2. Слово на новый год

What is an update? When will there be a new heaven and a new earth that we expect? Explanation of the words of the Apostle “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” Happy new year, happy new happiness, we greet each other now. But has anyone considered how the coming year is a new year? And where will anything new come from it? How is today different from yesterday or from the first day of last year? And ahead, won’t there be the same change of days and nights, and won’t there be the same alternation of months and seasons as it was before? “Won’t the course of affairs be new?” “But the Wise One denies this too, saying: “What was, is also what will be: and what was created, also will be created.” And there is nothing new under the sun. Who will cry out and say: “Behold, this is new, it has already become one of the things that were before us” (Eccl. 1:9-10). So, is there no point in our greetings?! “It cannot be that such a universal and sacred custom does not have meaning, and deep meaning.” Just as we do not question the sincerity of well-wishes, we cannot accuse them of excess or pointlessness. There must be something truly new, in which, despite the decay that surrounds us, the soul believes, which it confidently seeks and longs for, and whose appearance it is ready to welcome in everything that in any respect seems new. What would that be like? The heavens will be new and the earth will be new, says the Lord. For this reason we all believers “are waiting for new heavens and new earths according to His promise” (2 Peter 3:13). Here is the first true news! It will be revealed in all its glory after the end of the world, when everything will be cleansed by fire; but preparation for it began from almost the first days of the existence of heaven and earth and has been operating since that time, invisible, of course, to the sensory eye, but visible to the eye of faith. The renewing forces placed in the circle of the temporal flow of creatures are so effective and true that the Apostle, when thinking about them, cried out: “Old past, behold, everything was new” (2 Cor. 5:17), and, having surveyed with his mind the whole creation that had tasted the firstfruits of renewal, he heard her lament that the time was not coming soon when she would throw off the real clothes of old age and corruption and put on into a new, full of bright, playing life. “The desire of creation is for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation obeys vanity not by will, but because of the one who obeyed in hope, as if the creation itself would be freed from the work of corruption.” For which she “sighs” with us and “sickly” (Rom. 8:19-22). Confirm your thought in this teaching, and see that in our present situation one thing is seen from the outside, and the other acts inside, both in us and outside of us. The present state – both ours and the whole world’s – is a transitional state, like the state of a sick person covered with a plaster, or a tree that has died for the winter, or a newly built house, cluttered with forests. The time will come, the bandages will be removed from the sick person - and he will appear healed and made whole in a new life; the construction will be completed, the scaffolding will take over - and everyone will see the new house in all its beauty; The spring of the new century will come - and the tree of the world’s existence, now bare, will give forth leaves, flowers and fruits. Initially, when God surveyed the universe He had just created, it contained all the “great good” (Gen. 1:31). When man fell, everything fell for the worse, just as a chain falls when the first link is broken. Then it is said about the earth: “thorns and thistles will increase”; to the wife: “give birth in illness”; and to the husband: “By the sweat of your brow you shall bear your bread” (Gen. 3:16, 18–19). So everything was clothed in mourning, or penance was imposed on everything. Everything assumed a state of decay and decay. It would stay that way forever. But the multi-artistic wisdom of God revealed, the goodness of God chose and the power of God began to bring into action a secret way of correcting and restoring everything to a better and more perfect form. The seed of the woman, it is said, will erase the head of the serpent, destroy the evil poured into man and through him into all creation. Then this promise began to take effect. But according to the wise economy of God, it was not suddenly revealed in power. He is predestined to reveal his power effective on creation through the flesh; the appearance of the flesh is protected by its own conditions of time and place. But having appeared in the flesh, the saving seed, although it took charge of everything in itself - heavenly and earthly, past, present and future, and through this made it possible for its restorative powers to penetrate everywhere, but did not cancel the secrecy of their action. The external state remains the same - painful, inconsolable, decaying, smoldering. The restorative and renewing powers of God act secretly under this unseemly veil, so that the words of the Apostle are truly fulfilled: the outer decays, but the inner is renewed all the days. When renewal, which now operates invisibly, has done its work, when everything capable of renewal has partaken of this renewal, then these bonds of corruption will no longer be needed: the creation will be freed from them and will be revealed in all its pure and incorruptible beauty. Just as in spring everything puts on new clothing, which each plant produces, however, from itself, so at the end of the world the now secretly active renewal will throw off the corruptible shell that hides it and appear in all its splendor. And then the sky will be new and the earth will be new. Enter, brethren, with your intelligent faith into the contemplation of this order of God’s economy regarding the meaning of the times, establish yourself in it and stand. For the sake of your faith, the Lord will give you the strength to resist the slander of the father of lies, who, corrupting the minds that trust his suggestions, takes away from them the ability to see the renewal operating in the midst of corruption. And they deceive themselves and deceive others, thinking that the apparent disorder around us is the natural (normal) state of things, and allow themselves to draw too bold conclusions against the creativity of the All-Wise and the providence of the All-Good. Stand firm in the faith, brothers, and be established in it! This is the first news that can be called universal. But there is similar news for each of us, which enters into us and reveals its power in us, when each of us becomes a participant in the restorative forces brought to earth. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17). You know that all the forces for a new life are entrusted to the Holy Church and all true sons of the Church are undoubtedly filled with them and accept renewal through them. This renewal begins in holy baptism, in which we put off the old man and put on the new, or are reborn to a new life. In those who retain the grace of baptism, the power of internal renewal does not cease to operate. In those who, after baptism, fall into mortal sin, it ceases. But it begins to work again when, in the sacrament of repentance, they again partake of the life of God in Christ Jesus. Whether in baptism or in repentance, someone receives the grace of renewal, but if he keeps it and acts according to its requirements, then the seed of new life in him no longer freezes, but develops more and more, therefore the hidden heart of a person grows and strengthens more and more, being filled with wisdom and spiritual intelligence, moral beauty and strength of character, and inner joy in the Holy Spirit, although outwardly he is poor and needy, and naked With an ugly appearance, inner beauty matures, like a beautiful butterfly in its ugly ball. Having matured, the butterfly breaks the shell and begins to enjoy life in the light of God. And our hidden man, having matured in a weak body, when God judges, throws off this shell, rises up and begins to live a completely renewed life there at the very source of life. This, brothers, is our purpose. Why is the image of this renewal presented in the soul and its consciousness revealed in its forebodings and secret desires, even when it is alien to the forces of renewal? This is the reason why we love new things so much and look for them so carefully! You yourself see from the previous how and with what this desire should be satisfied. However, I will give you several lessons from the Epistles of the Apostles. “Like newborn babes, love the milk of words and unflattering words, so that through it you may grow unto salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2). “Purge away the old leaven, so that you may become a new mixture” (1 Cor. 5:7). Put off “the old man, which is corrupting in the lusts of deceit” and put on “the new man, created according to God in righteousness and excellence of the truth” (Eph. 4:22, 24). We must become new in ourselves, and the thirst for the new will be satisfied and constantly satisfied. For the new spiritual life in Christ Jesus is in its essence constantly new! The news that is constantly present within us will quench the thirst for the new. May the Lord vouchsafe this to all of you! I can’t wish you anything better for this new summer. And I would be ready to conclude my word with this, but the thought comes to me, just in case, to give you a little warning. It is not surprising that you will meet people who judge newness differently, and what is actually renewal is considered dilapidation, and what is dilapidation is renewal; What the Apostle commands us to put on as something new, they advise us to put off as something old. It’s clear to you what’s going on here. I will offer you two or three points for guidance so that you can judge this correctly. Before the coming of Christ the Savior, all over the world, excluding the people of God, lived the old pagan life in all areas - mental, moral, aesthetic, family and civil. After Christ the Savior, along with the spread of Christianity, the power of the word of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit supplanted pagan principles and Christian principles reigned everywhere, also in all areas - mental, moral, aesthetic, family, political. These principles have acted and continue to act continuously in the Holy Orthodox Church - both in the East and here. In the West, the Pope, having fallen away from the Church, was the first to accept the root of pagan life - pride. All other pagan elements were not slow to group around this center. By the 16th century they had become quite strong, raised their heads and publicly entered into competition with Christianity again. A circle of people filled with a pagan spirit was formed, who set themselves the task of reintroducing pagan principles, also again in all areas - mental, moral, aesthetic, family and civil. The time when this happened is called the Western Renaissance. Remember now that the Western Renaissance is the restoration of paganism in defiance of Christianity. This is the meaning of the Renaissance. But as is the seed, so is the fruit. All current Western education in all its forms is the result of the movement that was given impetus by the Renaissance. It is the fruit of this latter. Why is it, both in the spirit and in the body - both in the main and in the parts, everything is saturated with pagan principles hostile to Christianity. Anyone who touches him and becomes somewhat close to him becomes more or less an enemy of Christ. This is evidenced by experience. What do we care about the West? Let him know what he wants. We lived simply under the influence of the life-giving Christian principles and did not know what was happening in the West, and would not have known if we had not had the need to enter into relations with it. Having entered into intercourse, they began to borrow from him, along with the useful, the spirit of pagan education that characterizes there, which also produces among us that there, that is, whoever touches it, immediately rebels against Christ the Savior and His Holy Church. And we have formed a class of people who insist that the church - Christian - is dilapidation that must be discarded, and European education is a renewal that must be assimilated. Knowing now what European education means, you yourself will clearly understand that this is what they are advising us. - That's it! The Apostle Paul says that God sent the holy apostles, clothed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, into the world so that they would lead everyone from darkness to light, from the realm of satan to God; and these advise us to go from the light again into darkness and from God - into the satanic region, where the quality is not the renewal of life, but death, which kills all the germs of true life. See how well-wishers they are!! To explain this in detail, entire books would need to be written. I offered you these truths in brief statements, just in case. “Beware, brethren, how dangerously you walk, not as if you were not wise, but as if you were wise” - do not be “babies blown by the wind of new teachings... but truly in love”, grow everything into Him “whose head is Christ” (Eph. 5, 15, 4:14-15). Amen. You might be interested in: