St. John of Kronstadt · 43 of 49

Part II · Part 19

The name of God is God Himself. Therefore it is said: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain;" or "the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;" or, again, "Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks unto Thy name." As the Lord is the most incomplex Being, the most incomplex Spirit, He is wholly contained in one word, in one thought, being at the same time wholly everywhere—in all creatures. This is why, if you only call upon the name of the Lord, you call upon the Lord Himself, the Saviour of those who believe, and you shall be saved. "Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "Call upon Me [My Name] in the time of trouble: so will I hear thee, and thou shalt praise Me."

The whole man, consisting of the soul and body, is called by a single name or word—for instance, John—in the token of the fact that man is brought into existence by the Word of God, which is incomplex. Besides this, the name signifies that our soul is likewise an incomplex being. Under one name is concealed such a wealth and depth of the human spirit, such a multitude of divisible parts of matter. This is truly the image and likeness of God, and at the same time a small world in itself.

The soul of the man is in the man's name; for instance, the soul of John is in. the name of "John.'' Thus, at the appellation my soul recognises itself in the name, and answers to it. Thus, in the name of Jesus Christ dwells Christ Himself, wholly, His Soul and Body, united to the Godhead.

God is an infinite Spirit. In what does this infinity consist? In the infinity of being life and wisdom, mercy and love, omnipotence, righteousness, and holiness, in His omnipresence in all thinking, spiritual, and dumb creatures, as well as in material creation. God is everywhere, and in all things, above all, not contained by any creature; and not one single thought, however rapid and bold it may be, can in any way exceed Him, but it ever moves in Him only.

The Hebrews ate the flesh of the sacrificed animals; this was an image of our spiritual food. Now we eat, not the bodies of sacrificed animals, but the Most-pure Body and Blood of the Lord, throughout the whole earth. Therefore he who often communicates of the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ should not require to eat any animal food. Why should I require any animal flesh when I partake of the Most-pure Body and the Most-pure Blood—these life-giving Mysteries of my God ? Do they not contain sufficient life, peace, joy, spiritual and bodily strength for me? Can I not be satisfied with only vegetable and fish food, which is much lighter for me?

What is there wonderful in the Lord's offering you His Body and Blood as food and drink? He Who gave you as food the flesh of the animals He created, has finally given you Himself as food and drink. He who fed you at your mother's breasts now feeds you with His own Body and Blood, in order that in the same manner as with your mother's milk—you absorbed it into yourself in your infancy certain of your mother's qualities—her spirit—so you may absorb into yourself, together with the Body and Blood of Christ the Saviour, His spirit and life. Or as previously in your infancy you were fed by your mother and lived by her—by her milk—so now, having grown up and become a sinful man, you are fed with the Blood of your Life-giver, in order that through this you may live and spiritually grow into a man of God, a holy man. In short, that as you were then your mother's son, so now you may become God's child, brought up and fed with His Body and Blood, and, above all, with His Spirit (for His Body and Blood are spirit and life); and that you should become an heir of the heavenly kingdom, for which reason you were created, and for which you live.

Children! remember that Jesus Christ so loves you that He calls you several times every year to His Divine and Life-giving table, at which He gives you, as food, His own Divine, Most-pure Body; and, as drink, His Divine, Most-pure, Life-giving Blood, in order that you should live not only here temporarily, but also in heaven eternally, endlessly: and therefore be very, very thankful to your Creator and Saviour for His immeasurable love to you, to your parents, to your brothers and sisters, and to all men.

Christian hope is our hope in Christ and in the eternal bliss promised us by Christ. He is the limit of our desires: "He shall save His people from their sins." Many Christians say: "I should like to go to Paradise, but my sins will not let me;" but those who speak thus have no idea of Christian hope: they look upon sins as a kind of indestructible wall. No; I say that our Saviour, Jesus Christ, has destroyed this very wall by His cross and death, and has opened God's Paradise to all those who repent. Let us stand firmly in this, in order to teach how to trust in Christ, for not every hope is the Christian, true, and saving hope. We will point out the properties of Christian hope, its soundness, firmness, and fulness, as well as the signs by which we may know whether we have Christian hope in us; we will point out that Christian hope breathes by means of prayer as by air, is maintained and strengthened by means of the Life-giving Mysteries, by the reading and hearing of the Word of God, and of the writings of the Holy Fathers, and by the good works of each of us. Here we will mention that as the Christian is a free and reasonable being, created after the image and likeness of God, but having fallen (of his own will) or withdrawn himself from God by his iniquities, therefore he himself must draw near to His Prototype by means of faith, hope, and love. Let us advise every Christian to consider carefully what specially constitutes the God-like, immortal man in him; let us beseech him to turn his attention to his heart, to listen to its requirements, which very often disclose themselves to the man's consciousness, and to satisfy such requirements without delay. Our heart requires faith in God and union with Him, in Whom it finds peace and blessedness; but it is also tempted by the action of the spirit of darkness and inborn corruption, by all the earthly goods, which do not constitute its peace, life, and blessedness, but only sorrow and anguish. To unite this heart to Christ by means of faith and hope—this is our last wish for you in our present sermon on the subject of Christian hope; to break off your trust in earthly blessings, in men, honours, riches, sensual pleasures—this is our sole desire. We sink in sins, and often despond, despair, and perish from their multitude. To turn the attention of all to our Hope—to Christ the Saviour—in all sins, in all sorrows, in all the changes of life, both in happiness and in misfortune; to show that He is the God of those who repent, and the Saviour of those who sin—this is our desire. To show that in Christ is our life, our blessedness, our light, our riches, our meat and drink, our all; and to teach all to strive after Him during all their life, as the limit of all our desires—this is what we wish above all things. Jesus is the ever-living Source. I would desire to so lead you that each one of you should with all his heart call Jesus his Jesus, his Saviour. God grant that it may not fall to us to exclaim: "Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?"

The Lord is Truth: everything that He has said is pure truth, and does not admit of even a shadow of doubt. Thus, there is the hope that God shall come again to judge the quick and the dead, that there shall be a life of the world to come, the bliss of the righteous and the torments of sinners.

Christian hope may be thus characterised: pray and hope, struggle and hope, strive to enter in at the strait gate. "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving."

He who comes to the Holy Cup with any passion in his heart, the same is a Judas, and comes to kiss the Son of Man flatteringly.

Prayer hopes to receive all things. Thrice-radiant Love, have mercy upon me!

I do not know how any sensible man can possibly doubt in any divinely-revealed truth, revealed by Jesus Christ, certified by the Apostles, sealed by the blood of the innumerable throng of martyrs, preached by the prelates and venerable men of the Church and by all the Saints, and giving life to the heart. And yet there are unfortunate persons who waver, actually waver, being shaken by some inward insinuations heavy as a stone, gnawing as a viper, destructive as the Devil; they are deceived by some unknown, invisible flatterer, some pitiless murderer. What is the reason of this? Why am I myself at times so irrational, foolish, abnormal, and, in addition to all this, gloomy and despondent besides? O, I know why: "Ye shall know them by their fruits." By these terrible conditions of my soul I can ascertain the cause; by the traces of the murderer I find the murderer. This is mine enemy's doing—the Devil. The murderer! it is he who kills my soul by doubt and unbelief; it is he who torments me. But I myself am also unwise in allowing myself to listen to the insinuations of the liar, the murderer, the adversary of God and men. When you observe in yourself any mental antagonism against God, any doubt in the Trinity of the Persons of the Godhead and their mutual relations, and so on—believe that the enemy of God and men has entered into you. You have long believed in the Holy Consubstantial, Life-giving, and Undivided Trinity; you have long enjoyed Its mercies, Its life, Its peace, and all blessings, and therefore stand by It until death against the common enemy.

Faith gives rest and joy; unbelief, troubles and wounds.

When praying, do everything with understanding. When you pour oil into the lamp burning before an icon, represent to yourself that the Life-giver every day, every hour, every minute supports your life by His Spirit, and, as daily by means of sleep in bodily respects, through prayer and the Word of God in spiritual respects, pours into you the sacred oil of life, by means of which your soul and body burn. When you place a candle before an icon, remember that your life is like a burning candle, that it will burn out and be extinguished, or that some other reasons, such as the passions, surfeiting, wine and other pleasures, make it burn faster than it should.

The means for confirming and strengthening Christian hope in us are—prayer, especially frequent sincere prayer, the confession of our sins, the frequent reading of the Word of God, and, above all, the frequent communion of the Holy Life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ.

Our guides in Christian hope are—the Lord Himself, His Most-pure Mother, all the saints, prophets, Apostles, martyrs, prelates, and venerable persons; they all turned to God with the hope of salvation, and not one of them was ashamed; all were saved. "Hope maketh not ashamed," says the Scripture, and it did not make them ashamed.

The expression of Christian hope, in relation to earthly life, is—the forgiveness of the sins in which we live all our life. "And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins." In relation to the heavenly life: "we shall see Him as He is," . . . . "Shine forth as the sun." . . . . "Where I am, there shall also My servant be.....I go to prepare a place for you.". . . . "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious Body."

Here is another subject for hope. The passions assault your heart, their attack is violent, it is difficult to withstand them, not to succumb to them; but have hope in Christ, and you shall conquer them. Say: "From my youth up many passions have afflicted me; but Thou, my Saviour, Thyself deliver me and save me."

The misfortunes of Christians arise from their not having Christian hope. A man feels the oppression of sin in his heart the weariness and anguish of sin: if he has not Christian hope in his heart, what does he do? He has recourse to artificial means to drive away the oppression and weariness, to culpable distractions, and not to Christ, Whose "yoke is easy" for our heart and Whose "burden is light," not to prayer, not to repentance for his sins, not to the Word of God, which "is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, comfort." So it happens in most cases. Hence the necessity for worldly people to have theatres and a multitude of other amusements. Some have recourse to suicide. The experience of obtaining that which we pray for greatly strengthens Christian hope in our heart. And he who is attentive to himself will easily observe this experience.

He who prays should hope to move the Lord to forgive him all his sins: "I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst Me"; "for there is no sin that can overcome God's loving kindness." "The Blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

Hope presupposes the expectation of some kind of blessing which we do not possess. " But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." But as our greatest blessing is sinlessness, and we do not possess this blessing, but daily suffer from the sins that can eternally ruin us, therefore Christian hope ought to be turned to Christ as to the Deliverer from sins and our Saviour.

As we receive everything necessary for our physical life from earth, fire, and water, so also we receive everything necessary for our spiritual life—all bright, good, and saving thoughts and dispositions of the heart—from God, though we do not notice this because of the invisibility of the thoughts and movements of the heart. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof . . . . so is everyone that is born of the Spirit." "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."

When you receive the Holy Life-giving Mysteries, steadfastly represent to yourself Christ Himself under the form of the bread and wine; make upon them the mental inscription "Jesus Christ," and with this mental inscription (whilst the sentient one already exists) send in thought into the depths of your heart, and there lay and mentally preserve the Life-giving Guest. If thus, with such faith, you receive the Holy Mysteries, you will see that they will bring forth in you the deepest peace of your spiritual powers, and you will feel most wonderfully happy and light The Lord loads us with benefits according to the measure of our faith; the Body and Blood show themselves to be life-giving, burning embers in the believer's heart, according to the measure of his heart's preparedness. The Church is heaven; the altar, the throne of life, from which God descends in the holy and most pure Mysteries to feed and give life to believers. "Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty!" Thou preparest us beforehand for the contemplation of the throne, and of Him Who sitteth upon it, by seeing the earthly throne in the Church, and by the contemplation, with the eyes of faith, of Him Who sitteth upon it.

When you ask God for spiritual gifts—for instance, for wisdom, faith, hope and love, meekness and humility—then remember that you are the image and likeness of God, that your soul is as though an impression of the Godhead, and that all the riches of the soul are contained in God as in a treasury ("Treasury of blessings"), from which we can draw every spiritual blessing by means of the prayer of faith and patience, and by cleansing ourselves from every impurity. Say to the Lord: "My limited spirit came forth from Thine unlimited, most perfect Spirit; here am I, my Master, poor in wisdom and understanding, or in faith, hope and love, meekness and humility: look upon the desire of my heart, and grant unto me Thy great wisdom, ' Faith unashamed, sure hope and love unfeigned.'"

The obedience of her children to the Church should begin with perfect trust in her prayers, sacraments and rites, and end in the active fulfilment of her laws and regulations.

With your spiritual eyes, you clearly see how the Lord keeps you in obedience to Him through the laws of conscience.

Those who go to attend the Divine service after having eaten much, voluntarily lay upon themselves an unnecessary and injurious burden, and deaden their hearts beforehand to prayer, obstructing the access of holy thoughts and feelings to it. We must be most careful not to eat before Divine service. We must remember that "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink," that is, that God cannot reign in the heart that is overburdened with surfeiting and drunkenness.

The Lord is so near to each one, especially to the Christian who leads a holy life, that his heart and body are the temple of the Holy Ghost. "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you." Therefore, how easy it is to pray in every place! The word of the prayer, or God, to Whom you pray, "is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart."

Sin closes the spiritual eyes; the thief thinks that God does not see; the fornicator, giving himself up to impurity, thinks that God does not see him; the covetous, the greedy, the drunkard, think that they can hide themselves and their sinful passions. But God sees and judges. "I was naked, and I hid myself"—so by his actions, says every sinner, hiding himself from the omnipresent God.

The Lord's Divine and life-giving Mysteries are an evident proof that He sees all things and is always with us. In them He allows us to touch Him, to thrust our spiritual hands into His side, and to put our fingers into the print of the nails.

As often as I prayed with faith, the Lord always heard me and fulfilled my prayers.

For the greater part we live in doubt, unbelief, and incredulity. "Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? have ye your heart yet hardened?" We must be careful not to let our hearts wax gross.

Man is the image of God—a living image of the living God; in the soul of man, especially of a believing and virtuous one, the light of the Godhead, of Its perfection is reflected. "Be ye holy, for I am holy."

The soul of the first man came from God, likewise, all the souls of the men that followed; all men are the breathing of His Divine Spirit, all ought to be His children, all as one. "As Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee," prayed the Saviour to the heavenly Father, "that they also may be one in us." See how high our origin and destination are! Through Jesus Christ we ought to be one with God, and where He is, there we ought also to be. " Where I am, there shall also my servant be." As our souls are from God, He, of course, is very near to us, as near as parents are to their children. As parents know their children, much more does the Lord know His people, His children, by grace in Christ. "I know My sheep."

In ordinary human knowledge, we learn some subject once thoroughly, and often know it well during the whole of our lifetime without our knowledge of it becoming obscured. But in the matter of religion and faith this is not so; we think that once we have learnt, felt, and touched it, the subject will always remain clear, tangible, and beloved of our soul; but it is not so: it will a thousand times become obscured to us, removed from us, and will as though vanish for us, so that at times we feel quite indifferent to the object by which we used to live and breathe, and it will sometimes be necessary to clear the way to it for ourselves by sighs and tears, in order to see it clearly again, to grasp and embrace it with our heart. This is caused by sin.

The word, even in our mouths, shows itself to be creative, forming separate sounds; with the word the living spirit comes forth from the man, not separated from the thought and word. You see, therefore, that the word, by its nature, is creative, even in us. Why, then, should we be incredulous and distrustful of the creative power of the word, for instance, in prayer, that this power—this verbal service—shall unfailingly bring down the mercy of the Lord upon us. Thus the word continually creates itself flesh—separate sounds and writings, for are not our books the flesh, in which the word is clothed? But we have grown so accustomed to this, that it does not appear to us worthy of special attention. Not only the nature of the Godhead, but also, by His gift, the nature of created animated creatures is creative under God's direction: "Be fruitful, and multiply." The souls of living creatures grow bodies for themselves, under God's direction. Thus men, by the power given to them from God, are fruitful, and multiply upon the earth; thus men and animals create for themselves everything necessary for their lives, especially men—these most inventive beings who amaze by their infinite creative genius in all kinds of arts. As the Word, the Creator Himself, is omnipresent, so His creations are everywhere spread, though not in infinity, and He creates everywhere, and, if necessary, changes.

God is such an incomplex Being, that He is quicker than lightning, quicker than thought, and imperceptibly visits our soul. This is why the Lord says: "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation: for behold, the Kingdom of God is within you." "Is within you," that is, it is impossible even to distinguish the moment of the coming of the Kingdom of God into our soul: as soon as we have cast out sin from our heart, the Kingdom of God is in it, and we do not observe when and how this is accomplished; the moment of perfect rejection of sin from the heart is the moment of God's perfect reign within us. Also, the life-giving Mysteries, in accordance with the measure of our faith, instantaneously cleanse, sanctify, and adorn the chamber of the soul. Likewise, the Devil and the evil spirits, as incomplex beings—though far from perfect in their incomplexity, and very limited—act upon the soul rapidly, instantaneously, as rapidly as lightning or thought. A momentary feeling of attachment to earthly things, or a momentary inclination of the heart to sin, a momentary doubt in the truth, and Satan penetrates into the heart, producing in a moment some violent passion in it, and afterwards, according to the measure of our sympathy with such a passion, he takes possession of us and drags us where he pleases as prisoners, bound hand and foot. If we resist him, then, by darkening our mind and heart, he strives to destroy our efforts after hearty faith and pious thoughts and feelings. In order to vanquish and drive him from your heart, you must bring into your heart perfect faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and remember that the enemy is working in you, that your thoughts, or the inclinations of your heart and will, are sinful, ungodly. Then firmly cast these thoughts out of your heart; break away, so to say, with all your heart and strength from the fetters of sin, as Samson did when bound with cords, and by the power of Jesus Christ and the grace of the Holy Ghost, you shall tear asunder the bonds of hell like a thread.

When praying, we must remember that we are members one of another, and therefore that we must pray for all, as the prayer "Our Father ..." teaches us. The Apostles and all the saints are examples of this. If we remember this, and pray for others, then the holy angels will also pray for us, as members of the one Kingdom of Christ, of the one Church, of one body. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

The Lord is my life, my breath, my strength, my light, peace and joy, my food and drink; what shall I bring to such a Benefactor, or what shall I render unto Him? I will render unto Him, with His help, obedience to His Will, the fulfilment of His commandments. "If ye love Me," says He Himself, "keep My commandments." I will endeavour to please Him by seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and by counting earthly blessings as naught in comparison to heavenly ones; I will not let my heart cleave to anything earthly. O, Lord! grant me strength to accomplish this. Strengthen me Thyself by Thy right hand. My Strength, do not forsake me! Grant that I may put my trust in Thee alone, my Nourisher—in Thee, Who hast never forsaken me!

Life is the vivifying power. Therefore God, as the first source of life, and the cause of life, is infinite Power, vivifying all. This is also why the angels are called the heavenly powers: the human soul is also power. The angels and men are powers vivified by the first Life, borne, guided, and strengthened by the first Power in their reasonable and free service to the first Life. Death is the destructive power. The first power of this kind that appeared in the kingdom of the living God, Who created all things for life, was in the person of the Devil, and from him it passed to men and other earthly creatures, " for the creature was made subject to the bondage of corruption, by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same." That is, man, who subjected himself to the first destructive power, the Devil. As the Devil is a mental power, therefore, he acts by the power of his infernal mind upon our minds, originally perverted by his breathing, and separates us from God the Life by doubt and mistrust in God, the Power that is almighty and unchangeable in its attributes; he separates us from God Who is Love by the spirit of enmity, malice, and envy; he separates us from God the Spirit by strongly attaching our heart to earthly blessings. We observe that in the sinful, unnatural attachments of our heart there is a power working that is destructive to our soul—as, for instance, in malice, doubt, and all sins, in despondency, despair, and in resistance to God's commandments. On the other hand, the Lord God reveals Himself in our soul chiefly as the power of love: "The love strong as death," as the power of all virtues, overcoming all obstacles set against the soul by the powers of hell.

During prayer, before the icons or without them, it is necessary to always have full hope of receiving that which we ask for—for instance, deliverance from afflictions, spiritual sickness, and sins, because we have already a thousand times experienced that we do clearly obtain mercy from the Lord or Our Lady; and therefore, not to hope to obtain that which we ask in prayer, or to doubt in the fact of our prayers being heard, would be the greatest foolishness and blindness.

If anyone would ask you why you pray to soulless icons, what profit you derive from them, say that we derive incomparably greater profit from our icons than we do from the kindest and most benevolent living persons; say that blessed power and help to our souls always comes to us from icons, saving us from sins, sorrows, and sicknesses; especially from the icons of the Saviour and of the Mother of God; that one single look with faith upon them, as upon the living and those who are near to us, saves us from cruel sorrows, passions, and spiritual darkness; that if touching the Saviour's garment, and the garments and li and kerchiefs of the Apostles could restore health to the sick, much more are the images of the Saviour and of the Mother of God powerful to heal believers of every affliction, in accordance with their faith in the Lord and in His Mother.

My soul can imagine millions of images, for instance, of the One same Mother of God, and my hand can delineate as many images of Her as I please, and they will all be worthy of reverence, as She Herself is. Thus the supernatural and life-giving Unity has devised, created through Its creative Word, and sanctified through the Holy Ghost, the innumerable multitudes of Its reasonable images—the heavenly powers. Thus, likewise, the Father has devised and the Son, Himself the living image of the Father, has created, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost, His own sentient and reasonable image—man, and from him alone, to our continual wonder, until now, creatively forms such images, which are all living, beautiful, godlike, lasting, and eternal. Likewise, whatever quantity of icons I may paint, all of them are true and worthy of reverence to me, and I will undoubtedly reverence them if only they correspond to God's real, holy images (icons). What prevents our having as many holy images, for instance, of the Saviour Christ as there are separate Christian persons? Every image of the Saviour is His image, most worthy of reverence, shining in the soul of every true Christian.