17. Слово на Благовещение Пресвятой Богородицы (Что принесем мы в дар Богородице, через которую излилась на нас радость жизни? – Надо усвоить дух жизни ее: творить волю Божию без рассуждения)

What will we now bring as a gift to the Most Blessed Lady, God-pleased, through Whose joy was poured out on our entire race? What better thing, I think, can we bring than the assimilation of the spirit of Her life, through which we will all become one with Her, like the children of one mother, and we will form one - a spiritual God-gracious family. What is the spirit of the life of the Lady Theotokos? In submitting Your will to the will of God. And before, in decisive moments of Her life - namely, during the introduction into the church and during the betrothal to the righteous Joseph - She showed decisive obedience; but the height of the perfection of this virtue was revealed in Her now, when She indicated to the Angel: “Be to Me according to your word.” For with this word She gave over not only desires, but all the powers of Her soul and body to the order and all-action of God, so that from now on She no longer acted, but the power of God became active in Her. That is why She was awarded such heights, because she acquired such inner well-being. All who seek to ascend to the measure of perfection destined for Christianity by Christ the Savior must enter into the same spirit of life. What does this mean, what does the Apostle say: “I live not for anyone, but Christ lives in me!” (Gal.2, 20). This means that he no longer has his own desires and thoughts, but only the desires and thoughts of Christ are of quality. Only the powers of body and spirit were apostolic, and the agent was Christ. How did this happen?! - So that the Apostle renounced his will and completely submitted to the will of God. Which also means that even before that the Lord said: “Be in Me, and I in you. I cannot produce fruit on the skin of the rod unless it is on the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, and you are the birth” (John 15:4–5). Just as a branch lives not by its own sap, but by the sap of the tree, so if we want to live truly, we must live not by our own, let’s say, movement, but by movements emanating from Christ the Savior. When will this be done? – When His holy will becomes the law of our life, excluding any other outside influence that enters us and attempts to accept in us the quality of a ruling and determining law. The act of determination to such submission to the will of the Lord is the grafting of us to Him as to the tree of life. And remaining in this submission means remaining in this grafting towards Him, in this communion of His life, or in such a relationship with Him, according to which all the Divine powers, even to the belly, are poured into us from Him without hindrance. If anyone arranges himself this way, he will gain strength and moral strength, well-being and a fruitful life; and all this will begin to happen in such a way that he himself cannot give an account of where everything comes from: where does prudence and stewardship come from, where does resourcefulness in means come from and the ability to carry them out in due time, in its own measure and in its own place. The secret of such a life is one: when obedience to the will of God without reflection is formed, then “God is active” in us and “whoever wills and does for good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Where is God, what is not there? So, do you want such perfection and goodness? – Arrange your life in such a way that every step you take, every action you take – both internal and external – is the fulfillment of the will of God, a conscious fulfillment, but unquestioning and not reflective, and you will receive it. And for this, do this. Take a good look at your condition and position; then unfold the word of God, select from there all the rules that come to you preferentially over others according to your condition and position, and with them determine how you should act and how you should be disposed in all the incidents of your life. Having determined this, decide and act only according to this outline, without thinking about the consequences, even applying the term to the first decision: to the position of the stomach, that is, at least to die, and not to deviate from the conscious will of God. May you be husband and wife; Look at what instructions you have from the Lord, and settle down to live like this: a husband love his wife, and a wife love and obey her husband in everything. May you be mother and father; Look at how you are prescribed in the word of God to act, for example, to rule your home well, to raise your children in the fear of God, and resolve to act steadily in this way, no matter what. May you be son and daughter; find out what is written about you in the Scriptures, that, for example, you need to listen to your parents in everything about the Lord, then act in this way, and it will be good for you, and you will be virgins and young men, beautiful before God and people; Do not be carried away by the example of emancipated - unbridled - girls and boys spreading everywhere, knowing that this is a godless, godless, accursed way of life and behavior. Let the judge be who; look at how it is written to judge, so judge. May you be the one who sells and the one who buys; look at how you are told to conduct the auction, and do so. May you be a servant; look at what is indicated to the servants, and do according to it. Or even review the general rules, for example: so as not to be angry, not to offend, not to be proud, not to take what belongs