Беседа в день Благовещения Пресвятой Богородицы. (О том, что Пресвятая Дева Мария есть Богородица, и что Родившийся от Нее есть Еммануил). Св. Прокла, патриарха Константинопольского

Our current meeting in honor of the Most Holy Virgin calls me, brothers, to say a word of praise to Her, useful for those who came to this church celebration. It constitutes the praise of wives, the glory of their sex, which (glory) is given to him by She Who is at the same time both Mother and Virgin. A longed-for and wonderful meeting! Triumph, O nature, because honor is given to the wife; Rejoice, O human race, because the Virgin is glorified. Wherever sin abounds, grace abounds (Rom. 5:20). We have been gathered here by the Holy and Mother of God Virgin Mary, the pure treasure of virginity, the mental paradise of the second Adam, the place where the union of natures took place, where the council on saving reconciliation was established; the palace in which the Word hid His flesh; an animated bush that was not scorched by the fire of Divine birth; a light cloud carried with the body of the One seated on the cherubim; the purest fleece, watered by heavenly rain, from which the Shepherd made clothing for the sheep; slave and mother, maiden and heaven; the bridge over which God descended to people; an amazing weaving mill of the Divine Economy, on which the tunic of connection was inexplicably woven, the weaver of which was the Holy Spirit, the artist was the overshadowing power, for which the wave was the ancient leather girdle of Adam, the basis was the pure flesh of the Virgin, the shuttle was the immeasurable grace of the wearer, the artist was the word that entered through the ear. Who has seen, who has heard that the infinite God dwells in the womb, Whom the heavens cannot contain, Whom the womb of the Virgin does not limit!? He who was born of a wife is not only God and is not only man: this One who was born made woman, the ancient door of sin, the door of salvation; where the serpent spilled his poison, finding disobedience, there the Word erected an animated church for Himself, having entered there by obedience; where the first sinner Cain arose, there the Redeemer of the human race, Christ, was born without seed. The lover of mankind did not disdain to be born of a wife, because this deed gave him life. He did not undergo uncleanness, having moved into the womb, which He Himself made free from all damage. If this Mother had not remained a virgin, then the one born by Her would have been a simple man, and the birth would not have been miraculous; and since She remained a virgin even after birth, who is the one who was born if not God? The mystery is inexplicable, because He was born in an inexplicable way, passing through the doors without hindrance when they were closed. Confessing in Him the union of two natures, Thomas exclaimed: My Lord and my God! (John 20:28). Do not, man, consider this birth humiliating, when it has become a source of salvation for us. If He had not been born of a wife, He would not have died; If he had not died, he would not have abolished with His death the one who had the power of death, that is to say. the devil (Heb. 2:14). There is nothing dishonorable for an architect to live in the house he has built; clay does not serve to humiliate the potter when he makes a new vessel out of it. So the holy Divinity is not desecrated by birth from a virgin’s womb; God Himself created it, and therefore, by passing through it, He did not expose Himself to uncleanness or humiliation. O blessed womb, the charter of universal deliverance is written in you. O wonderful womb! a weapon against death is buried in you. Blessed field! The Planter of creation has grown in you without seed. O majestic church! God appeared in you as a priest, who, without changing His nature, out of mercy towards us, took on humanity and became a priest, according to the order of Melchizedek (Psalm 109:4). The word became flesh (John 1:14), although the Jews do not believe the Lord, who said this. God took on the form of a man, although the Greeks laugh at this miracle. Therefore, the Apostle Paul says that Christ was a temptation for the Jews, but foolishness for the Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23); They did not know the power of the sacrament, because it is not comprehensible to the mind: even if they understood, they would not crucify the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). If the Word had not dwelt in the womb, then the flesh would not have sat with Him on the Divine throne; If it were an offense for God to enter the womb that He created, then the angels would also be offended by serving man. He who by His nature is not subject to suffering, out of mercy towards us, subjected Himself to many sufferings. We believe that Christ did not become God through a gradual ascent to the Divine nature, but, being God, by His mercy he became man. We do not say: “man became God"; but we confess that God became incarnate and became man. He chose His handmaid to be His mother, He who in His essence has no mother, and Who, according to Divine vision, appearing on earth in the form of a man, does not have a father here. How is it that one and the same is both without a father and without a mother, according to the word of the Apostle (Heb. 7:3)? If He is only a man, then He could not be without a mother: and indeed, He has a mother. If He is only God, then He is not without a father: in fact, He has a Father. He does not have a mother as the Creator God, does not have a father as a man. Be convinced of this by the very name of the archangel who preached the gospel to Mary: his name is Gabriel. What does this name mean? – listen and find out; it means: “God and man." Since the One about whom he preached the gospel is God and man, his name foreshadowed this miracle, so that the work of Divine economy would be accepted by faith. Find out the reason for the coming of the incarnate God into the world and glorify His power. The human race acquired great debts for itself through its sins, and did not find any way to pay them. All people in Adam submitted their handwriting to themselves, convicting them of sin, and through this they became slaves of the devil; the devil, using our weak body as a handwriting, constantly reminded us that we sold ourselves to him, and, standing before us, he, the evil inventor of passions, pointed out to us this debt of ours and demanded that we pay it, as a result of this, we had to be one of two things: either we were all condemned to death, because we all sinned; For our redemption, such a price must be given that the entire demand would be fully paid. Some person could not pay this debt for everyone, because he himself, as a sinner, was in this debt; Neither could any angel redeem the human race, because even he could not find such a great payment. To destroy evil, there was only one means left: it was necessary for God Himself, not involved in sin, to die for those who sinned. What actually happened? - He who brought the whole world from non-existence to existence - He who does not make any difficulty in distributing generosity, discovered the surest way to bring life to the condemned, and in the most decent way for Himself to destroy death: He becomes a man, being born from the Virgin in a way known only to Himself, because the mind cannot explain this miracle to itself. He dies by what is born in Him, and makes redemption by the power of what is always abiding in Him. The Apostle Paul speaks about this: of Him are the imams, deliverance through His blood, and the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7). What a great event! He brought immortality to others, because He Himself was immortal. In God’s economy there was, is not and will not be anyone like him for the salvation of people except Him, born of the Virgin, God and man. For the redemption of the condemned, He has in Himself a price not only commensurate with their entire multitude, but also exceeding any quantity. In relation to the Father, as the Son, He remains immutable by nature; as the Creator, He lacks no omnipotence; as merciful, He showed boundless love for people; as a high priest, He has everything to intercede for others that confirms faith in Him. No one will ever find an equal or even a close match to all this in anyone else. Consider how great His love for mankind is! Having voluntarily exposed Himself to condemnation, He destroyed death, which had dominion over those who crucified Him; and He turned the iniquity of His murderers into the salvation of themselves, who acted lawlessly. Thus, it was impossible for a simple person to save people, because every person himself needed a savior: because, says St. Paul, having sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). Since sin subjected the sinner to the power of the devil, and the devil subjected him to death, our condition became extremely disastrous: there was no way to get rid of death. Doctors, that is, prophets, were sent, but they could only point out the infirmities more clearly. What were they doing? When they saw that the disease exceeded human skill, they called the Doctor from heaven; one said: Lord, bow down the heavens and come down (Psalm 143:5); another cried: heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed (Jer. 17:14); raise up Your power, and come to save us (Psalm 79:3). Another: what if God truly dwells among men on earth (1 Kings 8:27)? May Your compassions soon precede us, O Lord, as we are so poor (Psalm 78:8). Others said: about the fierceness of my soul! For the pious perished from the earth, and there is no one who can correct among men (Mic. 7:2). God, attend to my help: Lord, seek my help (Psalm 69:1). If he tarries, be patient with him, for he who is coming will come and will not tarry (Habakk 2:3). I have gone astray like a lost sheep: seek Thy servant who trusts in Thee (Psalm 119:176). God will come, our God, and will not remain silent (Ps. 47:3). Therefore, He Who by nature is a King did not despise human nature, enslaved by the fierce power of the devil; the merciful God did not allow him to always be under the power of the devil; the bringer came and gave His blood in payment; To redeem the human race from death, He gave His body, which He received from the Virgin, and freed the world from the curse of the law, destroying death by His death. Christ has redeemed us from the legal oath, exclaims St. Paul (Galatians 3:13). So know that our Redeemer is not a simple man, because the entire human race is enslaved to sin; but He is also not only God, not involved in human nature. He had a body, because if He had not put on me, He would not have saved me. But, having dwelled in the womb of the Virgin, He clothed himself with me, the condemned one, and in it, in that womb, He performed a wonderful exchange: He gave the Spirit and took on a body, one and the same (being) with the Virgin and (being born) of the Virgin. One (Spirit) overshadowed Her; the other was incarnated from Her. If Christ were someone special, and God the Word is special, then it would no longer be the Trinity, but the Fourth, that would be venerable. Do not rend the garment of the economy of salvation, which is worn out from above; do not separate the union of two natures in it, lest you yourself be separated from God. Tell me: who appeared to us who sit in darkness and the shadow of death (Luke 1:79)? Human? But how could one who himself lived in darkness, as St. Paul, deliver us from the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13)? since Scripture says about us: sometimes the darkness was gone (Eph. 5:8). So, who is He who appeared to us? The Prophet David points out to you in these words: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (Psalm 118:26). But tell us more clearly, Prophet, who is He? The Lord is the God of hosts, says the Prophet: God is the Lord, and appear to us (Psalm 118:27). The word became flesh (John 1:14); two natures united, and the union remained unfused. He came to save, but he also had to suffer. How could it be both together? A simple man could not save: but God in His nature alone could not suffer. How did this and that happen? So that He, Emmanuel, being God, also became man; and what He was saved, but what He became suffered. Therefore, when the Church saw that the Jewish host had crowned Him with thorns, mourning the riot of the host, it said: daughters of Zion, come out and see the crown with which His mother crowned Him (Song of Songs 3:11). He wore a crown of thorns, and broke the condemnation of suffering from thorns. He was one and the same both in the bosom of the Father and in the womb of the Virgin; one and the same - in the arms of the mother and on the wings of the winds (Psalm 103:3); He, Whom the angels worshiped, at the same time reclined at the table with the tax collectors. The seraphim did not dare to look at Him, and at the same time Pilate interrogated Him. He is one and the same, Whom the slave strangled and before Whom all creation trembled. He was nailed to the cross and sat on the throne of glory, placed in the tomb and stretched out the sky like a skin (Ps. 103:2), - was numbered among the dead and abolished hell; here on earth they slandered Him as a deceiver, but there in heaven they gave Him glory as the All-Holy One. What an incomprehensible mystery! I see miracles and confess that He is God; I see suffering, and I cannot deny that He is a man. Emmanuel opened the doors of nature, like a man, and kept the keys of virginity intact, like God; came out of the womb in the same way as he entered through the ear; born and conceived in the same way; He entered dispassionately, and came out without decay, as the prophet Ezekiel speaks about this: turn me to the path of the outer gates of the holy ones, which look to the east: and this byahu is closed. And the Lord said to me: Son of man, this gate will be shut, and it will not be opened, and no one will pass through it: for the Lord is the God of Israel. He is one, He will come in and go out, and they will be imprisoned (Ezek. 44:1, 2). Here is a clear indication of the Holy Virgin and Mother of God Mary. May all contradiction cease, and may the Holy Scriptures enlighten our understanding, so that we may receive the kingdom of heaven forever and ever. Amen 137. See Curs. Compl. Patrolog. Migne, séries græça, tom. LXV, col. 679–692; compare Acts of the Ecumenical cathedral, published. in Russian translation at the Kyiv Theological Academy. Kazan. Second edition. 1887, volume 1, countries. 127–132. Comp. "The first journey of St. Porfiry to the Athos monasteries and monasteries. Part II. Appendices to the second part of this part." Moscow. 1881, 377–378 countries. You might be interested in: