Беседа на святой и досточтимый праздник Богоявления Господня. Святого Григория Паламы, архиепископа Фессалоникийского

And Jesus, having been baptized, went up from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and in the sight of the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming upon Him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:16–17). Great and lofty, brothers, is the mystery of the baptism of Christ, contained in these few sayings. It is difficult to see, difficult to explain, difficult to comprehend. But since it is especially saving, then, listening to Him who commanded us to test the Scriptures (John 5:39), we will boldly explore, as much as we can understand, the power of this mystery. Just as at the beginning, during the creation of our nature in the person of Adam, after the words of God: Let us make man in our image and likeness (Gen. 1:26), the breath of life was given to him by breathing into his face (Gen. 2:7), and at the same time the Hypostatic Trinity of the Divinity was revealed - similarly now, with the re-creation of our nature in Christ, the Holy Spirit appeared by His condescension from heaven to Him who was baptized in the Jordan, He revealed the saving secret of the Life-giving Trinity for rational creatures. Why is the mystery of the Holy Trinity revealed during the creation of man? - not only because one person is initiated into this mystery and is an earthly admirer of the Holy Trinity, but also because he is the only one created in Her image. In fact, other sensual and irrational beings have only one life-giving soul, which, moreover, are not capable of existing on their own, are completely devoid of mind and the gift of speech, and supersensible rational creatures (angels and archangels) have mind and word, but do not have the breath of life, since they do not have a body animated by this spirit: one person, in the image of the Trinitarian nature, has mind, word and spirit. Therefore, when our nature is recreated in the Jordan, the Highest Creator of everything - the Trinity, appears, as if the original image of our soul; That’s why those who baptize after Christ and according to the teachings of Christ baptize in three immersions. But John baptized in Jordan in one immersion. Denoting this, the Evangelist Matthew says: And Jesus, having been baptized, went up from the water: and behold, that is, while Christ had not yet completely come out of the water, but was just coming out, the heavens being opened to Him. Pay your concentrated attention, brethren, to these words, in order to understand the power of the mystery of the baptism of Christ. The immersion of Christ in the water under which Christ Jesus dwelt during baptism was a prototype of His descent into hell, which is why His ascension from the water signified His resurrection from the dead. Naturally, therefore, the heavens immediately opened to Him when He came out of the water: for, during His descent into hell, having become underground for us, He, upon returning from there, opened everything not only earthly and underground, but even heaven itself, to which He then ascended with his body, becoming our Forerunner. And just as He predicted His saving suffering through the Last Supper and commanded them to perform the sacrament of communion for salvation, so He predicted His descent into hell and ascension from there by His baptism, commanding believers to perform this sacrament for salvation. Moreover, He reserved for Himself the most difficult part of salvation and associated with suffering, and gave us the right to be participants in His suffering through this baptism, which does not require suffering at all, and, according to the word of the Apostle, united us with Himself in the likeness of death (Rom. 6:5), so that at the appropriate time we may be worthy of the promised resurrection. Having, like us, a soul and a body received from us, He endured with His body suffering, death, burial for us, by resurrection from the grave He revealed the body itself to the immortals, and in remembrance of all this He commanded us to perform a bloodless sacrifice in order to achieve salvation through it; and with His soul He descended into hell and ascended from there, making everyone partakers of eternal light and life, and as proof of this He commanded us to perform Divine baptism, through which we will be worthy of salvation. Truly, through these sacraments, individually and collectively, both body and soul are deified and receive the seeds of immortal life: our entire salvation depends on them, the entire Divine-human economy is contained in them. The heavens opened to Him. It is not said: “heaven,” but “the heavens,” that is, all in the highest, so that, when we see something higher above us, we do not think that it is higher than the One who is now baptized. The heavens opened to Him. As if it had been proven in the clearest way that He Himself is both God, and the Word of God, and the Son of God, having no Father before Himself, and His name is with the Father, a name above every name and every word, for, while everything visible between Him and the Heavenly Father, peaceful and worldly, was divided and split into two. He Himself, as before the creation of creation, appeared united with the Father and the Spirit. Come with them. “The heavens were opened to Him,” or, as the Evangelist Mark says, “they burst open”: and abiye ascending from the water, he saw the heavens parting (Mark 1:10). Why did one say: “opened,” and the other: “opened up”? - so that the double method (mystery) does not escape the attention of prudent listeners: for with the word “opened” (the Evangelist) showed us that heaven, thanks to our sin, was closed to us, since heaven was closed for Adam after he disobeyed God and heard from Him the words: earth you are, and you will go back to earth (Gen. 3:19). It was natural, therefore, that Jesus Christ, who showed himself obedient to God in everything and fulfilled all righteousness (Matthew 3:15), the heavens are now opened through His baptism, and in view of the fact that, as the Forerunner of the Lord himself says, God does not give the Spirit in measure, but the Father loves the Son, and all things are given in His hand (John 3:34-35), and that Christ receives fleshly and visibly all immeasurable things. the infinite power and actions of the Spirit - the heavens clearly showed that this power and action of the Divine Spirit cannot be contained in anything created; that is why the heavens, being unable to contain them, opened up. So, it means that he said well that the heavens are not pure before Him (God) (Jos. 15:15), meaning by heaven the heavenly angels and archangels, the many-eyed cherubim and the six-winged seraphim, and all other premium creatures. Truly, heaven, that is, the angels in heaven, is not pure before the God of heaven, since although they are constantly cleansed and sanctified by the Highest Sovereign Hierarchy, they nevertheless need infinite purity. The one nature in Christ, being one in essence with God, abounds in infinite purity and can accommodate all the radiance and action of the Divine Spirit. Therefore, not only did the heavens open, but the angels also yielded at the sight of such a descent of the Divine Spirit. And Jesus was baptized and went up from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to Him (Matthew 3:16). And the Evangelist Luke adds: it came to pass... I am baptized and pray to Jesus. the heavens were opened (Luke 3:21). For when Christ, immersed in water, was baptized, and, emerging from it, prayed, then He taught us that not only the celebrant of the sacraments must pray, but also the one on whom every Divine service is performed must do the same. Out of ineffable goodness, the Lord does not refuse to convey grace through the recipient of the sacrament to the performer of it, which now came to pass with his own eyes in John, who later himself boldly testified to this with the words: and from His fulfillment we have all received (John 1:16). Why did heaven open only to Jesus when He prayed and to no one else before Him?... John the Baptist, who, while still in his mother’s womb, knew the theanthropic economy of the Hypostatic Word of God and not only leapt joyfully in the womb of his mother, but also conveyed the grace of the one who conceived him, - who with his birth resolved the fatherly lips, bound, at the command of an angel, by muteness - who is the greatest of the prophets born of women (Matthew 11:11), - was not worthy untie the strap of Christ's shoes. Could, after all this, any of the others, in dignity incomparable even with John, open the sky, or, better said, the heavenly heights? In order to fully understand the height of the superiority over all of Him who is now baptized in the flesh, pay attention to what is written: The heavens were opened to Him. In fact, we see that not just heaven, but the very bosom of the Most High Father opened to Him: for from there came the Spirit and the voice testifying to the truth of sonship, and heaven became the heralds of this, and not only to the angels in heaven, but to all people on earth, the oneness of the Son of God with the Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit was revealed, in essence, in power, in dominion over the universe. Therefore, naturally for Christ alone, when He prayed, the heavens were opened. For this reason and the sealed book, by which is meant this heaven, previously closed to us, no one, according to the revelation of John, either in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth, could open or read: only the Lion of the tribe of Judah can open it (Apoc. 5:4-5). And who is this Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Patriarch Jacob taught us this in ancient times, saying: The skiman of the lions Judah: from the summer growth, my son, you ascended: you lay down and slept like a lion, and like the skimen: who will awaken him? The prince will not fail from Judah, nor the leader from his feet, until the hope of the tongues comes (Gen. 49:9-10), i.e. now having revealed and alone read all the heavenly words of Providence, the treasures of wisdom hidden in the bosom of the Father, the unsearchable depths and secrets of the Spirit. And Jesus being baptized, went up from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to Him. You see: holy baptism is the door of heaven, leading there those who are baptized, since it is not simply said: opened, but: heaven was opened to Him. But everything that was for Him - Christ, was accomplished for our sake: therefore, through Him, the heavens were opened for us and with open gates await our entry. The first martyr Stephen testified to this earlier than others: he knelt down, prayed, and looking up he saw something that no one had seen before the baptism of Christ: he saw the heavens open and Jesus in the glory of the Father (Acts 7:55). He saw not only the indescribable glory and the heavenly space, but also Himself longed for in the glory of the Father, through which he, the first among all after Christ, blissfully saw everything that no one before Him saw, and at which even the ranks of angels are afraid to look: for the longed-for Jesus made him His first servant in heaven, in many ways preferable to ministering spirits, since He was the first martyr, accomplished a feat. Thus, through Christ the heavens were opened for us, and He cleansed us through Himself; since he himself did not need cleansing or opening of the heavens. And John saw, so that later he could answer those who asked: I have seen and testified that this is Christ the Son of God (John 1:34). And John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. The image of a dove testifies to the purity of the One upon whom it descended: for this bird does not fly to unclean and stinking places. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; The One whom My Spirit now points to is My co-eternal Son. For, as if with a finger, using His coeternal, consubstantial and heavenly Spirit, the Father indicates from above; and at the same time, expressing affinity with the One who was then baptized in the Jordan, He clearly proclaims Him to everyone as His beloved Son. So, the Holy Spirit not only appeared, but also descended on Him - Christ. touched Him and even stayed on Him. And John testified, saying: I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and abide on Him (John 1:32), and not only on Him, but also in Him: and from His fulfillment we received (John 1:16). However, even before the obvious descent, the Holy Spirit invisibly abided in Christ, as was witnessed by the disembodied and Heavenly angels, one of whom, turning to the One who conceived Him in the womb, exclaims: The Holy Spirit will come upon You (Luke 1:35); and the other says about Her to Joseph that what was born in Her from the Holy Spirit is (Matthew 1:20): for all this is proclaimed as a supernatural gospel and at the same time constant, in mutual connection. Thus, in the one Trihypostatic and Almighty Divinity, the Heavenly Father, the Consubstantial Son, the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son, appears to us, having both unfused union and inseparable division. Two Testify, and one accepts the testimony: They testify about Their Divinity, about consubstantiality with each other and about difference: about the Divinity sovereignly abiding in heaven, about consubstantiality through the greatest and unceasing communication, about difference - through the alternation of Hypostatic names and relationships. And the nature received from us rises to this dignity, since in it the Son of God is seen inseparably. So, after His incarnation there remain three Hypostases, worthy of worship, in which we believe and are baptized, through Divine baptism having put off the old man and putting on the new Adam, who renewed in Himself our nature, subject to punishment, who justified and freed with Himself all (subsequently born of Him in the Spirit) from this ancestral curse and condemnation. But because the Only Begotten Son of God renewed our nature accepted by Him, uniting with it in His Hypostasis, does He not Himself grant grace to each of us? Doesn’t each of us receive forgiveness of our sins from Him? He who, for the salvation of all, bowed the heavens above all, descended and, having shown us the entire path of salvation, ascended to heaven, attracting believers there - He, having accepted nature from us, renewed, sanctified, justified it. But He granted us remission of sins through Divine baptism, through the fulfillment of His commandments, through the repentance established by Him for those who sin, and through the gift of Body and Blood. The Father, having said regarding Him who was baptized according to the flesh: Behold, this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, - by this he showed that everything else that was previously delivered by the prophets (legislation, promises, adoption) was imperfect - that all this was a prototype of what has now come to pass, and was fulfilled through what has happened today. And what shall we say about legislation, promises, and adoptions through the prophets? And the original foundation of the world had as its ultimate goal the One who is now baptized on earth as the Son of Man, and from above is testified as the Son of God, through whom and for whom, according to the word of the Apostle, are all things (Rom. 11:36); and the original origin of man, created through Him in the image of God, was so that the earth-born could ever reach the prototype. For the same reason, the commandment in paradise is from God: since God would not have laid it down if it had remained forever unfulfilled, and everything spoken by God after that and accomplished was for His sake. Without falling into error, one can even say that everything supermundane (I mean the angelic natures and their laws) from the very beginning was directed towards the same goal - to serve from beginning to end the Divine-human economy. Favor is the perfect will of God: and the Only Begotten, in whom the Father delights and rests, is His Wonderful Counselor, the Angel of great counsel (Isa. 9:6, Who from His Father Himself hears, speaks and gives eternal life to those who obey. May God give it to all of us in the King of the ages, Christ. To Him belongs all glory, honor and worship with His beginningless Father and the Most Holy and good and life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen 104. See manuscript. Moscow Synod. librarian (69–LXX) – 65 conversations and other articles by St. Gregory Palamas, archbishop. Thessalonica, l. l. 233–267. You might be interested in: