Слово 3. Прение о твердом иноческом жительстве, где лица спорящие суть: Филоктимон и Актимон, то есть, любостяжательный и нестяжательный.

The covetous begins. Tell me, you who praise non-acquisitiveness, and at the same time do not stop going around all cities and countries in order to collect alms, asking for it from rulers and princes, what is better: having sufficient acquisitions, always live inside the monastery and practice singing, prayer and supplication; or, for the sake of acquiring the necessary needs, always wander outside your monastery, go around all cities and countries, and, having accepted alms, rejoice and please the giver with all sorts of praise, and not receiving it, complain and grieve, blame the one who did not have mercy, condemn and reproach him as unmerciful? Non-acquisitive. Do not rush, beloved, to slander the goodness of non-covetousness, which constitutes the Gospel and paternal commandment and commandment; for you cannot prove in any way by any divinely inspired Scriptures that a great deal of acquisition is useful for those who devote themselves to monastic life, but on the contrary, everywhere you will find that it is forbidden by the divinely inspired Scriptures, as serving as the cause of countless evils for monks, if you want to treat the divinely inspired Scriptures impartially and without selfishness. Covetousness removes us far from the monastic covenant, makes us transgressors of our vows and, in the words of the Apostle, creating again what we previously destroyed. Covetous. You cannot prove this in any way, for the Lord clearly says in the Gospel: Whoever leaves father, or mother, or wife, or child, or village, for the sake of Me and the Gospel, will receive it a hundredfold in this present age, and in the age to come will inherit eternal life (Matthew 19:29, cf. Luke 18:29-30). Do you hear: he will receive a hundredfold, he says, in this century? Non-acquisitive. That this is how the Savior said it, and I confess and worship this divine promise. But that this should not be understood as it seems to you, hear about it from the Savior Himself, Who clearly says this: No one lays his hand on his head and in vain turns back, he is ruled in the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62). What do you say about this? Does He really contradict Himself? May such blasphemy be far away from us! But, wanting to strengthen us so that we always remain vigilant in doing His saving commandments, He encourages us with a parable to create them. The Lord calls each of us our own autocratic will and desire by hand; he calls his holy commandments raal, since with them the field of our heart is cleansed, and the rational thorns growing in it and through it, from our long evil custom, are destroyed, that is, evil thoughts and carnal lusts, and instead of them, saving seeds of piety are planted, that is, firm and unshakable faith, pure and unfeigned love and shameless hope, from which grows Divine love, burning insatiably, always hating with all my soul all earthly acquisitions and addictions, as separating it from divine love and boldness (toward God); At the same time, perfect truth also grows, which makes it better to be offended and endure hardships and all kinds of sorrows, for the sake of the pleasure of eternal blessings hoped for in heaven. What does He want to call a return back, if not a return again to the customs and affairs of worldly life, which are painful cares and rumors, wealth and all kinds of acquisitions, with which untruth and all covetousness are inseparable, an incessant desire and insatiable love of gold and silver, and always greater multiplication of acquisitions, with which, like some thorns, the seed of piety is suppressed and does not bear fruit to its Master, and for this reason, like tares, it is burned with eternal fire, according to the divine saying: But the tares will be burned with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12). Therefore, such a person cannot be accepted into the kingdom of heaven, where only truth and reverence live. Covetousness is always associated with covetousness and unrighteousness, and for the most part you will find great inhumanity in it, if you want to consider this with me according to the will of God and in truth. Covetous. I will never say this, and I will not agree with you on this, as long as I hear that Abraham and his righteous descendants, who used wealth and acquisitions righteously, pleased God. For wealth is not evil for those who manage it well, as the divinely inspired fathers said. Non-acquisitive. Glory to God and the Lord of all, that, reluctantly, you confirmed my true words, bringing those righteous people to confirm your words, and thus what I should have proven with many words, you yourself proved in short words, and, thinking with them to overthrow me, you finally overthrew yourself with them. Covetous. Why do you say that? Is it not written that Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, also Job, David and Samuel, who disposed of their wealth and property well, righteously and reverently, pleased the Most High? Non-acquisitive. That this is written about these blessed men and that they pleased the Most High in this way, I also affirm this, like every faithful lover of the truth. But some of them, O good one, were before the written law and commandments, and others were after the law and commandments, and behaved righteously, as the law of God commanded, without any unrighteousness and extortion; They generously offered their bread to every beggar and wretched, and with their silver, without stinginess, they made up for the shortcomings of those who suffered deprivation of the needs of life, and, in short, they helped all the grieving and offended in every possible way, mercifully interceded for widows and orphans and cared for them, according to the divinely inspired Scripture, which, as we hear about in many places, sometimes cries out to the Most High against those who offend, saying: The widow and the orphan are dead. and killed the stranger (Ps. 93:6); and sometimes he foreshadows imminent vengeance for them and help from the Most High and says to them: He will accept (intercede) the orphan and the widow and destroy the path of sinners (Ps. 146:9). And again in another place: Judge the lowly and the needy, justify the lowly and the poor (Ps. 82:3). Blessed Job also says about himself that he was a father to orphans and a protector of widows, and he never, he says, let a beggar leave him empty-handed. All this clearly proves what kind of care and concern those righteous people had for the poor and the offended. In addition, most honorable one, they lived with wives and children, had houses and servants serving in accordance with this law, and they were not in the least prevented by the commandments of the law from living their lives in accordance with the requirements of human nature and owning property and slaves. Therefore, as those who fulfilled the commandments of God, they pleased the Most High. We monks, how do we organize our lives, or better yet, how dare we equate our lives with the virtue of those righteous people? Where is it written about them that, contrary to the commandment of the law, they lend their silver with interest, or demand from the poor interest on interest, and that from those who are not able to pay what they borrowed, due to its increase with many years of interest, they take away the last beggarly insignificant property remaining from them, as we now dare to do with the poor villagers, burdening them with large interests and ruining them if they cannot pay them back taken, and is it we who do this to those who incessantly work and suffer in our villages and in all our needs inside and outside the monastery? Where is it written that those righteous people would dare to allow such inhumanity? You won't find it anywhere. And they are even more worthy of surprise because they turned out to be exact fulfillers of the Gospel commandments, which were not yet legalized at that time. We, calling ourselves followers of the Gospel and having undertaken to achieve perfection in living according to God, for the sake of which we voluntarily renounce all the pleasures of this vain world, when we make vows to God before His chosen Angels to spend the rest of our lives according to His holy commandments, with all humility, in Christ-imitating poverty and meekness, and then, forgetting our vows and counting them for nothing, we again try to always acquire, as in our former worldly life, various acquisitions and herds of all kinds of livestock and accumulate for ourselves on earth, through all sorts of untruths, extortion and lawless interest, a lot of gold and silver, while the Gospel commandments strictly prohibit such godless gains? With all this, we again plunge ourselves into countless worries and everyday rumors, into litigation and quarrels, along with those devoted to worldly life. And what is most worthy of tears is the fact that, daring to act this way contrary to the divine commandments and our vows, we not only do not realize our crime, but also boast as if we were performing virtue! We should, on the contrary, repent before the terrible Judge, and abandon our sinfulness, and squander the evil we have collected for good, so that we too may be worthy to hear: Today salvation has come to this house (Luke 19:9), just like the one who was formerly an unmerciful coveter, and then became a zealous and philanthropic payer; and so that we do not be condemned along with that unmerciful and hater of the poor - the rich man, who was forced to give a small drop of water when he was burning in the flame of an unquenchable fire, and did not receive it from the righteous Abraham, who covered all people with his love of hospitableness. Covetous. You understand the Divine Scripture roughly, and therefore you interpret it roughly. For the Son of man did not come to destroy the souls of men, but to save (Luke 9:56), and to give his soul redemption for many (Matthew 20:28), as the Lord announced to us with His holy lips. Non-acquisitive. Let it be that I roughly understand and interpret divine Scripture. But you, who understand correctly, tell us: why are those five foolish virgins sent away from the mysterious palace, and the wise ones enter it with the immortal Bridegroom? Also, tell me, if you can: why, bound, alas, hand and foot, is the Angels expelled from among the divine participants in the marriage of the Beloved into utter darkness, having not acquired a robe worthy of theirs? Teach also: for what reasons are those who were invited to the marriage deprived of the divine supper, and together they all refused and did not go? To whom, tell me, will it be said with anger: Depart from Me, curse, into eternal fire (Matthew 25:41) and the rest of that bitter sentence? Who are (explain also) those rotten fish that are thrown out as worthless? Well, don’t you hear that only a quarter of the sown seed bears fruit in 100, or 60, or 30. And what is most terrible is that some of those who performed miracles and many mighty powers here and cast out demons in the name of the Lord are then sent away with anger, and are called workers of iniquity. Don’t you understand from all this that not everyone who says to Him: Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who has right faith in Him will do the will of His Father. For faith without good works is dead, says the divine James, the brother of God, just as these are dead without that. Who does the will of His Father, except he who loves His Only Begotten Son? Who truly loves Him (the Son)? Listen to how He Himself clearly speaks about it this way: He who has My commandments and does, is the same who loves Me; If you do not love Me, you will not keep My words (John 14:21, 24). And again: You are naturally my friends; if you do, I command you (John 15:14). It is clear that whoever transgresses His holy commandments is not His friend, but an enemy and a lie, as the divine John says: He says, because he knew Him, and does not keep His commandments; it is a lie, and in this there is no truth (1 John 2:4). We, shamelessly breaking His sacred commandment about love of poverty, which is the head of all His divine commandments and the union of perfection, as St. Apostle Paul, - we inhumanly oppress the poor brothers of Christ who are at hand to us, exhausting them constantly with the demand for the most burdensome interest, and with all sorts of monastic work inside and outside the monastery we make their life bitter, without showing them any mercy. By doing this, how do we think we will please God? On the contrary, how can we avoid this terrible judgment, when those who stand at His right hand will be crowned not for great fasting, not for vigils and long hymns, but for love of mankind and for mercy towards the poor? What you did, he says, to one of the least of My brothers, you did to Me. Likewise, those who stand on the left will not be reviled because they did not correct the great fasts and vigils, or because they did not praise Him with prolonged singing, but because they never showed any kindness to the poor, whom He is not ashamed to call His brothers. And it will be so, and so it is written, and no one can change it and no one dares. With what thoughts are you deceiving yourself, being overcome, as everyone knows, by the passion of love of money and self-love? You consider it a great act of philanthropy to lend your silver with interest to the poor villagers; Thus, you say, you console them in their poverty. Truly, brother, and I affirm that the silver they receive from you on loan would be no small consolation for them if, according to the commandment of God, you lent to them without interest, and from someone who cannot pay due to extreme poverty, you would not demand either interest or the debt itself, but would be content with the reward that was promised to you for this from the rich Giver in the next century, and would also consider reward is the incessant sweating labor of the poor man, which he endures winter and summer, working for you. And now you extort from him by force and plunder his poor money-grubbing, and himself - oh inhumanity! - either you drive him, along with his wife and children, far from your villages empty-handed, or you enslave him forever, like the ancient tormentor Pharaoh of the children of Israel. What could be more disgusting and inhuman than this, my brother? It would be better if you had not lent him anything from the very beginning, rather than, having given it, it would be so inhumane to torture him for this bitter favor. Or don’t you know, beloved, that lending to the poor is commanded by the Savior not for nasty gains, but for the sake of mercy and philanthropy, and to help the poor in their poverty, and not to ruin them in the end, and that those who do not lend with such good will, heap up coals of fire on their heads. Cursed, says the Divine Scripture, is he who lends his money with interest to his brother. You yourself know where the damned will be sent by the righteous Judge, even if I wanted to keep silent about that terrible torment. Why are we not afraid of that false threat that says: “For the sake of the passions of the poor and the groaning of the poor, now I will rise again,” says the Lord, and what follows (Ps. 11:6). And again in another place: I knew that the Lord would bring judgment to the poor and vengeance to the needy (Ps. 139:13). And again: The patience of the poor will not perish until the end (Ps. 9:19). There are still so many poor and poor, widows and orphans, offended and insulted by us in various ways, who cry out to us with sighs and from the depths of their souls shed bitter tears before the Father of the orphans, the Judge of widows and the Protector of the poor! And we do not in the least bow to their sorrow and tears, although we hear every day that judgment without mercy has shown no mercy (James 2:13). Truly, we have become like a deaf asp who stops his ears (Ps. 57:5), and, as Isaiah says about the ancient rebellious people of Israel, our hearts are clouded and our ears are hard to hear (Is. 6:10). Covetous. Didn’t I already say before that you roughly explain the divine Scripture and do not have correct reasoning? Tell me: in the Old Testament, weren’t the priests and Levites separated by law from cities and enough villages to feed them, and weren’t they assigned to take tithes from everything edible offered in the market, as the Savior explained in the Gospel, reproaching the scribes and Pharisees - not just because they dedicate mint and kimin and pigan (Matthew 23:23), but because, leaving the most important the commandments of the law - judgment and mercy and faith, in the insignificant and insignificant commandments of the law showed all their diligence? Therefore, the Savior added: It is fitting to do these things. Which ones? that is, judgment and mercy and faith, and do not abandon them. Which ones? that is, in order to despise all the food offered at the auction. So, if by law both cities and villages were separated by law for feeding, and it was commanded that everything sold for food should be tithed, how much more should we, who are not under the law, but under grace, ought to have wealth and take tithes and taxes established by the fathers who were before us; You are talking nonsense in vain and in vain. Non-acquisitive. Here you are again, with your words, with which you hoped to refute what I justly said, against your will, you exposed your charm, and the same thing happened to you as to Goliath, whose head was cut off with his own sword. If only you would take care to correctly understand the meaning of what was said: Unless your righteousness comes out any more than the scribe and the Pharisee, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20); also the words of the blessed Apostle Paul, who says: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the ancient creature, behold, is all new (2 Cor. 5:17). And again: I say this, brethren, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but corruption will inherit incorruption (1 Cor. 15:50). If you had understood all this correctly, and if you had accepted these words in simplicity and kindness, then you would have refrained from saying what you said, and would in no way equate yourself with the scribes and Pharisees who serve the canopy and images of the law; but, leaving all wrangling, I would try to surpass their truth, according to the Gospel commandment, so that you too may be worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven, together with Paul of Thebes, Anthony, Pachomius, Euthymius, Savva the Sanctified and with other reverend mentors of monastic divine life, who with all their soul and with all their thoughts tried to surpass the truth of the Pharisees, according to the commandment Savior. What is the truth of the Pharisees, which we are strictly commanded to surpass, listen carefully to the Pharisee himself, who boasted, saying: God, I give you praise, because I am not like other men, predators, unrighteous people, adulterers, or like this publican: I fast twice on the Sabbath, I give tithes as much as I can (Lk. 18:11–12). Let us consider with all justice whether our monastic life and our stay can be compared with the truth of those, although even in this case, if we find it equal to that, the kingdom of heaven is inaccessible to us, according to the divine definition, which says: You will not enter the kingdom of heaven. And that our life and our stay not only does not equal their truth, but is also far below it, is obvious. Not only did he not offend or steal the labors of others, but he also gave a tenth of his entire estate to the poor, although he had no command to do so, but only listened to the Divine Scripture, which says: Spend it upon the poor; his righteousness abides forever (Ps. 111:9). Not only do we not give a tenth of our estates to the poor, although we have the command not to give a tenth, but to give everything completely to the poor, if we want to be perfect, but we also do not stop offending and stealing the estates of poor villagers through God-hating increases. Or don’t you consider it an extreme untruth and predation not only to accumulate silver and gold on earth, contrary to the commandment of God, through all extortion, but also to take huge interest annually from the poor villagers and never forgive them what they borrowed, although through the interest collected from them for many years they have already received theirs several times over? In addition, it was not forbidden by law to live with wives, raise children, have wealth and acquire silver and all necessary property in the right way. For us, monks who have chosen the gospel life and are commanded to follow the Savior, all this is strictly forbidden by the divine commandment, except for obtaining what we need through righteous labor. Therefore, we should move away from this with all our soul and all our thought, until our last breath, if we really want to achieve perfection, according to the commandment that says: Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48), and if we want to follow the immortal Bridegroom into His heavenly palace with the wise virgins. So, for those who have entered the sacred monastic society, or, what is the same, who have devoted themselves to the angelic and apostolic life, it is unfair to equate themselves with the servants of the canopy and the forerunners of the law. For the old has passed away and everything new has come. The kingdom of heaven is in need, and the needy, and not the weak and transgressors of the commandment, delight it (Matthew 11:12). How can we distinguish ourselves from the worldly, if we again surrounded ourselves with worldly rumors and a multitude of possessions and acquisitions, as in our previous life, and constantly starve the poor, the wretched under our control, with all sorts of our works and demands for the most burdensome increases? And if any of them cannot pay, we, having plundered his wretched acquisition, alas, drive him out of our possessions empty-handed. Such crafty actions are characteristic of covetous people living in the world, who do not at all remember the future Last Judgment and the unquenchable fire awaiting them, and not of monks who have chosen the non-covetous and beggarly life of the Gospel. “If anyone is in Christ,” cries the Divine Paul, “a new creation, that is, someone who truly, and not hypocritically, thinks to abide in faith in Christ, he must become a new creation, removing from himself all the works of the old man, which are: all kinds of fornication, untruth, covetousness, taking away someone else’s property, theft, drunkenness, all disorder and shamelessness, for their sake is coming God's wrath is against the sons of disobedience, as the same Paul says again (Col. 3:5–6); instead, let him take possession of all righteousness and excellence and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). And again he: And as we have put on the image of the earthy, let us also put on the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15:49). What is the image of the earthy, we will hear from Paul himself, who clearly explains this briefly: But this I say, brethren, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; below corruption, incorruption inherits (1 Cor. 15:50). Here by the flesh he briefly designates all carnal deeds and uncleanness; In general, blood, according to the interpretation of the holy fathers, called all kinds of untruths and extortion, taking away someone else’s property, theft and nasty gains. It is clear that whoever revolves in these matters has not yet put off the old man and has not become a new creature in Christ; for he still carries within himself all the properties of the old man. We, who are commanded not to live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit, should follow in the footsteps of the Venerable Fathers, who shone forth in fasting, and, taking upon ourselves the cross of Christ, carry on this temporary life in silence, carefree, in all truth, enjoying sacred hymns and unceasing pure prayers to the Savior. And where are the cares of life, rumors, swearing and abuse, and frequent litigation over villages and estates, tears, and pure prayer, and throwing oneself to the ground, and mortal memory have disappeared from there. For you cannot, said the unfaithful lips of Christ, to work for God and mammon. What is “mammon” if not wealth collected through all sorts of untruths, that is, through interest, appropriation of others and all kinds of violence, out of pride and Jewish love of money, as the Holy Fathers interpret? For the sake of this saving command of the Lord, countless numbers of venerable monks throughout the universe, leaving everything that was beautiful in this vain world, irrevocably fled to the most remote deserts, wanting to achieve angelic residence. It is their divine zeal and desire that we should imitate, O dear one, so that we too may be enriched with spiritual gifts, like them. What are these? – Humility of heart, meekness and kindness, chastity, spiritual intelligence, perfect love, which is the union of perfection and the fulfillment of the whole law, as the divine Apostle says; not having it, we do not receive any benefit for the soul, even if we spoke in the tongues of angels, and moved mountains, and knew all the secrets of prophecy, even if we gave up our very bodies to be burned for good faith, as the same Apostle says (1 Cor. 13: 1-3). Let us seek with difficulty, O beloved, that we too may be worthy of such grace and blessing of the mentioned divine gifts. These, O good one, constitute that hundredfold reward in the present century, which the Savior promised to those who deny all their possessions and desires for the sake of the unshakable kingdom expected in the next century; and not the acquisition of estates again, not enrichment and abundant wealth, as you dream. What is the benefit, tell me, for those who have renounced their estates and acquisitions for the sake of silence and carelessness, to again try to acquire others, more than the first, and to surround themselves with more worries and rumors than before? There is no spiritual benefit, but on the contrary – deprivation and sterility of the soul. For the seed that fell among the thorns and was crushed by them did not bear fruit to the heavenly Worker. What are thorns - listen carefully to God's very Wisdom, which clearly says this: And what was sown among thorns, behold, hear the word, and the sorrow of this age and the flattery of wealth suppresses the word, and it is without fruit (Matthew 13:22). So, it is very unhelpful and very harmful for monks to again collect property and wealth for themselves, as we have proven this many times. In addition, something else, incongruous with anything, necessarily follows from your interpretation. For if what our Lawgiver said about the historical perception in this century refers to the increase of estates and acquisitions: then for one wife abandoned by someone, he will receive many other wives and give birth to more children than before. Do you understand what blasphemy and what incongruity your interpretation of the above saying leads to? Spiritually, O beloved, the promises and instructions of the Holy Spirit should be understood and interpreted, and not according to the carnal and worldly. The Spirit is God, it is said, and whoever worships Him is worthy to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24). But those who accumulate wealth for themselves through untruth and godless increases, and go to court because of villages and lands and quarrel with rivals, do not worship the Most High in spirit and truth. His praise, it is said, is in the church of the saints (Ps. 149:1), and not in the church of those who transgress the holy commandments of the Most High, about which it is said elsewhere: All the sinners of the earth transgress without sin (Ps. 119:119). And again: I have hated the church of the wicked, and will not sit with the wicked (Ps. 25:5). And in another place: I hate those who commit crime (Ps. 100:3). If God hates us for transgressing His holy commandments, then who is able to deliver us from His divine wrath? And then he says again: With a proud eye and an unsatisfied heart, I do not eat with this (v. 5). Who has such a proud eye as one who has an unsatisfied heart - an offender and a covetous person? And it is well said: the insatiable heart of a proud eye. For the gathering of silver and gold can never be satisfied. A terrible, truly, terrible thing is the desire for gold, and it, according to the Apostle, is the cause of all evil. It never ceases, but the more it is satisfied, the more it inflames the covetous. The passion of love of money and covetousness is like fire: just like fire, the more substance it finds, the stronger it flares up; so the desire for gold always flares up more and more in the insatiable heart of the lover of wealth. Therefore, the Holy Spirit warns us with the inspired language of blessed David, saying: Do not trust in unrighteousness and do not desire admiration: if wealth flows, do not apply your heart (Ps. 61:11). Why? Because the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10). Many of them fell into inordinate inhumanity and such brutality that they not only did not stop from unjustly stealing the property of others, but also deprived the very owners of the property of this life with the most severe torment. Some even abandoned the faith, abandoning the right faith for the sake of silver, so as not to lose their wealth; others, in despair, took their own lives by strangulation. Therefore, my dear one, it is many times better and more salutary to be poor and follow Christ around cities and countries, and even if you happen to be subjected to reproach and dishonor, to endure with thanksgiving, keeping the commandment of the Savior and the rules of monastic life, than to be showered with gold and silver and be provided with lands and villages, contrary to the commandment of the Lord. “The law of Your mouth is good to me,” he says, “more than thousands of gold and silver (Ps. 119:72). And in another place: Better is little for the righteous, than much wealth for sinners (Ps. 36:16). And again: I have hated and detested unrighteousness, but I have loved Your law (Ps. 119:163). The law of the Savior consists in nothing else but in love perfect from a pure heart for the Most High and for our neighbor, as we hear in the Holy Gospel: By this two commandment, he says, the whole law and the prophets hang (Matthew 22:40). A covetous and money-loving monk, as he should, cannot be a lover of God, because he transgresses the commandment of God. The righteous Judge himself says: If you have My commandments and keep them, then you will love Me. He who does not love Me will not keep My words (John 14:21, 24). Consequently, the one who accumulates wealth for himself through unrighteous profits is alien to love for the Savior, oppressing the poor subject villagers in every possible way by demanding heavy interest from them. For love, says the holy Apostle Paul, does not do evil to the sincere (Rom. 13:10); on the contrary, she always shows compassion and mercy to all those who generally live in troubles and hardships, according to what is written: All day long the righteous one has mercy and gives back, and his seed will be a blessing (Ps. 37:26). He gives back as commanded by the humane commandment of the most righteous Lawgiver, who says: If you give in return, you expect to receive from them what grace there is for you, for even sinners give back to sinners, so that they may receive something equal. In return, give in return, asking for nothing, and your reward will be abundant in heaven. Be merciful; your Father is merciful (Luke 6:34, 36). Why do we, O beloved, foolishly transgress such a humane and soul-beneficial command of our Lord and Savior? Or we are not afraid of what is said: Curse those who turn away from Your commandments (Ps. 119:21). And in another place: Let the wicked be ashamed in vain (Ps. 24:3). Also: Thou hast brought to naught all who depart from Thy commandments, for their thoughts are unrighteous (Ps. 119:118). If all this is spoken by the Holy Spirit and is true, then let us fear, brother, and correct ourselves before the righteous Judge, for it is terrible to fall into the hand of the living God (Heb. 10:31). If we consider these divine words to be untrue, then why do we make vows to God in the future to live according to His holy commandments and commandments? For it is better, says the wisdom of God, not to promise and keep it, than to promise and not keep it. And again: Pray and give up your prayers to the Lord (Ps. 75:12). If we offer prayers to the Lord, that is, if we fulfill our vows that we made to Him at the time of our tonsure, then, truly, we will be blessed and good will come to us. If we lie to Him, then we will fear, brother, what was said: Destroy all those who speak lies (Ps. 5:7). Covetous. Stop already, man, from this long idle talk of yours. We are not subject to condemnation by anyone because of the acquisition of estates and ownership of lands and villages, because no one has anything of their own, and there is no way for anyone to take anything from it and take it to another place. Therefore, we can rightly be called real non-covetous; for no one acquires anything of his own, but everything is common. Non-acquisitive. You are telling me something funny, and no different from the fact that if some many lived lawlessly with one harlot, and, being convicted of this, each of them began to say about himself: I am not sinning in anything here, for she equally constitutes a common property; or, if someone with many robbers went out on a robbery and together with them robbed a lot of property, then by chance he would be caught by those looking for robbers and, being subjected to torture and interrogation, would answer: I am not guilty of anything; They had everything left, but I didn’t take anything from the stolen property. All this, the kindest, empty message and very funny. In any case, before righteous judges your answer will turn out to be idle talk, not mine. I would like to offer you reliable evidence and irrefutable evidence from many ancient, divinely inspired men, with which I would show you that it is illegal and cannot be justified by anything for monks to again surround themselves with worldly cares and rumors, take interest and in various ways oppress poor, wretched people. But, knowing that you know all this, although you voluntarily pass it by, being overcome by the passion of pride and love of money, I leave it as not having the proper meaning for you. I will cite one saying of the Apostle Paul and finish the word with this. This divine preacher and universal enlightener, wishing that those whom he gave birth to throughout the entire universe through the gospel preaching into faith, would always be in asceticism and would be ardent stewards of piety, the following example raises them to spiritual exploits. “Nobody else,” he says, “being a warrior, obliges himself with the purchases of life in order to please the one who counted them among the soldiers (2 Tim. 2:4). If for those living with wives and children, he does not want them to entangle themselves with the unnecessary cares of this life, but so that they always adhere to piety with all their souls, much more must we monks obey this divine teacher and with all our souls, with ardent zeal, adhere to the monastic and angelic life, passing through it with all truth and reverence, removing ourselves from all untruth and filth of life care and from all indecency - so that through us the all-holy name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom befits all glory and splendor, with His beginningless Father and His All-Holy and Good and Life-giving Spirit, is glorified and not blasphemed among the nations, to endless ages. Amen. No one is forced by the preaching of piety to do what he himself does not have a free will to do; but if anyone wants to, he says: to follow Me, let him deny himself, and so on (Luke 9:23). And again: If you want to be perfect, go and sell your possessions, and so on (Matthew 19:21). And through Isaiah the prophet: If you are willing and listen to Me, you will destroy the good land, and so on (Is. 1:19). From all this and many similar passages it is clear that the kingdom of heaven is offered to those who will; for what happens under compulsion and involuntarily does not deserve reward before the righteous Judge. Therefore, the present word concerning the non-covetous life asks everyone who reads it, if by their disposition they belong to the non-covetous, to be confirmed by it in their good will and life according to God, observing with all diligence the Gospel commandment, that is, to lead a life in all truth and reverence, eating their bread in the sweat of their brow, according to the ancient divine commandment. And those who, by their disposition, are covetous, this word asks them not to be angry for what is said in it and not to be at enmity against the one who wrote such a word out of love for the truth. For there is nothing in it that disagrees with the Gospel commandments and the apostolic tradition. And therefore (the one who wrote the word) asks the readers: having learned the power of words that explain the truth, to be moved and, as it should be, to reproach themselves, and not to justify themselves, but to confess to the righteous Judge, and to reveal the crime they committed due to human weakness before the common Master, and to pray to Him with all their souls, so that He would grant them a change for the better and acquire a saving, non-covetous will and an appropriate dispensation of thought. For it is not so much reprehensible to sin—this is characteristic of human weakness—as to, when sinning, not be aware of one’s sin and not confess it. So, you too accept this word with right thought and with decent Christian prudence and meekness. If you are indignant and embarrassed by his denunciations and strong evidence - evangelical and apostolic - regarding real monastic life, then I will not say anything on my own, but let the divine Ladder speak with boldness: “he who turns away from denunciations despairs of his salvation.” Hello O Lord! You might be interested in: