In memory of Rev. A. V. Gorsky

The word spoken by Professor N.A. Zaozersky at the liturgy on October 22 “Be zealous for great gifts, and even after excellence I will show you the way” (1 Cor. 12:31). Priceless gifts of Divine light from the ever-flowing creative power of the Life-giving Spirit are poured out on the children of God adopted by the Father through the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross. Each and every one who has been awarded the right of sonhood perceives the many different gifts of the Spirit and, like people, uses them in different ways. Some, having accepted five talents, make and acquire another five, others - two, make and acquire another two: but there are also those who, having accepted one talent from the Most High Distributor, do not use it themselves, nor do they supply others, but hide it in the ground. And so the Holy Apostle, bearing in mind, on the one hand, this diversity of human acceptability of the gifts of the Spirit, and on the other, the inexhaustible depth of the wealth of the wisdom and mind of God, enthusiastically appeals to the children of God: be zealous for great gifts. Do not say: ask, seek - but: be jealous; not just talents, but: be jealous of greater, i.e., higher, talents, and then - “I will show you, who have acquired these great gifts, a path even higher - in excellence. What are these gifts? They are many different: the gift of healings, the gift of tongues, the gift of prophecy, the gift of government, but the highest of all gifts is the gift of wisdom and understanding. This is the height of human desire, the height of the desires of man, an earthly inhabitant, on the one hand, humiliated to the point of resemblance to a reptile worm and the dust of the earth, on the other hand, exalted and adorned to the heights of a supersensitive, equal-angelic state - disembodied celestials, direct contemplatives of the Divine Source of Light. Is it surprising that from deep, hoary antiquity we hear a prayer cry to the Source of wisdom and reason for the gift of wisdom and praise for it: after all, man cannot put up with the lot of a worm and the dust of the earth! “I prayed - the ancient sage tells us - and (the Lord) gave me reason; I sought and the spirit of wisdom came upon me. I preferred her to scepters and thrones, and I considered wealth as nothing in comparison with her. I did not compare the precious stone with her, because before her all gold is worthless sand, and silver is dirt in comparison with her. I loved her more than health and beauty, I chose her preferably over the light: for her light is unquenchable. She is the breath of the power of God and the pure outpouring of the glory of the Almighty... She is a reflection of eternal light and a pure mirror of the action of God and the image of His goodness. She is alone - but she can do everything, and, being in herself, she renews everything and, passing from generation to generation into holy souls, prepares the friends of God and the prophets... I loved her and sought her from my youth and wished to take her as my bride and became a lover of her beauty. She exalts her nobility by the fact that she has cohabitation with God and the Lord of all loved her... Therefore, I decided to accept her into cohabitation with me, knowing that she would be an advisor to me for good and a consolation in worries and sorrow. Through her I will have glory among the people and honor before the elders while I was a youth; I will prove insightful in court and in the eyes of the powerful I will deserve surprise... Through her I will achieve immortality and leave an eternal memory for those who will come after me.” 1 But what are these speeches of the ancient sage to us, brothers! Only 25 years have passed since the chosen one of God, a zealot of Christian wisdom, the head, teacher and father of the academy, the blessed creator of this all-honorable church of the Intercession of our Most Blessed Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin, was removed from our humble environment. This church was created through his labors, tears and prayers; and let not be embarrassed, but let your heart rejoice by joining the prayers of the Zeal Intercessor in prayerful remembrance of the ever-memorable creator of St. Church of Hey. We would be witnesses and witnesses of this zealot of great talents, this Christian sage, his cohabitation with his chosen bride - wisdom; were witnesses to his blessed death, who, in union with her, gained glory, not to say among the Russian people, but among all Slavic-Orthodox peoples; and this glory will not be forgotten in them as long as they know or - at least - do not forget their history, until they forget the beginning - the leaders of their history - Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius. A thousand years separated them from our teacher and father; but he was the most zealous continuer of their holy work, brought from the darkness of oblivion and ignorance into the light of God the wonderful fruits of their educational activities on Slavic Russian soil, and in the midst of brotherly hatred, fearlessly and decisively with the power of the Gospel and canonical truth in this church defended the just cause of the oppressed. The light of wisdom is unquenchable, the ancient sage said: the justification of this truth is before our eyes. A quarter of a century has passed since the day when our unforgettable lover of wisdom was taken from our midst. But can it be said that the light of his wisdom has not only faded, but only dimmed somewhat? On the contrary, it must be said that very little time has passed for the light of this Christian wisdom to shine in all the splendor of greatness and beauty: many of its deeds must still be kept under wraps - for the sake of the malice of the times and for extenuating circumstances. And who knows whether distant generations will not be happier than us, witnesses of his life, having learned and studied what remains hidden from us? It is not without reason that the famous Vitija, one of his glorious disciples, said about him in his funeral homily: “He was taken away from us, but he left his deeds, and how happy, a hundredfold happy is the one whom God judges, as the chosen one, to leave behind such deeds as the newly departed leaves for the edification and imitation of other, immediate and distant generations.” 2 And don’t you think, brothers, that I will dare to speak in praise of him about the deeds of his wisdom? No and no. I would not have had enough time for this—I will say it without hesitation—neither the time nor the moral perfection necessary for this. Such God's chosen ones do not need praise, but we, insignificant witnesses of their deeds, need grace-filled illumination and purification, so that we have the right to testify to the truth and not deserve the judgment of history for perverting it. Forgive me, zealots of the memory of our unforgettable Christian sage, that to the best of my ability I will only briefly touch upon one and the first property of his Christian wisdom, which the Apostle calls purity: the first wisdom from above is pure (James 3:17). One of his later students, I remember him already as an old man, old in days, but I never saw in him the decrepitude of old age. His usual appearance is that of a simple old man - an Orthodox priest. But one had only to hear his voice and approach such a distance to see the light of his eyes, to immediately feel his insignificance before the greatness and beauty of this old man. His gaze was majestic, shaded by thick eyebrows - wisdom, but at the same time friendly - attracting people to him. However, his gaze was also angry. I remember how once at 10 o’clock in the evening - the hour of prayer, which we performed in groups, each in our own busy room, instead of prayer we closely rallied around our comrade - a cheerful storyteller. In the midst of his noisy speech, a voice suddenly rang out: “What are you doing?.” - this voice struck us like thunder, we saw the elder standing in front of us - the rector - and were speechless with shame and horror. “Didn’t you really have enough time for such conversations? Do you enjoy these types of conversations? And at this hour! “- but then, probably seeing that we were extremely embarrassed, he continued much softer: “Couldn’t you have saved this one hour for yourself! How will you begin prayerful communication with God when I, a man, am disgusted to be with you! "" And with his head bowed, he quietly walked away from us. To this day I cannot forget this lesson. So pure was his soul and so reflected was it in his gaze that everything vulgar and base involuntarily shrank before him with shame on his face. I vividly remember the furnishings of his home and conversations with him and conversations with him in this home. Its entire vast room had the appearance of library chambers, lined with shelves and bookcases - from floor to top. His usual hour for conversation with students was after dinner - the 9th. At this hour we came to him for books - aids for essays in all sciences; at the same hour he called the student whose sermon he intended to preach in the church; he encouraged these trips for books and willingly gave them and talked with the young men in all simplicity. You could open your whole soul to him without fear. What were these conversations about? Of course, they were primarily about the subject of the essay, but they also went far beyond these limits. And there was something to talk about... What time was it? Seventies (1872–1875). A time of rapidly successive reforms, a time of vigorous literary activity: a time of such freedom of the press, both open and underground, which now seems incredible. This time produced great public figures, figures of science and literature; but it also nurtured quite a few hotheads who, having grasped the tops of materialist, nihilistic, socialist theories, bravely set out on the path of propagating them among the people, inciting mainly young people to break all the foundations of life, mercilessly criticizing and destroying the life of their fathers and calling on children to establish some completely new personal, family and social life. With great tact, our teacher and father touched upon this sensitive area of ​​issues of thought and life, which, of course, could not be unknown to any more or less developed young man of that time. And often, in the tone of our teacher’s speech in such conversations, one could hear: “Aren’t you also getting carried away?” He had so many means at his disposal to remove any moral hesitation characteristic of the unstable youth that he had no reason to fear the failure of his beneficial influence. His erudition was so extensive, his learning so deep, that every novelty that was tempting to his young interlocutor turned out to be well known to him, balanced and evaluated. The consequence of such spiritual contact with this living wisdom was that the young interlocutor came out after the conversation with a clear consciousness that he was not only not yet initiated by his erudition into the secrets of science and progress, but was familiar with nothing more than their signs, sometimes crudely painted with a cheap brush and paints of a publicist, popularizer or fiction writer. His educational program can, it seems, be reduced to the following principles: 1) Take a closer look at the matter of self-education and self-education before you dare to teach others; 2) Do not trust authorities, especially those that are lavishly advertised, without checking the data on which they base their conclusions; 3) Try to study languages ​​and get acquainted with the literature of the subject as widely as possible: we Russians quickly assimilate what we have adopted and too quickly strive to publicize it, passing it off as the last word of science and civilization; 4) Try to study the subject more deeply, not even limiting yourself to a thorough acquaintance with ready-made research; they also need to be verified with primary sources. He himself, as a scientist, in his works represented the living implementation of this program. I vividly remember the last day of his life - Saturday, October 11th. On this day, the morning began at 6 o'clock with a liturgy, after the sacramental verse, which was served by a priest with a holy chalice, accompanied by a deacon and choristers - 7-8 people followed into the first rector's hall to commune the sufferer with the Holy Mysteries. I was one of these singers. I was struck by the solemn appearance of the sufferer. He stood at the chair, supported by two servants, dressed in a white robe and stole. In a voice that was interrupted by labored breathing, but clearly he pronounced the words of the confession of the Body and Blood of Christ, then he communed and stood, following the retreating priest with reverently prayerful gaze. We didn't want to leave without receiving his blessing, so we stayed for a while. He sank into a chair, and we approached him, and these are his words: “thank you... you worked hard... for me.” We watered his hand with tears as he blessed us for the last time. Strange thing! What was sharply imprinted in my memory was not the sight of the sufferer, but the image of a white, bright old man not of this world. With a certain conviction, I came out that our earthly teacher and father was no longer with us! I remember vividly that all that day there was some kind of special silence; everyone seemed to be asking in a low voice: have they heard anything? At eleven o'clock in the evening this silence was resolved by the news that our father was gone! At that time it was not the custom to express gratitude to the deceased with wreaths. And it would seem strange to us, students, to crown him with such laurels. He had never looked for such crowns. But we quickly formed the idea of ​​setting ourselves up for daily early lunches throughout the forties. And we carried out this idea, not missing a single day without celebrating a litany at his grave after the liturgy. I have long been interested in the question, both during the life and after the death of the deceased - what internal driving force determined his life? What passion made him live this way, treat people this way? Where did he find the purpose of life and his happiness? Exactly happiness: for I always saw him cheerful. He didn’t even have any academic ambition, there was no greed, there was no search for popularity, there was no addiction to pleasure. I found the solution to the question in his diary. Here is the beginning of his diary, written by him as a twenty-year-old youth: “What am I? - O unbearable fetters! From one look at another look at you, from just your presence, my frightened soul is afraid to indulge in all the freedom of my feelings!... There are two selves living in me, but they are the same one me, only in two different, more or less settled and strengthened positions... There is an all-pleasing me, which submits to every circumstance, gets along with every disgusting creature, exists for my external happiness... Another independent me, from which every time I receive severe reprimands for obedience to the first one who was born with me, is: the natural liveliness, elasticity and self-extension of my forces.” This was written by a twenty-year-old youth. His whole life then was continuous such self-flagellation. His highest judge was this inner man of his - this is always a living, elastic, spiritual and moral being that self-bends in its strength. It was nourished from above by communication with God, the love for Whom he always wanted to burn, and an indefinable inclination towards knowledge. These two forces paralyzed in him all and every ordinary human impulse and passion and made him a simple, pleasant person with everyone, despite the immeasurable height of his intellectual and moral personality. Let us thank the Lord and His Most Pure Mother, to Whose Name our great elder dedicated this church, for bestowing upon our highest theological school a man who constitutes its glory and honor! Let us pray for him, that the Lord may dwell in his eternal kingdom, where he will see with his own eyes the light of truth and love, which he sought to embody in himself and others. Book of the Wise. Solomon, ch. VII-VIII, 9–13. You might be interested in: