67. Слово Преподобного Никона, Игумена Радонежского 356

For even now our light sorrow, when it is multiplied into prosperity, becomes a burden of eternal glory for us, who do not look at the things that are visible to us, but the things that are unseen: the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:17-18). It is easy to endure sorrow, to succeed in virtue, to hope for eternal glory - what more can a person wish for in a life in which sadness is inevitable, virtue is difficult, well-being is unreliable? And the Apostle, without hesitation, ascribes to himself the possession of such advantages of this life: “for even now our light sorrow, when it multiplies into prosperity, will make us bear the burden of eternal glory.” Let us be attentive to the means by which such advantages of life are acquired. How “light is sorrow”, even for you, who, by your own admission, “in all things afflicted..., without expectation..., persecuted..., cast down..., being given over to death while you live” (2 Cor. 4:8-11)? How does this sorrow “multiply” your “prosperity”, how does it “make” you “bear the burden of eternal glory”? - They answer: “Those who are visible to us are not seen, but those who are invisible.” The point is that we do not look at the visible, but look at the invisible. So, do not look at the visible, but look at the invisible - this is a powerful remedy against sadness, for virtue, for bliss. If, to determine a medical remedy, one usefully turns to the beginning of the disease: then it is not useless to note here that the first and general beginning of the general illness of mankind, the beginning of all imperfection and misfortune, or otherwise, the beginning of all sin and punishment of people, is the wrong thought of the mind, and the disordered determination of the will, no longer to look at the invisible, but to look only at the visible. What else is called the “fall” of man, who even in the state of falling remains on his feet, not like a serpent condemned to walk on his belly - what else, I say, is called the fall of man, if not that his mind, will, activity turned away, deviated, fell from God to creation, from the heavenly to the earthly, from the invisible to the visible? Listen to how the book of Genesis describes this: “a woman saw as good as a tree for food, and as it pleased her eyes to see” (Gen. 3:6). Instead of looking more diligently to the invisible God, Who commanded not to eat from this tree, looking into the invisible sky, where eternal reward is prepared for fulfilling the commandment of God, looking at the unprecedented, but already indicated death, which was inevitably supposed to follow the violation of the commandment - instead of everything invisible, the wife looks only at the visible beauty of the forbidden fruit, and stares, and eats, and attracts her husband to the same eating. And thus, from passionate attention to the visible, sin, nakedness, exile, curse, labor, sorrow, illness, death, corruption are born. Let us repeat what has been said: to determine a medical remedy, it is useful to turn to the onset of the disease; by blocking the source of evil, the spread of evil is stopped, and its streams are dried up 358. So, if the beginning of mental illness is in people, and the first source of all evil is found in the fact that a person stopped looking at the invisible, and began to look only at the visible; then it is not difficult to conclude how natural it is to look for a remedy against evil and a salutary remedy in stopping looking at the visible and deciding to look primarily at the invisible. What was in the source flows in streams. Oblivion of the invisible and addiction to the visible was the beginning of evil in man: the same principle acted and continues to act in the spread of evil among people. Some of them stubbornly refused to look to the invisible God, and wickedness was born; others, out of passion for the visible, wanted to have a visible God: hence idolatry and superstition arose. They despised the invisible part of their being, the soul, and began to look only at the visible part of their composition, the body; - and instead of human life, governed by reason and the law of good, a bestial life was revealed in people, driven by sensual lusts, and brutal, torn by unbridled rage. A passionate and greedy gaze at the visible, in an unrestrained 359 direction, becomes a kind of malevolent force, which from all visible objects, according to their differences, variously extracts poison, all the more terrible because in whom it is formed, it poisons him. This is how they look at visible physical beauty and fall into a frenzy of voluptuousness; - for gold and other visible goods, and become infected with covetousness; - for visible benefits in the hands of others, and poison their own hearts with envy; - on their own visible advantages, and blind themselves with pride. Thus, in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer.9:21), “death rises through your windows”; that is, through the feelings with which you communicate with the visible world, being too open through carelessness, and even more through addiction to the visible, sinful death enters the soul. What should we