469. Слово в день, иже во святых Отца нашего Алексия Митрополита Московского и всея России Чудотворца

(Spoken in the Chudov Monastery, on the Thursday of the first week of Lent - February 12) 958. Do not be too many teachers, my brethren, who teach that we will receive greater condemnation, for we all sin a lot. (James 3:1–2). On this day, the God-wise and God-effective teacher of the Russian Church fell silent on earth; and for more than four centuries he has been silent: but even to this very day, after so many years, hosts of disciples gather here, around his silent bed. Or, while silent, he still teaches, and while at rest, he still acts. In truth, even now he teaches that wisdom, those virtues, that mystery of grace, by the action of which he is now “praised” with the rest “in glory and rejoices on his bed” (Ps. 149:5). And now he acts for us, before God, with the power of his prayers, strengthening and lifting up our weak and uninspired prayers, and before us, with the power of life and incorruptibility, with which the spirit of holiness, “who watered” (1 Cor. 12:13), as the Apostle put it, watered his whole being, also watered his corruptible body, so that in this body, instead of the usual infirmities that came from sin, We have open holy relics - powerful, pure and sublime forces, which, like a material fragrance through bodily proximity and touch, are communicated through the touch of faith, and through this produce an elevation and peace of our own powers and healing effects. So, it is not in vain, brothers and fellow disciples, that we have gathered to honor the teacher. Therefore, true respect for true dignity should not be accidental and only external, but unchangeable and internal: while honoring this true teacher now, we should not change this respect in any other case; While we honor the worthy Evangelical teacher according to the established rite and ritual, we must also honor the dignity of the Evangelical teacher in spirit and heart. According to the instructions of the Apostle, I offer you one way to honor the dignity of the Gospel teacher. If you consider royal dignity sacred, then you will not dare to place the royal crown on yourself, or on a subject like you. If you respect authority, then you will not dare, not being called upon, to interfere in its affairs; on the contrary, you will fulfill the duties of a subordinate with all readiness. Likewise, if you honor the dignity of a teacher, established in the Church of Christ, then you should not willfully invade the teaching place, or frivolously run after teachers whom no one appointed, and after the Prophets whom God did not send, but must, in meekness and obedience, undergo the title of disciple of the Gospel, under the guidance of teachers appointed by God and the Church, fearing to be a teacher for yourself, and even more so, without a higher calling, to guide others, or to re-teach teachers appointed by God and the Church. “Don’t be too many teachers, my brother.” The instruction may be more necessary for all of us than it seems at first glance. The passion to be and be known as teachers was dominant among the Jewish scribes and Pharisees. They, as the Divine Teacher notes to us, “love...to be called from people: teacher, teacher” (Matthew 23:6-7). Against this passion, “Jesus spoke to the people and to His disciples” (Matthew 23:1), that is, to all His followers, not excluding the Apostles: “But do not be called teachers; for there is only one Teacher, Christ, ... but you are brethren” (Matthew 23:8). How then, they might say, are some in the Christian Church called Teachers? How does the Apostle Paul call himself a “teacher of languages?” (1 Tim. 2:7) How else does he say that “God has placed in the Church the apostles first, the prophets second, the teachers third” (1 Cor. 12:28)? How can we reconcile all this? It is not difficult to agree on all this. The Divine Apostle, without a doubt, does not sin when he testifies that “God has ordained in the Church... teachers" ; and therefore we do not sin in honoring the teachers of the Church, whom God placed in this title; and again the Apostle does nothing other than testify to the truth when he says: “I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I speak the truth about Christ, I do not lie, a teacher of languages ​​in faith and truth” (1 Tim. 2:7). The Lord does not destroy the teaching ministry in the Church, he does not say: let there be no teachers. This is impossible, for when there are disciples - and all Christians are disciples, and in the beginning they were called nothing more than disciples - then, of necessity, there must also be teachers, especially after “one ... Teacher" ascended to heaven; and it is not about the name that He who is above every name is jealous, but our wisdom humbles, exaltation brings down, insolence curbs, self-will cuts off, condemns and forbids, so to speak, imposture in teaching: “do not be reproached,” he says, “teachers,” do not admire this title for yourself, do not volunteer to teach when you are not called to this; and if you are called to this, if God ordains, if the sacred law calls you teachers, then do not be exalted by the title that belongs to you only by gift and by communion, since initially and by right “one ... is your Teacher Christ”; consider yourselves nothing more than “the brothers of those” who call you teachers; be servants, and not rulers of the teaching and disciples: “whosoever...is in you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 23:11). It is clear that, despite this timely warning, the Pharisaic passion for teaching, through those accepted into Christianity from Judaism, soon crept into the Christian Church when the Apostle James renewed his admonition against it to the Christians of his time. “Don’t be too many teachers, my brother.” There is no doubt that it is not the multitude of teachers that the Apostle rejects, for in any society, and even more so in the Church, which is the school of “the wisdom and of God in the hidden mystery” (1 Cor. 2:7), the multitude of enlightened people who are capable of teaching others saving instructions cannot amount to a burdensome excess. There is no doubt that the Apostle, seeing many of them, would not have forbidden them to teach, just as Moses did not forbid Eldad and Modad to prophesy, and would also have said with him: “Who will give to all the Lord’s people to be prophets” - or teachers - “when the Lord gives His Spirit on them” (Num. 11:29)? But we must take into account the fact that truly spiritual people and worthy teachers almost cannot appear in the form of an abundant multitude: for since the first degree of their dignity is the knowledge of their unworthiness, and the highest degree of their wisdom is humility, then, as long as possible, they hide among the number of students and never, of their own free will, increase the number of teachers. So Moses and Jeremiah, even when God himself sends them to preach, still shy away from this: “Choose another mighty one, after him,” says one (Ex. 4:13); “We don’t know how to speak,” exclaims another (Jer. 1:6). Isaiah, at the appeal of God, agrees to be sent, and not before being miraculously cleansed and ignited by the flame of Seraphim. In the Apostles we see a readiness to be fishers of men and to preach the kingdom of heaven: but in none of them do we see that he presented himself to the title of Apostle, I do not say that he placed himself in it. Thus, if not seeking and even running away from teaching is a distinctive feature of those worthy of it, then seeking and striving for it is a sign of those unworthy. Consequently, seeing many people crowding around the teacher’s seat and vying to occupy it, we could say to all of them: leave; your multitude proves that there is not a single worthy person among you, your willfulness and intense search for the dignity of a teacher exposes your unworthiness. This same reproof, only covered with meekness, was pronounced by the Apostle when he said: “Do not be too many teachers, my brethren.” People who undertake to teach without being called to do so usually think to justify themselves by the fact that although their undertaking is daring, their work is salutary. The Apostle destroys this dream by introducing them to the knowledge of themselves, and presenting to them the consequences of their inappropriate activities. “Knowingly,” he says, “we will accept greater condemnation: we all sin a lot.” Note here too the meekness and humility of a true teacher: and then, as he does the work of a teacher, he places himself among the students; and being obliged to expose their sins, to pronounce condemnation on them, he accepts these other people’s sins, someone else’s condemnation upon himself. He doesn’t say “accept condemnation,” but “we will accept.” He does not say: “you sin,” but “we all sin.” But the more he softens the rebuke for those who are stiff-necked, the more force does his admonition receive for those who understand. If the Apostle, in the work of teaching, places himself under pain of condemnation, in common with people who sin a lot: then how terrible this matter must be for everyone else! What will I do, O one Teacher? “Woe... is me,... if I do not preach the good news” (1 Cor. 9:16), because it is for this purpose: woe is me, even if I preach the good news, because I am unworthy. O judge, righteously strict for teachers more than for students! When You come to condemn my unworthiness: at least spare Your decree. And those whom the sovereign destiny of God did not appoint to teach, whom the Church authorities did not send to preach - how do they dare to teach and preach, and what kind of justification do they think they can find in this before the Supreme Teacher and Judge? How can they not think about their own sins when thinking of cleansing the sins of others? “We all sin a lot”: consequently, if you want to strive against sin, each of us has a lot to do for ourselves: is it prudent, leaving our own crumbling hut, to go build someone else’s house, when our position does not require this from us? What if, having sinned a lot ourselves, and - since sin is darkness and there is one who creates sin in darkness - not seeing the truth purely ourselves, we will only rebuild in our own way the old building of sin and untruth, and not create a new building of truth and holiness! What if, instead of the fruitful and nutritious seed of teaching, we sow barren tares or thorns in the hearts of our neighbors? What if, acting in our own wisdom and self-will, we find those who philosophize about the Lord and are governed by the will of God not according to their thoughts, not according to their hearts, and therefore, deluding ourselves, we will regard them as erring, we will begin to divide them, instead of bringing them into the unity of faith, to spread temptations instead of edification, to disrupt unanimity, to disturb the peace of the Church? What kind of condemnation do we expose ourselves to, what kind of condemnation do we expose to others who are seduced or seduced by us, and again what kind of condemnation do we subject ourselves to for them? How grounded these fears are, the Church has learned through numerous and varied sad experiences. For the sake of brevity, I will give just one example, which, however, will tell a lot to those who are attentive. In the letter of the holy Apostle and Evangelist John we read the following: “the writings of the Church, but their foremost lover Diotrephes does not accept us. For this reason, if I come, I will remember his deeds, even those he does, reproaching us with crafty words; and being not pleased about these things, he himself receives the brethren, and rebukes those who want them, and drives them out of the Church” (3 John 1:9-10). Do you hear? Diotrephes, about whom it is unknown whether there was in him any spark of a sound concept of faith and the Church - Diotrephes, whose name has come to us only by the grace of the person rejected by him - Diotrephes does not accept John, chosen among the Apostles, the Theologian par excellence, the seer of the mystic and the head of the Prophets of the New Testament, does not respect his messages, slander him, does not accept those acceptable by the Apostle, and consequently acceptable God does not accept them, forbids others to accept them, and expels them from the Church! Who would believe this if it were not for the Apostle himself who spoke about it? Look at what absurd and Godless deeds, what destructive disorders are produced in the Church by the desire to be first in one’s own right, and the stolen independence from the appointed teachers, imagining to be content for oneself and others; look and be careful. “Don’t be too many teachers, my brother.” Who is this word for? Some of those listening are probably thinking - we are not teachers and are not seeking this title. - On you, if you like; and this word is exactly on you when you think so. It is common for a student to accept for himself every word of teaching, just as the earth receives every drop of rain, or every grain of someone who sows, and not try to turn away accusatory words from himself, like thunderclaps, and not look around him to see who they will fall on. If in the word of the teacher, whatever it was, you sought less for yourself, and more for others, then you listened to it less as disciples, and more as teachers of others, or as judges of the teacher. In this case, this word is specifically for you: “Do not be too many teachers, my brother.” Listen to the teaching as disciples for your heartfelt edification, and not as teachers for mental consideration of how the teaching is offered, or to anyone other than you. How can you not find many teachers among yourself, or better yet, within yourself? When, for example, the Church teaches you fasting according to the tradition of the fathers, following the example of the Apostles and our Savior himself; but some of you say, or show by deed your opinion, that the commandment of fasting is not very important and can almost be left unfulfilled; others, instead of Pentecost, arbitrarily assign themselves a short period of fasting; others institute a fast for themselves that is more luxurious than meat-eating - what does this mean? Is it not that the only true and pure teaching of the Church has been left in neglect, and everyone has set himself up as a teacher and composed his own teaching of abstinence, which contradicts the habit of intemperance as little as possible? And here is the place for the advice of the Apostle, if you want to accept it: “Do not be too many teachers, my brethren”; do not neglect the ancient, general, sanctified decrees, do not study and teach each other instead new, varied customs arising from worldly and carnal wisdom, follow the maternal leadership of the Church with childlike obedience and simplicity. What can we say about those who, to the sickness of the Church, many teachers who, having abandoned love from a pure heart, and a good conscience and unfeigned faith, “sink away,” as the Apostle denounces them, “into vanities, wanting to be teachers of the law, not understanding what they say or affirm about them” (1 Tim. 1:6-7), who want to make a special interpretation out of every word of Scripture, out of every church rite special faith? May the Lord give them reason so that they themselves remember the deeds of Diotrephes, think about them impartially and avoid his fate in good time. Amen. In the collection of 1848 there is a word for the same day in 1845; In view of the significant difference, we print both, each in its own place. You might be interested in: