How to be happy for an Orthodox person. Can a Christian be happy

The word "happiness" is almost never found in the Scriptures. Nevertheless, St. Nicholas (Serbian) wrote in one of his letters: "Don't you think that the Gospel can be called the book of happiness, and the science of Christ - the science of happiness." So what is happiness in the Orthodox sense? The cleric of the Nativity of Christ Cathedral in Uvarovo, Hieromonk Pitirim (Sukhov), tells about this.
- Father Pitirim, let's find out what happiness is in the philistine, worldly sense?
- It is difficult to speak here, because how many people - so many understandings of happiness. Everyone understands happiness in their own way. For one person, happiness is health, for another - wealth, material prosperity, for a third - a prosperous family, children, for a fourth - some kind of scientific activity, for a fifth - so that people in life understand it, and so on. Here you can give a lot of options, there is no number of definitions of happiness. Moreover, most often people themselves do not really realize what they mean by the concept of "happiness". Therefore, it is very difficult to talk about a sense that the majority accepts.
- Do you think this contradicts the Orthodox understanding of happiness?
- I will not say that this is exactly the opposite, it is just a very narrow view, and the Christian understanding of happiness is much broader, it is much deeper. Here you can even say this: happiness is not external circumstances, not external objects or something else, it is an internal state of the soul. This is approximately how happiness is defined in a Christian way. Take two people, put them in the same conditions, absolutely everything will be the same for them: material wealth, marital status, something else, while one will be happy, and the other will grumble and displeasure. This is a clear confirmation that circumstances do not decide anything here; a person can be happy or unhappy under the same conditions. How many examples can we give when people have literally everything, and they are unhappy, commit suicide, especially at a young age. I always cite as an example those priests and monks who went through the Stalinist concentration camps. One of them is Archimandrite John Krestyankin. When he was asked about the happiest years of his life, he replied with words that still shock many people: "The happiest years were when we were in the camps, because Christ was near." Here's how to explain it? It would seem that he was in such cruel, simply terrible, inhuman conditions, and at the same time he said that these were the happiest years of his life.
Happiness is brought about by living in accordance with the law, in other words, conscience. Conscience is embedded in every person. Whether a person understands it or not, it is in each of us. If a person follows the voice of conscience - yes, he will come to happiness. And vice versa, whatever the material well-being of a person, if he is immoral, roughly transcends some spiritual law, then he will never be happy. It is simply not possible by definition. When a person's conscience is not in the world, he will not be happy.
Take a person who has absolutely nothing hurts, but his soul hurts, he does not find a place for himself, he rushes about, he reproaches him for something with his conscience, she gnaws at him for some deeds, how can he be happy, even if he has everything? No! And, conversely, a person may have a lot of diseases, but his conscience is in absolute peace, in peace. Such a person can be happy. He can live with this pain, but not feel it, not attach any importance to it, he will enjoy life, he will give this joy to others.
Therefore, happiness is, of course, union with God. Christianity teaches us that a person can reach the same state that was in paradise before the fall. The grace of God, yesterday, today, and in all ages, will be the same, and the possibilities are all the same, although the conditions of life are changing.
- Father, what do you think, why does the joy of happiness live in a person?
- There is an expression that in every person there is some kind of religious principle. This is really what separates humans from animals. Animals need only the satisfaction of their instincts, they don't need anything else. A person cannot satisfy his needs, purely bodily and even mental. He has a spiritual origin. Man is threefold: he consists of body, soul and spirit. Therefore, naturally, in the presence of a spiritual principle, it must find some kind of spiritual expression. Again we come to what we talked about above - a person can be happy when he is with God, when the religious principle is completely satisfied: in God his mind, his heart.
Every person all his life, whether he is aware of it or not, strives to reveal, to realize his religious principle. And this, in fact, is the pursuit of happiness.
- What do you think, is it possible to be an absolutely happy person?
- A very complex concept of "absolute happiness", what is meant by it? If, in the Orthodox understanding, happiness is unity with God, then absolute happiness is a certain limit of this unity? Christ says: "Be perfect, for your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). However, there are no limits to this perfection. God is infinitely perfect. No matter how much a person approaches God, he will never reach this border. Therefore, in this sense, absolute happiness probably cannot be achieved.
But if we understand absolute happiness in a more mundane way, as we understand, so that the conscience is at rest, so that nothing disturbs, then, of course, it can, and in Christianity we achieve this happiness. Christianity gives us all the levers, all the conditions to achieve this.
- Father, tell me, can lay people who are not churched be happy people?
- There is such a moment: a non-religious person, an unbeliever, can be a moral person. We know from Soviet times when a person says: you cannot kill, you cannot steal. Why? Because a moral law is embedded in us, there is a conscience in everyone, regardless of whether a person is a believer or not. Let me give you an example. I myself knew personally a man who was an unbeliever, but highly moral. He always said: "Stealing is very bad, you can't kill, you can't cheat, and so on." And suddenly he gets to the position of a security guard at a very powerful enterprise and begins to steal. They ask him: “Brother, how is it, you just said ...” And then the person starts to play around: “Well, you know, there is no other way to live now, especially since they are rich, they have so much money , they have to pay us a lot more, so I generally take mine, I don't steal from anyone. " That is, he justified himself, he himself believed that he was not stealing anything. So if there is no faith, then this moral principle is very easy for a person to lose. And faith is just that barrier that will not give, no matter how powerful a person is tempted, to violate the moral law. There is "the fear of God." This is not the fear of punishment that the Lord will punish, no, this is the fear of offending God, of offending Him, the fear of losing God, that He will retreat, and this happens when a person breaks the commandment. Therefore, it is much more difficult for a person who does not have faith in himself to be happy.
Even if we talk about happiness in the Christian sense, then you can open the Gospel of Matthew, which lists the Beatitudes. We can say that this is a program of human happiness. Saint Nicholas of Serbia has such words that the Gospel is the book of happiness, and the science of Christ is the science of happiness. Indeed, take the Beatitudes - this is the science of how to be happy. And here there is an interesting difference from the Old Testament commandments, which say: do not kill, do not steal, honor your father and mother. They, if I may say so, force a person to do something. The New Testament commandments are completely different. Christ does not force anyone to do anything, He only sets the bar and says: if you will be like that, you will be blessed. How to translate the word "blessed"? This is a Church Slavonic word, it is impossible to translate it literally into Russian, but the most accurate, closest word in meaning is happiness. A blissful person is a happy person. Therefore, Christ says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," that is, the humble, not attached to anything, "Blessed are those who weep," that is, those who grieve over their sins, "Blessed are the meek," they want to live only according to the truth of God, “blessed are the peacemakers” - those who try to bring peace. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will have mercy." This is the little bar. Try to fulfill all these commandments of bliss: become merciful, a peacemaker, fulfill everything that is written there, and indeed, you will be fully happy.
- God save you, father, thank you for the interesting conversation, and we wish all readers to be happy.

Father Valerian, how correct is it in the Christian tradition to talk about happiness? Can a Christian strive for earthly happiness, or should he have higher goals in life?

There is already an answer in your question. Perhaps I am mistaken, but the word "happiness" itself means a part that participates in a certain whole concept.

The misfortune of modern humanity lies in the fact that, as Saint Nicholas of Serbia beautifully said, humanity has ceased to understand. He says: “The first people knew a little and understood everything, then they began to know more, but understand less. Finally (and we see this just today), people can know almost everything, but understand nothing. "

The fact is that the concept of happiness refers to spiritual things, and they cannot be explained. For example, the holy fathers have such a concept - "humility." What is humility "? How to talk about him? Humility touches the spiritual world and therefore it is certainly already connected with that which is incomprehensible and incomprehensible. You can only get closer to it. Therefore, many spiritual concepts are intuitively close to a person, but no one really knows what it is.

I remember Father Nikolai Guryanov, an elder, a man of an amazingly holy life. With a smile, he sometimes said: "How happy you are in the Truth." This is the correct definition of happiness.

We often hear: "Happiness is in health." There would be happiness in health, there would be no suicides among healthy people. Many healthy people are often unhappy. Maybe happiness is in wealth? Among the rich, there are few who are happy. And if the power? A person in power no longer belongs to himself, because he must look, must be present, he must, must, must ... What happiness there is! To say: “Happiness in family life” - there are not so many happy couples ... To say: “In children”? .. Why do so many women get rid of this happiness by abortion? Why are they depriving themselves of this happiness?

What, then, is earthly happiness? Still, apparently, earthly happiness is only real when it is a part of heavenly happiness, when love is unchanging, everlasting, faithful in it, when a family is a union of loving hearts, unchanging, indestructible, when children are for the Glory of God and the blessings of God, when children comfort children. Then this is exactly happiness. Jokim and Anna, Zechariah and Elisabeth, Schema-monk Cyril and Schema-nun Maria had such happiness. The parents of St. Sergius are happy people ... There is no happiness without purpose, without meaning.

Reading the lives of the saints, we see that their life, as a rule, was very difficult, full of hardships and sorrows. It turns out that if you imitate the saints, then apart from deprivation and sorrow, you will not see anything in life?

You know, in order to achieve earthly success, you also need to apply a lot of strength: endure sorrow, hardship. The only difference is that the saint receives the eternal and the heavenly for his hardships and sorrows, while the other, having also spent a lot of energy, will receive (or not receive, which may well also be) temporary, earthly.

- What do you need to do, how do you need to live in order to become happy?

Well, the simplest answer is given in the Holy Scriptures: "Honor your father and your mother, so that it will be good for you and you will be long on earth." That is, honor your parents, your elders in general, and you will undoubtedly be happy. Because until you figure out something yourself, discarding experience, you may not find all your life, where is happiness, what you need to do. Wise people say that it is good and respectable to follow in the footsteps of elders if they walked the straight path.

- Father, what is the priest's happiness in this earthly life?

What do you!!! First, the priest is honored to stand before the throne of God, to celebrate the Liturgy - and this is the highest that can be not only on earth, but also in heaven. There is nothing above this! Without a doubt, the most important happiness is to celebrate the Liturgy! And of course, happiness is the joy that you experience when you see how the Lord saves souls. When a person turns from sin to a righteous life, when people come to the Church, turn to God and they have a hope for salvation. Of course, this is a great joy for a priest. But those who are outside the Church, those unfortunate ones, I feel sorry for those! They suffer in search of a path, in search of happiness, but happiness is so possible, so close ...

- Can the Gospel Beatitudes be understood as the rules for finding happiness on earth?

Of course it is possible. Bliss is happiness. I just thought that there is no such word "happiness" in the spiritual sense, there is the concept of "good". Fortunately, as St. Seraphim of Sarov said (and he experienced the state of which he spoke), this is the bliss for which a person would gladly agree to be in a cell filled with worms throughout his earthly life ...

- And here, in earthly life, can a person be involved in such a good?

Man was born for eternal life with God and here he must prepare for this. It's just that many people do not understand the blessedness given to them by God, they generally move away from God and therefore are unhappy. But the longing for paradise remains with everyone, and the desire to get rid of this longing is the search for happiness.

InterviewedF.N. Savelieva

Everyone who wants to live in Christ will be persecuted. Not necessarily people, but diseases, circumstances, your difficult character, when you try to correct something in him, etc. So it turns out that Christians cannot wait for happiness in this world?

What is the misfortune of a genius?

There is no doubt that happiness is a state. But its nature can be different. There is a little parable about a poor fisherman and his rich neighbor. When one was lying on the shore by his boat and watched the sun set in the sea, the second came up and asked why he wasn’t fishing?

- What for? The fisherman asked. “I've caught enough today to get me through the day.

- What do you mean why? - the neighbor was surprised. “You will catch more fish than usual and sell for money.

- Buy yourself another boat to catch even more fish, hire workers, and they will work for you, and you will get rich.

- So what?

“And then you’ll do nothing and enjoy life, you fool,” exclaimed a rich neighbor.

- What do you think I am doing now?

One of the interlocutors was clearly happy, but was the other unhappy, despite the fact that both were enjoying life as they understood it? For a wealthy neighbor, most of the time allotted to him on earth has passed in anticipation of this state, when, as in childhood, the anticipation of summer holidays is often more pleasing than the holidays themselves, which are already darkened by the inevitable September. The enjoyment of life was a goal, the process of achieving which stretched out over a lifetime.

For a fisherman, happiness could be beyond him. He could touch it, become a part of it. His happiness could have absorbed billions more like him, and there would be no less happiness. The happiness of his rich friend is locked in himself and no one else. There is no room for a neighbor lying on the shore, but this neighbor always has a suitable place nearby.

In order to comprehend which of the approaches is correct (or both are correct), it is important to try to understand whether happiness is an objective or subjective concept, temporary or eternal? The answer to the question depends on this - is it possible, in principle, to derive a certain common formula for all? How will it be correct, in Russian: are we in happiness or happiness in us?

For example, Google, no worse than a romantic eighth-grader, filling out a traditional questionnaire with a pink cat on the cover in literature class - “happiness is…”, finding 32 million pages in 0.2 seconds, gives the result that happiness, as a rule, is family happiness. feminine, Jewish, and at the end of the list optimistically concludes that the most definitions found are “happiness is easy”.

The concepts that are close in meaning are usually considered euphoria, ecstasy. I have met people who could confidently be called happy. But in none of them was there even a trace of any exaltation. Their happiness was a humble and joyful peace of mind.

Although Kant argues that “in relation to happiness, no imperative is possible that, in the strictest sense of the word, would prescribe to do what makes you happy,” it is impossible not to note that the fulfillment of correct goal-setting is important for the lucky ones. However, a transient goal gives rise to constant dissatisfaction, since upon reaching it, there comes a temporary saturation with the result, which is replaced by even greater thirst. Hence the drama of creativity. The artist is always confused, the genius is not satisfied with his creation, because it is imperfect. The goal to reflect in the perishable - the imperishable is doomed to failure. Therefore, a genius is usually unhappy (as opposed to a simply talented person), because he is not satisfied with the earthly, but also not in his power to comprehend the heavenly. At the peak of this dialectical unity of opposites, an acute sense of the need for a Creator is born. So, perhaps, the correct criterion for happiness is not in earthly life, but in communion with Heaven.

In the footsteps of the righteous Job

But, oddly enough, happiness, as it would seem, is a completely Christian concept, is not very popular in the Holy Scriptures. In the Synodal Translation of the Bible, the word "happiness" is found only in one, but such a significant book that it cannot be a mere coincidence. This is the book of Job.

“He had possessions: seven thousand small livestock, three thousand camels, five hundred pairs of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and very many servants; and this man was more famous than all the sons of the East. His sons came together, making feasts each in his own house on his own day, and sent and invited their three sisters to eat and drink with them ”(Job 1: 3-4). In full accordance with the Old Testament worldview, happiness is explained here as a lasting state of earthly well-being, prosperity, and the absence of external misfortunes. This is an almost classical antique ευδαιμονία - prosperity, imperturbable bliss in virtue.

Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev has a story "Living Power", which, one might say, was written based on the book of Job, but already in the Christian worldview. His heroine was, as her author describes (the narration is from his person), “the first beauty in our entire courtyard, tall, plump, white, ruddy, laughing, dancing, singing! Lukerya, clever Lukerya, whom all our young guys looked after, for whom I secretly sighed. "

At the moment the author meets the heroine of the story, Lukerya is deprived of everything - she is seriously ill and motionless. But is it possible to call her unhappy (and this is the word that is asked to speak the language of a compassionate reader)? So the author of the story refers to her:

“- And it’s not boring, not creepy for you, my poor Lukerya?

- What are you going to do? I don't want to lie - at first it was very languid; and then I got used to it, I got used to it - nothing; to others it is even worse.

- How is it?

-And the other has no refuge! And the other is blind or deaf! And I, thank God, see perfectly and hear everything, everything. The mole is digging under the ground - I can hear it. And I can smell any smell, the weakest one! Buckwheat will bloom in the field or linden in the garden - I don’t need to tell: I’m the first to hear it now. If only a breeze pulled from there. No, why should God be angry? Many things are worse than mine. Take it at least: another healthy person can sin very easily; but from me the sin itself has departed. The other day, Father Alexei, the priest, began to receive me communion, and he said: "You, they say, have nothing to confess: can you sin in your condition?" But I answered him: "What about a mental sin, father?"

The headman of the farm says about her: “She herself does not demand anything, but on the contrary, she is grateful for everything; a quiet one, as there is a quiet one, so to speak it is necessary ””.

“Doesn't demand anything, but, on the contrary, is grateful for everything,” - this is already quite in the gospel, where love does not seek its own and thanks for everything. Such a person is not far from the Kingdom of God, but the sufferer herself did not consider herself perfect.

“- Eh, sir! She objected. - What are you doing? What kind of patience? For Simeon the Stylite, patience was definitely great. "

Lukerya, undoubtedly, was in a state where even death cannot disturb the inner peace.

Here is how she describes one of her visions: “And all the pilgrims passed me by; They walk quietly, as if reluctantly, all in one direction; all faces are gloomy and all are very similar to each other. And I see: one woman is twisting, rushing between them, her whole head taller than the others, and her dress is special, as if not ours, not Russian. And the face is also special, lean face, stern. And as if all the others keep away from her; and she suddenly turns - yes directly to me. Stopped and looked; and her eyes, like those of a falcon, are yellow, large and light-bright. And I ask her: "Who are you?" And she says to me: "I am your death." To me to be frightened, but I, on the contrary, am glad, happy, I am baptized! And that woman, my death, says to me: “I feel sorry for you, Lukerya, but I cannot take you with me. Goodbye!" God! how sad I felt here! .. "Take me, I say, mother, dear, take me!" And my death turned to me, began to reprimand me ... I understand that she appoints me my hour, but so incomprehensibly, implicitly ... After, they say, Petrovok ... With that I woke up. "

The Christian consciousness sees the divine reward not in returning to earthly well-being, but in participation in that Heavenly joy, about which Christ speaks in the parable: "... enter into the joy of your Lord." The gospel, unlike the book of Job, does not know the category of happiness. But Christ and the apostles repeatedly speak of joy, moreover, joy that can be combined (though not necessarily at all) with everyday sorrows. Only in Christian asceticism was it possible for the expression "joyful crying" to appear.

Why doesn't suffering darken the happiness of Christians? Because they are divided by the chasm between the perishable and the eternal. The material, temporary body in this world suffers, the eternal soul that participates in the Kingdom of God rejoices. He rejoices, putting on Christ and partaking of the eternal God. And death is not just the end of earthly suffering, death is the gateway to life, and therefore it can be joyful, which is unthinkable for the Old Testament consciousness.

When the providence of God deprives Job of earthly wealth, he, struck by the “fierce leprosy from the sole of his foot to the very crown of his head,” exclaims: “... like the wind, my greatness was dispelled, and my happiness was carried away like a cloud. And now my soul is poured out in me: the days of trouble have seized me ”(Job 30: 15-16). When Job repents that “he spoke about what he did not understand, about wonderful deeds ... which he did not know”, God returns him to his former state and the reward for faithfulness is measured in the amount of property and heirs: “And God blessed Job's last days more than before: he had fourteen thousand small livestock, six thousand camels, a thousand pairs of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he had seven sons and three daughters ”(Job 42: 12-13).

The heroine of Turgenev's story suffers like Job, lies in a grave illness, is just as faithful to God and patiently endures her position, but her reward turns out to be higher than earthly well-being. She is not alone in her imaginary loneliness, her spirit is peaceful, her thought is calm. She does not blame either the groom who left her after she was injured and crippled, no one. She rejoices in a new day, a hare that has run in, the smell of buckwheat - any little thing ... And quietly departs on the day predicted for her in a dream, hearing a bell ringing from heaven - a symbol of the fact that her life and death were pleasing to God, to Whom her soul strives.

This means that real happiness is above everything earthly. This is the sacrament of Heaven. In Russian, the Slavic word "participle" is translated as "communion". To be involved means to be a fellowship of something or Someone.

Let an eighth-grader with a pink notebook, without thinking about the meaning, carefully enter into the questionnaire definitions of the type: happiness is when you are understood, happiness is to watch the sunset together. After all, the main content of the concept is also reflected here - happiness is impossible alone and, I would add, unattainable outside of God. And when there is peace and quiet in the soul, in this quiet joy of communion with the Head of Life, everything else becomes insignificant. Indeed, Google is right: happiness is easy. Everything else is illusion.

The Nikaia Publishing House publishes the "Book of Happiness" by the psychologist, priest Andrei Lorgus. Unlike other literature on this topic, this book does not provide ready-made recipes for success and well-being. What is it about and why today it became necessary to look at happiness from a Christian standpoint, Father Andrey told Pravmir.

Father Andrey, why suddenly happiness? The priest is expected to preach about the salvation of the soul, the discovery of spiritual truths. And you suddenly started to write on such a mundane, I would even say everyday topic.

For me, this is a fundamental topic. In my opinion, before a person perceives the heights of the spirit, he must have a sufficiently strong life-loving, viable position. Then he is capable of mercy, and some kind of privation, even austerity. To accept them openly and voluntarily, you need a certain resource, the generosity of the soul. And I would like such a resource to be the natural feeling of happiness in earthly life for a Christian.

- Do you think that any person is born to be happy?

Man is made for bliss, this is obvious to me. Happiness can be seen as a certain projection of human perfection and bliss in the form in which the Lord originally intended it. For me, happiness is a spiritual concept. It has nothing to do with that everyday, vulgar, glossy picture that you are talking about.

Not to call, but rather to justify from a Christian point of view that happiness is in our hands. Anyone can be happy. It's another matter that someone chooses a different path for themselves - serving suffering. Let it be, please, but this is a personal choice. And, from my point of view, this choice should be conscious, it should be determined by the spiritual experience of a person, and not be blindly following stereotypes. After all, often people unconsciously, by virtue of their traumatic fate or neurosis, choose a life in suffering. This is not a spiritual choice, it is a psychopathological choice. Suffering as masochism. That's the trouble. It is very easy to impose suffering on a traumatized person - he is used to it. It is very easy to impose suffering on a Christian while he lives with an unhealed soul.

It is believed that a Christian should not strive for happiness. Quite the opposite. “The most probable sign of God's choice and God's love for a person is the multitude of sorrows and illnesses found on this person. And vice versa: if a person considers himself a believer, but he has no sorrows and diseases, then this, in the opinion of the holy fathers, is a sign that the Lord does not take good pleasure in this person ”- this is the statement of Hegumen Nikon Vorobyov.

We are now talking about different levels of being. If we are talking about the highest ascetic path - yes, of course, everything is correct. But not for everyone. The problem of Russian Orthodoxy is that the highest ascetic discoveries made by the holy fathers, such as Ambrose of Optina and Seraphim of Sarov, were brought to the square. They turned not into the experience of the elders, but into slogans, into ideologemes, which they began to apply to everyday Christian life. This is very dangerous, especially for neophytes, and nowadays most of the parishioners are neophytes. For such people, "dairy food" is needed. And talking to them with the "slogans" of the holy fathers is like recommending a wheelchair user to walk more so that he does not have bedsores.

People traumatized by the Soviet era, who still do not really know what it means to live, because basically they did not live, but survived - should they talk about suffering? You need to understand where it is appropriate to apply which maxims. Yes, in the monastery, having prayed, worked hard, sat down after the evening service with a narrow circle of disciples, why not talk about suffering? And the poor mother, who single-handedly raises her son, working three jobs, and he disappears headlong into the computer - should she talk about suffering? This is a mockery of a person.

Don't you think that the word "happiness" is almost taboo in our society? In any case, there is a very tense attitude towards him. It is easy to talk about happiness in the abstract, but to say about yourself "I am happy" is very difficult and even scary. Why is that?

Because in the minds of our people there is such an unconscious conviction that it is a shame to be happy. And this is understandable. After all, society cannot be called prosperous, there is a lot of injustice and humiliation in it. Against this background of universal suffering, to be happy means to be a thief, a deceiver, a criminal. Everyone suffers, and suddenly someone says: "Guys, let's be happy!" I wouldn't be surprised if my book is annoying. But times are changing. After all, even ten years ago, it was simply impossible to write about it. And now it is possible. Because after perestroika, a new generation has already grown up, those who were born after 85. They do not understand what Soviet power is, their psyche is almost not traumatized by the political system. And this generation wants to live positively, enjoy life, wants to multiply this life, believe in simple civil and social benefits and build its life not on the basis of suffering and survival, but on the basis of far-reaching life strategies. And without a positive, such strategies are not formed. Positiveness, love of life, resilience are directly related to the emotional and spiritual state of happiness. Therefore, the new generation just needs to justify happiness.

- Do you see the generational difference among your parishioners?

It is very visible. Young people are looking for new knowledge, they come to church with books, ask questions. They do not agree to just go to work and not think about anything. They are tuned in to spiritual search. This does not mean that people of the older generation do not ask questions of happiness. But the answer is much more difficult for them. I can cite my mom as an example. When she was 10 years old, her mother - my grandmother - lived every day in anticipation of arrest and prepared my mother for it with approximately the following words: “There is a sack in the corridor. As soon as they come for me, please don't cry, take this bag and go to Lyalin Lane. Vera lives there, you will live with her. "

This is how the child from the age of 10 lived in anticipation that his mother would be taken away forever, and there was no one else from her loved ones. One can imagine in what ossification, in what necrosis the soul of a girl lives from the age of 10. Can she be happy? She now asks me: "Where are you going?" I say, "To the Holy Land." "Why? You've already been there. " - "Mom, being there is happiness!" She looks at me in surprise, she does not understand this word.

Nevertheless, people my mother's age also ask if there can be Christianity with a smile, with a happy face. It is customary for Orthodox Christians to mock Protestants who smile from ear to ear and address a person with the greeting "God loves you." We laugh at them. In fact, it is they who laugh at us when they look at our sad Christian faces. And they ask the question: "In your opinion, in the Orthodox way, Christ conquered death or not?"

- Is it important for a feeling of happiness to know that Christ conquered death?

The fear of death lives in many human fears. And if the fear of death is not overcome, it is difficult for a person to be happy. And it can only be overcome by a firm consciousness that there is no death, that we are all prepared for eternal life and that it exists for every person.

And sometimes I have the impression that happiness is a simple biochemistry. Here, a person produces a sufficient amount of the hormone of joy - and he is happy no matter what. And it is not developed - and nothing pleases.

Happiness is really a different psychophysiology. Only the causal relationship is different. Life-like life can be normal for every person. And it gives its projection to physiology. A cheerful person has more health. A healthy mind has a healthy body. Look at a small child - he smiles, because he just “is good to be”. This is how a normal person can be “good to be”.

- Happiness and peace of mind are similar things?

I do not know what the word harmony means in relation to the human soul. I would say easier. A state of some balance, a balance of spiritual forces is a condition for happiness. Because the state of passion is incompatible with happiness.

- A believer can be happy because he believes that the Lord will forgive him?

For the Christian believer, the most important thing is that Christ conquered death! The believer gains immortality. This is not his personal immortality, it is universal immortality. This is the most important, the very first condition for happiness, in my opinion. And the second - yes, it turns out, I can be forgiven! Especially for a grievous sinner, this can be a joyous discovery. For someone who has suffered greatly from their sins and their guilt, this can give a very strong experience of happiness.

“But he may not be forgiven.

The key word is "may." There is no obligation here. The Lord should not forgive; He can forgive. But in fact, He has already forgiven all human sins on the cross, and now everything depends on the person.

Interviewed by Evgeniya VLASOVA

People, congratulating each other on the New Year, and in other cases, wish each other happiness. But what is happiness? How do you define it?

The idea of ​​the happiness of an ordinary civilized person has not gone very far from the Primitive view of the Hottentots: happiness is when I seize more of my neighbor's property, and unhappiness is when someone steals my property from me.

Meanwhile, even leaving aside the moral side of such an idea, it is fundamentally wrong and in essence: no matter how much we seize property, power, fame, pleasure, we will not be happy. Material objects cannot bring true happiness, but only satiety taedium vitae , after which the person is overcome by longing, even greater than the previous one.

It is interesting to note that the word "happiness" is "quiet and, "It is very rare in the Holy Scriptures, in the New Testament - never. This word is too arbitrary, imprecise, meaning nothing in itself. Instead, the Holy Scripture uses another word, clearer, more specific, indicating the content of happiness, the word" joy" - "har a."

Christ says about joy: "My joy will abide in you, and your joy will be full," - pointing to the source of this joy: "If you keep my commandments,abide in my love, just as I have kept the commandments of my Father and abide in his love "(John 15: 10-11).

Here it is, the solution to the age-old question. Here it is. true happiness, true joy - in the love of God, in being with Him.

This is clearly confirmed by the holy Apostle Paul, saying: "The kingdom of God -not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit "(Rom. 16:22).

" And no one will take this joy away "(John 16:22), nobody and nothing: neither torment, nor deprivation, nor exile, nor death itself.

This was well known and known only by people who show by their lives that they have solved the eternal question of mankind and who have found happiness - the Christian righteous, God's saints of ancient and modern times.

Their example is a mystery to other people.

Why are these people so happy? - a question that was asked not only by the ancient Roman pagans about their contemporary Christians. This question, in one form or another, still sounds today, from the lips of the new pagans, our contemporaries, in a significant part of them still formally called Christians.

The answer to this question is very common, instilled in us by various sentimental-romantic Western European ideas, that the ancient world knew nothing about life behind the grave, because people were afraid of death, and Christians brought the good news that there is life behind the grave, that Christ He redeemed everyone, forgave everyone, promised everyone the resurrection, eternal life and heavenly bliss.

This answer in one form or another is very common, but it is completely inaccurate.

The fact is that Christ did not at all promise heavenly bliss. Very often, a terrible warning sounds from the lips of Christ: "there will be crying and gnashing of teeth"(Matthew 24:51), " go from Me with curses into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels "(Matt. 25:41), "these will go into eternal torment"(Matt. 25:46).

Moreover, the Apostle Peter, speaking of the terrible danger of eternal torment hanging over us, reminds us that if the righteous is barely saved, then the wicked and sinful, where will appear (1 Pet. 4:18).

Among liberal-minded Christians, there is a very widespread opinion coming from Protestant circles that the gloomy idea of ​​the afterlife and the difficulties of the work of salvation is a product of the later time of "gloomy, joyless ascetic monks," and that in ancient early Christian times, "a bright mood, consciousness of his salvation by the very fact of faith in Christ. "

Those who think this way create their own Christianity, which has no foundation and confirmation either in the Gospel, or in the Epistles of the Apostles, or in the evidence of ancient Christian history.

Read the first Christian book "Shepherd" of Herma, a writer of the 1st century, you will see how the early Christians were demanding of themselves and others in the matter of saving the soul, how clearly they understood that the slightest hint of moral impurity puts a person in danger of eternal destruction. The pathos of the terrible words of church chant - "there is immeasurable torment for the fornicate" - this book is watered.

This was realized even more clearly in relation to the purity of faith and fidelity to the Church.

Thus, the Christian worldview may seem much less bright than even the pagan worldview. Here is the afterlife "kingdom of shadows," leading some kind of vague way of life, about which, in the end, you can create, if you wish, a wide variety of ideas. There is even the "Champs Elysees" - the kingdom of the blessed, achievable relatively easily. In the extreme case, as the darkest, the idea of ​​non-existence, of complete destruction after death. But "I did not suffer before my birth, therefore, I will not suffer even after leaving it," says Socrates.

Compare this to the terrible picture of eternal torment, eternal hell, and you will see that the liberal view of the reasons for the joyfulness of the early Christians is fundamentally flawed.

And nevertheless, Christian joy was and is.

It shines brightly from every line of the lives of the martyrs, ascetics and quietly shines in the life of monks, in the life of Christian families. Actually, she is the only one who really deserves this name. And the more spiritual a person is, the brighter and more perfect his joy. This joy, this luminosity of the worldview did not leave the first Christians in the midst of torment, and at death threshold. What is the solution to it?

Of course, in faith. But not in the kind of faith that Protestants understand it. Not in a formal, lifeless, devoid of feat of faith (after all, "demons believe and tremble"), but in life-giving, effective faith, which is kept in a pure heart and warmed by the grace of God, in faith that burns with love for God and strengthens hope in Him.

One modern church writer correctly said: "It is not enough to believe in God, you must also believe in God."

"We ourselves and each other and our whole belly (life) will be given over to Christ God." This complete, trusting, filial surrender of oneself into the hands of God, it was it that opened and opens the doors of true joy, true happiness.

If a Christian trusts God, then he ready to accept everything from His hand: heaven or hell, torment or bliss, for he knows that God infinitely kind. When He punishes us, it is for our own benefit. He loves us so much that He will turn both heaven and earth to save us. He will not betray us for any, even the highest, goals, but will certainly save us if there is even the slightest opportunity for that.

"From the wrath of God one can run only to God's mercy" - taught Blessed Augustine.

A believing Christian should not be afraid of death, just as many ascetics and martyrs did not fear it. And in such fearlessness there will be no carelessness and neglect of one's salvation, for fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, frees him from animal fear.

With such a mood, joy and light are firmly entrenched in the heart of a Christian, there is no place for darkness: the world is an immense universe, belongs to my God, nothing from the smallest to the greatest in this universe can be accomplished without His permission, and He loves me immensely. Still here on earth, it allows me to enter into the boundaries of His Kingdom - into His holy Church. He will never drive me out of this Kingdom, unless I cheat on Him. Moreover, if I fall. He will lift me up again as soon as I come to my senses and bring a tear of repentance. Therefore, I entrust the whole work of my salvation and the salvation of my loved ones as well as all people in the hands of God.

Death is not terrible: it is defeated by Christ. Hell and eternal torment are prepared only for those who consciously and of their own free will turned away from God, who preferred the darkness of sin to the light of His love.

Believers are destined for joy and eternal bliss: "The eyes did not see, the ear did not hear, and that did not come into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him"(1 Cor. 2: 9).

May the All-Merciful Lord grant all of us to acquire complete confidence in Him. Lord, renew us who pray to You!