St. Seraphim of Sarov: The Aim of the Christian Life
The enlightening discussion between Motovilov
and St Seraphim of Sarov on acquiring the Holy Spirit. It seemed proper to post on Holy Pentecost.
Introduction
Saint
Seraphim of Sarov was born in 1759, in the city of Kursk. His parents were
pious Orthodox Christians, examples of true spirituality. At the age of ten,
Seraphim was miraculously healed from a serious illness by means of the Kursk
icon of the Theotokos. As a boy, he immersed himself in church services and
church literature. He began monastic life at the hermitage of Sarov at the age
of nineteen. He was tonsured as a monk when he was twenty-seven, and soon
afterwards was ordained a deacon. The intensity and purity of Seraphim’s
participation in the Divine services are evident as he was allowed to see
angels, and during the liturgy on Holy Thursday, he saw the Lord Himself.
At
thirty-four, Seraphim was ordained as a priest, and was assigned as the
spiritual guide of the Diveyevo convent. At this time, he also received a
blessing to begin life as a hermit in the forest surrounding Sarov. He lived in
a small cabin, devoting himself entirely to prayer, fasting, and the reading of
the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers. Seraphim would go to the monastery on
Sundays to receive Holy Communion; and then return to the forest.
In 1804,
Seraphim was attacked by robbers and almost beaten to death. Permanent injuries
sustained from this attack caused him to always be bent over and the need of a
staff to walk. After this event, the Saint began more fervent prayers,
incessant for a thousand days and a thousand nights; spending the better part
of his time kneeling on a stone near his cell crying out, “Lord, be merciful to
me, a sinner.” Then he then spent three years in absolute silent seclusion.
Obeying the request of the elders of the monastery, Seraphim returned to the
monastery in 1810, but continued to live in prayer, and silent seclusion for
another ten years. In obedience to a heavenly vision, Seraphim ended his
silence and began to speak for the benefit of others. The Saint greeted all who
came to him with a prostration, a kiss, and the words of the Pascha greeting:
“Christ is Risen!” He called everyone, “my joy.” In 1825, he returned to his
forest cell, where he received thousands of pilgrims from across Russia.
Granted the gift of clairvoyance, the wonder-working Saint Seraphim of Sarov
gave consolation and guidance to all. Saint Seraphim died on January 2, 1833,
while kneeling before an icon of the Theotokos.
An
example of the grace of the Holy Spirit at work within the life and words of
Saint Seraphim has been preserved for us. In November of 1831, a pious Orthodox
Christian named Nicholas Motovilov met with Saint Seraphim, and recorded his
conversation. The notes by Motovilov were transcribed and published by Sergius
Nilus, who wrote the following introduction:
This
revelation is undoubtedly of worldwide significance. True, there is nothing
essentially new in it, for the full revelation was given to the Apostles from
the very day of Pentecost. But now that people have forgotten the fundamental
truths of Christian life and are immersed in the darkness of materialism or the
exterior and routine performance of “ascetic labors,” St. Seraphim’s revelation
is truly extraordinary, as indeed he himself regarded it.
“It is
not given to you alone to understand this,” said St. Seraphim towards the end
of the revelation, “but through you it is for the whole world!” Like a flash of
lightning this wonderful conversation illumined the whole world which was
already immersed in spiritual lethargy and death less than a century before the
struggle against Christianity in Russia and at a time when Christian faith was
at a low ebb in the West. Here God’s Saint appears before us in no way inferior
to the prophets through whom the Holy Spirit Himself spoke.
We record
everything word for word without any interpretations of our own.
S. A. Nilus
The Aim of the Christian Life
“It was
Thursday,” writes Motovilov. “The day was gloomy. The snow lay eight inches
deep on the ground; and dry, crisp snowflakes were falling thickly from the sky
when St. Seraphim began his conversation with me in a field near his hermitage,
opposite the river Sarovka, at the foot of the hill which slopes down to the
river bank. He sat me on the stump of a tree which he had just felled, and
squatted opposite me.
“The Lord
has revealed to me,” said the great elder, “that in your childhood you had a
great desire to know the aim of our Christian life, and that you have
continually asked many great spiritual persons about it.”
I must
admit, that from the age of twelve this thought had constantly troubled me. In
fact, I had approached many clergy about it, however their answers had not
satisfied me. This could not have been known to the elder.
“But no
one,’ continued St. Seraphim, ‘has given you a precise answer. They have said
to you: “Go to church, pray to God, do the commandments of God, do good – that
is the aim of the Christian life.” Some were even indignant with you for being
occupied with such profane curiosity and said to you, “Do not seek things which
are beyond you.” But they did not speak as they should. Now humble Seraphim
will explain to you of what this aim really consists.
“However
important prayer, fasting, vigil and all the other Christian practices may be,
they do not constitute the aim of our Christian life. Although it is true that
they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end, the true aim of our
Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for
fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for
Christ’s sake, are the only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God. Mark my
words, only good deeds done for Christ’s sake brings us the fruits of the Holy
Spirit. All that is not done for Christ’s sake, even though it be good, brings
neither reward in the future life nor the grace of God in this life. That is
why our Lord Jesus Christ said: “He who does not gather with Me scatters” (Luke
11:23). Not that a good deed can be called anything but gathering, even though
a deed is not done for Christ’s sake, it is still considered good. The
Scriptures say: “In every nation he who fears God and does what is right is
acceptable to Him” (Acts 10:35).
“As we
see from another sacred narrative, the man who does what is right is pleasing
to God. We see the Angel of the Lord appeared at the hour of prayer to
Cornelius, the God-fearing and righteous centurion, and said: “Send to Joppa to
Simon the Tanner; there you will find Peter and he will tell you the words of
eternal life, whereby you will be saved and all your house.” Thus the Lord uses
all His divine means to give such a man, in return for his good works, the
opportunity not to lose his reward in the future life. But to this end, we must
begin with a right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came
into the world to save sinners and Who, through our acquiring for ourselves the
grace of the Holy Spirit, brings into our hearts the Kingdom of God and opens
the way for us to win the blessings of the future life. But the acceptability
to God of good deeds not done for Christ’s sake is limited to this: the Creator
gives the means to make them living (cf. Hebrews. 6:1). It rests with man to
make them living or not. That is why the Lord said to the Jews: “If you had
been blind, you would have had no sin. But now you say ‘We see,’ so your sin
remains” (John 9:41). If a man like Cornelius enjoys the favor of God for his
deeds, though not done for Christ’s sake, and then believes in His Son, such
deeds will be imputed to him as done for Christ’s sake. But in the opposite
event a man has no right to complain, when the good he has done is useless. It
never is, when it is done for Christ’s sake, since good done for Him not only
merits a crown of righteousness in the world to come, but also in this present
life fills us with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, it is said: “God
does not give the Spirit by measure” (John 3:34-35).
“That is
it, your Godliness. Acquiring the Spirit of God is the true aim of our
Christian life, while prayer, fasting, almsgiving and other good works done for
Christ’s sake are merely means for acquiring the Spirit of God.”
“What do
you mean by acquiring?” I asked St. Seraphim. “Somehow I don’t understand
that.”
“Acquiring
is the same as obtaining,” he replied. “Do you understand, what acquiring money
means? Acquiring the Spirit of God is exactly the same. You know very well
enough what it means to acquire in a worldly sense, your Godliness. The aim of
ordinary worldly people is to acquire or make money; and for the nobility, it
is in addition to receive honors, distinctions and other rewards for their
services to the government. The acquisition of God’s Spirit is also capital,
but grace-giving and eternal, and it is obtained in very similar ways, almost
the same ways as monetary, social and temporal capital.
“God the
Word, the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, compares our life with the market,
and the work of our life on earth He calls trading. He says to us all: “Trade
till I come” (Lk. 19:13), “buying up every opportunity, because the days are
evil” (Ephesians 5:16). In other words, make the most of your time getting
heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are good works done for
Christ’s sake that confer the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, on us.”
“In the
parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish ones ran short of
oil, they were told: “Go and buy in the market.” But when they had bought it,
the door of the bride-chamber was already shut and they could not get in. Some
say that the lack of oil in the lamps of the foolish virgins means a lack of
good deeds in their lifetime. Such an interpretation is not quite correct. Why
should they be lacking in good deeds, if they are called virgins, even though
foolish ones? Virginity is the supreme virtue, an angelic state, and it could
take the place of all other good works.
“I think
that what they were lacking was the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. These
virgins practiced the virtues, but in their spiritual ignorance they supposed
that the Christian life consisted merely in doing good works. By doing a good
deed they thought they were doing the work of God, but they cared little
whether they acquired the grace of God’s Spirit. These ways of life, based
merely on doing good, without carefully testing whether they bring the grace of
the Spirit of God, are mentioned in the patristic books: “There is another way
which is deemed good in the beginning, but ends at the bottom of hell.”
“Anthony
the Great in his letters to monks says of such virgins: “Many monks and virgins
have no idea of the different kinds of will which act in man, and they do not
know that we are influenced by three wills: the first is God’s all-perfect and
all-saving will; the second is our own human will which, if not destructive,
neither is it saving; and the third will is the devil’s will – wholly
destructive.” This third will of the enemy prompts man to not do any good
deeds, or to do them good out of vanity, or merely for virtue’s sake rather
than for Christ’s sake. The second, our own will, prompts us to do everything
to flatter our passions, or else it teaches us like the enemy, to do good for
the sake of good and not care for the grace which is acquired by it. But the first,
God’s all-saving will, consists in doing good solely to acquire the Holy
Spirit, as an eternal, inexhaustible treasure which is priceless. The
acquisition of the Holy Spirit is, in a manner of speaking, the oil, which the
foolish virgins lacked. They were called foolish just because they had
forgotten the necessary fruit of virtue, the grace of the Holy Spirit, ,
without which no one is or can be saved, for: “Through the Holy Spirit every
soul is quickened and through purification is exalted and illumined by the
Triune Unity in a Holy mystery.”
“The oil
in the lamps of the wise virgins could burn brightly for a long time. So these
virgins, with their bright lamps were able to meet the Bridegroom, who came at
midnight. With Him, they could enter the bridal chamber of joy. But the foolish
ones, though they went to market to buy more oil, when their lamps were going
out, were unable to return in time, for the door was already shut. The market
is our life; the door of the bridal chamber, which was shut and barred the way
to the Bridegroom is human death; the wise and foolish virgins are Christian
souls; the oil is not the good deeds, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of
God which is obtained through good deeds and which changes souls from one state
to another – such as, from a corruptible state to incorruptible state, from
spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to light, from the stable of
our being (where the passions are tied up like dumb animals and wild beasts)
into a temple of the Divinity, the shining bridal chamber of eternal joy in
Christ Jesus our Lord, the Creator, Redeemer and eternal Bridegroom of our
souls.
“How
great is God’s compassion on our misery, that is to say, our inattention to His
care for us, when God says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev.
3:20), meaning by “door” the course of our life which has not yet been closed
by death! Oh, how I wish, your Godliness, that in this life you may always be
in the Spirit of God! “In whatsoever I find you, in that will I judge you,”
says the Lord.
“Woe
betide us if He finds us overcharged with the cares and sorrows of this life!
For who will be able to bear His anger, who will bear the wrath of His
countenance? That is why it has been said: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into
temptation” (Mk. 14:38), that is, lest you be deprived of the Spirit of God,
for watching and prayer brings us His grace.
“Of
course, every good deed done for Christ’s sake gives us the grace of the Holy
Spirit, but prayer gives us this grace most of all, for it is always at hand,
as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. For instance, you would
like to go to church, but there is no church or the service is over; you would
like to give alms to a beggar, but there isn’t one, or you have nothing to
give; you would like to preserve your virginity, but you have not the strength
to do so because of your temperament, or because of the violence of the wiles
of the enemy which because of your human weakness you cannot withstand; you
would like to do some other good deed for Christ’s sake, but either you have
not the strength or the opportunity is lacking. This certainly does not apply
to prayer. Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and
humble, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinful.
“You may
judge how great the power of prayer is even in a sinful person, when it is
offered whole-heartedly, by the’ following example from Holy Tradition. When at
the request of a desperate mother who had been deprived by death of her only
son, a harlot whom she chanced to meet, still unclean from her last sin, and
who was touched by the mother’s deep sorrow, cried to the Lord: “Not for the
sake of a wretched sinner like me, but for the sake of the tears of a mother
grieving for her son and firmly trusting in Thy loving kindness and Thy
almighty power, Christ God, raise up her son, O Lord!” And the Lord raised him
up.
“You see,
your Godliness! Great is the power of prayer, and it brings most of all the
Spirit of God, and is most easily practiced by everyone. We shall be happy
indeed if the Lord God finds us watchful and filled with the gifts of His Holy
Spirit. Then we may boldly hope “to be caught up . . . in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air” (1 Thess. 4:17) Who is coming “with great power and glory”
(Mk. 13:26) “to judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5) and “to reward
every man according to his works” (Matt. 16:27).
“Your
Godliness deigns to think it a great happiness to talk to poor Seraphim,
believing that even he is not bereft of the grace of the Lord. What then shall
we say of the Lord Himself, the never-failing source of every blessing both
heavenly and earthly? Truly in prayer we are granted to converse with Him, our
all-gracious and life-giving God and Savior Himself. But even here we must pray
only until God the Holy Spirit descends on us in measures of His heavenly grace
known to Him. And when He deigns to visit us, we must stop praying. Why should
we then pray to Him, “Come and abide in us and cleanse us from all impurity and
save our souls, O Good One,” when He has already come to us to save us, who
trust in Him, and truly call on His holy Name, that humbly and lovingly we may
receive Him, the Comforter, in the mansions of our souls, hungering and
thirsting for His coming?
“I will
explain this point to your Godliness through an example. Imagine that you have
invited me to pay you a visit, and at your invitation I come to have a talk
with you. But you continue to invite me, saying: “Come in, please. Do come in!”
Then I should be obliged to think: “What is the matter with him? Is he out of
his mind?”
“So it is
with regard to our Lord God the Holy Spirit. That is why it is said: “Be still
and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted
in the earth” (Ps. 45[46]:10). That is, I will appear and will continue to
appear to everyone who believes in Me and calls upon Me, and I will converse
with him as once I conversed with Adam in Paradise, with Abraham and Jacob and
other servants of Mine, with Moses and Job, and those like them.
Many
explain that this stillness refers only to worldly matters; in other words,
that during prayerful converse with God you must “be still” with regard to
worldly affairs. But I will tell you in the name of God that not only is it
necessary to be dead to them at prayer, but when by the omnipotent power of
faith and prayer our Lord God the Holy Spirit condescends to visit us, and
comes to us in the plenitude of His unutterable goodness, we must be dead to
prayer too.
“The soul
speaks and converses during prayer, but at the descent of the Holy Spirit we
must remain in complete silence, in order to hear clearly and intelligibly all
the words of eternal life which he will then deign to communicate. Complete
soberness of soul and spirit, and chaste purity of body is required at the same
time. The same demands were made at Mount Horeb, when the Israelites were told
not even to touch their wives for three days before the appearance of God on
Mount Sinai. For our God is a fire which consumes everything unclean, and no
one who is defiled in body or spirit can enter into communion with Him.”
The Acquisition of Grace
“Yes,
father, but what about other good deeds done for Christ’s sake in order to
acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit? You have only been speaking of prayer.”
“Acquire
the grace of the Holy Spirit also by practicing all the other virtues for
Christ’s sake. Trade spiritually with them; trade with those which give you the
greatest profit. Accumulate capital from the superabundance of God’s grace,
deposit it in God’s eternal bank which will bring you immaterial interest, not
four or six per cent, but one hundred per cent for one spiritual ruble, and
even infinitely more than that. For example, if prayer and watching gives you
more of God’s grace, watch and pray; if fasting gives you much of the spirit of
God, fast; if almsgiving gives you more, give alms. Weigh every virtue done for
Christ’s sake in this manner.
“Now I
will tell you about myself, poor Seraphim. I come of a merchant family in
Kursk. So when I was not yet in the monastery we used to trade with the goods
which brought us the greatest profit. Act like that, my son. And just as in
business the main point is not merely to trade, but to get as much profit as
possible, so in the business of the Christian life the main point is not merely
to pray or to do some other good deed. Though the apostle says: “Pray without
ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), yet, as you remember, he adds: “I would rather speak
five words with my understanding than ten thousand words with a tongue”(1 Cor.
14:19). And the Lord says: “Not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, shall be
saved, but he who does the will of My Father” (Mt. 7:21), that is he who does
the work of God and, moreover, does it with reverence, for “cursed is he who
does the work of God negligently” (Jer. 48:10). And the work of God is: believe
in God and in Him Whom He has sent, Jesus Christ (John 14:1; 6:29). If we
understand the commandments of Christ and of the Apostles aright, our business
as Christians consists not in increasing the number of our good deeds which are
only the means of furthering the purpose of our Christian life, but in deriving
from them the utmost profit, that is in acquiring the most abundant gifts of
the Holy Spirit.
“How I
wish, your Godliness, that you yourself may acquire this inexhaustible source
of divine grace, and may always ask yourself: Am I in the Spirit of God, or
not? – there is nothing to grieve about. You are ready to appear before the
awful judgment of Christ immediately. For “In whatsoever I find you, in that
will I judge you.” But if we are not in the Spirit, we must discover why not
and what reason our Lord God the Holy Spirit has willed to abandon us. We must
seek Him again and must go on searching until our Lord God the Holy Spirit has
been found and is with us again, through His goodness. We must attack the
enemies that drive us away from Him until even their dust is no more, as the
Prophet David has said, “I will pursue my enemies and overtake them; and I will
not turn back till they are destroyed. I will crush them and they will be
unable to stand; they will fall under my feet” (Ps. 17[18]:38-39).”
“That’s
it, my son. That is how you must spiritually trade in virtue. Distribute the
Holy Spirit’s gifts of grace to those in need of them, just as a lighted candle
burning with earthly fire shines itself and lights other candles for the
illumining of all in other places, without diminishing its own light. If it is
so, with regard to the earthly fire, what shall we say about the fire of the
grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God? For earthly riches decrease with
distribution, but the more the heavenly riches of God’s grace are distributed,
the more they increase in the one who distributes them. Thus the Lord Himself
was pleased to say to the Samaritan woman: All who drink this water will be
thirsty again. “But whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never
be thirsty any more; but the water that I shall give him will be in him a
spring of water leaping up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).”
Source: http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/sermon_st_seraphim.htm
