17. Вклады в небесную сокровищницу. Богоугодная жизнь. Мечтания прогрессисток о всеобщем благе человечества и их лживость

I am very glad that you took to heart what was written in your last letter and agree to behave this way. Help you, Lord! God gave us this life so that we would have time to prepare for that one. This one is short, but that one has no end. But even though it is short, in its continuation you can prepare provisions for an eternity. Every good deed goes there as a small contribution; from all such deposits the total capital will be formed, the interest on which will determine the content of the investor for all eternity. Whoever sends more deposits there will have a richer content; whoever sends less, the content will be less rich. The Lord rewards everyone according to his deeds. This is what we should be all about now, in order to send more deposits there. And this care is not tricky or difficult, as the Lord Himself confirms, saying: “My yoke... is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). I explained this to you in relation to the thoughts that confused you, in order to dispel your grief, as if you were living without benefit and will live your whole life without benefit if you live the way you live. The whole structure of Christian life is this: believe in God, worshiped in the Trinity, who saves us in the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and, receiving grace-filled powers through the Divine sacraments of the Holy Church, live according to the commandments of the Gospel, inspired by the hope that God, for our small feasible labor, for the sake of faith in the Lord Savior and obedience to Him, will not deprive us of heavenly things. I add this on purpose so that you can see in what spirit we, living Christians, should do things. For some say: do-do, and others: believe-believe. We need to do both: combine faith with deeds and deeds with faith. But still, the main focus should be on fulfilling the commandments. We already believe - what else? Keep the commandments, for faith without works is dead. And thanks be to the Lord that He was pleased to determine the value of our deeds not by their breadth and greatness, but by our inner disposition when doing them, meanwhile surrounding us with a multitude of opportunities to do deeds according to His will, so that if we pay attention to ourselves, we can do deeds pleasing to God every minute. To do this, there is no need to go overseas, like the progressives, but look around every day and hour: whatever you see the stamp of the commandment on, fulfill it urgently in the conviction that God Himself requires this and not another thing from you at this hour. Try to establish yourself even more firmly in this thought. As soon as you are established, peace will begin to flow into your heart from the confidence that every minute you are working for the Lord. This beginning embraces everything. Even when you are told to mend a stocking for your younger brother and you do it for the sake of the Lord’s commandment - to obey and help, this will be counted towards the sum of deeds pleasing to God. So every step, every word, even movement and glance - everything can be turned into a means of walking in the will of God and, therefore, moving every minute towards the final goal. Progressives mean all of humanity and, at least, all of their people indiscriminately. But humanity or a people does not exist as one person, so that something could be done for it now. It consists of private individuals: by doing for one, we contribute to the general mass of humanity. If everyone, without blinking their eyes at the community of humanity, did what was possible for the one who is before his eyes, then all people together at every moment would do what all those in need need, and, satisfying their needs, would arrange the good of all humanity, made up of the sufficient and the insufficient, the weak and the strong. Otherwise, they keep the good of all mankind in their thoughts, but ignore what is before their eyes, and it turns out that they, not being able to do this in general, and skipping this particular, do nothing for the main goal of life. In St. Petersburg I was told such a case. One gentleman, in some meeting of young advocates for the common good - this was at the very height of the progressivist delirium - made a strong speech about love for humanity and the people. Everyone admired it. But he turns home; the man who served him somehow did not open the door quickly (it was no longer his imagination), then he did not quickly bring the candle, then something happened to the pipe, and it was a little cold in the room... Finally, our philanthropist could not stand it and scolded his servant. This one is some kind of objection, and this one hits him in the chest. And here is our guy: there he was steamed with love for humanity, but here he couldn’t do the right thing with one person. And in that first height of our progressive delirium, the beauties, rushing into bookbinding establishments, often left their mothers without a piece of bread, but still dreamed that they would somehow go forward and bring about the good of humanity. The whole problem comes from having too broad an outlook. It’s better to humbly lower your eyes, look at your feet and figure out which step you should take where. This is the surest way. For the second time I am explaining everything to you about the same thing, so that it will all stick in your memory more firmly, and I will protect you from the fog that progressivist dreams bring to your soul. You might be interested in: