Homily Seventeen. 1. Whatever good a person has done, it is good for him himself. 2. How do we know if God has accepted our fasting, prayers, and almsgiving? 3. How should we sing and pray? 4. Sanctification and freedom are given to the soul through faith. 5. The soul of psalmody should be humility. 6. How is the grace of God extinguished?

Brother! When you hear that the Holy Fathers tell us to fast or give alms, or do some other good for God, keep in mind that they say so out of condescension to our weakness, for God has no need of any of our good, as He is all-satisfied and lacking in nothing. Whatever good deeds we do in this life, they all turn to our benefit, but they give nothing to God, and He has no need of them. Whoever fasts, suffers evil, keeps vigils, gives alms, does all this in order to gain favor and mercy with God. For if in the field of the present life, gloomy and full of sin, we do not arbitrarily console ourselves with fasts, vigils and other sufferings, and do not show mercy to other people, then God will not want to have mercy on us and forgive us our sins. Whoever himself is unmerciful to others, how can he expect mercy from a righteous God? Whoever, while committing sins, does not grieve over them and, not fearing God, does not repent of them, does not oppress himself for them with fasting and vigils, and does not pray to God for them, do not expect forgiveness from the merciful and gracious Judge God. Therefore, let no one think that he does any good for God, but for his own salvation.

Whoever thinks in this way and holds the conviction that he does good deeds for his own salvation, will in no way do any good for the sake of people, but will do everything, so that we may see the one God, Who knows the innermost things of the heart. A Christian who strives in good works, if he does not keep in mind that he does not intend to lend God in any way, then he destroys his work.

And as long as anyone thinks that he is serving God in any way, know that he has not yet begun to enter his path of salvation. Such a one, let him fast, spend nights without sleep and bear other deprivations, let him fast and pray, let him do alms and other good deeds, let him preach the word of God and teach the truth, he will never have a part with God. For whoever does such good works should do them in order to gain favor with God, and not to serve God. For all, as the divine Paul says, having sinned and falling short of the glory of God, are justified by His grace (Romans 3:23-24), when, of course, they seek and begin to pray, that they may find mercy and that the door of God's mercy may be opened to them to receive mercy in Christ Jesus the Lord. For even so, it is absolutely necessary to ask, to seek, to push, so that whoever does not ask, seek, or push, according to the determination of Christ the Almighty, will not find and receive the mercy of God, and the door of God's mercy will not be opened to him. Having ears to hear, let him hear!

2. Whoever therefore fasts, prayers, and alms (for by means of these three Christians is saved), let him not look at the days of his fasting, nor at the labor of vigil and prayer, nor at the amount of almsgiving, that is, at how much he has given for alms, or how long he has not slept and stood at prayer, or how many days he has fasted, and about this alone he thinks, whether all this is accepted by God. If he accepts it, then Divine grace will be sent to him, and when he receives the grace of God, he will find himself contrite, humble, attentive to himself, touched and repentant of all the evil deeds that he has done before. And then, by means of such a dispensation within, he comes to know how great his weakness is and how useless and shameful his sins are, realizing that they are peculiar to irrational animals alone, but to the rational soul they are unseemly and far from man who has knowledge. Such is the first grace and the first enlightenment given to the soul from God! Having come to such a feeling and knowing that such are precisely her sins, the soul begins to hate them and abhor them as from things worthy of all hatred and abhorrence. And this is the true way of salvation! And whoever does not know himself and does not feel in what a poor state he is (and does not seek it), the fasts and alms that he performs will be wasted. For a sacrifice pleasing to God is only a broken spirit, and only for such a sacrifice is the remission of sins given, just as for such a sacrifice there is fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. This is the sacrament of Christian life, and this is how every Christian should act! Fasting, prayers, almsgiving, arbitrary poverty, sleeping on the bare ground, and everything else that a person does, he must do in order to become friends with God. If all this does not lead him to this friendship, then what is the use of it?

3. A soul that is friends with God is meek and humble, and when it prays, it thinks that it is standing before the face of God, and does not allow itself to wander here and there; so that the soul, which is not in such a state, has not yet made friends with God, is still under the power of the devil, although it sings and prays. Thus, it is necessary that the soul, in prayers and psalms, should seek communion with God more and above all. If she is not in harmony with God and does not seek such companionship, then she cannot hope for any other way of salvation. Those who sing psalms and pray, but are not in harmony with God (and do not seek it, and do not sing and pray for this), are in self-deception and in vain cry out into the air, inciting God to indignation and anger. For such, praying with their lips to God, think with their minds about what belongs to the realm of His enemy the devil, and for this God hides His face from them.

4. Thus, the sanctification of the soul and its deliverance are not given by fasting, prayers and alms by themselves, but before these virtues are given by faith in God, when one believes that only Christ the Lord can sanctify and deliver him. We have a visible testimony and action of this in the sacrament of the most pure Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Almighty, Who commands those who are in bonds: "Come forth, and to those who are in darkness: be revealed" (Isaiah 49:9). These Most-Pure Mysteries are united with the soul and body of the one who partakes of Communion in due course, and unite and make him friends with God. When someone is thus united with God through faith and the Holy Mysteries, is it possible for him to remain a slave of the devil and unclean? Is it possible that such a person continues to sin as long as he remembers such great blessings of God and clings to God? Sin occurs after the deprivation of God's grace and sanctification. This deprivation is caused by pride; pride comes from forgetting God; forgetfulness of God comes from neglect of the sanctification which God has granted, and of pleasing God, the Giver of it. Whoever forgets God, Who sanctified him, ceases to remember who is the one who sanctified him and keeps this sanctification in him, and falls into self-conceit, as if he had all this from himself. For this, God's grace departs from him; then the enemy comes with temptation, draws him away, and here is sin, and after sin is destruction. All because I forgot God, stopped thanking Him and humbling myself before Him. And how great is wickedness, and how great is unrighteousness! Someone fell into the sea. If someone else delivers him from this misfortune, and he comes out of the depths of the sea alive, as if he were rising from the dead, then what thanksgiving he will have to his deliverer, and what humility before him! The same is true here. And whoever is such, God will never forsake him, as the Prophet David says: "In our humility the Lord will remember us" (Psalm 135:23).

5. The soul of psalmody should be that the singer should be humble and do everything that leads to humility. But what is humility? That is to know and realize one's human weakness. But in order for anyone to know and recognize human weakness, this happens only from enlightenment, from above by Christ the Lord, sent to those who believe in Him. And there is no other way to know oneself and realize one's weakness. Why do the Holy Fathers say that he who is not baptized is not enlightened? Just as the eye cannot see anything without light, so the soul cannot see its weakness unless it is mysteriously enlightened by Christ. And how is such enlightenment accomplished? In the unbelievers, as we have said, by faith in Christ the Saviour and by divine Baptism, and in those who believe, who, having become blind after holy Baptism, do not see their own weakness and therefore are proud and lawless, for St. David says: "I have transgressed the law to the earth" (Psalm 118:51); and in other places it is said: "The Lord resisteth the proud" (James 4:6); the beginning of sin is pride (Sir. 10:15); the beginning of man's pride is the apostasy from the Lord (14) – in such the enlightenment of the soul is accomplished by the renewal of the sacrament of faith in Christ, that is, by bringing to memory all the necessary members of faith and reviving faith in them (for if they had kept the first faith, they would not have been blinded). When they have thus renewed in their memory all the members of the faith, and begin to keep them in thought with a living faith in them, then they will be enlightened in all things, they will see the misery of their situation and will be aware of the judgment of God, and from this, seeing how shameful and evil are the deeds they have done, and realizing what immeasurable torments they deserve, they will repent with all their soul and with all their heart. (Shameful deeds are all carnal pleasures and lusts, and evil deeds are lust, unrighteousness, deceit.) Since everyone who repents humbles himself, then for this reason God gives His grace to him, as a humble one, so that he may hate both lustful and evil deeds, and always remember his weakness and, remembering it, have compassion on those who are obsequious to him, and be indulgent to their infirmities, condemning no one for their sins, so that he may be meek and patient, and find peace in his soul. Having come to this, he will begin to sing a new song to the Lord, praise to our God, that is, he will begin to offer thanksgiving to God from a pure and contrite heart, because a pure heart is a contrite and humble heart. And any other psalmody, except this, is vain and useless. It is impossible for one who does not sing in this way to converse with God through prayer, even if he works hard and for a long time, but with his lips he will sing and pronounce prayers, and with his mind he will think about what grieves God and provokes Him to anger. Just as sensible and visible creatures have need of light in order to be manifest, so all intelligent creatures have need of intelligent light in order to be intelligently seen and known. And just as no one who has produced a multitude of products can say that he has produced them by night and without light, so he who leads a life pleasing to God cannot say that he leads it without intelligent light. If anyone dares to say this, then he is a manifest liar and the son of the devil. Such a person has never come to know himself and his weakness, and has not entered the path of God at all. Wherefore it is written: "Boast, let him glory in the Lord" (2 Corinthians 10:17).

