Глава XII. Общественно-историческое значение жизненного подвига Преосв. Феофана

“I have fought the good fight, I have passed my end, I have kept the faith. Otherwise, the crown of righteousness will be kept for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will reward me with on the day: not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” Last to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:7) Based on a review of the life and works of Rev. Feofan’s natural question is about their meaning. His social activities represent a major historical phenomenon. In order to understand and truly appreciate the life feat of the saint, it is necessary to pay attention to the environment and time in which he lived and note the significance of his activities for his age and posterity. Modern humanity is rightly proud of its enormous achievements in the field of science and mental development, but it has done too little for its moral success. Both in science and in life, it was one-sidedly carried away by material, practical interests and completely neglected the life of the spirit. Such an abnormal phenomenon could not but have an impact on the moral state of society. Unsatisfied spiritual needs loudly declare themselves, and the fundamental illness of our time is precisely a spiritual illness. Its essential features were vividly described by one of our poets (Tyutchev). “It is not the flesh, but the spirit that is corrupted in our days, And the person is desperately sad; He is rushing towards the light from the silence of the night And, having found the light, he grumbles and rebels. We burn with unbelief and are dried up Today he endures the unbearable And he realizes his death And he longs for faith... but doesn’t ask for it.” The picture of the sad moral state of modern society is painted even more definitely and clearly in one of the words of our famous church development of recent times, the Most Reverend. Ambrose of Kharkov. “The spectacle of life in our time is bleak. The deep and general corruption and corruption of modern Christian peoples is obvious to everyone, especially in their higher and educated classes, who stand at the head of the people and, with their false views, beliefs and examples, lead them to the path of unbelief and vices. Do we need to talk about them? All the errors and vices of our century are known to us from the modern life of Christian peoples and are before our eyes in our fatherland, which diligently adopts everything bad from foreigners. Everywhere, with extraordinary speed, disbelief and denial of the existence of God, the human soul and its eternal life are spreading among peoples, and faith in the true God is being replaced by the idolization of matter and the service of the flesh. In moral life, the denial of parental and governmental authority, regicide, riots, indignation against the rich, the desire to destroy the right of property, violation of marital unions and unbridled voluptuousness, passion for luxury and carnal pleasures, and for the sake of their forgery, theft, murder, etc., are intensifying. There is no century in world history in which we would find among Christians such an open disregard for virtue and such fearlessness in relation to vices and crimes. And we see all this in a time that is not only called Christian, but also the most enlightened, proud of the prosperity of the sciences and arts” 164. One of the remarkable Russian public and literary figures wondered about the source of such a sad moral phenomenon and came to the conviction that all evil lies in the wrong, materialistic direction of modern European, and after it, our Russian science, which at its very core denies religion with a living God and a free human spirit, and instead introduces the worship of dead matter and its mechanical forces. “At the foundation, in the depths of modern teachings of the West,” says I.S. Aksakov, “not only revolutionary, but also philosophical, in general, its last word lies the rejection of God, therefore the rejection of everything that sanctifies man and with him all of nature, the denial of the free spirit and every spiritual principle in man, therefore the desouling of man and the enslavement of his flesh; denial of the highest truth independent of man, the highest moral law obligatory for moral human nature, the entire moral element in man, and then the worship of soulless matter and soulless man as God.” All enlightened and right-thinking people are clearly aware of all our real moral abnormality. It is also quite obvious that here a change in theoretical and mental views and beliefs is far from enough, but a radical spiritual and moral rebirth is necessary. How is it possible to revive modern society to a new life? Who or what can do it? Lately we have relied too much on science, on teaching; we have concentrated all education on the education of the mind; he was recognized as the source not only of knowledge, but also of all human perfection. Many of our thinkers and writers still base all their hopes for the success of the people both in moral and political terms on its development and enrichment with knowledge. But, firstly, it is inconceivable that the full scientific development of the mind and higher education could ever be accessible to the masses; Half-education, combined with false self-confidence, is a great evil. Secondly, the mind itself is a private power of the spirit, and its education is only a part of human perfection. There are many other aspects and forces in the human spirit that are not developed by science; many beneficial and harmful influences pass into the soul past the mind and act on it decisively for the benefit or detriment of the correct development of a person. In addition, early childhood is an age inaccessible to science, but at this age much is laid down in our inner world besides consciousness and subsequently reveals an influence on our entire life and destiny. Finally, entire masses of people, who necessarily remain alien to scientific development, cannot be guided by science, and yet they contain enormous forces that must be somehow directed towards the good goals of their personal and social life. Where are these truths that can penetrate every soul? Where are the ways of teaching that are applicable to every age and every development of man? Where, finally, are there such strong motivations that could move entire tribes and peoples faithfully and continuously along the path to moral perfection and well-being? Only in religion and for us in the Orthodox faith. What you hurt, according to the popular saying, is what needs to be treated. If, according to the thoughts of our outstanding figures, the cause of modern moral abnormality lies in the violation of religion and spiritual principles, then their restoration will be a source of revival. That in order to improve our lives, it is first of all essential to raise the significance of spiritual phenomena in the consciousness of society; not only religious preachers are deeply convinced of this. This conviction is fully shared by many of the best secular people who think about the fate of their fatherland and are looking for a way out of its present difficult situation. “To get out of this suffocating atmosphere, to talk about the one-sided materialistic direction of mental enlightenment and the closely related moral state of modern Russian society, one of our scientists (B. Chicherin), is an essential need for everyone in whom the interests of thought are still alive, who is not content with everyday vulgarity. And there is only one way to get out of it: by raising your eyes to the top, instead of stubbornly keeping them chained to the bottom, look around the entire vast expanse of the sky and understand the great connection connecting the higher with the lower, the heavenly and the earthly” 165. Our famous writer-artist F.M. Dostoevsky spoke even more clearly and with his characteristic passion on the same issue. In his deep conviction, all the evil and falsity of modern Russian culture lies in the fact that the progressive leaders themselves do not have it and do not clearly understand the enormous importance of religious and moral principles in people's life. He considers the most important, fundamental mistake of our intelligentsia to be that they do not see and do not attach serious importance to the Orthodox faith and the Church for the people. This is why the Russian intelligentsia is so disconnected from the latter, so completely groundless, and this is why its people’s spiritual and educational activities are completely insignificant and fruitless. “The Russian people,” says Dostoevsky, “are overwhelmingly Orthodox and live by the idea of Orthodoxy, although they do not understand this idea clearly and scientifically... In essence, everything in our people comes from it alone, at least our people want everything they have and what they give them to come from this one idea, despite the fact that much of the people themselves are stinking, barbaric and sinful... All the deep mistakes of our intelligent people is that they do not recognize the Church in the Russian people. But whoever does not understand our people’s Orthodoxy and its ultimate goals will never understand our people themselves. The people will never accept such a Russian European as one of their own; “First love my shrine, you are almost what I honor, and then you are exactly like me, my brother, despite the fact that you are dressed differently, that you are a gentleman, that you are the boss” 166. And so, when, apparently, among our society there was an urgent need for a reminder of the forgotten and trampled interests of the human spirit, God’s providence, which raises up workers for its work in times of need, was pleased to send Orthodox Russia a great bearer and leader of spiritual life, this true hero of the spirit, in the person of the late Saint Theophan. Not every teacher of religion can be a real leader of spiritual life. Only a person who is personally involved in it, who has personally experienced and burned out in the crucible of inner experience, can speak to people about spiritual life with an all-conquering force that excites energy and generates readiness for moral deeds. This is exactly how Rev. looked at the Christian teacher. Feofan. “To lead others,” he says, “you need to see all the crossroads of life, know them experimentally and know how they deviate, and for this you need to stand at a certain height from which you can survey all the paths and all those walking and those between them who have trusted. It's all about conquering passions: he who has not conquered passions cannot give the proper rules for their conquest, because he himself is passionate and judges passionately. Then a smart, but untested leader will never lead far, no matter how much he wants to. Both he and the one being led will talk, reason about the ways of God and all huddle in one place” 167. And the author of this teaching himself was such a leader. He taught not only with words, but also with the deeds of his life. Having revealed in his godly writings the ideal of true Christian morality, the saint practically realized it. Every word of an ascetic makes the strongest impression because it is imprinted by his life. When he says: “Do not gravitate towards the earth... Everything is perishable, only one happiness beyond the grave is eternal, unchangeable, true. And this happiness depends on how we live this life of ours,” then the living embodiment of this ideal view is his retreat, his complete renunciation of the world and his unwillingness to take anything from life other than the spirit. Rev. Feofan devoted his entire life to solving and clarifying the most important moral issues. And he fulfilled this task with such breadth and depth as none of our spiritual writers. In his writings, with particular persistence and strength, he develops the idea of ​​the great importance of spiritual principles for the good of human life, personal and social. According to his deep conviction, modern society lives abnormally, suffers so severely morally, because it has forgotten and neglected the needs of the spirit. It has become one-sidedly carried away, mired in material interests, and yet the truth is undeniable: “man will not live on bread alone,” for the real, not illusory good of life, “there is only one need.” The saint repeatedly insistently repeats that the needs of the spirit are highest and dearest in man; satisfy them first of all and you will see happiness on earth, for everything else will come naturally to you. “Spiritual needs are the highest, and when they are satisfied, although others will not be satisfied, there is peace; and when they are not satisfied, then even if all others are richly satisfied, there is no peace. That's why satisfying them is called united for needs. When spiritual needs are satisfied, they teach a person to put in agreement with them the satisfaction of other needs, so that neither what satisfies the soul, nor what satisfies the body, does not contradict spiritual life, but contributes to it - and complete harmony of all movements and manifestations of his life, harmony of thoughts, feelings, desires, enterprises, relationships, pleasures is established in a person. On the contrary, when the spirit is not satisfied and this one need is forgotten, then all other needs scatter in different directions and each demands its own, and as there are a heap of them, their voices, like the noise in the market, deafen the poor man, and he rushes here and there, like mad, to satisfy them. But she never has peace, because when one is satisfied, the others are not satisfied with that, and, not considering themselves anything lower than the one who is honored by satisfaction, persistently demands her own, like a mother, when she feeds one child, the other five scream. That is why inside such a person there is noise, commotion, dislocation in all directions and disorder in everything. This one is dissatisfied with nothing, always in a tight spot, then tired, stands with his eyes bulging and wondering what to start, then spins and spins. And behold, there is vanity and ruin of the spirit” 168! People who are superficially familiar with the life and works of Rev. Feofan, they object that his ideals are too abstract and practically inapplicable, that many of his views are purely ascetic in nature. Let us dwell on this objection and see how valid it is. Yes, the saint was truly a great ascetic in the spirit of the first times of Christianity. But his ascetic feat in no way obscured the phenomena and needs of ordinary human life. From his height, he clearly saw these needs and always went to meet them. He was a true spiritual teacher in the broadest sense - for people of every rank and condition. And this could not be otherwise, for, according to the deep conviction of the saint, Christianity is not so much a theoretical teaching, but mainly an actual moral life force, which he repeats more than once and thoroughly proves. “Christianity is not a doctrine, but a life. And his teaching itself enters life as a certain image, a view of everything that exists and happens.” “The Christian faith is not a system of teaching, but an image of the restoration of the God-man who fell through death, by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Take one of those who followed the Lord, and you will see how little by little he grows in spirit and becomes great despite all his outward inconspicuousness. Here's about. Seraphim. Simple, unlearned, what have you come to? He blocked the lips of the learned unbelievers with a single word. That's power. What is his life like, and his character? So grace transforms everyone who surrenders to it” 169. If this is the vital significance of Christianity, then the objection to the practical application of the ideas of the Rev. Feofan. He himself knew about such an objection and, based on its content, gives the following explanation: “To others it seems very strict to do everything for the glory of God, and therefore they believe that in deeds one can have other goals, outside of God, as long as these goals do not exclude God, and in general, they say, one can limit oneself to only more often attributing deeds to God. Nevertheless, dedicating all deeds to God is the work of the most perfect, which can be advised, but to which everyone should not be obliged. How the bright Christian life is humiliated here! Apparently there is reluctance and laziness to make an effort to ascend to God! But, firstly, dedicating everything to God is not advice, but a necessary, obligatory goal: Glorify God in your souls and in your bodies; do everything for the glory of God... What is clearer and more definite than this? And why classify this goal as the most perfect only when such a direction of action does not require special effort: whoever is already doing good, just tell him to mentally and heartily dedicate it to God. What kind of work is there?” “There is nothing difficult or huge here. It's simple. Start a little and you will have time to do everything properly. But if you don’t have time to do everything as you would like, do it as best you can. The Lord is not picky about little things. He values ​​diligence and intention." 170 Christian teaching of Rev. Feofan recognizes it as easy to implement primarily because he finds it completely natural for the spiritual nature of man. Everywhere pointing out and clarifying in his moralizing works how the lofty truths of the Gospel deeply correspond to the true and legitimate aspirations of the human soul, he achieves that the reader can see and understand how the requirements of the moral law of Christ that seem at first glance difficult and apparently inconvenient to fulfill turn out to be in fact acceptable and implementable in life by people who are just as obsequious to us. According to the saint, we have become so fussy and worldly that we often do not have the very thought and question of the degree of applicability of Christian principles to life. If a person seriously tries to implement them in his behavior, he will soon learn and be convinced by his own experience how truly and truly the yoke of Christ is good and His burden is light. Not only will he not be burdened by this yoke, but, on the contrary, having tasted the spiritual sweetness of bearing it, he will experience a higher, unearthly mood and experience complete moral satisfaction. The vital application of spiritual principles is greatly facilitated by the fact that Christianity is alien to empty, formal requirements, and petty regulations. On the contrary, it everywhere preaches complete freedom of spirit over the letter of the law. Why is it that in the writings of the saint it is not uncommon to find, for example, an instruction that one does not have to bind oneself to a large prayer rule, but rather, it is better to perform only a few prayers, but bringing them to the heart and feeling; You don’t have to burden yourself with a long and grueling fast; a short fast is more beneficial, but with a truly pious inner mood, etc. In addition to a general, theoretical explanation of the question of the life application of Christian truths, Rev. Theophanes had to repeatedly resolve the same issue at the request of practical needs, at the desire and request of people who sought his spiritual guidance. And the answer was always the same - this application is quite possible in any rank and social position of a Christian. Here is an amazingly simple, but deeply vital, wise rule in response to the question of how a person can live according to his high Christian purpose in the midst of ordinary everyday vanity: “Do whatever comes to hand, in your circle and in your environment, and believe that this is and will be your real work, more than which is not required of you. A big misconception is when they think that for the sake of heaven, or in order to make their own contribution to the depths of humanity, they need to undertake big and loud things. Not at all. You just need to do everything according to the commandments of the Lord. What exactly? Nothing special, just what everyone imagines according to the circumstances of his life, what is required by the particular cases encountered by each of us. It's like this. God arranges the fate of everyone, and the entire course of everyone’s life is also the work of His all-good providence, therefore, every moment and every meeting. Let's take an example: a poor man comes to you; it was God who brought him. What do you need to do? Help. God, who brought the poor man to you, of course, with the desire that you act in relation to this poor man as He pleases, looks at you to see how you actually act. He wants you to help. Can you help? Do what pleases God, and take a step towards the final goal - the inheritance of heaven. If you generalize this case, it will come out: in any case and at every meeting, we must do what God wants us to do. And what He wants, we know correctly from the commandments prescribed to us. Who is looking for help? - Help! Did you offend anyone? – Hurry to ask for forgiveness and reconcile! and so on. and so on. and so on." “You need to throw out of your head all plans about multi-useful, wide-ranging, universal human activity, and your life will be contemplated as enclosed within a calm framework, and quietly leading to the main goal. Remember that the Lord does not forget even a glass of cold water given to someone who is thirsty. Thanks be to the Lord that He was pleased to determine the value of our deeds not by their breadth and greatness, but by our inner disposition when doing them, meanwhile surrounding us with a multitude of opportunities to do deeds according to His will, so that if we pay attention to ourselves, we can do deeds pleasing to God every minute. To do this, there is no need to go overseas, but look around every day and hour to see what you see the seal of the commandment on, fulfill it urgently, in the conviction that God Himself requires this and no other thing from you at this hour” 171 . Of course, no one should say that such a rule places unbearable burdens on the Christian, and yet, from the point of view of his Reverend. Theophan explains the possibility of realizing in ordinary life all the most important requirements of the Christian law, not excluding even the most sublime and ideal ones. Apparently, what could be less applicable in the midst of our everyday bustle of life than the thought of unceasing prayer, and yet, according to the teachings of the saint, it is quite possible: “What does it mean to pray unceasingly? Be constantly in a prayerful mood. There is a prayerful mood - a thought about God and a feeling for God together. The thought of God, the thought of His omnipresence, that He is everywhere, sees everything and contains everything. The feeling for God is the fear of God, love for God, a zealous desire to please Him alone, with the same desire to avoid what is displeasing to Him. Feelings for God can occur in all our affairs, activities and circumstances.” “The mind can be distracted by various objects; but even here it is possible to learn not to deviate from God, but to do everything in the light of remembrance of God. It’s about these two—thoughts and feelings towards God—that you need to take all care of. When they are there, there is prayer, although there are no prayer words.” “The purpose of morning prayer is to plant these two things in the mind and heart... And then go out with them to do your work and do it. If you bring this up in your soul in the morning, then you have prayed properly, although you may not have read all the prayers...” “Let’s assume that you set yourself up this morning and went to work. From the first step, impressions of deeds and things and persons will begin, knocking the soul away from God... What to do? We must renew our thoughts and feelings... by turning our minds and hearts internally to God. And to make this more convenient, you need to get used to some short prayer and repeat it as often as possible. Every short prayer goes towards this. But the most beautiful prayer of all is to the Lord the Savior: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me! Work hard to get used to it, and don’t lag behind until you get used to it... It, having taken root, will be a constant mover and stand before God with thoughts and feelings towards Him. Here is the whole program of prayer work" 172! What are the ideas and writings of Rev. Theophanes were not just a dead theory, but had vital significance, this is especially clearly evidenced by his extensive correspondence. From the latter it is clear what a mass of people of different ranks and social status sought his spiritual guidance. From the numerous evidence of how important the instructions and instructions of the saint were for the moral life of those who needed them and what the latter were deprived of with the loss of their mentor, we present the following. One venerable lawyer, who for a long time used the spiritual advice of Rev. Theophan, writes with deep sorrow about his death: “With his death, the saint took with him to the grave everything that was most precious in my life: a mentor, a leader, a mourner and a man of prayer, whose whole concern during his life was to snatch perishing souls from the clutches of Belial and, together with the angels, to rejoice over every repentant sinner. Although it is difficult to reconcile with the thought that the saint has left us forever, we have consolation in the knowledge that just as here on earth he loved his neighbors, just as there, in the heavenly monasteries, standing before the throne of the Most High, he offers up his fervent prayers for all the mournful, the poor and the unfortunate." 173 Such is the moral influence of the letters of the Rev. Feofan. The same is the significance of his writings in general, for the content of the correspondence is only the application of general thoughts to particular cases of life. The life-educational influence of the creations of Rev. It is quite possible to characterize Theophan with the following words spoken by one deep connoisseur and admirer of Metropolitan Philaret about the latter’s sermons: “Such reading serves as a kind of protective medicine for the whole day against bad habits and inclinations, a guide to the vital struggle against vice and passion; Sometimes a good thought sinks into the heart and one desires purity, meekness, and gentleness; a loving call to repentance will be heard and conscience will speak in humility, and the light of truth will flash before the eyes of the spirit, and the soul will be filled with zeal for prayer... and it is often remembered that man is the church of God and you will be filled with trepidation, lest you desecrate the church of God within yourself. In this way, little by little, you get used to caution and self-observation, and sometimes one manages to refrain from an unreasonable or offensive word, from an unholy glance; one sometimes manages to curb the movement of annoyance, suppress an unkind feeling, drive away a bad thought” 174. We deliberately provided this extract because we honor the Most Reverend. Theophan, in the spirit of the writings and the nature of his life’s feat, is the direct successor and continuer of the work of the ever-memorable Saint Philaret. The providence of God erected these great pillars of the Russian Church on two sides of the notorious 19th century - one at the beginning, and the other at the end, so that in an era of such widespread mental fermentation, in the days of the proliferation of false teachings, to cast the content of Orthodoxy into solid, unshakable forms, in order to once again establish an unchangeable, immutable teaching, to clarify the Evangelical height and purity of Orthodoxy, for which daring people were and are being made attempts and assaults. Both great saints, despite the essential commonality of their service to the Orthodox Church, fulfilled it with amazing strength and success from two, internally connected and mutually complementary sides. Filaret, who declared the entire breadth of the Christian worldview to be his genius, focused his activities mainly on preaching the faith of Christ, and Theophan, who penetrated into the most intimate recesses of inner spiritual life, was primarily an evangelist of Gospel morality. Many spiritual lamps illuminated the paths of our sinful life, but only one, Most Reverend. Feofan devoted his entire life to this feat, and in it lies the essence of his historical merit, the social significance of which will grow with the spiritual development of our fatherland. To everyone who reviews the life and works of Rev. Feofan, the conviction involuntarily comes that for such a feat, ordinary, natural human powers alone are far from sufficient, but that supernatural help is needed. The grace of God apparently rested on the saint, and the impression from his personality can rightly be indicated by the following words of the ascetic himself about the blessed person: “Just as fire, penetrating iron, not only stays inside the iron, but comes out and shows its fiery power tangibly for everyone, so grace, having penetrated our entire nature, then becomes tangibly visible to everyone. Everyone who comes into contact with such a blessed one feels the extraordinary power inherent in him, which manifests itself in him in various ways. If he starts talking about something spiritual, everything comes out as clear to him as in the middle of the day; and his word goes straight into the soul, and there it powerfully composes feelings and dispositions corresponding to itself. Even though he doesn’t speak, a warmth emanates from him, warming everything, and a certain power emanates, stimulating moral energy and giving rise to readiness for all kinds of spiritual deeds and exploits.” “The existence of such persons in the world is the great grace of God. They replace the apostolic visions and involuntarily attract people to themselves” 175. Let us conclude this essay with an authoritative description of the public service of the Rev. Theophan, made by one of our archpastors, a deep admirer of him. “The reposed saint in God,” says the Eminence Nikandr (Vilensky), “with his life and his works represents that wondrous thing, incomprehensible from the point of view of this world and stronger than any other evidence and considerations, exposing worldly false wisdom - a phenomenon that, on the one hand, serves to glorify God in the person of those who worship Him, and on the other hand, to justify the great significance and benefit for society and public life of monasticism, even if it appears in the spirit of strict asceticism - seclusion. In the person of His Grace Theophan, we have a common Christian teacher - in his silence; public figure - in seclusion; a church preacher, heard everywhere, although he has not recently appeared in the church pulpit; a missionary - an exposer of sectarian errors, although he did not act in the field of open missionary activity; a bright lamp of the teachings of Christ for the Orthodox people, although apparently for everyone it has not recently stood on the church candlestick, although it has been hiding from the eyes of the people; having almost no material wealth, but enriching everyone and enriching them hitherto with the spiritual wealth of his teaching; who did not seek temporary, earthly glory, but is now glorified by people, and science, and entire institutions, and his own creations, in which he truly erected for himself a “monument not made by hands”... And the word of Christ in the Gospel is fulfilled over him, contrary to those who seek worldly, earthly glory: he worked for the Heavenly Father in secret - and now we seem to hear the Savior telling him in the words of the Gospel: “And your Father, seeing in secret, will reward you openly!” "("Church Bulletin". 1894, No. 8. Page 120)*. *Note. In conclusion, we consider it necessary to note that most of the significant excerpts from the works of Rev. Theophanes is preceded by our abbreviated summary of the content, indicating the general thoughts of the passage, mainly taking into account the needs and interests of persons who have not received any completed education. According to the latter, a preliminary presentation of the general content of one or another section of the book facilitates understanding and contributes to a more solid assimilation of the detailed sequential development of the author’s thoughts. "The Wanderer", 1901, December, p. 936. “Science and religion. B. Chicherin. Preface. "Dostoevsky's Diary". 1881 Rev. Feofan. “What does one who has repented and entered on the path of a good life need?” "What is spiritual life." Page 69–70. "Letters". Vol. 1. Page 148. "What is spiritual life." Page 152. "What is spiritual life." Page 62–64. “Letters from Rev. Feofana." Ed. "Soulful Reading" Page 31–32. "Letters". Issue 1. Page 243. Letter from the jury. attorney Karyakin from Zadonsk. "Notes on the life of Metropolitan Philaret." N. Sushkova. Page 99. Rev. Feofan. "Thoughts for every day of the year."