(St. Ignatius Brianchaninov
Bishop of the Caucasus and the Black Sea)
When you read the Gospel, desires neither pleasure nor ecstasy, nor the sublime thoughts: seeks to see not deceive you, the holy truth.
Do not just an unsuccessful reading of the Gospel: Strive to fulfill the commandments, read it with action. This is the book of life and should be read by life.
Do not believe the holy book of the four Gospels begin without reason by St. Matthew and ending with St. John. Matthew teaches especially how do the will of God, and teaching is particularly suited to those starting on the path of God. Jean, meanwhile, describes the union of God with man renewed by the practice commands, a union which is accessible only one who has succeeded on the path of God.
Opening the Holy Gospel, remember that it will decide your eternal destiny. It is from him that you will be judged. Depending on your attitude vis-à-vis him on earth, you will inherit eternal bliss or eternal torment (Jn.12, 48). God has revealed His will to a miserable speck of dust, man! The book is set in which this supreme and most holy will is in your hands. You can, depending on your whim, accept or reject the will of your Creator and Savior. Your life (or die) eternal is in your hands. Therefore understand how you have to be cautious and reasonable. Do not gamble with your eternal destiny!
Requests with contrition the Lord that He opens your eyes, so you can see the wonders hidden in His law (Ps.118: 18), which is nothing but the Gospel. When the eyes open, heal the soul of sin and the healing done by the Word of God becomes visible. In the Gospel story, the healing of bodily ills was nothing more than evidence of healing of the soul. This evidence was for men blinded by carnal sensuality (Luc5, 24).
Read the Gospel with the utmost attention and devotion. Does not consider any passage as unimportant and unworthy of being studied. Every iota exhales a ray of life, and the disdain of life is death. Reading regarding the lepers, the lame, the blind, the lame, the possessed that the Lord has healed, think your soul, which carries the multiple wounds of sin, which is the captive of demons, is similar to these patients . Believe that the Lord healed them will cure you too, provided that the supplies you with zeal to heal you. You need to acquire the state of the soul that will make you able to receive this healing. Are likely those who have acknowledged their sinfulness and decided to abandon it (Jn.9, 39 & 41). For the just pride, which is nothing but a sinner of his unconscious state, the Saviour becomes unnecessary (MT.9, 13). The vision of sin and the fall in which humanity finds itself is a gift from God. Grab this gift for yourself and the book of the heavenly Doctor (Gospel) you will be more accessible.
Strive to equate the Gospel with the intellect and heart, that your mind swimming in it, deep inside him. Then your actions will become evangelicals. You can access this state by reading and studying the Gospel at all times and with piety. St. Pachomius the Great, one of the most famous among the ancient fathers, knew by heart the holy Gospel and, following a revelation of God, imposed on his disciples also to learn it by heart. Thus the gospel accompanied them everywhere and guided them permanently. Even today, why Christian educators they adorn no memory of the innocent children of the Gospel, rather than the darkened with the fables of Aesop and other Nullity? The bliss and wealth to memorize the Gospel! We can not predict the calamities that may occur during our earthly life. As the Gospel is entered into memory, it is read by the blind, he accompanies the inmate in his prison, he converses with the farmer in the area watered by the sweat, he instructs the judge during the session, it guides the trader, and welcomes the patient during his or her painful insomnia sad loneliness.
Do not dare to interpret the Gospel yourself or other books of Holy Scripture! The Scriptures were written by the prophets and apostles, not because of their human will, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (2Pi.1, 2). What folly to interpret them arbitrarily! The same Holy Spirit who revealed God's Word to prophets and apostles, has interpreted the word through the mouth of the Holy Fathers. This is the only interpretation agreed to by the Orthodox Church! This is the only interpretation qu'acceptent His true children! The interpreter arbitrarily Gospel and Holy Scripture in general, rejects the interpretation of the Fathers, and thus, the Holy Spirit. And whoever rejects the interpretation of Scripture by the Holy Spirit certainly reject the Holy Scripture itself. For those daring commentators, the Word of God, the Word of salvation, becomes a bad smell of death, a two-edged sword by which they pierce themselves to eternal perdition (2Pi.3, 16; 2Cor.2, 16). It is through this sword that were given eternal death, Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches and other heretics, who with a comment arbitrary Scripture have fallen into blasphemy.
That on which one will I look: on the one suffers, who has the spirit shot, the one who fears My word, saith the Lord (Is.66, 2). It is this attitude that you should adopt with regard to the Gospel and the Lord is there. Abandon your sinful life and earthly pleasures, denies thy soul, and the Gospel will become accessible and understandable for you. He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (Jn.12, 25). Life in this here means the world sinful life which, because of the fall, has become second nature. For anyone who loves his soul, which does not decide to abandon itself, the Gospel is closed. He reads the letter, but the word of life, as Spirit, is hidden behind an impenetrable veil. When the Lord was on earth in His holy body, there were many who saw it while not seeing. How useful for humans to watch with the physical eyes, like animals, if the eyes of his soul, intellect and heart, remain closed? Many people still read the daily Gospel, but do not know. St. Mark the ascetic recounts the words of a holy hermit, who said that the intellect does not understand the Gospel that as far as it fulfills the commandments by the acts. Through its own efforts, man can achieve accurate and thorough understanding of Scripture, because this is a gift from God.
When the Holy Spirit makes His abode in His true and faithful servant, He makes him a perfect player, a man who truly puts the Gospel into practice. The Gospel is the icon properties of the new Man, the Lord of heaven (1Cor.15, 48). This new man is God in nature. He has built a nation that believes in Him transfigured by Him, which He made gods by grace. You who wallow in the dirty and smelly pool of sin, you will find in him the joy! Raise your head and contemplate the purity of heaven, your place is here! God gives you the dignity of God! And then you give up the dignity to choose one of the beasts, and moreover, the most impure! Pull yourself together! Give up the smelly mess, you clean through confession of sins! Wash in tears of repentance! Adorn yourself with tears of emotion ! Rise of the earth to ascend to heaven! It is the Gospel that will climb this. While you light of the Gospel in which Christ is hidden, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of Light none other than Christ! (Jn.12, 36)
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