Today the Holy Church offers us a reading from the Gospel of Matthew about how the Lord healed a paralytic who was brought and laid before Him. "And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Be of good cheer, child! thy sins are forgiven thee. And some of the scribes said to themselves, He blasphemes. And Jesus, seeing their thoughts, said, Why do you think evil in your hearts? For what is easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven, or to say, Arise and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith unto the paralytic, Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house. And he arose, and took up his bed, and went to his house."

This Gospel is very comforting for us, because we are all paralyzed, we all live in such a time of universal illness and fatigue. The twentieth century is the century of relaxation, when humanity has become softened and is no longer capable of podvig, even the smallest one. Each of us tries to pray, tries to do something with himself, somehow manages himself, but he sees that nothing works, and because of this he falls into despair. And not only we suffer from this, but all of humanity from north to south and from west to east. There are almost no ascetics left, the land has become impoverished by Christian podvig. Therefore, when we read the lives of the saints, it seems to us that it is impossible for people to fast like this, for people to pray like this, to do such good deeds and miracles. It seems impossible to us, because it is impossible for us.

But in Christianity, everything rests on podvig. Man is a sinner, and in order to live righteously, he needs to perform a feat: he must not allow sin to act in himself, but, on the contrary, strive for virtue. But a person does not have the strength, and therefore he is nervous, angry, despairing – and this should not be done. Our time is a time of small deeds, small feats. And in today's Gospel reading, we are given an example. He was a paralytic man, and he could not prove his faithfulness to God in any way: he could not bow down, read the Scriptures, go to holy places, or venerate the holy relics. But he could believe. Faith is a constant striving into the Kingdom of God. And so, when this paralytic man walked the path of life assigned to him by God and endured on it, the Lord, seeing his faith, raised him from his bed of sickness.

This Gospel gives us hope, it says that even the floundering that we do in the spiritual field is not in vain, because it shows God our aspiration. And in no case should we lose heart because we are so paralyzed, because the Lord does not demand much from us, knowing that we, in fact, are not capable of anything great. And how should we live? In what ways should our faith be manifested? Well, here's a simple example: it's raining, and we don't have an umbrella, no raincoat, and no tree nearby to hide under. It remains to go and endure. And this is also part of our task. We can do nothing: neither govern ourselves, nor protect ourselves from sin; All kinds of evil are at work in our souls, and we are not able to correct it, purify it, or somehow work on ourselves, we do not have the spiritual strength for this. Therefore, we need to endure both external circumstances and ourselves. And by this patience we will "acquire our souls," that is, gradually acquire them for the Kingdom of Heaven.

We must follow the Christian path no matter what. Let us constantly strive for the Kingdom of Heaven, constantly desire it, constantly believe that the time will come when the Lord will raise us up in a way known only to Him. Because the Lord desires this, but He also waits for our striving. As St. John Chrysostom said: "The Lord kisses the intention," that is, He greets us. And it is for this intention, for where our soul is directed, and for our patience, that the Lord will raise us up.

The Apostle Paul says: "As according to the grace given to us, we have different gifts (that is, each of us has been given some gift from God, and with this gift we must serve God; the Apostle here enumerates mainly church services, but if our entire life is churched, then whatever we do, we will serve God, our work will be church service), then if you have prophecy, prophesy according to the measure of faith; if you have service, continue in service; whether the teacher is in learning; if you are a warner, exhort; if you are a dispenser, distribute in simplicity; if you are a ruler, rule with diligence; if you are a benefactor, do good with cordiality. Let love be unfeigned; turn away from evil, cleave to good; be brotherly to one another with tenderness; warn one another in respect; do not faint in diligence; burn with the Spirit; Serve the Lord; be comforted in hope; be patient in tribulation, constant in prayer; take part in the needs of the saints; be zealous for the hospitality of strangers. Bless your persecutors; bless, not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of one mind with one another; do not be arrogant, but follow the humble; do not dream about yourself; Do not return evil for evil to anyone, but take care of what is good before all men. If possible on your part, be at peace with all people. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath of God. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him to drink: for in doing this you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

The Apostle Paul gives us a whole program, but he does not say: make a thousand prostrations a day, or: do not eat any kind of food, fast for weeks. And what is required of us? To be normal people. Now, in our times, there are very few reliable and faithful people left on whom you can rely, to whom you say – and they will do as you asked, they will not invent something, they will not deviate somewhere, they will not do something of themselves. And at this moment, in these years of the twentieth century, in which we have found ourselves to live according to God's providence, we only need to try to be normal people, and this will be, against the background of general relaxation and the general impossibility of doing something, a podvig.

After all, now, if you want to order something, pay any money - they will not make you qualitatively; A person can no longer work well, cannot help but slack off at work, cannot devote himself to raising children. Everything crumbled, everything fell apart, because the soul is no longer a core, it is some kind of cotton wool, jelly, sultanas. Everything dissolved, turned into some unimaginable mass. And we must recreate from ourselves, from this porridge, something at least remotely, in general terms reminiscent of a decent person.

You see, the Apostle Paul does not demand anything supernatural from us, does not say: move mountains, feed the hungry with five loaves of bread, or give away everything you have – we are not capable of this. But at least to be normal people who can be relied on, who do not lie, who are not rude, who do not sit on the sideliness, who are not treacherous, who always behave decently – at least to achieve this in order to have a good testimony from outsiders. And even if from the point of view of the universal Christian ideal of righteousness we are still far from perfection, but against the general background of complete relaxation, it will already be beauty and this will already be a feat.

Therefore, you need to constantly accustom yourself to patience. It should become our main virtue. As the Lord said: "In your patience gain your souls." And first of all, we must learn to tolerate ourselves, because the passions that boil in our souls often bring us great suffering. And if we do not have the strength to overcome these passions, we must at least not give them free rein, do not act according to our passions, do not allow them to manifest themselves, but try with all our might to endure – of course, with God's help, because this can only be done by calling out to God. And then, when we learn to restrain ourselves in words, we will be able to refrain from thinking: "Lord, what am I thinking, forgive me, a sinner; How could I allow such a thought?" And so constantly, tolerating ourselves, we will guide ourselves to the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Lord knows our inability to accomplish a great feat, but even for this small one He will raise us up. Today's Gospel is a guarantee of this. The Lord, seeing their faith, said: "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." And where is our home? He is in the abodes of the Heavenly Father. The Lord gave us faith not so that we would lose it in the ways and roads of this world, but so that it would lead us home, to the Father, Whom we have all abandoned through our sins, Whom we have all forgotten, Whom we do not feel.

We live only for ourselves: we have all the plans, we carry out some tasks, forgetting the most important thing; Behind these deeds, behind these trees, we do not see the forest, we forget what we live for. And you have to remember. Whatever we do, wherever we live, whatever we are doing at the moment, we must dedicate our lives to God. Everything must be done for the Lord's sake. If you eat, you eat for the Lord's sake, and it will stop you. When you have already eaten as much as you need and want more, take it and stop, because is it possible to gorge yourself for the sake of the Lord? You sit, talk to a person, then look, begin to condemn – stop again, because it is possible to talk to a person for the glory of God, but is it possible to condemn for the glory of God? And so it is in everything.

Our podvig should consist in this constant control over ourselves. Since no one brought us up – and no one could raise us, because our parents are godless, they rejected God long ago and could not teach us anything; it's good if someone was taught the Lord's Prayer by mom or dad, but the majority is all on their own, so we need to constantly engage in this self-education, and not go with the flow. And in this self-management our podvig will consist, and our labor will not be in vain. A great ascetic said 1600 years ago: "We have fulfilled the commandments of God, and those who will live after us will fulfill half of it." He was asked: "Well, what about those who will live in the last times?" "They," he says, "will not fulfill a single commandment of God, but there will be such sorrows in the world that if they endure them, they will surpass us in piety and will be above us before God."

If we, being so paralyzed, so untrained in the Orthodox faith, so depraved and foolish, nevertheless begin to work for the sake of the Lord, if we endure for His sake, for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord will not only lead us into the Kingdom of God, but will also place us above the many ascetics who lived before us. Because, naturally, there is less demand from the sick, and the Lord came not to save the righteous, but sinners. We can do nothing; Some are all trying to save their children, grandchildren – you need to save at least yourself, one person. This is our task, and by following this path, we can be very successful, because the Lord does not take away hope from us – do you see, He healed the paralytic?