Interpretation of the Gospel for every day of the year. January 28. Russian Synodal translation “But to whom shall I liken this generation? It is like children who sit on the street and, turning to their comrades, say: we played the pipe for you, and you did not dance.”

Photo of the bronze sculpture "Jesus Receiving" courtesy of the BIONDAN foundry, Italy We know that there, beyond the grave, awaits all people either the Kingdom of Heaven, or hell - eternal bliss or eternal torment. There are only two different states there, beyond the grave, and also only two paths here on earth. One path is wide, smooth and level, easy, and there are many people walking along it; and the other path is narrow, prickly and difficult. And happy, a hundredfold happy is the one who follows the narrow path: because it leads to the Kingdom of Heaven.
As the Scripture says, the path to the Kingdom of Heaven is difficult, but the Lord’s help is always ready on it: Jesus Christ is ready to help us walk along it. “The Heavenly Father will still meet you far away on this path, kiss you, clothe you with the first garment, adorn you with a ring and lead you into His palace, where He Himself dwells and all the holy prophets, apostles, saints and martyrs and all the righteous, and where you you will rejoice with eternal and true joy. But when the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven are closed for you, i.e. if you die without repentance and good deeds, then no matter how much you want and no matter how hard you try to go there, they will not let you in.”
As we see, we are talking about Jesus Christ accepting or rejecting the souls of his slaves, determining their future path on Judgment Day. To turn to God means to follow Jesus. We must decide to make a choice.
THE LORD SHOWS US THE RIGHTEOUS PATH
Encyclopedia "Religion". Faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Messiah distinguishes Christianity from Judaism, in the depths of which it arose. The life and teachings of Jesus Christ are set forth in the New Testament of the Bible (see also Gospel). In most Christian denominations, Jesus Christ is interpreted as the God-man, i.e. as a supernatural way uniting two principles - the Divine and the human. In historical literature, Jesus Christ was first mentioned by such Roman researchers as Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Younger, and the Roman-Jewish historian Josephus, dating back to the end of the 1st - beginning of the 2nd century. The words of mercy and consolation of Jesus Christ concerned all the disadvantaged, suffering and outcasts, i.e. to those people who, from the point of view of pious zealots of morality, had no right to hope for eternal salvation. The Son of God urged followers not to miss the hour of salvation, to sacrifice everything in the name of the Kingdom of God, to accept it without any prejudice or rash self-confidence. According to the conviction of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven is unattainable through simple efforts and hope for luck. Repentance is not the result of a person’s repentant reflection on himself; it is not a prerequisite for the proximity of the Kingdom of God. Repentance is rather a consequence of the openness of the latter, the openness of the future for people.
In the nine Beatitudes (Mt. 5th chapter), Jesus Christ outlined the path of spiritual renewal. This path consists of humility, repentance, meekness, striving for a virtuous life, acts of mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking and confession.
The Lord taught not to become attached to earthly goods, because: “What good is it to a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give for his soul” (Mark 8:36). After all, a person who strives to get rich is far from God, because “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). Being in grace-filled communion with God is the highest good for a person, therefore Christ calls: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all this (the rest) will be added to you” (Luke 12:31). “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35).
You can always turn to Christ, at any time and in any place, and you can turn directly, without any intermediaries, and He does not require anything from us except trust in Him: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will reassure you; Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Like the Beatitudes, so the entire teaching of the Savior is imbued with faith in the victory of good and the spirit of joy: “Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” “Behold, I am with you to the end of the age” - and promises that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will inherit eternal life (Mt 5:3-12; John 3:15). It is appropriate to cite other statements of the evangelists: “You, My friends, if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have spoken (and done) everything that I heard from My Father” (John 15:14-15). “I am the light of the world; whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matthew 7:1-29).
“If I cast out demons with the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has certainly come to you” (Luke 11:20).
Confirmation of these canons can also be found in other sources. The whole Christian life is to give up “our souls for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 15.26), and the highest joy is to be worthy to “receive dishonor” (5.41) and “to die ... for the name of the Lord Jesus” (21.13) .
Jesus Christ taught about Himself as the SAVIOR of mankind: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost... came to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many” (redemption - ransom, salvation; Mt. 18:11; 20 :28). The Son of God took upon Himself the mission of saving people, fulfilling the will of His Father, who “so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He is the way, the truth and the life, and that no one will come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6).
The Lord Jesus Christ reveals to man the most important foundations of faith and life, gives direction to his thoughts and aspirations. Let us take a closer look at the path that the Lord Jesus Christ showed us. He said: “If anyone wants to come after Me, then deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.
Thus, a follower of Jesus Christ must begin by “denying himself.” This means that you need to give up all your bad habits, remove from your heart attachment to material wealth (money, luxury, worldly fame, power, etc.), not harbor bad desires, suppress bad thoughts, avoid situations leading to sin, do nothing out of stubbornness or selfishness, but do everything out of love for God and for the glory of His holy name. In a word, to deny oneself means, according to the Apostle Paul, to be dead to sin and alive to God.
To bear one’s cross means not only to patiently endure the difficulties that befall us due to circumstances beyond our control, but also to impose upon oneself a feasible feat in accordance with the word of the Lord and which we need for spiritual improvement.
Finally, a disciple of Jesus Christ must follow Him. This means that in all our deeds and actions we must try to imitate the deeds and actions of Jesus Christ. As Jesus Christ lived and acted, so we should live and act.
Jesus Christ helps us walk this path; gives us the Holy Spirit, sends His Angel to protect us, gives us mentors and leaders, and even Himself takes us by the hand and leads us to salvation. The Lord who welcomes us all into his home.
As a result of the preaching of Jesus Christ in Palestine, a new religious movement called Christianity arose. At the moment (2008) there are more than 1 billion people in the world who call themselves Christians. There are various Christian denominations that differ from each other in their views on certain issues of doctrine.
DOES THE LORD ACCEPT EVERYONE?
Drawing people into His Kingdom, the Lord calls them to a righteous lifestyle, saying: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Mt 4:17). To repent means to condemn every sinful act, change your way of thinking and decide, with God’s help, to begin a new way of life based on love for God and your neighbors.
A person does not become righteous instantly. The main sower of temptations and all evil among people is the devil. Speaking about the tares in His Kingdom, the Lord calls on everyone to fight temptations and pray: “Forgive us our debts, just as we forgive (forgive) our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Knowing the spiritual weakness and fickleness of believers, the Lord invested the Apostles with the power to forgive sins: “Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; to whomever you leave it, it will remain” (John 20:23). Forgiveness of sins presupposes that the sinner sincerely regrets his bad deed and wishes to correct himself.
“And so they brought to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic: Be of good cheer, child! Your sins are forgiven you" (Matthew 9:2).
As John Sergiev writes - from the moment the Lord redeems the human soul and the human race - “we are invited into the community of cherubim, seraphim, thrones, dominions, angels and archangels instead of fallen, proud spirits. These became proud and said to God: somehow You will make up for our lack, which is unbearable and palpable for You, as for the Wise One, who does not tolerate lack of anything and disharmony in His world?
We must remember that evil will not be tolerated forever in the Kingdom of Christ: “Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. But the slave does not stay in the house forever. The Son abides forever. Therefore, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34). Christ commanded that people who persist in their sins or who do not submit to the teachings of the Church be excluded from the environment of a grace-filled society, saying: “If he does not listen to the Church, let him be to you as a pagan and a publican” (Mt 18:17).
Those who are truly converted to Christ must be on guard at all times so as not to accept error instead of truth. Those who think that it does not matter much what doctrines they believe as long as they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior are in a dangerous position. It seems to some that God will accept them if they observe not His Law, but some other laws, if they fulfill some other conditions, and not what the Lord set out in the Gospel, and at the same time pretend that keep His commandments and fulfill His requirements. This is a fatal delusion, and if they do not renounce this heresy and begin to fulfill His demands, they will not be able to become members of the royal family... “Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord! God!" He who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 7:21)
The whole life and teaching of the Savior were aimed at laying new spiritual principles in human life: pure faith, living love for God and neighbors, the desire for moral improvement and holiness. On these principles we should build our religious worldview and our lives.
Faith in the Divinity of Christ cannot be implanted in human hearts either by quotes or formulas. Here you need personal faith, personal willpower. As it was two thousand years ago, so it will be until the end of the world: for many Christ will remain “a stone of stumbling and a stone of offense... so that the thoughts of their hearts may be revealed” (1 Pet 2:7; Luke 2:35). God was pleased by his attitude towards Christ to reveal the hidden direction of the will of every person. And help a sinful soul who desires redemption.

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for My yoke is easy and My burden is light(Matt. 11:28–30).

Here Jesus is not just saying a word, He is making a proposal. This is not a word that you need to listen to and think what to do with it. The Lord specifically says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

For us, as Russian speakers, this phrase sounds somewhat mysterious. It seems that the meaning of these words that Jesus spoke to the church is encrypted. But did the Lord want to be encrypted? Some are trying to create new translations of the Bible to make the Word more understandable. But a person thirsting for truth will himself seek to understand what is written.

So, “come to Me” - everything is clear in this phrase. Next – “all who labor.” Working people are people who have taken on the hardest work. They work in the most difficult way, that is, they do not just work and finish working, but they are in a state of constant hard work. These are working people and also burdened ones. What is a burden? This is an outdated word and is hardly spoken nowadays. A burden is a burden, a load, something that burdens a person, and it is also a responsibility. That is, a burden is a responsibility that a person bears on himself. I think you already understand that in this place the word “responsibility” denotes a state in which it becomes very difficult due to the fact that you are responsible for something.

And a picture emerges: we see before us a person who works a lot, who has taken on a lot of responsibility and bears this burden. And this does not mean that today he carries it, but tomorrow he doesn’t. This person constantly feels this burden and responsibility on his shoulders; he is in constant work and in constant worries. When you constantly feel responsible, it weighs heavily on your soul. Men know this especially well, because the burden of responsibility that they take upon themselves is sometimes unbearably heavy.

The Lord is speaking to people who have taken on so much that it becomes very difficult to bear. And he doesn’t just address, but from the very first words he makes an offer: come to Me, all those who work hard, who have taken on a lot of responsibility, who carry unresolved problems that they cannot figure out. It is to such people that the Lord turns and says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

A person is always looking for an opportunity to calm down. Usually people who want to calm down from everything try to forget themselves, for example, by drinking. Let's go, have a drink, and forget. Or they drank valerian and calmed down. This is how the world calms down. Burdens deprive a person of peace, they displace him. A person works, he is burdened with worries, he carries burdens because of problems - and cannot deal with them. This burden on the shoulders is very heavy and constantly makes itself felt, because of this, people are deprived of all peace, because they need to resolve their situation.

I have very rarely met people who are indifferent to the fact that they have many problems. I saw how people became alcoholics, they simply washed away their grief, their inability to solve problems, trying to find this peace through alcohol. All these burdens have such a property that as soon as you place them on your shoulders, take responsibility for something, you can no longer calm down until the situation is resolved. Until you reach the end, you are always in a restless state. People are deprived of sleep, deprived of peace and rest. And even if they are in another place, in their thoughts they cannot part with their problems. Responsibility is so deeply embedded in them that it is very difficult not to notice it; it constantly reminds itself of itself in the mind, because the enemy is already behind it. A person would like to forget about it, but he cannot, every problem constantly makes itself felt.

The problem may concern people you know - they know how to talk and make themselves known. If the problem is within the family, then the owner of the house will be bald by his loved ones, relatives and everyone who knows about it. As soon as a person takes on the problem, he will not be given peace, the enemy will use everyone and everything. If this is work, then the boss will not give you peace. That is, there will always be someone who will stand on top, constantly remind you of this problem and literally press this burden into you, weigh it down with words. These are the people Jesus addresses.

There is also such a meaning in the dictionary: “burdened with affairs,” that is, a person is burdened precisely with affairs. They say about such people: “They don’t see the white light” - they are busy, overloaded with work. The man is busy, “he has no time to breathe, he’s up to his neck with work,” he’s overwhelmed with work. And all these are phrases in which a person expresses his pain and the heaviness that he carries within himself. These are the people Jesus knows and to whom He speaks. For some reason, the Lord is not interested in other people, namely these who have shouldered everything on their shoulders, and sometimes do not even know when this happened.

In the modern world, all this burden has become even heavier. The progress that has come upon people makes it possible not only to develop technology and everything else, but along with it the burden also develops that falls on the shoulders of people, on their brain, nervous system, and it becomes very difficult for the human soul to bear all this.

Further: “Take My yoke upon you” - this is an interesting point. The Lord offers a deal. He says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and makes the following offer: “Take My yoke upon you.”

What is a "yoke"? We know everything about it from history: the Mongol-Tatar yoke, the Turkish yoke, the Persian yoke... “The yoke is an oppressive, enslaving force; in the narrow sense, the oppression of conquerors over the vanquished” (Wikipedia). Jesus practically proposes oppression. This is an enslaving force, the oppression of the conqueror over the vanquished. The Lord makes an offer based on Him becoming the winner in your life and you being the losers. The Lord makes an offer to everyone to be defeated, He offers you His victory over you.

The Lord first said: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.” He promises such people to calm them down. As I already said, people around the world are sure that in order to calm down, you just need to drink a glass of vodka - and you will calm down. But the burdens and problems will not be solved. How is God going to calm me down? Moreover, He further says: “Let Me conquer you. Let Me become the victor over you,” he offers to learn: “And learn from Me.” What to learn? He says, “For I am meek and lowly in heart.”

This is where the secret is revealed that leads us to the very peace that the Lord speaks about. When He says “I will calm you down,” He says this to those people who are deprived of peace, whose nervous system is already shaken. Because when a person has a gap, the enemy attacks the nervous system, Satan destroys it. Its target is the human nervous system. Burden, work, anxiety, problems that a person takes upon himself - all this hits the nervous system.

So, the Lord in this situation says: “I will give you peace.” With God there is true peace, and there is none anywhere else. David said: “Rest in the Lord, my soul,” because it is the soul that suffers. Because of this suffering, doors open through which anger, irritation, anger enters - precisely because a person works too much. The word about work that was spoken to Adam was given as a curse to man because he had turned away from the Lord his God. As a result, a person without God took upon himself a lot of all sorts of responsibilities, which brought him neither joy nor peace. He could not become a god as he dreamed. He became a burdened man with a destroyed nervous system, irritated, angry, angry, because nothing works out due to the lack of wisdom and everything else.

The Lord says: “Learn from Me” - this is an important point, because it is important to learn from Him so as not to carry these burdens on yourself. He says, “For I am meek and lowly in heart.” This does not mean that we are offered a Teacher who is meek, lowly in heart, and we will be very good with him, because he is very kind. He will be so good, meek, humble, like a lamb, and we will be so pleased to study with him. No. To find peace, you need to be meek and lowly in heart, that's the thing. A meek person, close to God, humble, is one who has allowed God to defeat him. This is the position of the heart when you surrender before Him more and more, surrendering all your positions in which you once fought with Him while being in them. What has the Lord called us to? First of all, He called us to make peace with God. We need to be reconciled to Him in order to have a meek heart, close to God, a humble heart that can bow before Him. A heart that allows itself, if necessary, to be tied up like a sheep and placed on the altar. And if necessary, harness and plow. No matter what the Lord does, He will always do it with love. It will not be the same burden that you carry without Him, the burden that destroys you.

When you carry all these burdens, you must understand that they have enslaved you. And Satan is always behind this, because it does not happen that we are left without a master: either the Lord Jesus Christ will be our master, or Satan. When a person bears responsibility to someone: to another person, to himself, to his family, he carries burdens that are controlled by Satan.

And when you come to Him and give Him all these burdens, the Lord first of all says: “In order not to carry this, you need to allow Me to conquer you, conquer you, your character. And you need to learn. If you learn from Me, you will become meek and humble.” Whatever the Lord gives you, it all leads to meekness, closeness to Him and humility. It is important to allow yourself to be made a different person, a new creation in Jesus Christ.

The Lord says: “For My yoke is easy.” Again the yoke. He continues to invite us to conquer us. What does it mean to conquer? From history you remember that this is complete enslavement. Enslavement is when people cannot do everything they would like. And at this moment no one else dares to appropriate what they have won. This conquered property belongs only to the conqueror, be it people, their property and everything else. The Lord invites us to allow ourselves to be conquered. Not to take on His burdens, as some understand, but to accept His conquest.

How is the world usually? To conquer something, you had to go to war - kill someone, conquer, take possession. And the Lord says: “Take My yoke upon you”—namely, take it, accept the yoke, agree voluntarily, without military conquest.

When the Lord says, “Take My burden upon you,” He is showing that the burden He has on our shoulders will no longer look like the burden of responsibility that we carried on ourselves. His burden is all that the Lord offers, what He invites us to learn, what His word promises us, what He invites us to have. This is the concern that follows precisely from His words: “I will teach you.” This is the very burden for us, because He teaches how to be righteous, holy, how to learn to live in the Kingdom of God, He offers precisely this burden to take on our shoulders - to learn.

The Lord offers us His studies so that we learn and bear this responsibility and duty, which always has an accompaniment - this is your own effort. Because we must take His learning upon ourselves, place it on our shoulders, as people who have made the decision to learn and who carry precisely this burden on their shoulders. And the Lord says that it is easy.

“Conquer, surround, enslave...” The Lord can take possession of us only through love. Although the Lord does not tell us that we are slaves, nevertheless, the people whom He calls voluntarily become slaves, and the law allows this.

People who really want to calm down need first of all teaching, learning, because all burdens come solely from ignorance. The Lord offers to take on the burden of learning - to learn from Him, and then people will find peace and tranquility. What the Lord offers is wisdom, wisdom, prudence. People taught by the Lord will not take on a lot of unnecessary responsibilities, and will not walk in paths where they will be burdened with burdens that they cannot bear. The Lord will heal the nervous system.

If, when you look at this word, you see in yourself a person who has truly taken upon himself all these heavy burdens, I advise you to thank the Lord for this word and say:

“Lord, I accept Your offer. You said, “Come,” and I come to You. You said: “Those who labor and are heavy laden”—I am such a person. My nervous system is completely destroyed, I find no peace, I have taken on a bunch of burdens and problems that I cannot solve in any way. They torment me, I get nervous because of it, I get irritated, I get angry, it’s all present in me.

Lord, based on the word You spoke today, I admit that I am ignorant. It is because I am not trained that all this happens to me, although I am called by Your name, but at the same time I do not live as a person who has learned from You, who knows how to follow You. I am a person who has not yet accepted Your yoke upon myself; I have not allowed myself to be conquered by You. From now on I allow it to You, Lord, conquer me, be my Conqueror. I take upon myself this burden of being taught by You, and I know that it is You who will help me bear it and lead me to victory. I also ask You to lead me to meekness and humility, because in order to obey You, I need to have this. And then I will find peace for my soul. I thank you and praise you. Amen".

The Lord said to His disciples: all things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to whom the Son wants to reveal it. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father.” Christ establishes the New Covenant between God and man, and offers peace and joy to an apostate world on terms that must be heard by us. No matter what happens to us, we must come to Christ - He will not reject us and will give us everything we need - because everything is devoted to Him and He is the Lord of all. All power, all the treasures of heaven and earth are in His hand.

Our Savior has the most intimate knowledge of the Father. “And no one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son.” Christ says that no one knows Him. No one can penetrate the mystery of His personality except God the Father. And in the same way he claims that He is the only one who knows God. The Gospel of John proclaims this: “No one has ever seen God; He has revealed the Only Begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father.” When the IV and V Ecumenical Councils define the mystery of Jesus Christ as “true God and true man,” when they define the mystery of the consubstantial and indivisible Trinity of Father and Son and Holy Spirit, they will give only the most accurate definition of what is said in the Gospel.

“No one knows the Father except the Son,” says Christ, “and those to whom the Son is pleased to reveal him.” People's happiness lies in the knowledge of God. This is eternal life. Those who do not know God must turn to Christ. For the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shines on the face of Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). We can only know about God what Christ reveals to us. There is a completely different way of cognition, different from the usual, rational one. God is not comprehended by scientific evidence, He is revealed Himself.

Christ God calls us all to save us all. We must come to Christ as our Peace, and rest in Him. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,” burdened with the weight of labor and sorrow, but rather with the burden of sin. All those and only those are invited to rest in Christ who recognize their sin as a burden and groan under it, who not only understand the evil of sin, especially their own sin, but suffer from it in the soul as from the most serious illness. Only Christ, the physician of our souls and bodies, can heal us. Only in Him can we find peace through living faith - only in God, in His love.

“Take My yoke upon you,” says the Lord. “You are suffering from your yoke, throw it off and try to take Mine, and it will become easy for you.” The yoke that Christ offers us, He Himself carries - ahead of us, taking upon Himself all our infirmities. “My yoke is easy and my burden is light,” says Christ. Don't be afraid to take it. The yoke of Christ’s commandments is an easy yoke. It will not harm you in any way, but it will renew you. This yoke contains love. This is the essence of Christ’s commandments, they are all in one sweet word - love. It may be a little difficult for you in the beginning, but later it will be easy. The burden of the Cross of Christ is a light, very light burden. As sorrows multiply, consolation from Christ God increases.

Christ is our Teacher, and we must become worthy of His disciples. The Church of Christ is a school of holiness, and we must listen every day to the teachings that He gives by His word and the Holy Spirit. We need to learn from Christ in such a way as to know Christ (Eph 4:20), for He, the holy fathers say, is the Teacher and Teaching, the Guide and the Way. He is everything in everything.

We must learn from Christ because He is meek and lowly in heart. He is the mercy of God Incarnate. He is meek and full of compassion for those who do not know the truth. He patiently explains, without getting annoyed, to the dumbest and slowest. He is humble in heart. He lovingly bends over the beginners and teaches them the basic principles that are necessary for them like milk for babies. What a gift it is to study in such a school with such a Teacher!

“You will find rest for your souls,” He says. Peace for the soul is the most desired peace. The only and reliable way to find peace for our souls is to sit at the feet of Christ and listen to His word. Our minds find peace in the knowledge of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and are abundantly satisfied. Our heart finds peace in the love of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and has fullness of life, peace and confidence forever. All who learn from Christ find peace.

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

All who labor and are burdened can come to Him. Christ speaks these words to every person. Those who labor and are burdened are all people, although they may not realize it. Each of us carries a burden that only Christ can lift. The heaviest burden is the burden of sin. If we had to carry it alone, it would crush us. But our place was taken by the Sinless One. “The Lord has laid on Him the sins of us all” (Isa. 53:6). He bore the burden of our guilt. He will take the weight off our tired shoulders. He will give us peace. He will also bear the burden of worries and sorrows. He calls us to cast all our cares on Him because we are dear to Him. Our Elder Brother is at the eternal throne. He looks at every soul that turns to Him - to the Savior. He knows from His own experience human weaknesses and needs; He knows the power of temptation: after all, He, like us, was tempted in everything, but did not commit sin. He protects you, trembling child of God! Are you tempted? He will save you from temptation. Are you weak? He will strengthen you. Are you ignorant? He will enlighten you. Are you wounded? He will heal. The Lord "counts the number of the stars," and He “he heals the brokenhearted and heals their sorrows” (Ps. 147:4, 3).“Come to Me,” He calls. Whatever your worries and burdens, tell the Lord about your troubles. It will strengthen your spirit. The path to liberation from difficulties and hardships will open for you. The more deeply you realize your weakness and helplessness, the sooner you will find support in Him. The heavier your burden, the more blessed will be your peace when you turn to Him who bears all burdens. The peace that Christ offers depends on clearly defined conditions. Anyone can do them. The Lord tells us how we can find His peace.
“Take My yoke upon you,” says Jesus. The yoke is an instrument of service. It is put on the animal so that it can work. Through this example, Christ seeks to reveal to us one truth: we are called to a ministry that will last until the end of our days. We must take His yoke upon us to become His fellow workers. The yoke that makes us servants of God is His law. The great law of love, revealed in Eden, proclaimed from Sinai and sealed in the hearts of the New Testament, surrenders us to the will of God. If we were left at the mercy of our inclinations and our will, we would fall into the camp of Satan and acquire his qualities. Therefore, God submits us to His will - holy, sublime and noble. He wants us to carry out our ministry patiently and wisely. Christ Himself, being in human flesh, took upon Himself this yoke of service. He said: “I desire to do Your will, O My God, and Your law is in My heart” (Ps. 39:9), “for I came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 6:38). Love for God, desire to glorify Him, and love for fallen humanity motivated Jesus to come to earth to suffer and die. This was the driving force of His life. He calls us to accept this principle. Many people, striving to achieve well-being in this world, groan under the burden of worries. They chose to serve the world, accepted all the difficulties associated with it, and submitted to its rules. Therefore, such a person is spoiled, and life is a burden for him. To satisfy their ambitions and worldly desires, people go against their conscience and suffer under the burden of guilt. Constant care depletes vitality. The Lord calls them to break these bonds of slavery and accept His yoke. He says, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” He advises that one should seek, first of all, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and promises that everything needed for earthly life will be provided. Vanity blinds, and a person does not think about the future. But Jesus sees all ends and beginnings. He knows how to find a way out of any difficult situation. Our Heavenly Father has prepared thousands of paths for us that we know nothing about. Those who make serving God and His glory their highest goal will see all difficulties disappear and their path straightened.
“Learn from Me,” Jesus calls, “for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” We must go through the school of Christ in order to learn meekness and humility from Him. Atonement is the process of preparation for life in heaven. This preparation means knowing Christ. It means liberation from thoughts, habits and customs acquired in the school of the prince of darkness. Man must be free from everything that is contrary to the will of God. In the heart of Christ, where there was perfect harmony with God, there was perfect peace. Praise never delighted Him, and reproach and disappointment never unsettled Him. While experiencing the most fierce opposition, being subjected to the most cruel treatment, He did not lose His presence of mind. But many who call themselves His followers are worried and anxious because they are afraid to trust God. They do not obey Him completely because they fear the consequences of such obedience. They will not find peace until they submit to the will of God. The cause of all anxiety is selfishness. When we are born again, we will think like Jesus, who humbled Himself to save us. Then we will not look for a more honorable place for ourselves. We will want to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from Him. We will understand: the significance of our works does not lie in noise, not in ostentatious activity and zeal; the significance of our works does not depend on our strength at all. The value of our works is determined by the extent to which we have received the Holy Spirit. Trust in the Lord sanctifies the mind and helps to endure everything patiently. The yoke is put on animals to help them carry the load and lighten its weight. So it is with the yoke of Christ. When our will becomes one with God's will and we use His gifts to bless others, we find that the burden of our lives becomes light. He who walks in the paths of God's commandments walks with Christ, and in His love the heart finds peace. When Moses prayed: “Open to me Your way, so that I may know You”, - the Lord answered him: “I myself will go and bring you into rest” (Ex. 33:13, 14).

Recently, one of the television channels showed a journalistic film in which a dozen Russian scientists from various fields of knowledge, having first confirmed the reality of the Flood, spoke about what natural disasters could befall us in the not-so-distant future. The result was a film-reflection on an apocalyptic theme with a strictly scientific background. But, in the end, the Gospel Magi also came to the infant Christ, guided by reason and calculations related to astronomy and mathematics...

The scientific “horror story” was qualitatively different from what cinema feeds us, preparing us for the same apocalyptic events, but on the other hand, accustoming us to ugliness, to ugliness (I deliberately separate this word, emphasizing its basis - “image”), to dirt and stench, so that over time we accept them as something native and natural. By the way, before the Flood, this is exactly what happened - the widespread spread of sin, the habit of abomination erased the very concept of sin, confused the concepts of good and evil, and when corruption reached its peak...

But, as already mentioned, scientists did not raise moral issues in the film, although the fact that they turned to the Holy Scriptures at the very beginning takes their research to a completely different plane. The geography of these scientific forecasts should not have escaped the gaze of a believer. At the forefront of the coming disasters was a world that calls itself “post-Christian,” that is, it once knew Christ, but denied Him. The most advanced countries in renunciation fell under the heaviest blow - those where the first revolutions in Europe took place, where same-sex marriage and other signs of “freedom” were first legalized. Scientists predicted the fate of Sodom for them - perhaps with less salt. Well, at the end of the film, when the agitated viewer should have been calmed down, science, in its attempt to give some useful advice, thoroughly stalled, revealing its helplessness. She simply did not reach the very end of the journey of the Magi - she did not bow to the Savior.

Is the answer to the question “what to do?” really that difficult? No. Any rural, uneducated priest can immediately give the exact answer: we must repent. And through repentance return to God. “The world today is filled with various kinds of “security,” said the Svyatogorsk Elder Paisius, our contemporary, “but, being distant from Christ, he feels the greatest defenselessness. In no era has there been such defenselessness as modern people” (“With pain and love about modern man” M., 2003, pp. 24-25). Is it possible to object to this? You can only add hopelessness, meaninglessness and loneliness to defenselessness.

Distance from God makes a person vulnerable to the forces of evil. The rampant occultism, the decline of morality, culture and education, laziness, rudeness, selfishness, physical illness, our constant anxiety and fears, tossing and discontent, indifference and isolation - all these are consequences of our life outside of God, of choosing the wrong path. The danger of deviating from one’s destiny can be seen in the example of Russian history. The internecine princely wars ended with the Mongol invasion, the passion for French ideas ended with the invasion of Napoleon, and the passion for German philosophy ended with the war with the Germans. The perjury and oath to the Gentiles in the person of False Dmitry plunged Rus' into the Great Troubles of the 17th century; the second perjury was followed by the revolution of 1917. The “Godless Five-Year Plan,” designed to finish off the remnants of Orthodoxy in Russia, was stopped by the need to protect the Motherland from the Nazis. And what decided the outcome of events - the victory over Mamai, Hitler, the French, the Poles? Repentance. Sincere and popular. The Holy Fathers of the Church said that even if the Antichrist stands on the threshold of the Third Temple, he can be thrown back by the repentant appeal of the people to the Lord. Then history will continue for the salvation of many. Salvation - in the Christian sense of the word. But for repentance it is necessary to distinguish between good and evil, the ability to recognize the abomination of Satan, and being burdened with sins dulls spiritual vision to the point of complete blindness.

Thus, the time of the end of the world depends entirely on the spiritual state of humanity, and it turns out that we ourselves create our tomorrow. Forgetting or simply not knowing that without God man is only capable of destruction. That everyone’s sin destroys not only himself - his soul and body, it has a destructive effect on his family, his people and humanity as a whole. That is why each of us is responsible to everyone. And when on Forgiveness Sunday we ask for forgiveness from people to whom we have done nothing wrong, there is a deep, although incomprehensible to many, meaning.

What is sin? In the popular, superficial view, sin is a violation of an ethical norm, a bad act. In reality, a bad deed is already a consequence of sin. In its depths, sin is a spiritual, metaphysical phenomenon. Its essence is a departure from the eternal Divine life for which man was created and to which he is called. Every sin we commit is betrayal of God, our Creator, opposition to God’s will - all-good and all-perfect, rejection of God and alliance with demonic forces. Of course, I am aware of how abstract all this is for modern man, so I will remind the reader about the most important events of Biblical history.

“And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). This speaks not only about the soul as the image of God, but also about God’s grace. This is what the Russian religious thinker V.N. wrote about this. Lossky with reference to St. Gregory the Theologian: “The soul receives life and grace at the same time, for grace is the breath of God, the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit. If a person became alive when God breathed the breath of life into him, then this happened because the grace of the Holy Spirit is the true beginning of our existence" (Lossky V.N. Essay on the mystical theology of the Eastern Church. Dogmatic theology - M., 1991, p. 239).

The grace of God that dwelt in Adam was the basis of his communication with God in paradise. According to church tradition, having created man, God put into him the beginnings of everything He had previously created. Thus, man, the crown of creation, the only spiritual-physical being in the Universe, according to the Divine Plan, was supposed to unite the physical and spiritual worlds, reign over the material world and, carrying the divine principle, spiritualize matter. Through Adam, all creation was called to the joy of being in love and union with its Creator. It was this unity that was destroyed in the Fall. The divinely established order was violated. Everything was in complete harmony only if man was connected with God. When this connection was broken by the Fall, everything came into a state of disorder, struggle and division, evil and its consequence came into the world - suffering as the opposite of bliss and death as the opposite of life.

God created the world - spiritual and material - perfect, destined for eternal, incorruptible existence. He did no harm. Christianity categorically does not accept dualism - the assertion that good and evil are equal. Good, identical with Truth and Love, is God Himself. Evil, not being created, has no essence, it is only a distortion of the Divine harmony of the universe, a deviation from good. So darkness is only the absence of light, and not something existentially independent. Good is impossible without freedom of choice, otherwise it would lose its moral content. Just as without freedom there can be no love. Thus, evil is the result of the abuse of freedom. First, as we know, some of the angels He created fell away from God. Having taken the path of self-affirmation, they turned into evil spirits, demons and, with their damaged nature, became a constant source of evil. Original sin was also a free act of man. Having violated the commandment about not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, man himself chose a path that does not coincide with God’s will. In an effort to become independent from God, he fulfilled the will of the devil, thereby betraying his Creator and abandoning the goal of life defined by Him - becoming like God. He wanted to become like a god on his own and immediately, but, not having the source of life in himself, he became corruptible and mortal. “For by their sin, people transferred the center of their lives to a reality outside of God, from being to non-existence, from life to death, they rejected God and got lost in the dark and dissolute distance of fictitious values ​​and realities, since sin threw them far from God” ( Archimandrite Justin (Popovich). About original sin. Library of the site pravbeseda.ru).

Thus a global catastrophe occurred, striking not only our forefathers, but also all their descendants, as well as the entire created world. The unity of the forces of the soul in man was disrupted - they came to a state of painful discord. The human mind has become darkened and lost its former wisdom, insight and scope; from being God-centric, it has become self-centered. Damage to the will led to the fact that she became sin-loving and more prone to evil than to good. The heart, polluted and defiled by sin, gave in to unreasonable aspirations and passionate desires. The image of God in man was deeply damaged, darkened and disfigured. The whole world after the Fall could no longer be the same. And together with man, the entire created world began to live outside of God and therefore suffer. I repeat once again that suffering was created not by God, but by the free will of man who has fallen away from God. I will also remind you of what many have forgotten: freedom implies responsibility.

I foresee the question: was it really impossible to forgive the Fall? Even though Adam did not want to take responsibility for what was done and tried to shift his blame onto Eve, and through her, onto God Himself. After all, we know that God's mercy is limitless. Here it is necessary to warn the reader against attempts to interpret with his own mind what lies beyond the limits of not only human, but also angelic understanding. Apparently, for a person endowed with free will, forgiveness was not enough. After all, redemption could not be violent, mechanical. To eliminate the consequences of the Fall and restore lost unity, it was necessary to reunite the human will with the will of God. Both fall and salvation begin with will. Man had to be given the opportunity to be reborn from a fallen state into a new one, the opportunity to make a choice that would determine his eternal life. And he got this opportunity. Instead of the lost paradise, the Lord opened the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven for all of us.

Redemption is the greatest and incomprehensible mystery of God's love. The love of God could not allow the world to exist in a fallen state. But for atonement, a sacrifice was required that would surpass the entire Universe in terms of dignity and, at the same time, by nature be similar to those for whom it was offered. Such a sacrifice was made by the God-man Jesus Christ, replacing each and every person with Himself. Being sinless, He accepted the punishment (suffering on the cross) for our sins and justified us with His truth, removing the curse of sin from us. The possibility of connecting with God through life in God was restored. The Lord gave us the means to fight evil, showed us the path to salvation, and throughout His earthly life showed us an example of true love. He founded the New Testament Church on earth and united it with the Heavenly Church. Christ rose again, having conquered death, and now the general resurrection, “the life of the next century,” also awaits us. But this life is not a continuation or repetition of earthly life, but a transformation, a transition into another existence, where the resurrected body will acquire new properties and will be like the body of the risen Christ the Savior. In resurrection, relatives and friends will meet - everyone who was united by love in this earthly life. In the Kingdom of God there will be no separation, suffering and death, time will disappear, and space will not be a barrier for the human body.

But while the process of earthly life continues as before, the world lies in evil, bodily death, as a consequence of sin, remains, and every person must go through it. And in the process of this earthly life, every person, the owner of free will, must make a choice between eternal life or eternal death, decide with whom he will be in eternity - with God or with the devil. With God - through faith in Jesus Christ, becoming a participant in redemption, a participant in the Cross, Calvary and Resurrection. With the devil - through our sins, for “with our sins we renew the alliance with the demon into which our forefather entered. The Lord redeemed us from sin, but we must accept the grace of redemption voluntarily. Therefore, our earthly life is a choice, a path and a struggle” (Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin). Article “What is the true life.” Website: karelin-r.ru). Remember well: choice, path and struggle. And don't put it off for too long.

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). We live in a world completely saturated with lies. Lies penetrate even into the church fence. This has happened before. But our time is especially dangerous because the very concept of sin, even mortal, is being erased from people’s consciousness. Widespread propaganda of permissiveness, falsely presented as freedom, led to the fact that sin acquired special audacity and scope, ceased to hide and was almost equated with valor. In extreme cases, it is called a “different lifestyle”, “non-traditional orientation”, but, again, not reprehensible. Mortal sins, the sin of Sodomy, like any others, are called anything but sins.

The Holy Fathers of the Church said that our sense of sin depends on our closeness to God. Thus, as a person acquires grace, his fall is revealed. It seems strange to us that the holy ascetics considered themselves great sinners and incessantly cried about their sins - it would seem: what sins do they have? Although everyone knows that in the rays of sunlight every speck of dust is clearly visible, and in the dark even the most terrible dirt is not visible. Holy ascetics, vouchsafed by God the gift of spirituality in And denies, could tell a person about his unconfessed sins in every detail. This indicates that sin is real dirt entering the soul. Not washed away by repentance, it remains in the soul and passes with it into eternity.

Every person sins continually and therefore must continually repent. But how many people know that they are constantly sinning? It’s unlikely, given that “clinical cases” of complete sinlessness are, alas, not such a rare occurrence. Meanwhile, the most serious illness is confidence in one’s good spiritual health. By the way, if you come across a person who claims that he has not violated God’s commandments, ask him to name them and make sure that the rare “righteous” person knows more than four. But even four he will not be able to interpret correctly. It's about the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, the Lord gives about three hundred commandments according to which we must build our lives. And if we don’t know them, then this is our misfortune, but not our sinlessness.

One experienced confessor once expressed the idea that if we highlight and show on a screen everything that happens in the hearts and thoughts of so-called “decent people,” then we will see the same spiritual snakes and octopuses as in obvious sinners. Sometimes a person is “decent” only because of the impossibility of realizing his passions (popularly this is called “God does not give horns to a lively cow”), but in his thoughts and fantasies he “goes into all sorts of bad things,” not at all considering himself a sinner and even often reminding to others: “I am a decent woman!” or “I am an honest person!”

“Nothing is accomplished so easily, but nothing is so difficult to understand as sin,” said Saint Elijah Minyaty, who lived in the late 17th and early 18th centuries (A Sermon on Confession in the Third Week of Lent. Website: pravoslavie.ru). And if our conscience is still capable of responding to serious falls, then it no longer worries about the so-called “minor sins” that accompany us almost every hour. What does the Gospel say about our favorite pastimes - judging and gossiping or unforgiveness of offenses? He says: in order not to be judged by God, you need to not condemn anyone yourself, in order to be forgiven by God, you need to forgive everyone yourself. Cover your brother's sins and the Lord will cover your sins. But we are not accustomed to looking at ourselves in the light of the Gospel. Usually we compare ourselves with other people, and in this almost everything becomes like the self-righteous evangelical Pharisee. The disease of pharisaism, which has several degrees of severity, is especially dangerous not only because of its widespread prevalence, but also because it occurs unnoticed by those infected with it, making him incapable of true repentance. Let us remember this parable once again: a person even comes to church to condemn, humiliate, dishonor others and justify himself with his good deeds. The spiritual fruit that he brings to God is satanic pride.

St. Petersburg priest Alexy Moroz, in one of his books, gives the main psychological types of people encountered in confession, the first of which is a person with a self-satisfied conscience. “People of this type, regardless of their intellectual level, are characterized by spiritual lack of consciousness and, as a consequence, religious complacency, a false sense of their spiritual well-being. These people do not try to think about spiritual problems and in general little worries them besides daily worldly affairs. They come to church out of tradition, and not at the call of their hearts... They have no need for spiritual life, and they usually focus all their attention on the external and, at that, secondary. For example, during the central place of the Liturgy, the Eucharistic canon, when the greatest prayerful concentration is required, people of this type light or pass candles, strive to venerate icons, pushing away and distracting other worshipers.”

(Repentance and confession on the threshold of the 21st century, St. Petersburg, 2004, p. 464). I’ll add a little local specificity on my own: it’s also as if they are deliberately waiting for the prayer for the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Holy Gifts in order to noisily rummage through purses, rustle bags, count the cash in their wallet, etc.

The opposite type - people with a suspicious conscience - is also well known to many: these people are literally crushed by the consciousness of their sinfulness. The fear of falling into sin and leading their neighbor into some kind of temptation makes them shy away from people. “Recognizing oneself as a sinner is necessary for salvation, but condemning oneself and rushing in all directions because of sinfulness is very harmful. Everything immoderate is from demons, said the Venerable Pimen the Great” (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. Letters on ascetic life. Minsk, 2001, p. 186).

But let’s return to the Gospel parable: what is there that is opposed to the Pharisee’s self-satisfied conscience? Humility and repentance. The publican finds no excuse for himself; he knows that he has no merit before God, therefore he counts only on His mercy. And out of humility he justifies himself. In contrast to the Pharisee, who has a lot of merits devalued by pride. Only a dying person crying out for help can be saved. And it’s better not to count on your good deeds. We must always remember: what we consider good may not be such in the eyes of God. At the Last Judgment “not only the sins of men will be judged, but also the righteousnesses of men; there many of their truths will be condemned by the All-perfect righteousness” (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov. Op. cit. p. 118).

While working on this article, events occurred in my family that made me feel even more deeply about the topic being covered. One after another, the news of the serious illness of two of my relatives struck like thunder. There are diagnoses that instantly stop all our fuss and return true values ​​to their rightful, honorable place. One of the letters sent to me these days told about the emergency department of the regional oncology hospital. There was a huge queue of patients, a long wait - at least six hours. “In an ordinary clinic,” this letter wrote, “everyone would have quarreled, but here the patients are patient and very attentive to each other.”

The disease deprives one of earthly illusions. She forces you to take your eyes off the TV, bright shop windows, and the shortcomings of your friends and turn it to the sky. First, you need, like the Gospel prodigal son, to come to your senses. Because the state of sin is a state of madness. The comparison may seem too strong, but what else can you call the preference of a deceitful and cruel devil over a merciful God? And who doesn’t know from their own experience what kind of madness passion drives, who hasn’t seen how people who succumb to passion are like those who have gone crazy in the most literal, medical sense of the word?

And so grief becomes a means for insight, for returning to oneself. Then it is better not to stop, but to continue walking, because the further path lies to God. “The prodigal son, under the weight of shame and fear, walks slowly. And a loving father runs to meet him. Let him be guilty and deserve punishment. Even though he is dirty and still smells of the pigs he tended, his father hugs him and presses him to his chest. So dear to God are those who truly repent. A father kisses his son. This is not just a kiss of greeting. This is the seal of complete forgiveness and love” (Archarch Alexander Shargunov. Interpretation of the Gospel for every day of the year. Week of the Prodigal Son. Website: pravoslavie.ru). “The son said to him: “Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you and am no longer worthy to be called your son” (Luke 15:21). This is the confession of sin necessary for forgiveness and peace. Saint Theophan the Recluse, in his Word on Sunday about the Prodigal Son, says that the return of a sinner to the state of justification and adoption of God “is fulfilled when he, having decided to correct himself, confesses his sins and, having received permission from his spiritual father and forgiveness from the Lord, partakes of the most pure saints and the life-giving Mysteries of Christ for the remission of sins and eternal life" (On repentance, communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and the correction of life. Publication of the Athos Russian Panteleimon Monastery. 1909, p. 33).

In part, this quote can serve as an answer to a frequently asked question: can a person repent before God on his own? Maybe. But this is not enough. The Lord gave special power to absolve sins to the apostles and their successors (bishops and presbyters). “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). Appearing to the apostles after His resurrection, the Lord said to them: “... peace be with you! just as the Father sent Me, so I send you. Having said this, he blew and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven; on whomever you leave it, it will remain on him” (John 20:21-23). The Church of its given hierarchy by authority allows (releases) from sins not only to the extent of repentance, but to a large extent in debt, removing the entire severity of sin completely. This is how the weakness of our repentance, our blindness regarding ourselves, is filled. But in the Sacrament of Repentance, not only forgiveness and resolution occur, but also the reunification of a person with the Church. After all, sin separates a person from God and His Church. The restoration of unity with the Church can only be achieved by the Church itself.

The Sacrament of Repentance brings healing accomplished by the action of God's grace and eliminates sin as an obstacle to the reception of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist (except in cases where the commission of grave sins requires lengthy preparation or penance). All the sacraments of the Church have their source and foundation in the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The “mysterious” actions of the Church are nothing more than a living continuation and unceasing spread of the Incarnation in time and space. It is the sacraments that ensure the constant and dynamic presence of the Incarnate Christ among the people of God. In the words of St. Leo the Great, “He who was seen as our Redeemer is now hidden in the mysteries.” The sacraments give Divine grace to the whole person and sanctify the whole person. But since the human soul is clothed in physicality, the sacraments of the Church consist of visible and invisible. So in Baptism, water washes the body, and the soul is cleansed by the Spirit. Thus, in the Eucharist, the flesh is nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ, so that the soul can perceive God. Matter, substance become conductors of the Spirit in the sacraments. This also emphasizes the value of matter, in particular the human body.

According to patristic tradition, the true performer of each sacrament is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, invisibly but effectively present through the Holy Spirit. This is what St. says about this. John Chrysostom: “It is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit who accomplish everything. The priest only lends his tongue and his hand.” During Holy Communion, “the hand of Christ Himself reaches out to you.” “The sacrament that Christ gave to His disciples is identical with that given by the priests. The latter is in no way less than the first, for it is not men who sanctify it, but He who sanctified the original sacrifice.”

Is it worth refusing when the Lord Himself stretches out His hand to you and Himself communes you with His Most Pure Body and His Most Pure Blood? Everyone decides for themselves. The Lord gives healing to everyone. Only those who do not want to be healed remain unhealed.

I began my activity in the field of Orthodox education as an organizer of catechetical conversations, personally attending each one. Non-standard questions - such as, say, did Adam have a navel - were asked quite rarely. Basically, the same ones arose, repeated in different audiences. One of them: can the Lord really forgive everything? The person conducting the conversation answered: “Yes, of course, God’s mercy is limitless, you just need to repent.” Then everything and everywhere developed according to the same scenario with increasing indignation: “Ah-ah, that means the murderer will be forgiven!” This means that someone can sin, repent and go off to sin again!..”, etc. In fact, in an audience consisting mainly of women over 30, you would expect more condescension. If only because those not involved in murder (abortion) are presumably in the minority. But according to my observations, it is precisely those who are not going to repent who look for “shortcomings” in the Gospel, in the Church and in the universe. Here we are talking about the search not for truth, but for justification of one’s unrepentance. But is it really possible to sin recklessly, to become stuck in sins in the hope that God will forgive everything? No. The Lord warns: “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11), “behold, you are healed; Sin no more, lest anything worse happen to you” (John 5:14).

The word “repentance”, known to us from the Russian and Bulgarian languages, comes from the Greek “metanoia”, meaning “change of mind”. What change is meant here? The change is essentially ontological, not ethical. It is not enough to repent, you need to change your life, change yourself. Metanoia is a healing process, it is a strategy and a spiritual path. Not progress, but transformation. Only a transformed person will be able to dwell on a transformed earth. Not self-affirmation in earthly life, but salvation for eternal life. This is “a process opposite to the sinful disintegration to which the primordial couple underwent, namely, the restoration of fallen man, the return to the lost internal unity, the sanctification and harmonization of his disparate and dissonant forces. Here the centrifugal energy of sin is opposed by the centripetal, volitional movement of the soul towards God. This is the restoration in man of the image of God, darkened by sin, like the reconstruction of a damaged temple" (Archim. Raphael (Karelin). Article "On internal transformation." Website: karelin-r.ru)

The complexity of such a task may not be so obvious to those who have not attempted it. Those who have already begun “restoration work” have fully felt their weakness. It is impossible to stand in the commandments without God's help. Our damaged nature interferes with the implementation of good intentions, therefore any good deed of ours is spoiled to a greater or lesser extent. This is especially noticeable from the outside - other good deeds are so heavily seasoned with vanity and so insincere that it can be unpleasant to look at them. And not everyone wants to accept kindness. However, “damage” in good deeds may not be so obvious.

Internal creation is a slow, gradual, labor-intensive process. It requires enormous effort, enormous patience and cooperation between man and God - synergy. It is impossible to do this without the Church and the sacraments - these “channels” of grace. On the other hand, there are many people who go to church for many years, regularly confess, take communion and do not change. Sometimes they even become worse than before. Very often people look in the Church for spiritual, rather than spiritual, consolation, communication with people, help in everyday difficulties, strength to endure misfortune, but they do not look for God Himself and do not perceive faith as a new life. For some intellectuals, Orthodoxy has become a real “gold mine” - they (unlike the “average” average person who sees only boredom in it) appreciated the incredible beauty and immensity of the Orthodox worldview. But how many of them became servants of God, ceasing to be slaves of the world with its constant self-affirmation?

Metanoia is a narrow path full of dangers. Needless to say, nothing is scary with God? The fear of death that haunts us is latently connected with our sins, which give power over us to demons. But man constantly repeats the mistake of his forefathers - he does not believe God and believes the devil, who acts, if not through a serpent, then through a fortune teller, a “healer,” an astrologer, a lying newspaper, a corrupt politician, rumors, gossip, etc. In this distrust of God, he constantly tries to combine the incompatible - the cross on his chest with the sign of the zodiac or with the “evil eye” and continues to look for a shorter and easier path. A person is always looking for happiness and peace where they do not exist and cannot exist.

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls; For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:27-30). Only spiritual experience and deep recognition of oneself as burdened with sins can help one come closer to understanding these words, feeling them from the inside. The yoke of Christ's commandments is good; it renews and transforms us. The burden of Christ is light, because the Lord Himself helps to bear it. The Lord Himself bears our infirmities and comforts us. Gives peace to our souls, true joy, fullness of life. If we respond to His call.