380. Слово при отпевании тела действительного тайного советника графа Петра Васильевича Заводовского

(Said by the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in the Church of the Annunciation, January 17; printed separately). Blessed is the man who thinks upright in wisdom, and who in his understanding learns holy things. (Sir.14:21). If, according to the words of the Wise One, “wisdom is bright and unfading” (Wisdom 6:12), then why does the tomb of the chosen servant of the sovereign Wisdom spread the dark shadow of death around itself? Let kinship suffer from the blow that cuts off the bonds bound by nature and strengthened by tenderness; let friendship lament over the memory of the one who forgot himself for it; let gratitude bring sacred sorrow as a final sacrifice to the author of its joys; let sensitivity pour out in tears over these signs of merit and glory, which are now together the victorious signs of death - You, immortal Wisdom, You, luminous Truth - do you really leave in death the one who lived to spread and protect your dominion from deceit and vice? Come, appear: Your image will illuminate hearts darkened by sadness; the voice of your judgment will comfort and guide us. “Blessed is the man who thinks upright in wisdom, and who in his understanding learns holy things.” There were people so amazed by the glory and so captivated by the beauty of wisdom that to be wise and to be blessed seemed to them one and the same thing. Indeed, what could be more majestic than wisdom, which changes the face of the earth and looks into its depths; commands the waves to harden under his feet; crushes the rays of the sun and human thoughts; ascends to heaven and shows the paths to the luminaries; does creation pass away and fall before their Creator? What is sweeter when it rivals nature in grace, or penetrates the heart with the voice of conviction? What is more salutary when it subjugates passions to reason and peoples to law; when it creates strongholds for the safety of a citizen and destroys barriers that remove a person from his destination? But just as not every treasure makes one rich, unless used with prudence and moderation, so enlightenment does not always turn into perfection. There is a higher kind of wisdom, which consists in the use of wisdom. The desire for knowledge, which, moving from research to research, finds no limits, the hunger for enlightenment, which feeds only on its own insatiability - is not covetousness in wisdom? And aren’t some wise men like that fabulous covetous man who sought the power to turn everything into gold with his touch, not noticing that through this he would deprive himself of food? Everything turns into cold contemplation of the mind, while their hearts languish in hunger. They study so much that they never come into the mind of the truth; They think so much that they don’t have time to live. On the contrary, are there not squanderers of wisdom who, at the price of truth, buy the pleasure of vanity; who sacrifice the pleasant, the useful, and the good, the graceful; which, like some trees, exhaust all their strength into flowers, so that they bear no fruit? Is it not a humiliation of wisdom if this sacred gift of heaven is not dedicated to the benefit of humanity, but becomes a playground of curiosity and vanity? And what if we bring the light of the mind to the heart only in the ways of error? Then wisdom itself becomes an object of God’s disgust and a victim of destruction. He who is together Wisdom, Truth and Goodness turns away the gaze of His goodness from those who are proud of wisdom without truth and goodness. “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.” The one who has given us reason and will does not accept a single reason from us. “I will reject the understanding of those who have understanding” (1 Cor. 1:19). The more dangerous and destructive the abuse of wisdom is in this way, the greater and more glorious is the fate of the one who, having acquired this treasure, knows how to possess it. “Blessed is the man who meditates in wisdom.” – If the spirit of knowledge descends from above, then why does the truth of God divide it among people in unequal measure? Is it not so that his concentrated power will be all the more unimpeded and extensive in its actions, and so that through the advantage of some the good of everyone will increase? On this truth of God, a truly wise man confirms his right thoughts. He considers abilities and knowledge not as property that he can depend on for his own pleasure, but as entrusted to him by the heavenly Master for the use of wealth, which the more numerous, the more vigilant it requires, the more strictly it subjects it to account. Therefore, he will not throw his talent into the ground, like an unconnected slave; will not measure the circle of knowledge by curiosity and vanity; will not call himself a citizen of the world in order to overthrow the yoke of sacred duties to the Fatherland; he will want to know as much as his knowledge can contribute to the good of his neighbors, and in this one good he will place his pleasure, self-interest and glory. With this rightness of wisdom, according to Divine truth, measuring to a person the measure he measures to others, he can become that grace-filled vessel, which, like the miraculous vessel of the Prophet (2 Kings 4:4), as soon as it is poured out in goodness, the ceiling will be filled with an invisible hand, if only the pure oil of anointing is first in it - the oil of the inner, heartfelt goodness. “Blessed is he who in his understanding learns holy things” (Sir.14:21). – “Reason is puffed up” (1 Cor. 8:1): this reproach with which revelation strikes him is justified by daily experience. Blinded by his own brilliance, he does not find anything equal in the world and thinks to elevate us above the heavens, adorning us with his name - rational beings, as if a heart capable of loving God is nothing in comparison with a mind capable of knowing Him, while God, incomprehensible to reason, wants to dwell only in the heart, while our real knowledge serves us only for time, and the heart for eternity. The truly wise know that just as “from the heart... come evil thoughts” (Matthew 15:19), so the “issues of the belly” are hidden in it (Prov. 4:23); that pure, heavenly “wisdom” will not enter into “an evil soul” (Wisdom 1:4): and therefore he looks at the education of the mind, unaccompanied by the goodness of the heart, as the magnificent decorations of a house that has a rotten foundation and is ready to fall down. He does not delve into the study of nature without exploring the depths of the heart; he does not want to be wise for the world without becoming so for himself, and does not allow the spirit of knowledge he has acquired to be a dishonest prophet in his Fatherland. In the image of the incarnate wisdom of God, he first “creates” and then “teaches” (Acts 1:1); first he fulfills the law, and then he commands or advises, and does not destroy by example what he edifies by word or authority. Wherever Providence places a person guided by this right and holy wisdom, everywhere he is both an instrument and an object of his goodness. Is he a citizen? - they look at him as a model of obedience, peacefulness and a well-ordered life. Warrior? “The Fatherland is confident in his courage, and the enemy is confident in his generosity.” Guardian of the laws? - neither deceit will deceive his vigilance, nor negligence will not close his eyes, nor the shine of gold will blind him. Educator of youth? - faith and morals are his first lesson. Are his days multiplied? - heavenly and earthly blessings upon him are multiplied. Dying? - they regret that he was gone, but they thank Providence that they had him. Oh, how with the approach of this bright image of wisdom the darkness of the tomb ahead of us thins! Get away from the deceptive ghosts of death, which no longer exists: we must see a lover of active and beneficent wisdom, who from a mortal has now become immortal. If I wanted to present the boyar Count Peter, who died in Bose, as a man of wisdom for the world, I could say that wisdom was the consolation of his life, and that on his last, even painful bed, his interlocutor and doctor was a book. But he lived not for the world, but for the Fatherland, and his true wisdom was not an activity of idle time, but a feat and benefit. He received the first seeds of these sound rules in some of those nurseries of enlightenment, which, being planted for the Church, brought the first flowers of it for the Fatherland. An ancient, but not brilliant nobility - for he did not belong to the famous dignity of the present before it could belong to him, and Providence wanted him not so much to be indebted to his ancestors as to his descendants - nobility did not prevent him from testing himself and training him to act in the lowest levels of public positions. His abilities drew the attention of the Transdanubian hero to him among his glorious victories, and this attention further revealed his abilities, and one can say that then the politician’s pen was sharpened with the sword of the winner. This lucky pen later brought him to the foot of the throne and was consecrated only once by the inscriptions of the sacred sovereign will. The wider the field of his activity became, the more his zeal for the public good increased. Catherine undertakes to illuminate the North with the beneficial rays of enlightenment - and finds in him a most reliable assistant in a matter that requires a lot of insight, spirit and strength. Alexander wants to recreate the light of science throughout the entire space of his dominion - and chooses him as his first light-bearer; and this light spreads everywhere, gathers into centers, forms into spheres, and, so to speak, a new world of enlightenment is created. Finally, in the difficult field of legislation, in which he was appointed by Catherine, distinguished by Paul, exalted by Alexander, he puts the remnants of his strength, without shying away from serving the Fatherland, even when he has already crossed the ordinary limit of human life, indicated by the Prophet (Ps. 89:10). How many modest human virtues are hidden behind these famous exploits of the son of the Fatherland, but which, being closer to the heart, vouch for the purity of brilliant deeds! Meekness and love of children in the family, firmness in friendship, forbearance in the household, moderation in power, justice without severity, mercy without partiality! Maybe you won’t be written on marble, but you will remain indelible in our hearts! May cries of regret turn into voices of blessing, and fruitless tears of lamentation into comforting tears of prayer. Let us appeal to the God of bounty and the Father of consolation, so that the soul ascending from us to Him, in its many abodes, He will open the one in which the enlighteners of men are enlightened by His unstoppable light and the builders of the temporary peace of nations will rest in Him forever. Amen. You might be interested in: