337. Беседа на освящение храма Успения Пресвятой Богородицы, при Преображенском Богаделенном Доме

(Said on June 2nd; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1857 and in the collection of 1861) Three years have passed since the grace of God began to visit this place with its sanctification; and we see the third church consecrated here. Glory to Thee, Most Holy Trinity, our God: and may this be a sign of Thy strengthened and established blessing on this place and on the brethren of this holy church. For we know from the scriptures and we see in events that not only Your Divine name is holy and filled with Divine power, but also Your trinity is sanctified and marked by Divine action. Why would Elijah, Your Prophet, wanting to resurrect the youth, not once, not many times, but “three times blow on the youth” (1 Kings 17:21), if not in order to confess the Trinitarian faith in triplicate, and to attract Your, Life-giving Trinity, essential action? Was it not in the same spirit that he used a threefold libation of water (1 Kings 18:34) on the sacrifice on which he wanted to bring down heavenly fire? You, O Most Holy Trinity, looked upon the three youths in the fiery furnace, and did not want Your sacred number to be the number of destruction: and the three youths “by the faith of the Trinity quelled the fire of the furnace” 816. After the three-day resurrection of the one from You, the Most Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ, the trinity received new glory and power, Your God-inspired Apostles and our God-bearing fathers gave us the gift of often sealing our prayers, our doxologies, our mysteries with the trinity, no doubt because in this sign of the sacred number there is a secret union of our prayers, doxologies, mysteries with Your all-effective and all-saving grace. Let it also be that in three years three holy churches were given to this place by Thy, Most Holy Trinity, grace - let this be a sign for good, a sign of Thy generously bestowed blessing on this place and on the brethren of this holy church. I rejoice, brethren, in your pious zeal, calling on the grace of God, and in the grace of God, blessing your zeal. The first church here, at your desire and request, in haste to satisfy needs, was built with your diligence and the assistance given from the Holy Synod, according to the will of the Most Pious Emperor who died in God. But the second and this third church are the work of your zeal alone, the fruit of your diligence, your sacrifices. I know that during the construction of this church, there was a zealous effort to provide it with increased space and interior and exterior splendor, which we now see. Looking at visible actions, as expressions of spiritual dispositions, I rejoice in you, brethren, and not simply, but, according to the apostolic instruction, “I rejoice in hope” (Rom. 12:12), - I rejoice in the hope of the perfect establishment of your spiritual church, “on the foundation of the Apostle and Prophet, which is the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself” (Eph. 2:20), the hope of your true eternal salvation, “even if,” according to the Apostle, “the firstfruits of the composition are known even to the end” (Heb. 3:14). Rejoice, brethren of this holy church, in the grace of God, not through your fault, hidden from you for a long time, but finally acquired by your sincere desire and good conscience. Thank God that you have found the true holy Church, which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself created, which “the gates of hell cannot prevail against” (Matt. 16:18), in which alone, according to the teaching of the saints, like in Noah’s ark from the flood of water, there is certain salvation from the flood of sin and from plunging into the abyss of hell. For the society or societies which you, having entered into the unity of the Apostolic Church, left behind you, can be called the Church? - Without a doubt, they cannot. In the true Church, “the Holy Spirit has appointed bishops” (Acts 20:28): but there are no bishops appointed by the Holy Spirit, who lawfully preserve the secret grace. In the true Church, from the first to the second coming of Christ (1 Cor. 11:26), it is not broken, as the Apostle testifies, the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is performed, without which man, according to the word of the Lord, “does not have life in Himself” (John 6:53): and there is no this life-giving sacrament. So, obviously, this is not the saving ark, but perhaps the fragments of a boat torn away from the great ark and destroyed by a storm, which those who hold on only by approaching and clinging to the great ark have hope of salvation. Thank God, brethren, that you have found through God and Christ “given to shepherd and teach her, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the Body of Christ” (Eph.4:11–12), “builders of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor.4:1), absolvers from sins (Matthew 18:18; John 20:22–23), who have for this purpose the gift of grace and spiritual power: for the gift of grace, which the risen Lord influenced the Apostles with His Divine breath, and which was revealed in them by the descent of the Holy Spirit, through the apostolic ordination, and then paternal, flows in a continuous stream until the present sanctity and priesthood, and the same way of the ordination of the mother-in-law will be until the end of the age. Is there anything similar in the society you left behind? – There are people there who are called teachers, mentors, fathers, to whom others come to confess their sins: but as, according to the Apostle, “no one accepts honor for himself, but he who is called of God, as Aaron was” (Heb. 5:4), and they are not called by God through the hierarchy; then they did not accept either the honor of the names assigned to them, or the grace-filled power and authority. Those who confess sins to them are like a sick person who shows his wounds to a person who has neither the art of medicine nor the means of medicine. Thank God, brothers, that you have acquired and made available to yourselves the great sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. See what sweet, what lofty promises our Lord Jesus Christ united with him: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:56, 54). And on the contrary, how bitter is the lot of those who have deprived themselves of the sacrament of this sacrament in the word of the Lord: “Unless you have eaten the flesh of the Son of man, nor have you drunk His blood, you have not life in you” (John 6:53). Think, then, from what terrible calamity it delivered you, and what longed-for blessings the union with the holy Orthodox Church, always the faithful custodian of the sacrament, and with the hierarchy and with the priesthood, to whom the grace to perform and the power to teach it, was entrusted. Those who have been cut off from communion with the hierarchy and the priesthood, and through this have excommunicated themselves from the communion of the holy mysteries, dream that they can replace this with spiritual communion. Truly, they dream. Isn’t there an unreasonable, - isn’t there even a daring dream to reject the image of communion, clearly defined and sovereignly prescribed by our Savior Himself, and to invent a new one for oneself, at one’s own discretion, contrary to the meaning and purpose of Christ’s institution? Christ the Savior established a sacrament for remembering Him and His saving sufferings: He suffered not only in spirit, but also in body and blood: therefore body and blood essentially belong to the sacrament; and to eliminate or replace them means to completely destroy the sacrament. Christ the Savior established the sacraments for the sanctification of our souls and bodies: therefore, those who dream of receiving only spiritual communion themselves deprive both their soul and body of real sanctification, which would kill sin in them. Let's shorten the word. Thank God, brethren, that in unity with His holy Church you have found anointing from the Holy One, marriage consecrated in the image of Christ with the Church of the union, blessed childbearing, in illnesses presbyteral anointing, healing for body and soul; and everything useful for sanctification and salvation flows from the pure source of apostolic grace. All these grace-filled gifts are deprived of those who, having deviated from church communion, deprived themselves of the priesthood, or chose priests for themselves who fled from the legal authority, and by the same flight fled from the grace of the priesthood. Preserve, brethren, these invaluable acquisitions for your souls, carefully and actively preserving that sincere desire for salvation, and that right conscience, which from ignorance led you to the path of pure truth and undoubted salvation. Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos! It is named by Your name, and this church is dedicated to the memory of Your glorious Dormition. Accept him into Your good and strong God-given protection. And, as you once gathered to the bed of your holy Dormition from those near and far a glorifying Church Council, gather to the throne of this holy church those near and far, believers, praying, praising, joyfully entering into the communion of the sacraments, accepting with obedience the teaching of life. And just like that, whoever touched Your bed with a hostile hand, You first punished him, but soon You brought him to his senses, healed him, and brought You into the faith and into the Church of Your Son and God; and here, if not with a hostile hand, but with an unpeaceful thought, those approaching Your church, do not rebuke them with rage, punish them with anger, but with Your abundant grace touch their hearts and minds, and enlighten their minds with the truth, warm their hearts with love for God and the desire to do His will, and thus bring in the verbal sheep that are not of this fold. (John 10:16) into the saving fence of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, so that the most holy and worshiped name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit may be glorified in the Orthodox and common faith. Amen. You might be interested in: