Письмо 10
The True End of Man
Man is created for communion with God, and earthly sociability is merely a secondary condition of our temporal life.
You write: "God created man for society." Correct that idea. Man was created for Communion with God.1 This is his primary purpose. That is why, when man fell away from God, the Only-begotten Son of God chose to come down to earth to reunite him with God once again.✦ That is how great and necessary this Communion with God is! But since a person must live a short time on earth to enter this Communion and grow firm in it, and because living here alone is difficult, he has been given an inclination toward sociability for a time—not as the main thing, but as something secondary, alongside other everyday leanings.2 All of them have their seat in the soul.3 ... ... But the spirit is not earthly.4 ... ... That is why, when it gains strength, it silences the voice of the soul's needs and tears through all the bonds that hold the soul—bonds the soul by itself could never break.5 Then a person feels light and spacious; he is in his element. Woe to a society that makes sociability its goal.6 Then the center shifts, and confusion and disorder begin.
Discerning the Spirit
We must distinguish between aesthetic or emotional experiences and true spiritual life, as many things seem spiritual but are not.
You enjoyed music, but you placed too much value on it. Music belongs to one domain, and prayer to another. So, moving from one to the other can only be accidental.7 There are many phantoms of spiritual things that seem spiritual but are not.
The Rhythm of the Soul
Fluctuations in spiritual consolation are often the result of our own unfaithfulness and the Lord's jealous desire for our undivided heart.
You say that sometimes it is so good and easy, and sometimes everything falls apart. . . Life goes in streaks.8 . . Yes! Something flies away.9 . . But it seems to me that this is always our own fault. The Lord is near.✦ God will not despise a broken and humble heart. When this is present, that is present too.10 Then the soul is clothed as with a garment. . . Otherwise, it is left exposed and out in the cold. What can you do? We are weak human beings. — Ah, so they get it!11 . . The Lord is jealous! He says, "I will not give My glory to another."
The Cost of Distraction
Any attachment of the heart to things other than the Lord constitutes a betrayal that incurs spiritual penalty.
The Lord demands a decisive exclusivity. When the heart turns aside, that is betrayal, and there is a penalty for it.12 The longer someone abides in love, the stronger the reproach to a heart that turns aside. Every distraction, every attaching of the heart to anything except the Lord—all of it is put on the account and is punished.
Read the original Russian
Вы пишете: «Бог создал человека для общества». Поправьте эту мысль. Человек создан для общения с Богом. В этом цель его главная. Потому, когда отпал человек от Бога, Единородный Сын Божий благоволил низойти на землю, чтоб опять воссоединить его с Богом. Так значительно и необходимо сие общение с Богом! Но как для того, чтоб вступить в сие общение и укрепиться в нем, человеку нужно прожить коротенький момент на земле, а прожить ему здесь одному трудно, то на время дано ему расположение и к общественности, не как главное, а придаточное на ряду с другими житейскими наклонностями. Всем им седалище в душе.
. . Дух же не земен. . . Потому, когда он возмет силу, то заглушает голос душевных потребностей и разрывает все держащия душу узы, которые для ней одной неразрешимы. Тогда человеку легко, просторно; он в своей стихии. Беда обществу, в коем общественность поставляется целию.
Тогда передвигается центр, и начинается смятение и неурядица.
Вы восхищались музыкою; но вы слишком возвеличили цену ея. Другая область музыки, и другая – молитвы. Потому переход от одной к другой может быть только случайный. Есть много призраков духовных вещей, кои кажутся, но не суть духовны.
Вы говорите, что иногда так хорошо и легко, а иногда все разлетится. . . Жизнь идет полосами. . . Да! отлетает что-то.
. . Но мне думается, что это всегда по нашей вине. Господь близ есть. Сердце сокрушенно и смиренно Бог не уничижит. Когда сие есть, и то есть. Как одеждою тогда одеяна душа. .
. а то – голая и на морозе. Что делать, человеки есмы немощные. – А, поняли! . . ревнив Господь! славы Моея, говорит, иному не дам.
Господь требует исключительности решительной. Уклонение сердца измена; и за нее штраф. Чем долее кто пребывает в любви, тем сильнее укор уклоняющемуся сердцу. Всякое рассеяние, прилагание сердца к чему либо, кроме Господа, все идет в счет и наказуется.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩Russian общение is rendered communion (fellowship with God), not society; Feofan later contrasts this with общественность (sociability).
- 2 ↩общественность rendered sociability (social bent), not society as an end; Feofan marks it as temporary and secondary (придаточное).
- 3 ↩седалище: seat/seat of residence of the inclinations; kept as seat to preserve Feofan’s psychological-theological placement in the soul.
- 4 ↩«Дух» here is the human spirit in Feofan's soul–spirit anthropology (not the Holy Spirit), set over against the earthly seat of the soul's inclinations.
- 5 ↩«он» continues «Дух» (the spirit) from s3; «душевных потребностей» are the soul's (psychic/passional) needs, not bodily needs alone.
- 6 ↩«общественность» continues the letter's contrast with «общение с Богом»: not society as such, but sociability / the social drive made into an end.
- 7 ↩Russian «случайный» here means chance/accidental, not 'random' in a casual sense: the transition is not natural or reliable, only fortuitous.
- 8 ↩полосами: literally 'in stripes/bands'; idiomatically the alternating good and dry stretches of life. 'Streaks' preserves the colloquial force; 'waves' or 'patches' are also possible.
- 9 ↩отлетает: 'flies off / peels away / slips away.' In context of consolations that 'разлетится' (scatter), the image is of some interior ease or spiritual warmth departing.
- 10 ↩сие / то are deictic: most naturally 'this' = the broken and humble heart, and 'that' = the Lord's nearness / the favored interior state just named.
- 11 ↩Spoken, slightly ironic interjection (– А, поняли!); rendered as contemporary recognition rather than stiff formal speech.
- 12 ↩измена can mean betrayal, unfaithfulness, or treason; rendered as betrayal to match the covenantal/exclusive-devotion frame from the preceding section (the Lord's jealousy).
Letters on the Christian Life companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit