Беседа 27

Spoken to the people in the Church of St. Pancras the Martyr on the day of his suffering. Reading the Holy Gospel: John 15.12–16. John 15.12–16. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you. 1. If all sacred sayings are full of the commandments of the Lord, then what does it mean that about love, as a special commandment, the Lord says: “This is my commandment, that you love one another,” if not that every commandment depends on love alone and all commandments make up one, because everything commanded is based on love alone? – For, just as many tree branches come from one root, so many virtues are born from one love. And the branch of a good deed has no greenery if it does not rest on the root of love. Therefore, there are many commandments of the Lord, and one; many - according to the variety of affairs, one - according to the root of love. And how this love should be contained is inspired by He Himself, Who in many thoughts of His Scripture commands to love both friends - as Him, and enemies - for His sake. For true love is the one who loves both his friend in God and his enemy for God’s sake. For there are some who love their neighbors, but according to the nature of kinship and flesh, which, however, in this love the sacred sayings do not contradict. But one thing means that it is willingly fulfilled by nature, and another thing is that it is obedient to obey the commandments of the Lord out of love. It is those who love their neighbor and, despite this, do not achieve the highest rewards for love, because they spend their love not according to the spirit, but according to the flesh. Therefore, when the Lord said: “This is My commandment, that you love one another,” then he immediately added: “As I have loved you.” Clearly He said, as it were: “You love for the reason why I loved you.” 2. In this matter, dearest brethren, we must carefully consider that the ancient enemy, while disposing our soul towards the love of temporary things, on the opposite side incites our weakest neighbor against us, who is plotting to take away the very thing that we love. The ancient enemy is not trying to destroy earthly things, but to kill love in us. For suddenly we are inflamed with hatred; and wanting to be invincible on the outside, we suffer terribly on the inside; and by protecting little from the outside, we lose a lot inside, because by loving a temporary thing, we are deprived of true love. Because anyone who destroys our property is an enemy. But if we begin to harbor hatred for the enemy, then we lose the inner. So, when we externally tolerate something from our neighbor, then we must be vigilant against the hidden predator of the inner, which is never more easily defeated than when we love the external predator. Because one and the main test of love is if we love even someone who does the opposite to us. That is why Truth Itself endures execution on the cross and, despite this, expresses love for His very persecutors, saying: “Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 23.34). So, is it surprising if students in real life love their enemies, when their Teacher loves his enemies even when he is killed by them? He expresses the height of this love by adding: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” The Lord came to die even for our enemies, and despite the fact that He said that He would lay down His life for our friends, in order to clearly show us that when we can, out of love, benefit our enemies, then our friends are even the very ones who persecute us. 3. But no one persecutes us even to death. Therefore, how can we prove that we love our enemies? – But in the world of the Holy Church there must be something from which it must be clearly seen whether during persecution we can die for love. John clearly says: “Whoever has the world’s goods, but sees his brother in need and closes his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 John 3.17)? -That’s why John the Baptist says: “Whoever has two coats, give to the poor, and whoever has food, do the same.” (Lk 3.11). So, whoever during times of peace does not give his robe for the sake of God, will he give up his soul during persecution? – Therefore, in order for the power of love to be invincible in persecution, it must be nourished by mercy in times of calm, since it must learn to give to Almighty God first its property, and then itself. 4. This is followed by: “you are my friends.” Oh, how great is the mercy of our Creator! “We are not worthy to be servants, but are called friends.” How great is the dignity of people to be friends of God! – But you have heard about the glory of dignity; Listen also about the difficulty of the feat. “If you do what I command you.” You are My friends if you do what I command you. Clearly He says something like this: “If you rejoice in the highest glory, then think by what deeds one achieves this glory.” When the sons of Zebedee, through their mother, asked that one sit on the right side of God, and the other on the left, it is known that they heard: “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I will drink” (Matthew 20.22)? – They asked for a place of heights; The truth sends them on the path by which they must reach this height. It is said something like this: “The place of heights is already flattering for you, but first the path of achievement must take you. Greatness is achieved through the cup. If your soul desires what makes you happy, drink first what makes you sad.” Thus, through the bitter cup of confession one achieves the joy of salvation. “I no longer call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from My Father.” What is all that He heard from His Father, that He deigned to say to His servants in order to make them His friends, if not the joys of inner love, if not those triumphs of the High Fatherland, which He daily imprints on our souls with the breath of His love? – For when we love what we have heard from heaven, then we already know what we love, because love itself is knowledge. So, He said everything to those who, having abandoned earthly desires, burned with the highest love. But the Prophet looked at these friends of God when he said: “How exalted are Your thoughts for me, O God, and how great are their number!” (Ps 139.17). For a friend is called, as it were, a guardian of the soul. So, since the Psalmist saw that God’s chosen ones, having separated from the love of this world, would preserve the will of God in heavenly commandments, he was surprised, saying: “How exalted are Your thoughts for me, O God.” Here, God’s chosen ones tame the flesh, strengthen the spirit, rule over demons, shine with virtues, despise the present, preach about the Eternal Fatherland in word and deed; even when dying, they love it and achieve it through suffering. They can be killed, but they cannot be persuaded. So, “how great is their number.” In this very suffering in which they died in the flesh, you see what the loftiness of their spirit was. Where is it from, if not from there, “how great is their number!” But perhaps there are so few greats? – He adds: “Whether I begin to number them, they are more numerous than the sand” (Ps 139.18). Look, brothers, at the whole world: it is filled with Martyrs. There are almost no more of us who should see as there are witnesses to the truth. So, God has numbered those who have multiplied for us “more numerous than the sand”; because we cannot comprehend how many there are. 5. But he who has achieved this dignity, in order to be called a friend of God, must look not at himself as he is, but at the gifts he receives above himself. You should not attribute anything to your own merits, so as not to fall into hostility. Therefore, it is added: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you should go and bear fruit.” “I have assigned you to grace, I have planted you to go voluntarily, to bear fruit by activity. For go, I said, willingly; because to want to do something means to go with your thoughts.” And what fruit they should bear is added: “and your fruit shall remain.” All that we labor at for the present age is scarcely sufficient until death. For the coming death cuts off the fruit of our labor. But what is done for Eternal Life is preserved even after death; and begins to appear when the fruit of carnal labor begins to hide. So, then retribution begins where it ends. Consequently, whoever has already cognized the Eternal, temporary fruits must lose value in his soul. We will bear such fruits as would “remain,” let us bear such fruits as would themselves receive their beginning from death, when death must destroy everything. For the fact that the fruit of God must begin from death is testified by the Prophet, who says: “while He gives sleep to His beloved” (Ps 126.2, 3). Anyone who falls asleep in the sleep of death loses his inheritance; but when (the Lord) gives sleep to his elect, then this is the property of the Lord, because the elect of God, after they reach death, will find an inheritance. 6. It follows: “Whatever you ask from the Father in My name, He has given you.” Again in another place: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete” (John 16.23, 24). If the Father gives us everything we ask in the name of the Son, then what does it mean that Paul first asked the Lord and was not worthy of hearing; but he was told: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12.9)? – Didn’t this so glorious Preacher ask in the name of the Son? Why didn't he get what he asked for? – How is it true that what we ask of the Father in the name of the Son, the Father gives to us, if the Apostle in the name of the Son asked for the removal of the angel of Satan from him and yet did not receive what he asked for? - But since the name of the Son is “Jesus”, and Jesus is called the Savior, or even the Savior, then in the name of the Savior he asks for something related to true salvation. But if they ask for something that does not relate to salvation, then they ask the Father not in the name of Jesus. Therefore, to the same Apostles, hitherto still weak, the Lord says: “Until now you have asked nothing in My name” (John 16.24). It was clearly said like this: “You did not ask in the name of the Savior, because you do not yet know how to seek Eternal Salvation.” Therefore, Paul was not heard; for if he were freed from temptation, then it would not be useful for him for salvation (2 Cor 12.9). 7. Here we, beloved brethren, see how many of you have gathered for the celebration of the Martyr; you kneel, beat your chest, heave sighs of prayer and confession, and wet your faces with tears. But please discuss your petitions, see if you are praying in the name of Jesus, that is, asking for the joys of Eternal Life? For in the house of Jesus you are not looking for Jesus, if in the Church of Eternity you pray untimely for temporal things. Here is one asking for a wife in prayer, another wanting a village, a third demanding clothes, a fourth praying for food to be given to him. And although it is necessary to ask Almighty God for these (subjects), if they do not exist, we must constantly remember what the same Redeemer commanded us: “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6.33). So, there is no sin to ask Jesus for these items, if, however, they are asked not in excess. But also, what is more important, some ask for death to the enemy, and whomever he cannot pursue with the sword, he pursues with prayer. And although the one who is ill-wishered is still alive, the one who is ill-wishered becomes guilty of his death. God commands that they love the enemy (Matthew 5.44), and, despite the fact, they ask God to kill the enemy. So, whoever prays in this way fights against the Creator with his very prayers. Therefore, it is said about Judas: “and let his prayer become sin” (Ps 109.7). Because prayer turns into sin when one prays for something that the One to whom one prays Himself forbids. 8. Therefore, the Truth says: “And when you stand in prayer, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Heavenly Father may forgive you your sins.” (Mark 11.25). We will show this virtue of forgiveness more clearly if we cite one piece of evidence from the Old Testament. It is known that when Judea offended the Justice of Her Creator with her grave crimes, then the Lord, keeping His Prophet from prayer, said: “Do not ask for this people and do not offer prayers and petitions for them, and do not intercede with Me, for I will not hear you” (Jer 7.16). “And I will cast you out from before me, just as I have cast away all your brothers, even all the seed of Ephraim” (Jer 7.15). What does it mean that after the omission and abandonment of so many Fathers, only Moses and Samuel, whose wondrous power to receive is known, are put in the middle, when it is said that even they cannot be mediators? The Lord clearly says this: “I don’t even listen to those whose prayers I don’t despise for their great merit.” So, what does it mean that Moses and Samuel are preferred in prayer to the other Fathers, if not that in the entire sequence of the Old Testament it is said about these only two that they prayed even for their enemies? – The first is in danger of being stoned by the people (Exodus 17.4) and yet prays for his stoners; the other resigns from his leadership, and yet responds to the request for prayer, saying: “And I also will not allow myself to sin before the Lord to stop praying for you, and I will guide you on the good and straight path” (1 Samuel 12.23). “And the Lord said to me, Even though Moses and Samuel appear before Me, My soul will not bow down to this people; drive them away from before me, let them go away” (Jeremiah 15.1). He clearly says something like this: “I do not listen to prayers for friends, even those whom I know that out of great virtue they prayed even for enemies.” Therefore, the power of true prayer lies in the sublimity of love. And everyone receives what he correctly asks for when, during prayer, his spirit is not darkened by hatred of the enemy. But for the most part, we overcome the fighting spirit if we also pray for our enemies. The lips pour out prayer for the enemy, but oh, if only the heart could contain love! For we often send up prayer for our enemies, but we pour it out more according to the commandment than out of love. For we also pray for the life of our enemies, and yet we are afraid, lest (God) hear us. But since the inner Judge judges disposition rather than words, he does not demand anything from someone who does not pray for him out of love for the enemy. 9. But the enemy sinned gravely against us: he caused harm, insulted those who help (us), persecuted those who love us. This should have been hidden if sins against us were not to be forgiven. For our Intercessor in our case composed a prayer, and this Intercessor Himself is the Judge of the same case. And in the prayer that He composed, He included a condition, saying: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6.12). So, since the very One who was the Intercessor is coming as the Judge, He himself listens to the prayer that he composed. Consequently, either we, without fulfilling them, say: “forgive us our debts, just as we forgive our debtors,” and by saying this, we bind ourselves more; or, perhaps, we miss this condition in prayer, and our Intercessor does not recognize the prayer that He composed, and immediately says to Himself: “I know why I exhorted; this is not the same prayer that I composed.” So, brothers, what should we do if not to have the property of true love for our brothers? There should be no malice in the heart. May Almighty God discuss our love for our neighbors in order to show His mercy to our iniquities. Remember why He exhorts: “forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6.37). That's what we owe, and we owe it. So, let us forgive what is owed to us, so that what we owe will be forgiven. But reason resists this: it wants to fulfill what it hears, and yet it argues. We are in the cancer of the Martyr, about whom we know by what death he achieved the Kingdom of Heaven. If we do not lay down our bodies for Christ, then at least we will conquer our soul. With this sacrifice, God is propitiated and approves the victory of our world at the court of His love. For He looks upon the struggle of our hearts; and He who afterwards rewards those who overcome, now helps those who fight through our Lord Jesus Christ, His Son, who lives and reigns with Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God through all the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: