Let's give another example. Often on the TV news we hear about degraded people — drunkards, drug addicts, corrupt women — and the ugly things they do. And so we begin to condemn these people. However, at the same time, we do not know the circumstances of their lives at all: what kind of childhood they had, in what environment they grew up, what heredity they have, and much more. What if we had grown up in such conditions? Wouldn't we be like them, or even much worse? The Monk Abba Dorotheus tells an incident of how two little girls were sold by a slave trader to different people: one was bought for upbringing by a pious woman of high spiritual life, and the other by a corrupt and depraved woman, who wanted to teach the girl her bad trade. Isn't it obvious that in twenty years these children will come out of completely different people? And many, looking at them, will praise the one, and condemn the other. However, God will judge every person with righteous, true judgment, for He is omniscient and takes into account everything, absolutely all circumstances, most of which are not known to us at all.

And so, brothers and sisters, let us not condemn people, forgetting the commandment of Christ that we have accepted. It is not given to us to judge, only God can judge. Our judgment always turns out to be false, it contradicts, it is hostile to God's judgment, which is why, by condemning, we become enemies of the Lord Himself. Let us be afraid of this, let us not become adversaries and enemies of God. Let us make an effort not to condemn any person. Then the Lord will not condemn us, then His word will be fulfilled in us: "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged." Amen.

Sunday of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land

You are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world, Christ says to His disciples in the Gospel. Saints are the salt of the earth, the meaning of its existence. The earth must bring forth fruits pleasing to God, that is, of the saints. Many of the Savior's parables speak of this, for example, about the evil husbandmen and the barren fig tree. From these parables it follows that the saints are the fruit for the sake of which the earth exists. Every Christian Orthodox people brings these fruits of holiness and righteousness to God. Among them are the Russian people, the Russian Church has been bearing such fruits to God for a thousand years.

In the Gospel there is also a well-known parable about a sower who sowed seeds in different places: by the wayside, in stony soil, in thorns, and, finally, on good ground. This parable shows how the Gospel word is received by the heart of each person, the hearts of different people. But this parable can also be applied to entire nations: each nation can be attributed to one of these four types.

There is no doubt that the word of the Gospel, sown in the heart of the Russian people a thousand years ago, fell on good soil. The Russian people accepted the Gospel message with all their hearts, gave Christ the holy of holies of their souls and brought Him abundant unearthly fruits of righteousness and holiness. In the liturgical Menaion, the list of the names of Russian saints alone occupies about thirty pages, and, of course, incomparably more saints are not listed in this list, but their names are known only to the Lord God.

Russia was called holy, and the highest ideal for it was always righteousness and holiness. Not all Christian nations have managed to preserve such an ideal. For example, the peoples of Western Europe, once Christian, have long since lost this heavenly ideal and replaced it with an earthly, human one. Not holiness, but decency, honesty, good manners, and similar human virtues have been the ideal for the West for many centuries. Of course, an honest, good, well-mannered person is also not bad, but the difference between such a person and a holy person is like the difference between earth and heaven...