OF
HOLY
RUS’?
-- Thoughts On 4 / 17 July --
-- The Day
Commemorating the Holy Royal Martyrs Of Russia --
Humanity dwelt beneath the sign of
the Cross of Christ until such time as history reached a certain line
of demarcation. That line of demarcation was the First World War. Then,
something happened to the moral axis of the world. It was as if some
kind of sluice-gates were opened, which hitherto had restrained evil.
And yet, the Cross of Christ’s great Golgotha still shines
victoriously, just as before! Secular human society tries to occupy the
place of God, as it convulsively attempts to topple the Cross of Christ
– and as, applying incredible efforts of reason, it strives, with
fevered haste, to create a Tower of Babel, consisting of some type of
"new expectations," of "new" hopes. Human society no longer desires to worship the Source of
life – God; now, it thirsts to worship its own reflection in the
mirror; its own passions -- which, like black kites, gaze down
triuumphantly upon their victim.
What is it that the ideology of this "new era" attempts to dislodge from human awareness? By means of the mass-media: through the many millions of falsehoods, of vulgar films and licentious melodies, this ideology attempts to lead people away from that one Book without which life is not life; away from the Holy Gospel, from the truth, from righteousness.
And what is the end-result of all this? Let us take, for example, the recent past of our native-land -- Russia. The sites of numerous holy crosses became occupied by the countless guard-towers of the GULags.
Reflecting upon this today, let
us with tenderness and hope turn our gaze toward the holy seven – the
holy Royal Family -- who showed us, by their blood [which they had
shed], how life is to be lived in accordance with the Gospel. "There
were seven of you upon a single Cross!"
To have been the masters of 1/6 of the earth’s surface, and later to have found themselves in a cellar, the defenseless targets of executioners – [merely] on account of their having been anointed – that was a road demanding great inner strength; a cross borne so majestically, so royally – and, at the same time, with such extraordinary meekness -- by the Royal Family.
It is clear that it was not
without special Divine assistance that the Royal prisoners were
spiritually victorious over the prince of this world. The
seventeen-month-long course of moral torments which they followed
without murmuring – truly, this is the path of Christian
passion-bearing, which is a great example of faithfulness, patience and
Christian love. But only those are capable of traversing the path of
the Royal Passion-Bearers as have not yet been blinded by the glitter
of that Tower of Babel known as human progress.
The eighty-three years which have passed since the time of the martyric end of the Royal Family are not a small period of time. For the younger generation, all of this might appear to be a matter of days long-since gone-by. The memory of many, in this sense, truly does grow weak – the year 1918 recedes ever further and further back [in time].
For our own edification, we need to recall those whose mental gaze was always directed toward the podvig [ordeal] of the holy Royal Martyrs.
Let us remember how, almost immediately following that nightmarish evil deed upon the Golgotha of Ekaterinburg, there was born, in many pure hearts, a thought of the holiness of that podvig which had been endured by the Most-August Martyrs. The poet Bekhteyev, and other folk who were pure of heart, immediately comprehended, by means of their inner understanding, that this podvig was -- holy!
Let us recall the iconographer who, in the ‘30s of the XXth century, decorated the monastery-church of St. Naum of Ochrid in Serbia, and who painted, therein, through especial Divine inspiration, a fresco of the holy Tsar’ Nicholas II.
Let us recall the priest of God who, during the years of the civil war [between the Whites and the Reds, in Russia], fell into a Red ambush with a Cossack century -- and who, already in that moment, prayerfully called upon the slain Royal personages and received deliverance, thereby, from inevitable death.
Let us recall the memorable archimandrite of our own Holy Trinity Monastery Antonii (Yamschikov, +1993), who, having conceived quite a labour-consuming work -- but an extremely important one for Orthodox publishing – that of re-equipping the monastery press, was accounted worthy of a vision of the holy Royal Martyrs, who told him: "We will help you, and the new press will become a reality."
Thus, if the year 1918 recedes evermore from us, chronologically, then toward what should we orient ourselves on the spiritually-historical plane? We need to preserve not only the roots which bind us to the precious heritage of tsarist Russia, but also to make very sure that they have vital juices in themselves. Only in that event will we be like unto those trees which bear good fruit -- and not to a fruitless fig-tree, destined for destruction.
The beneficial juices that spiritually nourish us are the narratives concerning the holy passions of the Most-August Family of the last Russian Emperor. Our Gosudar’ [Sovereign], with all the powers at his disposal, attempted to defend the ideals of Holy Rus’ within his realm, but he turned out to be tragically alone in this. "All around are betrayal, cowardice and deceit…", -- such were the bitter words that broke forth from his grieving heart.
And this deceit went out to
ensconce itself everywhere in once-great Russia. A plague went on a
spree throughout [our] native-land – a desire to live without God; a
desire to create a paradise on earth! There it is: the true and
dreadful face of humanistic progress.
It has justly been said that our turning to the holy Royal Martyrs is the first step to becoming aware of ourselves. Thus, let us pose ourselves the question, directed toward our hearts, as if in person from the holy Royal Family: "Are we repentant sons of Holy Rus’?"
If we all reflect upon this
question; if we come to a general national repentance – and if, with
humble prayer, we turn to the intercession of the holy Tsar’-Martyr
Nicholas, Tsaritsa Aleksandra, Cesarevich Aleksii, [and] the Tsarevnas
Ol’ga, Tat’iana, Maria and Anastasia – then will the Lord have mercy
upon us; and once more, then, will He raise up over Russia His
victory-bearing, all-holy Cross!
