Слово 45

(1) About the creation of the world and the creation of Adam. – (2) About the crime of the commandment and expulsion from paradise. – (3) About the incarnate economy of the Lord, and how He became incarnate for our sake. – (4) How can all creation be renewed again? – (5) What is this bright state that all creation can again perceive? - (6) How is it that the saints are united with Christ and our God and become one with Him? - (7) What kind of upper world is this, and how will it be filled, and when will the end come? - (8) Until everyone who is destined to be born until the very last day is born, the hitherto upper world will not be filled. – (9) To the words of the Gospel: make the kingdom of heaven like the man king, who made marriages for his son (Matthew 22ff.). – (10) The saints after the resurrection will know each other. 1. God in the beginning, before he planted paradise and gave it to the primordial ones, in five days he created the earth and what is on it, and the sky and what is in it, and in the sixth he created Adam and made him lord and king of all visible creation. There was no heaven then. But this world was from God, like a kind of paradise, albeit material and sensory. God gave him into the power of Adam and all his descendants, as the Divine Scripture says. And God said: Let us make man in our image and likeness, and let him have the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and the wild animals, and the livestock, and all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man, in the image of God created him; make them husband and wife. And God bless them, saying: grow and multiply, and fill the earth, and rule over it, and subdue the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and all the livestock, and all the earth. You see how God gave man in the beginning this whole world, like some kind of paradise, which is why after this he says: Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing herb that yields seed, which is on the top of the whole earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit in itself will be your food; and every beast of the earth, and every bird of the air, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth... and every green grass for food (Gen. 1:26-30). Do you see how God gave everything visible, what is on earth and what is in the sea, into the power of Adam and his descendants? For what He said to Adam, He said to all of us, just as He said to the Apostles: what I say to you, I say to everyone (Mark 13:37), because He knew that our race was about to multiply and there were countless people. If now, after we have broken the commandment and are condemned to die, people have multiplied so much, then imagine how many there would be if all those born from the creation of the world had not died? And what kind of life would they live if they were immortal and incorruptible, alien to sin, sorrows, worries and dire needs?! And how, having succeeded in keeping the commandments and in improving the dispositions of the heart, over time, they would ascend to the most perfect glory and, having changed, would approach God, and the soul of each would become radiant, due to the radiance that would pour out on it from the Divine! And this sensual and grossly material body would seem to become immaterial and spiritual, higher than any feeling, and the joy and joy that we would then be filled with from mutual circulation with each other would truly be unspeakable and inconceivable for human thought. But let us return again to our subject. So, God gave Adam this entire world, which He created in six days - about which creation listen to what the Divine Scripture says: And God saw everything that was created: and every good thing... And God finished on the sixth day His works that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His works that He had done (Gen. 1:31, 2:2). And then the same Scripture, wanting to teach us how God created man, says: And God created man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). Then, like another king, or a prince, or a rich man who owns a certain area, he does not designate all of it into one thing, but divides it into many parts, and designates one for crops, plants vineyards on another, and leaves the other uncultivated, so that it becomes overgrown with grass and provides pasture; he chooses the best and most beautiful part to build his chambers, in which he plants flower beds and gardens, and invents and arranges many other things that can give pleasure; and arranges his chambers and all the rooms in them in the best possible way so that they differ from the dwellings of other people; he encloses all this with a wall with gates and bars, at which he places guards so that evil people are not allowed in and only good, known and friends are given entry; so God arranged something similar for the primordial. For after that he created everything else, he also created man, and on the seventh day he rested from all the works that he had begun to do—he planted paradise in Eden on the east, as a royal dwelling, and brought into it man, whom he had created as a king. But why didn’t God create paradise on the seventh day, but planted it on the east after He had finished every other creation? Because He, as a seer of all things, arranged all creation in order and orderly order; and he determined seven days, so that they would be in the image of the centuries that were to pass later, in time, and he planted paradise after those seven days, so that it would be in the image of the future age. Why didn’t the Holy Spirit count the eighth day along with the seven? Because it was incongruous to count it along with the seven, which, rotating, produce so many weeks, years and centuries; but the eighth day had to be placed outside the seven, since it has no rotation. Look again, Divine Scripture does not say that God created paradise, nor that He said: let it be, but that He planted it. And God planted paradise in Eden on the east... And God grew from the earth every tree, red for vision and good for food (Gen. 2:8-9), with various fruits that never spoiled and never ceased, but were always fresh and sweet and gave great pleasure and pleasantness to the primeval ones. For it was necessary to provide incorruptible pleasure to these primordial bodies, which were incorruptible. Why was their life in paradise not burdened with labor and not burdened with misfortunes. Adam was created with an incorruptible body, however, material, and not yet spiritual, and was installed by the Creator God as an immortal king over the incorruptible world, not only over paradise, but over all creation under heaven. 2. But since God gave the first-created a commandment and commanded them not to eat from the one tree of knowledge, and Adam despised this commandment of God, not believing the words of the Creator Master, Who said: if you take away a day from it, you will die, but considering more true the word of the evil devil, who said: you will not die by death, but in the same If you take away the day from it... you will be like a god, knowing good and evil, who ate from that tree, then immediately he was stripped of his incorruptible robe and glory and put on the nakedness of corruption, and, seeing himself naked, he hid himself, and, sewing together fig tree leaves, he girded himself to cover his shame. Why, when God called to him: Adam, where are you? - He answered: I heard Your voice, and, seeing that I was naked, I was afraid and hid. God, calling him to repentance, said to him: who can tell you that you are naked, except from the tree of which you were commanded not to eat? - But Adam did not want to say: he sinned, but said even more contrary to that, and made his God, Who created all good things, the culprit of the crime, saying to Him: the wife that you gave with me, you gave to me from the tree, and it died; and after him she laid the blame on the serpent; and they did not want to completely repent and, falling before the Lord God, ask Him for forgiveness. For this, God expelled them from paradise, as from the royal chambers, to live in this world as exiles, and at the same time determined that flaming weapons used would guard the entrance to paradise. And God did not curse paradise, since it was an image of the future endless life of the eternal kingdom of heaven. If not for this reason, it would have been necessary to curse him especially, since Adam’s crime had been committed within him. But God did not do this, but only cursed all the other earth, which was also incorruptible and grew everything by itself, so that Adam would no longer have a life free from tedious labors and sweats. Cursed is the earth in your deeds, the Lord said to Adam, bear it in sorrow all the days of your life; thorns and thistles will grow for you, and you will bear down the grass. By the sweat of your brow you have carried away your bread, until you have returned to the land from which you were taken: as you are the earth, you went back to the earth (Gen. 3:17–19). So, the one who became corruptible and mortal because of the transgression of the commandment, in all justice, should have lived on the corruptible earth and fed on corruptible food, for, since an easy life and abundant food (native) caused him to forget God and the blessings that He gave him, and despised His commandment, he is rightly condemned to work the land with sweat and thus receive food from it little by little, as from some economy. Do you see how the earth then accepted the criminal, after it was cursed and deprived of its original productivity, according to which fruits were generated from it by itself without labor? And for what? In order to be cultivated by him in sweat and labor, and so give him the little that grows for his needs, to support life, and if it is not cultivated, it will remain fruitless and produce only thorns and thistles. Then, when all creatures saw that Adam had been expelled from paradise, they no longer wanted to obey him, the criminal: the sun did not want to shine on him, nor the moon and other stars wanted to show themselves to him; the springs did not want to give out water and the rivers did not want to continue their flow; the air thought not to blow any more, so as not to allow Adam, who had sinned, to breathe; the beasts and all the animals of the earth, when they saw that he was naked from the first glory, began to despise him, and everyone was immediately ready to attack him; the sky, in some way, was rushing to fall on him, and the earth did not want to carry him any longer. But God, who created all things and created man, what did he do? Knowing before the creation of the world that Adam had to transgress His commandment, and having a new life and restoration predetermined for him, which he had to receive through rebirth in holy Baptism, by virtue of the incarnate economy of His Only Begotten Son and our God, He restrained all these creatures by His power, and out of His benevolence and goodness did not allow them to immediately rush against man and commanded that the creation remain in subjection to Him and, having become corruptible, she served corruptible man, for whom she was created, so that when man is renewed again and becomes spiritual, incorruptible and immortal, all creation, subordinated by God to man for his work, would be freed from this work, renewed with him and become incorruptible and, as it were, spiritual. All this was predetermined by the all-generous God before the creation of the world. So, when everything was established by God, as said, Adam was expelled from paradise, lived, gave birth to children and died, in a similar way and all those who came from him. The people of that time, having learned from Adam and Eve about everything that had happened, remembered the fall of Adam, and worshiped God and revered Him as their Lord. Why did Abel, together with Cain, make sacrifices to God, each from his own property? And the Scripture says that God accepted the offering and sacrifice of Abel, but did not accept the sacrifice of Cain, that when Cain saw it, he was saddened to death, became jealous of his brother Abel and killed him. But after this, Enoch, having pleased God, was transformed (taken by God. - Ed.) (Gen. 5:24), just as Elijah was then taken to heaven on a chariot of fire. By this, God wanted to show that if, after the sentence pronounced over Adam and over his descendants, and after his expulsion, He favored Enoch and Elijah, the descendants of Adam, who pleased Him, to honor in this way - by transformation and longevity (longevity. - Ed. ), and free from death and entry into hell - isn’t it even more so, the primordial Adam himself, if he had not transgressed the commandment given to him or had repented of the crime, He glorified and honored, or had mercy and left him to live in paradise? Thus, for many years, ancient people learned from one another according to tradition and came to know their Creator and God. Later, however, when they multiplied and began to betray their minds from their youth into evil thoughts, they forgot God and no longer knew their Creator, and began not only to worship demons, but even idolized such creatures that were given to them by God to serve. That is why they gave themselves over to all uncleanness and desecrated the earth, the air, the sky and everything under heaven with their obscene deeds. For nothing defiles and makes unclean the pure work of God’s hands so much as if someone begins to idolize him and bow to him as God, who created all things (the universe. - Ed.). When finally all creation, having been deified, became unclean, and all people fell into the extreme depths of evil, then the Son of God and God descended to earth to recreate man, so humiliated, to revive him, who had been killed, and to call him out of delusion and delusion. 