Четвертая заповедь блаженства. Блажени алчущии и жаждущии правды, яко тии насытятся

Lesson 1-e. Explanation of the Fourth Beatitude 1. A Christian seeking eternal bliss must be “hungry and thirsty for righteousness.” A sinner in his conscience feels his spiritual poverty; he grieves deeply that through the multitude of his sins he has brought upon himself the righteous wrath of God; but he does not despair of his pardon: in firm trust in God’s providence, he tries to cultivate Christian patience and complete devotion to the will of God. The soul of a repentant sinner, conscious of its spiritual poverty and helplessness, hungers and thirsts for the grace-filled justification now granted in the Lord Jesus Christ. “God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but through Him the world might be saved” (John 3:17). “The truth of God” is that a person guilty of his sins and irresponsible before God is granted eternal salvation. The Only Begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus, in fulfillment of the will of the Heavenly Father, took upon Himself human flesh, became a perfect man, took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, endured free suffering and death on the cross for us, and reconciled us with God. We all receive justification by faith in the redemptive merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, since “all who have sinned and come short of the glory of God will be justified by His grace, the deliverance that is in Christ Jesus, which God hath proposed to be cleansed by faith in His blood, at the revelation of His righteousness for the remission of sins that were formerly” (Rom. 3:23-25). In the sacraments of the Holy Church, the Lord Jesus gives the believing Christian real justification, cleansing from sins and sanctification; from the child of God's wrath, the sinner becomes the son of God by the grace of redemption - the temple of the Holy Spirit; he receives inner peace and peace of conscience. The justification that a Christian wants to achieve in the eternally blissful kingdom of glory begins for him on earth: “The kingdom of God is within you,” says the Lord (Luke 17:21). a) Convinced by the truth of God, justified by faith in the redemptive merits of Jesus Christ, sanctified in the sacraments of the holy church, a Christian naturally strives to lead a pious life - “in righteousness and the honor of truth” (Eph. 4:24). “Our Father, who art in heaven, Thy will be done as it is in heaven and on earth,” - this is how we all pray to the Heavenly Father to help us with His grace to lead an angelic life on earth. The Lord Himself showed us an example of obedience to the will of His Father: “My purpose is that I may do the will of Him who sent Me, and finish His work” (John 4:34). Before His suffering, the Lord prayed to the Heavenly Father: “Father, not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). The Lord gave His followers a commandment about love: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). A God-fearing Christian, thirsting for grace-filled justification, tries to conform his entire life to the commandments of God: not only in words he wants to be truthful, but also in deeds themselves. b) But since our salvation is “between hope and fear,” a true Christian is always alien to the spirit of self-righteousness; he does not rely on his own good deeds to achieve eternal salvation, but on God’s mercy. If our conscience says in our hearts that we have fulfilled some commandment, then even then we must humbly rely on the will of God and not attribute special merits to ourselves: “When you have done all that is commanded you, say, as we are unworthy servants: as we ought to do, even as we have done” (Luke 17:10). The Monk Agathon, seeing his death approaching, looked at the sky with motionless eyes for three days. The brothers sitting around his bed, surprised by this, asked him: “Why are you looking like that, Abba?” “I stand before the judgment seat of Christ,” answered Agathon. “Are you also, a man of God, afraid of judgment?” - the monks asked again. “As much as I could, I kept the commandments of the Lord,” the elder told them, “but, as a man, can I know that I completely pleased God?” “Abba,” the monks objected, “you can rely on your good deeds.” “I don’t hope until I see the Lord Himself,” Saint Agathon answered them with a sigh, “for God’s judgment is not the same as human judgment.” If thus, according to the word of God, “the righteous can hardly be saved,” then we sinners especially need to care about our salvation. To strengthen us in goodness, we have saving means: prayer, the word of God and the sacraments. In prayer, a Christian with faith and hope asks God for spiritual benefits and God’s help in his endeavors and deeds; with the word of God he enlightens his mind and soars with his thoughts - grief to the throne of the Heavenly Father; in the sacraments, the Christian is imparted the grace of the Holy Spirit, necessary for his sanctification and spiritual prosperity. Prayer, the word of God and the sacraments, especially the holy communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, constitute the “daily bread” for the soul, which the believer constantly “hungers and thirsts” and asks for spiritual saturation in the Lord’s Prayer. 3. Beloved brothers! We all have a need for bodily saturation: it stops the feelings of hunger and thirst and strengthens our bodily strength - it supports our life. If saturation of the body is necessary for us, then isn’t spiritual saturation even more important for us? Bodily nutrition has a temporary meaning, limited to the limit of death, - “but the spiritual life remains in the eternal life.” Our Lord Jesus Christ shed His Most Pure Blood on the cross not for our body, but for our soul - the image and likeness of the immortal God. “I lay down my life,” says the Lord, “that I may receive it again.” No one will take it from Me, but I lay it down for Myself” (John 10, 17, 18). May the greed and thirst for our justification be desired for each of us! “Blessed are the blameless in the way, walking in the law of the Lord... Thy hands (Lord) created me and formed me; Give me understanding, and I will learn Your commandments... I know, Lord, that Your judgments are righteous. If Thy law had not been my consolation, I would have perished in my misfortune. I thirst for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my comfort. May my soul live and glorify You, and may Your judgments help me” (Ps. 119:1, 73, 75, 92, 174–175). Christians, “hungering and thirsting for righteousness,” walking in the justification of the Lord, receive inner peace here on earth and complete spiritual saturation in the future life - the enjoyment of eternal bliss. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Amen. Appendix to catechetical teaching Examples borrowed from Russian asceticism of those who hungered and thirsted for justification through Jesus Christ In order to gain victory over the sinful side of their nature, ascetics sometimes indulged in very grueling physical labor in order to achieve through this righteousness, which leads to eternal life, not for the sake of their merits, but for the sake of participating in the sufferings of Christ, for the sake of co-crucifixion of their flesh with its passions and lusts. 1. The most common type of hermitage is desert living. Our Russian desert dwellers did not go to sandy deserts, but to impenetrable forest jungles and swamps, to uninhabited islands, to places where no man had gone before. The hermit settles in a hut or in a cave, sometimes even in a hollow tree, “like a corvid on a hole,” according to the chronicler; he is tormented by heat, cold, hunger, wild animals, and when they come to visit, then by evil people; finally, he exhausts himself with intense labor, fasting, vigil, etc. He spends many years in this way until followers gather to him and thus a monastery is formed, and sometimes he dies in solitude. In most cases, Russian ascetics went to desert places from monasteries, where they had already become famous for their holy lives. Here are some examples: a) The Monk Gerasim Boldinsky (Smol. province) spent thirteen years in the Goritsky monastery. His exploits were known not only in the monastery, but also in Moscow. Weighed down by fame, he left the monastery and settled in the wilderness of the Dorogobuzh district, where only animals lived and robbers took refuge. Near the nearest road he hung a box on a tree; passing people put alms into it, which was the hermit’s only means of subsistence. But often others also took advantage of this alms. The robbers often beat him, trying to drive him out of the area. According to legend, the hermit's hut and his body were subsequently guarded by a raven, which struck the eyes of bad people and animals who approached the place of the saint's exploits. Later, the Monk Gerasim moved to Boldin Mountain. Here local residents attacked him, beat him, tied him up and wanted to throw him into the lake, but then they changed their minds and brought him to Dorogobuzh to the governor, who put him in prison. Only the ambassador from Moscow, who arrived at that time, recognized Gerasim and freed him. When the ascetic returned to his solitude, disciples began to gather to him, and he built a church for them, and then a monastery. b) One of the disciples of St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Sylvester, chose for himself a deep forest on the banks of the river for solitary exploits. Obnory. For a long time no one knew about the hermit, and only by chance did one local resident, lost in the forest, see his hut. The ascetic regretted that his refuge was open and asked the stranger not to tell anyone about him. By the way, the monk told his unexpected guest that he had been living in this forest for a long time, eating only roots and herbs, that at first he was exhausted from hunger and sometimes fell to the ground exhausted, until, finally, a wonderful man who appeared to him in a vision strengthened him. The stranger did not fulfill the request of the hermit and told about his meeting with him. Soon zealots of pious life gathered to Sylvester, and he founded a monastery, in which he himself was the first abbot. The Monk Sylvester loved solitary labors so much that he often left the monastery into the dense forest to pray. c) The Monk Tikhon of Medyn did not even have a hut and lived in the hollow of a huge old oak tree. Grass served him as food, and he took water from a well, which he dug with his own hands. Evil people rebelled against him the local ruling prince, who wanted to beat the hermit with his own hands, and was only kept from doing so by a sudden illness. Subsequently, the Monk Tikhon also founded a monastery in honor of the Dormition of the Mother of God. d) The Monk Savvaty, already gray-haired, having spent many years in monastic exploits, arrived at the White Sea. Together with Herman, on a fragile boat, they moved from the shore to Solovetsky Island, spending about three days on the road. Even local coastal residents, seasoned in the fight against the harsh northern nature, did not dare to settle on this island; they were frightened by the difficulty of communication, severe frosts, and infertile lands. But nothing frightened the ascetics: in terrible need and deprivation, the Monk Savvaty lived here for the last six years of his life, and then, alone in a boat, he returned to the shore, where he received holy communion and died peacefully. You might be interested in: