17. Слово в день собора святаго архистратига Михаила

(Spoken in the Archangel Cathedral; printed in the collections of 1822, 1835, 1844 and 1848) Isn’t the whole point of serving souls, that we send them into service for those who want to inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:14. The earthly council has now solemnly assembled to give honor to the heavenly council; a council of men gathered to sing the praises of the Council of Angels. For what? “Aren’t they all,” says the Apostle, explaining the high superiority of the Son of God over the Angels, aren’t they all “ministering spirits”? Why does the Church, which often expresses a desire to serve God together with the Angels and glorify His goodness, now, so to speak, remains behind them, and performs a kind of service in honor of them? This all the more requires study since the ancient law, “instituted by Angels” (Gal. 3:19), does not represent any solemn establishment in honor of the Angels. The most ordinary basis of sacred institutions - when we say this, we do not shake other foundations, deep and mysterious - the most, I say, the most ordinary basis of church institutions is a pious reminder. “Remember the Sabbath day” (Ex. 20:8), says the commandment. “This day will be a remembrance for you” (Ex. 12:14), says the law of Passover. “Do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19), says Jesus Christ Himself, establishing the sacrament of His Body and Blood. On this basis, the ancient law could not establish a special church institution in honor of the Holy Angels at times when people were inclined to give divine honor to the ministering forces, and when it was most necessary to remind them of the proper service to the one God. Now, under the law of Christ, times are completely different. The unity of God, like the sun, illuminates the minds: but like the stars, it is inconspicuous in the sun; so, when the philosophizing mind is occupied with one great thought about the uncreated Light 132, some no longer notice the created lights, small of course before Him, however pure and beneficent - they do not notice the “ministering spirits sent” from God to “serve those who are to inherit salvation”; and without noticing them, they withdraw from their beneficent community and help. For such times, the Church has shrewdly and wisely established the celebration in honor of the Council of Heavenly Powers, so that we weak earthly creatures may receive an edifying reminder of these helpers of our salvation. It is surprising that the oblivion of the heavenly Powers in some Christians extends to the point that they even doubt the existence of the invisible world. If we had not had evidence of this in the book of Revelation, we could have found it in the book of nature. On everything that is visible is written the testimony of what is invisible. The Apostle Paul says that “the invisible things of God, His ever-present power and Godhead, from the creation of the world, through the seeing of creatures, are visible” (Rom. 1:20): but how not everything visible can be attributed directly to the invisible power of God; then, on the basis of the Apostolic saying 133, one can see the invisible world, through the world of passing images - the world of constant forces, through which the omnipotent power of God holds, “carries” (Heb. 1:3), moves, controls and preserves everything visible. Look at a tree or grass: what you see can only wither, wither and collapse; and what produces greenness, growth, color and fruit, is not that which is invisible? Look at yourself: what feels, desires, thinks in you, isn’t it invisible? Notice the ladder-like gradualism of creatures, which are more perfect than each other, since the action of the invisible is more revealed in them; begin from earth and stone, in which the invisible is completely buried; ascend the ladder of visible creatures to man, in whom the invisible can already dominate: is it not natural to assume above this level creatures in which the visible is completely absorbed - beings that are purely invisible, spiritual? True, in the current darkened state of man and the world, through the writings of visible things the light of the invisible world flickers dimly. But for this reason, in the book of Revelation, the eye purified by faith clearly sees not only the existence of the invisible world, but also its proximity, and its close union with the visible. There the Cherubim guards the path of the tree of life (Gen. 3:24); here the Angel comforts the desperate Hagar (Gen. 16:7–12); in another