10. Слово на Сретение Господне (Песнь преподобного Симеона «Ныне отпущаеши» означает предел чаяний человека – встреча с Господом и что такое царство Божие, которое внутрь нас есть)

Let us, brethren, recreate for ourselves a more complete picture of the presently celebrated event, and let us learn from it. Imagine a church. In the middle is Simeon the God-Receiver with the Child of the Lord in his arms; before him are the Most Pure Lady and the righteous Joseph; around Anna the Prophetess and everyone awaiting deliverance! The eyes of all are fixed on the Lord and the souls of all feel bliss with Him. But only Simeon found a word to interpret this! Having embraced the Lord, possessed Him and himself possessed by Him, he is beside himself and, as if no longer on earth, but in heaven, puts an end to all his deeds and labors, saying: “Today you let go.” Now I have achieved everything that I sought and hoped for and that was promised to me. I have everything; There is nothing more to look for, and there is nowhere to go further than this. This is the event! Anyone who wants to, learn from here as a lesson, for there is a lot of edification here. And I transfer its meaning inside us and want to remind you that we also need to tune in internally in order to carry the Lord in the arms of our soul and heart, for this is the law of our life in Christ Jesus, and that when this comes true in us, then - and only then - the soul, with a song similar to the song of Simeon, confesses its all-contentment and, having laid down all the instruments of its much-concerned and laborious action, will indulge in peace in the repose with it in the Lord. The Lord teaches us this law of life, according to the law now brought to the church and celebrated in it by Simeon. Later teaching the people the work of salvation, He expressed this law of life in Him with these words: “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33), for this is the same as carrying the Lord within yourself, possessing Him and being possessed by Him. The kingdom of God is not somewhere outside. “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), says the Lord. If now the Kingdom of God is where God reigns, then to seek the Kingdom of God, which is within you, means to seek for God to reign in us and reign over us. But when this is accomplished in us, when we surrender ourselves to the possession of the Lord, then the Lord entrusts Himself to our possession and begins to rest on us as on His throne, satisfying us and being pleased with us. The whole point, then, is to enthron the Lord within us. Reign over what? – Over everything that is in us: over thoughts, desires, feelings, deeds. All our strength must be brought to the foot of His throne and subdued to Him, so that He reigns over our mind, our will and heart. God is the king of our mind, when the mind, through submission to faith, having assimilated everything that is communicated to us in holy revelation, thinks about the one God and judges everything that exists and happens according to God. God is the king of our will and conscience, when, having imprinted on ourselves the commandments of God and laid them down as an immutable law, we do not allow ourselves, in either the small or the great, to deviate even a little from the conscious will of God. God is the God of our heart, when, having felt the sweetness of the Divine, it rejects all earthly sweets and, finding no taste in anything earthly, everything lives in heaven, where it places its treasure. So - inside. But the Kingdom of God extends inward and outward. For when everything that is said within us is completed, then everything external is rebuilt in the same spirit and direction: the tongue, eyes, hearing, and all other senses begin to act in the same spirit; the same spirit then directs every outward movement and every action, alone, in the family, in office, in society and in all everyday relationships - in a word, then in all manifestations of our inner life, God is the tactile ruler, which is imprinted in the attention of everyone, according to the word of the Lord: “so let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven” ( Matthew 5:16). And the one in whom God reigns within, you see participating in all matters to which his position obliges him; but in them he is only externally, internally he is entirely in God, from Whom come the beckons for him for all sorts of deeds and undertakings, for their number, breadth and manner of accomplishment. In such, what the Apostle commands is faithfully fulfilled: “Let him who has wives, as though he had not, and he who mourns, as though he did not weep, and he who rejoices, as though he did not rejoice, and those who buy, as though he did not have content, and he who requires this world, as though he did not require it” (1 Cor. 7:29-31). So the one by whom the Kingdom of God has been sought and found, in him God is all in everything, so that just as He rests in heaven on the Cherubim and Seraphim, so He rests in Him - on all the powers of His spirit, which itself, having dissolved in Him with consciousness and self-activity, directs everything both internally and externally to please His one and only, having loved Him, as commanded, “with all my heart, with all my heart.” soul, with all your mind and with all your strength” (Luke 10:27). To support this thought, I will bring to your mind one circumstance from the Old Testament story. Among the people of God it often happened that one, two, or more kings arose one after another, who, carried away by the customs of neighboring pagans, began idolatry among themselves. Then idols appeared in large numbers on the hills, in groves, in city squares and even in the church itself. They began to serve them then, and service to the true God was forgotten. But when later God raised up in him a king according to his own heart, such as Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah and others, their first task was to cleanse the church, the city, all the hills and groves and the whole kingdom from idols. Iniquity was driven away, piety shone forth. The one true God was honored and worshiped in the church, and in the city, and in the villages, and in the fields. God was again apparently their King for all. Something similar happens in us. Each of us is a small kingdom. The king is ourselves – our consciousness and initiative. Subjects are the strength of our being, the strength of body, soul and spirit. The sanctuary of God in us is the heart. When our king, consciousness and freedom, turns away from God and deviates towards himself and creatures, then our entire being is filled with passions and perverse inclinations, like some kind of idols, all the strength of the body and soul becomes the place of priesthood to a special idol. God is forgotten. We then serve, in the body, for example, voluptuousness, laziness, lust, sleep, debauchery in dances, festivities, theaters and so on, just as the pagan served Venus, Bacchus and others; in our souls we serve vanity, man-pleasing, interests, envy, the passion to shine and be liked, anger, hatred and so on - all of which make up in us the idol of selfishness and inveterate egoism, that is, we then fully worship idols and with all our strength we serve other gods. We are in oblivion of God, aversion to God, hatred of God. But when the mercy of God finally meets us and He sends us the spirit of fear and reverence, then our king awakens - consciousness and freedom and, turning to God, zealously begins to cleanse his kingdom of all idols, drives away passions from all his strength and instead imprints the corresponding virtues in order to please God with them, intending in advance to serve Him alone to the point of the stomach. Then in our sanctuary it is not selfishness that characterizes, but selflessness and devotion to God, and in the soul and body, instead of passions, there are the holy fruits of the spirit: humility, meekness, self-control, purity, love, peace, long-suffering, hard work, etc., and all this for the sake of God, for the sake of pleasing Him, in a feeling of complete dependence on Him and the obligation of conscience to direct everything according to His will and to His glory. Then God-thinking, God-love, God-devotion, God-worship are restored in us. God reigns in us; everything that is contrary to God, not pleasing to God - both small and great, inside and outside - is driven away and destroyed. This is the reign of God in us! No one would think: everything is Divine, and everything is God, and nothing extraneous, nothing from the blessings of this world that surrounds us. How hard, dry and joyless it is. On the contrary, this is where our place is, our rank, our paradise, when we rush to God and direct everything to the glorification of His One. For when this happens on our part, then God is not an outside spectator of such changes within us, but He Himself condescends to us and unites with our soul. And where God is, there is bliss. Just as blessed are the bride and groom who love themselves mutually, so blessed are the souls who, through dedicating themselves to God, have been united with Him. It is only necessary to strictly observe the conditions of this combination and His obligations. The Apostle says: I have betrothed you to Christ as pure virgins and united you with Him. You know the feelings of the bride towards the groom. Our souls should have the same feelings towards Christ the Lord. Then it doesn’t even occur to the bride to look at anything or anyone. She has only thoughts about the groom, only feelings about the groom. This is how we should be disposed towards the Lord. And by thoughts alone, deviation towards anything other than Him is already a violation of the marriage union with Him, and not just by feelings and dispositions. I am a jealous God, says the Lord. Just as a husband or groom is jealous, so God is jealous of our souls. He cannot tolerate it when we set our hearts on anything other than Him. But just as a wife or bride, although she is on good terms with everyone according to the law of cohabitation, is nevertheless devoted in her heart only to the groom or her husband, so let the soul do everything that cannot but be done according to the conditions of life, but with its inner turning everything should be directed towards the one God. The groom or husband does not distinguish whether the person to whom the wife or bride wants to bow is large or small, but does not tolerate the deviation itself, no matter what it concerns, so God is angry with the soul, whether it has an addiction to large or small things. And He sees all this. The bride can still somehow hide her inner betrayal from the groom, but nothing can be hidden from God. He sees everything, and is not indifferent to the betrayals of our hearts, and then he sends punishment first, which immediately reduces the outpouring of his generosity into the soul, which, along with deviation from God, begins to experience darkness in thoughts, confusion in desires, disorder in feelings. And if small deviations occur, what can we say about large ones? “Then the Lord departs, leaves the soul, and divorces it. But when it is not the Lord who is united with the soul, then you yourself know who. May the Lord deliver us all from this disaster! So, brethren, this is not the first time I incline my speech to the fact that not just in part, but completely, we must submit to God and surrender ourselves to Him, so that if you are not inclined to do so, at least mentally in your soul you say: it is impossible otherwise, we must seek the Lord and strive towards Him alone with all our being. There is only one thing left: either death, or do this. It is impossible for God and Mammon to work. Whoever is not with me, says the Lord, is on me, and whoever is not with me gathers, scatters” (Matthew 6:24, 12:30). Don't be horrified! Keep one thought in mind: this kind of arrangement of life is not violence, but an exodus to freedom; it is not sorrow, but bliss; it is not deprivation, but an entry into the fullness of well-being. – And keeping this in mind, move yourself to action accordingly. May the Lord send courage to your heart and strength to your spirit. Amen. You might be interested in: