Blasphemy
is a terrible sin! Every time people joke about sacred objects or actions, lack
proper reverence for the saints and all that has to do with the Church, defame
clergy or slander them, this is blasphemy. Beware of this great sin! You may
tell me, “Vladyka, we are not blasphemers!” That is good! But there are many
such among us that are close to blasphemy. Let’s take an example. We’re going to
an Orthodox home and we see portraits of family and friends hanging on the
walls, and they are clean, and everything is beautiful. But nearby, in the
corner, there’s an icon hanging, blackened from dust, from which are hanging
some old, faded, and wrinkled flowers. Is this pleasing to God?
There are
priests who don’t keep up with the cleaning in the altar and on the altar table
well enough—this awesome place where angels look with fear and love. I had one
case: I was going around the diocese. I arrived to one city, and the dean told
me that one batushka was slovenly and needed to be tightened up. I went to his
church, and what did I see? On the altar table—a layer of dust, on the
icons—flowers that hadn’t been changed in two years. “Where is your wonderworking
icon?” I asked. “Here it is!” “I don’t see it!” I said. “It’s right here,
Vladyka!” “No!” I said. “I don’t see the icons behind all the dust accumulating
on them.” The priest asked forgiveness and promised to change and to report to
me every week how he’s maintaining order in the church.
Here’s
another picture. Pascha. You’ve made it through Matins and Liturgy and you’ve
sat down to break the fast. You eat a piece of kulich, or cheese Pascha, greet
one another with “Christ is Risen!” with a blessed egg, break it, and eat it.
Everything is done well and piously. “And where to put the egg shells?” the
maid asks. “In the trash, of course!” And this shell, which was only just
sprinkled with Holy Water at church, over which “Christ is Risen!” was sung
many times—you’re going to throw it into the trash? Is this respect for the
sacred things and Church of God?! Remember well that everything relating to the
Divine services and to the Church of God is sacred, through which the grace and
love of God are poured out upon us, and to which you should therefore relate
with great love and piety. I wanted to end with this, but I remembered one more
story which I must tell you.
It was in
the Monastery of St. Nil of Stolobensk on Lake Seliger. The relics of this
saint are venerated there, now in a new reliquary, and the previous reliquary
with an image of the saint on the cover stand in the church empty. One day a
pious woman went to the monastery with her two small children to venerate the
holy relics. While the woman was praying in church, her children were running
around the garden, picking the ripe mountain ash berries which grew in
abundance there. They entered the church, which was empty at that time, where
the saint’s previous reliquary stood. They started their game: throwing berries
at the image of the saint.
And
suddenly, under a clear sky, everyone present in the monastery heard a terrible
thunderclap that shook the whole building. The woman, not seeing her children
around her, rushed to search for them, in view of such danger, and finally
found them lying unconscious by the empty reliquary. The monks gathered there
to bring the children back to their senses. When they finally regained
consciousness, the mother asked them what happened to them? They openly told
how they started playing a game of throwing berries at “grandfather,” and how
they suddenly saw that “grandfather” raised himself up and wagged his finger,
after which the lightning flashed, the thunder rang out, and after that they
didn’t remember. You see how God chastises and admonishes even small, foolish
children for disrespecting His saints. Admonish your children and caution them
against this.
By the
prayers of St. Gregory the Wonderworker, may the Lord send us and our children
the gift of pious veneration of our icons and sacred objects. Amen.
By Hieroconfessor Nikolai (Mogilevsky),
Metropolitan of Alma-Ata and Kazakhstan
Translated by Jesse Dominick
Source: http://orthochristian.com/109335.html
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