Слово на часах, в пяток недели 1-й Великого поста, о причащении

In the parable of the prodigal son, which so touchingly depicts the power of true repentance, we see that the loving father, upon returning his lost son to him - as a sign of complete reconciliation with him and returning to him all the fatherly love - immediately arranges a supper so bright that the eldest son could not bear this celebration without grumbling and displeasure (Luke 15). What, brethren, would this discerning son say if he looked at that Divine supper that the Heavenly Father arranges for us on the occasion of our return to Him from the crossroads of the world?.. How long have many of us wandered outside our father’s house, dependent, at the mercy of the passions, on the gifts of nature and grace? “It’s not yet the week of the week when we turned our faces straight to our father’s house; as soon as they made a confession of their sins; have not yet done a single good deed as a sign of repentance; and now, the robe of innocence has already been returned to us, forgiveness and mercy have been solemnly declared; - and in the morning a meal will be arranged for us in the Father’s house. And what meal? Not from a “fat calf” (Luke 15:27), but from the Lamb slain “before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:20), from the Body and Blood of the Son of God! Just as we did not put a measure on our sins, so the Lord even more does not put a measure on His mercy. For what are the other miracles of God’s omnipotence and Wisdom compared to this miracle of love? What is manna from heaven? What is water from a stone? The sacrament of communion is, one might say, a kind of continuation of the very mystery of the incarnation! For if... “the great... mystery of godliness: God appeared in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16), then what a great mystery it is when He, through the communion of His Body and Blood with us, appears in our flesh!.. Should we explore this mystery in all its depths? But for this it would be necessary for me to have eyes and a tongue, and for you to have the hearing of angels. For the edification of all of us, it will be enough if we, firstly, consider how this Divine meal was prepared, how it was established in its time, and how, once established, it was preserved until our times. Secondly, let us pay attention to what is taught to us at this meal, and how should we approach it? Because the Divine Lamb, Whom we partake of in the Eucharist, was slain, as the Apostle noted, “before the foundation of the world,” that is, slain in the predestination of God the Father and His own; then from the very foundation of the world, signs began to appear not only of this slaughter, but also of the future eating of the slaughtered. What was the tree of life in paradise with its fruits, if not the first prototype of our Divine meal? Could the tree itself provide immortality to man if it were not a symbol of the true “tree of the living” (Rev. 2:7), the Son of God, in Whom alone, according to the testimony of St. John, “there was life, and life was light of man” (John 1:4)? That is why Blessed Augustine called the paradise tree of life a sacrament, and we can call it the sacrament of communion. For the people of Israel, upon their election to the people of God, two especially things very clearly represented the Sacrament of the Eucharist: manna and the Passover lamb. It is known how manna was obtained: it came down from heaven every morning, except Saturday, and was the main food for the people of Israel during their wanderings in the desert. Due to this origin of manna, the Psalmist called it “the bread of angels” (Ps. 77:25). But manna expressed more than angelic food: it prefigured the Body and Blood of the God-Man. That is why the Savior Himself, when He spoke to the Jews about the future provision of His Body and Blood to them as food, directly pointed to manna: “Your fathers ate manna in the desert and died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, and whoever eats from it will not die. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven: if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever” (John 6:49–51). The Paschal Lamb, prefiguring the death of the Son of God on the Cross with its saving actions for us, depicted the future Divine meal of the New Testament even more clearly than manna. By eating it, the Israelites were saved, as we know, from the Destroying Angel, who was sent to strike Egypt: and we, by eating the Body and Blood of the Lord, are saved from the malice of the ruler of the darkness of this age, who, in the words of the Apostle, “like a lion... walks about, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). In addition, the Passover lamb, with the very details of the sacred rites with which it was consumed, very vividly depicted many of the circumstances of the suffering and death of the Lord; so, for example, it had to be baked whole, without crushing or crushing a single bone, which, according to the remark of the Evangelist John, was later fulfilled in the most precise sense with the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of the world on Calvary; for the soldiers “did not break His legs” (John 19:33), although they came for that. Such clear and majestic transformations were already enough to prepare all true Israelis to accept, with all faith, the new, mysterious meal that was to appear in the New Testament, under the guise of the Eucharist. But in order to further prepare their minds and hearts for it, the Savior Himself first drew the attention of His listeners to the extreme need of all mankind for a new, higher and better food than manna and the Passover lamb, and directly declared that this food should be made up of His own Body and His own Blood, which He had to sacrifice for the life of the world. One of His conversations about this, preserved by the Evangelist John, can be called preparatory to communion: for this reason you will not refuse to listen to it now with all attention. The occasion for this sermon was the Lord’s miraculous feeding