Поучение на день Рождества Христова. (О Божестве и человечестве Иисуса Христа, о воплощении Его и о Богоматери). Преподобного Иова, игумена лавры Почаевской 81

Day of days is vomited by the verb, and night of night is proclaimed by the mind. Speech is not the essence, lower than words, and their voices are not heard (Psalm 18:3). Evangelist Luke says that in the sixth month after Elizabeth conceived the Forerunner in her womb, the Holy and Most Pure Virgin Mary, having received the Annunciation from the Archangel Gabriel, came to her relative Elizabeth and greeted her. And then the baby immediately came to life and began to tremble in Elizabeth’s womb, and she began to prophesy by the Holy Spirit, saying Davidically: From where do I receive this, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? Behold... the child leaped with joy in my womb (Luke 1:43–44). Mercy and truth have been met, justice and peace have been embraced: truth has risen from the earth, and righteousness has come from heaven (Psalm 85:11–12). Truth was the Forerunner, since he was a preacher of truth and, while still in his mother’s womb, knew his Master. For he sprang forth from the earth, being sown by the father Zechariah, and born by the mother Elisabeth. The truth is Christ is God: He was born from the Most Pure Virgin at the Annunciation, beginningless from the beginningless Father. Light from Light, true God from true God; He was born according to the flesh, and not created, and was present with the Father and the Holy Spirit before all ages. Some Jews say that the Lord, in His wisdom, said: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). It is already clear that they are denouncing themselves and their unbelief, since Solomon also said: Wisdom made herself a house (Prov. 9:1). By Wisdom he means the Son of God, and by the holy church - the most pure, immaculate and spotless Virgin Mary. So, if the Son of God were not the Wisdom of God, He would not have taken on flesh. Therefore, it is not proper to separate Divinity from humanity and humanity from Divinity. If Jews and heretics separate, then the end of their destruction will soon follow for them. And we both believe and preach. since the Most Pure Virgin did not know lust, but imparted to Him the bodily composition: then He was conceived from the maternal and Master nature; being true God, He took on flesh and became true man. And since in Him there is both human weakness and the greatness of the Divine: then He did in word what was characteristic of Him, and in body He fulfilled what is characteristic of the body; with his words he performed miracles, but with his body he accepted reproach from the Jews. This is why God became man. For just as the Word did not lose the honor of equality with the Father, so the body did not depart from the nature of our race; He alone is the true Son of the Virgin; took flesh from the Virgin, carrying Divine power within. So, it is obvious, therefore, that He is God, since in the beginning was the Word (John 1:1). For the angels did not know about the Sovereign mercy, which He wanted to create, take flesh and be born of the Virgin. When our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born from our Most Pure Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary - for He deigned to be born from the tribe of Abraham, from the daughter of Joachim and Anna, from the tribe of Judah - therefore, during the carnal nativity of the Lord Christ, the angels were surprised, joyfully exclaiming to one another: “Oh, mercy! How He was born without a father, in the flesh, having previously been eternal without a mother with the ever-present Father? and having been born without beginning from the Father by a perfect God, without impoverishing the property of the Father’s nature, He again becomes a perfect man from the Virgin, having received a completely human being through mercy”? Then the angels again said to the Virgin: “How can we please You, Mother of God, or how worthily we will exalt You, that You, being a Virgin, gave birth like a mother, and at birth did not corrupt virginity and did not desecrate purity, but remain a Virgin, all-sung? Who can,” they said, “describe the wonders of this sacrament? But let us give praise to the Renewer.” Adam." So, marveling with great joy, sending up praise, they said: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14). So, from the tribe of Abraham came the Most Pure Virgin, daughter of Joachim, into whom the Word of God indwelt, and the Word became flesh (John 1:14). She is the shoot of the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:9), the daughter of Joachim and Anna, holy, pure, beautiful, undefiled and blameless. When things characteristic of women had not yet appeared in Her. She, having conceived from the Holy Spirit, gave birth to the Creator of creatures, and then after birth she remained a Virgin. Although our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to be born from the tribe of Abraham, from the daughter of Joachim, all the tribes of the earth will not be blessed by Abraham, but by God who created heaven and earth. For it is not faith if anyone believed in Abraham: and Abraham himself needed to be blessed by the name of Jesus, since from one tribe of Judah came the Most Pure Virgin, from whom the Lord was born. The nations were blessed by Him and were baptized in His name. So, our Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and entered the womb of the Virgin Mary to save the deceived human race. And the Word became flesh and dwelt in us (John 1:14). Understand this fruit in such a way that this Lettuce gave birth to true God and true man: for He, having two natures, clothed the Divinity with humanity. Therefore, His path was not clear to many when Jesus, Christ our God, came from the tribe of Jacob, was born of the Most Pure Virgin in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the King. For he, it is said, wants to unite the things above with those below (Eph. 2:17). Amen 82. “The Pochaevskaya Bee”. A collection of edifying teachings and articles compiled and copied by the Monk Job, abbot of the Pochaev Lavra, published in translation from Slavic into Russian, according to the reverend’s own manuscript, edited by prof. Kievsk. Spirit. Academy I.I. Petrova. Pochaev, 1884, part 1, countries. 313–316. You might be interested in: