Слово в день Сошествия Святого Духа. Святого Димитрия, митрополита Ростовского

Fill the world with the Spirit of the Lord (Wis. 1:7). God once promised to send His Holy Spirit to people, saying through the prophet Joel: I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28), - then, speaking through the prophet Isaiah to the Israelites: I will put My Spirit on your seed (Isaiah 44:3). And that promise of God has already been fulfilled because God not only once sent His Holy Spirit into the world, but showed Him in different ways. Firstly, the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove when Jesus was baptized in the waters of the Jordan, as the Holy Evangelist Matthew testifies: and Jesus was baptized, going up from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and in the sight of the Spirit of God descending like a dove (Matthew 3:16). Secondly, the Holy Spirit appeared in a cloud when Christ was transfigured, as the same evangelist Matthew says: and the cloud became the light of their autumn (Matthew 17:5). Thirdly, the Holy Spirit appeared in the wind when, according to the testimony of St. apostle Luke, suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a storm of breath, and it filled the whole house where the devil sat (Acts 2:2). Fourthly, the Holy Spirit appeared in tongues of fire when it descended on the Apostles, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: He appeared to them, dividing the nations like fire, and sitting on one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3,4). So, in this teaching I want to convey to your piety that for which the Holy Spirit appeared to the world in various forms, i.e., in the form of a dove, in a cloud, in the wind, and in tongues of fire. But first, I pray to You, Holy Soul, come now to my heart and my sins have fallen with immaterial fire, and teach me to speak kindly, so that I will proclaim Your name to my brethren, and in the midst of the church I will sing to You; I ask you, dear listeners, to listen diligently. The Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove for many reasons. Firstly, because the Holy Church (i.e., Christian believers) is called a dove, as the Holy Spirit tells her in the Song of Songs: arise, come, my neighbor, my good, my dove (Song. 2:10), and that the dove is not a bird of prey, but a simple one, having no flattery in itself. Christ our Savior Himself, exhorting His disciples, says: Be ye therefore wise as a serpent, and your targets like doves (Matthew 10:16). Therefore, the Holy Spirit is accustomed to dwell in those who have a simple, humble heart, and not an evil and insidious one. St. Augustine says: “The Holy Spirit appeared as a dove, so that whoever wants to be sanctified by the Spirit might be like a dove, without flattery.” (The Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove) also because through the thought of God we soar to heights, as the Psalmist once cried out: who will give me wings like a dove? and I will fly and rest (Ps. 54:7). I ask you, blessed David, where do you want to fly on these dove wings? He answers: to the heavenly dwellings, to dwell with God: for about these courts the same Holy Spirit says in one place: how beloved are Thy dwellings, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs and ends for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God (Ps. 84:2-3). And therefore the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove, in order to carry with His wings those who wanted to settle into heavenly dwellings. Metaphrastus writes in the life of the holy martyr Marina that when she suffered for Christ, then a dove appeared above her, flying with a golden crown. So, the Holy Spirit appeared as a dove in order to give us the crown of eternal life, which Christ promised to give to every believer, saying: be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life (Rev. 2:10). In a cloud on Tabor, the Holy Spirit appeared, just as God Himself once appeared to Moses in a cloud, for this is written about in Exodus: the Lord came down in a cloud (Exodus 34:5). Before the end of the world, Elijah and Enoch will come to earth, and the Antichrist will kill them; then God will resurrect their bodies, and they will ascend to heaven as a cloud, as St. John the Theologian says in the Apocalypse: ascending to heaven on clouds (Rev. 11:12). And therefore the Holy Spirit appeared in the cloud, so that through the cloud we could ascend to heaven. The cloud pours out rain from itself and sprinkles the earth, for the wet vapor that rises from the water on earth and becomes a wet cloud, then turns into rain and falls to the earth. Therefore, the Holy Spirit appeared in the cloud to pour out the rain of His grace on our hearts. And as the Apostle Paul says: the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us (Rom. 5:5). Thunder and lightning are born in the clouds; Otherwise, lightning and thunder are called church teachers (for just as lightning drives away darkness with its radiance, and just as thunder frightens people, so church teachers, with their preaching, disperse the dark sins of people, and frighten sinful people, reminding them of eternal torment for their sins). This is how the Psalmist calls the lightning of teachers, saying: Thy lightning illuminated the universe (Ps. 77:19); and in the Apocalypse the Holy Theologian calls teachers thunder: he spoke seven thunders in his voice (Rev. 10:3). Shepherds and teachers kill the evil and disobedient with their oath, just as thunder frightens and kills; This was the apostle Paul, saying: if anyone does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be cursed, Maran Atha (1 Cor. 16:22). That is why the Holy Spirit appeared in the cloud; but just as a cloud makes lightning and thunder, so the Holy Spirit makes shepherds and teachers. The Holy Spirit appeared in the stormy breath of the wind: for the wind has the power to separate the tares from the pure wheat. Sinners are called tares, and the righteous are called wheat (Matthew 13:29). The Holy Spirit separates the tares from the pure wheat, that is, sinners from the righteous. Noah and his wife were good wheat, because they lived piously, but the rest were all tares, because they committed lawlessness. And therefore the Holy Spirit separated the tares from the wheat, that is, saved Noah and his wife and his sons and his sons’ wives from the flood, and the rest, all the tares, that is, sinners, were drowned by the universal flood. The good wheat was Lot and his wife and two daughters, living godly lives. The Sodomites were all tares, not having the fear of God in their hearts, therefore the Holy Spirit separated the tares from the good seed, brought Lot with his wife and two daughters out of Sodom, and destroyed all the Sodomites with bogey fire. Again, the wind is so strong that it not only blows away the tares, but also uproots tall trees - flowering dates, incense cypresses, Bashan oaks and Lebanese cedars; likewise, the Holy Spirit overthrows and uproots pompous, proud and arrogant people, whom the prophet David likens to a tall tree, saying: I have seen the wicked exalting itself, and standing tall like the cedars of Lebanon (Ps. 36:35). But the Holy Spirit uprooted this tree from the root, as David adds there: And I passed by, and behold, I was not, and I sought it, and its place was not found (Ps. 36:36). And the prophet Daniel called the proud Nebuchadnezzar a tall tree, saying: Behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height is great. And he became greatly magnified, and reached to heaven (Dan. 4:7–8). But the Holy Spirit uprooted that tree: and cry mightily: Sow the tree, and beat off its branches, and shake off its leaves, and scatter its fruit (Dan. 4:11). The wind also has such strength that it penetrates into underground crevices and caves, cleanses the air in them from noxious vapors and sometimes, without finding a way out, moves and shakes the earth. Every man is earth, for this is what God said to Adam: you are earth, and you will go back to earth (Gen. 3:19). And when the Holy Spirit penetrates (like the wind into an earthly cave) into the human heart, then it moves and shakes that earth, that is, a person, instructing him to repentance and a contrite heart and to all piety. The Psalmist spoke about this when he prayed to God: renew a right spirit in my womb (Ps. 50:12). The Holy Spirit descended in the form of tongues of fire in order to give the apostles words of fire: because the Word of God is called fire, as it is written about Elijah and Enoch: fire comes out of their mouths and destroys their enemies (Rev. 11:5). Love is also called fire: for our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29); but that fire is all-perfect love, according to the word of Saint John the Theologian: God is loving, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16). The Holy Spirit descended in fire in order to confirm the holy apostles in love, therefore blessed Paul says to all of us: walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave us to Himself (Eph. 5:2). In the Old Testament, God often appeared in fire: he appeared to Moses in a bush of fire, brought Israel out of Egypt into the promised land at night with a pillar of fire, and gave the law to Israel on Mount Sinai with smoking fire. God appeared to Daniel on a throne of fire. That is why the Holy Spirit appeared in tongues of fire, like the same God who appeared in fire in ancient times. Finally, Christ will come with fire to judge the living and the dead, for the Psalmist says: fire will burn before Him, and a green storm will surround Him. He will call the heavens from above and the earth to judge His people (Ps. 40:3–4). Before the coming of Christ, the entire universe will be tempted by the fire of Christ: the heavens, the earth and all the elements will burn, as the Apostle Peter says: the earth, and even the works on it, will be burned; and in another place: the heavens will be destroyed, and the elements will be scorched and melted (2 Pet. 3:10,12). And then the earth will be as pure as glass, and the waters as crystal; the skies will then be much cleaner than they are now. This is what Saint John the Theologian says in the Apocalypse: I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and earth passed away, and there was no sea to it (Rev. 21:1). Therefore the Holy Spirit appeared in tongues of fire: because He has one Divinity with Christ the Son of God. You need to know, my beloved listeners, why our Mother, the Holy Church, does not have the custom of bringing green trees on other holidays, but only on the Descent of the Holy Spirit. By this she makes it known that the Holy Spirit descends only on those who flourish in virtue as trees flourish in their foliage, according to the words of the Psalmist: the righteous shall flourish like a phoenix (Ps. 91:13). Christ the Savior Himself now exhorts us, saying: if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love Him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). And whoever abides in sins, the Holy Spirit does not descend on them, since God Himself said: My Spirit should not abide in these men who are flesh (Gen. 6:3). Secondly, (green trees are brought on the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit), in order to show that no one is worthy of receiving the grace of God, except the one who humbly likens himself to the leaves falling from the trees, why does the Psalmist say: who is the Lord our God? live on the high, and look down on the lowly (Ps. 112:5, 6). Thirdly, so that we know that from the Descent of the Holy Spirit, our Mother, the Holy Church, blossomed like a tree with various leaves, that is, various faces of the righteous - virgins, teachers, martyrs, confessors, saints, hermits, about which Hosea prophesied long ago: it will flourish like a tree, and it will spread its root like Lebanon, and it will be fruitful like an olive tree (Hos. 14: 6,7 ). When the Holy Apostle Peter preached the word to the peoples of Jerusalem, then the Holy Spirit descended on all those who heard his teaching, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles: while I was speaking these words to Peter, the Holy Spirit came upon all who heard the word (Acts 10:44). O Christ our God! Grant us Thy grace and now send Thy All-Holy Spirit upon us and upon all Thy people who are present, so that, having received Him into our hearts, we all cry out with one accord: “We have seen the true light: we have received the Heavenly Spirit, and to Him, together with the Father and the Son, is due honor and worship forever and ever!” Amen 132. See Works of St. Demetrius, Metropolitan. Rostovsky. Kyiv, 1895, II part, pp. 248–258; Wed Sunday Read., VII (1843–44), pp. 77–79 You might be interested in: