348. Беседа в день тезоименитства Благочестивейшей Государыни Императрицы Марии Александровны

(Said in the Assumption Cathedral on July 22; printed in the Works of the Holy Father in 1858 and in the collection of 1861) There is an unusually bright feature in the life of Saint Mary Magdalene, whose memory marks this day. On the morning of Christ's resurrection, she was honored to see the risen Lord, the first of His disciples and disciples, and the first to become a preacher for them of His resurrection, at His direct command. “Jesus rose again on the morning of the first Saturday, appearing before Mary Magdalene” (Mark 16:9). - “Go... to my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20:17). At this time, Mary was eminently worthy of the title Equal to the Apostles, which was later given to her by the Church. The apostles preached the resurrection of Christ to the world; were Apostles for the world: Magdalene preached the resurrection of Christ to the Apostles: she was an Apostle for the Apostles. When we see a person who has achieved extraordinary success in business, high prosperity in life: then it will not be a useless curiosity to try to find out the way in which this was achieved. Not everyone is given the opportunity to achieve the extraordinary: at least the path by which equal-to-the-apostles perfection is achieved is, of course, capable of leading to ordinary Christian perfection. How did Mary achieve primacy in the vision of the risen Lord and in preaching His resurrection? God is a "God of righteousness" (Isa. 30:18) and order. There is a law of man’s ascent and approach to God; there is the law of God’s condescension to man, and the gracious appearances of Christ the Lord to those who believe in Him. We know this law, which came from the lips of Christ the Savior Himself just before His departure to suffer and die on the cross, as if to precede His disciples, that in accordance with this law His appearance will follow after His resurrection: “If you have My commandments and keep them, this is to love Me: but he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and I will appear to him Myself” ( John 14:21). From this law it follows that whoever primarily succeeds and rises in active love for Christ; he primarily approaches Him, and becomes primarily capable of contemplating Him and receiving grace-filled revelations from Him. From this we must conclude about Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary that her predominantly sublime and active love for Christ the Savior gave her the advantage of being the first to see Him after His resurrection, and to be the herald of His resurrection to others. In fact, what power was at work in the fact that when fear from the enemies of Christ, the Apostles themselves, forced almost everyone to hide, then Mary Magdalene, overcoming the weakness of her sex, despising the danger, stood before the crucified Lord until His death, accompanied the transfer of His body from the cross to the tomb, was present at His burial, then in the first hours after the Sabbath day, “while the darkness still existed” ( John 20:1), hastened to the tomb, not having found His body, and having announced this to the Apostles Peter and John, she again rushed to the tomb of the Lord, and, not yet understanding His resurrection, with tears sought His lifeless body? What force could do all this, if not “love strong as death” (Song.8:6)? Her strong feat in the mortal field of the Lord was rewarded with a righteously accelerated life-giving vision of the risen Lord. Those who are curious may notice that the Apostles Peter and John, just like Mary, who loved the Lord with strong love, were at His tomb at the same time with Her: why did He not appear to all three, but after the removal of two, to Mary alone? What can we say about this? – it is not given to us to experience every mystery of the souls of believers, and of God’s grace acting in them cleansingly, tentatively, preparatoryly and finally completely. However, if we are attentive, we can see in Peter and John the action, in varying degrees, of the same law of love that determined the lot of Mary. One might think that Peter’s love was at that time, although not in exhaustion, but in a kind of involuntary eclipse by the heavy consciousness of his threefold renunciation of Christ. John’s love, which only for a moment was not “strong as death,” during his flight from Christ from the Garden of Gethsemane, but soon rose up and steadily drew him after the suffering Savior, was not constrained in his soul; and more freely than Peter, she led him to the Holy Sepulcher: “the other disciple ran faster than Peter” (John 20:4). These different states of love corresponded to different consequences. Peter “went down into the tomb” (John 20:6) of the Lord; but he had not yet found the light of resurrection in him, and only brought out surprise from him: “he went away, marveling at what had happened in himself” (Luke 24:12). John also entered the tomb, and found, although not visible, the real inner light of faith in the resurrection of Christ. “And another disciple came by, and saw and believed” (John 20:8). For Peter, it was necessary that the word of Mary: “as I saw the Lord” (John 20:18) risen, as bright in its subject matter as in its decisive authenticity, dispel the darkness of his soul, and prepare him with the uneclipsed light of faith and love to accept the light of the Divine appearance. And indeed, after this, on the same day, the resurrected “Lord... appeared to Simon” (Luke 24:34). Thus, all the examples now considered testify to one general truth: to the extent of innocence, purity, and peace of soul, a person approaches God; that as one actively loves Christ, a person becomes capable of grace-filled communication with Him, of contemplating His inner being, and, when appropriate, of accepting His special appearances and revelations. This is why, Christian brothers, the holy Apostle Paul teaches us all: “Have peace and holiness with everyone, for no one else will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). With this saying, firstly, he makes it clear that “to see the Lord” is the lot prepared for all of us, which we must try in every possible way to achieve, and which to fail to achieve would be the greatest misfortune that could threaten us; secondly, it also shows the means to achieve this longed-for and blessed lot, which is: “peace... with everyone and I am holy.” This is also the teaching that we saw in the saying of Christ the Savior. The path to “holiness” is “keeping the commandments” of Christ; the mother of “peace” is “love.” Don’t you ask: how to plant and grow in yourself such purity and sublime love for Christ the Lord, so that it can achieve grace-filled communion with him? To answer this, I again turn to the example of Equal-to-the-Apostles Mary. Suffering from dark forces taught her patience and turning from powerless human help to the omnipotent help of Christ. The healing she received from Christ gave birth to gratitude and love for Him. Gratitude and love prompted her to leave everything, follow Him, and devote herself to serving Him in whatever way she could, “from what she had” (Luke 8:3). Such renunciation of everything, such charitable activity out of gratitude and love, increased and strengthened her love for the Lord so that neither the Calvary earthquake could shake it, nor the darkness of the solar eclipse, and the even deeper darkness after the Sun of Truth extinguished on the cross, could not eclipse it. Take note and learn. Take advantage of sorrowful occasions to exercise yourself in patience, so that with humility and faith you can resort to God’s help. Think often about the good deeds of the Lord in order to nourish gratitude and love for Him in your heart. Disregard the vanity and charm of the world, reject addiction to earthly things, so that the soul can more easily strive for heavenly things. With sincere zeal, serve God and Christ with deeds of piety and your neighbor with deeds of mercy: in such activity the spirit of holy love grows, strengthens, rises, like a seed in a farmer’s field, vegetating and growing, as he does not know, and achieves effective grace-filled communion with the Spirit of the Lord. I remember with joy that what I said in these minutes we can see a living image in the actions of our Most Pious Autocrat and His namesake now Most Pious Spouse. He magnificently completes the sacred monument in the new capital, unfinished by His four predecessors, and majestically triumphs the consecration of the church of St. Isaac. He, from royal affairs, and She, from family activities, find time to visit the domestic shrine in places not close to the capital. Carrying out countless mercies to the lesser and least brethren of Christ in Their kingdom, They extend their Christianly beneficent hand to the holy places of Christ’s earthly life and suffering, and to the heterogeneous co-religionists who, outside our Fatherland, suffer in oppression from cruel false faith. And They, the crowned Alexander and Mary, stand before Thy life-giving tomb with the spirit of faith and love, crucified, and buried, and resurrected for our sake, Lord! Look upon them with Thy grace; appear unto them Thy bounties; be pleased that the good and peace of Their kingdom will humbly serve the good and peace of Your spiritual kingdom. Amen. You might be interested in: