Слово 29. Послание к преосвященнейшему Макарию, митрополиту всея России

The sky is decorated with bright sunlight during the day, and at night with the full light of the night and the radiance of countless stars. The Holy Creator and Lord of all, our Lord and God Jesus Christ, the Apostolic Church, adorns and illuminates and is always elevated to the better by the God-decorated assembly of Orthodox bishops existing throughout the entire universe, who are very fittingly called by their Shepherd the light of the world and the salt of the earth. The Savior called their bright and pure life light, and salt the firmness and protective quality of their teaching word, through which the souls of the Orthodox are preserved strong and undamaged by rotting from any heretical blasphemy, constantly emitting the fragrance of the theology of Orthodox dogmas. Such were the most blessed self-seers and servants of the incarnate God of the Word, the supreme Peter and Paul and the other divine apostles, and the God-bearing bishops who came after them, shining like lights throughout the entire universe, who, being clothed in Christ himself and fully breathing the worshiped Paraclete, many times saved the immaculate faith betrayed by the apostles when it was shaken and overwhelmed by various heretics, against whom ecumenical and local councils were held, at which the godless blasphemies of the heretics were driven far from the Church by the sling of the Holy Spirit and cast into the depths of oblivion. The zealot of these God-inspired blessed men and equal-to-the-apostles bishops - do not think, I beg your holiness, that I am saying this out of affection - in our last generation you have appeared, most reverend, who godly and equal to the apostles rules the helm of the holy metropolis of Moscow and all Russia, as I hear from many other trustworthy men, especially from the most God-loving bishop Tverskoy, my lord, lord and provider Akaki, who loudly preaches the virtues of your shrine, about which I very spiritually rejoice, hearing that you abound in many wonderful apostolic corrections, and with all my heart I always thank the common Builder and Representative of His catholic and apostolic church, Jesus Christ, Who is God above all. By your holiness and Christ-imitating quietness and meekness, He tamed and put into silence the great resistance and uncommendable frustration that some ill-wishers raised against the church a few years ago. Therefore, I will not cease to thank His innumerable goodness to us and to pray together that He will grant us the privilege of being shepherded for many years by your shrine and heading without excitement to that quiet and calm refuge, where the pure voice of those celebrating is heard, and the words of ineffable joy and joy crying out to Christ: “Glorified Fathers and our God, blessed art thou.” Lord Jesus Christ! Grant us this grace too, to bring You such praise, through the prayers of Your bishop, our master and ruler, Macarius. Observe it, Lord, for many years for the faithful and Christ-loving Tsar, Thy faithful servant, our sovereign Grand Duke John Vasilyevich, of all Russia. Keep them both, Master, for many years and grant them in peace and in every affirmation to shepherd Your blessed inheritance according to Your saving commandments: grant to one, apostolically and without hesitation, to abundantly teach and advise Your king what is pleasing and dear to You, and that You contribute to the correction and strengthening of Your Orthodox people, and to the other grant to listen with obedience and accept bishop’s advice and instructions, and carry them out with deeds, so that through both Your all-holy name may be glorified before all the surrounding nations. Let everyone know for sure about them that as much as they are completely pious and Orthodox, they are just as truthful and merciful to all subordinates in general, especially to orphans and widows in need of mercy and intercession, to the poor and wretched who are offended by inhumane covetous people, as well as to foreigners arriving from other countries, among whom I belong. Most Reverend Bishop, the same-name of Divine Bliss, and, I say with hope, his heir, since all your deeds, as I hear, are performed in a manner pleasing to God and according to the will of God! Imitating that great lamp of the universe, who, through the envy of the high priest and the unparalleled malice of the money-loving queen, died in miserable captivity, you also intercede for everyone who is offended and generously tolerate those who madly oppose your zeal for God. Therefore, along with many other godly corrections that adorn you, you, together with the divine prophet and king, can boast before the Lord, saying: Having done justice and righteousness, do not deliver me over to those who offend me (Ps. 119:121). Blessed, indeed, and most blessed are you, Most Reverend Bishop, if you remain in this mind to the end, doing what is right in the eyes of the common Master and incorruptible Judge of all, from whom you too will hear: Well done, good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over many: enter into the joy of your Lord (Matthew 25:21). Small things are here, as temporary and subject to decay; much is heavenly, as reliable and eternal; this is something that the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard and the heart of a person has not sighed; all this you will receive in every possible way with all those who have pleased God from the ages, such as the pious patriarchs, prophets and all the righteous in the Old Testament, but in the new - the apostles and evangelists and Orthodox bishops who shone brighter than the sun, to whom you are similar in your zeal for the preservation of the Orthodox dogmas of the Christian immaculate apostolic faith and for the diligent fulfillment of the divine commandments Savior, for whose sake, as I hear, your holy soul is daily exposed to insults from some who resist your sacred teachings. But for this they will be subject to answer before the terrible Judge, as those who resist Himself, Who clearly speaks of you, your Eminence bishops, like this: Listen to you, He listens to Me, and sweep you aside, Me is swept away also the one who sent Me (Luke 10:16). But you, filled with God’s grace, always pray for Christ and hold fast to the testament of the divinely inspired preacher, which he bequeathed to his disciple, saying: Preach the word of God, be persistent in timely and unseasonable times, reprove, rebuke, entreat with all longsuffering and teaching (2 Tim. 4:2). And again he says: You therefore suffer evil, for you are a good soldier of Christ (2 Tim. 2:3), do the work of an evangelist (2 Tim. 4:5), for no one, he says, is married unless he fights lawfully (2 Tim. 2:5). Let us create strength in God, says the word of God, and he will destroy those who afflict us (Ps. 59:14). What is impossible from man is possible from God. And again Paul: This is a true saying: if we die with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will reign with Him; If we deny Him, He will deny us (2 Tim. 2:11–12). It is good and very saving with Christ and with His holy disciples to be persecuted, for the glory of the Savior Christ himself and for His holy church, that is, for the sake of the salvation of believers. In this case, we have sufficient consolation in His words: If you cast out Me, you will also be cast out; if you keep My word, they will keep yours (John 15:20). But forgive me, for the Lord’s sake, holy master, that I, being a rotten member of the sacred head, dared to embark on the path of serving the word, to which I was forced by love for good faith, for perfect love, says John the Theologian, casts out fear. Compelled by this love, I dared to do what was above me. But you, O divine and sacred head, as an imitator of the meek and humble of heart, forgive my boldness, and accept this bold reminder of mine with meekness, as child-loving parents accept the silent babble of their babies, and deign to reward me, your indecent servant, with the communion of the divine gifts of Christ, which I have been deprived of, I don’t know for what reason, for seventeen years now. I place as my witness before your shrine the Knower of the Heart himself, who will expose at His terrible second coming the secret of darkness, deeds and thoughts, that I do not know of any sin or any blasphemy regarding your Orthodox faith and mine, and did not write or say anything like that, as some have slandered me. On the contrary, Your Eminence, Vladyka, if you take the trouble to find out, you will find that I strongly advocated for our Orthodox faith, and not only here I wrote many articles against the most important false teachings, that is, against the Jews and Hagarians and against the Hellenes themselves and against those who entice many of the Orthodox with the false teaching of the astrologers, which not only should not be heeded, but should be followed with all your soul to abhor and run away from them, as if they were infected with scabs and leprosy in their minds and way of thinking. But even before the so-called nobles, I clearly and without hesitation preached our Orthodox faith, being enlightened and strengthened by the grace of the worshiped Divine Paraclete. In short: wherever I was sent from the holy monastery of Vatopedi by the will of my reverend fathers for alms, everywhere, enlightened by the grace of the Holy Paraclete, I preached the purely Orthodox faith and with due honor was again released to the Holy Mountain, and nowhere did I fall into chains and was not imprisoned or starved to death, cold and smoke, as happened to me here, the righteous by the destinies of God, due to the multitude, probably, of my sins, but not for any heresy. I hope in the mercy of my Lord Jesus Christ that the field of my heart was, is and will remain pure to the end, by the grace of my Savior, from all heretical blasphemy. And if in my studies with books I have sinned in any way against your good faith, or am now lying, or I think one thing in my heart, I tell you and write another: then let the righteous Judge allow the same leprosy on me that He allowed on Gehazi, or that bitter death that befell Arius. Woe to me, the accursed one: what oaths am I, the accursed one, forced to resort to! But God is a righteous and mighty and long-suffering Judge: He will reward everyone according to his deeds. To him be glory forever, amen. If with this brief explanation I can assure your piety of my innocence and prove to you worthy of mercy, then you, being pious, say to yourself about me what some prudent and righteous judges said, although they were wicked: This man has done nothing worthy of death, and this man could have been released, if he had not named Caesar (Acts. 26:31–32). I am not the mortal Caesar and the wicked ruler of the earth, but the very Creator and Lord of all Jesus Christ, the only one who knows the heart, I call upon my soul as a witness before you, my masters, that I am pure in everything that my opponents, of whom God is the Judge, said against me, and that, as at first I was, and now I am a benevolent pilgrim of your pious power and will remain so to the end - both here and everywhere, according to the commandments of the Savior, which if anyone despises, he will not receive salvation. Deign, deign, for the Lord’s sake, to show mercy to me, the poor: let me see the Holy Mountain - a prayer book for the whole universe, give me to your pilgrims, reverend fathers and my brethren, have compassion in a Christian way with their requests and tears for you for me. Do not turn out to be disobedient to your pilgrim, the ecumenical patriarch, who asks you for me. He is a righteous and godly bishop, and anyone can safely call him a confessor of Jesus Christ, since he courageously endures countless misfortunes and reproaches from the godless Hagarians every day, for the sake of good hope and for the sake of the glory of Jesus Christ, our God. It is fitting and completely fair for you, adorned with the purity of faith, to obey such a saint of God, who begs you for his sheep that has strayed from his sacred flock, just as many other Orthodox rulers obey him, so that you too may be obedient in everything to that teacher who says: Brothers, obey your teacher and repent, for they are watching over your souls and so on; then he adds: let them do this with joy, and not sighing, for it is not profitable for you (Heb. 13:17). You might be interested in: