The desire found in modern Christian society to see miracles and even to work miracles should not be ignored. This aspiration needs careful consideration. The desire to perform miracles is greatly condemned by the Holy Fathers: such an aspiration reveals the self-deception that lives in the soul and has taken possession of the soul, based on self-conceit and vanity. The great instructor of monks, St. Isaac of Syria, discusses this subject in the following way: "The Lord is at all times the close intercessor of His saints; but unnecessarily He does not manifest His power by any manifest deed or a sign of the senses, lest His intercession become as it were usual for us, so that we may not lose our due reverence for Him, and it may not cause us harm. This is what He does, providing for the saints: He allows them in every circumstance to show a podvig corresponding to their strength, and to labor in prayer; at the same time, he shows them that his secret care for them ceases for an hour. But if the circumstance by its difficulty exceeds the measure of their reason, if they are exhausted and are not able to act because of their natural deficiency, then He Himself does what is necessary to help them, according to the majesty of His power, as He should and as He knows. He strengthens them as secretly as possible, giving them the strength to overcome their sorrow. He resolves the intricate sorrow with the understanding which He bestows from Himself, and by the understanding of His Providence He arouses them to praise, which is useful in all respects. But when a circumstance requires obvious help, then, out of necessity, He does this also. His means and forms of help are the wisest. They help in scarcity, in case of need, and do not act senselessly. He who dares and prays to God to do something extraordinary, not being forced to do so by necessity, who wants miracles and signs to be performed by his hands, is tempted in his mind by the devil who mocks him, turns out to be vain and sick with his conscience. It is proper to ask for God's help in sorrow; to tempt God without need is miserable. Truly unrighteous is he who desires this. We find examples in the lives of the saints that the Lord, expressing His displeasure, fulfilled such desires. He who desires and desires this spontaneously, without being compelled to do so, falls from the state of self-preservation and deviates into an encroachment from the reason of truth. If the one who asks for this is heard, then the evil one finds a place in him, as in one who walks before God without reverence, with boldness, and plunges him into great inclinations. The true righteous not only do not wish to be miracle-workers, but when they are given the gift of wonderworking, they refuse it. Not only do they not want this in the eyes of men, but also in themselves, in the secret of their hearts. Some of the Holy Fathers, because of their purity, received from the grace of God the gift of seeing those who came to him; but he asked God, begging his friends to pray for the same, that this gift would be taken from him. If some of the saints accepted the gifts, they received them out of necessity or because of their simplicity; others received them at the direction of the Divine Spirit acting in them, and by no means accidentally, without reason... The true righteous constantly think that they are not worthy of God. By the fact that they recognize themselves as accursed, not deserving of God's care, their truth is testified" [1027]. From this holy meditation follows the conclusion that those who wish to perform signs desire this out of carnal fervor, because they are carried away by passions that they do not understand, although it may seem to them that they are guided by zeal for the work of God. In the same state of self-deception and fervor are those who want to see signs. It is forbidden to tempt God, to violate reverence for Him in any case; it is permissible to ask for God's help in extreme need, when one does not have one's own means to get out of it; but the choice of means for help must be left to God, surrendering oneself to His will and mercy. The Lord always sends down a means of help that is beneficial to the soul: it also provides us with the help we need, and in this very help He teaches us the holy taste of humility. Help is not combined with outward brilliance, as carnal wisdom would wish, so that the soul would not be damaged by the satisfaction of its vanity. And in the work of God, in the very service of the Church, one must constantly invoke God's blessing and God's help, one must believe that only Divine, spiritual methods can be useful for faith and piety, and by no means the methods offered by carnal wisdom.

It is difficult for people to endure glory without harm to their souls [1028]. This is difficult not only for those who are passionate or struggling with the passions, but also for those who have conquered the passions, and for the saints. Although they have been granted victory over sin, they have not been deprived of changeability, they have not been deprived of the opportunity to return to sin and under the yoke of the passions, which has happened to some people with a lack of vigilance over themselves, with the admission of trust to themselves, to their spiritual state. The inclination to pride, as St. Macarius the Great notes, resides in the most purified souls [1029]. It is this inclination that serves as the beginning of seduction and infatuation. Because of it, the gift of healing and other visible gifts are very dangerous for those to whom they are given, as highly valued by carnal and sensual people, glorified by them. The invisible gifts of grace, incomparably higher than the visible ones, such as, for example, the gift of guiding souls to salvation and healing them from passions, are not understood and are not noticed by the world: not only does it not glorify the servants of God who have these gifts, but it persecutes them as acting against the principles of the world, as slandering the dominion of the ruler of the world [1030]. The merciful God gives people that which is essential and useful to them, although they do not understand and do not appreciate it, — He does not give that which is in any case of little use, and can often be very harmful, although carnal wisdom and ignorance insatiably thirst for it and seek it. "Many," says St. Isaac of Syria, "performed signs, raised the dead, labored in the conversion of those who had gone astray, performed great miracles, brought others to the knowledge of God, and after this they themselves, having given life to others, fell into vile and abominable passions, killed themselves" [1031]. The Monk Macarius the Great tells us that a certain ascetic, who lived with him, received the gift of healing in such abundance that he healed the sick by the laying on of hands; but, being glorified by men, he became proud and descended into the very depths of sin. In the life of St. Anthony the Great there is mention of a certain young monk who commanded the wild onagers in the wilderness. When the Great One heard about this miracle, he expressed his lack of confidence in the spiritual disposition of the wonderworker; the news of the monk's sorrowful fall did not hesitate to come [1033]. In the fourth century there lived in Egypt a holy elder who had a special gift of wonderworking, and because of his resounding fame among men. He soon noticed that pride was beginning to take possession of him, and that he was unable to conquer it by his own efforts. The elder ran to God with the warmest prayers, so that he would be allowed to be possessed by demons for humility. God fulfilled the humble request of His servant and allowed Satan to enter him. The elder was subjected to all the fits of the possessed man for five months; they were forced to put chains on him; The people, who flocked to him in great numbers, glorifying him as great saints, left him, declaring that he had lost his mind, and the elder, having been delivered from human glory and from the pride that had arisen in him over this glory, thanked God, Who had saved him from perdition. Salvation was accomplished through a slight languor and dishonor before carnal people, who did not understand that because of the signs the devil was causing the elder a calamity, and through open possession the elder was returned to a safe path by the wondrous mercy of God [1034]. After this, it becomes clear why the great Fathers, Sisoi, Pimen and others, having the most abundant gift of healing, tried to conceal it: they did not trust themselves, they knew man's ability to change conveniently, and they protected themselves with humility from spiritual calamity [1035]. The holy Apostles, who were given the gift of wonderworking to facilitate their preaching, were allowed together by God's Providence to suffer grievous sorrows and persecutions for the very purpose of protecting them from exaltation. St. Isaac of Syria says: "A gift without temptations is destruction for those who accept it. If your work is pleasing to God and He will give you a gift, then beseech Him to give you wisdom as to how to humble yourself when you are given, or that a guardian be assigned to the gift (the guardian of the gift of the holy Apostles was the misfortunes allowed by him), or that a gift be taken from you that could be the cause of your destruction, because not everyone can preserve wealth harmlessly for themselves" [1036].

The view of the spiritual mind on bodily ailments and on their miraculous healings is completely different from the view of carnal wisdom. Carnal wisdom recognizes infirmities as a calamity, and healing from them, especially miraculous healing, as the greatest well-being, caring little about whether the healing is associated with benefit for the soul, or with harm to it. The spiritual mind sees both in the ailments sent by God's Providence and in the healings granted by Divine grace, God's mercy to man. Illumined by the light of the word of God, the spiritual mind teaches God-pleasing and soul-saving behavior in both cases. He teaches that it is permissible to seek and ask God for the healing of an illness with the firm intention to use the restored health and strength in the service of God, and not in the service of vanity and sin. Otherwise, miraculous healing will only serve to greater condemnation, attract greater punishment in time and in eternity. The Lord testified to this. Having healed the paralytic, He said to him: Behold, thou art well: thou shalt not sin, lest it be more bitter than thee. Man is weak, inclined to sin. If some saints, who had the grace-filled gift of healing, who abounded in spiritual discernment, were tempted by sin and fell, then carnal people, who do not have a definite concept of spiritual things, can abuse the gift of God all the more easily. And many abused it! having received miraculous healing from their illness, they did not pay attention to God's beneficence and their duty to be grateful for the beneficence, they began to lead a sinful life, they turned the gift of God to their own detriment, they alienated themselves from God, and lost salvation. For this reason, miraculous healings of bodily ailments are rare, although carnal wisdom respects them very much and would very much desire them. Ask, and you will not receive, says the Apostle, ask for evil, that you may depend on your sweetnesses [1038].

Spiritual reason teaches that the ailments and other sorrows that God sends to people are sent by God's special mercy: as bitter healing healings for the sick, they contribute to our salvation, our eternal well-being much more surely than miraculous healings. Often, very often, an illness is a greater blessing than healing, if it were to follow; An illness is a blessing of such importance that to take it away by healing would be to take away the greatest good, incomparable with the temporal good that is brought about by the healing of a bodily ailment. The beggar, sick Lazarus, mentioned in the Gospel, was not healed of his grave illness, was not delivered from poverty, died in the condition in which he had languished for a long time, but for his patience was lifted up by angels to the bosom of Abraham [1039]. The Holy Scriptures testify throughout their entire space that God sends various sorrows, and among them bodily ailments, to those people whom He has loved. Holy Scripture affirms that all the saints of God without exception made an earthly pilgrimage along a narrow and thorny path, full of various sorrows and deprivations [1041]. Based on this concept of afflictions, true servants of God dealt with the afflictions that befell them with the greatest prudence and self-denial. The sorrow that came to them, whatever it was, they met as their own [1042], believing with all their hearts that sorrow would not have come if it had not been allowed by a just and all-good God according to the needs of man. Their first thing, at the coming of tribulation, was the realization that they were worthy of it. They searched for and always found in themselves the cause of sorrow. Then, if they saw that sorrow prevented them from pleasing God, they turned with prayer to God for deliverance from sorrow, leaving the fulfillment or non-fulfillment of the petition to the will of God, by no means recognizing the correctness of their own concept of sorrow. Nor can it be entirely correct: the judgment of a limited, though holy, person does not embrace and see all the causes of sorrow, as the all-seeing eye of God embraces and sees them, Who allows sorrow to His servants and beloved. The holy Apostle Paul three times turned to God with a prayer that the angel of Satan, who hindered the Apostle in preaching Christianity, would be removed. Paul was not heard: God's judgment on this subject was different from that of the divinely inspired Apostle [1043]. Surrendering oneself to the will of God, a sincere reverent desire that it be done to us, is a necessary, natural consequence of true, spiritual reasoning. The holy monks, when they were subjected to illnesses, accepted them as the greatest blessing of God, they tried to dwell in praise and thanksgiving to God, they did not seek healing, although miraculous healings are performed most among the holy monks. They wished to patiently and humbly endure God's allowance, believing and confessing that it was more beneficial to the soul than any arbitrary podvig. St. Pimen the Great said: "Three monastic deeds are equal in their worth: when someone is silent correctly, when someone is sick and gives thanks to God, when someone passes through obedience with pure thought" [1044]. In the Egyptian Skete, where dwelt the greatest holy monks, lived the Monk Benjamin. For his virtuous life, God granted him the abundant gift of healing his infirmities. Having this gift, he himself was subjected to a severe and prolonged water-sickness. He is unusually edema. They were forced to carry him out of their own cell to another, more spacious one. To do this, the doors in his cell with jambs had to be taken out. In the new room, a special sitting was arranged for him, because he could not lie on the bed. Being in such a situation, the monk continued to heal others, and those who, seeing his sufferings, sympathized with him, he exhorted them to pray for his soul, not caring for his body. "When my body is healthy," he said, "then it is of no particular use to me. Now, having been subjected to illness, it does me no harm" [1045]. Abba Peter said that he, having once visited the Monk Isaiah the Hermit and found him suffering from a severe illness, expressed regret. To this the monk said: "So oppressed by illness, I can hardly keep in mind the terrible time (of death and the Judgment of God). If my body were sound, then the memory of this time would be completely alien to me. When the body is healthy, then it is more inclined to stir up hostile actions against God. Sorrows serve us as an aid to the preservation of God's commandments [1046]. The Holy Fathers, in the face of illnesses and other sorrows that befell them, first of all, tried to manifest the patience that depended on them: they resorted to self-reproach and self-condemnation, using them to force the heart and forcing it to endure [1047]; they remembered death, the Judgment of God, eternal torment, the remembrance of which weakens the meaning and feeling of earthly sorrows [1048]; they lifted up their thoughts to God's Providence, reminded themselves of the promise of the Son of God to abide unceasingly with His followers and to preserve them, thereby calling their hearts to good humor and courage [1049]; they forced themselves to praise and thank God for their sorrow, they forced themselves to recognize their sinfulness, which required punishment and admonition because of the justice of God, because of the very goodness of God. In addition to their own effort to acquire patience, they intensified their diligent prayers to God for the gift of a spiritual gift – grace-filled patience, inseparable from another spiritual gift – grace-filled humility, which together with it serves as a sure pledge of salvation and eternal bliss. The great Fathers of the sign did not teach healing, which was so convenient for them, to their disciples, who were subjected to illness by the allowance or Providence of God, so as not to deprive them of spiritual progress, which must necessarily be brought about by illness, which is endured by the moral Tradition of the Church. The abbot of the Gaza community, the Monk Serid, a disciple of the great Barsanuphius, who was silent in the same community, was ill for a long time. Some of the elder brethren asked the Great to heal the hegumen. Saint Barsanuphius answered: "For the health of my son, some of the saints who are here could pray to God, of which I informed him, that he should not be sick for a single day; but then he would not have received the fruits of patience. This illness is very useful to him for patience and thanksgiving" [1050]. Explaining the necessity of sorrows for the ascetic of Christ, St. Isaac of Syria says: "Temptation is beneficial to every person. If it is useful to Paul, then let every mouth be stopped, and the whole world of God will be guilty [1051]. Ascetics are tempted so that they may increase their wealth; the weak, in order to protect themselves from what is harmful to them; those who are asleep — in order to awaken; those who are far away — so that they may draw near to God; their own — so that they would be even more assimilated. An untrained son does not take possession of his father's wealth, because he will not be able to use his wealth usefully. For this reason, God first tempts and torments, and then gives a gift. Glory to the Lord, Who gives us the pleasure of health through bitter healings. There is no person who would not grieve during training. There is no person to whom the time in which he is drunk with the drink of temptation would not seem bitter. But without them it is impossible to acquire spiritual strength. And it is not ours to endure. How can a vessel of clay take out the fineness of water, if it is not first strengthened by Divine fire? If, in reverence, in an unceasing desire for patience, we ask it with humility of God, then we will receive all things in Christ Jesus our Lord" [1052].

Part Three

Before the Second Coming of Christ there will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, the sea will roar and be troubled [1053]. How can we distinguish these signs from the signs of the Antichrist? How can we distinguish these signs from the signs of the Antichrist, because he will also give signs in the sun, moon, stars, and air? [1054] "The first signs will be true, which will be quite different from the signs of the Antichrist, which will be composed of manifestations that deceive the senses. The performers of the signs of the Antichrist will be the Antichrist and his apostles; signs in the sun, moon, and stars, signs, heralds of Christ's coming, will appear of their own accord, without any intermediary. The heavenly bodies will fulfill their purpose, with which, by the command of the Creator, they shone in heaven [1055]. They had already fulfilled this assignment at the Nativity of Christ with a wondrous star [1056]; they performed it at the crucifixion of the God-Man, when the sun was covered with a dark veil of darkness at noon [1057]. The holy Evangelist Matthew says that after the tribulation caused by the dominion of the Antichrist has passed, the coming of Christ will immediately come, and it will begin with the fact that the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven [1058]. These luminaries will remain in their places, notes Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, but they will fade and appear to the human gaze to have disappeared from the firmament of heaven because of the abundance of heavenly light, which will illumine the world, which is being prepared to receive the Lord in His glory.

The teaching on miracles and signs, which we have proposed, we dare to call the teaching of the Holy Orthodox Church, the teaching of her Holy Fathers. The essential need for an accurate, if possible detailed exposition of this teaching is obvious. True signs were the companions of the true knowledge of God and the salvation it gives; false signs were accomplices of error and the destruction flowing from it. In particular, the effect of the signs that the Antichrist will perform will be extensive and powerful, and will lead unfortunate humanity to recognize the messenger of Satan as God. Edifying, comforting, soul-saving is the pious contemplation of the miracles wrought by our Lord, Jesus Christ. What holy simplicity there is in them! how by means of them the knowledge of God was made convenient for all men! What goodness in them, what humility, what irrefutable power of persuasion! Contemplating the miracles of Christ leads us to the Word, which is God. God, in order to restore communion with mankind that had fallen away from Him, was pleased that His Word should be clothed in humanity, appear, circulate among men, enter into a close relationship with them, and, having assimilated them to Himself, ascend them to heaven. Having put on humanity, the Word remains the Word of God and acts as the Word, according to His divine dignity. It sits at the right hand of the Father by accepted mankind and dwells everywhere as God. It is inscribed on paper, it is clothed in sounds, but being the Spirit and the life [1059], it enters into minds and hearts, recreates those who are united with Him in the spirit, drawing the body to spiritual life. From the contemplation of the miracles of Christ we ascend to the knowledge of the great significance which is contained in the Word of God, which alone is needed for our salvation, in the Word which serves salvation and accomplishes salvation with all satisfaction. The knowledge of the Word of God from the Holy Scriptures, spoken by the Holy Spirit and explained by the Holy Spirit, combined with the knowledge gleaned from activity directed according to the Word of God, finally overshadowed by the knowledge taught by Divine grace, gives the Christian purity of mind and heart. In this purity the spiritual mind shines like the sun in a clear sky, free from clouds. At the onset of day after darkness, the nocturnal image of sensible objects changes: some of them, hitherto invisible, become visible; others, which were seen indistinctly and in confusion with other objects, are separated from them and designated definitely. This happens not because objects change, but because the relation of human vision to them changes when the darkness of the night is replaced by the light of day. Exactly the same thing happens with the attitude of the human mind to moral and spiritual things, when the mind is illumined with spiritual knowledge emanating from the Holy Spirit. Only in the light of the spiritual mind can the soul see the holy path to God! only in the light of spiritual reason can the invisible procession of the mind and heart to God be infallibly accomplished! Only in the light of spiritual reason can we avoid error, wilderness, and abysses of perdition. Where this light is not present, there is no vision of the truth; where this light is not present, there is no God-pleasing virtue, saving for man, leading him into the abodes of paradise [1061]. The light of the spiritual mind must be illumined by the view of the spiritual eye on signs and wonders, in order to avoid the calamities into which the view of carnal wisdom can lead us. We have seen the nature of the miracles of the God-man; we have seen what their purpose was. The Signs, having completed their ministry, left the field of service, leaving the essential worker to work, the Word, Who abides and will continue to be a worker until the end of the world, as He Himself declared Himself: Behold, I am with you to the end of the world (1062). After the widespread performance of signs, which accompanied the sowing of Christianity by the preaching of the Apostles and Equal-to-the-Apostles, ceased, signs were performed in places by chosen vessels of the Holy Spirit. In the course of time, with the gradual weakening of Christianity and the damage to morality, the banner-bearing men diminished [1063]. Finally, they dried up completely. Meanwhile, people, having lost reverence and respect for all that is sacred, having lost humility, recognizing themselves as unworthy not only to perform signs, but even to see them, thirst for miracles more than ever. People, in the intoxication of self-conceit, arrogance, ignorance, strive indiscriminately, recklessly, boldly to everything miraculous, do not refuse to be participants in the performance of miracles, they decide to do this without the slightest hesitation. Such a direction is more dangerous than ever. We are gradually approaching the time when the vast disgrace of numerous and astounding false miracles is to be revealed, to draw into perdition those unfortunate pets of carnal wisdom who will be deceived and deceived by these miracles.

The quickening of the soul by the Word of God produces a living faith in Christ. Living faith sees, as it were, Christ [1064]. For her eyes, Christianity, remaining a mystery, is made open; remaining incomprehensible, it is clear, understandable, no longer closed by the thick impenetrable veil with which it is closed from the dead faith. Living faith is spiritual reason [1065]. It no longer needs signs, being completely satisfied with the signs of Christ and the greatest of His signs, the crown of signs, His Word. The desire to see signs is a sign of unbelief, and signs were given to unbelief in order to convert him to faith. Let us cling to the Word of God with all our souls, let us unite with Him in one spirit, and the signs of the Antichrist will not even attract our attention. With contempt and disgust for them, we will turn away our eyes from them, as from the shame of demons, as from the deeds of the frenzied enemies of God, as from a reproach to God, as from poison and deadly infection. Let us remember the following remark of particular importance, drawn from the experiences of ascetic activity. All demonic manifestations have the property that even insignificant attention to them is dangerous; from such attention alone, allowed without any sympathy for the phenomenon, one can be imprinted with the most harmful impression, subjected to a heavy temptation.

Humility is inseparable from spiritual reason. St. Isaac of Syria says: "Only he who has humility can be recognized as reasonable; he who does not have humility will never acquire understanding" [1066]. Living faith reveals to the eyes of the soul of God: the Word of God unites the soul with God. He who sees God in this way, who feels God in this way, sees his own insignificance, is filled with ineffable reverence for God, for all His works, for all His commands, for all His teaching, and acquires humility. The humble-minded will not even dare to inquire about what is happening outside the will of God, which is opportunely condemned by the Word of God: the signs of the Antichrist will remain alien to the humble-minded, as having nothing to do with them.

The vision of one's own insignificance and one's weakness, the vision of God, His majesty, omnipotence and infinite goodness arouses the soul to aspire to God in prayer. All the hope of such a soul is centered in God, and therefore there is no reason for it to be entertained by prayer; it prays, uniting its forces together and striving towards God with all its being; she often resorts to prayer as much as possible, she prays unceasingly. At the onset of great tribulations in the time of the Antichrist, all those who truly believe in God will cry out with fervent prayer to God [1067]. They will cry out for help, for intercession, for the sending down of Divine grace to strengthen and guide them. The own strength of men, although faithful to God, is not sufficient to resist the combined forces of rejected angels and men, who will act with frenzy and despair, anticipating their imminent destruction [1068]. Divine grace, having overshadowed the elect of God, will invalidate for them the deceptions of the seducer, his threats unthreatened, and his miracles contemptible; it grants them to courageously confess the Savior who has accomplished the salvation of men and to denounce the false Messiah, Who came to destroy men; she will lead them to the scaffolds, as to royal thrones, as to a wedding feast. The feeling of love for God is sweeter than the sensation of life [1069]. Just as the torments before death and the torments accompanying death constitute the beginning of eternal torment for the sinner [1070], so the torment for Christ and the violent death for Him constitute the beginning of the eternal joys of paradise. We see this clearly from the action of Divine grace in relation to the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity: at first they were left to manifest their will; after they had received their first torments, help from Above descended upon them, making for them both torments and death for Christ desirable. The Lord, foretelling the sorrows that should precede the Second Coming, commanded His disciples to watch and pray: "Watch, watch and pray," He said to them, "for you do not know when the time will be" [1071]. Prayer is always necessary and useful for a person; it keeps him in communion with God and under the protection of God, it protects him from presumption, from the deception of vanity and pride, both his own, vegetating from his fallen nature, and brought in thoughts and dreams from the realm of fallen spirits. In times of sorrow and danger, visible and invisible, prayer is especially needed: as an expression of rejection of presumption, an expression of hope in God, it attracts God's help to us. Almighty God becomes the agent of the one who prays in difficult circumstances, and brings out of them His servant by His wondrous Providence.

Knowledge of God, living faith, grace-filled humility, pure prayer are the appurtenances of the spiritual mind; they are its constituent parts. Thus, on the contrary, ignorance of God, unbelief, blindness of spirit, pride, presumption, and self-conceit are the attributes of carnal wisdom. Not knowing God, not accepting and not understanding the means offered by God to receive the knowledge of God, it makes for itself an erroneous, soul-destroying way to acquire the knowledge of God, in accordance with its mood: it asks for a sign from heaven. Amen.

Homily

on the thirtieth Sunday

On Salvation and Perfection