Но как достойным образом раскроет кто все величие Божия слова? Заключающаяся в нем мысль превосходит словесное истолкование. Прости нам долги наши, как и мы прощаем должникам нашим. Ту мысль, какая мне приходит при сем на ум, смело и держать в уме, а еще смелее раскрыть ее в слове. Ибо что сказано? Как преуспевающим в добре представляется в подражание Бог, по словам Апостола: Будьте подражателями мне, как я Христу (1 Кор. 11, 1): так наоборот требуется, чтобы твое расположение к добру стало образцом для Бога; изменяется некоторым образом порядок, и мы осмеливаемся надеяться, что, как в нас подражанием Богу совершается доброе, так и Бог будет подражать нашим делам, когда преуспеем в чем-либо добром, и ты возможешь сказать Богу: «Что сделал я, сделай и Ты; подражай рабу Своему Ты, Господь; убогому и нищему – Ты, царствующий над всем; я отпустил долги, не взыскивай и Ты! Я уважил просителя, не отвергни и Ты просящего!41 Я отпустил должника своего веселым, таков пусть будет и Твой должник! Не делай, чтобы Твой был грустнее моего! Пусть оба равно благодарят оказавших милость!42 Пусть посредниками обоих подтверждено будет равное отпущение и моему и Твоему должнику! Моим должником такой-то, а Твоим – я; какое решение дал я о своем должнике, такое же да возымеет силу и у Тебя; я разрешил, разреши и Ты! Я отпустил, отпусти и Ты! Я великую милость оказал соплеменнику; подражай и Ты, Господи, человеколюбию раба Твоего».

«Но мои прегрешения пред Тобой тяжелее сделанных предо мной моим должником. Признаю это и я; рассуди и то, сколько преимуществуешь Ты во всяком добре. Тебе справедливо нам, согрешившим, даровать милость, соразмерную преизбытку Твоего могущества. Малое человеколюбие оказал я; потому что большего не вмещает природа

41 Речь дополнена по рукописи и по изданию Элера.

42 В рукописи вместо: ταιˆς απαιτουˆσιν, читается τοιˆς χρήζοις. 22

моя; а Ты сколько ни пожелаешь, могущество не воспрепятствует щедродаровитости Твоей».

Но с большей тщательностью выразумеем предлежащее изречение молитвы; рассмотрение смысла его, может быть, и для нас послужит некиим руководством к высокой жизни. Потому исследуем, какие те долги, которым повинно естество человеческое, и еще какие те долги, отпущение которых в нашей власти: познание сего доставит нам достаточное некое уразумение преизбыточества Божиих благ. А посему сделаем здесь перечисление человеческих прегрешений пред Богом.

Человек стал подлежать наказанию от Бога, во-первых, за то, что отступил от Сотворившего и предался противнику, соделавшись беглецом и отступником от Того, Кто его Владыка, по естеству; во-вторых, за то, что самовластную свободу променял на лукавое рабство греху, и быть под самоуправством тлетворной силы предпочел сопребыванию с Богом. Да и это,– не взирать на красоту Создавшего, а обратить лицо к гнусностям греха – можно ли признать каким-либо вторым из зол? И какой род наказаний заслуживающими почЕсть должно презрение Божественных благ, предпочтение же приманок лукавого? Заглаждение образа, повреждение Божественных черт, отпечатленных в нас при начале творения, потеря драхмы, удаление от отчей трапезы, освоение с зловонной жизнью43 свиней, расточение драгоценного богатства, и все подобные прегрешения, какие можно видеть при помощи Писания и рассудка, исчислит ли какое слово?

Thus, since the human race must be punished by God for such faults, it seems to me that therefore the word of God, by the teaching set forth in prayer, instructs us to prayerful communion with God, even if one of us and all of us is more distant from human sins, never to approach with such boldness as if he had a clear conscience. For another, perhaps, like this rich young man, having formed his life according to the commandments, has the right, like the latter, to boast of his life, and to say to God: "All these things I have kept from my youth" (Matt. 19:20), and even to suppose of himself that it is extremely unseemly for him, as one who has not sinned in anything against the commandments, to ask for the forgiveness of debts, which is suitable only for those who have sinned. Such words are appropriate for a person defiled by fornication, he will say, or for covetousness accused of idolatry, it is necessary to ask forgiveness, and in general, it is beautiful and appropriate for anyone who has wounded the conscience of the soul to have recourse to mercy in accordance with the need. And if he is Elijah the great, or works in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17), or great of those born of women (Matt. 11:11), or Peter, or Paul, or John, or any other of those whose superiority is attested to by the Divine Scriptures, then for him to use such sayings, which ask for the forgiveness of debts to one who has no sinful debt? In order that another, having in mind something similar, would not fall into arrogance, like the Pharisee, who did not know what he was by nature. (For if he had known that he was a man, then, of course, he would have learned not to represent his nature as pure from defilement from the Holy Scriptures, which say: "Thou shalt not find among men that the life of one day may be without defilement" [Job 14:4-5]). Therefore, in order that something similar may not happen to the soul of one who approaches God with prayer, the word of God commands not to look at the transgressions, but to bring to mind the general debts of human nature, in which everyone, without a doubt, participates himself, as one who participates in nature, and to beseech the Judge to grant forgiveness of sins.

For since Adam lives in us, and each of us is a man, as long as we see on our nature these leather tunics, and the quickly fading leaves of this material life, which, stripped of our eternal and bright garments, we have sewn for ourselves to our own detriment, instead of the Divine garments, having clothed ourselves in amusements, glory, one-day honors, murderous pleasures of the flesh, and while we gaze upon this bodily abode, on which

43 According to the manuscript: with the fetid tempers of pigs.

we are condemned to dwell as soon as we turn to the east (not only because there we see God, Who, as omnipresent, is not encompassed exclusively by any place, but contains everything, but because in the east our original sojourn is in paradise, from which we were expelled (the Lord God planted paradise in Eden in the east [Gen. 2:8]); therefore, as soon as we turn our gaze to the east and mentally recall our expulsion from the bright and eastern lands of bliss, Then we justly add these sayings, too, who are swept away by the evil fig tree of life, rejected from the eyes of God, who have willfully given ourselves over to the serpent, who eats the earth and crawls on the earth, walks on his forehead and on his belly, and advises us to do the same, to give ourselves over to earthly pleasures, to occupy our hearts with creeping and dragging thoughts on the earth, and to walk on the belly, that is, to take care of the voluptuous life. Therefore, being in this state, like that prodigal son, after a long misery in which he was tending swine, as soon as we come to ourselves, like him, and bring the Heavenly Father to our thoughts, then we make excellent use of such sayings: Forgive us our debts.44

Therefore, even if someone be Moses and Samuel, and someone else who is famous for virtue, nevertheless, since he is a man, he considers these words proper for himself, as a partaker of Adam's nature, a participant in his fall. Since, as the Apostle says, in Adam all die (1 Corinthians 15:22), then the saying which befits Adam in repentance should be common to all those who have died with him, so that we, having been granted forgiveness of sins, may again, as the Apostle says, be saved by the grace of the Lord (Ephesians 2:5). But this is said so that some, looking at the more general, may understand what is offered in the word. If, however, anyone seeks the true meaning in this saying, then, I think, it will not be necessary for us to raise the concept to a general view of nature; for conscience is sufficient to make it necessary to ask for mercy in the consideration of every action in life.

Since in this world, as I think, our life is subject to manifold influences, both in soul and understanding, as well as in bodily feelings, it is difficult, or even absolutely impossible, not to be carried away to sin by at least one passion. For example, this pleasure-loving life is divided in relation to the body according to our feelings, and in relation to the soul it manifests itself in the striving of reason and in the movement of arbitrariness: who is so exalted and endowed with such prudence that in both lives he can get rid of all the filth of vice? Who is sinless in the eye? Who is innocent by hearing? Who is alien to this bestial delight of the larynx? Who is clean from touching sin by touch? Who does not know this riddle offered by the Scriptures: death enters into our windows (Jeremiah 9:21). For the senses, by means of which the soul, communicating with external objects, is occupied with them by choice, are called by the Scriptures windows, which, according to the words of the Scriptures, pave the way for the entrance of death.

In fact, in many deaths the eye often becomes the entrance, it sees the irritated, and is itself aroused to the same passion; or he sees him who prospers not according to his worth, and is inflamed with envy; or he sees the proud, and falls into hatred; or he sees some good-colored substance, a beautiful disposition of the face, and wholly creeps into the lust of the one he likes. And the ear opens the windows of death – along with what it hears, it receives into the soul many passions: fear, sorrow, irritation, pleasure, lust, immoderate laughter, and the like. And the pleasure of taste, as some will say, is the mother of all evils in the order of evil. For who does not know that the root of almost all errors in life is concern for the larynx? Luxury, drunkenness, gluttony, disorderly behavior, polygamy, gluttony, debauchery, a dissolute life, a bestial and unreasonable fall into the passion of dishonor depend on it. In like manner, the sense of touch is the ultimate limit of all transgressions: whatever is done to the body by sensualists belongs to the number of ailments of the sense of touch, the detailed description of which would be lengthy; And it is indecent to important subjects