205. Слово в день Святаго Мученика Благоверного Царевича Димитрия

(Said on May 15 in the Archangel Cathedral; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1846 and in the collection of 1848) If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you. (John 15:18). The world sometimes does things that are not only terrible for those they hate, but also hateful for those they love. But does he have any means to calm or console people affected by such matters? Bring to the judgment of the world itself the deed that one of the great forces of the world, the passion of ambition, committed against the king’s son, without being softened by the innocence of the youth and without being afraid of the blood consecrated from the ancestors for the good of the people. Without a doubt, the world will say that this is terrible and hateful. What can he do to make amends or correct this terrible and hateful thing? Jesus Christ alone creates this miracle, that the evil that the world does and which cannot be destroyed is not only destroyed, but also turns into good for those suffering from the world; that a terrible and hateful event can be looked upon calmly and with love; that, contrary to natural concepts and feelings, according to which even a successful death can be sad, an ill-fated death becomes the subject of celebration: because this is the death of the martyr of Christ; because “the death of His saints is honorable before the Lord” (Ps. 116:6). So the world in evil is self-condemned and powerless! So Jesus Christ is powerful and victorious in goodness! Therefore, our Lord, anticipating His disciples and followers about the hatred of the world, does not care either to reconcile them with the world, as unworthy of their union, or to arm them against it, as a weak opponent, but only warns them so that the hatred they accidentally encounter does not lead them into fear and confusion. He teaches us to look at it indifferently, as if it’s nothing new. “Even if the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you.” Truly learn, Christian, not to be afraid of the hatred of the world if it rises up against you because you follow Christ, because you try to think piously and live virtuously. Some may think that the Lord’s instruction not to be afraid of the hatred of the world does not apply to them, and is not given for our times and circumstances. It was necessary for the first followers of Christ, who lived among the enemies and persecutors of Christianity. We live Christians among Christians. The world that once hated Christians has, over the course of time, been reborn into a Christian world. Who does not know “the victory that has overcome the world is our faith” (1 John 5:4)? Beware, mental victorious ones, triumphant in a victory that may not yet be for you, or not yet acquired for you! The world is defeated, but not destroyed. He still lives, and still hates those who are Christ’s, or are actively trying to be such. The world, conquered by the irresistible truth of faith, as if involuntarily captivated into its obedience, and therefore admitted into its visible region, did not completely put aside, but only hid during this transition its ancient properties, imperceptibly brought into it and spread its own spirit in it, and thus this enemy of Christ and Christianity found itself within the boundaries of Christianity itself. Hiding behind the name of the Christian world, he acts freely and tries to form a worldly Christianity for himself, to transform the sons of faith into sons of the world, not to allow the sons of the world to be reborn into the true life of faith, and against those who do not repent of this he arms himself with various weapons of untruth, temptation, reproach, ridicule, contempt, slander, and cruelty. If you now want to see what has been said in undoubted experiments: look in the chronicle! Who so often aroused enmity, discord, confusion among Christianity itself, often persecuted the best of Christians, and tried to extinguish the lamps of faith? Who filled Christianity with martyrs who suffered from people who were also called Christians? Who turned the life of Athanasius the Great for the most part into the pilgrimage of an exile? Who did not leave a calm day in the life of Vasily the Great and Gregory the Theologian? Who imprisoned Chrysostom? Who was the reason that many saints fled from Christian cities and found themselves safer in the desert among the beasts? Who slaughtered this holy sacrifice so criminally, and still strived to dishonor the death of the blessed Tsarevich, until it was glorified by God? Who? Are they really Christians, whose spirit inspired by Christ is the spirit of love, peace, meekness, gentleness, obedience, patience, mutual edification in all virtue? Of course, this is a world that was once gloriously defeated by our faith, but then, according to different times, in different ways, now with the tools of false wisdom, now with impulses of passions, the actions of temptation, seduction and, finally, brute force, it resumed and is renewing the battle, not without sad success for us, not because the invincible Christian faith has become weak, but because of our arbitrary weakening and cowardice. If the Lord, faithful in the protection of His faith and “who does not leave one to be tempted beyond strength” (1 Cor. 10:13), in our time, does not allow such strong temptations to affect our weakness as before: the world, however, even now has its arrows against those who are truly Christ’s, or actively desire to be such. And although these are, in the words of the Psalmist, “baby arrows”: but they can also inflict “ulcers” (Ps. 63:8) on those who are infantilely weak in the faith. For example, when those clothed in the mind of Christ “speak the hidden wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 2:7), they preach the doctrine of the deep sinful damage of human nature, about self-sacrifice, about regeneration, about the inner man, about the contemplative life, about the actions of the “Holy Spirit”, by which, according to the explanation of St. John of Damascus, “every soul is alive and exalted by purity”, and finally “is illuminated by the Trinity unity of the sacred mystery” 672: does not the superficial wisdom of the world rebel against this deep teaching, as if against dreaming and dangerous innovation, although this teaching can be called new only because it is the teaching of the new, and not the old man, and dangerous only for the sinful flesh, because this is where her crucification lies? Or, if one of the people, by their position in society, in the eyes of the world, completely surrendering to the attraction of the Christian spirit, decided to reject all external splendor, luxury, spectacles, amusements, entertainment, to squander their property only on the poor, to cleave exclusively to the church of God: would the world not pursue this fugitive with its wounding gaze? Will he not direct arrows of wit at him? Will there not be people who will doubt his sanity just because he does not apply to the world and its unhealthy concepts and wrong rules? So, it must be recognized that Christ denounced the hatred of the world against the followers of Christ not only existed before, but continues to this day. And if we want to be impartial, we must admit, I think, to many of us that there is both a false fear produced by this hatred, and a cowardly pleasing to the world, precisely in order not to be subjected to this hatred. For this reason, prudent people allow themselves to do frivolous things; people who highly value honesty indulge in activities that honesty does not value very highly. The most ordinary prudence can judge that play is a child’s exercise, and therefore it is only occasionally permissible for people of mature age and intelligence to relieve their strength after long stress during important activities. How can we explain this strange phenomenon of community life, that societies of people of mature age and intelligence, at designated hours of every day, are engaged in play, almost more inadmissibly, than in the matter of title and service? This can only be explained by the fact that the prudent, although they internally recognize the vanity of this exercise, are afraid of being excommunicated from a society in which vanity has become the law, and therefore they servile to vanity, and kill time with it, and more than one time. It is not difficult for Christian prudence to appreciate the art that was once awarded in the person of Herodias with the truncated head of a preacher of repentance and chastity, already from this very memory unpleasant for the reflective, and generally not worthy of respect, like a game, and, moreover, not friendly “with a quiet and silent life” (1 Tim. 2:2), to which Christianity disposes. Why do Christians and Christian women enter the field of this art so often, in such numbers, as if inevitably? Not to condemnation, but to the apology of many, we can believe that this is out of fear that the world will not punish with contempt for contempt for the laws of the world. Anyone respected in society by the title of chief or judge knows and feels how good it is to have hands clean from untruth and bribery. But he is afraid that the world will not humiliate his noble poverty: and after this it is impossible to guarantee that he will not open his hand for gifts of gratitude, and for this it is difficult to guarantee that he will not open it for an unjust reward. These are cases that show how, in the most ordinary course of life, a Christian is tempted by the fear of the hatred of the world, and how through this he can become either, through some involuntary servitude, a slave of the world, or willingly its friend. But what next? Fearing being rejected by the world, he can go so far as to be rejected by God. For “no one can work for two masters” (Matthew 6:24). “Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). What to be afraid of? - Christ the Lord speaks to you. Your condition is not extraordinary; your danger is not unexpected. Look at your Teacher and Lord, and know that He endured the hatred of the world before you, and, moreover, beyond comparison, the most cruel than anything that can touch you. “Keep in mind that He hated Me before you” (John 15:18). But, Lord! What consolation is there for those who are hated by the world, that You were hated by them before us? Isn’t it our deepest sorrow that You, Love itself, were hated? Isn’t the greatest danger for us that You, Life itself, were killed by the haters? Let us not doubt, Christians, the consolation of the Lord! If “everything that was written was written for our instruction, so that through patience and the consolation of the scriptures the hope of the imams” (Rom. 15:4): then is it possible that the word of the Lord, especially spoken for consolation, was not a rich source of consolation for us? If this source is deep: let’s deepen it as we draw it, attention! The deeper we go, the more abundantly we will draw. “Be aware,” he says, “that I hated Me before you.” Knowing that Christ was hated by the world is comforting for us Christians, firstly, because this can serve to free us from doubt as to whether we are on the right path. For the world, which hates us for Christ, tries to give its hatred the appearance that it is not at enmity against us for Christ, but condemns us as not truly walking the path of Christ. The way of thinking and life governed by Christian principles, and therefore not as sensual and scattered as they are loved in the world, the world calls unreasonable severity, stubbornness, strangeness, simplicity and humility - smallness and baseness of spirit, disposition towards spiritual exercises and contemplative life - a tendency to daydreaming. But when we hear that even to Christ, during His divine acts and words, those who did not understand the mysteries of Divinity and salvation said: “This word is cruel” (John 6:60), “He speaks blasphemies” (Luke 5:21), “There are furious people” (John 10:20): then the reproaches of the world against us cease to be terrible; because they compare our path to the path of Christ. Then the thorns on which we walk do not so much hurt us as encourage us, as a sign of the path of Christ. Then the bitter cup that is served to us is sweetened by the confidence that we “drink the cup that our Lord drank” (Matthew 20:22); and therefore it is not a cup of wrath, but a cup of salvation. Secondly, knowing that our Lord was hated by the world gives us comfort because through this we can discern the consequences of the hatred we suffer from the world and the end of our misfortunes. If the hatred of the world against the Lord had not ended in the victory and glory of the Lord, then He could not have pointed it out to the consolation of His disciples who were hated by the world. But when, seeing ourselves on His thorny path, we see the end of this path for Him, then for us we see the end of the same path. So let them slander the truth; let them hate love; let life be killed: truth will be justified, love will triumph, life will be resurrected. Thirdly, and without further details, it is comforting for those hated by the world to know that the Lord was hated by the world because in this they are conformed to His beloved and longed-for image. Would it really be more pleasant for a Christian to be loved by a Christ-hating world? No. Let the world hate us, despise us, reject us: this hatred is kind; glorious is this contempt; This rejection is pleasant, as it brings us closer to Christ and makes us like Him. Grant us, Lord, to approach You, if not through deeds of perfect virtue, at least through complacent patience in opposition and sorrow, out of faith and love for You, in the image of Your patience! But save us from the misfortune of cowardice, so that, out of fear of opposition and sorrow, we do not servile to the passions and vanity of the world that hates You! Do this by Thy grace, merciful to sinners, wondrous among saints, glorified forever! Amen. You might be interested in: