Twelfth Discourse. On the Day of the Repose of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian

October 19, 1904

For the glory of God, in honor and memory of the venerable John of Rila and for the benefit of our souls, let us speak of what should be understood by the flesh of which is mentioned in the verse just quoted, and what—by the immortal soul; how to despise the flesh, given us by God for service to the soul, and how to care for the immortal soul. From not understanding one and the other—that is, flesh and soul, and from neglect of the soul—in our life there arise many disorders and—many people perish temporally and eternally.

In the brief Church hymn just quoted, by flesh and soul are understood two opposite things or principles: an evil principle, and a good principle; by flesh is understood sin or all the passions, struggling against mankind and destroying the soul and body of man: extremely corrupted self-love, pride, craftiness, stubborn unbelief, doubt in revealed or known truths, free-thinking, heresy, sects, schisms; intemperance, luxury, sensuality, lust of the flesh, drunkenness, fornication, greed, envy, laziness toward piety and prayer, toward repentance, alienation from God, carnal, fleshy life, hardheartedness toward neighbors, and especially toward the poor and needy, willfulness, lack of church life, disobedience to parents and authorities, madness, blasphemy against God and all that is holy; in general, by flesh should be understood every sin, and by soul—the immortal beginning in man, our soul, created in the image and likeness of God, the distorted image of God in us by sin and the lost likeness of God, and the likeness of the enemy of God, the devil, the apostate from God, who introduced into his angelic nature craftiness, malice, pride, envy, disobedience to God, impenitence; all manner of madness, blindness of mind and all manner of corruption, infinite death and eternal torment, and has subjected to his service the entire human race working for him. The meaning is this: the venerable John, like every other belonging to the rank of the venerable, taught by his righteous life to despise and repel from himself every sin, all human passions, to struggle with them, not to follow or submit to them, to hold firmly to faith and virtue, God-pleasing simplicity, love toward God and neighbor, and thus constantly become like God, attain Christian perfection and eternal blessedness, as it is said: “Therefore be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” (Mt 5:48). This is the meaning of the Church hymn and what it teaches all Christians.

After the first humans, created in the image and likeness of God, failed to preserve their priceless treasure—holiness, righteousness, freedom from sin, harmony with the will of God and blessed equilibrium, harmony in soul and body—the flesh began in all things to resist the spirit and incline it to every sin; man became divided, became a slave to sin, was obscured by hellish darkness, fell into the most miserable ignorance of God, into senseless idolatry and in it deified himself, his senseless and ruinous passions—became a slave to evil demons, not a servant of God, and perished, having no power to do anything truly good without God, and after death descending into hell, the prison of darkness and death.

Only Christ God our Lord, taking upon Himself our flesh with soul, and having fulfilled for us all righteousness, taught us to despise the flesh and all its passions and to care for the immortal soul, for its salvation and freedom from sin, and gave us all the powers for life and piety (2Pet 1:3). He alone has restored to human nature the holiness and wholeness given to it in the beginning through the mysterious rebirth by water and the Spirit. He taught: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” that is, a man, born of parents corrupted by sin, is also sinful, unclean and unworthy of God and His life, His kingdom, but “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” (Jn 3:5-6) that is, a man reborn, cleansed from the stain of sin in baptism, is holy, with the gift of regeneration (second birth). It is this rebirth or mysterious second birth which we received by God’s mercy in baptism that we must preserve with all diligence and not defile ourselves anymore with any passions, being dead to sin, but alive to God (Rom 6:11), resisting with all our might the assaults or temptations of any passions, preserving in ourselves the image of God and attaining the likeness of God. All the apostles in their epistles to Christians begged them to live worthily of their Christian calling and to be conformed to Christ. “I urge you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called” (Eph 4:1). In all their life and works, the venerable strove to imitate Christ in holy simplicity, in ceaseless prayer, gentleness, humility, meekness, temperance, detachment, patience, complete devotion to God, obedience to authorities, in unceasing labors, in service to neighbors. Their life on earth was an angelic, heavenly life. Living on earth in body, they lived with their hearts in heaven, contemplating ceaselessly with spiritual eyes the incomprehensible beauty of the Face of the Lord, His infinite goodness, boundless majesty, wisdom, eternality, omnipotence, blessedness. They preferred nothing on earth to God, they were not attached to anything with their hearts, having in their heart one priceless Treasure—God. “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever,” (Ps 72:25-26) they said with David. Living with God, they had paradise in their hearts, for God lived and walked in them according to Scripture: “I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God” (2Cor 6:16). “Whoever loves Me will keep My word, and We will come to him and make Our home with him,” says the Lord. (Jn 14:23). Thus, with their entire lives, with all their thoughts, all their feelings, all the powers of soul and body, the venerable pleased God, their Prototype, Lawgiver and Rewarder, lived in God and by God, and teach us, each in our state, to strive for a holy life and toward the appointed eternal blessedness in God.

But let us ascend further to the beginning of sin. Since the fall of the first humans, there has begun the love of this world, this enmity against God of rational, sentient creatures, that is, mankind; life according to the flesh, according to the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), and not according to the spirit, and streams of lawlessness have flowed in an endless wave into the lower world. The fallen spirits established on earth their evil kingdom, full of all evil and treachery, demonic in order to unceasingly seduce men to all evil, by the permission of God for their testing, and entered into a desperate struggle with God and mankind, especially with the seed of the holy and chosen men, and in world life there appeared two clearly opposite currents: on one side—good and evil, flesh and spirit, the world lying in evil, and on the other—the Spirit of God, dwelling in the pious: the society of believers, chosen and righteous, and the world—adulterous and sinful, lying in evil (1Jn 5:19); war was revealed between evil and piety, sin and righteousness, unbelief and faith; the greater part of men forgot God and deified creatures and their passions: the image of God in man became distorted, obscured; instead of striving toward his Prototype, God, man turned toward the enemy, became like the evil beginning or the teacher of all evil—the devil; the original purpose for which man was created—eternal life—fell into oblivion, no one thought of it; men became as if soulless flesh, and the Lord said of them before the flood: “My Spirit shall not be disdained by these men forever, for they are flesh.” (Gen 6:3) that is, they are full of all lawlessness, all that is holy and all righteousness, all virtue is reduced to nothing; only a small community of the chosen: patriarchs, prophets and righteous men, such as Job, knew God and honored Him. Man—a speck of dust on earth—entered into struggle with the immeasurable greatness of God; limited, blinded by sin reason—with infinite mind and eternal wisdom; lies—with eternal, unshakeable truth, malice—with immeasurable goodness, bestial fury (persecution of believers)—with eternal, unchanging gentleness and goodness. And throughout the whole time of this visible world there continues this senseless struggle of creation with the Creator, what was in the ancient pagan world has been repeated now in the Christian world and in Russia. But the time will come when this struggle will end in the complete defeat of evil and the victory of good over evil: “For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1Cor 15:25-26).

In the present Japanese war the ancient enemy of God, the devil, rose up against God and against the Church of Christ and will be defeated by Christ. The war was caused by godlessness and immorality of all classes of the Russian world, and war gives it a bitter lesson. Our present intelligentsia have reduced to zero, to nothing, all the beneficent and wise Providence of God concerning the salvation of mankind; they have reduced to zero in their godless writings the holy Church, established immovably on earth by God; they have belittled the Cross of Christ the Redeemer; the sacred revelation or Word of God, the grace of priesthood, divine laws, in place of which they introduce their own carnal, corrupting laws; they have elevated to the level of cult the satisfaction of their carnal passions; they have set their reason in place of God’s reason, and they interpret God’s word perversely and thereby confuse people of faith and piety. May this harsh war awaken us, and may all who have gone astray—all the lost sons and daughters of Russia—turn to God and to His Church.

O Lord, correct our corrupted morals and teach us all to glorify You, our heavenly Father, by a righteous life. “Our Father, who are in heaven, may Your name be hallowed, may Your kingdom come, may Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Mt 6:9-13).

Amen.