If an athlete who has been training his body all his life is attacked by robbers, and he runs away from them, and they are all smoky and drunk, they will run 60 meters and fall behind. A person will be saved - the fact that he was engaged in sports will be useful to him. Therefore, when we endure, say, our irritation, or constantly overcome our greed, or perform some other act of will, act not according to our feelings, but according to our faith, as a Christian should act, then we do not do it in vain. We are preparing ourselves for a more serious exam, which will definitely come. And the most serious test, the most important test is death. But even before death we will have many trials, and as our faith grows, they will increase.

When a person moves from course to course at the institute, the exams become more and more complicated, and then there is the most important, state, and diploma. Defending a diploma is our death, and before that, you need to pass many exams. And the more our faith grows, the more it will be tested by God, because how else can we know a person?

There was such a case with Spyridon of Trimythous: he came to the council, but the guard did not let him in. He said: "Why don't you let me in? I am a bishop." And he was in simple shepherd's clothes, because he tended cattle, getting food for himself. The guard struck him, and Spyridon turned him the other cheek. He said: "Ah, now I see that you are a bishop, come in." Here it is, a pass. It is immediately clear that this man is a Christian. You don't need any documents that you are, they say, a believer. Here it is written: Christian; photograph – beard, mustache; and printing. This is not necessary, because a Christian is not checked by a document.

The only document is whether a person fulfills God's commandments or not. And how difficult it is! A simple layman slaps the bishop in the face. According to church canons, the one who struck the bishop is excommunicated from the Church. That is, St. Spyridon could excommunicate him from the Church for insulting the priestly rank, and no one would ever say anything against this. But he meekly forgave him at once, and substituted his left, and went to the council, and everything was resolved successfully, and he healed that man – he repented. This is a Christian act. Both our Christian life and our faith will be strengthened only if we do Christian deeds.

We are all not Christians yet, but disciples and are only trying to live in a Christian way. But if we want to become Christians, we must constantly perform Christian deeds in word, deed, and thought. A thought has come to me: if a person is not a Christian, he begins to follow this thought until another one comes. Usually, someone who does not lead a spiritual life is constantly scrolling through some kind of "movie" in his head: he thought one thing, then another, then looked at this, then at that. He saw a man beautifully dressed – he became jealous. If he sees someone driving a car, he thinks that he is gassing the air. If you see a beautiful face, it means that you have some other thoughts. And so the mind floats all the time. But a Christian must constantly struggle with thoughts. Every time we cut off a sinful thought, we commit a moral act. This act is seen by no one except the Heavenly Father. And the Lord, seeing the secret, will always reward us with what is manifest – he will strengthen our faith.

It is not so difficult to cut off a thought, it is a small feat, but nevertheless I bent my arm once more, once again exercised the arm of my soul, the muscle of my faith. Only in this way can faith be strengthened. And any athlete knows: no matter how much you pump a muscle, if you don't train for a year, then everything disappears. Those who start doing sports are doomed to do it for the rest of their lives, otherwise they turn into a huge, clumsy carcass and their liver, lungs, blood vessels, and heart deteriorate. It is the same in the Christian life. God forbid anyone to make an experiment – to stop praying in the morning and in the evening for at least three or four days. On the fifth day, it will be forty times harder to read the rule than when you were tired and missed, because your soul was already weakened.

Therefore, in order for us to strengthen our faith, we need constant exercise in prayer, in reading the word of God. You have to constantly force yourself. Tirelessly, if I want or I don't want to, if I can or if I can't, I have to force myself to go to church. I am tired – I am not tired, I have nothing to do, a decent period has passed – I must force myself to prepare for Communion and commune of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. A situation has arisen – no matter how much you want to act sinfully, you need to force yourself to act in a Christian way, regardless of what you feel and what you think. There is a commandment of God – and do it. And gradually we will see that it is becoming easier and easier for us to fulfill the commandments, and then we will feel that it is impossible for us to commit a sin: we will become so accustomed to fulfilling God's commandments that it will be difficult for us to sin, we will not even be able to force ourselves to do so – we will develop the habit of Christian life. This is the growth of our faith.

Each of us must be a flint. The Lord called Peter a stone: "petros" in Greek means "rock". "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church." So do we. If we want to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, the house of God, then we must strengthen our faith and constantly struggle with unbelief in our souls, not trusting in any people, but only in the One God Himself. And you need to constantly turn to Him. Only in this way can we get rid of this pernicious sin of unbelief, which is present in each of us, but is present so imperceptibly that we do not see it. This is its extreme danger. Amen.

Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, June 6, 1988

Среда Светлой седмицы

Христос воскресе!

Сегодня мы слышали Евангелие от Иоанна о том, как Господь призывал Своих первых учеников, Андрея, Петра, Филиппа и Нафанаила.

Стоял Иоанн Предтеча с двумя учениками и, увидев грядущего Иисуса, сказал им: "Вот Агнец Божий" – и они сразу пошли за Иисусом. Он обернулся и спросил: "Что вы ищете?" Они ответили: "А где Ты живешь?" Господь говорит: "Пойдите посмотрите". С этого момента они стали Его учениками. Почему они так легко оставили Иоанна и пошли за Господом? Потому что Иоанн говорил: "Вслед за мной идет Тот, Которому я недостоин развязать ремень на сапогах" – и вот появился Этот Человек, Которого они искали, Которого они жаждали увидеть.