479. Слово в день Рождества Христова

(Spoken in the Moscow Miracle Monastery, December 25). “Christ is born: glorify!” 966 With this exclamation, Saint Gregory the Theologian once began his speech on this holiday. And it seemed so pleasant to the Church, which knows and loves the voice of the chosen one among its shepherds, that even now with this very exclamation it begins the usual solemn song of this holiday. Christ is born: praise! If it is pleasant for us to repeat the beginning of Grigoriev’s word so often in church singing, why not repeat, at least occasionally, something from the same word in church teaching? “We,” says Saint Gregory, “for whom the object of worship is the Word, if we must give a certain feast, we will make a feast from the word, from the law of God, from stories, partly from some others, partly related to the present celebration.” I will add to this: if we must give some kind of feast of words, which we cannot promise you due to our poverty, then come with us to the meal of the Theologian, which was ready a long time ago and has not yet been exhausted. Hearken and eat in spirit! I will only be the server of the meal, and your host will be Saint Gregory: my mouth, his word. God always was, is and will be. Or better: He is always there. For the words: was, will be, mean the truncation of our time and impermanent nature. And He always exists. This is what He calls Himself in the revelation to Moses on the mountain. For He has in Himself in totality an entire existence, which has not begun and will not end, as if it were some kind of sea of ​​being, immeasurable and limitless, standing above any concept of time and nature. The mind alone draws for itself a certain shadow of Him, and that is dark and diminutive. Not from what is in Him, but from what is around Him, mental ideas are composed, one after another, which, before it is restrained, flees, before it is embraced by the mind, it disappears. It illuminates the highest part of our spirit just as fast, unstoppable lightning illuminates our eyes. It seems to me that this is why God does this, in order to attract to Himself with the comprehensible (since the completely incomprehensible cannot be hoped for or achieved), and to surprise with the incomprehensible, through surprise to arouse desire, through desire to purify, through purification to make God-like. And to bring those who have already become such into communication with Himself, so that I dare to say something courageous: God unites with the gods, and is known by them, perhaps as many as He already knows those known. Because it was not enough for goodness to turn in contemplation only of itself, but goodness had to be poured out and spread out, so that there would be a multitude of those benefiting - for this was characteristic of extreme goodness: then, firstly, God invents angelic and heavenly powers. And this thought became a deed that was fulfilled by the Word and completed by the Spirit. So the second lordships, the servants of the first lordship, arose, whether they should be represented as intelligent spirits, or immaterial and incorporeal fire, or ascribe to them some other nature, closest to what has been said. When these first works were beautifully arranged by Him: He invents a second world, material and visible, in order to show that He is able to produce not only a nature akin to Himself, but also a completely alien one. For the natures that are akin to the Divine are intelligent and can only be comprehended by the mind, while those that are completely alien are those that are subject to the senses. Already the mind and sensuality (that is, the intelligent and sensual creature), separated in this way from each other, stood within their limits, and bore within themselves the greatness of the Creator of the word, like silent praisers and loud-voiced preachers of a great cause. But there was not yet a dissolution from both, and a mixture of the opposite, which signifies great wisdom and a magnificent abundance of natures, and not all the wealth of goodness was known. The Creator Word wants to show this - to show, I say, an animal consisting of both natures, visible and invisible, - creates man, taking a body from a substance that already existed, and putting in from Himself life, which Scripture calls the intelligent soul and the image of God; - through this he creates some other world, great in small things, on earth he places another Angel, a worshiper of various kinds, a spectator of the visible, a mystic of the invisible creature, a ruler on earth, ruled from above, earthly and heavenly, temporary and immortal, intermediate between greatness and baseness, spiritual and fleshly, spiritual for the sake of grace, fleshly for the sake of exaltation - spiritual, so that he abides and glorified the Benefactor - fleshly, so that he suffered, and through suffering he was admonished and learned, magnified in greatness - an animal supplied in local economics, and given to others, and, which is the end of the sacrament, adored by the desire for God. For this small light of truth leads me to this, in order to see and feel the lightness of God, worthy of Him who bound me and loosens me, and will again bind me in the highest way. Thus created man, having honored with freedom, so that the good belonged as much to the one who chose as to the one who bestowed its seeds, God placed in paradise, whatever he may be, the doer of immortal plantings, that is, perhaps, Divine thoughts, both the simplest and the most perfect, naked in simplicity and artless life, without any cover or fence; for this was how he should have been originally; gave him the law as a substance for freedom. This law consisted of a commandment - from which plants he was to eat, and which he was not to touch. It was a tree of knowledge, not planted for evil in the beginning, and not forbidden out of envy - let the atheists not direct their tongues here, and let them not imitate the serpent - but good for those who partake in good time: - for this tree, as far as I see, was contemplation, to which only the most perfect in spiritual disposition is not dangerous to ascend; and not good for those who are just yet, and desire dainties, just as perfect food is not useful at a tender age, which still needs milk. When, through the action of the devil’s envy, and through the temptation of the wife, into which she fell, as the weaker, and into which she was led as more affectionate - oh, woe to my weakness! for the weakness of the first parent is my weakness; - when, I say, he forgot this commandment, and was overcome by bitter taste: then for this evil he became an exile, both from the tree of life, and from paradise, and from God; Then for the first time I recognized my shame and hid from God. The fruit of this was death, stopping sin so that evil would not be immortal. Thus, punishment was a matter of love for mankind: for this, in my opinion, is how God punishes! There were many admonitions before, for many sins that the root of evil produced, for various reasons and times. Man was admonished by word, law, Prophets, good deeds, threats, plagues, floods, fires, wars, victories, defeats, signs from heaven, signs from the air, from the earth, from the sea, sudden transformations of people, cities, nations, which all had the goal of exterminating evil. But finally, man requires the strongest healing for the most severe diseases, which are: mutual murder, adultery, perjury, and the extreme and first of all evils, idolatry and the transfer of worship from the Creator to the creatures. Against all this, the strongest help was required: the strongest was given. This help is the very Word of God, pre-eternal, invisible, immense, incorporeal, the beginning from the beginning, light from light, the source of life and immortality, the image of primordial beauty, the immovable seal, the unchanging image, the Father’s definition and the Word. He enters into His image, wears flesh for the sake of flesh, unites with the intelligent soul for the sake of my soul, in order to purify like with like, and becomes human in everything except sin. It is conceived in a Virgin, purified in soul and body by the Spirit, for it was necessary to honor both birth and virginity. God comes with the perceived humanity in unity from two opposites, from flesh and spirit, of which one deified, and the other deified. O extraordinary connection! O wondrous dissolution! The existent begins to be, the uncreated is created; the incontainable is contained through the intelligent soul, which mediates between the Divine and the gross flesh. The rich beggar, beggar according to my flesh, so that I may become rich in His Divinity. The full one is exhausted: for He is exhausted from His glory for a short time, so that I may partake of His fullness. What a wealth of goodness! What a mystery with me! I partook of the image of God and did not preserve it. God communes with my flesh in order to save His image and immortalize my flesh. The second partakes of communication that is even more amazing than the first; for then he taught the best, but now he partakes of the worst. This is more divine than before; this is more sublime for those who have intelligence. Take birth now, and leap, if not like John in the womb, then at least like David after setting up the ark. Respect the census in which you are recorded in heaven. Reverence the birth with which you were released from the bonds of birth. Almost small Bethlehem, which again brought you to heaven. Bow down to the manger, from which you, being speechless, were fed with the word. “Know,” Isaiah commands you, as “the ox of the man who has acquired money,” and as “the donkey of his master’s manger” (Is. 1:3). Flow with the star, bring gifts with the wise men, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh, as to the King, as to God, as to one dead for your sake. Glorify with the shepherds, rejoice with the Angels, sing songs with the Archangels. Hate one of the circumstances of the birth of Christ, Herod’s infanticide, or better, and reverence it, as before the sacrifice of Christ’s peers, sacrificed before a new sacrifice. If Christ flees to Egypt; run with Him willingly. It is a wonderful thing to flee with Christ to the persecuted. If He tarries in Egypt, call Him out of Egypt with kindness to Him and worship there. Pass blamelessly through all the ages and powers of Christ (by imitation), as a disciple of Christ. Amen". Christmas. Irmos of the 1st song of the canon. 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