220. Слово в день памяти преподобного Сергия

(Said in Serg. Lavra on September 25; printed in the Works of St. Ot. 1849 and in the collection of 1861) According to the Holy One who called you, you yourself will be holy in all your life. It is written beforehand: Be holy, for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:15–16). In the kingdoms of men, the people turn with special respect to the king’s close associates, partly, as a result of reverence for the king, who has invested them with his trust, power, honorary titles, partly, in the hope of their beneficial representation and protection before him, according to the power given to them. Likewise, in the kingdom of God, which is the Church of Christ, the people of believers, like you today, turn with reverence to the holy people of God, honoring the grace of God living in them, and by faith hoping from them in prayerful intercession before God and good deeds according to the grace given to them. But in the kingdom of man, the people, giving honor to the nobles, remain the people, and, by the very nature of the state structure, cannot achieve the advantages before which they bow, but in the kingdom of God this is not the case. Here, each of the people of believers, honoring the Saints of God, can himself achieve the dignity that he honors in others, and not only can, but is also called upon and convinced to be a saint. “According to him who called you holy, you yourself will be holy in all your life. It is written beforehand: Be holy, for I am holy.” Brethren who honor holiness as the privilege of the elect! Let us think of holiness as a duty for everyone. If a citizen or villager were told: do this and that, be close to the king, who gives you the right to this advantage, and calls you to it: with what willingness, with what ardor would he take up the work required of him, even if the feat was not easy and the work was not short. But now the herald of the will of the Heavenly King to us, and the last degree of citizenship in this kingdom to those unworthy, says: “Be holy”; be morally holy, and then be blessedly holy; live piously and virtuously, and be close to the King of Heaven, who allows you not only to approach Him, but also to abide in Him, and He Himself wants not only to approach you, but also to live in you. So what? How is this calling accepted? Will everyone, or at least many, follow it with readiness, with ardent zeal, with unflagging zeal, with full activity? Isn’t it more common that we think and say: where should we be saints? We are sinful people; It is enough if we are somehow saved by repentance. “Where should we be holy?” But have we thought about what we will be, and what will happen to us, if we do not strive to become saints? There are higher degrees of holiness, in which especially chosen and blessed souls shine; but holiness in general is not just a private distinction among Christians, which is commendable for some to have, and which others can easily do without. According to the Apostolic teaching, everyone who is called by the Holy God to the kingdom of God, in other words, every Christian, in this very calling and in the thought of the God who called, must find for himself a law, a duty and an incentive so that he will certainly be or become holy. “According to the one who called you, you will be holy in all your life.” This rule is all the more binding for the sons of the New Testament of God, since it was already given to the sons of the Old, less perfect Testament by God himself: “It is written beforehand: Ye shall be holy, for I am holy.” If you live without effort and without hope of being holy, then you do not live “according to the “Holy One” who called you; If you do not correspond to the dignity of those called by God and the sons of God’s covenant, you are Christians in name and not in essence. What such a life leads to can be seen from another Apostolic saying: “Have peace and holiness with everyone, and no one else will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). It is clear: have peace with everyone, have holiness: and without peace and without holiness no one will see the Lord, that is, will not achieve eternal bliss. So, if we carelessly and carelessly think that we should not be saints, then we are writing a sentence on ourselves, not to see the Lord, to be strangers to eternal bliss. "We are sinful people." – It seems that this is an undeniable truth. For, on the contrary, “if we say that there is no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). But it happens that the abuse of truth is no better than obvious error. If we recognize ourselves as sinners, out of deep self-awareness, and through this we enter into a feeling of our unworthiness and damnation, we crush our hearts, we humble the innate pride of the old man, we encourage ourselves to seek grace-filled help and to struggle against sin: such recognition of sinfulness not only does not discourage us in achieving holiness, but also paves the way to it. And if we call ourselves sinners, with a superficial thought, without contrition of heart, without turning away from sin, with carelessness, with the crafty implication that everyone else should admit the same thing, and that, consequently, we are not ashamed to admit it, and it is not dangerous for us to remain the same after confession as we were before the confession: such recognition of sinfulness will certainly not lead to holiness; and in this case, even when speaking the truth, as a sin, the imams “deceive ourselves; the truth is not in us,” that is, in our hearts and in our lives, although there is the sound of truth in our lips. “The word is faithful and worthy of all acceptance, because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). But we are deceived if we think that we will be saved while remaining sinners. Christ saves sinners by giving them the means to become saints. “We will somehow be saved by repentance.” – Yes, repentance is one of the means of salvation that Christ teaches to sinners when he preaches: “Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). But if we think about somehow repenting, somehow being saved, then we judge too easily a matter of great importance. Will a slave please his master if he does his job somehow, and not as best as possible! - Of course it won’t please. How much more will a person please God if he somehow does “the work of God,” which is the work of our salvation. If even a small thing is not done well and successfully, when it is done somehow, inattentively, carelessly: how much more the great work of salvation is the work of all our strengths and abilities, the main work of our whole life. The thought of being saved by repentance is a saving thought: but what should one think when we see in the word of God the unfortunate example of a person who “did not find a place for repentance, even if he sought it with tears”? (Hebrews 12:17). Apparently, repentance does not allow one to find oneself somehow, but requires that the sinner seek it earnestly, judiciously, with sincerity, with a firm intention of correction, without allowing oneself to become rigid in sin. Moreover, the perfect teacher of repentance, John the Baptist, says that true repentance requires something else in its wake. “Create,” he says, “fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8). Repentance clears the soil of the heart from thorns, cultivates it, softens it; faith sows the seed of heaven into it; the growth of this new plant is keeping the commandments and doing good, its color is spiritual inner enlightenment, and the ripe, perfect fruit is holiness. The wheat must reach maturity so that it can be brought into the granary. It is necessary for a person to achieve holiness in order for him to be brought into the kingdom of heaven. Where, brethren, will the thoughts now proposed lead us? Is there more zeal and care for the work of salvation, which requires not only repentance, as the beginning of it, but also holiness, as the completion of it? Or perhaps, to greater hopelessness, to achieve salvation through holiness, which we see so high above us? – Christ God, our hope! Do not let us faint in our hopelessness: but strengthen us with Your hope. Once Your Apostles were in hopelessness: but You resolved it with Your almighty word. Grant us also to feel in faith the power of the same word: “what is impossible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27). In truth, brethren, if we were to achieve holiness only through human natural forces, then it would be unfair to say that this is beyond our ability. But when for this we have God’s grace that precedes, enlightens, strengthens, promotes, protects: no one should lose hope of achieving that for which “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ chose us in Him before the foundation of the world”; and He chose us “to be holy and blameless before Him in love” (Eph. 1:3-4). Therefore, with a sense of duty and hope from God’s help for good success, let us awaken ourselves from negligence and carelessness, and encourage ourselves to zeal in the matter of our salvation. According to the admonition of the Apostle Paul, “let us cleanse ourselves from the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, creating holiness in the passion of God” (2 Cor. 7:1). According to the admonition of the Apostle Peter, “trust fully in the grace that is brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ, as children of obedience, not being transformed first by your own ignorance, but according to the Holy One who called you, and you yourselves will be holy in all your life” (1 Peter 1:13-16). If in these exhortations you encounter rather great demands: to create something holy, to be holy; then at the same time there are quite simple ways to satisfy the great demands, namely, to reject lusts, to try to cleanse oneself from the filth of the flesh and spirit. To the extent that a person, on his part, actively and faithfully strives to cleanse himself from unclean deeds, from unclean desires and passions, from unclean thoughts, the sanctification of God descends upon him, through the medium of the church and its sacraments, of which the all-pervading grace of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit may make us all partakers of 680. Amen. In the author's manuscript: “with burning.” In the author's manuscript: “already for us.” In the author's manuscript: “involved.” You might be interested in: