228. Слово в день обретения мощей преподобного Сергия, во время возобновившейся и продолжающейся губительной болезни

(Said July 5; printed in Tv. St. Ot. 1848 and in Collect. 1861) Having taught many, she returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, affirming the souls of the disciples, begging them to remain in the faith, and as through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:21–22). The Holy Evangelist Luke in the book of the Acts of the Apostles tells, among other things, about the journey of Paul and Barnabas, at the special command of the Holy Spirit, to preach the Gospel. They passed through several cities; preached the faith of Christ in them; worked miracles; many were actually brought to the faith of Christ; founded churches; They experienced, alternately with glory, persecution, so that in the same city of Lystra, at first, after Paul’s sudden healing of a lame man from birth, the pagans took them both for gods, and they wanted to honor them with sacrifices, but then they stoned Paul; and God, who does not abandon His chosen ones, preserved his life only by the fact that he was considered already dead, and therefore abandoned. Having completed the embassy entrusted by the Holy Spirit, Paul and Barnabas return through the same cities that they passed before, without passing by the murderous city of Lystra: such is the apostolic boldness! They do not care about protecting themselves from danger that has already been experienced: because all their concern is directed towards the salvation of others. They don't just go the opposite way; but they continue the Apostolic work, “affirming the souls of the disciples, begging them to remain in the faith,” and admonishing them, “as through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the kingdom of God.” When we see that people who accepted the faith directly from the mouths of the Apostles, who saw the Apostolic miracles, confirming them, still demanded Apostolic care in order to “establish their souls”: what should we think, brethren, about our souls? Is less, or even greater, care required for their approval? Are our thoughts firm about the holy and righteous? Are our good intentions strong? Is the spiritual direction of our activities constant? Are our minds shaken by doubts, our hearts and wills shaken by passions and sensual desires? Do we not lose heart, sometimes into the despondency of sadness, sometimes into the despondency of laziness? Those who pretend to stand firm are disappointed by the Apostolic word: “Be sure to stand and be watched, lest you fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). So, for our own needs, let us be attentive to how the godly Paul and Barnabas strengthened the souls of the disciples. How? “They exhorted them to “continue in the faith.” This means that it is not enough to recognize the faith of Christ, accept it through baptism, and remain immersed in the ordinary life of this visible world; It is not enough to resort to the help of faith only at times when we do not find earthly natural help in our shortcomings or difficulties: but we must dispose ourselves in such a way and vigilantly observe such a disposition of spirit that we “abide in faith” constantly and continuously, so that the spirit of faith penetrates and embraces our strengths, abilities, inclinations, desires, actions, so that it becomes the main driving force of our life. Do you open the eye that awakens in the morning: open at the same time the eye of faith in your heart, and look to the Ruler of the day and eternity, and ask His help to spend the beginning day so that it can lead you to the non-evening day, and not to the eternal night. Do you go to sleep: remember death, of which sleep is the image and threshold, and through the prayer of faith commit yourself to the One who “is the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25); As long as you can overcome sleep, or as long as it does not defeat you, “remember the name of the Lord in the night” (Ps. 119:55), and “rise at midnight to confess” to Him “about the destinies of His righteousness” (Ps. 119:62). Do you undertake anything: before any other adviser, consult with faith. Cry out in the words of Paul: “Lord, what do you want to do to me” (Acts 9:6)? Is what I am doing acceptable to You, O Lord? If you wish, bless; if you do not want, do not allow me to do what is not pleasing to You. And then listen to what the Lord says to you in His word, in your mind, in your conscience, in the advice of wise and pious people, and in external indications and signs. When you get down to business: greet your work as you greet your neighbor’s work: “God help you!” “God, please help me!” (Ps. 69:2). Are you going somewhere: “go with God,” according to the parting words from our pious ancestors, which is quite common among us, but hardly an equally common thing to do. “Walk with God,” with Abraham (Gen. 17:1); “I will set the Lord before you”, with David (Ps. 15:8); keep, as much as possible, in your thoughts and in your heart, that God sees you, so that you are both ashamed and afraid of encroaching on something unworthy in the eyes of God, so that you are not embarrassed by chance, and not shaken by difficulty, when the Lord “is at your right hand, but not moved” (Ps. 15:8). Does your thought, like a bird, want to rush around wherever it happens, swirl in a variety of vanities, or even descend into uncleanness; you, on the contrary, hold it, tie its wings with intense attention to spiritual subjects, return your wandering mind to your heart, and give it the blessed work of calling on the saving name of the Lord Jesus, in faith, love and humility; - work that, if continued faithfully, should turn into food, and into peace, and into joy, under the shadow of the Holy Spirit, since, according to the Apostle, “no one can speak of the Lord Jesus except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3). Such should be the disposition and exercise of the believer, so that he can gradually approach the state of a confirmed soul, in which Saint Paul without hesitation spoke of himself: “I live by faith of the Son of God; “No one lives, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Let us turn to the godly wise Paul and Barnabas to consider another special way in which they affirmed the souls of their disciples. What is this method? - An admonition or foreshadowing, as if “through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter into the kingdom of God.” Unexpected method! A means that apparently does not promise to lead to the goal! Isn’t the thought of many sorrows on the path to the kingdom of God more capable of shaking than strengthening souls? How do the Apostles use it then, how do they try to strengthen souls? Paul and Barnabas, in the instruction with which they tried to strengthen the souls of the newly enlightened in faith, could not help but mention sorrows: because sorrows were already in sight. The newly enlightened saw how unbelievers everywhere began to persecute Paul and Barnabas for the preached faith: in all likelihood, a similar fate should have been expected for those who accepted the faith. What the disciples feared by guessing, the mentors foresaw by the Spirit of God: and thus, against inevitable sorrows, the only way to find a saving remedy was to look at them correctly, and be able to accept and endure them. The Apostles taught this when they said, “For through many sorrows it is fitting for us to enter the kingdom of God.” That is: you are afraid of sorrows, and this can make you faint-hearted. Know that sorrows are inevitable on the path to the kingdom of God. This is how it “befits”: this is the arrangement of God’s Providence. So, if, encountering tribulations on the way to the kingdom of God, you hesitate and retreat back, then you are turned away from the kingdom of God. If you desire the kingdom of God, then you must face the sorrows on the way to it without cowardice or hesitation. If you willingly walk the unsmooth path, thinking that it leads to your father’s house, then willingly pass through the field of sorrows that lead to the kingdom of God. Thus, the correct thought about sorrows on the path to the kingdom of God should serve not to weaken, but to strengthen souls. I don’t know whether the Christians of Antioch, Iconium and Listria held out, and our inquisitiveness, I think, would not have been able to resist asking the God-wise Paul: why did God, who wants all people to be saved, who founded the faith of Christ, and protects it with miraculous powers, why didn’t he make the path of salvation easier for believers? Why is it either determined or allowed to be sorrows on the way to the kingdom of God? - There is a ready response to this, Pavlov and together Isaiah, the Prophetic and the Apostolic: “Who understands the mind of the Lord? or who will be His adviser” (Rom.11:34; Is.40:13)? A review worthy of the infinite wisdom of God, and sufficient for the humble wisdom of man! But against the raising of thoughts that are charged on the mind of God, let us add something to this, also under the guidance of the Prophetic and Apostolic word. Tribulation is destined to be on the path of salvation, firstly, by justice. God wanted to lead man to heaven in the heavenly way: but man transgressed the will of God and stumbled. He dreamed of going above the path of God: and he was cast down by God’s justice as much as he cast himself down. Thorns, thistles, labor, sweat, sorrows, sighs were sown on his path, and at the end of it came temporary and eternal death. According to the law of birth, we all inherited from the first progenitor sin and, its inseparable consequence, punishment: and all the less can we refuse this last part of the inheritance, since we ourselves multiply the first with arbitrary sins. The mercy of God opened for us a new path of salvation in Christ, who satisfied God’s justice for us with His death on the cross: but, for all this, the law of God’s justice must not be violated, and therefore a spare sinner cannot be led on a par with the sinless man in heaven. Rejoice that mercy no longer leads you to death, but to life: and accept without complaint the easy and short-lived lessons of justice: labors, hardships, sorrows, sorrows. Secondly, sorrows in the hand of Providence are a means of healing souls. Sin is a disease that takes root in a person’s being. The sinful impression and vicious pleasure leaves, partly in the soul, partly in the body, a trace that becomes deeper with the repetition of sinful actions, and which, renewed by memory, forms an inclination to sinful action and a certain thirst for sin. Therefore, just as sometimes a physical physician painfully burns out an ulcer that has penetrated into the body and infects it, or separates it with iron, and inflicts artificial pain in order to cure the disease: similarly, the Physician of souls and bodies uses the instrument of sorrows to uproot the roots and erase the traces of sin, and with the fire of suffering burns out the infection of inclinations to sinful pleasures. This is indicated by the saying of the Apostle Peter: “having suffered in the flesh from sin, not through the lusts of men, but through the will of God, to live in the flesh for the rest of the time” (1 Peter 4:1-2). Thirdly, the Providence of God uses sorrow for believers and those being saved, as a means of testing and preparation for the highest degree of virtue, perfection and bliss. This test is not necessary for God, the Knower of the Heart: but it is necessary for the person himself, whose “heart is deep” (Ps. 63:7), and who himself does not know what can be revealed and developed from him. Just as the impact of iron on a solid stone strikes sparks of which there were no signs before, so with the blows of sorrows, sparks of virtue shine from a solid soul, which otherwise would not have been aroused. With what a strong painful blow each word of God’s command fell on the parental heart of Abraham: “understand your beloved son, whom you loved, Isaac, and offer him up as a burnt offering!” (Gen.22:2). But when an extraordinary test aroused Father Isaac to an extraordinary feat of faith, love of God and self-sacrifice: in what a high light both his virtue and its reward appeared! He received a high and extensive blessing; “saw the day of Christ” (John 8:56), became the ancestor of Christ and the father of believers. What severe and varied sorrows the Apostle Paul endured! But at the same time he had the boldness to say: “we glory in our tribulations” (Rom. 5:3); “I rejoice in my sufferings” (Col. 1:24). How could this be? It could be, and was, because he understood, and not only understood, but, at least initially, experienced and felt the blessed and blissful fruits of sorrows and suffering. “Just as the sufferings of Christ abound in us,” he says, “so our consolation also abounds in Christ” (2 Cor. 1:5). Be a witness to our comforting teaching, too, Reverend Father Sergius. Have you not voluntarily chosen the sorrows and deprivations of a strict and helpless desert life? Did you not suffer the difficulties of fighting against the cunning and insolence of invisible enemies? Have you not experienced sorrow from the cowardice of people who did not understand your perfection, and from envy tempted by covetousness? And behold, as you abundantly sow sorrowful deeds, there is an abundant harvest of grace for you, which you continue to nourish for many others, for many generations, by faith! But who can count the sorrows of the saints on the path of sanctification, and even in a state of perfection and holiness? And You, Most Holy Mother of the Virgin, highest of heaven, purest of sunlight, did you live on earth only with the joy of the Mother of the Lord? And Your purest soul, overshadowed by the highest blessing, filled with grace, has not the “weapon of sorrow” (Luke 2:35) passed through as unparalleled as Your dignity and Your subsequent glory? Turning to ourselves, don’t we admit, brethren, that now is especially the time to delve into the Gospel teaching about tribulations? Apparently, we did not pay enough attention to this when it was destined from above to send us, and more than once, extraordinary and strict preachers - illness and death. They preach not with words, but, stronger than words, with events. What do they preach? I think something similar to the preaching of the Angel of Revelation: “Fear God, and give Him glory” (Rev. 14:7). If in prosperity you were not sufficiently attracted to God by gratitude and love: let at least the fear of disaster lead you to Him. If you have not freely used the quiet sorrows of repentance and mortification to cleanse your soul: use for this at least the involuntary, but acceptable in repentance, sorrow of a disaster that befalls or threatens, or shared compassion with your distressed neighbors. Give glory to the justice of God, and, accepting temporary punishment with humility and self-condemnation, save yourself from eternal punishment. “Lord, do not reprove us with Your wrath; do not punish us with Your wrath” (Ps. 37:2). “By punishing us,” temporarily, “but do not deliver us over to untimely and eternal death” (Ps. 117.18). With the key of sorrow, “open for us the gates of righteousness” and grace, so that “having entered into you, we may confess” to You (Ps. 118:19), the Seeker of the lost, the Savior of sinners, the Blesser of the afflicted. Amen. You might be interested in: