305. Слово в день совершившегося столетия Императорского Московского Университета

(Said in the Church of St. Martyr Tatiana on January 12; published in the Journal of the Ministry of People's Education of 1855, in the Works of the Holy Father of the same year, and in the collection of 1861) The Abode of Higher Teachings is now celebrating its birthday, and, moreover, with special solemnity; because it's her hundredth birthday. She will proclaim the memories of her hundred-year life, certainly memorable, with her own lips, of which she has no shortage. I must be before her in the position in which the successors of the disciples of the Teacher of fishermen and tabernacles placed me, “I have chosen the wrath of the world, that he may put to shame the wise” (1 Cor. 1:27). From here I watch how the abode of higher teachings begins its holiday: and what do I see? - With reverence she brings both mentors and disciples before the face of the Teacher, Who proclaimed Himself the only Teacher, and consequently reduced all human teachers to the category of students, and, however, through this did not exaggerate His dignity and did not insult their dignity. “One... is your Teacher Christ” (Matthew 23:8). So you confess by deed that Christ is God’s teaching wisdom, and He is the subject of teaching wisdom - the truth: that “the Lord gives wisdom” to those who teach, “and from His presence knowledge and understanding” to those who are taught (Prov. 2:6). Looking at this with consolation, and calling from above to the minds and hearts of mentors and disciples the inwardly illuminating light of Christ, I hope to find an open ear if I read some words from the holy educational book of the Divine Teacher, which alone once satisfied Justin the Philosopher after all his philosophical wisdom, and to which, after the acquired glory of Athenian learning, Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian gave themselves as disciples . “For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, that I may bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37). “If you continue in My word, you will be My disciples indeed; and you will understand the truth” (John 8:31–32). “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). These are the essence of the heavenly Teacher's own words. Isn’t it joyful for the zealots of knowledge, enlightenment, wisdom, and therefore, the zealots of truth, to see what high importance He gives to the truth, and how strongly he encourages us to seek and understand it. God the Word descends from heaven; “dress yourself with light as with a robe” (Ps. 103:2), lays aside the garment of glory; puts on the clothing of poverty - in human nature; "comes into the world"; voluntarily goes to meet bickering, deprivation, disasters, persecution, unjust condemnation, long-suffering death: why so many extraordinary things, so many immensely intensified feats? He answers: “Yes, I testify to the truth.” Apparently, the world needs the truth; Apparently, extraordinary testimony about her is needed; it is clear that it would not have been worthily and satisfactorily witnessed if the incarnate God the Word had not testified to it. Truth is one of the natural and essential needs of the human spirit. Divine Revelation says in a deep sense that the word of God, or the truth of God, is the bread of life. “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Likewise, natural reason, although not in such deep understanding, can say that truth is the life food of the human spirit. Destroy the truth: the mind will remain emptiness, hunger, thirst, languor, torment, unless it is deadened or fainted from extreme ignorance. If you decide to feed him with images of the imagination that have a passing shine, but do not contain solid truth, he will soon get bored of drawing water with a bottomless vessel; and his thirst will remain unquenchable, and his torment will remain unhealed. What does children’s curiosity mean, their desire to ask about everything and find out everything? This is a natural thirst for truth, which does not yet know exactly what it thirsts for, and therefore strives to absorb what it can. What does a judge look for in the law and in a court case? - Truths. If you could assure him that he would not find the truth, you would destroy law and justice. What is science looking for in the immeasurable space of the universe, and in the secret repositories of human nature? - Truths. Assert that it cannot be found: you will strike science with a fatal blow. But is it really possible to find the truth? – One must think that it is possible if the mind cannot live without it, but it seems to live, and of course does not want to admit that it is deprived of life. There were people who wanted to prove that truth is inaccessible to human knowledge. But what does it mean to prove? – This means that the truth, hidden in the darkness of the unknown, or in the darkness of doubt, is brought to light through one or several truths, clearly known and undoubtedly recognized. So truth exists before evidence; is already present at their birth, and laughs at those who want to prove her absence or non-existence, but for this they are forced to call on her for help. From the philosophy of modern times one can hear that the limited, many-part, conditional, relative, sensually revealed (phainumenon), changing, transitory does not represent perfect truth; that the fundamental and perfect truth must be found in the imperishable, in the unchangeable, in the intelligible (noymenon), in the detached, in the unconditional, in the individual, in the infinite. In these words one hears something about the truth: but isn’t there too little clarity in them? How many will comfortably and correctly understand each of them? But is the truth only for a few who torture their own minds, and not for all of humanity? And is it really necessary to take the dark path to the beginning of the world? Isn’t it less satisfactory, and isn’t it more understandable for everyone, if we say that the root and foundation of truth, the focus of truths, the sun of the mental world is a pure mental representation, or in your opinion, the idea of ​​God, the Creator, the Almighty; and that this truth is very accessible to the knowledge of all people; “The understanding of God is already present in them; God showed them food; For His invisible being from the creation of the world was understood by created things, and His ever-present power and Godhead are visible” (Rom. 1:19-20). In the hearing of the capital of paganism, in the hearing of the nations and wise men of the pagans, the Apostle Paul said that “the understanding of God is in them.” So he was sure that there could be no fundamental objection to this truth. But after this, he, without fear of being in contradiction with himself, said that these same people, for whom “the understanding of God is manifest” (Rom. 1:19), “transformed the truth of God into a lie, and honored and served the creature more than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25). And he also had before him the whole pagan world, and the experiences of centuries and millennia, as obvious proof of this. After this, please consider, zealots of the truth, in what position humanity is in relation to the truth. Truth is as necessary to him as food; the truth is accessible to his knowledge: and, meanwhile, the whole world, over the course of centuries and millennia, was not able to find and put into action the first, fundamental, predominantly necessary, “revealed” truth. Isn’t humanity unhappy, not being able to recognize the truth, which is primarily necessary and saving? And isn’t it still guilty before God, having not accepted the truth that “God... revealed to be”? What is next according to the natural consequence of the previous one and at the same time according to the justice of God? – An insoluble haze of doubt? Wandering in the darkness of the unknown, or following deceptive ghosts? The smooth death of the spirit, and, after a short, illusory spiritual life, the death of the whole person? – Such exactly was and would forever be the fate of mankind, if God, Who revealed knowledge of Himself to people through the nature of created things, out of an abundance of mercy, had not revealed Himself again through His incarnate Word, His Only Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is how the meaning is determined and the power of the sayings of Christ the Savior is revealed, that He “was born for this, and for this came into the world, that He may testify to the truth”; that only those who “abide in His word” have hope of “understanding the truth”; that He Himself “is the truth” and the “path” to “truth and life”. “Grace and truth became Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), says His beloved disciple. Why is “grace” first and then “truth”? – Because man not only did not know the truth, but was also guilty of not accepting the truth, and for that reason was unworthy of its new revelation; and therefore “grace,” an abundant mercy, was needed in order to merit him a new and higher revelation of truth. What revelation of truth? – The same beloved disciple explains: “No one has seen God anywhere; The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father confessed” (John 1:18); - confessed God, not only as the creator and Almighty, but, what is especially wonderful and desirable, as a Father who is merciful, loving and saving. “For God so loved the world, that He also gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). Will someone tell me: this is the truth of God; we leave it to theologians; Is there a feat before us about natural truth, useful for man and for human society? “And I, brethren, have to take care and strive to ensure that you do not alienate the truth of God from yourselves.” Why do they want to dissect the truth? - To cut means to kill. There is no life without unity. Do they really think that the truth of God and Christ is something extraneous to natural truth, useful to man and human society, and that the latter can live just as well without the former as in conjunction with it? – Look at peoples and human societies: Christian and non-Christian. Isn’t that where natural truth shines clearly: natural, mental, moral, creative, constructive and beautifying for human societies, where the sun of the truth of God and Christ shines? Doesn’t night cover the natural abilities and life of peoples over whom the gracious sun of the truth of God and Christ has not risen? Take the sun out of the world: what will happen to the world? Take the heart out of the body: what will happen to the body? Is it necessary to say? Take away the truth of God and Christ from humanity: it will be the same with him as with a body without a heart, as with a world without the sun. But by vocation I am a wise man and a natural scientist: what should be my attitude towards the truth of Revelation? – Do not dream that you can create wisdom; think better that wisdom can come and recreate you: and when, with Solomon, you find that “in the abundance” of self-made, unsatisfactory “wisdom there is a lot of vexation” 769 and only “wreck of spirit” 770 (Eccl. 1:17-18), then do not be ashamed and do not hesitate to confess and call for help to your natural wisdom, That, in “Where are all the hidden treasures of wisdom and understanding” (Col. 2:3), “And now we have wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and deliverance” (1 Cor. 1:30). I am a seeker of the truth of human descriptions: what do I owe to the truth of God? – Do not allow yourself to see in the existence of humanity with a dull gaze only the discordant play of chance and the struggle of passions, or blind fate; sharpen your eye and notice the traces of God's providence, wise, good and righteous. Be careful not to fall into pagan fables, trustingly following those who, in the depths of the antiquity of the world, indicate prehistoric times, so called by them. Among the pagans, the fable absorbed the truth of ancient events: we have a true book of existence, in which the thread of human existence begins with God and the first man, and is not interrupted until it finally enters the wide fabric of diverse legends and everyday life writings. I am a researcher of the stars, planets and their laws: what does the truth of God require of me? – You have very skillfully increased the insight of your vision in order to see in the heavens what is invisible to the simple eye: strive to also skillfully increase the insight of your hearing, so that you can hear clearly, and proclaim to others how “the heavens will tell the glory of God” (Ps. 19:2). I will point you to one of the ascetics in your field as an example. When he saw 771 that one long-observed star, during the continuation of observations, changed its silver-shaped light into the form of a hot coal, and then disappeared: he concluded that something similar to what was predicted about our earth had happened to it; “The earth... and the works in it will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:10); and therefore he said: glory to God! Before our eyes is something new 772, evidence that the world is about to end; that, consequently, it had a beginning; that God is the Creator of the world and the ruler of its destinies. I am a lover and cultivator of elegant words; Should I, too, enslave the freedom and beauty of speech to the rigor of the highest truth? - Think about it, will the dignity of your work be great if the beautiful flowers of your words turn out to be barren empty flowers? Is it not better that the fruitful seed of edifying truth is hidden in them, and that they emit the fragrance of moral purity? Let all of us, Christians, both philosophical and humble in simplicity, never forget that Christ is not only “truth”, but also “life”. In His word and in His example, He became a “way” for us to lead us “to the truth,” and through the truth to true “life.” Whoever thinks to secure himself by achieving some knowledge of the truth of Christ, and discontentedly tries to turn it into real life according to the teaching and example of Christ: he deceives himself with the truth itself; and exposes himself to the danger of dying along the way, and never achieving the true, eternal, blessed life with Christ in God. – “Try this way, that you may comprehend” (1 Cor. 9:24). By the path of truth, strive for true life. So flow in the royal way, royal abode of knowledge, from your first age to your second age. Having looked at the successes achieved, thank God, and be jealous of achieving greater ones. Do not use flattery to cover up the imperfections that are inseparable from human affairs, but in their impartial recognition find guidance and motivation for improvement. Spread not superficial education, but enlightenment that penetrates from the mind to the heart; and may virtue and true good, private and general, be the fruit of knowledge. Strive to form ascetics of truth and righteousness, faith and fidelity to God, the Tsar and the Fatherland, who would live by truth and righteousness, and would be ready to sacrifice their lives for them. For the truth, when people die for it, is especially life-giving. Amen. “For in abundance of wisdom is abundance of understanding” – Editorial Board of “The ABCs of Faith” “will of the spirit” or “languor of the spirit” – Editorial office of the “ABC of Faith” In the journal minister folk enlightenment "saw". In the journal minister folk enlightenment instead of these words was: “then he said thank God! 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