Если мы хотим достичь Царствия Небесного, мы должны все время напрягать свое сердце и все время думать, угоден данный наш поступок Богу или нет. И если наше сердце отвечает, что он Богу не угоден, то мы его делать не должны ни в каком случае. А если видим, что поступок угоден Богу, то надо помолиться о том, чтобы Господь помог нам его совершить, потому что очень часто мы не можем сделать некое добро в силу слабости характера, трусости, малодушия, лени, нежелания и так далее, много всяких причин. Но неделание добра есть такое же зло. Или многие говорят: а я ничего никому плохого не сделал. Ну и что? Сарай, который во дворе стоит, тоже ничего никому плохого не сделал, но его, когда будут строить дом, все равно сломают, он никому не нужен, и этот сарай Царствие Небесное не наследует.

Если мы хотим быть наследниками Небесного Царства, а не старым захламленным сараем, то должны все время, всю свою жизнь вот эти поступки, которые являются шагом по направлению к Богу, совершать. А когда начнем ослабевать, будем просить Марию Египетскую: преподобная мати Мария, моли Бога о нас. И ее молитва нам поможет в этом делании. Аминь.

Крестовоздвиженский храм, 26 марта 1988 года, вечер

Великий пяток

Отчасти по нашей вине, отчасти не по нашей, но так случилось, что для многих из нас исповедь является некой формальностью, которую нужно обязательно совершить перед причастием Святых Христовых Тайн. На самом же деле исповедь – это одно из семи таинств Православной Церкви, в коем человек получает благодать Божию.

Многие отходят от исповеди не только не очищенными, а, наоборот, еще более согрешившими. Это результат того, что она стала формальностью. А ведь в таинстве покаяния подается благодать, которая исцеляет человека от греха. Мы просим у Бога прощения, просим благодатной помощи для исправления нашей жизни. Почему же человек, допустим, в воскресенье покаялся в каком‑то грехе, а во вторник опять в него впал? Просто тот грех, в котором он каялся, Богом не прощен. Не было благодати Божией, уврачевавшей его рану духовную, потому что не было истинного покаяния.

The sacrament of repentance is performed when a revolution occurs in the human heart, when a person renounces sin, begins to hate it with fierce hatred. Then he no longer falls into sin. He has temptations, desires, and all sorts of thoughts that incline him to sin, but he successfully fights them with the help of God's grace. And if there is no grace, then, of course, he cannot defeat sin.

How can we attract the grace of God into our hearts? We must try to have true repentance in him. To do this, we need to become aware of our sins, to see all their abomination, to understand that they hinder us from reaching the Kingdom of Heaven. One must truly desire the Kingdom of Heaven; with all our soul, to love God deeply, deeply.

That's how it is usual if a person likes something, for example, fried potatoes, then he, of course, tries to buy potatoes more often, fry and eat them more often. If a person likes to watch TV, of course, it burns in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. If a young man and a young woman fall in love with each other, of course, they want to be always together, and that's why they get married. The same is true for a mother – if she loves her child, then she takes care of him, reads books to him, brings him up. If he does not love him or does not love enough, then he will send him to kindergarten for five days, give him to his grandmother. And so it is in everything.

If a person loves God, he will constantly go to church, constantly read the Holy Scriptures, pray. He does not need to force himself, because he loves. That is why only he who loves God enters the Kingdom of Heaven; one who loves nothing in the world so much as God alone. He always wants to talk to God, to be with Him, he does not want to be distracted from Him even for a minute. He thinks only about God all the time, only fearing that he will depart from Him, that He may be angered in some way, that he may be deprived of communion with Him. Because such a violation of communication with God is hell. And such communion with God is paradise.

And his fate in eternity depends on whether a person has come to know God in this earthly life, whether he has joined Him, whether he has loved Him. If the Lord sees that a person has devoted his whole life to approaching Him, of course, such a person does not die, but passes from death directly to life. He passes directly into the embrace of the Father, inherits the Kingdom of Heaven, prepared for him by the Heavenly Father, because man loves God, and how can God, who loves all people, deprive him of this communion with God?! Well, the one who does not love God, who does not need God, naturally loses God, is deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven. He needs health, he needs fame, wealth, the development of his intellectual abilities, his own interesting life, he needs himself – and he remains with himself.

When a person loves God and desires the Kingdom of Heaven, then he will begin to see what prevents him from knowing God. This knowledge is hindered by sin. For example, he wanted not to be distracted from God, but his thoughts interfere with him, and a person begins to hate his thoughts. He noticed that as soon as he eats too much, his prayer disappears, which means that he hates his own gluttony. If a person has not read the Holy Scriptures for a long time, he feels that somehow his heart has grown cold, that such laziness to read the Scriptures leads him away from God, from the true spiritual life – and so he hates his laziness. He begins to hate his talkativeness, fornication, his condemnation, rudeness, vanity. Thus, gradually, gradually, a person begins to hate sin in himself, because it does not allow him to see God, does not allow him to constantly communicate with God, to be with Him all the time. And little by little, he begins to straighten out his life. This correction is called repentance.

A person comes to confession. It is not without reason that it is always read before it: "Behold, child, Christ stands invisibly, accepting thy confession." That is, it is not the priest who receives confession, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That is why he approaches not the priest, but the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and says: Lord, I have realized in my life that I am prevented from uniting with You by such and such qualities of mine, acquired and inherited, which are in my soul. You help me to improve, You heal me, I just hate it, I hate what is in me. And when the Lord sees that there is a sincere desire and a sincere hatred of sin in him, the person will leave confession, touching the cross and the Gospel, completely healed. This sin will no longer be in him, he will never repeat it again. If repentance is deep, if there is a real awareness of sin, then the grace of God comes and heals a person.