Слово подвижническое

If anyone wants to truly surrender himself to the Lord in order to receive the promise of the Kingdom, then, since the evil one resists in all ways, attacking every soul in many different ways, first of all, everyone must accept strong faith and firm hope, so that they can extinguish the kindled arrows of the evil one. Therefore, let the opponent use thousands of means, wanting to weaken the will, to distract it from hope and love for the Lord, variously attacking the soul or, through the spirits of malice, causing it internal sorrows, or infusing evil, vain, impermissible and nasty thoughts into it, bringing to mind previous sins, even condemning the soul, so that its will becomes relaxed at the thought that it is impossible to receive salvation (and through this the soul plunges into hopelessness, reasoning that from herself these absurdities of vain and evil thoughts are born in the heart, and are not implanted in her by an alien spirit that carries sin inside her, while this thought is inspired by the malice of the enemy, which, in order to bring the soul to despair, does not want to make it known that in the soul there is a spirit of worldly error alien to God); Let also bodily labors lead to weakness, or people inflict reproaches and sorrows. If the evil one tries to overcome the soul with all this, let a person not lose hope in the Lord, but each time let him cleave more and more to Him, as to the only good, humane one who can heal spiritual infirmities, always loving Him, thinking about Him, and reasoning within himself like this: “If I retreat from God and leave the right ascetic life, then where can I come, if not to destruction, as soon as I surrender the advice of the evil one? So, if the evil one daily shoots thousands of flaming arrows, vicious passions, absurd and crafty thoughts at each of the brethren in order to seduce from the path of righteousness and lead to relaxation and despair, then all the more must one resort to God and place hope in Him. For He wants the souls who resort to Him to be tested in this way, and in fact it becomes known that they, having hated everything, loved the one God, and having endured much evil from the malice of the enemy for the fact that they were approaching the one God and doing His will, they acquired an even greater commitment to Him and, despising thousands of deaths, they loved the one God, desiring to be heirs of Him alone, they loved the one God, recognizing all things as unimportant their efforts and daily labors and exploits and realizing that they cannot do anything worthy of the expected benefits. For the thousands of years of this age are the same in comparison with the eternal and imperishable world, as if someone took one grain of sand from the whole multitude of sea sands. So limitless, endless and unchangeable is the age of the righteous and the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, such souls, who labored intelligently, who waited with such hope, who went through every sorrow in the hope of the Lord and firmly held on to such hope, will not be ashamed, but will receive eternal and true life, having proven themselves proficient in temptations, according to what was said: “Who will separate us from the love of God; whether it be sorrow, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or trouble, or sword...” (Rom.8:35). And again: “...tribulation makes patience workable, and patience is a skill, and a skill is hope” (Rom. 5:3-4). And the Lord said: “In your patience gain your souls” (Luke 21:19); and again: “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13). Therefore, all the sorrows caused by the evil one, if a person endures them courageously, finding support and confirmation in hope and generosity, make him even more good-natured. For consider this: if they made you the only king of the whole earth and you alone were given the treasures of the universe, and you alone reigned and possessed the universe from the time the human race was created until the end of the age, would you really exchange true, limitless, eternal life and the Kingdom of Heaven, which has no end or succession, for this? It is obvious that if you think sensibly, you will say: “No, let it not be that I exchange the limitless Kingdom for a perishable one”; just as the Lord said: “What... is it good for a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul; or what will a man give for his soul? (Matthew 16:26). Therefore, the whole world, and its kingdom, and money and glory, is more precious and more worthy than one soul. That is why the Kingdom of Heaven is precious to us, because God did not deign to make a single creature, neither the sky, nor the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor the earth, nor the sea, nor any other visible creature, a partaker of His nature and lift it up to the Father, except only man, who loved Him above all. So, if, having weighed with common sense the great creatures of the world, or wealth, or the earthly kingdom itself, you do not agree to exchange the eternal and Heavenly Kingdom of life for them; then how do many exchange it for pitiful and insignificant things in the world, for example, for some desire of this world, or for vain glory, or for vile self-interest? For whoever loves anything in this world and becomes attached to any worldly and perishable thing, exchanges the Kingdom of Heaven for that thing. Whoever loves something becomes God for him, as it is said: “For if anyone is overcome, he will work for this” (2 Pet. 2:19). But whoever really desires immortal life and desires the Heavenly Kingdom must become higher and greater than everything that is in this age, extend beyond all the limits set by the world, and above all earthly glory, break all the bonds of matter, love the heavenly glory of Christ, and not mix anything else with this love, and not love anything in this age, or in this life. Whoever has truly accepted true love for God, like a two-edged sword, cuts off all other love of this world and dissolves all material bonds. Such a soul cannot be held by anything visible: neither pleasure, nor fame, nor wealth, nor the bonds of carnal love, nor anything material; on the contrary, the soul that loves the one God loves nothing else in this world except Him, but in order to depend on Him alone with all its love and will and be attached to Him alone, it overcomes and overcomes all earthly and material love. The double-edged sword is the love of the Spirit acquired by one’s own worthless love. This love, like a sword, can cut through any substance, extend beyond all earthly limits, combine with the one God and fulfill His will in everything. Therefore, great deeds and intense labors are needed in order to reap the great promises of eternal life; For this, a person must completely surrender himself to the Lord, as it is written, with all his heart and all his strength, strength and will (Matthew 22:37), and depend on Him and crucify himself soul and body unceasingly and unremittingly in all His holy commandments, so that those who love God and want to be worthy of a holy life can receive the promised life. If in the earthly, transitory and perishable kingdom great efforts, efforts, labors and worries arise, so that those who wish can prosper and with some honor achieve transitory glory or power, then all the more with all zeal should one work, worry and strive for the eternal, ageless and imperishable Kingdom, out of joy alone to inherit such immortal glory. Does it really seem fair to you that earthly and transitory things and perishable glory require such efforts and labors, but in order to acquire the hope of ageless and endless centuries of reigning with Christ, even this short time of your stay on earth should not be used for labors and exploits, so that you can subsequently reign for whole centuries in God? I think that even to the most short-minded person gifted, it will seem a clearly fair idea: it is better to struggle for a short time and be in the struggle in order to win victory forever, than to spend a short time not valiantly, but being pampered and indulging in earthly pleasures, and suffer defeat and eternal shame. For when someone devotes his life to good deeds and to everything that is required in Scripture, then every word, scripture and writing, even the books of non-Christian philosophers, proclaim this, praising such a person and being magnified by him, and every tongue testifies to him that his deeds agree with what is required in Scripture. He is a true philosopher before God who always resists his evil desires. And whoever adorns himself and boasts with the plausible name of wisdom, but does not subjugate his desires, will, without a doubt, be recognized as unwise and stupid, after being tested in unreasonable passions. So, a man of God should not indulge in verbosity, but be attentive to the cause of truth, exercise and spend his life in such activities as are prescribed by the Holy Scriptures; because in God's Scripture, as well as in worldly books, good deeds are spoken of everywhere, and punishments for bad morality are defined. Therefore, if you spend your life in valiant deeds of virtue, behave well and honestly, then everyone will talk about you, and your memory will be proclaimed to everyone who spends their life in the same deeds of virtue praised by all. So, let us make an effort to always live according to the commandments of the Lord in the hope of receiving an inheritance of so many blessings and we will always wait for the communion of the Spirit, so that, having been sanctified here in soul and body and, through the communion of the Spirit, having fulfilled all the commandments, we may become worthy of Christ; and thus having been vouchsafed, through the communion of the Spirit, to become sons of the Heavenly Father, having become heirs of God and, according to the apostolic word, joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17), we are vouchsafed to participate in eternal blessings with Christ for endless ages! Amen. You might be interested in: