Part 1

In every person, even a wise one, there is much foolishness, and sometimes foolishness that is repellent. Every moment, guard yourself, man, against your own foolishness. This greatest foolishness is sin: from it comes every ruin.

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The fall of the first people and of all mankind was deep, wide, ruinous, and in its consequences most terrible—through the loss of those life-giving gifts that humans lost after the fall, and through those dreadful fruits that sin produced as a consequence of separation from God—the Source of Life.

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Sin is the most abominable, deadly, most agonizing, and yet deluding poison of Satan, killing the soul and body forever, plunging into utter darkness, severing the soul forever from God. Only the Blood of Christ can purify this poison.

A vineyard planted by the Lord. The Lord expected from it sweet grapes, but the grape turned to thorns. The crown of thorns on the Head of the Savior is a sign of the thorny sin that has filled mankind.

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O sin, sin, how ruinous you are! You have made the world, created by God out of nothingness, alien to God. “He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him; yet the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and His own people did not accept Him. But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:10-13).

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In what lies the power of transgression, the greatest willful madness, ingratitude, and wretchedness of the first people? In this: they exchanged God for creatures, love for the Creator for devotion to an evil creature, the most holy, incorruptible union with the Creator for a foul, evil, and corruptible union with creatures. “Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me” (son and daughter…) (Mt 10:37). What can be said of the bonds and attachments of adulterers, of the evil unions such as the present-day revolutionary alliances? O associations of sectarians, schismatics, heretics, associations of robbers and thieves, opposed to the state?

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“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind… and your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39). From the moment of disobedience to God’s commandment in paradise, man of his own will fell away from the love of God and transferred a perverted love to himself (self-love, selfishness) and to earthly things, clothed himself entirely in the spiritual delusion of the enemy, turned this delusion upon himself, was deluded by his own reason, having fallen away from God’s reason—fell into thousands of delusions, into every kind of attraction to earthly pleasures, and left no place in his heart for God, Whom he should love with all his being, glorify, thank, and honor with sacrifices pleasing to God, as a sign of acknowledgment and gratitude.

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“If you have been raised with Christ, then seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col 3:1). To fully understand these words, we must remember that through sin man fell utterly away from God and became entirely earthly and worldly, rather than divine, spiritual, or heavenly, as he ought to be; he became a slave to madness, vanity, and corruption, and in this state not only did he not grieve, but he made a mockery of himself (as he does now), gave no thought to repentance and saw no need for it, just as now the proud writers and proud people in general refuse to recognize this need, forgetting that they are “worms, and not men” (Ps 21:7), earth and ashes.

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Beguiled by the forbidden fruit in paradise, Adam and Eve left a destructive, delusional inheritance to the human race—every kind of spiritual delusion and earthly falsehood, every kind of vanity, every kind of sinful madness, and first of all woman herself became an object of delusion, lust, and mockery from countless men! O how deeply and into what filth woman—or rather the maiden she was—has fallen! How men mired in her uncleanliness and passions wallow in her mud. Then every person, except the chosen and righteous, turned into delusion and attachment everything earthly—transformed life itself into every kind of passion, and made himself the object and goal of every passion conceivable. Eternal darkness unless the Lord illuminates the eyes of the heart. O wretched animal man, endowed by the Creator with freedom, image and likeness at the beginning, and set as king over all irrational creatures—yet in many cases less reasonable and purposeful than they are! God has withdrawn from human hearts and does not reign in them, because in them reigns the evil spirit of every delusion and estrangement from the Creator—Satan. Man has become the workshop of the devil, the laboratory of evil demons, who build up in him every kind of delusion and evil. Christ the Redeemer came to earth for the very purpose of snatching man from this ruinous delusion and restoring in him again the image of God and likeness to God, making him a new creature and uniting him again with God. And the saints attained the goal of likeness to God through faith, love, labors, humility, obedience, and unceasing prayer. Glory to God for this.

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Eve was beguiled by the forbidden fruit, and behold, all mankind fell into worldly delusion and all have become subject to delusion, and woman herself became an object of delusion through her bodily beauty, and everything, everything became for man an object of delusion: food and drink of every sort, clothing, money, all kinds of games and amusements, animals—dogs, cats, birds—man became attached to everything, and God passed from his heart; God became forgotten in hearts, distant and despised, blasphemed. O ungrateful animal man! O foolish creature, though honored with reason! What punishment do you deserve, wicked creature!

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It is terrible and inconceivable how corrupted human nature has become by every kind of sin—sins so vile that it is shameful, painful, and fearful even to speak of them. We priests, confessors, know this better than anyone else, especially those of us who through our nearness and spiritual tenderness and sympathy, our fervent faith and genuine care for the spiritual ailments of our spiritual children, have earned their trust. O, how these simple, sincere souls of male and female sinners ache with their sins, and how they need our sympathy, counsel, healing, and God’s mercy! There is no sin so vile and monstrous that mankind has not fallen into it. Some man or woman has mixed with every kind of neighbor, even blood relatives, with domestic beasts and animals, with birds, with cats, dogs, pigs, horses, cows, calves. My God! How far has man fallen! These are common people. Yet the learned and educated, the rich and noble fall and have fallen even worse with all their education—men committing shameful acts with men. The ancient pagan emperors had a passion for beautiful boys and satisfied their lust upon them. The same was done by other highly placed officials. Saint Andrew the Fool for Christ openly rebuked one court official for this. Small wonder that one abbess, a great ascetic, once gathered his monks and spoke with them about spiritual poverty and the deep penetration of corruption into human nature; at the end he said: “Brothers, let us all pray and weep”—and all shed tears of heartfelt contrition.

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Do you not feel yourselves in a state of loss, in the condition of a person who has lost what is most precious? And what is this loss? In a matter of supreme importance: you have lost what was essentially implanted in our nature; you have lost the likeness of God, and often have defiled, disfigured, and corrupted the very image of God. Seek therefore with haste this lost coin.

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The devil, the enemy, who beguiled Eve and Adam through the forbidden tree, beguiles even now all people through every kind of worldly attachment—food, drink, carnal lust, and other passions. See how broad and deep are the consequences of sin!

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Those who will be spouses must particularly abstain from passions, for passions are passed on through birth to children and communicated to them, so that children become wretched heirs of the passions of their parents, and likewise of their diseases (for example, scrofula). O, the inheritance of sin, a sorrowful inheritance!

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How loathsome is sin, whatever its kind, to the All-Holy Lord. It is an abomination that severs from Him the soul that commits it. “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (Rom 6:11).

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The stench of sin, received through negligence, carelessness, and habit in youth, remains in the soul and in the bodily members through mature years and sometimes into old age, indeed throughout life. Remember and guard yourself!

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Die to sin in order to live for God. What base, corruptible, unclean, and ruinous strivings are yours, O man! They sever the soul from God and lead to corruption and death, blind the soul, plunge into shameful slavery—into madness! Sorrow of the heart! Let us turn our minds and hearts toward the cross and crucify ourselves to Christ, who was crucified for us. Amen.

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Our life is a continuous test by means of life’s circumstances and encounters with people—how inclined are we in soul and heart toward faith in, hope in, and love for God, our Creator, and love toward our neighbor, and how inclined are we toward sin and various worldly, carnal passions, or toward obedience to the devil, who acts through carnal passions and worldly delusions. Blessed is he who understands this profound task of his and walks with firm steps toward God, overcoming temptations of the flesh and the world, struggling against the world and its ruler, who ceaselessly beguiles us with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The holy saints of God—their lives serve as an example and guidance for us in our lives.

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The Lord has exalted man above all earthly creatures by creating him in His image and likeness, with a rational and immortal soul, and even after its terrible fall into corruption and the filth of sin and death, He did not abandon it, but especially pitied and cared for it by sending for its cleansing His only-begotten Son. “The Good One, having sent His only-begotten Son for the cleansing of the world,” proclaims the Church’s hymnographer. How many enemies has fallen man—a captive! His own cunning, many-passioned flesh, the devil watching and scheming for our ruin, the lustful and sinful world with all its evil customs and delusions, all its vanity and inconstancy. Every moment there is danger of sin, danger of losing soul and body. Every moment one must be on guard, warring with sin and the enemy: to watch and fast, to pray and think, to weep for ourselves and for others perishing constantly and everywhere, for everywhere the enemy spreads his nets for destruction; everywhere the skillful and cunning hunter labors, not resting for a moment. Watch, soul, pray, struggle, avoid the enemy’s snares.

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“As long as you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light” (Jn 12:35-36). Terrifying these final words are. The Lord warns the Jews to abandon their unbelief, their blindness, their cunning and blasphemy, and to believe in Him, the never-darkening Light that enlightens every person; otherwise they will become the prey and food of the roaring lion, Satan. Terrible to be swallowed by this serpent, this whale of hell itself. Beware, brothers and sisters, and serve the Lord diligently, while you live and can dispose of yourselves.

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The abyss of countless sins has infected all of man’s being—soul and body—and always seeks to hide from man, to conceal its deformity, its monstrous appearance and form, so that man will not come to hate it and feel revulsion and hatred toward it; it always flatters man, presenting itself in an appealing, attractive form, and as its due demands obedience and gratification (cunning as a fox!).

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God has exalted man by creating him in His image and likeness, while the enemy—the blasphemer and flatterer—ceaselessly strives to defile and destroy him with unworthy thoughts and blasphemies. Accursed!

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From every kind of sorrow and grief the Lord Jesus Christ our God has delivered us and continues to deliver us, and we thank Him for this with all our hearts. Yet how quickly the enemy catches us with unexpected sorrows inflicted from nowhere, especially from evil and cunning people or from unforeseen circumstances. Glory to You, who preserves our lives from sorrows and griefs!

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I pronounce a solemn curse upon that first apostate from God, from His eternal truth, order, peace, and blessedness, who first allowed sin and all its foulness to be born in God’s pure creation, falling from his great height and holiness—the Morning Star, sowing sin in the world by the permission of the wise Creator, so that through infinite ages might be displayed forbearance, and shone forth the deeds and valor of those spirits devoted to God who stood firm in goodness, and the faithful devoted to God to death, and so that there might be found a place for the extreme all-redemptive condescension to earth of God Himself, the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, His incarnation, cross, death, burial, resurrection, and the final victory of good over evil; I curse that wicked, ungrateful belly in which first was born a foolish, audacious dream and pride—to equal oneself with God and declare war on Him, His eternal truth, holiness, wisdom, infinite beauty, and irresistible power.

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The first apostate from God—the devil, puffed up with pride before the Creator, declared war on God and His truth, and then upon the human race, who obeyed, through Adam and Eve, his flattering words. Man, defeated by the enemy through negligence and frivolity and taken captive by the enemy through every kind of sin, must wage unceasing war with the enemy and sin and overcome them with God’s help, in order to reclaim what was lost thoughtlessly—the righteousness, holiness, and peace of God—and attain the crown of victory—incorruptibility. This is what God’s righteousness requires. Reclaim the lost likeness to God and the blessed life with immortality.

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The enemy does not sleep: day and night, in sleep and waking, he draws us toward sin and nurtures in our soul every kind of soul-destroying passion. Watch, man, crucify the passions of the flesh, especially gluttony and all carnal sins.

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A world of dreams and illusions our bodiless enemy creates for us each night, and as in waking he creates for us daily a world of dreams, vanity, and endless illusions, so also in sleep. Day and night man is under the spell of bodiless enemies. May the Lord deliver us from them!