Слово в день Рождества Христова. Святого Тихона, епископа Воронежского и Задонского

We have found the Messiah, who is, so to speak, Christ (John 1:41). O voice filled with all joy and gladness: I have found the Messiah! Brother to brother, apostle to apostle, the first-called Andrew proclaims to the warmest Peter: I have found the Messiah! Found the Messiah, promised by God Himself; found the Messiah preached by the prophets; found the Messiah, transfigured by the law and patriarchs; having found the Messiah for many years with great longing and longing for what was expected; having found the Messiah - the aspiration of tongues; found the Messiah, Whom everyone desired, like the earth thirsting for water, like one sitting in darkness, light, like a prisoner in prison, a deliverer, like a sick person, a doctor, like lost sheep, a shepherd; found the Messiah. Many prophets and kings longed to see him, but they did not see and hear. and did not hear (Luke 10:24). Having found the Messiah, we see and enjoy His conversation, sweeter than honey. We already see God in man, the Creator in creation, the Lord in the form of a slave. We see the King of Heaven on earth, we see the resurrection of the dead, the cleansing of lepers, the healing of the blind and deaf; We hear from Him the pleasant, pleasant news - repentance, remission of sins, the approach of the kingdom of heaven. Oh, how blessed are you, Saints Peter and Andrew and others, your brothers, that you have found such an invaluable treasure! Blessed are your eyes which have seen, and your ears which have heard, and your hands which have touched the Word of living things (1 John 1:1). But tell us, holy apostles, our dear teachers: where can we find such a treasure? We also wish to find it; although we found it through holy baptism, we again lost this invaluable treasure through our negligence. “Seek,” they say, “and you will find.” “So let us look for him, listeners, let us look diligently: for without him our life is extremely poor and cursed; Let us look for the One with whom misfortune is happiness, and even crying is joyful, and tears are joyful; Let us seek Him with whom we will find all prosperity, all temporal and eternal blessings. But where should we look for Him? We know that He does not live where the glory-loving and crafty Herods reign, who are not afraid to destroy so many souls and shed so much blood for temporary glory, but hastily flees from there - he flees, I say, from where they seek to kill Himself and for the sake of His kindly ones like Him: the humble and meek Jesus. Our Savior does not live where pride and arrogance live. Isn’t it a common proverb that like makes friends with like—beggar with beggar, rich with rich, noble with noble? Nowhere will you see a sober man with a drunkard, a temperate man with a sensualist, a righteous man with an unrighteous man, a generous and pliant man with a predator, but one runs away from the other. Just as black does not stick to white, sweet does not get along with bitter, light has no part in darkness; Likewise, Christ, meek and humble in heart, is not a place where arrogant hearts rise high with pride and arrogance, dreaming a lot about themselves. There is no place for Him - even here, where the wicked foxes have their ulcers: the Eternal truth cannot get along with flattery, deceit, deception, double-mindedness, which has honey on its tongue, and gall in its heart, which promises peace with words, but prepares a sword with deeds, which draws its lips close, but is far away with its heart, which greets with its lips, kisses, congratulates: “Rejoice”! - and by deed he negotiates about the price, plots to betray him into the hands of his enemies, prepares the way for dishonor, reproach, spitting, cursing, the cross and death. He leaves such a one as the flattering Judas; you don’t want to live together, like a lamb with a fox, and expels him from among His chosen sheep. He leaves and commands His disciples to flee from where His preachers are being persecuted: if, He says, they persecute you in their city, flee to another (Matthew 10:23). He leaves, I say, from where His Gospel, His holy preaching is revered as fiction, the eternal kingdom He preached is considered a fable, where sin is not valued at all, where they say to their souls: soul, eat, drink, be merry, and have many riches (Luke 12:19). We will not find Him even where unclean spirits live, spirits of hatred, malice, envy, spirits of fornication, adultery, enmity: what part of the light is with you, and Christ with Belial (2 Cor. 6:14)? We will not find Him, I say, and there is nothing to look for, lest we also hear what was said to the myrrh-bearing women who were looking for Him among the dead: Why are you looking for the living with the dead? For all of the above are dead, unburied dead, walking with one foot on the earth and with the other in the gates of hell. - What should we do? where to go? where should we look for our Light, our treasure? And He is certainly somewhere among His servants: for, having entered into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father God, He promised to be inseparable from those on earth: I am with you, He said, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). Let's look more diligently, light a candle, like that widow of the Gospel, and see if we find it. Lord, show us the image of Your face! Rabbi, our sweetest Teacher, where do you live? “Come,” He says, and see." We hear, we hear the voice of our sweetest Teacher, we hear: where two or three are gathered in My name, I am in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20). This is where He responds to us, this is where the dwelling is, where our sweetest Light has His peace. “There,” He says, is My dwelling, where two or three are united by sincere love, unfeigned love: where two or three are gathered in My name, I am in the middle.” But here, listeners, note that Christ does not live in a simple assembly, but in a holy assembly in His name. Many gather, but not in His name. Herod and Pontic Pilate once gathered, but against Christ, one agreeing to dishonor, reproach, reproach, and the other to murder. Even now the fornicator with the harlot, the thief with the thief, the robber with the robber, the drunkard with the drunkard, the predator with the predator, gather together - only not in the name of Christ, but against Christ: for all those who destroy His holy commandments gather together against Christ. Whoever, He says, is not with Me is on Me: and whoever does not gather with Me scatters (Luke 11:23). Far from these lawless assemblies, from these Jewish hosts, the sweetest Jesus departs. But where is He? Wherever there is a congregation in His holy name, there He lives; His home is where Christian love is. What is Christian love? The one who, as St. teaches. The apostle is long-suffering, merciful, does not envy, does not boast, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek his own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth, loves everything, has faith in everything, trusts everything, endures everything and falls away in no way (1 Cor. 13: 4-8). This is what Christian love is, Christ dwells here, as in a beautiful chamber! This is where we found Christ, among Christian love! Now one thing remains for us: how to call Him to our house. But we know that He does not disdain a poor house; He also goes to publicans when they earnestly ask Him; even at the door he stands and knocks: “Behold, I stand,” he says in the Apocalypse, “I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears My voice, I will come to him and dine with him (3:20). For our sake, He entered into a virgin’s womb and was born miraculously; for our sake He did not disdain the manger in which he lay swaddled; He does not disdain our wretched home when we humbly ask Him: for He is merciful and humane and bows down to humble petition. He will also fulfill our request: let us fall only to Him, imitating the Magi; Let us fall to Him, no longer wrapped in swaddling clothes, but seated on the throne of glory with the Father and the Spirit. Instead of gold, frankincense, myrrh, let us offer a contrite and humble petition. And since it is said that He rests in Christian love, let us first of all protect ourselves with it. Seeing our brother hungry, let us feed him; When we see someone who is thirsty, we will give him something to drink; seeing him naked, we will clothe him; seeing a strange and lacking cover, we will bring him into the house and treat him; seeing a sick person, we will visit him, console him and serve him; Let us show love to him in prison and do what we can for him; in a word: let us love our loved ones as ourselves. Having arranged ourselves in this way, let us fall to Him and humbly turn to Him with the following prayer: Heavenly King, Son of God, incarnate for us sinners! have mercy on us, do not disdain us, your sinful and humble servants. We know that for our sake You came down to earth, for our sake You became like us in everything except sin, for our sake you became poor, with us weak you were weak, with us captives and strangers you wandered in this deplorable vale, with us poor you lived in poverty, with us weeping you wept, and then alone for all you suffered and died, and thereby brought us to Your immortal and beginningless Parent. You Yourself, our Lord, came to us, Your servants, in the form of a slave, since we could not come to You. You Yourself, God our Creator, began Your creation, since we did not have the courage to approach You; So, You gave us this boldness: do not disdain our wretchedness even now. We know Your goodness and admit that we cannot bring You anything for it. The angels bring You singing, the heavens - a star, the wise men - gifts, the desert - a manger. What about us? there is nothing, for everything we have is Yours. We are yours, your church, created by your hands. Renewed by Your most pure blood, but (alas for us!) again corrupted by our accursed will and made unworthy of You, our Lord and God. What about ours? our sins are our own fruit, our offspring; With these we are rich, with these we are burdened like a burden, bearing this heavy burden without shame. However, we come to You with fear and humility - we come to You as to the Lamb of God, who has taken away the sins of the whole world, and with this burden we cast this bodily church at Your feet, all desecrated: like the harlot of the Gospel, we touch Your feet with tenderness with our lips and, not daring, like the publican, to look at You, we cry out: Lamb of God! take our heavy sinful burden and be merciful to us. Being poor and damned ourselves, instead of a gift we present to You the Mother, the Most Pure Virgin, Who gave birth to You as our God, more honorable than all creatures of heaven and earth, Whom You Yourself chose as the most favorable gift from the entire human race. Through her intercession have mercy on us; By Your grace, restore our corrupted church, cleanse it with Your immaterial fire. Create a pure heart in us, O God, and renew a right spirit in our womb, and so come and dwell in us, and reign in us and over us Alone with the Father and Your Most Holy Spirit, not allowing anyone to rule over us. Then we too will cry out with joy and gladness: we have found the Messiah, who is, so to speak, Christ. Amen 86. Creation St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. 5th edition. 1889 Moscow, I vol. pp. 28–32. You might be interested in: