Слово 8. О душе

People who are adorned with good deeds, but who do not know faith in God, are like the remains of the dead, dressed in beautiful clothes, but who do not feel this beauty. Indeed, what is the benefit for a person to have a soul clothed in good works, but dead? Good deeds are performed in the hope of reward and crowns; but if you don’t know the hero of heroism, then why are you working? Just as people first need to live, and then feed, so in the same way hope in Christ must precede our life, and, in addition, we must be nourished by good deeds. He who does not feed can sometimes live; but he who does not live cannot eat. You cannot imagine me a person who, doing good deeds without faith, would live; but I can show you a believer without works, who both lived and was rewarded with the Kingdom. No one lived without faith; and the robber, only by believing, received justification. Don’t tell me that he only didn’t have time to improve his life, because if he had remained with faith, but neglected works, he would have lost salvation. And Cornelius received evidence of his alms and prayers, but did not know Christ; and since the Eye of Truth, the Great Judge, saw that these deeds, although good, are dead, because they are not connected with faith, he sends an Angel, awarding a reward for deeds, to crown the one who struggles beautifully with faith. “Cornelius...,” he says to him, “your prayers and your alms have come as a memorial before God” (Acts 10:3-4). But if prayer is heard and alms are accepted, then what do I lack for righteousness? But “send,” he says, “people to Joppa and call Simon, who is called Peter..., who, when he comes, will tell you the words by which you and your whole house will be saved” (Acts 10:5-6). If, therefore, he himself and his house are saved thanks to the words of Peter, then, consequently, he did not yet have salvation through works until faith awarded rewards to his works. They say about one pagan philosopher that, having entered a rich house, shining with many golden decorations, marbles and columns, and seeing that the floor was covered with carpets everywhere, he spat in the face of the master of the house; and when they then began to accuse him, he said that he was forced to spit in his face, since this could not be done anywhere else in the house. Do you see how ridiculous and despicable for everyone who has intelligence is the one who decorates only his appearance? And quite rightly so. In fact, when you try to decorate the walls, the floor and everything else, but do not pay attention to the soul, dressed in dirty rags, languishing with hunger, filled with ulcers, tormented by thousands of dogs, then tell me, what kind of punishment will you not be subject to? If you lose money, you can give other money; in the same way, if you lose a house or a slave, or any other property; but if you destroy a soul, then you cannot give another soul, and even if you owned the whole world, even if you were the king of the universe, you will not be able to buy one soul, having given everything that is in the universe, along with the universe itself. Having a naturally sick and incurably diseased body, even if you were clothed in thousands of diadems, you cannot make this body healthy, even if you gave away your entire kingdom and added to it countless bodies, cities and money. If this happens with the body, how much more so with the soul? God gave everything to our nature in double numbers: two eyes, two ears, two hands, two legs, so that if one member was damaged, we would alleviate its deficiency through the other; but He gave us one soul, and if we destroy it, then what will we live with? A soul, once captivated by the passion of love of money, will not easily and will not soon stop doing and saying what angers God, as if it has become the slave of another master who commands to do everything contrary to God. The soul, once despairing of its salvation, will never give up on madness, but, having given the reins of its salvation to reckless passions, it rushes everywhere, instilling horror in those it meets, so that everyone avoids it and no one dares to stop it; she runs through all the places of wickedness until, finally, drawn into the very abyss of destruction, she overthrows her salvation. The soul, once it has entered into an alliance with sin and has become insensitive, allows the illness to greatly intensify. Just as a pig, wallowing in the mud, feels pleasure, so a soul obsessed with a bad habit does not even feel the stench of sins. And just as land not irrigated by rain, no matter how much is sown on it, cannot produce ears of corn, so a soul that is not enlightened in advance by the Divine Scripture cannot show any fruit, even if someone pours out countless words. Just as the earth, when neither sows nor is planted on it, simply grows grass, so the soul, when it does not know the proper work, since it cannot remain inactive, but certainly wants to do something, indulges in bad deeds. What inflammation is to the body, so is pride to the soul; and pride is usually followed by a desire for inappropriate things. And just as people who neglect bodily wounds cause purulent feverish inflammation and death, so those who do not pay attention to the small sins of the soul allow large ones to form. For this reason, God gave us a body from the earth, so that we would raise it to Heaven, and not so that through it the soul would be drawn to earth. Oh, wonderful thing! How everyone is addicted to present affairs, but never even thinks about future ones; they constantly rush towards bodily pleasures, but leave the soul to languish with hunger; receiving thousands of wounds every day, they never even notice the plight in which they are, and, diligently taking care of the body, they do not pay attention to the unfortunate soul, polluted and burdened with thousands of evils. And what is most regrettable is that after so much work and care, they not only do not make the mortal body higher than death, but also subject the immortal soul, along with this mortal body, to eternal punishment. That is why, bitterly mourning the madness that has enveloped the souls of people and the thick darkness surrounding them, I would like to find some high place from which I could see all the generations of people, just as I would like to have a voice that would resound to all the ends of the earth and be heard by everyone living on it, and then stand up and cry out, proclaiming the words of David: “Sons of men! How long will my glory be in reproach? (Ps. 4:3). Isn’t it really crazy on our part that when even an insignificant illness happens to our body, we call doctors, and spend money, and show patience, and do not stop taking all sorts of measures until we remove the pain; and about the soul that receives wounds every day, falls into rapids and destroys itself in every way, do we not even take a little care? It is not the one who simply has a purulent wound that needs to be mourned, but the one who, having it, lies uselessly and does not find the hands of doctors; about the one who is subjected to cutting and cauterization, we would say that he is precisely on the path to recovery, since we look not at the pain that comes from cutting, but at the health that comes from this pain. This is exactly how we should reason about the soul: we need to cry and grieve not for those who are being punished - after all, they are drawn to health - but for those who sin with impunity. He who feeds on good hopes and trusts in future blessings has already tasted the Kingdom here, because nothing usually renews and elevates the soul like good hope for the future. Those who spend all their efforts on decorating their home, becoming rich in the external, do not care about the internal and do not pay any attention to their abandoned, polluted and cobwebbed soul; between those, the soul of those people who, having abandoned concern for external things, turned all their efforts to the soul in order to decorate it everywhere, will serve as a residence for Christ. And what could be more blessed than the one who has Christ dwelling within himself? So, what kind of excuse or forgiveness will we have if, when we have an illness of the body, where we need to spend money, and call doctors, and endure severe pain, we show such care, but neglect our soul, despite the fact that in this case we do not need to spend money, or bother others, or undergo torment, and we ourselves, without all this, through only will and desire, can bring about correction for ourselves, and knowing for sure that if we do not do this, we will suffer extreme punishment and inexorable torment and executions? Just as those sitting in prison, although they are always in despondency and sorrow, especially experience them on the day when they must be taken out and appear before the very doors of the judge, and standing in front of the bars and hearing the voice of the judge from within, they become numb with fear and become in appearance no better than the dead, so in the same way the soul, although even during the sin itself is tormented by sorrow and tormented, but much more at the time when, drawn from here to the afterlife account, it must to appear before the Last Judgment. That is why it often hesitates and goes inside, fears and trembles, preparing to fly away from the body. Then, whether someone has stolen, or misappropriated someone else’s property by deception, or offended someone, or unjustly become someone’s enemy, or done any kind of evil at all, the entire swarm of sins is restored, appears before the eyes and stands as a stern accuser of conscience. This is why we have an immortal soul, just as our body will be immortal, so that we can enjoy endless benefits. If you are nailed to the earth, while heavenly blessings are offered to you, then think what a great insult is caused to the Giver when He offers you heavenly blessings, but you do not value them at all and exchange heavenly blessings for earth. May we all be worthy to achieve these blessings, through 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” You might be interested in: