Слово на Рождество Пресвятой Богородицы. Св. Андрея, архиепископа Критского

If you can measure the earth by a handful and circle the sea with a rope; if you can measure the sky a span (Isa. 40:12), and count the multitude of stars (Ps. 146:4); if you can comprehend drops of rain (Job 36:27), specks of dust from the earth, the weight of the winds (Job 28:25) and the amount of sand: then you can understand our real subject. We celebrate the feast of the Mother of God, the Nativity of the venerable Youth of the Ever-Virgin, the Youth without art, the Queen, the Prophetess, Whose royal shrouds were depicted in a royal form, David, the greatest of the prophets and kings, exclaimed: all glory to the Daughter of the King within: clothed with gold and speckled (Ps. 45:14), from afar showing - as I think - the splendor of beauty given to Her by God through the communication of various gifts of the Divine Spirit: this means - in my understanding - a golden robe and golden cassocks. I think that those who are well-minded understand Her royal shrouds not in a carnal sense, and therefore (David), seeing the inner splendor and the outer beauty of the Virgin shining from this beauty, exclaimed with a bold voice: Hear, O Daughters, and see, and incline Your ear, and forget Your people and Your Father’s house: and the King will desire Your kindness (Ps. 44:11, 12), which although directly refers to the Church of the pagans, can easily be understood about Her, since She, too, became a temple for the entire Bridegroom of the Church, through a wonderful incarnation. So, let us praise with applause, together with David, the Mother of God who descended from David; Let us honor the lordship of the holiday; let us exalt the virgin with the praises of virginity; Let us bring to the Queen of (our) family, as valuable gifts and incense, the prophecies of the prophets; Let us shout to Her the greetings of Gabriel; Let us say to the Mother of Joy: Rejoice, O Blessed One! Rejoice, you who are illuminated, through whom darkness was driven away and light was introduced! Rejoice, O Full of Grace, through Whom the law was abolished and grace shone forth! Rejoice, the beginning of joy and the end of curse! Rejoice, truly Gracious One: the Lord is with You, He who came after You was before You; first by force, after by action; now preparing Thy womb for Thyself as a dwelling place and then making out of Thee carnally the great sacrament of economy. Rejoice, you who alone accepted into Your bosom the blessing of the Lord in order to free your foremother from the first oath! Rejoice, God-receiving treasury of virginity, from which the incorruptible birth took place, and the wealth of virginity remained unplundered! Rejoice, Mother who abides in purity, and Virgin who nourishes with her breasts! Rejoice, tiara of beauty, Queen of (our) family, adorned everywhere with royal distinctions! Rejoice, Divine sanctuary of Christ, who alone in the heavenly sanctuary officiated according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6,10; 6:20; 7:11,17,21)! Rejoice, rod of Aaron, root of Jesse, scepter of David, royal robe, crown of graces, unwritten image of virginity, treasure of holiness (Ex. 28:36; 29:6), word of manifestations (Lev. 8:8)! Rejoice, mediator of law and grace, the sealing of the Old and New Testaments, the clearest fulfillment of every prophecy, the acrostic text of the inspired truth of the Scriptures, God and the Word, an animated and pure scroll (Isa. 8:1), in which the writer Himself - God and the Word - is read daily without words or writing! Rejoice, the firstfruits of our reconstruction and the limit of Divine promises and prophecies to us, the foretold sanctuary of Divine glory, the expected salvation of the pagans (Gen. 49:10)! Rejoice, the true ladder of Jacob, the smoking mountain, the ark of the holy, covered on all sides with gold (Heb. 9:4) - the shining Spirit, the golden stupa bearing heavenly manna - Christ and the incorruptible food of the whole world! Rejoice, Thou, through whom: in sickness thou shalt give birth to a child (Gen. 3:16), no longer having a place, changed to “thou shalt give birth in joy”! Blessed are You among women, through Whom the believing nations exclaim with consciousness: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: God is the Lord, and He has appeared to us” (Ps. 117:27, 28)! Blessed are You among women, mystical and God-planted vine, growing prosperously in church gatherings and producing for us from the womb ripe clusters of incorruptibility! Blessed are You among women, God-cultivated field, bearing in its womb the unsown and born class of our life! Blessed are You among women, truly desired land, from which the poor man, taking the clay of our composition, renewed the vessel broken by sin! Blessed are You among women, new Shiloh, in which rested the mental ark of the incarnation of God and the Word, and together all the fullness of the Divinity dwelt bodily (Col. 2:9)! Blessed are You among women, truly Divine David, in whom the God-bearing secret guides of the holy Church, having the prophecy of Divine revelations, foresaw the future! Blessed are You among women, mental Bethlehem, by election and nature made and called the most spiritual house of the bread of life; because He, having dwelt in You, as He Himself knows, and mingled unmixed with our mixture, He leavened all of Adam for Himself, in order to become animal and heavenly bread. Blessed are You in women, surpassing the lawful and hay tabernacle, from which the great Bezaliel - Christ God, by grace without hands, by the architecture of the Spirit, created for Himself a church, His animate flesh! But, beloved, no matter what we say, we will not compose a worthy wedding song for Her if we do not weave a crown of praise, mysteriously borrowing flowers from the meadows of Scripture. No, there is not a single place in all of the Inspired Scripture where an attentive researcher would not see various, scattered everywhere, indications of Her; and if you carefully explain them to yourself, you will understand more clearly what glory from God She contained within Her. Look how many different names She is adorned with, and how expressively she is shown in many places of Scripture! So, speaking about Her, Scripture calls Her the Virgin, the Young Lady, the Prophetess; further - the palace, the house of God, the holy church, the second tabernacle, the holy table, the altar, the atonement, the golden censer, the Holy of Holies, the cherubim of glory, the golden church, the tablets of the covenant, the priestly staff, the royal scepter, the diadem of beauty, the horn with the world of knowledge, alabaster, candlestick, incense, candlestick, lamp, chariot, bush, stone, earth, paradise, country, field, spring, lamb, drop and other names with which famous interpreters of the Spirit, according to a mysterious view of symbols, prophetically call Her. So, they call Her the bush, because Moses says: “As I passed by I saw a great vision, for the bush was not burned up” (Ex. 3:3); - with a rod, - as Isaiah says: “a rod will come out of the root of Jesse, and a flower will arise from its root”; - the root: “and the root of Jesse will be, and he will rise up to rule the tongues, in Him the nations will trust” (Is. 11:1,10); - holy ground: “Moses, Moses, take the boots from your feet: for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Ex. 3:4–5). - the desired land: “and despised the desired land” (Ps. 106:24); – the earth from which truth has shone: “truth has risen from the earth” (Ps. 84:12); - south: “God will come from the south” by the mountain: “and the Holy One from the mountain overshadowed by the thicket” (Hab. 3:3); “the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands” (Dan. 2:34); - “a mountain where God is pleased to live in it” (Ps. 67:17); - olive: “Like the olive tree is fruitful in the house of God” (Ps. 51:10); - ark: “Rise up, O Lord, into Thy rest, Thou and the ark of Thy holiness” (Ps. 131:8); - the throne: “I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and exalted, and the house of His glory was filled” (Is. 6:1); - gates: “and the Lord said to me: this gate will be shut up, and will not be opened: for the Lord God of Israel will enter through it and come out, and the gate will be shut up” (Ezek. 44:2); – Zion: “He will come for Zion’s sake, O Lord, to deliver, and to turn away wickedness from Jacob” (Is. 59:20) “Thou shalt make Zion into Thy habitation” (Ps. 131:13); - mother: “Mother Zion, says man, and man was born in her, and He is the foundation and the Most High” (Ps. 87:5); “And from where do I get this, that the Mother of my Lord may come to me” (Luke 1:43)? - a carrying bed: “King Solomon made himself a bed from the trees of Lebanon”; - bed: “her bed is Solomon, sixty mighty men surround him from the mighty men of Israel” (Song. 3:7); - with a book scroll: “And I saw, and behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and in it was a book scroll. And develop it before me, and in it was written what was before and what was behind” (Ezek. 2:9, 10); “And he said to me: Son of man, this scroll is snow” (3:1); - a book: “And these words shall be unto you,” says God, “like the words of a book sealed, even if they were given to a man who kept the scriptures, saying, Read this: and he saith, I cannot read it, for it is sealed” (Is. 29:11); - a new scroll: “and the Lord spoke to me: take for yourself a new great scroll, and write in it in human writing, so that soon the captivity will be created for selfish gain” (- 8:1); - with tongs: “and one was sent to me from the Seraphim, and in his hand was a burning coal, which was taken from the altar with tongs: and I touched my lips, and said: Behold, I will touch your lips, and he will take away your iniquities, and will cleanse your sins” (- 6:6, 7); - a virgin: “Behold, the Virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and they will call his name Immanuel” (- 7:14; cf. Matt. 1:23); - the prophetess: “And they approached the prophetess, and conceived in the womb, and gave birth to a son. And the Lord said to me: “Narci is his name: soon to be captured, brazenly plundered.” Before you know how to call a child father or mother, he will receive the power of Damascus, and the gain of Samaria” (Isa. 8:3,4); - the queen: “The Queen appeared at Your right hand, dressed in robes of gold and speckled” (Ps. 44:10); - to my neighbor: “You are all good, my neighbor, all good and no vice is in you. Arise, come, my neighbor, my bride! Come from Lebanon: come and pass from the beginning of faith; Your lips will dig up honeycombs, honey and milk under your tongue, and the fragrance of your garments, like the fragrance of Lebanon”; - to my sister: “What does Thy breast fertilize, my sister bride?” – helicity: “the helicity is enclosed, the source is sealed” (Song 4:7,8,10–12); - to the daughter: “Hear, O Daughters, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house: and the King will desire your kindness” (Ps. 45:11,12); “Many daughters have acquired wealth, and created much power; but you have prospered and exalted yourself above all” (Prov. 31:30); - betrothed: “the angel Gabriel was sent from God to the city of Galilee, whose name was Nazareth, to a virgin, betrothed to a man, whose name was Joseph, from the house and fatherland of David, and the virgin’s name was Miriam” (Luke 1:26, 27); – a cloud: “Behold, the Lord sits on a light cloud, and he will come to Egypt, and Egypt will be shaken” (Isa. 19:1); – vision: “I saw a vision of fire, and its light around; like the vision of an arc, when there is a cloud on the day of rain, like the standing of light all around; this vision is the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (Ezek. 1:27, 28; 2:1,) - ilektrom (amber): "and I saw, as in the days of ilektra, like the vision of fire within him around from the vision of the loins and above, and from the vision of the loins even to the bottom" (1:27); - during the day, at night: “day the word vomits out days, and the mind proclaims night over night” (Ps. 18:3); - heaven: “from heaven the Lord looked down, and saw all the sons of men” (Ps. 32:13); “heaven is the heaven of the Lord” (Ps. 113:24); – east: “kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing to the Lord, who has ascended to the heavens in the east” (Ps. 67:33–34); - by the west: “do the way for him who ascended to the west: the Lord is his name” (Ps. 67:5) - by the sun: “set your settlement in the sun: and like a bridegroom, go forth from your palace” (Ps. 18:5–6); - hail: “glorious words were spoken about you, the city of God” (Ps. 87:3); “The flow of the river makes the city of God glad: God is in the midst of it, and is not moved” (Ps. 45:5,6); - with plinth (brick): “And you, son of man, take for yourself a plinth, and set it before your face, and write on it the city of Jerusalem, and put a fence around it” (Ezek. 4:1-2); - place: “how terrible is this place: this is not, but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:17); “And the Spirit took me, and I heard the voice of a great coward behind me: Blessed is the glory of the Lord from His place” (Ezek. 3:12); “If I give sleep to my eyes, and slumber to my every side, and peace to my soul, until I will find the place of the Lord, a habitation for the God of Jacob” (Ps. 132:4,5); - with a fleece: “it will fall like rain on a fleece, and like a drop dripping on the ground” (Ps. 71:6); – by a wife: “Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the fruit of Your womb” (Luke 1:42); God sent His Son, who is born of woman, and is under the law” (Gal. 4:4); – blessed: “Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a perfection of those things spoken to her by the Lord” (Lk. 1:45); “Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the breast that Thou didst piss” (11:27); – Mary: “Do not be afraid, Mariam: for you have found grace with God. And behold, you conceived in your womb, and gave birth to a Son, and called His name Jesus” (- 1:30, 31): “For He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). “He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of His father David: and he will reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Mariam said to the angel: What will happen if I don’t know my husband? And the Angel answered and said to Her: The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Highest will overshadow You: in the same way, the holy thing to be born will be called the Son of God. And Miriam said: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:32–35, 46, 47). Who would not be surprised at being lifted up to such a height that she became the Matter of God? Truly, this is the strangest thing to do and to hear! But listen to me: let us turn to the Primate of the celebration Herself, so that the word will again return to what it had slightly deviated from. So, let’s touch on the chants of this day and, after talking a little with the congregation, we will finish the flow of the word. Crushed by the fall of our forefathers, human nature needed a re-creator or restorer, and silently loudly cried out to the Creator: “O Lord, art thou afar off” (Ps. 9:22)? Louder and tearfully it complained through the Prophets: “Where are the essence of Your ancient mercies, O Lord, in the image of which You swore to David in Your truth” (Ps. 89:50)? What is he who desires mercy (Hos. 6:6)? – He did not despise, did not delay, did not put off the promises for long. What promises? - “I will not leave you, I will despise you” (Josh. 1:5; sn. Heb. 13:5), which He later said to the disciples, ascending from earth to heaven, from which, however, He did not leave: “I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you” (John 14:18). He clearly promised this through the Prophets, even before His ineffable incarnation. When this was so, and time already demanded an end to the promise: look what He who accomplishes our salvation, the salvation of our confusion, has done. He did not bring a means for this from elsewhere, and did not make a vessel for Himself from another creature; but, taking from the same dust and from the same, if one can say, leaven, clay, he built for himself a precious and, truly, indescribable church of architecture, in which he himself, as the first and only Bishop and King, economically and sacredly accomplished our reconciliation with his Father, transubstantially, but also essentially taking from the human being our entire being. So, God remembered His creation: for all nations are His creation. The Lord of ages remembered “His mercies from everlasting” (Ps. 24:6); he remembered the covenant that he had made with people: he remembered, and having remembered, he did not hesitate, but immediately showed a good deed. Having remembered David and the previous oath promise to him - to raise Christ from his seed (Ps. 132:11), in order through Him to restore, like a tabernacle, the fallen building of our race (Am. 9:11; Acts 15:16), He performed an amazing miracle through (another) amazing miracle. When chaste Anna was suppressed by great sadness about childlessness, especially when her partner was cruelly upset by childlessness, God resolved the infertility of both and, bowed by their prayers, gave the barren birth, sown by prayer, to the partner the fruit sprouted by hope, dried up from the heat of childlessness - an ever-blooming flower: and the formerly barren became fruitful, and which had not previously sprouted a sprout - a vine that sends out new shoots. What could be more wonderful than such childbirth? But what is more amazing than to see the Mother of God from a seedless womb, although opening, but not corrupting, producing the fruit of purity, and the Virgin growing from the barren and childless. And what is this for? - In order to certify the miracle of the one who gave birth by an excellent miracle over Her. The first (which human nature did not know before) introduced into nature, above nature, an edematous birth from seedless conception, having conceived by prenatural power in the womb of the Creator of nature, and became Matter, escaping what was characteristic of mothers, so that the Child did not have a father on earth, because he was conceived without a seed, and the One who gave birth gave birth without decay. And the latter, despite the fact that there were many such mothers before who conceived in barrenness, had a lot that was superior to all. Although they were the spouses of the patriarchs and, in fairness, were awarded such a miracle, that is, permission from the bonds of their infertility, and even became the foremothers of this sacred Maiden: but their affinity with the miracle of the Divine economy was very distant and distant; this same one, although much later, but to the time, and at the very end of time, when, i.e. stood at the very door, seeking the royal drachma, or (God’s) image in us, so that the dust that had previously covered it could be erased from it by the God-perfecting action of the Spirit, and thus, out of love for mankind, imagine human nature in Himself. What kind of ashes are these that covered our nobility? Isn’t it clear, perhaps, in itself, even if we did not say, that the One who created us, having experienced the dust from which we were first created and then recreated, found what he was looking for? What is this? This is the prototype of the image; The impassive one saw him, essentially covered with passions; He tasted the ashes of Adam; and the dust in which what was sought was found was earth, similar to our body; her field was the virgin’s most holy womb. Our life-primary class found this field, and on it He, being born supernaturally, without seed and uncultivated, grew. Here are the ashes! What a class! Here is the field of the earth on which we have been recreated in a new way, and through which our ashes, transformed, have ascended to their former dignity! You see how many secrets Anna’s birth contains! How she surpassed the former barrens with the superb miracle of her glorious childbirth! But what kind of womb-bearing the Virgin Mary, God’s chosen, most pure Mary, was honored with! What other woman has ever had such and such great fame? Since our word is weak to ascend to such a height of contemplation, and cannot extend further: then let us again say something joyful in greeting the Mother of Joy, because it is very fitting to add an exclamation of joy for Her. Rejoice, O Blessed One! Rejoice, glorified one! Rejoice, joyful sacrifice of universal salvation! Rejoice, truly golden censer of mental incense, in which the mental incense - Christ, composed of Divinity and humanity, unmerged and indivisible, by the fire of Divinity, produced the fragrance of His animated and rational flesh! Rejoice, Tabernacle not made by hands and created by God, into which once at the end of centuries the one God and the first Bishop entered, mysteriously performing sacred service in You for all! (You) are the second veil of the saints (Heb. 9:1), behind which is the purification of the world and the most honorable overshadowing of the Cherubim, since You, carrying the Lord of the sanctuary Himself in your womb, covered the inside of your womb with a veil! – The seventh candlestick and the seventh sanctuary of the seven gifts, sanctified by the seven cups of the Spirit (Zechariah 4:2)! – The unquenchable lamp of light that enlightens everything, which is mysteriously nourished by the oil of anointing! Rejoice, altar on which the living burnt offering of the Lamb, Christ, is mysteriously offered! - The mystical meal of a sacred rite that exceeds the mind, at which the heavenly bread - Christ, the universal Lamb, was offered as a fragrant and living sacrifice, giving life to those who partake! – The altar of all mystical service, in which God is deeply buried and sanctifies everything, and, mysteriously staying with people, dwells in them, has communication with them, allows the hands of sinners to touch Him, to be brought to mortal lips and poured into the dust of our flesh, mingling, but not disappearing! O ineffable exhaustion! Oh, the goodness revealed in the fact that God has given this to us, above natural and positive laws, through a wife of the same race and akin to us, through a wife, through whom not only the beauty of the soul rose to that boundless height, that Christ Himself - an incomprehensible beauty - desired Her beauty and chose for Himself a second and soulless birth from Her; but the composition of the body is also so beautiful and so pure that it contained within itself the incorporeal and incontainable greatness of the essential nature in the person of one of His three hypostases! This is who the Mother of God Mary is, the common refuge of all Christians: the first proclamation of the first parents from the first fall; the return of the affected race (ours) to non-suffering; the mysteriously ancient vision of Moses at the bush (Ex. 3:3); the fleece of Gideon, which he fearlessly saw symbolically watered with drops of heavenly dew, took what happened as a miracle, and the rain as a sign, which he confirmed with a sacrifice (Judges. 6:18–21); The richly woven purple of David, which brought the incarnate God of David the perceived flesh as purple; the cherubim throne, great, fiery and high, bearing in the bowels of the King the Lord of hosts (Ex. 6:1); the door of the heavenly sanctuary, before which the Seraphim cover their faces with some wings, their legs with others, and fly with others, loudly calling out that terrible song, because they cannot stand the vision of unapproachable glory; the gates of heaven, through which only the Lord of heaven passed, not allowing anyone to pass through them, either after Him or before Him (Ezek. 44:2). Rejoice in Her, O heaven! She, imitating you, did not closely contain the Lord who was inconceivable to you. Rejoice in Her, O earth! Her womb-bearing, having made you heavenly, has made those on earth heavenly. Applause, and the sea, to the miracle of the Virgin! Christ, deigning to be born from Her according to the body, sanctified the moist being of the waters, being baptized in the waters. All creation, rejoice, rejoice and applaud! Today a Virgin has been born to us, from whom is salvation, and through whom is all possible redemption - Christ Jesus, God and the Word, who is and who is and who is to come (Rev. 1:8), and who abides forever. On Him we will finish our word, as if held by the great sea of ​​the virgin Word, bringing to God, the Trinity, in the Father and the Son Himself, worshiped with the Holy Spirit, one in the trisagion of glory, honor and worship, now and throughout the endless ages of ages. Amen 199. Curs. Compl. Patrolog. Migne, Tom. XCVII, col. 861–882, cf. Christ. Read 1840, III, 346–371; Selected words of the holy fathers in honor of the Mother of God. 1886 pp. 53–67. You might be interested in: