A good deed is only that deed which is done for Christ (in Christ, and by Christ, the Holy Spirit). A good deed is a deed that bears the fruit of humility, that is, after which a person humbles himself (and God gives Grace to the humble!). And it bears the fruit of humility only a deed done for Christ. Therefore, the catechumen must strive, if he wants his deed to be good (for Christ; and he still cannot perform good deeds – for he is not yet filled, not baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit), then before starting it he must force himself to enter into joy, rejoice, and in joy serve the Lord – to perform (make every effort) a good deed. And such a Lord (Jesus Christ) can only be served in joy, thanksgiving (Easter, Eucharistic)! If you do something without joy, you do it without faith (and everything that is done without faith-trust in Christ is sin), and nothing good will come of it (yes, eventually the Lord will direct everything to good, but the hypostasis that does something without faith, without joy, will not benefit).
Yes, on the way to full joy, to divinization in Christ’s (who always rejoice) there is sorrow, sadness (sin occurs, falls), but all this is dissolved in joy – these are states of joyful sorrow. This sadness, sorrow in Christians is not selfish – it is always sorrow for God, for Jesus Christ, and whoever remembers God-Love, Jesus Christ in any worldly context (in good or evil, in paradise or in hell, in sin and fall or in the feat of rising and following the Lord), “remembered the Lord, and his heart rejoiced!” And we in the Church know what our Lord is (Unconditional, Sacrificial, Humble, Absolute, Unchanging Love)!
If I am not rejoicing (?) – then I am not a Christian, I am not even a catechumen! Do you have joy or not – here is a criterion for checking whether you are catechized (Orthodox)! What kind of Christianity can be discussed if we need to be instructed with commandments: “Rejoice!”, “Give thanks!” Here, there is no trace of Christianity, communion of the Eucharist, the Kingdom of God (joy and peace in the Holy Spirit)! Be vigilant, so that no one deceives you, that you are a Christian when you ask: why rejoice?! What to give thanks for?! When everything is bad for you, bad, bad… Be vigilant! For a sad sight – an Orthodox (Christian), who has no face, who is always dissatisfied with everything, complains about everything, condemns everyone, sees bad, evil, darkness everywhere (and this is when God-Love for all and everyone every moment does-care “very good,” “very good,” leads and directs everyone and everything to the Goal, to Happiness, to Himself; and even all evil directs for the good-salvation of both the offender-criminal and the offended
– “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!… For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever, amen!” (see Romans 11 and Part II, pp. 156-158 about mercy (“merciful heart”) and evil in the world and joy against the background of all this evil-trouble-tribulation-tears-sorrow)).
The goal of human life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit! And God gives the grace of the Holy Spirit only to the humble, and resists the proud, more precisely, the proud reject, do not accept Grace, blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and the humble give themselves to God: “I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to the Will of God, the Word of God”! Therefore, the goal of human life is to humble oneself, to acquire God-receptive humility, to receive the Holy Spirit (the Kingdom of God, which has come, is here and now among us and in us), Who is already generously, without measure, poured out on all flesh, on all creation! But to humble oneself, one must labor much in joy-thanksgiving with zealous fulfillment of the Commandments of God, the Will of God (zealous fulfillment of the Commandments of God teaches a person her weakness, nothingness, impotence, paralysis, inability to do anything good; a person naturally enters a state of “poor in spirit,” “be like children,” who completely depend on others, and allow themselves to be gifted, and to such belongs (now (here and now), in this life (in the second phase), and not someday – somewhere, beyond the grave) the Kingdom of God). One must endure much in joy-thanksgiving (“Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God”; “we suffer until we humble ourselves, and if there is humility, then suffering is not needed”), to humble oneself, to enter in joy-thanksgiving into the peace of the Kingdom of God. Take at least one commandment of God (and the essence-content of all the commandments of God is love) and through Orthodox fulfillment of it (more precisely, the attempt to fulfill it – to love) all layers of spiritual life are raised and a person realizes that she herself cannot do anything good (even the smallest), and she naturally enters a state of hopelessness for herself (her mind, strength, skill, etc.) and gives herself to God (“Keep your mind in hell, but do not despair, but hope in God, trust, give yourself to Christ God”), that is, she becomes humble, “poor in spirit”…, and what happens next (“what the eye of an egoist, proud has not seen, ear has not heard, and what the pagan has not imagined”), let those who have humbled themselves properly and already have as their mentor-teacher humility of the Holy Spirit tell about it!