Prologue in Sermons: November 23

Ambivalent Attitude Toward the Admonitions Sent From God

November 23

(The Narrative of a Certain Young Man's Vision, Extremely Useful)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

In the lives of Christians, to lead them to repentance, the Lord God is pleased to sometimes manifest certain special acts of His Providence. Thus, some are granted extraordinary visions and revelations for their own enlightenment; others often see various unusual events and circumstances in their lives in which the punishing and merciful hand of God is clearly revealed. These inscrutable ways of God's Providence can be viewed in two ways; the following example will illustrate how.

A certain young artist living in Constantinople, well-known to the Emperor, was extremely careless about his own salvation. The Lord, wishing to bring him to his senses, once revealed the following to him in a dream: the youth saw himself approaching the Emperor with something he had made. The Emperor initially received him favorably and conversed with him; but then, suddenly seizing him by the hair with one hand and drawing a sword with the other, he swung it three times over his head. The youth initially took this as a joke; but when the Emperor declared that he wanted to take his life and touched his neck with the sword, the youth was overcome with indescribable terror and awoke. Recovering some time later, he began to ponder the meaning of his dream, and finally became convinced that through this vision the Lord was urging him to repentance and reform his life. The youth was convinced of the latter, but did not reform. Then the Lord enlightened him again. Soon he fell into a grave illness and, during it, he once saw himself at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Before him stood Jesus Christ, surrounded by Angels, and behind Him lay a terrifying and gloomy abyss. "Do you know who I am?" the Lord asked the youth. "I know, Lord," he replied, "that You are the incarnate Son of God and God, as the Scriptures teach us." "And if You know Me from the Scriptures, then why have You forgotten the lesson of the Emperor who appeared to You in a dream?" "I am terrified, Lord," the youth replied. "And if You are terrified, then why do You not seek correction?" And with these words, the Lord commanded that he be cast into the abyss. The youth became frightened and began to call upon the Most Holy Theotokos for help, and this prayer saved him. The Lord said, "For the sake of My Mother's prayer, leave him." With this the vision ended. Having recovered from his illness, the young man went to a pious monk and recounted what he had seen. Hearing this, he said, "Thank God that you have been granted such enlightenment. Abandon your former life, and you will not suffer as the man I am about to tell you about suffered. A certain man named George, like you, saw himself at Christ's Judgment Seat and afterwards was bound and led into the same abyss into which you were being dragged. In the vision, he was given twenty days to correct himself, but he forgot what he had seen and continued to sin. After twenty days, however, he was actually forced to appear before the actual Judgment Seat of God, for his soul had been separated from his body. Now you can judge his fate." Hearing this, the young man distributed his possessions to the poor, began to lead a godly life, and in piety passed on to the eternal abodes.

From this it is clear, brethren, that one can respond to God's admonitions, or rather, to God's goodness that leads us to repentance, in two ways: one can ignore them, and in doing so, display obvious, unforgivable ingratitude to God and, of course, incur even greater condemnation. Or one can respond with attention and deep gratitude to God, and begin actively correcting one's life, and thereby receive forgiveness and eternal blessedness from God. Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.