for anything is called vain. Let us see if this is not what human affairs are like? “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die!” (1 Cor. 15:32). What is the consequence of this, tell me? Smoldering. We put on expensive clothes and outfits: what is the use of this? No. Some of the Hellenes also thought this way, but in vain. They led a strict life, but in an empty way, without any useful goal in mind, doing so out of vanity, in order to gain honor from the crowd. But what is the honor that the crowd gives us? Nothing. If they themselves, who give us honor, perish, then how much more so does this honor. He who gives honor to another must first acquire it himself. If he did not acquire it for himself, then how could he deliver it to another? Meanwhile, we seek honor from inglorious and despicable people, dishonorable and shameful: what kind of honor is this? 2. Do you see that everything is vanity? That is why he said (about the pagans): “according to the vanity of his mind.” But isn’t this also their faith? In fact, do they not bow to trees and stones? (God) created the sun to serve us as a lamp. Who worships his lamp? The sun gives light from itself; when it cannot shine, then the lamp shines. So why don't you worship the lamp? Yes, another will say, I worship fire. One cannot help but laugh when hearing about such dishonor; and aren't you ashamed? Again: why do you extinguish what you worship? Why are you destroying, why are you killing your god? Why don't you let him fill your whole house? If fire is God, then bring your body to it, and do not put God under the bottom of a pot or cauldron. Bring it into your closet, bring it to where your silk clothes are. But not only do you not bring him in, on the contrary, if he accidentally gets in somewhere, you drive him away from everywhere, call everyone together, cry, moan, as if some beast had come to you; and when, therefore, your god visits you, you call it the greatest misfortune. I have God, and I do everything in order to receive Him on my chest, and I consider it bliss for myself not only when He visits my home, but also when I attract Him into my heart. Draw fire into your heart too. It's funny and vain! Fire is good for use, and not for worship, for serving and slavish obedience to me, and not for dominating me. He was created for me, not I for him. If you worship fire, why do you yourself rest on a bed, and force your cook to stand before your god? Take up cooking yourself, become a baker or, if you like, a blacksmith - nothing should be more honorable for you than these occupations; since your god himself is watching over them. Why do you consider that occupation dishonest where there is so much of your god? Why do you entrust it to slaves and do not reserve this honor for yourself? Fire is a good thing, since it was created by a good Creator, but it is not god. It is called the work of God, but not God. Don't you see how indomitable he is, how he, having engulfed the house, does not stop anywhere? If a continuous series of objects comes his way, he destroys everything until the hands of carpenters or other people calm his fury; he knows neither friends nor enemies, but treats everyone equally. So, such and such is your god - and you are not ashamed? Truly, the apostle said well: “according to the vanity of his mind.” But they say our god is the sun. Tell me why this is and for what? What does it give so much of itself to the light? But don’t you see how it is overcome by clouds, how it is subject to the law of natural necessity, subject to eclipses, obscured by the moon and clouds? Although the cloud is more powerless than it, it often gains the upper hand; and this is also a matter of the wisdom of God. God must be well-pleased, but the sun needs many things; and this is uncharacteristic of God. So (the sun) needs air in order to shine, and thin air at that, because air that is too thick does not allow rays to pass through it. It also needs water or something else that would limit its action so that it does not start a fire. If there were no springs, no lakes, no rivers, no seas, which produce some moisture through the evaporation coming out of them, then the sun could burn everything. So, do you see what kind of god this is? What madness! What a laugh! Since, they say, it can harm, then it is a god. On the contrary, this is why it is not God, because in order to cause harm, it does not need anyone’s assistance, and in order to be useful, it needs many other things. It is not in the nature of God to cause harm—not at all—it is in His nature to do good. If the opposite must be said about the sun, then how can it be a god? Do you not see that poisonous drugs produce harm, and (for this) they do not need anything else; but do they need a lot (other things) to be useful? For you, the sun was created both beautiful and at the same time powerless: beautiful so that (by it) you would know the Lord, powerless so that you would not call him your master. But it is said to nourish plants and seeds. Well, is that really why dung is a god? After all, it also nourishes plants. Why not add to this the sickle and the hands of the farmer? Show me where the sun alone would grow (plants), without needing either soil, water, or the labors of the farmer; let it sow the seeds itself and, warming them with its ray, produce ears of corn for us. If this depends not on him alone, but also on the rain, then why is water not God? But that’s not what we’re talking about yet. Why is the earth not God? Why are dung and a spade not gods? Tell me, should all this really be worshipped? What madness! Meanwhile, an ear of corn would rather grow without the sun than without soil and water, just like trees and everything else. Without earth there cannot be a single (plant). If someone pours soil into a clay vessel, as children and women do, and adds the required amount of manure there, and places this vessel under the roof, then plants grow, albeit weak ones. Thus, earth and dung are essential and should be revered more than the sun. In order for the sun not to cause harm, you need the sky, you need air, you need so much water that would curb its wild power and not allow its ray, like an indomitable horse, to penetrate everywhere. But tell me again, where is the sun at night? Where is this god of yours hiding? It is not characteristic of God to be constrained and limited; this is precisely characteristic only of bodies. But, they say, there is some kind of force in it and it moves. Well, tell me, is this force God? Why is it insufficient and does not hold back the fire? I repeat the same again. What kind of power is this? Is this a luminous force, or does it shine through the sun, without itself taking any part in it? In this case, the sun is superior to her. However, it’s enough for us to spin in this labyrinth. 3. And water, they say, is it really not a god? Here is another debate truly worthy of laughter! Why is it not God, they say, water, when we need it in so many cases? The same is said about the earth. It is precisely those who say this - “due to the vanity of their mind, they are darkened in their understanding.” However, here (the apostle) expressed himself this way about their life. The pagans indulge in fornication and adultery. And it is clear: when they invent such gods for themselves, they act in accordance with this in everything. If only they can hide (their actions) from the eyes of people, then there is nothing that could keep them (from bad deeds). Can the doctrine of the resurrection really have any force for them when they consider it a fable? What about torment in hell? For them these too are fables; and, mind you, this is a satanic suggestion. When they are told about the debauchery of their gods, they do not call it fables, but they believe it. And when they are told about punishments, they object: the poets invent all this in order to upset the happy order of life everywhere. But philosophers, they say, have invented something that is completely worthy of attention and better than these (fables). What kind of philosophers are these? Are those who invented fate and claim that everything exists without Providence, there is no creative Providence, everything was made up of atoms? But, they say, others recognized God as an actual being (οώμα). What are these, tell me? Those who produce human souls from the souls of dogs and assure people that at a certain time one or the other of them was a dog, a lion, a fish? How long will you not stop talking idlely, “your mind is darkened”? And truly, both in the discussion of dogmas and regarding life, they all say and do as if they were in the dark; a person surrounded by darkness does not see anything in front of him, he mistakes the rope for a crawling snake, or, having entered a cramped place, he thinks that he has been grabbed by a person or a demon. And how much fear and anxiety there is! The pagans are afraid of similar things. “There they will be afraid of fear,” it is said, “[where there is no fear]” (Ps. 13:5), but what they should be afraid of, they are not afraid of. Just as children, being in the arms of their nurses, unreasonably stretch out their hands to the fire and boldly rush towards the lit lamp, and meanwhile are afraid of a man in clothes made of goat’s hair, so these Hellenes are real babies, as someone said about them: “Greeks are always children.” They are afraid of things that do not constitute sin, such as: bodily untidiness, funerals, hearses, difficult days, and the like. And they don’t even think of counting what constitutes a real sin, such as voluptuous love for children, adultery, fornication, as a sin. You can see how (a pagan) washes himself after a dead man, but he is never washed from dead works. He makes a lot of efforts to acquire money, and at the same time thinks that one crowing of a rooster can solve any (perplexity). So their minds are darkened. Their soul is filled with many signs. For example, so and so, they say, was the first to meet me when I was leaving the house: a thousand troubles will certainly happen for me. Today, the hated servant, handing me shoes, brought his left one in front: there will be great troubles and misfortunes. I myself, leaving the house, stepped over the threshold with my left foot: and this portends misfortune. These are home failures. When I left the house, my right eye blinked: there were tears. Likewise, women, when the reed rods, hitting the weaving shaft, make a sound, or they themselves scratch themselves with a comb, take this as a bad omen; again, when they touch the base against the ridge and very hard, then the upper rods, hitting the shaft, make a sound from the intense blow, then this too is considered a harbinger of misfortune, and they have thousands of other laughter-worthy superstitions. Whether a donkey crows, or a rooster, or someone sneezes, and in general, no matter what happens, everything worries them, so that they, as I said, seem to be bound by thousands of bonds, as if they are in darkness, suspect of everything (the worst) and are much more enslaved than thousands of slaves. But we won’t be like that; on the contrary, having ridiculed all such (superstitions) - as those living in the light, as heavenly citizens who have nothing in common with the earth - we will consider sin and insult to God to be terrible for ourselves. If all this is nonsense, then we will laugh at it, as well as at the first culprit - the devil. Let us thank God and strive so that we ourselves never fall into such slavery, and if one of our friends is captured, we will break his bonds, free him from this intolerable and shameful imprisonment, make him capable of ascending to heaven, straighten his drooping wings and teach him wisdom regarding life and faith. Let us thank God for everything and let us beg Him so that we do not prove unworthy of the gift given to us; At the same time, let us also take care of what depends on us, namely, so that we can teach others not only in words, but also in deeds. From this we will be able to receive countless benefits, which may we all be worthy of, by the grace and love for mankind 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. You might be interested in: