326. Слово в день Тезоименитства Благочестивейшей Государыни Императрицы Марии Александровны

(Said in Chudov Mon. July 22; printed in the Works of the Holy Father of 1856 and in the collection of 1861) I pray, first of all, to make prayers, supplications, petitions, thanksgivings for all people, for the Tsar and for everyone in power, so that we may live a quiet and silent life in all piety and purity. (1 Timothy 2:1–2) If we pay attention to the time at which the holy Apostle Paul wrote this instruction to Bishop Timothy: then we can see the all-encompassing space of Christian love, discover the deep God-inspired insight of the Apostle, and deeply feel the power of our duty to pray for the King. Saint Paul wrote instructions on prayer for the king and for those in power when there was not a single Christian king in the whole world; when the kings and authorities were Jewish, non-believers in Christ, and pagan, immersed in the errors and vices of idolatry, who, coming into contact with Christianity, for the most part were its enemies and persecutors, with the intention of completely destroying it. Natural reason, of course, would say: it is incongruous to pray for people who want to destroy you. But Christian love says: pray for these too; wish and ask for every good thing for them; perhaps in their good deeds they will recognize the benefactor God, having known them they will believe in Him, and having believed they will be at peace in their relationship with other believers in Him; if not so, according to the commandment of the beloved Savior, “pray for those who attack you and drive you out” (Matthew 5:44). So, indeed, the first martyr Stephen, dying for the members of the Sanhedrin who decided to stone him, prayed: “Lord, do not put this sin on them” (Acts 7:60). When looking at alien Christianity, and even the hostile dispositions of the earthly authorities contemporary to the Apostle, his instruction is somewhat unusual in the fact that he commands to “do” for them not only “prayers,” but also “thanksgiving.” Can enemies and hostile actions, persecutors and persecutions really be the subject of gratitude? – This bewilderment will be eliminated if we take into consideration that Saint Paul is not just a mentor, but a God-inspired mentor. Christ the Savior and to all Christians, for important occasions when they need to speak or testify to the truth of Christ with special fidelity and firmness, gave this promise: “You... will not be the ones who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you” (Matthew 10:20). Without a doubt, this gift was given in predominant power and completeness to the Apostle, the herald of Christ’s teaching for the universal church. So, Saint Paul wants to write instructions for the church of Ephesus: the Holy Spirit at the same time deigns to write through him instructions for the universal Church. Paul looks at the church of Ephesus as it is: the Spirit of God in him at the same time looks at the universal Church as it is and will be. Paul sees the present darkness of the pagan kingdoms: the Spirit of God in him foresees and, more or less, shows him the future light of the Christian kingdoms. The gaze of the Inspired One, penetrating future centuries, meets Constantine, pacifying the Church and sanctifying the kingdom by faith, Theodosius, Justinian, defending the Church from the impudence of heresies - of course, further sees Vladimir, and Alexander Nevsky and many disseminators of the faith, defenders of the Church, guardians of Orthodoxy. After this, it is not surprising that Saint Paul writes: “I pray... to do” not only “prayers,” but also “thanksgiving... for the king and for all who are in power”; because there will be kings and authorities not only for whom we must pray with sorrow or with consolation, but also for whom, as a precious gift of God, we must thank God with joy. Deep humility, and at the same time the strong desire of Saint Paul to make the teaching taught valid, is revealed in the fact that he does not present the truth indifferently, and does not command the apostolic authority, but asks and begs that prayers be offered for the king: “I pray,” he says, “make prayers ... for the king.” And can we not feel deeply and strongly this duty, so convincingly instilled in us? No matter how distant we may be from Saint Paul in time, it seems to me that the sound of his apostolic broadcast reverberates louder and sweeter in our hearts than in the Christians of Ephesus and other churches close to him. With fear, through tears, they had to pray for the kings who were alien to Christianity and threatened it. Our fathers and we were and are supposed to pray for the most pious kings, spreaders of the faith, defenders of the Church, guardians of Orthodoxy - to pray in peace, with joy, with gratitude. Reinforcing his teaching on prayer for the king, the holy Apostle points to the fruit expected from it: “let us live a quiet and silent life, in all piety and purity.” So, he believes that a “quiet and silent life,” that is, a calm and safe life, and not only a “quiet and silent life,” but also a life “in all piety and purity,” depends very much on the king, through the prayer of the Church and the kingdom, enlightened and strengthened by God. To understand this truth, we will not go into the area of ​​speculation and competition in which some people, I don’t know if they have more wisdom than others, but of course they trust their wisdom more than others, work to invent and establish the best, in their opinion, principles for the formation and transformation of human societies. For more than half a century, the most educated part of the human race, in places and times, has seen their transformative efforts in action itself: but nowhere, never, have they created a “quiet and silent life.” They know how to shake the ancient buildings of states, but they do not know how to create anything solid. Suddenly new governments are built according to their blueprints, and just as suddenly they collapse. They are burdened by the paternal and rational power of the tsar: and they introduce the blind and cruel power of the popular crowd and endless feuds among power seekers. They seduce people by assuring them that they are leading them to freedom: but in fact they are leading them from legal freedom to self-will, in order to then overthrow them into oppression 784. More reliably than self-made speculations, one can learn the royal truth from the history of peoples and kingdoms, and especially from history, which is predominantly reliable, as written not by human passions, but by the Prophets of God - from the history of the ancient chosen people of God. It shows that the best and most useful things for human societies are usually done not by people, but by one person, not by many, but by one. Which government gave the Jewish people state education and laws? - One man, Moses, who was not a prince or king, because God Himself was the king of the people of God. Which government was in charge of the conquest of the Promised Land and the distribution of the tribes of the Jewish people on it? - Joshua alone. In the times of the Judges that followed, one judge repeatedly saved an entire people from enemies and evil. But as such phenomena were not frequent: then, after the suppression of unity of command, the people fell into disorder; piety became impoverished; Idolatry and corruption of morals spread: this was followed by disasters and enslavement by foreigners. The holy writer, having written how in the house of Micah, an idol was cast from the silver stolen from his mother by the son, and then stolen by the soldiers of the tribe of Dan, and domestic idolatry was turned into a nationwide one, how, due to the extraordinary debauchery of the inhabitants of Gibeon, an internecine war arose, from which the tribe of Benjamin was almost completely destroyed, and, anticipating the question of how such absurdities could happen among the people of God, gives the following answer to this: “In those days there was no king in Israel; a man does whatever pleases before his eyes" (Judges 21:25). Once again, one appeared, empowered by the power of prayer and the gift of prophecy, Samuel: and the Jewish people were protected from enemies: the riots stopped; piety triumphed over idolatry. After God blessed the king to be a king for continuous unity of command among his people, kings David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah represent examples of how much a king can and should help his people to lead a “quiet and silent life ... in all piety and purity.” Will they say that there were different kings and different consequences of their rule? - This is true; but this happened, especially in the kingdom of Israel, because both kings and peoples did not pray to the true God, but to idols; and from bad prayer there was no good fruit. From the history of Christian kingdoms, I will limit myself to one example to show how a pious king can really promote the spread and establishment of true piety among his people. There was a time when Arianism in Constantinople grew so strong that Saint Gregory the Theologian, called by the Orthodox to maintain Orthodoxy, did not find a church for his priestly service and preaching, and was forced to build a church for this in his house. But, through the prayers of the Orthodox Church, according to the dispensation of God’s Providence, the pious Emperor Theodosius appeared and decided to provide protection and patronage to Orthodoxy. Saint Gregory himself tells about himself that he “walked among the army and the Emperor” to enter the cathedral church of the capital: so precaution was needed against the numerous restless Arians. From that time on, the preaching of Orthodoxy began to be announced more freely to the people of Constantinople; soon, under the patronage of the pious Emperor, an Orthodox cathedral was formed; and the capital of the Empire, which they attempted to make the capital of heresy, again became the capital of Orthodoxy. Enough. The thoughts now extracted from the apostolic word about prayer and thanksgiving to God for the pious King, as for the longed-for gift of God to the people and the Church, will find their complement in your, brothers, your own thoughts and feelings, in what you see and what you do. Do we not see the paternal care of our Most Pious Sovereign to give us a “quiet and silent life” in the fact that He hastened to end the cruel war raised against us, as far as possible, and to grant us peace, being satisfied with favorable promises from those at war, and not seeking revenge for the abuse inflicted? Do we not see a high example of His piety in the fact that He still desires to deliver the highest sanctification to His royal power, already sanctified by the law of succession, through the perception of the royal crown with the conciliar prayer of the Church and with the blessing of God, and through sacred anointing? Let us multiply, faithful children of Russia, multiply our heartfelt prayers for our Most Pious Sovereign, Emperor Alexander Nikolaevich, so that the King of the reigning Himself invisibly “places t... on His head a crown of honorable stone” (Ps. 20:4), and “crowns Him with mercy and bounties” (Ps. 103:4); may he “anoint” Him with “holy oil” (Ps. 88:21), with the oil of grace, the spirit of wisdom and power, may he “bless Him with a blessed blessing” (Ps. 20:3), and with Him may he bless the co-participant of His glory, the now named Most Pious Empress Maria Alexandrovna, to our complete joy, to perfect prosperity Fatherland. Amen. The author's manuscript previously included: “enslavement.” You might be interested in: