231. Слово в день памяти преподобного Сергия

(Said in the Trinity Lavra on September 25; printed in the Works of the Holy Father of 1848 and in the collection of 1861) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy tongue, people of renewal, so that you may proclaim virtues out of darkness from Him who called you into His wonderful light (1 Pet. 2:9). Who does the Apostle Peter portray with such bright, sublime features? Is it not the glorified saints, of whom the image close to our contemplation is represented by our Venerable and God-Bearing Father Sergius? In truth, he, and all of them, are the “chosen race,” not only in humanity, but also in Christianity itself. They are “sacred,” because by their prayers interceding for us, they sanctify and bring our weak and imperfect prayers closer to God; and, moreover, “royal priesthood,” because by the power of prayer and the grace given to them they dominate the forces of nature. They clearly and intelligibly “proclaim the virtues of Him who called” them “into His wonderful light,” namely, His wisdom and omniscience through the use of the gift of clairvoyance, His omnipotence through the action of granting miracles, His goodness through healings and other beneficial actions mercifully extended to us. But, reading the words of the Apostle Peter cited by us, in his Council Epistle, in consideration of the composition of his speech, we must expand their meaning. He extends his speech to people whom he likens to “newborn babies” (1 Pet. 2:2), who were once “not men,” but have now become “people of God” (1 Pet. 2:10), whom he exhorts to “keep away from carnal lusts” (1 Pet. 2:11): consequently, he speaks to all Christians, not excluding those who are beginning the Christian feat, and those who are infants in the faith. So, do you know, Christian brothers, what you are, according to the word and understanding of the Apostle? “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy tongue, a people of renewal.” If you are not all such according to the fruits of life, nevertheless you are all such according to the seed of spiritual life sown in you. Not everyone is like this in virtues: but everyone is like this by faith, devoted to you, and by the grace of the Christian Sacraments, impressed in your souls. So what? If such dignity is already attributed to us, shouldn’t we either support it, since we really have it, or strive to acquire it, since we do not feel it in ourselves in strength and action? For this reason, the Apostle precisely points us to the height of our Christian dignity, in order from this height to indicate the duty to which he calls us, and to encourage us to fulfill this duty. “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy tongue, a people of renewal.” But why are you given such advantages? - “Let him proclaim virtue out of darkness, Who called you into His wonderful light.” “The Lord has done everything for His own sake,” says Solomon, the chosen leader of God’s affairs (Prov. 16:4). Not because “for His own sake”, so that the Creator has a need for creation, and without it He is all-satisfied in Himself: but because “For His own sake”, that no other decisive goal can be assigned to creation if it is necessary to make it perfect and blissful. Since God is the source of life and bliss for the creature, it must look to God and strive, live and act for God, in order to thus continuously draw life and bliss from Him. But what does it mean to live and act for God? You can do something for a person and it will mean something to him. “To the Son of man is your righteousness,” says Job’s thoughtful friend (Job 35:8). But for the infinite God, what does the action of a creature, always insignificant before Him, mean? “What can you give Him? or what will he take out of your hand” ( Job 35:7 )? What can you do for Him? – You can reach out to God, not as a giver, but as one who receives what is given. By faith you can open your heart to Him, just as a stream opens its depths to a source pouring into it. You can correspond to the Giver by faithfully storing what is given and using it according to His will. You can lift up to God thoughts of confession of His perfections and gifts, and feelings of surprise, love, gratitude, just as a flower lifts up to the sky a fragrance excited by the influence of heaven. Finally, since the Unapproachable One, in His unlimitedness and highest holiness, does not always directly give His gifts to limited beings, but often, and usually, gives them through one to another: then you can and should become like a stream, which, with moisture acceptable from above, irrigates the surrounding and the lower; You can and must show what has been revealed to you and in you from God and about God, when the time is right, in words, and always impress upon your deeds and life, through which the knowledge of God’s perfections and the very communion of God’s gifts, in your communication with others, will spread, and an effective blessing will descend on the lower creatures of God through you. And this is in general “to glorify God,” and in particular in relation to you, Christians, “to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you into His wonderful light.” And what could be more characteristic of this purpose? – Just as it is natural for a stream, throughout its entire course, to represent what it has received from its source: it is also natural for man, throughout the entire course of his life, to demonstrate what he has received from the all-good and all-wise God, partly in creation, and especially in grace-filled renewal through Christ, and thus proclaim God’s perfections and virtues. Just as it is characteristic of a grafted tree to bear noble fruit, according to the strength imparted to it by grafting: it is also characteristic of a Christian, into whom the Divine power of Christ has been grafted by faith and sacrament, to bear spiritual fruit, and thereby glorify God, according to the word of Christ Himself: “For this is my Father glorified, that ye may produce much fruit” (John 15:8). What could be more just than this appointment? – If everything you have comes from God; if especially through Christ He “called” you “to His wonderful light,” from the darkness of ignorance into the light of truth, from the darkness of sin into the light of grace and truth, from the darkness of a defiled and confused conscience into the light of a purified and peaceful conscience, from the darkness of death into the light of life: then what can you deny Him as a reward for such gifts? How much more moderate is the demand that you, without taking them away from yourself, devote them to the Giver by using them, and thus “proclaim the virtues of Him who called you into His wonderful light!” What could be happier than this appointment? - Those who have a sense of the good and the beautiful will not require proof of what I will now say. The highest degree of happiness is to do charity, and the second to this degree is to be grateful. So, if a person who has been blessed by a person feels his happiness more vividly when he proclaims the virtues of his benefactor: then to proclaim “the virtues of Him who called you into His wonderful light,” and thereby spread this light, is not this more than happiness? Isn't this the very bliss? If anyone, despite all this, deviates from the purpose of glorifying God and proclaiming His virtues, we must point out to him that he is out of the order of all God’s creatures, because this is their universal purpose, although it is fulfilled in a variety of ways, according to the diversity and degrees of creatures. What are the closest primates of the throne of the Almighty doing there, in the invisible sky? – According to the legend of the seer, “they have no rest day and night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty” (Rev. 4:8). What does it mean: “they have no peace”? It is not that they are exhausted by incessant praise, as if by labor without rest, but that, finding joy and bliss in words, they do not want to stop saying words, just as they do not want to stop joy and bliss. If someone were to say to this that this is above us, then to this one, who is inappropriately afraid of heights, I would answer that even in our low life on earth, we must prepare for the high life of heaven: because the earth is a breeding ground and a school for heaven; and therefore we need to teach ourselves at least some of the rudiments of what they do in heaven, so that after earthly life it does not reject us as incapable. But if you like, let’s lower our gaze. What are these visible heavens doing? - Maybe you don’t hear; but the sensitive and faithful ear of the Prophet hears that “the heavens will tell the glory of God” (Ps. 18:2). Let us go even lower, to the creatures of the earth, and even to the lowest among the earthly. Do we not hear in the psalm what the Prophet calls them to? “Praise the Lord from the earth, the deeps, the fire, the hail, the snow, the mountains, the hills, the trees, the beasts, the cattle, the birds” (Ps. 149:7-10). If he calls: then, of course, he sees in them the ability and knows their purpose to “praise the Lord.” So, when the visible “heavens”, to which God has not given words, nevertheless “tell the glory of God”: what a perverse incongruity if the verbal creation of God does not tell it in its own way. If all earthly creatures, even the lowest creatures, praise the Lord, then does not man place himself lower than all of them when he does not proclaim the virtues of his great-gifted Creator, Provider? “The chosen race!” Take care of yourself from moral humiliation. Carefully test yourself, Christian, whether you proclaim through your life the virtues of Him who called you into His wonderful light. Even if you proclaim virtues, but only your own, in the voice of open or in the whisper of secret vanity: you are no longer at the height of the “holy tongue.” Well, if your life reveals little virtue, a lot of vanity, and a lot of vice? Is this worthy of you? I do not say: is it worthy of your God? Before you say a word, test what its effect will be, and even more strictly, before you do a deed, test what it will say: for actions speak louder than words. Make the thought of God and Christ the soul of your life, the driving force of your moral actions, and your life and deeds will by themselves proclaim the virtues of Him who called you, better than theological speeches and reasoning. Strive to live spiritually and not carnally: and your life will proclaim the virtues of the “Father of Spirits.” Be merciful, do good, even to your enemies: and you will thereby proclaim “the perfection of Him who shines His sun against evil and good” (Matthew 5:45). Be uncomplainingly devoted to God in misfortune, in sorrow: and you will be a preacher of God's Providence. Maintain freedom from anger, meekness, humility: and in your very silence you will be a herald of the virtues of the meek and humble-hearted Jesus. For His sake, suffer for the suffering, suffer for the preservation of the common good, for delivering your neighbor from untruth and misfortune: and you will be a confessor of Him who laid down His soul for the salvation of the world. By living this way, and acting on such impulses, you will remain worthy of Him who called you into His wonderful light, and you will preserve and increase the light given to you; and when you rejoice, nothing will disturb your joy; when you pray, nothing will block your prayer from going to heaven. By glorifying God on earth, you will secure your inheritance of glory in heaven. For His word will not pass away: “I will glorify those who glorify Me” (1 Samuel 2:30). Amen. You might be interested in: