Слово на Рождество Пресвятой Богородицы. Преподобного Иоанна Дамаскина

Come, all nations, the entire human race, every language, age and rank, let us joyfully glorify the birthday of universal joy. If the pagans (when demons secretly ensnared their minds with false fictions and obscured the truth) celebrated the birthdays of their kings with all honor, even those whose lives were often vicious, bringing them every gift within their power: then should we not more honor the birthday of the Mother of God, through whom the entire human race was renewed, and the sorrow of the foremother Eve was changed into joy? Eve heard God’s decree: in sickness give birth to a child (Gen. 3:16), and Mary was told: Rejoice, full of grace (Luke 1:28); To that one it was said: Your address is to your husband, and to this one: The Lord is with You! But what will we bring as a gift to the Mother of the Word, besides the word? May all creation triumph and glorify the most sacred Summer of the sacred Anna! She gave birth to the world an inalienable treasure of good things; through Her, the Creator incarnate brought all creation to a better state. Man, placed between the spiritual and material worlds, connects with himself the entire visible creation with the invisible; so the Creator - the Word of God, united with human nature, united through Her with all creation. So, let us glorify the resolution of human infertility, because for us the barrier to bliss has collapsed. But why was the Virgin Mother born from a barren mother? Because with miracles it was necessary to prepare the way for the only news under the sun, the most important of miracles, and gradually ascend from the lesser to the greater. However, I also know another reason for this, much more sublime and Divine, namely: nature yields to the power of grace and, overwhelmed with trepidation, stops, not daring to go further. Since the Virgin Mother of God was to be born from Anna, nature did not dare to warn the seed of Grace, but remained barren until grace produced fruit. She had to be born as a firstborn in order to give birth to the Firstborn of all creation, and in Him all things will be made (Col. 1:15, 17). O blessed couple, Joachim and Anna! All creation owes you gratitude. Through you, she brought to the Creator the most precious gift of all gifts - the pure Mother, the only one worthy of the Creator. O all-blessed loins of Joachim, from which came the most holy seed! O pure womb of Anna, in which the most holy fruit was quietly conceived, formed, and from which was born! O womb, which bore within itself the animate sky, the most spacious of all heavens! O land, which has brought forth an abundance of animal bread, as Christ Himself said: unless a grain of wheat falls on the earth and dies, it remains alone (John 12:24). O breasts that have milked the nurse of the Nourisher of the world. O wonders of wonders! Oh, the most amazing phenomenon of all! Such miracles were supposed to prepare the way for the unspeakable and condescending incarnation of God. What shall I say next? My mind goes out of itself: now fear, now pleasure occupies my soul; the heart is worried, the tongue is numb. I'm exhausted with delight; I fall before the greatness of miracles. But a strong feeling made me inspired; shut up the passion! Get rid of the fear! Leap up the trap of the spirit: let the heavens rejoice, and the earth rejoice! (Ps. 95:11). Now the barren gates are opened and the Divine virgin gates appear, from which and through which - in the words of Paul, the hearer of ineffable verbs - this God above all, clothed with flesh, enters the universe (Rom. 9:5; Heb. 1:6). Now from the root of Jesse the rod has grown, from which will come the Divine color for the world. Now, out of mortal nature, He has prepared for Himself a heaven on earth, Who of old wove the firmament out of the waters and spread it out in height. Truly, this sky is incomparably more Divine and more amazing than that, because the Sun of Truth shone on it - the One who established the sun in the sky. There are two natures in Him, although the Acephalians frantically arm themselves against this; one hypostasis, although the Nestorians share it. The Eternal Light, originating from the eternal Light before the ages, immaterial and incorporeal, is incarnated from the Virgin, and like a bridegroom from the palace comes - God, who has become earth-born. He rejoices as a giant mother-in-law is the way of our life, hastening through suffering to death, in order to bind the strong man and plunder his vessels (Matthew 12:29), i.e. to steal our nature and bring the lost sheep to heavenly pasture. Now the son of Tekton, the omnipotent Word of Him who created every strong muscle of the Most High God, having sharpened the blunt ax of nature with His Spirit, as if with His finger, has built for Himself an animated ladder, with the base established on the earth, and the top touching the sky itself, and on which God is established, the image of which Jacob saw, on which God, descending unchangeable, or, better said, bowing Himself, appearing on earth, and living with men (Bar. 3:38). This descent means voluntary humiliation, residence on earth, communication of knowledge of Himself to those living on it. The spiritual ladder, that is, the Virgin, is established on earth: for She was born from the earth; Her head touched the sky: for like the head of every wife is her husband, and She did not know a husband, Her head was God and the Father, Who, having overshadowed Her with the Holy Spirit, as if a Divine spiritual seed, sent His Son and the Word - omnipotent power. The Father deigned that not through natural communication, but from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary in a supernatural way, the Word became flesh immutably and dwelt in us; because God's communication with people occurs through the Holy Spirit. Let it contain many things: if you have ears to hear, let him hear. Let us remove carnal concepts from ourselves. The Divine is impassive, O people! The Father, who dispassionately gave birth from the beginning by nature, again dispassionately gives birth to the same Son for the construction of the salvation of people, as the Godfather also testifies, saying: The Lord speaks to me: You are my Son, I gave birth to you today (Ps. 2:7). The word - today cannot refer to pre-eternal birth, since it is outside of time. Now the holy gates have been built on the east side, through which Christ will go in and out, and this gate will be closed (Ezek. 44:1, 2), in which Christ is the door of the sheep. His name is East; through Him we have access to the Father, the source of light. Now quiet winds have blown, harbingers of worldwide joy. Let the heavens rejoice - let the mountain rejoice, and let the earth rejoice - down, and let the world sea splash in joy! A shell is born in it, which, through the highest Divine radiance, will conceive in the womb and give birth to the most precious pearl - Christ. From Her the King of glory, clothed in the purple of flesh, will come out to the captives to preach liberation. May nature triumph! A Lamb is born, through which the Shepherd will become a lamb and tear apart the clothes of ancient deadness. Let virginity play! A Virgin was born, who - according to Isaiah - will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son, and they will call His name Immanuel, i.e., God with us. Know, Nestorians, and submit, for God is with us! Not a man, not an Angel, but God Himself will come and save us. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; God is the Lord and appear to us. Let's make a holiday in honor of the birth of the Virgin Mary. Rejoice, Anna, you who are barren, who do not give birth, who do not have stomach pains, cry out and cry (Isa. 54:1). Rejoice, Joachim: from your daughter a Son was born to us, a Son was given to us, and His name is called the Angel of the great council for universal salvation, the Mighty God. Let Nestorius be ashamed and close his mouth with his hand! The Child is God: how could it not be the Mother of God who gave birth to Him? “Whoever does not confess the Holy Virgin as the Mother of God is an atheist.” These are not my words, although I quote them in my word; I received them, as a sacred heritage, from Father Gregory the Theologian. Oh, most blessed and blameless couple, Joachim and Anna! By the fruit of your womb we will know you, as the Lord said nowhere: by their fruits you will know them (Matthew 7:16). You led a life pleasing to God and worthy of the one you were born. Having lived chastely and righteously, you gave birth to the adornment of virginity: before the Nativity the Virgin, at the Nativity the Virgin, and after the Nativity the Virgin - one in mind, and in soul, and in body, ever-virgin. It was from purity that the Virgin had to flourish, so that, by the good will of the incorporeal One who gave birth, she could bodily give birth to one only-begotten Light, not giving birth, but always being born, whose special personal property is fertility. Oh, what miracles and what a covenant this Maiden became the maker of! The generation of infertility, virginity giving birth, the union of Divinity and humanity, passion and dispassion, life and death, so that in all this the worst is defeated by the best. And this is all for my salvation, Lord! You loved me so much that You did not bring about my salvation through the Angels, nor through any other creature, but just as You created me, so You Yourself recreated me! Therefore, I play, sing, have fun, again return to the source of miracles and, carried away by delight, again I strike the spirit’s sword and sing the sacred hymn to birth. O pure pair of intelligent turtle doves - Joachim and Anna! By observing the integrity prescribed by the law of nature, you have been rewarded with something that is above the forces of nature. You gave birth to the world the inexperienced Mother of God; leading a pious and righteous life in human nature, they have now given birth to the highest daughter of the Angels, the Lady of the Angels. O most beautiful and sweetest daughter! O lily, growing among the withered stems from the noblest royal root of David! Through You the kingdom was enriched with the priesthood. Through You the law was changed and its spirit hidden under the writing was revealed, when the priestly dignity passed from the tribe of Levi to David. O rose, which blossomed from the thorns of Judea and filled everything with its Divine fragrance! O daughter of Adam and Mother of God! Blessed are the loins and womb from which You came! Blessed are the hands that carried You, and the lips that enjoyed Your purest kisses - the lips of parents alone, so that You may always and in everything remain a Virgin. Now is the beginning of the salvation of the world. Shout to the Lord, all the earth, sing, rejoice and sound the trumpet! Raise your voice, raise it - do not be afraid! For the Mother of God was born to us in the holy sheepfold, from whom it deigned to be born the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Leap up the mountains - intelligent beings striving for the heights of spiritual contemplation! The glorious mountain of the Lord is born, surpassing every hill and every mountain in height and place - the greatness of Angels and men, from which the cornerstone, Christ, deigned to be cut off without hands in a bodily form, one hypostasis, uniting in itself various natures - Divine and human, and creating Angels and men, pagans and carnal Israel, into one spiritual Israel: the mountain of God, a fat mountain, a strewn mountain, a fat mountain: a mountain in which God was pleased to live in it, a chariot of God in the darkness, a thousand of those who hump (Ps. 67:16-18) by the grace of Divine, that is, Cherubim and Seraphim; the most holy top of Sinai, which is covered not by smoke, not darkness, not a storm, not a terrible fire, but the bright shine of the All-Holy Spirit. There the word of God is inscribed on stone tablets with the law of the Spirit, as if with his finger; and here the Word of God itself became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and virgin blood and gave itself to our nature as the most effective medicine of salvation. There is manna; here is the delighter of manna. Let the magnificent tabernacle, built by Moses in the desert from precious substances of every kind, and before it the former tabernacle of the forefather Abraham, bow down; let the animated and intelligent Tabernacle of God bow down! This became not only a place of special action of God, but an essential container of the hypostatic Son and God. May the ark, gilded on every side, and the golden frame that bears manna, and the lamp, and the table, and everything ancient, recognize its insignificance before Her! All this was important only because it represented the spiritual tabernacle, since it was a shadow of the true prototype. Now the all-active God the Word, who came from the bosom of the Father, compiled a new scroll, written by the Spirit - the language of God, as if with a reed. It was given to a man who knew the letters, but this one did not understand it: that is, Joseph did not know either Mary or the power of the sacrament itself. O most sacred daughter of Joachim and Anna, sheltered from the authorities and forces and the kindled arrows of the evil one, who lived in the palace of the Spirit and was kept immaculate as the bride of God and by nature the Mother of God! O most sacred daughter, still resting in her mother’s arms, but terrible for the powers that have fallen away! O most sacred daughter, nourished by mother’s milk and surrounded by angels! O God-loving Daughter, glory to the parents! All your people will please you, as You truly said about Yourself (Luke 1:48). O daughter, worthy of God, adornment of human nature and correction of foremother Eve! Through your childbearing she rose from her fall. O all-holy daughter, adornment of women! Although Eve became the first criminal, and through her, who served as the instrument of the fall of the progenitor for the serpent, death entered the world; but Mary, submissive to the will of God, herself tempted the deceiving serpent and introduced immortality into the world. O ever-virgin daughter, who conceived without a husband, since the one carried in Your womb has an eternal Father! O earthly daughter, who bore the Creator in the Mother of God’s embrace! For centuries they competed to see who would get the glory of Your birth; but the predestined counsel of God, the Creator of the ages, overcame this struggle of the ages, and the last became the first, blessed by Thy birth. Truly, You have become more honest than all creatures: from You alone the Creator took a part - the foundation of our nature; His flesh is from Your flesh, and His blood is from Your blood; God fed on the milk of Your breasts, and Your mouth kissed the mouth of God. O incomprehensible and unspeakable miracles! The God of all, having foreknew Your dignity, loved You, having loved He ordained and in the last times fulfilled what was predetermined, making You the Mother of God, the Mother and Nourisher of His Son and Word. It is rightly said that the opposite serves as a cure for the opposite; but it cannot be said that the opposite comes from the opposite, although every thing contains within itself something as if contrary to its property, from the excess of what it came from. For example, just as sin, which caused my death through good, thus became extremely destructive (Rom. 7:13): so the author of all good (God), as if through the opposite, arranged what was done for our salvation. Whereas sin abounded, grace abounded (Rom. 5:20). If we had preserved the first union with God, we would not have been worthy of the best and most excellent; and now, although, due to sin, they became unworthy of their former communion with Him, not preserving what they received; but by the mercy of God we were pardoned and again accepted into such communion with Him, which no one is able to break, since the one who accepted us is able to keep it inseparable. There was a time when the earth was in deep corruption and the people of God, carried away by the spirit of temptation, left the Lord their God - the One who acquired it for Himself with a strong hand and a high arm, brought it out of the house of slavery of Pharaoh in signs and wonders, led it through the Red Sea and guided it on its way in a cloud during the day and all night in the light of fire; when Israel turned their hearts to Egypt, and thus the people of the Lord became not the people of the Lord, those who had shown mercy were not shown mercy, those who were loved were not loved. Therefore, now the Virgin is born, alien to ancestral corruption, betrothed to God Himself, giving birth to God’s mercy; and not the people of God become the people of God, the unmerciful receives mercy, the unloved becomes beloved - because from Her is born the beloved Son of God, in whom is all the good pleasure of God. The fruitful vine withered away from Anna, and the sweetest grapes ripened, pouring out sweet drink to the earthly ones into eternal life. Joachim and Anna sowed in truth and reaped the fruit of life; They lit the lamp of knowledge for themselves and sought the Lord, and the vegetation of righteousness appeared to them. Rejoice earth; and rejoice in the Lord your God, O sons of Zion! The desert flourished; the barren woman bore her fruit, Joachim and Anna, like smart mountains, dug for the sweetness. Rejoice, most blessed Anna, that you have given birth to a daughter: this daughter is the Mother of God, the daughter of light, the source of life, the deliverance of wives from condemnation. The rich of the people will plead with this Daughter (Ps. 44:13), the kings of the nations will come with gifts and worship Her. You will bring this Daughter to the All-Tsar - God, clothed in the splendor of virtues, like a garment of gold, and adorned with the grace of the Spirit. Her glory is within. The glory of every other wife is the husband who comes from without; but the glory of Our Lady is within; this is the fruit of Her womb. O beloved and blessed daughter! Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the fruit of Your womb! O virgin, daughter of King David and Mother of the All-King God! O Divine animated image, upon which the Creator God looks with favor: for She has a mind governed by God and directed towards God alone; all desire is directed towards the One worthy of desire and love; hatred is only towards sin and its culprit. You will have a life better than the natural life, you will have it not only for yourself, because you were not only born for yourself. You will live for God, by whose grace you entered into life in order to serve the salvation of the whole world, so that through You the ancient advice of God about the incarnation of the Word and our deification will be fulfilled. Your heart will delight in the word of God and drink from it, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, like a tree planted at the springs of the waters of the Spirit, like a tree of life that will give its fruit at the appointed time, that is, God incarnate, the eternal life of all. All Her thoughts are beneficial to the soul, free from everything superfluous, moving away from everything destructive to the soul; Her eyes are always directed towards the Lord, contemplating the eternal and unapproachable light; the ears through which the incarnate Word entered are tuned to listen to the word of God, delighting in the sweet-voiced sapling of the Spirit; the nostrils smell the fragrance of the ointments of the Bridegroom, Who is the Divine ointment, freely poured out and anointing His humanity: for the ointment poured out is Your name, says the Holy Scripture (Song. 1:2); lips will praise the Lord and kiss His lips; the tongue and larynx reason about the word of God and pour out Divine sweetness; the heart is pure and immaculate, seeing and desiring the purest God; the womb in which the Incontainable One lived, and the breasts that fed the Infant Jesus with milk; the ever-virgin door of God; the hands that bore God, and the knees a throne higher than the Cherubim, with which the weak hands and weak knees were strong; feet governed by the law of God, like a lamp of light, and steadily following it until they lead the beloved to the loving one. Everything is the palace of the Spirit; the whole is the city of the living God, which is rejoiced by the aspirations of the river (Ps. 45:5), i.e., streams of grace of the Holy Spirit; all is good; everything is near God: because, having ascended above the Cherubim and being exalted above the Seraphim, She approached God. O miracle above all miracles! The wife became higher than the Seraphim, because God appeared small and was made lesser than the Angels. Let the wise Solomon be silent, and let him not say that there is nothing new under the sun! O Blessed Virgin, the church of the holy God, which the spiritual Solomon, the Chief of the world, built and inhabited; a church adorned not with gold and soulless stones, but instead of gold shining with the Spirit, instead of precious stones having a pearl of great value - Christ, the coal of the Divinity! Beg Him to touch our lips, so that we, having been cleansed, will sing to Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, one Godhead in three persons! Holy is God and the Father, who deigned in You and from You to fulfill the sacrament that was predestined before the ages. Holy is the mighty Son of God and the Only Begotten God, who has now brought You forth from a barren mother, so that He Himself, the Only Begotten of the Father and the First-Begotten of all creation, might also be born the Only Begotten of You, the Virgin Mother, and the First-Begotten of many brethren, like us having received flesh and blood from You. But He did not produce You from one father or one mother, so that perfect only-begotten was a special property of one only-begotten: for He alone is the Only-begotten from one Father and one Only-begotten from one Mother. Holy is the immortal, All-Holy Spirit, who by the dew of His Divinity preserved You unharmed from the Divine fire, as the bush of Moses symbolized. Rejoice, sheep font (Bethesda), most sacred church of the Mother of God! Rejoice, sheep font, ancestral dwelling of the Queen! Rejoice, sheep font - the ancient gathering of the sheep of Joachim, and now the heavenly Church of the verbal flock of Christ, which anciently once a year received the Angel of God, who disturbed the water, and only returned one sick person from illness to health, and now contains a whole host of heavenly powers, praising with us the Mother of God, the abyss of miracles, the source of universal healing. She received not a ministering angel, but an Angel of great council, who descended like blessed rain on a fleece, without noise, and returned all the suffering, tending towards decay, nature to unharmed health and ageless life. By His power, the paralyzed man lying in You jumped up like a tree. Rejoice, honest sheep font; may Your grace be multiplied! Hail Mary, sweetest daughter of Anna! (love again draws me to You). With what words will I describe Your majestic step, Your clothing, the beauty of Your face, Your mature mind in an infant body? The clothes are modest, alien to luxury and bliss; the gait is important, calm, firm; a sedate disposition, not alien to gaiety, but unapproachable for men: witness to this is the fear that greeted You at the unexpected greeting of an Angel. Quiet and submissive to her parents. The thought is humble, but immersed in higher contemplations. The speech is pleasant, flowing from a kind heart. What can we call You if not a dwelling worthy of God? All generations worthily please You, as the chosen adornment of humanity. You are the glory of the priests, the hope of Christians, the prolific branch of virginity: from You its color has developed everywhere. Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb! Those who confess You as the Mother of God are blessed, those who do not confess You are cursed! O sacred couple, Joachim and Anna! Accept my word in honor of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. O daughter of Joachim and Anna, Lady! Accept a word from a sinful servant, but filled with fiery love and You alone have acquired joyful hope, the intercessor of life, the intercessor of Your Son and the undoubted guarantee of salvation. Remove the heavy burden of sins from me; dispel the dark cloud that surrounds my mind; soften the earthly roughness in me; stop temptations; manage your life happily; guide you to heavenly bliss. Grant peace to the world and to all the Orthodox inhabitants of this city, perfect joy and eternal salvation, through the prayers of Your parents and the entire Church. Wake up, wake up! Rejoice, O Gracious One, the Lord is with You! Blessed are You among women and blessed is the fruit of Your womb - Jesus Christ the Son of God! To him be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit to the endless ages of ages. Amen 200. Curs. Compl. Patrolog. Migne, Tom. XCVI, col. 661–680; Wed Selected words of the holy fathers in honor of the Most Rev. Mother of God Moscow. 1886, pp. 14–27; Christ. Read 1828, XXXI, countries. 227–249. You might be interested in: