The Thick Rope of Sin

St. Nikolai Velimirovic

“A thick rope is made from thin, fibrous strands of hemp. One thin fiber cannot bind you nor can it strangle you. For you will easily, as in jest, break it and free yourself from it. However, if you are tied with a thick rope, you will be held bound and even strangled by it. You can neither easily break it nor free yourself from it. As a thick rope consists of thin and weak fibers, so men’s passions consist of small, initial sins. Man can break off and turn away from the beginnings of small, initial sins. But when sin after sin is repeated, the weave becomes stronger and stronger, until in the end a passion is created, which then turns man into some kind of monster, as only it knows how. You cannot easily cut it off or distance yourself from it, nor can you divorce yourself from it. Oh, if only men would beware and uproot the beginnings of sins! Then, they would not have to endure much in freeing themselves from passions. “To cut off rooted passions is as difficult as cutting off one’s fingers,” said a monk from the Holy Mountain. To free himself from sinful passions, St. Emilianus was helped by the remembrance of death and, naturally, the grace of God, without which it is extremely difficult to rid oneself of the fetters of passion. To think often of impending death, to repent, and to implore grace from Almighty God—these three acts save a man from the bondage of sin. St. Sisoes was asked: “How long does it take to uproot passions?” The saint replied: “As soon as one passion arises in you, uproot it immediately.”

The Prologue of Ohrid by Saint Nikolai Velimirovic-March 7th