Becoming Strengthened in Good:
On Mid-Pentecost
Archpriest Dmitri Smirnov
Christ
is Risen!
In this world, everything changes: one season of the year
replace another; first people are small and later they grow old; people’s moods
are sometimes good, sometimes sad, and sometimes completely desperate. Only God
is unchanging, for He is eternal and in Him there is no shadow of
turning (James 1:17). God is absolute good and love. He wants to bring
each one of us, who are created in His image and likeness, into this good
regardless of our age, condition of health, or any other external circumstance.
This good, in which we would be strengthened, would be eternal. We would enter
into eternal life with God.
It was for this reason that the Lord came to earth and
established His Church. The Church of God has been continuing His work for two
thousand years: healing the sick, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and
leading people to eternal life. But people, not being firm in the good, are
very inconstant. Today’s Epistle reading gives us a perfect example [Acts
14:6-18]. Paul and Barnabas, who were travelling to preach, entered a certain
village where there was a crippled man they healed in front of all. This so
astonished everyone that people even thought they were gods come down to earth.
They decided that Barnabas was Zeus and Paul was Hermes and even wanted to
offer sacrifices to them. With all his eloquence, Paul could barely convince
them that they were not gods. A short time later, Jews came from Antioch and
convinced the people to put aside the Apostles, because they were saying
nothing true, but were full of lies. The people became so worked up that they
cast stones at Paul.
These very same people first wanted to offer sacrifice to someone
as a god, and then a short time later cast stones at him. This takes place
quite often in our lives. One can render various good deeds to someone and he
will be your friend and love you, but just try telling him the truth – I am not
talking about maligning him – about his behavior or his thoughts and you will
see anger, you will see that you have created an enemy. Everything we did for
him for decades will be forgotten in two minutes. He will never remember your
good; the supposed bad you have done him will become most important to him.
This is a perfectly common story. Why? Because everyone is a
sinner and evil is inherent in us as a result of our fall. We therefore
renounce good very quickly. But the Lord wants us to become strengthened in
good, so that we would indeed become unchanging and inseparable from the good,
as is God Himself. For this to happen we need to become Christians. For this,
we need to learn at all times not to give in to the devil, who tempts us and
wants to lead us away from this condition. He always wants to irritate, anger,
and lead us into despair and despondency. We need to strive, for the sake of
God, to be patient and courageous and not to give in to the evil that is
offered to us by the devil or brought our way by people, but rather to overcome
and reject evil, being sure to return good for evil. Then we become like our
Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Gospel according to
John, which we also read today [7:14-30], the Lord asks the Jews: Did
not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? That
is, there are commandments, but people still violate them owing to their
weakness – some more, some less.Why go ye about to kill Me? Sometimes
one person wants to kill another for no apparent reason. Someone irritates you:
how I could kill him! When conditions are favorable – for instance, when
governmental authority collapses – people rush into the streets and begin to
kill everyone who irritates them. Here comes someone and one does not like the
fact that he is wearing a hat – so one up and kills him. Or someone gets
annoyed by one person and then meets another of the same nationality – “they’re
all the same,” he says – and kills him not for any guilt of his own, but for
someone else’s.
But here Christ comes to earth and asks: why do you want to
kill Me? For nothing. Simply for the fact that He brought truth, that He
brought love, that He brought a different way of life. How, of course, can one
not kill such a person? How could it be otherwise? Therefore they killed both
Christ, and Barnabas, and Paul. This is inescapable. It is very difficult for
the world to endure such grace. But if we want to be Christ’s disciples, we
need to stand firmly in our faith. Whatever happens, whatever circumstances may
arise, we should not give the devil an inch of either our heart or our mind, so
that we would be governed not by the devil, but by Christ.
Therefore we need to peer into our soul: is there
irritability, resentment, despair, despondency, evil, and thirst for revenge?
What do we have there: the desire to have it our own way? Or is there an
entirely different spirit in us: meekness, mercy, patience, obedience, love,
and forgiveness? If so, then good; if not, then what should we do? We need to
repent, to ask God for forgiveness. We need not to accept this evil, but always
to cry out: “O God, cleanse me, a sinner!” I do not want such evil; I want to
be good; I want to be strengthened in good.
If we are strengthened in good, the devil will become
envious of this good and will constantly attack us. If he cannot trigger an
inner storm – let us grant that we can learn how to overcome our thoughts and
feelings that are defiled and bad; this is difficult to learn, but it can be
done; let us grant that we can do this – then the devil begins to attack us
from the outside: all kinds of people will cling to us, find fault with us,
torment us, and fabricate all kinds of senseless things.
People ask why the Apostle Paul was stoned half to death.
Yes, he was a hot-tempered man, but he was also a very good one: he sees a sick
man who has been lame from childhood, so he goes and heals him. Of course, it
was not he himself who healed him, but God’s grace: he asked God, and God
healed him. That is, he was a merciful and compassionate person. People ask:
why did they stone him? So they did not like what he had to say? Then do not
listen! Why did they have to stone him half to death and then throw him out of
the city, thinking that he was dead, without even burying him, but just
throwing him in the trash? This is all because man is given to evil and is
gradually brought to such a terrible state.
But this is not the way we should be. There is no truth and
justice apart from the truth and justice of love. Everything should be
subordinate to this law. Because God sent His Only-Begotten Son to die for the
sake of this love, in order to save man. The Son of God came to earth for the
sake of love. Did He want to die? No, He did not want to. This is why He prayed
to the point of sweating blood: O My Father, let this cup pass from Me (Mathew
26:39), but may Thy will, and not Mine, still be done. Who would desire death,
especially one who was sinless, as was our Lord Jesus? In His humanity, He did
not want to die; but, as God, He knew that this had to be done to save us.
Or the Apostle Paul: he was a spiritual man, who in his
lifetime was caught up to the third heaven and informed in advance by God of
his violent death. Why did he endure all this? He was a citizen of Rome, well
born and educated, who could have become the high priest of the Jews. Why did
he give everything up, labor his entire life, earning his bread with his own
hands, only to go about exhorting people and preaching Christ crucified to
them? He was moved by love for these people. Once he even prayed to God: Lord,
it would be better for me to be blotted out of the book of life, it would be
better for me to perish, if only my beloved people might be saved.
He loved this people, but his petition was still not
granted, because the Lord cannot violate human freedom. The Lord so loves and respects
each person that if he very much wants to go to hell the Lord will not prevent
him. Is there a Church? There is. Does everyone know where the church is? They
all know. Everyone knows that there is Confession. Everyone now knows that the
Gospel exists. That means that if someone does not read the Gospel, if he does
not go to Confession, if he does not seek heaven, he is making his own decision
and will later reap what he has sowed.
Of course, things are difficult for people who have chosen
the life of Christ, because since the thousand-year reign of Christ came to an
end, the reign of the Antichrist has been raging in full swing around the
world. One should not think that this is the case only with us [in Russia]. In
some ways, the situation in France is much worse than here, in terms of the
spiritual life or so-called freedoms. Here we can begin to teach the Law of God
[catechism] in schools, but just try doing that in Paris. There they all just
tell tall-tales to one another about religious freedom.
Therefore life is very difficult for Christians. On the
other hand, although there are few Orthodox on earth, there still are some. The
Lord said: Fear not, little flock (Luke 12:32). There is
nothing to be afraid of. Christ came alone. All the evil in the world, all the
evil in every person – He alone came out against it. Later, when He had taught
His disciples the Orthodox faith and granted them the Holy Spirit, they also
came out against it. How many were there of them? There were a total of twelve,
with seventy more men.
Although they were killed, the number of Christ’s disciples
only increased. They conquered this world, dotting the whole world with
churches and creating an entirely new civilization on different, Christian
principles. Who managed to place these savage peoples on the very peak of human
civilization? It was only the Christian life of their ancestors, which so
affected their soul and mind that they were able to create science, art, and
trade. Everything that now powers Europe comes from Christ; there is nothing of
its own in this, not even in technology or science. Why does this same science
not exist in Asia or Africa? Because Christ was not there.
But now we have forgotten Christ and are quickly growing
wild. All the “achievements,” all the infamies of Asia and Africa and the other
hemisphere – we are absorbing it all, although there are places here and there
where the Christian life has remained in place. And it is of course difficult
for those who have remained faithful to contain all the evil of this world. But
as long as such people exist, the spirit of the Antichrist cannot prevail,
because good is much stronger than evil. Darkness is nothing; it is the absence
of light. So the very smallest light – a match lit in outer space – will be visible
for hundreds of miles, because it will shine. We see the light of stars, even
though they are terribly far away, because the light shineth in
darkness (John 1:5). If each one of us would become such a small
light, then everything in this terrible, onerous, sinister world would become
lighter and warmer.
If it is still possible to live in this world, this is
thanks only to the fact that there are still churches and that in each church
one can always find two or three people who are trying to live the Christian
life. These people are the pillars that support the heavens that do not allow
this earth to be crushed. Everything else is just darkness and evil. Christ
wants us to increase the amount of light in the world. To do this, we ourselves
need to be aflame: just as one candle lights another, so too should our hearts
be kindled by the grace of God that resides in the Church. The Lord said: I
am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? (Luke
12:49).
We know that we are already at the end of human history.
That much is obvious. People sneer at what was once holy: they either do not
understand it or they look at it in a distorted and superficial way. Many
people even consider themselves to be Christians, but take a look at their
lives: look at how they depict Christ in their books, and then compare it with
an icon. It becomes immediately obvious that this is not Christ at all, but
some other fellow entirely who has nothing in common with Christ. There might
seem to be a resemblance, but it is not the same. That is, there has been a
replacement. But in the spiritual life, if you are mistaken by a single
millimeter, you have already flown past. Therefore we need to make a particular
effort to hold on.
After all, the Lord knows that it is difficult for us. The
Lord also knows our weaknesses. The Lord knows that we were all raised badly.
The Lord also knows that no one has really taught or engaged with us from
childhood. But it was He Himself that chose us. We cannot claim that we came to
faith through our own minds. No, the Lord somehow managed to lead us to Him, to
attract us to Him. And the only thing that He asks us to do is to respond to
His call with love and to try to be worthy of this calling.
Therefore it is no accident that one of the Apostles became
a Judas. The Lord gives us a sign for all times: Judas was overcome by evil, he
could not resist temptation, and he took the money. And not so that he could
later come and say: a demon beguiled me, forgive me! If he had repented, the
Lord would have forgiven him. But he did not repent, he did not ask for
forgiveness, but went as far as suicide. There is no sin that is worse or more
terrible. Therefore this is a sign and warning for us all. This was permitted
by Divine Providence to show us all how dangerous the way is. Now you seem to
be a believer, you are standing in church, and you have a decent look about
you. But tomorrow you can give in to temptation and allow Satan to enter you –
and then it is over, then you have become a Judas. And the last will be
bitterer than the first, because this is much worse. It is better to be
unenlightened, to be in the dark, than to know the truth and later deny it. It
is frightful when one allows evil to take over one’s heart. Therefore, so long
as we are alive we should stand courageously in our heart for truth. Then
Christ will prevail in us. Help us in this, O Lord! Amen.
Delivered on May 1, 1991, in the Church of St. Mitrophan
of Voronezh in Moscow.
