Беседа в день Пятидесятницы 129 . Святого Григория Паламы, архиепископа Фессалоникийского

Recently, with the great eyes of faith, we saw Christ ascended and, moreover, no less than those who were honored to see Him with their own eyes, and therefore we were in no way inferior to them in bliss. For they who have not seen blessings have believed, said the Lord (John 20:29), that is, those who, having learned by hearing, look and perceive by faith. So, we recently saw Christ ascending from the earth together with the flesh, and now through the Holy Spirit sent from Him to the disciples, we learn what the ascended Christ achieved and to what dignity He elevated our nature, which He accepted: for He ascended precisely to where the Spirit sent from Him descended. Where the Spirit came from, He reveals through the prophet Joel, saying: I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28); and David says about this: You will follow Your Spirit, and they will be created, and you will renew the face of the earth (Ps. 103:30). This means that the ascended Christ ascended to the Highest Father and reached the very Father’s bosom, from where the Spirit came. This means that He, by humanity, became a participant in the Fatherly dignity, since He Himself sent from heaven the Spirit, who proceeds and is sent from the Father. But, hearing that the Holy Spirit is sent from the Father and the Son, let no one think that He does not participate in this dignity: He is not only sent, but He Himself sends and deigns. And this is clearly shown by the One who speaks through the Prophet: “I established the earth with My hands and stretched out the heavens, and now the Lord has sent me and His Spirit” (Isa. 42:5). And Christ, through the same Prophet, again in another place says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for the sake of My anointing, to bring My messenger good news to the poor (Isa. 61:1). Therefore, the Holy Spirit is not only sent, but also sends the Son sent from the Father, from which it is clear that He is consubstantial with the Father and the Son, equal in strength, equal in importance and equal in honor. So, by the favor of the Father and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, according to the inexpressible depth of love for mankind, the Only Begotten Son of God bowed the heavens and came down from on high, was visible among us on earth and lived with us, accomplished and taught wondrous, great, lofty and truly God-worthy things, and for those who obey Him, both wonderful and saving things. Then He suffered voluntarily for our salvation, was buried and, three days later, resurrected, ascended into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of the Father and facilitated the descent of the Divine Spirit from there to His disciples, sending Him along with the Father, as He promised power from above. He himself, being there on high, seems to be calling out to us from there: “if anyone wants to come closer to this glory, to become a participant in the kingdom of heaven, to be called the son of God, to find immortal life, ineffable glory, enduring bliss and unsquandered wealth, let him listen to My commands, imitate, if possible, My life and live as I (lived) on earth, appearing in flesh, and accomplished and taught, laying down saving laws and setting Himself up as an example.” The Savior confirmed the Gospel teaching by His deeds and miracles, and ended with His suffering; He proved his (teachings) great benefit and saving power by the resurrection from the dead, the ascension into heaven and the descent from heaven onto His disciples of the Divine Spirit, which we now celebrate. After the resurrection from the dead and the appearance to the disciples, before the ascension, the Lord said to them: Behold, I will send the promise of My Father to you: but you sit in the city of Jerusalem, until you are clothed with power from on high. For you will receive the power that the Holy Spirit has brought upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the last of the earth (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). When the fiftieth day, the memory of which has now come, was fulfilled after the Ascension, and all the disciples were gathered together and remained with one accord in the upper room of that church, as well as in their own upper room, since each of them was gathered in his own mind: then, according to the Evangelist Luke, suddenly there was a sound from heaven, like a storm of breath, and the whole house was filled with the darkness of the seat (Acts. 2:2). This is the noise that the prophetess Anna predicted when she received the promise about Samuel (1 Samuel 2:10); it was announced by the vision of Elijah (ZKings 19:11,12); You can also find a foreshadowing of it in the Gospel of Christ. On the last day of the great feast, says the Evangelist John the Theologian, Jesus stood and called, saying: If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. This is what we say about Dus, whom believers want to receive in His name (John 7:37,39); Likewise, after the resurrection, He breathed on the disciples and said: Receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22). This title of the Savior foreshadowed a real sound and breath - a breath that, now pouring out abundantly from on high, loudly and clearly sounding from heaven, calls on all under heaven and pours out and bestows grace on all who come with faith. The breathing was stormy, because everything conquers: it destroys the walls of the evil one, destroys cities and every stronghold of the enemy; humbles the proud and exalts the humble in heart; binds what was wrongfully permitted, breaks the shackles of sin and frees the captive. It filled the whole house where the apostles stayed, making it a spiritual font, in fulfillment of the Savior’s promise, which He spoke to them before the ascension: For he baptized naturally with water, but ye are baptized with the Holy Spirit, not after many of these days (Acts 1:5). It also proved the truth of the name that the Savior gave to the apostles, for through this noise from heaven they truly became the sons of thunder. And he appeared to them, says the Apostle, dividing the nations like fire, and sitting on one of them. And he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit had given them to speak (Acts 2:3,4). The miraculous deeds of the Only Begotten Son of God have come to an end, who performed them hypostatically through His flesh and remained with us until the last days: from this moment the manifestations of the Holy Spirit begin to take place, characteristic of His hypostases, so that we would know and understand the great and worshiped mystery of the Holy Trinity. And first the Holy Spirit acted: He spoke through the prophets and predicted the future, then acted through the disciples, casting out demons and healing diseases - and after that He appeared hypostatically to everyone, in the form of tongues of fire, and, resting on the disciples of Christ and, as it were, ascending the throne, He made them instruments of His power. Why did He appear in the form of tongues? – In order to show His affinity with the Divine Word, for the word has nothing more related than language; and at the same time - also for the grace of teaching, for the teacher of Christ needs a grace-filled language. Why did He appear in tongues of fire? – Not only because of the consubstantiality of the Spirit with the Father and the Son (for our God is a fire that consumes evil), but also because of the dual effect of the apostolic preaching, which can both do good and punish; just as fire by nature both shines and burns, so the word of Christ’s teaching enlightens those who obey, and ultimately consigns those who disobey to fire and eternal punishment. Tongues, it is said, are like fire, so that they do not think that that fire was sensual and material, for this example (was used) for our better understanding of the manifestation of the Spirit. Why did tongues appear to them divided? - Because the Spirit is not given in moderation from the Father only to Christ who came from above, for He, even in the flesh, has the entire Divine power and action, and among the rest, no one is given all the grace of the Spirit, but to each in part, and everyone achieves only another of any of the gifts, so that no one would think that the grace of the Spirit given to the saints constitutes their natural property. The word sede indicates not only the dignity of the Lord, but also the unity of the Divine Spirit. Sede, - they say, - on one of them. And being filled with all the Holy Spirit, that is, dividing into His various powers and actions, the Holy Spirit is present and acts with each action, completely dividing inseparably and participating completely, like a ray of sunshine. And we began to speak in other tongues, that is, in dialects, to the peoples gathered from everywhere, as the Spirit gave them prophecy, for they became instruments of the Divine Spirit, acting and moving according to His will and power; and every instrument received from the outside participates not in the essence, but in the power of the one who acts, and in the same way - the instrument of the Spirit, as David, who spoke by the Holy Spirit, says: “My tongue is the reed of the scribe of the cursive writer” (Ps. 44:2), that is, the reed is the scribe’s instrument, participating in the action of the writer, but not in his essence, and depicting what the cursive writer wants and can write. But how is the Holy Spirit the promise of the Father? – This was proclaimed by the prophets: Ezekiel (36:26), Joel (2:28) and Moses (Numbers 11:29), and was repeatedly revealed by the Lord Himself (John 4:14; 7:38,39; 14:15,16,26; 15:26). Now the promise has been fulfilled: the Holy Spirit, sent and given from the Father and the Son, descended, shone the light of the disciples and divinely lit the lamps, or better yet, revealed the premium and universal luminaries, having the verb of eternal life, and through them illuminated the entire universe. If someone lights another from a luminous lamp and from this a third one and maintains (the fire) in successive changes, then the light always remains; likewise, the grace of the Divine Spirit, being transferred through the ordination of the apostles to their successors, and from these again to others, and so on, remains throughout all generations and illuminates all those who obey spiritual shepherds and teachers. Each of the bishops brings this grace and gift of God and the Gospel light of the Divine Spirit to the city; Those who reject any of them cut off Divine grace, interrupt Divine succession, remove themselves from God and betray themselves to harmful turmoil and various misfortunes. And now you will turn to the shepherd of your souls, appointed by God. If you begin to obey me, who teaches you salvation, then, truly, you will well celebrate the usual memory of the appearance of the Divine Spirit, Who descended for our salvation out of ineffable love for mankind. For the same reason and for the same purpose, the Only Begotten Son of God came down, bowing the heavens, and took on our flesh. And if He, having ascended into heaven with the flesh, had not sent the Holy Spirit to be with His disciples and strengthen them, and after them to be and strengthen their successors and teachers of the Gospel grace, then there would have been no preaching for all nations and the broadcast of the truth would not have reached us. Therefore, the most loving Lord has now revealed His disciples as participants, fathers and servants of light and eternal life, regenerating into eternal life and making all worthy children of light and fathers of enlightenment, so that He Himself would thus remain with us until the end of the age, as He announced through the Spirit. He is one with the Father and the Spirit, not hypostasis, but Divinity, and one God in the Trinity, in one Trihypostatic and omnipotent Divinity; and the Holy Spirit was always together with the Father and the Son. For how could the Father be the beginningless mind without the Son and the Word without beginning? How could the Word be eternal without the co-eternal Spirit? So, the Holy Spirit has always been and is and will be, and He, together with the Father and the Son, creates what was created in time, renews what was destroyed and preserves what exists; He is everywhere and fulfills everything, governs and oversees everyone. Camo,” says the Psamopist to God, “shall I go from Thy Spirit?” and will I flee from Your presence (Ps. 139:7)? The Holy Spirit abides not only everywhere, but over everything, not in every age and time, but before every age and time, and will be with us, according to the promise, not until the end of the age only, but will abide with those who are worthy in the next age, making them immortal and filling their bodies with eternal glory, as the Lord clearly said to His disciples: I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever (John 14:16). For it is sown, - says the Apostle, - that is, buried after death and buried in the ground, a spiritual body, otherwise a physical body, which had the ability to move and consisted of parts, rises, that is, comes to life, a spiritual body, so to speak - supersensible, because it is composed and controlled by the Divine Spirit and the power of the Spirit is clothed in immortality, glory and incorruptibility. It was, says the Apostle, that the first man Adam is a living soul, the last Adam is a life-giving spirit. The first man is from the earth with a ring: the second man is the Lord from heaven. Like the earthly one, so are the rings; Who are these heavenly ones? Firm and unshakable in faith, always prospering in the work of the Lord and because of obedience to God, bearing the image of heavenly things. “Whoever does not believe in the Son,” says John, the forerunner of the Lord, in the same Evangelist, “will not see the life, but the wrath of God abides on him (John 3:36). Who can endure the wrath of the Lord? It is scary, brothers, to fall into the hands of the living God. For if we fear the hands of our enemies, although the Lord says: Fear not those who kill the body (Matthew 10:28), then who who has understanding will not fear the hands of God, raised in wrath against those who disobey? The wrath of God will be revealed to the whole soul of those who carelessly remain in wickedness and unrighteousness and who suppress the truth through unrighteousness. So, let us avoid anger and try through repentance to achieve the grace and mercy of the All-Holy Spirit. Whoever has enmity towards someone must be reconciled and return to love, so that hatred and enmity towards his neighbor do not testify against him that he does not love God, for if you do not love your brother whom you see, how will you love God whom you do not see? And having love for each other, let us begin to have true, unfeigned love and prove it in practice, not allowing ourselves to say, do, or even listen to anything that brings offense or harm to our brothers, as the beloved of Christ the Theologian taught us: my children, we do not love in word, or in tongue, but in deed and in truth (1 John 3:18). Let him who has fallen into fornication or adultery or similar bodily impurity remove himself from this destructive defilement and cleanse himself through repentance, tears, fasting and the like, for God will judge and condemn the fornicators and adulterers who have not repented, reject them from Himself and give them over to Gehenna, unquenchable fire and other eternal torments, saying: “Let the wicked depart and let the wicked neither see nor taste the glory of the Lord” (Isa. 55:7). Whoever steals or clearly steals and extorts, let him no longer steal, extort, or kidnap someone else’s property, but let him even give from his own means to the poor. And in general I will say: if you want to see life and good days and get rid of visible and invisible enemies, especially from disasters caused by the leader of evil and his angels, then move away from all evil and do good. “Do not flatter yourself,” the Apostle says to the Corinthians, “neither harlots, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor defilers, nor wicked women, nor sodomites, nor covetous people, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9,10). But whoever does not have an inheritance with God does not belong to God and does not have God as his father. But we, brethren, will begin to avoid (I beg) deeds and words that are displeasing to God, so that without hesitation 130 we can call Him Father, we will begin to turn to Him in truth, so that He will turn to us, cleanse us from all sin and make us worthy of His Divine grace. For, thus, now and always we will animatedly celebrate and spiritually triumph the fulfillment of the Divine promise - the Descent and dwelling among people of the All-Holy Spirit and the fulfillment of the blessed hope in Christ Himself, our Lord; to Him belongs glory, honor and worship with His beginningless Father and with the All-Holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. 131 The title of this conversation says: on the appearance and division of the Divine Spirit that took place on the day of Pentecost. Thinking. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. Note electronic edition Curs. Compl. Patrolog. Migne, tom CLI, col. 307–320; Wed Gregory of Thessalonica. 65 conversations – hand-written. XV century Moscow Syn. bib. (69/LXX), l. l. 87–90; Church Led. 1898, No. 20. You might be interested in: