113. Слово по освящении храма Святителя Николая, что в Толмачах

(Said November 25th, printed in Christian Reading 1835 and in collections 1835, 1844 and 1848) May your houses be good to Jacob, and your tabernacles to Israel! like overshadowing oak groves, and like gardens by the rivers, and like the tabernacles that the Lord has set up, and like cedar trees by the waters. ( Numbers 24:5–6 ). These words were written in the book of Numbers by the Prophet Moses: and they were spoken by Balaam, a man whose prophetic character was overshadowed by the fact that he was not sustained until the end of his life. Without hiding this circumstance, I did not hesitate, however, in the book of the true Prophet, to take the correctly retold words spoken by Balaam as worthy of attention: because they were spoken even when he, not seduced by self-interest and honor from the pagan king, remained faithful to the spirit of vision and the Word of God; and therefore he could even prophesy about Christ and about His saving death and resurrection, as can be seen in his next words: “He lies down like a lion, and like a monk, who will stir him up? Those who bless you, blessings, and those who curse you, curses” (Numbers 24:9). So, it is worth the effort to look closely at what this seer sees and listen to what he says. Balaam stood on the heights of Fogor, had before his eyes the camp of the Israelites, at the end of their forty-year wandering in the desert, and said: “How good are your houses, Jacob, and your tabernacles to Israel! like overshadowing oak groves, and like gardens by the rivers, and like the tabernacles that the Lord has set up, and like cedar trees by the waters.” It is incredible that after such a long, such a difficult journey, the tents and road carts of the Israelites appeared to a simple, bodily gaze in such amazing beauty as they sparkle in the words of the seer. What did he see? What is he talking about? – I have already noted above that under the image of a sleeping lion, the king of animals, or the son of a lion, whom no one dares to wake up, Balaam saw Christ, the King of heaven and earth, the Son of God, Who fell asleep in the sleep of death, and Whom no one had the power to resurrect except He Himself, by His Divine power. That is why the vision made the seer immediately exclaim: “Bless you who bless you,” which also befits Christ as the One who blesses with grace all who bless Him with faith. In accordance with this understanding of the vision, one can think that under the image of the camp of the Israelites, visible with bodily eyes, the seer was given the opportunity to contemplate in spirit the Church of God and Christ: and in this case it is not surprising that he describes its beauty with admiration. What a wonderful “home” this is! And no wonder, for God lives in him. But the Church is also similar to “tabernacles” because it is in a state of wandering: “imams are not here” on the land of “the city that abides, but we seek the one that is to come, the heavenly one” (Heb. 13:14). She is like an “overshadowing oak forest”: because in her and above her the overshadowing of God’s grace always rests. It is like a “garden” by the river: because it is always watered with the living water of the Spirit of God and the teachings of Christ, it always grows spiritually, and bears the fruit of righteousness. She is “like the tabernacles that the Lord has set up,” unshakable, indestructible, like the work of God: since the Lord Himself actually said about her: “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). “Like cedars by the waters” (Num. 24:6), always green, always exalted: so she never loses the life that arose in her from the incorruptible seed of the word of God, and is continuously supported by the Holy Spirit; finally, she continually rises to heaven in order to be completely united with Her Head, Christ, and become completely heavenly. If someone were to say that the enthusiastic words of the seer could refer to the Tabernacle of the Testimony, which was located in the camp of the Israelites, in other words, to their camp church: this would not contradict our explanation; because the Tabernacle of Testimony was also an image in which the Church could and should be contemplated. This vision of the spiritual splendor of the Church was brought to my mind, brethren, by the vision of the sensual splendor of this, now renewed, church, through the diligence of the children of the new Israel who loved this splendor, and by successful feat, erected and adorned visibly, but through the action of grace, invisibly clothed in the highest, spiritual, mysterious beauty, and built into the mysterious dwelling of God. Let the ancient seer come here too; or, if he needs a more extensive spectacle, let him, instead of the unclean heights of Fogor, stand with us at the blessed heights of the Kremlin, look at the numerous churches, ancient, new, carefully preserved in splendor, or renewed, or again and now with ancient zeal created: truly, I think, he would renew his ancient delight, and once again would proclaim his ancient song: “if good your houses for Jacob, and your tabernacles for Israel!” Blessed is God, who does not abandon His people with the presence of His grace! Blessed are the people of God who do not abandon their God through their faith and desire for His grace! Add Thy mercy to those who lead Thee, O Lord; and may our sins and infidelities not remove You from us, but rather may Your grace, which we seek in Your sanctuaries, open our hearts, may He visit them, may He fill them with His strength and His consolation, and thus, driving out from them, and reflecting from them everything that is contrary to You, and may He build them “into a dwelling place of God in the spirit” (Eph. 2:22). For the consolation of faith, it will not now be untimely to present to you, brethren, from the word of God several convincing testimonies about the continuance of the grace of God in the Church of Christ until the end of the age. The first of such testimonies is given by Jesus Christ Himself, “the faithful and true witness” (Rev. 3:14), when he says: “I will build My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). - “I will create”: this word shows the creation of the Church still in intention, before the actual execution. The Lord, as in many cases, to conveniently instruct us about His Divine, incomprehensible deeds, likened them to ordinary human deeds, so here He likens Himself to an owner who intends to build a house, or to an architect who is considering the construction of a building. Among other things, it was necessary to think about the strength of the building, and to foresee and prevent what could harm it. And so the Founder of the Church looks to the future. He sees that the gates of hell, opened to the earth by Adam’s sin, during the creation and after the creation of the new Christian Church will release new forces of evil against it: hordes of persecutors, hosts of heretics, accumulations of various temptations. What? If the building is damaged before destruction: then its purpose will not be achieved; and the glory of the Divine Creator will not be protected. But glory to Him forever! He foresees and arranges the best: “I will build,” he says, “My Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Her enemies will rise up against her; will sometimes be strong; at some times, in some places, they will triumph, tearing away her members; and she will suffer and be sick, but they will definitely “not prevail against her.” How long? - Without a doubt, until the end of time. For if they could ever overcome, then the One who foresees times to eternity could not say decisively that “they will not overcome.” But how does the Church win and keep itself invincible? - Without a doubt, by the power of God, by the grace of God. Consequently, if the forces of hell never overcome it, then this means that the power of God, the grace of God, will always be preserved in it and will always act savingly. The second evidence of this truth can be borrowed from the Apocalypse, or Revelation of St. John the Theologian, which prophetically depicts the fate of the Church of Christ until the end of the age. In this Revelation we continuously see the true Church, first in the form of twenty-four elders around the Divine Throne (Rev. 4), worshiping “he who lives forever and ever” (Rev. 4:9); then, as, perhaps, the spread of Christianity, in the number of one hundred and fourty-four thousand, sealed with the seal of the living God; further, “many people, which no one can cut off, from every tongue, and tribe, and people, and nations, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9); further, in the form of a church with an Altar and worshipers, which John was commanded to measure (Rev. 11); even further, in the person of a woman “clothed with the sun,” that is, in the truth and virtue of Jesus Christ, who is “the light of the world” (John 8:12), adorned with a crown “from the twelve stars,” that is, the Apostolic knowledge of God, having the “moon” under her feet, that is, human, natural wisdom (Rev. 12); even further, before the marriage of the Lamb, she appears as “His wife,” having prepared herself, and clothed in fine linen for the justification of the Saints (Rev. 19); and again, after the visionary depicted the first resurrection, he calls it “the holy camp and the beloved city” (Rev. 20:8), until finally, with a new heaven and a new earth, it is renewed into “new Jerusalem, coming down from God from heaven” (Rev. 21:2). It is worthy of note that the seer, depicting the most dangerous times for the Church, presents her as unharmed from dangers, but miraculously preserved. For example: the serpent “chases his wife”: but he does not catch up with her and does not overthrow her; because “Bisha’s wife was given two wings of a great eagle; “And the earth will help the woman” (Rev. 12:13, 14, 16). Providence controls the course of events in such a way that earthly institutions also promote the peace or security of the Church; and “the wings of a great eagle,” perhaps a royal one, reverently carry her, above the malice and wickedness of her enemies, “into the wilderness in her place” (Rev. 12:14) - of course, not just into outer desolation, for the Church itself is a crowd of believers, but into the “desert,” especially internal, - ever further from the world, ever closer to God; for “its place” for the Church is closeness to God and union with Him. And this means that the grace of God is not separated 535 from the Church, and in the most dangerous times, it must remain with her inseparably even until the end of the age. We find the third evidence of the same truth in the following words of the Holy Apostle Paul: “And He,” that is, Christ, “gave us both Apostles, and Prophets, and Evangelists, and Shepherds and Teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ, until we achieve all in the union of faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, in husband is perfect, according to the age of the fulfillment of Christ” (Eph. 4:11–13). To better understand the power of this saying, let us imagine that we are asking the Apostle: how long will “Pastors and Teachers” be in the Church for the perfection of the saints, for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ? - He answers: “until we achieve everything in the union of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, in a perfect husband, to the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ.” Consequently, as long as there are on earth those who have not reached the union of faith, who have not reached the perfection of spiritual age, who still need the knowledge of the Son of God: until then there will be Shepherds and Teachers in the Church for the perfection of the Saints; and just as the fulfillment of the Saints through Shepherds and Teachers cannot be without the all-holy grace of God, then she too, according to the Apostle’s assurance, must remain with the Shepherds and Teachers in the Church operating until then, as, having overcome all obstacles, she will lead all who are destined for salvation into the union of faith. Let us give one more evidence of the ever-present presence of grace in the Church, especially the secret one. The same Apostle, exhorting the Corinthian Christians to approach the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ with special reverence, says: “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until it comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). And here the important truth is hidden in a small word: “dondezhe”. To better reveal it, I again turn the Apostle’s speech to the question: how long will Christians eat the mystical bread, and drink the cup of the Lord, and by communion with the Body and Blood of Christ proclaim the death of the Lord? – In the words of the Apostle I find the answer: “He will come before.” That is: the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ will be performed inviolably in the true Church of Christ until the very second coming of Christ, or, what is the same, until the end of the age. Since this cannot be without mystical grace, without the grace of the priesthood, and the borrowed grace of the priesthood cannot be without the teaching grace of the Bishops: it is obvious that mystical grace and the order of the hierarchy, according to the prophecy of the Apostle, will remain in the Church at all times, and although not always in an equally abundant stream, but never in an unstoppable stream, they will flow even to boundaries of the Kingdom of glory. According to this and similar untrue testimonies, what a consolation, brethren, that in these later times of the Church, just as in the very first, I can tell you with confidence in the words of the Holy Apostle Peter: “Beloved, having your thoughts girded about your loins, being sober, fully trust in the grace brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). Do not listen to those who slander the Church, as if the grace in her has been exhausted; as if the hierarchy in it had either completely or half collapsed. Tell the alienated Bishops: if the root is dried up, how can there be fresh branches? If, as they think, or, more precisely, without thinking, they reproach, the grace of the Bishopric has been exhausted: then how can the grace of the priesthood continue, which without the Bishopric is the same as a branch without a root? But since they recognize the grace of the priesthood, how can they reject the grace of the Hierarchy, which is the root of the priesthood? And if they do not reject the grace of the Bishops, then why do they shun it? Tell those who reject all priesthood: if, according to their wickedness, the priesthood completely collapsed, then it must be said that the Church also collapsed, that “the gates of hell prevailed against it.” But if they say this, then they will clearly rebel not against us, the humble servants of the Church, but against its Founder Himself, Who said that “the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). If there is no sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, then the Apostle said a lie, that it will be performed “until the Lord comes” to judgment. But if the word of the Apostle cannot be false; if the words of Christ do not pass by, even if heaven and earth pass away: that is, both now and until the end of time, there will be the holy sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ; there is and will be a grace-filled priesthood and hierarchy; and the opponents of this teaching are opponents of the word of the Apostle and Christ. One more thing needs to be added to this: “trusting completely in the grace of God” in the Church, for your protection from false teaching, for your consolation in grief over sins and in the fear of God’s judgment, for your strengthening in weaknesses, do not turn your hope in grace into a reason for a careless life, unworthy of holy grace. “But according to him who called you holy, you also will be holy in all your life” (1 Peter 1:15). Amen. In Christ. Thurs. and in collection 1835: inalienable... You might be interested in: