491. Слово по освящении храма во имя Святителя Димитрия Ростовского чудотворца в Песношском монастыре

“Behold, they went away in flight and settled in the desert. I trust God to save me from cowardice and from the storm,” sings the Psalmist. ( Ps.54:8-9 ). Behold, I “moved away” from the city, although “without running” from it, however, willingly evading its noise and rumors, although not in order “to settle in the desert,” at least in order to be comforted for a while by communication “with those who are settled in it, waiting for God to save.” I greet you, “those who flee” from the world, or rather from the evil in which “the world lies” (1 John 5:19), from the lust of the flesh that dominates it, the lust of the self and the pride of life, “those who have fled” from cities and villages, or even more so from the temptations that multiply in their multitude, “those who have settled in the wilderness” in body, and even more so in spirit those who loved solitude from every creature, for unhindered conversation with God. Blessed is your flight and departure if you do not look back with thoughts of addiction and desire for worldly things, “remembering Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32), and her from the path of salvation, to the pernicious city, a pernicious look back. Blessed is your residence if you seek in the desert monastery not physical rest, but spiritual salvation, not consolation from men, but pleasing God; if you do not allow the temptations that come your way to draw you away from this refuge, but as if on a strong anchor, hold on to your trust in God, who “saves” you, both from the excitement of your own “cowardice,” and “from the storm” raised by opposing forces. If in order to strengthen your hope you need to see the experiences of God's care for us: you can see them above you, both in general in the fact that this monastery, for a considerable number of years, has been abundant in those who seek salvation in it, and does not indulge in poverty when necessary, and in the present case, when God, through the zeal and cooperation of the God-loving Ones moved by Him, and the shrine of this place again the consecrated church multiplies and gives you new convenience for pious charity and repose of weakness and old age among you. Blessing to those who bear fruit and do good in this holy monastery! Thanks be to God, the supreme benefactor and the beneficent! May our heart be established in the Lord! “Let me take out the God who saves with tea.” Hope is one of the three virtues in which St. Apostle. Paul posits all the spiritual perfection of a Christian in the present life, and the foundation of his blessedness in the future! “Now...,” he says, “faith, hope, love, these three abide.” And although he adds: “greater than these are the loves” (1 Cor. 13:13); although, consequently, “hope” is not the highest of these virtues, but therefore it cannot be neglected; because it is inconvenient, past the first and second degrees, to rise to the third, and this is especially inconvenient in the spiritual course, for both the essence of spiritual things and their order are more constant than physical things. So, if you want to ascend to heaven, then you need to learn how to enter this level of spiritual ascent, which is called “hope,” and strive to really enter it. It can be said that if someone were careless to take this degree out of the spiritual ladder, he would drop the rest and make ascent impossible. What is more powerful than faith, about which the Lord speaks with such strong assurance: “Amen... I say to you, even if this mountain says, “Be moved and cast into the sea,” and he does not reflect in his heart, but has faith, even as he says, it happens to him, even if he says” (Mark 11:23)? But from this very saying one can see that this wonderful power of faith can produce its effect only with the help of hope. For the words: “if he speaks ... and does not consider it in his heart,” what else do they mean, if not that the word of faith must be strengthened in the heart “by the power of ... hope” (Rom. 15:13)? If a believer, but who has not entered the stage of perfect hope, wants to utter a word and do a work of faith, although not to move a mountain, but to remove some obstacle that makes it difficult on the path of salvation, the thoughts of his heart are divided and represent to him that what he wants is difficult, that God does not show His special help to everyone, that the times of miraculous faith have passed, and from such hopeless thoughts, the spirit of faith crumbles, his word fails, and his work fails. is being accomplished. Thus, one who does not strive to reach the level of perfect hope falls from the level of faith. As for “love,” although it is true that it is destined in some way to survive hope and through this not only not to lose anything, but also to triumph completely, which should follow the opening of the glorious Kingdom of God, when the saved will have nothing left to hope for, because the future will unite with the present, and they will forever have what they previously only hoped for; however, it is also true that before this final accomplishment, in the days of preparation for it, love can neither live nor grow without faith and hope. Faith gives birth to it, and hope, together with faith, educates it; “Believe... becomes the one who comes to God,” says the Apostle, “for He is, and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). The thought of rewarding those who seek God belongs to the level of “hope”. I know that there are cases in which strong devotees of love for God and neighbor sacrifice their hope to it, in some way. So Moses asks to be blotted out from the book of God; so Paul would like to be excommunicated from Christ, for the sake of the salvation of God’s chosen people. But, besides the fact that extraordinary cases do not refute the ordinary, on the contrary, by their very rarity they show the necessity of the ordinary; the love of Moses and Paul, even in its extreme raptures, did not reject hope, but only elevated it along with itself; Having forgotten the hope of her own reward, she was fed at this time by the highest, actually Divine hope - the hope of the glory of God, which should be revealed in the salvation of God's chosen people. Let us take another saying about the dignity of hope from the same Apostle Paul, who so willingly sacrificed it to love. “We boast,” he says, “in the hope of the glory of God. Not exactly, but we also boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation makes endurance work: patience is a skill, and hope is a skill; but hope does not put you to shame” (Rom. 5:2-5). How beneficial is hope when it so richly fills the soul with a feeling of inner well-being that the Holy Apostle, with all his characteristic modesty and humility, cannot hide it, but reveals it, “I boast in my hope”! How powerful is hope when the Apostle decisively assures that it “will not disgrace,” that is, it will never deceive a person in his pious expectation! How victorious is hope when it makes it possible not only to endure “sorrows” without grumbling, but even to “boast in them.” How great a treasure must be contained in hope, when the Apostle did not hesitate to declare such a great price by which it must be acquired, namely, “experience, patience, tribulations.” Let us be quite prudent to use attention and care to acquire a great treasure. Expensive! short-sighted self-indulgence will say; it must be bought with sorrows! Think and consider: if you do not want to endure sorrow for spiritual gain; You will endure them without benefit, or even with spiritual harm. For since sin gave birth to sorrow, who can live without sorrow? Therefore, isn’t it better to try to accept them in such a way that through them you acquire patience, through patience experience, through experience hope that will transform even sorrows into joy and glory? In order to make it easier for ourselves to gain trust in God, let us, brethren, meditate with attention on His power, wisdom, goodness, on the faithfulness of His promise, especially on His ineffable mercy in Jesus Christ, whom the Apostle Himself significantly calls “our hope.” (1 Tim. 1:1) Food cannot save my hand" (Is. 59:1), the Lord Himself cries out, strengthening our hope in Him. What difficulties will not be resolved by His manifold wisdom? What sin cannot be overcome by His goodness? “As I live, says...the Lord, I do not desire the death of the sinner, but to turn the wicked from his way, and I live to be him” (Ezek. 33:11). He swears by His divine life in this saving promise: what could be truer than this promise? Most of all, “if God did not spare his only begotten Son, but gave him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things” (Rom. 8:32). Finally, one thing that should not be forgotten in the briefest teaching about hope is that God gave hope to repentant sinners who desire their correction, and not to careless despisers of His law. The one who repents and hopes glorifies the infinite mercy of God, - the one who hopes and unrepentant blasphemes God, presenting Him as the patron of evil. God! Grant to all who hear this the hope of repentance and salvation into eternal life, may glory be to You, Christ our God, our hope forever. Amen. You might be interested in: