On bodily and spiritual feats

The Savior of the world, during His wanderings on earth in the vale of our exile and sufferings, visited two pious women, sisters, Martha and Mary, who lived in a village neighboring Jerusalem, Bethany. They had their own home in Bethany. They had a brother, Lazarus, who was honored to be called a friend of the God-Man and His Apostles [1147]. From the Gospel it is clear that the Lord visited the house of a pious family more than once. During one of these visits, He resurrected Lazarus, who had already been lying in the tomb for four days.

The Holy Evangelist Luke tells us that during the Lord's visit to this house, mentioned above, Martha began to treat the most desirable Guest, and Mary sat down at His feet and listened to His word. Martha, concerned only that the feast should be the most satisfactory, asked the Lord to command Mary to help her. But the Lord answered: Martho, Martha, take care and pray for many, but there is only one thing that is needed. And Mary chose the good part, which shall not be taken away from her [1148]. According to the explanation of the Holy Fathers, Martha mysteriously depicts a pious bodily feat, and Mary depicts a spiritual one [1149]. The story of the Lord's present visit to the two sisters is read, according to the Church, on all the feasts of the Mother of God. For these two reasons, the consideration of the events and teachings contained in the story should be both especially significant and especially edifying.

Martha was the elder sister, and is represented by the Evangelist as the mistress of the house. She receives the Savior into the house, she disposes of the treats, cooks food, cleans the meal, and brings dishes. Its service is an uninterrupted activity. And bodily labor, according to seniority, occupies the first place in the ascetic life of every disciple of Christ. "By bodily work," said St. Isaac of Syria, "the soul is preceded, just as the creation of Adam's body precedes the creation of his soul. He who has not acquired bodily work cannot have spiritual work: the second is born from the first, like an ear from a sown naked grain of wheat [1150]. Bodily podvig consists in the fulfillment of the Gospel commandments bodily. These include: giving material alms, accepting strangers, participating in the various needs and sufferings of needy and suffering humanity. These include chastity of the body, abstinence from anger, from luxury, from amusement and absent-mindedness, from ridicule and gossip, from all words that express malice and impurity of the heart. This includes fasting, vigil, psalmody, genuflections, standing at prayer in church and in the cell. This includes monastic obediences and other external feats. Bodily podvig requires the continuous activity of the body: it passes from one bodily good deed to another, and sometimes it combines several good deeds in itself, performing them at the same time. Bodily podvig gradually cleanses the soul of passions and acquaints it with the spirit of the Gospel. The Gospel commandments, being fulfilled in practice, little by little transmit to the executor the deep thought and deep feeling that dwell in them, impart to the executor the Truth, the Spirit, and the Life. Bodily podvig has its limit and end: this limit and end consist in the ascetic's decisive transition to spiritual podvig. A decisive transition is crowned with a gradual transition. Martha's ministry ended when the Lord's feast was completed.

Mary, sitting at the foot of Jesus, heard His word [1151]. The position adopted by Mary serves as a depiction of the state of the soul that has been vouchsafed to enter upon spiritual podvig. This state is a state of calm and humility at the same time, as St. Barsanuphius the Great said: "By inner work, combined with illness of the heart (with the weeping of the heart), true silence of the heart is produced; from such silence humility is born; humility makes man the abode of God" [1152]. He who has attained service to God in spirit abandons outward deeds, abandons the care of other ways of pleasing God, or uses them moderately and rarely, in cases of special need. In his spirit he is prostrate at the feet of the Saviour, heeds only His word, recognizes himself as a creature of God, and not as an original being [1153], recognizes himself as cultivated and God as a worker [1154], and gives himself over entirely to the will and guidance of the Saviour. It is obvious that such a state is brought to the soul by a more or less prolonged bodily feat. And Mary would not have been able to sit at the feet of the Lord and direct all her attention to His teaching, if Martha had not taken upon herself the care of the reception. Service and worship of God in Spirit and Truth is that good part, that blessed state which, having begun during earthly life, does not cease, as bodily feats cease with the end of earthly life. The good part remains an inalienable part of the soul in eternity, and in eternity it receives full development. The good part is not taken away from the soul that acquired it, it remains forever its property.

Bodily podvig is very often concealed by a very important defect. This defect consists in the fact that the ascetic exercises himself in podvig recklessly, when he gives the podvig an excessive price, when he performs bodily feats for themselves, erroneously enclosing in them and limiting in them all his life, all his pleasing to God. Such an incorrect assessment is always accompanied by the humiliation of spiritual podvig, the desire to distract those who are engaged in it from it. She considered Mary's behavior wrong and insufficient, and her own more valuable, more worthy of respect. The merciful Lord, not rejecting Martha's ministry, condescendingly remarked to her that there was much that was superfluous and vain in her ministry, that Mary's work was an essential work. With this remark, the Lord cleansed Martha's podvig from arrogance and taught her to perform bodily service with humility. That's right! Bodily podvig, not yet illumined by the spiritual mind, always has in itself much that is vain and superfluous. The one who labors in it, although he labors for God's sake, labors in the old man; in his field tares grow with wheat; he cannot be free from the influence of carnal wisdom on his way of thinking and activity. It is necessary for all of us to pay due attention to the instruction made by the Lord, and to perform our good deeds done through the body with the greatest humility, like slaves who are obliged to do the will of their Lord, unable to do this will as they should because of weakness and sinful damage. It is very useful for those who are engaged in bodily podvig to know that there is another podvig, an incomparably higher podvig, a spiritual podvig, a podvig overshadowed by Divine grace. He who has no spiritual work, said St. Isaac of Syria, remains a stranger to the gifts of the Spirit, [1155], whatever his bodily feats may be. The great instructor of monastics likens bodily work, in itself, when the work of the mind in the inner cell does not help him, to barren beds and dry breasts, because bodily work cannot approach the mind of God [1156]. We see this on Martha. She was so busy with her work, so sure of its significance, that she did not ask the Lord for an order pleasing to Him, but offered her understanding and her order, interceding that they be fulfilled.

Why was the reading of this Gospel story established by the Holy Church on all the feasts of the Mother of God? For the Mother of God brought to the God-Man the most exalted bodily service and the most sublime ministry of the spirit, composing all His words in Her hearts [1157], observing everything that happened to Him from His infancy, and all that pertained to Him, composing in Her hearts [1158]. To explain this, the story from the next chapter of the Gospel of Luke is accompanied by an appeal to the Lord by a certain woman who heard the Lord's teaching: "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breast, which Thou didst suckle" [1159], and the Lord's answer to this appeal: "Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it" [1160]. God's answer to human judgment! Human judgment recognized the Mother of God as blessed solely because of Her birth of the God-Man: the God-Man exalts the dignity of the Mother of God, calling especially blessed those who hear the word of God and keep it. The Mother of God possessed this blessedness above all men, heeding the words of the God-Man and preserving them with such compassion as no man had. Here again the service of the spirit is given precedence over the service of the body, as opposed to human judgment.

The merciful Lord calls all people to His service. Service to the Lord, coupled with the crucifixion of the old man, with the rejection of carnal and sinful desires and understandings of him, has its own work; but this work also has its consolation, the consolation given by a good conscience and Divine grace. The yoke of Christ is easy, and His burden is easy to bear [1161]. Those who wish to enter into the service of the Lord with the aim of receiving Him into the house of their souls and giving Him rest with the repose commanded by Him, must begin with bodily asceticism, with the fulfillment of the commandments of the Gospel through bodily actions. Our soul is connected with the body by creation, dependent on it by reason of the fall. It becomes infected with sinful ailments, passions, because of bodily actions; passions are destroyed in it, good habits and virtues are introduced into it through bodily actions. He who allows himself to act on the impulse of anger is enslaved by reason of the habit formed by the actions of anger passion; Those who allow themselves to act according to the suggestions of greed are infected with the passion of love of money, covetousness, and avarice. In the same way, all passions enter the soul based on the external activity of man. From this we can see the necessity of bodily podvig; it is essential for the expulsion of the passions by actions contrary to the demand of the passions; it is necessary for the inculcation of virtues in the heart as directed by the Gospel. A prudent bodily podvig, based on the word of God, illumined by the word of God, accomplishes to a large extent the liberation of man from sin, forms of him to a large extent a confidant of virtue, a servant of Christ. Such bodily podvig in the very soon arouses a spiritual podvig, capable of bringing salvation.

Both cold and heated bodily podvig, alien to the soul, alien to that spiritual mind which is required by the word of God and should be the soul of bodily podvig, is pernicious. He leads into self-conceit, into contempt and condemnation of one's neighbors, leads into self-deception, forms an inner Pharisee [1162], alienates from God, unites with Satan.  When the grace of God abundantly overshadows the ascetic, then an abundant spiritual struggle is revealed in him, leading to Christian perfection. Then its sinfulness is revealed to the soul, which until now had been hidden from it! Then its veil will be removed from its gaze, and the immense, majestic eternity that has hitherto been hidden from it appears to the soul! Then the hour of death, which stood somewhere far, far away, draws near and stands before the very soul, before its eyes! Then earthly life, which had hitherto seemed infinite, is reduced to the shortest dimensions: the life that has passed is like the dream of a past night! The remaining field of life merges in one dying hour! Then, from the depths of her soul, lamentations arise that she has never known before! there is a cry that she has not felt before! A prayer arises, such as she has never said before! Prayer and weeping arise in the very depths of the soul, they are pronounced by the mind and heart in the silence of the lips, they are lifted up to heaven, they throw the praying person at the feet of the Saviour, they hold him at the feet of the Saviour; the soul, in confession of its sinfulness and the infinite greatness of God, enters into perfection, is brought to perfection by the right hand of the all-good God, Who both created man and recreates him. Bless the Lord, O my soul, Who cleanses all thy iniquities, Who healeth all thy infirmities, Who delivereth thy life from corruption, Who crowneth thee with mercy and mercies. Thy eternal youth will be renewed like an eagle [1163] by the omnipotence of the Saviour, Who renewed our nature in Himself and renews us by Himself. Amen.

Слово

на открытие Иоанно-Предтечева женского монастыря

близ города Ставрополя Кавказского

Изыдите от среды их и отлучитеся, глаголет Господь: и нечистоте их не прикасайтеся: и Аз прииму вы: и буду вам во Отца, и вы будете Мне в сыны и дщери, глаголет Господь  Вседержитель [1164]. К кому из человеков произнесено это призвание Божие? — к тем, которые познали и уверовали, что назначение, данное Богом человекам при сотворении, возвращенное при искуплении, заключается в том, чтоб человеки сделались сынами и дщерями Божиими. От кого повелевает Бог отлучиться людям, желающим соделаться сынами и дщерями Божиими? — от общества тех людей, которые увлечены житейскими попечениями, земным преуспеянием, земными наслаждениями, которые не обращают никакого внимания на высокое духовное назначение человечества.

Обольстительна земная жизнь! страшно падение наше! Мы видим своими очами, что все без исключения братия наши после более или менее продолжительного странствования на земле, одинаково краткого пред беспредельною вечностию, умирают; мы видим, что они покидают здесь и богатство, и все временные преимущества, самое тело свое. Мы видим это; мы знаем, что и мы должны непременно умереть, но проводим земную жизнь, как бы вечные на земле; все силы души и тела истощаем на искание земных благ, отнимаемых смертию; предаемся греховным пожеланиям и стремлениям, жаждем насладиться обильно грехом, убившим нас, попираем заповеди Божии, пренебрегаем Его угрозами и обетованиями. Очень естественно, что при таком поведении человеческого общества Бог повелевает избранным Своим: Изыдите от среды их и отлучитеся, и нечистоте их не прикасайтеся: и Аз прииму вы: и буду вам во Отца, и вы будете Мне в сыны и дщери.