It is completely different when a person gives his soul not earthly, but heavenly food – union and communion with God. Such a union occurs by the action of the Grace of God, when it comes into the soul of a person. The soul then changes: having received the light of Grace into itself, it itself becomes light, becomes, in the words of the Holy Fathers, peace, joy, love and perfection. And in this state of communion with her Creator, she finds complete satisfaction, for God becomes for her all that she can desire. This is the true heavenly food or the true heavenly water, which satisfies the thirst of the human soul that cannot be satisfied by anything else.

It was in order to give people such water that Christ came to earth. "Whosoever thirst, let him come unto me and drink," he says in the Gospel. These words of His mean that only in communion with God can a person find everything that his soul strives for. Only in God do all his eternal aspirations find their satisfaction. For example, if a person seeks the truth, he will find it in Christ, for Christ is the Truth and in Him are hidden all the sources of wisdom and knowledge. If he seeks freedom, then let him go to Christ in order to receive from Him the only true freedom – freedom from death, for no one but Christ can give him such freedom. Let him who seeks spiritual strength come to Christ, for Christ is the Lord of hosts, and His powers are omnipotent and infinite. He who seeks glory can find eternal and everlasting glory with Christ, for He is the King of Glory, and the whole universe is full of His glory. And, in short, all the good things that man can think of are found in Christ, and in Him alone. Let us recall a well-known episode from the life of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine, how she sought the highest beauty, wealth, wisdom and nobility, and how she found all this in Christ...

Thus, earthly goods are not true goods, but only their appearance. All of them are vain, perishable, transient, all mixed with lies, evil, sinful filth. Such are earthly glory, earthly power, earthly riches and pleasures. Such are any earthly advantages. People are carried away and chase after all this because they do not know the true heavenly blessings. Those who have tasted these blessings are no longer seduced by the earth, but consider all earthly things to be dust blown away by the wind. All the saints, that is, people who have learned this by the experience of their lives, testify to this. The Apostle Paul says that he considered all his earthly advantages (and he had them) to be lost and gave them up in order to gain Christ. St. Gregory the Theologian says the same thing: of all his earthly acquisitions, he derived only that benefit that he found in him to prefer Christ. St. Silouan the Athonite wrote that, having tasted the Grace of God, many kings and rulers left their thrones and became monks and hermits, so as not to be deprived of true heavenly blessings.

Brothers and sisters, we must first of all seek these true heavenly blessings! These true blessings are in Christ, and that is why He says to the entire human race: "Whosoever thirst, let him come to Me and drink." The water that He gives us is the Grace of the Holy Spirit, uniting man with God and giving him eternal life and eternal blessings. This is the true heavenly water, which alone is capable of quenching the thirst of the human soul, capable of giving it perfect, never-failing satiety. And in the acquisition of this Grace, in union with God, lies precisely the highest goal and meaning of the Christian life. Amen.

On Sinful Slavery

"If ye abide in My word," says Christ in the Gospel, "then ye are truly My disciples, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The people who listened to these words thought that the Lord was speaking to them about external or political freedom. "We are the seed of Abraham," they answered Christ, "and we have never been slaves to anyone; And then Christ explains to people about what freedom and about what slavery He says: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin... therefore, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

Thus, we are talking here about inner slavery and inner freedom. A person almost always looks at the external, at external freedom, at independence from people, from enslavers and oppressors, but it is much more important to have internal freedom, that is, to be free from slavery to sin. For everything external is temporary: both external freedom and external slavery inevitably pass away and cease with death. Both the free master and the slave enslaved by him will die in the same way, the death of the body will put an end to the freedom of the one and the slavery of the other. While slavery to sin is eternal, it does not end with death, but goes beyond the grave, where it becomes incomparably more bitter and grievous. Therefore, it can be said that earthly freedom or non-freedom are temporary and accidental signs, because they cease to operate beyond the boundaries of transient earthly life. It is about this relative significance of earthly freedom that the Apostle Paul wrote: "The servant who is called in the Lord is the free of the Lord; in the same way, he who is called free is a servant of Christ."

Thus, according to Christian teaching, there is only one true freedom – freedom from sin and only one true slavery – slavery to sin and through sin to the devil. What is sin? St. Macarius of Egypt says that sin is a certain immaterial force of Satan, through which he takes possession of man and enslaves him. Just as through a holy and righteous life we draw closer to God, unite with Him and receive freedom in Him, so through sin we unite with the devil and fall into slavery to him. According to the words of St. Macarius, when we commit a sin, we become one with the devil, we unite with him as one. And we should not think that only grave sins, such as murder, adultery, theft, fornication, and the like, unite us with the devil. No, all other sins work in the same way. If we condemn, envy, swear, get angry, greedy, or tell lies, then we also give ourselves over to the power of the devil, we become enslaved to him. That is why he always tries to incline us to sin, because through sin we fall under his power.