471. Слово в день Святого Мученика Димитрия Царевича

(Spoken in the Moscow Archangel Cathedral on May 15) 959. If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you. (John 15:18). It is not uncommon for the world to do things that are not only terrible for those they hate, but also hateful for those they love. And I would ask him if he has any means to calm or console people affected by such matters. Bring to the judgment of the world itself the deed that one of the great forces of the world, the passion of ambition, committed against the son of the Tsarev, without being softened by the innocence of the youth, without being afraid of the blood, which the world itself, for its own good, must recognize as sacred. Without a doubt, the world will say: terrible! hateful! What can he do to make amends or correct this terrible and hateful thing? Jesus Christ alone creates this miracle, that the evil that the world does, and which cannot be destroyed, is not only destroyed, but also turns into good for those who suffer from the world; that an event that is extremely terrible and hateful can be looked upon calmly and with love; that contrary to natural concepts and feelings, according to which the most prosperous death is sad, the most ill-fated death becomes a subject of celebration. So the world in evil is self-condemned and powerless. Thus Jesus Christ is powerful and victorious in goodness. Therefore, Jesus Christ, anticipating His disciples and followers about the hatred of the world, does not give them means, does not require efforts from them, against this enemy; does not reconcile them with the world, as unworthy of their union, and does not arm them against the world, as unworthy of their confrontation. He only warns them so that the hatred of the world does not lead them into fear and confusion; He teaches us to look at it indifferently, as if the matter is no longer new. “Even if the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you.” Truly learn, Christian, not to be afraid of the hatred of the world that rises up against you because you follow Christ, because you try to think piously and act virtuously. Some may think that the Lord’s instruction not to be afraid of the hatred of the world does not apply to them and is not given at all for our times and circumstances. We do not live now, they will say, among the enemies and persecutors of Christianity, as the first followers of Christ lived; we live Christians among Christians; the world, which once hated the Christian race, over the course of time itself was reborn into the Christian world. Who does not know “the victory that has overcome the world is our faith” (1 John 5:4)? So, victors, celebrating a victory that may not yet have been acquired for you! The world is defeated, but not destroyed: it still lives, and still hates those who are Christ’s, or although they try to be so. The world, conquered by faith, captivated into its obedience, therefore admitted into its region, imperceptibly brought into it with itself and spread in it its own spirit; and thus this enemy of Christ and Christianity found himself within the confines of Christianity itself; hiding behind the name of the Christian world, he acts freely and establishes worldly Christianity for himself; tries to regenerate the sons of faith back into the sons of the world, not to allow the sons of the world to be reborn into the true Christian life; and against those who do not submit to him, he arms himself with hatred, deceit, slander, slander, contempt, in short, with every weapon of untruth. It is not difficult to ascertain whether what is now said is true. An attentive person can immediately believe this through experience. Who so often, among Christianity itself, has erected and is erecting enmities, discord, and confusion; hates and persecutes the best of Christians; trying to extinguish the lamps of Christianity? Who filled Christianity with martyrs who suffered from people who were also called Christians? Who didn’t give Vasily or Gregory a peaceful day in their lives? Who expelled Athanasius several times? Who imprisoned Chrysostom? Who sacrificed this so sacred and God-pleasing sacrifice so wickedly and godlessly? Who? Are they really Christians, whose spirit inspired by Christ is the spirit of love and peace, meekness and gentleness, obedience and patience? Who has produced and is producing such horrors if not the world, once defeated by our faith, but then - oh woe and disgrace to Christianity! - often defeating our faith in us, not because of its weakness, but because of our relaxation and cowardice? Whoever wants to see even more closely how even now the world hates those who truly are, or want to be, Christ’s: he can experience this over himself the sooner the more perfectly he puts on the mind of Christ and the works of Christ, and the more noticeable he is to the world in this image. Let someone appear to the wise and prudent of this age with the teaching “about wisdom and God in the hidden mystery” (1 Cor. 2:7), about the radical damage to human nature, about self-sacrifice, about rebirth, about the inner man, about the contemplative life, about the actions of the Holy. The Spirit, by which, according to the saying of Saint Damascus, “every soul is alive and exalted in purity”, and finally “is illuminated by the Trinity unity of the sacred mystery” 960: the more deeply he expounds this infinitely deep teaching, the less reasonable will understand it; and it is all the more convenient, because of their confidence in the superiority of their mind, that they will either despise him as a dreamer, or hate him as a dangerous innovator, although this teaching can be called new only because it is the teaching of a new, and not an old man; and dangerous only for the flesh and the world, since its goal is the mortification of the flesh and victory over the world. Or let one of the people, not hidden from the world by the baseness of his condition, dare, with full Christian determination, to reject pomp and luxury, abandon fun and spectacles, squander his property on the poor, cleave exclusively to the church of God and spiritual exercises: with what hurting gazes will people of so-called good society and elegant taste pursue this fugitive! How many arrows of wit, or more accurately, sharp madness, will rain down on him! There is no doubt that there will be people who will doubt his sanity simply because he decided to think and act in a Christian way, without applying himself to the world and its false concepts and wrong rules. So, it is impossible not to admit that not only in the first times of Christianity there was, but also in our days, the hatred of the world against true Christians: and, if we want to be impartial, I think it is impossible not to admit to many of us that there is both fear produced by this hatred, and cowardly pleasing the world, precisely in order not to be subjected to this hatred. For this reason, people who seem prudent and thorough allow themselves to do frivolous and vain things; For this reason, those who want to be honest people allow themselves to fall into dishonest deeds. It would be insulting for an entire society to think that there is not a single person in it who can judge that play is a childish exercise, and therefore only occasionally and for a short time is permissible for people of mature age and intelligence, to relieve the forces tired by long tension during the most important activity: how can one explain this strange phenomenon of community life, that entire societies of people of mature age and intelligence, play, at the appointed hours of every day, are they more faithfully and constantly engaged than in the work of the calling or in prayer? This can only be explained by the fact that the sensible, although they understand the vanity of this exercise, are afraid of being separated from the host of vanity, and therefore voluntarily enslave themselves to vanity in order to kill their time with it, and sometimes their well-being. – It is not difficult for a well-bred virgin or wife to understand that the art of Herodias, once awarded with the bloody head of a preacher of repentance and chastity, from this one memory cannot be a pleasant exercise for a reflective Christian, and in no way is it a noble art: how does a Christian woman go in the field of Herodias? She is probably afraid that the world will punish her with contempt for contempt for the laws of the world. – A noble servant of justice would like to keep his hands clean from bribery: but he is afraid that others will disgrace his noble poverty, that a selfish boss will expel him without receiving tribute from him: and, having begun with gifts of gratitude, he ends with bribes of unrighteousness. Here are cases that show how, in the most ordinary course of life in the world, a Christian is tempted by the fear of hatred from the world; and how conveniently through this fear he becomes either, through some kind of captivity, a slave of the world, or willingly becomes its friend. So what? The fear of being rejected by the world leads him to the point where he is actually rejected by God. For “no one can work for two masters” (Matthew 6:24). “Those who... desire to be a friend of the world, become an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Learn, as a true Christian, not to be afraid of the hatred of the world that rises up against you because you follow Christ, because you try to think piously and live virtuously. What to be afraid of? Comforting, Jesus Christ speaks to you. Your condition is not extraordinary; your danger is not unexpected. Look at the life of your Teacher and Lord, and know that everything that happens to Him happened, or can still happen to you. “If the world hates you, know that it hated Me before you.” But, Lord Jesus! What consolation is there for us who are hated by the world, that You were hated by them before us? Isn’t it our deepest sorrow that You, Love itself, were hated? Isn’t the greatest danger for us that You, Life itself, were killed by the haters? Let us not doubt, Christians, the consolation of the Lord. If “all things... were ordained for our instruction, so that through patience and the consolation of the scriptures the hope of the imams” (Rom. 15:4): is it possible that the word of the Lord, especially spoken for consolation, would not be a source of consolation for us? If this source is deep, let us deepen our attention; The deeper we go, the more abundantly we will draw. “Be aware,” he says, “that I hated Me before you.” Knowing that Christ was hated is comforting for us Christians, firstly, because this can serve to resolve the doubt whether we are on the right path. For the world, which hates us for Christ, tries to give its hatred such a form that it is not he who is at enmity against Christ, but we are unworthy of Christ. The way of thinking and life, which is not as sensual and absent-minded as the world loves, is called by the world reckless and useless severity, stubbornness, and strangeness; the desire for the spiritual - through daydreaming; the concept of contemplative life, of the sincere union of man with God - extreme madness, and even blasphemy against God. But when we hear that about Christ, who called Himself the bread of the living creature who came down from heaven and the Son of God, or who proclaimed His death, they said: “cruel... this word” (John 6:60); “to have a demon; ...there are furious people” (John 10:20); “He speaks blasphemy” (Luke 5:21): then we will know that we are also on the path of Christ when similar things happen to us. Then the thorns we walk on do not so much hurt us as comfort us, as a tangible sign of the true path. Then the bitter cup that is served to us is sweetened by the assurance that we “drink the cup that the Lord drank” (Mark 10:38); and that, consequently, this is not a cup of wrath, but a cup of salvation. Secondly, knowing that our Lord was hated is comforting to us because through this we can discern the consequences of the hatred that we suffer from the world and the end of our misfortune. If the hatred of the world against the Lord had not ended in the victory and glory of the Lord, then He could not have pointed to it to console His disciples who were hated by the world. But when, seeing ourselves on His thorny path, we see the end of this path for Him: there is no doubt that for us we see the end of the same path. So, let them slander the truth; let them hate love; let life be killed: truth will be justified, love will triumph, life will be resurrected. Thirdly, without any further considerations, it is comforting for those who are hated in the world to know that the Lord was hated because this reveals their conformity to His beloved and longed-for image. Would it really be more pleasant for a Christian to be loved by a world that hates Christ? No! Let this world hate me; let him despise; let him reject it: this hatred is dear to me; this contempt is glorious for me; This rejection is pleasant, as it brings me closer to Christ and makes me like Him. Grant us, O Lord, to become like You, if not in deeds similar to Yours, at least in the patience of sorrows and troubles similar to Your patience. But save yourself from the misfortune of cowardice, so that, out of fear of sorrows, you do not submit to Your enemy, and do not become like the adulterous and sinful world. Do this to us by Thy grace, merciful to sinners, wondrous among the saints, glorified forever! Amen. This word is placed here in view of the significant difference with that found in the collection. 1848 with a word for the same day in 1846, which will be printed in its place. You might be interested in: