The Sinner's Fiddle

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Alexander Tkachenko

Seeing one's sins a necessary component of a Christian spiritual life. But don't make a mistake of thinking that this is a simple and easy task. Best way to see your own mistakes is, of course, checking yourself against the Ten Commandments.  In essence, they perfectly describe the mentality of a spiritually healthy person. Try to live by them for at least one day, carefully observing the movements of your soul, and it will immediately become clear whether you meet this description or not.

Try not to be offended when people say nasty things to you. Do not give in to flattery. Do not be proud when you are praised. Don't be jealous. Do not look with lust at people of the other sex. Try not to argue with anyone, not to prove your own, simply and kindly accepting each person. Try not to say a single bad word during this "control" day. Never think badly of anyone.

The result will be very revealing. Our sin-damaged nature will immediately begin to bristle, resist and try to escape from the fulfilling of the commandments in any way, even when we quite consciously decided to live by them. It is here that a person has the gift of seeing his sins. Only on the shining background of the commandments of the Gospel do the spots of sinful blackness become visible, which, like caries, corrode the human soul.

"Can you play the violin?" - "Don't know, never tried it". 

The silly character of this joke brilliantly deduced a formula explaining why we do not see our own sins. Sin is a violation of the commandment. But to see the violation, you need to try to fulfill the commandment at all. An eccentric who has never picked up a violin does not see that he absolutely does not know how to play it. He who does not try to live according to the commandments does not see his sins.

It is natural for a person to fantasize about various topics. In dreams, you can consider yourself a cool fighter, a talented artist, a brilliant artist. Or, for example, a Christian. It doesn't really matter who we think we are. Our true content is revealed only in real cases. Fighter — show yourself in sparring, artist — welcome to the stage, artist — here's a brush, canvas for you. And it will immediately become clear who is who.

Isn't the root of the problem that our Christianity often turns out to be so "purely theoretical", existing exclusively within our ideas about ourselves? And in no way (well, or almost in no way) expressed in our activities. Christian real deeds are the fulfillment of the commandments. Which, by the way, are also a gift from God to people. Only by accepting the commandments, deciding to live by them seriously, you can receive another amazing gift — a vision of your sins. And to make it clearer exactly where to start here, here is an excellent practical instruction by St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov):

"He who has refused to condemn his neighbors, naturally begins to see his sins and infirmities, which he did not see while he was engaged in condemning his neighbors."


Original article: https://radiovera.ru/skripka-greshnika.html

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