The Path to God

Archbishop Sergius (Korolev) of Kazan and Chistopol (+1952)

 

 

People constantly complain that life is monotonously gray, that it has become hateful to them and therefore seems very unhappy. Every day we get up and work until exhaustion and never see a ray of joy. And besides all this, we do not cease to be grieved, irritated, and angry, mostly over trifles.

Whence comes this oppressive feeling of unhappiness and abandonment? The origin of our misfortunes lies in the fact that we yield to the influence of external circumstances, living mechanically, and become slaves to things that have no significance whatsoever, things that are here today and may not be here tomorrow. In other words, we mistake the unceasingly passing life, with its anger, insults, envy, and hatred, for real life.

The constant agitation in which we live is the cause of the loss of peace and calm in our hearts, which, as a result, are plunged into darkness. But he who walks in darkness stumbles; and we are cast into darkness because we take the sinful state of our souls, that is, their possession by dark forces, for reality. And when we carry this anxiety into our spiritual relations with others, mutual disunity and estrangement arise. Such a feeling of disunity is a cause of suffering. Undoubtedly, however, each of us strives for well-being and happiness, for God gave us the earth for joyful dwelling upon it, gave it to us so that we might be happy on it and, so to speak, partake of the glory of God. But where are we to seek good and joy in everyday life? We like to strive after heroic exploits in the hope that they will give us the possibility of attaining blessedness. But this is only a fleeting moment of passing joy. We, however, seek abiding joy and well-being in our daily life.

A great obstacle on this path of ours to joy is the fact that for the most part we live mechanically, for we do not judge man from the side of the soul, in all his fullness, but touch him only from the outward side, not taking the trouble to reach the true essence of man. This is all the greater an omission because in reality the life of each one of us is a great wealth. Every person has his own personality, every one has his own task, each of us is, as it were, a messenger of God. Alongside this it must especially be emphasized that in every person there is more good than evil.

One might naturally ask: how can this be so? Around us one sees so much that is bad, a whole sea of evil. Yes, but if evil is a full sea, then good is positively an entire ocean. Evil in us does not cease to show itself on the surface; it catches the eye, whereas good is hidden, scattered, not concentrated. Evil is bold, whereas good is modest. Evil is darkness, sin; it is our weakness and misfortune, our death. Good is light, a uniting force, power, joy. In short, good is life. We do not encounter one another by chance. The Lord unites us in the family, in society, in the nation, whereas the spirit of evil strives to divide us and set us at odds. Our task is to overcome this disintegrating force, for only by this path can we discern that one thing in us which is from God and which gives us well-being in life. Evil and sin rob man, for they do not allow him to manifest himself in the full measure of his spiritual essence. But when man does not overcome that which divides us, then we do not see true life, but only its seeming image. Such disunity and isolation are subject to severe condemnation, for we are called to communion. Only in communion does our soul fully blossom in life. Therefore, communion among us is not a matter of indifference; it is manifested first and chiefly in the word. Yet the word must be regarded as a reflection of the Word.

The Lord said, “Let there be light.” And the light came into being. The invisible received its existence from the Word. The word can manifest tremendous power. In the 32nd Psalm we read: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.” In us as well, by the word the hidden is manifested and becomes plain. Therefore, one must use the word with great caution. It is important that our word breathe goodness into the surrounding atmosphere. For by means of the word we wish to attain well-being. Therefore, the word that proceeds from our lips must contain within itself that good which will illumine our life. When in conversation a good word has had force, there long remains after such a conversation a sense of something precious, substantial, divine. The word should draw us closer to one another, bringing unity and not division and disintegration. But we live in sinfulness, which weakens the power of our word, and therefore the word does not enter our life in its full strength. Only a word free from sin manifests itself in full power, for in that case it is united with the Word that created the light. A word that falls into an environment that resists it acts with the greatest force and has enormous significance in the ordering of our life. A word issuing from the hidden recesses of the soul, not weakened by our own sinfulness, being the power of the potential good within us, brings with it light and goodness, since it is in union with the Source of light and with the Word. The word becomes incarnate.

If we utter a word without attention, we do not think that these words, rising to heaven and vanishing into eternity, may be bearers of divisions and disintegration in the family, in society, among nations, throughout the whole world. When we gather in company, we usually begin with judgment, and very quickly pass over to condemnation. Judgment and condemnation are a poison that disintegrates life. Condemnation divides us, repels one from another, whereas the word—a reflection of the Logos on earth—ought to carry with it the light and joy of being into the atmosphere of enmity and disintegration in which we live. The word has eternity within it. It is of the highest importance that our relations with people give us the joy of life; therefore, we must use words in such a way as not to be condemned by them. “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36).

Therefore, in our relations with people we must be sociable and not shun them. If we succeed in finding that which is common among us and which proceeds from God, then true joy will dwell in our heart. In this way we acquire values by which we then live. Seeking and finding communion in God, we become fellow workers with God here on earth. Through such cooperation we are reborn and enter into the realm of the essence of light. In such a rebirth there is reflected both the light and the glory of God, and the Lord Himself finds in us a foundation on the basis of which He can draw near to us. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). Thus, when people live in company with two or three, in a family or in some other shared life, and thereby overcome their estrangement, they begin to feel a community of the interests of life, which brings them happiness and well-being. The overcoming of this distance creates the impression of our identification with others, as though we lived soul to soul. We are all created in the image of God, and it is precisely this image of God that unites us. By this means we gradually attain unanimity in the expression of the will. This is that unity of which Christ said: “That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me” (John 17:21). The consequence of this is that in unity there is life, in division there is death. This unity is like a thread cast from earth to heaven, to God, to the unifying center. Unity brings us well-being, which is the foundation of our true joy in life. This is the law of life. Whoever deviates from it must inevitably suffer for it. Unfortunately, in our petty everyday way of life we usually do not regard it as our duty to seek in this drab life that which we have from God and which alone can draw us close to one another. On the contrary, we take the image of division for true life and do not even try in any way to overcome this division, despite the fact that such division deprives us of the possibility of finding joy even in everyday life, prevents us from opening our soul and manifesting our true qualities. These qualities live in us precisely so that we may manifest them. The Lord has endowed us all with good qualities and has given us potential abilities for their realization, but we do not manifest them rightly, not making use of the powers that slumber within us, but by which we could move mountains. If only we desire it, we can kindle within ourselves a blazing fire of good. If we acknowledge that daily life is in fact only a means to the creation of true life, then we see that we have turned the means into the end. As a result, we go through life as though in a dream, plunged into darkness, sinfulness, and passions, gazing only at the darkness that we now see before us. The evil spirit hinders us from looking at the light, and we become instruments of his dark powers and because of this, of course, suffer greatly. We must look around us at life with open eyes. And then we notice that the mechanized life to which we have wholly surrendered ourselves is poisoning our soul. True, we know that our soul was created for eternity, but we do not care for it at all; on the contrary, we try in every possible way to acquire material riches, neglecting eternal riches. We are very poor merchants, for we appraise our soul far too cheaply, although we possess nothing more precious than it. We buy only that which has absolutely no value for eternity, and we pay no attention to that which passes into eternity. We do this because sin has darkened for us the true condition of all things. Only when we truly come to know all the falsity and untruth of our life, only then will a real exchange take place, for man will come to know the light of God that illumines his darkness, will begin to find his bearings in the vanity of life, and will begin to direct himself toward God and eternity. Let us not forget that each one of us has received certain talents, and we are obliged to manifest and then to multiply this talent given us by God.

The unfolding of this talent has been placed directly into our hands. In meeting other people, we must overcome within ourselves that which separates us from them; by this we manifest our abilities, unfold the talents entrusted to us, and by this value enrich both ourselves and them. Every encounter in which we conduct ourselves attentively toward those around us will be for us a source of great enrichment, for in such an encounter there will always be light and goodness. For beauty can be found in every person, but our sinfulness hinders this. Therefore, even in everyday life one should seek its true values by rejecting its mechanical course. And by this we attain that not a single day will pass idly into eternity, but each day will be for us a source of at least some small measure of joy and well-being, as constituent parts of eternity that will pass with us into the life to come. If we wish to merit these values, then we must awaken within ourselves the creative power by which we can overcome our inertia and free ourselves from the darkness of the passions that have taken possession of us. Passion and sin take from us the true joy of life and prevent us from seeing the beauty of God’s light. Therefore it is precisely the overcoming of sin that leads to a joyful knowledge of the world and at the same time to the creation of a new, true life, which in fact is the task of every person. In this way we attain that the outward, old man dies within us and a new man is created. By overcoming sin, we uncover the good, with which, if only for a moment, we immerse ourselves in eternity.

How are we to realize this creative life? By being constantly on guard, so as to be aware of all the vices in the life of the soul and to eliminate them. It is felt that we are truly, as it were, on the border between good and evil. In our heart, almost every moment, a struggle is being waged between evil and God. Evil unceasingly introduces darkness into our heart: irritation, anger, envy, condemnation, laziness. If, with God’s help, we overcome this darkness, then light will enter our heart, or even the Lord Himself.

I repeat: it is very important that we realize that the Lord created the world by the Word, for He said, “Let there be light!” If we strive to live a creative life, then we shall become, as it were, a reflection of the Creator Himself. Good thoughts appear in us as a reflection of God’s creative thought. A good thought is itself light, for it gives us light in the likeness of the creative principle which it brings from the very Source of Light—God. A good thought shines and penetrates into the chaos of life’s contacts between good and evil, creates a new life, and leads to the overcoming of darkness. It was said: “While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them” (John 12:36). God’s light illumines us constantly and everywhere, but the darkness of our soul repels it. In essence, when some thought illumines us, we experience it as though it were a ray from heaven that has shone upon us and illumined everything that until then had been unclear to us. Such a ray awakens us from sleep and proclaims the power of God. “Let there be light,” said God, and light appeared. But it appears now also, and by it a new life comes before our eyes. By this light we can transform our gray life as well into a new, bright, joyful life, when, of course, we pay special attention in the direction of this light, which penetrates into us in the form of a good thought that urges us to overcome evil.

By the creative power manifested in us, we discover within ourselves the source of good and learn to feel the joy of life, and as a consequence of this our attitude toward life will be not mechanical in character, but creative. And this creative activity will at the same time bring a clarification of our life.

In the intellectual realm, a man often compels himself to reflect and to work, not infrequently for whole years. Through strenuous effort one can come into contact with God’s light. Having then entered into the realm of luminous thoughts, we dispel the darkness of our heart and thereby begin to create a new life that frees us from evil. Our misfortune lies in the fact that our will has been weakened by sin. Therefore, the will must be so educated that it may help us emerge from confused feelings into the realm of another being, into the realm of light. To sins we surrender slavishly, whereas to the Lord we surrender by our own will. But this, indeed, is possible only if we overcome sin within ourselves. For this purpose, an enormous effort must be applied; true heroism must be shown. Therefore, the man who has overcome sinfulness by an act of his will is free, whereas the man given over to sin is a slave of sin. He who has overcome sin sows joy and has allowed light to enter the heart, that is, the Lord. When there is light in our heart, we feel as though everything around us gives us joy and that being itself has drawn near to us. Thus we come to the realization that our sinful life is in essence not true being, but a distorted one that brings unhappiness. True being contains only good and brings only well-being. Thus the struggle with sin, which is true progress, is the primary source of a new life, full of joys hitherto unknown to us.

Let us not forget that every person, as I have said, has his own special calling, a certain advantage of his own, his own beauty, by which he must serve the light. Thus individual human being is manifested, freed from sin and developed into the fullness of true life. It becomes a valuable contribution to the treasury of the whole world.

Naturally, in these efforts we must not be afraid of exertion or avoid it. After all, in athletic training we sometimes use great effort. It is not hard for us to rise early for athletic exercises; for their sake we know how to deny ourselves excessive food and drink and to perform various special exercises the whole day long. And in such undertakings we may speak of heroism or even asceticism, employed, of course, for earthly goals. All who wish to become athletes must be temperate. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible” (1 Cor. 9:25). All the more natural, then, is heroism for the Christian who wishes to overcome his sinful nature, which hinders him from attaining happiness and deprives him of eternal life.

The overcoming of sin gives us the joy of being; it gives it not only to the man who struggles against evil and conquers it, but through him it is communicated to others as well. In this way the personal overcoming of sin by one man becomes the possession of all humanity, becomes the basis of social rebirth, by which evil on earth is destroyed and the common good is increased. The consequence of this is the overcoming of all sin by virtue, extending to the whole world. By overcoming sin, a man concentrates good within himself and, together with this, the beauty of human dignity, and enriches others as well. Good is eternal; it proceeds from God and strives to return to God. This striving of good toward God is true life and constitutes the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth. The Kingdom of God is not obtained by us easily, but only through effort. It is a good that can be realized here on earth, and not somewhere above the clouds. Remaining in sins diminishes this good, my joy of life.

Our forefathers were created sinless, but from the moment of the first sin, it enters into our very nature, is born with us, and holds us captive. We must be convinced that sin is not something that is truly ours. This awareness is very important for us, because it awakens in us the striving to free ourselves from sin, which brings us unhappiness. Further success in the struggle against sin consists in this: that we begin, to a certain degree, to be reborn. One who was formerly irritable and hot-tempered, for example, learns to restrain these impulses; one who was stingy becomes generous; a man constantly troubled and wrathful finds peace. The good that is within us is manifested in the struggle with our passions. This is precisely that cross of which we are so afraid, but with the cross come joy and resurrection as well. The thought of resurrection is the victorious thought of good. To remain in sin is to be in darkness, whereas he who remains in a state of holiness lives in the light, the source of which is the Holy Spirit. In this state man is reunited with God, returns to the Father, and experiences with his whole being joy in the Holy Spirit.

By driving the darkness out of our heart with heavenly light, we are filled with the Holy Spirit, who transforms our life at its very foundation, calling life out of non-being into true being, and this light then determines our direction toward a new life. The struggle with our passions is difficult, and therefore we must turn to God for help, without Whom we are not able to change our sinful nature. The Lord is always near us and will help us at once. A brief but fervent prayer is enough: “O God, help,” and by this very thing we bring a new life into being. A thought turned to God for help pierces the heavens, and from heaven there comes an answer to our cry in the form of light, driving out the darkness that has settled in our heart. Every thought of God is a consequence of the action of the Holy Spirit within us. By crying out to God, we pass over into another realm of being. This union with the Light of God is already in itself an act, for by our petition we attain this, that the Light of God is poured out upon us and awakens in us the energy for action, so that the good that until now had slumbered within us is awakened and manifests itself. This light is our guiding star. Calling upon God illumines our inward being with heavenly radiance, enlightens that which surrounds us, and, what is most important, helps us climb out of our gray life, which chiefly shows itself because of our weakness of will. Along with this there arises the impression that by this light eternity itself is opened before us and that in this way we ourselves become partakers of it.

Such a change of our heart from darkness to light, or from evil to good, is the miracle of the transformation of the old man into the new; it is the drawing near to us of heaven, for which we so ardently long. In moments of such change, we undoubtedly enter into another being, touch eternity, and become convinced that man is truly given great power to transform a sinful life, with God’s help, into the Kingdom of God. And every such man is, as it were, a wonderworker, for by victory over sin he reveals God within himself. In our daily life we are too much cut off and removed from the source of God’s light; this is all the greater a misfortune for us because by the light of God we are able to become capable of seeing and recognizing the illusory character of our ordinary life.

Without calling upon God, we can in no way free ourselves from slavery to things and become absolute slaves of our surroundings. But a single small turning to God is enough, and soon our heart is illumined by His light and the true significance of things in this world is shown to us. Therefore it is necessary as often as possible to illumine our daily life with a ray of God’s light, by overcoming sin, as though opening a window into our inner being, so that through it heavenly light may pour into our heart. This is the foundation of the creative life, of the spiritual and Christian life; at the same time it is the foundation of well-being and happiness. The more such bright moments there are in our life, the more our life will be illumined by Divine light; the more resolutely we must reject the passions, and our life will acquire ever more unexpected beauty and value. Then man will experience the true joy of life and a good undisturbed by anything; and all this is nothing other than victory over sin and drawing near to God. Then true life will be established on earth, that life for which we pray daily in the words: “Thy Kingdom come.” It is necessary that we understand that the Kingdom of God is true good and happiness on earth. True joy for the liberation of the heart is the joy of the Holy Spirit, who has descended into us.

To name oneself a Christian means to come out of a state of sleep and inertia, to manifest one’s creative powers. It is necessary to spread the understanding that Christianity is not passive, but on the contrary wages a very active struggle against sin. Christianity is not something cut off and infinitely remote, but on the contrary something fully realizable here on earth.

The Christian religion is not a religion of grief and suffering, but, on the contrary, a religion of joy and well-being. The Apostle Paul says: “Rejoice always” (1 Thess. 5:16). But in reality we can rejoice only when we overcome within ourselves the state of sinfulness, for only the overcoming of sin can bring the soul joy, which is the beginning of blessedness; concerning this the Apostle Paul said: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

 

Russian source: https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Sergij_Korolev/put-k-bogu/