Library › St Tikhon of Moscow › Instructions and Teachings
Instructions and Teachings
St Tikhon of Moscow, Russian Orthodox American Messenger, 1898–1905
An Address Made in New York Cathedral, the First Sunday After His Return from Russia…
New Year’s greetings to you, my brethren. Most of you associates the expectation of something new with the coming of a New Year. And blessed from God are our hearts, if this expectation is prompted in us by the thirst of all our interior being, if in this hope we find a stimulus to cast off the Old Adam in us! But if in the moment of the coming of the New Year we are not guided by this most noble aspiration, but merely by the desire of novelty, let us remember that it is not the conditional change of seasons which renews our mode of life, that the steps of man are directed by the Lord, and that the “new” in our life depends on the will of the eternal God.
Let not this seeking of ours to tend towards the destruction of our old customs, sanctified by many centuries, let our earthly wanderings be made holy by its perfect harmony with the eternal truth of the Providence of God. If even the familiar customs of our every day life can be so dear to us, the sacred customs of our faith, of our churchianity and the orthodox mode of life, which is as ancient as Christianity, bequeathed to us by Christ, ought to be hundred times dearer.
Having entrusted my own path of life into the hand of God, I am rejoiced, that in the new year I am to tread the old arena of my work, that, after an absence of eight months, I am once more amongst you. Yet when I was absent in body, in spirit I always dwelt with you, my connection with my flock was never interrupted. Whilst in Russia, I was busy with your affairs, my interception was on your behalf, and my prayers were constantly for you, my flock, God has given to me. I have some gratifying proofs, that you also did not forget me in my absence.
And lo! our communion has reached the first days of the new year: we are together once more, praising the name of the Lord, as of yore, together. Let us continue in the future in prayer, in labour and in achieving our salvation, by carrying each other’s burdens.
Are not we called to support this old order of church life, this so to speak spiritual conservatism, even in the most instructive words of the Epistle, which was read to us to day: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them (2 Timothy, 3, 14)”. Thus Paul the Apostle wrote to Timothy his disciple, entreating him to remain firm and faithful in the keeping of Christ’s truth. Even then there were false teachers and imposters, but their beautiful new words were not to tempt Timothy: he was to remain for ever true to what he was tought from the beginning by Saint Paul.
The Holy Orthodox Church is also true to the Apostolic bequest. Having resisted the oppression of its enemies during many centuries, it has preserved and still preserves the holy faith exactly such as it was transmitted to the subsequent generation of Christians by the Holy Apostles and Teachers. On this grounds, lovers of novelties often accuse our church of inertia and listlessness. Who amongst us has not heard such reproaches? And dont these reproaches fall back on the heads of the accusers? Do not we, who live in this country, often see people of alien creeds, growing satiated with continual novelties in their faith and being drawn towards the Orthodox Church, hoping to find in it firm unshakable foundations, in which their troubled spirit could find rest?
Inspired by the fire of true faith, our mother the Orthodox Russia stands just as firmly. And we are glad to bear witness, it is still adorned, as of yore, by beautiful churches, which are never empty, but on the contrary full of worshippers, the people yearning to hear the word of God. True enough, the enemy sows tares on this field also: Russia also sees false teachers sometimes, — but on the whole, Russian masses always remember that, during the ten centuries of their history, they always remained orthodox and that, in answer to the Apostolic appeal, they always remained faithful to the teachings they received at the beginning.
The original characteristics of the Russian people, their great devotion to the Orthodox faith, to the Holy Churches and offices, still distinguish Russians even when they are away from their country, here, in a strange land. What else caused the building of so many of our Churches in America? What else guided the builders and the flock of this majestic Cathedral, under the shelter of which we have just offered the Bloodless Sacrifice? Accustomed to the Church of God from childhood, the soul of a Russian feels troubled and oppressed, when away from it, in foreign countries. But then how great is the joy that fills his heart, when by the grace of God he succeeds in erecting a familiar Orthodox Church, be it ever so small.
This is the pivot around which Russians gather here. If Russian do not lose their nationality so far from their country, lost in the midst of other more numerous nationalities, they have to thank for it the faith of their fathers and the holy churches, which bind Russian people together.
Brethren, we also are surrounded here by strangers, by people of different creeds and alien confessions. Amongst them there can be found some; who would be quite willing to play the part of your uninvited guardians and enlighteners, catching you in their nets. But like Timothy, do you remain firm in the faith, which you were tought at first, which was bequeathed to you by your fathers like a sacred heirloom.
Thus, let the Lord God be glorified in this new year, as to the end of our days, generation after generation, in our life’s confession and our carrying out His eternal truth!
The blessing of the Lord, His graciousness and loving kindness be on you now, as in future and to the end of all centuries. Amen.