Слово 59

(1) Every Christian needs to participate in the grace of the Holy Spirit. – (2) It is impossible for the deeds of virtue to be firm and lasting except through the grace of the Holy Spirit, without which no one can successfully walk the path of virtue, or use others, or accept and resolve other people’s thoughts. – (3) The Trinitarian Deity is equal in everything (that is, all persons are equal in everything). 1. So the lamp, although it is full of oil and has a wick, but, if it is not lit by fire, remains completely dark, so the soul, apparently adorned with all the virtues, if it does not become a participant in the light and grace of the Holy Spirit, is still extinguished and darkened, and its deeds are still unstable, for they must be exposed and revealed by the light (Eph. 5:13). So, for whom the lamp of the soul is still extinguished and dark, he needs divine light, which would illuminate the lamp of his soul in him and teach him to discuss his deeds, ask for forgiveness for sins through confession and correct every hour what he does wrong and bad. For just as it is impossible for someone who walks into a dark night not to stumble, so it is impossible for someone who has not yet seen the divine light not to stumble, as Christ the Lord says: if anyone walks in the days, he will not stumble, for he sees the light of this world. If anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, for there is no light in him (John 11:9-10). By saying: there is no light in him, he pointed to the divine and immaterial light, because no one can acquire or have sensual light in himself. 2. So, just as there is absolutely no benefit for someone who walks in darkness to hold in their hands many unlit, although serviceable, lamps, because even with them he still cannot see himself or anyone else, so the one who thinks that he has all the virtues in himself (if this is possible), but does not have the light of the All-Holy Spirit, cannot see well and as befits his deeds, nor can he be completely convinced that they are pleasing to God; Nor can he lead others and tell them what God’s will is for them; He is unworthy to accept the thoughts of others and to confess others until he acquires the light of the Holy Spirit, which would shine within him. Christ the Lord says: walk until you have light, so that darkness does not have you; and he who walks in darkness knows not how he walks (John 12:35). So, if the one who walks in darkness himself does not know where to go, then how can he show others the way? If someone puts an unlit lamp on a candlestick, on which there is no other light to shine, what is the benefit? No one should do this, but should act as God has determined for everyone in the Holy Gospel: no one has lit a lamp, put it in a hidden place, not in a hidden place, but in a candlestick, so that those who enter may see the light (Luke 11:33). Having said this, He also indicates a sign by which one can recognize who has become light and has light in himself: saying: The lamp of the body is the eye (Luke 11:34). What other eye does He mean here besides the mind? This eye cannot be simple if it does not see simple (pure) light. Simple (pure) light is Christ. So, whoever has the light of Christ in him, which would shine in his mind, he is said to have the mind of Christ. When your eye, that is, your mind, is simple, that is, bright, then your incorporeal body, that is, all parts of your soul will be bright; and vice versa, when your mind is evil, that is, darkened and extinguished, then your whole soul will be dark. So, judge well, is not the darkness and the light that is in you? Consider also kindly, don’t you think that you have something that you have not yet acquired? Consider this well, so as not to be deceived and think that there is light in you, when it is not light, but darkness. Take heed to yourselves, my brothers, so that this does not happen to you either: while you think that you are with God and have communion with Him, then it turns out that you are outside, distant from Him, for the reason that you do not see His light in real life. For if the divine light were to kindle your lamps, that is, your souls, then it would clearly shine in you, as our Lord Jesus Christ said, that if your mind is bright, then your soul will not have a single part of darkness, but will be all bright, just as when a lamp illuminates you with its light. What other evidence greater than this can I give you to convince you? If you do not believe the Lord Christ, then tell me, how will you believe me, your fellow servant? But what should I say to those who love to be famous and eminent, who are priests, abbots, teachers and confessors, who want to accept other people’s thoughts and say that they are worthy of having the power to bind and decide - when I see that they do not know anything that is necessary in the order of life according to God, and they do not teach others this and do not introduce them to the light of knowledge, so that they know and understand what is necessary for their salvation? What else will I say besides what Christ says to the lawyers: woe to you lawyers, for you have taken the key of understanding; You yourselves are not seen, and those who enter are forbidden (Luke 11:52). Truly, what is the key of understanding other than the grace of the Holy Spirit given for the sake of faith? This grace opens our imprisoned and darkened mind and imparts to it true knowledge and knowledge of divine enlightenment. 3. The door is the Son, as He Himself says: I am the door (John 10:9). The key to this door is the Holy Spirit: receive, he says, the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven them, and whose sins you hold, they hold on (John 20:22-23). And the house is the Father: in the house of My Father, he says, there are many mansions (John 14:2). Listen carefully to the power of the word. If the key does not open (why He Himself says: for this reason the doorkeeper opens, John 10:3), the door will not open, and if the door does not open, then no one will enter the Father’s house, as Christ says: no one will come to the Father except by Me (John 14:6). And that the Holy Spirit first opens our minds and teaches us about the Father and the Son, Christ Himself said about this again: when the Comforter comes... The Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, bears witness to Me... and will guide you into all truth (John 15:26, 16:13). You see that the Father and the Son are known through the Spirit, and, better to say, in the Spirit. And again the Lord says: unless I go, the Comforter will not come to you (John 16:7). And when he comes, he will remember everything to you (John 14:26). And he also says: If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that the Spirit of truth may be with you forever. And he adds a little lower: on that day (when the Holy Spirit comes into you) you will understand that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you (John 14:15–17,20). And again he says: John baptized with water, but you must be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). And it is necessary, for whoever is not baptized with the Holy Spirit can be neither the son of God nor a joint heir with Christ. So the Lord said to Peter the Apostle: I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19). Of course, He did not say that He would give him copper or silver keys, but keys worthy of his house, that is, the Holy Spirit. If you want to know what kind of house this is, listen to what St. Paul says in his letter to Timothy: blessed and only mighty King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, and is unapproachable in the living light (1 Tim. 6:15-16). If, therefore, this house is an impregnable light, it is clear that the door of that house is also impregnable. And the key cannot open the door in any way if it is not impregnable and is not of the same nature with it, but will be burned by the door, just as the door will be burned by the house if it does not have the same nature with it. And it will happen that this house will remain impregnable and inaccessible to everyone. Then our faith will cease if the Holy Trinity is divided into the approachable and the unapproachable, into the greater and the lesser. Take a closer look at what I have said, and, hearing the examples I have taken from sensory and material things, such as: a house, a door, a key, do not imprint in your mind any bodily image, so as not to fall into thoughts unworthy of God, which may resemble blasphemy, but imagine all this in yourself magnificently, rising to the contemplation of the hidden meaning. If you cannot understand this divinely, then accept everything with faith alone, without allowing yourself to torture yourself too much about these subjects. Why is the Holy Spirit called the key? Because through him and in him our mind is first enlightened, and we, coming to repentance, are cleansed from all sin; after which we receive the light of knowledge, are baptized from above, are reborn and become children of God, to whom we accept the boldness to cry: Abba Father! as the Apostle says: the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26). And again: God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father (Gal.4:6). This Spirit shows us the door, revealing that it is light. And again the door teaches us that he who dwells in the house is also an unapproachable light. However, there is not one God who dwells in the light, and another light is His house, just as there is not another light of the Divine, and another God, but one and the same is both the house and the one who dwells in it, just as one and the same is both the light and God. Theologically, the Son is also called a house, as He Himself says: You, Father, are in Me, and I am in you (John 17:21). And again: I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you (John 14:20). And the Holy Spirit is also called home. For where our Lord says: I and the Father will come to him (who loves Me and keeps My word) and will make an abode with him (John 14:23), it must be clearly understood that this happens through the Holy Spirit, about whom the Apostle speaks, that He makes an abode for Himself in the souls of believers: do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Cor. 3:16). The Apostle also says: But the Lord is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), not because the Spirit is the Son - away with such blasphemy! - but because the Son of God is seen and contemplated in the Holy Spirit. But if the Spirit is the Lord, then it is clear that in relation to Him, as well as to the Lord, one can say: the Father is in Him, and He is in us; and again equally - we are in Him, as He is with God the Father, and God the Father is in Him. To express it more precisely and with greater certainty, I will say that there is one person of the Holy Trinity, and the other two persons are also the same, for the persons of the Holy Trinity are identical and are contemplated in a single nature, being, and Kingdom. Why is it that by what one person is called, the other two persons are also contemplated by the same nature, in addition to the fact that they are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as persons, that is, in addition to the property of begetting the Son and bringing forth the Spirit, which belongs to the Father, the property of being born, which belongs to the Son, and the property of proceeding, which belongs to the Holy Spirit. These only characteristics have an inexpressible place in the Holy Trinity, that is, these properties belong specifically to each person. And there is no way to think differently or talk about them, or change their names. From them three persons are recognized, and it is impossible to put either the Son before the Father, or the Holy Spirit before the Son, but one must speak together like this: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, without making any suppression in them, not even to the smallest part of time or instant, for together with the Father there is immediately the Son, begotten, and the Spirit proceeding from the Father. In relation to everything else, the same name or property is contemplated in each person, and in all three. So, for example, if you call it light, then each face is light, and all three are again one light - eternal life, and each face is equally life, that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and all three again are one life. God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit - each person is separate, and again all three persons together are one God - the Creator of all things, as the Old Testament Scripture says: in the beginning God created heaven and earth. And God said: let there be light. The word God here means the Father (or rather, God, one in three). And Saint David says (separately about each person): By the Word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their strength (Ps. 33:6). The Word here means the Son, and the Spirit of the mouth means the Holy Spirit (and the Lord means God the Father). John the Theologian also says in the Holy Gospel: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was to God, and God was the Word - obviously the Son. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing came into being (John 1:1, 3). Know, I ask you, all this, you, who are called children of God and seem to be Christians - you, who teach others with empty words and think that you are above others - you, laymen, I say, both monks and priests, gather together with love for God, ask knowledgeable and experienced men, and seek first to know all this with the determination to experience everything now and then, and then to Therefore, make a zealous effort to ensure that the eyes of your soul are finally opened - to see God, and you become truly children of God, like God and your Father in deeds and skill, not just in words, in appearance and clothes. When you become such and know the good mysteries of God, then accept spiritual virtues (church ranks), so as not to hear otherwise: alas! and woe! Take this into account, you who, before you know the mysteries of God, strive with great zeal to ascend to degrees of merit that are alien to you, which are suitable for others, that is, for the perfect, and not for you, the imperfect. Woe to those who are wise within themselves and understanding before themselves! Woe...to those who put light into darkness and light into darkness (Is. 5:21, 20). So, my beloved brethren in Christ, I ask all of you, first, lay a good foundation under the building of virtues, that is, humility, then, through deeds of piety and virtues, build a house of knowledge of the mysteries of God, seek to be enlightened by divine light and with a pure mind to see, as far as this is accessible to people, God, and from God to learn most perfectly the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. And then, with this knowledge, which is given from above by the Father of lights to the worthy, teach our other Christian brethren that there is the will of God, good, perfect and pleasing, and with your teaching bring the chosen people to God, who by the grace of the Holy Spirit made you spiritual fathers and teachers of His Church, so that we will not be expelled from the bridal chamber of Christ, like careless people who did not bother to dress in wedding garment, - but let us appear as wise stewards, kindly distributing spiritual life (a certain part of the bread. - Ed.) to our fellow servants. But first of all, let us take care to correct our lives and live pleasing to God, so that we can freely enter the bridal chamber of Christ bright, enlightened by pure living and knowledge of heaven and filled with the Holy Spirit, and reign with Him in the kingdom of God and the Father in the Holy Spirit. To him be glory forever. Amen. You might be interested in: