472. Слово по освящении храма Успения Пресвятой Богородицы, что в Казачей, за Москвою рекою

And the many from the priests and the Levites, and the princes of the fatherland, and the elders, who saw the first house on its foundation, and this house before their eyes, wept with a great voice, and the people cried out with a loud voice of joy. (1Ezra 3:12). I hope it does not seem strange that, looking at this restored church, I remember the restoration of the Jerusalem temple after the captivity of Babylon. No matter how great the difference between them is, by the way, the Temple of Jerusalem was the only one not only in Jerusalem, but in the entire land of Judea; and this is one of many and in this one city, which is decorated and shining with many churches of God, like the sky with stars: but there is some similarity in their fate; for this one, like this one, was burned during the invasion of enemies who did not honor God, and this one, like this one, was renewed by the zeal of God-honoring citizens and people. But why, perhaps some will tell me, why do you bring to a joyful event a memory in which joy is mixed with crying? Why do you show us the different feelings of the people who were “at the foundation of the house of the Lord” (1 Ezra 3:11), and not the unanimous joy of those who triumphed over its completion? Indeed, when the Israelites began to rebuild their church, burned by the Babylonians, then, during the solemn service, they partly rejoiced and partly cried. “Many of the priests, and the Levites, and the princes of the fatherland, and the elders, who saw the first house on its foundation, and this house in their sight, wept with a great voice, and the people cried out with a loud voice of joy.” But when, after overcoming obstacles, the house of God was finally completed: then they forgot their previous mourning and only rejoiced. “And when the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the sons, made them into exile, they renew the house of God with joy” (1 Ezra 6:16). I also rejoice with you, who in the time of temptation were, if not the sons of a long exile, then the sons of flight, or captives in your own dwellings, or finally, inhabitants of the ashes of the desert strewn inside the city - I rejoice that the propitiated God has again built your homes; I rejoice that, having been pardoned by God, you have again built the house of God. I rejoice with you, priests and Levites, that where the children of iniquity and destruction wanted to establish the abomination of desolation, you again “stand” in your adornment, ... so that you may praise the Lord” (1 Ezra 3:10). I dare to continue to spread joy: I rejoice with you, “the powers of heaven, now invisibly serving with us” **********, from the moment when by prayer and called by the mystery, by his own promise - to be among those gathered in His name - bowed down, “entering into the gates” this “King of glory” (Ps. 23:7). “Come,” I will say with the Psalmist, “let us rejoice in the Lord, let us exclaim to God our Savior: let us go before His face in confession, and let us shout to Him in psalms” (Ps. 94:1-2). But what should I do? When I only want to rejoice, “and raise my voice in joy”; when I adopt joyful exclamations from the Psalmist leading the exclamation: and through joyful exclamations before God he soon brings me to tears. “Come,” he continues, “let us worship and fall down before Him, and let us mourn before the Lord who made us” (Ps. 94:6). Whoever wants, let him be content with the present renovation of the church with simple, sincere joy, just as in a similar case, the good Israeli “people shouted a loud voice in joy.” But whoever, like once upon a time “many of the priests and the Levites, and the princes of the fatherland and the elders,” does not stop at what he sees before his eyes, but is prompted by what is visible, and what he does not see, to remember, to think, let him ponder with me what they wept about at the founding of the house of the Lord, and whether there is something for us to care about in this joy about the completion of the house of the Lord. Priests, Levites, princes, elders - those of the people in whom more reasoning, more insight, more experience should be assumed - priests and Levites, people who practice the law of God more than others, and therefore are primarily able to experience and understand the destinies of God - princes and elders, people who know more than others the past and present state of the whole people, and on this knowledge can establish true hopes or fundamental fears about his future condition - that’s who, at the solemn beginning of the restoration of the Temple of Jerusalem, “wept with a great voice.” The sadness of such people, no matter how desirable it would be not to mix it with the general joy of the people, is, I think, more worthy of attention than the joy of the people, which is often thoughtless. What were they crying about? In response to this, the narrator of this incident, Ezra, presents nothing more than the fact that they “saw the first house on their foundation, and this house before their hair.” But what's so sad about that? The modern Prophet Haggai gives us some explanation of this, when he says to the commandment of God, the prince, the high priest and all the people of Judah: “Who is of you who saw this church in its former glory: and how do you see it now, as if it were not before you” (Hag.2:3)? This is what the wisest among the Israelites cried about! Looking at the church, barely emerging from the huge ruins, they recalled to themselves the glory they had once seen, which ended in desecration and destruction; comparing the reduced, meager, insignificant appearance of the renewed building with the vastness and splendor of the former, comparing the remnants of the two tribes of Israel, who received the renewal of the church, small in number, weak, poor, not having a well-organized government, surrounded by a hostile neighborhood, with the people who built the former church, consisting of a combination of as many as twelve tribes, comfortable, rich, strong, soon after the victorious reign David, during the peaceful and wisely powerful reign of Solomon - considering all this, how little they could be satisfied with the beginning of the work that they had before their eyes, just as little could they console themselves with the hope of the successful completion and lasting preservation of the weakly beginning work. There is no doubt that people, not only sensible, but also God-thinking, remembering the visible glory of the former church, also thought about the grace that dwelt in it and clothed it with glory; they contemplated in spirit that the sins of the people had removed grace from them, and through this stripped them of their glory and brought them to desolation; Perhaps the perspicacious also noticed that the sins that subjected the former church to destruction and the people to captivity were not yet completely erased by this judgment and punishment in the sons of exile who returned from captivity and accepted the restoration of the church; consequently, a new dawn of grace had not yet risen for him, the sun of glory was far away; It was not yet a clear morning of hope, but darkness and a night of fear and uncertainty, a time not of joy and triumph, but of contrition, repentance and crying, and therefore “I wept with a great voice.” I will now compete with you - with you, who have not this one church, but many others, after desecration or devastation by a hostile hand, not only found a restoring and renewing hand, but also achieved a complete restoration, perhaps with no less, or even greater, splendor than before, and have found their former grace and holiness. Do you therefore think that, looking at this success of your affairs, at this help from above, you have the right to rejoice so as to put aside all sadness, or fear, or care? I cannot agree with this disposition of careless souls, no matter how willingly I wish you complete and undisturbed joy. Oh! “Work for the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling” (Ps. 2:11). To create a church for God, to decorate it, to sanctify it is a gracious deed before God and a saving one for people! When we see in the Gospel that he who created a host for the Jews, that is, the Jewish church of prayer and sacred teaching, through this, among other things, gained access to our Savior and attracted him to himself, acquired the high gift of faith and the high praise of this gift, sought a miracle of healing: is this not a sign and instruction to us, how great a blessing and grace awaits those who strive to create a Christian church, in which God Himself will flesh, under the cover of sacraments, dwells with people? But no matter how true this word is that to create, decorate, and consecrate a church is a great task: nevertheless, it is also true that to create, decorate, and consecrate a material church is a work that is not yet completed and not completed. Those who read the sacred books know how materially it was created, how magnificently decorated, with what solemn and popular prayer it was consecrated, with what a wondrous influx of grace in fire and cloud on the day of consecration the temple of Solomon was glorified. What was more natural at this time than the thought of the final perfection and complete completion of this great work? This thought, natural but not grace-filled, almost crept into Solomon’s heart: for it was necessary for God Himself to appear and teach him that this matter still requires continuation and further accomplishment, and what kind of continuation and accomplishment it requires. “And the Lord appeared again to Solomon,” the book of Kings narrates, “and the Lord said to him: I have heard the voice of your prayer.” And further: “You have sanctified this church, which you have created, and put My name there forever: and My eyes and My heart will be there all the days” (1 Kings 9:2-3). It is sufficient, Lord, Solomon could have said to this, it is sufficient; Isn’t the whole thing already accomplished through this? No, says the Lord; not all yet; does not prevail; Hear what is still required for the perfection of the work: “And if thou shalt walk before me, even as David thy father walked, in honor of heart and in uprightness, and do according to all that he commanded, and keep my commandments, and my commandments: and I will set up the throne of thy kingdom in Israel forever” (1 Kings 9:4-5). Since the creator and admirers of the Temple of Jerusalem did not continue in this way its creation and sanctification in themselves: then the church turned out to be in fact imperfect and not durable; more than once his shrine was destroyed, and all of him, in accordance with the threat of the Lord, was rejected from His presence. If in this way the creation and consecration of the Jewish church, which was intended for educational, external, sensual worship, was to be continued and accomplished in its creator and worshipers: then what can we say about the Christian church, the object and purpose of which is not only educational, but essential worship, not only external and sensual, but in the external and sensual, certainly internal and spiritual? It is impossible to think otherwise than that the creation, decoration and sanctification of the material, man-made, is only preparation and adaptation for the creation, decoration and sanctification of the not-made, spiritual church in the creators and ministers, in the community and visitors thereof. For what does the Apostolic Word tell us about the church? “Know ye not,” it says, “that ye are the church of God” (1 Cor. 9:16)? What about the building of the church? “Coming to the Lord,” he says, “I live as stones, humbled from man, but chosen and honorable from God, and like stones you are built alive, a spiritual church” (1 Pet. 2:4-5). About decorating the church? – We are Christ’s house, if we have confidence and praise in our hope, as useful vessels of the house, as the Master of the house, ornaments with which we are pleased, “even to the end we will know” (Heb. 3:6). Finally, about the holiness of the church? - “The church... is holy of God”; but which church? “like you are” (1 Cor. 3:17). So, promoters of the creation and decoration, and witnesses of the consecration of this visible church! Is the invisible church of your souls, no less visible, being built, adorned, and sanctified to God? Here, in the midst of this joyful triumph, is my secret concern, my fear; and - oh, if only, upon further reflection on this, there would be no reason to complain and cry! My mind does not have the insight to see the internal state of spiritual churches; it is unworthy to denounce my word; My heart does not want to boldly disturb anyone’s joy. I resort to the word of one of the saints, whose spiritual insight is higher than doubt, and reproof is higher than contradiction for us sinners. “We have not yet received the joy of salvation from Christ,” says Saint Macarius, “but the sting of death deepens in us. We have not yet put on the new man, created by God in righteousness, and have not put off the old, which is corrupting in deceitful lusts. They have not yet worn the heavenly image, and have not realized its glory. They have not yet worshiped God in spirit and in truth; for sin reigns in our dead body.” And further he says: “We have not yet become the church of God and the abode of the Holy Spirit; We are already a church of idols, and a receptacle for the spirits of evil, due to our spiritual desire for passions” (Conversations XXV, 4). But why did I look far for the accuser? Those who expose our iniquities will be found among those who are exposed. Ask each other: what did the previous year of temptation and punishment produce in the spiritual disposition and moral life of most of us? After such a formidable visit from God, are we more afraid of sins and iniquities than before? Has the former humiliation taught us more humility than before? Did the former deprivations and needs curb luxury, stop the tendency to excess, and turn us to simplicity and moderation? Has unanimity, excited by dangers, and oblivion of one’s own benefits for one’s neighbor and for society, been preserved, and is property not once again dividing us and turning one against the other? Even if they do not respond to this with words, the answer to this can be seen in obvious and ordinary deeds and actions; can be read on the walls of dwellings, on decorations, on clothes, at places of spectacle and entertainment, at market places, at courts of justice. Well, what if we must truly admit that after general punishment and wondrous mercy from God, we are again the same as we were when we deserved punishment? In this case, what consolation is there in the past? What is the joy in the present? What hope is there for the future? I rejoice with you about the restoration of our external well-being after troubles, I rejoice about the new restoration of the church, I especially rejoice about the restoration of the churches of God and their shrines: but you will also agree with me that we all need to take care of our spiritual home, we need to be afraid so that it does not remain in sinful disrepair, uncleanness, ugliness, desolation; and if we ourselves already see in ourselves the spiritual church of God, “as...not existing before us,” then it is worthy and righteous to lament and cry with great tears of contrition and repentance. Let us continue, co-servants and admirers of the holy church, let us continue the holy work of the church in our souls. Let us build up the spiritual church of God in us through deeds of piety, renew it by correcting our lives, adorn it with virtues, and sanctify it through faith, prayer and the communion of the sacraments; May the Lord give grace and glory to this church of His, and in its perfect sanctification by the Holy Spirit, may we find the perfect joy of salvation, which no one will receive from us. Amen. From the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. – AB. You might be interested in: