Of course, we cannot achieve such faith, but everyone should strive to their own extent. And this aspiration is asceticism, this aspiration is a Christian podvig. And only to the one who aspires, the Lord comes out to meet him. And if we just have fun: do this, do this, go there, see this, read this, we will not achieve anything, we will all beat around the bush. And the Lord is very close, He is ready to come into our hearts, if only we have zeal for this. And where does diligence begin? Again, with faith. Here it is written in the Gospel. Do you believe? Come on. Don't you believe? Well, sleep. If you die, then it will be too late, then you will not wake up. If a person has not met God in this life, then he will not meet God beyond the grave, he will pass by, there, to hell.

Here we are gathered in the church - and here is the fullness of the Divinity. Such communion with God as in the church cannot be achieved in any way. Here we have the opportunity to partake of Christ's Holy Mysteries, to receive the Body of God Himself into ourselves. We can unite with God not only in soul and spirit, but even in our body, we can deify ourselves with the help of the Mysteries of Christ. That's what we've been given! And for nothing, we are not asked: worthy, not worthy. You are baptized - and here you are, the Kingdom of Heaven is open to you. And a person has some ideas: either he has no time, or he has some kind of concern, then he thinks about what his grandparents will say. Here the Kingdom of Heaven is given, and he has some ideas. It is immediately clear that a person does not understand at all what it is about, because the attitude to the Eucharist, the attitude to the Divine Liturgy is an attitude to Christ Himself.

If a person strives for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven, he also strives for communion. And if he does not strive for Communion, then even though he will read ninety thousand akathists, we can firmly say that he is going past Christ, he is going in the wrong direction, because the source of all spirituality is the Eucharist, the communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Therefore, that which leads us away from Communion is only the enemy, although this enemy may be in a cassock, he may be in a mitre, he may also be in the guise of an elder. The Eucharist is the cornerstone on which everything is tested, it is the standard by which everything is measured. Because this, in fact, is the Church, this is what Christ came for. If a person has assimilated this spiritually, with his heart, then he is on the right path; If he does not understand this, then he is not a Christian at all, he is still, one might say, a Muslim, a Jew.

If a person does not understand the mysticism of the sacramental life of the Church, then what can we talk about? Because only by becoming a partaker of God's nature, as the Apostle Peter writes, can one be a Christian, and everything else is just a cultural superstructure. You can love and respect all this very much, you can read about it and think about it, but this is still a philosophy. And the Kingdom of Heaven is the mysterious bond between the soul of man and God, which is realized here on earth, and its beginning and source is the communion of Christ's Holy Mysteries. It is here, in communion, that a person unites with God in such a fullness that is simply unimaginable to the mind. No angel can be so united with God as the last sinner in communion. You just need to be aware of it, you need to believe in it, you need to see it with your heart. And if this is not the case, if the heart is cold, if there are any extraneous considerations, then the person is still asleep.

Therefore, our entire life must be Eucharistic, our life must be filled with the Divine Liturgy, our whole life must become a divine service, a preparation for Communion – we must live from Communion to Communion. One saint said: one must live in such a way that every day one is ready either to die or to take communion, one must always be ready, one must always strive for this. In the same way the Lord says: "You do not know when the Lord will come." Maybe tomorrow? And I am ready, I am always in prayer, I will always be directed to God, I will always fulfill God's commandments.

This, of course, is ideal. We cannot do this because of our weakness, and the Lord knows this, and He will never hold us accountable, as He did with Bessarion of Egypt. He knows what century we live in. He knows what kind of environment we live in. He knows that we all fell from the moon, that we were not brought up by the Church from childhood, and that our parents did not invest anything spiritual in us. The Lord knows all this, and condescends to us, and is ready to forgive everything, but the aspiration must be from us. Then the Lord will forgive everything in the same way as the Lord forgave Abraham, just as the Lord forgave Paul, Peter. After all, Peter also denied the Lord, but the Lord forgave him, because how did he love the Lord? Then he sailed up to the shore in a boat and saw a man standing on the shore. One disciple says: "This is the Lord" - and Peter no longer needs anything else, he does not even have the patience to swim, he rushes and swims, although it is faster on a boat, there are oars. But he can't wait. This is the feeling it gets: you ride a tram and are late, but it barely stretches, and you want to get off and run, although it is clear that the tram is still faster. But my heart breaks out of my chest, I want it faster. Such was Peter, and such was his faith and thirst to be with God. Therefore, he became the chief apostle.

And if we have even a little bit of this, then for this little bit we will be vouchsafed the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord will give us only what we ourselves want. Paradoxical as it may sound, the Kingdom of Heaven is received by all comers. Whoever on earth from Adam to the present day desires the Kingdom of Heaven, all this desire will be fulfilled. And to the extent that a person desires the Kingdom of Heaven, to that extent he receives it. Only this desire should come from the very depths of the soul. And here everything is fair, because God cannot be deceived. Love cannot be depicted in any way. And the more you love God, the closer you will be to Him. Amen.

Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,

June 18, 1988, evening

Saturday of the 5th Week after Pentecost

God created man in His image and likeness, and the trinity of his composition is observed in everything. Man exists in three hypostases: man, woman, and child. And within his own personality, he also consists of three compositions: body, soul and spirit. But at the same time, like God, he is a whole, simple being, he is one.

Our bodily life is manifested in the fact that we eat, drink, feel sorry for our body, strive for rest, do not want to physically overexert ourselves, and out of the instinct of self-preservation we try to avoid all dangers.

Spiritual life is the sphere of our feelings and emotions. In many respects, intellectual life also belongs to it. Many modern people who do not know God say that visiting theaters, reading books, traveling, and developing their intellect in every way is a manifestation of spiritual life. In fact, this is a manifestation of spiritual life: the soul develops by studying human culture, listening to music, reading books.