The Priesthood and the Parish Peter Ivanov Paris, 1925 “Feed My sheep” said Our Lord to the Apostle Peter, and of course, through him, to the other Apostles. He also said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.” After hearing such clear words of Christ, how much pride must we have to disobey and to ignore the clergy of the Church, the recipients of the Holy Spirit. For only they can remit our sins, only through them can we be made worthy to receive the Holy Body and Blood of Christ. One may say with certainty that he who cannot find sufficient humility to treat the pastor of his parish with respect is cast out of the invisible Church of Christ. We must always keep this in mind, for if we are unable to humble ourselves before God’s appointed, how can we humble ourselves before the Invisible One. Moreover, we must not philosophize about obedience; instead of constantly seeking some highly-gifted clergyman, we must be at peace with the one whom the Lord has sent to our parish. This is what people constantly forget: The Lord guides His Church! He knows whom to send, and where to send him. If, in a given parish, the priest is not wise, then the Lord, searcher of our hearts, will judge our humility, and, if we are humble, will enlighten the priest to do and say what is pleasing to Our Savior. Each parish of the Church is God’s parish. The Christ is present within it and extends His grace both to the obedient flock and to its pastor. When everything is falling apart, we have a sure sign that the parishioners do not have sufficient humility and patience; even a church pastor may, by the will of God, be a test for his parishioners. Of course, it is no sin to ask, and perhaps in some extraordinary circumstances, it is necessary to ask, advice of elders and pastors renowned for their exemplary manner of living. However, here we are discussing ordinary, daily life. It is the task of the true Christian to bring himself into the basics of daily life, into the ordinariness of one’s daily life and of one’s parish. Man’s life is made up not of extraordinary events, but of inconsequentialities, of difficulties, of daily burdens. Light must shine forth from within ourselves - our personal light, the light of our struggles in Christ. We receive our reward in Christ not in the cathedrals, not in far-off monasteries, not from luminaries. We do celebrate festal days, we do experience visitations and receptions. The Lord sends these to us on occasion, as acts of His great mercy and grace. However, it is there, in that poor church with the unlearned pastor, that, through our obedience, we move the Lord to compassion.

We have little faith! Because of this we exercise our vanity, seeking far off that which is always near. If we but loved God more, we could, without moving from this spot, find what we need. Today, when everyone strives to be a thinker, the wisdom of the age is cheap. The entire Christian world is infected with it, and exacting people give us no peace. They are dissatisfied with everything. Everything seems too flat for their refined intellects. We hear constantly, “Over there, the priest is not a gifted homilist, and over here, we disagree with the priest’s theological definitions; I just don’t know where to go to church.” However, homilies are not intended to clarify theological subtleties. When the pastor comes out onto the ambo to speak, he stands before the Lord, face to face, and through the priest’s heart the Lord addresses the faithful, saying, ask and I will answer. And if, in truth, the hearts of the faithful are filled with humility and expectation of the words of God, with an obedient desire to be taught about their spiritual needs, each will hear that which is essential, for the Lord and His Holy Spirit lives, and everything occurring in the Church is not of man, but of God. Through disobedience and stubbornness, we distort God’s work. The Holy Spirit does not enter into our sagacity, and Its words become as a stammering, and our complacency and self-satisfaction becomes for us a desert or empty meaningless words. However, he who hears with a contrite heart receives the gifts. To our unspoken question: “Why does that unlettered man weep, when the homilist’s speech is so uninteresting,” one should answer: “Because he hears the words of life eternal. He does not weep for lack of understanding, but because he hears the inaudible, that of which, because of our opposition we are bereft. Oh, how difficult it is to humble ourselves when we exalt ourselves! However, if we do humble ourselves, if we utterly destroy our pride in intellect, then with experience we will, after a time, weep like that simple man. When we go for confession or simply for advice to the pastor of the Church, and, having fervently prayed, intensely believed that we go for advice to the Lord, we always hear in the words of the pastor God’s instructions. If you ask the confessors, they will of course tell you that it is easier to give advice to those who have come humbly to repent of their sins and to ask God’s help. Words seem to fall from the confessors’ lips, as if it were not they themselves who were speaking. We are too materialistic, and it seems to us that during confession there stand two people - I and the confessor. However, the Third is always present. If he sees before Him a proud person, he remains silent. If there stands someone with a contrite heart, he speaks. The Church of Christ is a school for humility, patience and the cross, a school of unceasing trials. Only through perfect obedience can we understand what Our Lord wants of us.

If you are incapable of acting as others do, placing, with a pure heart, a candle before an icon, if you do not have the patience to hear out the priest’s homily, no matter how pedestrian it might seem, then you are incomplete. The life of the parish is the holy life. This holiness depends upon us. We can turn parish life into mundane, all too human life. We must always pray for our parish, and for its clergy. Here is how, half a year prior to this death, St. Serpahim of Sarov, by then already glorified throughout all Russia, to whom streamed pious pilgrims from all corners of the land, behaved towards his bishop, who was visiting Sarov. Taking his final blessing form his vladika, he prostrated himself before him, and although His Grace repeatedly asked him to get to his feet, Fr. Seraphim remained on his knees, continuing to prostrate himself before His Grace until he was completely out of sight. Earlier, when vladika entered St. Seraphim’s cell, the saint humble posed a question to him: “Well, batyuska, the faithful come to me, the poor Seraphim, and ask of me something as a blessing. I give them each rusks of bread and a spoonful of red wine. Is it permitted to do so?” To this, His Grace replied: “It is permitted, but only separately. To whom you give pieces of rusks, do not give wine, lest they think that you are giving them Holy Communion.” The next night, Seraphim, as if in proof of his obedience, brought a small vessel of red wine into the bishop’s cell, and giving it to the cell attendant, said “Give this to batyushka, from the sinful Seraphim,” And from then on, to the end of his life, he gave wine to no one.