132. Слово в день обретения мощей Святителя Алексия

(Said in the Chudov Monastery, May 20th; printed in the Christian Readings of 1838 and in the collections of 1844 and 1848) Remember your mentors, who spoke the word of God to you, and as they look to the end of their lives, imitate their faith. ( Heb. 13:7 ). This day is one of those on which the Church with particular solemnity calls us to fulfill the Apostolic Testament, which I have now read. According to its establishment, we now remember our God-wise mentor, Saint Alexy, who, just as during the entire time of his Holiness spoke the word of God with grace-filled power for the edification of the verbal flock of Christ, so he especially labored in the pure speaking of the word of God, when he believed the Slavic translation of the Holy Gospel with the Greek original, both from the imperfections of the old dialect and from typos inattentive scribes, cleared and corrected. This feat is important, by the way, because through it the Saint, enlightened by God, previously exposed the wrong opinion of people who came after him, who even to this day claim that in sacred and church books, correcting a copyist’s mistake and replacing an incomprehensible translation word with an understandable one is impermissible and contrary to Orthodoxy. They say: according to old uncorrected books, famous Saints were saved and saved; To correct such books means to spoil them. If Saint Alexy had reasoned this way, then of course he would neither have checked the translation nor corrected the manuscript of the Gospel; but he should have taken the book of the Gospel, which in his time was in the Assumption Cathedral, and said: by this book St. Peter was saved and was saved; there is nothing to verify or correct here. But he believed and corrected: and therefore, obviously, he did not reason in the same way as the new zealots of not very old antiquity, but in exactly the same way as the Orthodox Church of ancient times and now argues, that is, that the saving truth of Christ is the same in both the uncorrected and corrected sacred and church books; but that, for the preservation and dissemination of this very truth, a good book is better than a faulty one. As the beginning and justification for church study and correction of books in subsequent times, God's Providence preserved for us the book of the Holy Gospel studied and corrected by Saint Alexis: and it appeared to your eyes at this very sacred service, being carried by the deacon to the holy altar. You see, brethren, the beneficence of the Apostolic Testament. We remembered our mentor: and from this memory we immediately received instruction useful for the entire Church. But let us delve a little deeper into the testament of the Holy Apostle Paul about the reverent remembrance of our mentors. “Remember your teachers who spoke the word of God to you.” There is something sad in these words. They remember something that no longer exists. And so, when the Apostle bequeaths the commemoration of the God-speaking mentors, he thereby says that they no longer exist, and almost predicts that there will be no others like them. For since it is easier to use what we have and see than what we do not see and what has already passed, there would not be much need to worry about remembering former mentors if those like them continuously flourished in the Church. But the Apostle is concerned about remembering former mentors: apparently he does not hope that in their successors those being mentored will fully acquire the same spirit and strength, the same deeds and virtues, the same word and the same example. Unfortunately, the experiences of many centuries testify that this prediction is correct. Isn’t it possible to hear complaints today: where are the Saints now? Where are the seers or miracle workers? Where are the teachers who would speak the word of God with such power and guide us to salvation with such fidelity as Peter or Paul, or even like some of the Spirit-bearers who were after the Apostles? The Apostolic Testament brought us to a truly sad look, to remember our mentors. But look how it can also give us consolation. They complain that there are no Saints now. Let me note in passing that this opinion should not be exaggerated. There must be many, or few, who are now Saints; and it cannot be that they did not exist at all: for without the Saints the world would not be worthy of God’s keeping, and could not stand. “His seed is holy” (Is. 6:13). We can say that there are no Saints in the world now, just as Father Alexy the man of God would say that he has no son in his house, and no Saint, while his son lived in his house, and there was a Holy husband, but he was closed, both from his father and from others, in the image of a beggar. One can more justly mourn that God-enlightened mentors and Saints are now too rare; that they are not visible, that spiritual immaturity is noticeable in spiritual people. Well? How can we console ourselves in this sorrow? How to fill the noted deficiency? – Take in the past what you do not find in the present: “remember your teachers who spoke the word of God to you” before. True, remembering the mentors of the deceased is not the same as using the living: but is this difference too great, and isn’t one worth the other? Instruction from a living mentor is close and convenient when we see and hear it; his word and example in this case are as alive to us as he himself: an important advantage! But living in the body, like us, no matter who he is, he is still subject to temptations, and is not freed from the possibility of stumbling, and, perhaps, in his fall, carrying away those being taught with him. On the contrary, the deceased mentor, whose life and end of life is marked by the presence of the grace of God in him, whose pure teaching is justified by a holy life, and the holiness of life is confirmed by a holy and blessed death, is a leader to salvation, decisively reliable and uncompromising, and is, moreover, a helper all the more powerful and inexhaustible because, having put aside the corruption and weakness of earthly life, he lives in unhindered communion of the light and power of God: a high and incomparable advantage! As for the closeness and acceptability of spiritual instruction and help: closeness in the spirit is not measured by areas of life and distances of place and time, but by thought, desire and love, contemplation, prayer and faith. Faith can bring you closer to a reverently remembered mentor, almost the same as with someone present: for it also brings you closer to this spiritually beneficial person, and not just seeing a face and hearing a word. Faith, through scripture or tradition, will bring to life before you the teaching and example of the mentor who went to God; and through prayer he will acquire for you his effective prayer to God for you, and real help. In this way, “remember your mentors”: and without a doubt, you will be satisfied in the needs of your spirit so that there will be no need to complain about the imperfection or poverty of modern instruction. Wonderful, brethren, is the dispensation of the Kingdom of Christ! Our weaknesses, our shortcomings, threaten to deprive you of the spiritual instruction you need. What is the most merciful and providential Lord doing? Completing the lack of mentors of the living, He, before the general resurrection, resurrects in some way the mentors of the dead, and, even before the complete opening of the kingdom of heaven, on earth in His heavenly kingdom, that is, in His Church, in a special way “creates them,” according to the explanation of the Mystic John, “Kings and Priests” (Rev. 1:6), the heavenly together and the earthly hierarchy, “Jeres,” offering up effective prayer for you directly to the heavenly altar - “Kings” who have the power to guide you well to peace and salvation through miraculous help. You are afraid of not finding a single spiritual instruction near you, in due time. He gives you all spiritual mentors, from all times of the entire Ecumenical Church, and in them he makes available to you all spiritual knowledge and experiences, all gifts and powers of grace. At the same time, not without regret and not without surprise, I remember that some of the Christians do not want to remember the mentors who pleased God with the memory of piety and faith, and especially to resort to their help in prayers. There is no need, they say, for any intercession before God except the intercession of Christ; and the intercession of ordinary people would have offended the intercession of the God-man. This wisdom is the same as if someone decided to assert that in the kingdom, not even in the smallest matters, one should resort to no one but the king, and through no one other than the king’s son; and that he who resorts to the mediation of subordinate authorities and the king’s slaves, who have access to his throne, insults the supreme dignity of the king and the high intercession of his son. Is it not the king who, by his power 578, acts through his subordinate powers? Is it not his mercy that people resort to through his loyal slaves? Is it not God and Christ who acts and is glorified through His Saints? Is it not through them that humble prayer-books resort to His grace, considering themselves unworthy to directly approach God and Christ? Isn’t it completely in accordance with the extreme purity of the Divine and with His extreme condescension and mercy that our prayers, imperfect and unrefined, are purified by the helping prayer of the Saints and made capable of being accepted on the heavenly mental altar. But let us return once again to the testament of the Apostle. Having commanded us to remember our Holy mentors, he indicates the purpose of this remembrance, so that we, “looking at the end of their lives,” “would imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). That we, by the grace of God, preserve the Apostolic Commandment, this very meeting testifies to this, for the sake of the memory of our God-wise mentor, Saint Alexy. It remains for us to think and take care about whether we are going exactly towards the goal indicated by the Apostolic Commandment. The striking thunder forces others to cross themselves: misfortune, illness, sadness, brings to their memory the Saints as comforters, healers, helpers, and encourages them to call on them. It is also good that in troubles we resort to the intercession and help of the Saints; Of course, this is better than completely forgetting them: but it is not enough to remember them only on occasions and temporary needs. The most important thing of all needs is to remember them to imitate their faith and the inseparable consequence of true faith, their godly life. Only the memory of the Saints is pleasing to them and to God, and salutary to those who perform it, which is done with a sincere desire to imitate them, and to achieve complete communion with them in the light of God through reification and ourselves. Amen. In Christ's Reading: Isn't it the royal power... 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