Homily for the Third Week of Lent. About the soul

"What... Is it profitable for a man if he gains the whole world, and forsakes his soul? or what will a man give treason to his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37)

The world and the soul are two things which men cannot know, because human judgment is false. Their whole mind seems to be concentrated in their eyes: people value only what they see, and what they do not see, they do not value. They see the world, and value it more than they should; do not see the soul, and do not value it at all, as it should be. Therefore, they are wrong, false in their judgments about the world and the soul – "Lie to the sons of mankind by measure" (Psalm 61:10). The world and the soul — the living do not know how to judge these two things, only the dead know how to judge.

Kings of the earth, rulers of cities, princes of men, rich men of the world! You enjoy earthly glory, beauty, wealth. What have you finally gained? What did you take with you to the grave? You are dead, and the world is dead to you. But having lost your soul for the sake of the world, you have lost everything: heaven, paradise, eternal life, God. And so, what does it profit a man if he gains the world, which ends for him with life, and destroys his soul, which is immortal? No benefit, on the contrary, a great loss. Oh, if only the living would learn from the dead what the world is, what the soul is! But how? Don't we know what the world is? We know this very well, for we see with our own eyes the impermanence of the world. We see how his blessings are difficult to achieve, bitter in pleasure, and close to the end. We see how many worries, fears, envy, and ruin shake, weaken, make bitter, or even destroy all worldly well-being. We see how much suffering and sickness, how many wars and insidious intentions shake the life and tranquility of the world. We see that the waters of rivers do not flow so quickly, the flowers of the field do not wither so easily, the lightnings of heaven do not dissipate as quickly as they do, wither easily, and instantly destroy all the sweetness, delight, and joy of the world. We know well what the world is, for we see it. But verily we do not know what the soul is, for we see neither the beauty nor the nature of the soul. Therefore, today I want to talk about the first thing that the soul is; second, that it is the only one, and that by losing it we lose everything; and thirdly, that it is immortal and that if we destroy it once, we will lose it forever.

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If you ask the sages who have tried to explore the depths of nature about what the soul is, they will give very diverse, but not very suitable answers. Therefore, leaving aside the superstitions of the philosophers, let us look in the light of the teaching of the Church Fathers at the purest mirror of truth, at the Divine Scriptures, in order to know what the soul is, this noble, precious being, which cannot be exchanged for anything else.

The creative wisdom and power of God revealed three features in the creation of man. First of all, in one word, He created the heavenly and the earthly; "He spoke, and it was" (Psalm 148:5) — immediately there appeared the sun and the moon, the stars in the sky and the birds in the air, so many animals and plants on the earth. But when He created man, He not only spoke a word, but beforehand, as it were, thought and consulted, for He first said: "Let us make man" (Gen. 1:26), as if inviting the other persons of the Holy Trinity to the council. Gregory of Nyssa was also amazed at this. "O miracle," he says, "everything is brought into being by a single word and is not preceded by any advice. The Creator of all things approaches the creation of man deliberately." Further. In order for other creatures to appear, God only said: "Let it be," and did nothing else. For the creation of man, He both spoke and acted. In order to create the body, He took with His Divine hands (this must be understood in the sense corresponding to God) and molded the dust — "the finger (to the ground) from the earth" (Gen. 2:7); in order to create a soul, He breathed into him the breath from His divine lips — "I will breathe into his face the breath of life" (Ibid.). Finally, the main thing is that not a single creature is created in the image of God. This honor was granted to man alone, created in the image, for God is incorporeal by nature, but by soul, which is spirit, just as God is Spirit. This is the innate property of the soul, this is its nobility.

