Priest Sergius Kruglov did something simply unthinkable in normal times: he met with a Protestant heretic, asked him how things were with biblical studies in Russia, what were the prospects for the language of the Church, what tradition and ritual were, and then published this interview on the Pravmir website. I personally cannot imagine that any pastor who lived in antiquity, say, the Apostle Paul or St. Athanasius the Great, would go to a heretic to understand the essence of Christianity, and then begin to distribute a recording of a conversation with him among his flock.
In the photo: priest Sergius KruglovPossession of heretical literature was punishable by death penalty
The disciple of the Apostle John the Theologian, Hieromartyr Polycarp of Smyrna, said that when his teacher saw the local heretic Cerinthos in the bathhouse, he ran out into the street with the words: “We run, lest the bathhouse collapse: there is Cerinthos, the enemy of the truth.”
And the Apostle John commanded his spiritual children not only not to talk to heretics, but not even to greet them. His Second Epistle says: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home and do not welcome him.” According to interpreters, here the apostle warns Christians against communicating with heretics - the Docetes.
The “Apostolic Constitutions” say: “Flee, we say, communication with heretics and be a stranger to peace with them.”
True shepherds and spiritual fathers forbade not only conversations with non-believers, but also reading their scriptures. The Monk Isaiah the Hermit said: “Having found a heretical book, do not allow yourself to read it, lest your heart be filled with deadly poison.”
At the Ecumenical Councils, resolutions were adopted on the burning of heretical books. At the First Ecumenical Council, in the sessions of which such great people as St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and St. Spyridon of Trimifuntus took part, it was decided to impose the death penalty on those who would be caught in possession of the works of the heretic Arius. And those who dared to defend the teachings of Arius, the fathers decided to send into exile or imprisonment.
And these are not excessive precautions. Those anti-modernists who are forced to read articles by modernists know firsthand that heretical teachings terribly darken the mind and soul.
Communication with heretics and reading their writings can lead to truly tragic consequences. Even the Monk Anthony of Radonezh was terribly injured while defending the Church from the attacks of one schismatic. When he was still a layman, he once came to visit a schismatic. He began to attack the Church. The Monk Anthony began to defend her. At some point, the schismatic stated that there are no incorruptible relics. These words of his sank into the soul of the Monk Anthony, and the demons began to fiercely inflame the doubts that arose in him.
Things got to the point that he began to demand that one monk reveal to him the relics of the blessed Prince Konstantin of Murom and his children. And when he refused to do this, he stated that it was not the relics that lay there, but dolls covered with a veil. And this is what, in the words of St. Anthony, followed after this: “The heart was taken over by anger, annoyance at everyone and everything; in the spirit there is unpeace, terrible languor, melancholy, blasphemous thoughts not only against the relics, but also against everything holy. I felt that the enemy had taken possession of me, that I was dying.” And it is also good that the Lord, through one priest, revealed to His chosen one the incorruptible relics of the blessed Prince Gleb, the son of the blessed Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky. After this, the Monk Anthony came to his senses, otherwise he would have perished in the whirlpool of heresy.
Wolf in sheep's clothing
What is priest Sergius Kruglov doing? He goes to have a conversation with the Protestant heretic Mikhail Kalinin, not with the goal of turning him to the path of truth, but in order to get answers from him to the following questions: “What is tradition, in your opinion, why is the ritual?”, “How are you?” What do you think are the prospects for the language of the Church?”, “What from Orthodoxy has become valuable to you?”, “How, in your opinion, is the situation with biblical studies and translations of the Holy Scriptures in Russia today? What translations do you use?”, “What is your view on the current state of the Church (both Protestant and Russian Orthodox) in Russia, on its relationship with society?” Moreover, from the last question it is clear that priest Sergius Kruglov believes that the Protestant heretical community is part of the Church - this is the heresy of ecumenism.
And Protestant Kalinin rants for a long time about the Church, about how he feels about the Synodal Translation of the Bible, through whom he came to understand the “Ladder” of St. John Climacus. That is, priest Sergius Kruglov and the portal “Orthodoxy and the World” place a heretic, mired in a satanic distortion of the truth, as a judge over Orthodoxy, over the fathers and over the Church. This is an incredible humiliation of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, the head of which is Christ. After this, how can the editorial staff of Pravmir and priest Sergius Kruglov be considered Orthodox people? They simply mock us and what is sacred to us.
The true shepherd - Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) - did not go to Catholics and Protestants for admonition, but called them soul-dead people in communion with the devil: “You say: “Heretics are the same Christians.” Where did you get this from? Would anyone who calls himself a Christian and knows nothing about Christ, out of his extreme ignorance, decide to recognize himself as the same Christian as the heretics, and not distinguish the holy Christian faith from blasphemous heresies! This is not how true Christians talk about this! Numerous hosts of saints accepted the crown of martyrdom, preferring the most severe and prolonged torment, prison, exile, rather than agree to participate with heretics in their blasphemous teaching. The Universal Church has always recognized heresy as a mortal sin, has always recognized that a person infected with the terrible disease of heresy is dead in soul, alien to grace and salvation, in communion with the devil and his destruction.”
Attempts at unity with heretics are betrayal of Christ
When priest Sergius Kruglov asks another question, he says that the Holy Spirit acted through both the Orthodox and heretics: “The language of theology is the language of high poetry. Psalms of David, hymns of Simeon the New Theologian, poems of Milton and Dante, “The Prophet” by Pushkin and poems from “Doctor Zhivago” by Pasternak, sermons of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh and Father Georgy Chistyakov, diaries of Father Alexander Elchaninov, Father Alexander Schmemann and Father Thomas Merton, poems of Charles Peguy, Thomas Eliot, Timur Kibirov, Sergei Averintsev, Olga Sedakova and so on - all of this is nourished by one Spirit, and all of this is the language of the Church.”
Dante is a Catholic, Milton is a Protestant, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, priest Georgy Chistyakov and priest Alexander Schmemann are modernist heretics. The Holy Spirit could not work through them. Only Satan could work through them.
When priest Sergius Kruglov asks another question, he calls the falling away of Catholics from the Church through heresies, (as it actually was), the separation of two churches due to political and cultural ambitions: “In the first years of my priestly ministry, I remember, I was very painful perceived the fact of the schism of the Churches, seeing it only as a sin: Christ created one Church, and people split it, following their political, cultural, ethnic ambitions and selves. Today, knowing that the Lord is trying to make for us, if not candy, then a life-saving medicine out of all our sins, I think about this a little differently, not so clearly: in the end, although the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel resulted in the dispersion of one humanity, peoples and tribes, having lived in dispersion, realized a certain potential invested in them by God, each accumulated some kind of unique wealth, and now people born in these peoples and traditions can share it, while simultaneously living the experience of accepting the “other.”
From the text of the question it is clear that priest Sergius Kruglov hopes that the Orthodox Church will be united with associations of Catholics and Protestants, and that the Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants will bring all the wealth that they have accumulated over previous centuries to the created united community. That is, this priest considers all the heresies accumulated by heretics to be wealth, and believes that we need to be enriched with them. In fact, as soon as such a unification occurs, the Orthodox Church, having absorbed heresies, will fall away from Christ and turn into a false church.
Here is what Archimandrite Lazar (Abashidze) wrote in the article “Easter without the Cross or once again about ecumenism”: “Ecumenism will remain a destructive force in relation to the true faith, no matter how you approach it. This is obvious evil, and subtle and insidious evil, craftily seducing, killing saving faith, evil that acts on the soul inconspicuously, but paralyzes the most important centers of the spiritual life of a Christian. We affirm that any religious communication with heretics, attempts to unite with them while remaining silent, covering up differences, dogmatic irreconcilability of the teachings of Orthodoxy with the teachings of any heretics and infidels, and similar double-minded, hypocritical behavior that teaches Orthodox people to hide the most important the basis of their faith, the essence of their entire spiritual life - that the Truth is only in Orthodoxy and nowhere else - all this is a betrayal of Christ, a departure from the True God! We, Orthodox Christians, firmly believe and have no doubt that the Truth is only in Orthodoxy.”
Alla Tuchkova, journalist
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"It came to Rus', as in science fiction films, unprecedented and Invisible War, which, without pity, deals deadly blows to the heart of Russia... Nowadays it is often said that our economic, social and demographic losses after the brutal “perestroika” reform of Russia exceed the consequences of the Great Patriotic War. And all this without bloody bombings, without atomic explosions, without invading troops, without punitive forces...” It would seem that Father Alexander Kruglov speaks about the obvious, and even from the frequency of repetition, things that have become ingrained in the teeth, but meanwhile, his book gives the impression of an alarm bell , the call: “Arise, sleeper!”, look around, finally realize what is happening in the world and in your country, and try to reconsider your whole life in the light of this sober awareness: it began and is already happening on earth The Last War. This war is fundamentally different from all the wars that have flooded the history of mankind - “the wild Horde demanded only tribute and slaves, but not divine worship of itself. It did not need our immortal souls. Now the time is different. Again we are divided, but this time we are ruthless enemies Russia came just for our restless souls..."
The book by Father Alexander Kruglov is not a historical or political science study; its genre can be defined as “the word of the shepherd” - these are thematically organized sermons, which are combined into chapters, the very name of which speaks of the traditional nature of the genre. “Jericho”, “Samson and Bartimaeus”, “Procession from Jericho to Jerusalem”, “Burning Sheaves”, Mysterious “Holder”, etc. - the history of Russia is viewed through the prism of Biblical history, everything that happens today is revealed in light of the Apocalypse and ancient prophets. And in this light, “everything secret becomes clear” - everything that we experience in our days receives a clear definition - “the mystery of lawlessness in action.”
A low bow to the priest for calling everything by its proper name, tracing the subtlest connections between events and making a self-evident conclusion: the “peaceful time” after the Second World War, the time of “local conflicts” is simply a “sluggish” Third World War.. The quiet occupation of the entire Christian world can hardly be considered unintentional... America faces the same problems. Its white population is already approaching the point where it can become oppressed by its black and Latin American representatives, as recently happened with the white population in South Africa. The tragedy of America can be even more terrible, the same events are happening in Europe..."
This statement demonstrates that we seems to be the most important thing in the book - thinking stereotypes are broken. One of them is “all evil comes from America,” the second (and this is even more important and topical): “Russia will be saved by Orthodox patriots.” I don’t know the biography of Father Alexander Kruglov, but he is clearly well aware of the realities of our patriotic movement. From his entire history of the last fifteen to twenty years, the author of “The Last War” makes a seemingly paradoxical conclusion: it is the patriots who can prepare the coming of the “man of lawlessness.” Why? In answer to this question, the priest makes a deep pastoral diagnosis of the spiritual state in which many patriots have found themselves in recent years. “In patriotism, they received such a narcotic delight from unity with the “mystical spheres”, which they could not think of before..., cunning evil from the very beginning of the patriotic movement slyly hid itself in the patriotic environment itself. It became the main destructive force. And they themselves the destroyers most often did not realize this... The thirst for the acute sensation of being chosen and dangerous attracts to forbidden secret knowledge, electrifying the exhausted soul..., a split personality occurs. In the circle of his own, he is a patriot of patriots..., but at the right moment it triggers in the head a kind of “switch”, and a sincere brother of the momentary moment becomes just as sincerely a sworn enemy.”
Father Alexander explains the reason why such substitutions occur: “Warfare with people-demons - the focus of the “mystery of lawlessness” - is the lot of God’s chosen few, giants of the spirit, who have pacified the weakness of their flesh through many labors and great sorrows. Their harsh warfare is not for everyone , who has only learned to read forbidden books... Often, patriots who have frivolously tasted the mystical fruit of arcane knowledge, from constant fears, nervous and mental overloads... begin to experience unbearably painful torment - “circles of hell”!”
What happened and is happening with our patriotic movement, according to Father Alexander, especially clearly confirms that in our time one can be saved only by protecting oneself with constant prayer and without losing real church life. One has only to replace confession and communion, the daily prayer rule and strict observance of Sundays and holidays with the fight against the forces of evil, as this fight turns against the fighters themselves. This is one of the main features The last war- be able to deceive a person, plunge him into self-deception, so that through this he can deceive others.
Of the entire almost eight-hundred-page book, chapter twenty-two, called “Koshchei the Immortal,” seems especially successful in terms of presentation of material (form of appeal to the reader). Through the plot and images of the famous Russian fairy tale, our past, present and future become clear. Let us quote the main points from this chapter: “Ivan Tsarevich is a collective image of the Russian people, who often exterminated themselves in the darkness of spiritual blindness. Only blindness can explain, for example, the bitterness of bloody princely and popular civil strife, revolutions and perestroikas” - this is about the past.
About the present: “The reason for the constant defeats of Ivan Tsarevich was his spiritual ignorance. Each time, entering into battle with the enemy, he fought not with the real Koshchei, but with his dreamy image. So Russia has always had many enemies, but many of them They only distracted from the main thing. The main thing is the one who kills to death! "
About the future: “Since time immemorial, there have been tales in Russia about the war between the insidious monster - Koschei the Immortal and the simple-minded Ivan Tsarevich... finally, the prince was killed. To be sure, Koschei chopped his body into small pieces and scattered them in all directions, Apparently he felt that this would not end well for him anyway, and he was not mistaken.
In the legends, Ivan Tsarevich was resurrected... In exactly the same way, the revival of Rus' defeated by the enemy occurs every time. At first, the seemingly long-dead parts of the kingdom gather invisibly. This is the first miracle. An invisible and almost incredible resurrection of a lost people. The holiness of faith little by little revives the souls of people dead from sin... In the same way, a sudden revival of the destroyed Russian kingdom can happen.”
Book The Last War, despite the fact that it contains many pages that chill the soul with horror - from the description of the fanaticism and cruelty that is now happening, and from assumptions about the even greater cruelty of people that is coming - it can still be generally called optimistic. In the sense in which the Apocalypse is optimistic.
Running through the entire book is the conviction expressed already on its first pages: “We must distinguish for ourselves two simultaneously occurring processes - the spiritual degradation of the majority of representatives of the ruling class and a fairly significant part of the people and the maturation of, albeit a few, who have remained faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Church ". The outcome of catastrophic events depends on those few who, with their loyalty, sacrifice and fearlessness, transform the rest of fallen society." The book constantly contains, albeit unnamed, the image of Kitezh-grad: “The visible flesh of the Russian kingdom, living in space and time, tragically died, but its soul, spiritually united with the Eternal Kingdom, remained inviolable. The invisible and powerful royal spirit of the people of Russia and "now still maintains a fragile state balance in the modern world."
The optimism of the conclusions that sound at the end of the book The Last War, for a non-believer it may seem paradoxical, - after all, before this, the hellish subtleties of the ideological, psychological, mystical war being waged on us are described - all of them can plunge one into despondency, fetter the soul with fear.
But, as you know, the source of the greatest fear and despondency is when the enemy is not visible, not recognized, not named. And, when “the secret has become clear,” when “the enemy does not come like a thief in the night,” when they are preparing to meet him, then all that remains is to remember the words of the Lord: “Do not be afraid, little flock!” and, most importantly, not to withdraw into your loneliness, but to seek unity with the army of Christ.
BOOKSHELF
AWAKE, YOU SLEEP!“An unprecedented and invisible war has come to Rus', as in science fiction films, which without pity deals deadly blows to the heart of Russia. ...Now it is often said that our economic, social and demographic losses after the brutal “perestroika” reform of Russia exceed the consequences of the Great Patriotic War. And all this without bloody bombings, without atomic explosions, without invading troops, without punitive forces..." (Priest Alexander Kruglov. The Last War. M: Enlightener, 2004).
It would seem that Father Alexander Kruglov is talking about obvious and trivial things. But, nevertheless, his book gives the impression of an alarm bell, a call: “Arise, sleeper!” Look around, finally realize that the Last War is already going on on earth. This war is fundamentally different from all the wars that have flooded the history of mankind - “the wild Horde demanded only tribute and slaves, but not divine worship of itself. She didn't need our immortal souls. Now the time is different. Once again we are divided, but this time the ruthless enemies of Russia have come precisely for our restless souls..."
The book by Father Alexander Kruglov is not a historical or political science study; its genre can be defined as “the word of the shepherd” - these are thematically organized sermons, united in chapters, the very name of which speaks of the traditional nature of the genre. “Jericho”, “Samson and Bartimaeus”, “Procession from Jericho to Jerusalem”, “Burning Sheaves”, “The Mysterious “Holder”, etc. The history of Russia is viewed through Biblical history, everything that happens today is revealed in the light Apocalypse and ancient prophets. And in this light, “everything hidden becomes clear” - what we are experiencing in our days receives a clear definition - “the mystery of lawlessness in action.”
A low bow to the priest for calling everything by its proper name, tracing the subtlest connections between events and making a self-evident conclusion: the “peaceful time” after the Second World War, the time of “local conflicts” is simply a “sluggish” Third World War.. The quiet occupation of the entire Christian world can hardly be considered unintentional. ...America faces the same problems. Its white population is already approaching the point where it can become oppressed by its black and Latin American representatives, as recently happened with the white population in South Africa. The same events are happening in Europe..."
The most important thing about the book is that it breaks stereotypes of thinking. One of them is “all evil comes from America,” the second (and this is even more important and topical) is “Russia will be saved by Orthodox patriots.” I don’t know the biography of Father Alexander Kruglov, but he is clearly well aware of the realities of our patriotic movement. From the history of this movement of the last two decades, the author of “The Last War” makes a seemingly paradoxical conclusion: it is the patriots who can prepare the coming of the “man of lawlessness.” Why? In answer to this question, the priest makes a deep pastoral diagnosis of the spiritual state in which many patriots have found themselves in recent years. “From the very beginning of the patriotic movement, cunning evil has cunningly hidden itself in the very patriotic environment.
A split personality occurs. In his circle of friends, he is a patriot of patriots... but at the right moment, a certain “switch” is triggered in the head, and a sincere brother a minute ago instantly becomes an equally sincere sworn enemy...”
Father Alexander explains why such substitutions occur: “Warfare with demonic people – the focus of the “mystery of lawlessness” – is the lot of God’s chosen few, giants of the spirit, who have pacified the weakness of their flesh through many labors and great sorrows. Their harsh warfare is not for everyone who has only learned to read forbidden books... Often, patriots who have frivolously tasted the mystical fruit of arcane knowledge, from constant fears, nervous and mental overloads, begin to experience unbearably painful torment - “circles of hell”!
What is happening with our patriotic movement, according to Father Alexander, especially clearly confirms: in our time one can be saved only by protecting oneself with constant prayer and without losing real church life. One has only to replace them with the fight against the forces of evil, and this fight turns against the fighters themselves. This is one of the main features of the last war - to deceive a person, to plunge him into self-deception, so that through this he can deceive others.
Of the entire almost 800-page book, the 22nd chapter, which is called “Koshchei the Immortal,” seems especially successful in terms of presentation of material (form of appeal to the reader). Through the plot and images of the famous Russian fairy tale, our past, present and future are clarified. “Ivan Tsarevich is a collective image of the Russian people. The reason for Ivan Tsarevich's constant defeats was his spiritual ignorance. Each time, entering into battle with the enemy, he fought not with the real Koshchei, but with his dreamy image. So, Russia has always had many enemies, but many of them only distracted from the main thing. The main one is the one who kills to death!”
The author says about the future: “From time immemorial in Rus' there have been tales of a war between the insidious monster Koshchei the Immortal and the simple-minded Ivan Tsarevich... finally, the Tsarevich was killed. To be sure, Koschey chopped his body into small pieces and scattered them in all directions. Apparently, he felt that this would not end well for him anyway. And I was not mistaken. In the legends, Ivan Tsarevich was resurrected... In exactly the same way, the revival of Rus' defeated by the enemy occurs every time. At first, seemingly long-dead parts of the kingdom gather invisibly. This is the first miracle. An invisible and almost incredible resurrection of a lost people. The holiness of faith little by little revives the souls of people dead from sin... In the same way, a sudden revival of the destroyed Russian kingdom can happen.”
Running through the entire book is the conviction expressed already on its first pages: “We must highlight for ourselves two simultaneous processes - the spiritual degradation of the majority of representatives of the ruling class and a fairly significant part of the people and the maturation of, albeit a few, who have remained faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Church . The outcome of catastrophic events depends on those few who, through their loyalty, sacrifice and fearlessness, transform the rest of fallen society.”
The optimism of the conclusions sounded at the end of the book “The Last War” may seem paradoxical to a non-believer. After all, before this, the hellish subtleties of the ideological, psychological, mystical war being waged on us are described - all of them can plunge one into despondency and shackle the soul with fear.
But, as you know, the source of the greatest fear and despondency is when the enemy is not visible, not recognized, not named. And when “the secret has become clear,” when the enemy has no opportunity to come “like a thief in the night,” when they are preparing to meet him, then all that remains is to remember the words of the Lord: “Do not be afraid, little flock!” and, most importantly, not to withdraw into your loneliness, but to seek unity with the army of Christ.
“Simultaneously with the enemy invasion, another process is taking place, which, although it has not yet become a turning point in the fate of Russia, many things, apparently, are leaning towards that. ...In the language of military science, on Russian soil there is a gradual formation of two irreconcilable armies. On the one hand, all the sworn enemies of Christ and Russia become. They are generously fed by the world's evil, they are dynamic, cheeky, and well-fed. On the other hand, the building of the bright army of Christ is underway. It is built and protected until the time of the inevitable decisive battle by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. His army is usually low-key, more modest both in appearance and physically. All our strength lies in the great treasure - the Orthodox faith. And our strength is made perfect in weakness!”
L.SAMARINA
“It came to Rus', as in science fiction films, unprecedented and Invisible War, which without mercy deals deadly blows to the heart of Russia... Nowadays it is often said that our economic, social and demographic losses after the brutal “perestroika” reform of Russia exceed the consequences of the Great Patriotic War. And all this without bloody bombings, without atomic explosions, without invading troops, without punitive forces...” It would seem that Father Alexander Kruglov speaks about things that are obvious and even from the frequency of repetition, ingrained in the teeth, but meanwhile, his book gives the impression of an alarm bell, a call : “Arise, sleeper!”, look around, finally realize what is happening in the world and in your country, and try to reconsider your whole life in the light of this sober awareness: it began and is already happening on earth The Last War. This war is fundamentally different from all the wars that have flooded the history of mankind - “the wild Horde demanded only tribute and slaves, but not divine worship of itself. She didn't need our immortal souls. Now the time is different. Once again we are divided, but this time the ruthless enemies of Russia have come precisely for our restless souls..."
The book by Father Alexander Kruglov is not a historical or political science study; its genre can be defined as “the word of the shepherd” - these are thematically organized sermons, which are combined into chapters, the very name of which speaks of the traditional nature of the genre. “Jericho”, “Samson and Bartimaeus”, “Procession from Jericho to Jerusalem”, “Burning Sheaves”, Mysterious “Holder”, etc. - the history of Russia is viewed through the prism of Biblical history, everything that happens today is revealed in light of the Apocalypse and ancient prophets. And in this light, “everything secret becomes clear” - everything that we experience in our days receives a clear definition - “the mystery of lawlessness in action.”
A low bow to the priest for calling everything by its proper name, tracing the subtlest connections between events and making a self-evident conclusion: the “peaceful time” after the Second World War, the time of “local conflicts” is simply a “sluggish” Third World War... Hardly Can the quiet occupation of the entire Christian world be considered unintentional... America faces the same problems. Its white population is already approaching the point where it can become oppressed by its black and Latin American representatives, as recently happened with the white population in South Africa. The tragedy of America can be even more terrible, the same events are happening in Europe..."
This statement demonstrates that we seems to be the most important thing in the book - thinking stereotypes are broken. One of them is “all evil comes from America,” the second (and this is even more important and topical): “Russia will be saved by Orthodox patriots.” I don’t know the biography of Father Alexander Kruglov, but he is clearly well aware of the realities of our patriotic movement. From his entire history of the last fifteen to twenty years, the author of “The Last War” makes a seemingly paradoxical conclusion: it is the patriots who can prepare the coming of the “man of lawlessness.” Why? In answer to this question, the priest makes a deep pastoral diagnosis of the spiritual state in which many patriots have found themselves in recent years. “In patriotism, they received such a narcotic delight from unity with the “mystical spheres”, which they could not imagine before..., cunning evil from the very beginning of the patriotic movement slyly hid itself in the very patriotic environment. It also became the main destructive force. And the destroyers themselves most often did not realize this... The thirst for the acute sensations of chosenness and danger attracts to forbidden secret knowledge, electrifying the exhausted soul..., a split personality occurs. In his circle of friends, he is a patriot of patriots... but at the right moment, a certain “switch” is triggered in the head, and a sincere brother of the moment becomes just as sincerely a sworn enemy.”
Father Alexander explains the reason why such substitutions occur: “Warfare with demonic people - the focus of the “mystery of lawlessness” - is the lot of God’s chosen few, giants of the spirit, who have pacified the weakness of their flesh through many labors and great sorrows. Their harsh warfare is not for everyone who has only learned to read forbidden books... Often, patriots who have frivolously tasted the mystical fruit of arcane knowledge, from constant insurance, nervous and mental overload... begin to experience unbearably painful torment - “circles of hell!”
What happened and is happening with our patriotic movement, according to Father Alexander, especially clearly confirms that in our time one can be saved only by protecting oneself with constant prayer and without losing real church life. One has only to replace confession and communion, the daily prayer rule and strict observance of Sundays and holidays with the fight against the forces of evil, as this fight turns against the fighters themselves. This is one of the main features The last war- be able to deceive a person, plunge him into self-deception, so that through this he can deceive others.
Of the entire almost eight-hundred-page book, chapter twenty-two, called “Koshchei the Immortal,” seems especially successful in terms of presentation of material (form of appeal to the reader). Through the plot and images of the famous Russian fairy tale, our past, present and future become clear. Let us quote the main provisions from this chapter: “Ivan Tsarevich is a collective image of the Russian people, who often exterminated themselves in the darkness of spiritual blindness. Only blindness can explain, for example, the bitterness of bloody princely and popular civil strife, revolutions and perestroikas” - this is about the past.
About the present: “The reason for Ivan Tsarevich’s constant defeats was his spiritual ignorance. Each time, entering into battle with the enemy, he fought not with the real Koshchei, but with his dreamy image. So Russia has always had many enemies, but many of them only distracted from the main thing. The main one is the one who kills to death!”
About the future: “Since time immemorial, there have been tales in Rus' about a war between the insidious monster - Koshchei the Immortal and the simple-minded Ivan Tsarevich... finally, the prince was killed. To be sure, Koschey chopped his body into small pieces and scattered them in all directions. Apparently he felt that this would not end well for him anyway. And I was not mistaken.
In the legends, Ivan Tsarevich was resurrected... In exactly the same way, the revival of Rus' defeated by the enemy occurs every time. At first, the seemingly long-dead parts of the kingdom gather invisibly. This is the first miracle. An invisible and almost incredible resurrection of a lost people. The holiness of faith little by little revives the souls of people dead from sin... In the same way, a sudden revival of the destroyed Russian kingdom can happen.”
Book The Last War, despite the fact that it contains many pages that chill the soul with horror - from the description of the fanaticism and cruelty that is now happening, and from assumptions about the even greater cruelty of people that is coming - it can still be generally called optimistic. In the sense in which the Apocalypse is optimistic.
Running through the entire book is the conviction expressed already on its first pages: “We must highlight for ourselves two simultaneously occurring processes - the spiritual degradation of the majority of representatives of the ruling class and a fairly significant part of the people and the maturation of, albeit a few, who have remained faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Church . The outcome of catastrophic events depends on those few who, through their loyalty, sacrifice and fearlessness, transform the rest of fallen society.” The book constantly contains, albeit unnamed, the image of Kitezh-grad: “The visible flesh of the Russian kingdom, living in space and time, tragically died, but its soul, spiritually united with the Eternal Kingdom, remained inviolable. The invisible and powerful royal spirit of the people of Russia still preserves the fragile state balance in the modern world.”
The optimism of the conclusions that sound at the end of the book The Last War, for a non-believer it may seem paradoxical, - after all, before this, the hellish subtleties of the ideological, psychological, mystical war being waged on us are described - all of them can plunge one into despondency, fetter the soul with fear.
But, as you know, the source of the greatest fear and despondency is when the enemy is not visible, not recognized, not named. And, when “the secret has become clear,” when “the enemy does not come like a thief in the night,” when they are preparing to meet him, then all that remains is to remember the words of the Lord: “Do not be afraid, little flock!” and, most importantly, not to withdraw into your loneliness, but to seek unity with the army of Christ.
“Simultaneously with the enemy invasion, another process is taking place, which, although it has not yet become a turning point in the fate of Russia, many things seem to be leaning towards that... In the language of military science, on Russian soil there is a gradual formation of two irreconcilable armies. On the one hand, all the sworn enemies of Christ and Russia become. They are generously fed by the world's evil, they are dynamic, cheeky, and well-fed. On the other hand, the building of the bright army of Christ is underway. It is built and protected until the time of the inevitable decisive battle by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. His army is usually low-key, more modest both in appearance and physically. All our strength lies in the great treasure - the Orthodox Faith. And our strength is made perfect in weakness!”
From the editor: Book about. Alexander Kruglov can be purchased in Moscow in the store of the publishing house "Ark" (Nikolskaya Shop, Savelovsky lane 8 (M "Savelovskaya", tel. (095) 689−11−00), in St. Petersburg by tel. (812) 336− 21−98, 938−23−35, as well as at the Orthodox book exhibition “Palm Week” opening next week (Moscow, All-Russian Exhibition Center, pavilion 69, purple line, stand N8 of the publishing house “Kovcheg”).
– When a person first comes to the Church, some external things, the ritual side, come to the fore for him, and this is natural - a person integrates into church life, church discipline. And in the future, when a person has been in the Church for a long time, what should come to the fore?
Priest Sergius Kruglov. Photo: Anna Galperina
– Some believe that now it is natural for such a person to “line up” with church discipline, that now the law is not written to him. This view of a person’s life in the Church is characteristic of those who look at the Church from the outside, so to speak, as an organization.
For an organization, indeed, the charter and certain rules are of paramount importance. I remember how one lady made claims against the Orthodox Church: “I lived part of my life in the Baltic states, how good it is there – you go to some Catholic church, there are rules of conduct, you read it - and everything is clear. You'll come to us – you don’t know where to step, how to behave, there are no rules or order.”
Formally, she is right, but the rules of behavior are posted in a public place, in a museum or in an office - you need to read them and behave accordingly. And when you come to visit someone, there are no rules of behavior in the corridor on the wall – you came to a family, to a living human home.
When visiting, the main thing is different; first of all, you need to ask yourself the question: “Why did I come here? And who am I - a relative of the inhabitants of this house, a close friend, a neighbor who came to ask for matches, a plumber who came on call, or perhaps a beggar who came to ask for alms?..” A person may not immediately find a simple answer to this question , but I think it’s very important to ask yourself.
First I need to understand why I come to Church. And then, realize that God is the Father, and people are children. And the Church is the house where this family lives. Naturally, in a house where a family lives, it is not customary to impose rules of behavior; a visitor must first get to know the owners, and then establish some kind of living relationship with them. This is a completely different plane of existence - not social, not formal, but personal, living.
Therefore, when they say that a person who comes to the Church needs first of all and only rules, then this is a view of the Church as a social organization, something external in relation to me, who came. And the Church is a family.
– That is, the rules in the family develop naturally?
– Of course, people don’t even notice them. Every home has some rules - it is not customary to spit on the floor, walk in dirty shoes, or be late for dinner. For example, my wife says that a strong family is one in which everyone gathers at the appointed time for dinner and eats soup from a tureen. The tureen is a symbol of the family - you don’t grab something on the run, but the table service is set up, and the whole family gathers at the table, not only gets fed, but also communicates.
Every family has its own rules, but, firstly, they are not hung on the wall, and secondly, they are not the most important thing. The most important thing is love and relationships between family members - husband, wife, children, old grandmother, cat - everyone who lives in this family.
Therefore, when a person comes to the Church, he needs to pay primary attention to this plane of personal relationships. Actually, this is what the commandment speaks about, about love for God and love for neighbor.
The story of the righteous Job comes to mind: Job asked God painful, furious, suffering-filled questions. And God appeared to him, the living Lord, who did not directly answer any of his questions, but, on the contrary, began to ask His questions. But Job was happy because he saw God in person.
Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann says that when the Lord appears, He often does not give direct answers to our questions, but takes us by the hand and leads us to that plane of existence where questions disappear by themselves. So it is here - if a person understands that he has not come to an office, not to a museum, not to some public place, but, first of all, to a family, that it is not so much the rules that are important here, but relationships, then the question itself, with whom we started the conversation: “What should I do next when I grow out of diapers?”, leaves.
At the very least, both the hysterical, alarming aftertaste and the aftertaste of formalism disappear from this question, and it becomes an ordinary everyday question - here I am growing, I am living, something will happen next, around the next turn in the road. The tone changes.
– What to do if a person’s life in the Church turns into such a cycle of actions that are performed mechanically, and a person cannot get out of this cycle?
– When a person’s relationship with God, with neighbors, with the Church takes a “not their” place in our life, then, of course, everything turns into some kind of mechanical cycle, a carousel: confession, communion, life from one calendar cycle to another, from fasting before fasting, from fasting to fasting.
What do I mean when I say "out of place"? The world is arranged hierarchically by the Creator, that is, in it, every thing must take its place - it is then that it is beautiful, then it is useful, it is full of meaning and itself rejoices that it fulfills God’s plan for itself. Everything is rejoicing - the sun is rejoicing, shining and warming, the butterfly is rejoicing, this poplar fluff is rejoicing, which right now is flying and getting into our eyes. Because they do the will of God, fully realizing themselves. This fluff and its flight are full of meaning, its life is a real adventure full of joy.
This cannot be said, unfortunately, about you and me, and about many people who often become discouraged, become depressed and feel “out of place.” What is a fallen world? This is a world in which things are out of place - roughly speaking, a world in which they are constantly trying to hammer nails with a glass. When things fall into place, then the world becomes beautiful, comes into order, and it becomes joyful and exciting to live in it.
And of course, the most important thing that is out of place in a fallen world is man himself. A lot of things are out of place in a person: brains, soul, desires, will, and so on. And the entire path of a Christian, all Christian asceticism is devoted to somehow straightening a person.
A person’s relationship with God, with the Church and with neighbors is the most important thing in Christianity. When these relationships are out of place, when they occupy some unnatural position, then a person’s whole life turns into some kind of bad cycle. And here there are different distortions - left and right. The Holy Fathers say that we must follow the royal path, the middle one. Any excess will not lead to anything good.
– What are these distortions, how are they characterized, what is a person doing wrong?
– Firstly, there is (speaking in the context of our topic) a bias when the Church takes a practical place in a person’s life, when a person uses the Church as a public organization, a club of interests, a place for making wishes, a national tradition, and so on. There are many examples of this. For example, the slogan “I am Orthodox because I am Russian.”
Or, I remember, once a young couple came to the temple, who literally spent months traveling to holy places. But not because these young people love the saints, but because they are begging for a child. The desire, of course, is good, but the Church in this regard has practical significance for them. They wear consecrated icons, pray at the relics, visit monasteries and elders, and so on. But it is clear from them that as soon as the need no longer exists - they have a child or they become disillusioned in their search for one - their desire to stay in churches and holy places may well dry up...
Such people consider churchliness simply as some kind of side part of their life, and adapt the Church to their everyday needs. Here I live, I consider myself Orthodox, because I am Russian, baptized, my great-grandfathers lived like this, we have Holy Rus'. That’s why I bake Easter cakes for Easter, dive into an ice hole at Epiphany, watch a patriotic Orthodox channel on TV, wear a cross and go to confession once a year. I am baptizing a child, the child must have a measuring icon, a spoon, or, as I was recently shown, an Orthodox rattle - silver, with the image of a cross. Both Orthodoxy and Christianity become simply part of my life.
How often our churchliness depends on our natural human condition! Even your favorite toy gets boring. In the end, a person’s mood may deteriorate, his stomach or toothache may ache. And when a person is in pain, he no longer has time for his favorite toys.
For this reason, while everything is fine with a person for whom the Church is just a part of everyday life, he sometimes becomes interested in Orthodoxy. And then a dark streak comes - worries have overcome, despondency, melancholy, illness, troubles at work, scandals with my wife... And the model of the world that a person has invented for himself and in which he considers himself happy, fails, does not work. And then a person looks at the Christian part of his life and thinks: “What nonsense, what am I doing anyway, the same thing, the same thing, but there is no result, so again everything is bad, and neither prayer, nor fasting, neither the sacrament helps...” To the sacramental question: “What does this give me?” - the answer suggests itself: “Nothing.” And the Church becomes unnecessary again.
And secondly, there is also such a distortion when a person attaches too much importance to churchliness, usually external, without understanding that churchliness can be the basis of life, but not a replacement for life. This is especially true for people who are new to the Church.
They threw out the TV - put up an iconostasis, was a hipster - took off the fennel, wound a rosary, and so on. I had this too. When I was baptized, I remember that I took more than one box of books to the trash heap amid the lamentations and cries of my wife, who remembers how I spent my family’s money on these books (then years passed, and I would like to find this trash heap, return some of the books, among which there were many useful ones...).
Man pays an exaggerated amount of attention to the Church, discarding everything else. Such people are carried away by external attributes. As one of the church authors aptly noted, for them everything in the Church is sacred indiscriminately - the throne, the candle, the Gospel, and what Aunt Klava, the cleaning lady, said.
Such a person tries to replace everything in his life - family, friends, creativity - with going to church and reading the holy fathers. And at one fine moment he suddenly notices - the Church seems to have filled my whole life, I spend days and nights in the church, but something is missing. Something is itching in my soul...
It’s actually very good when the soul begins to itch and ache, it means it comes to life, wakes up. For some reason we believe that when we are uncomfortable, it is necessarily bad. On the contrary, discomfort awakens. We know, for example, that one of the most uncomfortable moments of our life is when someone starts waking us up: “Get up, you’ll be late!” This person who wakes you up, even if it is your beloved wife or mother, at that moment you just want to kill him, but he is doing a good deed - he awakens us to life.
I sometimes imagine what happened to Lazarus when the Lord awakened him from death. I don't think it was just pleasant feelings. To go from death to life again is a shock, a stress.
And this is what I think: when the soul of such a church-going person begins to itch, when it lacks something, and the wheel of church-going seems to be spinning as before, this does not mean that church-going has become unnecessary, that the canons and rituals and sacraments have lost their meaning , this does not mean that we should be disappointed in the Church, it means that a new stage of life has simply arrived.
The grown-up child looks: my children’s room, which seemed like the whole world, suddenly became somehow small. And it seems that everything I know and love is here - a teddy bear, toys, but I want something else. It happens, of course, that when a child becomes a teenager, he is ashamed of his toys - God forbid, one of my friends comes and sees that I still have an old teddy bear on the sofa. This is how other former neophytes who have become “old timers” feel about their former devout fulfillment of prayer rules, fasting, and regular attendance at services...
But there is hope that later, when time passes, when the teenager, who was a baby, becomes an adult, he will again come looking for this teddy bear. A grown child will understand that he needed this bear in childhood in order to feel comfort, protection, and a glimpse of the Kingdom of Christ here on earth. A kingdom that is joy, meaning, love and peace. Everything we read about in Clive Lewis's tales about Narnia. There is hope that, having ascended to a new stage of life, a churchgoer will look at the period of his new beginning in a new way and discover new meanings in its attributes.
– In a normal Christian life, with spiritual growth, the new does not erase the old, but changes the attitude towards it?
– It is good for that normal, intelligent person who, having moved from neophyteism to “starophyteism,” retained his love for the period of his neophyteism and what accompanied this time, and did not discard this church-going of his as something unnecessary - things that are good will still be useful. Nowadays one can often observe debates on the Internet and in the Orthodox press about burnout and de-churching. Sometimes I think that there is no “de-churching” at all, people are just alive, growing, experiencing difficulties and troubles along the path of life.
A person emerged from childhood and became a teenager, then an adult. And he is able, even after going through temptations and tests of “burnout,” to understand that he still needs churchliness. If in childhood the sign of the cross saved me from childhood fear, why can’t the moment come when it will help me again, protect me from the fear of an adult? It has become a part of my life. The cross that I wear on my chest is part of my body. How will I throw it away? It's like cutting off a finger because it's unnecessary. Moreover, the sacraments of the Church are confession and communion. If a mechanical attitude has appeared, this does not mean that confession and communion are no longer needed. This means that my attitude towards them needs to be reconsidered.
Once a married couple came to me; the husband and wife wanted to get married, but they had no plans. The wife agrees to sign, but the husband is afraid, this is not his first marriage: “This is all a formality, why sign, I was already married, I got burned.” I say: “Sorry, if one marriage did not work out for you, this does not mean that marriage is not needed at all. If a person is poisoned by low-quality pizza, this does not mean that now there is no need to eat at all. This means that you need to learn and cook good, tasty pizza. That's all".
The same is true here. If a person suddenly stops experiencing something so inspired and blissful when approaching confession and communion, this does not mean that he no longer needs it. It is still unknown what exactly he experienced there before. If a person has had sufficiently deep, truly Christian experiences, then, of course, he will not discard confession and communion as unnecessary, and will not say: “I’m burned out in this regard.”
More - but at the same time not more important than us. In the Church, the most important thing is God and man, the individual. The Gospel is an important book, but it is only a book. And if God, as a parent, is faced with a choice of whom to save: the Holy Scripture, a book, or a person, His child, then, of course, God will choose a person. He went to the cross for the sake of man.
But, nevertheless, you still have to grow to the Gospel, to its understanding, in order to become yourself. Therefore, when people talk about de-churching and burnout, one must understand that both de-churching and burnout are an ordinary temptation, ordinary problems of a person who begins to grow up or changes his attitude towards something, who is beset by previously unencountered difficulties, sorrows, changes .
– Why do these problems begin, what are the reasons for our inability to go through these stages of growth?
– I think that one of the reasons is our duality, a certain schizophrenia: here we are church people, and here we are secular. That is, many things in the Church did not become our personal things. For example, a person comes to church, he is bored during the service because he does not understand anything. A canon is sung, for example, or the Gospel is read, and he just stands there. He knows that this is necessary, he under no circumstances thinks of running away from here, he overcomes everything, but he does not understand anything.
Many people say: “Let’s serve in Russian, let’s translate the service, and everyone will understand everything.” But even then, not everything and not everyone will understand! First, a person may not have enough education to understand the realities spoken of in church prayers. There are complex things written there. For example, in order to understand the Great Canon of Andrew of Crete, even in the Russian translation, great effort is needed - you need to read the Holy Scriptures, know the images that are described there, and so on. And secondly, it often happens that church prayers are someone else’s experience, the experience of the saints who wrote these prayers, but not yet my experience. Beautiful words, wonderful, holy, but not mine yet.
A person comes to church, hears, for example, the words in the canon of repentance: “who has returned to sin, like a dog to his vomit,” or: “like a pig lies in feces, so I serve sin,” cries and says: “That’s for sure.” about me". It was not because he could not say that about himself, for example, in childhood, because he had never met a pig before. As a child, he at least read the fairy tale “The Three Little Pigs” and saw Piggy on TV. But a person is touched by this image to the depths of his soul, he says “this is about me” precisely when he himself has experienced something similar, knows the mechanisms of sin in himself, knows how sin acts in him.
When a person really understands what confession is, when he truly repents, this is an attempt to change his life. When the sweet coating of the bitter pill of sin begins to dissolve, when all the romance of sin passes and peels off like paint from a cheap Chinese toy, then sin really gets to the liver, and a person can no longer live with sin. It is dark in the eyes, a person does not see the white light from sin, but cannot get rid of it, because sin has become a skill, a habit, an addiction.
And then a person understands what confession is - a daily, time after time struggle with the disease in oneself, persistent taking of medicine, without which one cannot survive. And then confession becomes a part of a person’s life. And there is no longer any talk of “burning out” of his attitude towards confession.
– That is, when we list the same sins every time in confession, this does not mean that it is wrong, these little things are actually the most important?
– Certainly. And even let you list them at every confession. Sin is a disease. And there is a sore that is very difficult to cure. We read the books of the holy fathers, they went through all this themselves, and everyone, as one, says that the fight against sin is a very difficult matter. We thought: we’ll go to confession once and that’s it: we’ll stop lying, envying, judging, and so on.
– If you haven’t killed anyone, then you can live in peace.
– Yes, yes, and suddenly everything will go away by itself. A person thinks that he can quickly, in a hurry, get rid of sin. And then he said in confession once, twice, three times, four times - it doesn’t help, and he decides: “I’ve already been to confession five times, but the sin keeps repeating itself. Yah! I’ve become de-churched, I’m burnt out... Confession doesn’t help me...” Here you need to get ready for long, serious work. When a person tunes in to this, agrees to this within himself, then the Lord immediately says: “I am with you.” And the work begins.
Therefore, everyday, routine, calm life is the most exciting adventure that a person experiences.
And the same with the sacrament. If a person is close to Christ, Christ is important to him in his own life - God and man, if he understands how much the Lord loves us, who He is in our lives, what He has done and continues to do for us, then the person just wants to be with Him and appreciates every opportunity to run to the sacrament.
And then all these doubts: “Oh, will my father allow me?” or: “I am unworthy” - as if you will ever be worthy of God!.. - just empty words. These are words from the category of external relationships, but real relationships were established by Christ Himself: “Take, eat, this is My Body and My Blood, this is all for you, come.”
After communion it is not always comfortable and blissful; sometimes it can be bitter and difficult. Sometimes they ask me: “Why do I go out after communion, I felt good for 5 minutes, and then I sinned again, and again it’s hard?... Probably, I shouldn’t have taken communion, I’m not worthy, so I lost grace?” I ask in response: “What kind of grace did you need? Feeling, forgive me, high, or what?”
Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is a union with Christ in order to live with Him. And life is life, often beautiful, but never easy. It can be so difficult for me to go out into the world after communion because I no longer go out alone, but with Christ. And we go out with Him - to work, to serve.
When you are on your own, free as the wind, you are not responsible for anything. And after communion, a person comes out laden, he carries Christ. Can you walk through a crowd with a cup full of water without knocking it over? This is a famous image from a Buddhist parable, but I would like to make a Christian addition: carrying the cup is not just a subtle spiritual exercise, because over there your neighbor is dying of thirst, waiting for you with this cup as his savior. You must convey Christ to him - it’s clear that it’s hard for you...
And then comes another stage, another step, when you understand that in fact it is not you who carry Christ within you after communion, like a cardboard box carrying a parcel, but Christ Himself, it turns out, walks next to you and helps you act... Not instead of you - but together with you.
– Can a person always be in good shape, always serve the world?
– Of course, there are fatigue, despondency, illness, and sorrow. And the person again thinks: “Oh, fathers, I prayed so hard, everything was so good, but now I can’t, everything is boring, disgusting, sleep is coming. This is all burnout, de-churching.” It's not burnout, it's just fatigue, it will pass.
Of course, it’s difficult to get up every day with an alarm clock, wash your face, brush your teeth, or maintain a certain order and rhythm of life. There are different means to maintain order in life, one of them is the rule of prayer.
It is impossible to imagine a mortal person who is constantly in the same degree of spiritual tension - he has a huge rule every day, he reads the psalter, canons, akathists for eight hours, and never feels tired at all...
I remember the famous book of letters and diaries of Mother Teresa. It would seem - Mother Teresa, how many people she saved, the famous ascetic, prayer book, saint... When I read her letters, I saw there the same thing that I saw in Simeon the Theologian, Isaac the Syrian, Simeon of Athos, Joseph the Hesychast, in many saints and ascetics, ancient and modern: not just weeks or months, but years of what is called the “dark night of God-forsakenness.”
She constantly writes in letters to her spiritual father: “I have lost faith, it’s very difficult for me, I don’t see God, I don’t feel Him, I live through strength, I’m dying, it’s painful for me, I’m sad.” Nevertheless, she continued to do her job, continued to fulfill her monastic vows, save the sick and outcasts around the world, and did not give up on Christ.
And for us, for me in particular, I felt a little sick somewhere: “Oh, I probably have cancer, a fatal disease, the end of the world, now I’m going to die!..” It’s like Jerome’s “Three in a Boat, not counting the dog”: the hero found all the diseases in himself, except for puerperal fever. So it is here: “Oh, we are experiencing burnout, we are de-churching!” The Church is 2000 years old, all this “human, too human” in the Church was and is, because people, in principle, in a certain respect are the same at all times, their mortality and their infirmities are the same.
Yes, Christ defeated this weakness and death with His death and resurrection - but we must learn both, so that eternal life becomes ours too. And precisely in this order: first death, in its various manifestations, followed by resurrection, not vice versa.
De-churching? How often do we consider our own neuroses, our own psychological states, the peculiarities of our own way of life and improperly organized life, to be de-churching, loss of faith, and so on. In fact, sometimes it’s enough just to change your way of thinking, your way of life, and everything will calm down. No, I do not deny, all this can be very difficult, and I treat the experience of suffering of this kind in different people with compassion and respect. But what I’m talking about also takes place.
The wonderful English veterinarian James Herriot, in a series of stories about his animal patients, recalls how he treated a lady’s dog. He lived in the countryside and treated mostly cows, pigs and horses, but there was a rich lady who had a pet dog. He constantly came to inspect this dog, which was cherished; in the rain, without a blanket, it was not taken out into the garden and was overfed with all sorts of puddings, cakes, and so on.
And so the doctor, seeing that the dog was in danger of dying from obesity, decided to cure it and took the dog away from this lady, saying that the patient should be placed in a clinic. The lady, groaning, agreed. Harriot did not take the dog to any clinic, but brought it to his home. A pack of dogs was wandering and feeding in the yard, and so the doctor put this overweight dog in the middle of the pack and left. They run around there, jump, fight for the bowl among themselves, and play. The dog lay there for a day, on the second day he began to show interest, on the third he tried to poke his head into the bowl, naturally they didn’t let him in, they immediately kicked his withers. After a week of fighting for this bowl and playing with dogs, he became a healthy, happy dog again.
Just like this dog, we sometimes need to change our way of thinking. A person whines, mopes: “I feel bad...” And then he finds himself in conditions where he has to move. And then a person sees what was superficial and what was true. There are cases when it is enough for a person to simply lose the opportunity to often go to church - he has gone somewhere and that’s it - and he already considers it happiness to attend a service, he travels 200 km in order to stand in church for at least half an hour.
For a person who has eaten too much cake, it is sometimes useful to fight for a crust of bread or for some simple, healthy food. There are normal everyday life, normal healthy food that we eat three times a day, business that we do every day, a normal rhythm of life - and this is good, you can also enjoy it. Chesterton, the singer of everyday Christian life, wrote about this in his essay “The Shining of Gray.”
The Church, as it was, is the same, and we rise from step to step, constantly changing, growing. And our idea of the Church, our church experience, our church feelings, also change and grow with us.
– Perhaps the role of the priest and shepherd in leading “growing” Christians is important?
– Important, yes. But here are my thoughts... It’s easy to get carried away by the word “leadership”, since it is very difficult to truly grow to become a real leader. Being a leader means being a father. But you can be a father in different ways. There is a father whose wife has just given birth, and he is already standing under the window with a bottle of champagne, shouting and rejoicing. He already feels like a father, already in the circle of friends with whom he sits and notes, gives advice like a father, proud to the point of impossibility. But in reality, what kind of father is he? He hadn't even held the baby in his arms yet. And there is a father who really lived a long life with his children, they grew up, he raised them and he himself changed in many ways next to them.
Some people think that since I was ordained a priest and put on a cross, it means that now I am immediately a spirit-bearing elder. It is very difficult to resist the role of leader... And on the contrary, I know priests who even suffered from their flock because they did not want to be leaders, they tried to teach their parishioners to freedom and responsibility. Not everyone likes this - you better carry me in your arms, tell me what to do.
Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, for example, was not keen on talking during confession. It’s one thing to name sins, be able to isolate them, and try to get rid of them, but starting psychotherapeutic conversations every time is a completely different matter. As someone wisely noted, such conversations differ from confession in that they begin with the words “situation” or “problem.”
There are management problems, of course, but they are not global and not total. If a person really needs something, then the Lord always sends it to him. Here two people come, one for some reason gets what he is looking for, and the other does not. What's the matter? Maybe one of them got a bad leader? One met a good priest, and the other met an evil priest?
Maybe so. But I know people who met simply golden priests, they really found themselves in an atmosphere of holiness, but nothing in their lives changed. Holiness is like grace, like oil. Pick up a stone on the street and water it with oil, but it will not be saturated.
Others, on the contrary, came across inexperienced or unscrupulous priests, and despite this, they did not let go of the Gospel and tried not just to quote it or memorize it, but to live according to it. These are people with a sober outlook on life, with the understanding that in the grace that surrounds us there is also a lot of sin, as St. Neil of Sinai said: “That is why those who fell fell because they did not understand how smoke and grace abides in one heart.”
And if this problem of leadership arises - bad leadership, lack of leadership, or, conversely, exaggerated leadership: “Now I’m going to marry you off to this or that. Where did you go? For fitness? Did you take the blessing?” - then one person, realizing that something does not suit him, begins to look for where to go further, higher, and the other becomes disappointed and gives up.
But what pleases me most is that even when a person gives up, despairs and leaves the Church, this is not a final diagnosis - life is all ahead. Like Dostoevsky, a man lay down on the road and said: “I don’t want to go to the Kingdom of Heaven.” I lay down for a thousand years, got up and walked, I’m tired of lying down, after all, life is eternal. The fact that life is eternal is very pleasing, because everything that is truly vital and from life will endure and live, and all the nonsense will dry up and fall off, including disappointment with this improper church leadership.
– But aren’t we all called to holiness? Or, after all, the stone will not be saturated with oil?
– Holiness is not an order or some kind of maxim that God demands from us, they say, whether you like it or not, be a saint. This is not a school physical education lesson: even though you are the frailest nerd with glasses, you have to jump over the goat, because everyone has to jump over the goat. Of course not.
Holiness is the genes of God that are embedded in us. In some they are more developed, in others they are not yet very developed, but they are there. That is, we were born, and we already have them, they act. Therefore, it is natural for a person to respond to the voice of Christ, it is natural for him to be with Him, this is a normal state. Another thing is that sometimes the path to Christ is complicated in some way, and some things in the Church can repel one from the search for holiness. But holiness is given to us all, it is a natural human condition.
This state is greatly disturbed - something that we cannot even realize and understand happened at the moment of the Fall. The Fall is an ambiguous phenomenon. The man had an argument with his father, slammed the door - a breakup occurred. But there is also good in this gap - the little child became a teenager, he began his own path, and then God followed him to also become a man and be with him.
Of course, the Fall so strongly distorted the natural state of man, so strongly distorted the genes of holiness in him, that it is very difficult for a person again not even to achieve, but simply to understand that he needs to become himself, to become a man. But nothing is impossible for the union of man and God.
– And if a person has come to such an indifferent state, to a state of “the dark night of abandonment by God,” should he still continue to try to live and seek God in this night?
– The word “should” is not appropriate here. It is impossible to force a person, but you can somehow make him understand that if he wants to survive, he must take certain actions. Not because someone forces you, but because that is the nature of things. Fortunately, humans have organs of understanding. In order to save a person, we must believe that he has within him that which God gave His life for. And a person is able to understand you, is able to accept the best, and sooner or later hear you.
I know wonderful people who have been clinically depressed for years. The doctors advise them one thing, the priest another, nothing helps, and the person suffers, but despite everything he tries to somehow hold on. What keeps him afloat? Those same genes of God that we have already mentioned here.
And it’s the same in church life. A person sometimes understands that simply surrendering to some rhythm is life-saving. But even then, somewhere inside, in the depths of the soul, there must be an understanding that this is being done for the sake of a living meeting with Christ. Should I go or should I not go to receive communion? I prepared, I didn’t prepare, I wanted to, I didn’t want to, why force myself? But deep down in your soul you feel that if you don’t force yourself at least a little, then there will be complete collapse.
Maybe there is no need to show violence at all - for example, you planted tomatoes in a garden bed and let them grow, why would they tear off the shoots, water them, and so on? As a result, we will have an unprecedented miniature baobab tree, and we won’t get any tomatoes. Because education is a limitation.
Another thing is, “doctor, heal yourself” - if you dare to educate someone, you must start with yourself. Good teachers and good parents always start with themselves. Children sense lies very well. The way you are, the children you will have will be the way you are.
In general, human life is a mystery. We understand a lot in this life, every now and then we try to derive different patterns, theories, formulas - how to avoid a mechanical attitude towards church life, how to avoid this and that. But at the right moment everything flies out of my head.
And yet life lives on. This is the most amazing thing. It would seem that neither from our fallen world, nor from its determinism, nor from anything does it follow that life should continue. Where does a person who has fallen into the abyss of everyday troubles and despair suddenly get hope? Why is spring coming again when, judging by what we've done to the planet, it shouldn't have come? How does a sick baby born to an alcoholic parent later turn out to be the famous composer Beethoven? Life lives on, it is a real miracle.
Evidence of the resurrection of Christ is all around us. And people who have suffered illness or suffering, who have looked at life from the other, from the hellish side, know well about them. They understand that they didn’t notice anything before - routine, the wheel is rolling, burnout, but now they look: life is beautiful, full of miracles, light and life.
Actually, this is what happened to the saints - how much suffering and injustice they endured until they realized that life is a miracle. But there is no getting used to the miracle, and there is no burnout from it.