Святость Церкви

The church is holy. This property of the Church, one might say, is self-evident. How can the Body of Christ not be holy? The holiness of the Church is the holiness of Christ. The Old Testament word: “Be holy, for I am holy” (Lev.11:44–45) is fulfilled in the New Testament through the incarnation, which represents the sanctification of the human race through the Church: “Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, in order to sanctify her” (Eph.5:25–26). The sanctification of the Church, which was accomplished by the blood of Christ, was carried out by the Holy Spirit, poured out on it at Pentecost and abiding in the Church. The Church is the house of God, just as our bodies are a church where the Holy Spirit dwells. Therefore, life in the Church is holiness in both the active and passive sense, i.e. both sanctification itself and its acceptance. Life in the Church is a certain higher reality, to which we join, and through this we are sanctified. Holiness is the very essence of churchliness - one can say that its other properties do not exist. Holiness is the main property of God - a property of properties that contains all of them, like a white ray, different colors of the spectrum. And life in God, deification, is holiness, outside of which no spiritual gifts exist at all in the Church. Therefore, holiness is a self-evident sign or synonym of churchliness in general. From this it is clear that in the apostolic writings Christians are called saints: “all saints” - this is the usual designation for members of Christian communities (2 Cor. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; 4:21; Col. 1:2, etc.). Does this mean that these communities were exclusively holy? But it is enough to remember the Corinthian community. No, this judgment relates to the very quality of church life in general: through any participation in it, holiness is imparted. And so it was and is not only in apostolic times, but also in all the days of the existence of the Church, for Christ and the Holy Spirit living in her are one and unchangeable. On the same basis, the Church is not only a life of holiness, but also communion on the basis of holiness - communio sanctorum. It is known that the question of the holiness of the Church was raised and resolved by the Church in its struggle with Montanism and Donatism. The softening of penitential discipline caused such a reaction in Montanist circles that they began to pursue a new dogmatic view of the Church, according to which it is a society of perfect saints. The Church rejected this view, as well as the view of the Donatists, who made the very reality of church sacraments dependent on the moral dignity of the hierarchs and thereby shook faith in the sacraments. Against Montanism and Novatianism, the Church established that it embraces not only wheat, but also tares; in other words, it consists of sinners being saved: “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Against Donatism, she established that the power of sanctification in the sacrament is imparted through every legally appointed hierarch, not by the power of his personal holiness, but by the action of the Holy Spirit living in the Church. From here follows the distinction between the subjective and objective sides in the holiness of the Church. The Church is holy by the power of Divine life, the holiness of God, which is communicated to the Church, by the holiness of the angelic world and glorified saints, but it is also holy by the holiness of the living and being saved members of the Church. Holiness in the first, objective sense is given to the Church, it is its divine side, and it can neither be replaced nor achieved by any human effort; it is grace, in the exact sense of the word. And in relation to this holy power of the Church, first of all, it is called holy. The action of this power extends precisely into the sinful life of fallen humanity: “and the light shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). But it is natural that the action of this gracious light in humanity frees it from captivity to sin and gives it strength to achieve holiness through cleansing from sins, for salvation. Salvation, in its concept, is a process in which the separation of light from darkness and victory over sin takes place. Having achieved a certain quantitative predominance, victory over sin also brings about a certain qualitative change, due to which the sinner becomes righteous and holy. The Church never lacks saints, although they are not always known to the world; The “golden belt” of saints is never interrupted in the Church. To admit the opposite would mean to think that grace has become scarce in the Church. However, even the highest human holiness is not complete sinlessness. Only God is characterized by perfect holiness, in the light of which He “sees shortcomings” even in the sinless angels (Job 4:18). Therefore, the criterion of absolute holiness is not applicable to a person, and when applied to him, we can only talk about relative holiness. This ideal of relative human holiness should be universally binding for members of the Church. That is why the question arises, what should be the degree of holiness below which the state of those in the Church cannot fall at all? There is a certain discipline in the Church, the requirements of which are mandatory for all its members. At different times, these requirements were determined with different severity, with sects (ancient and modern Montanists) seeking to limit membership of the Church to more stringent requirements (free from the so-called “deadly sins”), while the Church applied more lenient discipline. The question of greater or lesser severity of discipline has independent significance, but this or that resolution does not eliminate the basic fact that personal sinfulness may not separate from the Church and from its holiness 21 . What is decisive here is not the achieved freedom from sin, but the path to this freedom. One and the same person, separated from the Church by his sin, is in unity with her insofar as he follows the path of salvation and accepts her saving and sanctifying grace. Through this, the sinner, living the life of the Church, becomes a saint, and even more than that, the Church does not know other saints. True, there are limits both above and below: in some cases, saints are recognized and venerated during their lifetime (although final canonization is possible only after death), in other cases, dead members of the Church are cut off with the sword of excommunication, mainly, however, in cases of dogmatic deviations. But the mass of those who are being saved, who are neither white nor black, but grey, remain in the Church, partaking of its holiness. And faith in the reality of this holy life in the Church is precisely what allows the Church to call all its members saints: “holy to saints,” the priest proclaims, breaking the Holy Spirit. Lamb for the communion of believers. To oppose ourselves as saints to the entire sinful Christian world, as sectarians do, means to breed pharisaism; and no one knows the secrets of God’s judgment, at which it will be said differently. In his name he prophesied and performed miracles: “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:22–23). When talking about the holiness of the Church, what is meant first of all is the holiness given by the Church, and then only the holiness achieved or carried out by its members. The only thing that is certain is that holiness, true divine holiness, does not exist outside the Church and is not given outside of it. From here, apparently, the conclusion can be drawn that holiness is generally invisible and unknown, and therefore the true Church is invisible and unknown. However, such a conclusion made in Protestantism is already erroneous because in it the Church is revered only by the society of saints, but not by the objectively given power of holiness, the divine life of the Body of Christ. This life is given, although invisible, but through visible forms, i.e. Apparently, this given holy power of the Church cannot be considered invisible in this sense. On the other hand, although not to the personal, but to the conciliar consciousness of the Church, it is given to know its saints, who pleased God and realized in themselves the victory over sin. During their lifetime, the Church recognizes them with preliminary knowledge, and after their death - with undoubted knowledge (which, in fact, is canonization). Of course, much remains unknown to humanity in this century, and in this sense we can speak of the Church as unknown (and this idea is expressed by the Church in the special celebration of All Saints, i.e. both known and unknown), but this limitation of knowledge, this lack of knowledge is not the invisibility of the Church and, therefore, its complete unknownness. From the holiness of the Church it follows that it has saints who are attested by the Church as such and glorified by it. A clear expression of the glorification that has taken place is that the Church changes the nature of the prayer relating to a given person. Instead of praying for the repose of his soul and the forgiveness of his sins, and generally praying for him, the Church begins to turn to him himself with a prayer that he would prayerfully intercede for us to God, no longer needing our prayer. During the glorification of the saints, in the triumph of canonization, this is a decisive and solemn moment when, instead of a prayer for the glorified saint: rest, O Lord, the soul of your departed servant, a prayer appeal to the new saint is heard for the first time: Holy Father, pray to God for us. According to the belief of the Church, the communion of love with the Saints, already glorified by God, is not interrupted by death. On the contrary, the Saints, being in this communion, pray for us and thereby help us in our paths. At the same time, of course, their life in the glory and love of God does not know division and isolation. They are in a mysterious communion of love with both the glorified Church and the earthly, militant Church. This is the communion of saints. It is not a communication of “super-duty” deeds, which the Orthodox Church does not recognize at all, but it is the help of love through prayerful intercession and their participation in the destinies of the world. The latter remains undisclosed in the teaching of the Church, as a secret of the other world. The Church believes that guardian angels watch over the world and human life and are instruments of Providence. As far as one can judge from individual legends about the lives of saints (for example, St. Nicholas), saints also take an active part in the life of people on earth, although usually invisible. In particular, the Russian Church, even in these days of great suffering and persecution, sacredly believes that St. Sergius and Rev. Seraphim, together with other saints of God, intercede and watch over their suffering brothers. The life of love, in which the communion of saints consists, of course, does not remain motionless for them themselves. Great flames of love, who stand before the solar throne of the God of love and have the opportunity to actively love their brothers on earth, and themselves succeed in love, ascending in it from glory to glory. In Hermas we find a characteristic expression: saints who have sinned (Pastor, vis. II, 24).