A Sermon on Reading Spiritual Works
This is the
commandment given by the holy Apostle [Paul] to his beloved disciple, Bishop
Timothy. The reading of holy writings of profit to the soul is
Brethren, without
doubt you read many books, but how often do you read books on spiritual
matters? Such reading is a respected, beneficial, and gratifying occupation.
First, the reading
of spiritual books is honorable. For what reading
can compare with it? What is the honor in reading history, the works of
philosophy and of famous writers of the pagan past? If true honor and glory
consist in feeling oneself near to God and His saints, then it is through
spiritual reading that we attain this honor and glory, for through it God
speaks with us; through it the great saints converse with us, and through it we
enter into communion with the entire Heavenly Kingdom. What an honor to a
mortal human being and mere creation!
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| Saint Basil The Great |
God speaks with us
when we read the Holy Scripture, for what does it contain, if not the Word of
God itself? In it is His truth, His teaching, His commandments. But do we
listen when He speaks, or as we read? Regardless of when these words were
written, one and the same God speaks to us. “If we read the Sacred Scriptures
with faith,” says St. Basil the Great, “we will feel that we see and hear
Christ Himself. What is it we need, an actual voice or the One Who speaks to us
through the Scriptures? It is all the same. In Sacred Scripture, God speaks
with us just as truly as when we speak with Him through prayer.” For this
reason, prayer and the reading of sacred books must be our continuous
occupation. Pray or read continually if you want to be with God at all times.
Why do we not want
to use for reading and prayer the time we spend outside of church? Why do we
not want to meet with Christ, to talk with Christ, to hear Christ? We talk with
Him when we pray; we hear Him when we read the divine word. Why do we neglect
the Word of God and read books which only feed our curiosity and are sometimes
pernicious and harmful? For one of the evils of the present age is unselective
reading.
The saints talk
with us when we read their writings. Through their writings, they guide us and
speak to us and we, so to speak, resurrect through them after their death in
order to talk with them. Thus, we have no reason to envy the contemporaries of
Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Athanasius the Great,
Ambrose and others. From the holy ranks of the Fathers we may choose with whom
it is best for us to converse. There is no better, more joyous, and more
beneficial way to spend the time we have than in reading the writings of the
Holy Fathers.
Finally, by
reading books which are profitable for the soul, we enter into communion with
all the dwellers of Paradise. When I read books about God,” says the
hieromartyr Timothy, “then the angels of God surround me.” The holy writings
speak of the glory of the saints, of their blessedness, of their virtues and
ascetic labors, through which and read they were vouchsafed to be inheritors of
the Kingdom of God. We ourselves, as it were, become citizens of a different
world and dwellers of Heaven. We hear only that which concerns Paradise, so
that we may say, “Our life is in the heavens” (Phil. 3:20), “Ye are
no more strangers or foreigners, but co-dwellers with the saints and friends of
God.” Is it not a great honor to enter into communion and talk with the ambassadors
from of the Heavenly King? What can give us more honor than conversing, through
reading of spiritual books, with the holy Angels, with the souls of the
blessed, and with God Himself.
Secondly, the
exercise of reading soul-profiting books is not only an honorable study, but
also a beneficial one. What kind of benefit can the reading of other books
bring? They bring the mere satisfaction of our curiosity, the mere acquisition
of knowledge. But many books, especially the ones which contradict the teaching
of the Orthodox Church, can bring only harm. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Light
and our King, says that ‘by their fruits shall ye know them” (Mt. 7:16). What
are the pleasant fruits of the books which contradict faith and morals? They
alienate us from the Law of the Lord, or what is more, from God, the Law-giver
Himself. They are the dwelling place of demons and of their prince, the devil.
They do not lead those who read them to light, but only into darkness. They do
not arouse the fear of God, but only more success in sinfulness. These are the
tares which the enemy sowed on the field of the master of the house. These are
the weeds which grew on the earth, cursed by God the Master. They are lies,
darkness, and deception. Flee from them, especially you who are young, so that
their teaching does not root itself in your heart. Flee from the books which
arouse the passions, so that you do not drive away from yourself the Angels of
God and the Holy Spirit. Flee from harmful books, for they dry up compunctionate
tears, darken the heart, and have destroyed, do destroy, and will destroy many
people.
But, When I read
holy books,” says St. Gregory the Theologian about the books of St. Basil the
Great, ‘then the spirit and body are illumined and I become the temple of God
and the harp of the Holy Spirit, played by divine powers through them I am
corrected and through them I receive a kind of divine change and I am made into
a different person.” The great Hierarch Gregory says this about reading holy
writings out of his own experience. They completely transfigure a person,
making him into a saint and deifying him.
Do you remember
how the conversion of the Blessed Augustine was accomplished? For a long time
the grace of God had already touched his heart. He could not bear the torment
of soul caused by his sinful life and yet at the same time he could not leave
it. He both wanted it and did not want it. But as soon as he heard the words,
“Take, read,” and had read several words, he immediately resolved to abandon
his sinful life. What gave cause to such a change? The advice which is often
heard, but is rarely given the attention it deserves: “take and read.”
Therefore, cleave
to reading spiritual writings. It will lead you to that wonderful change which
took place in so many saints. Through these works we receive great and holy
enlightenment. Through them we learn of the path to salvation, we learn what
kind of temptations await us on this path, and about the means by which we may
be delivered from them. Anyone who does not read spiritual books is separated
from God, for he falls into former sins due to ignorance of the Scriptures.
This is the source of heresy and the neglect of the true spiritual life. Those
who do not read the holy writings walk in deep darkness and are like the blind
who have no one to lead them, who rush on and fall into a ditch. So let our
eyes be enlightened by the light of the word of God, for Sacred Scripture
enlightens more brightly than the sun those who read with love and who keep the
commandments of God.
Thirdly, what
delight, joy, and comfort there is to be gained through the reading of
works which profit the soul. There is nothing more pleasant than this
occupation. The Psalmist says, “How sweet to my tongue are Thy words, 0 Lord”
(Ps. 118:103), “sweeter than honey and the honeycomb” (Ps. 108). This food
pleases every palate. This is the true manna, the heavenly food, the angelic
bread which was prepared by Heaven without labor on our part, and which has in
it every sort of sweetness and every sort of fragrance,
satisfying every man’s needs. What can be more pleasant than this? If you do
not know this from your own experience, then believe the experience of the
countless saints who found in the reading of the word of God all their joy and
the greatest of comfort. For how many times and how powerfully it comforted the
holy Maccabees amidst their great sorrows. Was it not in the reading of holy
books that they found their joy? The holy Apostle Paul advises the Romans to
seek comfort in the Sacred Scriptures (Rom. 15:4). With what did St. Paul
comfort himself in prison? He asks his beloved disciple Timothy to send the
books he left behind, in order to use them during his confinement in prison (2
Tim. 4).
Do we, with the
saints, find our joy in the reading of soul-saving books? Alas! We find our
comfort, our glory, and food in vain things. We read books which only feed
curiosity and which are often very harmful. The day seems too short for
acquiring knowledge and we spend whole nights in reading books, while nothing
can distract us. What can be said of those who spend day and night in the
reading of harmful, tempting books which smother faith and which arouse and
feed the passions? Leave them quickly, my brother,” says one great ascetic, ‘so
that you do not surround your own heart with the diabolic fire, so that in
place of grain these tares may not be sown in your field and in place of life
you receive death, and... (why do I waste words?) that in place of Christ you
accept into yourself the devil. Do not be tardy in this, but save yourself as
did Lot from Sodom” (St. Barsanuphius, p. 607).
Do not be lazy, O
Christians! Read spiritual works so that your soul may not die starved of
hearing the word of God with which God threatens us through the prophets.
Remember that the noble of the Queen Candace, while sitting in a chariot on the
road, read the Sacred Scriptures and for this was vouchsafed to be called to
the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Let us continually read Sacred Scripture, the
writings of the Holy Fathers of the Church, and other soul-profiting works. But
when we approach the reading of these books, we must first pray with all our
heart to the Lord God that He might open the eyes of our heart and that we not
only understand what is written, but do it. For he who reads and does not do
what is written despises the Divine Scriptures.
By Archbishop Platon of Kostroma
Source: Orthodox Life, Vol. 34, No. 3 (May-June, 1984), pp. 30-34. Translated by
Basil Voytan from A Chrestomathy of Sermons (in Russian), Vol. II, pp. 316-319, Jordanville, 1965.