of five thousand people with five loaves. Such a miracle forced the people in large crowds to follow Him through the desert in order to again see a similar sign from Him. Noticing such an inclination towards sensual nutrition, the Savior considered it necessary to lead the minds and hearts of His listeners to the search for higher food and together show them where this food can be found: “Answering... Jesus said: Amen, Amen, I say to you, seek Me, not as you have seen a sign, but as you have eaten the loaves, and have your fill: do not waste what perishes, but do it to stay. into the eternal life which the Son of Man will give you” (John 6:26, 6:27). – Who wouldn’t want such a mess? Therefore, the people suddenly answered: “Whatever we do, let us do the works of God; Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written: “You gave them bread from heaven to eat” (John 6:28, 6:30). That is, the people wanted, as proof of the Divinity of the Savior, to see a new miracle from Him, similar to the manna brought down from heaven by Moses. And so, this very desire of the people for new manna gave the Savior the opportunity to offer them the teaching about manna - His Body and Blood. “Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, Moses did not give you bread from heaven: but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven... I am the bread of the living: he who comes to Me will never be hungry, and if you believe in Me, you will never be hungry” (John 6:32–36). Nothing could be more majestic than this language, but for sensual people it seemed very strange. “The Jews therefore murmured about Him, as if they said: I am the bread that came down from heaven. And the verb: Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know; How then does this one say that he came down from heaven? (John 6:41–42). That is, the Jews accepted the above words of the Savior in the most sensual and rude form. What about the Lord? He pointed only to the source of their lack of faith, and continued His preaching. “Jesus answered and said to them: Do not murmur among yourselves: no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day... I am the bread of life: your fathers ate manna in the desert and died: this is the bread that comes down from heaven, yea, whoever eats of it will not die: I am the bread of life that came down from heaven: if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever: and the bread that I will give, this is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (Jn. 6:43–51). Such a direct and strong indication of the Lord to His Body as meat aroused even more bewilderment in the sensual listeners, who thought that they would be given the Body of Jesus Christ for food in the very form in which it was before them: “The Jews are hiding among themselves, saying: how can this one give us his flesh to eat?” But the Lord, despite this, again confirmed even more strongly and separately what was said before. “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have life for yourself. eat My Flesh and drink My Blood, have an eternal life, and I will resurrect him on the last day. For My Flesh is truly meat, and My Blood is truly beer. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him. For the living Father sent Me, and I live for the Father’s sake: and he who eats Me will live for My sake. This is the bread that came down from heaven: not as your fathers ate manna and died: this poisonous bread will live forever” (John 6:53–58). After these words, there was no longer any doubt that the real tasting of the Body and Blood of the Teacher was promised. But this seemed so strange to many of the Lord’s disciples that they involuntarily pestered the Jews, saying: “This word is cruel: (and) who can listen to it” (John 6:60)! But the Lord, despite this, again confirmed the truth of His words in all their power, adding only that the verbs they hear from Him are “spirit... and life”; why we should not take them in the carnal form in which the tempted disciples took them (John 6:63). Even after, when a considerable number of disciples, not being enlightened by the Teacher’s explanation, were seduced by His preaching to the point that “they went back, and no one walked with Him” (John 6:66), the God-Man did not change His conversation at all, but only asked the remaining twelve: “Do you want to go and eat food?” (John 6:67). That is, he was obviously ready, so to speak, to rather let Himself and the last disciples go, no matter how dear they were to Him, rather than part with the subject of the sermon, and not reveal to the whole world the Divine food - His Body and Blood. What should we, brethren, take for special edification from this sermon of the Savior? Firstly, that partaking of His Body and Blood is not something unimportant for us, something we can do without, but something essentially necessary, necessary for all of us, something without which it is impossible to have an eternal life. And the sad event with the Savior’s disciples, who were so strongly tempted by His teaching about His Body and Blood as a spiritual waste, should let us know that, when approaching the Divine meal, we should least of all indulge in our own thoughts and perplexities, but follow directly the words and promises of the Lord, no matter how lofty and unfulfillable they may seem to us. However, now that we see the form in which the Body and Blood of the Lord is taught, the fears of the Capernaum Jews, who thought that they would be fed with the body and blood of man, in their own form, cannot have any place among us. The true disciples of the “animal word” did not stumble, however, even then about the height of this word, no matter how inconceivable it was for many; Peter, to the Savior’s question: “Do you want food too?” decisively answered for everyone: “Lord, to whom are we going? verbs of the life of the eternal imashi” (John 6:68). That this was not just one outburst of holy feeling of the soul, not just one instant outpouring of love for the Teacher, was shown by the action itself. For when the time came for the Teacher Himself to turn from word to deed, that is, to teach the very Body and the very Blood at the Last Supper, not the slightest bewilderment was revealed in the disciples. Remembering the Teacher’s promise to teach them this Divine meal, they accepted it with all faith and love, without any bewilderment, without any questions. This happened, as we know, at the last Easter supper, on the eve of the suffering and death of the Lord. Among the many significant and touching rituals of this Divine Supper, the Savior took bread, blessed it, broke it: but, giving it to the disciples, instead of the usual words, he said: “Take, eat, this is My body!” (Matthew 26:26). Nothing more was said, for there was no need to say more; since the disciples already knew for sure that whoever does not taste this mysterious meat “will not see the belly.” In a similar way, having taken the cup at supper and giving it to the disciples, the Lord said: “Take... and... drink from it: this... is My Blood of the New Testament, which was shed for many for the remission of sins!” (Matthew 26:27–28). The disciples, who had been taught the sacrament before, again in silence partook of the Blood of their Teacher and Lord. “Do this,” the Lord added, “in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19), making it known through this that this sacrament is not just for this occasion, not as a sign of farewell to the disciples, but forever, as a sign of His eternal presence with all believers, “until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Can you imagine, brethren, how precious the repetition of this sacrament must have been for the disciples of Jesus when they were separated from Him after His ascension into heaven! - The mysterious bread and wine, or, better to say, the Body and Blood of the God-Man, became the only meat with which their holy souls fed, strengthening themselves for all that is great, laborious and holy. “Forbearing all the days,” says the book of the Acts of the Apostles about the apostles and their disciples, “with one accord in the church, and breaking bread throughout the house, I received food in joy and in simplicity of heart” (Acts 2:46). Whether they came to apostolic labors anywhere, the first thing was to remember the death of the Lord with the faithful and partake of the holy meal of love. Whether they went somewhere and said goodbye to the “children” of faith, the last sign of unanimity was to again remember the death of the Lord, break the mysterious bread and partake of the cup of the covenant. Whether they were expecting the descent of the Holy Spirit, they received communion. Whether they were preparing to confess the name of Jesus before the tyrants, or to suffer torture and death, they received communion. Whether they suffered from illnesses and sought healing, they took communion. The Eucharist was everything to everyone. For this reason, despite the importance of the sacrament, the sacred rite of performing it for a long time remained in primitive simplicity. They prayed, repented of their sins, cried, and communed. Saint Paul combined preaching with the Eucharist, then added the singing of various psalms and the reading of various passages of Holy Scripture. The Apostle James combined all this into a certain type of liturgy; and Saint Basil the Great, Saint Chrysostom and Saint Gregory the Dvoeslov finally gave it the form in which it continues to this day. Is it necessary to talk about the dignity of their holy work? We will see something better than our liturgy only when we are in heaven. Here, at the holy proskomedia, during the preparation of the Divine Gifts, the life and death on the Cross of the Son of God are symbolically depicted, just as they were depicted in the symbols and rituals of the Old Testament. Then, in the first part of the liturgy, at the first exit from the altar of the celebrants with the Gospel, the Savior Himself appears again into the world and goes out to preach, which is then heard in the reading of the Apostle and the Gospel. After this, at the second exit from the altar of the celebrants with the Holy Gifts, the last procession of the Lord to Jerusalem to suffer and die on the Cross is imagined, after which, among various prayers, the Lord’s last supper with the disciples is repeated, as if His very words were heard spoken to the Apostles about His Body and Blood, and the very sacrament of the Eucharist is performed through the invocation of the Holy Gifts of grace of the Most Holy Spirit. In the last part of the liturgy, with the new opening of the Royal Doors, the Holy Sepulcher is apparently opened for the resurrection, and heaven itself is opened for the reception of the Risen One, which is most sensually depicted by the reverse transfer of the remains of the Holy Gifts from the Throne to the altar. Thus, whoever attends the liturgy with full attention, each time sees before him, one might say, the entire earthly life of the Lord from beginning to end. This is how the Divine Table of the Body and Blood of Christ was prepared, this is how it was established in its time, and this is how it has been preserved to this day! Many centuries have passed in preparing it! That is why our pagan ancestors, when they saw the celebration of the liturgy in Constantinople for the first time, thought that they had been transferred from earth to heaven by some miracle!.. It would be a great honor, brothers, if we, with our unworthiness, were allowed only to contemplate so many mysteries. But, behold, we are all called to partake of the Divine meal itself! “You see,” I dare say with the Apostle, “you see what kind of love the Father has given us,” why did he give it? For this purpose,” answers the Apostle, “that we may be called children of God, and shall be” (1 John 3:1); so that through the abundance of the fatherly love for us, he may produce in us filial love for Him. Will we remain cold even in the midst of this flame of Divine love? It won't happen! Divine love itself no longer has the strongest means of warming and reviving our hearts with love. Amen. You might be interested in: