Беседа на 17-е воскресенье Евангельских чтений по Матфею

Conversation for the 17th Sunday of the Gospel readings according to Matthew, speaking about the Canaanite. It also talks about human imperfection and praiseworthy humility 240 1. That “The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” declared Solomon, the son of David, in Proverbs; This was revealed by the very deeds of the eternal Wisdom of the Heavenly Father, who lived in the flesh in this (our earthly) life. So, behold, opposing the Pharisees and scribes, who were arrogant over His Disciples and (at the same time) neglecting the Law of God, the Lord said: “Why do you transgress the commandment of God for (the sake of) your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3). But to the Canaanite, who humbly approached and prayed, He showed mercy. Because, hearing from the Lord that, being a pagan, she was equated to a dog, or better yet, even worse than a dog: a “little dog” (“kinarion”), she said with increased self-contempt and humility: “So, Lord!” The Israeli teachers, having heard from the Lord that they were “hypocrites,” pretending to be pious but in reality rejecting God, fell into temptation. It is fair, therefore, that the Lord not only objected to them, but also left them, as an example of what would later happen when He abandoned all their people, - according to today’s Gospel reading: “They departed,” they say, to the pagan land, “to the countries of Tire and Sidon.” “And behold,” it says (further), “a Canaanite woman went out from the border of those, and cried out to Him, saying: Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is angry with evil” (Matthew 15ff.). 2. Truly, the Canaanite not only “emerged” from those pagan boundaries, but (one might say) also grew like a sacred lily from the valleys, with words coming from her mouth, emitting the fragrance of the Divine Spirit. Because if “no one can speak of the Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3), then would anyone doubt that the language of the Canaanite, calling Him “Son of David” and “Lord” and asking His mercy, as one who has power over demons, was not moved by the Divine Spirit? Since “faith,” as the Apostle Paul says, (arises) “from hearing” (Rom. 10:17), and the rumor about Christ, as Luke testifies, spread throughout all the surrounding places, then having found the euphonious string 241 - the Canaanite, through it it responds even louder with an echo (“epihi”); because, having awakened and believed and running with ardor, she becomes an obvious 242 petitioner, and at the same time a herald, crying from afar: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David, my daughter is angry with evil.” – She does not feel her misfortune; As I experience this, my heart burns with suffering, and I cry out for Your mercy! You are the Son of David, existing in the flesh from his seed, but the Lord is all, as the eternal God, and by Your permission the demon is tormenting my daughter; if, having mercy, You bow to us, this servant of Your wrath will immediately leave her. The Lord did not answer her a word, wanting her faith and virtue to become even more obvious, as if rightly directing her so that she would reveal herself among the pagans, not only for the sake of unbelieving Jews, but also for the sake of the pagans attracted through faith. Therefore, when the Disciples said: “Let her go, for she is crying after us,” the Lord said: “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Because, seeing them fall away from their fatherly piety and virtue, He, as far as He was concerned, did not allow Himself to despise them, for the sake of their fathers, who lived piously. Therefore, sent by the Heavenly Father, He came primarily for their sake. 3. “The woman came,” it says, “and worshiped Him, saying: Lord, help me.” When she was far away, she cried out to the Lord to show her mercy; since she achieved nothing by this and He did not even turn to her, she, approaching, falls at His feet and again asks for help from Him. But even now he abruptly sends her away. But even in this case, this woman, truly courageous in soul, did not lose heart, but even considering herself as nothing and hearing that she was put on a par not only with dumb animals, but also with dirty and wild animals - just as her cry was more like barking than speech worthy of a person - she agrees with this and also puts herself in nothing, but does not abandon her request to Christ. 4. Let us learn from this lesson how to be persistent in prayers: with what great patience, with what great humility, with what contrition (to be in our prayers). Let us learn that even though we were unworthy to receive what we asked and were sent away with nothing, as having polluted ourselves with sins, we will not abandon prayer, but, on the contrary, we will persevere, humbly asking from the depths of our souls. We will receive from God what we ask. Because in response to the words of the Lord, who said to her: “You, woman, are a pagan; It’s better to say: a daring and vile and unclean little dog! It’s not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” “So,” said the woman, humbling herself and recognizing her insignificance and uncleanness and considering herself unworthy of communion and communion of the Heavenly Bread that came down from heaven (John 6:33), praying (or: desiring) to receive the crumbs falling from mercy from the table of those enjoying; “For even the psi,” she says, “eat from the grains that fall from the table of their masters.” And these truly wise and very prudent words of the woman mixed with humility (as if they contained the following thought): because although I am a pagan and recognize myself as a sinner, the pagans also enjoy God’s care, because of His unspeakable love for mankind and goodness, just as, indeed, all are sinners with Him. 5. But what - Forgiving those who confess their sins and the wickedness of their hearts, as the psalmist-prophet said when he taught us? - accepts the rejected one, cleanses the defiled one, heals and sanctifies her soul along with her daughter, and he does this, accompanied by praise, saying to her: “O woman, great is your faith: be it as you wish.” This great faith was given power so that there was no gap between the word and the healing: “And you were healed,” it is said, “from that hour.” Mark says that the Lord said to the Canaanite: “Because of this word of yours the demon departed from your daughter” (Mark 7:29); those. - because you so despised yourself and humbled yourself to such an extent, and despite the fact that you were stubbornly rejected, you did not fall into despair and were not robbed of the understanding of Providence, but realized the magnitude of My love for mankind and remained steadfast to the end, praying (to Me) with hope in humility. Because: “God gives grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34), as we hastened to bring at the beginning; and - “Humble yourself, he will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12); and - “Humble yourselves,” says the Apostle, “and you will find grace before the Lord” (James 4:10); but also: “Everyone who asks receives, and whoever seeks finds, and it will be opened to the one who asks” (Matthew 7:8). 6. But such constancy, of course, cannot exist without great faith. Any researcher could see that with faith in Christ humility has always been combined and co-increased; So, when Peter at the beginning, according to the word of the Lord, caught a great multitude of fish in his nets and completely believed, then he said to Him: “Depart from Me, for I am a sinner, Lord” (Luke 5:8). Again, when the centurion in humility said to the Lord: “Lord, I am not worthy to come under my roof,” the Lord announced about him to those who followed Him: “Amen I say to you, I have not found much faith in Israel” (Matthew 8:8-10). Thus, humility (is the destiny) only of believers, and faith - of the humble. 7. So, let us voluntarily humble ourselves, brothers, in order to make our faith in Christ obvious and to be lifted up by Him; it is better to say that we recognize the weakness inherent in us by nature and the disorder that happens from time to time, due to the action of demons, of the thoughts that are born in us, so that we, like the Canaanite, cry out to Christ and fall at His feet and, praying in humility, remain self-possessed, and then we We will receive the grace (mercy) He gives to the humble and ascend to the Divine heights. Let us remember: what is the beginning of the existence of each of us? – Isn’t it similar to the beginning of existence of dumb animals? Or better yet: and worse than him; because in animals it did not originate as a result of sin; In our human race, the crime of the commandment brought marriage 243. Therefore, we will receive rebirth in holy baptism, “which takes away the veil of existence from birth.” Because although marriage allowed by God does not carry guilt, (our) nature still carries signs of guilt; therefore, one of our sacred theologians 244 says: “this is our origin at night and slavery and passion” 245, but David before him says: “I was conceived in iniquity and my mother gave birth to me in sins” (Ps. 50:7). 8. So, if this is our origin, then what can we say about our very birth? Isn't it much sadder than the birth of dumb animals? “Give birth to a child in illness,” God said to Eve, not only, I think, because of maternal maternal illnesses, but also because of the sorrows that befall those born, either all those sorrows that happen during the subsequent life, or immediately overtake from the very beginning, from which the child cries incessantly, which does not happen to other living beings; because only for us alone, as soon as we leave the womb, a long-suffering and much-painful life 246 and, as it seems, worthy of many lamentations 247 opens up. Which of the other living creatures, besides us, immediately after birth, is tied with bandages and constrained by swaddling clothes, and, as it were, buried in a hollowed out cradle, and, unable to move on its own, is brought to the mother’s breast and taken away, unable to move on its own? Don't lambs and fawns and calves, moving freely, walk and jump around their mother, and moving themselves, come up to get enough milk? If, after we cease to be fed with mother's milk, we are freed from diapers and immobility, but still do not cease to be unreasonable; with difficulty, finally emerging from the abyss of unreason, after many years we reach a reasonable age. So what? Then, therefore, how, having emerged from this state of powerlessness of the mind and enlightened by the light of reason and thinking, we became better than animals? Not at all! - Because we become so much worse than before, to the extent that those troubles that occurred as a result of existence and according to the law of nature, we rather suffered than were ourselves to blame for, why we are not subject to blame for them and the terrible threats of eternal torment do not threaten us for them; Having emerged 248 over time from the state of unreason and becoming masters of reason, we consciously drown ourselves in the condemned depths of forbidden passions, plunging headlong into the swamp and terrible quagmire of depth and impurity, I say - this most painful life of ours, where, wounded by the stings of scorpions and snakes and tormented by the teeth of animals, we are so unreasonable that we even rejoice in the wounds and Let's have fun in torment. 9. Corporeal lust creeps towards us like a snake, and we do not run from it and do not trample on it - oppressing ourselves and driving it away through abstinence and incessant prayer to God - but, instead, we open our bowels to it and, rejoicing, infuse into ourselves, alas, our eternal death! Anger comes at us like an untamed lion, but we do not run away and do not seek protection that repels such great evil - i.e. generosity and humility - but, instead, we rather run towards him and zealously press him to our chests and invite him to dwell within us as a ruler and ruler, our destroyer, unfortunate madmen! The love of money is strenuously trying to pull us into a quagmire, and we do not relieve ourselves of the burden - through contentment with little and non-acquisitiveness, as if lifting us to the sky on wings - but, instead, we associate ourselves with burdensome loads; with thirst or desire for money or expensive things, as much as our strength allows, rushing down and pushing ourselves into the bottomless depths, we find pleasure in it! 10. We perceived the mind as a leader and autocrat, but we showed it to be a slave of senseless passions! We were honored by the word (mind) more than all living beings, and having shown it as a servant of such (shameful) passions, we became more dishonest than dumb animals! We accepted the body, the creation of God’s hands, so that it could become spiritual thanks to our desire for God, but with our attraction to earthly things we made our very spirit flesh and became insignificant than soulless bodies, bearing within themselves condemnation and the only condemned: because these soulless bodies remain the same as they were, and we made ourselves worse by deviating from the state in which we were (created), and changed honor to dishonor. What kind of educator, drinking companions (“sinaselgenon”) with those under his supervision and helping those entrusted to him for education in organizing and supplying unbridled fun, will not degrade himself as more pitiful and contemptible than others who have not received any education? What teacher, having fun with those he teaches and increasing their recklessness, will not reveal himself to be more ignorant than the completely ignorant? Who, having studied the art of engineering well, then, playing with children and building sand houses according to their instructions, does not seem much funnier than those who have not studied? 11. Thus, a person becomes more senseless than the dumb and more dishonest than those not endowed with honor and more pitiful than everyone else, as one who has submitted to the body and has been perverted into a worse state due to passions that should have been subdued and adjusted to improve his life. And then he becomes arrogant and thinks highly of himself, as if thanks to these unnecessary things (i.e., earthly wealth) he by nature has an advantage over others, being able to spend on pleasures or oppress someone or despise, or overcome or dominate others, as a result of which luxury and wealth and vanity arise and the beginning of those things that people covet. 12. But there are also people who have preserved sacred dignity or corrected damaged ones, and having conquered the passion of the animal instinct in the soul, the noble qualities of the soul have been processed, and some impulses have been nurtured, others have been disciplined, and others have been ennobled, but, of course, they achieved all this not without God’s help and grace; and it is given to the humble, as has been shown many times, and also we have been taught today by the example of the admirable Canaanite. So they rise above animals and are really people - only the humble ones, and not the proud ones, who are not people and are worse in soul than dumb animals, even if they wear a human form. Therefore, Solomon, having experienced everything in life and passing it by in silence, as if it had no value, makes the following conclusion: “Fear God,” which means: be humble before Him, “and keep His commandments, as every man does” (Eccl. 12:13) 250. The Russian translation of this passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes deviates from the original in the LXX translation, which the Slavic translation follows, namely: “this is every man.” St. Gregory Palamas teaches, citing this text, that humility is our quality by nature; it is inherent in our nature. We come across this thought from him more than once... 13. So, brethren, when someone, due to some natural talent or acquired from the outside, is inclined towards arrogance and arrogance, let him then take into account the following: that he dulls his faith in God and is deprived of the grace given by Him and almost loses the dignity of being a man and becomes more dishonest than the dishonest and more senseless than the dumb - and (having realized this) let him quickly correct himself by turning through repentance, to humility, so that in the next century to be found among those who have been pardoned by God, and as “faithful and prudent” (Matthew 24:45), to be praised and glorified by the Son of God, who for our sake made His true, unchangeable and eternal glory, which may we all receive by the grace and love of mankind of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father belongs the glory with Holy Spirit forever. Amen. In Greek ed. 1861 is listed as No. 43, pp. 16–29. Orig. - “vessel”, “instrument”. Marriage and the birth of children occurred after the Fall of our Forefathers. In orig. op., follows: “claifmirizmi”. Orig. “emitting a lot of groans” (“polystenaktos”). Orig. "funeral lament" In the text follows: "anadintes". St. Gregory uses a rare word: “apifmantos”, instead of: “apithmenos”. Russian translation: “Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is everything for man”: You might be interested in: