НЕДЕЛЯ 11-Я ПО ПЯТИДЕСЯТНИЦЕ

Parable of the Unmerciful Debtor The Lord's Prayer, which each of us repeats daily morning and evening, was given to us, as we know, by Jesus Christ Himself. In it, by the way, we ask God to forgive us our sins. And forgive us our debts (sins), we say and add: just as we also forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:12). If we do not forgive those who have sinned against us, then we cannot expect the Lord to forgive us our sins. So, we should beware of anger, make peace with our comrades if we happen to have a quarrel with them, forgive their offenses and remember that God will not hear the prayers of someone who, coming to church, harbors anger or rancor against his neighbor. To explain this truth, the Lord once told the following parable: “A servant was brought to one king who owed him ten thousand talents. Since that servant had nothing with which to pay the debt, the king ordered him, his wife, his children, and everything he had to be sold to pay the debt. But that slave threw himself on his knees and said: “Sovereign! have patience with me, I will pay you everything” (Matthew 18:26). The Emperor, having mercy, released him and forgave him the entire debt. After this, the servant met his comrade, who owed him one hundred denarii, that is, much less than what he himself owed the king. He grabbed his comrade and began to beat him, demanding payment of the debt. His comrade fell at his feet and, begging, said: “Have patience with me, I will give you everything.” But he did not want to listen and put him in prison (Matthew 18:27-30). The king was told about this incident. Then the king, calling a servant, says to him: “Evil slave!” I forgave you all the debt because you begged me; Shouldn't you have had mercy on your comrade, just as I had mercy on you? “And, being angry, the sovereign ordered him to be tortured until he repaid his debt” (Matthew 18:31–34). So, added Jesus, and My Heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother’s sins from his heart (Matthew 18:35). Christian, goodbye always? Wanting to know how many times one should forgive a brother, the holy Apostle Peter asked Jesus Christ: should one forgive up to seven times? (Matthew 18:21). And having said this, I thought that I had prescribed the greatest measure. How short is human patience! The Lord, applying His long-suffering to our weaknesses, determined: not seven times, but seventy times seven (cf. Matthew 18:22). This is the same as saying: always forgive and don’t think about not forgiving. All-forgiveness will be a distinctive feature of the Christian spirit, just as all-forgiveness is the source and constant support of life in us in the Lord, on behalf of God. Constant forgiveness of everything to everyone is the outer garment of Christian love, which, according to the Apostle, is long-suffering, merciful, not irritated, and covers everything (1 Cor. 13:4-7). It is also the surest guarantee for forgiveness at the Last Judgment; for if we let go, our Heavenly Father will also let us go (cf. Matthew 6:14). Thus, if you want to go to heaven, forgive everyone, sincerely, from the heart, so that not even a shadow of hostility remains. This is what we read about in the life of St. John the Merciful: “There was one nobleman in Alexandria who, despite all the admonitions of the saint of God, did not want to hear about reconciliation with his enemy. Once the saint invited him to his home church for the Divine Liturgy. The nobleman has arrived. There were no pilgrims in the church, the patriarch himself served, and in the choir there was only one singer, whom the nobleman began to help in singing. When they began to sing the Lord’s Prayer, Our Father, the saint also sang it; but in words: give us our daily bread this day - Saint John suddenly fell silent himself and stopped the singer, so that the nobleman alone sang the words of the prayer: and forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors... Here the saint turns to the irreconcilable nobleman and with a meek reproach says: “Look, my son, at what a terrible hour and what you say to God: forgive me, just as I did.” I leave...Are you telling the truth? Are you leaving it? These words struck the nobleman so much that he threw himself in tears at the feet of the archpastor and exclaimed: “Whatever you command, lord, your servant will do!” And he did: on the same day he made peace with his enemy and with all his heart forgave him all his insults.” The hater destroys both his soul and body Do not love your brother, for he remains in death (1 John 3:14) - this is what the holy evangelist John the Theologian says. What kind of death is he talking about - spiritual or physical? About both. The hater destroys his soul and his body: he destroys his soul by being deprived of the grace of God and becoming incapable of any virtue; He also destroys his body - because malice and anger can be the cause of visible - physical death. Here, for example, is a case that shows how a person can destroy his soul with hatred. The two brothers had a grudge against each other. This was during the persecution of Christians. As confessors of Christ, they were thrown into prison. There, one of them felt his sin and, not wanting death to befall them unrepentantly, began to ask his brother for reconciliation, but he was so fierce with hatred that he would never agree to make peace with him. What happened? In the morning, both of them went to torture. He who sought reconciliation with firmness endured torment and suffered a martyr’s death, while the hater renounced Christ at the very beginning of the torture. This circumstance surprised the tormentor himself so much that he asked the apostate: “Why did you hold on to your faith yesterday?” The one who renounced faith in Christ answered: “I