Patriarchal Homily after the Prayer Service at the Dormition Cathedral in Astana

Your Eminence, dear Vladyka Alexander! Your Graces! Dear fathers, brothers, and sisters!

With a special feeling I crossed the threshold of this cathedral today, and I recalled the words: “The barren pagan assembly has blossomed.” And what does this mean? The Church is an assembly; and in the gathering of pagans, who could not bear spiritual fruit and who were walking a very dangerous and destructive path, suddenly the flame of faith was kindled. That flame quickly spread and captured the hearts of thousands upon thousands of people. That flame is the very faith that has united us today, the same faith that gave strength to the martyrs and confessors of the land of Kazakhstan to pass through terrible trials—trials that are even difficult for us to imagine. Having endured them, they confirmed many, many others in the faith. “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity,” as was said already in the times of the Roman persecutions of believers. The blood of the martyrs became the seed from which grew the blessed tree of the Church of Christ on Kazakhstani soil, and you constitute the Orthodox Church of God on this land, abundantly watered with the blood of martyrs and confessors.

All of this should help us spiritually, especially when sorrows come into our lives. Of course, these sorrows are incomparable to those through which our forebears, persecuted for the faith, once passed. But difficult life circumstances, illnesses—how many things one encounters along the path of life!—all these can suddenly disrupt our inner spiritual peace, bringing us into a state of oppression and despondency. Often people, passing through such trials, cannot even come out of them. And if this goes on for a long time, a person becomes completely unhappy, though if you were to ask him why, he might not even be able to clearly express the reason.

The cause of our spiritual misfortunes is not always in external circumstances. These misfortunes proceed from the inner condition of the soul and, one can say, from a lack of our faith. Indeed, the martyrs and confessors, endowed with great strength of spirit and power of faith, while undergoing these trials, remained unshaken, undefeated. And how this should teach us that unfavorable life situations should never destroy our inner and spiritual peace, that we should never grumble against God, and that any trials, great or small, should be met with courage and calm, remembering that our life is in God’s hands. And our response to trials should not be tears, resentment, envy, or sorrow, but strong prayer. “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity.” Thanks be to God, we are not martyrs, but we grieve in life, and in response to this grief faith in the Lord should sprout within us and grow ever stronger, transforming our lives.

If one tries to summarize in a few words what faith in God gives us, the answer is very simple: if we truly believe, it is the path to our happiness. Happiness—a simple human word that we rarely use in church preaching, but which I especially wish to apply now. For it is happiness, which our faith grants us, that should fill our lives, and then they will indeed become truly beautiful. Even when difficulties arise—when material circumstances are poor, or when something happens to our health—if the soul is strong, if there is faith in the Lord and hope of salvation, then everything else fades to the periphery. And, indeed, the martyrs and confessors we have spoken of were the brightest witnesses of how God’s grace so transforms a person that even the weakest can endure great sorrows, sometimes even undergo martyrdom, yet remain unbroken—that is, they become heroes of the spirit.

By God’s mercy, we live in a time when no confession of faith is required, when no one persecutes us for our faith, no one fires us from work, no one deprives us of a bonus, as was the case in the recent past. We live peacefully, we pray. I mean first of all Russia, but here on this blessed land there are also no persecutions, and our Muslim brothers, who are in the majority here, surround us with good will, as we have all spoken, and there are no real interethnic conflicts here. Therefore, living in such prosperity, we must always remember God’s mercy, thank the Lord, and above all, if something unpleasant happens related to work, studies, or family troubles, we must never despair, never fall into a state of grief that is truly capable of undermining our inner strength.

The experience of the martyrs and confessors, including those who suffered here in Kazakhstan, the memory of the terrible trials people endured here for the faith—all this should strengthen our faith and help us pass through the sorrows that are often sent to us for our testing and correction. Reflecting on the martyrs and confessors—of whom, perhaps, there were more on this land than anywhere else—you inevitably realize that God, by His wondrous providence, governs history and governs people. And how wonderful it is to see the result of this providence now, as we stand in this beautiful cathedral, as we pray, as we feel the support of one another, and as we realize that we live in a special time of favor for the Church of God and for all our people!

May the Lord preserve the land of Kazakhstan, its authorities and army; may the Lord strengthen our flock in the Orthodox faith, and grant spiritual and bodily strength to our episcopate and clergy, who, as I know, labor zealously on this land. And for us, it remains only to thank the Lord and to raise prayers for the land of Kazakhstan and for the land of Russia, for their authorities and armies, for peace on these expanses, for the growth of deep and sincere religiosity among the people, and for all this to lead to peaceful and joyful existence, to strengthen us both spiritually and materially, and to fill our lives with the true light of divine grace.

Once again, my dear ones, I warmly greet all of you. I rejoice to see you gathered in such great numbers. I rejoice that our episcopate, clergy, and parish activists are working fruitfully, that all aspects of parish and diocesan life are developing, and as a result the number of believers is increasing. But perhaps it is not even the quantity that brings the most joy, but the fact that those who come to Orthodox churches today come consciously, according to their convictions, and strive to build their lives according to God’s commandments.

Once again, Vladyka Metropolitan, I would like to thank you for your labors; and you, brother archpastors, for keeping spiritual watch and serving the good of the people, strengthening them in faith and piety, and providing an example and instruction in how to build life so as not to anger God, but to attain happiness. I warmly congratulate you all on this day.

In memory of my stay, I would like to present an ancient Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God and ask that it be placed in this cathedral, so that people, venerating this image, might remember our prayerful gathering today and the words I have spoken. But above all, I ask that they remember their Patriarch, who very much needs your prayers. Sometimes I ask myself: “How is this possible?” and I answer: “How could it not be possible, when so many people pray for you!” Therefore, I ask all of you to remember the Patriarch in your prayers.

May the Lord preserve the land of Kazakhstan, our Church dwelling here, His Grace Metropolitan Alexander, the episcopate, the clergy, and all of you, my dear ones. Christ is in our midst! He is and ever shall be! Amen.