64. Беседа об очищении сердца 349

Blessed are those who are pure in heart: for they will see God. Matthew 5:8. If to see the king of the earth, and especially to see not by chance, but by given access, is considered happiness: then what a bliss it is to see the heavenly King of kings and Lord of lords, Whom cannot be seen by chance, but solely by His good pleasure and grace! What can he who sees the king see? - Glory, power, wisdom, goodness, all this, perhaps to a high degree, but everything is limited. What might be the consequences of this vision? - Surprise, love, hope, security, and, perhaps, some communion of glory, but not royal glory. But what will he see who is worthy to see God? - Goodness and goodness itself, all-perfect and unique, wisdom, and the very object of wisdom, the highest and all-encompassing truth, unlimited power and the strength of all powers, glory and beauty, which no word can depict, no imagination can imagine. And what is the fruit of this contemplation? - Not only the delight of surprise, the admiration of 350 love, the fulfillment of all hopes, security, inviolable by any evil that cannot arise in the gracious presence of God, but a real participation in the fullness of what is contemplated: for, according to the assurance of the Apostle, “those who look with the revealed face on the glory of the Lord in the same image are transformed from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18) 351. Does anyone want to see God and be blissful in this contemplation? Let him take the path that leads to this; this path was indicated by Jesus Christ, Who Himself is “the way” (John 14:6), and the surest 352 wayfinder; this path is purity or purification of the heart. “Blessed are those who are pure in heart: for they will see God.” What impurity of the heart is, this is more or less clear to everyone, from experience, unfortunately, which is often too obvious. “From the heart,” says the Knower of the Heart, “come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy. This is what defiles man” (Matthew 15:19–20). When evil thoughts, coming from the heart, apparently defile a person with words of blasphemy against God, or slander against one's neighbor, with acts of theft, fornication, adultery, murder: then in evil deeds or words, who does not recognize an unclean heart? From here it is self-evident that a person who begins to cleanse his heart must renounce deeds that defile a person, that is, deeds that are vicious and lawless. Without this there is no hope, not only of seeing God, but also of any slightest participation in the kingdom of God. “Or do you not know,” says the Apostle, “that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not flatter yourself” (1 Cor. 6:9). Do not seduce yourself with any hope that does not agree with this immutable truth. But here’s what some people either don’t notice or don’t want to notice: how unclean the heart of a person is sometimes who doesn’t defile himself with deeds of vice or lawlessness. Let us repeat the saying of the Knower of the Heart: “from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemy. This is the essence that defiles man." Notice how in one image He not only exposes the visible uncleanness, but also exposes the invisible. When evil thoughts come from the heart into deeds, then they defile the whole person, both internal and external, both the heart and external members, and soul and body. But when evil thoughts, although they do not come from the heart, nevertheless nest in the heart: what then? – It is obvious that then they defile the heart, the inner man, the soul. This inner uncleanness of a person may be inconspicuous, and as if nothing, for another person who looks at his face and deeds: but for God, Who looks at the heart, it is no less than the outer uncleanness of deeds, both obvious and disgusting. Therefore, the Lord calls evil thoughts by the same disgusting names that we use to designate evil deeds: “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy.” You did not kill a man, but in your heart you wished for his death: hear; The Lord already calls this evil thought murder. Your lips did not open to utter blasphemy against God, but your heart was moved by bold and murmuring thoughts about His destinies: beware; probably 353, The heart-reader has already heard blasphemy from you. From this we can see that the real purification of the heart, which would make a person capable of seeing God, must be accomplished by renouncing not only all lawless and vicious deeds, but also from every evil thought, in which an evil deed, like a fruit in an embryo or seed, is hidden. How strict! - those who do not want to take on the work of purifying the inner will say. - How difficult! - those who have experienced this work will say. Strictly, or not strictly, the requirement of renunciation of all evil thoughts: we did not invent this requirement, we did not set it as a condition for seeing God and enjoying Divine bliss; but the One who said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” If you do not want to be subjected to severity, do not blame anyone but yourself if you do not find grace. But is the requirement of purity of heart really strict? Is it strict for someone who has unclear or completely lost vision, to demand a painful cleansing of the organ of vision from the coarse hymen covering it, or the moisture that darkens it, and for this would promise pure and perfect vision? Evil thoughts, from which a person has not renounced, and consequently to which he is passionately attached, like a thorn or dark water, darken the eye of the soul, so that it does not see the light of even the natural truth close to it; for example, one darkened by the thought of anger does not see the light of truth, and does not distinguish between guilt and innocence; overwhelmed by the passion of carnality, he does not see the light of chastity, pleasing to the divine and human gaze, and does not notice how he himself is destroying his health. Is it surprising that the supernatural light of the Divine is not available to such souls? And is it severity or mercy that they still do not want to leave them to the darkness they have chosen, but want, through internal purification, not only to return them to the natural spiritual light of wisdom and virtue, but also to raise them to the Divine light of eternal truth and eternal bliss? As for the labor with which internal cleansing is associated: I do not argue that it is difficult; and even if someone called it impossible, I won’t argue about that. But the difficulty is resolved, the impossibility disappears, as soon as we apply faith to the word, the Word that created everything out of nothing: “what is not possible with man is possible with God” (Luke 18:27) “all things are possible for him who believes” (Mark 9:23). With the help of God's grace, it is not difficult to hate evil thoughts, which for one who has not lost his conscience are by their very nature hateful and disgusting; It is not difficult to renounce those who are hated; after decisive renunciation of them, it is not difficult to drive them out of the heart by the power of good thoughts, prayer, fear of God, and especially all evil by destroying the name of the Lord Jesus; if they return, or accidentally meet with us against our will, then either they will not be able to desecrate the heart that rejects them, or, having cast a short-term shadow on it, they will be erased by humble thoughts and the sorrow of repentance. Let us not be lazy, brethren, and let us not be afraid of labor: let us stand firm in exploits, “let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit” (2 Cor. 7:1). Most of all, by grace, “Create in us a pure heart, O God” (Ps. 50:12); and, no matter how great or long the work of purifying the heart, only finally through this purification grant us a blessed vision of Thy glory in Thy kingdom. Amen. According to Jew. collection: Homily on the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius, spoken in his Lavra on July 5, 1826. According to Jew. collection: performance... According to Jew. collection after this there is the following appeal to Rev. Sergius: We have, if you like, the closest example of both the possibility of seeing God and the bliss associated with this contemplation. Blessed Sergius saw, even sensually, some heavenly visions, heard heavenly voices, and saw and heard the Divine Mother of the Lord herself, from which we can conclude that he beheld the very glory of the Lord with a revealed face in the spirit, even through the veil of his mortal body, how much more so did he see it, having taken off this veil. And blessed is he who has seen, for he has truly partaken of the Divine beheld, since he has revealed the communion of God’s wisdom in God’s wise instructions and predictions; participation in God's goodness and power - in beneficial miracles; communion of God's glory - in the glorious incorruption of one's holy relics. According to Jew. collection: and therefore the most faithful... According to Jew. collection: know that... You might be interested in: