A word for the fourth passion

In our modern society, which is extremely unstable in its views and beliefs, it is very common to hear two completely opposite judgments or views on family life in general and on the sacred responsibilities of a mother in particular. On the one hand, we hear complaints and complaints, to say the least, about the difficulty and burden of family life and the responsibilities of a mother, and on the other hand, mainly in the younger generation, we hear frivolous judgments about the one-sidedness of these views of the mature and wise half of our society and about the possibility of bringing the mother of the family into the arena of public life. Having been called to this holy place by the pious custom of our ever-memorable predecessors, workers in our spiritual heirloom, we decided in these sacred moments of remembrance of the sufferings on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ to offer to your, beloved brethren, pious attention a brief overview of the life of the closest accomplice of His severe suffering, His beloved Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who presents to you a wonderful example of a woman as a mother. In this purest and holiest example, Christian mothers, exhausted under the weight of the cross they have voluntarily taken upon themselves - family life and raising children - will not only find a useful and edifying lesson, but also a living word of encouragement and consolation to bear this cross without complaint and humility, and the idle talk and pretentiousness of an inexperienced mind will find in it answers to many questions that interest it. For human reasons, it would seem that who, if not she, who is called “blessed among women” (Luke 1:42), who is honored by the Holy Church above the cherubim and seraphim, who had the good fortune to be called the Mother of the Lord (Luke 1:43), who, if not her, can enjoy peace, happiness and complete well-being in this earthly vale, so that later, moving to the bosom of her beloved Your son, to taste unspeakable sweets? But if we approach her mournful face, surrounded by an aura of holiness and purity, unusual for the people of this world, we look into it, bring to mind her righteous, holy life, then we will comprehend that all of her, from the cradle to her honest dormition, was filled with hardships and such suffering that rarely befall the mothers of ordinary mortal people. A desired child, as the fruit of fiery prayers to God and the inconsolable tears of the righteous elders Godfather Joachim and Anna, the Blessed Virgin Mary was not for long the object of joy and joy of her lonely elderly parents. As a three-year-old child, she was deprived of the tender cares of her father, the hot caresses of her mother, and was taken into the shadow of the sacred temple, into the Holy of Holies; given to be raised by the high priest and priests. And in what other better place, if not in the sacred church, could the righteous Joachim and Anna send their desired child to be raised? To whom, if not the servants of the altar of God, could righteous parents entrust their young turtle dove, whose purpose in life was mainly and primarily to fulfill the will of God, His holy law? Where in any other place and under the guidance of what other educators could their young God-given daughter learn more fully and thoroughly this holy law and learn to conform her life and activities with its requirements and instructions, if not in the church and not under the guidance of those persons who were assigned to be the guardians and guardians of the instructions of the law and were themselves its first executors? The education of the Most Holy Theotokos at the church was directed by her educators towards what could serve “to life and piety” and towards what was useful for her to know as a housekeeper, wife and mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary very quickly learned to read and write under the guidance of the priests and fell in love with the first so much that she devoted all her free time from ordinary women’s work to it. But it was not fairy tales, fables and stories that give food to the imagination and flatter the sensuality that were the subject of her reading, her favorite entertainment, but the most holy book of books, which, to the shame of our time, is not familiar with and which not only many children, but also very many parents do not even see. From this great book, the Blessed Virgin Mary became acquainted not only with the historical fate of her people and learned the important purpose and calling of her royal family, but also learned unconditional submission to the will of Providence, extraordinary humility and calm, uncomplaining enduring of all the everyday adversities that befell her. The Blessed Virgin Mary studied women's handicrafts under the guidance of her elder concubines at the church. She spun flax and wool, embroidered with silks and skillfully wove. Tradition testifies that the “unsewn tunic,” which amazed the warriors who crucified the Divine Sufferer with their art, was woven by the most pure hands of the Mother of God. Here at the church, the Blessed Virgin Mary became accustomed to the wise distribution of time, which She did not waste in vain. From early morning until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, as the legend says, she stood in prayer, and from 3 to 9 o'clock she practiced handicrafts and reading Holy Scripture, and then prayed again until it was time to eat food. Morally, her life here during her upbringing is an example of perfection. “She lived like this in the church,” says St. John of Damascus, which, being removed from the community of bad husbands and wives, represented an example of a better and purer life in comparison with others. But the time of youth and education, which flowed peacefully and serenely under the blessed shadow of the holy church, quickly passed. What thoughts, thoughts, and feelings worried the fourteen-year-old girl, now standing on the threshold from a carefree childhood life to a family, working life? Brought up in strict respect for the law of God and its closest guardians and executors, under the blessed shadow of the holy church, removed from the vanity of life, alien to the beauties and delights of life outside the church fence, the Blessed Virgin Mary did not extend her thoughts further than the church fence. Her favorite dream, her ardent desire was to stay here forever at the church and to be the most faithful and accurate executor of God’s commands. A fourteen-year-old young girl, in her special love for the church, in the face of Almighty God, pronounces a vow, unprecedented in Old Testament history, to remain a virgin forever and to devote herself entirely to serving God at the church. Piously observing the law that said: “If a person promises vows to the Lord, let him make them,” astonished by the greatness of the vow given by the young woman Mary, her educators could not, however, satisfy the fiery desire of her heart - to remain at the church for the rest of her life. The power of the custom was such that the Blessed Virgin Mary had to leave her beloved home, the temple of Zerubbabel, and enter family life. But in order not to break her vow, the priestly leaders decide to betroth her to someone who would be able to keep her holy vow. And here, as in other cases, the obedient servant of the Lord places herself in the hands of Providence and at the disposal of her leaders. And so, next to the young fourteen-year-old girl, blooming with beauty and virtues of soul and heart, a maiden of royal origin, an 80-year-old old man, white with gray hair, a poor carpenter who could hardly feed his family, stands to pronounce the vows required of the betrothed; but, true, a man of righteous life, also of royal origin and even a distant relative of the Mother of God. Resignedly and obediently, she exchanges the brilliant, noisy capital for poor Nazareth, which enjoyed a bad reputation in her homeland (John 1:46), the beautiful buildings at the temple of Zerubbabel for a wretched carpenter’s hut, her lonely and comfortable life for a working life and a family life full of all kinds of hardships. Who among us does not know, beloved brethren, that happiness, peace and well-being in a family, even if it consists of the most diverse members, almost entirely depends on the woman? In any family circle, the gentle influence of one loving soul is enough to establish peace and complete happiness in everything around. A woman with a truly loving heart, with a pure soul, highly moral by nature, intelligent and with a bright, correct view of the goals and objectives of life has a pacifying power in the family like the radiance of evening light; nothing rude, nothing cruel can resist its beneficial influence; no evil discord can be sustained by her pacifying charm. If such is the power of a woman in general, then how many times greater should be the blessed one among wives, who entered the family of the elderly Joseph! The Blessed Virgin Mary showed in her person a model for all other wives. From the time the Blessed Virgin Mary settled there, the house of Righteous Joseph was a haven of sincere piety, angelic purity and imperturbable peace. Everyone in the house was busy with their own business and each lived for the happiness of the other. Righteous Joseph was engaged in carpentry, and the Most Holy Mother of God carried out the duties of a housekeeper from early morning until night, devoting only a few free minutes from these labors to prayer and to her favorite pastime - reading the Holy Scriptures. The working and peaceful life of the Blessed Virgin Mary was disrupted by the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel, who appeared to her with the joyful news of her immaculate conception from the Holy Spirit of the Infant Jesus (Luke 1:26–37). No matter how amazing this joyful news was for the Blessed Virgin Mary, no matter how great her happiness was to be called the Mother of the Lord, she with the humility of the servant of the Lord accepted the joyful gospel of the Archangel Gabriel (v. 38) and, hiding it from Joseph, hurried to the house of her righteous relatives Zechariah and Elizabeth (v. 39-40) to share this joyful news, and most importantly - to share her joy a relative of Elizabeth, preparing to be the mother of the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist of the Lord (v. 36). And what a wonderful meeting it was between the two greatest mothers on earth! It is not ordinary questions about health, not news from home and neighbors, not city rumors that serve as the subject of their conversation at the first meeting, but the prophetically inspired speeches of both about the great joy that will appear in the world in the near future. To the prophetic unexpected greeting of righteous Elizabeth: “Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the fruit of Your womb. And where will this Mother of my Lord come from?” (Luke 1:42–43), The Blessed Virgin Mary, embraced by the Holy Spirit, utters a wonderful and majestic song, with which she has been glorified by the church from the first centuries of Christianity to the present day. Undoubtedly, all three months of life under the roof of their relatives (v. 56) were spent by the holy women in reverent and instructive conversations and in pure meditation. When the Blessed Virgin Mary returned to Nazareth, in the soul of the pious elder, in the words of the church song, a whole “storm of doubtful thoughts” arose, since he, not knowing how St. Proclus, “the mystery that took place in the Virgin,” settled on the idea that the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the words of the same church song, was “married by someone.” “He saw Mary (St. Joseph), says the holy father we mentioned, and his heart was wounded; I saw non-idleness and considered the secret of its purity lost; I saw her with child and fell into the greatest confusion, supposing her to be deceived.” What happened in the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary when “a storm of doubtful thoughts agitated the soul of the good old man? Her pure soul experienced unspeakable suffering. The Blessed Virgin Mary sensed with her kind, tender heart what thoughts were overwhelming the righteous elder; she saw that in his eyes she had lost innocence, purity and respect and could neither bring him out of doubt nor say a word of justification in her defense. In order not to show oneself, as St. puts it. Demetrius of Rostov, vain, she could not reveal her secret without the special will of God and, accustomed to humility and silence, she decided to suffer, but to remain silent until the Lord God led the elder onto the path of real truth. The height of humility and depth of suffering of the Blessed Virgin Mary at this time is difficult to depict in ordinary human language, and these sufferings were only the beginning of a series of more severe sufferings that later befell her. “The storm of doubtful thoughts” in the soul of the righteous old man was transformed by the appearance of an Angel in his dream, who announced: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to receive Miriam your wife: what is born in her of the Spirit is Holy” (Matthew 1:20). From that time on, peace and silence reigned again in the family of the righteous elder, and impatient anticipation began for the birth of the Savior of the world (Matthew 1:21), whose birth was a new test for the loving heart of the holy Ever-Virgin. Just before the Savior’s birthday, the Blessed Virgin Mary had to make a tedious three-day journey through the mountainous terrain from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where she went, by order of Caesar Augustus, to marry her betrothed (Luke 2:4–5). In Bethlehem, since “the days of giving birth to her were fulfilled (v. 6), for lack of space in the houses of the inhabitants, she and the righteous Joseph were placed in a cave, where in bad weather the shepherds drove their cattle. Here is the Blessed Virgin Mary, “And she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and gave birth to Him and laid Him in a manger” (v. 7). With humility and meekness she looked at the Child God and resignedly endured the wretched conditions of her temporary, but henceforth forever glorified premises. The worship of the shepherds to the newborn Baby, sent by the Angels, was a great consolation for the Mother of God, who sealed everything that happened in her heart with deep silence (v. 19). From Bethlehem St. The Mother of God and righteous Joseph “when the days of his purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, he was taken up to Jerusalem and placed before the Lord” (v. 22). The Most Holy Mother of God, despite the purity of her conception and the painless, sinless birth of the Divine Infant, decided to fulfill what the law required of an ordinary woman, in order to teach the Christian Mother of our time, by her personal example, to sacredly observe church statutes. And how could the Mother of God, accustomed from childhood to strict and precise execution of the law, act otherwise? In addition, her soul, filled with immense joy at the birth of the Infant God, was now eager to go to the church, there to pour out a feeling of gratitude for the happiness of being not only matter, but also the Mother of God. Holding in her most pure hands the one containing “all things,” the Mother of God, like a poor woman, took two young doves with her as a sacrifice (Luke 2:24) instead of a one-year-old lamb as a burnt offering and a young dove as a sin offering, which was required by law from sufficient people (Lev. 12:6–8). But it is not greetings and ordinary wishes regarding a joyful family event that the Most Holy Theotokos meets in Jerusalem, but prophetic, threatening predictions about the fate of the newborn God-Infant and the severity of the trials that await the young Mother of God ahead because of this Infant. “Behold, this lies for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and it is a sign that can be reproached,” said the inspired elder Simeon, already standing on the edge of the grave. “And a weapon will pierce your own soul, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:29–35). For the sake of shortening the time, let us pass in reverent silence a series of subsequent events in the sorrowful life of the Most Holy Mother of God and let us transport our thoughts, beloved brethren, to Golgotha ​​to the Honorable Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose passion we remember today, since here the mental anguish and suffering of the Mother of God reached its highest intensity and strength. In fact, is it possible to imagine a more difficult and painful sight for a mother’s loving heart, like the one that was here on Calvary before the eyes of the Most Holy Theotokos? Is it possible for a mother’s tender heart, without burning pain and bitter tears, to endure such a difficult and painful torture - to see her own beloved son nailed to the cross? A mother cries bitterly when she loses one of her children. It feels unbearably painful and your heart bleeds when you involuntarily become a witness to the difficult separation of a mother from her only child. But death in general is the natural destiny of every person, and no one can escape it, and therefore we have to put up with the loss of even the most dear and dear people to our hearts. And here before us is not an ordinary natural death, but a shameful and painful death on the cross, and a mother standing at this cross. The Most Holy Mother of God saw her Son in extreme reproach, saw when rude warriors mocked Him, contemplated when He, the king of heaven and earth, was clothed in purple and adorned with a crown of thorns, followed him when her beloved child was exhausted under the weight of the cross he was carrying, heard the hammer blows on the nails that chained the most pure hands and feet The Divine Sufferer, and each blow was a blow to her own heart, heard on Golgotha the mockery of the crowd at the Divine Sufferer and, finally, She now sees her Son, the purest righteous man, hanging on the cross in the midst of “two robbers.” Is it possible to imagine a more difficult and more painful sight for a mother’s heart? Whose heart would remain calm, whose eyes would not shed tears at the sight of that stunning picture presented by the last days of the earthly life of the Divine Sufferer. And if many people and wives were crying and weeping, following Jesus Christ to Golgotha, at the sight of His terrible suffering (Luke 23:27), if “all the people who came to this shame, seeing what happened, their beating pain returned” (v. 48), then could the Most Holy Mother of God, whose soul was overflowing, endure everything with indifference? suffering? And how could the Most Holy Mother of God not cry and suffer? The mother of an ordinary person cries over her son’s coffin because she loses her breadwinner with his death. The Most Holy Mother of God was now deprived of such a Son, Who fed five thousand people with five loaves (Matthew 14:17-21). The mother cries because with the death of her son she is deprived of support in old age, services in serious illnesses, support in difficult difficult moments of life. The Most Holy Mother of God was deprived of her Son, Who cleansed lepers, gave sight to the blind, healed every disease and every ulcer in people, raised even the dead and all the destitute and suffering from the misfortunes of life with a meek voice called to Himself: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt. 11:28). The mother cries over her son because she has experienced tender caresses, obedience to her will and care for herself from him, which she loses with his death. The Most Holy Mother of God was deprived of her Son, Who was always devoted to her and Who did not forget about her in the last minutes of suffering on the cross. In the midst of the most severe sufferings on the cross, when his lips burned with burning inner thirst, the Divine Sufferer sends a word of consolation and encouragement from the cross to his beloved sufferer Mother. Jesus, having seen the Mother, narrates the Gospel now read, and the disciple standing, who loved him, said to his Mother: Woman, behold your son. Then the verb to the student: your mother. And from that hour the disciple gave himself drink (John 19:26–27). The mother, finally, cries over her son because she saw him in life, surrounded by honor and glory, and because of him she herself enjoyed everyone’s attention. The Most Holy Mother of God was deprived of her Son, Whom crowds of people always followed, Whom the people wanted to proclaim as their king, Whom finally, just five days ago, the same people welcomed Him upon His entry into Jerusalem as an ass, with fronds and branches and with joyful cries: “Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel” (John 12:13 ; compare Matthew 21:8). Was it possible to endure, was it possible to hold back tears at the sight of the suffering of such a Son? And the Holy Church, penetrating into the depths of the suffering soul of the Mother of God at the cross, depicted the power of her suffering and the bitterness of her tears in her sacred chants for our edification. “Today, beholding you, the immaculate Virgin, exalted on the cross, the Holy Church sings on Great Friday, weeping with her mother’s womb, wounded by the heart of the mountaineer, and groaning painfully from the depths of her soul, tearing her face from her hair, crying pitifully: Alas for me, Divine child! Woe to me, Light of the world! Why hast thou departed from my sight, O Lamb of God? (Verse for Vespers). How can I not weep and beat my womb, seeing You naked, as if you were condemned, hanging on a tree? (Verse on praise on Great Friday). My son, where is the kindness in your face? I cannot bear to see You unrighteously crucified: strive, therefore, arise, for I also see Your three-day resurrection from the dead (Verse at Vespers). One hope and life, O Lord, my Son and God, in the sight of your servant you had the light, but now you would be deprived of it, my sweet child and beloved... Joy will never touch me from now on, sobbing in the immaculate verb: my light and my joy will go into the grave: but I will not leave him alone, here I will die and be buried with him (from the canon at Compline on Friday). With what indescribable joy the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, tormented by the torments of the previous days, was filled, when “the Angel cried out with the Most Grace: pure Virgin, rejoice, and again the river: rejoice. Your Son has risen three days from the grave, and raised up the dead. People, have fun" (from the canon for Easter). But who, beloved brethren, could exhaust the sea, and in a short time? Of course, no one can do this even in human power. And no matter how far we extend our word, we still would not exhaust all the edification that the life of the Most Holy Mother of God can present to us. Christian mother! Great and sacred name! Happy is the woman whom the Lord God has judged to bear the sacred name of her mother. Your calling is high and your destiny is great, and therefore try to be fully worthy of both. You voluntarily take on the cross of family life, and carry it until the end of your life without complaint, with submission to the will of God. Do not look back, do not look back to the carefree past life of a girl, do not seek for yourself what you were looking for when you were free, because just as a farmer who takes up the plow and looks back turns out to be a bad farmer, so a woman who has taken on the sacred responsibilities of a mother and is burdened by them will always be a bad mother. A mother should concentrate all her attention, all her thoughts on her home and her children. As a priceless gift from God, the mother must protect and educate them, remembering that she must answer for them before God. Work diligently on raising your children, because, as the wise Solomon says, a wise son makes his father happy, but a foolish son makes his mother sad (Prov. Sol. 10:1). The life and moral character of the child depend entirely on you: if you want to work on raising the child, it will turn out good, if you don’t want it, it will turn out bad, no matter what the best measures are then taken to achieve this. The responsibilities of a mother are not without painful birth, severe mental anguish, sleepless nights and bitter tears, but they are not without great joys and pleasures, which very often abundantly reward the former. To whom, if not to you, mother, is the first conscious glance of a child directed, whose, if not your neck, his tender arms are wrapped around, to whose, if not your lips, his innocent lips are pressed? A child babbles your first name, your name is used to guide him at all important moments of his life, and he pronounces your name on his deathbed. And what son (and can such a son be called a son?) will not share with his mother his successes in life, his happiness? And what great pleasure a mother should experience when she hears the public verdict about her child: “Behold the man!” What joy must fill her heart at this time! In moments of severe heartache, when your own strength is not enough to humbly and uncomplainingly bear the cross you have taken upon yourself, mother, hurry into the shadow of this holy monastery, fall to the miraculous icon of the Mother of God and ask that She, as the mother of the Divine Sufferer of our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you and give you the strength to calmly carry your cross to the edge of the grave. The one whose life was filled with the most severe and painful suffering will not leave you without her help. And we, beloved brethren, bearing in mind the highest example in the person of the Calvary Sufferer, will honor, love and care for our tender mothers from their young days to the grave. We will do this not so much for their benefit as for our own, because for the respect of our parents, we are promised from the Lord God both goodness and longevity on earth (Deut. 5:16). Amen.