Слово на Пресвятую Богородицу и на Симеона Богоприимца. Святого Феодота, епископа Анкирского

The prophetic word encourages and forces us to give thanks to God even now: for He commands us to proclaim the salvation of our God day by day, to proclaim His glory to the nations, to proclaim His wonders among all people (Psalm 96:2-3). Thus, the inspired David, having learned through the Spirit that it is pleasing for Divine justice to reveal to infants, for the knowledge of the truth, what is hidden from the wise in the law and hidden from the wise in books (Matthew 11:25), stirs up everything to the gospel of spiritual joy. Following this conviction and the guidance of the sacred command, we too (clothing our souls in bright clothes) will proclaim the joyful and auspicious proclamation of the Divine Songsinger: may the mountains receive peace for people, and the hills receive righteousness (Psalm 71:3); For a Child was born to us, and a Son was given to us. His authority is upon His frame: and His name is called: Great is the Angel of counsel, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Sovereign, Prince of Peace, Father of the age to come (Isa. 9:6). He was born, he says, and given: born in Judea, and given to the whole universe, for the promise about Him to Abraham was this: in Him all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 18:18). But His rulership is upon His frame: for His power is natural, and not acquired: His power is natural, and not acquired; His Divine glory is substantial, not conferred. That is why at first the heavens preached a miracle to the Magi through a star; then the wise men preached the said King of Judea when they were looking for Him to worship Him; then Christ the Savior and Angels preached to the shepherds on the field; finally, he preached the gospel of the expected Christ of the Lord and the Holy Spirit to Simeon. So, following all this, and having moreover a command, we go out to preach the gospel to the Church, not as strong, but as humble, not as rich, but as those who have received mercy, not somehow compiling testimonies on our own, but chanting the Prophetic and singing the Apostolic. Let us sing to our God, let us sing (Ps. 47:7): for the Lord has spoken His salvation, and revealed His righteousness before the tongues (Ps. 97:2). Truly, amazing and wonderful things have happened on earth; the creature saw something strange and extraordinary: God who appeared on earth and lived with men (Baruch 3:38); God, born according to the flesh, and did not leave heaven. And who is pleased with this (2 Cor. 2:16)? Whoever proclaims the mighty powers of the Lord will make all His praises heard (Psalm 106:2)? The virgin, called the Prophetess in Isaiah (Isaiah 8:3), without a husband gave birth to us Emmanuel, who was born a century ago without a mother. For we have received wisdom from God the Father, and righteousness and sanctification and deliverance (1 Cor. 1:30). The Prophetess gave birth without knowing the image of conception: a new and inexplicable miracle! Mary the Prophetess conceived the living God through hearing: since hearing serves as a natural transition for words. Once the conception, through the tongue, produced (by Eve) in the husband, like a flame, dried up the stem of humanity: now the generation that took place in the womb (of the wife) has revived the fruit with the stem. Therefore, as grateful debtors and servants of God, let us use, as much as we can, the gift of speech to glorify God the Word and His Mother, not being ashamed of the smallness of the offering, but rejoicing for our nature and worshiping the superiority of the Master, not in order to, according to human custom, strive to depict the real subject in eloquent words, but in order to be enlightened by the light of the memory of God. For for warriors to be defeated is always disgrace; but here to fall before the Incomprehensible will constitute glory. Let us begin without delay to the song, let us begin, rejoicing, praising, glorifying and magnifying the mystery that surpasses mind and word, beginning with the Divine greetings of the celestial Gabriel, and saying: Rejoice, full of grace: the Lord is with you (Luke 1:28)! Let us repeat with him: Rejoice, our longed-for joy! Rejoice, glory to the Church! Rejoice, name breathing with sweetness! Rejoice, divinely radiant and most magnificent face! Rejoice, monument worthy of all respect! Rejoice, saving and spiritual fleece! Rejoice, Mother of the impregnable Light, clothed in light! Радуйся, прозрачнейший источник животворной влаги! Радуйся, новая Матерь и место, в котором образовалось новое рождение! Радуйся, неизъяснимая Матерь необъятности! Rejoice, new Isaiah scroll (Isaiah 8:1) of new scripture, of which both Angels and men are faithful witnesses! Радуйся, благая купледелательница на динарий девства! Радуйся, создание, объемлющее Создателя! Радуйся, малейшее вместилище, вместившее никем и ничем Невместимого! And who will confess the generation of Him who is older than knowledge? Why should we be more surprised? – Is it a divine and inexpressible birth, or an inexplicable conception? It is impossible to express in words what is beyond the mind: for even if a painter dared to depict with a brush the Mother of the economy, he would in no way be able to express the image of Her womb-bearing. Shall we make a beginning for birth? – but the Unchangeable and the Beginningless One did not have it. Shall we call the Born Eternal? – but being born according to the flesh shows a beginning in time. Shall we call the One born a child? - but we know that He is the ancient of days (Dan. 7:13) and the Creator of ages (Heb. 1:2). Everything is a miracle! When I look at the baseness of the flesh, I am drawn to grief by the presence of the Divine; and when I ascend to the Divine, I am drawn down by the frailty and reality of the flesh, and thus the incomprehensibility of the unfused union of natures becomes for me a school of Divine power. Such extraordinary things are always presented to us in Her holy radiances by the Virgin Mother of God. With Her is the fountain of belly (Psalm 35:10) and the breasts of verbal and unflattering milk (1 Pet. 2:2), from which even now we have diligently gathered to suck the sweetness, not because we have forgotten the former, but because we desire the new. Thus, repeated enjoyment of goods does not keep us from the strongest desire for these same goods; on the contrary, the more excellent the benefits we have received and given us pleasure, the more ardent is the thirst for new pleasures aroused in us. Love for the Divine never ceases to increase. If someone considers himself a Christian, and yet does not assimilate to the Divine Virgin the dignity and title of the Mother of God, in the most genuine and proper sense: such, contrary to dogmas, is vainly and falsely adorned with the holy name; and there is no honor for him from the name and image of piety when its power is rejected (2 Tim. 3:5), because, as the great Preacher said: the kingdom of God is not in words, but in power (1 Cor. 4:20). Being, according to Scripture, a false brother, a stranger and a spy of freedom (Galatians 2:4), he is no longer a humble disciple of the Divine Teacher, who teaches to preach not according to the truth, but according to the truth (2 Cor. 13:8). For the confirmation of the pious and uncorrupted, it is useful to ask the deceiver and hypocrite (for this is how one should call those defiled in mind) a short question. So, we ask you, and you answer us: do you agree, although as a Jew, with the Divine law that Adam’s wife was created by the immaculate hands of the Creator, like the husband himself? If you say, “no,” then isn’t it obvious that you are not one of us and are alien to the Scriptures? If, in agreement with us, you say: “yes,” then why do you madly not agree with the truth, and do not accept, but reject God’s favor revealed in the All-Holy Virgin for our common salvation? For for Whom it was not dishonorable to create the first virgin, for Him it was blameless to create the second: and for Whom it was glorious to create the external, for Him it was not dishonorable to decorate the internal for the soul to dwell in it. How then do you dare to refute what was very pleasant and beautiful for God Himself with Jewish idle talk as something most vile? Who are you against answering God (Rom. 9:20)? If it was not low for God to create, then how can it be low for Him to dwell in His creation, instead of, as you say, only appearing dreamily in it? As for creation, Holy Scripture testifies that nothing dear to God is dishonorable or humiliating. Shut up! For it is glorious and magnificent. His work is divine and worthy of all praise, as it is written (Psalm 110:3). So, one of two things: either, heartily and sincerely confessing that God Himself created Eve, accept and wisely made His incarnation from the Virgin, and worship (him) in the same way as the pious, if you want to be their accomplice; or take for yourself the name of Jew and infidel, as he has already been attached to them. Christians, obeying God, also heed the inspired words of the Prophets, who cry out about the All-Singing Virgin: The Most High has sanctified His village: God is in the midst of it, and does not move (Isa. 45:5, 6); and in another place: man was born in it, and that is the foundation and the Most High (Psalm 86:5). And the opponents of the truth, being themselves carnal, and not having the Spirit of God in themselves (Jude 19), think carnally about spiritual things. And it is truly and wisely said: the spiritual does not receive even the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14). They delved into a lot of things to enlighten themselves; but they did not want to learn from us in order to understand how the Virgin became sanctified. The unknown is usually explained through the most known. If iron, being black and earthy, for some time somehow denigrates what touches it, and itself remains with an impurity unusual for it by nature: but, having been penetrated by fire, it very soon acquires a resemblance to the strong flame penetrating it and itself becomes inviolable and burns every substance; then what (unrealizable) if the All-Immaculate Virgin, having been imbued with Divine and immaterial fire, was burned out, cleansed of everything material and unnatural, and appeared in all the splendor of her inherent beauty, so that after that she became unapproachable, incomprehensible and unknown to carnal degenerates? Just as someone who pours water on his head, pours it over his entire body from top to bottom: so, we believe, the Virgin Mother of God was completely drenched in the holiness of the Holy Spirit who came upon Her, and thus received the living God - the Word into Her virgin and fragrant chambers. But let us move on, beloved, to the main subject of the word. It is very fitting in our present meeting, beloved ones, to honor the Divine Mysteries, and to reflect on what is foretold in the Divine Scriptures about the Virgin, who in a supernatural and Godly manner carries in Her immaculate embraces the Bearer of all things (Heb. 1:3), - about the old priest, who with zeal comes to receive the awaited High Priest and Lord, and about the elderly To the Prophetess who receives the One Foretold by the Prophets. It was necessary for the male and female Redeemer to meet the firstfruits, according to piety, of both sexes, and in their own person to represent the holy worshipers of both sexes, as Patriarch Isaac also hinted at this when, conveying blessings to his son, Patriarch Jacob, delighted to contemplate the future, he said to him: And the sons of your father will worship you (Gen. 27:29). Saying this, the righteous man knew that his entire family consisted of only two: this is evident from the very connection of his words. For the words: the sons of your father will worship you, he uttered after he, having passed from the fleshly Jacob to the spiritual, said: be lord to your brother; and to Esau he said: I have made his master (Jacob) for thee, and all his brethren I have made his servants: what shall I do to me, my child (Gen. 27:37)? But this was a very mysterious allusion to another certain Father, to many sons and to the Worshiped One of them; and enlightened by the knowledge of the Divine mysteries, John and Paul, apply this to God, for the first says: when the little ones received Him, He gave them the realm to become children of God, who believe in His name: who was not born of blood, nor of the lust of the flesh, nor of the lust of men, but was born of God (John 1:12, 13); and the latter proclaims: Without being of a son nature, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father (Gal. 4:6). Do you see, beloved, how clearly the Old and New Testaments agree? But do you see how great the love of the good Lord is for us? He deigned to call us brethren, and to make us sons of His natural Father, not out of equality, as some foolishly thought: away with their grandiosity! - for they did not know of old what He said in Isaiah: it is great that you should be called My servant (Is. 49:6); but by participation in dignity and in what He did in bringing (us) to the Father. For who can be like the Lord among the sons of God (Psalm 88:8)? - says the inspired Scripture. since Christ is not a simple man, so that what is like Him would be like Him in all its fullness, therefore, although He has deigned us to be like Him in terms of carnal affinity (His) with us, nevertheless we are so small before Him that we do not dare to look at Him and tremble before Him, because He is at the same time our natural and autocratic Lord. Meanwhile, some do not understand the things they say or affirm about them (1 Tim. 1:7), they say that the Lord and Savior Himself equated Himself with people, presenting as proof the Lord’s response to John the Baptist, about whom He testified that there was no pain in those born of wives: the pain of John is in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 11:11); and these wise men do not understand that, finding this opinion in agreement with the way of their thoughts, they present it to their own shame. And truly, the Lord said that there is no more John among the Prophets, as Luke testifies (Luke 7:28), therefore, He compared John not with Himself, but with the Prophets, and precisely those who were before him, as having seen what they predicted. For He said about Himself: although I testify about Me, My testimony is not true (John 5:31). The words: “I am in the kingdom of heaven, there is more of it”, point to the same name of the Evangelist John, called by the Savior the son of thunder, as the one who theologized more than anyone else in the Gospel sermon, which is fittingly called, from the Lord Himself and the Lord of the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, since he guides those who follow her to it: for He said: preach as you go, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matt. 10:7). In addition, they are refuted by the prophecy of the Prophet David about this: God is in the assembly of gods, but in the midst the gods will judge (Psalm 82:1); here Christ, the true God and Lord by nature, appears to be standing in the midst of His holy disciples, discussing the Baptist, and comparing him with both the most ancient Prophets and the youngest John (the Theologian), the preacher of eternal life. Let no one be tempted when he hears that God calls (creatures) gods, as it is written: I said: Ye are gods, and are all sons of the Most High (Psalm 81:6). Scripture, calling (people) gods, does not compare the true God with those who (in themselves) are nothing, but calls (people) sons of God and gods because (people), as Paul says, are led by the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:14). – So, Christ our Lord surpasses everyone not only as God, but also as a man, which is why it is written: there is no one like You in God, O Lord (Psalm 85:8). For how can one compare what is born of wedlock with what is born of a virgin? And how can a simple person, even if he was called a god for his virtue, like Moses (Ex. 7:2), be equal to the true God, who invariably became incarnate in his love for mankind? - which is what He inspires in us when He says through the Prophet: as the heavens are separated from the earth, so is My way separated from your ways (Isa. 55:9). Besides this, the main confirmation of what has been said is the testimony of the Baptist himself about the Savior, who said: I am not worthy to bow down to loose the thong of His boots (Mark 1:7); for from His fulfillment we have all received (John 1:16). So, when both the Prophet David and John himself testified to the incomparable Divine greatness of Christ: then who will be so senseless that he will go against the evidence, and the One who, as an autocratic King, gives us to live in His kingdom will be equal, and honored as one, with those who receive such mercy from Him? However, I remind you, Christians, to understand this about that (in Christ) that is above all and inexpressible. For that which was glorified in this part was not glorified for a glory that surpasses it, says Scripture (2 Cor. 3:10); and He Himself said: if I am glorified Himself, My glory is nothing (John 8:54). But for the sake of convincing those who are sensible, this is enough of what has been said, because moderation in everything is a wonderful thing. Let us return to the proposed subject in order to glorify the spiritual piety and theology of the righteous Simeon and Anna, and it is better to examine how the elder opened his arms to receive Him whose throne is heaven and whose footstool is earth, and how the old woman explained the prophecy about Him to those looking for deliverance. What miracles! Moses at Sinai was seized with horror, and approached the One who spoke with fear and trembling: and Simeon approaches the One with whom he (Moses) spoke, with sacred boldness and fearlessness, and takes Him who sits on the throne of the Cherubim in his arms and carries him in his old arms, singing to Him a solemn song: now let the servant go Thine, O Master, according to Thy word, in peace: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared all things before the face of all men: a light of revelation by the tongue, and the glory of Thy people Israel (Luke 2:29–32). The spiritual man expressed himself beautifully, recalling the spiritual light of the world. For they who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Isa. 9:2) had a need for a twelve-hour and clear day, since the devil’s darkness darkened and dispersed the human race, and, having made it guilty through a crime, removed it from the Creator. Therefore, the bright day that has come, so that, voluntarily through the sinful deception of those who were scattered, through mercy they again force voluntarily to return to goodness, sent out its rays, like the light of the sun, to the twelve Apostles to the ends of the universe. In this sense, the Prophet Habakkuk says about the Savior and the Apostles: You are everywhere on Your horses, and Your eating is salvation (Habakk 3:8), - and in another place: You brought Your horses upon the sea, troubling many waters (3:15). The Jewish host, indignant at the Apostles in Thessalonica, cried out: those who have corrupted the world have come here... and these are doing contrary to the command of Caesar, the king who says there is another being, Jesus (Acts 17:6, 7). And this is not an unusual thing for the frantic Jews: for they have always plotted against the Saints. So, they reviled Moses himself, who prayed for them, as an enemy; and they forced Aaron to make a calf; and Jeremiah was thrown into a ditch. And now, raging against the Apostles, they call them troublemakers, rebels against Caesar. But why do you stumble, O Jews, O Lord of salvation? Why are you stirring up people against their benefactors? How long will you be like the dark night? - as it is written: I have likened the night to my day... and also: you too, a pillar of darkness (Mic. 4:8)! The pious rightly preach Jesus as a King, not having received the kingdom by force, but having it by nature: for through Him kings reign and rulers hold the earth (Prov. 8:15, 16). Tell me, you detractors of the truth: how did Jesus reign as king? How did He go to war against the tyrant? how did he devastate his dominion? How did you bring down the mighty one against us? How did he plunder his vessels, that is, us, whom he used for all sorts of indecency? What kind of weapons does He have? But for those who are hostile to Christ and those who turn away from life, it is intolerable to even utter a word about a new miracle: for they know that it will turn into a reproach for them. People, for the protection and preservation of carnal weakness and infirmity, have made various kinds of weapons made of iron; but it would not be fitting for the strong King and God Jesus to have the same weapons as people. On the contrary, He, having hidden His own power under the outwardly weakest flesh, comes out to battle, putting on, according to Scripture, the armor of truth, the helmet of impartial judgment, the shield of invincible holiness, and thereby, which, due to the flesh, seemed to be already caught by the opponents, triumphed over those who wanted to restrain Him, as over the weak and powerless. This, Jews, is the armor of our King, Christ, although you hide what serves to expose you. But He also sent out unarmed leaders throughout the universe as the overthrowers of error, not fierce and bloody, but by the sole preaching of piety, bringing down every height that rises up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5), and, on the contrary, enlightening the entire human race, as the Prophet says: in the light of Your arrows they will walk, in the flash of the lightning of Your weapons ( Habak 3:11). Therefore, the most divine Apostle writes: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are strengthened by God for destruction: casting down thoughts, and every exaltation brought against the mind of God, and bringing into captivity every mind into the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:4, 5). Oh, miracle! O ineffable and venerable goodness! Oh, the Divine and inexpressible love of the Lord for us! By the most legal order, and not by violent coercion, He arranges the salvation of those whom the thief of our race has torn away from life through verbal persuasion, and returns them to the life that the First-Created One was deprived of. Having been enlightened by knowledge, spat on and rejected the seduction of the hated ill-wisher, and recognizing one useful rule - not to prefer anything to piety, they insensitively retreated from the Hellenic fabulous superstition, which places hope in dead abominations, and moved away from Jewish madness, which does not recognize the true and clearest image of the ever-living and motionless being of God - the Hypostatic Word and the true Son, and received correct and firm knowledge of the true God, in order to confess the living God, who revealed to us His indivisible Trinity in the living God, in the all-good Son, and the Divine and consubstantial Spirit, presented to us, in His consubstantial and unchangeable Son, attested from Himself, the manifestation of the hiddenness of the Father, and showed us Jesus Christ our Lord, in fulfillment of every Divine prophecy, perfect both in Divinity and in humanity, and worshiped by the Angels on earth as well as in heaven, according to the testimony of him who said: when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says: and let all the angels of God worship him (Psal. 96:7; Heb. 1:6); - let them worship, that is, those who were the first in the manger, then Simeon and Anna in the church, then the wise men in Bethlehem, and finally those who were adopted throughout the entire universe, according to Isaac’s prediction about Jacob (Gen. 27:26), and about whom the Apostle Paul says: by receiving the spirit of sonship, for whom we cry: Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15 ). What, then, is the Divine and all-sung virgin Mother at this event? She was surprised, as she should be, by what was said, but along with everything that had happened before, she put this in her heart. Simeon adds to Her the following foreshadowing: “Oh, the white and innocent dove! Oh, the holy tabernacle of our hope, in which all holiness and splendor is established (Psalm 95:6)! This One, Whom You ineffably gave birth to, This One lies for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, and is a sign that can be contradicted: and a weapon will pierce Your very soul: For let the thoughts of many hearts be revealed” (Luke 2:34, 35). Why, old man, do you mix the sad with the joyful? Hitherto you have spoken of light and glory, and now you proclaim the fall, and predict weapons for the One who conceived? “Yes,” he says, everything will happen in due time: the fall is for unbelievers, the uprising is for believers, and the sign is negotiable, when in the universe people will demand evidence and miracles; and for the soul of the Virgin there will sometimes be torment from various incoming and outgoing thoughts. For the matter will not be about anything insignificant, but about God, about a change in morals and laws, about a change in people, about the unification of nations, about the consent of the pagans, about the union of languages, about the inseparable service of God, about the deposition of the tormentor; How can all this be done without wrangling? - Therefore, some will fall and others will rise; some are killed to death, while others come to life; some are to contradict the news and signs, while others are to fall before His (Christ’s) actual power. And the predictions of the righteous man are very clear, and were confirmed by the deed itself. This can be seen, firstly, in our pious teachers; and how? - listen. Paul, out of ignorance, did not believe at first; but, finally, having recognized the power of Christ, he openly preached: I am not worthy to be called an apostle, for I have persecuted the church of Christ (1 Cor. 15:9). Thomas also doubted; but, touching the Sufferer, he confessed Him as his Lord and God (John 20:25). The sons of Joseph once also disbelieved, as the Evangelist testifies; but, having learned the truth from experience, James and Jude wrote to the whole world that they were servants of God and the Lord Jesus Christ (James 1:1; Jude. 1), of whom may we all also become accomplices, by the grace of Him who chose them to be Apostles of Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, with whom to the Father, with the Holy Spirit, be glory and honor and worship, as it was from the beginning, so now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen 119. Biblioth. veter. patr... ed. Gailand. Wenet. 1773, vol. IX, pag. 459–488; Wed Library. patr. Concionat. tom. VI, r.r. 208–297; “Christian Reading” 1841, 1 part, countries. 226–251. You might be interested in: