Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov. About mental and spiritual jealousy

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov. About mental and spiritual jealousy

It consists in more or less harsh condemnation and denunciation of neighbors in their moral errors and in errors against church decorum and order. Deceived by the false concept of jealousy, unreasonable zealots think, indulging in it, to imitate the holy Fathers and holy martyrs, forgetting about themselves that they, the zealots, are not saints, but sinners.

If the saints denounced the sinners and the wicked, then they denounced them at the command of God, according to their duty, according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and not according to the inspiration of their passions and demons. Whoever decides to spontaneously denounce his brother or make a reprimand to him clearly reveals and proves that he considered himself more prudent and virtuous than the one he denounced, that he acts out of passion and seduction by demonic thoughts.

It is appropriate to remember the Savior’s commandment: “Why have you seen the broom that is in your brother’s eye, but have you not sensed the beam that is in your eye? Or how do you say to your brother: leave him alone, and let this mote be taken from your mind: and this log is in your eye? O hypocrite, remove the first plank from your hair; and then you will see that you take away the speck from your brother’s hair” (Matthew 7:3-5).

What is a log? This is carnal wisdom, as white as a log, taking away all ability and correctness from the visual power bestowed by the Creator on the mind and heart. A person led by carnal wisdom cannot in any way correctly judge either his own internal state or the state of his neighbors. He judges himself and others as he imagines himself and as his neighbors appear to him in appearance, according to his carnal wisdom, erroneously: and therefore the Word of God very correctly called him a hypocrite.

A Christian, after healing himself with the Word of God and the Spirit of God, receives a correct view of his spiritual structure and the spiritual structure of his neighbors. Carnal wisdom, hitting a sinning neighbor with a log, always confuses him, often destroys him, never brings and cannot bring any benefit, and has no effect on sin. On the contrary, spiritual wisdom acts exclusively on the spiritual illness of a neighbor, having mercy on the neighbor, healing and saving him.

It is worthy of note that, after acquiring spiritual intelligence, the shortcomings and errors of one's neighbor begin to seem very unimportant, as redeemed by the Savior and conveniently healed by repentance - those same errors and shortcomings that seemed immensely great and important to the carnal mind. It is obvious that carnal wisdom, being itself a log, gave them such great importance. Carnal wisdom sees in one's neighbor such sins as are not in him at all: for this reason, those who were carried away by reckless jealousy often fell into slandering their neighbor and became a tool and playground of fallen spirits.

The Monk Pimen the Great said that a certain monk, carried away by jealousy, was subjected to the following temptation: he saw another monk lying on a woman. The monk struggled for a long time with a thought that forced him to stop the sinners, and, finally, defeated, he pushed them with his foot, saying: stop it! Then it turned out that these were two sheaves (Alphabetical Patericon).

The Monk Abba Dorotheos says that while he was in the hostel of Abba Serida, a certain brother slandered another brother, being carried away by reckless jealousy, which is always associated with suspicion and suspiciousness, and is very capable of writing. The accused accused the accused of stealing figs from the garden early in the morning and eating them: according to the research carried out by the abbot, it turned out that the slandered person was not in the monastery on that morning, but in one of the neighboring villages, having been sent there by the steward, and returned to the monastery only by the time the Divine Liturgy ended (St. Abba Dorotheos, Teaching 9).

If you want to be a faithful, zealous son of the Orthodox Church, then achieve this by fulfilling the Gospel commandments regarding your neighbor. Don't dare denounce him! Don't dare teach him! Do not dare to condemn and reproach him! This is not an act of faith, but of reckless jealousy, conceit, and pride.

They asked Pimen the Great: what is faith? The Great One answered: “Faith consists in remaining in humility and doing mercy” (Alphabetical Patericon), that is, to humble oneself before one’s neighbors and forgive them all insults and insults, all their sins. Since reckless zealots put faith as the initial reason for their zeal, let them know that true faith (Here we mean active faith, not dogmatic. For their difference, see Philokalia, part 2. Monks Callistus and Ignatius, chapter 16), and, consequently, true zeal must be expressed in humility before one’s neighbors and in mercy towards them.

Let us leave the judgment of men and the chastisement of men to those men who are entrusted with the responsibility of judging and governing their brethren. “He who has false zeal,” said Saint Isaac of Syria, “suffers from a great illness. O man, who imagines to wear out jealousy against the illnesses of others, you have renounced the health of your soul! Work diligently for the health of your soul. If you want to heal the weak, then know that the sick need more care for them than harsh reproofs. But by not helping others, you plunge yourself into a serious and painful illness.

This jealousy in people is not recognized as one of the types of wisdom, but is ranked among the ailments of the soul, it is a sign of the poverty of (spiritual) reason, a sign of extreme ignorance. The beginning of the wisdom of God is quietness and meekness, characteristic of a great and strong soul, a thorough way of thinking and bearing human infirmities. For you are strong, says Scripture, and bear the infirmities of the weak (Rom. 15:1), and correct him who sins with a spirit of meekness (Gal. 6:1). The Apostle counts peace and patience among the fruits of the Holy Spirit” (Sermon 89).

In another word, St. Isaac says: “Do not hate the sinner, because we are all sinners. If you struggle against him (the sinner) for God’s sake, then shed tears for him. Why do you hate him? Hate his sins, and pray for him, and thereby you will become like Christ, Who was not indignant at sinners, but prayed for them. Don't you see how He wept for Jerusalem? And in many cases we serve as a laughing stock for the devil. Why do we hate the one at whom the devil laughs and laughs at us?

Why do you, O man, hate the sinner? Is it because he is not as righteous as you? Where is your truth when you have no love! Why did you not weep for him, but do you persecute him? Some, who think that they judge sensibly the deeds of sinners and (on this occasion) are angry with them, act so out of their ignorance” (Homily 90).

The great disaster is conceit! The great disaster is the rejection of humility! A great disaster is that mental dispensation and state in which a monk, without being called or questioned, out of his own consciousness of his dignity begins to teach, reprove, and reproach his neighbors! When asked, either refuse to give advice and say your opinion, as if you know nothing, or, in extreme need, speak with the greatest caution and modesty, so as not to hurt yourself with vanity and pride, and your neighbor with a harsh and reckless word.

When, for your work in the garden of commandments, God grants you to feel the Divine jealousy in your soul, then you will clearly see that this jealousy will prompt you to silence and humility before your neighbors, to love them, to have mercy on them, to condole for them, as he said Saint Isaac of Syria (Homily 38).

Divine jealousy is a fire, but not one that heats the blood! He extinguishes the heat in her, brings her to a calm state (Philokalia, part 1. Interview of the Monk Maxim Kapsokalivi with the Monk Gregory of Sinaite).

The jealousy of carnal wisdom is always associated with heated blood, with the invasion of numerous thoughts and dreams. The consequences of blind and ignorant jealousy, if a neighbor resists it, are usually indignation at him, resentment, vindictiveness in various forms, and if vain self-satisfaction is submitted, excitement and increase in our arrogance and conceit.

Jealousy is not only in marriage

The nature of jealousy is unique.
It appears where there is love, but there is not complete trust. When I love someone, I begin to value them especially. And it is all the more painful to find out that there is no reciprocal feeling and the person does not value your relationship that much. Love, in a sense, is defenseless, because it is very easy to offend and offend. And offended love can become very suspicious and suspicious. For the stepmother-jealousy comes.

And a unique situation has arisen that the temple, the Church of Christ, is the place where love comes to us in the form of the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the temple there is a place of heavenly love between people. And this is precisely the basis for problems with jealousy. Because grace comes and goes, because we are not able to properly bear this heavenly gift. But relationships built at the peak of the arrival of grace remain.

And - something needs to be done with them.

How often do we feel a special unity between us singers, open our souls, hug each other in a brotherly outburst? Are we more open than usual with our brothers and sisters? Certainly! All this is a consequence of the warmth of the Lord's touch.

And when it dissipates, having been driven away by the stench of our sins and passions, we are left alone with a situation of awkward silence...
We have become too close, too open, too trusted. We have become a family. And according to modern statistics, 90% of families break up within the first three years. People who swore eternal love to each other do not survive the first three years. And we in the choir need to serve until death. And therefore we cannot fall into the romance of “oh, we didn’t have the same personalities.” Everything will work out, you just need to look at the situation from the right angle. You need to get to know yourself. And understand that many singers are jealous.

Spiritual mind

...We don’t need to get carried away with ourselves that we are better than others, but consider ourselves the last of all; This is what spiritual reason and spiritual training consist of (St. Macarius).

Start little by little, don’t trust yourself, don’t rely on your reason, reject your will, and the Lord will give you true reason... (Venerable Macarius).

...May the Lord protect you from all the snares and snares of the enemy and may he give you true reason, gained through humility... Unfortunately, nowadays they speak and write about religion so freely everywhere, not to create, but to doubt; sensuality takes over, and the younger generation is more inclined towards freedom, and not towards curbing feelings, and gives freedom to reason, even though it is darkened (St. Macarius).

Live and try to acquire intelligence and reason, not just some kind, but efficient, thorough, monastic, not stubborn, but firm - and in the external, when you come, keep an expense, and judge yourself by what you do, and not by what you do. , what do you think. — You can think of a lot, but the lack of execution exposes us (Rev. Ambrose).

You ask me: how can you achieve a spiritual, solid mind? Humility, fear of God, preservation of conscience and patience in the presence of sorrows (Venerable Ambrose).

Our mind is pleasing to God with humility, but with pride it is rejected (St. Macarius).

Joy

Let your soul rejoice in the Lord, for He has clothed us with the robe of salvation and clothed us with the robe of gladness, and He says to us through the Apostle: “Rejoice always, in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God” (1 Thess. 5:16, 18) . — The words of the Apostles clearly show that it is more useful for us to always rejoice, and not to be despondent when we encounter failures, but we can rejoice only when we thank God for the fact that the failures that happen humble us and, as if involuntarily, force us to resort to Him and humbly ask His help and intercession. - And when we do this, then the psalm word of St. David will be fulfilled for us: “We remembered God and rejoiced” (Ps. 76:4) (Venerable Ambrose).

...Joy comes to us from frequent remembrance of God, according to what is written: “I remembered God and rejoiced” (Ps. 76:4) (Venerable Anthony).

It should start... with thanksgiving for everything. The beginning of joy is to be satisfied with your position (Venerable Ambrose).

You write that you love the 7th week no less than the Bright Week, then this is how it should be, for it remembers the saving suffering of the Lord for the sake of our salvation. It’s always useful to think about the soul, and it’s also useful at Easter. And if joy is not perfect, then, apparently, sins still prevent it from happening. We must reproach ourselves and humble ourselves more, considering ourselves unworthy of joy. And humility is more valuable than all other virtues and spiritual joy itself (St. Joseph).

...You write that sometimes some kind of painful, unbridled, disheveled, ferocious devilish joy comes over you, which tires you terribly, and that any spiritual sorrow is more joyful than this ugly joy. Now you see for yourself that this joy is from the opposite side, but at the same time know that this disheveled joy is not found without a reason, but it was clear at some time that, out of inexperience and carelessness, you mistook deceptive and charming joy for real (Venerable Ambrose) .

There is a funny but true proverb: you can’t kill a louse without a tool. Need a fingernail. So I made something serious into something funny in order to amuse you, a serious person, a little. - Because...all those who rejoice in a Christian manner have a dwelling in Mountainous Zion (Ps. 86) (Venerable Ambrose).

Absent-mindedness

It’s good that you realized how harmful absent-mindedness and dealing with worldly things are for you. We see the bitter experience of such cases in many. Ask God not to allow such hobbies to befall you in the future, and for the past, bring repentance... (Venerable Macarius).

You stand absent-mindedly in the church. — Learn little by little not to get distracted. To do this, try to listen carefully and delve into the meaning of reading and singing. Also, remember more often about death, God’s judgment and eternal torment. And don’t give freedom to your eyes. Look more at holy icons, but looking at people is harmful to your soul. - You cannot bear an offensive word. - In this case, reproach yourself more and humble yourself, considering yourself the worst of all people (Venerable Joseph).

You complain about being absent-minded and that you cannot always pray attentively. - Yes, no one living on earth can always pray attentively. This, according to the remark of St. John Climacus, is characteristic only of Angels (St. Joseph).

Jealousy for God

On the one hand, this phenomenon is often spoken about in the lives of saints and, strictly speaking, there is nothing wrong with it.
The essence of the phenomenon is simple and clear. Someone who loves God strives to please him, and when he sees someone else pleasing, a certain jealousy of a son, eager to please the Father, spurs him on to try even better. A kind of race of virtues begins. And in some ways it’s even wonderful. The children vying with each other run to the Father, trying to be the first to deliver their gift. They stumble, fall, shake themselves off and run again.

Problems begin when in this process a certain anger at “competitors” or “outsiders” that is difficult to understand for the person himself appears. Example - today you are in the mood to serve the Lord fervently. You go to the service with inner burning, you already crave excellent chants and cherish a wonderful service in your soul. But the singing doesn’t go well!

You are angry and disappointed.
You have not been given, from your point of view, to please Christ. Anger flares up, flares up like a fire, and now friends begin to look like strange weights on the path to God. “They make it hard to please.” Jealousy began its destructive work. There is another model. You really want to please Christ, your heart literally begs to come out. But - you can't do it! The voice is not the same, the qualifications are not enough, fatigue takes its toll. That's woe. You try, but it doesn't work. And the neighbor standing nearby bursts into mellifluous sounds. And - hatred penetrates the heart. He pleases Christ, he succeeds, but I don’t. And again jealousy rears its head. The sweet-voiced neighbor becomes unpleasant to you, and often for reasons that are little clear to you.

Jealousy of each other, of priests

I have read many stories of choirboys.
And I saw again and again how jealousy did its job. For example, jealousy of priests is very common. It's simple.

The priest is a man. Dresses in beautiful shiny clothes. He is smart and speaks beautiful sermons. He has a high status in the parish (highest, strictly speaking). And - becomes attractive as a friend. So that he would pay attention, caress, say a few warm words, and show TRUST.

It is not at all uncommon for two friends to quarrel to death at a parish, if one of the friends became close to the priest, and the other was “pushed aside” by him.
Especially if they came to the choir at the same time. It would seem, why do you need to be close to a priest? But you want the head of the parish to trust you, to bring you closer, to make it clear that you are important, needed, and part of a trusted circle. I caught myself thinking that praise for singing is not important to me. Trusting relationships with the priesthood are important to me. The phrase “well, Dima, let’s go serve” will give me much more joy than “dear singers, thank you for singing.” It’s kind of important for me that the priest sees me as a fellow minister, and not as a singing coffee maker. And if suddenly I see that same priest speaking warmly, confidentially and softly with a certain singer of our parish, jealousy will certainly awaken in me. This is a very dangerous and heavy force.

The singers are also jealous of each other. This is especially true for the “singer-regent” relationship system. Someone was close to the regent, everyone is jealous and envious of him. Then the system of relations changes and the regent brings someone else closer. And everyone begins to be jealous of this person. It seems crazy, but in a church where the entire ideological system is built on love and friendship, you begin to value this very friendship very much and react violently to its disappearance.

There's a pretty clever mechanism here. From time to time the joy of service brings us especially close. And we become temporarily different, filled, whole, VALUABLE. And in this state we become very significant to each other. The friendship of someone temporarily filled with the Holy Spirit, whole and valuable, becomes incredibly important.

This state, when someone valuable on a metaphysical level trusts you, is remembered and then you are painfully drawn to return to this system of relationships, when you had one heart for two.
It's just that Christmas is over, the tree is thrown away, and the toys are put away in a drawer. That state of heights has faded between us, but the thirst to return to them is eternal. In addition, for some reason you were suddenly pushed aside, bringing the other one closer. And this is how it is born - jealousy towards each other. After all, you remember how someone—a believer, earnest and true—spoke to you warm, holy words of trust, friendship, and brotherly love. And suddenly he has lost interest in you (and it doesn’t really matter for what reason) and says these words to someone else. It really hurts. And it is a fairly common cause of obscure conflicts in the choir. When people don’t say anything to each other, moreover, they claim that “everything is fine,” and your heart just screams about the opposite.

Sound familiar?

Irritability

Your irritability cannot be destroyed when no one touches you, but it will increase even more, and when they show it to you, then, with God’s help and self-reproach, you can receive healing (St. Macarius).

Irritability, or the furious part, is one of the three parts of the soul, given to us not in order to be angry with our neighbors, but to have zeal against sin, and when we are angry with our neighbors, we do it against nature. Irritability in us comes from pride (St. Macarius).

You say: I rarely restrain my ardor; when I come to my senses, I ask the Creator for my forgiveness: therefore, it cannot be said that you do not regret your sins. I’ll tell you about ardor, in our opinion, simply: this is anger and rage that comes from pride, and not from nature, but more because everything that she did before seemed good, and she received praise, and sometimes reproach, and in everything she had her own will and reason, that’s why they gained strength, now they need to be healed by the nasty ones... (Venerable Macarius).

...You have the pledge of the furious part, i.e. irritability, which in unpleasant cases becomes inflamed and acts. It is necessary to take care of her healing, but how to heal her? You seem to be peaceful, calm, when no one bothers you, and the passion lies inside; when something unpleasant happens, it becomes inflamed and acts. So, the one who touches us only shows it to us, so that we take care of healing through self-reproach, humility, condescension, mercy, but this cannot be done suddenly, but gradually, with God’s help, we must understand this about other passions. There is one who acts on passion “according to passion,” there is one who resists passion, and there is one who eradicates passion. Although we cannot eradicate it yet, when we resist, we will reach its eradication, that is, healing. People who show us passions are instruments of God; so in self-love, pride and in all passions we must monitor ourselves and fight them (Venerable Macarius).

Irritability shows you your inner structure, which must be overcome by self-reproach, patience, love, and not by attention to the weaknesses of your neighbors and not by condemnation, but sometimes you are insulted, and of course, not without the Providence of God, to show you your weakness and give you a means to healing - through struggle, resistance and humility (St. Macarius).

... In terms of irritability, I advise you to protect yourself as from a mortal poison, which significantly destroys your health, renders medical remedies ineffective and shortens your life itself. You can say the same thing without bile, for a soft word has more power (Venerable Anthony).

Against irritation - patience, and self-reproach, and reasoning about the passion of Christ (St. Macarius).

Regarding your irritability, you should try by all means to control yourself, so as not to acquire the unfortunate habit of anger, which intolerable vice is not so much noticeable in oneself as it is visible in others, and those who are angry in vain are guilty of fiery hell (St. Anthony).

When irritation comes over you, just repeat: “Lord, have mercy.” Through prayer, all filth is cleansed (Venerable Nektarios).

...It is healed by “irritability” not by solitude, but by communicating with others and enduring annoyances, and in case of defeat by them, by knowledge of one’s weaknesses and humility. Saint John of the Climacus writes: “None of those who are hypocritically subject to irritability and arrogance, hypocrisy and memory malice, should ever dare to see even a trace of silence...” (Venerable Leo).

It’s a pity, M, that you’re all feeling unwell; I advise and ask you, do not allow yourself to become irritable; Are things or anything else worth upsetting yourself and losing your health? If something happens that is not right or against your will, you must leave it that way, leaving the case to the will of God, and thereby reassure yourself. Little by little you will get the hang of it; after all, both bad and good habits strengthen (St. Macarius).

Paradise

I am glad that you liked our Optina so much that it seemed like paradise. However, our paradise depends on ourselves: be patient, humble yourself, and you will find paradise within yourself. As one saint says: “Seek neither Rome nor Jerusalem, but prepare a home for the soul, and not only Peter and Paul will come to you, but the Lord Himself with His Most Pure Matter and with a host of Angels and Saints.” Therefore, do not be discouraged that you have not achieved this, but try and start not from the top, but from the bottom step, that is, from humility, self-reproach. Tell yourself: I am not worthy to live alive in paradise; grant me, even after death, together with the prudent thief, to inherit Your paradise (Venerable Anatoly).