475. Слово в день Тезоименитства Его Императорского Величества Благоверного Государя Императора Александра Павловича

(Said in the Assumption Cathedral on August 30). Rejoice, for your names are written in heaven. (Luke 10:20). We spend this day in joy: because on it is written the beloved name of Alexander, the supreme creator of victorious and peaceful public joys for us on earth, the guardian and distributor of immaculate family and personal joys, sacrificing our own joy and peace, “that under His power we may live a quiet and silent life in all godliness and purity” (1 Tim. 2:2). Do we wish to somehow elevate this exalted joy on earth into the dignity of heavenly joy? We also have a solid basis for this: for there is no doubt that Alexander’s “I”, which is joyful for us, blessed in blessed deeds, “is written ... in heaven” (Luke 10:20), from where good things are blessed, from where the governments of this visible world are invisibly governed, from where the destinies of people and nations come. Righteous joy, holy joy! Shine like a clear morning, warm hearts like a summer afternoon, delight and intoxicate like the wine of ripe grapes! Let the “voice of joy and salvation be heard in the villages of the righteous” (Ps. 117:15). Let only joy be righteous and holy in its subject, and also righteous and holy in its image and actions. Let there be joy worthy of the object of joy. Give me and yourself a few idle minutes of joy in order to develop this thought into some instruction for each of us. There is a custom according to which each of us commemorates with some joy and solemnity the day of his name, which he received from the Church. What kind of custom? When a birthday is remembered and celebrated with joy, this custom easily explains itself, even if the Gospel does not speak of joy, “as a man was born into the world” (John 16:21). It is not difficult to imagine that being is better than nothingness; that life on earth, under the sun, is superior to dead sleep or the imprisonment of a baby in the mother’s womb; and therefore it is not surprising that we remember with triumph the day on which eternal insignificance ended for us, and the nine-month coffin opened 964. But when one is called Crispus, and the other Gaius, why do they triumph? I don’t see where to get the answer to this, except from the words of Christ quoted at the beginning of this word: “they rejoice, for their names are written in heaven.” Names are not as unimportant as Gallio, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, thought about them. “If... the controversy is about words and about names,” he said, “a judge... I do not want to be like this” (Acts 18:15), and he thought that he acted very wisely, with contempt rejecting the subject of the dispute, worthy of contempt, but in fact he discovered pagan ignorance and a lack of even ordinary reasoning. If only he had been renamed from Roman citizen to slave: he would probably have immediately guessed that there are names that should not be neglected, and that are worthy of being the subject of an important competition. If some earthly names are considered important, then the heavenly names must be more important. Earthly things usually return to the earth, decay, are destroyed, forgotten: where are now the valuable lists of Roman citizens, valuable, I say, because one of them is recognized: “It is at great cost that the name of life is acquired” (Acts 22:28). But the title of heavenly residence given to Tuna by grace cannot decay either in books, or be destroyed in monuments, or be erased from memory; for corruption, destruction, oblivion have no place in heavenly habitation. The Word of God, the living word in general, in which consequently and especially names must be taken as living words, in many cases makes us think about names with attention and importance. Is it necessary to show the wisdom of a person who has only emerged from the hands of a creative person and his power over other earthly creatures? The Word of God ascribes to him the naming of names, and to the names named from him a dignity according to which they do not need to be changed. “Whatsoever is called Adam a living soul, that is his name” (Gen. 2:19). Should the supreme wisdom and power of God Himself be glorified? He is credited with naming the things of heaven. “Count the multitude of stars and name them all” (Ps. 147:4). Is it necessary for someone who fights for Christ and wins to be promised a reward, the highest dignity, and bliss? He is promised a new name. “I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name is written” (Rev. 2:17). What is a name, according to the word of God? A name is the being or property of a thing represented by a word; a name is in some way the power of a thing contained in a word: for example, the name of Jesus, as the Apostles themselves noted, even in the mouths of people who did not follow Jesus, below those who received the Holy Spirit, “cast out demons” (Mark 9:38). Therefore, it is clear how important “to them I am ... written in heaven,” or in a word, heavenly, and how joyful it is to receive such a name. For the name heavenly must represent a heavenly property, must contain heavenly power. “Rejoice, for your names are written in heaven,” if they are truly written there. Since the fall of the first man from a spiritual to a carnal state, from a paradisiacal state close to heavenly to an earthly one, the ability to give names, granted to him by the Creator, also fell in him. Having lost insight and strength of spirit, he began to give names that were not as consistent with the truth as before, not as full of power, as for example, he called his first son Cain, that is, “acquisition” (Gen. 4:1), but experience showed, on the contrary, that Cain was a lost man. It so happened that earthly names were sometimes not at all suitable to be written in heaven: therefore, for the naming of the heavenly residence, God Himself anciently renamed Abram Abraham, Sarah Sarah, Jacob Israel, and in the days of the new covenant the Lord Himself renamed Simon Peter, that is, “a stone is not” (Matthew 16:18) “firm ago... confession (Heb. 4:14) faith, James... and John... Boanerges”, that is, “my sons of thunder” (Mk. 3:17), or thundering heralds of the Gospel; Likewise, the Apostles renamed Josiah Barnabas, that is, the son of consolation; and sometimes through Angels, even before birth, names were given on earth to people predestined for heaven, such as John. Those who thus received their names from God, from Christ, from the Angels, from the Apostles, led by the Holy Spirit, had the very origin of these names as a guarantee of assurance that their names were written in heaven, and, consequently, had good reason to rejoice in their names. But since the miraculous and special inspiration of the Holy Spirit, controlled by the naming of names, could not be for everyone, but only for some, according to the special intentions of Providence: then what to do with others who desire heavenly citizenship? How can we provide them with names that would bring with them heavenly hope, and the joy inherent in this hope? – The method that the Church’s mysteries invented for this is to give to everyone accepted into the Church, as into the outskirts of the heavenly city, a name that has already been written in heaven in someone else, such as the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs and other saints. Receiving such names, by faith and hope we are grafted, so to speak, into the properties, and we partake of the grace of the people who lived before us, whose “names” are not only, by God’s predestination, but by their faith and hope, “written in heaven,” but who themselves actually already live in heaven; and to attract us there they invisibly stretch out their hands, or better to say, they act with the invisible power of prayer and grace. “Rejoice, for your names are written in heaven!” This, after Christ, is told to us by the very names that come to us from heavenly people through the ministers of the Church; These days also tell us this, on which these names, joyful for us, are written to the Church. This is the true basis of the custom of celebrating the day of one’s name; this is the spirit and essence of what is simply called “name days.” After this, we can say to everyone who ever wants to joyfully celebrate the day of their name: joy is righteous and holy in its foundation! Only let it also be holy in its image and actions; may she be worthy of her subject. If you rejoice that you have been given a heavenly name, you must rejoice in the image of heaven, so that your joy can reach from earth to heaven, and confirm your union with heaven, about which you rejoice. The image of heavenly joy, as far as can be known on earth, consists in thanking and glorifying Him with a raised mind and a heart open to God, as the only Creator of everything that can be the subject of true joy. If your heart expands and trembles with joy, but does not at the same time ascend to God, then your joy is not in the image of heaven, therefore it does not unite, but separates you from heaven; it exists in the image of the earth, and, in the image of all earthly things, it will soon disappear when another vanity, or sorrow, or care comes to oppress the enlarged heart with vanity. If it is pleasant for you to bear the name of heaven, and the name of heaven, as said above, should be a sign and expression of the properties of heaven: then it is also necessary that you should be pleased to impress upon yourself the heavenly properties, so that they are marked and expressed in your life and deeds. Heavenly properties are spirituality, truth, goodness, incorruption, love, humility, purity: if you do not have these properties and do not acquire them through deeds, then you can only have empty sounds or dead letters of the name of heaven, and not the power of it; if you are voluntarily devoted to the dominion of earthly life, sensual inclinations, carnal affairs, then no heavenly name makes you a heavenly person: it does not elevate you, but you humiliate it. In this case, the Omniscient One speaks to you: “We know your works, as the name of the Lord is alive and you are dead” (Rev. 3:1). Christians, children of God! The names with which I now appeal to you are the heavenly names common to all of us, under which, together with our special names, it must appear to us in heaven. Strive to live according to the spirit of Christ, act in the image of Christ, constantly present yourself to God and His Church as children of obedience, saints in all your life according to the Holy One who called you; Encourage yourself to such feats by the close examples of those who preceded us, the firstborn who were written in heaven: and then dare to believe and “rejoice, for your names and yours” are actually “written in heaven.” Amen. You might be interested in: