Purpose and meaning of life

Tareev is one of the representatives of the Russian religious Renaissance. Most of all, he focused attention on the opposition between the Gospel and this world, on foolishness and kenosis, as the essence of the Christian gospel. Now many people say that Tareev anticipated K. Barth, the philosophy of life, and existentialism. In the book “The Purpose and Meaning of Life” Tareev gives a system of moral theology, stating that “man by nature has two main aspirations: firstly, the desire for personal happiness and external perfection and, secondly, the desire for the heavenly, for union with the Divine - the desire to manifest divine content in one’s life.” Based on this position, Tareev sees three ways to build moral philosophy: “thus, the desire for happiness and perfection and the desire for the heavenly cannot be united in their directly given character, then either one can recognize the purpose of human life in the pursuit of happiness and perfection with complete disregard for another desire, with a complete denial of religion; or one can see in religion a sufficient basis for human happiness and perfection with the recognition of natural means for achieving good as unsuitable as they are unnecessary, and the very desire to achieve happiness and perfection by natural means is a painful deception from which true religion frees; or, finally, one should find a higher synthesis of both aspirations - to indicate a goal of life that would reconcile unsatisfied aspirations for happiness and perfection with the divine content of life...” “The purpose and meaning of life” M. M. Tareev. Tareev is one of the representatives of the Russian religious Renaissance. Most of all, he focused attention on the opposition between the Gospel and this world, on foolishness and kenosis. Now many people say that Tareev anticipated K. Barth, the philosophy of life, and existentialism. CHAPTER ONE (introductory). The main internal contradiction of life Man by nature is characterized by two main aspirations: firstly, the desire for personal happiness and external perfection and, secondly, the desire for the heavenly, for union with the Divine - the desire to manifest divine content in one’s life. What is the relationship between these two aspirations? The initial thing here seems to be the possibility of combining them in their directly given character. Since both of these aspirations are inherent to man by nature, this combination of them is psychologically natural, and therefore man is natural, in the biblical sense of the word, i.e. who lives not by grace, but by nature (secundum naturam suam vivere), expects happiness and external perfection from religion and believes the divine in that which is self-satisfied and externally perfect. This religious mood is characteristic of paganism in all its strength, but it is revealed more or less clearly in us, since the “old” man remains in the Christian. Among pagans at the lower stages of development, this mood is found in a naive form. He expects all happiness and success, even in matters that are entirely within the reach of man’s natural powers and depend on his own diligence, knowledge and dexterity, from the gods, from their favor, which he tries to earn through sacrifice. Cultured people know how to appreciate their own strength and expect from religion what exceeds their strength - serene peace and endless perfection. This religious mood of a cultured person can be traced from Zola’s novel “Doctor Pascal”. The most learned Doctor Pascal believed in human power and especially in the power of reason, in science. He thought and firmly hoped that with the help of science he would be able to regenerate humanity and free it from the suffering with which it was now oppressed. But the aspirations of his niece, Clotilde, were limitless, in any case, they went beyond the boundaries of the means that science has at its disposal; therefore, she turned away from science and began to seek their satisfaction in religion, in Catholicism. Clotilde observed for a long time the hopes of her uncle and the actual successes of science; the results to which these observations led her she frankly expressed to Dr. Pascal. “The years pass as usual,” she told her uncle, “and the sky still does not open up to people. The truth that you want to capture with your research is moving further and further away from you. You propose to wait and wait, perhaps for tens of centuries. I don't want to wait. I want to know everything right now and be happy. Notice that I need to know everything at once and that I want to be blissful and happy forever! You see, it is precisely the inability to rise immediately to comprehensive knowledge and rest in the bosom of perfect bliss, not overshadowed by any doubts and reproaches of conscience, that torments me. Is this life when you move at a snail's pace in the darkness and cannot enjoy a cheerful hour without shuddering at the thought of future grief? No, no, give me omniscience and happiness at once! Science has promised us this, and if it cannot fulfill its promise, then it should be declared a failure.” In this conscious striving for the ideal of endless perfection and happiness and the expectation of these benefits from religion, Clotilde was supported by Catholic preachers... Is it possible to recognize such a unification of basic mental aspirations in their immediately given character as thorough and reasonable? No, you can't. First of all, this question should be answered in the negative because this unification is not justified by reality. The fact is that religion is not accompanied by a change in the external conditions of human life, does not bring external happiness and visible perfection to a person, and does not eliminate suffering and humiliation from his life. A clear expression of this nature of the reality of religious life is the suffering and humiliation of the righteous. A person is not freed from suffering and humiliation of life to the extent of his righteousness and moral innocence. The righteous suffer in common disasters along with sinners. “To everything,” writes the biblical sage, “and to all, there is one fate: the same fate for the righteous and the wicked, the good and the evil, the pure and the unclean, the one who makes sacrifices and the one who does not make sacrifices, both the virtuous and the sinful, both the one who swears and the one who fears an oath. This is what is bad in everything that is done under the sun, that everyone has the same fate” (Eccl. IX, 2.3). But this is not enough. The innocent and the righteous not only suffer along with the guilty in common disasters, but they suffer predominantly. Observations lead us to the conviction that suffering befalls the innocent and the righteous not by chance, but according to some law of both natural and human life - the innocent and the righteous suffer inevitably. In the depths of natural life, “does not that in which the features of innocence are more visible suffer more? A lamb trembles at the wolf, a meek bird at the bird of prey.”... In the sphere of human history, this law is revealed incomparably more noticeably. We are equally convinced of this by the testimony of both the Holy Scriptures and church writers, and secular thinkers and observers of human life. According to Ap. Paul, “those of whom the whole world was not worthy wandered through deserts and mountains, through caves and caves of the earth” (Heb. XI, 38). “Indeed,” writes Saint John Chrysostom, “look at everyone who was famous in past times, and you will see that through sorrow they all acquired boldness towards God. And, firstly, if you want, let's go to the son of the first created, the lamb of Christ, Abel: he did no evil, and yet suffered what the greatest sinners deserve. We suffer temptations as punishment for sins; and that righteous man suffered for no other reason than for the fact that he was righteous and perfect, and yet he endured many, many sorrows, and severe ones. What else can be said about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, who overshadowed everyone with misfortunes, the long-suffering Job, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Samuel, David, about all the prophets who had common suffering, and finally, about the New Testament righteous, starting with the apostle. Pavel? The fact of the suffering of the righteous is beyond doubt. It is equally certain that sinners often prosper, that the sons of this age, whose interests do not go beyond the limits of material well-being, are wiser than the sons of light in their generation, and material happiness and external glory are on their side. “Everything in the world,” writes I.S. Turgenev, “good and bad are given to a person not according to his merits, but as a result of some laws that I don’t even dare point out.”... The suffering of the righteous, in contrast to the prosperity of the wicked, has troubled the human mind since ancient times. “Behold, these wicked people prosper in this age, increasing wealth. And I said, “Has it not been in vain that I have purified my heart, and washed my hands in innocence, and exposed myself to stripes every day and to reproof every morning?” (Psalm LXXII, 13,14). Besides the fact that the expectation from religion of personal happiness and external perfection is not justified by reality, the combination of the desire for happiness and perfection and the desire for the divine in their immediately given character must be recognized as unreasonable because it consistently leads to atheism. The religion of a natural man takes one of two directions: for him, either religion is only a means of achieving earthly, natural-human goals, or the divine represents the opposite of everything natural-human. In the first, worst case, which we encounter in the religion of the Chinese, religion materializes and contains atheism at its core, i.e. denial of the divine in its own, invisible nature. In the second direction that characterizes Buddhism, we are dealing with idealism, which, apparently, is far from atheism. But in fact, extreme idealism leads to disunity between heavenly ideals and human life, between religious and everyday life. If the divine is denied the earthly, then the heavenly is also excluded by the worldly, for which there is no place in natural human life. And this is the same atheism. Chinese materialism and Buddhist idealism are not alien to us: we suffer from them too. We have structured our worldly life in such a way and understand religious matters in such a way that an impassable abyss has formed between the one and the other. We are capable of experiencing religious inspiration, we are capable of good and even great deeds, but moments of idealistic uplifting of spirit stand as lonely oases in the endless desert of our everyday life. We think that religion is religion and life is life. We are willingly ready to recognize people who are not of this world, we reverently bow to hermits and hermits, but with surprise and even indignation we meet a “layman” who lives in God’s way: in God’s way one can only live outside the world. This is because the worldly man, identifying the ideal with external perfection and personal happiness, bows only to external greatness and can believe in holiness only if it appears to him in visible glory, with a smile of self-satisfaction, in freedom from natural limitations, in detachment from everyday life. We look upon the holy life as a life primarily free from limitation and suffering, and identify religion with the realm of the miraculous; in our opinion, she is disgusted by our everyday life with its petty worries, with its base demands, natural conditions. To enter the realm of religion, we think one must renounce life. A saint, according to our ideas, is the same as a miracle worker - a person free from the conditions of natural life. We consider miraculous power to be a measure of holiness, and the absence of miracles serves for us as an indisputable sign of sinfulness. Miracles are an indicator of the presence and existence of a deity; The absence of miracles when we expect them is the basis of unbelief. In this case, the disunity between heavenly ideals and natural life turns into open atheism. Instead of proving the stated position, we present two stories to illustrate it. G. Uspensky in the story “Paramon the Fool” depicts Russian society for us in the 30s and 40s, which for the ordinary Russian crowd were the most deaf, deadest time. Everything was intimidated. Eternal, unceasing anxiety about the “guilt” of existence itself in the world permeated all mutual relationships, all social connections, all thoughts. In such and such an environment, Paramon the Fool appears, sheltered by one family. The holy fool Paramon was a real, peasant, peasant holy man. He came from a peasant family, was married, but, obeying a voice and a vision, he left his home, his wife and children and went to save his soul. He also saved his soul in the Russian peasant way, i.e. the most genuine mortification of the flesh, extreme self-torture. Something extraneous to everyday life wafted from him, and in the members of the family where he settled, this something awakened ideal-religious aspirations, raised their thoughts to the stars, to the sky. They began to talk in front of him not only about grief and misfortune, but they began to talk about God and paradise. Paramon settled in the garden, in a gazebo, and spent most of his time praying before the icons of saints and listening to akathists. At the sight of the holy fool praying with inspiration, the whole family was transported in their thoughts to another, unearthly world. Several days of Paramon's serene life passed under the roof of the house that sheltered him, when suddenly the peace was disrupted by an insignificant circumstance. The quarterly came to Paramon demanding a passport from him. The holy fool not only did not have a passport, but did not even understand what they were asking him about, and thus aroused even greater suspicions. Due to the terrible appearance of the policeman and Paramon’s extreme detachment from life, his irresponsibility to the demands of the everyday order of existence, all family members were so frightened and indignant against the holy fool that they felt great relief when the policeman took him away: as if a mountain had been lifted from everyone’s shoulders. “And he flew away from us,” says one of the family members, “the angel of awakened consciousness flew away from us (at the appearance of the policeman”). Everything in this story is typical: this worldly life, in which there is no other conversation than about happiness and unhappiness, which is intimidated by the fear of suffering; and this holy fool, who understood salvation in the sense of complete renunciation from real life, removal from the world; and this, finally, is Paramon’s settlement in the garden, in the gazebo, around which in those days the religious life of the family that sheltered Paramon was concentrated. The members of this family were no strangers to religious enthusiasm; in sight of the praying holy fool, they themselves were carried away in their thoughts to the distant superstellar world; but... this inspiration was felt only in the gazebo and was reflected precisely in the desire for a superstellar world, infinitely distant from our planet. There was no connection between all everyday life and moments of religious inspiration, Paramon’s influence did not extend to everyday life, and a petty phenomenon of everyday life that threatened trouble was enough for “the angel of awakened consciousness to fly away.” This sharply revealed the lack of those principles, the use of which could reconcile the holiness of the holy fool with the conditions and demands of everyday life. Worldly life does not make room for holiness, it has not set aside a corner for it in its complex system; holiness does not affect worldly life, does not condescend to it, is not embodied in its phenomena and forms. No less significant are the unrest and temptations that arose at the tomb of Father Zosima, according to another story - according to the masterful story of F.M., filled with the most living truth. Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov. Father Zosima was a holy man, both in his actual inner mood and in the opinion or faith of the majority of those who knew him, although he had many enemies among the monastic brethren. In old age, surrounded by the love of many thousands of believers, Fr. Zosima died the wonderful death of a righteous man. And soon, even suddenly after his death, an impatient expectation of miraculous power began to be revealed both among the monastery brethren and among the laity. Unanimously, as many as thousands arose one question about this miraculous power at the tomb of the deceased - the question arose among both enemies and admirers of the deceased. For the first, it was a direct question about the holiness of the deceased elder; the majority of believers expected this power as an undoubted consequence and reward of holiness. Many from the city brought the sick to the tomb, apparently trusting in the immediate power of healing. At the same time, of course, the expectation of decay and a pernicious spirit from the body of the deceased was considered absurd; the completely opposite seemed undoubted. But then, so unexpectedly for everyone, a corruptive spirit began to emanate from the coffin. The news of this instantly spread throughout the monastery, penetrated the monastery, and quickly reached the city. And suddenly, behind this event, such a temptation was revealed, crudely unbridled, which is difficult to imagine. This corrupting spirit, so natural, not only extinguished faith in the holiness of the deceased elder, but they saw in it a deliberate indication from God of the sinfulness of the deceased. His enemies raised their heads proudly, and all those who loved him suddenly became terribly frightened of something and, meeting each other, timidly only looked into each other’s eyes. Even Alyosha wavered in his faith. “I don’t rebel against my God, but I don’t accept His peace,” he repeated, with a wry smile, the words of his brother. If, therefore, the striving for happiness and perfection and the striving for heavenly things cannot be united in their immediately given character, then either the goal of human life can be recognized in the striving for happiness and perfection with complete disregard for the other striving, with a complete denial of religion; or one can see in religion a sufficient basis for human happiness and perfection with the recognition of natural means for achieving good as unsuitable as they are unnecessary, and the very desire to achieve happiness and perfection by natural means is a painful deception from which true religion frees; or, finally, one should find a higher synthesis of both aspirations - to indicate a goal of life that would reconcile unsatisfied aspirations for happiness and perfection with the divine content of life... First of all, we must consider whether happiness and perfection can be recognized as the goal of human life? CHAPTER TWO. Criticism of eudaimonism The purpose of life means the final result that determines the entire chain of unconscious phenomena of life and conscious actions of a person. The unconscious phenomena of life are determined by this result because it is presented to the creative mind already at the moment of creation, therefore objectively it is the cause of the origin and process of these phenomena. In its own sense, the final result serves as a goal for a person’s conscious actions, which are determined by the consciousness of the final result. The consciousness of the final result is the idea of ​​a goal (the idea of ​​happiness, the idea of ​​perfection, the idea of ​​the glory of God). This consciousness can be directed either to the final result as something completed and expected at the end of the life process, which gives the ideal of life, or to the laws and ways of realizing the ideal in the process of life, which gives the concept of goal. The concept of purpose is the meaning of life. The true goal of life - not only as a general goal in contrast to the private goals that govern this or that area of ​​​​human activity, but, mainly, in contrast to falsely understood goals - is defined from the formal side by the following three features. The true goal has a basis in real life, since it serves as the cause of the unconscious phenomena of life and its entire natural course. If not comprehended, then at least the highest goal can be substantiated empirically, through observation and study of the biological and historical past. The true goal is understood in the sense of the ideal final result of life and its proper order, and therefore it has the meaning of the principle of conscious and free activity. The true purpose of life is understood as feasible within it, as achievable within its limits. An unrealizable or unattainable goal of life is a contradictio in adjecto6. The final, even ideal, result of life must, of course, be achievable in life: a goal that extends beyond the boundaries of human life cannot be the goal of this life. Let us consider in these respects whether happiness and perfection can serve as the goal of human life. But we will talk about happiness and perfection separately. Although, as we will see below, suffering and humiliation have the same meaning from the highest religious point of view; but happiness and perfection as objects of positive aspirations do not coincide with one another. However, in essence and initially, the desire for happiness and perfection is one: achieving perfection presupposes satisfaction or happiness, and the desire for happiness is the desire for personal perfection. Thus, at the first human temptation, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil seemed to the wife good for food, pleasing to the eyes and desirable because it gives knowledge, because people hoped through eating its fruits to become like gods, knowing good and evil. But since perfection is inaccessible to man and he does not find happiness in the pursuit of perfection, happiness and perfection therefore seem to be incompatible. Striving to find happiness in perfection, people in the pursuit of perfection actually find suffering, just as the first people, having eaten from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, learned first of all that they were naked, as a result of which a painful feeling of fear of God was born in them. From here people come to the idea that in order to be happy they need to limit their aspirations and, mainly, the desire for perfection. And when happiness is understood this way, then the striving for perfection is contrary to the striving for happiness. In any case, a natural person, defining his aspirations quite consciously, can strive either for happiness as such, with disdain for perfection (eudaimonism), or for perfection with contempt for happiness (Nietzsche). Can happiness be the goal of human life? This question must be answered in the negative. Eudaimonism has no basis in the biological and historical past of man. To reveal this situation, let us use the words of two thinkers belonging to two opposing camps. “As the manifestation of the will becomes perfect,” says Schopenhauer (“The World as Will and Idea”), “suffering becomes more and more obvious. There is no sensitivity in the plant yet, therefore there is no suffering; Probably a very low degree of suffering is inherent in lower animals, ciliates and radiata; even in insects the capacity to feel and suffer is still limited; Only with the complete nervous system of vertebrate animals does it appear to a high degree, and to a higher degree, the more the intelligentsia develops. Consequently, to the same extent that knowledge achieves clarity and consciousness rises, torment also increases, which, therefore, reaches its highest degree in man.” As a person grows naturally, he becomes more unhappy. Old age is less conducive to happiness than courage; courage is less than youth, and this is less than childhood. Also in the life of nations - the golden age always lies in the past of history. At the pinnacle of power and the highest development of every people, taedium vitae8, despair, the extreme torment of suffering always reigns. “I,” writes Nikanor, Archbishop. Khersonsky, - I have become more unhappy since I became smarter and lost the purity and receptivity of a child’s heart; a simple honest Russian person will not feel happier when he resembles Lord Byron, Victor Hugo, our Pushkin or Lermontov; singing and jumping poetry encircles the cradle of the people, and in the era of its highest development, its tearing poetry - tragic and comic-satirical - irritates the dull feelings, or the fabulous poetry warms the cold blood of an aging people, singing tales to the old man about his dear childhood; By increasing everyday wealth, stock of knowledge, art galleries, means of seeing opera and ballet, a private person rarely becomes happier, and not a single people became happier because of it.” Thus, neither the nature of man nor his history is directed towards the production of a happy person, neither one nor the other has a tendency, so to speak, to create human happiness. In particular, happiness is hostile to human rationality. Even Ecclesiastes, having known wisdom and known madness, came to the conviction that in much wisdom there is much sorrow (I, 18). The newest sages say the same thing, Kant, whose words we will quote below, and Pascal, who writes: “Imagination makes people happy, contrary to reason, which can only make its friends unhappy; the first covers them with glory, the second with shame.” Happiness, further, is contrary to the moral nature of man: happiness seeks out vicious hearts (Schiller). Finally, a person’s happiness cannot be measured by the growth of even his sensory-organic life: a person is not happy to the extent of his sensory needs, passions and desires. To put it briefly, a fool suffers less than a wise man, an animal suffers less than a person, only a stone does not suffer. Eudaimonism was the basis for the teaching of the Stoics and Cynics, who believed happiness in ataraxia and apathy - in the absence of passions and suppression of aspirations. A follower of the eudaimonist Aristippus was Hegesius, a hopeless pessimist who was prohibited from teaching in Alexandria because too many of his students committed suicide. Based on the idea of ​​happiness, the newest pessimism, represented by Schopenhauer and Hartmann, consistently recognizes the cessation of life itself as the only path to freedom from suffering. The idea of ​​happiness cannot be the guiding principle of human activity, the basis for the proper order of our lives. The idea of ​​happiness, first of all, cannot be the foundation, or foundation, of ethics, in Schopenhauer’s terminology, i.e. cannot justify the obligatory nature of generally accepted ideals of truth, goodness, freedom, and equality for a person. This is because “pleasure is only a general sign of every satisfied desire, both good and evil. The same can be said about the more complex concepts of happiness and utility that define the moral teachings of (properly) eudaimonism (as opposed to hedonism) and utilitarianism. These concepts, just like the concept of pleasure or pleasure, do not have any strictly moral character in themselves” (B.S. Solovyov “Critique of Abstract Principles”). Then the idea of ​​happiness suffers from complete uncertainty as a principle of human activity, in the terminology of the same Schopenhauer, i.e. as a beginning that would determine what exactly a person should do. Happiness is completely subjective; everyone is happy in their own way. One believes happiness in the ideal pleasures of science and art, another - in sensual pleasures, another sees happiness in serving one's neighbors, and another finds it in violence against others - and each is right in the idea of ​​​​happiness. From the idea of ​​happiness came the Epicureans, who preached sensual unbridledness, and from the idea of ​​happiness came the cynics and stoics. Based on the idea of ​​happiness, even followers of the same school contradicted themselves: the first Epicureans preached asceticism, and the later ones preached freedom of sensuality. The idea of ​​happiness cannot serve as a guiding principle for social life. Being subjective from the psychological side, happiness from the material side is the same for everyone, and therefore the happiness of one person excludes the happiness of another person. The same wealth that one person desires for himself is claimed by other people; the primacy and dominance of one is based on the humiliation and slavery of others; the enjoyment of a few in science and art is bought by the hard labor of many, suffering from their dependent position and striving for the same pleasure. Therefore, the idea of ​​happiness applied to social life gives rise to a war of all against all. In the past and present of human history, in total there is much more suffering than pleasure. Each of us is convinced of this by our own experience and observation. This truth is scientifically proven in Hartmann’s “Philosophy of the Unconscious”. But maybe in the future a person will be happier? Let us assume that in the distant future happiness will be a permanent guest in the human home - and in this case, the past and present of human history should be considered meaningless if we see the goal of life in happiness: earthly happiness is understandable only in the sense of the personal happiness of each individual. And what are hopes for the future based on? “No matter how much humanity progresses,” writes Hartmann, “it will never free itself from the greatest of disasters or even reduce them. These disasters are illness, old age, dependence on the will and power of others, need and dissatisfaction with one’s situation... The peoples most satisfied with their position are savages, and civilized peoples have uneducated classes; It is known from experience that as the people become educated, their discontent also grows... Among the working masses, the awareness of the misery of their situation increases... The sensitivity of those who suffer from immoral acts becomes more sensitive: a rude person will react with humor to a blow with which his skull is broken, while an educated person will be deeply upset by the most insignificant insult... He who goes from bad to better, of course, feels pleasure; but it disappears with amazing speed, new circumstances are accepted as something completely natural; and a person does not feel one bit happier than his previous situation. Exactly the same applies to nations, the same applies to humanity... From an increase in (technical and material) means, only an increase in desires and needs occurs, and behind them comes discontent... In general, just as suffering grew in the world with the development of organization from the original cell to the emergence of man, so it will grow along with the progressive development of the human spirit.” Hopes for happiness in the future are essentially hopes that the material well-being of a person and even of all humanity will increase in the future. But a person’s happiness is not created by material well-being alone: ​​it also depends on the person’s own mood. Material well-being even now often falls to the lot of one person or another. It often, as was said above, goes to the wicked. In any case, they are more prosperous than the righteous; they are wiser than the sons of light in the arrangement of their material happiness, they are persecutors of the righteous. But if the righteous really suffer from sinners, then are the persecutors happy? If the righteous suffer from deprivation, then does material wealth make its owners happy? Were the Herods, Nerons, and Diocletians happy? Do passionate seekers of wealth, fame, honors achieve happiness, being at the pinnacle of fame, possessing untold riches? No. It is impossible to drown out conscience, it is impossible to suppress the highest demands of the spirit, but conscience suffers from lawlessness, and spiritual requests do not give a person peace in the midst of complete external well-being. Who does not know the torment of conscience? Who does not know the story of Ecclesiastes, who so wisely enjoyed life, so abundantly took advantage of all its benefits and did not find satisfaction for his spirit in all this? They advise a person to consciously direct his efforts towards improving his life and hope that this will be the case in the future (Bentham. “Introduction to the Foundations of Morality and Legislation”; Selley. “Pessimism, a hystory and criticism”). But to think, let’s say in the words of F.M. Dostoevsky (“Notes from the Underground”), a profound psychologist, - that “a person only does dirty tricks because he does not know his real interests” - means not knowing human nature; against the proposed “benefits - prosperity, wealth, freedom, peace, against this entire register”, something “so internal (irrational) that is stronger than all his interests” is indignant in a person; this irrational, from the point of view of eudaimonism and utilitarianism, is a person’s “own free and free will” - the highest demands of his nature, which is not satisfied by material well-being. Happiness is unattainable due to the psychological nature of the desire for happiness. The desire for happiness at any given moment is a desire for some particular good, and it seems to a person that only this good is missing for him to be completely happy. But this good is achieved, the pleasure of possessing it quickly passes, and the desire for a new good grows in the soul with the same or greater strength, and again it seems to the person that only this good is missing for him to be happy. A hungry person puts all his happiness in a piece of bread; but when sensual aspirations are satisfied, spiritual aspirations arise or intensify. A poor man sees complete happiness in wealth, but a rich man suffers from unsatisfied ambition. So “every desire arises from a lack, from dissatisfaction with one’s condition, there is, therefore, suffering until it is satisfied; but no satisfaction lasts, but rather it is the starting point of a new desire” (Schopenhauer). It is noteworthy that happiness runs away from a person as he makes conscious efforts to be happy. Kant rightly points out in his “Fundamentals for the Metaphysics of Morals” [“Fundamentals of the Metaphysics of Morals”] that for a being who has reason and will, his well-being, or happiness, cannot be a goal. If the happiness of a rational being were the goal of nature, then reason would be superfluous in it, since this goal would be much more likely to be achieved through instinct. The more intelligent a person strives for happiness, the less happy he is. “A person’s thought about organizing his life on earth according to the principle of happiness,” writes V.V. Rozanov (“The Purpose of Human Life”), “is a convulsive effort of a person, but not his correct movement. Because of this, every attempt to implement it in personal life is accompanied by suffering, because of this the face of history has become so distorted, so little happiness has become in the hearts of peoples, as their lives are drawn more and more into the forms of this idea. It’s as if some kind of unredeemed sin of humanity is being punished through this deceptive hope, so that, following it, it will voluntarily experience all the suffering that no outside force and no external conditions could impose on it.” On this basis, the utilitarians Mill and Spencer, recognizing happiness as the goal of human life, at the same time argue that it is unattainable for a person if he attaches importance to it as the main goal of his existence. “The only possibility of achieving happiness,” Mill writes in his autobiography, “is to consider something other than happiness as the goal in life” (cf. Logic, book VI, chapter XII, §7). It seems to the named authors that there is no internal contradiction in this view of happiness. In the words of Spencer (The principles of ethics, I, p. 9), “it may very well be asserted that happiness is the ultimate end of action, and at the same time deny that it can be achieved by making it the direct end.” But we cannot justify such a goal, which is unattainable if it is recognized as a goal... But arguing that happiness cannot be the goal of human life, we must remember that the desire for happiness in man is ineradicable. However, one should distinguish between the innate human desire for happiness, meaning by it the ability to feel the satisfaction of the private aspirations of life and improvement and to suffer from the dissatisfaction of these aspirations - the desire to satisfy the private demands of bodily and mental life from the derivative desire for happiness as a propensity for pleasure, which, presupposing experiences of a pleasant feeling of satisfaction with the private aspirations of life and improvement, degenerates from them as an independent desire for pleasure, although pleasure can be achieved only on the basis of natural aspirations for life and improvement. This derivative desire for happiness is accompanied by human intervention during his natural life, as a result of which either natural needs are intensified to the intensity of passions, or they are given satisfaction made exclusively dependent on the personal will of the person, very often unnatural. From here nutrition is brought to the point of excess, rest turns into bliss, freedom into self-will and violence. Just as, in particular, according to Rousseau (“Emile”), “conceit produces more libertines than love,” so in general, excesses, originality and unnaturalness in satisfying natural needs are produced by pride, a person’s inclination to enjoyment. The innate desire for happiness makes a person suffer from dissatisfaction with the natural aspirations of life and improvement and thus makes a person capable of feeling his natural limitations. The tendency towards pleasure gives rise to completely special suffering for a person and produces a kind of “martyrs of this world.” These are special burning sufferings of the thirst for wealth, the passion for honors, the pursuit of worldly glory... By an effort of will, a person can free himself from the passion for pleasure, and with it from these special “worldly sufferings”; but the innate desire for happiness in man is ineradicable in him. Even if a person is convinced that happiness cannot be the goal of his life and is unattainable for him, he still cannot help but feel pleasure from satisfying the natural aspirations of life and improvement and cannot help but suffer from his limitations. CHAPTER THREE. Criticism of the idea of ​​natural perfection; F. Nietzsche While some believe the highest good of human life is happiness, others see this good in the perfection of human nature and consider the idea of perfection to be the highest guiding principle of human activity. Natural perfection was set as the goal of human life by the classical peoples - mainly the perfection of form (Greeks), mind (Plato) and strength (Romans). In the 19th century, a magnificent, although fragile, foundation for the idea of ​​perfection was erected by German idealist philosophy, which, in the person of Hegel, taught that the development of world life is a process of self-revelation of the deity, that the goal of this development is the complete embodiment of the deity in man, and that this development is subject to the laws of logical necessity. Ardent defenders of unconditional progress were also O. Comte and Renan, who, equally recognizing the three stages of historical development, believed that through this development “out of everything that exists, a resultant will arise, which will be God.” Then, the idea of ​​progress and development found a less grandiose, but apparently more solid foundation in the modern philosophy of evolutionism (Darwin, G. Spencer). Many modern philosophers and moralists of all kinds explore the idea of ​​self-improvement. Thus, Wundt in his “Ethics,” referring the ethical ideal to the realm of the infinite, defines it, on the one hand, as the limitless development of man’s spiritual powers and, on the other hand, as the gradual reduction of obstacles opposing this development. The French moralist Guyot places individual life, the most intense and most varied in its forms, as the highest ideal of man. This is also the ideal of the highest individual of Barres. Our Russian philosophers and thinkers for the most part also teach about the ideal of perfection; are: V.D. Kudryavtsev, A.A., Kozlov, who define it as the comprehensive development and improvement of the nature of each person to infinity, or to the limit represented in the Supreme Being; V.V. Rozanov, who believes the highest goal of human life is the realization of the ideals of truth, goodness, beauty and freedom - ideals that are embraced in the concept of the perfection of human nature, etc. But Fr. deserves special attention as a defender of the idea of ​​the perfection of human nature. Nietzsche, who in this regard is distinguished by remarkable consistency. While some of the above-mentioned authors include in the concept of human perfection the Christian virtues of humility, love, compassion, faith, and others combine the ideas of happiness and perfection, believing that as a person improves, he becomes happier, Nietzsche is a fan of the pure idea of ​​​​natural perfection. With complete frankness, he admits that the Christian ideal of humility and love and the ideal of natural perfection lie in completely different areas. The morality of altruism sacrifices a person to society, it restrains his power instincts, smoothes out individuality, and brings all people to the same level. Nietzsche also armed himself against attachment to happiness. Pleasure and pain cannot measure the value of things. The love of peace relaxes a person. Suffering is a school in which everything truly great in a person is developed. Happiness is not a goal, but an end; it is a state that makes a person despicable and ridiculous. Man, according to Nietzsche, is called to develop in himself the power and splendor of his nature - the splendor of soul and body. Through development, he must surpass the boundaries within which his nature lies under the present conditions of life - he must surpass himself. The long unconscious development of nature reached in him the light of individual life; in an equally long and also unconscious historical development, man stood out from the animal kingdom and unlearned how to behave like a beast. Now he must realize his power, and consciously move towards developing himself into a higher biological type. The flourishing of the human personality, before which society is reduced to the level of the crowd, is the calling of man, the fulfillment of which gives meaning to the whole world’s life. Man must become a superman (Uebermensch)... The famous writer Flammarion in the novel “In the Heavens” (Uranie) describes the highest breeds of creatures - the inhabitants of the most distant planets. The eyes of these creatures are more perfect than our best telescopes; their nervous system begins to vibrate even when a comet passes through their world and electrically introduces them to phenomena of which we, the inhabitants of the earth, have no idea; instead of printing, they use direct photography of events and phonetic reproduction of original words and speeches; they are gifted with the ability to sense physical and chemical phenomena occurring inside their body; they have a sixth sense - autographic, through which a thought is transmitted by itself from one being to another, without words. These are the creatures, according to Nietzsche’s views, that should serve as an ideal for man... It should be noted that the perfection to which a person naturally strives and which is indicated by the goal of human life is precisely natural or biological perfection, adult perfection, and that the limit of perfection to which a person feels capable and is recognized as called is infinity, i.e. improvement is assumed to be limitless. The endless development of the natural abilities of the body and soul, unlimited by the expansion of the power of natural forces - this is what is recognized as the goal of human life. Can natural perfection be the goal of human life and the idea of ​​perfection the highest guiding principle of human activity? Undoubtedly, the biological and historical past of man presents obvious traces of development. Thus, the origin of man is the final stage of previous evolution. The earth itself, with all its beauty and suitability for the life of living beings, arose gradually from a formless mass; The organic life that arose on it gradually ascended from the simplest species to the most perfect of all forms of earthly life in the person of man. The appearance of man on earth was the beginning of a new development in the field of spirit. History is the evolution of human consciousness. Through communication in thoughts and feelings, through accumulating spiritual content, consciousness develops both in an individual person from childhood to old age, and in all of humanity. However, we must pay attention to the fact that the origin of man, the birth in his person of conscious mental life, was at the same time the beginning of the division between aspiration and real content, which in man does not cover his aspiration - the beginning of a discord between the ideal and reality. Human consciousness itself is the consciousness of the difference between what can be and should be, in general, what a person strives for, and what he actually is. Therefore, mental-conscious life cannot be recognized as simply a product of previous biological development, but it should be seen as a new beginning that has entered into biological evolution. This thought in the word of God is expressed in the narrative that the Lord God, having created man from the dust of the ground, Himself breathed into his face the breath of life, after which man became a living soul (Gen. II, 7). The developed organization was not a producer of mental life, but only a condition for its manifestation. Otherwise, this discord between aspiration and reality would be incomprehensible. Nature itself cannot create anything that would surpass itself, even if only in aspiration. In this respect, man is the only phenomenon in nature. And this circumstance in itself forces us to assume that the historical development following organic evolution is not the same biological development, but is subject to different laws. And indeed, the historical development of human consciousness is not biological development, it is not a transition from one biological type to another; it is not subject to the law of continuous progress, as is supposed by those teachings which see the goal of life in natural perfection, but is subject to the law of ages. In individual human life, the limit of development does not coincide with the limit of life itself, but prevents it; Usually the age of the highest flowering of an individual contains at its center a turning point at which progressive development ceases and from which life begins to decline, gradually approaching death. In the field of mental creativity, the middle age of life is the most fruitful: the brilliant thoughts of Newton, Kant, Comte were born and fully formed at this age. The same is true in the field of aesthetic creativity. Even for moral self-improvement, old age is an unfavorable age. “Of course, old age,” let’s say in the words of Dimitri, Archbishop. Khersonsky, - tames the passionate impulses of the heart, cools the imagination heated by passions, dulls the feelings thirsting for pleasures and pleasures, but at the same time it extinguishes that bright flame that could ignite a living desire for everything holy. “The old age that lies ahead is terrible, terrible,” writes Gogol, “and it gives nothing back and forth! The grave is more merciful than her.”... Likewise, the history of peoples does not confirm the hypothesis of unconditional progress. This is revealed with convincing clarity, among other things, in the article by Prof. V.D. Kudryavtsev (“Unconditional progress and true improvement of the human race”), which the ideal of perfection considers unattainable for man without the assistance of the grace of God. And the life of peoples is subject to the same law of ages. Just as, looking at a child, we are sure that he will grow up to be a man or a woman, so every barbarian people, if it is no longer degenerate after a better past, has reason to expect its future culture and civilization; but, in the same way, just as an inevitable old age awaits a husband, so for nations, after childhood and courage, their own old age comes. Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome serve as proof of this. The development of consciousness is not delayed by this law of ages; it occurs under this law. Already a child can feel his relationship to the world around him and God, and is aware of his material insignificance; but the old man, who comes to the same consciousness after experiencing the flowering of courage, more deeply comprehends his position in the world, more truly realizes his natural insignificance. In childhood, this consciousness is not free, since the child has not yet comprehended his strengths, has not experienced the limitlessness of aspirations; together he feels himself to be the center of everything around him; in manhood, a person is carried away by the manifestation of his powers, but in old age he again comes to a childish consciousness, only he comes freely, because, having experienced his prime, he consciously renounces what his nature carries him towards. Every nation comes to this same consciousness in its old age. But this development of consciousness, from the point of view of the ideal of biological perfection, has no significance. Defenders of unconditional progress and the ideals of adult perfection see the improvement of human nature in historical development. “From an ideal point of view,” writes Taylor (“Primitive Culture”), “civilization can be looked upon as the general improvement of the human race through the higher organization of the individual and the whole society.” It is this improvement of the human body that we do not see in history. Let us compare a man of the past nineteenth century, a century of extraordinary and amazing advances in the field of technical and material knowledge and means, with a man of the most ancient history, whose life we ​​more or less know, for example. with the people of the first pages of the book of Genesis: during this period, has man taken at least one step towards the ideals of Nietzsche? No, I didn't. Let today a person rush quickly on locomotives, steamships, fly through the air, blow up the interior of the earth, let him go far in the field of technical improvements, all kinds of telephones, microphones, phonographs; but consider the man himself on a balloon, on a locomotive, on a steamboat, or at the very moment when he is flying headlong from the balloon to the ground, sinking along with an improved steamship into the sea or before this moment - consider him when he is swarming, gasping for breath, in the ground, tearing out precious metals and stones, when he, pale, breathes in the smoke and stench of factories and plants producing telephones and phonographs - this man, suffering from the same diseases, the same ignorant in dealing with essential issues of knowledge, with the same moral weakness, the same beast in war as thousands of years ago - how close is he to a new biological type?! History does not provide any indication of a new biological type in the sense of Nietzsche's teaching. The psychological fact of man's dissatisfaction with any stage of development, correctly understood, does not in the least speak in favor of the hypothesis of endless improvement. Words by F.M. Dostoevsky's explanation of this fact is as deep as it is true. “I agree,” he says through the mouth of one of his heroes, “man is an animal, primarily a creator, destined to strive for a goal consciously and engage in the art of engineering, i.e. eternally and continuously pave the way for oneself, no matter where it may be. But this is precisely why he sometimes wants to swerve to the side, because the road almost always goes somewhere, and that the main thing is not where it goes, but that it just goes and that a well-behaved child does not indulge in idleness, which, as we know, is the mother of all vices. Man loves to create and pave roads for himself, this is undeniable. But why does he also passionately love destruction and chaos?.. Man is a frivolous and unseemly creature and, perhaps, like a chess player, loves only the process of achieving a goal, and not the goal itself. And who knows (one cannot guarantee), it may be that the whole goal on earth, to which a person strives, lies only in this continuity of the process of achievement, in other words, “in life itself, and not in the goal itself” (Cf. Ushinsky “Man as a subject of education,” vol. II, chapter XLVIII, 10; chapter LI, §13 and 14). In any case, without contradicting psychological reality, one can distinguish between the desire for perfection, which is actually a naturally necessary development illuminated by consciousness, and the desire for perfection, which is already a revelation of free personal will, a person’s relationship to his nature. One can then, just as above we distinguished the innate desire for happiness from the derivative desire for happiness, assert that the desire for perfection itself is innate to man, and the desire for perfection is productive, although this derivative desire for natural perfection arises entirely on the basis of man’s innate desire for improvement and therefore can also be called natural. The idea of ​​natural perfection cannot serve as a principle of activity. A consistent defender of the idea of ​​natural perfection, Nietzsche, frankly recognizes the ideal of natural perfection as lying outside the realm in which good and evil are distinguished. However, not all philosophers, as we have seen, recognize such a sequence as inevitable; and it is important for us not only to prove that the idea of ​​perfection cannot serve as a principle of activity, but also to make some clarifications in connection with this position. Therefore, we, without limiting ourselves to the remark made regarding Nietzsche, will enter into a more detailed consideration of the arguments in favor of the guiding significance of the idea of ​​natural perfection. The idea of ​​perfection, we say, cannot serve as a principle of activity. But what, they will say: aren’t we saying that the ideas of truth, goodness and beauty should not have guiding significance for free human activity? And without these ideas, is cognitive, moral and artistic activity possible? We do not say this, but we distinguish the guiding significance of the ideas of truth, goodness and beauty from the principle of perfection. If the idea of ​​truth were not presented to our minds, then cognitive activity would be completely disordered; If we did not distinguish good from evil and beauty from ugliness, then moral and artistic activity would be impossible. But it’s another matter to strive for perfection, i.e. to desire, through mental, moral and aesthetic development, to master the very truth, goodness and beauty, to make them their personal property. The terms: east, west, north and south define movement on earth without being themselves the goal of movement. You cannot sail on the sea without a compass, but it would be completely absurd if anyone set the goal of the journey to actually reach the east or west. The same applies to mental development towards the ideas of truth, goodness and beauty. Thus, driven by natural curiosity, I, under the guidance of the idea of ​​truth, carry out this or that physical experiment and make sure that water rises in pumps from air pressure, and not because nature is afraid of emptiness, I explore this or that historical event, accumulate knowledge, bring it into a system; but until I have set myself the goal of achieving perfect knowledge, or perfection of knowledge, I do not think through gradual mental development, through the accumulation of knowledge and its systematization, to reach the truth itself, to master it. On the contrary, my mental development may be accompanied by the consciousness that “I only know that I know nothing”; As I accumulate knowledge, the question may arise more and more persistently in me: “What is truth?” The fact is that various knowledge, such as: 2 x 2 4, the earth revolves around the sun, Alexander the Great founded a world monarchy, do not constitute truth. After all, if everything external only exists, if every external object is subject to destruction and every being is subject to death, if everything we know in the external world is the product of my mind, if outside of me there is no color or sound, then does my knowledge bring me closer to the truth? If Alexander the Great died and no longer exists, if his monarchy disintegrated and was destroyed, then the knowledge: “Alexander the Great founded a world monarchy” is knowledge of what was and what is not, i.e. is not knowledge of the truth. If the visibility of the earth and the sun is only apparent, then the knowledge: “the earth revolves around the sun” is not knowledge of the truth; if it is true that 2 rubles † 2 rubles 4 rubles, whether rubles exist or not, then this is not the truth. When Socrates said: “I only know that I know nothing,” and Pilate asked Christ: “What is truth?”, this is not because they did not know that 2 x 2 4, etc., but because they knew a lot, but saw that this knowledge is not knowledge of the truth. In the same way, while I am only guided by the distinction of good from evil and beauty from ugliness, I do not yet think of mastering goodness itself and beauty itself through gradual moral and aesthetic development. Personal moral feat does not result in a person’s approach to absolute goodness, and great ascetics condemn a person “who, for the feat, expects perfect and unchangeable repose” and hopes to “achieve the perfection of holiness” (more on this below). The truth that Christ revealed to the world, and that real good - spiritual life - for which He is the source, were not a product of historical development, but were given to the world, were the work of a new creation. On the contrary, the principle of natural perfection means that natural development is recognized as an inevitable and steady path to perfection: according to this principle, the more knowledge a person acquires, the closer he is to the truth - aesthetic development creates a new biological type - through historical evolution “from everything that is, a resultant arises, which will be God.” This is what we deny. There is one clever tale about how one father, in his dying will, pointed out to his sons a treasure buried in the garden. When the father died, the sons began to dig the garden, looking for the treasure. What happened? They did not find the treasure, but the dug up garden brought them abundant fruits. The relationship between digging up a garden and bearing fruit is an image of the guiding significance of the ideas of truth, goodness and beauty that we accept1. Love truth, goodness and beauty, and everything you do out of this love will be good; the very life of a person who loves truth and goodness is good, regardless of the degree to which these ideals are manifested in life. The relationship between digging up a garden and an imaginary treasure is an image of the biological significance of ideals, the actual idea of ​​perfection. There, gradual development is considered as a form of humanity, i.e. conditional perfection, here development is recognized as a progressive movement towards absolute perfection. 1 S.N. Trubetskoy about V.P. Preobrazhensky (“V.F. and Poe, book 54): “he was a skeptic out of conscientious love for philosophy” (p. 486). But, they will say, isn’t morality itself consisted in the striving for perfection? Let us, in turn, ask: what is actually good in a moral sense—the desire for improvement in itself, or does it receive the highest value from the final ideal of perfection? The desire for improvement is inherent in our very nature; it is actually a naturally necessary development illuminated by consciousness. By nature we are inquisitive and love the morally beautiful. Human development occurs according to immutable laws, and depends on the will more in a negative than in a positive sense: a person can slow it down by will. Therefore, the desire for improvement can be called good only in an objective sense - in the sense in which the light is good, the firmament of heaven is good, man was created very good (Gen. I), but it is not subject to moral assessment. It in itself does not yet express the direction of personal will, or the relationship of a person to nature. Good and duty apply only to a person, to his relationships. In the desire for perfection, such an attitude of a person to nature is already manifested: in this case, a person gives a certain direction to natural development, sets a certain goal for him in achieving perfection. Is such free-personal striving good? Even if perfection in itself is good, is a person’s desire for personal possession of it good? We see an unshakable reason for ourselves to answer this question negatively in the biblical narrative that the first and main sin of people was their desire to be like gods, knowing good and evil, i.e. the desire for personal possession of divine perfection. This desire is evil because it is a person’s desire to take the place of God, to personally be the center of being, to be self-satisfied2. The desire for perfection can be linked to that inclination towards happiness, which we above called a derivative. The desire for happiness from natural development and the desire for personal possession of absolute perfection are one and the same. Therefore, the word of God is directed against adult perfection as personal dignity: “what is high among people is an abomination to God” (Luke XVI, 15), “the power of God is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. XII, 9, cf. Matt. XVIII, 3–4; Mark IX, 33–37; Luke IX, 46–48; Matt. XIX, 13–15; Mark X, 13–16; Luke XVIII, 15–17; 1 Cor. I, 21, 27–28). The evil of this striving coincides with the unattainability of its goal: the divine is inaccessible to man in the predicate of absolute perfection, the infinite is unattainable for the finite. From the psychological side, the evil of the desire for perfection is revealed in the fact that a person, imagining perfection as achievable, necessarily limits it in his understanding, replaces it with an external symbol, places it at some specific point in his development, and therefore the latter can no longer be accomplished freely, but is delayed by the intended point, mistakenly taken for perfection. There is something fatal in the fact that a hermit, who has been mortifying his flesh for decades, is exposed to such temptations from which ordinary people are free; that the persecutors of Christ were priests, scribes, and Pharisees; that the scientist has to envy the immediate sensitivity to truth that the simpleton has. The desire for perfect knowledge turns hypotheses into axioms, builds a narrow framework, like a Procrustean bed, for the vast reality, makes a person gullible, makes him invent laws instead of actually studying them, creates fanatics. “Not knowing all the reasons and approaching their search without due composure, impartiality and patience, they usually formulate divinatory, illusory and false teachings, perverting or hiding the truth, and putting up barriers to its discovery” (Nicolas). How often has the fanatical conviction of possessing the truth put obstacles in the way of discoveries and inventions!.. But the following objection can be made to our reasoning. Let it be said that the desire for theoretical and aesthetic perfection is a sin; But is it a sin to strive for perfection in the moral sphere? We are called to moral perfection: can this be doubted? That moral perfection cannot be the goal of human life is recognized by Christian preachers. “The purpose of life,” writes the archbishop. Paul, the former exarch of Georgia (in a word on the text: the Lord made everything for himself) - the goal of human life cannot lie in man himself, neither in his moral perfection, nor in his happiness... This goal would turn out to be unrealizable and therefore unworthy of God. "... This truth seems paradoxical only because moral perfection is usually identified with the Christian ideal of love and faith. But you need to distinguish one from the other, as will be shown below. Let's consider human morality: is this the area of ​​exclusively free personal relationships of a person, or is it, at least in part, a natural area of ​​human life? Undoubtedly the latter. The morally beautiful is, first of all, the property and character of the natural will - it is good, in the objective sense indicated above, in the field of natural will. Just as the properties of the mind are created by the nature of knowledge, and the mind can be slow or fast, dull or sharp, more or less enriched with knowledge, so the properties of the natural will are created by the nature of the relationship between soul and body, and the will can be more or less free from the shackles of the body. Freedom of the soul from the shackles of the body, strength of will - this is morally beautiful, and slavery to the body is morally ugly. We call this area of ​​morality natural, because in this area a person’s personal desire is limited by nature. Thus, the very desire for freedom from the shackles of the body, for mastery over it, as a result of which we have an idea of ​​​​the morally beautiful, is an innate desire for us; but, on the other hand, a person is not morally beautiful to the extent of his personal desire, since by the time of the development of self-consciousness a person finds his natural will already with certain inclinations, properties and powers, as a result of which there is a contradiction between personal desire and natural will3. This confrontation is especially vividly depicted in the famous words of St. Paul: “... when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For according to the inner man I delight in the law of God; but in my members I see another law, opposing the law of my mind... Poor man I am! who will deliver me from this body of death?.. So with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin” (Rom. VII: 21-25). Phenomena of morality, as natural ones, are not imputed to a person and are not subject to evaluation from the point of view of unconditional good: natural modesty cannot be praised by a person, although this does not cease to be morally beautiful and desirable, and natural weakness of the will, natural evil cannot, conventionally speaking, be imputed to a person, although it does not cease from this to be morally ugly, deserving of hatred (v. 15). But while the properties of the natural will that make up morality, including the natural desire for moral improvement, form the natural domain, man still has a personal relationship to his nature in general and moral nature in particular4. 2 That science and art can be desirable from a eudaimonic point of view is also psychologically certain and is even confirmed by the history of philosophy. 3 We thus distinguish natural will from personal will: in this case, we first of all stand on the basis of patristic psychology. See: (Tareev M.M.] The Humiliation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, M., 1901, pp. 138–139. 4 And asceticism can be eudaimonic, and a strong will can be evil, but it can also be good... It is this personal attitude of a person towards his moral nature, as well as towards other aspects of it, that is subject to assessment from the point of view of unconditional good. In the words of the ap. Paul: “Poor man I am! who will deliver me from this body of death?”, in this awareness of his natural weakness, a person’s personal attitude towards his moral nature is already expressed. The desire for happiness and the desire for perfection in the moral field, initially coinciding and then diverging, also express a person’s personal attitude towards his nature. The desire for happiness - we mean derivative - gives rise to passions, and it turns out that a person’s personal desire in relation to nature is limited more in a positive direction than in a negative one: for a person who has inherited a morally corrupt nature, it is impossible to achieve moral purity, but he can pervert his nature5. The pursuit of happiness is the opposite of good and is sin. The desire for personal moral perfection is the opposite of that consciousness of natural insignificance, which is expressed in the words of St. Pavel. How should we evaluate this human desire for personal moral perfection? Man's striving for natural perfection, both in other areas and in the moral area, cannot be called good. Looking ahead, without the proper connection, which will be indicated below, solely to show the idea that moral weakness, when it does not depend on a person and even overcomes him against his will, has providential significance, we will give the following evidence of the same apostle. Paul: “So that I would not become exalted,” he writes, “by the extraordinary nature of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, the angel of Satan, to oppress me, so that I would not become exalted. Three times I prayed to the Lord to remove him from me. But the Lord said to me: My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. XII: 7-9)6. The idea that the striving for moral perfection is not good seems inconvenient because what is morally beautiful should, in any case, be recognized as good: why is the striving for perfection in this area not good? But the fact is that the desire for personal perfection in the moral field is an act of will, different from moral improvement, and completely identical with the desire for natural perfection in other areas. In order to properly evaluate the desire for moral perfection, one must keep in mind that the main thing in this desire is not that it is a desire for moral perfection, but that it is a desire for personal absolute perfection, albeit in a good area. But other areas - mental and aesthetic - are good in themselves. To make our thought more understandable, we can express it this way: the desire for personal moral perfection is the desire to personally possess moral absolute perfection, the desire to achieve it on our own, while ap. Paul only prayed to God that He would remove him from the “foul of the flesh”7 - the desire for moral complacency, self-indulgence, self-righteousness. Just as the desire for personal absolute perfection in other areas, so the desire for moral perfection is generated by selfishness and gives rise to evil, i.e., it hinders moral development itself. And in the moral area, the desire for perfection is similar to what would happen if a person, walking down the stairs, wanted to jump with third level to the highest: he will fall even lower than the third level. He who truly develops morally is one who loves moral purity, but does not set himself the task of achieving personal absolute perfection. “I thought,” St. Gregory the Theologian turns his word to God, “I thought that as soon as I made You alone the desired lot, and at the same time I cast all the scum of life into the sea, then, bringing me closer to To your deity, my pompous mind has already placed it far from the flesh; but this entangled me in troubles and inevitable sorrows. Your glory delighted me high; but Your glory has placed me on earth. You are always angry with great pride.” From moral activity, the desire for perfection transforms the fight against bodily limitations and conventions through the assimilation of external symbolic actions into legalistic self-righteousness. The frantic hermit of India with savagery disfigures his body, extinguishes all signs of life in himself for the self-invented purposes of liberating the spirit from the shackles of sinful flesh. For the same purposes, the worshiper of Zibella and Mylitta drowns his self-consciousness in orgies of debauchery. The Pharisees and scribes, proud of their outward righteousness, give tithes of cumin and anise to God, but with the letter they mortify the spirit within themselves - with the letter of the law and external symbolic deeds. People pay a high price for their desire for personal absolute perfection. True representatives of moral activity and great teachers of humanity in this field are well aware of the detrimental significance for morality of a proud striving for personal perfection, they confidently and fervently warn a person against presumptuous struggle with the imperfections of his nature, remind him of “the measure of his nature.” “A sign of chastity,” writes St. Gregory the Theologian - to know the measure of your life. It is equally bad for you to put aside good hope and to have too bold a thought that it is not difficult to be perfect. In both cases, your mind is on a bad road. Always try to ensure that your arrow hits the very target; be careful not to fly further than the commandment of the great Christ; beware of not fully fulfilling the commandment; in both cases the goal was not achieved. And excess is often very useless when, wanting new glory, we strain the arrow beyond measure."8 5 As an expression of personal will, moral responsibility is imputed to a person. 6 Wed. Tareev M.M. Temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ. M. 1900, pp. 115 et seq. - Except for the words of the ap. Paul, in order to clarify the idea that what is morally pure does not constitute the highest good, that moral defilement can have the highest religious significance, we can point to Matt. XXI, 31: publicans and harlots (cf. Luke XVIII, 13: the publican did not even dare to raise his eyes to heaven...) ahead of you (high priests, elders, Pharisees, cf. Luke XVIII, 11, also XVI, 15) go to the kingdom of God (cf. Luke V, 32). St. Gregory the Great, saying that shepherds, listening to confessed sins, become defiled like water in a laver, writes that this should not frighten the shepherd, because God cleanses him from his own sins to the extent that he is defiled by the sins of others (Deo subtiliter cuncla pensante tanto facilius a sua eripitur, quanlo misericordtus ex aliena tentatione fatigatur – Reg. past H, 5). Also cf. Os. I ; Ezek. IV. 7 Both this thought and the question raised in general will be developed below. Now all we need to do is express our thoughts. 8 We repeat that we will return to this subject further below. If we were to also consider the area of ​​human relationships, which can be called another side of morality along with the one indicated, we would also see that here the desire for perfection of the social order denies itself in its results. An example is the Roman state. Roman citizens were slaves of their state; they sacrificed their mind, heart, will to him; they knew no other religion than the state, no other honor than the civil. And so the iron organism of state life absorbed all the juices of its citizens, corroded everything that was natural in them, and replaced it with its own artificial: its laws were as heavy and harmful for citizens as vices are destructive for a person. Ut olim vitiis, sic nunc legibus laboramuse. Natural absolute perfection is unattainable for humans. Even if we assume that natural development is a direct path to perfection, to achieving the ideals of truth and goodness, that a person, developing and naturally improving, approaches, albeit in infinitely small steps, to absolute perfection, then even in this case perfection should be recognized as unattainable for man. “In order to become like (through natural improvement) an infinite being, you need infinite time” (V.D. Kudryavtsev), and yet the life of each individual person ends in death. “The end of all local power is powerlessness, and the end of all local beauty is ugliness” (B.S. Solovyov “The Justification of Good”). But perhaps such endless time and endless development are given either for all of humanity in endless historical development or for each person in the afterlife? Endless historical development? But not to mention the fact that there is no reason to consider humanity infinite in time, the very concept of endless development is nonsense (B.S. Soloviev). A goal infinitely distant is not a goal (N.N. Strakhov). Endless development in the afterlife? Let us assume that endless development in the afterlife is possible and makes sense; but in this case, absolute perfection, as achievable only in the afterlife, cannot be the goal of our temporary life here. But absolute perfection is unattainable for a finite being in essence. “The difference between absolute and relative perfection is not power or quantitative, but qualitative and significant” (B.S. Solovyov), and therefore relative perfection cannot turn into absolute. And not only cannot, but the desire to transform the first into the second leads a person to directly opposite results, i.e. not only does it not bring him closer to absolute perfection, but also retards his very natural development. We just pointed this out... We noted above that it is possible to distinguish between the desire for perfection and the desire for perfection and that the first is derivative and the second is innate. The desire for improvement, otherwise conscious natural-necessary development, forces a person to recognize his natural limitations; the desire for perfection - the selfish desire for personal, self-satisfied possession of absolute perfection, the desire to “be like God” - gives rise to evil - delusion, moral evil and ugliness. Both the experimental knowledge of natural limitations and the consciousness of evil generated by the will cause suffering to a person. True, this difference is difficult to discern in the positive direction of the will in relation to natural inclinations. The fact is that evil in humanity is hereditary and in each of us it is not only generated by the personal direction of the will, but also opposes the personal will as given along with nature; and even the very direction of our will is undoubtedly influenced by both heredity and the environment, and this, together with the fact that the desire for perfection arises entirely on the basis of naturally necessary development, gives reason to call this desire natural. But on the negative side, this difference is quite noticeable. It is by an act of personal will that a person can suppress in himself the desire for personal possession of absolute perfection, and with it suppress in himself the source from which evil is generated and the suffering associated with the evil generated. But he is not able to destroy in himself the desire for improvement, which gives him the experimental knowledge of his natural limitations and hereditary evil - he is not able to destroy the suffering associated with this knowledge. This is how Cicero argues (De fin. V, 18,48) about innate curiosity: Tantus est innatus in nobis cognitionis amor et scientiae, ut nemo dubitare possit, quin ad eas res hominum natura nullo emolumento invitata rapiatur. Videmusne, ut pueri ne verberibus quidem a contemplandis rebus perquirendisque deterreantur? ut pulse recurrent? ut aliquid scire se gaudeant? ut aliis narrare gestiant? ut pompa, ludis atque ejusmodi spectaculis teneantur ob eamque rem vel famem et sitim perferant? Quid vero? Qui ingenuis studiis atque artibus delectantur, nonne videmus eos nee valetudinis nee rei familiaris habere rationem omniaque perpeti ipsa cognitione et scientia captos et cum maximis curis et laborious compensare earn, quam ex discendo capiant, voluptatem? Should not the same be said about the power of innate modesty, about the power of conscience, under the burden of which hardened sinners fall, about the desire for freedom and beauty?.. The severity of suffering from evil generated by the will and suffering of the will from natural limitations depends on the direction of the will. For a person who is completely imbued with the desire for personal happiness and perfection, the more difficult are the sufferings that are generated by this very desire, these are the burning suffering of the thirst for wealth and honors, the torment of a criminal conscience, the powerlessness and delusions of a proud mind... But when a person is cleansed of arbitrary evil, when a more divine self-consciousness is born and grows in him, the sensitivity of his conscience increases, the dignity in which he himself is exalted cognizes, then the suffering of the will arises and grows stronger from natural limitations and hereditary infirmities. CHAPTER FOUR. Spiritual perfection and external humiliation; bliss and suffering in Christianity; L.N. Tolstoy According to the accepted plan, we will now consider the opinion that sees in religion a sufficient basis for complete human happiness and perfection and recognizes natural means for achieving the good as unsuitable as they are superfluous, and the very desire for happiness and perfection as a painful self-deception from which true religion frees. The representative of this opinion is L.N. Tolstoy. View of L.N. Tolstoy, at least in that respect, is diametrically opposed to the philosophy of Fr. Nietzsche - and this opposite9, to the credit of our writer - that Nietzsche’s philosophy denies Christianity, and Tolstoy’s view is an understanding of Christianity. Therefore, an analysis of Tolstoy’s views should lead to a true understanding of Christianity, i.e. to the establishment of a higher synthesis of ideal aspirations with the limitations of nature. 9 Wed. Art. N.Ya. Grota, Fr. Nietzsche and L. Tolstoy in “V.F. and Ps.", book. 16. L.N. Tolstoy proceeds from the position that life is given to man for joy, and therefore his own good should be the last goal of a person’s aspirations. And in reality, all people want only one thing - to be happy. Why, despite all our enormous efforts, do we not achieve happiness? Because we do not follow the true path to happiness, but the false one: we strive for the happiness of our “animal personality.” The happiness of the animal personality is impossible, because the desire for such happiness leads people to fight with each other, because animal life cannot be free from suffering and, finally, because animal life is subject to death. In order to get rid of suffering and achieve true happiness, one should renounce the recognition of the benefits of the animal personality as the true purpose of life - one should, on the contrary, live in love for others. True good will only be possible for you when you strive for the happiness of others. The pleasure of doing good, says Pierre (“War and Peace”), is the only true happiness in life. All you have to do, thought Kitty (“Anna Karenina”), is to forget yourself and think about others, and you will be calm, happy and beautiful. Love for others is a requirement of rational consciousness. Life, according to rational law, is a new form of existence that replaces animal existence, just as it is necessary to destroy a grain when a sprout appears. Intelligent life stands above space-time conditions and is not subject to suffering and the law of death. One has only to live for the good of others - and the deceptive thirst for pleasure will disappear, which will be replaced by undoubtedly fruitful and joyful activity aimed at the good of others. Growing up to this new form of life, a person throws off the form of animal existence as an unnecessary shell, which for the growth of rational consciousness has no positive significance: rational consciousness is in itself a sufficient, unconditional basis for a good, perfect life; man, as a rational being, is perfect in himself, independent of all forms of animal existence. Animal existence is evil. Tolstoy attributes to the animal personality and the realm of animal existence everything that is inherent in imperfection and with which suffering is associated. All existing forms of civilized and cultural life are forms of animal existence, good for nothing. Human perfection does not lie in the wealth of knowledge, not in technology, not in the forms of political relations and social structure, but in the internal harmony of relationships in the sense of truth, beauty, and goodness. Development not only does not constitute an inevitable path to this ideal, a necessary condition for this perfection, but has a negative attitude towards it; it is an obstacle placed by the Creator to the achievement of this ideal. Man is born perfection, Tolstoy exclaims after Rousseau. Our ideal is not in front, but it is behind us. True perfection is quite natural for a person and does not cost him much effort. Here the point is not in artificial forms of life, not in the laws of the church, sociological, state, but in freedom from all these chains. Leave a person to himself - and he will be good and kind; when he is good and kind, he will be happy. The analysis of L. Tolstoy’s view of Christianity should begin with where we left the analysis of eudaimonism and the idea of ​​natural perfection. It was precisely said that happiness and natural perfection are unattainable for man; Tolstoy, agreeing that a person cannot achieve his good by worldly means and through natural development, argues that Christian good is accompanied by the freedom of man from suffering and evil, that Christianity frees a person from suffering, that a person can achieve his good through Christian life. The good, he says, is accessible to man: it’s all about the means to achieve it. “What you call your pleasures will only be good for you when you do not take it yourself, but others give them (i.e. these same pleasures) to you... Only then will you get rid of real suffering when others save you from them, and not you yourself.” Therefore, let us consider whether the true one, i.e. Christian religion is the basis for happiness, as the absence of suffering, and for perfection, as the absence of evil. And this is not just an abstractly possible point of view on Christianity. And in reality such an aesthetic attitude to the teachings of Christ is possible. This or that person may look at Christianity from a worldly point of view, may see in it only a few rules of life in order to use them in worldly interests. In Art. “What is happiness?” Tolstoy writes: “Christ, revealing His teaching, tells people that by fulfilling His teaching, they will be happier than those who do not fulfill it. Christ says that there is a true worldly calculation not to care about the life of the world... Reasoning abstractly, the position of the disciples of Christ should be more advantageous than the position of the disciples of the world... Christ teaches exactly how we can get rid of our misfortunes and live happily.” So, let's consider Christianity as a means of improving earthly life. Christianity, indeed, frees a person from some of the suffering and evil, precisely from those sufferings with which people torment themselves in the pursuit of happiness and natural perfection. The psychological calculation for Christian life in this regard represents an expansion of the horizon of life, an increase in the sources of happiness by one more. It has long been realized that mental work is not Egyptian work, as it seems to someone who is accustomed to working only with an axe, but gives great pleasure; everyone agrees that art is also a source of sublime pleasures. It’s time to realize that Christian life, from a purely psychological point of view, gives a person moments of great joy. This freedom from the persistent and difficult demands of a vain worldly life is a respite from the pursuit of gross pleasures, this new look at human relationships, the manifestation of untested impulses of religious feeling, the sound of still untouched strings of the heart - this is a whole new sphere of inner activity of the spirit! And Tolstoy, opening this sphere to worldly feeling, showed himself to be a great artist more than in his fictional works. In connection with this psychological phenomenon, the truth must be stated that at the beginning of turning to Christ, a person is given extraordinary sweetness. The Word of God knows the delights of the first turn to God, and not only knows, but also depicts them in deeply touching features under the image of first marital love (Jer. II, 2, etc.). The same truth is confirmed by ascetic writing, such as, for example, Rev. Feofan in an excerpt that will be given below. This is the truth of L. Tolstoy. But, freeing a person from arbitrary suffering, Christianity does not extinguish in him the innate desire for happiness and improvement and does not destroy those sufferings that are learned along the way of this desire - bodily and mental limitations, hereditary evil and external suffering. The final result of Christian life is the complete destruction of natural evil and tranquility of the spirit, but this is the result of Christian life, and not its beginning, this is the property of that future life, in which God will destroy the very womb, in which they do not marry, do not get married, live an angelic life, and not the property of this temporary life. Ascetic writing marks with perfect clarity three periods in Christian life: the initial rise of the spirit, the period of intimate communion with God and God’s action in the soul, and the final effective communion with God. Yes, ep. Theophan (“The Path to Salvation”) writes: “to the one converted through the sacraments, the grace that comes unites with him and first allows him to taste all the sweetness of life according to God, and then hides its presence from him, leaving him to act as if alone, among labors, sweats, bewilderment and even falls; finally, after this period of testing, it takes possession of him clearly, effectively, strongly, tangibly."10. This period of testing, generally speaking, continues until the grave. So, Christianity cannot be the basis of human happiness as freedom from suffering, and perfection as freedom from evil, and the complete worldly reliance on Christianity turns out to be at least naive. “If we hope in Christ in this life only, then we are the most miserable of all people” (1 Cor. XV, 19 ) 11. To the direct question: if a worldly person takes the path of Christian life with the direct goal of finding happiness along this path, will he achieve his goal - this question must be answered in the negative. It is strange to hear a positive answer to this question from Tolstoy, who in his artistic works presents us with numerous types of doers who did not find happiness in doing good. Here before us is Nekhlyudov, who “received with pleasure the idea that love and goodness are truth and happiness, and the only truth and the only possible happiness in the world; love, selflessness - this is one true happiness independent of chance.” And he lived in the village for the happiness of others - so what? A year later, he himself admitted: “For more than a year now, I have been looking for happiness on this road, and what have I found? True, sometimes I feel that I can be pleased with myself; but this is some kind of dry, reasonable contentment. Yes and no, I’m just dissatisfied with myself, I’m dissatisfied because I don’t know happiness here, but I wish, passionately wish for happiness. 10 The Path to Salvation, no. III, S.-P6.1869, p. 8. 11 That is if we walk by sight and not by faith (2 Cor. IV, 17,18; V, 7). The good that Christianity bestows on a person is called differently: truth, spiritual life, spiritual perfection, bliss. This benefit is given to man in Christianity, and does not constitute the fruit of his natural development: Christian life is a new form of life, along with physical and mental forms - spiritual, but it is not the result of previous biological development, but is a gift of God, a new Divine creativity, the Revelation of divine life. In Christ the life that was with the Father was revealed to us: Christ is the leader and finisher of this spiritual life. Spiritual life is divine life, but divine life was revealed to us in Christ and is given in Christianity not as limitless perfection, not in visible glory, not in the predicates of external omnipotence, omniscience, visible splendor, but as an internal, invisible good. Man cannot resist the external divine greatness, human nature cannot possess limitlessness: natura humana capax non est divinae. In Christ, the divine life was revealed, tempered by His condescension, so that it, as spiritual life, became bearable for our limitations. For a long time, man believed his dignity either in the external adornments of the body, in physical strength, in muscular dexterity, or in the strength of the mind, in artistic creativity, in social improvement. Christ taught man that any such external good reveals a person’s selfish aspirations, but does not constitute his inalienable property, because it is only his, and not himself. His true good and inherent dignity is the discovery of the divine life in his innermost spirit. The hidden person of the heart in the imperishable beauty of a meek and silent spirit is what is precious before God; the true dignity of a person is the invisible life of the spirit (1 Pet. III, 4; 2 Cor. IV, 18; Gal. 16, 18, etc.). Spiritual life is perfection, but not that perfection that seems to stand at the end of natural development, which consists in the wealth of knowledge and flexibility of mind, in the strength of will, in the external splendor of nature, but it is perfection in the sense of the very reality of divine life. Here, the possession of the truth coincides with the experience of the divine life (1 John IV, 7, 8), with the observance of the commandments (1 John II, 3, 4) and freedom of spirit (John VIII, 32). The commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew V, 48) makes sense: live the divine life and, as this life is primarily love (1 John IV, 16), love even your enemies (Matthew V, 44–47; cf. XIX, 21). Since love is the primary manifestation of divine life, it is also the totality of Christian perfection (Col. III, 14). Love is not the result of natural development, its source is the love of Christ for us (John XIII, 14; 1 John. IV, 7–11); but there may be a difference in the degrees of a person’s assimilation of it, a person’s growth in Christian perfection: a Christian can be an infant or an adult (Heb. V, 12–14). The fullness of Christian age in the word of God is also called perfection (1 Cor. II, 6; XIV, 20; Eph. LV, 13; Col. I, 28). But never in St. In Scripture, Christian perfection does not mean adult or cultural perfection. Finally, spiritual life is called blessedness in relation to the feelings of a Christian. In what way the spiritual life of a Christian is most immediately revealed, how it is born in him and how it grows, we will talk about this below. Now we will show the relationship of spiritual life to human suffering and weaknesses. By granting man spiritual life, which is communion with God, Christianity presupposes in him an experimental knowledge of his limitations, his weaknesses. Although happiness and natural perfection are inaccessible to man, man’s desire for happiness and perfection is not only ineradicable within him, but is also presupposed by Christianity. What makes a person capable of accepting Christianity is the never-satisfied desire for happiness and improvement, which gives a person an experienced knowledge of his natural insignificance. While proud self-satisfaction, an imaginary possession of natural perfection, and legalistic self-righteousness completely block a person’s path to spiritual life, suffering and experimental knowledge of the power of evil constitute the condition for entry into the kingdom of the Messiah. He came to call sinners to repentance, and not the righteous (Matt. IX, 13 par.), He called to Himself all those who labor and are burdened (Matt. XI, 28), towards His kingdom, tax collectors and harlots walked ahead of the high priests, elders and Pharisees (Matt. XXI, 31), who showed themselves to be righteous before people (Luke XVI, 15). The tributary Pharisee, who thanked God for the fact that he was not like other people, robbers, offenders, adulterers, was, of course, higher morally than the publican, but he stood further from the kingdom of God because he did not have that consciousness of insignificance with which the publican was imbued. So, “desiring spiritual perfection,” let’s say in the words of Anthony, bishop. Smolensky (“Collected Words”), we must base our activities on deep humility and self-abasement. The Lord Jesus Christ instills this in us throughout the Gospel, Matt. XVI, 24; V, 3; Onion. XVIII, 14. But He taught this most clearly by His own perfect example, 2 Cor. VIII, 9; Phil. I, 5–11; Matt. XI, 29... In the consciousness of one’s insignificance lies precisely the secret of exaltation and approach to the kingdom of heaven.” Blessing the poor in spirit, the hungry, the weeping, the hated and persecuted, Christ, on the contrary, says: “Woe to you, you rich! for you have already received your consolation. Woe to you who are now satiated! for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now! for you will weep and lament” (Luke VI, 20-25), etc. Calling the toiling and burdened, tax collectors and harlots, and granting them spiritual perfection and bliss, Christ, however, again sends them to suffering and humiliation, promising complete peace only in the future. “You,” He says to His disciples, “will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sorrow will turn into joy... In the world you will have sorrow; but take heart: I have overcome the world” (John XVI, 20, 33). In the word on Acts. XIV, 21, 22 (“through many sorrows we must enter the kingdom of God”) Metropolitan. Moscow Philaret rightly writes: “The Lord’s teaching about blessedness began with sorrow (Matthew V, 3, 4) and ended with even greater sorrow” (Matthew V, 11). Further citing Matt. XVI, 24,25, the preacher continues: “no matter how you reduce the power, no matter how you soften the meaning of these sayings of the Lord: in any case, it is impossible not to admit that they predict many sorrows for the follower of Christ... To destroy your soul - this expression makes it clear that many sorrows take place here, even extending to mortal struggle and feat.” Also James. I, 2–4, 9–10; I Pet. I, 6–9; IV, 12–14; Rom. VIII, 17; Col. I, 24 and many more. etc. And not only the actual suffering is predicted for the follower of Christ, but he is also haunted by humiliation, not excluding the consciousness of moral evil. Here we must first of all remember that “thorn in the flesh” that depressed the apostle. Paul, which was given to him so that he would not be exalted by the extraordinary nature of the revelations, and which even after his threefold prayer was not removed from him by the Lord, because the power of God is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. XII: 7-10). How far from this testimony is St. Paul's consciousness that suffering is only a deception of the senses and that they do not exist for a Christian; on the contrary, how clearly it expresses the idea that human weakness, real weakness, is a condition for the action of God’s power in us. Abundant ascetic writing repeatedly confirms that the test of the apostle. Paul did not have an exclusive meaning, but that it fits well with the general law of Christian life. The testimony of ascetics clearly confirms the idea that, along with other aspects of life, the moral activity of a Christian is subject to this law. Just as the consciousness of one’s natural weakness leads to the beginning of a person’s spiritual life, so spiritual life itself is accompanied by the same consciousness. “The path to perfection,” writes Bishop. Theophan, - there is a path to the consciousness that I am blind, and poor, and naked, in continuous connection with which there is contrition of the spirit or illness and sadness about my uncleanness, poured out before God, or what is the same - constant repentance. At the beginning of a new life there was repentance: it must also be present in its growth, and mature with it. The one who matures matures in the knowledge of his corruption and sinfulness and deepens into contrite feelings of repentance.” This law of Christian growth stands in connection with the fact that “the purification of the passions and the formation of true good morals” depends not only on the person himself, but on grace (1 Cor. III, 6). “Just as spiritual life began by God’s grace, so it can only be preserved and matured by it. He begins the work in us and completes it to the end (Phil. 1:6). The first seed of new life consists of a combination of freedom and grace; and its cultivation will be the development of these same elements.” Therefore, on the one hand, a person’s own effort is necessary for the purification of passions, but, on the other hand, it encounters obstacles and boundaries in nature, which in itself cannot in any way be surpassed. From here a true view of the meaning of Christian asceticism opens before us, and the reasoning and instructions of ascetics regarding involuntary falls, evil independent of human will and the nature of the struggle against it receive true illumination. They warn us against immoderate striving for the possession of moral perfection and explain that the essential fruit that comes from moral development is a mood of patience and humility; they convince us that it is no longer in the power of man, that, while succeeding, we should not consider ourselves to have achieved anything, and, subjected to adversity and the involuntary movement of passions, we should not despair: both progressive movement forward and falls must equally be accompanied by humility, which is what is required of a person. “In every rational nature there are changes without number, and with every person changes occur hourly. And with those who stand at the level of purity, like cooling with air, a fall always occurs, while there is no negligence or indulgence in themselves; on the contrary, even when they observe their rank, falls happen to them that are contrary to the intention of their own will. Therefore, if chaste and modest thoughts are followed by a (passionate) impulse, let us not grieve and despair; Let us also not boast during the rest of grace. The mind should not bring painful attacks on us12, but joyfully accept them as natural and characteristic of us. Let us not give in to despair, like a person who expects something for a feat, even perfect and unchangeable peace... the perfection of holiness and unchangeable joy, and at the same time does not allow exploits and sorrows, and the movement of something contrary to occur in him, which the Lord our God did not find appropriate to give to this nature in this world... Know that all this is brought upon us by God's providence to our humility; know that it is not your job or your virtue to resist, but to accomplish this is grace. Therefore, acquire humility and do not despair. Humility and doing nothing makes many sins forgivable. On the contrary, without humility and action are useless, they even prepare a lot of bad things for us. What salt is to all food, humility is to all virtue; it can break the strength of many sins. If we acquire it, it will make us sons of God and present us to God without good deeds. Thank God that you have received a nature so weak and capable of evasion... 12 The instructions of ascetics, of course, are not for those who enjoy sin, but for those who abhor moral impurity. See The Temptations of Our Lord Jesus Christ, page 123 next. When we are exposed to adversity, we sin solely because of our impatience, because we do not want to endure less than a small sorrow, we do not want to suffer anything against our will, we do not want to accept anything with humility. For this reason, misfortunes overthrow us and the more we try to get rid of them, the more they entangle us: we become exhausted, but cannot free ourselves. Those sailing the seas, if they are familiar with the art of navigation, when they see a wave rising on them, they bow under it: it passes along the ship and is cut by it; swimmers do not suffer any harm. On the contrary, if the swimmers decided to resist the wave, it would throw them back and carry them a considerable distance; with further resistance, swimmers are exposed only to useless fatigue. So it is in adversity. If someone endures an attack with patience and humility, then it will pass harmlessly for him. If he indulges in sadness, confusion, and blames everyone, he will burden himself with an unbearable burden. Adversity only brings great benefit when it is endured patiently, without embarrassment. If passion also disturbs us, then we should not be embarrassed further by this. The confusion that appears when passion operates in us comes from unreason and pride, because we do not understand our mental structure and run away from work. We do not succeed for the reason that we do not know our limits, we do not have patience in the affairs we begin, but we want to acquire virtue without difficulty. For one who is troubled by passion, it is better to humbly know his limits, remain patient and pray until God shows mercy to him. Whoever does not renounce everything in his soul, who does not renounce glory, bodily pleasures and, moreover, justifications, will not be able to help but cut off his desires, nor get rid of anger and sadness. Only the one who does not strive to fulfill the desires of his own will always acts in accordance with his own will. Having no separate wishes, he always fulfills his desire and is happy with everything that happens to him: he does not want things to happen the way he wishes; he wants things to be done the way they are done; in whatever it is, he acts according to his strength, leaving everything else to God.”... This is how the saints reason. Isaac the Syrian, Macarius, Mark, Dorofsy. We have provided such extensive excerpts, which, however, could be continued - for obvious reasons: they confirm not only the main ideas of this chapter, but also the previous chapters of our study. Thus, the God-given nature of spiritual perfection and bliss and the combination of spiritual perfection with visible humiliation and bliss with external suffering - this is what is most characteristic of Christianity from the outside, i.e. in addition to the content of spiritual life itself, which should be discussed differently. “With us everything is the other way around,” says St. John Chrysostom on Christianity. Spiritual perfection is given to a person in external humiliation; this is not a metaphor, but the true teaching of the Word of God. Christ Himself taught: whoever humbles himself like (this) child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew XVIII: 4); whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will exalt himself (XXIII, 12; cf. XX, 26; XXIII, 11). The apostles also taught Him: let the humble brother glory in his greatness (James I, 9); God has chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that He promised to those who love Him (II, 5); humble yourself before the Lord, and He will exalt you (IV, 10); The foolish things of God are wiser than men, and the weak things of God are stronger than men... God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the base things God has chosen, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should boast before God (1 Cor. I, 25-31 ); We carry the treasure (of the glory of God) in earthen vessels, so that the superabundant power is (attributed) to God, and not to us (2 Cor. IV, 7 et seq.); the power of God is made perfect in weakness (XII, 9), etc. (From the Old Testament cf. Deut. VII, 6–8; 1 Sam. XV, 17; Is. LXVI, 1, 2; Ps. IX, 10; XI, 6; CVIII, 31; CXUV, 14; Prov. XV, 33; XVIII, 13; I. With. S. III, 19, 20; Wed Is. LXVI; Var. I, 17, 18; Ezek. XXI, 26, etc.). Dimitri, archbishop. Khersonsky, expresses the teaching of Christianity on this issue: “These wanderers covered with rags, the poor, where their heads are bowed and, these people with distorted members, in whom there is barely a human image left, these rabble of the world, whom we are afraid to even look at, are precisely those members of the body of Christ whom the Apostle calls the royal priesthood, the holy tongue, the people of renewal.” (Compare St. Demetrius of Rostov’s words for the week of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women and about prayer on the 4th week in the Holy Spirit.) The word of God equally clearly and definitely teaches about the union in Christianity of one’s own bliss with external suffering. The Word of God not only predicts suffering for the follower of Christ along with bliss (John XVI, 20-22, etc. cf.) and inspires Christians to accept suffering with joy (James I, 2-4; 1 Pet. I, 6-9; III, 14; also Matt. V, 3-12), but also testifies to the actual combination of Christian joy with suffering as a fact of Christian life, leaving no room for doubts about the possibility of such a connection. Thus, “having called the apostles,” we read in Acts. V, 40–42, members of the Sanhedrin “beat them and, forbidding them to speak about the name of Jesus, sent them away. They left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they were worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Ap. Paul writes about himself: “now I rejoice in my sufferings” (Col. I, 24), “abounding with joy in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. VII, 4) and about the Christians of his time: they “in the midst of the great trial of sorrows abounding in joy; and their deep poverty outweighs the wealth of their hospitality” (2 Cor. VIII, 2, etc.). History testifies to the joy with which Christians endured persecution from Jews and pagans. Later St. Ambrose of Milan in Op. De off. ministr. with some completeness and system he expounded the Gospel teaching about bliss in suffering (beatitudo in doloribus, lib. II, pp. 4 and 5). But if spiritual perfection by Christianity is bestowed in external humiliation and bliss in external suffering, then what meaning can such a combination have? what purpose does our life have? “The purpose of human life,” writes the archbishop. Paul, - cannot lie in the person himself, neither in his moral perfection, nor in his happiness. Only the glory of God can be the true goal of human life.” That the purpose of human life is the glory of God, we can read about this in any theological textbook, but usually this purpose is understood in the sense of the external glorification of God, and not in the sense of the manifestation of the glory of God in the humiliation of human life. What is the glory of God? Divine life. In God there is no distinction between the perfections of life and life itself: the types of divine perfection are the definitions of divine life. Therefore the world as a manifestation of divine glory must be understood in the sense of the revelation of divine life. World life is a phenomenon or reflection of divine life. But the phenomenon of divine life does not exhaust the concept of the world: it is the manifestation of divine life in nothingness. God created the world out of nothing. This is the church teaching of the archbishop. Nicanor expresses it this way: “creative Hypostatic Wisdom has become between God, on the one hand, and nonentity, on the other, as a mediator between God and creation from all eternity. And so the first idea, the idea of ​​heaven, is imprinted in the insignificance of the creative word,” etc. (Teachings, V, 447). And again: “The Son is the mediator between the deity and first the nonentity predestined for existence, and then the creature called out of the insignificance” (453). So, the plan for the creation of the world is the predestination of nothingness to being, the very creation of the world from nothing is the manifestation of divine life in nothingness, the penetration of life into nothingness, and the goal of creation is the victory of life over nothingness. So that mortal things could be swallowed up in life, this is what God created us for, according to the words of the Apostle Paul (2 Cor. V, 4, 5). As the manifestation of divine life in nothingness, the world cannot be a pure or adequate revelation of the divine nature, but only a limited one. The original form of this limitation was primitive chaos. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the abyss.” It was into this formless, inert and dark mass that the rays of divine life had to penetrate; the revelation of life was limited to it, from the appearance of light to the creation of man, whom “the Lord God created from the dust of the ground, breathing into his face the breath of life.” Individual acts of creation were successive degrees of the victory of life over insignificance, until rational and free life appeared in man mixed with the dust of the earth. If the creature had been given the purpose of outwardly glorifying God’s own being, so to speak, repeating the glory of the divine life, then it would have been created “kin” to Him, would have been created from His own nature (emanation), would have been purely or only divine. But in reality, the world is indicated with the goal of manifesting divine glory in insignificance, and therefore God, according to the explanation of St. Gregory the Theologian, creates not only “second lordships, servants of the first lordship, who have only a movement towards good, as existing around God and directly illuminated by God, but also invents another world - material and visible - He creates not only akin to, but also a completely alien nature to Himself, - not only akin to the Divine, intelligent and comprehended by one mind, but also completely creatures alien to the Divine”, subject to feelings, and even creatures that are completely inanimate and immovable, even further removed from the divine nature. And in particular, the special character of the nature of man - this king of the visible world, this god on earth, is expressed in the fact that man stands in the midst of creatures, at the very boundary of being and non-being, life and death, corruption and incorruption, that in him conscious existence and conscious nothingness reach extreme opposition, that he recognizes this very opposition. “Finally, the artistic Word,” continues St. father - creates a living being - a person in whom both are brought into unity, i.e. invisible and visible nature - places on earth another angel, earthly and heavenly, temporary and immortal, visible and intuitable - an angel who occupies the middle between greatness and baseness"1 As the manifestation of divine life in nothingness, the creation of the world was God’s self-restraint—it was God’s condescension. “If,” writes St. Irenaeus of Lyon, - who will say: what? could not God have presented man as perfect in the beginning? then let him know that God is always one and the same, without beginning, and regarding Himself, everything is possible for Him. Created beings... do not have perfection... Just as a mother can deliver perfect food to a baby, but he cannot yet accept food of an older age, so too 1 Our poet expresses the same thought: I am the connection of worlds existing everywhere, I'm the extreme of substance The initial trait is Divinity. God could at first bestow perfection on man, but man could not accept it, for he was still a baby... Therefore, the perfect Son of God became co-infant with man, and not by Himself, but for the sake of man’s infancy, he became as accessible as man could accept Him. In His providence, God knew the weakness of people and the consequences that would arise from it, but in His love and power He will overcome the essence of created nature. It was necessary that first nature should appear, and then the mortal should be overcome and swallowed up by immortality, and the corruptible by the incorruptible.” The subjective motivation for God to create the world out of nothing was His love for those creatures that were to be called into existence out of nothingness. “God is good,” writes St. Athanasius of Alexandria, - therefore, out of nothing, He created everything with His own word.” This love of God, this desire to give creatures the pleasure of being, must be considered only in connection with condescension. “The reason is wonderful,” writes the same St. father—by which God’s Word descended to creation. The nature of created things, as having come from nothing, taken in itself, is something fluid, weak, mortal. God is all good by nature. Therefore, He does not envy anyone in existence, but wants everyone to enjoy existence. As long as God and man remain in their own dignity, God in the dignity of heights, and man in baseness, then goodness is incompatible, love for mankind is incommunicable, and in the middle there is a great and impassable abyss that separates created and transitory nature from the uncreated and permanent." So, it is not another, but one divine life and glory that is manifested in the world; but this is already glory in nothingness, this is a new divine glory. It is the true goal of world and human life. The world does not increase the glory of the being of God, but the world participates in the glory of God; the glory of God is manifested in the world, but this is already a new glory. “God,” according to St. Gregory the Theologian, - created man so that he would acquire new glory and, having changed the earthly things in himself in the last days, like a god, would march from here to God.” The usual name for a person in patristic writing is earthly god, because “as God is in heaven, so is man on earth.” The bearer of unconditional life is God; the bearer of life in insignificance is man. This new glory can only be brought to God by a person in whom life is not unconditional, but is mixed with corruption. This is a divine task that only man can perform. “Glory to the immortal Father,” let us say in the words of St. Ephraim the Syrian - “worship to the One who gave heavenly gifts to the insignificant, so that he too would bring a drachma of glory to the King of all forever.” Acquiring glory for God in nothingness is the goal of world and human life. This goal is inevitably achieved in this reality. The mere fact that the world exists testifies to the victory of life over death. World life is only existence - a transition from life to death, but every death in the world is the beginning of a new life. In all phenomena of world life, God's glory is revealed. In relation to this goal there is no difference between majestic and insignificant phenomena. The glory of God is proclaimed both by the magnificent firmament of heaven (Ps. XVIII, 2), and by the wildflower and birds of the air (Matthew VI, 26–30). We are delighted by the sublime phenomena of nature, but the Lord also reveals Himself in the quiet wind (1 Kings XIX, 11, 12). Since ancient times, people have been inclined to see the heavens as the primary dwelling place of God, but the earth is not without the glory of being the dwelling place of God (Ps. 45:5). No matter how insignificant man is in comparison with the immeasurable worlds of heaven, no matter how humble he is before the angels, he is nevertheless the bearer of the glory of God (Ps. VIII). True, in the field of human existence they usually distinguish between real life and perfect life and judge the dignity of real life by the ideals of the latter; in fact, what we call the natural perfection of life cannot compare in value with the dignity of life itself. Reasonable human life, in itself, precisely because it is life, is above all natural perfections of life, as we understand them. The life of a person thirsting for truth, experiencing doubts, is more beautiful than his acquired knowledge, philosophical systems, mathematical formulas; The moral life of a person who loves holiness, with its falls, temptations and hope, is more beautiful than the righteousness of the Pharisee. Striving forward, no matter how low the level it may be, is more valuable than stopping at the highest levels of development. Not only adult, cultured, righteous people serve to manifest the glory of God, but it is also found in the lives of children (Matthew XVIII, 1–4; XIX, 13–14), and in the lives of savages and freaks, physical and moral. When we look at the wretched, whose life is shackled by the ugliness of the body, at the pitiful crowd that “lives on bread alone,” at the extreme spiritual poverty of the savage, then we must marvel at the infinite condescension of God, who deigned to reveal His immortal life in such squalor, and bow before the greatness of the task that is given to these bearers of life in insignificance. “No one can help but glorify God, even if they wish not to glorify Him. It is necessary for people to proclaim the glory of God, and in wicked people, just as in righteous people, the glory of God is revealed” (Archbishop Paul). The glory of God not only necessarily manifests itself in our lives, but is also our duty, and the idea of ​​the glory of God is the principle of our free activity. The first thing that is instilled in a person with the idea of ​​the glory of God is the duty of life. Man was created for life on this earth and therefore he must live in the fullness of his nature, created by God. We should not be turned away from life by any suffering that is inextricably linked with certain forms and requirements of natural life. Any shortening of life, any kind of suicide and murder is opposition to the most basic calling of man. In particular, those forms of life that visually connect us with the earth and make us feel its burden are obligatory for us - menial labor, earning bread by the sweat of our brow. Man's freedom from worries about his daily bread brings death to his spiritual life and makes him useless for the glory of God. We come into contact with heavenly life through the baseness with which we are burdened, just as the warmth of the sun warms us not from above, but from below - from the earth: the upper layers of the atmosphere are colder than the lower ones. There is a wonderful ancient myth about a hero who lost his strength every time an enemy lifted him above the ground, and became stronger again when he touched it. And our strength is in the earth, we show divine glory through our baseness, through our patient bearing of our infirmities. Then we need those forms of life that are subject to development: in development, the life of the human spirit. The desire for personal happiness and personal possession of absolute perfection is bad because it retards natural development and shortens life. On the contrary, self-denial and love serve as the foundations of life. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; and if it dies, it will bear much fruit. He who loves his soul will destroy it, and he who hates his soul in this world will preserve it to eternal life” (John XII, 24, 25, cf. Matthew XVI, 25, 26); “we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers; he who does not love his brother remains in death” (John III, 14). But the glory of God is not only necessarily given along with human life; she, moreover, is the subject of his free activity. “We must,” according to the word of the apostle, “be transformed from glory to glory” (2 Cor. III, 18). In accordance with this, the idea of ​​glory can serve as the guiding principle of a person’s free activity in a more intimate sense: it not only makes life a duty, but also determines its character. The glory of God as the ideal of human life is presupposed by the original plan of the creation of the world: it is the completion of the victory of life over death. A nonentity, in order to be overcome by life, must deny itself; The glory of God for victory over death must not only be manifested in the world, but also returned by the world to God, recognized by creation as God's glory. If a person wants to defeat his enemy, then he does good to him. But for real victory, doing good alone is not enough: it is necessary that the enemy accept good for good. Only when the enemy accepts the good deed as a deed of love and accordingly changes his mood, changes enmity to gratitude, to love, does victory take place: the enemy is no longer there. The father, both through natural birth and through upbringing, imparts to his son all his blessings, all his glory; but the highest consolation for him lies not only in the communication of benefits, but in the fact that the son accepts these benefits as a fatherly gift, feels filial gratitude, and recognizes his life as a continuation of his father’s life. This is why love in general is limited in its action, which is why it is subject to suffering, because it can only be satisfied with reciprocal love. So the Lord, in order to defeat insignificance, manifests His life-glory in insignificance, casts His rays into chaos and darkness; but for complete victory it is necessary that the creature freely return this glory to God, that it places its glory in the glory of God and considers the glory of God its own, that it recognizes its own insignificance and renounces personal complacency, from personal possession of an imaginary absolute natural perfection. This task determines the immeasurably high position of man in world life. In him, divine life, illuminated by self-consciousness, comes into contact with dust, in him being and non-being in their opposites reach consciousness, in his person God descended to the flesh, and the divine spirit is clothed in flesh. Therefore, in him the final victory of life over death can and must take place: through him life must return to its original source, the world must recognize its glory as divine. The task of this service of man to the divine glory relates to his personal freedom, to his self-consciousness, inner self-determination; it requires from a person that which is entirely his own business. The first duty of life, which is imposed on a person by his calling, is the duty of life. But natural life is determined by laws independent of human will. Only in his self-awareness is his free-personal attitude towards natural life established. This self-determination is the most essential thing in the human personality, its most sincere and free side, this is exactly what a person brings from himself into a given life. In order to serve the glory of God, this attitude of man towards natural life - as opposed to the desire for personal happiness and personal possession of absolute perfection - must be such that man recognizes himself as an instrument of divine activity: what he naturally recognizes as his own, his life, his natural dignity, he must recognize as belonging to God. The point is that man should not place himself as the center of the world, but should place his center in God, so that he should not be content with himself, should not withdraw into himself, should not live for himself, but for God. This self-determination, or inner mood, is the consciousness of natural insignificance, otherwise humility, combined with trust in God. The gradual acts of creation of the world and man were successive stages of the Revelation of divine life in nothingness, and each lower stage of creation served as a condition for the highest Revelation of divine life in a new form. But the creation of man did not end the gradual Revelation of divine life in the world: the highest form of the Revelation of divine life in the world, in which the Divine is what It is in Itself (John III, 24; John IV, 8), is spiritual life. Spiritual life is a new creation of God, but not unconditional: it is a new form of the Revelation of divine life in the same nothingness, conditioned by the last act of primitive creation, i.e. person. Spiritual life, given to the world in Christ, in whose incarnation and life we ​​see the highest condescension of God (Philip. II, 5-11), is divine life revealed in the conditions of temporary life as an internal, invisible good. In order to be a manifestation for the world and in a world that is created from nothingness, the divine life and in the highest form of its Revelation, precisely as spiritual life, must be a manifestation in nothingness, i.e. in misery. Hence the connection between spiritual life and suffering; hence the main character of Christianity is the combination of spiritual perfection with external humiliation and spiritual bliss with external suffering. And this highest form of Revelation of divine life, or glory, is conditioned by the previous act of creation, i.e. person: it could only appear when a person became prepared for it. A person’s preparedness for the perception of spiritual life is his self-denial, his awareness of his natural insignificance, renunciation of his natural dignity, obedience to God and trust in Him. So, the highest meaning of the natural insignificance of the world and the humility of man is that human humility serves as a condition for the Revelation of divine glory in the form of spiritual life, which constitutes the highest meaning of world life. The consciousness of one’s natural insignificance, combined with trust in God, is what a person personally brings to the cause of the Revelation of divine life in the world. Limitedness is from nature, but humility and trust in God are from man. When a person strives for personal possession of absolute perfection, he reaches despair. But humility is necessarily combined with trust in God2. Man in himself is insignificant, but his insignificance serves as a condition for the Revelation of divine life; the power of God is made perfect in weakness: in this he finds the basis for trust in God and gratitude to Him. This mood of humility, combined with boldness, is revealed and prescribed to man in patristic writing with persistence and consistency, betraying the high importance of the subject. If we wanted to write out everything related here from patristic and ascetic literature, we would fill many dozens of pages. Let's limit ourselves to a few. St. John Chrysostom writes: “Let us thank God for everything and be grateful to Him who has blessed us so much. This is the greatest sacrifice, this is the perfect offering, this will be a source of boldness for us before God and this is how. He who constantly keeps in mind and truly recognizes his insignificance, and on the other hand thinks about the ineffable and immeasurable love of God, humbles himself in soul, is contrite in heart, tames all pride and arrogance, learns to behave modestly, despises the glory of present life, laughs at everything visible, thinks about future blessings, about immortal life.” St. teaches well. Irenaeus of Lyons, so that we thank God, and not blame Him for the fact that we were created first by people, and not directly by gods; so that we first observe the rank of man, and then participate in the glory of God; so that we present our soft heart to God, like clay to an artist - to God, who Himself will conquer the essence of created nature and hide the clay in us. 2 The combination of greatness and insignificance in a person is Pascal’s favorite theme of reasoning in his “Penses”. It is remarkable that Christian ascetics, without exalting humility over spiritual life, over love and faith, for humility is valuable as a condition for the birth of spiritual life in a person, nevertheless, with complete clarity, they place humility above any natural greatness, above any natural or, as they put it, external virtue. “It is not dignity, not greatness, not honor that leads one into the kingdom of heaven, but humility, obedience, love, patience and complacency - this is what saves a person... If our prayer is not decorated with humility, love, simplicity and kindness, then such prayer will not bring us any benefit. This, however, should be said not about prayer alone, but about any feat in general - whether it be virginity, or fasting, or vigil, or psalmody, or service, and about any other feat performed for the sake of virtue.” This is how the saints reason. Ephraim the Syrian, Mark the Ascetic, Demetrius of Rostov (his words on prayer on the 4th Sunday of the Holy Day and on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women are remarkable), Tikhon of Zadonsk. Having pointed out the condition for the birth of spiritual life in man, we have approached the threshold of the latter; but before we begin to reveal it, we would like to say especially about the miseries of human life and about natural development from the point of view of the indicated purpose of life. We talked about natural limitations, but what is the relationship to it of suffering and development: what significance do they have? CHAPTER SIX. Unjust suffering Suffering is generated and generated by man’s desire for personal possession of absolute natural perfection. That they constitute the consequence of sin and precisely the punishment for sin, this is taught by the Word of God. But it is also certain that they are not only punishment for sin. An exclusively legal view of suffering is refuted by the presence of suffering of the righteous, or, what is the same, unjust suffering. As the goodness of God, according to which the world was created and which expresses the subjective attitude of God towards creation, does not exclude the objective goals of the world and acts in connection with the condescension of God, according to which the spiritual perfection and bliss of a Christian does not exclude his suffering; Likewise, God’s justice, which imposes punishment on man for sin, is a relation of person to person and allows, along with itself, the objective meaning of suffering. In God’s attitude towards a sinned person, two sides can be distinguished: on the one hand, it is the definition of punishment for a person for sin; on the other hand, it is consent for the manifestation of divine glory in the life of a sinner. If God had left the sinner to his own devices, then man would have been destroyed by death. But God subjected man to suffering and thereby allowed the life of a sinner, allowed man to be the bearer of divine glory in the sorrow of suffering. In this attitude of God towards man, it is necessary to see a new manifestation of divine condescension, a continuation of His creative love. Only condescending love disposes a father to let his son go “to a distant place,” where he squanders the inheritance received from his father, living fornication, and not take his name away from him. A person punished by God for his sin is like a prodigal son (Psalm LXXXVII; Isa. LII, 5). The objective purpose of human suffering allowed by God is the glory of God (cf. Isa. XLVIII, 9). Evil and suffering represent the natural limitation of human nature in relation to a sinned person: what was a natural limitation for sinless ancestors, then, generally speaking, appears as evil and suffering for a sinful person3. Suffering constitutes the form of life of a sinner. They serve for the glory of God because they give sinful man the opportunity to live. Therefore, the participation of each of us in the glorification of life through suffering is analogous to our attitude towards natural limitations. 3 Wed. Temptations of the God-Man. M. 1892, ch. 1. Suffering is an expression of humiliation: whoever suffers experiences the weakness of his nature, receives a true understanding of his insignificance, and at the same time of the power and goodness of God. To the extent that humility is important, suffering has an objective meaning. Actually, from a moral point of view, suffering cannot be called beneficial for a person. Illness and poverty do not always contribute to the strength of the will and its freedom from the shackles of the body. “The Stoics are worthy of surprise,” writes Clement of Alexandria, “with their teaching that bodily ailments do not in the least affect the soul, and illnesses do not dispose it to vices, and health to virtue... If a person has not developed spiritual firmness in himself that could support him; if he has not yet cultivated in himself that generosity that puts himself above misfortune, then, unable to resist the attack of misfortune, he deserts from the banners.” “Because of bodily poverty (of course, involuntary) sometimes,” according to Metropolitan. Moscow Philaret, “the soul is no less in poverty than the body.” Along with this, the usual understanding of the pedagogical significance of suffering declines. The valuable fruit of suffering, which remains even after deducting the harm from it for natural improvement, is that it destroys self-satisfaction. “Man,” according to St. Irenaeus of Lyons, - devoted to his weakness, so that he, having become exalted, does not deviate from the truth. Strength is perfected in weakness, making better the one who through his weakness knows the power of God. For how would a person know that he is weak and by nature mortal, while God is immortal and powerful, if he did not know both by experience? To know one's weakness through patience is not evil; on the contrary, it is good not to be mistaken about your weakness. The experience of both gives him true knowledge of God and man and increases his love for God. And where love abounds, there is greater glory accomplished by the power of God for those who love Him.” But just as natural limitations allow degrees in achieving the meaning of life depending on a person’s attitude to his natural insignificance, so the endurance of sorrows, giving meaning to the life of every sinful person, has the same degrees, also depending on a person’s attitude to his evil-suffering. From this point of view, first of all, it is necessary to establish the difference between unconscious humiliation and conscious endurance of sorrows. To the extent that the significance in achieving the religious goals of human life belongs to the consciousness or mood of a person, it is important that a person is aware of his humiliation: “This is not yet a virtue,” writes St. Ephraim the Syrian - to be dishonored and not feel it; on the contrary, this is virtue - to recognize this and despise it for the sake of piety.” But the consciousness of suffering must also be of a certain direction. From the point of view of the religious goals of life, it is important that a person endures sorrows, not thinking that they are sent to him by blind fate, chance, a formidable deity out of hatred of people, but realizing his guilt, attributing the suffering to the truth of God (as opposed to self-justification), with a divinely filial self-consciousness (Heb. XII, 5-9). In connection with consciousness is the freedom to endure sorrows. Even in relation to those sufferings that befall a person regardless of his will, a free attitude is possible - freedom of patience. The first stage of free endurance of sorrows is that we endure the punishment that befalls us from God with patience, as deserved by us, as fair. By enduring punishment from God with patience, we restore the truth of God in ourselves, overcome sin, and overcome death with life. In this case, the punishment achieves its full purpose. By enduring sorrows, as rightly sent by God, by enduring them in the name of God, a person rejects sin and again makes his life an instrument of the Revelation of divine glory. The next, highest, level of endurance of sorrows is that a person, out of love for God, endures evil and unjust suffering. The freedom to endure these sorrows is the freedom to do a good deed, a good life. There is no unjust suffering that is not suffering for a good cause; the good deed itself is necessarily associated with suffering. Such a connection between a good life and suffering is not only factual, but necessary: ​​only those virtues are true virtues that are accompanied by suffering for a virtuous person and, as a consequence of this, unjust suffering constitutes an honorable duty for the righteous, elevating him to the highest level of religious activity. This connection is established in the divine decree by which suffering is imposed on man for sin. Giving a sinful person the opportunity to live, sorrows at the same time give evil an objective tangibility: suffering is the objective side of evil - the side from which the evil of the human heart is addressed to other people - sorrows constitute the form in which the evil of one person acts on other people, is accessible or exists for them. Therefore, suffering is an inevitable medium through which we can generally respond to the evil of our neighbor and, in particular, wage a fight against evil. A good deed, in order to serve not only the personal improvement of a person, but also the religiously objective goals of earthly life, namely the glorification of this life, must reach the depth of suffering, put on the robe of sorrow. Unjust suffering, or a person’s suffering “for no other reason than because he is righteous,” in the words of St. John Chrysostom, oh, has an objective meaning in that it serves to glorify sinful life, defeats evil. The source of unjust suffering is evil people. Every evil committed by a person secretly or openly generates suffering for his neighbor. Evil either directly causes suffering to one's neighbor, for example, insult to honor, deprivation of property, or indirectly, due to the social connections of one person with others, rightly likened to organic ones, such as heredity, the influence of ideas at a distance of time and space. There is no such evil in our hearts that would not bring suffering to our neighbors. This suffering either causes a curse or is endured with love and patience. In the latter case, the complacent patience and humility of the sufferer are the manifestation of divine life in the sphere of evil, the victory of good over it, the victory of life over death. Undeserved suffering, endured with patience and love, in the name of God, makes amends for the evil that caused it: this is the meaning of unjust suffering. This significance of the suffering of the righteous is depicted with exceptional clarity in St. Isaiah (chap. LIII)4. 4 Those who wish to limit Isa. LIII application only to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ should be kept in mind Col. I, 24. By allowing evil to exist in the form of suffering and desiring that it be overcome by a mood of complacent patience, God thereby desires unjust suffering. According to Ap. Paul, “it pleases God if anyone, thinking about God, endures tribulations, suffering unjustly. For what is praise if you endure being beaten for your wrongdoings? But if, while doing good and suffering, you endure, this pleases God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, so that we should follow in His steps” (1 Peter II, 19-21; also IV, 12-16). And the righteous man’s own mood, his love for good and his neighbor, makes it necessary for him to suffer for good. According to the degree of a person’s spiritual growth, his subjective arbitrary suffering, which accompanies life according to the law of the world, decreases, but his objective suffering, caused from the outside, by evil people, increases. “When,” writes St. Isaac the Syrian, - the goodness of God has increased in man, then, according to the desire for righteousness, he finds in his soul many reasons why, for the sake of the fear of God, he must endure sorrow. Only when grace is impoverished in a person, the meaning of sorrows appears to him in the opposite form.” In general, the stated view of the suffering of the righteous is strictly Orthodox-ascetic. Here are a few of the ascetic sayings relevant here. “Our promises are hidden in sorrows, sufferings, patience and faith - our very heavenly glory is hidden in them. “We must rise to glory through dishonor.” - Souls filled with heavenly sweetness, but not yet tempted by various misfortunes, have not risen in the least from the state and mind of children and are still incapable of the kingdom of God. – Do not think that you can acquire virtue without sorrow. Having rejected suffering and dishonor, do not think of bringing repentance through other virtues: vanity and the mood of the heart, alien to contrition of the spirit, know how to serve sin and deeds of righteousness. – Our only duty is to believe the truth of God and to know that everything sorrowful that befalls us, against our will, befalls us either out of love or for sinfulness, that for this reason we are obliged to endure temptations with patience, not reflecting them by resisting them, so as not to add new sin to our sins. “When you endure involuntary grief as if it were voluntary, then conclude from this that you have come to the measure of a valiant and humble man.” – It is impossible to approach God without sorrow; without it, human righteousness does not remain unchanged. – He who leaves sorrows is undoubtedly separated from virtue. “And that virtue is not considered a virtue, the accomplishment of which is not accompanied by the difficulty of the task.” Every perfect virtue is called a cross. A little sorrow for the sake of God is better than a great deed done without sorrow. – Let this be a sign of your approach to the city of God: strong temptations will confront you; and the more you approach and succeed, the more the temptations that lie ahead of you multiply. “Whoever prays to God and wants miracles and powers to be in his hands turns out to be boastful and weak in his conscience. True righteous people not only do not desire this, but also refuse when it is given to them; and not only in the eyes of people, but also secretly for themselves, they do not want this.” Ascetic creations are filled with such instructions. Let us finish our discussion of unjust suffering with a remark regarding the cult of suffering. Sectarian fanaticism, fatalistic submission to chance, psychopathic thirst for suffering - all this is a distortion of the truth, and not the truth itself; this is the same as superstition compared to faith, this is the other extreme, opposite to the extreme of the Babylonian cult of pleasures. But extremes meet: both cults are based on selfishness. Even into the holiest area of ​​self-abasement, flattering pride and arbitrariness creep in, with which a person determines the type and measure of his suffering. How can one not remember the instructions of St. father: “Always try to ensure that your arrow hits the very target; be careful not to fly further than the commandment of the great Christ; beware of not fully fulfilling the commandment; in both cases the goal was not achieved.” The preceding discussions provide solid grounds for distinguishing suffering in the name of God from arbitrary and senseless suffering. Suffering in the name of God is that which promotes life, and does not shorten life. Renunciation of the desire for personal happiness and personal possession of absolute perfection serves as the basis for the fullness of natural life and its unhindered development; The very sacrifice of life is required of a Christian for the sake of the life of his neighbors. This rejects fanatical fanaticism, shortening of life and murder. The freedom of Christian endurance of sorrows is the freedom of good deeds. This rejects the psychopathic thirst for suffering for the sake of suffering itself. These points also reject the Catholic teaching about the salvific nature of suffering beyond this life (in purgatory) and about the replacement of good deeds with suffering. Then, patience with sorrows in the name of God is based on the belief that sorrows befall us according to the will of God, but they are caused by evil people. This rejects fatalistic submission to chance and natural disasters. Finally, enduring sorrows is completely opposite to inflicting suffering. On the contrary, the same love by which we suffer evil from our neighbor requires that we ourselves bring happiness to our neighbor along with goodness. From what has been said, it follows that, in particular, patience with sorrows does not contradict the fullness of natural development: resistance to natural development is a manifestation of the same senseless cult of suffering. The meaning of natural development will form the subject of the next chapter. CHAPTER SEVEN. Natural development - culture and civilization; L.N. Tolstoy and B.C. Soloviev Apparently, it is very difficult to indicate the meaning of natural development in the sense of the named purpose of human life. At least, L.N. Tolstoy, in the name of the ideals of Christian life, does not recognize the significance of natural development. “The necessary development of man,” he writes, “is not only not a means to achieve the ideal of harmony that we carry within ourselves, but is an obstacle placed by the Creator to achieving the highest ideal of harmony. This necessary law of forward movement lies the meaning of that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which our forefather ate. A healthy child will be born, fully satisfying the requirements of unconditional harmony in relation to truth, beauty, goodness that we carry within ourselves. Man will be born perfect - there is a great word said by Rousseau, and this word, like a stone, will remain firm and true. Having been born, a person represents the prototype of harmony, truth, beauty and goodness. Our ideal is behind, not in front.” In Tolstoy's later writings this view constitutes the main theme, with the concept of harmony being replaced by the concept of rational life, or rational consciousness, and with the addition of the simplicity of an uncultured village to the demand for childish harmony. The defender of the opposite view of natural development is V.S. Solovyov. In one of his journal articles, he writes: “Opponents of culture, imagining that the existence of uneducated righteous people proves something in favor of their opinion, turn a blind eye to the fact that we have here examples of only very relative ignorance. But the decisive question here is: could even such righteous people appear in an absolutely wild environment?... Why did the historical Buddha preach his teachings not to the semi-wild Aryans, for whom cow butter was the highest good, but to the inhabitants of cultural Indian states? Why could the God-Man Himself be born only when the fullness of times had come? Why did He appear only in the 8th century after the founding of the eternal city, within the great Roman state, among the cultural population of Galilee and Jerusalem? In Chapter VII of his work “The Justification of Good” he discusses the same topic. Just as it is unthinkable for an absolute being to succeed in goodness and perfection, so for a person, on the contrary, it is unthinkable to achieve perfection at once, without the process of improvement. All historical development - and not only of humanity, but also of the physical world - is a necessary path to perfection. Minerals, plants, animals, natural humanity and spiritual humanity - these are the typical forms of being from the point of view of the ascending process of universal improvement. This idea of ​​Solovyov about the dependence of spiritual life on historical development is the opposite of Tolstoy’s view and completely proves its inconsistency, but doesn’t this idea also contradict our view of the purpose of human life? However, Tolstoy in his article “Religion and Morality” makes the sequence of religions, or religious relations of man to the world: 1) primitive personal, 2) pagan social and 3) Christian or divine, which is based on man’s consciousness of his material insignificance, dependent on the degrees of development; in the first relationship to the world there is a child, and all of humanity was at the first pagan stage of its development, the second relationship to the world is established by a person at the next stage of development, and it is characteristic mainly of mature people; Every old person feels himself in the third relationship to the world, and all of humanity is now entering into it. How can we reconcile this significance of degrees of development with the view that development is an obstacle placed by the Creator to achieving the goals of life? On the other hand, Soloviev in the same Chapter VII of Op. “Justification of the Good” expresses the position we cited above, that between absolute and relative perfection the difference is not power or quantitative, but qualitative and essential, and it is logically impossible to deduce the first from the second. The general law of the world order is that the highest type of existence is not created by a previous process, but is only determined by it in its appearance. This does not deny evolution; it cannot be denied - it is a fact. But the evolution of lower types of being cannot in itself create higher ones; it only produces conditions or provides the appropriate environment for the manifestation or revelation of a higher type. Thus, each appearance of a new type of being is, in a certain sense, a new creation... It cannot be said that this new thought of Solovyov cancels his previously cited thought; but between them a certain break must be recognized: a logical transition from one to the other is not indicated. If the historical process determines the revelation of spiritual life, but spiritual life is not the product of historical development, then it is obvious both that spiritual life is not identical with natural perfection, and also that historical development is not a direct path to spiritual life: it is not because a person actually prepares to accept Christianity that he is naturally improved, which would contradict the direct evidence of the word of God. The only possible connection between these thoughts is the position we are defending, that a person’s preparedness for spiritual life consists in a person’s awareness of his natural insignificance, and the assumption that follows from this position that the natural development of a person leads him to this consciousness and this is where it has its meaning. The obstacle to approaching spiritual life is not development, but the desire for personal possession of absolute perfection. The reality of individual and historical development justifies our assumption. Let us consider the ages of individual life. The Lord Jesus Christ said about children: “of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew XIX: 13–15), and he instructed adults: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself as a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew XVIII: 3–4). Children are close to the kingdom of heaven in their self-deprecation, in their awareness of their helplessness. Adults are instructed to have the same internal mood. Old age naturally leads to it. Of course, not always (otherwise the inner mood would not be free - and this has application to the ages of both individual and historical life) - old age is not always endured with complacent patience: quae plerisque senibus sic odiosa est, ut onus se Aetna gravius ​​dicant sustinere (Cicero, Cat., vol. P)m. However, it forces a person to admit his helplessness. And if we compare old age with childhood in this regard, we will find that self-awareness in old age is deeper than in childhood. Childhood has in front of it, and old age behind it, youth and courage, when a person, full of a sense of strength, manifests all his power and is completely focused on external activity. Old age presupposes these experiences of strength, these hopes and dreams, this power and beauty - hopes disappointed, dreams not realized, power disappeared and beauty disfigured - and therefore it evokes a deep consciousness of human frailty, which constitutes the precious contribution of old age to the treasury of the human soul, despite all the damage that accompanies it in relation to natural improvement. Let us consider, in particular, mental and moral development. Is it really possible to doubt that ignorance is presumptuous and wisdom is modest? The consciousness: “I know that I know nothing” is characteristic of a sage, not a schoolboy. Those who look at the successes of science from afar, those who have taken their first steps in its field, those who try their first strength in it, are filled with reverence for it. Half-knowledge, half-education are harmful in a religious sense, just like a person’s proud striving for perfect gnosis. What about moral development? “How is it possible,” writes St. Macarius the Great, - should a person be poor in spirit, especially when he feels within himself that he has changed, has succeeded, has reached knowledge and understanding that he did not have before? Until a person has acquired this and succeeded, he is not poor in spirit, but thinks highly of himself. When this understanding and prosperity comes to this, then grace itself teaches him to be poor in spirit, and although he is a righteous man and God’s chosen one, not to consider himself for anything, but to recognize his soul as of little value and humiliation, as if he does not know and has nothing, although he knows and has.” Thus, until a person has set out on the path of natural improvement, until he has felt perfection in himself as his own dignity, which he can renounce or which itself eludes him, until the boundless prospect of progress has opened up before him, until then he still does not know the extent of his nature. Natural development or improvement is a form of human perfection, i.e. perfection of the conditional, created, and therefore such development gives a person knowledge of his spiritual limitations. Let us consider the historical development. Every nation has its own old age. We know well the old age of the Greeks and Romans. What does it indicate? How did they live in their youth and courage and how did they live in old age? What songs were sung before and which ones in old age? The brightest streak in the last pages of their history is dissatisfaction with life, an appeal to the East, an uncontrollable desire for the heavenly - in short, the consciousness of the prodigal son. It was precisely in this, and not in good military ways, not in the unity of the Greek language and the Roman administration, that the pagan peoples were prepared to accept the gospel preaching. How were the Jewish people trained and prepared? According to the depiction of human history UAP. Paul, people at first did not glorify God as God (Rom. 1:21) and therefore were deprived of the glory of God (III:23). God gave up the pagans in the desires of their hearts to uncleanness, giving them over to shameful passions (1:24-26). But the law was given to God's chosen people. For what? Is it to achieve perfection? Those who looked at the law in this way and imagined themselves to be legalistically perfect—those were the enemies of Christ. The law was not given to the Jews for perfection, not for justification before God, but for the knowledge of sin (III, 20). Through the commandment, sin becomes conscious and therefore extremely sinful (VII; IV, 15). The Gentiles were given over to their lusts, and the Jews were brought under the yoke of the law for one purpose: so that man might recognize his weakness, so that no flesh should boast before God (1 Cor. I, 29), so that the one who boasts might boast in the Lord (I Cor. I, 31; 2 Cor. X, 17), so that man would boast more readily in his weaknesses, for the power of God is made perfect in weakness ( 2 Cor. xii. 9). And so, at the fulfillment of the times, when humanity with complete clarity realized its powerlessness for every good deed (Rom. VII, 24), then God gave us life in Christ Jesus: through our unrighteousness the truth of God was revealed, through our unfaithfulness the faithfulness of God was increased to the glory of God (Rom. III, 5-7), - we were given life by mercy (IV, 16), so that the abundance of grace would be greater It produced gratitude in many for the glory of God (2 Cor. IV: 15). When sin increased, grace began to abound, so that, as sin reigned in death, so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. V, 20-21; 1 Cor. XV). CHAPTER ONE. Spiritual life. Jesus Christ. Repentance In man there is a distinction between mental life and spiritual life, flesh and spirit, external man and internal man. Mental life is a personal human life that embraces mental and physical needs and the desire for happiness and improvement and is mainly expressed in that special direction of mental and physical life, which is called personal life. The nature of personal life is determined by consciousness: this is my nature, my dignity, my happiness, my perfection. Personal life is closely connected with external limitations: only the external, visible, limited can be mine. Therefore, spiritual and personal life in the word of God is called external man, visible life. However, in historical reality, personal human life is not given in its natural spontaneity, but is known in a certain direction - not only as a natural desire for happiness and improvement, but as a selfish desire for personal happiness and absolute perfection, as a desire for self-satisfaction and self-righteousness. This is how the whole world lived before Christ, and this is how all humanity lives outside of Christianity. Therefore, the life of the soul in Holy Scripture is called worldly. Personality, or self-consciousness, has great religious significance: by the power of free self-determination, a person can renounce himself and thereby make his life an instrument of divine activity; but at the same time it contains within itself the moment of assimilation. Therefore, although everything is from God, yet spiritual and personal life, not sanctified by self-denial, is actually human life in contrast to divine life - there is life in alienation from the life of God (Eph. IV, 18). In this meaning, soul-body life is called flesh in the word of God. Thus, spiritual, otherwise worldly, carnal life is characterized in general terms by lust for evil and self-righteousness. All that is in the world, according to the apostle, is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John II, 16). Spiritual life in the Holy Scriptures is called illusory, fleeting, only visible, apparent and even direct death. And this is not only because it leads to death and ends in death, but also because it is essentially, by its basic nature, a ghostly life. Listen,” writes the apostle, “you who say: today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and we will live there for one year and will trade and make a profit - you who do not know what will happen tomorrow: for what is your life? a vapor that appears for a short time and then disappears (James IV, 13, 14). To be carnally minded, writes another apostle, is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace: because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for they do not obey the law of God; let them not (Rom. VIII, 6, 7). All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, but the world passes away (cf. 1 Cor. VII, 31), and its lust passes away, but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John II, 16, 17). One day one of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ said to Him: Lord! let me first go and bury my father. But Jesus said to him: follow me, and let the dead bury their dead (Matt. VIII, 21,22). In addition to spiritual, carnal life, we have spiritual life. First of all, and in general, it is the reign of God within us - it consists in the fact that the will of God is fulfilled by people, as in heaven by angels. More essentially, it is defined, from the negative side, as a person’s renunciation of himself, from his personality, from the selfish striving for personal happiness and absolute perfection, as his dislike of his soul even to death (Apoc. XII, 11), and from the positive side, as the revelation of divine life in man. Just as a person sometimes hates his appearance, so he can hate everything about himself, including his mind, his heart, his will - he can hate himself. Of course, in a certain sense, no one has ever hated their flesh, but nourishes and warms it (Eph. V, 29): the natural desire for happiness and improvement in man is ineradicable. But he can suppress in himself the selfish desire for happiness and absolute perfection, so that, by the way, care for the flesh does not turn into lust (Rom. XIII, 14). There is a difference between a mother’s love for her beautiful and intelligent child, who is her pride, and a mother’s love for an ugly and sick child: in the latter case, love is pity, but not self-loving passion... To hate your soul does not mean simply to have an aversion to life, but it means not to value your life (Acts XX, 24), recognizing, however, its significance as an instrument of divine activity - not to value your happiness and your dignity; this is not simply hatred of one’s soul (life), but it is hatred of one’s soul in this world (John XII, 25). If anyone, said the Lord Jesus Christ, comes to Me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and, moreover, his own life, he cannot be My disciple... Anyone of you who does not renounce everything that he has cannot be My disciple (Luke XIV, 26, 33). This free mental and personal death brings an amazing fruit - life. The image of such a rebirth is the death of every fruit-bearing grain. Truly, truly, I say to you, said the Savior, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; and if it dies, it will bear much fruit. He who loves his life will destroy it; but he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life (John XII: 24, 25); whoever saves his soul will destroy it; and whoever destroys her (for My sake and the gospel's sake) will bring her to life (Luke XVII, 33 and par.). Human life is a divine gift, which turns into nothing if a person wants to use it for himself, but acquires great significance if he returns it to God. The same human life becomes another life; From life according to the flesh, life according to the spirit is born; from a man who walks in his own ways, a man of God is born (I Tim. III, 17). However, spiritual life is not covered by personal human death and does not arise entirely from it; spiritual-personal death is only a free condition for the birth of spiritual life, and its real source is in God - it is the kingdom of God, or heaven, it is divine life. In ancient times, the Kingdom of God was the Jewish people, chosen from all nations to be the people of God: the Lord reigned over Israel (Ex. XV, 16–18; Judges VIII, 22–23). This was the external reign of the Lord, its expression was the external Old Testament law, the fulfillment of which gave the Jew bodily purity and served as a guarantee for his belonging to the whole people, but did not give spiritual purity. When the Jews chose a king for themselves in the likeness of other nations, they thereby rejected the Lord so that He would not reign over them (1 Sam. VIII, 4-8). Saul was such a king in the likeness of the pagan kings. However, during the reign of David, who recognized himself as the bearer of the power of the Lord, God treated the Jewish king mercifully and gave this earthly kingdom a high significance as a symbol of the coming reign of the seed of David - the Son of God (2 Sam. VII, 12-13,16). When, with the destruction of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, such a mediocre reign of God over the Jews ceased, then through the prophets it was more clearly and fully predicted, under the symbol of the restored throne of David, the coming reign of the seed of David as God’s spiritual, internal reign (Mic. IV, 7-8): “And I will give you,” the Lord predicted, “a new heart, and I will give you a new spirit; And I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in My commandments, and to keep My statutes and do them” (Ezek. XXXVI, 26, 27; Iol. II, 28-32). These words, I will put My spirit within you, remind us of the first creation of man by God: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen. II, 7). These are two creative acts. That primitive inspiration of life separated man from external nature and made him a living soul (spiritual life), and this later outpouring of the spirit of God into the hearts of people (Jol. II, 28-32) distinguishes the kingdom of God from the kingdoms of men (Dan. VII) and creates spiritual life within man. As having received the breath of life from God, man is the image of God; By receiving the spirit of God into himself, he becomes in the likeness of God. “We are all people in the image of God; to be in the likeness of God belongs only to those who, out of great love, have enslaved their freedom to God. For when we are not our own, we deny ourselves, then we become like the One who, out of His love, reconciled us to Himself; which no one can achieve unless he convinces his soul not to be carried away by the delights of a self-satisfied and self-indulgent life” (Blessed Diadochos). Spiritual man is God's new creation (2 Cor. V, 17; Gal. VI, 15), a new man (Eph. II, 15; IV, 23; Col. III, 10); he is born again (John III, 3) from God, just as a natural man is born from blood, from the lust of the flesh (John 1:13). Spiritual life is not the person himself who says about himself: “this is me; this is mine"; no, spiritual life is divine life in man. She is born in him, just as the life of a child is born in a mother. Just as a mother feels the birth of a new life within herself, but does not know how it was born and how it grows, this is how the spiritual birth of a person happens. Or: the spirit breathes where it wants, and you hear its voice, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes: this is what happens to everyone born of the Spirit (John III, 8). The inner kingdom of God is like when a man throws a seed into the ground; and sleeps and rises night and day; and how the seed sprouts and grows, he does not know. The difference between natural motherhood and spiritual birth is that the life born in the mother, maturing, is separated from her, and the spirit born in a person becomes his life, so that he lives in spirit (Gal. V, 25) - lives the divine life. The grain, having sprung, dies itself, and a person, having died for personal spiritual life, finds real life in the divine life that is in him. Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which, having found, a man hid, and out of joy over it he goes, and sells everything he has, and buys that field. A spiritually reborn person is like a tree to which, having been pruned, a graft was made, so that the latter grows on the old tree. He is like an earthen vessel in which treasure is placed (2 Cor. IV: 7). By renouncing himself, man acquires real life for himself in God. God is spirit (John IV, 24), and he who is born of Him is spirit, just as he who is born of the flesh is flesh (John III, 5, 6). Spirit is spirit, and spirit is life (John VI, 63), true eternal life as opposed to temporary illusory life. The Spirit is life because it is truth and freedom. Therefore he who is born of the Spirit has life. He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; and he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life (Gal. VI, 8). Spiritual divine life, being opposite to everything that a person can call his own, that he can see, touch, separate from others as his property, and presupposing personal-spiritual death, is invisible, internal life. Living according to the Spirit means looking not at the visible, but at the invisible, for the visible is temporary, but the invisible is eternal; it means walking not by sight, but by faith (2 Cor. IV, 16-18; V, 7). The world cannot receive the spirit of truth because it does not see it (John xiv. 17). We received spiritual divine life through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 John IV "9). What work did the Lord Jesus Christ do for people? Many different answers are given to this question - abstract, scholastic, confusing... The results of the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, must be sought in the reality of our religious life. We Christians live by the spirit (Gal. V, 25). Spiritual life constitutes our inner experience. Where does this spiritual life come from in us? From Jesus Christ. This is the true work of our Savior. He is the head of our spiritual life (Acts III, 15), He is our life (Col. III, 4). Just as our mental and physical life originates from Adam, so our spiritual life originates from the Lord Jesus Christ. The first man Adam became a living soul (Gen. P, 7); and the last Adam is a life-giving spirit. The first man from the earthy earth; the second person is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, so are the earthy; and as is the heavenly, so are the heavenly (1 Cor. XV, 45-48). Our spiritual life is the life of Christ in us (Gal. II, 19-26), in whom we have put on (III, 27). God has poured out the Holy Spirit on us richly through Jesus Christ (Tim. III, 6), His Son, for it is the spirit of the son, which in us becomes the spirit of adoption and by which we cry: Abba, Father! (Gal. IV, 6; Rom. VIII, 15). The Lord Jesus Christ gave people eternal life, because He Himself was of the highest, and not of this world (John VIII, 23): He was the Son of God - in Him appeared the life that was with the Father (1 John I, 2; John XIV, 6; 2 Tim, I, 10). But the life that the Father had was revealed to the world in Christ, not in divine form, but in human form. The revelation of the divine life in Him was the work of His condescension (Phil. II, 5-9). In order to manifest the divine spirit in human life, He Himself had to experience the divine life under the conditions of human existence; in order to manifest the spirit in people and make them sons of God, He had to take upon Himself their flesh, subject to suffering (Heb. II, 10 ff.); in order to generate divine love in them, He had to love them with human love with friendly self-sacrifice (John XIII, 34; XV, 12-14); in order to make them believers, He Himself had to be the author and perfecter of faith (Heb. XII, 2); in order to give them the hope of hope, He, although He was a son, had to learn obedience through suffering and be heard for reverence (Heb. V, 7, 8). In contrast to Adam, who wished to become a god without permission (Gen. III, 5), the Lord Jesus Christ, instead of the joy set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame (Heb. XII, 2); He, being in the image of God, did not react selfishly to His divine glory, but humiliated Himself, taking on the image of a servant, becoming like men; and becoming in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even to death, even death on the cross (Phil. II, 6-8). He did not seek His own, His glory, but sought the glory of God (John VIII, 50); With God's filial obedience, he fulfilled all the truth of God about man (Matthew III: 15). He had exactly the mood, or those feelings, that God desires from man. He fulfilled the purpose of man. To the question whether the goal assigned by God to man has actually been achieved, we Christians answer with complete confidence: it has been achieved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. All world life, all human history makes sense because the Lord Jesus Christ lived on earth. He is the meaning of the world and history. Since in His person man fulfilled what was required of him by the righteousness of God, God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. II, 9-11), God gave through Him His eternal life to all people. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he gave to the Son to have life in himself (John V, 25, 26), giving Him power over all flesh, so that He would give eternal life to everything that He had given Him (XVII, 2). For if through the crime of one, the first Adam, many were subjected to death, much more will the grace of God and the gift by grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abound for many. If through the crime of one death reigned through one, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one Jesus Christ (Rom. V, 15:17). The purpose of world and human life is fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. For the life of each of us to have meaning, it must be included in the life of Christ. We need to internalize the life of Christ, His spirit. “You must have the same feelings,” writes the apostle, “that were also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. II, 5). To have true life, we need to have the Son in us (I John V, 12), give Him a place within us so that He may live in us (Gal. II, 19–21), The birth of spiritual life in a person occurs through baptism in the spirit, which is symbolized by baptism in water. In the realm of consciousness, the birth of spiritual life begins with repentance and faith. Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew III: 2), John the Baptist preached. The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel (Mr. I, 15): this is how the Lord Jesus Christ began to preach (cf. Mt. IV, 17). The apostles also began their preaching with a call to repentance (Acts II, 38). Repentance is like repentance unto life, Acts. XI, 18), in contrast to James. V, 16 (confess your wrongdoings to each other), as the beginning of spiritual life, there is a complete change in a person’s thoughts or feelings, internal mood ifpovtjms), so that a person becomes different. This is a change from the desire for self-satisfaction and self-righteousness to the consciousness of one’s material insignificance. A person can come to the consciousness of his material insignificance, his helplessness, perishability and insignificance of everything worldly on his own, he can be brought by the sufferings and failures of his worldly, personal human life. But this consciousness in itself is completely empty and leads either to despair or to nirvana, which is based on the same despair. This consciousness turns into fruitful death when it becomes a renunciation of oneself for the sake of life for God (Rom. VI, 11; XIV, 8; 2 Cor. 5, 15; 1 Pet. IV, 2), when it is united with faith in the gospel, in the coming of the kingdom of God: the time has been fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near; repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). Therefore, only the forerunner of Christ—previously and Christ Himself—could truly preach repentance to life. John the Baptist's sermon on repentance was, as one of the later theologians rightly noted, a commentary on Rom. III, 20: “By the works of the law no flesh will be justified in the sight of God; for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” The Old Testament law was given to the Jews in order to create in them a consciousness of their sinfulness, their moral impotence. Meanwhile, the Jews, with the exception of a small “remnant,” in their entirety, and mainly in those parts that considered themselves superior, saw in the Old Testament union with God the basis of their dignity, and in the fulfillment of the law they found the source of their self-righteousness. It was precisely this national pride that John the Baptist’s denunciations were directed at. He clearly and, what is especially important, with an indication of the approaching kingdom of heaven, said what the Old Testament law symbolically expressed. The sermon of Jesus Christ about repentance stands in connection with His entire teaching about the kingdom of heaven, about the kingdom of the meek Son of man, and is especially clear by the first so-called beatitudes: calling for repentance, He called for spiritual poverty, crying, meekness, etc. His sermon about repentance boils down to His instruction: “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted, you will not be like children, you will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew XVIII, 3). Repentance embodies the consciousness of the complete meaninglessness of personal life, the complete powerlessness to give one’s life absolute meaning through personal efforts, the collapse of all worldly ideals - in short, it is a feeling of hunger in the country of the world and the aspiration of the soul to God as the only true good. The man comes to his senses and says: How many of my father’s hired servants have an abundance of bread, and I am dying of hunger! I will get up, go to my father and say to him: Father! I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son; accept me as one of your hired servants... CHAPTER TWO. Prayer. Fast. For Christ's sake foolishness Spiritual life is the delight of God in man. This pleasure needs appropriate nourishment and proper strengthening, especially at the beginning, when it is tender and easily susceptible to adverse influences. Prayer, fasting and foolishness for Christ’s sake serve as such nourishment and strengthening. What light and air are to a plant, prayer is to spiritual life. Prayer is a person’s mental communication with God, “a conversation of the mind with God,” according to the teacher. Nile of Sinai, - the ascent of the mind to God." From the point of view of the true goal of human life as the revelation of the glory of God in humiliation, the last step in a person’s achievement of his destiny is communion with God. The actual manifestation of divine spiritual life in man is communion with God. Man is destined for communion with true God - to become a partaker of the divine nature (2 Pet. I, 4), to be one of his own to God (Eph. I, 19), to be spiritually and physically a dwelling place for God (Eph. II, 22; 1 Cor. VI, 19). The Lord Jesus Christ, before His departure to heaven, prayed to the Father for those who believe in Him like this: that they may all be one: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, so may they also be one in Us (John XVII, 21) and further. This communion with God has various degrees, but in any case, in order to be valid and true, it must first be mental. This is prayer. “Prayer prepares us for a conversation with God and, through long-term skill, brings us into fellowship with Him” (St. Neil of Sinai). Prayer is an essential expression of what is called religion and what is man’s relationship to the unconditional Beginning of life. God is the highest good, and a person who has recognized the insignificance of external worldly life and his affinity with the divine spirit rushes towards God, just as a plant rises towards the sun. This aspiration of the soul towards God is prayer. It is characteristic of a Christian, just as breathing is necessary for his bodily organism. Prayer is the continuous state of a Christian. Pray at all times in the spirit (Eph. VI, 18), pray without ceasing (1 Thess. V, 17), the apostle commanded. When a person has realized the perishability of all external goods, the insignificance of personal existence, then prayer, first of all, gives positive content to his new existence, fills the emptiness of his personal death. Through it, a person renounces his own insignificance; through it he stands out from the outside world and rises above it. “Having come to his senses, he says: I will get up and go to my father”: and the actual first step in fulfilling this decision is prayer. A newborn baby instinctively reaches out to its mother’s breast, and the spiritually reborn is just as weak and alone in “this world” without God. Prayer nourishes spiritual life and gives it strength. The state of prayer is wakefulness of the spirit, sobriety, composure of the mind, staying within. Lustful concern for worldly affairs is the same as dreaming. The web of worldly thoughts entangles our mind, and it lives, mistaking dreams for reality, an external ghost for the truth. Arise, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will illuminate you (Eph. V, 14). Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation. The spirit is cheerful; the flesh is weak (Matthew XXVI, 41). This determines the nature of Christian, spiritual prayer. “The true basis of prayer,” according to St. Macarius the Great, - this is to be attentive to thoughts and perform prayer in great silence and peace. A person praying must direct all his efforts to his thoughts, and cut off what serves as food for evil thoughts, and direct his thoughts to God, and not fulfill the desires of thoughts, but collect whirling thoughts from everywhere together, distinguishing natural thoughts from evil ones. The soul under sin is likened to a large forest on a mountain, or reeds on a river, or some kind of thorns and trees; Therefore, those who intend to pass through this place must stretch their hands forward and with effort and difficulty push the branches apart in front of them. So the soul is surrounded by a whole forest of thoughts, inspired by a resistive force; Therefore, great diligence and attentiveness of the mind are required in order for a person to distinguish between alien thoughts inspired by a resistive force. Those who are attentive to their thoughts accomplish the entire feat in prayer internally. Such people, with their understanding and prudence, can succeed, repel rebellious thoughts and walk towards the will of the Lord.” Prayer is only “smart doing” and cannot replace Christian life. Not everyone who says to Me: Lord! God! He who does the will of My Father in heaven will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew VII: 21). But this intelligent work is absolutely necessary in order to preserve, grow and nurture that beginning of spiritual life, which is laid by repentance and faith in the Gospel. Without prayer, this first fruit will die out, the born Spirit will go out... Soulful reading is closely related to prayer. “Prayers and reading are wonderful; they stop the vain wandering of thoughts, connecting the thought circling over what it should not, and usefully keeping it with them, not at all distracted in this wonderful activity” (Venerable Neil of Sinai). The seed of spiritual life that the Son of Man sows in the hearts of people falls, some along the road, where birds fly and peck at it, some - on rocky places, where, having quickly sprung up, it soon dries up from the scorching rays of the sun, others - in the thorns, with which it is drowned. The birds are the evil one, who comes to everyone who hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand, and snatches away what is sown in his heart; The thorns are our flesh, the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches; stony ground is the world that causes sorrow, or persecution because of the word, temptation. The evil one, the enemy of the Son of Man, sows tares among the good seed, “while people sleep”: he is driven out by prayerful vigilance; the flesh is overcome by fasting, and the world by foolishness in Christ. Fasting is necessary for a Christian; this necessity is determined by the law according to which the inner man is renewed under the condition that the outer man decays (2 Cor. IV, 16). Spirit and flesh are at enmity with each other. Walking in the flesh is directly opposite to walking in the Spirit (Rom. VIII: 4-5). The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is contrary to the flesh (Gal. V: 17). For the spirit to live for righteousness, the body must be dead for sin (Rom. VIII, 10). The beginning of this carnal mortification is fasting - abstinence both in the field of nutrition and in relation to sexual function. On the way to the kingdom of God, “publicans and harlots” go ahead of the “high priests and Pharisees” (Matthew XXI, 31); but in the kingdom of God itself there is no place for fornicators (1 Cor. V, 10; Eph. V, 5). Publicans and harlots precede fasters and virgins only in a certain direction - in the direction of that humility, which, in contrast to self-righteousness and self-satisfaction, is a condition of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew IX, 31). Publicans and harlots precede those fasters and virgins who see in abstinence a virtue leading to perfection and merit before God, to the self-satisfaction of a tributary Pharisee. But when a certain direction has been passed, then what is the justification for lawlessness? Now the path has changed: what was in front is now behind. For one who believes in Christ, living according to the flesh is the same as: a dog returning to his vomit, and a washed pig going to wallow in the mud (2 Pet. II, 22). For if, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome by them; then the latter is worse for them than the former. It would be better for them not to know the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them (20-21). Why, although the law was given to the Jews for the knowledge of sin, although the pagans were left to their ways so that they would know their powerlessness, although in general our untruth reveals the truth of God, although the faithfulness of God is elevated by my unfaithfulness to the glory of God, this does not mean that Christians must do evil in order for good to come out. The judgment is just on those who say so (Rom. III, 5-8). After all, we died to sin: how can we live in it? Therefore, let not sin reign in our mortal body, so that we should obey it in its lusts (Rom. VI). That is why the apostle distinguishes the fornicators of this world, with whom he allows Christians to communicate, “for otherwise they would have to go out of this world,” from those who, while calling themselves brothers, remain a fornicator or a covetous person, or a drunkard, etc., commanding them to be cast out from among Christians and not even to eat with them (1 Cor. V, 9-13). In the direction to spiritual life, in a sense, both paths are indifferent - the path of evil and the path of natural good: they both lead to Christ if both of them bring a person to the consciousness of his material insignificance; they both deviate from Christ if one leads to despair or completely drowns self-consciousness in sensuality, and the other to self-righteousness, so that they can even lead to Christ the path of evil, which, according to the parable of Christ, followed by the younger son, who squandered his property on the far side, in a dissolute life, and the path of legalistic righteousness, on which the elder brother stood, can be diverted from it. They only give good results when combined: only the feeling of natural weakness and comparison of it with the height of a beloved ideal gives a person a saving knowledge of his material insignificance. Therefore, with the birth of spiritual life in a person, the meaning of both paths is retained: the spiritually reborn is not freed from his natural infirmities, but he is not freed from the demands of a good life. But the effect of natural infirmities in a spiritually regenerated person is no longer a delight in lust, but presupposes in him an aversion to it, and the fulfillment of the requirements of the moral law is not a consequence of his desire for self-righteousness, for self-gratification with his perfection, but has a completely different meaning as a means of preserving the spiritual divine life, this treasure handed over to man by God. Christian fasting is not a virtue leading to perfection and merit before God. Christ himself taught: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth defiles a person (Matthew XV: 11). The Apostle explains: for the pure all things are pure (Tit. I, 15); every creation of God is good and nothing is reprehensible if it is received with thanksgiving (1 Tim. IV, 4); food does not bring us closer to God: for whether we eat, we gain nothing; if we eat, we lose nothing (I Cor. VIII, 8); and everyone act according to the evidence of his own mind. He who distinguishes the days distinguishes for the Lord; and he who does not discern the days does not discern for the Lord. Whoever eats eats for the Lord; for he thanks God. And whoever does not eat does not eat for the Lord, and gives thanks to God... The Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. XIV, 5, 6, 7, 17). The apostle considers freedom from the weak elements of the world to be the great gift of Christianity: you, brothers, are called to freedom (Gal. V, 13). If you, he wrote to the Colossians, died with Christ to the elements of the world, then why do you, as those living in the world, adhere to the regulations: do not touch, do not taste, do not handle (which all decays from use), according to the commandments and teachings of men? This only has the appearance of wisdom in self-willed service, humility and exhaustion of the body, in some neglect of the saturation of the flesh (II, 20-23). Christian fasting is not a virtue leading to perfection and is not a merit before God: it has other grounds. We are called to freedom; only our freedom should not be a reason to please the flesh (Gal. V, 13). Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial; everything is permissible for me, but nothing should possess me (I Cor. VI, 12). Do you not know that to whom you give yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are also slaves to whom you obey, either slaves of sin to death, or slaves of obedience to righteousness (Rom. VI, 16)? Fasting is necessary for a Christian because it protects spiritual life from the grasp of the flesh. Take care of yourselves, - Christ commanded us, - so that your hearts are not burdened with gluttony and drunkenness (Luke XXI, 34). Do not quench the Spirit (1 Thess. V, 19), the apostle instructs. And intemperance quenches the spirit. Due to this basic character, Christian fasting has no definite boundaries. Regarding the image of abstinence in food, or fasting, the same rule cannot be established for everyone; because not all bodies have the same strength, but this virtue is not observed by the strength of the soul alone, but must be proportionate to the strength of the body. 'Why should the measure of abstinence be determined by the court of everyone's conscience? The general principle of Christian fasting is expressed by the apostle in the words: do not turn care for the flesh into lusts (Rom. XIII, 14). “The course of our life must be established in such a way that at no time should we be distracted from spiritual pursuits, unless the weakness of the body prompts us to descend to the necessary care for it,” St. John Cassian. The same principle of freedom of spirit should determine the attitude of a husband towards his wife. Marriage is honest and in itself is not fornication or adultery (Heb. XIII, 4). The apostle calls people who abstain or teach to abstain from marriage as from impurity those who are seared in their conscience (1 Tim. IV, 2). And in relation to marriage, abstinence is prescribed to a Christian only for the sake of spiritual life, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. And here the last judge is the nature and conscience of everyone, and one must distinguish between physical abstinence and mental chastity. In the first respect, abstinence can be unconditional, unlike fasting in the proper sense, but it is not possible for everyone: whoever can accommodate, let him accommodate (Matthew XIX, 12). The unbearable burden and unreasonable jealousy in this area both nature punishes and the word of God restrains: it is better to get married than to become inflamed (1 Cor. VI, 9). Mental chastity is prescribed unconditionally for a Christian, and it should equally determine both the celibate state and the married life of a Christian, i.e. the attitude of a husband towards every wife: anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. V, 28). This looking with lust is the very enemy of spiritual life. Wine, like “every creation of God, is good and not blameworthy if it is received with thanksgiving”; but intoxication is incompatible with spiritual life (Eph. V, 18; 1 Cor. V, 11). Christian ascetics also command abstinence in relation to sleep. “You must strictly observe the time and amount of sleep. And this kind of lust must be cut off with the same zeal with which we must cut off the movements of fornication” (St. John Cassian). Finally, just like reading with prayer, physical labor should be closely connected with fasting. If anyone does not want to work, do not eat, the apostle commands (2 Thess. III, 10). “Choose work for yourself, and it, together with fasting, prayer and vigils, will deliver you from all defilements, because bodily labor brings purity of the heart” (St. Anthony the Great). Let us conclude the teaching of Holy Scripture on fasting with a remark about the relationship of church regulations on fasting to this teaching. Church fasting does not have abstinence as its only principle, otherwise these instructions about times and types of food would contradict the teaching of the word of God; but in it this principle is supplemented by another principle of obedience to the Church, the exercise of the will in obedience to it. This last principle of monastic origin and in monasteries finds its full application according to the rule: “to surrender everything into the will of your spiritual father, as into the hand of God, is a matter of perfect faith. Don’t even ask to swallow a sip of water, even if you happen to be burning with thirst, until your spiritual father, being moved within himself, orders you to do it” (Venerable Simeon Nov. Theologian). Church fasting has disciplinary and educational significance. It is clear to everyone that, by outwardly observing the instructions of the Church about the times and types of food, one can lead an intemperate life, as almost everyone does in our country, for example, Maslenitsa; but in the first steps of spiritual life, when the conscience is either weak or rude, church fasting, in any case, is a school of abstinence. Take care of yourselves, - the Lord commanded us, - so that your hearts are not burdened with gluttony and drunkenness, and - he added - with the worries of this life (Luke XXI, 34). In addition to intemperance of the flesh, the enemy of spiritual life is worldly worries, the demands of this world. Consider what the worldly man is completely absorbed in. Look closely at his life, and you will agree that his external worries and sensual concerns are much broader than the demands of his flesh. For example, the attention that a worldly person pays to sexual love, which requires a lot of time, mental strength, and material resources, is far from being covered by the demands of the flesh. The most lustful animal is not as demanding in this regard as a man is demanding, who, whenever possible, fortunately extremely rare, surrounds himself with dozens and even hundreds of wives. In humans, sexual lust is accompanied by social feelings of pride and hatred, which bring sensual lust to enormous proportions. Moliere's Don Juan, the personification of sexual love, looks at his love affairs like a commander at military campaigns. “The whole pleasure of love,” he says, “consists in change. You feel an incomprehensible pleasure when you win the heart of a young beauty with all kinds of assurances... But since he remained the winner, there is nothing more to wish for; all the charm of passion has disappeared, and we fall asleep in the tranquility of such love, if a new object does not arouse our desires and does not present to our heart the seductive charm of a new victory. In a word, there is nothing more delightful than triumphing over the resistance of a beauty. Then I feel in myself the ambition of conquerors who win one victory after another.” Rousseau (“Emile”) quite rightly notes: “Pride produces libertines more than love.” Therefore, of course, the physiological satisfaction of lust without satisfying pride does not give satisfaction, and Mark Volokhov, the hero of “The Precipice,” did not feel it when he left the gazebo. Also, the clothes and housing of a worldly person are more refined, his table is more plentiful than what is needed for lustful needs, not to mention the modesty of the requirements of a morally healthy body. A society lady dresses up not just because of her inclination towards grace and beauty, but in order not to be inferior to some and to surpass others. All our excess is for the world. We dress and live as luxuriously as possible because “we meet people by our dress,” and we want to be greeted well—we want to impress. We try, therefore, not only to be, but also to appear, and sometimes not so much to be as to seem well-fed, rich, learned, noble. And yet, what a burden this service to the world places on a person!... He works for the demands of “light,” which is darkness, to the point of exhaustion, his thoughts are constantly occupied with worldly concerns, for the sake of peace he tramples on the highest demands of the spirit. This power of the world begins with little things, with a fashionable style of dress, but it comes to the point that a person has no time to pray to God, no time to read a good book and no opportunity to allocate a ruble from his large income or salary to the poor; begins with the observance of the rules of politeness, as if coinciding with morality, and ends with the violation of the most essential rules of morality for the sake of the demands of the world. It is shameful to engage in manual labor if you have a high rank and dress fashionably; It is a shame, living in the “light,” to refuse to kill in a duel. Great is this power of the prince of this world: people are mad, there is no place for free thought, templates and fashion reign. Reality shows that you need to be a hero in order to have the strength to resist the customs of the world. And a genius does not always have enough strength for this. The great Pushkin was a slave of the “light,” despising it in his soul: this constituted the bitter tragedy of his entire life. Foolishness for Christ's sake gives us strength to fight the customs of this world. Foolishness is a voluntarily accepted, humiliated way of life, different from the usual, different (monk). Such voluntary, and if involuntary, then complacently tolerated humiliation expresses the fact that a person does not seek anything for himself personally, does not lay claim to any dignity. Such foolishness gives a person the strength to resist the customs of the world. The world itself, which cannot forgive one of its own for deviations from its customs, forgives such a deviation to a person who is not of this world, recognizing his right to such freedom. This is how this is explained by the story of the youth of Elder Zosima (“The Brothers Karamazov”). Having arrived in St. Petersburg in his youth, he became the same as everyone else: “he acquired a gloss of politeness and secular address along with the French language, and we all considered the soldiers who served us in the (cadet) corps as complete beasts, and so did I... When we came out as officers, we were ready to shed our blood for the insulted regimental honor, but almost none of us knew about real honor that it existed.” And so our young officer insults an innocent landowner and challenges him to a duel. “At that time, although duels were cruelly persecuted, there was even a fashion for them among the military - so wild prejudices sometimes grow and become stronger.” But on the eve of the duel with him, a revolution took place, “something as if fatal.” In the evening he beat his orderly, and his conscience awoke, which from the evening riot was transferred to the upcoming atrocity. He began to think: “What am I going to do? I’m going to kill a kind, intelligent, noble man, innocent of anything before me.” In the morning, having asked forgiveness from the orderly and made a prostration before him, he went to the duel with a mature decision and, having withstood the enemy’s shot, refused his own shot. “I myself,” he told him, “are ten times worse than you, and perhaps even more.” Such a Christian act caused him unanimous condemnation. All his comrades gathered to judge him that same day: “He’s soiled his uniform, they say, let him resign.” And it was then that he announced to them his decision to go to the monastery. “As soon as I said, every single one of them burst out laughing: “You should have informed me from the very beginning, well, now everything is explained, you can’t judge a monk,” they laugh, and not mockingly at all, even the most ardent accusers.”... This true story is confirmed by daily observation. It is enough for worldly people to make sure that a famous person is not their rival in worldly aspirations, that he is not of this world, and they forgive him his spiritual life. For Christ's sake, foolishness is of great importance for the growth of a person's spiritual life. That revolution in a person, which serves as a condition for the birth of spiritual life in him, first of all contains within itself the consciousness of a person’s insignificance before God. But a person’s feelings in relation to God receive full meaning and acquire the proper strength only when they are manifested in his relations with other people. So humility. Its true meaning is in a person’s consciousness of his material insignificance in relation to the ideal of unconditional perfection; but it becomes a feeling of proper strength only by becoming a person’s humility in relation to other people, as the apostle writes: “All of you, being submissive to one another, be clothed with humility, because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter V, 5, 6). Human humility in relation to people is foolishness. A Christian must voluntarily renounce everything that puts him outwardly ahead of others in the direction of worldly life - in the direction of the ideals of natural dignity and well-being, from power, smart appearance, from the reputation of an intelligent person, from everything that impresses him, and, on the contrary, strive for what depersonalizes him and humiliates him. If,” the Savior said after washing the disciples’ feet, “I, the Lord and teacher, washed your feet; then you also should wash one another’s feet (John XIII, 14); whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant. And whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave (Matt. XX, 26, 27); unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. So, whoever humbles himself like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew XVIII: 3, 4). In the same mood of humility, Christians should “confess their faults to one another” (James V, 16). Of course, foolishness, like fasting, is not subject to certain regulation - it does not consist of a certain appearance. In any case, rags and antics do not constitute the norm of Christian life, although they can be understood as a voluntary feat due to the exclusivity of the spiritual nature of this or that person, like extraordinary methods of mortification of the flesh, such as chains, etc. Especially in some cases, the change of name practiced during tonsure as a monk can be useful, since all human pride is associated with the name. The norm in this respect is determined by the environment. To be without any pretensions to external dignity, to be more humiliated than those with whom you live and who know you, and, what is the same, not to stand out from the crowd - this is the norm; to be free from the shackles of the world, to live in such a way that external life does not interfere with the fulfillment of the essential requirements of Christian morality, is combined with the Christian spirit, nourishes it - this is the goal of Christian foolishness. The measure here is the same as in fasting: everyone live according to the evidence of their mind. At the beginning of spiritual life, little things matter. Everything that feeds my worldly pride, draws me into the shackles of secular life - all this deserves attention from the point of view of spiritual life, even if it were fashionable gloves, insignificant external comfort that impresses others, a small boss. Equally, no matter how insignificant in itself the circumstance in which the protest of spiritual freedom against secular deadness is expressed, even if it was a slight deviation from fashion in clothing, from accepted customs in everyday life - and this is already a victory. Foolishness is also more important. We said: it is enough for worldly people to make sure that a famous person is not their rival in worldly aspirations, that he is not of this world, and they will forgive him his spiritual life. This is certain. However, this is not the whole truth. This phenomenon is combined with another, apparently opposite one. While forgiving spiritual life to holy fools, on the one hand, worldly people, on the other hand, harbor hatred for spiritual life itself. The world hates people who are not of this world. They feel and reason like this: “Let us put fetters on the righteous, for he is a burden to us, and opposes our deeds, reproaches us for sins against the law, and reproaches us for the sins of our upbringing; declares himself to have the knowledge of God, and calls himself the son of the Lord; He is before us - the conviction of our thoughts. It’s hard for us to even look at him; for his life is not like the life of others and his ways are different; he considers us an abomination, and moves away from our ways as from uncleanness; He rejoices at the death of the righteous and vainly calls God his father. We will see whether his words are true, and we will experience what his outcome will be; for if this righteous man is the son of God, then God will protect him and deliver him from the hand of his enemies. Let us test him with insult and torment, in order to know his humility and see his gentleness; Let us condemn him to a dishonorable death, for, according to him, he will be taken care of” (Wis. S. II, 10-20). Foolishness, freeing a person from the shackles of secular life, exposes him openly to the blows of this hatred, makes Christ’s suffering possible and necessary for him, in contrast to the worldly, and gives him complicity in the suffering of Christ, according to the words of the Apostle: “If only none of you suffers as a murderer, or a thief, or a villain, or as an encroacher on someone else’s property; and if - as a Christian, then do not be ashamed, but glorify God for such a fate” (1 Pet. IV, 15-17; cf. Matt. V, 11-12). And participation in the sufferings of Christ is a necessary condition for participation in His word: “as you participate,” writes the apostle, “in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, and in the revelation of His glory you will rejoice and triumph. If they slander you for the name of Christ, then you are blessed; for the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, rests upon you. Теми Он хулится, а вами прославляется» ( 1Пет. IV, 13, 14 ; также Мф. V, 11, 12 ; Иоан. XV, 18–20 ; Римл. VIII, 17, 18 ; Фил. III, 10, 11; 2 Тим. И, 11, 12). Насколько желательно для христианина участие в Христовой славе, которая есть истинная жизнь, насколько для него необходимо юродство. Чтобы открылась в нас слава Христа, или, что то же, Его истинная жизнь, мы должны носить в теле своем мертвость Его ( 2Кор. IV, 10 ; 2Тим. II , П, 12; Фил. III, 10 ). This deadness in the body, this corruption of the outer man is fasting and foolishness. CHAPTER THREE. Love. Faith. Hope True, spiritual life is a person’s life for God (Rom. XIV, 8; 2 Cor. V, 15). The basic rule of this life, its main motive is expressed as follows: live not for yourself, but for God. This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent (John XVII: 3). To know only one God and not to consider either your womb, your pride, or the prince of this world as gods - this means living eternal life. The apostle defines this law of spiritual life as applied to his relationships as follows: I decided to be among you Corinthians, knowing nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor. 11:2). But eternal life is not only the life of man for God: its more essential definition is that it is divine life in man. Live a true life - this means: live a divine life. What is spiritual life as divine life in man essentially? Divine life is love, and therefore he who abides in love abides in God. Beloved1. - writes the apostle, - let us love one another, because love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love has not known God; because God is love (1 John IV, 7, 8). No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, then God abides in us, and His love is perfect in us (12). God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him (16). “Whoever has My commandments,” said our Lord Jesus Christ, “and keeps them, he loves Me; and whoever loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him, and I will appear to him Myself. He who loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to Him, and we will make our abode with Him (John XIV: 21, 23). “If God is love, then he who has love has God in himself” (St. Theodore of Edessa). “The most divine thing about a person is that he can do good. You can become a god without doing anything (except for charity): do not miss the opportunity to deify” (St. Gregory the Theologian). Love is true life, and therefore he who abides in love has life in himself and lives in the light. We know, writes the apostle of love, that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers; He who does not love his brother remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (John III, 14, 15). Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself... Do this, said Christ, and you will live (Luke X, 27). He who says, writes the apostle, that he is in the light, but hates his brother, is still in darkness. He who loves his brother abides in the light (1 John II: 9, 10). What are the properties of Christian love? The first property of Christian love is that it is from God. This is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John IV, 10, 19). His love poured into our hearts, warmed us, revived us - and lives in us. Christian life is the revelation in us of divine love - the love with which God loved us. Christian love is a reflection of God’s love in us, it is our response to the love of the Heavenly Father. The love of God was revealed to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God's love for us was revealed in the fact that God sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might receive life through Him. This is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John IV: 9, 10). The Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us the love of the Father in that He laid down His life for us (III, 16; Rom. V, 8). And He commanded us to love, but He did not just command love, but gave a commandment about love, having loved us Himself - He gave us the commandment to love precisely with His love. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another; as I have loved you, so let you also love one another (John XIII:34); as the Father has loved Me, and I have loved you; abide in My love (XV, 9); This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you (12). Christian love is precisely the love of Christ in us; we Christians love one another with the love of Jesus Christ (Phil. I, 8). The source of our love is the love of Jesus Christ for us. We love because we are loved by Him. This connection of our love with the love of Jesus Christ is not interrupted over the centuries. The love of Christ is passed on from generation to generation (we mean spiritual generations) continuously. The apostles were directly loved by Christ and loved Him; sent by Him to preach, they loved their disciples with the love of Jesus Christ (Phil. I, 8) and gave birth to this Christian love in them. Their students continued their work in relation to subsequent generations. And every Christian of our time is continuously connected by such successive love with the love of Jesus Christ. Whoever has not been loved through someone by the love of Jesus Christ, there cannot be love in him; He who truly lives by Christian love has himself been loved. “All saints (Christians) consistently form a kind of golden chain, each being a special link in this chain, connecting with the previous one through faith, good deeds and love - a chain that, being established in God, is indestructible. Whoever does not allow with all love and desire in humility to unite with the most recent (in time) of all the saints, having some kind of unbelief towards him, will never unite with the former and will not be ranked among the preceding saints, even if it seemed to him that he has all the faith and all the love for God and all the saints. He will be cast out from among them, as he who did not deign to humbly take the place previously assigned to him by God, and unite with that last (in time) saint, as this was predestined for him by God” (Venerable Simeon. New Theologian). Since spiritual life, or, what is the same thing, spiritual perfection, is not the entire result of human activity, but consists in man’s initiation into divine love, in drawing from a source that is already flowing, so that from man, first of all, only the consent to draw from this source is required, then spiritual life, which is divine love, is directly prescribed to man in all its reality. Christ told us: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who abuse you; that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He commands His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust... Be ye therefore perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew V, 44-48). It is not said: become perfect, gradually approach infinite perfection, which will always be equally far from you, but it is said: be perfect, i.e. be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke VI, 36, par. Matthew V, 48), live a divine life. Of course, in spiritual life growth is possible and required from a person; and the initial introduction to it and this increase presuppose a person’s effort, which is indicated in the quoted words of St. Simeon and will be indicated below; However, spiritual life is given to man in the love of God and his initial effort comes down only to the consent to live this love, and growth in it - to the corruption of the old man, to the fullness of its discovery in human nature, but already the first communion with it is participation in eternal divine life, in spiritual perfection. “Be perfect”!.. Christian love is the love of Jesus Christ. The first manifestation of this love in us is our reciprocal love for Jesus Christ. From this it is clear how great the representation of the image of the Lord Jesus Christ is for us. We must imagine Jesus Christ, carry His image within us in order to love Him. Our personal communication with Jesus Christ, the communication of love, is the basis of Christianity. Christian love, as divine in nature, is completely opposite to our earthly, carnal love. Our natural love is a modification of egoism; it is always only partiality. We naturally love our own - our children, parents, benefactors, compatriots, all our property. We love what has our stamp on it, what gives us pleasure. When loving, we always pursue our own pleasure or benefit, and not the beloved, we care about the beloved only to the extent that his well-being or joy gives us pleasure or removes suffering from us. Our love is not our free self-sacrifice, but requires the sacrifice of the beloved: in loving, we destroy. “We most certainly destroy what is dear to our hearts”... Seeming cases of selfless natural love are entirely explained by the (unfree) instinct characteristic of man in some respects on a par with animals. In any case, the actual community of people is not created by love itself, but by the social instinct, which is very strong, except for humans, in some species of animals and insects, need and reason. Natural love, although it comes entirely from the heart of the person himself, is not in his power: the feeling of natural love cannot be prescribed to a person in relation to one or another object. Christian love is the opposite of natural love. You have heard that it was said: love your neighbor. But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you... For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don't publicans do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what special thing are you doing? Don't the pagans do the same (Matt. V, 43-47)? There is no partiality in spiritual love: it is love for every person. This is because Christian love in its content is, first of all, love for God and for others only in God. “We know by this that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments” (1 John V, 2). But love for God completely excludes self-love and love for the world. “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world: whoever loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him” (II, 15). Spiritual love is conditioned by not loving one’s soul even to the point of death, spiritual and personal death. It is spiritual and personal death that makes love in God for every person possible. “He loves all men who loves nothing human” (St. Maximus the Confessor). To love the world and what is in the world, and together to love every person in God, is impossible. That is why, although spiritual love is given to man in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, it can nevertheless be prescribed to man; it is his free deed, since humility and self-denial are in his power. And conversely, nothing else can eradicate addiction to the world from the human heart, neither fear of God, nor striving for absolute natural perfection, but love for God through Christ. Personal love for the Son of Man must be understood in the likeness of sensual love. “People upon whom the dew of the spirit of divine life has fallen and the heart has been stung by divine love for the heavenly King Christ, will become attached to that beauty, to the unspeakable glory, to the imperishable splendor, to the unimaginable wealth of the true and eternal King Christ. They surrender themselves into captivity to lust and love, completely rushing to Christ, and they desire to seize those unspeakable blessings that they contemplate in the spirit, and for this reason they regard all beauty on earth, and glory, and splendor, and honor, and wealth of kings and princes as nothing; because they were struck by divine beauty, and the life of heavenly immortality sank into their souls. Therefore, they desire the one love of the heavenly King, with great lust for Him alone, having before their eyes, for His sake they renounce all worldly love and move away from all earthly bonds, so that it is possible for them to always have this one desire in their hearts, and not mix anything else with it” (St. Macarius the Great). The fact that spiritual love is not abstractly opposed to worldly love, but strengthens and grows in the human heart precisely at the expense of its natural passions, is worthy of special note. “Love your enemies” does not mean: love not only your brothers, but, moreover, love your enemies. Love for enemies is not the highest level of love after love for one’s own. But this means that spiritual love works directly against natural partiality and hatred. The commandment to love one’s enemies is not an extension of natural love for one’s own, but has on its reverse side the commandment to hate one’s own. “If anyone,” said our Savior, “comes to Me, and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and, moreover, his own life; he cannot be My disciple” (Luke XIV:26). Therefore, Christian love with which we naturally love our own: this is love for them in God, as children of God. Christian love produces a radical change in a person’s very personality, in his sense of well-being, in his attitude towards his own and what is not his own. This difference between one’s own and not one’s own changes so that one’s own disappears in God’s, and everything that is not one’s own (and, of course, one’s own, which first became not one’s own) is embraced by God’s. For this same reason, the difference between brother and enemy is not absolute, but, based on natural partiality and hatred, it falls along with them. As a Christian, I cannot love my own only because they are my own, and hate my enemies only because they are enemies; but, obviously, I am not required to love my enemies just because they are enemies and hate my own unconditionally. It is required of me that I love my enemies as children of God, as well as my own, not as my own, but as also children of God. The natural order is again, as it were, restored: “if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those at home, he has renounced the faith, and is worse than an infidel” (1 Tim. V, 8), but this is a renewed order. A Christian takes care of his own, but he wishes for them the same thing that he wishes for his enemies as children of God. This is the main nerve of Christian love. He can no longer wish them beauty, wealth, honors; he wishes them spiritual benefits, honesty, truth, peace, purity, holiness. Nature is not eradicated, but renewed. Like ap. Paul loved his Jews, but for that very reason he did not want national benefits for them, but wanted to bring them, along with the pagans, to the one Christ! This is how every Christian should love his family, his people! The same app. Paul, in words of inspirational beauty, describes the meaning of love for a Christian and the properties of Christian love, as opposed to carnal love: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, then I am a ringing gossamer, or a sounding cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and have all knowledge and all faith, so that I can remove mountains, but I do not have love; then I'm nothing. And if I give away all my property, and give my body to be burned, and do not have love, it does me no good. Love is long-suffering, it is merciful, love does not envy, love does not exalt itself, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. XIII: 1-6). Spiritual love is the opposite of carnal love and grows through it. However, natural love serves as a preparatory form of spiritual love, just as human language serves as a preparatory form of divine Revelation. Everything that a person says himself is not the truth, but the divine truth can be revealed to him only in his language, and in order to perceive the divine truth he needs to abandon - not his language, but his lie. Likewise, we can perceive divine love, because we naturally know love; we can perceive it with our natural ability of love. This is why lukewarmness is far from the kingdom of God. You are neither cold nor hot; Oh, that you were cold or hot! But how you are warm, and not hot and not cold; then I will spit you out of My mouth (Apoc. III, 15, 16). Strong in natural love and hatred is strong in spiritual love. But the power of love must be cleansed of natural attachments in order to become spiritual love. Here the energy is the same, but the direction is different. This is a kind of transformation of power. But with this transformation, spiritual love retains what it has in common with natural love. Spiritual love is just as powerful as natural love, reaching its highest tension in falling in love. Spiritual love is a force, a person lives by it, it acts in him, grows, strengthens, matures; with sufficient strength, she controls him, he cannot resist her... Spiritual love is also similar to natural in its incomprehensibility for reason, its freedom from the laws of logic. It cannot be generated by reasoning alone, or persuaded to it by persuasion; Its reality can neither be justified nor refuted logically. It is generated by love, it is perceived by faith and proven by the evidence of one’s own experience, it is justified by one’s own activity. And the possibility of spiritual love is explained personally by the means by which it is actually warmed up and which give it inalienable properties other than those indicated. Spiritual love is love for God; but love for God, like all religious feelings, acquires real meaning in the human heart only when it becomes love in God for people. Whoever says: I love God, but hates his brother; he is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see? And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should also love his brother (1 John IV, 20, 21). We have come to know love in this, that the Son of God laid down His life for us: and we must lay down our souls for our brothers. And whoever has wealth in the world, but, seeing his brother in need, closes his heart from him: how does the love of God abide in him? My children! Let us begin to love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth (III, 16-18). This is the property of Christian love for God, which clearly indicates the means by which it can be warmed in the heart: it is active love. Help the poor, do good, have compassion for the unfortunate, practice good deeds - and divine love will be embodied in your heart, from an abstract thought will become a real feeling, take root, strengthen and bear fruit. At the same time, true love for God necessarily generates love for one’s neighbor. “When someone begins to richly feel the love of God, then in a spiritual feeling he begins to love his neighbor, and once he has begun, he does not cease: such is the love about which all the holy scriptures speak. Carnal love, not being bound by spiritual feeling, as soon as even an insignificant reason presents itself, it very easily evaporates. Spiritual love is not like that: but, although it happens to suffer some grief, in the God-loving soul, which is under the influence of God, the union of love does not intersect: for having warmed itself with the warmth of love for God, it immediately returns to a good mood and with great joy accepts love for its neighbor, even if it received a lot of insult from him or suffered great harm; because then the bitterness of discord is completely absorbed by the sweetness of God” (Blessed Diadochos). Being active love for neighbors, Christian love is therefore the necessary fulfillment of the law. To the question: what is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus Christ answered: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: love your neighbor as yourself, and directly added: on these two commandments the whole law and the prophets are established (Matthew XXII, 36-40). This means that all the essential moral requirements of the law and the prophets are embraced by love. Love is the fulfillment of the law. Do not remain, the apostle commands, owing anything to anyone except mutual love: for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not covet someone else’s, and all the others are contained in this word: love your neighbor as yourself. Love does not harm one's neighbor; So love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. XIII, 8-10).” Eg. The commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery” is fully embraced by love, and its violation is a violation of the law of love. Love for a woman as a sister in God excludes the possibility of animal passion for her. Also all other commandments. Two consequences follow from this attitude of love towards the law. Firstly, the requirement of love is precisely the requirement of keeping the commandments. This indicates both the property of Christian love and again the means by which love can be increased in oneself. He who has My commandments, said the Lord Jesus Christ, and keeps them, loves Me... He who loves Me keeps My word (John XIV: 21:23). Whoever, writes the apostle of love, keeps the word of Jesus Christ, in him truly the love of God is perfected... This is love for God, so that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous (1 John II, 5; V, 3). So, if you want to have the love of Christ in your heart, practice fulfilling His commandments. Secondly, if, on the one hand, you need to fulfill the commandments of Christ in order to have His love, then, on the other hand, the Christian law is only a form of love. Those who live according to the spirit, according to love, are not subject to the law (Gal. X, 22, 23) in the external “legalistic” sense. Therefore, the law is restored in spiritual life, but in a renewed sense, which does not give room to legalistic complacency and self-righteousness. Growth in Christian righteousness is not a natural improvement that feeds self-righteousness. Then, spiritual love is inextricably linked with suffering and humiliation. This may be a law that governs more than just spiritual love; suffering and natural love give Christian properties, raising it to this height. A mother who loves her sick child, who has caused her a lot of trouble, loves her suffering in him. When Pilate was sitting in the judgment seat, his wife sent him to say: Do nothing to that righteous man, because now in a dream I have suffered a lot for Him (Matthew XXVII, 19). Suffering even in a dream made this righteous man close to her. This is the way in which a Christian can increase his love for God, for Christ. It is necessary to “suffer for Him”—to lose so much for His sake that there is nothing left to return to the world—to break all ties with the world. The Christian in himself is homeless: he died to the world, and his life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. III, 3), just as for a grain that has sprung and rotted, all hope is in this sprout. All thoughts of a Christian are in the realm of the invisible, the divine. There is his treasure (Matt. VI, 21). He becomes a participant in the work of Christ, His friend - he and Christ, so to speak, have “common interests”2, he continues His work, he, as the apostle said about himself, “makes up for the lack in his flesh of the sorrows of Christ for His body, which is the Church” (Col. I, 24). It is precisely this commonality of action and expectations that is heard in the words of the apostles, who left everything for Christ (Matthew XIX, 27 par.) - and that, who kept Him from suffering and said to Him: “Be merciful to yourself, Lord, let this not happen to you” (Matthew XVI, 22), and the one who said to the other disciples: “let us go and die with Him” (John XI, 16), and the one who writes: “who will separate us from the love of God: tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?” (Rom. VIII, 35). Having sacrificed the whole world, there is no point in stopping in front of new victims. Truly, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke IX, 62)... Finally, one more property of Christian love makes it possible - it is believing love. The Christian loves the invisible divine life because he believes in it: the ode is valid for him and even more valid than this external world. He loves his neighbor, ugly both externally and morally, because he believes in his beautiful divine spirit, contemplates his inner man with the eyes of faith. Without faith there is no Christian love... 1 The Russian translation does not fully convey the apostle’s thought. According to the apostle, love is more than the fulfillment of the law. The requirement of love consists of two parts: negative (“do not do evil to your neighbor”) and positive (actually: love your neighbor). The moral law (“thou shalt not commit adultery,” etc.) consists in that part of the commandment to love one’s neighbor, which we called negative (“love does not harm one’s neighbor”) and which does not exhaust the entire volume of required love, so that love is the completion of the law. But for our purpose, the idea of ​​a Russian translation is sufficient. 2 Let me err on the side of crude analogies, but this is how I express my thought: a Christian has contributed all his capital to the cause of Christ (cf. Matthew XIII: 44:46). Faith is often understood as an exclusively theoretical, mental, contemplative act, parallel to knowledge and differing from knowledge in its subject. This understanding is wrong. Just as desire is not the same as the idea of ​​what is desired, although desire, or aspiration, is impossible without the idea of ​​what is desired, so faith in its essence is an act of will, although the full concept of faith also includes a theoretical moment: “faith belongs to the heart, although it begins in the thoughts.” Just as Christian love has a natural preparatory form in the human heart, by analogy with which it is understood and by which it is perceived with the replacement of the old content with a new one, so Christian faith has its natural preparatory form in the human heart, and this form is not knowledge, which in Christianity remains knowledge, but a person’s confidence in himself. It is known that the success of a human endeavor depends on a person’s self-confidence: this very confidence is the active will, sanctified by consciousness. It is this self-confidence that serves as a preliminary form of Christian faith. But both with the replacement of natural love with Christian love, and with the transition of personal confidence into the Christian faith, a significant change occurs, completely changing the content of this act. Personal confidence in a Christian is replaced by confidence in the power of God, which is perfected in weakness. This is faith. That it is combined in a person with the consciousness of his material insignificance, that it is preceded by the collapse of earthly hopes and self-denial, that it is one of two possibilities, along with despair, this is sufficiently clear above. And again, just as the strong in natural love and hatred are capable of strong Christian love, so the self-confident is more capable of the Christian faith, although he achieves it through self-denial. Christian faith is a person’s confidence, directed not at himself, not at the will in relation to the visible world, but at the invisible world. For a believer, the invisible, spiritual, divine world - the existence of God and the moral world order (Heb. XI, 6) is reality, just as the visible world is valid for every person. Faith is the vision of the invisible (Heb. XI, 27). It is “confidence in the invisible, as if in the visible.” But the essence of faith is not in the mere recognition that God exists, but in the confidence that this invisible world exists for me, that for me, in this life, it can become reality, that I can live in this world. The fact is that for a person, in earthly life, the spiritual world can either be a ghost, a pure thought, or it can become reality for him; in reality for him it becomes the strength of the person himself - he takes it with effort (Matthew XI, 12; Luke XVI, 16): this strength is faith. It is the substance of things hoped for and the revelation of things not seen (Heb. XI: 1). Whoever believes that he is the son of God truly becomes the son of God. The believer already has eternal life (John III, 15; V, 24; VI, 40, 47). According to a person’s faith, what he wants really comes true in his life. Such was the faith of the Canaanite woman, the bleeding one, the blind Bartimaeus, the sinful woman who loved much... For a believer, nothing is impossible (Matthew XVIII, 20; XXI, 22 par.). Faith is a creative act. However, faith cannot be called creative in the proper sense because it is only God who can create. In any field, human creativity is limited to perception, reproduction and imagination, materialization, embodiment of an idea. The creativity of faith is subject to the same restrictions. What exists outside man, the invisible divine, becomes reality for him by the power of faith. Only man can believe as a spiritual-physical being, in which the divine spirit is united with humiliated flesh. Faith is a power that realizes the spiritual and divine in external humiliation. It is therefore inextricably linked with external humiliation, with the consciousness of material insignificance; it is established on self-denial. In contrast to human self-confidence, it is the faith of God (Mp. XI, 22). This is where the explanation of why faith and the cross are inseparable. Not being completely creative, faith, however, is completely free. It is free because its essence is not in the mere recognition of the invisible, but in the relation of man to the invisible divine. Faith is the recognition of the invisible divine, combined with joy and desire. And demons believe, i.e. recognize the divine existence, but tremble (James II, 19). Therefore, miracles cannot generate faith, much less force one to believe. They force recognition of divine existence, but leave freedom of attitude towards it, to the point of the possibility of hatred and persecution, as was the case with Jesus Christ by His enemies. United, on the one hand, with the cross, the Christian faith, on the other hand, is inextricably linked with love. I believe in the invisible spiritual-divine being - this means: I recognize the reality of this being, consider it my real good, desire it for myself with all my heart and all my thought, am confident that this spiritual world is valid for me, that I live in it - and, finally, I realize this divine world order for myself and in myself. To recognize the divine being as your good and to desire it means to love it. I love because I believe, and I believe because I love. Christian love is believing love; Christian faith is faith that works by love (Gal. V, 6). Separated from love, faith has no meaning (1 Cor. XIII, 2); Compared to love, faith and hope are of transitory importance. Now these three remain: faith, hope, love; Of these, only love never fails—of these, love is greatest (1 Cor. XIII. 8:13). It is love that constitutes the divine life. Divine love exists outside of man. But that is why love cannot, on its own, constitute the complete meaning of our life: it is too spiritual for this. It becomes love for a person, for our humiliated world, through faith. Believing love gives meaning to our lives. Love is spirit; faith is the body. Faith without love, like a body without spirit, is dead (James II, 26); love without faith, like spirit without body, is invalid for the world. In faith, love is embodied. Love gives us fellowship with God; but it overcomes the world, penetrates into our lives by faith (1 John V, I-4). As our love is from the Lord Jesus Christ, so is our faith from Him: He is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. XII: 2). In order to give birth to human love and faith, He had to undergo the feat of love and faith3. 3 The author speaks about this in detail in his studies about the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ (M. 1892 and 1900). Our faith is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Acts VIII, 37). This faith in Jesus Christ is, first of all, the faith that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of man, who had nowhere to lay his head, was persecuted, suffered and crucified on the cross, is the Son of God. “Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am? “Who do you say that I am?” the Lord Jesus Christ asked His disciples. To Peter’s answer: “You (the Son of man) are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” He said: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I say to you: you are Peter, and on this rock (i.e., faith) I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew XVI, 13–18). Then there is faith in the love of God revealed through the Son of God Jesus Christ. “The love of God for us was revealed in this, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might receive life through Him (1 John IV, 9). In Him we knew and believed in the love that God has for us” (16). In any case, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is faith in God, in His Revelation. “He who believes in Me,” He said, “believes not in Me, but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent me” (John XII, 44, 45). In Him appeared the life that the Father had, so that people could see it with their own eyes, examine it and touch it with their hands (1 John 1:1-3). But this does not exhaust the content of the Christian faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is, finally, a person’s faith in his own sonship with God. If we believe that in the humiliation of the Son of Man, who had no place to lay his head, divine glory was revealed, if we believe in the divine love for us poured out through Him, then we thereby believe that our humiliation serves the same divine glory as we, the children of God. To recognize that Jesus Christ is the Son of God means for us to recognize that God is our Father; To deny Christ's sonship with God means for us to deny our own sonship with God. “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; and he who confesses the Son also has the Father” (1 John II:23). And since faith in one’s sonship with God gives a person real communion with God and eternal life, then “whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (IV, 15); “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (V, 12). Thus, by faith Christ dwells in our hearts (Beth. III, 17). By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, I also believe in my own sonship with God. But the Christian faith acquires real meaning in a person’s heart only when it becomes his faith in the sonship of God of every other person. This is the law of spiritual life: “whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever receives the righteous in the name of the righteous will receive the reward of the righteous. And whoever gives one of these little ones to drink only a cup of cold water in the name of the disciple; Truly I tell you, he will not lose his reward” (Matthew X, 41, 42). The reward of a prophet, a righteous man, a disciple of Christ is the dignity of a prophet, a righteous man, a disciple of Christ. If I give a cup of cold water to a disciple of Christ as a disciple, if I accept a prophet, a righteous man as a prophet and a righteous man, then for me he becomes a disciple of Christ, a prophet, a righteous man. And this, firstly, means that he really becomes a prophet and a righteous man, just as when I learn from someone, I do that he really becomes a teacher, for there cannot be a teacher without a student, someone who is not recognized by anyone as a prophet cannot be a prophet; secondly, this means that the dignity of a prophet, a righteous man, a disciple of Christ is manifested in myself: by accepting a prophet, a righteous man, a disciple of Christ as a prophet and a righteous man, I affirm in myself the dignity of a prophet and a righteous man. Just as in the physical world, action is equal to reaction, so with what we hit, it receives an equal blow; the body that excites electricity is itself electrified, and so in the spiritual world, he who defiles a person, humiliates him, tells his brother cancer or is insane, himself is defiled and humiliated, and he who recognizes or arouses in another the divine dignity affirms it in himself. He who accepts a disciple of Christ by faith accepts Christ in himself, just as, by accepting Christ, he accepts Him who sent Him (Matthew X, 40 par.). On this basis, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ requires, as its consequence, the Christian’s faith in his sonship with God as his affirmation to recognize all those persecuted for the truth, humiliated and suffering as brothers of Jesus Christ. Just as love for God becomes real in love for people, so faith in the Lord Jesus Christ becomes saving for a person only through serving the lesser brothers of Christ. “When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory; and all nations will be gathered before Him; and will separate one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you accepted Me; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him: Lord! when did we see you hungry and feed you? or to the thirsty and gave them something to drink? when did we see you as a stranger and accept you? or naked and clothed? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and came to You? And the King will answer them, “Truly I say to you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did it to Me.” Then He will also say to those on the left hand: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and they did not accept Me; I was naked, and they did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and they did not visit Me. Then they too will answer Him: Lord! when we saw You hungry or thirsty; or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not serve You? Then he will answer them, “Truly I say to you, because you did not do it to one of the least of these; tone they did to Me. And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew XXV, 31–46). Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must believe in our own and other people's sonship with God. But the lesser brothers of Jesus Christ are the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the prisoners; but we ourselves, following Jesus Christ and taking upon ourselves His cross, are subjected to the hatred and persecution of the world. Are these unfortunate children of God? Am I the Son of God? This is the temptation of our faith. Our temptations are similar to those that the Lord Jesus Christ endured and overcame for us. His victory is our victory... Just as love is embodied through faith, so faith itself conquers the world through the fight against temptations, through victory over them. Faith affirms only the inner, divinely filial dignity of man. But while a person remains in this world as a spiritual-physical being, for him the divine dignity, as soon as internal, is not complete. Likewise, the divinely filial dignity of a Christian is limited to the kingdom of this world, which does not recognize this dignity. Therefore, suffering as a spiritual-physical being from the world for Christ, participating in Christ’s suffering, a Christian, although he already has eternal life within himself and participates in Christ’s glory, however, only expects full participation in the glory of Christ (1 Pet. IV, 13, etc.). Finally, the earthly glory of a Christian is limited by external nature, which also only awaits the revelation of the glory of the sons of God. All this does not mean that glory should become externally visible, externally manifest itself in the body, nature and world: this would contradict the very essence of divine glory, since divine life is essentially spiritually invisible. It is not the glory of God, for the completeness of our participation in it, that will change in its nature, but we and our position in the visible world will change - we will change so that we will already fully participate in the glory of Christ. Therefore, faith in us becomes hope: hope is faith that has overcome temptation. “Look,” writes the apostle of love, “what love the Father has given us, that we should be called and be children of God. The world does not know us because it has not known Him. Beloved! we are now children of God; but it has not yet been revealed what we will be. We only know that when it is revealed, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, since He is pure” (1 John III: 1-13). “I think,” writes another apostle, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth anything in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation awaits with hope the revelation of the sons of God: because the creation was subjected to vanity, not voluntarily, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together until now; and not only she, but we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the spirit, and we groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body. For we are saved in hope. Hope, when it sees, is not hope: for if someone sees, then what should he hope for? But when we hope for what we do not see, then we wait with patience” (Rom. VIII, 18-25). “A Christian must have hope, joy and hope for the future kingdom and deliverance, and say: if I am not delivered today, I will be delivered in the morning. If a person does not have joy and hope before his eyes that he will receive deliverance and life, then he will not be able to endure sorrows and take on the burden and the narrow journey. And the hope and joy that accompany him make him work, endure sorrows, and take on burdens, and walk the narrow path” (St. Macarius the Great). Hope comes from patience, which overcomes the temptation of faith. “Consider it all joy,” writes the apostle, “my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces perseverance; But patience must have its perfect effect, so that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James I: 2-4). “Having been justified by faith,” writes another apostle, “we... glory in our tribulations, knowing that from tribulation comes endurance, from endurance comes experience, from experience hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. V, 1-5). We are commanded to have patience: “With your patience save your souls” (Luke XXI, 19 cf. VIII, 15);” he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew X, 22; XXIV, 13; Mr. XIII, 13). This is the patience of the Lord (2 Thess. III, 5; Rev. 1:9). What are we expecting? We do not expect the visible thousand-year reign of Christ over the whole world, not physical well-being, not external miraculous power over nature, but we expect that kingdom in which God will destroy food and belly (1 Cop. V, 13), we expect a spiritual body (XV, 44), a new heaven and earth (2 Pet. III, 13). We do not expect the materialization of spirit, but the spiritualization of nature. Our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. III, 20–21). Our hope is that the mortal will be swallowed up in life, the temporal with the eternal, the visible with the inward and the invisible, the flesh with the spirit. How will hope be achieved? The spiritual divine life first of all manifests itself in the world as the inner life of a Christian. And it is through him that the spirit must penetrate nature and the world and subjugate them to itself. Why didn’t our Lord Jesus Christ pray to God to take His disciples from the world, but only to keep them from evil? He wanted them to be not of the world, just as He Himself was not of the world, but He sent them into the world, just as God sent Himself into the world (John XVII: 15-18). The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and put into three measures of flour until everything was leavened: such is the action of the Christian spirit in relation to nature and the world. This action is accomplished through the Church by grace. CHAPTER FOUR. Church. Nature. World It is said above that divine love and faith, which form the basis of spiritual life, in order to be valid in a Christian, must be his love for other people and his service to the lesser brothers of Christ. But this is not the whole connection between a Christian and his brothers in faith. Not only must a Christian love other people and recognize them as brothers of Jesus Christ, but for the reality of his spiritual life it is also necessary that people love him with the believing love of Jesus Christ. A Christian can truly live a spiritual life only in the society of Christians, just as he can live a human life only in human society. Christ said: “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them” (Matthew XVIII: 20). This gathering of people in the name of Christ, the society of His disciples chosen from the world (John XV, 19) is His Church. Christ said only about His Church, and not about individual spiritual life, that the gates of hell (i.e., all hostile forces) will not prevail against it (Matthew XVI: 18). Outside the Church, Christian salvation for a person is impossible. Here it is appropriate to again recall the above words of Rev. Simeon that Christians form a kind of golden chain among themselves, that each Christian is a special link in this chain, connecting with others through faith, good deeds and love. The fundamental character of the Christian Church is tradition and unity. By tradition we mean the continuity of Christian life, which has its beginning in Jesus Christ. This is the general meaning of church tradition; in particular, it is the uninterrupted continuity of Christian teaching - tradition in teaching1. Tradition expresses the basic character of Christ's Church because spiritual life has its beginning in Christ. But therefore, all Christian communities, as having a single beginning, as being established in one root, are related to each other: they have one life, one spirit. This is church unity. Between themselves, individual Christian communities, as Christians of one society, must maintain the communion of love, which grows in them only through communication. Division cannot be harmless to any of the communities that separate from church unity. This shows how extremely important the question of the unification of the Churches is for our time... 1 There is also a third, less important, actually theological, scale, meaning of tradition, by which we mean the oral transmission of Christian teaching as opposed to the written one. A Christian lives only by the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Just as a branch,” He said to His disciples, “cannot bear fruit by itself unless it is in the vine, so neither can you unless you are in Me. I am the vine, and you are the branches; He who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John XV, 4–5). But this communion with Christ, contrary to the lies of Protestantism, is possible for Christians only through their mutual communion, in the Church of Christ. According to the common comparison, Christ is the center, we are the radii. We cannot truly unite with each other without drawing closer to the center, nor unite with the center without drawing closer to each other. This unity of the Church in Christ, created by the same baptism for all Christians, as the Lord Himself is one, is strengthened by the sharing of all Christians with the one bread and cup of blessing (1 Cor. X, 16-17), which is performed in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ and His death (Luke XXII, 19; 1 Cor. XIX, 24-26) and which unites us into the one body of Christ (1 Cor. X, 17), so that we separately are the same as members in one body (Rom. XII, 5). Just as through a chemical combination bodies acquire new properties, so church life, not being just the sum of individual lives, has features that are completely unthinkable in individual Christian life. This feature of church life is the grace of the Holy Spirit. Having said to His disciples: “Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them,” the Lord Jesus Christ promised them to beg His Father to give them, after His departure from the world, a Comforter? Spirit of truth (John XIV, 16–17; XV, 26). After his resurrection and before his ascension into heaven, “He gathered his disciples and commanded them: do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard from Me. For John baptized with water: and a few days after this you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts I, 4-5). And so, indeed, after the Lord’s ascension into heaven, at the coming of the day of Pentecost, they were all unanimous together - they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts II: 1-4). From that day on, the Holy Spirit continuously abided in the Church of Christ. Each new member of the Church must not only, having believed in Christ, be spiritually reborn, through symbolic immersion in water, in baptism in His name, but also receive the Spirit Saint2 (Acts VIII, 15–16). In established church practice, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are communicated to believers - general through symbolic anointing, and private through other sacraments. The Church is a treasury of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is reflected in the structure of church life. As established by tradition, the Church has spiritual fathers and teachers; as a community, it has primates, and as a treasury of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Church is governed by primates sanctified by grace. This is the church hierarchy. Church tradition consists of the continuity of both spiritual births and hierarchical ordination. Baptism can be performed by every Christian, and anointing can only be performed by priests. Church unity is not violated by the difference in the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the ministries of the church, but the unity of the Holy Spirit is fully established, for there are different gifts, but the Spirit is one and the same, so that the Church is a body with different members (1 Cor. XII). 2 In exceptional cases, the reception of the Holy Spirit preceded baptism with water (Acts X, 47). The action of the Holy Spirit in believers is called grace. In a broad sense, grace refers to everything given to us by God: God gives us understanding, heart and will, He works in us both to will and to act according to good will (Phil. II, 13). Our entire spiritual life, as having its beginning in the Lord Jesus Christ, is a work of grace. In the bodily sense, grace is the assistance of the Holy Spirit to our natural powers: grace does in us what we ourselves cannot do with our natural powers. In this sense, grace is the action of the Holy Spirit in our nature, in contrast to our free mood. The necessity of grace is caused by the limitations of our will in its action on nature. If nature were subject solely to the action of our will, then, even with the best direction of our will, for an endless series of millennia it would not move a single step towards the kingdom in which God will destroy food and belly. To expect this kingdom, to expect the resurrection of the dead, a spiritual body, a new heaven and a new earth, and at the same time not to believe in the action of God’s grace can only be due to a misunderstanding. Just as the formation of the world and man - the entire cosmogonic and biological past extends beyond the limits of personal limited will and was and is accomplished through the action of the Spirit of God (Gen. I, 2), so the future transformation of our body and all nature in accordance with the glorious body of Christ (Philip. II, 21) can only be accomplished by the action of the Holy Spirit. The only difference between the cosmogonic and biological action of the Holy Spirit and Christian grace is that the gracious action of the Holy Spirit became possible as a result of the moral feat of Christ, after His glorification - the resurrection from the dead and the departure to the Father (John VII, 39; XVI, 7), and is carried out through the Church, which is the body of Christ. The Church acts by grace, in particular, on our body and external nature and, then, on “this world.” First of all, the Church acts by grace on our body and soul. Man is not given the opportunity to achieve natural perfection; even the failure of his efforts in this regard - the well-known “I don’t do what I want, but what I hate, I do” - has the highest religious significance: it gives rise to humility in a person, by which a person is brought to God. However, our flesh is not just an accidental appendage to our spirit: the union in us of the divine spirit with dust indicates our calling in order for this dust to be glorified, so that dust can be overcome by life. In this meaning, our nature is soul and body, which we must glorify. “Your bodies,” writes the apostle, “are members of Christ. Your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you. Why glorify God both in your bodies and in your souls, which are God's. Whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do everything to the glory of God” (1 Cor. VI, 15, 19, 20; X, 31). “Our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also await a Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body so that it will be like His glorious body, by the power by which He works and subjects all things to Himself” (Philip. III, 20-21). In accordance with this purpose of man, for a Christian, firstly, the universal human duty of life, full of natural development, is restored; secondly, he is given grace “to transform his body into conformity with the glorious body of Christ.” In addition, a Christian acts on his body by fasting. However, Christian fasting, on the one hand, is not a shortening of natural life and is completely reconciled with the fullness of natural development, and, on the other hand, it does not give a person natural perfection and therefore does not in any way limit the need for grace. Through fasting, a Christian protects his spiritual life from the grips of the flesh, overcomes his flesh, but the flesh does not exhaust the entire content of natural life - no, our sinful flesh covers the nature created by God, called to full life and having from the spiritual to become spiritual; Christian fasting does not hinder, but even promotes the fullness of natural development, but fasting cannot produce a transformation of this nature from mental to spiritual: decay is the same lot of the ascetic as of the incontinent - not the flesh, but the body is eaten by worms. Fasting only promotes the action of grace: it cleanses the fleshy crust so that grace can act on the very nature. Fasting is digging, spiritual life is sowing, which can only grow from grace-filled revival. What man himself cannot do is accomplished by grace. “The farmer, having labored and invested seeds, must still wait for rain from above. And if the cloud does not appear and the winds do not blow, the farmer’s labor will not bring him any benefit, and the seed will lie empty. If a person confines himself only to his own and does not accept what is unusual for his nature, then he cannot bear worthy fruits to the Lord. What is the doing of man himself? To renounce, to withdraw from the world, to remain in prayer, in vigil, to love God and the brethren - to remain in all this is his own business. But if he confines himself to his own doing and does not hope to receive something else, and the winds of the Holy Spirit do not blow on the soul, a heavenly cloud does not appear, rain does not fall from the sky and water the soul, then a person cannot bear worthy fruits to the Lord” (St. Macarius the Great). Grace acts on our nature invisibly; its effect will only be felt in the resurrection of the dead. Therefore, a Christian continues to live in such natural conditions that continuously nourish his humility and require his ascetic deeds. Grace “enlightens the soul only partly, so that within it remains great pasture for vice” (St. Macarius the Great). Only sometimes is it possible for a person to anticipate, of course not completely, the future state of resurrection, just as the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was preceded by His transfiguration. A similar anticipation of the future state in the life of a Christian is called in the language of patristic writing the time of “rest of grace.” At the same time, this naturally eliminates the bewilderment that the Christian teaching about grace weakens the will. In a broad sense, our entire spiritual life is a work of grace, but this, of course, is quite in the same sense as all our natural abilities from nature. Just as the fact that our mind, heart and will are given to us by nature and that our natural development takes place according to necessary laws does not eliminate our personal efforts in acquiring knowledge and developing the heart and will and does not free us from the debt of life and development, so the fact that our spiritual life is from the Lord Jesus Christ, that without Him a person can neither love nor believe, is fully consistent with the fact that a person can only draw from this spiritual source freely, that spiritual life is his free mood and is accomplished through his personal efforts. In a narrow sense, grace acts in the area to which the action on nature of our will, which has its own corner, is limited, and is granted only under the condition that the will in its corner does everything it can - it is granted only to those who feel an aversion to evil, who through ascetic deeds clear the fleshy crust for the action of grace on nature. Only one who must be quite sure that he does not have grace can weaken in the hope of grace; Indeed, grace operates in those who achieve it through effort. Grace does not act in those who love evil, but consoles only those who love moral purity, but are aware of their powerlessness, for whom, according to the teacher, Abba Isaiah, “the wall of sins constantly stings the heart and the burden of sins weighs heavily on them.” Even participation in grace imposes upon a person with special strength the duty of personal effort of will. “Whenever,” the apostle instructs regarding the Eucharist, “whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let man examine himself, and in this way let him eat of this bread and drink of this cup. For whoever eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks condemnation for himself, without considering the body of the Lord. Because of this, many of you are weak and sick, and not a few die” (1 Cor. XI, 26-30). The grace of Christianity acts not only on our soul and body, but also on the entire external nature. All creation awaits with hope the revelation of the sons of God and its freedom from slavery to corruption. Grace meets these expectations. She prepares from all nature the church of God, a new heaven and a new earth. These expectations of the creature are the deepest basis for the church’s consecration of water, fields, dwellings... Along with the essential invisible effect of grace on nature, it is also visibly manifested in the special inspiration of Christians - in particular, in extraordinary spiritual gifts, such as the gift of prophecy, the gift of tongues, and in Christian art. This inspiration, together with the mentioned “resting time of grace,” serves as a preview of the future state of resurrection. On the inside, it is that “foretaste of the sweetness of life according to God,” which is given to a person at the beginning of his conversion to Christ, binds him to Christ and strengthens him for the time when grace “then hides its presence from him, leaving him to act as if alone, among labors, sweats, bewilderment and even falls.” Just as it happens at the beginning of a personal conversion to Christ, so it was abundant in the first days of Christianity, a time of extraordinary spiritual gifts. On the internal side, inspiration thus has meaning for the animated themselves. On the outer side, manifested in extraordinary talents and art, it serves as a symbolic preliminary to the future revelation of the sons expected by creation, and, in this meaning, it is either a sign for the world or an edification for believers. 3 The author speaks about the connection between both types of Christian inspiration in his critical essays “On Questions of Homiletics.” Another medium for the Church’s actions, besides nature, is the world. The Church also acts on the world, in part, through grace. The effect of grace on nature is already its effect on the world, which lives a natural life. Particularly important in this regard is the sanctification of the church by the grace of family life, which underlies social and state life. The closest way the Church acts by grace on the state is through the anointing of monarchs and through the sanctification of various social and state undertakings by prayer. However, just as the world only lives a natural life, but does not completely coincide with this nature, since the personal human principle participates in its life, so the action of the Church on the world is expressed not only in the influence of grace, but also mainly in the free relations of the Church to the world, which constitute either a condition for the action of grace, or what can be called the symbolic sanctification of the world. Here we come to the recent favorite question about the relationship of the Church to the world, or, as they usually say, to the state, which is a general and stable form of worldly life. This is a very difficult question. Two extreme solutions are known. One by one, a person must give everything to God and nothing to Caesar, a Christian certainly should not participate in the life of the state, the destruction of forms of cultural state life directly leads to the visible establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. According to another solution, the state is organized good, it is the collective embodiment of good, without which subjective good is insufficient and powerless; the universal embodiment of the Christian spirit depends on its development and improvement. The prerequisites for these decisions - views on culture and civilization - were discussed above; and our view of the relationship of the Church to the state will be adjacent to the view of the meaning of natural development revealed when considering these views. There we indicated the pre-Christian significance of culture; Now we will show how a Christian should relate to the world, or the state, how the world relates to Christianity and what significance Christian culture has. Scylla and Charybdis in resolving this issue are the extremes of either complete separation or complete merging of the Church and the world. Avoiding these extremes is the challenge that needs to be addressed. Let's start with what has already been established before. Natural worldly life, with its limitations and suffering, with its natural development and ideals, has meaning in the self-consciousness to which biological and historical development leads and which is composed of endless aspirations and the consciousness of existing limitations. But real historical life is formed from two elements - natural development itself and a certain personal human mood, namely the self-loving desire for self-satisfaction. This corresponds to the double use in Holy Scripture of the word world, as well as the word flesh. That is, this is the world that God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life (John III, 16), so that the world might be saved through Him (17), in order to give life to the world (VI, 33), etc. This is a world that cannot receive the spirit of truth (XIV, 17), which has its own prince who is completely hostile to Jesus Christ (XII, 31), who hated Christ (XV, 18), etc. The world, as the domain of its prince, opposes spiritual life; A Christian protects himself from his spirit by fasting and foolishness. A Christian cannot be in the world otherwise than as an ascetic and holy fool. But this same world is made up of people whom a Christian is called to love. From this side, the activity of a Christian and his position in the world are highly definite. He feeds the hungry, receives the stranger, sits at the bedside of the sick, and visits prisons. This Christian image is now well known throughout the world. The world knows of individual representatives of such Christian activity4 and entire Christian societies and institutions. A Christian should be where there are tears, grief, strife, poverty. This is an extremely wide area of ​​activity - at least wide enough to accommodate all Christians. Outside of this activity in the world, a Christian cannot be imagined. 4 Eg. sister Varvara, who was reported this year in New Time, in Women's Affairs, in Soulful Reading (March). But foolishness and love do not exhaust the Christian’s relationship to the world. Foolishness rejects the prince of this world, his spirit, but not natural development, the fullness of which for a Christian constitutes a universal human duty. The entire life of a Christian man in this earthly life cannot be filled with love; the natural demands of his nature and especially the needs of natural development require natural universal satisfaction. This is entirely consistent with the Christian's calling to manifest the spiritual divine life in the fullness of natural life. On the other hand, such a relationship between spiritual life and natural development is justified by living reality itself. The highest form of human life, spiritual life, does not exclude the lower forms and among them the form of natural development, but is embraced by it. What gives meaning to the life of a natural person must also take place in a Christian, otherwise his spiritual life is removed from life, and to the extent that it is removed from life, it is invalid. Of course, rejecting the prince of this world significantly reduces the world acceptable to a Christian. A Christian is required to have wise prudence and constant vigilance. For a Christian, science, art, and the state can no longer be idols requiring burnt offerings. To render unto Caesar only the things that are Caesar's, and all that is God's is commanded to God by Christ Himself. “We must obey God rather than men” - this was the principle of the apostles. Isn’t it clear to modern consciousness that art, not subordinated to the Christian spirit, serves depravity, that technical development is designed for the needs of the rich?... The idols of unconditional progress, the cultural improvement of the human type, are especially disgusting to a Christian. Superman, an earthly paradise established by science and technical improvement - from a Christian point of view, not only dreams, but also crazy dreams. However, the only way out is not the complete rejection of culture. Can't art and science be Christian? Can't technical devices be used solely to reduce suffering? Can't the printing press, the telegraph, or the locomotive be used for good deeds? The unconditional rejection of human means is as extreme as worshiping the idol of progress. The legalistic fear of being defiled by the nature of the world, which exposes attachment to personal self-gratification through spiritual purity, is punished by its consequences. This is the same as burying talent in the ground. The futility of such a technique is easily revealed. Not connected with life, with its limited forms, spiritual life fades away. What is saddest in this case is that suppressed legitimate needs lead to anomalies in their satisfaction, which are clearly harmful to the life of the spirit. Just as in well-known sects the rejection of marriage leads to debauchery, so disdain for science fosters, as already noted by St. Augustine, faith in continuous miraculous enlightenment, self-satisfied self-confidence: fear of the glimmer of science is accompanied by attachment to obvious superstitions. There is no doubt that spiritual life cannot progress, the beginning of Christianity is its complete inexhaustible source, the Head of Christian love and faith is our ideal; but this does not mean that there is no connection between spiritual life and natural development. All the strength lies in the fact that this connection rests on the limitations of our nature and life, and limitations are recognized in development. It is false that historical development is continuous progress and that it is necessary for the Christian spirit because it involves it in this progress; it is an expression of our limitations and that is why it is necessary for Christianity. That with this basic view, natural development does not stop, but unfolds more widely than when striving for the ideals of absolute perfection, this has already been indicated above. But are completely definite rules of activity given at the same time? Of course not. “Be wise as serpents and simple as doves”: this is the principle that presupposes the personal prudence of a Christian. In any case, some aspects of cultural life are as difficult as evil for a Christian, for example, war. Christianity instills in a person an aversion to the military profession; To say otherwise would be obvious absurdity... But even with what has been said we cannot yet limit ourselves to the question of the relationship between Christianity and the world. It would be a one-sided view of the matter to see in this respect only the attitude of a Christian to the world, whereas in reality there is, along with this, the attitude of a layman to Christianity. This latter relationship can be either hostile or peaceful. The peaceful attitude of a layman towards Christianity is quite similar from the outside to the life of a Christian in the world; However, from the inside these two ways of life are different. It is impossible to imagine a Christian otherwise as a person who has experienced a complete internal revolution, who has hated his soul and suppressed all human attachments: he treats everything in God’s way, and in the world he is a person not of this world. Such Christians undoubtedly exist, but not all who call themselves Christians are like that. Most often, a Christian is a completely layman, completely attached to the world, not breaking a single connection with it, not suppressing a single addiction, but at the same time somewhat disposed towards Christianity. He joyfully accepted the word of the Gospel, but it has no root in him and is fruitless. All the disposition towards Christianity of such a person is expressed in a sterile consciousness: “how good it would be if I were a good Christian.” In a truly Christian sense, this consciousness is completely sterile, but it is not sterile in a worldly sense, in the sense of a figurative, symbolic sanctification of life. Such a person can serve Christ in his own way, in a worldly way. He is a warrior; Having heard the word of the Gospel, he was not reborn spiritually, so as to be disliked for the military profession, but he can quite sincerely serve Christ as a weapon - defend Christian territory against the pagans, protect the weak with police measures. It cannot be denied that such a mood, both psychologically and in terms of external goals of activity, significantly distinguishes a Christian warrior from a Roman legionnaire or sea robber, nor that such a mood is not a fiction, but actually animates thousands of people.5 In a similar way, a judge, scientist, artist, official, prince can serve Christ... In this attitude of the world towards Christianity, two sides are noticeable: personal service to Christianity by worldly means and, secondly, the use of Christianity for worldly interests. Although not accepted in its entirety, Christianity is useful for worldly life - useful for community life, science, and politics. A broad opportunity is opening up for the world to use Christianity: the entire history of Christian peoples is the history of such use of Christianity in various respects. This is Christian culture: the worldly use of Christianity is its entire essence. 5 Wed. Three conversations. B.C. Soloviev (colloquial 1st). In view of the fact that Christian culture has two sides - personal service to Christ and the objective use of Christianity in worldly interests - in the interests of cultural development - two questions are possible in relation to it: what significance does such service have for the person himself and what objective, historical meaning does Christian culture have? We will answer the second question below, and now we will give an answer to the first question. Christian culture is genuine spiritual life; the successes of Christian weapons, Christian science, and politics are not the successes of Christianity; it is worldly life. But is it necessary to conclude from this that personally such worldly service to Christ does not have a positive meaning, that it does not provide personal salvation? There is no doubt that a true Christian is incapable of taking up arms, and the restrictions by which the Church subordinates the "clerical" rank towards the military class sufficiently testifies to her views on this matter; but does the layman who serves Christ as a weapon do a good deed or an evil one? It was not Christianity that made the warrior; but remaining a warrior in the world, will he do better fighting for the oppressed and weak than if he were a pirate? Our whole nature, without hesitating for a moment, loudly declares: such service is good, the Lord will accept this contribution favorably! Can only the mind be confused by such a question: if Christian culture is not a truly Christian matter, but a worldly matter, if worldly service to Christ is not real, but only figurative and can be completely likened to a straw building that is about to burst into flames from the coming fire, then how can it give salvation to a person? The apostle answers this question: “No one can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Whether anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, everyone’s work will be revealed; for the day will tell; because in the fire it is revealed, and the fire tests everyone’s work, what it is. Whoever's work that he built survives will receive a reward. And whoever’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; however, he himself will be saved, but as if from fire” (1 Cor. III, 11-15). In any case, the last basis of this salvation is in the mercy of the Lord, who can give a denarius to those who come around the eleventh hour, along with those who endure the burden of the day and the heat. Is it possible to draw a line with complete certainty between Christians who live in the world, but not in a worldly way, and laypeople who serve Christ in a worldly way? The outer life of some may be very similar to the life of others, but the inner mood of both is different. In any case, the Lord knows those who are His (2 Tim. II, 19). However, during this life, a person’s inner dignity is often not fully determined. Spiritual life, like mental and physical life, is subject to the law of relativity. On the one hand, the word is also fruitless among those who at first joyfully accepted it, i.e. Christians can weaken in their zeal, sometimes only for a time of sorrow, so that for a while they believe, but at a time they fall away: on the other hand, in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and clay, and the latter, although they are in low use, are nevertheless needed for the economy of the house. Therefore, the Son of Man, who sowed good seed in His field, did not allow the slaves to pick out the tares that appeared among the wheat, “so that when they choose the tares, they would not pull up the wheat along with them.” He left both to grow together until the harvest, and during the harvest he will say to the reapers: “Gather first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; and put the wheat into my barn.” This relativity of spiritual life places man in the necessity of calculating his means whenever he has to make a choice between divine and human means. “Who, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost, whether he has what is needed to complete it, lest, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to laugh at him, saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish?” (Luke XIV, 23–30). The choice between good and evil should not depend on any calculations, but between spiritual and natural human means, shouldn’t we choose depending on the spiritual treasures that each of us has? And, again, there can be no hesitation regarding the course of action strictly defined by the teachings of Christ for His followers, but when applied to himself personally, should not each person calculate in a human way? If I wish a sick person well, but I know that I do not have such faith as to say to him, like the Apostle Peter: “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk,” then should I not help him with medical means? If I cannot, with the power of Christian love, disarm the enemy pursuing a defenseless victim, then do I have the right to refuse his natural protection? If I do not have spiritual enlightenment, then can I refuse the scientific search for truth? If I know that I will not endure captivity as a Christian, then isn’t it better to seek protection from the state? It is better to do good by natural means than to do nothing at all, avoiding human means, for the sake of self-gratification with spiritual purity. It is in this connection of thoughts that the question of non-resistance to evil in the formulation that the sectarians give it must be resolved. Non-resistance to evil (Matt. V, 39) is so essential for the Christian mood that if there were no direct commandment of Christ about non-resistance to evil, it would follow with necessity and complete obviousness from all His teaching; but its meaning is in the Christian mood, and not in its letter, while sectarians, tearing this commandment away from the entire teaching of Christ, turn it into legalistic truth. Non-resistance to evil naturally follows from a Christian mood, but cannot be a commandment for someone who does not have a Christian mood. Provided there is a Christian mood, it is always obligatory; given the consistency of spiritual life, its implementation always brings good; but to make it an unconditional commandment for every person means to give a reason to justify not doing good in those cases when a person can do it only by natural means. You need to know where to start and where to end: starting with what serves as the end is worse than not starting at all. “Do not resist evil” is a golden rule, but only for a Christian, and not for a worldly person, who can do good only by natural means, although in the latter case what is not done is a truly Christian work and only a straw building is erected, and the person himself is saved, as it were, from fire. Until now we have talked about how Christianity and the world come into contact in an individual person, but Christianity itself acts on the world through the Church. The contact between Christianity and the world in an individual person forms only the basis on which the action of the Church on the world unfolds. The relationship of the Church to the world should be presented like this. Living in the world, the Church must preserve unchanged its character “not of the world”; it must keep itself holy and undefiled from the world. First of all, it should not allow any pagan to be considered among its members, and should not tolerate any hypocrisy in the individual lives of its children. The church should be limited to the number of actual Christians. Of course, here we are not talking about legalistic holiness, not about natural moral perfection, which is inaccessible to a Christian, just like a pagan, but about the mood of a Christian. A member of the Church can only be one who loves goodness, truth, purity, who, if he falls, falls with hatred of sin, not enjoying evil. In this sense, everyone born of God does not commit sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God (1 John III, 9). The Church must strictly ensure that all its members are born of God, and cast out from its midst anyone who, while calling himself a brother, lives as a pagan, as a man of the world. Christ himself said: “if your brother sins against you and does not listen to the Church, then let him be to you as a pagan and a publican” (Matthew XVIII, 15-17). “If anyone,” writes the apostle of love, “comes to you and does not bring the teaching (of Christ), do not receive him into your home, and do not welcome him” (2 John 10). “I,” says the Apostle Paul about himself, “wrote to you in an epistle not to associate with fornicators; however, not in general with the fornicators of this world, or the covetous, or extortioners, idolaters, for otherwise you would have to come out of this world. But I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who, while calling himself a brother, remains a fornicator, or a covetous person, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a predator; You shouldn’t even eat with someone like that” (1 Cor. V, 9-11). These words ap. Paul clearly show that the purpose of church discipline, according to which everything non-Christian is expelled from the church domain, is not in the imaginary protection of the self-gratifying moral purity of Christians, but solely in the reputation of the Church. It goes without saying that belonging to the Church should not bring people any material or worldly benefits. Then, as a saint, the Church must avoid everything worldly in its social life, in its structure: worldly power, secular court, police, army - should not have a place in the Church in an unconditional sense. “My kingdom,” said the Lord, “is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would fight for Me: but now My kingdom is not from here” (John XVIII, 36). For church life, one cannot set the goal of the visible establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth. In connection with this must be put the property of the Church that it is not defined by territorial boundaries and is not separated from the world by a visible social structure: its members enter into the natural forms of social life, so that from this side, church life consists of communication among Christians scattered in the world, and not in their eviction from the world. And the holiness of the Church, its character not of this world, when applied to the individual life of Christians, means only that Christians should be alien to the spirit of the prince of this world, and not that they cannot enter into the natural norms of worldly life - they should not be laymen in the sense of people “of this world,” but can be laymen in the sense of the fullness of natural life, as was clarified a little higher. Even “if a brother has an unbelieving wife, and she agrees to live with him, then he should not leave her. And a wife who has an unbelieving husband, and he agrees to live with her, should not leave him.” In general, “let each one remain in the rank in which he was called” (1 Cor. VII, 12, 13, 20). But being not of this world, the Church must act on the world. In what ways? As alien in its structure to everything worldly, the Church cannot act on the world by external measures. Such external measures should include both action on the world through the state and the denial of forms of cultural state life. Christian culture, as has been said, is a completely human matter, and this is a sufficient reason not to assimilate the Church’s influence on the world through the state. But this does not yet lead to the opposite extreme, to the denial of forms of cultural life. The abolition of forms of cultural life is both undesirable and impossible. The question of the limits within which peace is acceptable for every Christian, as mentioned above, must be separated from the question of the meaning of culture for the world. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” - this rule of personal Christian life and church structure cannot serve as a basis for denying the suitability of courts for the world. The abolition of forms of cultural life for the world is undesirable because from the world a person comes to Christ only through natural development, meaning together both mental and physical growth and the specific religious significance of natural development, which is revealed in its place. There is no point in preaching to a child about the gospel hatred of father and mother, about foolishness, telling him against the ideals of natural perfection, etc. The baptism of an eight-day-old child alone will not make him a Christian. You can come to Christ only from the world. The abolition of forms of cultural life for the world is impossible: these forms are not forcibly imposed on the world, but are natural to it, and therefore they cannot be destroyed mechanically. To think that crimes exist only because a court exists in a civilized society, that enmity exists only because an organized army and police exist in a cultural state, that with the destruction of forms of cultural life the evil in the human heart will also be destroyed, is a clear delusion. Courts and armies become truly unnecessary only for the spiritually reborn. The position of the Church in the world is fully determined by the words of Christ: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world." This position of the Church in the world, of course, explains why the Church must strictly monitor the existence of its members and declare as not belonging to anyone who, while being called a brother, remains a pagan, why it must abstain in its organization from everything worldly: salt must be effective, and the light must be pure and visible to everyone. “You are the salt of the earth. If the salt loses its strength, then how will you make it salty? She is no longer good for anything, how can she be thrown out there to be trampled upon by people? You are the light of the world. A city standing on top of a mountain cannot hide. And having lit a candle, they do not put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light to everyone in the house” (Matt. V, 13-15 par.). This also shows the importance of the missionary and educational activities of the Church, as well as vice versa - Christ’s commandment to the apostles to preach the Gospel to the whole world (Matt. XXVIII, 19; Mk. XVI, 15; Luke XXIV, 47) clearly outlines the position of the Church in the world. "You are the light of the world." This is a double light. “For judgment,” said the Lord, “I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see will become blind” (John IX, 39). The Church continues the work of Christ. She enlightens the world primarily in the sense that she receives her children from the world. This is its true effect on the world. She does not give birth to her children from herself, she takes them from the world, she not only grows, but also lives at the expense of the world. Its position in the world is the same as the relationship of the soul to the body: just as mental activity is accompanied by the waste of the body, but comprehends bodily life, so the Church lives at the expense of the world and sanctifies it. Her children, being not of this world, nevertheless remain in the world and are not separated from it territorially: they penetrate and animate it, just as nerves and blood channels animate the body. “So that those who see may become blind” is another goal of the Church’s enlightenment of the world. Christianity is light, and the world cannot help but see it. From the time that Christianity shines, the world can no longer live as before, as if there were no light, it cannot live without a relationship to Christ. Just as in the bright light of the sun a person cannot calmly continue the affairs of the night, just as he, knowing that people see him, cannot live with the indifference that accompanies loneliness, so the world can have different attitudes towards Christ, hostile or peaceful, but can no longer live without any relationship to Christ. The entire history of the world since the preaching of Christ and His apostles is the history of the world’s relationship to Christ. He shines over the world like the sun, He hangs over Him like a sword, and the world cannot forget Him: He appears in a blinding light to the persecutor, the conqueror is haunted by the conscience of the dying apostate. Since Christ was preached to the world, people can bring good only to Him, do evil only in opposition to Him, can only be indignant at Him. The French denier laughs with an evil laugh, but he denies Christ; in madness, the German philosopher proclaims himself to be God, but only the Antichrist. What is the meaning of the history of the world's relationship to Christ, or the Christian history of the world? The world can either be hostile to Christ, or peaceful, serving Him in its own way and trying to use Christianity to its advantage. At the beginning of Christian history, both are uncertain, good and evil are mixed in the world’s relationship to Christ. The persecutors of Christianity, the Roman emperors, often did not distinguish it from Judaism and saw in it an absurd superstition that threatened the well-being of the state and their own power; then some of the Christian emperors hardly more clearly understood the essence of Christianity, accepting it outwardly, sometimes even under the influence of the struggle of political parties: the secularization of Christianity begins in the Roman papacy, in which it is difficult to separate the spiritual sword from the secular. But then, with complete certainty, they appear in Christian history with their own, clearly conscious interests - the state, the nation, reason, art, economic society; finally, purely material interests are determined in relation to Christ. Along with this, the world’s understanding of Christianity is growing: the modern denier is not misunderstandingly challenging Christian dogma, but is raising direct questions about the goodness of the Christian principles of love and humility. It is becoming less and less possible to satisfy people with symbols and images: both in the positive direction they consciously demand living truth, and in the negative direction they no longer consider it necessary to hide behind beautiful words that have lost their meaning and banners that do not arouse reverence. This clarification of the world’s relationship to Christ, especially in recent times, has been facilitated by the expansion of history to the limits of the world, the highly conscious clash of Christian and pagan cultures... Christian history is not the progress of Christianity, it is not the history of the gradual expansion of Christianity towards the complete visible victory of Christ over the world, it is accomplished not by the Church alone, but by the Church and the world, it is directed towards separating the wheat from the chaff, towards a clear formulation in the hearts of men of the question: Christ or Antichrist? Spiritual Christianity is gradually emerging from the world and freed from images and symbols, which by the end of centuries may be very small in number of believers; The region of the Prince of Peace is gradually determined as the material for the world fire. Just as in death material elements that are not amenable to the action of the spirit rot, so that a person is then resurrected spiritually with a spiritual body, so Christian culture, under the influence of church enlightenment and grace, separates the tares from the wheat, prepared for fire, so that then the full spiritual kingdom of heaven is established and God becomes all in all. CHAPTER FIVE. Resurrection from the dead. Eternal bliss. kingdom of heaven If we were created so that mortal things might be swallowed up in life (2 Cor. V, 4, 5), if the work of the Lord Jesus Christ was that those who believe in Him should have eternal life, then, of course, our last enemy is death and the last work of Jesus Christ is victory over death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead as the beginning of the general resurrection is presupposed by the goals of world creation, completes the entire work of Christ and justifies our spiritual life. If Christ has not risen from the dead, the firstborn of the dead, if we Christians are not resurrected, then our faith is in vain: and now, hoping for Christ in this life alone, we are more miserable than all people, and dying in Christ we do not perish. Only when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then will the word that is written be fulfilled: death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. XV). We live in the hope of the resurrection. Why will we rise again? Not for earthly life. There is nothing more disgusting to the spirit of Christianity than to think that the afterlife is a continuation of our visible earthly life with its personal interests and external benefits. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and corruption does not inherit incorruption (1 Cor. XV, 50); in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but remain as the angels of God in heaven; we are sons of the resurrection to the extent that we are sons of God (Matthew XXII, 30; Luke XX, 35, 36). We will be resurrected with our bodies, but there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies - spiritual bodies and spiritual bodies: in death and resurrection the spiritual body is sown, the spiritual body is raised (1 Cor. XV, 40, 44). The resurrection from the dead is related to the nature of our spiritual life: it is the transition of the visible into the invisible. Our spiritual life is an invisible life, but it is limited to nature and the world; in the resurrection, our body and all nature are transformed in accordance with our spiritual life, which will therefore become the full or only reality. Therefore, we now already carry within ourselves the guarantee of the resurrection, although it will be accomplished by the power of God; the afterlife is not a continuation of our visible life with its personal interests and temporary benefits, but it is a replenishment of our spiritual life, so that even now we, although not completely, live an eternal invisible life. Our spiritual life is a small spark, and the afterlife is the same spark, but flared up into an all-encompassing flame. “Therefore,” instructs St. Macarius the Great, - let us try by faith and a virtuous life to acquire this robe for ourselves here, so that we, clothed in the body, do not find ourselves naked: and then on that day nothing will glorify our flesh. For to the extent that each person, for his faith and diligence, has been honored to become a partaker of the Holy Spirit, to the same extent his body will be glorified on that day. Therefore, each of us must strive and work, carefully practice all the virtues, believe and ask the Lord so that the inner man may even now become a partaker of this glory.” “If,” writes Blessed Diadochos, “anyone is able to die in this life through ascetic labors, then all of him finally becomes the house of the Holy Spirit; for such a one has already risen before death.” We will be resurrected to the fullness of spiritual divine life. Everything that we now consider to be ours, to which we are partial, that now divides us among ourselves, gives apparent reality to our worldly interests - all this will become alien to us: we will live only by what is now common to us all - the divine. Then another law operating in our members and opposing the law of the mind will be destroyed; our body, after purification by death, will be spiritual. And then God will wipe away every tear from the eyes of His chosen ones, and there will be no more death; there will be no more crying, no crying, no sickness, for the present will become past (Apoc. XXI, 4). Just as our life will be completely spiritual, it will also be completely blessed. Just as eternal spiritual life begins in us now, so now our eternal bliss begins. This bliss is not complete now. Christ does not call us to happiness - He calls us to bear His cross, to take His yoke, but His yoke is easy, and His burden is light; Christ promises peace to our souls, but still under His yoke, only under His cross, only in suffering. Christian bliss at this time, amidst persecution, is not complete: we expect complete bliss and eternal life in the coming century (Mr. X, 30). However, the bliss of Christians during this time, amidst persecution, is real. This is the bliss of prayerful communication, abstinence and self-denial; this is the bliss of love, faith, the joy of hope; this is the joy of the comforter, the Holy Spirit. O Peter. I, 8, 9; Rome. XIV, 17; XV, 13; 2 Kop.V, 7.8; Gal. V, 22; 1Sol. I, 6; Acts V, 41; XIII, 52). With the same character of purely spiritual joy, alien to the admixtures of earthly happiness, will be our bliss in the afterlife. Whoever has not acquired the joy of the Holy Spirit here is incapable of the bliss of the heavenly afterlife. When the last enemy is destroyed - death 2 - everyone in Christ will come to life, then the end will come, then Christ will transfer the kingdom to God and the Father, and God will be all in all (1 Cor. XV, 22-29). Then the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, will open. It still exists: it was founded for us along with the creation of man, it was restored by the Lord Jesus Christ, it exists as our spiritual life. But now the kingdom of heaven is not the only reality for us, and then it will be one and everything for us. However, it will become the only reality for us in the future only under a condition, if it now becomes a reality for us and in us. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, as it is in heaven and on earth. "... [which] most old people so hate that they claim to bear a burden heavier than Aetna." - Cicero. About old age. About friendship. On responsibilities (translated from Latin by V.O. Gorenshtein. M.: Nauka, 1974, p. 8). According to Greek mythology, during the struggle of the gods with the giants, one of the latter was crushed by the volcano Etna thrown at him. A sign for the unbelievers (Greek).