If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments [1072], said our Lord Jesus Christ to a certain young man, who, as we have heard in the Gospel read today, asked the Lord: "Good Teacher, what have I done and inherit eternal life?" [1073] — that is, what good can I do in order to be saved? When the questioner asked again: what are these commandments? The Lord pointed out to him, as a Jew who believed in the true God, the commandments of God in relation to his neighbor. The young man answered that he had kept all these commandments, and then again asked: "What am I not yet finished—what do I still lack?" The Lord said: "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell thy possessions, and give to the poor: and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and thou shalt follow me, and take up the cross" [1074].

From the Lord's answers to the young man we learn that the Lord has prepared two blessed states for those who believe in Him: the state of salvation and the state of Christian perfection [1075]. From these same answers of the Lord it is clearly seen that the blessed state of salvation is accessible to all Christians in general; but perfection can only be obtained by those Christians who at once distribute their possessions to the poor and, renouncing all ties with the world, follow Christ, taking up the cross, that is, having endured with zeal and love all the deprivations, all the dishonors and calamities that will be allowed to them, as befits the true minds of Christ, rejecting all the justifications presented by carnal wisdom, hostile to Christ, hostile to the bearing of the cross.

Fraternity! First, let us consider what the conditions of salvation are, since the receipt of salvation is desired by all Christians and is available to all Christians. We have mentioned above that the Lord gave His all-holy teaching to a Jew who believed in the true God, which is why He enumerated only the commandments in relation to his neighbors, without mentioning the faith of which the Lord spoke on other occasions. It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to believe in God, the Creator and Redeemer. Behold eternal life, said our Saviour, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Whom Thou hast sent Jesus Christ [1076]. Believe in the Son (of God) to have eternal life: but whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, that is, he will not receive salvation, but the wrath of God remains upon him [1077]. It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to belong to the Orthodox Church, the one true Church, and to obey her decrees. The Lord likened the one who disobeyed the Church to a pagan, a stranger to God [1078]. Each of us, pronouncing the Symbol of Faith, confesses that he believes in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and consequently confesses that, besides this One Church, there is no other Church, much less any other Churches, even though different human societies appropriate to themselves the name of Church. It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to be baptized in the bosom of the Orthodox Church in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as the Lord Himself said: He who has faith and is baptized will be saved; but whoever has not faith will be condemned [1079]. It should be noted that in the Greek language in which the Apostles wrote the entire New Testament [1080], the word baptism (βάπτισμα) in the exact sense means immersion. Wherever the words baptism, baptize, baptized, baptized are used in the New Testament, it is necessary to understand immersion, immerse, immersed, immersed. For this reason, immersion in the water of vessels, as dishes are usually washed, is called in the Gospel: baptism of vessels [1081]. Throughout the entire universe, the holy Sacrament of Baptism was performed by immersion during the twelve centuries after the birth of Christ; from the twelfth century in the West they began to use dousing instead of immersion; Subsequently, in some Western societies, pouring was replaced by sprinkling. "It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to repent of their sins and to cleanse them by confession, as the Holy Scriptures testify: If we say that we are not imams, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, let him forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness [1082]. The Sacrament of Repentance maintains and renews the purity acquired at Baptism, and maintains and renews our unity with Christ, granted to us by Holy Baptism. By the second baptism you are baptized according to the Christian sacrament, says, at the command of the Holy Church, the priest who performs the Sacrament of Repentance to the Christian who repents before him. The Sacrament of Repentance has been changed in the West, and rejected by Protestants. — It is necessary for those who wish to be saved to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, the all-holy Body of Christ, and the all-holy Blood of Christ. Amen, amen, said the Lord, if ye do not bear the flesh of the Son of man, and drink of His blood, ye have no life in yourselves. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life [1083]. The Great Mystery of the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is accomplished through the invocation and inspiration of the Holy Spirit during the preceding and subsequent prayers, which together constitute the Divine Liturgy. Without the Divine Liturgy, celebrated by an Orthodox bishop or priest, there can be no transubstantiation into the Body of Christ of the offered bread, and no wine offered into the Blood of Christ. All the ancient Liturgies of the Universe are in their essential parts completely similar to each other: in all of them the Holy Spirit is invoked for transubstantiation, and the priests are blessed with the images offered, that is, the bread and wine prepared for them. In later times, the invocation of the Holy Spirit was excluded from the Roman Liturgy, and the Protestants rejected the Liturgy altogether. "Thus, for those who wish to be saved, first of all, it is necessary that they believe correctly in God, belong to the Orthodox Church, be baptized in her bosom, be chrismated, be cleansed of sins by repentance, and commune of Christ's Holy Mysteries; secondly, it is necessary for him, as the Lord said to the youth, to keep the commandments of God. The Lord first pointed to the commandments that forbid gross, mortal sins. He repeated what Moses had already said to ancient Israel: "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness; then he gave orders to honor his father and mother; finally He commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves[1084]. Why didn't the Lord say anything about love for God? for love for God consists in love for one's neighbor, and he who cultivates in himself love for one's neighbor, together with it acquires in his heart an invaluable spiritual treasure — love for God: If we love one another, said St. John the Theologian, God dwells in us, and His love is perfect in us [1085].

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Life and the Source of life: we are made partakers of this life by faith in the teaching of Christ, by baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, by baptism sealed through the anointing of the baptized with holy myrrh. Chrismation replaced the laying on of hands by the Apostles on the newly-baptized. The Apostles sealed baptism with the laying on of hands and brought down the Holy Spirit on the newly-baptized [1086]. We support and nourish our assimilation to the Lord, bringing repentance for the sins into which we fall due to our weakness, partaking of His Body and Blood, living according to His all-holy commandments. He who neglects to live according to the commandments of God, does not constantly heal himself by repentance, does not support the assimilation of Christ by communion of His Body and Blood, cannot but be deprived of assimilation to Christ, cannot but be deprived of salvation. If ye keep My commandments, said the Lord to His disciples, ye shall abide in My love. If anyone does not abide in Me, he will be cast out like a rod, and will dry up: and they gather it and put it into the fire, and it will be burned [1087].

What does Christian perfection mean? In the face of this question, silence is more convenient than an answer, and weeping is more convenient than flowering. What can a beggar say about the magnificent royal palaces, to which access is constantly forbidden to him because of his rags, because of his stench and poverty, because of his complete inability to appear in a decent way in the royal palace? If this beggar had to look at the exterior of the royal house, or often see it, then such a sight should only aggravate the grief of the beggar, for whom his miserable situation seems all the more burdensome, the more magnificent and richer are the objects that are inaccessible to their enjoyment, which reach his sight. Such a beggar would do well if, having renounced vain dreams of a palace inaccessible to him, he took care to find out the means of obtaining his daily bread and the very delivery of this daily bread. And for us, brethren, bound by worldly cares and duties, it is much more faithful to take care of our salvation, to carefully fulfill the commandments of God, than to dream and philosophize about Christian perfection. Such dreams, such wisdom are almost always erroneous, because only one spiritual person can reason about the spiritual, that is, about the perfect Christian, and only one spiritual person can understand and evaluate it [1088]. Whom has the world recognized as saints? Whom did he bless and exalt with praise? — false prophets, false teachers, hypocrites [1089]. How did he deal with the true saints of God? He rejected them, heaped reproach and slander upon them, persecuted them as enemies of human society, subjected them to the most grievous persecutions and sorrows [1090]. Let us behold, brethren, the path which the Lord has shown us to Christian perfection! Even this path itself is inaccessible and incomprehensible to us. The Lord commands the one who wishes to go to the attainment of perfection not by gradually giving alms, as is required of those who are saved, but commands him to sell all his possessions at once, and all the price received for it, at once, with greater haste, to distribute to the poor, thus severing all ties with the world, all relations with the world, and following Christ, taking up the cross. What does it mean to take up the cross and follow Christ? "To take up the cross means to kiss with faith and love all deprivations, all persecutions, sorrows and reproaches from the world, as Christ took them up; to take up the cross means to crucify the flesh with its passions and lusts, to live in the flesh not for the sake of the flesh, to mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, to live by the Spirit, to be governed by the Spirit [1091]. What does Christian perfection mean? It is a tangible and obvious renewal of a Christian by the Holy Spirit, which can be accomplished only on one who has died to sin and to the world on the cross of Christ. Man, renewed by the Spirit, becomes a God-bearer, becomes a temple of God and a priest who acts in this Temple, worshipping God in Spirit and Truth. The Apostles and all the other saints of God were vouchsafed such perfection in various degrees [1092].

Blessed are God's chosen ones, called by God to perfection! But truly happy are those to whom the merciful Lord grants salvation. To this happiness, brethren, all of us, without exception, are called. The way to salvation has been shown to us by the Lord with all clarity. Whoever has not hitherto cared for his salvation can henceforth take care of it. Let us cease to be discouraged, let us cease to remain in negligence, lest death unexpectedly creep up upon us, like a thief in the night, and deprive us of the opportunity to acquire from God the gift of salvation, which is so necessary for us for eternity. Be prepared, says our Saviour, for at this hour do not think that the Son of Man will come [1093], and will reward each one according to his deeds. Blessed are they that doeth His commandments, let them have a province upon the living tree, and the gates shall enter into the city. And without them shall be sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and every one who loves and does falsehood [1094]. Amen.

Homily

in the thirty-first week

Explanation of the mysterious meaning of the Gospel story

To the event of which the Gospel has now related, the Holy Fathers give a mysterious interpretation. They see in the blind man, who has attracted the attention and mercy of the God-Man by intensified supplication and crying, the image of a praying sinner, praying persistently and with weeping, receiving through such prayer the forgiveness of sins and the renewal of the soul by Divine grace [1095]. We are all sinners; we are all in dire need of God's mercy. Sinners! let us consider with attention how the sinner receives God's mercy through prayer.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Gospel relates, was coming out of the city of Jericho. His disciples followed Him, and a multitude of people. A blind man was sitting on the way, begging passers-by for alms. Hearing the noise of a large crowd, he inquired about the reason for the people's assembly. They answered that Jesus was marching, that His presence had attracted this multitude. Then the blind man began to cry out with a loud voice: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Those who went ahead of the Lord stopped the blind man, commanding him to be silent; but he cried out even more strongly: Son of David, have mercy on me. The Lord stopped and ordered him to be brought to Himself. The blind man was called. He threw off his outer garment and stood before the Lord. The Lord asked him: "What do you want from Me?" The blind man answered: "Lord! I want Thou to grant me sight." The Lord said: See: thy faith shall save thee. The blind man immediately regained his sight and followed Jesus, glorifying God [1096].

Spiritually, all sinners must be recognized as blind: they are definitely blind. They are called blind by the Holy Scriptures [1097]; the very deed proves their blindness. The sight of sinners is so perverted and damaged by sin that it must be justly recognized and called blindness. This blindness is the blindness of the spirit. This blindness is all the more dangerous because it most acknowledges and professes itself to be the most satisfactory, the most excellent eyesight. The blind sinner sees neither God, nor eternity, nor himself, nor the purpose for which man was created, nor the death that awaits him and all men, which is inevitable either for him or for any of the people. Unhappy! he acts out of his blindness, acts for the destruction of himself, acts for the sake of vain and temporal things, pursues only phantoms. And death comes, forgotten by him, tears him away from the field of his activity, presents him to the Judgment of God, which he has never thought about, for which he has not prepared at all. The beginning of the return to sight for a blind sinner is the recognition and confession of blindness, the abandonment of the activity performed under the guidance of this blindness.

Jericho was located in a valley cut by the Jordan River. The terrain occupied by the other cities of Israel is generally mountainous. The lowly position of Jericho depicts our state of falling. A mysterious blind man came out of Jericho. He ceased to participate in the affairs of the inhabitants of the city: he ceased to commit manifest sins through the body; he sat down by the path along which the Saviour and salvation walk, began to beg alms from passers-by, to feed himself sparingly, with alms. The passers-by are the living vessels of the Holy Spirit, which God sent into the world to guide the world to salvation throughout the life of the world [1098]. Those that are passing are the instructions of the pastors of the Church and the ascetics of piety, who temporarily wander on earth like all men: they guide the sinner at the beginning of his conversion; they nourish his smooth soul with knowledge provided by faith from hearing [1099]. The blind man, although he left the city, could not go far from it because of his blindness. He was sitting near the city gates; the rumors of the city reached his ears, disturbed his heart, and confused his mind. In the same way, a blind sinner, when he forsakes gross sins, cannot break ties with sin, both living within him and acting on him from without. And after his conversion he dwells near sin and in sin; sinful thoughts, dreams, and sensations do not cease to disturb his mind and heart. Those who accompany and cooperate with Christ – the Prophets, Apostles and Holy Fathers – announce to the blind that the Saviour is close to him, because the blind man in his darkness cannot in any way imagine that God is near him. God appears to him to be remote, as if he did not exist at all. The blind man, instructed by the word of God that the omnipresent God is closer to him than all the objects of the visible and invisible world, is encouraged and enters into a prayerful feat. He entered into podvig; but his mind is sealed with carnal wisdom, and, being material because of the assimilation of material impressions, cannot pray spiritually; his heart, infected with various addictions, is constantly distracted from prayer by these addictions. The prayer of the blind man is debilitated, substantial, mixed with thoughts and dreams of the flesh and sin, defiled by them, cannot rise from the earth, crawls on the earth, falls to the ground, only makes an effort to rise from the earth. The blind man does not have a satisfactory concept of God: this concept is not characteristic of the carnal state; The prayerful feat of a blind man is also a bodily feat. "Blind," said the Monk Mark the Ascetic, "is he who cries out and says: Son of David! have mercy on me. He still prays bodily, he has not yet acquired spiritual reason." He sits, alone, at the gates of Jericho.

In the field of prayerful podvig, the ascetic encounters many and various obstacles. Their actions and strength are based on the blindness of the ascetic. While the blind man was engaged in begging alms from passers-by, his position was that of a sitting man. And with his initial cries he remained in the position of sitting. There is still no true spiritual progress, there is no spiritual movement in one who is engaged in the study of the word of God by the letter and by bodily prayer. He continues to remain under the influence of sinful thoughts and sensations, under the influence of carnal wisdom; he continues to remain on earth; the procession to heaven is impossible for him, unnatural. He strives in the podvig of prayer, as in a podvig alien to him, forces himself to podvig, draws himself to this podvig, as if to the worst enemy, to an unmerciful murderer. This feeling, this pledge of the natural man to prayer is peculiar to him: it kills, it slays our old man, and the old man fears the sacrifice, wants to avoid it, resists it with all his might. Around the ascetic stand fallen spirits: they did not depart from him, because he did not receive liberation from them, submitting to them by his former sinful life, which preceded his conversion to God. They try to keep him in bondage; they forbid him to pray; they threaten him, embarrass him, take all measures to force him to silence. They bring him unbelief, suggesting that his prayer will not be heard. They bring him hopelessness, remembering the multitude of sins he has committed, vividly imagining them to the imagination and feeling, arousing delight in them in soul and body. They plunder and destroy his prayer, bringing to mind various cares, imagining the need for immediate concern with them. They produce dryness and despondency in the soul, so that the ascetic, seeing the fruitlessness of the podvig, would abandon it. They mock the podvig, mock it as if it were fruitless and vain, because they tremble at its consequences. The ascetic of prayer, who has given himself over to the podvig of prayer far from the occupations of human society, will hear the infernal talk of the demons. He will see his captivity, his chains, and his prison. Thou hast made us, says the great worker of prayer, reproach by our neighbor, mockery and reproach of those around us. All day long my shame is before me, and the frost of my face has covered me, at the voice of the reviler, at the face of the enemy and expelling [1100].