3. But I ask you to listen to my word, because it begins to concern the greatest sacrament, the explanation of which is soul-saving both for us and for those who live after us. We must ascend to the contemplation of the incarnation of the Son and the Word of God and His unspoken birth from the Ever-Virgin Mother of God Mary, with the help of some image and through it bring closer to understanding the mystery of the incarnate economy, hidden from time to time, for the salvation of our race. Just as then, at the creation of our promother Eve, God took Adam’s rib and created a wife from it, in the same way now our Creator and Creator God took flesh from the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, as if it were some leaven and some firstfruits from the kneading (φυραμα) of our nature, and, uniting it with His Divinity, incomprehensible and inaccessible, or, better to say, He united His entire Divine hypostasis essentially with our nature, and combined this human nature inseparably with His being, and made it His own, so that the Creator of Adam Himself immutably and invariably became a perfect man. For just as He created a wife from Adam’s rib, so from Adam’s daughter, the Ever-Virgin and Mother of God Mary, He borrowed virgin flesh seedlessly and, having put on it, became a man similar to the primordial Adam in order to accomplish such a thing, namely: just as Adam, through the transgression of the commandment of God, was the reason that all people became corruptible and mortal, so that Christ, the new Adam, through the fulfillment of all righteousness, became the beginning of our rebirth to incorruption and immortality. The divine Paul explains this where he says: the first man from the earth has a ring; the second man is the Lord from heaven. Jacob of the ring, so are the rings; and those who are in heaven, and those who are in heaven (1 Cor. 15:47–48). And since our Lord Jesus Christ became a perfect man in soul and body, similar to us in everything except sin, then He gives us who believe in Him from His Divinity, and makes us akin to Himself in the nature and essence of His Divinity. Think about this wonderful sacrament. The Son of God took from us flesh, which he did not have by nature, and became a man, which he was not, and to those who believe in Him, He communicates from His Divinity, which no man ever had, and these believers become gods by grace. For Christ gives them the realm to become children of God, as John the Theologian says. As a result of this, they are made and then forever remain gods by grace and will never cease to be such. Listen to how Saint Paul inspires this in us, saying: as we have put on the image of the ring, let us also be clothed in the image of the heavenly (1 Cor. 15:49). What we have said about this is enough. Now let's return again to our subject. Since the God of all things, our Lord Jesus Christ, descended to earth and became man in order to recreate and renew man, and to bring down blessings on all creation that had been cursed for man, then, firstly, He revived the soul He had received and deified it, and although He made His most pure and divine body divine, He wore it corruptible and grossly material. For the body that eats food, drinks, exerts itself, sweats, is bound, strangled, nailed to the cross, is obviously perishable and material, because everything that has been said belongs to the perishable body. Why it died and was laid dead in the coffin; after the three-day Resurrection of the Lord, His body was resurrected incorruptible and divine. Why, when He came out of the tomb, did He not destroy the seals that were on the tomb, and then went in and out through the prisoner’s door? But why did He not immediately make His body, along with His soul, incorruptible and so spiritual? Because Adam, having transgressed the commandment of God, immediately died in soul, but died in body after so many years. In accordance with this, the Lord Savior first resurrected, revived and deified the soul, which immediately, after breaking the commandment, suffered the penance of death, and then God deigned to arrange for His body to receive the incorruptibility of the Resurrection, just as in Adam it suffered the penance of death many years later. But not only did Christ do this, but he also descended into hell, freed them from eternal bonds and revived the souls of the saints who were kept there, but did not resurrect their bodies at the same time, but left them in their tombs until the general resurrection of all. And this sacrament, which was obvious to the whole world in the way we have said, happened during the incarnate economy of Christ, and in the same way after that it was and is happening in every Christian. For when we accept the grace of Jesus Christ our God, we become partakers of His Divinity (2 Pet. 1:4), and when we partake of His most pure Body, that is, when we partake. of the Holy Mysteries, then we are His co-fellows and kinsmen in truth, as the divine Paul also says: For we know His body, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. 5:30), and as the Evangelist John again says, that from His fulfillment we have all received grace and received grace (John 1:16). Thus, by grace we are made like Him, our humane God and Lord, and we are renewed in our souls from the old and quickened from the dead, just as we were. So every saint is as we said; their body does not immediately become incorruptible and spiritual. But just as iron, kindled by fire, becomes involved in the lightness of the fire, laying aside its natural blackness, and as soon as the fire comes out of it and it cools down, it becomes black again; This is what happens with the bodies of saints, that when they are partakers of the divine fire, that is, the grace of the Holy Spirit, filling their souls, they are sanctified and, being penetrated by the divine fire, they become bright, special from all other bodies and more honorable than them; but when the soul leaves the body, then their bodies give in to corruption, and some gradually decompose and become dust, while others do not decompose for many years, and are neither completely incorruptible, nor again completely corruptible, but retain in themselves the signs of both corruption and incorruption, until they receive perfect incorruption and are renewed by a perfect resurrection, during the general resurrection of the dead. And for what reason? Because it is not fitting for the bodies of people to clothe themselves with the glory of the resurrection and become incorruptible before the renewal of all creatures. But just as in the beginning, first all creation was created incorruptible, and then man was taken from it and created, so it is necessary again, first of all creation, to become incorruptible, and then to be renewed and become the incorruptible and corruptible bodies of people, so that all man will again be incorruptible and spiritual and may he dwell in an incorruptible, eternal and spiritual dwelling. And that this is true, listen to what the Apostle Peter says: the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass by with a noise, and the elements that are burned will be destroyed, and the earth and the works in it will be burned up (2 Pet. 3:10). This does not mean that the heavens and the elements will disappear, but that they will be rebuilt and renewed, and will come to a better and incorruptible state. And this, what I say, is clearly again from the words of the same Apostle Peter, who says: the heavens are new and the earth is new according to His promise (13), that is, according to the promise of Christ and our God, who said: heaven and earth will pass by, but My words will not pass by (Matthew 24:35), - by the passing of heaven, calling its change, that is, the sky will change, but My words will not change, but will remain forever unchanged. And the holy prophet David predicted the same thing where he says: And as I have taken off my clothes, they will be changed. You are the same, and Your years will not fail (Ps. 101:27). From such words, what else is clear but what I said? 4. But let's see how the creation can be renewed and come again to the state of its original beauty? I believe that not a single Christian would think of not believing the words of the Lord, who gave the promise to make the heavens new and the earth new, that is, that just as our own bodies, now dissolved into the elements and, however, turning into nothing, will again be renewed through the resurrection, so the heaven and earth with everything that is on it, that is, all creation, will be renewed and freed from the work of corruption, and these elements, together with us, will become partakers of the lightness that comes from Divine fire. Just as some copper vessel, which has become worn out and has become worthless, when the coppersmith, having melted it on the fire, pours it, becomes new again, in the same way, the creation, which has become worn out and became useless due to our sins, will be, as it were, melted by God the Creator in the fire and poured over, and will appear new, incomparably brighter than what it is now. You see how all creatures are about to be renewed by fire. Why does the divine Peter say: since all who are being ruined, how fitting is it for you to be holy and pious? And a little lower: in the same way, beloved, longing for these, strive to be undefiled and undefiled by Him to be found in peace; and do not perceive our Lord's longsuffering salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, just as he did in all his epistles, saying in them about these things, in which there is a certain inconvenience of understanding, even though lack of teaching and unconfirmation corrupts them, just as they also corrupt the other scriptures to their destruction (2 Pet. 3:11, 14–16 ). And this was not only done then, but even now very many, or almost all of us, do this, out of our ignorance, perverting and reinterpreting the words of Divine Scripture, and trying in every possible way to make them accomplices to ourselves in our passions and destructive lusts. But let’s see what the divine Paul also says about creation and its renewal. Having said that the passions of the present time are unworthy of the desire for glory to appear in us, he follows this by saying: for the creation longs for the revelation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:18-19). He calls aspiration the strong desire of the creature for the revelation or appearance in the glory of the sons of God, which is to take place at the general resurrection, to come true as soon as possible. For then, at the general resurrection, with the coming of the Son of God, the sons of God will be revealed, their beauty and glory will appear, and they will become entirely, that is, both soul and body, radiant and glorified, as it is written: then the righteous, that is, the sons of the righteous God, will be illuminated like the sun (Matthew 13:43). But lest anyone think that what the Apostle said applies to some other creature, he added: For the creation is not subject to vanity by will, but for him who obeyed in hope (Rom. 8:20). Do you see that the creation did not want to obey and serve Adam after he transgressed the commandment of God, because it saw that he had fallen from divine glory? For this reason, God, before the creation of the world, predestined the salvation of man through rebirth, which he had to receive by virtue of the incarnate economy of Christ, and on this basis he subjected creation to him and subjected it to corruption, since man for whom it was created became corruptible, so that it would annually provide him with corruptible food, putting it, when it renews man and makes him incorruptible, immortal and spiritual, then with him to renew all creation and make it eternal and incorruptible. This is what the Apostle revealed with the above words: the creation obeyed vanity not by will, but because of him who obeyed in hope, that is, the creation did not obey people on its own, and did not become corruptible by its own will, gives corruptible fruit, and produces thorns and thistles, but submitted to the command of God, who determined this for it in the hope that it would renew it again. To more fully confirm this, the Apostle finally says: for the creation itself will be freed from the work of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:21). Do you see that all this creation was incorruptible in the beginning and was created by God in the order of paradise? But after God she was subjected to corruption and submitted to the vanity of men. 5. Know also that what kind of glorification and radiance of creation will be in the next century? For when it is renewed, it will not again be the same as it was when it was created in the beginning. But it will be the same as, according to the word of the divine Paul, our body will be. The Apostle says about our body: a spiritual body is sown, it is raised not as the body of the primordial one was before the transgression of the commandment, that is, material, sensual, changeable, having a need for sensual food, but a spiritual body is raised (1 Cor. 15:44) and immutable, such as after the resurrection the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, the firstborn from the dead, which is incomparably superior to the body, is raised. primordial Adam. In the same way, by the command of God, all creation, by the command of God, has to be, after the general resurrection, not the same as it was created - material and sensory, but has to be re-created and become some kind of immaterial and spiritual dwelling, surpassing all feelings, and as the Apostle says about us: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all change, soon, in the twinkling of an eye ( 1 Cor. 15:51–52), so the whole creation, after it burns out in the Divine fire, has to change, so that the prophecy of David, who says that the righteous will inherit the earth (Ps. 37:29), is fulfilled - of course, not sensual. For how is it possible for those who have become spiritual to inherit the physical earth? No, they will inherit the spiritual and immaterial earth, in order to have on it a dwelling worthy of their glory, after they are worthy to receive their incorporeal bodies, superior to all sense. So, after all creation is renewed and becomes spiritual, it will become an immaterial, incorruptible, unchanging and eternal abode. The sky will become incomparably more brilliant and brighter than it appears now, it will become completely new; the earth will perceive a new indescribable beauty, dressed in a variety of unfading flowers, light and spiritual. The sun will shine seven times stronger than it does now, and the whole world will become more perfect than any word. Having become spiritual and divine, he will unite with the mental world, appearing as a kind of mental paradise, a heavenly Jerusalem, the inseparable inheritance of the sons of God. Not a single person has ever inherited this land: we are all wanderers and strangers. When the earthly is united with the heavenly, then the righteous will inherit that earth, already renewed, to which those meek who are blessed by the Lord will be heirs. Now while some of the earthly is united with the heavenly, others still have to unite with it. The souls of the saints, as we said, with all that they are still united with the body in this world, are united with the grace of the Holy Spirit - they are renewed, changed for the better and resurrected from mental death; then, upon separation from the body, they depart into the glory and radiant light of the non-evening light; their bodies are not yet worthy of this, but remain in the graves and in decay. They too will become incorruptible during the general resurrection, when all this visible and sensible creation will become incorruptible and unite with the heavenly and invisible. This must happen first, and then the most beloved and sweet Jesus Christ, our King and God, will come with power and much glory, to judge the world and reward everyone according to his deeds. For this purpose, He will divide the renewed creation into many abodes and chambers, like some great house or some royal chambers, with many different rooms, and will give everyone a part of it, which is due to each according to the lordship and glory acquired by virtues. So the kingdom of heaven will be one, and have one King of all, who will be visible from everywhere to all the righteous; He will abide with every righteous one, and every righteous person will abide with Him; will shine brightly in everyone, and everyone will shine brightly in Him. - But woe to those who will then find themselves living outside this heavenly abode! 6. But as enough has already been said about this, now I intend to reveal to you as much as possible how the saints are united with Christ the Lord and are one with Him. All saints are truly members of Christ God and, as members, are combined with Him, and united with His body, so that Christ is the head, and all the saints from the beginning to the last day are His members, and they all together constitute one body and, as it were, one person. Some of them are in the rank of hands that are still working, which, fulfilling His all-holy will, transform the unworthy into the worthy and present them to Him; others - in the rank of ramen (shoulders - Ed. ) the body of Christ, who bear each other’s burdens, or, taking upon themselves the lost sheep that was found and wandering here and there, in the mountains and abysses, bring them to Christ, and thus fulfill His law; others are in the rank of the chest, who exude for those who thirst and hunger for the truth of God the purest water of the words of wisdom and reason, that is, they teach them the word of God and teach them mental bread, which the holy Angels eat, that is, true theology, as confidants of Christ, beloved by Him; others - in the rank of the heart, which in their bosom of love contains all people, accepts the spirit of salvation within themselves and serves as a repository of the ineffable and hidden Mysteries of Christ; others - in the rank of the loins, which have in themselves the power of the parent of divine thoughts of mysterious theology, and with the word of their teaching they sow the seed of piety into the hearts of people; others, finally, in the rank of bones and legs, who show courage and patience in temptations, like Job, and remain motionless in their standing in goodness, do not shy away from the burden that lies upon them, but willingly accept it and cheerfully bear it to the end. In this way, the body of the Church of Christ is harmoniously composed of all His saints from the ages, it becomes whole and all-perfect, so that all the sons of God, the firstborn, written in heaven, may be one. And that all saints are members of Christ and are one body, I will prove this to you from Divine Scripture. And, first, listen to our Savior Himself, Christ the Lord, how He represents the inseparable unity that the saints have with Him, in the words He spoke to the Apostles: Believe Me, for I am in the Father, and the Father in Me (John 14:11). I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you (John 14:20); also: I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe their words for Me: that they may all be one. Wanting to show how this unity is accomplished, he says further: as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us. And to make this even clearer, he adds: And I have given the glory that you have given to me, that you may give them one, that they may be one, as we are one. I am in them, and You are in Me, that they may be perfect as one. A little later he says again: Father, these whom you have given to Me, I will, that where I am, they also may be with Me, that they may see My glory, which you have given to Me. Finally: let the loves with whom you have loved Me be in them, and I in them (John 17:20–26). Do you see the depth of this mystery? Have you known the infinite abundance of exceedingly abundant glory? Have you heard about the method of unity that surpasses all thought and reason? How wonderful this is, brothers! How indescribable is the condescension of the love of the man-loving God that He has for us! He makes a promise that, if we want, He will have with us the same unity by grace that He Himself has with the Father by nature, that we will have the same exact unity with Him if we keep His commandments. What He Himself has to the Father by nature, He gives the same to us to have to Him by goodwill and grace. O terrible promise! The glory that the Father gave to the Son, the Son also gives to us by grace. And, what is above all, just as the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son, so the Son of God is in us and we in Him by grace, if we will. Oh, incomparable grace! The same love with which God and the Father loved His Only Begotten Son and our God, the same one has to abide in us - and the Son of God Himself has to be in us. - And blessedly. For having once become akin to us in the flesh and having made us partakers of His Divinity, He thereby made us all His kinsmen. And in another way (explaining the matter), since the Divinity communicated to us through communication with the Lord is inseparable and inseparable, it is necessary for us, having become truly partakers of this Divinity, to be inseparable from Christ, to be in one spirit one body. And that this is so, as I say, listen to what St. Paul says: in Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither barbarian nor Scythian, but Christ is all things and in all (Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11). You see what he did not say: all are Christians, but all are one Christ, as one body of many members. Listen to how he opens this in another place. Having said that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for the benefit, and having enumerated the various gifts of grace, he then says: all this operates in one and the same Spirit, dividing power to everyone as he wants. And wanting to show that although different powers of the Holy Spirit are given to the holy members of Christ, they all constitute one body, he adds: just as there is one body, and there are many bodies, but all the bodies of one body, being many, are one body: so is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews, Greeks, slaves, or free; and let us all drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one, but many (1 Cor. 12:7, 11-14). Just as in the eternal abodes God gives each saint his due part, as we said before, so in the body of the Church everyone is considered