Introduction (2)

This collection of prayerful and inspired thoughts from Father John comprises his final diary, written in 1907–1908. When entrusting the editing of his diary, Father John named his new diary A Living Ear of Wheat. It is difficult to describe the sincere joy Father John felt about his new publication and his delight in the title he himself had given to the diary. This joy of an earnest laborer in God’s field finds a distant parallel in the joy of a laborer bent over from work, seeing a promising fruit of his unceasing toil. His labor is “a living ear of wheat,” because its seed is “words of eternal life,” God’s word; it is “a living ear of wheat” because each grain, received with faith from this “ear,” will be the beginning of a new life in God. The pure joy of Father John is understandable—he who labored 53 years in prayer and tears over planting and watering the seeds of God and was comforted by the consciousness of the eternity of his labors.

Thoughts about God, faith, the Church, life in Christ, eternal life—which comprise the content of Father John’s diary—these form the atmosphere in which the soul of a believing Christian can and must live. In the present edition, Father John’s thoughts are arranged in five chapters. The first chapter discusses faith and the Orthodox Church, the relationship of contemporary Christians to faith and the Church, those who destroy God’s work (among whom the Church’s bitterest enemy, Tolstoy, holds first place), and the delusions of Catholics. In the three following chapters is depicted the necessary path of the Christian from earth to heaven, the path of liberation from sin and the devil and ascent to God through the fulfillment of Christ’s commandments. Finally, in the last chapter are contained thoughts in which the Rector speaks of his spiritual state, his struggle with the enemy of salvation, his longing for God, his desire to soon “see Him—the desired, all-good, beautiful, all-blessed, immortal Father and Master—and bow before Him personally,” glorify and thank God for 79 years of life and 53 years of priesthood, for sorrows and consolations, for God’s long-suffering and complete forgiveness in repentance, especially for the holiest Mystery of the Body and Blood of Christ, in a word—“to thank God for all, for all!”

This diary constitutes, as it were, a consoling spiritual testament left by the dear Rector to all sincerely believing people who, in faith in God and the holy Church, wish to save their souls. The Rector’s penetrating gaze is focused above all on deepening our understanding of the meaning of humanity’s fall and its redemption by the Son of God: how to become united with Christ and in Him partake of eternal blessed life—this is what Father John teaches in his final work, teaches, of course, according to the teachings of God’s Word and the holy Church, and from his own spiritual endeavor, whose goal was this most blessed union with Christ. In what follows is given a brief exposition of these views as they are revealed in the final precepts of the Rector here being published, which the Rector himself blessed us to understand.

By demonic deception, listening to the devil’s counsel in paradise, humanity fell of its own free will from the love of God and transferred its corrupted love to itself (selfishness) and to earthly things. “To exchange God for creation, love of the Creator for devotion to deceitful creation, the holiest inalienable union with the Creator for an unclean, deceitful, evil, and corruptible union with creatures”—this was an act of utter /madness/. “With fleshly beauty and momentary passion the enemy seduces, but from the Source of spiritual and eternal beauty, from God, he turns away and counts Him as nothing and hurls into death. What madness!” Terrible is humanity’s mad fall with its necessary consequences of sin. The fall was deep, wide, and ruinous. Through sin we became strangers to God, severed from Him, having lost the image of God—His holiness—and drawn near to the devil, the author of sin and evil; sin deprived humanity of freedom in God and made us slaves to insane vanity and decay. Separated from God, the Source of life, humanity inherited the devil’s cunning, his futility, passion for decay, malice, pride, envy, and death. Along with humanity, the entire world created by God from nothing became estranged from God.

But sin, this “poison of Satan,” once received by humanity, infected /all/ humankind. Eve was seduced by the forbidden fruit, and behold, all humanity fell into /spiritual delusion/ and became susceptible to seduction. The fall became permanent and inescapable: no civil laws can prevent humanity from falling; sin is conceived with us in our mother’s womb and in our father’s loins and grows and strengthens with our growth. Each person individually senses their own sinfulness, experiencing themselves in a /state of loss/—a person lost and wandering—and second, experiencing /a compulsive inclination toward evil/, because the evil spirit, from the moment of humanity’s fall, began to rule in us mightily, while good and its Source—God, having withdrawn from the human heart—/does not compel but attracts/ through moral beauty, peace of soul, and promises of eternal life. Sin is torment for humanity, acting /powerfully, insatiably, and ruinously/, killing soul and body forever, yet it draws humanity so powerfully with its “spiritual delusion”; /torment and delusion/—these are the sharp but fundamental properties of sin itself. “Oh sin, sin! How pernicious you are!”

“How many enemies does the fallen human, the captive, have! One’s own treacherous, passion-filled /flesh, the devil/—watchful and plotting our ruin, the /world/—adulterous and sinful, with all its deceitful customs and delusions, with all its futility and instability.” Though people themselves are guilty of their sins, Satan is the cause of an abyss of sin. Warning against the devil and pronouncing upon him “solemn curse” as the first apostate from God, His eternal truth, order, peace, and blessedness, pointing all to him as our enemy, blasphemer, and flatterer, Father John lays bare before us the devil’s schemes and his hideousness. The devil has chosen the world as his instrument of action on humanity, the delusions of the world, over which he has gained power as the “prince of the world,” when humanity, surrendering to the enemy’s flattery, lost dominion over nature (the world) and handed over its authority to the foe. With his all-foul, deadly, and tormenting poison, the devil acts like a pestilence on the weakest sides—that is, on the passions that formed in us after the fall. Relying on human negligence and frivolity, our enemy acts either through unexpected sorrows, wishing to instill despair, or through the delusion of fleshly beauty and momentary pleasure. Since the chief commandment of God is love as the fundamental requirement of blessed life (“if I give all my possessions and surrender my body to be burned, but have no love, it profits me nothing” (1Cor 13:3)), the devil has also appointed love as the fundamental requirement—but not holy love for God and in God’s name, but the love of this world—/adulterous love/ and /love of the world’s honor/. “The devil hastens, hastens beyond measure, catching the human to destroy him forever.” And how many have already become victims of the widely spread nets of the devil, victims of his wide fiery mouth with which he devours the unfaithful. Whoever is overcome and conquered by the devil is subjected to eternal captivity, shame, and torment. “The enemy of our salvation has remained faithful to his crafty destructive system for some eight thousand years.” But the devil hides from humanity, concealing his hideousness and ridiculous appearance so that humanity will not come to hate him and feel revulsion and hatred toward him. “Oh, wretched one, be gone from me, enemy of truth and God’s righteousness!”

The world, over which humanity was established by God as prince and lord, this world, as the instrument of the devil, has also become humanity’s enemy. In order to overcome this enemy, “look upon all as a passing shadow,” says Father John.

Finally, humanity’s own passion-filled flesh has become its enemy. Through a thousand lusts it seeks to separate the soul from God, to weaken it, defile it, and kill it. Therefore, God’s saints throughout their entire lives strove to mortify the flesh or its powerful and destructive action on the soul. Fasting and the sufferings of the flesh (illness)—necessary and saving actions for overcoming this evil household enemy. The saving sufferings of the flesh are sent to us by God Himself, from Whom all goodness proceeds; therefore, not complaint but patience and gratitude to God should the believing soul offer even for the heaviest illnesses. The Rector himself, having suffered greatly in the flesh from his childhood, repeating the words of the Apostle Paul, says: As long as I am with you, “who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24)

In order to reunite humanity with God, restore in us the image of God, and snatch us from destructive spiritual delusion, Christ, the Son of God, appeared on earth. If humanity lost its likeness to God, then God Himself was pleased to become like humanity in the Incarnation; if humanity fell through proud disobedience to the Creator’s commandments, then Christ redeemed us through humble fulfillment of the law; if powerless humanity was to suffer the torments of the devil, then the God-man, saving people from the enemy’s nets, suffered Himself and captured our murderer, the devil. “Christ God, having suffered and died for us and risen, by His grace swallowed up all the transgression of the human race that believes in Him”; therefore, redemption is the bestowal on humanity of a second, /moral/ existence, or, according to Scripture, /a rebirth/. The Incarnation of the Son of God, as a great mercy in which God’s truth, wisdom, goodness, and almightiness were revealed, was a supernatural means, because the human nature is extraordinary, wondrous, divine in form, and priceless. Thus was accomplished the salvation of humanity, in which humanity was given more grace than it had before the fall. Only those who believe in Christ and in the Church established by Him on earth receive salvation; outside the Church, to which is entrusted Christ’s true teaching, the saving mysteries, and the guidance of shepherds, there is no salvation. “O our divine faith, divine Orthodoxy, shining brighter than the sun, Orthodoxy purchased for us by apostolic, episcopal, martyric, monastic, and all righteous blood, come to us! O precious pearl! O treasure hidden in the field (in the heart and in the Church)! O renewal! O incorruption! O light! O divine salt! O most bright sun! O eternal life itself! O perfect reconciliation of sinful humans with the righteous God! O golden chain to heaven! O golden ladder to heaven!”

Though redemption is accomplished, though the fearful Blood of the Son of God, offered at the Liturgy, daily intercedes for us before the throne of the Heavenly Father, each person must consciously appropriate salvation for themselves, each must give themselves wholly to Christ with all their thought, all their soul, and all their heart, using for this the grace-filled means and guidance of the Church. “/Know/ Christianity in all its spirit, in God’s plan, in its whole idea, magnificent breadth, goodness, wisdom, and God’s righteousness, /wonder at/ the greatness of God’s work, the work of human salvation, /humbly and devoutly/ bow before it, and /be a fulfiller/ of Christian virtues with the help of God’s grace”—this is the path of the Christian to God briefly but expressively portrayed, the direct and only way.

Our Lord Jesus Christ requires from each believer a feat of struggling, which becomes more difficult the more firmly sin has taken root in a person. This feat consists of the following: first, it is necessary to recognize your terrible fall and the need for restoration and correction; be a strict judge of yourself, prompted by the fact that there is a Righteous Judge, judging you at every moment, and that your end is near; compare your will, inclined toward sin, with the holy will of God, and you will be humbled before God’s perfections. “Be ashamed of yourself, weep over your unbelief, negligence, dullness, laziness, vanity, madness, and other passions.” Second, you must sincerely repent of your sins, loathing them not merely in words but even in thoughts. Frequent remembrance of the sufferings of Lord Jesus Christ, His redemptive death on the cross, His resurrection and ascension into heaven, and His second coming to judge the living and the dead will dispose the heart toward repentance. “You must always repent sincerely, for the Angel of God suffered for your sins too.” “If the Lord Jesus Christ had not offered Himself willingly as a sacrifice for us, repentance would not have been given to us, but for the sake of His sacrifice it is given to all believers, and all those who truly understand it eagerly make use of it, they are transformed by divine transformation, become new people with new thoughts, desires, intentions, deeds, and are saved, enlightened, and united with God.” Only in their madness do people fail to heed the Church’s call to repentance. God’s forbearance, calling all to repentance, is boundless; complete and perfect forgiveness is granted to those who have availed themselves of grace-filled repentance.

The third step to heaven is the struggle against impurity within ourselves, the recovery of nobility of spirit and the purity of soul and body. Born into Christianity and joined to the holy Orthodox Church, we must be pure. To free ourselves from sin and become children of light, we need fasting, prayer, and spiritual struggle; we must crucify fleshly passions (especially gluttony) and resist all evil. By means of constant struggle, you will reach such a state in which the soul will feel revulsion toward sin, where a healed conscience, like the voice of God, will immediately repel any touch of sin, while the soul will feel in its heart an inclination toward virtue.

Thus the fourth and final step to heaven, to the Kingdom of Heaven, is the unwavering following of the path of virtue, the path of fulfilling God’s commandments. Only a fool would refuse to fulfill God’s commandments, in which are holiness and blessedness, life and wisdom. “Our life is a continuous testing through life’s circumstances and encounters with people—the degree to which we are inclined in soul and heart toward faith, hope, and love for God, our Creator, and toward love of neighbor, and the degree to which we are inclined toward sin and various fleshly passions, or toward obedience to the devil acting through fleshly passions and the world’s delusions.” Testing people thus, God allows the devil to act wickedly so that God’s long-suffering might be revealed more and more infinitely and so that the deeds and virtues of people devoted to God might shine more brightly; for the unrepentant (such as Leo Tolstoy), God’s long-suffering will serve to multiply punishment. And so, from the lips of this merciful pastor flows a fervent prayer for all Russia in our time: “Lord, save the Russian people, the Orthodox Church in Russia—which is perishing: everywhere depravity, everywhere unbelief, blasphemy, lawlessness… Lord, all is in Your hands. You are the Almighty!”

The first and fundamental requirement of Christ’s law is /love for God/. We must love God because in Him is an abyss of life, holiness, and light; all His deeds and all nature unceasingly glorify the perfections of their Creator—good, wise, infinitely understanding; especially loudly does the human soul, created in the image and likeness of God, speak of the Creator’s perfections. Love for God is demanded by the thought of God’s constant care for humanity—fallen and redeemed. “To you, human, each day, each hour, each moment the Lord, Creator of all things, in every way shows kindness: the sun shines for you, caresses you with the quiet light of the clear moon, and with life-giving air… Thus God in every way shows you kindness for your existence and well-being, your joy! Are you not obligated to show Him kindness as well for your own good—to live by conscience and God’s law?” Finally, the commandment to love God is the fundamental commandment of the law because the “Lord Himself loved us with limitless love, coming down from the heavens and becoming human for us.”

The second fundamental commandment of the law is /love for neighbor/. The fulfillment of this commandment is the realization in practice of our love for God. “Love every person who hates you, and pray for him.”

Calling us to rise to the heights of virtue and to be inwardly transformed, Father John points to patience, forgiveness of injuries, non-judgment of neighbors, and other virtues, especially humility and mercy—such rare Christian virtues among us. Contemporary Christians have lost Christ, and therefore our life has become merely sleep, a dream, gradual dying rather than life. Speaking generally, unbelief, falling away from God, from God’s wise commandments, relying on our own intellect, blindly following our passions—these are the causes of all calamities and falls in the history of the human race. Father John briefly expresses daily human conduct in these words: “Always walk before God as before the face of the Father, all-good, all-powerful, swift to hearken, ready always to fulfill the righteous desires and petitions of your heart.” “Think and reason in such a way that heaven knows all your thoughts, feelings, and the dispositions of your soul.”

The crown of our moral life and our difficult inner struggle with ourselves is the future eternal blessed life, according to God’s Word: “To the one who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne” (Apok 3:21). To this life in communion with the angels and all the saints, Father John called out loudly during all 53 years of his priesthood. “Prepare yourselves immediately; time flows and brings you to the end of life, and then you must give account to the Master righteous for your whole life. Yes, I say, let us all prepare ourselves to acquire a pure, holy, pleasing garment of soul for the heavenly Bridegroom!” The unbelieving, the stubborn and lazy, according to God’s just and eternal judgment, await eternal destruction.

This is what the dear Rector thought and wrote in the last year of his life, as consolation for all who love him. A month and a half before his death, entrusting his work for publication, he urged that it be completed by the feast of the Nativity of Christ—even almost at the time of his death he asked about the progress of the work, so much did he wish, while still alive, to console all with his final word, his final fatherly blessing. But it is clear that the Rector prayed fervently about his blessed departure: “I burn with a strong desire to see the Artist who created me wisely in His image and likeness, with reason, feeling, free will, and immortality of soul. When shall I see Him, the desired one?” He died—died the ascetic, the contemplator of God, the counselor of God, the ardent intercessor, the healer of souls and bodies, the kind shepherd, merciful, gentle, compassionate! Yet now “the light of this righteous one shines joyfully” (Prov 13:9) because “the wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever” (Dan 12:3). He who victoriously completed all 79 years of his life, shining as a bright light, and went to the throne of the Most High, left behind him “a shining path” (Job 41:24). He who, following the great Sower, scattered seeds with a generous hand in God’s field, left us “living ears of wheat,” which not only bring us joy with their full, divinely ripened appearance but nourish us, who hunger spiritually; and he himself became “a living ear of wheat,” cut down for earthly life but ready for eternal life. He who during his earthly life consoled us, the weak, and supported us, the feeble, sending grace-filled strength from Christ, to whom he prayed with faith, will pour out upon us a double measure of grace-filled help, seeing the Lord face to face, if we ask for his intercession. “God and the saints,” he said, “hear us at prayer just as people hear each other when conversing or as people in a church hear a preacher or as soldiers hear the voice of their commander—yet they hear us far more perfectly and completely, because we hear another’s words but do not know what is in his heart and thoughts. But God and the saints are different: they see what is in our thoughts and heart—God Himself by His all-knowing, and the saints by the grace of the Holy Spirit in Whom they eternally abide.” Let this work be a consolation from one who has now found peace and blessedness in God; and we, remembering the deeds, life, and passing of the dear Rector, shall “follow his faith” (Hebr 13:7). In fulfillment of the author’s wish to publish this in the most refined form, each book is accompanied by a portrait of Father John signed by him twenty days before his death, and by his own handwritten epigraph containing texts of Holy Scripture given by Father John specifically for this edition. Moreover, according to the author’s instruction, the cover of the book presents an artistic depiction of “a living ear of wheat” grown in his spiritual field. Bound sheaves, in the Rector’s thought, show the moment of separation from the earth, necessary so that it becomes “a living ear of wheat” in heaven. “Death is birth into eternal life.”

P. Ivanovsky