It is not useful for us, even harmful, to acquire spiritual wealth quickly and without difficulty [1136]: having easily obtained it, we will not be able to preserve it; it can serve us as a pretext for vanity, for contempt and condemnation of our neighbors, which leads the ascetic to grievous falls, which usually follow pride and serve as a punishment and admonition for those who are carried away by the most pernicious passion that has cast down the fallen angels from heaven. For this reason, God leaves the ascetics of prayer to languish for a long time in an unresolved struggle with passions and spirits, in the midst of hope and hopelessness, in the midst of frequent victories and defeats. In the denunciations of iniquity, Thou didst punish man, says the great worker of prayer, and Thou didst fade away like a spider's soul [1137]. In this difficult time, ascetics were thoroughly studied by experience with the various passions and demonic intrigues, thoroughly studied the Gospel commandments, which became their property from prolonged and careful study. In this difficult time, ascetics are thoroughly prepared to receive and preserve Divine grace. Is it not God, the Gospel parable concludes, that He will take vengeance on His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night, and suffer long for them? I say unto you, that he shall bring about their vengeance quickly. God's long-suffering is here called the duration of the struggle with sin, which is allowed by God's chosen one by no one else, by God Himself. Vengeance or protection is called to be given quickly, because even in times of struggle God constantly supports His elect; after the struggle has passed, and after the renewal of man by the Holy Spirit, such bliss pours into him that he immediately forgets all the anguish of the struggle; it appears to him as acting for the shortest time. Let us be filled with Thy mercy in the morning, O Lord, and let us rejoice and be glad, — thus confess to the Lord those who have been convinced that their prayer has been heard, who have seen in their souls the manifestation of the spiritual morning after the darkness of the night — all our days we shall rejoice, for the days, in which Thou hast humbled us, the years, in which Thou hast seen evil [1138].  But the struggle is so difficult that the prayerful cry of the elect is constantly intensified because of it; because of it, it does not cease day or night; the distance between the prayers is destroyed, and the servants of God begin to chill God with uninterrupted prayer and weeping, produced by that humble conception of oneself which appears from the sight of one's own sinfulness. Walking all day long, says the holy Prophet David, "that my hands are filled with reproach, and there is no healing in my flesh. Embittered by my passions and spirits of malice, and humbled to the ground [1139]. How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me to the end? How long wilt Thou turn Thy face away from me? How long wilt Thou be long? How long wilt thou not take Thy vengeance upon my adversaries? How long, because of my perplexity, shall I put many and fruitless counsels in my soul, sickness in my heart day and night? How long will my enemy be lifted up against me? [1140] My enemies have conquered my soul... Thou hast embraced me as a lion is ready to fish, and as a lion dwelleth in the secrets. Arise, O Lord, precede me, and stumble upon them! deliver my soul from the wicked... [1141] … My god! I trust in Thee, that I may not be ashamed for ever, that my enemies may laugh at Thee: for all who endure Me shall not be ashamed. [1142]

When the Lord ended the parable with the promise to bring vengeance soon to the one who would pray to Him day and night, then He said: "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" Why are these words spoken? They are spoken, according to the interpretation of the Fathers, for the following reason [1143]. The Lord, having enumerated the signs that will precede His Second Coming, pronounced the teaching about prayer, which is especially necessary in these difficult and calamitous times, just as on another occasion on the same occasion He said: "Be vigilant at all times when you pray, that you may be vouchsafed to flee from all these who desire to be, and to stand before the Son of Man" (1144). When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? This means: will He find true believers who prove faith by works, and especially by true and actual prayer, by which podvig is based on faith, and is accomplished, constantly relying on faith? Such a phrase, according to its use in the Scriptures, is equivalent to the following: [1145] The Son of God, having come to earth, will find almost no one, or will find very, very few who would have the true faith and the prayerful progress that depends on it, manifesting it. And then this success is especially needed! The end is at hand, says the holy Apostle Peter, be chaste and sober in your prayers [1146]. There will be neither success in prayer nor true practice of prayer: all people will be engaged in material development, they will be engaged in turning the earth doomed to burn into their paradise, they will consider, in self-deception, temporal life to be eternal, and they will reject and ridicule the care of preparing themselves for eternity. For those whose thoughts are wholly directed to the earth and occupied with the earth, there is no God. He who ascends to God through pure and frequent prayer acquires a living faith in God, sees Him with it, and will fly like a winged man through all the vicissitudes and calamities of earthly life. He will see his vengeance from his rival, and he will rejoice not only in the forgiveness of his sins, but also in the cleansing of his sinful passions. The Holy Fathers call this state holiness, blessed impassibility, Christian perfection. In this state he will be vouchsafed to flee from all the calamities that desire to be, and to stand before the Son of Man, when he will be required before him both by death and by that trumpet which will gather the living and the dead to the Judgment before the Son of God. Amen.

Homily

on the 54th conception of the Gospel of Luke,

read on all feasts of the Mother of God

On bodily and spiritual feats

The Savior of the world, during His wanderings on earth in the vale of our exile and sufferings, visited two pious women, sisters, Martha and Mary, who lived in a village neighboring Jerusalem, Bethany. They had their own home in Bethany. They had a brother, Lazarus, who was honored to be called a friend of the God-Man and His Apostles [1147]. From the Gospel it is clear that the Lord visited the house of a pious family more than once. During one of these visits, He resurrected Lazarus, who had already been lying in the tomb for four days.

The Holy Evangelist Luke tells us that during the Lord's visit to this house, mentioned above, Martha began to treat the most desirable Guest, and Mary sat down at His feet and listened to His word. Martha, concerned only that the feast should be the most satisfactory, asked the Lord to command Mary to help her. But the Lord answered: Martho, Martha, take care and pray for many, but there is only one thing that is needed. And Mary chose the good part, which shall not be taken away from her [1148]. According to the explanation of the Holy Fathers, Martha mysteriously depicts a pious bodily feat, and Mary depicts a spiritual one [1149]. The story of the Lord's present visit to the two sisters is read, according to the Church, on all the feasts of the Mother of God. For these two reasons, the consideration of the events and teachings contained in the story should be both especially significant and especially edifying.

Martha was the elder sister, and is represented by the Evangelist as the mistress of the house. She receives the Savior into the house, she disposes of the treats, cooks food, cleans the meal, and brings dishes. Its service is an uninterrupted activity. And bodily labor, according to seniority, occupies the first place in the ascetic life of every disciple of Christ. "By bodily work," said St. Isaac of Syria, "the soul is preceded, just as the creation of Adam's body precedes the creation of his soul. He who has not acquired bodily work cannot have spiritual work: the second is born from the first, like an ear from a sown naked grain of wheat [1150]. Bodily podvig consists in the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments bodily. These include: giving material alms, accepting strangers, participating in the various needs and sufferings of needy and suffering humanity. These include chastity of the body, abstinence from anger, from luxury, from amusement and absent-mindedness, from ridicule and gossip, from all words that express malice and impurity of the heart. This includes fasting, vigil, psalmody, genuflections, standing at prayer in church and in the cell. This includes monastic obediences and other external feats. Bodily podvig requires the continuous activity of the body: it passes from one bodily good deed to another, and sometimes it combines several good deeds in itself, performing them at the same time. Bodily podvig gradually cleanses the soul of passions and acquaints it with the spirit of the Gospel. The Gospel commandments, being fulfilled in practice, little by little transmit to the executor the deep thought and deep feeling that dwell in them, impart to the executor the Truth, the Spirit, and the Life. Bodily podvig has its limit and end: this limit and end consist in the ascetic's decisive transition to spiritual podvig. A decisive transition is crowned with a gradual transition. Martha's ministry ended when the Lord's feast was completed.

Mary, sitting at the foot of Jesus, heard His word [1151]. The position adopted by Mary serves as a depiction of the state of the soul that has been vouchsafed to enter upon spiritual podvig. This state is a state of calm and humility at the same time, as St. Barsanuphius the Great said: "By inner work, combined with illness of the heart (with the weeping of the heart), true silence of the heart is produced; from such silence humility is born; humility makes man the abode of God" [1152]. He who has attained service to God in spirit abandons outward deeds, abandons the care of other ways of pleasing God, or uses them moderately and rarely, in cases of special need. In his spirit he is prostrate at the feet of the Saviour, heeds only His word, recognizes himself as a creature of God, and not as an original being [1153], recognizes himself as cultivated and God as a worker [1154], and gives himself over entirely to the will and guidance of the Saviour. It is obvious that such a state is brought to the soul by a more or less prolonged bodily feat. And Mary would not have been able to sit at the feet of the Lord and direct all her attention to His teaching, if Martha had not taken upon herself the care of the reception. Service and worship of God in Spirit and Truth is that good part, that blessed state which, having begun during earthly life, does not cease, as bodily feats cease with the end of earthly life. The good part remains an inalienable part of the soul in eternity, and in eternity it receives full development. The good part is not taken away from the soul that acquired it, it remains forever its property.

Bodily podvig is very often concealed by a very important defect. This defect consists in the fact that the ascetic exercises himself in podvig recklessly, when he gives the podvig an excessive price, when he performs bodily feats for themselves, erroneously enclosing in them and limiting in them all his life, all his pleasing to God. Such an incorrect assessment is always accompanied by the humiliation of spiritual podvig, the desire to distract those who are engaged in it from it. She considered Mary's behavior wrong and insufficient, and her own more valuable, more worthy of respect. The merciful Lord, not rejecting Martha's ministry, condescendingly remarked to her that there was much that was superfluous and vain in her ministry, that Mary's work was an essential work. With this remark, the Lord cleansed Martha's podvig from arrogance and taught her to perform bodily service with humility. That's right! Bodily podvig, not yet illumined by the spiritual mind, always has in itself much that is vain and superfluous. The one who labors in it, although he labors for God's sake, labors in the old man; in his field tares grow with wheat; he cannot be free from the influence of carnal wisdom on his way of thinking and activity. It is necessary for all of us to pay due attention to the instruction made by the Lord, and to perform our good deeds done through the body with the greatest humility, like slaves who are obliged to do the will of their Lord, unable to do this will as they should because of weakness and sinful damage. It is very useful for those who are engaged in bodily podvig to know that there is another podvig, an incomparably higher podvig, a spiritual podvig, a podvig overshadowed by Divine grace. He who has no spiritual work, said St. Isaac of Syria, remains a stranger to the gifts of the Spirit, [1155], whatever his bodily feats may be. The great instructor of monastics likens bodily work, in itself, when the work of the mind in the inner cell does not help him, to barren beds and dry breasts, because bodily work cannot approach the mind of God [1156]. We see this on Martha. She was so busy with her work, so sure of its significance, that she did not ask the Lord for an order pleasing to Him, but offered her understanding and her order, interceding that they be fulfilled.

Why was the reading of this Gospel story established by the Holy Church on all the feasts of the Mother of God? For the Mother of God brought to the God-Man the most exalted bodily service and the most sublime ministry of the spirit, composing all His words in Her hearts [1157], observing everything that happened to Him from His infancy, and all that pertained to Him, composing in Her hearts [1158]. To explain this, the story from the next chapter of the Gospel of Luke is accompanied by an appeal to the Lord by a certain woman who heard the Lord's teaching: "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breast, which Thou didst suckle" [1159], and the Lord's answer to this appeal: "Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it" [1160]. God's answer to human judgment! Human judgment recognized the Mother of God as blessed solely because of Her birth of the God-Man: the God-Man exalts the dignity of the Mother of God, calling especially blessed those who hear the word of God and keep it. The Mother of God possessed this blessedness above all men, heeding the words of the God-Man and preserving them with such compassion as no man had. Here again the service of the spirit is given precedence over the service of the body, as opposed to human judgment.