to be such a member of Christ as he is worthy to be. This is shown again by the same Apostle Paul in the same epistle, saying: now God hath set forth the ouds, one of them in the body, as He willed (1 Cor. 12:18). So, there are many members, but one body. Wanting to show the difference between these members and what kind of members they are, he says: you are the body of Christ, and hear from part. And God hath placed them in the Church first, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then powers, also the gifts of healings, intercession, government, birth of tongues (1 Cor. 12:27-28). Have you now seen the difference in the members of Christ? Did you know what kind of members these are? Listen now to the unity of these members with Christ and how Saint Paul explains it in accordance with the Lord. Our Lord said that whatever unity He has with the Father, we have the same unity with Him. And the Apostle Paul says that we have the same unity with Christ as a husband has with his wife and a wife with her husband. It is he who says: wives, obey your husbands, as the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wives, just as Christ is the head of the Church, and He is the Savior of the body. And again: husband, love your wife, just as Christ loved the Church, and gave her to Himself for her sake, that he might sanctify her, cleansing her with the washing of water in the verb; may she present to herself a glorious Church, not having filth or vice, or anything from such, but may she be holy and blameless. A little lower he says again: love your wife (please look more carefully into the meaning of the word), love yourself. No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourished and warmed it, just as the Lord did the Church: for we know His body, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. 5:22–30). You see how he showed us that just as Eve was of the flesh and of the bones of Adam, and they both were one flesh, so Christ teaches us Himself, that we may be partakers of His flesh and His bones, which He showed to the Apostles when, after the resurrection from the dead, He appeared to them and said: Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see Me having ( Luke 24:39 ). These bones and this flesh He gives us to eat in the Most Pure Mysteries, and through this way of communication He makes us one with Himself. And Saint Paul, wanting to show the wonderful unity that we have with God, says after the above words: for this sake a man will leave his father and mother, that is, for the sake of Christ, a man will leave his blood relationship, and will cleave to his wife, that is, to the Church, and the two will become one flesh, that is, into the flesh of Christ and God. And that Paul’s word has precisely this meaning, and that we do not invent it through our own conclusions, this is clear from the words of the Apostle, which he says after this: this is a great mystery: I speak into Christ and into the Church. And truly this mystery is and will remain great, and above all great things. Какое единение, общение, освоение и сроднение имеет жена с мужем и муж с женою, такое же единение и сроднение имеет и Владыка наш и Творец всяческих со всею Церковию, как с единою женою, и бывает едино с нею, и всегда нераздельно пребывает с нею, как с возлюбленною Ему. Но единение сие бывает боголепно, как лепо (достойно. – Ред. ) есть Богу единиться с Церковию, – что и недомыслимо, и неизреченно. Again, the Church unites with the God she loves and cleaves to Him as a body cleaves to its head. Ибо как тело не может жить без своей головы, так и Церковь, – собрание верующих, то есть сынов Божиих, на небесех написанных, не может быть цельным и совершенным телом без главы своей, Христа Бога нашего, и не может жить истинною и вечною жизнию, если не будет питаема от Него каждодневно насущным хлебом, от коего приемлют истинную жизнь все любящие Его, и растут в мужа совершенна, в меру возраста исполнения Его. 7. But I ask, open your ears and listen to what is good, because our word will be about divine things. And, firstly, we need to know what kind of world this is, which must be filled, and, moreover, in such a way that if it is not filled, then the end will not come, according to St. Gregory the Theologian; secondly, you need to know what kind of end he is talking about. I believe that the adorned world is the Church of Christ and all man, in which, as the Scripture says, God dwells and walks (taken from: I will dwell in them and walk around), and sends into him the bright rays of His grace-filled gifts, like the Sun of righteousness. We heard about the Church above that it is called the body of Christ and His Bride, as her bridegroom Saint Paul says: I have betrothed you to one husband to present a pure virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2), - and the prophet David: the queen appeared at Your right hand, clothed in robes of gold and speckled (Ps. 44:10). Although these words refer to the Most Holy Theotokos, they also befit the Church of her Son and God, as the following speech shows: virgins (that is, souls) will be brought to the King in her wake, her sincere (souls) will be brought to You, will be brought in joy and joy, will be brought into the church of the Kings (Ps. 45:15-16). This church, which is spoken of here, what kind of church do you think it is and how does it exist? Do you think that this is some other dwelling, outside and besides this King Himself? No, not something else. For just as Christ is the head of the Church, so He Himself is again its church, just as the Church is the church of Christ, and the beautiful world, as is clear from what we said above - which, however, needs to be retold again for a better understanding of the matter. – Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His Father, in the hearing of the Apostles and all believers: I pray not only for these, but also for those who believe their words for Me; that they all may be one (John 17:20). How can they be one? As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us (John 17:21). Do you see how He is both the King and the church of all those who are being saved? Know also how again, all believers, that is, the Queen - His Church, and the virgins who follow after her, that is, the souls of the faithful, will be the church and world of the King and God. And know this, firstly, from the King Christ Himself, Who says: I am in them, and You, Father, in Me, that they may be perfect in one (John 17:23). Then learn this from His disciple, who says: Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Cor. 3:16). Do you see how the words of the Apostle agree with the words of the Lord Christ? These apostolic words show that the Church is the church, the city, the world of the King of God. And know that God, who spoke then through the Prophets and Apostles, He himself now speaks through them. 8. Since the Church is the body of Christ, and the Bride of Christ, and the upper world, and the church of God, the members of this body are all saints, and yet they have not all been born and have shown themselves to be acceptable, it is clear that the body of Christ is not yet completely whole, that the upper world has not yet been filled, that is, not the entire host of people has entered the Church of God. But even to this day there are still many unbelievers in the world who have to believe in Christ, there are many sinners who have to repent, there are many rebellious people who have to submit to Christ; many are yet to be born and please God before the last trumpet sounds. So, all those foreknown from God must be born and filled with the world that surpasses this world, the Church of the Firstborn, the heavenly Jerusalem; and then the fullness of the body of Christ will be completed, having received into itself all those predestined by God to be conformed to the image of His Son, who are the sons of light and day. All of these are predestined and pre-ordained, and are included among the saved, and have the ability to be united and combined with the body of Christ, which will then become the completely complete and perfect body of Christ, and it will no longer lack a single member. So it is truly, as the Apostle Paul reveals, saying: until we reach all things in the union of faith... in a perfect man, according to the age of the fulfillment of Christ (Eph. 4:13). For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son... and those which He ordained, He also called; and those who were called, these also are justified; and those who are justified, these also you will glorify (Rom. 8:29–30). You see how all the saints are foreordained and predestined. Listen also to how the Apostle says that they are also written in heaven: come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, and to the multitude of angels, the triumph and the Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven (Heb. 12:22-23). If they are written in this way, then it is clear that they were numbered, as it is written: The Lord knows Him who is (2 Tim. 2:19), and as it says in the Gospel: to you also the chief things were counted (Matthew 10:30). If the hair of our head is counted by the omniscient God, are we not even more counted? So, since all the saints are foreknown, predestined and numbered, as they are written by name in heaven, and since they are all members of Christ, and they all have one body of Christ, it is clear that when they are all gathered and make up the full body of Christ, then the upper world, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Church of the firstborn, will be filled, and the body of the Queen of God, the Church, which is the body of Christ God, will appear completely complete and perfect. – Where now are those who, in the vanity of their minds, to their own destruction, invent some kind of abodes outside the kingdom of heaven? Where are those who say: we do not want to enter the kingdom of heaven, because this is too much for us, but we want to be in some place of rest - and that is enough for us? All the saints from all eternity will form one body of Christ; Where do these Hindus (in another place - Ed.) want to be if they turn out to be unworthy to be in the body of Christ and are cut off from it as indecent members? Truly they have become futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts have been darkened: saying that they should be wise, they become fools (Rom. 1:21). 9. Let's see, what kind of mysterious marriage is this? The Holy Gospel says: make the kingdom of heaven like the man king, who married his son (Matthew 22:2). Who does our Lord Jesus Christ call King here? None other than God Himself and His Father. And for whom else did the Father create marriages, except His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ? What kind of king did the Lord of all and the Lord deign to choose as the daughter of His Son? Each of us people, when planning to marry his son, with all his attention looks out for his bride to be the daughter of someone more noble and richer than himself. But who will God find at least somewhat equal to Himself, so that He can take His daughter as a bride to His Son? The prophets say about this king that He is the one who upholds the circle of the earth, and those who live on it are like pruzi (Is. 40:22), the eternal God, the God who built the ends of the earth (Is. 40:28), and having established the pillars of it on nothing (Job 38:6), look down on the earth and make it shake (Ps. 103:32). So, such a King, whose daughter took as his bride and married His Son? Find out whose. But God’s immeasurable condescension makes me frantic. I want to say and I tremble. But, again inspired by His goodness, I accept boldness and say that He took the daughter of a man who sinned against Him, who committed fornication and murder, that is, he took as his bride the daughter of a fornicator and murderer. Do you see the unspeakable and incomparable kindness and condescension? Do you see the despicable (excessive - Ed.) love for humanity? Do you see a sea of ​​love and kindness? After this, let everyone who considers himself great learn from what I say to be humble and never despise anyone, even if he were a king, the greatest of all other kings, or a nobleman, the noblest of all other nobles, or a rich man, the richest of all rich men. Let him look at the Lord and Lord of all, the Holy of Holies, the blessed God and the only Almighty, living in the unapproachable and ineffable light, at Him, I say, let him look at how He condescended so much that He deigned to take the daughter of a fornicator and murderer as a bride to His Only Begotten Son, invisible, incomprehensible, unsearchable, Creator and Creator of all things, for your sake and yours. for the sake of salvation. But who is this fornicator and murderer, whose daughter God chose to be His bride? David, son of Jesse, who killed Uriah and committed adultery with his wife. His daughter, I say, Mary, the most immaculate, pure and most pure Virgin, He took as his bride. I call her most immaculate and most pure, comparing her with us humans, her servants; but, comparing her with her Bridegroom and His Father, I call her a person, like all people, only holy and most holy above all people, immaculate and purest of all generations. So, He took her, the Virgin Mary, as his bride, and made marriages for His son. How? Listen more carefully. The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ sent from the heights of heaven one of His servants, Gabriel the Archangel, to say to the Virgin: Rejoice! He immediately descended to earth and became a minister of the sacrament, saying to the Virgin: Rejoice, full of grace, the Lord is with you! And with this word, the entire hypostatic, consubstantial and coeternal Word of God entered into the womb of the Virgin, and through the influx and assistance of the Spirit consubstantial with Him, He received flesh from her immaculate and pure blood, becoming a perfect man with body and soul. And what an indescribable combination! Behold the mysterious marriage of God! This is how the New Testament union of God with people was completed: He took on flesh and bestowed Godhead. The all-essential, supernatural God himself unfused with the corruptible and poor nature and our human being. The Virgin conceived and wonderfully gave birth to two natures, Divinity and humanity, one Son, perfect God and perfect man, our Lord Jesus Christ, who neither violated the virginity of His mother, nor separated from the bosom of His Father. However, guided by the words of the Holy Gospel, we can think about this and say something else that mysteriously always happens to all the sons of light. For for what reason is it not said: make a marriage for your Son, but marriages? Which one? Because exactly the same marriage happens with every faithful son of the day. God is united with us in a most pure and immaculate marriage and produces in us a certain sacrament that is higher than all human power. What is it that He produces in us? Listen with attention, so that you will understand. After the Son of God and God, having entered into the womb of the Most Holy Virgin and having received from Her human nature and becoming man, was born from Her, as we said, a perfect man and a perfect God, being one and the same, both God and man, unmerged - after this, since we, humans, believe in the Son of God and the Son of the Ever-Virgin and Mother of God Mary, and, believing, accept truly into our hearts We confess this word and verbally, repenting with all our souls of all our previous sins, immediately this God the Word of the Father enters into us, as into the womb of the Ever-Virgin: we accept Him, and He is in us like a seed. Hearing about this terrible sacrament, be horrified, but accept the word about it with faith and conviction. This is how we conceive Him, not physically, as the Virgin and Mother of God Mary conceived, but spiritually, yet essentially. We have in our souls the very same One whom the most immaculate Virgin conceived, as the divine Paul says: The river God made light shine out of darkness, who has risen in our hearts, to enlighten our minds with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6). This is the same as he would say: He Himself all essentially entered into us. And that the word of the Apostle has such a meaning is evident from the words that follow: Imams have this treasure in scanty vessels (7). He calls the Son of God a treasure, in Whom we are clothed with the grace of the Holy Spirit and Whom we have in our hearts. So we, when we believe with all our souls, repent with all contrition, conceive God’s Word in our hearts, as having a Virgin, that is, we too, our souls virgin and pure. And just as the fire of the Divine did not scorch the Most Holy Virgin, since She was immaculate, so it does not scorch us when we have our hearts pure and immaculate, but it becomes in us like heavenly dew, a source of living water, a stream of eternal life. That we in this way accept the unveiled fire of the Divine, listen to this, as the Lord Himself says: the fire came to burst upon the earth (Luke 12:49). What other fire is this, besides the Spirit, consubstantial in Divinity, with Whom the Son and the Father enter into us together and are contemplated? But since the Son of God and God already became incarnate once from the Virgin and was born from Her bodily, more than words and reason, and it is impossible for Him to incarnate again and be born bodily in each of us, what is He doing? That very immaculate flesh, which He received from the Most Pure Mary the Mother of God and in which He was born of Her, He teaches us in the sacrament, and, tasting it, we have within ourselves, of course, each one worthily communing, the whole incarnate God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of the Virgin, the Immaculate Mary, who sits at the right hand of God and the Father, according to the word of Himself: eat My flesh and drink My the blood abides in Me and I in him (John 6:56). Dwelling in us, He is not recognized as existing in us bodily, like the fruit of the womb, as He was in the Most Holy Virgin, but is incorporeally in us, and is united with our being and nature inexpressibly, and deifies us, so we become co-corporeal with Him, becoming flesh of His flesh and of His bones. And this is the great fruit of the ineffable economy and condescension of our Lord to us! This is a terrible mystery, about which I write in trembling! But since God wants His love for us to be clearly presented to everyone, so that sometimes we too would think about His great goodness and, being ashamed, become jealous and ourselves perceive love for Him, then I moved to announce this sacrament to you in writing. Otherwise, I am proving that some person is likened to the Most Holy Virgin, who gave birth to the Lord, in the image of Her ineffable birth. It won't happen. There is no way this can happen; because the other is the incarnate birth of God the Word, which was from the Most Holy Theotokos, and the other is that which happens spiritually in us. In that incarnate birth, in which the Most Holy Theotokos gave birth to the Son of God and God incarnate, the mystery of the re-creation of the human race and the salvation of the whole world took place, which is our Lord and God Jesus Christ, who united in Himself the divergent natures - God and man, and bore the sin of the world. And this spiritual birth accomplishes in us the mystery of the renewal of human souls, by the grace of the Holy Spirit uniting and combining us with the incarnate Son of God and God, through whom we received and were sick in the womb, and gave birth to the spirit of salvation (Is. 26:18). I proclaim this in order to clearly present the inexpressible love of God for us and the fact that if we want, then we all, in the way explained above, can become the mother of Jesus Christ the Lord and His brothers, and like His disciples and Apostles, not according to their dignity and not according to the labors that they have undertaken in preaching the Gospel, but by the grace of God, which He richly pours out on those who believe in Him and following Him, without turning back, as Christ Himself clearly proclaims this to everyone, saying: These are my mother and my brethren, who hear the word of God and do it (Luke 8:21). Do you see how He elevates all those who hear His word and do it to the rank of His mother and calls them His brothers and relatives? But in the thing itself, His Matter is the Most Holy Theotokos, who inexpressibly gave birth to Him incarnate, and the saints all conceive and have Him in their souls by grace. From His most immaculate Mother He borrowed the most pure flesh, and gave Her Divinity instead of the flesh that She had given Him. O wonderful and wonderful exchange! And He does not borrow flesh from the saints, but He gives them His own deified flesh. Think how great the depth of this sacrament is! The fire of the Divinity of our Savior and God is from the being and nature of the Father, and His flesh is not from there, but from the most pure and holy flesh of the Mother of God and from Her most pure blood. From Her He took flesh, made it His own and deified it, according to the word of the Gospel, which reads: and the Word became flesh (John 1:14). And now He teaches this flesh to His saints - He, the Son of God the Father and the Most Holy Theotokos Mary. From the nature and being of His ever-present Father He gives them the grace of the Spirit, that is, Divinity, as He says through the Prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28), that is, those who believe, and from the being and nature of His Mother He gives the flesh that He received from Her. And just as from His fulfillment, that is, from the Divinity, we all partake (John 1:16), so we all partake of His most pure flesh, which He received from His Mother. And just as Christ and our God became Her Son and our brother, so we, O ineffable love for mankind, become the sons of the Mother of God, His Mother, and His brothers, Christ and our God. From Her and in Her, the Son of God was incomprehensibly born, and from Him all the saints were and are born. The Mother of God received, as a seed, the Word of God and the Father, conceived and gave birth to Him alone, born of the Father before all ages and incarnate from Her in recent years. She gave birth to only one, and He, Her Son, gives birth every day to those who believe in Him and keep His commandments. The seed of a mortal and corruptible husband gave birth and gives birth to corruptible and mortal sons from his wife, and the immortal and incorruptible incarnate Word of the immortal and incorruptible God gave birth and always gives birth to immortal and incorruptible sons. Just as He Himself was the first born in the Holy Spirit from the Most Holy Theotokos, and from Him are all the saints, then the Mother of God is the Mother of all saints, the Lady, the Queen and the Lady, and all the saints are Her slaves, since She is the Mother of God. They are also Her sons, because they partake of the most pure flesh of Her Son. This word is true, because the flesh of the Lord is the flesh of the Mother of God. And when we partake of this deified flesh of the Lord, we confess and believe that we partake of eternal life, except perhaps if we partake of it unworthily, to our own condemnation. So the saints are relatives of the Mother of God for three reasons: the first is that they have a body from the same earth and a soul from the same breath of God; the second is that which partakes of the flesh that Christ received from Her; the third is that each of them, by the sanctification and grace of the Spirit descending on them, receives and has in himself the God of all, just as the Most Holy Theotokos received and had Him in herself. For although She gave birth to Him bodily, there is no doubt that She had Him within Her completely and spiritually, and now has Him always inseparable from Her. This is the sacrament of marriages that God and the Father created for His equal, consubstantial and co-essential Only Begotten Son, and called many to him. He sent His servants to call those invited to the marriages, but they did not want to go. Who were these messengers? Prophets. What about those invited? Jews. They were called then and from the very beginning, but they did not want to listen to those who called. Then, says the Gospel, the King Father sent other servants, saying: shout to those who are invited: behold, my dinner is prepared, my young men and the well-fed one, and everything is ready, come to the weddings. They carelessly left for their village, and for their purchases. The rest, eating his servants, annoyed them and killed them (Matthew 22:4-6). Whom does the Lord call here as the second servants sent? His Holy Apostles. What kind of lunch is this? The kingdom of heaven, which God prepared from the foundation of the world for those who are called and come to it of their own free will. Who does He call young and well-fed? The very Son of the Ever-Virgin and God, Who is a calf fed from the creation of the world, destined for this purpose, that is, to be sacrificed and to be devoured. He is also a youth, as if invincible in His strength. He is called youths here, in the plural, because His holy flesh is divided into many particles, each of which is again the whole Christ. He is so powerful that He conquers all the enemies of those who partake of Him, and He gives them the strength to conquer the world and become children of God. He is also called the one-year-old lamb, the all-immaculate Lamb of God, as the most perfect that He was. He wears a cross like horns, with which (with the cross) He gave a deadly blow to our enemy the devil, when the Jews crucified Him on Him and killed Him. Other slaves, as I said, are what the Lord here calls the holy Apostles, whom He sent to convene to preach, commanding them not to go into the way of the tongue, and not to enter the city of Samaritan, but rather to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, that is, to the Jews, but they did not accept the Apostles, and some of them were reviled and beaten, and others were completely killed, among whom is the first martyr Stephen. And when that king heard about this, he became angry and sent out his howl, destroying their murderers and setting their city on fire (Matthew 22:7). The Lord calls the wicked Jews whom He beat, destroyed and devastated through Roman soldiers as murderers. For even the wicked are called God’s warriors when they are sent to punish other wicked ones, as the prophet David says: He sent upon her the wrath of his wrath, wrath and wrath and sorrow, a message sent by fierce angels (Ps. 77:49). Then, finally, the king spoke to his servant: for you are ready to marry, but you are not worthy of the title. Go, for to the beginning of the ways, and if you find any, call them to marriages (Matthew 22:8–9). Do you see the consistency and order of things? Do you see the accuracy of the parable? – Then the verb: when is this? When the Jews, called by the Apostles to the kingdom of heaven, not only did not want to listen to them, but reviled them and killed them. Then He already sent them to the whole world, to all languages. And when they left, the parable goes on to say, they went to the crossroads, gathered everyone, and found many, both good and evil; and the marriage of those reclining was fulfilled (Matthew 22:10). The apostles went around the entire universe, preaching the word of God, and gathered into the unity of faith and knowledge of God all those who obeyed them and who were evil, but turned away from their evil deeds and became good. The king came in to see those reclining, and saw that the man was not clothed in a wedding robe; and the verb said to him: friend, why did you come in without a wedding garment? He kept silent. Then the king spoke to the servants: having tied his hand and nose, take him and throw him into utter darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are the callings, but few are the chosen (Matthew 22:11–14). Do you see what the Lord says? That those who give up evil and become good and virtuous gather for marriages; those who have any wickedness or evil in themselves, although they enter into marriages, are cast out and driven out in shame by the angels, who are here called servants. Those who remained seated at the wedding table are the saints. However, I know some who think that by not having the wedding garment we should here mean those who have desecrated their bodies through fornication, adultery and murder, but this is not so. Anyone defiled by any passion or sinful inclination does not have a wedding robe. And that this is true, listen to what St. Paul says: do not flatter yourselves: neither harlots... nor adulterers... nor harlots, nor sodomites, nor covetous people (who are also called idolaters), nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor extortioners (but I will also say on my own behalf, neither those who have hatred or envy of any brother) will inherit the kingdom of God ( 1 Cor. 6:9–10), and have no part or place in the marriage celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see how every passion and every sin defiles the garment of our soul and drives us out of the kingdom of heaven? 10. Let us abandon vain and useless research and stop striving to find out what is beyond our strength, following the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who says: try the scriptures (John 5:39) - try it, and do not get carried away by much inquisitiveness and questioning. Do not go into the search for what is outside the Divine Scriptures, but try the Scriptures in order to know everything about faith, love and hope. About faith - so as not to be blown away (to be overwhelmed. - Ed.) by every wind, that is, so as not to be wavered by every alien heretical teaching, as is characteristic of unconfirmed and fickle people, but to be firm in the right dogmas of the Apostolic and Ecumenical Church, and to philosophize correctly about the objects of faith; and not only that, but to know and learn how to acquire the fruit of faith and the good that comes from it through fulfilling the commandments of God. When you acquire the fruit of faith, then you will acquire firm and unashamed hope, and with it you will also acquire perfect love for God. For it is impossible for any person to acquire perfect love for God except through pure faith and firm and undoubted hope. Why did we leave ourselves to test and examine ourselves according to those virtues about which we spoke - to investigate, for example, whether we have such faith in God as He Himself commands to have, He who judges us and demands such faith from us - and we try to find out what is beyond our strength, we, who do not know well what is before our eyes? But what is the faith that God requires of us and which we are all obliged to have in Him? He Himself revealed this to us in the Holy Gospel, saying: if he wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me (Luke 9:23). If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and also his own soul, he cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:26). And again: whoever wants to save his soul will destroy it; and whoever loses his soul for the sake of Me and the Gospel will save it (Mark 8:35) - and again: he who loves his soul will lose it; and you who hate your life in this world will keep it for eternity (John 12:25). Have you heard what are the signs of true faith? Is what I have said enough for you, or do you need me to remind you and have nothing else to say? If you want to know that God requires from us such faith that we have absolutely no concern for this life, but place all our hope regarding it on Him alone, learn this from the Lord Himself, Who clearly proclaims: do not worry about the words: what we eat, or what we drink, or what we wear (Matthew 6:31). And little by little, raising us to the most perfect, he says: if someone strikes you on the right side of your cheek, give him the other one too. And whoever wants to sue you and take your robe, let him and the swearer go (Matthew 5:39-40). And do not torture from him who takes yours (Luke 6:30). Wanting to raise us to the extreme measure of excess in faith, he commands us to love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who harm us (Matthew 5:44). And He commands us to do many other things. By all this, firstly, it is revealed what kind of faith we should have in God, and secondly, it is revealed that only then should we be called truly faithful when we fulfill His commandments. For without such works our faith is dead, and we are still dead. Test yourself, brother, to the best of your ability, and if you find that you lack nothing in what has been said, but do everything with great zeal and a warm heart, then you will understand that along with the light of faith you also have unashamed hope; not that hope that is generated by conceit and vanity in the perishing, and which hope of delusion and lies cannot be known by any of those who nourish it, but hope, I say, good, true, and which comes along with the true and undeceiving light of faith, and on top of which you will see sitting, as on Cherubim, love, which is God. When you find this love in this way and see it, from then on you will not want to torture much about anything future and invisible, you will even force others not to talk about anything like that, you will begin to convince them not to torture about any of this and not to start disputes and competitions about what will happen in another life, since you yourself have learned from that experience that everything future and invisible is inexplicable and unthinkable. If you have not yet done what can make you the first to know that you are a truly faithful Christian - but by comparison with the unfaithful, you are faithful, and by comparison with the faithful, you are convicted in your conscience as an unfaithful - and you still do not have perfect hope and assurance that you have to be among the saved, and you cannot say, as St. Paul said: you have fought the good fight, but you have passed away in faith. complied Otherwise, the crown of righteousness is kept for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will reward me with in the day (2 Tim. 4:7-8), why are you torturing and asking to know whether the saints will know each other in the kingdom of heaven when they come to the contemplation of God, who is above all, and will see Him? Tell me, what benefit do you get from this research? I would like to know from you what benefit you will receive, who do not have a part with Christ, but, as we said, are convicted by your conscience that you have not kept His commandments, if you learn about the peace, glory, consolation and blessed state of the saints, which they will be honored with in the kingdom of heaven? You will probably not receive any benefit, but you will even incur condemnation on yourself because, despite all that you have learned such lofty objects, you despise them and do not want to cast aside conceit and vanity and acquire humility. But I will ask you one more thing, and you answer me calmly and meekly; if, for example, some small child who has not yet learned the first letters of the alphabet - if, I say, such a child begins to ask for an interpretation of what relates to grammar and rhetoric, then what reasonable person would agree to answer such unreasonable questions with at least one word, and would not rather dismiss him as senseless, childishly philosophizing and searching uselessly for something that is beyond his strength? If it is fair to act this way in this earthly and insignificant case, shouldn’t it be all the more appropriate to act this way in relation to that which is above words, and reason, and any feeling. However, even if someone does not learn to read himself, then there is nothing strange and wondrous if, listening to works written by the Hellenes, he understands them as if they were written in his own language, and about objects that do not exceed his meaning, for the words of the Hellenes are for sensual things, and their stories are vain and about vain things. But the items you are asking about are not like that. They are hidden and unthinkable mysteries, as the Prophet David says: bow the heavens and descend, and darkness under His feet (Ps. 17:10). What darkness is this? Flesh of the Lord. He descended and took on flesh like a dark cloud. Further the Prophet says: and mount the Cherubim and fly, fly on the wing of the wind. And cover Your darkness (Ps. 17:11,12). Do you see that your torture concerns not simple sensory things, but divine, incomprehensible objects, which are not easily understood by everyone? If the Lord Himself put the darkness under the cover of His mysteries, and some great light of the All-Holy Spirit is needed to understand His hidden mysteries, then you, who have not yet become the abode of this light, how do you try to know what you do not have the strength to know, as you are still imperfect and unenlightened? But so that you do not think that just as you sit in darkness, so the Lord entered into darkness and hid (was covered in darkness), for this Saint David also says: His village is around Him (Ps. 17:12). Saint Paul calls this village light: in the light the living is unapproachable (1 Tim. 6:16). However, both of them, the Prophet David and the Apostle Paul, when, wanting to show that His Divinity is incomprehensible, one says that His village is around Him, and the other that He lives in an inaccessible light, they not only show that God is somehow limited and described, but they use such a figurative expression for the inquisitive, as if saying to them: O foolish inquirers, do not think that our Lord and God, having ascended, entered into some darkness and hid. He always abides in the glory of His Divinity, which fills everything and is more (more expansive) than everything in which glory He abided before everything happened; but may we not perish completely from the lightning flashes of His Divinity, He laid darkness for His blood, which covered not Him, but us, for our God, says Scripture, is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29) not of the righteous, but of sinners. So, beloved, you learned in a few words the divine and terrible mysteries of our faith; I learned that God descended to earth and again ascended to heaven and put darkness for His shelter. For it is not fitting for Him to be revealed to us in the glory of His Father, that is, in the divine, before the future judgment, but it is fitting for this to happen when the Father pleases, Who has determined the time that is in His power. If thus the secrets of the kingdom of heaven are hidden and, according to the word of the Lord, no one is given to know them, then why have you abandoned doing His commandments and are asking about the secrets that are hidden from all people? For behold, you hear the Apostle Paul, who speaks of this: eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the heart of man has not conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Cor. 2:9). But before His ascension into heaven and the position of darkness for His blood, the Lord gave us the commandments as some tools (master’s tools), He also gave us faith in Him as a kind of artist and craftswoman, so that in this way we would be crafted vessels - faith as an artist, and the commandments as tools through which faith, or the all-worthy Word, creates and renews us when we are doers of His commandments and doing we are purified by them, and, succeeding in this, we are illuminated by the Holy Spirit and receive knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And just as neither tools without an artist, nor an artist without tools can make any vessel, so neither faith without doing the commandments, nor doing the commandments without faith, renews and recreates us, or makes us new from the old. When we acquire both of these with an undivided heart, that is, both faith and commandments, and we become a useful vessel for the Lord Christ, fit to receive the spiritual world, then the Lord, who laid down darkness for His shelter, renews the grace of the Holy Spirit in us, makes us from the old new, raises us alive from the dead, dispels darkness, guides our minds to this country (on the other side. - Ed. ) of this darkness, and gives him the grace to peer there and, as if through some small hole, see there as much light as is seen in the circle of the sun or moon. Through such contemplation he learns, or, better to say, is enlightened and knows with conviction that those who believe in Christ, and especially those baptized as infants, and who do not feel the action of God’s grace within themselves, cannot have even the smallest part in the ineffable blessings of God in any other way than by humility of heart, undoubted faith and whole-hearted will (devote themselves to serving God), that is, not otherwise than if they begin to observe all the commandments God, they will reject the world and everything in the world, together with their wishes, willingly and joyfully they will begin to bear all the labors and endure all the temptations that they inevitably experience on the path of virtue. You, having read this, examine yourself not in exaltation of false knowledge of external wisdom and not under the accumulation of vain thoughts, with fear and trembling. And if you want to know what your life is like and what your condition is, ask your soul and tell it: soul, have you fulfilled all the commandments of God or not? And she, having opened the mouth of her conscience, will certainly tell you the real truth. She will not be ashamed of you, but she will expose you and show you what treasures you have hidden in yourself, good or bad. In the testimony of your conscience you will find whether you loved the world or preferred God to the world; whether you sought human glory or desired the glory of God; and I’ll say briefly, if you look into your conscience and feel everything there, like in some chest, taking out what is there one by one, then you will know everything completely and completely. For suppose in your mind that in the chest of the conscience of your soul there are idols of love of glory and vanity, idols of man-pleasing, sweets (sweets) of human praise, outfits, pretense and hypocrisy, the seed of the love of money and many other passions, some covered by others. Then, having gone through and reconsidered all this, you will have to admit that you have accumulated bad treasures for yourself. - However, I am compelled to note that if on top of all this you have arrogance and pride (for, as the Apostle Paul says, the mind is arrogant - (1 Cor. 8:1), and with arrogance is inseparable conceit, telling us that we mean something when we are nothing - if, I say, these passions lie on top of all those mentioned above, then you have no opportunity to know either them or those that are under them. And when you became If anyone accuses you of them, you will boldly answer that you don’t see anything like that in yourself, and no matter how much someone convinces you of this, you won’t believe it. Tell me now - if you do not believe and do not see that there is a veil on your heart that covers such passions, and you naturally do not have the desire to remove this veil from your heart in order to see the passions that it hides underneath, and then lament over your unfortunate soul, strive to cleanse it, wash its intelligent eyes and face with warm tears, reject all wisdom and all external knowledge and, having obeyed the Apostle Paul, to become a buoy for this world in order to become wise in Christ - tell me, if you have all this, then how can I tell you about God and divine things, hidden and invisible, when you are in a state of such foolishness and lack of meaning? And won’t you yourself condemn me for doing something completely inappropriate? You will probably say to yourself: truly, this man is useless and senseless, explaining to me, who is not disposed and unable to listen, about the mysteries, invisible and unthinkable, not only for every breath that exists under the heavens, but also for every creation that exists above the heavens. For if the Angels did not know the first coming of the Lord to earth, did not know what kind it was, or when our Lord would descend to become man, is it not even more unknown to them when His second coming in glory will take place, and what it will be like, and what kind of things He will then bestow upon His saints? That what I said is true, this is confirmed by the divine Paul, saying: let the manifold wisdom of God now be revealed as the ruler and authority of the heavenly Church (Eph. 3:10). And about His future coming, the Lord said that then the powers of heaven would move (Matthew 24:29), that is, the Angels would be amazed at suddenly seeing something they had never imagined before. If, therefore, the powers of heaven do not know what will happen then, then how dare you say that then the saints, having been granted the sight of God, will not know each other in the kingdom of heaven? And you are another, contradicting the first and claiming that then the saints will know each other, where did you know this? O folly! O fury and blindness! Aren't you horrified, people? Aren't you trembling with fear? - You, both sides, will be condemned by a righteous and impartial Judge from your words: to those who say that the saints will then not see and know each other, but with all their feelings they will see the one God, being united with Him entirely, the Lord will say this: O people! Have you recognized Me? Have you seen My light? Have you accepted Me inside yourself? Have you known the actions of My Spirit through the most experience and experience, or not? And they, I am sure of this, will not dare to say: yes, Master, we have seen You and known You through the very experience of the action of Your Spirit. For if they tell Him this, He will answer them: but if you have experienced all this in fact, then how can you say that those who will have Me living in them forever will not know each other? I am the unfalse God, the true God, the holy God, who dwells in His saints. How do I live in them? As I am in the Father and the Father in Me, so are the saints in Me and I in them. As the Father is within Me, and I am again within my Father: so I will be a dweller within all the saints, and the saints will be dwellers within Me. – I am in My Father and the Father is in Me; and just as the Father knows Me, so I know the Father, hence it is clear that the saints know Me, and I know the saints, and that in the same way the saints know and will know each other. However, so that this is clear to the most insensitive, I will also say that it will dwell in all the saints. So, when the books of each person’s conscience are opened, then if nothing else is found in the hearts and consciences of sinners, then there will be conceit, or vanity, or envy, or something else similar; if nothing of the kind is found, then in every possible way there will be laziness and negligence about doing the commandments of God, therefore, a lack of love for Him. For this reason their eyes will be darkened so as not to see, and they will be put to shame when they hear: Because you did not do one of the least of My commandments, and despised it, you did not do it to Me. Depart from Me into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41, 45). – And again, when the books of the consciences of the saints are opened, then Christ and our God, who now dwells in them in secret, will shine in them, and the saints will become like Him, the Most High God. Where can you see this? Listen to Christ the Savior Himself, Who says: then the righteous women will be as bright as the sun (Matthew 13:43). What other time is He talking about if not the time of His second coming? And about what other sun, if not about Himself, called the Sun of righteousness, shining and shining in His saints? John, the confidant of the Lord, clearly says this: Beloved, now we are children of God, and it was not revealed that we shall be; We know that when He appears, we will be like Him (1 John 3:2). And the Apostle Paul: Now I understand in part, but then I will know, even as I was known (1 Cor. 13:12). If, in this way, the saints will be like God and know God as much as God knows them, and if, as the Father knows the Son and the Son of the Father, so the saints will see and know each other, even those who have never seen each other in this world will know themselves mutually, then are you not ashamed to speak and teach about what you do not know, as if you had become rich even in such knowledge that exceeds our strength, and as if you were appointed teachers from God? For just as it is impossible that the Father should not know the Son, or the Son the Father, so it is impossible that the saints, who have become gods by grace, as if they had God living within them, should not know each other; but they will see the glory of one another, and each his own glory, just as the Son sees the glory of the Father and the Father the Son. But what kind of glory will this be for the saints? - The same as the glory of the Son of God. This He Himself revealed with His own lips, saying: And I have given the glory that You have given Me, that He may give it to them, that they may be one, even as We are one (John 17:22). Do you see that the glory that was given from God the Father to the Son before the ages, that same glory was given from the Son to His saints, and that they are all one? So, those who say that the saints will not see and know each other when they are worthy of the sight of God, truly walk in darkness, have not yet come into communion with God and have not truly known God, but they say and affirm what they have not known and have never come to contemplate. They say that the saints will then be in a kind of ecstasy, in a kind of admiration, just as here they sometimes come into such divine admiration, and will forget both themselves and all others who are with them. And it is clear from such words that they poorly understand the Divine Scripture when they believe that the saints will then have the same change and admiration that happens to them here. Hearing that when such and such a saint came to the contemplation of God, his mind was delighted, and he spent so many days and nights, completely not remembering anything earthly, but along with everything else he forgot his own body, being nailed to the contemplation of it with all his soul and all his feelings - hearing, I say, about this, they believe that something similar will happen in another life in the kingdom of heaven, completely not understanding the divine and spiritual things and invisible mysteries of the invisible God, unthinkable and beyond the knowledge of the unenlightened. They do not know that such admiration of the mind occurs not among the perfect, but among beginners. Just as someone born in a dark prison, illuminated by the weak light of a small lamp, sees with difficulty and vaguely what is in his prison, not knowing at all that outside that prison there is the light of the sun and many other beautiful things and creations of God that are part of the visible world, so someone who is still in the dark prison of passions and feelings of this world, if he is enlightened by some small knowledge (from Divine Scripture), with difficulty, little and darkly imagines the sacraments of faith ours, but about God’s eternal treasures, about what those blessings that the saints will enjoy in the future life, has absolutely no idea. And just as someone who is in prison - if, among the many years he spends there, a small crack in the roof of the prison somehow accidentally opens, and he suddenly sees, as much as the size of the crack allows, the light of heaven, which he had never seen or imagined before - he suddenly goes into a frenzy, and, as if beside himself, looks up for a long hour with all his eyes and marvels at the sight suddenly revealed to him, so is the one who, freed from the bonds of passions and feelings, suddenly comes into contemplation of the intelligent light, is suddenly amazed and overwhelmed with surprise, and by those who do not know such a state, he is considered to have lost his temper, while he is completely concentrated in himself with his mind, and is amazed at this bright vision that he has been honored with. And again, like someone in prison, if he often and every hour looks through the hole, then from a long stay in such light he gets used to that light, and at the same time his first great amazement is diminished little by little (as the same thing happens in us in relation to the sun: we are used to seeing it every day and we think that it is not a thing that we should give all our attention to it. But if we assume that we, from the time of birth until now, have never Having seen the sun, now if only we suddenly saw it before our eyes, then, of course, from great amazement we would lose our temper and become speechless), and the soul, little by little succeeding in the spiritual and getting used to the intellectual light, is no longer amazed by the intelligent light as it was the first time, because from this small light it sees, it concludes that there is also a more perfect light. And again, just as someone who has been imprisoned from birth, because of the small amount of light visible to him, begins, after a long time, to understand that he really is in prison and that outside this prison there are certain wonderful things about which he cannot form an idea of what they are, but when he is freed and leaves the prison, he sees the whole light and everything that is in this light, so, suppose, it happens with a person who has first come out a little from the bonds of the flesh and has become outside this world and all visible things. Imagine in your mind that this whole world is a dark, lightless prison and that the light of our sun is the same as the light of a small lamp that weakly illuminates everyone in this prison, and outside it is the Trinitarian Light, the highest of all light, all word and reason, ineffable, inconceivable and inaccessible, illuminating everything that is invisible, unknown and inexplicable for those in the prison of this world. (Although there are some who think that they understand this and contemplate with the help of the Divine Scriptures; but there are also those - and isn’t it the majority of those who do not know at all that besides these visible things there are invisible and incomprehensible). - So, when we, with all our zeal, with all our faith and love, seek not to see that light that is outside this prison of the world, and those things that are in that light and in that world (for none of those who have sought this has ever been worthy or will ever be worthy of seeing it), but we seek in advance to preserve the commandments of God, to repent, to contrite and humble ourselves, then something small will be revealed to us. there is a hole in this visible blood of heaven, and through it a somewhat immaterial and mental light will appear, existing above the heavens, which as soon as the soul sees, the entire soul comes into admiration and stands amazed at the vision of this new and glorious miracle, never seen before by it; being caught up into heaven, she is forced to remain there, immersing her thoughts in that unthinkable light, as if it is unevening and unceasing, and immersed in contemplation of it day and night, and no longer has the desire to return again to the prison of the world and look at the things that are in it. And this contemplation, as I said, is the contemplation of beginners who have recently embarked on the feat of virtues. But when a person remains for a long time in such contemplation of this light, without returning back to the world, then the sky is opened to him, or the eye of his heart, that is, the mind - he cannot say definitely - it is opened, I say, whether the mind is more, or the sky - and this light enters inside his soul, a bright and wonderful light, and enlightens him in proportion to how much his human nature can contain, or how much he worthy of it. If he abides in this light, then this light will also abide in him, by which, being enlightened, he will behold and imagine mystery after mystery and miracle after miracle, ascending from contemplation to contemplation, which all if any of them wanted to describe, there would not be enough paper, no ink, and time, I think, would not be enough to set out everything in detail. More truly, how can one describe or retell something that cannot be expressed in words, as ineffable and unspeakable? Being in this light, or, better to say, with this light, he is not in a frenzy, but sees himself and what is around him, that is, he sees what state he is in and what state others are in; He also foreknows and predicts that when he comes out of this prison of the world and the body - and especially after the resurrection - then he will certainly see that non-evening light, as much as it will be possible for him to see it, and the good things that are in it, which no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9). But since he will see them as they are prepared from God for those who love Him and are received by them, then it is obvious that with the entry into this light we will not lose the ability to know and see each other, but, having tasted its radiance and the contemplation of its purest light, we will know and see both God and each other, in the purest and ineffable joy and joy forever and ever. So, those who say that the saints in the next century will not know each other, let them be convinced otherwise from what I have said. But they will do even better if, having stopped torturing untested secrets, they begin to test themselves in what state they are in. But you, who do not know at all what I was talking about, and have not yet acquired the sense, experience and contemplation of this light, how do you not tremble to speak and write about such sacraments? If we give an account for every idle word, will we not be even more condemned and punished for such words? An idle word is not only a useless word; but idle (αργος - unmade) should also be called such a word that we speak before we do it by deed and know by experience what we are talking about. If I, without despising the glory of this world and not rejecting it with all my soul, that is, when it destroys my soul and deprives me of the glory of God, teach others to run away from it, then will not my word be idle, idle, empty, and will I not be condemned as a liar? And again, if I, having not received with consciousness and feeling the mental grace of the Holy Spirit, having not become taught from God through this grace and not being vouchsafed to receive from above the words of wisdom and reason, without restraint I strive to interpret and explain the Divine Scriptures and act in the rank of teacher, armed only with external wisdom, then will the Lord leave this without reproof, will He not demand an account of this from me? Of course he won't leave it like that. And if you wish, then learn from the lower and human the divine and heavenly. Who, I ask you, of people, even if he surpassed everyone in wisdom and reason and knowledge of the laws, even if he was adorned with all righteousness and piety, would dare to sit himself as a judge among judges and, calling himself an authoritative person, issue laws for others? If anyone dares to do this, will he not be put to shame by the king and punished to the fullest extent of the laws? If no one of sound mind dares to show such disrespect to the earthly king and dares to admire his honor and dignity, then you, man, how dare you despise the King of Heaven and dare to admire your teaching dignity without His will and desire? And while doing this, do you think that God will leave it without charging you? No, he won't leave. But, oh Lord! Grant us Your Divine grace, that we may know You, and may have Your saving fear, and may we abide in Your will as it should be. I ask you, brethren, to refrain from unnecessary research and disputes, but try even more to cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit by repentance, tears, humility and fulfillment of all commandments, so that you may be worthy to receive both present and future benefits - spiritual, in revelation, feeling and contemplation - by the grace and love of mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Him to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, honor and worship now and forever, and forever and ever. Amen. You might be interested in: