And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

October 19, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[Phil. 2:24-30; Luke 6:46-7:1] And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Why do they call Him Lord, but do not do the Lord’s will; that is, why do they not acknowledge His lordship in their deeds? Because they only call with their tongue, and not with their heart. If their heart were to utter: “Lord, Thou art my Lord,” then complete readiness would abide in it to submit to the one whom they confess as their Lord. But since they do not have this, their deeds do not match their tongue; whereas deeds always match the heart. All right, so there is no point in calling: “Lord, Lord”? No, not so. But it is necessary to make the external word match the inner word, which is the feeling and disposition of the heart. Sit and re­ flect upon the Lord and yourself: what is the Lord and what are you? Think about what the Lord has done and still does for you, why you live and how it will end. You immediate­ ly will come to the conviction that there is no other way than to stead­ fastly fulfil the Lord’s entire will; there is no other path for us. This conviction gives birth to a readiness to fulfil in deed what is expressed by the word “Lord.” With such read­ iness a need for help from above will be awakened, and from it the prayer: “Lord, Lord! Help me and give me strength to walk in Thy will.” And this call will be pleasing to the Lord.

Give and it will be given to you

October 19, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[Phil. 2:17-23; Luke 6:37-45] Judge not, forgive, give… It seems like nothing but expenses, without any profit. But behold what is promised: if you do not condemn, you will not be condemned; if you forgive, you will be forgiven; if you give, you will be given to. Right now the profit is not visible, but it will undoubtedly come for the one who makes these expenditures from the heart —it will come precisely at that time when he needs non-condemna­ tion and forgiveness the most. How he will rejoice when he is suddenly made worthy to receive such good gifts as if for nothing! And on the contrary, how another will sorrow and grieve, because he did not know how to profitably manage his prop­ erty! He would now forgive every­ thing and give away everything, but it is too late: everything has its time. Not everyone pursues the profit that comes directly into one’s hands, almost right after the expenditure. A Russian proverb says, throw bread and salt behind you, and you will find it in front of you. This kind of action really is like throwing something, but in this case it is not thrown underfoot to be trampled, but into the hands of God. These hands are true, and sure to return what they receive. Just hold to faith and hope.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Woe to those who are rich, who are full, who laugh and who are praised

October 18, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Monday. [Phil. 2:12-16; Luke 6:24-30] Woe to those who are rich, who are full, who laugh, and who are praised. But good shall come to those who endure every wrongful accusation, beating, robbery, or compulsory difficulty. This is com­ pletely opposite to what people usu­ ally think and feel! The thoughts of God are as far from human thoughts as heaven is from the earth. How else could it be?We are in exile; and it is not remarkable for those in exile to be offended and in­ sulted. We are under a penance; the penance consists of deprivations and labours. We are sick; and most useful for the sick are bitter medi­ cines. The Saviour Himself all of His life did not have a place to lay His head, and He finished his life on the cross — why should his followers have a better lot? The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of preparedness to suffer and bear good-naturedly all that is sorrowful. Comfort, arro­ gance, splendour, and ease are all foreign to its searching and tastes. Its path lies in the fruitless, dreary desert. The model is the forty-year wandering of the Israelites in the desert. Who follows this path? Ev­ eryone who sees Canaan beyond the desert, boiling over with milk and honey. During his wandering he too receives manna, however not from the earth, but from heav­ en; not bodily, but spiritually. All the glory is within.

Saint Theophan the Recluse.

Within Me You Can Do Nothing

October 17, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost. [II Cor. 9:6-11; Luke 5:1-11] The fishermen toiled for an entire night and took nothing; but when the Lord entered their ship, and, after preaching commanded them to cast their net, they took so many that they could not pull them out and the net broke. This is an image for all work without God’s help, and for work with God’s help. When one person works, wanting to achieve something through his strength alone — he is all thumbs. When the Lord draws near to him, then one good thing after another flows in from somewhere. In the spiritual-moral sense the impossibility of success without the Lord is tangibly visible: Without Me ye can do noth­ ing, said the Lord. And this law acts in all things. Just as a branch not grown onto a tree not only does not bear fruit, but dries up and loses its life as well, neither can people bring forth fruits of truth valuable for eternal life if they are not in living communion with the Lord. Any good that they might have is only an appearance of good, but in essence it is faulty — like a forest apple that appears red but if you taste it, it is sour. It is also tangibly clear in an external, worldly sense: one strug­ gles and struggles, and all in vain. When God’s blessing descends, all comes out well. Those who are at­ tentive toward themselves and the paths of life know these truths through experience.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Forgiving Sins

October 16, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[I Cor. 15:58-16:3; Luke 5:17-26] But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, He said to the para­ lytic, I say unto thee, Arise, and take up they couch, and go into thine house. Remission of sins is an inner, spiritual miracle; healing from pa­ ralysis is an outer miracle — the natural acting of God in the world, a physical miracle. The flowing in of God’s power is justified and con­ firmed by this event in the moral realm, and in the movement of phe­ nomena in the physical world. The latter is in view of the former, for in the former lies the goal of every­ thing. The Lord does not coerce one’s freedom, but gives under­ standing, inspires, and amazes. One of the best means for this is an out­ er miracle. This came to be when man became a rational creature, ruled by freedom. This connection is so essential, that those who reject the supernatural action of God in the world also reject the freedom of man, along with the recognition that the latter must necessarily call forth the former. On the other hand, those who confess the truth of God’s influence in the world beyond a natural flow of events can say boldly: we can feel that we are free. The recognition of freedom is as strong and irresistible as the recog­ nition of one’s existence. Freedom urgently demands direct providen­ tial actions of God: consequently the acknowledgement of these actions stands as firmly as the recognition of freedom.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

The Lord Blessed the Poor

October 15, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[Phil. 1:27-2:4; Luke 6:17-23] The Lord blesses the poor, those who hunger and weep, and the per­ secuted under the condition that it is all for the sake of the Son of Man; this means that He blesses a life which is surrounded by every kind of need and deprivation. According to this saying, pleasures, ease, hon­ our are not something good; this is the way it is indeed. But while a person rests in these things, he does not realize this. Only when he frees himself from their spell does he see that they are not the good, but only phantoms. A soul cannot do without consolations, but they are not of the senses; it cannot do without trea­ sures, but they are not in gold and silver, not in luxurious houses and clothes, not in this external fullness; it cannot get by without honor, but it lies not in human servility. There are other pleasures, there is other ease, other honour — spiritual, akin to the soul. He who finds them does not want the external ones; not only does he not want them, but he scorns and hates them because they block off the spiritual, do not allow one to see it, they keep a soul in darkness, drunkenness, and phan­ toms. This is why such people pre­ fer with all their soul poverty, sor­ row and obscurity, feeling good within them, like behind some safe fence against the spell of the decep­ tions of the world. What about those people who have all these things without trying? They should relate to all of these things, according to the word of the holy Apostle, as one who possesses not (cf. 1Cor. 7:30).

Saint Theophan the Recluse