Above the law can only be love, above right - only mercy, and above justice - only forgiveness. Russian strategy: Above love, above justice, forgiveness

Without exaggeration, Evgeny Leonov can be called a popularly loved actor. Behind a rather ordinary appearance lies enormous talent, incredible charm, and most importantly, warmth and humanity. Looking at his characters on the screen, you understand that he doesn’t just play a role - he lives it! And this is what Evgeny Leonov is all about. A person who is incredibly dedicated to his work and is ready to give his all to achieve the desired result. And not only in cinema or on the theater stage, but also in real life.

Love can be above laws! Above right is mercy! Above justice is forgiveness. This is enough to not fall below the human level.

Is there a person in your life in front of whom you are not afraid to be small, stupid, unarmed, in all the nakedness of your revelation? This person is your protection.

I love silence. Silence is a special state of peace and soul. Without silence, beauty cannot be understood. Everything great happened in silence.

Sometimes just one is enough kind words to feel inspired. And it is very important that this word be spoken during a person’s lifetime.

It has happened in my life that I was offended, as it seems to me, in vain, undeservedly. And I have such a will that if a person offends me, I will exclude him from my life. I can greet him and talk to him, but for me he no longer exists as a person...

Goodwill may be a property of the soul, or it may be good manners- and you won’t figure it out right away, unfortunately.

Chekhov once said that we Russians seek suffering to avoid boredom.

I remember how we arrived on the ship, it was very beautiful. The director and cameraman came up to me and said: “Don’t worry, we came up with a very funny episode. Let’s put you in a cage, let the tigers out and see what happens.” I say: “No, I don’t agree. I have a family, a small son, I’m against it.” Of course, they persuaded me, because I agreed to star in this film. Everyone hid themselves. The director is brave, courageous, and he climbed onto the mast, from there you can see everything - it’s easier to direct.

Fear is not a weakness. Now, if fear forces you to retreat, if you conserve your strength and as a result become smaller, this is weakness.

When I say loneliness, I mean that I do something, but they don’t understand me, then I’m lonely.

I noticed this myself, how much more pleasant it is to work when someone looks at you not with a frowning look, but with a kind one - something opens up in you, and you want to give a hundred times more to such a person.

There is no high and low art, there are thoughts big and small and authors, poets and dwarfs. And art is just a means for each of us to discover our true growth.

Theater is not cinema, not pop music, not television. Theater is not a story about love, it is love itself. And that means there are two of you: you and the viewer.

For some, God is in heaven, and for others, in their own hearts. And this God in his heart does not allow one to fall below a certain human level... He will not allow one to kick a dog, offend an old man, treat one’s parents badly...

What does it mean to retreat? This is when a person does not use his powers until the last.

These quotes once again prove that Evgeny Leonov was not only an outstanding actor, but also a wonderful person: wise, kind, ironic and incredibly charming. Introduce your friends to the thoughtful statements of Evgeny Leonov, let them discover a new facet of this great man.

On December 5, 2008, Patriarch Alexy II died. His wise and attentive word has always resonated in the hearts of millions of believers. And eight years later, the words of His Holiness are still valuable and important for us.

Christianity says that a person comes into the world so that after him the world will become at least a little brighter and kinder. Christianity says that a person comes into the world to give, and not to consume. And first of all, a person must give himself. I am afraid that today a person is brought up in such a way that he perceives himself as a kind of single “sensibility”, the pleasure of which must be served by all the world around us. I must warn you that Christianity sees the place of man differently. Remember the Crucified Christ, remember how He loved the world. Or remember Pasternak’s words about human life: “Life, too, is only a moment, only the dissolution of ourselves in all others, as if as a gift to them.” Being a Christian is difficult. But it was Christianity that rejuvenated the world...

I often pray that the Lord would make us quickly understand that only Love can be higher than Law, only Mercy can be higher than Right, and only Forgiveness can be higher than Justice...

Any crime in the name of religion is a crime against religion, because you cannot kill innocent people in the name of religious ideas.

