St. John of Kronstadt · 7 of 49

Part I · Part 7

Alas! many are led astray by the gift of freedom, given by God to men, and by the possibility of being good and evil; and after having fallen into sin, men are more easily inclined to evil than to good. They blame the Creator, and say: "Why did God create us thus, and why did He not create us so that we could not fall and do evil?" Whilst others ascribe the corruption of man by sin to the imperfection of nature, setting aside God in their thoughts, and considering the whole world, with all its phenomena and objects, as something impersonal, not independent, not a free creation, of which they themselves are parts. This is what estrangement from the Church does! Into what ignorance have you sophists fallen! Meanwhile our children know clearly, exactly, and surely that which you do not know. You blame the Creator; but is He to blame if you yourself, through inattention to His voice, through your own evil nature and ingratitude, have abused the greatest gift of His goodness, great wisdom, and omnipotence—I mean the gift of freedom, which is an imprescriptible feature of God's image? Should He not be acknowledged the more merciful for having granted this gift to men, unshaken by the ingratitude of those who receive it, so that His goodness might shine upon all brighter than the sun? And has He not indeed proved His boundless love and infinite wisdom in bestowing upon us the gift of freedom, when, after our having fallen into sin, after our estrangement from Him, and our spiritual ruin, He sent into the world His only begotten Son "in an image made like to corruptible man," and gave Him to suffer and die for us? Who, after this, will blame the Creator for having given us freedom? "Let God be true, but every man a liar." Work out your own salvation, each one of you; struggle, vanquish, but do not think yourself most wise; do not accuse the Creator of being unmerciful and unwise; do not blaspheme the all-merciful God. Raise yourself through love; ascend higher and higher, step by step, to spiritual perfection, which it is impossible to obtain without freedom. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

In our body, during all our lifetime, a war goes on between the principles of life and death, of good and evil, of sickness and health. The principles of death, being for a long time conquered by the principles of life (vitality), at last overpower the principles of life, because our body, being elementary and sinful, does not in itself contain any principles of life, but borrows them from the soul, which, through sin, also bears in itself many of the principles of death, and is too weak to be able to resist the principles of mortality existing in the soul itself. Besides this, the inner man is renewed at the expense of the corruption of his outward parts. The vigilant, ever-active spirit, by the exertion of this very activity, finally destroys the weak frail body. Besides this, hereditary bodily diseases in course of time increase more and more, and also destroy the bodily organism. Thus the life of man on earth is a gradual daily dying. And our passions? How much of our health they too bear away! And intemperance, excesses in eating, drinking, sleeping, and pleasures? How all these impair the health! Therefore, if our body is continually wasted, and visibly approaches its end, let us despise it as transient, and care with all our strength for the immortal soul. The body is a faithless, fleeting friend.

We possess a true barometer which shows the rise and fall of our spiritual life—that is, our heart. It may also be called a compass, by means of which we are guided in our voyage over the sea of this life. It shows us whither we are going—to the spiritual east, to Christ; or to the spiritual west, the dark power that has the power of death—the Devil. Only watch this compass attentively; it will not deceive, and will show you the true way. "If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God"—that is, we are drawing nigh to the east.

That which a man loves, to which he turns, that he will find. If he loves earthly things, he will find earthly things, and these earthly things will abide in his heart, will communicate their earthliness to him and will find him; if he loves heavenly things, he will find heavenly things, and they will abide in his heart and give him life. We must not set our hearts upon anything earthly, for the spirit of evil is incorporated in all earthly things when we use them immoderately and in excess, this spirit having become earthly by excessive opposition to God.

When God is present in all a man's thoughts, desires, intentions, words, and works, then it means that the kingdom of God has come to him; then he sees God in everything—in the world of thought, in the world of action, and in the material world; then the omnipresence of God is most clearly revealed to him, and a genuine fear of God dwells in his heart: he seeks every moment to please God, and fears every moment lest he may sin against God, present at his right hand. "Thy kingdom come!"

Examine yourself oftener; where the eyes of your heart are looking. Are they turned towards God and the life to come, towards the most peaceful, blessed, resplendent, heavenly, holy powers dwelling in heaven? Or are they turned towards the world, towards earthly blessings; to food, drink, dress, abode, to sinful vain men and their occupations? O that the eyes of our heart were always fixed upon God! But it is only in need or misfortune that we turn our eyes to the Lord, whilst in the time of prosperity our eyes are turned towards the world and its vain works. But what, you would ask, will this looking to God bring me? It will bring the deepest peace and tranquillity to your heart, light to your mind, holy zeal to your will, and deliverance from the snares of the enemy. "Mine eyes are ever looking unto the Lord," said David, and gave the reason for it: "For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.""For He shall speak peace unto His people and to his saints, that they turn not again."

When you doubt in the truth of any person or any event described in Holy Scripture, then remember that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," as the Apostle says, and is therefore true, and does not contain any imaginary persons, fables, and tales, although it includes parables which everyone can see are not true narratives, but are written in figurative language. The whole of the Word of God is single, entire, indivisible truth; and if you admit that any narrative, sentence, or word is untrue, then you sin against the truth of the whole of Holy Scripture and its primordial Truth, which is God Himself. "I am the truth," said the Lord; "Thy word is truth,"said Jesus Christ to God the Father. Thus, consider the whole of the Holy Scripture as truth; everything that is said in it has either taken place or takes place.

Do not give way to the dark evil inclinations in your heart against your neighbour, but conquer them and uproot them by the power of faith, by the light of a sound mind, and you will become kind and gentle. "I have walked innocently." Such inclinations frequently arise in the depths of the heart. He who has not learned to subdue them will be often gloomy, melancholy, a burden to himself and to others. When they come to you, force yourself to be cordially disposed; to mirth and innocent jests; and the evil inclinations will be dispersed like smoke. This is from experience.

It is a strange phenomenon in our nature, perverted by sin, to hate those to whom we do good, and to make them pay for our benefits by disliking them! Oh, how narrow and poor in love and grace is our heart! How selfish it is! The enemy may well mock at us; he wishes to destroy the fruits of our good works. But the more good you do to others, the more you must love them, knowing that those who receive your benefits serve as a pledge to you of your receiving forgiveness from God.

In asking anything of the Lord, or of His Most-pure Mother, or of the Angels and Saints, it is needful to have such faith as the centurion of Capernaum had. He believed that in the same manner as his soldiers obeyed him and fulfilled his words, so much more, at the Almighty Word of the All-merciful God, his request would be fulfilled. If creatures with their limited powers fulfilled that which He asked them to do, then will not the Master Himself through His Almighty power fulfil the requests of His servants who turn to Him with faith and hope? Will not the Most-pure Mother of God, the Angels and Saints, His true servants mighty through grace and in intercession with God, also fulfil our requests offered with faith, hope, and love? They will indeed; and I believe, with the centurion, that if I pray as I ought, and for what I ought, to any Saint: Grant me this, he will grant it to me; Come to my help, he will come; Do this, and he will do it. This is the simple, firm faith that we must have!

Every lying thought bears in itself a proof of its falsehood. This proof is its deadly effect upon the heart; "for to be carnally minded is death." Likewise every true thought contains in itself a proof of its truth. This proof is its vivifying effect upon the heart; "but to be spiritually minded is life and peace," says the Apostle.

"Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul: that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."It was thus with the Mother of the Lord in the full sense of the words; it is also thus with other good and God-fearing persons, and their souls also are pierced with a sword in order that the thoughts of the hearts of those who come in contact with them may be disclosed; that is, sometimes God places them in such relations with other people in whose souls much hidden evil lies concealed, that they involuntarily speak out from the abundance of the evil within them, and it flows from their lips like a foul stream or like a whole river. Then they begin to do deeds unworthy of the name of man, and it is only after this that others learn what these persons were inwardly who were previously considered wise, learned, and estimable (the scribes and pharisees—both of old and of the present time).

"Thy kingdom come;" that is, the kingdom of life, for at present the kingdom of death continues for the greater part under the dominion of him who has the power of death--the Devil. How can the kingdom of God come to a man during his present life? Through hearty repentance. "Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.", Let the impious man then give up his godless opinions, the mercenary his love of money, the deceiver his deceitfulness, the drunkard his drinking, the glutton his gluttony, the dissolute his dissipation, the proud his pride, the vain his vanity, the envious, the insatiable, his envy and his insatiableness, the impatient and murmurer his impatience and murmuring, and let everyone learn to do the acts of Christian love, and especially "to bear the infirmities of the weak."

Outward prayer is often performed at the expense of inward prayer, and inward at the expense of outward; that is, when I pray with my lips or read, then many words do not penetrate into the heart, I become double minded and hypocritical; with my lips I say one thing, whilst in my heart I feel another. The lips speak truth, whilst the disposition of the heart does not agree with the words of the prayer. But if I pray inwardly, heartily, then, without paying attention to the pronunciation of the words, I concentrate it upon their contents, their power, gradually accustoming my heart to the truth, and thus entering into the same disposition of spirit in which the words of the prayer were written. In this way I accustom myself, little by little, to pray in spirit and truth in accordance with the words of the Eternal Truth: "They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." When a man prays outwardly aloud, then he cannot always follow all the movements of his heart, which are so rapid that he is necessarily obliged to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words, and to their outward form. Thus the prayers of many of the clergy who read rapidly become quite untrue: with their lips they seem to pray; in appearance they are pious, but their hearts are asleep, and do not know what their lips say. This proceeds from the fact that they hurry, and do not meditate in their hearts upon what they are saying. We must pray for them, as they pray for us; we must pray that their words may penetrate into their hearts and breathe warmth into them. They pray for us in the words of holy persons, and we must pray for them also.

We sin in thought, word, and deed. In order to become pure images of the Most Holy Trinity, we must strive that our thoughts, words, and deeds may be holy. Thought corresponds, in God, to the Father, the word to the Son, and the deed to the all accomplishing Holy Ghost. The sins of thought are not an unimportant matter for the Christian, because all that is pleasing to God in us is comprised, according to Saint Macarius of Egypt, in thoughts, for the thoughts are the beginning from which words and deeds proceed: words, because they either benefit those who hear them or are corrupt and tempt others, perverting their hearts and thoughts; and deeds, still more, because examples act more powerfully than anything upon people, inciting them to imitate them.

Your Lord is love: love Him and in Him all men, as His children in Christ. Your Lord is a fire: do not let your heart be cold, but burn with faith and love. Your Lord is light: do not walk in darkness and do not do anything in darkness of mind, without reasoning or understanding, or without faith. Your Lord is a God of mercy and bountifulness: be also a source of mercy and bountifulness to your neighbours. If you will be such, you will find salvation yourself with everlasting glory.

He who says prayers hurriedly, without hearty understanding and feeling, being conquered by his slothful, sleepy flesh, does not serve God, but serves his own flesh, his self-love, and reviles God by his inattention and the indifference of his heart to prayer: "God is a spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" --not hypocritically. However slothful and weak your flesh may be, however inclined to sleep you may be, conquer yourself; do not spare yourself for God; renounce yourself; let your gift to God be perfect; give God your heart.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge." This silent but evident declaration of the heavens of their creation by the Almighty has reached even us, and there is no language or dialect in which this declaration is not understood. And now, since the time of the Incarnation of the Son of God, all the glory of God, the glory of His love towards mankind, as well as the glory of creation, is declared unto us by the Gospel and the Holy Church; by the voices of the preachers of the Gospel; by those who celebrate the Sacraments and prayers; that is, the priests, readers, and singers; by the sound of bells, not excluding also the preaching of the heavens with their luminaries. But the preaching of the living voice is more lively, more intelligible and striking. The glory of the Lord is declared by all the earth, and by all earthly beings.

In all your works, either at home or at the place of your service, do not forget that all your strength, your light and your success are in Christ and His Cross; therefore, do not fail to call upon the Lord before beginning any work, saying: Jesus, help me! Jesus, enlighten me! Thus your heart will be supported and warmed by lively faith and hope in Christ, for His is the power and glory unto ages of ages.

Take care; do not forget, Christian; never lose hearty faith in Him Who is your invisible Life, your Peace, your Light, your Strength, your Breath; that is, in Jesus Christ. Do not believe your heart when it becomes gross, darkened, unbelieving, and cold from plenteousness of food and drink, from worldly distractions, or finally when you live by the intellect, and not by the heart; that is, when you exercise the intellect and neglect the heart, or, when you enlarge and adorn the net, leaving the fisherman himself in poverty and need; for the heart, comparatively speaking, is the hunter or fisherman whilst the intellect is the fisherman's net.

In times of rest, ease, and gratification of the flesh, the latter revives with all its passions and inclinations, whilst in times of oppression, vexation, and weariness, it is subdued with all its passions; this is why, in His wisdom and mercy, the Heavenly Father subjects our soul and body to grievous afflictions and sicknesses, and this is why we must not only patiently endure these afflictions and sicknesses, but must rejoice in them, even more than in a state of spiritual calm, ease, and bodily health, for the spiritual condition of the man who is not subjected to spiritual afflictions or bodily sicknesses must undoubtedly be bad, especially during an abundance of earthly blessings; his heart imperceptibly generates all kinds of sins and passions, and exposes him to spiritual death.

Remember that the Lord is in every Christian. When your neighbour comes to you, always have great respect for him, because the Lord is in him, and often expresses his will through him. "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Therefore, do not grudge anything to your brother, but do unto him as unto the Lord; especially as you do not know in whom the Lord will come and visit you; be impartial to all, be kind to all, sincere and hospitable. Remember that sometimes God speaks even through unbelievers, or disposes their hearts towards us, as it happened in Egypt when the Lord gave Joseph favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

My heart finds its peace in the highest, in spiritual things and not in earthly and material ones. Grant, Lord, that I may ever meditate on the highest, and entirely renounce earthly wisdom. My trust is in Thy goodness! "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help."

As the word of the man reveals what is in his mind and heart (reveals the mind—unseen, dominating, and creating), and as the breath proceeds from the man through the word, revealing the mind or the thought, so, somewhat similarly, the Word of God reveals to us the Father—that great all-creating Mind—and, through the Word, the Holy Ghost, the life-giving Spirit, Which is the power of the Highest, eternally proceeds from the Father and is revealed to men. "The power of the Highest shall overshadow Thee." Now the words of the Saviour are comprehensible: "No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him."That is, only the Son reveals the Father unto men, as our word reveals our thought hidden in the soul. Such is the closeness of the union between the Father and the Son! And every Person has Its particular dominion and Its own, so to say, work. And, therefore, the Lord said to his disciples: "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart I will send Him unto you."Glory to Thee, Son of God, Who hath revealed unto us the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost! Thy Word is truth; we live by all and each separate word of Thine. They are our sweetness, peace, and life; especially the words concerning the Comforter.

Strengthen yourself by the undoubting invocation of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. He is well known to you. You so often invoke Him upon the Holy Gifts, and He, at your prayer, unfailingly and continually transubstantiates them, and you yourself partake again and again of the fruits of His divine acts.

You must preserve with the greatest care in your frail vessel, in your heart, the treasure of the Spirit, "the rivers of living water in your belly"; you must watch your heart, must be kind, and refrain from irritability and movements of self-love, from attachments to earthly things, and from impure risings of the flesh; otherwise, the priceless treasure of the Spirit will immediately leave you, peace and joy will vanish from your heart together with that feeling of the extraordinary, angelic, spiritual lightness of the soul, soaring free; the rivers of living water, which only until then flowed and abundantly supplied the furrows of the soul, will also vanish, the soul will be filled with a strange fire, cruelly burning it within, depriving it of peace and joy, filling it with affliction and oppression, and inciting it to irritability and blasphemy. So manifest, so sharply defined is the change within us of the kingdom of God into the kingdom of the enemy, the kingdom of life into the kingdom of death! The Christian sees this with his inward eyes, and marvels at the truth and holiness of God; marvels also at the watchfulness of the enemy, who ever, "as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour."

God the Father is—life, God the Son is—life, God the Holy Ghost is—life: The Holy Trinity is—life. Life is in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; if you deny in your heart the Father, you deny the life of your heart; if you deny the Son, you deny your life; if you deny the Holy Ghost, you also deny your life. So that your doubt will bring spiritual death into your heart, sorrow and painful oppression, whilst God will remain the God of life in three Persons; if you cast away doubt from your heart, and acknowledge with your whole heart all the Three Persons as your God, as your life, then life will again enter into your heart.

Whilst reading or listening to sacred works, honour heartily in those who wrote them the image of God the Word, or God the Word Himself, speaking through them. Remember always, whilst reading books of spiritual or worldly contents, that man is God's image and that this image of God is in the thought, word, and spirit through which he speaks. Accustom yourself always to look upon every man with deep respect, as upon the image of God, but especially when he speaks, and above all when he speaks of God. Oh, how divine he is then! From being accustomed to men, from being acquainted with them, with their everyday life, from being accustomed to the gift of speech in ourselves and in others, we set little value upon this gift, we even sometimes despise it in others; and thus the devil, through our self-love and inattention, blasphemes the image of God in men. We must by every means humble our hearts and subdue our proud intellect, lest we should be like the contemporaries of the prophets, who looked on them only as sweet-voiced singers, and nothing more; they did not wish to fulfil their commands, they even despised, persecuted, beat, and killed them; lest we should be like those, by whom "no prophet is accepted in his own country."However insignificant and unimportant the man may be, honour in him the image of God, especially when he speaks with love, and, above all, when he speaks of and does the works of love.

Let us suppose that you have written a book about the Holy Trinity, and have printed a thousand copies of it, or, perhaps, as many as you liked. And in all these copies of your book there is not only the same spirit, but also the same words, and they all have the same form. It is thus with the offering of the Body of Christ. It is offered throughout the universe in an innumerable multitude of churches. The same Trinity acts on all Christian altars; in every lamb there is the one same Christ and His Spirit, as the contents are in the book. Everywhere the offering has the one same form, and thus this most holy mystery is like a single great sacred book of the Lord's love to mankind, prepared in innumerable quantities throughout the universe under the one same form and with the one same spirit living in it, in Whom love abounds, and Who took upon Himself the sins of the world--that is, the Spirit of Christ. Here is another similarity. There are multitudes of individual human beings upon the earth; they all have the same bodily shape, the same soul, with similar, though not identical, capabilities; and all these beings have one name--that of man. All men are similar to each other, and have sprung from the same origin, primarily from God the Father, the Son, and His Spirit, and afterwards from one pair. This is why, amongst other things, God's law commands us to love everyone as ourself, because of the identity of our nature. Thus, you see many persons, and they are one by the identity of the nature of their soul and body. Likewise the Lord, in His life-giving Mysteries--wherever they are offered--is eternally the sole, indivisible, Creator, "and hath made of one blood all nations of men."Through His one Spirit, living in the Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood, celebrated in all the churches of the world, He wishes to unite us to Himself—we who have fallen from union with Him through sin and obedience to the Devil—and to cut off and cleanse that which in all of us prevents union with Him and with each other," that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us."Such is the object of the mystery of the Communion.

Why is it wonderful that the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, and that Christ rests in them as the soul rests in the body? Why is it wonderful when the Devil nestles in a tiny germ (in the heart) of the infant, and grows stronger with the growth of the body, so that afterwards the infant is born with the Devil already concealed and nestling in its heart? O, what infinite goodness and wisdom the Lord has shown by giving us the most pure Mysteries of His Body and Blood, and by the fact that they are received by Christians into their very hearts—that is, there where the Devil nestles, having the power of sin and "the power of death"—as a perfect antidote to bestow upon us life and holiness, and to drive away sin and death! Just as undoubtedly as the Devil and every sin often nestles in our hearts, so undoubtedly does Christ, the life-giver, our sanctification, dwell in our hearts. Our Lord is mightier than the Devil. If the Devil still lives and works in our hearts through our attachments to earthly things, then how shall not Christ enter into our heart, through faith and repentance, when it was created to be the temple of God? How shall not Christ enter into our heart precisely in His Blood and Flesh, corresponding with our spirituality and our fleshliness? Also, if the Devil can give life and speech to the image of the beast, then cannot Christ dwell in the bread and wine, transforming them, and completely assimilating them to Himself as His Flesh and Blood?

A burning-glass only sets fire to wood, paper, or any other combustible material when we place it in such a position that the rays of the sun, concentrated in the focus of the glass, being all concentrated upon one point of the object, will act upon it through their entire combined power, and thus direct on the object, as it were, the whole sun on a small scale. It is thus also during prayer, when our souls are warmed, vivified, and inflamed by the wise sun--God, when through our intellect, acting like the burning-glass, we direct upon our heart, as the spiritual point of our being, the mental Sun, and when it acts upon the heart with all its singleness and power. Likewise in regard to the Mother of God, the angels, and the saints. Fix upon your heart their images as they are, with all their power and sanctity; let your heart receive enlightenment from them with all possible fulness and power, and become inflamed by the abundance of their love as by the action of fire--their holiness, purity, goodness, and strength will be communicated to your heart; it will itself be cleansed, itself be strengthened in faith and love; and the more resolutely, the more constantly, your heart is turned towards God and His saints the more it will be enlightened, purified, and vivified.