A person comes to the Father only through the Son. We know the Father, unite with God the Father only in the Son of the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. “They (cunning hypocrites, mad and blind…), seeing, do not see (blind
, though convinced that they are seeing!?), and hearing, do not hear, and do not understand (mad, though they consider themselves teachers and knowers of God’s mysteries!?); and the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled upon them, which says: you will hear with your ears but never understand, and you will look with your eyes but never see. For the heart of this people has become dull, and they hear with difficulty, and have closed their eyes, so that they would not see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn, so that I (the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior-Healer) would heal them” (see Matt. 13: 13-15). And only those come to the Son who have realized their sin (seen and understood their disastrous, hellish state), their need for the Savior! (You ask me in surprise: will you now say again what you said in the previous paragraph?! Certainly, because these are fundamental things, without understanding which it is impossible to find the narrow path of true repentance and the narrow gate of self-denial and surrender to Christ (see Matt. 7: 13-14, Luke 13: 23-24)). In the process of preparing for baptism – the calming of the passions (symptoms of the disease of sin-godlessness-egoism-pride) a person learns his powerlessness (I can do nothing good, not even overcome the smallest passion…) and the great Mercy of God, help, salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord calms the storm of passions – only He alone! The announced prays-begs, cries-calls to Christ day and night with tears, and the Lord, Who directs everything to good, Who knows well how long someone needs to endure in the hellish fire of passions (to be well humbled), will not delay in saving His chosen ones (see Luke 18: 1-8). The process of preparing for baptism (knowing one’s powerlessness and salvation from God) is depicted in the evangelical icon in the fragment of the calming of the storm at sea (see Mark 4: 35-41). The disciples fought for life during the storm at sea and in this struggle they learned their powerlessness (“Master, we are perishing”) and the great mercy of God, the omnipotence of the Lord, Who calms the storm (of passions) with one word (“and there was a great calm, peace…”). So the person, fighting (while the Lord “sleeps,” does not intervene, does not help) learns his powerlessness, helplessness, and his Savior – Jesus Christ, Who does not delay and responds to prayer (day and night) with salvation (calms the passions). And so humility and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ grow, until they grow into a complete surrender of oneself to God – then God baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Calming the passions is not the goal, but a means, a necessary condition for the performance of Baptism. Calmed passions – this is not yet Christianity, but only preparation for the operation-transplantation (Baptism with the Holy Spirit). Christianity – this is to accept into the womb of the heart-person the Fire of Pentecost! No operation is performed while the patient does not have normal indicators of temperature, pressure, blood tests, etc. (that is, symptoms of the disease are brought to “norm”). Likewise, the operation of Baptism the Lord performs only when all the passions are normal. Passions are distorted natural energies-forces of the human being, acting unnaturally, that is, madly, blindly, selfishly. For example, anger: instead of being angry at evil, hating evil, the person began to hate the person. Passions are not destroyed entirely, but brought to norm, just as the temperature is reduced not to zero, but to 36.6. (Anger cannot be destroyed – it would be equivalent to destroying the human being (the energy, the property of which is anger and other desires, which in sin have become lusts, selfish desires), and it needs to be healed, made appropriate). A dispassionate person is not a person who has no desires-wants, but one whose desires (forces-energies-wants-willings) are normal, appropriate (sin is not to hit the target), that is, loving, humble, free, merciful, not selfish, blind, mad (unconscious, irrational, non-personal). A dispassionate person is a healthy person, normal (just as when they say about someone: they have no temperature, meaning it is normal, 36.6). A person cannot not only heal themselves from the disease of sin, but even bring the smallest passion to norm (symptom of this disease) – this mercy is performed in the announced only by the Lord, considering his humble day and night cries-prayers for salvation. Therefore, repentance-announcement – is a struggle, a feat of fulfilling the commandments of God and unceasing prayer-cry for salvation, mercy: “Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!”. The struggle, the feat – to know powerlessness, to humble oneself, and prayer – to receive salvation as a Gift, Grace! Unfortunately, very few now understand these simple truths of Orthodox faith, and most “Christians” wander in madness and blindness, deceit and hypocrisy on the broad paths of various heresies, delusions, false teachings, indifference, irresponsibility… Lord, let all people know You and the way to You by Your Holy Spirit!