Похвальное слово на Введение Пресвятой Богородицы во храм. Святителя Илии Минятия Кефалонитского 35

And I saw, and behold, the house of the Lord was full of glory (Ezek. 44:4). This is the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made to God since the creation of the world. Mary, the ever-virgin Daughter, at the age of three is brought to the temple in Jerusalem to be dedicated to the Creator. There was nothing more valuable, there was no more expensive and favorable sacrifice for God. And when with a reverent mental gaze I imagine this solemn introduction, it is as if I really see a glorious and brilliant triumph on earth, in the holy city, but (at the same time) I imagine another, more glorious and brilliant mountain there, in heaven, in paradise. Here I see how the luminous maidens walk ahead, joyfully glorifying the Ever-Virgin One, and there - how the ranks of the lightning-eyed angels rejoice, brightly glorifying in the flesh the Most Honest of the ethereal Powers. Here the great bishop extends his blessing hand and, by divine inspiration, having put on his vestments, introduces the animated ark of consecration into the Holy of Holies: and at the same time, the Eternal Father opens His blissful embrace and accepts the predestined mother of His Son at the right hand of the throne of divine majesty. Purely the introduction of the blessed Virgin: one thing is visible here, in the Holy; and the other is mental, there in the lordship of the Saints. Therefore, here the Temple of Solomon shines, full of divine light, and there the blessed light of the tri-luminous God-initial Radiance sparkles. This is probably what Ezekiel contemplated when he said: I have seen, and behold, the house of the Lord is full of glory, of course, the house of the Lord on earth and in heaven. But, zealous listeners, now I do not want to imagine anything on earth or in heaven except this God-gracious Daughter and, seeing Her entering the church of God, I imagine a truly animated church of the Divine, about which I can quite conveniently say: I have seen, and behold, the house of the Lord is full of glory. And the temple of Solomon, and everything that was sacred and revered in it - all this was an image of the advantages of the Virgin Mary, who, truly, is the animated church of God. First of all, Solomon himself, which name means “king of the world,” the creator of the church, on the construction of which he put all his wealth and wisdom in order to accomplish the most majestic and most beautiful work that is possible on earth, is the image of the heavenly Creator of the Universe and the All-King of God, Who in the scriptures is called “Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9: 6), Who, to create the Virgin Mary, put all the wealth of His divine omnipotence, divine wisdom and goodness to bring about a creation that is the most perfect and noblest in the whole nature of beings. Create greatness for Me, O Mighty One, create power with Your arm (Luke 1:49, 51): this means that in order to create It, God did as much as Almighty God could. He created Her with such bodily splendor, which, in comparison, far surpasses even the splendor of incorporeal spirits: with a soul receptive to all at the same time the highest gifts of the Spirit, with a mind enlightened by all the rays of Divine radiance for the knowledge of the truth; with a will kindled by the desire for good with all the warmth of divine love, constantly acting and assisted by the All-Holy Spirit. Blessed Augustine calls the creation of the Virgin “the work of eternal counsel”... An extraordinary thing happened during the construction of the church, for (Scripture) says: and the church I am built was created with unhewn edged stone: the hammer, and the hew, and every tool of iron was not heard in the church, until it was built (1 Kings 6:7...), and so on... But also a more extraordinary thing happened in Virgo. since She was supposed, as the Church sings, to be the purest church of the Savior, the sacred treasury of the glory of God, the dwelling of the incarnate Divinity, the animated church of the Heavenly King. She was prepared in body and soul, pre-purified, perfect, blessed: God became man, conceived in the Virgin, soul and body, pre-purified by the Spirit. Thus, the Virgin Mary, created by God, surpassed the nature of the law, and by giving birth to God she surpassed the law of nature. In Solomon's temple there were ten of the most sacred and venerable things: first, the seven-candlestick; secondly, a meal with showbread, thirdly, a golden censer, fourthly, a golden container that contained manna; in the fifth - the tablets of the covenant, on which the ten commandments were inscribed, in the sixth - Aaron's rod, in the seventh - the ark, in the eighth - the cherubim that overshadowed the purification, and in the ninth - the Holy of Holies. All of them are a prototype, a parable and a shadow of the advantages of the Mother of God. She, truly, was the seven-lamp lamp, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, with which she shone from the very first years of her life. She is a golden censer, for she contained the fire of the Divine without igniting. She is a golden stamina containing heavenly manna. She is a tablet, for she bore the incarnate hypostatic Word. She is a rod, a wonderfully vegetated flower of incorruption. She is the ark that saved the human race from sinful drowning. She is the divine purification, which was overshadowed not by the cherubim, but by the very power of the Most High. This is the God-receiving womb, truly, there is the Holy of Holies, into which the incorruptible and immortal Bishop entered once without seed and from where the incorruptible and immortal Bishop came out when the Word became flesh. And so, the Virgin Mary is the animated church of God, which transformatively represented the temple of Solomon. Therefore, the glory that filled the temple of Solomon after consecration was only a vague indication of the boundless glory that filled the Mother of God, about which the Holy Spirit prophesied: and I saw. and behold, the house of the Lord is full of glory. Why did the Virgin enter the church at the age of three? - In the third year, the height of human growth is known: what someone is at three years old, he will subsequently grow twice as tall - no more, no less. This is also noted by Basil the Great in his Six Days: “what someone is at the age of three, so he will be twice later.” The virgin was three years old, and had such holiness that she was considered worthy to enter the Holy of Holies, where only one bishop entered, and then once a year. From here we can already conclude that over time the Virgin had to double Her holiness: that is, just as She surpassed in holiness all the righteous, prophets and patriarchs of the ancient law in three years, so She had to increase Her holiness in order to be even more superior to the apostles, martyrs, saints and teachers of the Church, and just as superior to all the angels, archangels, seraphim and cherubim of heaven. So if at three years She reached the Holy of Holies of the Church, then by the end She will reach the Holy of Holies of Paradise, that is, the very throne of the tri-radiant Deity. And indeed, the king and prophet David foresaw Her exaltation: the Queen appeared at Your right hand (Ps. 44:10) - this is the perfect greatness of holiness that the Virgin received, the animated church of God, full of grace here on earth, full of glory in heaven: and I saw, and behold, the house of the Lord was full of glory. You, glorified Virgin, today enter the church of God. You, the animated church of God, enter the Holy of Holies, the sanctified overshadowing of the Most High; you enter the purification of the Lord, the purification of our souls; and we, like hanging virgins, with a heart kindled with reverence, mentally lift up You and in spiritual joy we celebrate Your glorious Introduction. Amen 36. See Sermons of St. Elijah Minyaty of Cephalonite (Bishop of Kernik and Kalavrita). New translation from Greek into Russian. Edition St.-Tr. Sergius Lavra. 1902, pp. 356–359. You might be interested in: