385. Беседа из псалма 83, по освящении храма Пресвятой Богородицы, в память явления всечестной иконы Ее Казанской, устроенного в доме его сиятельства гр. Виктора Павловича Кочубея

(Spoken November 13; printed in collections 1820 and 1821) How beloved is Your village, O Lord of hosts! (Ps. 83:2). This ancient song, without a doubt, has already been sung many times in this, although still renewed, village of the Lord of hosts. The Church solemnly sang it during the sacred renovation of this church. It was actively sung by those who so loved God’s settlement on earth that they wanted to unite it with their own home under one roof. I don’t know if you noticed it yourself, but the Church assumes with consolation that each of those now in this house of God, entering its gates, internally sang this song: for why would he step through this sacred prague, who does not feel “since the beloved of the village... the Lord of hosts”? - However, if songs are the food of celebrations, sensual - earthly, spiritual - heavenly, and if our mind and feelings without fatigue and repeatedly return to what is dear to the heart, then let us resume at the conclusion of this celebration, let us resume some sounds of the beautiful psalm of Israel, so that, as much as possible, our feelings will more accurately and constantly agree with them. Let us learn from the singer of God, not so much with our lips as with our spirit and heart, and not only while we are in the church, but also while walking in the world, to sing this song: “Since your village is beloved, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs and ends for the courts of the Lord” (Ps. 84:2-3). All people more or less feel that they lack a refuge where their wandering heart could constantly dwell and their unceasing desires to calm down, but many do not know, or, better yet, do not try to know their true resting place. They expand their dwellings: - and produce only more emptiness. They go to feast houses, and return either with the burden of satiety, or with the fiercest hunger of the past for the sweets of the senses. They tell their “soul to rest” (Luke 12:19) on the abundance of earthly blessings, but everything that is flesh is too cruel and rough for the spirit to rest, and on such a bed, after a minute of slumber, it awakens with new anxiety each time. Others, finding the area of ​​feelings for their desires cramped and meager, are transported to vast lands of the imagination; they see there some churches of glory, taste, earthly wisdom; rush towards them - but, approaching, they find that these majestic churches, in which they thought to deify themselves, are either ghosts in the air, or buildings on the sand, on the edge of the abyss, in which it is not only possible to live, but also to calm down for a while. Thus, every soul in the world “desires and ends,” melts away like wax from the fire of desires, and flows through the objects of the lower world, exhausting itself like a stream divided into many branches and getting lost in the wilds, exhausting itself uselessly if it does not know how to give a single true direction to its desire, or, according to another image of the Psalmist, it rushes with its desires through the space of created things, like “bird” looking for “churches”, or “nests where he will lay his chicks” (Ps. 83:4). Know, poor soul, always sojourning in the world, always tormented by hunger, always overwhelmed by passions, always tired of the variety of vanities, your refuge, your home, your saturation, your rest, your wealth, your essential good. One God is all this. Just as things of an earthly nature naturally tend to the earth and, only falling on it, come to rest, only on it do they find their permanent presence: so the heavenly being of the soul, like the “breath of life” (Gen. 7:27) from the mouth of God, naturally strives to cry back to God and in it must live, rest and bliss forever. To the extent that the soul, resolutely, and with all its strength, surrenders to the saving desire for its beginning: in order to overcome the resistive desire of the flesh, drawn to the earth, God himself, through His Son, “sends it help from the Holy One” (Ps. 19:2): and, being raised by faith and love, it will fly to the mountain in order to pass through everything earthly and everything created and reach into the villages of the Lord, into His courts and into His very house. On this only mountainous path, no matter how difficult and impassable it may seem to the eyes of the flesh, only on it can one find what is uselessly sought on earth. Here, the diverse desires of the human soul, freed from decay and dust, like pure currents, merge into one great stream, faster or slower, but surely destined to unite with the sea of ​​infinite bliss. She does not “desire” in vain, and she does not “desire” in vain distraction; she “desires and dies in the courts of the Lord” (Ps. 83:3). Then she sings with the Psalmist: “The bird will find for itself a church, and the turtledove will find itself a nest, where it will lay its young”: so I am “Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God” (Ps. 83:4). How she rejoices when she finds a nest for herself, for she anticipates the joys of childbearing; Thus I am comforted, flowing to Your altars, for I know that if I sacrifice to You a “broken heart,” You will “build in me a pure heart” (Ps. 50:12, 19), You will bring forth from the “heart of stone the heart of flesh,” (Ezek. 36:26) and place it where its treasure is. Some, in a dark sense, recognize the importance of altars and, apparently, are not alienated from the house of God, but they do not understand either how to enter it or how to behave in it. Having placed the body in the church, they assure themselves that they are already with God, but those in this position no more sometimes belong to the house of God than - if I may put it this way - the idols that adorn only its outer appearance. They serve God like slaves, not so much in order to do His will, but in order only to evade His wrath. They work for Him at the appointed time, like mercenaries, in order to receive payment from Him for earthly blessings, and then for His enemies - the world and the flesh - to expect His gifts. What a service incongruous with the majesty and goodness of God! What a disorder in comparison with the splendid praises of God’s faithful servants, His friends and members of His house! Whoever wishes to truly draw closer to God must arrange his entire being into a sacred organ in order to sing this song of the house of God: “since Thy village is beloved, O Lord of hosts! “My heart and my flesh leapt up to God as I live” (Ps. 84:2-3). It is not slavish fear that drives me to Your service, Lord, but more than Your love, driving out my fear, draws me to follow You. It is not Thy treasures and gifts that my desires crave; I desire and love Thy villages, Thy closeness, and Thy fellowship. I don’t think of approaching You with my lips alone; Your love will contain all of me and my whole being will delight me in the direction of the living God. In order to teach us more about this approach to God that takes place in pure love, the Psalmist who guides this conversation gives us to notice especially two states of lovers of the house of God. He represents some as living in it: “Blessed are those who live in Your house” (Ps. 83:5). Others are sneakers: “I deign to sneak around in the house of my God” (Ps. 83:11). A look at these extreme degrees of being in the house of God should show us what and how those who strive for union with God can achieve. “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house.” “But how can one live in the house of God in the midst of strangers in the world?” – The House of God is not alien to anyone, unless someone alienates himself from it. You can enter it from the South, and from the North, and from the West - to the eternal East. The house of God is the presence of God. Whoever begins to vividly and actively feel this holy and sanctifying presence and prayerfully turn to it, enters the house of God. He who abides in this feeling constantly and unwaveringly, or, according to the ancient word of Scripture, “walks with God” (Gen. 17:1), lives in the house of God. The more valid and fruitful the feeling of the presence of God, the more internal and perfect the stay in the house of God. The Psalmist instructing us indicates the path or ladder of this spiritual house of God, established in the heart of a believer in the power of God and the action of its devoted person: “blessed is the man...whose strength is with you: set his ascensions in your heart” (Ps. 83:6). The suppression of Godly deeds, Godly desires, Godly thoughts, the perception of Godly thoughts, Godly desires, Godly deeds form various paths and degrees of ascension into the villages of God, into His courts and into His house. Naturally, the one who strives in this Divine life, so as not to deviate from it through dispersion in the world, as much as possible, often enters the visible house of God; bows to His Holy Church in filial fear and love; clings to this settlement of God on earth so that in it he finds his peace, and outside of it is work, outside of it is coming, and in it is dwelling, outside of it is rebellion, and within it is silence: and then he lives, one might say, in the visible house of God, as well as in His invisible presence. You see a resident of the house of God. Behold the advantage of this residence - “blessed are they who dwell in Thy house,” exclaims the Hymnist of the House of God, “for ever and ever they will praise Thee” (Ps. 83:5). – Those who love peace understand this bliss just as little as the state to which it belongs: they know only the people-pleasing caress, the sheer burden with which they at the same time burden both their conscience and their pride; but not righteous and Divine praise, with which those filled with blessings from the Lord pour out their bliss into Him and at the same time draw it from Him in greater measure. Praise to God is the flower of bliss, by which “those planted in the house of... our God prosper” (Ps. 91:14), and it is also the fruit in which their bliss ripens. For when the root and foundation of these living trees are affirmed in goodness, when all the vessels of the mind and heart, all the stems and branches of desires and thoughts are watered, fulfilled, and drunk with the waters of grace and salvation, then at the height of spiritual forces directed toward grief, a single desire and a single action incessantly arises, expands, and ripens in fulfillment—praise and glorification of the Source of good things. - Truly, Lord, “blessed are they that dwell in Thy house!” “They will be drunk with the fatness of Your house, and I will give you a stream of Your sweetness to drink. For you are the source of life, in your light we will see light” (Ps. 35:9-10). – Think, Christians, about these ineffable blessings bestowed on the friends and associates of the house of God, to which we must belong. If life is sweet even in this meager, constantly drying up stream from which we partake of it through the outer man, then how much sweeter it should become as we approach the very source of life! If this visible elemental light is pleasant, which alone reveals to us the wonders of the physical world, but reveals, however, in a certain mixture of light and darkness: then what a sight is prepared for us when, as the Prophet foresees, we must finally see in the spiritual and holy light of God, and see one pure light, not disfigured by any admixture of darkness! Do not think that these blessings are completely contained and sealed in one heaven: in some part they are hidden on earth “in the house of God” - in a person’s unceasing heartfelt turning to God and a person’s complete approach to Him through faith and love. One of God's relatives experienced such admiration on earth that, apparently, heaven cannot accommodate. “What... are there in heaven?” - he calls out to God - “and what have you desired on earth?” - It’s not just the land that he neglects: “What do you desire for the earth?” - the sky itself does not attract him: “What do we have in heaven?” What are you so fulfilled and satisfied with, friend of God? “My heart,” he says, has found and acquired its God forever: “The God of my heart, and my portion God forever” (Ps. 72:25–26). So high and in the lower world we are shown a lot to attract us, who come and wander in the world, to the fatherly house of God; but let no one immediately think of snatching this lot of the elect from the hand of God. The gifts of mercy are given to humility and patience. And therefore the Psalmist himself of the house of God, depicting the bliss of those who live in this house, does not dare to join himself to their host: “blessed are they who live in Your house.” On the contrary, he allows himself and at the same time, in order to follow him, he indicates to all those who approach God a lower and more accessible degree of sojourn in the house of God: “I deign to sneak into the house of my God.” I know, he says, that I am not worthy to be among the people of God, and to enter the interior of His house: I want to at least stand at its gates and sit on its prague, like a wanderer looking for a place of peace, or like a beggar expecting a gift from the hand of mercy. But do you know what good lies in this apparently rejected state of one who loves the house of God? “I want to sneak into the house of my God,” he said, and adds: “rather than live... in the villages of sinners” (Ps. 83:11). It is better, like a bloodless stranger, to rest in the dust of the house of God, even if for a short time, than to live and bliss in a world without God and His grace. It is better, like the poor, to stretch out a begging hand to God, than, turning away from Him, to acquire, abound and waste. It is better to be the last servant of God than a pagan deity. But it is time for us to interrupt the voice of the Psalmist, for our duty is not so much to listen to someone else’s song as to sing our own song to the glory of the house of God, and not only to sing His blessedness, but also to open for ourselves the entrance to these blessed villages and live, or, in our unworthiness, even “sneak into the house of our God.” So, “look in” and do not cease to enter “into His gates in confession, into His courts in singing” (Ps. 99:4) you, who should know the art instilled by the Apostle - “in psalms and singing, and spiritual songs, speak to yourself” - in creation and excitement, and again, “to sing and sing in your hearts to the Lord” ( Eph.5:19) - a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. The gates of the church are the true gates of the house of God: “where two or three are gathered together in the name of the Lord, he is also in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20): but when entering this gate with your body, “set” spiritual “ascents in your heart” (Ps. 83:6), so that the spirit does not remain outside the sacred fence - “in the villages of sinners” ( Ps.83:11). In sincere turning to God, in faith, in love, in humility, there are wondrous ascents into the secret houses of God. Amen. You might be interested in: