43 (46). To the fallen maiden

(He strongly reproaches the fallen virgin, proves the obligation of the vow given and broken by her to preserve her virginity, expresses her sorrow that, having left the Bridegroom of Christ, she gave herself over to the corrupter; finally, by fear of death, Judgment and eternal punishment, as well as hope in God's mercy, he tries to dispose her to repentance)

Now is the time to proclaim this prophetic word and say: "Who will give water to my head, and let me clean up the fountain of tears? and I weep... For the slain daughter of my people?" (Jeremiah 9:1). Though their deep silence envelops them, though they are once and for all crushed by calamity, and the very feeling of suffering has been taken away from them by a deadly blow, yet we must not leave such a defeat without tears. And if Jeremiah found worthy of a thousand times lamentation those who are struck down in battle, what should be said about such a calamity of souls? "Thy wounds," it is said, "shall not be wounded by swords, but lower than thy slain shall be slain" (Isaiah 22:2). On the contrary, I weep over the sting of true death – the grave sin and the flaming arrows of the evil one, which mercilessly burn souls along with bodies.

Seeing such a crime on earth, without a doubt, God's laws will loudly complain, which always forbid and cry out both in antiquity: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" (Deuteronomy 5:21), and in the Holy Gospels: "For whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her, hath already committed fornication with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:28); but now they see that the bride of the Lord herself, whose head is Christ, is shamelessly committing adultery. The very spirits of the saints will complain; and Phinehas is jealous that now it is impossible for him to take the "sulitsa" (javelin, lance) in his hands, to punish the crime bodily; and John the Baptist, that he could not, having left the heavenly abodes, as the wilderness was then, come to denounce iniquity, and if it was necessary to suffer, he would rather lose his head than give up boldness. Or perhaps John (if, like Blessed Abel, he still speaks to us) still cries out and cries out louder than he did then about Herodias: "Thou shalt not be worthy to have her" (cf. Matt. 14:4). For although the body of John, according to the necessary requirement of nature, submitted to the Divine decree, and the tongue of John is silent, nevertheless "the word of God does not fit" (2 Tim. 2:9). Whoever stretched out his boldness even to death, when the marriage of a slave like him was destroyed, will he endure seeing such a desecration of the holy Lord's bridal chamber?

But you, who threw off the yoke of this Divine union, fled from the most pure bridal chamber of the true King, and abominably fell into this dishonorable and impious corruption, since you can no longer escape this bitter accusation, and you have neither the means nor the opportunity to conceal evil, you now give yourself over to insolence. And just as the "wicked" one, having fallen "into the depths of evil, is negligent" (cf. Proverbs 18:3), so you deny the very conditions with the true Bridegroom and cry out that you are not a virgin and never promised to be a virgin, although you have accepted many of the conditions of virginity, and have shown many in practice.

Bring to mind the beautiful confession that you made before God, angels and men. Bring to your mind the venerable synod, the sacred countenance of the virgins, the assembly of the Lord and the saints of the Church, and thy grandmother, aged in Christ, who is becoming younger and still blossoming in virtue, and the mother who competes with her in the Lord and strives by some new and extraordinary labors to eradicate the traces of habit in herself, as well as the sister who equally imitates both, and in others strengthens and surpasses them, and in virginal advantages exceeds the merits of her ancestors, and you, her sister, as she had hitherto revered you, both in word and deed tirelessly calls you to equal podvig. Bring them to your memory, and with them the angelic countenance is around God, and the spiritual life in the flesh, and the heavenly abode on earth. Bring to mind the serene days illumined by the light of the night, the spiritual songs, the euphonious psalmody, the holy prayers, the pure and undefiled bed, the virginal repentance, the abstinent meal, beautifully promising that thy virgin will be preserved unmolested.

Where is your dignified appearance, where is the decent disposition and simple clothes befitting a maiden, the beautiful blush of shame and the splendid pallor that blooms with abstinence and vigilance, and shines more pleasantly than any good color? How many times in prayers for the preservation of thy virginity undefiled hast thou shed tears, perhaps. How many letters have I written to the saints and asked them to pray for you, not to enter into human marriage, or rather, to fall into this dishonorable corruption, but not to fall away from the Lord Jesus! How many gifts have you received from the Bridegroom! Shall I speak of the honours which His friends have bestowed upon you for His sake? Shall I also speak of cohabitation with virgins and of intercourse with them, of the friendliness of virgins to thee, of praise for virginity, of virginal blessings, of letters written to thee as to a virgin?

But now, with the little exaltation of the spirit of the air, which now works "in the sons of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2), you have renounced all this; I have exchanged my precious possessions, which have been worth all my efforts, for a short pleasure, which for a time delights your throat, and later on will prove more bitter than gall. Who will not say lamentably: "How was the harlot the faithful city of Zion" (Isaiah 1:21)?

Will not the Lord Himself cry out to one of those who are now walking in the spirit of Jeremiah: "Do you see, 'What the virgin of Israel has done for Me?' (cf. Jeremiah 18:13). I betrothed her "to Myself in faith" and in incorruption, "in righteousness and in judgment and in mercy and in bounty" (Hos. 2:20:19), as I had promised her through the prophet Hosea. But she has loved strangers, and although I, her husband, live, she is called an adulteress, and is not afraid to belong to another husband."

What then is the bride, the divine and blessed Paul, both ancient and new, through whose mediation and instruction, having left your father's house, you entered into union with the Lord? Both of them, alarmed by such a calamity, will not say: "For fear of which I am terrified, I have come, and fear it, you will devour me" (Job 3:25); "For I betroth thee to one pure virgin husband to present Christ"; and thou hast always feared, "lest thou deceive Eve with thy wickedness, so thy minds shall also be corrupted" (cf. 2 Cor. 11:2-3). That is why I have constantly tried to pacify the rebellion of the passions in you with a thousand different sweet songs, and to protect the bride of the Lord with a thousand different cares, and I have always described to you the life of an untrespasser, that "she who does not trespass cares for the things of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:34), so that you would be holy both in body and in spirit, and depict to you the virtues of virginity, and, calling you the temple of God, as if giving wings to zeal, rapturing thee to Jesus; He also helped you with the fear of calamity, so that you would not fall, saying: "If anyone corrupts God's temple, God will corrupt it" (1 Cor. 3:17); added to this that he protected you with prayers: "that your body, soul, and spirit may be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (cf. 1 Thess. 5:23). But I have tired myself in vain with all this, and my bitterness has come to an end of the sweet labors I have endured for you. Again you should sigh, for whom you should have rejoiced, for behold, you are deceived by the serpent more evil than Eve. Not only are your thoughts corrupted, but your body is corrupted with them; and what is terrible, what I would not want to say, what I cannot keep silent about (because the fire "burns and burns in my bones, and I am weak on every side, and I cannot bear" (Jeremiah 20:9), "let us take up the rods of Christ," you have made "the rods of the harlot" (cf. 1 Cor. 6:15). "Come to the isles of Hittim, and see, and to Kedar, and examine diligently, if such a thing was created, if the tongues change their gods, and they are not gods?" (Jeremiah 2:10, 11). But the virgin changed her glory, and her glory is in the cold. "The heavens were terrified at this, and the earth trembled in great measure" (cf. Jeremiah 2:12). And now the Lord says that the virgin did "two evils": "She forsook me" (cf. Jeremiah 2:13), the true holy Bridegroom of holy souls, and she resorted to the impious and lawless corrupter of soul and body together, departed from God her Saviour and presented her "rods" as "slaves to uncleanness and iniquity" (Rom. 6:19), "but you forgot me, and walked after your lust" (cf. Hos. 2:13). who will not help her.

"He would have had her, if the millstone of the ass lay around his neck, and was cast into the sea, lest anyone offend the virgin of the Lord" (Luke 17:2). The arrogant slave goes to such a frenzy that he invades the Lord's bed! Like some thief, he falls into such madness that even with regard to that which is offered as a gift to God, and not the vessels of soulless bodies, but living bodies, in which dwells the soul, created in the image of God! Has it ever been heard from time immemorial that in the midst of a city on a clear noon someone dared to paint unclean pigs in a royal image? "If anyone has rejected" human marriage, "without mercy in the presence of two or three witnesses, he dies. How many things will be vouchsafed torment, who trampled on the Son of God" and "reproached" the bride promised to Him, and "reproached" the spirit of virginity (cf. Heb. 10:28-29; Deut. 17:5)?

But you will say: "She willed; I did not force her against her will." And the lustful lady, this Egyptian woman, herself was inflamed with passion for the beautiful Joseph, but the fierce passion of the incontinent did not overcome the virtue of the chaste, and although she forcibly restrained him with her hands, yet he was not forced to iniquity.

"But she herself," you say, "made up her mind to do this, and was no longer a virgin: if I had not consented, she would have been corrupted by another." It is said that the Son of Man also had to be betrayed, but "woe to that man who is" (cf. Mark 14:21); it is said that "by temptation need comes: woe to whom comes" (cf. Matt. 18:7). Moreover, "the food that falls does not rise, or turn away from it?" (Jeremiah 8:4).