About wisdom.

“Jesus said with a loud voice: It is finished! Father, I commit My spirit into Your hands! And, bowing his head, he gave up his ghost.” With these words ends the “Summary of the Gospel” by L.N. Tolstoy. In the preface to this “Exposition,” Tolstoy roughly and briefly depicts the earthly life of Christ the Savior: “1800 years ago, some beggar appeared and said something. He was whipped and hanged, and everyone forgot about him, just as millions of similar cases were forgotten, and for 200 years the world did not hear anything about him” (Geneva edition p. 17). Tolstoy does not know the resurrection of Christ. After all, for him Christ is not God, not the Lord of death and hell, but a mortal man who himself fell into corruption. This is all, of course, well known. But in our timelessness we so often see a confusion of the most heterogeneous concepts. Last year, before Easter, I had to be in a local artisanal warehouse. As always before Easter, the warehouse was filled with a rich selection of elegantly carved and painted Easter eggs. With surprise and bewilderment I see a whole mass of eggs with portraits of Leo Tolstoy. I contact the owner: - Listen! Did you realize what you were doing when you prepared Easter eggs with the image of a heretic and an apostate? - Yes, what? After all, Tolstoy taught that there was no resurrection of Christ, that this was just a later invention. You have "X.B." on one side of your eggs. - “Christ is Risen!”, and on the other - Leo Tolstoy, who rejected this truth. On one side of the egg it is written “Christ is risen!”, and on the other - “Christ is not risen.” And this is all on the same Easter egg! The interlocutor was embarrassed and, as if making excuses, said: - But our business is commercial. They demand it - we prepare it. - And how many of these eggs do they ask you for? - So many. Both to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Several thousand of these eggs were sold this year. Think, reader! Thousands of eggs with portraits of the enemy of Christ's resurrection are distributed throughout Holy Rus' on Easter! Tolstoy on Easter eggs - what a vile blasphemy! Only the evil one, amazed by the Risen One, could instill the absurd idea of ​​depicting Leo Tolstoy on an Easter egg. He, the devil, hates the Christian symbol of resurrection, and through foolish people he tried to abuse it. But our unfortunate intelligentsia is all different. After all, handicraft Easter eggs (quite valuable) are dispersed among her; she demands them by Easter in the thousands “from both Moscow and St. Petersburg.” The incident I described last year involuntarily came to mind when, a whole week before Easter this year, Russkoe Slovo began publishing that “the diaries of L.N. will be published in the Easter issue. Tolstoy." And here is this “Easter number”. Not a word about the resurrection of Christ. Even the general Christian greeting “Christ is Risen!” no, but “The Diaries of L.N.” begins straight away. Tolstoy." The fact that there is no Easter greeting is even good. What blasphemy would be under “Christ is Risen!” read the diaries of L.N. Tolstoy! But still, isn’t it blasphemy to start the Easter issue with the words of Tolstoy and Chertkov! Our popular saying suggests that before matins, especially Easter, the demon feels bad and rushes in different directions. But now we can say with confidence that before Matins the demon goes around the editorial offices and printing houses of “progressive” newspapers, instills in the editors the composition of the “holiday issues”, helps typesetters fill the columns of the “Easter issue” with the “creations” of Tolstoy, Artsybashev, Gorky, etc. It turns out effectively and for the demon it is gratifying and joyful. People returned from the church, their souls are full of delight and joy, endlessly solemn church songs glorifying the Risen Christ are still heard in their ears. The Easter issue of the “Russian Word” is being served... A whole horde of Christ’s enemies!.. Whoever understands the demonic trick will be outraged by the blasphemy, will be offended in his religious feeling. And whoever does not understand will begin to read. The result for both should be the same: spiritual delight will fade, Peter’s fiery faith will be replaced by Thomas’s doubt. The evil one has achieved his goal... However... Easter eggs with a portrait of Tolstoy, an Easter issue with Tolstoy's diaries... Isn't it noticeable that by the charm of Tolstoy's name, the enemy of the human race began to fight precisely the greatest truth of Christianity - the truth of the resurrection of Christ, without which the Christian faith, according to the Apostle, would be vain, people would still be in sins and unhappy (1 Cor. 15:17-19)? It is bitter to see the blasphemy of the saving truth and its symbols. One can, of course, take comfort in the fact that people blaspheme unconsciously: by drawing a heretic and a blasphemer on Easter eggs, printing his diaries in Easter issues, they “don’t know what they are doing”... Maybe... However, in this fact there is, perhaps, even more sadness than comforting. What confusion reigns in the heads of our “enlightened” intelligentsia if “yes” and “no”, faith and doubt, affirmation and denial coexist peacefully in them! Easter egg with "Christ is risen!" on one side and with Leo Tolstoy on the other - isn’t this the best symbol of our timelessness, our uncertainty, lukewarmness?.. The thought became lazy, calmed down and relaxed on prejudices and superstitions, as if on a soft bed, softened, became flabby and painful. There are no strong, definite, seemingly forged and minted beliefs. Beliefs gave way to “quests.” They search endlessly and find nothing. There is no religious education, no religious upbringing. A terrible confusion in our heads, a complete “confusion of languages.” Members of the Church are ready to be indignant - why they excommunicated the “true Christian” Leo Tolstoy from the Church, to be indignant at why the Church did not sing “Rest with the Saints” and “Eternal Memory” over his forest grave. At the same time they are ready to shout: “Hosanna!” Leo Tolstoy and chant “May God rise again and His enemies be scattered!” The Resurrection of Christ and Leo Tolstoy ended up on the same Easter egg! God knows where it will go and in what forms the religious ignorance and savagery of our intelligentsia, who have strayed from the solid and reliable stone of the church faith and lost their way along the crooked paths of freethinking and frivolity, will pour out! I remember the word of the Apocalypse: “You are neither cold nor hot; Oh, that you were cold or hot! But because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15–16). Lukewarmness and uncertainty are a sad phenomenon. “The Son of God, Jesus Christ... was not “yes” and “no,” but in Him was “yes” (2 Cor. 1:19). “Fire, the fire of fiery faith and bright, definite convictions, I came to bring down to earth, and how I would like it to kindle already!” (Luke 12:49). The clouds of chaotic searches will pass, the damp and unhealthy fog of lukewarmness will dissipate, and the bright bright sun of the definitions of church truth will shine. You might be interested in: