Having called Himself the shepherd of the sheep, the Lord said that "the sheep hear the voice of this Shepherd , ... and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice" ( John 10:3-4 ). The voice of Christ is His teaching; the voice of Christ is the Gospel; following Christ on the path of earthly pilgrimage is an activity entirely directed according to His commandments.
To follow Christ, you must know His voice. Study the Gospel, and you will be able to follow Christ with your life.
He who, having been born according to the flesh, enters into the "regeneration" ( Titus 3:5 ) through holy baptism, and maintains the state provided by baptism through living according to the Gospel: he "will be saved . " He "will enter" into the God-pleasing arena of earthly life through spiritual birth, "and will leave" this arena with a blessed end, and in eternal eternity he will find abundant, sweet, spiritual "pasture" ( John 10:9 ).
"Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be. And if anyone serves Me, My Father will honor him" ( John 12:26 ). Where was the Lord when He spoke these words? With His humanity united with His divinity, He was among men, on earth, in the vale of their exile and suffering, remaining as divinity even where He had been from the beginningless beginning. "The Word was with God" ( John 1:1 ) and in God. This Word proclaimed of Himself: "The Father is in Me, and I in Him" ( John 10:38 ). There also the follower of Christ reaches: "whoever confesses " with lips, heart, and deeds, "that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him, and He in God" ( 1 John 4:15 ).
“If anyone serves Me, My Father will honor him: to him who overcomes” the world and sin , who follows Me in earthly life, “I will grant” in eternal life “to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat with My Father on His throne” ( Rev. 3:21 ).
Renunciation of the world precedes following Christ. The second has no place in the soul unless the first is first accomplished. “Whoever desires to come after Me ,” said the Lord, “ must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it” ( Mark 8:34–35 ). “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple” ( Luke 14:26–27 ).
Many approach the Lord, but few decide to follow Him. Many read the Gospel, delight in it, and are enraptured by the loftiness and holiness of its teachings, but few decide to guide their behavior according to the rules laid down by the Gospel. The Lord declares to all who approach Him and desire to become like Him: "If anyone comes to Me and does not renounce the world and himself, He cannot be My disciple . "
"This is an harsh saying ," even those who outwardly followed Him and were considered His disciples said of the Savior's teaching: "Who can listen to it?" ( John 6:60 ). This is how the carnal mind judges the word of God from its disastrous state. The word of God is "life" ( John 6:63 ), eternal life, essential life. This word mortifies the "carnal mind" ( Rom. 8:6 ), born of eternal death and maintaining eternal death in people: the word of God, for those who are destroyed by the carnal mind and who choose to perish from it, "is foolishness ." It is "the power of God to those who are saved" ( 1 Cor. 1:18 ).
Sin has become so deeply ingrained in us through the Fall that every characteristic, every impulse of the soul is permeated with it. The rejection of sin, which has become innate in the soul, has become a rejection of the soul. Such a rejection of the soul is necessary for the soul's salvation. The rejection of a nature defiled by sin is necessary for the assimilation of a nature renewed by Christ. All food is thrown out of a vessel when it is poisoned; the vessel is thoroughly washed, and only then is the food to be consumed placed in it. Food poisoned is, with all due justice, called poison itself.
To follow Christ, we must first renounce our own reason and will. Both the reason and will of fallen nature are completely corrupted by sin; they are in no way reconciled with the reason and will of God. He who renounces his own reason becomes capable of assimilating the reason of God; he who renounces his own will becomes capable of fulfilling the will of God.
To follow Christ, let us "take up our cross ." Taking up our cross signifies voluntary, reverent submission to God's judgment, despite all the sorrows sent and permitted by God's providence. Complaining and indignation during sorrows and adversity is a renunciation of the cross. Only one who "takes up his cross" can follow Christ : one who submits to God's will and humbly acknowledges oneself worthy of judgment, condemnation, and punishment.
The Lord, who commanded us self-denial, renunciation of the world, and the bearing of the cross, gives us the strength to fulfill His commandment. He who resolves to fulfill this commandment and strives to fulfill it immediately discerns its necessity. The teaching, which seemed cruel to the superficial and erroneous view of carnal wisdom, is the most reasonable, filled with goodness: it calls the lost to salvation, the murdered to life, and those buried in hell to heaven.
Those who hesitate to voluntarily renounce themselves and the world are forced to do both. When the inexorable and irresistible death comes, they part with everything to which they were attached: they extend their self-denial to the point of casting off their very bodies, casting them down, leaving them on the earth to be eaten by worms and decay.
Self-love and attachment to the transitory and vain are the fruits of self-delusion, blindness, and spiritual death. Self-love is a perverted love of oneself. This love is mad and destructive. The self-loving, addicted to the vain and transitory, to sinful pleasures, is his own enemy. He is a suicide: thinking to love and please himself, he hates and destroys himself, killing himself with eternal death .
Let us look around, distracted, befuddled, deceived by vanity! Let us come to our senses, intoxicated by vanity, deprived of true self-perception! Let us cope with the experiments that are constantly taking place before our eyes. What happens before us will certainly happen above us.
Did he who spent his entire life seeking honors take them with him into eternity? Did he not abandon here the grand titles, the insignia, all the splendor with which he surrounded himself? Did he not depart into eternity only with his deeds, with the qualities he acquired during his earthly life?
He who spent his life acquiring wealth, who accumulated vast sums of money, acquired vast tracts of land for his own, established various institutions that yielded a plentiful income, lived in palaces resplendent with gold and marble, rode in magnificent chariots and horses—did he take all this into eternity? No! He left everything on earth, contenting himself for the final needs of the body with the smallest plot of land, which is equally needed and equally satisfied by all the dead.
Those who, during their earthly lives, indulged in carnal pleasures and enjoyments, spent time with friends in games and other amusements, and feasted at sumptuous tables—are finally, by necessity itself, removed from their accustomed way of life. The time of old age and illness arrives, and after them the hour of separation of soul and body. Then it is realized, but too late, that serving whims and passions is self-delusion, that life for the flesh and sin is a life without meaning.
The desire for earthly success—how strange, how monstrous! It searches with frenzy. No sooner has it found than what it has found loses its value, and the search is aroused with renewed vigor. It is dissatisfied with anything present: it lives only for the future, it thirsts only for what it does not have. Objects of desire lure the seeker's heart with the dream and hope of satisfaction: deceived, constantly deceived, he pursues them throughout the entire arena of earthly life, until unexpected death snatches him away. How and in what way can we explain this seeking, which treats everyone like an inhuman traitor, possessing everyone, captivating everyone? A desire for infinite blessings is implanted in our souls. But we have fallen, and the heart, blinded by the fall, seeks in time and on earth what exists in eternity and in heaven.
The fate that befell my fathers and brothers will befall me too. They have died; I too will die. I will leave my cell, leaving behind my books, my clothes, and my desk, at which I spent many hours; I will leave behind everything I needed or thought I needed during my earthly life. My body will be carried out of these cells in which I live, as if in anticipation of another life and land; my body will be carried out and consigned to the earth that served as the beginning of the human body. Exactly the same will befall you, brothers, who read these lines. You too will die: you will leave behind all earthly things; with your souls alone will you enter eternity.
The human soul acquires qualities corresponding to its activity. Just as a mirror displays images of the objects it is placed against, so too the soul imprints itself with impressions corresponding to its activities and deeds, corresponding to its surroundings. In an insensate mirror, images disappear when objects are removed from the mirror; in the verbal soul, impressions remain. They can be erased and replaced by others, but this requires both labor and time. The impressions that constitute the soul's possessions at the hour of its death remain its possessions forever, serving as a pledge of either its eternal bliss or its eternal misery.
"You cannot serve God and mammon" ( Matthew 6:24 ), said the Savior to fallen mankind, revealing to them the state into which they had been brought by the fall. Thus a physician will explain to a patient the state into which he is brought by illness, which the patient himself cannot understand. Because of our spiritual disorder, timely self-denial and renunciation of the world are necessary for our salvation. "No one can serve two masters: either he will love the one and hate the other; or he will hold to the one and neglect the other" ( Matthew 6:24 ).
Experience continually confirms the validity of the view on the moral morbidity of man expressed by the all-holy Physician in the words we have quoted, spoken with decisive certainty: the satisfaction of vain and sinful desires is always followed by infatuation with them; infatuation is followed by captivity, the mortification of all spirituality. Those who allowed themselves to follow their desires and carnal wisdom became infatuated with them, enslaved by them, forgot God and eternity, wasted their earthly lives in vain, and perished in eternal damnation.
It is impossible to fulfill both one's own will and God's will simultaneously: by fulfilling the former, the latter is defiled and rendered unworthy. Thus, fragrant, precious myrrh loses its worth from the merest admixture of stench. Only then, God proclaims through the great Prophet, "shall you eat the good things of the land" when you voluntarily "obey Me. But if you will not, nor obey Me, the sword shall ye girt: the mouth of the Lord hath spoken these things" ( Isaiah 1:19-20 ).
It is impossible to acquire the mind of God while remaining in a carnal mindset. "To be carnally minded ," said the Apostle, " is death... To be carnally minded is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be" ( Rom. 8:6-7 ). What is carnal mindedness? It is a way of thinking that arose from the state into which humans were brought by the fall, directing them to act on earth as if they were eternal, exalting all that is corruptible and temporary, disparaging God and everything related to pleasing Him, and depriving humans of salvation.
Let us renounce our souls, according to the Savior's command, in order to gain our souls! Let us voluntarily renounce the vicious state to which they were brought by the voluntary renunciation of God, in order to receive from God the holy state of renewed human nature by the incarnate God! Let us replace our own will and the will of the demons, to which our will has submitted and with which it has merged, with the will of God, revealed to us in the Gospel; let us replace the carnal wisdom common to fallen spirits and men with the mind of God, shining forth from the Gospel.
Let us renounce our possessions, that we may acquire the ability to follow our Lord Jesus Christ! Renunciation of possessions is accomplished on the basis of a correct understanding of them. The correct understanding of material possessions is provided by the Gospel ( Luke 16:1–31 ); and when it is provided, the human mind involuntarily recognizes its full correctness. Earthly possessions are not our own, as those who have never considered this subject mistakenly believe: otherwise, they would always be, and forever remain, ours. They pass from hand to hand, and thereby testify to the fact that they are given only for use. Property belongs to God; man is only a temporary manager of property. A faithful manager faithfully fulfills the will of the one entrusting them with its management. And we, managing the material possessions entrusted to us for a certain period, strive to manage them according to the will of God. Let us not use it as a means of satisfying our whims and passions, as a means of our eternal destruction: let us use it for the benefit of humanity, which is in so much need, suffering so much; let us use it as a means of our salvation. Those who desire Christian perfection completely abandon earthly acquisitions ( Matthew 19:16–30 ); those who desire salvation must give what alms they can ( Luke 11:41 ) and refrain from abusing them.
Let us renounce the love of glory and ambition! Let us not pursue honors and ranks, nor employ impermissible and humiliating means to obtain them, involving the violation of God's law, conscience, and the welfare of others. Such methods are most often used to acquire earthly greatness by those who seek it. Infected and carried away by vanity, the insatiable seeker of human glory is incapable of faith in Christ: "How can ye believe ," said Christ to the ambitious of His time, "receiving glory from one another, and yet seeking not the glory that comes from God alone?" ( John 5:44 ). If God's providence has granted us earthly power and authority, then through them let us become benefactors of humanity. Let us reject the fierce poison that is so dangerous to the human spirit: stupid and despicable egoism, which transforms people infected with it into beasts and demons, making these people scourges of humanity, villains to themselves.
Let us love the will of God above all else; let us prefer it above all else; let us hate all that is contrary to it with a pious and God-pleasing hatred. When our nature, corrupted by sin, rebels against the Gospel teaching, let us express our hatred for it by rejecting its desires and demands. The more resolute the expression of hatred, the more decisive will be our victory over sin and the nature it possesses; the more rapid and lasting will be our spiritual progress.
When those who are close to us in the flesh attempt to distract us from following the will of God, let us show them holy hatred, similar to that which lambs show to wolves, not transforming themselves into wolves and not defending themselves against wolves with their teeth . 3 Holy hatred for one's neighbors consists in maintaining fidelity to God, in not consenting to the vicious will of people, even if these people are our closest relatives, in magnanimous patience with the insults they inflict, in prayer for their salvation—by no means in slander or in actions similar to slander, which express the hatred of fallen nature, a hatred contrary to God.
"Think not ," said the Savior, " that I am come to send peace on earth: I am not come to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to separate a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a bride from her mother-in-law" ( Matthew 10:34–35 ). "I am come," explains St. John Climacus, the words of the Lord quoted above, "to separate" the God-loving from the peace-loving; the carnal from the spiritual; the lovers of glory from the humble-minded: "God is pleased with division and separation when it is done for the sake of love for Him . "
The prophet called the earth the place of his "sojourn" ( Psalm 119:54 ), and himself a sojourner and pilgrim upon it: "I am a sojourner with You ," he said in his prayer to God, "and a stranger like all my fathers" ( Psalm 39:13 ). An obvious, tangible truth! A truth forgotten by people, despite its obviousness! I am a "sojourner" on earth: I entered by birth; I will leave by death . I am a "settler" on earth: I was transplanted to it from paradise, where I defiled and disfigured myself with sin. I will also move from the earth, from this urgent exile of mine, in which I was placed by my God, so that I might come to my senses, be cleansed of sinfulness, and again become capable of dwelling in paradise. For my persistent, utter incorrigibility, I must be cast down forever into the dungeons of hell. I am a "wanderer" on earth: I begin my wanderings in the cradle and end them in the grave: I wander through the ages from childhood to old age, wandering through various earthly circumstances and situations. I am "a stranger and a pilgrim, like all my fathers ." My fathers were strangers and pilgrims on earth: having entered it at birth, they departed from its face at death. There were no exceptions: no human being remained forever on earth. I too will depart. I am already beginning my departure, my strength waning, submitting to old age. I will depart, I will depart from here according to the immutable law and the mighty decree of my Creator and God.
Let us be convinced that we are wanderers on earth. Only from this conviction can we make infallible calculations and arrangements for our earthly life; only from this conviction can we give it a true direction, using it to acquire a blessed eternity, not for empty and vain pursuits, not for self-destruction. Our fall has blinded us, and continues to blind us! And we are forced, by force, over long periods of time, to convince ourselves of the clearest truths, which, by their very clarity, require no convincing.
A traveler, when he stops at a hospice on his way, pays little attention to the place. Why bother, when he's only staying there for a short time? He's content with the bare necessities; he's careful not to spend the money he needs to continue his journey and to support himself in the great city he's headed for; he endures shortcomings and inconveniences generously, knowing that they're a fortuitous occurrence, a fate all travelers must endure, and that undisturbed peace awaits him at his destination. He doesn't attach his heart to any item in the inn, no matter how attractive it may seem. He doesn't waste time on extraneous pursuits: he needs it to complete the arduous journey. He is constantly immersed in thoughts of the magnificent royal capital to which he is bound, the significant obstacles he must overcome, the means to facilitate the journey, the bandit ambushes that beset the route, the unfortunate fate of those who failed to complete this journey safely, and the fortunate situation of those who completed it with the desired success. After spending the required time at the inn, he thanks the innkeeper for the hospitality shown to him, and upon leaving, he forgets the inn or remembers it only superficially, for his heart was cold toward it.
Let us too acquire such a relationship with the earth. Let us not waste the faculties of soul and body without reason; let us not sacrifice them to vanity and decay. Let us guard ourselves against attachment to the temporal and material, lest it hinder us from acquiring the eternal and heavenly. Let us guard ourselves against satisfying our unsatisfied and insatiable desires, the satisfaction of which accelerates our decline and reaches terrifying proportions. Let us guard ourselves against excess, contenting ourselves only with the essentials. Let us direct all our attention to the afterlife that awaits us, which has no end. Let us know God, Who commanded us to know Him and Who grants this knowledge through His word and His grace. Let us assimilate ourselves to God during our earthly lives. He has granted us the closest union with Himself and has given us a time—earthly life—to accomplish this greatest of deeds. There is no other time than the time determined by earthly life in which this wondrous assimilation could take place: if it does not occur at this time, it will never occur. Let us acquire the friendship of the heavenly beings, the holy Angels, and the departed saints, so that they may receive us "into the eternal dwellings" ( Luke 16:9 ). Let us acquire knowledge of the fallen spirits, these fierce and treacherous enemies of the human race, so as to avoid their wiles and cohabitation with them in the flames of hell. Let the word of God be a lamp on our path in life ( Psalm 119:105 ). Let us glorify and thank God for the abundant blessings with which our temporary shelter—the earth—is filled to satisfy our needs. With purity of mind, let us penetrate the meaning of these blessings: they are faint images of eternal blessings. Eternal blessings are depicted by them as weakly and insufficiently as a shadow depicts the objects from which it falls. In bestowing upon us earthly blessings, God mystically proclaims: "Humans! Your temporary shelter is provided with a variety of countless blessings, captivating and delighting both your eyes and hearts, satisfying your needs beyond measure. From this, judge the blessings with which your eternal abode is provided. Understand the infinite, incomprehensible goodness of God toward you, and, having honored earthly blessings with pious understanding and contemplation, do not act recklessly: do not enslave yourself to them, do not destroy yourself by them. Enjoy them as much as necessary and proper, and strive with all your might to acquire heavenly blessings."
Let us cast aside all false teachings and practices based on them: Christ's sheep "do not follow a strange voice , but flee from it, for they know no strange voice" ( John 10:5 ). Let us become thoroughly acquainted with the voice of Christ, so that we may immediately recognize it when we hear it and immediately follow His command. By acquiring spiritual sympathy for this voice, we will acquire spiritual alienation from the strange voice, which is emitted by carnal wisdom in a variety of sounds. As soon as we hear a strange voice, we flee, flee from it, as Christ's sheep do, saving themselves from strange voices by flight: by resolutely disregarding them. Attention is already dangerous: with attention creeps deception, and with deception, destruction. The fall of our forefathers began with the foremother's attention to an alien voice.
Our Shepherd not only calls us with His voice, but also guides us by His way of life: He " walks before His sheep" ( John 10:4 ). He commanded us to renounce the world, to deny ourselves, to take up and bear our cross: and He accomplished all this before our eyes. "Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps" ( 1 Peter 2:21 ). He deigned to take upon Himself humanity, although of royal stock, yet descended in rank to the rank of common people. His birth took place during the pilgrimage of His most holy Mother, for whom there was no place in human homes. The birth took place in a cave in which livestock were housed; a manger served as the cradle for the Newborn. No sooner had news of the birth spread than a murder plot was hatched. The Infant is already being pursued! The Infant is being sought for slaughter! A baby flees through the deserts to Egypt from an enraged murderer! The God-man spent His childhood in obedience to His parents, His adopted father, and His natural mother, setting an example of humility for those who had perished from pride and the disobedience it engendered. The Lord dedicated His manhood to preaching the Gospel, wandering from city to city, from village to village, without a place of His own. His clothing consisted of a tunic and a robe. While He proclaimed salvation to mankind and showered divine blessings upon them, mankind hated Him, plotted, and repeatedly attempted to kill Him. Finally, they executed Him as a criminal. He allowed them to commit the most terrible crime, which their hearts longed for, because He desired, through the execution of the All-Holy One, to deliver the criminal race of mankind from the curse and eternal punishment. The earthly life of the God-Man was one of suffering: it ended in a painful death. Following the Lord, all the saints passed into blissful eternity, treading a narrow and sorrowful path, denying the glory and pleasures of this world, bridling carnal desires through ascetic struggles, crucifying their spirit on the cross of Christ, which constitutes the commandments of the Gospel for the fallen human spirit, undergoing various deprivations, persecuted by evil spirits, persecuted by their brethren—men. Let us follow Christ and the host of saints who followed Him! The God-Man “having by himself made an atonement for our sins, is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high” ( Hebrews 1:3 ). There He calls His followers: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you” ( Matthew 25:34 ). Amen.
Source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Ignatij_Brjanchaninov/tom1_asketicheskie_opyty/2