Поучение на Вход Господа Бога и Спаса нашего Иисуса Христа во Иерусалим. Св. Димитрия, митрополита Ростовского

Fear not, daughters of Zion: behold, Thy King comes, riding on the foal of a donkey (John 12:15). My beloved brethren, Orthodox listeners! There are two daughters in this age: one is the daughter of Zion, of whom Saint John the Theologian remembers, saying: Fear not, daughters of Zion: behold, your King is coming. The second is the daughter of Babylon, about whom the reigning prophet David remembers, saying: cursed daughter of Babylon, blessed is he who will reward you with your reward, which you have rewarded us: blessed is he who has and will dash your babies against the stone (Ps. 137:8-9). It is also said: Behold, your King is coming. The King is Christ God, our Savior; This is what Saint John the Theologian called Him in the Apocalypse, saying: King of the King and Lord of the Lord (Apoc. 17:14). Orthodox listeners! I now promise to show your love in words what these daughters of Zion and Babylon are like; Then I will explain why it was commanded not to fear the daughter of Zion when Christ God, the King of Glory, comes to her, to Whom, Christ my Savior, I ask for help, and your love for listening. First of all, the Jewish synagogue is called the Daughter of Zion: for the Jews lived on Mount Zion, which King David took, and built a fortress there, that is, a strong reigning city. So, in the books of Kings it is written: and David took the fortress of Zion: and in another place it is said: and built a city around it (2 Samuel 5: 7, 9). And when Christ our Savior came to the Jewish capital, to the city of Jerusalem, at that hour it was said to the Jewish synagogue: Fear not, daughters of Zion: behold, your King is coming. – Secondly, the Holy Church of the Catholic faith is called the daughter of Zion: for Christians who believe in the true Christ our God will dwell in heaven. This is what the Psalmist says before Christ the Son of God: The Lord will send you a rod of power from Zion, and rule in the midst of your enemies (Ps. 109:2). And when Christ our Savior ascends into the Holy Christian Church, at that hour it is also said to her: Fear not, daughters of Zion: behold, your King is coming. – Thirdly, every faithful soul of the Orthodox Christian faith is also called the daughter of Zion. For the Holy Spirit speaks in the Song of Songs to all faithful people: daughters of Zion, come forth and see in King Solomon in the crown, that is, our God in human flesh, with whom he crowned his mother on the day of his betrothal (Song. 3:11), that is, on the day of His incarnation, on which day Christ the Son of God took upon Himself human flesh and united with it. And when a person receives the most holy Body of Christ our God and His most pure Blood in the sacrament of the Eucharist under the guise of bread and wine: and at that hour it is said to his soul: Fear not, daughters of Zion: behold, your king is coming. – Fourthly, the most pure Virgin Mother of God is also called the Daughter of Zion. For just as the Lord God lived on Mount Zion, as the Psalmist says: This is Mount Zion, in which you dwelt (Psalm 73:2), so in the womb of the Most Pure Mother of God Christ our God lived for nine months, when He descended into Her most pure womb. And when he came down to Her into Her womb, then this was said to Her: Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your King is coming. Orthodox listeners! I told you about the daughter of Zion; I need to tell you about the daughter of Babylon. Firstly, the great city Babylon in the land of the Chaldeans is called the daughter of Babylon. In that Babylon there was King Nebuchadnezzar, who for his pride was turned by God into an ox, and ate grass in the desert for seven years. In the same Babylon, God punished King Belshazzar with the fall of his kingdom for drunkenness and for dishonoring the vessels of the church, from which he ate and drank wine with his bolyars in desecration of our God. And while he was eating, at that hour a human hand appeared in his palace, writing on the wall, and wrote the following words: mani, fekel, fares, that is, “God will take away your kingdom” (Dan. 5:25). And these Babylonians often destroyed the city of Jerusalem and devastated the whole land of Israel with fire and sword, and carried the Israelites captive to Babylon; That is why King David angrily responds to Babylon like this: accursed daughter of Babylon! Blessed is he who will reward you with your reward, which you have rewarded us; blessed is he who has and dashes your babies against the stone. Secondly, this age is also called daughter. For just as in Babylon there lived wild beasts and sirens, so in this age there lived evil people, unrighteous and sinful, who for their evil deeds are called wild beasts. God Himself called idolaters and sinful people who wanted to come to the knowledge of the true God as beasts, saying: the beasts of the village, the syringes and the daughters of the birds will bless me: for I gave water to the desert (Is. 43:20). In Babylon, the Israelites suffered great oppression and torment: so in this age, Christians endure persecution and torment - from unfaithful heretics. Christ said to His disciples about this patience: you will weep and lament, and the world will rejoice (John 16:20). If in this age we too endure some kind of persecution for the sake of righteousness, and accept adversity, then we must respond to this age and say to it: accursed daughters of Babylon! Blessed is he who will reward you with your reward, which you have rewarded us; blessed is he who has and dashes your babies against the stone. Also, Orthodox listeners, I want to show, if you wish to understand and find out, why it is not commanded to fear the daughter of Zion when Christ, the King of Glory, comes to her. Although the Most High God often appeared to people, however, to whom he appeared, he was overcome with fear. God appeared to Noah in a terrible pillar, with great waters and much rain, which waters multiplied the great flood and drowned all the people living on the earth, and animals, and livestock, and birds, and creeping things. This is what we read in the book of Genesis: all the fountains of the deep were broken up, and the abysses of heaven were opened. And the rain came upon the earth forty days and fourty nights; in another place it is said: and all flesh that moved on the earth died, birds and cattle and beasts, and every creeping thing that moved on the earth, and every man. And all the trees have the breath of life (Gen. 7:11, 12, 21). Moses was also afraid when God appeared to him on Mount Sinai with lightning and thunder, and a terrible voice of the trumpet in fire and great incense. Thus, in the book of Moses, Exodus, we read: on the morning of the morning there was a voice, and lightning, and a dark cloud on Mount Sinai, and the trumpet sounded loudly; in another place it says: Mount Sinai was all smoking, descending into flames for the sake of God: and smoke ascended like the smoke of a cave: and all the people were greatly terrified (Ex. 19:16, 18). The prophet Elijah was also afraid when God appeared to him in fire and in a great whirlwind, and the angel of the Lord said to him like this: go out in the morning, and stand before the Lord in the mountain: and behold, the Lord will go by, and a great and mighty spirit, plundering the mountains, and breaking stones before the Lord, but the Lord is not in the spirit: and the coward is in spirit, and the Lord is not in the coward: and the Lord is not in the coward: and the Lord is not in the fire: and fires, a voice of cold, thin, and there is the Lord (1 Kings 19:11, 12). The prophet Ezekiel was also afraid when God appeared to him on a chariot, in which four cherubim were harnessed, and each cherub had four faces: one human face, the second a calf’s, the third a lion’s, the fourth an eagle’s; This is what the prophet Ezekiel said: four faces to each (Ezek. 10:14). The prophet Daniel was also afraid when God appeared to him in the darkness and thousands of thousands of heavenly armies; The prophet Daniel himself speaks about this: thousands of thousands served him, and darkness stood before him (7:10). Sinful people will also be afraid on the last day, when Christ our Savior comes to judge the living and the dead. For at that hour He will send them to hell to be tormented forever, and there they will suffer various kinds of torment for their sins. There they will endure an unquenchable fire, for Christ is our Savior: their fire does not go out (Mark 9:44). In this fire, wicked people, fornicators and wrathful people will burn, because they were inflamed - one from lust, the other from anger. There will be a severe winter there, and sinners will gnash their teeth; Christ our Savior spoke about this: there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28). This fierce winter will be endured by those people who are not merciful to the poor, who do not accept into their homes the strange and those lying in the rot without shelter, and those who endure the severe frost. Such people themselves will have fellowship with the devil and his angels, for to such Christ our God says: Depart from me, cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Proud people, who now despise the poor and abhor them, will have a fellowship with the devil. Worms will continually torment and eat sinful people, and they will never die, for it is said: their worm does not die (Mark 9:44). These worms will eat and torment those people who here take away anything through extortion. There will also be such great melancholy that if it were possible to die, then with zeal they would be glad to accept death for the sweetness; but they will never die, for it is written: men will seek death and will not find it: they will desire to die, and death will flee from them (Apoc. 9:6). Such melancholy will be endured by those people who are now constantly in joy, drunkenness and great luxury, and never think about God. There will still be total darkness there, for it is written: Having tied his hand and nose, you will cast him into total darkness (Matthew 22:13); and those cast into that darkness will sit forever, and will never see the face of God. This darkness will be perceived by those who do not allow the poor to see their faces. There will also be famine there, since Christ Himself said: Woe to you now that you are filled, for you will hunger (Luke 6:25). That hunger will be suffered by those people who in this century do not feed the poor and wretched. There will also be a great thirst there, for Christ Himself said: as you will thirst. Such thirst will be endured by those who do not give drink to the thirsty strange and wretched here. There will also be great crowding there, since hell will be full of sinful people: some from above, others in the middle, and others at the very bottom of hell. When, at the Last Judgment, Christ our God says to sinners: Depart from Me, cursed into eternal fire, - at that hour the earth will part over sinners, as it parted over Korah, Dathan and Abiron under Moses, and then all sinners will fall into hell. Then again the earth will close into place; sinners will be in hell under the earth, like an iron vessel, tightly locked and eternally eternal, as God Himself says: these go into eternal torment (Matthew 25:46). Those who here by force take away anything from anyone and oppress the poor and orphans will be thrown into this hellish crampedness; and whoever sins in any way will suffer, just as Solomon said: in the image of whoever sins, he will suffer (Wisdom of Sol. 11:17). Orthodox listeners! Now you know why the daughter of Zion is not commanded to fear when Christ, the King of glory, comes to her. First of all, it is said: do not be afraid, daughters of Zion: behold, your King is coming - because the Lord and Lord God, the King of all, is coming to us not with a terrible flood, and not with great waters and many rains, but is coming to us with tears of mercy, for He shed tears for sins from His eyes three times (Christ wept over Lazarus who died; wept over Jerusalem, in which he had to suffer; wept in the hour when he was nailed to the cross). Secondly, it is said, do not be afraid, daughters of Zion: behold, your King is coming - because Christ, our King and God, does not come to us with fire and smoke, terrible thunder and the sound of a trumpet, as on Mount Sinai, but came to us with childish chanting: Hosanna to the Son of David: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest. Thirdly, it is said: do not be afraid, daughters of Zion: behold, your King is coming - because Christ, our King and God, is coming to us now not in a whirlwind and with a great wind, as in the time of Elijah, but with flowering and fragrant date branches. Fourthly, it is said: do not be afraid, daughters of Zion - because He is not coming now with thousands of thousands and with tens of thousands, and not with twelve legions of heavenly angels, but is coming only with His twelve humble and meek disciples; fifthly, it is said: do not be afraid, daughters of Zion - because our King and God is not coming to us on a chariot driven by cherubim four-faced, as Ezekiel saw, but he comes to us on a humble donkey. Sixthly, it is said: do not be afraid, daughters of Zion - because the King, the Lord and our God, does not come to us to judge the living and the dead, but he comes so that people will judge Him; He does not come in order to plunge sinful people into eternal torment, but he himself comes to suffer the torment and accept blasphemous death on the cross for our sins. Let us strive, brethren, to receive Christ the King and our God: for He beats on the door of our hearts and excites us to repent of our sins, saying: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near (Matthew 4:17). But whoever does not confess his sins, the doors of his heart are locked, and Christ will not enter into him and will not live in him. If anyone confesses his sins, with which he angered his Creator, and repents not to do so in the future, he will open the doors of his heart to Christ his Savior, and the Savior will enter his heart and live in that, for Christ Himself said: Behold, I stand at the door and understand, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and with him By me (Apoc. 3:20). Therefore, we, my brothers, will confess our sins, with which we have angered our Creator, and we will make satisfaction for them, and we will open the doors of our hearts: then He will come and live with us, like a king in beautiful chambers. For when Christ entered the house of Zacchaeus, then he forgave him all his sins, and said: today salvation will come to this house (Luke 19:9). So we too, if we cleanse our spiritual house with repentance and prayers, then Christ our God will come to us in the house of our soul and will also say: this day salvation will come to this house, and will forgive us all our sins by His grace and love for mankind. Amen 178. Works of Saint Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov. Part 2. Kyiv. 1895, pp. 114–121. You might be interested in: