238. Слово в день Благовещения Пресвятыя Богородицы

(Said on March 25; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1849, and in the collection, 1861) His seed is holy (Isaiah 6:13). Glory and thanksgiving to the Creator of times, who created the day that we now renew with remembrance and celebration - the day of the incarnation of the Son of God! This is one of the few days on which all the days of the earth rely, so as not to collapse into one endless hellish night. Because the incarnation of the Son of God is an event that supports the standing and well-being of the human race, together with other creations created to serve him and subordinate to his fate. This, it seems to me, was the thought given to the Prophet Isaiah when he was told: “his seed is holy.” Let's see if this little seed will not give us the words about the “holy seed” of some mental vegetation, food for the soul. In order to achieve an accurate understanding of the now cited saying about the “holy seed,” it is necessary to trace the whole incident from the life of the Prophet. In Jerusalem, in the church or above the church, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a high throne, filling the church with His glory, surrounded and praised by the Seraphim with such power that the door moved from their voice, and the church was filled with smoke. Alas for me, exclaimed the amazed Prophet, considering himself lost, because he saw the King of the Lord of hosts, having, by his own admission, unclean lips, and living among people who have unclean lips. But the Lord immediately revealed Himself as exalting the humble. Seraphim took a burning coal from the incense altar, and, touching Isaiah’s lips with it, proclaimed to him cleansing from sins. A mysterious fire penetrated the soul of the Prophet and animated him with courage and zeal. “Whom will I send,” asked the Lord, “and who will go to this people” (Is. 6:8), that is, to the Jews, whom Isaiah pointed out, modestly denouncing, under the name of “unclean lips” (Is. 6:5), unclean souls and unclean lives? The inflamed Isaiah was no longer afraid to answer: “Behold, I am, send me” (Is. 6:8). Go, said the Lord, and tell these people that when they hear, they do not hear, when they see, they do not see, that their hearts are clouded, their ears are hard to hear, their eyes are closed; why will they not hear and see, and turn, so that I may heal them? The Prophet took pity and asked: “How long, Lord” (Is. 6:11)? How long will it take until they are converted and you will not heal them? The Lord continued: the cities will be desolate; there will be no people; the land will remain empty; there will barely be a tenth of what it was before, and there will be devastation again. But the people of Judah will be like terebenth or an oak tree, which even after being crushed grows again from a root or an acorn. "The seed is holy is his standing." The Holy Seed will give him the strength to withstand danger. If these prophetic sayings are compared with events, then their meaning will be explained and determined as follows. The Jews live in sins, and become stubborn in sins. They will not listen to prophets who denounce, calling for repentance, faith and salvation. For this they will be punished by captivity in Babylon. They will return from captivity in smaller numbers than before, and will again be subjected to destructive disasters in the days of the Maccabees. But despite all this, this people will not perish. Why? - Because the holy seed is stored in it, for the preservation of which it will also be preserved by the Providence of God. "The seed is holy is his standing." Here the question arises by itself: what kind of holy seed is there by which a sinning and distressed people is preserved? – If we bring to mind David’s confession: “I was conceived in iniquity, and my mother gave birth to me in sins” (Ps. 50:7); and if we accept into consideration that there is no reason to attribute this recognition to the special personality of David and his mother, and therefore it should be attributed generally to the nature of the sons of Adam; then we will be forced to conclude that there is no holy seed at all among those born according to the law of fallen human nature. What holy seed did God Himself indicate to the Prophet? – It is true that he promised Adam when he spoke to the first enemy of the human race: “the seed of the woman will erase your head” (Gen. 3:15); the one with which he blessed Abraham, saying: “All the nations of the earth will be blessed through your seed” (Gen. 22:18); that which he showed with new significance to King David as the eternal King and Son of God: “I will raise up your seed after you; I will rule his throne forever; “I will be his Father” (2 Samuel 7:12–14). To put it briefly: the only essentially holy seed in the human race is our Lord Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Holy Virgin. God, to whom, according to the expression of Scripture, “the essence of all His works has been understood from eternity” (Acts 15:18), and whose all-seeing “eyes see our work as yet undone” (Ps. 139:16), from eternity saw all, countless for us, the generations of the sons of fallen Adam, and foresaw and chose one, if not in all his faces worthy, at least in some who preserved the most the remnants of primordial goodness, less susceptible to the infection of sin, primarily disposed to accept and faithfully preserve grace, capable finally, with gradual grace-filled purification, of giving birth to the pure Virgin, who can be the friend of the incarnate Divinity - a light that communicates only to the pure, a fire that scorches the unclean. Therefore, it was necessary to protect this race until it bears the most beautiful flower and the most perfect fruit of humanity - the Virgin Mary, Mother of the God-Man. Since this race was contained in the Jewish people, this people also had to be protected. And that is why prophets were sent to this people, especially before others, to imbue them with grace-filled light, so that they would not lose faith and would not perish from their sins and delusions. And so that he would not perish from enemies and disasters, miraculous powers and actions were often used, such as, for example, carrying him across the sea on dry land, feeding on manna for forty years, beating by an Angel one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian army, when King Hezekiah was not able to defend himself from his large numbers. So the holy seed was the stronghold and protection of the Jewish people, until, finally, “the rod went out from the root of Jesse, and the flower from the root thereof went up” (Is. 11:1), the Son of God was born from the daughter of Jesse, appeared on earth, lived, taught, worked miracles, suffered, died, rose again, ascended into heaven, sent down the Holy Spirit, wrought our salvation in the midst of the earth. The goal of Providence has been achieved. There was no need to protect the Jews as before. Moreover, they themselves renounced the holy seed, betraying Christ to death. And therefore, although in recent times they were quite numerous and strong, they were nevertheless defeated, deprived of their fatherland, scattered throughout the entire earth, and if they did not disappear, then in order to remain a sad and at the same time instructive monument of the holy and saving seed stored in them, but not recognized by them, also in the hope that the holy seed that came from them will one day revive their remains. What do the children of the non-Israelite race think now? Doesn’t a jealous thought arise: how happy are the people who have been given the gift of keeping the holy seed, and being kept by it! – Don’t envy, but thank God. He made one people the repository of the holy seed, that is, the race and birth of Christ: but in order through this to bring about the salvation of all nations and all people, which is actually spiritual and eternal, however, beneficially shining into external temporary life. If those who have been given the holy hidden seed are happy, the Christ who comes, hidden in the promise: should we be less happy, who have been given the holy seed revealed, the Christ who has come, acceptable by faith? Are we not “begotten,” as the Apostle says, “not from a seed that was corrupted, but incorruptible, by the word of the living God, and abiding forever?” (1 Peter 1:23). “Or do you not know,” says another Apostle, “that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are unskillful?” (2 Cor. 13:5). “Christ in you is the hope of glory” ( Col. 1:27 ). About Christ, “godliness is profitable for all things, having promise for this life and for the future” (1 Tim. 4:8). From Christ His true Church has a promise that “the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18): and is it not natural that the quality of invincibility should to some extent be imparted to the repository of the true Church, faithful and pure, since such is formed in the Orthodox people, in the pious kingdom, under the protection of God's chosen King, to whom, of course, not without power, the very word of God grants from Christ the borrowed name and dignity of the Lord's Anointed? – So for the new Israel, just as for the ancient, the ancient word has its meaning: “the seed of his holy standing.” So, new Israel, grace-filled people of God, do not cease to keep the holy seed within you: and it will not cease to keep you. The seed of the word of God in the mind, the seed of faith in Christ and love for Him in the heart, let it be nourished by prayer, and grow by feat; may He manifest His power in life and good deeds: and Christ, who indwells faith in the hearts, building His Church in each and everyone, will be for you a stronghold of unshakable standing, a fence of security, your light and peace within, your victorious weapon against any external attack of hostile forces, visible and invisible. This is true, by the grace of the Lord; and if it can become doubtful, then perhaps because of your lack of compliance with grace: “unless you are unskillful,” as the Apostle warns. That’s why he exhorts with urgency: “Test yourselves, if you are in the faith, tempt yourselves” (2 Cor. 13:5). If we think that the Apostle exhorted the Christians of the early bright times, whose faith not only apparently grew, but also blossomed with spiritual gifts, the gift of healings, the gift of tongues, the gift of prophecy, and for them he still found the question puzzling: “if you are in the faith”: then we, who drink the yeast of later times, with what concern, with what fear should we test ourselves: if we are in the faith! Let us be afraid of being unskilled in faith; Let us strive to acquire the art of faith, which is not only briefly manifested in the mouth and in thoughts, but deeply heartfelt, constant, living, active in love according to the commandments of God, pure from wrong thoughts and from unrighteous deeds, ready for self-sacrifice for truth and righteousness. This is “our faith, which has overcome the world” (1 John 5:4), and must still overcome it, until the whole Church, militant in time, passes into triumphant in eternity. Amen. You might be interested in: