172. Слово в день рождения Благочестивейшаго Государя Императора Николая Павловича

(Spoken June 25; printed in the collections of 1844 and 1848) We earnestly pray that you do not receive the grace of God in vain. (2 Cor. 6:1). If custom makes the commemoration of the birth of the head of a family a family holiday, even extending beyond the boundaries of the family, then how much more fitting and fair is it that the commemoration of the birth of the Most Pious King should constitute a holiday celebrated by the Kingdom, sanctified by the Church. We have such a holiday today, Blessed Sons of Russia. But what does “celebrate” mean in this case? To be “idle” from business and work? – This is a holiday for matter, which is inert and lazy by nature, and not for spirit, which is essentially active. Indulging in unconscious amusements? – They call this a holiday: but it is a holiday of feelings and imagination; and feelings and imagination, occupied with sensory images, constitute only the lower region of the human being. What dignity would a holiday have if the highest and best in man did not participate? To celebrate in a manner worthy of a person, one must celebrate wisely. To celebrate in a manner worthy of a Christian, one must celebrate spiritually. Consider the benefits that you enjoy under the scepter of the God-protected King: security, peace, good governance, education, protection and promotion of everything good and useful, philanthropic charity for the helpless, ready help in sudden disasters; think about how, through the birth of the King, the “Creator of the future” early sowed the seed of our blessings, how he thoughtfully preserved and increased it, and prepared the actual fruit in time; with a reverent mind, a grateful heart, offer up blessings to their supreme Giver, and as the consideration of the present with the past is given to you to prepare the future, then “rejoicing in God our Helper, accept the psalm” (Ps. 81:2-3), not only joyful, but also prayerful: “God strengthen this which you have done in us” (Ps. 67:29). “You will add days to the days of the King, and His years to the day of generation and generation” (Ps. 60:7). And in the time to come, “Lord, remember us in the favor of Your people, visit us with Your salvation” (Ps. 105:4). So anxious to give our holiday an order worthy of God’s blessings, not only present and past, but also future ones, I heard in the current church reading the voice of the Apostle, who instills new care into our joy. “We pray,” he says, “that you will not receive the grace of God in vain.” The grace of God, in the Apostolic word, means the highest degree of God's gifts and benefits. So, if the grace of God can turn out to be received in vain, then of course the same can happen with any good deed of God. There is something to take care of, even if the Apostle did not pray for it. But he prays, and thus imposes on us the obligation to pray for your attention to his instructions. “We pray that the grace of God may not be received in vain by you.” If we take into account the essential property of God’s grace: then it seems hardly probable that it could be received in vain in anyone, even if it was received without fruit. She is a good force, an action, a gift from the Almighty, Eternal, Omnipresent God: what other force will be content to oppose her? What time can rule it out? What creature could be beyond her reach? If in the state of nature God so embraces and penetrates man with His action that, in the words of the Apostle, “He Himself gives to all life and breath and everything,” and that we “live, move, and are in Him” (Acts 17:25, 28): what can we say about the state of grace? The same minister of grace who instilled in us fear that it would not be accepted in vain, says that primarily in Christianity the grace of God is revealed and given to all people, in a measure sufficient for salvation: “the grace of God that saves appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11); that sin, which multiplied before the manifestation of grace, did not pose an obstacle to its action, but only served to the most solemn discovery of its victorious power: “wherever sin abounded, grace abounded” (Rom. 5:20); that grace has already accomplished our salvation, and in Christ we already have in action not only what we believe, but also what we hope: “This God is rich in mercy, for your abundant love, love us with it, and make us alive in our sins who are dead through Christ; You were saved by grace, and raised up with Him and seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). I said this not in order to contradict the Apostle, or to put him as if in contradiction with himself, but so that anyone would not consider grace itself insufficient or exhausting, if it sometimes turns out to be accepted in vain; so that no one dares to complain about God where it is necessary to reprove and correct a person; so that no one will waver in their trust in the grace of God. No, “for love,” I say in the words of another Apostle, “girding up your loins, being sober, fully trust in the grace brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). But how can it truly happen that the grace of God, so abundant, so powerful, so effective, having already been accepted by man, turns out to be accepted in vain, fruitless? - Because the grace-filled kingdom of God is a mystery, incomprehensible to the natural mind, and therefore the very wisdom of God, speaking about it, used parables and similitudes taken from the kingdom of nature as a guide: then we will use some of them in order to eliminate bewilderment and bring the true teaching closer to understanding. The parable says: “The kingdom of heaven is like hidden treasure in a village, which a man found hidden, and with his joy he goes, and sells everything he has, and buys that village” (Matthew 13:44). Note: the treasure is ready, enough for enrichment; the one who owns the field also has the treasure hidden in it, but without trying to find it, he has it in vain; another knows about the treasure, but also without care, without donation, without the determination to sell everything to buy the field and use the treasure, he knows in vain. Grace is a ready treasure, sufficient for the enrichment of each and everyone, but hidden - where? on what field? – You never know where! for example, in the field of solitude and reverent silence, in the field of chastity and abstinence; just sell everything to dominate such a field, and you will find a treasure. But the field that is most close and accessible to everyone, in which the treasure of grace is hidden, is the Church. What treasure is hidden in her sacred collections! The presence of Christ the Lord Himself is hidden in them, according to His own assurance that “where there are two or three congregations in His name,” there is also He “in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20); and in Him “all the treasures of wisdom and understanding are hidden” (Col. 2:3), as well as the treasures of all other spiritual and Divine gifts. What a treasure there is in the prayers and praises of the Church! The grace of the Prophets, Apostles, and Saints breathes in them; in them, especially, “the Holy Spirit Himself” “intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26), as the Apostle says. What a treasure in her Gospel readings! “There is,” says Athanasius the Great (in his letter to Marcellinus), “in the words of all the Divine scriptures the Lord, who cannot be endured (spirits of darkness), cries out: I pray thee, let us not be tormented before the time.” The same power that, emanating from the word of Christ, drove away demons, healed ailments, raised the dead, enlightened with the Divine light, remains today in His word, in His Gospel. What a treasure there is in the Sacraments, and especially in the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord! Eternal life is hidden in it, with its inscrutable benefits, according to what was spoken from the Lord: “If you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you will have eternal life” (John 6:54). You just need to be able to take advantage of so many treasures, you need to assimilate them for yourself, and for this you need to “sell” or give away for nothing, neglect, reject, “everything that is great to you” (Luke 18:22), namely, your self-indulgence, your passions, your vicious habits, your carnal desires, your laziness, your inattention, your absent-mindedness. But if anyone retires from sacred meetings; does not listen to the prayers and praises of the Church; if then, as here the power of God moves in the word of the Gospel, laziness still barely allows others to move from home to church; if then, as a deep sacrament is being performed, one of those present wanders around the outside of the sanctuary with scattered thoughts, superficial glances, or, instead of a saving conversation with God, talks idlely with a person: then the gold-bearing field is still alien to such people; they have not yet found the treasure hidden in it, or they do not know how to take what they have found; and even though they apparently have it, they have it in vain, or only imagine having it. I can and must show you, Christian brothers, as well as myself, what seems to be a closer field of treasure. This is the very heart of the Christian; this is our inner man. If the baptism of a Christian is “birth by water and the spirit” (John 3:5), as it really is, according to the word of Christ; and birth is nothing other than the beginning of a new life; and consequently, a Christian in baptism receives a new life, and of course that about which the Apostle said: “I live not for anyone, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20): then think what a treasure is placed in us by holy baptism, what grace we have received in it! We received in him the firstfruits of the life of Christ in us, or, as St. Paul puts it, “the firstfruits of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:23). Well? Have we, brothers, found this treasure? Have you used it? Do we feel within ourselves this new life, which, like the life of Christ, should be incomparably stronger than the old life of Adam? Are we growing in this new life? Do we achieve “according to age the fulfillment of Christ” (Eph.4:13)? Blessed is the one whose heart is not blinded by this self-examination (1 John 3:21), and who has a not flattering, but a soothing “testimony within himself!” The treasure of grace, found in the field of the heart through prayer and faith, acquired through self-sacrifice, multiplied by love, tempted by the fire of the cross, may he be vigilantly guarded in unflagging asceticism and humility! For those like me, for whom grace itself is not safe, because in it they find a reason for careless carelessness, I bring to mind another parable. “A certain man, when he departed, called his servants, and gave them his goods: and to him he gave five talents, and to him two, and to him one, to each one against his strength” (Matthew 25:14-15). The continuation is known: those who received more, multiplied what they received with work and turnover, and acquired new favor from their master; and the one who received one talent buried it in the ground, and for wickedness and laziness lost the last one and was subjected to heavy condemnation. “Man” in this parable means God the Creator and Provider, Who gives “to His servants,” that is, to all people various gifts, natural and grace-filled, internal and external; in particular, the God-man Christ, who, “departing” from earth to heaven, “ascended on high to give to man” (Eph. 4:8), such as the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel, the Sacraments, and in general “all the divine powers, even unto life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). These various talents are given to us, according to the parable, “to each one against his strength,” and according to the Apostle’s explanation, “according to the gift of Christ” (Eph. 4:7), that is, completely satisfactory for the needs of our life, which God’s foreknowledge determines and God’s generosity fills. Look. It is true that everything depends on the gifted talents, without which the slaves, as they were, would have been left with nothing. But it is not the receipt of talents alone, but the doing and increase that brings one into the joy of the Lord. And it is surprising that those who have more strive more to acquire; and the one who received less does not try at all. Doesn't this point to us, who often say that we are not Apostles, not Saints, not Righteous, we do not have their grace, and thereby think to excuse our lack of exploits and virtues? Isn't this the same as if we said: let those who have received five or two talents work to acquire another five or two? we have received one, and therefore we are allowed to care less; It is enough if we return what we received; You can also bury it in the ground. – You see how an already accepted talent or a gift of God’s grace, or a natural one, can turn out to be accepted in vain, and not only in vain, but also to the condemnation of the one who accepted it: for the Distributor is perspicacious, and, after extreme mercy, is completely just; He will not allow His gift to be squandered without compensation, and for wickedness and laziness to hide under the guise of weakness, but finally He will take away the neglected gift, and will leave only “utter darkness” to the unconnected servant (Matthew 25:30). If these reflections excite us to care that “we do not receive the grace of God in vain,” then they can also point out ways to satisfy this concern. Since the grace of God is invisible and hidden, one must diligently seek it with reverence of faith for Divine services, for the Word of God, for the Sacraments; and to assimilate, through the donation of all property of a damaged nature, self-indulgence and carnality. Since we have the gifts of God’s grace, and in general the gifts of God’s Providence, in our hands, we must “do with them,” put our talents to use, accomplish good deeds with the help of grace, and acquire virtues. Let him who has received the “firstfruits of the spirit” in Christ nourish it with spiritual activity and grow it to the level of perfection. Let the one who has received the gift of strength multiply his deeds, useful and saving ones. To whom “the word of wisdom” and “understanding” was given by the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8): let him do with this talent, and let it be his acquisition to spread saving truth among people. If anyone has been given the cross and sorrow (since this too can be a “gift” ( Phil. 1:29 ) of grace), let him do it according to his talent, and let his gain be invincible patience and hope that does not put to shame. A similar thing should happen with talents working in the field of nature and in the economy of temporary life and human community. Whoever is entrusted with the abundant talents of his superiors: let him use them, and his gain may be the safety and tranquility of those under his control, the protection of the offended, the deliverance of the needy, the weakening of evil. Whoever received the modest talent of subordination, even if it was even at the lower levels of public life: and this one, without despondency, does it, steadily and conscientiously fulfilling the duties of his title; and in small days the faithful one will be called with the great ones into the joy of his Lord. Whoever considers himself to have a large number of talents of wealth and abundance: let him do in them, and may he gain abundant gain in the prayers of the poor, in the blessings of the orphans and widows. And the common talent of God’s Providence for all of us, under the shadow of the Throne of the God-protected King, “a quiet and silent life,” let us, brethren, use it so as to advance “in all godliness and purity” (1 Tim. 2:2), and in the coming time, by the gift of the same Providence, we can rejoice in our King and in our King with complete joy, until finally in Let us be worthy to receive the eternal joy of our Lord. Amen. You might be interested in: