214. Слово в день обретения мощей преподобного Сергия

(Said in the Sergius Lavra on July 5; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1847 and in the collection of 1861) Those who are Christ's are crucified in the flesh with passions and lusts. (Gal.5:24). The Church has the custom of proclaiming this saying of the Apostle when commemorating venerable men whose earthly life, like the life of the now glorified Venerable Father Sergius, was especially clearly marked by the actions of crucifying the flesh with passions and lusts. This combination of teaching and example is wise and useful. If the actions of mortification in the life of the Saint seem extraordinary to you, the Apostolic word shows you that they are nevertheless correct. If in the Apostolic word the thought of mortification frightens you, the life of the Holy One can calm you down, presenting this thought happily put into action. It is not easy to say to yourself decisively: I will crucify the flesh. But it is not easy to decide to say the opposite of this: I will not crucify the flesh. An important circumstance in our destiny depends on one or another decision: to be or not to be Christ’s. “They who are like Christ have crucified their flesh with passions and lusts.” So, if we want to be Christ’s, we must crucify the flesh. And if we do not want to crucify the flesh, then we cannot promise ourselves that we will be Christ’s. If we are not Christ’s, then who will get us? In the kingdom of heaven, of course, there will be no one except those “who are Christ’s”, and consequently no one except those who “have crucified the flesh with passions and lusts.” After this reflection, it should not seem to any of us that some inquiry into what it means to crucify the flesh with passions and lusts, and why this is necessary, and how this can be fulfilled, should not seem to outsiders. The flesh is not the same as the body. The body, with its natural properties and actions, was created by God, and not created for death. From the violation of God's commandment, from eating the forbidden fruit, the flesh begins to be known, whose lot is death. The apostle represents the flesh as “resisting” the spirit, and explains its essence through its actions and appearances. He says: “The essence of the works of the flesh has been revealed, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, adultery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, zeal, envy, wrath, incitement, strife, temptations, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, disorderly outcries, and the like” (Gal. 5:17, 19-21). Therefore, under the name flesh we must understand pride and sensuality aroused in a person, which reveals itself to be a false life in passions and lusts, and in deeds governed by passions and lusts. With this concept of the flesh, the thought of the crucifixion of the flesh not only begins to be understandable, but also ceases to be scary. To kill the feeling of anger, to kill the disposition to kill, is obviously not a destructive action, but a protective one. Crucifying the inclination to debauchery, of course, is not torture, but protection from a spiritually and materially painful state, to which the path of depravity leads more or less slowly. These actions do not even seem like a difficult feat: because damaged human nature generally retains so much kindness as to avert murder and debauchery, except in exceptional cases of descent into the depths of evil. Particular attention should be paid to the fact that the Apostolic word, among the works of the flesh that alienate one from the inheritance of the kingdom of God, includes not only grave crimes and base vices, but also quite ordinary disorder among people, such as “zeal, strife, disorderly cries and the like”; - that it condemns to crucifixion not only the passions and lusts of the flesh, obvious and gross, but also the flesh itself, that is, the more subtle and hidden beginning of passions and lusts, the root of sin deepened in the human heart, sometimes difficult to discover, and even more difficult to pluck out. This requires a feat, sometimes not easy, not short-lived, painful, as if crucified. A highly respected ascetic in the West, Blessed Jerome, wanting to free himself from passions and lusts, left the riches, splendor and pleasures of Rome, retired to the East into the desert, lived there in prayer and spiritual studies, in fasting and deprivation of all kinds: and with all this he admitted that unclean images of the carnal and passionate life still appeared to him, and violated the purity of mind and peace of conscience. “How many times,” he writes, “since I have been living in the desert, have I imagined that I was still among the amusements of Rome! – My body, before the general destruction of the human body, was already dead: but my passions were still boiling. Not knowing where to find help, I threw myself at the feet of Jesus, washed them with tears, and tried to destroy this rebellious flesh, remaining for whole weeks without food. I remember that I often spent day and night crying incessantly and beating my chest, until, finally, God, who forbids the storm, gave silence to my soul” (Ep. 22. ad Eustoch.). This experience, of course, is not unique in the human race, but in different types and degrees, probably not rare, which shows that for the complete well-being of purification and peace of the soul, what is required is not just the subjugation of the flesh to the spirit, to which it does not voluntarily agree, but, according to the teachings of true life, the mortification of the flesh - mortification, according to its opposition, and according to its false life, deeply embedded in human nature, more or less painful and crucifixion. However, the experience now indicated and naturally the following conclusion do not have the power to call everyone to some ancient Syrian or ancient Radonezh desert, and inevitably condemn them to severe hardships. It is a special calling that does not require everyone, but among everyone secretly seeks some with the word of Christ: “He who is able to accommodate, let him accommodate” (Matthew 19:12). Everyone should know and always remember that the flesh, passions and lusts are often affectionate, but always unreliable and dangerous friends, or enemies in the guise of friends; that the more you satisfy these imaginary friends, the more you strengthen these real enemies; that the more the flesh lives in you, the less you have the firstfruits of that higher life with which you must pass into heaven; and on the contrary, if it is necessary for the higher, spiritual life, preparatory for heaven, to arise, grow, and mature in you, then for this the life of the flesh must yield, diminish, and die. For this sentence of the Divine word is spoken to everyone: “If you live according to the flesh, you are about to die; If you put to death the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, you will live” (Rom. 8:13). The words of the Apostle: “If you mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit,” give reason to believe that there may be more than one way to mortify the flesh, but that the true way is to mortify it—“by the Spirit.” A strange thing, which it is not superfluous to note here, not to the praise of paganism, but to the shame of carnal knowledge among Christians! The idea of ​​the need to mortify the flesh even penetrated into sensual pagan beliefs. And the priests of Baal thought about mortifying the flesh, but they did not know how to mortify it in the spirit, but “they were cut according to their custom with knives, and beaten with many whips, until their blood was shed” (1 Kings 18:28). We, Christians, are commanded to mortify the flesh not with punitive instruments, not by torment or mutilation of God’s creation, not by damaging the instrument of the soul, but by the “spirit,” that is, by the spiritual law, by spiritual reasoning, by spiritual rules, by a spiritual view of the way of life and the crucifixion of Christ, and by the power drawn from these living sources. The flesh wants to have fun, burst into laughter, even, perhaps, jump around and say or listen with pleasure to “disorderly cries and the like”: strike it with the blows not of a knife or whip, but of the spiritual word: - “Woe to those who laugh: - blessed are those who weep now” (Luke 6:25, 21), - and die the innocent joy, and kill the sinful joy. The flesh is irritated by the one who insulted him, and breaks into mutual insult: bind it not with bonds of rope or iron, but with the bonds of spiritual reasoning and the fear of God: “The wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God” (James 1:20); - “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer” (1 John 3:15); - “whoever says: You are a freak, guilty of hell fire” (Matthew 5:22). The flesh, not content with what is necessary, thirsts for something pleasant, seeks pleasure, and is ready to make it the goal of life: show it another object and goal - the cross erected on Calvary in order to cleanse the earth of impure pleasures through deprivation and suffering; Quench the thirst for pleasant things with the thirst of Calvary; in the sweets of the earth put the ocet and gall offered to the crucified Lord; and with the help of the instruments of His suffering, not materially used, but spiritually contemplated, crucify lust, luxury and indolence with simplicity, moderation, abstinence, fasting, and labor. The flesh, plausibly restrained from deeds and condemned by carnal people, sometimes does not cease to secretly give birth and nourish unclean thoughts and desires. Do not neglect the evil offspring of the evil mother because they are small and outwardly inconspicuous. Hurry to turn against them, and in your spiritual mind, by the very act of fulfilling the prophetic spell: “The cursed daughter of Babylon, blessed is she who has and will dash your babies against the stone” (Ps. 137:8, 9). Babylon spiritually means a sinful world, captivating and enslaving through sin. The daughter of Babylon is flesh, brought up by the vanity and charm of the world. Her babies are unclean thoughts and sinful desires. The stone is Christ. Blessed are you, if you do not hesitate, by the power of faith, prayer and self-sacrifice, to cast before this Stone and break these babies as soon as you find them. For if you delay, then you cannot help but fear that they will grow up, turn into giants, and hold you back, or again make you a captive of Babylon. So, and in a similar way, let us, brethren, mortify the deeds of the flesh with the spirit, and let us crucify the flesh with passions and lusts, let us be Christ’s, let Christ live in us, and we, finally, live in Him and in His eternal glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen. You might be interested in: