Homilies on the Conciliar Epistle of the Holy Apostle James

Part 4

Further, the holy Apostle James instructs us: Let the brother who is humbled boast of his exaltation, and the rich man in his humiliation, for he shall pass away like a flower on the grass. The sun rises, the heat comes, and the heat dries up the grass, its color falls, the beauty of its appearance disappears; so also the rich fade in his ways (James 1:9-11).Thus, the Apostle exhorts: Let the brother who is humbled boast of his height. Brothers and sisters, we are Orthodox Christians who remain faithful to the Holy Church, faithful to the Lord Jesus. We do not take part in this celebration of life to which all other people aspire, we follow a different path, and for this we are often looked upon with contempt, suspicion, or complete incomprehension. This misunderstanding penetrates even into our families, when our loved ones say: "Why do you need this? Why are you praying? Why do you go to church? Why do you need these priests?!" Trusting in God, we receive this firmness as a gift from Him. Faith is precisely a gift: it is given to one person, not to another. It is given to those who can, who want to accept. And if the Lord gave you the gift of faith, gave you the happiness of being an Orthodox Christian, treasure it as the greatest treasure.In the Gospel there is a story about how a man learned about a treasure buried in a field. And so, he sold everything and bought this field [1]. Such a true treasure is our Orthodox faith. This is the land. And what is the human body? This is also the earth, because man was created from the dust of the earth. The foundations of our faith are implanted in us by the grace of the Holy Spirit. The Scriptures say: "Take heed unto thyself" (1 Tim. 4:16) and: "The Kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). We must discover Orthodoxy, natural Orthodoxy, inner spiritual forces in ourselves and devote our lives to the struggle for the spiritual ideals of our religion. And here it is very important to build the right hierarchy of values: what should be in the first place for us, and what should be in the second. And this must be known first of all. For: The sun rises, the heat comes, and the heat dries up the grass, its flower falls, the beauty of its appearance disappears. There is a complete reassessment, a spiritual revision, if you will, in the world of human souls. After all, the world is getting closer and closer to its end every year. Blessed Theophylact teaches: "Whoever wants to ask for something, let him, first of all, ask for what is necessary, about the request of which he cannot be deceived, that is, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matt. 6:33) [2].Until quite recently in Russia, the preaching of the Gospel was prohibited, it was impossible to gather in church, and more than four priests did not gather. Only at prayer services or at prayers, and for conversations it was impossible. Now the preaching of the Gospel, the preaching of Universal Orthodoxy is becoming the property of many hearts. This sun of the Gospel rises: The sun rises, the heat comes, and the heat withers the grass. And when that sun rises, there'll be the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Then all this grass, all these colors of the riches of the festive world of sin, they will wither. Where will the beauty of European, American civilization be then? Where will the fruits of marketing and advertising be? Where will people go with their lipsticks, false eyelashes, dollars, francs, yen, tugriks, shekels, gold, silver, securities and rubles? All this will fade! And only those who remain faithful to God — only they will rejoice and be glad on the day of the coming of Christ, the Sun of Righteousness. Our day is coming, brothers and sisters! And we know that there will be the Sun of Truth, the light of Christ, in the Russian land as well! We are also waiting for the Russian Easter, the revival of our Slavic Home. And those who want to lead us along the Western path, they do not understand the soul of the people. And those who want to lead us along the Eastern path, referring to the "Chinese experience", to the "Japanese miracle", are looking for various examples – they are also mistaken. The soul of the Russian people is the Orthodox faith.And, as it is said in the same Epistle of James: the body without the spirit is dead (James 2:26). And we see this, brothers and sisters! The Orthodox faith was taken away from the Russian people, and if the soul is taken away from the body, what happens to it? It rots and decomposes. And we see how our people without the Orthodox faith rot, decay and stink: with sins, vices, all kinds of obscenities. Moreover, this decay also applies to religious people. We sometimes hear that ministers of the Church also fall into sins. And many are at a loss because of this: "What should we do if pastors also fall?" First of all, in the event of the fall of a bishop, presbyter or deacon, the laity must know that it is not their responsibility to judge the clergy. Even more: in reality, the layman does not have the right to judge the laity either. A believer has no right to pass judgment on himself. The Apostle Paul said: I do not judge myself. For although I know nothing about myself, I am not justified by this; but the Lord is my judge (1 Corinthians 4:3-4). The laity are judged by the priest, the priest and deacon are judged by the bishop, and the bishop is judged by the council of bishops. It is also said: "Do not accept the accusation against a presbyter except in the presence of two or three witnesses" (1 Tim. 5:19). At the same time, the opinion of "outsiders" (that is, those who do not belong to our faith) is not taken into account. It is said: How dare any of you, when dealing with another, sue the wicked, and not the saints? (1 Corinthians 6:1). (The opinion of the "outsiders" is taken into account only in relation to the identification of missionary qualities in the person being ordained: can he win over unbelievers as well? [3]) On the other hand, there has always been a teaching in the Church that the grace of God works through unworthy ministers as well. Blessed Augustine wrote: The Church does not cease to be holy and illuminating if it has ministers, both unworthy and members of sinners. Whoever has fellowship with a sinner, but does not deign to commit his sin, remains pure... The ministers of the Church of God do not cease to be instruments of God's grace, even if they are not saints themselves. Whatever the priest is, when he prays for the people, his prayer is lifted up to God, his teachings, if they contain the truth, are useful for others, his sacred actions have all the power for the believer. He will answer to God for himself, but for his flock he is a true shepherd [4]. St. John Chrysostom asserts the following on the same question: Whoever honors a priest will also honor God; and whoever begins to despise the priest will gradually come to the point of insulting God one day... If you despise him, you do not despise him, but the God who ordained him. And how, you say, is it known that God ordained him? "But if you are not convinced of this, then your hope is vain: for if God does nothing through him, then you do not have baptism, nor do you receive the Mysteries, nor do you receive a blessing, and consequently you are not a Christian. How, you say, does God ordain everyone, even the unworthy? God does not ordain everyone, but through all He Himself acts, even if they are unworthy, for the salvation of the people... In the father, even though he has an innumerable number of weaknesses, the son covers everything: "Do not seek glory," says the Most Wise, "in the dishonor of your father, for the dishonor of your father is not glory to you. Though he become poor in understanding, have condescension and do not despise him (Sir. 3:10, 13). If this is said about carnal fathers, how much more about spiritual fathers. Be ashamed: he serves you every day, offers you the reading of the Scriptures, adorns the house of God for you, watches for you, prays for you, stands before God for you and intercedes for you, makes petitions for you, performs all his service for you. Be ashamed of this, imagine it, and approach it with all reverence [5].This teaching about the work of grace and through its unworthy bearers is also based on the Bible. The Lord, speaking of the morally unworthy Jewish teachers, remarked: the scribes and Pharisees sat on Moses' seat; therefore whatsoever they command you to observe, observe and do; but do not do according to their works, for they speak, and do not do (Matt. 23:2-3).The Psalmist David had the opportunity to kill King Saul, who out of necessity went into the cave where David and his men were hiding. Seeing Saul in such an unsightly form, they offered him: "This is the day of which the Lord spoke to you: "Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hands, and you will do with him what you please" (1 Samuel 24:5). To which the Psalmist answered: "May the Lord not suffer me to do this to my lord, the anointed of the Lord, that I may lay my hand on him, for he is the anointed of the Lord" (1 Samuel 24:7). The prophet and psalmist David distinguished between the personal qualities of this man who sought to kill him, and the anointing of God that was on him. To the natural indignation of the Jews in this case, who said to him, "Do you blaspheme the high priest of God?" Paul said, "I did not know, brethren, that he was a high priest; for it is written: "Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people" (Acts 23:4-5). In one city, a priest was tried for committing a serious criminal offense. The lawyer was absolutely calm. When the time came for him to speak, he said something like this: "How many years has this priest been serving in the city, and in all this time there has not been a single case when he did not absolve any of us. No matter what grave sins and abominations of our soul we came to him with, he always forgave us with a sense of compassion. Is it possible that now we will not forgive him, who once sinned against society?" The court's decision was acquittal... Clergy in Russia are constantly faced with attempts to discredit them. I had to watch how the same provocateur spread completely different rumors about me. He told some people that I was a "fascist-pogromist", others that I was a "Judeo-son". A good friend of mine told me that he was told that I was a very rich man, had bodyguards, cars and a beautiful mansion filled with militant guards. He took such lies with a sense of humor. He knew that I didn't even have my own living space. Two Moscow journalists wrote about me, one in the newspaper Trud (Alexander Nezhny), the other in Nezavisimaya (Yakov Krotov), that I was rehabilitating sectarians in the following way: I handcuffed them to a radiator and gave them vodka. After the appearance of these articles in the press, Moscow alcoholics came to me "for drinking". A sense of humor saved me too. But some took this slander seriously. For example, in the Adventist seminary in Zaoksky, an article by Alexander Nezhny was posted on a bulletin board. I think that Adventists did not have enough sense of humor to guess that they were dealing with gross slander. There are even more daring provocations. Some ill-wishers, in order to compromise the work of the Rehabilitation Center, spread rumors that I "entered into secret agreements with Scientologists and Krishnaites," that I "secretly converted to the Old Believers," and so on. To say this, I would be a liar, for the Scriptures say: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, then we represent Him as a liar, and His word is not in us (1 John 1:8, 10). There are enough sins in my life. And the life of every person is filled with sins. Therefore, those people who try to point out to us our sinfulness, they do not reveal anything new to anyone. Their task is to plunge our soul into despondency. And we would fall into despondency if it were not for Christ, of Whom it is said: "If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and just, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). However, Blessed Augustine taught: And the virtuous are pleased to hear about their past iniquities; it is pleasant not because they are iniquities, but because they were, and now they are not [6]. The path to the Lord lies precisely through the realization of our sinfulness. It is when a person says of himself: "I am a sinner," that the work of our salvation begins. And what will they be left with, or rather, with whom will those who lie against us, slander us, want us to always remain in a state of sin... However, is it worth paying attention to such people, if the chief Apostle Paul taught: "It matters very little to me how you judge me or how other people judge me; I do not judge myself (1 Corinthians 4:3). Truly! Human judgment means nothing. The main thing is the judgment of God.I deliberately talk about slander against me, because I know how often my brothers in service in the Church, both pastors and archpastors, face such a situation. One priest from Altai told me that Jehovah's Witnesses, having learned that the priest had organized a children's Sunday school in the village, began to spread rumors about him that he was a homosexual. I personally know a missionary who works with drug addicts and who has been slandered by drug dealers as a "hidden drug addict." The case of the layman Alexander Ogorodnikov is very memorable. After his release from the Gulag, an entire KGB department tried to divorce him from his wife. Ridiculous rumors about Alexander's immorality were spread through the "agents of influence", and as a result, his wife left him. Later, when the archives of the special services were opened, this truth surfaced.Some, attacking the brethren, console themselves with the thought: "I know for sure that he committed this sin." St. Basil the Great taught that if someone says something about another with the intention of divulging or denigrating, he is a slanderer, even if he is telling the truth [7]. The Holy Fathers also said on this occasion: Yes, you saw how your brother sinned, but you did not see how he repented. Abba Paphnutios told about himself: Once, while traveling, I lost my way, for there was fog, and found myself near a certain village. There I saw some shamelessly talking among themselves. Stopping, I began to pray for my sins. And then an angel appeared to me with a sword and said: Paphnutios! all those who condemn their brethren will perish by this sword! But thou hast not condemned, but humbled thyself before God, as if guilty of sin. That is why your name is inscribed in the book of life [8].The well-known American politician Zbigniew Brzezinski said in one of his speeches that after the fall of communism in Russia, the Orthodox Church would remain the main enemy for "civilized humanity." One can only guess which special services in modern Russia are engaged in discrediting the Russian Church in the media. Believers should not respond to such slander and filth. We know that the punishment of all these servants of the father of lies will be and will not be delayed, for all unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17), for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth with unrighteousness (Romans 1:18). that the spirit of repentance can concern every person, both clergy and layman. The Monk Theodore the Studite taught: With every priest who is not condemned, in accordance with the Theologian and Chrysostom, one must have communion. For the first says: consider everyone capable of purification.We all need repentance. The entire Russian land is waiting for its spiritual Pascha. The unity of the clergy and laity (unity in spite of everything) is the guarantee of the future victories of the Russian Orthodox Church in the implementation of the Russian Apostolate. The expectation of Russian Pascha is not an expectation that the Church will take an active part in the life of our society, or that Orthodoxy will be the dominant religion. We are waiting for the time when we will have a religious state! A religious state is a state that has the Law of God in its Constitution, the commandments of the Creator and the canons of the Church in its laws, and the statutes of the Church in its internal regulations. And we expect that to happen. And we pray that this Sun, the Sun of Righteousness, will rise over our earth. The sun rises, the heat comes, and the heat dries up the grass, its color falls, the beauty of its appearance disappears. The flower of heresies and delusions will fall, the "beauty" of lies and slander will disappear, the temptations of paganism and false religions will wither. Where will be those who have been enriched by the poverty and blood of their brethren? How terrible it will be on that day for the opponents of our holy faith! What a serious disappointment will befall them.. For the day of the Lord of hosts is coming upon all that is proud and haughty, and upon all that is exalted, and it shall be humbled... And the greatness of men will fall, and the lofty of men will be humbled; and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will be utterly lost. And men shall enter into the clefts of the rocks, and into the abysses of the earth, because of the fear of the Lord, and because of the glory of His majesty, when He arises to break the earth (Isaiah 2:12; 17-19). 44). ^Blzh. Theophylact of Bulgaria. The Evangelist. T. 2. P. 539. ^ That you should do decently before those who are outside, and need nothing (1 Thess. 4:12). It behooves him [the bishop] also to have a good testimony from those without, so that he may not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil (1 Tim. 3:7). ^The Life and Works of Blessed Augustine. Kiev, 1855. T. 9. P. 117. ^Discourses on the 14 Epistles of the Holy Apostle Paul. St. Petersburg, 1905. T. 11. Pp. 767–768. ^Blzh. Augustin. Creation. About true religion. St. Petersburg, 1998. T. 1. P. 622. ^Basil the Great. Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, 1901. T. 5. Pp. 226–227. ^Memorable Tales of the Exploits of the Holy Fathers. P. 235. ^

Second Discourse

Part 1

Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he is tried, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love Him (James 1:12). How different they are! How sophisticated they are! They surround us, they crowd us. Temptations lie in wait for us not only at home, but often in church. It seems impossible to hide from them: in the holiest places you can find temptation. When I arrived in the Holy Land, the guide who received us, a representative of the pilgrimage service of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said right at the airport: "You have arrived in the Holy Land, but you should know that there will be more temptations here than anywhere else!" Indeed, this is true. As long as a person is alive, he feels how the devil revolves around him, according to what is said in the Scriptures, like a roaring lion, seeking to devour him (1 Pet. 5:8). That is why the Apostle James says: Blessed is the man who endures temptation.So, we have found out that it is impossible to hide from temptations, they happen everywhere. Paraphrasing the words of the Apostle Paul, we can say: where there is holiness, there is temptation (Romans 5:20). So you can't run away from them, temptations, you can't go anywhere... Recently, one woman asked me about the exchange of an apartment, which she had to take because of problems with her neighbors. I answered this woman: "You will not go far from such temptations. Instead of some neighbors, there will be other neighbors!" The Holy Scriptures say that a person constantly returns to various sinful moments of his life, to what he has already experienced [1]. The Russian people have a proverb: "If you run away from a wolf, you will jump on a bear." Blessed is the man who endures temptation... And how to endure temptations? And how have we survived so far? How have we not yet fallen away from the true faith? You can't even imagine, brothers and sisters, how often the evil one has tried to lead us away from the true faith! What can I tell you: elderly people remember how believing children were forcibly driven away from church – wasn't that a temptation? Believers, especially children, were teased about how they were teased — after all, children are especially offended when they are teased. And now many temptations are connected with our religious life.Thus, the experience of each of us shows that to one degree or another we overcome temptations. But the Lord wants us to turn away from temptations. Not in the sense that we can get rid of them, but in the sense that we must overcome these temptations. We will never have enough strength of our own, but the power of God is made perfect in weakness. Blessed is the man, says the Apostle James, who endures temptation, because, having been tried, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him. What a great reward for those who will be able to endure temptations, overcome these temptations—they will receive the crown of life, which the Lord gives to those who love Him. And if a person is overcome by temptation, what will he get? This is a serious temptation, especially for men who work, they need more calories... And so, he could not stand it, did not overcome this temptation – what will he get? Brothers and sisters! In sin itself lies the retribution for it. It is unlikely that a blessing for a person will be something that contradicts the will of the Creator. About food it is directly said: Food for the belly, and the belly for food; but God will destroy both (1 Corinthians 6:13).Yielding to any temptation will never bring a person complete satisfaction: one can be poisoned by sausage, through the servility of the passion of fornication (also a serious temptation) many fall ill with venereal diseases, the deadly disease AIDS. The Scriptures directly say: "But the fornicator sins against his own body" (1 Corinthians 6:18). It turns out that temptations bring evil not only to the soul, but also to our body! In addition, temptation is always deceptive, and overcoming temptation is, as we read, the crown of life from the Lord, which will be given to us forever. He was tempted by some beautiful woman, and tomorrow another woman will appear, who will be even more beautiful... The evil one will deliberately build such situations that temptation after temptation will appear. But all this is temporary, all this is not eternal. And then what? And then - health fades, there is no time for women; What kind of sausage? – there is nothing to chew, the teeth have fallen out; Where to drink there - the heart is already barely beating! The devil has already squeezed man like a lemon, there is nothing left, and overcoming temptations gives eternal pleasure. Temporary pleasure is always illusory, unreal. In fact, this is a danger for each of us, harm to us. And overcoming temptation is the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love Him.Therefore, when temptations appear, we seem to find ourselves on the lists (as the Apostle Paul says about runners on the lists [2]). And who will run first: our temptation, which will overtake us, or, perhaps, our Christian conscience will prevail? In temptation, no one should say: God tempts me; for God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone, but everyone is tempted, being carried away and deceived by his own lust (James 1:13-14). We say: "This is such a city, such a life here - you can't do without drinking, you can't do without promiscuous acquaintances." After two or three words, he slipped obscenities. I asked him: "Why are you doing this?" He answered: "There is no other way, it is for a bunch of words. Otherwise, they won't understand me!" ... People are always looking for some reasons to blame not themselves for temptations, but someone else. They often say: "it's customary here", "it's impossible otherwise, they won't understand" and so on. And someone once said to me: "Such a mother-in-law, I would look at you if you lived with her and did not be tempted: you would not tell her everything you think of her in the harshest tones!" Husbands blame their wives, wives blame their husbands. We often hear people say, "Oh, temptation, get behind me!" and wave at the child. But some, like the forefather Adam of old, accuse even God. Let us remember how Adam accused God when he answered him: "The woman whom you gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat" (Gen. 3:12). Some say: "If the Lord had not given me such health, I probably would not have fallen into these sins," or simply: "Such is my heredity." "And who gave me such an appetite? This is probably all providential, it's not just like that." And then he remembered that both his father and grandfather had the same appetite as he did. He wanted to say that it was from God, nothing else. But the word of the Lord teaches: In temptation let no man say, God tempts me; because God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.Although temptations surround us, although they are constantly around us, they become dangerous for us only when they find a response in our souls. This is what verse 14 says: but everyone is tempted, carried away and deceived by his own lust. One monk decided to eat an egg during Lent. But how to cook it? If you go to the kitchen, the brethren will see. Then he took a candle, lit it and began to fry an egg. On the one hand, on the other... Suddenly the door opens (he forgot to close it), one of the brethren comes in and says: "What are you doing? And this monk answers: "It is the evil one who has confused me." Then the devil could not stand it, jumped out from behind the stove and said: "Even I would not have thought of such a thing!" Indeed, brothers and sisters, we are often tempted by our own flesh. By his personal greed, his personal lustfulness, his personal irrepressibility in sin. Yes, there are many temptations. But the Lord, sending His disciples into the world, said: "Behold, I send you as sheep among wolves: therefore be ye wise as serpents, and simple as doves" (Matt. 10:16). But if the light that is in you is darkness, then what is the darkness? (Matt. 6:23), asks the Lord.It means that temptation has already penetrated into you, and that is why you are being tempted. You have become familiar with this temptation, you have made it a part of your character. It's your habits, it's your way of life. Ask yourself the question: the most serious sins that we have – how long ago did they appear in our lives? Many people say, "I keep committing the same sins." Indeed, from youth to old age, a person suffers from the same bad inclinations and habits. Who taught him this? But it is said: everyone is tempted, being carried away and deceived by his own lust. One's own thoughts destroy a person, one's own stomach violates the chastity of fasting. A person with a damaged religious consciousness, who does not understand the true ways of God in every member of his body, will find a reason for temptation... but lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and the sin committed gives birth to death (James 1:15). Who does not know what lust is? This is an irrepressible passion that sometimes completely takes possession of a person. For example, the lust of a drug addict... What is the lust of a drug addict? This is a passion for the sake of which a drug addict comes into conflict with his family, with his loved ones. He is ready to steal, ready to deceive, ready to commit all kinds of crimes just to satisfy his lust. He will jump up at night and run around the city looking for drugs.By the way, any lust reveals a powerful physical potential in each of us. But if for the sake of sin we can jump up at night and run around the city, how good it would be if for the Lord's sake we got up at night: read the Psalter, make prostrations, etc. as they were formerly enslaved to Satan the flatterer. Above all, I will work for Thee, my Lord and God... (Prayer 8, to our Lord Jesus Christ). Now the time when we got up at night for fornication, for drinking, for drugs! And it turns out the opposite: if we want to sin, we have the energy, we have time right away, some kind of enthusiasm warms us up from somewhere below (this "warming" comes directly from hell). And you need to pray – some kind of weakness overcomes you, yawning. And a person thinks: what is this? All day long he ran, shouted, made noise, and as soon as he began to pray, he was already infirm, yawning... I immediately began to remember some business. When the prayer was over, he again sat in the kitchen for three hours, talking; And the energy appears, and I want to sleep. But doesn't all this prove to each of us the obvious truth that spiritual struggle is the lot of every person? Spiritual warfare is a reality of our life. The Apostle says: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). ^Do you not know that those who run on the lists all run, but one receives the reward? So flee that you may receive (1 Cor. 9:24). ^And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not enveloped it (John 1:5). ^

Part 2

And we read the 15th verse again, ... but lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and the sin committed gives birth to death (James 1:15). But lust draws a person to sin. Lust pulls the addict to the syringe, although he does not want to die from drugs! No drug addict wants to die from drugs, no drunkard wants to die from alcohol, no fornicator wants to die from fornication! But the devil is a cunning deceiver, he suggests to the addict: "It's okay, this drug has the right dose, you won't have an overdose." He whispers to the drunkard: "Never mind, you have drunk as much and even more before! Everything will be fine: drink, have fun, rejoice." "Never mind," says the devil to the fornicator, "you have sinned with this woman before, what are you afraid of? It's okay, everything will be fine, you won't get sick with anything!" But we constantly hear about how people die from drug addiction, die from alcoholism, die from fornication. Truly, as the Holy Apostle Paul says, any sin that we commit brings destruction to us [1]. By destroying others, we destroy ourselves. And about the sin of fornication in the Scriptures it is said separately: fornication directly destroys a person's body, it is a sin against one's own body [2].Now, by the way, there are a lot of sins against one's own body. And we must understand that this sweetness of sin, what lust strives for, is only a threshold behind which there is death. Since we have to work with drug addicts at the Rehabilitation Center, I very often hear that very young drug addicts die from drug overdoses, and underage drug addicts die. Not so long ago, just two or three months ago, I met a woman. All in tears, she came to me and said: "One man (he himself was not a drug addict) put my husband and his brother on the needle. And my husband died of a drug overdose. When he died, the man who got them drugs for money called me and said: "If you report to the police, I will slaughter the whole family!" They are already completely impudent - these people who kill our children, who destroy our families. And we must strive to ensure that in relation to these people, who do not live according to the laws of the New Testament, the laws of the Old Testament apply: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth [3]. In relation to such people, who are precisely pagans, this law is necessary. And in many religious countries, there is the death penalty for drug trafficking. Because drug addiction is murder. The murder is so disguised that it is difficult to understand how many people were killed by this or that drug dealer: ten, twenty, a hundred... We now have several million drug addicts, brothers and sisters in our country! Drugs are distributed in schools! Sometimes, in order to accustom a child from a prosperous, rich family to drugs, he is forcibly dragged to the toilet, given an injection, then, the next day - another... People are forcibly made drug addicts. It's death, and it's spreading everywhere—this green serpent of alcohol, this white death of drugs, these deadly diseases of fornicators. But the horror of the death spoken of here is that it is not only a physical death born of sin: it is, first of all, a spiritual death. But the Orthodox die, having prepared their souls for death. We constantly speak of our impending death in the prayer texts of the divine service, when we ask for a Christian death for ourselves. But spiritual death, combined with physical death, born of sin, is what we should all fear. This is what we must resolutely oppose. But alas, people are made in such a way that they pay attention to a problem only when this problem concerns themselves.If a person has cancer, he begins to wonder what cancer is. He begins to find some books about this disease, asks others about it, spends a lot of money.There are many examples in the Bible of how people lost all their possessions in the fight against this or that disease. Remember the woman who was bleeding for twelve years? She spent all her possessions on doctors and various healers, but no one helped her (cf. Matt. 9:20-22).How can we get rid of this death, which is born of sin? (By the way, it can be said that any sin committed is mortal, since it gives birth to death.) What is sin? Imagine a ship, a huge ship. He swims and suddenly gets a hole: water begins to flow into the hold. If this hole is not repaired, then the ship, no matter how powerful it is, will sink.The Apostle Paul warns believers to be wary of shipwreck in faith [4]. When unrepentant sins fill our souls, death floods it. Therefore, the only way to get rid of responsibility for sins (and there is only one responsibility for sin – death) is to confess these sins before the Lord Jesus Christ.We read further:Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no change or shadow of change. Willing, He begat us by the word of truth, that we might be some firstfruits of His creatures (James 1:16-18).How interestingly the Apostle James speaks to us through this Epistle of his! First he says that lust, having conceived, gives birth to sin, and the sin committed gives birth to death. And we fall into despondency from these words. But despondency in itself is also a sin. And the apostle gives us hope in the following verses: Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights. And below we read: Having willed, He begat us by the word of truth, that we might be some firstfruits of His creatures.The reading of the word of God, especially the reading of the Gospel at the Divine Liturgy, — the very sound of the word of God cleanses our soul from sin! Remember how it is said in the Revelation of St. John the Theologian: Blessed is he who reads and hears the words of this prophecy, and keeps what is written in it; For the time is at hand (Rev. 1:3).Truly, if we listen to the word of God prayerfully, with reverence dissolving this word in our hearts by faith, it will bear abundant spiritual fruit. And where we could not get rid of sins and death on our own, the Lord can save us through the preaching of the Holy Gospel. How many people were drowning in sins, but the Lord Jesus Christ, having come into this world, came precisely to sinful people. And that is why He could be seen so often among tax collectors and sinners, among Pharisees and scribes, in the sickest part of society.Imagine if today, say, in Moscow there appeared some priest who, moved by zeal for the salvation of people, entered with a sermon of repentance in various variety shows, casinos, brothels, finally... Surely, there would be people who would condemn him, say that he was doing wrong. And you know that it was constantly said of Jesus Christ: "He eateth and drinks with publicans and sinners" (Mark 2:16). They said this about Him because they did not understand that He came into this world to sinful people. The Lord did not come to save the righteous, but sinners. As it is said in the Gospel: "Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick" (Luke 5:31).And thank God, the Church is now going to criminals: priests in prisons preach the Gospel. Thank God that the Church is now going to hardened people: priests are sent to military units, where relations between people become very difficult because of hazing. The Church is now going to the fallen, to the drunk, to drug addicts. And some are indignant: "Oh, why are you doing all this?!" Some people say to me: "Father Oleg, why are you engaged in these sects? Wonder! Why deal with these drug addicts, these drunkards?" But what is the Church for then? After all, the Church is the house of God, where sinners must come in order to hear the word of God and begin a new life: in Christ and with Christ.Every person who crosses the threshold of the house of God and hears the word of the Gospel, dissolving this word by faith, must become "a certain firstfruits of His creation," as we read in verse 18.And it is said below:Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger... (James 1:19).See how it is said: let every man be quick to hear. Those people who are quick to hear, who are in a hurry to listen to the words of God, they are the executors of God's will. For the word of the Lord teaches that we must be such people: quick to hear. That is, quick in the matter of hearing the word of God, quick to attend church. As the holy king and psalmist David said: "I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord' (Psalm 121:1). That is, when it comes to spiritual life, we must always be fast, impetuous, and then we read that we must be slow. When it comes to sin, we must be very slow! That is why the Apostle James says: let him be slow in words... Because when we say a lot of words, we can say something unnecessary. We must be slow and angry. If anger appears, you need to calm it down, not let it come out, you need to control it. for the wrath of man does not create the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all uncleanness and the remnant of malice, in meekness receive the word that is planted, which is able to save your souls (James 1:20-21). revealed by the law, worked in our members to bring forth the fruit of death... (Romans 7:5) ^Flee fornication; every sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the fornicator sins against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:18). ^Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has injured a man's body, so must he do it to him (Lev. 24:20). ^ Having faith and a good conscience, which some rejected, they were shipwrecked in faith (1 Tim. 1:19). ^

Part 3

See how it is said about the word of God: that it is like a seed planted, it is sown in our hearts. And it sprouts there! And when the word of God grows within us, our lives also change. And people begin to wonder: "How is it, it used to be difficult for us to struggle with sins, but now it has become easier, the Lord helps!" This means that the word of God healed this woman, who for forty years since then has not known what temptations during fasting are! Now she is happy to fast.A man in his fifties used to smoke a lot, it was difficult for him to quit smoking. He told me: "Earlier, when I went to church, about ten years ago, I could not imagine that I would quit smoking. It turned out that he had a very wise spiritual father, who instructed him as follows: "Before Communion you cannot smoke for three days and after Communion for one day." He got used to it and began to take communion in this way. Then the confessor says: "In fact, it would be good for you to take Communion twice a week." — "And when to smoke?" — "Well, here you have to choose one of the two!" And before that, it was a serious problem for him: he even tried to be treated for smoking. But the liturgical life helped him to get rid of this terrible condition. For he who hears the word and does not do it is like a man who examines the natural features of his face in a mirror: he looks at himself, moves away, and immediately forgets what he is like. But whoever enters into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and abides in it, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the deed, will be blessed in his action (James 1:22-25). One cannot only be a listener of the Law of God, one must also be an executor of it. That is why I specifically emphasize that hearing the word of God can save us if we dissolve the words of the Gospel in our hearts by faith. And faith is active love, it is the effective fulfillment of God's commandments. Orthodoxy is, first of all, a way of life: we have heard what the Lord wants from us, and we want to live the way He wants it to be. But we have our own Law, a perfect Law. And if we delve into this perfect Law of freedom, we will be blessed in our action.If we have such a perfect word, such a perfect Law —

As we have just read, we cannot have any other true action—that is, an action—except by the will of the Creator. And everything obeys the will of the Creator, only proud people and fallen spirits try in vain to resist it. The Sun is subject to the will of the Creator. There is no need to make any parliamentary decision: to rain or not to rain – it will rain when the Lord wants it! And the rain was still pouring! And instead of wasting so many millions, it would be better to donate to the church and ask the priests to pray that the weather would be good. The Lord would have heard the prayer and there would have been no rain! But, seeing people's pride, the Lord humbles us. Because there is one perfect Law – it is God's, it is the word of the Lord.Our criminal law, our civil law, our Constitution are our church statutes, canons and decrees. And the Holy Scriptures are the word of God. And it teaches us that the ways of the Lord are not our ways [1]. That is, our ways are human, imperfect, but the ways of God are perfect.Human laws are constantly changing, being rewritten, and remade. And only the Law that hung the sun above the earth, that governs all the constellations in the Universe, that enters your soul and changes your whole life – the perfect Law! Only he deserves the attention of believers. This is a fundamental truth of our faith. If we do not understand this, we will be mistaken, as the person who stood in front of the mirror looked at himself: everything seems to be fine; then he walked away and immediately forgot what he looked like.The Holy Scriptures, of course, are a true mirror for us. The Apostle James says that the Law is a mirror. But only when we constantly observe ourselves: in what state we are, in what relationship we are to each of the commandments of the Creator. It's not the kind of mirror we look into to look better in front of people. After all, a mirror is usually used for this: how I look, how I will be received at home, on the street... We don't go to church for people to praise us. We do not become religious in order to change the attitude of others. No! We do it for God's sake. And when we all stand on the day of Judgment before God, when the dead are resurrected and all people stand before God, we will remember these longed-for commandments. Then we will have the greatest desire to fulfill the Law: to correct something in our past life, to change something. I once had a conversation with a prisoner, he said to me: "Why didn't I listen to these words before? Then I wouldn't be here!" A true hearer of God's words is the person who hears these words, fulfills them, and completely changes his life. This law shows us our real face: not only so that we constantly remember that we need to correct ourselves, change ourselves, but also so that we may submit to the will of our Creator.If any of you thinks that he is pious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, he has empty godliness (James 1:26). We need to control our language. It turns out that if we do not control our language, then we have empty piety. And how to curb the tongue? We understand how you can bridle a horse: catch it, jump on it, throw a rope, put on a bridle... But how to curb the tongue? What is it - a horse, a mule, a donkey? How to bridle it?The Scriptures have much to say about how we, brothers and sisters, can bridle our tongues. First of all, the Apostle Paul says: Let no rotten word proceed out of your mouth (Ephesians 4:29). We should not have rotten words, that is, abusive words.The Holy Scriptures also say that there should be no slanderous words: when we slander people, we disgrace them! Nor should we have hasty words—as we have just read, we should be slow in our words.A woman once came to me for a spiritual talk. And she talked so much – it was some kind of cascade of words! Then she said: "I cannot understand why I sin like this: after all, I quarreled with everyone, quarreled with everyone!" I said to this woman, "Speak four times as slowly, then you won't have as many sins! Indeed, when a person speaks slowly, he thinks over every word, he tries to conform all his words to the will of God. And this will, according to the testimony of the Scriptures, is as follows: there should be no false words, abusive words, rotten words. Those words that can humiliate people, upset them, throw them off balance. Sometimes words can even become deadly – when people are driven to suicide through words! There was a young family - a husband, a wife. They lived normally, everything was fine with them. And one evening the husband says to his wife, just like that, as if by chance: "What a mess you are!" He said it and forgot about it. And a woman cannot forget, this word is spinning in her head: "Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy..." A week has passed, but she can't forget it: "What a mess you are!" A month has passed, the husband cannot understand what happened to his wife, she herself does not tell, but she has lost her appetite, she has lost weight. There is no love at home, indifference and apathy have arisen. It is good that they thought of inviting a spiritually experienced person who talked separately with both his wife and husband: it was then that this rotten word surfaced! The word, in general, is not an abusive word, but how much it hurt the soul of a young woman! Let us read this verse again: If any of you thinks that he is godly, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, he has empty godliness. 27). Thus, true piety before God and the Father is to look (in Slavonic: to help, to see difficulties, problems) orphans and widows in their sorrows. We rush through life with the egoism of our own will, not noticing that there are people for whom it is much more difficult in this life.By the mercy of God, the parishioners of our church are people who can sympathize with the needs of their neighbors. Recently, we had a collection of donations for the Magadan-Kamchatka Diocese in our church. And more than 30 million rubles were collected [2]. Where does so much money come from? Is it not from here, as it is said in this text: Pure and blameless godliness before God and the Father is to look upon the fatherless and the widows in their afflictions? A huge number of books have been collected, so the whole baptismal room is now littered with these books! And people still continue to carry their donations. May God grant that we will always respond in this way to the needs of our neighbors, even those who live very far from us. May God grant that we live as the Apostle says about the Holy Church: Therefore, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it (1 Corinthians 12:26). So that our true suffering is not the egoism of our own will, not suffering for ourselves, but empathy for our neighbors.The Apostle James says that we must keep ourselves undefiled from the world. First of all, it means that we should not accept false teachings and false teachers! The Scriptures say: Whoever comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not greet him. For he who greets him participates in his evil deeds (2 John 1:10-11). In the Epistle of the Apostle Jude it is said that one should abhor even the garb of heretics [3]. The Apostle Paul warns that with those who have strayed from the true path, one should not have a common meal [4].The canons of the Church forbid us to pray with heretics. Now there is a lot of speculation on the topic of Christian love. I once met with an ecumenist and asked him: "Don't you understand that ecumenism is the worst heresy?" — "And what is love in your understanding?" — "Well, it is when we communicate with brothers of other faiths, pray together, sometimes take communion together..." But the Holy Scriptures show a specific path of salvation: it is the fulfillment of God's commandments. If we associate with people of other religions, we do not violate the commandment: after all, the Lord commanded us to love even our enemies (and religious enemies too). But to truly love a religious opponent means to help him convert to the Orthodox faith. And if by our ecumenism we affirm him in the idea that he is the same as we are, then we hate this man, betray him! We read in the Apostle James that the Lord, having willed, begotten us by the word of truth, so that we might be some of the firstfruits of His creatures. The firstfruits are a dedicated community that will have to churchify the rest of humanity. Yes, we are a small flock. Now from the television screen sometimes shouts are heard: "What kind of Orthodox Christians are there in Russia, look – only old men and women go to church! The Church takes on too much!" Yes, there are few of us. But this firstfruits are the salt that salinates our entire earth. These beginnings, these grandmothers, grandfathers, children who go to Orthodox churches – this is the light to the world that Christ has kindled in our hearts. And we must salt this world, we must bring light to every person, but at the same time we must be undefiled from the world, not connected with the errors of this world, with the heresies of this world, with the laws of this world; not connected with the sins of this world. This is what every believer needs! And now it is precisely this position that is being declared too conservative, too illiberal. But the teaching of the Bible is very conservative. The teaching of the Bible is very radically directed against sin, against error. Take the teachings of Jesus Christ: they are also very, very radical in their own way! They were very harsh when the Lord rebuked the scribes and Pharisees, when He wanted to heal people to whom it was necessary to speak, perhaps, very harsh words. But He spoke these words. And the Lord's love was manifested in the fact that He saved people. With us, love, alas, is manifested in the fact that we destroy our neighbor. And here there is a huge difference between the Christian, Orthodox understanding of love and the worldly understanding of it: in religious "love" – in the gross sin of ecumenism – we destroy the souls of people; in the "love" of the flesh we commit the sin of fornication; In the "love" of the interethnic – we commit genocide, destroy the characteristics of each ethnic group. We need a perfect Law that will regulate all the senses in us! Then love will truly be love: the fulfillment of the commandments of the Creator and the totality of perfections. Then faith will not be just some abstract faith (as everyone says now: "We all believe, each in his own way"; but the Scriptures say: have faith in God [5]), faith will then be the faith of the Lord, a revelation from Heaven. Hope, then, will be that active service without which we cannot call ourselves Christians. For Christians are not only hearers of the word, but also doers of it.My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord (Isaiah 55:8). ^The discourse was delivered in 1998 ^Abhorring even clothing, which is defiled by the flesh (Jude 1:23). ^ Do not associate with one who, calling himself a brother, remains a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a swindler; with such a one he cannot even eat together (1 Cor. 5:11). ^Have faith in God, for verily I say unto you, if any man say unto this mountain, Be thou lifted up, and be cast into the sea, and doubt not in his heart, but believe that his words shall come to pass, whatever he shall say to him (Mark 11:23). ^

Conversation Three

My brethren! have faith in Jesus Christ our Lord of glory, regardless of persons (James 2:1).A person who is a respecter of persons (looks at external things) sins not only against another, but also against himself. Blessed Theophylact explains: ... for the treatment of such things is sent to the doer himself [1]. The measure of how we treat others is the measure of how God treats us. It is said: I do not look as a man looks; for a man looks on the face, but the Lord looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Partiality involves the judgment of one person over another, when the basis for condemnation is not even the act of another person, but our attitude to his appearance, gender, age, nationality and social status. But is there any guilt in being a redhead or a brunette; To be born a Russian or a Chechen, a Jew or a Tatar? Can we despise a person for being "too young" or "already so old"? One was born in a rich family, the other in a poor one. What is the fault of the first or the second?Further we read:For if a man enters into your assembly with a gold ring, in rich clothes, and a poor man with scanty clothes also comes in, and you look at him who is dressed in rich clothes, and you say to him, It is good for you to sit here, but to the poor you say, Stand there, or sit here at my feet, do you not reason within yourselves, and do you not become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:2-4) It is sad that this problem remains relevant in our days, but it is even sadder that in apostolic times Christians showed similar partiality. There is no need to idealize any of the periods of church history. There have always been problems that we have to face at the present time. All the more useful for us is the experience of the apostles, how they overcame certain shortcomings among their flock. What words – rebukes or exhortations – did they find for those whom they wished to heal and heal from moral ailments? Really! Whenever we show partiality, we are deceitfully looking for an advantage for ourselves.We see before us a beggar whom we could help, and we immediately find an excuse for our greed. We hasten to convince ourselves that he has become impoverished through laziness, drunkenness, or anything else. We even try to hide our greed from others and from ourselves by reasoning about the ways of God's Providence. We say, "God must have punished him with this poverty. Or he suffers for the sins of his parents."When we see a rich man, we behave very differently. It seems to us that the Lord sent him to us, and in his donations we hasten to see the answer to our prayers. Blessed Theophylact explains: Do you not gossip, that is, you have spoiled your sentence by not having made any investigation in advance as to whether the poor are zealous or the rich are lazy? Here the research means that we cannot accept help from every rich person, and not every beggar should be helped with money.It is sad to realize, but we, priests, are more willing to communicate with rich parishioners than with the poor. For them we have "wise" instructions, time, and cordiality. A poor person alerts us and sometimes annoys us by his very appearance. We ask ourselves: do we have the right to help him from the funds of the church? — as if participation in the life of another person means only monetary assistance. A kind word, spoken at the right time, participation in the fate of another person can bring amazing results, if we have a truly Christian attitude towards our neighbor on our part.The Holy Apostles, who did not have silver and gold [3], gave people incomparably more than the advantages of a well-to-do life – they made their contemporaries partakers of the spiritual life in Christ and with Christ. But this did not mean that they did not advocate social justice where it was more than obvious that some strata of the population prospered at the expense of the impoverishment of others. At a time when not only in our country, but throughout the world, the gulf between the rich and the poor is becoming ever deeper, it is important to understand how the Holy Scriptures relate to this problem.The Apostle James exclaims:Listen, my beloved brethren: has not God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him? (James 2:5).Indeed, although among the first Christians there were rich people (cf. Matt. 27:57; Rom. 16:23), the overwhelming majority of believers in Jesus Christ were poor people. And here, the words of the Apostle James: "Did not God choose the poor of the world to be rich in faith?" echo the admonition of the Apostle Paul: "See, brethren, who are you who have been called: not many of you are wise according to the flesh, not many strong, not many noble; but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong; and God hath chosen the lowly things of the world, and the despised, and the things that are nothing, to abolish the things that are important (1 Cor. 1:26-28).Of the rich it is said in the Gospel: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God" (Matt. 19:24). On the other hand, is it possible to enjoy wealth in peace while seeing how fellow believers in Him who became poor for our sake (cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9) suffer in the grip of social injustice? And at present, under the domination of transnational corporations, not only individual men and women work for the benefit of six percent of the world's population, but entire countries are forced to work for transcapital to the detriment of the interests of national entrepreneurship. With such a balance of material forces and a deliberately unfair distribution of capital and resources, it is rather naïve to talk about fair competition. Transnational corporations have already seized power over the planet and the levers of their domination in the modern world are different hypostases of the notorious globalization, such as the "international court", the "international bank" and the "international government", waiting for the arrival of their "messiah" [4]. Do not the rich oppress you, and do they not drag you to the courts? (James 2:6).The first part of the verse: "And ye have despised the poor" refers primarily to the rejection of Christ by the Jewish people, who at the coming of the Messiah expected for themselves first of all advantages in earthly material life. But when they heard in the preaching of our Lord a call to self-denial, they felt in it a threat to their very existence. Theophylact of Bulgaria. Commentary on the Conciliar Epistle of the Apostle James. Moscow, 2000. T. 2. P. 545. ^Ibidem. P. 546. ^But Peter said, "I have no silver and no gold; but what I have, I give unto thee: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk (Acts 3:6). ^Messiah. ^

Conversation Four