143. Слово в день торжественного венчания и помазания на царство Благочестивейшаго Государя Императора Николая Павловича

(Spoken August 22; printed in the 1844 and 1848 collections) And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day onwards. (1 Samuel 16:13). The Spirit of God moves over David. What a high state! Without a doubt, it was also very beneficial for David. Without a doubt, from the Spirit of God hovering over him, bright rays descended into his mind to enlighten him in the knowledge of what is true, pleasing to God and saving; Holy sparks fell into the heart to ignite it with good intentions and saving deeds, and his whole being was filled with the highest power, with which he began difficult deeds with boldness and completed them without fatigue. For if the presence of the Spirit of God were not marked by such beneficial influences, then what could these words mean, how could these words be said: “The Spirit of the Lord moved over David from that day and after?” But what happy day was it that brought David from the ordinary to such an exalted state of grace? - This is the day of his anointing as king of the people of God, as the first book of Kings clearly speaks of this. “And Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day, and afterwards” (1 Sam. 16:13). Is it possible to think that David forgot a day so remarkable in his life? Isn’t it more likely, on the contrary, that he remembered it, and at each turn of the annual circle of days he met it with special attention, with reverence for God, with thanksgiving, with prayer for the continuation of the beneficial overshadowing of the Spirit of the Lord? And in what deep and sacred antiquity we encounter the thought of the solemn day of royal anointing! And this is the deep basis on which this thought is affirmed, precisely on the action of the Spirit of the Lord in the royal anointing! In this, in my opinion, lies the true explanation of the importance of ours, pious Russians, of this solemn day. The God who commanded the anointing of David to the kingdom, is not the same God by whom kings still reign today? So He blessed and sanctified the wedding and anointing and our King. From the day of anointing, the Spirit of His Grace has hovered over the Anointed One. And just as the real memorable day of the wedding and anointing to the Kingdom of our Most Pious Autocrat is obviously connected with the day of the event itself: shouldn’t we think that on this day especially the Spirit of the Lord looks into our hearts, so that, according to the measure of our faith, according to the sincerity of our thanks for the past, according to the zeal and purity of our prayers for the future, to extend His blessed overshadowing over the Tsar and the kingdom, beneficial to the Tsar, beneficial and saving for the kingdom. May this day be for us as joyful and solemn as it is sacred. May he inspire both love for the King and reverence for the King of those who reign. Let joy move the hearts: but let prayer also lift up souls under the gracious overshadowing of the Spirit of the Lord. Meanwhile, the thought of the sacred importance of royal anointing leads me to some thoughts about the importance of sacred and sacramental institutions in general. In our times, the human mind, having heard enough from History that previously people made many mistakes in the sensual way of thinking about spiritual objects and in superstition, and that such a state is called the childhood of humanity and reason, thinks the more accurately it is to show itself as having emerged from childhood, the less it respects the sensual types of Religion. People who do not like subordination to the institutions of Religion, but who do not find the strength to reject the very thought of Religion, look in the concept of its spirituality for a reason to free themselves from the power of its institutions. Thus two doubts will be born, one worse than the other: do sacred institutions have intrinsic importance and power? Even, do sensory forms and ritual institutions of Religion need a spiritual person? Those who strive to bring these doubts to the point of unhappy certainty, imaginary zealots of the spirit, known to them only by name, dare to contrast the importance and even the need of sacred, sacramental and ritual institutions with the word of the Lord to the Samaritan: “The Spirit is God, and whoever worships Him is worthy to worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). The audacity is incredible even after we saw it! Was it not the same Lord who established the Sacraments, and clothed their inner power with sensual forms and ritual actions? So, can His word refute His own decrees? How can the Wisdom of God contradict itself and destroy itself? To determine the exact meaning of the Lord’s words about spiritual worship, it should be noted that the Samaritan’s doubt, in response to which these words were uttered, was not about the importance or need for the visible institutions of Religion in general. She was sure of both the need and the importance of them, when she did not dare to be indifferent to them, but cared to make sure which of the two Divine Services known to her was correct and saving, Samaria or Jerusalem. And the Lord did not shake her confidence, but affirmed it when he approved the Jerusalem sacred ritual service as consistent with the true knowledge of God and leading to salvation. “We,” that is, those who worship God in Jerusalem, “we worship Him, for there is salvation from the Jews” (John 4:22). In this way, the Lord led the Samaritan woman from the Samaritan schism to the Jewish orthodoxy. But if He had only stopped there, He would have left it on the path to the truth, without bringing it to perfect truth. It was necessary to prepare her mind for the highest Christian faith, ready to appear with its new institutions on the ruins of the Jewish institutions. Therefore, the Lord continues: “the hour is coming, when you will worship the Father, neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21): that is, soon not only the incorrect Samaritan worship will collapse, but also the legal Jewish one will cease to be correct, and will also be destroyed. And so that this does not seem to be a foreshadowing of the complete destruction of Divine services, especially for the Samaritan woman, who is accustomed to measure the dignity of Divine services only by the holiness of the place, and so that her thoughts, attached to only sensual types of Religion, may be raised to the highest degree of spiritual understanding, the Lord continues: “The hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” ( John 4:23). That is: soon Divine services will no longer be tied to one holy place, such as Jerusalem; but nevertheless it will be holy, and even more perfect; because it is more spiritual, and therefore more worthy of God as a spiritual being, and more true, instead of the fact that Jewish worship consists of prototypes of the expected truth, and incomprehensible prototypes remain only sensory forms without spirit. Thus, the word of the Lord, from the sensual forms of worship, leads to the worship of God in spirit and truth, but does not reject them, since they are manifestations of the spirit and the vestment of truth: for otherwise, when worshiping in the spirit, it would be necessary to reject even the words of human language, which, in their purest use, are not the essence of the spirit and truth itself, but only the manifestation of the spirit and the vestment of truth. However, confirmation that spiritual worship of God does not reject sensual forms of worship, and even has a need for them, is not yet a satisfactory knowledge of the importance of them. How can this inquiry be achieved? Human reason is not a reliable guide to this; because, not being able to find out the hidden things in his own house, how can he explore and comprehend the hidden things of the great house of God? Not understanding how the human soul is united with the body, he would in vain strive to rise above himself and understand how in Divine institutions the material is united with the spiritual, the earthly with the heavenly, the natural with the supernatural, and how important this connection is for the production of grace-filled and saving actions in man. The spiritual, inner experience of the high, powerful and beneficial action of sacred-mysterious institutions is the closest knowledge of their power and importance for those who have such experiences. But here we encounter the difficulty that true and complete experiences of this kind occur only with pure and perfect faith: and such faith is not a common property; and in those who have acquired it, it is not always available to open inquiry. A complete believer receives inner experiences as a gift of Grace, as a fruit of faith, beyond the need for his identification. A person of little faith, if he wishes to achieve the same experiences to certify himself, may not achieve them due to his very lack of faith. Is it not possible, however, to find a means to take advantage of such experiences that we ourselves may not yet be capable of? -Such a means is careful observation of the spiritual experiences of people of proven holiness and faith; and especially over such experiences as, so to speak, God himself institutes and performs on believers, tangibly revealing invisible grace in order to excite, attract and confirm faith. We encountered an example of such an experience at the beginning of this word: let us turn to it again. God ordained David to be king for His people; and wants to announce this appointment to David and his family before the time has come to actually fulfill the predestination. Samuel is chosen as an instrument of God. What is needed for this? - It seems that you just have to go and say the word. Is any other special action needed? Which? Miraculous for David's identification? – The young Prophet will simply believe the aged Prophet, who from his youth is known to all of Israel as the true Prophet of God. Ritual for solemnity? – This, it seems, would not even be appropriate; because this is not yet the actual and solemn accession of David, but only a secret announcement, which during the event would serve as evidence of the will of God. But what does the Lord say to Samuel? – “Fill your horn with oil” (1 Samuel 16:1). And then: “Arise and anoint David” (1 Samuel 16:12). If one cannot think that God would do anything unnecessary or useless (for to think so would be Blasphemy), then one must conclude that in this case the anointing was beneficial even in the eyes of God, and therefore one cannot help but recognize it as important for man. This is even more clear from the direct effect of the anointing on David: “his anointing in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the Lord moved upon David from that day and after.” Here is the experimental knowledge that sacred anointing is not a simple rite to impress the audience, but a dead sign associated with the signified only in thoughts, and not in reality, but a mysterious action, in which the sensory appearance is invisibly accompanied or imbued with spiritual and Divine power, and with the pouring of oil on the anointed one is connected the influx of grace. I won't collect examples. And one clear and reliable one can enlighten a lot. Let us hasten to accept admonition. If the Old Testament sacred-ritual actions turn out to have such importance and power, whereas they were only “the shadow of things to come” (Col. 2:17), while “the Holy Spirit was not with him” poured out abundantly, “for Jesus was not glorified” (John 7:39): then what should we think about the New Testament sacred-mysterious institutions, which received their origin from Jesus Christ Himself, whereas “from His fulfillment we have all received and received grace” (John 1:16); whereas the life-giving currents of the Holy Spirit, which poured out abundantly on the Apostles, because Jesus was already glorified, flow continuously and water the entire fulfillment of the Church, because the glorified Jesus remains with her “always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20)? Are these institutions not more important, are they not more filled with grace? What kind of attention do they require? What reverence? To be baptized, according to the word of the Lord, is “to be born of water and of the Spirit” (John 3:5). We are all baptized. Well? Do we think that we are carrying within ourselves a new spiritual birth? Do we strive to preserve, nourish, and restore this higher birth? The Lord spoke at the mystical supper, and with each repetition of the same sacred rite he says here: “This is My body: this is My blood” (Matthew 26:26-28). Where is the Body and Blood of the Lord, crucified, but also risen: there, without a doubt, is His Spirit and His Divinity; there He Himself is present: there we stand close before Him, before Whom even the Angels tremble: and do we internally feel His closeness? at least, do we think about it reverently? Do we sometimes forget ourselves here, just as we would not allow ourselves to forget ourselves in the presence of the great ones of the earth? The Lord said: “The words that I speak, they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). These very verbs announce us in the Gospel; Consequently, spirit and life emanate from them. How from afar, and with what effort, he rushed to meet the words of our Lord, who put these words into the mouth of the spiritual, mysterious bride of this Divine Bridegroom: “My soul went forth into His word” (Song. 5:6)! Does our soul, with such closeness, approach the word of the Lord with reverent attention? Does our heart open by faith to receive the spirit and life in the words of the Gospel? Does it not happen that spirit and life flow in the proclamation of these verbs; and we remain without inner feeling and movement, like dead stones in the streams of a living stream? Let's shorten the word. Everything sacred in the Church is imbued with the spirit of Grace. Let us bring reverence and faith; and let us accept Grace. Otherwise, the very proximity of Grace will condemn our carelessness and negligence all the more gravely. Amen. You might be interested in: