234. Слово пред благодарственным молебным пением, по прекращении губительной болезни

(Said in the Chudov Monastery on December 19; printed in the Works of the Holy Father of 1849 and in the collection of 1861) Several months before this, we performed a conciliar prayer here, similar to this one, with joy, and not without fear: - with joy that the disease, which suddenly struck some and threatened everyone, apparently stopped; but not without fear, because we did not dare to resolve in our favor the confusion as to whether we were worthy of complete deliverance from disaster. Therefore, we then cried out to the beloved God-saved city with the word of the Lord: “Behold, you are healthy, let no one sin, lest anything worse befall you” (John 5:14). Unfortunately, the fear turned out to be unfounded. The disaster returned and appeared “bitter” than before. The sword of the destroying angel, although it did not multiply its defeats too much, shone more widely than before, and no longer allowed us to enjoy a sense of security. Finally, we again think that the Angel who “destroys people” has already been told, as once in Jerusalem: “It is enough now, take away your hand” (2 Samuel 24:16). But is it really said? Is this a decisive command? Who will assure us of this more firmly than before? So what are we going to do? Is it really possible to mix fear with joy now? I think that's how it should be. Because spiritual wisdom prescribes this not only for some dubious joy, but also for the most fundamental, and therefore, one might say, for all joy. “Work,” he says, “for the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling” (Ps. 2:11). Rejoice before God, Who protects, gives, and has mercy: but rejoice with trembling, because even on the day of mercy He does not cease to be an indefatigably righteous Judge; and - “If you see iniquity, Lord, Lord, who will stand?” (Ps.129:3) But in order for us to have a closer indication from above what we should do in our present situation, you hear that “the God of gods, the Lord of the verb: call upon Me in the day of your tribulation, and wear you out, and glorify Me” (Ps. 49:1, 15). The first part of this command should have been fulfilled to this day: and we can, as before, testify with consolation that it did not remain unfulfilled, both in this city and in its region. In the days of tribulation, the Church called on God with a pleading voice: and her obedient children followed her with reverent attention, sighs, tears, kneeling, and walking with the cross. Some reverently flocked to places glorified by the shrine: others attracted the shrine, which had marked itself with saving actions, to their places of residence, to strengthen their faith, to protect themselves with grace. In different places, some holy icons, for many days, along many paths, wandered through villages in the hands of prayer books, among an endless host of other prayer books. The altar rejoiced at the multitude of those who came with repentance and sought Divine food for the remission of sins and eternal life. What can we say about the second part of the Lord’s saying we cited, which contains the promise: “I will destroy you”? – Those of us who would think that the verb that came from the mouth of the Lord, which, according to the prophetic assurance, “will not return empty” (Is. 55:11), would remain worthy of regret for us already idle and ineffective. We can explain such unbroken security not so much by the word of the Deliverer, but by the silence of the Judge, Who is in no hurry to cut short the time of long-suffering, because he has an eternity of justice ahead. And about those who by faith called upon God the Savior and passed unharmed through the time of danger, what else can we think but that God’s promise of deliverance was fulfilled on them, even if the heavenly hand covering them and the invisible grace overshadowing and protecting them did not appear to them? From many we had the consolation of hearing the humble confession of their clearly marked deliverance. Once upon a time, an entire village, among others beset by a destructive disease, was protected from it: and no fence could be seen except for fervent public prayer. Once upon a time, the disease and death that had already settled in the village retreated from it, as soon as a certain shrine, called by faith, visited it. For some, in an illness that was generally so stubborn against the efforts of doctors, oil taken from a shrine was a decisive cure, and for others, a single prayerful vow uttered from the heart. After this, the rest of God’s command is presented to our reverent attention and zealous fulfillment: “glorify Me.” Let's not be inattentive. Let's not be hard-hearted. Let's not be grateful. Let us glorify the Lord, “who was not completely angered, who did not allow us to be tempted beyond the power of the might, but who created the temptation with excess, who struck and healed,” who punished and was merciful, who spread the shadow of death over us, and who resolved it with the light of life. If on the day of sorrow, before the threatening night of death, you cried out to God from the depths of your soul, and could then notice some wave of an invisible hand taking you away from danger: glorify God, who gives prayer to those who pray, who is close to those who call on Him, who appears in mercies and bounty. If you have not seen a special sign of salvation, but are nevertheless saved from the misfortune that was going on around you: glorify God, who is hidden, but nevertheless everywhere present and all-active, looking at you when you don’t know about it, and saving you when you don’t think about it. If you are so hard-hearted and so busy with vanity that even the near disaster did not direct you to God: come to your senses now, glorify the long-suffering God, and stop tempting His long-suffering by inattention to His destinies, and to the eternal destiny of your own soul. Let us not fail to glorify the King of God, who has His heart in His hand, both for the relief from public distress that He has granted us through the action of the humane heart of our Most Pious Autocrat, through the faithful instruments of His beneficent will, and through the incitement of private charity. Those threatened with a destructive disease in good time, were publicly offered advice and admonitions, protective both from the disease itself and from the false fears and misunderstandings that accompany it, harmful not only to health, but also to public peace. Physicians, doctors, medicines were prepared for those who suffered from the disease. Charity is extended to those left helpless after the dead. I will not hesitate to say: let us glorify God both for the disaster itself and for the type of disaster that has visited us. We admit that without this disaster we would have prayed less, repented less, and humbled ourselves less. So, glory to God, although through an unpleasant means, who has increased prayer, repentance, and humility in us. And if we compare the calamity of the physical illness that has terrified us with the calamity of the mental and moral illness, with which some people are infected in our time, and through them some peoples and states are involuntarily affected to such a degree of confusion and vicissitude that among them the sick want to treat the healthy, those who have become self-willed make laws for royal wisdom, those who have forgotten God dream of creating a new world, the untamed spirit of restlessness and anxiety leads some to inflame rage, others in a stupor of bewilderment; and the hundreds of cities are covered with the dead from the ulcer of civil strife: - turning to ourselves from these grave spectacles, of course, with deep conviction we can join the way of thinking of David, and say: thank God that we “have fallen into the hand of the Lord, for many are His bounties; But men did not fall into their hands” (2 Samuel 24:14). Let us not only glorify God in words: but let our life, which He has preserved and is preserving for us, present in us zealous admirers of His glory, and as a result of this, active executors of His will. Firmness in faith, obedience to the Church, loyalty to the Tsar, zeal for the common good, not being seduced by vanity and brilliant lies of the spirit of the time, love of truth and righteousness, readiness for possible good, in short, our good thoughts, good feelings, good deeds, may they glorify our Father who is in heaven! Amen. You might be interested in: