72. Слово в день Святыя Пасхи 405

(Printed in the Christian Readings of 1840 and in the collections of 1844 and 1848.) God has also brought us to see this king of days, this head of the holidays. Blessed be you who put times and summers in your power! Truly, the day of the resurrection of Christ is the king of days: for as from the beneficent power of the king, the subjects receive security, peace, dignity; So, from the beneficial power of the day of Christ’s resurrection, all other days receive security and peace: for otherwise we would be “fear of death through all our life due to work” (Heb. 2:15); - accept dignity: for every day of birth, life, death of each of us would be worthy of damnation if they were not all blessed with the day of the resurrection of Christ. Perhaps for this reason, by the way, the light of unblessed days went out at the moment of the death of Jesus Christ, so that from His death and resurrection a new light of blessed days would shine, miraculously illuminating both all future and all past centuries. And those who have passed, I say: for Abraham, so many centuries before the day of the resurrection of Christ, enjoyed the light not of those days that he then saw, but of this day, which he looked forward to by faith, as Jesus Christ himself said to the Jews: “Abraham your father would have rejoiced, that he might have seen my day, and seen it, and rejoiced” (John 8:56); He saw this longed-for day especially when Isaac, who had been sacrificed for three days with the intention of his heart, was finally actually on the altar, on the wood of the burnt offering, under the sacrificial knife, under the deadly hand lying, as the Apostle put it, in the “parable of the received” (Heb. 11:19), that is, he was again received alive, as a sign of the future resurrection of Christ from the dead, three days, after the visible slaughter on the cross and internal burnt offering. And so that the day of the resurrection of Christ illuminates the days and centuries to come, look how the Sun of Truth itself gives it unfailing light - Jesus Christ, when he says to the sons of light, the Apostles: “And when I see you, your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). If no one steals this joy, then it is obvious that it will shine in all the coming days and centuries. Christians, sons of light, although perhaps lesser ones! Oh, if only this day, which Abraham was glad to see, and which brought inalienable joy to the Apostles, with each return would bring us a new increase in spiritual light, a new affirmation in the joy of salvation! Perhaps it will seem to some that I am “hardening myself to ask” - I desire and demand too much 406 so that the light and joy of the resurrection of Christ always grows in us, while their beginning is always the same, and therefore it acts in the same way, even, apparently, it does not act on us with all the fullness of the power that acted on the Apostles; because they themselves heard the promise of joy, and they themselves saw the Risen One, in accordance with the promise. In this case, listen to my excuse; I hope to be justified soon. Delve into the promise of joy given to the Apostles, and in their person to all of us: “I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice.” According to our understanding, it would be necessary to say: you will see Me, and your heart will rejoice; for we rejoice when we see someone we love: but the fact that he sees us can remain without any action for us; for when we do not see him, then there is nothing to rejoice in our hearts. Contrary to this, the Lord said: I will see you, and your heart will rejoice; - since the whole matter depended on the fact that He would see His disciples, and as if there was no noticeable difference in whether they saw Him or not. What does the Wisdom of God want to say through this? - That, just as the light of this visible world comes from the sun, which is the eye of this world, so the light of souls and the joy of hearts comes from the eyes of the Son of God Jesus Christ, Who is the Sun of the invisible world; that, like the sun, when it rises and looks at the earth, it thereby gives beneficial light to earthly beings, insofar as each of them is capable of receiving it; Thus, the God-man Jesus, when he looks at souls and hearts, especially after He, in the true spring and new morning of the world, ascended from the earth in His already glorified humanity, which, having been exalted through suffering, became, so to speak, transparent for the fulfillment of the Divinity living in it, and whose wounds are the open doors of Divine light, - by His presence He bestows grace-filled light on souls, and joy to hearts, according to their spiritual ability to accept it, that is, according to faith and love; that, just as the enjoyment of the light of the sun does not depend decisively on whether someone sees the circle of the sun above him or not, but even the one who does not raise or strain his eyes for this purpose uses the light, and even the one who sits in the shadows or stands under a cloud: so the enjoyment of the light of Christ and the joy in the Lord is not necessarily tied to whether someone sees Christ, who figuratively appears, even to the bodily eyes, but also the one who does not dares to raise his gaze to the height of His glory, out of humility, and the one who stands under the cloud of faith, and the one who rests in the shadow of hope, can also enjoy spiritual light and heavenly joy, and sometimes even safer than a spectator of extraordinary phenomena, for which one must have an eagle’s eye, so as not to be darkened by an excess of light. So truly, in relation to joy in the Lord, the whole point is that the risen Lord sees us; and there is no notable difference in whether we saw Him with our bodily eyes or not: the greatest importance lies in the fact that the Lord sees us not only with the unclouded eye of His omnipresence and omniscience, with which He penetrates everything, and from which in the darkest depths of hell the darkest thought cannot hide, but that He sees us with the bright and illuminating eye of grace, with a fiery and igniting eye of love, with which He does not look at everyone without distinction, but by choice, as He saw the Myrrh-Bearers and Apostles after His resurrection. However, from this very choice, out of His mercy, He does not exclude anyone, unless someone excludes himself from it. He does not expect us to seek the gaze of His grace, but, anticipating us, He Himself seeks among us, upon whom He could gaze with the gaze of His grace, and He Himself shows us the position in which we must stand so that His gaze can rest on us. “Who will I look at? - He calls through the Prophet, “only against the meek and silent,” or the contrite in spirit, “and trembling at My words” (Is. 66:2). If you can no longer, have only meekness, contrition of spirit, the fear of God: and the Lord will look at you, according to the law of election, which He laid down for Himself, and announced to all of us; and for this, on you, just as on the Apostles, He will fulfill the promise given to you in their person: “I will see you, and your heart will rejoice.” In order to verify this reflection with undoubted experience, let us look at the first and closest participants in the joy of the resurrection of Christ, whose various experiences give us as much solid evidence for verifying this desired event, as much true instructions for saving and blissful participation in it. Was their joy about the resurrection necessarily tied to the vision of the Risen One, in a bodily form? Did the deprivation of this vision justify their decrease in joy? Don't their adventures show the opposite of this? Remind me of the words of John: “The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20). So; but even before them, didn’t the Myrrh-Bearers already rejoice with great joy without seeing Him? “Having come forth,” writes Saint Matthew, “quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, he will announce this to His disciples” (Matthew 28:8). Thomas thought that he had the right to seek a vision, and succeeded in his pursuit: it is true that this brought him not only joy, but also delight; However, did this special vision really make him especially happy? The Giver of the vision himself judged quite differently; He reproached Thomas with the vision, and pleased those who did not see. “When you saw Me, you believed: you did not see blessedness, but you believed” (John 20:29). And to be blessed, without a doubt, is something higher than momentary delight and more complete than joy. And the Apostle Peter, as a self-witness of the Risen One, knowing the value of his vision, however, attributes the highest degree of joy to believers without vision. “He who is unworthy,” he says, “you love without having seen, and now you do not look at what is worthless; but if you believe, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorified: having accepted the end of your faith, the salvation of souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9). Thus, I hope, it has been proven that the beginning of inner light and spiritual joy, contained in the resurrection of Christ, can act on us, who have not seen the Lord, with all the fullness of its power, which acted on “the witnesses and servants of the Word” (Luke 1:2). If their experiences show us that this joy not only remained in them in accordance with the promise that “no one can take it away” (John 16:22), but, for this very quality of inalienability, had to grow and improve in them: then through this it will be proven that it is not excessive exactingness to desire and demand that this joy not only does not become scarce in us, but also always grew like the light of the morning, even until the full day of inner enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, even until the non-evening day of the kingdom of Christ. So – another look at the experiences of obvious witnesses of the resurrection of Christ. When, according to the Evangelist, “the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord,” this was not yet a high degree and perfection of joy: because, as another Evangelist adds, it was mixed at the beginning with unbelief, and for its confirmation it required even more sensual proof of the resurrection. “But to those who do not believe them for joy and wonder, I say to them: Do you have anything to eat here?” - “And we stood up before them” (Luke 24:41, 43). But when they parted with the Lord, ascending into heaven, “they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:52): don’t you see that the joy in them became much more sublime and stronger than before; for even separation from the Author of joy does not diminish it, but makes it “greater” than before? Finally, look further at how the same Apostles “went rejoicing on behalf of the council” of Judea, “because for the name of the Lord Jesus they were counted worthy to receive dishonor” (Acts 5:41): here is a joy even more sublime and strong, and truly inalienable, when neither enmity, nor persecution, nor dishonor, nor wounds could disturb it. So, I return to my desire: oh, that the joy of the present day would become for us the joy of life, always growing, like the life of youth, and never growing old, like heavenly life! But how to do this? they will probably ask. How to do this? How can we ensure that joy, which is eternal at first, is not short-lived? How to make joy, endless and limitless in its consequences, grow and increase on the way to its infinity and limitlessness! It seems to me that it’s not so difficult how to do this; but it is more difficult to understand how it is done differently. Just don’t interfere with Divine joy, just don’t drive it out or suppress it: it will continue by itself, grow, improve, until it finally turns into bliss. In the book of the Prophet Joel there is a remarkable saying about how people lose joy and are exposed to sorrows and disasters. “The grapes are gone, and the figs are gone: the thorns and the phoenix, and the apple trees, and all the trees of Poland are gone, for they have confounded the joy of the sons of men” (Joel 1:12). Pure joy is a noble and chaste virgin, who has as an inseparable companion a clear conscience, which can only be in company with those whose actions are blameless, whose words are modest, and whose intentions are pure and sublime. How soon do you allow yourself to do evil deeds, idle and frivolous words, unclean and base intentions; she subtly notices this, and her nobility is put to shame, her chastity is ashamed, and she runs away and hides from you. If the rude and insane gaiety of the world takes its place: so much the worse. Heavenly vengeance, for insulting heavenly joy, sends a curse on all sources of earthly joy. “The grapes have dried up, and the figs have withered away; the thorns and the phoenix and the apple trees and all the trees of Poland have withered away, as if they have confounded the joy of the sons of men.” Sons of men! or, better yet, sons of God in Christ! Let us not disgrace the heavenly and Divine joy by unclean living and deeds of coarse sensuality, “may God give” “joy in our hearts” better than those who have “multiplied the fruits of wheat, wine and oil” (Ps. 4:8) and may “no one take away our joy” in the risen and ever-living Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. According to Christ. Reading: A conversation on holy joy on the day of Holy Easter, spoken (According to the Jewish collection, April 3) in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral. According to Jew. collection: I wish and demand too much, when I wish and demand. According to Jew. collection: enlightening... You might be interested in: