Поучение во вторник 11-ой недели. На слова Спасителя: «Вящшая закона: суд и милость и вера» (Мф.23:23).

Justice is almost always violated by human mercy, and mercy is eliminated by justice. On the contrary, in the Divine law, judgment and mercy are in a wonderful union. This union is an object of spiritual contemplation for the mind, overshadowed by Divine grace. The mind, allowed to such contemplation, comes into sacred delight and sings with David: “I will sing to You of mercy and judgment, Lord; I sing and understand in a blameless way” (Ps. 100:1-2). Why are human mercy and human justice at odds with each other, but mercy and judgment, flowing from the Gospel, in indissoluble union? Because human mercy and human justice are based on the fallen human mind, on his fallen will, on his fallen spirit. These mercy and justice bear the stamp of fall; these mercy and justice exude consequences worthy of their character. Both human mercy and justice are devoid of correctness, devoid of purity, devoid of holiness, defiled by sin. “Mercy and judgment”, communicated to man by the Gospel teaching, are based on faith in God, on living faith, expressed by deeds and all behavior. “Mercy and judgment” are meant “in the blameless way,” that is, they are comprehended only through blameless, pious living. “The best of the law: judgment and mercy and faith,” said the Savior of the world to the blinded righteous, distracting them from their own, destructive truth, from acting according to their own understanding and according to their own will, leading them to the saving truth of God, to actions according to the will and mind of God. Don't we, brothers, also need to pay attention to the instruction of the Lord? Have we ever considered this “great thing of the law”, the most important thing in the law, “judgment and mercy and faith”? Have we not managed in our lives without guidance from the instruction to which the Savior gave such significant significance? For this reason, wasn’t our activity a chain of errors, and wasn’t our behavior a constant, uninterrupted error? Living a life pleasing to God must be entirely based on faith. “The righteous shall live by faith” (Heb. 10:38), says Scripture: “The word of the Lord is righteous, all His works are in faith” (Ps. 33:4). “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). “Faith,” says Saint Peter of Damascus, “is the foundation of everything good, the door of the mysteries of God, an easy victory over enemies, a virtue more necessary than all other virtues, the wing of prayer, the reason for the indwelling of God in the soul” 119. Faith teaches us to direct all actions according to the commandments of the Gospel, and not according to the suggestions of fallen will and mind. Activities directed according to the Gospel gradually free a person from the predominance of passions. He ceases to be carried away and deceived; in his meek disposition, not disturbed by either anger or lust, there is the dominion of the mind, restored to power by Divine grace. “The Lord will guide the meek into judgment, He will teach the meek in His way” (Ps. 24:9). Strangers to this good deed of God are those who lead a sinful life, possessed, killed by their passions: “the wicked will not rise in their spirit to judgment, lower than the sinner to the council of the righteous” (Ps. 1:5); they will not receive spiritual intelligence, which is given only to the servants of God, with whom in due time the feat of the servants of God is crowned. “Lord, in Thy power the king, the mind of Thy servant, will rejoice, and in Thy salvation he will greatly rejoice” (Ps. 20:2), seeing himself victorious over passions, seeing himself restored in power, seeing the feelings of the heart obeying himself. Submission of the mind to God is the reason for the submission of the heart to the mind. When the mind submits to God, then the heart submits to the mind. This is meekness. What is meekness? Meekness is humble devotion to God, combined with faith, overshadowed by Divine grace: “For a king trusts in the Lord, and is not moved by the mercy of the Most High” (Ps. 20:8). The king, the mind, does not shy away from justice and prudence, as he did when he was enslaved to passions; he is not carried away either by anger, or by painful addictions, by expressions of love sickened by sin; is not carried away by the flattery of vanity, nor by the suggestions of conceit and pride; he does not weaken under the blows of sadness and despondency. He remains entirely in the teaching of the Gospel and governs himself in accordance with this teaching. From a correct view of himself, from correct action in himself, he receives a correct view of humanity, and begins to act correctly regarding humanity. Man was created good; holy peace of heart and constant goodness were his natural properties. They are shocked, they are disturbed by the fall, which has brought into the soul various ferocious passions. Passions are the cause of confusion. When man is recreated by the Redeemer, when our passions are curbed by His creative omnipotent power, together with the return to the mind of power over the heart, peace and goodness return to the heart. Like exiles from the fatherland, after a long absence they return to the heart, rejoice with each other, greet each other: “mercy and truth have been met, justice and peace have been greeted” (Ps. 84:11). We see the wonderful union of mercy with truth in the mode of action of the God-man: this mode of action is reflected in the behavior of the true disciples of Christ. Violation of goodness by anger and peace of heart by various passionate sensations always leads the soul into an incorrect state, is always associated with the loss of its power by the mind, is always a violation of prudence, a departure from spiritual reason. By faith, the one who has acquired judgment, or spiritual reason, through the medium of spiritual reason, puts on “the belly of generosity, kindness, humility, meekness and long-suffering” (Col. 3:12), brings to his behavior godly correctness and righteousness, controlling the forces of soul and body in accordance with the purpose of the Creator, cultivating his salvation and eternal bliss by his deeds, the deeds of faith, inseparable companions and cohabitants of the spiritual mind. “There is reason that precedes faith,” said Saint Isaac of Syria, “and there is reason that is born from faith. The reason that precedes faith is natural reason; the mind born of faith is spiritual mind" 120. As long as faith operates, as long as a person is guided by the commandments of the Gospel, so long does the spiritual mind shine in him. With the cessation of faith, activity according to the teachings of the Gospel is abandoned, activity begins according to one’s own considerations and according to the inspirations of the heart; the mind descends from the heights of a spiritual state into a carnal state, the feeling of goodness leaves the heart, passions irritated by their expulsion enter into it, the world is replaced by various disturbances. He who has experienced in his soul the opposite states outlined here will experience the essential importance of the Lord’s instructions, will experience the union of faith with spiritual intelligence and mercy. "The Greatest of the Law: Judgment and Mercy and Faith". The union of these virtues lies in the renewal and salvation of man. The Lord's instruction, so soul-saving for every Christian in particular, is especially useful and necessary for a Christian to whom the Providence of God has entrusted control over his brethren. Without observing the three mentioned virtues, neither godly, nor prudent, nor generally beneficial management is possible. The ruler, of necessity, becomes the playground of his passions and the instrument of those passions that drive his entourage, which they try to satisfy through the ruler. From here flow countless social disasters. Often the ruler himself dies under their attack; The society he controls always perishes or is damaged by terrible damage. Strong lands! Hear the instruction of the Lord, which was given to the righteous, the wise, the mighty of the earth: “She who shows the law: judgment and mercy and faith.” Fathers of families, spiritual and civil leaders, mentors of the people! Hear the Lord’s instruction: “She who shows the law: judgment and mercy and faith.” Hear this instruction and follow it. The ruler is obliged to restore, firstly, the legal, God-ordained governance within himself in order to gain power over himself. Otherwise, will he be able to refrain from actions to instill addictions and passions; Will it be possible to refrain from acting on wrong concepts? The consequence of such actions is the disorder of society; the consequence of such actions is private and public atrocities, often increasing to enormous proportions. Having acquired power over himself, the ruler must acquire power over the passions of secondary, subordinate stewards, so as not to be carried away by their passions, their false reason, their flattery, their slander, so that the ruler does not become a slave, so that power does not turn into a weapon. Only in the light of spiritual reason will he be able to expose guile, deceit, betrayal, malice, slander, and self-interest in his neighbors. When a ruler is carried away by the passion of his neighbor, he immediately loses a significant degree of his power, accepts incorrect views, judges one-sidedly and erroneously, and is led into the wrong direction, which gives rise to actions characteristic of him. And many rulers of the kindest heart, of the purest good intentions, even of deep piety, having lost judgment, submitting to evil and ill-intentioned influence, committed crimes and became the cause of grave and extensive disasters. There cannot be mercy where there is no judgment and justice. To perform deeds of mercy, one must be just; Justice alone, having given everything its due meaning, is capable of showing true mercy, and this “mercy, this mercy alone, is praised by God in the judgment” (James 2:13) of man. Partial actions, even if they have the appearance of the greatest good deeds, in essence always have the meaning of evil deeds: they crown vice, trample on virtue, trample on private and public good. “Do not judge personally,” said the Lord, “but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Do not be carried away by a sweet word, nor by a heavenly smile shining on your lips, do not be carried away by any appearance, do not judge from carnal wisdom, bring correctness and holiness to your mind, and judge people by their fruits (Matthew 7:16). “You judge according to the flesh” (John 8:15) from your false mind, from your sinfulness, and therefore judge erroneously, to the detriment of yourself and your neighbors. “If I judge,” said the Lord, “My judgment is true” (John 8:16). Let us strive to become instruments of God's judgment in our court, then our court will be cleansed of shortcomings; the more he will be cleansed from them, the more accurately we are guided by the commandments of the Gospel. The Gospel commandments both instruct a person to be correct in court and expose his omissions in court. Justice flowing from the spiritual mind is full of wisdom, calmness, goodness; it is alien to cruelty; it is not inflamed with anger at sinning people; it has compassion for them, has mercy on them; it firmly heals and curbs sins; it replaces senseless and inhumane executions with more effective measures, wise measures. "God! Give Thy judgment to the king,” the royal prophet prayed, “and Thy righteousness to the king’s son: judge Thy people in righteousness, and Thy poor in judgment.” He judges the poor of men, and saves the sons of the needy, and humbles the slanderer” (Ps. 72:1-2, 4). Judgment, or spiritual intelligence, is a gift from God. We strive for it through works of faith, we ask it from God through the prayer of faith. The holy king asked God for spiritual understanding for himself and for his son. An action worthy of emulation! Rulers of the earth! Ask God for this gift for yourself and for your subordinates. Having asked for this gift, exude true benefits to humanity through it! Find your own happiness in the happiness of your neighbors! Through judgment, curb the evil that is trying to seduce, deceive, trap, and destroy you! Through judgment, acquire the opportunity to evaluate virtue and true merit, acquire the opportunity to pour out mercy on those worthy of mercy, acquire the opportunity to protect yourself from a great moral crime: from approving and strengthening the enemies of virtue by pouring out mercy on them that is reckless and destructive to humanity. Serious sin is such mercy! And every Christian can and should say the prayer of the crowned Prophet about himself. By the name of the king he can mean his own mind, and by the name of the king’s son - the activity born of the mind. Under the name of people and the poor, he can mean the spiritual properties given to man by God, impoverished due to the fall. The false-named mind and the fallen angel who assists it, the parent and source of the false-named mind, are called the slanderer; they constantly try to show virtues and vices in a distorted form, contradict and oppose the Word of God, slander the Word of God, brazenly strive to present God's wisdom as foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18-25). God! Give Thy judgment to the king, and give Thy righteousness to the king's son: for he who enforces the law is judgment and mercy and faith. Amen. St. Peter of Damascus. O hedgehog, how can anyone acquire true faith? Book 1, Kindness, part 3 You might be interested in: