On the fight against the main sins of man according to the teachings of the Orthodox Church
In ancient times, the eastern despots, especially in Persia, had two terrible and disgusting executions.
One involved tying a rotting corpse to the person being executed, its arms tightly clasped around the criminal's neck. The sunken eyes of the dead man constantly stared into his eyes, and he could always smell the stench of the decomposing body. He walked with the terrible burden on his shoulders, sat with the corpse, and could not go to sleep without feeling that terrible embrace.
Another execution involved laying the condemned man naked on a board and firmly binding his hands and feet. A mouse was then placed on his stomach, covered with a clay pot, and a red-hot iron was placed on top of it. The pot heated up, and the mouse began to choke from thirst. Finding no escape, it gnawed through the condemned man's stomach, burrowing into his intestines and causing him terrible pain.
My friends, even in our age of culture and civilization, this age of great discoveries, both forms of execution have survived. Many of us carry a terrible corpse on our shoulders, this corpse of our time—atheism. It is also the monstrosity that gnaws at our insides, and people carry these terrible burdens because the terrible executioner, the devil, inflicts this punishment upon them. Oh, what a repulsive, what an unbearably terrible torture!
If, my friends, you went to a cemetery, and all those buried there rose from their graves and surrounded you, wandering around like pale shadows, wouldn't your heart tremble? Wouldn't you want to flee from this spectacle? Yet we often walk among the living dead. Aren't unbelievers dead? But we must look into our souls; aren't they, too, dead? Are not the words of John the Theologian in the Apocalypse applicable to us: "You think you are rich, but I tell you that you are poor, needy, and dead" (cf. Rev. 3:17 ).
So it sometimes seems to us that we are alive, but in reality our soul is dead from sin, because sins kill the spirit of God within us. That is why we all need to cry out: O risen Jesus, resurrect our souls!
Saint Apostle Paul says in his Epistle to the Galatians:
“But God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” ( Gal. 6:14 ).
Every Christian must be crucified to the world, crucified on the cross. He has nails, four nails, with which he is nailed to the cross; he also has a spear with which his heart is pierced.
What kind of cross is this for a Christian?
This cross is called renunciation of the world.
The world must be rejected, not the world in which the bright sun shines, not the one in which beautiful flowers bloom - no, only through this world can we know the Creator and glorify Him.
We need to be distracted from another world, from the one that the Apostle John calls “the adulterous and sinful world.”
This world moves on an infernal chariot, which has three wheels, which the holy apostle also speaks about.
These wheels are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life ( 1 John 2:16 ). These three wheels propel the chariot of the world straight into the abyss of hell, into the kingdom of Satan.
The first wheel is the lust of the flesh: whoever lives in impurity, whoever violates the bonds of marriage (and to great sorrow this is often done in our time), whoever promised to keep his virginity and then violates it - these are the ones who hold on to the first wheel of this terrible chariot.
The lust of the eyes —that's the second wheel. Lust of the eyes is when we sin with our gaze, when we violate the purity of the soul with our eyes—for example, when we admire another's beauty, not glorifying God, but rather self-indulgence, with impure thoughts and desires. Any spectacles that appeal to the passionate side of the soul are also lust of the eyes. Thus, the inscription on the theater doors should have read: "Lust of the Eyes." When people admire dancing, they follow this wheel.
The pride of life, when a person wants to do everything himself, everything his own way, becomes irritated when someone objects to him: “What, they’re not listening to me? Am I wrong? That can’t be!” Often, often we grab hold of this third wheel.
This is the chariot on which the adulterous and sinful world rides.
And when a person takes the path of world-renunciation, this hellish chariot inevitably comes his way, to tempt him, to force him to follow it, to cut him off, to stop him. The chariot will go one way, and the person who has renounced the world will go another, and every Christian must necessarily be crucified on the cross of world-renunciation. Not only monks renounce the world, but everyone who bears the name Christian, because they cannot love the world, nor anything in the world.
A Christian also has four nails with which he is nailed to the cross.
The first is selflessness.
This nail pierces the right hand because it is our right hand that primarily creates and acts. It is this hand, the image of the active principle, that is nailed by the nail of self-denial.
What does it mean to deny oneself? To ignore oneself, to not notice oneself; when one is scolded, to not be upset; when one is praised, to not rejoice, as if it were not about oneself.
The second nail is patience, it is used to nail the left hand, because the left hand is considered a symbol of evil and protest.
The Christian's right foot is nailed to the cross by the nail of prayerful vigil , of standing in prayer. "Pray without ceasing," says the word of God ( 1 Thessalonians 5:17 ). Even when the body sleeps and rests, the soul must be awake and praying.
The fourth nail that pierces the left foot of a Christian is the work of prayer.
It's wrong to say that prayer is easy, that prayer is joy. No, prayer is a labor of love. The Holy Fathers say that when a person prays easily, with joy, it's not they themselves who are praying, but an angel of God who is praying with them, and that's why they feel so good. But when prayer isn't going well, when you're tired, sleepy, when you don't feel like praying, but you still pray, that's when your prayer is precious to God , because then you're praying for yourself, working for God. He sees this work and rejoices in your effort, this work for Him.
Many people say: I didn't pray this morning; I wasn't in the mood. Only someone uneducated in Christian terms would say that. When you're not in the mood, that's when you should go to church and pray, so that your feet are nailed to the cross. The crucified cannot move, so let your feet be nailed to the cross by standing and praying.
A crown of thorns always rests on the head of a Christian—these are our thoughts . They constantly make themselves felt, like thorns, they pierce painfully. A person stands at prayer, thoughts rush in and disturb him in the church; even before the Life-giving Chalice, these thoughts trouble him; they are often terrible, they frighten him, and he must tear them out. They cause him pain.
The spear that pierces the heart of a Christian is love for Christ. He who possesses this love always sees the Sweetest Lord before him; he who possesses this love always hears in his heart: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us." Such a person has no time to think about the world, about worldly things; his thoughts are always occupied with the image of his Savior. He has no time to judge others, to analyze their actions—he judges only himself, lest he offend his beloved Lord.
Saint Ignatius the God-Bearer had such love, he exclaimed: “Oh, my love...”
...I pray to God that none of you will sit on the chariot of the world, that not a single wheel will touch you, that you will always be nailed to the Cross, bearing the wounds of the Savior.
Lord Jesus Christ, we pray to You, grant that we may be crucified and buried with You, so that we may also rise again for eternal life with You.
...Our soul can die and become food for worms. The worms that torment our soul are our passions and sins; there are countless of these worms in our souls, because we have many, many sins: in word, deed, and thought—we sin in everything.
As the psalmist says: “My iniquities have gone over my head” ( Ps. 37:5 ), that is how many sins we have!
But the Holy Fathers consider there to be eight main sins, while the rest of the sins are only the tongues of these eight snakes, only their poisonous teeth.
The first snake is gluttony . This primarily refers to any kind of excess in food and drink, gluttony, drunkenness, and delicacy. This snake has many tongues and teeth, often very thin and barely noticeable. All kinds of caring for the flesh, self-indulgence—these are the tongues of this venomous snake. But the most important of these is self-love, when a person thinks and cares too much about themselves and their own peace of mind.
The second serpent is fornication . To speak of its teeth, in the words of the apostle, is "shameful," but as an archpastor, I will name and show you these terrible teeth: one of them is fornication, a violation of chastity; the second is adultery. This tooth tears the robe of marriage when a husband is unfaithful to his wife, or vice versa—then know that this is the action of the second serpent's tooth. But it also has teeth—unnatural vices—we will not even speak of them, because they are shameful. All these serpent's teeth are disgusting. To those who surrender to their power, the apostle addresses these words: "Do you not know that you are Christ's, and that your body is the temple of God?" (cf. 1 Cor. 6:19 ). Whoever surrenders to the power of the second serpent destroys and desecrates this temple. The second snake has finer teeth, of which Christ said: "Whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her" ( Matthew 5:28 ). This is how strictly Christ regards purity, and there is no more difficult struggle than with these evil offspring of the terrible snake. In this struggle, one must seek help from the Most Pure Virgin Mary, more honorable than the cherubim and more glorious than the seraphim, more pure than the radiance of the sun.
The third snake is the love of money, the passion for gain. A person obsessed with this passion no longer has room in their soul for Christ; they have no time to think about salvation, because they are always in confusion, anxious, lest they miss out on some treasure. This snake has one very sharp tooth, which now bites very often: over-anxiety. What will I do next year? How will I survive? How will I have to live in my old age? People don't think that the Lord knows our needs before we ask.
Closely related to the third snake is the fourth — anger . This snake has many teeth. The first of these is irritability. If someone disagrees with us, we become angry, shout, and reproach. The irritation intensifies, leading us to curse, often with vile, vile words. We then forget that we will answer for every rotten word on the Day of Judgment. It can be even worse: we not only scold our brother, but even go so far as to kill with either a word or a look. Yes, my friends, even a look can kill a person. It is hard when this snake's tooth pierces the soul; gloom fills the soul, a chill grips it, and joy leaves the soul of a person in anger.
The fifth snake is sorrow . There is sorrow for God, the sorrow that makes one lament and weep over sins—the sorrow of the saints—but there is another sorrow—sorrow for the good of this world. This snake has two sharp teeth—complaint and melancholy. Everyone lives well, but I have a hard time, hence my grumbling and sorrow. Do you even know why you live like this? Even more terrible are the teeth of melancholy, which leads to despair in the mercy and power of the Lord. Despair is the sin of Judas Iscariot.
Despondency is the sixth snake, and it can be called paralysis of the soul. When the body is paralyzed, individual limbs lose their ability to function: the eyes don't see, the ears don't hear, the legs don't walk, the arms don't function—in short, life almost ceases. The same thing happens with paralysis of the soul: all vital force is depleted, prayer fails, self-improvement is lost, and the soul seems to fall into a deep sleep.
The mighty seventh serpent, its young numerous, its teeth slender, astonishingly slender. Vanity is its name. There's hardly a person on earth who could say of themselves, "I'm not vain, for I know I'm worse than everyone else." Vanity is vain, wasted glory. A person boasts of intelligence, talent, facial beauty, the richness of their clothing and surroundings, their intelligence, knowledge, and scholarship. The most terrible thing is that even great ascetics suffered from this tooth, for one can become arrogant even through their ascetic labors. Suddenly, during prayer, they say to themselves, "People see what a man of prayer I am." They've already become arrogant and been bitten by the snake of vanity. Even, I repeat, even great ascetics were not free from thoughts, though only thoughts, like St. Seraphim. When he refused to leave the Sarov monastery and accept the rank of abbot and returned to his humble cell in the desert, he felt a vain thought arise in his soul. The great, humble elder punished himself for this thought: for a thousand days and a thousand nights he prayed for it away. The vain forget that everything they have is not theirs, but their Creator's. A vain person often treats others with disdain and meets any resistance with irritation. Be careful how you walk.
The eighth serpent is pride . This sin is Satan's own. Pride leads to many sins, the most terrible of which is atheism, which leads to the death of the soul.
We have looked at the eight snakes of our soul, these sins are mortal, because the soul, possessed by them, dies a slow death .
...If there are snakes in the soul, then heavenly flowers, which snakes are afraid of, also grow there.
The first snake - gluttony - is afraid of the flower of abstinence.
Fornication cannot bear even a tiny drop of dew from the flower of chastity and purity.
The love of money fears mercy.
Anger is killed by the wonderful flower of meekness.
Sorrow - inexpressible, unspeakable joy about the Holy Spirit.
Despondency is the flower of patience.
Vanity cannot bear the heavenly beauty of the flower of humility.
As for the last heavenly flower, the slightest drop of which, like a terrible poison, kills pride with all its little snakes, the name of this wondrous flower is love . Love for Christ is the most wondrous, the most beautiful flower of our soul. Whoever has this flower blossomed has eternal joy. To find this flower, ascetics labor, renouncing all worldly goods; the blood of holy martyrs was shed for this flower. Whoever understands how beautiful this flower is will spare nothing to acquire it, will devote all the strength of their soul.
One ascetic cried out to Christ for thirty years: "Give me a drop of love." And after thirty years, the Lord heard his prayer: the elder fell seriously ill, and during a time of great tribulation, a pure drop from a heavenly flower fell into his heart, and such bliss overwhelmed the elder's soul that he blessed his suffering.
Lord, we beg you, drop a drop of love into our souls, light a fire in them from your Divine flower.
Each of us has our own Kremlin , a sacred Kremlin of our soul, erected by Divine power. This Kremlin is necessary to protect the innermost part of our spirit from enemies. Our sacred Kremlin, like any other, has four walls.
The first wall, facing directly to the outside world, the largest, the most important, is called humility.
The second wall is self-reproach. While the first teaches us not to arrogantly consider ourselves inferior to everyone else, the second says, "No matter what happens to you, remember that you alone are to blame."
The third wall is the fear of God. Anyone who has this wall erected will avoid sin, lest they offend the Lord.
The fourth wall is the memory of God. When this wall is present, a person never forgets for a moment that he walks before the face of God, who sees not only his deeds but also his thoughts.
But besides the walls, the divine Kremlin is protected by four guards, one at each wall.
At the first wall stands a guard— attention. This guard watches those entering and admits only those with a virtue card, while excluding all others.
At the second wall stands a guard, whose job it is to clear the Kremlin if the enemy manages to penetrate. This guard is repentance.
At the third wall, Zeal for God stands guard ; this formidable guard smites the enemies who have finally penetrated the Kremlin. And the fourth guard, with a whip, drives out and strikes down his enemies who managed to hide from the first three guards. The name of the fourth guard is the Jesus Prayer.
This is how a Kremlin is fortified; no enemies will penetrate it, because the guards will not allow them in. Each of us will check: are the walls in order? Have any collapsed? Are the guards in place? If so, then rest assured for the home of your soul; the Kremlin will guard it, and this home will become the dwelling of God Himself, and the Kremlin will be like a house built on a rock; neither storms nor the waves of life will torment it.
I want to give you... a precious chain of gold rings, let it be on your heart, or even better, let it be kept in your heart – this precious chain.
The chain has seven rings, seven beautiful golden rings, here they are, remember them well!
The first ring is the memory of God . Whoever has this ring constantly, every minute, remembers God and sees Him before them.
The second ring is closely connected to the first—it represents the fear of God. He who remembers God will do no wrong, because he fears Him and does not want to offend the Lord whom he sees before him.
And if there is the fear of God, then the third ring should already be there - repentance , because the fear of God will show you all the mistakes of your conscience.
Closely related to repentance is self-control: self-observation is the fourth ring of the golden chain.
He who sincerely repents of his sins will always watch himself, avoiding everything that might offend Christ.
The fifth ring, the most precious, is studded with diamonds—this ring is called humility . Whoever has the first four also has the fifth, because such a person has no time to exalt themselves above others, nothing to be proud of; they are only preoccupied with their sins, they only watch themselves and their actions. But whoever remembers and fears God, repents of their sins and controls and observes themselves—they have humility, they have found peace of conscience, peace of soul —this is the sixth ring.
The seventh ring, you can probably tell me yourself: whoever has light and peace in his soul will not get angry or offend another, because he has the seventh ring - peace with people , he loves people.
I repeat once again: the remembrance of God, the fear of God, repentance, self-control, humility, peace of conscience and peace with people.
Take this gift, save it and take it to your homes.
Source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Serafim_Zvezdinskij/pjat-shagov-ko-hristu/