130. Слово по освящении храма Преображения Господня, что на Ордынке

(Said on September 20th; printed in Christ. Reading, 1837 and in collections of 1844 and 1848) What shall I repay to the Lord for all that I have repaid? I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. ( Ps. 116:3–4 ). If a faithful subject brings a gift to the King from his zeal, and his gift is accepted: who do you think is indebted and happy in this case, the one who accepts or the one who brings? – I think: the bringer. For can a private offering from a private person be important to the King, who possesses everything? On the contrary, the condescension and favor of the King, expressed by accepting the gift, is very important for a zealous subject. How much more so when a faithful servant of God, out of his reverence, brings a gift to God, Who has no need of our gifts, Who is the all-powerful Master of our gifts even before their offering, before Whose infinite majesty all created gifts are immeasurably small and insignificant; - in justice, the offerer should think that it is not he who is favoring God, but that God is granting him mercy, beneficence, happiness, having granted him grace to accept a reverent desire, having given His providence the means to fulfill it, and from the heights above heaven, looking down with extreme condescension on the offering of the earth-born. That even the desire to create a church for the name of God is a gift pleasing to God, we know this from the mouth of God Himself through David and Solomon, who says: “And the Lord spoke to David my father: Because it was in thy heart to build a church for My name, thou didst do good, as it was in thy heart” (1 Kings 8:18). So, whoever has been honored not only to have such a desire in his heart, but also to actually bring such a gift to God: let him look at his gift to God as a gift to himself from God, with a meek feeling of his well-being, with pure joy, with humble thanksgiving to God, who alone is great both in sending gifts to man and in receiving gifts from man. But aren’t these feelings also appropriate for everyone participating in the celebration of the church, dedicated to God, and sanctified by God? For the church of God is the common gift of God to people, or, more precisely, the great treasury of God’s many different gifts and benefits to people, such as: spiritual enlightenment, cleansing, healing, consolation, rebirth into a new life, nutrition, restoration, strengthening of this new life, every blessing, every strength, help, protection, communication with God, mental, heartfelt, secret, and often, by faith and need, even miraculous. And therefore, when with the new church the Lord gives us a new key, he opens a new door to the great treasures of His grace: whoever is attentive does not exclaim with David: “What will I repay to the Lord for all that I have repaid!” If truly, brethren, your heart, awakened to gratitude for the good deeds of God, has now uttered David’s question: “What will I render to the Lord for all that I have rendered?” then take to heart David’s answer to this: “I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call on the name of the Lord.” Wonderful! Wanting to thank God, what does he want to do? - “I will accept the cup of salvation!” But if he wants, in expressing gratitude to God, to act as they usually did in his time “in the courts of the house of the Lord, in the midst of Jerusalem” (Ps. 115:10): then wouldn’t it be more natural for him to say: I will offer a “sacrifice of salvation”, or a “burnt offering” of a bull or a ram? What cup of salvation does he want to take instead? The Levitical law specifically prescribes a “sacrifice of salvation” (Lev. 3:1) from beef, or from sheep, or from goats: but the name “cup of salvation” is not in the Levitical statute. If cups are mentioned among the service vessels of the Temple of Jerusalem, they are not among the items of primary importance. Well? Did the Prophet really not know what he should do or what to pay special attention to in the established Divine service? Who can think this about the Prophet? What is it that he says: “I will accept the cup of salvation”? “We will understand this, brothers, if we imagine that David said this precisely as a Prophet, and not simply as a hymnist grateful to God. Then, as his heart desired to offer grateful service to God, the Prophetic spirit carried him through the shadows and images of the Old Testament to the New Testament truth, past the temple of Jerusalem to the upper room of Zion; showed him the Lord establishing the most perfect thanksgiving service; He allowed us to see the mysterious cup in His hand; He made His word heard: “This cup is the new covenant of My blood, which is shed for you” (Luke 22:20); the enthusiastic Prophet was inflamed with the desire to become a partaker of the coming sacrament, and exclaimed in ancient Jerusalem, as if here now with us before the Holy Cup: “I will accept the cup of salvation”! I marvel at you, holy Prophet, who “died by faith, not receiving the promises” given to us Christians, but nevertheless “I saw from afar and kissed” (Heb. 11:13). Turning to ourselves, I am amazed and grieved, and even horrified, thinking how the holy Prophet, from the distance of centuries, sought to mark his gratitude to God by the communication of the sacrament given to us; and just as many of us, on the contrary, standing at the very doors of this sacrament, in front of the Holy Cup itself, do not have a heartfelt thirst, do not want to say with a decisive striving of the spirit: “I will accept the cup of salvation,” I too will partake. Do you hear what the Lord says when establishing His Divine Table? - “Take, eat” (Mark 14:22). Wouldn’t it be enough to say: “taste”; so that one can understand that it is enough to taste the Lord’s Table just once, or to partake of it sometimes, when there is a special need, just as one uses medicine; for this meal truly contains powerful Divine healing for souls and bodies; and his power, as Divine, is so great that “if anyone eats of this bread” and once, this may be enough, and “he will live forever” (John 6:51). But no! The Lord offered us His Body not for a one-time, or infrequent and occasional use, as medicine, but for constant and everlasting nutrition: “eat.” If the Body of Christ were offered to us only as a medicine, then, brethren, we ourselves should ask permission to use this medicine more often, just as our infirmities, especially spiritual ones, are frequent. But when the Lord gave it to us as our daily bread, according to His word: “The bread that I will give, this is my flesh” (John 6:51): then through this very thing he not only allowed, but also commanded that we often approach His meal. We do not leave ourselves for a long time without ordinary bread, knowing that otherwise our strength will weaken, and bodily life cannot continue: how are we not afraid to leave ourselves for a long time without animal, heavenly, Divine bread? Listen to another founding word of the Lord, namely about the Holy Cup: “Drink of it, all of you” (Matthew 26:27). Let us not ignore the small word: “all”: for in every line of God’s word there is hidden light, in every sound wisdom. The Lord did not say about the mysterious bread: “Take and eat,” all of you: and righteously, for some cannot eat, for example, infants. But about the mystical cup he said: “Drink from it, all of you,” and thus eliminated any exception, of course, for those who remain in the faith and unity of the Church. Notice how those who do not allow infants and young children up to a certain age to enter the holy mysteries deviate from the accuracy of the Lord’s commandment; and how, on the contrary, the Orthodox Church is faithful to the word of the Lord when she gives the Holy Cup to infants, so that “everyone can drink from it,” even those who can only “drink” without having the strength to “eat.” Even more worthy of note is how the Lord, at the first presentation of the Holy Cup, at the same time denounces its taking away from the people - an innovation of later centuries. I don’t know what to marvel at here more, the manifold wisdom of the word of God, or the audacity of human wisdom against the clear word of God. The Lord sees that selfishness will want to steal the cup of life He gives from His lesser brothers; and first sets up a barrier against this insolence with a definitive command: “Drink from it, all of you.” But self-indulgence does not listen; no, not “everyone,” it says, common people should not receive communion from the chalice. - Let us bless God, brothers, that we belong to the Orthodox Church, which is not involved in this spontaneous wisdom, but with faithful obedience to the word of Christ offers you all the Holy Cup: “Drink of it, all of you.” But the more I am consoled by the fidelity with which our beloved mother, the Holy Church, observes the law-giving word of her Lord: the more I look with more concern at the inaccuracy and inactivity with which many of the children of the Church also accept the word of the Lord. The Last Supper here is the same as in the Upper Room of Zion; The same Lord now establishes it; you hear His own word through the lips of the priest: “Drink of it, all of you”; soon after this, the sacred gates open, the minister of the sacrament appears to invite you to fulfill the command of Christ: “drink of it, all of you”; he calls you: “Come with the fear of God and faith.” But are you getting started? - Long-suffering Lord! – often, none. – Don’t be embarrassed too much; I say this without reproaching; I know that in you this is not the audacity of self-indulgence, but a lack of boldness in faith; that you are acting according to a custom accepted from your ancestors, widespread for centuries: but be impartial; compare your custom with the commandment of Christ: you cannot help but admit that custom could more accurately follow the commandment; that you could 576 more actively fulfill the word of Christ. In the early centuries of Christianity, going to Church on Sundays and holidays and receiving the Holy Mysteries constituted one almost inseparable duty for the faithful; so there are church rules that condemn “one who goes to church” and “one who goes out” without “holy communion” (Apostle Rules 9. Antioch. Sob. Rights 2). Here is a custom, obviously more perfect than the current one! As for those who do not approach the Lord’s Table once a year, or who are completely averse to it: their judgment is written in the Gospel: “If ye did not eat the flesh of the Son of man, neither ye drink His blood; “Don’t have stomach in you” (John 6:53). Let us not remain silent about what those who rarely approach the Holy Mysteries usually say in their justification: we are unworthy; we are not ready. This thought sometimes truly comes from humility; and then, of course, it will not harm the union of these souls with Christ, just as Peter’s humble alienation did not harm this: “Depart from Me, for I am a sinner, Lord” (Luke 5:8). But we must look around so that under the plausible cover of the name of humility our coldness towards faith and negligence about correcting our lives do not hide. You're not ready: don't be lazy, get ready. You are unworthy: not a single person is worthy of communion with the All-Holy, because not a single one is sinless; but like everyone else, you too are left to believe, repent, correct yourself, be forgiven, and trust in the grace of the Savior of sinners and the Discoverer of the lost. You say that you are unworthy: it is in vain that you accept someone else’s position; whether or not to honor you with the sacrament is the duty of the celebrant, not the communicant. You are unworthy: let us agree that this is true. What's next? Do you really want to remain unworthy? If you carelessly leave yourself unworthy of communion with Christ on earth, are you not exposing yourself to the obvious danger of remaining unworthy of communion with Him in heaven? But if you are afraid of your unworthiness and want to get rid of it, will you get rid of yourself by removing yourself from Christ, from His grace, from His power, from His life? Isn’t it better, correcting one’s unworthiness as much as possible, to resort to Christ in the sacrament in order to receive from Him help and strength for more perfect correction and success in pleasing God? Christians! Generous and generous, almost always and everywhere, the Lord opens His church for us, prepares His Table, calls us to His Supper. One should be ashamed of an ungrateful response to a merciful invitation: “deny me” (Luke 14:18). We must fear the sentence: “You are not worthy of the title” (Matthew 22:8). Let us excite ourselves, as often as possible, to approach the Lord's Table, with attentive cleansing of ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, with fear of our unworthiness, but with faith in grace, with heartfelt hunger and thirst for love for the sweetest Jesus, whose flesh and blood is the true bread of life, and the only cup of salvation. Amen. In the author's manuscript: it would be. You might be interested in: