How to understand: a person is strong in spirit and what cowardice is?

Priest Athanasius Gumerov, a monk of Sretensky Monastery  

The expression "strong in spirit" is indeed very vague and vague. Depending on spiritual and moral values, everyone puts their own meaning into it. As a result, there is an extreme semantic variety. This is easy to see with examples. In the fiction of the 19th century, this expression was applied to people who were cheerful, far from despondent. In Soviet literature and journalism, it was ideologized. "Strong in spirit" were called people who are ideologically stable.

F. Nietzsche divided all people into three types: "strong in spirit", "strong in muscles and temperament" and "not outstanding in either one or the other – mediocre". The former make up the "elite". Speaking of them, he shows a morbid bitterness against Christianity for its sympathy and compassion for the weak:

"What's good? - Everything that increases a person's sense of power, the will to power, power itself.

What's wrong? "Everything that comes from weakness.

What is happiness? — A sense of growing power, a sense of overcoming opposition. Not contentment, but the desire for power, not peace in general, but war, not virtue, but the fullness of abilities...

The weak and the unsuccessful must perish: the first point of our love for man. And it should also help them in this.

What is more harmful than any vice? "Active compassion for all losers and the weak" (Friedrich Nietzsche. "Antichrist"). Modern occultists also love this expression. They assert that the magnet of the "strong in spirit" magnetizes the weaker auras.

The phrase "strong in spirit" is not found either in the Holy Scriptures or in the writings of the Holy Fathers. The biblical language is figurative, poetic, but at the same time very accurate. Concepts and expressions characterize spiritual realities in the most definite way. The Lord says to the children of Israel: "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, and do not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God Himself will go with you [and] will not depart from you, nor forsake you" (Deut. 31:6). God commands Moses' successor Joshua: "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or terrified; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). Courage means inner strength (as opposed to lack of will, confusion) and the ability to act confidently in difficult circumstances. In the righteous men of the Bible, and later in Christians, courage has always had, and still has, a deep and strong faith: "I have not enough time to tell of Gideon, of Barak, of Samson, and of Jephthah, of David, and of Samuel, and of the prophets, who by faith overcame kingdoms, and did righteousness, and received promises, and stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, and were strengthened by weakness, were strong in war, drove away the regiments of strangers;" (Hebrews 11:32-34). St. The Apostle exhorts: "Consider Him who has suffered such reproach from sinners, lest you faint and faint in your souls" (Hebrews 12:3). The concept of courage was used by the holy ascetic fathers: "Therefore, beloved, having cast off all prejudice, negligence and laziness, as children of God, let us try to become courageous and ready to follow in His footsteps..." (St. Macarius the Great, Spiritual Conversations, Discourse 4).

In the New Testament texts, the concept of courage is close in meaning to "boldness" ("And now, O Lord, look upon their threats, and let Thy servants speak Thy word with all boldness", Acts 4:29), "courage" (2 Corinthians 10:1; 11:17), "boldness": "The Lord appeared to him, and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou didst bear witness to Me in Jerusalem, so it behooves thee also to bear witness in Rome" (Acts 23:11).

Cowardice is a lack of courage and determination. This concept is found in biblical texts: "And the people became faint-hearted on the way" (Numbers 21:4); "We beseech you also, brethren, to admonish the disorderly, to comfort the faint-hearted, to support the weak, to be long-suffering towards all" (1 Thess. 5:14). Faint-hearted is the one who loses firmness of spirit and loses heart during persecutions, sorrows, illnesses, trials. In the biblical understanding, faint-heartedness, first of all, is a manifestation of unbelief or lack of faith. "The lack of enlightenment makes the soul cowardly and timid" (St. John Chrysostom, On Courage and Bravery. — Poln. sobr. tvorenii, Moscow, 2004, vol.12, book 2, p.774). By the word enlightenment, St. John calls the illuminating power of Divine truth. Christians perfect in the faith were not afraid of the cruelty of the persecutors, nor of the deceit and malice of the demons. "Once Abba Macarius was walking from the skete to Terenuf, and on the way he stopped at a pagan temple to rest. In the pagan temple there were ancient pagan mummies. The elder took one of them and put it under his head, like a pillow. The demons, seeing such boldness of him, envied him and, wishing to frighten him, called out as if it were a woman, calling her by name: "So-and-so, come with us to the bathhouse!" But the elder was not afraid, but boldly struck the corpse and said: "Arise, if you can, go into the darkness!" The demons shouted loudly: "You have defeated us!" and fled in shame" (Memorable Tales of the Asceticism of the Holy and Blessed Elders, Moscow, 1845, p. 145).

If death is a consequence of human sinfulness, then why do the righteous die faster than sinners?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)