Who is guilty?
Despair is one of the mortal sins. Mortal sin brings a person’s soul into a state of spiritual death, when the opportunity to repent and change one’s life is lost. Sadness and despondency are very close to despair and suicide; these are links of the same chain.
Modern life is thoroughly saturated with the stench of despondency. Look how many people are depressed now! In the USA, the population completely uses antidepressants and is seriously addicted to chemistry.
A person in a relatively comfortable life is in idleness; it is the mother of many sins and vices. In the spiritual sphere, one thing stems from the other: no matter what sin you take, each one pulls the others along with it. Sadness is the initial link of despondency, the smallest in severity. Gradually the condition worsens, and the person reaches a stupor.
Saints on why sadness is a sin:
“Excessive sadness usually leads to either doubt or destructive blasphemy” (St. John Chrysostom).
“If someone thinks that he has no passion for some thing, but having lost it, his heart grieves, he completely deceives himself” (St. John Climacus).
“Melancholy comes from offended pride or from something that is not done according to our standards; also from vanity, when a person sees that his equals enjoy great advantages” (St. Mark the Ascetic).
Dejection paralyzes a person’s soul; he is unable to repent, pray properly, or do a good deed. Everything is falling out of hand, the meaning of life is lost, everything is bad, everything is lost. A despondent person can be compared to a patient who has suffered a stroke: he is completely incapacitated. This is a very difficult spiritual state. On the other hand, the holy fathers write that despondency is the companion of every ascetic, especially a monk. “The Noon Demon” is exactly about him. Experienced confessors have noticed that somewhere from 10 a.m. to three in the afternoon, monastics experience temptations, which result in sadness, despondency and doubt.
What other reasons do sadness and despondency have? - idleness, anger, irritation, dissatisfaction with sinful passion. You need to fight them, and under no circumstances indulge them. A despondent creature is a blasphemer against the Creator. Dejection is a hidden blasphemy. The person seems to be saying: “Why do I need this life?” Suicide is a terrible sin precisely because the one who kills himself throws the gift of life in God’s face: “Why did you give this to me? Don't want!" This is a spit in the direction of the Creator.
The Holy Fathers give various examples of despondency. Saint John Chrysostom remembers Judas. The devil darkened him, betrayed him to such excessive sadness that he hanged himself. He persecuted him until he deprived him of his intention to repent and led to suicide. There was sadness, but active repentance, like Peter’s, did not happen. The Apostle Peter is an example of the opposite behavior: he repented all his life, shed tears, even to die, like his Teacher, he considered himself unworthy.
Saint John Climacus writes: “The mother of despondency is vanity.” A person fantasizes something about himself, and then, when some stumbling blocks, falls, disappointments happen in life, he cannot come to terms with it. Saint Theophan the Recluse stated: “The state of despondency is one of the crosses that we inevitably have to bear throughout our lives.” And further he adds: “Complain to the Lord and Guardian Angel about the spirit of despondency, and he will run away. But endure everything kindly.”
Even sadness about a sin committed can be a sin:
“Those who sin are those who consider excessive sadness after sin a virtue, not realizing that this comes from pride and conceit, from the fact that they rely too much on themselves and on their own strength” (St. Nicodemus the Holy Mountain).
However, it happens that sadness helps to destroy sin:
“Sadness, born of sin, destroys sin when accompanied by repentance” (St. John Chrysostom).
What is the conclusion? - there is no need to run away from this state, because it will catch up and cover you. You need to meet halfway and figure it out, just like with any other spiritual issue. Modern man is afraid of everything - lack of faith, weak character, cowardice. Age, infirmity, loneliness are falling on him, and it is impossible to talk to him about anything, it is impossible to stir him up.
The essence of the phenomenon
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Sadness is also called depression. A state when a person is depressed. And no one is safe from it, not even a believer. After all, laziness as such is not the only side of the manifestation of despondency; despair can also be included here. And if for people who do not believe in God, the cause of its occurrence is hopelessness, then for believers it is spiritual weakness.
It manifests itself in the fact that some begin to feel as if their prayers will never be heard. First they stop reading them, then they slowly forget about other holy books and finally they completely leave the church. It seems to them that everything is useless. They are overcome by laziness, which is familiar to many, but on a more serious scale.
Even St. Gregory of Sinaite recognized the fact that laziness is another side of despondency. In his monologues, he interpreted the feeling of despondency as the same “death,” but in the vector of spiritual objects. He noticed that in this state the desire to go to church, read prayers and work on the purity of the soul disappears.
What to do?
The remedy is this: if a person is relatively young, then work, physical labor. Movement is life. Even just taking a broom or mop, tidying up, washing something is already good. You look, the blood has dispersed, and life has become invisible.
You can contact your friends. One priest told this story. A certain man served in the special forces. This is not an easy job, people doing it suffer great mental deformation. So did this man: he fell into despondency and decided to commit suicide. He put the weapon on the table in front of him, sits, and tunes in to “hara-kiri.” At this moment the phone rings. It turns out that this is his colleague. We talked, told jokes to each other, laughed, remembered the past - in a word, we talked from the heart. When the former special forces soldier put the phone down, he looked at the weapon and thought: “Am I completely crazy?” He turned the page and moved on with his life. Communication, even a simple call can save a person from a terrible sin.
You can’t isolate yourself in despondency, you don’t have to savor it. Longing for God gives birth to salvation, but self-criticism is a rather dangerous thing. The whole world is not nice to you, it seems that you are a burden to everyone. You don’t want to communicate, you start to avoid people because your condition is serious, you are dissatisfied with everything, everything depresses you. As a result, people also begin to avoid you, it turns out to be a vicious circle. This is a state of hell. In general, despondency is from the devil: he has nothing to expect (hope for) except the fulfillment of his sentence, he is in a state of despair. It is from him that gases emanate, poisoning everyone with despondency. No man came up with all this, it came from another world. So despondency is an enemy, and one can be angry with it, as the holy fathers write. Anger against Satan, your weaknesses and passions is not a sin.
As a cure for despondency, a churchgoer is required to pray, read the Holy Scriptures, the Psalter, and spiritual literature. The most important healing is, of course, the sacraments of Confession and Communion.
How to deal with this sin:
“If you want to be without sorrow, try to please God” (Abba Evagrius).
“Sadness is a wound of the soul, and it must be constantly healed with words of consolation” (St. John Chrysostom).
Sadness can come from our ingratitude to God:
“Don’t be insensitive and ungrateful. Since we soon forget joyful and pleasant things, but we always remember sad things, we say that we are always in sorrow” (St. John Chrysostom).
Dejection - why is it a sin?
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Dejection is a mortal sin for a reason. Firstly, it can manifest itself in different forms:
- Yearning. Vivid signs of it are often expressed in laziness, constant sadness and boredom. There is also a loss of interest in everything around and a manifestation of the desire to live in a world of one’s own creation.
- Laziness and indifference to spiritual enrichment. In this case, the manifestation of other related external signs is not necessary. Often a person, on the contrary, is very cheerful and feels joy. However, he stops regularly reading scriptures, prayers and everything that leads to spiritual enrichment.
However, despondency does not occur for no reason. Often it affects people who do not believe in God. This is a consequence of the fact that there is spiritual emptiness in their soul.
Let's summarize
- If Catholics have 7 deadly sins, then Orthodox Christians have 8, and the last one is despondency (deep, unending sadness).
- Dejection is dangerous because it pushes a person to other mortal sins, makes him lazy and unable to grow spiritually, and fences him off from faith in the power of the Lord.
- The church can help overcome this sin, and if a dangerous condition has already developed into depression, it is also worth contacting a psychiatrist.
This video will tell you more about the remaining mortal sins, as well as the demons “responsible” for each of them:
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How to deal with this mental “weakness”?
God forgives us despondency (as well as other dangerous sins), the main thing is to sincerely repent .
But, of course, simply repenting and confessing is not enough. You need to sincerely decide for yourself that from now on you will change for the better and will not allow the sin to repeat. And if he knocks on your soul again, you will immediately turn to church.
Experienced people also advise: you can fight despondency at the everyday level. Regular housework helps best . A shovel and a garden bed, hand washing, washing windows accelerates the blood in the veins, and also helps the brain concentrate on one simple task, sweeping aside everything else (which oppresses the soul).
The church also encourages simple human communication. Moreover, these days it is so easy to pick up the phone, call a friend or relative, ask how they are doing, exchange anecdotes.
You cannot lock yourself in your despondency, savoring it alone - this will only worsen the sin.
But, of course, the main treatment is prayer . Voluntary fasting, reading the Bible and other spiritual literature also helps some people.
By the way: it is believed that the most effective solution to get out of serious, prolonged despondency is to visit a monastery and search there for a spiritual leader - an experienced elder with whom you can talk for a long time, looking for the cause of your painful condition.
Ways to get rid of despondency
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Anyone can overcome despondency in any of its manifestations, especially if a person clearly understands the nature of the problem. And the best way to resist it is to start doing business.
The effectiveness of this method is clearly demonstrated by the story of a father and son included in the Fatherland. The point is that the son was supposed to cultivate the field, but when he came to it he simply became lazy. The entire week that his father allotted him for this, he lay there doing nothing. Coming on Sunday and seeing that not a single centimeter of the area had been cleared, I naturally asked the question about the reason for the work not being done. She felt despondent because her son became sad when he saw how much work needed to be done. His father answered him only by saying that if he cleared at least a small piece of land every day, then by the end of the week about half of the work would be done. After this, the son began cultivating.
This story does two things well:
- Discouragement is a problem. It is akin to a disease that consumes a person and needs to be gotten rid of. Under no circumstances should you despair and leave everything to the will of fate.
- Efforts are not useless. Yes, the son will not be able to complete all the work by the end of the week, but those small steps will produce results. And instead of the work not done, half will be completed.
The main thing that is recommended to do when trying to get rid of it is to eliminate excuses and accusations. The first will only increase the power of despondency, which already consumes the soul. The second will weaken it, because the person will consider himself guilty. You need to accept yourself. Realize that man, although not an omnipotent being, is not a powerless being.
A little trick
The Monk John Climacus also proposed a small trick, thanks to which a person could “deceive” despondency. He suggests just a little comfort to the belly after another attempt to overcome laziness. This trick also works in cases where, as a result of unsuccessful attempts, the mind is overshadowed by anger.
In conclusion, we note that it is the depressed state of a person who does nothing that is a sin. Dejection here acts only as a reason. The Lord can condescend to a person who is physically lazy, because this resource is limited for everyone. However, mental laziness, when a person does not even try to fight negative thoughts, makes the situation hopeless.
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Why is despondency dangerous?
Falling into a state of melancholy, sadness, despondency, sadness, a person does not think at all about the possible consequences that these destructive emotions are fraught with.
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Some even attribute to this state some subtlety of the mysterious Russian soul. But psychiatry experts say that when a person is in a depressed state for a long time, depression develops, which means a serious danger to his health and even life. Various researchers put the figure at 20% - exactly the same number of people around the globe who suffer from depressed morale.
As for the church, it has long added despondency to the list of major sins. Next we will figure out what caused this.
How to avoid despondency
Despite the fact that modern psychology and science believe that despondency can only be overcome by playing sports and leading an active lifestyle. They say that during the process of loading, a person relieves the accumulated load. This way he gets rid of negative energy and becomes more confident in himself.
But the church recommends living with faith in your heart, being sincere and praying. Only then will you be able to avoid such a grave sin as despondency. In the church canons there is a special prayer for this:
Holy glorious and all-praised Great Martyr Varvaro! Gathered today in your Divine temple, people who worship the race of your relics and kiss with love, your suffering as a martyr, and in them the Martyr Christ himself, who gave you not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, with pleasing praises, we pray to you, the well-known desire of our intercessor: pray with us and for us, beseeching God from His compassion, that He may mercifully hear us asking for His goodness, and not leave us with all the necessary petitions for salvation and life, and grant a Christian death to our belly - painless, shameless , in peace, I will partake of the Divine Mysteries, and to all, in every place, in every sorrow and situation who require His love for mankind and help, He will give His great mercy, so that by the grace of God and your warm intercession, always remain in good health in soul and body, we glorify the wondrous one in our saints The God of Israel, who does not remove His help from us always, now and ever, and forever and ever, Amen.
The Lord is always with you!
The best article for you, go to: How to bow to the ground in Orthodoxy
Watch a video about the sin of despondency:
Consequences:
Even by the standards of mundane, everyday life, despondency is recognized as a rather dangerous psychological state.
Dejection can contribute to rapid fatigue, dissipation of memory and attention, loss of interest in pressing problems, professional and family responsibilities. It often serves as a factor provoking depression or, worse, suicidal tendencies.
A fairly common accompaniment of despondency is the desire to drown sadness in a glass, pour alcohol into the melancholy, get distracted, lose yourself in entertainment venues. However, such a folk remedy “helps” only for a short time. In some cases, this leads to long-term drinking bouts. Drunkenness in itself is already destructive for both spiritual and physical health, and despondency accompanied by passion often leads to a much more disastrous result: emotional burnout, personality degradation, conflicts, etc.
Within the framework of religious activity, despondency prevents the proper performance of Christian work. During private prayer or temple worship, it interferes with internal concentration, promotes wandering and scattering of thoughts; in more acute forms, despondency can develop into despair and even distract a person from the Church altogether.
The opposite virtues to despondency are joy in the Lord, sobriety, hope and trust in Divine Providence.
