Conversation with Archpriest Dimitri Smirnov, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies, on the air of the Soyuz TV channel
- Hello, dear viewers.
Our guest is Archpriest Dimitri Smirnov, Chairman of the Synodal Department for Cooperation with the Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies.
Father, I would like to raise, it seems to me, a very important topic for every Christian - to talk about the sin of cowardice. Unfortunately, we all suffer from this sin, no one can call himself a soldier of Christ, as were the first martyrs of Christianity. What is cowardice, how does it manifest itself in our life, what are its reasons?
Feeliness spoils a person
- There are many reasons. These are certain properties of the human character, and the results of upbringing, there is also lack of faith. Let's start with character. There are people who are naturally brave, and there are cowardly people. If a faint-hearted man overcomes his cowardice, accomplishes a feat, then his feat will be more significant in the eyes of God than if a brave man did it. After all, people are divided according to the strength of the mind, and according to the strength of the soul, and according to the ability for achievement.
Now about upbringing. Our national tragedy is having few children. Therefore, mothers try to protect their only children from everything. They wrap them up endlessly, which leads to colds - the child sweats and catches a cold. They protect them from communication with peers. They always protect the child, regardless of whether he is right or wrong, they are always on his side, and this very often strengthens the young person in a state of impunity. They try to free the child from physical education, all the time they say that it is necessary to rest more, all the time they ask if something hurts; if the child falls, they immediately run to pick him up.
With such an upbringing, a person grows up to be cowardly. This became a real tragedy - it is difficult with such upbringing to expect heroism, responsibility and so on from people. That is, the soul becomes, as it were, shallow. Such a person is not capable of a noble deed - magnanimous, as we say, that is, to forgive with all his heart, to help a person with all his heart. It is difficult for a faint-hearted to stand up when a weak person is offending, it is difficult for him to stand up for the truth, while a magnanimous one - on the contrary.
- It seems to me that cowardice also prevents creating families.
- Of course, after all, indecision arises: what will come of this, and what will happen then, and how then to live? The faint-hearted tries to live at the expense of someone, as he used to with his mother: "so that we have everything, and we have nothing for it." At the slightest difficulty, the faint-hearted breaks down and throws everything away.
- How are cowardice and fear related?
- The cowardly is more fearful.
- Maybe, really, a person in childhood was so frightened by a harsh upbringing or an unfair attitude towards himself that as a result he became faint-hearted?
- A harsh upbringing cannot frighten and spoil a child; only a pampered upbringing spoils him. And if the upbringing is harsh, but with love, then the child submits with pleasure.
- But here it is very rarely done with love, most often with cruelty.
- Cruelty is an unnatural thing. Man is kind by nature, and it takes a lot of work to grow a cruel person out of him.
- But, father, now you will look at the behavior of some children and you will not say that they are kind creatures.
“They just don't have all the senses developed yet. I watched a scene that amazed me tremendously. A three-year-old girl took a cat that was lying on the grass and pulled it onto the asphalt, saying at the same time: “What are you doing, why are you lying on the grass? She's in pain. " This suggests that the child even feels the pain of the grass, but these feelings are so undeveloped that she cannot understand that the cat is uncomfortable lying on the asphalt, and the grass, after the pussy lies down, can rise. And this scene was so vivid that I will remember it for the rest of my life. The girl is kind by nature, but she does not yet have the experience of life, she does not understand that the pussy also wants to lie on the grass, that the grass was created by God, including for the pussy to lie on it. All this still needs to be explained to her, but the impulse is to feel sorry for the weed, it's amazing in such a small child.
- What sins give rise to cowardice?
- Selfishness, of course. If we talk about the spiritual part, then there is little faith. Every Christian should know that everything that happens to him is not without the will of God, so everything must be accepted. Although there is a very wise proverb: "God protects those who are careful," that is, one should never go on a rampage, it is fraught with unpleasant consequences. Caution is always needed, of course. And the Lord Himself warned His disciples: “Look how dangerous you walk,” therefore all necessary precautions must always be observed. But, nevertheless, when a firm, courageous deed is required for the sake of the truth of God, one must, strengthened by the power of the Honest Life-giving Cross and prayer to the Lord, go forward.
- Father, how to overcome indecision, which is a trait of a person's character?
- Only by prayer, addressed to the Lord with a request for help. And also by constant exercises: if a person is indecisive for a long time, then he may find himself in this position for life. Therefore, when he is given an opportunity to show magnanimity, he must show this magnanimity by praying to God and then thanking Him. And so gradually he will overcome cowardice, and then completely forget about him.
Through the prayer of the saints, help will come faster
- Father, there is a call, let's answer the question.
“I recently learned that there is a special day when we can turn to deceased relatives and ask them for help. Is it true?
- No it is not true. But we can ask the deceased, of course, this is nothing special, they can hear us. But there is a different custom in the Church - we turn for help to those people who are glorified by the Church as saints, because their help is much more effective. They will pray to God for us, and the Lord, through their prayer, will rather do it. This is much more effective, and those who have the experience of prayerfully addressing the Mother of God, to all the saints, first of all turn to them for prayer help.
- Father, once a woman came to me in tears and said: “My mother died three months ago and I never dreamed about it. My friend dreams about it all the time, but I don't. Apparently, I offended her, did something wrong? " A person is waiting for the appearance, at least in a dream, of a deceased loved one.
- Well, this is a prejudice, a superstition is called.
- And those who see their dead, what should they do?
- Yes, do nothing, live as we lived.
- Father, what was dreamed about, is it just an image, a product of the human mind, his emotional experience?
- And it happens in different ways. It is very rare, but it happens that the soul of the deceased appears in a dream. Usually, the experiences of the day are reflected in a dream, they are simply refracted so that a person does not really recognize them.
- We know that after the Resurrection of Christ many bodies of the departed saints were resurrected and appeared to people in the city. That is, after all, the souls of the departed can appear to us?
- It was a special case in Jerusalem, when many saw them, but in fact it happens very rarely. For example, my father dreamed a couple of times, my mother never.
- And if there were such visions, it means that he got up in the morning, prayed to God ...
- Drink holy water and get ready for Communion next Sunday. And when you have already received Communion, when the Lord is already with you, in your heart, remember the deceased.
Throwing beads in front of pigs is useless
- Should a layman somehow respond to attacks against the Church, enter into verbal skirmishes, or should he step aside and remain silent? Wouldn't such a departure be cowardice?
- Depending on the situation. If there are people nearby who expect us to stand up, then this must be done, and if alone with someone, then there is no need to throw "Beads in front of pigs", it is completely useless.
- As a rule, it happens in groups of non-believers.
- “Blessed is the husband, who does not go to the advice of the wicked and there are not a hundred sinners on the way” - let us read the Psalter, the first psalm.
- That is, if colleagues at work suddenly started a theological dispute, then you need to quietly get away from it?
- Yes, do not participate in it. You can say: "Gentlemen, open the Internet, there are many sites, read Orthodox books, and you will find all the answers to your questions."
- Father, but people often speak not to enlighten themselves, but to enlighten others. An exchange of views is taking place here.
- Yes, on health, but we should not participate in this. The apostle said: "Accept the weak in faith without dispute over opinions." If a person is weak in faith (we can appreciate this), so why talk to him? This does not mean that we despise him, but that this conversation is useless. A scientist-physicist will not seriously talk about physics with a preschooler.
- And if a person starts to approach us with obviously provocative questions?
- Then all the more, it's just better to be silent and look at the bridge of his nose. He asks: "Do you hear me?" - "I hear." - "Why are you silent?" - "And I am a free person, I want - I am silent, I want - I say." - "Are you interested in talking about this?" - "No, not interesting." And the question itself will be settled.
- Father, if a person is embarrassed to somehow declare his faith at work, or somehow to show his faith in the office or in front of people who do not believe, is this also cowardice?
- This should be manifested in actions. There is in every nation, and in ours too, the concept of what a good and decent person means. You must be good and decent and so testify of your faith. Then they eventually find out that the most decent and good person in their team, it turns out, believes in God: "Oh, that's why he is so good and decent." The good and decent are always respected. Is always.
God Hears All Prayers
- Father, there is still a question from the viewer.
- I have a question: how can we establish communication with people from friendly republics who come to our country to work?
- We must act in the same way as all missionaries did. Learn their language in order to understand them, and show them all kinds of love, come to them, find out if they need any help, intercede for them before employers, our compatriots. Then they will love our country, and the mission can be successful only in this case, if we want to somehow direct them to Christ. And if they ask: “In your country we are treated like dogs, but we came here from hunger; why do you suddenly treat us with such love? ”, then tell them that we are believers, Christians. Then they can listen to us.
- Father, but these people come here with their religion, with their spiritual values, and they spread it all around them.
- I have never heard of this. Here we have Tajiks working in the yard, I go out, I say to one: "Salam aleikum", but he does not know what to answer. His great-grandfather once professed Islam, but he knows nothing, and most of them are post-Soviet people who know nothing about religion.
- Let's answer the call.
- Father, how do I know when I pray if my prayer is heard to God, the Mother of God, the saints?
- Your uncertainty is from lack of faith. Whenever you pray, your prayer is always heard, try to believe it, and the fact that you began to doubt is your distrust of God. Of course, it happens that we demand something from the Lord that is not in accordance with His will, then the Lord will not fulfill or will wait. But there is no way that God does not hear prayer - God knows thoughts before we ask about it.
- But it happens that a person asks for a long time, - Joachim and Anna had enough faith for fifty years to ask a child and not lose faith. How can we not lose faith?
- So you can't lose faith: looking at Joachim and Anna, and at what Fruit their prayer gave.
- It is just the cowardice that prevents us. Without the visible result of prayer, people still have doubts.
“Doubt is a natural thing for a fallen mind, and therefore our faith is like seeing through a dim glass. This is a fact, and the Apostle Paul said about it. But were there really few assurances in our lives that the Lord knows us, hears us? Even the very fact that we have come to God, to faith, to the Church - is that not enough? Here, first of all, humility is needed.
What is the motive - this is the act
- A person comes to Confession either in despondency or in tears. And you begin to list him: "God gave you this, took care of that, forgave here, helped there, why do you doubt Him?" And he says: "But really, father, thank you: you opened your eyes." And why does a person himself miss this memory?
- That is why a priest exists in order to give a person advice in a pastoral way, to show the way. Life is actually not a resort, it is a very serious work.
- Many people are embarrassed to cross themselves, passing by the temple - is this also a manifestation of cowardice? How are cowardice and shyness related?
- Maybe connected, maybe not. It's just that another person somehow does not want to demonstrate his faith, because there is no such commandment - to be baptized into the temple. It's just that the temple is an extra reason to remember God, but you can remember without the sign of the cross, who is used to it.
- But still, to stop, cross and bow down is a manifestation of respect for the temple of God.
- And for some it is a manifestation of their own pharisaism: you are all fools, only I am clever.
- Father, let's not take this extreme.
- But this is there. It's all about the motive - what is the motive of the action; one and the same act can be godly and godless. Depending on what motive was for this act.
- Father, if we return to shyness, is his nature also sinful cowardice?
- Not necessary. Maybe this is a character trait, but you need to try to overcome it.
- Let's answer one more question.
- How do we, Orthodox people, relate to such a concept as tolerance? I have heard that the clergy have a negative attitude towards this. Please comment.
- Tolerance is just a tool of the system that is now generally accepted in Europe. The purpose of which in the depths of it is the destruction of Christianity as such, the destruction of the Christian view of the world. Tolerance forbids a person to call good good, and evil evil. There must be tolerance, that is, calm indifference.
- But indifference is also associated with cowardice, what do you think?
- In general, all sinful life is interconnected. For example, the love of money is associated with pride, and so on. There are, of course, passions that are directly opposite, for example, drunkenness and avarice.
- And what is indifference born from? Out of fear to stand up for your idea, faith?
- No, indifference is a consequence of a sinful life: everything that does not concern me is not interesting to me, I am interested only in my desires, desires, my tastes and pleasures.
- But this is unacceptable for an Orthodox Christian. Thank you, Father Dimitri, for your answers.
Archpastor
Interviewed by Hegumen Dimitry (Baybakov)- Hello, dear friends, viewers of the Soyuz TV channel, listeners of the Voskresenie radio station. An extraordinary release of the Archpastor program is on air today, and since it is extraordinary, we hope it will be especially interesting; Our guest is Vladyka, to whom we are very grateful for the support of the Soyuz TV channel.
Church people
Interviewed by Oleg Petrov- Do the European pseudo-values \u200b\u200bthreaten the Orthodox foundations of Moldova - about this in the program "People of the Church" with Metropolitan of Chisinau and All Moldova Vladimir. Vladyka, life in Moldova is not easy today. Are you able to maintain the stability of church life in these unstable conditions?
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The essay contains references to E. Gabova's story “Don't let Redhead out on the lake”.
Option 1
Faint-heartedness is weak-willedness, which manifests itself in susceptibility to someone else's, often bad, influence and fear of doing what the conscience tells.
In the text of E. Gabova, the narrator behaved faintly in relation to Svetka Sergeeva, a talented girl who later became an opera star. He never once made remarks to his classmates who called Sveta's singing "howling", although he felt that she sang well.
In addition, the narrator understood that they were all wrong, despising Svetka, demonstrating their cruelty, but chose only to silently condemn the actions of his classmates.
Why did he act like that? Yes, simply because of the fear of being a black sheep, an outcast.
Indeed, people like him have a "small soul", and therefore there is no place for conscience ...
Option 2
In my understanding, cowardice is the underdevelopment of the soul, the absence in a person's character of such qualities as respect for one's neighbor and taking care of him, the ability to defend one's opinion.
From the text, we learn that the narrator knows why Svetka was dressed so poorly, but he never stopped soulless classmates who condemned the girl, did not protect her.
He did not show character even when Zhenya in a vile way forced her to go ashore and not go on a hike.
That is why the narrator lost his temper again when he had the opportunity to meet with Svetka and, perhaps, apologize to her for the behavior of the whole class. He just didn’t want a meeting, he was chickened out.
How many-sided and unpleasant cowardice can be! We all need to work on ourselves, so that later the conscience does not torment us for the weakness we once displayed.
Option 3
Cowardice is a synonym for weakness, a quality that speaks of the lack of will in a person. In addition, a faint-hearted person is deprived of his own opinion, and therefore, in difficult conflict situations, he prefers to remain silent or takes the side of the majority, unwittingly becoming an accomplice in very unpleasant events. Material from the site
For example, the narrator in the text of E. Gabova, when he informs his friend that he studied in the same class with the rising opera star Svetlana Sergeeva, inaccurately keeps silent about how they, classmates, did not see her talent, did not want to endure her rehearsals, scorned for poverty.
He is ashamed of his past, but again he did not find the courage and will to ask Sveta for forgiveness for the wrongs inflicted on her.
But the lack of will leads to the fact that, not wanting to lose the disposition of others or fearing to appear weak, a faint-hearted person becomes a drug addict or an accomplice in a crime. There are many such examples in our life.
Therefore, in order not to depend on the opinions and actions of other people, you need to suppress cowardly thoughts and desires in yourself.
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Blessed is he who has not given room in himself to doubt about God, who has not fallen into cowardice at the sight of the present, but awaits what is expected; who did not have a mistrustful thought about Him who created us (St. Basil the Great, 5, 162).
* * *
Do not be faint-hearted, looking at the present, but expect that blessed and endless life, for then you will see that poverty, dishonor, and deprivation of pleasure serve the righteous for the good (St. Basil the Great, 5, 318).
* * *
Do not be faint-hearted, seeing that in this life you are in disgrace or illness, or in extreme old age and poverty. He who feeds the birds of the air will not leave you without His providence (St. Ephraim the Syrian, 30, 501).
* * *
Those souls who succumb to timidity and fear, unable to endure sorrows, even reach the point of neglect, impatience and despair, are led astray from the righteous path, and do not wait until the end of the Lord's mercy; those who are found to be unrighteous, how can they improve eternal life? For every soul, for the sake of the Lord who died for us, until death is obliged to be generous, endure to the end and maintain hope in Him, in order to thus become worthy of eternal salvation (St. Ephraim the Syrian, 31, 528).
* * *
Do not indulge in laziness because the world hates you; those who hate are very wretched, but those who are hated for Christ's sake are blessed. For He will come and reward everyone according to his deeds (St. Ephraim the Syrian, 32, 150-151).
* * *
The faint-hearted and wealth cannot benefit, the magnanimous and poverty will never hurt (St. John Chrysostom, 45, 176).
* * *
Let us avoid ... faint-heartedness, let us hasten to the haven of patience, so that here too we may find peace for our souls ... and attain future blessings ... (St. John Chrysostom, 52, 635).
* * *
...<Малодушие> is the cause of death, like carelessness. Faint-hearted, intolerant of offense, faint-hearted, intolerant of temptation ... (St. John Chrysostom, 54, 558).
* * *
The husband's anger tames the rational slave: who is faint-hearted who can endure? (). Says it<царь Соломон> because cowardice is worse than anger. The latter can also calm down a slave who does not have the courage of a free man, and that<малодушия> not (can destroy). As the Lord is called an attacking tiger in relation to sinners and a stone of temptation for unbelievers, so is the faint-hearted one among sinners (St. John Chrysostom, 55, 1124-1125).
* * *
Arming yourself with the hope that future blessings will be given to those who have erected glorious victorious monuments over vice, perfectly protecting themselves from everywhere, and building this strong wall with prayers, repel the attack of cowardice; because it will strongly take possession of a courageous soul, if, constantly dreaming of crowns, it will not endure sorrows (St. Isidore Pelusiot, 62, 48).
* * *
There are some people who are so exhausted when sorrows occur that they refuse from life itself and consider death a sweet one, just to get rid of sorrows, but this comes from cowardice and a lot of folly, because such do not know the terrible need that meets us by the departure of the soul from the body (St. Abba Dorotheos, 29, 137).
* * *
Let's not ... cry and be faint-hearted, despite the fact that our life grieves and torments the heart ... (Venerable Theodore the Studite, 92,226).
* * *
Let us not be faint-hearted, despite how little we can do on our own (St. Theodore the Studite, 92, 310).
* * *
Faint-heartedness and embarrassment are born from unbelief; but as soon as the ascetic resorts to faith, cowardice and confusion disappear, like the darkness of the night from the rising sun (St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, 42, 148).
* * *
One righteous desert dweller, noticing that his sick disciple expressed impatience with frequent sighs, said to him: “Do not be faint-hearted, my son! Your body, exhausted by an illness, can be a salutary medicine for your soul. If you are like iron in your works, then the fire of suffering will cleanse you from rust; if you are gold, then this fire will make your virtue more brilliant ”(116, 79).
“If a person does not have willpower, then he cannot do anything ... A person spiritually flies with the help of two wings: God's will and his own will. One wing — His will — God has forever glued to one of our shoulders. But in order to fly spiritually, we also need to glue our own wing - human will to the other shoulder. If a person has a strong will, then he has a human wing, the resultant with the divine wing, and he flies. " (Elder Paisiy Svyatorets)
- Father Alexy, what is cowardice?
It is very important to understand the meaning of the concept of "cowardice" at the very beginning of our conversation, since it does not have such a clear and unambiguous expression as, for example, despondency, love of money, lies, vanity.
"Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language" edited by S.I. Ozhegova defines cowardice as "lack of firmness of mind, determination, courage." This kind of cowardice is reduced to indecision, cowardice and affects mainly the emotional feelings and abilities of a person.
IN AND. Dahl in his explanatory dictionary tries to reflect the deeper spiritual nature of cowardice, defining it as "despair, discouragement." In this case, cowardice turns out to be a consequence of the action in a person of passions such as sadness and despondency, and is synonymous with them.
If we try to look into other dictionaries, we will find new shades of the meaning of this word, and they will all have a right to exist.
That is why it seems to me justified to give the following expanded interpretation of the concept of “cowardice” within the framework of our conversation.
Cowardice is the weakness of the soul of a person who is characterized by a lack of firmness, determination and consistency in actions, up to cowardice and betrayal. Various manifestations of cowardice are most often noticed by us in the sphere of human earthly activities, but they are always the result of those spiritual weaknesses and shortcomings that are hidden in the depths of the human heart. The development of cowardice inevitably leads to discouragement and despair.
In the aspect of spiritual life, by faint-heartedness we mean the absence of determination, the proper attitude of a Christian to follow the commandments of God.
How does strength of mind differ from strength of will? Who, from the Orthodox point of view, can be called a person with a strong spirit?
The specific meaning that different people put into the words "strength of mind" and "willpower" can be very ambiguous. Let's define these concepts as follows.
The power of the spirit is the power of the highest sphere of the human soul, which in Orthodox asceticism is called spirit. The spirit by its nature is always turned to God, and it cannot be considered strong if the human heart is not filled with the light of Divine grace, if in its depths coarse passionate urges have not yet been overcome. The action of the spirit is always guided by the Providence of God and is directed only at good deeds pleasing to God. The closer a person is to the knowledge of the true God, the more his heart is sanctified by the action of Divine grace, the more free it is from passions, the stronger the spirit of a person. According to the Orthodox understanding, it is impossible to be a strong spirit outside the true faith and the Church.
Willpower is one of the innate, natural forces of the human soul. It is not directly related to the spiritual and moral perfection of a person and can be aimed at both good and evil. A person with a strong will can be outside the Church, outside the life of grace. During the period of socialism in the USSR, millions of people showed strong will to serve the communist ideals. However, outside the action of Divine grace, a person is far from always able to use his strong will to serve the good and for the good of others. Lack of spiritual judgment can gradually bring a person with a strong will to such perverse forms as tyranny and cruelty. Even attackers demonstrate something like willpower when they are ready to sacrifice their lives at the time of the crime. Moreover, if a strong will is not strengthened by the action of Divine grace, it can be easily lost by a person. I know a lot of examples of people who in their youth had a strong will, were ardent adherents of high values \u200b\u200band ideals, but already in adulthood turned out to be weak-willed and disillusioned with life.
Thus, a person who is strong in spirit will also have willpower, since the spirit, supported by Divine grace, subjugates all the powers of the soul, directing them to serve God and neighbors. A person with a strong will does not always have the strength of the spirit and is not always able to show a strong will as a positive quality of his soul.
Saint Nicholas of Serbia said: “Crime is always weakness. The perpetrator is a coward, not a hero. Therefore, always consider that the one who does evil to you is weaker than you ... For he is a villain not because of strength, but because of weakness. " How to understand these words correctly? What weakness are they talking about?
We noted above that the entire will of a person, as the natural power of the soul, can be directed both to doing good and to doing evil. The extreme manifestation of ill will is crime.
Nowadays, largely thanks to the cinema, criminals are often perceived as role models - courageous, consistent, strong-willed. However, if you look closely at the circumstances of the crimes they commit, then in reality everything will turn out to be completely different. If you look at a rapist who chooses a weak woman as a victim, look at a robber who suddenly attacks a defenseless person with a weapon, look at a thief who sneaks into an apartment at night while no one sees him and the owners are not at home, look at the killer (killer) who fires his ominous shot from hiding - we will see that there is no courage here. For some, it seems like a hero an adulterer, ready to do anything for the sake of "love" for a vicious woman. But if we remember how much suffering and pain this man inflicted on his lawful wife and children for the sake of low passion, we will understand that this man is not a hero of love affairs, but simply a traitor.
Therefore, in criminals and sinners there is only a semblance of courage and willpower. Cowardice and weakness are more characteristic of them. The weakness that they repeatedly fell victim to in their lives: both when they allowed vicious thoughts to captivate their souls, and when shamefully succumbing to this captivity, they embarked on a criminal path, and when they chose the methods of committing their crimes, characteristic only of cowards and traitors.
This weakness of the criminals is pointed out by St. Nicholas of Serbia in the statement you quoted - so that people would not be deceived by their false courage and heroism.
The well-known answer of the Lord to the Apostle Paul reads: "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12: 9). What infirmity are we talking about here? Not about our laziness, despondency, cowardice.
In Orthodox asceticism, the word "weakness" can be understood in two ways. It is necessary to distinguish, first, the inner weakness of a person, which is manifested in the captivity of his soul by various passions, including despondency, and laziness, and cowardice. And secondly, external weakness, which manifests itself in diseases of the body, sorrows and temptations that come from outside, regardless of the will and desire of the person himself.
However, these external weaknesses, on the one hand, for ordinary sinful people, and on the other, for the righteous, marked by God with grace-filled gifts, have a fundamentally different character. For an ordinary person, bodily ailments, external misfortunes and sorrows are the result of the defeat of his soul by sinful ailments, the action of which has a destructive effect both on his physical health and on all circumstances of life. It is possible to get rid of these infirmities through the healing of the soul from the infection of sin.
For the righteous, marked with gifts of grace, such infirmities are sent by God for the purpose that His saints do not become proud, but always remember Whose power they perform wonderful deeds; so that they are always aware of the natural weakness of human nature, which can easily fall and lose great gifts, deprived of Divine grace. The experience of spiritual life shows that a righteous person, to whom much has been given from God, cannot preserve either his gift or the height of life if everything in his fate develops easily and cloudlessly and if various external weaknesses, according to the Providence of the Lord, do not temper his heart. It is in these weaknesses of the righteous that the power of God is made perfect.
- Is cowardice related to false humility? If so, how?
We speak of false humility if outwardly a person behaves humbly, but his internal state does not correspond to the external one, and often turns out to be the exact opposite. For example, when a person outwardly shows respect for another, but internally feels hatred and contempt for him; shows humility and solidarity, and he makes insidious plans; he says compliments in his eyes, and oozes curses behind his back.
False humility has various manifestations, and all of them are somehow connected with cowardice.
False humility can be expressed in hypocrisy towards superiors. In this case, a person can easily compromise his opinion, neglect truth and justice; he is ready to endure any humiliation, to make any compromises with his conscience, so as not to spoil relations with stronger and more influential people, not to be left without their patronage. However, in relation to the weak and defenseless, such a person often behaves tyrannically and cruelly. For example, it is not uncommon for a husband, after humiliation and troubles at work, to come home and take out his negative emotions on his wife and children. The Holy Fathers quite rightly insisted that a person's true humility is manifested in relation to those who are weaker than him, and true courage in relation to the stronger. So, in relation to the boss at work, it would be courageous to express your opinion in order to defend the truth, and in relation to the wife and children - to accept and tolerate their shortcomings.
False humility can be manifested in hypocrisy in relation to peers, when a person wants to appear kind and courteous in the eyes of others. If he does evil to other people, it is secretly and surreptitiously. Nowadays, many believe that it is beneficial to appear downtrodden, weak and gray - this way you can better settle in life, as well as avoid many troubles and conflicts. However, people who reason in this way forget that for such a comfortable life they will have to give up their honor and principles, they will have to cowardly keep silent in those circumstances when truth and justice are violated. This condition has a destructive effect on the spiritual and moral life of a person, finally depriving him of both willpower and fortitude.
False humility can also be manifested in relation to subordinates, when, for example, a boss indulges the sins of his subordinates, is in no hurry to punish them for various shortcomings and blunders in order to win honor and praise from people entrusted to his care, to enlist their benevolence and support, as well as avoid conspiracies and malicious intent of those who may be dissatisfied with his exactingness and firmness.
As you can see, cowardice associated with false humility can be expressed in different ways - from obvious cowardice to more subtle manifestations associated with the passion of vanity.
The Monk Seraphim of Sarov said: "If they had determination, then they would have lived like the fathers who shone forth in antiquity." In other words, there is only one difference between a person who is perishing and a person who is being saved - determination. What should this resolve be based on?
There are a lot of temptations and temptations around us, which are an obstacle in our spiritual and moral development, constantly throw us back on the path to salvation and eternal life. We often tend to consider these temptations and temptations harmless and innocent, and therefore do not show the proper determination to avoid them for the sake of the immaculate service of God. Often, the strength of the spirit is not enough for this. The ancient fathers, unlike us, had such a determination, and therefore reached the heights of spiritual life. I think this is how one can briefly express the meaning of the quoted saying of the Monk Seraphim.
Father Gennady Nefedov said: “The first question that a priest should ask a parishioner at confession is: 'Child, what do you believe?' And the second: 'What prevents you from believing and living by faith?' about which the believer informs the priest in confession, and not always deeply repenting of them. " What do you think, if priests always conducted confessions like this, we would have more strong lay people in the faith?
Many priests can take note of this form of confession, but in no case can it be considered universal.
It is necessary to take into account the fact that the clergy performing the sacrament of confession have significantly different experience of spiritual life, and the level of knowledge in matters of faith, and personal disposition. Confessors who bring their repentance are also very different. Therefore, each experienced priest has his own forms of confession in his arsenal, his own approaches - depending on the state of the penitent and the circumstances under which the sacrament is performed.
The main thing is that confession should not be reduced to a formal enumeration of sins, but should encourage the repentant to work on himself incessantly, to really correct his vices and shortcomings, to grow in goodness.