272. Слово в день обретения мощей Преподобного Сергия

(Said in the Trinity Lavra on July 5th; printed in the Works of the Holy Father in 1852 and in the collection of 1861) Remember the Lord your God (Deut. 8:18). By reverently commemorating our venerable and God-bearing Father Sergius, we fulfill the commandment of the Apostle: “Remember your teachers” (Heb. 13:7). This Apostolic commandment brings to my mind the Prophetic commandment: “Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God.” And this is not for one subcondition, but for a more significant reason. The piously created memory of the saints is a branch, the root of which should be reverent remembrance of God, just as the grace of the saints is a branch from the life-giving root of God's power, or a ray from the source light of God. In order for the industry to turn green, bloom and bear fruit, a living root is required. So, in order for the memory created about the saints to be beneficial, for this it is necessary that a living remembrance of God be implanted in the heart. So, we will not deviate from the subject of this celebration, but we will also serve it if we enter into some reflection on the commandment: “Thou shalt remember the Lord thy God.” This commandment was proposed to the people of God by the Prophet Moses, in the great teaching that he delivered to him at the end of his prophetic and legislative ministry, and inscribed in the book of Deuteronomy. “Hear to Israel” (Deut. 6:4), said the Prophet, you have gone through the memorable course of fourty years of wandering under the direct guidance of God; The time is coming in which you will have to justify the guidance given to you by being able to guide yourself. In the promised land, “do not bring down your bread with poverty” (Deut. 8:9) “and you will eat and be satisfied” (Deut. 8:10): how will you take advantage of the present prosperity? “Remember all the way that the Lord your God has led you through” (Deut. 8:2), the dangers you have passed through, the difficulties you have overcome, the miracles you have witnessed and been the subject of: what use will you make of these memories of the past? - I show you the path of truth and salvation: remember God, the author of all these blessings. “Remember the Lord your God.” Remember God. – If this requirement is taken in its literal limitations, then one might think that it is too moderate, not to say meager, and not to the extent of its subject. Is it enough to demand from a son that he sometimes remember his father? And isn’t such a requirement unnecessary? Can a son forget his father? Isn't it even insulting to a son to assume that he can forget his father? Isn't man immeasurably more indebted to God than a son is to his father? The father gave his son life: but not his own, but received from God the creator. The father raised his son, introduced him into society, ensured his well-being: but all this is not otherwise than with the blessing and under the protection of the Provider God. The son acts not with the mind of the father, but with his own, with the will not of the father, but with his own, with the power not of the father, but with his own: but man cannot act, especially act righteously, nor think, especially think good, nor live, especially live blessedly, without God, who “does all things by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3), about whom “we live and move and are” (Acts 17:28). without Whom “there is no... We are content to think of anything from ourselves” (2 Cor. 3:5), whose face “I will turn away, all things will be troubled, and they will disappear and return to their dust” (Ps. 103:29). With such a person's attitude towards God, is it enough to demand from a person that he sometimes remember God? And isn’t such a requirement unnecessary? Is it possible for a person to forget God? Isn’t it even offensive, not only for God, but also for man himself, when it is assumed that he can forget God? - There is no doubt that everyone’s conscience will say to this: exactly, this is how it should be, or this is how it should be. This is how it should be, based on reflection on truth and justice. But what do we actually see? Let us not look for the bitch in someone else's eye: let each one examine his own to see if there is any log in it. Don’t we spend many hours and whole days immersed in the affairs of earthly duties, or simply arbitrariness, self-interest, whim, without bringing to mind the heavenly duty: “remember the Lord your God”? When we encounter difficulties in business, obstacles, failures, deprivations, insults, don’t we sometimes torment ourselves for a very long time with fruitless sadness or annoyance and an unsuccessful search for means to help ourselves, without using a close and sure means - by remembering God, and asking for His help, or surrendering to His will? Having success in business, taking advantage of security, abundance, a pleasant position in society, advantages in rank, in service, do we not pass from fussy worldly activities to moral slumber, in which we dream of our dignity, praise our art, expand our views to immeasurable extent, exaggerate our hopes - and do not know how to wake up to remember God, to see His beneficent hand above us, and to give Him praise and thanksgiving? Let us compare these experiences of life with the speculation of truth and justice indicated above. If it is not enough to demand from a son memories of his father; because, in addition, the son owes his father respect, love, obedience; if it is all the more small to demand from a person the remembrance of God, because in addition to this, a person owes God reverence, love, and the fulfillment of His commandments: then how much we are guilty when we do not fulfill even that, after which we should also say: this is not enough! If it is so common for a son to remember his father that it seems unnecessary to remind him of this; if it is much more natural for a person to remember God: then how strange, how unnatural, that a person forgets God! If it is insulting to the dignity of a son to assume that he can forget his father, and even more insulting to the dignity of a person to assume that he has forgotten God: then how seriously we offend the dignity of the mind, heart, conscience, human nature, by really forgetting God! And how much more do we insult God through this! O righteous God! If for our long, repeated oblivion of You, You repaid only with a moment of Your oblivion about us, we would have fallen below the underworld, for those who exist there are not alien to Your remembrance, since they are not alien to Your providence. But You, the Long-suffering One, do not forget the person who forgets You, and meekly remind him of Yourself with the word of Your Revelation: “Remember the Lord your God.” Remember God. – “It is true for you, Lord, but for us it is a disgrace to our faces” (Dan.9:7). The Prophet, rousing people to remembrance of God, applies his instruction, especially to the state of well-being: “Remember the Lord your God, for He has given you strength to create power” (Deut. 8:18). This special application does not mean that one should remember God in prosperity more than in another state, but that in prosperity a person is more in danger of forgetting God, and therefore requires more warning from this. The same Prophet presents an example of this in a prophetic song about Israel, justified with bitter precision by events: “Jacob was eaten, and was satisfied, and the beloved was rejected; become thicker and wider, and forsake God who made him, and depart from God his Savior” (Deut. 32:15). Warn yourself by this example, beloved new Israel. If you see yourself prosperous, use your prosperity moderately; if you feel strength in yourself, remember God, who gave you strength; Be careful that your heart, richly nourished by earthly pleasures, does not become dull and incapable of heavenly sensations; try to nourish it not so much with visible blessings, but with the thought of the invisible Giver of blessings, which can always contain it as an open vessel for grace. Some of the above reflections require that the question not be left without resolution: why does the Prophet, demanding remembrance of God, demand so little when a person owes God not only remembrance, but also reverence, love, and fulfillment of the commandments? This is for the same reason that the farmer sows small seed; for he knows that, having been accepted by the good soil, it will by itself produce a considerable plant and abundant fruit. Remembrance and remembrance of God is the seed of virtues and the seed of bliss. The remembrance of God, which is frequent and attentive, gradually turns into constant remembrance of Him; with constant remembrance of God naturally comes the feeling of oneself in the presence of God and thinking about the perfections and deeds of God; from thinking about the perfections and works of God, with the feeling of His presence, reverence for God, faith, prayer, love, the desire to please Him and the fear of breaking His commandments rise and grow. God, having chosen Abraham, wanted to make him perfect. What means did He use for this? Remembering God and walking in His presence. “Walk before Me,” He said, “and be perfect” (Gen. 17:1). In fact, if in the presence of the king we do not allow ourselves any negligence, much less indecency, but we try to ensure that every word we say, every movement is pleasing to him: then even more so, the one who represents himself in the presence of God will not allow himself any sin, he will be jealous of a holy deed that is pleasing to God. “I remembered God and rejoiced” (Ps. 77:4), said the Prophet, and this is the beginning of the joy expected from seeing God in eternity: “fill me with joy with Your countenance” (Ps. 15:11). “Arise, O Jerusalem,” cries the Prophet, “and see your children gathered from the east of the sun to the west, rejoicing in the word of the Holy One in the memory of God” (Bar. V. 5). New blessed Israel! You must not lag behind the ancient, but according to the preferential grace given to You, you must surpass it. Strive to always present to heaven, as you sometimes imagine, as you seem to imagine at the present moment, the sight pleasing to heaven of the multitude of your children, led by the word of God, “rejoicing in the memory of God.” Remember God, not only with your mind, but especially with your heart, with reverence, with faith, with love, with gratitude for His benefits, with the desire to please Him, so that “the Lord will remember” you “in the good will of His people”, “visit you” with “His salvation” (Ps. 106:4) in time and in eternity. Amen. You might be interested in: