Глава 3. Восстановление падшего человека Богом

I. The goodness of God in the restoration of fallen man (Lord Redeemer and Savior) Through the incarnation of the Son of God, humanity was pardoned, reborn, renewed, sanctified, forgiven, desecrated, deified, established: meaningful, grateful and God-fearing people came to know and feel this invaluable gift of God, and used it for the salvation of themselves and others, inherited eternal bliss, while the senseless, addicted to the world and the flesh, constantly perish in sins and even boast in sins. Glory to Your incarnation, Lord! Glory to the Virgin Mother who embodied You, Representative of the human race, the Christian race! The Lord God should always be loved more than father and mother or a sincere friend because He loved us immeasurably, and because He gave love to parents for their children, and mutual love for friends, and to every animal he gave love for those like themselves. It is alien to nature and the dumb not to love their own kind, especially since it would be wild in the rational and verbal nature of man, that is, not to love God Himself with all our hearts, for we are His likeness. But, as a result of the fall of man and the blindness and wildness of his many different passions, he often, often does not love either God or the offspring of his womb, or loves in a wrong way... and he himself puts moral and physical corruption in his children; - which happens especially among false scholars, adulterers, drunkards, gamblers, covetous people and hoarders. The love of the Lord God for people surpasses all understanding - for He, after the free fall of man, which led to the curse and his casting into aphid and destruction - used an extraordinary means to save him - the incarnation and incarnation of His Only Begotten Son, life, His personal teaching, inhuman suffering and death, for deliverance from curse and death and the granting again of blessing and eternal life - and planted on earth His Church is a wonderful, holy, Divine, all-saving institution - a School, a Doctor, a Nourisher, a Renewer of the human race. This is God’s love for us humans, surpassing all mind, all understanding. It is fitting for everyone to understand this love of Christ, which surpasses understanding, says the Apostle Paul (Eph. 3:19). Human nature, from the beginning of its creation from God, and even now in the state of correction and human virtue, is so beautiful and perfect that the Creator God Himself, the Word, did not disdain to take upon Himself into the unity of His Hypostasis the whole of man, except for sin, and remains with it for endless centuries. How should a person appreciate this mercy of God, this condescension of the Lord towards us, how to beware of all sin, how to live righteously in order to reign with Christ forever, how to strive, fighting sin and enemies visible and invisible, with what effort to achieve virtue and perfection with the help of the grace of Jesus Christ, abundantly given in the Church, the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. sacraments under the leadership of consecrated shepherds. It is not we who have drawn near, but the Kingdom of Heaven that has drawn near to us. The Lord Himself approached us when we ourselves did not want and could not approach Him because of our habit of sin. “From now on the children partook of flesh and blood, and He most sincerely partook of the same” (Heb. 2:14). In proportion to the infinite goodness and mercy of God, revealed and constantly shown to us, let us show the fruits of repentance and good deeds, succeeding in meekness, humility, kindness, abstinence, mercy, chastity, honesty, fidelity, benevolence towards everyone. The Lord descended from heaven for us, let us follow Him to heaven and begin to philosophize on high! Sin, like a poisonous, terrible rust, penetrated the entire human being - soul and body - and gave birth to innumerable passions and illnesses, sorrows, ugliness, shortcomings, and finally, the terrible image of death. The Lord, for our redemption, introduces Himself into the midst of humanity, accepts our entire nature, except sin, fulfills the whole law for us, takes upon Himself the sins of humanity, fulfills all righteousness for us, suffers for our iniquities, dies for us, conquering our death, and rises from the dead, resurrecting all humanity with Himself. O goodness, wisdom, truth and omnipotence of God! O well-being and bliss of man! 2) Redemption of the world lying in evil through the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross In order to redeem me from the curse of the righteous for sins and from the eternal torment prepared for sinners, the Redeemer whose Redeemer had to fulfill for me all the righteousness of humanity and suffer for all my untruths and the entire human race, and in order to deliver me and people from death and grant the resurrection from the dead, it was necessary to suffer in the flesh on the cross, taste the death of the cross, the most blasphemous and painful, to defeat our death with His death and to be resurrected from the dead, granting, as the crown of the entire redemptive work, the resurrection from the dead to everyone. And now I, a sinner, need every day and hour the merits of my Savior, His infinite truth fulfilled for me, His Cross and death and resurrection, in order to draw from them the grace of justification, redemption, forgiveness of sins, deliverance from sorrows and hardships, the inseparable companions of sin, righteousness, peace, freedom, boldness. And I resort to Him, my Redeemer, unceasingly, every day and hour, and receive the riches of His bounties - forgiveness and justification for the sake of faith in Him and my repentance, and I accept peace, freedom, renewal, strength and strength of soul and body. In the admission of sin in moral beings and in the world, in the temporary kingdom of sin, in confronting the sin of believers, in protecting, interceding and saving them, in the death of unfaithful, lazy and proud people, in the eternal reward and eternal bliss of the righteous, lies the greatest goodness, wisdom and truth of God, a manifestation of God’s immeasurable love for the world - “For God so loved the world as He loved His Son He gave the Only Begotten to eat, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life” (John 3:16). For in the redemption of man God gave more to redeemed, chosen, laboring humanity than in creation. We have become children of God, members of His Body from His flesh and from His bones (Eph. 5:30), His brethren - “We are not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11); became gods by grace: “Az rekh: you are gods by nature and sons of the Most High” (Ps. 81:6). “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and understanding of God!” (Rom. 11:33). Marvelous is the all-conquering mercy of God, dominating over our countless sins through the all-conciliatory sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross; The immeasurable sea of our soul, stormed by countless passions, is constantly, daily, and hourly tamed by faith in the Lord, through the prayer of repentance, especially through communion with faith and a contrite heart of the Most Pure Body, broken for us, and the Most Pure Blood, shed for us for the remission of sins - and I daily sing a victorious song to my God, cry out, cry out and say: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, fill heaven and earth with Your glory, the glory of Your grace, Your truth and Your mercy; Daily and hourly, through this victory, all the works of the devil, all the networks of sin, all the malice of the wickedness, all the cunning and intentions of the evil one are destroyed in me. Almost all people are captives of sin from every rank, title and condition; There are few who have dedicated themselves to God from youth and constantly serve Him and who have not been defiled by sin. “If we say that we are not imams of sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,” says the apostle (1 John 1:8). The so-called great people in the civil or political, military, scientific, artistic world were almost all slaves of sin; famous writers, philosophers, poets, generals, artists and others did not escape captivity from their own passions, and sometimes were distinguished only by a greater and more artificial satiety in them; few great people were devotees of virtue: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, some princes, kings, emperors, generals - Suvorov, etc. What kind of monster is this - sin, what kind of giant that has taken possession of everyone, captured almost everyone? This monster, this great and strong giant, this many-headed, terrible hydra of sin is the great fallen angel, the former Lucifer, and then Satan, the serpent of the entire abyss, flattering the entire universe, with a countless horde of all-evil spirits similar to him, who were once angels. None of the people was strong enough to rebel against this mental Goliath; The Son of God Himself, who was deigned to be incarnate and become a sinless Man, became our Defender, Conqueror, Deliverer and Savior from this terrible giant - the all-destroyer, defeating him with His Cross, His suffering and death for us. He deigned to enter into single combat for us with the hellish Goliath and defeat him completely; He also gave us weapons against it - His Cross and the Life-giving Mysteries and His Flesh and Blood for food and drink for the sake of cleansing, sanctification, renewal, strengthening in spiritual warfare with this serpent - for he, the devil, was given some freedom to tempt us, to incline us to sin, so that we, with the help of Christ God, would zealously resist him and encourage him and become stronger in faith and virtues, in holiness, truth and love for the Hero of Christ and deserved brilliant crowns and were awarded the greatest bliss. This is how the holy apostles labored, who labored in preaching the Gospel and who suffered to the point of bleeding, martyrs, tortured by darkness of torment, saints who defeated the serpent by fasting, vigil, prayer, repentance, and success in every virtue. We, sinners, must imitate them in our strength, and defeat the enemies of justice and truth and our salvation. They were true sages regarding the fight against sin and the fulfillment of God’s righteousness; they pleased God completely and serve as an adornment of the human race and the pillars of the Church of God, and constantly pray for us - for our salvation and for our victory over sin. To the question: how could man, created in the image and likeness of God, fall so deeply, the answer is that God alone is a perfect Being and He alone could never fall, and created beings, as limited and finite, at the beginning of their existence were not free from falling and could fall, just as indeed some of the angels fell through a terrible fall through conceit and disobedience; but the angels who remained faithful and successfully passed the test of their loyalty and devotion to the Creator remained eternally faithful and holy, firmly established in holiness and love. People were faced with a test - they had to endure it victoriously, and especially since a definite and easy commandment was given for the test; They were deceived by the Divine omniscience promised by the tempter-devil, they wanted to be like gods themselves and got stuck in the enemy’s net, ungratefully and boldly betrayed God, fell away from Him and clung to the enemy. However, they fell through deception, therefore they were awarded Divine compassion and condescension; they were promised a miraculous, supernatural redemption through the Seed of the woman, through the Son of God, who would become the Son of the Virgin Mother of God, who would fulfill all the truth as Man and God, teach people the truth and suffer for unrighteous humanity, be called the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, suffer on the cross to deliver believers from eternal torment, taste death in order to conquer and tear to pieces death and will rise from the dead to grant resurrection to everyone; He will establish His Church on earth as a society of those saved by His grace, truth, faith, teaching, sacraments and spiritual direction. This is how many means and benefits God has given for the restoration and salvation of the fallen human race. Our duty is to hold firmly to faith in Christ, His commandments and all teachings, His holy and saving Church, divine services and established sacraments - baptism, confirmation, repentance, communion, priesthood, etc. and sacredly preserve all the institutions of the Church established for salvation and progress in faith and piety, such as holidays, fasts, etc. Every minute we need the perfect truth of Christ in order to correct, cleanse, destroy our untruth; every minute we need the cross of Christ - this is a sign of the suffering and death of the Son of God for us, in order to use the cross of the Lord to motivate our passions that fight us, or to free ourselves, to be cleansed from them, when it has already been admitted by us into our soul and shakes, confuses, burns, oppresses and shames it, depriving it of boldness before God and people. The cross is so necessary for us every hour to restore union and peace with God, to return to the path of God’s truth and to move away from the path of sin and untruth. - Oh, the cross of Christ, oh the longed-for and sweetest merits of the sufferings of Christ our God on the cross! Oh, Lamb of God, who fulfilled all righteousness for us, and took upon Himself all our iniquities! Glory and thanksgiving to You forever! Glory to Your cross and Your all-saving and life-giving passions, which You accepted for our sake, Christ! Earth-born people, created with a rational and immortal soul, be imbued, if you can, with the love of Him Crucified on the cross for you, inflame your hearts with it towards Him, just as He blazes with His love for you in the midst of His suffering on the cross - revel in this most holy love endlessly, as God Himself is infinite and do not be indifferent, ungrateful, cold, faithless, reckless and meaningless. For you all this wealth of compassion and love, for you this sacrifice of atonement and salvation. Break away, sober up from the bustle and passions of life; put aside all worldly cares, so that with your hearts you will raise up the King of all, the angelic invisibly carried chinmi. Our soul and body, like some marvelous musical instrument, invented and designed by a wise Master, having been damaged by our foolishness and careless, frivolous and perverse handling, can no longer be arranged and tuned by anyone other than the same skillful Artist, God. And therefore, the correction of our being, which we were extremely upset by sin and perished terribly, and is now perishing because of unbelief, negligence and disobedience to our All-Good Creator, Redeemer and Savior, can it be accomplished in no other way than by the same Savior, His goodness, wisdom, power, through what He established on earth? The physician, the all-loving and immaculate Church of Him and her living organs - the clergy - and the sacraments they perform and is instructed. We can easily upset our wondrous instrument ourselves, through disobedience, but we cannot tune and correct it ourselves, because, firstly, it is wisely constructed, and, secondly, because we are extremely weak, limited, blind from sins. From what a terrible fall human nature was restored, from what ugliness and corruption it was delivered, how it was cleansed, enlightened, adorned, strengthened, immortalized, glorified by the Son of God and the Holy Spirit according to the will of God the Father, seated on the throne of the Father in heaven! And will we still cleave to earthly transitory sweets, beauties, treasures, which have brought us so much harm, defilement, corruption, all sorts of troubles and illnesses because of our addiction to them and our neglect of God, His commandments and eternal bliss! The saints serve us as examples of Christian good behavior, perfect obedience to God and perfect dispassion for the flesh and the world. 3) Salvation in Christ and through Christ the God-man It's done! The Eternal Council has been completed. The will of God for the salvation of the human race has been accomplished. The advice of the murderous serpent about the destruction of the entire human race and the works of the devil are destroyed. The man is saved! The blissful existence has been lost, a new, more blessed, better existence has been given in heaven, and a new existence of deification has been given. Man, who at first desired to be God, did not become one, but destroyed what he had; God became man in order to make Adam god. O wondrous counsels and ineffable deeds of God! Now it depends on the will of the person himself to either be saved or die. We need Christ and His cross every minute of life, for without Christ and the cross it is impossible to be saved, to get rid of any sin that we commit, only Christ saves us with His cross from the sorrow and oppression of sin and from the unrighteousness of sin and condemnation and torment for sin, for only Christ fulfilled all the truth for us, sacrificing Himself for all to His righteous Father, and He alone justifies us who are guilty and repentant with His blood, His suffering, suffered for us. Anger towards your neighbor has hurt you - you need Christ, you need a cross; envy, pride, lustful thoughts sting you - you need faith in Christ, you need repentance, you need the cross of Christ. Only Christ by His cross can save you, no one and nothing else. Repeatedly every day the Lord mercifully saves me, calling on His holy name, delivering my soul from the sting of sins and invisible enemies who constantly fight against it, many-passionate. “I will foresee the Lord before me, as he is at my right hand, and let me not move” (Ps. 15:8). “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from nowhere will my help come” (Ps. 120:1). Listen, Christian soul: the Lord has honored you with the greatest love and honor: He has betrothed you to Himself, like a bride to the Bridegroom, with an incorruptible, spiritual, immaculate, eternal, blessed betrothal, and you must remain faithful to Him every day and hour, until your last breath on earth; and there, in eternity, you will remain forever safe and everlasting, everlasting. This age is short, it redeems eternity. Don’t slumber, don’t relax, don’t betray God, don’t be defiled by earthly, carnal passions. Pray, fast, do good deeds. The little ones were baptized into Christ, they put on Christ (Gal. 3:27). Just as a true Christian puts on Christ, His virtues and merits, so an unbeliever or non-believer puts on the enemy - the devil, inherited from Adam and Eve. With Christ I am alive, at peace, joyful, content; Without Christ I am restless, I grieve, I am dissatisfied with nothing, I am spiritually dead. With Him I do righteousness and holiness; Without Him, I constantly sin, my feet waver. The Lord is worthy of our complete, undivided love of the heart: He is the source of our life, He is the fullness of all blessings, He is perfection, goodness, strength, bliss, beauty, intelligence and wisdom, eternal joy and eternal bliss, eternal peace, great glory. He is our intercession, deliverance, salvation, justification, renewal; He is the eternal truth and truth. In Him are all the promises of God: Her and Amen (2 Cor. 1:20). What, what good is not in God? Every good thing is in Him in abundance. Are you looking for sweets? In Him there is endless, incomparable sweetness. Are you looking for beauty? He is an indescribable beauty and adorns those who love Him with eternal, incorruptible beauty. Are you looking for light? He is the unstoppable Light, a thousand thousand times more beautiful than the light of the sun, and He will enlighten the righteous like the sun in His Kingdom. Do you want a belly? He is an endless and sweet belly. Are you looking for incorruption and endless life? He will give endless life to all who love Him. Are you looking for updates? He is our renewal. Are you looking for wealth? He is our inexhaustible, indestructible wealth, abiding forever. But earthly blessings are short-lived, rude, perishable, deceptive and do not satisfy our soul, created for God. Sinners! Do not forget what Christ our God did for your salvation, and diligently use the means of salvation given to us by Him: His immeasurable righteousness and mercy, the gift of repentance, forgiveness, communion of the Holy Mysteries, and church service. Can pagans please God, or Jews, Mohammedans, if they do not believe in Christ? They can't. They need to believe in Christ, the only One who is able, and be born of water and spirit. “Those who sin lawlessly will perish lawlessly, but those who sin in the law will receive judgment by the law” (Rom. 2:12). Here is the answer of Scripture to the question: will the pagans all perish? I will add to all the praise of my Lord, who wonderfully saves me every day and many times over. Glory to Thee, the treasure of my salvation; glory to You, treasure and source of my peace and boldness; glory to You, my space in my sorrows and cramps; glory to You, who through the communion of the Holy Mysteries dwells in my heart and stays in me and miraculously attracts all the pious to me; glory to You, my prosperity in everyone and everything; glory to Thee, the stronghold of my life and of Thy priests, to whom Thou hast numbered me, unworthy; glory to Thee, glory to Thy holy Church, which Thou hast created on the rock of faith and established it unshakably, glory to Thee, the conversion of those who err; glory to You, who shakes and eradicates heresies, sects and schisms and who judges the consciences of evil teachers; glory to Thee, who instills in our Emperor zeal for the faith and Thy Church and through him denounces wrong and harmful teachings. Amen. I am weak and sinful, more sinful than all men, corrupted by all sorts of falls in the depths of my being, subject to secret and obvious falls every day and hour, having a constant need for God’s mercy and intercession. And how many times every day I have been and continue to be vouchsafed this mercy and help of God due to the multitude of my sins and my sincere, deep repentance - there is no number. God's mercy has increased to me more than the sand of the sea! And from what fierce sorrows, cramped conditions, embarrassment and repentance the Lord saved me for my secret repentant prayers, bowing down with His immeasurable compassion! I must constantly thank, praise and exalt my Lord, who continually delivers me from the arrows and bites of snakes, for the pacification and expansion of my heart, for victory over invisible enemies. I will, with the Cherubim and Seraphim, continually sing the victorious song to God my Savior: holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, who continually saves and has mercy on me. In accordance with God's greatest care for the salvation of our souls, which was manifested with such obviousness in the sending to earth of the promised Savior our Lord Jesus Christ, do we ourselves care for our souls? In accordance with the Savior’s immeasurable love for us, do we love each other? Are we condescending to each other? Do we forgive each other? Do we care about each other? Do we respect each other? A true Christian must have everything different in spirit, in body and in life: other thoughts - spiritual, holy; other lusts - heavenly, spiritual; another will is right, holy, meek, good; another imagination is pure, holy; a different memory, a different look - pure, simple, holy, non-evil; another word is chaste, pure, sedate, meek; in a word, a Christian must be a different person, heavenly, new, holy, divinely living, thinking, feeling, speaking and acting by the Spirit of God. These were the saints. Read their lives, listen, learn, imitate. Rejoice and thank the Lord that every day you have to serve Christ God, our Savior every day - in the person of the sick, the poor, the unfortunate and all other people, especially to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and prove your faith, your humility, obedience and love for God and your neighbor. II. The wisdom of God in the restoration of fallen man (Lord the Creator and Provider) 1) God's providence in the economy of our salvation The omnipotence of God's creatures is a constant miracle of God's goodness, omnipotence, and wisdom. For just as everything created was brought from non-existence into being by the omnipotent word of God, so it is contained in being and in a wonderful order, the well-being of splendor and beauty by the same word of God. “I will hide Your face, and they will rebel: take away their spirit, and they will disappear, and return to their dust: after Your Spirit, they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth. Because Your works have been magnified, O Lord, You have done all things with wisdom” (Ps. 103:29-30:24). And I still exist in prosperity only thanks to the all-good and all-powerful Providence of God for me, His power, His kindness and long-suffering. Glory to Thee, Lord! In the incarnation, life and teaching on earth of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His suffering and death, in general in God’s economy for our salvation, all the goodness, truth, wisdom and omnipotent power of God was expressed in a tangible way in the reconciliation of sinners with God, in the victory of the Lord over the enemies of our salvation, in the abolition of the righteous curse of the Heavenly Father, spoken at the beginning to our forefathers and all people; in the granting of blessings and all the strength to life and piety, in the foundation of the Church and the victory of her sons and daughters over all the machinations of hell, which is allowed by God to wage war with the members of the kingdom of God for the time being, - in the wonderful, countless and terrible, saving powers of God, strengthening the martyrs and martyrs and all the councils of the saints, in the accomplishment of their salvation and glorification, in the accomplishment of this salvation to this day - and in wondrous, all-powerful victories of God's grace over the forces of hell fighting man, in the wondrous long-suffering and mercy of God towards humanity drowning in sins, in the gracious cleansing, sanctification, strengthening and renewal of it in the holy sacraments of the one and only saving Church. Hell is still fighting with heaven, according to the assumption of the truth of God, which is long-suffering and crowns ascetics and victors; - but the time will come when enemies, visible and invisible, will be finally defeated and all will be placed at the footstool of the Savior and God and His faithful servants, and the last enemy will be abolished - death. Glory to the goodness, truth, wisdom and omnipotent power of God that recreates and renews humanity! Why did God allow the fall of man, his dear creation and the crown of all earthly creatures? This question must be answered this way: that if man were not allowed to fall, then he would not have to be created in the image and likeness of God, not given free will, which is an integral feature of the image of God, but subjected to the law of necessity, like soulless creatures - the sky, the sun, the stars, the earthly circle and all the elements, or like dumb animals; but then on earth there would be no king of earthly creatures, an intelligent hymnologist of God’s greatness, God’s goodness, wisdom, creative omnipotence and providence; then a person could not prove in any way his loyalty and devotion to the Creator, his selfless love; then there would be no feats of struggle, merits and incorruptible crowns for victory, and eternal bliss, which is the reward for loyalty and devotion to God and eternal rest after the labors and exploits of earthly wandering. Look, what does the Creator make from humus dung? What fragrant plants that decorate the earth! And the Lord can heal, renew, strengthen, decorate, and sweeten your soul, which is smoldering and decaying spiritually from passions. An example is the holy saints of God. For you, man, heaven and earth, for the Scripture says: our fatherland is in heaven, from there we wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:20); for you - paradise; gardens are desirable for you; the elements for you; i.e. primarily for you, for they are also used by animals, which in turn were also created for you; for you - the sun, the moon, the stars; for you - all the variety of fruits of trees, bushes, spikes, cereals, etc.; for you - the transformation of the elements, as it was under Moses, for you - countless miracles in the Old and New Testaments; for you – the seabed is drying up; for you - the rocks exude streams of sweetness; for you - manna from heaven; for you - the rivers return back, or form a dry bottom for your journey; for you, the raging fire turns into cool dew, remaining in essence an all-burning fire for the wicked; for you - the sun stops and stands until victory over the enemy is achieved; for you - nurturing teachers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, saints, hierarchs, martyrs; for you - the height of God's mercy and the miracle of miracles - the Son of God came to earth in the flesh, entered into kinship with you, became your brother in the flesh, in order to save you, renew you through faith, repentance, correction, through the sacraments, for you - the Church was created on earth, which even the gates of hell cannot overcome; for you - a terrible and wondrous, life-giving food is prepared - the Body and Blood of the Lord Himself. What else should have been done for you, for your salvation, and was not done? What have you done and are doing to save yourself? What do you offer to your Lord? What praise, what gratitude, what sacrifice? After all, you often make yourself a senseless beast, and the cattle are more tame than you, more grateful than you, for the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s manger, but you do not want to know your Creator, Savior, Benefactor, Nourisher, Judge of yours; You have become a stranger to Him, gone wild like a fierce beast, and you roar and spew blasphemies at your Creator, like Leo Tolstoy with his barkers. What awaits you finally if you don’t come to your senses? Eternal rejection, God's curse, eternal torment along with evil spirits await you. “Depart from Me, you cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angel” (Matthew 25:41). The all-seer Lord, in one act of divine vision, sees all centuries and all people, their entire life with all thoughts, feelings, intentions, deeds, words. Terrible Eye, from Which nothing can hide, enlighten my heart’s eye! Take away from him all impurity, every unclean view! Amen. All-good Eye, all-meek Eye, all-seeing Eye, all-simple Eye, kindly Eye, look at me favorably, condescendingly, mercifully, all-forgiving, all-renewing, all-life-giving! I thank You, Lord, for by Your all-good providence you protect and save me day by day, every day, morning, evening and night, and raise me up vigorous and renewed every morning. Grant me, through You and in You, to be completely renewed in my spirit and to cast off the corruption of passions! I believe in the good future of Russia and its Orthodoxy on the basis, firstly, of the general concept of God’s Providence for His Church, and, secondly, in particular, on the basis of the prophecy of Daniel, uttered regarding his interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: a huge idol composed of different metals. Marvelous is this vision and marvelous is its story; God's Providence for the world and for the kingdoms of the earth, and especially for His Church on earth, is marvelous, wise, all-good, all-perceptive! 2) God’s wise guidance of man on the path to salvation The Lord God serves you daily, man, bringing out for you the all-illuminating and all-warming sun during the day, and the moon and stars at night, growing for you various, tasty and healthy fruits for your nutrition and enjoyment; established for you a saving Church with divine teaching and sacraments. He is constantly training you for His Kingdom. You yourself must diligently serve your Creator for the well-being of yourself and your neighbors and completely obey His all-good, wise and righteous laws. The benefits of the future life promised to you exceed all your expectations - they are so great; for your eternal bliss, will you not renounce carnal, coarse, harmful and unclean pleasures, and devote yourself entirely to serving God? Remember all the saints: how they loved God, how they labored, how they pleased God, and how the Lord rewarded them - and imitate them in your strength. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you and made you a prophet to the nations. -Who says that? The Lord is the Creator of the human race, the Beginningless, having created everything with His word and containing everything with the power of the word. He spoke to the prophet Jeremiah, sending him to preach to the Jewish people. Thus, beloved brothers and sisters, the Lord knows each of us before we were conceived in our mother’s womb and before we came out of our mother’s womb. We are each determined by the Creator to his own place of service, for He alone knows completely our strengths and abilities and the place of our service in society. This Divine definition and purpose especially applies to prophets, apostles, hierarchs, priests, sovereigns, especially of Orthodox peoples, and the closest servants of His all-powerful Providence. It pleased our Creator and Hero to determine from the beginning that the time of our earthly life should be a time of preparation for eternity, a time of learning, a time of struggle and exploits, a time of spiritual war, and not a time of inaction, idleness and vanity, and that our future immortal state would be a state of reward: either glory and eternal bliss, or a state of eternal dishonor and terrible torment for inaction, laziness, negligence and countless sins. I thank the Lord for the daily abundance of spiritual and physical light - the Light of the Holy Spirit and the light of the sun; for the abundance of pure air - elemental - and immaterial air for the soul, which is the Holy Spirit - God! Thank God that He gives you opportunities and opportunities to serve Him in the face of the poor, the sick and various unfortunate people; for by serving them, you are serving Christ Himself. “Because you have made one of these least of my brethren, you have made one with me” (Matthew 25:40). It is remarkable that many diseases and sores lead to the renewal of the body, or some parts or extremities of it, for example, wounds and boils, skin suppurations and rashes cleanse the blood, etc. Three fingers of my right hand hurt - they became inflamed, they festered greatly, they hurt for two weeks; at the end of it all, there was a perfect improvement of the insides, excellent health, lightness of the whole body. And two weeks ago - nervousness, irritation throughout the body, extreme sensitivity and pain in the extremities of the arms. Glory to God, who punishes and has mercy, who kills in order to give life. “He will not live unless he dies” (1 Cor. 15:36). Some of the fingers died through abscesses and pus, and in its place was a renewed part, a new skin, a renewed finger. III. Longsuffering and the truth of God in the restoration of fallen man (Lord Judge and Rewarder) One of the many perfections of God is His long-suffering, which extends to all sinful verbal creatures - to the fallen angels and the fallen human race. One cannot be amazed at this property of God - it is so great, meek, wise, saving and at the same time formidable, terrible in its consequences when it is used for evil. You cannot, I say, be surprised when you remember the infinite holiness and truth of God, for which even one unrighteous thought, one instantaneous feeling of malice in rational creatures is disgusting - when you remember the wise, wonderful harmony and endless beauty of all creatures, visible and invisible: the beauty of the sky, sun, moon and stars - the beauty of all earthly nature, all earthly creatures, animate and inanimate, verbal and dumb - especially the top of God's creations on earth - man, a spiritual-sensual being, adorned with a rational, immortal and free soul and a compliant, slender, beautiful body. Having imagined all this harmony and beauty of creation, the unchangeable order in the existence and life of everything created, you are perplexed and amazed at the thought of how the all-perfect, all-powerful, wise, righteous Creator, the Trinitarian God tolerates the ugly, senseless, disorderly, harmful for many, many lives of people who go in their lives and deeds contrary to their Creator and their reason, conscience, the feeling and wise will of the Creator, causing countless evil to many people like themselves and introducing confusion and groaning into inanimate nature itself, not to mention the people themselves, whose misfortunes and groans are heard everywhere and whose blood flows in rivers. But how salutary are the consequences of this long-suffering and mercy for reasonable, intelligent and repentant sinners who profess the Christian faith - the Gospel! How many were and are saved thanks to this long-suffering! How many sinners and sinners who were pardoned for faith and repentance entered heaven! How many times each and every one of us has been saved and is being saved from the righteous wrath of God, from sorrow and oppression and the present eternal torment - how many have been saved for faith and repentance! Oh, what marvelous properties are these in God—mercy and patience! How they encourage and revive every repentant sinner! So the thief came down from the cross and straight to heaven for faith in the Crucified One and for one-hour repentance! Here is a harlot, known throughout the city, with tears of repentance she was cleansed from the filth of sin and became chaste and entered heaven; behold, the publican who repented received mercy and was awarded eternal life with all his household; behold, Lazarus, poor and sick after death, is carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom, for his sins have been cleansed by illness and suffering; How many sinners, known and unknown, sinners who repented, have been pardoned in the space of centuries of Christian history! Only the unrepentant perished and are perishing, like Judas, Herodias, Annas and Caiaphas, Nero, Decius, Caligula, Juliana, Domitian and other inhuman persecutors of Christianity, just as atheists like Tolstoy and his associates are perishing now; murderers and suicides, bitter and unrepentant, drowning to the end in the uncleanness of adultery, or proud modern Pharisees, hard-hearted rich people, collecting for themselves rather than getting rich in God, thieves and predators, building up their wealth and wealth on the misfortune of their neighbors; starters and successors because of the power and wealth of bloody wars. You truly cannot be amazed at the mercy and long-suffering of God - it is so kind, touching and saving for many, many! Now is the time for fasting and repentance! How many great and greatest sinners receive from God forgiveness of sins into life and mercy and renewal of life - for faith and sincere repentance and for the sake of uncondemned communion of the Most Pure Mysteries of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, for “His blood cleanses us, according to the Apostle, from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Only the cold, insensitive, unbelieving, unrepentant and “despising the Blood of the Covenant” (Heb. 10:29) perish. I praise You, Lord, long-suffering and all-merciful! Do not let me perish for the sake of my countless sins, but be patient with me and allow me to please You and save my soul and the souls of many, many repentant sinners. Wake up! God’s long-suffering towards demons and sinful people is marvelous; countless, the most vile and terrible, disastrous iniquities have been committed and are constantly being committed by them on earth, to the insult of the all-good and omnipotent Lord God; and He has been long-suffering to the kingdom of Satan until now; He endures, does not destroy the wicked, and even gives sinful people health, wealth, beauty, prosperity, glory, and childbearing; does not destroy them with floods, famines, pestilences, wars, earthquakes, but spares them and spares them in every possible way, expecting their admonition, conversion, repentance, salvation - and if they do not come to their senses and repent, they will be subjected to even greater and more severe punishment. “He who offends, let him offend again, and the foul, let him be defiled still, and the holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to reward everyone according to his work (Rev. 22:11-12). “He will not break a broken reed (a repentant person) and he will not quench the smoking flax (with the fire of contrition and spiritual grace), the Dondezh will lead to victory in judgment” (Matthew 12:20), (until he makes us conquerors of sin). Glory to You, Lord, Shepherd and Visitor of our souls, long-suffering to us sinners! I am this crushed reed, I am this smoking flax (through faith and repentance). So far I have not been destroyed, I have not been crushed by righteous anger, so far I have been burning and have not gone out. – By giving us the most pure Body and life-giving Blood for food and drink, the Lord immeasurably magnified our nature through unity and deification, and prepares us for the most perfect unity with Himself in the eternal days of His Kingdom. As soon as you fall, rise up and be saved. What immeasurable goodness of the Lord! What boundless mercy! What a convenience to salvation! The Lord does not reject the sinner until his last breath. The Lord knows our weakness, our inclination towards any sin from infancy; He also knows the wiles of the bodiless enemies who seduce us into sin, and is patient with us, waiting for repentance, struggle and correction, and good deeds. Don't be lazy! Great is my sinfulness, countless are my secret falls, but great is the long-suffering of God upon me—countless is the mercy of the Lord towards me, who forgives me for faith and repentance all my iniquities, who renews me, protects and saves me every day and hour. I thank the Lord continually. All my hope is in God’s mercy alone and in my immeasurable merits before the righteousness of the Heavenly Father, my Lord Jesus Christ. “Behold, I believe, save me, for You are my God and Creator. May faith instead of works be imputed to me, O my God” (Eighth Morning Prayer). The Lord is indescribably merciful and long-suffering to me! Without number I sin every day and without number the Lord forgives me my sins for repentance. My sins are never overcome by His goodness. He has mercy, forgives, cleanses, pacifies. How many times do I die in sins every day, and how many times do I rise from the dead every day through faith, repentance and secret prayer! How much generosity of my Lord, mercy and long-suffering I see in myself every day and hour! Oh, the unspeakable goodness of God, surpassing mind and word! Amen. Oh, God's righteous and correct shovel! How many will you seize and separate the chaff from the wheat? What a countless number of these chaff! Orthodox Christians! Do you know, do you believe, do you understand that the Lord God constantly looks at us - at our thoughts, desires, intentions, actions and judges every person righteously? Do you remember that our conscience is a sign of the truth of God testing and guiding us, and according to our conscience we will be judged on the day of judgment and according to the Gospel of the Lord? Do you remember, this is repeated many times by the prophet and king David: “The Lord comes to judge the earth in righteousness and the people with righteousness.” If you don’t remember, this is how I remind you (Ps. 97:9). We live and work before the bright eyes of the all-seeing God, who evaluates and evaluates all our desires, secret intentions, thoughts, words and deeds, and those who sincerely work in fulfilling His holy and blessed commandments will be rewarded in abundance. IV. The Omnipotence of God in the Restoration of Fallen Man (The Lord is King and Conqueror) Great is the evil sown and sown in the world by Satan and his army, but the good given and sown by God and His saints. angels, St. The Church and faithful people, more, more victorious, more fruitful - and finally all enemies will be defeated by the Lord and His faithful people; “It is fitting for Him to reign, Dondezhe will put all enemies under His feet; the last enemy will be eliminated—death” (1 Cor. 15; 25, 26). “Be bold, be bold, people of God, for He will conquer the enemies, for He is omnipotent” (1st dogma). To create a world so great, diverse and endless, it was enough for God to just say the word - and everything became in all wondrous order and beauty. - “To that speech - and it was. He commanded it and was created” (Ps. 32:9); just as accurately, destroying and destroying it is a matter of one word; he speaks and he will not, he commands and everything will be destroyed. For Him, the entire immensity of the worlds, their existence with everything that is in them and on them, is like nothing; all people before Him are like locusts, according to the word of the prophet Isaiah. “All the elements, says the Apostle, are burned - they will be destroyed; the whole earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10). The Resurrection of Christ from the dead, the annual, solemn, all-joyful and weekly celebration of it, assures everyone obviously and, so to speak, tangibly - in the future life, in the life of our souls after death and in the future general resurrection of our bodies from the dust of the earth and in their wondrous transformation, in the image of the risen Body of Christ. “Now we see God as if in a mirror, fortune-telling; then face to face; Now I understand in part, but then I will know, just as I was also known” (1 Cor. 13:12).