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<\/p>\nLet\u2019s recall the teaching that the Lord Jesus Christ introduced into people\u2019s lives when he talked about His teaching on eternal life and the soul that abides in eternal life\u2014this is the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord Jesus Christ did not say in that sermon, \u201cDon\u2019t kill, don\u2019t commit adultery, don\u2019t beat or insult anyone.\u201d He was talking about something completely different: \u201cYe have heard that it was said of them of old time, Thou shalt not kill. But I say to you, do not be angry with your neighbor. There should not be anger in your soul.\u201d He is not talking about a specific sin but about something bigger. Let\u2019s say, a murder that is not justified by anything is a manifestation of extreme anger. The soul in an angry, judgmental, rancorous state will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven; it can\u2019t become a possession of blessed eternity that continually develops and comes to know God. He says, \u201cIf you are angry with your brother, go and ask his forgiveness.\u201d Make peace! The whole Sermon on the Mount talks not about concrete sins but about the happiness of those people who were able to form their souls: \u201cBlessed are the meek\u201d. This is not against a specific sin; this is about the state of the human soul\u2014sincerity, meekness, guilelessness. At the same time, a person can be insistent, firm (and he should be that way), but meek and longsuffering with regard to the sins and mistakes of his neighbors. \u201cBlessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.\u201d This is also a state of the soul. \u201cBlessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.\u201d This is also a state of the soul. Happy is the soul in this life and in eternal life that seeks truth, righteousness, justice, and higher knowledge\u2014that is what the Lord talks about. How does this differ from the Old Testament \u201cdo not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, do not covet? In antiquity they were talking about the crude human sins that we must overcome. Here we are talking about how we should form our souls; what qualities of soul are necessary to a disciple of Christ. This is much higher!<\/p>\n
– Homily on the Rich Man<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**We are pleased to include writings from modern American Monasteries from time to time as well as our traditional Elders**<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Let\u2019s recall the teaching that the Lord Jesus Christ introduced into people\u2019s lives when he talked about His teaching on eternal life and the soul that abides in eternal life\u2014this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-modern-orthodox-elders","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9616,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9614\/revisions\/9616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orthodoxinsight.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}