Слово в субботу Светлой Седмицы, на литургии

Talking with you in the past days, we were looking, brothers, for you and for ourselves, for words of edification; Now, at the end of bright days, at the conclusion of our interviews, I wanted to find for you and for myself some word of consolation. For a Christian also needs spiritual edification, but sometimes even more necessary is consolation. “You will be in a world of sorrow” (John 16:33), said our Savior; and there is nothing truer than these words. Where can those who mourn find comfort if not at the throne of grace? When should we be taught consolation, if not in these bright days? Thus searching for words of consolation in the word of God (for we are rich not in our own, but in His wealth), I wandered in thought to its different places, which contain comforting promises. Many of them stopped me, but one surprised me. I was amazed at what a great and comforting promise it contains, and how little attention we all pay to it, how little we even know it. Before I announce this precious find to you, allow me, brethren, to find out from you what you would like to ask for yourself from the risen Lord as a sign of His love for you, if it were allowed to you - to ask here on earth, in this life, not there in heaven, where endless bliss is prepared for all who love Him? I think that instead of all the gifts and signs of love from the Risen One, you would like to have the opportunity to see Him at least once in your life, fall at His feet, water them with tears, accept the remission of sins from Him, hear peace and blessing. Many, I think, would be ready to give their very lives for this mercy. Rejoice and be glad, souls who love the Lord and want to enjoy seeing Him! – This mercy, so precious to you, is promised to you by He Himself. Listen! “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me: and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father: and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). In order to more accurately and better understand the power and meaning of this comforting promise, let us consider, brethren, more closely - to whom, when and for what purpose was it given by the Lord? These words form part of the last farewell conversation of the Lord with the disciples before His suffering. The main purpose of this conversation was to give the students consolation during the time of separation from them. For this, the Savior uses various means: he assures them of the protection of His Father (John 14:1), promises them the Spirit of the “Comforter” (John 14:16), and finally announces that the upcoming separation will not last long, and they will all meet with Him again. “I will not leave you, sires: I will come to you. It’s still a little while before the world sees Me, but you will see Me: as I live, you will live too” (John 14:18–19). One could stop at these words; for everything has been said about meeting with the disciples. But, apparently, the Lord’s gaze at that moment extended from the present into the future; It’s true that all His followers, suffering and burdened, appeared to Him here; He saw all of us, all our sorrows, sorrows and temptations, he saw that consolation was needed not for just the twelve, but for all; - and His lips opened again: “If you have My commandments,” He continued, “and keep them, you are the one who loves Me: and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father: and I will love him, and I will appear to him Myself” (John 14:21). That is, as if the Lord said this: I said that My separation from you will end in a meeting, and that you will all see Me again; not enough: I will be seen, besides you, by all who love Me, of all places and times. I will appear to every true follower of Mine when I find it necessary for him. In such circumstances, brethren, the precious promise of the Lord, which we are considering, was spoken. If there can be any bewilderment with this, then one thing: does not this promise of His grace-filled appearance apply to the same apostles with whom the meeting was promised, or at least to the closest followers of Christ, and not to us, so distant from them in time, especially due to the poverty of Christian Virtues. Truly, brothers, if we ourselves had to resolve this doubt, we would not have dared to resolve it in our favor, and we would never have dared to so firmly promise you on behalf of the Lord such great mercy as His appearance. For who will dare, in the words of the Apostle, to “bring Christ down” from heaven (Rom. 10:6), since He does not want to leave him? – But now we can say something else: who will dare to raise Christ to heaven, since He wants to continue to appear on earth? For now we cannot, in no way can, doubt that the Lord’s promise about His immediate appearance does not apply to all His true followers, and therefore to us, if we are such. This precious impossibility of doubt was brought to us by one of the apostles of Christ, Judas the non-Iscariot, and he delivered it, it seems, without thinking about it, by sudden inspiration from above. When listening to the promise of the Lord we are considering, it seemed to him that it referred to only the apostles. At such a thought, the heart of the loving disciple was filled with regret that the Teacher and Lord wanted to limit His meeting to His closest disciples: and so, out of His love, he dared to speak for all of us: “Lord,” he asked, “and what happened, because You wanted to appear to us, and not the world?” (John 14:22). That is, as if he were saying to the Teacher: “Have You changed your intention to be the Savior of all, and we alone have a need for Your appearance?” You see, brethren, that the holy apostle, although in other words, says the same thing that we ourselves would say, wanting to know whether the promise can apply to us. - Look now what the Lord will say! Oh, He is even more generous now! The disciple’s doubt about the breadth of His love—whether it embraced everyone equally—forced him to further expand the embrace of love. Before, He Himself promised to those who love and fulfill His commandments only His own appearance. Now, prompted by the question, He promises more - the appearance of the Father along with Himself, and not only the appearance, but also abiding in the one who is worthy of this. “Jesus answered and said to him: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him. If you do not love Me, you will not keep My words: and the word that you have heard is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” (John 14:23–24). After this answer, brothers, there is no room for doubt: the promise is ours! – Each of us can expect the Lord to appear to us in grace during the course of our lives. Oh, brethren, how can we not exclaim with the apostle: “We have been given an honorable and great promise”! (2 Pet. 1:4). – And after this they still dare to say that Christianity demands a lot! Tell me better that it gives a hundred times more, not only in heaven, even on earth. A meeting with the Lord in this life is not necessary for salvation: “they who have not seen blessings have believed” (John 20:29), He Himself said: but since the sight of the Lord can be a consolation for those who mourn, an encouragement for those who strive, the Lord is pleased to promise it, if only to bring comfort to the soul that loves Him and suffers for Him. A meeting with those who love Him is, as it were, a kind of holy necessity for His own heart. In fact, brothers, listen, I ask you, to the words of the Lord, and you yourself, of course, will see in them the same thing that seems to me. “If you have My commandments and keep them,” He says, “he is the one who loves Me: and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father: and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). Isn’t it obvious that here a kind of spiritual ladder is indicated, which when you step on and walk straight, you will certainly reach a certain goal; and this goal is the appearance of the Lord! Isn’t it obvious that there is a kind of living chain here, in which when you grab the first ring, you set the last one in motion and attract? “Whoever keeps My commandments, as the Lord says so, cannot – for them – not love Me; equally, whoever loves Me cannot, out of love for Me, fail to keep My commandments; for one cannot exist without the other: neither love without virtue, nor virtue without love. And whoever loves Me in such an active way cannot help but be loved by My Father and Me: for love produces love in people, much more so in God. And those who sincerely and strongly love each other cannot remain for a long time without a date: “I will appear to him myself”! After this, brethren, some of you might want to know in advance how the Lord appears to those who love Him. But it is not our spiritual poverty to tell you such lofty secrets. It is enough for us to be sincere messengers of the Tsar’s coming: and about a meeting with the Tsar, ask the friends and associates of the Tsar’s house, who have already been rewarded with this grace. Meanwhile, read the biographies of holy men of God; there you can find what you want. However, why all the alien experiences and evidence? The path is indicated, the means are in everyone’s hands: start fulfilling the commandments and loving the Lord, and you will actually receive what you now only want to know. If only the matter would not be yours, but it would not be His! When you see Him, you will surely no longer ask: how do they see Him? Amen. You might be interested in: