Sin traps us in the trap of pleasure

Father Iachint was a good connoisseur of the mechanisms of perversion of the soul. He said:

– The desires of the body appear as a result of the unsatisfied needs of the soul. A void appears in the soul, which must be filled with something. Thus, if the desire of the soul for prayer, holy contemplation, humility, obedience, and self-denial is not satisfied by reading holy books, by prayer and abstinence, by asceticism and obedience, restlessness and dissatisfaction appear that are taken over by the body and soul.

Thus, the need to eat and drink appears, instead of fasting; to slander and judge others, instead of praying and humbling ourselves; vain glory, instead of seeing our weaknesses and sins; love of wealth, goods, instead of poverty; anger, instead of gentleness and kindness; vain thoughts, instead of holy thoughts. Until we wake up from our wanderings, we are besieged by all kinds of passions with which we will have to fight after we find the way back.

Once, Father Iachint spoke to his disciples about lusts, saying:

– Know that not every lust is a vice. Only repeated lusts, maintained and nourished with pleasures, which turn into habits, into skills, which do not oblige us to commit them, only such lusts become vices. Any lust, if it is driven away and not nourished, withers and disappears over time.

A brother asked Father Iachint: “Why do we commit sin so easily?” And the father answered him:

– Sin always implies an apparent pleasure; it appears like a rose that hides many thorns. Everything is an illusion, which then turns into bitterness and lamentation. While the pursuit of virtues requires much effort. Good is done with difficulty because it requires much restraint, abstinence, walking the narrow path, tears, patience, suffering, and renunciation of one's own will.

Father Iachint also said:

– Satan goes out to open battle when he sees that man abandons sin; he throws the entire army of hell at the poor soul, just to seize it.

Archimandrite Ioanichie Bălan

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