4. Беседа о молитве Господней.

(Spoken in the Trinity House, Prince A.N. Golitsyn, church, on Wednesday of the twentieth week, October 23; printed separately and in collections of 1820, 1821, 1844 and 1848). Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say? Luke 6:46. The terrible wrath of the Lord is revealed to us, listeners, in this saying of the Gospel 32! He reproaches not only those who blaspheme or forget His holy name, but also those who reverently use it in their mouths. “Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord?” So, is it really possible to insult God through prayer? – It is possible if oral prayer is not accompanied by heartfelt prayer, and heartfelt prayer is not accompanied by creative prayer. “Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say?” (Luke 6:46). The Prophet, depicting the rejection of Judas the traitor, in inspired indignation cries out 33: “Let his prayer become sin” (Psalm 109:7)! But the prayer of Judas, if he prayed, apparently should have been the most holy: since he, like us, learned from the Son of God Himself to call upon “the Father who is in heaven.” So, shouldn’t others also be afraid lest they use the most holy and Divine Lord’s Prayer in such an unworthy and condemnatory manner 34? Let us think about the way to correctly and savingly use the Lord's Prayer. “Our Father, who art in heaven!” we cry, following the Only Begotten. I say: following the Only Begotten. For who would dare to utter this invocation unless the “Only Begotten” became “the Firstborn of many brethren” (Rom. 8:29), having taken on our flesh, and if we had not mutually put on Him through baptism? The daughters of Eve give birth only to slaves and sons of wrath: the Church alone gives birth to children of freedom and grace. Birth into slavery occurs without our will: birth into freedom must be free. Where the weak remnant of original freedom rises from the earth, dissolves the bonds of the flesh, strives for spiritual good, there begins the heavenly birth, the sonship of the Spirit, acceptable by faith. Often 35 we pronounce the name of the “Heavenly Father”; but have we ever thought about our right to call Him that? Occupying ourselves with earthly thoughts, earthly desires, earthly actions, willingly submitting to vanity along with the creation that is subjugated to it involuntarily, carelessly continuing to be just as “flesh” as we were “born of the flesh” (John 3:6), what part do we have in the heavenly Father, and how can we place ourselves in the rank of His sons, together with the Only Begotten, “who is the radiance of glory and the image His hypostasis" (Heb. 1:3)? Calling “Heavenly Father” not in order to gratefully confess our gracious adoption, but only in order to flatter (if that were possible) His mercy, do we really think with our cries to disarm “the truth of God, who searches hearts and wombs?” (Ps. 7:10) - No, He answers the bold cries of the children of the world and the flesh, “I am not your Father until you strive inwardly to become My children: you are the “Father” of the one whose desires you want to do” (John 8:44); It behooves me 37 to be for you only the Lord of slaves and the Judge of the guilty. Let us, Christians, let our God be for us what we call Him. Let us tear ourselves away from the earth; let us seek the heavenly fatherland: then without condemnation 38 we call Him who lives in heaven our Father, and He will hear our petitions without anger. “Hallowed be Thy name” is the first petition. God's name is the most sacred thing in the world. By him our saving sacraments are performed; it imprints the fidelity of our oaths and promises; We place it at the foundation of our undertakings. There was a time when it, emanating from the mouths of God’s servants, sovereignly shook nature and overthrew their enemies, visible and invisible. This incomprehensible power is actually God’s, but its action in us depends on our faith and piety. Therefore, 39 we are commanded to keep the name of God with reverence and use it with frugality: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” (Deut. 5:11). Therefore, recognizing ourselves as unworthy guardians of this heavenly treasure, we pray to the Heavenly Father, that His name, eternally holy in itself, may be hallowed in us; let us pronounce it with grace-filled power through our lips; let us faithfully express it through our deeds; so that “our light will shine before men,” and they in us and with us “will glorify our Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). But what if the tongue of the person praying, which must sanctify the name of God, or, moreover, be sanctified by it, has not yet been cleansed of idle talk 40, slander, lies, slander? What if the desires of our hearts conflict with the desires of our lips? If the voices of our prayer songs and praises are outraged by the “cry of the poor” (Job 34:28) “raised” to heaven, to whom we did not preach God, the Father of the orphans; drowns out “the voice of the blood of our brethren” (Gen. 4:10), in which we have not glorified God, the Judge of those who offend? What good is it that we bear the glory of God in the tongue; if the pagans, looking at our life, ask each other in surprise: “Where is their God” (Psalm 78:10)? As much as you can 41, “restrain your tongue from evil... do good” (Psalm 33:14–15) with all your heart; You will not pray in vain, “hallowed be the name of God.” “Thy kingdom come” - this is the second petition of the sons of the kingdom. The Kingdom of God is “the kingdom of all ages” (Psalm 145:13): and even before the ages were born, God was the king of His hidden eternity. Now in time He reveals the dominion of the Creator and Provider in the kingdom of nature, and in the kingdom of grace the love of the Savior Father - however, in such a way that we “see” Him here only “like a mirror in fortune telling” 42 (1 Cor. 13:12). Finally, both of these kingdoms, gradually reaching their predetermined completion, will be transformed into a single kingdom of glory, in which He will appear to the sons of the kingdom “face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12), and will raise them from glory to glory. The kingdom of many coming in this way from God to men will, in its solemn coming, pass by and leave behind: only the elect and those who bear within themselves the inner seed of the kingdom will be called to “inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). So, our prayer for the kingdom of God is a reverent desire that God would fulfill “the longings of the creation, the revelation of the sons of God that longs” (Rom. 8:19), and would grant us the dignity to meet this event, longed for by the whole world” 43. Is this desire sincere in us? We desire the kingdom of God and we know that this kingdom “is not of this world” (John 18:36); “But aren’t many of us, in frivolous dreams, each creating our own kingdom here? The son of power thinks with a sword to inscribe on others the law of fear and “humiliation” 44; he who pretends to be wise wants to rule the pen in the kingdom of opinions; the frivolous one dreams of being a legislator in pleasures and amusements, the selfish one creates a dark kingdom and gathers soulless subjects in his treasuries. We desire the kingdom of God and believe that there is a “narrow gate and a strait way” leading into it (Matt. 7:14): however, don’t we often, anticipating each other, hasten to take the wide path and enter the wide gate? We love to place ourselves at the right hand of others, not imagining that, “by the most natural consequence, by thus going to meet the Lord, we will find ourselves on His right hand” 46 . We desire the kingdom of God and have heard that it is “needed” (Matthew 11:12): and so do we do any violence to ourselves to acquire it, and do we not only pray for it, so that we can lay down the labor of this great work on the one God? Let us be zealous about serving God, just as we are zealous about dominion in the world; let us go forth to meet the kingdom of God by the way of the cross and humility: then prayer for his coming will not be hypocrisy. The third petition: “Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth.” Our God in heaven and on earth does everything He wants: “Who can resist His will” (Rom. 9:19)? So, without a doubt 47, we do not wish for an increase in power to the Almighty in our prayer. A creature gifted with will, but which sees all its bliss in the single will of its Creator, prays that His good and perfect will will subjugate its imperfect and weak will, and it will be in it “both to will and to do” (Phil. 2:13). But what is the will of God “on earth as it is in heaven?” – Angels are heaven; humans are the earth: when earthly beings serve God with such ardent love, with such uncontrollable zeal as the Angels, then His will will be fulfilled, as in heaven and on earth. – The Church of believers is heaven on earth; the darkened and deluded world is only earth; when the lost sheep recognize the saving voice of the Shepherd, and those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death see the great light: then the will of the Father of lights is fulfilled, as in heaven and on earth. – The spirit is, in a way, heaven in man; flesh - earth: when “the inner man, who delights in the law of God,” subjugates “the law that is in udah” (Rom. 7:22-23), and the flesh remains what it should be - a submissive slave; then the will of the God of spirits will be fulfilled, both in heaven and on earth. We talk a lot about the will of God, but we think almost more about fulfilling our will. We wish to see the earth, according to the fulfillment of the will of God, similar to heaven, or heaven itself; but do we begin this great transformation with ourselves? Angelic love! you are above us: I dare not look for you. Christian love! where do you live? Where are you operating, godly zeal? Where do you rest, meek devotion to the will of God? Instead of an elevation from earth to heaven, from the Christian life to the angelic, isn’t it more noticeable in us a descent from heaven to earth, a humiliation of the spirit before the flesh, a fall from the blessed kingdom of grace into the rebellious dominion of corrupt nature? Let us first hate our own evil will, and then we will pray for the good will of God in us. The three petitions of the Lord's Prayer that I have spoken about, listeners, should be offered to the Lord with all the more caution and reverence, since they extend from time to eternity. The four petitions that follow are more recent; but we must remember that prudent or imprudent care for the temporal gains us favor or arouses the wrath of the Eternal upon us. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Our concern for the blessings of the world should be limited to this desire. Life is good because through it one can earn a blissful eternity: therefore, only that which serves to preserve life is good for us. He who knows how much he must do for eternity does not have much time to care about present life. Fortunately, the good Provider lays down this last labor from us as soon as we accept the first: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). And therefore, the faithful children of God ask not from slaves, but from the “Father”; they ask not for vain ornaments and insignificant treasures, but for “bread”; not tasty bread, but “daily bread; “not to the granaries for many years, but only “today” for a meal. “It is sufficient,” they say, “for the present day is his wickedness” (Matthew 6:34): why bother the caring Father in advance about such needs, which perhaps in the morning will no longer exist? But even with such a limited requirement, they do not think so much about the bread that satisfies the body, as about that “daily” bread that nourishes and strengthens the “essential” part of a person: for “man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” 49 (Matt. 4:4). Do we all even know how to feel the saving voice of the word of God, if we do not find food for it? Isn’t this spiritual hunger often suppressed by the greed of the flesh, which requires not saturation, but satiety; not clothes, but decoration; not health for doing business, but weakness and inaction? Having satisfied ourselves with ordinary temporary needs, we invent for ourselves unforeseen cases and needs in future years that will never come to us. Finally, not content to offend God with such excessive desires, we still leave Him and turn with them to the mighty of the earth, to cunning, to untruths, and thus add unbelief to insolence. Let us be more moderate in our desires and more prudent in choosing what we need 50 for us: only prudent moderation knows how to ask for bread from “Animal Bread” (John 6:35). “And forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors.” How numerous are our debts to God! There is an inherited debt. Our first Forefather bought the forbidden fruit at the cost of his life and his offspring: we will be born debtors. I have my own debts. God invisibly distributes to us valuable “talents”, internal and external, “to everyone against his strength” (Matthew 25:15): using them for the good and for His glory is the interest they require: every lawless action, every vicious desire, every evil thought is counted by Omniscience and constitutes a terrible multitude of our debts. They are non-payable. But what an easy agreement is offered to us about them! “Also forgive men their sins; Your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14). For this sacred agreement we bring our debtors with us before Him; We point out His mercy to our mercy: and if in this way everyone, one and all, tried to blot out before the eyes of God the evil done by men; then the manuscripts of our sins would gradually become scarce, until finally the mutual forgiveness of each and everyone would constitute a single universal justification, to the ineffable glory of the Pardoner, to the unspeakable bliss of those pardoned. Isn’t it just as convenient, they will say, for Infinite Mercy to forgive without condition the mistakes and errors of weak mortals, no matter how numerous they may be? “But isn’t it more convenient for you to forgive the incomparably lesser insults of your neighbor?” It is true that God’s mercy is infinite: that’s why it wants not you alone, but everyone to receive forgiveness; and, giving it to you, as if asking it from you to your brothers. O man who lives and breathes by the sole grace of the Lord! if you reject His intercession for your neighbors; how can He accept the intercession of His Son for you? Then in the petition “to forgive our debts, just as we forgive our debtors,” there is already a sentence of condemnation on us: “judgment without mercy to him who has not shown mercy” (James 2:13). Let us not forget, Christians, to show mercy before we ask for mercy. “Blesseds of mercy, for there will be mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “And do not lead us into temptation.” It would be useless to forgive sins if we always returned to them with the same weakness. But how difficult it is not to ever fall amid the incessant warfare against the flesh, the world and the spirit of evil! The lion roars; foxes are cunning. If we contrast wickedness with insight, then strength betrays us; If rage is powerful, then deceit deceives us. There is no other hope for us, unless the one Conqueror of all our enemies allows more attacks on us than we can withstand, or grants us as much skill and strength as is necessary for a complete victory. And we pray, listeners, to preserve us from temptations: but are we not approaching them ourselves before they befall us? We pray that the flesh does not enslave us; But aren’t we ourselves too carefully feeding and warming this enemy and serving him as a friend and master? We pray that the world does not charm us; but aren’t we the ones who open our ears to his pernicious charms? We pray that the eye does not tempt us; but aren’t we the ones who nail him down to earthly delights? Against whom, in this case, is our prayer directed, if not against ourselves? “Everyone is tempted from his own lust by temptation and deception” (James 1:14). It is up to us to meet temptations: through prayer we must turn away those who meet with us against our will. “But deliver us from evil.” Finally, there is a certain kind of evil in damaged nature, which is not so much in the inner essence of things as in opinion, in the action of only an external and transitory sensation. It is not always the scourge of retributive Justice; but the rod of love often strikes, a bitter medicine and, so to speak, an unripe good. Squalor, illness, sadness, humiliation, persecution are evil only when we are guilty of them; but weak nature shudders at the mere sight of suffering. And how great is the condescension of the Heavenly Father, who allows us to ask Him to calm us down from these ghosts of evil; may he speed up the dispersal of these light shadows running through the vale of life! But we are all the more daring and ungrateful when we use such condescension for evil. How many cry out to God for misfortunes that are the work of their own hands! The one who crushed his strength through immoderation comes to complain about his weaknesses; he calls upon the judgment of God on those who offend him, who is himself condemned before them by his conscience; he condemns his poverty who attracted it through extravagance. Should such people ask for deliverance from the evil one, or is it better to thank Providence for the upcoming exposure and suggested correction of the evil heart? Let us, listeners, bear punishment with joy when we are guilty; when innocent, pray without impatience for deliverance from disaster. “This is the message of our heavenly Father, which we demand” (Matthew 6:32). Truly, Omniscient Father! You will not give to your children “a stone instead of bread and a snake instead of fish” (Matthew 7:9-10). But we also “are not sure about what we will pray as we ought” (Rom. 8:26). We soon discover the shortcomings of our prayer; but without You we will not achieve perfection in it. Correct it Yourself, “as incense was incense before You,” so that not only the mouth, but also the thought, and the heart, and the desires, and the deeds, and the spirit, and the flesh, and “all our bones say: Lord, Lord” (Psalm 34:10)! “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” Amen. in this saying of the Gospel - In sec. ed. and in collection 1820 and 1821: “in the present Gospel.” In the department ed.: “of course he did not foretell the impossible when, cursing the New Testament Cain, he cried out in divinely inspired indignation.” In the department ed.: “Is it difficult for someone else to turn the Lord’s Prayer into the Prayer of Judas? Alas! this is worth one inattention. So the way to use the Lord’s Prayer is worth considering.” Often - In the department. ed.: “often and with ease.” In the department ed.: “with importance.” appropriate - In collection. 1820 and 1821: “remains.” uncondemned - In collection. 1820 and 1821: “without sin.” Therefore - In the department. ed.: “for this reason.” idle talk - In the department. ed.: “vanity”. In the department ed. these words do not exist. In the department ed.: “in the mirror and fortune telling.” In the department ed.: “And about this election of ours, about this last calling, we first cry out in our prayer: “may the kingdom of God come,” or, may we come to the kingdom of God.” In collection 1820, 1821 and 1844: “humiliations.” In the department ed.: “But which of us, in frivolous dreams, does not create his own kingdom here? Everyone more or less wants to dominate people, over opinions, over freedom, over nature. One thinks with his sword to inscribe on others the law of fear and humiliation; another imagines making his pen a scepter of enlightened light. Some people dream of being a model and a legislator in pleasures and amusements, while others arrange... " In the department ed.: “The Lord is coming right before our face; and therefore, in order to appear at His right hand, one must go through the land.” In the department ed. and in collection 1820 and 1821: “perfectly sums up.” In the department ed.: man will live. required - In the department. ed.: “necessary”. You might be interested in: