About the prodigal son, about repentance, about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

Recently, the great and glorious Epiphany of the Savior brought us a rich meal and a full cup of divine edification, from which the whole people, or even, one might say, the whole universe, could become intoxicated. “They are satisfied from the fatness of Your house,” says the prophet, “and from the flow of Your sweets You will give them drink” (Ps. 35:9). Of course, when divine Scripture speaks of intoxication, it does not mean the intoxication produced by wine, but the wise effect of the word. The natural consequence of the appearance of the Savior was, as is understandable, repentance with its fruits. That is why our word yesterday was dedicated to repentance; at the same time, in accordance not so much with the dignity of the subject, but with our own strengths, we tried to show that repentance is the sure means of salvation; The Physician of souls and bodies was also indicated, Who does not resort to the help of medicines, but heals with the spirit of philanthropy. And since, due to our characteristic absent-mindedness, the impression of the Gospel reading has already faded from you, it is necessary today to briefly remind you of the past and then finish the word. The Savior, teaching piety in words, and instilling useful things in the faithful with parables, riddles and other methods of instruction, once said a parable that perfectly depicts the image of repentance. “A certain man,” He said, “had two sons” (Luke 15:11). The youngest of them approached his father with a request to divide the estate between them. His father fulfilled his request, and he, having received the part of his father’s estate that was due to him, squandered it and spent it. This is the content of the parable, which you know, of course. It remains to draw some conclusions from it. Although there is a difference of opinion in this regard, for those who are right-thinking, the truth is easily understood. Let's see what this source of wisdom offers here? There are two kinds of people: firstly, righteous people, and secondly, people who achieve justification through repentance; the former retain righteousness from the beginning, while the latter acquire it through repentance. “... the man had two sons.” Although their inclinations and way of life separated them, and the wicked were removed from the pious, the truth recognizes everyone as one creation of the Creator; all are sons of God, although by their own evil will they are now very far from this dignity. And God himself, when we indulge in evil passions and retreat from piety, does not renounce our kinship with us, but even addresses those who rebel against Him with a fatherly admonition: “turn to Me..., children who have departed from Me, and I will turn to you” (Zech. 1:3). Do you see that no matter how much a sinner falls away, God does not refuse to call those who depart from Him His sons? Of course, He always remembers His creation and does not deny it His good deed. Now, why exactly did the youngest son misuse the part of the estate that he inherited? There is a special meaning hidden here and this is what it is. Righteousness existed and manifested and shone from the beginning; and sin entered the world later, he is younger than her. Therefore, the first son takes first place, unlike the one who squandered his estate. From the beginning, creation was characterized by perfect beauty: the world - immediately after creation - shone with new grace, new splendor. And Moses testifies to the beauty of the creation: “everything ... is very good” (Gen. 1:31); not just “good”, but “very good”. This means that truth was first and goodness was primordial. But sin was younger: it appeared as a deviation from the truth and a violation of splendor. So, the father divided his estate equally - between his sons. Why equally? Because the righteous in this life do not have any advantages: “He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). However, that son, who is the personification of the righteous, did not want to take advantage of the division of his father's estate, but remained under the authority of his father. The righteous always obeys God and does not take anything for himself. Do you want to be convinced of this, namely, that the righteous man does not demand anything from God, but completely surrenders himself to the will and providence of his Father? Here David exclaims on behalf of the righteous: “Who am I in heaven? and with You I want nothing on earth” (Ps. 73:25)? Do you see that the face of the righteous does not seek to usurp power over creation, but wants everything to be in the care and providence of the Father? The younger, having received his father's inheritance, went to a distant country, remote not in spatial terms, but in moral terms. In fact, brothers, a sinner is removed from God not by place, but by his disposition, in accordance with the words that “those who remove themselves from You perish” (Ps. 72:27). Having received an inheritance, he squandered it by living dissolutely; He desecrated those gifts of creation that were given to him with sin. The sun was created for his benefit, and he worshiped this gift as God; the springs were given to him for food, and he deified this gift. The giver was neglected, and all honor was given to the gifts, as Paul exclaims indignantly: “and they served the creature instead of the Creator” (Rom. 1:25). One and the same creation, one and the same paternal estate; but one used it well, and the other badly. There are also two kinds of people: some treat the gifts of the Lord correctly, while others fall into error. The pious sees the beauty of the sky and, from its beauty, is elevated in thought to its Originator: “I look at the heavens,” he says, “the work of Your fingers” (Ps. 8:4). He saw the beauty and gave praise to the One who created such beauty; saw the world and blessed the Creator of the world. The pious praises the creation, but worships the Creator. The pious do not dishonor the creation by avoiding the worship of the creature, but exalt the honor of the Creator. It is not out of hatred for the sun that the faithful do not worship him along with the wicked, but because in reverence for him he observes moderation, honors and loves visible nature as a gift of God. Do you want to make sure that the pious contemplates creation and is amazed at its beauty, although worship is given exclusively to the Creator? One of the wise - I mean the wise in piety - says this: “The sun, when it appears, announces them at sunrise: a wonderful creation, the work of the Most High!... the sun scorches the mountains: breathing with the flame of fire and shining with rays, it blinds the eyes, - and immediately adds, “great is the Lord who created it” (Sirach 43:2, 4-5). Thus, the Wise One announced the beauty of creation, and did not forget about the Creator. The wicked and the heavens, proclaiming the glory of God - not with words, of course, but with the beauty of creation (Ps. 19:2), contemplated his own destruction. The sky, of course, never made sounds, but it bears witness louder than any words with its splendor. And the silent sky proclaims the glory of God? Certainly! Your writings speak without words, but God’s creation cannot speak without words? Have you tasted piety? Then, according to what you have tasted, judge the truth in its entirety. Imagine now how much the wicked succeeds in the very thing that serves to justify the pious. He sees the moon and worships it; sees the stars and honors them; sees the sea and worships it. The youths cast into the Babylonian cave, while in it, glorified God with saving and beautiful praise, calling upon all creation: “Bless all the works of the Lord” (Dan. 3:57). Was it not enough, however, to utter these words and then stop the song? After all, God is delighted not by the duration of the singing, but by the disposition of those singing. And since it is said: “all things are done,” it means that everything is included and there was no need for further additions. Is it true; but since they were not preaching to themselves, but praising God and admonishing the surrounding Chaldeans with their praise, it was necessary that all creation take their place in their praise, so that the erring Chaldeans would understand who was singing and what was being praised. However, this reasoning has taken us far away; Let us finally leave it and return to the order of the word. The youngest son went to a distant country, spent his wealth there and began to suffer hardships. It is not for nothing that it is said: “The people of Skim are poor and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord do not lack any good” (Ps. 33:11). And it is clear: the Lord “does not deprive those who walk in integrity of blessings” (Ps. 83:12). So he began to suffer hardships. “And he went and pestered one of the inhabitants of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs” (Luke 15:15). Do you see what is the height of ancient nobility, and what is the humiliation that followed the fall from piety? He is entrusted with herding pigs, i.e. left to wallow in pleasures and sins. What mud is to pigs, sin is to those who wallow in it. Therefore, the Savior, hinting at those living in uncleanness and wallowing in sins like dirt, said: “Do not give what is holy to dogs and do not throw your pearls before swine” (Matthew 7:6). He tended pigs, “and he was glad to fill his belly with the horns that the pigs ate, but no one gave it to him” (Luke 15:16). Remember this firmly: he who has rejected piety does not enjoy pleasures, but is doomed to poverty and experiences shortcomings, and does not find satisfaction even in the vices to which he indulges. “Fools,” says the Wise One, “die from lack of understanding” (Prov. 10:21). In the parable, the pleasures of the world are likened to horns: the horn is distinguished by great hardness, but little pleasantness; just so, what is brilliant and tempting in the world is associated with much work, and the pleasure brings little. And in general, in our life there are more works than pleasures. After all, “the days of our years are seventy years, ... and the best time theirs is labor and sickness" (Ps. 89:10). Finally, disasters brought him to his senses, and hardships turned him. “Your wickedness will punish you, and your apostasy will expose you” (Jer. 2:19). “When we come to ourselves,” it is well said: “When we sin, we become mad, and when we begin to behave in the truth; we return to ourselves. “When I came to my senses, I said.” Here, notice carefully how the word spoken long ago is justified, that doctors use alien and strange medicines, and yet we carry within ourselves a supply of healing agents. “When I came to my senses.” It was not any foreign medicine that acted on him, but his own nature made its demands and pushed him onto the path of salvation. “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread to spare, but I die of hunger” (Luke 15:17). The Divine Scripture calls sons those who are completely devoted to righteousness and piety, and mercenaries those who do not have complete devotion to virtue and are not guided in the arrangement of their lives by the will of God - who, although they understand the good, love the teaching, but do not devote themselves entirely to it with their hearts. To such people, who do not have complete love, but are generally disposed towards piety, God gives payment in accordance with their disposition. Therefore, he quite rightly said: “How many of my father’s hired servants have an abundance of bread, but I am dying of hunger.” I will return to my Father, I will return to the One who said: “Return, O my soul, to your rest” (Ps. 114:7). “And I will say to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you and am no longer worthy to be called your son; take me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:18–19). But how different are the words of the one who repents and the gifts of the one who accepts repentance! He who has come to repentance from sins does not dream of the kingdom of heaven; does not consider himself worthy of eternal life, but has only one prayer - for deliverance from Gehenna. He expects little, but God grants him an inexhaustible wealth of good deeds. But what a miracle! He was just thinking about repentance, and his father had already hurried to him with his love for mankind; did not wait for the words of confession, but warned his request, in accordance with what was said: before you call Me, I will say: “Here I am!” (Isa. 58:9). From afar he saw his son walking and rushed towards him. Do you see how much His love for mankind prevents repentance? That is why David, having healed the illness of sin through repentance and knowing how the Lord, in His love for mankind, hastens to meet those approaching Him, begs God, saying: “Move to help me and look” (Ps. 58:5), that I am sincerely approaching You, that my repentance is unfeigned. The father met his son, and he said to him: “I have sinned against heaven and before you and am no longer worthy to be called your son, accept me as one of your hired servants.” But the father does not say anything to him, does not respond to his words, but orders his servants: “Bring the best clothes and dress him” (Luke 15:22). Doesn't this indicate that the repentant, strenuously begging God, does not receive an answer from him in words, but sees His love for mankind in deeds? After all, this is how it happens. Our repentance is in words, but God’s love for mankind is revealed in action itself. “Bring him the best robe that he lost through disobedience, and put shoes on his feet” (Luke 15:22). Why boots? Therefore, it is obvious that those who sin are attacked by the serpent, as it is said: “he will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). And so, so that the naked leg is not subjected to the fatal wound of the serpent, so that the one freed from sin is not infected again with the poison of sin, the repentant sinner puts on boots for safety. After all, if he had not received the boot, he could not have stepped on snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). Thus protected from the bite of the serpent, Paul proclaimed today: “I fear, lest, just as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds should be corrupted, straying from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor. 11:3). But here a new bewilderment seems to arise, that notorious investigation arises before us, about which divine Providence is subjected to many attacks. Why, they say, are there snakes in paradise? Why did the tree cause such great evil? Why did the Creator grow such a tree? Isn’t it absurd, they say: a gardener tries to clear his seeds from weeds and foreign impurities and keep his land clean from everything unnecessary, and God, having built such a great and beautiful garden, himself planted a tree in it, which was supposed to serve as a source of such great disasters? The divine Paul prompts us to such questions with his words: “I am afraid that, just as the serpent deceived Eve with his cunning, so your minds may be corrupted by straying from the simplicity that is in Christ.” What can I say to this, brothers? Without going into unnecessary and verbose research, let's say briefly. God created everything beautiful, and not just beautiful, but also very beautiful: “everything... is very good” (Gen. 1:31). This increase – “very” – indicates the highest degree of beauty of all created things. Then God gives Adam abundance in everything, pleasure, power, possession of paradise and dominion over everything visible. “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the livestock, and over all the earth” (Gen. 1:26). In these words, power over paradise was given, the right to use it and enjoy it was given. In a word, he was made king, having, on the one hand, power over visible creation, and on the other, paradise in his possession. It was necessary, however, to give Adam a commandment to train his soul in obedience. Many people object to this: didn’t God know that Adam would break the commandment? Why did he give it to the person who was supposed to break it? I ask your love to assist me in the difficult task ahead of me: after all, I am defending divine creativity and industry. God created man, gave him abundance in everything, and allowed him to eat whatever he wanted. It would be another matter if the commandment were shy, allowed one to touch a little, but required one to abstain from much, then disobedience could still find a plausible explanation in the fact that the will could not withstand such a painful test. But when there was complete abundance in everything, and the prohibition was limited to a few, then why did Adam not obey the Benefactor? One can, of course, say that, with abundance in everything, man did not find such beauty in other trees: this tree was “good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes” (Gen. 3:6). But this plausible justification is eliminated by the fact that God, what beauty he gave to this tree, also endowed all the other trees of paradise with the same. In fact, Moses says: “And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food to grow” (Gen. 2:9). So, why was the commandment given? So that a person knows that he is subject to the law and the Lord. And why did God give this particular commandment, and not any other? Because there was no other means for testing obedience. Really, what could God say to Adam? Don't steal? From whom? What law could He give? Don't kill? Whom? Don't commit adultery? With whom? Don't be jealous? To whom and in what? There was no basis for the commandment, there was no peace, there was no way of life that currently exists in the world. Maybe I should say: don’t snitch? But where was the trial? Where are the accusers? Where are the accused? And so God gives man a commandment in the area of ​​​​the use of fruits available to him: to use them all in abundance, and to abstain from one thing, so that, while using everything, he at the same time feels power over himself, prohibiting eating from the tree, not because the tree itself was evil, but because breaking the commandment was sinful. Thus, the law of nature requires that a girl enter into a legal marriage, but if any girl, against the will of her father or without waiting for the time of marriage, allows herself to be seduced, she is subject to severe punishment by law, not because, of course, she did something unnatural compared to other girls, but because, contrary to the law and the will of her father, she gave herself up to sin - she is punished not for the essence of the matter, but for the nature of the crime. In the same way, Adam is punished not for doing something contrary to nature itself, but for attempting to do something that was forbidden by the commandment. 2. Demand an explanation, but don't argue with what you don't know. When you need to research an ancient narrative or a court case, do you not then turn to the ancient records in order to learn from them what the accused said and what the defense said and what sentence the judge pronounced, and thus restore to memory what has already been swallowed up in oblivion? So now listen to what ancient history testifies. When the Judge of truth sat, or rather, when the Physician of our sinful ailments came to the defendant in the form of a friend, what did He say to him? "Where are you" ? And what did Adam answer Him? “I heard Your voice in paradise, and I was afraid, because I was naked.” What then is Omniscient? Under the guise of ignorance he says: “Who told you that you are naked? have you not eaten from the tree from which I forbade you to eat? With these words, God indicates that Adam, so to speak, had abundance in everything and that, therefore, it was not the difficulty in satisfying his needs that led him to sin. What does the accused have to do with this? “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Adam attributes his sin to his wife; and you place the blame on the tree? The accused was unable to come up with anything to justify himself, and did not find any other refuge other than the truth, did not attribute the reason to the Creator, but blamed his wife; and you lay the blame on things that you don’t know the power of? Now, what did God say to Eve? “What did you do?” In response to this question, she indicates the reason: “the serpent deceived me” (Gen. 3:9–13). And she did not affect the creation, did not slander the Creator, did not say: why did you create us, why did you forbid us to eat from this tree? As an accused, she does not resort to lies, whereas usually accused people, in order to avoid accusations, willingly use even what did not happen. So, in response to the accusations, she did not find any other cover for herself; and you bring such an accusation against God that the defendants did not express? Let's go back a little. "Adam, where are you"? Since God saw that the mouths of sinners are stopped and timidity does not allow them to speak, then with His question we make it easier for them to justify themselves. Having violated the commandment, I disappeared. Having heard about Your love for mankind, Master, I decide to justify myself. And such is the justice of the Judge: he does not begin the interrogation directly with the guilty one, but with the seduced one. And rightly so: after all, the trial would have been much harsher if it had immediately fallen on the culprit. It starts with the one who could find for himself at least a small excuse for being misled by others. Then he goes from the husband to the wife and says to her: “What did you do that”? She answers: “The serpent deceived me.” Did the serpent deceive? Deception would have been possible if the commandment had not been given to prevent it; If I had not warned you: “In the day that you eat of it, you will die” (Gen. 2:17), then deception would have been possible. And now why are the words of God not kept, but the words of the deceiver accepted? Thus, all the blame falls on the transgressor of the commandment: no share of it can be attributed to God. But let's not shy away from word order. The investigation of the crime moves from the seduced to the seduced, and the solution to the case begins with the culprit of the evil. First of all, divine justice pronounces a sentence against him: not against the husband, not against the wife, but precisely against the serpent. Moreover, God does not call the serpent for interrogation, because he does not want to look for reasons elsewhere, does not want to hear further excuses. What does he say? “Cursed are you above all livestock and above all the beasts of the field” (Gen. 3:14). The serpent was a visible instrument, and through it the devil worked invisibly. Why does the divine court impose punishment on the instrument, and not on the actual culprit of evil? Both sin and the instrument of sin are punished. Even a foolish bull, if it gores a person, God condemns to death in the law; the matter itself is thus punished. So, of course, here too: the announcement of the sentence on the serpent was supposed to show that if the instrument of sin is punished in this way, then the greater the punishment threatens the one who acted through it. What the punishment threatening the serpent consists of is well expressed by blessed Isaiah: and it will happen in the last days, he says, “In that day the Lord will smite with his heavy sword, and great and strong, leviathan, the straight running serpent, and leviathan, the crooked serpent, and he will kill the monster of the sea” (Is. 27:1). The prophet calls the devil a dragon and the evil serpent himself the chief of demons. So the Savior said: “Behold, I give you power to tread on snakes and scorpions,” and so that you would not understand this in the literal sense and not attribute it to the animals mentioned, he added: “and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). Just when you hear the names of serpent and dragon, do not think that they are the root of evil, as the Manichaeans say. The serpent was not the author of evil, was not evil by nature; here we are talking only about evil will. Do you see, they say, that Scripture called him a serpent and a dragon, as if highlighting some special nature that gives rise to evil? But these words of the wicked are vain and empty, devoid of any meaning. After all, when the Lord says to people: “serpents, brood of vipers” (Matthew 23:33), is He denouncing nature, and not the disposition of the will? Of course, not nature! And this shows that in general in such cases you need to be consistent with the thought, and not get attached to the words. 3. But they object again and propose another question. Why, they say, is the tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Obviously, the divine Scripture meant to designate some special nature of the tree? O man, do not pervert the truth so recklessly! After all, this tree did not give birth to the nature of good and evil, but only revealed the disposition of man; and it was called by this name not because good or evil was associated with its nature, but because it served to reveal them. Indeed, what knowledge did Adam gain from eating from the tree? He learned that obedience to God is good and disobedience is evil. This is what it is – the knowledge of good and evil, and nothing more. What knowledge of good could he have received immediately when his eyes were opened? What other good did you see? Alms? But where were the beggars to be found there? What did he see? That philanthropy is good? But where could his philanthropy be revealed? What was revealed to him? That to obey is good, and not to obey a benefactor is evil. Where can you see this? Scripture says: “O man! It has been told to you what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God,” “that you may fear the Lord your God” (Mic. 6:8; Deut. 10:12). Do you see that fear of God is good, and disobedience to God is evil? The heavens were horrified, says the prophet, and the earth trembled, “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water,” and further (Jer. 2:12–13). Why, they say, he said: do not touch this tree; If you eat of it, will you learn good and evil through disobedience? Why? I will explain it to you and give you a brief answer. Scripture is always willing to give objects such names as suit the circumstances. For example: Isaac dug a well; The Philistines came and began to quarrel over the well and appropriate it for themselves, taking advantage of the labors of others. What about Isaac? He gave this well a name: “Sitna” - enmity (Gen. 26:21). It was not the well that gave rise to enmity, but enmity arose over it, and therefore the well became a well of enmity. He built another well; and he was taken away from him; and he called it a well of offense (Gen. 26:20), not because it was a well of offense, but because it served as a reason for offense. In the same way, the servants of Joab and Abner, as those knowledgeable in Scripture know, having met at the source, cunningly killed each other, and the name of the place was called: “part of the slanderers” (2 Samuel 2:13, 16). Again, here, too, it was not the place that gave rise to deceit, but the discovery of deceit gave the name to the place. So it was with Adam. Since from eating he had to gain the experience that to obey God is good, and not to obey is evil, the tree got its name from this incident. But enough about that. And may the Lord keep us away from this tree! Let us hasten to the tree of life, the tree of the cross, which flourished with the fruits of righteousness, which vegetated in virginity, which bore sanctuary and various fruits, and which brought forth numerous and varied gifts to people. It was this tree that, in its sensual form, gave birth to a great and wonderful salvation - not the one that the Savior mysteriously arranged, but which the prudent thief clearly delighted. In fact, just as Adam was expelled from paradise because of a tree: “You are righteous, O Lord, and just are your judgments” (Ps. 119:137), just as Adam is expelled from paradise for one sin, so for one true confession a thief is brought into paradise. Together with the lawless, You ascend to the cross and save the lawless. The thief said to Him: “Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42)! Truly, this robber did not stop robbing until finally, together with others, he took possession of the kingdom of heaven itself. Another thief mocks the Lord: “If you are the Christ, save yourself and us” (Luke 23:39). The words of the thief were close to the words of the Jews; They also said: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross... and we will believe in Him” (Matthew 27:40, 42). Do you see how the children of the devil agree among themselves in the teaching of wickedness? Save, they say, Yourself and us! What about the blessed thief? He speaks in defense of the Lord, the condemned person acts as a judge and begins to judge according to the truth: “Or are you not afraid of God, when you yourself are condemned to the same thing? And we are condemned justly, because we accepted what was worthy of our deeds, but He did nothing bad” (Luke 23:40–41). Tell me, robber, why didn’t you confess so directly to Pilate? Why, after countless tortures, didn’t you tell me what you did? Another thing is human judgment, another thing is God’s judgment. Before that, I tried to hide my deeds, since he does not penetrate hearts, but before this I do not hide, because hearts are open to him. Why didn't you confess to Pilate right away? Because there consciousness was followed by punishment, here consciousness is followed by salvation. “We’ll go to court; speak to justify yourself” (Isaiah 43:26). Between the two thieves, the Savior was like a scale of truth, on which faith and unbelief, truth and untruth, were weighed. The weighing began, and one, burdened by unbelief, was drawn down, and the other, lightened by faith, rose up. “And we are condemned justly, because we received what was worthy according to our deeds, but He did nothing bad.” A lie is being committed before us, and a terrible one at that: the righteous is crucified along with the unrighteous, holiness is punished along with iniquity. “And we are condemned justly, because we received what is worthy according to our deeds, but He did nothing bad.” We committed murders and took the lives of the living, but He raised the dead and crushed the power of death; we stole what belonged to others, but He teaches us to give away our own; we killed completely harmless people, but He commanded us to love even our enemies. This trial is unfair. Do His deeds deserve punishment and our forgiveness? Judge according to the truth! Let evil be punished and truth honored. All this happened due to the malice of the Jews, but at the same time the prophecy was fulfilled, which clearly spoke about the Savior: “and was numbered with the evildoers” (Isa. 53:12; Mark 15:28). This is how this blessed thief spoke his wisdom, this is how he admonished those around him, reproaching his comrade. When he saw that those around him were deaf to his words, then he turned directly to the Knower of the Heart and said to the Lord: “Remember me, Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42)! Him crucified do you confess as Lord? Do you ascribe to the condemned man the dignity of a king? What is surprising, brothers, if Paul, after events full of mysterious significance, after such an abundance of miracles, says: “If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8)? Paul says this after such great works, after miracles, after signs, after countless manifestations of power, after the resurrection, after the ascension. And the thief, at the sight of extreme humiliation, at the sight of the torment of the cross, calls the crucified Lord Lord and says to him: “Remember me, Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom!” What have you done that is worthy of memory? On the contrary, what have you not done that deserves punishment? Weren't you the one who killed? Weren't you the one who stole? Wasn't it you who robbed? While mired in countless crimes, do you want the source of truth to remember your untruth? “You are righteous, O Lord, and your judgments are just” (Ps. 119:137)! Reward me according to Your righteousness. I saw Your visible humiliation, and the cross, and the reproach of the lawless, but I do not look at this visible humiliation, but at Your kingdom hiding underneath it. I ignore what I see; and do not pay attention to my visible crimes, but accept the faith of my heart. "Remember me, Lord"! O court of justice! Remember me in Your kingdom! Isn't it a matter of justice when the devil made one of Your disciples a traitor - He made one of the devil's disciples an evangelist for You? Can’t truth take a disciple of untruth? Are you not the Lord who turns darkness into light and evil into right? Transform even a robber into an evangelist, defeat wickedness with goodness, extinguish unrighteousness with truth, and glorify Your love for mankind. To you be due glory and worship forever and ever. Amen. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.