Слово в день усекновения главы святого Пророка, Предтечи и Крестителя Господня Иоанна. О помощи славянам 3 .

“And I sent and beheaded John in prison, and brought his head on a platter” (Matthew 14:10-11). A real holiday, always touching for us because of the sacred memories it awakens, becomes even more touching for us in view of modern events that make every Russian heart tremble. With reverent sadness, in fasting and prayer, we now remember the beheading of the honorable, glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John: and how many heads have already been cut, how many more heads are cut, on the Balkan Peninsula! The greatest of those born of wives suffered innocently: why are they suffering, why are these tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of Slavs, these babies, children, youths, virgins and in general people of every age, rank and condition being beaten? Why are entire families and entire settlements exterminated? Herod was responsible for the death of the glorious Prophet; but Herod also showed something human in himself: he was “sad” (Matthew 14:9) when he decided to commit such an atrocity, and ordered only to behead the head of his victim, without any preliminary torture or torture. And the Herods of our time – are they really people, aren’t they bloodthirsty beasts? They subject their victims to all sorts of torments, curse at them in their moments of suffering, and delight in their groans and cries. All of Europe shuddered when it learned the truth about the unheard-of atrocities committed in Bulgaria and other Slavic countries. How can we, Russians, not shudder when we know and feel that these innocent sufferers, these new martyrs are our brothers in faith? With warm prayer we now remember our Christ-loving warriors, all, all who, over the centuries, courageously guarded and defended our St. faith, our beloved fatherland, and laid down our lives for them. But what are the Slavic warriors fighting for now, if not for the same Orthodox faith, which for more than four centuries has been insulted, humiliated, subjected to embarrassment and persecution in the Muslim kingdom? For whom do they lay down their lives, if not for their native, native land, which for so many centuries has been in the shameful power of the wild hordes of Asia and is gradually being held by them in the heaviest chains and unimaginable slavery? For whom did these courageous Serbs, these Montenegrin knights, primarily raise their weapons, for whom, together with them, with such heroic inspiration, with their good will, did these tens, hundreds and thousands of noble sons of Russia rush into battle, if not for those unfortunate fellow tribesmen and co-religionists, unarmed, helpless and deprived of any opportunity to defend themselves, who are brutally beaten by the ferocious barbarians and deprived of all rights of human existence? And how much blood has already been shed there for the holy cause, how many human lives have died out, how many dear victims have fallen! My brothers in the Lord! You yourself feel what all these soul-shaking events are calling us to. Your Mother - the Orthodox Church - embraces all her children with equal love, without any division of them into tribes and peoples, and with equal love she prays for all of them. Let us also now unite with prayers for our domestic Orthodox soldiers, who laid down their lives for the faith and fatherland, let us unite prayers for all thousands of Orthodox Christians who were mercilessly beaten in our days by the evil Hagarians in Bulgaria and other Slavic countries; let us unite prayers for all the Slavic warriors who have already laid down their lives for the same holy principles, dear to every person, for which our Christ-loving warriors have always died; Let us unite our prayers for those of our valiant compatriots-volunteers who hastened to help their fellow Slavs, and with their blood once again testified to them what selfless love the sons of Russia burn for them. May our single, indivisible, collective prayer ascend to the Lord God now for all these deceased brothers of ours and may it bring them, by the grace of God, peace, joy, consolation and tranquility in the afterlife! But this is only for the dead... But what about the living? For them, our spiritual prayer alone is not enough; They need and desperately need our material help. I know, I know that you have already brought it without my call, but at the call of the formidable events themselves, which, especially at first, acted on us with such irresistible force that it seemed to make any other call almost unnecessary. I know and thank God that in our God-saved city, in our small Orthodox family, here, with the liveliest sympathy, everyone responded to the voice of the needy brothers with very considerable donations. I know and thank God that in all of the spiritual flock entrusted to me by God, which was relatively sparsely populated, with the full zeal of the worthy shepherds of the Church, who acted both in word and by their own example, not meager offerings were also collected for the same purpose. But now, precisely when the first impressions of the formidable events began to naturally weaken, when some, who had already made more than once, not twice, not three times, their feasible sacrifices, began to ask: isn’t that enough? - when, unfortunately, it turned out that others do not quite correctly understand the meaning of the sacrifices they make, now it is most appropriate for me to raise my weak pastoral voice. Remember what our Lord said when He was asked: how many times should one forgive one’s neighbor? Isn't it enough to go to seven just once? “No,” answered the Lord, forgive not only seven times, but seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21–22). The same should be said about helping your neighbors. We are commanded: “Be merciful, as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36), and our heavenly Father is merciful without end. Don't ask yourself how many times you have already applied and how much you have applied, but apply again and again while you have the opportunity. Give not in order to boast about your offerings and reproach others, not so that it will be publicized about you that you alone took part in donations and therefore are worthy of universal respect, while others are supposedly deaf and dumb, and completely indifferent to the suffering of fellow tribesmen of the same faith: this is not Christian, it takes away the value of your donations. But give in the way that true Christian love teaches, which, according to the Apostle, “does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not seek its own, does not think evil to anyone” (1 Cor. 13:4-5), but only cares about one thing, to really help those in need, completely forgetting about itself, and to offer a pure and acceptable sacrifice to God. Do not be embarrassed by the fact that you are not able to make large offerings: bring as much as you can. You know that a mite made out of zeal and love is more valuable than any other sacrifices made without zeal, but with a vain purpose, and that it is from mites that large sums are made up. Remember one thing: there is a cry, there is a groan, there is a gnashing of teeth; there are thousands without food, without clothing, without shelter, without shelter; There are needs there, glaring needs generated by the war, and increasing day by day. May God's blessing be on everyone who, in these fatal moments for our Slavic brothers, prays for them from a sincere heart and with brotherly love does not cease to extend a helping hand to them. Amen. (Lithuanian Diocesan Gazette.) It was said after the liturgy was celebrated in the Vilna Holy Spirit Monastery, August 29, 1876. You might be interested in: