325. Беседа к братиям Святого храма Святителя Николая, что в Рогожском, при внесении в оный храм иконы Святителя Николая, дарованной Его Императорским Высочеством, Государем Наследником Цесаревичем 783

(Said on May 13th; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1856 and in the collection, 1861) I come to you now, brothers of this holy church, as a messenger and executor of the will of the Blessed Sovereign, Heir to the Throne, Tsarevich Grand Duke Nikolai Alexandrovich. Without a doubt, with a feeling of consolation and gratitude you remember the ninth day of September, on which he visited this church of yours, listened to prayer here, and out of your zeal received the holy icon. In his early years, revealing himself to be the heir of Parental and Ancestoral piety, He expressed His joy to you that, having overcome the years of ignorance and savingly understanding the spiritual need for grace-filled communion and unity with the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, you actually entered into communion and unity with it, in which you remain. At the same time, He significantly expressed the desire characteristic of enlightened Christian love that your good example would be followed by others who, unfortunately, are not from the court of the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church. From that time on, the Righteous Sovereign Tsarevich retained not only the remembrance of you, brothers of the same faith, and of your zeal, but also the benevolent participation with which he looked upon your unity with the Holy Church and with its hierarchy, from the holy Apostles who received each other, continuously and legally, the grace of the sacrament. In commemoration of His dispositions, and in the everlasting memory of His favor towards you, the Righteous Sovereign gives your church the holy icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which you see. Of course, this present day and hour is joyful for you, brothers; it is joyful for me too. I rejoice in the Blessed Firstborn Tsar, who, blossoming with age, blossoms with love for the Orthodox faith and love for the faithful Orthodox people. I rejoice over you, brethren, to whom, according to the arrangement of God’s providence, as if in reward for the fact that those who are strangers to church unity do not look kindly on you, a bright gaze, and a benevolent word, and a sacred gift comes from the very royal Throne: because the Blessed Son of the Kings acts, of course, in the spirit of the Most Pious Parent. I also rejoice in myself that I have been given the lot to now mediate in the fulfillment of the beneficent will of the Sovereign Tsarevich and to be comforted by your consolation. I also rejoice that I came to you, not only as sent, but also as called by your good will: for this is new evidence that your unity with the holy universal Church and its hierarchy has been fully accomplished in your hearts. Let no one think of seeing division in the fact that in your church certain special sounds and words are heard, certain special details of rituals are seen. They judged this strictly when resistance to sacred authority was associated with it: and the severity was just, because the sin of resistance is grave, as the Prophet Samuel admonishes about this: “Just as sin is enchantment, so sin is resistance; and just as idolatry is sin, so is disobedience” (1 Samuel 15:23). But where, by the prevenient grace of God, and by the action of good intentions and good reasoning, there is no resistance, but there is a heartfelt disposition towards peace and gracious unity; where, moreover, there is already unity of faith in sacred dogmas and sacraments: can this internal unity be hindered by some external diversity? You take into your leadership the sacred and church books in the form in which they were in the days of the first five Russian Patriarchs. We accept for guidance the sacred and church books in the form in which they received during the time of the subsequent five Patriarchs and the Holy Synod, as a result of comparing them with the ancient Greek books from which they were translated, and with the ancient Slavic manuscripts, moreover, statements that were unclear from antiquity were replaced by clearer ones, and those damaged by inexperienced scribes were corrected. What a difference! But both books glorify the one Holy Trinity; both proclaim the same faith in the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ; both offer the grace-filled power of the same seven sacraments for our sanctification, and the same commandments of God for the governance of our lives; both are established on the word of God, and on the rules of the apostles, conciliar and fathers; both represent the same composition of church worship and sacred rites, with few and insignificant differences in details. Here is unity! Well? Are these differences irreconcilable with this unity? It is impossible to refuse respect for the church books that you call new: they were corrected from Greek and Slavic manuscripts, which are older than the times of the first five Russian patriarchs. But your ancestors doubted the correctness of this correction; and out of respect for the saints and pious people who arranged their salvation according to the books that you call old, you decided to steadfastly adhere to these books. And you used to be guided in this not so much by research as by the tradition of your fathers. If your adherence to the opinions of your fathers reached (as others do) to the point of opposing the holy, apostolic Church, to rejecting the holiness or priesthood and saving sacraments, or to using them in a sacrilegious, and therefore fruitless and condemning manner; then I would tell you: set a due measure of your respect for your fathers; “It is fitting to obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29); If Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Olga and Vladimir had followed the opinions and examples of their fathers without limit, they would have died as idolaters, and not as saints and Equal-to-the-Apostles. But since your following the opinion and example of your fathers does not go to extremes: I respect the feeling of respect for your parents, and therefore I wish to remain in peace with the custom based on it. And since in the church books, mostly revered by you, I see one and the same, as in the corrected ones, faith, sacraments and the Church: then, with the blessing of the holy Apostolic Church, in the peace of your and my conscience, I read your church books in your church, and fulfill the peculiarities of the priestly rite and rites that belong to them; and I say without hesitation: let no one think of seeing division in the fact that in your church certain special sounds and words are heard, certain special details of rituals are seen. Brethren! The Holy Apostle Paul teaches that “the kingdom of God is not in words... but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). Let us not needlessly stir up divisive controversies about differences in words when they lead to the unified power of the kingdom of God. Look where the apostolic word shows us the foundations of grace-filled and saving unity: “one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:4-6). – Don’t we all honor and accept these eternal foundations of unity? So, let us unshakably establish our church unity on them, in those ways that the apostolic word also indicates. In what ways? – “With all humility and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:2-3). I will remember to you an even higher word about the need for grace-filled unity, and about the height to which it must reach. When Christ the Savior, departing from this world, concluded his last conversation with the Apostles with a prayer about His newly created Church: then He asked all those who believed in Him from His heavenly Father for unity in faith and love among each other, ascending to unity with God Himself: “that they all may be one: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us” (John 17:21 ). The prayer of the only begotten Son of God must be fulfilled: but it is and will be fulfilled only for those who, on their part, strive to conform to His will, who with a sincere heart “strive to preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” Let us strive, brothers of the same faith, to strengthen ourselves more and more and grow in the unity of faith and love, so that by the power of our grace-filled unity even the miserably alienated will be drawn to the saving church unity. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God! Look not at our unworthiness, but at the intercession of Your only begotten Son for us, and fulfill His prayer over us: “that we may all be one,” in the one Church of Thy saints, which is the one ark of salvation, and the one path to Thy heavenly kingdom. Amen. It was desirable that on this very day it should be transferred to the St. Nicholas Church of the United Faith. But the Metropolitan could not leave Moscow that day, due to the religious procession taking place. It was necessary either to carry out the presentation of the icon through one of the clergy, or to postpone it. The parishioners chose this latter, demonstrating both their desire to reverently accept the high gift and their zeal for the Church. On the 13th day of this May, on Sunday, at 11 o'clock in the morning, the icon of St. Nicholas, donated by the Sovereign Tsarevich, was brought to the St. Nicholas Church of the One Faith by two hieromonks, preceded by a priest. The Metropolitan followed her. The Edinoverie clergy came out to meet with the cross and holy icons, surrounded by parishioners and other people. The icon was placed in the middle of the church as an analogy. Having performed the opening prayer according to the order of this church, the Metropolitan talked with the parishioners about the subject of this meeting and about church unity. Then he and the local clergy performed a prayer service to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, accompanied by a proclamation of many years to the Most Pious Sovereign Emperor and the entire Highest Family. I wouldn’t want to add some unpleasant features to the story of a comforting event: but this must be done in order to do justice to fellow believers. 8 days *****, on the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas of the Edinoverie Church, during the all-night vigil, suddenly, for no apparent reason, the wooden bell tower at this church caught fire, and the whole thing burned, and the bells of considerable weight melted. But the co-religionists immediately decided not only to restore the bell tower and bells at their own expense, but also not to allow the solemnity of the meeting of the icon donated by the Tsarevich the following Sunday to be diminished by the absence of bell ringing. In three days they built a temporary wooden bell tower and purchased bells weighing about 250 pounds; and thus, during the bringing of the icon, the solemn ringing was a particularly significant expression of the zeal of the parishioners for the Sovereign Heir Tsarevich and their commitment to the Church. The Sovereign Heir Tsarevich was pleased, in memory of His Imperial Highness's visit to the Edinoverie Church of St. Nicholas, in Rogozhskoe, and as a sign of His favor to its newly joined parishioners, to donate to this church the icon of St. Nikalai the Wonderworker, depicted in the ancient character of iconography and beautifully decorated. By the will of His Imperial Highness, it was forwarded to the Metropolitan of Moscow, and upon his receipt of this 1856 May, on the 5th day, before the time of transfer to its destination, it was placed in the Church of the Cross; and on the day of the transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas, it was transferred to the Cathedral Church of the Chudov Monastery and placed on the relics of St. Alexis. May. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: