Дети понятливы, будьте при них осторожнее

Пресвятая Дева Мария с трех лет начала жить в храме, с трех лет начала служить Богу. Ужели же, братие, могла быть какая-нибудь польза от столь раннего занятия? Ужели трехлетний младенец может что-нибудь понимать и перенимать? — Не только трехлетний, даже и двухлетние, и однолетние младенцы могут многое понимать и перенимать. Вы, конечно, замечали, как младенцы бывают до всего любопытны, а это есть знак того, что они хотят узнать, — значит, могут и понимать; об их памяти и говорить нечего, на ней, как на мягком воске, все отпечатывается. И в самом деле, когда дети научаются говорить, когда успевают запоминать столь различные наименования вещей? Конечно, в младенчестве. Когда успевают узнать те пороки, которые они обнаруживают, когда приходят в возраст? Опять в младенчестве. Так, слушатели, почти все то остается на всю жизнь в детях, что они видят и слышат в младенчестве. И потому, чему вы хотите со временем учить детей, то надобно внушать им и тогда, когда они бывают младенцами. Пусть они заблаговременно приучаются видеть и слышать это, пусть, по крайней мере, их уши и глаза привыкают к тому, чем со временем должны заниматься их ум и сердце.

И потому-то родители Пресвятой девы Марии премудро сделали, что так рано отпустили Ее жить в храм. Там все мирское от Нее было сокрыто; Она видела и слышала Божественное, Она жила и дышала Божественным. Напротив, весьма неосторожно поступают те из родителей, которые при младенцах делают и говорят худое, или позволяют другим говорить и делать непристойное. "Рано еще учить их доброму", — говорим мы обыкновенно. Рано! а к худому разве приучать уже время? Мы станем учить детей благочестию, когда у них откроются понятия, а много ли будет пользы от этого учения? Мы тогда будем словами удерживать их от того, чему давно научили делами.

Итак, слушатели, будем как можно осторожнее вести себя при младенцах, чьи бы они ни были, свои или чужие, за своих и чужих мы равно дадим ответ Богу. Положим, что они и ничего не понимают, но у них открыты глаза, у них отверсты уши, и потому будем удерживаться от худого, чтобы они не видели и не слушали, не будем приучать ушей и глаз их к худому. И нам лучше будет на том свете, если они спасутся, и нам отраднее будет, если они по смерти не пойдут в ад, в сие место мучений вечных. Аминь.

(Из поучений протоирея Р. Путятина)

86. С порочными не дружись

1.

The descendants of Seth, the son of Adam, lived virtuously and God-pleasing all the time that Adam was alive, for which reason the Holy Scriptures call them "sons of God"; they did not mingle with the lawless descendants of Cain, whom the word of God calls the sons of men. But after the death of the forefather Adam, the piety of the sons of God began to weaken, and after the death of Seth they became completely depraved, and the reason for this corruption was that they drew near to the impious streams of Cain, for close acquaintance and friendship with evil people will not corrupt whom? It is well said in the Psalms: "With the monk shalt thou be venerable,.. and with the obstinate thou shalt be corrupted" (Psalm 17:26-27). And Jesus, the son of Sirach, likens soul-damaging friendship with vicious people to pitch: "Touch the pitch and be blackened, and commune with the proud, it will be exact" (Sir. 13:1). In the same way, one should reason not only about pride, but also about every other sin, and especially about the impurity of carnal sin. Whoever makes friends with a wicked man will learn from him also his vice, and will blacken himself, as a man who touches pitch is blackened. And the vicious life of depraved people is justly likened to pitch: as pitch is black and sticky, as it easily adheres to every thing, and when it burns, it emits a foul smoke, and its flame is difficult to extinguish, so the vile deeds of wicked people are dark, disgusting and black, like the Ethiopians. And God Himself says to such in the book of the prophet Amos: "Are you not the sons of the Ethiopians, you are to Me the children of Israel?" (Amos 9:7). When, he says, you became corrupt, did you not become in My sight as dark as the Ethiopians? Every sinner is a black Ethiopian, he "hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed, for they are evil" (John 3:20). And he who makes friends with such Ethiopians as tarred as pitch cannot help but be blackened by his abominable deeds: for evil is sticky, it easily clings to a person who by his very nature is more inclined to evil than to good, as it is said in the Scriptures: "... A man's mind is diligent in evil from his youth" (Gen. 8:21). And as soon as a person, having made friends with vicious people, begins to corrupt himself, and, like tar, to be kindled by the fire of sin, then he already begins to emit the malevolent smoke of temptation, backbiting, and shamelessness; everywhere, like smoke in the wind, bad rumors spread about him, and all good people shun him... When sin becomes a habit for him, it is difficult to correct it, just as it is not easy to extinguish a burning tar. That is why God commands: "Depart from among them, and be separated, and touch not their uncleanness: and I will receive you, and I will be unto you the Father" (2 Corinthians 6:17:18). And the holy Apostle Peter thus implores: "Be saved from this obstinate generation" (Acts 2:40), — be saved, he says, as from inevitable destruction, for it would truly be a miracle if someone, living among the obstinate and depraved, did not perish completely. We marvel at the righteous men: Noah, Abraham, Lot, Job, Tobit, who were saved, dwelling among lawless nations, we glorify their life as a miraculous phenomenon in the world. One of the Greek sages said it well when he was asked: what in life is worthy of wonder? "A good man among the wicked," he answered. If you meet, he says, one good man among a multitude of depraved people, then marvel at him, as if it were a miracle, because such people are not often encountered, not often, for "all are bent, and together they are useless," as the Psalmist says, "do not do good, not to one" (Psalm 52:4).

What is the reason for such universal corruption among people? And this is the reason that people seduce each other and harm each other with bad examples of each other's sinful life. Everyone sees the bad life of another and is offended, and he himself also begins to do evil, and in this way the number of evil people increases and the number of good people decreases. That is why the Lord says in the Gospel: "Woe to the world because of temptation" (Matt. 18:7) — woe, for the world is full of temptations, just as it is full of sins! The sight is offended, for how many are seen in the world who commit iniquity! The ear is offended, for how many flattering, blasphemous, deceitful, and unclean speeches are heard in the world! And who can escape all these temptations? Many, wishing to save themselves from temptation, fled to the deserts, took refuge in the mountains and caves, just not to see, not to hear worldly temptations, among which it is difficult to escape. And if many passions are at war against those who live in the deserts, far from the world, and some of them are even completely stopped on the path to salvation, then all the more easily these passions conquer and completely destroy people who live among the obstinate and corrupt race. A certain elder, who lived in a skete in the Egyptian deserts, once came to Alexandria to sell his needlework, and seeing there a young monk who had entered the tavern, he was greatly grieved; he waited until the monk came out of the tavern, took him aside and said to him: "Brother! Do you not know how many snares the devil has? Do you not know how we monks are damaged by sight and hearing when we are in the city? And you, young monk, go to the tavern, for there you involuntarily hear and see only sin, I beseech you, my son, to flee into the wilderness, where salvation is easier for a monk with the help of God." The young monk boldly answered him: "Go away, old man! God does not demand anything from us, if only the heart is pure." Then the elder raised his hands to heaven and said: "Glory to Thee, O God! For fifty-five years now I have been living in a wilderness skete, but I have not yet acquired a pure heart, but this brother, even while in the tavern, already has a pure heart." The elder said this only to express his surprise, but in fact he did not at all believe that anyone, living among the temptations of the world, could acquire a pure heart.

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

2.

As the body often perishes from the contagion of spoiled air, so the soul often suffers harm from association with vicious people; And just as one who suffers from scabies communicates his illness to the healthy, so it often happens to the soul from communion with vicious people. For this reason Christ also commanded not only to avoid such people, but also to reject them. "If," He says, "thy eye of thy right hand offend thee, turn it away from thee" (Matt. 5:29), meaning in this commandment not the eye, for what evil can the eye do when the soul is in a healthy state? — but friends who are close to us and have become, as it were, our members, commanding us not to value their friendship either, in order to work out our own salvation more safely. For this reason the Prophet also says: "I am not gray with a vain assembly, neither will I enter with those who transgress the law" (Psalm 25:4). "Blessed is the man who does not go into the counsel of the wicked" (Psalm 1:1). Usually, it is not so much wild beasts that cause harm as vicious people; the latter clearly produce their poisonous actions, but these insensibly and silently spread the infection every day, gradually weakening the power of virtue. And you, when you intend to settle in the city, try hard to find out everything about the climate there, whether it is harmful, damp, or dry, and when it comes to the soul, you do not in the least try to get to know the people with whom you have to live...

(From the Discourses of St. John Chrysostom)