Remember the Lord your God Deut. 8,18

Reverently commemorating our venerable and God-bearing Father Sergius, we fulfill the commandment of the Apostle: "Remember ye your leaders" (Heb. 13:7). This apostolic commandment brings to mind the prophetic commandment: Remember the Lord thy God. And this is not for one subservience, but for a more significant reason. The pious memory of the saints is a branch, the root of which should be reverent remembrance of God, just as the grace of the saints is a sprout from the life-giving root of God's power, or a ray from the inaccurate Light of God. In order for the branch to be green, blossom and bear fruit, a living root is needed for this. Thus, in order for the memory of the saints to be beneficial, it is necessary that a living remembrance of God be implanted in the heart.

Thus, we will not deviate from the subject of the present celebration, but will still serve it, if we enter into some reflections on the commandment: Remember the Lord thy God.

This commandment was offered to the people of God by the Prophet Moses in a great sermon, which he pronounced to them at the end of his prophetic and legislative ministry and inscribed in the book of Deuteronomy. "Hear, O Israel," said the prophet, "thou hast traversed the memorable course of forty years' pilgrimage under the direct guidance of God; The time is coming in which you will have to justify the guidance given to you by being able to guide yourself. In the promised land, do not bring down your bread with poverty (Deuteronomy 8:9), and you will eat and be satisfied (10) - how will you make use of real prosperity? Remember all the way, which the Lord thy God hath shown thee (2). The dangers through which you have passed, the difficulties you have overcome, the miracles of which you have been a witness and an object - what use will you make of these memories of the past? I show you the path of righteousness and salvation: remember God, the author of all these blessings. Remember the Lord thy God."

Remember God. If this demand is accepted in its literal limitations, then one may think that it is too moderate, not to say meagre, and not in proportion to its subject. Is it enough to demand from a son that he sometimes remember his father? And isn't such a requirement superfluous? Can a son forget his father? Is it not even offensive to the son when it is assumed that he can forget his father? Is not man immeasurably more indebted to God than a son is to his father among men? The father gave his son life, but not his own, but received from God the Creator. The father brought up his son, introduced him to society, ensured his well-being, but all this was only with the blessing and under the protection of God the Providence. The son acts, not with the mind of the father, but with his own, not with the will of the father, but with his own, with the power not of the father, but with his own. But man can neither act, especially to act righteously, nor to think, especially to think good, nor to live, especially to live blessedly, without God, Who bears all things by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3), in Whom we live and move and are (Acts 17:28), without Whom we are not content to think of ourselves, as of ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:5), to Whom I will hide my face, all things will be troubled: ... and they shall perish, and return to their dust" (Psalm 103:29). With such an attitude of man to God, is it enough to demand of man that he sometimes remember God? And isn't such a requirement superfluous? Is it possible for a person to forget God? Is it not even offensive not only to God, but also to man himself, when it is assumed that he can forget God? There is no doubt that everyone's conscience will say to this: this is exactly how it should be, or so it should be.

This is how it should be by contemplating truth and justice. But what do we see in reality? Let us not look for a twig in someone else's eye - let each one touch his own, whether there is a log in him. Do we not spend many hours and whole days immersed in matters of earthly duties or simply arbitrariness, self-interest, and whim, without thinking of the heavenly duty: "Remember the Lord thy God"? When we encounter difficulties in business, obstacles, failures, deprivations, insults, do we not sometimes torment ourselves for a very long time with fruitless sorrow or vexation and an unsuccessful search for means to help ourselves, without using a close and sure means – to remember God and ask for His help, or to surrender to His will? Having success in business, enjoying security, abundance, a pleasant position in society, privileges in rank, in service, do we not pass from the bustle of worldly activity to moral slumber, in which we dream of our dignity, praise our art, expand our views immensely, exaggerate our hopes - and do not know how to wake up in order to remember God, to see His beneficent hand above us, and to give Him praise and thanksgiving?

Let us compare these experiences of life with the contemplation of truth and justice indicated above. If it is not enough to demand of the son the remembrance of the father, because in addition the son owes to the father reverence, love, obedience, if it is even less to demand of man the remembrance of God, because in addition to this man is indebted to God for reverence, love, and the fulfillment of His commandments, then how much are we guilty when we do not fulfill even that after the fulfillment of which it should be said: If it is so characteristic of the son to remember his father that it seems superfluous to remind him of this, if it is much more characteristic of man to remember God, then how strange, how unnatural, that man should forget God! If it is an insult to the dignity of a son to suppose that he can forget his father, and it is even more offensive to the dignity of man to assume in him that he forgets God, then how gravely do we offend the dignity of the mind, heart, conscience, and human nature by really forgetting God! And how much more do we offend God through this!

O righteous God! If Thou hadst recompensed for our long and repeated forgetfulness of Thee only by a moment of Thy forgetfulness of us, we would have fallen below hell, for even those who are there are not strangers to Thy remembrance, since they are not strangers to Thy providence. But Thou, O Long-suffering, do not forget the man who forgets Thee, and meekly remind him of Thyself by the word of Thy Revelation: Remember the Lord thy God. Remember God. Unto Thee, O Lord, is righteousness, but unto us is the shame of the face (Dan. 9:7).

The prophet, stirring people up to the remembrance of God, applies his instruction especially to the state of well-being: "Remember the Lord thy God, for He hath given thee strength, that thou shalt make strength" (Deuteronomy 8:18). This special application does not mean that it is necessary to remember God in well-being more than in a different state, but that in well-being a person is more exposed to the danger of forgetting God and therefore more requires a warning from this. An example of this is presented by the same prophet in the prophetic song about Israel, which was justified with bitter accuracy by events: "Jacob was satisfied, and the beloved was denied; uty, thicken, wider; and forsake God who created him, and depart from God your Saviour (Deuteronomy 32:15).

Warn yourselves with this example, beloved new Israel. If you see yourself prosperous, make use of your well-being in moderation; if you feel strength in yourself, remember God, Who gave you strength; beware lest the heart, which is abundantly nourished by earthly pleasures, become numb and incapable of heavenly sensations; try to nourish it not so much with visible blessings as with the thought of the invisible Giver of blessings, which can keep it always as an open vessel for grace.

Some of the above reflections require that the question of why the prophet, demanding remembrance of God, demands so little, be left unresolved, when a person owes God not only remembrance, but also reverence, love, and the fulfillment of the commandments. This is for the same reason that the farmer sows a small seed, for he knows that if it is received by the good land, it will of itself produce a large plant and abundant fruit. Remembrance and remembrance of God is the seed of virtue and the seed of blessedness.

The attentive remembrance of God gradually turns into a constant remembrance of Him. With constant remembrance of God is naturally combined the feeling of oneself in the presence of God and the thought of the perfections and works of God. From the thought of the perfections and works of God, when sensing His presence, reverence for God, faith, prayer, love, the desire to please Him, and the fear of violating His commandments arise and grow.

God, having chosen Abraham, wanted to make him perfect. What means did He use for this? Remembering God and walking in His presence. Walk before Me, He said, and be perfect (Genesis 17:1).