Words and conversations for Sundays

Contents Word for the week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women Word for the 4th week after Easter Word for the week of All Saints Word for the week of All Saints Word for the week of All Saints Word for the 13th week after Pentecost Word for the 18th week after Pentecost Word for the 18th week after Pentecost Word for the 23rd week after Pentecost Homily for the Week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women Why, my brothers, did the holy myrrh-bearing women and righteous Joseph and Nicodemus receive such great honor that their memory is now celebrated by the Church, immediately after the celebration in honor of the Resurrection of the Lord? Did they not, during the Lord’s earthly life or after His ascension to heaven, take any special part in the great work of His service in the salvation of the human race? But neither in Scripture nor in tradition do we find anything about this; tradition testifies about Mary Magdalene alone that she later became a preacher of the Gospel, like the disciples of the Lord, for which she received the name Equal to the Apostles. Or, perhaps, the holy persons who are now blessed by the Church were distinguished by some special understanding of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, or by a special abundance of spiritual gifts? This is not at all clear from the Gospel story; Saint Nicodemus, on the contrary, was told directly: “Thou art the teacher of Israel, and weigh not these” (John 3:10), and these words remain in the Gospel to this day, for our edification. Finally, perhaps the holy persons now celebrated were distinguished by at least their constant presence with the Lord, that is, they listened to all His conversations, were present at all His miracles, participated in all needs and deprivations, and shared all the labors and dangers of His ministry? And this cannot be said from the Gospel, for we see only once how Nicodemus comes to listen to the teaching of the Savior, and then at night, “for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38). More is said about the holy myrrh-bearing women - that they “followed Jesus from Galilee” (Matthew 27:55), “served Him from their possessions” (Luke 8:3); but this walking was by no means constant; The service of wives to the Lord from their estates was also not always accomplished. Otherwise, there would be no need to once ask the Lord of the disciples: “How will we buy the loaves of bread” (John 6:5); Moreover, in another case, there would be no need to resort to miraculous fishing in order to take a statir from its mouth to pay taxes on the church (Matthew 17:27). What, I repeat, could have drawn the attention of the Church to the holy myrrh-bearing women and to righteous Joseph and Nicodemus to the point that their memory was honored with a special celebration, immediately after the celebration of the resurrection of the Lord?.. Their love and zeal for the Lord Jesus, revealed in the simplest way. In Joseph - this is the magnanimous boldness with which he asked the body of Jesus for burial from Pilate, and gave up his own tomb to the Buried One; in Nicodemus - this is the friendly zeal with which he brought so many precious aromas and trimmings to the burial of the Teacher; in the holy myrrh-bearing women is their courageous presence at the Cross of Jesus on Calvary, their participation with Joseph and Nicodemus in His burial and, finally, their morning journey to the tomb of the Life-Giver with aromas and myrrh to anoint His Most Pure Body. These are the exploits of the holy persons now blessed by the Church! Without a doubt, they did not stop there, they went further in faith and humility, ascended higher - in love and selflessness and, perhaps, reached the height and purity of the Angel. But the Holy Church, leaving aside all their other perfections, points in their person not to other qualities and virtues, but to those very ones that we indicated above. And it cannot be said that the Church has extended its gratitude to them beyond its borders, when for such, apparently very simple virtues, their memory so solemnly remembers now; no, in this case she followed the example of the Lord Himself, for to whom did He appear first after His resurrection? Not to the apostles, but to the holy women who came to Him in peace. And even before His death, at the supper, in the house of Simon the leper, when Mary, the sister of Lazarus, poured myrrh on His feet, and when Judas insidiously regretted this world, He said in her approval that she “had done a good deed”, and that “if this Gospel be preached in the whole world, it is said, Do this, in memory of her” (Matthew 26, 10, 13). The Holy Church is now fulfilling this prophecy and together with the command, making known to the whole world through this celebration the zeal of the holy myrrh-bearing women and pious buryers of the body of Jesus. Why is she making this known to the whole world? Firstly, in gratitude to them for serving the Lord at a time when He was abandoned by everyone, even by His disciples; and, secondly, in order to arouse in us a similar zeal for our Lord and Savior by the example of the handsome Joseph and the holy women. For, although our Lord, after his resurrection, ascended, as we know, into heaven, sat down at the right hand of God the Father and therefore has no need of help from us, in our gifts and offerings, but, on the other hand, this very Lord of ours deigned to be found among us sensually, in our churches, in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood, and, having been found in this way, deigns to be subject to deprivations and needs, like just as He was once subject to them in the den of Bethlehem and in the den of Joseph. For Him, He needs a “furnished upper room” (Mark 14:15) for supper, and a Shroud to cover the Most Pure Body, and a coffin for burial. All this could have been arranged for Him in our churches by the Cherubim and Seraphim, who were present at the sacred ceremonies; but He does not deign to accept this service from them; grants this honor to us, whom He redeemed with His Blood, and for whose salvation He is again offered in the Bloodless Sacrifice. The Holy Church reminds everyone of the fulfillment of this sacred duty with the current celebration. Pleasing the righteous Joseph and Nicodemus, she seems to be saying this to all the men: “See, imitate their zeal; do not spare your temporary acquisitions for the Lord, do not omit precious opportunities to provide help and service to the One who promised a reward in the Kingdom for a cup of ice water given in His name.” Glorifying the holy myrrh-bearing women, the Holy Church seems to say this to all Christian wives: “See, do not forget their good example, use the excesses of your acquisitions not so much for decorating yourself, but for serving God and the Church, for deeds of piety and Christian love.” That this lesson is heard and accepted by many, that the wise intention of the Holy Church in the current celebration continues to be achieved now, as in ancient times, is a witness to this from many of our churches, which owe their existence and splendor to nothing other than the zeal and generosity of Christ-loving souls. One cannot see without special tenderness how many of the poorest people, like the widow of the Gospel, donate almost their last mite to the needs of the churches of God. Peace and blessings to you, good and simple souls, from the face of the risen Lord! In the darkness of the night, you illuminate the face of your Savior and His saints in icon images; He, the Most Blessed One, will show the light of His face upon you when you walk through the darkness of the shadow of death. You offer fragrant incense to burn before His holy altar; He will remove from you the influence of the mortal aphids that surround us in the grave. You cover His nakedness in churches, He will cover you with the robe of His merits at the time when you stand at the World Judgment. Just don’t stop, good souls, at the gifts you bring, and don’t talk to the Pharisee: “I give tithes of all I can get” (Luke 18:12), but try to prepare yourselves, that is, your hearts, as “a living sacrifice... pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1). While serving in this way to the joy of those of us who, like Joseph and the holy women, know how to serve the Lord from their possessions, this festival, at the same time, should admonish those who, having every opportunity to provide similar services to their Lord, neglect this under various pretexts. What are these prepositions? The most important of them, as I have heard, is that the Lord requires our heart, and not gifts, that the true sacrifice to God is a broken spirit and a humble and humiliated heart. So! This is what our Lord demands of us first of all, for it was not for material gifts, but for our hearts that He came down from heaven and ascended to the Cross; but do external deeds of love and zeal for the Holy Church prevent one from having such a spirit and such a heart? From this spirit and heart such deeds flow, so that their lack rarely, very rarely does not indicate that we do not have this good spirit and this precious heart. In fact, what kind of crushed spirit is this, which, while erecting royal palaces for its residence, calmly allows the church of God standing to the side to fall? What kind of humble heart is this, which, despite all its impurity, considers itself so precious that, instead of all other gifts, it dares to proudly place itself on the Throne of God? If there is any inner contrition in such a person, then it is almost that which consists of the ruins of the inner church of God, of the poorest remnants of conscience and Christian feeling. If there is any kind of internal humility in this case, then is it perhaps similar to that which was discovered in the Gospel parable by the evil servant, when, instead of receiving interest from the talent entrusted to him, he imagined his fear of not destroying it by using it in business. No, those who truly had a contrite spirit and a humble heart acted differently; they, like David, were ashamed and considered it a sin that, due to circumstances, they had to live in cedar houses while the Ark of the Covenant remained under the tent, and they took all possible measures to stop this indecency. It is true that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:23), and that such worship can be performed in every place, and not in churches alone; but, remembering this, we must not forget that the Savior Himself, Who commanded us this worship in spirit, never neglected the temple of Jerusalem and, during His stay in Jerusalem, was nowhere so often as in this church. He saw all the rich decorations of this church, and never once pronounced condemnation on those who decorated it; on the contrary, he praised the zeal of the widow, who brought two mites as a gift to the church. After this, can one afford to be cold towards the state of God’s churches! The Holy Mysteries of faith obviously could not choose our dwellings for their abode; for them a sanctuary is necessary; but the sanctuary, in turn, requires cleanliness, convenience, and sacred splendor. You yourself, who would like to limit yourself to the worship of God in spirit and truth, and under this pretext, dismiss yourself from zeal in favor of the churches of God, will you yourself remain calm in spirit if the church platform begins to stagger under you from dilapidation, or if there is no strong cover over your heads that protects you from changes in the air? On the contrary, you are the first to demand from churches not only convenience, but also all the splendor of the sacred. Stop being at odds with yourself; be inspired by the spirit of piety, not in words alone, but in reality, and you will no longer be insensitive witnesses of the dilapidation and nakedness of the churches of God, truly be imbued with the truth that the Savior demands from those who worship His Father, and this truth will open your eyes and show how far you are from fulfilling your duty. For is it true when everything in your houses shines with artificial light, and night turns into day, and in the churches of the Lord there will be no light before the icon of the Savior and His Mother? Is it true when you come to the sanctuary in rich clothes, for which materials have been collected from all corners of the world, and your Savior must come before you in His Most Pure Mysteries, barely covered with clothes, and, moreover, old and of little value? Is it true when you receive from Him in the church His Most Pure Body and Blood, and limit your zeal for Him to those small mites that you usually give to the very least of the poor! Thus persecuted by the truth for their coldness and lack of zeal for churches, some think of taking refuge under the roof of philanthropy. Rather than donate to dead churches, it is better, they say, to use the excess of their property to help the living churches, that is, the lesser brethren of Christ - the poor. The Lord would grant that those who speak or think in this way would act exactly as they say! Our most merciful Savior would even now give up everything in favor of those for whom He shed His Blood; would remain naked and greedy, if only they were all clothed and fed. But there are many reasons to think that such philanthropy remains on the lips and is only a pretext. However, let us assume it in all its strength and ask these benefactors of humanity, why do they want to be benefactors of only some members of the body, and leave the Head without help? For the Savior, as we have already noticed, is now subject to deprivation and need, being present with His Most Pure Mysteries in our churches. During His earthly life, He was always in one place according to the flesh, and now He is present in every church; therefore everywhere He needs shelter, everywhere He needs clothing. Being personally present on earth, He was surrounded by miracles, which elevated His face, and, despite the poverty that surrounded Him, made Him an object of respect for everyone. Now, in the churches around Him, there are no visible miracles, therefore external splendor is also necessary to express the inner greatness of the Sacraments. And we, followers and members of His Body, will refuse Him this necessary service?.. Will we refuse under the pretext that all our mercy and zeal for Him have been exhausted for His lesser brethren? Is there even a drop of sincerity in this case? And if we are really sincere in this case, then - let it be allowed to say - we are too unreasonable, vainly imagining that a service to the Church is not a service to humanity. For does our neighbor consist of one body, and not the soul together? Does he need only clothing, bread and blood and does not need a church, worship and the Sacraments? How, then, while showing him mercy in the flesh, should one not show him even more mercy in the spirit, giving him the opportunity to go to church as often as possible, learn there from the word of God, and enjoy seeing the sacred rites? Here, in the churches erected or decorated by our zeal, the poor man will find what we cannot provide him with all our benefits, that is, food for his heart, sanctification by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Even the most material help for bodily needs is nowhere so conveniently acquired by poverty as in churches, for nowhere is neither the heart nor the hand so open to giving alms to the poor, as in churches, after worship. Amen. Word for the 4th week of Easter “In those (narthexes) there are many sick, blind, lame, dry, waiting for the movement of water” (John 5:3) It is not surprising that there were a lot of sick people at the font of Siloam: the power of God acted in it, but its effect was very limited. Not many Angels descended on the font, but one: “The Angel of the Lord” (John 5:4). And one Angel did not descend every day, but only once a year: for (every) summer. And once a year he went not to all the channels of the Siloam spring, but to one main one: “going down into the font.” Moreover, not everyone who went into the font after the disturbance of the water received healing, but only the one who went into it first: “and... the first to go after the disturbance of the water was your health” (John 5:4). But is it possible, brethren, not to be surprised when we find many sick people at the Christian font, at the font of grace, of which the font of Siloam was only a weak image? Here, not just one Angel, but the entire host of the purest spirits, the Son of God Himself and the Holy Spirit, descend to earth to provide healing to the suffering; here not one font exudes healing, but, one might say, as many fonts as there are diseases and as many sick; here the source of life opens more than once a year, but, having once flowed from the rib of the perforated Redeemer, flows through all times and centuries; here it is not only the one who comes to the source of healing first who receives health, but everyone from the first to the last, no matter who and whenever they come. Meanwhile, if the number of those healed is judged by the abundance of those who receive healing, then the Christian font heals the sick less than the font of Siloam. Why is this? Why do the rivers of grace poured out on us not exude spiritual health to us, while even one drop of it is enough for a source of water to open within us, flowing into an eternal belly? Can we, like the paralytic, say: “No man is an imam, but when the waters are troubled, he will throw me into the font?” (John 5:7). But at the font of grace there are many spiritual doctors and helpers; Moreover, God Himself, having arranged it, plunges the sick into it. Moreover, do we dare, like the same paralytic, to say that we came to her, but did not receive healing? But to say so would mean deceiving ourselves, would mean representing God Himself as a lie, Who said that “if we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). On the contrary, without any doubt it must be said that many of you have already been told by the Heavenly Physician, and, perhaps, said more than once; get up, take up your bed and walk, and they continue to lie carelessly in their sins! So, what is the reason that the almighty power of grace cannot heal our spiritual illnesses? The fault for this, brethren, is ourselves, the fault for this is our reluctance. “But is it possible that any of us really did not want our own salvation and condemned ourselves to the prey of hell? By the grace of God, we have not yet reached such bitterness.” Indeed, brothers, we have not yet reached this disastrous state, we want to be saved, and if each of us, like the paralytic, were asked by the Heavenly Doctor the question: “Do you want to be healthy?”, then, without a doubt, everyone would answer: “Yes, Lord! Want". But would everyone answer the truth? How many would there be who, not thinking of deceiving the Omniscient, would in this case be deceived by themselves! Ah, nowhere do we deceive ourselves so much as in the matter of our own salvation, although nowhere is deception so destructive as in this matter! He who sincerely desires his salvation does everything that serves to salvation. He who sincerely desires his salvation avoids everything that hinders the work of salvation. These two signs are as true as they are simple: let us use them for our admonition. 1. He who sincerely desires his salvation does everything that serves to salvation. The example of the paralytic provides the most convincing evidence of this truth. Prostrate for more than half his life on the bed of an illness that has stolen from him everything except the desire for health, abandoned by all people and all members of his body, he gathers the last remnants of his strength in order to sacrifice them to the desire for life, rises from his thirty-eight-year-old bed and draws himself to the healing font. He is already reaching the last limit of his short and at the same time long journey; he already notices the signs of the approaching disturbance of the water, he is already ready to plunge himself into the font - and suddenly he sees that the healing is anticipated by another! But he who is paralyzed in body does not faint in spirit: every year he is subjected to the same temptation, and every year he comes to the font. Isn’t it obvious, brethren, that he sincerely desired his recovery, for he did everything he could for this? Is this what we do? Are we doing everything we can to save ourselves? We cannot, with our own strength, do deeds that are truly pleasing to God, much less can we ourselves tear out the root of the sin that lives in us, but we can sigh for the freedom of the children of God, beg the Heavenly Father that our soul may be delivered from the prison of sin; We can, through fidelity to the remnants of natural light, make ourselves capable of receiving the grace of God. Moreover, after accepting it, we can and should work together with it to improve ourselves in virtue, “to warm up the gift of God that lives in you” (2 Tim. 1:6), with warm prayer, reading the word of God, dealing with people who have succeeded in spiritual life; we can and must, “forgetting... those things which are behind, reach out to those before” (Phil. 3:13), “seek for greater” and better gifts (1 Cor. 12:31), “be ready for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17), always become more perfect “in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58), seek ways to accomplish all that “that... whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report”, whatever constitutes virtue and praise (Phil. 4:8). Are we bringing this precious opportunity to fruition? Do we harbor a sincere desire to become better than we all are by nature? Do we try to be blameless before the court of conscience and do we maintain its purity? Do we courageously go into battle against vices and do we not yield to them victory over ourselves without any battle with them? Do we beg God for help and do we faithfully use the means given to us for our salvation? Do we zealously read the word of God and try to correct the shortcomings that we notice in ourselves when we look into this mirror of truth? Do we often enter our inner cell to confess our sins before the Heavenly Father and do we always close the doors behind us? Are we filled with joy when they tell us: “Let us go to the house of the Lord” (Ps. 121:1), and do we enter it with a contrite heart and a humble spirit? Do we imitate God’s holy men and find pleasure in dealing with them? Do we rejoice when we find an opportunity to help suffering humanity, and do we sad when we cannot do anything to console a needy brother, except for the desire for help from above? To whom, brethren, all this happens, his life cannot in any way resemble the life of those who love peace; he looks at everything earthly in relation to the heavenly, in everything visible he seeks the invisible, the eternal; he is ready to give up everything and honor everything with skill in order to gain or not lose Christ; For him, the thought of eternity is the first and last thought, improvement of oneself in virtue is the first and last desire; for this purpose, the most pleasant moments in life are when he can freely indulge in reflection or conversation about the bliss of his heavenly brothers; for this are the most sorrowful moments in life when he does not feel an inner attraction to heaven; he is not embarrassed by any vicissitudes of life, except those in which the salvation of either himself or his brothers is endangered; he judges the happiness and misfortune of his neighbors, their dignity and unworthiness, not by their success in worldly affairs, but by their success in matters of love and self-sacrifice; Moreover, the very pleasures echo with longing for the heavenly fatherland; those same dreams represent holy images of the hopes of the heart; In short, life is a visible preparation for a better life, for a future stay with God. Is this, brothers, our life? If this is the case, then we sincerely desire to be saved, we can boldly knock on the doors of Divine mercy and we can be absolutely sure that we will not be told: “I don’t know you” (Matthew 25:12). But if this is not the case, then judge for yourself, is it possible to sincerely desire your own salvation and not do what serves to save you? Meanwhile, brethren, how many of us there are those to whom their own conscience must in this case say: not like that, not like that! 2. He who sincerely desires his salvation avoids everything that hinders the work of salvation. “Look,” the Apostle Paul once said to the Corinthians, “look at the disgrace (1 Cor. 1:26-27). What do those who struggle in it not deny themselves, what do not abstain from, in order to make themselves more capable of achieving the crown of victory? Meanwhile, what kind of crown is this, to achieve which they give up everything? The crown is perishable, which often fades before it adorns the head of the winner. If, the apostle continued, they abstain from everything in order to receive a perishable crown, then is it possible for us, who strive to receive an imperishable crown, not to abstain? Is this apostolic teaching being fulfilled in us, brethren? Do we remove ourselves from everything that might hinder our salvation? We know that everything in the world is “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,” that “whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him” (1 John 2:16, 15), that love for the world “is enmity against God” (James 4:4); Shall we follow the advice of the Apostle: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world” (1 John 2:15), not to do or say anything in a worldly way? We know that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, that the law of the flesh is in everything opposite to the law of the spirit, that pleasing the flesh leads to the captivity of sin, whether we crucify our flesh “with its passions and lusts” (Gal. 5:24), whether we “mortify its earthly resources” (Col. 3:5), whether we find pleasure “in weaknesses, in insults, in needs, in persecution, in oppression” (2 Cor. 12:10), which, causing the flesh to become bitter, lift up our spirit? We know that by communicating with a depraved person, you can become depraved yourself, that depraved conversations spoil the best morals: do we turn away from “every brother” who acts disorderly, do we withdraw from “the assemblies of wicked and depraved people,” do we flee the ways of the wicked “and the seats of the destroyers?” (Ps. 1, 1). We know that dispersion, serving as an obstacle to success in worldly affairs, is all the more harmful to success in the work of piety, because whoever’s eyes wander to the ends of the world cannot have a whole mind or heart; Do we shy away from the noise of the world, do we avoid those cases in which we may be in danger of losing sight of our duty, our conscience and our salvation, do we flee, like David, into the desert of the heart, so that there we can look forward to salvation from the Lord? (Ps. 54:8–9). We know that passions are the most dangerous enemies of virtue, that a person possessed by them is like a wave of the sea, raised and broken by the wind; Do we block their entry into our heart, do we expel them from it in the event of a violent invasion? Whoever does all this, brethren, the sun “will not go down on anger” (Eph. 4:26), is ready to say with the most moderate joy: “What are you doing?” (Eccl. 2, 2); he not only does not complain about the laws of abstinence and deprivation prescribed by the Church, but even more so extends their influence to all the needs of his body and by his own example tries to empower their importance and protect them from criticism of severity; he, with all his condescension towards the flesh, never ceases to look at it as lazy dust with which the active spirit is burdened, and, honoring in it the future joint heir of eternal glory, he vigilantly pursues the real traitor in battle; he does not first enter into a union of affection and friendship with someone until he is completely convinced that he can share with him not only earthly, but even more heavenly hopes, and immediately dissolves it, as soon as he notices that the one who is in union with him begins to love human glory more than God’s; for this reason the whole world with all its charms represents a sad country of exile; For this reason, all earthly blessings are suspicious, for he knows that the most innocent of them have destroyed many forever; In short, all life is a gradually increasing distance from the vanity of the world, a gradually increasing triumph over sensuality. Is this, brothers, our life? If this is so, then we sincerely desire our salvation and, without a doubt, we will soon hear the longed-for voice: “Get up, take up your bed and walk!” (John 5:8). If this is not the case, then no matter how much we talk about our desire to be saved, we do not have this desire; for, judge for yourself, is it possible to desire salvation and not move away from what hinders the work of salvation? Meanwhile, brothers, how many of us must our own conscience say in this case: it’s not like that, it’s not like that! What is it? Do we at least do for heaven what we do for earth? Do we do to acquire salvation what we do to maintain health, to heal ourselves from illnesses, to acquire honors and riches, to maintain the goodwill of those above us, to bring ourselves momentary benefits, short-term pleasures? Shameful comparison! But, meanwhile, the consequence of this is perhaps more shameful for many of us; perhaps our own conscience will not say to some of us in this case: we don’t do it, we don’t do this either! Are we doing anything to save ourselves? Without a doubt, brothers, each of us does something for this, but how many are there for whom this something, upon strict and impartial examination, should turn into nothing! What are we doing?.. Whatever we do, if we don’t do it for God, then we do it for His enemy, for our destruction, for hell! Meanwhile, what do we desire and what are we looking for? Heaven, eternity, God!.. Ah, brothers, can we, in our spiritual inactivity, without feeling shame, even name the majestic objects of our desires? We love to mock those who, in order to achieve something important in worldly affairs, use small and ineffective means, and call them dreamers, reckless people; What should we be called, who hope to receive from the Heavenly Judge the whole sky as a reward for such work, which earthly judges would not consider worthy of rewarding a small space of the earth?.. The ancient defenders of Christianity reproached the pagan sages that, while demanding a lot from a person, they promise him too little; Can't today's pagans reproach many Christians that, while promising themselves everything, they demand nothing from themselves? Is it surprising after this if in our times some have doubted the very existence of heavenly rewards? Oh! The shameful coldness towards heaven of the Christians themselves, for whom heaven exists, can force anyone to ask: does heaven exist?.. Is it surprising that some doubted the effect of grace itself on the human heart?.. By accepting this Divine power in vain, hiding it without any fruit and, as it were, destroying it in ourselves by complete neglect of it, we necessarily pave the way to doubt its reality and very existence. Thus, our weakness and inactivity in the matter of salvation is the reason that in the eyes of pernicious people the Divinity Himself seems inactive! Thus, the treasure of grace, sent down to us for the redemption of eternal wealth, due to our abuse, not only does not enrich us, but serves as a reason for the reproach of poverty against the One who sent it down! What do you think, brethren, could be the consequence of this abuse of the gifts of grace?.. The Just One will not punish us, like the ancient Israelites, by turning His face away from us; He will not be covered with a cloud, so that our prayer does not reach Him; He will not take away our prophets and leaders, He will not send the plague of His word upon us, He will leave us the very Body and Blood of His Son; but He will take His grace from us! Then our very prophets and leaders will preach to us vain things (Lamentations 2:14); then we will pray, and our prayer, without cleansing our sins, will itself turn into sin (Ps. 108:7); we will read or hear the word of God, and instead of the “stench of life” we will begin to smell in it the “stench of death” (2 Cor. 2:16); We will eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of Christ, and this food of salvation will serve for us only in judgment and condemnation; Then it’s terrible to even think about! - the very rays of Heavenly mercy will only help us, as the fruits of wrath, to ripen more quickly for eternal destruction! I know, brethren, that now it is not important for many of us to hear such threats from this sacred place; meanwhile, if we want, they can save us. It will be important, very important to remember them before the Throne, surrounded by the darkness of Angels, but then they will not save any of us. So, until the font of grace ceases to be indignant at the merits of our Intercessor, let us gather the last remnants of our spiritual strength in order to approach it and cast into it the burden of sins that oppresses us. Amen. Word for the Week of All Saints Today is a holiday in the name of All Saints, and we have gathered to celebrate it among the dwellings of all - the dead! Is there a holiday? I think it’s quite festive; for the dead are closer to us than the saints already because, having been released from the bonds of the flesh, they are with them in the same world, invisible; those who are still dead are closer to us than the saints in that, like the saints, they no longer sin, or at least they do not sin like us sinners. Looking at the matter from this side, I don’t even know, brethren, what should be called a cemetery more - either the place where the dead rest, or where we, the living, are. For here, among such a multitude of those who have fallen asleep in the flesh, there is, without a doubt, a considerable number of those living in spirit; and among us who live according to the flesh, God alone knows whether there are people who are not dead in spirit. So, the place of our celebration is very festive; and they did very well, dedicating the local church, especially intended for prayers for the dead, to the memory of All Saints; for by this very souls of the departed resting here are given under the powerful protection of All Saints, so that each soul can have among them a special, characteristic intercessor. It was prudent for you, brethren, to gather here in such large numbers to celebrate the honor of All Saints, in the place of all the departed, for both the saints and the dead instill in us, the living, the same important truth: “mortals, live for God and virtue; without this, everything you do, whatever you acquire, whatever you excel in, is all vanity and insignificance!” This is what All Saints tell us, firstly. What do they say?.. By his very way of life and his title. Indeed, brothers, there were many glorious and powerful people in the world who shook entire kingdoms and nations; There were many rich people who did not know the number of their treasures; there were many wise and learned men who knew everything - from cedar to hyssop, from the sun to a grain of sand: and yet we do not celebrate in the name of any of these people. And in honor of whom are we celebrating? In honor of those whom the world for the most part either did not know, or, knowing, revered as bullies, or even persecuted and brought to death, of whom, according to the apostle’s description, some were “stoned”, or “trashed”, others... “killed by the sword”, almost all were “deprived, sorrowful, embittered... wandering in the deserts and in the mountains and in dens and in the abysses of the earth” (Heb. 11:37–38). We celebrate the memory of such people, and not the noble ones, not the great ones, according to the world. What does this mean? The fact that power, and wealth, and glory, and earthly wisdom do not constitute the eternal dignity of a person, that all this is significant only to the grave, and there something else is needed, something completely different. What exactly? The very thing for which the saints are blessed. This, as you heard when reading the current Apostle, is humility, patience, purity of spirit and body, love for God and neighbors, virtue, godlikeness. Whoever manages to enrich and distinguish himself with these precious qualities, even if he was nothing to the world, even if he had nothing, even if he spent his whole life in contempt, slavery and poverty, will be great with God, will receive something with which no earthly glory, no temporary bliss can be compared. This is what all the saints teach us! All the dead instill this same thing in us. How do they inspire? With your very real state. Really, think about it! Among those buried here there are a considerable number of those who were distinguished by honors, occupied important places, and had influence on many; go now and ask any of them - what did their importance help them at death, did it protect them from illnesses of the body, from horrors and anguish of the spirit?.. If it were not for some cross or stone over their grave, then it could not be distinguished from the grave of the very last beggar. Thus, death humbles our pride and greatness, for honors and distinctions without faith and virtue are vanity! Among those who rested here, there were also a considerable number of people who possessed great acquisitions and were the envy of many; go and ask any of them - what did he take with him from his treasures? Alas! We all came naked from the womb of our mothers, and almost naked we go into the womb of the earth. Death takes away everything, for acquisitions and wealth - without the fear of God and works of mercy - are vanity. And what if, by some miracle, it was possible for everyone who rested here to rise from their graves and return to their previous occupations? How many would return to them? Do you think that an ambitious person would start chasing honors again? That the lover of money would again begin to bury his heart together with gold in chests? That a carnivore would still go to wallow in the swamp of sensual pleasures? No, taught by experience, they all, I think, would not have even looked at what had previously occupied them so much; everyone would hasten to a secluded place, there to cry about their sins and prepare themselves for eternity. What cannot be done, brothers, by the dead, is very possible and convenient for us. Using all the means of grace, we can, we can easily cleanse ourselves of all sinful filth, and thus prepare ourselves for the transition to another world so that we enter it not as prisoners who are transferred from one place to another involuntarily, but as children who joyfully return from a distant country to their father’s home. Let us, brothers, take advantage of this precious opportunity to arrange the work of our eternal salvation, let us take advantage and return to our homes with a sincere and firm determination to live the rest of our lives not for the lusts of the flesh, not for the pleasure of the world, but for God and virtue. This will be a truly great holiday not only for us, but for all the saints and for all the dead, for both the saints and the dead desire nothing more for us, the living, than our eternal salvation. Amen. Last year, when we held a divine service here on the same day and offered prayers and supplications for our deceased brothers and sisters who rested here, none of them came to see us. As we came to the place of their resting place, we left it: without greeting, without answer, alone, mourning, in silence. So now we have already made a great sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead, our prayer is already at the end, and none of our brothers who have fallen asleep here has come to our voice and prayer; it’s as if no one is home; It was as if they had all shied away from their holiday somewhere. What would that mean? Is it that the dead do not hear our prayers and sighs? Or is there no longer the same love for us in their hearts? Or are they busy with something else, more important, so they have no time for us?.. No, among the silence of the grave, not drowned out by the noise of everyday worries, the hearing of the dead should be much more subtle than that of us, the living, especially for prayer; there is more love in their hearts than ours, for they now live with one mind and heart; They cannot have any occupation more important than prayer; prayer for them is now the same as air and food for us. What prevents our departed brothers from coming to us and celebrating their and our holiday among us? Many of us would probably wish for this, especially those who have not yet dried their tears after the loss of those close to them and dear to their hearts; I think that there are a considerable number of those who have died who, in order to bring comfort to those left behind, would very much like to come to our world again. And yet, no one, no one comes! We don't go to them because we can't; without a doubt, and they do not come for the same reason - they cannot. In fact, how can a disembodied spirit, like all the dead, come close to our feelings? The coarseness of our earthly senses is such that we cannot see many of the creatures that constantly live among us in water and air, and we look with amazement when a magnifying glass reveals to us this new and varied world around us. But there is no magnifying glass to see spirits and souls! This is not a place for vision, but for faith. “But if the Lord had pleased,” you say, “then His wisdom would have found and given the dead a means and a way to become visible to us and come into communication with us.” Without a doubt, so, but by the very fact that this method is not given, it is obvious that this is displeasing to God, and since it is displeasing to God, we must believe that it would be harmful to us. In fact, if you think a little, you will see that there would be little benefit from communication between the living and the dead, and great harm could come out. What's the use? Consolation in separation, calming those who mourn, a few less tears at the grave, a few quieter sighs? Tell me for yourself, is it worth lifting the curtain of eternity from this and breaking the silence of the tombs? And who else knows? Would this meeting with the deceased console us? Would we not shed even more bitter tears upon learning of his condition? Wouldn't this poison our entire life? But suppose that meetings with the dead would always bring some consolation: do you still think that they would be harmless? In this case, I fear for many things, I fear for the living and for the dead. It is most likely, firstly, that our communication with the world of spirits would not stop within the proper limits; many would prostrate themselves to such an extent that a vast door would be opened to fortune-telling, superstition, magic, and then to the most terrible moral vices. It was precisely this kind of evil that some of the ancient peoples were subjected to, among whom were found ungodly means of communication with the world of spirits, because of which Moses, under fear of death, forbade the Israelites to seek this communication. Secondly, what would the intercourse between the living and the dead entail? Do you think that its subject would be holy faith, Christian love, perfecting oneself in patience, in humility, in meekness? Alas, even without communication with the world of spirits, one can be sure in advance that all this communication would be directed, for the most part, around objects that are not useful to the soul: and for some it would be exhausted in vain curiosity about the secrets of the spiritual world, the knowledge of which does not edify the soul at all; for others it would pour out in complaints about their circumstances, about their shortcomings, griefs, earthly failures; others would demand advice from the dead on how to conduct their affairs, to carry out this or that undertaking. But how to correct your heart, how to free yourself from passions, how to prepare for eternal life in heaven - few would probably ask about this, and why would they ask? Also, perhaps, more out of curiosity, in order to forget tomorrow what they asked about today. Thus, we would gain little moral benefit from communicating with the world of spirits; and meanwhile, the possibility of communication with another world would constantly disturb the order of our world, disrupt the correct flow of our affairs and activities, our thoughts and desires. If you were planning, for example, some kind of enterprise, you would wait until you could get an opinion about it from another world. And who knows what the opinion is? The dead are not omniscient; often bad advice could be given, and we would get carried away by it. Finally, since life here is filled with various kinds of displeasure, then, seeing the doors of eternity often opening before them, many, out of impatience, would rush headlong into another life; meanwhile, now not only faith and conscience, the very darkness of the grave, with its impenetrability, stops the most arrogant and dissatisfied with their fate. And it cannot be said about the dead that the opportunity to communicate with our world is not fraught with danger for them. It’s hard to imagine what they would gain from this? They already know what happens and how it happens in this world. To see the insignificance and vanity of earthly affairs and thoughts - this is clearer to them than to us. Why would they come to us? Finish your unfinished business? It's none of their business; otherwise, what would death mean? Meanwhile, not receiving benefit for themselves from descending into our world, the deceased could receive harm from it. Each return to earth, more or less, would always land them again. With a return to former persons and things, many would revive unclean, earthly attachments; meanwhile, now the fire of carnal passions, no matter how strong they are, having no nourishment from the earth among the dead, turned towards itself, dims and fades away. Thus, the good of both ours and our departed brothers demanded that the veil stretched between our world and theirs should never be lifted, so that the dead and the living would be completely separated for a time. And is this time long?.. Ten, twenty, many thirty years. Don’t some people leave their relatives and friends for so long during their lifetime? In this respect, all of us alive are like people standing by a great and wide river, waiting to cross: the boat cannot accommodate everyone at once and, constantly returning, takes several at a time. But do those who crossed the river return for those who remained? Never: they usually wait for them on the opposite bank. There, of course, our relatives and those we know on the other side of existence are now waiting for us. We prayed for their calm after the voyage, and they probably brought prayers for us, so that our voyage to them would be peaceful and comfortable. Perhaps they even prayed that the path of our life would not be long. For only to us does this world seem so pleasant, and our real life so dear, that it is a pity to part with them; but for the deceased, perhaps it is quite the opposite. Having learned through experience a higher and better way of life, they can look at us as we look at prisoners in prison. Who wouldn't wish the prisoners a speedy release? With all this and the like in mind, let us stop being bored by the impossibility of a sensual meeting with our departed brothers. There must also be a spiritual meeting with the spirits, and all paths are open to us to such a meeting. This is prayer for the departed and deeds of love and piety performed for their benefit. Such a meeting is a hundred times better than a sensual one: so, use it, pray and do good for the deceased! And when you pray for your deceased brother, prepare for your own dormition. For is our life long? No matter how you continue it in your thoughts, in a few years you will need to leave this world and everything in it, leave it forever, and go to another world, go not for a day, not for a year, but stay there until the end of the world. How can you not think about this? How not to prepare for this? How can you not take all measures in advance so that this important and decisive transition from one world to another is as painless and prosperous as possible for you? But is it, you ask, in my power to make death itself quiet and painless? In yours, completely in yours. Will the Holy Church deceive you with empty hope? But every day she forces you to ask the Lord for a peaceful, shameless and painless death. This means that such a death is possible for anyone who truly asks; there would be no asking for the impossible. But we don’t think at all about this truly precious right of petition, we don’t even think about death itself; to be afraid of death - we are afraid as much as possible; weep and weep at the grave—we weep more than the pagans and unbelievers; but preparing for death is none of our business. We live as if we would never die; Is that why we die? How could we never be resurrected? Fear, groans, screams, murmurs, despair - this is our death! There are no memories of faith, of immortality, of abodes in the house of the Heavenly Father, of union with the saints and with the Lord. Would it be so? Should Christians die? Is this why our Lord suffered and rose again for us? Is this why we have been given so many revelations, so many promises, so many sacraments? Let us stand against this evil, beloved, and come to our senses from our insensibility. It is not in vain that we have now gathered to a place of eternal rest, which will probably take into its depths, if not all, then most of you: let everyone take with them from here the memory of death; this will be one of the best fruits of this holiday. And so that this memory does not weaken, try to revive it by frequently visiting this place for prayer and pious meditation at the tombs of our brothers. Even though everyone here is dead and silent, I am sure that you will always return from here more alive in spirit. Do not give up, and when walking through the market places and haystacks, do not turn your eyes here more often. For it is not in vain that this mountain is visible from all ends of the city: it is a constant reminder to those looking on of their end. Remember that your home is here, and there is one short-term premises there. Amen. Having completed the festivities in honor of our Risen Lord and the all-good Comforter sent down by Him, now, at the conclusion of the festivities, we commemorate All Saints. The conclusion to the celebrations of the Lord is most fitting. For the purpose for which our Savior left the earth and ascended to heaven, for which the Holy Spirit left heaven and descended to earth—this lofty purpose consists in nothing other than the sanctification of the sinful human race, in the elevation of us all to heaven. But the faces of God’s saints constitute a host of indisputable witnesses that this blessed goal has been achieved, that the Savior who ascended from us has definitely prepared a place for all his followers, that the Comforter who has descended to us really makes the most carnal people capable of dwelling in the abodes of the Heavenly Father. For what were all the saints of God, now blessed by us, if not people subservient to us?.. Why is their glory the glory of the Son of the Redeemer and the Spirit of the Sanctifier; Without the merits of the Son, heaven would not have been opened to any of them, and without the grace of the Spirit, not one of them would have been able to enter into the open heaven. Therefore, as I said, the present festival in honor of All Saints constitutes the most natural and fitting conclusion of the Lord’s celebrations, for it itself is the direct fruit of the events commemorated in them. But, brethren, in the festivities of the Holy Church, even without our instructions, everyone can easily discern a wondrous sequence and God-wise order. It is more necessary to ask: is there such a sequence, such a holy order in our celebrations? We have now gone through the entire circle of celebrations, have reached the end of the festivities in time: have we actually reached the end and the intentions of them? Have we come closer to what constitutes the main end of all the celebrations and institutions of the Church, all the Sacraments and all its service, all of our grace-filled and natural life - our sanctification in Christ?.. Having already now celebrated the memory of All Saints, can we say about ourselves that we ourselves have become freer from everything sinful, purer from everything earthly and corruptible, more akin in spirit to everything spiritual and heavenly? This is the natural and necessary fruit that the Church intended to see in us now, after so many holy celebrations! She hoped that the sufferings of the Lord would shake the heart most stubborn in sin, that with His resurrection everything that had not yet been completely suppressed by sin would be resurrected in our spirit, that with His ascension to heaven the thoughts and desires of the most indifferent would rise to heaven, that with the descent to earth of the Comforter, the weakest would be converted and dare to enter the path of faith and love. Have these aspirations been fulfilled to any extent? Is there a great harvest in us after so long sowing? What does our Lord see in us now, descending from the heights of His holy glory? Does he see even a small correspondence with the great deeds that He undertook for us while on earth? What did the Holy Spirit, who descended to us from the Father, find in us? Can He testify before the Father that His earthly children still remember their origin and do not want to remain forever in a foreign land? How much joy is found in us now, despite our triumph in their honor, and our holy brethren in heaven? When we celebrate in honor of them, they, without a doubt, do not remain idle. We recall their deeds and exploits, and they consider our morals, lifestyle and actions; Seeing their labors and victories over the enemies of salvation, we cannot help but be comforted in spirit; Seeing our failures and betrayals of the truth, they cannot help but lament for us. What if they see nothing in many of us except failures and betrayals? After this, what will our celebration in honor of All Saints mean for the most holy ones, if not a day of mourning for all of us sinners? These are our celebrations! The circle of church festivities is bright and splendid; The circle of our celebrations can be both dark and ugly. In the church circle, even lamentations end in spiritual triumph; In our circle, the very celebrations often lead to spiritual lamentation. In fact, can our ascended Lord rejoice over us when He sees that His suffering on the cross remains for many of us without any fruit, that many of His followers live as if He had not come to save them on earth?.. Can the Comforter Spirit be comforted by us when He sees how many do not remember His presence among us, constantly breathe the spirit of the world, go contrary to His gracious suggestions?.. Can it accept with joy? our greatness and our heavenly brethren, when they find that their earthly brethren are madly squandering the precious inheritance of grace common to all people, do not at all correspond to their heavenly nobility, and commit all kinds of evil, contrary to the will of the Heavenly Father? After this, one way to make this celebration favorable for our Savior, for the Comforter Spirit, and for All the Saints is to internalize their lamentation about our sins. Repentance suddenly changes everything. When we begin to mourn for God, then the inhabitants of heaven will rejoice, just as they mourn when we indulge in worldly and sinful joys. But is it fitting for lamentation over sins to be the conclusion of the celebrations of the Church? For the righteous, of course, this would be indecent; and for sinners everything is more decent. Patients are also treated on holidays; and what disease is more dangerous than sin? However, how did the circle of sacred days now concluded begin? Is it not a memory of the fall of Adam, but in the person of Adam and all of us, his descendants? Therefore, what better way to conclude it than by rebellion, through repentance, from one’s own falls? Thus, the end will return to the beginning, and will return us to that blissful and beginningless beginning in which the souls of all our holy brothers now bliss. Amen. Homily for the 13th week after Pentecost Did you hear the thunder? Have you seen lightning? This lightning flashed here; this thunder thundered in this church. For is it not here, is it not from this sacred place that the lightning word of the apostle was now proclaimed: “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus... let him be cursed!” (1 Cor. 16:22). What do all the thunder and lightning mean against the single curse of God? Lightning and thunder strike at one known time and one place on earth; and the curse of God, once pronounced in paradise, still causes the whole earth to be covered with thorns and thistles. Thunder and lightning can kill a body, take away temporary life; and the curse of God can plunge both soul and body into fiery Gehenna forever. So, we need to look around more diligently to see if we are standing under this terrible thunder? Are we somehow attracting this unquenchable lightning to our head? Isn't anyone already affected by it? For it may also be that someone else is already struck by it and does not feel his defeat, just as someone struck by sensual thunder and lightning does not know his position; and, if it can be brought back to life, then with the help of an alien charitable hand. “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus... let him be damned!” So, one lack of love for the Lord Jesus is enough for the wrath of heaven to fall upon us. And we usually think that the curse of heaven strikes only the very last criminals, that for this one must be Cain, Judas or Arius a blasphemer. On what basis do we think this way? The fact that God is merciful and other people are not so bad and evil. But where, in whom else was all the mercy of God revealed, if not in the Person of His Only Begotten Son, who died for us on the cross? If I do not love this very mercy, that is, the Divine face of my Redeemer, then what else remains for me if not judgment, wrath and execution? “We are not yet so bad as to be the subject of heaven’s wrath.” But where, in whom is all our truth and justification, if not in the same Person of our Divine Intercessor? If I do not love this truth in His Face; what remains for me if not my own untruth, and therefore the wrath of heaven? If the Face of our Savior in itself were not so loving, then perhaps it would still be somewhat excusable not to love Him, but now it is precisely such that, looking at it, one must say: Our Savior “is all love!” How can one not love this love? And what remains for someone who does not love her, if not anger and judgment? Therefore, even if the Apostle had not spoken a terrible word to us against those who do not love the Lord Jesus, then our own heart, which loves Him, should have spoken it. In this case, there can be only one excuse - ignorance; and whoever knows the Lord Jesus, knows what He did and suffered for us, and does not love Him, has no guilt about sin, is a clear enemy of all that is holy and therefore inevitably subject to rejection. “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus...let him be damned!” Who loves and who does not love the Lord Jesus? The question is extremely important, for with love is connected all blessing and, therefore, eternal life; and with dislike - obvious damnation and, therefore, eternal death. He does not love the Lord Jesus who does not try to know the Lord Jesus, what He has done and intends to do for us, and what He desires and requires of us. He does not love the Lord Jesus who does not try to fulfill His commandments, imitate His example, and become like Him in his thoughts, morals and actions. He does not love the Lord Jesus who does not like to think about Him as often as possible, imagine His life as vividly as possible, place himself in His invisible presence, and give Him an account of his behavior. He does not love the Lord Jesus who does not love His words left to us in the Gospel, does not love the Church He established, does not love the Sacraments He taught. Those who are cold to His glory do not love the Lord Jesus, do not try to spread knowledge about Him, do not defend His name, do not stand for the holiness of His Gospel. He who does not love the Lord Jesus does not want to lose temporal blessings for Him, or to endure reproach and persecution from the world. Those who do not love the Lord Jesus do not expect His glorious coming, are not led by the promises He has given, and do not sacrifice the vain hopes of the world to them. You see for yourself, brothers, that I take the most ordinary, and, so to speak, inevitable, traits of love, such properties and signs, without which earthly love would be unworthy of its name. But when we combine these few features into a single image and apply it to us, how many will be found who love the Lord Jesus? This means that we barely, not all, stand under the terrible word of the Apostle of Christ! We stand and don’t think about our danger! We think, on the contrary, that we are completely safe, and why? Because we bear the name (one name) of Christians, we belong (also by one name) to the Church of Christ, we perform (mechanically) some of its rituals, that is, precisely for this reason we hope and consider ourselves safe, because of which we should be afraid and tremble!.. May the attention of those who are still capable of being aroused from sleep and spiritual carelessness be awakened! It was not in vain that the word of the apostle struck my thought in the midst of this service, and commandingly forced me to open my mouth to repeat it in your hearing, for I did not want to talk with you now. Perhaps among us there are just such souls for whom such an awakening was needed. And for whom is it not needed? Who will boast of having such love for the Lord Jesus as he should have, such as he deserved from us? So, let us all receive the word of the Apostle with fear and, returning to our homes, consider: does it not fall with all its weight on us? Amen. Homily for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost “Master, laboring all night, for nothing” (Luke 5:5) What a pity, brethren, to hear this complaint from the lips of the poor all-night workers! But why is it repeated in the Gospel for so many centuries? Is it in order to arouse in us compassion for the apostles? But what is the need for fish for those who later captured the entire universe with their fish? What need do we have of regret for those who have long been crowned with heavenly glory and who, perhaps a hundred times over, grieve and complain about us, that we are so indifferent to the achievement of this glory, and destined for us? If the Gospel still tells about unsuccessful fishing, it is because in the person of the fishermen of the apostles, in this case, all of us are depicted - with our affairs and occupations. Therefore, I do not find a more edifying subject for discussion with you than how to apply this apostolic fishing to our lives. Indeed, my brethren, who are we all in this life if not various laborers for happiness, if not fishers on the sea of ​​worldly cares? Everyone has their own traps, their own fishing, their own successes and their own failures, their own types and their own goals. So, let me ask you on this occasion, what is this catch? What has each of you acquired so far? Has the goal been achieved? Is the desire satisfied? Are you satisfied? Oh, how we can be content, many will exclaim internally, when we, like the apostles, “toiled all night for nothing!” What did we not sacrifice to achieve the so-called happiness of life; what means did they not use, where and in what did they not look for it?.. And all in vain; time has passed, our strength is exhausted, our hair is white, our hands and mind are weakened; It’s already far past the midnight of life, soon, perhaps, dawn will come, but our wildernesses are empty; we barely cover our nakedness, we barely have our daily bread. “Master, you toiled all night, for nothing!” We sympathize with you, poor and unsuccessful workers, but we cannot praise you if you indulge in murmuring against Providence. Poverty is painful, but who knows where wealth and luxury would lead you to? Most likely, the same thing would happen to you, which for the most part happens to the lucky people of the world; you would forget God and conscience, you would indulge in unclean amusements and passions, you would denigrate your soul and life with inappropriate deeds. Is it surprising if the goodness of God, having foreseen all this for you, secretly placed obstacles on your path and did not allow you to achieve your goal? Did she save you in this way from your own spiritual destruction? Instead of grumbling about the disadvantages of your condition, it is better to take advantage of its advantages, which are very great and important. What are these benefits? That you are not entangled, like the fortunate ones of the world, from head to toe in the bonds of worldly addictions; and therefore a hundred times freer than them in choosing new objects of your love and activity; the fact that your heart and spiritual taste are not spoiled by the poisonous sweetness of sensual sinful pleasures, and therefore you are more likely to love spiritual blessings and more complacently endure the labors and exploits of Christian life. The world is not favorable to you, it is running away from you: what then? Give up your love for him, and turn your soul and heart entirely to God. The world sells its blessings and mercies dearly, but the Gospel offers all its treasures for free: take as much as you like and enrich your soul with them. When your conscience is clear, your heart is pacified by the grace of God, saturated with the anticipation of eternal bliss, then all the blessings of the world, which now seem so charming to you, will lose value for you, you will love your very poverty, for it makes you free from the world and brings you closer to God. Others of you, brethren, can, without a doubt, say the completely opposite to the above question, can point to the apparently abundant catch, to the titles and insignia they acquired, to the heaps of metal lying in their chests, to the houses they erected, to the helicopter cities they planted, to the many friends acquired, to the many enemies deposed, to the many enterprises accomplished. We greet you, brothers, with these successes! But let me also ask you: why did you try to acquire what you acquired? Why did they achieve honors and distinctions, collect treasures, work and work, fight and win? Is it really just to say: I did this or that? Without a doubt, you had a further goal, one - to bring peace and contentment to your soul, to satiate your heart? So, with all your means, have you achieved this final goal? Is there constant peace and constant joy within you? Has your heart stopped hungering and thirsting? Has the worm of discontent and boredom, which usually gnaws at the human heart, died? Ah, if the so-called lucky ones of the world want to be attentive to the state of their souls, and say what is happening inside them, what they feel and endure, then they will almost have to repeat the complaint of the apostles: “they toiled all night, for nothing!” We are called happy, and we force ourselves to believe it; but, alas, this happiness is only around us; we don't have it in ourselves. With all our height above our brothers, and with all the honors and differences, when you look inside yourself, you see yourself in some kind of dark abyss, with horror you turn your gaze away from the slavery of the world in which you find yourself, from those countless coercions and basenesses to which it was necessary to resort to achieve external greatness and even to this day it is necessary to resort to maintaining it. We have acquired wealth, and it is given to us as a means to satisfy our bodily needs; but it brought with it a lot of bitter spiritual worries. Our days are also gloomy, the nights are heavy, sleep is restless and often flees from us, sorrows, sorrows, illnesses - darkness! There is no shortage of sensual pleasures; but they have long ceased to delight us: the feelings are full, but the heart is empty, the soul aches, the conscience persecutes, and we are often forced to envy the peaceful lot of the last poor man. The future is every hour more frightening than pleasing. Will what we have collected fall apart? Will a contrary wind blow up and overturn the churches of happiness? Ah, the world is so crafty and changeable, circumstances are so shaky and doubtful, connections are so fragile that no one can guarantee the next day. And what will happen then to us and our families, accustomed to bliss and luxury? And when we think about the last hour of life, and it is apparently approaching, then trembling fills the heart; When you remember what to take with you into eternity, what to come to judgment with, you see with grief that nothing has yet been prepared for heaven, that everything acquired belongs to the earth and corruption, and must leave us, and if only it did! What if he comes after us and there testifies against us about the untruths that it cost to acquire, about the temptations that accompanied the use, about the sins for which it served as a reason and a weapon? Such thoughts do not give rest, secretly haunt day and night, torment the soul, eat away at the heart, and force us to say: “I toiled all night, for nothing!” They spent their whole life, apparently, in happiness; but we haven’t achieved true happiness, we haven’t achieved it! What should I say to you, brothers, in response to your complaints? What advice should I give? Should we encourage new labors and efforts in the field of earthly happiness? Should I promise you something in the future that you did not find in the past and do not find in the present? But that would mean deceiving both yourself and you. No, my brethren, no matter how sad it may be for some of you to hear the truth, but we must proclaim it in the ears of all. As long as you remain on the path of the world, in slavery to the flesh and feelings, you will never achieve true happiness. The world cannot give what it does not have. Witness - Solomon. What was he missing? What could he not do as a king and a sage? And I did everything, and experienced everything: what did I find? I found that in our world everything is vanity and ruin of the spirit, everything except the fear of God and virtue. The same will happen to you if you remain on the same path, with the same means to happiness: having experienced everything, you will not find it in anything, and at the very end of your life you will be forced to say: “toiling all night, for nothing!” But how bitter and at the same time fruitless this complaint will be then! What, you ask, should one do? Change the path, goal and means, devote yourself to God and eternity, begin to work for the soul and heaven, strive for feats of faith and virtue. This does not mean leaving your title, or stopping the flow of your everyday affairs. No, let them flow in their own order: “everyone in the rank in which he was called, let him abide in that” (1 Cor. 7:20). But until now you have worked for the earth and time, in everything you have sought only your own benefits and your own pleasure, in all cases and relationships you have been driven by pride; God and eternity, conscience and soul were secondary subjects, perhaps the last. May everything now fall into place! The Divine, the spiritual, the eternal - let it take over and dominate over the earthly and sensual; instead of self-love, let love for God and neighbor become the source of action; may earthly blessings be used for good deeds, misfortunes and sorrows - may they be endured in humility and devotion to the will of God, may preparation for death - take the main place among all concerns! When this beneficial change happens to you, then we, in the name of the Lord, promise peace to souls. This will not harm earthly happiness: on the contrary, it will be cleansed, sanctified and will receive its true value for you. The misfortune itself, if the Lord were pleased to send it to you, will lose its bitterness, for you will see in it a medicine for healing the sinful leprosy of your souls. This is our advice, brothers, advice to everyone! We cannot give anything else, because there is no other in the Gospel. Amen. And without being experts in the heart, we can say affirmatively that in the midst of this divine service, many of you were transported in thought to the Tauride Peninsula and thought: what is there? Is our only stronghold still standing - Sevastopol? Have not his courageous defenders lost heart? Are they in danger of some misfortune?.. If such thoughts did not come from curiosity alone, but from love for the Fatherland, and were accompanied by a heartfelt prayer for the blessing of our weapons from above, then we will not consider them untimely and inappropriate, even here and now. For the Holy Church itself, which at other times proclaims in the midst of divine services: “Let all human flesh be silent, and let all earthly thoughts be in itself!” - now she kneels every liturgy and prays with all her children for victory over their enemies. That is why we, when we now appeared before this throne of grace to serve in this church, one of our first thoughts was the thought of the fate of those who are now struggling on the peninsula against the enemies of our Fatherland, and we prayed with all our hearts to the Lord - may He be merciful to them, and may He send His Angel, helping them in everything and reaping their enemies before them. If our sins have aroused His righteous anger, then may the cup of punishment be poured on us, as much as we can bear, but may they not be an obstacle to the success of our weapons and may they not lead our enemies to triumph over us. For this reason, perhaps, the very state of my spirit, in the midst of this divine service, one very remarkable legend came to my mind, which contains, as it were, some kind of prophecy about the fate of the Crimea, which, in our present troubled circumstances, can serve both for our encouragement and edification. Do you want to listen to this story? During the reign of Mikhail Feodorovich, therefore, more than two hundred years before this, when the Crimean Khanate was still very strong and formidable, and the then Russia, after impostors and internal unrest, was in a weak and exhausted state, an embassy was sent from Moscow to the Crimea to conclude an agreement, among other things, on the concession of Russia - what would you think? - a small expanse of land on the right bank of the Dnieper, where our Alexandria district is now. The stay of our ambassadors in Crimea was extremely difficult and embarrassing: from various needs, and more from arrogance and insults on the part of the Tatars, many from the embassy fell ill and lost their lives; others, seeking consolation for themselves in the holy faith, began to visit ancient holy places, with which Crimea was then even richer than now. Among other sacred Christian antiquities, they visited an ancient church located in the Inkerman rock, near present-day Sevastopol, especially notable for the fact that in this place, at the beginning of the 2nd Christian century, Saint Clement, the Pope of Rome, who was exiled there for imprisonment, labored and received the crown of martyrdom. Here, in one of the small chapels of the church, they found the holy relics of the saint of God resting, which struck their attention with their extraordinary integrity and color of life. The Orthodox Greeks who lived at this church even then told them about the miracles from these relics over the Tatars, but they could not say the name of the holy saint, because from the news of their settlement they themselves did not know him. It was only known that holy relics had been resting there since time immemorial. The state of the church and the position of the holy relics seemed to our compatriots, accustomed to the splendor of Moscow shrines, extremely meager and pitiful, for the Tatars, although they were afraid of the holy saint for his miracles over them, did not favor the place of his resting place and did not allow any beautification in it; and, in addition, the Greeks who lived there themselves were in poverty and oppression, it was even clear that they would not be allowed to live there for long. As good Christians and zealous sons of the Church, our compatriots were jealous of the honor of the holy relics and decided to beg them from the Greeks in order to transport them secretly to Moscow. It was hard for the poor, but zealous Greeks to be separated from their holy saint; but having thought maturely about their situation, painful in the present and unknown in the future, they decided, for the glory of God and for the greater glorification of the holy relics, to transfer them to the pious Muscovites. For this purpose, the latter immediately prepared a shrine for enclosing the relics, a decent covering for them, and everything else; All that remained was to take them unnoticed by the Tatars, but on the very day when this deed was to be completed, the saint of God appeared at night in a dream to one of our ambassadors and said this: “My friends, you want to take my relics from here to Moscow; but my intention is completely different: I want to establish Russia here, in Crimea; therefore leave me here. My memory is September 1.” After such a vision, naturally any thought about transferring the holy relics from Crimea to Russia was abandoned. Instead, the worn-out shrine was replaced with a new one, covered with a beautifully decorated cover, and the church was equipped with everything necessary. As if in retribution for such zeal, the saint of God soon after revealed his gracious power to the Lord, miraculously giving healing from a serious illness to one of those of our compatriots who were especially zealous for his holy relics. This is the ancient legend about Crimea! Let us add that the historical authenticity of this legend is not subject to the slightest doubt, for it was found in the Moscow repository of ancient state charters even before the start of the current war, when no one had a thought about the real fate of Crimea; it was compiled, as can be seen from the scroll itself, two centuries before this, when it would have been too courageous to think about establishing Russia in Crimea, almost every year trembling in Moscow itself from the invasion of the Tatars. And it was necessary for this such a remarkable legend to remain in obscurity for more than two centuries and come out of hiding just before the time when everyone’s attention should involuntarily turn to the fate of the Crimea!.. Isn’t this a special action of God’s Providence for our edification and consolation? What do we see from this legend? We see that the fate of the Tauride Peninsula has been thought and destined for several centuries; thought not only on earth, but also in heaven, not by people, but by the inhabitants of heaven themselves. What was invented and reasoned? To establish, as the holy saint of God said in a vision, to establish Russia in Crimea. And it established itself there: the Crimean Khanate with all its horrors has long passed away, giving way to the meek and beneficent All-Russian power. Now our enemies, in a fit of anger and pride, have dreamed of tearing this country away from Russia: is this a feasible business? No, this would be contrary to the plans and determination of God’s Providence itself. For the saint of God would not, as he himself says, take care of establishing Russia in Crimea if he were not sure that this was in accordance with the will of God, that this is exactly what the Lord Himself wants. And when this happens, then, beloved, we will be at peace for the fate of our peninsula; no matter what our enemies do there, no matter how much success they enjoy even for a while, all this will not change the determinations of the Heavenly Ones. Because “even... The holy God takes counsel, who will destroy: and who will turn away His high hand?” (Isa. 14:27). There is one enemy on earth who can ruin everything and whom we must therefore fear most of all: these are our sins! For they, and especially unrepentance in them, can change God’s best determination about us, as the example of the Jewish people shows. This was a people chosen from all languages ​​and tribes, to whom all the revelations, miracles and promises of God belonged, but when, having neglected their great and holy destiny, they began to indulge in various passions and vices, not being admonished by the very punishments for that from above, then the Lord, in His righteous anger, rejected this people from His presence and deprived them of everything; He then scattered it over the face of all the earth and made it a proverb among all nations. Let us watch, beloved, for such a terrible fate! And for this purpose let us keep ourselves from all deeds of darkness and unrighteousness; and having fallen into voluntary and involuntary sins, let us not hesitate to wash them with tears of true repentance. Then no one and nothing will hinder the fulfillment of God’s all-good advice about us and our Fatherland; and the enemies, by their very attack on us, will seal forever what seemed not so firm and capable of rejection, if by the grace of the Lord and the prayers of the holy saint, about whom we have now talked with you, and about which, perhaps, the Lord will grant, we will talk again, over time! Amen. Homily for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost If any Gospel, then the current one can give rise to many disputes for superficial minds. How, asks a person who is not accustomed to thinking deeply, so that one can become a dwelling place for evil spirits while alive? Is this possible? Where will the person’s personality be after this? His dignity? The very nature of a rational being? And is it beyond reproach for creative providence to allow such a terrible invasion of evil spirits into our world? For a creature like man to sacrifice them to their cruelty? What can this serve in terms of world governance? What is the goal in relation to a person? In relation to the evil spirit itself? In this case, a person’s moral existence ceases; he loses the time needed for his improvement, suffers torment; Is it possible for all this to happen in a world under the control of the All-Wise and All-Good? Some people are revered and consider themselves to be possessed by evil spirits, but this opinion in themselves is a consequence of their mental insanity, in others it is a consequence not of thinking about a thing as it is in itself, but of generally accepted opinion. If such cases are presented in the Gospel, it is not in the form of actual truth, but, in the opinion of those times, as symbols of moral truths. Before we make an answer to these objections, let’s stop with a thought in reality. A wonderful contradiction with the human mind! He is not satisfied with the knowledge of everything visible, he tries to penetrate into the mystery of the supersensible being, although he cannot, but when Revelation lifts part of the veil and shows something from the invisible world, the same person stands against it, closes his eyes so as not to see, turns away, contradicts, persists, and blasphemes. And why all this? Because what is revealed to us from another world does not fit our standards, our ordinary concepts and laws of action. But in another, invisible world, should it necessarily be like ours? Couldn't there be things that aren't here? We must look at one thing, whether what is revealed does not contradict what is in our mind, otherwise conscience, is immutable, for the foundations of truth and righteousness must be the same for the whole world, for all rational beings. To demand more is unforgivable pride and recklessness. From these remarks let us turn, brothers, to the subject that interests us. 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