One of the most spiritually dangerous activities is the search for personified enemies in society, in the state, among neighboring peoples. The only true enemy of the Christian is the evil in our own souls.

Orthodox theology... comprehends the Fall primarily as a disease, and not as a legal condition. It is not a matter of God's wrath at man's crime. The point is the illness of the person himself. And God does everything to change a person (and not just remove his “criminal record” by legally pardoning him). But you cannot change a person without his free consent. Christ brought us the possibility of transformation. It depends on the personal choice of each person and each community of people whether the Cross of Christ will be effective in us or not.

Only holiness is normal for a person. Any sin, even the most seemingly insignificant and common one, is abnormal, because it distorts human nature...

Today we can admit that love among people is drying up. Bringing it back to people, bringing back tolerance towards each other - that’s what we need today. These are the bright ideals of humanity...

Good can always be born and grow only in the free effort of each individual person, and society can only protect this growth and create favorable conditions for it. And then, when such an understanding of nature comes government activities, the spiritual imaginaryness and inauthenticity of even the most sincere attempts at an instrumental-political attitude towards the Church will again be exposed.

The earth was given to us by the Creator. And we will have to give an answer in how we used the talent given to us. “Behold, Lord, we loved this land, and while living on it, we glorified You, its Creator; and we grew grapes and wheat, and brought wine and bread to Your altars, so that with these simple earthly gifts You could associate us with Yourself ". Or let’s say: “Behold, Lord, we loved this land so much that we killed and drove away from it everyone who, except us, wanted to call it theirs...”.

...faith is inherently intractable, and one cannot enter into transactions with it. It cannot be recognized conditionally, to the extent that it is needed for our purposes, even legitimate ones. Faith fosters patience, self-sacrifice and curbs personal passions - this is true, but one cannot resort to it only when passions are playing out, and only in order to someday reason or punish with reprisals in the next world. Faith is not a stick, and in the hands of the one who holds it like a stick to protect himself and frighten others, it breaks into pieces. Faith serves only those who sincerely believe.

One ancient legend tells how a certain monk condemned his brother. After some time, the one he condemned dies. And the judge had a vision: an Angel appeared before him with the soul of his brother and said: “Now you have undertaken to judge him. Well, as you say, so it will be. Tell me, is he worthy of eternal death? But remember that as you say, so and it will be..." And the man, who easily made himself a judge in human affairs, in horror refused to carry out the final judgment...

I want to ask a person of any nationality: here, in the face of Christ, you met a person whom you consider your enemy and the enemy of your land and your people. And there - in the face of Christ - will you be able to repeat your judgment and say: “Since he prevents me from living, let him be put to death”? And any other judgment that you could commit and justify only by hiding from the face of God is unrighteous and evil.

If our people do not find God, they will not find peace, happiness, or prosperity.

I am sure: no state should interfere in a person’s personal life. To be moral or immoral is, after all, a consequence of the free choice of the individual. However, in the public sphere, society and the state must support and promote morality that is acceptable to the majority of citizens. Therefore, they must direct their efforts through the media, the system of social and public institutions, and the education system to reproduce moral ideals associated with the spiritual and cultural tradition of European peoples.

“The road to God is not open to everyone, but the path to Pushkin’s brilliant simplicity is not denied to anyone.” Songs based on his poems were performed by Lyudmila Zykina, Joseph Kobzon and many other celebrities. Today our guest is Konstantin Vasilyevich Skvortsov, a Russian writer, poet, co-chairman of the Board of the Union of Writers of Russia.

- Konstantin Vasilyevich, can you open the anthology of your spiritual lyrics?

Everything starts with childhood and ends with childhood. Old people fall into it, probably because in childhood life seems serene and endless. But this is by the way... My childhood and youth were spent in the Urals in the city of Zlatoust. The emotional and hedonistic increase in the name of the city is so great that only the sound signature of this word is already capable of making a person receptive to language a Creator.

I was two and a half years old when my family was evacuated to the Southern Urals from front-line Tula. The evacuation was military-style. No icons, no things... Mom said: “The pot in which potatoes were boiled (if you’re lucky) is all our wealth.” I think that there were no icons in our Tula apartment. This could have cost my father his career. If there had been an icon, then my mother would have taken the icon on the road, not the bowler hat. But, as it was, so it was.

We lived in hastily put together barracks that came up incredibly quickly. There was no church. Early in the morning, at the signal - a long beep, which for some reason made the heart go cold, the parents went to the plant and returned in the evening at the same beep, which sounded like an air raid warning all clear.

In the “old” Chrysostom, unlike the “new” one, there was a functioning church, but we, children, avoided it. At school we were so scared of the “opium of the people” that going to church was considered not only forbidden, but also dangerous...

Chrysostom, Chrysostom... We have not heard of any Universal Teacher. Neither at home nor at school. The “Golden Mouth” was perceived as the “Golden Mouth” - a centuries-old dam covered with gray moss that turned the miraculous Ai River into a picturesque pond. The plant, which seemed almost ancient from Demidov’s times, beckoned, flickering with mysterious lights between the spurs of Urenga and Kosatur. Here, two centuries ago, metallurgist Pavel Anosov discovered the secret of damask steel, lost for millennia. Artist Ivan Bushuev and his comrades decorated white bladed weapons for the entire Russian army. The first steel cannon in Russia was cast. Nearby, in the Miass Valley, the largest gold nugget was found! I'm not even talking about virgin forests and mountains covered with autumn gold...

We learned about John Chrysostom later, although we unconsciously felt his patronage every day. It was impossible to survive in those years without his care and protection. These are the origins of my time, and you do me honor by calling them spiritual. Much later, the works of John Chrysostom shocked me with their cosmic depth. I tried to comprehend them already in adulthood. If this had happened earlier, I would have been a completely different person. In the sermons of the Ecumenical Teacher, in his letters to the Olympiad, there are answers to all burning questions. Wisdom is stronger than time.

There is an opinion that poets are true fighters against God and this metaphysical struggle is reflected in their activities. How can you comment on this?

Each poet has his own philosophy of life. Where are the origins of the origins of the fight against God? Obviously, they are also different for everyone. Without the revolution, would Mayakovsky have become a fighter against God? I doubt. There have been a great many writers and rhymers at all times. Everyone understands that his talent is given by God. And he cannot help but believe in Him. But in order to be noticed, you often have to enter literature “on your hands.”

Theomachism, like modernism, is a disease of spiritual growth. In troubled waters one catches not only fish, but also glory. There is poetry as art (from the word temptation) and there is poetry as Fate. There is an eternal metaphysical struggle between them. Fight with yourself and your sins. During fasting you really crave meat. Not everyone is able to resist temptation. Over time, the “turbid water” settles. The outlines and essence of objects begin to be seen more clearly. There comes an awareness of the original power of the word and its purpose. “Being famous is not nice. This is not what lifts you up.” The path to God is not open to everyone, but the path to Pushkin’s brilliant simplicity is not denied to anyone.

- Do you think the life of a poet is a search for the kingdom of values ​​in the world of givens?

I think that the life of a poet is a process of self-discovery. We try to penetrate into space, often without thinking that space is within us. Mysterious and incomprehensible. “Self-knowledge is the only idea that can animate the universe; this is the goal and crown of man,” wrote Dmitry Vladimirovich Venevitinov. Our values ​​are defined in the commandments of Christ. Yes, we know that there is a “kingdom of values” in which all people are free, good and blameless, but we are serfs of the “world of givens”.

We hide behind the phrase that “everything is from God.” Yes, everything comes from God, but the choice remains with man. The more talented the author, the more responsible (even if intuitively) this choice is made. The vocation of a poet cannot be called or developed (this is not in the register of professions). The nation itself appoints its own Poet. Self-preserves by his word, his language. Language and people are synonymous words. Although today, as always, self-appointed classics are a dime a dozen! They have nothing to do with the realm of values ​​in the world of givens.

- Who and when had the greatest influence on your spiritual consciousness?

I can’t help but remember what a strong impression the first meeting with Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod (future Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II) made on me. It happened in Novgorod, in the ancient center of Russia in 1988, during the Celebration of Slavic Literature and Culture in the year of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus'.

The holiday began with a solemn service in the Church of St. Philip, on the Trade Side of Novgorod. Listening to the Metropolitan, for the first time I felt that I was gaining soul mate that I am no longer so alone and helpless in serving the Russian word, the Slavic brotherhood and long-suffering Russia. God is with us!

If you open the complete Orthodox theological encyclopedic dictionary, published at the very beginning of the last century, you will be surprised at the number of Orthodox writers - my namesakes. Dmitry Ivanovich studied the Jesuit Order as a political force. Ivan Mikhailovich worked on “Catechetical Teachings”. Konstantin Ivanovich investigated the question of the author of the works known as Dionysius the Areopagite. My father’s full namesake, Vasily Mikhailovich, laid the foundation for the publication of the spiritual newspaper “Kolokol”. The themes explored by my namesakes (from Byzantium to the Schism) largely coincided with the motifs of the dramatic works I wrote: “St. George the Victorious,” “Constantine the Great,” “Julian the Apostate,” “Time of Troubles” and others. Perhaps this is an accident, or maybe it is God’s providence, like a family destiny. Although my relationship with the great namesakes is very doubtful, despite the fact that the surname “Skvortsov” appeared in Russia only in the 17th century, which is not so far away.

I have already spoken about the works of John Chrysostom. I will only add that as a result of his unconditional influence on my spiritual consciousness, the drama “John Chrysostom” appeared.

- You were connected by friendship with Archimandrite Peter (Afanasyev), tell us about it, what do you especially remember?

The Zaikonospassky stauropegic monastery, which went down in history as the “teacher’s monastery” where Archimandrite Peter served, was founded by Boris Godunov in 1600. Here in past centuries the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy was located - the first higher educational institution in Russia. Mikhail Lomonosov, Antioch Cantemir, Vasily Trediakovsky studied within these walls... Only those clergy who were “famous for their work” could be abbots of the monastery. Among them was Archimandrite Peter - professor, Honored Artist of Russia, outstanding conductor, founder of the world-famous chamber choir "Blagozvonnitsa". Without knowing me personally, Archimandrite Peter read my tetralogy “By this victory!” He wrote an enthusiastic letter to the Patriarchate and invited me and my friend Vladimir Krupin, whom they had known for many years, to his place for tea. Maybe because we were the same age, or thanks to his attention and condescension to us, writing books, the conversation was long, unhurried, filled with a feeling of love and concern for the fate of our language and theatrical art. While asking us, he told us a lot about himself. It was like mutual confession from heart to heart. Frankly and trustingly. Nothing betrayed his illness (he died a few weeks later). Glowing and smiling, he spoke of the power of prayer, which helps him endure all his infirmities. A few words from such a wise interlocutor are worth many years of school education at a university. Everything is determined by the scale of the individual and the depth of faith. It's a pity that our communication was not so long.

- Do you feel the presence of the deceased in your life, in your work?

This is very responsible and intimate. The feeling, if it exists, should be transferred to the one who gets used to the author’s word. He absorbs it and makes it his own.

- Which of your works are most significant for you?

The first is “The Gorge of Winged Horses” and the last one written is the tetralogy “By this victory!”

This is the path from dramatic legend to the acquisition of faith - this is how I designated the genres of these works. Drama, like life, has its own laws. But the main engine of Creativity is Love. And she is above every law. The higher the Love, the more significant the work is not only for the author, but for his readers and viewers.

You are a laureate of the A.I. Fatyanov Prize, named after. M. Yu. Lermontov, E. F. Volodin, M. N. Alekseev, A. T. Tvardovsky, S. T. Aksakov, “Golden Knight”, and “Golden Delvig”, which award is most memorable for you?

No awards add talent, and often do not determine it. I have seen a lot of things during my half-century of professional life in literature. Often decisions are made behind the scenes, in a friendly manner, on the principle of “friend or foe.”

However, there are awards that are not established by any commission or committee. After all, it’s already a reward if you helped at least one person with your word.

In the nineties, I had the opportunity to perform in one of the villages forgotten by the authorities. Young people have long moved to the city to earn money. In the dilapidated club sat the same dilapidated old women. What do they, poor people, care about poetry?! But being, from old memory, disciplined, they looked attentively at the stage, not really understanding for what reason they had been gathered. There were several poets. When I was given the floor, I remembered a poem that contained the following lines:

Holy Rus', who knew no peace,
Washed by tears like rain,
Where else could I have heard this:
What we don’t finish eating, we’ll finish!

When I finished reading this poem, one of the old women, stealthily so as not to disturb anyone, slipped out the door. I continued reading. And about ten minutes later the old lady returned and directly went up to the stage. She handed me several hot potatoes wrapped in a rag:

- Take it, honey! I have nothing else!

What do you think I experienced at that moment? This is the main award for me that I was awarded. Not everyone is destined for such an award.

Recently I discovered in the Patriarchal Orthodox calendar(2017) two detachable pages of my autobiographical prose. The circulation of the publication is 130,000 copies. How they got there is still a mystery to me. But such a publication is sometimes more expensive than a multi-volume collection of works, which may go unnoticed.

You have been a member of the jury of the International Literary Forum “Golden Knight” for several years now. Tell us about your activities?

For a quarter of a century of its activity, the international forum “Golden Knight”, headed by People's Artist Russia Nikolai Petrovich Burlyaev, turned into a social movement for the preservation of the spiritual values ​​of the Slavic peoples. These are: theater, cinema, painting, music, and, of course, literature, for “In the beginning was the Word...” The jury of the literary forum considers works in the categories: prose, poetry, journalism, literary criticism, history of Slavic peoples, literature for children and youth.

The literary forum competition, which was recently held in Irkutsk, received 432 works of different genres from 40 regions of Russia, as well as from 15 countries of the world - Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Georgia, Denmark, Italy, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia, USA, Ukraine, Czech Republic.

The largest number of applicants for the golden statuette of the “Golden Knight” are people who write poetry. To sort through this sea of ​​books, where every author considers himself worthy of an award (otherwise he would not have sent the books) is a responsible and thankless task. Writers are legion, but poets are few. You can’t use a ruler here to determine the height of talent. It’s easier when you hold a book by a poet famous in Russia and Europe. But our task is to support the young so that the spiritual thread from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” to the Case of Igor’s Regiments of our time is not interrupted. Of course, each jury member relies on his own personal experience. Objectivity is for the privileged few. But it’s good that there is a tuning fork that doesn’t allow you to go out of tune and go astray from the “melody.” These are poems by our classics from Pushkin to Rubtsov. The main thing is that your hearing does not change.

As is known to the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church established a special prize. Who won it this year?

- “Golden Knight” has been cooperating with the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church for many years. In Irkutsk, along with a statuette of the Bronze Knight, a special prize from the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, a scientific employee of the apparatus of the Publishing Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, Priest Nikolai Balan, was presented to the poet Alexander Orlov for his book of poems “Different Winters”.

- Which contemporary poets do you read, who would you like to highlight?

Unfortunately, the circulation of poetry books in recent decades has been scanty and many “arrows” fly by unnoticed, without hurting the hearts of the most (alas, in the past) reading country in the world with a poetic line. Many wonderful poets, whom all of Russia recently loved, began to be forgotten: Vasily Fedorov, Yaroslav Smelyakov, Mikhail Lukonin, Dmitry Kovalev, Anatoly Peredreev...

Judging by the peaks, among those still alive I read with pleasure: Gleb Gorbovsky, Vladimir Kostrov, Vadim Terekhin, Viktor Petrov, Alexander Loginov, Gennady Rusakov. May those whom I did not remember forgive me.

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The Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian is called the Apostle of Love for his love for the Lord and love for people. With his life he fulfilled the commandments given by Christ: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And love your neighbor as yourself.” In these two commandments are all the law and the prophets, the Old and New Testaments, our present and future.

Love is called the queen of virtues. Without it, all other virtues cannot exist. Without love they simply become vices, passions.

Faith without love turns into fanaticism, into ritualism, when the Sabbath overshadows a person. Hope without love is despair, sadness and despondency. A mind without love is cunning, but with love it is wisdom. A heart without love is a stone or a block of ice.

Our late His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II said wonderful words, simply amazing in their power: “Only love can be higher than the law, only mercy can be higher than truth, and only forgiveness can be higher than justice!”

Love is higher than the law, higher than truth and higher than justice, for at the basis of mercy and forgiveness lies love, on it and on it these virtues rest. Therefore, justice without love turns into cruelty, mercy into condemnation, and humility without love into hypocrisy.

This is what the Venerable says. Justin Popovich about love. (Reverend Justin (Popovich).THE PATH OF KNOWING GOD. Epistemology of Saint Isaac the Syrian.)

“From prayer is born love,” just as prayer is born from faith. Virtues consubstantial each other, and therefore are born from one another. L love for God is a sign that the new reality into which faith and prayer introduce a person is much better than the previous reality. Love for God and people is the result of prayer and faith.Actually, true love for humanity is impossible without faith and prayer.

In the feat of faith, a person changes the world: from the limited he enters the limitless, where life is not according to the law of sensuality, but according to the law of prayer and love. Saint Isaac especially emphasizes his conviction, gained through the experience of grace and asceticism, that the love of God comes from prayer. "Love is the fruit of prayer" . Love can be begged from God, but it cannot be found without prayer. To the extent that a person gains knowledge of God through faith and prayer, to the extent that "love is the child of knowledge" .

Through faith, a person renounces the law of egoism, renounces his sinful soul; loving the soul, he hates the sin in the soul; Through prayer, he tries to replace the law of atheism with the law of theism, to replace passions with virtues, to replace life according to man with life according to God, and thus heal and restore the soul from sins. Therefore Saint Isaac teaches:"The love of God consists in the self-denial of the soul."

Impurity and disease of the soul are unnatural additions to the soul; they are not components of its essence, “since purity and health are the kingdom of the soul.” A soul ailing from passions is the most suitable soil for the cultivation of hatred, and “love can only be found when the soul is healed.”

Love is from God, “for God is love” (1 John 4:8); “Whoever finds love will be clothed with it from God.” God has no boundaries, so love is limitless and knows no measure. He who loves through God and in God loves everyone equally without distinction, and of such a person Saint Isaac says that he has achieved perfection. As an example of perfect love, Saint Isaac cites the desire of Saint Agathon: “I would like to find the leper and take his body and give him mine.”

In the kingdom of love, the antinomic opposites of reason disappear; the ascetic of love anticipates heavenly harmony in himself and in the world of God around him, since through the feat of faith he emerged from his egoistic, solipsistic hell and entered the paradise of divine values ​​and perfection. Saint Isaac says: “Paradise is the love of God, in which there is the enjoyment of all blessings.” Not having God's love is hell, "those who suffer in hell become those who suffer from the scourge of love." When one receives the perfect love of God, he attains perfection. Therefore, Saint Isaac advises: “We must first acquire love, which is the primary contemplation of the Holy Trinity.”

Freeing himself from passions, a person gradually frees himself from self-loving, selfish hominism and humanism, self-loving, selfish humanity and humaneness, leaves the sphere of murderous anthropocentrism and enters the sphere of the Trinity Divinity, where the great, divine world descends into the human soul, where opposites and contradictions are out of the category time and space cease to be deadly and where victory over sin and death is felt.

How to measure love?
Love is measured by sacrifice.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13)