Поучение на Крещение Господне. Из Пролога

We celebrate the Holy Epiphany of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ. God the Word, who clothed himself with the old Adam and accomplished everything lawful, came to the great John the Baptist to be baptized, who restrained Him, saying: I demand to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me? When John heard from the Lord: “Leave him: I have come to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:14–15), he forsook Him. And Christ was baptized in the streams of the Jordan, sanctified all human nature, drowned all human sin, renewed man who was old in sins and gave him the kingdom of heaven. Brothers! We always need to demonstrate good deeds in faith and love, and to excel in the law of the Lord, understanding how and why we were created from non-existence into being. Through the serpent's flattery we exchanged eternal life for death, were subjected to corruption and with malice moved away from God; and, having submitted to the creation that was entrusted to us as slaves, they made all things gods (i.e., the sun, moon, rivers and springs), all corruption; enslaved to everything, even the bastards. But behold, the power of the highest grace and the word of God visited us: God, having entered into our nature, became at the same time both God and man, purely nature. He who became seedless flesh took on our passions and ailments. Constantly glorified by the highest Powers, He previously had a beginningless and eternal birth from a Father without a mother; For our sake, He again took birth - carnal, without a father from the Most Pure Virgin, Who is called the Mother of God. With His Nativity He renewed our race, which had become dilapidated by sin, and now He has come to the waters of the Jordan, showing an image of humility; He bowed His most pure head under the hands of mortal nature - He appeared as a simple man and bowed His head to the servant. Seeing Him, his Creator, Jordan returned his procession with trepidation. A soulless creature works with fear for its Creator; and we, brethren, His breath and image, do not honor our Creator, and like swine, we constantly toil in the mire of sin, working voluntarily with envy, filled with anger, darkened by the lusts of this life, unmercifulness and stinginess, especially deprived of all good through laziness. Therefore, I pray to you: we will not remain in such evil until the end; but let us rise up and awaken, as it were from sleep, accepting repentance, adorning ourselves with humility, approaching God with brotherly love and hospitable love, ascending to heaven by sacrifice, making ourselves sons of God through alms, and worthy of receiving the most pure Body and Blood of Christ, for, according to the word of the holy Apostle, “if anyone who is unworthy receives the body of God, then he eats and drinks sin for himself, without considering the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:27). The cherubim and seraphim tremble before Him, and all the ethereal Powers stand in fear, not daring to look at Him. Let us also, brethren, become like the heavenly powers, let us draw closer to Him through good deeds, and accept Him, so that He may also accept us into His endless kingdom. To Him be glory together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen 105. See Prologue. 1877 Moscow, l. 15: compare Monuments of ancient Russian church teaching literature. Ed. edited by prof. A. I. Ponomareva. Issue IV. St. Petersburg. 1898, 80–81 countries. You might be interested in: