103. Беседа о нашем житии на небесех 509

(Printed in the collections of 1844 and 1848) Because our life is in heaven, from there we wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humility, so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory. ( Phil. 3:20–21 ). No matter how pleasant it may be for someone to live on this dark earth: however, no one, I hope, will argue that life in the bright heavens should be incomparably more pleasant, if anyone can move there. Therefore, is not the message that we hear from the Apostle about life in heaven worthy of our full attention, that it really exists, and even that it is not alien to us? “Our life is in heaven.” A heavenly inhabitant, who, apparently, while still living on earth, possessed a heavenly life, because he neglected and abandoned everything earthly, and because even then he demonstrated the power of heavenly life in himself through spiritual insight, healing, power over the powers of hell, Reverend Father Sergius! With your prayer and blessing, help us to raise our thoughts and hearts to heavenly life, so that we do not get bogged down in the vanity of earthly life. The Apostolic proclamation that “our life is in heaven” may seem strange to the earthly mind. He will say: even the birds of the air do not live in heaven, although we concede to them primarily to be called “heavenly”; We, less than birds, can separate ourselves from the earth. Our life stands on earth as a foundation; feeds on earthly food; covered with earthly clothing; takes refuge in an earthly dwelling. How can we say that “our life is in heaven”? It would be a different matter if it were said: our life will be in heaven. But who knows this? How is that possible? You will justify me, brethren, in that I will not agree to correct or weaken the words of the Apostles to please those who do not understand. I stand firmly in the Apostolic assurance that “our life is in heaven.” To make this truth clear and perceptible, it is necessary to distinguish and compare temporary and eternal life, bodily and spiritual. If a city dweller, while traveling, in a field, or in a village, was asked: where does he live? without a doubt, he would not have said: here on the road, or here in a rural inn; but he would say that he lives in the city, where he has a home and family, even if at the time of questioning he was far from the city. And rightly so: for we do not live where we wander by chance, where we spend the night in an inn, but where we have a permanent residence. Apply this to the Apostle: and it will simply be his saying, unusual in its first appearance. Saint Paul imagined temporary life only as a wandering, the earth as nothing more than an inn; just as the thought of a wanderer anticipates him, and is already in the house when he is still on the way, so the heart of the Apostle, during his earthly wanderings, was already there, where his treasure is, where God lives in the light, where Christ reigns in glory, where the abode of the Saints and their true and eternal life. This is how he thought and felt, such thoughts and feelings he assumed in all Christians, as participants in the same faith, as heirs of the same eternal life: and therefore, not only about himself, but together with himself and about all of us, he confidently said: “Our life is in heaven.” Just as temporary life is a barely noticeable moment before eternal life, so bodily or sensory life barely deserves the name of life in comparison with spiritual life. The Holy Apostle, while he proclaims a heavenly life, with sorrow and indignation rejects the bodily or sensory life that prevails in some people. “For there are many who walk, whom I told you many times, even now I say even in tears, the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose belly is God, and whose glory is in their cold, who are wise on earth” (Phil. 3:18-19). And a non-spiritual person will be offended if they tell him that he lives only from the womb: even people who do not think spiritually think so lowly about the womb and about the life of the womb. But if every worshiper is without a doubt much lower than his Divinity: then think how low are the people, “who have a belly of God,” who sacrifice time and life, body and soul, gifts of nature and acquisitions in the world to the idol of sensual pleasure! If this is life, then perhaps it is bestial: but human life, much less Christian life, doesn’t have a spark here. What kind of life could there be that we would not be ashamed to call our life? will they say: life of the heart? or: life of the mind? To this I will say regarding the life of the heart that if it is not elevated by a special means, it closely borders on the life of sensuality, and therefore easily falls into the same abyss of baseness that we indicated not long ago; or he conveniently passes into the life of a beast who finds pleasure in what he torments; As for the life of the mind, besides the fact that it rises to a certain height with difficulty, and then only in a few, the earthly mind also hangs over the abyss of sensuality, and there is no human strength in nature that would be sufficient to safely support it. Why does the Apostle put those “whose earthly wisdom is wise” next to those “whose belly is God and whose glory is in their cold,” that is, who, having given themselves over to sensuality, put glory in shameful deeds, and “whose end is destruction” (Phil. 3:19). What kind of life, I ask again, is it possible that we could call ours without being exposed to shame and danger? - Nothing other than the life of the spirit - a life in which “the fish that are on the earth,” that is, sensual lusts and passions, are “put to death” (Col. 3:5) by the cross of Christ, that is, through obedience to His commandments, and through following His example, - a life in which “the mind is captivated into the obedience of faith” (2 Cor. 10:5), and from it it receives pure light in order to see truth, and strength, in order to stand unshakably in it - a life in which “Christ dwells by faith in the hearts” (Eph. 3:17) of people, “and acts through love” in them for inner peace, for outer well-being, for social well-being, for eternal bliss. This life is not earthly, because it kills earthly things; is not earthly, because it is born from a heavenly and Divine seed. It is heavenly life, because although it is sown on earth, it grows into heaven, and even above heaven, it is heavenly, even before the end of visible earthly life, because “the eternal life that was with the Father was proclaimed to us, and it was revealed to us, and as a result of this there is our fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:2-3), there is “communion of the Holy Spirit with us all” ( 2 Cor.13:13); and this communication, without a doubt, is heavenly and above-heavenly. Let us know, let us feel, Christians, the dignity of Christianity. Let us believe the Apostolic proclamation, let us understand this proclamation, let us rejoice in this proclamation that “our life is in heaven.” And if, meanwhile, the vicissitudes of temporary life frighten us, the needs of physical life concern us, the temptations of the flesh are outraged, let us raise our gaze from the dark and rotating earth to the bright and motionless sky, “from there we wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ,” Who will finally stop the vicissitudes of time, and the needs of the body, and the temptations of the flesh, when “he will transform the body of our humility, as if this “I am conformed to the body of His glory,” which He foreordained for us, and in which He encourages us with His transfiguration, resurrection, and ascension. “Our life is in heaven!” In this Apostolic word, I give you, children of the militant Church, weapons against many who fight with you on earth. You are burdened by sadness for the good and beloved deceased. Tell yourself: “our life is in heaven”; It would not be prudent to relax ourselves on the way with sorrow for the one who forestalled us; It is better to strain your strength and attention in order to go the right way to where both lives live. You are tempted by the love of earthly things and the desire for many acquisitions. Say again: “Our life is in heaven,” but here we travel; The traveler does not need to increase the burden of travel supplies too much; It would be absurd to stop on the road and build yourself a magnificent house for the night. They offend you, deprive you of property, honor, rewards. Also tell yourself: “our life is in heaven”; there are our incorruptible treasures, imperishable crowns, eternal rewards. You don't need to care much if you take away your mite along the way; Let us take better care to preserve the priceless inheritance in the house of the Heavenly Father. So, with a strong thought about the heavenly, with faith in the heavenly, with love for the heavenly, with the hope of the heavenly, help, earthly one, over the earthly and the underworld; and strive unceasingly, so that heaven will be filled with Grace in you, so that you will finally be in heaven with eternal glory. Amen. If, after the Ascension of the Lord into heaven, the Apostles stood motionless with their gaze directed there, as if there was nothing left for them on earth: then what remained on it after the Mother of our Lord hid from the earth, ascending invisibly by the way of her Son into His Divine glory? I don’t want to look back at the earth when we see that everything that is good, holy, and divine, flashes over it instantly like lightning, and suddenly disappears like lightning. I would be ready to yearn now, but the Church commands us to celebrate. And this is without a doubt because, having brought us to the edge of everything earthly, at the same time she introduces us to the threshold of heaven, opens before us the staircase of heaven, along which the living staircase of the deity has recently ascended, - she wants us to enter there with a purified mind, before we are worthy to ascend with a resurrected spirit and a glorified body, and so that through undeceiving contemplation we recognize the joyful truth of the apostolic word, that “our life in heaven is from there and we wait for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humility, as if it were to be conformed to the body of His glory.” In decree on Thursday General Love. Spirit. Ave. according to a manuscript unknown to us, it is entitled: Word on the Day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Assumption Cathedral. The beginning of the word in the manuscript reads like this: “The current holiday places (us?) on the edge of everything earthly, on the eve of the open sky. You might be interested in: