Thus God has ordained, and in order that you may be more willing to obey that law, keep in mind that what the fathers who lived in those times taught the faithful, our spiritual fathers teach us the same: they baptized with water and the Spirit, and these do the same now; they taught the Body and Blood of Christ, and these teach us the same. And just as those who baptized and communed then had nothing superfluous against those who are now, so those who now baptize and commune us have nothing lacking against the former. They taught faith in Christ and in the Holy Trinity, one in essence and indivisible, that is, in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and our spiritual fathers teach us the same thing today. And so, it is evident from this briefly (I do not write everything, so that my word does not become too lengthened), that what the Apostles then did for the faithful and what they taught them, our spiritual fathers do the same for us now - I mean, bishops and priests - exactly the same, without the slightest lack or damage, and they teach and instruct us, as they do. And if they do not differ in any way from the Apostles in this respect, then they are the sons of the Apostles and apostles for us, and those who do not receive them and do not listen to their words, let them hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says to such persons: Amen I say unto you, The land of Sodom and Gomorrah shall be more pleasant than unto you (Matt. 10:15; 11:22). For what did He say to the Apostles: "He who receives you, receives Me" (Matt. 10:40), and again: "Hear you, He hears Me; and be rejected by you, Me is rejected; but cast aside Me, reject Him who sent Me (Luke 10:16), - this applies to those like them, their successors, and those who are now living, and those who will live after them. And consequently, those who do not accept and do not listen to them, but are rejected, do not accept and do not listen to Christ the Lord Himself, but reject Him. And in rejecting Him, they also reject God the Father, Who sent Him.

You know, of course, my beloved son, that now, in these times, no one of the laity, nor of the monks, nor of the priests or bishops, reveres, loves, fears or accepts anyone as an apostle of God and a disciple of Christ, out of the love of Christ, or according to the commandment, or eternal for the sake of the blessings promised to us; but we all despise one another and despise one another: monks condemn monks, priests condemn bishops, laymen condemn all of them, and among themselves one another, and no one at all keeps in mind that the Church of God, as it was in ancient times, remains so now, and as God then ordained for it the first (at first - Ed.) the Apostles, the second - the prophets, the third - teachers and others, enumerated by St. Paul, so now they also abide in the person of their successors, the primates of the Church, so that everyone would receive some as apostles, some as prophets, others as teachers. We have completely forgotten all this, and we exalt ourselves one above the other without measure. Him Who yesterday baptized me, freed me from sin and corruption of my soul, filled me with the grace of the Holy Spirit, communed me with the most pure Body and saving Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and made me a son of God (what else did the Apostles of Christ do for Christians at that time?), I do not want to look at this very thing now, and I do not welcome him, because I consider it a shame for myself; I do not go out to meet him when he comes to me to honor him and receive him kindly, but I say to my servant with vexation, "What does he want there?" Tell him that your master is busy and has not time to receive him. Not to mention the fact that even worse and more dishonorable than this is done not only to monks, but also to priests, the very ones who confess to them and entrust their souls to them.

But if the spiritual father himself goes to him, but does not do his will, and does not indulge his desires, or, better said, does not fall down with him, in order to perish with him, then he leaves him and finds another who would follow his carnal desires.

Thus, everything spiritual among us, as you yourself see and know, is now in disorder, upset; the Apostolic Rite and Tradition have been forgotten and the commandments of Christ have been abandoned. And this calamitous evil lives in the present generation, despite the fact that everyone dreams of themselves, that they have sufficiently studied the divine, know the commandments of God and can judge what and how they should do.

They treat their spiritual fathers in the same way: they think that through confession with them they receive remission of their sins, but they themselves are considered devoid of any virtue, having no boldness before God, and they are placed on the same line with all other people.

Being baptized as infants, they therefore believe that they are not guilty when they do not afterwards give honor to the one who baptized them, and do not revere him as their spiritual father. They also dream that, having learned the rudiments of Christian dogmas in childhood, they know enough for piety, and that therefore God will not punish them for despising the teachers of piety and not wanting to learn anything more from them. It seems to them that they are quite pious and lead a more orderly life than many others, so they hope that they will be justified for this one reason. Again, to speak in spirit of their sins, to confess them and to receive permission from their spiritual fathers, this, it seems, is sufficient for salvation, and then they need no longer have faith in these fathers, nor give them honor, nor show them the reverence that befits them, as successors of the Apostles, mediators and intercessors for them before God.

In this way the whole universe is now filled with this charm and this evil. The violation and contempt of this commandment alone turned everything upside down in the Church of God, threw it down to its very lot. The Church has fallen into such disorder and confusion that there is almost no decent order for her anywhere, and one will not find a sign that this is the beautifully combined body of the Lord. As if we do not have the head of Christ the Lord, as if we are not brothers in spirit, bound together and united by the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we do not allow each of us to be ordained and well-ordered by the first builders of the Church of God?! Because of this, we are separated and scattered, like soulless particles of some substance (like sand). So much have we been enslaved to our desires, so much have the lusts of voluptuousness prevailed over us! Being carried away by them only to please ourselves, we have been divided, and from mutual hostility and pride we have turned away and distanced ourselves from one another, and thus have lost the distinguishing mark and sign of our faith, that is, love, of which the Lord said: "Of this all men understand, that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). If we have lost it, then it is in vain that we are called Christians.

Tell me, I beseech thee, when we do not love our spiritual fathers, who have given us such great blessings, that through them God makes us his sons by grace, partakers of his glory, and heirs of eternal bliss, when, I say, we do not love them, and do not honour them as we ought to, as we ought to honour the man of God, sent to us from God, - Who can believe us that we have love for other brothers, our neighbors? And besides, if those whom we have as intercessors before God and men of prayer, who have received from God the authority to give us absolution for all our sins and to reconcile us to Him, if, I say, we do not receive them with full conviction and faith as saints, but look upon them as sinners, how can we hope that through them we have been granted a perfect remission of sins? For the Lord says: "According to your faith be unto you" (Matt. 9:29). And exactly, according to the measure of our faith, to the extent that we believe in them, so shall we also receive the remission of our sins. Moreover, if the word spoken by the Lord is true: receive you, Me receives, and Cast you away, Me is rejected

What more can be said than this, I do not know, and I do not find why and for what virtue of yours I could call you Christians?

Poor and unfortunate man! Why do you not revere your spiritual father as an apostle of Christ? "I don't see, you say, that he fulfills the commandments of God, that's why I don't honor him." But this is an empty pretext.

Now, as you see for yourself, because of your unbelief, ingratitude, and abandonment of your spiritual father and teacher, you have not only destroyed all that you have received through him, but you have blotted out the very reason why you are a Christian, and you have lost Christ the Lord. For suppose in your mind that the king of the earth has sent to you one of his least servants, poorly dressed, in old rags, not on horseback, but on a bad donkey, or even on foot, but who has brought you a charter under the royal seal, written by the king in his own hand, and in this letter the king declares you his brother and friend, and promises after a while to make you a partaker with him in the reign, to crown thy head with a royal crown and clothe thee in royal garments, tell me, how would thou react to this servant? Would you receive him and honor him as a royal servant, and for the sake of such great and truly royal promises and such radiant glory that awaits you, rejoice with him, do him good according to your strength and promise to do good to him forever afterwards, or would you despise him and send him away empty-handed and dishonorable, for the sole reason that he is dressed in poor clothes and came on foot?! Supposing you to despise him in this way, and the king found out about it, would he praise you for it, or would he reproach and condemn you? If you yourself were this king, would you not consider it a reproach and dishonor to yourself such contempt shown to your servant? And would he not acknowledge this reproach as a reproach to himself? Of course, it would have been. Thou wouldst be so angry with him, as if he himself would show thee contempt, as if reproaching thee to thy face that thou hast such servants, and would say, Who hath made him judge over my servants? He did not reproach my servant for wearing such poor and stained rags through his negligence, but against myself, that I was merciless and kept my servants in such rags. In this way you would repent that you had made such promises to this contemptuous of your servant for the sake of this very contempt, and you would not have accepted him when he came to you, because he, being impudent, had taken away your own judgment and condemned your servant, whom it was inappropriate for him to judge.

Discuss all this within yourself, my spiritual and beloved child, and, having perfectly understood the present order of things, try to be a true Christian, not only in word, but also in deed. Acquire for yourself a spiritual father, acquire a teacher, a mediator and an intercessor before God. Cleave to him with love and faith, with fear and desire, and be with him as you were with Jesus Christ Himself, that through him you may be vouchsafed to be united with Christ and become a partaker and co-heir of His eternal glory and kingdom, so that you may sing and glorify Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the endless ages of ages. Amen.

Homily Twelve. 1. He who repents of his sins will receive no benefit if he does not seek from Christ the Lord and the cure of his infirmity, because of which he sins. 2. Whatever a person does in this life, he does in vain, if it does not contribute to the health of his soul. 3. How does sin happen according to our will and without our will?

It is good to weep and grieve over one's sins and pray to God for their absolution. But there will be no benefit from this, if our Lord Jesus Christ does not heal those infirmities of the penitent, because of which he sins, as if unwillingly, for if he is not healed of them, then he cannot refrain from sins. Wherefore every penitent must devote all his asceticism to this alone, in order to be healed by Christ the Lord, to be sanctified and to receive the power to fulfill the will of God and His commandments. For whoever is not healed by Christ the Lord sometimes commits sins, being carried away by his own weakness, and sometimes with great difficulty and constraint fulfills some commandment, but what is the use of such a person? He is like one who builds and again destroys what has been built. Why is it necessary that our infirmities be healed by Christ the Lord, Who alone is the true Physician, Who came to earth to heal our infirmities, because of which we sin? He is the Lamb of God, take away the sin of the world, which is the weakness of our damaged nature. For after Adam transgressed the commandment of God and was expelled from paradise, every man became weak and sick. And these infirmities, since they are found both in nature and in our volition, are somehow strange: sometimes it seems that they are of nature, and sometimes of volition.