1. The Lord nowhere wishes to compel man against
his will, but everywhere makes use of our good will; it is through
their own will that people are either good or evil. Therefore it is in
vain that we accuse those living with us and surrounding us of hindering
and impeding, as it were, our salvation or our spiritual perfection.
2. We receive profit from people only when we do not condemn them.
3. You complain about people’s unfairness in relation to you. But if
you are striving to reign with Christ the Lord, then have a look at Him,
how He acted towards the enemies surrounding Him who were demanding His
death. It appears that He never complained about how His enemies
behaved unfairly towards Him but, in all the horrible afflictions
brought upon Him by His enemies, He saw only the will of His Heavenly
Father.
4. You are upset that everyone is trying to humiliate you. If they
are trying to humiliate you, that means they want to humble you; and you
yourself are asking God for humility. Then why, after all this, do you
let people upset?
5. Instruction and edification for one’s own life should be taken
more from the example of Christ the Savior than from the example of
people, in whom it is not possible to find full perfection, due to human
weakness. Therefore we should not be upset, under a seemingly good
pretext, when certain people do not give us the edifying example that we
would have liked.
6. The Lord has the power to protect and defend those forcing
themselves to live according to His holy commandments, if only they are
not being careless in striving for mutual peace. Then the fruit of
righteousness is sown in peace, and joy in life is found in mutual
harmony, and every good success is achieved through peace according to
God.
7. Seeing someone’s unfair action, rather than become irritated out
of resentment, you must use wisdom to attain your purpose – if not in
everything, then at least in that which is most important, or in
whatever is possible.
8. Denunciations should take the middle way: one should neither
wholly trust them nor entirely reject them, but await how the matter
turns out.
9. We should not think that we can make somebody happy or successful.
This belongs only to God and a person’s own will, if he abides
prudently before his Creator.
10. Just as one pot bumps up against another pot, how much more does
it happen that people living together bump up against one another. This
comes about especially when people have different viewpoints about
things: one thinks about one thing one way, while another thinks another
way; one is convinced in his own ideas, which seem solid and
fundamental to him, while another believes in his own understandings.
11. People look at the visible, but the Lord sees the inner
arrangement of man and the actions of his conscience, both in relation
to others and in relation to himself. When we cannot bring benefit to
others for some reason, then let us at least work for our own spiritual
benefit.
12. Although it is difficult and very insulting to suffer unfair
opposition from people who should be defending the truth – not little
people, but great and elevated ones – we will take comfort in the
unprejudiced judgment of the One Judge of the living and the dead.
13. He who gives way receives three ounces and a half , but he who
insists on his rights receives only one ounce, and sometimes not even
one, when he gets upset and upsets another.
14. In the spiritual life it is an altogether good thing to explain
oneself punctually and prudently, and to ask forgiveness punctually, so
as to bring peace to one’s soul and give occasion for others to do the
same.
15. Each of us ought to work more on himself, on his own soul, and
for his own spiritual benefit, because, according to the words of the
Apostle, each of us will give account of ourselves to God. We are
confused by the fact that we are more inclined to chastise others,
striving not only to convince but also to dissuade, and to make a
demonstration by many different arguments.
16. When we are reproached and blamed for that of which we are
entirely innocent, then we must turn our thoughts to those occasions
when we were guilty before God or before people, and for the attainment
of forgiveness of our sins we must forgive the unfairness and offences
inflicted on us by our neighbors.
17. I will say this briefly. Contrive to acquire life and avoid
death, living with those with whom one is living, and trying to have
that which the Apostle commands: i.e., goodness, mercy, compassion, and
love, which is the fulfillment of the law. How? Listen to the same
Apostle: Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).
Translated from Optinskii Tsvetnik: Izrecheniia prepodobnykh starttsev Optinskikh (Moscow: St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, 2008), 221-228.