If we compare the soul and the holy angels themselves, I do not know in what way they will surpass it, these second lights from the first Light, the morning stars of the rational firmament, which so closely perceive the blessed radiances of the three-radiant Divine Principle. They are of a mental nature, and the soul is the mind; they are incorporeal, and the soul is spirit; immortal — and the soul is immortal. They are divided into three ternary orders, which are divided into nine orders, as noted by the Areopagite and Damascene. The first consists of seraphim, cherubim, and thrones; in the second, dominions, principles, powers; in the third, the authorities, archangels, and angels. We find similar things in the powers and abilities of the soul. In the seraphim, the pure hot flame of love burns, which is why they are depicted as fiery, just as it is in the will of the soul, in which the fire of love flares up hotter and wider, striving for the Desired. In the cherubim contemplation is awake, which is why they are called many-eyed, and so it is in the mind of the soul, which is truly a many-eyed being, always ready for contemplation, even when the body is at rest in deep sleep. Justice sits on thrones — in the soul, the meaning of what is known by the mind and desired by the will is the most accurate scale. Dominions have the grandeur of royal dignity in the world below, and the soul has the dominion, the king of passions. The principles have a world-ruling providence — the soul has prudence. The forces move the heavenly bodies in wondrous harmony — and the soul moves the members of the body with such wonderful harmony. The authorities protect the universal order of things, and the soul preserves the order of life. In the archangels is the treasury of heavenly revelations, to which the ineffable mysteries of Divine wisdom are entrusted, and in the soul there is memory, the abode of knowledge, where reason hides the treasures of knowledge. Angels are ministering spirits, sent into service, immaterial in essence, swiftest in motion, tireless in flow, ascending to heaven, descending to earth, flowing around all creation, and the soul has its servants, thoughts, which, constantly being born, fly in an instant from east to west, from earth to heaven, from heaven to hell, pass through endless spaces, walls, mountains, seas, they are not hindered by guards, locks, and seals do not restrain them.

The soul is the image of God in three respects: by nature, grace, and glory. By nature, for at the time of creation it was formed in the image of God; in mind it is like the Father, the source of all knowledge; in the inner mind it is like the Son, the beginning of wisdom; by free will, it is like the Holy Spirit, the source of all blessings. By grace: in re-creation it is conformed through sonship to the Son of God Himself, as Paul says: "Their... Foreknow, and ordain them to be conformed to the image of Thy Son" (Romans 8:29). In glory: in blessedness, by the power of the Divine Light, she receives the image of God Himself; "The glory of the Lord," says the same Apostle, "beholding, in the same image we are transformed from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18). And John says: "Let us be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). Thus, whoever asks what the soul is, let him know that the soul is the greatest work of the Divine Council, it is the living imprint of the Holy Trinity. Oh, the unfading beauty of the soul! How do you, Christians, imagine the Kingdom of Heaven, heavenly bliss, the glory of the righteous? This is nothing but the contemplation of the Face of God. So beautiful is the Face of God that the holy angels are always ready to look at it. They look with thirst at this inexhaustible source of Unapproachable Light. That is why Peter says: "In which the angels desire to sit down" (1 Peter 1:12). If He had appeared in hell for a moment, hell would have turned into paradise, and if He had disappeared from paradise for a moment, paradise would have turned into hell. The image of this Divine Face is the soul. What will man give in return for his soul? How can he replace a creature so beautiful, the like of which cannot be found either in heaven or on earth? And, contemplating such beauty in my soul, can I then look at any other beauty in this world? Do I honor the tablet on which the image of a king or a nobleman is written, and will I not honor my soul, on which God has inscribed His image? By defiling my soul with carnal lust, it is as if I were throwing the image of God into the dirt and impurity, and I do not realize that I am committing a great evil! O soul! How often do I despise thee! O God, how Thou endure such an insult! It is quite true that we have nothing more precious than the soul, but we value nothing so little as the soul. We give this precious treasure for the instant pleasure of sin. We exchange it for paltry wealth. We betray her for the sake of a one-day splendor of temporary glory...

This is still tolerable if we had a few souls; for if one perish, the other remains. But we have only one soul, for the sake of which the heavenly and the earthly were created, for the sake of which nature labors, the heavens move, the sun shines, the earth bears fruit, plants and animals appear; for the sake of which paradise was planted, the Heavenly Kingdom was prepared, infinite bliss, boundless glory and all the blessings of eternal life in general, "which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor ascended into the heart of man" (1 Corinthians 2:9). Having destroyed the soul, we decisively lose everything: heaven and earth, the world, and paradise, and this temporary, and the other, eternal, life. That's it, that's it! In order to test the patience of the righteous Job, God gave the devil the power to tempt him, harm him, grieve him, and smite him in his children and in his own health. "Behold, all that is unto him, I give into thy hand... only guard his soul" (Job 1:12; 2:6). The rich Job became impoverished in the twinkling of an eye; his numerous herds of small and large cattle were partly plundered by robbers, partly struck by lightning. His high palaces fell, shattered by the stormy breath of the strong wind. His sons and daughters were subjected to an unforeseen and sudden death in one hour. He himself, poor, childless, homeless, outside the city, stricken with ulcers from head to foot, lay on a festering pit. During the day, the sun's rays scorched him, at night the cold tormented him even more. Job lost everything: wealth, children, and health; no, properly speaking, Job lost nothing, for he did not destroy his soul. What, he says, have I lost? My riches? But I was born naked, and what wonder that I should die naked? "Naked myself came out of my mother's womb, naked and I will depart" (Job 1:21). Have I lost my health? Thus it pleased God — "as the Lord willed, so it was" (Ibid.). Have I lost my children? "The Lord will give, the Lord will take away" (Ibid.). I have lost everything, and yet I have lost nothing, until I have lost my soul. I am still righteous before God even without my former well-being, wealth, children, health. As He who gave them to me took them away, so that He who took them away can return them to me. Though I have lost everything, yet for this I praise and bless His holy name, for He has allowed me to be tested in every way, except to touch my soul. "Blessed be the name of the Lord." (Ibid.) Thus God, the lover of mankind, has such a great providence, that when he permits our trial or punishment, or when he allows the devil to tempt us and harm us in the most precious things for us in this world, he nevertheless commands him: "Only guard his soul, that he may be careful not to do any harm to the soul, this only-begotten daughter of Jesus Christ, heiress of His Kingdom, whom He entrusts chiefly to a guardian angel, that He may cover her, watch over her, and preserve her "from the fear of the night, from the arrow that flies in the days, from the things that pass away, from the gnarls and the demon of the noonday" (Psalm 90:5-6). Why is this? "Because everything else," says Chrysostom, "is many, and if one suffers damage, we use the services of another. And he continues: "If one is lost today, it will be found tomorrow, as Job found it in double and triple quantity." And the soul is the only one, and everything else depends on it, if we destroy it, how will we live?" But all is lost if we have lost our souls. The loss of everything, if the soul is preserved, is not in the least sensitive. The acquisition of everything, if the soul is ruined, does not compensate for anything. The soul alone is that which gives people life in this world and that inspires hope for a blissful life in paradise. If we have destroyed it, we have lost peace and paradise, we have lost everything. Why? "If we destroy it, how shall we live?"

Strange thing! If we have a child, the only thing we care about is that he will not be scorched by the sun, damaged by the wind, or upset by anyone. But our salvation does not depend on this child at all. If we have a precious stone, we keep it with such care that we are ready, if possible, to hide it in our hearts. And we cannot buy paradise with this stone. And after that, do we value the soul in any way, on which the well-being of the present and the bliss of the future life depend? This inestimable treasure, with the loss of which we lose everything heavenly and earthly, we entrust in the hands of which I am ashamed to speak!

Alcibiades was expelled from Athens. When a long time had elapsed after his exile, when the Athenians, for the necessities of the war that had arisen, had sent men to summon him, sending a letter in which all the archons had signed an undertaking not to do him any harm, Alcibiades, who had had many occasions to convince himself of the infirmity of the decisions of his fellow citizens, did not believe it, and resolutely refused to return. "How, Alcibiades? A friend told him. "In all other things," he answered, "I trust my fatherland, but I will not entrust my life to anyone, not even my mother, lest she should ignorantly put a black ball instead of a white one." "In everything that the Athenians demand of me," Alcibiades wanted to say, "I believe them. But as for my life, I do not trust anyone, not even the one who gave birth to me. Why? Because I have only one life, only one, and if I destroy it, I will lose everything. Thus Alcibiades reasoned about his life, for life is one. And we, Christians, how many lives do we have? And so, I say, for the sake of our country, parents, brothers, children, teachers, and everything else, I am glad to endanger money and property, in general, everything that I have in the world. But if we are talking about a single soul, by destroying which I lose everything, let my fatherland, parents, brothers, teachers, and friends forgive me, I will not trust anyone with my soul! Alcibiades did not wish to expose his life to danger, which in any case is temporary and has a definite end, but I, if necessity so requires, am willing to endanger my life as well. What difference does it make if I die today or tomorrow? But to endanger his soul, immortal, the destruction of which is the death of eternity? Oh, I'll never do that, never!