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ON
SERVICE
For a person of faith, most likely there is nothing clearer and more natural than feeling an obligation towards service. We are all called to follow the example of our Lord, who “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Yet there is also nothing more complicated than trying to explain the most simple and obvious issues. In the life of each person there are moments when, even casually, one will contemplate the purpose of their life on earth. It would most likely be wrong to say that a person of faith will not have to search for an answer to this question, but faith truly clears up and opens our paths to this world, it helps us generate our position in life. Faith leads us to an understanding of our responsibility. We cannot limit ourselves to accepting that there is a God, and that during hard times we can address Him for help. In faith, first of all, we live with the sense that nothing which we create can be outside of God: we are always standing before Him. Therefore a believing person will not be able to thoughtlessly say that they are living for their own pleasure: they feel a calling to something greater, a responsibility for their life before God. The Russian religious philosopher I.A.Ilyin wrote that this feeling assigns a duty to the person to not be resigned about all that is going on inside and around oneself, but “to evaluate, search for true criteria, to choose, to decide, to create”. We know that a Christian must think of salvation first. But in my opinion, this does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that one should think less about the surrounding world. Having such an incomparable treasure of faith are we not supposed to aspire to introduce it into everything that surrounds us? One can say that for the believing person the process of bringing faith into our life and into everything that we do is necessary. “It is inadmissible to shun the surrounding world in a Manichean way”, we read in the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church, “Christian participation in it should be based on the awareness that the world, socium and state are objects of God's love, for they are to be transformed and purified on the principles of God-commanded love.” Our faith obligates us “to not be reconciled” with evil, but calls for a “transformation and cleansing” of oneself and at the same time one’s surroundings. So we have arrived at the understanding that action is necessary. A sense of service consists, as it seems to me, of a deep, sincere aspiration to introduce and affirm the Truth. The truth in its absolute, Divine understanding. Perhaps this seems too ennobled, yet this is the real basis for noble service. From time to time it was necessary to take arms in defense of the truth, and as terrible as war is, any other choice in those conditions would be unforgivable.
One could and did find thousands of reasons to justify a neutral position. “How may hundreds of thousands of adults and grown ups should have gone into the fire for their fatherland, for their people, for themselves… Then a child would not have gone into the attack with us. But hundreds of thousands of adults, healthy grown up people did not answer, were not moved, did not come…” writes General Tourkul. Did those who preferred to quietly watch the desecration of all that was sacred take a more worthy path, or did those who couldn’t watch this, who felt their responsibility before God, stood up for the defense of eternal values, went into battle “for the soul of Russia”?
No matter how much we understand our responsibility, it is always hard to answer the question - what can you do personally? It is easiest of all to say that your own imperfection does not allow you to “transform” or “change” anything. Can such a position be productive? We are not in a condition to transform the world by virtue of our sinfulness, that is true. We involuntarily introduce it into everything that we create. As a result the feat of service is uneasy, in its core it requires a submission to God’s will, acting in consent to it: this means to deny oneself in a certain way. Only in this situation can our service in this world end up being something noble. It is easy, of course, to debate this – it is much more difficult to apply these principles in real life. The path to service is always a path of sacrifice, and it is this ultimate sacrifice, sacrificing one’s life for the sake of the Truth, which was the great idea behind the White movement. Therefore, I deeply believe that those who placed their lives on the altar of the desecrated native land in those critical years have served their duty before God to the very end. Today the times of such open resistance to evil are hopefully behind, but there are always paths of service. We are seeing many current examples of clear and unconditional service to the Truth all around us. In help to the sick, the orphaned, in teaching and pastoral service – in this we essentially see the same idea: fighting appearances of evil in the world, a striving towards the Truth. We also have public service. Unfortunately, in our modern reality it is not often we see examples of unselfish, selfless service to the native land, the state, the people. Not often can one see a politician with a sense of personal responsibility for their words and actions. Today you will seldom hear the word “service” in political life, more often “benefit, work, career”. But in our country’s past we have seen many examples of selfless service. Without them Russia would not have been created, nor would it have withstood its trials and tribulations. During moments of enormous spiritual pressures people did not argue about spiritual ideals – they lived them. That is why one can see in the memoirs, diaries, and letters of the participants of the White movement words about service to God, motherland, honor, duty, truth – all that which for us now, having grown up in a calm yet far from ideal time, seems to be in the best case elevated and in the worst, laughable and naïve words. Has this not been a result of the extended profanations during the Soviet times, which for many years have directed people away from truth and honor? Yet even today we are on the battleground for their affirmation in the minds of people. The socio-political sphere cannot leave the life of a faithful person, being dismissed as “politics is a dirty thing”. On the contrary – the more responsible we are for cleansing this sphere, imitating our Lord who came not to the righteous, but to the sinners. Our country more than ever needs a transformation of its social “communal” life. A transformation of word, with a personal example of sacrificial service.
When society is faced with difficult times, when the fate of many (of all the people and the entire nation) is decided by a free choice, the position “I can’t do anything”, “nothing depends on me” is the most destructive. As a result everyone’s choice has a meaning: from personal choices we see the will of the people referring to God. If during the civil war and the Soviet era the collective will towards evil was stronger, this does not in any way mean that the choice of those who took the path of service to the Truth was at that point unnecessary or fruitless, as many had thought. The faithful choice of the few instilled the basis for the succeeding choice - the choice of Truth to which we are called, the fulfillment of the testament of our ancestors, if we wish to take it. We will never be able to say with assurance that we are completely spiritually prepared to take this elevated path, ready to “transform” something. We must begin, first and foremost, by the transformation of ourselves. In no case can pride and a sense of personal supremacy become the basis for our service. What should we be proud of? The guiding light of our service must be our recognition of our Christian responsibility, our duty, and the great, broad principle of “If not I, then who else?” "We,
In Russia and Abroad" |
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When
the destiny of Russia was being decided in the flames of the civil war,
the majority of our people were indifferent. The choice was difficult,
but at that time when all the foundations were being destroyed and the
Divine law was being trampled, for the first time it so horribly became
clear: were the Lord and His Church standing aside? The path of service
at that point became an open resistance to evil. “The frontline
in Novocherkassk is being held by the kids of Chernetsov” writes
Trushnovich, an officer of the Kornilov regiment, “The front is
fantastical: one youth against twenty-thirty or even more Red Guards…”
Children gathered under the banners of the White struggle unselfishly,
with one intuitively sensed goal – to prevent the triumph of the
destructive powers.
The
Civil war, as with the history of the whole 20th century, gave in addition
to horrific examples of ungodly cruelty also many examples of an unwavering
selfless impulse to rise in defense of the Truth, to give one’s
life for it. Perhaps at that point there was no practical hope in an
opportunity for the Whites to affirm the Truth. But the idea of this
fight was larger than the battle itself: in the frightful tragedy of
the civil war there was only one last desperate path of service –
to resist evil and give one’s life for the Truth.
As
any responsibility, according to the words of Ilyin, in its final measurement
is always responsibility before God, service as a result is always service
to God and His Truth.