place the Angels, together with the Lord, visit Abraham (Gen. 18); Angels save Lot from dying Sodom (Gen. XIX); An angel saves the life of Ishmael, who is dying of thirst (Gen. 21:17–19); An Angel, and perhaps more than an Angel in essence, but an Angel by appearance and by name in sacred history 134, holds the hand of Abraham raised to the slaughter of Isaac, and showers him with blessings (Gen. 22:15, 17); Abraham promises an angel to guide his servant (Gen. 24:7), and this servant is wonderfully guided in finding Rebekah. Jacob, then the one who sleeps in a multitude sees Angels ascending along a ladder to heaven and descending to the earth (Gen. 28:12), then the one who watches meets with armies of Angels (Gen. 32:1). An angel appears to Moses in a burning bush (Ex. 3:2), to prepare him for the expulsion of the Israelites from Egypt. An angel in a pillar of fire and cloud precedes the Israelites from Egypt, protects them from the pursuing Egyptians (Ex. 14:19), accompanies them through the Red Sea, and continuously wanders with them through the desert for forty years. Under “the order of the angels” (Acts 7:53) the Israelites accepted the law of Moses. “The Archangel of the Power of the Lord” appears to Joshua (Joshua 5:14), and commands the miraculous conquest of Jericho. An angel, instead of a Prophet, preaches to the Israelites, and the people, crying at his preaching, mark the place of his appearance with the name “Lamentation” (Judges 2:1–6), the Angel calls on Gideon to deliver the Israelites from enslavement (Judges 6:11); The angel visits Sampson's parents twice, predicts an extraordinary birth, and teaches the mother to protect the fruit of the womb through abstinence (Judges 13). The angel strikes the Jerusalemites for David's vanity (2 Samuel 24:16), and the Assyrians for Sennacherib's pride (2 Kings 19:35). The Prophet Elijah is repeatedly guided in his actions by an Angel (1 Kings 19:5; 2 Kings 1:15); Elisha shows his youth a host of Angels, like a protective army (2 Kings 6:17). Isaiah sees the Seraphim surrounding the Throne of the Lord, and from one of them he receives fiery cleansing (Is.6); Ezekiel, among the open heavens, contemplates four God-bearing animals and animate wheels (Ezek. 1); Daniel beholds “thousands of thousands who serve” the Ancient of Days, “and ten thousand of those who stand before Him” (Dan.7:10); sometimes he meets a guardian angel and, perhaps, more than an angel, in a fiery furnace (Dan. 3:92); sometimes in the lion's den (Dan.6:22); sometimes Gabriel “hovered” over him, and “touched” him, and explained visions to him (Dan.9:21); sometimes in his revelations he hears “about Michael, one of the chief elders” of heaven, and the “Prince” of his people (Dan. 10:13, 21). Zechariah, in addition to seeing and hearing Angels, repeatedly feels “in himself” the “Angel speaking” (Zechariah 1:14). O Lord of strength! What truly Cathedrals of Heavenly Powers you gather for earthly beings! How wonderfully “You encamp Your angels around those who fear You” (Ps. 33:8)! With what community, with what unity you unite the spirits of Angels and men! Perhaps some people think that only the Old Testament times of shadows and fortune-telling were subjugated to the Angels, just as the visible stars were set for the possession of the night. Let's see. Let's open the New Testament. Behold the sun of spirits rises; is the King of revelations, Jesus Christ. What then? Should the stars disappear? Should the serving spirits of Light leave? Or will the presence of the sun not destroy the stars, but only make them less noticeable? Or, in the presence of the King, will royal servants establish and facilitate access to Him? But why ask about this? The King himself proclaims what should be: “from here you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man” (John 1:51): and indeed, we see an Angel announcing the barren conception of the Forerunner (Luke 1:11) and the barren conception of the Savior (Luke 1:26), a whole army of Angels, singing the glory of the birth of the Savior (Luke 2:13), the Angel resolving the bewilderment of Joseph (Matthew 1:20) and arranging the safety of the Child Jesus from those who seek His soul (Matthew 2:13), the Angels serving Jesus after His temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:11), the Angels adopted by each baby, “beyond those who see 135 the Father heavenly" (Matt. 18:10), more than twelve legions of Angels ready to take up arms for Jesus against the Jews (Matt. 26:53), the Angel who appeared to strengthen Him in the Gethsemane feat (Luke 22:43), the Angels opening His tomb (Matt. 28:2), announcing His resurrection (John 20:12) 136, Angels accompanying His ascension and announcing His coming again (Acts 1:10, 11), Angels loosening bonds (Acts 12:7), and opening prisons for the Apostles (Acts 5:19); Finally, an Angel appeared to Cornelius, who was still emerging from the darkness of paganism, in order to show him the entrance to the Christian Church (Acts 10:3-6). Christians! Jesus Christ, according to the saying of John the Theologian, is “the Holy One, the true one, having the key of David, he opens, and no one closes” (Rev. 3:7). So, if He opened the sky: who dares to close it? Or who dares to say that now is no longer the time to see the Angels of God ascending and descending according to the will of the Son of Man? “Isn’t the whole point of service souls sent into service for those who want to inherit salvation?” Who can even now claim that they are already idle and we are without help? But the more undoubtedly we are convinced of the closeness of the holy Angels to us and of their readiness to help us, the more carefully we must think about that, from which in our days they hear so little about this help, and even less believe what they hear about that. Or there are no Angels with us; or we do not notice them; or remove it from ourselves. That they do not exist is not true, as we have seen. Consequently, the truth is that we either do not notice them, or even remove them from ourselves. Just as in their visible appearances the holy Angels were often mistaken by people for similar people: it can so easily happen that a person mistakes their invisible actions for their own human or ordinary natural actions. Doesn’t it happen, for example, that, in the midst of bewilderment or some inaction of the mind, suddenly, like lightning, a pure, holy and saving thought shines through; that in a overwhelmed or cold heart, silence instantly settles, or the heavenly flame of love for God kindles? If every phenomenon by its kind testifies to the presence of an active force, then do not these internal phenomena of our soul testify to the presence of heavenly Forces, out of love for mankind, throwing their rays into our mind and sparks into our heart? Isn’t this the essence of the actions of the Angels, according to the saying of the Prophet Zechariah, “speaking in us?” How worthy of regret if we do not notice this Angelic help! For, without noticing, we do not accept it as we should, and we do not use it; Without taking advantage, we remain ungrateful and guilty, we do not prepare ourselves for other similar visits and thus even remove our guardians from us. If we humans move away from people whose dispositions are contrary to our dispositions; if the mentor finally renounces the student who does not heed the instructions, or the mentor from the student who rejects the leadership; if the father himself removes his rebellious son from himself: then how can the holy Angels not finally withdraw from us when we do not follow their saving suggestions and leave their ministry fruitless for us? How can the heavenly Forces not move away from us when we indulge only in earthly things? How can pure spirits not escape when we live in the impurities of the flesh? How can the Angels of God not withdraw when we constantly have in our thoughts and desires not God and His Christ, but the world and ourselves? Children of the church! Children of God! Let us walk like children of obedience. Don’t we hear how our mother daily asks us from our Lord and Father “An angel who is peaceful, faithful, a mentor, a guardian of our souls and bodies?” Let us not reject the blessings for which she strives so hard for us. Let us despise earthly things and draw closer to heavenly things. Let us purify our senses and see the supersensible. Let us drive out carnal desires and vain thoughts from our soul, and then the bodiless Powers will visit it and lead us with them “from strength to strength,” until finally the Lord God Himself “will appear in Zion” of our spirit (Psalm 83:8), and “make” Himself an “abode” in it (John 14:23). Amen. In collection 1822: in the radiance of the uncreated Light... In collection 1822 and 1835 further follows: one can also say that through the visible world... In collection 1822 and 1835 these words do not exist. I will take out those who see - In the collection. 1822 and 1835: “those who see the face...” In collection 1822 and 1835: opening (Matthew 28:2) and filling (John 20:12) His life-giving tomb... You might be interested in: