9. Слово на Сретение Господне (Сретают Господа только ревностным исполнением заповедей. Это плод многотрудной деятельности и награды за труды. Сретение Господа – явление внутренней жизни человека)

How blessed are the persons whom the Lord vouchsafed to be participants in the event of bringing Him to the church on the fortieth day! Righteous Simeon took the baby into his arms. But this baby was also God, perfect and containing everything. Simeon touched the flesh of a human baby, but the Child God filled his soul, as well as the souls of all those present. And so Simeon sings a song, Anna prophesies, the Mother of God and Joseph reverently worship, for where God’s visitation is, there is a paradise of sweetness. The soul that has met the Lord and is met by Him tastes supernatural bliss. Let us be jealous, brothers, of this blessed one. For their Lord is also our Lord. He who meets them is ready to meet us. For he says: “I will dwell in them and walk around.” Let us go out before the face of Him who comes to dwell in us, and we will meet Him, and we will be met by Him - and our spirit will rejoice, as one who has found an inexhaustible treasure, and will sing songs of praise to God of salvation. Delve deeper into the event of the Presentation, investigate everything that happened there and learn how to achieve it. Look who is participating in Candlemas? – The Mother of God is the Most Pure Virgin, two elders and an old woman who have entered the limits of dispassion. Otherwise, the Lord is met with purity and dispassion. – “Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). Just as the sun, illuminating everything, is seen in earthly things only when it picks up a pure dewdrop, pure crystal or water, so the Omnipresent God deigns to manifest His presence visibly to everyone only where it picks up the purity of spirit and body. If you want to meet the Lord, be jealous of purity. Don’t go too far and don’t get lost in confusion about what purity is and how to get there. Purity is dispassion. The path to dispassion is fulfilling the commandments. Each commandment, fulfilled and accepted by the heart as the law of constant activity, kills the passion that is contrary to oneself. All the commandments, received in this way, kill all passions and instill dispassion. - That’s why, you see, who is at the Presentation? - The Lady is the Most Holy of Holies, Joseph is a righteous man, Simeon is righteous and pious, Anna is a prophetess who did not leave the church, serving God day and night with fasting and prayers, that is, all are zealous fulfillers of the commandments. Be zealous to fulfill the commandments, and enter the realm of purity, and meet the Lord, who is not far from us every day. Do not think that for this you need to make big changes in life or invent special ways. No, in whatever rank one is called, let him remain in that rank. The Lord meets us on all paths, for all of them bear the seal of His commandments. He who labors in doing them blinds the eyes of the Lord and receives gracious joy from them. Just do your job properly, everyone. If anyone is a virgin, be a virgin like the Most Pure One; If anyone is in the family, do the deeds of family righteousness, like Joseph; whoever is a widower, be a widower like Anna; If anyone serves, serve like Simeon. Don't go far for the commandments. They are at hand. Live well, as a family man, as a citizen, as a son of the Church, or as a virgin and widower who has dedicated himself to the Lord, and you will live according to the commandments, and Christ will sanctify you, and you will be pleased to be accepted into the arms of your heart, as into the arms of the righteous Simeon. At Candlemas you see the sweet peace of the spirit, rejoicing and singing. But this peace, since almost all the elders here experience it, is the fruit of many years of laborious and eternally continuous activity. Here's a lesson for you! It shouldn’t be so that I did a few good things and that’s enough. No, we must follow the path of the commandments from an early age, like the Lady, and follow them, without deviating, until old age, like Simeon, who lived holyly beyond the limits of the years possible for a person. Meeting the Lord will be a reward for the work of a lifetime, it will be the achievement of a goal, after which they begin to sing: “Today you have let your servant go.” . (Luke 2:29) for they have seen salvation, or with their whole being they are transferred from this life to another, having their life hidden with Christ in God. Oh, grant us, Lord, to work so hard as to reach this blessed limit and meet the Lord! Accepting this benevolence, no one would have thought that in the words “meet the Lord” there was some kind of allegory hidden. No. Listen to what the honest Lord Himself says: “If you have My commandments and keep them, he who loves Me is the same; but he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and I will appear to him Myself” (John 14:21). If he appears, he will be accepted; If it’s accepted, then it’s gone. And we know from the lives of the saints that the Lord really appeared face to face to many, like the disciples after the resurrection, or the Apostle Paul after his conversion, who was taught all the secrets of salvation from the Lord Himself. But this phenomenon - external - is not necessary for everyone, and it is not granted to everyone. This is not the only thing that is understood in the Lord’s promise to appear to all who love Him and fulfill His commandments in love, but another certain mysterious appearance of the Lord in our spirit and spirit. There is a moment in life when the Lord begins to be so clearly contemplated by the spirit who fulfills His commandments, just as things that exist outside of us are clearly seen by the bodily eye, and when He is felt so close in the spirit that it seems to touch it or even dissolve with it. This is the state for which the Apostle prayed for his disciples: “My children, even as I am sick, until Christ is imagined in you” (Gal. 4:19). Those who have achieved this imprint of the face of the Lord in spirit will behold the Lord before them and always walk before His face. Such, having met Him once, remain unceasingly in this meeting, like the righteous Simeon, carrying the Lord in the arms of the spirit and singing songs of gratitude to Him in a feeling of salvation, seen and tasted internally and undoubtedly. Oh, Lord, grant us, I repeat and once again, grant us to work so hard to achieve this. There will be, brethren, the Meeting of the Lord that was once common to the entire human race, when a voice is heard: Behold the bridegroom is coming, go forth to the Meeting. Only those who have become accustomed to this meeting here will greet Him joyfully, have tasted His power while still on the path of this life, or at least have made a decisive intention to achieve this and have begun the work necessary in this undertaking, namely the work of purifying the heart by steadily fulfilling all the commandments of God. Those who are not accustomed to this meeting will be amazed by that voice: go to the Meeting, and from the meeting of the Lord you will receive not joy, but fear and trembling, which, having begun where there are no changes of time, will forever remain in them later, constituting for them their own hell - the property of the rejected. Think about this, brethren, and from this receive a new, special incentive to zealously fulfill the commandments of God, leading to purity and dispassion and worthy of meeting the Lord in the spirit, which, pleasing here, lays a solid foundation and undoubted hope for receiving the bliss there. How the Lord will be pleased by the one who now puts his mother-in-law in this way and not in another way along the path of his remaining life. May the Lord bless such an undertaking. Amen. You might be interested in: