47. Счастье

People, when they receive something according to their desire, are called happy. Likewise, a Christian is happy when he has what he desires and seeks. Happy are those people who are freed from work, or from prison, or from exile, or from captivity. A Christian is happy when he is freed from the sins by which he was bound and from slavery to the devil. Happiness for people is that they have a healthy body. Christian happiness is to have a healthy soul. Those warriors who triumph over their enemies are called happy. Truly happy is the Christian who conquers himself. Many people consider it happiness that they managed to take revenge on their enemies. True happiness for a Christian is that he yields to his enemies and does not repay evil for evil. Even greater happiness is when “he loves them and does good to them.” Then he is a true son of the Heavenly Father, who “makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44–45). Happiness for people is that they receive and collect a lot from people. Happy truly is the Christian who gives from everything he has to his neighbors. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “A good man who gives generously will order his affairs in judgment, so that he will never be shaken” * (Ps. 112:5). It is happiness for people to be rich and famous in this world. For a Christian, happiness is to become rich in good deeds and to despise the glory of this world. Happiness for people is to dominate and reign over other people. A Christian is happy when he dominates and reigns over himself, over his flesh, over his passions and lusts, and commands them. This is truly the lord, king and master! Many dominate and reign over people, but they themselves are slaves of sin and captives of their passions. Truly glorious is the king and lord who controls his passions and lusts! Happiness for people is to provide a rich meal and be satisfied with it. Happiness for a Christian is to hear the word of God within his heart, and thereby saturate, console and delight his soul. Here is a rich meal, a glorious and sweet supper for the Christian soul! Happy is the person who lives in the joy and joy of this world. For a Christian, happiness is if he has sorrow for God and cries for his sins. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). Happiness for people is when a person lives in a rich and beautiful house. For a Christian, happiness is if he is truly within the Church of God, if he is a true son of the Church, a partner with the saints, close to God, and a spiritual member of Christ. “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house: forever and ever... they will praise You” (Ps. 83:5). Happiness for people is to have strong people as protectors and helpers. For a Christian, happiness is to have God as your Protector and Helper. “Blessed is the man whose protection is with You, O God! ... Blessed is he to whom God is Jacob’s Helper; his trust is in the Lord his God, who created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, who preserves the truth forever, who brings judgment to the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry” (Ps. 83:6, 145:5–7). Happiness for people is to be strong in body and brave in battle. For a Christian, happiness is if he is strong in soul, immovable and invincible in the battle that comes from the devil, and is adamant in the temptations, troubles and misfortunes inflicted by him. Here is the strength and generosity of Christians! Here is a brave warrior of Christ! You are my strength, Lord, You are my strength! and so on. With You I can do everything. I can't do anything without you. “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). Beloved Christian! May people prosper in the happiness of this world. You will be quite happy when you have happiness within yourself. This is true, immovable and inalienable happiness! Let people know a lot outside themselves. You are quite happy when you know yourself and within yourself, although you know nothing else. Let people flaunt their physical health. You are quite happy when you have mental health, although your body is unwell. Let people abound in perishable wealth. You are quite happy when you carry piety and a treasure of virtues within yourself. Let people boast of their defenders and helpers: I have such and such a prince and nobleman as my protector, and that and that husband helps me in my troubles and misfortunes. You are quite happy when God is your Helper and Protector. Let people show their freedom and nobility. You are quite happy when you have Christian nobility and a soul free from sins, even though you work for people, or are imprisoned, or exiled, or are in captivity. Let people boast that the Tsar, or the nobleman, or the prince is in favor. You will be very happy if you are granted mercy by God, the Heavenly King, although none of the people will be merciful to you. The mercy of God alone will be greater for you than the mercy of the whole world. Let people live in beautiful chambers and palaces. You are quite happy when you live in the house of God, which is the Church of the Living God, and you are a companion with the saints, and close to God, and the household of Christ, although you live in a hut or a cave, or have nowhere to lay your head. Let people be nourished and satisfied with a rich and sweet meal. You are quite happy when your soul is nourished and saturated with the voice of God, and is comforted by heavenly, holy and spiritual thoughts, although, for the sake of strengthening bodily infirmities, you eat only bread and water. Let people boast about the strength of their strength. You are quite happy when your soul stands motionless against the wiles and temptations of the devil, although you do not have any bodily strength. Let people wear silk and beautiful clothes. You are quite happy when your soul is adorned with the grace of Christ, faith, hope, love and other spiritual utensils, although you dress in rags. Let people boast that they have friendship with the mighty and glorious of this world. You are quite happy and glorious when you have entered into friendship with Christ, the Son of God, you have “communion with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3), although you have no other human friend, and so on. This is true happiness and true bliss, which neither fire, nor water, nor prison, nor exile, nor captivity, nor cunning, nor human malice, nor death can take away. “If God is for us, who can be against us” (Rom 8:31)? A person carries this bliss with him everywhere and always, because he has it within himself. “For behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). “For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). With this bliss the Christian departs into that age, and takes it with him out of this world and brings it to his heavenly Fatherland, and from bliss he comes to eternal and most perfect bliss, where he will be completely blissful in soul and body. Oh, truly true Christian bliss, truly the most precious happiness! What is the benefit for a person in the world to be happy, but not have Christian happiness? What is the use of having a healthy body but a weakened soul? The sign of a relaxed soul is evil behavior. What is the use of boasting about nobility and bodily freedom, but being a slave to sin and passions? “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). “Whoever is overcome by someone is his slave” (2 Peter 2:19). What is the use of knowing a lot outside of yourself, but not knowing yourself? Poor man! Try to know yourself first and then you will know a lot. What is the use of becoming rich in perishable matter, but being poor in soul? A poor man is a rich man who grows rich in perishable silver and gold, but becomes poor in virtue. What is the use of living in a rich and beautiful house, but outside the house of God, the Holy Church, being like a monster? What is the use of owning and managing people for someone who cannot control himself? Human! Learn to control yourself first and then you will happily control people. What is the use of decorating a corruptible body when the immortal soul is naked and covered with stingy sinful rags? Mad man! Leave the mortal body - dust, earth and ashes, and decorate the immortal soul. And then you will have beauty within yourself, but true and incorruptible, and so on. Christian! In this world there is common happiness for both the wicked and the pious, especially for the wicked. Who, if not the wicked, live most in worldly happiness? It is about them that it is written: “for there is no shame in their death and no duration in their suffering, they do not participate in human labor and do not suffer punishment with other people” (Ps. 73:4-5). But spiritual happiness is characteristic of only true Christians. Have true piety within yourself - and then you will have true happiness, although within yourself, but integral, and incomparably better than worldly things. “To those who walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and on the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). From here pious people can draw consolation, but are unhappy in this world: 1) The weak. You, dear sufferers, do not faint in your soul! Although your body is decaying, your holy souls are healed and receive their health. “Even if our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). You and the beggar Lazarus suffer here, but with him you will inherit Abraham’s bosom (See Luke 16:22). 2) Slaves and peasants, subordinate to masters. You, humble and meek sheep of Christ, draw your consolation from this, because although you are called slaves of men, you are free people of Christ. You work for people with your body, but your souls are free from slavery to sin. You do not have freedom and nobility like your masters, but your souls are adorned with freedom and Christian nobility. Rejoice and be glad, for the inheritance of the sons of God awaits you too. 3) Poor and wretched. You, servants of Christ living in poverty and squalor, do not lose heart when you see others living in wealth. They will also leave behind everything they have. “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, or when the glory of his house increases, for when the time comes for him to die, he will not take everything with him, neither will his glory go with him.” fellow saints. Be content with this. Wear rags on your body, but your holy souls are clothed with the robe of salvation. You do not have the good things of this world, but good things are hidden for you in heaven: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Remember Christ's poverty: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that through His poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). 4) Laughed at and desecrated by the world. You, who are trampled underfoot by the world like rubbish, receive a word of consolation in your heart. Let the world do to you what it wants - you are Christ's. It is great glory and praise to be one of Christ, who is the Lord of glory! “My soul will glory in the Lord” (Ps. 33:3). You are ridiculed, humiliated and scolded by the world, but your souls are honest to God. The world condemns you, but God will vindicate you. The world curses you, but God blesses you. “They will curse, but You will bless” (Ps. 109:28). The world rejects you as obscene, but God accepts you. “God, be not silent in my praise, for the mouths of sinners and flattering lips have opened against me, spoken against me with flattering tongues, and surrounded me with words of hatred, and armed themselves against me without cause; instead of loving me, they lied to me, and I prayed” (Ps. 109:1-4). Remember that Christ, our Head and Lord of glory, was despised, humiliated, ridiculed and mocked by the evil world. “A servant is not greater than his master” (John 13:16). “If the master of the house was called Beelzebub, how much more of his household” (Matthew 10:25)? “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you unrighteously because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11–12). 5) Those in prison. You, beloved sufferers of Christ, will endure suffering! Your body is imprisoned, but your spirit is free. Your hands and feet are tied, but your holy souls are loosed by the grace of Christ. You don’t see the light of the sun, but the Divine light inside enlightens you. You are imprisoned, but heaven is open to you. You do not have the consolation of this world, but the grace of God within comforts you. Remember, O fellow sufferers and participants in the martyrs and confessors of Christ, that Christ our Lord was bound because of our sins. After this prison, reign with Christ, with whom you suffer. “We suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him... The sufferings of this present time are not worth anything in comparison with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:17–18). 6) Those in exile. You exiles and strangers, remember the word of Christ: “And whoever leaves houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29). You are excommunicated from your home, from your father and your other dear relatives and friends, but you are not excommunicated from God and His holy house. They left you, but God did not leave you. He is with you in your exile, and He is everything to you. Remember also that for pious souls living in this world, any place is a link. They are in this world as the Jews once were in Babylonian captivity, who, remembering Zion - their Fatherland, “sat there... and wept” (Ps. 137:1). So every pious soul in this world, as on the rivers of Babylon, sits and weeps, remembering its dear heavenly Fatherland and heavenly Jerusalem. There is no true home and Fatherland for a pious soul in this world, but exile and exile are everywhere. Be patient, beloved, and wait until the Lord calls you from this world, as from Babylon, to the heavenly Jerusalem. Then you will see your house and your Fatherland, but already heavenly, eternal, blessed. “And your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). “Bring back, O Lord, our captives, as you are carried along by the south wind” (Ps. 126:4). 7) All the pious, who suffer in any way, lift up your heart’s eyes to the abode of the Heavenly Father, and consider those holy inhabitants. You won’t see anyone who didn’t come there through a sorrowful path. And you will hear a voice from there testifying about them: “These are they who came out of great tribulation; they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they now remain before the Throne of God and serve Him day and night in His church, and He who sits on the throne will dwell in them. They shall neither hunger nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun beat down on them nor any heat: for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will feed them and lead them to living springs of water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:14–17). “As long as none of you suffers as a murderer, or a thief, or a villain, or as someone who encroaches on someone else’s property; and if as a Christian, then do not be ashamed, but glorify God for such a fate” (1 Peter 4:15-16). Translation by P. Yungerov – Editorial office of “The ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: