It was noon when one day Diogenes lit his lantern and began to walk around the Athenian square, as if looking for something. Those who saw him laughed and asked what he was looking for. A man, he answered. How is that? Don't you see so many people? The square is full of people, they asked him, and you are looking for a person among them? Yes, I am looking for a man, a man, answered Diogenes. "What kind of man is Diogenes looking for?" People are of two kinds. There are people who have only the appearance and image of a person; they are people only in appearance, in appearance (such are the corpses, images, and idols of men), but inwardly they are completely useless, rather like irrational animals in their passions or lewdness. Diogenes saw many of them before him, but he did not need this. There are also people who, in addition to human appearance and image, have human reason and virtue, and in their inner motives and in their external actions they are all reasonable, reasonable, virtuous—true people. Diogenes was looking for such a man in that populous city, in Athens, and did not find it. I'm looking for a man, I'm looking for a man!

It's hard for me to make a comparison, but you need to tell the truth. At a time when, like the sun at noon, Orthodoxy shines, I also light the lamp of the Gospel preaching, come to a church full of Christians, and look for a Christian, I am looking for a Christian! How is that? Are not the Christians I see here and there, in the cities, in the fortresses, in the provinces, in the kingdoms, in much of the universe? There are two kinds of Christians. Only do they bear this name, Christians outwardly, and apparently have, as Paul says, only the image of the truth, but inwardly they have no proper works. They have the Christian faith, but not life; their life is the opposite of faith. "He who has the image of godliness, but his powers are opened" (2 Tim. 3:5). I don't need any of them. But there are Christians who, in addition to the name, have other deeds, together with faith, unite a proper life, both externally and inwardly are wholly Orthodox, truly Christians. I want to find at least one of them in a crowded Christian city, but I can't. I am looking for a Christian, a Christian! I move from place to place to find him. I look in the squares, among the nobles, but I see here only vain conceit. There is no Christian! I look for it in the bazaars among the merchants, but I see only insatiable greed here. There is no Christian! I look for him in the streets among young people, and I see extreme depravity. There is no Christian! I go outside the walls of the city and look for him from the villagers, but here I see all the lies of the world. There is no Christian! I walk part of the sea and look for him among the sailors, but I hear no terrible curses here. There is no Christian! I go around the troops, looking for him among the soldiers, but I see extreme dissoluteness here. There is no Christian! I enter the interior of the houses and look for a Christian woman among women, what do I see here? Married women separate from their husbands and rejoice with adulterers. The unmarried live in sin... I see honest women, thinking of nothing but dress and vanity. There is not a single Christian woman! I would like to go up to the palaces of nobles and strong people to see if there is a Christian there, but I do not dare, I am afraid. Flattery guards there and does not allow the truth to penetrate. Oh, the great shame of faith! Oh, the greatest condemnation of Christians!

Have I not told you that we have come to the worst condition, that we have reached the feet of the idol, partly of iron, partly of clay? Did I not tell you that among so many Christians I seek and find not one true one? "All have deviated, together they have not strayed... not to a single one" (Psalm 13:3). All, clergy and laity, princes and the poor, men, wives and children, young men and elders, have deviated from the faith, have begun to live an obscene life, there is not a single one who would live according to the faith. Christians who listen to this without tears! If you don't want to cry out of contrition, cry out of shame!

As for me, I am terrified; the pain of the heart does not allow my lips to continue speaking. I am silent with this. Christian, if your life is not as good and holy as your faith is true and holy, do not expect to be saved. One must live according to faith and then thank God for three circumstances. First, that you are a Christian, not an unbeliever. Secondly, that you are an Orthodox Christian, and not a heretic. And thirdly, that you are an Orthodox Christian, both in faith and in life, and not only in faith. Then, then, hope that you will be saved and reach the Heavenly Kingdom!

Homily for the Second Week of Lent. On Sin

"Child, your sins are forgiven you... arise, take up thy bed, and go to thy house." (Mark 2:5-11.)

Both paralyzed and sinful is the person about whom the Gospel speaks today. This unfortunate man suffers doubly — by the weakness of the body and the sin of the soul. The first he approached death, and the second he approached torment. Both his life and salvation are in extreme danger.

A rumor spread that the Lord Jesus Christ in a certain Capernaum house was instructing an innumerable multitude of people with the word of truth. And so, carried by four, this unfortunate man appeared there and received from the heavenly Physician a double healing of a twofold ailment. For the soul is the forgiveness of sins: Child, thy sins are forgiven thee; for the body is the healing of weakness: Arise, take up thy bed, and go to thy house. I draw your attention, listeners, to two events in the current Gospel narrative – to the suffering of the sick man and the power of the Physician. A paralyzed man – what a terrible sight such a man presents!

It is the living image of a dead person, an unburied corpse, living remains that live inside, because they still have breath, and from the outside they are dead, because they have no movement, a disastrous combination of life and death! He has no hope for a doctor or medicine. He expects the healing of an incurable disease only from complete death. Is this not the most grievous suffering? And yet, at the very words of our Saviour: "Arise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house," the paralytic gathers his strength, and the lying man rises, to the great amazement of those around and who saw his face. "And he arose, and took up his bed, and went out before all; for thou didst marvel at all, and glorify God" (Mark 2:12). Is this not the easiest of all healing? A miracle that is visibly performed on the body is invisibly performed on the soul. Imagine, on the one hand, an unfortunate soul, kept in weakness from old habitual sin, motionless in virtue, insensitive to grace, a soul in danger of dying an eternal death. Imagine, on the other hand, the power that these words of the Savior have in the mouth of a spiritual father: Child, thy sins are forgiven thee, and with them the soul is resurrected, sanctified, and saved into eternal life. Look here, too, at the great ease of saving healing. The sinner is hourly threatened with eternal torment — this is the greatest suffering for the human soul. And with just one word it can be freed from this danger — this is the easiest healing by divine grace. These two questions, namely, the severity of illness – sin and the ease of healing – forgiveness – constitute the content of today's sermon. Listen to me carefully to benefit from it.

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I don't know if I can explain to you what sin is. Nothing is done so easily and understood as difficult as sin. That is why we sin easily and repent. From what has been said about sin by the Fathers of the Church and learned theologians, we can only conclude that it is an infinite evil, almost a reproach to God. But all these are words that are either inaccessible to human understanding, or do not affect the human soul. What can I say to make you understand what a boundless evil this is?