to others, not to envy, to live in peace with everyone, to help each other, to be sober, to honor Sundays and holidays, etc. So everyone find out in detail what definitions of God’s will come to him, and according to them, order your life and paint it, like in a picture, so that it is clear to you how to fulfill God’s will. Having determined this, then decide to carry it out without thinking, especially do not think about the consequences. This is a distinctive feature of true submission to the will of God - to do the recognized will of God without reflection. Tell yourself every time in your heart: I know that in this case this is the will of God, and I will certainly fulfill it, but what happens next is not my business to discuss. The Lord, who gave the law, sees everything and provides for the future. And whatever the case, regarding which you definitely know the will of God, always keep this in your heart. For if you start thinking about the consequences, you will certainly go astray and make a mistake. Let, for example, someone offend. The will of God is known: forgive. And forgive without thinking. But if you start thinking about what will come of it, you will become confused. Thoughts will arise that everyone will consider you spineless, a person without merits; and what else? - today one offended, tomorrow another will offend, there is a third and so on - and it will be impossible to live. And you will say: no, you cannot forgive; you have to stand up for yourself, and you start to stand up, and chaos ensues; why? - Because the will of God has been violated. Why is it broken? – Because I began to think about the consequences. But say right away: I forgive, God commanded so, and all hesitation will end. After all, in the whole world there is only one ruler - the Lord. He sees everything, and the strict doer of His will will never be forgotten by Him. Take the examples of the holy martyrs! They offered them: either deny Christ, or suffer torment. They knew the will of the Lord in this case: “Whoever denies Me before men will be rejected before the angels of God” (Luke 12:9) - and without thinking about the consequences they confessed: we are Christians and do not deny Christ, and courageously endured all kinds of torment. They begin to argue that these are terrible torments; - You can’t bear it - that I will only renounce with my tongue, but will not renounce with my heart, that I will repent later and the like. “They certainly wouldn’t have resisted.” As, indeed, there were those who were led astray from the right path by such thoughts. And now many parents have allowed their children to become unbridled - why? “It’s not because they didn’t know the will of God, what should keep them in the fear of God, but because they began to speculate about what would come of it, what they would think of us as, that now everything is so, that children will get bored, wither, and similar absurdities. They began to reason like this - and they dismissed the children and destroyed them. And if we had immediately decided: we would not allow any indulgence for anything, if we had assumed: as the Lord commanded to hold the children, so we will, and we will not deviate even a hair’s breadth from the will of God, and we will strictly punish the children so that they do not dare to think about deviating from our will, from the order of Christian life in anything - if we had done so, such outrages would not have appeared among us, which are heard about everywhere, which will soon become a parable and worldwide ridicule will turn our land. Likewise, why did children indulge in unbridled behavior? - Because they began to reason. Or no, these people don’t talk about anything, but do it because the winds are blowing in their heads. It seems to them that they are demonstrating high wisdom, but in reality they are repeating the story of their foremother, who was carried away by the appearance of omniscience. Don’t complain that I dwelled on this subject a little longer than I should have and am disrupting the structure of my speech. I just heard the other day how self-willed young men and women in our older cities are. I knew this before, but I thought that some people did this. No, not just some, but with high titles. This is where it has already gone. Let me, I think to myself, at least mention it in passing, maybe someone will listen. And may the Lord deliver us from such orders: parents from laxity, children from the evil spirit of self-will. The bright face of the obedient and submissive Mother of God led me to this. This is who we need to imitate, and not just young people, but all people - of all ages, ranks and conditions. As She said to the Angel: “Be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38), - this verb was the verb of God; So let everyone say in all his deeds: May everything with me be according to the word of God. As the Lord has determined, so I will live and act; I will not listen to my own will, and I will not allow myself to be carried away by the evil spirit of the times. Let them say and think what they want about me. I am looking for one thing - to walk unswervingly in the will of God, and I will never consciously violate it, even if I was threatened with sorrowful consequences for doing so. Renew this mood now, if someone has always had it, or revive it, if you have not had it, and this will be a gift, most pleasant to the Most Blessed Lady, Who will accept it joyfully, and through intercessory prayer will ask for a blessing on it and on the one who has it from the generous Lord. 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