283. Беседа в неделю седмую по Пасхе, по освящении храма Воскресения Христова, в Покровском Хотькове монастыре

(Said on May 31st; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1853 and in the collection of 1861) After the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, the first thing Peter did, who was foremost among the Apostles, was to add to the twelve number of Apostles, from which, as they modestly put it, “Judas fell away to go to his place” (Acts 1:25). Saint Peter proposed this to the church meeting, in which there were about one hundred and twenty men. The meeting named two worthy ones, and from them, through prayer and by lot, Matthias was decisively chosen, “and was quickly numbered among the ten apostles” (Acts 1:26). Probably, for this sacred action, Saint Peter also chose a sacred day - a day that in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, according to the Jewish reckoning of time, is called “one ... from Saturdays,” that is, the first day of the week, and on which, as a holiday, Christians “gathered” to “break bread” (Acts 20:7), that is, to perform the sacrament of communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, in a word - Sunday day. This day had to be chosen in order to have a more complete church meeting, which could not be equally complete on non-holiday days. Therefore, it is likely that we now remember the election of the twelfth Apostle on the very day on which it took place. The words with which the Apostle Peter proposed the election of the twelfth Apostle excite special attention and reflection. He said: “It is fitting that from the men who came together with us every year, since the Lord Jesus came into us and went out into us, He began from the baptism of John even to the day when He ascended into heaven from us, the witness of His resurrection to be with us alone from these” (Acts 1:21-22). A person is required who, together with the Apostles, followed the Lord Jesus during all the years of His solemn service on earth for the salvation of the human race, from the day of His baptism in the Jordan to the day of His ascension into heaven. Such a person is appointed, along with the other Apostles, to be a “witness.” What? Is it not what he has seen all these years? Baptism, in which Jesus the God-man is revealed and witnessed by the heavenly voice of God the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit? The teaching that He later taught? The miracles He performed? Prophecies with which He demonstrated His Divine omniscience? His royal entry into Jerusalem? His suffering and death? His glorious ascension into heaven? That is not what St. Peter says. He requires an eyewitness to all these deeds and events; but, aside from these deeds and events, he assigns to the chosen one, as well as to himself and the other Apostles, only one subject of testimony: “the witness of His resurrection to be with us.” Here the reflective person is presented with the question: why does Saint Peter present himself and the other Apostles as witnesses only of the resurrection of Christ, when they could and should have testified not only about this, but also about the entire life, deeds and teaching of Christ the Savior, without which there could not have been a complete and authentic testimony of His resurrection? This is not a matter of curiosity, but a path to instruction. Saint Peter recognizes the need for Apostolic testimony not only about the resurrection of Christ the Savior, but about His entire life, deeds and teachings. This is evident from the fact that for the Apostolic service he is looking for an eyewitness of Christ’s life from baptism to ascension into heaven. From this we must conclude that Saint Peter, calling the Apostles “witnesses of the resurrection” of Christ, did not think to eliminate other objects of the Apostolic testimony, but only for brevity he named one of them, implying others associated with it: he primarily pointed to the resurrection of Christ, of course because the testimony of this was for the Apostles the subject of special attention and achievement. The affirmation of faith in the resurrection of Christ is a matter of great importance for Christianity and for the Christian. The main strength of Christianity is to recognize the Lord Jesus as the Savior of a world that has sinned against God and is condemned to death by God. And in order to recognize this powerful quality in Him with full hope, for this we need complete confirmation that He is the Only Begotten Son of God and the true God: because it is well said, although not by good people: “Who can forgive sins, but one God” (Luke 5:21)? Only the Mercy of God the Son can provide worthy satisfaction to the offended majesty and justice of God the Father; only God can restore life to those condemned to death by God. But the strongest evidence of the Divinity of Jesus Christ lies in His resurrection. He himself suggested this idea. When the Jews, surprised by the extraordinary power that He showed by expelling those who were selling and buying from the church, asked Him: “What sign are you showing us that you have done this?” that is, by what miracle will you prove that God gave you power over His church? - then He, primarily before His other miracles, pointed to the miracle of His resurrection. And he said to them: “Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:18–19), that is, on the third day I will rise again. In fact, the miracles that the Lord Jesus performed on others during His earthly life, even the most wondrous of them, the resurrection of the dead, were also performed by the Prophets, although not with the same authority as He. So Elijah prayed: “Lord my God, may the soul of this youth return to him” (1 Kings 17:21): but Jesus commanded: “Lazarus, get out” (John 11:43) from the tomb. However, others might not notice this difference, and therefore might recognize in Jesus the Prophet and Messenger of God and not yet recognize in Him the Only Begotten Son of God. But it has never been, and cannot be imagined, possible for a person to resurrect himself: and therefore, by the self-resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the most perfect confirmation is given that He is the true God, ruling over life and death, and the Divine Savior, having the power to resurrect all people killed by sins. Glory and thanksgiving to the risen Christ our God, that He showed us His saving resurrection in the most obvious way, and gave it the most reliable witnesses! On the very day of His resurrection, He appeared to Mary Magdalene and other myrrh-bearers, appeared to the Apostle Peter, appeared to two disciples on the way to Emmaus, and finally appeared to the ten Apostles; then, eight days later, he appeared to all the Apostles to assure Thomas of His resurrection; then he appeared to a congregation of more than five hundred people, then to James, to seven more Apostles on the Sea of ​​Tiberias, to all the Apostles, in order to make them eyewitnesses of His glorious ascension into heaven, and finally from the open sky he appeared to the persecutor of His disciples, Saul, to make him Paul the Apostle. What could be more convincing when an enemy of Christ is convinced to be a witness of the resurrection of Christ? What could be more convincing when all the Apostles suffer and die from persecutors for preaching the resurrection of Christ, and in the midst of mortal torment they do not cease to preach the risen Christ? Glory to Him who established His Faith and His Church by His resurrection! Let us not stop there, Christian brothers, and let us bring the testimony of Christ’s resurrection closer to ourselves, everyone in general, and each one personally. The Apostle writes: “Christ has risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have died” (1 Cor. 15:20). That is, the resurrection of Christ is the beginning of the resurrection of all dead people - the resurrection is no longer into temporary life, as was the resurrection of Lazarus and others before him, but into eternal life. Before the resurrection of Christ, dark and unsteady opinions circulated among people about the immortality of the human soul: but the resurrection of the soul with the body was least thought about even by those who were more intensified to think than others. The gaze of the chosen people on this subject was not bright either. When Christ the Savior, denouncing the Sadducees, in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, revealed the thought of the resurrection of the dead: then not only the Sadducees, but also those who thought better than them were amazed at the news of this discovery: “When the people heard, they marveled at His teaching” (Matthew 22:32-33). And the less they knew the future life, the less they were able and less motivated to prepare for it. Christ the Savior, through His teaching, in place of shaky opinions about immortality, put the firm truth of the resurrection, and, through His resurrection, made this truth even experimental. He taught: “The hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they will come out, having done good to the resurrection of life, and having done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29). The Apostle adds: “Let everyone receive either good or evil whatever he has done with his body” (2 Cor. 5:10). Is it possible not to see the great importance of this teaching? - You will be resurrected, not just to live, but so that, according to the judgment of what you did in your temporary life, you will receive either an eternally blissful life, or a non-dying, eternally painful death. Shouldn't each of us think about this every day and arrange our affairs so that they lead to the resurrection of life, and not to the resurrection of condemnation? You will be resurrected to receive what you did with your body, good or bad. Shouldn’t we therefore carefully guard our body so that it does not become an instrument of evil, sin, uncleanness, and so that we do not thus prepare it for firewood for the eternal fire? This church, now dedicated to the memory and glory of the resurrection of Christ, by the grace of the risen Lord, may from now on be a speaking witness of the resurrection of Christ to all who enter it and pray in it. May he make us glad with faith in the risen Lord; may he awaken us to works of righteousness through the hope of the resurrection of life; may the terrible resurrection of judgment also remind us, “that through fear we may be saved from evil, and we will be caught up from fire, and in the kingdom of eternal light we will glorify the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Amen. You might be interested in: