388. Слово по освящении храма Воскресения Христова, устроенного при доме его сиятельства графа Алексея Кирилловича Разумовского

(Spoken July 30; printed separately and in collections of 1820 and 1821) I have asked one thing of the Lord, this I will require: that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord, and that I may visit His Holy Church (Ps. 26:4). It would not be surprising if the “one thing” David sought was an eternal stay in the house of the Heavenly Father, for this one thing would obviously be everything. But David speaks here of the good with which he thinks to decorate “the days of his life”; desires the consolation of “visiting the church of the Lord,” which also belongs to time. And for the time being, you never know what you could “ask from the Lord”? For example: long life, prosperity, health, wealth. And who can count the desires and thoughts that constantly emanate from the deep source of the human heart? Who knows, David himself would have needed to “say” something? For example: deliverance from enemies, victories, peace, family happiness, the good of the people, and even more than that, he really sought in his prayers - “the plucking of his souls and his own from invisible lions” (Ps. 35:17), “deliverance from secret” (Ps. 18:13) falls, “a pure heart, a right spirit, joy and salvation” (Ps. 50:12, 14). But now his thoughts, desires, prayers come together, unite and are all reduced in a single petition: “we asked one thing.” And lest anyone think that he has a single petition for only one need, he adds that at other times he does not “seek many thoughts” (Eccl. 7:30), but always the same thing that he called one: “then I will seek.” And what does he ask so diligently and seek so earnestly? - “I have asked, and... I will require”, “that I may live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord, and that I may visit His Holy Church.” I am looking, he says, and will only seek closeness to God. Blessed is “he who gives prayer to him who prays” (1 Samuel 2:9), and he himself “does the will of those who fear him” (Ps. 145:19). You stand now, God-loving visitors to the newly revealed house of God, you stand here as witnesses of how the Lord deigns to descend upon the desire of those seeking communion with Him. Behold, “the Most High has sanctified his village” (Ps. 45:5), and to the one who asked, he tangibly grants “to live in the house of the Lord, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to visit His Holy Church.” But let us go a little further, as far as we can, into the spirit of David’s saying about closeness to God. How, with so much human poverty and so much bounty from God, is closeness to God the only thing asked for? And how, given the always closeness of God to man, is the closeness of man to God the always sought after? “I asked one thing from the Lord, that I should live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I should behold the beauty of the Lord, and that I should visit His Holy Church.” Speaking about a single state of approaching God, the Prophet distinguishes, however, here three special types, or degrees, of this state. Otherwise, only “to live in the house of the Lord.” Slaves also “live” in the great house: they live by their labor and the bounty of their master; they feel the beneficial effect of his proximity to them, but do not see themselves in proximity to him; Do they only “see” his face from afar and do not at all have the courage to “visit” him in his inner churches? Another is “to live in the house of the Lord and behold the beauty of the Lord.” To see the inner splendid churches of a house, to stand before the face of the Master of the House, to observe His beckons with one’s own eye, to receive His commands with one’s own ear—this is the lot of the highest rank of servants and household members. Another thing is “to live... in the house of the Lord,... to behold... the beauty of the Lord and to visit His Holy Church,” or according to the exact power of David’s saying in his own sacred language – “to spend the morning in His church,” not to languish in the vestibule, and not to wait in the open churches of the house when the Lord of the House appears, but to find the entrance opened for oneself into the hidden and everlasting place of His abode, to have freedom with everyone by awakening from sleep, to rush into the silence of His presence, into the sweetness of His conversation, into the secrets of His advice, into the communion of His blessings, to live not only in proximity to Him, but also in direct communication with Him, at His very heart - this is the advantage of friends, relatives and children. Living as a slave in the house of the Lord, of course, is not the height of bliss. “The servant does not know what his Lord is doing” (John 15:15). Does he work for the Lord? – “works with fear.” Does He rejoice? and – “rejoices with trembling” (Ps. 2:11). “I am perfect in love, casting out fear” (1 John 4:18), not yet his portion. But don’t earthly rulers also have slaves who would rather be slaves in their house than free outside it? Isn’t the house of the Heavenly Lord even better than the houses of earthly gods? “Bless the Lord, all the servants of the Lord,” not only “those who stand in the church of the Lord, but also in the courts,” only in the courtyards of “the house of our God” (Ps. 134:1). "Oh, Lord!" exclaims the one who knows the price of this high slavery, I am Your servant, and I enslave myself more and more to You, because You have taken me from the most unfortunate “slave of sin ... who do not abide in Your house” (John 8:34–35) of Yours, and You have granted me grace-filled freedom: “I am Your servant, I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid: You have torn my bonds to pieces” ( Ps.116:7). The world does not understand this freedom in which the servants of the Lord live in the house of the Lord, and therefore continues to wear bonds that only the Lord can tear to pieces; and in order to assure himself that he also has his own freedom, he incessantly rattles his chains. On the contrary, he who lives in the house of the Lord finds one of the great blessings of this residence in this: that there either the noise of the joys of the world and its lamentations, equally discordant and rebellious, is heard there, or at least more quietly heard. “How much is the abundance of Your goodness, O Lord,” He cries, “what You have hidden from those who fear You, You have made them to trust in You before the sons of men! hide them in the secret of Your face from the rebellion of man, cover them with shelter from the strife of the tongue" (Ps. 30:20-21). Even if the world, pursuing its fugitive, shakes, so to speak, the very fence of the house of the Lord, what can it do to the one hiding behind it, how to induce him to hide further inside and thus penetrate into the highest, purest, most blessed abodes? And why is it not truly “hidden” in the blood of the Lord for those who fear the Lord! - everything that wisdom can invent for their good, power can create, goodness bestow - all this, as if by itself, is found “in the secret of His face,” that is, in the deep consciousness of His omnipresence in the mind and in the living feeling in the heart of His closeness. Are they looking to illuminate the darkness of the “natural” in the damaged “humanity of ignorance of God” (Wis. 13:1)? - “His face,” in the mystery of which they live with their hearts, “is enlightened” over their mind, and they hastily “learn His justifications” (Ps. 119:135). Do they lack the strength to act rightly based on these justifications? - looking into the presence of God, they become like slaves who, seeing the master of the house standing over them, forget their fatigue and intensify their work. So someone dares to testify before God himself that he has kept His commandments - by the power of unceasingly walking before Him: “I have kept Your commandments and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You, O Lord” (Ps. 119:168). So God himself, preparing the father of believers and commanding him to be perfect, does not give him any other means or strength for this than walking in the presence of God: “Walk before Me, and be perfect” (Gen. 17:1) 930. Is it necessary to wage war against opposing forces in order to acquire and preserve this perfection? - if the immediate presence of an obsequious military leader sometimes infuses the spirit of courage and victory into hitherto cowardly warriors, how much more victorious is that spirit that is imparted to the human spirit by the presence and immediate proximity of the Lord of hosts? Therefore, a spiritual warrior can—sometimes must—not look at the enemy and the threatening dangers, but constantly looks at the leader: “I have seen the Lord before me, as he is at my right hand” (Ps. 15:8). But how can you, fixing your gaze on the mere presence of the Leader, either repel attacks, or dodge arrows, or avoid stumbling blocks? “I will find everything in the eyes of my Leader: a sword, a shield, safety, victory, and peace.” “I have seen the Lord before me, as he is at my right hand, so that I will not be moved.” Let the temptation appear as close as it once appeared to Joseph: whoever has eyes to “see the Lord before him”; he will not hesitate and will overthrow it with Joseph’s weapon: “How can I create this evil verb and sin against God” (Gen. 39:9)? But has the fall already followed? - alas! “Be sure to stand, be careful, and not fall!” (1 Cor. 10:12)! - however, since “the righteous also falls” (Prov. 24:16), we dare to say for the consolation of those who fall: blessed is he who, even in the fall, did not hurt his eyes, but, crushed by sin, still sees himself in the eyes of Him who “does not want the death of the sinner” (Ezek. 18:32). For how long can a baby, cast down at the feet of his mother, be left without help for a long time? “A woman will forget her food when she is a child, lest she have mercy on the offspring of her womb” (Isaiah 49:15)? How much more, the love of God, more than motherly, “will not forget” the one who is not rejected from its remembrance by his own oblivion of God, but, having fallen beyond his natural insignificance, still believes to stand before the Being. Finally, does the Omnipresent One itself look at those who stand before it with the eye of judgment? Should “those who walk in the light of the face of the Lord” (Ps. 89:16), through inscrutable destinies, also have to pass through the shadow of death? “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hand of the living God” (Heb. 10:31)! - but he who has experienced at least partly the residence of the house of the Lord and has partaken of the grace of the presence of God knows that without comparison it would be more terrible to flee from the justice of the Lord to the injustice of the enemies of God. So what does he do? - looking at the infinite mercy in Christ, he surrenders with all his willpower to infinite justice, not renouncing any sorrows, suffering, or mortification, but recognizing in them the gifts of heaven. “Let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for many are His tender mercies” (1 Chronicles 21:13). And thus, out of devotion, hope arises in him: “even if... I walk through the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Ps. 22:4). Out of sorrows are born abundant consolations: “Because of the multitude of my illnesses in my heart, Your consolations have made my soul glad” (Ps. 93:19). From suffering and death there is life and peace: “I passed through fire and water, and brought you to rest” (Ps. 65:12). These are the essence of some of the types of residence David desired in the house of the Lord. It would be necessary to extend them further, expand, elevate and show you the fate of those who not only “live in the help of the highest and are at home in the shelter of the heavenly God” (Ps. 90: 1), not only stand with their eyes raised to Him, “like the eyes of a servant in the hand of his masters ... and wait until he will spare them” ( Ps. 123: 2), but already “they rejoice with joy at His countenance” (Ps. 20:7), who, having completed the course of purification determined by them, entered the highest and purest paths of light; “they see” not only the power and strength of God, acting in everything, but also “the beauty of the Lord,” appearing in everything; They measure the closeness of the Lord not so much by fear and trembling as by love and admiration. It would be necessary to open a “holy church”, this inner sanctuary of God on the earth of presence, where God is revealed closer than as a ruler or a householder; where he deigns to be known by his chosen ones, like a most loving father, like love itself, like the most perfect unity; where they go up to “dawn” not according to the day of this elemental heaven, but according to the “day shining in their hearts” (2 Peter 1:19); where their own life is hidden like the moon, and the life of Christ rises in them like the sun; where they clearly hear how the Only Begotten Son of God “is not ashamed to call them names upon the brethren” (Heb. 2:11); where, as close to God and his friend 931, He “tells them everything that he heard from his Father” (John 15:15); where they “beholding with revealed face the glory of the Lord in the same image are transformed from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18), and among the most holy and omnipresent church they themselves are sanctified into “the church of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16), in whom “the Spirit of God dwells” (1 Cor. 3:16); where they even “ask nothing” (John 16:23): for, finding all their prayers already fulfilled, even before they are offered, they can only speak to the Firstborn: “Father, I give you praise, because you have heard me” (John 11:41); where finally to them, as “an heir of God” (Rom. 8:17), everything is assimilated, so that “whether the world, or the life, or death, or the present or the future, their whole essence” (1 Cor. 3:22). But in vain would the word of man strive to extract and scatter on heaps the priceless and countless treasures of the house of the Lord. One “True Holy One, having the key of David, will open it” (Rev. 3:7) to the worthy one who seeks them in the footsteps of David. Meanwhile, we can already see, for our instruction, how righteously David chose proximity to God as the only sufficient object of his desires, as an area of ​​freedom and security, as a refuge from the vanity and malice of the world, as an open repository of the highest powers, as a stronghold from attacks, as a door of mercy, as a crucible of purity, as a palace of light, as a sanctuary of the highest sacraments, as heaven is still on earth and eternity is still in time. And who would not want to follow him in the search for this “one thing... for need” (Luke 10:42), upon the acquisition of which everything is attached? “I will require that I live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I behold the beauty of the Lord, and that I visit His holy church” (Ps. 26:4). What does he want to look for? - they will say, maybe. If God is omnipresent, then His house is everywhere. How long does it take to look for something that there is nowhere to lose? Those who would speak in this way would thereby admit that they have not yet, as they should, sought to dwell in the house of the Lord. Otherwise, they wouldn’t think of possessing it so carelessly. God is omnipresent: but can those live in His omnipresence who not only do not seek closeness to Him, but if they could, they themselves would command Him to leave them: “depart from us; We do not want to follow your ways” (Job 21:14)? - They will be measured according to the measure they have chosen. “God do not want iniquity, you are, Lord! The wicked one will not dwell in You; the wicked will remain lower before Your eyes. Those who move away from You will perish” (Ps. 5:5,6, 72:27). God is omnipresent: but do those who neither around themselves nor in themselves see or feel anything except the world and creatures live in His omnipresence? Do they place all their labor and all their peace in them? they enjoy what they have acquired as their own property, and not as a gift from God; Are they looking for what they need only from those who, like them, have nothing of their own, and remember God only to grumble before Him about their shortcomings? - No! They are not servants of God, but exiles of the house of the Lord, who imagine themselves reigning in their imprisonment. God is omnipresent: but do those also live in His omnipresence who, although they recognize Him as omnipresent, form only fleeting mental images about Him that leave no trace in their hearts? although they recognize God’s providence, they do not want to see His constant mercy and protection over themselves, and instead of eating and seeing, “how good the Lord is” (Ps. 33:9), although they seem to “see”, but do not “eat” at all? – They are alien spectators of the house of God, who can sometimes even show others some of His external drawings, but they themselves do not partake of His internal blessings and do not possess His treasures. God is omnipresent, and especially here in the church “there is His name, ... and His eyes..., and His heart” (1 Kings 9:3): but let this not be said as an insult to this sacred place - is it true that everyone here also approaches the throne of omnipresence? Let us keep silent, as about those who are from this court, about those who may be brought here by hypocrisy or something similar. Are there even among the sincere lovers of the house of God those who, in a church made with hands, in this sensual and tactile representation of omnipresence, barely find the church of God’s presence not made by hands; are held down by the very thing that should cry out to their grief; they hear the “verbs” of God, but do not feel in them “the spirit of a... and the life” (John 6:63); they stand before the praises, but cannot yet say to themselves with David: “Arise my glory, arise the psalter and the harp” (Ps. 107:3); or, finally, when they find something here, do they not know how to wear it from here on as a parting word for themselves? God is omnipresent, and, by His ineffable condescension, He draws so close to each and every one that, according to the saying of the Apostle, He would be ready to allow Himself to be touched when they cannot see Him and listen to Him: “Let them touch Him and discover that He is not far from the only one of us” (Acts 17:27), but despite this, how many dare to confess about themselves with a voice? divine love: “I have found what my soul loved; restrain Him and not leave Him” ( Song 3:4 )? So, true closeness to God must be the subject of a zealous search and the fruit of unrelenting effort. “Seek the Lord, and be strong: seek His face” (Ps. 104:4). David did not tell us how he would seek to dwell in the house of the Lord; but his very words: “I have asked”, “I will seek”, instruct us that his means were - and ours should be - constant prayer and constant turning to God with all our being, thought, heart, activity. “To You, O Lord, we have lifted up our souls also” (Ps. 24:1). “Our heart now says to You” with the heart of David, Your beloved: “I will seek Your face, O Lord” (Ps. 26:8). Seek Himself from those who seek You. You are near to us, Lord, more than we are to ourselves. Lead us therefore into Thy holy and terrible, but at the same time longed for, Thy omnipresent, and grant us to “live in” this “Thy” house all the days of our life. Turn away our eyes from seeing vanity” (Psalm 26:4, 119:37): but cause them to “see” your uncreated “beauty.” Awaken us from the sinful sleep of death, and grant us to “wake up in the morning” to You with faith and love, both during the hours of prayer in the visible church of Your shrine, and also outside, in the invisible sanctuary of Your gracious presence. Amen. “Be good before Me and be blameless” - AV. “to his friend” - “to his friends.” John 15:15: “I have called you friends.” Wed. Luke 12:4. – AB. You might be interested in: