173. Слово в день обретения мощей Преподобного Сергия

(Spoken on June 5th at the Trinity Lavra; published separately and in collections of 1844 and 1848) Amen, amen, I say to you, for whatever you ask from the Father in My name, He will give it to you. Until now, do not ask for anything in My name: ask and you will receive, that your joy will be filled. ( John 16:23–24 ). Prayer is one of the highest needs of the human soul, one of the essential accessories of God-worship. The soul, immersed in sensuality, scattered in the world, darkened by sin, does not feel that, in its beginning, it is the breath from the mouth of God: but the power of this feeling, without its knowledge, arises from its depths, and moves the heart to God, even if it were to the unknown, or only erroneously known. Therefore, in any Divine service, from the spiritual to the sensual, from the enlightened to the ignorant, the essence and soul usually consists of the invocation of the Divine, and consequently prayer. Although in the Old Testament institutions the most important solemnity of the Divine service was sacrifices: but the sacrifice was always either a mediator or a representative of prayer, and the rising smoke of the burning sacrifice was represented as a chariot on which prayer wanted to reach heaven. But the work of prayer, ever present for all times, common to all people, have people finally learned to do it, always to perfection, always with complete success? – Who doesn’t know that no! With consolation I see myself among the cathedral offering prayers to the true, One God in the Trinity, according to the God-given church rite, under the intercession of the perfect man of prayer, our Venerable Father Sergius. He “asked”, “and received” what was desired for his soul, and “filled with joy” from heaven: and he also “asked and received” what was beneficial for those who flowed with faith to his intercession. It’s as if he established a ladder here for our unconsecrated prayers, which we place here with his holy relics, and which he lifts with his prayers, strengthens, cleanses and raises to the heavenly mental altar of the Lord. And of course there is no shortage of experienced witnesses to fulfilled prayers. But with all this, one cannot help but admit that here, too, not everyone “asks and receives,” and therefore not everyone is “filled with joy.” What in this case is done with the promise that our Lord and Savior so confidently pronounced: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you; “Ask and you will receive, so that your joy will be filled”? Does this promise really remain unfulfilled? Or does it not apply to us? We should not, brethren, doubt that the Lord’s promise about the success of prayer also applies to us. He gave this as one of His last testaments when He left the world and, through the cross and death, went to His Father; and He Himself explained that the blessings then originally bequeathed to the Apostles should belong not to them alone, but to all who “believe in Him for their sake” (John 17:20). All Christians are the heirs of these. But it should be noted that with the Lord’s promise about the success of prayer is connected the teaching about the method of prayer and encouragement to practice it. Whoever faithfully follows the teaching and is excited by encouragement to prayer, the promise of prayer will also be faithfully fulfilled. An important teaching for the success of prayer is that it should be offered in the name of the Lord Jesus. “Whatever you ask from the Father in My name, He will give it to you.” The Apostles had already been disciples of the Lord Jesus for more than one year, they had already been taught from Him the Lord’s Prayer, which is known to us from them, when He revealed to them what they still lacked for their prayer to be decisively successful: “Until now, ask nothing in My name.” This happened to them, perhaps because until now they saw in Him more a teacher and benefactor of mankind than the Intercessor of God and men: for in this latter capacity He was revealed especially by His suffering, death and resurrection. But be that as it may, if the Apostles did not suddenly learn to offer prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus, shall we rush to boast that we have achieved enough in this teaching? In the seemingly insignificant silence with which Heaven so usually greets our grievous petitions, is not hidden more often than we think the meek denunciation of the Heart-reader Jesus: “Until now, do not ask for anything in My name”? What does it mean to “ask in the name of the Lord Jesus”? – This is simply for simple, sincere and humble hearts, and, without investigative explanation, it is either understandable to them or tangible. “Thy name is poured out in peace” (Song. 1:2), Lord Jesus! When the myrrh is poured out, its fragrance spreads, and the undulled or unsuppressed sense of smell, without art or effort, receives a sensation that is delightful and invigorating. When the name of the Lord Jesus is poured out in prayer: the fragrance of the Holy Spirit spreads from it; and the heart, not burdened by earthly attachments, not drowned out by passions, the inner feeling easily and simply accepts the feeling of grace, delighting and elevating. So the believing soul, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and through the grace of the Holy Spirit, approaches the Heavenly Father, and with boldness cries out to Him: “Abba Father”; and with childish simplicity he tells Him his petitions; and He favorably accepts her petitions, accompanied by the intercession of His Only Begotten Son and Consubstantial Spirit. So it can and should be with everyone, according to the power of the name of the Lord Jesus, which is the same for everyone: but it does not happen with many, according to their own dispositions, because their hearts have become dull, because their souls are indignant, and their inner feelings are drowned out by passions, because their own wisdom is not defeated before the grace of God. For such people, the power of the Jesus name is like the fragrance of the world before a damaged sense, in a closed vessel. It takes art, it takes effort to purify the feeling, to open the vessel of the Divine world - the art of reverent reflection; - effort of attention in prayer. Think, poor soul, that without communication with God you cannot be blessed; but you also cannot have access to God on your own. Paradise, in which God once walked and talked with man, has been lost through sin, and is closed from you by God’s justice. It was possible to become a sinner in paradise, and for that be expelled from it; but you cannot enter it as a sinner. The flaming weapon of the Cherub blocks his entrance from you; the curse thunders against you; the law condemns you. On the other hand, you do not have the strength to escape from the realm of darkness by yourself: because by hereditary and arbitrary inclination you were sold into sin; and since the region of sin belongs to the dominion of him who has the power of death, will you, enslaved, overcome your enslavers? Will you, being sold, redeem yourself from slavery? “What will a man give in exchange for his soul” (Matthew 16:26)? But after this, think, previously poor and now almost blessed soul, what the Only Begotten Son of God Jesus Christ did for you. He came down from heaven to bring the Divinity closer to you, to which without this you could not approach. Marvelously and incomprehensibly, He partook of your created nature, your flesh and blood, except for sin, in order to lay the foundation for your ascent with His extreme condescension, so that you could graciously and savingly be a partaker of His Divine nature, His life-giving flesh and blood. Being sinless, He took upon Himself your sins, along with the sins of the whole world, so that their weight would not overwhelm you and the whole world. He bore the oath, condemnation, death, and torment you deserved, and thereby earned and prepared for you blessing, justification, life, and bliss. He passed through death and through hell itself for you, in order to open a new and living path for you everywhere, and by His resurrection and ascension He opened for you not only the doors of heaven, but also the doors of heaven, also sending down light and power from above, for your ascent in His footsteps. As a reduction of His works for you, as a pledge of His gifts, as a key to the treasures of grace, He gave your faith, love and hope His Divine name and said: “Whatever you ask from the Father in My name, He will give it to you.” With these and similar thoughts, admonish yourself, O Christian soul, of what good the name of the Lord Jesus contains for you, and open the feeling of your heart so that it can enjoy the Divine fragrance of this “poured out world.” Understand that truly praying to the Heavenly Father in the name of the Lord Jesus means not only pronouncing the sounds of this name with your lips, but especially raising the attention of the mind to Himself, embracing Him with faith, and accepting Him into your heart with love. To pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ means by faith and desire to put on Christ, that is, in His obedience to His Father, in His suffering, purifying for us, in His life-giving death, in His justification and sanctification, in His Divine merit for us, in His power, properties and example, with these holy and sanctifying vestments to cover and transform our unworthiness, and thus with approach the Eternal Father with trust, who cannot deny anything to the virtues and merits of His Only Begotten Son, in Whom His eternal blessing rests. It belongs to such prayer books, and, to the extent of their faith and faithfulness, the immutable promise of the Lord Jesus is faithfully fulfilled in them: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, he will give it to you.” A promise of success in prayer, so magnificent, from a Promiser so powerful, so faithful, Who not only guarantees the fulfillment of the promise, but also actively intercedes for its fulfillment - is not such a promise at the same time an encouragement to prayer, so strong that no further reminder or insistence is needed? So it would seem that it should be: but, apparently, that is not what the Promiser foresees; and, not content with the promise, as if fearing that it would not go unnoticed and used, he also encourages prayer with a direct command and urgent exhortation: “Ask and you will receive, that your joy will be filled.” Truly, in human nature there is a strange duality and contradiction of directions: on the one hand, a feeling of need for the Divine and a desire to communicate with God, on the other, some kind of secret reluctance to engage in the Divine, and an inclination to run away from an interview with God. And it’s not difficult to understand why this is so. The first of these directions belongs to pristine nature, and the last to nature damaged by sin. This is the continuation to this day of the movement that appeared in the Ancestors after the first violation of the commandment of God. “They heard the voice of the Lord God going into paradise at noon, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God” (Gen. 3:8). O children, no longer so much Adam’s as God’s in Christ! We hear the voice of the Lord, no longer disconcerting by denunciation of sin, although this is not so much difficult as it is beneficial, not thundering with a curse, although, however, fear is a means of salvation, but meekly and kindly calling us to go and take from the Heavenly Father the blessings that we have lost through sin. Shall we not follow the voice of the Lord? If the king of the earth commanded to proclaim that whoever would come and pronounce before him the name of his beloved son, he would receive a rich gift from his treasures: do you think that it would be necessary to persuade his servants so that they would take advantage of this? How everyone would run! How they would try to forestall each other before the royal treasures are exhausted! But the Heavenly King, through His Only Begotten Son, proclaimed that everyone who asks in the name of this Son has the power to receive from His inexhaustible and incorruptible treasures everything he desires, everything with which an immortal soul can be enriched and become blessed forever. Well? Does everyone run to Him? Does everyone lift up the name of His Son, and at the same time their petitions and prayers? No! Here He confirms His promise, commands, convinces: “Ask and you will receive.” What now? Has everyone come to their senses? Did everyone feel their negligence, recklessness, and ingratitude? Still not! - “It is true for you, Lord, but for us it is a disgrace to our faces” (Dan.9:8). Let us admire God's generosity and long-suffering, brethren. Let us be ashamed of our laziness and inattention. Let us raise ourselves to spiritual activity, rousing the mind from inattention, gathering from dispersion, cleansing from evil and vain thoughts, and the heart from passions and vicious desires. “Be patient in prayer, watchful in it with thanksgiving” (Col. 4:2). “And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father” (Col. 3:17). Let us cease to hinder, but strive to help fulfill in us the Lord’s command and promise: “Ask and receive, that your joy may be filled.” Amen. You might be interested in: