465. Слово в день Тезоименитства Благочестивейшего Государя Императора Александра Павловича

(Said in the Assumption Cathedral, August 30). In his days truth and abundance of peace will shine, until the moon is taken away. (Ps. 71:7). The inscription of the Psalm, from which these words are taken, says that they can be understood “about Solomon” and about his reign blessed by God. You can, I say, understand them this way; for this should not limit their entire signification. Solomon’s truth could not shine for so long, “until the moon was gone”: Solomon faded away, and his truth was eclipsed even before his life faded away. The King whose truth and peace shine and will continue to shine, “until the moon is taken away,” and after the moon, sun and stars are taken away will still shine, is our Lord Jesus Christ. In Solomon only a preliminary image of Him is presented, only the dawn of His days, which know no evening. Happy is David, who barely uttered this prayer for his son: “God grant your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king’s son” (Ps. 71:1), he could immediately add this prediction about him: “in his days righteousness and much peace will shine.” Happy is Solomon, whose kingdom represented a certain image of the Divine kingdom of Christ. Isn’t it with this happiness that we Russians are happy when, standing in prayer for our Tsar, at the same time we can unite with it not the premonition, expectation, hope of a God-blessed and Christ-like reign, “this existing ... truth and abundance of peace,” but a feeling of enjoyment of this good, joy and gratitude for it to God, who gives “His judgment to the Tsar, ... and His righteousness to the Tsar’s son” ! Our king defeated the enemies of his kingdom, and together the enemies of truth and peace. He won not so much by strength, which our enemies had incomparably more than ours, but by truth, which attracted the almighty truth of God to the country of our just cause, and then invested in our very enemies trust in us and peaceful dispositions. Having defeated his enemies in battle, he also defeated the battle itself: for the abundance of peace filling his soul, shining from it, formed a bright, that is, sincere, based on righteousness and love, not overshadowed by self-interest, not overshadowed by pretense, a union that from day to day blocks the various mouths of the abyss from which the battle came out onto the Christian land. If he surrounds himself with warriors; then so that they would be the guardians of his truth, the bodyguards of his world. Let us, Russians, be worthy of happiness, or more precisely, the blessing of God, which we have in our Most Pious Autocrat. We will be worthy of this if everyone, to the best of his ability, observes the truth that shines from the throne of our king and spreads peace. The common thought about truth in society is that the rulers must observe the truth, and the subordinates and the whole society have the right to demand and expect it from the rulers. The thought is fair: but it contains only half of the truth with which society is well-ordered, and therefore complete peace cannot come from it; how can one notice from experience that people who demand truth from rulers, as from their subjects, without any other considerations, at the slightest sight, or even just suspicion of untruth, raise a murmur, begin to judge judges, and want to write new laws for the rulers. Let us apply the other half so that a whole social truth can be formed, which could illuminate society to its farthest limits, to its lowest states, and, like a rich harvest, produce “a multitude of peace.” Everyone must observe the truth, and everyone, to the best of his ability, in his own circle; and with greater severity they must demand truth from themselves than from others. There is truth that is required from those in power. It is written about her: “Love righteousness, you who judge the earth” (Wis.1:1). There is a truth that must operate in the whole people in order to ensure its prosperity. Experienced wisdom speaks about it: “righteousness elevates the tongue” (Proverbs 14:34). If love for truth animates the judges of the earth, it, like the sun, shines on the people, sanctifies the paths of truth for them, awakens and nourishes the life of truth in them, softens the cruel in them, warms the cold, disperses the darkness of guile and malice, dries up the impurities of vices and depravity. If the people willingly indulge in these impressions of truth, just as the earth accepts the beneficial influences of the sun: if, filled with the power of truth, or the feeling of it, which is instilled in it by the rulers, it does not forcefully allow it to vegetate in its affairs: in this way, the truth of superiors and subordinates mutually encourages one with the other; the truth of those who rule shines more clearly from time to time in the purified air of public life; The truth of the subordinates vegetates more freely and abundantly from time to time under the beneficial influence of their superiors. Thus, the truth of the rulers, combined with the truth of the subordinates, gives birth to “much peace,” that is, the improvement and well-being of societies in many respects. Thus “the truth elevates the language.” Let us imagine, on the contrary, a state in which the love of truth, which animates those who judge and govern, does not correspond to the prevailing dispositions of the whole people. What should be the consequences of this? - The sun shines, but the birds of the night do not use its light. The sun shines: but the coarse vapors of unclean places obscure its light, and its beneficial warmth turns into languid heat. The royal truth shines: but the unworthy sons of the kingdom, entrenched in untruth, do not use it for their correction. The royal truth shines: but the corrupted taste and vicious inclinations of the people make it incapable of vividly feeling the tenderness of the government's care and knowing the beneficence of its intentions; but it only seems that his commands are difficult, of course, for self-will, and difficult to fulfill, for laziness. So the truth of Hezekiah or Josiah once shone, but since the people of Judah, like flocks of night and unclean birds, from hour to hour more and more deviated in the rays of idolatry, from hour to hour they plunged deeper into the abominations of pagan vices: then the truth of one king could not give much peace to the kingdom, could not elevate an entire people who were voluntarily cast into the abyss. After the miraculous victories that the righteous God granted to the righteousness of Hezekiah over the unrighteous and wicked Assyrians, this king could not strengthen peace for his people beyond the limit of his reign. “The speech of Hezekiah to Isaiah: the Word of the Lord is good, the hedgehog of the verb; Let there be peace now and righteousness in my days” (Isa. 39:8). So, I repeat, we, Russians, will be worthy of the blessing given to us by God in the king, whose throne shines with righteousness, so that the cities and towns, houses and huts of his power may be filled with a multitude of peace, just as he filled kingdoms and peoples with a multitude of peace. On our part, let us observe the truth, each in his own circle, each according to his rank and condition. How? - someone hungry for truth will say. Let us show this, for example, in some special titles and states. I’ll start with myself, so that no one hasten to convict me through the Apostle of this, according to my calling, untruth: “teaching... others, do you not teach yourself” (Rom. 2:21)? “Your priests, O Lord, will be clothed with righteousness” (Ps. 132:9). Thus, fellow ministers, truth for us must be a vestment or clothing that would clothe all the members of our being, all the instruments of our action, so that nothing in us would appear in the nakedness of unrighteousness to offend the people. The great demand for truth: hardly so much is required from the rulers themselves in the civil circle. Or let us imagine, if you like, the law of truth for our calling in a more limited form: “those who serve the altar,” says the word of truth, “share with the altar” (1 Cor. 9:13). This is our truth! Here's something for everyone! From us there is service before the altar, propitiating God about our sins and about human ignorance. From the altar we receive the food we need for life. If we, in the words of the Prophet, eat milk and clothe ourselves with the waves, but do not feed the sheep of the Lord; if we feed on the bread of the altar, but do not feed those who come to it with the word of life, we do not feed on the spirit of prayer; if we teach others, but ourselves act contrary to our teaching: what truth is there? And in this case, can our ministry be a ministry of peace for the people? There have already been experiences in the kingdoms of the earth that in such cases he began by neglecting those serving the altar, and ended with the falling away of faith and the destruction of the altar. We must serve the altar with all our strength and abilities, with all our time, with all our lives: this is the truth with which the priests of the Lord must be invested! Who is fighting? John the Baptist depicted the truth of this title in the following words: “Injure no one, nor slander anyone, and be satisfied with your dues” (Luke 9:14). Or to put it another way: from a warrior there is safety and security for society, and from society there is honor and contentment for a warrior. But, if the one who is supposed to protect a peaceful citizen from the insults of external enemies during a battle, during a time of peace, offends him or forces out of him for himself what the government gives him dues; or if the weapon entrusted to a warrior for the defense of the Fatherland becomes in his hands an instrument of private anger and vengeance in domestic disagreements, and a blind sword or firearm is set up as a judge and decider of strife: what is the truth here too! If so: then what is public law and order, what is royal justice? Let us leave everything to the power, anger and vengeance of everyone; but then, says the Apostle, “if... ye bite and devour one another, take heed lest ye be destroyed from one another” (Gal. 5:15). Is anyone a citizen who lives by trade or art? The truth of his title is to deliver products, or acquisitions of his activities, to those who need them, for a fair price; and from them, what is called profit, you receive as a reward for your work or, better, as a means of subsistence. If the seller wants to take as much profit as the ignorance or inattention of the buyer allows, if, having multiplied his profit, he will not be satisfied with the decent maintenance of himself and his family, but wants to imitate the nobles in splendor: what is the truth here? And can the fruits of peace for society come from this? Trade that has acquired the quality of authorized deception will make the trader contemptuous in the eyes of other members of society; those with whom he wants to argue in splendor, but who, by their family and rank, consider themselves obliged to surpass him in this, will make excessive efforts for this, and thereby upset their condition; debts will become more common than wealth; mutual trust will become scarce; to put it briefly: untruth will give birth to untruth, then untruth will fight with untruth, and all untruths of various ranks and states will have one consistent direction in order to destroy the peace or prosperity of society. I also said: we must demand truth with greater severity from ourselves than from others. Let us explain this rule with the most common example: a complaint about untruth in court is one of the complaints often heard in society. Let's assume that sometimes it is fair. Not as an excuse for those who judge unrighteously, who will give an answer to God and the supreme authority; But in order to find the sources of social truth and untruth, I would ask those who complain about injustice: do they themselves guard justice as strictly as they demand it from others? If the judge, from a whole host of people around him, heard only speeches that they want to find justice in court, whatever it may be for them, and not win the case, as happens, just to get what they want; that they are disgusted by the thought of being corrupters of the court in which they came to seek truth: what kind of reinforcement would the judge have against the tempter who would want to seduce him into covetousness. But if a whole crowd of those who have need in court demands only satisfaction, whether it is fair or not; if bribe goes to court less shyly than truth: then the people who complain about the injustice of the court, do not they themselves intensify the crime about which they complain? We would not soon find an end to the dispute if we wanted to represent the different types of truth that are required of each of us, according to his rank, condition and various relationships in society. The most convenient way to teach everything is the truth of the Gospel, which commands to love not only those who love, but also enemies; to give back to those in need, without expectation of retribution, to suffer for the truth, without grumbling, and not to deviate from the truth, in order to avoid suffering. If this truth shines in our hearts, then its light will not fade, and the abundance of its world will not become scarce, until the moon is removed. Amen. You might be interested in: