Омилия XIII 34 .

In the Fifth Week of Lent; it also talks about the creation of alms There are some limits of the sea that feed great animals - whales. Therefore, those sailing within their borders hang bells from their ships, so that as a result of their ringing, the frightened animals will flee. And the sea of ​​our life feeds many more dangerous animals, I mean bad passions and their patrons - crafty demons; crosses this sea, as it were, of a certain Ship, the Divine Church, which, instead of bells, has spiritual Mentors, so that with the voice of their sacred teaching they can put spiritual beasts to flight. And so, as an image of this, Aaron’s robe also had suspended euphonious bells, and they should have been solemnly heard at the time when Aaron performed the sacred act. We, in a wonderful way turning the letter into the spirit, will accordingly “ring” for you in the spiritual sense, and especially in this Lenten time, in which visible and invisible animals especially take up arms against us. Visible ones: gluttony, drunkenness and the like, while others invisibly sit in ambush: vanity, pride, conceit and hypocrisy. This “ringing” is both the one that causes these animals to flee and the guardian for those observing the fast. So, fasting and intemperance are as mutually opposed as life is to death. And the commanded fast is the same age as life and human nature, and it was given from God to Adam in paradise from the beginning for the sake of preserving the life and divine grace put into it by God. Intemperance is advice leading to the death of body and soul, and it was given from the devil to Adam in an insidious way through Eve, with the goal that they would fall away from life and become alien to the divine grace given by God. God did not create death and does not rejoice at the death of the living. So, who is the person who desires life and wants to find the grace that is given in God and from God? – Let such a person flee from deadly intemperance and flow to deifying fasting and abstinence, so that he may joyfully ascend to heaven. Behold, Moses, while fasting for forty days on the mountain, soared to the height of vision of God and received the divine tablets; Meanwhile, the Jewish people, drunk below, slipped into wickedness and poured out an idol - a god, like the Egyptian calf Aspis. And if Moses had not appeared before God, having previously appeased Him by mercilessly exterminating the guilty from the people, God would not have forgiven them for this. Therefore, if we use the mercies of God, we will not become drunk with wine, we will not be burdened with satiety, in which there is debauchery and wickedness. And Elijah was a viewer of God, but he too was pre-cleansed by fasting. And Daniel received a vision of God and a vision of one of the Archangels, who gave him a vision of the future, but before that, for 20 whole days he remained without food. And the other Prophet, on the contrary, was killed by a lion, but for the reason that he ate food contrary to the command of God. Of course, you know about Esau, the son of Isaac, who, due to gluttony, fell from his father’s blessing and was deprived of other privileges of his birthright. Let us be afraid that we, who have given ourselves over to this gluttony, will not be deprived of the promised blessing and inheritance from the Heavenly Father. And you do not know about the Three Youths, who, being diligent in fasting, with their feet and bodies not burned, trampled on the furnace that was kindled seven times for them in Babylon; and we, too, if we observe true fasting, then we will trample and extinguish the fire of the flesh here, and we will pass through the future furnace without damage, when (according to the word of the Apostle Paul) the fire tests the deeds of everyone. What is worth saying about the Lord of the Prophets, Who, having taken on flesh and becoming a man for our sake, showing us an image of how to defeat the devil, fasting in everything, defeated him, who put forward all sorts of temptations against Him, and regarding the dumb and deaf demon said to His Disciples: “This demon will not go away except through prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:21). Now, brethren, allow us to show you what godly and true fasting consists of: because you should know that we praise bodily fasting not in itself, but as a means of promoting other, more spiritually beneficial activities; because, as the divine Paul says, carnal work (in itself) brings little benefit. Therefore, the God-bearing Fathers, speaking from experience, do not approve of many days of not eating food, but recognize it as better to eat food once a day and then eat it not to satiety, and they call such a fast proportionate and reasonable. Scripture says the same thing, warning us not to be enticed by filling the stomach and delighting the larynx, but (only) to satisfy the natural need for food, while its quality and quantity must be proportionate to the strength and condition of the body being fed, so that both it and its health are preserved. For if, according to his weakness, the weak person eats from these foods, without adding to what is necessary that which is completely superfluous and useless, and needs drink, and does not seek intoxication, and needs moderate consumption, and does not seek immoderation, intemperance and abuse, then, due to the necessary consumption of a large quantity or better quality of food, he will not lose the sanctity of fasting. So, this is the beginning of a true and godly fast; the end (goal), for the sake of which it was legalized and is held in honor by Christians, is the purification of the soul. For what is the benefit of abstaining from bodily food, and at the same time giving in to carnal thoughts and passions? What profit is it to abstain from wine, and at the same time languish with thirst and become drunk, although not from wine, but, as the Scripture says: “alas! drunk not from wine”, when the soul is troubled with anger and envy? What is the benefit of abstaining from sumptuous meals, and at the same time not having a contrite soul, and changing the flesh “for the sake of oil” (Ps. 109:24), but not humble the soul in fasting, as David humbled himself? What kind of gain is it to be freed from the darkness of the fumes that come from abundant foods, while worries and vain thoughts make our mind unusable, and at the same time render our prayers to God unusable? - Therefore, a good fast is that fast that is performed with the goal of quenching passions, bringing the soul into humility, hating pride, extinguishing anger, taking away rancor, performing contemplation and prayer, and purification. If you are financially prosperous, then let the excess food serve you to relieve those in need. And if you observe fasting in this way, you will not only become a participant in the Passion and Death of the Lord, but you will also be co-resurrected with Him and co-reign with Christ for endless ages: for through fasting of this kind, having become akin to the likeness of His death, you will be a participant in both the Resurrection and an heir of life in Him. The one who fasts, even if exposed to temptation, defeats the tempter; and if he had not been subjected to temptation, he preserves peace of mind and body, depressing and subjugating the body, following the example of Paul, who was afraid that it would become unfit (destructive for the soul). If Paul was afraid of this, then how much more should we be afraid?! So, the one who fasts subdues the body and makes the soul tested; he who fattens the flesh, which is soon to decay, who eats not so much in order to live, but who lives in order to eat, like those animals that we prepare for slaughter, and who adds to what is necessary in excess in order to fatten it or arouse it to base passions, or in general for the sake of pleasures associated with the body, does nothing more than prepare more abundant food for worms. Therefore, the Prophet David beautifully sings: “What is the benefit of my blood if I ever descend into corruption?” (Ps. 29:10). So, fasting and eating abstinently, do not put off excesses for tomorrow, but just as the Lord, having become poor, made us rich, so you, voluntarily starving, feed the one who suffers hunger involuntarily, and may your fast be like a dove carrying an olive branch and proclaiming to you the good news of liberation from the Flood. “If you take away from yourself the yoke and the beating of the hand,” says the great Isaiah, “and the word of murmuring, and give bread from your soul to the hungry, and satisfy your humble soul: then your light will shine in the darkness, and your darkness will be like the noonday” (Is. 58:9-10). If you do not want to give what is yours, then at least refrain from what belongs to others and do not keep from yourself what does not belong to you; Beware lest you enrich yourself with the property of the poor dishonestly stolen, lest you rightly hear from the same Prophet: “I have not chosen this fasting... if you wear your neck like a sickle... your fast will be pleasant” (Is. 58:5). “...but resolve all untruths, destroy the obligations of forced scriptures... and tear to pieces every unrighteous scripture” (Is. 58:6). “Then your light will open early, and your healing will quickly shine: and your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of God will embrace you” (Is. 58:8). If you do not give to the poor from yours, and even then from excess, then at least do not profit at the expense of the poor, although the Lord of all, Christ, sending those on His left side into the fire and cursing them, condemns them not as predators, but as those who did not give to the needy. Predators and robbers will not be resurrected for reporting and judgment, but immediately for judgment and condemnation, since here, as one can see, they did not at all approach God with their full soul. “My devouring people,” it is said, “have not called the Lord for food” (Ps. 13:4). The rich man whose field was spoiled, and the one who dressed himself in purple and fine linen, are justly condemned not as robbers of anyone, but as those who did not give (to the needy) what they had acquired; for those treasures that flow from the treasures of God, common to all, are common to all. Therefore, isn’t the one who appropriates for himself what is common, even if he was not an obvious robber of other people’s property, a predator? Therefore, behold, one, like an evil servant (who abused the common property), will, alas, suffer a terrible cutting (Matthew 24:51); a – other (i.e. robber of other people's property) will fall into an even more serious and terrible state, and neither one nor the other will ever be able to escape this, as soon as (now, in this century) they show hospitality to the poor: the first will wonderfully begin to manage the property that God has entrusted to him, and the second will wonderfully squander what he has unjustly acquired. The great Paul in his Epistle to the Thessalonians - the ancestors of us all 35 - speaks about brotherly love: “Do not demand, but it is written to you: for you yourselves are taught by God, to love one another” (1 Thess. 4:9). Since the Lord said to some: “If the children of Abraham were quicker, the works of Abraham were done quickly” (John 8:39), then let us also be afraid of these 36 words, not spoken to us at this time, but, let it not be so! - on that terrible day when, precisely by the likeness of actions, kinship will be determined, when all those who have loved poverty in Christ, or at least those who have loved the poor, when all despisers of human glory and lovers of abstinence, when all, not only hearers of the Gospel broadcasts, but also doers of them in practice, all, according to the common prayer of the grace of the Father, will naturally become one; for He says: “Grant that they may be one, even as We are one” (John 17:22); when the judging sword of the Spirit will clearly separate a man from his father, a daughter from his mother, and make alien to each other those who are not related in their way of life; for if this happens here, how much more so where the Omniscient One proclaims to those who do not correspond to Him according to virtue: “We do not know you” (Matthew 25:12, Luke 13:25, 27). For, as one can see, they do not have in themselves the image of the Heavenly Father: they were not merciful, like the common Father; they did not make common goods common to those in need, as He makes everyone participants in the granting of His benefits; they were not kind to their neighbors; By providing benefits, they did not bring closer to themselves those who were far from them. And, behold, because of this lack of similarity to Him, the Good One does not know and does not introduce such people into His House. If He does this, then those who lived here according to His example, and there those who are destined to co-reign with Him, will probably say the same thing, from among those close to them by blood, to their relatives, but not close and not related to them by virtue; so if someone says: “I am your child,” or “I was your father,” “I was your brother,” then, alas, truly, he will hear: “A brother does not deliver” (Ps. 48:8); another will hear: “No one is a father except the One God”; and the other will hear: “If you were my child, you would imitate me; now you are the son of that father whose will you did; go to him to be with him forever, for I do not know you: because everything that is God’s is mine, and you are not God’s; and the very concept of “mine” and “yours” has no place here, and for the sake of this future life we ​​hated this concept of possessiveness and therefore became heirs of this Kingdom.” Where this cold word (“mine”) is on the face, there, as the divine Fathers say, there is no union of love and Christ is expelled; those who are possessed by this passion (of possessiveness), then become characterized by selfishness, love of money, brotherly hatred and every kind of evil, which even now disgraces them. So, I pray, let us be afraid, brothers, of all this, because it is truly terrible! Let us manage our property as it pleases God; Let us forgive so that we too may be forgiven; Let us give alms, so that mercy may be shown to us in many ways: because He who became poor for our sake, accepting alms as if given to Him personally, being generous, multiplies the reward. Therefore, let a person either be poor in His image, and he will live with Him, or let him make those who are poor partakers of his property, according to His example, and for this reason he himself will be saved. Let us acquire a merciful heart; Let us give ourselves proof of our love for our brother and devotion to our common Father and Master. No one will find a more favorable time for this than the time of these days of fasting. For the one who adds alms to fasting will wash away all sin and boldly bow to the Saving Passion and rejoice together in the Resurrection of Christ and receive the eternal Redemption, which may we all be worthy to receive in Christ our God Himself, to Whom is due all glory, honor and worship, with His Beginning Father and the Most Holy and Good and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:157–165. Homilia XIII. In quinta jejuniorum Dominica, qua tractat de eleemosina. The saint says this to his Thessalonian flock, naming the ancient Thessalonians, to whom Ap. Paul sent the Epistles to "the ancestors of us all." Those. probably the above-mentioned Apostolic words spoken to the ancient Thessalonians. You might be interested in: