Омилия VII 13 .

Pleasant to the eye is the view of a calm sea, illuminated by a radiant light and shining and illuminated, and reflecting the light with a mirror surface. But it is much more gratifying not only to see, but also to speak to the Church, gathered about God, free from confusion, and mysteriously illuminated by the divine light, and inspired by that Radiance and having grief and hands and eyes and all feelings and thoughts. So, since the grace of the Spirit has granted me this joyful sight today and you stand with us, spending days and nights in the church of God and in his caring care, which lacks nothing, it is possible to imagine you as some trees of the unearthly world, planted at the sources of the waters of the Spirit. Behold, I will also contribute, in my strength, to this irrigation, showing you more clearly those tricks with which the enemy of our salvation is trying in every possible way to make unprofitable not only fasting, but also our prayer. So, brethren, there is another kind of satiety and bad drunkenness, which does not come from food or drinks and the pleasures that flow from them, but from anger at one’s neighbor, and hatred, and rancor, and the evils that flow from them, about which Moses speaks in the song: “The wrath of serpents is their wine, and the wrath of asps is incurable” (Deut. 22:33). Therefore, the Prophet Isaiah also says: “Woe to those who are drunk without wine” (Is. 28:1); and he also exhorts, saying this: “Do not fast while you are quarreling” (Is. 58:4). And to those fasting in such a state, he says, as if on behalf of the Lord: “If you wear your neck like a sickle, then you will call fasting pleasant. And even if you increase your prayer, I will not hear you. And when you stretch out your hands to Me, I will turn My eyes away from you” (Is. 58:5, 1:15). So, this kind of drunkenness stemming from hatred, it is better to say, of course, reasons for God to turn away from us, the devil tries to evoke in those who pray and fast and instills in them the memory of offenses against them, and with arguments he moves them to vindictiveness and to slander, sharpens their tongue, making them such as David describes a person praying in anger: “You have devised iniquity all day long, your tongue has been sharpened like a razor” ( Ps.51:3–4); and he prays to God to free him from such people, saying: “Lord, remove me from the wicked man, and deliver me from the unrighteous man: who has cut off his tongue like a serpent: the poison of asps is under their lips” (Ps. 139: 1, 3). But we, brethren, during fasting and prayer, I pray, if at any time we actually had anything against anyone, we will forgive and be full of love, moreover, we will be watching over each other with the goal of encouraging love and good deeds and speaking well of each other, and in ourselves reasoning and thinking good before God and before people - so that we may fast with a praiseworthy and blameless fast, and so that on the basis of it our petitions will be favorably heard by God, so that, by grace, we can appropriately call Him Father and be able to boldly say to Him: “Father, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Due to the action of the attacker against our souls, another unworthiness occurs in our prayer and fasting, namely, that which the Pharisee had, fasting and praying, and yet was sent away without the fruit (of this work). But you, knowing that every proud person is unclean and unacceptable before God, and that we, being debtors to God in many and great things, and daring to repay some smallest part of the debt, must fast and pray with contrition of heart and self-reproach, leaving in contempt, as if non-existent, what is behind, rushing to what lies ahead, so that our fast will be pure and pleasing to God and in the church of God there was attention and restraint. There is another way of the evil one’s actions, which makes our work of fasting and prayer fruitless; it consists in persuading us to do it out of vanity and hypocrisy. Therefore, the Lord also exhorts in the Gospel, saying: “Go into your closet, and when you have shut your doors, pray to your Father in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in reality” (Matthew 6:6). He says this not because He commands us to abstain from gatherings in the church and (common) prayer and psalmody; for in that case the Psalmist-Prophet would not have said to Him: “In the midst of the Church I will sing to You” (Ps. 21:23); and - “Let us confess to You among the people, Lord, I will sing to You among the nations” (Ps. 56:10); and - “My prayers will I offer before those who fear Thee, O Lord” (Ps. 21:26); and to us: – “Bless God in the churches” (Ps. 67:27); and - “Come, let us worship and fall down before Him, and let us mourn before the Lord our God” (Ps. 94:6). But time does not allow for other, no less sublime examples; but this is what the Lord teaches about prayer in secret: - prayer done in private and at home and even on the bed encourages prayer, which is done in the Church; just as prayer performed within, in the mind, prompts prayer on the lips; because he who wants to pray at the time when he came to the church of God, meanwhile, neither at home or on the road or in a meeting at all shows diligence in prayer, will not be truly praying even when he is in the church of God. The Psalmist reveals this after he said: “My heart is ready, O God,” adding: “I will sing and sing in my glory” (Ps. 56:8); and - in another place: “When I remembered You on my bed, I learned from You in the morning” (Ps. 57:7). But also: “Whenever you fast,” says Christ, “do not be like a hypocrite and complain: for they darken their faces, for they may appear to be a man fasting. Amen, amen, I say to you, that they will accept their reward. But when you have fasted, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to be a man by fasting, but to your Father who is in secret: and your Father who sees in secret will reward you in reality” (Matthew 6:16-18). Oh, incomparable philanthropy! Because with these words the Lord appropriately revealed to us the future judgment at the future judgment and His decree, so that we would find a better verdict and a better destiny there. For to those who, out of vain motives, and not for His sake, lead a good lifestyle, He, of course, will then say in the same words that He consistently says now: “You received your reward during your life”; just as Abraham said to the rich man in the flame: “Thou hast received thy goodness in thy belly” (Luke 16:25). But to those who, in the exercise of virtue, have Him in mind exclusively, He says that He will reward them openly, i.e. in this worldly spectacle; He will give them blessing, and inheritance, and joy, and pure and eternal pleasure; and, not wanting anyone to lose this, He, who wants to save everyone and come into the mind of truth, now reveals, as I said, His impartial and unchangeable verdict, showing that the sons of God are only those who despised human glory. Therefore, in one of the sayings He speaks of both: “Thy Father, who seeth in secret, will reward thee in the open”; in order to reveal and create those who despise empty and human glory as adopted children and heirs to Himself; and people who are not of the same spirit as those who do not repent will be excluded from sonship. The Lord says this so that we will not be seen praying and fasting for the eyes of people, as a result of which there will be no benefit from this: we will steadfastly endure the work of fasting and prayer, but we will lose the reward! Anoint the head with oil, he says, and wash the face, that is, do not worry about the face being pale and not being unkempt and with a dry head, since this may seem to result from self-imposed fasting and from contempt for the body, and thus can gain praise from people; for this is what the Pharisees did when they fasted. Therefore, naturally, they appeared alien to the Church of Christ, and the Lord strictly forbids us to become like them. Perhaps someone will sublimely say that here by “head” we should mean the head of the soul, i.e. - the mind, as the one in charge, and under the “face” is the imagination, in which the impressions received from the senses are concentrated, and if we fast correctly, we should anoint our heads with oil, i.e. make our mind merciful, and our face - i.e. imagination, to wash away shameful and unclean thoughts and anger and all that is bad; for fasting of this kind and in this way, not only bad passions, but also the instigators and builders of these passions - demons, leads to flight and shame, but also counts those who fast among the Angels, turning them into Angels, and makes them their guardians and inclines them to help and assist them. So once upon a time, along with three young men in Babylon, adorned with abstinence and fasting, a fourth was seen in the middle of the fire, keeping them unharmed and miraculously watering them. Thus, an Angel appeared to Daniel, who was fasting for many days, making him wise and foretelling the future for him. So another time, when he blocked the mouths of the lions with prayer and fasting, an Angel carried the Prophet (Habakkuk) through the air across a great distance, bringing him food. So in us, who perform physical and spiritual fasting together and pray, with the assistance of good Angels, the fire of bodily passion will be extinguished, and anger - like a lion's - will be tamed, and we will become participants in the prophetic food - in the hope of future blessings and faith and mental contemplation, and we will be given the power to step on the adder, and the scorpion, and all the power of the enemy. But fasting not of this kind and not performed in this way is more akin to the evil angels: for they are characterized by ineating, associated with anger and hatred, and arrogance, and resistance to God - and we, being slaves and servants of Good, oppose them. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” says the Apostle, “but against the principalities, and against the powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). Of course, to resist them, we will use not only fasting, but also the armor of righteousness for our protection, and the helmet of saving alms, and the shield of faith, and also the most powerful spiritual sword in defense, which is the saving word of God to us; because in this way we must wage a valiant struggle and maintain an unshakable faith, and extinguish all the kindled arrows of the evil one, and, having appeared victorious in everything, receive heavenly and holy crowns, rejoicing along with the Angels, in Christ our Lord Himself, to whom befits all glory, power, honor and worship, with His beginningless Father and the All-Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:88–93. Homilia VII. Altera de jejunio. It was probably also said on the first week of Vel. Post. You might be interested in: