44. Слово в день Святыя Пасхи

(Spoken at the Assumption Cathedral on March 29; printed in Christian Reading of 1842 and in collections of 1844 and 1848). Then open their minds. Luke 24:45. How many churches have been unlocked, how many doors have now been opened with one “key of David”, and with one movement of it! The doors in the house are strengthened and locked to keep out the thief, or to keep out a rowdy household member. So it is in the house of God. When the cultivator and guardian of God's paradise stole the fruit from the tree of knowledge: then he was expelled, paradise was locked from him, and its strongest guard with a flaming weapon was posted at the entrance. And since, moreover, the criminal had to be punished, moreover, even after his expulsion, his criminal and rebellious spirit continued to dominate in the family: both he and his descendants, one after another, through the door of death, were conveyed to prison, where they were imprisoned not for days, but for centuries. From here it is self-evident how the very house of the Lord, that is, heaven, to which one had to go through the Garden of Eden, was fenced off and imprisoned from an unworthy household member. Finally, the Only Begotten Son of the Lord of Heaven, by His mercy and His love for mankind, comes to free the prisoners and return the exiled. The “Key of David,” which unlocks all doors, is the God-manhood of I. Christ, by whom as the Divinity penetrates into all states of humanity, so humanity enters into the inner Divinity. The all-revealing movement of this key is the resurrection of Christ. The prison is opened to them, and the prisoners are given away; Paradise opens and welcomes the expelled; The sky opens and awaits the elect. What I have now said in your ears, the church speaks to your eyes, presenting to you here, throughout the duration of this holiday, the open doors to the throne of the Divine Mysteries. Let us also note the door that the same key of David, and at the same time, opens, a door, perhaps not large, but which leads to the great treasury of God. “Then open their minds,” writes the holy Evangelist. Then the Lord opened the minds of the Apostles. When? Then, as He rose again, He appeared to them, He showed them His wounds before them, when He completely confirmed their faith in His resurrection. “Then open their minds and understand the scriptures; and he said to them, “For this is what is written, and this is fitting for Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day, and to preach in His name repentance and remission of sins to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45–47). May the mind of everyone who hears this be opened in order to accept the important truth that is being revealed, that the resurrection of Christ, and faith in this resurrection, opens the imprisoned human mind to the true understanding of high and saving objects of knowledge. Indeed, how long ago “Jesus began to preach and say: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near” (Matthew 4:17)! And before anyone else, the Apostles began to listen to this sermon. How long ago they themselves were sent with the same preaching: “As you go, preach, saying: for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 10:7)! So they listened for a long time to the sermon about repentance and the kingdom of God, and they themselves preached about this: but was their mind still closed? Almost improbable, and yet, according to the word of the Lord, fair. Not before, as after His resurrection, “then He opened their minds, to understand the Scriptures,” and already as those who understand, he spoke to them: “For it is fitting... to preach in His name repentance and remission of sins.” Until now, they knew repentance as a feat: now they will more deeply understand “repentance in the name of Jesus” as the spirit and power of deed. They knew repentance more as a need and duty: now they know its fruit and reward, “the remission of sins,” more fully. They could preach the “approaching” of the kingdom of heaven: now they can testify to its actual appearance before them and in themselves. How early, how many times and how in detail the Lord predicted to the Apostles both His suffering and resurrection! Sometimes He clothed this prediction in a parable, as for example when He said to the Jews: “Destroy this church, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). With these words, they thought about the church: “He spoke about the church of His body” (John 2:21). However, his parable about this was sometimes almost as understandable as a simple word, such as: “As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights: so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40). But this is not enough. This is what He spoke to outsiders in front of the Apostles, and to the Apostles themselves he repeatedly spoke about this without parable, clearly, precisely, in detail, for example: “Behold, we are ascending to Jerusalem, and all that is written by the Prophets about the Son of Man will come to an end; For they will betray Him with their lips, and mock Him, and reproach Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him, and on the third day he will rise again” (Luke 18:31-33). Can we speak more clearly? Is it possible not to understand this? And is it really possible, you might say, that they really didn’t understand this? The Holy Evangelist foresaw this doubt; and therefore, with special tension in words, he certifies that he truly did not understand. “And these,” he says, - that is, the Apostles, “understood nothing of these, and this word was hidden from them, and they did not understand what was spoken” (Luke 18:34). Another Evangelist narrates that once, having heard from the Lord about His resurrection, the Apostles were so at a loss to understand His words that, as if at an insoluble parable, they stopped at them and competed with each other about their sign. “And holding the word within yourself, contending that there is a hedgehog to rise from the dead” (Mark IX, 10). So, certainly not before the resurrection of the Lord, “then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, as it was fitting for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day” (Luke 24:45-46). I fear that, despite such clear evidence from the Gospel, such a closed state of mind in the Apostles before the resurrection of Christ, and such a sudden illumination of an entire area of ​​​​their understanding by one vision of the risen Christ, will be a hidden verb for some. Oh, if the Lord would open our minds too, to say something intelligible and hear something instructive about how the mind is opened by the light of the risen Christ and faith in Him! The Word of God calls the mind an eye, understanding vision, ignorance blindness, as for example in this saying of the Lord: “I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see will be blind” (John 9:39). It is known that the coming of Christ into the world did not make anyone blind in their eyes, but during it many turned out to be blind in their minds. Let us follow the indication of the word of God on the states and actions of the mind through the states and actions of the eye. The eye sees things, partly according to the properties of the things themselves, such as: the light sees light; partly according to the image of its structure, and according to its special state, such as for example: the eye of the blind, gradually opened, first sees “men like an ancient tree walking” (Mark 8:24), but after complete healing, “sees everything clearly” (Mark 8:25); partly by the action of the common intermediary between the viewer and visible things of light, such as: it is different to see things in the light of the moon or star, and another in the light of the sun. In the same way, the spiritual eye sees spiritual objects, or, in other words, the mind understands them, partly according to the properties of the objects themselves - so the “invisible” of God “from the creation of the world was thought by the creatures to be visible” (Rom. 1:20) by the mind; partly in the image of its internal structure and according to its special state: thus, the infant mind sees objects more sensually, superficially, for the most part without union and order in concepts, but the educated mind sees less sensually, goes deeper into objects, and discovers union and order between them; partly by the action of the light that mediates between the mind and objects, which can be either natural, or supernatural, or characteristic of the world in which we live, mixed from the sensory and spiritual, or purely spiritual and even Divine, according to what is said: “in Your light,” O Lord, “we will see light” (Ps. 35:10). The structure of the bodily eye is not adapted to many kinds and degrees of light, so that a certain decrease in light deprives it of the power of vision, and a certain increase in light blinds it. The structure of the mind, as a spiritual instrument, is incomparably more extensive and varied. One and the same human mind can become either a kind of night bird, to which only darkness gives sight, and from which light takes it away, or an animal, which in the moonlight and starlight goes to snatch food for itself, or, as is characteristic of human nature, in the light of day it does its work and examines the diverse beauties of the world. It descends and lies in the sensory region; ascends and becomes capable of spiritual light, purifies and opens to receive the Divine light. Whoever wants to see spiritual objects, without a doubt, it is not enough to open his physical eyes and light the lamp of bodily light. The more elevated the objects of vision, the more elevated should be the state of the eye and the light that mediates it in vision. Consequently, for the contemplation of Divine objects, both Divine light and a structure of the mind consistent with it are required. “In Your light,” Lord, “we will see the light.” The Word of God, the mysteries of the kingdom of God, the saving teaching and saving deeds of Christ, without a doubt, are Divine objects: therefore, in order to contemplate them clearly and purely, a person needs the Divine light, the light of Christ, the light of the Holy Spirit and the opening of the mind by the power of this light. Until this is accomplished in man, although he hears the word of God, and even sees it in action, he does not comprehend its space, height and depth, since his spiritual eye stands in the lower natural light, and is adapted only to this light. That is why the Apostles, after they had already seen with their bodily eyes the resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain, could not yet rise with a contemplating mind to resolve the question: “what is it that will rise from the dead” (Mark 9:10). That is why the Lord said to the Apostles: “The imam has yet to speak to you many times, but you cannot bear it now” (John 16:12). When, Lord, can they bear Your word and understand Your works? He answers: “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). But what prevents the Spirit of truth from coming sooner? Again the Gospel answers: “You did not have the Holy Spirit, because Jesus was not glorified” (John 7:39). Finally He is resurrected. Instead of the fact that until now the Divine in Him was immersed in the human, from now on the human in Him ascends into the Divine. Thus, His humanity opens up and is filled no longer with the hidden, but with the revealed light of the Divine, and pours it out around itself; The God-man is the sun of all humanity, and begins to separate the clouds and darkness that surround it; His Divine light strikes the eyes, which faith in His resurrection opened and directed to contemplation, and still opens them, or elevates them to a new, heavenly, Divine vision or understanding of the word of God and the works of God. “Then open their minds to understand.” If this opening of the mind, or spiritual illumination, seems quick and sudden, this not only should not seem strange, but is also very characteristic of light, especially spiritual light. When the sun rises, it opens up a whole world of diverse beauties: is it surprising that the gracious light, the light of the Holy Spirit, whose action “in the hearts” the Apostle likens to “an illuminating day and a shining star” (2 Pet. 1:19), quickly and suddenly opens up the boundless realm of spiritual understanding. However, both natural light and Divine light have their own dawn and their full day in relation to those illuminated: for the Apostles, a clear dawn arose when the Lord “breathed, and said to them: Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22); the full day was revealed in the descent of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire. But, if our eye is still weak to fully enjoy the light with which the risen Lord opens minds, let us turn our gaze for a moment to the darkness opposite it, so that all the more we may love the “wonderful” truly “light” into which we are called. Look how at the very time when faith in the Risen One opens the mind of the Apostles, unbelief in the Risen One imprisons the mind of the Jews in tangible darkness, incredibly rough. What do they think, what do they say about the resurrection of the Lord? “This word has rushed through the Jews even to this day” (Matthew 28:15). What word? - the word that their Bishops and elders taught to the soldiers, the guards of the Holy Sepulcher: “His disciples came at night and stole Him for us sleeping” (Matthew 28:13). So this word ran among the Jews, and they believed it? Is it possible? How could you steal Him when you surrounded His tomb with soldiers? They were asleep, say the Jews. The military guards were sleeping! So, according to the Jews. Is it really all of them? So. Did no one really wake up when, in order to take the body, it was necessary to roll away the “great stone” (Mark 16:4), which required several people, and which could not have happened without noise? No one woke up. But who testifies that the body is stolen? The same guards. How? the same watchmen who slept and did not wake up, testify to what happened during their sleep, and what they did not hear? Who could have the audacity to divulge such a fable? Unbelieving Jews. Who would be crazy enough to believe her? Non-believers. Let us also ask how it could happen that the disciples of Jesus, who, at the first sight of the danger ahead of Him, fled, - how could it happen that they decided on a daring and useless undertaking - to steal the body of their deceased Teacher from a tomb sealed and surrounded by guards, by order of the government? Unbelief does not reason; it rushes around the world words that it likes only because they breathe unbelief. But if it became known that the kidnapping was carried out because of the guards, under the seal of the government, and the kidnappers are known, then will the guards and the kidnappers be brought to justice? Not at all. The military commander of the guards does not care, the guards are careless, the imaginary kidnappers remain in Jerusalem for at least eight days, and none of the strict leaders of the Jews to this day demands them to be tried for such an important abduction. Is it possible that even after this, the fable of the theft of Jesus’ body would still circulate among the Jews as something worthy of hearing? Perhaps because the mind, ossified in unbelief, like a night bird, sees only in the darkness of unbelief, loves only its dreams, and runs away from the light of truth, which burns its eyes. “This word has rushed through Judah even to this day.” Christians! The risen Christ opened the minds of the Apostles, and through faith enlightened them with the Divine light, not only for themselves, but also so that they would open our minds, and so that through faith we would become sons of light. He allowed an absurd word to reach us, exposing the extreme blindness of the unbelieving Jews, so that we would fear unbelief. Do not say to Thomas: “If I do not see... I have no faith” (John 20:25). Remember the words of the Lord: “If you believe, you will see greater things than these” (John 1:50); “the blessings of those who have not seen and yet believed” (John 20:29). “Believe in the light, that you may be sons of light” (John 12:36). May faith and love attract to you the animal light that shines from the tomb; May this light open your mind to the understanding of the mysteries of your salvation, and your heart to the feeling of the kingdom of God, which is within you; in a heart that is open to the kingdom of God, may heaven and paradise be opened to you. Let us not hide from ourselves through sin and unbelief what the key of David opens for us. Amen. According to Jew. collection: and therefore the criminal and rebellious spirit continued to dominate his entire family even after his expulsion. According to Jew. collection: deep darkness... You might be interested in: