Нам же даруй, Господи, и покаяться во грехах своих, и быть сострадательными и милосердыми к ближним, да сподобимся улучить и вечное блаженство в Самом Христе, истинном Боге, Коему слава во веки. Аминь.

Слово тридцать девятое. 1. Как разуметь: начало премудрости страх Господень? 2. Какие признаки и дела верных и богобоязненных людей? 3. Какие признаки и дела людей неверных и не боящихся Бога? 4. Кто тот мертвый, который не живет по Богу? 5. Как от Бога имеем мы бытие, так от Него же только получить можем и благобытие.

Начало премудрости страх Господень, говорит Писание (Притч.1:7). Премудр же есть един Бог. Почему всякий, желающий внити в царство небесное и быть под Царем Богом, чтоб ум его, и мудрования его, и помыслы его были управляемы Самим Богом, единым воистину Царем, всякий такой прежде всего должен возыметь страх Божий. Но как возыметь страх к Тому, Кого не видишь? - Потому необходимо прежде увидеть Бога, чтоб потом возыметь страх к Нему. А как увидеть Бога, Которого никто никогда не видал? Для этого надобно взыскать умного света Божия, чтоб ум, просветившись им, мог умно узреть Бога. И вот когда кто таким образом узрит Бога, то может возыметь и страх Божий, а возымевши страх Божий, может увидеть и понять и себя самого, и сей привременный и суетный мир, и все дела мира сего. Далее, кто видит себя самого и суетность мира сего, тот, имея всегда присущим в себе страх Божий, не может онеправдовать кого-либо и, когда сам терпит от другого неправду, не делает отмщения, но, чая помощи, от Бога приходящей, терпит благодушно неправду, и дивится, и славит Бога, что Он, видя неправды, долготерпит и сносит неправедного, - сам между тем ревнуя всеусердно приносить всякого рода плоды Святого Духа.

2. Итак, мы имеем нужду в умном божественном свете, да соделает он нас причастниками благодати зреть Бога. - Но что такое есть свет сей? О сем Сам Христос говорит: Аз есмь свет миру (Ин.8:12). То же говорит и евангелист Иоанн: в Том живот бе, и живот бе свет человеком (Ин.1:4). Изъясняя сие, Иоанн Креститель говорит: веруяй в Сына, имать живот вечный, а иже не верует в Сына, не узрит живота, но гнев Божий пребывает на нем (Ин.3:36). Не верует же во Христа всяк, кто преступает одну и только одну заповедь Его, как Сам Христос говорит: иже аще разорит едину заповедей сих малых... мний наречется в царствии небеснем (Мф.5:19). Неправедный в мале, и во мнозе неправеден есть (Лк.16:10). Но какой гнев пребывает на таком? Гнев клятвы, которая пала на Адама за преступление заповеди Божией, то есть тление и смерть. Но которые пребывают в тлении и смерти, те пребудут и в геенне адской. Почему Господь наш Иисус Христос и говорит: заповедь Его живот вечный есть (Ин.12:50), и: аще кто слово Мое соблюдет, смерти не имать видети во веки (Ин.8:51). Кто же, выходит, не исполняет заповеди Божией, тот сам себя лишает живота вечного. Итак, прежде всего надлежит уверовать во Христа, Который есть свет человеком, чтоб увидеть Бога.

Каким же образом может он увидеть Бога? Из творений, сотворенных Богом, может он увидеть и познать Творца, то есть неба, земли, моря и прочих тварей, особенно же самого человека, который есть животное разумное, зачинающееся так невзрачно и потом бывающее таким дивным существом, которое мнится быти богом всего видимого, в силу разумности, его отличающей. Кто узрит сим образом Бога, тот как может не возыметь к Нему страха? А кто страх к Нему возымеет, возможно ли, чтоб тот не благоговеинствовал пред Ним, не смотрел строго за собою и не жил так, как; заповедует Он и определяет в законе Своем?

3. Отсюда само собою разумеется, что кто живет не по закону Божию, тот и Бога не боится; а кто Бога не боится, тот не виде Его; кто же не виде Бога, тот не имеет в себе света (умного); кто не имеет сего света, тот не верует во Христа; кто не верует во Христа, не имеет живота в себе. Так как очевидно он не положил начала от страха Божия, который есть начало премудрости, то он есть буй, слеп, мертв. И добре говорит Евангелист Иоанн, что всяк согрешаяй не виде, ни позна Бога (1Ин.3:6).

Таковый не познал Мене и не восхотел уведети Мене, глаголет Господь (Иер.9:3-8). Если таков незнающий Бога и нехотящий у ведать Его, чем разнится он от тех, которые не исповедают Христа и не веруют в Него? Христианин, не верующий Христу, какой христианин? Кто верует Христу, тот творит заповеди Его, а кто не творит заповедей Его, тот и не верует Ему. Неверующий же Христу, не то же ли, что неверный? Итак, все те, которые именуются христианами, но не живут по закону и заповедям Его, да ведают, что они еще не уверовали во Христа, хотя исповедуют Его Богом. Ибо кто истинно верует во Христа, тот не станет жить беззаконно и нарушать заповеди Божии, подобно тому, как тот, кто видит пред собою пропасть, не может броситься в нее, если только он не потерял ума.

4. Let them seek to believe in Christ as they should, and thus begin to live according to God, to receive the light of the mind and to behold God, to have the fear of God, and to lay the foundation for wisdom, since the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Faith without works is dead, like a body without a soul. For faith, which has no works, has no God to give it life, and is dead, for it has not acquired that of which Christ says: "He that loveth Me shall keep My commandments, and I and the Father shall come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23), that He may raise the soul from the dead by His presence, and give life to him who is vouchsafed to acquire it. That is why such faith is dead, those who have it without works are dead. Whoever lives in Christ also has the disposition of Christ, and whoever does not have the disposition of Christ is dead, and let him not deceive himself, as Christ says: Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not what I say? (Luke 6:46). The sign of deadness is inaction, for everyone who is dead is inactive. Why is it that whoever does not act according to God is dead to God, there is no life according to God in him? And whoever does not live for God and according to God, it would be better not to live at all. Our bodily life is simply life, like the life of all animals. But the rational soul must receive the life which God gives, and which is the light of man, given from above by God. Whoever is deprived of this life lives like all irrational animals, but as he descends to this, being rational, he will be condemned together with the incorporeal rational creatures deprived of such life, that is, with demons, to eternal death, or to endless torment in hell. From all that has been said, it is evident that our most important work consists in a God-pleasing life. Those who do not lead a life befitting Christians are weak in their nature, and in their strength, and in their lives, and in their deeds. The strength of Christianity lies precisely in the fact that through Jesus Christ there is received complete well-being from God, Who gave existence. Why are they not naturally vouchsafed to live as they should, both in relation to God and in relation to people who have not sought to receive from God through Jesus Christ the well-being that was lost in the first-created Adam?

5. Therefore he who does not live as Christ commands, is called a Christian in vain. He does not have prosperity, either because he did not believe in Christ at all, or because, having believed, he despised the faith and lost the gift, or because he was not taught as he should and did not know this great and mysterious gift of grace. As of being, we know that having been given directly by God in the beginning according to the law of creation, at the present time it does not come directly from Him, but from husband and woman man comes, as He, the Creator of all, decreed when He said: "And the two shall be one flesh, which flesh is the flesh of the child born of both; in the same way, well-being is clearly God's and ours' work, because if it were only God's work, then all people would have it. Our participation in this is to admit that we do not have well-being and cannot have it by ourselves, because from the time of Adam even to the present day there has not been a single person who would have had prosperity of his own accord, whether he be wise or prudent about himself, as the prophet Isaiah says: "Woe to those who are wise in themselves, and understand before you (Isaiah 5:21). Why, just as we have existence from God and His creative power, so our well-being comes from Him. Well-being is in us from God something higher than mere being, because this being, if it does not become well-being, then it corrupts and perishes. And just as the almighty God, having once creatively created man, no longer gives existence to any man except through husband and wife, because this would be unblessed, so again, He does not give well-being to man, unless this man himself desires it with all his soul and with all his mind, so that otherwise he does not violate the rational dignity of human nature. that is, autocracy. Therefore, whoever desires this well-being, let him seek it from God with a mighty cry and tears, as Christ Himself did, Who, being God and man, as a man, lifted up prayers and supplications to God, with tears and a mighty cry, that He might deliver Him, as a man, from death, as the Apostle says: Who in the days of His flesh, supplications and supplications to Him who is able to save Him from death, with a strong cry and tears he brought, and was heard out of reverence... And all those who obey Him were guilty of eternal salvation (Hebrews 5:7,9). What kind of salvation is this, which He grants to all who listen to Him? The very well-being that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit, says the divine Paul, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control: against such there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23). For the law does not lie with the righteous (1 Timothy 1:9). God the Word and the Son of God, the Creator of natures, was naturally (physically) made man, in order to naturally (physically) grant people well-being. In order that people might receive this well-being, He came, became incarnate, suffered and died, so that believers could receive it as something natural (physical), that is, that they might be loving, joyful, long-suffering, good, merciful, faithful, meek, temperate. For it is precisely these qualities that constitute well-being. And woe to him who does not have such well-being as is granted by Christ, because in this case he is deprived of that great blessing for which God alone was made man, died and rose again. This is what he (a fake Christian) is deprived of, just as those who do not believe in Christ are deprived of it, so as not to say that he becomes even worse than they are. May we not be deprived of this good in Christ Jesus, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

The Fortieth Word. 1. Abstinence is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Those who believe in Christ should know that they receive from Him the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that those who do not know that they receive gifts from Christ have believed in vain.

The God-bearing Fathers say that Christ came into this world and granted people deliverance and the taking away of sins. And so, if Christ is the One who delivers people from sin and takes them away, then how do they say again that believers mortify the strivings and movements of the passions through abstinence? To this we reply that both of these propositions are true. For those who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ; but they are clothed in Christ by the grace of the Father who proceeds the Spirit, and of the fruits of the Holy Spirit there is also abstinence. The fruit of the Holy Spirit, says the divine Paul, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Therefore, when someone abstains from sin, it is not he who abstains, but this is the fruit of the Spirit, which is abstinence. Therefore let him who is abstinent not think that the abstinence which he contains is the work of his own strength, but the work of the grace of Christ. For Christ, through the Holy Spirit, grants abstinence to those who formerly desired to be freed from passions and to be delivered from sin, and began to resist it, but all were overcome by it because of their weakness and weighed down — to such, I say, Christ grants abstinence, so that they may know, judging by the abstinence by which they now abstain from all sin, from what great evil they are delivered, and that, when the very movement for evil (sympathy with it) was taken from them, they humbly glorified the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who sent Him for the redemption of His people.

As Christ did not commit sin, so how is it possible for him who puts on Christ to sin? Whoever sins is clearly not clothed with Christ. Let such a Christian strive to put on Christ again, and let him ask day and night with faith, fasting and tears to be vouchsafed to put on again the garment of Christ's justification. For he was already clothed in Christ in holy Baptism, but either he did not know it, or despised it, and for this he again became naked from Christ, and because of this nakedness he began to sin. However, Christ does not leave such a person by complete abandonment, but allows him to come to his senses, to know his nakedness, and, praying with a contrite spirit, to seek to put on Him. For whoever is not clothed with Christ, how can he do His commandments? He Himself says: "Without Me you can do nothing, just as a branch cannot bear fruit, except it abide on the vine" (John 15:4,5).

Christ commands us to believe in Him, not just as it happened, but also to believe that to those who believe in Him, He gives gifts, so that those who have not received such gifts have not yet believed in Christ. A Christian is also called faithful because of the gifts entrusted to him. A Christian is called faithful not only because he believes in Christ, but also because he has been entrusted by God with the sacraments, which even the Angels did not know before us. In this sense the Lord said: "He who is faithful in little and in many things is faithful" (Luke 16:10). Do you see that the faithful is the one to whom he is entrusted? Whoever does not feel and does not know that something has been entrusted to him, has either not received the grace of the Holy Spirit, or is insensible, and because of his insensibility it has departed from him. For the Holy Spirit, Who gives people wisdom, and knowledge, and piety, and the fear of God, and faith, does not want to dwell in the insensible.

As no one can trade without money, the Lord gives to every faithful person, according to his strength and ability, a spiritual denarius, that is, the gift of the Holy Spirit, which would always be with him at all times and in every matter. To whom such a denarius is entrusted and who has received it, it behooves him to keep it good, and with all diligence and patience to try to increase it. And listen to how he can multiply it. For example, someone receives the gift of faith and the gift of patience: by faith he believes in what God has promised him, and by patience he endures the sorrows and misfortunes that come upon him. Seeing that he is met with many things contrary to what God has promised him, he endures complacently, waiting until the time finally comes for the fulfillment of God's promise. Here it seems as if a person himself endures, but in fact the power of the grace of the Holy Spirit, which he has received, produces patience and firmness in him. If he does not forget about this power of grace granted to him, then the gift will increase in him, and he will be vouchsafed to receive what God has promised to give him, for Christians will inherit the promises of God by faith and patience. But if he forgets about grace and thinks that he himself has borne the burden of trial and patience by his own strength, and not by the power of the grace of God, then he loses grace and remains naked of it; and the devil, finding him naked from Divine grace, pushes him around where he wants and how he wants, and there are his last bitters of the first.