Слово 12. Поучение к монашествующим о прохождении иноческой жизни и о значении великой схимы

I saw those who did not understand, says the Divine Scripture, and I stopped. Why? For I have not kept Your words, he says (Ps. 119:158), that is, Your commandments and justifications. And again the same Prophet, teaching us to be zealous for God and to speak about the truth without hesitation, clearly cries out to the Lord like this: And speak of Your testimonies before kings and do not be ashamed (Ps. 119:46). And again he: Thy zeal has consumed me, for I have forgotten Thy words (Ps. 119:139). Therefore, let no one condemn me for the fact that I, in obedience to this divine teaching, boldly write and, out of divine zeal, rise up to denounce some of my brethren who commit outrages, live and think contrary to our vows given to God. Although I myself commit outrages and sin in many ways, I consider it my duty to both try to correct myself and to admonish my brothers to salvation and teach them to walk, according to my promise, on a narrow and cramped path, and not on a wide and spacious one. What is the narrow and sorrowful path that leads into the eternal belly, the Master Himself showed us in brief words, saying: If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, that is, let him renounce every evil and shameful habit and custom that he has cultivated in himself, which are: gluttony, delicacy, drunkenness, greed, love of money, covetousness, bad profits, deceit, sneakiness, envy, hatred, lies and the like. We must completely abandon all these vicious habits and not return to them again if we sincerely wish to avoid eternal torment to which those who neglect and transgress the Gospel commandments and paternal traditions are condemned. Then it is said: And let him take up his cross, which means the complete mortification of the members and feelings, with which death imperceptibly enters the soul, such as: through the eyes, when we look with delight at female beauty and with the intention of committing a vile deed in the heart, as the commandment of the Lord defines, saying: Whoever looks at a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:28). Be careful not to repeat this sin, just as the divine psalmist prays, saying: Turn away my eyes from seeing vanity (Ps. 119:37). We sin by hearing when we listen with special pleasure to prodigal songs and seductive stories, and when we listen with full attention to someone who secretly slanderes our neighbor and do not drive him away from us, as the righteous prophetic word teaches, saying: He who slanders the secret of his sincere, we drive him out (Ps. 100:5). We sin with our tongue when we deliberately lie; when we slander our neighbor with satanic hatred; when we speak and promise one thing with our lips, and hide another in our hearts, not at all afraid of the cruelly denouncing word of God, which says: Your lips have multiplied malice and your tongue weaved with flattery: when you sat on your brother you slandered, and you set offense against your mother’s son (Ps. 49:19-20). Similarly, we sin with the other three senses - smell, touch and taste, killing our souls due to our great inattention and madness. With all these feelings, as if through some kind of door, spiritual death enters our heart. For this reason, the clergy, who bring the Divine Mysteries, daily command us, saying: “Doors, doors, let us reek of wisdom,” that is: while present at the Divine Liturgy, we will keep ourselves pure from the nasty lustful view, from the speaking of the brethren, from foul language and idle talk, from disorderly laughter and all lies. When we keep ourselves clean from all these vices, then, truly, in all respects we will stand well and with the fear of God during the performance of the divine service and will not lie, responding to the priest’s invitation and saying to him: “Mercy of peace, sacrifice of praise,” promising thereby to show mercy to everyone in need and requiring help and to have peace with everyone, destroying every quarrel, and thus offering the true sacrifice of praise, according to what has been said: The sacrifice of praise will glorify Me; also: Devour the sacrifice of praise to God and render your prayers to the Most High (Ps. 49:23, 14). If we do not acquire such a mood and do not adorn ourselves with such spiritual gifts, then we will find ourselves working uselessly and in vain decorating the dolls of the great schema with multi-colored silk fabrics. Do you want to be pleasing to the Lord of all? Do not decorate the outer doll, which decays in the coffin, with multi-colored fabrics, for the terrible and impartial Judge does not please the terrible and impartial Judge with such false decorations; but diligently decorate the mental cupola of the inner man, that is, the most important part of the soul - the mind - decorate it with frequent teachings in the God-inspired Scriptures, sober prayer and godly vigils. Keep him always undistracted, focused