Слово 11. О том, что следует нам делом исполнять наши обеты

Making vows to God according to your good will, in case of great sorrow, or in the desire to receive something very useful - this is everywhere in the Holy Scriptures I find a praiseworthy deed when the vow is fulfilled; and if it is violated, that is, not actually fulfilled, then it makes the one who made the vow guilty before God. For the Holy Scripture says: Pray and give thanks to the Lord our God (Ps. 75:12). And blessed Jonah prayed in the belly of the whales, saying: “But with a voice of praise and confession I will devour You, the great things I have promised, I will reward You for my salvation, the Lord” (Jonah 2:10). And Godfather David in Psalm 115 says: I will devour a sacrifice of praise for you, and I will call you in the name of the Lord. I will offer my prayers to the Lord before all His people (Ps. 116:8-9). And the wise Solomon: it is better for you not to make a promise, than not to give back what was promised to you (Eccl. 5:4). And that we are obliged by deed to fulfill our vows, which we voluntarily give to God, the patriarch Jacob teaches us, who, fearing his brother Esau, promised God to give tithes from all his estates if the Lord would save him from the wrath of Esau and, being saved, fulfilled his vow by deed. And Levi his son, who was number ten, he dedicated to God, sanctified him, clothed him in a priestly robe, and through him offered sacrifices to the Lord at Bethel; From him later came the priestly tribe for the Jewish people. Also, Jephthah, the judge and commander of Israel, preparing to go against the foreigners, prayed to God, promising: if God helps him to defeat the foreigners, he will sacrifice the one who first meets him when he returns from the war to his home. And when he saw his daughter, who was the only one he had, solemnly greeting her father as a winner, then, although against his will, with great sorrow, he slaughtered her (according to the fathers’ explanation, he doomed her to eternal virginity). And that breaking vows given to God voluntarily is not beneficial - this is clear from the words of the psalmist, who prayerfully speaks to God: Destroy all who speak lies (Ps. 5:7). And this prophetic oath was fulfilled over Ananias and his wife Sapphira, who hid from the price of the village, and when the Apostle said: Ananias, why Satan fill your heart... You lied not to man, but to God, then after these words he fell and died (Acts 5:3–5). Truly, it is terrible to eat if you fall into the hands of the Living God. Saint Paul also shows us that breaking vows is not beneficial, which he writes about in his first letter to Timothy, saying: But deny young widows, for they become angry and want to encroach, having sin, because they have rejected the first faith (1 Tim. 5:11-12), that is, they reject the promise given to God to live in purity. Also in the letter to the Corinthians, speaking about virgins, he legitimizes, saying: If you are attached to a wife, do not seek permission; If you have renounced your wife, do not seek a wife. Even if you were married, you have not sinned; and even if a virgin encroaches, you have not sinned. The sorrow of the flesh will be like this (1 Cor. 7:27-28), that is, they will fall into illness according to the destinies of God, since they did not remain in their vows to the end. This is what the Holy Scripture teaches regarding the vows we voluntarily made to God on the occasion of some great misfortune, or in the desire to receive the most perfect salvation and the most excellent purity. After such vows, we must behave in accordance with the given vows, according to what was said: I swore and vowed to preserve the fate of Thy righteousness; also: Delight the free mouth of my lips, O Lord, and teach me Thy destinies (Ps. 119:106, 108). If on any day there is a feast of the Lord or of a great saint who is due to be magnified, then on these days we are commanded to allow with abstinence the food and drink permitted by the holy fathers according to the rules, but not to overeat and get drunk, like the pagans who do not know God, but must firmly keep the commandment that says: Take care that your hearts are not burdened with gluttony and drunkenness and the sorrows of this life ( Luke 21:34). But isn’t it worthy of tears what some people recklessly do, who promise not to eat meat on Monday, as if for the sake of greater salvation, and yet they spend all such days drinking wine, looking for company where feasts take place, and drinking themselves to the point of intoxication, and committing outrageous acts in every possible way, and sometimes they don’t leave without a fight. I would think it would be better for such people to completely give up drinking wine, especially on days like these. For excessive consumption of wine is the cause of all evil: from this come fights, quarrels, murders, and all kinds of godless lust, and all this defiles us. Nothing of the kind happens from meat-eating (this applies to worldly people), because every creature of God is good, and nothing is acceptable with thanksgiving, it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer (1 Tim. 4:4-5). So, if these days, for the sake of Christian virtue, and not out of Jewish hypocrisy, we abstain from meat, then we will keep ourselves from wine and from all defilement, obeying the teacher who says: Do not get drunk with wine, for there is fornication in it (Eph. 5:18). And another great teacher says: Today a wine drinker, and tomorrow a water drinker. But those who get drunk every day without restraint, such as drunkards, will not inherit the kingdom of God, says the holy Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 6:10). And could there be anything more uglier than to see a Christian man, a monk, a priest, who has the promise of an eternal life and awaits a terrible test at the trial - that he often walks around drunk, all red, staggers ugly, and utters proud words? What could be more shameful and dishonest than this for our immaculate Christian faith? Truly: alas, alas! While we should be the light of the world and enlighten others who walk and live in darkness, we ourselves, through our madness, become darkness and an object of temptation not only for our fellow believers, but also for unfaithful pagans. For believers, such serve as an example of every crime and outrage, and for infidels - an object of laughter and reproach, for, boasting of the rightness of the faith, we do not live according to the commandments and statutes of the right faith. Therefore, I fear that what the Apostle Paul said to the Jews may not apply to us: The name of God is blasphemed among the nations by you; for we, like them, transgress the holy commandments of our God. To him be glory forever. Amen. You might be interested in: