29. Слово на Пятидесятницу (Дух Божий живет в Церкви. А живет ли в нас Дух Божий? – Живет и действует, когда есть в нас жизнь духовная. Дух, сочетанный с телом, поставлен в мире Божием быть жрецом, чтоб не только самому жить в Боге, но и все вещественное ввести чрез себя в общение Божественной жизни

“We celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit” (Stichera on the Lord I cried), we celebrate not only as a fundamental event of the Church of God, but also as a gift from God, appropriated by each of us and essential in our Christian life. The Holy Spirit, having descended on the apostles, did not remain in them alone; but through them, as through channels, it was poured out on all believers, and from that time on it lives and acts in the Church, through the Divine sacraments, reviving to spiritual life, educating and preserving in it everyone who enters it. We are all, by the grace of God, spirit bearers or should be so. For in Baptism we are all fed with one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), in Confirmation we are marked by the Holy Spirit of promise, in Repentance we are renewed by the Spirit (Eph. 4:23), in Communion we receive the Spirit of sonhood (Rom. 8:15) and we become one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17). Having such promises and evidence, we can easily understand the question of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that you are the church of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16) when he noticed that the Corinthians did not take into account this high Christian advantage of theirs. But, brethren, just as there is no doubt that receiving the Spirit is a God-determined advantage for Christians, just as surely is the possibility, when He has already been received, of losing or drowning it out in ourselves by inattention or by turning our activity to objects that are contrary to Him. The Apostle warns: “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess. 5:19). “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are marked on the day of deliverance” (Eph. 4:30). Bringing to mind the law that whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is not Christ’s (Rom. 8:9), and whoever is not Christ’s is not God’s, you will involuntarily come to a careful and fearful investigation, whether the Spirit of God lives and works in us?! Let us answer this in short words like this: he lives and acts when there are spiritual actions in us, or spiritual life. After this, everyone could determine for himself what his relationship to the Spirit is. But the trouble is that the words: spiritual person, spiritual life, spiritual activity, have no certainty for us. Either they understand them too simply and thus expand their scope to the point that they can include everyone without exception, or they understand them too highly and thereby reduce their scope to the point that who can be worthily honored with the title of Spirit-Bearer. I believe you yourself have encountered both in speeches and writings. In order to dispel this uncertainty and give you the opportunity to definitively judge your spirituality, I will outline for you as simply as possible the spiritual life in its possible forms and manifestations. Detach yourself somewhat from existing orders, ascend to a place where there is no substance, imagine that you yourself are without a body and are assigned to live and act in an incorporeal region. In this form you are spirit. This world and everything worldly is unknown to you. Encompassed by God, you receive illumination from the one God and are drawn to Him alone with your whole being. You contemplate Him, you taste Him, you move at His beckoning. This immersion in God, this God-movement and God-bliss is the true life of the pure Spirit. This is the state of ethereal forces! But God, the Source of all being, was pleased, leaving the Angels as pure spirits, to combine the human spirit with the body, and this is what happened! Just as a pure ray of light, reflected in raindrops, or passing through a prism, is decomposed into seven rainbow colors, so the pure and simple spirit, combined with this multi-component organism, with all the simplicity and immutability of its nature, appeared possessing a variety of abilities and endowed with a multitude of needs addressed to matter and the world. Another life, complex, was grafted onto the simple life of the spirit, a life turned to God, a life dealing with the world. At the same time, the body lived its own life, letting the spirit know about itself, but not depending on it in what constitutes the essence of this life. And a man appeared into the world, the owner of a threefold life: spiritual, spiritual-physical, or mental, and physical. God’s intention in such a dispensation of man was not that the spirit should be sacrificed to the body, matter, the world, but that the spirit, receiving material things through the body, would offer everything as a sacrifice to God. The spirit, combined with the body, is appointed in the great world of God to be a priest, so as not only to live in God itself, but also to introduce everything material through itself into the communion of this Divine Life. Life in God, detached from the material, having power over it, and at the same time remained a characteristic feature of the life of the human spirit. But envy and malice arose, confused the inexperienced thought of man with false concepts, carried away the charms of matter, blinded the heart with deceptive, although brilliant, hopes, and the spirit fell, from the realm of God - into materiality, into love of the body and love of peace. Instead of a legitimate connection with the body, he dissolved with it through consciousness and sympathy - and became from pure passionate, from detached - immersed in the creature, from powerful - a slave. Mental-physical life fell into disarray and swallowed up spiritual life, which began to manifest itself only in the irresistible consciousness of the Divine, in the demands of conscience and in the languid dissatisfaction with all created things that arose from time to time. God-contemplation, God-movement and God-bliss disappeared. The spirit was numb. The pure spirit contemplates God and receives knowledge of the mysteries from Him. But the spirit, combined with the body, and after the diversity of the creatures of the visible world has been revealed to it through the senses, enlightened by the same inner illumination from above, must contemplate in them the reflection of those secrets of the knowledge of God and the secrets of the Divine peacemaking and government of the world, so that even with this multiplicity of knowledge, it can calmly remain in the same contemplation of God. But, having fallen, he is carried away by the diversity of creatures and is even overwhelmed by the multitude of impressions from them, crowding out the very thought of God. Studying creation, he goes no further than what he sees in them - their composition and relationships, and, not receiving illumination from above, does not clearly see in them the reflection of God and the Divine mysteries. The world has become a dim mirror for him, in which nothing is visible except him (the mirror). This is why multi-knowledge drowns out the knowledge of the one in him, turns him away from it and cools him down towards it. Such is the price and such is the fruit of science in the fallen. The pure spirit is God-moved. He internally accepts the beckons of God and accordingly arranges himself and acts. And the spirit, combined with the body, after being brought into relationship with many creatures, has accepted the forces to act on them and is itself placed in the need to be subject to their action, must also, no other than accepting God’s beckoning, act outwardly and carry out God’s intentions in the order of the flow of created life, not submitting to it, but establishing it in its own way, so that, thus, despite the external diverse activity, it can remain in the same one Godly movement, outlined by the will of God. But, having fallen, he is absorbed in external relations, he does not control them, but he himself is controlled by them. He considers the current order outside and movement within himself to be a law, which it does not even occur to him to cross. Not accepting the beckons of God, he does not see what God wants, he does not know how and does not dare to establish himself according to God’s intention, but is drawn as if he were drawn and is led as if he were being followed. Instead of a single Godly movement, he is divided into many, which weans him and discourages him from acting according to the will of God. This is the price of all the various activities of the fallen in state, social and family life. A pure spirit is God-blessed. He tastes God and is blissful in Him. But the spirit, combined with the body, after the various beauties of the creatures of the visible world have been revealed to it, must have its bliss in God alone, and, contemplating visible beauties, not dwell on them, but through them penetrate to the beauty of God and taste it, so that, thus, with all the multitude of external beauties promising bliss, one can remain in one unchangeable Bliss - from tasting God directly and indirectly. But, having fallen, he lost this ability to eat God, and even the taste for the Divine, and began to seek pleasure in creatures instead of ascending through them to God’s pleasure. It was impossible not to notice that this is not the case, and since the memory of God’s Bliss remained in him, then, guided by it, he creates a new world around himself, artificial, and collects possible beauties in it, hoping to replace it with what he remembers, but which he does not have. But that’s not it either. All these pleasures, pleasures, artificial beauties only fuel thirst, and do not give what the spirit is looking for. Instead of the pleasure of the one God, which pleases, it is characterized by the pleasure of many, which languishes and does not give peace, and further confirms him in alienation from God’s pleasure. This is the price of all the natural and artificial pleasures of the fallen. I deliberately depicted for you the state of the spirit combined with the body, such as it should be according to God’s intention, and such as it became after the fall, in order to thereby approach the answer to the question proposed at the beginning. - So, know, whoever is such as we depict as a pure spirit and a spirit combined with a body, but acting according to the intention of God, he has the Spirit; and whoever is such as the fallen one is depicted among us does not have the Spirit. For the Divine Spirit then descended, then dwells in the Church and is communicated to all believers in order to restore the fallen, return them to their primitive perfection, reunite them with God and affirm in them life according to God. In someone who has the quality of contemplation of God, who has knowledge of the mysteries of God through direct illumination or through mediocre revelation, who in the knowledge of the most visible creatures does not stop at them alone, but seeks in them to see the reflection of the mysteries of God, peacemaking and world government, in him there is spiritual life, he also has the Holy Spirit. He who is steeped in his mind in creatures and does not know God, no matter how learned he is, does not live by the Spirit. He who recognizes within himself the action of God’s beckons and has acquired the skill to act according to the instructions of God’s revealed will and to organize his life according to it, despite opposition within or difficulties and sorrows without, lives by the Spirit. Whoever does not have God in his thoughts when organizing his affairs, no matter how correct his actions may be, does not have the Spirit. He who tastes bliss in the one God and enjoys all created things only to the extent that it not only does not interfere with, but also contributes to God’s enjoyment, he lives by the Spirit. Whoever finds taste in mere pleasures of creatures and suffers from tastelessness for the Divine, no matter how refined his taste he may have, does not have the Spirit. I will not expand further in explaining the details of the manifestations of the Spirit in us, so as not to tire your attention. Take the trouble to do it yourself. However, I will add one thing. - Those who live in the Spirit know how the life of the Spirit began in them, they know how the Spirit of God, having touched their spirit, instilled in them dissatisfaction with themselves and everything around them, how then the desire to change everything and arrange life according to the direction of the Spirit arose, how their spirit was delighted in this very change and what success they encountered in all their labors in spiritual life, how the ossified feeling began to revive and warmly adhere to the Divine, how little by little evil habits fell away and good morals took root, how truth after truth settled in the mind and the knowledge of God increased, how in general man entered more and more within himself, established himself in the heart and became in himself, so as to be attentive to God and walk unceasingly in His presence, not only thought, but also felt. This brief history of spiritual life in man is, perhaps, more than anything else, tangible evidence of his possession of the Spirit of God. One more word: it is natural for our spirit to live in God. Having fallen, he turned away from God to creation and began to live in it. The Spirit of God comes, plucks him from the bonds of creation and again directs him to God. The aspiration of the spirit towards God is prayer. – So, the action of prayer in us is the fruit of the Spirit of God. There is prayer, and there is the Spirit of God. No prayer, no Spirit of God. Having confirmed your possession of the Spirit, rejoice, Spirit-Bearers. But for us, who do not see the obvious actions of the Spirit in ourselves, although it is bitter, we should not despair. The Holy Spirit, having descended, does not leave the earth. The entrances to it are open. Let us begin, and He will come and dwell in us. Just don’t deceive yourself. The spirit of man, whether fallen or working under sin, is still a spirit. He reflects something unearthly in himself, although it is impossible to determine what it is, just as a mirror broken into small parts reflects something, but nothing of the whole. These glimpses of the spirit - in the mind, deeds and feelings - should in no way be confused with the life of the spirit. In order for this life to manifest itself holistically, it is necessary for the Spirit of God to come and, like fire, boil the crushed particles of the human spirit and merge from them the whole hidden in the heart of man (1 Pet. 3, 4) just as from the crushed particles of glass, boiled again, a solid glass is then formed, capable of reflecting whole things. The workhouse (workshop) where the Spirit of God does this over our spirit is the Holy Church with all its institutions. Here she is before us! Submit wholeheartedly to her guidance, and she will lead you to the place where the carnal are transformed into the “life-giving Spirit” in the image of Him who created us (1 Cor. 15:45), accept betrothal (2 Cor. 1:22), and begin to taste the joy of life in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14: 17). In this hope, let us earnestly pray: Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of Truth, come and dwell in us. Amen. You might be interested in: