O you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. At an interview with Christ

There is no peace.

Well, not at all. And not because life is like that. Lie. As I am, so is life. And I am twitchy, fussy, troublesome. I’ll even add – uselessly troublesome. Useless, like a boiler lowered into the sea. The sea, I swear, will not boil. Consequently, my life is the same - twitchy, vain, uselessly troublesome.

Who sang the verse: “Heart! Don't you want peace? Utesov, or what? This is slander. I don't agree. And Pushkin does not agree. Pushkin and I both disagree.

He said:

It's time, my friend, it's time. The heart asks for peace.

Days fly by, and every day takes away

A piece of existence. And you and I together

We assume to live. But, lo and behold, we’re just about to die.

We die or we don’t die, it doesn’t matter. Not about that now. It is important that “The heart asks for peace”. Po-ko-ya.

This is what Jesus Christ says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you peace"(Matthew 43 conceived) He promises to give peace to those who come to Him.

I once thought that “toilers” were those who worked hard. For example, miners or polar explorers; steelworkers or truck drivers. But that would be too easy. It would be some kind of Christian socialism with the glorification of people of hard physical labor. They are blessed, they say, because it is hard for them. And all the bespectacled intellectuals without calluses and with extra square meters of living space deserve to wave their picks in the North. It's a sin to think like that. If you think so too, repent. There must be another meaning.

And the “burdened” are not just those who are burdened with loads, like the porters at the station, or the dockers at the port, or the poor donkey with luggage.

Our Lord Jesus was speaking to religious people. Sometimes very religious. These people were literally hung with commandments, prohibitions, ceremonies, rituals, duties, spiritual practices, teachings of elders, advice of sages, historical memory, fear of sinning... Continue? I think that's enough.

And these people, hung with all of the above, had a lot of things. They had dignity, pride, knowledge, money, anxiety for the people, fearful respect of the same people, blindness from long reading, gray hair from long thoughts... But they had no peace. Not at all. And the compassionate Christ spoke precisely to them: You are working, and you are overloaded. But you have no fruit. Your soul has no peace. Therefore, come to Me, all you who labor (in fulfilling a thousand instructions) and are burdened (with a million rituals and little things), and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you. Learn from Me. I am meek and lowly in heart (while you are proud and obstinate). Only then will you find peace for your souls.

In this understanding, the words of Christ the Savior equally apply to both the woodcutter and the translator. Especially if the lumberjack and translator - religious people.

What about us? And we, too, are hung with regulations drawn up for our benefit.

Don't eat, don't look, don't touch, don't talk, don't think, don't touch. This is wonderful! This is truly wonderful. But not by itself. After all, we have no peace. There is no fruit. Our heart is rebellious. And this is no longer wonderful.

Perhaps, in a completely pharisaical way, we have loaded ourselves with thousands of “does” and “don’ts,” but we have not taken the yoke of Christ around our necks. They did not put His burden on their backs. After all, it is much easier not to eat meat on Wednesday than for a daughter-in-law to reconcile with her mother-in-law.

Religious life adds to the anxiety. All life passes in quarrels, suspicions, fears, grievances, gossip, false fears, strange rumors. What kind of peace is there? But the same restless life seems to be spent in spiritual labors, efforts, in tears, in attempts to fix and save everything. If not to save the whole world, then at least to save your province.

There's some kind of inconsistency.

Every time a memory is committed Reverend Father(Whether Seraphim, Sergius, or someone else) the same concept from Matthew is read: Come to Me... I will give you rest... Take My yoke... Learn... I am meek... You will find peace.

Are we deaf? Or do we hear sounds without getting into the meaning? Or do we not listen at all, but only stick our crown under the heavy gospel cover at the prayer service? After all, there must be peace for souls.

They will say: it will be. But only after death, when they sing “With the Saints rest in peace"? Maybe so. Maybe so. I'm not arguing.

Arguing is most often stupid. Especially if we're talking about about the peace of heart that we don’t have at all.

But I mean that it is precisely this (peace) that is worth looking for. Search more than anything else. Drying off by fasting, going on a pilgrimage - good deeds, better peace of mind. As Seraphim said: Acquire a peaceful spirit... Do not acquire insight, not wonders and signs, not the gift of tongues, but a peaceful spirit. A peaceful spirit will bring everything with it. He will judge everything sensibly; everything will be understood slowly. He recognizes the tricks of the enemy, who lives in noise and loves noise. He won’t allow himself to be bought for a bright phrase.

“Be more nervous and stick your nose into things that don’t concern you. Then you will be with me forever." This is what the evil one says. He also says: “Quiet more often. And argue about holy objects too. It is through them, through faith, that you quarrel. Let your faith be the cause of your quarrels. Argue, twitch, swear. Prove you are right. Multiply your chances of coming to me"

“Learn from Me,” says Christ. “There is no Me and there is no peace. He who is not with Me is always in confusion. Your souls need peace. And except, like Me, it is nowhere”

Everything seems to be as simple as shelling pears.

The Holy Church reads the Gospel of Matthew. Chapter 11, art. 27 - 30.

27. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to whom the Son wants to reveal it.

28. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;

29. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls;

30. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

(Matthew 11:27-30)

Wanting to reveal the mystery of His sonship as far as the apostles could comprehend it, our Lord Jesus Christ tells the disciples about the special nature of the relationship between Him and God: All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father; and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to whom does the Son want to reveal(Matt. 11:27).

Saint Cyril of Alexandria writes: “Because He said everything is given to Me, so that it would not seem that He was of a different origin and less than the Father, He added this to show that His nature is mysterious and incomprehensible, like that of the Father. For only the divine nature of the Trinity knows itself. Only the Father knows His own Son, the fruit of His nature, only the divine Generation knows Him from Whom It was born, only the Holy Spirit knows the depths of God, that is, the thoughts of the Father and the Son.”

It should be noted that the Savior did not have the goal of revealing the fullness of understanding of nature Triune God: This will happen later, after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. And at that moment the Lord did not so much tell people about God as show Him, because He Himself was the God-man.

These words of the Lord contain the meaning that no one is able to comprehend the greatness and goodness of the Son in the same way as the greatness and goodness of the Father. And since the Son, that is, Jesus Christ, wanted to reveal the Father in His person to everyone without exception, he called everyone to Himself: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.(Matt. 11:28).

The Lord addresses all those who are exhausted by the search for truth. Under those who labor, as St. Cyril of Alexandria and blessed Theophylact, meaning Jews. The fact is that for an Orthodox Jew, religion was a burden with an innumerable number of rules. The man was captivated by regulations that regulated every action in his life. Of course, as a result of vain and fruitless labor in an attempt to be virtuous and fulfill the smallest requirements of the law, the Jews became exhausted. Under burdened This also refers to the pagans who were tormented by the severity of their sins. But both of them were under the yoke of sinful passions arising from pride and self-love, and therefore the Lord wants to give them peace and rest from passions.

Saint John Chrysostom notes that with these words the Savior wants to say: “Do not come one or the other, but come all who are in worries, sorrows and sins; come not so that I may torture you, but so that I may forgive your sins; come not because I need glory from you, but because I need your salvation.”

He delivers the souls of those who submit and come to the Savior from heavy, burdensome and unclean thoughts, giving them joy and cheerfulness, as well as the ability to serve God pleasingly.

Christ calls: take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls(Matt. 11:29). The Jews used the word "yoke" to mean "to be under the influence or in obedience." They talked about the yoke of the law, about the yoke of God.

Christ calls His yoke gospel commandments, because they, like a yoke, are imposed on those who approach them and bind them both to each other and to Christ. And although these commandments seem difficult to fulfill, they actually turn out to be easy because they give peace of mind to all those who humbly fulfill them.

The yoke of Christ is also humility and meekness. Therefore, he who humbles himself before every person lives calmly and without confusion, while the proud one is constantly in anxiety, not wanting to give in to anyone.

Boris Ilyich Gladkov explains that with these words the Savior seems to be saying: “ Take My yoke upon you, fulfill all My commandments and do not think that they are difficult or inconvenient to fulfill; take your example from Me; be as meek and humble as I am, and then you will understand that My yoke in itself constitutes good both for those who bear it, and for everyone with whom they come into contact, and, if this yoke is good, then and burden carrying it should be easily(Matthew 11:29-30).”

Thus, the yoke of Christ contains love and this is the essence of Christ’s commandments. And indeed, the burden is laid upon us by the Lord with love, so that we bear it in love, which lightens the heaviest burden. If we remember the love of God, if we remember that our burden is to love God and love people, then it becomes a joy and a blessing. After all, a burden that is given in love and carried with love will always be light.

For us, dear brothers and sisters, we should remember that the God-man Jesus Christ came into this world to save each of us, so that we could feel the indescribable love of God the Father for His creation, which He transfers and entrusts to His beloved Son. The Savior Himself calls on each of us to take upon ourselves His yoke, that is, to live by Him and serve Him, having acquired a humble and meek heart in fulfilling the commandments of Christ. Help us in this, Lord!

Hieromonk Pimen (Shevchenko)

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28–29),

- says the Lord. How can souls find this peace? – answers the teacher of the Holy Scripture of the New Testament of the Moscow Theological Academy and the Center for Further Education of the Moscow Academy of Sciences, rector of the Church of the Icon Mother of God « Unexpected Joy» in Maryina Roshcha, Archpriest Georgy Klimov.

This is the text of the conception, which is read at the All-Night Vigils in memory of the saints. It opens with the words of the Lord:

All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father; no one knows the Father except the Son, and what the Son wills to reveal (Matthew 11:27).

What does this mean: no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and to whom does the Son want to reveal it? This is the sacrament of the Trinity of the Consubstantial One.

Seeing Me as the Father (John 14:9),

- says the Lord in a farewell conversation with his disciples.
But how can we enter into this unity so that Christ wants to reveal God to us? The Lord prayed in Gethsemane:

That they may be one: as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I am in Thee, that they also may be one in Us. (John 17:21)

How can we find this sought-after quality, which, according to the words of the modern Athonite Archimandrite Vasily (Gondikakis), abbot of the Iveron Svyatogorsk Monastery, is more precious than unity itself, since it reveals the image of the existence of the Holy Trinity?

The revelation of God to man is salvation. If a person knows God, it means he is united with Him. In the patristic explanation interpreting Scripture, the word “knowledge” does not mean knowledge by the mind, but knowledge by nature:

with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind (Matthew 22:37).

We must love Christ. That is, to unite with Him. Of course, the ideal of the incarnation of Christ in their lives was created by the monks, the monks, who devoted their entire lives to this; and they differ like star from star in glory (see: 1 Cor. 15:41). But all of us, Christians, are called to salvation.

The Svyatogorsk people say that all our anxiety, thoughts, fears are because we constantly think about ourselves. I did this, I didn't do that, etc. – our hectic work rhythm greatly contributes to this. Our “I” is at the center of our entire life, as if we do not live, but it lives and torments us. “And you change the subject! – Elder Jeremiah, the abbot of the Athos Panteleimon Monastery, once said to a novice, overwhelmed with thoughts. “Now think only about Christ!” “And how?” – he asked. “And here it is: if you pray, pray to Christ; if you read, read about Christ; if you cannot pray or read, talk about Christ; if no one is around, sing about Christ. Just occupy all your time with Christ. And someday you will learn not to think about anything other than Christ.”

The best way to do this is to constantly read the Gospel as much as possible. One of the devotees of piety of the twentieth century said that in the most best books world, in fiction the truth whispers and creeps, but in the Gospel it sings and flies.

The Gospel can be read both standing and sitting (so that Satan does not tempt you with the idea that if it is impossible to stand, then there is no need to read the Gospel). Saint Theophan the Recluse says that the most important thing when reading the Gospel is attention. If you maintain attention even while sitting, read. You can listen to the gospel in recordings, even while doing some kind of handicraft.

Faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17),

- says the Apostle Paul. During worship we also listen to the Gospel.

If I read the Gospel, wanting to be saved, that is, to unite with God, the Lord Himself begins to reveal itself to me. This is where grace comes into play. God reveals Himself to us in the Sacraments of the Church - first of all, in the Eucharist we directly unite with Him. But reading the Gospel is also a kind of sacrament of communion with Christ, when God the Word reveals to us the verbs of Eternal Life. The Gospel is not a simple text at all. By the fruits that we discover in our soul when reading: by peace, peace, forgiveness, joy, love - we recognize this mysterious effect of the completed conversation with Christ.

You can't get enough of her. The gospel cannot be exhausted. The more you read, the more you discover. Venerable Seraphim Sarovsky said that our mind should swim in the words of the Gospel. He himself read the entire Four Gospels in a week. He lived by it, and that is why he constantly remained in this Easter joy: My joy, Christ is Risen! So John the Theologian, who wrote the Fourth Gospel, which supplemented the previous three, towards the end of his life, as Tradition says, no longer spoke long speeches, but only:

Children, love each other!

The reading of the Gospel is accompanied main job a person in this world - by working to cleanse his heart through fulfilling the commandments. A person trusts God and listens to Him. But not the “god” that nests, as they like to say, “in my soul.” The Lord revealed His teaching and entrusted it to the Church, which means that trust in God is trust in the Church and its Catholic teaching.

No prophecy in Scripture can be resolved by itself. For prophecy was never uttered by the will of man, but the saints spoke it God's men, being moved by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20–21).

Likewise, the Apostle Paul says that only the spiritual can understand spiritual things (see: 1 Cor. 2:14). Can we, sinners, comprehend all the depth and meaning that the divinely inspired apostles, who wrote in collaboration with the Holy Spirit, put into the text?

However, any gift of Christ, according to St. Simeon The New Theologian is presented not for virtues and not for the labors endured for them, but for the humility born from them. Understanding the Gospel to your own extent is also a gift bestowed on humility. Even reading itself can be turned to acquiring this gift-assimilative property: read, as St. Paisius the Svyatogorets said, not in order to understand, but in order to humble himself.

The saints have already walked the path of humility and united with Christ. They know in practice what and how is required of us. This is how, for example, St. Theophan the Recluse advises reading the Gospel. After reading the passage, you need to force yourself to remember what you read about. This disciplines and focuses a person’s attention on what is read. After this, the saint advises us to reflect: what can this passage mean for me personally? How does it respond in my heart? Such an exercise, like nothing else, contributes to the development of the spirit of true prayer, when a person can no longer only listen, but can also communicate with Christ in his own words.

However, it is not enough to simply reason “from the wind of your head”; it is important to find an interpretation of the passage read from recognized holy exegetes: John Chrysostom, Theophylact of Bulgaria, Ephraim the Syrian, Theodoret of Cyrus and others, comparing their explanations with your own in order to double-check your thoughts with church tradition. This practice gradually develops in a person the ability to think in line with Sacred Tradition Churches.

Reading the Gospel is lifelong collaboration with Christ. What is revealed to us is exactly what we are reaching through our personal spiritual experience at least a little involved. Otherwise, the Gospel text will be closed from us:

For the heart of this people has become hardened, and their ears are hard to hear, and they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and lest they be converted, that I may heal them (Matthew 13:15).

The spiritual organ where the meeting and conversation with Christ takes place is the human heart.

Blessed pure in heart, for they will see God (Matthew 5:8).

Prepared by Olga Orlova

There is no peace.

Well, not at all. And not because life is like that. Lie. As I am, so is life. And I am twitchy, fussy, troublesome. I’ll even add - uselessly troublesome. Useless, like a boiler lowered into the sea. The sea, I swear, will not boil. Consequently, my life is the same - twitchy, vain, uselessly troublesome.

Who sang the verse: “Heart! Don't you want peace? Utesov, or what? This is slander. I don't agree. And Pushkin does not agree. Pushkin and I both disagree.

He said:

It's time, my friend, it's time. The heart asks for peace.

Days fly by, and every day takes away

A piece of existence. And you and I together

We assume to live. But, lo and behold, we’re just about to die.

We die or we don’t die, it doesn’t matter. Not about that now. It is important that “the heart asks for peace.” Po-ko-ya.

This is what Jesus Christ says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 43) He promises to give rest to those who come to Him.

And the “burdened” are not just those who are burdened with loads, like the porters at the station, or the dockers at the port, or the poor donkey with luggage.

Our Lord Jesus was speaking to religious people. Sometimes very religious. These people were literally covered with commandments, prohibitions, ceremonies, rituals, duties, spiritual practices, teachings of elders, advice of wise men, historical memory, fear of sinning... Should I continue? I think that's enough.

In this understanding, the words of Christ the Savior equally apply to both the woodcutter and the translator. Especially if the lumberjack and translator are religious people.

What about us? And we, too, are hung with regulations drawn up for our benefit.

There's some kind of inconsistency.

Every time the memory of the venerable father (Seraphim, Sergius, or someone else) is celebrated, the same concept from Matthew is read: Come to Me... I will give you rest... Take My yoke... Learn... I am meek... You will find peace.

They will say: it will be. But only after death, when they sing “Rest with the Saints”? Maybe so. Maybe so. I'm not arguing.

Arguing, most often, is stupid. Especially when it comes to peace of mind, which we don’t have at all.

But I mean that it is precisely this (peace) that is worth looking for. Search more than anything else. Dry yourself off by fasting, go on a pilgrimage - good deeds, better peace of mind. As Seraphim said: Acquire a peaceful spirit... Do not acquire insight, not wonders and signs, not the gift of tongues, but a peaceful spirit. A peaceful spirit will bring everything with it. He will judge everything sensibly; everything will be understood slowly. He recognizes the tricks of the enemy, who lives in noise and loves noise. He won’t allow himself to be bought for a bright phrase.

“Learn from Me,” says Christ. “There is no Me and there is no peace. He who is not with Me is always in confusion. Your souls need peace. And except, like Me, it is nowhere”

Everything seems to be as simple as shelling pears.

On December 20, on the eve of the 28th week after Pentecost, Bishop Andrei of Rossoshansk and Ostrogozhsk celebrated All-night vigil in Ilyinsky cathedral Rossosh town.

Sermon by Anthony of Sourozh on the 28th week after Pentecost.

The parable of those invited to supper

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

The Lord has prepared a feast of faith, a feast of eternity, a feast of love, and He is sending for those whom He warned long ago that there would be such a feast and to be ready for it. One answers: I bought a piece of land, I need to survey it, I need to take possession of it; after all, the earth is my homeland; I was born on earth, I live on earth, I lay my bones in the earth, how can I not make sure that at least some piece of this earth is mine? Heaven is God’s, and let the earth be mine... Don’t we act this way, don’t we also try to take root on earth so that nothing can shake us, so that we can provide ourselves with land and on earth? And we think that we are about to provide for ourselves; that the time will come when everything earthly will be done, and then there will be time to think about God.

But here we hear the second example that the Lord gives us: He sent His servants to other called ones, and they answered: we bought five pairs of oxen, we need to test them - we have a task on earth, we have work, we we cannot remain idle; It’s not enough to belong to the earth - you have to bear fruit, you have to leave a mark behind you. We have no time to feast in the Kingdom of God; it comes too early with its call to eternal life, to the contemplation of God, to joy mutual love, - something else needs to be completed on earth... And when everything is done, when only the pitiful remnants of the human mind, body, strength, abilities remain for God, then let Him take what remains of the earth for Himself; but now we are talking about the land - our own, our own, which bears fruit, on which we must leave an eternal mark: as if something will remain from us in one or two decades after our death!

And the Lord sends to the third, and these answer Him: earthly love has entered our lives; I got married - can I really tear myself away from this love in order to enter the kingdom of another love?.. Yes, heavenly love is more spacious, it embraces everyone more deeply; but I don’t want this all-encompassing love, I want personal affection, I want to love one person so that no one and nothing on earth would mean as much as this person means to me. Now I have no time to enter the eternal palaces: there is love boundless, all-encompassing, eternal, of God, - and here is love on the scale of my human heart: leave me, Lord, to enjoy my earthly love, and when there is nothing else left, then take me into the palaces Your love...

And we do this: we find such urgent work for ourselves on earth that there is no time for God’s work, for life with God. And we find such love for ourselves on earth that we don’t care about God’s love. “When death comes, then we’ll have time”: this is still the same answer to God's love. Christ says: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest... I will give everything, I will give love: you, people of God, will meet face to face - not like on earth, seeing each other vaguely, not understanding each other, perplexed, hurting each other. You will stand in the Kingdom of God - and everything will be transparent: the understanding of the mind, the knowledge of the heart, the aspiration of the will, and love: everything will be clear as crystal... And we answer: No, Lord, this will have its time: let the earth be exhausted , on which we live... And we draw, and we live, and it ends with the fact that according to the word of God in Old Testament Having given us everything that she could give, the earth takes back everything that she herself gave and that the Lord gave: you are the earth, and to the earth you will go... And then the purchased field turns out to be a burial field, then the work that tore us away from God, from living relationships with people, from living relationships with God, dissipates even in people’s memory; then earthly love, which seemed so great, appears to us, when we stand in eternity, as a narrow prison cell... But for the sake of all this, we said to God: No! It is not You, Lord, who we want to experience the earth, the work, the love of the earth to the end!..

Few are chosen, not because God strictly chooses, not because He finds few worthy of Himself, but because few find God worthy of sacrificing a piece of land, an hour of labor, a moment of affection... Many called - we are all called: which of us will respond? It is enough to respond to love with love in order to enter the feast of eternity, into life. Shall we not respond to God’s love with one word: I love You, Lord!..