Whom say the people that I am?

October 31, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[Col. 2:13-20; Luke 9:18-22] Whom say the people that I am? the Lord asked. In answer to this the A­ postles related the current opinions among the people concerning Him, formed according to the nature of people’s views at that time. Some said that He was John the Baptist, others that He was Elias, others that he was one of the ancient prophets resurrected. How do they answer today? Also in various ways, each according to his own way of think­ ing. What sort of answers could be given by materialists, atheists, and the soulless who believe we are de­ scended from the apes, when they have neither God nor a soul?Spirit­ ualists, like the Arians, have the same response that was denounced at the first ecumenical council. De­ ists see God as being very far from the world, and since they do cannot contain in their system the mystery of the incarnation, they answer like the Ebionites,[1] Socinians[2]. You will hear similar answers in Rus­ sian society, for the aforesaid three types of identities exist and are multiplying among us. But thanks to the Lord, we still have a boundlessly predominating number of sincere believers and those who strictly maintain the apostolic confession that the Lord Jesus Christ is the on­ ly-begotten Son of God incarnate, the Saviour and Redeemer of the human race who even in paradise was promised to our forefathers. Which party will overcome is known only to God. Let us pray that we preserve within us the light of Christ, and that darkness of false teachings be driven away. We have a weakness for bad things; that is why it is not surprising that a lie comes out on top. Now it is already walking the streets of town openly, while in the past it cautiously hid from the gaze of Christian believers.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

[1] An early Judaizing, heretical sect of Jewish Christians originating in Palestine, who did not believe in the virginal birth of Christ, or that He is the Son of God. [2] An antitrinitarian Protestant sect begun by Lelio Sozzini (1525-62) and his nephew Fausto Sozzini.

Filling of the Faithful

October 29, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[Col. 2:1-7; Luke 9:12-18] The miraculous filling of the multitude in the desert is an image of the fill­ ing of the faithful in holy commu­ nion with the Most Pure Body and Most Pure Blood of the Lord. The Lord is sitting apart; the multitude is made to sit in groups; the apostles are intermediaries — they receive the bread and give it out. So it is now: believers are all divided into groups — small individual churches in which the Lord, invisibly present, gives out His Body and Blood through the apostolic successors. As He did to the apostles then, so now to their successors does He say, Give ye them to eat. As then, so now do the believing multitudes stand steadfastly before the Lord in fast­ ing, hearing the word, and a prayer­ ful desire be healed from sins as they prepare to approach the Divine Mysteries. Thus the mystery begun by the Lord’s appearance continues until now and will continue until the end of the world. And in the world to come there will be a com­ munion of its own sort, for the Lord promises to give to eat of the hidden manna and of the tree of life (Rev. 2:7,17). Our forefathers’ own mysti­ cal communion was also arranged in the earthly paradise — eating from the tree of life. In the Old Tes­ tament Church its image is the eat­ ing of the paschal lamb. Thus, mys­ tical communion began with the hu­ man race, was and will be with it until eternal ages, in various forms, but in the one meaning of the most true communion with the Lord; for In Him was life; and the life was the light of men (John 1:4). It is fitting for those who are created according to the image of God to be in such communion with Him, Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person (Heb. 1:3)

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Love As Thyself

October 24, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[II Cor. 11:31-12:9; Luke 6:31-36] The fundamental, original command­ ment is: love! It is a small word, but it expresses an all-encompassing thing. It is easy to say: you must love, but it is not easy to attain love to the necessary degree. It is also not exactly clear how to attain it; this is why the Saviour surrounds this commandment with other ex­ planatory rules: love as thyself; and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Here is shown a degree of love that one can call boundless; for is there any limit to one’s love for oneself? And is there any good which one would not want for himself from others? Meanwhile, however, the instructions are not impossible to fulfil. The matter depends upon having perfect compassion toward others, to fully transfer their feel­ ings to yourself, to feel the way they feel. When this occurs, there will be no need to point out what you must do for others in a given situation: your heart will show you. You must only take care to maintain compas­ sion, otherwise egoism will immedi­ ately approach and return you to it­ self and confine you in itself. Then you will not lift a finger for another, and will not look at him, though he might be dying. When the Lord said: love thy neighbor as thyself, He meant that our neighbour should be in us, that is, in our heart, instead of our own selves. If our “I” remains in there as before, we cannot expect anything good to come of it.

Saint Theophan the Recluse.

Is He the One That should come?

October 21, 2011 | Saint Theophan, Uncategorized

[Phil. 3:1-8; Luke 7:17-30] Saint John the Forerunner sends his disciples to ask the Lord: is He the One That should come? Or should they look for another? He did not ask this for himself but for his disci­ ples, for he knew precisely who Je­ sus Christ was, being informed a­ bout this from heaven. The disciples sought an answer to this question not out of empty inquisitiveness, but out of a sincere desire to know the truth. To such as these there is no need to say much; the Lord does not speak, only indicates what had been accomplished by Him at that time. Divine deeds witnessed to His divinity. It was so obvious, that the questioners no longer questioned. This is the way it always is. The power of God lives in the Church; a sincere seeker of the truth immedi­ ately feels it and is sure of this truth. This sureness through experi­ ence puts an end to all questions and completely soothes. He who does not want to believe, and, hav­ ing lost his faith, begins to seek in the Church and Christianity not the foundations of faith, but grounds to justify his unbelief, will find no in­ dications satisfactory. He considers his unbelief well-grounded, al­ though its foundations are petty and insignificant. His heart wants this — that is why it is all tolerable.

Saint Theophan the Recluse

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