346. Беседа в день рождения Благочестивейшего Государя Императора Александра Николаевича

(Spoken in Chudov Mon. April 17; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1858 and in the collection of 1861) There is an ancient custom for the person celebrating his birthday to be brought a gift by his relatives and neighbors who are celebrating his birthday, signifying their diligence, and, if possible, pleasing to him. Wouldn’t the zeal of each of us for our Most Pious Autocrat be delighted if, celebrating His birthday, each of us could bring Him a gift pleasing to Him? – In the treasury of the Wise King I find a jewel that we can all have, and which, as he assures us, can be a gift pleasing not only to the King, but also to God. What kind of jewel is this? – “The speech is righteous, the words... right. “The King is pleasing,” says Solomon in the book of Proverbs, “righteous speech, but the Lord loves right words” (Proverbs 16:13). If they ask: how to prepare and bring such a gift to the King: I answer this. Firstly, if the lips are righteous, righteous words have not yet become your property; If you have not set a firm rule for yourself, and have not acquired the skill of constantly using the word true, honest, truthful, well-intentioned, then take the trouble to acquire this jewel. For this you do not need to go to those who sell and spend money: you can find this treasure at home, in your heart, if you direct your mind and your will towards finding it; if you make a decisive intention and steadily put it into action; if you motivate yourself to this by remembering God, who loves truth and the righteous, and by the fear of His wrath for violating His commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Secondly, if your lips are righteous, right words have already become your property; if the love of truth, animating you, moves from your heart to animate your word: use such a word faithfully and invariably, in public and private affairs, without fear and without insolence, without partiality and without hatred. Open the mouth of the righteous, and speak the pure truth and the unfeigned truth, a superior to a subordinate and a subordinate to a superior, a judge to a defendant and a defendant to a judge, a mentor to a student and a student to a mentor, a writer in a book, a merchant in the marketplace, an interlocutor in a conversation. Many can say: we do not dispute the dignity of the word of truth; but what does our little word of truth mean, speaking in a humble and close circle? How can it even reach the King and constitute a gift pleasing to Him? - Let's give an explanation for this. Farmers in village fields, far from the capitals, sow their seeds in order to collect their daily bread from them: but God gives them an excess of their seeds, and this excess passes through the villages, feeds the cities, and goes to the Tsar’s table. Likewise, sow the word of truth and righteousness, whoever is able, in a large field, and others in a small field; encourage each other to do this: sowing can become extensive and public. From the zealous dissemination in society of the word of truth and righteousness, the fruit of public sanity and love of truth should come, and from this an increasing abundance of social peace and improvement: and this will be a good gift of subjects to the good King, who cares about their well-being, or, in other words, their assistance and assistance to the Royal continuous feat in the improvement of the kingdom for the elevation of its prosperity. The habit of frivolously throwing words to the wind, unfortunately, is very common, does not allow us to notice what a treasure we often squander, without benefit or with harm, for ourselves and for our neighbors. Have you ever thought, the verbal creation of God 847 - you are “verbal” ( Job 38:14 ), as the righteous Job called you, I don’t know whether to praise your nature, or to reproach your many words - have you thought, have you philosophized about the word, have you ascended in thought to its beginning, have you contemplated its dignity and power at its height? -Where is the beginning of the word? – In heaven, above heaven, in eternity, in God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God; This one is from time immemorial to God” (John 1:1–2). What is the dignity of a word? – Divine Dignity: “God is the Word.” The Son of God, to express His Divine properties, did not find a better name in human language than the name of the Word: “His name is called the Word of God” (Rev. 19:13). What power does a word have? – The “omnipotent power: all this was” (John 1:3); the visible world was created by the word; “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established” (Ps. 32:6). You will say that this is not a word like yours and mine. So. The word of God is infinitely higher than the word of man. But since you were created in the image of God, then in your word there must be some image of the word of God and its power, if you do not overshadow it with the abuse of the word, if you do not weaken the word with inattention and frivolity. The Word placed man on the ladder of creation above everything earthly, and above the moon and the sun; the word united people into societies, created cities and kingdoms; knowledge, wisdom, law live and move in the word; virtue is formed, encouraged and spread by the word; the word in prayer ascends to God, converses with Him, and receives what is asked from Him. The world saw that the word of people subservient to us, in union with the truth of God and the truth of faith, and as a result of this in union with the Word and Spirit of God, ruled over nature, healed the sick, drove away dark forces, and raised the dead. Do you see what a treasure a person squanders, what a lofty gift he casts down and tramples underfoot, what a powerful, life-giving and beneficial force he makes inactive and dead, or, on the contrary, evil, when he uses the word not for truth, righteousness and goodness, 848 but for idle talk, for profanity, for lies, for deception, for slander, for the abuse of an oath, for the spread of evil wisdom! 849 Do not be inattentive or indifferent to this, you who respect the dignity of the verbal being and the society of verbal beings; be jealous of the dignity of speech; animate and arm your word with truth and righteousness, and, acting with it faithfully and firmly, do not allow the “verbs of the flood” to spill out (Ps. 51:6)! Lies, untruths, slander, and the like, according to the natural law, indelibly written in the hearts, everyone condemns and despises when they are discovered and exposed: but, meanwhile, lies, untruths, slander, covered with a plausible guise, are not uncommon among people. What a strange contradiction of a person to himself, what a humiliation of himself, when what he condemns and despises in others, he allows in himself; against which he has an invincible testimony in his conscience, as against defilement, thereby oppresses and defiles his conscience! If a person can go to such an extreme, then he who imagines to have “a righteous mouth” (Prov. 16:13) must “consider ... guarding his lips” (Ps. 140:3) with his perspicacity and caution. There are deviations from the truth that are unnoticeable at first, but can lead one far away from it. Near the path of the word of truth, two crossroads are especially noticeable: on the right side is flattery, on the other side is slander. One says: one must treat one’s neighbors in a way that is pleasing to them, especially one’s superiors, and as a result of this one is flattered. Another says: we must call black black; and under this pretext 850 indulges in slander. Neither one nor the other is on the right path: both are at crossroads that do not lead to good. If the one who listens to the flatterer is not proud and insightful, then the one who dreams of buying favor and happiness with flattering words, in fact, buys only contempt. And if the one tempted by flattery is not quite vigilant and insightful, then flattery can charm him, cloud his gaze to what certainly requires correction or improvement, and confirm him in a false and harmful direction. Slander, with which some people think to correct evil, is also not the right means for this. Evil is not corrected by evil, but by good. Just as dirty clothes cannot be washed clean with dirty water, so with descriptions of vice, as unclean and stinking as he himself, it is impossible to cleanse people of vice. The multiplication before the eyes of the people of ugly images 851 of vice and crime reduces the horror of crime and disgust from vice, and the vicious one, at the sight of them, says: “I’m not the only one; there are many of them; It’s not very embarrassing.” Point out the dark image of vice, without tormenting feelings, and without offending taste by excessive exposure of 852 its vileness; and on the other hand, depict virtue in its genuine truth, in its pure light, in its unshakable firmness, in its heavenly beauty: then you can hope that the captive of vice will turn away his shamed gaze, come to the consciousness of the dignity of virtue, stretch out pleading hands to heaven 853, and seek deliverance from moral captivity and enslavement. Christians! Even before Christianity, with the less perfection of spiritual teaching in the Old Testament, the ignoble 854 use of the word was condemned and prohibited: “restrain your tongue from evil, and keep your lips from speaking flattery” (Ps. 33:14). Christ the Savior also condemned the frivolous use of the word: “every idle word that men speak, they will repay the word on the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). And the Apostle commands that we speak only words that are blameless and edifying to those who hear 855. “Do not let every corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but let it be good for the building up of faith” (Eph. 4:29). Do not consider violations of these instructions unimportant. From the abundance of kind words - an abundance of good fruits for us, for our neighbors, for society. From the multiplication of 856 evil words - the multiplication of evil fruits for us, for our neighbors, for society. “The hail will be exalted in the blessing of the upright, but the mouth of the wicked will be torn apart” (Prov. 11:11). Handwritten the author's first line was "creation". Handwritten the author's words are inserted after. Handwritten The author previously stood: “for untruth, for deception, for deceit, for slander, for blasphemy, for perjury, for the spread of false wisdom and ill-intentioned intentions.” Handwritten The author’s words used to be: “and as a consequence of this.” Handwritten The author previously said: “multiplied spectacles.” Handwritten The author’s first statement was: “indicate the vice in his dark image without tormenting feelings and without offending taste by exposing everyone.” Handwritten The author first wrote: “from his shame he will turn his gaze and stretch out his hands to the beauty of virtue.” Handwritten the author's first word was: “thin”. Handwritten the author came before: “our neighbors.” Handwritten The author first wrote: “increasing.” You might be interested in: