The size of the Stalin Prize in rubles. Laureates of the Stalin Prize in the midst of the struggle against

After this Jesus went to a city called Nain; and with Him went many of His disciples and a great multitude of people. When He approached the city gates, they carried out the dead man, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and many people went with her out of the city. Seeing her, the Lord took pity on her and told her: don’t cry. And, approaching, he touched the bed; those carrying them stopped, and He said: young man! I'm telling you, get up! The dead man got up, sat down and began to speak; and Jesus gave him to his mother. And everyone was seized with fear, and they glorified God, saying: great prophet rose up among us, and God visited His people.

We hear about the healing of the son of the widow of Nain. At the gates of the city of Nain, located near the city of Capernaum, the Lord, walking with many people who always accompany Him, meets another human stream - a funeral procession. He sees a woman who is in terrible grief because she recently lost her husband and is now burying her only son.

Truly, trouble does not come alone. And the Lord often lets us know the depth of grief that every person has to taste. This woman hoped that she The only son When she grows up, she will be a support in her life and old age. And so, like a broken reed, he lies.

Can anyone say that things will be different for him? Is there even one person who could say that his life will not be cut short in the prime of his life? Is there even one person who could say that the Lord would not suddenly visit him? great grief? God, who became man, shows us what man is, what kindness and compassion for the grief of others he should have. This compassion comes from His nature. No one told him about what was happening at the city gates of the city of Nain. Seeing the grief of this woman, He approaches her, touches the coffin and the body of the deceased young man. And he says only one word to the woman: “Don’t cry.”

He speaks this word as He speaks the words that follow it: “Young man, I say to you, stand up.” As one who has authority, He says: “Do not weep” - not like the scribes and Pharisees. Not like us, who can know everything about true faith and the need to console other people, but who do not have the power to tell another person “don’t cry” in a way that would be a consolation for him. This power of the Lord over death comes from the depth of love that He has for every person. This is life that conquers death - that is, that grace, that fragrance, that life-giving “scent of life” that He brought for all people. So that every soul becomes a pure fragrance for the Lord - for eternal, heavenly, blooming, Divine, true life.

We are called to be participants in this life. And we must confess to the Lord our spiritual powerlessness in today’s world, which so needs our consolation. In a world that is characterized by such cruelty that, according to the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov, in human hearts there remains only devilish coldness and petrified insensibility, which are really like a gravestone in relation to the truth of life, to the truth, and to the grief of another person.

One article in the newspaper, amid the daily stream of murders, crimes and accidents, tells how young people were having fun at the so-called disco, and in the midst of this fun and dancing, one young man fell dead because his heart gave out. So what do you think, did this disco stop? Nothing like this. There was a short confusion, the young man was pulled aside, and with new strength There was fun until the morning. Here is a picture of our life today: someone is crying over the body of the deceased, and behind the wall there is drunkenness and bestial screams. Not because these people do not know about the grief of others (this can also happen), but because they know, and are still busy with their own.

What is the current picture of our Russian life? They say: a feast during a plague. When some crazy “new Russians” feast, while death mows down everyone, the people die out.

Previously, in Rus' there was such a custom: if someone died in the village, then, naturally, any kind of fun was considered indecent. It was an insult to the deceased person and the grief of his loved ones. Everyone, one way or another, took part in this grief. In today's Gospel we see how the people of the entire city of Nain walk with the unfortunate widow. Perhaps she occupied some special place of honor in the city. Or people simply haven’t become so depraved that they no longer accept the death of others.

To learn mercy, we must put ourselves in the face of death, because, as you know, a wise man differs from a fool in that he sees everything to the end, in the face of the reality that awaits every person. The Lord visits us not only with some individual sorrows, but also with the death of our loved ones, so that we can see what human life is.

The Church wisely established: not to immediately bury the body of the deceased, but on the third day - in the image of the Resurrection of Christ - for the sake of the mystery of what happens to the human soul in the first three days after it departs from the body. But also so that we can see through death itself dear person What is human life? So that at night we pray over this lifeless body and think about what life and death are, and what lies ahead of us. We must gain the ability to offer genuine words of comfort to others who are experiencing the same grief. “I do not want to leave you, brethren,” the apostle tells us, “in ignorance of the dead, so that you do not grieve like others who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13).

We must see in the death of another person what Christ sees in the death of the son of the widow of Nain. Or when He says to the crying crowd: “The maiden is not dead, but sleeps” (Matthew 9:24), and everyone laughs at Him because they know that she died - but the Lord calls death a sleep. And just as we are not frightened when we see a sleeping person, because we know that he will wake up again, so we should not be immensely horrified when we see a dead person, because death is only a dream.

We call death the Assumption Mother of God and every man whose death is in the Lord. One saint said: “Every day, waking up, we must exclaim, “Having seen the Resurrection of Christ,” because, truly, sleep is death, it is an image of death, and death is a long sleep.” When we go to sleep, we say the words the power of which we must learn on the last day: “Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.” This is repeated every day, and every day is, as it were, an image of our entire life. Over and over again, the Lord gives us a fresh start, so that we become people capable of perceiving other people’s grief, suffering and death, just as He Himself perceives it. We cannot console another person with anything other than Christ God - Christ's consolation. No one can help another person in any way as soon as more faith and true love.

Where does love come from? Of course, with Christ. And we must learn it. Just as He loved us, so we should love our brothers. In this the love of God was revealed, that He lays down His life for us. In the same way, says the apostle of love, we must lay down our lives for our loved ones. “The love of God for us was revealed in this, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, so that we might receive life through Him. This is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved! - says the Apostle John, “if God so loved us, then we should love one another” (1 John 4:9-11). Our whole life should be giving to others and teaching this secret.

Is there at least one kind person among us? Or at least one holy person? Venerable John Climacus said: “ a kind person“is one who is not afraid of death, and a holy person is one who desires death.” Who can say with the Apostle Paul: “Death is gain for me”?

We must follow the path that the Savior Himself walked ahead of us. The resurrection of one person is not some kind of exceptional case that goes beyond everything that happens in the world. We know that the Lord Himself accepted death and thus participated in the suffering and death of every person without exception. In His Resurrection the first ray of the dawn of that Easter day, which will have no end - when God shines with the life of Christ for all of us.

Let us only remember the only lesson that the Lord offers us today - the mystery of those words that we hear during church services: such is the mercy of God, such is His strength. This refers to the power of His Resurrection. And to the extent that we learn the mystery of mercy, to the extent that we partake of God’s victory for the sake of our own salvation and for the sake of the salvation of all.

Schema-Archimandrite Abraham (Reidman)

Luke 35, 8:5-15

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Savior, who announced to people the truth that was hidden from them (of course, through the fault of man, not God) after the Fall human race, compares Himself and everyone who preaches this truth on His behalf to a sower.

“The sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside and was trampled, and the birds of the air devoured it” (v. 5). The parable, of course, cannot accurately depict what happens in human life, for it is only an approximate comparison, but it accurately depicts the ineffable mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Seed- this is the word of God, this is a sermon, proclaiming the truth in one way or another - directly or through books. The Savior compares the word of God to a seed, and the human soul and heart to soil, which is more or less capable of receiving it and bearing fruit. We must understand that when the parable says that the soil of the human heart can be unequally fertile and unequally capable of accepting the preaching of the truth, this does not mean that such a difference exists between people from birth, for this depends only on the will of man. The heart of one can be compared to the soil along the road, and the heart of the other to fertile soil. However, the latter was not from birth more capable of spiritual life, he himself made himself so.

“On the road” means that near the human heart lies the path along which the devil walks. This is a passion for some kind of sin, or, in other words, passion. In this case, the devil has free access, like a trodden path to a person’s heart, and the seed that falls near it, naturally, can easily be trampled. Moreover, we know that the border between the dirt road and the soil along which it runs is very unclear: after all, the edge of the road is also trampled and gradually turns into untouched soil. Thus, the soil along the road becomes so dense that it is practically impossible for the seed to sink into it and take root. It lies almost on the road and is trampled by those passing along it, that is, by demons and our sins. The passions are the road along which various sins pass. And since the seed cannot take root and lies on the surface of the earth, it easily becomes prey for birds, that is, for various sinful thoughts.

“And some fell on a rock and came up and withered, because it had no moisture” (v. 6). The heart of a person who seems to have no passion or sinful habit, but whose heart is completely petrified, is compared to a stone. Some people seem to have done nothing grave sins, do not have any particularly clearly manifested passions and lead a more or less righteous lifestyle, but they have a heart of stone. They have not only no passions, but also no good deeds and good feelings, they are completely indifferent towards the Church. And even if a few of them visit the temple, maybe even regularly, they still don’t feel anything. Out of habit, such people pray morning and evening, out of habit they confess and receive communion several times a year, but their hearts are completely stone and do not feel anything spiritual. And who knows what is more terrible - a heart obsessed with passions, or a petrified heart! The Holy Fathers consider petrified insensibility one of the most terrible states human soul. If a person possessed by passions can, from the very action of these passions, from being oppressed by them, come to repentance and come to his senses, then a person with a petrified heart thinks that everything is fine with him and has no incentive to repent. And if the seed of the word of God falls on the petrified soil of the heart of such a person, then he seems to accept it, but only for the reason that he accepts everything, is indifferent to everything and does not resist anything. Nothing reaches the depths of his heart. Indifference, to put it modern language, - this is the disease of such a human heart. The Word of God does not reach the depths of an indifferent heart, a person does not repent and does not correct himself. He leads his normal life. Having accepted the word of God, after a while he forgets it and remains the same, completely calm and cold person.

“And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew and choked them” (v. 7). By thorns, our Lord Jesus Christ means human passions, and in particular, commitment to earthly vanity. It seems that what’s special here is that a person cares about his food and his loved ones? However, people sometimes get so carried away by this that they worry not only about what is necessary for life, but also about what they do not need at all, about everything petty and vain - they acquire many useless things, and engage in a lot of idle conversations. It would be possible to get by with the most necessary things, and neglect everything else as unnecessary and unnecessary for human life. But a person wants to settle down on earth as well as in heaven.

From the biblical narrative we know that the inventors of civilization, that is, all those conveniences and entertainments that gradually developed into what is called human culture, were the descendants of Cain, that is, the cursed seed. They invented blacksmithing, they invented tents, musical instruments and weapons. There is an opinion that prostitution also originated from the descendants of Cain, for among them a certain Noema is mentioned (see Gen. 4:22) (although genealogies usually do not talk about women), who, according to the interpretations of the holy fathers, was the first harlot . This is who is the inventor of earthly well-being - the damned seed!

The descendants of Seth invented worship, for it is said: “Then they began to call on the name of the Lord” (Gen. 4:26). The Cainites sought to settle well on earth in order to be blissful on it. They understood that given the sinful lifestyle that they led, imitating their parent Cain, heaven was inaccessible to them. We also become like them if we worry too much about how to successfully arrange our life on earth and live in perfect comfort, without experiencing any inconvenience, but this is unattainable, because a person must inevitably encounter all kinds of sorrows and illnesses, old age and death. If we imitate the Cainites, then the thorns of earthly worries and vanity will choke the seed of the word of God that has fallen into our hearts.

“And some fell on good soil and sprang up and bore fruit a hundredfold. Having said this, he exclaimed: whoever has ears to hear, let him hear! "(v. 8). What qualities should a good land have? From the previous story we can conclude that it should not be located near the road, should not be strewn with stones, because rocky soil is not suitable for farming, and thorns should not grow on it, because it is almost impossible to destroy it. If the thorn's roots remain in the ground, it will sprout again and again and choke out other plants. In ascetic language this means that on the good soil of the heart there should be no habit of passions. It is necessary to plow and loosen the road, so as not to give the devil access to our hearts, that is, to drive out petrification and indifference from the heart, clear the soil of stones and pull out thorns. Moreover, destroy not only the shoots of thorns, but also the roots themselves, so as not to have even the desire for earthly comforts and be content with only the most necessary for life. After all, the Apostle Paul says: “Having food and clothing, we will be content with these things” (1 Tim. 6:8). Really, what does a person need? Food, shelter and clothing, but variety and excessive comfort are from the evil one.

A person, having accepted the seed of the word of God, purifying his heart and making it good soil, bears fruit a hundredfold, that is, the word, multiplying in him many times, makes him a highly moral person. Of course, we can say (and this will be correct) that the number “one hundred” is only an image here. But regarding ourselves we can do next output: We, bearing twice as much fruit (and hardly any of us bear such fruit), consider that this is already a lot. So what does “hundred-fold” fruit mean, why don’t we bear it? Apparently, because in us, to one degree or another, everything that the Savior spoke about is present in us: passions, indifference and vanity. The less of this we have, the more abundant our fruit becomes, it can even become a hundredfold.

This is probably why the holy fathers, having invented such a device for the Jesus Prayer as a rosary or rope, made a hundred knots in it. The rosary is an image of hundredfold retribution. Man, taking into himself the word of God (and what could correspond more to it than the words of the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”, for they briefly contain all christian sermon), can bear fruit a hundredfold. A word heard by him as if out of the corner of his ear can make him a highly moral person.

Some of us justify ourselves like this: “We were not raised in the Christian faith, we did not hear or know anything about it. And even now there are many obstacles to hearing the word of God.” But these are all just excuses. From the Savior’s parable we see that if even just one word, one seed falls on the soil of our heart and it turns out to be ready to receive it, then we will bear fruit a hundredfold. And vice versa, even if a lot of seeds fall on trampled, rocky or overgrown soil, it will not bear any fruit.

So, the seed does not germinate at all when it falls on soil that does not allow it to take root: trampled, located near the road or rocky. Sometimes it takes root, but since, wanting to accept the word of God, a person is at the same time busy with vanity, then vanity makes all his labors fruitless and empty, although he believes and lives by faith. The ears grow, but there are no grains in them, because the thorns suck all the juice out of them.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” (Mark 12:30). A person has one heart. If we betray him to vanity, then it carries him away entirely and takes away all our vitality and energy, even if we understand with our minds that the main thing in our life is God, and the rest are empty and meaningless things. It turns out that in reality we serve trifles: either we need to go buy some kind of toothbrush instead of praying, or suddenly we remember that we need to run to a friend and talk to her about something. And so one thing, another, a third - and the day passed. We think that tomorrow everything will be fine, but then again one thing, another - and another day has passed, but our life consists of days!

We choke the seed of the word of God with thorns of vanity, empty activities, empty conversations, empty deeds. Before we do anything, let’s think: “Is this necessary?” There is one well-known Russian proverb: “Work is not a wolf - it will not run away into the forest.” Many see it as an excuse for laziness, but it seems to me that our ancestors used it because they preferred the spiritual to the earthly and understood that they could never get rid of earthly vanity and worries. Russian people generally cared little about their earthly well-being. Ancient Russian cities and villages usually looked very simple: the houses were wooden, simple. Even the boyars' chambers until the 17th century were not much different from peasant huts; they were somewhat decorated, but everything had the same simplicity. And only the temples were a completely exceptional phenomenon - they contrasted sharply with what surrounded the Russian people in everyday life. One can, of course, refer to so-called objective circumstances to explain the poverty of the Russian people. But I guess that they simply did not care too much about earthly things, but thought about the salvation of their souls and eternity. This is probably also an objective circumstance. Having huge families, in which there were sometimes more than ten children, these people did not grumble, but worked as best they could, ate what God sent and observed all fasts. The usual food of a Russian peasant working in the field consisted of kvass with radish - he took a sip and went back to work. There is also a well-known saying: “Soup soup and porridge are our food.” Even in the 19th century, when people in Russia began to live richer, peasants could only afford to eat meat at Christmas and Easter, although they raised livestock. Basically, they had lean and meager food. People had huge families and were saved because they lived thanks to God. And now no one wants to have children, and for what? So that you have time to go to the cinema, chat for hours and dress better? But will we really take all this to the grave?!

Our desire to live well has already reached the point of hatred for our own children. Previously, having many children was considered a blessing from God, but now it is almost a curse and a misfortune. If someone wants to have many children, then everyone laughs at him. All this comes from our vanity and desire to settle down on earth as if we will live on it forever. Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) predicted that in times close to the Antichrist, and under the Antichrist, people will strive to settle on earth as if it were their eternal abode, which they would never leave. And the Apostle Paul predicts that “in last days people will have a form of godliness, but will deny its power” (see 2 Tim. 3:1-5), that is, they will renounce Divine grace and Christian morality.

I speak in such detail about this incorrect spiritual state, because we are precisely those people who accepted the word of God, that is, the seed sown by the Lord, and it grew in our souls, but is drowned out by the thorns of vanity. Being by conviction Orthodox Christians, we live like atheists and do not notice that we imitate them in everything. What they consider correct, valuable and desirable, we consider so. Therefore, our faith does not bear any fruit at all, let alone a hundredfold - God grant that it survives at all despite our negligence.

Let us not justify ourselves as if God created us this way, with a heart of stone or a heart that is overgrown with thorns or trampled by passions. Let us understand that everything depends on us, and, with effort calling on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, we will force ourselves to begin a Christian life, modest and repentant. Let us imitate in this, I am not saying the saints, but at least our ancestors, who just a few centuries ago lived in simplicity and right faith. They lived with the hope of eternal life, having their eyes fixed on eternity and touching the earth only out of necessity, due to the fact that people are clothed with flesh.

Caring for earthly things most of all serves for our humility, and therefore let us give it the little that is due, and let us turn the main aspiration of the soul to eternity. We will all cross the threshold between life and death, and first of all we need to think about it every day. eternal life and about what awaits us beyond the grave. Let us make sure that the word of God in us bears fruit for eternal life and becomes the mustard seed that the Savior speaks of in another parable (see Matthew 13:31-32)! That small grain which, having become a huge tree, will be able to shelter us from the heat of passions and will be for us like a paradise tree of life in the Divine Eden. Amen.