do? – Without a doubt, it is more careful to close the windows through which death enters, that is, to hold back the feelings through which charm and temptation enter the soul; or, as the Apostle puts it, “look not at what is seen, but at what is unseen.” Do not fix your gaze on visible beauty, and you will be saved from the charm of voluptuousness. Do not look at the glitter of wealth, whether it is yours or someone else’s, and you will not be enslaved to covetousness, and you will not be wounded by envy. Do not look at your visible advantages, but try to cognize the perfections that your invisible being requires - and you will not humiliate yourself with pride, but humility will exalt you. Do not sow the seeds of corruption into the flesh, and you will reap eternal life from the spirit. Bypassing everything visible, look unceasingly to the invisible God - and you will find grace before His eyes, and you will be satisfied with the manifestation of His glory. How is it possible, they will say, not to look at the visible, which is in our eyes not only without our will, but even against our will; and on the contrary, look at the invisible, which is hidden from our eyes? To this, so that no one is truly embarrassed by the imaginary impossibility, we answer, firstly, that how it is possible not to look at what is visible, this is shown by the most ordinary experience, when, for example, a person, deep in thought, does not notice what is happening around him; or when, to someone overcome by sadness, what was closest and most pleasant until then becomes unlovable and alien. Likewise, a person engaged in reverent meditation on the lofty mysteries of the invisible, or pious sadness for God, delving into these inner states, renounces everything external in such a way that he is not greatly attracted by the pleasant, and is not deeply struck by the unpleasant, and sees, but does not look, and looks, but does not fix his gaze on the visible. Therefore, the Apostolic word, a means of progressing in good and an aid to achieving bliss, represents not just contempt for the visible, but in accordance with the intense 360 ​​attention to the invisible: “those who do not look to us are visible but invisible.” Secondly, in order to make sure that you can look at the invisible as if at the visible, it is enough to remember that although the invisible being in the highest degree is God, according to the saying of the Apostle, “in the light the living one is unapproachable; however, according to the testimony of the same Apostle, “seeing Him unseen, He endured” (Heb. 11:27) Moses, the Seer of God. And for all people, “His invisible being, from the creation of the world, was understood by created things, and is visible, and His ever-present power and Godhead” (Rom. 1:20). Thus, the most visible, when we do not only look at it, but try to penetrate further, becomes a visual glass for contemplating the invisible. However, one can borrow from the Apostle a special 361 way of how to lag behind the visible and cleave to the invisible. This method consists of thinking that “what is visible is temporary, but what is invisible is eternal.” "The Visible is Temporary". What to look at what is visible? What is the use of building on sand, writing on water, chasing the wind or a running shadow? Why do the selfish, ambitious, envious, hungry-eyed people want to devour the whole world? Before they can be satisfied, the world will disappear, and before the world disappears, they will disappear from the world. "The Visible is Temporary". Well, if this indispensable law of the visible already exerts its effect on what surrounds us; if time steals from us what is pleasant and kind, and leaves us with a feeling of deprivation, or even suffering? - The same law of time, which now attacks us with the weapon of sorrow, will soon turn to deliver us from it. If you foolishly tie yourself too tightly with the bonds of love to the visible, which may soon be stolen by time; then it is no more prudent to burden oneself with the burden of sorrow for the visible, which has already been stolen by time. “The invisible is eternal.” Before eternity, both one minute and the entire continuation of time are equally imperceptible. What does a minute of deprivation mean, followed by an eternity of possession of good, a minute of suffering, which prepares for an eternity of pleasure, a minute of achievement for virtue, which awaits an eternity of reward and glory? "The Invisible is Eternal". And - ah! in vast regions of the invisible there is not only eternal possession of good, but also eternal deprivation of good, not only eternal pleasure, but also eternal suffering, not only eternal reward and glory, but also eternal reproach and shame, not only eternal light and eternal life, but also eternal fire and eternal death. In our short present life we ​​pass through the visible, temporary, as if some kind of threshold of the invisible, eternal. Corporeal death opens the door, and if we have learned in good time to look with a faithful and unwavering eye at the hidden path of the invisible, and resolutely directed our feet towards the eternal, it leads us into the highest abodes of light and life; and those blinded and burdened by addiction to the visible are cast into a dark abyss, into the terrible threshold of the second death. Let us learn, strangers of the visible world—before it is too late, let us learn how we must pass the short path of temporary life safely and reliably, what to ignore along it in order to guard against distraction, and where to turn our attentive, cautious gaze. We must strive for eternal glory, “not seeing what is visible to us, but what is invisible: what is visible is temporary, but what is invisible is eternal.” If, as an exception to this rule, it is permissible and necessary to look at the visible with attention, then especially in those cases when the visible, as an image, as a mysterious tool and companion of the invisible, holy, Divine, by God himself, or by the God-wise founders, is placed as an object of pious attention for people. These are the essence of visible images, substances, signs, rites of the Church Sacraments and Divine services. But even in this case, no matter how worthy of reverence the visible thing is, it should not stop there alone. Through holy images and visible signs, the reverent, but not curious, gaze of faith must be directed to the invisible power and essential action of the grace of God. It’s scary to think that Simon the Magus was apparently baptized according to the Christian rite 363: let us think about how it is also necessary where the shrine, proceeding from the invisible, fills and embraces the visible, how it is necessary there to ascend from the visible to the invisible, so as not to offend both the invisible and visible shrine. The Holy Church strives in various ways to bring us closer from the visible to the invisible. Thus, during the secret operation, she not only represents the invisible Angels as present and co-serving, but also commands us ourselves to mysteriously depict the Cherubim within ourselves. Thus, she calls us to solemnly commemorate the Saints who have passed from the visible to the invisible. And God’s Providence partly draws us into communion with Them through their visible miraculous remains, but partly hides these from our vision, so that faith can learn, even without the help of the visible, to ascend to the invisible. Let us heed this guidance, and let us “see the invisible.” If, according to the word of the Lord, Angels in the faith of infants raised in the faith see the face of the Heavenly Father, and if there is no reason to take away these invisible guardians from those who have emerged from infancy and continue to walk in faith; if the Holy men of God, having entered the invisible abodes of light, still deign to look around into this visible darkness, and with beneficial signs give us inviting beckons: then with the Holy Guardian Angels, and with the Holy Men of God, and - especially we here with our God-bearing Fathers Sergius and Nikon, may we unite, as far as we can, in one pure gaze to the invisible Father Theirs, and ours, and in a single prayerful desire, may He strengthen us to constantly and unswervingly look to Him with the spirit, “not seeing for us the visible, but the invisible”; and in this disposition of spirit, it is complacent to endure the sorrows of this temporary life, and to strive successfully in virtue, and to achieve eternal glory by the grace of the Father of glory, with His Only Begotten Son and His Consubstantial Spirit, glorified forever. Amen 364. According to Jew. collection: Homily on the day of the Archangel Michael, spoken in the Moscow Archangel Cathedral, November 8, 1826. According to Jew. collection: great... According to Jew. collection: because to block the source of evil is to stop the spread of evil, and to dry up its streams. According to Jew. collection: in unrestrained and constant... According to Jew. collection: with intense... According to Jew. collection: some special... According to Jew. collection: with attention and respect... According to Jew. collection further follows: and the traitor apparently partook of the Lord's table... According to Jew. collection: The Church always unites us in the sacraments with the blessed powers and commands us to mysteriously depict them in ourselves: but now especially puts us in solemn communion with them, before the Lord of hosts. So yes, “we look at the invisible.” If, according to the word of the Lord, the Angels in the faith of infants raised in the faith see the face of the Heavenly Father, and if there is no reason to take away these invisible guardians from those who, having emerged from infancy, continue to walk in faith; then see in your spirit how great the Council of Angels is with us now. They now see the face of our heavenly Father, and therefore now they look to Him. Let us unite with them as much as we can, in one pure gaze to the Invisible Father of theirs and ours, and in a single prayerful desire, that He may always grant us to look to Him in spirit, “not looking at the visible, but the invisible,” and in this disposition of spirit, graciously endure the sorrows of this temporary life, and strive successfully in virtue, and achieve eternal glory through the grace of the glorified God. eyelids. Amen. You might be interested in: