Слово 3. О покаянии

This is why I often talk about repentance, so that neither the sinner despairs nor the righteous think highly of himself. Are you righteous? Don't fall. Are you a sinner? Don't despair. If you sin every day, repent every day. Just as in dilapidated houses, when they rot, we remove the rotten parts and replace them with new ones and never leave such worries, so you, if you have become dilapidated from sin, renew yourself with repentance. But is it possible, you say, for me to be saved by repenting? Quite possible. But I spent my whole life in sins, and if I repent, will I be saved? Without a doubt. How can this be proven? By the mercy of the Lord. Don't rely on your own repentance. Can your repentance really cleanse such filth? If there were only repentance, you should really be afraid; but since God’s mercy is combined with repentance, then hope, because it surpasses your malice. God is merciful, so merciful that he did not even spare the Only Begotten to redeem his ungrateful slaves. Don't tell me: I have committed many great sins - how can I be saved? You cannot, but your Lord can, and blots out sins so much that not even a trace of them remains. This cannot happen with bodies: no matter how hard the doctor tries, no matter how much medicine he applies to the wound, only the wound will close, but the scar remains, and its external ugliness indicates the former wound. The doctor tries by all possible means to destroy the scar, but turns out to be unable to, because the weakness of nature, the impotence of art, and the insignificance of medicines oppose him. When God blots out sins, He does not leave a scar, does not allow even a trace to remain, but along with health He also grants beauty, along with liberation from punishment He also gives justification, and makes the sinner equal to the one who has not sinned. Even if a person had thousands of wounds, if he repents and does something good, God erases them so much that not a scar, not a trace, not a sign of sins remains. So, what ulcers and medicines are for the body, sins and repentance are the same for the soul. And pay careful attention to my words. Ulcer and healing, sin and repentance. Ulcer is a sin; healing is repentance. There is pus in the ulcer; the medicine has the power to clear away pus. Is there pus in the medicine? Does an ulcer have healing power? Do not both have their own properties? Can the first be communicated to the last, or the last to the first? No way. Let us now move on to the sins of the soul. Sin is connected with shame; repentance is associated with boldness. So, Satan, knowing that with sin is associated shame, which can easily repel the sinner, and with repentance is associated with boldness, which can attract the repentant, he perverted the natural order, and gave shame to repentance, and boldness to sin. In sin, he does not allow a person to be ashamed, because he knows that if a sinner feels shame, he will run away from sin; and in repentance he makes him ashamed, knowing that the one who is ashamed will not repent. One who has repented of his sins, even if he has not shown repentance fully corresponding to the sins, will nevertheless receive reward for such repentance. So, I exhort those who have not yet been taken possession of by vice not to succumb to it, because it is easier to guard against falling into vice than to be freed from it after falling, and to those who are already captive and crushed, I proclaim full hope of salvation, if only they wish to hasten to turn to repentance. Both good and evil, the longer they stay with us, the stronger they become. So a tree, just planted in the ground, is pulled out without difficulty; but something that has been strengthened by roots for a long time is no longer there. And the building, just approved, is easily overthrown if disturbed; and if it is well fortified, it causes a lot of trouble to those who want to destroy it. And it can be difficult to drive the beast out of those places where it was pleasant for him to stay for a long time. And just as fever at first does not particularly torment those suffering from it with thirst, but when it intensifies and increases the heat, it makes them experience unbearable thirst, and even if someone gives them an excessive drink, it will not extinguish, but only inflame the heat, so it happens with passion: if at the very beginning, when it invades our soul, we do not prevent it and do not close the doors in front of it, then, having entered, it causes harm to those who have already allowed it incurable disease. Just as a person with a sluggish and careless soul, even if given a lot of time for repentance, will not do anything great and will not reconcile God with himself because of his carelessness, so, on the contrary, a person with a cheerful soul and burning with zeal, who repents with great diligence, can in a short moment destroy sins committed over a long time. And how - listen. Didn't Peter deny three times? Is it not with an oath for the third time? Aren't you afraid of the words of an insignificant servant? What then? How much time did he need to repent? Not at all. On the contrary, on the same night he both fell and rose. After this grave fall - and there is no other sin equal to renunciation - repentance again restored him to his former honor, entrusted to him the government of the Church throughout the entire universe, and - most importantly - showed us that he had more love for the Lord than all the apostles. What can we say about the Ninevites? A prophet came to them, announced, as it were, a royal message - a sentence that determined punishment, and exclaimed: “Three more days 2 and Nineveh will be destroyed” (Jonah 3:4). The Ninevites heard this and did not show disbelief or disdain, but immediately everyone turned to fasting - husbands, wives, children; even the dumb were not excluded from this social feat; Everywhere there is sackcloth, everywhere there is ashes, everywhere there is crying and screaming. And he himself, clothed with a diadem, descended from the royal throne, spread sackcloth under him, and sprinkled himself with ashes. A strange and extraordinary sight unfolded: purple gave way to sackcloth. Indeed, what purple could not do, sackcloth could do; What the diadem did not do, the ashes did. So, let us think about the burden of sins each of us has, and let us perform equivalent acts of love for mankind, or better yet, much greater ones, so that not only our sins will be blotted out, but so that our alms will be credited to us as righteousness. If good deeds are not so numerous that through them the charges are dropped, and some remainder is imputed to us as truth, then no one will save us from punishment. Having incurred the wrath of a person, you ask friends, and neighbors, and doorkeepers, and spend money, and spend days walking and asking, and even though someone who has insulted you not once, not twice, but a thousand times rejected you, you do not completely lose heart, but, on the contrary, become even more persistent and multiply your requests; and when the God of all is angry, we yawn and indulge in carelessness and pleasure. Can we then ever appease Him? Are we not, on the contrary, angering Him even more? After all, the absence of sorrow for sins brings God into greater indignation and anger than the very commission of sins. Do not say: “I have sinned a lot and cannot call upon God, who is angry with me.” If a widow bowed down to a judge who neither feared God nor was ashamed of people, then all the more a diligent request will appease the Good Judge. Consequently, even if you were not a friend, even if you demanded what was not due to you by right, even if you lived and squandered your father’s inheritance and were away from your father’s gaze for a long time, even if you came to someone who is angry and indignant with you (God), just wish to return, and you will receive everything and immediately extinguish your anger and condemnation. It is God's intention, brethren, to be long-suffering to sinners. He is merciful for a twofold saving purpose: through repentance he prepares salvation for the sinners themselves and prepares benefits for their descendants who will succeed in virtue. God, I repeat again, is long-suffering, so that the sinner himself repents, and his descendants do not find the path to salvation. Although the sinner himself remains unrepentant, God often spares the root in order to preserve the fruit, often, however, expecting the sinners themselves to be saved. And how, listen: Terah, the father of Abraham, was a worshiper and inventor of idols; however, he was not punished here for his wickedness - and rightly so, because where would such a fruit of faith come from if God had cut off the root? What's worse than Esau? What is more shameless than his wickedness? Wasn't he a “harlot” and a “desecrator,” as Paul says (Heb. 12:16)? Is he not a matricide, is he not a parricide? Isn't he a murderer of his brother, at least in his thoughts? Wasn’t he hated by God, as Scripture testifies, saying: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” (Rom. 9:13)? If he is a fornicator, and a fratricide, and a defiler, and is hated by God, then why is he not removed (from the world), why is he not torn out, why does not a worthy punishment immediately befall him? Why? Indeed, the reason must be stated. If God had destroyed him, the world would have lost the greatest fruit of righteousness, and listen to which one: Esau gave birth to Raguel, Raguel to Zara, Zara to Job. Do you see how the flower of patience would perish if God first put the root to death? So, let no one who is in vice despair; let no one who remains in virtue indulge in sleep. Let neither the latter rely too much on himself, because often a harlot can get ahead of him, nor let the former despair, because he can surpass even the perfect. When we return to zealous love for God, He no longer remembers the former. God is not like a man. If we repent, He does not reproach us for the past and does not say: why have you been away from Me for so long? On the contrary, He receives us with love when we come to Him, if only we come as we should. What's worse than Manasseh? What, on the other hand, is more blessed than Solomon? And, however, the first was able to appease God, and the last, having indulged in sleep, fell. That is why Esau did not receive forgiveness because he did not repent as he should: his tears were not tears of repentance, but of resentment and anger. Judas also repented (but not properly), because he hanged himself. If you want to see true repentance, look at Peter’s repentance after his denial. Since he probably thought highly of himself, realizing that he loved Christ more than others, he went out and wept bitterly; and besides, he exposed himself to countless dangers after that. Blessed David also repented, saying: “Every night I wash my bed, I wet my bed with my tears” (Ps. 6:7), and after so many years, after so many generations, I mourned the long-committed sin as if it had just happened. The repentant should not be angry or angry, but lament as a guilty person, as one without courage, as a condemned person who should receive salvation by grace alone, as a person who turned out to be ungrateful to the Benefactor, rejected and worthy of countless punishments. So, let neither one who spends his life on the stage despair, nor one who serves in the Church rely on himself, since God says to the latter: “Whoever thinks that he stands, beware lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12), and to the former: “Do they not get up when they fall?” (Jer.8:4). One must preserve what he has, the other must become what he is not; one must take care of health, the other must free himself from illness, because he suffers from it. To one, therefore, He says: “Behold, you have recovered; Sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14), and to another: “Do you want to be healthy? Rising, take up your bed and go to your house” (John 5:6, 8). Even if you suffered from illness for thirty-eight years, like the paralytic, if you want to become healthy, no one will hinder you; just wish to rebel, just take the path that leads here, and you will soon achieve success; Just don’t close the doors, don’t block the entrance. The present time is short, the work is short; but even if he were great, then even in this case one should not lose heart. If you do not work through this most beautiful work of repentance, then in the future world you will undoubtedly experience hardship and painful labor in a different way. If there is labor here and there, then why don’t we choose the one that brings abundant fruit and great reward? If God shows us benefits when we are unworthy of them and shows mercy to those who sin, then what will we not achieve, what blessings will we not enjoy, if we abandon wickedness and follow the paths of virtue? Those who have intelligence are attracted to fulfilling the commandments more by benefits than by punishment. So, if even before we showed anything good, it would be better to say, when we did something worthy of punishment, God honored us with such a good deed, then after we become grateful, we will give Him gratitude for the benefits we received earlier and show a change for the better, what kind of bounties of His will He not honor us with? If we allow guilty slaves, when they promise to improve, to return to us again and return them to their original place, and often show them even greater confidence, then all the more will God do the same with us if we show repentance corresponding to our sins. And this can be seen from what happened to blessed David. He stumbled and fell, and became guilty of adultery and murder; but since after the fall he did not remain lying down, but stood up again and, with the help of God, armed himself against the enemy, he overcame him so valiantly that even after death he even became the patron saint of his descendants. So, to Solomon, who committed great iniquity and became worthy of a thousand deaths, God says that for the sake of David the kingdom is left to him intact, in the following words: “I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant; but in your days I will not do this for the sake of David your father; I will pluck him out of the hand of your son” (1 Kings 11:11–12). And Hezekiah, who was in extreme danger, although righteous, again He promised help for the sake of the same blessed one: “I will guard,” He says, “this city, to save it for Myself and for the sake of David My servant” (2 Kings 19:34). Just as in relation to those who reveal the nobility of spirit, God, by His inherent goodness, cancels His sentences, accepts those who repent and frees them from the threatened punishment, so, on the contrary, when He promises to grant either some benefits or time for repentance, and sees that those who received the promises have become unworthy, He likewise cancels His promises. It is not as criminal to sin as to remain in sin. For this reason, God shows us good deeds in advance, and again honors those who have sinned with forgiveness, and does not immediately inflict punishment, so that by all means he can attract us to repentance - both through good deeds and long-suffering; and often, with the punishments to which He subjects some, He wants to induce others to repentance, so that, having come to their senses with the fear of these punishments, they themselves avoid them. Have you sinned a lot? Finally, stop, turn to the opposite path, give thanks to God that He did not snatch you away (from among the living) while you were committing sins, and do not wish that you were given more time to do evil. Don’t say: there will still be time when you need to turn. Many were kidnapped by death at the very time they were indulging in greed, and were sent away to obvious torment. Be afraid lest you too be subjected to the same thing without any hope of justification. But for many, you might say, God gave time to repent even in old age. What then? Will he give it to you too? “Maybe he will,” you say. What are these words: “maybe”, “sometimes”, “often”? Just think that this is about your soul; Imagine the opposite, think about it and say: “What if it doesn’t?” “What,” you say, “if it does”? Let us suppose that God would give it; but immediate treatment is both safer and more beneficial than later treatment. Indeed, if you have already started it, then in any case it is useful for you, whether you receive a deferment or not. If you always put it off, then maybe you won’t get paid for it. When you go to war, you don’t say: “there’s no need to make a spiritual will, maybe I’ll come back”; when you are getting ready to get married, you do not say: “I will take a poor wife; many, despite this, have become rich beyond their dreams”; When you start building a house, you don’t say: “I’ll build it on a rotten foundation; many houses already stood like that.” And when it comes to the soul, do you think of establishing yourself on rotten supports, on “maybe,” “sometimes,” “often,” and entrust yourself to the unknown? “Not to the unknown,” you say, “but to God’s mercy, because God is merciful.” I know this too; however, this same Merciful One snatched away (from among the living) those about whom I spoke. Do you want to know how good our Master is? A publican came to Him, filled with countless vices, and, having only said: “Be merciful to me” (Luke 18:13), he left justified. And through the prophet God says: “Because of his sin I was angry and struck him... but he turned away and followed the path of his heart. I have seen his ways, and I will heal him and guide him” (Isaiah 57:17-18). What can compare with such philanthropy? Because only because he was saddened, He forgave his sins. But we don’t even do this, and thereby especially anger Him. He, who is appeased by little things when he does not see even this, is rightly angry and subjects us to the greatest punishment, because this shows extreme negligence. Who has ever grieved over sins? Who sighed? Who beat their own people? I don't know anyone. People cry endlessly about dead slaves, about the loss of property, but destroying our souls every day, we don’t even think about it. How can you please God when you don’t even know that you have sinned? “It’s true,” you say, “I am a sinner.” But you speak in one language; say it with your heart, and sigh along with the word, so that you will always be in a good mood. After all, if we grieved for sins, if we sighed for transgressions, then nothing else would grieve us, because this sorrow drives away all sadness. Just as a bird caught in a net has no benefit from its wings, and it flaps with them completely in vain, so in the same way there is no benefit from your mind if you are strongly captivated by evil lust. If in this life we ​​do not want to disgrace ourselves even in front of one, then what will we do in the next world in front of so many myriads? Repentance is called not only to give up on former evils, but to show good deeds: “Avoid,” it is said, “from evil, and do good” (Ps. 36:27). For our health, it is not enough for us to just remove the arrow, but we also need to apply medicine to the wound. It happens that someone, having repented, will do many and great good deeds, and meanwhile again fall into sin, equivalent to these good deeds; and this is quite enough to plunge him into despair, as if everything created was destroyed and all his labors were in vain. This thought should be driven away and think that if we do not have time to store up good deeds in advance in an amount equal to the sins committed later, then nothing will avert our complete and complete destruction. Now (good deeds), like strong armor, do not allow a sharp and destructive arrow to do its job, but, being themselves cut by it, protect the body from great danger... So, it is not so bad that you get wounded while fighting, but that after defeat you despair and do not care about the wound. Not a single merchant, having once been shipwrecked and losing his cargo, abandons navigation, but again crosses the sea and vast abysses, and again acquires his former wealth. And we often see fighters crowned after repeated falls, just as a warrior, who has fled many times, finally turns out to be a hero and defeats his enemies. Even many of those who renounced Christ out of fear of torment again entered into the struggle and left adorned with the crown of martyrdom. But if each of them had given in to despair after the first blow, they would not have received subsequent benefits. May we all be worthy of them, by the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Ἐκλογαί άπό διαφόρων λόγων . Under this name are known collections of conversations compiled by various persons after the death of Chrysostom on certain topics, from those related to the topics and especially liked by the compilers of the works of the saint. The passages are given partly in a literal presentation, partly in a free retelling and are borrowed both from the original works of Chrysostom, and from works only attributed to Chrysostom, which have not only survived to this day, but have also been lost. These Eclogues (selections) were widespread and were used by both private individuals and kings. Known, for example, is the luxurious collection of Eclogues, owned by the Byzantine emperor Nikephoros Botaniatus (1078–1081), registered among the codices of the Koalene Library under No. LXXIX. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” To the synod. translation "forty days". You might be interested in: