476. Слово по освящении храма Святителя Алексия, в селе Черкизове

You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18). Then, as we consecrate the church made with hands, and pray to God that He would establish this church unshakable for ever, the Gospel proclaims to us the unshakable firmness of the Church not made with hands, that is, the society of believers “in the one true God,” glorified in the Trinity, and “He was sent by” God the Father, “Jesus Christ” (John 17:3), the God-man, “Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16). Good and timely news! For if the Church not made by hands could be shaken and destroyed, then what hope would there be of building a church made by hands for many centuries? If there is no living Church, that is, believers, the stone church will either collapse, being left without care, or, at least, remain empty and useless. But when we know that no hostile force can overcome the living, spiritual Church: that is, the hope that the material church or church will not be allowed to fall, and will not stand in vain. For even if it becomes dilapidated from time to time, the Spirit of Christ living in the living Church, who prompted the creation of the church, will again awaken someone to renew the dilapidated in it, correct the damaged, decorate the unsightly, enrich the meager, and to call upon new works of shrine a new sanctification of grace, as each of us sees this actually accomplished in this church with our own eyes. So, let us accept with an open heart the word of the Lord, as joyful for Peter as it is for all of us: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” It is useful to look carefully at the solid building of the Church of Christ. This can serve to our own punishment and confirmation. “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” In order to correctly understand how “on this rock,” which is the Apostle Peter, “created the Church,” we must first of all establish the fundamental truth that the universal, deepest foundation, also the first, cornerstone of the church building, is none other than “Jesus Christ the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). “The foundations,” says the Apostle, “can no one lay more than the one that lies, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11). “It was created,” he also says in another place to Christians, “on the foundation of the Apostle and Prophet, which is the cornerstone of Jesus Christ Himself: in whom every creation is built together, growing into a holy church in the Lord: in whom you also are created into a habitation of God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:20-22). Therefore, Peter was not placed at the foundation of the Church before he laid Christ at its foundation. First, Peter said to the Lord: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then the Lord said to Peter: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church.” Note also that although the Lord promises Peter to create the Church on it: “on this rock I will build”; but he does not promise that the Church will be his, but calls it his own: “I will build my church.” The Westerners do not want to notice this, who try to assert that the Church belongs to Peter alone, and Peter to Rome alone: and it is not in vain that they are called Western, not only because of the location of their region in the elemental world, but also because of their state in the realm of the spirit in the evening times of the Church: because the truth of faith, which in the East arose and shone in a pure desire for the kingdom of heaven, sets and fades among them, as in a cloud or fog, in mixed desire for earthly dominion. How then was the Church of Christ created “on this rock,” which is “Peter” the Apostle? Let's get closer and take a look. When Jesus Christ appeared in the world, then the Jewish church stood, and the Christian church did not even have a foundation; - understand the basis that was just spoken about. The secret of this foundation, first of all, was not revealed to Peter by “flesh and blood,” that is, it was not announced by man, but by “the Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” said Peter, and the foundation of the Christian Church was revealed. First of all Peter saw this foundation, and before everyone else he laid down this stone on this foundation; and before the other Apostles he received the promise that a building would later rise on him. “You are Peter,” and “on this rock I will build My Church.” Real creation on this stone began with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. Look, as now before others, and as Peter firmly lays down the previously laid foundation, “he is Jesus Christ. “Let all the house of Israel know with certainty,” Peter says to the Jews, “that God created both the Lord and His Christ, even this Jesus, whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). See further how quickly the building grows: “on that day like three thousand souls were added” (Acts 2:41). And further: “many... from those who heard the word, you believed; and the number of the men was like five thousand" (Acts 4:4). Soon the other Apostles joined Peter in the work of this creation: and after several years, James and his elders, in Jerusalem alone, no longer counted Christians by the thousands, but by the tenths, pointing them out to Paul: “You see, brother, how many Jews there are who believed” (Acts 21:20)! You, without a doubt, already see, brethren, and understand how the “Church of Christ” was built “on the rock”, which is “Peter” the Apostle. It was created by the preaching of Peter and the other Apostles, by baptism from them, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit through their ordination, by the mysterious teaching from them of the life-giving body and blood of Christ to believers, by receiving from each other the spread of the priesthood with the power to secretly act, and knit, and decide spiritually, through which the creation of the Church, begun by the Apostles, and after these foundation and foundation stones were hidden in the invisible, heavenly Church, also through their successors, shepherds and teachers, the Supreme Creator Christ continues unceasingly. “He gave these two Apostles, and these Prophets, and these Evangelists,” to begin creation, “and he gave them shepherds and teachers” to continue creation, both together, “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:11-12). Whether it was Paul, Apollos, or whoever it was, but, by succession from them, also accepted the work of “service” - “To God... we are assistants”; and you are “God’s labor, you are God’s building” (1 Cor. 3:9). We see the image of the creation of the Church: let's look at the solidity of this building. “And the gates of hell will not prevail against her.” Could you have expected anything different? If the Creator of the Church is God and His Christ, then who can be its destroyer? What enemy, seeking its destruction, can be as strong as God, Who establishes and strengthens it? Is it true that the saying “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her”? If the examiner asks why and in what mind the Lord not only here refers to “hell”, but in particular indicates “the gates of hell”: to resolve this, let us note that the Lord in His saying likens the Church to the building of a city, which another hostile city prevents from being built, and which it tries to destroy, as the Jews especially experienced this with Jerusalem after the captivity of Babylon. At the gates of the city, according to ancient custom, the owners of the city and its elders gathered for public meetings and enterprises. The gates of a hostile city are especially terrible, and therefore can be especially indicated when an enemy army emerges from them. Therefore, when the Lord not only calls “hell”, but especially indicates “the gates of hell”: through this it appears to our minds that hell has the most terrible and powerful thing, if one can call its power its cunning and rage. As soon as the creation of the Church of Christ was revealed on earth, the gates of hell opened, and numerous hostile forces and diverse weapons spewed out against it. The gates of hell were opened against Christianity on earth in Judaism and paganism. Force and cunning, slander and flattery, threats and seductions, the ignorance of the people and the subtleties of scientists, the riot of the mob and the art of government, reproach, expulsion, robbery, torture, many known and newly invented types of terrible death - everything was moved to “overcome” the Christian Church. So what? The synagogue, the temple and the city of the Jews, the temple, idols, thrones, armies, the whole world of the pagans, everything collapsed and crumbled into dust: but the Church of Christ remained, grew, established itself, rose, expanded, and dominated. Hell, disgraced, but not exhausted in cunning and malice, wanted to undermine the foundation of the Church, and would open for itself new secret gates against the Church, through heresies and schisms: but where are Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius, Dioscorus and the many ancient and new leaders of heresies and dissenters with their hosts? “The gates of hell” opened in this case against the Church only so that her monsters would rush there, but “they would not prevail” over her, and since “heaven and earth will pass away, but the words of Christ will not pass by” (Mark 13:31), never through any efforts or tricks, “the gates of hell will not prevail against her.” In this reflection on the solid and indestructible creation of the Church of Christ, one cannot help but remember those who are contemporary and close to us, I don’t know what better to call them - enemies, as they think, or brothers, as we would like - about those who, deviating from the one holy, catholic and Apostolic Church, decided to build for themselves some other one, for which the fugitives of the priesthood serve as their foundation and supports, and self-appointed mentors, never initiated by anyone. Think about what you are creating? Christ is building “His Church”: whose are you building? Don’t you yourself admit that you are not building the Church of Christ when you honorably call yourself “The Concord of Onuphrius, the Concord of Theodosius” and similar names? When was the true Church of Christ called by human names? The True Church is created in such a way that the head and foundation of all believers is “Christ”, they are established on Him, and by the succession from His “Apostles” of sacred ordination, and by the communion of other sacraments, Orthodox “pastors and teachers” of all times and places are inextricably united (Eph. 4:11), and with them other believers. On whom or what are Theodosius, or Onuphrius and the like based? Who ordained them? Who blessed them to teach? And in which of them should we look for firmness and unity, inseparable from the Church, when they rebel against each other and destroy each other? “The gates of hell will not prevail” against the true Church. But if, as you say, there is no bishopric, or no priesthood and sacraments at all: then also say that the Church has lost its affirmation; say that “the gates of hell have overcome it,” say that the word of Christ has not come true; if you don’t dare to say this: then admit it with your lips or not, your conscience, sooner or later, must admit that we have a firm Church of Christ, supported by the priesthood and the sacraments, and therefore “not overcome by the gates of hell”: and, consequently, your unauthorized and self-made structures, erected in hostility against the Church, are nothing more than newly built and opened the gates of hell, feignedly decorated to deceive the ignorant with some small semblance of the Church. Whoever sees and understands, let him run and seek his salvation in the safe city of the one holy, catholic and Apostolic Church: and whoever, out of stubbornness, or out of selfishness and lust, still does not want to see and understand, may the Lord soften his heart, and may he open his eyes before the gates of hell completely swallow him up. We, brothers, who stand within the firm and invincible fence of the Orthodox Church, will give thanks for it and for ourselves to the all-wise and all-powerful Creator and Guardian. Moreover, let us think that how invincible it is in its completeness and integrity: so much, on the contrary, each of those standing in it separately must fear both attack and overcoming. “Be careful to stand, and be careful that you do not fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). For this purpose, let us hold on to the faith of Christ with all the strength of our spirit and heart; let us confirm every opinion and our deed on the basis of the teachings of the Apostolic, Prophetic and Fatherly; may we strengthen and protect ourselves with the power of grace through the communion of the Divine sacraments; let us walk as children of obedience to God and His Church. Amen. You might be interested in: