The New Testament teaches the same in the parable of the one who entered the marriage in an unmarried garment, although the one who entered was from among those who were called. The king said to the servants, pointing out the unworthy: "Having bound his hand and nose, take him and cast him into utter darkness." The binding of hands and feet means the deprivation of all possibility for spiritual progress. Exactly: the one who has taken the wrong direction, who has aspired directly from the state of sinfulness, comes to this state, and even in this state, to love, which accomplishes the union of man with God, but a person who has already been purified by repentance. Throwing into utter darkness means the descent of the mind and heart into error and self-deception. With error and self-deception, every thought, every feeling is completely gloomy, completely hostile to God. The servants to whose power the unfortunate person surrenders are demons: although they are infected with an insane hatred of God, they are at the same time His servants in His unlimited omnipotence and wisdom; they take possession only of those people who, for their arbitrary behavior, surrender to the power of demons. He who has entered a direction forbidden by God is given over to this power, as carried away by self-conceit, as having arbitrarily rejected obedience to God.

{p. 51}

Holy love is exalted and glorified in the Holy Scriptures. The Apostle Paul, having enumerated in the First Epistle to the Corinthians the gifts of the Holy Spirit, mentioning the gifts of wonderworking, prophecy, the reasoning of spirits, and knowledge of various languages, said: "Be zealous therefore for the great gifts, and even after you have transcended I will show you the way." What can be higher than a Prophet, a miracle-worker, who speaks in foreign tongues by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and not by ordinary human study? "If I speak with the tongues of men and with the tongues of angels," answers the great Paul, "but love is not imam, for it is like a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." And if the Imam prophesy, and all the mysteries, and all the understanding, and if the Imam have all the faith, as if I were to put away the mountains, then I am not an Imam, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give up my body, burn it in it, I have no love, there is no profit for me. Love falls away, if prophecies are abolished, if tongues are silenced, if reason is abolished. For we understand in part and prophesy in part: "When the perfect comes, then, in part, it will be abolished" [71]. What is perfect? Love is the souza (totality) of perfection [72]. One must attain perfection in all virtues, in order to enter into the perfection of all perfections, into their fusion, into love. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God [73]. God is love, and abiding in love abides in God, and God abides in him [74]. Of this we understand, that we abide in Him, and He in us, as He hath given us food from His Spirit [75]. The only true sign of the attainment of love, given to us by the Holy Spirit Himself, is the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit in us. He who has not become the temple of the Holy Spirit, let him not flatter himself, let him not deceive himself: he cannot be the abode of love, he is a stranger to it. Love is poured out into our hearts together with the Holy Spirit. It is His attribute. In whom the Holy Spirit descends, in him is His attribute of love. "Whoever acquires love is at the same time clothed with God Himself," said St. Isaac of Syria [77].

Perhaps it will be objected: "We are Christians; we are renewed by Holy Baptism, by which all the ailments of fallen nature are healed, the image and likeness of God are restored in their original grace, the Holy Spirit is implanted in man, and the damage to the qualities and therefore of love is destroyed." So! but the grace-filled state of renewal and renewal brought about by Holy Baptism needs to be maintained by living according to the Gospel commandments. If ye keep My commandments, said the Lord, ye shall abide in My love. Be in Me, and I in you. As the rod cannot bring forth fruit for itself, unless it be on the vine, so are you, unless you abide in Me. If anyone does not abide in Me, he will be cast out like a rod, and will dry up: and they gather it and put it into the fire, and it will be burned. He who does not maintain the acquisitions granted by Holy Baptism, by living according to the commandments, loses what he has acquired. "The ineffable and terrible glory," says St. John Chrysostom, "which is brought about by Baptism, remains in us for one or two days; then we extinguish it, bringing upon it a storm of worldly cares and covering the rays with thick clouds" [79]. Having come to life through Baptism, we again mortify ourselves by life according to the flesh, by life for sin, for earthly pleasures and acquisitions. The holy Apostle Paul said: "Thou shalt not live according to the flesh, but according to the flesh." But those who are in the flesh cannot please God. For the wisdom of the flesh is death [80]. The grace of Baptism remains inactive, like a bright sun covered by clouds, like a precious talent buried in the ground. Sin begins to act in us with all its force, or even more strongly than before Baptism, according to the degree to which we give ourselves over to sinfulness. But the spiritual treasure given to us is not completely taken away from us until death, and we can reveal it again in all its power and glory through repentance. Repentance for a sinful life, sorrow over sins voluntary and involuntary, struggle with sinful habits, effort to overcome them and sorrow over their forcible defeat, forcing ourselves to fulfill all the Gospel commandments – this is our lot. We are to ask forgiveness from God, to be reconciled to Him, to atone for unfaithfulness by faithfulness to Him, to replace friendship with sin by hatred of sin. Those who are reconciled are characterized by holy love. It is not so much that we seek it, as God seeks that we may be able to receive it and receive it. Having convicted of error the one who was satisfied with himself in his self-conceit and blindness, calling him to zealous repentance, the Lord pronounced the following consolation and promise: Behold, I stand at the doors, and there is no understanding: if any man hear My voice, and open the doors, I will come to him, and sup with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcome, and sit with My Father on His throne [82]. This is what All-Holy Love says. The feeling of love which the sinner ascribes to himself, who never ceases to drown in sins, which he ascribes to himself unnaturally and proudly, is nothing but a deceptive, forced play of feelings, an indistinct creation of dreaminess and self-conceit. Everyone who sins does not see Him, nor know Him,[83] God, Who is Love.

Let us turn to the citizens of the deserts, caves, abysses of the earth, to those of the people who are not worthy of the whole world, to the venerable monks who were engaged in the highest of sciences, the science brought by the Lord from heaven. This science is the knowledge of God and, through the means of true, experienced knowledge of God, the knowledge of man. The sages of this world have worked and are working in vain to acquire this knowledge in the light of their own minds, darkened by the fall. The light of Christ is needed here! only by the radiance of this light can man see God, see himself. Illumined by the light of Christ, the venerable wilderness dwellers labored in the village of their hearts, and found on it the precious beads – love for God. In their divinely inspired writings, they warn us against the calamities that usually follow the premature search for love. St. Isaac of Syria discusses this subject with particular clarity. From his writings we write out several testimonies and the most spiritually useful instructions.

"The All-Wise Lord," says the great instructor of monastics, "is pleased that we eat spiritual bread in the sweat of our brow. He established this not out of malice, but so that indigestion would not occur, and we would not die. Each virtue is the mother of the one that follows it. If you leave the mother who gives birth to virtues, and strive to seek out daughters before acquiring their mother, then these virtues become vipers for the soul. If you do not reject them, you will soon die" [84]. Spiritual reason will naturally follow the practice of virtues. Both are preceded by fear and love. Again, fear precedes love. Anyone who shamelessly asserts that it is possible to acquire what follows, "without first practicing in the preceding, has undoubtedly laid the first foundation of destruction for his soul. The Lord has established such a path that the last is born of the first" [85].

In the 55th Sermon, which serves as a response to the epistle of St. Simeon the Wonderworker, St. Isaac says: "You wrote in your epistle that your soul loved to love God, but that you have not reached the point of loving, although you have a great desire to love. To this you add that the hermitage in the wilderness is desired by you, that purity of heart began in you, and that the memory of God is greatly inflamed in your heart, kindling it. If this is true, then it is great. But I would not like it to be written by you, because there is no order in it. But if you have told for the sake of the question, then the order of the question is different. Whoever says that his soul does not yet have boldness in prayer, because it has not conquered the passions, how dare he say that his soul has loved to love God? There is no way to arouse in the soul the Divine love, after which you mysteriously walk in hermitage, if the soul has not conquered the passions. You said that your soul did not conquer the passions, but loved to love God: there is no order in this. He who says that he has not conquered the passions, but loves to love God, I do not know what he says. "You will object: I did not say I love, I will love to love. And this is not the case if the soul has not attained purity. If you want to say an ordinary word, then you are not the only one who speaks, but everyone says that he desires to love God; this is said not only by Christians, but also by those who worship God wrongly. This word is usually said by everyone. But at such words only the tongue moves, while the soul does not feel what is being said. Many patients do not even know that they are sick. Malice is a disease of the soul, and delusion is the loss of truth. Very many, infected with these ailments, proclaim their health, and are praised by many. If the soul is not cured of malice and does not acquire the natural health in which it was created, if it is not reborn into health by the Spirit, then it is impossible for a person to wish for anything higher than natural, proper to the Spirit, because the soul, as long as it is in illness because of the passions, is not yet able to feel the spiritual with its sensation and does not know how to desire it, but desires only from hearing and reading the Scriptures."

The work of the cross is purely in accordance with the composition of nature, which is divided into two parts. One consists in enduring sorrows with the body, is accomplished by the action of the spiritual power of jealousy, and is called the deed proper. The other is acquired by the subtle work of the mind, by unceasing contemplation of God and by abiding in prayer, which is accomplished by the power of desire, and is called vision. The first, that is, the deed, purifies the passionate part of the soul by the power of jealousy, while the second purifies the mental part of the soul by the action of spiritual love or spiritual lust. Everyone, before the completion of the first part, who passes on to the second, carried away by its sweetness, not to say from laziness, is subjected to anger because, having not first put to death his soul on earth,[86] that is, having not healed the weakness of his thoughts by patiently abiding in the work of the reproach of the cross, he dared to dream in his mind of the glory of the cross. This is the meaning of what the ancient Saints said: "If the mind desires to ascend the cross before the senses are healed of weakness, then the wrath of God overtakes it. The ascent to the cross then incurs wrath, when it is accomplished not by the first part of enduring sorrows or by the crucifixion of the flesh, but by the striving for vision, the second part, which takes place after the healing of the soul. Such a person's mind is defiled by shameful passions and rushes to dreams and thoughts of self-conceit. His path is barred by prohibition, because he did not first purify his mind with sorrows, did not subdue the lusts of the flesh, but from hearing and writing he rushed straight ahead, into a path full of darkness, being blind himself. And those who have sound eyesight, who are full of light and have acquired teachers full of grace, and they are in distress day and night; their eyes are full of tears; in prayer and weeping they labor day and night because of the dangers of the journey, because of the rapids, more terrible that they encounter, because of the images of the truth that are mingled with its deceptive phantoms. The things of God, say the Fathers, come by themselves when you do not expect them. So! but if the place is clean, and not desecrated" [87].

Whoever wants to approach God to serve Him must surrender to the guidance of the fear of God.

The feeling of sacred fear, the feeling of the deepest reverence for God, is indicated to us, on the one hand, by the immense greatness of God's Being, and on the other, by our extreme limitations, our weakness, our state of sinfulness, our fall. Fear is also prescribed for us by the Holy Scriptures, which began to replace the voice of conscience and the natural law for us, when they became darkened, began to emit obscure, mostly false sounds, which completely replaced them when the Gospel appeared. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling,[88] the Holy Spirit teaches us. To those who obey His command, He says: Come, children, listen to Me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.89 He proclaims the promise to grant the fear of God to those who truly intend to be assimilated to God: "I will give My fear in their hearts, lest they depart from Me."90 The beginning of the great science, the active knowledge of God, is the fear of God. This science is called wisdom in the Holy Scriptures. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but understanding is good to all who do, and His praise endureth for ever and ever. The fear of the Lord is the crown of wisdom, blossom the peace and health of healing. The fear of the Lord is glory and praise, and gladness, and a crown of joy. The fear of the Lord is a gift from the Lord and on the paths of love [92]. By the fear of the Lord we learn to turn away from sins: the fear of the Lord is the fountain of life, but it creates to turn away from the snare of death. The fear of the Lord hates unrighteousness, but vexation and pride, and the ways of evil. Be in the fear of the Lord all day long [93]. Through the fear of the Lord we are guided on the path of God's commandments: Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, in His commandments the earth shall ascend. His seed will be strong on the earth [94]. Blessed are all those who fear the Lord, who walk in His paths [95]. The angel of the Lord will encamp around all those who fear Him, and will deliver them. Fear the Lord with all His holiness, for there is no deprivation for those who fear Him [96].

In vain do dreamers, filled with self-conceit and self-deception, abhor the fear of God as the property of contemptible slaves, when God calls us to fear, declares that He Himself will be our teacher of fear, that He will give us the spiritual gift of the fear of God. It is not low for man, an insignificant creature, fallen, rejected, lost, having assimilated enmity to God, to pass from a state of enmity and perdition to a state of slavery and salvation. This slavery alone is a great gain! Already this slavery is great freedom! Fear is prescribed to us as a means that is essentially necessary and necessary for us. Fear purifies man, prepares him for love: we are slaves in order to lawfully become children. As we are cleansed by repentance, we begin to feel the presence of God; from the sense of the presence of God comes the holy sensation of fear. Experience reveals the height of feeling. High and desirable is the feeling of the fear of God! Under its influence, the mind often dulls its eyes, ceases to pronounce words, to produce thoughts: by reverent silence, which surpasses words, it expresses the consciousness of its insignificance and the inexpressible prayer that is born of this consciousness. St. Isaac of Syria describes this state excellently: "A humble-minded person, when he approaches prayer or is vouchsafed it, does not dare to pray to God or ask for anything. He does not know what to pray for; he is silent with all his thoughts, waiting only for mercy and the will that will be expressed about him from the Greatness Whom he worships. His face is bowed to the ground, and the inner vision of his heart is lifted up to the exalted gates to the Holy of Holies. There is He Whose dwelling is darkness, dulling the eyes of the Seraphim, Whose goodness impels the legions to rejoicing, placing silence on all their ranks. His boldness extends only to the following words, only for this he dares to pray: "Lord, according to Thy will be done to me" [97]. The fear of God is a gift of God. As a gift, it is requested by prayer. The holy Prophet David wished to be vouchsafed this gift, and therefore he besought God: "Set Thy word to Thy servant to fear, nail to Thy fear my flesh,[98] that is, my carnal desires. The fear of the Lord is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the holy prophet Isaiah counts as follows: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of knowledge and godliness, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of the fear of God.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who by His coming to earth brought peace from God and God's favor to men, Who became the Father of the age to come and the Ancestor of the holy tribe of those who are being saved, Who calls His children to love and union with Himself, nevertheless offers fear as a cure for our damaged nature, among other means. To him who gives himself up to outbursts of anger and hatred, He threatens with hellfire fire; he who tramples on his conscience threatens with prison; he who is carried away by impure lusts threatens with eternal torment [100]. He who does not forgive his neighbors from the sincerity of his heart [p. 59] declares them that his sins will not be forgiven [101]. The lover of money and the lover of sensuality is reminded of death, which can delight them when they do not expect it [102]. The podvig of martyrdom is exalted: it is both inspired and nourished by love. But the Saviour of the world, in the instruction which He gave to the martyrs, encourages them to courage, helps them in their podvig with fear. Do not be afraid, He says, from those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [103]. She, I say to you, fear him [104]. In general, the Lord commanded all His followers the salvific fear of God, which is expressed in constant sobriety and vigilance over themselves. Let your loins be girded up, He said, and your lamps burning: and you shall be like a man waiting for his Lord, when He returns from marriage, that he that cometh and pushes him shall open unto Him. Blessed are the servants, whose coming the Lord will find those who are watchful [105]. I say to all: watch [106].

The Gospel of Matthew majestically depicts the Second, glorious Coming of the Lord, His impartial and Dread Judgment over tribes and peoples. This extraordinary picture, presented with extraordinary simplicity and clarity, involuntarily comes alive before the eyes of the mind, strikes the heart with fear. Contemplating this picture, it is possible to depict the state into which it brings the soul in the words of Job: "And thou hast struck me with terror and trembling, and my bones are shaken; And I was afraid of the hair and the flesh [107]. At the coming of the Judgment for the exiles from heaven, the land of exile and oath, the earth, will burn, and the sky will twist like a garment is rolled up. The dead of all times and peoples, stirred up by the life-giving trumpet — the Word of God — will rise from their graves and form themselves an immense and innumerable assembly. The armies and armies of the holy Angels will come to a terrible spectacle, to a great service. And the outcast angels will stand before the Judgment. The Son of God will sit on the Throne of Glory, a glory terrible in its boundless greatness. All rational creatures will tremble with fear when they see their Creator, who called them into existence from nothingness by the one omnipotent Word. They will stand before the Word for which there is no impossible fulfillment. They will stand before that Life, in Which there can be no other life outside of it. The Fathers rightly said that in this terrible time, all creation, if it had not been restrained by the omnipotence of God and left to itself, would have turned into nothingness [110]. The righteous, seeing the perfect Truth face to face, will consider their truth to be of no importance, and the sinners will consider it an excuse alien to the Gospel mind, and will condemn themselves. The fate of all will be decided for eternity. Before the coming of this Judgment, the Divine Apostle confesses that he cannot be justified, although he does not know any sin behind him, because God is his Judge. All the saints, during their earthly pilgrimage, often come with the remembrance and contemplation of the pious to the Dread Judgment of Christ, — with a timely, salvific fear, they protect themselves from the fear that will be aroused in the lost by despair; by timely condemnation of themselves they try to obtain justification in good time, to avert weeping to avert weeping. Fraternity! it is necessary, necessary for us, weak and sinners, to often remember the Second Coming and the Dread Judgment of Christ: such remembrance is the most reliable preparation. Terrible is the Judgment that awaits all people after the general resurrection, and terrible is the Judgment that awaits each person after his death. The consequences of both judgments are either desirable or disastrous. If earthly judgments, in which only perishable and temporal things are at stake, arouse our solicitude, how much more should the judgment of God concern us. For what other purpose did the Lord announce it to us so clearly, if not to arouse in us a soul-saving fear, which can protect us from a sinful, careless life, in which is the condition of our perdition? The Monk Elijah, an Egyptian monk, who was silent in the Thebaid desert, said: "I am frightened by three times: the time of the soul's departure from the body, the time of the Judgment of God, and the time of the utterance that will follow about me from God" [112].

{p. 61}