343. Беседа в день памяти Святителя Алексия

(Said in the Miracle Monastery on February 12th; printed in the Works of the Holy Father in 1858 and in the collection of 1861) “Remember your teachers who spoke the word of God to you, and as they look to the end of their lives, imitate their faith” (Heb. 13:7). This is the apostolic commandment. And now, it seems, this commandment is actually fulfilled. We “remember our mentor,” “who spoke the word of God to us,” St. Alexis; and remember solemnly. “We look at the end of his life”: for we now celebrate the day of the “end of his earthly life.” Behind this still remains the last part of the apostolic commandment, so essential that without it the remembrance of the holy mentors and looking at the end of their lives would be like sowing without a harvest, like a seed without fruit. This is an exhortation: “imitate their faith.” Are we fulfilling this admonition? Do we imitate the faith of St. Alexis? Do we imitate the faith of the saints at all? “I don’t think that there would be no imitators of saints among us at all: for that would be a desperate state for all of us.” I have no doubt that there are among us, known to God, true and faithful imitators of the saints; and from this confidence I draw hope and consolation: because, for the sake of a few righteous people, the merciful Lord preserves the whole city, which due to its sins is close to destruction, as he promised to Abraham. But if you look at our more ordinary, more general way of life, then hardly anyone would dare to say that the present Christian world is filled with imitators of saints. Many people think that in modern times it is no longer convenient to strive as the saints of old labored, and therefore to imitate them; that to be saints is not the lot of many; that it is enough for us to simply be Christians. From such thoughts the “unwise ****** virgins” (Matthew 25:1–2) of modern times make themselves a calm leader; and on it they slumber inactively; and they can easily doze off until the Angel of Death and Judgment with a sudden cry: “Behold the bridegroom is coming” (Matthew 25:6), forces them to open their eyes, heavy with sleep, to see their lamps unoiled, extinguished, and the door of the heavenly palace, open for others, closed for themselves forever. Is this slumber of laziness, and not exhaustion from the previous feat, condemned long ago by the parable, less reprehensible and dangerous now because those slumbering are no longer five, as there were in the parable, but thousands? Come, the unsleeping truth, and with the voice of admonition awaken us before the last cry, when there is still time for saving work and achievement, for preparation for the meeting of the heavenly Bridegroom and Judge of souls. Even in the days of the Old Testament, Divine truth spoke to the sons of the then Church: “The Lord has chosen you this day, that you may be His chosen people, just as He spoke to you, keeping all His commandments—that you may be a people holy to the Lord your God” (Deut. 26:18–19). This saying of the book of Deuteronomy, firstly, instructs us that the duty to “be... holy” is connected, and almost identical, with the duty to “keep all the commandments of God”; and that fulfilling God’s commandments is the path to holiness; secondly, it shows that even in the Old Testament Church, all its members were called by God Himself and His law to strive in fulfilling all the commandments of God, even to the point of achieving holiness. And of course, this was not inconvenient for them: because it is not characteristic of the wisdom of God to demand the impossible. Because Christ came “not ... to destroy” the ancient “law, ... but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17); gave us a new covenant more perfect than the old, which was only “the shadow of...good things to come” (Heb. 10:1); through faith he “gave us” new “Divine powers... even unto life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3): then the duty falls on us with new strength, and at the same time we are given the advantage of convenience, in the power of faith 826 to strive in fulfilling the commandments of God to the point of achieving holiness. After this, think in what contradiction with the word of God we would place ourselves, and what judgment we would make about ourselves if, under the pretext of inconvenience, we abandoned the imitation of the saints and the desire for holiness: we would place ourselves not only below the perfection of the New Testament, but also below the imperfection of the Old Testament; we would have reduced ourselves far below the name and dignity of the Christian. Christ the Savior teaches: “You will be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Following this, the apostle teaches: “Be... imitators of God, like beloved children” (Eph. 5:1). If it is possible, if it must, to imitate the all-holy God Himself: then how can we refuse to imitate holy people, which is obviously more accessible to us, and which can serve as a guide for us to imitate God? You are called to the height of a ladder that reaches to heaven: how can you refuse to enter the intermediate degrees? Where will you remain with this refusal? They say that in modern times it is no longer convenient to strive in imitation of the saints. What times are these? When did they start? Is there a solid answer to this? And could any times change the duty laid upon us by God for our salvation? If there are inconveniences for sanctifying feats in present times, weren’t there them in ancient times as well? Was it more convenient than now in the first centuries of Christianity to strive in Christian piety, in virtue, in holiness, among temptations from an idolatrous, unfaithful, and extremely depraved world, among persecutions from authorities hostile to Christianity? We admit with sorrow that the current world, called Christian 827, is too replete with examples of vanity, luxury, carnality, untruth, and partly even unbelief; and that its temptations are strong: but is the world, which tempts us to evil, stronger than God, “who gives us all His Divine powers, even unto life and piety”? God has and gives strength; the world has and gives weaknesses: who tells us to accept not strength from God, but weaknesses from the world? Our arbitrary lack of faith does not rise to God in order to receive from Him the powers that are good and victorious over evil; our cowardice humiliates itself before the world and borrows from it weaknesses that pave the way for vice and evil. The temptations of the world are strong not by themselves, but by our arbitrary weakness. The obligation to imitate the saints more justly can make us difficult and frightening when we look at the height of their exploits. But to imitate the saints does not mean to be equal to them, which duty does not require, and which humility does not allow claims to be made. The apostolic word commands us to “imitate” not any extraordinary feats or miracles of the saints, but “the faith of the teachers who spoke to us the word of God.” If you with a sincere heart hold faith in the one Trinitarian God and in the only begotten Son of God Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, as the holy Apostles gave it to us in word and writing, as the wise fathers accurately defined it, protecting it from false wisdom; if you, according to the teaching and example of spiritual mentors, strive so that this faith is always alive in you, so that it animates your whole life, and bears the fruits of good deeds and pleasing to God; if “with heart... believing and... lips... I confess” (Rom. 10:10) the Orthodox faith, you rejoice in this, and are ready to bear sorrow so as not to change this confession: then you are already “an imitator of those who inherit the promises of God through faith and longsuffering” (Heb. 6:12). As for the special deeds, pious exercises and spiritual experiences that we encounter in the lives of the saints, in their abundance and diversity we can and must find and assimilate, each for ourselves, what can serve as a guide for us in relation to the state of our soul and the circumstances of our life, and with the spectacle of high deeds we can partly humble our thoughts, partly encourage ourselves to be zealous in our feasible exercises of piety and good deeds. For example, if your flesh is burdened by fasting: shame it, and reinforce your good intentions by remembering the fourty-day, completely foodless fast of the prophet Elijah. If someone, out of duty of faithful service to the Church or the Fatherland, was faced with a feat that threatened deprivation and danger: he could use the memory of St. Alexy, who, in order to preserve the peace and security of the Church and the Fatherland, repeatedly, defenseless, helpless, went to a foreign land, to unfaithful and cruel rulers, and whose faith and self-sacrifice were justified by the desired successes of enterprises, and even with God's miraculous help. So, brethren, let us not give in to false talk, 828 the deceptions and temptations of the world, which are increasing in their efforts to deviate us from the path of the Gospel. “Do not be conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2). Without hesitation, obey the apostolic teaching, and, as much as possible 829, “imitate the faith” of the saints, living and active for salvation. Amen. In the text of Matthew 25 there are “fools.” – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” Handwritten there were no words from the author before. 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