Let’s remember on occasion (see Ch. I): Sin – is an illusion, because we already, after the Resurrection of Christ and ours in Him, can only want to sin, but cannot actually sin! We can only want to fall away from God – but fortunately, no one will ever be able to do it! Why do something that a priori cannot be done!? Sin is always – nonsense – I do to myself what I do not want, and what, in truth, I will never achieve, never realize!..
Don’t forget that everything said above is true only if: God is Love, death is destroyed, and we are saved, otherwise (if considered in another coordinate system, on another plane – see Ch. I) – it’s all a lie! do not trust a single word! But, if this is true – then the entire modern church reality needs to be radically changed (not in form, which is always, in principle, neutral – but in spirit, in essence)!
If this is true (God is Love, death does not exist, and we are resurrected beings) – then, for example, all seminary (or academic, as it is now fashionable to call with loud names, behind which often absolutely nothing stands, it is called) so-called “spiritual” education (which is essentially darkening, even more obscuration, rather than enlightenment) needs to be radically changed, as pagan, and all (almost all) textbooks on “theology,” as pagan (which are written on the principle of describing pagan gods), need to be rewritten! But who needs this?! Better to silence the dissenting (with insane accusations and slander) mouth (instead of listening, paying attention to what he says) and as someone who stirs up the people with Orthodoxy, Holy Fathers, and just plain common sense – better to live as we live (paganly), rather than in freedom – it’s a great responsibility – always to rejoice; better to be sad – for this great wisdom and effort are not needed, – somehow it saddens itself… Misery! Misery! Misery! What light can be expected from such darkness?!
We have just tried (in the previous chapters) to clarify somewhat the essence of the Gospel of the Church – “Christ is Risen from the dead, by death He conquered death, and to those in the tombs, He granted life” – this is the core, the essence of Christianity – the Risen Christ. We have given a sample of the movement of thought, outlined certain landmarks. All questions in the book cannot be answered. And in general, in books, there are no answers! Because reading books is like eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation (the author with himself or with someone else, but in any case not with you), in which no one directly addresses you and, most importantly, no one gives you answers, so you cannot literally apply what you heard to yourself (only the principles that you can grasp – see Ch. I). The book’s task is only to interest, to evoke the desire to know (experientially) the reality, about which people (whose conversation I am eavesdropping on) are conversing. We said in Ch. I that, working with the text, it is necessary to get to the essence to answer the questions – who said, to whom said, when said, for what, with what purpose, in what context – cultural, social, religious the dialogue took place. If this is not taken into account (and first of all not remembered that they are not talking to me and the answers are not given to my questions, but to another, unique and irreplaceable personality), then such mindless reading can do a lot of harm to oneself! For example, I, looking into the doctor’s office, ask the doctor, who is talking on the phone, when he can see me, and the doctor says: “never!” – then I offended, slamming the door, leave the hospital and in despair do some harm to myself or raise a fuss and make a scandal (in short, the result of such a dialogue, imposed by me, – evil). But in reality, the doctor was responding not to my question, but to the question of the interlocutor on the phone (whom I, of course, did not see in the office), who, by the way, asked the doctor when he would start taking bribes, to which he received a decisive and righteously indignant answer to evil:
“Never!” And I decided that this reaction was directed at me… Therefore, if we read a book (which is not addressed to us) and told ourselves that we found an answer to at least one of our questions in it – we were deceived and went astray! No one knows what is being talked about in the book, except the author and those who have seen this reality from the same point of view! The only thing that can arise as a result of eavesdropping on someone else’s conversation is interest in the subject of the conversation and the desire to experience this reality for oneself: to see, feel, hear… The book’s task is not to soothe, giving answers to all possible rational questions, but to evoke thirst for Life, for Life in Happiness, to evoke hunger and encourage, having interested, to experiential experience of the Truth. Because to think and to live – are different things, one is in the realm of dreaminess and often fantasies, and the other is in the realm of reality and truth. Therefore, if we, reading a book, want to know something for sure, not in guesses – we must communicate with the author, or, at least, at least with one participant in the dialogue, who also experiences the same reality, about which the author speaks. Therefore, when it comes to the teaching of the Church, about the Sacred Scripture – self-reading will not give anything, but only harm. And to get interested in Scripture – you need to be able to hear and understand the symbolic language of the Church, which on your own is unreal: “How shall I understand what the prophet is talking about if no one instructs me?”. Therefore, to understand the Gospel, – it is necessary to communicate with the Author (Orthodox community), a living preacher, to find out if we understood the Word correctly, and further – on the Way… The author of the Scripture is the Church, which manifests itself in the community, the parish – the center of whose life is the Eucharist, the Meal with the Risen Christ in the Kingdom of God. Therefore, only they (Orthodox communities), participants in the Resurrection of Christ at the Eucharistic Meal, being co-authors of the Scripture, know what the Church is talking about in the Gospel, because they themselves are the Gospel, experiencing the same experience of the Kingdom, as the apostles and all the saints. Therefore, we said: not the priest, not the theologian is the author of the Scripture, but the eucharistic community (which has all the gifts to carry out the preaching and spread the Word of God).