35. Слово на коронацию (Что означает венчание царя – царское помазание? Хранение, возвышение и укрепление добрых расположений, составляющих истинную и благонадежную общественную жизнь, есть главное и всегдашнее наше дело)

We are celebrating the most solemn and sacred celebration today. It is signified in our Church by many significant, although few, words: it is Holy Anointing, meaning that the Sovereign Emperor, who receives power from God, receives from Him the gift of government, and that at the same time, as the “vicar of God”, he becomes inviolable and, as it were, inaccessible to other members of the kingdom; it is a wedding in commemoration that the Divine Anointing, descending on the Royal Head, either sanctifies or extracts from it the crown of kindness - a host of Royal virtues and powers of the spirit; it is a crowning of the kingdom in commemoration that the crown, like a flower in a plant, develops from the spirit of the kingdom itself, is intertwined from the heartfelt dispositions of the people themselves. Thus, in the wedding of the Tsar we see evidence of the perfection of the people’s life, and the seal of God’s blessing, and the manifestation of the Royal virtues. Now we thank the Generous Lord for His grace sent down to us in the King. With this grateful offering of mind and heart to God, on the one hand, we pay due tribute to the Royal greatness, and on the other, we kindle in ourselves the spirit by which the Royal crowns are held over the people, or by which the people always have a head crowned with the Royal crown. And this last is our first and main task, not just on this day, but for every day and for every hour. The gardener rejoices when he sees a flower on a tree, but he is never satisfied with this alone, but always wants this flower to be born next year, and the next, and so on, so that he himself will not see the end of this flowering. So the people rejoice that the Lord blessed them with the King, but at the same time they cannot restrain and not discover the desire that, if according to the laws of nature it is impossible for the Crowned One to remain alone for entire centuries, then the wedding itself would never cease in them, as long as there are temporary changes on earth. But for this, even before that, he must desire to preserve within himself a good national or state life. As long as there is life, there is a living body, there is also a head that can be crowned, just as in a plant, color will appear every spring, as long as the plant life is intact. That is why the preservation, elevation and strengthening of good dispositions that make up a true and reliable social life is our main and everlasting task. If we want to know what this life consists of and how it is revealed, let us turn to some living creature and apply what is necessary for its life to the people; then it will be clearly revealed what the people’s life exists and without which it cannot exist. The signs of life, and together the needs necessary for a living body, are: nutrition, movement and feeling. Without nutrition, there is nothing to support life, without movement, juices stagnate and deteriorate, without feeling, life seems to be lulled and starved. A body without feeling, movement and nutrition is a dead body. There must be something in the people that corresponds to these three actions of living force, so that it can be said about them that they live. Nutrition represents several actions that are very instructive in this case. We will only take the most remarkable ones. Nutrition is produced by several organs; each of them accepts a common task from one and, having done what is necessary on it, passes it on to another, who passes it on to a third, and so on until the end; and although they all work equally, not one, however, works for himself, but devotes all his work to the benefits of the whole body. Is this not an image of that selfless sociability, according to which not a single member of society considers anything that he has, not even his own strengths and labors, to be exclusively his property, but betrays everything that is his, even himself, to the fatherland, constantly feeling obligated to it, as if he were a debtor who, no matter how much he pays, cannot be paid in his entire life. And here is the first sign and the first condition of people’s life. With this feeling, everyone who has is a guide to those who do not have, everyone who is strong is a support for the weak, everyone who is wise is a guide to the unwise. And at the same time, not only is the living union of brotherhood in society strengthened and made more reliable, but the entire body of society is in some way revived and receives a special harmony, in which one member does not grow too large and another is not exhausted, but all develop in good proportions. True son of the fatherland! Be, following the example of Job, blind in the eye, lame in the leg, weak in the father (Job 29:15-16), and you, for your part, will not bring your indecent tribute into the repository of the people’s life, and although in an infinitesimal part you will help it to stay longer in the course of existence. Taking into itself alien food, more and more new, and likening it to itself, the body, however, keeps its natural image and character constantly unchanged despite all changes. Isn’t this how the people should act in order to preserve their life in its own form? Shouldn’t he, when it is necessary for him to enter into relations with others and see there what is alien to himself, and not only see, but sometimes assimilate for himself - shouldn’t he do this with wise discernment, not adopting everything that he sees, but only what he finds consistent with his spirit and meaning, and this, moreover, not in the form that others have it, but in another, changed and likened to himself? If one person is credited with the honor that, despite all the vicissitudes of life, he always maintains one character, then is it not more glory for an entire people when he reveals himself at all times and before everyone? If it is humiliating for a private person to slavishly imitate another, carried away, as if by fate, by his power, then what kind of people are they who are happy to replace their own, or at least replete with someone else’s? Isn't he apparently losing himself and being absorbed by others? What can we say about clothing that, by color and cover, belongs to different ranks or peoples? Or what can we say about an animal in which one part is from the class of reptiles, the other from quadrupeds, and the third from some other class? - This is a freak! The people who, leaving their own, adopt someone else’s, are also like him. He loses himself, disappears into the mass of humanity and, as it were, ceases to live. This is the second sign and condition of people’s life - to preserve one’s natural character, without being deceived by anything alien. What moves of itself according to its inner impulse lives, and therefore even lives that it moves: movement develops and strengthens vital forces. Is it not clear that if we apply this to the people, we must oblige them to courage? Movement is revealed in the tension of the muscles to counteract the impression coming from outside; but so is courage: therefore one of them points to the other. However, even based on the lofty fruits of courage, the good son of the fatherland will not hesitate to inspire himself with this feeling. It is the most sublime state of our spirit, the excitation not of any one force, but of all the forces of our being. It cheerfully rebels against external violence and thereby protects, one might say, the root of its life from any damage, joyfully meets the work of perfecting itself internally, does not know troubles and painful displeasures, for Him there is no burden unbearable. Cowardice fears and runs away from dangers, courage desires them and goes out against them with an open brow; cowardice seeks to lay all the work on someone else, courage seeks to seize both place and time from others; cowardice would like not to exist, or at least cease to exist, while the danger has passed, courage blesses heaven, which is placed in such difficult circumstances in which it can test and discover its strength. Is it not clear that cowardice is the fruit of exhaustion of strength, painful old age, the threshold of death, and courage is the game of life, a sign of strength of strength, youthful vigor? You can say to the people: be courageous in order to live, or, if they have already proven their courage: you are alive because you are courageous; and you are close to the end, cowardly, and the hour of your death is not far off. Here is another testimony and need for the life of the people. A living body feels when something touches it, feels pleasure when the touch produces pleasant irritation, and displeasure when it is unpleasant; and, moreover, in such a way that, although the change actually occurs in one member, for example, a pain in the head, the whole body feels it, as if some messengers from the affected member pass through all other members and arouse sympathy in them - and here is another sign and condition of the people’s life! This is the sympathy of all one and the same, when there is no joy that exclusively belongs to one part of the state, and there is no sorrow that would strike it alone; when only one message passes through the state about this or that need, and everyone, without special orders, is excited to help; when not a single citizen rejects the proposed work, does not say: “There is a lot without me,” but directly considers himself obligated to act, and without deviation, considers the common cause to be his own: that is why all affairs in such a state have as many hands as there are citizens, as many forces as there are persons. There are no insurmountable difficulties, no irreparable losses, no destructive misfortunes, for just as a hole under water, no matter how large, is filled with water immediately, without, however, causing any damage to the water itself, so every need of the state is absorbed, so to speak, by the fullness of the life of the state. Feeling and movement mean and produce wakefulness - the same evidence of life and the necessary need for it. And for the life of the people, courage of spirit is necessary, such a state when he not only sees his bad and good, but is also not indifferent to it, when he does not live as he lives, does not want to live as well as possible, when he not only sometimes does what comes to hand, but tries to do everything, re-experience all the ways, when for him it is not the same to have and not to have, to do and not to do, whether he does it or someone else. In this state of mind there is a source of ingenuity and the desire for comprehensive self-improvement. The people go from strength to strength and will never say: enough is enough. The movement and activity of forces is constantly renewed and enlivened, and because it is enlivened, it arouses an even stronger thirst for activity. Every enterprise is crowned with success, success stimulates new enterprises. This circulation, so to speak, of the people’s life, like the circulation of blood in the body, constantly refreshing and renewing strength, leads the state to greatness, strength, strength, glory and steadfastness. And so we found what we were looking for, we found signs by which we can find out whether a people is living or has already died, and at the same time what dispositions it should cultivate in itself if it wants to preserve its life as long as possible. Having protected himself from external violence with courage and inspired himself to the work of self-improvement, he cheerfully ascends from strength to strength, ascends together with all his parts, which are connected with each other in a living union by sympathy, sociability and universal love for his loved one. Here is an image of a long-lasting people. We say: durable, because no matter how effective the means shown are, they can only contribute to the strengthening and continuation of life, and not to perpetuating it, just as the functions of living beings corresponding to them, when acting in accordance with their nature, only prolong life, and do not make it endless. Meanwhile, who would not want his fatherland not only to exist for a long time, but also to remain forever? And aren’t there, however, any means to achieve this? Living creatures known to us on earth naturally die; Who can expect endless life from corruptible creatures? But if a creature, having the ability to do this and, as it were, a right conceded to it by God Himself, assimilates Divine powers to itself, becomes a participant in them, begins, as it were, to breathe Divine life, then it also becomes above the law of time and, as it were, emerges from the limits of created life. We constantly have holy relics before our eyes. According to the law of nature, they should have collapsed, but for so many centuries they have not known corruption; Divine life was communicated to them in some way, penetrated them, and the law of corruption lost its power over them; thus, being perishable by nature, they remain incorruptible among all that is subject to corruption. The same can be said about nations. Like any law, they are destined to grow, rise and grow old, like any living creature. However, this law has power over the state as long as it remains alone with its earthly human means; when, having deviated from itself, it places all its hope in God, completely surrenders itself to His guidance, through faith and deeds of piety brings blessings from above upon itself and, thus, becomes a participant in the Divine powers, then it is freed from under the law of all-destroying time and can safely stand until the end of the world. We have in confirmation of this the true promise of the Savior Himself. He promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against His Holy Church, that He Himself, being in it and with it, would preserve it until the end of time! But the Church of Christ does not consist of Angels, but of people. Let the state now be filled with the spirit of the Church: what can then destroy its strongholds, who can shake its foundation, destroy this dwelling of Christ the Savior? If the spirit of the Church is the spirit of truly Christian faith and piety, then is it not clear that a state that preserves faith and piety cannot but be indestructible? After this, do you see the main one among public duties is the duty to nurture true Christian piety in yourself and others and maintain it in its inherent strength? He who does not know such a duty is indifferent to the honor, glory and steadfastness of his state. Let him serve the community; without piety, he will work to destroy it. Even if such lofty promises were not connected with piety, promises, according to the Apostle, of the present century and the future, then it should have constituted the first duty of a person as a citizen for the one reason that those good dispositions that every citizen must cultivate in himself in order not to upset his state can dwell, in their true form and in their inherent strength, only in a pious heart. Just as metal only receives its brilliance and strength when, extracted from the bowels of the earth, it is exposed to the influence of the sun's rays, and state virtues receive their beauty and strength only under the influence of the spirit of piety. Only here sociability is not hypocritical, not vain and selfless, love for one’s own is not accompanied by empty self-praise, courage does not lead to violence, participation does not turn into the evil spirit of parties, the desire for improvement does not take the wrong direction through false thinking. One can even say even more: just as a body without a spirit is dead, so a society without piety is dead. The Church in society is the same as the soul in the body, and life according to the spirit of the Church is a pious life. Turning to ourselves, brethren, we do not know whether to incline ourselves to the demonstrated virtues, or to praise them for them. So often and in such strength they were found in our fatherland. The Lord Himself has given us so many advantages and so often shows His visible protection! Is this really not enough to base our trustworthiness? But, brothers, let us not forget the wise warning that the Apostle Paul gives us: “Be careful to stand, lest you fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). According to the incomprehensible definition of God’s Justice, self-praise always attracts humiliation, decline and complete loss of the good quality that we boast about. And in general, we can say that a good quality is a real living property of a person until it is noticed by him or others, for this means that it is deeply hidden in his heart and is therefore located in the most reliable repository. On the contrary, as soon as it is noticed, as soon as it is shown to others, this is a clear sign that it began to come out of the depths of the heart, appeared, so to speak, on its surface and is close to abduction and loss. So, let us reconsider the dispositions of our hearts, not with self-praise, but with fear; and if there are those in it who encourage the longevity of our dear fatherland, let us thank God and keep them in silence; if they weaken, we will hasten to strengthen them; if they are not there at all, we will try to arouse them, so that in this way we will not be careless, but kind and prudent servants of our God-crowned Sovereign Emperor, for whom may the Lord increase the days of his life, and a life that is painless for him and saving for the fatherland. Amen. You might be interested in: