290. Слово в день Тезоименитства Благочестивейшего Государя Императора Николая Павловича, в Мариинской церкви Императорского Вдовьего Дома, при воспоминании совершившегося пятидесятилетия сего благотворительного учреждения

(Said on December 6th; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, in the Police and Provincial Gazette of 1853 and in the collection of 1861) Shut up your almsgiving in your cages (Sir.29:15). Do you think it is possible that somewhere, at any time, you could witness a dispute between the most worthy of sons and the most worthy of mothers, and, moreover, such a dispute for which reconciliation is not needed, because both sides are right? “But it seems to me that you can witness this here, now.” Twenty-seven years before this, the Queen Mother said once and forever, and consequently she said for this day: on this day, in this church and house, let there be a special holiday in honor of my Sovereign Son, in gratitude to God, who gave Him the holy Christian name, blessed His days, and preserves his prosperity. But recently her Sovereign Son also spoke a word for this day: on this day, in this church and house, let there be a special holiday in honor and memory of my Crowned Mother, in gratitude to God for the fact that this charitable institution, a child of Her mercy, has prosperously reached half a century old, with the hope of reaching the age of centuries. Isn't this a wonderful dispute between filial piety and maternal love? Isn't it true that he does not demand reconciliation? We have two commands: but they do not divide our hearts, but unite and ignite them to fulfill both. Blessed forever, blessed to this day, is the day of our God-protected Autocrat, and may His coming years be blessed, more abundantly than the past! Blessed is the memory in God of His reposeful Mother, by nature and the gift of Providence, the blessed Mother of the Crowned Children, by the mercy of the Mother of the orphans, widows and those in need in various ways. The ancient pious sage taught: “Shut your alms in your closets.” The ever-memorable Mary locked up alms more than in “cages,” or ordinary storehouses. The queen settled the alms, one might say, in the palaces of mercy; taught her the means to continue her age-old life and activity, to continuously give education to the orphans, peace to the elderly, charity to widows, healing and consolation to the sick, the blind, deaf, dumb, although not to grant sight, hearing, language, but, which in its way is also quite wonderful, given the lack of external tools of education, to open the inner eye of the soul, show it the light of truth, arouse and purify the moral sense, in some way make a half-man a man. This kingdom of philanthropy, together with the kingdom of All-Russia, inherited by our Most Pious Autocrat, not only preserves it, often observing with his own eye different parts of it, but also elevates and spreads, having as partners, firstly, his married wife, and then his faithful children. Let us turn to ourselves with the teachings of the pious sage. “Shut up,” he says, “the alms in your cages; and she will destroy you from all bitterness.” If we delve a little deeper into this significant saying, we will find in it the following reasoning. Many try to fill their "cells" or storehouses with a lot of bread, a lot of clothing, a lot of different things, and especially a lot of money: and when their cages are full, and tightly closed and locked, they think that their prosperity is assured. This is more a dream than a thought and a deed. Fire, water, air, a thief, a robber, an unfaithful steward, an unrighteous judge, extravagance that relies too much on wealth, and even an immoderate effort to increase wealth, can touch a full treasury so that the prophetic word appears in full effect: “I fell asleep with my sleep, and found all the riches of men in nothing in my hands” (Ps. 75:6). Or, if wealth does not hasten to hide from the cage of those who hope for it; then sooner or later the day will come on which it, and being with him, will itself say to him: you hoped in vain for me; “They do not...use their wealth in the day of wrath” (Prov. 11:4). So, do not be too concerned about filling your storehouses with many treasures: this will not protect you from hardships and will not protect you from troubles. A more lasting cause is offered to you, a more sure provision: “Shut up your alms in your cages; and she will destroy you from all bitterness.” Give to the poor part of the wealth that fills your cages: and alms will take the place that was abolished in them, and will be the guardian of the remaining wealth. Even if you gave everything shut up in your cages to the poor; your cages would be full of treasures of alms, more valuable than gold, not stolen, happy to provide you from hardships and protect you from troubles. Will they not say that this is even more like a dream than the thought and hope of providing oneself with increased and possessed wealth? And in what cages will alms be shut up, when the one who squandered his wealth on the poor will have no cages left? Of course, non-believers or those of little faith may think and mock this way: but true believers must discern in the mysterious saying of the ancient sage a truth that has been known for centuries and is constantly being discovered. The substance of alms given is obviously not returned to the material cage of the giver; an immaterial acquisition remains with him - a moral deed done: for this immaterial acquisition there must also be a repository. Which one? – I think this is the Providence of God, rewarding everyone according to their deeds, and faith in this Providence. Full and perfect retribution for each person’s deeds is given to the great universal judgment of God at the end of time: but so that humanity on the long path to this judgment does not lose the thought of God’s justice, God, in general, the moral deeds of each person, and especially the deeds of mercy, accepts into the storehouse of His omniscience and Providence, and in the course of time wears out from His treasury the corresponding deeds of retribution. Tobit tells about himself: “I gave many alms to my brethren and to my tongue. I gave my bread to the hungry, and clothing to the naked, and if anyone from my family I saw died and was cast out outside the wall of Nineveh, in its cellars.” You see, he “closed the alms in a cage and his own,” or in other words, he put it in the storehouse of Providence. Let's see if she survives, and if she saves him. He continues: “All my property was plundered, and nothing remained for me” (Tov.1:3, 17, 20). Moreover, the act of his philanthropy, the burial of the murdered man, led to him losing his sight. What do you think? Did not alms deceive him, just as wealth betrayed him? - No! The treasury of Providence, which hid his virtue and prosperity, was opened by an Angel; and Tobit miraculously again received sight, wealth, family prosperity, a long, peaceful old age, and for all this he considered himself obliged to alms. “Children, know that almsgiving does and truth delivers” (Tov.14:11), were his last words. Perhaps it is not without special significance that it is said that alms should be kept in “cages” and not in cages. In fact, one can also point out a very close “cage” in which a person puts the work of alms, while he distributes the substance of alms. This immaterial, but the strongest cage of any strong substance, this indestructible repository of moral deeds is conscience. Look inside yourself, humane soul: when doing a deed of mercy, and then when remembering it, don’t you find within yourself a feeling of peace and consolation? So, you see that alms are stored in your inner “cage”: and it will be stored here until the day of the great judgment, in order then to “deliver you from all bitterness,” not temporary, but eternal. The Seer of Mysteries, proclaiming to us the bliss and peace of “those who die in the Lord,” gives the reason for this: “for their works follow with them” (Rev. 14:13). How can things that are done and finished go with the person who did them, and even beyond death? “I think this is no other way than because they always remain in his conscience.” On the day of the last judgment, this secret repository will open, or, according to another expression of the seer, “the book of life will be scattered,” written not in writing, but with moral deeds and thoughts, and a person, whether or not, will read in his opened conscience the deeds and thoughts of his past life, and thus, “men will receive judgment from those written in the books” (Rev. 20:12), - in his open conscience they will find themselves the judgment of eternal peace and bliss, or the judgment of eternal rejection and torment. Think, Christian soul: what are you “locking up” “in your cages”? What do you fill the storehouse of your conscience with? Do you fill it with pure thoughts, holy desires, deeds of piety, mercy and all virtue? If, instead of true treasures, the depository of your conscience contains the clay and purge of sins and vices: do you strive to cast it out through repentance and self-sacrifice, in order to collect and preserve, as far as possible, pure spiritual treasure? “And don’t forget that if you don’t put good things in time into your inner storage, you won’t find good things in it in eternity.” Amen. You might be interested in: