A word about the circus

Today we have a spiritual field and a heavenly competition open to those who are ready for spiritual contemplation, not according to the earthly and corruptible man from the earth, but according to the spiritual and heavenly, and the competition takes place on earth, and its goal is in heaven. I must say this in advance to denounce lovers of spectacles who neglect the spiritual spectacle of salvation and prefer the bodily and vicious spectacle of a horse lists, or rather, a satanic lists. Look diligently, beloved, better than the hassle-free competition of the Church, where Paul labors, not circling around the arena, but from Jerusalem all around to Illyricum, filling all countries with the gospel of Christ (Rom. 15:19); there Elijah drives the chariot, about whom it is said: “my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and his cavalry” (2 Kings 2:12), running, not from the beginning to the end flag, but from earth to heaven on a chariot of fire; there the face of the celestial beings is present at the spectacle, and the spiritual Judge is seated, and the King is watching, and the victorious gift of heaven is offered, and the scourges of the Last Judgment are before their eyes. God wants you to fight with yourself, which is why he gave you a chariot drawn by the four gospel animals, in which white horses - according to the prophecy of Zechariah (Zechariah 6): the root ones are light and immortality, and the trailing horses are truth and justice. Competing with them in running is the chariot of the north wind coming to the earth, about which Wisdom says: the north wind is a piercing wind (Prov. 27:16). This cruel and evil wind is the devil. In his chariot there are black horses - at the root there is hell and death, and at the end - darkness and death - and it is directed contrary to the chariot of Christ, about which it is said: “There are thousands of thousands of chariots of God” (Ps. 67:18). These are the horses that you must control in the troubles of life, as in the sea. The Lord brought His horses into the sea, troubling many waters (Hab. 3:15) and overthrowing the chariots of the mental Pharaoh and his power in the Red Sea. He also has an angel - a driver who pursues and destroys the horses of your enemy. “Let it be,” says the psalmist, “their path is dark and slippery, and let the Angel of the Lord pursue them” (Ps. 34:6). Your opponents in this race are the Canaanites, Pharisees, Sadducees, proclaiming the gifts of the devil, and on your side you have Moses, Samuel and David, who had already announced the coming of the Righteous One. He has demons as his henchmen - Bel, Dagon, Baal and Chemosh, who served to seduce the Israelites and destroyed them in the wilderness, and for you - they open the doors and help Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, who said about themselves that “a great and wide door was opened for me, and there were many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:9), who asked that “a word be given to reject the mouth” 1 of them (Eph. 6:19) He has Philip, Judas, Demas, Hermogenes, Hymenaeus and Alexander the forger, full of hypocrisy, and your side among the spectators is held by the ranks of angels and the faces of the righteous, coming down from heaven to see how “all are running, but one receives the reward” (1 Cor. 9:24). Jew, nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free, nor Scythian, nor Arius, nor Eunomius, nor Marathonian, but one people in Christ. Strive and lead a life worthy of God, people of God, in contemplation of the Holy Spirit! Do not let horse racing delight you, lest you be exposed to danger before judgment. If you want to participate in a competition, it is better to do it in the field of spiritual contemplation. Harness your pious thoughts against the lustful horses of the devil, against the strong, long-suffering, - after all, you know that “the slow-suffering is better than the brave” (Proverbs 16:32), - against Judaism, Christianity, against paganism, reverence for God, against fornication, chastity, against greed, alms, against lies, truth, against oppression, meekness and gentleness. Compete with the fast horses of the devil in the same way on the opposite ones, i.e. Set meekness against anger and sadness (“a meek man,” it is said, “is a doctor of the heart” - Prov. 14:30); So, contrast the swift with meekness, hostility with friendship, hatred with love, oppression with gratitude, exaltation with humility, malice with complacency; in one word, contrast every evil deed with right and saving faith. But it goes without saying that when conducting a competition on such horses, you yourself must be distinguished by spiritual abstinence, so that you do not remain homeless, exposed to seasickness. “All ascetics,” says the apostle, “abstain from everything: those to receive a perishable crown, but we an incorruptible one” (1 Cor. 9:25). Take both the helmet of salvation and the scourge in your hand, similar to the one our Lord Jesus Christ made from ropes, to drive out the devil merchants from the church. Stay close to the vessel of election; mount, O Philip, on the chariot of the eunuch, freed from all uncleanness, mount this chariot and direct all your attention to the waver assigned to the reading of the Gospel. Let no one think that what I am saying is funny: after all, just as on the lists everyone’s eyes are fixed on the waver when he comes out with a signal flag, and everyone is waiting for the opening of the race at his sign, so the same thing happens in a church meeting when the deacon must open the Four Gospels: we all fix our eyes on him, observing the silence, and as soon as he is ready to begin reading, we all immediately get excited, singing: glory to Thee, Lord. Get on this chariot of competition, run, win, overturn your opponent, overtake and defeat him; proclaim with your lips a wonderful confession and rush at the enemy: “He who walks in integrity walks safely” (Prov. 10:9). Smite him like David of Goliath, drive him away like Elisha Gehazi, overtake him like Elijah Ahab in the vineyard of Naboth, cast him into utter darkness, where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12): just be attentive to yourself. “Take heed to yourselves,” says the Lord in the Gospel, “so that your hearts are not burdened with gluttony and drunkenness” (Luke 21:34). Bear everything: “bear one another’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2). When walking along a difficult road, be careful “lest you dash your foot against a stone” (Ps. 90:12); don’t look back, remembering the fate of Lot’s wife. Walking along the path of righteousness, do not deviate either to the right or to the left. Strive inward from heaven, strive inward. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy” (Matthew 15:19), in general everything that defiles a person. Give him no mercy, just as God did not give Israel, because he is stiff-necked; do not make concessions to him; he leads you to sin. But be ahead of your enemy and tell him: “Get behind Me, Satan, because you are thinking not about the things of God, but about the things of men” (Mark 8:33). Flee from him, as Elijah ran away from Jezebel: hasten to the honor of the high calling. Do not allow him to catch up with you, as the servants of Absalom could not catch up with Johanthan and Ahimaaz, the priests of the Lord who fled (to David), do not allow him to seize you, as the servants of the king of Jericho could not seize the spies, but if possible, deceive him, as Rahab the harlot deceived the detectives. Let him not be able to subjugate you to himself, just as Pharaoh could not subjugate Moses and Aaron, but you will outwit him, like the wise men outwitted Herod. Do not weaken in the fight against him: after all, you have God as your steward, and Christ as your physician. Do not be afraid: you have as your anointing agent the Holy Spirit, who has anointed you with myrrh from the mysterious horn of Samuel. Do not be afraid of thirst: you have with you in your pumpkin the water of repose - baptism, so that, moving forward, that is, through the preaching of Jonah, you can restore your strength. Overturn his tyrannical chariot. Throw him into the hole he dug himself; throw it there at the very bottom. Exclaim in the words of the psalm: “From the depths I cry to You, O Lord. God! hear my voice” (Ps. 129:1–2)! Throw it into the depths, saving yourself from its destruction. Raise your reverend hands high to the King, accept from Him the palm wreath, as the youths once did, and shaking it, worship Him, because Bel has fallen, Dagon has been crushed (Isa. 46:1). “Thanks be to God, who has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57). With such a victory, you could open yourself to paradise, as to a public pool, where there are four springs with abundant water like a pool, and rest in a green place, where the words would be so appropriate: “He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside the still waters” (Ps. 22:2). And boasting of all this, you could say: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; but now there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness” (2 Tim. 4:7–8), in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. This is a Slavic translation. The direct translation from the Greek would be “a word in the opening of the mouth.” Synodal: “so that the word may be given to me, to openly and boldly proclaim with my mouth the mystery of the gospel.” – I.N. Creations attributed to St. John Chrysostom and classified in the Minya edition as Spuria.