The Lord commanded the demons to enter the herd of swine also in order to show His righteous judgment and the inevitable punishment that would befall fornicators. For Him, our Lord, the source of all purity and holiness, born of the Most Pure and Immaculate Virgin, every fornicator is an abomination, and He arms Himself against such as His enemy, because "the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God" (Romans 8:7), that is, whoever has his whole mind occupied only with fornication dreams, is a great enemy to God, and God takes revenge on him as His enemy. And so, you see how the sin of fornication angers God! But they will say to me: What is an insult to Christ God, if a man defiles his body with the sins of fornication? Truly, a great insult! The body of every Christian does not belong to him: it is Christ's, as it is written: "Ye eat the body of Christ, and eat in part" (1 Corinthians 2:27). And again: "Bear your own (you are not your own), for you have been bought at a price" (6:20), at the price of the blood of Christ: you have not been redeemed with perishable silver or gold, but "with the precious blood of the Lamb, as the blameless and most pure of Christ." And so, Christian, the head with whom you dream of carnal fornication is not yours, but Christ's, and it is not fitting for you to dream of filthy unclean deeds as the head of Christ! The feet with which you go to iniquity are not yours, but Christ's, and it is not fitting for you to go to a sinful deed with Christ's feet! The hands with which you act badly are not yours, but Christ's, and it is not fitting for you to do unclean deeds with Christ's hands! Your whole body, which you defile with the sin of fornication, is not yours, but Christ's, and it is not fitting for you to defile Christ's body with carnal filthy sins: for you are the house of Christ, according to the words of the Apostle: "The temple of God is holy, which you are" (1 Corinthians 3:17). And if someone wanted to drive the master out of the house, would he not do him the greatest offense? Of course he would, and the master, who was driven out of his house, would seize a sword and other things, and defend himself. In the same way, Christ the Lord, Whom we expel with filthy sins of the flesh from His own dwelling, bought with His blood, is offended, and takes up the sword to avenge us for this offense. So, brethren, this is why the Lord allowed demons to enter into swine: He wanted to show His righteous wrath against sinners; He will give sinners over to fierce demons for eternal torment! Amen.

407. The Orthodox Warrior – God's Warrior

God loves good-natured peace, says St. Philaret of Moscow, and God blesses a righteous war. There are always non-peaceful people on earth, so it is impossible to enjoy peace without military help. For the preservation of peace, it is necessary that the victor should not allow his weapons to rust." Is it not for this reason that the Lord, the God of peace and love, calls "Himself Lord of hosts? He (the blessed Lord our God) — teaches (His faithful) hands to fight, and their fingers to battle" (Psalm 14:31). He blessed the weapons of the meek Abraham, who fought for the release of his nephew Lot from captivity; He commanded His people to conquer the promised land, He also helped the meek David against the foreigners; by faith in Him, not only the ancient holy men, but also our ancestors, our kings, our Christ-loving warriors-brothers conquered entire kingdoms, defended the holy faith, laid down their souls for the Church of God, for the brethren, for the fatherland... So high is the military rank! "That's how an Orthodox Russian always looked at him. Military service, in his opinion, is the greatest feat of love for one's neighbor, the direct fulfillment of Christ's commandment: "Greater love hath no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). And the first ascetic on the battlefield, the first warrior and commander of the Christ-loving army, is our most pious Orthodox Sovereign, the Autocrat of All Russia. This means that whoever serves faithfully and faithfully the Tsar and the Fatherland, who sacredly keeps the oath given before God when entering the military rank, does not serve people, but God Himself, fulfills His holy commandment; he is always ready to lay down his life for his brethren, for the Holy Church, for the Tsar – his father and Fatherland, and this service will serve him for the salvation of his soul. That is why there were cases when another, being in great sorrow, and wishing to attract God's mercy upon himself, made a promise to go to military service, just as one promises to go to a monastery, or to perform some other feat pleasing to God, and God apparently accepted this vow from him, delivered him from sorrows, and blessed him with His mercy. Here is what one truly Christ-loving soldier tells about himself, who entered the service according to a promise. "I also got into military service by the special mercy of God; for the sake of this service, I see the light of God, and I experience family joys. My parent is a state peasant; Of his three sons, I am the eldest. In the 16th year of my life, it pleased the Lord to test me: I was sick with my eyes. Since my father had no children older than I, and he already had a decent helper in me, my illness grieved him greatly. In spite of his poverty, he sacrificed his last penny to cure me: I was treated a lot; But neither home nor apothecary medicines helped. We turned with prayer to the Lord, and to the Mother of God, and to the holy saints: but even here we were not vouchsafed mercy. In the course of time the disease of my eyes became more and more intense, and at last I became blind. This followed exactly two years after the beginning of my illness. Having completely lost my sight, I began to walk groping, and, out of unfamiliarity, I stumbled. One day my father asked me in a trembling voice: "Andrew, don't you see anything?" There is nothing to say about the feelings of the mother: the mother grieved more than anyone else. "My position was difficult! Once I was left alone in the hut, and a few minutes later my father came in. Putting his hand on my shoulder, he sat down next to me and... Thought. I couldn't stand it. "Father," I said sadly, "do you still grieve for me? Why is that? My blindness is not of me or of you. It pleases God so. Remember what the priest told us on Holy Pascha, when he was with the icons. Do not lose heart, he said, lest you come to a murmur against God. We do not know and are not given to know why the Lord sends this or that misfortune. Of course, it is better to think that they are sent because of our sins. But why know? "Perhaps the word of the Lord Jesus will be repeated over you, which He pronounced about the family of the blind man of the Gospel: 'Neither this one has sinned, nor his parents... but let the works of God be manifested in it" (John 9:3). The Lord is the same with us. Do you remember that, father?" — "That's the way it is, Andrew, but how are we going to live? Your brothers are small, your mother is hunched over from labor and sorrow. Everywhere you look, I'm all alone. You are no longer a worker. It seems that we will not be able to feed ourselves." "How can I not be a worker, father? True, I can't do everything, but some, especially at home, maybe I'll do something; The Lord, it is said, makes the blind wise." - "No, Andrew, what a job you have! But what if... You would go to the blind and learn to sing poems from them. Then you will all help us in any way, and you yourself will not starve." I then understood the gravity of my situation and the extremity of poverty that was devouring my father. Instead of answering, I began to cry and leaned over the table at the edge of which I was sitting. Father began to console me as best he could: "Andrew, Andrew, my child! It is truly God's will that the blind should be fed in His name. And they ask in the name of God and sing... all things are God's." "It's true," I remarked in agitation, "but I can't break myself, I can't force myself to beg. I'd rather work day and night, turn millstones, walk naked, and starve myself, but I won't go through the windows, I won't drag myself around the bazaars and fairs!" This conversation took place at the end of spring. Spring has passed, summer has passed. Autumn came, and my blindness was all in the same position.

Once (it was at the beginning of October), the priest came from the street and, for no reason at all, with enthusiasm, asked me: "And what, Andrew, if God opened your sight, would you go hunting to become a soldier? Your service would have counted for your brothers." "Not only willingly, but with the greatest joy," I said, "it is better to serve the Tsar and the fatherland than to walk from window to window with a bag and devour someone else's labor and someone else's bread for nothing. If the Lord had opened my sight to me, I would have gone into the same set." "Oh, if the Lord would have mercy on your promise and I would gladly bless you," said the father. "And I would," the mother added. That was the end of the evening. "In the morning I got up wounded, washed my face according to custom, and, not thinking in the least about yesterday's conversation, began to pray. Oh, joy! Oh, horror! The light from the splinter was reflected in my eyes; I could even notice the place of it that was engulfed in flames, and distinguish the burning end from the unbearing. "Father! Mother! "Pray with me." On your knees before the Lord! The merciful one seems to have taken pity on me..." Father and mother threw themselves on their knees, fell on their faces to the ground, and we all wept. In the hut, at these moments, only the prayerful cries of the soul were heard: "Lord, have mercy! A week later I was completely healthy, and at the beginning of November I was already a recruit. 25 years of my service have passed, and my eyes have never hurt. And yet under what winds I have been, in what damp and rotten places I have lived, and what heat, from time to time, I have endured! At present I am married, and now I am in pure retirement; and by honest work I can earn my livelihood without burdening anyone and without bothering anyone. After that, how can I look at military service, if not at God's mercy to me? Evidently, the service to the Orthodox Tsar, whoever enters it, is pleasing to God, and those who sin gravely before the Lord who evade military service" (Strannik, 1864). Thus ends this instructive story of this venerable warrior. "Happy are you, our Christ-loving Orthodox soldiers, if you look upon your service as the work of God, if you consider it a great honor, for God's special mercy to you! Do not forget that a good warrior of the most pious king must also be a good warrior of the King of Heaven Jesus Christ. Love our holy Mother, the Orthodox Church, sacredly fulfill Her holy commandments, and if it pleases God that you lay down your lives for the Orthodox Faith, for the Tsar-Father, for your native Russian land, then calmly go to your death: the Holy Church will ask you of the King of Heaven for the crown of martyrdom...

(From the sermon of St. Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov)

408. What Should We Sinners Do?

This sermon (before confession), translated from the Little Russian dialect, belongs to St. Meletius, Archbishop of Kharkov and Akhtyrsk. He left behind him an eternal memory for his ascetic life, his meekness and mercy, his non-acquisitiveness and fasting. Even during his lifetime special gifts of God's grace were manifested in him, and after his death many resorted to the help of his holy prayers and received what they asked for. He died in 1840. His body rests incorruptly in the cave church of the Kharkov Bishop's House.

We have many acquaintances, many benefactors; we have fathers and mothers, and other relatives; they are all our own people, and they all love us, take care of us and take care of us; but none of them loves us as much as the Lord loves us. He, the Merciful, created us. He nourishes us. He preserves us both in the field and at home, preserves us as we guard our eyes, and even more than that. And what about us? Oh, our woe! We, for such mercy of God to us, so often, often anger Him, the merciful, with our sins! He, the merciful, keeps us at night, and we get up in the morning and run quickly to go about our business, and do not cross our foreheads, we immediately get to work, otherwise, perhaps, we will circle around anyway, in the bustle. As soon as you think about it, and remember your sins, you see for yourself that you have done no good, but have only sinned and sinned... So what is it? Is it really possible to stay like this? Oh – God forbid! "What is to be done?" "We see on the holy icons the faces of all kinds of saints: there is St. Peter, and St. Paul, and the holy Great Martyress Barbara. Perhaps it has ever occurred to you: were they really born saints? If this was not in your mind, then I will tell you that they were all people like you and me, and they were born, worked, lived in the world with need and sorrow, but living in this way, they did not forget the Lord. When one of them happened to sin, they immediately repented before God, wept before Him, and prayed to Him; it was for this very reason that the merciful Lord granted them holiness. That this is so, here is the proof for you: our Lord and Saviour, when He was still living on earth among people, once told the following parable: two men came to church to pray, one was a Pharisee, and the other was a publican. The Pharisee was a nobleman, and the publican was a tax collector. So they both came and began to pray to God. The Pharisee stood in front and began to praise himself: "Behold, he says, Lord! Thank you that I am not like this publican. I do everything as You command: I fast twice a week, I give alms to the poor, and I do not prostitute. He said many other things, and moreover he prayed so loudly that others heard him praying. And the publican, remembering his sins, stood behind everyone, at the very threshold, and wept bitterly, bitterly... He did not dare to raise his eyes to heaven, like an unworthy sinner. Remembering all the occasions when he had cheated someone and taken too much, when he had deceived and oppressed someone, he thought that he was not worthy to live in the world, and in such grief he wept and cried out to God: My God, my God! Have mercy on me! Be merciful to me, a sinner! "In such grief the publican was ready to tell everything than when he sinned, if only the Lord would forgive him. He wept, heartfelt, lamented at the threshold, condemned himself for everything and asked for mercy from God. What happened? And it turned out that the merciful Lord forgave him all his sins in one minute, and the publican, after tears of repentance, left the church justified and forgiven. And what about the Pharisee? Yes, the Pharisee did not receive any benefit from his self-boasting. He praised himself, and therefore God did not listen to him. The Pharisee – as he was, so he left the church. And for what? For praising himself!

My brethren, good Christians! Here you are now standing in church before God; and for more than one day now you have been going with us to this house of God and praying to the merciful Lord. And today you will still confess. Why is this done? In order that we may receive from God forgiveness of our sins, of which one is guilty before God. In former years you confessed, and now you will confess, but do you know how to confess in truth? There are God-fearing communicators who tell the whole truth about their sins during confession: such repentants come out of confession forgiven, just as the publican left the church forgiven. And there are many among us who stand in confession as if they were dumb, saying nothing, even if you don't ask them, or they answer the same thing: I don't remember, I don't know, neither.. So what is it? Is even such a silent confession useful? "Oh, no! You see that the publican received forgiveness of his sins when he remembered them all, and having remembered, he did not stand silently, but wept before God and was broken; He was ready to tell each person everything in which he had sinned. And if this is so, then you, too, if you want your confession not to remain useless, must also tell you everything with which you have angered the Heavenly Lord. You consider yourself a communist only because you went to church for two days, stood dumb at confession, said nothing, bowed, crossed yourself, and that's it?! Ah, my good Christian brothers! Give up this custom of silent confession; it is better to do a deed according to God, for the benefit of your soul, than to receive no benefit even after communion... Do you not like it if you have to notice your son or a worker in some misdeed, and you start asking him, and he locks himself up? Are you vexed with him for this, and are you angry, and do not confess anything? Behold, you are a creature, and even then you are angry; how do you want your mute confession to be pleasing to God, our Creator?! And if the guilty one weeps before you, don't you forgive? In the same way, the Lord is ready to forgive, but for this we must humbly confess and weep that we, the creature, have angered our Creator and God. Do not shut yourself up, do not be ashamed, tell everything: when you drank, when you used foul language, when you offended your neighbor, when you slandered someone? Just sigh and weep before God, and all your work will get better. Why don't you tell me everything? Who are you ashamed of? A spiritual father is a sinful person himself, he will not laugh at you, but if he tells someone what you say to him, he would rather die than tell! So why should you be ashamed? Ah, for God's sake, do not be ashamed, do not be ashamed, but tell everything according to the truth! The merciful Lord will not reproach you for your sins: during a sincere confession before your confessor, the Lord will forgive you your sins, and moreover He will forgive you your sins so much that He will never remember them afterwards, unless you yourself are carried away by them again. O Lord, grant that this time your retreat and confession may be for your benefit, that it may be pleasing to our merciful Creator! And this will happen when you sincerely reveal all your sins at confession, and in the future you will no longer repeat them, but will henceforth live according to God's law! Amen.

Дух поста

Всем нам, братие, должно знать, что угодно пред Богом, чтобы не быть осужденными. Что в том, что мы постимся, а не исправляемся, — что в том будет пользы? Одно воздержание от скромной пищи, хотя бы и самое суровое, нимало не принесет нам пользы, если мы будем при этом творить злые дела. Если и одним пеплом будем питаться, а от злобы не отстанем — не спасемся. Если от хлеба воздерживаемся, а при этом гневаемся на брата и завидуем ему, то мы уподобляемся только зверям: ведь и они хлеба не едят, а едят мясо, — вот также и мы: гневом, завистью, клеветой пожираем друг друга и братии своих. Если ты хочешь воздержаться от мяса и рыбы, то при этом отстань и от гнева и злобы, от гордости, клеветы, зависти, обиды, воровства, • пьянства, блуда и всякого греха. А кто не пьет ничего и мяса не ест, а злобу в сердце держит, такой хуже скота. И скот ведь не ест мяса, и вина не пьет. Если кто и на голой земле спит, а мыслит злое, и такой не хвались: и скот в постели не нуждается. Отстанем, братие, от грехов наших, и тогда не будем подобны скотам. Будем творить плоды добрых дел, и Ангелам уподобимся, и со святыми получим вечную жизнь. Бог не для того нас сотворил, чтобы мы жили по-скотски и потом шли в муку вечную; но для того чтобы, пожив здесь на земле в воздержании, посте, чистоте, в покаянии и милостыне, и особенно в любви, смирении, послушании, братолюбии, перешли в вечную жизнь, которая обещана нам от Бога, если соблюдем заповеди Его. Ему слава со Отцом и Святым Духом во веки. Аминь.

(Из рукописного сборника XVII века "Измарагд")

409. Начало благое

Больно, братие мои, подумать, как мы стали слабы, как мало заботимся о спасении души... Вот настал Великий Пост, — время святое, время самое благоприятное для покаяния. Кажется, если мы искренно веруем в Господа Иисуса Христа, если не лицемерно носим святое имя Христиан, то когда еще и думать о Боге, о душе, о будущей жизни, когда и очищать себя от грехов, если не теперь? Но что же видим на деле? — Не буду говорить о том, кто совсем поста знать не хочет и ест скоромное круглый год: достоин ли такой имени Православного Христианина? — нет: я говорю о том, кто пост знает, почитает, но по своему его понимает. Так, например, мы вот мяса в пост не едим, — и хорошо, конечно, делаем, что не едим, потому что так святой Церковью заповедано; — а осудить ближнего, коснуться его чести, очернить его имя доброе — это почти и за грех не считаем!.. Мы мяса не едим, а вот обмануть человека, обмерить, обвесить, обсчитать его при купле и продаже, подложить ему худой товар за хороший, дешевый за дорогой — в этом как будто для многих из нас и греха нет: "Дело житейское, дело обычное!.." Оскоромиться как-нибудь нечаянно — почитается у многих великим грехом, а ложиться спать, не помолясь Господу Богу, а побожиться хотя бы сто раз в день, а напиться допьяна, если к тому представится удобный случай, — поссориться с соседом, бранить домашних, сквернословить, — все это для некоторых из нас как будто дело такое обычное, что и совесть много их не тревожит... Ах, братие мои возлюбленные! Это ли пост, Богу приятный?!. Это ли пост христианский?!. Нет, други: это пост — фарисейский, это пост, о котором говорит Господь чрез пророка: «не сицеваго поста Аз избрал» (Ис. 58; 4). «Постящеся телесне — постимся и духовне». Если доселе не умели жить по христиански — поучимся теперь! Если не начинали жить по-Божии, то начнем хотя отныне! Ныне время к сему самое благоприятное, ныне —дни спасительные! Если теперь не начнем, если теперь нам недосужно, то когда же наконец?.. И доколе еще будем испытывать Божие долготерпение к нам, грешным?..