All desires come from the Beautiful, from God, from Hypostatic Beauty (“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” – see Philippians 2:12-13). And from each of us – to chastely follow the desire (which God has stirred in us – all desires that arise in us are from God, and we either suppress them, reject them, or selfishly, lustfully distort them), which will lead us to God. For behind all Beauty stands the Beautiful, Who calls with Beauty (evokes love, evokes love in the beloved-desired – every created hypostasis) to communion-unity in Love!
Chastity (the shortest, wise path and methods to achieve the Goal) is to serve the neighbor (to be a servant to everyone and each for the sake of Jesus Christ), to help each hypostasis become itself, to unfold in all the catholic, all-encompassing fullness of Unique and Unrepeatable Beauty, Divine (by Grace) Beauty – when the image of God in the neighbor acquires the likeness of God (the hypostasis becomes deified). Chastity (always obedient and humble (poor in Spirit)) is grateful, selfless, joyful service to the neighbor (each hypostasis), and in the person of the neighbor – to the Triune God Himself (“He who has seen his neighbor has seen his God”. To see the neighbor is to see his (her) “I”, the image of God, the icon of God, indescribable, ineffable Beauty and serve this Beauty, so that it unfolds in all the fullness of God-like Beauty). By fulfilling the commandment to love the neighbor, the hypostasis itself becomes deified, for everything we do for the neighbor – we do for ourselves. He who loves his neighbor loves himself. He who hates his neighbor hates himself. He who does evil to his neighbor does evil to himself (and only to himself), his “I” darkens the image of God within him, further distances himself from the Goal (the Kingdom of God, baptism with the Holy Spirit, acquisition of the Holy Spirit). To become oneself – one must deny oneself, die to oneself (one’s natural lustful selfish sinful desires), lose one’s soul (life according to the elements of this world) for the sake of Jesus Christ and the Gospel (that the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Hypostatic, Personal Being has come)!
The foundation, basis, principle of proclamation-repentance is obedience, poverty, chastity. (The Church speaks only of these when it talks about repentance, when it proclaims a person, preparing them for baptism with the Holy Spirit, for birth into the Kingdom of God – Personal, Hypostatic Being as communion-perichoresis of hypostases). Obedience, poverty, chastity – this is the springboard to Hypostatic, Personal Eternal Life in Love, the foundation of repentance, the necessary condition for baptism with the Holy Spirit. The catechumen, preparing for baptism, must already be obedient, poor, chaste, and the other catechumens must strive to be obedient, poor, chaste, must learn (ascetically strive to acquire) obedience, poverty, chastity. To be obedient (from the word “listen”: to hear with all being, to see, to look into, to listen, to know, to understand, to comprehend, to become conscious) – is to be (to strive to be) all eye, all ear, all attention, all vigilance, all discernment, all consciousness, all understanding! To be poor (to be humble, humble-minded, poor in Spirit – is to know (to know) the truth about oneself: that you are nothing (as a created being), nobody (as a sinful being), you have nothing of your own… but first of all to know that at the same time everything is given to you, that everything you have and what you are – is a Gift of Love of the Merciful God and neighbors (through whom, in whom God Loves me); the poor is not the one who lacks something, but the one who wants, desires what he does not have) – to desire Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, God, Truth, Freedom, Faithfulness-Faith, Beauty! To be chaste (to be wise – is to know the Goal, the Purpose and the most appropriate way to achieve the Goal) – is to accept the Gift (= to give oneself entirely to the Giver), to be grateful to Christ God, to strive to be Eucharist (Church; the catechumen preparing for baptism with the Holy Spirit must already live (ascetically, striving, by willpower), as a Christian, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit at the proper time, and become the Church of Christ, the Hypostasis of the Body of Christ), to desire the glory of God, to desire to serve Christ (diligently fulfill all God’s commandments). Chastity is gratitude (Eucharist) for the Gift(s) and service (fulfillment of God’s will, God’s commandments), which expresses gratitude: Thanksgiving, Well-serving, Good-deeds! The catechumen must be (this is what the Church teaches the catechumen, preparing them for the Marriage with Christ) obedient, poor (humble-minded), chaste and patient (long-suffering), until the Lord baptizes them with the Holy Spirit at the proper time, and joins to the Church those who Love with the Holy Spirit! An attentive reader could not help but notice that we are constantly talking about this (proclamation and its components: obedience, poverty-humility, chastity), only in different words, and from different sides-aspects.