237. Слово в день памяти Святителя Алексия

(Printed from the 1861 edition).” (Said in the Chudov Monastery on February 12; printed in the Works of the Holy Father of 1849 and in the collection of 1861) It is now time for us to rise from sleep (Rom. 13:11). Are we sleeping? You can say, and become angry and accuse me of absurdity for the words that I addressed to you, not excluding myself. And I would like to be sure, both for you and for myself, that we are not sleeping, but awake; But this confidence is hindered by a similar case that I encounter in the Gospel. When, as a result of controversial judgments about the miracle of healing of a man born blind, the Lord said: “I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see will be blind” (John 9:39); Then the Pharisees confidently objected to Him: “We are food and we are blind” (John 9:40)? But they didn’t win anything. Because the Lord said to them: “Even if you were blind, you would no longer have sin; But now you say that we see that your sin remains” (John 9:41). So, perhaps we live like those who sleep and dream in dreams, and self-confidently consider ourselves to be awake: and the matter is no better, but our guilt is all the greater. The once vigilant guardian of the house of God in the land of those who are awake and sleeping, and now an even more perfect vigilant prayer book for us where there is no sleep at all, although there is eternal peace - St. Alexis! with your gracious gesture and blessing, awaken first my dormant thoughts and words, and then the attention of those present, so that we can understand and take to heart and for fulfillment the awakening Apostolic word: “it is now time for us to arise from sleep.” The Holy Apostle Paul writes a teaching letter to the Roman Christians, whose “faith,” according to his own testimony, “is proclaimed throughout the whole world” (Rom. 1:8); exposes the absurdities of paganism, the unsatisfactory nature of Judaism, the damage by sin and the disastrous state of all mankind; proclaims the only salvation in faith in Christ; reveals the secret of the future conversion of unbelieving Jews to Him; Finally, he gives instructions for Christian life, and between them he cries out: “It’s time for us to rise from sleep.” Apparently the Apostle is not afraid that the Roman Christians will be offended and object to him: have we really reached the point in a dream that our “faith” is “proclaimed throughout the whole world”? Did you really offer a sublime and mysterious teaching to the sleeping ones, when you finally think to awaken us from sleep? Apparently he does not doubt their willingness to admit that, even when the mind is excited to knowledge, the heart can sometimes remain not excited to good; and that those who appear to be awake in faith may be found slumbering in life. Do you think that you are better than the Roman Christians of the apostolic times? I hope that no one will be so dreamy, and that you, on the contrary, are ready to admit that you are far from achieving the perfection of Christians of the apostolic time. Be also disposed to test yourself, and, if your conscience demands, to admit that perhaps your heart is not aroused to good, and perhaps your mind is not sufficiently awakened to the truth; that perhaps you too are dozing in your spiritual and moral life, and perhaps you are not awake in your faith; and that, therefore, we should not be upset, but give thanks when someone who wishes well reminds us that “it’s time for us to rise from sleep.” What is sleep? What is a vigil? Vigilance is a bright life, with self-awareness. Sleep is dark life, without self-consciousness. Or in other words: since man, by nature, lives the life of an articulate and plant body, and the life of an animal and rational soul: then when the life of the soul rises above the life of the body and manifests itself in voluntary movement in feeling, in cognition, in desire, in action, this is wakefulness; and when the life of the soul is immersed in the life of the body, hidden in a closed, non-voluntary movement of the limbs, and barely breaks through with ghostly ideas, this is sleep and a dream. But a Christian, by grace, still has a higher life, spiritual, according to the word of the Lord: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). If in order to become capable of the kingdom of God, or, what is the same, in order to become a Christian, one must be born of the Spirit; then, without a doubt, it is necessary to live a life of the spirit, higher than the life that a natural or, in the apostolic expression (1 Cor. 2:14), “spiritual” man lives. Spiritual life, having as its source the Spirit of God, has God and His grace as its light, its strength, its food, the beginning of activity and the goal of its aspiration. If this spiritual life ascends and dominates spiritual and sensory life: this is a state of spiritual vigil. And if the spiritual life is immersed in the spiritual and sensory, and is dominated or absorbed by it: this is a state of spiritual dormancy or sleep. When your spirit looks to God through faith, prayer, and contemplation of God; then he is awake: but if he stops thinking about God, then you begin to doze; and if you forgot about God, then you fell asleep. If you are animated by love for God, then you are awake with a never-ending vigil; but if you are animated not by love of God, but by love for creatures, the seduction of their vain splendor, the desire to possess and enjoy them, then you dream in your sleep. If you do not think about living “on bread alone,” “but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4); if, following the example of Christ, you find food for yourself in fulfilling the will of God: this is also a sign of someone who is not asleep, but awake; because they do not eat true food in a dream; but if you do not hunger for the word of God, you do not thirst for Divine truth and spiritual teaching; if you do not feel taste and pleasure in fulfilling the will of God: this is insensibility and sleep of the spirit; and if, as happens with this, you are greedy for sensual pleasures, thirst for distraction and amusements, you think to have taste when you choose tasty food and pleasant drink, and elegant taste, when you are shocked by passionate sounds, when you are enchanted by cunningly composed 688 or funny sights; believe that these are more the ghosts of the dreamer than the sensations of the waking person: you will recognize this when your spirit awakens on the day of grace or on the day of judgment. If the thought of God moves you to do good, and mutually doing good directs you to God in order to sacrifice a good deed to Him, in order to thank Him for your help in doing good: it is obvious that you walk with God and therefore are awake; but if the driving spring and goal of your activity is self-indulgence, people-pleasing, ambition, love of wealth; then, no matter what your successes and good fortune, the time will finally come when you look back at your supposedly vigilant activity, and you will see the fulfillment of the prophetic word over you: “I fell asleep with my sleep, and men gained nothing of wealth in their hands” (Ps. 75:6). It is not commendable to sleep when you can stay awake, but to sleep without waking up is both shameful and dangerous. Awakening from bodily sleep is not always in our will: but awakening from spiritual sleep always depends on us; because the awakening voice in conscience, in the word of God, in the works of Providence is silent for us - the voice is not inaudible for those who slumber and for those sleeping, unless the ear is closed on purpose. The Lord says in the parable: “The enemy came as a man asleep, and all the tares in the midst of the wheat” (Matthew 13:25). That is, during sleep, negligence and carelessness, the devil comes and inserts evil thoughts, evil desires, and lawless deeds into our lives. You see how dangerous a moral dream is. In another parable, the Lord tells us: “You are like a man who waits on his Lord”; and adds: “Blessed are these servants, for whom the Lord will find those who are watching” (Luke 12:36–37). Therefore he commands: “Watch for it; You don’t know when the Lord will come to your home, lest He come suddenly and find you sleeping” (Mark 13:35-36), and you will not be blessed. Finally, He confirms that this warning is necessary for everyone without exception: “I say to everyone: watch” (Mark 13:37). The Apostle also points to a certain “time” and hour, as he believes, “known” to us, at which, as it were, he hastens to awaken us who are morally sleeping or dozing: “knowing the time, as if it is already an hour for us to rise from sleep.” What time is it? He explains somewhat: “Now is salvation nearer to us than when we believed” (Rom. 13:11). What is “now”? Perhaps this means that salvation is closer to us now, in the time of the New Testament, when we already saw the coming Christ, and knew and accepted His sacraments, than in the time of the Old Testament, when we believed in the Christ still awaited. Or: now that we have been in the Church of Christ for quite some time, we could find quite a few ways to establish ourselves in spiritual life, salvation is closer to us than when we were just approaching the faith of Christ. But, be that as it may, what is worthy of our deep attention is that the apostolic teaching demands that we rise from moral sleep “today,” and not tomorrow, at the present “hour,” and not in future hours. Which of us wants to die? More or less, everyone thinks of being saved: but the trouble is that many do not want “immediate salvation,” but think or dream of taking advantage of a distant salvation. They arrange their salvation in the same way as the rich man mentioned in the Gospel, his luxurious and cheerful life “for many years” (Luke 12:19): but what they forget “now” consumes these “many years”: sometimes even before they were born: “in this night your soul will be extorted from You” (Luke 12:20). So, we need, brethren, to obey the Apostolic warning; you need to awaken yourself from the dreamy life of the sensual, worldly, sinful, to the true spiritual life, according to the commandments of God, according to the teaching and example of the Lord Jesus, as strictly as possible, now, at the present hour, “until now, this day, he is called” (Heb. 3:13); because in the next hour, on tomorrow’s day, perhaps we will already “fall asleep into death” (Ps. 12:4), and it will be too late to awaken us, or it will awaken us, but no longer the voice of grace to salvation, but the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God to judgment and condemnation. We will uranium as much as possible so as not to be irrevocably late. “Let us put aside the dark things and put on the weapons of light. Put on your clothes with our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:12, 14). Amen. In the author’s manuscript, “brilliant” was originally written, and then corrected in pencil, as here. You might be interested in: