We see how much trouble and grief there is in the world – it's a real hell. But we also feel well that the source of this trouble, the source of this grief, is not God. At the same time, no one has yet succeeded in building some kind of theory of the justification of evil within the framework of theology, although many have tried to do this. Why? Because God is greater than any system and any theory. Moreover, regardless of the evil that we actually see in the world in great numbers and very often endure on ourselves, regardless of all this evil, we feel God's presence in the very world around us.

We feel that we are very often unaware of this, that we very often forget that God is present in this world, as He promised us through the mouth of Jesus: "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt.  28:20), but nevertheless we feel that He is really with us. We feel and understand not with our minds, but with our hearts, that the Lord shares with us our misfortune in all its fullness, that He shares with us the fullness of our misfortune. He is really with us where things are bad – and this is the main thing. And, descending with us into the depths of trouble, into the depths of evil and despair, He leads us out of these depths, gives us strength, wisdom and patience in situations of trouble. But, I repeat, where this misfortune comes from, where this evil comes from, who is the source of this evil, it is impossible to explain. And when we want to explain this, we are probably faced with some kind of satanic attempt. In fact, indeed, if we believe in God, if we feel His presence, then it is easy to understand that He does not need to be justified.

The dominant feature of our relationship with God is not logic, but love. In the person of Jesus, God is among us. Strengthening and supporting us, giving us strength, giving us wisdom, patience, humility and, I repeat, once again, strength to overcome all the troubles in which we find ourselves, in order to break through those misfortunes and trials that befall us. He's with us, here, He's with us where it's hard, and He's leading us through the jungle to finally bring us to the light. This is the main thing in Christianity.

But neither Orthodox nor any other theology gives an answer to the question "Where does evil come from?" Perhaps the time has not yet come to give an answer. Because now, towards the end of the twentieth century, some sources of evil are becoming partially clear. First of all, it becomes clear that in many respects the source of evil is our human sin, our human irresponsibility and our human disorder. Sometimes we see that, say, the causes of the ecological crisis, the causes of environmental pollution, lie precisely in this, precisely in our human irresponsibility – in the irresponsibility of mankind. And many diseases and other troubles occur from environmental pollution.

We see that wars occur in the world again because of human irresponsibility, and we understand that all of us in the world are connected to each other to such an extent that the sin of one inevitably destroys the world around hundreds. St. Seraphim of Sarov once said: "Save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved," but this wonderful saying has a reverse side: and if you destroy yourself, then you will destroy thousands of people. Your sin is terrible not because it destroys you, your sin is terrible because it destroys the world around you and the lives of people around you. Everyone knows, after all, that it is not so much the smoker who poisons his own body as the bodies of those people who inhale the air filled with smoke from smoking. But this is a very simple example, and we can probably cite much more complex and difficult examples: if we pour some rubbish, some chemical waste, or just water with washing powder into the water, then by doing so we poison the fish that live in this water, an innocent fisherman catches this fish, then feeds it to his children, and they get sick because of this. This is an extremely simplified model of how the sin of one falls on the shoulders of other people.

This means that it is not God's fault, but our irresponsibility. But this is only in some aspects of life, in general, we cannot yet say where evil in the world comes from, although we gradually come to the terrible thought that it is not God who is to blame, but we are to blame. And God, in the person of Jesus, comes into the world to help us overcome and conquer our irresponsibility, to help us overcome our sinfulness. Not just to cry out in terror, feeling one's sinfulness and one's fall, but to rise after the fall, to grow out of one's sinfulness, to outgrow it, to throw it off oneself, as one throws off one's old clothes and no longer poisons the world with them. That's what Christ came for: to give us strength. He, the Conqueror of death, gives us the strength and wisdom to be overcomers. He unites with us in life and death so that we too

follow His path and take responsibility for those people who surround us.

Love, overcoming the line that morally separates one person from another, thereby overcomes the individuality of responsibility and voluntarily takes on the burden of someone else's responsibility. This is the true, sublime meaning of the Substitutionary Sacrifice. Christ takes responsibility for our sins and calls us to do the same, to do the same: to take responsibility for ourselves. The phrase I have just quoted is taken from the wonderful book by Semyon Ludvigovich Frank "God Is With Us". This book was published in Paris, by the YMCA-PRESS publishing house, whose activities are directed by Nikita Alekseevich Struve.

Today's evening broadcast, at five o'clock, we, together with Father John and Father Ignatius, devoted precisely to that ugly article in which Nikita Alexeyevich is called a "sorcerer", called a "magician" and "destroyer of Orthodoxy and Orthodox morality in Russia." Therefore, here is another proof of the inconsistency of the arguments used by the authors of the brochure "Antichrist in Moscow" – the book "God is with us", an amazing book by an Orthodox thinker, published so far only in Paris, only by the YMKA-PRESS publishing house, and not by any other publishing houses. So far, I do not know that it has been published by anyone in Russia, Radonezh or any other companies that publish books.

Christ helps us to overcome alienation from each other, helps us to overcome the evil that reigns in the world – through love, He helps us, first of all, by those who stand among us – so defenseless, so vulnerable. And in His defenselessness, in His vulnerability, it is He who remains the winner. Remember the painting by Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge "Christ and Pilate". Who is the winner here? Christ, in his washed tunic, or clean-shaven, perfumed, well-eaten Pilate, dressed in a luxurious toga? Of course not, Jesus. Jesus, who did not sleep all night, with unkempt hair, in His patched tunic, He is the Victor here, because He shared with us the fullness of trouble, the trouble from which mankind is choking. He is among us, wherever we are: where it is bad, where it is bad, where there is trouble, where there is despair. It is there that He takes us by the hands and leads us through the jungle of trouble, brings us to the light, supports us where no one else will support us.

There are only a few days left before the Pascha of Christ, but these few days are filled with amazing pain and, at the same time, amazing wisdom. It is important, very important, every hour, every moment during all this time, to be close to the One who guides us through life, to be next to the One who strengthens us in an amazing way, next to the One who gives us a new vision of the world, a new vision of life around us – with Jesus.

On Christian generosity

RADIO CONVERSATION BY FR. GEORGY CHISTYAKOV