160. Слово 611 в день Успения Пресвятыя Богородицы

(Spoken in the Assumption Cathedral; printed in the Christian Readings of 1842 and in the collections of 1844 and 1848) The angel said: Rejoice, full of grace: the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women. Having seen it, she was embarrassed by his words. (Luke 1:28–29). I am not surprised that You, Mother of the Chief of the World, were embarrassed by the words of the heavenly messenger. The news was too extraordinary; a very early greeting, which one Angel could then utter, only You could hear and accept with faith. “The Lord is with You” is not only a gracious presence, but also an essential incarnation in You. “Grace” is incomprehensibly high! “Joy” is immensely bright! But what darkness surrounded You, living and life-giving Abode of Light! He had not yet risen from Your womb, when a storm of doubtful thoughts arose near You, and almost, having darkened it, did not overthrow the guardian of the Light, Joseph. Then, as the Divine Light from the manger was reflected in the heavens, and the heavenly glory of It responded to the earth - while He illuminated both simple-minded shepherds and far-sighted wise men - Herod and all of Jerusalem with him were confused by the proximity of the Light, and the king was moved to mortal warfare against an unarmed baby, and You, Mother of Light, had to flee into the darkness of Egypt, to fear returning to the fatherland Light, Judea, and also retire “to the people who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, in the Galilee of tongues” (Matthew 4:15, 16). Righteous Simeon, one of the few, early not only saw, but also recognized, and received into his own hands the “Light in the revelation of tongues” (Luke 2:32): but what? When this Light illuminated the future for him, then with the weapon of the prophetic word he first pierced the soul of the Mother of Light, who was destined to be pierced by the weapon of the sorrows of the cross: “And to you,” he said, “a weapon will pierce your soul” (Luke 2:35). The divine proclamation of Jesus on the Jordan, His illumination on Tabor, the triumph of His teaching and miracles sufficiently illuminated You with joy, O Blessed One, we do not quite know: otherwise it is revealed to us in Scripture, and from our own heart, although imperfect in love, we understand and feel how many, varied, long-lasting, deep Your sorrows for Your Divine must have been, but in the human infirmities of the clothed Son, when You saw Him, now in exhaustion from exploits, now in bickering among the people, now in danger from enemies, then finally in the hands of enemies; when the cries and blasphemies raised against Him, the blows and wounds inflicted on Him, struck Your heart; when He gave You a stranger's 612 son instead of Himself; when You saw His last look, heard His last voice, accompanied His lifeless body. The light of His resurrection, without a doubt, shone upon You more abundantly than anyone else: but isn’t it even more so, just as after the lightning the night, dark and sightless should have remained for You 613 earthly life, when He hid in His ascension to heaven? And is this the destiny of “Blessed among Women” - first to be an orphaned mother after the Son who died on the cross, then from the resurrected Son living in heavenly glory, to again remain on earth as an orphaned mother? But now a new time is coming. It turns out that the seed of the heavenly word, if not always quick, bears all the more abundant and lasting fruit. Now not one heavenly contemplation sees Your “grace”, not one Angel secretly preaches Your “joy”; in the church Your grace and joy are greatly preached; The human race blesses You, “Blessed among women.” Just as the glory of Your Son and God, and Your Divine glory shines from the grave. The miracles of Your Dormition revealed that Your God-bearing soul goes straight to God: Your empty tomb after burial showed that in Your body death did not find any food for itself, that is, nothing contaminated with sin, and therefore nothing corruptible. The life of the future century, which we are still just anticipating, for You 614 is already real eternal life, at the highest degree of glory. In the palace of heaven, as a “Queen” by grace, You “appeared” at the right hand of the King by nature, “in garments of gold” (Ps. 45:10), or according to another contemplation, “clothed in the sun” (Rev. 12:1), - in the open, as it seems to me, and perfect light of Christ; appeared in order not only to abide in the light and enjoy it, but also to reign in the light, or to lead the light, so that “virgins”—chaste or chaste souls—would be “brought to the King” to “follow” You (Ps. 44:15). Now “Rejoice, full of grace,” and from now on, forever and ever, inviolably, “Rejoice,” - not only rejoice, but also blissful, - not only “blessed,” but also glorified! And if the high degree of light and goodness, grace and bliss, is a state of overflowing, overflowing on what is familiar and acceptable: then, O God-gracious One, from Your overflowing also to us, Thy grace believers and those who glorify it, have sent down at least some secret dew of grace, like the dawn of light, as a source of good, as a guarantee of bliss. Forgive me, brethren, if I spend a long time in front of you, as if without you. On days like today, one can completely forget the earth in conversation with Heaven 615. And it would be good if we talked more willingly and longer with Heaven, and less willingly and hastily turned to earth, and then only so that, having encountered our shortcomings and needs, the more relentlessly we would resort to the abundance and bounties of Heaven. Yes, brethren, from contemplating the “grace” that Miriam “found from God” (Luke 1:30), and which in such wonderful ways raised Her to such high glory, turning to ourselves, we must think about the need for grace for ourselves. If Mariam alone is “grace-filled” by superiority, then, on the contrary, no one can remain graceless without sinking into evil and destruction. At least the smallest amount of grace is needed in order to achieve at least the last degree of bliss. Grace, if we want to exhaust the full meaning of this name, is a giving from the Good, a good giving, a giving according to the sole goodness, without the prior right, or merit and dignity of the recipient. If we take into consideration that, according to the word of the Lord, “no one is good except one God” (Matthew 19:17; Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19): and consequently, the source of everything that is good in creatures cannot be sought anywhere except the One God, by pure goodness the giver and not the repayer (for “who has given before Him and will be repaid to Him?” ( Rom.11:35)): then one could conclude that a person has everything, both in himself and around himself, his very being, life, body, soul, the ability and use of the ability to know, desire, act - everything is by the grace of God. But inasmuch as the good that God placed in creatures through the action of His creation was assimilated by them as if it were their property: what was in its beginning by grace, in its continuation became the nature of beings and those born by nature, and in contrast to this, what is called grace is what the All-Good God gives to man above nature and nature. In this mind, the word of God uses the name of grace, meaning by it “giving giving,” or Divine power, exuding gracious influences, as for example in the following saying: “The grace of God that brings salvation appeared to all man” (Titus 2:11); and “teachable giving,” or gift of grace, as for example in the following testimony of the Apostle: “To one among us was given grace according to the bestowal of Christ” (Eph. 4:7). When there was no sin in the world: then, I don’t know whether everything was legible and transparent to this elemental light, but, without a doubt, everything was transparent and passable to the light of grace. He poured out unhinderedly into nature and constantly filled it with goodness and bliss, preserving in inviolable perfection and immortality even that in which the possibility of corruption was hidden - the human body. But when, through seduction, abuse of freedom and deviation of the will of man from the will of God, sin entered the world: then the original union between nature and grace was thereby broken. Although the light of grace, as Divine, and therefore not sanctified by anything, without ceasing, always shines on everything: but nature, defiled by sin, darkened, coarsened, infected, has become unworthy and incapable of receiving the pure, light, subtle, incorruptible influence of grace. Thus, “spiritual death” (Rom. 5:12) entered the world “through sin,” and after it, physical, temporary, and after it, eternal. And if only with the assistance of grace a person retained what he originally had, then of course it is not possible for him, without the special help of grace, to return what he lost. Here, both an extreme need and a miraculously satisfactory, according to the Apostolic expression, “abundance of grace” (Rom. 5:17) are revealed most of all. It would have been natural for a person who had been rejected and fallen from grace to fall even to hell, if God, who had foreseen this from eternity, and the ever-merciful God, had not extended a holding and uplifting hand in the midst of the fall. He wonderfully united both the giver of grace and the recipient of it - the Divinity and pure humanity into a single Hypostasis of Christ the Lord, and in His word and life, in His body and blood, in His baptism with water and spirit, He opened new, abundant currents of grace, extended to our nature that was alienated from it, but not alien to the Incarnate, in order to thus cleanse it, defiled by sin, to enlighten the darkened, to spiritualize the carnal, to heal the corrupt, to raise the fallen, to justify the condemned, to revive the mortified, to save the lost. This is not my speculation, but the Gospel teaching. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” says the Apostle, “grace us in the Beloved, in whom we are imams, deliverance through His blood, and forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:6-7). The Apostolic Word often turns to the idea of ​​grace, and everything in Christianity is based on it. Does it want to lead us to the beginning of our salvation? It leads us to grace: “the grace of God that brings salvation appeared to all men” (Titus 2:11). Does he want to point out our salvation as already accomplished? The instruction again refers to grace: “by grace is salvation” (Eph. 2:5). Does he want to explain the purpose, power and action of the incarnation of the Son of God and His coming to earth? And this is explained by the thought of grace: “grace and truth became Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Does he want to show how the Apostles, Prophets, evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers, and their work of serving the salvation of other people came into being in the church? Shows the beginning of this in grace: “To one of us alone was grace given according to the gift of Christ” (Eph. 4:7). Does he want to strengthen a Christian in feat? Strengthens with grace: “Thou, my child, may be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1). Does he want to guard against sin? – He warns with grace: “Let sin not possess you: for you are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). Does he want to improve our external activities? – Prosperous by grace: “Let your word always be in grace, mixed with salt, leading as it is fitting for you to answer everyone alone” (Col. 4:6). Does he want to greet and bless? And for this he calls on grace to help: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:7). You see, Christians, that in Christianity everything is by grace, and nothing without grace. May each of us strive to find grace for ourselves. Let no one have the flattering thought that if in our salvation everything works by grace, then we no longer need much care for our salvation. No, partakers of grace; Powerful and effective grace was announced and given to us in order to strengthen our weakness, encourage our hopelessness, inspire our good activity, and not in order to care for our negligence and lull us into inaction. “We pray,” writes Saint Paul to the Corinthian Christians, “that you will not receive the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor. 6:1). How? Can grace, “which saves all men,” really be received “in vain”? Apparently, this can happen when the Apostle so carefully warns against this: “we pray that you will not receive the grace of God in vain.” The saving grace of God is in itself: but it does not save us without us. “It is not accepted in vain,” when it is accepted with faith, when it is faithfully used and preserved, when we turn it into our life and deeds; but in vain, when faith becomes impoverished, when our life and deeds insult and deny the grace of God. Grace is the talent of the heavenly Master, who enriches the faithful and diligent servant, but condemns the unfaithful and lazy one, and is taken away from him. So, “we pray that you will not receive the grace of God in vain,” “let no one fall short of the grace of God” (Heb. 12:15). Let us also beware of another thought that is unfavorable to grace. Some people think that they live quite well if they live according to nature; and therefore they do not strive to raise the plane of their lives in order to live by grace. Appearance is dangerous! If, as we have partially shown, a person undamaged by sin lived not by nature alone, but was more blessed by grace: then will life by nature be quite good, which is damaged by sin and not corrected by grace? Will someone point out, as an approval of life by nature, what the Apostle said that “the Gentiles, having no law, follow the lawful nature” (Rom. 2:14)? To such a person I will say: is it pleasant for you to be equal only to the pagans in the dignity of life? This is not how our Lord judged when, in reproach for an imperfect life, he said: “Do not even the pagans do likewise” (Matthew 5:47)? Through this He made it clear that for His follower, for a perfect man, it is too little to live according to nature, like the pagans. To determine the meaning and dignity of life by nature, we must look at the place it occupies in the dominion of God and Christ. Although this dominion is limitless and immeasurable for us: however, since in any well-organized dominion one can notice a certain distribution of its composition, in accordance with the goals of management: then the Theologians, not without reason, noticed in the universal dominion of God and Christ three contiguous kingdoms: the kingdom of nature, the kingdom of grace, the kingdom of glory. The entrance to the kingdom of nature is opened to man by natural birth, to the kingdom of grace by baptism, to the kingdom of glory by the resurrection from the dead and the final judgment. Directly adjacent to the kingdom of glory is the kingdom of grace, and only through this lies the path to it from the kingdom of nature. Consequently, whoever lives only by nature is a whole kingdom removed from the blissful kingdom of glory. And therefore, when on the last day the whole kingdom of grace finally passes into the kingdom of glory; and “the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (2 Pet. 3:10): where then will graceless life remain by nature, if not in the nature of the underworld. Brethren, sharers of the gifts and promises of grace! Let us not neglect the grace of God. Let us seek it through knowledge and recognition of our weakness and sinfulness, prayer, teaching in the word of God, communication of the sacraments of faith, and a sincere desire to live according to the commandments of Christ; Let us accept it with faith and readiness to obey its suggestions; let us remain faithful and constancy in following her leadership. Grace itself will be our secret helper in our deeds for its sake, and will crown them. According to the admonition of the Apostle, “let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). According to the Prophet’s promise, “The Lord God will give grace and glory” (Ps. 83:12). Glory to the Lord God, Giver of grace, Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, forever. Amen. In Chr. Read: Conversation. – In the index in Thurs. O. L. D. P. is listed as pronounced in 1842. In Chr. Read: remains gloomy for You... In Chr. Read: enough, if to the last degree, for you... In Chr. Thu: you can talk to the sky in an inconspicuous way for a long time... You might be interested in: