Слово на Рождество Пресвятой Богородицы. Святейшего Фотия, патриарха Константинопольского

Every holiday and every celebration, about which a host of believers rejoices, stops mutual disagreements and disputes, unites people who have different opinions and who have violated the union of love by disagreement, helping to establish unanimity with the harmonious consonance of chants, shows that all those gathered are creatures of the same Lord and Creator, and, testifying through the unity of veneration about the equality of creation, tames and calms those who are angry with each other, convincing and teaching them to think justly and humanely, to see the same hand of the Creator and remember the same dust of creation. For this partly, it seems to me, there is a custom appropriate for Christians to celebrate church festivities, of which one serves as a remembrance of the Nativity of Christ, another testifies to the Baptism of Christ, another to His Transfiguration, another to the miracles He performed: healing the demoniac, giving sight to the blind, healing the bleeding, strengthening the lame and paralytic, resurrecting the dead, another recalls the crucifixion of Christ, and another - about His resurrection and the renewal of my resurrection through His works. But if every godly celebration provides the opportunity to use common gifts and shines with some kind of its own light of grace, then the real celebration dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin and Mother of God has much greater advantages in this regard. And truly, just as we consider the root and trunk of a tree to be the cause of fruits and flowers (although labor is done for the sake of the fruit, and there is care for the whole tree), and nothing can grow without the root, so without a festival in honor of the Virgin there can be none of the other celebrations associated with Her name and deeds; The present celebration in honor of the Virgin is truly adorned with many and great gifts and is rightly revered as the day of salvation of the whole world. For now the Virgin Mother is born from a barren mother and is made a dwelling place for the Lord to dwell. Now the bonds of barrenness are being resolved, and the keys of virginity are being affirmed: since the non-bearing womb unexpectedly brought forth the mature fruit of birth. Now Anna is freed from the shame of barrenness, and the universe is reaping joy. The father of the young woman is called Joachim, and we acquire as a pledge the dignity of adoption. Now the Virgin comes from a barren womb, and barrenness receives birth as its destiny; the society of the Jews is decreasing, and the children of the Church are multiplying, God-pleasingly flowing to the Bridegroom Christ. A virgin is born from a barren womb, whereas the birth would have been miraculous even if Her parents had previously had children. Oh, miracle! When the time of sowing had passed, then the time of harvesting came; when the fire of desire went out, then the lamp of procreation was lit. Youth did not bring a flower, but old age brought an industry. In the flower of life there was no fruit of the womb, but in the womb that had faded there was always a virgin fruit. However, you, man, are perplexed as to how a barren woman gave birth, and you talk idle talk about this. But who are you? You cannot be among the faithful and worthy of a miracle, for a believer will not be embarrassed by what belongs to the realm of faith. Are you a Jew? But how did you forget about Sarah? Didn’t she have a son Isaac in her old age and after barrenness? Take into account also that Adam was created from the earth and appeared without birth, and Eve was created from Adam’s rib: Divine grace was manifested here, which always dominates nature; in the same way, Divine power and authority were expressed in the birth of the Virgin Mary. Therefore, leaving behind those who talk idle talk about being born from a barren mother, let us continue what we have already begun. Ancient human nature was enslaved by the power of the ancestral sins, and now the Daughter of the branch of the ancestors bestows powerful means for deliverance from power and slavery to their conqueror. Therefore, Adam and Eve, having been cleansed from the ancient defilements of sin and freed from sadness and despair, now, first of all, freely and with a joyful appearance, welcome the triumph in honor of the Virgin, especially since they also serve as Her main ancestors. For from them it was the seed of sin that spread throughout the entire human race, and they, when it is uprooted, should rightly begin to rejoice and call upon all those born of them to participate in the celebration; from them, who sinned for the first time, the ulcer of sin spread to everyone, everyone needs the same healing, and now the birth of the Virgin has laid the foundation for the salvation of the whole world, therefore it is necessary to organize a universal celebration and in hymns to proclaim the thanksgiving of all people and the whole world: all-round salvation evokes corresponding thanksgiving. So, let us offer hymns of thanksgiving for the fact that Adam is recreated, Eve is renewed with him, condemnation is removed, and our nature, having been delivered from death for sin and having put off its corruptible form, is transformed according to the ancient dignity of the Lord’s image. Let us sing songs of thanksgiving and form national choirs, because the Virgin, born from a barren womb, sanctified the barren nature and grafted it into the fertility of virtues. A ladder is established, rising to heaven, and earthly nature, having crossed its limits, settles in heavenly abodes. The throne of the Lord is strengthened on earth, everything on earth is sanctified, and the rulers of heaven cohabit with us, and the evil one, who deceived us at the beginning and was the main culprit of intrigues against us, is deprived of power in all his insidious deeds and tricks against us. But who will be able to reveal these miraculous phenomena? What word can express that which exceeds its power? What mind is not confused when it compares its ability of understanding with the greatness of these affairs? In the beginning, God, prompted by the ineffable wealth of love for mankind, created man, giving him the image and likeness of the Creator, that is, he gave him the nobility of body and soul. He planted paradise in the east, a pleasant and beautiful place, decorated it with unfading flowers of meadows and filled it with ripe and varied fruits of plants; Rivers flowed through paradise and, irrigating the surface of the plain with their pure water, created some natural beauty of this place. Here the Lord settled His beautiful creation, made it the master of everything and commanded it to abundantly enjoy all the benefits; then he brought a wife to Adam, creating her from his rib, so that she would consider the one from whom she was taken as her head, and, looking at him, would consider herself obligated to him, and in order to establish a union of like-mindedness in them by the union of nature. But, having given man the gift of enjoying and using everything in paradise, the Lord, since it was necessary to educate him with some commandment to whom such great and varied power was entrusted, gives him a law by which it was not difficult to live, and which was not easy to completely preserve; for this the person had to receive either a reward or punishment. Pointing to one of the trees blooming with its beauty, God gave a commandment prohibiting eating the fruits of only this one tree. But this crafty beast and the main culprit of evil, whom they call the devil, who turned his gaze to man from his very creation, used another animal - the serpent - as an instrument, entered into a flattering and delightful conversation with his wife and, pouring out abundant blasphemy on the Lawmaker, convinces the wife, and through her the husband, to neglect the commandment, to eat from the tree from which it was commanded not to eat, and they, at the same time as they violated the command, lost all their gifts: this is what the slanderer strove for and all his evil deed was directed towards this. From here, sin passed from the forefathers to the descendants, and the slanderer in this way conquered the entire human race. What is the Creator and Provider? Did He ultimately despise His creation, which fell into misfortune, perishing in its wandering and constantly working at the passions? No! Indeed, how could He who lovingly created man endure his seduction and abduction? Therefore, the Divine Trinity, by a single decision of Her will, decreed the restoration of the broken creation, and She (according to human judgment) was pleased to find a person of the same nature as us, who would have the correct observance of the law, so that through him the one who plotted against us would be defeated, and we, through legal struggle and victory, would get rid of the author of sin. So, the One of the Trinity had to come to people, so that the re-creation would belong to the One who was the Creator. The Son of God had to appear on earth, the One who from all eternity was such and was glorified. It was not possible to come to the sons of men without incarnation, but incarnation is the path to birth, and birth is a consequence of the mother’s pregnancy. It was necessary to prepare on earth the mother of the Creator for the re-creation of the fallen, and, moreover, a virgin, so that, just as the first man was created from virgin soil, so his re-creation would be accomplished through a virgin, and so that the birth of the Creator would be seedless: after all, the captive of desire was the one for whose liberation the Lord took birth. But what kind of wife is worthy to be a participant in this sacrament? What kind of matter is worthy to become the matter of God and give flesh to Him who richly owns everything? Who could be more worthy than She who has now miraculously grown from the barren root of Joachim and Anna, whose nativity we solemnly celebrate (since it is a miraculous prelude to the greatest sacrament, that is, the nativity of the Word in the flesh), and for whose sake the current national and Divine celebration was organized? And truly, the Matter of the Creator must have been predetermined by the One who, from Her very birth, preserved a pure body, an immaculate soul and righteous thoughts. It was necessary that She, who from childhood was brought to the church and walked in holy paths, should appear as a true, animated church of the One who gave her life. It was necessary that She who was miraculously born from a womb that did not give birth and who took away the reproach of her parents, called upon the destruction of her forefathers: for this branch had to save the human race from the sin of our ancestors, having given birth to the Savior of the world without a man and giving Him flesh. It was necessary that She, adorned with Her beauty of soul, should appear as the chosen bride, worthy of the heavenly Bridegroom, and that, shining with various types of virtues, like stars, and bearing the Sun of truth, She in this form would be known by all the faithful and serve as the robe of the King of all. Oh, miracle! The One Whom all creation cannot contain, the virgin womb does not tightly contain, - Whom the cherubim do not dare to look upon, He is carried by the Virgin with her mortal hands. From a barren and unbearing womb comes the holy mountain, from which the valuable cornerstone, Christ our God, who with His power crushed the power of demons and the kingdom of hell, was cut off without being cut by a hand. An animated and heavenly vessel is being made on earth, in which the Creator burned with Divine fire the firstfruits of our mixture, destroyed the sowing of tares, and thus prepared for Himself pure meat. But why swim across the whole sea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Virgin's gifts and good deeds, one of the listeners might say, who, under the influence of fear and love, fears and rejoices, calmly listens and worries, is silent again and speaks, humbles himself and is exalted? I, guided more by love than by fear, would gladly continue my speech before you, especially since you listen with all readiness and have focused all your attention on glorifying the Ever-Virgin. But I am not initiated into all the mysteries of the Virgin; Moreover, time calls for another honorable deed of the Virgin - to perform a mysterious and bloodless sacrifice: for the remembrance of the voluntary suffering of the Son is the honor of the Mother; It’s time for us to start doing this. And You, Virgin and Mother of the Word, are my cover and refuge, miraculously born from a barren woman, who even more miraculously gave us the Head of life, praying for us and intervening before Your Son and our God! Make those who glorify You pure from all filth and sin and worthy of the heavenly palace, show them in eternal life shining with the triple light of the Most Essential Trinity and enjoying Her wondrous and ineffable contemplation, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be glory and dominion, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen 204. In short. See Curs. Compl. Patrolog. Migne, series graeca, vol. CII, col. 548–561. Comp. this word is in the edition of A. I. Papadopoulo-Keramevs: Κονσταντινοπόλεως τό περί τοῠ τάφου, τοῠ Κυρίου ήμῶν Ίησοῠ "Orthodox Palestinian Collection", issue XXXI. St. Petersburg, 1892, pp. 41–52). The text of the word published by Mr. Keramevs is distinguished by the greatest serviceability; From this text the present translation of the word into Russian was made. You might be interested in: