13. Слово в неделю третию по пятдесятнице 119

(Printed in collections 1820, 1821, 1844 and 1848) And why are you worrying about clothes? Look how the villagers grow: they neither toil nor spin. I say to you, that Solomon was clothed with all his glory, as if he were one of these. Matthew 6:28–29. One can predict what will be said against excessive care about clothing and decoration 120; and, perhaps, with this guess, some are already thinking that this subject is too small to occupy the attention of the Christian assembly at the hour appointed for saving teaching. But excesses in small things are not small things. Excess in food and drink at its very beginning is a source of infirmities and diseases; and in its continuation it can turn into slow suicide. Likewise, the harm of vain worries about clothing extends from the body to the soul: this is no longer a small thing! There are people for whom these concerns constitute no small part of their daily exercises, and steal a great part of the time, which, without a trace, is needed to acquire eternity; this is by no means a small thing! To whom, despite this, the teaching about clothing and attire seems small, let him think whether the greatest Teacher under the sun could teach small things? If you don’t want to, don’t listen to little people talking about little things, but you shouldn’t ignore what the Heavenly Teacher teaches us. “Why are you worrying about clothes? Look how the villagers grow: they neither toil nor spin. I say to you, that Solomon was clothed with all his glory, as if he were one of these.” What are clothes? In the natural order - a means to protect the human body from the destructive effects of the elements; in moral order - defense of modesty; in the civil order - an artificial covering of the members of the body, adapted for the administration of one or another public rank, and at the same time a distinctive sign of the ranks and degrees established in them. Although from these concepts one can immediately see that the care of clothing should be governed by necessity, modesty, constancy: however, we will not dwell on these concepts, which show more the correct use of clothing by people and societies than its origin and original purpose from the Creator of people and human societies. From this sacred place one can and should see further than the world and its elemental wisdom usually sees. Raise your thoughts to the first days of the universe, in which the human race consisted of one couple, only emerging from the hands of the Creator in perfect purity and holiness - you will not find any trace of clothing there. “Besta,” says the book of Genesis, “both naked, Adam and his wife, and not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). One can even say, without contradicting the testimony of the Word of God, that they were not naked, because they did not have and did not feel that lack that we call nakedness: just as someone who does not take food, but does not feel the need for it, is not yet hungry. But those seduced by the evil serpent ate of the forbidden fruit, and “they became wise, as if they were besha” (Gen. 3:7). This is the beginning of nudity! The poison of sin, accepted into the soul and heart, quickly spread throughout their entire being; passions were aroused and produced disorderly movements in the body; and whether lust, which “when conceived gives birth to sin” (James 1:15), itself was immediately born from the first sin, or the unfortunate ancestors were ashamed of the future tribe, which they carried in their loins and which they now became murderers; - only they first of all hastened to close these loins. “And she sewed together the fig leaves, and made for herself girdles” (Gen. 3:7). This is the origin of the clothes! So, what is our clothing? She is a work of iniquity; it is the duty of a sinful wound, and, moreover, empty, without healing oil; it is a weak means for short-term preservation of the condemned body from the action of the elements that carry out its execution; it is a cover for moral ugliness that has become natural; it is a defense against the shame of bodily nudity, invented by a man naked in conscience; it is a visible sign of a person - a criminal; it is a universal and everlasting mourning, imposed by repentance, after the death of primitive innocence; it is the banner of victory, which our enemy put outward, taking possession of our insides. What are those doing who, with such care, vie to shine with the beauty and splendor of their clothes? – Hardly anything more than to renew and embellish the triumph of the ancient enemy of the human race. What does this pride mean, with which someone who wears expensive clothes barely deigns to look at poverty covered in sackcloth or half-naked - this insatiability with which some increase this inconstancy from day to day, with which they so often change their attire? Isn't this something similar to what happens when a sick person decides to be vain about the multitude of his scabs and the beauty of his duties? or what if a slave, forced to wear shackles, wanted to have them in great number and wrought with varied skill? True, God in some way sanctified what is in clothing, the simplest and at the same time the most necessary. “And the Lord God made Adam and his wife garments of leather, and clothed them” (Gen. 3:21). But through this very thing, reckless care for decorating the body is again condemned. If the substance, according to the instructions of God Himself, used to make up the garment was leather, then why do some imagine those who wear simple linen and coarse wool to be either unfortunate or despicable? Why is it unpleasant for us if it is not for us that the silkworm spins, it is not for us that the earth gives birth to gold, and the sea of ​​pearls? Why such childish whims? What is better and more splendid for you than the clothing that God Himself prepares for you? For we can say that He creates the necessary garments for each of us, as for Adam and his wife. In which country of the world He predetermines us to be born, in the same country He produces everything that, according to the quality of that country, is necessary for our body, and in order to obtain what is necessary, His wise Providence almost always puts sufficient means into our hands. Why else do we often wish that our clothing exceeds not only the requirements of necessity, but also the decency of our condition? Why are we sometimes not happy with our jewelry just because it was not stolen from our most distant brothers? Look - so the wisdom of God shames not only the vain worries about the superfluous, but also the superfluous about the necessary - look at the flowers of the field, how they grow: they do not spin and do not toil, and you, of little faith, torment yourselves arbitrarily with exquisite worries about your clothing, as if Providence is less concerned with you than with the past, now blooming, and tomorrow withering, and as if It has forgotten the near you to produce what you need! And what is the subject of such impatient concerns? - Delicate fabric, precious stones, pure gold - let them add to this calculation, whatever else you want - how small and unworthy all this is to concern someone who thinks even a little! I don’t know what can give gold the same weight on the scales of a reasonable person as on the scales of a merchant, if this is not the weight of the troubles with which it burdens the human race. What is called the best water in the stones, are they not the tears of the unfortunate victims who are buried alive, deeper than the dead, in the dark belly of the mountains, to extract from there these precious trifles? Can the best works of skillful hands make up the glory of anyone other than its own artist? And how far does this glory extend? The artist of the world set a limit for the vanity of mortal art in the most ordinary affairs of nature. Look again at the flowers of the field: Solomon, in all his glory, was not clothed like the last of them, says the Truth. If you, looking at wild flowers, do not find within yourself the wisdom of bees in order to collect subtle, spiritual honey from them; if the spectacle of nature does not bring you instruction that would turn into strength and life in you: choose another, higher spectacle; elevate your spirit, and look not at the image and shadow of truth, but at its very face, at the uncreated beauty, at the color of perfection - look, members of the body of Christ, at your Head and look closely to see if the decorations you love will suit her. What an incongruity! The head is in a manger, on straw, and the members want to rest on their seats and drown in their beds! The head is in humiliation, in poverty, and the members only think about wealth and splendor! The head is wet with bloody sweat; and the members are anointed and doused with incense! Tears fall from the Head, and pearls overshadow the members! The head is covered with thorns, and the members are covered with roses! The head turns purple from the flowing blood, and is filled with deathly pallor; and the members, with crafty art, supplement their lack of natural liveliness, and, thinking of themselves to give themselves the beauty that nature denied them, they transform a living human image into an artistic image! The head is sometimes naked, sometimes in the clothes of reproach, and the limbs love to rest under silver linen, under the golden fleece, or, instead of the nakedness of the Crucified One, with contempt for shame and modesty, they invent for themselves clothes that would not so much cover as expose! But - “let not my mouth speak of the deeds of men” (Psalm 16:4)! One must be wary that it would be considered indecency to denounce customs, which, however, to follow is not considered indecent. Well? - people who are more willing to get rid of reproof than to correct what is reproached will probably ask, - should everyone really reject all splendor and put on rags? - No, co-questioners, “wise, they do evil, but do not know good” (Jer. 4:22)! Nobody demands this. Our Divine Teacher denounces, and therefore obliges us to reprove, only worries about clothing, and especially unnecessary, vain, partial ones. “What are you looking for, 0 clothes?” However, it is known that He Himself (no doubt, so as not to deprive the people who served His bodily needs of consolation and reward) wore a precious unsewn tunic, which those who shared His garments were sorry to tear apart. There is a type and degree of splendor, and even splendor in attire, which does not indicate partiality, but decency, not vanity, but state, not vanity, but duty and obligation. But care without end, pomp without measure, waste without purpose, daily changes of attire only because there are people who have the baseness to engage in inventions of this kind, and that there are too many who have the slavish baseness to imitate these children’s inventions - incredible recklessness! Recklessness is all the more strange and absurd because, without a doubt, many who are guilty of it admit it, and yet do not cease to become guilty of it again! And let it remain recklessness: the misfortune is that it gives rise to and feeds on iniquity. Ask, for example, some of those who came to this sacred place not before the beginning, but already in the continuation of public prayers and sacred rites, ask yourself, you, to whom this happened: how was this time stolen from God and from the soul? - It turns out that for some it was dedicated to the body from which an idol was then created. Don’t you see how your obvious imaginary little things turn into an insult to the Great God? Or, look how sometimes in the market place they pass by a beggar asking for a small coin for their daily bread without paying attention, and thousands are given away for an unnecessary decoration. Who would dare to say that love for one’s neighbor is not violated here? Who doesn’t see from these few examples how easily vanity, excused by the world, can make a person guilty before both tablets of the 122 law of God. Christians! as heirs and future renewers of paradise, do not be lazy in plucking from your hearts even the small past of unclean passions, so that the tares do not multiply, and the thorns do not grow, and the Divine seed is not suppressed. It is better to lose a thousand ornaments of the body than to present to the All-Seer the slightest stain in the soul and conscience. Oh! at least under rubble, if only to preserve that royal vestment about which it is written: “As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). Amen. It is unknown in what year it was pronounced, but no later than 1820, in which it appeared in the first collection, and therefore is placed at the end of the section. decoration - In collection 1820 and 1821: “dresses”. deeper - In collection. 1820 and 1821: “a hundred times deeper...” before both tablets - In collection. 1820 and 1821: “to both tablets.” You might be interested in: