Homilies on the Conciliar Epistle of the Holy Apostle James

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. ^

Part 1

Do they not dishonor the good name by which you are called? If you keep the royal law, according to the Scriptures, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you are doing well. But if you act with respect to persons, then you commit a sin, and you are transgressors before the law. Whoever keeps the whole law and sins in one thing becomes guilty of all things (James 2:7-10).These words show us how we should relate to the law of God and in what real relation to the law of God each person finds himself in the eyes of God's justice: whoever keeps the whole law and sins in one thing becomes guilty of all. It is difficult for us to imagine a person who would keep the entire law and sin only in one thing. As a rule, it is the other way around: we violate a great many commandments of the law of God. Consequently, even a person is guilty of breaking the law who turns out to be wrong in one way in relation to it, but tries and does everything else. In the same way, those who violate all the commandments of God are guilty! Let's see how Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria interprets this text: None of the people would have survived, because no one keeps all the commandments. But he who has kept purity is sometimes overcome by anger; Whoever gives alms often has envy. That is why it is not said that there should be no shortcomings in virtue at all, but about love, that it should not be done with a lack of partiality, but wholly [1].Blessed Theophylact says here that a person usually has both sins and virtues: he can be, for example, merciful, but greedy. But it is enough for one sin to appear in our life — and we are guilty at once against the whole law! therefore, if you do not commit adultery, but kill, then you are also a transgressor of the law (James 2:11).In this sense, brothers and sisters, we are all in practically the same position in relation to the commandments of God. We are all guilty, and this guilt makes us very similar to each other. Usually we think: "Probably, somewhere there are such special people who live in some holy places – they don't sin, they are not like us!" But there are no such people, brothers and sisters! We are all very similar to each other not only because we all sin. People are similar and sin because we all descend from our common ancestors – Adam and Eve. We often think about Adam and Eve and, remembering them, we are once again convinced that we are very similar to them, and that is why we are similar to each other.If we think that somewhere there are people who are much better than us, then we may well fall into a certain illusion and even into a demonic delusion. In what sense? In the sense that we will have a desire to hide our sinfulness. We will say to ourselves: "There are people who do not sin!" but we know for sure that we sin, and we really want to look like those who do not sin! And then we begin to imitate those who do not exist. But, as we have read, everyone is guilty of breaking the law! And when we are so hypocritical, anger appears: a person begins to prove that he is not a sinner; He begins to argue: he is not a sinner. And he begins to despise sinners, to hate them, just like himself.. But in the Sermon on the Mount the Lord said: Why do you look at the mote in your brother's eye, and do not feel the beam in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother! Let me take the mote out of your eye, when you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! first take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see how to take the mote out of your brother's eye (Luke 6:41-42). This means that we are all infected with sin. The Holy Scriptures categorically affirm: "There is none righteous, not one" (Romans 3:10). And can we deceive ourselves? Yes, you did not kill, but you committed adultery! Yes, you did not commit adultery, you were faithful to your wife, but you stole! Yes, you did not steal, but you were jealous! You were not jealous, but you were gossiping! You violated the holidays, you did not honor your parents.. And we have just read: if you are guilty of one thing, you are guilty of everything. If you have broken one commandment, you have already sinned against the whole law! That is why Christians do not have the right to condemn each other: we are all guilty before the Lord.You will say that the saints were special people who did not sin? But this is not true! Ephraim the Syrian, the greatest saint of our Church, wrote about himself: I am drowning in sins as in a swamp. And he continued: What is the meaning of my service? ... I found the meaning of my service before God in the fact that, drowning in a swamp (in sins), I shout to other people: "Do not come close here, you will drown too!" [2] If you read the writings of any of the Holy Fathers that we have inherited, you will be sure to note this spirit of self-abasement when the saints call a spade a spade. St. Macarius of Egypt considered himself a great sinner, and we can find the same thoughts and moods in St. John Chrysostom and many other fathers. For example, the Holy Chief Apostle Paul in his Epistles openly speaks about the same thing... Why do we say this? Why are we discussing this? Only so that, having come to know our sinful nature, we once and for all cease to exalt ourselves over one another. Exalting one person over another is meaningless! Yes, you are righteous in this, but in this you have sinned, with what do you exalt yourself? You say, "This man has broken the law of God," but whose law are you breaking when you sin yourself? Perhaps this is what the Lord had in mind when He said that the mountains would sink and the valleys would be filled [3]?The Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us the real state of each of us. When we read the Holy Scriptures, we see that even the saints, even the righteous, sometimes committed very grave sins in their lives... When we read the lives of the saints, we are also convinced of this. We all have the same nature – fallen nature. But why did the Lord Jesus Christ come into this world? Precisely in order to change this nature! As in Adam we all died, brothers and sisters, falling into various sins, so in Christ we are made alive again.Let us read the words of the Apostle James again in order to make them clear to ourselves: Whoever keeps the whole law and sins in one thing becomes guilty of everything. For he who said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, also said, Thou shalt not kill; Therefore, if you do not commit adultery, but kill, then you are also a transgressor of the law. And further: "Thus speak and act as those who are to be judged according to the law of liberty" (James 2:12).Here the Apostle James teaches us that we, Christians, when communicating with other people, do not stand in such a position as if we were some kind of "special". Christians should say to everyone, "We are just like you, and maybe even worse than you in some ways. But we heard the voice of God, which called us to follow him. We have heard the call of Christ, truly calling out to Him from the depths [4], we have heard His call. We, the people who sit in darkness [5], have seen this light that shines in the darkness, and darkness has not enveloped it (John 1:5); Whom does the Lord call to Himself? In the Gospel we read that He calls to Himself the lame, the blind, and the poor [6]. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself spoke of those who will be the first to enter His Kingdom: "Verily I say unto you, that publicans and prostitutes go before you into the Kingdom of God" (Matt. 21:31). Because we are all descended from Adam and Eve. All people! You can go to Africa, where people sin just as much as they do here; you can go to America, to other countries - and there they sin the same way... Recently, there was a program on the radio "Radonezh": a narcologist told that drug addicts are everywhere now. She said that even priests' children are drug addicts and often turn to her for help... That is, sin concerns everyone, you cannot hide from it. Even being close to the pastor it is impossible to completely hide from sin, but if we confess that everyone is guilty before the law of God, this will reconcile us. When people are in a state of common trouble, they no longer look for someone to blame, they strive for someone who can save them.One man came to me for confession and told me that he had serious problems related to his frivolous behavior: he fell ill with a venereal disease. At first, when those around him suspected him of this disease, he felt extremely embarrassed, then he went to the hospital. And I asked him: "Where were you better?" – "Where everyone is sick with the same disease!" And the patients in the ward did not try to look closely at each other - they only waited for the doctor to come and begin treatment. When we admit only ourselves guilty, it means that we are doing spiritual work on ourselves. And then spiritual results can really appear, the results of our correction.All of us, brothers and sisters, must first of all remember that a person cannot get rid of his sins on his own. When the Apostles asked Jesus Christ who could be saved, He answered: it is impossible for men. Indeed, this is impossible for us: we are all sick with sin. But then Jesus Christ said: ... but not to God, for all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27). Thus, the Source of our salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ; only He is our Saviour.One word is often heard now, a very bad word, the Catholic heresy. This word is compensation. In the Catholic world, there is such a misconception: God forgives you, but you must compensate with your life for the sins that He forgave you. But the Bible directly says that the Lord forgave us not at all for the sake of those good deeds that we would later do if we turned to Him, but solely out of His mercy [7].The Lord has already forgiven us all: He shed His Blood for the sins of the whole world, of all mankind. He brought the fullness of salvation even to those who will never enjoy the fruits of this redemption! At confession, the priest (and through him the Lord) forgave a person's sins, and he said: "Give me more prostrations, give me penance!" ... The priest asks: "Why?" – "But do I need to atone for this sin somehow?" Brothers and sisters! What can we add to what the Lord Jesus Christ did?! Do we not understand that the most expensive price has been paid for us – the price of the Blood of the Son of God?! [8] What other "compensation" can there be on our part?! By what fasts, by what prayers can we add something to what the Lord has done?! No, none of our efforts will be crowned with success, because Christ directly said: it is impossible for men. If it were possible to be saved by prayers and fasts, then we would still be living in the Old Testament: there were prayers and fasts... However, even in the Old Testament it was said who would be saved if the Lord came: there are only three names mentioned! [9] Christ came into this world because without Him we cannot change anything, not even with the help of prayers, even with the help of fasting. Why do the Holy Fathers call us to fast, and why did the Lord Himself call us to fast and pray? In the Holy Scriptures it is said: "Let no man boast" (Ephesians 2:9) — that is why it is free, by grace. And only then, when salvation has come – out of love for the Lord for what He has done to us – we begin to fast, to do works of righteousness. Not to add anything to what the Lord does with us, saving us. Not to add anything to His sufferings on Golgotha. But only in order to testify to his grateful love for Him. Theophylact of Bulgaria. The Evangelist. T. 2. P. 547. ^St. Ephraim the Syrian. Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius. T. 1. P. 247. ^And the mountains will melt under Him, the valleys will be dissolved like wax from the fire, like waters pouring down from a steep slope (Micah 1:4). ^From the depths I call upon Thee, O Lord (Psalm 129:1). ^The people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to them that sat in the land and in the shadow of death light shone (Matt. 4:16). ^Call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind... (Luke 14:13). ^He saved us, not by works of righteousness that we would have done, but by His mercy, by the bath of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). ^ You were bought with a price (1 Cor. 7:23). ^And if these three men had been found in it, Noah, Daniel, and Job, they would have saved only their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God (Ezekiel 14:14). ^

Part 2

Remember the Gospel story about the healing of ten lepers: only one healed person returned to Jesus Christ to thank Him for healing! (Luke 17:12-19). And this gratitude to the Savior for the miracle of healing from the leprosy of sin is Orthodoxy.What is Orthodoxy? It means to glorify God correctly. But do you agree that they are always glorified for something? If a person is glorified, you will ask, "What has he done that you are glorifying him for?" ... Why do we glorify the Lord? For all that we have in this life; for the miracle that He has performed with us, for our salvation. And by our sins we are all nailed to the wood of the cross... Figuratively speaking, all of humanity is only three crosses: the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified in the middle, to his right are sinners who have repented, and to his left are also sinners who have not repented. And the entire history of mankind is three crosses... We must understand, brothers and sisters, that holy people are those whom Jesus Christ cleansed from sin, and not those who made themselves holy. For example, St. Mary of Egypt. At what point did she become a saint? After living in the desert for many, many years? No. She became a saint already when the power of God did not let her into the church, and she wept bitter tears of repentance. The priest accepted her confession, communed her with the Holy Mysteries, and she took this holiness into herself. She could no longer live among people, because she had only one desire – to thank the Lord day and night! And she went into the wilderness in order to thank the Lord there with her fasts and prayerful vigils.If we admit the thought that St. Mary went into the wilderness in order to cope with her sins there alone, this cannot be: the sinner will not be able to stay in the wilderness, he will flee from there, the demons will drive him away! Make an unrepentant sinner stand for at least two or three hours at the vigil – but he will not be able to stand, he will run away! It will spin, spin, fidget... You probably know this from the example of your unbelieving acquaintances, whom you sometimes manage to bring to church... The Psalmist says bluntly: "Therefore the wicked shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous" (Psalm 1:5). The sinner cannot stand in the assembly of the righteous, nor the wicked in judgment.So, brothers and sisters, the true Savior of all people is the Lord. And the works of holiness are Orthodoxy: that is, the correct glorification of the Lord for what He has done to us. And if we know this for sure, we will always be able to resist the false Catholic notion of "compensation." We cannot add anything to what the Lord has done to us—we must always remember this. And when the Apostle James shows our real state (each of us, because we are all guilty), we are all silent. And we hope only for a miracle, because only the Lord can change us; He can correct and sanctify us. Because holiness is that which comes from the One Holy, that is, from the Lord Himself. In the Scriptures it is said: "The Lord our God, the Lord is one" (Deuteronomy 6:4). mercy is exalted over judgment (James 2:13).If we are unmerciful to other people (although now it is difficult to justify this, since we have found out that we are all guilty), then the judgment against us will also be unmerciful. And mercy is exalted above judgment, including the judgment of God. If we treat each person mercifully, mercifully, then God's mercy will certainly turn to each of us. Therefore, if you have got rid of some sin, for example, the sin of drunkenness, then do not say that the narcologist helped you, do not say that you have found willpower in yourself. Say that this happened with God's help, and you will be right! If you have been delivered from the passions of fornication, do not say that it was you who fasted so well, prayed so fervently, and you finally succeeded. Some people pray in such a way that sometimes they fall into delusion, into the sin of condemnation: they begin to consider themselves righteous and perish. Only the Lord saves us, because only He is our Savior. If any good changes occur in our lives, then the Lord gives it to us. We have already read in the writings of the Apostle James: "Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights" (James 1:17); only He can change something in us, in each of us. This must be remembered and it must be very, very cherished. Otherwise, we will divide people into those who have succeeded in the spiritual life and those who have not succeeded very well in it. But spiritual life is not physical education, where one has pumped up muscles, and the other has not yet had time. The Lord looks at our hearts, looking for manifestations of our good conscience so that it responds to His call. And when we respond to God's call, He Himself begins to act in us. And what previously seemed impossible to us is done by the Lord. That is why the Scriptures say: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5) With His true humanity, that is, with His tormented body crucified on the cross, He intercedes in heaven as the God-man – for each of us. And only in Him can we find a change in our nature. The Lord Jesus Christ is called the second Adam (cf. 1 Cor. 15:45-47), because in Him a new humanity begins: a humanity that is turning away from sin. Yes, we are all sinners. But we see how our life is changing. We see how many of our sins are becoming a thing of the past. And this is what the Lord does with us – He does it Himself! And if we were left alone with our sins, we would have perished long ago. Many would simply have died physically by now! But the Lord saves each of us. Some people ask the question: what will the saved righteous do in eternity? But even eternity is not enough to thank the Lord for His unspeakable mercy to us, sinners, whom He has pulled out of the endless abyss of sin! And if the Lord vouchsafes us blessed eternity, then we will eternally thank Him for the great gifts that He has vouchsafed us. There we will learn how many times the Lord has helped us, how many times He has corrected our feet, contrary to the aspirations of our sinful will. And we will sing His wonderful name, we will glorify Him. We are Orthodox Christians. We are the ones who praise the Lord rightly; who knows why they praise Him. Some people, cleansed by the Lord from sin, say: "I don't know how I quit drinking: if it were not for the Lord, I would never have been able to do it!" The work of purification and correction of each of us is the work of our whole life. And if we are Christians, then this work will continue as long as we are alive.And the devil hates us because we are cleansed from sins: after all, repentance is closed to him! He envies us, he constantly reminds us of our past sins. And his final blow will be directed at us when we are on our deathbed: then he will remind us of all our past sins and will plunge us into despair: "And where are you going with such sins? There is only one way for you - straight to hell!" He will do this so that we will fall into despondency right on our deathbeds and, having sinned with despondency – this mortal sin – we will fall straight to him. No! We must firmly believe that Christ the Savior delivers us from sins! And he openly, in the presence of those around him, began to name such sins that everyone was surprised! He stood and said loudly, "I had such a sin, such a sin!" ... He talked and talked, then even a smile appeared on his face. A smile in which there was the joy of liberation from these sins! And our parishioners shamed him: "It's just as indecent – everyone can hear you!" But he answered: "I am talking about these sins, but it was no longer I who sinned with them, it was another person: I was different then!" This is how we should treat our former sinful life—as the life of another person! The sacrament of confession is called the second baptism. And in baptism we die to one life in order to be made alive to another. This is what immersion in water symbolizes: dying for one life and being born for another. So it is in confession: the priest covers you with an epitrachelion, you cover yourself with it like a burial shroud — and you die to sin. Therefore, brothers and sisters, no matter how grave your past sins were, no matter who the witnesses of your former sinful life were, no matter how sarcastically they remind you of these sins, you say this: "Father has forgiven me this sin." You will be objected: "And who is your father?" The Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave the authority to priests – the successors of the holy apostles – to forgive sins. The keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are in the hands of the Church. What the Church allows on earth will be allowed in heaven. What the Church binds on earth will also be bound in heaven (cf. Matt. 18:18). That is, the Church is an open door to the Kingdom of Heaven!When the Lord expelled Adam and Eve from paradise, the gates of paradise were closed and the Angel was placed on guard. And now these gates are open again! What is a temple? Is it a building? Yes, but incomparably more than just a building. What is a temple, and where is it? On the ground? Yes, on earth, but also immeasurably higher than on earth! The temple of God is the threshold of paradise, it is heaven on earth! Every Orthodox church is what the Lord Jesus Christ spoke about and the prophets wrote: "The Kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15). So close that it is already on the ground. And not just on earth, but the Kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21).When we partake of the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Himself enters into us. We confess, receive Holy Unction, get married... We die, and they bury us... This grace-filled life of the Kingdom of God is already in us and around us, it is here! The Gospel says: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). Who's in the middle? The Lord Himself! What are we afraid of then? Are we afraid of our former sins, which are no longer there – after all, we have already confessed them? Are we afraid of the future? But if the Lord protects, we will not have any future sins! We talk about the Lord, we speak with hope, we testify from His word – and we must feel His presence! The Lord does not abandon us, first of all, by His mercy, by His care for us. And we should thank Him! As I have already said, eternity is not enough for us to thank Him for the great miracles that He has wrought with each of us! Can this faith save him? (James 2:14).This text and below, up to verse 26, is the part of the Bible that Protestants do not like very much, people who believe that we are saved only by faith, regardless of works. Can this faith save him? What kind of faith in salvation is it if a person, having realized that he is saved, does not thank the Lord for this salvation with his own life? You are tormented, you are afraid, you feel the approach of agony and the cold of death, which is inexorably approaching you. And suddenly a doctor appears who begins to treat you. And he saves you from this disease – a skilled surgeon, he cuts out the tumor and you go home happy and satisfied. You are asked: "What is the name of this doctor who saved you?" And you say: "Yes, I do not know his name, but I am grateful to him." – "Did you at least thank this doctor, did you do something for him?" – "No... But the operation went well, everything is already behind!" But it doesn't really happen like that, brothers and sisters! If a person (a person!) saves us from death, we certainly want to thank him, we want to do something for him. Such should be our attitude towards God: if we believe that the Lord is our Savior, then we must thank Him with our very lives. That is why faith cannot be without works! Did you believe that God saved you? And how did you thank Him for this salvation? If a brother or sister is naked and has no daily sustenance, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, warm yourselves, and be nourished," but does not give them what is necessary for the body, what is the use? (James 2:15-16).As we have repeatedly said, the Lord Jesus Christ gives us a unique opportunity: serving each person, serving Him directly. If we want to thank the Lord for what He has done for us, we must do good to others! Do you remember the parable of the bishop who forgave the debts of his debtor (cf. Matt. 18:23-35)? And what did this forgiven man do? His debt was forgiven, and he found his debtor, began to shake him and demand that he repay the debt; And he even threw him in jail because he couldn't pay. And when Vladyka found out what this person he had forgiven did, he punished him! Yes, the Lord has forgiven us, but this means that we must also forgive every person. For the measure of how we treat others is the measure of how the Lord will treat each of us [1]. This is very important to remember. If you see that a person is badly dressed, he does not have good clothes, and was not your soul naked when you repented in confession and did not find a single good deed in yourself?.. Like Adam in paradise, you stood then and did not know where to hide, and you were ashamed to stand before the priest, but even more terrible – before God.. But the priest forgave you in the presence of God, clothed you in the garments of righteousness. So why don't you help a poor person who doesn't have good clothes? After all, it is the Lord who sends us earnings. Brothers and sisters, we must repay our debts – debts to God – by helping other people. And no matter what we do, we will never pay back all our debts—we will always remain indebted to God, no matter how hard we work! But let death find us in a state where we are constantly helping others. It is very important to die in the field of charity and mercy, in the field of returning His inheritance to God. This is extremely important: by what court you judge, you will be judged; and with what measure ye measure, it shall be measured unto you also (Matt. 7:2). ^

Part 3

And we often say to these beggars, these needy people: "Go in peace! I have enough problems of my own..." What problems do you have?! If you walk around so impudently and proudly, you will soon really learn such problems that you will go begging yourself! Because God is jealous, like the bishop who ordered the return of the evil lender whom he forgave and punished him, punished him terribly! But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works": show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith from my works. You believe that God is one: you do well; and the demons believe, and tremble (James 2:17-19).Many people say of themselves: "I believe, I believe... We are believers..."Now it is generally fashionable to say that a person is a believer. If, for example, a politician is shown on TV, they will always ask him: "Are you a believer or not?" And if he says: "Yes, I am a believer!" then the host somehow immediately becomes animated and the conversation somehow becomes more lively... For example, a person was in the hospital with a serious illness (let's say, the same cancer), then left the hospital and said: "I'm healthy!" "And what is your health? Is it that you're just talking about it? But you can go back to the same hospital in a month or two, can you?" Only the one who got rid of the disease forever is truly healthy! So if a person says, "I am a believer," it should not mean that he simply shares a concept. A true believer is not one who believes in God—that God exists—but one who believes in God! To believe God means to accept His every word as a commandment to be fulfilled. And in the fact that God exists – this is what many believe, the majority of people. The Apostle James says: "And the demons believe and tremble." And how do such "believers" differ from demons? They only speak in language: "I believe, I believe...", but they still live in sins. They are even worse than demons: after all, demons not only believe, but also tremble! And these people say: "We are believers," without changing anything in their sinful life. Your faith in God, your Christianity must be attested to by life: by good deeds, by a kind attitude towards your neighbors.Protestants are especially guilty of this text from the Bible. They say: "It is enough to believe, and you will be saved!" If you follow their logic, then all the demons will be saved, because they believe and tremble! But faith alone cannot save a person. It is also necessary to fulfill God's commandments: faith is not in God – that He exists, but faith in God – complete trust in Him, trust in His every word, each of His commandments. The law of God should be above all for us! And we must seek such a living faith. Not demonic, but dead, without good works, without a concrete result. Yes, brothers and sisters, the world demands of us demonic faith! Different, constantly replacing one another, rulers tell us: "You believe, only do not interfere in modern life! The Church should not interfere in the life of the state..."How do we understand that we should not interfere? We shouldn't interfere when innocent people are being killed?! Should we not interfere when drugs are already distributed in schools?! If we do not interfere, we will be like demons who rejoice in the death of people! No, we will interfere! This is our fatherland, our land – we are obliged to interfere!And we are taught to believe in the demonic faith: "Okay, believe that God exists; go to church, gather in your church..."But this is not enough for us! The Church must go to military units, to army barracks and preach the word of God there... The church should go to institutes, universities, schools... We want the whole state to become Orthodox! Therefore, we will always defend the position of active Christianity.We are often told: "Do not interfere in our affairs, this is already politics..." But we do not recognize any of their policies! For us, there is only the power of God: the power that the sun and stars hold above the earth, that holds the breath of life in each of us! We recognize only the authority of God, which governs the beating of our hearts, the life of every person on earth! Only the Lord is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.And they want us to have demonic faith: so that the country is as they want, and we want us to pray and not interfere in anything. Brothers and sisters, you and I must actively bear witness to Christ where each of us is. After all, it is no accident that the Apostle Paul teaches: "Everyone remain in the calling in which he was called" (1 Corinthians 7:20). That is, if you believe in the Lord, for example, being a military man, remain a military man. The Church needs Orthodox soldiers – it will be necessary to restore order in the country someday! Are you called as a teacher? Remain an Orthodox teacher, teach children the basics of the faith, the Law of God! Are you called as a doctor? It is always better to be treated by a believing doctor than by an unclear one! You have been called by the Lord to serve the Church, do you want to become a priest? Be a true priest: do not say what is expected of you, preach to people not what you have invented yourself, but what is written in the Holy Scriptures, what the word of God teaches, the Holy Fathers! The social niche that each of us occupies must be sanctified by us. If you are a husband, head of wife, head of the family – take care of your family! If you work at the machine, work at the machine! If the Church calls you to another ministry, go to another service! There is no bad work, as long as this work is honest and does not violate the commandments of God.I remember my young years, when after the 8th grade I went to work in a factory. I had such an interesting job: I put on a gas mask, then climbed into a metal boiler, where resins were mixed, and then drained. On the metal walls of the boiler, the resin dried out, and it had to be knocked down with a sharp tool. And I was in this cauldron and churning the remnants of tar as long as I could breathe. After work, I went to the shower, washed off all the dirt, all the soot and chemicals, put on clean clothes, left the factory and felt like a happy person! Although I was young then, I still felt a sense of fulfilled religious duty after work. I even wanted to work in a factory all my life! Only the death of my grandmother prevented this: before she died, she said that she wanted me to be a priest. It is very important when we treat with a sense of duty any work that is entrusted to us, when we do this work in the name of God, as it is said in the Apostle Paul: "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" (Col. 3:17). That is why the state must be religious: because there are no spheres of social life that would not be regulated by the Divine commandments. After all, what is the state? This is the body. This is you and me, brothers and sisters, each of us. And what does it mean if the Church is separated from the state? This means that the state body was left without a soul, because the soul of our Russian state is Orthodoxy! And we see how these madmen, these nihilists, who cannot stop drug addiction, say from the TV screens: "We have already lost!" They cannot stop crime and say: "We have lost here too!" Recently, there was a message on TV that a huge gang of criminals had been detained. This whole gang consisted of police officers! All of them were killers: they killed people for money. We constantly hear about such crimes, brothers and sisters... Thus, this demonic path is the path of secularization of society, the separation of religion from the people, the Church from the state. This is the faith that we do not need. This is a demonic path to nowhere. We must fill our state with religious content. You and I, according to the word of the Lord, are the salt that should salt everything, that is, preserve everything from decay and decay [1].Let us read again:You believe that God is one: you do well; and the demons believe, and tremble (James 2:19).And then it is said: "But do you want to know, O unfounded man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by his works, when he laid Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith has worked together with his works, and by works his faith has been made perfect? And the word of the Scripture was fulfilled: "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God." Do you see that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone? Likewise, Rahab the harlot was not justified by her works, having received spies and sent them away in another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead (James 2:20-26).Here the holy Apostle James gives us examples: the example of the righteous Abraham, the example of Rahab. These examples are worthy of imitation, because these people not only showed faith, but for the sake of it were ready to change everything both in family life (righteous Abraham lays his only son Isaac on the altar) and in personal life (Rahab, contrary to his natural affection for his fellow citizens, lets spies into Jericho). when, cleansed by the Lord, purified by this gift of faith, in gratitude to their Creator, they change their entire life, both their personal life and the life that surrounds them. Then, brothers and sisters, we will not follow the path of demonic dead faith, not the path of this secularization, the secularization of modern life, but the path ordained by God. "Thy kingdom come... as in Heaven and on earth." That is, we want the Divine order to be the same everywhere sooner or later, both in heaven and on earth. And this Kingdom of God, the power of God, is the perfection that will change both earth and heaven.Holy Scripture testifies to us that that day will come, and then there will be a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 21:1). And the new humanity is already being born. Every day. In every Orthodox church. In every Orthodox diocese. This is the new humanity that will live under a new sky and on a new earth. This is the Kingdom of God on earth – every Orthodox Christian! But each of you brings a piece of the Kingdom of God to your families, to your loved ones. They will not notice it right away, they may not react to it correctly. They may not understand it in your lifetime. But believe me: salt always salts. How many people I have met who came to repent and said: "My grandmother taught me, but only after her death did I realize that she was right!" ... Yes, I can testify about myself: my grandmother's most cherished dream was to see me serve as a priest in the church. But she did not even live to see the moment when I became a deacon.Perhaps in our lifetime we will not see spiritual results in our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But salt always salts! Spread the Kingdom of God around you, spread this peace of Christ! Do good with gratitude to the Lord for the great deeds that He has done with us. But if the salt loses its savor, how wilt thou make it salty? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out to be trampled under foot by men (Matt. 5:13). ^

Conversation Five

Part 1

My brethren! Do not be many teachers, knowing that we will be subjected to greater condemnation, for we all sin much. Whoever does not sin in the word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body (James 3:1-2).At the very beginning of the third chapter of the Conciliar Epistle, the Apostle James says that when people become teachers (even if this happens by the will of God, by the will of the Church), they are subjected to greater condemnation than just people living in the world. Because the teacher is always in sight, attention is often riveted on him. People usually have an inflated idea of teachers, of mentors. And in order to dispel such errors, the Apostle James says: "For we all sin much." Here he speaks as an apostle, on behalf of other teachers.Brothers and sisters, never believe in sinless teachers! Sinless teachers are from the field of Buddhism: Buddhists say that somewhere in the mountains there are some "mahatmas"; However, as it turns out, they are just demons, demons. Any person, no matter to what level of hierarchical, priestly service he rises, will always remain only a person. And together with the Apostle James, each of us can say: for we all sin much.True Christianity consists in calling a spade a spade. Yes, we all sin a lot! But the power of our religion lies in the fact that we do not deceive ourselves. After all, the Lord Jesus Christ came to us, because we all sin much. If we were righteous, He would not have to come to earth. However, there are no righteous people – there are made-up fairy tales that there are some special people. The Apostle James says: "We all sin much." And then he wants to suggest how we can get rid of our sins: "Whoever does not sin in the word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body." We need to learn to control our speech: what we say, how we say it. And language is not only speech, it is also thoughts, thoughts, pretexts that fill our consciousness and our soul.In the first verse of this chapter, the Apostle James says about teachers: "Do not many become teachers." Let us ask ourselves this question: Who can be a teacher among God's people? Who has the right to teach at all? In what case can one person teach another person? Who are our teachers?The Holy Scriptures say that our first teachers are our parents, brothers and sisters. Look at what is written in Deuteronomy: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And let these words which I command you this day be in your heart [and in your soul]; And thou shalt instill them in thy children, and thou shalt speak of them, sitting in thy house, and going by the way, and lying down, and rising up; and bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them be a bandage over your eyes, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).With these words the God-seer Moses teaches us that we must pass on the fundamentals of the faith to our children. The foundations of faith that the Israelites once received were the belief that there is one God and that He must be loved with all one's heart and soul. Through Moses the Lord says: "And thou shalt instill them in thy children, and speak of them, sitting in thy house, and walking by the way, and lying down, and getting up." And in our time, such a fundamental basis of our faith is the belief that there is one God – the Holy Trinity, One-in-essence and Indivisible. This is faith in the authority of the Holy Church. The Church is endowed with authority from God—universal authority; No one can take this power away from her – neither the Communists, nor the Democrats, no one! The rights of the Church are unconditional.Now we hear that even monarchists encroach on the rights of the Church. But the Church is the Kingdom of God, we must remember this. You and I, brothers and sisters, have no right to accept any ideologies – neither democracy, nor communism, nor Nazism. We do not even need a monarchy if it is without Orthodoxy. When we are offered a monarchy, but not on the basis of Orthodoxy, but on some other ideas – constitutional humanism, etc. – this is just another trap for the Orthodox, aimed at destroying them. And many of us have been taught by our parents, grandparents, grandparents, and great-grandmothers. Who else has the right to teach? It is important for us to understand this, because the Apostle says: "Do not many become teachers." In Deuteronomy we read: Look... thou shalt carefully observe and do all [the law] which the Levitical priests shall teach you; Do carefully what I have commanded them (Deuteronomy 24:8).This order must not be violated: God gives revelation to His priests, and the priests to the people. Do you remember how the miraculous feeding of loaves took place? The Lord gave the loaves to the Apostles, and they distributed them to all the people (cf. Matt. 14:19). This order cannot be violated—it is a rigid hierarchical order. In the Holy Scriptures it is said that from the mouth of the pastor, from the mouth of the priest people expect instruction in the commandments of God: "For the mouth of the priest must keep knowledge, and the law is sought from his mouth, because he is a messenger of the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 2:7). And it is very bad when priests, especially young ones, instead of talking about the commandments of God, sometimes go into politics and talk about various empty things. Therefore, pastors need to pull themselves up: we must always remember that we, pastors and priests, are appointed to teach the people, to instruct them in the true faith. In the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah it is said: They turned their backs on Me, and not on their faces; and when I was teaching them, teaching them early in the morning, they would not receive instruction (Jeremiah 32:33). Here the prophet Jeremiah complains that his prophetic instructions, prophetic lessons were not accepted by these strange disciples – his contemporaries, who did not want to listen to the teachings of the prophet of God.In the Holy Scriptures it is said that many people find teachers and mentors after their hearts, so that the teachers would flatter them. what is going on inside me. Doctors, a nurse, a priest I know, who understands many diseases, came to me. I had problems, and I was looking for mentors who could solve them. But, of course, health problems and the salvation of the soul are completely different things! Therefore, of course, we will always find ourselves a mentor who will teach us how to drive if we need to pass the driver's license exams; We can also find a mentor who will teach us how to take care of our health, how to swaddle small children correctly (this is also very important: when there is a newborn in the family, many do not know what to do with him; they do not know how to swaddle him, take care of him, and someone must explain). But the most important instruction for a person is instruction in faith, when we learn to know the will of the Creator.Brothers and sisters, we have the great happiness of being chosen by God: we are Orthodox Christians! There are not as many Orthodox Christians in Russia as it may seem. We can go to God's church, listen to spiritual instructions, read the Holy Fathers. We hear the Holy Gospel when it is read during the Divine Liturgy, and the Holy Fathers say that when we hear the Gospel read during the Divine Liturgy with our own ears, we hear the voice of Jesus Christ Himself! Therefore, first of all, let us seek for ourselves instruction in the faith, as it is said in the Gospel: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (to pass for rights, to deal with health, to learn to swaddle a child) shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33). These are the words of the Lord Himself! It must be said that none of the ancient ministries abandoned the people of God. The prophetic ministry in the Church is the ministry of warning, when His Holiness the Patriarch or bishops or priests warn the people of the coming dangers. This is the effective prophetic ministry that lives in the Church and does not cease.People turned their backs on the prophet Jeremiah: contemporaries did not want to listen to his instructions and teachings. And now many say: "Why do we need these teachings, these instructions? But it is very difficult for a person to figure everything out on his own – almost impossible. Therefore, in the Book of Jesus, the son of Sirach, it is said: Be in the assembly of the elders, and whoever is wise, cleave to him; love to listen to every sacred story, and let not reasonable parables escape you. If you see one who is wise, go to him early in the morning, and let your foot wear out the thresholds of his doors. Meditate on the commandments of the Lord and always learn His commandments: He will strengthen your heart, and the desire for wisdom will be given to you (Sir. 6:35-37). Thus, among the people of God, the following have the right to teach: parents, raising their children, priests, prophets, preachers. We know that St. Nina, Equal-to-the-Apostles, the enlightener of Georgia, was a true preacher; moreover, a female preacher, a maiden who came to Iberia and by preaching about Christ converted an entire people to Orthodoxy. In Armenia, too, young virgins preached the Gospel and converted the pagans by their preaching. And here a natural question arises: after all, only pastors can teach in the Church, those people who have a special blessing for this... What kind of preaching can the laity, for example, women and even children, preach? But the laity can testify to what the Lord has done to them: they can talk about what the Lord has done in their lives. They are eyewitnesses of the great spiritual changes that have taken place in their lives. And St. Nina, Equal-to-the-Apostles, bore witness to how she loved the Lord and how the Lord changed her heart. And those virgins who preached in ancient Armenia, they also bore witness to how the Lord performed the great miracle of their conversion to Christ. And each of us, brothers and sisters, can bear witness, first of all, by good works, telling about the great spiritual changes that have taken place in our lives.This must always be remembered: a layman cannot make any judgments on behalf of the Church, but if he wants his witness to Christ to bring spiritual results, he must speak about what happened to himself: what he heard with his ears and saw with his own eyes. In that case, your testimony will bear great spiritual fruit.I remember a woman who confused the ministry of a layperson—the testimony of what the Lord had done to her—with the prophetic ministry. Once I came to one village, and they told me: "We have a grandmother here - she teaches everyone so well. Come, Oleg, take a look!" On the spot, I saw the following picture: an old lady appeared among the young people resting there and exclaimed: "If you don't stop this music, you will immediately fail! You will all go blind!" She spoke like the prophets of old: she pronounced such harsh sentences on these young people that I was afraid not only for them, but also for myself. No, brothers and sisters, we cannot curse people, we cannot pass judgment on them! We do not have such powers. We cannot say: "You will fail!", "You will get sick and die!". We are not given such power, and, first of all, the laity do not have such power.Therefore, when you want to convert people to God, tell them about the spiritual changes that took place in your life when you became Orthodox. Maybe you will tell very little, but since you will speak as a witness, as an eyewitness of what happened to you, it will be perceived as genuine testimony. Then your teaching, your instruction will bear spiritual fruit.The Holy Scriptures say that it is very important to have teachers who interpret the word of God to us. In the book of the prophet Nehemiah we read: Joshua, Banaiah, Shereviah, Jamin, Akkuv, Shabtai, Godiah, Maaseiah, Cleita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Felaiah, and the Levites explained the law to the people, while the people stood in their place. And they read from the book, from the law of God, distinctly, and added the interpretation, and the people understood what they read (Neh. 8:7-8). In the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy it says: But the bishop must be blameless... sober, chaste, decent, honest, loving strangers, instructive (1 Tim. 3:2). Any priest is a preacher, but priests and deacons preach on behalf of the bishop and with his blessing. Therefore, the laity should also ask the blessing of the priest in order to more successfully instruct and teach their children, their own and those of their godparents, showing them clear examples of the great miracles and spiritual transformations that the Lord has performed in their lives and in their souls. That is why the Apostle James says: "Do not many become teachers, knowing that we will be subjected to greater condemnation because of this, for we all sin much." Whoever does not sin in the word is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body.And then we read:"Behold, we put the bit in the mouths of the horses, that they may obey us, and we rule over their whole body" (James 3:3).The Apostle James again offers us an example. Imagine a horse: a man saddles it, but how do you control it? It is necessary to have iron bits, which are put into the horse's mouth. The Apostle James says here that if we want to change our lives, we must pay attention to our language, to what we say. How are most sins and crimes committed? First - words, conversation, and then - crime. Remember how Cain killed Abel? He said to his brother: "Let us go to the field" [1]. That is, at first his tongue pronounced a few words! Some may think: what a trifle – one brother said a few words to another! But what happened then, when, in response to Cain's words, Abel followed him? And what if we remember Judas Iscariot? And Judas came to the chief priests, and said unto them, What wilt ye give me, that I shall deliver him unto you? (Matt. 26:15). It would seem that all these are just words, but such words that decided the fate of Judas! Therefore, we must be able to control our tongue, we must have those bits of the fear of God that would restrain the movement of our tongue. And if we do not learn to control our language, we can commit any crimes! But in order to begin to control one's tongue, perhaps it makes sense first to learn to speak slowly, without haste?And Cain said to Abel his brother, [let us go into the field]. And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him (Gen. 4:8). ^

Part 2