The vital task of pastoral preaching

In this article, the future saint touches on the question of a true Christian attitude to work, which in a broad sense is connected with the Christian attitude of a believer to earthly life. The article also raises the topic of the responsibilities of a shepherd, who should be close to the everyday concerns and labors of his flock. About seven years ago (in 1906 - Publ.), the famous Russian theologian and moralist Protopresbyter John Leontyevich Yanyshev 1 at one meeting of the St. Petersburg Society for Religious and Moral Education made a proposal about the need to illuminate through preaching and printing in the minds of Christian believers the idea that honest worldly work is a Christian feat, is a saving deed, which in itself has a moral principle and a life-giving and saving character. By such sanctification, worldly life and honest life's labors come under the roof of religion, in it they draw their strength and in it they find their highest goal. Needless to say, the enlightened theologian’s proposal met with general sympathy at the time, as the good news of the revitalization of worldly life, both public and personal, on the basis of Christianity. Unfortunately, this is where things have stopped for now. With the death of the venerable theologian, the question he raised somehow fell silent by itself, did not become widely available in sermons and popular literature, and still remained the subject of scholarly reflection in systems of moral worship. Meanwhile, modern social and national life urgently demands that a ray of Christ’s light be brought into it, cleansed of crude materialism and directed toward closer proximity to faith. Among our common people, despite the existence of a public school for half a century, faith, prayer, church, worship are still separate from life, or, better to say, life is not imbued with faith, work, everyday activities, daily work are not overshadowed and not warmed by the warmth of Christian faith, prayer... The situation is even worse in an enlightened society. There they don’t think about faith, they don’t mention it, they live as if there was no God, no faith, no Church, no spiritual life. They live a worldly life, without spiritualizing it with faith. It is clear that with such a view of worldly life and everyday affairs, even sincerely believing people easily form the view that living a worldly life cannot be saved, that saving the soul requires removal from the world, that worldly life and worldly work are incompatible with the feat of virtue and salvation of the soul. Needless to say, there is nothing more unnatural than these thoughts and judgments. If the demands of faith could not be reconciled with the demands of life, then every business man, every artisan, scientist or statesman would have to immediately abandon his ordinary duties, go away from them to the desert, a monastery, and turn his life into constant prayer, into continuous contemplation. But God does not require this from people: He does not order to do the impossible. The Shepherd of the Church is called upon in sermons and conversations to reveal the true concept of life in the world and the meaning of honest worldly work. He must show the high significance and purpose of labor for spiritual life, he must clear folk concepts of extremely utilitarian attitudes towards labor and direct the thoughts of his flock to the higher significance of labor and its connection with faith and spiritual life. People must remember that the duty to work was assigned to man by God, and this was his first law (Gen. 2:15). And from this it follows that work cannot be incompatible with faith - our first and main good. The intention of the Creator, who prescribed work for us and invested in us the desire for community life, without a doubt, was to not only not hinder, but also promote the development of our spiritual life by caring for the acquisition of our urgent needs and continuous activities relating to perishable objects. By zealously fulfilling earthly duties, everyone can at the same time fulfill the demands of heavenly life and, working the earth, fervently work for the Lord (cf. Rom. 12:11; 1 Thess. 5:7). The Spirit of Jesus Christ illuminates every matter with its penetration. A man with a humble heart, which burns with the love of God, while engaged in the simplest and roughest works in life, turns his work into a pure and holy sacrificial flame. It is not a matter of the material that the artist processes: be it marble or clay - the penetration of the spirit turns the rough material into an expensive one and gives it a dignity that it did not have before. Whether our earthly work is high or ordinary, rude or refined, for a pious heart it will become a wonderful field of pure and holy life. Fulfilling our everyday duties with a constant thought of God, who overshadows us with His mercy and help, gives every task its wonderful sanctification and makes it sweet and joyful. Although the life of a follower of Christ in our time does not require either the valor of a hero or a martyr, or that unshakable spiritual strength that disregards external dangers, suffering, persecution and death, however, with the end of the persecution of Christians, the difficulties of Christian life did not cease at all. By preserving the spirit of Christian zeal and devotion to the will of God in the modest performance of even minor duties, maintaining zealous, ardent piety amid the burdensome worries and sorrows of life, and constantly remembering the highest meaning of our life, among low labors, we can discover our strong faith, like the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for Jesus Christ and died with songs of praise in their mouths. It is a great thing to love Christ so much as to suffer and die for Him; but it is also important to be ready to bear your life’s cross and live daily with Christ. Introduce faith into social, family and personal life, and life with all its worries and labors will receive its high meaning. Many listen with bewilderment to the admonitions of the pastors of the church, thinking that the Christian life, which is charged to us as a duty, is too perfect for the simple and prosaic world. It's not fair. The demands of the Holy Church are feasible in our everyday life and are commensurate with our strengths. Just try everyone to apply the law of God to practical life, and experience will convince him that love for God, purity and holiness of thoughts and feelings can be the property of every life, no matter what position a person is in. Difficulties and doubts may arise; the soul sometimes loses peace from the rude habits and vicious inclinations of the people around us; Christian patience is sometimes subject to temptation - then let prayer be the first means of removing temptation. When meeting in life with rude and base people, when there is difficulty in fulfilling duties, when the soul suffers from encounters with vices, what a relief for us, what a pleasure to raise our minds and hearts to Christ, to soar on the wings of faith and to breathe at least for a minute the clean air of that atmosphere where infinite purity reigns, and to return fully armed to fight life, with disgust from everything unclean, with peace in the soul that has experienced the closeness of the Almighty! With such an action of faith, one cannot call it incompatible with worldly life 2. Let the pastor of the church enter into the life environment of his flock, monitor their attitude towards their everyday affairs and their labors, let him warm this life and these labors with the warmth of faith and love, illuminate with the light of Christ’s truth and goodness - then the people will establish the correct concepts for their work activities, for their everyday duties: their fulfillment will not only be a means of earning food for themselves, but will also be a source of the highest hopes and joys that They will spiritualize work life and pour into it a bright stream of spiritual, saving life. Yanyshev Ioann Leontievich (1826–1910), protopresbyter of the court clergy, theologian, writer, preacher and church leader, professor of moral theology and rector of St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, later court protopresbyter and spiritual father of the royal family. For some time he taught theology and philosophy at St. Petersburg University. One of the founders of the so-called moralistic trend in academic Russian theology. His most famous book is “Orthodox Christian Doctrine of Morality.” Compare: “Work for the benefit of others, unselfish (albeit partly) is prayer, and prayer is not only higher than many than the babbling of Slavic words in a corner in front of the Suzdal plaque, not higher than many, much more reasonable prayers, in which some kind of afterlife egoism is expressed more than love. There are no limits to prayer, so to speak. To tear it away from life, to formulate it, to conclude it in finding a “middle” point, etc., all this is absurd” (Khomyakov A. Soch. T. 2. P. 348).