75. Беседа о благом иге Христовом 413

(Printed in the 1844 and 1848 collections). For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:30) The Lord Jesus calls to Him those who labor and are heavy laden: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden”; promises them peace of mind: “I will give you rest, and your souls will find rest” (Matthew 11:28–29). What a pleasant call! What a longed-for promise! But what means will He use to calm the weary and relieve the burdened? Will the burden that was weighing them down be lifted from them? Will it save them from the labors that exhausted them? Without a doubt, He will do this: but for the first time He has something completely different in mind. He wants them to take on a new yoke: “Take it up,” he says, “My yoke upon you.” O merciful Lord! Should we send those who are weary to new work? Should new burdens be imposed on those who are burdened? Are these your means of peace? - Don't be embarrassed; The Lord knows what he does; and His means, which are inconsistent with our wisdom, are consistent with the intentions of His wisdom 414. Those who are weary of the affairs of the flesh and the world will find peace if they take on new spiritual labor; those burdened with the yoke of the devil, bound by evil habits, burdened in conscience with sins, persecuted and oppressed by the scourges of passions will find relief and freedom if they bend their necks under the yoke of Christ: “For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Christians! When Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Eternal Word and Eternal Truth, found it necessary to say that His “yoke” is “good, and His burden” is “light”: then this, firstly, confirms to us that the teaching of the Christian life, to the fulfillment of which we are called, is truly beneficial and convenient to fulfill; secondly, this shows that it is really necessary to certify those who begin the work of the Lord of the tractability of the Christian teaching. We still hear today the complaint to which the Divine Teacher and Savior of souls responded so long ago - a complaint about the burden of His yoke, about the severity of His teaching, about the difficulty of fulfilling His commandments. On what is this complaint based? What is this difficulty? - Without a doubt, most importantly, the teaching of Christ commands a person to go against certain natural inclinations, to overcome them, to kill them, to sacrifice them; and which requires from the Christian strict purification of not only external, but also internal actions and movements, not only deeds and words, but also desires and thoughts. Let us examine these human accusations against the Divine Truth. The truth is not hidden that it gives people commandments that are not as light as children’s toys, but as heavy as the yoke with which draft animals are burdened. "Take up the yoke." Those who complain about the Truth should be pleased with this frank recognition of the truth. But the more openly her confession is that her commandments are a yoke: the more convincing should be her assurance that this yoke is good and this burden is light. “For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” People who are somewhat prudent, and not entirely low in feelings, will, of course, not dare to declare the demand that they always be and remain only children, forever occupied only with toys. But if you are thinking of rising above this state, then you need to move on to practical activities, to labor, to exploits—to take on the “yoke.” What is the “yoke” for? - the disobedient will say: - man is not like working cattle; man is endowed with reason; Why not lead him from the state of childhood to the age of perfection by the paths of reason, rules understandable to the mind, easy to the will, pleasant to the feelings? Why burden him with a yoke - with rules often incomprehensible to reason, difficult to will, unpleasant to feelings? Well, reasonable admirers of reason; Reveal to me these simple, easy and pleasant rules, by means of which a person could easily, as if in some kind of game, win perfection and prosperity. Only I am afraid that these rules may not be too easy, or, more clearly, frivolous. For, contrary to this arrogant reason, indisputable experience testifies that in this earthly life of a person no ability is formed, no knowledge is acquired, no success is achieved without him harnessing himself to some kind of yoke, without bearing some burden. To teach a child to read and write, don’t you harness him to the cruel yoke of school hours for him, don’t you burden him with the burden of books he doesn’t understand, don’t you force him to repeat meaningless and tasteless letters all day long? What can we say about the higher education of this very mind, which wants to be the legislator of easy morality? In order to become worthy of his name, doesn’t he bow under the yoke of mentors, doesn’t he strive to lift the burdens of learning accumulated over centuries, and in order to bear them, doesn’t he torment his body with insomnia, doesn’t he tire his head with intense thoughts? In order to become rich, doesn’t a person deny himself for a long time the pleasures of luxury, doesn’t he bind himself to the strict law of frugality? In order to get the harvest, doesn’t the farmer involve himself in the yoke of the screaming cattle, and don’t the reapers bend their backs 415 in front of the small ear of corn before it serves them as food? To make clothing to cover and protect the human body from airborne changes, how many different arts, different labors, different tools are needed? These are the ordinary experiences of human life! How can people, who by nature think to be smarter and more powerful than nature, want to teach a person virtue more easily than literacy? Is it easier to make him spiritually perfect than to make him worldly educated? Is it easier to provide him with eternal bliss than how to acquire perishable wealth? Is it easier to obtain living food for an immortal soul than to prepare lifeless food for a mortal body? Is it easier to construct an incomparable robe of truth and glory than to construct a handmade robe of need and shame? If the evidence of nature is not enough for people who would like to obey nature better than the Gospel: I will be more courageous; I will refer to the testimony of these very people that it is not ease and pleasantness, but difficulty and sacrifice that mark true and sublime virtue or perfection in people. Let these people, who do not like Christian deeds because they are difficult, let them say, are they surprised at deeds that do not cost any work, do not require any victory over themselves, no sacrifice? Is it a great thing when a rich man does not rob or take bribes? Isn’t it much more important when someone who does not have their daily bread does not want to acquire it through untruth? When the offended takes revenge: what is important? And the animals do the same. But when he spares the overthrown enemy, then not only the wise, but also the spectacular connoisseurs of affairs extol the victor more for his victory over his own anger than over the strength of the enemy. What, in the generally accepted opinion, elevates military feats and death for the Fatherland above many other feats, if not the sacrifice of one’s own safety for the safety of the Fatherland? So, if feat and sacrifice are required of virtue in order for it to be worthy of the world and its opinion: is it possible to demand less in order for it to be worthy of God and His righteous election 416? And if the need for ascetic endeavor and the law of donation do not make worldly virtue unfulfillable, then how can one consider Christian virtue unfulfillable simply because it is connected with the same need for ascetic endeavor and is subject to the same law of donation? But in order to more directly answer why Jesus Christ imposes a certain yoke and burden on His followers, and how this yoke turns out to be good and the burden is light, let us recall to those who know and accept the testimony of the Holy Scriptures 417 that “man” was once “in honor, not in understanding” of the superiority of his Angel-like state, and, deceived by the deception of the tempter, voluntarily “was born like foolish cattle, and become like them” (Psalm 49:13), because he clung to the sensual nature, primarily before the spiritual. As much as by the natural consequence of this action, just as much by the righteous punishment of this crime, he is now naturally under the yoke of sensuality, so that the efforts to make the yoke of the flesh pleasant crushes his spirit, and the efforts to escape from under this yoke in another way depress him 418, since the rough yoke has firmly fallen on him; has grown on him, and he, like harnessed cattle, does not have the tools to free himself from it. Thus, a person, according to the Apostolic expression, “by nature a child of wrath” (Eph. 2:3), always “labors” 419, without reassurance; always “burdened” without relief. In this state Christ finds him: and - note how in vain the one who labors and is burdened complains about the lightener and the tranquilizer; - does not now impose the first, but only changes his yoke; - changes the yoke of evil and heavy to good and easy, - the yoke of lusts and destructive passions for the yoke of saving commandments. And Christ’s commandments are a “yoke”; because bestial lusts must be curbed, brutal passions must be tamed, and even sensual pleasure must be sacrificed, and sacrificed to the spiritual law: but the yoke of Christ’s commandments is a “good yoke,” because the one under this yoke is led from a more or less bestial state to a truly human, Angel-like, even God-like state; - is a “light burden,” because the Lord, who lays it on him, at the same time graciously gives commensurate strength to bear it. The yoke of Christ is good, and the burden is light: because the more willingly a person bears it, the more good he himself becomes; and the more good he himself becomes, the easier it becomes for him to fulfill the good commandments, so that finally he does the will of the Lord with greater ease and pleasure than his own, and thus the yoke on his shoulder completely disappears or turns into wings that constantly carry him to Heaven. These reflections already contain a justification of Christian truth and against another accusation that it is too strict when it requires from its follower the purification of not only external, but also internal actions and movements. Truly, the severity of Christ’s commandments persecutes idle words, unchaste views, unclean desires, and vain thoughts: but how can this be otherwise, when “a man’s mind is set on evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21); and the intention of Christ is to raise this man to God, Whom no evil, no uncleanness, no vanity can approach? Whoever would like the law of Christ to look condescendingly at the disorderly wanderings of human desires and thoughts: one can ask him whether he would agree that his children or his friends should act with him according to this condescending law? – Would a father be pleased to know that his son, apparently respectful, secretly longs for his inheritance and is waiting for the day on which he will get it? What friend would be pleased with the caresses and services of his friend if he learned that in his soul there is no love and zeal, of which they seem to be an expression? If a person who does not see thoughts and does not know the desires of his neighbor is not satisfied when he does not see in him an inner disposition towards himself: then how much more necessary is it for God, who tests hearts and wombs, to demand purity of desires and thoughts from a person? And that this strictness of the Gospel morality is not cruel, and its requirements, with the assistance of grace, to the extent given to each, are easily fulfilled: let the blessed, centuries-justified experiences of His perfect disciples, of whom many, of course, vividly felt the grace-filled lightness, when they not only bore the entire yoke of the necessary commandments, but also voluntarily applied the yoke of advice to it, assure us, the new disciples of Christ. Gospel; they renounced not only covetousness, but also covetousness itself; Not only were they denied pleasure to their flesh, but they also limited the necessary demands of the body, so that it would be all the more convenient to spread their activity in the realm of the spirit. Rest and glorified Igon-bearers of Christ! With your examples, instructions, and prayers left for us, help us 421 who labor and are burdened with the burdens of the flesh and the world, to accept with faith and with love the good yoke of Christ, and in it to find rest for our souls. Amen. According to Jew. collection: Word on the day of the discovery of the relics of St. Sergius, spoken in the Lavra on July 5, 1828. According to Jew. collection: Do not be embarrassed, says the Lord: I know what I do; and My means, which are inconsistent with your wisdom, are consistent with the intentions of My wisdom. According to Jew. collection: aren’t they bending over... According to Jew. collection: His righteous judgment? According to Jew. collection: Sacred legends,.. According to Jew. collection: they oppress and suffocate him,.. According to Jew. collection: “a natural man always works”... According to Jew. collection: Would a father be pleased to know that his son, outwardly respectful, secretly harbors a desire for his quick death in order to quickly receive his inheritance? What friend would be pleased with his friend's frankness and commitment if he learned that what he reveals is not what he thinks, and internally despises him? If a person who does not see the thoughts and does not know the desires of his neighbor does not consider his thoughts and desires to be “innocently offensive” to himself: then how much more necessary is it that the all-seeing and all-knowing God demands purity of desires and thoughts from a person? According to Jew. collection: like this one, whom the good and easy yoke of Christ has given rest in such a way that the triumph of his peace extends with power to us, who are still toiling and burdened. Apparently he felt a grace-filled lightness when he not only bore the entire yoke of the necessary commandments, but also voluntarily applied to him the yoke of the Gospel councils; he renounced not only covetousness, but also covetousness itself; not only did he deny pleasure to his flesh, but he also limited the necessary demands of the body, so that it would be all the more convenient to spread his activity in the realm of the spirit; not only did he not seek elevation between people, but he avoided it as much as possible. Rest and glorified Igon-bearer of Christ! Help us by your example and your prayers... You might be interested in: