49. What Is Needed in Order to Grow in Favor With God and Man (Luke 2:52)

The holy Evangelist Luke says that the Lord Jesus Christ, as a boy, grew in… favor with God and man (Luke 2:52). Is it possible, brothers, for people also to grow in such favor—can they too attain it?

Saint Seraphim, as stated in his life, desired from his youth to leave the world and serve God exclusively. And so, unknown to anyone, he comes as a young man to the Sarov Monastery, having left behind his mother, his brother, his possessions, and his home. Bringing with him to the monastery nothing except the ability to read and write, he begins his life there from the lowest degrees of obedience and passes through them humbly, drawing to himself the love and respect of the leadership and the brotherhood by his diligence and gentleness. Meanwhile, in the depths of his soul, unnoticed by anyone, beneath the cover of deep humility, the inner man was maturing. The laborious life of monasticism—prayer, fasting, obedience, and non-possessiveness, which is itself heavy for others—no longer satisfied him. In him there awakens a thirst for ever higher and higher feats of asceticism. And so he spends his life in silent solitude, undertaking an ascetic labor similar to that of the pillar saints; he imposes upon himself for a long time a vow of silence; and, as if in a certain tomb, he shuts himself away in seclusion. And having matured in the spiritual life, by a special prompting of God, he opens the doors of his cell and the doors of his lips, and sweet streams of spiritually edifying teaching pour forth for many years upon a countless multitude of people who sought his guidance. After prolonged labors in various virtues, having acquired the spirit of love—which is the pinnacle of perfection—he appears as a comforter of the spiritually afflicted, a healer of bodily ailments, and a guide of conscience for many. And so the obscure and poor newcomer to the Sarov Monastery became, by God’s grace and his own humility, not only its glory but an adornment of the whole Orthodox Church. The name of Seraphim was rightly carried everywhere as the name of one of the great ancient ascetics. In his person, it was as if an ancient ascetic of the Thebaid deserts or the Caves of Kiev had come to life again for our age, so poor in virtue and so little in faith. Both the nobly born and the simple, both the rich and the poor—all streamed to the threshold of his cell, fell prostrate before the bent elder clothed in a white robe, opened the secrets of their conscience, entrusted to him their sorrows and needs, and received with sincere love and gratitude his every word, warmed by grace. And for a long, long time the words of the elder, spoken in that cramped cell, will spread across the vast expanse of Russia! For a long, long time they will, like fruitful seed, bear the good fruits of good works! And together with all this, his memory will never be effaced, according to the word of Scripture: “the righteous lives forever” (Life, pp. 276-277).

In such love did the venerable elder grow in favor with man; but did he also grow in favor with God? During his lifetime the Lord Himself appeared to him, surrounded by heavenly powers: angels, archangels, cherubim, and seraphim. The Queen of Heaven also appeared to him several times, likewise accompanied by heavenly beings. He was given the gift of clairvoyance; he was given the gift of prophecy; he was given the gift of healing. Finally, he was also granted a Christian end—painless and peaceful—and he gave up his spirit to the Lord with a prayer on his lips. So did he grow in favor with God as well. It is clear, then, that people too can grow in favor with God and man! Yes, they can, brothers—but only, as the example of the venerable elder has shown, when we, like him, understand that the path to this love is like climbing a ladder. And indeed it truly is so. Just as in order to reach the summit one must step up the ladder rung by rung, so too in order to grow in favor with God and man one must pass from virtue to virtue, from a lower ascetic labor to a higher one, ascending from strength to strength.

That is precisely how the venerable elder proceeded. First he ascended the rung of humility and obedience, then he stepped onto the rung of silent solitude, then he imposed upon himself the vow of silence, then out of love for God he acquired the spirit of love for his neighbor as well—and with this spirit of love, as we have heard, he appeared as a comforter to those who came to him in spiritual affliction, then as a healer of their bodily ailments, and finally as a guide leading them to their salvation. He thus understood well that virtues are, as it were, the rungs of a ladder leading the Christian to growth in favor with God and man, and he steadily climbed the rungs of this ladder and thereby at last attained its summit—for the love those who visited him bore for him was striking, and God’s love for him was such that by it the Lord poured out upon him the greatest gifts of His goodness. Let us too, brothers, following the example of the Lord and of His great saint, Saint Seraphim, grow in favor with God and man! And in order to grow in this favor completely, let us take one more final lesson from the venerable elder. “My joy,” he says, “I beseech you: acquire a peaceful spirit, and then thousands of souls will be saved around you!” Amen.