Слово в день Пресвятыя Троицы, сказанное в кафедральном соборе 11-го мая 1858 года.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit with all” (2 Cor. 13:13). Exactly a year has passed since with these very apostolic words, on this most solemn day, from this sacred place, I began, brethren, my pastoral conversations with you. And then, naturally desiring every success for my beginning ministry among you, which has the goal of your eternal salvation, I tried to reveal to you the truth that in order to achieve salvation, first and most of all we need the grace of the Trinitarian God. Now, repeating the same most important truth, I would like to complement it with another truth, no less important, and thus finish what I began then - I would like to show that if, on the one hand, God’s assistance to us is necessary in the matter of our salvation, then, on the other hand, our own participation is just as necessary. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44), the Savior said and thus expressed that without God’s help we are not able to even turn to Him, to believe in Him. The Lord uses two means to attract us to Himself: an external means - the preaching of the Gospel, and an internal means - the invisible actions of grace directly on our souls. But both of these means, no matter how powerful, are unable to captivate us against our will: in order to heed the voice of the Gospel and grace, so as not to resist them, to submit to them, to follow them - this depends on us. The Gospel was preached to all nations at the beginning: did everyone believe in Christ? The grace of God extends to all people, calling to faith and salvation: but how few are there who really respond to this gracious calling and to whom the words of the Lord would not apply: “I called them, and did not listen to Me: the words, and disobeyed, and did evil before Me, and chose what they did not want” (Is. 66:4)! That is why, although faith is called in Scripture “the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8), but it is also imputed to people as their merit, and the Savior, sending the apostles to preach the Gospel worldwide, said: “Whoever has faith will be saved, and whoever does not have faith will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5); “Unless you have eaten the flesh of the Son of man, nor have you drunk His blood, you have not life in you” (John 6:53): - here are more sayings of the Savior, which show how we need to use the Holy Spirit. the sacraments of the Church, imparting to us the various gifts of the Holy Spirit. But from these same words it is obvious that we may not use St. sacraments, we may not be born of water and the Spirit, and not eat the flesh and blood of the Son of God. In addition, to use St. sacraments, certain conditions are required from us: for example, at baptism, faith, renunciation of the devil and all his works and a vow to be united with Christ, to live according to His will are required; from those approaching the sacrament of the Eucharist, preliminary cleansing of conscience is required through sincere repentance of sins before the spiritual father, living faith in the Lord and the greatest reverence for the sacrament. But we can fulfill all such conditions and not fulfill them, each according to his own will, or fulfill them only partially and not properly, and therefore we can use the sacraments worthily and unworthily, sometimes only to our own detriment. That's why St. commanded. Apostle: “Let man tempt himself, and let him eat of the bread, and let him drink of the cup. He who eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks judgment without considering the body of the Lord” (1 Cor. 11:28-29). “I am the vine,” said the Savior, “you are the birth; and he who is in Me, and I in him, will produce much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). From these words we rightly conclude that without the “grace of Christ” (Gal. 1:6) we cannot bear spiritual fruits or do good deeds. But didn’t the Savior Himself also say: “If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself” (Matthew 16:24); “If you want to take it into your belly, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17); “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor: and have treasure in heaven, and come after Me” (Matthew 19:21)? Here, to perform good deeds, our own desire and deeds are required. Didn’t the Savior himself command us: “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds” (Matthew 5:16), calling our good deeds ours, no doubt, by our participation in them? Didn’t He clearly foretell to us that on the day of general judgment each of us will receive a “reward” for our labors (Matthew 5:12; 10:42; 1 Cor. 3:8) and that the righteous will then enter the kingdom of heaven precisely for their good deeds (Matthew 25:34-40)? In general, brothers, the matter of our moral correction and sanctification, without which it is impossible for us to be saved, is a mysterious matter. Two forces are involved in it: Divine power - grace, and human power - our free will. We are not able to determine the extent of participation of each of them, to indicate the line where they touch each other, to explain how, when they touch, they do not constrain one another. But there is no doubt that both are equally necessary in this most important matter for us. Let us not cease to always pray to the Trinitarian God, that He may send down upon us “Divine powers, even unto life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3), and at the same time let us not cease to “train ourselves for godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7), “to fight the good fight” (2 Tim. 4:7), and to use every effort to fulfill the commandments God, firmly remembering that if we cannot save ourselves without God, then God cannot save us without us. Amen. You might be interested in: