Two last articles by Pavel Adelgeim 2 and 3 days before the murder

September 1, 2013 · Vestibule, Orthodoxy, Testimonies, Salvation

Our Days Are Numbered Not by Us

2 Aug, 2013 at 11:58 AM

Age reminds of itself by obvious signs:

Life reaches its final border,
Called “old age.”
The soul is still full of fire,
But the body feels fatigue.

Following the words of the Psalmist, one clearly realizes that the end of life is approaching: “Seventy years, or if by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble.” At this age each new day is received with gratitude as a gift from God, and one regrets that so much time has been wasted. The Apostle commands: “Make the most of the time, because the days are evil.” It seemed there were so many ahead, but they slipped away like sand, leaving only a memory of the past. In the whirl of time and daily cares, it is important not to lose life’s goal and not to confuse the goal with the means of achieving it. The goal is the main thing, and the means are secondary. The goal does not justify the means. A worthy goal is not achieved by unworthy means. A worthy goal requires worthy means. As soon as the goal is used to justify the means, a substitution occurs: the means are put in place of the goal. The secondary takes the place of the primary, and the primary falls out of perspective and loses its meaning. The secondary, placed in the position of the primary, loses its true sense. That is why it is so important to distinguish and not to confuse the goal, the task, and the means necessary for achieving the goal.
Holy Scripture calls the goal of the Christian life by various names. Christ calls it the Kingdom of God: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.”
Christ calls the goal eternal life: “And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” In another place Christ calls the goal abiding in God: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Christ calls the goal eternal life: “And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” The Apostle Peter calls the goal of a Christian deification: “partakers of the divine nature.” Venerable Seraphim called the goal of the Christian life the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.
This goal is achieved by various means. It is necessary to keep the conscience pure, the heart from evil thoughts, the imagination from depraved images. One must guard the tongue from idle words and foul language. Abstinence, prayer, and almsgiving assist in this. The goal also determines daily tasks. Christ expresses the constant task of a Christian with a short commandment: “Watch!”
Taken together, the goal, the task, and the means to achieve them form the content of the Christian life, embodied in Christ. “For to me, to live is Christ,” writes the Apostle, expressing in these words the content of the Christian life from apostolic times to our days.

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The Fiery Ascent of the Prophet Elijah

3 Aug, 2013 at 12:44 AM
On earth live very many people. So many that it is impossible even to imagine them all at once. Each of them is created in the image of God and is called to preserve that image within themselves and to carry it through earthly life into the Kingdom of God. At the same time, all these people understand the meaning and happiness of life in different ways. They set different tasks for themselves. Some place happiness in well-being, contentment, and rest:

They have no need of God,
If only money chimes,
Reason in the head,
A pie in the belly,
Boots on the feet…

Others, on the contrary, seek impressions, adventures, romance:

And he, rebellious, seeks the storm, as if in storms there is peace.

Both kinds of paths can lead a person to true life, or they can lead to a spiritual and existential dead-end, to disappointment, because on these paths a person is alone, building them according to his own understanding. They can be mistaken. There are a few people who have become fully human. They have lived out their lives according to God’s design. These people sought neither prosperity nor storms. They sought God’s will, so as to live by it. The content, the meaning, of the spiritual life is the comprehending of God’s will – from the most primitive religions, where conceptions of God are utterly unworthy of the living God, to the most exalted religions. In God, every religion sees a supreme principle with which a person seeks union, and strives to live according to His will. Those who have become fully human preserve God’s original design within themselves. They are the saints. We celebrate the memory of one of them today. Today is the commemoration of the fiery ascent of the Prophet Elijah into heaven.
The Prophet Elijah lived during the time of the impious King Ahab. In those days, the devout were clearly distinct from the impious: they preserved veneration of the true God. The surrounding nations worshipped idols. The Jewish people were called to preserve the Divine Revelation and right worship of God. The Prophet Elijah came to King Ahab and said: “Because you do not honor the true God, the heavens will be shut. For three years and six months there will be no rain, unless you turn to God.” A famine came. Ahab persecuted the prophet. Elijah lived in the wilderness, and a raven brought him food. God sent the Prophet Elijah to Zarephath of Sidon. He was given shelter by a widow who lived with her son. Elijah asked her to bake him a cake. The widow said: “We have no flour, no oil. I will scrape together what is left, bake it for myself and my son, and then we will die.” But Elijah said: “You will not die. Bake me a cake first, and the flour in your bin and the oil in your jar shall not run out until the famine ends.” So it happened. The widow fed the prophet, giving him her last food. In the morning, there was flour in the bin and oil in the jar. They did not become more than they had been. Every day, until the famine ended, the widow went into her storeroom and found there a little flour and oil.
When the famine ended, the widow’s son fell ill and died. And the widow murmured: “I took care of you, man of God, and now my son has died.” Elijah went into the room where the deceased lay, lay down upon him, mouth to mouth, breathed his breath into him, and the boy awakened from death. Finally, Elijah went into the city and said: “You worship Baal. Worship the true God. Let the priests offer sacrifices to Baal, and I will offer a sacrifice to the true God. On whose sacrifice fire descends from heaven, believe in Him.”
All day the priests of Baal called down fire on their sacrifice, but it did not descend. Then Elijah ordered that his sacrifice be drenched with water, and he prayed to God. He called on the name of Jehovah, and fire descended, dried up the water, and consumed the sacrifice completely. And the heart of Israel turned back to the true God. When the time came for the prophet’s departure, before the eyes of his disciple Elisha a fiery chariot caught up Elijah and carried him alive into heaven. In a whirlwind of fire Elijah ascended to the Throne of God.
What significance do the saints have for us? “God is wondrous in His saints.” In the saints, God’s design has been fulfilled. They have acquired the likeness of God to which every person is called. In them lives the hope that amid the vanity and emptiness of our daily cares, the possibility is open to each of us to become complete according to God’s design. Today we honor the memory of the prophet and pray that by whatever paths God may help us to carry His image within us through earthly life and to preserve our treasure for eternity.

On August 5, Pavel Adelgeim was killed.

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