By the way, we will show on the example of the commandment “Give thanks in everything! Rejoice always,” how fulfilling this commandment cultivates (and gives) the fruit of humility in the soul of the catechumen. Can one not rejoice who is infinitely grateful to someone and has the opportunity to do something for him?! Being grateful (= being in joy) is to be in a state of readiness and desire to bring joy to the one to whom you are grateful, to serve him, to do for him what he likes! To say “thank you” (to testify that you have received the gift, have entered the state of gratitude) is the same as saying (desiring with all your being): “what can I do for you?”, and hearing the will of the donor, to perform it with joy! What did Christ do for us?! In Part III, we wrote that Christ is the Donor, who, having given us His Body, died for us, those who were in a terrible accident-disaster and were dying an eternal death!.. How should we be grateful to the Lord for salvation? A grateful person to Christ should ask the Lord: what can I do for You, what do You like? Allow us to do at least something for You, for us it will be a great joy! The Lord told us what He likes, what He wants – that we keep His commandments (for example: that we love one another, that we have mercy on one another…). The Lord said: everything you did to your neighbor, you did to Me. Every person is Christ (“Whoever has seen his brother has seen his God!”)! The homeless, the crippled, the serial killer, the mentally ill person, the heretic, the Satanist, the traveler, the separatist, the occupier… – this is Christ! Love Christ in every person, serve Christ, since you are grateful to Him (after all, you declare that you thank Christ!), and to be grateful, to give thanks is to serve with joy!!! Therefore, he who begins not only to say with his
tongue “Lord, Lord!” (Glory to You, Thank You… and other meaningless words (see Matt. 7:20-22, Luke 6:46)), but also to give thanks with deeds, with joyful service, will soon (very quickly) realize his ingratitude, feel joylessness in service, anger, irritation, dislike and ultimately hatred towards Christ. And everything started so beautifully: “Thank You, God…” (Luke: publican and Pharisee), and ended: “Crucify Him!” (Luke: Pharisee). It is this state of hell that the catechumen who Orthodoxly fulfills, under the supervision of the Church (Christians), the commandments of God (at least one – any taken, all of them are about one thing, about Love!)! Quickly, a person (Orthodoxly catechized) realizes his ingratitude, impotence (the Lord did so much for me and continues to do, everything I have and what I am, is all a Gift of God, and I not only do not give thanks, but on the contrary: blaspheme, curse, complain, am not satisfied with anything…) – humbles himself, completely gives himself, in absolute trust entrusts himself to the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Holy Spirit leads the person into the Kingdom of God – into the Mystery of the Life of the Most Holy Trinity! Christians are in constant joy, in constant thanksgiving to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit; everything they do, they do every deed for the Lord Jesus Christ, out of gratitude to the Lord, therefore they are in constant joy! For them, it is a great joy to do something for the Lord, to fulfill any will of God, they turn everything in their life into Eucharist, try to serve the Lord every moment in everything and everyone, in the person of every person! The essence of the Church is the Eucharist! (I remind you that when we talk about joy, we are not talking about emotions or sentimentality – everything here is hypostatic, that is, the state of the whole being (mind, will, feelings, all the psychosomatics of a person is in this state), but about the readiness to lay down one’s life for everyone, to suffer for Christ in joy, to give thanks – to serve, to endure for the sake of the Beloved in joy-delight – see Part II).
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God always creates “very good,” “good exceedingly” (see Gen. 1:31), and everything that is (here and now – all “givenness”) is “very good” for all and everything simultaneously! Every moment God brings everyone into Paradise (the best conditions that can only be created for everyone, for his self-realization and movement to the goal of life, to Happiness!)! I am always (objectively) in Paradise! I always have everything very good (“good exceedingly”), and whatever happens in the future – this is a Gift of God, God’s Love-Care – everything will be good, very good (for me, and for all and everything)! God continues to create (John.) – for all and everything –
“good exceedingly”! Glory-Thanksgiving-Praise to God-Love for all and for everything! Rejoice always! Give thanks in everything! Always remember that “everything is good” exactly as it happens! Everything that comes to you from outside (beyond your freedom), what happens without you (your freedom), is (everything that is) always for you, it is the best for you, the best gift – God’s Love-Giving-Grace-Care! Everything was good (the best, it could not be better, because God is Love!), everything is good (because God is Love!) and everything will always be good, very good (this is not self-suggestion, not a sick wish born of uncertainty-ignorance (anything can happen!? And if God changes His mind, or we anger Him with our betrayals-sins, bring anger and hatred on us, or something goes wrong – anything can happen!?), but the hope-certainty of the Church (every Christian who is the Church), which comes from faith-knowledge of God the Father as Eternal and Unchanging Love – God is Love! The hope-certainty (expectation of what has already been fulfilled, moving towards what has already been accomplished – see Part I) of Christians – the Kingdom of God has already come, already given to everyone! And not someday will come or someday will be given! We have already been given the power – the Holy Spirit – to be children of God, to be blessed gods by Grace)! This “everything” is absolute because God is Love!!! What now seems to me (subjectively) a great evil, a catastrophe, that is, everything is “very bad,” “nothing good” (although everything and always (objectively) is “very good,” “good exceedingly”!), in due time, when I understand what a great Mercy-Love the Lord God Jesus Christ gave me (nothing good unworthy nothingness!) in this (as I, proud selfish ungrateful, see) “very bad,” “nothing good,” “everything is lost”… – it will become what I (who complained-cursed-was angry-hated; we hate the cross, and only by the Cross comes joy to the whole world and to everyone) will most thank-give thanks for, it will become the source of great joy and praise-thanksgiving! (Let everyone himself give examples from his life, let him look at his life – isn’t it God’s guidance, miracles after miracles, haven’t we said: how good it happened exactly as it happened, and not as we wanted-sought (the destruction of our plans and dreams); to set the tone, we will give a few examples in the flesh (for us, egoists) of the joy of pagans: missed (because of being stuck in a traffic jam, in an elevator, ended up in a hospital) a plane that crashed and all passengers died, a bus that had an accident, to work where there was a terrorist attack, and if not… (what we curse-hate, what we want to escape from – get off the cross (escape from the stuck elevator, from the hundred-kilometer traffic jam, from the ambulance, from the wheelchair, get rid of the “thorn of Satan, the sting in the flesh” (2 Cor. 11) – some disease, etc.), but only by the mercy of God we fail to achieve what we intended (sinful, selfish, harmful to us, etc.)), I would have been there and died).