58. Слово в день Святой Пасхи 324

(Printed in Christ. Readings of 1839 and in collections of 1835, 1844 and 1848). “Christ is Risen!” - Having said this, what more can I tell you? Everything has been said. Is it necessary to found faith, to create hope, to kindle love, to enlighten wisdom, to cry out prayer, to bring down grace, to destroy disaster, death, evil, to give vitality to life, to make bliss not a dream, but reality, glory - not a ghost, but the eternal lightning of eternal light, illuminating everything and striking no one? - For all this there is enough power in one miraculous word: “Christ is risen.” “If Christ does not rise, your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:17), admits one of the non-vain Preachers of the faith. What a devastating assumption! But the more destructive it is, the more creative is the opposite truth: since Christ has risen, then our faith is both unshakable and saving. A pagan also believes, but in dead deities or creatures, just like himself, mortal and perishable: how can faith be strong when its deity is perishable, or life-giving when it is dead? The Jew believes and believes in the living God, but according to the “writing” of the law, which “kills” the sinner but cannot resurrect: what can we expect from this faith, except what we see from it? She killed the Christ-killing people of Judea, scattered their bones throughout the universe, and together with them she destroyed herself so that the Jew and his faith have no hope, except in Christianity. Some sages of antiquity, who understood the absurdity of paganism, but did not penetrate into the Sanctuary of Divine truth, invented faith in the unknown God, and erected an altar to this name, perhaps, some of the sages of modern times are not objectionable, because he does not appoint great sacrifices for himself: but if God is unknown, then it is also unknown how we should serve Him, and in this case, can our service be pleasing to Him? is it saving us? Thus, faith founded on ignorance is destroyed by the same ignorance. We Christians believe in the living God, according to the law of the “spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” which frees us “from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2). We “know”, we dare to say with the Apostle, “We have believed in him and have known him,” “for he is able to keep our tradition” (2 Tim. 1:12). How do we “let you know?” - Most likely, by the resurrection of Him, “who believed.” If He resurrected, elevated, and enthroned His faith, in His very Person, cast down by His enemies into the grave, and brought down to hell: then “we know that He is strong,” and our faith will be confirmed, preserved, and justified. “Even though in this life we ​​have confidence in Christ,” says the still firm Preacher of the faith, “we are the most damned of all men” (1 Cor. 15:19). Unbelievers find for themselves in unbelief the benefit that they can blithely enjoy the pleasures of this life and enjoy the affection of the world: an unenviable benefit, in truth, and nothing more than “damnation”; for when it is said: “The most damned of all are men,” this also means that all people, that is, unbelievers, are more or less “damned.” But if we, believers in Christ, were to take away the assurance of the resurrection, then we would truly be more damned than all damned people. “The world,” according to the word of the Lord, “loves its own, and not those who are of the world,” and consequently Christians, if not always openly persecuting, then surely always inwardly “hate” (John 15:19). Peace lovers enjoy: Christians, either, renouncing pleasures, suffer deprivation, or, allowing themselves pleasures, must suffer repentance. But let not the world be flattered by the evil pleasure of making us desperate like him. If everything for which the present is valued is lost; Not everything has perished for us yet, or better yet, nothing has perished yet. Our hope is founded deeper than the present world, and raised above it. “Christ has risen from the dead, becoming the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your dead body through His living Spirit in you” (Rom. 8:11). Will you require more for perfect hope? – If you like: we already have what is promised to us in the future to replace the present. “God, who is rich in mercy, for the abundance of His love with which He loved us, and made us already dead sinners, and made us alive already in Christ, and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places, so that in the times to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4-7). When the “great love of God,” through the resurrection of Christ, both unshakably confirms us in faith and consoles us with perfect hope: what should our heart feel about this, if coarse sensuality has not made it incapable of feeling spiritual influences? What if not the same love of God with which God, like the eternal Sun, shines for us, inflaming us for God? “The love of God will sustain us,” explains the Apostle, “who have judged this, that if one die for all, then all die” (2 Cor. 5:14). And in another case, as soon as he named “Christ Jesus who died, and even more so also rose, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us,” he immediately, in uncontrollable delight, exclaims: “Who will separate us from the love of God” (Rom. 8:34-35)? Truly, if, according to the saying of Love itself, “no one has greater love than he sows, but whoever lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13); but without measure, great love, even those who were its enemies, loved us even to the point of death for us, and death on the cross: can we be so ungrateful and insensitive that for our sake the resurrected love does not resurrect our love for its own sake? I will not further explain the various miracles that one miraculous word produces: “Christ is risen.” If it resurrects in us the holy love of God, which is constantly killed by the sinful love of the world and the flesh, this miracle is enough for the perfection of true joy, and for all other miracles to reveal themselves to us. In whom the risen Christ, in this festive arena, as in the disciples on the way to Emmaus, kindled the heart with a sweet desire and a certain intimate sensation of His Divine presence: we can greet him not with an idle word, and more than by one custom, as the Apostles greeted the Emmaus travelers: “Truly the Lord has risen!” (Luke 24:34) “He is risen indeed!” Amen. According to Jew. collection: spoken in the Cathedral Church of the Miracle Monastery, April 18, 1826. You might be interested in: