Questions to the priest. About tears

From the book of Archbishop John (Shakhovsky) published in the series issued by the Sretensky Monastery in2006

There are two laughs: light and dark. They can now be distinguished by a smile, by the eyes of a laugher. It can be distinguished in oneself by the accompanying spirit: if there is no light joy, a subtle, heart-softening spirit, then laughter is not bright. If the chest is hard and dry and the smile is crooked, then the laughter is dirty. It always happens after an anecdote, after some kind of mockery of the harmony of the world. The distorted harmony of the world distorts the soul of a person, and this is expressed in the distortion of facial features.

Woe to you who laugh so now, for you will weep (Lk 6:25). Cry! Because you will see that you have added joy not to what you can apply, but to what is worthy of torment.

A benevolent smile is a mirror of the found harmony. Saints smile without laughing. Laughter as the fullness of pure joy is the state of the future age. " Blessed are those who weep now, for you will laugh"(Luke 6:21) . The ascetic experience of enlightenment and transformation of a person advises even to smile without opening your teeth (a little less joy is better than even the most fleeting impurity in it!).

Anecdotal laughter, which is laughed at in cinemas, theaters, at feasts and parties, with which one easily ridicules one's neighbor, laughs at the weaknesses and dignity of a person, at his conscience and sins, for amusement and for forgetting sadness, meaninglessly and conceitedly making others laugh, everything this is - disease spirit. It can be said even more precisely: it is symptom mental illness.

Unclean spirits live in the spirit world; they can be seen on faces rolling with laughter ... Angelic joy illuminates the face with a smile.

Good laughter can silently dispel the accumulated clouds of malicious strife, hatred, even murder... Friendship and family hearth are restored with good laughter.

Caustic laughter is not from God. The sarcastic smile, the sarcasm of the witticism, this is a parody of the gospel salt of wisdom. A parody twisted into a smile.

The sharpness of the word always cuts the soul. But the sharpness, even being the same for two knives - surgical and robber, produces a completely different effect. One, cutting, lets in the light of heaven and the warmth of the Spirit, or cuts out festering, cuts off deadness; the other - graceless sharpness - cuts, shreds the soul and often kills.

Only the saints are sharp, and only the holy is sharp. Dirty spirits parody jokes, and many people in the world excel in expressing themselves through these jokes.

The limit of the spiritual impurity of laughter is Homeric laughter, cackling... Such laughter overtakes people not far from plentiful meals.

Watching yourself reverent before the secret of your life will keep as all his life and your laughter. Even his smile he will keep before God. Everything will be with him - help invisible guardians of it - pure and clear.

The saints shone in the world both with their weeping and with their smile. As children. For only children and people who truly believe in Christ have purity of life, visible with bodily eyes, even in facial features.

Everything is simple and pure with children who have not yet touched the corruptible spirit. Death has not yet revealed itself in the smile of their mortal nature; they have been given the spring of life as the firstfruits and as a remembrance of paradise; and behold, they look purely, laugh purely, speak clumsily, weep easily, easily forget their weeping...

Today, jokes “about religion” are a kind of trend in our country. It seems that joking about church topics is becoming fashionable. A good half of Internet news about the Church is presented as a joke. The same thing happens outside of social networks - in the media and even in everyday conversations. But is it possible to treat Orthodoxy with humor? Why are representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church so often ridiculed on television? Maybe we should legally ban jokes on religious topics in a country like Russia? ..

"Sample of the Soul"

The more religious jokes I hear lately, the more I think that something is wrong with all of us. Here is a typical sequence of entries in my news feed on the social network Facebook: the first friend, in all seriousness, distributes another open letter in defense of traditional values, the second (on the contrary, trying to pun) offers to “pull the beard” of its authors ... One likes the statements of a famous priest , another places on his page a caricature of the same priest. One quotes the holy fathers, the other - jokes about "fat priests." What some people say absolutely seriously, others immediately ridicule. What some people find funny, others consider completely vulgar.

I'm trying to figure out why my friends laugh so differently. It is obvious that not only in terms of “religious jokes”, but also in terms of humor in general, there is a fundamental split in our society. It seems that we all feel the simplest, most basic things in different ways. What is good - what is bad. What is beauty - what is vulgarity. It's not about specific verbal definitions, it's about the attitude to life, which is conveyed in humor.

“Laughter is the surest test of the soul,” says Dostoevsky's Teenager. “With laughter,” he explains, “a different person gives himself away completely, and you suddenly find out all the ins and outs of him. Even undeniably intelligent laughter is sometimes disgusting. Laughter requires above all sincerity. And in fact, watching how and at what a person laughs, we understand whether he is our own or someone else's. It is through the opportunity to laugh together that we are able to feel our true community with other people.

For religious people, this "test of the soul" appears in a special light. This one seems to be not Orthodox, but “our man”! Because we understand each other on a non-verbal level. We can argue about ecumenism and the results of the Second Vatican Council, but we can drink tea together and laugh heartily. But that one seems to be Orthodox, but you still feel from the inside: some kind of “not ours” he is. It's kind of stuffy next to him. Either he doesn’t spread butter on bread that way, or he is interested in topics that are completely different ... Or maybe we just have a different sense of humor with him?

Yes, of course, all the faithful are “one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). But is it easy to accept this not with the mind, but with the heart? In the light of different attitudes towards humor, this question is particularly acute. The so-called “cold spring of 2012” (as Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev called the period that began with the February scandal about blasphemy in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior) only brought to the surface questions that had long been torn to the surface: where are the limits of laughter? What can and cannot a Christian laugh at? Do humor and churchness go together?

Orthodoxy or laughter?

“It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it,” said Gilbert Keith Chesterton. How can these words be correlated with contemporary Russian Orthodoxy? The status of humor in Orthodox culture is very specific. It's not that humor is formally forbidden to believers, but they are clearly suspicious of it in the Eastern Christian tradition. It is very likely that here there is an influence of ancient philosophy on Eastern theology as a whole, namely, the acceptance of the Aristotelian understanding of humor as a superficial phenomenon in relation to seriousness (“Joke is a relaxation of tension, since it is rest”). St. Anthony the Great explained this idea through the image of a bow: “The string of a bow cannot always be stretched - the tree will not withstand constant tension. Sometimes the bowstring should be let down. In other words, laughter for a Christian is only a necessary temporary respite in the daily struggle with passions.

In medieval Russia, at the level of mass consciousness, an even more radical idea was entrenched, namely: laughter, in principle, is not allowed for a Christian. The history of the age-old struggle of the Russian Church with buffoonery confirms this. The researcher of “folk Orthodoxy” A.A. Panchenko notes that the Russian medieval scribes were characterized by a literal interpretation of the words from the Gospel of Luke: “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will weep and mourn” (Lk. 6, 25). As a result, in the pre-Petrine era, for laughter, caroling, feasts with dancing, the clergy imposed penances of varying severity on the parishioners: “If anyone speaks himself, although people laugh, let him bow to that day 300”; “Laughing to tears, fasting 3 days, eating dry, bowing 25 a day ...”

The word "jester" in ancient Russian literature often acts as a synonym for the word "demon", hence the very concept of "joke" in medieval Russia turned out to be associated with devilry. The opposition between Christianity and laughter was also fixed at the level of Russian folklore (typical folk proverbs: “Laughter and sin”, “Where there is sin, there is laughter”).
A vivid manifestation of the conflict between humor and Russian Orthodox culture is the personality of N. V. Gogol. It is no coincidence that the writer's mental illness and death are sometimes associated with the fact that it is too difficult to combine a comedian and a mystic in oneself. The closest example of a similar internal conflict to us is the priest-artist Ioann Okhlobystin, forced to make a choice between serving in the altar and playing in a comedy series...

"Let's be human!"

And yet, “Don't talk to me about monks who never laugh. This is ridiculous…” This epigraph to the collection of the lives of Catholic saints (“The Desert Fathers Laugh”) can, in principle, be attributed to all Christianity of the 20th century.

It is surprising that the most cheerful Christians in the Orthodox Church of the era of persecution turn out to be precisely those whom the literature and folklore of previous centuries paint as the most gloomy - the monks. Many of the greatest confessors of the faith of the 20th century are also known as great humorists - these are both St. Patriarch Tikhon (Belavin) and St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco (Maximovich). The sermons of Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh are full of jokes and funny stories. These people decisively break the stereotypical image of Orthodoxy as a religion of severe hypocrites.

Perhaps the terrible 20th century forced our Church to shift its emphasis so decisively in regard to humor. Such a “change of degree” is characteristic of the entire world Orthodoxy, which has experienced persecution unprecedented in the history of mankind. Among the believers of the Soviet "catacombs", a characteristic inversion of the old proverb was widespread: "Before, there were golden vessels, and the priests were wooden, but now the vessels are wooden, and the priests are golden." When they again began to persecute and kill for confessing the faith, the place of the legendary “priest-thin forehead” was taken by a real good shepherd - a priest open to people, heartfelt and, moreover, cheerful.

An example of how, even in the face of mortal danger, one can maintain a sense of humor is the legendary Serbian Patriarch Pavel (Gojko). A small man, who almost always walked and was famous throughout Serbia for his worn shoes, for his simplicity and cheerful disposition won a truly popular love. Despite the extremely ascetic lifestyle, the patriarch constantly joked. "Let's be human!" - these words of Patriarch Pavel are known throughout the world as a symbol of Orthodoxy "with a human face."

Laughter in itself is not a sin, it can even be a defense against sin if it is good laughter - this is the meaning of a truly Christian attitude to humor, embodied by the saints and ascetics of the 20th century. “With good laughter, one can silently dispel the accumulated clouds of malicious contention, hatred, even murder,” said St. John (Maximovich). And yet, “there are two laughter: light and dark,” he noted. - They can now be distinguished by a smile, by the eyes of a laugher. It can be distinguished in oneself by the accompanying spirit: if there is no light joy, a subtle, heart-softening spirit, then laughter is not bright. If the chest is hard and dry and the smile is crooked, then the laughter is dirty.

Community - or corporation?

Why, then, in the modern Orthodox community, so many insults and misunderstandings cause someone to laugh? Perhaps - because it is too heterogeneous. On one pole - pious grandmothers, with the utmost seriousness driving away "passers-by" from the carpet ("This is only for the priest!"), And on the other - impious intellectuals, composing jokes about grannies. As before the revolution, various subcultures take place in the modern Church: white clergy, seminarians, monastics, clergymen, lay clergy, representatives of "political Orthodoxy" ...

Each of these groups has its own corporate culture, its own specific jokes. With parish priests - about "narrow-minded parishioners", the mistakes of deacons-probationers, about matushkas. Among the Bursaks - about the difficulties of seminary life, the great and mighty Church Slavonic and the twists and turns of scholastic theology. The monks and novices talk about typically monastic temptations, encounters with angelic and demonic powers, and harsh abbots.

There is also a very vague, but numerous group of young lay catechumens (that is, neophytes undergoing catechesis). They act as collectors of church humor, absorbing like a sponge all the drops of humor available to them, both seminary, monastic, and church-bureaucratic… It is this category that created the majority of topics and groups dedicated to “Orthodox humor” in popular social networks and forums. Most of these jokes are about how complex and incomprehensible to the mind the Orthodox subculture is. Here the "more advanced" Orthodox are laughing at the "less advanced". For example, the famous story about pineapples. An elderly woman comes to the temple with a big bag: “Where do you distribute pineapples here?” Candlesticks are confused. It turns out that when during the procession the priest sprinkled parishioners with blessed water, the grandmothers, on whom the water did not fall, shouted: “What about us?! And on us?!”… The quintessence of jokes “about ignorance” is “put it aside for the pastry”. This is when, during the singing of the Cherubim - “Let us lay aside every care of life now!” - someone is sure to start rustling bags and laying crackers and muffins on the table.

Another source of church anecdotes is the territorial-parish division of the ROC. The modern Russian Church is like a honeycomb. There is only one church, but the “partitions” between the “cells” are clearly striking. Each truly living parish community is essentially a separate world, with its own jokes and special parish slang. “Liberals” and “Stalinists”, “banner-bearers” and “Menevtsy”… Perhaps their unfunny rejection of each other creates in the non-church public the image of the Orthodox as a person completely devoid of a sense of humor?

From the side

"Life without humor is dangerous." These words of Patriarch Kirill in 2010 during a visit to Odessa were replicated by all news agencies. His Holiness' words that "most bad people have no sense of humor" and that humor "lowers the degree of human conflict, helps to defuse the situation" were met with thunderous applause.

Probably, the patriarch got into the top news feeds because, from the point of view of journalists, he said something atypical. Unfortunately, for the mass consciousness, churchmen are still stern, gloomy people, who not only do not have a sense of humor themselves, but are also ready to send those who have it to the court of the Inquisition. The media actively work on this stereotype, fabricating headlines like “Orthodoxy and humor are incompatible”, replicating the news about how once again the representatives of the Church criticized this or that humorous show.

At the same time, not all priests are equally interesting in modern media. Only that representative of the Church can certainly get on the screen who, voluntarily or involuntarily, played the role of Repetilov, a kind of comical reasoner who, as soon as he appears on the stage, falls with a crash (“Ugh, blundered!”) ... Being in the frame or on a newspaper page, such the priest is simply obliged to say or do something absurd, absurd, "ridiculous." Something from the realm of absurdity, depriving any word he utters of depth and seriousness. So that the viewer or reader will probably think: poor fellow, what only church obscurantism does to people! Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin is a prime example of such a media-favorite priest. He is the only one who not only supplies the press with material for anecdotes, but also turns the process of communication between a priest and a journalist into a role-playing game. Unlike all other well-known church speakers, Father Vsevolod seems to be deliberately aiming for tabloid headlines. In other words, he speaks on purpose so as to be published. For example, Father Vsevolod’s phrase that “it would be nice to come up with an all-Russian dress code, for strip bars and brothels, so be it, you can not distribute it,” not a single major media missed. If it weren’t for the catchy word “dress code” and the mention of haunting places, it is unlikely that the clergyman’s calls for decorum in clothes would have interested any of the journalists.

Similarly, the priest-artist Ioann Okhlobystin tried to "play" with the media when he announced his desire to run for the presidential election. However, Father John did not succeed in the joke: the media very quickly leaked information that the priest was not a freak or crazy, but simply wanted to create an informational occasion around himself and sell unsold tickets for his own show at Luzhniki. Having seen the priest as an ordinary showman and businessman, the press quickly lost interest in him and crossed out the “media elders” from the list. Probably, “such” Father John seemed to her not funny enough?

Indignation often sounds in the church environment - we have so many spiritual mentors, theologians, writers, there is someone to say seriously about Orthodoxy ... So why are there only “jokers” in the foreground?! "distribution of roles" in the church apparatus - how much about the nature of modern television and the media in general. For some reason, publishers/producers/chief editors unanimously decided that the modern Russian is not interested in "ordinary parish pop". Not interested in a priest who messes with "social orphans", takes them to museums and hikes, not interested in church missions of mercy, which in Krymsk worked side by side with volunteers, eliminating the consequences of the flood. Apparently, it is customarily assumed that our people are only interested in the "Petrosyans" - at least from politics, at least from art, at least from religion.

"Godless at the machine"

Can believers be protected from ridicule? Shouldn't jokes on religious topics be legally prohibited? These questions have become more and more frequent lately.

The West (for some - progressive, for others - decaying) has already gone through this topic. And with the Index librorum prohibitorum, which included all "obnoxious books" (among the "forbidden" reading by Catholics in different years were not only the works of atheists, but also the works of believing philosophers - Descartes, Kant, Berkeley). And with the prohibition of broadcasting anti-clerical comedies on TV.

One of these comedies was the film "Life of Brian" by the British group Monty Python. This is the story of a young Jew who was born at the same time and in the same place as Jesus Christ and is mistaken by his countrymen for the Messiah. The film, which was made in 1979, was completely banned in Norway (1979–1980), Singapore and Ireland (1979–1987). In a number of cities, the ban on "Life of Brian" was lifted quite recently - for example, in Aberystwyth, Welsh, it was lifted only in 2009. Church activists in Europe and America devoted more than one protest action to The Life of Brian, accusing the creators of the picture of blasphemy.

I remember how in the first year my friends and I, who were then actively interested in all kinds of “smart cinema”, got hold of a cassette with this rarity. I remember that sometimes it was really funny, sometimes strange. But we could understand half of Monty Python's "jokes" only after the comments of the history teacher. The main sediment that remained with me after the first viewing of The Life of Brian boiled down to the following: consciousness of my own dullness ... Because the witticisms of the authors concerned the details of the gospel history, the history of Judea, as well as the Essenes, Sadducees, Pharisees; I imagined all this very vaguely. By the way, it was this film that inspired me to read the Gospel and some literature about early Christianity. So in my case, the impact of the anti-clerical film turned out to be quite missionary.

In general, in my opinion, the quality of anti-clerical humor, no matter how we treat it, is the clearest indicator of the religiosity of society. The nature of popular jokes on church topics indicates how great the authority of religion in society, what is the level of religious culture of its citizens. In this regard, it is characteristic that there is nothing like "The Life of Brian" in modern Russian cinema. Moreover, we do not have anti-clerical comedies like those filmed by Bunuel and Fellini. Indeed, in order for the viewer to understand them, he needs to know the gospel parables, understand the basics of dogma, understand terms like “transubstantiation” and “God-humanity” ... Otherwise, what is happening on the screen seems to be just meaningless rubbish.

Modern Russian anti-clericalism in terms of humor has not given rise to anything other than a couple of hundred vulgar anecdotes and several dozen primitive demotivator pictures, as if made in the same studio by student interns. The subject of laughter in all these jokes is a strictly limited set of images: a priest with a fat belly; greedy priest; a priest in a Mercedes; stupid priest's wife. Tellingly, Orthodox laity almost never become the butt of jokes. Apparently, the anti-clericals really do not notice us...

Modern Orthodox apologists often say that today's critics of the Church in terms of culture approach the militant atheists of the time of Yemelyan Yaroslavsky. I would venture to suggest that things are much worse for our anti-clericals. In the Union of Militant Atheists, after all, there was an "ideological struggle against religion." If we turn to the legacy of Soviet atheism in the 1920s and 1930s, we can see how detailed the debunkers of religious prejudices imagined church life. They were guided by the church calendar, they knew the lives of the saints. It is no coincidence that for historians and culturologists, the issue of "The Godless" is an invaluable source of knowledge about church life in the country.

The quintessence of the early Soviet “godlessness” is the image of the Moscow homeless child Antipka, the hero of the famous Moor cartoons that “adorned” almost every issue of “The Godless Man at the Machine”. “God exists, but we do not recognize him,” said Antipka. But today's atheists, it seems, have not grown up to Antipka either. Which is not surprising - after all, most of the associates of Yaroslavsky-Gubelman were "former believers." They could generate not only vulgar rhymes and primitive pictures. They could make high-quality feature films for those times - for example, The Feast of St. Jorgen, a comedy by Yakov Protazanov based on a script by Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky, collected full movie theaters throughout the country in the early 1930s.

Throughout the ages, the strengthening of the position of Christianity in European culture was accompanied by a deepening of anti-Christian controversy, including the spread of anti-Christian humor. As Christians carried out a “hidden takeover” of the Roman Empire, “anti-Christian” satirical writers Lucian, Celsus, Porfiry, Libanius appeared ... In the Russian Empire, where the Church had state status, anti-clerical humor was represented by Pushkin’s poems and Pomyalovsky’s Bursa Essays ... The modern enemies of the “churchmen” in Russia seem to be defended not only by two writers - Vladimir Golyshev, Dmitry Bykov, but more and more - by the hooligan antics of feminists (which, however, is more politics than humor). Anecdotes “about priests” cannot at all be considered a weapon of anti-clerical propaganda - for the most part they are not tritely funny, not to mention the clumsiness of meaning unknown to their authors.

In essence, modern anti-clerical humor resembles the so-called "humor of the gallows" (German: Galgenhumor). This is the humor of a man in a hopeless situation. A person who is not really funny at all, who experiences inner horror in the face of impending death, but tries to forcefully joke and show others that he does not care.

Is the impotence of modern godless humorists a good thing or a bad thing? On the one hand, of course, it is good that the Orthodox Church today, in contrast to the first centuries and the Soviet era, does not experience persecution. On the other hand, every action (both in nature and in society) is usually associated with an opposite reaction. And if the opposition is so pathetic, the question arises: was there a real action? Was Orthodoxy able to penetrate so deeply into the fabric of public life that jokes about “churchmen” become truly sharp and deep? As you can see, no.

Anastasia Koskello

Illustrations: Ksenia Naumova

“Grieve, weep and wail; May your laughter turn into weeping, and your joy into sorrow.”

(James 4:9).

"Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven; so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

(Matthew 5:12).

So figure it out here, because everyone has fun in different ways. Most Orthodox laugh, even if you do not take into account childhood. I was 20 years old, I laughed at Zhvanetsky's jokes, and did not see anything reprehensible in this. Now I have other thoughts. Stop, I think to myself, wasn't I a fool? Nevertheless, even now I laugh at the jokes of others, of course, less often.

Yuri Loza has this poem:

"Stop. People. Approached. I want to.

I just feel good, stupid and fun

From an abundance of beautiful and joyful feelings.

They looked at me. Assessed and weighed.

They hissed, sending fountains of spray:

- Abnormal, go, stoned - and rages!

- Don't you see - he's completely drunk! -

Excuse me, COMRADES, where can I hang myself?”

Of course, a young man who is still too simply related to life is easy to laugh at. As the Russian proverb says: "Laughter for no reason is a sign of foolishness." If a chuckle gets into your mouth, then it's hard to stop, the shown finger causes laughter.

But laughter often helps when it sets you up for good, comforts a person. With laughter you can avoid conflict, with laughter you can even heal, laughter is a kind of therapy. There is even such an expression - "cheerful, like a monk." They say about the Optina monk Trofim that he was distinguished by cheerfulness and cheerfulness, they called him that, a cheerful monk. On Athos, they said this about a sad monk: “He is not cheerful during the day, which means he did not cry at night.”

In Christianity, laughter is welcomed, but not every kind, but kind. You just need to learn to differentiate.

There is a service in the cave temple. The monk on the kliros lost his voice, or, as the people say, "gave a rooster." In surprise, he fell silent, and in the silence, interrupted by the crackle of candles, another monk's whisper was heard: "Akela missed."

“With a kind laugh, you can silently dispel the accumulated clouds of malicious contention, hatred, even murder.” (St. John (Maximovich).

In Holy Scripture and among the holy fathers, laughter is often condemned. “Laughter is a childish property, a sign of a voluptuous heart, a weak and unmanly soul: laughter is in any case indecent.” (St. Demetrius of Rostov).

From the Old Testament: “A foolish man lifts his voice in laughter, but a prudent man hardly smiles quietly.” (Sir.21, 23).

Well, when we laugh, we seem to be stupid? But not prudent, at least. I must admit that many of us need laughter in order to hide from uncertainty, to appear witty in society, to draw attention to ourselves, sometimes even to protect ourselves with the help of laughter. It is much easier to laugh at something or someone than at yourself. With the help of jokes and laughter, it is easier to maintain your sense of self-worth.

And if a Christian has a good laugh, then why not? Mikhail Chekhov wrote about the Optina Elder Nektariy: “He was always cheerful, laughing, joking and making happy everyone who came to him and spent only a few minutes with him.” One of the most merry Russian saints, St. Ambrose of Optina said: “Laughter casts out the fear of God. Bold and bold with laughter - the fear of God, therefore, no.

Everything needs a measure and its time, as in Ecclesiastes: “A time to cry, and a time to laugh ...” And what happens when a person knows neither measure nor time can be shown by examples:

1. Priest Oleg Stenyaev spoke about a novice Christian who, having read the holy fathers about the benefits of silence, fell silent. Neither his wife nor his children could do anything to him. And only to the priest, when he came home to the "ascetic", he said: "I will talk to you, but not for long."

2. A young girl came to live in a monastery. I decided to fast, like the ancient ascetics, without telling anyone. On the third day she fainted. People ran up to her, began to lift her, shouted: “Water! Water!" Then the girl woke up and whispered: "And a piece of bread ..."

One can imagine an Orthodox Christian when, imitating the holy fathers, he would suddenly decide to give up cheerful laughter, preferring weeping and sighing! St. Seraphim of Sarov warns such people:

Two categories of laughter, one like sin, the other like joy, or "spiritual laughter of the soul." For example, the word "joy" and its derivatives appear in the Bible more than 300 times! Another 500 times there are the words "tenderness", "bliss". And the word "laughter" 18 times, and almost always in a negative sense. The Apostle Paul urged to always rejoice, the Monk Seraphim of Sarov met everyone who came with the words “my joy”.

But many still rejoice, laughing, and it is not always possible not to provoke others.

A woman approaches the priest in the church:

Father, why am I sick all the time, sick?

All according to sins, according to our sins.

That's how it always is! You sin, and we suffer.

It's a good anecdote. Our inclination to transfer our sins onto another, to relieve ourselves of responsibility for our own life, is mocked. So it is, but not entirely. The fact is that there will always be at least one person who, in defiance, will tell his anecdote, but not so decent. Some joke because they see a funny situation, others use the occasion to repeat their own jokes, often completely out of place.

Previously, in Russia, even penances were imposed for laughter: “If anyone speaks himself, although people laugh, let him bow to that day 300”; “Laughing to tears, fasting for 3 days, eating dry, bowing 25 a day ...” I wish we could apply this practice on TV, at least on a New Year's light. That would have skyrocketed the rating!

Who, if not an Orthodox Christian, should think not only about the benefit of his own soul, but also about the benefit of the soul of another person? A Christian who takes his spiritual life seriously has a sixth sense of the harm he can bring to others. Priest Alexander Elchaninov wrote about laughter this way: “Returning to oneself, autoeroticism is the beginning of all sin. Laughter (not a smile) spiritually weakens a person.

“But you will say: what kind of evil is laughter? Laughter is not evil, but evil is when it happens without measure, when it is inappropriate ... The ability of laughter is implanted in our soul so that the soul sometimes gets relief, and not so that it relaxes. However, I say this not forbidding laughter, but forbidding immoderate laughter. (St. John Chrysostom).

There is a story in the Patericon about two brothers who left the monastery, but then returned and asked that they be appointed to repentance. One whole year wept for his sins, the other rejoiced that God had returned him to an angelic life. The monastery fathers said:

"The repentance of one and the other is equal before God."

Weep and weep for your sins, but rejoice in the Lord!

Orthodoxy is the brightest religion, for it calls to joy and bliss. But people are imperfect, the path to joy goes through the struggle with their sins.

Orthodoxy is the most inconvenient religion, in the sense that you always need to figure out what and in whom you believe.

This is the Jews 248 commands and 365 prohibitions. Instructions for each step, do as they say, and you're done. In Orthodoxy, you need to think with your head all the time. In each specific case, with each specific person, act with reasoning. In one case, a joke is simply necessary in order to support a person, in another it is better to restrain laughter, even if you want to laugh.

But this is for us, ordinary people who have not dedicated their entire lives to God. We lack wisdom and often a good disposition of the soul when we laugh and joke. Where are we to the heights of the holy fathers. We differ from them in that the holy ascetics considered serving God as their main goal. What is pardonable to us does not befit the faithful.

“Because the Lord condemns those who laugh “now” (Luke 6:25); then it is obvious that the faithful never have a time for laughter, and especially with such a multitude of those who dishonor God with “the transgression of the law” (Rom. 2, 23) and die in sin, for whom it is necessary to be ill and weep.” (St. Basil the Great).

So, a faithful monk should not laugh, we should rather weep for those who blaspheme the name of God for the reason that they transgress His law and depend on them all their lives, wallowing in sins. Let us sob and weep, incessantly imploring God that He would not allow them to harden in sins and death would not find them before repentance. (Rev. Anthony the Great).

“However, he allowed some relaxation in the tension of exploits, as can be seen from the answer to his hunter. They say that someone, catching wild animals in the desert, saw that Abba Anthony was joking with the brethren, and was tempted. The elder, wanting to assure him that it is sometimes necessary to give indulgence to the brethren, says to him: put an arrow on your bow and draw it. He did so. The old man says to him: Pull it tight. He still pulled. Again he says: still pull. The hunter answered him: if I stretch the bow beyond measure, it will break. Then the elder said to him: so it is in the work of God: if we strain the strength of the brethren beyond measure, then they will soon be upset. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to give at least some indulgence to the brethren. - The hunter, having heard this, came to emotion and went from the old man with edification. And the brethren, having been strengthened by this, returned to their place. (Ext. speed 13).

“It is always more difficult to make a wise man laugh than a simpleton, and this is because the wise man has already crossed the line of liberation, the line of laughter, is already beyond the threshold in relation to a greater number of particular cases of inner unfreedom.

In his incarnation, Christ voluntarily limits his freedom, but does not expand it; there is nowhere to expand it. Therefore, the tradition according to which Christ never laughed seems quite logical and convincing from the point of view of the philosophy of laughter. At the point of absolute freedom, laughter is impossible, because it is superfluous. (S.S. Averintsev).

Rev. Justin Popovich explains why Christ never laughed, because He saw at every moment every sin of every person throughout human history!

Of course, we are far from such absolute freedom, but everyone can try to use the time allotted to us for spiritual growth, for acquiring a joyful state of mind. When it's not what you do, laugh or cry, but what you are that matters.

“The highest praise for a person is to say: “He has a childish laughter” - immaculate laughter, close to heavenly harmony.” (Archbishop John Shakhovskoy).

The bunny, looking at the sky with eyes full of tears, said: “Those who truly love should not be afraid of suffering,” and tightly hugged the hedgehog standing next to him!

Number of entries: 775

Hello! I started going to the Temple quite recently. She lived sinfully, did not think about anything, although she always believed in God. Recently I lost my adult beloved son and the world turned upside down. Our father found the right words for me in those terrible moments. I find comfort in prayers. But always, if I start my conversation with the Lord our God, I start crying. I pray and cry. If I come to the Temple and stand in a certain place, tears simply flow in a stream. Maybe God is angry with me and doesn't want to accept my prayers? But they really come from the heart! I would very much like to have a mentor in matters of Orthodoxy. Lots of questions, but no one to ask them. I would not want to gain the mind of grandmothers. They don't always say the right things either.

Galina

Galina, there is nothing wrong with tears, and tearful prayer is generally very valuable before God. Do not be embarrassed about tears, pray with firm faith that God hears you. But you really need to look for a confessor. Maybe again turn to that your father, because he already once found the very right words for you.

hegumen Nikon Golovko

Hello, for many years I have been tormented by my conscience for sin - I got pregnant in my youth and had to get married, I didn’t want a child and, being pregnant, I thought about it and didn’t want anything good, respectively. Now my daughter has grown up, I love her very much, but she cannot find a job, despite a good education, or get married, since she was 12 she has thoughts of suicide. She is baptized, she prays and attends church, nothing helps, they worshiped holy relics, it doesn’t help either. I am in despair, what can I do for her, I was in confession, I pray. I have no idea how to atone for my sin. Thank you.

Elena

Dear Elena, if you could not give your child maternal love in your youth, then now is the time to catch up. Do not look for some mysticism in the current situation, the problem is psychological. Your support for your daughter and your heartfelt participation in her life will help her. And repentance was needed not for your daughter, but for yourself. I hope that your visit to the temple and confession was not a single episode. God bless you!

Archpriest Andrey Efanov

Hello, father! I am 16 years old. I've been very sad lately. The desire to pray disappeared, even some kind of aversion to prayer appeared. I became very irritable, I constantly have excitement in my soul, I just “eat” all my experiences with food. A feeling of some kind of emptiness, I don’t want to do anything, a feeling that I live meaninglessly. I'm trying to set myself up somehow for the good, but it doesn't work. I used to pray willingly, during the day I tried to remember God more often, but now I don’t want to at all ... Help me, please.

Maria

It happens, Maria. Sometimes it happens. But no one promised us that, since we have embarked on the path of a believer, we will follow it easily and naturally, we will always want to pray and do something good. No, there are other conditions. Only one should not dwell on them, but on the contrary, repent and drive them away by repentance.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Irina

Hello Irina! Pregnant women often pray to the Mother of God. There is an icon called "Help in Childbirth". Before this image, the following prayer is offered:
"O Glorious Mother of God, have mercy on me, Thy servant (name), come to my aid during my illnesses and dangers with which all the poor daughters of Eve give birth. Remember, O Blessed One in wives, with what joy and love You walked hastily to a mountainous country to visit Your relative Elizabeth during her pregnancy and what a miraculous effect Your grace-filled visit had on both mother and baby. so that the child now resting under my heart, having come to his senses, with joyful leaping, like the holy baby John, worships the Divine Lord the Savior, who, out of love for us sinners, did not disdain himself to become a Baby. heart when looking at your newborn Son and Lord, may it alleviate the sorrow that is coming to me amid the illnesses of birth.Life of the world, my Savior, born by Thee, may he save me from death, which cuts off the lives of many mothers at the hour of resolution, and may he count the fruit of my womb among the elect of God. Hear, O Most Holy Queen of Heaven, my humble supplication and look upon me, a poor sinner, with the eye of Your grace; do not shame my hope in Your great mercy and fall on me. Helper of Christians, Healer of diseases, may I also be able to experience for myself that You are the Mother of Mercy, and may I always glorify Your grace, which has never rejected the prayers of the poor and delivers all who call on You during sorrow and illness. Amen."
In addition, (if there is no toxicosis) I would advise you to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ more often, at least twice a month. Help you Lord!

Priest Vladimir Shlykov

Good afternoon. It so happened that I began to communicate with Protestants, we visit hospitals and nursing homes together, helping, talking with people. I myself am Orthodox. Before any business, they pray, tell me, can I communicate with them, is it not a sin? And do I need to pray with them?

Sveta

Dear Svetlana, wouldn't it be better for you to organize your circle to visit the weak and sick? In addition to the fact that it is impossible to approve joint prayer with the heterodox, you are also helping to spread false religion among people with your participation.

Archpriest Andrey Efanov

Hello! Please explain to me from the point of view of the church why I get terrible yawns while reading a prayer, what is the reason for this? And while visiting the temple, the same thing ... I was baptized, but they baptized me after my parents divorced. Muslim father. Does it have anything to do with it? Thank you. Thank you for your reply!

Victoria

Victoria,
yawning is caused by a lack of oxygen in the blood during increased brain activity. Schoolchildren and students yawn, yawn at home and at work.
Prayer, on the other hand, requires from us a special effort of our spiritual and mental abilities. A deep breath replenishes the lack of oxygen.
Only this is relevant to the described phenomenon.
When they were baptized, who the father is is not important.

Priest Sergiy Osipov

Hello! Maybe my question is a little strange, but I really want to know in order to be sure that my prayers will be answered. The fact is that when I pray and ask God for something, I do it to myself (in my mind), is this right? And how is it right to ask for the repose of the soul of my dead husband? Thank you.

Oksana

Oksana, what you pray in your mind is correct. If at the same time you are not too distracted from the words of the prayer, then continue to pray, this is completely normal and natural.
And with regard to prayers for the departed, there is a canon for the deceased (or for the one who died, as he is sometimes called) and a prayer, they can be found at this link: http://www.soborjane.ru/index/kanon_za_edinoumershego/0-2237. For the baptized deceased, it is imperative to order a church commemoration and, of course, do not forget to commemorate them in home prayer.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello, now I am sick, and the doctor said not to get up, but when bad and vulgar thoughts come, I get up and go to the icon. Tell me, during illness (angina) can I pray in bed?

Masha

Yes, Masha, you can also pray in bed if the illness is related to bed rest. It’s better to lie more, get well soon and pray the way you are used to.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello, father. I am 26. My husband and I are married, we really want children. We live 3 years and nothing happens. This summer we made a special trip to Samara, went to the procession (3 days). We attend church, began to observe fasts. But, unfortunately, the situation does not change. Peace of mind is further complicated by the fact that for 4 months I have not been able to find a job. Sometimes thoughts come to mind, why do I live at all? I try to drive them away, I understand that everything is from the evil one. But sometimes it's hard to control yourself. Recently, I began to think that I just need to put up with it, let go of the situation, rely on God in everything ... It’s just very hard to realize that children are given very simply to someone, often even to those who don’t want them at all. I, on the contrary, all my life only dreamed of a family, children. I didn't even think about my career. And now it turns out that there are no children, no work ... It is very hard sometimes, even to the point of despair. Fortunately, my husband supports me, I thank him very much. I hope for your advice. Save me, God...

Marina

Hello Marina! In this situation, the most important thing is humility. Do not leave your aspirations and do not stop praying, visiting holy places. You can, for example, go to Diveevo to the Monk Seraphim of Sarov. I personally know many people to whom, through the prayers of Father Seraphim, the Lord gave children. Help you Lord!

Priest Vladimir Shlykov

Recently I learned about Saints Guria, Samon and Aviv, I bought an icon and I want to pray to them. I found three prayers to these saints. Which one would be correct: read all three or choose one?

Olesya

Olesya, both are correct. In this case, do as your soul tells you.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello, I have complex, but very important questions for me, they are interconnected. For more than a year now, through prayer, I sincerely ask God to fulfill one of my requests, it is not related to money or other material benefits, but is connected with my friend. This request is very easy for God to fulfill, there is nothing special about it. Why doesn't God help me? The second question is related to the first, more precisely, with this man, my friend. For a year already, even a little more, I have been asking God to strengthen friendship, although it is not bursting at the seams (although more on that later), it does not suit me, I want a stronger friendship and I have been praying for strengthening for a year now, in general, nothing has changed, sometimes it gets better, sometimes worse.

Yesterday I asked God in prayer to answer me? will we be friends in the future, and a very understandable answer, if this is not a coincidence, depressed me and led me out of a rut, everything is falling apart. The questions are, in addition to the first one: Why doesn't God change this situation for the better, although I have been asking him for this for a year already? I was disappointed in the power of prayer, but not in God, how can I believe in it again, only when God hears?

Novel

Roman, do not hesitate, God, listening to your prayer, is already correcting the situation, as you say, "for the better", we will accept what is given to us as the best and most useful option for us.
We would be worthy to beg for eternal friendship with the Saints, so that they would accept us into their host in Heaven, and human friendship is a transient thing, and often it is not good. Pray for eternity.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello, father! Thank you very much for your response! The fact is that I am from Japan, Orthodox churches are far from my city, our priests are Japanese, I have not yet learned Japanese. I have icons at home, I pray every day, but I have not received an answer to my prayers.

Natalia

Hello, Natalia! You can't get a straight answer. The Lord does not act directly, but through people, through various circumstances.
Here is a list of Orthodox parishes in Japan where you can confess in Russian - for example, in the church of St. Alexander Nevsky (affiliation: Moscow Patriarchate; location: Japan / Meguro; address: Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Simo-Meguro, 6-2-2; Tel.: +81 3 3947 9404, fax: +81 3 3947 9404, mail : [email protected]; clergy: Archpriest Nikolai Katsiuban; style: old;
Liturgical language: Church Slavonic) or St. Nicholas the Wonderworker (affiliation: Moscow Patriarchate; location: Japan / Tokyo; address: 2-12-17 Hon-komagome Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 113, Japan; tel.: +81 3 3947 9404, fax: +81 3 3947 9404, mail : [email protected], website: www.sam.hi-ho.ne.jp/podvorie; clergy: Archpriest Nikolai Katsiuban; style: old; language of worship: Church Slavonic), or if it is far away, you can call them, they will tell you if confession in Russian is possible somewhere else in Japan.

Priest Vladimir Shlykov

Hello, fathers! Recently, a video with an Orthodox prayer to the Mother of God was posted on one site - a wonderful performance to the music. Lots of great reviews, and I thanked the performers. And then - a fly in the ointment: some very young girl, let's insult the believers, I could not restrain myself and tried to reason with her, but I ran into such a nasty stream from her - blasphemy against God in its purest form, it's disgusting to remember what she wrote. Several more people tried to calm her down, but to no avail - well, that's understandable. The question is: is it even worth responding to such people both on the Internet and in life - it is impossible to convince them, but it is also impossible to allow them to vilify the name of God (this is where pussyriots grow). How to behave?

Catherine

Hello Ekaterina! We must remember that God cannot be mocked, and everyone will have to answer for their deeds. I do not advise entering into such disputes with people who are unbelievers and are clearly aggressively disposed against God and the Church, because they are initially not inclined to listen and accept arguments. Such arguments are meaningless and bring spiritual harm.

Priest Vladimir Shlykov

Father, during menstruation, how and where can you pray, and can you touch the icon?

Maria

Hello Maria! You can pray both at home and in the temple. The main thing is that you cannot take part in the Sacraments and touch the shrines: icons, the Cross, the relics of the holy saints of God.

Priest Vladimir Shlykov

Please, holy father! When you read a prayer at home, do you need to cover your head with a handkerchief?

Galina

Most pious women also pray at home, as in a church, with their heads covered.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Good day! On September 30, my father, the servant of God Alexander, died. Recently, he said that he would not live to be 47 years old, as if he felt. I am Orthodox, a believer, but, as happens in our time or because of my age, I rarely went to church, no one taught me prayers. I want to ask you if I am doing everything right: we had the funeral service for the Pope in a small church, and on the 3rd and 9th days we ordered a memorial service. In 7 churches and temples I ordered a magpie, every day I read litia in front of the icons, including the one with which the pope was buried. Every Sunday I go to church, leave food there and feed the birds. How else can I help my loved one? He suffered so much during his lifetime, he was very nervous, he drank from it. And last year he had only failures and his heart could not stand it ...

Evgenia

Eugene, you did everything right. There are, of course, some "folk" trends in what you do, for example, magpie in seven churches or the obligatory feeding of birds, but these things are very good, if you do not attach too much mystical significance to them, but do it in simplicity and in memory about the deceased.
You still need to submit a registered note for the Liturgy on the fortieth day and perform a memorial service. And do not forget about almsgiving in his memory: even feeding the birds is almsgiving, but you must also give alms for people.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello! I am a believer, baptized. Every day at home I read morning and evening prayers, if possible I read canons, akathists and prayers. On the twelfth and great holidays I go to the temple. During the Divine Liturgy and Divine Liturgy in the church, from about the beginning of the service to the middle, I feel bad (dizziness, hands sweat, yawn and such a state that I’m about to fall, I want to leave the church to get some fresh air), approximately after singing the Symbol of Faith, I feel good, my condition returns to normal. When reading prayers at home, I do not have such a bad state. Please tell me why this is happening to me and what should I do to get rid of such a bad condition? Thank you in advance.

George

George, firstly, do not be afraid of what is happening to you and do not retreat from prayer and the temple. This is the action of fallen spirits, demons, who do not tolerate anything good from us and hinder us with all their might when we walk along the path of salvation. This state should pass over time, just do not succumb to their "provocations" and do not leave the service.

hegumen Nikon (Golovko)

Hello, father! Servant of God George appeals to you. My question is this. I have been baptized 20 years ago. He considered himself a Christian, but he went to church only on holidays (and even then not always), one might say, he did not fulfill the commandments of God. During this time, I attended confession and communion only once. He was subject to all sins. And now, the time has come when it has become impossible for me to continue living like this. I, like the prodigal son, returned to our Lord Jesus Christ. I started with repentance. Now I try to live according to his commandments. I go to church once a week. I try to keep my posts. I observe the morning prayer rule in front of the iconostasis, which I made for myself. But there is no way to observe the evening rule in front of him (the iconostasis). So I go to bed. I have an audio recording of the evening rule on my cell phone. I turn it on and together with the priest who reads it, I pray. Can I be considered to be keeping the evening prayer rule? After all, I'm in front of God in bed. I feel violated. Isn't this a violation? Thank you!

Or morally neutral.

Examples of sinful laughter are found in the Books of Scripture of the Old and New Testaments repeatedly. As a rule, it also indicates the reasons that caused laughter.

So, Sarah's laughter during the visit of Abraham by three Angels () was caused by distrust of God's promise of the birth of her long-awaited heir. Despite the fact that she had an internal “justification” for herself (after all, she was not only barren, but also old), her laughter caused a reproach from the Angel and a wound of conscience ().

The laughter of the Jews at the mocked and crucified was associated with unbelief, inner malice, arrogance, envy, and hatred of Christ.

In everyday social life, laughter often borders on the mockery of some people over others, ridiculing human weaknesses and shortcomings. At the same time, the one who laughs puts himself above the one over whom he mocks and whom he humiliates with his ridicule. Very often, such bullying is picked up by the environment. In the most acute manifestations, ridicule turns into bullying, often leading to tragedies. This kind of laughter is called outrageousness.

A biblical example of the use of laughter (ridicule) for the sake of mockery is Goliath, who reviled the Jewish people, and then David, who came out against him. How this confrontation ended is well known.

Quite often, laughter is due to the desire for fun.

By and large, fun, as a state of a special psychological mood, can also be caused by a charitable disposition of the heart, for example, joy associated with Christian triumph. But it also happens differently when a person seeks fun in idleness, sinful amusements and pleasures, which not only distracts him from pious activities, but also serves as a bad example for those around him.

Can we say that laughter is bad as such?

Contrary to popular belief, laughter is not always evaluated negatively.

In some cases, laughter can help a person get rid of an oppressive state: blues, despondency, despair.

It happens that laughter encourages a person to look at himself from the outside. It was for this purpose that Aesop composed his fables, denouncing human passions and vices.

It should be noted that laughter is inherent even in sinless, innocent babies. Children's laughter often symbolizes joy. Moreover, the absence of laughter in a child's life can be an indicator of ill health, a serious reason to see a doctor.

In this regard, we understand: “to laugh or not to laugh?” there is a wrong question. As such, laughter cannot be subsumed under an unambiguous moral category. As far as the theological assessment of laughter is concerned, much here depends on specific conditions and circumstances.

Old Sarah, having given birth to a hundred-year-old Abraham, the son of Isaac, says: God made me laugh, whoever does not hear about me will laugh ”(). Here you can see the self-irony of Sarah - "she became a laughing stock in her old age"; humorous self-assessment of an unusual situation: “they will laugh at hearing that the old woman has given birth.”

In the New Testament, in St. The Apostle Paul to the Ephesians already has an indirect rejection of laughter: “Also, foul language and idle talk and laughter are not appropriate for you, but on the contrary, thanksgiving” (). The faithful of the "early Christian times," the "little flock" to which the apostle addresses, were redeemed at too high a price - by the death of the Lord Himself, to indulge in "laughing" in particular and entertainment in general. Awareness of the time in which the holy apostles live is an energetic, active expectation of the imminent Second Coming of the Savior, a time of eschatological expectation of the end of history, therefore, one should not relax, be distracted by earthly, unimportant things - one must hasten to the Kingdom of Heaven!

2.

When, later, eschatological expectations were dulled, somewhat cooled down, and the world did not come to an end, but, on the contrary, spread throughout the universe with the triumph of the Christian empire, the worldwide triumph of Christianity, then, in these same years, many Christians leave cities, families, give up their careers and run away. in the Egyptian and Palestinian deserts. This is the beginning of monasticism and ascetic work. Seekers of solitary achievement are fleeing from a world in which the heat of salvation has too obviously cooled down, the feeling of the exclusivity of Christianity and communion with God has dulled. The Christian teaching, having spilled over the universe, thereby merged with the world, brought in the ordinary, and at the same time, became a way of life, everyday life, weakened and dulled, like an unceasing joyful feeling of everything new, brought into the world by the gospel message. Seekers of hermitage leave the world, sharpening the confrontation between sin and holiness, the earthly kingdom and the Kingdom of Heaven, the wealth of a transient, perishable and inexhaustible spiritual treasure in a new way. With these contrasts comes a rethinking of the phenomenon of laughter. It is not our task to consider the "history of laughter", it is too vast for this. But we can try to draw attention to two opposing categories: "laughter as sin" ("both laughter and sin") and "spiritual fun." This opposition is felt and explained by the experienced spiritual practice of monastic asceticism and monastic holiness. "Holiness" and "sinfulness", "God's" and "demonic" became the two extreme poles of understanding laughter in Eastern Christianity and were assimilated in Russia in this vein. We live in this tradition today. In Russian, as noted, “a monosyllabic, abrupt, phonetically very expressive“ laugh ”is systematically rhymed with an equally monosyllabic and abrupt“ sin ”. The proverb says: “Where there is laughter, there is sin” (options: “Laughter is small, but sin is great”; “They led to sin, and left them to laugh”; “And laughter leads to sin”). In Russian Orthodoxy, according to A.A. Panchenko, “there was a ban on laughter and fun. This was a literal interpretation of the gospel commandment: “Woe to you who laugh now, for you will weep and mourn” (). The scribes of the Middle Ages referred to the fact that in Scripture Christ never laughed (this was also noted by John Chrysostom, who was especially revered in Russia). It is no coincidence that for laughter, caroling, for a feast with dancing, etc. Penances of varying severity were imposed: "If anyone speaks himself, although the laughter of people, let him worship that day 300." Actually, bows were already imposed for the fact that people laughed at the said joke, for jokes. And those who laughed also fell under penance: “Laughed to tears, fast for 3 days, eat dry, bow 25 a day ...” “Laughter to tears” was directly identified with demonism. Folk fantasy depicted it as a place where sinners "howl in sorrow", and their groans are covered with peals of devilish laughter. This tradition of “devilish laughter” is also reflected in a short poem by A.S. Pushkin, called "Imitation of the Italian", about Judas, the betrayer of the Lord:

As a traitor student fell from a tree,
The devil flew in, clung to his face,
Breathed life into him, soared with his stinking prey
And he threw a living corpse into the larynx of Gehenna smooth ...
There are demons, rejoicing and splashing, on the horns
Accepted with laughter of the world enemy
And noisily carried to the accursed lord,
And Satan, standing up, with joy on his face
With his kiss, he burned his mouth through and through,
On the betrayal night they kissed Christ.

The devil is often described as a "mockery", which does not mean at all that he is a lover of practical jokes and fun. "Devil's laughter" or "Satan's merriment" are figures of speech found both in poetry and in the writings of ascetics, which do not mean that laughter or humor is inherent in the forces of evil. Hellish laughter is an expression of extreme frenzy in which the dark forces reside. In this sense, they do not and cannot have normal reactions, but only extremes - extreme malice, deadly hatred, insane laughter, etc. All that is characteristic of a person - sadness or joy, sorrow or laughter, irony or humor - at the extreme poles of the diabolical anti-world receive their perverted incarnation. In the actions of the possessed, the evildoers, or the madmen, we can sometimes observe what the ordinary properties of human nature are embodied in. Laughter, if inherent in demons, is not real - for nothing but evil (which itself is - distortion, deceit, curvature - damage to good), they are not peculiar, nothing but hatred. It is no coincidence that more than a thousand years ago, it was the word "evil" that was chosen when translating the prayer "Our Father" from Greek into Slavonic. Its root is onion. Onion is a weapon, a vegetable. Ancient Russian scribes called Luka the coastal bends, hence Lukomorye - the sea bay. The pommel is the curved part of the saddle. Lukovka - the top of the temple. What do these things have in common with Satan? The answer is simple: a curved shape. Curvature is a common feature of everything "evil". That is why in the prayer "Our Father" the devil is called evil. In Greek, crafty (ponhroj) means "bad, spoiled, thin, vile, evil." One of the first angels, light-bearer ( lucifer), once distorted itself, falling away from God, and since then has been striving to draw a person into this curvature, and through him the whole world. A fallen spirit is a liar. He distorts God's creation, displaying it in a crooked mirror. Hence the possibility of unkind laughter, mockery and blasphemy. Its limit is laughter at God.

The Devil is called the "monkey of God," but it is a laughing (or cackling) monkey. The devil laughs not because he is happy or cheerful, but his laughter is the result of his madness, his apostasy, the greatest stupefaction. Having fallen away and thus excommunicated from the holiness of God, he reveals His insignificant opposite, “topsy-turvy”. What is sacred in God is turned inside out in the devil, therefore it is characteristic that matting, bast, straw, birch bark, and bast played a special role in comic, carnival disguises. These were, as it were, "false materials", favored by mummers and buffoons. It is noteworthy, as noted by D.S. Likhachev that when heretics were exposed in Russia, “it was publicly demonstrated that heretics belonged to the anti-world, to a tiny (hellish) world, that they were “not real””. Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod in 1490 ordered that heretics be mounted on horses face to tail in turned-out dress, birch bark helmets with bast tails, crowns of hay and straw, with the inscription: "Behold the satanic army." It was a kind of dethronement and undressing of heretics - reckoning them with the original, demonic world. In the same system of contrasts, buffoons were called "clerks" and even "priests of laughter." Russian old proverb: "God created the priest, and the demon - the buffoon." In the popular consciousness of antiquity, buffoons, as it were, “compete” with their buffoon service to laughter with the pious service of the priesthood. As one ancient author put it, people “create weddings and call priests from the crosses for marriages, and buffoons with trumpets.” In the old Russian story "About a certain merchant who is a covetous man" it is told about a merchant who ended up in hell after death. His wife and children mourned and wept for his fate. Help appeared in the face of a buffoon, who ordered to make a cradle and lower him on ropes into the abyss of hell. At the bottom, he saw a coffin, and around "the whole demonic face." The demons showed him the merchant's soul, "burning in fierce flames", revealing that it can be saved from eternal torment if the widow and orphans give away their ill-gotten property to churches and the poor brethren. The buffoon was curious about his afterlife. “They showed him a temple filled with a great stench, and a scorching fire” - “this is your dwelling”. Further, the story tells how the buffoon led the demons around his finger, resorting to the help of a pious priest, to whom he “fell with prayers and warm tears”, praying for him to accept him with repentance ...

3.

What is the opposite of "demonic laughter", more precisely, a distorted reflection of what spiritual category is "ridiculous"? We find the answer to this question in the words of the Holy Fathers. Indecent, improper, "stupid", in the words of Ecclesiastes, laughter is an expression of graceless fun. Laughter is a kind of mirror in which all our emotions are reflected and transformed, as if doubling the “space of the soul,” the researcher (L. Karasev) notes. Hence the variety of shades of laughter, which cannot be exhaustively enumerated. Laughter plus pride and laughter plus anger give us new pride and new anger. And humility plus prayer, meekness and abstinence plus joy give that inexpressible state of grace that allowed St. greet everyone who comes with the words "My joy."

“There is humility out of the fear of God, and there is humility out of love for God. One is humble out of the fear of God, another is humble out of joy, and the humble out of joy is accompanied by great simplicity, a growing and unstoppable heart,” says St. . “When the time approaches for the resurrection of a spiritual person in you, then mortification for everything is aroused in you, joy flares up in your soul, which does not resemble creatures, and your thoughts are enclosed within you by the sweetness that is in your heart” (he). The Holy Father writes about “pleasure emanating from the heart, which completely captivates the mind,” speaking of the spiritual joy that unceasing prayer brings: with this remembrance it will not be revered as dust and vanity. For this delight flowing from the heart, sometimes at the hour of prayer, sometimes during reading, and sometimes also as a result of unceasing study and duration of thought, warms the mind. And this joy most often happens without these reasons, and very often during simple work, and just as often at night, when you are between sleep and awakening, as if in a dream and not in a dream, awake and not awake. But when this delight comes upon a person, beating in his whole body, at that hour he thinks that the Kingdom of Heaven is nothing else, but the same. The acquisition of grace is, as a result, an unceasing stay during earthly life in the Kingdom of Heaven, and this stay of the soul in unity with the Lord is, among other things, joy and gladness, which the holy ascetics and fathers try to convey in their writings.

Representing the fullness of love, the Lord radiated unceasing joy to those around him, being Himself a source of joy. Joy is a reflection of spiritual experience, catharsis, delight, and, ultimately, truth. We see this in many biographies. “Once, when I saw the Monk Gregory of Sinai coming out of his cell with a joyful face, I (the life writer of the saint) in simplicity of heart asked him what he rejoiced about. He answered: “The soul, clinging to God and consumed by love for Him, rises above creation, lives above visible things, and, being filled with the desire of God, cannot hide itself in any way.” After all, the Lord also said: “Your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly” (); and again: “So let your light shine before people, so that they see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven” (). For when the heart rejoices and rejoices, the mind is in pleasant excitement, then the face is joyful, according to the saying: “The heart rejoices - the face blooms” ”(Paterik of Athos).

On the faces of the monks of the monastery of Abba Apollonius shone wondrous joy, a kind of divine delight, which you will not see in other people on earth ... If someone sometimes seemed overshadowed by sorrow, Abba Apollonius immediately asked about the cause of sorrow. Often, if a brother did not speak about the cause of grief, the abba himself revealed what was hidden in his soul ... Abba Apollonius said that those for whom salvation is in God and hope is in the Kingdom of Heaven should not indulge in grief. Let the pagans mourn, let the Jews weep, let the sinners weep - joy is fitting for the righteous! If those who love everything earthly rejoice in perishable and unreliable objects, should we not burn with delight, if we only truly expect heavenly glory and eternal bliss? Is this not what the apostle teaches us: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Thank you for everything "(). (The life of the desert fathers).

5.

Let's not forget that laughter is a therapeutic tool. A person needs it to survive, not to despair in this world. Why is it dangerous to take things too seriously? The fact that our eyes may be gray glasses. Through them, the world appears bleak, hopeless, and therefore hopeless. In these cases, laughter is vital.

And even fasting suggests joy. As confessor Sergius Fudel wrote: “If fasting is understood as, first of all, abstinence from non-love, and not from butter, then it will be a bright fast and its time will be “a merry fasting time” (Stichira on “Lord, cry out” on Tuesday evening 2nd week of Great Lent).

Evil must be laughed at. “All-laughing hell”, about which the Pentecost canon narrates, is, translated from Greek, “all-laughing hell”. Ridiculous in his pomposity, the devil is powerless in his malice and mediocre in his emptiness.

Christ, descending into hell, laughed at Satan, crushed all his plans and saved people.

Christ is Risen! And we celebrate Easter with "merry feet." These lines of the Easter canon set a new dimension of joy and joy. Spiritual joy and spiritual joy are possible. Joy expresses itself in action, in a smile. You can dance for joy. It is no coincidence that the more emotional peoples of Ethiopia and Egypt dance rhythmically during the liturgy. This is not a reason to follow, but one of the arguments in favor of laughter. In the litanies for the consecration of water in Epiphany, we ask: “On the existence of this water that gallops into eternal life ...” The Lord entered the Jordanian waters to be baptized - they did not part at all, but galloped into eternal life, rejoiced, jumped (like a baby in the womb) , startled with all creation, anticipating the coming liberation. Here is the last bell at the lesson before the summer holidays. What will happen to the students? They will jump, make a noise, toss their briefcases up, rush along the corridors. - Here it is, the state of the waters, the state of fun and joy! The Redeemer came, God appeared in fullness, there was a voice from heaven...

The stories of the first monks, collected in the "Ancient Patericon", "Spiritual Meadow" and "Lavsaik", are devoted to the ridicule of the devil's machinations. These collections are valuable in that they were compiled in the 4th-6th centuries, in the era of the birth of monasticism, and fully convey its spirit. For example, let us turn to the “Spiritual Meadow”, to the description of the exploits of Abba Stephen, presbyter of Heliot:

“They also told about him that once he was sitting in his cell and reading - and then again a demon appeared to him in a visible way and said:
“Get out of here, old man, it won’t do you any good here.
“If, as I well know, you want me to be removed from here, then make sure that the chair on which I am sitting begins to walk.”
And he sat on a wicker chair.
Having listened to the words of the elder, the devil made it so that not only the chair came in, but the whole cell.
- You are a trick! - said the elder, seeing the cunning of the devil, - but I still will not leave here.
The elder made a prayer, and the unclean spirit disappeared.”

And the founder of monasticism, the monk, himself a strict ascetic and ascetic, resorted to laughter for pedagogical purposes:
“Someone, catching wild animals in the desert, saw that Abba Anthony was jokingly treating the brethren, and was tempted. The elder, wanting to assure him that sometimes it is necessary to give indulgence to the brethren, says to him: "Put an arrow on your bow and draw it." He did so. The elder again says to him: "Pull it on again." Tat still pulled. The elder again says: “Tighten it more.” The catcher answers him: "If I pull too hard, the bow will break." Then Abba Anthony said to him: “So it is in the work of God – if we lean on the brethren beyond measure, then they will soon be crushed by the insult. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to give at least some indulgence to the brethren. After hearing this, the fisherman was greatly moved, and having received great benefit, he left the elder. And the brethren, being established, returned to their place.

“Internal orientation,” let's finish our article with the words of the already quoted Fr. Mikhail Pershin, - gives the highest meaning to every human action. So the Christian culture, rather, welcomes laughter, but kind. The only thing that is unacceptable is solidarity with the forces of evil. Ridicule of someone else's grief, God's beauty, goodness turns laughter - the mercy of God - into the path to emptiness.

Sometimes laughter is devastating. It happens that it inspires. There is a time for crying, there is also a time for fun. There is a "time to complain" and a "time to dance" ().

You just need to learn to discern."

Hieromonk Seraphim (Paramanov). "Law of Love. How to live in an Orthodox way. Artos Media. Moscow 2007

Satire is, in general, a dangerous temptation for any writer. It's so easy to accustom yourself to a distorted view of the world. It's all about measure. You can use some remedy in small doses, you can abuse it too much - then the medicine turns into poison. This has been experienced by many satirists.
MM. dunaev

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