had enmity with my brother and did not reconcile with him, despite any requests from him, that’s why the power of God abandoned me, and I could not endure the torment.” Thus, the hater himself understood and recognized his destruction: he was convinced that by malice he had driven away from himself the grace of God, without which he was unable to acquire the crown of martyrdom, and became an apostate from the true faith. And an example of how anger and hatred can cause bodily death can be found in the life of St. Titus of Pechersk. The Monk Titus lived and labored in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery and was awarded the priesthood. Deacon Evagrius lived with him; Both of them, in brotherly love, practiced monastic deeds and were so friendly that the other brethren were surprised at their friendship. But the enemy of the human race was jealous of the good agreement of the two brothers and turned their brotherly love into such irreconcilable hatred that they could not look at each other without anger. Even during the Divine service in the church, when one walked with a censer, the other stepped aside so as not to hear the incense. Such anger continued for a long time, and no matter how hard the brothers tried to reconcile them, it was all in vain. One day the Monk Titus became seriously ill and, in mortal danger, realized his sin, began to cry bitterly and sent to his enemy to ask for forgiveness, but Evagrius did not want to hear about reconciliation and continued to revile and cruelly curse his enemy. The brethren, seeing such a disastrous error, forcibly drew Evagrius to the dying man’s bed. Titus, gathering his last strength, stood up and bowed at the feet of his enemy, saying: “Forgive me, father!” Evagrius was so evil and inhuman that he turned away from him and said: “I don’t want to be reconciled with him either in this century or in the future.” Having said this, he broke free from the hands of the brothers and fell to the ground. The brothers wanted to raise him, but they found him dead and suddenly cold, so that they could neither move his hands nor close his eyes and lips. At the same time, Titus, who was near death, suddenly received relief and rose from his bed, as if he were not sick. Horrified by such an extraordinary incident, everyone surrounded Titus and asked what this meant? The Monk Titus told the brethren: “Being in a serious illness, while I was angry with my brother, I saw Angels retreating from me and crying about the destruction of my soul, and the unclean spirits rejoicing - this is what forced me to ask for reconciliation with my brother. When they brought him to me and he began to curse me, I saw that one formidable Angel had struck him with a flaming spear, and the unfortunate man was thrown dead to the ground, and an Angel immediately gave me his hand and lifted me from the bed of illness...” Frightened by such an astonishing manifestation of the Judgment of God, the brethren from then on especially tried to maintain love among themselves, to avoid hatred and enmity, so ungodly and destructive for the soul. The vicissitudes of human destiny are amazing. Now surrounded by all the blessings of earthly happiness, tomorrow a person is deprived of everything, loses his honorable position, power, wealth and becomes insignificant, a beggar. He who did not know the limits of his pride and was unshakably convinced of the consciousness of his greatness, is forced to humble himself and bow before those who until recently depended on him in everything, flattered him and groveled before him. Just as a green grass, being cut down, soon withers, and just as a felled tree quickly loses its greatness and beauty, so quickly the illusory shine of earthly happiness in a person disappears under the blows of misfortunes that bring down those fragile supports on which a person thinks to establish his earthly happiness and glory. I saw, says the psalmist, the wicked exalting themselves and towering like the cedars of Lebanon; and he passed by, and behold, he was not, and he sought him, and his place was not found (Ps. 36:35-36). So quickly does earthly greatness fall. How do people usually relate to such victims of the vicissitudes of fate, these unfortunates who have fallen from the heights of their greatness and are humiliated? Usually they are persecuted with ridicule, reproaches, and treated with gloating, especially if these unfortunates, in the days of their greatness, made ill-wishers for themselves with their untruth, pride and hardness of heart. The human heart, under the influence of pride and self-interest, in the face of a fallen and powerless enemy, is most likely inclined to show a feeling of gloating and vindictiveness rather than generosity and Christian love. In triumph over a humiliated enemy, he finds satisfaction and retribution for previous insults and oppression. But is this acceptable? Everyone must admit that, even according to our ordinary concepts, gloating and vindictiveness towards a fallen and powerless enemy are ignoble and dishonorable qualities. Moreover, this is contrary to the law of the Gospel, which commands us to always love our enemies and do good to them, not to repay evil for evil, but to accept insults with meekness and patience, and not even to resist evil, not to take revenge, but to repel the enemy’s anger with love and good deeds, to overcome evil with good (see: Matt. 5:44; Rom. 12:21). An instructive example of Christian generosity is presented to us by Saint John Chrysostom. During his time, at the court of Emperor Arcadius there was a strong and glorious nobleman, Eutropius. He tried to convince the king to issue a decree abolishing refuge in churches for those who had committed any crime. The right of refuge, given by the pious Tsar Constantine, elevated the significance of the Church of Christ in the face of the pagans and at the same time was beneficial for criminals who, running under the shelter of the Church and remaining inviolable, recognized the grace of the Redeemer, who did not want the death of a sinner, and with tears of repentance washed away their crime, recovered and emerged kind and honest for the rest of their lives. Saint John Chrysostom, as a faithful guardian of the house of God, rebelled with all his might against the unlawful interference of Eutropius in the affairs of the Church and through this incurred the wrath of this nobleman and suffered many insults from him. So what? Eutropius was soon subjected to such a grave accusation that he was deprived of power and condemned to death. There was no protection or salvation for him anywhere except the Church, whose rights he tried to illegally restrict. In fear of death, grief-stricken and humiliated, Eutropius hastens to take advantage of the right of refuge in the Church, and while Saint John Chrysostom was performing services and preaching, the fallen nobleman comes running and hides in the altar. The saint of Christ does not reject his former enemy and annoyancer, does not excommunicate and does not drive away from the altar the destroyer of church rights, but in his sermon he immediately sets out an amazing case of the vicissitudes of human life and instills pity among the people for the fallen nobleman. Not a single reproachful word and not a single hint of previous grievances came out of the mouth of the great saint. With complete love, he accepted the former enemy of the Church under the protection of the altar of the Lord, in the hope of his repentance. So, Christian brothers! Drive out from your heart the low and unworthy feeling of gloating and vindictiveness towards your enemies who have suffered disasters and are in need of compassion and help. One beggar-lover told his friend about himself: “I was still a ten-year-old boy when I once heard a sermon in church that whoever gives to a beggar receives Christ Himself from him. I thought then: how does Christ accept this when He sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father? I’m walking out of church and I see a beggar standing in rags, and above his head is the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here a passerby gives alms to a beggar, and I see that Christ stretches out his hands, accepts the bread and blesses the giver. Then I believed the preacher’s word and to this day I see the image of Christ over the head of every beggar.” This is what the beggar-lover told about himself. But here is proof that Christ the Savior will not remain in debt to anyone. He pays this debt, sometimes he pays it here, in this temporary life, and in the future life he will certainly pay with eternal bliss in the villages of paradise. In the city of Nizibia there lived a Christian woman whose husband was a pagan. They had fifty coins. One day the husband said to his wife: “Let’s give these coins on interest in order to get at least a small profit from them.” His wife answered him: “If you want to give them on interest, then go and give them to the Christian God.” The husband said to her: “Where is the Christian God?” She answered him: “Okay, I’ll show him to you, he will double your capital.” The husband told her: “Let’s go.” His wife brought him to the church porch and, pointing to the poor, said: “If you give it to them, then the Christian God will accept it; for they are all His servants.” The husband joyfully immediately distributed fifty coins to the poor and returned to his house. After three months they had nothing left to spend. Then the husband said to his wife: “Wife! The Christian God does not repay us; We are in dire need." His wife answered him: “Go to where you gave, and He will give it to you with all his will.” The husband ran to the holy church and, returning from there to the house, said to his wife: “I went to your church, and believe me, wife, I did not see, as you said, the Christian God, and no one gave me anything, except that I found this coin lying where I gave out fifty coins.” Then this wonderful woman said to him: “It was He who invisibly gave her to you. For he is invisible and rules the world with invisible power and right hand; go, my lord, buy us something to eat today, and He will give it to you again.” The husband went and bought bread, wine and fish and gave them to his wife. The wife, taking the fish, began to clean it and, having cut it, found a wonderful stone inside; she was amazed, and although she did not know what kind of stone it was, she hid it. When her husband came and they began to eat, the wife showed him the stone she had found and said: “This is the stone I found in the fish.” When the husband saw it, he was surprised at its beauty, however, he did not know what kind of stone it was. When they had eaten, he said to his wife: “Give it to me, I’ll go sell it; Maybe I’ll take something for him.” Taking the stone, he went to the money changer, who was also a silversmith, and said to him: “Do you want to buy this stone?” The silversmith, looking at the stone, asked: “What do you want to take for it?” The seller told him: “Give me what you want.” The merchant said: “Take five coins.” The seller, thinking that he was laughing at him, said to him: “And you are giving this for him?” The silversmith, thinking that he answered him with his heart, said to him: “Take ten coins.” The seller, again thinking that he was laughing, fell silent. The silversmith told him: “Take twenty coins.” He was silent and did not answer anything. The silversmith began to give thirty, and then fifty coins and, little by little raising the price, reached three hundred large coins and gave them to him. Taking the coins and giving the stone, the pagan came to his wife in joy. The wife asked: “How much did you sell the stone for?” He took out three hundred coins and, giving them to his wife, said: “That’s how much!” The wife was amazed at the goodness of the humane God and said: “Here, husband, what is the Christian God like! How good He is, how merciful, how rich! You see that he not only returned to you with interest the fifty coins that you lent to Him, but in a few days he increased the amount sixfold. Know that there is no other God, neither on earth nor in heaven, except His one.” The husband, convinced by the miracle, immediately accepted the Christian faith. This is how the Merciful Lord sometimes pays the debt to His creditors – the merciful – even in this life.” And here is a story about what payment awaits people in the future life. “Bishop Synesius of Cyrene converted his school friend, the philosopher Evagrius, to the faith of Christ. Soon after baptism, Evagrius gives him three gold denarii for the benefit of the poor: “Take,” he says, “these three denarii, distribute to the poor and give me a receipt that Christ will reward me for this in the future life.” He accepted the gold and immediately gave him a receipt, as he wanted. After some time, Evagrius felt weakness, bringing him closer to death, and, being already close to death, he said to his children: “When you take care of my burial, put this piece of paper in my hands and bury me with it.” The children did just that: when he died, they buried him with the handwriting. On the third day after the burial, he appears to Bishop Synesius in a dream and says: “Go and take your receipt in the coffin in which I am buried; I received what I should have received, I am completely satisfied, and to assure you of this, I signed your receipt.” The bishop did not even know that his receipt was placed with the philosopher in the coffin; the next day, early, he called his children and said: “What did you put in the coffin with the philosopher?” They thought that he was talking to them about money, and they told him: “Nothing, sir, except his funeral clothes.” "How? - he exclaimed, “didn’t you put some paper with it?” They told him: “Yes, sir, he told us to put some paper with him.” Then the bishop told them his dream and, taking with him the clergyman, the priest and some of the citizens, he came to the tomb of the philosopher. Having opened it, they found that the philosopher was holding a receipt in his hands; Taking the receipt from his hands, they unfolded it and saw in it again written: “I, Evagrius the philosopher, wish to rejoice in you, the most holy lord Synesius the bishop; I received everything according to your receipt - I am satisfied, and I no longer have the right to demand anything from you for having given gold to you and, through you, to Christ our God and Savior.” Those who saw this were horrified and cried out for a long time: “Lord, have mercy!” and they praised the Lord, who had performed such a miracle and rewarded His servants with eternal reward. This receipt with the philosopher’s handwritten signature is still carefully preserved in the treasury of the Church of the Lord.” Blessed John himself saw this receipt. Many similar legends can be read in the lives of the saints of God and the patristic writings. The word of the Lord is true: the poor give mercy to God. The least of these brethren, you have created as one for me (Proverbs 19:17, Matthew 25:40). “Who do you want to have God for yourself: a Debtor or a Judge? - asks Saint John Chrysostom. “What’s best for you—decide for yourself!” One abbot, the father of a cenobitic monastery, a saint in life, adorned with all the virtues, merciful to the poor, often prayed to God for his brethren, so that the Lord would not separate him from them in the future life. The Lord answered this prayer in the following way. In another monastery, nearby, there was a holiday to which the abbot and the brethren were invited. The abbot did not want to go, but when he heard a voice in a dream: “Go to the holiday; just go before your disciples,” and so he did. When the time came, the students were the first to leave. On the way they met a relaxed beggar lying down. Having explained to him that they did not have donkeys that could take him to the village, they left the sick man and moved on. After some time, the abbot went and, seeing the sufferer, asked him if the monks had passed here. The patient replied that they passed by, but did not provide help, because they did not have donkeys with them to take him. The abbot said: “In that case, I will take you on my shoulders and take you to the nearest village.” The beggar began to dissuade him: “Father! How can you carry me alone? The path is long, but come there and follow me.” The abbot answered: “As the Lord my God lives! I won’t leave you!” At the beginning of the journey, he felt the weight of the burden, but then the weight decreased and became almost insensitive. The abbot wondered what was happening, when suddenly the one he was carrying became invisible. And then the abbot heard a voice: “You constantly pray for your disciples, so that they may be worthy of Eternal Life, but you have one thing to do, and they have another. If you want your request to be fulfilled, convince them to do as you do. I am the Righteous Judge and will reward everyone according to his deeds.” I owe you a lot, Lord! From the works of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk I will bless the Lord at all times; I will make His praise in my mouth (Ps. 33:2). I did not exist, and now I am and live, like other people. You, Lord, have deigned me to be among the works of Your hands and to see the work of Your hands - heaven and earth with their fulfillment, and from the great and glorious works of Yours to know You, the great and glorious Creator, and to be satisfied and comforted with Your blessings. Thy hands create me, and create me (Ps. 119:73). I owe you a lot for this and cannot repay you with anything! You did not create me as a soulless creature, not as a beast, not as a bird, not as a fish, not as any other dumb animal, which all exist and live, but do not understand their own bliss; but He created a rational man who can know and understand that I have the beginning of my being and life from You; I am Your creation, You are my Creator. I owe you a lot for this and I can’t repay you! Thus created from You, I cannot be and live without You. Thy hand, O Lord, sustains me and Thy goodness gives to me. I cannot live and circulate without light: Your luminaries, the sun, the moon and the stars, shine on me. I cannot live without fire: Your fire warms me and cooks my food. I cannot be whole and alive without air: Your air revives me and preserves my life. I cannot be without food: Your generous hand, Lord, gives me food. I cannot be without drink: Your goodness, Lord, has produced springs, rivers and lakes for me, and with these I cool and wash myself. I cannot, naked of richly woven clothes, be without clothing: I receive even that from Your generous right hand. I cannot be without a home: you give me a house for the repose of my weak and poor body. I cannot be without cattle: Your cattle serve and work for me. I owe you a lot for this! But what will I repay to the Lord for all that I have repaid? (Ps. 115:3). What would I be if You took even one of these benefits from me? What would my eyes do to me, if Thy light did not shine on me? I would inevitably wander like a blind man... How could I live if You did not give me Your food? I can’t live without air even for the slightest minute. Thus, every creature of Yours is very good and serves me, the poor one. But receiving this good from You, I hope for future and better blessings, according to Your not false promise, and from the visible to the invisible, and from the present to the future, and from the temporal to the eternal, and from the earthly to the heavenly, my spirit strives. Even though in exile and exile you have given us so much goodness, so much gift in your fatherland and your house! Truly, eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not sighed, what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). May Thy mercy be upon us, O Lord, as we trust in Thee (Ps. 32:22). I am blind, like others, without Thy grace and enlightenment; my sin has blinded me. For this reason You have sent down Your holy word to us through Your chosen servants and servants. This, like a candle for those sitting in the darkness, shines and shows harm and benefit, evil and good, sin and virtue, lie and truth, what is displeasing to You and pleasing, unbelief and faith, and thus drives away my blindness and enlightens my mind. Your law is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my paths (Ps. 119:105). I owe You a lot for this, Lord, and I cannot repay You with anything! By Thy word I know Thee, my God and Creator; in it I see that You have done glorious and wonderful things, which the human hand and no creature can do; and from all this I recognize Your almighty power, I tremble and humble myself under Your mighty hand. In Your word I see that Your almighty right hand protects, preserves and saves those who fear, love and honor You, but humbles, punishes and executes the self-willed. And therefore I know Your righteousness and fear Your judgment: God, be merciful to me, a sinner! (Luke 18:13). Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for no one living will be justified before You (Ps. 143:2). If you see iniquity, Lord, Lord, who will stand? (Ps. 129:3). In Your word I see that You call all those who have turned away from You to You and those who have turned and come with repentance, as a Father who loves children and accepts love for mankind. From this I recognize Your goodness and unconditional mercy towards poor sinners, and therefore I do not despair for my sins, but with hope I resort to You, the Good and Merciful God, and ask for mercy. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy, and according to the multitude of Your mercies, cleanse my iniquity! (Ps. 50:3). I see in Your word that everything you reveal to us is the truth; and what you predict comes true; and what you promised and promise, you fulfill everything, for the Lord is faithful in all His words; I see that both heaven and earth pass by, but Your words cannot pass away. And from there I come to know Your truth and am confirmed in my faith. I know that the church of my body will be destroyed and my body, like earth, will be given over to the earth; but Thy mercy assures me that the same body in which my soul now lives will rise by the power and omnipotent voice of Thy and be transformed by Thy grace into its best and most beautiful form. It is fitting for this corruptible to put on incorruption, and for this dead thing to put on immortality (1 Cor. 15:53). So with Thy Holy Church we hope for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century. In Your word I see that You, as the Creator, provide for Your entire creation in such a way that even a small bird does not fall without Your will (see: Matt. 10:29), but especially about man, whom You created in Your image and likeness. In this I see that man in his creation is honored by You, his Creator, honored more than all Your creation by Your special advice: let us create man. Created in Your image and in Your likeness, created holy, pure, blameless, wise and created for eternal bliss. But he was seduced by the flattering advice of the evil serpent, lost all his honor and bliss and, having thus turned away from You, his Creator, perished... A man who is in honor without understanding, has become like the foolish cattle and has become like them (Ps. 49:21). Thus the primordial man perished; we, his sons, perished. But You, Good, Merciful and Humane-loving God, did not tolerate seeing a poor man in destruction, but had mercy on him. Thy law was given to him, so that he, who had fallen away from You, would be converted and brought to You, but the law showed him only his weakness, and did not heal him. You sent Your chosen servants, the prophets, to fallen man, but they only denounced man, and did not help man, but pointed to the One who was coming to save man, and they proclaimed Him, and thereby brought new joy to the poor man: he is coming, he is coming to save us; He who is coming will come and will not become obdurate!.. Finally the time has come, and by Your most holy favor You have sent to us Your Only Begotten Son, Co-essential and Co-originating. He clothed himself in the flesh obsequious to us, and was born of the most immaculate Virgin Mary, and this God, the One without Origin, became an infant, and, the King of Heaven, lived on earth. He was sent from You, our God and Creator, to us, the poor, to seek and save us, Your lost creation: for God loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but may have eternal life (John 3:16). Having come to us, He declared Your highest mercy, declared to us, preached to us that You forgive us our sins, and call us to You through Him, and open the doors of Your Eternal Kingdom to those who believe in Him and listen to Him, as He Himself testified to our consolation: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for the sake of the anointing of Me to preach good news to the poor, He sent Me to heal brokenhearted, preach remission to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, let the brokenhearted go into joy, preach the year of the Lord is pleasant (Luke 4:18-19). Having brought this all-joyful news from You to us, poor sinners, with people, like a man, he lived on earth, and he taught us to believe in You, and to please You, and to do Your will through Himself, and showed us the way to Your Eternal Kingdom, and called us, and suffered, and died, and by suffering, and by His death, and by Blood, for our sake poured out, having cleansed us, who believe in Him, from our sins, draws us to You, His Heavenly Father, as the Good Shepherd, Your lost sheep... For this humane, saving, wonderful and incomprehensible to our minds, Your providence, like all people, so I, a poor sinner, owe You a lot, Lord! But what will I repay to the Lord for all that I have repaid? (Ps. 115:3). I confess to You, Father, with Your Only Begotten Son and Your Most Holy Spirit! I sing Your love for mankind! I glorify Your goodness and mercy, unworthy and poor sinner! Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and brought deliverance to His people. And He raised up the horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David (Luke 1:68–69). Where would I be, a sinner and a lawbreaker, if not in perdition and in eternal death, lying like a defeated dead man? Your goodness, mercy and love for mankind did not allow me to do this, but You saved Me so wonderfully. I owe you a lot, Lord, for this! Bless, my soul, the Lord, and all that is within me, His holy name. Bless the Lord, my soul, and do not forget all His rewards (Ps. 102:1-2). I see in Your holy word that the devil, jealous of our blessedness, to which You lead us by the grace of Your Only Begotten Son, like a roaring lion, walks around, looking for someone to devour (1 Pet. 5:8). From this enemy of ours, both all who know You and me, unworthy, are warned by Your goodness and saved by Your all-powerful right hand. Oh, how safe I could have been if not Your almighty right hand had protected me! I owe you a lot, Lord, for this! Blessed is the Lord, Who did not let us be caught by their teeth (Ps. 123:6). But do not leave me, Lord, to the end, but deliver me from the evil one. Do not betray to beasts the soul that confesses to You; do not completely forget the souls of Your poor (Ps. 73:19). I see in Your holy word that Your holy angels take up arms around those who know and fear You, and preserve them by Your command from evil demons, and are sent into service for those who want to inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14). I, Thy unworthy and indecent servant, have been granted this grace by Thy grace. I owe you a lot, Lord, for this! I know and confess with humility that I have sinned a lot to You, my Creator and God, and I regret it, and I see other sins in my conscience, but I don’t see others, and I don’t see more than I see: for who understands the Fall? (Ps. 18:13). I regret and lament that with them You, my good and man-loving God, my Creator, my Redeemer, my Highest Benefactor, the One Whom the holy angels honor with fear and trembling, sing and worship, - You, the Lord, I madly, the last worm, have offended a lot!.. And how many times have I sinned against You, so many times have You seen me sin; and how many times have I seen, so many times You have endured me in Your goodness; and how many times did he endure me, so many times did he have mercy on me. And if You had acted with me according to Your most holy righteousness, my soul would have long ago descended into hell, but Your goodness, and Your love for mankind, and Your long-suffering restrained You, and did not allow me, a poor sinner, to my destruction. I owe You much, O Lord, and for this great mercy I owe to me! Let me confess to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forever: for Your great mercy is upon me, and You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell (Ps. 86:12–13). From these and others, whom I do not know, I see Your good deeds towards me, that in Your love for me and kindness, love for mankind, and long-suffering, and generosity, I am completely contained. Your goodness, Lord, is that I have not yet perished, I still live. I see that You are leading me to eternal salvation. Have mercy on me, a poor sinner, to the end, and with the grace of Your Only Begotten Son, atone for all my sins, and save me into Eternal Life, so that together with all Your chosen ones for all Your good deeds I will thank, praise and glorify You with Your Only Begotten Son and the Most Holy Spirit, not by faith, but face to face in endless eyelids. From these considerations you see, Christian, that, firstly, both you and I are unpaid debtors before God; that you live, move - all this is by God’s goodness, and no matter what you do, no matter how you please God, even if you suffer all your life for the sake of His name, and it would be nothing: you would always remain an unpaid debtor before God. We owe the Lord so much! For the mere fact that He created us, we cannot repay in any way or anything, but how will we repay Him for all His other countless and greatest benefits? What shall we repay to the Lord for all, even as He repaid us!.. This alone is nothing... Secondly, from this we learn to humbly thank Him from a sincere heart and recognize our poverty in the fact that from Him, as the Benefactor, we receive blessings every day and every hour, but we cannot repay this Benefactor with anything. Thirdly, we must thank Him for all blessings, especially for His word and for the saving coming of His Only Begotten Son to us and for the Eternal Life and bliss promised for His sake. Fourthly, from this you see, Christian, how wretched and poor you are - without God’s blessings you cannot live even for a minute. The one who does not have food, the one who does not have clothes, the one who has no home and other things is wretched and poor, and you have all this, nothing of your own, but you receive everything from God, who is rich in mercy. And if the Lord had not given you, you would have been more unhappy and poorer than any creature. Know your poverty so that the Lord enriches you with His mercy. Fifthly, we cannot earn anything from God; we receive everything freely from His generous right hand. He, the Good and rich in mercy, seeing our poverty and misery, opens His treasures of goodness and from these treasures gives us everything freely. Such is His nature that He cannot help but do good. Sixthly, whoever knows God, the more he knows, the more he is corrected, renewed and made better. Knowing God truly and living ungodly are the opposite of one another. Seventhly, those who live lawlessly do not know God, although they confess His holy name, and pray to Him, and go to church, and partake of the Mysteries of Christ. This is why the Apostle wrote: and of this we understand that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He says that he knows Him, but does not keep His commandments; it is a lie and there is no truth in it (1 John 2:3-4). Eighth, therefore, you, sinner, if you want to live not only with your body, but also with your soul, turn with all your heart to God, Who is Life Himself and gives life to everyone, and cling to Him with faith and truth, and you will be truly alive, both now and in the future life, and although you will die, you will still come to life and go into the Resurrection of the Eternal Life... Will the second coming of Christ happen soon? We all believe that at the end of the world Jesus Christ will appear again on earth, but none of us knows when this Second Coming of Christ will happen. While assuring us of the reality of the Second Coming of the Savior to earth to carry out the Judgment, the word of God does not, however, reveal to us whether our Lord will soon come to earth. About that day and hour, the Savior said, no one knows, not even an angel in heaven, except My Father alone (Matthew 24:36). Moreover, Christ positively refused to answer His disciples when they asked Him about this; He even forbade them, and through them, us, from such curiosity, once saying directly: you cannot understand the times and seasons that the Father has ordained in His power (Acts 1:7). So, it is not our business to predict the day and hour of the Lord’s coming, but our business is always to prepare to meet Him worthily; Therefore, watch, for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come (Matthew 24:42), the Savior instructs us; be always ready to appear at the Lord's Judgment, because at the hour we do not think, at that time the Son of Man will come (cf. Matthew 24:44). But, without indicating to us a specific day and hour of His coming to earth for the General Judgment, the Lord was pleased to nevertheless reveal to believers some signs by which one can learn about the proximity of the end of the world and the Last Judgment. These signs are indicated in the Word of God as follows: the preaching of the Gospel to all nations on earth, the extreme impoverishment of faith and love between people, the spread of wickedness and the multiplication of vices and, as a result, the multiplication of disasters on earth and, finally, the appearance of the enemy of God - the Antichrist. Before the coming of Christ to earth, the preaching of Christ will spread throughout the whole world, so that there will be no place where the word of the Gospel has not penetrated, there will be no people who have not heard the words of salvation. And the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the entire universe as a testimony to all languages, and then death will come, said the Savior Himself (cf. Matthew 24:14). This will happen so that the wicked will not have the excuse at the Judgment of God that they did not know the teachings of Christ. But, despite the worldwide spread of the preaching of the Gospel, before the end of the world, an unprecedented corruption of morals will occur among people, unbelief, mutual hatred, envy and malice will increase; so that the Only Begotten Son of God, having come to earth, will barely find faith on earth (cf. Luke 18:8). The Apostle Paul says that in the last times there will be men who are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, dignified, proud, blasphemers, opposed to parents, ungrateful, unjust, unloving, unforgiving, incontinent, necrotic, having the form of godliness, but denying its power (2 Tim. 3:1-5). The anger and mutual hatred that has developed between people will produce incessant wars, civil strife and bloodshed on earth. For language will rise against tongue, and kingdom against kingdom (Matthew 24:7). For such iniquities, the Just Lord will strike people with various, but equally severe disasters: now famine, now plague, now earthquakes. Then there will be plagues and destruction and cowardice in places (Matthew 24:7). But since a sinner, when he falls into the depths of evil, no longer cares at all about salvation, then these punishments of God’s wrath will not bring the corrupted human race to its senses and will not stop it on the path to destruction. Therefore, disasters will not only not cease before the last times, but will gradually increase, as Jesus Christ says: but all this began through illness (Matthew 24:8). At the same time, the devil, sensing the approach of the end of the world and his final destruction, will use all his efforts to darken and trap people in his insidious nets. According to his inspiration, false Christs and false prophets will arise among people in large numbers, who will distract people from faith in God with false signs and false miracles. The cunning and cunning of such servants of Satan will be so strong that they will almost deceive even the most chosen of the Lord’s worshipers. They will show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24). The temptation will then be so strong that only the cessation of these evil days by the will of the Almighty will save people from universal destruction: and if these days had not ceased, all flesh would not have been saved; But for the sake of the elect these days will come to an end (Matthew 24:22). But the most obvious sign of the imminent coming of Christ, and at the same time the most powerful disaster for believers in Christ before the end of the world, will be the appearance of the Antichrist. What is the Antichrist? The word “antichrist” means an opponent of Christ, who does not submit to His teaching. According to the prophecy of the Apostle Paul, the Antichrist, who is about to appear before the coming of Christ, will be a man of lawlessness, the son of perdition, an adversary and exalt himself above all words of God or worship, as if he should sit in the church of God like God, showing himself that God exists (2 Thess. 2:3-4). He will be so proud that he will reject the Lord and Christ, will pretend to be God, demand divine worship for himself, and will blaspheme the name of God. He will come out with terrible hostility against Christians and will cruelly torture believers in the name of Christ. St. Ephraim the Syrian describes the enemy’s life and deeds of the Antichrist as follows: “The all-filthy one will come like a thief to deceive everyone, he will come feigning reverence, humble, meek, hating, as he says about himself, untruths, turning away from idols... kind, poor-loving, highly handsome, very constant, affectionate towards everyone, respecting especially the Jewish people; because the Jews will wait for his coming. At the same time, with great power, he will perform signs, wonders and insurance, and take cunning measures to please everyone, so that the common people will soon fall in love with him. He will not take gifts, speak angrily, or show a gloomy appearance, but will always be affectionate. And in all this, with a decorous appearance, he will begin to deceive the world until he reigns. For when many peoples and classes see such virtues, perfections and strengths, they will all suddenly have one thought, and with the greatest joy they will reign him, saying to each other: “Will there still be a person so kind and truthful?”... His kingdom will soon be established. Then he will ascend beyond measure with his heart... he will crush the universe; he will oppress everyone, he will defile many souls, no longer acting like a reverent, caring, affectionate person, but in any case harsh, cruel, angry... destructive, shameless, trying with his fury to plunge the entire race of mortals into the abyss of wickedness, will produce great signs, numerous insurances, showing this falsely, and not really.” But the reign of the Antichrist will not last long; The time of autocracy, hostility and violence against Christians will soon pass. The Lord Jesus Christ will appear, destroy the Antichrist with the spirit of His mouth and destroy his power with the glory of His coming. These are the signs of the imminent coming of Christ and the end of the age. They show that the end times have not yet arrived and that the Antichrist has not yet come. But this should not lead us to laziness and carelessness about our salvation. The Lord can always call each of us through death to Himself for Judgment. Which of us can say about himself that he is far from death, after which, just as after the future at the end of the world of the coming of Christ, the believer also goes to the private judgment of Christ? And just as none of the people knows “the day and hour of the Coming of the Lord,” so none of the living knows the day and hour of their death. Therefore, the words of the Savior should be memorable and edifying for all of us: watch, because you do not know at what hour your Lord will come (Matthew 24:42). You might be interested in: