Лекция четвертая. Вступительная по нравственному богословию

What is the most important human ability? On which does human salvation depend more? From the will. But what do people usually give great honor to, what perfection do they pursue more and what are they proud of? Knowledge, enlightenment of the mind; They think little about the perfection of the will and value it little. True, they sometimes say: you need to destroy bad habits, be kind; but all this remains mostly in words. They spend their health and expenses on knowledge, and often sacrifice life itself; and hardly anyone died trying to correct their will. But maybe, in fact, the mind contains more value and importance than the will? People in general really value knowledge too highly, but in itself it is not very valuable. The proof of this is that they, and even the most essential of them, are often acquired for nothing, while the perfection of the will is very difficult to acquire. Apparently, this is a paradox that we sometimes get knowledge for nothing. In fact, it happens that knowledge of sciences that require special work (for example, medicine, knowledge of languages) suddenly manifests itself in the soul, but, on the contrary, there is not a single experience where a person in an instant becomes good on his own. Also: the necessary knowledge is given to every person freely. A commoner, even a child, sees a lot of things in the physical world, and even an astronomer does not see much more, for example, stars, the Milky Way, and the like; even some of the necessary metaphysical truths are revealed by themselves. Thus, knowledge does not have a perfect price; their price rises by chance, from time to time. Imagine, for example, that a commoner is suddenly transported to the moon or to another planet; he would have seen more there than an astronomer on earth with all his instruments; but move an evil person anywhere - and he will still remain evil and cannot suddenly become good. Why is this ability - will - not considered so important? What is the reason for this prejudice? 1) Education of the mind is easier. 2) The fruits of knowledge are more visible and grow faster than the fruits of correction of the will. 3) Imperfections of the will are more difficult to see, but imperfections of the mind are immediately noticeable. 4) A person himself can form a mind, and the correction of the will is actually the work of God, therefore a natural person, as it were, does not mind his own business. But why is will more important than all other abilities? This is explained from the very structure of the soul. The mind, with all its brilliance, is something of a service; The main spring of the soul is will. If you imagine a person with an extensive mind, but with a corrupted will, then something disordered emerges. What is the essence of the will? Is the will itself a law or is it governed by something external? Of course, each force or ability has its own internal law, but from experience it is known that the will is controlled either by the mind - cognition, or by feeling - sensation. For example, when an unpleasant sensation occurs, the will tries to move away from itself the object that produced this sensation. According to the usual observations of experience, first of all, feeling is revealed in a person. The baby lives for several years with this one feeling. Then, when other abilities begin to reveal themselves, the feeling still remains and serves as a kind of tablecloth, a lining on which all other abilities unfold or warp (warp the base - lay the longitudinal threads of the fabric - editor's note). Feeling consists of simple direct sensation, there is something similar to instinct. In our country it is usually called the heart; it is mute, but in some way the same thing happens in it as in the mind, only instantly, like lightning. Behind the feeling the mind develops. Its general property is to cognize, that is, to cut out, as it were, an image of things, to copy, to bring a thing into different figures. After the mind, the desired ability begins to develop. It is different from feeling and mind. A person feels, and may or may not remove what he senses from himself; a person knows, and may or may not assimilate this knowledge: these abilities are partly involuntary, partly voluntary. When a desirable or determining ability begins to develop, it already decisively decides whether to follow a certain sensation, knowledge, or not. This ability is will. She gives direction to everything, signs the definition in her soul: to be one way or another. In order for the action of the soul to completely end, it is required that it move outside - into the world, and this depends on the will. We sometimes have feelings and knowledge, but without will there is no conductor or ruler for them; and therefore they crowd in disorder and are not found in correct activity. What is called freedom in a person? Isn’t it one with the will, and how is it different from it? There is freedom in the will, otherwise the will could not command, but not all will is in freedom; will is broader than freedom. Freedom is only a quality of will. The will, in addition to freedom, also needs to do a trial, a trial. What is called the beginning of action - the beginning of morality (principium moralitatis)? This is some kind of main law that contains all other laws. The principles of morality are usually divided into internal and external. Internal ones are taken from the soul itself, and external ones - from the outside. There are also formal and material beginnings; the former determine the form, the mode of action, and the latter - the object itself. The formal beginning may be general; but not always material. All divisions and disputes regarding this subject are the consequences of a gross misunderstanding. They say that some origins come from outside; but is it really from the outside? If we delve deeper into the matter, it turns out that they are in our soul. For example, the beginning: follow the will of God is called external, but it is located in our soul, created in the image of God. This is where Kant's rigorism or Jacobi's purity came from. In their opinion, the purest morality necessarily presupposes godlessness; They have as many independent kingdoms as there are indivisible beings - not a monarchy, but anarchy! Such theories converged with practice during the French Revolution. So, the will of God can and should be the best philosophical beginning; You just have to understand this beginning correctly. From what faculty should the law for morality be derived? They usually take from the mind, but in fact they must take not from the mind alone, but also from the feeling, for the will is controlled by both of these rulers. If there cannot be one such beginning, then there must be at least two beginnings: one from feeling, the other from mind. What is known as confluence of duties? Dispute, clash of demands. But this remarkable phenomenon is a kind of optical illusion: the duties themselves cannot be opposite; in this case, one duty is no longer a duty. But can't responsibilities really stack up? Let us imagine morality like a circle; its center is the general moral law; responsibilities emanate from it in the form of rays; Now let’s imagine a person at a point on the periphery where two rays emerge from the same law... The main way of reconciliation here is that man is a free being, which the law itself makes free. How does reason teach about morality? Does it show the way the duties are performed? Partly shows. Does he recognize the weakness and imperfection of the will? Do philosophers talk about how to bring a person out of his bad state and make him good? The conscientious mind recognizes all this and offers some means to improve the matter; for example, education of the mind, constant exercise in virtue, and the like. But just as in the area of ​​the mind there are many misconceptions, so in the area of ​​the will. And it is strange that these errors have been felt for a long time and could be corrected several times, but they are not corrected; as soon as people start doing this, it’s as if someone is blocking their path and taking their hands away. What is conscience? According to word production, it is consciousness, cognition; but it also has a feeling. Conscience is a Slavic word, the Greeks called it συνειδησις, and the Romans called it conscientia; in all languages ​​it expresses the same thing. When we say that we are conscious, we clearly assume the participation of two persons: we are conscious with someone else, we are participating in the knowledge of the other. Who knows this and with whom are we aware, and at the same time we are aware, but not cognized? Such consciousness is both voluntary and involuntary; ours in this case is only “with”; and someone else “knows” inside us all the time. This is God working continuously in our hearts; The pagans themselves said: est Deus in nobus. Paying attention to the action of conscience, we see that it is not in our will: we can sometimes darken it, suppress it, but we cannot completely destroy it. The process of the court of conscience is as follows: legislation and trial. If you make a syllogism of conscience, then the major premise will be the law; the smaller one is evidence; and the conclusion is the very decision or sentence of conscience. Conscience is consciousness, our participation in the knowledge of the Divine; That is why she is an incorruptible and faithful judge. Its subject is thoughts, desires, feelings and actions themselves. Conscience judges everything on the basis of the law; therefore, she is conscious of the law, then she is the consciousness of thoughts and actions; finally, awareness of the consequences arising from the relationship of actions to the law. In the first case it is called legislative, in the second - judicial, in the third - sentencing or executive. But conscience is also a sensation that must be distinguished from consciousness. We previously noticed that in the composition of our soul, the will is the only producer of our actions, on the basis of two kinds of impressions - mind and feeling, that is, both mind and feeling seem to give something to the will. The mind applied to activity becomes conscience; and feeling also becomes conscience, or more correctly, co-feeling. This explains a lot: they have long said that conscience is something indelible, and on the contrary they say that conscience can be suppressed: an obvious contradiction. How is it possible? What is called suppression of conscience may be in the mind, in the consciousness of the mind's relationship to the law. Although the mind is not actually a bare, clean board, it is, for the most part, a board on which you can write several times and then erase it; There are only a few lines drawn on it that remain forever. You can’t write much about feelings; but what is written here can never be erased; one drop of feeling remains, one trait, but even that cannot disappear: that is why they say that conscience is something indelible. What is the action of conscience usually compared to? With fire; and some cases prove that this is not a metaphor at all, but a complete deed. Fire is an intensified combination of light and heat. And conscience, since it is in the mind, is light, and since it is in feeling, it is warmth. If you combine and intensify this warmth and light, then real fire will occur. Our mind is similar in nature to light. Just as light, emanating from the sun, spreads everywhere in its rays, so the light of conscience, emanating from the mind, is reflected in all human actions. Feeling is subject to the same law. The heart is the seat of physical and moral warmth. In a person’s sinful state, the rays dissipate in the mind, the effect of warmth in the heart is weakened; but suddenly the opposite action begins; and when this light and warmth are concentrated, even physical combustion occurs inside. There are also examples that when the insides of dead sinners were opened, inflammation was found inside them. And this is still here on earth, where the human being only smolders gradually and is, as it were, still covered with ashes, through which the flame does not penetrate so strongly; What will he imagine in the future life, where there will be no such ashes, no body?.. The concentration of ideas in the mind, the concentration of feelings in the heart should produce hellish inflammation... It happens, although very rarely, that the strong action of conscience in the chest leads to burning. Scripture mentions a seared conscience; This means that it was kindled several times, burned and extinguished before it became burned, or scorched. The fire of conscience, if it takes the wrong direction in its spread, can only, so to speak, glaze the soul; and this burning, or glazing of the soul, is terrible!.. In physical nature, the most worthless metals, glazed, can appear clean, clear, flowery; and in order to penetrate into their midst, it is necessary to break them. Isn’t it the same in spiritual nature?.. The human soul is a being capable of improvement and deterioration. On what force does this primarily depend? Of course, it depends on the will of the person, although sometimes external circumstances are of no small importance here. At the highest degree of perfectibility, a person represents himself as an Angel, like, for example, holy people; and at the highest or extreme degree of depravity, he is a creature from the dark world. In the soul itself lies the source of bliss, independent of anything external; for example, many martyrs died with joy amid terrible torment. This world cannot accommodate great phenomena; The soul cannot show greater freedom - and it goes without saying that so much power could not be revealed in an instant, but it was prepared through long-term experiments. The Apostle Paul says about himself that although he spent his entire life in sorrows and hardships, despite all this he “rejoiced constantly.” But there is also the highest degree of dependence or subordination of the soul to everything in the world: the soul becomes like a feather flying through the air and rotating everywhere in the direction of the wind. This happens mostly to the lucky people of the world. When the corrupted soul becomes completely empty and loses its independence, and meanwhile begins to imagine that it must produce everything from itself; at that time she begins to suffer terribly, as many Roman Caesars actually showed. In certain cases and circumstances, Tiberius could become a martyr; and from some martyr Tiberius could have emerged first. From this it follows that everyone should try to take care of themselves in advance, should make it a firm rule to find bliss in themselves. It would seem, how could one not try to take care of oneself?.. However, experience shows that people pay little attention to themselves. And if now in our short life there are so many inclinations for good or bad, then what will happen in a few thousand years? All the forces by which the planets move and the sun rotate mean little in comparison with the will of man. Now she is in rivets, as the man himself is in prison; but it is destined for great events. For example, from 1798 to 1815, the entire European world was in extreme flux, in a critical situation: kingdoms fell and rose, but where was the main spring of this phenomenon? In the will of Napoleon; and his will was the same as that of any person. It is with some hesitation and, one might say, with embarrassment that I begin to present the science of practical Christian theology. Of course, it is not of great importance to lay down the rules of Christian morality in a school-like manner. But it is very important to present Christian morality in all its fullness and strength; to show the Christian life in all its attractiveness and sweetness, despite all the sorrows and troubles that Christians are forced to endure. This is important in terms of the subject itself, for Christian morality is the most essential thing in Christianity, the most sublime and mysterious. Essential, because Christian perfection consists not in word, but in spirit, in strength, in life. Sublime, for Christian life is life in God, in Christ, and the life of God and Christ in people. The most mysterious thing, for the actions in which Christian life is expressed are actions of grace. Consequently, if, when presenting any science, one should say “not in the wisdom of men, but in those taught by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:13), then this is especially necessary when presenting this most important science. But let us say with the apostle: “Who is pleased with this?” (2 Cor. 2:16) Who is capable of this, not only among ordinary teachers, but also among extraordinary ones? This matter is important, finally, “by its effect in you,” who are destined to be teachers of the faith, and in others, whom you will one day teach. Christian morality is not a subject that one can not know. Blessed is he who knows “what is the will of God” (Eph. 5:17), but miserable is he who, knowing, does not do it. It is necessary to convey Christian morality so that it passes into the being of the spirit, into life; but “who is happy with this?” Even more important is the moral influence through you on many others. If you implement the rules of morality in your heart and in life, then how many blessings will spread through you in different parts of the world!.. Each of you can become a living rod. To teach this science in all its completeness and perfection, we need people blessed by the Church - Anthony the Great, Pachomius the Great, Euthymius the Great, Theodosius the Great and the like. These people, being rich in spiritual experiences, could reveal the Christian life in all its fullness and attractiveness: they would not resort to external evidence, to the experiences of others; they would say: we ourselves felt it, we ourselves experienced it, and their words would be stronger than all the evidence. From the fullness of their spirit, even dead hearts would be revived: the Divine fire that burned in them could warm up even the coldest minds. But on the other hand, to wish that such great luminaries should shine within these walls of ours means the same as wishing that the great luminaries hung in the firmament of heaven would be hung under the arch of a building made by hand. These teachers were universal: their departments were mountains, forests, caves; but their life, their actions also apply to us; We can also use their experiences and instructions. Providence saw that we would be gathered together to study the ways of life; and I saw, of course, that this matter, even in the form in which we have it, would not be useless. And indeed, by using all the means prepared for this by Providence, we too can be in time. We need an educational book: but is it not given to us from heaven? We need examples: but aren’t they all before our eyes, that is, Jesus Christ, the apostles and saints of God? We need an enlightener and a Mentor, who would teach us ourselves and lead us to the truth; and this Mentor is always and everywhere with us: this is the Holy Spirit, instructing the apostles and other people who turned to him in prayer. We need a means to communicate with the higher, spiritual world, we need a key to unlocking the mysteries of heaven: and it is given to us all - this is prayer, which is a constant conductor of heavenly blessings for all those who need it: and what prevents us from always using it?.. In this way we hope that we will understand the will of the Lord correctly. If in the Kingdom of Christ even the last member is not left without special instruction, then even more so Jesus Christ will not leave you to instruct you as much as necessary. There is one means, one condition for this, the most important thing - the desire to know the will of God in order to fulfill it. Without this, it is impossible to acquire true knowledge in this matter. Knowledge comes from the Holy Spirit and He communicates as much as is necessary for a person: there is only one measure of acceptance - the desire to implement what has been accepted in practice. Each of us knows from our own experience that people are sick creatures, and in Christianity, and specifically in active Christianity, the best medicine appears to heal them, to elevate them above all earthly, corruptible things. When is it better for us to take this medicine if not now? In addition, we have no time to move to another world; for this you need preparation, a supply, and Christian morality represents the best preparation for this; There will never be another like it in my entire life. You are now approaching the end of your education, you need rules for life: you won’t be like the waves of the sea all your life. But where are the best rules for life, if not in Christian morality? You will one day become leaders of others; and for this you yourself need to have a solid support, an anchor for all the troubles of life. I dare to say that in my person, as your mentor, Jesus Christ Himself speaks to you: “Open not your mind, not just your memory, but your heart, and begin to accept those eternal truths, for which I will one day demand an account from you.” You can listen to lessons in different ways. Can be listened to for some classes; but this hearing is poor. You can also listen for successful completion of science; but this goal is not high: his goal should be his own life and, over time, that of others. Keep in mind the test that everyone will once undergo on the terrible day of the coming of Jesus Christ - those degrees that will be distributed from the hands of Jesus Christ, in the presence of the Angels and saints of God. You know how the world suffers from various ailments, weaknesses, and how many errors, heresies and the like have invaded the Church itself (through people, of course); and you sometimes were annoyed, regretted, condemned the negligence of the shepherds and teachers of the Church; but you yourself are called to the spread and establishment of Christianity: make a firm determination to prepare for this high goal in a worthy manner; and this preparation should consist in mastering the rules of Christian morality. But how to implement the rules of morality in your circle, deprived of independence? The truths of practical Christianity must be realized in all the faculties of man. There is a vast field for your mind here; but he is still in a state of developing mind - a state of fermentation. Perhaps there is still a weakness of concepts, uncertainty in certain truths, unclean, seductive, blasphemous thoughts: now is the most convenient time to destroy all this and to process your mind. The circle of your feelings is now also the most extensive. Everyday needs and relationships later constrain him a lot; now your feeling has almost its natural soaring. The range of your independent activity in the state of education is small; but it is not very cramped either. Moreover, experience requires a small circle: here the inclination towards good and impulses towards evil, and the consequences of both are more visible. As soon as in a small circle you accustom yourself to self-sacrifice, humility of mind, dissatisfaction with the flesh, love for God and your neighbors; then later these good inclinations, like a seed, will grow into a tree of greatness. And if now the opposite happens, if you allow yourself to be carried away by stubbornness, self-interest; then these shortcomings will subsequently be fragmented into many other important shortcomings. With such feelings, with such desire, we need to begin to study and expound the rules of Christian morality. We also need to pay attention to the following: we intend to engage in this science in a practical way. Therefore, we need to turn to our own consciousness and examine ourselves, what is bad in us. Are there any unclean thoughts, dark doubts in our minds? in character - weak or completely bad sides; Will we not find evil inclinations in our habits? Doesn't our body dominate our spirit? Let's look at our relationships with others. Are we not unloving, abusive, prone to gossip, arrogant? And this is so that all these ailments will be discussed in this science; therefore, there will be an opportunity to cure them. There is no doubt that all people should be kind; There is also no doubt that Christianity can make people like this, can provide all the means for this. One Church Father says that the very spirit of evil would become good if it began to live according to Christian rules. Consequently, it is a sin and shame for us not to use these rules now. Of course, you can live for several years without a certain rule, especially in a state of education: but sooner or later, you still need to turn to some rule, someday you need to concentrate on something; and – isn’t it better to do all this in advance? There will be no more favorable occasion for this. You might be interested in: