ДАРЫ БОЖИИ

The Lord sometimes suddenly sends generous material gifts, for example, a few rubles of money for the easiest thing, and rewards spending made for neighbors, and in general gives us generous gifts of His goodness, so that we do not regret His gifts to those whom He sends to us or allows someone to take our property, given by God, so that they do not quarrel with each other, but live in love and harmony; Yes, even if our neighbors robbed us, then we should not worry, but should with meekly endure the unceremoniousness of our neighbors, entrusting the Lord with retribution for the offense. You know that the Lord allowed Himself to take off even His clothes with meekness and tear His flesh to pieces on the cross - for you, so that He could teach you meekness and gentleness in all misadventures and insults (6). Use My gifts not especially as self-lovers, but as My children, who should have everything in common, not sparing to offer others the fruits of My hands, the works of My hands, remembering that I give them to you freely, according to My fatherly goodness and generosity of philanthropy. This happens in families. When a father or mother or brother brings gifts, the father gives them to all his children, or the brother to his brothers, and if the children, brothers and sisters all live in mutual love, then they do not consider themselves contented and happy if the father or brother surrounded any of them with gifts and did not give even to one of them what he gave to the others. Why? Because, out of mutual love, they feel like one body, because they are all, as it were, one, one person. So do each of you. And I know how to reward you for the love that is so pleasing to Me. If I also show mercy to those who do not keep My commandments (“one rich man had a good harvest in the field,” Luke 12:16), then will I not show mercy to My true children, for whom I, in fact, intended all My bounties? Hey, I'll spoil it. “I will spare even as I am generous” 24 (Rom. 9:15) (Ex. 33:19) (7). You wish for yourself or for someone else or for everyone some kind of spiritual good, and the Lord has long, long before you, wished it for you and others and is ready to grant it, if only there was a readiness to accept the divine gift, if only those who were in any way worthy to accept it, because God is infinite goodness, infinite goodness and is always ready to bestow any good and often gives it before asking and in any case “can do incomparably more than anything we ask or think about.” (Eph. 3:20). Therefore, with hope and boldness, I always ask the Lord for spiritual and even material blessings, when these latter are needed, and the Lord gives according to His true promise: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:7, 8) (7). God is inexhaustible for people in His gifts. For 7370 years now (written in 1863) He has abundantly nourished all creatures. Contentment and joy are visible everywhere, only the greedy rich people grab too much into their hands and hold back the gifts of God in their treasuries, which could abundantly feed hundreds and thousands of poor people. Man, firmly believe in God’s inexhaustibility of His gifts and share your bread willingly with the hungry (Isa. 58:7); The more you give, the more God will send you. This is God’s law: “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2) (7). The Lord wants to bring us closer to Himself with other countless gifts of His goodness. For example, He provides an endless variety and abundance of the fruits of the earth with countless varied tastes. And in these gifts He shows His extreme condescension, loves, caresses us, like the kindest father, wanting to attract everyone to Him. Non-believers do not want to see the wise actions of Divine Providence in all this. In their blindness, they reach the point of madness, deny the very existence of God and claim that everything happens through blind evolution (the doctrine that everything that is born happens by itself, without the participation of the Creative Force). But anyone who has reason will not believe such crazy nonsense. A believer looks at everything through faith, which is based on Divine Revelation. Here he will find a clear answer to all his questions; here he can receive the most faithful instructions on how to live to please God and save the soul. From this wonderful source, the Word of God, we will draw for ourselves instructions for good Christian life and activity, we will recognize the will of God, good and perfect, and draw closer to God through repentance and acts of virtue, we will strive to unite with Him forever in the Kingdom of Heaven. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2) (9). Господь Иисус Христос есть Творец всего, Жизнодавец и Питатель наш и Врач душевный и телесный; He created and creates in abundance all kinds of fruits of the earth for our food and enjoyment; He sends from heaven the early and late rains; It thunders in the circle of heaven and terribly shines with lightning; He brings forth the winds from His treasures; “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). А потому, братья и сестры возлюбленные, пользуясь всякий день различными дарами Божиими, будем благодарны за них Господу и за столь великую Его к нам любовь и столь богатый Его о нас промысл будем платить Ему любовью и по мере Его к нам щедрот будем взаимно щедры к ближним нашим. Если так будем поступать, то земля не перестанет произращать изобильно всякие плоды, ибо по мере плодов любви нашей к Богу и добрых дел и земля наполнится плодами и не будет неурожаев и голода или тяжкой дороговизны всех потребностей. Если же будем немилостивы и жестокосерды, то и земля будет жестка под ногами нашими и не даст плода (9). The Lord demands nothing more from us, brothers and sisters, for His gifts and for His love for us, than for us to fulfill His holy will and our mutual love. What does the All-Satisfied and All-Blessed One need from us? Nothing (9). Чего же от нас хочет и требует наш божественный Учитель – Господь Иисус Христос – в этой притче (см. Лк. 12:16–21 )? Хочет и требует от нас того, чтобы мы не сами только лично пользовались дарами Божиими к своему лишь удовольствию, для удовлетворения своих только животных потребностей, привычек, страстей и похотей, а делились, непременно делились своим добром по средствам с неимущими и нуждающимися, которых так много везде, потому что всякого рода материальное довольство Господь посылает нам не для нас одних, а в лице нас и для ближних наших. You have many gifts of God, given to you as much for you as for the common good, and they lie without any benefit, and you turn the source of God’s blessing into a source of curse; ты ругаешься над благостью и щедротами Божиими, ты друг общего завистника и врага – диавола, ибо ты враг Богу и людям, потому что губишь многих своим жестокосердием. This truth, which seems strange to many, is so clear that it speaks for itself, and a person who looks directly at the matter, who does not have his own preconceived thoughts and false beliefs, has no need to explain and prove it, for all of us, rich as well as poor, noble and simple, educated and uneducated, are all neighbors to each other as having come from the same blood, members of one great family of God, members, if not of one Church, then of one states, members of one common fatherland, we have one king - a father who cares equally about the welfare of all his subjects, for whom the top desire is that everyone is generally happy and prosperous, everyone works for the benefit of society and each for his own. But our extreme pride, according to which we are accustomed to consider our material goods exclusively ours, a false view of our relations with others and a strictly judicial, one-sided view of our neighbors who require our help, go against this truth, and many, many say: “What is mine is only for me and for no one else, others do not care about it,” although it is obvious that such a belief is false and extremely inhumane, that is, inhumane (9). The Holy Mysteries are called Divine Gifts, because the Lord gives us completely undeservedly, freely, undeservedly on our part; Instead of punishing us for our countless iniquities, committed every day, hour, minute, and giving us over to spiritual death, the Lord in the Holy Mysteries gives us forgiveness and cleansing of sins, sanctification, peace of spiritual strength, healing and health of soul and body and every good, solely according to our faith. If the Lord daily gives us Himself and His Divine Mysteries freely for us to partake of, then shouldn’t we urgently give tuna, freely perishable goods: money, food, drink, clothing - to those who ask them from us? And how can we be indignant at those who eat our bread for free, when we ourselves eat for free the priceless and immortal meat of the Body and Blood of the Lord? “Do not demand back from the one who took what is yours” (Luke 6:30) (12). Our abilities are the mind, will and heart, our body with its health, with its wise, beautiful structure; our titles, to which one is called, our wealth, all our well-being, even the piece of land on which we live - all this is the property of the heavenly Father that has been distributed to us, who, solely by His goodness, undeservedly on our part, allocated to each of us a part of the benefits from His rich treasury and gave us the will to go in all four directions. Rarely do any of us remain with our property under the Father’s roof; many, having taken their part, seem to leave the all-good Father to a distant side - into the sinful world - and live there dissolutely in captivity of passions, until, finally, their cruelty and obvious destruction convince them to return to their Father (14). In the Synodal translation: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. You might be interested in: