49. Слово в день Преподобного Сергия, о суде Святых

(Spoken in the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius on July 5; printed in the collections of 1844 and 1848.) Do you not know how the saints of the world judge? 1 Corinthians 6:2. “The world will be judged!” – The Word of the Apostle brings the whole world to the judgment of the Saints: who and where can evade this judgment? The entire human race appears to be divided into two parts: into judges, who are the “Saints,” and into defendants, who are all other people, under the name of “the world.” There is nowhere to escape from being among the defendants except among the judges. If we do not spontaneously place ourselves in the rank of judges, which would be very daring, and without further trial worthy of condemnation, then of necessity we must see ourselves among the multitude of defendants. The saints must judge! – What should we sinners think about this judgment? About ordinary human court they say that one should not be afraid of court, but judges should be afraid; because the court, in its essence, as an action of justice, threatens only some of the defendants, that is, the guilty, and the judge, through ignorance, partiality, bribery, exposes the innocent, no less guilty, to danger: about the court of the Saints - I don’t know what to say, whether there are more judges, or the court itself should be feared. The less the innocent could fear these judges, in whom neither ignorance nor bias can be assumed to transform the court: the more sinners should fear these judges; for in them one cannot assume either lack of insight, which would not notice sin, or partiality, which would cover the sinner. If they are not terrible because they are good and merciful, then they are terrible because they are Saints, and therefore they hate sin with complete hatred, and of course they will condemn it with complete truth. If these judges of the world are strict in truth; and “the whole world lies in evil” (1 John 5:19); and “no one is clean from the filth” of sin and untruth, “even if he lived only one day on earth” (Job 14:4-5): then how terrible must the judgment of the Saints over the world necessarily be! And You, with whom we now hover and rest, like chicks under the wings of the Kokosha, to whom we resort as a doctor of infirmities, as a comforter in sorrows, as a treasure-keeper of mercy, as a distributor of bounties, as a representative for us before the Most High Judge - and You must finally be one of these formidable judges over us! O seekers of mercy! Let us fear judgment, which we cannot avoid, and before which we have no strength to resist. Let us fear not the fear of cowardice, which leads to despair, but the fear of prudence, which inspires caution. Let us mentally place ourselves before this court, so as not to be late in justifying ourselves before it when it opens suddenly and solemnly. Do you not know how the holy worlds judge? The Apostle Paul briefly reminds the Christians of his time of the judgment of the Saints, as a matter in which he relies on their own knowledge. “Don’t you know?” Don't you know? Without a doubt you know this. I ask: is it possible for Christians of the present time to repeat the Apostolic reminder with the same reliability? Can we answer this: yes, we know the judgment of the Saints? Or, having consulted our conscience, shouldn’t most of us admit that we know almost nothing about it? In this case, I ask again: what does this ignorance mean? Ignorance of the trial means either the simplicity of an innocent person who does not care about the trial; - but this is not our state in relation to the judgment of the Saints, as can already be understood from the above; - or the negligence and obstinacy of a sinner who avoids the thought of inevitable judgment because he is always occupied with sinful thoughts and deeds. O judgment, whose knowledge frightens us, and whose ignorance exposes and shames us; about which thinking threatens condemnation, and about which forgetting leads directly to condemnation! Open yourself to us with your fear, before you open yourself with our inevitable condemnation. “Don’t you know,” says the Holy Apostle to those who know about the judgment of the Saints. The ignorant and I will turn to the source of knowledge. We draw the first and main information about the judgment of the Saints from the words of the Son of God Himself, to whom God the Father “gave all judgment, that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father” (John 5:22–23), and Who in His turn shares His judgment with the Apostles: “Amen I say to you, because you walked after Me in the coming of being, when the Son of man sits on the throne of His glory, you also will sit on the double throne, judging both the ten tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28). In this saying, it should be noted, firstly, that the judgment of the Saints will open solemnly “in rebirth,” in the secondary existence of men, that is, after the resurrection of the dead, and consequently, this judgment will be universal not only in relation to people of the last times, but also in relation to the human race from the beginning of time to the end of it. Secondly, that this judgment will be revealed solemnly, “when the Son of man sits on the throne of His glory”: but how will this be, according to another saying of Him, then, “when the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him” (Matthew 25:31); Consequently, the judgment of the Saints will be carried out not only before the human race, but also before the Angels of God. Thirdly, that the followers of Christ “will sit on thrones for judgment at the same time when the Son of man sits on the throne of His glory”: consequently, their judgment will be united with His judgment; they will separately be instruments, or subordinate, private agents of His one, universal and supreme court. Fourthly, that the Apostles “will sit on the double throne, judging the foolish tribes of Israel”: but how behind this there still remain many peoples and tribes that will appear before the world court; then we can conclude from this that in addition to these twelve judges, many more judges will have to appear. This conjectural conclusion turns out to be a clear and confirmed truth in the saying of the Apostle, who says that not only the Apostles, but in general “the saints of the world have to judge.” The Prophet says with even greater certainty that all the Saints of God, without exception, will be elevated to the dignity of judges, in order to carry out judgment on nations and people, on kings and their glorious ones: “to execute judgment in them, it is written: this glory,” that is, the glory of being judges in this court, “shall be to all His saints” (Ps. 149:9). Let us add to this the testimony of an eyewitness to this trial: for Saint John had already seen it in revelation. “I saw,” he writes, “thrones and those who sat on them, and judgment was given to them” (Rev. 20:4). It is difficult to imagine how one, unanimous and not subject to any dispute, trial of so many judges, over an even larger number of defendants, on so many varied and subtle subjects of trial, which are the essence of all the open and secret deeds, words, desires, and thoughts of each person throughout his entire life, will be carried out. To explain this, we find something in the Psalmist, who says that the saints will create “the written judgment,” and in the Seer of Mysteries, who writes: “And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were despised; and another book was opened, even a living book; and the dead received judgment from those written in the books according to their deeds” (Rev. 20:12). As is usually the case between people, a written court is used, partly for convenience in relation to higher judges, since it presents not only the words and actions of the defendants, with all their circumstances and details, but also many witnesses located in different places and other arguments of the court case in several written sheets; partly for the sake of fidelity, since the word spoken is instantly hidden, and can be retold differently, but the word written remains visible and indispensable: so the judgment of the Saints seems to be written in books, and especially in the book of life, in commemoration of the fact that they will be given from the Supreme Judge a way just as convenient and true, or better yet, incomparably more convenient and true, to see the entire external and internal life of everyone judged by them, rather than as an ordinary judge sees the actions of the defendant in the written complete court case; and that therefore there will be no way left for judged sinners not to confess what the Saints will accuse and condemn them of. But who, and when, writes the book of our lives for the future judgment of the Saints? - I think that we write it ourselves, and we write continuously, at the very time when we do or say something, wish or think: this should be so that we do not have an excuse to deny it in court, and say that someone once wrote in it that we do not know, and that was not from us. But where is this book? – Who knows in what place the Judge keeps the written judgment until the time comes to reveal it publicly? However, I hope we will not be mistaken if we say that in the heart of each of us lies the book of life for our future judgment - where not only those who know God, and His law, and His grace, but also the pagans “show the work of the law written, with a conscience bearing witness to them, and with the thought of condemning or justifying one another” (Rom. 2:15), for this internal phenomenon is nothing other than a greater or lesser revelation of the book of life, which is finally all, from beginning to end, it will be revealed, and from our insides it will be illuminated either with a quiet light or with a consuming fire, “in the day when God judges the secret of man” (Rom. 2:16). It can also be said that in our very body, which, under the cover of the corruptible 278, is being prepared for the resurrection, as if in some kind of book, we write our life with features that are inconspicuous now, but clear for our future judgment: “whatever treasures now,” says Saint Macarius, “the soul has acquired within itself, such will be revealed and then appear on the body” (Conversations V, 8), perhaps also and on other creatures of God; - for the Seer says that in addition to the special book of the animal, there are also books that must be unbent for judgment according to what is written in them - perhaps, I say, on other creatures of God, lawlessly used, desecrated, damaged by us, the written judgment of our present life will appear in parts, for example, our gross impurities on earth and water, our idle words in the air, traces of our malice in what was the subject or an instrument of evil actions, evidence of our temptations in those whom we have seduced. Thus, the fratricide of Cain, not exposed by living witnesses, was written on earth with the blood of Abel: and the heavenly Judge, precisely with these bloody, not only clearly readable, but even speaking writings, convicted the unrecognized criminal: “The voice of the blood of your brother cries to me from the earth” (Gen. 4:10). So one of the future judges of God first takes the rust of gold and silver as a witness against the money-lovers: “their rust,” he says, “will make you obedient” (James 5:3). Finally, the very grace that took possession of the Saints, which we did not accept for no other reason than spontaneous negligence or perseverance, their faith, their deeds, their virtues, which we had for a long time before our eyes in these people servile to us, but which we did not imitate, appearing on the day of judgment in full light, will produce the effect that the effect of the judgment of the Saints will of itself appear above us, through our conscience: like Noah, without delivering judgment, without carrying out a judicial investigation, by the very faith by which he himself was saved from destruction in the flood, the unbelieving first world was condemned: “by faith,” says the Apostle, “we received Noah’s answer, for these, which we did not see, being afraid, you built an ark for the salvation of your house: by it,” that is, by faith, “condemn the whole world” (Heb. 11:7). Here are some small ones, which are combined with our deep ignorance, the beginnings of knowledge about the great judgment of God and the Saints of God over us all: small in order to introduce us to the secrets of the future, but perhaps no longer small in order to arouse us to the saving fear of the future. If we are afraid of the discovery of some, not entirely secret, sins of ours before some people who are sinners like us; if we are embarrassed before the secret witness and judge of our conscience, whom the Church gives us not so much for condemnation as for blotting out our sins: then how will we bear the discovery of all, even in the very depths of our soul, hidden sins, before the truly universal Council of Saints, in front of all known and unknown people, before the purest eyes of the Angels, in the open presence of Him who sits on the throne of His glory, while the discovery of sins will ours be demanded not of repentance and forgiveness, but of hell and eternal fire? If one ray of strict truth, illuminating one word of iniquity in the book of our conscience, pierces our insides like an arrow: then what should our feelings be when the whole book of our life is opened, all the apparently erased features of sin in it become clear, everything that is in our being will present the written judgment of our past life, and everything surrounding us will appear as a horde of witnesses against us? O judgment, about which the thought shakes and shakes me! How can I stand when you reveal yourself in action? - “What shall we do, brethren of men?” (Acts 2:37) If judgment is so terrible, let us be afraid of sin, which alone is to blame for the fact that judgment is so terrible. And since we are already guilty of sin: just as those who are threatened with an open and solemn human judgment sometimes first resort to those who have the power to judge, and in order to avoid open and strict judgment and punishment, they voluntarily subject themselves to secret and lenient judgment and correction, so we will hasten to resort to those who judge the world, and to the Supreme Judge Himself, seeking for ourselves a secret judgment before a manifest one, a court of mercy before a court of justice, a court of correction before judgment. punishments. Truly, there is a preliminary judgment of the Saints, a court of mercy and correction, through which the fear of their final judgment, the court of justice and punishment, is warned and averted. “What is it,” asks Saint Macarius, “that the Lord said: “You will sit on twelve thrones, judging the deceived ten tribes of Israel”? And he answers: “We find this fulfilled already on earth, after the Lord’s ascension into heaven: He would have sent the Spirit of the Comforter upon the restless Apostles and the holy power, which had come to dwell in them and sit on the thrones of their minds. But before the coming ones I said they would be drunk; For this reason Peter began to judge them, saying of Jesus, “As if you were a mighty man in words and signs, you crucified him and hung him on a tree” (Acts 2). “For what sake,” continues Saint Macarius, “many repented, having learned from Peter, so that they might become a new world chosen by God. Do you see how the beginning of the judgment appeared? There a new world appeared. And although they will still sit and execute judgment at the coming of the Lord, at the resurrection of the dead, both of these things will come to pass here, the Holy Spirit will sit on the thrones of their minds” (Conversation VI). Just as Peter, one of God’s Judges over the tribes of Israel, the family of Israel, obedient to God, with a word filled with spiritual power, judged not to condemnation and destruction, but to repentance and salvation: so You, Judge of God in our nation, Reverend Sergius, by the grace-filled example of your life, judge our sin-filled life for cleansing, correction and renewal. By your abstinence and mortification of the flesh, judge our luxury and bliss, and correct us to at least healthy moderation and simplicity in satisfying bodily needs. By your unceasing diligence, judge our laziness and idleness, and excite us to useful activity and to the resigned fulfillment of our duties. By your meekness and humility, judge our pride and contempt, and teach us not to philosophize about ourselves any more than it is appropriate to philosophize. Judge our covetousness by your free poverty, and instruct us to be content with what God’s Providence gives to whom, and not to attach our hearts to wealth, even if it flows. Most of all, with the spirit of grace living in you, judge and condemn our carnal wisdom, and by this wisdom, quench the spirit of grace that is quenched in us inextinguishably. Appear for us before the throne of the Supreme Judge, our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may take part in the redemption from the judgment of death with His life-giving blood, and if judgment and punishment cannot pass us, let us now be “judged by the Lord and punished” temporarily, “lest we be condemned with the world” (1 Cor. 11:32) forever. Amen. According to Jew. collection: in our inner body, which is under the cover of the external perishable. .. You might be interested in: