Слово на день Рождества Христова. Святителя Илии Минятия, Кефалонитского

In His Divine Revelation, John the Theologian saw the great God seated on a high and ascended throne, holding in His right hand a truly wonderful book, written inside and out and sealed with seven seals; and, says St. John, no one can open the book, neither in heaven nor on earth, below the earth, to open the book, to see below (Apoc. 5:3). Only the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, the Only Begotten Son and the Word, who, having become flesh and dwelling in us, revealed the hidden, explained the ineffable, could open it and release the seals on it. He opened the first seal, and people immediately came to know the One God; He resolved the second, and they came to know the Trinitarian God; He resolved the third, and they knew God, the Father of the Sons and the Maker of the Holy Spirit; He resolved the fourth, and they knew God, the Creator of everything; He resolved the fifth, and they knew God who had become man; He resolved the sixth, and they knew God, who suffered, died and rose again in the flesh; He resolved the seventh, and they knew God the Judge, who pleases the Judge, who pleases the righteous and punishes the sinners. Thus, this sealed book of Him who sat on the throne became the book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, the book of the revelation of the sacraments and the fulfillment of the promises. The teaching of the Holy Spirit, education for the knowledge of God, the wisdom of faith, the science of an eternally blessed life - this is the “book of the kinship of Jesus Christ.” This book, containing one and only thought, namely about the birth of Jesus Christ, I want, pious listeners, to now read with you and explain, if possible, the image and purpose for which God became man. This is so that in one we recognize the boundless wisdom of God and omnipotence, and in the other - the boundless goodness and love of God. The great mystery of the economy of the incarnation, as the most lofty, noble and perfect work of creative Divine wisdom and power, was provided and foreseen before anything else by the omniscient mind of God. God, before he predestined the creation of angels, or men, or any other creature, in the eternal council had already predetermined the incarnation of the Divine Word. Therefore, the incarnation of the Divine Word in the Holy Scriptures is called “the beginning of the ways of the Lord,” and the incarnate Divine Word Himself is called the “Firstborn of all creation.” This Hypostatic Wisdom of God speaks of Himself: The Lord made Me the beginning of His ways for His works: before the ages was the foundation of Me (Prov. 8:22–23). And blessed Paul, speaking about Jesus Christ, says: He who is the image of the invisible God is the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15). The sacred teachers explain all this (in the sense) that it refers to Jesus Christ, but not according to Divinity, since He, as God, consubstantial and co-essential with the Father, was neither created by God, nor is the first of creations (as Arius blasphemed), but according to humanity, which God foresaw precisely before any other thing, as the beginning of His eternal Divine determinations, as the first of all creations. This is how Athanasius the Great explains (in the III and IV lines against the Arians), Cyril of Alexandria (in the II book of “Treasures” IV, VI and VIII chapters), Blessed Augustine (in the I book on the Trinity, XII chapter). And it is completely clear that the economy of the Incarnation was predetermined by God before all other works, for, as church theologians say, the economy of the Incarnation glorifies God more than all other works of God. All together people, all together angels are not able to give God such glory as is given by the One God-Man - the Word, Who therefore, turning to His beginningless Father, says: I have glorified Thee on earth (John 17:4). There is an opinion of some church teachers that this secret, kept in the treasury of the Divine Council, like the most precious pearl in heaven, was revealed at the beginning of centuries through revelation, so that the angels could see and marvel at the most wonderful work of Divine Wisdom. In this (precisely) Dennitsa found a reason to envy the hypostatic unity of God with man and, proud of such superiority, say in his heart like this: “and it is I, the first of the seraphim, heavenly and incorporeal, who is worthy of such honor, and not man, bodily and earthly, I, I will be like the Most High” (Is. 14:14). And thus, like lightning, Dennitsa fell from heaven. But finally, when he came, Paul says, the end of the summer, God sent His Son (Gal. 4:4). What time was it, after the fulfillment of which God from all eternity determined that this dispensation of the incarnation would be completed? In six days God created the world: in the first He created light, in the second - the firmament, in the third - the earth, in the fourth - the sun, moon, stars; in the fifth - animals and in the sixth - humans. Just as (the world) was created in six days, in the same way, under the guidance of natural and written law, it experienced six periods; just as in each of the six days one new creation was created, so in each of the six periods some outstanding event occurred. The first period - Adam - and peacemaking took place; the second - Noah - and the flood occurred; the third - Abraham - and circumcision began; the fourth - Moses - and the law was given; the fifth - Solomon - and the church was built; the sixth - Herod - and the kingdom of Judah came to an end. It was at his time that Christ was born in fulfillment of the prophecy of Jacob: a prince from Judah will not fail, nor a leader from his feet, until the hope of the tongues, which was set aside for him, will come (Gen. 49:10). So it was fitting, for just as man was created on the sixth day, so in the sixth period the same man had to be recreated. On the sixth day the old (man) was (created); and in the sixth period - New; the old one, who transmitted death to all living, - the new one, who came to give life to all the dead. This one is a father by natural birth, this one is a Father by spiritual rebirth; then man was created and was in the image and likeness of God; now God is incarnate and appears in the likeness and likeness of man. But then (man) received the image and likeness of God only by communion and grace; now God receives the image and likeness of man by nature and by hypostasis. But here, in the birth of the ancient and new Adam, man and God, lies an object worthy of our contemplation. When Adam was created, God first decorated the sky with all the light of the stars, the earth with all the variety of flowers and plants; Moreover, he created a paradise of sweetness and declared him (Adam) the king of creation; when Christ, the Only Begotten Son and the Word of God, was born, God first determined (this to be) at night, in a cave, and in a manger; secondly, the One who was born was the Heir to the kingdom of David, the Deliverer of the world, the Messiah, about whom the prophets foretold and whom the Israeli people had passionately hoped for for so many centuries. And yet, His birth, instead of immediately being proclaimed to the entire Israeli people, or even to the whole of Jerusalem, (at least) to the bishops, elders and rulers of the city, this such a great event remains secret, and almost no one knows about it, with the exception of those few shepherds to whom the angel revealed it. So glorious and open was the creation of man, which heaven and earth witnessed, and so hidden and unknown was the birth of Christ, which took place at night in some cave. (And such is) the birth of God, who came to save man! Yes. That is why let the birth of Christ be, as far as possible, hidden, let it be almost unknown to the world, let it seem that this One who is born is not the Heavenly King of glory, but the poorest (humiliated) man on earth, so that the devil may be led into even greater error. Let him now consider Him a simple man, so that later he can recognize the Highest God in Him, which is what happened to him when, as the divine Chrysostom says, he accepted the body, and - marvel at God: when he accepted it, he saw it. and fell in, not seeing the hedgehog. O depth of wealth. wisdom and mind of God! (Word on Bright Resurrection). But how did God become man, the Word become flesh, the Beginningless One (receive) a beginning? Although this is a temptation for Jews and madness for Greeks (1 Cor. 1:23), it is nevertheless a dogma of our Orthodox faith; moreover, the whole foundation of faith, which teaches us that truly the Word became flesh. and dwelt in us (John 114); teaches us that the Word, the second person of the Holy Trinity, (was incarnate), and not the first - the Father, or the third - the Holy Spirit. Firstly, since sin destroyed the image (of God) in man, the Son, who is the Image of the invisible God, had to unite with man, as Athanasius the Great says (in the word “about the incarnation”) and the Apostle Paul, in order to again inscribe in man the former beauty of the image of God. Secondly, as Basil the Great says, in the beginning, according to John, it was fitting for the Son, Who is the Word (Reason), to unite with man in order to resolve the foolishness into which man fell when, as a result of sin, he was joined as senseless cattle, and became like them (Ps. 49:21). Thirdly, because, as scientists say, begottenness is not a property of the Father, who is not begotten, and not of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds, but of the Son, who is called the Son because he is begotten; It was fitting for the Son to be born, so that there would be One and the same One, Who is now born once and is always born from before eternity. (Birth occurred in such a way) that neither God turned into man, nor man into God, but God became incarnate, remaining God, and man became deified, remaining man, and the One who was perfect God and perfect man is the One Jesus Christ. (Our faith) teaches us that in the one hypostasis of the Divine Word two natures were united, each with its own properties. One hypostasis, which however does not merge two natures - Divine and human; two natures, which nevertheless share a single hypostasis. While in the mystery of the Holy Trinity we believe in the unity of nature and the trinity of persons, here, in the mystery of the economy of the incarnation, we believe in a completely different way in the unity of persons and the duality of natures. (Faith) teaches us that this unity of natures has become hypostatic, that is, One and the same, by virtue of two natures, the God-man, - (is) One and the same, by virtue of one hypostasis, the Divine Word, confessed by us from two and in two (natures), as Athanasius the Great theologizes, unfused, immutable, inseparable, not (as) God-bearing man, and (as) the flesh-bearer God. (Faith) teaches us that this Divine Word received from the same Virgin a true body, but, of course, a perfect one. She received the soul, but also a perfect soul, that is, with reason and will; - “together the flesh, defines the Holy Sixth Ecumenical Council in the message of Sophronius, together the flesh is the flesh of God the Word: at the same time the animate rational flesh and the animate rational flesh of God the Word.” (Faith) teaches us that (the Word) is born of a virgin, precisely unmarried, mainly because that Only Begotten Son, Who is born outside of time from the One Father in heaven, was fitting to be born in time from one mother on earth, so that the One Son had only One Father (as well as one only Mother). O the depth of the riches (I repeat), wisdom and understanding of God (Rom. 11:33)! This is the first chapter of the subject which contains the book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, namely the image by which God became man. Another chapter explores the question of why He became man. Here again an abyss of strange miracles opens up, as Christ Jesus, says Paul, came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first (1 Tim. 1:15). It is a great miracle, Christians, that God became man. Here the boundless Divine wisdom and power is revealed. It is an even greater miracle that God became man to save man; here the boundless Divine goodness and love is revealed. Man, as a result of Adam's crime, retreated from God, became a child of God's wrath, a slave of sin, a captive of the devil, an heir to eternal torment. There was no mediator for man to reconcile him with God; the gates of the heavenly kingdom were closed for man, and hope of salvation was lost. God took pity on the creation of His hands, He came down to earth, became incarnate to save this man, that is, to show him the way to salvation, to open for him the gates of the kingdom of heaven, to unite him with God and the Father, to deliver him from slavery to sin, from the captivity of the devil, from eternal torment: the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost (Matthew 18:11). This is the purpose of the economy of the incarnation! Here church theologians are perplexed. “Could not God, they say, send another man in spirit and power to save man, just as He sent Moses to save the Jews?” No, answers Basil the Great when explaining the 48th Psalm: a brother will not deliver, will a man deliver? He will not give God treason for himself, and the price of the deliverance of his soul (vv. 8–9); in other words, a person, no matter what talents and virtues he may possess, cannot pay a price (sufficient) to redeem only his own soul, much less the souls of all people. And (if God sent) an angel? - No, too, for neither man nor angel, with their created nature and, therefore, limited power, can bear the burden, pay off a sinful debt, which is infinite: in this case, God Himself, whose power is infinite, had to come down. Let us agree that God must come; but if He wanted to unite with created nature, then He would have chosen better angelic, more noble, than human. No, says Paul: he does not receive from the angel, but from the seed of Abraham he receives (Heb. 2:16). Man had to be saved, (and therefore) man had to buy it. (This) was also necessary so that the devil, defeated by nature, which he had (previously) defeated, would be even more put to shame, so that the one who once seduced man, as if wanting to make him God, would himself be deceived by seeing God become man. But Almighty God, just as he created us with one word, couldn’t he also save us with one word, and solve our debt without incarnating? (Couldn't) forgive us our sins? He could, answer Athanasius the Great (in the 3rd word against the Arians) and Augustine (in the 13th book on the Trinity): of course he could: for His will, as Paul says, whoever resists can (Rom. 9:19). But in this way we would know God’s extreme omnipotence and would not know God’s extreme goodness. So, God only became man for this reason, the Apostle testifies, because of the great love with which he loved us (Eph. 2:4); Behold, how God has descended and how man has exalted himself! When King Hezekiah fell ill and was close to death, the prophet Isaiah, who predicted healing for him in the name of God, showed him such a strange sign as assurance: on the sundial, the shadow indicating the hours, from the place where it had fallen, rose ten steps, and the sun returned ten steps. This was a prototype of the wonderful mystery of the economy of the incarnation of the Son of God. The never-setting Sun of Truth bowed the heavens, passed through the nine steps, the nine ranks of angels, and descended to the tenth step of human nature, appearing on earth and living with men (Baruch 3:38). When God became man, the humiliated shadow and insignificant human nature, from the state into which it fell as a result of the ancient curse, went through nine steps, rose above the nine angelic ranks, reached the highest, tenth step - the divine nature, with which it was hypostatically united; and the man (thus) became deified. O the depth of the riches, wisdom and understanding of God (Rom. 11:33)! God Almighty! God is all-wise! Good God! Your power could create another world, different from this, incomparably larger; Your wisdom would be able to create another world, different from this one, incomparably more beautiful; but Your love could not and was not able to accomplish a work more majestic and more beautiful than the work of building the economy of Your incarnation! She could not rise higher than this (Blessed Augustine). Therefore, seeing You as a newborn Baby in a cave, in the arms of the Virgin, we believe that You are the One Who reigns among the luminous saints. Inseparable from the blessed bosom of God and the Father; we marvel with the shepherds, we worship with the wise men and with the angels we praise: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14)... Christians! To reach the spiritual Bethlehem of Judea and find the King of heaven and earth, let us follow the three pious wise men. They traveled, led by a star, which then appeared in the sky and showed them the way and the place where Christ was born: and behold, the star that was seen in the east went before them, until it came a hundred from above, where the Child was (Matthew 2:9). And we have a star in the word of God, in the Holy Gospel, in the law of grace, about which the Prophet spoke: Thy law is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my paths (Psalm 119:105), a lamp for our feet, a light for our paths, so that we do not stray into the errors of this vain life. The Magi, when they came and saw the Divine Child with Mary, His Mother, fell down and bowed with deep reverence: they opened their treasures and brought Him gifts - gold, frankincense and myrrh (which was usually used when burying the dead). Guided by the Divine beck, they confessed in His face: through gold - the king, through Lebanon - God and through myrrh - mortal Man. In order to find Christ, we must bring Him, as it were, three gifts: firstly, gold, our heart, like gold purified from every evil desire and from every shameful thought; secondly, the spirit, like frankincense, kindled with love for God and neighbor, and like frankincense, lifting up with reverence the stench of spiritual fragrance; thirdly - myrrh, mortification of the passions of the flesh with contrition and tenderness; or in other words: let us bring Him three gifts: gold, i.e. alms, frankincense - prayer and myrrh - bitter tears... - The Magi, after worshiping Christ, did not return the same way as they came, but chose another and returned to their place: they returned to their country in a different way (Matthew 2:12). This is the most necessary thing that we must do on these holy days. And we should not return again the same way we came; no, let's change the path, change morals, change life - let's take a “different path”! Let us not return to the old passions, the old sins, the old destruction, but let us begin a different path, that of Christian virtue. In a few words, let us leave the path of our sinful habits that led us to eternal torment; Let's take a different path - along the path of perfect correction, which leads us to eternal life. Amen 85. Sermons of Saint Elijah Minyaty of Cephalonite (Bishop of Kernik and Kalavrita). Ed. St. Trinity. Sergiev. Laurel. 1902, pp. 270–280; Church Led. 1902, nos. 51–52. You might be interested in: