После своего падения Петр принес покаяние и научил нас не высокомудрствовать и надеяться не на свои силы, но на помощь Божию. Он научил нас также не отчаиваться и относиться с состраданием к другим грешникам. И ты, видя совершенные тобою грехи, научись смирению и не осуждай согрешивших, но относись к ним с состраданием и увещевай их не предаваться отчаянию. Когда Петр принес искреннее раскаяние, ему было возвращено апостольское достоинство и он снова стал первоверховным среди апостолов. И ты, покаявшись, так же сможешь получить потерянную тобою благодать сыноположения и снова стать сыном Божиим и наследником царства Его.

Знай, что причина всех твоих падений — беспечность. Раскайся же в ней перед лицом твоего Божественного Учителя и решись отныне начать обновленную, ревностную жизнь. Пойми, что беспечность — страшная вещь; она — от диавола. Проси у Бога о том, чтобы Он освободил тебя от тебя самого, ибо ты часто бываешь для себя врагом хуже, чем диавол, как и написано: «согрешающие воюют против собственной жизни» (См. Притч. 8, 36)

Наши грехи и неблагодарность к Богу

Давайте задумаемся, возлюбленные, о великом и страшном числе наших грехов; мы помним лишь о малой их части, остальное же забываем. Для того, чтобы вспомнить хотя бы что-нибудь из них, нам надо припомнить все места, в которых мы жили, все наши возрастные периоды и всех людей, с которыми мы общались — тогда мы поймем, насколько длинна цепь совершенных нами грехов. Конец одного греха становился началом другого, так что не осталось ни одной стороны нашей быстротечной жизни, которую бы мы не осквернили по своей небрежности. Все наши чувства мы сделали воротами, через которые в душу входит смерть, как говорит пророк Иеремия: смерть входит в наши окна, вторгается в чертоги наши (Иер. 9, 21). Все внутренние силы нашей души мы превратили в орудия греха.

There is no evil that we have not committed. We did not do only what we could not do or for which there was no convenient time; but the evil that we could have done, we have done. All the will given to us by God in order that we should strive for Him – the fullness of all good things – we used in order to contain within ourselves all the abominations of the world. We have turned away from God with such amazing ease, as if both divine and natural laws mean nothing to us!

Let us confess to ourselves, my brethren, that in the sight of God our whole soul is sick and covered with wounds, just as the body of Job was all covered with an ulcer and eaten by worms. When sin begins to dominate a person, then this person is punished by the offspring of sin – death. How many times should we have been punished with it for all the sins that possessed us? If mortal sin could plunge us into hell at once, how many times should we have been cast there with our sins? But in spite of this, the Lord, in His abundant and great mercy, does not reject us and not only tolerates us with our sins for so long, but also shows us His boundless blessings. How long will we laugh at His mercy?

Let us confess all the evil we have done, and let us imitate God's love as much as possible. Let us ask Him for punishment for our sins and promise Him that we will no longer anger Him with our bold life. then He will sustain us with His grace, so that we may not fall back into our former sins, as it is written in the Wisdom of Sirach: O Lord, Father and Master of my life! Do not leave me to their will, and do not suffer me to fall through them! (Sir. 23:1).

Let us also think about the gravity of our sins, because any of them is a great and terrible evil, and mortal sin is especially so, since it is hostile to the immeasurable goodness of God, by which we offend God and show contempt for Him. Any mortal sin has such a gravity that neither all the feats of the saints, nor all the holiness of the Angels, nor all the prayers of the Most Holy Virgin can erase it. In the scales of Divine justice, nothing can outweigh the weight of one mortal sin, except the Cross and Blood of the Savior. Therefore, sin is the greatest of all evils.

All the torments of hell cannot be compared in their severity with one mortal sin. The Holy Spirit says through Sirach: hell is preferable to one mortal sin. So great is the gravity of one serious violation of God's will! He who dares to do so has a heart of stone; he is like a dumb animal and a senseless tree. He sins with such ease and fearlessness, as if he wants to harm God, not the True and Living, but the false and pictured. A Christian who sins and insults Christ with such audacity does what the ido-worshippers did not dare to do with their wooden and stone false gods.

And after all this, what else can we do but weep with tears of repentance throughout our lives for the impudence and hardness of heart with which we offended God? And in order for us to please God and give His majesty due honor, we must decide to do one very difficult thing: we must ask the Lord with all our hearts to grant us the strength to fulfill it, because without the intervention of Divine grace we will not be able to change ourselves. Let us fervently pray to the Lord Christ that He would have mercy on us, that He would send us as many sorrows as times we have shown ingratitude to His mercy and love by our sins.

Let us think about our ingratitude to God and the blessings with which He responds to it. As soon as we come to know the wealth of blessings given to us by the Lord, both common to all people and given to each of us personally, we will immediately feel that we are unworthy of all those great blessings and gifts in which God shows us His love. And how can we repay the Lord for all that He has done for us? The angels themselves contemplate with amazement the humility, sufferings and death of Christ, which He took upon Himself for our salvation. We are debtors of God's love. Because He suffered and died for us with such love as if we were alone in the world, we are now indebted to His death.