123. Слово в день рождения Его Императорского Высочества, Наследника престола, Государя Цесаревича, Великого Князя, Александра Николаевича

(Spoken in the cathedral church of the Miracle Monastery, April 17th; printed in Christian Reading of 1835 and in collections of 1844 and 1848) Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones: for I say to you, for their angels in heaven always see the face of my heavenly Father. (Matthew 18:10). Glory and thanksgiving to the King of Kings! The birthday of the Blessed Sovereign Tsarevich, Heir to the Throne, returns to us, sons of Russia, not only with the usual joy, but, one might say, with the joy of increasing 562 celebration. His life appears to us, not only as a blessed branch of a blessed root, not only as a beautiful flower, shining with graceful hereditary qualities, but also as a flower, fertilized by an upbringing worthy of high birth and destiny. The Firstborn and Heir of the Tsar, for this very reason, is obviously above everything in the kingdom: but didn’t you see how He appeared first in the ranks of ordinary soldiers, then before their ranks in the lower ranks of military command; how He acquired the signs of these degrees, one after another, by success in the education taught to Him; How did He receive the very name of Tsarevich not only as his property, by right of the Heir to the Throne, but also as a reward, in time, according to merit? This is how His benevolent Parent guided and guides, in order to form in the Heir to the Throne the Heir to the Fatherly virtues: and with his own, so to speak, hand, raising Him to this perfection, at the same time he gives a high, but understandable to everyone, and convincing for everyone, instruction to parents and children. And this now gives me the idea to offer, for the ordinary circle of life, a few thoughts about the special attention that children and their upbringing require. The general rule: take care of the children, does not require long teaching and many arguments. Nature preaches it. She speaks to the hearts of parents in favor of children; and it is not surprising: the life of parents feels its branch in the lives of children, and naturally wants it to grow and bloom. But, what is more surprising, nature in the children themselves speaks for them, and even before they can speak: the sight of a baby softens the parent’s heart, and, if he is helpless, attracts him to help him. The wordless preach to man about caring for children. Most of them feed their children; They guard with care and jealousy, turning into rage, and even with the danger of their lives: and some teach their children what belongs to the perfection inherent in their lives. But man, more than the dumb, is drawn by nature to care for children by an internal impulse, and forced by external necessity. In the dumb, affection for children ends with the immaturity of their age: in man it extends further and remains forever. The children of dumb people come out of a state of helplessness and immaturity more quickly and with fewer benefits than the children of humans. If, with this remark, it occurred to someone to ask: is not a person thus offended in comparison with the dumb? – You can answer this without hesitation: no. And firstly, because some of the imperfections of human birth and life that we notice do not belong to the original, pure nature of man, but, as sacred tradition shows, they are the consequences and signs of its damage by ancestral sin, at the beginning arbitrary, and then hereditary. Secondly, because as dumb people, the more benefits to life they should have received from nature, the less capable they are of increasing them by their action, not having reason; so, on the contrary, it was necessary not to protect man too much with the benefits of nature, so as not to hamper the field provided for his reason and freedom. If the aids and impulses of nature moved a person to the goals of life as powerfully and as easily as the dumb ones, then what would his mind do? Where would his freedom be? Where is the dignity of rational and free choice, merit, virtue, and consequently the high moral bliss of a free being? But, they will say, the perfection of human life, always sought after, is bought at a price, obviously by the pitiful imperfection of its beginning! - Yes, maybe not cheap; That is why precious things are bought. What price could be too dear to purchase the heavenly perfection for which man is prepared on earth? But even the lowest perfections of human earthly life are not so small that one could wish to exchange them for similar perfections of the life of the dumb. Would a person, for example, want to exchange his beautiful, or even simple, house for the dwelling of a beaver, or a bird’s nest, although these latter, by the mere impulse of nature, are easier than the affairs of the human mind, without an architect, without a mason, without a carpenter, without money? This passing justification for the fate of man in the imperfection of his birth does not take me away from the goal of this reflection, but leads me to it. If a person is born more helpless than other animals, and more than them requires benefits to improve his life: then the special fate of humanity says to parents: take care of your children. If nature does not work so hard on a person because it does not want to rule over him as over a slave; because he trusts reason and freedom to process it; and reason and freedom in a person do not open suddenly, and not without help, but require assistance from a reason that was previously open, and direction from freedom that was previously tested and processed: then the dignity of reason and freedom says to parents: take care of the children. If a person, conceived in iniquities and born in sins, must be purified and raised to heavenly perfection, then the miserable beginning, and the high purpose, suddenly, in both a sad and solemn voice, says to the parents: take care of the children. But where Christ speaks, it is best to listen to what He says. “Take heed,” he says, “so that you do not despise one of these little ones: for I say to you, as their angels in heaven see the face of my heavenly Father.” He said this to the Apostles when, “having called the child, set him in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:2): and therefore, although this saying, in the highest sign, as a parable, applied to the infants of the faith, it was not said past natural infants, of whom one was the visible and direct subject of the word of the Lord, and especially not past Christian children, who are usually infants. faith, by baptism. Therefore, every time the Lord, by the hand of His Providence, places a child before you, when it is born to you, or is entrusted to your care by power and law, or is brought into your hands by need and helplessness, you can imagine that the Lord looks at it and says to you: “Be careful that you do not despise one of these little ones.” And how strongly He reinforces this commandment! “Amen, for I say to you, for their angels in heaven will always see the face of my heavenly Father.” That is: “Angels” serve as guardians of children; Consequently, they pay attention to them, care about them, respect them: how can you leave them without care, without attention, in neglect? Their angels are “in heaven” and descend to earth for them: wouldn’t you want to bend your earthly pride to their small age? Their angels “can see the face of the Heavenly Father,” and from this blissful contemplation they turn their gaze to the swaddling clothes and the cradle, and their ears to the crying or babbling of the baby: will it seem to you either boring or a small matter to care for these little ones? And who sends Angels to human babies? Who else if not the Creator of Angels and Men Himself? Think about it: heaven moves to preserve the life or integrity of your baby on earth; and are there among you those who, without compassion, hear the cry of a baby on the knees of poverty, who look at the growth of their own children with no more attention, as at grass growing in a field? Let us wish that there are no such hard-hearted or so negligent, and we will not talk about them anymore. Adhering to the word of the Lord, let’s say a few words about how carefully one should pay attention to children and care for them. “Be careful that you do not despise one of these little ones.” Beware that such neglect does not creep in while you are not disposed to indulge in it consciously. “Be careful,” parents and educators, “so that you do not despise one of these little ones,” whom you have given birth to and whom you are raising. You, perhaps, do not even suspect the possibility of this contempt: that is why it is said: be careful, beware, “watch out.” They neglect children if, according to experience, they belong to a nurse, nanny, overseer, matron, more than their father and mother, and more than is necessary. Nature, or better, the Creator of nature, gives to the same person both the milk of a nurse and the care of a nanny. It is true that sharing these services is often forced, more or less, either by the mother’s weakness or by her other duties; but if this is done only out of an inclination towards a carefree life, out of thoughtless imitation of examples of such carelessness: then it would be better for a good mother to think about whether to suddenly take a mother away from two babies - both from the nurse’s baby and from her own, and whether to force her baby to drink from the nurse’s breast, perhaps out of longing for her own offspring, instead of him drinking love from the breast of his mother. A mother who feeds and carries her baby in her arms, a father who, in moments of rest from his work, also takes him in his arms and teaches him the first names of what is sacred and dear - “watch and do not despise” - they are doing a wonderful and important thing: they enjoy these activities, the child also enjoys; and at the same time, parental love and kindness constantly sows the seeds of childish love and kindness in the child’s heart, and by early and abundant sowing prepares a abundant harvest. They neglect children if they only want to amuse them and be amused by them, and especially when the time comes to teach them more than to amuse them. Such careless treatment of children exposes, and the ancient Sage gives advice against it in the following sayings: “Care the child, and he will frighten thee; play with him, and he will make you sad. Don't laugh with him, and don't worry about him. Punish your son, and do it to him, so that he does not stumble in his lack of judgment” (Sir.30:9-10, 13). That parental love is wise and saving, which, while constraining itself, somewhat withholds affection towards children, is somewhat skimpy on consoling them in order to save this as an encouragement and reward for their obedience or success in useful learning. They neglect their children, even if they teach them, but it is more pleasant than useful. Pleasant arts and knowledge provide human life, so to speak, with seasonings and delicacies, and not bread and food: wouldn’t it be strange to carefully collect as many seasonings and delicacies for the table as possible, and not worry about whether there will be bread and food? They neglect children if they are more diligent in teaching them what is useful for temporary life than what is saving for the immortal soul; if they more carefully furnish their heads with a set of words and concepts than cultivate the heap of their hearts, plucking from it the wild herbs of wrong inclinations and habits, planting in it good feelings towards virtue, protecting it from the winds of frivolity and from the storms of passions; if, during education, they do not sufficiently remember and do not sufficiently put into practice, how important in itself, just as beneficial for all branches of knowledge, is the beginning of the teaching: “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; intelligence is good to all who do it” (that is, good knowledge is good for those who use it for good deeds); “Godliness is the beginning of affection” (Prov. 1:7). You are training your children to be future citizens, warriors, writers, writers, artists, industrialists: good; but “take heed and do not despise” - do not neglect what is even better, that very thing in which “their Angels” want to help you process, who “in heaven they see the face of your heavenly Father” - do not neglect the education in them of the sons of the Church, the preparation of future citizens of heaven. I leave it to the listeners to continue these reflections: for I have reason to think that attention to the subject of these reflections, that is, to the upbringing of children, is quite widespread. The example of the Tsar, the blessed Father and caring Educator, and the example of the Firstborn Tsarev, expanding the young wing in the wake of the great eagle flight of the Parent, shines majestically and delightfully for both parents, and children, and educators, and the educated; and beneficial care for the upbringing of children extends from the highest to the middle, and even to the lower classes of the people. On this very day, the citizenship of this Capital opens a monument to the unforgettable day of coming of age of the Sovereign Tsarevich, Heir to the Throne: and this monument will not be soulless marble or copper, but an eight-decade of youthful souls from whom poverty took away the hope of a good upbringing, and who will receive this blessing from the good souls of the Russians, grateful to God for their Tsar, the glory of Russia, and for His Heir, the hope Russia. Truly, thanks be to the King of the Kings, who graciously preserves and increases the virtues of the Throne, and hence spreads all goodness throughout the kingdom and people. Let His angels, the guardians of Kings and Kingdoms, take up arms around Our Most Pious Sovereign Emperor, His Most Pious Empress wife, His Blessed Heir, and around the entire August House; and by protecting Them, thereby protecting the good and salvation of all Russia. Amen. In the Author's manuscript, instead of this word it reads: increasing with the age of this culprit of the present... You might be interested in: