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A collection of instructive writings by Archbishop John (Shakhovsky), which we offer to our readers, is about the apocalypse that takes place in each of us, about the apostasy (apostasy) that originates in our hearts, swallowed up by self-love, self-gratification, and self-pity. We do not see the "small" sins, we are accustomed to them, and they easily, almost insensibly, push us away from the only, narrow path, insidiously put our legs up, and force us into imperceptible slavery with "soft" flattery. His youth (he was born in 1902) coincided with a terrible and gloomy time for Russia. Having become a member of the White movement, he went through the Civil War: he saw blood, wounds and death closely. In exile, in emigration, he experienced the inhuman cruelty of the Second World War. However, in the articles published in this collection (we have collected them from various books of Vladyka), his gaze is turned not to the world in general, but to the inside of man. It is an analysis of the spiritual state of modern people and, at times, it is stunning in its fidelity. In the words of Vladyka there is a merciless denunciation, but it is permeated with the holy hope that purity and light will triumph in us, and the Orthodox faith will give us wings to rise above the kingdom of this world. And let us turn to God with supplication and hope: "Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow!" Oleg Kazakov

About knowledge

"What is holier and what is more salvific, perhaps, how, learning from the works of the Lord, to look at His throne of high glory in thought and preach His majesty, wisdom and power! To this astronomy opens the spacious edifice of His hands..." Lomonosov"Knowledge will be abolished" (1 Cor. 13:8)... Certainly not the knowledge with which the pure in heart behold the truth; not the knowledge from which the saints are constantly amazed; Knowledge will be abolished, which does not know its limitations, smallness, and temporality. Humble, reverent, and reverent knowledge will remain forever, for it belongs to the Heavenly Jerusalem.Belonging only to this world is a sign of the deadness of both man and knowledge. And only dead knowledge "puffs up" (1 Corinthians 8:1). Having no life in himself, man is puffed up with a phantom cognition of heights and depths. A pure spirit is not puffed up with any knowledge, for the fires given from above can be extinguished. The pure spirit always trembles and reveres the higher knowledge and infinitely diminishes its own. Does the heavenly knowledge of faith - the secrets of the salvation of mankind - contradict pragmatic knowledge, the knowledge of the "science" of the present World? Of course, it does not. The knowledge of a carpenter, a joiner, a camel driver, a painter, a doctor, a mathematician does not contradict the knowledge of a holy, believing, loving person, and every person in the world, no matter what knowledge he is and whatever talents he possesses, can be holy, believing and loving, without renouncing his earthly knowledge, but only by rising to the heavenly." The conflict" of "faith and science", "knowledge and faith" is a conflict that does not exist. Without heavenly faith, all applied knowledge, all earthly faith is insipid, lifeless, and tormenting. By this the Lord sanctified in the world all earthly labor and all knowledge of the earthly World: chemistry, physics, architecture, history, medicine, sociology, geometry; blessed the order of earthly scientific beliefs in axioms and hypotheses. But on condition that Caesar - the life of this world - does not overshadow God in the souls of people.Lomonosov, Pascal, Pasteur, Newton, the knowledge of the lower circle does not interfere with the knowledge of the upper circle. Contrary to the law of arrogance, they did not puff themselves up with their knowledge, their earthly beauty and loftiness. In their humility (humility is truth) they comprehended life in Christ. They understood that their "scientific" knowledge was not a "height" for their God-like souls, and therefore they found another height, another science, that of spirit and eternity. And how many scientists, with their metaphysical puffiness, deceive the hearts of ordinary people! How many simpletons run after the name of "professor", as they used to run after the name of "king", "hero"... And how many professors receive these idolatrous streams into their hearts! "A wicked and adulterous generation" (Matt. 12:39), adulterous in the most terrible sense of self-deification, self-adoration.The time is coming when all pure people of earthly science must peel off from their human dignity every patina of practical idolatry and be witnesses of God's glory, heralds of the diminishment of man in God, and through this - the resurrection of a new humanity. This ignorance will not be ignorance. Still less would it be ignorance. Striving to get away from falsely named knowledge, a person sometimes comes to the praise of ignorance, to the rejection of the grace-filled culture of knowledge. This is the path of the false philosophy of ignorance, the path of the Pharisees, assimilated by some tax collectors who stand apart from the life of the world and exalt themselves above the Pharisees of science. This is not the path that the Lord gives to overcome the temptation and emptiness of false knowledge.On all the old paths of life, it is characteristic of man to "get rich" and "know"; all the original lust of man is directed to this." And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes and desirable, because it gave knowledge, and she took its fruit and ate it" (Gen. 3:6)... This is the origin of the lust of knowledge, the sin in which the entire old world of man dwells... "to know", to be satisfied, to enrich oneself... But, "Woe to you, you who are rich!" ... "Woe to you, you who are satiated now!" (Luke 6:24-25).In the present state of mankind, no knowledge should be felt as knowledge. All knowledge should be experienced as ignorance.The more a person knows, the less he should feel that he knows. As in the spiritual science of contemplating the mysteries of the heavenly world, so in earthly science, true attainment is associated with conscious poverty. "I know only that I know nothing," said the most ancient philosopher, and this truth came closest to the heights of the earthly science of philosophy. The forms of its manifestation are different. This is either the "feu, feu, feu" of Pascal, or the rational agnosticism of Bergson, or the mystical agnosticism of St. Joan de la Croix, or the ashes sprinkled with the conduct of St. It is enough to cite a few words from the last facets of human learning to be convinced of the firmness of the premises of the philosophy of ignorance." How great, oh, how great is God, and our knowledge is insignificant!" (Ampere). "I don't know what I seem to the world. But I imagine myself as a child who plays on the seashore and gathers smooth stones and beautiful shells, while the great ocean deeply hides the truth from his eyes" (Newton). "What we know is nothing, and what we do not know is immeasurable" (Dallas). "Most scientists are aware of the limitations of positive science and recognize that the ultimate problems of the universe are inaccessible to it" (A. Ioller). "I have been much engaged in the study of nature; therefore I believe as a Breton peasant. If it were possible for me to study and investigate even more, I would believe in the simple childish faith of a peasant woman from Brittany" (Pasteur). The testimonies of the great scholars of the science of the spirit, the holy ascetics and the Fathers of the Church differ little from them. Their experience is infinite humility... Secrets are revealed to them, but these secrets reveal to them the mystery of incomprehensibility even more majestically." When you stand before God in prayer, become in your thoughts like an ant, as if crawling on the Earth, like a leech, and like a babbling child. Do not say anything of knowledge before God, but draw near to Him with childish thoughts." (Is. Sirin). To know oneself is a kind of perfection of knowledge; However: "The mind enters into the depths of the Holy Spirit after it has passed through all things visible and thought, and in the midst of those incomprehensible things it moves and revolves motionlessly, living more than life - in life, being light in light, and not light, since it is in itself (i.e., it can be separated from the Light of God). Then he does not see himself, but Him Who is above him, and being changed in thought by the glory there, he becomes completely ignorant of himself"... "Sometimes he is blind and not blind; he looks with unnatural eyes, since he has become higher than natural sight, having received new eyes, with which he looks above nature. He can be inactive and immovable, like one who has performed any of his own actions. He can be unthinking, as one who has become one with Him Who is above all thought, and has fallen asleep, where there is no place for the action of the mind, i.e. its movement in remembrance or thought or reflection. Not being able to comprehend and know the incomprehensible and wondrous, he rests on this in a certain way with perfect rest, this immobility of blessed insensibility, i.e. incuriously enjoying inexplicable blessings with a feeling, however, true and definite" (St. Symeon the New Theologian: Active and Theological Chapters, 148, 149). The metaphysics of the personal consciousness of the true scientists of the world is the same.Ignorance is the subject of man's first and last comprehension.It is surprising that the word "knowledge" is never found in any of the Gospels, and the Apostle Paul is the only one of all the apostles who speaks of "knowledge", only in three cases briefly speaks of positive knowledge as a gift from God: "The word of knowledge is given to another", (1 Cor. 12:8); "Whoever loves God is given knowledge" (ch. 8, 3), "but not everyone has knowledge" (v. 7). In four cases, however, he speaks of harmful foundations, both (1 Tim. 6:20) and consequences (1 Cor. 8. 1, 10, 11) knowledge. And in one case he says that knowledge will be abolished (1 Cor. 13:8).This extremely significant assertion of the Apostle, in connection with the general attitude to the problem of knowledge of the entire Revelation of God, acquires exceptional significance for Christian epistemological culture. Christian philosophy must firmly delineate, realize and confess in the world its attitude to the most painful problem of knowledge for the old humanity.As "the earth and all the works therein shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10) - they will pass through the fire of apocalyptic purification, so "knowledge" will burn up. The innumerable constructions of the old human mind will burn like straw. They will fall apart like a house built on sand. For the higher winds of knowledge must blow, and the heavenly waters of inconceivable comprehension must pour out. And every house that is not built on the Rock (Christ) will inevitably and predestinedly fall. Speaking of this, the Gospel (Matt. 7:27) even adds that this fall of the house will be great. This knowledge of God, "the first of the mysteries" of which "is called purity, which is attained by the work of fulfilling the commandments" (Isaiah the Syrian), is the Divine life in man: "the walk of God in man," created precisely for this walk of God in him, for this knowledge of God, and peace in God.This knowledge is pure, divine, holy. Salt and the crown of life! The blossoming of the spiritual in the "soul." Man is mad in his knowledge," said the prophet (Jeremiah, ch. 10, 14). "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "But as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8,9).Ignorance should be called not only false knowledge, but also insufficient knowledge, which, if a person overestimates it, becomes false knowledge. But the consciousness of this can become the source of man's unceasing belittling before the Truth, and thus open to him the path of pure knowledge. The Apostle himself resorts to expressing the utter weakness of human words: "The wisdom of this world is foolishness in the sight of God" (1 Corinthians 3:19). "Whoever thinks to be wise, let him be foolish." The Lord "chose the foolish, that He might put to shame the wise." The Apostle contrasts the old world of earthly wise men with new men: the wise in Christ (1 Corinthians 4:10). "I praise Thee, O Lord, Father of heaven and earth, for thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hath revealed them unto babes" (Matt. 11:25).The Christian word (that which has "salt" in it) "is not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the manifestation of the Spirit and power" (1 Cor. 2:4). 5). Where does such distrust of human wisdom come from? But this is not only distrust, it is a fiery rejection of the entire old circle of knowledge as an extra-godly existence. "Greeks seek wisdom"... (1 Corinthians 1:22). Who are these "Greeks"? - Old human culture, an old, self-contained world, fencing itself off from the living God. This is the philosophy of this world, of the wise men, "always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2, Tim. 7)... This is a painfully philosophizing and infinitely exalted perishable age, which has "only a form of wisdom" (Colossians 2:23). It is necessary to be insane - ignorant - in order to be reborn through this crucifixion of the old meaning, through this death of human insignificant profundity, to arise into a new world of the Wisdom of God. He will perish from his carnal science, which is not balanced, not sanctified by the pure knowledge of the spirit. What could be a blessing will be a curse on humanity. The unleashed force of matter will fall upon the unleashers and crush them. In the world of science and philosophy, what happens is already happening in all areas of the old life: "There will be two in the field: one is taken [into the Kingdom of God], and the other is left; two grinders on millstones: one is taken, and the other is left."

Teaching

"I come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." (Jn. 10:10.)If it is difficult to teach, then it is even more difficult to teach teaching. For teaching is both a great sin and a great good. Teaching is a sin, because: "And do not be called teachers, for Christ is one Teacher among you" (Matt. 23:10). And - "My brethren, do not many become teachers, knowing that we shall be subjected to greater condemnation" (James 3:1). 5:19) and - "How beautiful are the feet... who preach good tidings" (Romans 10:15). The blessedness of teaching is difficult, and it is difficult to get rid of his sin. The teacher becomes like God. Incorrectly (improperly, and not in the proper spirit) the teacher is likened to an idol and the devil. This is the cross of true teaching, and its glory.The Gospel is the Word directed not only to the disciples, but also to the teachers, for the disciple of God is the teacher of men. To live according to Christ means to constantly teach everyone and to learn through everyone and from everything. To live according to Christ is to teach oneself unceasingly.Teaching the truth to others is only an increase in one's teaching.Whoever teaches himself in the Gospel (manifests God's love for himself) can also teach others. He who teaches himself correctly pours out the rightness of his heart, and of his teaching on others. For he sees others as parts of himself. And to them he pours out his knowledge of love. To Him radiates his knowledge of truth; in words, and deeds, and silence, and prayer.In the loving, everything teaches; Nothing is at rest, everything is poured out, radiated, communes with everything, and communes everything with its love. False teaching is the sowing of tares (Matt. 13:25) - the bitter grass of evil and ignorance. The word of heaven is sown through the word of man. The word of man is a kind of grain; the word of God is the power of life in the seed. The form must rot, and the human word must be erased. The power of God, which fertilized the word of man, bears fruit. The judgment of the word is silence, in which all that is true matures and grows (Metropolitan Philaret). Otherwise, it will be false.The word of truth is a thin wire by which the spirit of God flows to the heart of man and changes the heart. "You have already been cleansed through the word which I have preached to you" (John 15:3)." I, says the Lord, am the searcher of hearts" (Rev. 2:23)." Faith comes from hearing" (Rom. 10:14). Faith is a change of nature; not persuasion, but a change of nature; not persuasion, but the change and transformation of man. Hearing and word are conductors of faith to the heart - from another heart. The positive and negative movement of the spirit takes place beyond the thresholds of our consciousness, and is only partially caught by the experience of our life (the Gospel is about the grass, invisibly, but noticeably growing, Mark 4:26-29). True teaching matures with the innermost person of the heart (1 Peter 3:4), and is not hidden from either people or angels. (From men - sometimes, from angels - never; and therefore there is always power for the world and its salvation). Blessed is the podvig of the preachers of the Word, "preaching on the housetop" (Matt. X, 27); blessed is the podvig of the silent wandering in the ravines of the earth (Heb. 11:38) of the holy hermits. Their light teaches and warms millions of people..."Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12:34). What is this excess of heart?... Poisonous moisture has a poisonous vapor. Fragrant, - fragrant with its evaporation. The spiritual content of the heart cannot be hidden, it shines through a person, pours out of the eyes, comes off the tongue, from all movements and traits. The good cannot live in the same heart with the evil as water cannot live with fire. Either fire destroys water, or water floods fire. Their struggle is the torment of the human heart. The torment disappears only with the victory of evil or good, and a person either calms down in evil and self-will, becomes (in Satanic terms) "above good and evil" (Nietzsche), or finds the rest of the Lord - the blessed "Saturday" of freedom from passions and lusts. The first "rest" is an expression of spiritual death; the second is life in Christ.Every person has his own contents of the heart. A person must constantly work on the purification of this contents, in order to see the Lord, in order to touch the Lord with his hands. This blessedness is promised by the pure in heart (Matt. 5:8). The fire of the Spirit must evaporate from the heart all the waters, drops and foam of passions (sinful self-will). The water of Baptism must quench all the "flammed arrows of the evil one" (Ephesians 6:16), the fire of lust and sin. So that the one higher nature may reign in the heart, enlivening it with the fire of holiness, and cooling it with the waters of the Higher Life. The water of sin and death is burned by the fire of the love of the Gospel, and the fire of hell is quenched by the waters of grace.But until this resurrection of man is accomplished (already in this life), there is a struggle for eternal life: the joy and torment of man." The "abundance of the heart" is the radiation of the given (at this moment) content of the heart. Excess must be preserved, not revealed. This is the law of man's primary spirituality. You need to manage your "excess", to be able to keep it. The evil one must be restrained and incinerated. The good must be kept - preserved, as something precious, hidden, nectar, disappearing - with careless and irreverent handling. The fire of the heavenly spirit is entrusted to him who knows how not only to open it wisely in the World, but also to shield it with his hands from the sick eyes of the world." One must guard one's "excess" of grace as the apple of the heart's eye, a thousand times more subtle than the external, which looks at the temporal manifestations of the world. They want to hide it, but they can't. Let the discovery of good always follow this path. And then there will be a true surplus. If we ourselves begin to discover our good "surpluses," we will open our unaffirmed hearts, and we will be wounded (Matt. 7:6). If we begin to hide the heart, we will reveal the excess, to the extent that we have hidden the heart... For the Lord will already manifest His abundance of love through our hearts, which are dead to their righteousness. Wonderful and subtle is this law; Blessed is its use. You see it on modest, conscientious people, on people who do not know their truth, but shine with their truth. To enlighten oneself secretly, to reflect the light of God in the world secretly." Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand is doing" (Matt. 6:3), "Pray to thy Father in secret" (Matt. 6:6)... Take heed, do not your alms before men, that you may be seen by them (i.e. for this reason) (Matt. 6:1)... "The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which is the least of all seeds (in the world of earthly phenomena) (Mk. 6, 3031). A secret attitude to the world around him, hiding in the Lord. Entrusting oneself and one's deeds to the Almighty.The Optina Elders for the most part denounced them secretly (under the guise of some story or event from their personal lives). Mysterious admonition is the most acute, "cutting" a person. The Word of God divides us only that which is most direct, i.e. not forced and acute, to enter into our soul. We seek a conviction that does not violate our freedom, and every human word drags us along; only the Word of God (even in the word of man) calls us, showing His love. The Living God is the greatest freedom and mercy. We must be filled with this mercy, and then our word will teach and liberate. or, in other words, martyrdom. Martyr in Greek means "witness," and a witness (of God's truth in the world) is always a martyr. For he must overcome the thorns of his own heart and the thorns of the devil, and of the whole world. Witness is manifest teaching in the world. Truth must penetrate to the last sphere of the world, to its farthest waves, to embrace hearing and voice, air, breath and language. When we testify (clearly speak the truth of God in the world and about the world), we speak not only to the person to whom we are speaking at the moment, but also to the whole world: angels and men, the sun, the air, the earth and the sky... For the truth, expressed by the sound of the voice of man, passes through all the heavens (Rom. 10:18) and, rejoicing the angels, lies down at the Throne of God, as a kind of seed that must rise on the Last Day. Immensely valuable is this confession of the word, the testimony of the Truth, through sinful man in the sinful world! Verily, whoever is not ashamed of Christ, the Son of God (His righteousness, His purity), the Son of Man will not be ashamed of him when He comes according to His glory, "with the holy angels" (Lk. 9:26), adds the Gospel. For the angels are witnesses of our words.The truth can only be spoken "from the abundance of the heart." And it is impossible to hear about the Truth "without him who preaches" (Rom. 10:14). But, "How can they preach if they are not sent?" (Rom. 10. 15)... The world must hear the truth of God - from itself, from its own lips, from the lips of sinful people... "With thy mouth I will judge thee, O wicked servant" (Luke 19:22). That is why the angels on earth are silent, and men are sent. Their heart is given an "abundance," and that excess gives them the power of testimony. It is possible to testify only to what "the eyes saw", that "the hands touched" (1 John 11). "On the Word of Life". The heart must touch, the heart must see Christ. Only such testimony is accepted in the judgments of God and man.

About laughter