6. But you, my brother, who are enlightened from above by Christ, should take heed to yourself, so that you may not ever forget your weakness and think that the enlightenment that is in you, which comes to your soul from above from Christ, is your own work, because it is hidden, and you do not see when and how it comes. Know that as soon as you dream that it is your own work, that it is the fruit of your mind and your efforts, it will immediately disappear from your eyes and leave you again in darkness. God is invisible and enlightens invisibly, without you seeing it; and this enlightenment is known by his actions, just as the invisible God is known by his works. If you find yourself contrite and humble, know that you are enlightened, and the more humble you are, so much is there light in you, for, as the divinely wise fathers said, the growth of the soul is its progress in humility. The degree of self-knowledge and knowledge of God is determined by the degree of humility and meekness. A soul that has been vouchsafed a divine presence, that is, divine enlightenment and silence, is peaceful and serene. Such enlightenment is extinguished by lack of mercy, condemnation of the brethren and rancor. For whoever has found salvation through the kindness and mercy of God, by his own mercy and diligence towards the brethren, will preserve this salvation in himself, according to the word of Christ the Savior, Who says: "By whom you judge, you will be judged; and in the same measure you measure, it will be measured to you (Matt. 7:2). For this reason, even before receiving God's mercy, it is necessary to have mercy on one's neighbor, and again, having been vouchsafed to receive this mercy, one must have mercy on him.

Thus, the sinner, delivered by the power of Christ from the passions that weigh him down, must rejoice and rejoice in the salvation of Christ. If, having received such deliverance and healing, he becomes proud, then the devil is near, and the instruments of the passions are still in us; the grace of Christ will again depart, and the devil, having come, will disturb his thoughts and direct him to do worse deeds with his body than before. May our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom be honor and worship forever, deliver us from such deeds. Amen.

Homily Eighteen. 1. Faith is used in seven meanings. 2. Through faith a person is vouchsafed the grace of God. 3. It is impossible to please God without faith.

Faith is when one believes in the incomprehensible God, Who brought into existence the heavens, the earth, the sea, and all visible and invisible creation. All the ancient prophets and righteous men had such faith, from Adam to the incarnate economy of our Lord Christ. But after Christ was incarnate, faith is to believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, in one Being and three Persons, and in the great mystery of the incarnation of Christ, that is, that the Son and Word of God and the Father, not being separated from the Father, came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and of the ever-virgin Mary, and was made perfect man, from the body and soul of the mind, united with the Divine; that in one and the same person He was God and man, with two perfect natures – Divinity and humanity, united inseparably and unmerged; that He suffered and was crucified by His will, and was buried also by His will, and that when at the time of His death His soul was separated from His body, the Godhead was not separated either from His soul or from His body; that on the third day He rose again, and after forty days He ascended into heaven as a man, and sits on the throne of His Divinity with His flesh, sung with the Father and the Holy Spirit by all the heavenly hosts; that all these mysteries of Christ's incarnate economy were performed in order that those who believe in Him might again put on the Holy Spirit, Whom the first-created Adam put off when he became a transgressor of God's commandment, and this in order that, being strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, they might fulfill the commandments of God and overcome the devil and all invisible demons, for without "the Holy Spirit no one can escape sin, nor to fulfill the commandments of God, nor to repel the power and power that the demons have wielded over us.

Faith is also that one should believe in the promises of good things spoken in the Divine Scriptures to those who fulfill the commandments of God, and threats of eternal torment to those who violate them. Faith is also that one should be faithful to all God, whether it be dogmas or commandments, or, rather, faithful to the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is why every Christian is called faithful. Faith is also that one entrusts himself to God Himself and with all his soul entrusts all his salvation to Him alone. Faith is also that one should be sure that God does all that His goodness pleases, and be convinced that He does it in the best way. Faith is also that one should trust in the great and invincible power of the Almighty God, and dare to speak of it in such a way that he would command, and the mountains should move; to which very few attain faith, as it is written, that not all have such faith (2 Thessalonians 3:2). It is impossible for anyone to be saved who does not have an unashamed and firm faith in Christ the Lord, who does not believe the words of God without hesitation, who does not have love for God and people, love that comes from a good conscience, by virtue of which humility and mercy are born.

2. By virtue of faith, before any other virtue, comes the grace of God as the foundation of every virtue, and by the help of the grace of God every virtue is established in the heart and is effective; so that every virtue that is not from the grace of God is not imputed to God as a true virtue, because such a virtue is not God's. It happens that demons also lead to other prominent virtues, teaching people to appear chaste, merciful, meek, and thereby keeping them in arrogance and pride. The grace of God comes into a person, although unclean and filthy, but who has a truly grateful heart, and true gratitude exists, in order to recognize in the heart that grace is grace. And it is impossible that he who has received grace should be properly grateful and thankful, if he does not first recognize the greatness of the grace he has received. Those who do not realize how great is the grace they receive, do not value it.