39. Господин, зовущий раба

It happens that a master, wanting to call a certain servant known to him, says to the other slaves: “Send such and such a servant to me.” And his name is: “Go, the master demands you,” and he goes. So Christ, the Lord of all, calls man from this world - and departs from the world. The master calls his servant unexpectedly. So Christ the Lord calls every person unexpectedly. Death for every person is his calling. Blessed is the servant who is called good by his master. Damned is the one who appears faulty. Blessed is the man who, called by Christ the Lord, appears before Him in good standing. Damned is the one who appears faulty. Christians! Our correctness is true repentance. Our fault is our neglect of true repentance. Our calling to the Lord is our death. We see our death approaching - here we see our calling. Our death is known to us and unknown. Known because we will die. Unknown because we don’t know when we will die. So is the calling of the Lord. We don’t know when the Lord will call us. Do you want the one who is called to appear correct before the Lord? Always be in true repentance, always be the way you want to be at your death, the way you want to be called. Do you want to die blissfully? Remember this hour and live godly. Wise and understanding slaves are vigilant and always wait for their master to call them. Christian! In this you too should imitate the sons of this age: watch and wait for the calling of your Lord. Be reasonable and wise in this important matter - and may you be blessed. Either eternal well-being or ill-being depends on this hour. Here the door to either a blissful or unhappy eternity will open. From here you will go either to eternal life and consolation, or to eternal death and torment. You see how terrible this hour is. Blessed is he who watches and waits for this hour! Stay awake, my soul, and wait for this hour. And then you will be able to sing with joy: “Now you are releasing Your servant, O Master, in peace, according to Your word,” and so on (Luke 2:29-32). “Tell me, Lord, my death and the number of my days: what is it, but I mean what remains for me. Behold, You have given me days as inches, and my life as nothing before You. Truly, every living person is complete vanity. For man walks like a ghost, he only worries in vain, he lays up treasure and does not know for whom he is collecting it” (Ps. 39:5-7). O Jesus, my Redeemer! Cleanse me first, don’t even bother me from here. It happens that a servant, not caring about his master and not fearing him, thinks to himself: “My master will not call me to him today or will not call me soon. I’ll go for a walk with my friends and have some fun.” And so, moving away, he begins to drink. Then suddenly a messenger comes running to him and calls him, saying: “Come, the master demands you.” Then his joy turns to sadness, and his boldness turns to fear and trembling. And he goes to his master, trembling, rushing about with his thoughts, thinking: what answer to give to the master, without whose will he absented himself, was self-willed and acted disorderly. So a Christian who fears no God and does not care about his salvation thinks: “I am still young and healthy, my death is not yet visible, I will not die soon. I will take a walk and have fun in the world so that I can enjoy the blessings of this world. I will gain the honor for people to know me. There I will have quite a bit of income, I will collect enough for myself and fill my chests. Nowadays all people do is collect: what else should I do? Having collected, I will buy myself more villages and peasants. I don’t have enough land - I’ll add more. I will take it from such and such a widow, and from that vile person. There is no one to stand up for them and there is no one to stop me. It’s a long way from the Tsar, but I’ll bribe the judges and everything will be fine. Then I will build myself a rich house and decorate it. I’ll buy myself an English carriage and a team of good horses. I will plant a beautiful garden with alleys and galleries, I will make good ponds in it, so that there will be a place for guests to stroll, stroll and have fun. I will buy myself wine and serve meals, as others do, and communicate with people. I will visit them, and they will come to visit me. I will gather enough servants, dress them in decent clothes, so that there will be someone to serve me and the guests who come to me. I will try to have vocal and instrumental music for the better entertainment of me and my guests.” This and the like, a poor man, having become futile in his thoughts, plots. And whatever he thinks in vain, he puts into action. And the other one plans and wants to do something different. We see this in the poor Christians of this age. We see that all their worries are not about salvation and eternal life, to which they are called by the word of God and renewed by holy Baptism, but about vanity. We see and condole. But with such plans and deeds, unexpectedly, like a quick messenger, death comes to everyone silently and says: “Go, man! The Lord Almighty is calling you.” Here the poor soul is overcome with fear and trembling. Conscience denounces and torments. God's judgment is imagined. The soul is constrained everywhere, does not know what to do? "Oh! The Lord is calling me, and I am defective. The door opened for me to eternity, which I had never thought about.” O world, peace! “Vanity of vanities, and all sorts of vanity! And so his spirit shall depart, and he shall return to his land: in that day all his thoughts shall perish” (Eccl. 1:2; Ps. 146:4). This is how someone who promised himself a long life dies. He who wanted to walk and have fun tastes the sorrows of a mortal. There remains only one who wanted to have many servants and peasants. The one who thought of riding in a carriage in a train is lying on his deathbed. They put in the coffin the one who thought of living in a rich and beautiful house. They bury in a three-arshine hole the one who thought of expanding his land. With tears and weeping, they see off the one who wanted to amuse himself with music on the journey of the whole earth. So death comes unexpectedly, and the Lord calls us when we are not expecting it. “Turn away my eyes, O Lord, so as not to see vanity; give me life in Thy way” (Ps. 119:37). A foolish Christian, whose heart is attached to vanity and careless about his salvation! You see what is happening to people - expect the same for yourself. If their demise befalls them, it will befall you too. The Lord and Judge calls them to Himself, and He will call you too. And he will call when you don’t expect, and where you don’t expect and how you don’t expect. They tremble before the judgment of God at death and rush about - and you will tremble and be confused. Prepare in advance so that that hour, terrible for everyone, will not be so terrible for you. Blessed will you be when, having turned away from vanity in advance, you think about that hour when the door to eternity opens to everyone! You might be interested in: