9. One more question remains: Why did those who lived righteously before the temptations fall after the temptations? But who truly knows those who live righteously, except "Who created our hearts in private, and who considers all our works" (cf. Ps. 32:15)? Many of those who appear to be virtuous often turn out to be the most vicious of all. This was also manifested in real life, but only in relation to some, on some occasion and out of some necessity. And when He who searches our hearts and wombs, "living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, who pierces to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart" (cf. Heb. 4:12), then you will see not only a few of the many, but all openly as they really are, and not a wolf will be hidden by a sheep's skin, nor the color of the coffin, its internal impurity; for "there is no creature hidden from Him, but all things are naked and open before His eyes" (Hebrews 4:13). Paul, explaining this to the Corinthians, said: "Therefore do not judge in any way before the time, until the Lord comes, who will also give light to what is hidden in darkness and reveal the intentions of the heart, and then everyone will have praise from God" (1 Cor. 4:5). However, leaving the hypocrites, let us say about those who live righteously: how do we know that, having many virtues, they did not neglect the main one - humility? For this reason God departed from them, so that they would know that they did good deeds not by their own power, but by the grace of God. But if anyone says that it is better to be proud of doing good than to humble oneself by sinning, he does not understand at all the harm of pride, nor the benefit of humility. Of course, you know very well that a man who does good with pride, if only it is possible to do good in this way, will soon come to utter destruction. Whoever has allowed himself to fall and has learned humility by falling, will soon, if he will, rise up and reform; but whoever does seeming good with pride and does not tolerate anything unpleasant, will never feel his sinfulness, but will increase the evil, and imperceptibly for himself will depart from here without good works, like the Pharisee who entered the temple, thinking of himself that he was rich in every virtue, and went out when he learned that he was poorer even than the publican (Luke 13:10). There is another kind of evil, which has great power to abolish good, gathered with great effort and labor, and that is the wind of vanity. It is indeed, like a rushing wind, blowing away all the treasures of virtue. Behold, the second reason for the fall of those who live righteously has been revealed to us, as thou hast said. Many, who seem to us to have endured and are enduring great labors for virtue, because they have done everything for the sake of honor with men, and not with God, are allowed to fall into temptation, so that, having lost human glory, for which they have endured all deprivations, and having learned that it is in essence no better than the flower of grass, they will finally cleave to God alone and do everything for Him. In addition, there are many other reasons for this, but, as I have said, they are hidden from us, and are known to our Creator - God. Let us not murmur against Him for what is happening to us, but let us give thanks: this is characteristic of grateful servants. You wonder that the unclean (spirit) attacked you, not in former times, when you were luxurious and surrounded yourself with worldly splendour, but now that you have given up all these things and given yourself entirely to God; but it is as if you were wondering why no one disturbs the spectators, but the one who has signed up for wrestling, prepared and went to the place of wrestling, is attacked by the opponent of all, strikes him in the head and hits him in the face. It is not surprising and deplorable that the demon grieves, oppresses, and troubles those who have decided to fight, for such is the law of struggle, but if it fights, and overthrows, and deprives of reward, this is terrible! And as long as he is not able to do this, he will not only do us no harm, but will also bring us the greatest benefit, giving us more honor by a strong struggle with us. In the same way, among warriors, the best is the one who can show the most wounds and who has engaged in single combat with the strongest of opponents; and of the wrestlers we are especially amazed at those who enter into battle with the invincible (as the bravest of opponents are called); and of the hunters, he is considered the strongest who goes out against the wildest animals. Is your demon shameless and fearless? But therefore I never cease to be amazed and amazed at you, that you, having received such an adversary, did not fall, did not betray yourself, but remained unyielding and did not yield to him in anything.

10. And what I now tell you without flattery, that indeed you have received the greatest benefit from your sorrow, let me speak plainly; for otherwise I cannot prove it to you. You know and remember your former life, that is, life before temptation; examine it attentively and compare it with the present life after the temptation, and you will see what benefit has come to you from this calamity. Now you have great zeal for fasting, and for night vigils, and for reading, and for the exercise of prayer; likewise, patience and humility have reached the highest degree in you; and before that you did not think at all about books, and used all your care and labor in caring for garden trees. Many, as I have heard, have even reproached you with pride, and have explained it by the nobility of your family, the glory of your father, and your upbringing in great wealth. How lazy you were in the night vigils, you know this very well. Often, when others got up hastily in the dead of night, you remained in a deep sleep and angry with those who woke you up. And now, since you entered into this struggle and struggle, all this has ceased and changed for the better. If you ask me why God did not allow the demon to attack you when you lived in luxury and were attached to worldly affairs, then I will answer that this also was the work of His providence; He knew that then the enemy would soon destroy you, finding you easily defeated. For this reason God did not call you to this struggle as soon as you entered the monastic life, but left you to exercise for a long time, and then, when you were strengthened, He led you to this difficult field. You also mention those who live in the world, and point to your servant; for I think you mean it when you say that many of the worldly people, having been subjected to the same disease, received a complete healing very soon. But, most dear, your servant and others who were subjected to the same calamity as him, did not suffer this for the same purpose as you do now: God allowed this beast to be used against him and others only to frighten them and make them better through fear, but against you so that you might fight bravely, win gloriously, and receive a crown for patience. And victory does not consist in the fact that the warrior avoids fighting the enemy even during the spectacle, but when he remains ready to fight at all times; then the adversary will not be able to bring him to any worthless thoughts even by despondency. And that this is really so, I plainly conclude from the following. Everyone knows, though you humble yourself, how much better your life is than that of your servant. For this reason God also cares for you more than for him. If this is clear, then it is also evident that if God's allowance had been the work of His wrath, He would not have subjected to it for so long the one whom He loves most, while He soon delivered from the demon another, who is much worse than you. This I can attest, not only by what has been said, but also, from what you conclude from which you conclude that God has forsaken you, I will try to prove that He cares especially for you. If you had not shown great diligence and had not made long journeys to converse with holy men and those who have the power to loose these bonds, then some of the ordinary people might have been perplexed, since the reason why God would have allowed (you to suffer) for so long would not have been very clear. But since you visited the places of the martyrs, where many were healed, even of those who (in demonic possession) bit people, you lived for a long time with wondrous, valiant men, and always succeeding (to heal the sick), and did not omit anything at all; what could have freed you from suffering, and yet you returned again with the same enemy; then you have brought a clear and intelligible proof even for very inattentive people of God's providence for you. God, of course, would not have deprived you of His grace, and would not have allowed His servants to be put to shame, if He had not seen from this great glory and greater benefit for you. Thus, what seems to be a sign of God's abandonment of you is a sign of His great love and goodwill towards you.

[1] In the Synodal translation, the meaning is different: "Do not be afraid of me, for you are my hope in the day of trouble."

[2] In the Synodal translation: "Thou shalt be a wanderer and an exile on earth."

[3] In the Synodal translation, "way" and "thought" are plural: "But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

IN ADDITION, STAGIRISM

that despondency is worse than a demon.

SECOND WORD.

In the preceding (sermon) we have spoken of God's Providence and of the fact that God tests you in a certain way, not out of aversion or hatred, but out of special love. But since, according to your words, you lament very much for another reason, namely, because the demon often suggests to you the idea of destroying yourself in the sea or the abyss, or of ending your present life in some other way, I want to talk a little about these thoughts as well. Such suggestion comes not only from him alone, but also from your despondency, and even more from the latter than from the former, and perhaps from despondency alone. This is evident from the fact that many of those who are not possessed by a demon plot the same thing only out of sorrow. Reject it and expel it from the soul, then the demon will not have the strength not only to persuade to such a deed, but also to proceed to suggestion. Just as thieves at nightfall, having extinguished the fire, can very easily steal property and kill its owners, so now the demon, having brought despondency instead of night and darkness, tries to steal away all the guarding thoughts, in order to attack the soul deprived of them and helpless, inflicting innumerable wounds on it. When, having dispelled this darkness with hope in God and turning to the sun of righteousness, someone hastens to receive its rays into his soul, then the confusion from these thoughts will pass on to the thief himself; for even these criminals, when someone catches them and brings in fire, tremble, are timid, and are troubled. How, you will say, can one be freed from this sorrow without first freeing oneself from the demon who causes it? It is not the demon that causes despondency, but it makes the demon strong and inspires evil thoughts. Blessed Paul can testify to this; and he feared, not of any demon, but of excessive sorrow, when he wrote to the Corinthians, that they might at last forgive the sinner his sin: "lest he should be swallowed up," he says, "with excessive sorrow" (2 Corinthians 2:7).

How is it possible, you will say, not to lose heart? It is possible if, rejecting the opinions of the crowd on this subject, you will think about things above. Now your situation seems terrible to you, because the crowd thinks it so; but if you wish to examine it accurately in itself, and to renounce an empty and erroneous prejudice, you will find that it presents no cause for despondency, as we have repeatedly proved. As for your peers (whose good-humor and boldness you see before your brethren, and because of this, I think, you are confused and discouraged)

But since I am quite sure that you will never cease to be modest, but will always consider yourself among the latter, even if you are immensely praised and extolled, I will say everything without the least pretending. You, I hear, have succeeded so well in your pious life that you are no longer inferior not only to those young men, but also to great and wondrous men. And from these, they say, you do not lag behind in anything, neither in fasting (and is it possible otherwise, when you eat only water and bread, and then every other day?), nor in the duration of the nightly vigils, but like them you spend many nights in succession without sleep. And in the passage of the day, they say, you have already surpassed many of them; from those who come from there I hear stories that you spend all your time praying and crying; And just as those who struggle in silence, or who have shut themselves up in solitude in a cell, do not talk to anyone or about anything, so do you, they say, when you live in the midst of such a multitude of people. Of thy heartfelt contrition, of sorrow and lamentation, they speak even with amazement, and with these stories of thy exploits here have brought many to contrition. He does not look, they say, at anyone who comes there, and does not give himself rest from constant labor, we have often feared that he would blind his eyes with tears, that he would damage the brain by excessive vigilance and unceasing and uninterrupted exercise in reading.

2. And so, it grieves and troubles you that you have already outstripped your peers, and, having a strong and bold adversary, have left far behind you those who struggle with you!

The fall does not consist in what you say happens to you, but in falling into sin; with such a fall, one should be ashamed and complain. And now we are ashamed of that which has nothing shameful in it; on the contrary, when we do what is really shameful and worthy of ridicule and heavy punishment, we think that nothing bad has happened to us, if the soul falls every day under the weight of sins, then no one weeps; and if something like this happens to the body, it seems difficult and unbearable. Is this not what possession consists of, when the soul is in such a state and so erroneously judges things? If your fits were due to drunkenness, you should be ashamed and discouraged; then the guilt would be arbitrary, but if they arise from the violence of another, then it is not the one who endures that should be ashamed, but the one who does the offense and violence. So in the square, if during a quarrel one pushes the other and throws him to the ground, we all blame the one who pushed him, and not the one who fell.

Madmen say a lot of bad things to those around them, but those who listen to them do not think of being offended. In the same way, when you hear these fools, do not consider what happens to you to be a disgrace and harm, lest you really become worthy of condemnation by angering God. If you consider shameful what God sends for admonition and benefit, then see to what this evil leads.