Слово 14. К намеревающимся оставить своих жен без законной причины и поступить в иночество

Since you are in friendship with me in the Lord and partially reveal your thoughts to me, I also considered it fair, dear brother and friend, with a small scripture to heal your thoughts, to the extent that Christ, our God and Savior, who sees our fellowship in the Lord, deigns to enlighten and enlighten my weak mind, for His glory, for your benefit and salvation. For He, the All-Good One, rejoices and glorifies nothing else so much as the salvation of those who believe in Him, for whose sake He voluntarily and with great zeal deigned to accept such a bitter death. No child-loving father cares and tries as much for his children as the One who created us always cares about us, arranging in every possible way for us to turn to Him, so that, having turned us away from all evil, flattery and lies, from all carnal uncleanness and depravity, we may be made sons of God and heirs of an endless kingdom and ineffable blessings, which no eye has seen, as it is said, and ear has not heard, and it never entered the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9), which no one can receive otherwise than by diligently fulfilling the saving commandments of Christ. There are many different His commandments; but one should take special care to observe three of them, which are: judgment, mercy and faith, for non-observance of which the scribes and Pharisees are condemned by Christ the Savior, who says: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you practice piles and cymen, and have abandoned what is most important in the law, that is, judgment and mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23). If someone diligently fulfills these three virtues, he will find himself fulfilling the entire divine Gospel. For whoever with all his soul believes in the words of the Savior, which He speaks to us daily through His prophets and apostles and universal teachers, announcing future blessings, that is, eternal life and an endless kingdom, of which those who have lived their present lives piously and holyly will be worthy, will also believe with all his heart what He told us about His terrible (second) coming, and about the test and incorruptible judgment that is to come, about the eternal torment in which the violators of His holy commandments endlessly suffer - who sincerely and without a doubt believes in all this and constantly has it implanted in the innermost chamber of his heart: he constantly protects himself from all evil, from untruth, covetousness, uncleanness, lies, flattery, envy, covetousness, appropriation of other people's property, but on the contrary - he has mercy on everyone, loves everyone, everyone considers himself better, helps those who are offended, and grieves for those who offend and, to the best of his ability, corrects them in word, and in deed, and by prayer to God for them and, in short, to say: everything that is pleasing to God, as honest as possible, as righteous as possible, whatever virtue, and whatever praise, according to the word of the holy Apostle (Phil. 4:8), this is what he thinks and reasons about, this is what he does, he always seeks this, he lives and has fun with this, always hating with all his soul all untruth and all deceit. Such a one, boasting about the Lord, speaks to the righteous one: I have hated unrighteousness and detested it, but I have loved your law (Ps. 119:163); why in another place he says the same: The law of Your mouth is good to me, more than thousands of gold and silver (Ps. 119:72). Whoever unhypocritically obeys this righteous man lives in this world as a stranger and a stranger, always remembering the future eternal life and desiring it, according to the word of the Prophet: Since Thy village is beloved, O Lord of hosts, my soul desires and ends in the courts of the Lord (Ps. 84:2-3). And in another place: I have asked one thing of the Lord, this I will require, that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord, and that I may visit His holy church (Ps. 27:4). The speaker was a famous king, possessing countless amounts of gold and silver and surrounded by glory and honor; however, none of these perishable blessings delighted him as much as the desire for the blessings prepared in heaven constantly kindled his heart. Therefore, he says with the greatest zeal: In the same way that the trees of the springs of water desire, so does my soul desire for You, O God. My soul thirsts for the mighty, living God. Then, as if bored by the fact that, having lived for a long time in this life, he is deprived of sight of the glory of God, he continues, saying: When will I come and appear to the face of God? ( Ps. 42:2–3 ). These God-loving men were such warmest guardians of divine glory and future blessings, although they lived with their wives and were surrounded by countless everyday cares, and what is most surprising is that they lived even before the coming of Christ the Savior and were instructed only by the law of Moses, who did nothing, according to the word of the divine Paul (Heb. 7:19). Having such true examples of God-loving life, we, even while in a worldly rank, can please the heavenly Master, if only we sincerely desire to receive an eternal kingdom and endless life and avoid eternal torment. And we, like those blessed men, can, through every virtue, remove ourselves from the above-mentioned vices and with all our souls hate them, as well as all wickedness, and adhere with zeal to saving and godly deeds and virtues, always having in our memory the divinely inspired word that says: I have hated unrighteousness and have detested it, but I have loved Your law ( Ps.119:163); also: I have seen the Lord before me, as he is at my right hand, so that I will not be moved (Ps. 15:8). So, if someone constantly has all this in mind and believes it with all his soul, loves and fears the Savior Christ, as a good and man-loving Lord and as a terrible Judge, who without mercy betrays torment the transgressors of His holy commandments: such, because of his actions, which are in agreement with the will of God, is truly blessed both in the present century and in the future; Having lived well and pleasing to God in this temporary life, in the future he will hear the divine voice saying: Good, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord (Matthew 25:21). Do not despair of your salvation, you who legally live with your wives and raise children, and do not seek divorce from them, contrary to the commandment of the divine Paul, who says: If you are attached to a wife, do not seek permission (1 Cor. 7:27), for marriage is honorable and the bed is undefiled (Heb. 13:4). But if you truly desire greater salvation, then renounce yourself from all evil, from untruth, deceit, covetousness, theft of other people’s estates, lies, slander, envy, covetousness and all inhumanity, and love all truth, love of mankind, goodness and holiness, that is, be content with your spouses, and do not covet strangers, for fornicators and adulterers, Those who sin with other people's wives are condemned to eternal torment with the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the worm does not kill them, the fire does not go out and the most terrible crying and gnashing of teeth are endless. If any of you, obeying your frivolity, does not listen to this teaching and thinks to devote yourself to monastic life, and for this, divorce, contrary to the commandment of the holy Apostle Paul, from your wife; then such a person, without listening to the above, let him at least listen to the following: let him first test himself in worldly life - whether he can preserve the above-mentioned virtues and righteous deeds with the fear of God and with sincerity. And if, with the help of God, he preserves this according to the will of God, then even then let him not be separated from his wife, but let him, thanking God, remain in the performance of good deeds, earnestly praying to God so that He will arrange for him as it pleases Him. Moreover, let him know that the monastic life that he desires is nothing more than the diligent fulfillment of the saving commandments of the divine and venerable Gospel of Christ, namely, this is all truth, all mercy, mercy, unfeigned love, humility of heart, meekness, chastity, contempt for perishing wealth, worldly glory and honor, rejection of vanity and all covetousness. And if in worldly life someone fulfills these virtues in a way that is pleasing before God, then such a person is not removed from monastic life and bliss. Just as, on the contrary, if one dressed in a monastic dress, despising the commandments of the Savior and the traditions of the fathers, disagrees with them and spends his life disorderly, constantly getting drunk and overeating incontinently, overcome by the love of money, covetousness, covetousness and wickedness: then such a person differs only in clothing from a disorderly layman, according to the word of the Apostle: Circumcision is nothing, but observance the commandments of God (1 Cor. 7:19). So, whoever with diligence, undoubted faith and the warmest desire fulfills the commandments of Christ the Savior with the intention of pleasing God and not people: he will be recognized by Him and by Him and will be called a monk, even if he ends his present life in a worldly rank. For Christian piety does not consist and is praised in changing clothes and not in abstaining from certain foods, but in changing from evil pagan morals and in abstaining from all evil and harmful passions of the flesh and spirit. For if you have, he says, My commandments and keep them (that is, by doing them), that is, you love Me (John 14:21), that is, you are a dear friend to Me. And again: Not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but do the will of My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21). What is His will? - this the Apostle Paul taught us in brief words, saying in his letter to the Thessalonians: This is the will of God - your holiness, keep yourself from fornication, lead everyone from you to acquire his vessel in holiness and honor, and not in lustful passion, like the pagans who do not know God, and do not transgress (do not offend) and covet your brother's property (1 Thessalonians 4:3–6), that is, not only not to covet other people's wives and harlots, not only to be guarded from godless sodomy; but also with your spouses to copulate from time to time, and from time to time to abstain from them, so that you remain in fasting and prayer and gather together again, that is, copulate, as the same Apostle writes to the Corinthians, saying: Let not Satan tempt you with your incontinence (1 Cor. 7:5). By this the Apostle means the passion of lust, and pagan lust, that is, unfaithful people who do not fear God and do not know Him, whose whole life, all desire, all diligence and all exploits consist in insatiable fornication, in all uncleanness, in depravity, in unrighteousness and extortion. But you, he says, as Christians, being sanctified by the enlightenment of an infallible knowledge of God and purified by holy baptism, awaiting a terrible and incorruptible judgment, do not be like them; but with the fear of God, spend your life in purity. He expressed this in the words: Leading each one from you to his vessel, that is, his wife, to acquire holiness and honor (1 Thessalonians 4:4) - which means to agree with self-control, restraining dumb lust, setting a measure for it, and not in such a way as to submit to it and always be led by it, like dumb animals. Then, truly and justly, the marriage will be called honorable and the bed undefiled, when someone is moderate and uses this with abstinence, setting for himself the measure of both copulation and abstinence, keeping himself pure at times to the one who united us to Himself, the all-wise Creator and the most good God and Master of all, Jesus Christ. To him be glory and honor with His Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. You might be interested in: