200. Слово по освящении устроенного при Московской Глазной больнице храма Христа Спасителя, отверзающего очи слепому

(Said October 28; printed separately and in the 1848 collection) Glory to the Lord, Lover of Mankind! Glory to the Lord, the Giver of Light! He looked with the eye of Divine love for mankind on our distressed brethren, deprived, or threatened with deprivation, of the light of their eyes, and moved human love for mankind to arrange this refuge for them, and to provide them with reliable means of healing. But this was not enough for Christian philanthropy. He also took care that the mutual “judgment” that the Lord pointed out in the days of His flesh would not be repeated here, “that those who do not see may see” – bodily, “and those who see blind will be blind” – spiritually (John 9:39), so that those who seek here relief in communicating with the light of the sun will not encounter difficulties in communicating with the light of Christ. And so, among the physical physician, a spiritual physician appeared, an open treasury of blessed light. Glory to the Lord, the Giver of Light! Glory to the Lord, Lover of Mankind! Blessed be the instruments of His love for mankind. May His life-giving light pour abundantly onto them and through them. May the judgment of mercy always operate here: “let those who do not see see.” May the giver of light save us from the judgment of rejection: “let those who see be blind.” In order to protect ourselves from this final, very sad judgment, we must remember, brethren, that we have a source of light and spiritual eye healing in the Gospel. Let us not miss this opportunity to take advantage of this medical benefit, which is never superfluous to anyone, because it allows those who do not see to see, and increases light for those who see. From the Gospel we have now heard the story of how our Savior gave sight to a man blind from birth, using clay from spitting and washing in the font of Siloam. This miracle is marvelous, and, moreover, the method of miracles is remarkable and arouses reflection. Although we cannot test the depths of the wisdom of God, it is nevertheless true that we have the command to “test the scriptures” (John 5:39); and, as Saint Chrysostom says (on John Conversations 57), “whoever wants to gain any benefit from reading should not omit even small verbs.” What do the verbs mean: “I will spit on the ground, and make clay from the spitting, and anoint the eyes of the blind with clay”; and then: “Go, wash in the pool of Siloamste” (John 9:6–7)? Why in other cases did the Lord heal with a word, sometimes with a touch; and now he also consumes foreign substances, earthly dust and water? Why not just dust, and not just water, but both? Firstly, probably in order to arouse, test and demonstrate the faith of the person being healed, which is necessary for healing and edifying for us. He did this on other occasions as well. Why, for example, did he ask the weakened man: “Do you want to be whole?” ( John 5:6 ) Didn’t he know, out of omniscience, what he wanted? And isn’t it simply clear that a weakened person wants to be healthy? Consequently, I asked not in order to find out, but in order to lift the spirit that had fallen from helplessness into hopelessness, to arouse faith, and thereby begin healing. Likewise, the blind man, putting clay on his eyes, made him feel His love for mankind and condescension towards the beggar, aroused trust and hope in him; and therefore, when, following this, he sent him to the pool of Siloam, the blind man did not doubt that the clay had no effect, did not think that the water of Siloam promised no more, but went without question, and thus did the work of faith. Secondly, the clay from spitting and Siloam were used by the Lord, probably so that the miracle work, to the eclipse of which the efforts of the Jewish host He foresaw, would acquire many witnesses. How many prying eyes did the blind man attract when he walked to the font in a strange form, with his eyes anointed with clay, how many eyes were there at the font itself, during his very epiphany, and when he returned with eyes already seeing! All who saw this knew that the water of Siloam does not give sight, and the dust from the road even less so: consequently, everyone recognized a Divine miracle in the sight of the man born blind. Thirdly, there is, probably, in the material signs of Christ’s miracles also, - I will say again in the words of St. Chrysostom, - “a great and in the depths of the hidden mind.” Did not the dust of the earth, which Jesus took and created sight for the blind man, speak about Him to the Jews: recognize in Him that original and supreme Wonderworker, Who, according to the oldest of your sacred books, took the dust of the earth and created man? “Siloam is said to have been sent” (John 9:7), that is, whose name means “messenger,” - Siloam, who gave the sight sent from Jesus to the blind, did not he speak to the Jews about him: recognize in Him the “Messenger” of God, Whom I foretold to you long ago in my still not deciphered, and now only deciphered name? This is enough about the hidden mind of the verbs and signs of the Gospel. Let us take from the same Gospel narrative a more open saying of the Lord, which can lead us into reflection closer to the guidance and management of our lives. “It is fitting for me,” said the Lord before healing the man born blind, “to work the works of Him who sent Me, until it is day; night will come, when no one can do it” (John 9:4). The Son of God, omnipotent and omnifree, proclaims His duty to do the works of His heavenly Father for the salvation of men, and His submission to this duty; It is as if He encourages Himself to do urgent things while there is time, “until there is day.” What is this for? - Without a doubt, in order to give us an example and instruction to respect our duties, humbly repent of them, fulfill them zealously and without delay. In order to more deeply sense the power of this instruction and apply it to our lives, let us pay attention, firstly, to the fact that the Lord moves Himself to do something that happened in passing. “Mimoid,” says the Evangelist, “in the form of a man, blind from birth” (John 9:1). A blind beggar was sitting on the road: the Lord Jesus passed by. It is not visible that the blind man called upon Him or asked for healing. There seemed to be no reason to stop; there was no need to act. But the Lord Jesus stops and says: “It is fitting for me to do.” Why is this so? Because goodness motivates; because philanthropy demands; because there is an opportunity to do a good deed; because a good deed that can be done on this day and at this hour should not be postponed until another; because an opportunity for good can pass, and with the lost opportunity the good that it favored would be lost. Is it necessary to remind you, Christians, so that, in the image of Christ, you do not pass by a beggar or otherwise unfortunate person without providing him with help, if you can, and so that you do not wait for cries and tears when the very sight of misfortune, without words, reminds you of help? Or, even without me, on occasion, will your heart remind you of this? There is a matter that is not so random, and more close to each of us, requiring all our care. Did God the Father send one Christ, did Christ choose only the Apostles to do the works of Him who sent them? And you, whoever you are, was not sent into this world by God, your Creator and Seer of your ways? And if he sent you, did not He who sent you also give you work? Christ was sent by God the Father, Christ called the Apostles to do the work of saving all human souls - at least all who agree to accept salvation: God sent you into this world, Christ called you into His Church to do the work of saving at least one of your own souls - a work that you will not accomplish without Christ, but which Christ will not accomplish without you, without the participation of freedom, which was given to you at creation, and you do not have inseparable. The Lord of the Jews once asked about this matter: “What shall we do, that we may do the works of God?” and received a clear answer: “This is the work of God, that you may believe in Him, His messenger” (John 6:28–29). The work of God was accomplished over the blind man in Jerusalem by the fact that he received his sight, but even more so by the fact that he believed in Christ: has something similar happened to your soul, son of new Jerusalem? Isn’t your inner man still sitting, like a blind man, at the crossroads—is he not sitting in the darkness of ignorance and in the mortal shadow of sin, not seeing the light of God, nor the path of salvation, barely knowing the name of Christ the Savior, not experiencing the action of His saving power over himself? Christ the Savior for His part does not pass by any of us. In His boundless wisdom, constantly marching towards countless goals of beneficence and bliss of His various creations, in His boundless mercy He stops over each of us; He approaches with saving help ready for everyone: but how often we, in our frivolity, do not recognize His closeness to us, do not accept His help, or do not preserve what we have accepted! Has He not already washed us in a font better than the one in Siloam - in the font of holy baptism? And for those who did not maintain purity after baptism, have you not prepared a new bath of repentance? In mysterious images and sacred signs, does He not offer us His saving power, just as He once gave light-giving power to the blind man in the clay of His spitting? Does He not shine His Divine light on us from His Gospel? How much He has done and is doing for us: how much are we for Him, and together for our true good? How many matters of need and arbitrariness we have, matters of temporary gain and momentary pleasure, matters of vanity and passion! How willingly we seek them out, multiply them, exhaust ourselves with them: and yet how little, how imperfectly, do many of us use convenient and ready-made means of saving work? We need, brethren, to reduce, reduce, cut off worries about the affairs of the corruptible flesh and the transitory world, and awaken ourselves to active care for our immortal soul. We must base our activity on the truth that of all the affairs in the world, the most important are those that take place between God and the soul - the matter of repentance, the matter of faith, the matter of prayer, the matter of our spiritual enlightenment and sanctification. “It is proper to do the works of God.” Another remarkable circumstance of the Lord’s saying about the saving work is that with this saying He stopped the inquisitive conversation and hastened to the work of healing. Seeing a man born blind, the disciples asked the Lord: “Have this man sinned, or have his parents sinned and been born blind?” The question seems worthy of a thorough solution; I was very inclined to understand the ways of Providence. But the Lord with a few words rejected human guesses: “neither this one sinned, nor his parents”; and with even more intense brevity he indicated the path of God: “that the works of God might be revealed in him” (John 9:2-3). This answer provided the opportunity for a new question: why did he endure blindness before the works of God appeared on him? But the Lord did not allow the competition to continue, and immediately added: “It is fitting for me to do the works of Him who sent Me,” and began to heal the man born blind. This quick transition from an inquisitive conversation to a saving deed is very significant. He told the Apostles: one should not become stagnant in the testing of the hidden when one should do what is useful; It is not a test of fate that the unfortunate person needs, but help; the one born blind will justify his fate when he gains his sight, and at the same time, for a short-term deprivation of visible light, will receive blessed enlightenment with the eternal Divine light; Christ did not appear to satisfy the curious, but to save the perishing; let there be less words, but more action: “It is fitting for me to do.” Doesn’t this say something for our deeds, both for deeds of benefit and mercy, and for the main work of salvation? Sometimes, at the sight of a beggar, a searching thought says to us: Has this sinned? Is it not because of his sin that he is poor? Is it because of idleness? Is it not from intemperance? Isn't he pretending to be a beggar? Whoever easily indulges in such thoughts exposes himself to the danger of condemning the innocent, and, moreover, the unfortunate, missing opportunities for charity, and finally losing his disposition for charity. How to protect yourself from this danger? – We must remember that in relation to the needy, duty and benefit do not consist in testing and judging, but in doing good: “it is proper to do.” Better a good-natured deed than a delicate test. Better is a blind contribution to a beggar from the heart than a discerning coldness of heart. And in relation to the matter of our salvation, do people who imagine themselves to be more discerning than others propose questions to themselves that are more difficult than beneficial? How could it happen that the Ancestors sinned? How did we inherit sin and punishment from them? How does the death of Jesus Christ blot out all sins and destroy their consequences? Anyone who unnecessarily goes into such tests can easily get confused in them and be stopped on the way to the task. Hurry up to resolve everything briefly. You see that there is sin in the world. You feel that there is sin in you too. And how Christ heals from sin and frees from eternal condemnation, go and find out by doing it yourself. Repent, believe, begin to actively lead a Christian life. "It's the right thing to do." Your diligent work will, without a doubt, be followed by the wonderful work of God, and in it the wisdom of God, hidden in mystery, will appear to you. Another edifying circumstance for us about the Lord’s saying about saving work is that He moved Himself to do it, despite the foreseeable difficulties on the part of people. It is known that the Jews “persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him” (John 5:16), for performing healings on the Sabbath day, which was a holiday according to that time, recognizing this as a violation of the holiness of the holiday; although it is not difficult to understand that if the day is sacred with the remembrance of the past blessings of God; then how much more is he hallowed by the real miraculous good deed of God. This unfavorable consequence, no doubt, was before the eyes of the omniscience of Jesus when He began to heal the man born blind: and, it seems, why not postpone the matter until the next day, so that no reason would be given for controversy and slander? Such reasoning would have been considered prudent by the sons of men, but the wisdom of the Son of God did not accept it. She teaches us that the tasks entrusted to us by God cannot be put off to please people; that they must be fulfilled strictly and unswervingly, as long as there is time. “It’s proper to do it until the day is over.” The prevailing way of thinking today, of course, will not require great strictness in observing the holidays. He would rather rebel against this severity. You would like to devote the entire holiday day to prayer, thinking about God, and doing good, as it should be according to the purpose of the holiday: but only a few hours of the holiday morning are left for you for this; and for almost the entire day they invite you to participate in societies and activities that are completely worldly and vain, if not completely sinful; and if you refuse, you have reason to fear that you will seem strange and that they will be indignant at you. What will you do? What will you decide on? Be quite reasonable, beloved; say to yourself: it is fitting for me and always, and even more so on the day of the Lord, to do deeds pleasing to the Lord. Oh, if only you were strong enough to turn these words into action! But in order not to continue the word too much, let us hasten to draw attention to the fact that the Lord Himself hastens with His saving work. “It is fitting for me to work until it is day; the night will come when no one can do anything” (John 9:4). Oh Lord! Should you hurry up and save some day? - Is it for you, who created all days, who has all eternity for your wonderful works? What kind of day is it that You want to fit Your works into? What is the night that can threaten Your day? The Lord explains His parable when He says: “Whenever I am in the world, I am the Light of the world” (John 9:5). The presence of the sun determines the natural day: the presence of the Sun of Truth, God manifested in the flesh, visible on earth, determines the blessed day of a special Divine work. The night after this day is the time of suffering and death of Christ. O night in which no one can truly do anything! During the earthly day of Christ, not only Christ, but also His Apostles, under the leadership of this Great Worker, did much. They believed in Him, followed Him, preached, healed: all this stopped when the terrible night came, until the new day of the resurrection of Christ. “The night when no one else can do anything.” How greatly this stormy night shook the faith planted by the Lord Jesus in the hearts of His disciples! How far off it was already that Satan, who asked to sow them like wheat, would scatter them to the end, and that the work of salvation, accomplished in the middle of the earth on the cross, would at the same time be destroyed in the souls of those chosen to spread it! In order to prevent this, our Savior had to do a lot in advance, deeply lay the foundations of faith in his first disciples, and strongly strengthen them, either by teaching, or by miracles, or by His all-powerful prayer. Having all this before the eyes of His omniscience, He, as if valuing time and hastening, says: “It is fitting for me to do the works of Him who sent Me, until the day is.” Do you see, short-lived son of time, how the Eternal Himself protects the time that you waste? He will not touch the work of your salvation, but you are slow in the work of your own salvation. He hurries: and you put it off. In the morning you say: I’ll start work at noon; at noon you also make yourself a promise for the evening; in the evening you put it off still, thinking that this is not the last hour. In your youth you say: I will take care of my soul in my years of maturity; in mature years, more entertained than before by the affairs of everyday life, you calm yourself with the hope of living in old age for God and for the soul; in old age you secure yourself with the thought that you can still bring pure repentance during your last illness. This is how morning passes, and noon, and evening, and after this, of course, it is very likely that the mortal “night when no one can do anything” will find you unprepared. Don’t point me to the robber who, in the last minutes of his day, did more than others did throughout their entire day. Such success is not quite reliable, because it is rare, and, perhaps, it is not given easily, but especially to people who in their past worldly life had some deeds that secretly attracted grace. But here is what is known much more accurately: the day of the earth always ends in the evening; and the day of human life is often cut off by the night of death before the evening, before noon. In this case, where will the hopes of the one who postpones go, if not into hellish night, in which no one can do what was not done during the day of earthly life, which has irrevocably passed? Moreover, we must not lose sight of the fact that the time to do certain things that serve our salvation sometimes meets its end before the day of life ends. Now, for example, you live in abundance: it is good for you if you hasten to do deeds of mercy, “until there is day.” Maybe, literally, the next night, a thief or fire, or another accident will make it so that you will not be able to “make for yourself friends from mammon of unrighteousness, and when you become depleted” of other virtues, “they will receive you into eternal shelter” (Luke 16:9). Through the prayers of the Holy Fathers, may the grace of God awaken us all to “do things” pleasing to God and useful to our souls, “until there is day”, and bring them to such perfection that they can “walk with us” (Rev. 14:13), and through the night of death penetrate with us to a new, better, non-evening day of blessed resurrection and eternal life. Amen. You might be interested in: