490. Слово в день рождения Благочестивейшего Государя Императора Николая Павловича

(Said in the Assumption Cathedral on June 25.) Many people will rejoice at his Christmas. It will be great before the Lord. (Luke 1:14–15). If what we are doing now, according to the feeling of the sons of the fatherland, according to the inherited reverence, according to the acquired love and gratitude to the beneficent greatness of God’s anointed, were to be believed with the highest laws of action: we could say that the natural inhabitants of heaven and the kingdom there approve of this way of thinking, according to which in this case we act in the earthly kingdom. The angel, having predicted the birth of a great man to his father, adds: “and you will have joy and gladness”: this is a family holiday! “And many people will rejoice at his Christmas”: this is a public holiday, a national holiday! “It will be great before the Lord”: this is the basis of the holiday! So, according to the understanding of the Angel, the birth of a great thing in the world decently and correctly can constitute an object of joy for many, a public triumph, extending as far as the beneficial effect of triumphant greatness extends. That the son of heaven looks at earthly objects with heavenly eyes, this can be noticed by a special feature with which he defines greatness worthy of joy: “he will be great before the Lord.” According to the Angel, not every manifestation of greatness is capable of producing joy and triumph, but that is precisely when someone is great before the Lord. This thought again justifies the present triumph, the culprit of which is “great before the Lord,” both because he received the anointing of greatness from the Lord, and because, according to the Lord’s intentions, he strives to use his greatness for deeds of truth and goodness, for the protection of faith and virtue, for the courageous defense of the name of Christ against His stiff-necked blasphemers and enemies, to which the Lord responds to him with His victorious defense. Few are destined to be great to the great joy of many; but who doesn’t want, and isn’t it natural for everyone to want his, albeit small, existence to be marked, although not by the great joy of himself and his neighbors? Therefore, it is useful for the small, no less than the great, to delve into the Angel’s thought that every foundation, every means of joy or well-being in life is only firm and reliable when it is placed before the Lord. In order to see how much a person is deceived if he thinks to lay for himself the foundation of greatness, or some kind of superiority and perfection and then joy and well-being, only in himself and in the things surrounding him, in distance from God and in oblivion about Him - for this it is enough to take into account the simple truth that man is a creature, and God is his Creator. What is creation in itself, outside of God? Nothing; since it was created from nothing. What can it produce by itself, is it again also nothing, from which it itself is produced, although, perhaps, covered with the ghost of materiality, which is called “vanity?” God is everything for Himself, and everything for His creatures, to whom He, through creation, gave existence and properties, and strength, and prosperity, and well-being. If on the day of creation they had their perfection and goodness only from God: could they have had them in any other way the next day, and can they now? because they exist now as dependently as on the day of creation? Whoever thinks that a creature, having once been produced, then exists independently, just as a built building stands, even though the artist who built it was no longer in the world: he confuses two very different concepts of the creation of man and the creation of God. A person makes something out of something that already existed before he started doing it, therefore something must remain when he has stopped doing it. God creates out of nothing; therefore, if He ceased His action, nothing more than nothing would remain. And because He is eternal, His actions should not be imagined to be as transitory as the actions of creatures, temporary beings. The action of creation ended for creatures, who are temporary, but at the same time it continues on the part of God, who is eternal. Since being is given and continues by this action of God, man does not have the power to evade this action, or, in other words, does not have the power to turn himself into nothing, for this power would be equal to the power of production from nothing. But since by the action of God good-being is given, man, as if he is free, has the power to more or less evade this action, and what else can follow from this, unless he can lose the good-being that God bestows? If anyone in these concepts does not willingly believe reason, about which we will not complain bitterly; then let him heed the Word of God. “My Father is working hitherto, and I am working” (John 5:17), says the Son of God. And in another place: “without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). And the Apostle preaches about God that we “in Him... live and move and are” (Acts 17:28). And the Prophet appeals to God about creatures in general: “I will open Your hand, and all things will be filled with goodness; I will hide Your face, and they will rebel” (Ps. 103:28–29), and especially about people: “All who withdraw themselves from You will perish” (Ps. 73:27). Let us delve a little deeper into the understanding of these sacred sayings, and into the consequences arising from this understanding. If God, having created the world and rested from all His works, nevertheless “does hitherto”: then we must conclude that this work is necessary for the good of creatures, for it is impossible to imagine that God would do a useless work. So, woe to him who either removes himself from this work of God, or in some way hinders it! Man, as a living and free being, does at least something himself, at least somehow. If he does not place his work before the Lord and the foundation of it in the Lord Himself, if he does not pay attention to the work of God and does not subordinate his work to it, then most of all one should expect that the work of man will be in contradiction with the work of God; but since God’s work is, without a doubt, more powerful than man’s, it necessarily follows that in this case, sooner or slower, human work must collapse and disappear. If our dependence on “Bearing all things with His power” (Heb. 1:3) is so great that we “without Him we can do nothing”: then the works done without God must be recognized as not only unreliable, but also completely insignificant; and even from this a doubt arises: how do the deeds of people who are wicked and opposed to the will of God exist? However, this doubt is resolved when, from the special grace-filled action or cooperation of God, without which we cannot create anything spiritually good, just as a grape branch cannot bear fruit without its vine and its living sap, we discern the universal action of the creative and providential power of God in the nature of things, or, as the Apostle puts it, “but carrying them in every way with the word of the power of God.” From this, always and everywhere, whenever and wherever creatures exist, the open treasury of God has more or less for their use both the wicked and the opponents of God, which is given to them as creatures, and not as the wicked and opponents of God, firstly, so as not to destroy them, which would be contrary to the intention and glory of the Creator, secondly, so as not to deprive them of freedom, which is also an unrepentant or irrevocable gift of God, thirdly, by long-suffering, to give them time to repent, fourthly, by the order of justice itself, which usually is to stop a crime when a crime already exists, for otherwise how could it be recognized that it is justice? The Holy Scripture expresses itself significantly about the deeds of sinners: “The sinner’s vegetation is like grass” (Ps. 91:8). Just as wild grass vegetating on cultivated land, along with noble plants, uses the labor and fertilizer of the farmer, but, nevertheless, it is alien to him, because he did not sow wild seeds, and every minute one must expect a cutting iron or a tearing hand: so the deeds of sinners enjoy the universal action of the creative and providential power of God, but, nevertheless, they are alien to God, because He did not sow sinful inclinations, motives and intentions, and they arise without His will, and, contrary to His will, from the abuse of freedom and therefore must wait every minute for judgment, clearing the field or heliport of God from them. “The sinners always vegetate like grass, and all the workers of iniquity are cut down” - this is only for this purpose, “so that they may be consumed for ever and ever” (Ps. 92:8). If God is not so far from us that we “in Him... live,... move and are” (Acts 17:28): then it is not far to conclude: does it make any difference to Him, and, consequently, does it matter to us whether we live in Him, like a baby in the womb or in the womb of its mother, or like a viper gnawing at its mother’s womb. If a person is “filled with all kinds of goodness”, since God “opens his hand”; and on the contrary, everyone is “troubled” when He “turns away ... His face” (Ps. 103:28–29): then it is very important to know when He opens His hand and when He turns away His face. It is known that the most generous hand does not open to give, when the hand of the needy does not open to receive; and it is not characteristic of goodness itself to turn its face to where people turn away from it. If “those who remove themselves” from God “perish” (Ps. 72:27); then we must think with care and even trembling about what it means to move away from God. Since He is omnipresent and present everywhere, there is nowhere to move away from Him in terms of being and place. How can there be those who move away from God, and what does this removal consist of? God Himself explains this. “These people draw near to Me,” he says, “with their lips, and with their lips they honor Me; but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8). From this it is clear that distance from God is not a place of being, but the use and direction of forces and abilities - it happens with the heart, lips and, accordingly, one might add, with the mind, with deeds. If your heart does not cling to God with true love and holy desire, then your heart is far from God. If your mind does not rise to the knowledge of God and His will, to reverent reflection on His perfections, or does not plunge into silent contemplation of them in a feeling of humility and one’s unworthiness; then your mind is removed from God. If you do your deeds as you please, without thinking about God and without considering whether they are pleasing to Him, then your deeds are removed from God. There is nothing to say about moving away from God with the lips: if approaching Him with the lips is considered insufficient, then how unworthy the removal should be! Measuring the state of distance from God in this way, shouldn’t we turn with fear to the other side in order to see how far away it is from disaster and destruction? But what do we see? There is no distance here! This is destruction! Its abyss is opening up! “All who separate themselves from You will perish.” In moments of reflection one cannot be quite surprised at much that a person does in moments of oblivion. Which of us, in a good hour, does not recognize that everything is from God, that everything is in His power, that in Him is all good, and without Him there is none? But after looking closely at ourselves, no doubt, many of us will find and admit that they spend a lot of time, think about a lot, indulge in many desires, do many things as if they did not care about God - and almost as if He did not exist. O God, “about Him... we live and move and are?” What must servants of Your truth sometimes do? Should I remind you of you? Convince so that you are not forgotten? And to do this with Christians, to whom You have come so close, with whom You have so sincerely united through Your Only Begotten Son who became man, and through Your Holy Spirit poured out on them! Long-suffering and Most merciful! Do not forget us because of our oblivion. You did not move away from us due to our distance. But draw nearer to us still, every sin conquering by Thy grace; and attract us with it, so that our deeds may mutually draw closer to You and our thoughts may be confirmed, so that we not only remember You with fear, but also with faith we foresee You before us and do not move; may Your mighty name be the sun, illuminating the thoughts of our minds and reviving the feelings of our hearts, may Your law be the foundation of our affairs and the fence of our paths, may unfading joy vegetate before You, may unshakable prosperity be created with You. Amen. You might be interested in: