Ten Conversations

With the addition of two conversations, one by John Chrysostom, and the other by Amphilochius of Iconia and with the teaching of John of Damascus about the most pure body of the Lord Conversation 1. On the Gospel of Luke of the third week, which for its contents the Lord has a widow's boy brought to life; It also means that we should be like-minded and compassionate with each other. The great Paul, showing the Divine and universally beneficial faith and preaching the actions, rewards, fruits and power of it, begins from the most ancient centuries by faith, saying, we mean, to be perfected forever by the word of God, in which from those things which are not seen to be seen (Heb. 11:3); It will end with the coming universal resurrection and the perfection of the saints; it cannot be more perfect. Between those who worked miracles by faith and about them who co-witnessed, creating a class, and this says: for by faith she received her wife from the resurrection of the dead, who were Sarraptian and Sumanite, and who died from the Prophet Elijah again received her son alive; The Sumanite is hers from Elisha. Both the one and the other showed great faith in their deeds. Sarraptian, by faith expecting the abundance of food promised from the Prophet, and first fed his children with a handful of flour and a small part of the oil that she had only for food, after which she expected death for herself and her children. Moreover, even then, as her son, during the coming of Iliin, fell ill and died. For, as he said, the son of the lady of the house fell ill, and his illness became so strong that his spirit did not remain in him (1 Kings 17:17). She did not drive away the Prophet then, she did not murmur against him, she fell further from the piety that she had learned from him, but she confessed it, and made her own iniquities the cause of suffering, calling the man of God Elijah to this occasion, condemning herself more, and saying to him boldly rather than abusively: What is it to me and to you, man of God? Have you come in to remember my iniquities and kill my son? (1 Kings 17:18). You are light, I say, by participation, like a servant of the light of truth, and when you came, you revealed my secret sins, and this is what killed my son. You see the faith of the stranger’s wife, you see her humility. For this reason and by election, she deservedly received the beginning from God, and was deemed worthy to be the prescriber of the faith and the calling of languages; Finally, she received her son alive. The Sumanite woman showed faith because she spoke to her husband about Elisha, and because she prepared the Prophet for him to receive, and because of the wisdom she revealed to her after the death of the boy. Hiding her passion in silence, she flowed to the Prophet and asked in the house, saying to him: As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, if I leave you (2 Kings. 4:30); and through such faith she received a son resurrected by the Prophet. Thus, they believed that the graceful miracles of these Prophets do not exceed the faith of the mothers who received the resurrection, as Paul showed when he said: By faith the women received their dead from the resurrection (Heb. 11:35). But the Prophets, having also the faith and favor towards God that promoted mothers, Elijah created everything else, and cried out to God mournfully: Alas, I said, Lord, the witness of the widow, who am not with me, you have embittered me to kill her son. And he called and said: Lord my God, let the soul of this youth return to it, and so be it (1 Kings 17:20-21). And Elisha not only spoke lying down and sloshing in the youth even until the seventh day, but also prayed to the Lord according to the scriptures, and thus revived the son of the Sumanite. Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the voice of the Gospel, read today, having mercy on the widow, whose son was dead, wearing out, not acquiring anything, buying something below, praying below, but by one commandment, having given his only begotten son alive from the dead to a weeping mother, showed that He alone is the Lord of life and death. It came to pass, says the Evangelist, that Jesus went to the city called Nain (Luke 7:11). Self-proclaimed for this great resurrection miracle, the Lord is coming, so that not only life-giving power will appear, but also goodness and incomparable compassion. It was as if the Sarraptian woman had quarreled with Elijah, prompting him to revive the boy; Elisha, foretelling that he did not foresee passion, finally forced the Sumanite to live, saying, The Lord, and as your soul lives, if I leave you. The Lord foreknew about him, and calling to no one, he went to the city, from which the dead youth was worn out. Going more, speaking, according to this. And the Evangelist marked this wisely. The resurrection of the widow's youth will signify the renewal of our minds. For our soul also became a widow, deprived of the heavenly bridegroom by sin, but having, like an only-begotten son, a mind peculiar to each one, which was killed by the sting of sin, destroying the true life. Having worn out, he too is removed, that is, being from God by passions leading him into the abyss of hell and destruction; but the Lord, having come to them and presented himself, already by His coming in the flesh renewed and aroused him. This did not happen with us from the beginning, but finally in recent centuries. Why did the Evangelist not omit this: Jesus went, saying, therefore to raise the dead son of the widow, and to turn her tears into joy. Hearken, I pray, brethren to the predicate. Each of us, if he feels a mortified mind within himself and weeps over his sins, and grieves over them in repentance, the Comforter will come to him, giving life and eternal consolation. Blessed are those who cry: for they will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). Elijah alone is left to resurrect the son of Sarraptia; and Elisha, entering the church where he had died lying down, closed the door, as history tells about two of them, about Sumanite and about his disciple Gehazi; they needed the most diligent prayer to God; but as solitary people they usually distract their most perfect minds and raise their whole mind to God, which is why they separated their own people from themselves. The Lord, as if he truly had the power of life and death, and demanded no prayer for the revival of his son, not only had his disciples with him, but also many people, of whom he himself brought some, and found others when they were worn out; and to all who saw and heard, with one command he raised the dead, doing this boldly out of love for mankind, in order to lead everyone to saving faith in Him. As if I came near, as I said, to the gates of the city, and behold I died (Luke 7:12). Anticipating the very hour of wearing out the onago, he appeared on time. Because her son died, her only begotten son was worn out, and she was a widow. He multiplied the manifold sorrow of the same weeping one and brought great resolution. Seeing the Lord as a mother, and a widow mother placing hope in her only son, who was deprived of him by his untimely death, following the coffin of the child and falling into misery, he had mercy, he said. Why not have mercy on the Father of the orphans and the Judge of widows? And a speech to her, comforting and foreseeing the future: Don’t cry. He knows what He will do; the wife not only does not know the future, but also does not know Him. Therefore, she did not have faith below, she asked anything from Him, below He demanded Faith from her; but He who is able, and without demanding help from believers, will touch the bed and show that His body has life-giving power, just as it has Divine power. And he said: To the young man, I say to you, arise, and sit down dead. The deaf finger of the Naming One, which does not exist, listened as if it existed; He who bears all things heard him with the words of his power; I heard not the voice of a God-bearing man, but of God made man, and not only sat dead, but also began to speak. And the son of the Sarraptian widow, when his soul returned to him, proclaimed, as it is told in history. This is proof that the resurrection was not a dream. Elijah then, through one prayer, and Elisha, while still alive, raised another from the dead, assuring and demonstrating Christ’s God-bearing and life-giving power. The Lord raised three before the cross, the son of a widow, the daughter of the leader of the host, and the four-day-old Lazarus by command from the dead. At the cross of many, he also appeared to many. Moreover, after dying for us on the cross, He aroused Himself, and, moreover, He resurrected the three-day life, Himself alone being the Head of ever-essential life. Although all the others were resurrected, they were changed back to us from mortal life; But death no longer possesses Christ who has risen from the dead. Why is the Lord alone and the firstfruits of those who have died, that is, of the faithful, and so rise in the hope of resurrection and eternal life. He became the firstfruits of those who died and was the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18), and did not promise this life of ours, which is decaying and fleeting, and quickened by the vital spirit, but in the hope we place in the Divine immortal and eternal. This is His gift that is truly God-like. Thus, it is not here given from Him to those brought to life, but subject to death; below, giving it to them, he gives it, but for others he does this, leading them to faith, which gives eternal life; and here he raised the boy not for him, but for his mother, having had mercy on her, and raised him up, as the Evangelist clearly tells; why and resurrected him to his mother. But you see how the Lord, having compassion for the widow crying for her son, did not only use words of comfort towards her, but healed her with his deeds. This is what we do according to our strength, and not just in words do we sympathize with those who suffer, but let us show our condolences towards them in deeds. If we do good with all our might, then the rewarding God will pour out good deeds on us with all his power. Consider the grace and superiority of retribution that exists: just as God surpasses man, so does the power of His human power, and by the power of it the accomplished grace bestowed by us. If someone asked for copper coins 1 and gave them gold shekels 2 , is not the reward accepted with joy? Nowadays it is not worthy to exchange copper for gold: both of these metals are almost identical in nature; but to give human and receive divine and human to people, which is also considered a natural benefit. Condolence from friend to friend and mercy are usually truly useful to both one and the other. Do we also look at the manifold generosity of God towards us, for which He does not demand anything else from us, except the like-mindedness of the community and the love of mankind to each other, saying: let go, and it will be forgiven to you: you give, and it will be given to you: then why don’t we communicate to the asking brethren as much as possible through deeds, as an unquenchable debt of like-mindedness and mercy? Since then, we have not only received mercy from God, and received so many benefits that it is impossible to count, but we also received from Him a promise to accept a righteous and appropriate measure of reward for the benefits shown to the brethren. Great power! Why don’t we rush to it? Why don’t we believe in life itself for each other, if need demands it, imitating the Master, in order to receive eternal life from Him? But this debt, although it is unlike our friends to repay each other, is so similar to Him who gave Himself for us to die, not only for redemption, but also for the image and strong teaching, deed, word and every incomparably highest mind. Because Christ said and suffered for us, leave us an image, that we may follow his steps (1 Pet. 2:21), and let us be ready, if necessary, to lay down our souls in fulfillment of His commands. For thus, we will become participants in the eternal life and kingdom in Him, living together with Him and being glorified with Him 3 . Look at this myrrh-streamer, whose memory of the approaching sacred martyrdom we are now beginning to celebrate. His blood spontaneously poured out for Christ, for which He created in him an eternal and inexhaustible source of manifold miracles, spiritual shrines, the fragrance of the most sacred physical world. And although the soul of the great martyr, having received eternal and unchanging glory with the Angels, now lives worthily in heaven; but the body is not yet co-glorified with it, but it is like some pre-writing, image and sign, which hereby reveals about itself the coming most Divine and heavenly glory. If the prescription and the image are such, then what will it finally be like to come? Truly unspeakable and unthinkable. May we also be the intercessor of the myrrh-streaming martyrs, and then also participants and spectators of this glory, just as the Divine myrrh flowing from him now accepts the grace and love for mankind of Jesus Christ, glorified in his martyrs above all God, to Him belongs all glory to endless ages. Amen. Conversation 2. An exhortation for Lent, which also offers a brief discussion about the world, spoken on Wednesday of the first week. Very witty for evil and many-witted, and even more so, the all-evil one is a mental and incipiently evil serpent. He has those intentions with which he rewards our intention, when it begins, and rewards a good deed. If it cannot hinder its beginning, then it weaves other intrigues so that at its very beginning it becomes obscene. If he is not able to make it indecent, when he moves toward his perfection in the middle, then he knows other tricks and other methods by which our good deed, even if it has been completely brought to perfection, destroys it, makes it selfless, and even more harmful for those who do not fully heed it. And firstly, he shows that virtue is a difficult matter and inconvenient to accomplish; then it produces despair and negligence in us, as if we are taking on difficult and impossible tasks, and therefore we cannot show our intentions in practice; and what’s more, it also emphasizes the lack of faith in the rewards promised from God to those who strive. But we, brothers! With spiritual courage, willingness and faith, we will break this network when we realize that the soul will not do anything God-loving or saving without spiritual warfare, just as the earth will not bear good fruits without cultivation. Moreover, you can find land that is incapable of agriculture, but every rational soul is fruitful for virtue. since, according to our ancestral life, we are condemned to live in labor and misery, and this is not possible to avoid: so let us begin to exercise ourselves in honest need, bring real compulsion to God as if out of will, give back for the eternal, temporary, and accept the great good for the bitterness we have endured, transforming temporary labor into acquiring eternal peace. For if here we strive for virtue, then in the next century we will certainly receive the promised reward; so that He who promised is faithful and ready to help those who willingly march in the battle of virtue. When this Almighty grants, what of all enterprises will not achieve its perfection? However, when, with this in mind, we willingly strive to do virtuous deeds, then the evil one, knowing that good is not good when it is not undertaken with a good intention, tries to advise us to do a good deed not for a godly end, lower for praise coming from God, but in order to appear before people, so that in this way he could be deprived of rewards from God and spiritual and heavenly gifts. But we, brothers! Let us show that this effort of his is also invalid, considering the greatness of the prepared rewards for those who live pleasing to God and the insignificance of human morality, which not only cannot be compared with the future greatness of the Divine glory, but is lower than the exhaustion and exhaustion of the flesh. However, after this victory over him, the beginning of the evil one digs up pride in our hearts, like some extreme and disastrous abyss, implanting proud thoughts and advising us to be conceited, as if we have accomplished virtue with our own strength and our own efforts. But if we remember the very truth, which says: Without Me you cannot do anything (John 15:5): then we will thus reject the various wiles of the evil one, doing good with good intentions and proper modesty, knowing that it is as if someone, having a much-honored ointment in a vessel, placed it without covering it in a rotten place, or suddenly threw something stinking into the vessel. If he had spoiled the ointment and made it obscene, he would not have received any benefit from it: so is virtue, if someone either casts it away through lack of exercise, or combines malice with the exercise of virtue, either in one way or another, it destroys it and makes it useless. I am now talking about this for your love because of the Lenten season, so that we may preserve it for ourselves, undefiled by any vice. For the Pharisee mentioned in the Gospel did not take advantage of the fast at all, although he fasted twice on Saturday for a whole year; because he had added pride and condemnation of his neighbor. For this reason there is a useless post. How great the benefit comes from fasting to those who spend it in a godly and proper manner, this was demonstrated by Moses, Elijah and the Lord himself. Moses, fasting for many days on the mountain (but arouse, I pray, your mind, and now be lifted up at the appropriate time for Moses to ascend to the mountain to God, so that they, walking along the path, may finally ascend with Christ, not to the mountain, but to the one who ascends and takes us with him), Moses then fasted for fourty days on the mountain, in person, and not in fortune-telling, according to Scripture, saw God, talked and talked with Him, as someone speaks to his friend, and learned from God, and teaches everyone about Him, as He is ever-present, and not only cannot be transformed into something that does not exist, but also something that does not exist, as if it exists, calls something that exists, produces something that does not exist, and does not allow it to change into something that does not exist; who first by will and desire alone brought into existence the creation of the universe from non-existent. In the beginning, he said, God created heaven and earth (Gen. 1:1), completely uncleaned, and filled with what was mediocre among everything: the earth was mixed with water; moreover, bearing fruit in itself every airy and kind of animal and plant; the sky is the receptacle of various lights and fires, in which everything had its existence. In this way, God created heaven and earth in the beginning, as a certain substance, containing everything and bearing all kinds of power, as a reproof for those who believe that before this substance other matter had its existence. Then, having arranged and beautified the world, he distributed in six days the order decent and characteristic of each of the creatures that coexist with Him and fill the world of His, uniting each with one command, and, as if from prepared storehouses, offering treasures on the face, moreover, arranging and copulating accordingly, gracefully and decently one to the other, each to everything and all to each, and describing the motionless earth as a certain point with the highest circle, and connecting with through her wisdom, through the beings in the midst of the ever-moving sky, so that the same world would remain, standing together and continuing its movement. When bodies, always and quickly moving, were placed on the entire circle, the motionless necessarily received a middle place, having real estate equidistant from the movement, so that the beautiful sphere did not go to another place in the likeness of a cylinder. Having given this position to each end of the universe, the all-good Creator created the entire world, as one might say, beautifully and made it move ceaselessly. In the middle of the ends of these, he determined for each creature what is characteristic of each, and another places it on high, and commands that its appeal should be on the most exalted, and describe the circle at all times decently and similar to the highest limit of all creation. These beings are lungs, equipped with an active force, and the circumstances of things can conveniently change to something useful; Moreover, with Wisdom they are placed so high in the middle that in it they are satisfied with the cold and immoderation, and do not allow their own warmth of excess to reach the ground; they themselves, moving in the opposite direction, somehow tame the ferocity of the strong breath of the highest limits, and keep them to the ground through the opposite movement; Moreover, they show us the many useful differences in annual times, measures of temporary distances, and the wisdom of God who created, arranged and adorned rational creatures. For the sake of the ultimate end, he commanded these creatures to describe many circles in this way for the beauty of the world and for many different benefits; for the rest, which are heavy and suffering by nature, which are usually born and reborn, and, moreover, unite, grow and can change more into something useful, he gave a dwelling below and near the middle, decently arranging both themselves and their mutual proportionality, so that truly everything could be called peace. And so the first something of the creatures was produced in creation, after the first another, and therefore another, and finally and after all, man, who was honored both after the creation and before the creation of honor and great providence from God, for this sensible world was created for him before him, and the kingdom of heaven was suddenly prepared for him from the creation of the world before him, and the council was made about him, moreover, he was created by God’s hand and by image of God. However, he does not have all his being from this matter and the sensory world, like other animals, but only one body; he received his soul from the worldly, and even more so from God himself through an indescribable inspiration, like some great, amazing and most excellent thing, looking at everything, ruling over everything, knowledgeable about God and receiving Him into himself, and showing everything; in a word, a creation perfect above the heavens of the living great Builder. Finally, he received paradise as an inheritance, chosen and planted by God, the proper fast commanded there, so that by holding it and observing it, he would always remain immortal, innocent and sorrowless. But he, having voluntarily preferred the flattery of the evil serpent to the commandment and commandment thereof, and having violated the fast commanded to him, instead of eternity, death, instead of the garden of innocent amusements, the much-passionate and much-labored sinful land he receives, and what is more, he is condemned to hell and the darkness that exists there. Our nature would always have remained in the underworld behind the rivets of that serpent, who deceived us from time immemorial, if Christ had not come, and beginning with fasting, he had not finally abolished his power, freed and revived us who had been mortified. Moses also typified this; there, fasting on the mountain, he received the God-created tablets, and the law, inscribed on the second tablets by the finger of God, according to which, while instructing the holy people at that time, he wrote down everything that Christ had done by deed and showed, being the deliverer and savior of Abraham, like Christ of the human race in the end. Elijah fasted for fourty days on the mountain, and saw God, not in fire, as before the eldership of Israel, but through a godly fast, surpassing the vision in fire; I saw God in the voice of the outgoing thin breath, being close to the Lord’s voice, saying: God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24); for this voice of truth and the broadcast of the truth itself, thundering in all the ends of the universe, prefigured the outgoing breath of the spirit and grace. But Elijah also received from the vision of God during fasting the power to anoint the Prophet in his place, and to give him the extra grace that he himself had, and to ascend from earth to heaven in every possible way in a clear sign of the final ascension of Christ from earth to heaven. Christ himself completely defeated, fasting in the desert, the common tempter, and by overthrowing his power over man and finally abolishing his power, our nature delivers and offers him as a mockery to everyone who wants to live according to his Gospel; makes Prophetic predictions, and ascribes grace and truth to his deeds derived from them. Do you see the gifts of fasting, and for what, and why, and how much did it make us worthy? However, the benefits of fasting can also be felt against its enemy, which is gluttony and intemperance; for in the past two weeks gluttony and intemperance dominated for the most part throughout the entire city, from which came disturbances, shouts, strife, riots, fornicating songs, satanic dancing and dishonest laughter; In this same week, the coming fast arranges everything for piety, and eradicating the long-term cares of vanities, and putting to rest the labors undertaken for a lean stomach, leads us to works of repentance, and commands us to prepare food that does not perish, but remains in the eternal belly. Where are the slaughters of livestock now, the smell of meat, all kinds of indigenous dishes and the worries of cooks? Where are those who sound in their homes, sing at the tables, recline and dance, and at the sound of tympanums and sniffles offered food, gorging themselves immoderately? Where are those who spend day and night at feasts? Where are those who are looking for a drunken place, and in drunkenness, embracing each other, agree to bad deeds that stem from drunkenness? All evil passes away, and good things take their place at the coming time of Lent. Instead of dishonest songs, the sacred Psalm is now sung from the lips; instead of inappropriate laughter, saving tenderness and tears are now shown on the face, instead of disorderly running and paths, a common and united path to God’s holy church is presented to everyone. For just as gluttony gives rise to many and many sins, so fasting is the root of all virtues and the beginning of Divine commandments. Truly, intemperance is an ancient and new evil, although it does not precede the fasting that is contrary to oneself. Through intemperance in the paradise of our forefathers and there the despised ancient fast, death entered the world, and sin reigned, bringing from Adam even to Christ the condemnation of our nature; for the intemperance of those born of Adam, which increased in the universe, and for the contempt of the first abstinence, a flood came over the whole earth. What did God say to Noah then? My Spirit shall not abide in these men, for they are flesh (Gen. 6:3). What kind of work is it among the works of the flesh? Is it not gluttony, drunkenness, luxury and other wickedness arising from this? Because of the bad voluptuousness and intemperance that happened to the Sodomites, fire was sent down from heaven on them. This is what the Prophet Ezekiel says: It is the iniquity of the Sodomites, for in the abundance of bread they lived uncleanly. For through his voluptuousness, ignorant of nature, they perished in everything through unnatural confusion. What did Esau, the firstborn son of Jacob, deprive of the inheritance due to the firstborn, and reject the fatherly blessing, if not gluttony and an insane desire for food? What condemned the sons of Eli the priest to death, and together with the announcement of the death of his youths, who raised them, did not force them to stop their life with due diligence, if not the untimely removal of meat from the cauldrons and their consumption? But even the entire Jewish people, when Moses was fasting for them on the mountain, living in luxury with themselves and darkening themselves with gluttony and drunkenness, came to the point of insane, according to the written word, agility, and it was ridiculous for them to worship an idol; for then the intention was born in them to make themselves a calf. And so luxury is not only the cause of sin, but also of wickedness. Fasting and abstinence are useful not only for virtue, but also for worship of God. Moreover, it is necessary to combine abstinence with fasting. Why is this so? Because even simple food contentment prevents cleansing crying, sorrow in the soul for God and contrition, which unrepentant repentance brings about salvation; for without contrition of heart it is impossible to bring true repentance. What crushes the heart and forces it to cry over its own sin is the small consumption of food and sleep, and the mortification of feelings about God. For, as in the Gospel, the rich man, saying to himself: eat, drink and be merry, became, hapless, worthy of the eternal flame, but unworthy of this temporary life (Lk. 12:16–20): on the contrary, we, brethren, must command ourselves to abstain and fast, to watch and lament, to humble ourselves and endure our misfortunes for the sake of salvation; for in this way we will spend our temporary life well and lovingly with God and inherit eternal immortality, which may we all receive through the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ; to Him belongs glory, power, honor and worship with His beginningless Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen. Conversation 3. To the honest and life-giving cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Cross of Christ has been proclaimed since ancient times and was mysteriously prefigured, and no one has ever been reconciled with God without the power of the cross. For after the ancestral crime committed in the paradise of God in the tree of God, sin was revived; and we, having preceded physical spiritual death, which is the separation of the soul from God, died. And that they lived after the crime, they lived in sin, and even according to the flesh; sin is not repented of by the law of God, for worse it can, but those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Why did the Apostle say: The flesh lusts after the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (Gal. 5:17). God is spirit, self-goodness and virtue; Our spirit was created in His image and likeness, which is disfigured by sin. How could it be possible for someone to be renewed in spirit and become a friend of God without abolishing sin and life in the flesh? The abolition of sin is the cross of Christ. Why, when someone of a different faith asked one of our God-bearing fathers: Do you believe in the Crucified One? truly, he answered the sin of the Crucified One. Many friends of God, both before the law and under the law, not yet appearing on the cross, were testified by God himself. For this reason, the reigning Prophet David, as if he truly existed then from among those dear to God, said to me, your friends were very honest, O Lord (Ps. 139:17). How they were called friends of God before the cross, I will prove to you, just listen to me with love of God and attention. As I am unborn to sinful man, the son of lawlessness, I say to the Antichrist, the beloved of Christ said to the Theologian: And now, beloved, there is already an Antichrist (1 John 4:3): so the cross, before it was accomplished, was in the first parents; for the great Paul clearly teaches us that the Antichrist, as yet unborn, is in us, and the sacrament, he says, acts in us (2 Thess. 2:7). Thus, the cross of Christ was not yet among the forefathers; for its sacrament acted in them. Leaving now Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noah and those who pleased God after Noah, and if anyone was closer to them, I will begin from Abraham, who was the father of many nations, Jews according to the flesh, but ours in the spirit, I will begin from him according to the spirit of our father, from his spontaneous beginning of good, and from the first calling from God. What was the first voice that God sent, saying to him: Get out of your land and from your fatherland, and go to the land that I will show you (Gen. 12:1)? This voice pronounces the mystery of the cross within itself. For this is exactly what Paul, boasting about the cross, says: For peace has been crucified to me (Gal. 6:14); for having left his fatherland, since he was irrevocably from the world, the fatherland according to the flesh killed and abolished him. This is nothing more than a cross. But to Abraham, before he escaped agreement with the atheists, Get out, he said, from your land from your fatherland, and go to the land that I will not give you, but that I will show you, showing through it another spiritual land. What did the Divine first voice say to Moses before leaving Egypt and ascending the mountain: Break the boots from your feet (Exodus 3:5)? This is another sacrament of the cross, fittingly following the first. For although you, as you say, come from Egypt, free yourself from the work of Pharaoh and despise being called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and although everything that belongs to you, this world of evil work, has been forgotten and abolished by you, you must sacrifice yourself. What does this mean: Take the boots from your feet? Put aside the leather garments that you have put on, in which sin operates and does not allow you to enter the holy land. Cut the boots from your feet is nothing more than to say: no longer live according to the flesh and in sin, but let the life that is contrary to God, and the wisdom of the flesh, and the law in songs, opposing the law of reason, be abolished and put to death; he who obeys the law of sin, but does not do the right thing, acts lower, killed by the power of vision of God. Is this not a cross? The cross is still there, according to the verb of the Divine Paul, the flesh with the passions is crucified (Gal. 5:24). Take the boots from your feet because the earth on which you stand is holy. This word showed him that after the appearance of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ there will be sanctification on earth through the cross. Then Moses foresaw the coming of Christ, which would never take place, looking at that great miracle, a bush watered with fire. And so the vision of God in God is the sacrament of the cross, which is much greater than the first sacrament; for these sacraments are two, as the great Paul and the Divine Fathers remind us of. Paul not only says: As the world has been crucified to me, but adding: As I also am the world (Gal. 6:14). The Fathers, commanding us not to rush to ascend to the cross before the cross, remind us that truly these two words are also the two sacraments of the cross. According to the first sacrament of the cross, which is the flight of the world, separation from relatives in the flesh, so that they stumble the path to piety and life, according to it; moreover, it is a bodily exercise, which, although small, is, according to Paul’s verb, useful. For this reason, I say, the world and sin are crucified to us when we run away from them. According to the second sacrament of the cross, we are crucified to the world and passions when they flee from us. But it is impossible for them to be completely driven away from us, just as it is impossible for them not to act, so that we do not remain in the vision of God. For when we, with the ability to act, begin to see God, and decorate and cleanse our inner man, looking for the hidden Divine treasure within ourselves, and looking within us at the existing kingdom of God, then we are crucified to the world and passions. A certain warmth is born in the heart from this teaching, as it tames iniquity and evil thoughts, instills spiritual peace and consolation in the soul, and gives sanctification to the body, according to the word: My heart is warmed within me, and a fire will burn in my teaching (Ps. 38:4). And this is what one of our God-bearing fathers taught us, saying: use all your efforts so that your inner actions are about God, and you will overcome external passions. To this end, the Supreme Paul exhorts us by the Spirit and says, walk and do not commit carnal lust (Gal. 5:16). Why, in another place, the letter bequeaths: Become, therefore, having girded your loins with truth (Eph. 6:14), when the speculative overcomes, guards and tames the lusts of the flesh. The Supreme Peter showed us clearly what is translucent and what is true. For, he says, having girded up your loins, being sober, fully trust in the grace brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:13). For this reason, it is impossible for us to have completely evil passions, and the world of sin cannot help but act mentally, so that we do not engage in the vision of God. For this reason, the sacrament of the cross is also this vision, crucifying to the world those who have been worthy of it. Truly, Moses’ vision of the burning and unburnt bush was the sacrament of the cross, Abraham’s sacrament, and greater and more perfect. So Moses was worthy of the most perfect sacrament of the cross, and Abraham was not? What reason would this have? But although Abraham was not awarded the title during this time, after the title he finally did so once, twice and many times, so that we don’t have enough time to tell us everything now. But I will remember to you his most amazing vision of God, when he clearly saw one God, the Trinitarian One, who had not yet been preached. God appeared to him at the oak of Mamre, and looked, and saw three men, and sat before them (Gen. 18:1-2, etc.). Behold, I saw the one God who appeared in threefold form. God appeared to him, speaking, and behold three men, and sitting together with three, as if talking to one, saying: Lord! If you have found grace in your sight, do not despise your servant. And these three, as if they are one, speak with him. Speech to Abraham, where is Sarah your wife? I will come back to you at this time, at this hour, and your wife Sarah will give birth to a son. When the old Sarah heard her laugh, and the Lord said, How did your wife Sarah laugh? Behold, there is one God, three hypostases, and these three are one Lord. The speech, it says, is the Lord. This is how the sacrament of the cross operated in Abraham. Isaac himself was the image of Abraham reclining, obedient as Christ was to death, and giving him a lamb in his place, and showed the very Son of God the Lamb, who gave himself for us to be slaughtered. Moreover, the tree by which the lamb stood had the sacrament of the image of the godfather; That’s why the tree was called Savek, that is, the tree of remission, like the cross, the tree of salvation. Also in Jacob, the son of Isaac, the sacrament and image of the cross was valid; for he multiplied his flock with wood and water. This tree of slaughter was a prototype of the tree of the cross: but the water of Divine baptism, which contains the sacraments of the cross: Into the death of Christ, says the Apostle, we are baptized. Yes, and Christ, by wood and water, that is, by the cross and baptism, multiplied the intelligent flocks on earth for himself. Jacob, when he bowed to the top of the staff, and when he blessed his sons, folding his hand in the shape of a cross, showed the most obvious image of the cross. But he was obedient to his father from beginning to end, for this he was loved and blessed, but for this he was hated by Esau, and thus generously enduring all temptation, throughout his life he had the real sacrament of the cross. Why did God say: I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau (Mal. 1:2). Something similar happens to us, brothers. For he who obeys his spiritual and natural fathers, according to the Apostolic commandment: Children, obey your parents (Eph. 6:1), such as he is likened to the beloved Son of God, is loved by God; he who does not obey, as if he is alien to likeness to the Beloved, is hated by God. This is what the wise Solomon showed, that not only with Jacob and Esau, but with everyone, this happens, the Son said, he who obeys will be in life, but he who does not obey will be destroyed. But the son of obedience, Jacob, has he not also been worthy of the sacrament of the great cross, the vision of God, I say, by which a person is crucified and dies to sin, but lives to virtue? I saw God face to face, and my soul was saved (Gen. 32:30). Where are the evildoers who appear among us who follow the still lawless idle talk? They heard that Jacob saw the face of God, and not only did not stop living, but, as he says, he was saved. But God says: No one will see my face and live (Ex. 33:20). So, aren’t there two Gods: one who has a face that is subject to the sight of the saints, and the other who has a face that is above all sight? Damn such wickedness! The visible face of God is nothing other than the appearance of the power and grace of God to those worthy; the face, which is in no way visible, is, as they say, more than any verb and sight, the nature of God. No one, according to Scripture, was in the hypostasis and being of God, lower than the being of God, either confessed or saw. Such a vision in God and the Divine cross, the sacrament not only drives away evil passions and these pathogens of demons from the soul, but also denounces evil thoughts and those who patronize them, and distances the conditions of the sacred Church of Christ, in which it is given to us by grace to celebrate now, and to explain the Divine grace and power that was before the cross. For in Abraham the sacrament of the cross was at work, but Isaac, his son, was himself the image of Him who was crucified at last: so again throughout the life of Jacob the sacrament of the cross was at work; Joseph, the son of Jacob, was himself the image and sacrament of the Word of the Lover of Mankind crucified. Out of envy, he was led to be killed, and from his relatives according to the flesh, for what he was sent from his father to them with, just like Christ at last. That Joseph was not killed, but sold, is not the least surprising; for below Isaac was killed: because they were not true, but an image of the future truth. If it is necessary to recognize in them a special mystery, the nature of the dual Jesus, such as the fact that they were led to murder, suffering in the flesh of the God-man; and that they did not suffer the least, the impassive Deity showed. You can find this very thing in Abraham and Jacob: although they were tempted, they were invincible, which is clearly written about Christ. Four, before the law, were famous for virtue and piety: one two, Abraham and Jacob, had the active sacrament of the cross at all times of their lives, and the other two, Isaac and Joseph, miraculously predicted it themselves. What was it in ancient times that Moses, the first to receive the law and betray it to others, was not saved by wood and water when he floated on the streams of Nile, launched at Thebes? Was it not the cross that saved the people of Israel with wood and water, but manifested the baptism of God with water? Just as Paul, the spectator of the sacraments, clearly says: All were baptized into Moses in the sea and in the cloud (1 Cor. 10:2), who, both before the sea and before the rod, testified with himself that by the will of those who bear the cross of Christ; for he esteemed the reproach of Christ better than the treasures of Egypt. The cross is considered a reproach for Christ by the foolish, just as Paul himself once said about Christ: bear the cross, despising shame. Foreseeing the very image and figure of the cross, and the salvation that would be accomplished on it, Moses foreshadowed it very clearly; for, having placed the staff straight, he himself spread out his hands on it, and having thus transformed himself into a cross on the staff, being in this position, he completely defeated Amalek. But having hung the copper serpent on an indirect banner, and thus erected the image of the cross, he commanded those of the remorseful Jews to look with boldness at it, as if it were the real Savior, and healed the remorseful serpents. But I will have enough time if I speak about Jesus, about His chosen ones and the Prophets, David and others like him, who, through the sacrament of the cross, held back the rivers, stopped the sun, destroyed the wicked cities to the ground, were strong in battle, put to flight the armies of strangers, escaped the sharp edge of the sword, extinguished the power of fire, blocked the mouths of lions, kings they denounced, turned the fifty leaders to ashes, raised the dead, bound the sky with a word and again resolved it, transforming the barren clouds on it into fruitful ones. If this faith acted, as Paul said: faith is power for salvation, then to the believer all things are possible. There is also the cross of Christ for believers: The Word of the Cross, again according to the word of Paul, is foolishness to those who perish, but to those who are saved it is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). But let us touch everyone both before the law and according to the law of those who were. The Lord Himself, through Him and about Him, did not He say before the cross: He who does not accept his cross and does not come after me is not worthy of me (Matthew 10:38)? Do you see how much the cross was saving even before the godfather’s approval? But even then the Lord boldly predicted his passion and mortal death to the disciples. Peter, hearing, did not endure, but knowing His power, he was afraid, saying: You are merciful, Lord, this will not be done to you (Matthew 16:22). But He denounced him, as if he were philosophizing about this in a human way, and not in a Divine way. Having called the people together with his disciples, he said to them: If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and come after Me. Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it: and whoever destroys his soul for the sake of Me and the Gospel, he will save it (Matthew 16:24–25). He then convenes the people with his disciples and then testifies and proclaims these great and unnatural and truly not human, but Divine words, in order to show that He demands this not only from His chosen disciples, but also from everyone who believes in Him. Imitation of Christ is shown when they live according to His Gospel, demonstrating all virtue and piety; when he who wants to follow rejects himself and takes up his cross, and when he spares himself for the wrong reasons, I call for time, but for the virtue and truth of Divine teachings I am ready to die in reproach and surrender to death and extreme dishonor. To deny oneself, although it is a great and unnatural thing, is not bad. The rulers of the earth never accept to follow them, especially when going into battle, those who are not ready to die for them: how could it be surprising when the King of Heaven, who came to earth through the incarnation of man, against the power of the common enemy of the family, is looking for those who would follow Him? But the Sovereigns of the earth cannot revive the dead in war, nor can they reward the victims with anything for themselves; What can someone who has lost their belly get from them? But even these, if they died for the pious, have hope in the Lord: this Lord rewards with eternal life those who, imitating Him, suffered for Him. Moreover, the Sovereigns of the earth are looking for their followers who would be ready to die for them; The Lord gave Himself up to death for us, but He commands us not to die for Him, but for ourselves. And showing this, that this death is for ourselves, he leads: Whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it: and whoever destroys me for the sake of the Gospel will save you (Mark 8:35). What does this mean: Whoever wants to save will destroy, and whoever destroys will save? Man is twofold: external, which I call the body; and our inner man, that is, the soul. When our outer man gives himself up to death, he destroys his soul, which is separated from him; whoever destroys this for Christ and the Gospel will truly save and enrich her, acquiring for her heavenly and eternal life, and to receive such life in the resurrection, and with her in such a body to be heavenly and eternal. He who loves his soul, and is so not ready to destroy it, being out of love for this temporary age and everything that is in it, will do damage to his soul, depriving it of its true life, moreover, he will take it away, handing it over to eternal punishment with him, which is what the all-generous Master, as if mourning the greatness of evil, imagining, says: What good is it for a person if the whole world gains a soul? will he brush off his own? or what will a man give for his soul? (Matthew 16:26). Because his glory will not fall from him, below is another thing that seems honest and entertaining in this age, which he preferred to saving death. But what kind of betrayal would there be in those words of a rational soul, of which this whole world is unworthy? Although one man was able to acquire the whole world, this did not take advantage of him when he lost his soul. What a great danger it is if everyone, having been able to acquire the great misfortunes and insignificant things of this world, through addiction to insignificant things will cause damage to his soul, not wanting to bear the image and words of the godfather, and follow the Giver of life! The cross is itself the worshiped image and the image of it is the word. But since the word and the sacrament preceded the image itself, then we, firstly, explain it to your love; Paul explained it more before us, boasting about the cross: And do not judge, seeing even Jesus and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). What the hell is he saying? There is a cross, the flesh is crucified with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24). Don't you think that he says this about food and carnal passions only? How does he write to the Corinthians: Because the strife in you is not of the flesh and you walk after man? (1 Cor. 3:3). Why is it that someone who seeks glory, or wealth, and simply wants to establish his own will, and who loves to win, is carnal and walks around a person. Through this, disputes arise, just as James, the brother of God, says: Where do the battles and quarrels come from among you? Is it not from here, from your delights that you fight in your lands? You envy, and cannot improve: you are boiled, and you struggle (James 4:1-2). To crucify the flesh with passions and lusts is to be a person adamant to everything that God does not like. Although the flesh is torn away to the earthly and violent, yet everyone himself, against his own will, must attract it to the height of the cross. For example: The Lord, while on earth, spent his life in poverty, and not only spent it, but also exclaimed, saying: Unless someone leaves all his possessions, he cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:33). But I pray to you, brethren, that no one be indignant when he hears us preach the good, favorable and perfect will of God without adornment, and let him not be vexed when our messages seem difficult to understand, but let him first judge that the kingdom of heaven is in need, and the needy are snatching it away (Matthew 11:12). Let him listen to Peter, the supreme Apostle of Christ, that Christ suffered for us, having given us His image, so that we may follow in his footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). Let him rightly think how much everyone, learn truly, owes to the Lady: when he cannot give everything away, he humbly brings as much as he can and as much as he can take from himself; Finally, he humbles himself before Him, and with such humility, attracting mercy, fills the lack. If anyone sees in his thoughts the desire for wealth and many possessions, let him know that such a thought is carnal, and not godlike; why does it strive for the worldly. But that which is close to the cross will not deviate from anything like that. It is necessary for him to ascend to the height of the cross, so that by throwing himself down, he will not be separated from Christ crucified on the cross. How can anyone who thinks to the height of the cross begin to ascend? trusting in Christ, the Giver and Nourisher of everything, let him abstain from all unrighteous gain, let him take advantage of the righteous income, properly accepting friends and the poor, and not worrying too much about this. For just as those who belong to God and who live about God, although the commandment commands them to renounce their bodies and bear their cross, nevertheless have a body, but without having any extra care for it, they take advantage of its assistance in their needs, and on occasion they are ready to give it away: so with bodily property and self-interest, someone who acts when he cannot do anything more, it is good and pleasing to God, if he gives what he has. Paki, if anyone feels strongly worried about fornication within himself, let him know that he has not yet crucified himself. Why the hell will he crucify? Let him run away from curious views of women, indecent treatment of them and untimely conversations; let him reduce a little of the matter that feeds the passions; let him abstain from drinking, from drunkenness, from gluttony and from excessive sleep; let him combine with this from vices abstinence humility, calling on God with contrition of heart in passion, and then he himself will say: I saw the wicked exalted and towering like the cedars of Lebanon, and I passed by with strength and behold: and I sought with humble prayer, and his place was not found in me (Ps. 37:35-36 ). If the thought of love of glory troubles you again, then in the congregation and in the seat remember the advice written in the Lord’s conversations about it in the gospel: do not seek to appear superior to others, do as much virtue as possible in secret, looking to God alone, and from Him alone being visible, and your Father, seeing in secret, will reward you in reality (Matthew 6:6). If, even after you have turned away the causes of each passion, a thought still troubles you inside, do not be afraid. It intercedes for crowns for you; for the fact that, confusing you, he does not advise you, he forces you below, but there is excitement, which is brought into insensibility, as well as overcome by your struggle for God. This is the word godmother. Being such, not only in the Prophet before the fulfillment, but also now after the fulfillment, there is a great and truly Divine sacrament. Why? It apparently seems dishonorable if someone humbles himself and humbles himself in everything; He who is driven away by bodily lusts, causing himself labor and illness, and whoever gives away his property is the culprit of his own misery. But by the power of God this misery, illness and dishonor, gives birth to eternal glory, unspeakable pleasure and unexpected wealth in the present and in the future world; Paul considers those who do not believe this and do not demonstrate faith by deeds to be lost and to be Greeks themselves. For we preach, he says, Christ was crucified, because the Jews were a stumbling block (1 Cor. 1:23), through disbelief in saving suffering, and by the Greeks madness, because they do not prefer anything temporary due to extreme disbelief over Divine promises; we who are called Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). Wisdom and the power of God are to overcome weakness, to be exalted in humility and to be enriched by poverty. However, not only the word and the sacrament acted in this way, but also the image of God, and being worshiped as an honest, sacred and saving sign, which sanctifies and accomplishes the supernatural and ineffable blessings given to the human race by God, abolishes the oath and condemnation, conquers death and corruption, bestows eternal life and blessing, there is the Royal and God's scepter on enemies visible and invisible victory, although heretical children abhor it out of madness. For they did not accept the apostolic desire, that they might understand with the saints what is length, and breadth, and height, and depth (Eph. 3:18), which is the cross of the Lord, showing the whole vision of His coming in the flesh, and according to it contains all the mystery in itself, extending to all ends and embracing everything in the height, in the bottom, in the circumference and in the middle. By offering some false reason why, despite all this, they and us, if they have reason, should bow to the cross, they turn away from the sign of the King of glory, which the Lord himself clearly calls his height and glory, although he can ascend to it. He proclaims that during his future appearance and coming, this sign of the Son of Man will come with power and much glory. But on this, they say, Christ died nailed; why do we not tolerate looking at that figure and the tree on which He died. Our handwriting, which was made for us by the hand of our ancestor, stretched out at the tree of disobedience, was nailed to what and with what was it blotted out and destroyed, and thus we began to receive God’s blessing? How did Christ completely destroy the origins and powers of the evil spirits, which from the tree of disobedience received a place with our nature, and triumphantly drove away, put to shame, and thus we received freedom? How was the mediastinum of the fence destroyed, and our enmity with God was abolished and put to death? And how were we finally reconciled with God and preached peace with Him? Is it not the cross and is it not about the cross? Let them listen to the Apostle writing to Ephesus: Christ is our peace, having destroyed the middle wall of the fence, so that He may create both with Himself into one new man, creating peace: and He will reconcile both in the one body of God by the cross, killing the enmity therein (Eph. 2:14–16). To Colossae: He made you alive in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh to eat with him, giving us all our trespasses: and having destroyed the handwriting of the teachings against us, which was contrary to us, and taking it from the environment, nailing it to the cross, he cut off the rulers and the authorities in shame by boldness, and exposed them in himself (Col. 2:13–15). So, won’t we honor and use for our benefit this victorious sign of the general human race of freedom, which with one appearance of the beginning of the evil serpent drives away, triumphs and shames the power and its secret destruction, glorifies and magnifies Christ, revealing His victory to the world? Moreover, if the cross must be despised because Christ suffered death on it, then His death is unsalvific and unworthy of veneration. How, according to the Apostle, are we baptized at the death of Christ? How would they have been redeemed by His resurrection if they had not been made natural in the likeness of His death? Most importantly, if someone worshiped a cross that did not have the inscribed name of Christ, he would justly be considered to have done it improperly; so that in the name of Jesus Christ every knee will bow, those in heaven and on earth and under the earth (Phil. 2:10). We bear this venerated name on the cross. What kind of madness is there when the knee does not bow to the cross of Christ? But we, bowing our hearts and kneeling, come and worship with the Psalmist Prophet to the place where His nose stood, where His hands were stretched out, containing everything, and where His life-giving body was crucified for us, and bowing with faith and kissing, having drawn up the rich shrine there, we will preserve it, so that in the glorified future of the Lord God and our Savior The coming of Jesus Christ, seeing Him come in glory, they rejoiced and triumphed unceasingly, standing on the right hand, the promised blessed voice and blessing, having been granted glory in the flesh for us by the crucified Son of God, as befits Him the glory with His beginningless Father and the all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Conversation 4. On the day of the holy great martyr, wonderworker and myrrh-streamer Demetrius. I have been greatly honored by your friends, O Lord, who have greatly established their dominion (Ps. 139:17), in the words of David, the most inspired of all the former Psalmists from the ages. The principles of the Apostolic personage are the supreme ones, while the Prophetic classes are those that are called God-seers; and the sacred teachers and all the saints, called great according to the promise of the common Savior, since the great martyrs are rightly revered among the martyrs of Christ, to which belongs the clearly shining and surpassing many, our fellow-citizen and patron of our city, the great surprise of the universe, the great adornment of the sacred church, the giver of everything, the miracle worker and the myrrh-bearer Demetrius. For among the martyrs, as between the stars, this great light is revered, containing the word of ever-life, being enlightened by God’s shining rays and enlightening many. But wasn’t he also rewarded with Prophetic grace? Is it possible for him to be deprived of the community of saints and the glory that comes from imitating them in life, famous for these virtues in the thing itself? Not at all, but by imitating others, being equal to others, standing before some, and surpassing some, he alone accomplishes everything immediately, or in a very short time, he alone is considered to contain all the saints’ virtues (as the word that continues with God will show), and he alone deserves to be exalted by all equally due praises. We, therefore, not being even equal to one, do not say to a person or class, but below one of the class, what and what words in this kind of saying will we use in praise of the Divinely united all virtues to the Divinity of one life and with all that exists in unapproachable glory? However, love elevates my word beyond strength, opportunity requires a timely word, and violent death makes one marvel in speech at the ineffable greatness of the martyr. For he tried to show his life, truly surpassing every word, as much as his nature contained, from beginning to end to show the rewards that were promised more than the word from God, and almost from infancy there was a certain self-affirmed and unshakable pillar of all good, an animated and self-propelled image of all virtues, a home and union of Divine and human gifts, a living book and speaking words for glory and guidance to the greater, favorable and new dissolution of all virtues, the common good of all and the most useful alms, and let me say according to Scripture, phoenix; For as he prospers, so does the righteous, the fruitful olive tree in the house of God, and the tree of the Spirit planted by the waters that issue up; but this, according to Scripture, will give its fruit in its own time, and it has and has had and has had all the time, the time of flowering together and fruitfulness; and just as a leaf of this tree will never fall away, according to Scripture, so the flower and fruit, given with faith to those who continually come, will not fall away with the leaves. When everything was carried along and fulfilled, according to the word of Solomon, in a few long years, this rod of Aaron, Demetrius, was a well-growing grass of piety, a much-loving flower, a blessed and God-like fruit, more than Christ the eternal Bishop, the rod and the Divine scepter; if you like, an ever-growing and God-like branch, Demetrius. Aaron was the image of Christ, and he was also the image of Christ; Demetrius, the fair scepter of Christ, who accomplishes everything, is likewise a rod that grows and prospers together, bears fruit and accomplishes it divinely. It differs from the rod, since it is from the image, in justice, better than, and not less, everything that is good, surpassing Demetrius in the nobility and majesty of morals, deeds and miracles. For with the inexhaustible and unceasing giving of graces to those who come, it seems that he was some kind of abundantly flowing matter and a luminous tree, in the likeness of rays, irresistibly fruits and giving Divine gifts to those who came to the point of abundance, being, moreover, always himself filled with them, like some sun, which benefits in many different ways; or an ever-flowing spring, or an inexhaustible sea of ​​miracles, or an immeasurable abyss of visible and invisible blessings. For outsiders, it will begin to praise such a great man and his fatherland for the reason that it is like the top of some of the whole of Thessaly, and is called a power similar to the affairs themselves; Moreover, to this day it is called the nobility of the forefathers, the glory of the parents, although due to the wealth inherent in it there is a memorable, but useless thing, it brings them great praise. What kind of decoration does this give to Demetrius? What kind of decoration adorns the entire universe in resemblance to the highest world? Unshakable faith, endlessly bestowed grace, the Divine and inalienable wealth of God-like virtues, which is now preserved in heaven, that increase in the abodes containing greater blessings, moreover, while still alive and glorious among people, the great increase in the everlasting blessings of Demetrius, the universal and worldly adornment moves from earth to heaven. David, anticipating him, blessed him and sang: Blessed, saying, is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked and does not stand in the way of sinners (Ps. 1:1). For he never even thought of undertaking anything abominable to God, nor did he go to work unpleasing; but preserving within himself the undefiled grace received from baptism into Christ, he harmonized his will with the law of the Lord, being like a Divine book and a letter written by God, like a hidden board written by the finger of God and offered to everyone for the common benefit. For, according to Isaiah, before he knew evil, he chose good, and in the very flower of his youth he loved the beauty of virginity and was blameless in this acquisition; Having done everything in such a way that he was a virgin in both body and soul, he received citizenship in heaven for this, and walked in the flesh equally with the incorporeal. In addition to this, he also had other promoting virtues, above all others, wisdom, so that, having become perfect in reason and purity, he would soon carry the praised old age in his youth. Gray hair, according to Solomon, is the understanding of man, and the age of old age is not a bad life. He was a young man, and moreover, he seemed to be a considerable not only external, but also internal invisible man, whom, seeing God looking at the hearts, was so wounded by mental and invisible beauty that he deigned to dwell in him, bringing one spirit with him to perfection and transforming all of it into the Divine. You will find David a husband, but Demetrius has not yet come to manhood, but you will find a young man after your heart, a shameless worker and executor of His commands; You have found, according to Paul, a chosen vessel to bear His name before Kings and nations; You will find a fair mirror that accepts and shows the beauty that is unspeakable and dwells above the heavens. I also hear a voice spoken mysteriously about him: Behold my child, whom I have loved, and in whom my soul is well pleased: I will lay my spirit on him and will proclaim judgment with my tongue (Matthew 12:18), and will transform and make worthy the unworthy; let him be like my mouth; He will expose some and put them to shame, and show them those condemned to destruction. Although this is written about Christ, it is, as it were, written about Him by those who imitated Him in everything with their lives. He was first a teacher, then an Apostle, Demetrius, wise, virgin, venerable; in a word, all-good and all-blameless, and famous for his nature, deeds and grace. It is said about Job Ausitidis that there was no one like him on earth; Demetrius, Divine in everything, surpassed Job, who once had no equal in man; Just as Job was first, Demetrius was also blameless, righteous, and pious. Job had no praise from his virginity; virginity, which from infancy showed Demetrius as the crown bearer, by nature the best and equal to God's Angels. He was struck throughout the body by an unbearable defeat, the opposing malice of the ancients; This one finally resisted to the point of bleeding, fighting against malice. But Job did not testify to the verbal skill that he had from the Spirit of grace, like a weapon and an invincible shield, and a house-building tool, like an agricultural hoe and plow, if you like, a writing cane, a catching net, and so on; now decorating the grapes of the Lord, and sowing the seeds of heaven on the earth, or writing the verbs of the eternal life not on stone tablets, but on the hearts of bodily bodies worthy of such writing; or catching Thessalonica, Attica and Livadia with the net of the word, especially which it now protects and fills with worlds and miracles and grace to all unenvyable. And then Demetrius was surprised by the universe with the words of Divine, being a fragrance, according to the Apostle, of Christ both in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing. In these, being the stench of death to death, in the same belly to belly, which is the contented reward of its fragrance, without mentioning the worlds given from God and the miracles of the great martyr cancer; What comparison does the present have, even if it were great and amazing, with the wealth and superiority of glory given to him in heaven from God and prepared for him? According to Pavlov’s verb, what is glorified will not be glorified. This is a truly clear example to all, and how he, while still alive, was the fragrance of Christ and the aroma of life to those who chose to obey. Now, cultivating human souls and feeding them life according to Christ’s testament to Peter, I have used the word as an organ for cultivation and salvation; now building a church to God from living and truly valuable stones, as if the word were a necessary tool. When he raised up a battle against the enemies of Christ, and especially against the visible enemies of God, aided by the invisible, then everything necessary for this was given to him by the word, given by the Holy Spirit, moved, receiving its course from Him and prepared for what was useful. And so, according to what is written about the champion of the martyrs, no one could resist the wisdom and spirit of Demetrius, with whom he spoke. I think that the military clothing, the ring on his hand and the advisory crown, with which he, having received dignity from the then sovereign, was crowned, are signs of the teaching dignity and chairmanship mysteriously given to the martyr by the true Sovereign. That's why God's grace finally worked miracles for many of them. Indeed, it was necessary to cunningly deceive the ancient seducer, so that he would not prepare death for the martyr ahead of time; so that the fruit of the eternal granary is not eaten without being completely cooked, and so that, having fallen body to the ground, one does not lose much fruit due to an untimely fall. But when real envy recognized the origin of these signs, it could not bear it, it infuriates the servants of sin who are fighting against sin, and those who are militant towards the Sovereign of deception, such as Maximian, bring the persecutor of deception, and thus Demetrius is brought to the stage of martyrdom, filled with ineffable gifts from childhood, completely wise, righteous. Apostle, virgin, all blameless; It would not be superfluous if we say, a beloved disciple of Christ, or a youth, or His special and sincere friend, and moreover, by all names together, we are honored as worthy, as if we walk in all thoughts, words and deeds pleasing to God. It is not unknown to me that you all want to know the method of capture, how and where the person sought from public servants was caught. There is a certain cave in the church of the Ever-Virgin and Mother of God, called a refuge, where it is an ancient custom every summer to begin the procession of the Great Martyr with those who want to go from there along the street chanting him, then go around it and finally celebrate the holiday. When wickedness reigned, and when piety had no free place, this witness, dwelling inseparably with those underground, gave heavenly teaching to those who came, and from wickedness, as from some indignant source, those who resorted to him, a truly calm haven, without fear communicated the Christian sacraments and performed them over them. And so, although the Most Divine Witness was then a refuge for everyone who loved to be pious, yet at the same time this place was also called a refuge. Having learned this, those appointed by Maximian Hercule to inquire about the patronage of piety, breathing great rage, finally seeing the people gathering to hear the words of Demetrius, like Divine voices, stand at the teaching of the people of Demetrius, then proceed to him, like a primate, dispersing the people, holding him they lead him along the street and present him to Maximian, who in some way delaying this or that other times, with great pleasure he listened to the murderous suggestions of Bacchus. But having become greatly addicted to this luxury, he orders the saint to be imprisoned, where he committed martyrdom. We form this decently every year, we begin the council there, and we perform it here; for the fact that this witness was then drawn to kill for Christ, he was in such a position as being invited to a holiday and great spiritual amusement. The efforts of the evil devil began to strive for this, so that Demetrius would soon leave the man; for he could not tolerate Demetrius staying on earth any longer, being visible, talking to people and being known throughout the universe. But God, out of a special and supernatural union with him, deigned that the Great Martyr, like some supernatural source of grace, was also a Prophet, who had for a short time to stand with everyone else, and a relative, and not only had Prophetic grace himself, but was also able to give it to others. What should one say when time does not accommodate long-term saying? You know the delay of the tyrant, the imprisonment of Demetrius and Nestor with them; You know the great martyr’s prophecy to him, the martyrdom and the victory that, according to this prophecy, he won over drunkenness. But as soon as the evil serpent learned that the tyrant’s delay was continuing, he himself did not tolerate the great Demetrius living on earth any longer before committing martyrdom: then, having transformed into a scorpion, he attacks the martyr not with the intention of deceiving or seducing, as from time immemorial, the first of these two ancestors, he deceived his wife, and seduced the husband with his wife; for he knew that Demetrius could not be deceived by temptations, that he was quite courageous, and, moreover, strives to choose the best; For this reason, it does not attack in the form of a scorpion in order to deceive, but in order to quickly wound and destroy the opponent’s virtue and strength. But the grace and strength living in Demetrius precedes his speed and diligence; for having anointed himself with the title and seal of the Divine as a confessor with his own hand, he mortifies the instrument of death, and by abolishing the power of the evil one, he is put to shame and shows him by the fact that he would not have suffered in the least if he had not gone into passion spontaneously, being protected and encouraged by the grace and power of Christ, but by his will he is betrayed, bound, restrained by the hands of public servants and suffers torment from the tormentors, for us, imitating the Sufferer. Then, being wounded in the outstretched muscles by the spearmen standing mortally with the executioners, sent from the tyrant, he receives a terrible wound, moreover, in all the insides, bones and body of the past defeat, so that both the sides, one on the outside, and the other on the inside, were pierced by spears, and thus aggravates and multiplies the passion of the saving rib, fulfilling the deprivation of Christ, according to Paul; and so he desires to kill and shed his own blood for the glory of Christ, from which it follows that from the one who leads the existing and surpassing love in him, he forever received a source of peace in his body, so that after the quenching of the blood for all subsequent time, instead of blood, it would flow from the body to the glory of Christ, whom he not only glorified in life and in death and after death, but also glorifies incessantly; and from him both on earth and in heaven he is glorified, glorified and will be glorified Divinely. Now it is fitting for me to say about him what the Divine Paul said about Christ; for the great Demetrius also showed us love in that, when we were still ungodly, he died untimely for the ungodly, truly by the grace of the Master and imitation; and all of us in this city were reconciled with God by his death. Where is the fulfillment of this wickedness, in which many of our ancestors did not disagree? Where is the fear in piety and the longed-for shelter in it? Where are those who surpass the ferocity of beasts with their fury against the pious? All the evil was consumed, all the good came when Demetrius suffered for piety. The churches are magnificent and beautiful, attracting everyone with one look, built in hidden places; The sovereigns, more adorned with piety than with the kingdom, cohabit with us and rejoice, glorifying the famous deeds of the martyr. And we all in this city boldly profess piety, boasting of the martyrdom of the great Demetrius; for he poured out his love not only on our hearts, but also on our bodies with the worlds that he exudes from the body for our health; whose fragrance spread piety everywhere in the city and showed this city of God, or the second paradise; if not by more than, then by irrigating and making oneself happy the world, and not by a source of water; peace, in which and from which there is truly the grace given by the Spirit and the actions of powers, so that we can say this to the great Demetrius, that about the soul, incorruptible to God, it is written in the Song of Songs: For the stench of your garments is more than the aroma of all (Song. 4:10). The clothing of the intelligent martyr's soul is the body, where the cheeks are, let me say again according to this Song, vials of fragrance, and fingers like wines that extract a fragrance (Song. 5:13). Much more so is the pierced side, which, since it has been opened by spears, does not exude myrrh like a cup, and does not emit fragrant drops like a chalice, but flows as an ever-flowing and unceasing source, so that it is not according to the Psalm that we say: The River of God is filled with waters (Ps. 64:10); but the source of God, which is a martyr’s body, full of peace, miracles and healings. The most amazing thing is that, flowing in the likeness of streams, it is not exhausted in any way, and as you know, his martyr and Divine soul said, separating from his body, those words to God that the soul, ignorant of God, spoke in these Songs. What are they like? Rise up to the north, and come to the south, and blow into my garden, and let my fragrances flow (Song 4:16). And so the winter of wickedness, which came from the breath of the mental Boreas, and the then oppressive hail, he drove away and dissolved; He brought to us the intelligent warmth of piety, spilled by the blasphemous south, which blows on the stern of those who want to sail to the east of the Sun of Truth, to the garden of virtues, which is the martyr’s body; Moreover, he bestowed a source of peace and healing, flowing in as many streams as there were bodily wounds given to him by his tormentors. For to feed the wolves, into the midst of which, according to the Gospel, the Lord sent his disciple Demetrius, with their remorse they opened springs for the flock of Christ, bringing great pleasure and pouring out with many benefits; from the wolves many and little by little transforming all into lambs. And so the gates of hell, which are the mouths of these tyrants, uttering deadly sayings, not only will not prevail against the Church of Christ, although it is subject to remorse, but will bring glory to those who suffered in heaven and above all animals and on earth. Would you like to know what the testament now read in the Gospel of the Lord to those sent from Him into the midst of the wolves means: Be ye wise like a serpent, and safe like doves? (Matthew 10:16). The serpent protects himself, but destroys others, being filled with persecutory and harmful pity and power; the dove is gentle and misguided. The Lord commands his disciples that they should not be malicious, like a serpent, and should not be mistaken, like doves, but that they should wisely combine caution with gentleness, and be unyielding on guard of their own piety and virtue; they treated the persecutors so kindly that they could also be kind to them; for in this way they will also be the most mortifying cure for life from the mental serpent. For just as medical ministers, having taken the meat of a snake, and cleansed it of poison, then mixed it with certain foods, heal those bitten by the snake with it; so, having dissolved the snake’s cunning and caution during temptations with the gentleness of a dove, he will not only make himself safe from the bite of the snake, that is, from the temptation of the devil, but also those who have been bitten by the serpent, that is, those who have sinned, He will heal, eliminating the malice of the serpent, which is sin and wickedness. A close witness of this is the great martyr Demetrius. Having completed the course, and kept the faith, and even to the point of blood he kept the persecutors from taking vengeance, for by praying for them to the Lord, he stopped some, and converted others to malice, that there is no wickedness left in this city, but the city is established and remains, in which it and from which it suffered a violent death with its manifold cares, various good deeds and incessant intercession to God, which we show more than we write down; for do we have enough strength to be able to thank him worthily? Let us increase the celebratory council in honor of him, asking him to grant us, through his prayer to God, the ever-animal council recorded in heaven, which may we all be worthy to receive by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ; to Him belongs glory, power, honor and worship with His beginningless Father and the All-Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen. Conversation 5. On the Gospel of the fourth week of the Holy Pentecost, in which it is about trying to think about inner thoughts. Many times to your love, and especially on these holy days, talking about fasting and prayer, which they honor with the gifts of their lovers, and how many times they give blessings to those who use them, but what is now being testified about them through the voice of the Lord read in the Gospel, I have not yet offered to your God-loving souls and your hearing. What is it? Great, and let me say, greatest of all; for with other good things they can also give power to unclean spirits, so that they can be driven out, separated, and those who are possessed from the attack of spirits can be freed. For when the disciples of the Lord asked about the dumb and deaf spirit: Why were we not able to drive him out? The Lord answered them: This generation can come out of nothing except fasting and prayer (Mark 9:28–29). Why, having descended immediately after prayer on the mountain, and there through it the former appearance of the Divine radiance, suddenly goes to the place where he was tormented by the spirit. When the chosen disciples appeared, he went up the mountain to pray, and was enlightened like the sun, and behold, Moses and Elijah appeared, practicing in fasting more than almost all people, speaking with Him, showing even during their presence at prayer the similarity and combination of fasting with prayer, so that fasting seems to be talking with prayer, conversing with the Lord. If the voice of the blood of the suffering Abel cries out to the Lord, as he says to Cain, which is known from Moses: then in every possible way the members of the body and all the joints suffering from fasting cry out to the Lord, and conversing with the prayer of the fasting person, and as if praying together, they will rightly make it favorable, and the labor of fasting will be justified. And so, after he had prayed and been divinely enlightened, the Lord descended from the mountain and went to the people and the disciples, to whom he was brought, having an unclean spirit, so that, as he showed on the mountain, the retribution for fasting and prayer would not only be great, but also great; He showed God’s true radiance, their benefits: so he descended to show their true benefits and power against unclean spirits. But since on this day of the Lord of holy fasts it is the custom in the church to read the Gospel about this miracle, let us proceed higher to the Gospel word preaching about it. I go to Jesus to the disciples and to those with them and ask: what is the strife between you? one responding from the people said: Teacher, I brought my son to you, having no spirit, and wherever anyone has it, he breaks it, and foams, and grinds his teeth and becomes numb (Mark 9:17-18). Why did he foam, grind his teeth and become numb? Tormented in spirit, firstly, and more than other members of the body, the brain suffers; for the spirit in this vital spirit uses it instead of a seat, and from it, as from some fortress, it exerts force on the whole body. When the brain suffers, a considerable amount of phlegm and swelling-causing matter comes from there into the nerves and muscles, blocking the passages of the vital spirit. From here there is a shudder, rupture and unfree movement in all free members, and especially in the cheeks, as they are close to the first-suffering member. When a lot of phlegm near the mouth flows through the passage of the pores and close to the brain, and the constricted breathing cannot pass due to the disorderly movement of the organs, and moreover, a considerable amount of phlegm accumulates: then from this the sufferers make foam. So the tormented one foamed and gnashed his teeth, which hit one another violently and clattered furiously; then he became numb from the strong attack of the spirit. For just as from the warmth of the sun's ray the moving vapors, since the heat has become stronger, are again dispersed, and are hidden from it: so from the attack of the spirit, the resulting humidity, since it has become very intensified, depletes a lot of natural juice in the body, and it, tormented by the spirit, becomes numb. The father introduced him to the Lord, saying: For he said to the disciples that they should marry him, but they could not bear it. The Lord reproaches not only him, but everyone, about the unfaithful generation! He said, “How long will I be with you, and how long will I bear with you?” (Mark 9:19). It seems to me that the Jews present at that time, having received the opportunity that the disciples could not cast out the spirit, condemned them with very blasphemous words. What could not those who had received the opportunity say, who even during the working of miracles could not restrain themselves from blasphemy? But the Lord, seeing their grumbling and cursing from afar, denounces and shames them not only with sarcastic words, but also with deeds and words filled with love for mankind. Bo commands, saying: Bring it to me here, and bring it. And seeing the spirit of the Lord, he shook the man, and the mother-in-law fell into the foam (Mark 9:20). I allowed him to make his anger obvious. The Lord asked the father of the youth Onago: How many years are there, then why should this happen to him? And the Lord asks thus out of love for mankind, leading him to faith and petition, coupled with faith, which is the mother of miracles, for this man was so far from faith that he did not even ask for the health of the youth. He told them to cast out the spirit, did not fall down, did not bow and did not ask; but it seems that he didn’t ask the Lord either. For this reason, the Lord, leaving the boy in misery before his prostrate eyes, himself talks to his father, asking him about the time of suffering, and calling him to petition. He answers: It happened to him when he was a child, and many times he was cast into fire and into water, so that he would be destroyed: but if you can, help us, having mercy on us (Mark 9:21–22). Do you see the unbelief of this man? For by saying: if you can, He showed himself in every possible way to the unbelievers that He can. The Lord said: Even if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes (Mark 9:23). He said this not as if he were ignorant of his unbelief, but as if little by little he was leading him to faith, and showing his unbelief as the reason that the disciples did not cast out the spirit. Deal with the Evangelist; for he did not say that the Lord said to the father of the lad: if you can believe, but if you can believe, since Christ would forever demand faith from those seeking healing; for, being the Lord and Patron of souls, he tried to heal them through faith. But the father of the boy, as soon as he heard that faith in Him would be followed by healing, said with tears: I believe, Lord, help my unbelief (Mark 9:24). Do you see the good behavior of morals? For not only did the boy believe about the healing, but also that the Lord could overcome his unbelief if he was willing. When the people began to rally to these words, the Lord rebuked the unclean spirit, saying: O dumb and deaf soul, I command you, come out of man, and do not enter into him (Mark 9:25). Although it seems that this spirit is very restless and violent, the severity of the prohibition and the will no longer enter, tamed its violence; for without it, and having been expelled, he would have returned. He took up a lot of space in a person, possessed him relentlessly, and was deaf and dumb, so that nature, unable to obey his extraordinary fury, suffered from extreme almost insensibility. Why, having cried out and danced much, he went out: and the man was as if he were dead, as many had said, as if he were dead (Mark 9:26). But the cry does not contradict the fact that the spirit is mute; for a verb is a voice, a signifying thought; a cry is a voice that means nothing. The spirit is allowed to torment a person so much and put him to death so that all his anger is known. The Lord, taking the man by the hand, raised him up and stood up, showing that He has greater power. For what He took with His hand was the creative action that took place on us; and that he made him suffer was a sign of uncreated Divine power. When the disciples later especially asked why they could not drive it out, He answered them that this spirit could not be driven out by anything other than fasting and prayer. Some people say that fasting and prayer should come from the sufferer. However, this is not true; for how could one struck by an evil spirit and the like, being his instrument and enduring his violence, pray or fast for his own benefit? It seems that this all-evil spirit is the spirit of intemperance, which sometimes plunges the possessed into fire: such passionate and destructive love sometimes drowns him in the water through gluttony and many and immoderate drinks and feasts. But even in such things the deaf and dumb spirit is present; for those who follow the advice of this spirit cannot tolerate either listening or speaking to the Divine. But if someone who is not of the evil spirit that has taken possession of himself, but is led by its advice, looks at conversion, he still has freedom; suddenly demands fasting and prayer, in order by fasting to curb the body and tame its rebellions, and through prayer to consume the enterprise in the soul and lull the thoughts that encourage passion, and thus free oneself from passion, driving away the satanic attack and violence through prayer and fasting. If, however, we are not guided by the inspiration of the spirit, but have it living within us, then we no longer suffer for people; we ourselves can somehow contribute to our own healing; but what he should have done if he had a free mind, then the very thing that is brought to perfection by the free and divinely inspired will very much serve to expel the spirit; for even if they could expel them, it would be useless for us when we lead a careless life. Many people will say on the day, Lord, is it not in your name that we prophesy, and in your name we drive out demons? And I say to them: We do not know you; depart from me, you who practice iniquity (Matthew 7:22–23). It is much more useful to try to drive away the passion of fornication, anger, hatred and pride from the soul than to drive out spirits; for it is not enough to avoid bodily sin alone, but we must also cleanse the spiritual power that dwells within, so that evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, extortion, and so on, come from our hearts. This is the essence of what defiles a person (Matthew 15:19–20). And he who looked upon his wife, even though he desired her, already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Because the body is inactive, it is possible to mentally commit sin. When the soul internally, through prayer, meditation, remembrance of death, sorrow for God and poverty, overthrows the violence of the evil one, then the body, which wants to be safe from disasters, becomes involved in the shrine. And this is what the Lord said: He did not cleanse the flask from without, and cleanse it inside: but make it clean inside, and so it will all be clean (Matthew 23:25–26). Whenever you take care, let your inner care be about God, having conquered your inner passions. If the root is holy, so are the branches; and if it’s kvass, then it’s fermentation. For by the Spirit, Paul says, walk and do not commit carnal lust (Gal. 5:16). For this reason, Christ did not come to destroy the circumcision of the Jews, but to fulfill it; Bo himself says: I did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). How did he perform it? There was this seal, a sign and a mysterious teaching of circumcision in the heart of evil thoughts, about which the Jews, having no care, were ashamed from the Prophets as uncircumcised in heart, and from the Seeing heart they were hated and finally despised. Man is on the face, but God looks on the heart; and if it is filled with nasty and evil thoughts, then such a person is worthy of God’s disgust. This is why the Apostle again bequeaths that we pray without anger or thoughts. Teaching us, the Lord to take care of the circumcision of the heart in the spirit, blesses the pure in heart and the poor in spirit, and affirms that the reward of this purity is the sight of God; He promises the poor the kingdom of heaven, which he calls those who live in poverty and mercifulness. He does not simply bless such people, but with the spirit of such people, that is, those who, according to the inner humility of their hearts and good will, have an external state. He forbids not only murder, but also anger, and commands us to let go of those who have embittered us from our hearts; He does not accept the gift brought from us until we first reconcile and leave off anger. He says similar things about the passions of fornication; for he called the most curious view and the lust that arose from it in the heart real adultery, and concluding something more general about them, said: If the light that is in you, that is, the mind and meditation, there is darkness (Luke 11:35), the dark attacks of those who have places filled with darkness, then much more is the darkness of the body and feelings, which do not have in themselves the intelligent light that gives birth to truth and dispassion. If the light that is in you is pure, not overshadowed by carnal wisdom, then you are all the light of your soul, just as when a lamp illuminates you with its brilliance (Luke 11:36). This is the circumcision of the heart in the spirit, through which the Lord fulfilled the legal circumcision in the flesh, which taught the Jews as a sign showing it and leading to it. Those who did not try to have it, circumcision was, as Paul says, uncircumcision (Rom. 2:25), and alienated from God, not on the face, that is, not on the visible justification of the flesh of the one looking, but on the hidden and on the movements of our thoughts. I pray that we too pay attention and cleanse our hearts from all filthiness, so that we too will not be condemned as such. Even if the law spoken by Moses was quickly known, and every crime and righteous disobedience was accepted as a reward, how can we escape, neglecting our salvation, even though we have begun to receive the words of the Lord, who have heard in us that we bear witness to God with signs and wonders, and with various powers, and by dividing the Holy Spirit? (Heb. 2:2–4). Let us therefore fear the One who searches the heart and womb, let us appease the Lord of vengeance, let us establish peace and holiness and prayer with contrition of heart, without which no one will see the Lord; let us desire in the firmness of faith this vision, promised by a pure heart; Let us create everything, so that we may be worthy of it, with which there is an eternal life, unfading beauty, unfading wealth, indispensable and endless joy, and glory and kingdom, that we may achieve everything in the very King of the ages, Christ, to whom alone belongs all glory, honor and worship, with His beginningless Father and His life-giving Spirit to endless ages. Amen. Conversation 6. On the Annunciation of the Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. The Psalmist Prophet, enumerating the images of creation and seeing in them the wisdom of God, being filled with amazement, during the writing itself proclaimed: For thy works are great, O Lord, thou hast created all things with wisdom (Ps. 103:24). What kind of word of praise will now help me, who wants to proclaim against force the appearance in the flesh of the Word, who created all things? If that which exists is filled with the essence of wonder, and the passage of these from those that bear into being is Divine and much sung: then is not it a most amazing thing, most Divine and more compelling than us to chant itself, when something of the existing is idolized, and not just by God, but by the truly existing God, when our nature, either unable or unwilling to maintain the bliss in which it was, Was he exiled for this reason to the underworld? Such a great and Divine, unspeakable and unthinkable thing is when our nature becomes God-like, and through it a return to the best is given to us, which remains unknown to the holy Angels, and to the Prophets themselves, and to the foreseeing spirit for centuries, before it finally came, by sacrament. And what am I saying before it finally comes? it happened when it never happened before; and as it happened, the mystery still remains, recognized but unknowable; worshiped, but untested, and worshiped and recognized by one spirit. No one can speak of Jesus Christ except by the Holy Spirit. And there is a Spirit, we worship him, and we pray to him (1 Cor. 12:3), says the Apostle. That this mystery is unknown not only to humans, but to Angels and Archangels themselves, is clearly taught to us by the event we are celebrating today. For the Archangel preached the Virgin's conception. When, wanting to know the way, she said to him: How will this happen to me, even though I don’t know my husband? (Luke 1:34–35). The Archangel, unable to interpret it in any way, resorted to God himself: The Holy Spirit, saying, will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. As if someone had asked Moses: how was man made from the earth, how were bones, veins and flesh made from earth, how were feelings created from insensible things? But also from Adam’s rib, how is man again, how is the bone positioned, divided, united and bound? How were the entrails and various juices, etc., created from bones? For if anyone had asked Moses about this, he would have said nothing more, except that God, taking the dust of the earth from the earth, created Adam, and taking one of Adam’s rib, created Eve. I would say who the Creator is; but I could not possibly interpret the way in which these things were created. So Gabriel said that the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High will create a seedless Christmas; but I was unable to confess what it would be like. If, having previously reminded of Elizabeth, that she conceived, being tired in old age, he could not say anything except: For every word of God will not prevail (Luke 1:37): then how could he have uttered a way for her to conceive and give birth to a Virgin? Although there is more that is said from the Archangel to the Virgin, it is not the word of the sacrament, which the verb surpasses. For, he says, the Holy Spirit will descend upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Why, since what is being born is not a Prophet, below a mere man, like Adam, but the Son of the Most High will be called the Savior, the Savior of the human race and the Eternal King? Just as the fallen stones from the top of the mountain, when they roll to the very bottom, are held back by many abysses: so many calamities have delayed us from the commandment of God given to us in paradise and from the blessed abstinence according to it, who have fallen away and rushed even to hell; for not only did the earth bring forth thorns and sensual thistles, according to the condemnation of the forefather, to us, but, what is more, we were oppressed by many different evil passions by thorns and cruel iniquities by thistles; and not only did our race have this sadness, which Eve inherited due to her condemnation, which determined that she should give birth in sorrows, but our whole life was almost illness and sadness. For this reason, God, who humanely created us, looked upon us out of the compassion of His mercy, bowed the heavens, and, having received our nature from the Holy Virgin, renewed us and brought us out, and even more so, raised us to the Divine and heavenly heights. To accomplish this, and moreover to bring to an end today his eternal advice, he deigns to send the Archangel Gabriel to Nazareth, as the Evangelist Luke tells, to a virgin betrothed to a husband whose name is Joseph, from the house of the fatherland of David, and the virgin’s name is Miriam (Luke 1:27). God sends the Archangel to the Virgin, and this abiding virgin creates his matter through one greeting; for if He had been conceived from a seed, man would not have been new, and the Savior of sinners would not have been sinless. For the urge of the flesh to give birth, without repenting to the mind given from God to us for the management of sin, is, of course, inexcusable. For this reason, David said: I was conceived in iniquities, and my mother gave birth to me in sins (Ps. 50:7). If the conception of Christ had taken place from the seed, then there would not have been a new man; below the new and in no way ageless life would have been the Chief and Giver; for, being the heir of the ancient defeat and fall, he could not carry within himself the fulfillment of the immortal Divinity, and make the body an inexhaustible source of shrines so that with its abundance it could wash away the defilement of their forefathers, and bring others to the shrine. Therefore, it is not an Angel, a lower man, but the Lord himself came and saved us, becoming pregnant and incarnate in the womb of the Virgin, and remaining unchangeably God. The Virgin was supposed to be both a witness to the seedless conception and an assistant to those accomplished by vision. What is this essence? Ascent to Bethlehem, where the Nativity from heavenly Angels was sung and glorified; entry into the sanctuary, where from Simeon and Anna the Child is witnessed by the Lord of life and death, escape from Herod into Egypt, and return from Egypt according to sacred prophecies, and so on, which is now untimely to count everything. For this reason, Joseph was accepted as a betrothed, and an Angel was sent to the Virgin, betrothed to a husband whose name was Joseph. You need to know about both of them that they are from the house and fatherland of David; for both the Virgin and Joseph were considered to be of the line of David, which is also proclaimed by the name of the Virgin Mariam, which is interpreted as the Lady; and, moreover, shows the dignity of the Virgin, constant virginity and unyielding beauty, her unheard-of life and tested in everything, or better yet, immaculate. It is characteristic of being called a Virgin, she had all the perfect acquisition of purity, being a Virgin both in body and soul, and having mental strength and bodily feelings uninvolved in any defilement, and this is dominant and constant, or better said, firmly and inviolable by all at all times, like a closed gate of a treasure, and a sealed book keeps the invisible scriptures. Just as it is written about it, this is a sealed book: And this gate will be shut, and the Lord alone will enter and go out through it, and it will be shut, and no one will pass through it (Ezek. 44:2). But in another way the Virgin is also called the Mistress, according to her dignity, as the ruler of all, as by nature the Lord of all, conceived in virginity and giving birth Divinely. In addition, she is also called Mistress not only because she is free from slavery and has accepted Divine dominion, but also because she is the source and root of the freedom of our race, and moreover because of her unspeakable and joyful birth. For one who is betrothed to a husband is more than a dominant Mistress, especially because of her sad and painless birth, it is not similar to Eve’s condemnation: In illness, give birth to a child, and your turning to your husband, and she will have possession of you (Gen. 3:16), whose condemnation the Virgin Mother, freeing our race, receives grace and blessing from the Angel. When the Angel came, he spoke to the Virgin: Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women. The Archangel preached the future to her, saying, The Lord is with you; but as if unseen, the Height announced what was happening then. Thinking that it is a receptacle of Divine and human graces, and that it is adorned with the gifts of God’s Spirit, similar to the thing itself, he called it grace-filled. Seeing, moreover, the one who had received that one, in whom the treasures of all those blessings are located, and foreseeing a sad fruiting and a painless Christmas that would be, he preached joy to her, and confirmed that she was the only one worthily blessed and glorified among women; for there is no other glorified by the excellence of the Mother of God and the Virgin, even if she was glorified. But the Virgin, seeing and fearing that the Angel was not some false, concealing one, since Eve, the careless, did not accept the kiss out of ignorance, and the union that he preached to her with God clearly without understanding, was embarrassed by his verb, being firm and perfect in her virginity, and she said: What will this kiss be like? (Luke 1:29). Therefore, the Archangel suddenly resolves the godly fear of the grace-filled Virgin, saying to her: Do not be afraid Mariam, for you have found grace from God (Luke 1:30). What grace? Which is not possible for one who is able, and which has been kept to you alone for centuries; it was conceived in the womb (Luke 1:31). Conceiving, speaking, hearing, do not think of any change in virginity, and do not be upset or embarrassed by this. This, behold, you have conceived, said then to the Existing Virgin, which then accompanied virginity and conception. Behold, you conceived and gave birth to a Son; having as you now have, and being unharmed by your virginity, you received a child in your womb and gave birth to the Son of the Most High. Isaiah, seeing this in ancient times, predicted: Behold, the Virgin will receive in her womb and give birth to a Son. And we approached the prophetess (Isa. 7:14, 8:3). Why did the Prophet approach the Prophetess? Like now the Archangel is to her, for what this one said, he foresaw and predicted. What the Prophetess is, who has Prophetic grace and is a Virgin, shows to those who wish in the Gospel her song to God. So, as Isaiah said, approach the Prophetess with a truly prophetic spirit. And she was conceived in the womb, and before going through the labor of birth, she escaped it and gave birth to a Son. The Archangel now speaks to her: Give birth to a Son, and call his name Jesus, who is the Savior (Luke 1:31). This one will be great, Isaiah said before, a wonderful counselor, a mighty God, a Sovereign, a Prince of Peace, a Father of the age to come (Isaiah 9:6). The Archangel now speaks similar to this: He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:32). He said this as if speaking about the humanity of Christ, and at the same time showing that He will be known to everyone, and from them the Lord will preach. Just as Paul finally says: God appeared in the flesh, was preached to the nations, and was believed in the world. But the Lord God will give him, he says, the throne of his father David, and he will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end (1 Tim. 3:16; Luke 1:32–33). He whose kingdom endures forever and has no end is God. But He also has a father, David; For this reason He is also man, so that God and man will be born together. Son of man and Son. God from God and the Father, like a man who receives an unceasing kingdom, as Daniel saw and foretold: For in vain, he said, until thrones were set up, and the ancient of days is sitting, and behold, like the son of man who walked on the clouds of heaven, and even the ancient of days came, and to him was given all power, and his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and There will be no other king (Dan. 7:9, 13–14). He will sit on the throne of David and reign in the house of Jacob; for the fact that Jacob is the Patriarch of all pious people, David, the first of all, reigned godly together and pleasing to God in the image of Christ, who brought the patriarchate and the kingdom into one heavenly and eternal power. The blessed Virgin, as soon as she heard from the Archangel the lofty and Divine words to herself, that the Lord is with you, and behold, you will conceive and will have a Son, ruling over the centuries, the Son of the Most High, suddenly said: How will this happen to me, without knowing a husband? For although you bring me a very spiritual gospel and all carnal passions, a gospel that surpasses all carnal passions, yet you speak to me of conception in the womb, pregnancy and birth, and this, approaching conception, how then will you do this to me, where I do not know a husband? The Virgin said this not as an unbeliever, but as someone seeking to know the essence of the matter as much as possible. For this reason, the Archangel answered to her: The Holy Spirit will descend on you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. In the same way, what is to be born will be holy and called the Son of God; holy, I say, you are a blessed Virgin, and the Holy Spirit will again descend on you in the shrine of the highest council, preparing and preparing God’s action in you; and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, strengthening together and weaving humanity for itself through the overshadowing of you and union with you, so that what is born holy is the Son of God and the power of the Most High, transformed into man. Behold, Elizabeth your little one, who spends her whole life barren, now in her old age, by the will of God, gloriously bears fruit, as every word of God does not fail. What does this mean to the Virgin of grace, Divine in mind and incomparable? Paki runs to God and prayerfully worships Him, saying to the Archangel: If the Holy Spirit, as you say, will descend on me, finally cleansing my nature and commanding me to receive the fruit of salvation; if the power of the Most High overshadows me, transforming me into a human being in the image of God, and edifying seedless procreation; Even if that which is holy to be born is the Son of God, God and the Eternal King, for every word of God fails: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be unto me according to thy word. And the Angel departed from her, leaving in the womb with her body the united Creator of all things, and through this union, whom He served, giving peace and salvation. So Isaiah clearly wrote about what he saw and what he was blessed to touch. I directly saw Seraphim taking coal from the smart heavenly altar, and Seraphim took it with a tong, with which he touched his lips, giving cleansing. This great vision of the pincer was similar to this: Moses saw a bush burning with fire and not being consumed. Who does not know that the Virgin Mother is both this bush, and this pincer in itself the fire of the Divine, unburned, when the Archangel ministered there to the conception, and through it he copulated with the human race who took away the sin of the world, and cleansed us through this unspeakable copulation? For this reason, this Mother Virgin is the only container of created and uncreated nature, and everyone will know that she is the Incontainable container, who already know God; and everyone will sing about God, who sing of God. She is the culprit of those who were before her, and those who were after her, the protector and eternal giver; she is the root of the prophets, the beginning of the apostles, the foundation of martyrs and the foundation of teachers; she is the glory of earth, the joy of heaven, the adornment of all creation; She is the beginning and the source and the root of the hope we place in heaven, which may we all receive for us through intercession for the glory of the former, begotten of the Father, and of the incarnate Jesus Christ our Lord in the last ages; to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Conversation 7. Said in the week of Vai. In a favorable time I have listened to you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you (Isaiah 49:8), God said through Isaiah. Now it is time for the Apostle to say this word to your love: This is an acceptable time, this is the day of salvation: let us therefore put aside the works of darkness, and do the works of light, so that we may walk well in the days (2 Cor. 6:2; Rom. 13:12-13). For the remembrance of the saving passions of Christ is approaching, and a new and great spiritual Pascha and the honor of dispassion, the beginning of the future age, which is foreshadowed by Lazarus, who came from the abysses of hell and rose four days from the dead by the voice and command alone of Christ, who has the power of life and death; and behold, the youths and the kindly people sing beforehand with the inspiration of the Spirit of God, who frees us from death, brings souls out of hell and gives eternal life to soul and body. If anyone wants to live and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, and let his lips not speak flattery, let him turn away from evil and do good (Ps. 33:13-15). Evil, after all, is gluttony, drunkenness and luxury; evil is love of money, covetousness and untruth; evil is vanity, insolence and pride. May everyone turn away from these vices and do good deeds. What are they? Temperance, fasting, sobriety, truth, mercy, generosity, love and humility, so that he may worthily accept the Lamb of God who laid himself down for us; may you receive from there a pledge of incorruptibility, and may you preserve for yourself the wealth promised to us in heaven. But goodness, you say, is difficult to achieve, and virtues are more difficult than vices. I don’t see this; for the drunken and intemperate man himself undertakes more work than the sober man, and the lustful man is more self-controlled, and the one who cares about enriching himself is more content with little, and he who seeks to bring glory to himself is more willing to live in ignorance. But since, due to our voluptuousness, virtues seem to us to be the most difficult, we will force ourselves to them. For it is necessary, as the Lord said, that the kingdom of heaven and its necessities are stolen away (Matthew 11:12). We all need effort and attention, both the glorious and the ignominious, the bosses and the subordinates, the rich and the poor, in order to drive out bad passions from our own souls and instill in it a class of virtues; for the farmer and the housebuilder, the shoemaker, the tailor and the weaver, and simply everyone who feeds on their own labors and handicrafts, if the desire for wealth, glory and luxury is eradicated from their souls, then they will be truly blessed. These are the poor, for whom the kingdom of heaven is. Why did the Lord himself speak about such things; Blessed are the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3). The poor in spirit are those who are unproud, unambitious, in their spirit, that is, in their soul, have voluntary outward poverty, or endure it generously if it were forced. Those who are rich, luxurious and enjoying temporary glory, simply possessed by such lusts, will be attacked by even stronger passions, and will fall into the great and insoluble snares of the devil; For he who gets rich does not leave wealth, but rather multiplies it, even more than he first desired. So the lustful, luxurious, and intemperate, having satisfied their own lusts, each multiplies them more, and does not abandon them; for the rulers and the glorious ones accept the power to commit sins and injustices. For this reason, it is difficult for a ruler to be saved and for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God; How, then, can you believe in Me, who accepts glory from man, and does not seek glory from the one God? (John 5:44). But if anyone is rich, or famous, or a leader, let him not be embarrassed; such a one can, if he wants, seek the glory of God, and force himself, in order to tame the inclination towards evil, to do great virtues and alienate terrible vices not only from himself with good will, but also from many others who do not want it. For he can not only act justly and be self-controlled, but also those who want to become unrighteous and intemperate can forbid in many different ways; not only abstain from untruth, but also adhere to the truth; not only to obey the Gospel and its preachers, but also to subdue those who do not want to obey the Church of God and its leaders in Christ; not only by the strength and authority received from God, but also by the fact that those who demand can be an example in all good things: for what is possessed is likened to the owner. Although we all need care, coercion and attention, it is unequal; for the glorious, the rich, the rulers and those who strive for words and for acquiring wisdom in them, if they wanted to be saved, must use more coercion and diligence; for they are usually somewhat more disobedient. This is also clear from the Gospels of Christ, read yesterday and now; so that when a miracle happened over Lazarus, and showed that the one who created it was God, the people obeyed and believed; The scribes in charge at that time, that is, the Pharisees, were so far from obedience that they were even more furious with Him, and from the rage of the belly and the death of the Lord who appeared, they wanted to put Him to death for His words and deeds. No one can say that the fact that Christ, lifting up His eyes on high, said: Father, I give You praise, because You have heard Me (John 11:41), prevented them from thinking that He is equal to the Father; for what He adds there, saying to the Father: I knew that you always listen to Me, but for the sake of the people standing around, I cut them off, so that they may believe that You sent Me (John 11:42). For in order to know that He is God and is from the Father, and is not opposed to Him in anything, but works miracles according to His will, He lifted His eyes to the Father before everyone. These words were spoken to Him by those who show that he who speaks on earth is equal to the Most High and the Heavenly Father. Just as at the beginning the creation of the future man was preceded by advice, so now in Lazarus the change of the future man is preceded by advice. But there the Son himself listened to the Father when he spoke to him, intending to create man: Let us create man (Gen. 1:26), and so man was brought into being; here now the Father listens to the Son speaking, and thus Lazarus was revived. Do you see what kind of unity of council and unity of honor there is? Raising one's eyes before the people ahead was an image of prayer, and the verbs were not prayerful, but sovereign and autocratic. Lazarus, come out (John 11:43) and suddenly the four-day-dead man appeared before Him alive. Is it by command that I revive him, or by prayer that I bring life to life? I cried out with a great voice, and then only for those who were coming; could not only with a moderate voice, but also with sheer will, resurrect him. Since he was from afar, and was still a stone lying on the tomb, he appeared to the tomb and commanded those who stood by, and they took the stone and felt the stench and cried out with a great voice and cried out; and thus he resurrected him, so that through his own sight and through his own sense of smell, they themselves would feel the stench of the dead, because he was dead; and through their own sense of touch, which they used with their own hands, they first took the stone from the coffin, then they loosened the covering around the body and on the face; and through their own ears, proclaiming the voice of God in the hearing of all, they all understood and believed that he called the one who does not exist as if he exists, and carries all things with the verb of his power, and in the beginning created all things that exist with one verb from non-existents. Through this, the kindly people believed so much that they not only had faith in silence, but also proclaimed the deeds and Words of His Divinity. After the four-day rising of Lazarus, the Lord found the donkey, which was prepared for Him by His disciples, as the Evangelist Matthew narrates, always going to Jerusalem, according to the prophecy of Zechariah, who predicted: Do not be afraid, daughters of Zion, behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and saving: he is meek and always on the bullock of a young stallion ( Zechariah 9:9). With these words the Prophet showed that the prophesied King, who alone is truly the King over Zion: Your King, he said, is not feared by those visible, not some oppressor and villain, bringing in helpers and a spear-bearer, or leading a multitude of pedestrians and horsemen, and living by extortion, or demanding boundaries and payments, or slavery and vile, and, moreover, harmful ministries; but His sign is humility, poverty and contentment with little. Sitting on a donkey, he enters without any human splendor. Therefore, He is the only righteous King and saver in righteousness, and He is meek, as if He has the most special meekness. For the Lord himself says about himself: Learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29). The king, having raised Lazarus from the dead, then rode on a donkey to Jerusalem; Almost all of the peoples suddenly, youths, men, old people, laying down their vestments and taking vaya from dates, which are the sign of victory, as the Life-Giver and Conqueror of death, came out to meet, bowed and accompanied Him not only from the outside, but also inside the sanctuary, according to the singing: Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest (Matthew 21:9). Hosanna is a song sent up to God; interpreted as: God save. What is added in the highest shows that He is not on earth and not only by men, but also in the highest by the heavenly Angels. Not only do they glorify Him and bless Him, but they also resist the evil and ungodly opinion of the scribes and Pharisees and their murderous forgeries; for they said madly about Him: This man is not from God, for he does many signs. If we forsake him and do not kill him, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and our language (John 11:47–48). What are the people saying? Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David (Mark 11:9–10). Through the word, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, showing that He is from God, and goes in the name of the Father, just as the Lord himself says about himself: For I came in the name of my Father, and from God I departed and go (John 16:27–28). Through the word blessedly the coming kingdom of our Father David, they showed that there is a kingdom in which, according to prophecy, both the pagans and the Romans will believe. For this king is not only the hope of Israel, but he waiteth for the tongues, according to the prophecy of Jacob, who ties his donkey to the vine, that is, the people of Judah who are subject to him, and his donkey's lot to the bunch of vines. The bunch of grapes are the disciples of the Lord, to whom He said: I am the vine, but you are the birth (John 15:5). The Lord tied his donkey's lot to this brush, that is, from the tongues of the new Israel, which by grace were the sons of Abraham. If this kingdom of tongues is hope, then what do they say, we who believe in it will fear the Romans? Thus, not with their minds, but with childish malice (1 Cor. 14:20), inspired by the spirit of God, they sent to the Lord a perfect song, testifying that He, like God, revived the four-day-dead Lazarus. The scribes and Pharisees, having seen such miracles and the youths singing in the church and saying: Hosanna to the Son of David, were indignant and decided to the Lord: Do you hear what they say? (Matthew 21:15–16). The Lord should have said this even more to them: or don’t you see, don’t hear, and don’t understand? For this reason, the Lord himself, shaming their indignant ones, as one who receives the hymn that truly belongs to the only God, answered: I hear about me those who are wise invisibly, and those who say this: but if these remain silent, the stones will cry out (Luke 19:40). Don’t you fully understand this Prophetic prophecy: for out of the mouth of a child and of those who piss I will bring praise (Ps. 8:3)? But even then it was a great surprise that the solitary youths and the unlearned, chanting the angelic song, with their lips completely blessed God, for our sake, incarnate. Just as the Angels at Christmas sang: Glory to God in the highest and on earth (Luke 2:14), so now at His entry this song is sent out saying: Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest. But let us also, brethren, celebrate our wickedness, young men and old men, rulers together and subject, in order to be strengthened by God, to erect a victorious sign, to bear the sign of victory not only over evil passions, but also over visible and invisible enemies, and to find the grace of the word to help in time of need. The young lot, which the Lord honored us for the sake of graying, being one, prefigured obedience to the Lord of the tongues, of which we are all rulers together and subject. For in Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female; there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one according to the Divine Apostle: so in Him there is neither ruler nor subject, but by His grace we are all one by faith in Him, and we are considered in one body of the church, having one head; and we have received one Spirit, and we have all received one baptism, and there is one hope in all, and we have one God, who is for all and with all and in all of us. Let us therefore love one another, be patient, and take care of one another, being, as it were, one another’s support. For he has a sign of our teaching, as he himself said, and the paternal heritage that he left for us, passing from this world, is love; and the perfect prayer that he gave us, ascending to his Father, confirms our mutual love. Let us therefore try to be participants in the Father’s prayer, and do not reject His heritage, below the sign that He Himself gave us; Let us not reject our sonship, blessing and teaching from Him, let us not fall away from the promised hope and be excluded from spiritual marriage. Just as before the saving passion the Lord entered into lower Jerusalem, not only the people, but also those who truly speak tongues, the Apostles, I say, the Lord’s, laid out the clothes of the Lord: so we, rulers and subjects, laid out our own natural garments, subduing our flesh and its desires to the spirit, so that we would not only see Christ’s saving passion, and worship His holy resurrection, but also enjoyed communion with them. If we are made natural, as the Apostle says, in the likeness of his death, then we will also be resurrected (Rom. 6:5), which may we all receive the grace and love for mankind of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, together with His beginningless Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Conversation 8. On the eighth morning from the Evangelist John, in which it is discussed that those who remain in sacred assemblies until the end of piety will be worthy of great gifts. John is a virgin, and has only one virgin mother by grace, greatly beloved by Christ more than the other Evangelists, called the son of thunder, with whom the Lord thundered when he ascended to heaven, and for this reason he performed a great sermon, explaining to us the resurrection of the Lord from the dead, and describing to us the image of His appearance after the resurrection, was heard in the church last week through the Gospel it is written down to those who preach the good news: One day from the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene came in the morning, while the darkness was still present, to the tomb, and saw a stone taken from the tomb: she flowed away and came to another disciple, whom Jesus loved (John 20: 1-2), thereby showing herself. Now we hear him saying: Mary stood outside the tomb weeping (John 20:11). John and Peter themselves, having heard from her, went to the life-giving tomb, and saw what they had seen, and believed in the signs and were surprised in themselves, and departed. The remaining Mary stood outside the tomb, crying, as if she had not received the news of the Lord’s resurrection. But not many times before, twice with others came to the tomb; First, with the Mother of God, as Matthew writes: On the Sabbath evening, when the daylight was one of the Sabbaths, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb, and behold, he was a great coward (Matthew 28:1-2), and so on, and finally now he comes with Peter and John, who, having believed and were amazed, saw the hedgehog, and rested. Twice having come to the tomb with others, when all those who came believed and were informed, she alone, as if she had not received the slightest notification, cries inconsolably. Let everyone know that these things happen through virtuous deeds. For grace suddenly meets with some of those who strive, and gives them notification of pledges, and a taste of the promised rewards, as if extending a philanthropic hand, embracing them and desiring them to other virtues; from others, expecting the end of the feat, preparing in every possible way for them crowns for patience, as one of the God-bearing fathers says: some before labor, some in labor, and some at the end receive worthy rewards. This happens when the all-kind providence of God disposes of our circumstances in a variety of ways, and humanely distributes to everyone what is decent and useful for deeds of virtue and the sacraments of faith. Having thus wisely and humanely arranged the Vladyka for Mary Magdalene, he did not deign to give her assurances, forcing others to wait through her. Let us hear what was finally rewarded through patience and diligent squatting. As if he were weeping, he said, he went into the tomb, and saw two angels in white robes sitting, one at the head and one at the foot, where the body of Jesus lay (John 20:11-12). The disdain of death and the partiality of her eyes towards the grave were a sign of her special sad disposition. We must first consider how the existing darkness, as the Evangelist said above, saw everything experimentally and in detail, and even being from the outside, existing inside the cave. It is known that there was still darkness from without, when the sensual day did not shine at all; However, this cave was filled with the light of resurrection, which, being visible to Mary, greatly inflamed her desire for Christ and gave her eyes the power to see the angelic vision, and not only see, but also that she could talk with them. Such was the light. She saw them dressed in white robes, not only in purity and light, similar to the nature of the Angels, but she also saw them as whitening and revealing the mystery of the resurrection, and in fact, the truly luminous day of the rising of the Lord, triumphant with us. But she saw them sitting down; this is so that she would know that they did not come then, but were present there before, although they had not appeared before, and even then, when she was likened to their dignity by crouching, they were such that they seemed invisible when present. But I think that what made them sit was the desire to get closer to the place where the body of the Lord formerly lay; for out of love they were, as it were, attached to the tomb, one sitting at the head, and the other at the feet, and showing the long-desired as well as dear to the Angels, and the Divinity of Christ, whose place was at the head; and humanity, whose image was at its feet. And the Angels said to Mary: Woman, why are you crying? (John 20:13). See the cave transformed into heaven, and moreover, into a heavenly church instead of an earthly tomb and prison, filled with heavenly angels instead of earthly guards, most reverently honoring the place as God and the Life-Giver, and even when it is idle, guarding it with joy. Why are you crying, wife? But the Angels, not as if they did not know Mary’s circumstances, asked, but in order to quench her tears, make her the mistress of her own thoughts and get the opportunity to fulfill her title. The title of the Angels sitting at the tomb was to proclaim the glory of the Risen One. But when the Angels asked, Why are you crying? then she answered: Because I have taken my Lord, and I do not know where I have laid him; and this reversal is reversed (John 20:13–14). What is it that they forced Mary to suddenly turn back? The Angels will certainly show slavish worship and obedience to the appeared Lord. She only called her Lord, and suspected about the abduction and transfer of the body, showing her spiritual disposition towards Him, but at the same time not concluding anything godlike about Him. They show by deeds that He is the Lord of the Angels of God; for He had not yet appeared; they were sitting at the tomb; when the Lord clearly appeared, they suddenly stood up and obeyed in a slavish manner with respect and surprise. Turning, Mary saw what it was like, terrifying the Angels, and appearing as one, and sees Jesus standing. However, she did not recognize that Jesus existed, imagining the resurrection as unheard of and incomprehensible; for the daylight was still dark and the Lord did not show her the Divine radiance: if He had made it known that He was the One who suffered, then Mary would not have recognized Him. But she recognized the cultivator of the local plants as the Cultivator of souls and the Builder of all kinds. As soon as He, having proclaimed and called her by name, made himself known to Mary (John 20:16), then she, turning her thoughts, answered and said: Rabbi, who is the Teacher, is in no way, although she saw Him alive, thinking of something like God, but as if she simply obeyed the man of God and the Divine Teacher. For this reason, I dared not only to bow down, but also to touch His feet out of love. But he hears: do not touch, Mary (John 20:17). So that your mind does not touch the heights of my mystery, as if it were God, showing itself to you in a body, and even more so even now in the most godlike; and therefore do not touch Me. This must have been observed for the Mother of God, so that she, alone among women, after the resurrection, would touch the body of us who became incarnate for the sake of God from her; which happened, as the Evangelist Matthew narrates, he says about her: He came to eat His nose (Matthew 28:9). And he said to Mary: Touch me not, for I shall not sigh unto my Father (John 20:17). This was added to the other words spoken to His disciples, as if I ascended to my Father without sighing. He says this, forcing them to labor and care, and urging them to desire and seek His sight. It also has something for Mary Magdalene. Do not touch me, I say, because the body in which I have clothed myself is such that by its action and desire it surpasses fire in height, and can ascend not only to heaven, but also to the heavenly Father. I did not sigh to my Father because even after the resurrection from the dead I did not show myself to be my disciple. Go then to my brethren; for we have one Father, although in different ways. I am like His kin and one-natural; they are as if adopted by me to Him. Go therefore to my brethren, and tell them, for I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God (John 20:17). Just as our Father is by grace through the Spirit of adoption, His Father is by nature by Divinity: so is our God, as the Builder of nature, His by reason of the vision that was according to humanity. For this reason, when we were parting, he said that we should think about mutual difference. It also reminds them through this sign that it ascends to the Father, so that they can reason about His body, that it is not like this, which on earth can always, as before, turn and abide with them inseparably. But Mary Magdalene, who alone among the myrrh-bearers of Christ we sing, into whom, after Christ cast out the seven evil spirits, the sevenfold acting grace of God of the Spirit certainly infused; of this, I say, Mary Magdalene, through a diligent sitting of the Angel's vision and conversation, having been granted and seen the Lord himself, is sent to His Apostles, and having learned from the very mouth of God and having been completely convinced, she goes to the Apostles about the sight of the Lord, and this is what he said to her, to announce. Let us, brethren, consider how much Mary Magdalene differs in dignity from the Supreme Apostle Peter and John, the beloved Theologian of Christ, and how many gifts she was vouchsafed before them then. For when they came to the tomb, they saw only the shroud and the sir; She, through an internal and long-term vigil, as if she had delayed until the end and sat relentlessly at the door of the cave, not only the Angels, but also the Lord of the Angels Himself, risen from the dead in the flesh, saw before the Apostles, and heard Him Himself, and was the executor of the commands that came from the most Divine lips. This church is an image of that cave, and moreover, it has something greater than the image, when it is almost different; there is a place on which the body of the Lord is placed, existing inside the altar, and on it the all-sacred meal. If someone with zeal runs to this truly Divine and God-pleasing cave, sits down and remains to the end, raising and extending his thought to God, he will not only recognize in it the divinely inspired words of the Scriptures, which, just as the Angels proclaim about the Divinity and humanity of the Word of God incarnate for us, but without a doubt he will see with his mental eyes the Lord himself; It wouldn’t be superfluous to say that they were also bodily. He who looks with faith at the mystical meal and the Bread of the Life offered on it, sees the most hypostatic Word of God, which is for us in the flesh and dwells in us; and if he makes himself worthy to receive it, then he not only sees it, but also partakes of it, has it living within himself and is filled with Divine grace from Him. Just as Mary saw what the Apostles then wanted to see, so this one is worthy to see and enjoy what, according to the Apostle, the Angels themselves want to touch, and through looking at this and communion he becomes godlike. Correct, brothers, your hands that are lazy in virtue and your weak knees, create right paths with your feet, walking along the straight paths of the Lord, righteousness, temperance, love, humility and truth. The evil ones are corrupt ways in every possible way: hatred, lies, deceit, envy, covetousness, pride and other similar things, that everything, not only when a person does, but when he loves and thinks about them, makes him worthy of God’s disgust for the fact that a person is on the face, and God looks at the heart. And this one is the one who tests hearts and wombs. But you, gathered in the church of God, having girded your loins with your thoughts, according to the voice of the Supreme Alostol Peter, and being sober, fully trust in the grace brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:13). It is in no way possible that someone standing in God’s sacred church, raising and elevating his mind to God, and listening and learning from beginning to end the sacred songs, would not be changed by a change in the Divine, similar to the teaching that is taught to God and the words of God. A certain warmth is born in the heart from such teaching, as it tames the evil iniquity of thoughts, planting spiritual peace and joy in the soul and giving holiness to the body, as the Prophet says: My heart is warmed within me and in my teaching a fire will flare up (Ps. 38:4). And this is what one of the God-bearing fathers taught us, saying: make all your efforts so that your inner actions are about God, and thus overcome external passions. To this end, the great Paul, exhorting us by the Spirit, says, walk and do not commit carnal lust (Gal. 5:16). Why, in another place, the letter bequeaths: Become girdled with your loins with truth (Eph. 6:14), as if your thoughts are turned to the Divine, abiding in God in truth, following the desire of the soul and turning away from carnal lusts. When carnal thoughts are destroyed, then the grace of the Spirit, having received from us a calm soul, gives it to taste the future ineffable blessings, which neither the passionate and impenetrable eye has ever seen, nor the ear has heard, and such has never entered the human heart. This tasting is a guarantee of these benefits; and the heart that has received these guarantees becomes spiritual and receives notification of its own salvation. If anyone wants to acquire such information and learn experimentally about these spiritual guarantees, let him live as the word has now suggested and shown. Thus, the cohabitant will also be a saint of God, and a partner in the eternal and unspeakable blessings promised to him, which may we all benefit from the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ; to Him belongs glory, power, honor and worship with His eternal Father and the life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Conversation 9. Said on the feast of the Supreme Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. The memory of each saint, celebrated on this festive day, is also a common cause of joy for the people, cities and communities, and city governors, and provides great benefit to all those celebrating. For the righteous is remembered with praise, says Solomon the Wise; but when a righteous man is praised, people will rejoice (Prov. 10:7). For like a lamp lit at night, the light shines for the benefit and pleasure of all those present: so the godly life of each of the saints, her blessed end and the grace given to him from God for the purity of life, like a light-like luminary placed in the middle, through the common remembrance of those gathered, gives amusement and benefit. And just as when the earth bears fruit, not only farmers, but all people rejoice; the enjoyment of earthly fruits is common to all: thus, the saints’ fruitfulness of virtues to God not only pleases the Creator of souls, but also all of us, as if offering common joy and pleasure to our souls. For this reason, all saints, while in this life, serve as an appeal to virtue to all who hear and see them with reason; They are animated images of virtue, self-moving pillars of all good, living books and verbal instructions for the better; and having departed from this life, for the remembrance of the virtues that dwell in them, they retain immortal benefits for us with them. The remembrance of their good deeds is their praise, due to them from us for the benefit given, but useful to us now because of the benefit they are showing us even now. We do not add anything to their virtues, remembering what they have done; and how is it possible when we are not able to explain in words a single virtue of theirs. For they are honored by God more than words with the promised rewards, as much as nature can accommodate them, and a harmonious society, conquering every word, has shown. We will not increase their virtues, although we praise them; let it pass; Let us multiply the good that is given to us from them, before them, as if before some God-shining lamps we worship and the beneficent power bestowed from them, understanding and accepting even more. If, as I said, the memory of each of the saints is celebrated with songs and due praise from us, then is it not more necessary to celebrate the memory of Peter and Paul, with the perfections of the Supreme Apostolic Face? They are the fathers and leaders of all the apostles, martyrs, reverends, priests, leaders, shepherds and teachers, the flock and all who are taught, being like the beginning of the shepherds, or the beginning of the creators of the common salvation and virtue of all, like lamps in the world who have the word of life, illuminating those who shine with piety and virtue as much as other stars are the sun, or like the heavens of heavens, telling the highest glory of God. They surpass so much the height of the heavens and the beauty of the stars, and the speed of both of them, and the order and power, as well as the fact that the senses surpass, and not what is subject to them, they show, and those who look at them, raise to the heights of the most heavenly and worldly, and send light, in it there is a transformation, or change of overshadowing, not only from the darkness this light is for astonishment, but participating in it with a gift in the light transforming them into children of perfect light, so that both of them will shine like the sun into the future in glory, the coming and appearance of the Beginning of Light and the God-Man Word. These lamps, standing before us today with each other, bring joy to the church; The cathedral does not eclipse them, but the presence of light causes them. He alone, dwelling in heaven, was established on high; the other came after, so that by following he could darken the other; lower one during the day, and another at night we drive, so that he might fall into darkness by going the other way; below he sends, and the other receives light from there, so that he can recognize the change from this, at different times and differently receiving enlightenment as the distance increases; but having received equally both Christs, the eternal Source and the ever-present Light, they received equal height, radiance, and glory. Why is the union of these lamps a cathedral, purely giving enlightenment to the souls of the faithful, but an ancient apostate who alienated the first man from God, seeing that he who made Adam the father of the human race is already transforming Peter into a truly pious father, and not only seeing, but also hearing him saying to him: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church (Matt. 16:18): Having learned this, the evil one, with self-envious malice, harms Peter, the head of the family of the godly, just as Adam, the head of the human race, once did. Seeing him adorned with intelligence and wounded by love for Christ, he does not dare to attack in person, but as if obliquely, in fact, directly stealing with satisfied cunning, he instigates him to act out of decency. And when, during the saving passion, Christ said to his disciples: This night you will all be offended because of me (Matthew 26:31), then he contradicted, not believing, and besides this, preferring himself to others, he said: Even if everyone will be offended, but not I (Matthew 26:33). He is left behind more than others, as if he spoke out of vanity, so that, having humbled himself more than others, he would eventually appear to be the most noble. Not like Adam, tempted and at the same time defeated and finally fallen; but although he was tempted and was rejected a little, he nevertheless defeated the tempter. How? With his recognition of this, strong sadness and repentance, capable of propitiation with healing and tears: God will not despise a contrite and humble heart (Ps. 50:19). And sorrow, even without God, brings unrepentant repentance to salvation (2 Cor. 7:10); Moreover, if you sow prayer with tears, you will reap forgiveness with joy (Ps. 125:5). But let it be known to those who feel about him that he not only completely erased the denial to which he was led through repentance and amazing crying, but also the passion for which he was abandoned, uprooting from his soul, he tore it out. And although the Lord showed this to everyone, after His suffering for us in the flesh and His three-day rise from the dead, He used the words now read in the Gospel to Peter, saying: Simon the Jonah, do you love Me more than these? (John 21:15), that is, my disciples; You see his appeal to humility. First, without being questioned, he preferred himself to others, and said: Even so, everyone, but not me. Now when the Lord asked him: Do you love more than others? He agrees to what he loves; and to this, or more, he answers by saying: By God, You weigh, as I love You (ibid.). What about the Lord? Having shown him no love for Him to those who had fallen away, and, moreover, to those who accepted humility, for this reason he fulfills with hope many of his promises to him and says: Feed My lambs. Calling the gathering of those who believe in Him the church, he promises to lay it as a foundation: You are Peter, saying, and on this rock I will build My church. Speaking about love, he makes him a fisher of men, hence saying, “You will be a fisher of men” (Luke 5:10). When he calls his own sheep, he makes Peter a shepherd, feed, saying, my lambs, feed my sheep. From this we must conclude, brethren, how much the Lord desires our salvation. He desires it so much that He does not demand anything else from those who love Him, except that they lead us to the fold and into the fence of salvation. Let us also begin to desire our salvation and obey those who lead us to it, both in deed and in word; for only each of you must embark on the path leading to salvation, and the leader has been prepared from the common Savior, and is ready, by the superiority of his love for mankind, to be the Giver of salvation, as he is self-appointed, and even more so, being self-willed. He asks three times, so that by answering three times, Peter would confess the good confession, and through the threefold confession he would be cleansed from the threefold rejection. Three times placing him as a shepherd over his lambs and sheep, he reminds Peter of the three orders of those who are saved: service, reward and adoption, or virginity, chaste widowhood and honest marriage; but Peter, being asked again and again whether he loved Christ, was offended, concluding from the frequent question that he did not believe him. Seeing the one who loves himself, and knowing that the questioner knows himself more than he knows himself, as if oppressed from everywhere, he not only confesses his love for Him alone, but also proclaims that the one he loves is God himself above all, saying: Thou art the Lord of all things, Thou art weighed, for I love Thee (John 21:17). It is the nature of God alone to know everything. When He made such a confession from the soul, the Lord not only ordains him as a shepherd and chief shepherd of his church, but promises to gird him with such strength that he, who was unable before this strengthening to resist the word and question of a single servant, will remain patient even until death, the death of the cross, Amen, Amen I say to you, saying to him, when you were young in age, both spiritual and physical, you belted yourself, that is, you used your own strength, and you walked, even if you wanted, being self-motivated and living according to the will influenced by nature; when you grow old, having come to the perfect age of both body and spirit, you lift up your hands. With these words He marks his death on the cross, and testifies that Peter will have a free crucifixion on him. Having lifted up your hand itself, it will girdle you, that is, strengthen you, and lead you, even if you didn’t want to (John 21:18), snatching it from people, so that nature does not want its solution through death. The ability of our divine nature to live is also shown here by Peter’s supernatural testimony. This, he said, will be carried away by my will and according to my testimony, strengthened from me, which, as something supernatural, nature usually does not want. Peter is one of the few known. What is Paul, what language, and what kind and how many languages ​​is his patience for Christ even to the point of death, although they can explain it moderately, who was dying every day, and moreover always remained dead, not because he himself is living, as he says, but having Christ living in himself (Gal. 2:20)? Before the love of Christ, not only the present one shields with rot, but also the future puts it second to it, comparing this with it. We have been told that neither death, nor life, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:38). He had the zeal of God, so that we too would be zealous with the zeal of God. And to which of all the Apostles will he concede equality, except Peter? What kind of humility did he have? The packs heard him say about himself: I am like the Apostles, who is not worthy to be called an Apostle (1 Cor. 15:9). What the hell? For this reason, he is equal to Peter in confession, zeal, humility and love. But have you not been granted such gifts from the One who places everything on weight and fair measure? And how could the words be spoken from which he says to Peter: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church? About Paul, what does he say to Ananias: This is my chosen vessel, to bear my name before kings and nations (Acts 9:15). What name? It is certainly called among us the Church of Christ, which Peter bears as the foundation. Do you see how glorious and united in honor Peter and Paul are, and how they both bear the church of Christ? For this reason, she now shares the honor of both one and the other, celebrating both with the same honor. But we, discussing their retreat, will begin to imitate their return; and if nothing else, then at least correction from repentance and humility; everything else that is great, lofty, characteristic of the great and intended to be imitated by the great, is similar to what it is not possible for everyone to imitate. The correction that comes from repentance is more for us than befits them, because we sin a lot every day, and there is no way for us to hope for salvation if we do not acquire it through constant repentance. Repentance is preceded by the calling of one’s own sins, which greatly contributes to propitiation. The psalmist for the Prophet, inclining mercy through confession, and accepting perfect forgiveness through confession and self-reproof, have mercy on me, says to God, for I know my iniquities (Ps. 50:5). Speech: Let me confess my iniquity, and you will forsake the wickedness of my heart (Ps. 31:5). For the recognition of one’s own sins is followed by one’s own conviction; For this reason, sorrow for one’s own sins, which Paul calls sorrow for God; This sadness, even about God, usually follows with a contrite heart, confession and prayer to God, and, moreover, a promise to henceforth leave atrocities: and this is repentance. For this reason, Manasseh was freed from the condemnation of sin, having already fallen into a multitude of great sins, and wallowing in them for many years. Not only did the Lord cleanse David’s sin, but he also did not take away the prophetic grace. Having used this, Peter not only escaped from sin, but also inherited the rule of the Church of Christ. You will find this in the love of Paul, both after conversion and after entering and uniting with God more than others; for repentance, if it is true and truly brought from the heart, advises the repentant not to deal with the depraved, not to crave evil pleasures, but to despise the present, to strive for the future, to fight passions, to love virtue, to abstain from everything, to be vigilant in sending prayers to God, to abstain from unjust gain, to be merciful to your criminals, to those who ask, gracious, I am ready, in whatever way I can, in words, in deed, or in depen- dence for those who require assistance from you, with all my heart I will incline, so that through love for mankind I may acquire the love of mankind, for the love of my neighbor, to receive the love of God and to gain God’s favor for myself, to receive eternal mercy, God’s blessing and grace that abides without ceasing, which may we all receive through the grace of the only begotten Son of God, to Him belongs the glory, power, honor and worship with His beginningless Father and the all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. Conversation 10. Spoken during the harvest, in which the spiritual harvest is discussed. The Creator of all things and the Lord, having created with goodness all of those who bear, after all, with the greatness of his power and the ineffable and incomprehensible wealth of his wisdom and goodness, as if at the conclusion of all creation, he gloriously created man, so that he would be one abbreviated creation of the whole community. That is why he finally created it, depicting both worlds and decorating both worlds, the visible, that is, and the invisible; He united mind and feeling in him inexpressibly, using imagination, opinion and reasoning as means, as the most characteristic unions. And so he created the same animal mental and visible. Just as he connected the ever-moving sky through an intermediary with the motionless earth, and created the same world as an always standing and moving world. Since man and this world were created by a single artist through the method of art, they have a very great relationship with each other. They surpass each other in size and in intelligence. And man remains in the world treasured, just as a huge church contains a precious thing, much more superior in its value; or as in the royal chambers there is a certain vessel that is open and honorable. Although the royal chambers were built from great stones, they were built from simple stones and of low cost; Although the vessel is made of small ones, it is made of rare and valuable ones. How far beyond the heavens is the human mind! He represents the image of God, is knowledgeable about God, and alone, if he wants, lifting up the body of humility, becomes a worldly god. How much the human sense differs from the earth, which not only knows about the measures and its various qualities, but also touches circles and the heavens with knowledge, feels various movements, and knows the diverse, and perhaps significant, combinations of stars and constellations, and, moreover, distances, and this gave the beginning to mental teachings. The means between heaven and earth are less worthwhile than the means of reason and feeling, being corresponding to the grounds of similarity and differing in many respects from the surrounding elevations. God adorned our nature in order that it might serve as a tax in due time; It was his pleasure to invest him with virgin blood, to make him the best, to place him on a height above every principle and power, and every name, whether in the present or in the future century. Having foreseen and prepared this wisely and philanthropically, he honored it with so many, and even more so, all-desirable gifts. since dual, and especially multi-partial, gave us cognitive powers, giving mind, feeling and the intermediate between them; For this reason, He created what was offered to us for knowledge and action to be twofold and multipartite. The time of harvest has now come for us for a year. But we have more than one harvest; for not only a sensory harvest, but also a mental and spiritual harvest, and for each of this harvest we have the entire annual circle in time. Now, since we are still standing inside the walls of the sanctuary, and standing before God, then from there, having gained a little courage, we have hope in Him, and having raised our minds to heaven, we will make ourselves participants in the mental and spiritual harvest, about which I now intend to say a little for your love, thereby giving you an aid to salvation; for in every circular year, when this time comes, seeing many outside the city scattered and working around the harvest and gathering fruits, I reflect with myself: there is a harvest of people, reaping them from the present temporary and passing life, and settling them into another future and endless life. But whoever, reaping the inanimate classes, or hiring others to reap and collecting the fruits, or buying from those who gather and bringing them into the granary, remembers that which will reap him, the harvest, and tries to appear to the Creator of souls dear and worthy of His prepared abode in heaven in due time, whether not everyone has bowed down to the ground, since those who work with their own hands, the body, the stubborn thought and having not deviated from earthly things? And if this happens, then we are no different from the pagans; It is common for them to engage in earthly concerns with all the strength of their soul and body: in every possible way they have no idea about the future, less than faith or thoughts about heavenly things. Therefore, according to Scripture, the whole life of the wicked consists of caring for the earthly and corruptible. That is why Christ, in the gospel, said to us: Do not worry about your soul, what you eat, or what you drink, or what you put on (Matthew 6:25), added: for these the pagans are looking for all of them (Matthew 6:32). There is no need to give up doing things, but to withdraw from the care of those who have placed their hope in God, so that we do not despair and hope for action in vain. Do not worry, in speech, saying that there are pits, or that we drink, or what we will put on, constantly thinking about this and becoming despondent from the expected misery, and, moreover, attracting the soul to this and preventing it from contemplating the high. Therefore, God created our nature as such, that the mind, not only when the body is calm, but when it moves and moves and works, whatever it needs, can have its effect in other things, so that we work with the body according to it, while with the soul, looking to God, we ask Him for heavenly things. Therefore, bequeathing not to worry about the soul, so that this is proper for tongues, he added: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this will be added to you (Matthew 6:33), showing that you will not suffer any loss in considering your bodily needs if you have spiritual care for God, and even more so you will not be deprived of those when God gives it for spiritual salvation. He opens his hand, and performs good pleasure on every living creature (Ps. 145:16). David also came to Him: Harvest and spring, you have created (Ps. 73:17). Not only speaking about the visible, but also about the spiritual, he considered and suggested the harvest to spring. If you do not first reap yourself from unfaithful or bad deeds and people, then you will not spend spring in virtues. There is, brethren, spring and sowing, not only physical, but also mental, and not only mental, but also spiritual, like planting and gathering fruits, and what follows, like agriculture and labor. The doer of this effort is God, just as the Apostle says: God’s effort and God’s building are natural (1 Cor. 3:9). And the Lord himself said to the disciples: I am the vine, you are the generation, my Father is the worker (John 15:5). And in another place, again about yourself: Go out and sow your seed (Matthew 13:3). This seed is the word of teaching; Since the word of this spiritual teaching is called a seed, then its sowing is certainly a harvest accomplished by faith. And showing this, the Lord himself, when people began to come to His faith with His people, said to His disciples: Lift up your eyes and see the fields, as if the waters are already ready for harvest, and the one who reaps the wages receives and gathers the fruit into an eternal life (John 4:35-36). For just as the colors dry out from the warmth of the sensual sun and fade from the wet paint, they float, and the essence is ready for harvest and gathering: so then, when the Sun of righteousness came in flesh to the earth, by the power of His coming, human souls, having been cleansed, became white, when from this voluptuous and fleeting life the darkness and luxury innate to them moved away, and were so ready for the spiritual harvest that having completely repented of ungodliness and unbelief, they came with true faith into the eternal belly. If anyone wants to know the truth of this word, that then the power of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ seemed to whiten and purify human hearts and prepare them for the faith of godliness: let him consider that all the pagans did not then confess one God, the Lord and Creator of all things, but the sun, moon, stars and other creatures and their statues as gods bowed; the power of the coming of Christ taught us all to confess one God, the Lord and Creator of all things. And that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the law given through him, teaching to honor one God, acted on one people of Judah, and finally did not act on them, although the Divine teaching was given to them from their ancestors from above; then the power of the coming of the Lord acted on all nations and languages. And how ready the fields were for the spiritual harvest, when from the great tongue they believed that there is only one Creator, suddenly came to Christ to true godliness, heard with reason the Apostolic and Prophetic broadcasting, experienced the Scripture: thus the Lord, having appeared only on earth, awakened the entire human race from the delusion of idolatry, although He did not show everyone to be godly; for in the next century the power of His second coming will raise everyone from the dead, although it will not honor everyone with the true life. The wicked are those who have not received forgiveness of sins here through confession and repentance, as well as those who have not observed and have not cleansed themselves from immoderate carnal lusts, which are gluttony and drunkenness, drunkenness and luxury, from which comes the immoderation of sub-glutton passions, which are masturbation, fornication, adultery and all intemperance, from which Lustful and lawless words, rumors, nonsense and excesses are born, which, demanding dependents, make those caught thieves, covetous, unrighteous and predators. What should be said about the hatred, fights and countless passions and dishonest thoughts that have entered the soul that arise from there? Those who do not protect themselves from this and do not appease God through confession and repentance, although they will be resurrected, will endure a life worse than death, being given over to illness, sorrow, sighing and eternal shame, living with never-ending worms and being burned by dark and unburnable fire, as the Prophet Isaiah says: The wicked and sinners will be burned together, and there will be no quenchai (Isa. 1:31). Why does the Apostle to Ephesians say: Yes, you know that everyone who is fornicator, and unclean, or covetous, who is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ God (Eph. 5:5). And also, warning and otherwise stopping the lips of those who teach, he leads: Let no one flatter you with vain words, for for these sake the wrath of God is coming on the disobedient sons; therefore, do not be partakers of this (Eph. 5:6-7). Just as he sent to the Corinthians, he also says: Do not flatter yourselves: neither harlots, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor wicked women, nor sodomites, nor covetous, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Those who believe directly in our Lord Jesus Christ and demonstrate faith by deeds, and keep themselves, or are cleansed through confession and repentance from the filth of the above-mentioned iniquities, resist wickedness and practice virtues, abstinence, sobriety, love, alms, righteousness and truth, all of these, having risen, will hear from the very King of heaven: Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). And thus they will reign with Christ, inheriting the kingdom of heaven and permanently, and living ever in the unspeakable and unevening Light, never eclipsed by any night, and remaining with the saints from the ages in indescribable joy, in the bosom of Abraham, from where all sickness, sorrow and sighing have fled. And so over the inanimate classes there is one harvest, but over the intelligent classes, the human race, I say, there is one, about which I spoke, reaping from unbelief and bringing to faith those who receive the preaching of the Gospel. And these harvesters are the Lord's Apostles, their successors and, in the time of the church, teachers, about whom the Lord said above: For the one who reaps accepts the wages and gathers the fruit into an eternal life (John 4:36). Teachers will receive such a reward from God and piety as those who lead those who conquer into eternal life. Another harvest is from the present to the future life, each of us through death, transmigration, which has its harvesters not the Apostles, but the Angels, who have something greater than the Apostles, so that after the harvest they will gather and separate the tares from the wheat, the evil from the good, and will send the good into the kingdom of heaven, while the evil will be cast into fiery hell. But this explanation from the Gospel of Christ, which will be given by its time and occasion, will be shown at another time. But we, as now we are God’s chosen people, a holy race, the church of the living God, separated from the ungodly and ungodly, so that we may be found and in the next century separated from the tares, and in part remain those who are saved in Christ our Lord Himself, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. Conversation 1. Like our holy father John, Archbishop Constantine of the city Chrysostom, for a thousand talents and a hundred denarii, and about not remembering malice. Blessed Paul the Apostle, a chosen vessel who has Christ in himself, writing to those in Rome, said: The night is past, and the day is approaching: let us therefore put aside dark works and put on the armor of light, so that we may walk gracefully in the days (Rom. 13:12). Why do we, brethren, show some diligence, send diligent prayers to the Lady, shed warm tears, begin to constantly confess what we have done, offer Him, like a Physician, our wounds, and show the ulcers of our souls, demand healing from Him, tame the passions that confuse our minds, and not allow ourselves to be oppressed by the desire for wealth, let us cease remember to be spiteful towards your neighbor, and to be hostile towards those of the same birth. God does not hate or abhor anything so much as a person who remembers to be spiteful and constantly hides in his soul enmity against his neighbor. For this sin is such an infection that it calls upon God’s love for mankind; and so that you know about this, I want to remind you of the parable found in the Holy Gospel, how he, who wanted to receive absolution from the Lord with ten thousand talents, fell down, asked and prayed. The Lord had mercy on him, forgave him, and remitted the debt to him (Matthew 18:27). Do you see God's mercy? He fell down, asking to give himself time: Be patient, he said, and I will repay you all (Matthew 18:26). But the good Lord, Trustee and Lover of Mankind, bowing to the servant’s request, asked not so much, but did not think so much, granted Him so much; for it is always customary for Him to overcome and anticipate our petitions. Now, when he asks to give himself time and promises to repay the entire debt, he who conquers our sins through goodness has forgiven him and forgiven him the debt. Do you see what the slave asked for, and how much the master gave? Look again at his great cruelty: after so much love for mankind and the indescribable benefit shown to him, he should have shown himself to be compassionate and towards those of his own kind, but he, having left and received the release of ten thousand talents, showed the opposite. Listen, I pray, with trial; what happened to him can also happen to our soul, and condemn our thoughts to endure this difficult illness. He went out and found one of his minions, who owed him a hundred denarii. Look, what a difference; for to whom the slander owed a hundred denarii, the master released ten thousand talents, and even suddenly, as soon as he saw him asking and praying. He eats it crushingly, saying, give it back to me, you owe it to them. What the hell? The clergy fell and prayed for him with the verb (Matthew 18:28–29). See how often this word is repeated by the Evangelist, saying: he is slandering him, not just, but so that we know that there is no difference between them, and before this one asked him this way, he was with the master, saying: Be patient with me, and I will repay you all; Having left, he threw him into prison until he was given his due. O extreme madness! Having such an impressed philanthropy, he could not think of anything compassionate, but before he beat him, now he put him in prison. See what is happening: Having seen his speech, he was offended, and came and told everything that had happened to his master (Matthew 18:31). Not this suffering one: as best he could, being imprisoned, but the minions were not offended, but because the offended ones condoled, and when they went away, they announced everything. But see other indignation. Then calling him, he said to him: The evil servant (Matthew 18:32). Truly one can see from here how great the destruction of memory malice is. When he demanded ten thousand talents, then he did not call him evil; but now that he turned out to be unmerciful over his minions. Then, he said, he released all the debt to you, and begged me to do so. Do you see how his extreme malice shows? You didn’t show anything else, speech, but only uttered modest words, and having accepted your petition, you forgave the entire great and unbearable debt: then isn’t it appropriate for you to have mercy on your minion, just as I had mercy on you? Why are you worthy of forgiveness now? I have forgiven such a burden of debts for these meek words, but you did not have mercy on your like-minded minion, did not bow down to his request, below, remembering what I had forgiven you, showed compassion towards him, but you were fierce and merciless, and did not want to have mercy on your minion. Therefore, know from here through experience how angry you are because of yourself. And his Lord was angry and handed him over to his tormentors. See him angry for the inhumanity shown to his slander, and betraying him to the torturers. And what he did not do to him before, when he was subject to such debts, he now commands him to do, handing him over to the tormentors, until he repays what he owes, until he pays with ten thousand talents, of which, having received remission, he has already departed. The great and unspeakable mercy of God. When the Lord demanded, he forgave; still he prayed to Him. When he found out that he had acted cruelly and inhumanely towards his minion, he denounced his curiosity, showing him by his very deed that he had not so much offended him as he had offended himself. And just as he put him in prison until he paid what he owed, so he handed him over to the tormentors until he freed himself from all debt. But this, brethren, is not a word about talents and not about denarii, but about the fact that we owe the Lord punishment for the greatness of our sins, and because of His unspeakable love for mankind, we receive forgiveness from Him. If we show ourselves to be cruel and inhumane towards slanderers and those of the same nature, and those who share the same fate with us by nature, and we do not forgive the sins against us, but punish those who have committed them: thereby we attract the indignation of the Lord upon ourselves, and those for whom we have previously received forgiveness, the debt is again forced to pay with torment. As much as one hundred denarii and ten thousand talents differ from each other, so much are our sins before the Lord from those crimes that happen to us from our peers. In order for us to know that the Lord brought this parable for our benefit, then listen to everyone who is given: This is what your heavenly Father will do for you, if you do not let each one of your sins go from your hearts (Matthew 18:35). There is great self-interest in this parable, if only we wanted to listen. Why can we let go as much as the Lord gives us? And we, if it is desirable to do this, forgive the slanderers, but we ourselves receive forgiveness from the Lord. See also the experience of those spoken; I didn’t just say: if you don’t forgive a person’s sins, but what? Do not let every brother from your hearts let go of their sins. See how He wants our very heart to remain in peace and quiet, and our thoughts to remain untroubled and free from all passion, and for us to show great favor to our neighbors. And again in another place you can hear Him saying: If you forgive men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you (Matthew 6:14). We don’t need to think that we are doing good to another when we do this, or that we are offering him some great gift; so that we ourselves take advantage of the benefit, and from this we gain a lot of self-interest for ourselves: since if we do not do this, we cannot offend them in any way, but we are preparing for ourselves the unbearable punishment of Gehenna. Why do I pray that, with this in mind, we in no way allow ourselves to be hostile towards those who have saddened us, or otherwise offended us in any way; but so that, thinking how great a good deed will be poured out on us from the Lord, and most of all thinking that reconciliation with those who have grieved is the consumption of our iniquities, we march and hasten, and expecting self-interest from this, to show the same respect to those who have offended us as to true benefactors. For if we are awake, then not only those who are zealous for us and try to show respect in every way can take advantage of us, but the respect shown to them, which lightens the burden of those we have sinned and merits heavenly favor. Think with me, beloved, how great this virtue is considered in reward, which the God of all has promised to those who correct it; He said: Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray, pray for those who harm you and those who drive you out (Matthew 5:44). Since these commandments were great and concerning the highest level thereof, he said: For you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, as his sun shines on the evil and on the good, and rains on the righteous and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45). If, by human strength, a merciful person becomes like God, not only not taking revenge on those who grieve, but also trying to pray for them, then what kind of benefits will he be worthy of? There is no need for us to deprive ourselves of great gifts and retributions that surpass every word; but let us try to fulfill this in every way, and by forcing our thoughts, we will learn to obey God’s command. For this reason, I have now made this testament and clearly presented the parable, and showed the greatness of the good deeds, and what benefit comes from it for us, so that, when there is still time, each of us who is at war will try to reconcile with ourselves through much respect. And let no one tell me that I asked once and another time and did not accept. If we do this with sincere thought, then we will not stop until we have won over the long-term petition and attracted the irritated one to ourselves. In this case, it is not to him that we bestow, but the gifts of beneficence ascend to us; we gain God's favor and receive much boldness towards the Lord from there. If we correct this, then with a clear conscience we will be able to utter prayer verbs during terrible mysteries: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. If we are lazy, then won’t this somehow be a source of condemnation for us when we do something contrary to our words? This is nothing more than daring to utter prayerful voices recklessly and in vain, gathering greater fire upon oneself and calling upon God’s indignation. I rejoice and am glad to see you listening with pleasure to the words, and punishing with applause, that you are ready to be trying to put this testament of the Lord into effect. This is the healing of our souls, this is the cure for our ulcers, this is the best way, this is the great proof of a God-loving soul, when we accept everything according to the law of the Lord, and do not repent of the weaknesses of our thoughts, but overcome passions. Therefore, let everyone do this worthy deed, let everyone hasten to the great treasure, and not delay his happiness, even if he had to work, search and travel for a long time, even if there were some difficulties, having overcome all these obstacles, let him strive for only one thing, how he could put into action what was commanded by God and receive a reward for obedience. It is not unknown to me that it seems painful and annoying when an enemy leaves, stands and quarrels like an enemy, but when we consider the dignity of the commander and the greatness of the rewards, and that the gifts of good deeds do not go to him, then everything will seem easy and convenient for you. With this in mind, we will adhere and with pious thoughts will fulfill the commandments of Christ, in order to be rewarded with the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Him to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power, honor and worship now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. Conversation 2. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, on the end of sex, on the paralytic, and on not judging by his face. On Saturday, the Lord said to the weakened man: Rise up, take up your bed, and go to your house (Luke 5:24). And for this reason he said to the Jews: My teaching is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me (John 7:16). And that after the autocratic healing of the weakened man the Lord spoke these words to the Jews, take proof of this from what has been read today; There, the Lord very clearly showed the immutability of Himself and the Father. For if the Lord had said: My teaching is not of the Father, but Mine, then He would have separated Himself from the Father, and would have become existing outside His being and alien to sight. Having said: My teaching is not Mine, but the Father who sent Me, showed the immutability of the being, and that this teaching is the teaching of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. There is one Word, the Son of the Father, and the Spirit of the Father, the Holy Spirit. How will the Word teach something different, how will the Holy Spirit teach something strange? This is not the case, no, according to blessed Paul, who says: Who knows the message of man, even as it is in man, but the spirit that dwells within man: so no one knows the message of God, but the Spirit of God abides in him (1 Cor. 2:11). And that after the autocratic healing of the weakened man, as I said before, the Lord spoke these verbs, listen to the Lord now speaking: I have done one thing, and everyone marvels. For this reason Moses gave you circumcision, not as it is from Moses, but from the father, and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a person accepts circumcision on the Sabbath, lest the law of Moses be destroyed: are you angry with Me, because on the Sabbath I made all man healthy? Do not judge according to individuals, but judge righteous judgment (John 7:21–24). What, after the healing of the weakened man, the Lord said these words in the law, showing them to be lawless, about this he himself spoke to them, as if they had heard: If a person accepts circumcision on the Sabbath, and a baby is circumcised on the Sabbath, so that the eight-day law is not abolished: then you, refuting the law by the law, transform the law, and are angry with me, because I made the whole man healthy on the Sabbath, not by working, but by working miracles. On Saturday one should not work, but everyone should be idle. Why then do you, Jews, have a wife give birth on the Sabbath, the nurse be embarrassed and the shrouds be removed, the nature be cleansed and the wife be prepared to suckle? A woman gives birth, and the nature of the law remains unharmed: how can God not work miracles? You say to me: a person is circumcised on the Sabbath, so that the law may not be forgotten: then how are you angry with me because I made the whole man healthy on the Sabbath? Do not judge according to persons, but judge in righteous judgment. I don’t blame myself for being judged by you, enemies! for the reason that you judge by them, you will be condemned. Who makes a waste of the Sabbath, is it you who circumcise the Sabbath and sharpen the sword, who introduce the pruning and circumcise the limb? or I, who said in a word: Rise up, take your bed, and go to your house? If My word had not worked, I would have allowed the Sabbath to be vain. When deed preceded the word, why do you defend the Sabbath and revile the Creator? Are you not satisfied, O youths of the Jews! looking at the weakened one, lying on his bed for thirty-eight years, and at the dilapidated bed and carrying the weakened one’s daily heaviness? Weren't you annoyed? Didn't they have compassion? And now you do not tolerate it, even for one hour, to wear a weakened bed, and give it back to him? It was not necessary for him to cry out even in his illness: “Have you turned my bed in my illness?” I know, Pharisees, why you are indignant. You do not complain that the paralytic has been healed, but that you cannot hide your bed. Why, knowing your thoughts, I commanded him to carry the bed, so that, if you remain silent, the bed would sing miracles. Why do you doubt, Pharisees? There is no weakened stranger, there is no time-limited one. You know him all at your font who fed for thirty-eight years. You cannot say as about a man blind from birth: This is, this is like him, this is not (John 9:9). If the blind man had not convinced you, then you would have taken him to the judgment seat, which would have shamed yourself before everyone. Do not judge according to persons, but judge in righteous judgment. And if you wish, let us return briefly to the very story of the weakened man, so that the Lord also remembers him; if the Lord remembers, how can we forget? Who then is not surprised when the miracles of the Lord are told? and the real holiday is the Lord's, the Lord is the mediator, the middle one and the holiday. The middle is always fenced off by extremes. That is why the present feast also had the grace of resurrection. Having rejoiced from the resurrection and Pentecost, he showed the resurrection; Pentecost, as it were, shows with a finger and sings of the renewal of strength. What is real weakened zeal? Know the words of the merchants, so that you can take advantage of the acquisition of spiritual benefits with everyone. Remember John the Evangelist who said: Now is the feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem there is a sheep pool, as the Hebrew says Bethesda, having five porches. In those guards there are many sick, blind, lame, and dry people. But you are a certain man who has been sick for thirty and eight years. Having seen this, Jesus was lying down, seeing everything before their existence, and realizing that he had already been sick for many years, he said to him: Do you want to be whole? (John 5:1–3, 5–6). O unconceited healing of the Lord! He does not accept that the sick call upon Him, but He Himself comes to the suffering. Being the Sun of Truth, it spreads rays of goodness to everyone. In Jerusalem there were in the sheep's font, as Bethesda is said in Hebrew, having five porches, and in them were many sick, blind, lame, and dry. This is a sign of the illness of the five porches of the Jews, which were filled with the sick; For the people of Judah are sick with five senses: vision, smell, taste, hearing and touch; the youths of Judah were sick with all of these. They did not have a pure eye, they were in vain and despised miracles; they did not have a pleasant taste, eating manna and looking for gardens; did not have a discerning sense of smell, preferring the stench of the devil to the world of the Lord; they did not have pure hearing, with snake sniffles, and not enjoying Prophetic praises; They did not have a cooperative sense of touch, honoring idols as gods and despising the living. However, the Lord Christ, who came by his fleshly coming, corrected his bodily illnesses and the fall of his soul. The weakened one who presented himself suffered from dejection: he delivered his body from illness, and his soul from sins. Why does the Lord, as the Doctor of both parts, strengthen the body and enlighten the soul. He commanded the body to carry the bed, but he determined the soul to wear virtue. That the Lord, seeing him weakened, spoke to him, as if he knew everything: Do you want to be whole? But the Jewish children reproached the Lord with this, saying: if Christ were God, he would not have asked the weakened one: Do you want to be healthy? He was overcome by illness, spent thirty-eight years in weakness, lived at the font in order to remove suffering from himself, and asked him: Do you want to be healthy, what is God like? However, the Lord does not ask as if he were ignorant, but as if he would grant healing in everything. If only the body were possessed by illness, then the Lord would not have said to the weakened person: Do you want to be healthy? knowing that he wants what he wants. But since there were spiritual falls, he asks the weakened one, saying: Do you want to be whole? That is, he warns him not to sin in the end. If you want to be whole, give consent and receive healing, for I do not seek anything out of need, for I am the one who said of old through the Prophet: If you are willing and listen to me, you will destroy the good earth; Since man is an autocratic animal, and the weakened soul was disturbed, for this reason the Lord, no matter how to provide free healing, asks him, asking for consent, and saying: Do you want to be whole? The Lord does not ask about the flesh at all, saying: Do you want to be whole? how did he not question either the bleeding woman or the leper, lower than the blind? When he recognized the weakness, he asked, although to obtain consent; If I had not heard the consent, I would not have given healing. But someone will say: what, really, did the two blind men wear the signs of sin on themselves, which the Lord asked them too, saying: What do you want, let me do it for you? Could it be that the two blind men who wrote these were blinded with their bodily eyes in the Divine gospel and did not see the Lord with their spiritual vision? They did not have perfect knowledge, they doubted about confession, for this reason the Lord postpones healing, in order to confirm their faith. But someone will say: you condemn the blind; they were faithful men. No, but as soon as they heard that the Lord was coming, they cried out, saying: Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David (Matthew 9:27). How much sinners there were who cried out in this voice, listen to the contradictor. Because of this voice, which they spoke at the first opportunity, the Lord delayed the healing; for this reason that they asked, they said: Have mercy on us, Son of David. What son of David has such power that would perform such miracles? Is Absalom beautiful? But he appeared as a parricide. Will the next Amnon lust? But he raped his sister. Is Solomon the Wise? But finally he died; because they came to the Son of David, and not to God, talking about Him as a strong and knowledgeable doctor, and not about the glorious God: then when the blind cried: Have mercy on us, Son of David, He did not give them an answer in order to prepare them for the increase of their faith. Why did the blind, having received adolescence, become enlightened in their souls, and after a short time, as soon as the Lord knew that they had been enlightened in their souls and received the lamp of faith, He asked, saying: Do you believe that I can do this? What did the overachieving blind people say? By the Lord (Matthew 9:28). This is not why they say: To her is the Son of David. They remembered the delay; why do they confess this by saying: By God, we believe that you are able to do this. Finally, showing that they succeeded by faith, he answered, saying: According to your faith it will be done to you (Matthew 9:29). On the contrary, if we had not had time to do so by faith, we would not have received insight. For this reason, here too the Lord, as a weakened man who was mentally corrupted by the corruption of sin, asks him, saying: Do you want to be whole? The weakened one, not knowing who the speaker was, answered the Lord: I want to be whole, You asked well, I want. But I don’t want to anymore; I wanted many things and got nothing. However, what I want, I don’t get; I want to be healthy, I am a dilapidated bed, I am a long-winded tomb; I died in life, not hoping to get anything new, everyone curses me; I’ve been living at the font for thirty-eight years, and no one sympathizes with me. The gift is sold, the children of the Pharisees take advantage of it; one is cleared in the summer, and when it is necessary to prefer the first, the one who is richer is preferred; dubious font, unrighteous real. But will there be any righteous consideration in ensuring that the water is not sold, but is given to everyone without envy? The Lord, to the weakened one: why is it that you lie in one place, draw nearer with your thoughts, and talk to me as if I were ignorant? Am I, in possession of the font, already ignorant of what happened? I know the sale of the Jews. For this reason I came to change the font, and now I will leave it and change the baptismal font. In this one is purified every summer, and in this countless multitude will be reborn every day. To this I sent an Angel, and to this I will descend, the Creator of Angels. Why answer my question: Do you want to be whole? that is, do you believe that in these things I am able to tell you? The weakened one, sighing a little and recognizing the sovereignty of the Lord, but still adhering to his custom, responded, saying (which those who know clearly know): By God, I am not the imam of a man, so that when the water is troubled, he will throw me into the font: but when I come, another comes down before me (John 5:7). The Lord speaks to the weakened one: Why are you talking idle talk, you weakened one! It is sufficient for you to know that I am the Lord; do not think too much, do not look at the disturbance of the font, all the affairs of the Jews are in confusion; have the eighth of my source; I know what you are looking for. Although you are not even a man, so I appeared to you as God incarnate; Therefore, listen to me, and get up, take the bed, and go to your house. Attack the Jews, defeat the devil, consume your opponents, vindicate those who think evil, destroy the Sabbath holiday, carry a bed against the commandment. Hearing this, the weakened one, and suddenly freed from suffering by the word of the Lord, fulfilled the command, wore a bed, and the Jews, who wanted to forbid the Sabbath, and said: It is not fitting for you to carry your bed, since it is the Sabbath (John 5:10), drove away from himself, as if he was fulfilling the command of the one who commanded, saying to them: He who made me healthy, with that speech, take your bed and walk (John 5:11). When the lawless Jews accused the Lord and asked: who is it that healed you and commanded you to carry your bed? and, moreover, in the likeness of dogs they slandered the healer: then the healer continued to argue with the murderers in evidence. For this reason the Lord finds him again, and says to him: Behold, you are healthy, and do not sin, lest it be worse for you (John 5:14). Do you see, beloved, how for a long time you were possessed by illness because of your sins? Let us also turn, that we may be freed from this temporary torment, and may escape eternal Gehenna, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Conversation 3. Saint John of Damascus about the most pure Body of the Lord, which we receive 4. The Body of our Lord and God, which we accept, brothers, is the body that He borrowed from our being and received from the Most Pure Virgin Mary. For just as naturally through eating bread, and wine and water through drinking, they are transformed into the body and blood of the eater who drinks, and from this there is no different body from his former body: so also the showbread, wine and water, through the invocation and overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, are more naturally transformed into the body and blood of Christ, and not into two, but into one and the same body. But we do not attribute two bodies to Christ; for His body is one, and He offered one sacrifice for us to God and the Father. Although we perform the mysterious and bloodless sacrifice many times, so that in every place and at every time every faithful person receives the body and blood of God; but the same is a sacrifice. We offer one body and one Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. For if this were one thing, and that another, then not one, but many sacrifices would have been made for us, just as God’s Apostle said in the Epistle to the Hebrews: Such is a bishop fitting for us, reverend, gentle, without defilement, excommunicated from sinners, and having been higher than heaven: who had no need all the days, like the high priestess, who first sacrificed for their sins bring, then about human beings: for you did this alone, you brought it to yourself (Heb. 7:26–27). And then: Christ came as the Bishop of the good things to come, in a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not by sowing the creature, nor by the blood of a goat below the calf, but by his own blood, entering alone into the Holy One, having found eternal redemption (Heb. 9:11-12). For some reason, Christ did not enter into a holy place made with hands, contrary to the image of the true ones, but into heaven itself, now may He appear to the face of God about us: He brings to himself many times below, as the high priest enters into the holy place, all the years with foreign blood: for it would have been fitting for him to suffer in multitudes from the creation of the world: but now one to the end of the ages, in sweeping away sin, appearing as your sacrifice. And just as man is destined to die alone, then comes the judgment: so Christ was offered alone, to bear the sins of many, the second without sin will appear to those who wait for him for salvation (Heb. 9:24–28). And again 5: Every priest stands every day serving, and you offer sacrifices in multiplicity, even more than ever can take away sins: He brought one sacrifice for sins, he always sits at the right hand of God, waiting for others until they make him his footstool. With one offering he made to eat forever those who are sanctified. The Holy Spirit also testifies to us: according to what was spoken before: this is the covenant that I will make unto them from these days, says the Lord, giving my laws upon their hearts. The Lord also says: the imam will not remember their sins and iniquities. And where these are forgiven, there shall be no offering for sins (Heb. 10:11–18). Just as a baby born from a wife is a perfect man, and although it grows from food and drink, it does not take on another body, and we do not call it two or many bodies, but one born from the mother; and nature grows it according to the natural order: so now, since our head is Christ, we have become co-corporeal with Him, and we are His ever-growing body. They became co-corporeal through the communion of His flesh and blood. He accepted the bread and a cup of wine and water, thanked, blessed, and said: this is the body. And so, in addition to the natural structure, bread and wine with water by His word became His body and blood. His body, before rising from the dead, was subject to death, broken, eaten and drunk, but incorruptible. Why did he not do this after the uprising, but before the uprising? When, after the resurrection, the immortal body is neither broken, nor poisonous, nor below the incorruptible body had blood: then it would be rightly called flesh below, as Gregory gives the same name to the Theologians in the word for baptism: Believe that Christ, the Son of God, will come again at his glorious coming to judge the living and the dead; but not flesh, although immortal [by these words he meant the most God-like body], so that we will see from those who perished, and God will remain incorporeal. And this now, even if we accept the body and blood of our Christ, is subject to death, broken, eaten and drunk. And just as the care of our body fulfills all the natural order from the beginning of the formation of our body: so the performance of the holy sacraments fulfills all the spiritual and more natural vision of the incarnation of God’s Word, for with us the father’s seed is some basis for the composition of the body of an infant; It is nourished from the blood of mothers, and the underlying substance is changed into an ore body according to the force influenced by nature from the Builder of nature and our strength. And so flesh and blood, bones and other members are constituted by an attractive, changeable, or nourishing and growing power. In the same way, the offering of the sacrificial body increases the body with nourishing, attractive and transformative power. It is sufficient, therefore, during the return of the Lord’s body to understand the Divine vision of His incarnation, crucifixion and burial, resurrection and immortality. In the beginning, the body of the Lord was not immortal, but subject to death and suffering even before the resurrection; after burial he became immortal, having risen from the dead with his Divine power and brought us to life. How could it be? There was a holy Virgin there, having substance for the body, is there a meal here? Finally, at the voice of an Angel, the Holy Spirit descended on her. Then the power of the Most High, God the Word, the hypostasis of God, overshadowed her and took flesh from her. And now, as in the womb of the Virgin, the mysterious substance of bread and wine and water are presented at the mystical table. And the Mother fed from these, and gave the Baby substance for the body. Here the priest speaks like an Angel, so that the Holy Spirit, descending, will sanctify and create this bread with the holy body of Christ, and the cup with the blood of Christ, and increase the body and blood of the Lord, not by natural, but by a more natural vision, so that He will create one body, and not two. Finally, he is lifted up by the hands of the Bishops as if on a cross, what is broken is distributed, is buried in us and revives us. This is the end of looking. It does not decay in us, just as the Lord’s body did not decay in the tomb. Before our perception, all mortals suffer, and what we break is honest and true, and by the hands of the lawless it is often dishonored and swept aside by mice and worms, but does not decay and does not change into nothingness; is contained more invisibly in a single body. Although Christ was circumcised and the blood poured out on the cross from his hands, from his feet and from his side, he was united into one and the same body. A whole, all-perfect body was resurrected. Christ said: Do this in remembrance of me. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Son of man. The memory of death is decay; corruption is death, but not decay. Codrant, there is a small coin. Sp. Brand ch. 12. Sikl, a measure of four drachmas, which was so called by the Jews. From this conversation it is clear that on October 25, on the eve of the feast of St. Demetrius, it was said in his church, which is very magnificent and rich, but has now been converted by the Turks into a mosque. You need to know that this chapter was found by the publisher torn on a very old piece of paper. It was rewritten from the original without time indication, under abbreviations. In his opinion, it seems that it was written at the end of the sixteenth century. The publisher of the book collected what was intact, albeit imperfectly, so as not to be completely lost. Here he speaks about the sacrifices of the Old Law and about the priesthood that existed then.