387. Беседа в Великий пяток

(Spoken at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra; printed separately.) You see how the righteous perish, and no one accepts it with their hearts. (Isa.57:1). There are objects for which the most abundant human word is as meager as the silence of an infant, and which speak more about themselves than any human word. This, Christians, is the great subject with which our thoughts, hearts and very feelings should now be filled. What, however, the Church did not do for its part, so that the “voice of the blood” (Gen. 4:10) of Christ, now shed, “who speak better than Abel” (Gen. 4:10) 928, would be heard in your hearts! How many times have the prophetic and apostolic scriptures been revealed to you now, and the single “word... of the cross” (1 Cor. 1:18), through different sounds, sought to agree with your feelings! How many songs have been proclaimed before you, capable of nourishing sweet and saving sadness, even according to God! From the covenant supper, at which bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of the Lord, to the supper of the cross, at which the body and blood of the Lord are prepared for meat and spiritual drink; from the helicity of Gethsemane, where the spirit of the Great Sufferer fought with mortal horrors, to the helicity of Golgotha, where His flesh calmed down in the embrace of the tomb; from the first wounding of His lips by the kiss of Judas - to the last wounding of His heart through the pierced rib; from the prayer with which He entrusted His abandoned and orphaned disciples to God the Father, to the prayer with which He committed His own spirit, also abandoned and orphaned; from the strong voice that overthrew the Jewish horde, to the strongest cry that shook the earth - how many mysteries of suffering, how many miracles of long-suffering are shown to you now in the pure mirror of the word of God! Finally, in order to impress upon you that what is happening here is not just a remembrance of the past, but more so a contemplation of the present, for “the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8) is still being slain and will be slain until the end of the world, the Church even sensually shows you the shroud of the burial of Jesus, with a visible image of His now invisible body, and thus places all those present here together with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. After this, is it necessary for the minister of the word to pave a different path to your heart than to point out only what you already see in the actions now being carried out secretly, and say in the words of the prophet Isaiah: “You see how the righteous perish” (Is. 57:1)? But let each of us, Christians, now enter our own heart with a test: what participation does it accept in the ineffable suffering of the Divine Redeemer? Did we faithfully accompany Him throughout His sorrowful path with reverent contemplation and tenderness? Do we now, like Joseph, burden His nakedness on the cross with pure thoughts? Do we, like Nicodemus, bring Him the spiritual fragrance of prayer? Is it not just that we flow to His tomb, just as waves driven by the wind flow to the shore and flow away again? “Perhaps, with such self-examination, the recently spoken words of Isaiah will resonate in our souls in a completely different way; Perhaps many of us will see this Prophet standing between the Crucified One and us, in complete amazement, on the one hand, about the indescribable sufferings of this Divine Righteous One, on the other hand, about our unspeakable indifference to these sufferings: “The righteous perish, and no one accepts it with his heart!” (Isa.57:1) So, perhaps, it will not be superfluous if we deepen our attention a little into these prophetic words, so that even though the exposure of the lawful inattention will dispose us to accept with our hearts the suffering and death of our Savior. Look, the marveling Prophet cries; Here is a sight that should not at all be presented to the human race, and which no one should pass without attention when it is already presented: the righteous is no more. “The righteous perish!” What is he talking about? - the Jerusalemites asked without a doubt, having heard Isaiah’s exclamation, since, probably, even now, when his words are repeated, some will ask: what is he talking about? Is it about the death of a certain pious and virtuous man? - so there is nothing extraordinary here, for we are all mortal, both sinners and righteous? Or about the unexpected and unfortunate death of a righteous and innocent person? - but even such cases are not so rare that it would be possible to study and mourn each of them, and it would be useless to be surprised by them. Or, finally, is it that the number of kind and well-intentioned people is constantly decreasing? - but complaints about this are so old that they can serve as proof of the same human condition from ancient times: people are always people; You can always see in them not so much perfection as weaknesses and shortcomings. This is how the sons of this age usually reason, or, better yet, this is how they condemn the Prophet of a terrible truth for them before they have understood him. And how should they understand? They, as the same Prophet explains, are busy with many of their own affairs, which constantly put vanity and luxury into their hands, and do not have time to study the works of God’s providence. “They drink wine with harps, ... and singers, and tambourines, and pipes, but they do not consider the works of the Lord, and they do not consider His handiwork” (Is. 5:12). May we, Christians, not be too blind, or have only an evil eye for the works of the Lord. Let us look at what is happening before us not through artificial glasses that enlarge or reduce objects according to the demands of our passions, but with a simple eye, let us see every event as it comes from the hands of Providence. “The righteous perish!” calls the Prophet. “Let us not carefully examine whether it is about the loss of one of the great agents of the kingdom of God,” he says, or about the martyrdom of many faithful servants of God, or in general about the decrease in the land of the righteous and the increase of the wicked, or precisely, as some teachers of the Church think 929, about the death on the cross of the only Righteous Jesus under the sun. Giving the words of Isaiah the simplest sign, we must accept them with the same sense of extraordinaryness with which they were uttered. - How? "The righteous perish"? it would behoove the sinner to perish. “The Lord preserves all who love Him, and consumes all who sin” (Ps. 144:20). “Men of blood and flattery will not fill their days” (Ps. 54:24). “The generation... of an unrighteous and fierce end” (Wis. 3:19). How is it possible to “righteously perish”? If, according to the word of the Truth itself, “not one of the enemies will fall to the earth without the Heavenly Father, and we have read all the main things” (Matthew 10:29–30) and not a single one will “perish” from them (Luke 21:18): then can the King of heaven and earth without attention drop the precious stone from his own crown and leave it to be trampled under foot? And if “the righteous perish”, then what will finally happen to sinners? - These are natural thoughts with which, like thunder, this terrible news strikes our carelessness, like “the righteous perish.” It would certainly take a long time for natural reason to look for the key to understanding this extraordinary phenomenon in the kingdom of God, in which the highest powers are, apparently, in dispute with themselves. The Word of God illuminates this mystery of Providence with light, and with a light as terrible to the sinner’s eye as the very darkness in which it appeared to him before. “The righteous perish!” Isaiah cries; “Righteous men will land!” - But why, Prophet of God, does the Lord do or allow this terrible thing to happen? – The prophet answers: “The righteous has taken his hand from the face of evil” (Is. 57:1). What does it mean: “from the face of evil”? Or from the face of evil committed by people, from which the righteous sometimes suffer more in life than in death, even martyrdom; or on behalf of other evil, with which the just God from time to time punishes and stops the evil committed by people? “He was well-pleasing to God,” this is how the Wise One explains the unexpected death of the righteous man, “he was loved, and the living one was quickly destroyed in the midst of sinners.” His soul was pleasing to the Lord: for this reason he labored from the midst of wickedness” (Wis. 4:10, 14). “I will add you to your fathers,” God himself says to Josiah the king, “and you will be gathered together in your grave in peace, and you will not see before your eyes all the evil ones who... Imam will bring to this place and to those who live in it” (2 Kings 22:20). - So every time we see or hear, as if “the righteous has taken hold,” we must see the finger, or hear the voice of Providence, or sin denouncing evil, from which the righteous, as from a deadly ulcer, is caught up to the eternal life, or punishment threatening with evil, from which he was protected. “The righteous man has risen from the face of evil.” The existence of the righteous among people is the secret verb of Providence, once clearly heard by Abraham: “I will not destroy” an entire city “for the sake of ten”: as soon as even one righteous one lands, “the Lord... ceases to speak” (Gen. 18:32-33), and destruction hangs over the heads of many. “From the face... the righteous one took it.” There is still hope when the righteous one lands and the world feels its loss. Then the world has the opportunity to get to know people better, “whom they are not worthy of” (Heb. 11:38), to shame by their example the face of the evil that dominates it, and by repentance to turn away the face of the evil that threatens it. But what if petrified hearts do not feel the suffering of the innocent, and are not crushed by the death of the righteous, and do not notice at all how unknown the small number of “the saint is in poverty” (Ps. 11:2)? – This means (in short supply) that the evil of sin is omnipresent and incurable, and therefore the evil of execution is close and inevitable. The Prophet sees this truly disastrous state of humanity and cries out with amazement and horror: “The righteous perish, and no one accepts it with his heart!” Here, Christians, would I dare to bring the light of God’s law and the word of the prophet into the troubled and dark events of our days, and, as far as short-sightedness allows, to explore what is now and among us the lot of the righteous? What kind of judgment do we pronounce on ourselves and our contemporaries, when we ourselves usually say that our times are not the times of the saints, that the piety and morals of our fathers remained almost without heirs; that the calamities with which so many innocent victims are taken away from the midst of evil, did not stop, if only did not accelerate, the successes of evil - and we talk about these sad phenomena that surround us with such participation, as if about night ghosts during the day? What kinds of future are hidden behind this brilliance of temporary goods and sensual pleasures, which alone flashes before us in the present? But these considerations would remove the present conversation from its meta, to which it hastens to return. Before our eyes is the image of the Divine Righteous One, in whose presence all righteous people, with their fate, hide like stars in the sun. Christians! generation of the righteous! heirs and imitators of the Righteous Jesus! “The righteous perish! take up the righteous! This highest and only Righteous One is He, whose name is: “The Lord is our righteousness” (Jer. 23:6), who is the very truth, in essence, and our righteousness, by the grace given to us from Him, “the Holy of holies and the holy” of those who are sanctified, “the living one among sinners was quickly passed away!” (Wis.4:10) “The cornerstone, on which every creation of God is built, and in it we are “built into a habitation of God by the Spirit” (Eph.2:22), is neglected and “rejected by those who build it” (Ps.117:22). “God’s beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased” (Matthew 3:17, 17:5; Mark 1:11) Father, hated, mocked and killed by the sons of men, the sons of wrath and destruction! If such is the purest flower of humanity, a living and fruitful tree, is burned by the fire of God’s judgment, what will happen to the rest of humanity, to this barren tree, dead and withered before it vegetates? “If these things happen in a harsh tree, what will happen in the world?” (Luke 23:31). Arise “he who lies in evil” and the sleeping “world” (1 John 5:19), and see how “the righteous perish: ... for the righteous was taken away from the presence of evil” (Is. 57:1). It would behoove the whole world to be righteous, just as God “made” the first “righteous man” (Eccl. 7:29); and then the Son of God, the head of the righteous, would dwell in men and reign throughout the whole world, openly and solemnly, and would continually shed light and heavenly powers on the earth until he finally made it heaven itself. Now, since the world is the dominion of evil, the kingdom of the Son of God “is not of this world” (John 18:36). This King of Truth visited the earth for a short time, but only for that short time. - “about an unfaithful and corrupt generation!” - He complained: “How long will I be with you? How long can I bear with you? (Matthew 17:17). And He did not tolerate evil, or, better, evil did not tolerate His presence: and behold - “not here!” (Matthew 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:6) Despairing from the midst of wickedness! (Wis.4:14) The righteous man has taken his hand from the face of evil!” (Isa.57:1) But why do I cry out for peace? Wouldn't those who heard think that this doesn't concern them? - No! No matter who you are standing here, although God alone knows your deeds; but, because the word of God says about you, as well as about everyone else, that “a man’s mind is set on evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21); and because you cannot help but notice, more often or less often, “evil thoughts coming from your heart” (Matthew 15:19); then the rivers to your God and you with me: and I, Lord, am guilty of the fact that “the life of your righteous Jesus was taken out of the earth” (Is. 53:8)! “The righteous man has taken charge from the face of evil.” True, the Son of God took himself from the face of evil in order to take evil itself from the face of the earth. The death of Jesus Christ, being a revelation of the evil that has corrupted the whole world, is also a cure against this corruption: glory to the Almighty, who brings forth the highest good from the depths of extreme evil! The righteous perish, that sinners may be saved: glory to the All-Merciful One, who reveals the “abundance of grace” there, “where... sin has abounded” (Rom. 5:20). Only grace abounds not for sin, but for repentance; and good is not communicated to evil, but comes through the ruins of evil “in the new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). Medicine does not heal if it is contained in a vessel, but is introduced with its power into the body of the sick person through correct use: similarly, the all-cleansing and all-healing blood of Christ for an unconverted sinner is medicine in a vessel; and the all-encompassing merit of the Redeemer saves only those who accept in their hearts His suffering and death on the cross. However, yours, Christians, must be left to your own conscience, whether with heartfelt contrition for your sins, or with more heartfelt trust in the merits of the Redeemer - it is appropriate for each of you, according to his inner state, to accept the suffering and death of Christ. Cold indifference alone should have no place here. O our Christ, who redeemed us at the incalculable price of Your most holy blood! Is it really possible that, like the old Israel, this new people of yours, who will be called by your name, will belong to you only in name, and “will come close to you” only “with their lips... but with their heart... they will be far from you” (Matthew 15:8); and this then, how do we see You on the cross with arms open to us, with a heart open to us? “All the people came to the shame” of Your sufferings, no matter how alien they were to Your mysteries, “seeing what happens, beating in our hearts, we return” (Luke 23:48): will we, who dream of Your existence, depart from the cross and Your tomb, as from a useless spectacle, with a cold and unsoftened heart? The whole world shares Your sufferings with You, and the insensitive creature feels them: for “the sun grew darker (Luke 23:45), and the earth shook and the stones disintegrated” (Matthew 27:51); Will a person not have a heart, and will remain without the feeling that the most insensitive creature wants to breathe into him? About fierceness! There are people whom Your word reproaches: “The heart of these people is clothed”! “No one accepts with their hearts”! (Isa.6:10, 57:1) Are we food, Lord? After the terrible suffering of the crucified Redeemer, there is nothing more terrible than the insensibility of the sinner during this suffering. If the suffering or death of righteous people, left without participation and attention in the world, according to the fate of Providence, is a formidable harbinger of the wrath of God: “How much, remember, the worst one will be rewarded with torment, like the suffering “Son of God” who “trampled upon” with daring negligence (Heb. 10:29)? When “free” and unbridled “sin” rejects the very “sacrifice” made for it - what else is left to it, “is it scary ... a certain desire for judgment, and jealousy of fire to destroy the one who resists” (Heb. 10:27)? The covenant blood was shed for everyone, both for the righteous and for sinners: but for no one it was shed in vain. It flows all over the world; and if she finds vessels open for her, that is, contrite and believing hearts, then she fills them with light and life; will meet obstacles? - will ignite, and the fire of judgment will consume both the corruptible reed and the senseless stone. Without a doubt, some are now thinking about how to worthily prepare their vessels for this life-giving source flowing from the side of the Savior; as if it were more faithful and more pleasing to God to accept His suffering and death with our hearts. Good for them, like Joseph and Nicodemus, who secretly prepared a chamber for the life-giving body! If they desire guidance in their deed, let them hear the instruction of the Apostle: “To Christ... who suffered for us in the flesh, you also arm yourself with the same thought: you who have already suffered in the flesh cease from sin, not for the lust of man, but for the will of God... live the time” (1 Peter 4:1-2). And again: “put to death... your evils that are on the earth” (Col. 3:5), that is, earthly lusts and passions. Do not say that “this word is cruel”: in the bitter word of the cross there is also “hidden manna.” “As long as you share in the passion of Christ,” says the Apostle, “rejoice, for even when His glory is revealed, you will rejoice and be glad” (1 Peter 4:13). “God will rise again, and His enemies will be scattered... and the righteous... will rejoice” (Ps. 67:2, 4). “In a little while you will see Him, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:19, 22). Amen. “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the earth” - AV. Tertullian, Cyprian, Jerome, Cyril. – Approx. author. You might be interested in: