159. Слово в день рождения Благочестивейшаго Государя Императора Николая Павловича

(Said in the Assumption Cathedral on June 25; printed separately and in collections of 1844 and 1848) Stand in faith, take courage, be strong: let all love come to you. (1 Cor. 16:13–14). If the law of reciprocity prescribed by the Apostle extends to all members of the Church: “comfort one another, and edify each other” (1 Thessalonians 5:11), since it is expressed without exception or limitation: then is it not sometimes necessary for those appointed in the Church to give consolation and edification, to borrow consolation and edification, or at least an opportunity for edification, from those very ones who stand as those who receive edification? “I can really do this now.” I see a gathering of the sons of the Fatherland, standing in joyful, grateful and benevolent prayer for the Father of the Fatherland, remembering the day on which Providence gave the earth life, according to its purpose, beneficial and protective for millions of lives. According to our common sympathy, I recognize in this the blessed effect of the blessed love for the Anointed of God, with which foreigners are surprised in Russians, and with surprise they give evidence of superiority. So from you I accept consolation, to see in you one of the important branches of Christian love, already vegetated and bearing fruit. And with this, I take the opportunity from you to offer for our common edification a few thoughts about Christian love, which is not content with showing its strength in some areas, but strives to fill the entire field of life and activity. The vast and comprehensive law of love was concluded by the Holy Apostle Paul in a few words: “let all love be given to you.” Whatever you do, you must do “with love,” as if by universal power and universal instrument; everything should be done out of love, for the sake of love, at least with the help and participation of love. The Apostle did not express whether he meant love for God in his saying, or love for one’s neighbor, or both. But just before this, he said about relationships with God in another saying: “stand in faith”: then we must conclude that he was thinking about relationships with neighbors, and therefore, probably, about love for neighbors, when he said: “Let all love be given to you.” Such should have been the reason for his saying and due to the circumstances in which he wrote this to the Corinthians. He found strife among them: that is why he needed to teach them that they should establish all mutual relations on the basis of mutual love. However, love for one's neighbor is represented here in the immediate action; but love for God is not excluded: because love for God is the soul of true love for one’s neighbor. “Let all love be with you”: what a boundless region the Apostle represents for the action of love! A thought worthy of deep attention! Just as there is a correspondence between the height of power and between the space of the region over which it extends its influence, so there is a correspondence between the height of love and between the space of the region in which it acts. If someone came to me with questions: should one love someone? Should anything be done with love? then I would not answer, but would hasten to retreat from the questioner: because such questions can only be proposed by one standing on the threshold of hell. Only where the “murderer of men from the beginning” (John 8:44) reigns, do they think decisively that it is possible to be completely without love, that love is weakness, that strength is hatred: consequently, the question of the possibility of being without love is the threshold of hell. On this side of the door of hell, the question may not be about the complete negation of love, but perhaps about its objects, types, degrees and space or restrictions on its area. Let us imagine love contained in a more or less close circle of kinship, acquaintance, reciprocity: and let us see what its dignity is. Do fathers and mothers need a feat to love their child? Does a baby need to learn to love his father and mother? If in this love everything is done by nature, without achievement and almost without the knowledge of man: then where is the dignity of virtue? “It’s just a natural feeling that we notice even in speechless people.” Lack of love for parents or children is a deeply low vice: but love for parents and children is not yet a high virtue, except in special cases when it is elevated by the self-denial and self-sacrifice associated with it. There is no need to go into study about the dignity of reciprocal love, with which those who love are loved, after the judgment that the infallible and impartial Judge pronounced over it: “If you love those who love, what grace is there for you? for even sinners who love them love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what grace have you? for even women who sin do the same things” (Luke 6:32–33). “And if you kiss your friends only: what are you doing in excess? Don’t the pagans do the same things” (Matthew 5:47)? These considerations place us between two opposites, between which there is, however, no separate middle, and from which we must inevitably fall into one. If we limit our love to our relatives, those we know, those who love us: then we are not in heavenly grace, but in earthly, imperfect nature; our dignity hardly rises above the measure of sinners and pagans, and, perhaps, does not rise far above the likeness of the dumb. If we recognize the insufficiency of nature, and thirst for grace; if we remain on the side of sinners we are considered low, disastrous, and destructive; if we feel our calling to a higher virtue than what the pagans achieved, then we should not limit our love to our relatives, those who know us, those who love us, but extend it beyond these limits, from relatives to strangers, from the known to the unknown, from the loving to the unloving, in a word, to everyone. Anyone whose heart has not yet expanded to universal love may wonder how the love of one person can extend to such a boundless area? The Apostle of Love, Saint John the Theologian, will help us resolve this bewilderment. He says: “Whoever loves him who has begotten him also loves him who is born of Him” (1 John 5:1). To this we can add: everyone who loves the Creator also loves the creation of the loving Creator. And so love the one God; and you will love all the children of God. Love the Creator, and it will not be difficult for you to love the creatures that He lovingly created and preserves. As for matters of love; for them there is an order indicated by another Apostle: “let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are close to us in the faith” (Gal. 6:10). Do good primarily to those close to you by faith, by family, by fatherland: but do not set a limit here for your love; and as soon as you meet an opportunity, as long as you have the means, help someone else’s poverty; have pity on the misfortune of the foreigner; “deny the heretic of man” (Tit. 3:10), that is, his false and harmful teachings, but have mercy on man and in other faiths, have mercy, promote his good, especially spiritual. However, the law of universal love, which strives to embrace all people, must necessarily give a person so much to do that there will be no room for leisure from the exercise of love. Therefore, the Apostle preaches the universality of love, which embraces all deeds, and subordinates everything to it. “Let all love be with you.” There are matters in which love participates by itself, so that neither teaching nor admonition is needed. So with love a father caresses, a mother nourishes her child; With love, the son responds to the call of his father and mother, serves, helps. But there are other things to which love is not so close, and in which not everyone will remember it. It is especially necessary for these to experience the beneficial power of the Apostolic teaching about love that is all-effective, or that promotes everything. “What does it mean: “Let all love be with you”?” - asks Saint Chrysostom. And he answers: “if anyone forbids, if anyone has it, if anyone has it, or if we have it, if anyone is learning, if anyone is teaching, let him do everything with love.” What, as essentially necessary, did the Lord look for in Peter when he wanted to place him in the teaching and priestly ministry? - Love. Three times He asked: “Do Simone Jonas love Me?” and not before, out of assurance of love, did he pronounce the command: “Feed My sheep; feed my lambs” (John 21:15–17). True, the question: “Do you love Me more than these?” obviously pointed to Peter’s previous arrogant assurance: “even if all are offended because of You, I will never be offended” (Matthew 26:33), and the threefold renunciation of Christ was atone for by the threefold confirmation of love for Christ; it was a gentle penance for the repentant and repentant Peter. But nevertheless, this also applied to the entrusted service. The Lord knew that whoever loves Him will love His sheep; and that for the shepherd and for the sheep, shepherd's love is more reliable than a rod, and more pleasant than a pipe. This is a unique case, but together it is an example for everyone. A teacher who acts by knowledge alone without love offers stale or even stone bread to the hungry and weak. A teaching that is not accepted by a loving heart is a seed sown in the snow. Knowledge without love is the winter sun, which does not revive and does not regenerate. So, whoever learns or teaches, let him do this with love. If a ruler or one who has everything thinks to do everything by the power of power alone, without using the power of love, then, of necessity, he will have to overextend one power in place of another, and thus will aggravate the burden of subordination, which he could lighten, and will destroy the union that he wants to cement: for the “bond of perfection”, the most perfect connection between people, is “love” (Col. 3:14). If the subject does not unite free love with the necessary obedience, then he hardens the yoke for himself, which love would soften. Without trying to be the son of the possessor in his heart, noticeably or inconspicuously, he prevents the possessor from being a father for him. So, if anyone has, let him possess with love; if we have, let him obey with love. Should we also “prohibit,” as St. Chrysostom put it, that is, scold and punish with love? - Definitely with love, if the prohibition must be Christian and saving. Why do they scold? Why are they punished? Is it really in order to rage in anger, take revenge and punish? What mind would approve of this? What heart, in moments of dispassion, will not turn away from this? Why can, or should, scold? - in order to explain to the guilty his guilt and its burden. Why punish? - in order to stop or prevent evil, and to encourage the sinner to correct. It is not difficult to notice that this purpose of punishment is prescribed by none other than love. And who better than her can fulfill this purpose? She can also prevent reproof from turning into anger, so that uncontrollable anger does not embitter the guilty instead of correction, so that severity does not extend to cruelty; she sheds life-giving balm on the wound that punishment inflicts. So, if anyone forbids and punishes, let him do this with love. Brethren! Again, “I would like you to remember this only for those who are leading you” (Jude 1:5): what new, last, only commandment did our Lord leave for us, as a distinctive sign of His disciples? “I give you a new commandment,” he says, “that you love one another” (John 13:34). Are there still enough commandments? Are there not enough virtues? Why didn't He mention anything except love? Without a doubt, according to foreknowledge that if there is love, then all the virtues will be fulfilled, and all the commandments will be fulfilled. So, both according to the commandment of the Lord and according to the teaching of the Apostle, “let all love be given to you.” Amen. You might be interested in: