486. Слово в день рождения Ее Величества Благочестивейшей Государыни Императрицы Александры Феодоровны

(Said in the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius on July 1) Take the tuna, give the tuna. (Matthew 10:8). And the Lord bequeaths selflessness to the Apostles when he says: “Tune thee, give tune.” And the church, praising the memory of the Wonderworkers-Unmercenaries, reminds us of the Lord’s testament about selflessness. Let's accept the reminder and think about fulfilling the will. Selflessness is the disposition to do good, without the desire for one's own selfishness. However, one must be careful to distinguish true, Christian, spiritual unselfishness from imaginary, worldly, external. A judge who does not demand bribes for the cause of justice and does not accept gifts is considered disinterested, but he may not truly be what he is considered to be. If he acts unselfishly only in order to receive the glory of unselfishness, or to earn a reward from earthly power: in this case, he is unselfish only outwardly, before the eyes of people, and not in spirit, before the eyes of God; self-honor constitutes the coin with which he pays himself for his selflessness; the hope of reward is the guarantee against which he pledges his selflessness. Because true unselfishness is a spiritual disposition; just as external unselfishness is not true when it is not connected with the internal, so, on the contrary, internal unselfishness is not yet false, but can be true, although it is not accompanied by external non-acquisitiveness. Samuel turned out to be completely disinterested before God and before the Jewish people when “Samuel spoke to the people: The Lord is a witness in you, and Christ is His witness this day, for nothing has been found in my hand; and the people decided, “A witness” (1 Samuel 12:5)! And it did not prevent him from turning out this way because Saul once did not dare to appear to him until “the fourth part of a shekel of silver” was found to “give” to this “man of God” (1 Sam. 9:8), and moreover, in such a case when it was necessary to question him specifically as a prophet. So, a Christian can always practice spiritual unselfishness, whatever his external circumstances and worldly relationships may be. A Christianly unselfish judge is one who is also not selfish with self-praise or honors, as well as gifts, but does the work of justice out of love for truth, out of love for one’s neighbor, with a reverent thought, “for God’s judgment is” (Deut. 1:17). A mentor is unselfish who, in teaching, instructing and guiding a novice, seeks only his good, and not gratitude, salvation, and not respect. A novice is also unselfish if he is zealous for works of obedience, not for the sake of advantages or exaltation, but for the sake of the commandment and example of Him who “was obedient even to death, even death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8). The owner can also be disinterested, namely, when he renounces the increase of his income, not wanting to aggravate the yoke of his assistants, and the merchant, when, content with a moderate profit, does not seek profit on profit, or when he prefers unprofitable trade in things necessary and useful to profitable trade in such items that provide food only for whims, passions and vices, and the mercenary himself is disinterested when, while earning daily bread and clothing for himself and his family, does not increase his wages to the point of hoarding or luxury. But just as there is a kind of unselfishness in the acquisition itself, so, on the contrary, one should be wary of selfishness in the giving itself. Only that giver of alms is unselfish, who, according to the instructions of the Lord, “does not know what his right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3), who, while paying off the duty of philanthropy with his right hand, does not keep a counting sheet of his virtues in his left hand. The Savior especially commands unselfishness in spiritual matters and those accomplished with the special help of God’s grace. “As you walk... preach, saying, as if the kingdom of heaven is drawing near. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Take the tuna, give the tuna.” (Matthew 10:7–8). As the basis for the holy unselfishness of blessed people, He places the purest unselfishness of God in the distribution of grace. “Tune, take it, give it to me.” How did you receive the grace of the Apostleship and the gift of miracles? Have you gained it through your exploits? Have your virtues earned you? No! The exploits of earthly beings, accomplished by earthly forces, cannot reach heaven; the virtues of the sons of Adam can never cover their sins, much less earn a Divine reward. The grace of God, like all things of God, is so priceless that the highest and most perfect creatures have nothing worthy to repay for the least of its gifts. That is why it is called grace, because it is given solely by the goodness of God. If this is how you received it, then use it that way. Give it to the dispenser, at least to those who teach it to others correctly, according to His intention. Do not assign a price on earth to something that has no price in heaven. Do not damage the purest gift with the impurity of your selfishness. “Tune, take it, give it to me.” I said: do not damage the gift with selfishness. Truly, just as a subtle medicinal substance is damaged in an unclean vessel, so the spiritual healing or saving power of grace cannot be preserved in a soul that is not cleansed of self-interest. The king of Moab twice envoyed Balaam to curse Israel: “Balaam answered and said to the princes of Balak: If Balak gives me his church full of gold and silver, I cannot transgress the word of the Lord God, whether I do something small or great in my mind” (Num. 22:18). While he maintained himself in this selflessness, he had pure visions and prophesied. But when he turned away from it, then this seer and prophet became a teacher of debauchery and died in common punishment with the depraved. And one of the twelve chosen among the elect from the Son of God Himself, who obviously received the common grace with others to preach the kingdom of God, to heal, to resurrect - how did this preacher of the kingdom of God to others, lose it for himself? How did this healer become infected without healing? How did this resurrector die without the hope of resurrection? How did evil manage to become as poisonous and deadly in him as healing and life-giving was grace? We do not know of any other poison with which the life of the Apostles in Judas could be poisoned, and human life irrevocably destroyed, except for the poison of greed, thievery. Perhaps many of those who hear this think that this has little concern for them, as they are such people who have not received prophetic, apostolic, or miraculous gifts. It doesn’t seem so to me, brothers! It seems to me that you and I have accepted a lot of things too. Did you not receive from God the natural life at your birth and the grace-filled life at your baptism? By what deeds did you deserve what, in the providence of God, you inherited from your parents, whether it was an estate or a title? Have you purchased mental and physical abilities, through the development and use of which you do your business and enjoy life? If you have peace, abundance, joy in your life: hasn’t God blessed you with all this? If you have acquired something through your labors, was it not God’s providence that brought about this opportunity, directed the means, and averted obstacles? “What... imashi,” I ask with the Apostle, “did you receive him?” (1 Cor. 4:7)? And if you have at least realized your insignificance - “what... imashi, he was accepted by the tune,” by the goodness and mercy of God! And therefore, you can turn the word of the Lord to each of us: “you will eat” a lot, “you will give”, although not much that you can. Try not to be selfish in your affairs, so that the all-good God will increase his selfless grace to you. Not everything is for your own benefit or honor, not everything is for reward: do something good for the sake of good itself, for love of your neighbor, for fulfilling the will of God - oh, if only everything was for this alone! This age is strongly infected with self-interest: not a crumb without money, not a step without payment, not a stroke of a pen without a reward. Do not be carried away by the flow of vanity, “do not be conformed to this world.” Do the will of the king of the earth out of a duty of loyalty, and not out of a desire for reward, although he is righteous and generous in his rewards; do the will of the King of heaven in the spirit of filial love, obedient even to death: do not arrogate life itself: - it is enough that He has a “source of life” (Ps. 35:10) which will not dry up for you either. Amen. 969 According to the Evreinovsky collection, this is followed by “The Sermon on the Consecration of the Church of the Intercession, in the city of Kolomna, August 4th,” which, due to its insignificant difference with what was pronounced upon the consecration of the Church of St. Nicholas, in the Perervinsky monastery, in 1841 (Collected 1848, vol. II, p. 82), we postpone until printing under this year. You might be interested in: