4. Слово на Крещение Господне (Господь повелел Своей Церкви светло праздновать Свое Богоявление, а каждого из нас благоволит ввести в радость празднества только через суд совести)

Celebrating the Holy Epiphany, let us transport our thoughts to the very place of the event and let us intelligently listen to what was happening there! Here is Vifavara! You see Saint John on the shore, dressed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his loins. He is surrounded by countless people from Jerusalem, Judea and the entire Jordanian country. The Savior's baptism has just ended; and the eyes of all are turned to the Son of Man rising from the water. They don't see anything anymore. But sharpen the eye of your mind with faith and, following John, passing by what is visible to everyone, set your attentive gaze on what is not visible to everyone - the open sky, the dove descending and the voice heard: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!” (Matthew 3:17). Fix your gaze and do not take your attention away from this wondrous vision! ABOUT! Who will give our word the power to worthily sing the glory of God, who appeared in three forms on the Jordan! Together with the lost paradise, the heavens were concluded with the righteousness of God. But just as a strong barrier cannot withstand the strong pressure of waters, so the strength of truth finally melted from the fire of God’s love, and behold, the heavens were opened. Let us open, brethren, all the powers of our nature; let us insatiably receive the revealed God and enjoy Him. Let us nourish all our feelings, all our thoughts and desires with it. We are immersed in darkness, but here is abundant light. We are struck by a bleak disconnection - both with heaven and with ourselves; but here is an all-enlivening reconciliation. We are exhausted by powerlessness, but here is an inexhaustible source of all strength! So, just as after a long night of darkness every creature thirsts for light and eagerly rushes to receive the first rays of the rising sun, so we, having fixed the eye of the mind enlightened by faith on the Epiphany, will preferably perceive the joyful rays of the Divine dispensation of our salvation, emitted by the merciful word of God the Father, and enjoy them. Just as a creature compressed by the cold of winter eagerly welcomes the spring that loosens the bonds of cold and again receives harmonious revival, so with our hearts animated by the hope of salvation, we will accept the reconciliation that shines in the baptized Lord, and we will enjoy it! Just as during the heat of summer the thirsty earth drinks with all its lips the rain that descends from heaven, so we too, with all the desire of our souls, will receive all the power that is ready to be poured out on us from the Spirit descending in the form of a dove, and we will enjoy it! Why should we invite ourselves to this? For have we not all already been brought into the whole economy of salvation! Shouldn’t everyone therefore be enlightened, pacified, and enlivened? But oh, if only it were like this! Once, remembering John the Baptist, the Lord reproachfully said to the Jews: he was a lamp, burning and shining, but you wanted to seek other pleasures in the hour of his light. Every year in His Holy Church the Lord brings upon us the light of the Jordan at John of His Epiphany. Doesn’t He tell us through this: this is where the burning and shining light is! See that you will not desire otherwise than to rejoice at the hour of His light. Be careful, brothers, how dangerously you walk! Do not our ears sometimes be seduced by the deceptive cries of the enemies of our salvation? Superstition says: come to me, I have light. But he does not have light, but only the ghost of light, and those who listen to him call the light dark and the darkness light. The world is calling: come to me, I will give you peace! But he does not have peace, but a ghost of peace, and those who are carried away by it, having already exposed the lie too late, reproachfully condemn him, saying: peace! world! and where is the world? The Prince of Peace promises space and life and strength and contentment. But he has neither strength, nor freedom, nor contentment, but only a ghost of them - and those deceived by him only have the name that they are alive, free and contented, but in fact they are stupefied (lukewarm) slaves, tormented by deprivation. Hasten, brethren, to acquire the skill of discerning all this in the light of the Epiphany, and do not be carried away by that which is called only light, and peace, and power, and is not, but rather strive towards Him Who is the way, the truth and life, truth, and sanctification, and deliverance. We almost came to trial and self-condemnation. Well, that’s what the Lord wants. He commanded the Church to brightly celebrate His Epiphany, and He deigns to introduce each of us into the joy of celebration only through the judgment of conscience. He who has tasted the gifts for which the Church celebrates rejoices, but he who has not tasted, taste first, and you will rejoice. Amen. You might be interested in: