8. Слово в день Сошествия Св. Духа

(Said in the Trinity House Church of Prince A.N. Golitsyn, May 18; printed separately and in collections of 1820, 1821, 1844 and 1848) Be filled with the Spirit. Eph.5:18. The soul of every holiday is the presence of the one being celebrated. And for those celebrating the day of the Holy Spirit, what could be more desirable than if this heavenly Comforter visited His festival with an influx of grace? If He, although He no longer illuminated our heads with tongues of fire, at least with a secret spark of His fire touched our hearts and ignited them with a sense of the presence of God; just as He once kindled the “inert hearts to believe” of two disciples so that these very hearts could show them at least a trace of the presence of the Lord: “Isn’t our heart sorrowful in us, when we spoke on the way” (Luke 24:32). This good is so great that I don’t know whether it is possible to ask for it from the “Treasure of the Good” without an internal shudder and some surprise at one’s own boldness; although, however, the Church, every day, and at the beginning of each prayer, invites us to pray for the Holy Spirit, not only to “come,” but also to “dwell in us.” But what a single desire is so difficult on our part, listeners, is what the Holy Spirit now offers us, so simply and so generously, through the mouth of the Apostle; and not only offers, but commands, inspires, sets the law: “be filled with the Spirit!” (Eph.5:18) How blessed, Divine Paul, but at the same time how wonderful and incomprehensible you give us a commandment! “Be filled with the Spirit”: is it our will to be filled with the Spirit 89? If this treasure is so close and so accessible, then why is it so rare and unknown? Christians! Of course, among our Ephesian fellow students, “to whom the teacher of languages ​​originally gave the instruction we are considering,” 90 there was not a person who did not understand him in this case, and could contrast our perplexities with him. Otherwise, the Divinely inspired mentor would, without a doubt, prevent the questioning with admonition. So, at that time those who were “thirst” knew the path once indicated by the prophet, but “they go to the water, and the trees have no money, but on the way they buy and eat, and on the way they buy wine and milk without money or price.” Nowadays, apparently, “money is not used for bread, and our labor is not enough to satisfy us” (Is. 55:1-2). It seems to us as if the Lord values ​​His blessings too dearly, and as if it is not our muscles that have become weak to accept, but His hand that has become weak to give spiritual gifts. No! The Lord unconditionally “pours out his Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28). If we are not “filled with the Spirit,” then it is not His gifts that are lacking for us, but we are not sufficient for His gifts. May the poor be comforted by the Spirit! Let those who are weak in the flesh be raised up! May the Lord be justified in all His words! There was a time when the apostles, mainly the holy temples of the Holy Spirit, did not feel the Living One in them. They 91 already possessed the gift of miracles, but did not yet understand the beginning and did not notice the direction of the force acting in them. The spirit of love appeared in them as the spirit of wrath, and those called to the ministry of salvation were ready to bring down the fire of consumption from heaven. The Truth itself convicted them of such strange ignorance of themselves: “You do not know what spirit you are” (Luke 9:55). Afterwards, when the same Spirit, which at first acted in the Apostles with hidden power, having visited them with His solemn descent, filled them with knowledge and wisdom, they recognized Him so clearly and so closely that they decisively distinguished Him from both their own and some general spirit acting in natural people, not regenerated by the Spirit of God, and, perhaps, once acting in them. “But we,” says one of them, “have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is from God, and we have received that which is given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12). Let us note, listeners, that the Apostle does not say: “the spirit has been given to us,” but: “we have received the spirit.” As if to say: “it is known that God “gives” His Spirit to everyone who is disposed to “receive” Him. Only people for the most part are enslaved and darkened by the “spirit of the world. We rejected the dominion of this dark spirit, but accepted with our spirit the luminous influence of the “Spirit from God” emanating; and thus an active knowledge and sensation of the gifts given to us by God was revealed in us. “We do not receive the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is from God, and we know that which is given to us from God.” So, believe not us, the weak servants of the word 92, believe the chosen instruments, messengers and evangelists of the Spirit of God, that, despite a certain independent existence and freedom of man, he not only can be, but is usually under the rule of one of two principles, either the “spirit of this world”, or the “Spirit who is from God”, depending on which of them is free to act on himself "accepts". If you, apparently, do not experience this for yourself, this only means that “you do not know what kind of spirit you are.” In order, if possible, to bring this secret relationship of the human spirit to the Spirit of God closer to the general understanding, let it be allowed to use a parable and fortune-telling, in which the Divine truth itself was often clothed in order to appear to the eyes of people, more or less sensual. – The baby in the womb has its own soul and life; but his life is immersed in the life of his mother, imbued with it, nourished by it, so that, in comparison with the full life of a person, it can hardly be considered life: this is the image of the state in which a natural person finds himself in the world. His spirit has its own life and freedom, but nevertheless, being in the flesh, it is embraced and insensitively ruled by the power of the world: it thinks, but according to the elements of the world; desires, but in the way that is prompted by the carnal lust that prevails in the world, the lust of desire and the pride of life; acts, but in a narrow and low circle of the sensory; lives, but according to the spirit of the world, “alienated from the life of God” (Eph. 4:18). However, the confinement of a baby in the womb is not a decisive intention of nature, but only a means and a path by which he is led to full being; and he must come into the light, see the beauty of the world, taste its blessings, know its Creator: this is the highest purpose of the human spirit, “embraced” 93 by flesh and imprisoned in the world. “It is fitting for you to be born again” (John 3:7) – “suitable”, for this, according to God’s intention, is not just the random lot of some, but the established law and predestination of all mankind, to which all natural life serves only as a preparation and transition. The prisoner of the world must be “brought out of his prison” - “confess the name of the Lord” (Psalm 142:8), “enlighten” with the light of Christ, “taste the heavenly gift and the power of the age to come” (Heb. 6:4-5) during the present century, “receive” in the world “the Spirit who is from God”, begin to breathe heavenly air on earth. And just as a newborn baby, renouncing the life of its mother, has no difficulty in seeking its new life, but carries within itself a source of activity that is constantly developing and improving, and around itself everywhere it finds the air it needs for its breathing: so, drawn by grace from the world and called to a higher birth, a person is closer to the realm of new life than he thinks; for we can only be far from the Spirit of God, and the Spirit of God cannot be far from us. This Spirit, in the words of the Wise One, “passes through all spirits” (Wisdom 7:23), being 94 inviolable in its holiness and omnipresent in its goodness: it is poured out on every power and ability that is given over to its action, and in the very heart of the old man it opens the source of new life. “Believe in me,” the Giver of the Spirit, “rivers from his belly will flow out living waters. “This,” adds the beloved disciple, explaining the words of the heavenly Teacher, “this is spoken about Dus, whom those who believe in His name want to receive” (John 7:38–39). Finally, here is an important difference between natural and spiritual birth: the former is achieved and accomplished by the necessary procession of nature, and the latter by the free striving towards the God of faith in Christ. “Believe in me, as the scripture says, rivers of living waters will flow out of his belly.” And why are there whole “rivers from a single womb,” when a single drop from the fulfillment of grace is enough to revive hosts of spirits? - In order, as Scripture said, to reveal the exceeding wealth of goodness, according to which the Holy Spirit not only fills, but also exceeds the measure of our readiness to accept Him and, so to speak, bestows upon us more than we accept. Should we, children of faith, not recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit among us and ask about His dominion: where is it? And even before His solemn descent into the kingdom of faith, the children of the law felt His omnipresent and all-effective power so vividly that they could not hide anywhere and rest in awe! “Where will I go from Your Spirit” (Psalm 139:7)? exclaimed David. Should we be perplexed how the spontaneous human spirit can stand under the constant action of the Almighty Spirit? And even in the time of Job, they understood that “there is spirit in men, and the breath of the Almighty is teaching” (Job.32:8)! Is it necessary to recall our own confession, so often renewed by the voice of the Church, by which, bringing ourselves into a prayerful approach to God, we proclaim the omnipresent and all-fulfilling power of His Spirit? - “Go everywhere and do everything!” “Do everything!” But why are we not all “filled with Him?” “It’s obvious that we should ask ourselves about this.” Is it possible for us to be “filled with the Spirit” if the flesh, constantly at war with the spirit, does not find in us any barrier to its dominion? If in its satiety, rapture, and pleasure we quench even the inherent hunger of our spirit for hearing the word of God and the thirst for truth? If we only live in this flesh, in which, as the man of God assures us from our own experience, “no good thing dwells in it at all” (Rom. 7:18)? In this case, we ourselves flow under the grave judgment of God, spoken against the first world: “My Spirit shall not remain in these men forever, for they are flesh” (Gen. 6:3). “For if a man sows, he will also reap. For whoever sows to his flesh, from the flesh he will reap corruption; but whoever sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit he will reap eternal life” (Gal. 6:7-8). Is it possible for us to be “filled with the Spirit of God” if we ourselves animate ourselves only with the spirit of this world? If only with his elemental wisdom we fill our minds, only with his charms do we enliven our imagination, only with his passions do we excite our hearts, only with his laws do we govern our will, only with his charms do we try to please our actions? If our best feelings and most virtues are infected with the corruptive breath of the “spirit of the world” 95: love with partiality, condescension with affection, nobility with pride, hard work with self-interest, charity with vanity, dignity with contempt for others, exploits with ambition? Only those can receive “the Spirit who is from God” who “have not received the spirit of this world,” or have cast it out 96, “not loving the world, neither what is in the world” (1 John 2:15). Is it possible for us to be “filled with the Holy Spirit” if we are still so filled with ourselves that there is not so much abolished and purified place in us, where even a drop of the all-drinking water, throughout the entire length and breadth of times and places “flowing into the eternal belly” (John 4:14), could sink and not turn into dirt by our pride and sinful remains? – Our uncleanness is a stronghold with which we block from ourselves the currents of the Spirit of the Lord, like the aspirations of the spring waters, “sent” everywhere to “create” a new creation and “renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 103:30), but this is not also anger, and moreover the mercy of God, that these currents do not penetrate unworthy souls, for holy and sanctifying water life, falling on the unclean, would burst into flames with an all-consuming fire. And, therefore, let not those who, although with all their strength reject the flesh, the world and themselves and come to Christ with a spiritual “thirst,” yet “drink” from the source of blessings, do not feel in themselves the comforting presence of sanctifying and renewing grace, or, having felt it instantly, lose it, do not complain about the Spirit of the Lord. It is written in the Gospel that once upon a time, while Jesus Christ Himself preached about “the Spirit which those who believe in His name would receive, the Holy Spirit was not with him” 98 acceptable, “for Jesus was not glorified” (John 7:39). In another place, He tells His disciples that even after unfailingly following Him, one must first be tempted by the deprivation of His visible presence and then cry out to the mysterious communion of the Holy Spirit: “You have no more, but I am coming.” If I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; If I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). Even after His resurrection, when He was “given... "all authority in heaven and on earth" 99 (Matthew 28:18), the Apostles needed fifty days of "patience, prayers and supplications with one accord" (Acts 1:14), so that they could, having become devoid of everything, one and all, finally "be filled with the Holy Spirit" and begin to live in this fulfillment. Simply by “being abolished” from everything, they were deemed worthy to “celebrate” the great feast of God. Perhaps for you too, who are zealous for the apostolic following of Christ, but do not feel the “anointing of the Holy One”, perhaps for you too because “you do not have the Holy Spirit, because Jesus is not glorified” in you; Perhaps you have only accepted Him as a “Prophet”, bearing the word of “God” in your mouth, but have not yet dedicated yourself to Him as a “Priest”, so that in the communion of His universal sacrifice He will completely lift you up as an auspicious offering to His Father; They have not yet exalted Him as a “King,” and no desire or thought can be raised without His beckoning. Perhaps “you also have not, if you understand” and seek “Christ” more “according to the flesh” (2 Cor. 5:16) than according to the spirit, so that the longed-for “Bridegroom” (Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:20) may be “taken away” from your souls for a while, and the deprivation of spiritual consolations will purify your faith, elevate love, establish patience, and refine prayer, will drive out dangerous self-indulgence, and prepare for pure bliss. But those in whom, if not felt, at least the anointing has already begun with the hidden hand, do not demand, but someone teaches them: for that same anointing teaches them about all things (1 John 2:27). What will we do, living only flesh and blood, which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50)? What will we be, dead in spirit, cold and dry, like the “bones” scattered in the field in Ezekiel’s vision? “Shall these bones live” (Ezek. 37:3)? God asked the Prophet, wanting to send down His life-giving Spirit on them. “Not wanting sinners to die, but to turn and be alive” (Ezek. 33:11), without a doubt, he looks at these spiritual skeletons with the same mercy and 100 desire for their revival by the Holy Spirit. “Will these bones live? “Lord God, You weigh this” (Ezek. 37:3). - And now the Lord Himself, who You declared of old by Your Prophet, that there is nothing in us that He will prophesy, - The Lord Himself said: “Behold, I will bring the spirit of life into you, and I will put My Spirit in you, and you will live and know that I am the Lord” (Ezek. 37:5-6). Amen. blessed - In the department. ed.: "invisible". In the department ed. further follows: “Can anyone approach this “sea of ​​glass” that exists “before the throne” (Rev. 15:2) of God, without fearing the consuming fire with which it is “mixed,” and draw with every vessel the water of life, like river water.” In the department ed.: “to which the teacher of languages ​​originally extended the words we have given.” In the department ed. and in collection 1820 and 1821: “when the pristine churches did not feel the Holy Spirit living in them. Apostles." In the department ed. and in collection 1820 and 1821: “whom, of course, as punishment for the unworthy service of the word, the Lord no longer appoints as leaders of your faith and nourishers of love, but only delivers them to shame and judgment before you, so that in this sacred place it is no longer so much the word of God, living and active, that judges the thoughts and thoughts of the hearts of those who hear, but rather the cold attention of those who hear judges and condemns dead words human." In the department ed. and in collection 1820 and 1821: “chained.” being – In the department. ed.: "formerly". In the department ed.: “of this spirit...” or expelled him - To the department. ed.: “or suppressed it...” In the department ed. and in collection 1820 and 1821: “to be fulfilled...” In the department ed. here below the line there is a remark: St. Chrysostom (Hom. LXXVIII, t. v.) pronounces these words of the Gospel like this: ouk en pneyma agion en tois anthropois dothen. “The Holy Spirit was not given in men.” But we should especially note the explanation that St. The evangelist gives his words: “he has not the Holy Spirit” (John 7:39), anticipating that they should be understood “about the soul which believers desire to receive” (John 7:39), that is, about the tangible gifts of the spirit, or, in the words of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 12:7), about the “manifestation of the spirit”; consequently, not about Dus, since He “proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26) or about the very second hypostasis of the Divine. For in this last mind, “The Holy Spirit is ever present, is, and will be” (Pentecost, stichera on the praises of the 2nd), as the Church sings. In the department ed. and in collection 1820 and 1821 further follows: “most of all the power to teach the Holy Spirit.” In the department ed. and in collection 1820, 1821 and 1844 further follows: “impatient, if I may say so...” You might be interested in: