Слово о страхе Божием и о любви Божией

Man's service to God, ordained by God, is clear and simple. But we have become so complex and crafty, so alien to the spiritual mind, that we need the most careful guidance and instruction for the correct and pleasing service of God. Very often we begin to serve God in a way that is contrary to God’s establishment, forbidden by God, and which brings harm rather than benefit to our souls. Thus, some, having read in the Holy Scriptures that love is the most sublime of the virtues (1 Cor. 13:13) that it is God (1 John 4:8), immediately begin and intensify to develop in their hearts a feeling of love, to dissolve their prayers, thoughts of God, and all their actions. God turns away from this unclean sacrifice. He demands love from a person, but true, spiritual, holy love, and not dreamy, carnal, defiled by pride and voluptuousness. It is impossible to love God otherwise than with a heart purified and sanctified by Divine Grace. And Love for God is a gift of God: it is poured into the souls of true servants of God through the action of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). On the contrary, that love, which belongs to the number of our natural properties, is found in sinful damage, which embraces the entire human race, the entire being of each person, all the properties of each person. Let us strive in vain to serve God, to unite with God through this love! He is holy, and rests among the saints alone. He is independent: man’s efforts to accept God into himself are fruitless when there is still no good will of God to dwell in man, although man is a God-created church, created for the purpose that God should dwell in him (1 Cor. 3:16). This church is in sad desolation: before consecration it needs renovation. The premature desire to develop in oneself a feeling of love for God is already self-delusion. It immediately removes one from correct service to God, immediately leads into various errors, and ends in damage and death of the soul. We will prove this with the Holy Scriptures and the writings of the Holy Fathers; Let us say that the procession to Christ begins and takes place under the guidance of the fear of God; finally, we will show that the love of God is that blissful peace in God into which those who have completed the invisible path to God enter. The Old Testament - in it the truth is depicted in shadows, and events with the outer man serve as an image of what in the New Testament takes place in the inner man - tells of the terrible execution that Nadab and Abihu, the two sons of Aaron, the priests of the people of Israel, suffered. “Each of them,” it is said in the book of Leviticus, “took his censer, put incense into it, and brought strange fire before the Lord, which the Lord did not command to bring.” Only the consecrated fire, kept in the Tabernacle of the Testimony, could be used during the priestly service of the Israelites. “And fire came out from the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev. 10:1-2). The alien fire in the censer of the Israeli priest depicts the love of fallen nature, alienated from God in all its properties. The execution of an impudent priest depicts the killing of a soul that recklessly and criminally sacrifices unclean lust to God. Such a soul is struck by death, perishes in its self-delusion, in the flames of its passions. On the contrary, sacred fire, which alone was used in sacred rites, signifies gracious love. The fire for worship is not taken from fallen nature - from the Tabernacle of God. “Fire, descending into the heart,” says Saint John Climacus, “restores prayer. When she rises and ascends to heaven, then the descent of fire into the upper room of the soul takes place” 13. “Behold, all of you,” says the Prophet, who “walk”, that is, are guided in your life by “the light of your fire, and the flame” of your fallen nature, “kindled it,” instead of extinguishing it, you will all perish in the fire and flames of hell. By wrong and criminal action in yourself, “you liquefy the fire and strengthen” for yourself the “flame” of Gehenna (Is. 50:11) 14. The New Testament also teaches the same thing with the parable of one who entered a marriage in non-wedding attire, although the one who entered was one of those invited. The king said to the servants, pointing to the unworthy: “Having tied his hand and nose, take him and throw him into the outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13). Tying hands and feet means taking away any opportunity for spiritual success. Exactly: one who has taken the wrong direction comes to this state, rushing straight from the state of sinfulness, and still in this state, to love, which brings about the union of man with God, but of a man who has already been purified by repentance. Plunging into utter darkness signifies the descent of the mind and heart into delusion and self-delusion. With delusion and self-delusion, every thought, every feeling is completely gloomy, completely hostile to God. The servants to whose power the unfortunate man surrenders are demons: although they are infected with an insane hatred of God, they remain His servants together according to His unlimited omnipotence and wisdom; they take possession only of those people who, due to their arbitrary behavior, surrender to the power of demons. One who has entered into a direction forbidden by God, as one carried away by self-conceit, as one who has arbitrarily rejected obedience to God, surrenders to this power. Holy love is exalted and glorified in the Holy Scriptures. The Apostle Paul, having enumerated the gifts of the Holy Spirit in his first letter to the Corinthians, mentioning the gifts of miracles, prophecy, reasoning of spirits, knowledge of different languages, said: “Be zealous for great gifts: and even after excellence I will show you the way” (1 Cor. 12:31). What could be higher than a prophet, a miracle worker, speaking in foreign languages ​​by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and not by ordinary human learning? “Even if I speak with the tongues of men and angels,” answers the great Paul, “I am not an imam of love, like a ringing brass, or a clanging cymbal. And even if an imam has prophecy, and has all the secrets and all the mind, and even if an imam has all the faith, even if he has given up mountains, but I am not an imam of love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give up my body, it will be burned, but love will not be of any use to me. Love will no longer disappear, if prophecies will be abolished, if the pagans will fall silent, if reason will be destroyed. We understand in part, and we prophesy in part: when that which is perfect comes, then that which is in part will be done away with” (1 Cor. 13:1-3, 8-10). What is perfect? “Love is the soz” (totality) of “perfection” (Col. 3:14). One must achieve perfection in all virtues in order to enter into the perfection of all perfections, into their fusion, into love. “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). “God is loving, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:16). “We understand this, because we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit to eat” (1 John 4:13). The only true sign of the achievement of love, given to us by the Holy Spirit himself, is the clear presence of the Holy Spirit in us. He who has not become the temple of the Holy Spirit, let him not flatter himself, let him not deceive himself: he cannot be the abode of love, he is alien to it. Love is poured into our hearts along with the Holy Spirit. She is His property. In whomever the Holy Spirit descends, His characteristic is love (Rom. 5:5). “Whoever acquires love, at the same time puts on God Himself,” said Saint Isaac the Syrian 15. Perhaps they will object to this: “We are Christians; we are renewed by holy baptism, by which all the ailments of fallen nature are healed, the image and likeness of God is restored in their original grace, the Holy Spirit is implanted in man, the damage to properties, and therefore love, is destroyed.” So! But the grace-filled state of renewal and restoration of being, delivered by holy baptism, needs to be maintained by living according to the Gospel commandments. “If you keep My commandments,” said the Lord, “you will remain in My love. You will be in me and I will be in you. Just as the rod cannot produce fruit for itself unless it is on the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. If anyone does not abide in Me, he will be cast out like a rod and dry up, and they will gather it up and put it in the fire, and it will be burned up” (John 15:10, 4, 6). He who does not maintain the acquisitions bestowed by holy baptism and by living according to the commandments loses what he has acquired. “The indescribable and terrible glory,” says St. John Chrysostom, “delivered by baptism, remains in us for one or two days; then we extinguish it, bringing upon it a storm of everyday worries and covering the rays with thick clouds” 16. Having come to life again through baptism, we again mortify ourselves by life according to the flesh, life for sin, for earthly pleasures and acquisitions. The Holy Apostle Paul said: “We are not of the flesh, but should live according to the flesh. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Wisdom for the flesh is death” (Rom. 8:12, 8, 6). The grace of baptism remains without effect, like a bright sun hidden by clouds, like a precious talent buried in the ground. Sin begins to act in us with all its force or even stronger than before receiving baptism, depending on the degree to which we indulge in sinfulness. But the spiritual treasure given to us is not completely taken away from us until death, and we can reveal it again in all its power and glory through repentance 17 . Repentance for a sinful life, sadness about voluntary and involuntary sins, the struggle against sinful habits, the effort to defeat them and sadness about their forced defeat, forcing ourselves to fulfill all the Gospel commandments - this is our lot. We must ask God for forgiveness, reconcile with Him, make amends for infidelity with faithfulness to Him, and replace friendship with sin with hatred of sin. Those who are reconciled are characterized by holy love. We are not so much looking for it as God is looking for us to become capable of accepting it and to accept it. Having exposed the error of one who was satisfied with himself due to his conceit and blindness, calling him to zealous repentance, the Lord uttered the following consolation and promise: “Behold, I stand at the door, and the truth is: if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and I will sup with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also conquered and sat with My Father on His throne” (Apoc. 3:20-21). This is what all-holy Love says. The feeling of love that a sinner ascribes to himself, who never ceases to drown in sins, which he ascribes to himself unnaturally and proudly, is nothing more than one deceptive, forced play of feelings, an unconscious creation of daydreaming and conceit. “Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him” (1 John 3:6) - God, Who is “Love”. Let us turn to the citizens of deserts, dens, and abysses of the earth, to those of the people “of whom the whole world is not worthy” (Heb. 11:38), to the venerable monks who were engaged in the highest of sciences, the science brought by the Lord from heaven. This science is the knowledge of God and, through true, experienced knowledge of God, the knowledge of man. The wise men of this world have worked and continue to work unsuccessfully to acquire this knowledge in the light of their own minds, darkened by the fall. The light of Christ is needed here! Only with the shining of this light can a person see God, see himself. Illuminated by the light of Christ, the venerable desert dwellers worked in the village of their hearts, and found in it a precious bead - love for God. In their Divinely inspired writings, they warn us against the disasters that usually follow the premature search for love. Saint Isaac the Syrian discusses this subject with particular clarity. From his writings we extract several testimonies and most beneficial instructions. “The All-Wise Lord,” says the great Teacher of monastics, “delights that we eat spiritual bread by the sweat of our brow. He established this not out of malice, but so that indigestion would not occur and we would not die. Each virtue is the mother of the one that follows it. If you leave your mother, who gives birth to virtues, and strive to seek daughters before acquiring their mother, then these virtues become vipers for the soul. If you do not reject them from yourself, you will soon die 18. Spiritual intelligence will naturally follow the practice of virtues. Both are preceded by fear and love. Again fear precedes love. Anyone who shamelessly asserts that it is possible to acquire what follows without first practicing what precedes it has, without a doubt, laid the first foundation of destruction for his soul. The Lord has established such a path that the last is born from the first” 19. In the 55th Word, which serves as a response to the message of the Monk Simeon the Wonderworker, Saint Isaac says: “You wrote in your message that your soul loved to love God, but that you have not achieved the goal of loving, although you have a great desire to love. To this you add that the hermitage in the desert is desired by you, that purity of heart began in you, and that the memory of God greatly ignites in your heart, kindles it. If it is true, then it is great. But I wouldn’t want it to be written by you: because there is no order here. If you told for a question, then the order of the question is different. He who says that his soul does not yet have boldness in prayer because it has not overcome passions, how dare he say that his soul has loved to love God? There is no way to awaken in the soul divine love, following which you mysteriously walk in hermitage, if the soul has not conquered passions. You said that your soul did not conquer passions, but loved to love God: there is no order in this. He who says that he has not conquered passions, but loves to love God, I don’t know what he is saying. - You will object: I did not say “I love”, but “I love to love.” And this does not take place if the soul has not achieved purity. If you want to say an ordinary word, then you are not the only one speaking, but everyone is saying that they want to love God; This is said not only by Christians, but also by those who wrongly worship God. This word is usually spoken by everyone. But with such words only the tongue moves, while the soul does not feel what is being said. Many patients do not even know that they are sick. Malice is a disease of the soul, and delusion is the loss of truth. Quite a few, infected with these ailments, proclaim their health, and are praised by many. If the soul is not cured of malice and does not acquire the natural health in which it was created, if it is not reborn into health by the Spirit, then it is impossible for a person to desire anything supernatural, characteristic of the Spirit, because the soul, as long as it is in illness due to the passions, is not yet able to sense the spiritual with its sensations, and does not know how to desire it, but desires only from hearing and reading the Scriptures.” “The action of the cross is purely in accordance with the composition of nature, divided into two parts. One consists in enduring sorrows with the body, which is accomplished through the action of the spiritual power of jealousy and is called the actual act. The other is acquired by subtle work of the mind, constant thinking about God and staying in prayer, which is accomplished by the power of desire, and is called vision. The first, that is, the deed, cleanses the passionate part of the soul with the power of jealousy, while the second cleanses the mental part of the soul with the action of spiritual love or spiritual lust. Everyone, before perfect training in the first part, moves on to the second, carried away by its sweetness, not to say out of laziness, is subjected to anger because, without first killing his “bits” “even on the earth” (Col. 3:5), that is, without healing the weakness of his thoughts by patiently remaining in the practice of the reproach of the cross, he dared to dream in his mind the glory of the cross. This means what was said by the ancient Saints: “If the mind wants to ascend to the cross before the feelings of weakness are healed, then the wrath of God will befall it. The ascent to the cross then brings wrath when it is accomplished not by the first part of the endurance of sorrows or the crucifixion of the flesh, but by the desire for vision, the second part, which takes place after the healing of the soul. Such a mind is polluted by shameful passions and rushes towards dreams and thoughts of conceit. His path is blocked by a prohibition: because he did not first purify his mind with sorrows, did not subdue carnal lusts, but from hearing and writing he rushed straight ahead into a path full of darkness, being himself blind. And those whose sight is sound, who are filled with light and have acquired teachers full of grace, even those suffer day and night; their eyes are filled with tears; in prayer and weeping they work day and night because of the dangers of the journey, because of the more terrible rapids that they encounter, because of the images of truth that turn out to be mixed with its deceptive ghosts. God, the Fathers say, comes by itself when you don’t expect it. So! But if the place is clean and not defiled” 20. Anyone who wants to approach God to serve Him must surrender to the guidance of the fear of God. The feeling of sacred fear, the feeling of the deepest reverence for God, is indicated to us on the one hand by the immense greatness of the Being of God, on the other – by our extreme limitations, our weakness, our state of sinfulness, fall. Fear is also prescribed to us by the Holy Scriptures, which began to replace for us the voice of conscience and natural law, when they became darkened and began to make unclear, mostly false sounds, which completely replaced them when the Gospel appeared. “Work for the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling” (Ps. 2:11), the Holy Spirit teaches us; To those who are obedient to His command, He says: “Come, children, listen to Me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps. 33:12); proclaims the promise to bestow the fear of God on those who truly intend to become assimilated to God: “My fear will I put in their hearts, so that they will not depart from Me” (Jer. 32:40). The beginning of great science - active knowledge of God - is the fear of God. This science is called wisdom in the Holy Scriptures. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but understanding is good for all who do, and his praise endures for ever and ever” (Ps. 110:10; Proverbs 1:7). “The fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom, prospering peace and health and healing. The fear of the Lord is glory and praise and gladness and a crown of joy. The fear of the Lord is a gift from the Lord and is placed on the paths of love” (Sir. 1:18, 11, 13). Through the fear of the Lord we learn to evade sins: “The fear of the Lord is the source of life, and it causes mortals to evade the snare. The fear of the Lord hates unrighteousness, and the annoyances of pride, and the ways of the wicked. Be in the fear of the Lord all day long” (Prov. 14:27, 8:13, 23:17). Through the fear of the Lord we are guided on the path of God’s commandments: “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord; he will greatly delight in His commandments; His seed will be mighty on the earth” (Ps. 111:1,2). “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways” (Ps. 127:1). “The Angel of the Lord will encamp around all those who fear Him, and will deliver them. Fear the Lord, all your saints, for there is no hardship for those who fear Him” (Ps. 33:8, 10). In vain, dreamers filled with conceit and self-delusion abhor the fear of God, as the property of despised slaves, when God calls us to fear, proclaims that He Himself will be our teacher of fear, that He will give us the spiritual gift of the fear of God. It is not low for a person, an insignificant creature, fallen, rejected, lost, who has internalized enmity towards God, to move from a state of enmity and destruction to a state of slavery and salvation. This slavery alone is a great acquisition! This slavery is already great freedom! Fear is prescribed to us as an essential means, necessary for us. Fear purifies a person, prepares him for love: we become slaves in order to legally become children. As we cleanse ourselves through repentance, we begin to feel the presence of God; from the sensation of the presence of God comes a holy sensation of fear. Experience opens up the heights of feeling. The feeling of the fear of God is high and desirable! When it acts, the mind often dulls its eyes, ceases to utter words, to produce thoughts: with reverent silence, which surpasses words, it expresses the consciousness of its insignificance and the inexpressible prayer that is born from this consciousness. Saint Isaac the Syrian describes this state excellently: “The humble-wise, when he approaches prayer or is worthy of it, does not dare to pray to God or ask for anything. He doesn't know what to pray for; he is silent with all his thoughts, waiting only for mercy and the will that will be spoken about him from that Greatness Whom he worships. His face is bowed to the ground, and the inner vision of his heart is raised to the exalted gates of the Holy of Holies. There is He whose habitation is darkness, dulling the eyes of the Seraphim, whose kindness prompts the legions to stand their ground, placing silence on all their ranks. His boldness extends only to the following words, only about this he dares to pray: “Lord, according to Thy will be done with me” 21. The fear of God is a gift from God. As a gift, it is requested through prayer. The holy prophet David wanted to be worthy of this gift and therefore begged God: “Put Thy word into fear for Thy servant, nail Thy fear into my flesh” (Ps. 119:38, 120), that is, my carnal desires. The fear of the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the holy prophet Isaiah enumerates as follows: “The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of vision and piety, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of the fear of God” (Is. 11:2). Our Lord Jesus Christ, who by His coming to earth brought peace from God and God’s favor to men, who became the Father of the next century and the Forefather of the holy tribe of those who are being saved, calling His children into love and union with Himself, offers, however, among other means, fear for the healing of our damaged nature. He threatens those who indulge in outbursts of anger and hatred with fiery hell; he who tramples conscience is threatened with prison; those who are carried away by unclean lusts are threatened with eternal torment (Matthew 5:22, 25, 26, 29). He who does not forgive his neighbors their sins from the sincerity of his heart proclaims that his sins will not be forgiven (Matthew 6:15). The lover of money and the sensualist is reminded of death, which can delight them when they do not expect it (Luke 12:16-20). The feat of martyrdom is sublime: it is inspired and nourished by love. But the Savior of the world, in the instructions that He gave to the martyrs, encourages them to courage and helps them in their feat through fear. “Fear not,” He says, “from those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul: fear rather than the Mighty One, who will destroy both soul and body in Gehenna” (Matthew 10:28). “Him, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:5). The Lord commanded the saving fear of God to all His followers in general, expressed in constant sobriety and vigilance over oneself. “Let your loins be girded,” He said, “and the lamps burning: and you are like a man who waits for his Lord when he returns from marriage, so that when he comes and pushes, it will be opened to Him. Blessed are the servants, for whom the Lord will find those who are watching” (Luke 12:35–37). “I say to everyone: watch” (Mark 13:37). The Gospel of Matthew majestically depicts the second, glorious coming of the Lord, His impartial and terrible judgment on tribes and peoples. This extraordinary picture, presented with extraordinary simplicity and clarity, involuntarily comes to life before the eyes of the mind, striking the heart with fear. Contemplating this picture, one can depict the state into which it brings the soul, in the words of Job: “You took away my horror and trembling, and shook my bones green: my hair and flesh were afraid” (Job 4:14-15). When judgment comes for the exiles from heaven, the land of exile and oath - the earth - will burn, and the sky will curl up like a garment (2 Pet. 3, 10; Rev. 6, 14). The dead of all times and peoples, excited by the life-giving trumpet - the Word of God - will rise from their graves and form an immense and innumerable assembly (1 Thessalonians 4:16; John 5:28). Regiments and armies of holy Angels will come to a terrible spectacle, to a great service. And the rejected angels will appear for judgment. The Son of God will sit on the throne of glory, terrible glory in its immense greatness. All intelligent creatures will be shocked with fear when they see their Creator, who called them into existence from nothingness by the one omnipotent Word. They will stand before That Word for Whom there is no impossible fulfillment. They will stand before That Life, in which, outside of It, there can be no other life. The Fathers rightly said that in this terrible time, all creation, if it had not been restrained by the omnipotence of God and left to itself, would have turned into insignificance 22. The righteous, having seen the perfect Truth face to face, will consider their truth to have no meaning, and sinners will condemn themselves with justification alien to the gospel mind. The fate of everyone for eternity will be decided. Before the onset of this judgment, the Divine Apostle confesses that he cannot be justified, although he does not know any sin behind him: because his Judge is God (1 Cor. 4:4). All saints, during their earthly wanderings, often come with pious memories and reflections to the Last Judgment of Christ - with timely, saving fear they protect themselves from the fear that will be aroused in the lost by despair; By condemning themselves in a timely manner, they try to gain justification in a timely manner, and by crying to turn away crying. Brethren! We, the weak and sinners, need, need, frequent remembrance of the second coming and the terrible judgment of Christ: such remembrance is the most reliable preparation. Terrible is the Judgment that awaits all people after the general resurrection, and terrible is the Judgment that awaits every person after his death. The consequences of both judgments are either desirable or disastrous. If earthly courts, in which the matter concerns one thing perishable and temporary, excite our concern, then the judgment of God should concern us even more. For what other purpose did the Lord announce it to us so clearly, if not for the purpose of arousing in us a soul-saving fear that could protect us from a sinful, careless life, in which is the condition of our destruction? The Monk Elijah, an Egyptian monk, who was silent in the Thebaid desert, used to say: “Three times frighten me: the time of the departure of the soul from the body, the time of God’s judgment, and the time of the saying that will follow about me from God” 23 . Is it necessary to warn that the teaching of all the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church about the fear of God is in agreement with the teaching of Holy Scripture, when the teaching of Holy Scripture serves as a source for the teaching of the Fathers, when both of these teachings have one source - the Holy Spirit? “The fear of God is the beginning of virtue,” says Saint Isaac the Syrian. “They claim that it is a product of faith, and is implanted in the heart when the mind withdraws from the cares of this world to gather its wandering thoughts from distraction into the incessant study of the future restoration... Manage to put the fear of God at the foundation of your journey, and in a few days you will find yourself at the gates of the Kingdom, without having to go on a long journey” 24. Between the instructions of St. Pimen the Great we read the following: “We need humility and fear of God as much as we need breathing. The three main deeds of a monk: fear God, pray to God and do good to one’s neighbor. When the bees are driven out of the hive by smoke, then their sweet labor is taken away: so carnal pleasure drives out the fear of God from the soul and destroys all its good deeds. The beginning and end of the spiritual path is the fear of the Lord. Scripture says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 110:10). And again, when Abraham built the altar, the Lord said to him: “Now I know that you fear God” (Gen. 22:12). To the brother’s question who says: “I am a partaker of all who fear You” (Ps. 119:63), the Great One answered: “The Holy Spirit says this about Himself.” He also conveyed the saying of Saint Anthony the Great about the Monk Pamva, that through the fear of God Pamva made himself the abode of the Holy Spirit 25. “The beginning of our salvation,” says St. Cassian the Roman, “is the fear of the Lord. They are given the beginning of conversion, and purification from passions, and the preservation of virtues in those who are guided on the path of perfection. When it penetrates into the human heart, it gives rise to contempt for everything material, oblivion of relatives and hatred of the world itself 26. In the same Word, explaining the commandment of the Lord: “Whoever does not accept his cross and comes after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38), the Monk Cassian reasons as follows: “Our cross is the fear of the Lord. Just as a crucified person can no longer convert or move his limbs according to the desire of his soul, so we must direct our wills and desires not in accordance with what pleases us and amuses us at the present time, but in accordance with the Law of the Lord, which it commands. Like someone nailed to the tree of the godfather, he no longer admires the present, does not think about his passions: he is not entertained by worries and worries about tomorrow; there is no desire to acquire property in it; he is not inflamed by any pride, any quarrelsomeness; does not grieve over present dishonors, no longer remembers past ones; although he is still breathing in the body, he considers himself in all respects already dead, directing his heart’s gaze to where he has no doubt to move: so we must be crucified by the fear of the Lord to all this, that is, we must be dead not only to carnal passions, but also to their very beginnings, to have the eyes of the soul directed to where we must hope for migration every minute. In this way we can acquire the mortification of all our lusts and carnal addictions” 27. One can easily see that the crucifixion on the cross of the fear of God described here by the Monk Cassian is the act called by Isaac the Syrian, which consists, in the words of the Apostle, in the crucifixion of the flesh “with passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24), which constitutes the first half of the spiritual path leading the Christian to his destined perfection. The Holy Scriptures, which teach us that “the fear of the Lord is pure, endure forever” (Ps. 18:10), also says, “that there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear to cause torment: fear not to be perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). The Holy Fathers explain this disagreement, which appears at a superficial glance, as follows: “Two are fears: one is introductory, the other is perfect; one is characteristic of beginners, so to speak, in piety, the other is the property of perfect Saints who have achieved the measure of love. For example: whoever does the will of God out of fear of torment is, as we said, still a beginner: he does not yet do good for the sake of good itself, but out of fear of punishment. Another fulfills the will of God because of the very love of God, loving the will of God itself, fulfills it in order to please God. Such a one knows what is essential good! Such a one has learned what it means to be with God! Such a person has true love, which the Saint calls perfect. This love brings him into complete fear: because he fears and remains faithful to the will of God, not out of fear of executions, not in order to avoid (eternal) torment, but because, as we said, having tasted the very sweetness of being with God, he is afraid of falling away, afraid of losing it. This perfect fear, acting out of love, drives out the introductory fear. “That is why it is said: “Perfect love casts out fear.” However, it is impossible to achieve perfect fear except through introductory fear” 28. The very greatness of God inspires holy, reverent fear in those rational creatures of God who, because of their purity and holiness, are worthy of the closest presence of God. “We glorify God in the council of saints; He is great and terrible above all those around Him” (Ps. 89:8). Should we, because we are sinners, not love God at all? No! Let us love Him, but as He commanded to love Himself; Let us strive with all our might to achieve holy love, but in the way that is shown to us by God Himself. Let us not indulge in deceptive hobbies and flattering self-conceit! Let us not arouse in our hearts the flames of voluptuousness and vanity, which are so abominable before God and so destructive to us! God commands us to love Himself in the following way: “Be in My love,” He says. “If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love: just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and I continue in His love” (John 15:9-10). The Son of God Himself, having become man, showed the image of this life and feat, “humbled Himself and became obedient even to the point of death, death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8). Let us reject the pride that ascribes virtues to us; Let us kiss the humility that reveals to us our fall and sinfulness. Let us prove our love for Christ by obedience to Christ; We will prove our love for the Father God by obedience to the Son God, Who “said not of Himself” to us, but declared to us what the Father commanded to proclaim, Whose “commandment is eternal life” (John 12:49, 50). “Have My commandments,” said the Lord, “and keep them, that is, you love Me. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. If you do not love Me, you will not keep My words” (John 14:21, 23–24). Fulfillment of the Savior’s commandments is the only sign of love for God accepted by the Savior. “For this reason, all those who pleased God did not please except by abandoning their truth, damaged by the Fall, and rushing to seek the truth of God, set forth in the teachings and commandments of the Gospel. In the truth of God they found love hidden from fallen nature. And the Lord, having commanded many things about love, commanded first to seek the truth of God, knowing that she is the mother of love” 29 . If we want to acquire love for God, let us love the Gospel commandments: let us sell our lusts and addictions, let us buy at the price of self-denial the village - our heart, which without this purchase cannot belong to us; let us cultivate it with the commandments and find the heavenly treasure hidden on it - love (Matthew 13:44). What awaits us in this village? – Works and illnesses await us, an adversary awaits us, who will not easily give us victory over himself; sin, living in us, awaits us to counteract us. He lives in the mind, he lives in the heart, he lives in the body. An intensified feat is needed to persuade the proud and blind mind to obey the commandments of Christ. When the mind submits to Christ, a new feat begins: the agreement of a corrupt, stubborn heart with the teachings of Christ, the subjugation of the heart to the teachings of Christ, to which it is hostile. Finally, if the mind and heart come to a state of obedience to Christ, the earth, destined for heaven, must also be drawn into it. Every step in our invisible struggle is marked by feat, marked by suffering, sprinkled with the sweat of intensified violence against oneself. Now we win, now we are conquered; then there is hope for the breaking of captivity, then again we see that our chains are strong, not in the least weakened by the means with which we thought to weaken them. We are overthrown by natural weakness, and weakness of will, and the darkening of the mind caused by a former sinful life, and the disorder of the heart, which has acquired vicious habits, and the desires of the body, which has tasted bestial pleasures and is infected with their lust; Fallen spirits are attacking us, wanting to keep us enslaved. This is the narrow and regrettable path, covered with thorns, along which prayerful crying before God leads a sinner to reconciliation with God, facilitated by deeds of repentance, deeds of humility, fulfillment of the Gospel commandments, inspired by the fear of God. The union of the fear of God with Divine love is excellently depicted by the Spirit-Bearing Fathers Isaac the Syrian and Simeon the New Theologian. With their beautiful words we decorate our wretched Word. “Repentance,” says Saint Isaac, “is given to men by grace upon grace. Repentance is our second rebirth from God. We expect that through repentance we will be given that which we received as a pledge by faith. Repentance is the door of mercy, open to those who earnestly seek it. Through this door we enter into God's mercy; Apart from this entrance, we will not find mercy: “For, according to the word of Divine Scripture, if we sin, we will be justified by His grace” (Rom. 3:23-24). Repentance is the second grace, and is born in the heart from faith and fear. Fear is the fatherly rod that controls us until we reach the spiritual paradise of blessings; when we reach there, he leaves us and returns. Paradise is the love of God, in which is the enjoyment of all beatitudes, where blessed Paul was nourished with food above nature. Having eaten there from the tree of life, he cried out: “Whose eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has the heart of man breathed what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Eating from this tree was forbidden to Adam according to the contract*) arranged by the devil. The tree of life is the love of God, from which Adam fell away, and joy no longer greeted him, but he worked and toiled in the land of thorns. Those who have lost the love of God, even if they walk correctly, eat the bread of sweat in their deeds, which the first-created was commanded to eat after it fell away. Until we find love, so long will our work on earth be thorns; we sow and reap among the thorns. Even if our sow were a sow of righteousness, we are nevertheless wounded by thorns every hour, and no matter how much we labor for righteousness, we live in the sweat of our brow. When we find love, then we feed on heavenly bread and are strengthened without deeds and labor. Christ is “the bread that came down from heaven and gave life to the world” (John 6:51,33). This is the food of Angels. Having found love, he eats Christ every day and hour. “Whoever eats of this bread,” He says, “which I have given, will live forever” (John 6:51). Blessed is he who eats the bread of love, which is Jesus. And that he who has love as food has Christ as food, God above all, John testifies to this, who says: “There is a God of Love” (1 John 4:8). Then, the one who lives in love enjoys the life that flows from God, and, being in this world, already here breathes the air of resurrection. This air is enjoyed by the righteous after the resurrection. Love is that Kingdom, the mysterious taste of which the Lord promised the Apostles. What is said: “Let you eat and drink at My table in My Kingdom” (Luke 22:30), if not love? This love is enough to nourish a person instead of food and drink. She is “wine”, gladdening “the heart of man” (Ps. 103:15). Blessed is he who drinks this wine. The intemperate drank it and became reverent; sinners drank and forgot the ways of their stumbling; the drunkards drank and became fasters; the rich drank and desired poverty; the poor drank and became rich in hope; the sick drank and became strong; The ignorant drank and became wise. – Just as it is impossible to cross the great sea without a ship, so no one can achieve love without fear. We can cross the stinking sea that lies between us and mental paradise in a ship of repentance, rowed with fear. If these oarsmen - fear - do not steer the ship of repentance, on which we sail across the sea of ​​the world to God, then we will drown in the stinking sea. Repentance is a ship; fear is its pilot; love is a divine haven. Fear introduces us into the ship of repentance and transports us through the stinking sea of ​​life, directing us to the Divine pier, to love, to which “all who labor and are burdened” (Matthew 11:28) strive through repentance. If we have achieved love, then we have achieved God; our journey is complete: we have landed on the island of that world where the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are.” The title of the second Word in the book of Saint Simeon, written in verse, contains the content of our entire Word, and therefore we place this title first: “From fear is born love; Through love, fear is eradicated from the soul, and love alone abides in the Soul, being the Divine and Holy Spirit.” The Saint begins his word like this: “How will I sing, how will I glorify, how worthily will I praise my God, who has overlooked my many sins? How can I look up to the sky? How can I open my eyes? How can I open my mouth, Father? How will I move my lips? How can I stretch my hands to the heights of heaven? What words can I come up with? What verbs will I bring? How dare I start a conversation? How can I ask for forgiveness of my immeasurable sins, my many sins? Truly I have done things that in no way deserve forgiveness. You know, Savior, what I say! I have surpassed all nature, I have done deeds that are unnatural; I turned out to be the worst of the dumb, the worst of all the animals of the sea, of all the livestock of the earth, truly the worst of reptiles and beasts, having transgressed Your commandments more than the nature of the dumb, having desecrated my body and dishonored my soul. How will I appear to You? How will I see You? How dare I, damned one, stand before Your face? How can I not run away from Your glory, from the light with which Your Holy Spirit shines? How can I not go into darkness alone, having done the works of darkness? And I will be excommunicated from many Saints! How can I endure Your voice, sending me into darkness? Hence, bearing the condemnation of my deeds, I am completely horrified, completely trembling. Possessed by fear and horror, I cry out to You: My Savior! I know that no one else has sinned before You like I have, and I have done the same things that I, the damned one, have done. I was the reason for the death of others. But I know this again, I am convinced of this, my God, that neither the greatness of sins, nor the multitude of sins, nor the impurity of deeds will ever surpass Your humane and great, greater than great, greater than words and greater than mind mercy, which You abundantly pour out on those who sin and those who repent with warmth. You purify them and enlighten them, and make them partakers of light, making them unenviously partakers of Your Divinity. You often talk with them, as with Your true friends, about things that are wonderful for the Angels and for human thoughts. O immeasurable goodness! O inexpressible love! That is why I fall down and cry out to You! Just as You accepted the prodigal and the harlot who came, so accept me, O Generous One, who repents from the soul. Having imputed, my Christ, the drops of my tears into springs that flow incessantly, wash my soul with them. Wash with them the defilement of the body caused by passions; Wash your heart from all wickedness: it is the root and source of all sin. Evilness is the sowing of the evil sower. Where it is located, there it vegetates and rises to heights, and grows many branches of wickedness and malice. Pluck out its roots from the depths, my Christ, and cleanse the fields of my soul and heart. Generous! Plant Your fear in them. Grant him permission to take root and grow satisfactorily, so that he may grow highly, multiplying by keeping Your commandments, hourly, and multiplying the flowing streams of tears. Soldering them more and more, he grows and rises. Along with fear, humility increases in proportion to it. All passions yield to humility, and with them the army of demons is driven away. All virtues are seen as following him, surrounding him like a queen, like a guardian mistress, friend and slave. When they gather and unite one with the other, then fear, planted by You, flourishes in their midst, like a tree near springs of water, and little by little gives off a strange color. I said strange, because every nature gives birth according to its kind, and the seed of all trees is in each according to its kind; Your fear produces both a color strange to nature and a fruit equally strange and alien to itself. This fear is naturally filled with lamentation, and it forces those who have acquired it to incessantly lament, as slaves worthy of many executions, as those awaiting the beating of death every hour, seeing the mortal sickle, not knowing the hour of death, having no hope, no notice of perfect forgiveness, but trembling at the limit, terrified of the end, because of the unknown of the saying that will follow at the judgment, O my God. The color produced by fear is inexplicable in appearance, even more inexplicable in image. He is seen as prosperous, but is immediately hidden, which is unnatural and not in order, which is above nature, beyond all nature. However, the color is beautiful, beyond any word, it delights my whole mind in its vision, not allowing me to remember anything about which fear brings knowledge, but then produces in me oblivion of all this, and quickly flies away. The tree of fear is again left without color. And I grieve, and sigh, and cry out to You intensely! And again I see color on the branches of the tree! O my Christ! Having my gaze fixed on one color, I do not then see this tree. But color more often appears and, attracting all of me to itself with lust, ends in the fruit of love. Again this fruit does not tolerate remaining on the tree of fear. On the contrary, when it ripens, then it appears alone, without a tree. Fear is by no means found in love, since, in contrast, the soul does not bear fruit without fear. Truly a miracle, beyond words, beyond any thought! The tree flourishes with difficulty and bears fruit, but the fruit, on the contrary, uproots the whole tree, and the fruit remains, remains alone. What is a fruit without a tree? I can't explain it at all. However, he remains, however he exists, this love without the fear that gave birth to it. This love is truly the greatest joy, it fills the one who has acquired it with joy and spiritual pleasure, it expels the person outside the world by sensation, which fear cannot do in any way. He, being inside the visible and inside the sensory, how can he put the one who has acquired fear away from everything and to copulate with the invisible through sensation (spiritual)? Truly there is no way. This color and fruit, generated by fear, are outside this world. Do they still delight the soul, and elevate it, and place it beyond this world? How, tell me, does this love deliver beyond the world? I definitely wanted to know this. This is inexplicable: Love is the Divine Spirit.” How does the change in heart happen? How does it make the incomprehensible transition from fear to love? Let us present the answer from the holy experience of the saints of God. Our contemporary and compatriot, the adornment and glory of later monasticism, George, a recluse of the Zadonsk monastery, a man who achieved Christian perfection, speaks of himself in a conversation of edifying power of attorney to his neighbor: “I want to say a few words about the essence of love. This is the most subtle fire, surpassing every mind and the lightest of all minds. The actions of this fire are quick and wonderful, they are sacred and pour out on the soul from the Holy, Omnipresent Spirit. This fire only touches the heart, every restless thought and feeling is instantly transformed into silence, humility, joy, and sweetness that surpasses everything. I have been frank with you about many things about myself: I intend to be frank again. I have spent here, in my solitude, it seems already six years, when the Lord was pleased to bring my heart into complete contrition. Then I thought that I was already lost and that the wrath of God would burn my law-breaking soul, despondent and careless... I fell into great exhaustion and could hardly breathe, but constantly repeated in my heart: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner. Suddenly, in an instant, all weakness disappeared, and the fire of pure love touched my heart: I was completely filled with strength, feelings, pleasantness and inexplicable joy; I was delighted to such an extent that I already wanted to be tormented, tormented, cursed at me; I wanted this in order to hold within myself the sweet fire of love for everyone. He is so strong and sweet that there is neither sorrow nor insult that he does not transform into sweetness. The more wood they put on the fire, the stronger the fire: this is how sorrows and sorrows inflicted by people affect us. The more attacks, the more the heart flares up with holy love. And what freedom, what light! There are no words to explain: I would rejoice if someone took away my eyes, so as not to see the vain light; I would be glad if someone took me as a criminal and put me in a wall, so that I would not hear voices, would not see the shadow of a man...” 30 “Love,” says Saint Isaac the Syrian, “does not know modesty, and therefore does not know how to provide its members with a form of decorum. Love is naturally characterized by the rejection of modesty and the forgetting of one’s own measures. Blessed is he who finds you—a haven of endless joy!” 31 God comes of itself at a time when we do not expect it and do not hope to receive it. But in order for God’s favor to follow us, we must first purify ourselves by repentance. In repentance all the commandments of God are combined. By repentance a Christian is led first into the fear of God, then into Divine love. Let John, the virgin and theologian, the disciple, “whom Jesus loved,” recline on the breasts of Jesus (John 21:20). May other Saints of God, confidants of holy love, join him! This is not our place. Our place is among the host of lepers, the paralytic, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the mad. We belong to their number according to the state of our souls, and among them we will approach our Savior. Our Mother, the Holy Church, places us with them, placing in the mouths of her children the touching prayers of the akathist to the Sweetest Jesus, imbued with a sense of awareness of their sinfulness. Our spiritual Mother gives us the right position, so that it will be all the more certain for us to receive mercy. The Lord adopted us as His sons through holy baptism; but we have violated the sacred union with Him by violating His holy commandments by an adulterous union with abominable sin. “The princes of Sodomstia, the people of Gomorstia” (Isa. 1:10), - this is how the Lord calls the people, after they fell into iniquity, the people about whom He announced before: “The portion of the Lord was his people Jacob, already His inheritance Israel” (Deut. 32:9). The prodigal son, having lived in a foreign country on his father’s estate, having been subjected to unspeakable misfortunes, when he began to think about returning to his father, then at the same time, guided by his own plight and the great wealth of his father, he destined for himself the most prudent course of action. “I have risen,” he said, pondering his intention, “I go to my father, and say to him: Father! sinned in heaven and before you: and your son is no longer worthy to be called: make me as one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:18-19). The son actually realized the humility formed in his thoughts, “and while I was still far off, his father saw him and was dear to him” (Luke 15:20). So we too, having lost in vain and sinful pursuits the beauty of adoption given to us by the Heavenly Father, when we decide to turn to Him, we must approach the throne of His glory and majesty with deep humility, with reverent fear. Our first action should be consciousness and confession of our sins, leaving a sinful life, entering into life according to the Gospel commandments. The soul of our prayers and other pious deeds should be a feeling of repentance. From the fullness of conviction, we must consider ourselves unworthy of love, unworthy of the name of sons and daughters of God. “Make me,” says the repentant prodigal son, “as one of your hired servants,” laboring in the field of repentance, under the supervision of the formidable overseer - fear. Let us not look for something the acquisition of which does not depend on us, for which we are not yet ripe. How long, like the centurion mentioned in the Gospel, are we “under the authority”; As long as we are dominated by sin and fallen spirits, we will testify and confess with the prudent centurion: “Lord, I am not worthy to come under my roof, but just speak the word, and my youth will be healed” (Matthew 8:8). You are most pure and holy, you rest among the pure and holy; but I, defiled, “are not worthy, but come under my roof.” “I think,” says Saint Isaac, “just as a son does not doubt about his father and does not ask him, saying: teach me art, or give me this and that, so a monk should not reason and ask God - give me this and that. He knows that God provides for us more than how much a father cares for his son. Consequently, we must bring ourselves into humility, weep over the reasons for our involuntary sins, committed by us either in thoughts or in deeds, and from a contrite heart say in the words of the publican: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” ... (Luke 18:13). Just as the sick son of a king does not say to his father: “Make me king,” but takes care of his illness, and upon recovery, the father’s kingdom automatically becomes his kingdom: so the repentant sinner, receiving the health of his soul, enters with the Father into the land of pure nature and reigns in the glory of his Father 32 . Amen. 1844. Sergiev Hermitage. *) kovy (obsolete) – insidious intentions, intrigues. Word 28, ch. 45, translated by Paisius Nyametsky. According to the explanation of St. Barsanuphius the Great, Answer 158. Callista and Ignatius Xanfopoulov, ch. 5. Kindness. Part 2. Callista and Ignatius, ch. 6. St. Nil Sorsky. Word 7. Alphabetical Patericon and Memorable Tales. Cassianus lib. IV. De institutis, renuntiantiam, cap. XXXIX. St. Avva Dorotheus. Lesson 4 about the fear of God. St. Macarius the Great, Discourse 37, ch. 2, 3. Letters of the recluse George, part 2, letter 37, edition 1860. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 55th. You might be interested in: