{"id":3006,"date":"2023-03-01T09:32:41","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T16:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/?p=3006"},"modified":"2023-03-01T09:34:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T16:34:02","slug":"if-there-is-no-commandment-man-cannot-develop-spiritually-and-be-perfected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/?p=3006","title":{"rendered":"If there is no commandment, man cannot develop spiritually and be perfected"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2014Your Beatitude, we often hear the same complaint from the unchurched about Great Lent: Why such extremes\u2014to eat only vegetable products for a month and a half before Pascha, often even without oil, and on certain days eating nothing? The opponents of the Church see something dictatorial and cruel even in the very concept of a \u201cban\u201d\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014We mustn\u2019t look at Lent as a ban. Fasting is one of the voluntary components of spiritual practice, and keeping the fast is an expression of our obedience to the Lord and His holy Church. Obedience was already introduced by the Lord to our forefathers Adam and Eve. There were many trees in the Garden of Eden that bore beautiful and desirable fruit, and Adam could eat from any of them, except for one. The Lord forbade it not because He didn\u2019t want to share this fruit with Adam, but to give him a commandment of obedience, through which he could perfect his love for the Creator. If there is no commandment, man cannot develop spiritually and be perfected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When children obey their parents, they thereby express their love for them. They are sorry to disappoint their parents, and when they are disobedient and do bad things, their conscience immediately begins to reproach them, and there arises a psychological barrier in communicating with their parents. And children often run to their parents with tears of repentance to remove the burden from their youthful soul. We, adults, must obey the holy Church, fulfilling its precepts, submitting to its typikon and its rules. And thanks to this obedience, our love for God grows through the grace received from Him. When we act contrary to the will of God, we depart from Him, and it\u2019s difficult for us to be with Him as it was difficult for sinful Adam in Paradise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We need Lent for the restoration of our spiritual health. After all, we\u2019re not surprised when a doctor ascribes us a strict diet and abstinence from some items during a sickness. And so, the Church reminds us that Lent is a time for correcting our mistakes and infirmities, for overcoming our shortcomings, for spiritual rehabilitation, a time for marching towards God, rather than withdrawing from Him. Bodily abstinence and prayer help us in this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2014Your Beatitude, we often hear the same complaint from the unchurched about Great Lent: Why such extremes\u2014to eat only vegetable products for a month and a half before Pascha, often even without oil, and on certain days eating nothing? The opponents of the Church see something dictatorial and cruel even in the very concept of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encyclicals"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3011,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions\/3011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svetisimeon.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}