Years went by, the children grew up, each in their own way… The girl who was in the monastery grew up modest, kind, and pious. She loved to work and sang beautifully. When people saw her, they said: What a beautiful girl! Her face shines. You look at her and rejoice. What a good soul this girl has! How beautiful she is! The other girl, who was taken by the prostitute and raised in her way, was taught to live a depraved, immoral life. She was taught to seduce, speak shameful words, commit fornication, adultery. And when people saw her, they said: Stay away from this child! She is still young, but already depraved. What will she become? And everyone despised her. Only God, who sees everything, remembers that morning, many years ago, when these two innocent girls, sisters-orphans, were taken against their will and placed in different conditions, given different upbringings. God remembers that morning and what happened to these little girls, which is why in the Paterikon it says: “Do not judge a person lightly, do not perceive only what you see now.” Look at what each person carries within themselves. They carry their whole history, their past. What each person has gone through, what they have experienced – no one knows, only God!
Abba Dorotheus concludes this story: “Do you see God’s mystery? Do you see God’s judgment? Who can explain this? So, the holy nun raised that little one in the fear of God, instructing her in every good deed, in all the commandments of God. The prostitute, taking that unfortunate girl, made her a tool of the devil. For what could that infection teach her, if not the ruin of her own soul? So, what can we say about that terrible fate? Both were young, both were sold, not knowing themselves where they were going, and one ended up in God’s hands, and the other fell into the devil’s hands. Can it be said that God will ask the same measure from one as from the other? How is this possible? If both fall into fornication or another sin, can it be said that both will be subjected to the same judgment, even though both fell into the same sin? Is this possible? One knew about judgment, about the Kingdom of God, day and night studied the words of God, the other, unfortunate, never saw or heard anything good, on the contrary, always everything filthy, everything devilish: is it possible that both will be judged by the same judgment?
…So, what do we want from our neighbor? What do we want from someone else’s burden? We have something to care about, brothers and sisters
! Everyone should watch themselves and their sins. To God alone belongs the power to justify and condemn, since He alone knows the soul’s arrangement of each one, the strength, the way of upbringing, the endowments, the physique, and the abilities; and accordingly judges each one, as He (Merciful Love!) alone knows. For God judges the deeds of a bishop differently from those of a secular ruler, the deeds of an abbot differently from those of a disciple, the deeds of an old man differently from those of a young man, the deeds of a sick person differently from those of a healthy person. And who can know all these judgments? Only God-Love alone, who created everyone and everything, and who knows, cares for everyone, and leads everyone to salvation.”
The parable of the talents (see Matthew 25:14-30) tells us that every person who comes into the world receives their talents (someone five talents, someone two talents, someone one talent, and someone 0.000001 talents) – each according to their ability. And those who double the given talents will enter into the joy of their Lord, that is, they will receive the Kingdom of God as a gift, become gods by Grace, become catholic personalities. The main thing is to double the talents, and it does not matter how much you have doubled (×2). Someone doubled five, someone two, someone 0.000001 talents – but all received the whole Kingdom of God as a gift, by a denarius (see Matthew 20:1-16), that is, the salary of a true ascetic – the price of the Kingdom of God). Someone received 50 talents and acquired another 50 (50×2=100), and someone received 0.0000001 talents and doubled this gift (0.0000001×2=0.0000002). According to divine mathematics: 50×2 = 0.0000001×2, that is, 100 = 0.0000002. The main thing is not how much you were given, but how much you worked and brought fruits. (Woe to the cunning and lazy (who constantly justify themselves, look for the guilty for their misfortunes, accuse everyone, consider themselves deprived, that something was not added to them, they were deprived of something, etc.). Laziness can be covered with humility, and if the lazy do not judge anyone, do not accuse, and ask for forgiveness – they will be saved, have mercy, just for not judging: do not judge and you will not be judged; one humility, without deeds, is enough for a person to be saved, and one pride with all “good” deeds and feats is enough for a person to perish, die “the second death.” And woe to the cunning, hypocrites, foolish and blind who judge and despise everyone, for if they do not come to their senses and do not repent, they will perish “the second death,” be cast into outer darkness, into the fiery Gehenna, for eternal torment). Therefore, the one who doubled the little (faithful in little), exerted maximum effort for this, although quantitatively the changes are invisible (except perhaps under a microscope), will be saved. What is 0.0000001 compared to 100 talents – it is infinitely small, usually neglected, not noticed. And now let’s look at the situation when one person received 100 talents, and another 0.0000001 talents. The one who received 100 acquired 25, and the one who received 0.0000001 acquired as much again, that is, doubled the initial gift. Who acquired more?! 0.0000001 > 25! But foolish and blind people do not understand and do not see this, and do not stop judging and despising the innocent! Just as the widow’s two small coins are much more than the millions of the rich (she donated more than all: in the eyes of God, she is the richest, and in the eyes of the foolish and blind – the poorest)! Therefore, in the spiritual life, the main thing is not quantity, but quality! For example, someone inherited debts and reduced them by half, although they are still technically in the “negatives,” but are moving into the “positives”; and someone inherited a thriving company, but due to incompetent management, the profit was halved, and although they are still in the “positives,” they are moving into the “negatives.” And the foolish and blind, who judge by appearance, by form, and not by essence, by spirit, condemn the one who has debts (although moving into the positives), and praise the one who has some profit (although rapidly moving into the negatives). A person may actually be in sins, sinning, but the zeal, effort not to be even more sinful – are titanic! Someone did not kill anyone (for example, a “kind” person by nature, or a lukewarm relaxed person), and someone deprived ten people of life, and could have killed 1000, but fought with their passions, fought with themselves! (In the torture chambers of the NKVD, in the Soviet, fascist camps, where millions of people were destroyed, tortured, shot, burned, these numbers “kill 1000 people” are real, not hyperbolized, for the sake of the example). Who is the greater sinner?! We do not know how much effort a person has put in to be who they are, not to be even more sinful (and they could, if they had not fought with themselves, with their lusts-passions, be a thousand times worse, more vicious). Often, a person, to be who they are, has to exert titanic efforts and work on themselves to the point of bloody sweat (could have killed a hundred people, but only killed two, and spared the rest!). But foolish and blind sons of this age rush to judge and despise those for whom they are a thousand times worse. The one they judge doubled their talents (was faithful in very little: added 0.000001 talents, thus placed over all the Kingdom of God). And you, having five talents (which you received as a gift! It’s not your merit!), increased them only by a third, or even buried them in the ground (and boast that you have five talents, and that you are not like those who have (0.000001×2=) 0.000002 talents). So who is greater? This one entered into the joy of their Lord, and where will you be?! As a wicked (foolish and blind, who judges and despises others) and lazy servant, you will be thrown out, into outer darkness!