within himself, always reminding him of the wise admonition that says: I have seen the Lord before me, for he is at my right hand, so that I will not move (Ps. 15:8). For the mind, not guarded in this way, differs in no way from an unbridled horse, or a reed shaken by all sorts of winds. Also, strengthen your heart in the Lord by the exact fulfillment of God’s saving commandments, which contain and through which the pure fear of the Lord is instilled. When this fear takes root in you, then your soul will be filled with faith, spiritual courage and the love of God. Upon illumination in your soul of such gifts, your horn will rise up in your God, that is, the strength of your soul, putting aside all fear, will be clothed in divine courage and fearless boldness, and your mouth will expand, that is, with great boldness, with great intelligence and wisdom, you will be able to contradict and resist the unclean thoughts instilled in you wicked demons fighting against you, without at all giving them entry into the cage of your heart. Then you will rejoice in God your Savior, that is, through such good spiritual deeds and labors of yours, you will receive eternal joy from your all-good Hero, according to what is said: Those who sow with tears will reap with joy. Those who walk, walk and weep, throwing away their seeds (Ps. 125:5–6), that is, living in this short life in all sorts of exploits and labors, with spiritual tears, for the sake of their salvation and love for God, and therefore, during the glorious coming of God and their Savior, they will find themselves in joy and joy coming to receive from the righteous Judge the due reward of their labors, that is, the enjoyment of eternal ineffable blessings in an endless life. Let us also love the same labors and deeds, for the sake of our salvation and for the love of God, so that we, too, can decorate ourselves and our mental doll of the inner man with these laudable virtues, and not so as to decorate the doll of silk, multi-colored fabrics, covering the outer man and decaying in the tomb. Such decoration serves as a sign of a soul that has not been taught divine things, and as an indication of the mind of an infant. Let us stop being infants and begin to obey the divine Apostle, who bequeaths us, saying: Brothers, be not children in your minds, but be childish in malice, but have perfect minds (1 Cor. 14:20). And he also says: When a child was born, like a child, he said, like a child with wisdom; When the man was gone, he rejected the child (1 Cor. 13:11). Therefore, we, brothers, since we voluntarily renounced all vanity and all the ugliness of worldly life and loved the venerable monastic perfect life, perfecting our inner man and leading us to eternal life: then let us become wise with love, so that we become like not the one who created his church on the sand, but the one who founded it on the stone. By stone we mean the fulfillment in word and deed of the Gospel commandments and commandments, by which the church of our inner man is built and strengthened, and by building on the sand we mean such a mood when someone is satisfied with faith and baptism alone, and does not care at all about the commandments of the Gospel. Therefore, such a church is easily destroyed, since faith without good works is dead, as it is written (James 2:20). In addition, what has been said is known: Whoever is a faithful builder and wise, the Lord will appoint him over his servants to give during the life-giving period, etc. (Luke 12:42). Let it be known to us, brothers, that this venerable teaching of the Master, which pleases the faithful and wise servants, means by them those who, being in church dignitaries and ecclesiastical authorities, govern well and in a godly manner the verbal flock entrusted to them; and those who graze it badly and carelessly and mercilessly torture them with all sorts of monetary extortions and incessant work - he recognizes them as damned, cuts them in two and places some of them with the infidels, that is, betrays them to endless torment. In the same way, we will always reason about ourselves, knowing that if we live according to the vows that we gave to the terrible Judge, that is, we adorn ourselves with all purity, reverence, humility, unfeigned brotherly love, and keep ourselves pure to the heavenly Bridegroom from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, then in every possible way we will hear the good Master saying: good, good servants and faithful ones, you have proven to be My faithful servants in a few things, and I will make you over many things: enter into the unspeakable joy of your Lord. If the mental schema of our inner man is not adorned with such virtues, then I will remain silent about the consequences; Let him speak the gospel truth without hesitation: Friend, how you came in without a wedding robe, and so on, which is known to everyone. From which sentence may our Lord Jesus Christ deliver us. Amen. You might be interested in: