100. Слово по освящении храма Святителя Митрофана, в Хотькове монастыре

(Spoken on June 29; printed in the 1844 and 1848 collections) And you yourself, like living stone, build yourself into a spiritual church, holy holiness, offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5). This church, in all likelihood, is the first to be decorated with the newly glorified name of Yours, Holy Hierarch and Wonderworker Mitrofan. Accept this firstfruits, this voluntary sacrifice of faith; present it to the Great Bishop who has passed through heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ; make it favorable to God; Complete and supplement with your God-pleasing prayers the insufficiency of our prayers, now offered for this church, and from now on offered in this church; do not allow your blessed name, named upon this church, to be idle, but visit it, as it has been given to you by our faith; bless and protect the soul that brought you this gift of zeal, and help all those who serve this church and those who flow into it, so that “you too,” according to the Apostle’s word, “like living stone, are built into a spiritual church, holy holiness, offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, Jesus Christ.” Believe and do not doubt, children of faith, that our petitions, now spoken, are heard, accepted, and will not refuse to be fulfilled by our chosen Representative before God. For why else did God glorify him on earth, satisfied with the glory of heaven, and having no need for earthly glory - why else, if not in order to reveal and indicate him to our faith through this glory, and so that, by this faith, we would accept his intercession for us, and fulfill our good desires? But let us not forget that grace certainly requires faith; that the intercession of the Saints, always ready for us, expects from us desires that are good, pure, and sincere; that, in order to be worthy of their promotion, we must present to them something for which they would promote, that is, we ourselves must act and strive as much as we can for our salvation: for how is it possible for the saints, with all their gracious power (which, however, by its very kindness, is not in the nature of coercion and captivity), lead us into the kingdom of heaven, when we do not want to take a single step for this, or vice versa Are we going down the path of hell and destruction? “And you yourself, like living stone, be built up,” commands the Apostle. “A living stone, despised by man, but chosen and honorable by God” (1 Peter 2:4), Jesus Christ and His saving grace are the eternally unshakable foundation of the true Church. On this foundation, the Apostles, shepherds, teachers created and continue to create it, with the word of teaching, the power of prayer, the sacraments of faith, and the exploits of life. In this way the Church was created; but this is not all for both you and I to be built as part of the Church. You are not dead stones from which artists build but cannot build themselves; “you stone is alive”, you have your own life, will, activity; and it is so necessary that you have an active participation in your spiritual creation: “and be built up yourself,” so that in you there will be a church, and a priesthood, and the offering of spiritual sacrifices. How wonderful Christianity is! Judaism represented the legal church alone in the whole world, the legal priesthood only in one line of Aaron, sacrifices only material, lifeless or mortified, in blood, fire and smoke; many in it could rarely reach the church, never the priesthood, and for the most part never reached the understanding of the mystery of the representative sacrifices, sealed before Christianity. In Christianity, on the contrary, not only are there churches everywhere, not only are there priests from all nations, by the election of grace, not only is the bloodless Sacrifice offered everywhere, containing not a prototype of the distant and expected Christ, but the sacrament of Christ who has come, is present, and is given to us as the food and drink of eternal life; but what else? - So that the last of the Christians could not think and complain that God is less pleased with him than others, and less than others, brings him closer to Himself, all of you have been given the opportunity, the right, the duty, the commandment, so that you, using the church, and the priesthood, and the Divine Sacrifice, establish in yourself the same thing that you use from the sacred service of others. “And ye yourselves are built into a spiritual church, the priesthood is holy, offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, Jesus Christ.” Because the Apostle speaks of “spiritual sacrifices” as of many: his words lead us to indicate some special types of such sacrifices; this, I hope, will serve as the simplest way of explaining the Apostolic teaching on the spiritual church and priesthood. There is a sacrifice of spiritual contrition, which, even in the days of Judaism, David recognized as more pleasing to God than a material burnt offering: “You shall not be pleased with burnt offerings; sacrifice to God the spirit is broken; God will not despise a broken and humble heart” (Ps. 50:18–19). When a person, entering into himself, perceives his unworthiness, uncleanness, sinfulness before God: then his spirit, which before, perhaps, was exalted and magnified by some of its good qualities, or external advantage, from the conviction of conscience, like a tree from lightning, is crushed and brought down. Just as from a broken vessel flows out what was in it: so from a contrite heart flows tears of sorrow for God and repentance. Do not think, beloved soul, that you are suffering fruitlessly: God accepts your contrition and repentant humility as a sacrifice, and not an unimportant one at that. “God will not despise a contrite and humble heart.” This sacrifice is one of the original spiritual sacrifices. Whoever did not offer it, other spiritual sacrifices will not be perfect, if possible. There is a sacrifice of praise and prayer, which the Psalmist also taught from ancient times: “devour the sacrifice of praise to God, and render your prayers to the Most High” (Ps. 49:14). Every time you feel gratitude to God, your Creator, Provider and Savior, or reverence for His Divine greatness and perfections; when attentive reflection about God illuminates some light of knowledge in your mind, ignites the fire of love in your heart, and from this pure joy and holy desire for God rises in your soul: in this way you offer to God a spiritual sacrifice, which in visible worship is secretly symbolized by censer and incense. “Who is this,” says the ancient contemplator in a mysterious song, “who is this who rises from the desert like a stalk of smoke, burning incense with myrrh and frankincense” (Song. 3:6)? Solving this parable, we can say that this is a soul, melted by love in prayer, which evaporates, goes to heaven easily, like smoke, and is pleasing to God, just as the fragrance of a censer is pleasant. There is a sacrifice of mercy that Jesus Christ Himself teaches. “Go ahead and learn that I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). As deeds of mercy, out of love for God, that we do for our neighbors, the Lord Jesus accepts as if done to Himself; “From now on,” he says, “you have made one of these little brothers of mine, you have made one for Me” (Matthew 25:40): it is clear how these deeds constitute an offering or sacrifice to God. The Apostle encourages us to make such sacrifices, hoping that they will be pleasing to God. “Don’t forget about charity and fellowship; For with such sacrifices God is pleased” (Heb. 13:16). There is a sacrifice of righteousness and truth, which Solomon points to in the parable: “to do righteousness and to speak truth is pleasing to God more than blood sacrifices” (Prov. 21:3). Every deed of justice and virtue, every feat for the truth, turns into a sacrifice to God when it is done precisely with the intention of fulfilling the will and law of God, and especially with the sacrifice of one’s own benefit and one’s own pleasure. Do not be embarrassed that people sometimes trample on this sacrifice: God will seek his sacrifice and reward it. Therefore David says: “Eat the sacrifice of righteousness, and trust in the Lord” (Ps. 4:6). The highest of the sacrifices for the truth, the true Christian burnt offering, is martyrdom for the Christian faith. The Apostle Paul wrote about this sacrifice to Timothy: “I am already devoured” (2 Tim. 4:6), giving us both an example of giving ourselves up for this sacrifice, and at the same time an instruction not to dare to do this spontaneously, but only to obediently surrender when the fate of God brings someone into the hedgehog to be. But lest anyone think that we, guarded by the Providence of God in the world of the Church, are, so to speak, bypassed by participation in the grace and glory of martyrdom, let us hasten to say finally that there is a kind of martyrdom, accessible to everyone, internal, when a Christian, with the sword of the word of God, by the power of the command of Christ, in deep self-sacrifice, cuts off from his mind every personal thought, from his will, every desire of his own, from his heart, even there was also righteousness, indignation at one’s neighbor, and every desire for one’s own pleasure, every pleasure in oneself; and he sacrifices all this to the will of God, in the image of the hero Jesus, when He, anticipating the external cross by the internal, in the Gethsemane feat said to His heavenly Father: “Not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39). There is a free offering 504 of one’s own body, to which the Apostle so urgently invites us when he says: “I pray you, brethren, by the mercies of God, present your body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, your verbal service” (Rom. 12:1). The image of this sacrifice, as explained by the same Apostle, is that we should “think ourselves dead for sin, but the living be God, and that we should imagine God as being from the living of the dead, and our souls as weapons of God’s righteousness” (Rom. 6:12-13), that is, that all our strength, abilities, members should be wisely used to do good, for God. This special sacrifice also belongs here, when virginity is dedicated to God, and the gift of chastity, in a pure vessel of abstinence, is offered to God. These are sacrifices pleasing to God, which not only from the priests appointed by the hierarchy, but also from every true Christian can and must be offered, in part they must out of duty, 505 in part they can out of voluntary zeal, and according to a special calling from above. Bring it, Christians! and do not leave your God without sacrifices worthy of Him, so that He does not leave you without the blessings brought down by diligent sacrifices. Would you say that it is not yet quite clear to you how you will be built into a spiritual church? Don't hesitate. You only faithfully and diligently offer the sacrifices indicated to you and understood by you, the sacrifice of heartfelt contrition before God, the sacrifice of praise and prayer, the sacrifice of mercy and truth, the sacrifice of devoting your soul and your body to works pleasing to God. Just as in ancient times there were sacrifices before the church, and then the sacrifices created a church for themselves, and consecrated it: so your spiritual sacrifices, constantly continued, will bring down the invisible hand of the grace of God, which will build and consecrate its church in you, so that God may dwell in you, and be your God, and you will be His people, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. According to Turk. collection: sacrifice... According to Turk. collection: according to duties necessary,.. You might be interested in: