243. Слово в день венчания и помазания на царство Благочестивейшаго Государя Императора Николая Павловича

(Said in the Dormition Council on August 22; printed in the Works of the Holy Father of 1849 and in the collection of 1861) If Israel had walked in My way, he would have humbled his enemies for nothing (Ps. 81:14-15). Recently, on a day similar to today, we placed these words of God’s destiny as the basis for our reflection, calling you to prayer for God’s help in battle. We have reason to return to these same words today. God “humbled” our enemies. Should I say: “I humbled myself for nothing”? (Ps.80:15) – I don’t dare. Our army has endured long and difficult journeys. He fought not only with enemies, but also with nature. It penetrated through the gorges of the mountains, which, no matter how easy it was for the enemies to block, as already almost blocked by nature, it was so difficult for us to make passable. There were several battles against enemies who lacked neither warriors, nor leaders, nor weapons, nor enterprise, in a word, nothing - except justice and legality. Cities, villages, roads - everything had to be contested by our army at the arms of enemies; and where they did not rely on their weapons, there they turned their murderous hand on their land and their property, so as to turn devastation and deprivation into weapons against us. Thus, according to their calculations, the very victory that would lead us into their land should have led to an inextricable abyss. But “a lie is not true to itself” (Ps. 27:12): but the truth is not deceived. God gave His protection to law and justice: and the Russian army overcame all difficulties; his loyalty, courage, steadfastness triumphed over everything. Finally, let the word of God’s destinies not pass by: our enemies represent, of course, an unexpected phenomenon for enemies, that they are “humble in no way”, forced to surrender to the victors without a battle. We don’t know whether they began to understand legality and justice: but we see that from the experiences of a real war they understood, firstly, the unreliability of their confrontation, and secondly, the dignity of the Russian Tsar and His army. One thought about their unreliability could lead them not to submission, but to actions more daring and desperate; but the thought of the dignity of the Russian Tsar and His army led them to the conclusion that there is no little honor in recognizing oneself as defeated by the Russian army, and not by another army, in order to unconditionally surrender oneself to the generosity of the Russian Tsar. And thus, the main ruler and leader between them, although he still had one hundred and forty fire-breathing lips ready to support his thirst for battle and the hope of military glory, however, he preferred the hope of peace, which he could receive for himself and for his people from the Autocrat of All Russia with unconditional obedience. We greet You, God-crowned and anointed Sovereign! God has blessed Your zeal for upholding the rule of law. He gave good evidence of your rightness, which preserves the treaties of alliance not in writing, but in deeds. Your constant care for Your army is once again justified. The kingless springs that devastate the earth are removed from Your borders. The dream of a self-made people's power, which excited many peoples, led many kings to bewilderment, shook some, even cast down some, is denounced by the sovereign power that comes from God, and returns from unsuccessful reality to the realm of dreams. It remains for us to wish and pray to God that a worthy end will crown a deed worthy of a crown, that the victory of legality will spread everywhere where battle has been raised against it, that gratitude for selfless help will confirm the allies of our King in allied fidelity, in which He is firm in righteousness and generosity, that, reassured by His exploits, the neighbors will provide Him with the only reward they can - peace from exploits, peace outside, in which the fruit of internal improvement and well-being can be sown, grown and ripened without hindrance. But what can we think about now for ourselves? Knowing from the word of God that God humbles the enemies of the people, provided that the people walk in the ways of God; and seeing that our enemies are humble, shall we flatter ourselves with the thought that we have apparently fulfilled the condition required by God, that we have walked rightly in the ways of the Lord? - Let's be careful! And before people, an opinion about one’s virtue is a detriment to the essence of virtue: how much more so before God. The exaltation of our ways in our own eyes is a deviation from the path of God, even if we are on it. Those who are faithful to this path see only the gifts and blessings of God in favorable encounters. “It is not in strength that a man is strong: the Lord makes him his adversary when he is weak. “He who judges with the end of the earth is righteous, and gives strength to our King, and exalts the horn of His Christ” (1 Samuel 2:9-10). God-enlightened contemplatives of God's destinies reveal to us that God gives kings and peoples strength, success and glory, not only as a reward for virtue, but also in the hope that, excited by gratitude to His benefits, they will fulfill His will. So He called the ancient Cyrus, who had not yet been born, by name, and said to him through the Prophet Isaiah: “I will go before you, and I will level the mountains, I will break in pieces the gates of bronze, and I will break the chains of iron” (Is. 45:2). What does this extraordinary mercy mean? “This is a guarantee of what God expects from Cyrus.” For he says: “He will do all my will” (Is. 44:28). “I raised him up with the righteousness of a king, and all his ways were right. This will build my city, and bring back the captivity of my people” (Is. 45:13). We will not sin either if, in the mercies of God shown to us, we see not so much a reward for actually walking in the ways of God, but rather a guarantee for rousing us with gratitude to the most zealous walking in the ways of God. What is God's way? Where is he? Where does it lead? The way of God is the will of God and the law of God. It lies in the heart that fears and loves God, and from here it flows into deeds and life. It leads first to the kingdom of God, which is within us, then to the kingdom of God, which is in heaven. The path of God is the knowledge and contemplation of the truth of God and Christ. It lies in the heart of a believer, in a mind obedient to faith, in a spirit that has rejected the wisdom of the flesh, and from here it also extends into deeds and life. Through Christ he leads to union with God, as Christ himself said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one will come to the Father except by Me” (John 14:6). The path of God is every virtue, especially prayer, abstinence, love of mankind, kindness, patience, humility. Thus this path represents many paths; because it passes through all degrees and states of the internal and external life of a person: but he is together and one, as one soul, which with all its abilities must strive for God, as one God, to whom it must strive. The Gospel says that the path of God is narrow, because it is constrained by the surrounding wide crossroads of the flesh, the world, passions, lusts, vices, and iniquities. But the traveler must not forget that the narrow path, although sometimes along thorns, leads to the eternal belly, and the wide one, partly perhaps along flowers, but partly also along thorns, leads to destruction. However, one cannot think that any of us was not aware of at least part of the path of God, as directed by education, the Church, and conscience. But by wisdom and grace it is so constructed that a certain part of it is firmly and unswervingly passed by the deed itself, through this very thing it is revealed how to go further. So, the main concern is whether we desire, whether we are zealous to follow the path of God, and whether we are faithful in this. Don't some people want to rest carelessly on this path, and not work to move forward? Don’t they think that without danger it is possible to deviate from this path into the crossroads of the flesh, the world, passions, vicious inclinations, as long as it is not too far? Do not indignant passions and vicious inclinations reach the point of insolence to repeat the ancient refusal to the one who calls God on His path: “Depart from us, we do not want to lead Your ways” ( Job 21:14 )? Let us consider, brothers, that, according to the word of the wise, “he who is careless about his ways will perish” (Proverbs 19:16). And therefore let us adhere to the path of God firmly, faithfully, zealously, unswervingly. “Be patient with the Lord, and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the earth” (Ps. 36:34) and heaven. Amen. You might be interested in: