183. Слово на обновление древнего храма Успения Пресвятыя Богородицы

(Spoken September 28; printed in the 1844 and 1848 collections) You have risen, having shown mercy to Zion: for the time has come to show mercy to it, for the time has come. For Thy servants are pleased with his stone: and his dust they shall destroy. ( Ps. 102:14–15 ). What are these stones of Zion which the servants of the Lord delight in? “What kind of dust is this that is so dear to them?” – These are the stones and dust of destroyed Jerusalem, and especially the destroyed ancient holy temple of Jerusalem. The Prophet looks at these ruins during the time of the Babylonian captivity; looks at the same time at the spiritual disposition of the Jewish people: and on this view he bases the hope of God’s new favor towards Jerusalem and the church. “You have risen, the protector of Zion.” That is: God will have mercy on Jerusalem and rebuild His church. The Prophet even dares to determine that this should happen soon. “The time has come to reward him, the time has come.” But why does he know that this will happen, and should happen soon? - “For Thy servants have favored his stone, and his dust they will destroy.” That is: because the Jews, with their spiritual dispositions, now show themselves worthy of the name of servants of God; because even before the ruins of the church of God they reverence its ancient shrine; with love, with tenderness they look at the very stones and dust, as at the remains of the sanctuary in which the grace of God dwelt: then we must hope that God will soon have mercy on Jerusalem, restore His church, and again dwell in it with His grace. This hope was actually fulfilled under the High Priest Jesus and Prince Zerubbabel. But is it appropriate for me to talk about the fate of such a great church when I think about the fate of such a small church as this one in which we now find ourselves? – I think it’s not entirely inappropriate. Both are churches of the One True God: therefore it is natural to assume some kind of unity in their fate, although in many different circumstances. Moreover, the small church of Christian sacraments and Christian truth is not too small compared to the great church of the entrance hall and fortune telling. This wooden church stood for two hundred and twenty-seven years, having been created by the Lavra of our Venerable Father Sergius, under the command of our Venerable Father Dionysius; and then it was still presented under the patronage of our Most Holy Lady Theotokos, in memory of Her glorious Assumption, so that, in this memory, She would look upon him with favor, as if upon Her Gethsemane. Time, with its law of decay, carefully touched the corruptible substance on which the blessing of the Saints was placed. But as a person himself sometimes does not sufficiently protect what nature and Providence protect for him, then finally this church was doomed to desolation, and after that to final destruction by fire. At this time, we remembered the ancient admirers of the ancient Jerusalem temple: and how they “delighted its stone”; so to us the very tree of this church of ours, and some of the remains of ancient sacred images in it, seemed precious, worthy of reverent preservation. But just as it was no longer possible to preserve this church in its former place: here, the ancient and the new, we “found the place of the Lord, a dwelling for the God of Jacob” (Ps. 132:5). God our Father! “You have risen, the protector of Zion.” You will “resurrect” in this church an ancient blessing, and “enrich” it with new grace. Let it be, Lord! But what will happen next to this renewed church, and to the new humble dwellings around it? - You weigh, Lord! There will be that which Your omnipotent Word commands to be, which calls the non-existent as if it exists, builds up the destroyed, raises up the fallen, exalts the humble, resurrects the dead, saves the lost. It will be what the prayers of our Saints and Reverend Fathers, Sergius, Nikon, Micah, Joasaph, Serapion, Maximus, Dionysius, and their other associates and co-inhabitants in the earthly and heavenly abodes will ask for. There will be something that our sins, our weaknesses, our unworthiness will not prevent from happening. One of the Fathers asked one of the great Fathers: what is a good deed that I could do so that it would be the work of my life? Abba answered: not all things are equal for everyone. The books say that Abraham was hospitable, and God was with him. Elijah loved silence, and God was with him. David was humble and God was with him. So whatever the soul sees for itself is God’s will: do it. Above all, guard your heart. Whoever wants to imitate Abraham's love of hobbies, David's humility: he, as these very examples show, can practice these virtues everywhere: on the road, in the house, in the village, in the city, on the throne. Is it so easy for someone who chooses Elijah’s love of silence to find an open and unconstrained field for himself? Where is Elijah Carmel or Horeb now? Where is John's Desert? Where are the wild places of Palestine and Egypt, which nature miraculously pleasing to grace made incapable of ordinary human settlements to preserve for the habitation of earthly Angels? The hosts of these Angels moved to their native heaven; their earthly dwellings, almost without a trace, fell into desolation; and in the field of spiritual silence a lonely beast again prowls, or a half-wild man wanders. The love of silence migrated to our countries, and chose for itself caves, forests, places remote not only from dwellings, but also from human paths, of which we have a close example in St. Sergius: but just as, according to the immutable word of Christ, “a city cannot hide itself on top of a standing mountain” (Matthew 5:14); then the highly grown and matured love for silence usually did not remain hidden; attracted students, admirers, visitors; and from the very multitude of lovers or admirers of silence, among other reasons, almost out of necessity, silence became cramped. Meanwhile, the deserts of our countries, by their very nature, less convenient for unstructured desert living in the south, over time became less spacious and free for it than before, due to the influence of the spreading population. So what should we expect? The path of Elijah, the path of John the Baptist, the path of Anthony the Great, should one see oneself abandoned, and weep, just as once, according to the legend of Jeremiah, “the path of Zion wept, for there were none who walked after them on the feast” (Lamentations 1:4)? The world probably would not consider this loss to be serious: but the experience of centuries teaches us not to think so. No one in the cities and villages of Israel found so much strength - only Elijah in the desert found so much strength - so that alone, by sheer strength of spirit, he could victoriously fight against the idolatry that prevailed in his time. The wilderness, and not the universe, had to prepare John so that he would become able to prepare the way of the Lord for the salvation of the universe. The deep desert and complete silence raised Anthony to a great age, so that he could then spiritually give birth, so to speak, to a tribe and generation of earthly Angels who lived in the desert, lived in common life, and held sacred leadership in the Church. What has been said now about Saint Anthony can be said another time, if in place of his name we put the name of Saint Sergius. So, if for the love of perfect silence it is often crowded in monasteries, and not entirely free in wild deserts, but providing her with a shelter favorable to her should be useful now, as it was useful before: then where will we settle her now, in this age there are many rumors? Wouldn't it perhaps be pleasant for her to settle in a small, simple, secluded monastery, protected from rumors as far as possible, under the shadow of the great monastery, just as the once silent Barsanuphius the Great lived in complete solitude, under the shadow of the monastery of Abba Serida? Come, blessed love, to the silence of Iliin, Ioannov, Antoniev, Sergiev! Hide from rumors: but do not hide from those who seek your ways and your traces, your rules and your examples. Sometimes appear to those who are not seeking and who are able to accept you. You remove a person from seeing others, and the more conveniently you allow him to see himself; and “he who is worthy to see himself,” - according to the words of one of your secret places, “is the best to be worthy to see the Angels” (Isaac. Sir. f. 41). You stop conversations with people, and thereby introduce them into a sincere conversation with Christ. You close the door of the outer church and open the inner church of the heart. You give and teach to use weapons against passions. You collect scattered thoughts. You plunge your mind into the depths of the scriptures and draw light. You are perfecting repentance. You find the source of tears. You lead to pure prayer. You teach “silence,” which “is the sacrament of the age to come” (Isaac. Sir. f. 42). Not for everyone, I call love to silence. A life of silence is not for many. But visiting silence should be desirable for everyone. Who does not abolish himself, even once a day, even for a short time, from every external earthly occupation, care, addiction; and does not lead his soul into reverent silence before God: he has not yet known the path of peace for his soul. For this is what the Lord says: “Be of no use, and understand that I am God” (Ps. 45:11). Amen. You might be interested in: