241. Слово в день рождения Благочестивейшаго Государя Императора Николая Павловича

(Said in the Assumption Cathedral on June 25; printed in the Works of the Holy Father in 1849 and in the meeting in 1861) If only My people had listened to Me, Israel would have walked in My way; for nothing would their enemies have humbled them (Ps. 80:14-15). While we, in the inner world of the fatherland, under the peaceful roof of the house of God, united by the thought of our King, bless the day on which we have been given His life, destined for our good, is He in the same world, the creator and protector of our world, the subject of our universal prayers? And what is His spirit doing now? Doesn’t He direct his eagle, far-sighted gaze beyond the borders of the fatherland in order to observe the movements of allied and hostile forces, and, in favor of some and against others, direct the moral and military strength of Russia? Doesn’t he, at the same time, also turn vigilant, also insightful, glances to His Russia, whose internal affairs require His beckons, even while He is busy with external affairs? Is He not in a struggle with the attraction of the heart to His August family, after being distracted from it by concern for the safety of His all-Russian family, and for the restoration also of other, more or less allied peoples, social order, unless it was completely destroyed there by the destroyers of any legitimate society, who, of course, in a bitter joke, are called “social activists”? If with these thoughts, concern for the King is added to joy, then all the more should we reverence and pray. The Most Pious Sovereign Himself demanded this from us in a recent royal word spoken in the ears of all the sons of Russia. Pray, He said, because the acts of warfare may soon begin. If the foreshadowing of war is striking for the love of humanity, which would not desire the shedding of enemy blood, then, at the same time, in the call, on the occasion of war, to prayer, faith finds consolation and triumph. The prayer of faith must acquire the King an ally and champion - in the King of Heaven. But here’s something that shouldn’t go unnoticed especially: we, who are not drafted into the military camp and are unarmed, are not completely alien to participation in war, participation not only mental, but also real. We do not participate in the matter of war: however, we more or less participate in achieving more or less perfect success in it. How is this? - Look into it and you will see. If in times of war, for this very occasion and subject, prayer is required: then of course it is assumed that prayer for war can be useful. But it is known that not every prayer is equally valid. So, if our prayer for our brothers struggling in battle is unanimous, zealous, strong, pure, worthy, then it is capable of more or less assisting them in acquiring the surest guarantee of victory - God's blessing and help. Thus, by laboring in prayer, we become real spiritual associates of the ascetics of warfare. But if our prayer for them is not unanimous, not zealous, not strong, not pure, not worthy: then, to the extent of these shortcomings, it will be devoid of effect, and we will deprive our brothers who struggle for us of a certain share of the success that could and should have been delivered to them. If we completely avoid praying for them, then we become like cowardly warriors fleeing from the battlefield, who confuse and complicate even the courageous. In saying this, we in no way diminish the importance and independence of natural forces and abilities, nor the importance of military talents, art, and jealousy. Let us give justice to the loyalty, nobility, art, and courage of our leaders and warriors; but if prayer, God’s blessing and God’s help are also not words without meaning: then the Church and the people praying for the army are not unimportant reinforcers for the army, and perhaps, in the eyes of the spirit, and a troop leading to victory, according to the strength and dignity of prayer. So that what has been said does not seem like a game of inferences: we resort to the word of the Divine. God Himself spoke through the mouth of the Prophet: “If My people had listened to Me, if Israel had walked in My way, they would not have been humbled by their enemies.” We are talking about an easy and sure victory over enemies: “nothing else would have humbled his enemies.” God attributes such a victory to Himself, that is, to His blessing and His invisible, or, when necessary, visible miraculous help sent down to the chosen people. Help is given not simply, not as an arbitrary distinction to the chosen people, but under a certain moral and spiritual condition: “If My people had listened to Me, if Israel had walked in My way.” Israel could have warriors, weapons, leaders, an abundance of strength, art: very good, but that’s not all. His enemies could have been more numerous, more skillful, cunning, daring: it didn’t matter. It is especially important that he listen to God, that he walk in the ways of the Lord. Believe, O Israel, in God, pray to Him; listen to His words; act according to His commandments, justly, decently, lovingly; if you have sinned, do not hesitate to repent and correct yourself; trust not in yourself, but in God: and He is ready “to humble your enemies in no way,” to grant you an easy and sure victory over them. With what clear, what striking experiences Israel learned this Divine destiny of battle! Joshua fights with the Amalekites: and Moses prays on the mountain. Moses prays more powerfully; Israel fights more powerfully, and overcomes the Amalekites. Moses faints in prayer: The Israelites faint in battle, and victory leans towards the Amalekites. “And it came to pass, when Moses lifted up his hand; Israel prevailed: when he lowered his hand; Amalek prevailed." As a sign of the special power of public prayer, Aaron and Hur supported the raised hands of Moses in prayer: “and Jesus overcame Amalek and all his people” (Ex. 17:11–13). At another time, Joshua fights with five kings suddenly: and the sky allied with him shoots stone hail at his enemies; and out of extraordinary hope in God, without even uttering words of prayer, he stops the sun by his own command in order to have time to complete his victory before dawn. The times of the Judges of Israel represent a whole series of incidents in which one and the same fate is revealed. “The children of Israel have done evil before the Lord; - and delivered them into the hands of the enemies. “The children of Israel cried out to the Lord; - and the Lord will raise up a savior for Israel,” that is, a leader victorious over the enemies (Judges 3:7–9). Here you can see, by the way, how victory sometimes comes to those who do not honor God. It is not actually given to them: it is taken away “from those who have done evil before the Lord” and those who deserve punishment, and falls into the hands of the nations serving as an instrument of punishment, until it can again be returned to those who have received punishment and correction. Thus the Israelites worship idols: and the Midianites destroy them. But Gideon, excited by the Angel, replaces the altar of Baal with the altar of the true God: and, after that, with three hundred unarmed, with one night military cry: “a sword to God and to Gideon” (Judges 7:18), creates confusion and civil strife in the Midian camp, as a result of which there is no longer a need to fight, but only to pursue and exterminate the enemy army. Who does not know David and his shepherd's sling, which against Goliath and the Philistines was more victorious than troops and weapons of war? The power was not in the sling and the stone, but in “the name of the Lord God of hosts” (1 Samuel 17:45), with which David was armed. There was also a war in which the main battle, which decided its fate, was given in words, and in which the unfairly attacking enemy was “humbled” as if “without a thought,” without weapons or struggle on the part of the victim of the attack. Sennacherib, king of Assyria, attacked Judah; took the fortress, and did not encounter any obstacles for his army to reach even Jerusalem. The Judah king Hezekiah had already admitted his powerlessness and appeased the winner with tribute. But Sennacherib sought the complete enslavement of the Jews, and in order to reduce their decline of spirit to the last degree, he decided to shake their hope in God, and for this, verbally and in writing, he fired arrows of blasphemy at Jerusalem: “Let not your God exalt you, for you have trusted in the unworthy” (2 Kings 19:10). Hezekiah realized that the war was being transferred from earth to heaven, and, in the church before God, unfolding the blasphemous handwriting, he said: “Open Thy eyes, O Lord, and see” (2 Kings 19:16). God answered through the Prophet Isaiah that He took upon Himself the defense of Jerusalem: “And it came to pass in that night, that an angel of the Lord came and killed from the Assyrian army one hundred eighty and five thousand” (2 Kings 19:35). Perhaps some will object that all this happened during the time of “Theocracy,” that is, the Rule of God, and that times are different now. - No one, of course, will argue that times are changing, and that this year is already different, and not the one that has passed. But do any other times have a different God? Has God ever renounced His Divine rule over the world and the human race, and especially over the kingdoms and nations in which His spiritual kingdom, the true faith, the holy Church, is predominantly contained and extended, or with which it is especially concerned? If they think that God’s government was limited to the times of the Old Testament, and ended with the beginning of Christian times, then we can say, on the contrary, that with the Old Testament only the former, more particular and sensory-figurative, type of God’s government ended, and at the same time a new, more general and spiritually-figurative one began. This is not our fortune-telling, but the contemplation of the Prophet. God the Father said to His incarnate Son: “Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the tongues of Thy inheritance, and Thy possession the ends of the earth” (Ps. 2:8). And according to the Revelation of John, Jesus Christ is the “Prince of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5), - the Prince of kings, of course, not by a vain and ineffective name, but by power and by the use of power. One can even say that the action of God's special judgments over the kingdoms of the earth, and God's judgment over them at times, is in some respects more necessary than for people separately. Each person has his own immortality, and therefore the reward or punishment for his deeds in time, without violating justice, can be postponed until eternal life. But the kingdoms of the earth do not have immortality and another life in eternity: consequently, God’s judgment on them and reward for truth or untruth must be accomplished in time, somehow, through the beneficial or punitive actions of nature, through the improvement or disorganization of society, through warfare. And in our time, are we not present at the judgment of God over certain kingdoms and nations? Can't we also take note of how they brought judgment upon themselves? – But I will say in the apostolic word: “Why should we judge those outside? – God judges those who are outside; “Remove the evil from you, samekh” (1 Cor. 5:12–13). Let us, brethren, be piously attentive to our lives, deeds and thoughts. For the sake of the eternal good of our souls, and at the same time for the temporary good of the kingdom and fatherland, let us remove from ourselves everything that is contrary to the spirit of the kingdom of God, which is the spirit of truth and righteousness, faith and fidelity, integrity and purity, goodness and mercy, humility and obedience, unanimity and love. Let us strive in prayer for the power of our Most Pious King and for the victory of His army; and let us not deprive our prayer of power through negligence, or lack of faith, or unworthiness of life. The words of the Lord never pass by: and therefore the same word, which was a reproof for the old Israel of the past, speaks to the new Israel as an instruction for the present and a promise for the future: If you, people of God, listen to God, if, O new Israel, you will walk in His way; “You will humble your enemies,” and will make you not only their conqueror, but, as has already happened, even their deliverer from their domestic evil. Amen. You might be interested in: