{"id":2571,"date":"2020-04-28T23:47:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T05:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2020-04-28T23:48:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T05:48:54","slug":"when-reading-the-gospel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/?p=2571","title":{"rendered":"When reading the Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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When reading\nthe Gospel<\/a>, do not seek pleasure, do not seek exalted states, and do not\nseek brilliant thoughts\u2014seek to see the unadulterated, holy truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do not be satisfied with a mere\nfruitless reading of the Gospel; strive to fulfill its commandments, and read\nit with your deeds. This is the book of life, and you have to read it with your\nlife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Do not think that there is no\nreason why the most sacred of books, the Four Gospels, begins with the Gospel\nof St. Matthew and ends with the Gospel of St. John. Matthew teaches more about\nhow to fulfill God\u2019s will, and his instructions are particularly appropriate\nfor beginners on the path to God; John expounds upon the image of the union of\nGod with man renewed by the commandments, which is something accessible only to\nthose who are progressing along the divine path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When opening the book of the Holy\nGospel to read it, remember that it decides your fate. We will be judged\naccording to it, and depending upon how we were here on Earth with regard to\nit, we will receive our lot either in eternal blessedness, or eternal\npunishment (cf. Jn. 12:48). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God revealed His will to a paltry\nspeck of dust: man! In your hands is the book in which His great and all-holy\nwill has been set forth. You can accept it, or you can reject the will of your\nCreator and Savior\u2014it all depends upon what you yourself want. Your eternal\nlife and eternal death are in your own hands\u2014just think how careful and wise\nyou must be. Do not trifle with your eternal fate! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pray with a contrite spirit to\nthe Lord, so that He would open your eyes to see the wonders hidden in His Law\n(cf. Ps. 118:18), which is the Gospel. Your eyes will be opened, and you will\nbehold the wondrous healing of the soul from sin, which is wrought by God\u2019s\nword. The very healing of bodily infirmities was merely proof of the healing of\nthe soul\u2014proof for fleshly people, for minds palsied by sensuality (cf. Lk.\n5:24). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the Gospels with extreme\nreverence and attention. Do not consider anything in them to be of little\nimportance or unworthy of full contemplation. Every iota of it radiates life.\nAnd to be negligible about life is death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read about the lepers<\/a>, the paralyzed<\/a>, the blind,\nthe lame, and the demonically\npossessed<\/a> whom the Lord healed; contemplate the fact that your soul, which\nbears many different forms of the wounds of sin and is held captive by the\ndemons, is just like these sick people. Learn from the Gospel to have faith\nthat the Lord Who healed them will also heal you, if you will diligently pray\nto Him for your healing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acquire a disposition of soul\nthat enables you to receive healing. Those who are capable of receiving healing\nare those who recognize their sinfulness and resolve to abandon it (cf. Jn\n9:39-41). For the proud righteous man, that is, the sinner, who does not see\nhis sinfulness, the Savior is unnecessary and useless (cf. Matt. 9:13). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vision of our sins, vision of\nthe fallen state that the entire human race is in, is a special gift of God.\nPray down this gift for yourself, and the Heavenly Doctor\u2019s book\u2014the\nGospels\u2014will be more comprehensible to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strive to assimilate the Gospel\nwith your mind and heart, so that your mind would, so to speak, swim in it,\nlive in it. Then your activities will more readily become evangelical. This can\nbe achieved through constant, reverent reading and study of the Bible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St. Pachomius the Great, one of\nthe most well known of the ancient fathers, knew the Holy Gospel by heart and\nimputed to his disciples, as God revealed to him, the essential need to learn\nit. In this way the Gospel accompanied them everywhere, and guided them always.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even now, why shouldn\u2019t\nChristian educators adorn the memories of innocent children with the Gospel,\ninstead of littering them with Aesop\u2019s fables and various sorts of rubbish? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happiness, what riches is\nthe acquisition of the Gospels by memory! We can\u2019t foresee the drastic changes\nand catastrophes that can happen to us throughout our earthly life. When it is\npossessed by memory the Gospel can be read by the blind; it goes to prison with\nthe prisoner; it speaks to the laborer in the field, bedewing him; it instructs\nthe judge during the trial; it guides the merchant at the market; it gladdens\nthe sick during exhausting sleeplessness and oppressive solitude. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do not dare to explain the\nGospel and other books of Holy Scripture yourself. The Scriptures were\npronounced by the holy prophets and apostles, and they were pronounced not at\ntheir own will, but by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2 Pet. 1:21).\nHow could it be anything but madness to explain them according to our own will?\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having pronounced the word of\nGod through the prophets and apostles, the Holy Spirit expounded upon it\nthrough the holy fathers. And both the word of God and its explanation are gifts\nof the Holy Spirit. This is the only explanation the Holy Orthodox Church\naccepts! This is the only explanation accepted by her true children! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whoever explains the Gospels and\nall the Scriptures according to his own will thus rejects the explanation of\nthem by the holy fathers, the Holy Spirit. Whoever rejects the explanation of\nScripture by the Holy Spirit, undoubtedly rejects also the Holy Scriptures\nthemselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it can happen that the word\nof God, the word of salvation, for its presumptuous exegists becomes the savour\nof death, a double-edged sword, with which they pierce themselves unto eternal\nperdition (cf. 2 Pet 3:16; 2 Cor 2:15\u201316). Arius<\/a>, Nestorius,\nEutichius, and other heretics murdered themselves forever with it, for they\nwillfully and presumptuously explained the Scriptures unto blasphemy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to this man will I look,\neven to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word<\/em>\n(Is. 66:2) says the Lord. Be this way with regard to the Gospels and the Lord,\nWho is present in them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave your sinful life behind,\nleave your earthly passions and pleasures, renounce them with your soul, and\nthen the Gospel will become accessible and understandable to you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord says, He that\nhateth his life in this world<\/em>\u2014the soul who has rejected fallennness and\nlove of sin as if by nature, as if by his life\u2014shall keep it<\/em> [his\nlife] unto life eternal<\/em> (Jn. 12:25). But the Gospel is closed to him\nwho loves his own life, who does not have the resolve for self-denial; he reads\nthe letters, but the word of life as the Spirit remains hidden from him as if\nbehind an impenetrable veil. When the Lord was on earth in His most pure flesh,\nmany saw Him, while many others did not. What good is it when a person looks\nwith his bodily eyes, which he possesses in common with the animals, but sees\nnothing with the eyes of his soul\u2014the mind and heart? And these days as well,\nmany read the Gospel and yet have never read it, and do not know it at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one venerable desert dweller\nsaid, the Gospel must be read with a pure mind, and is understood according to\nthe measure that the reader fulfills its commandments by his deeds. But it is\nnot possible to acquire a precise and perfect revelation of the Gospel through\nyour own efforts\u2014this is a gift of Christ. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Holy Spirit has come to\nabide in the His true and faithful servant, He makes him also a perfect reader,\nand a true fulfiller of the Gospel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gospel is a depiction of the\nqualities of the new Man, Who is The Lord from Heaven<\/em> (1 Cor. 15:47).\nThis new Man is God by nature. The holy tribe of His people, who believe in Him\nand are transformed in Him, He makes gods according to grace. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You who are wallowing in the\nstinking, filthy morass of sins and find pleasure in this! Lift up your heads\nand look at the pure heavens\u2014that is your place! God gives you the dignity of\ngods, and you, rejecting that dignity, choose another worth for yourself: the\nworth of animals\u2014and the most impure ones at that. Come to your senses! Leave\nthat foul-smelling morass, cleanse yourselves with the confession<\/a> of your sins, wash\nyourselves with tears of repentance, make yourselves beautiful with tears of\ncontrition, rise from the earth and ascend to the heavens\u2014the Gospel summons\nyou there. While ye have light<\/em>\u2014The Gospel, in which Christ is hidden\nas a treasure\u2014believe in the light, that ye may be the children of Light<\/em>\u2014which\nis Christ (Jn 12:36). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Ascetical Experience<\/em>\nby St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St.\nIgnatius (Brianchaninov)<\/a>
\nPravoslavie.ru<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When reading the Gospel, do not seek pleasure, do not seek exalted states, and do not seek brilliant thoughts\u2014seek to see the unadulterated, holy truth. Do not be satisfied with a mere fruitless reading of the Gospel; strive to fulfill its commandments, and read it with your deeds. This is the book of life, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t