Слово на Рождество Спасителя. Святого Григория Богослова, архиепископа Константинопольского

Christ is born: praise! Christ is from heaven: come out to meet! Christ is on earth: ascend! Sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps. 95:1)! And I will say to both together: let the heavens rejoice, and the earth rejoice (Ps. 95:11) for the sake of the Heavenly, and then the Earthly! Christ in the flesh: triumph with trembling and joy - with trembling for sin, with joy for hope! Christ is from the Virgin: keep your virginity, wives, in order to become mothers of Christ! Who will not worship Jehovah from the beginning? Who will not glorify the Last? Again the darkness is driven away, the light appears again. Let those who sit in the darkness of ignorance see the great light of knowledge (Isa. 9:2; Matt. 4:16). The ancient mimoidosha was all new (2 Cor. 5:17). The letter yields, the spirit prevails: the shadows pass, truth takes their place. Melchizedek appears: He who is born without a mother is born without a father - the first time without a mother, the second without a father. The laws of nature are overcome; the heavenly world must be filled. Christ calls: let us not resist. Clap all the nations with your hands (Ps. 47:2). For a Child was born unto us, and a Son was given unto us, and His rulership was upon His frame (i.e. the cross by which He is glorified): and His name is called: great is the counsel - the counsel of the Father is the Angel (Isa. 9:6). Let John proclaim: prepare the way of the Lord (Matthew 3:3)! I also cry out about the importance of this day. The incorporeal becomes incarnate, the Word becomes white, the invisible becomes visible, the intangible becomes tangible, the flightless begins, the Son of God becomes the son of man. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, the same forever (Heb. 13:8). Today is the holiday of Christmas, because God appeared to people through birth. He is God, as the Existing and Ever-Sustaining of the Ever-Sustaining, superior guilt and word (because there is no word that would be higher than the Word); and He appears for our sake, having been born subsequently, so that, just as He gave them existence, so He also bestowed a blessed existence; it is better to roll us down, so that we, who through sin fell from goodness, can be returned again to it through incarnation. This is what we triumph, this is what we celebrate this day: the coming of God to men in order for us to transmigrate or, better, to return to God (for this is more correct!), so that, having put off the old man, we put on the new (Eph. 4:22-24) and, as we died in Adam, so come to life in Christ (1 Cor. 15:22), with Christ and being born, and crucifying, and burying, and rising. For it is necessary for me to undergo this saving change, so that, just as from the pleasant the unpleasant may come, so, on the contrary, from the sorrowful the pleasant will again come forth. Wherever sin abounds, grace abounds (Rom. 5:20). And if eating was the guilt of condemnation, then wasn’t Christ’s suffering all the more justified? So, let us celebrate not magnificently, but divinely, - not in a worldly way, but in a worldly manner, - not in our own way, but as worthy of Him who became ours, or better yet, as worthy of our Master - not a holiday of infirmity, but a holiday of healing, not a holiday of creation, but a holiday of re-creation. How can this be accomplished? So, if we do not satiate our eyesight, fill our ears with pipes, weaken our sense of smell, defile our taste, undead our sense of touch - these are extensive ways for sin to enter and exit; Let us not amuse ourselves with soft and luxurious clothing, of which even the greatest beauty is useless, nor with the play of stones, nor with the glitter of gold, nor with the art of tinting, which casts doubt on natural beauty and is invented to desecrate the image of God. Let us not go into the goat-talking and drunkenness with which fornication and adultery are associated (Rom. 13:13): for with bad teachers the lessons are bad, or, better said, because of bad seeds and growth they are not good. Let us not arrange sumptuous meals to please the belly; Let us not highly value the fragrance of wines, cooking seasonings, and the rich value of ointments. Let neither the earth nor the sea bring us the gift of expensive dirt - this is how I learned to call luxury items! Let us not try to outdo each other with intemperance (and everything that is unnecessary and beyond need, in my opinion, is intemperance), especially when others, created from the same clay and composition with us, are hungry and in need. On the contrary, let us leave all this to the pagans, to pagan pomp and pagan celebrations. They call those who enjoy the smell of burning fats gods, and accordingly they serve the deity with gluttony, like crafty inventors, priests and worshipers of crafty demons. But if we, who worship the Word, should enjoy anything, then let us enjoy the Word of God, the law and legends both about other things and about the reasons for the present triumph, so that our enjoyment is actually our own, and not alien to the One who created us. Having endowed man with freedom, so that good could be acquired no less by the one who chooses it, as well as by the one who puts in its seeds, God settled him in paradise to cultivate immortal plants and gives him the law as a subject for the exercise of freedom. This law consisted of a commandment about what plants he should use and what plants he should not touch. And the last was the tree of knowledge, and it was not planted in the beginning with malicious intent, and it was not forbidden out of envy: on the contrary, it was good for those who consume in good time, but not good for those who are immoderate in their desire (just as perfect food is not good for those who require milk). When a person forgot the commandment given to him and was overcome by bitter taste, then through sin he becomes an exile, removed at the same time from the tree of life, and from paradise, and from God. However, here too he gains something, namely death - in the suppression of sin, so that evil does not become immortal. Thus, punishment itself turns into love for mankind: for this, I am sure, is how God punishes. But in order to prevent many sins, which the root of damage grew from different causes and at different times, man had previously been admonished in many different ways: by law, prophets, good deeds, threats, floods, warriors, victories, signs from heaven, signs in the air, on earth, at sea, unexpected revolutions in the fate of people, cities, nations (all this was aimed at making amends for the damage); finally, the strongest medicine became necessary due to the most severe illnesses - murder, adultery, perjury, idolatry. since all this required the strongest assistance, then the strongest was given, and it was the following. The Word of God itself, the eternal, invisible, incomprehensible, incorporeal, the beginning from the beginning, light from light, the source of life and immortality, the reflection of original beauty, the immutable seal, the immutable image, the outline and expression of the Father, comes to His image, bears flesh for the sake of flesh, unites with a rational soul for the sake of my soul, in order to purify like with like, becomes man in everything except sin. Although the Virgin, in whom the soul and body were prepurified by the Spirit, bears the womb (for it was necessary to honor both birth and virginity), yet the one who came into being is God and with the human nature received from Him - one of two opposites - flesh and Spirit, of which One deified, and the other deified. Oh, unheard of confusion! O wonderful dissolution! The Beginningless One begins being; The uncreated is created; The incomprehensible is embraced through the rational soul, which mediates between the Divine and the gross flesh; He who is rich becomes poor - he becomes poor, putting on my flesh, so that I may become rich in His Divinity; He who is inexhaustible is exhausted - exhausted, putting aside His glory for a short time, so that I may be a partaker of His fullness. What a wealth of goodness! What kind of mystery is this about me? I received the image of God and did not preserve It; He perceives my flesh in order to save both the image and the flesh to immortalize. He enters into a second communication with us, which is much more wonderful than the first, since then he gave us the best, but now he perceives the worst; but this is more beautiful than the first, this is more sublime for those who have intelligence! What will the slanderers, the evil connoisseurs of the Divine, the detractors of the praiseworthy, embraced by darkness in the very light - those for whom Christ died, say to this? Is it for this, for this good deed, that you blame God? Is He really small because the Good Shepherd came to the lost sheep, laying down his life for the sheep (John 10:11), - that he found the lost and received him on the same shoulder (Luke 15:4-5), on which he bore the tree of the cross, and brought him again to the heavenly life and included him among those who were in his rank? Is it for this reason that you consider Him less great because He girds Himself with ribbon (John 13:4–5) and washes the disciples’ feet and shows the most perfect path to exaltation—humility? who humbles himself for the sake of a soul that has bowed to the ground, in order to lift up with Himself that which has been brought down by sin? How can one not blame the fact that He eats with publicans and at publicans, that He has publicans as disciples in order to acquire something for Himself? what is it? - salvation of sinners. Would anyone blame a doctor for bending down to wounds and enduring the stench just to give health to the sick? will he also accuse the one who, out of compassion, bent down to the pit in order, according to the law (Ex. 23:4–5; Luke 14:5), to save the cattle that had fallen into it? True, He was sent, but as a man (because He had two natures; so He was tired, and hungry, and thirsty, and was in struggle, and cried - according to the law of bodily nature). And if he was sent as God, then what? By embassy, ​​understand the favor of the Father, to Whom He refers His deeds, in order to honor the flightless beginning and not seem to be an enemy to God. It is said of Him that He was “given over” (Rom. 4:25); but it is also written that He “gave Himself” (Eph. 5:2, 25). It is said that He was raised by the Father and ascended (Acts 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 1:10), but it is also written that He resurrected Himself and ascended again into heaven (Acts. 1:11; Ephesians 4:10) - the first is by good will, the second by power. But you present what is derogatory, and pass by in silence what is exalting; Soon afterwards you will see Jesus purifying himself in the Jordan, for my purification, or, better yet, purifying the waters with His purification (for He who took upon Himself the sin of the world Himself, of course, had no need for purification) and the heavens opening above Him; you will see how Jesus receives testimony from the Spirit who is natural to Him, and is tempted, and overcomes, and is surrounded by angels serving Him, and heals every disease and every disease (Matthew 4:23), and gives life to the dead, and casts out demons, sometimes Himself, sometimes through the disciples, and feeds thousands with not many loaves, and walks on the sea, and betrays itself, and is crucified, and co-crucifies my sin, he is buried as a man and rises as God, and then ascends to heaven and comes with His glory. How many triumphs each mystery of Christ brings me! In all of them, the main thing is one thing - my recreation and return to the first Adam. And now almost the womb and jump, if not like John in the womb, then like David during the transfer of the ark; respect the census according to which you too are inscribed in heaven; worship Christmas, through which you were freed from the bonds of your birth; give honor to little Bethlehem, which again led you to paradise; bow down before the manger, through which you, having become wordless, were raised by the Word. Know (commands Isaiah) the manger of your Master as an ox, and the manger of your Master as an ass (Isaiah 1:3). Do you belong to the number of the pure, those who follow the law, those who reject (Lev. 11:41) Orthodoxy and those fit for sacrifice, or from the number of the still unclean, the non-poisonous, the non-sacrificial and the pagans. Travel with the star, bring gifts with the Magi - gold, frankincense and myrrh - as the King, as God, and as the one who died for you; glorify with the shepherds, rejoice with the angels, sing with the archangels. May there be a general triumph of heavenly and earthly powers; for I am sure that the heavenly Powers rejoice and triumph with us today, because they are lovers of mankind and lovers of God, just as David imagines them ascending with Christ after His passion, meeting and commanding each other to take the gates (Psalm 23:7). There is only one thing you can hate that happened after the Nativity of Christ - this is Herod’s infanticide; It’s better to say, and in it there is almost a sacrifice of the same age with Christ, which preceded a new slaughter. If Christ flees into Egypt, you too are willing to flee with Him: it is good to flee with Christ when he is persecuted. Walk blamelessly through all the ages and powers of Christ. As a disciple of Christ, cleanse yourself, be circumcised, take away the veil that has been on you since birth. After this, teach in the church, drive out those who sell holy things, and, if necessary, endure this and stoning: I am confident that you will hide from the slayers and walk among them like God: for the Word is not stoned. If you are brought to Herod, do not answer much: he will be ashamed of your silence much more than the long speeches of others. Will you be whipped, harassed, and so on? Taste the bile for the first taste, drink the otset, look for the spitting, receive the beating on the cheeks and the blows. Be crowned with thorns - the severity of life according to God: put on a scarlet robe, accept a reed and accept kneeling from those who mock the truth. Finally, willingly be crucified, die and accept burial with Christ, so that you will rise with Him and be glorified, contemplating God, how great He is, and mutually being seen from Him, worshiped and glorified in the Trinity, Whom we wish you to clearly contemplate even now, as much as this is possible for prisoners of the flesh, in Christ Jesus our Lord. To him be glory forever. Amen 45. In short. Rukop. Moscow Synod. bib. (57–LVIII) VIII–IX centuries, l. 106 rev–113; Wed “Creations like our holy father Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople,” in Russian. translation Ed. 3. Moscow. 1889, part 3, pp. 103–207; "Christian Reading" 1840, paragraph IV, pp. 295–321; "Sunday Reading" ХVIII (1854–55), pp. 351–353. You might be interested in: