Слово 45. На Святую Пасху

1. I will stand on my watch, says the wonderful Habakkuk (Hab. 2:1). I will stand with him now, according to the power and contemplation given to me by the Spirit; I will look and find out what will be shown to me and what will be spoken. I stood and looked: and behold a man ascended on the clouds, a very tall man, and his image was like the image of an Angel (Judges 13:6), and his clothing was like the flash of fleeting lightning. He raised his hand to the east, exclaimed with a loud voice (and his voice was like the voice of a trumpet, and around him there seemed to be a multitude of heavenly howls) and said: “Now is salvation for the world, the visible world and the invisible world! Christ from the dead, rise with Him you too; Christ in His glory - rise also you; Christ from the grave - free yourself from the bonds of sin; the gates of hell are opened, death is destroyed, the old Adam is put aside, the new is made: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17); be renewed.” So he spoke, and others sang the same as before, when Christ appeared to us through his birth: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14). With them, I (oh if only I had a voice worthy of an angel’s song and announcing the ends of the world!) tell you this: 2. Easter! The Lord's Easter! And I will also say in honor of the Trinity: Easter! She is our holiday celebration and celebration of celebrations; so much surpasses all celebrations, not only human and earthly, but even those of Christ and for Christ, as much as the sun surpasses the stars. It was wonderful for us yesterday that everything shone and was illuminated by the light with which we filled both private houses and public places, when people of almost every kind and every rank, with generous lights, illuminated the night, into the image of a great light - the light with which the sky shines from above, illuminating the whole world with its beauties; the premium light, which in the Angels, the first light nature after the First Nature, flows from Him; and Light in the Trinity, by which all light is composed, divided and adorned from the indivisible Light. But the present luminosity is more beautiful and brilliant, because yesterday’s light was the forerunner of the great resurrected Light and, as it were, pre-festive joy, and now we celebrate the resurrection itself, not yet expected, but already accomplished and reconciling the whole world. Therefore, let others bear whatever other fruits they may have, and let each one offer his own gift to the time - a celebratory gift, large or small, but spiritual and pleasing to God, as much as each has the strength to do so. For even the Angels, the first beings, spiritual and pure, spectators and witnesses of the heavenly glory, are unlikely to bring a gift commensurate with their dignity, although they are capable of the most perfect hymn. And I will bring the word as a gift, as the best and most precious of all that I have, especially when I sing the Word for its benefit to the rational nature. That's where I'll start. For, sacrificing the word about the great Sacrifice and about the greatest of days, I cannot help but flow towards God and make a beginning for myself in Him. And you, who delight in such objects, so that you can come away from here having truly enjoyed what is truly inconceivable, since my word is about God and divine, purify your mind, your hearing, and your thought. The word will be the most complete and at the same time the shortest; just as it does not upset you with a lack, it will not bore you with excess. 3. God has always been, is and will be, or, better said, always is, for the words “was” and “will be” mean the divisions of our time and are characteristic of a transitory nature, but He is always. And He calls Himself by this name when talking with Moses on the mountain (Exodus 3:14), because He concentrates in Himself the entire being, which has not begun and will not cease. Like a certain sea of essence, indefinite and infinite, stretching beyond any idea of time and nature, with one mind (and this is very unclear and insufficient - not in reasoning what is in Himself, but in reasoning what is around Him), through sketching out some outlines, He is shaded into one kind of image of reality, escaping before it is caught, and escaping before it is imagined, just as illuminating the sovereign in us, if it is purified, is as fast as the speed of flying lightning illuminating the gaze. And this, it seems to me, in order to attract those who are comprehended to Himself (for the completely incomprehensible is hopeless and inaccessible), and to bring surprise to those who are incomprehensible, through astonishment to arouse greater desire and through desire to purify, and through purification to make us godlike and, when we become such, to talk as with our relatives (the word dares to say something bold) - to talk to God, who has entered into unity with the gods and is known by them, perhaps, as many as He knows of those He knows (1 Cor. 13:12). 4. So, the Divinity is limitless and inconceivable. In Him this one thing is completely comprehensible - His infinity, although others consider it to be an attribute of simple nature to be either completely incomprehensible or completely comprehensible. But let us examine what constitutes the essence of simple nature, because simplicity does not yet constitute its nature, just as in complex beings complexity alone does not constitute nature. Reason, considering the infinite in two respects - in relation to the beginning and in relation to the end (for the infinite extends beyond the beginning and the end and does not lie between them), when it fixes its gaze on the mountain abyss and does not find where to stop or where to put a limit to its ideas about God, then the infinite and unsearchable is called beginningless; and when, rushing into the deep abyss, he experiences the same thing as before, then he calls him immortal and incorruptible; when it brings both into unity, then it is called eternal, for eternity is neither time nor a part of time, because it is immeasurable. But what is time for us, measured by the course of the sun, is for the eternal, eternity, something extended with eternal beings and, as it were, some temporary movement and distance. Let our philosophy about God now be limited to this, because there is no time to expand and the subject of my word is not theology, but God’s Economy. When I name God, I mean the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as not spreading the Divinity beyond this number of Persons, so as not to introduce a plurality of gods, so not limiting us to a smaller number, so as not to condemn us in the poverty of the Divinity when we fall either into Judaism, defending unity of command, or into paganism, defending plurality. In both cases the evil is equal, although from opposite causes. Such is the Holy of Holies, hidden from the Seraphim themselves and glorified by the three Shrines, which converge into a single Dominion and Divinity, about which someone else spoke beautifully and very highly before us. 5. But since for Goodness it was not enough to exercise only in contemplation of Itself, but it was necessary that the good spread, go further and further, so that the number of those benefited was as large as possible (for this is characteristic of the highest Goodness), then God invents, firstly, angelic and heavenly Powers. And the thought became a deed, which was filled with the Word and accomplished by the Spirit. This is how the second lordships arose, the servants of the first lordship, whether by them we mean intelligent spirits, or a kind of immaterial and incorporeal fire, or some other nature closest to what has been said. I would like to say that they are motionless towards evil and have only movement towards good, as existing around God and directly illuminated by God (for earthly things use secondary illumination), but Dennitsa convinces me to recognize and call them not motionless, but unmovable - by lordship, but for exaltation he became and is called darkness, with the god-apostate forces subordinate to him, which, through their removal from good, became the perpetrators of evil and us they are drawn into it. 6. So, for such reasons, God created the intelligent world, as much as I can philosophize about this, weighing the great with a small mind. Since the first creatures were pleasing to God, he invents another world - material and visible; and this is the harmonious composition of heaven, earth and what is between them, amazing for the beautiful qualities of each thing and even more worthy of surprise for the harmony and harmony of the whole, in which one thing to another, and everything to everything is in a beautiful relationship, serving to the completeness of a single world. And by this God showed that He is able to create not only a natural nature, but also a nature completely alien to Himself. Akin to the Divine are natures that are intelligent and comprehended by the mind alone, but creatures that are subject to feelings are completely alien, and of these, creatures that are completely inanimate and immovable are even further removed from the Divine nature. 6. So, the mind and feeling, so different from each other, became within their limits and expressed the greatness of the Creative Word, like silent praisers and clear-spoken preachers of splendor. But there has not yet been a mixture of mind and feeling, a combination of opposites - this experience of the highest Wisdom, this generosity in the formation of natures, and not all the wealth of Goodness has yet been discovered. Having desired to show this too, the artistic Word creates a living being, in which both are brought into unity, that is, invisible and visible nature, creates, I say, man; and from the already created substance, taking a body, and putting life from Himself (which in the word of God is known under the name of the soul and image of God), creates, as it were, some kind of second world, great in small things; places on earth another angel, a worshiper composed of different natures, a spectator of the visible creation, the secret of the intuited creation, a king over what is on earth, subordinate to the heavenly kingdom, earthly and heavenly, temporal and immortal, visible and intuited, an angel who occupies the middle between greatness and baseness, one and the same is spirit and flesh - spirit for the sake of grace, flesh for the sake of exaltation, the spirit to abide and glorify the Benefactor, the flesh to suffer and, suffering, remember and learn how much it has been disadvantaged by greatness; creates a living being, here prepared and transferred to another world and (which is the end of the mystery) through the desire for God achieving deification. For the light of truth moderated here serves for me to see and bear the lightness of God, worthy of Him who binds and looses and unites again in the most excellent way. 7. This man, having honored with freedom, so that good belonged no less to the one who chooses than to the one who puts in its seeds, God placed him in paradise (whatever this paradise means) as a maker of immortal plants - perhaps divine thoughts, both simple and more perfect; He placed him naked in simplicity and unartificial life, without any cover or fencing, for this was how the primordial should have been. It also gives a law for the exercise of freedom. The law was a commandment: what plants should he use and what plants should he not touch. And the last was the tree of knowledge, and it was not planted at first with malicious intent, and it was not forbidden out of envy (let not the atheists open their mouths at this and let them not imitate the serpent!); On the contrary, it was good for those who consume it in good time (because this tree, in my opinion, was contemplation, which only those who have experienced perfection can safely begin), but not good for the simple and for those immoderate in their desire, just as perfect food is not good for the weak and in need of milk. When, through the envy of the devil and through the seduction of the wife, to which she herself was subjected as the weakest, and which she produced as she was skilled in persuasion (oh my weakness! for the weakness of the forefather is also my own), a man forgot the commandment given to him and was overcome by a bitter taste, then through sin he becomes an exile, removed at the same time from the tree of life, and from paradise, and from God, and is clothed in leather vestments (perhaps in the coarsest, mortal and opposing flesh), for the first time he knows his own shame and hides from God. However, even here something is gained, namely death - in the suppression of sin, so that evil does not become immortal. Thus, the punishment itself is done by philanthropy. For this, as I am sure, is how God punishes. 9. But in order to prevent many sins, which the root of damage grew from different causes and at different times, man was admonished in many different ways before: by word, by the Law, by prophets, by good deeds, by threats, by punishments, by floods, by fires, by wars, by victories, by defeats, by signs from heaven, by signs in the air, on land, by sea, by unexpected upheavals in the fate of people, cities, nations (all this had the purpose make amends for the damage); Finally, the strongest healing became necessary due to the most severe illnesses: murder, adultery, perjury, masculinity, and this last and first of all evils - idolatry and worship of the creature instead of the Creator. Since all this required the strongest assistance, the strongest was given. And it was the following. The Word of God itself, the eternal, invisible, incomprehensible, incorporeal, the Beginning from the Beginning, Light from Light, the Source of life and immortality, the Imprint of the Prototype, the unbearable Seal, the immutable Image, the definition and word of the Father, comes to His image, bears flesh for the sake of flesh, unites with the rational soul for the sake of my soul, purifying like with like, becomes man in everything except sin. Although the Virgin, in whom the soul and body were purified by the Spirit, is pregnant (for it was necessary to honor both birth and virginity), yet the One who came into being is God and with what was received 302 from Him, one of two opposites - flesh and Spirit, of which One deified, the other deified. O new mixture! O wonderful dissolution! Sy begins being; The uncreated is created; The incomprehensible is embraced through the rational soul, which mediates between the Divine and the gross flesh; He who is rich becomes poor—he becomes poor in my flesh, so that I may become rich in His Divinity; He who is fulfilled is exhausted - exhausted for a short time in His glory, so that I may be a partaker of His fullness. What a wealth of goodness! What is this mystery about me? I received the image of God and did not keep it; He perceives my flesh in order to save both the image and the flesh to immortalize. He enters into a second communication with us, which is much more wonderful than the first, since then he gave us the best, and now he accepts the worst, but this is more divine than the first, this is higher for those who have intelligence. 10. “But what do we care about this?” - perhaps some overly zealous holiday lover will say. “Drive your horse to the goal, think wisely about what relates to the holiday and why we have gathered today.” I will do so, although I began somewhat distantly, to which I was forced by diligence and words. For lovers of learning and elegance, it might not be a bad idea to briefly examine the name of Easter itself, for such a digression would not be unworthy of hearing. The great and venerable Passover is called Passover by the Jews in their language (where the word means “passage”) historically, because of the flight and migration from Egypt to Canaanite, and spiritually - because of the passage and ascent from the earthly to the heavenly and to the land of promise. But in many places of Scripture we find that some names are changed from unclear to clear, or from rude to most decent; we see the same thing here. For some, taking this word as the name of saving suffering, then adapting it to the Hellenic language, changing F to P and K to X, called this day Easter 303. And the habit of the changed word made it the most common, because it pleased the ears of the people, as a more pious speech. 11. The Divine Apostle before us also said that the whole Law is the shadow of those who are to come (Col. 2:17) and of those who are imagined. And God, who spoke with Moses when he gave laws about this, says: see, and create everything in the image shown to you on the mountain (Ex. 25:40), meaning by this to understand that the visible is a certain shade and design of the invisible. And I am sure that nothing was established in vain, without reason, for a purpose low and unworthy of God’s legislation and Mosaic ministry, although it is difficult for each shadow to invent a special speculation that explains all the details of what was legalized regarding the tabernacle itself, the measures, the substance, the Levites who wore it and served with it, and regarding the sacrifices, purifications and offerings. This is understandable only for those who are like Moses in virtue and come closest to him in learning. For even on the mountain itself God appears to men, partly Himself descending from His height, and partly raising us up from the lowness below, so that the Unattainable One may be comprehended by mortal nature, although in a small measure and as much as is safe for it. And it is impossible for the fatness of the earthy body and the captive mind to comprehend God otherwise than with God’s help. Therefore, even then, not everyone, as we know, is awarded the same rank and place, but one is awarded one, and another another, each, as I think, according to the degree of his purification. And others were completely removed and received permission to hear one voice from above - these are those who were like beasts in morals and were unworthy of the Divine sacraments. 12. However, we, having chosen the middle between those who are completely coarse in mind, and those who are too indulged in speculation and soaring of the mind, so as not to remain completely inactive and motionless, and also not to become inquisitive beyond measure, not to deviate and not to move away from the proposed subject (one would be something Jewish and base, the other would be like the interpretation of dreams; and both are equally reprehensible), we will talk about this according to the measure. possibilities without going into extreme absurdities worthy of ridicule. I reason like this. Since we, who at first fell through sin and through lust were involved even in idolatry and lawless bloodshed, had to be raised again and brought to the primitive state, according to the great mercy of God our Father, who did not suffer so that such a work of His hand - man - would remain damaged, then how is he recreated and what happens with this? Strong healing is not approved, as it is incorrect and capable of producing new wounds, due to the tumor hardening over time; a meek and philanthropic method of healing has been provided for correction; because even a crooked branch cannot withstand sudden bending and the force of a straightening hand and is more likely to break than straighten. A hot and old horse does not tolerate a painful rein without some kind of flattery and affection. Therefore, the Law is given to us to help us, like a wall placed between God and idols, to lead us away from idols and lead us to God. And at first he allows other unimportant things in order to acquire the most important things. He allows sacrifices for now in order to restore in us the knowledge of God. Then, when the time has come, he cancels the sacrifices, wisely changing us through gradual deprivations and leading us, those who have already become accustomed to obedience, to the Gospel. 13. So the written Law has come to this end, gathering us to Christ, and this, in my opinion, is the reason for the sacrifices! But in order for you to know the depth of wisdom and the richness of the unsearchable judgments of God, God did not leave the sacrifices themselves completely unsanctified, imperfect and limited to the shedding of blood, but to the subordinate sacrifices is added a great and relatively to the first Nature, so to speak, unhardened Sacrifice - the cleansing not of a small part of the universe and not for a short time, but of the whole world and eternal. For this purpose a sheep is taken (Ex. 12:5), out of kindness and as a garment for ancient nakedness; for such is the Sacrifice offered for us, which is and is called the garment of incorruptibility. Perfectly, not only in terms of Divinity, in comparison with Whom there is nothing more perfect, but also in terms of the assumed nature, which is anointed by the Divinity, and has become the same with the Anointed One and, I dare say, God. The sex is male, because they are offered for Adam, or better yet, because it is stronger than the strong one, the first to fall under sin, especially because it does not have anything feminine in itself that is not characteristic of a husband, but on the contrary, by great power, by force it breaks the virgin and maternal bonds and is born from the prophetess of the male sex, as Isaiah preaches (Isaiah 8:3). One-year-old, like the sun of righteousness (Mal. 4:2), or emerging from the ground, or described as visible and returning to Himself, and as a blessed crown of goodness (Ps. 64:12), everywhere equal and similar to Himself, and beyond this, and as that by which the circle of virtues is enlivened, imperceptibly merging and dissolving among themselves according to the law of reciprocity and order. Immaculate and undefiled, because He heals from shame and from shortcomings and defilements caused by damage, for although He took upon Himself our sins and suffered illnesses, He Himself was not subjected to anything that required healing. He was tempted in every way according to our likeness, but was it really sin (Heb. 4:15), because the persecutor of the Light, which shines in the darkness, did not embrace Him (John 1:5). 14. What else? The first month is mentioned, or, better to say, the beginning of months (Ex. 12:2) either because it was like this among the Jews for a long time, or because it became like this later, from that very time, and from the sacrament received the name of the first. In the tenth of the month (Ex. 12:3) is the most complete of numbers, the first of units, the perfect unit and the parent of perfection. It is observed until the fifth day (Exodus 12:6), perhaps because my sacrifice is a cleansing one for the feelings from which I fall and in which I struggle, since they receive the sting of sin. It is chosen not only from the lamb, but also from the worst nature, from those standing on the left hand, from the goats (Ex. 12:5), because it is slain not only for the righteous, but also for sinners, and for the latter, perhaps all the more so since we need greater love for mankind. It is not at all surprising that there is a special need for a sheep for each house, and if not, then due to poverty, through the contribution of the house of the fatherland. For it is best for everyone to be sufficient on his own to acquire perfection and to bring a living, holy sacrifice to the calling God, always and in everything illuminated. If not, then he must use as collaborators in this regard those who are akin to him in virtue and who are like him. This, I think, means, in case of need, to include neighbors in the sacrifice. 15. Then the sacred night, the opponent of this night - the real united life, the night in which the original darkness is destroyed, everything comes into the light, in order and in its form, the former ugliness accepts beauty. Then we flee from Egypt, the dark persecutor - sin, we flee from Pharaoh, the invisible tormentor and from the merciless guards, moving to the heavenly world; We are freed from clay and plinth-making, from the composition of this corruptible and creeping flesh, most often not controlled by anything except mortal thoughts. Then the lamb is slain, and with honest blood deeds and mind, or strength and activity are sealed - these are the rootstocks ( Ex. 12:7 ) of our doors, I mean movements of thought and opinion, beautifully opened and concluded by speculation, because there is a certain measure for concepts. Then the last and most severe execution for the persecutors, truly worthy of the night: Egypt weeps over the firstborn of its own thoughts and deeds (which is called in Scripture the tribe of the Chaldeans taken away (Isa. 48:14) and the Babylonian babies, broken and crushed against the stone (Ps. 136:9). Everywhere the Egyptians are crying and crying, and then their destroyer will retreat from us, honoring the anointing and fearing it. Then the removal of kvass over the course of seven days (the most mysterious number and closely related to this world), the removal of long-standing and outdated damage (and not bread and vital leaven), so as not to have with you on the way the Egyptian dough and the remnants of the Pharisees and godless teachings. 16. The Egyptians will weep, and we will let the lamb be laid in the evening (Ex. 12:6), because at the end of the ages the suffering of Christ. And Christ, destroying sinful darkness, in the evening introduces his disciples to the sacrament. Not boiled, but baked (Ex. 12:8-9), so that in our word there is nothing rash and watery and conveniently blooming, but so that it is solid and dense, tempted by purifying fire, free from everything rough and superfluous, so that with good coals that ignite and purify our mental ability, the One who came to burn the fire into the earth will help us (Luke 12:49), with which bad skills are consumed, and He hastens to kindle it. And what is carnal and nutritious in the word, let it be devoured and consumed with the entrails and secrets of the mind and subjected to spiritual digestion - everything from head to toe, that is, from the first speculations about the Divinity to the last speculations about the Incarnation. But we will not endure anything, we will not leave anything until morning (Exod. 12:10), because many of our sacraments should not be divulged to strangers, because after this night there is no cleansing, because it is not commendable to postpone until another time for those who have received the word. Just as it is good and godly that anger should not last the whole day, but should cease before the sun sets (whether this is meant in real time or mysteriously, for it is not safe for us who are angry to see the Sun of Truth set), so this waste should not be left for the whole night and put off until the next day. But let not the bones and uneaten things, that is, things we cannot understand, be broken (Exod. 12:10) through bad division and understanding (I will say for a while that the bones of Jesus were not broken in the historical sense, although the crucifiers wanted to hasten death because of the Sabbath) and may they not be cast out and plundered, so that the saint does not give the dogs the evil tormentors of the word, and does not cast down to the swine what is in the word as bright as beads, but let it be burned with fire, which burns and burnt offerings by the testing and leading Spirit, thinned out and observed, and not perishing and not scattered on the waters, as Moses did with the head of the calf drained by the Israelites as a reproach for their hardness of heart. 17. The image of eating should not be ignored, because the Law did not keep silent about this, but also hid speculation about this in the letter. Let us consume the sacrifice with diligence, eating unleavened bread with bitter potion (Exodus 12:8), girding our loins and putting on saposis and, like the elders, leaning on rods (Exodus 12:11). With care, so as not to do what the commandment forbids Lot, let us not look around, let us stand lower throughout the entire region, let us be saved in grief, so that we will not be consumed by Sodom and extraordinary fire (Gen. 19:17) and may we not harden into a pillar of salt from returning to the worst, which is produced by delay. With a bitter potion, because life according to God is bitter and difficult, especially for beginners, and it despises pleasure. For although the new yoke is good and the burden is light, as you hear (Matthew 11:30), it is such because of hope and reward, which is incomparably more generous than what the suffering here would deserve. And without this, who does not recognize that the Gospel is much more difficult and burdensome than legal decrees? The law prohibits the commission of sins, and we are turned to guilt and reasons, almost like actions. The law says: You shall not commit adultery (Matthew 5:27). And don’t have lust, don’t kindle passions with curious and attentive views. The Law says: Thou shalt not kill (Matthew 5:21). And you not only do not take revenge for the blow, but even give yourself up to the will of the striker. The latter is so much more wise than the former! The law says: do not swear by a lie (Matthew 5:33). And don’t swear at all, no less, no more, because an oath gives rise to perjury. The law says: do not join house to house, and village to village (Isa. 5:8), by wretched violence (Ezek. 22:29). And you willingly give back what you have acquired with truth, expose yourself to the poor, so that you can easily take the cross and be rich in the invisible. 18. Let the dumb have loins untied and ungirdled, because they do not have reason that rules over voluptuousness (I am not saying yet that they also know the limit of natural movement). And you, with a belt and chastity, tame lust and this neighing in yourself, as the Divine Scripture says (Jer. 5:8), decrying the vileness of passion, so that you may taste the Passover pure, having killed the uds that are on the earth (Col. 3:5), and imitating the belt of John, the hermit, the Forerunner and the great preacher of the truth. I also know another belt, namely a military one and signifying courage, for which some are called good-girders 305 (Joshua 4:13) and Syrian uni-girders (2 Kings 24:2). God speaks about him when talking with Job: neither, but gird up your loins like a man (Job 40:2) and give a courageous answer. And the divine David boasts that God will girdle him with strength (Ps. 17:33), and he represents God himself as clothed with strength and girded (Ps. 93:1), obviously, against the wicked, if anyone does not want to understand by this the abundance and at the same time, as it were, a limitation of power, in which sense God is clothed with light like a robe (Ps. 103:2). For who can resist His unlimited power and light? I ask: what do loins and truth have in common? What does Saint Paul mean when he says: therefore gird your loins with truth (Eph. 6:14)? Is it not that contemplation curbs the power of desire in us and does not allow it to strive elsewhere? For love for anything alone does not allow one to strive with the same force for other pleasures. 19. Whoever intends to enter a holy land that bears the footprints of God, let him wear out his boots, like Moses on the mountain (Ex. 3:5), so as not to bring in anything dead and constituting an environment between God and people. Also, if any disciple is sent to preach the gospel, he, as a wise man and a stranger to any excess, must not only not have with him copper, a rod and more than one robe, but also be bare of shoes, so that the feet of those who bring good news of peace (Isa. 52:7) and all other blessings are visible. But whoever flees from Egypt and from everything Egyptian must wear boots, for safety both from anything else and from scorpions and serpents, which Egypt produces in abundance, so as not to suffer harm from those who keep their heels, on whom we are commanded to tread (Luke 10:19). I think this way about the rod and its hidden sign. I know the rod used for support, as well as the pastoral and teaching rod, with which the verbal sheep are turned to the path. But now the law commands you to take a rod for support, so that you do not stumble when you hear about the blood, suffering and death of God, and, thinking of becoming God’s defender, do not fall into atheism. On the contrary, boldly and without hesitation eat the Body and drink the Blood if you desire life. Without unbelief, listen to the teaching about the Flesh and without being tempted to listen to the teaching about suffering, stand, leaning firmly, unshakably, not wavering in the least before your opponents, not in the least carried away by the teachings of probability, place yourself on high, place your feet in the courts of Jerusalem (Ps. 122:2), establish them on the rock, so that your feet (Ps. 16:5) do not move as they walk in God. 20. What do you say? It was so pleasing to God that you should come out of Egypt, from the furnace of iron (Deut. 4:20), leave the polytheism there, and be led by Moses, the legislator and military leader. I will offer you advice that is not decent for me, but it would be better to say, completely decent if you look at it spiritually. Borrow gold and silver vessels from the Egyptians and go with them; Prepare yourself for someone else’s path, or better yet, for your own. You should receive payment for slavery and planking; manage to somehow demand it, take it from them by deception. Yes! You lived in poverty here, struggled with clay - with this burdensome and unclean body, built strange and fragile cities, the memory of which perishes with noise (Ps. 9:7). So what? Are you really going to leave with nothing, without reward? Will you really leave to the Egyptians and the opposing forces what they have acquired badly and are squandering even worse? It is not their property; they forcibly appropriated it for themselves, stole it from the One who said: My silver and My gold (Hag. 2:9); I'll give it to whoever I want. Yesterday it belonged to them - it was allowed to do so, but now the Lord brings it and gives it to you, which you will use well and savingly. Let us make friends for ourselves from mammon of unrighteousness, and when we become poor - at the time of judgment, we will take back what we have (Luke 16:9). 21. If you are Rachel or Leah, a patriarchal and great soul, steal the idols that you find from your father, not in order to save them, but in order to destroy them. If you are a wise Israelite, take them to the land of promise. Let the persecutor grieve over this and, outwitted, learn that he tortured and enslaved his betters in vain. If you do this, you will come out of Egypt - I undoubtedly know that a pillar of fire and cloud will show you the way day and night, the desert will become no longer wild, the sea will be divided, Pharaoh will be muddied, bread will rain, a stone will pour out water, Amalek will be overthrown not only with weapons, but also with the battle-bearing hands of the righteous, depicting both prayer and the invincible sign of the Cross, the river will stop flowing, the sun will become, the moon will slow down on its way, the walls will fall without battering guns, hornets will precede (Deut. 7:20), paving the way for Israel and repelling foreigners, and, without continuing the words, I will say: everything that is narrated for this and together with this will be given to you from God. This is the holiday that you celebrate today! Such is the feast that is offered to you on your birthday for the sake of you who was born and on the day of burial for your sake who suffered! This is the mystery of Easter for you! This was ordained by the Law, this was accomplished by Christ - the destroyer of the letter, the perfecter of the spirit, Who, by teaching us to suffer with His sufferings, grants with His glorification the opportunity to be glorified with Him. 22. It remains to investigate a question and a dogma that is ignored by many, but for me is very much in need of investigation. To whom and for what purpose was this blood shed, shed for us - the great and glorious blood of God and the Bishop and the Sacrifice? We were in the power of the evil one, sold into sin and bought damage for ourselves through voluptuousness. And if the price of redemption is given to no one other than the one in power, I ask: to whom and for what reason was such a price given? If the evil one, then how offensive this is! The robber receives the price of redemption, receives not only from God, but God Himself, for his torment he takes such an immense payment that it would have been fair to spare us for it! And if to the Father, then, firstly, how? He and Him we were in captivity. And secondly, for what reason is the blood of the Only Begotten pleasing to the Father, who did not accept Isaac offered by his father, but replaced the sacrifice by giving a ram instead of a verbal sacrifice? Or is it clear from this that the Father accepts not because he demanded or had a need, but according to the Economy and because man needed to be sanctified by the humanity of God, so that He Himself would deliver us, overcoming the tormentor by force, and raise us to Himself through the Son, who mediates and arranges everything in honor of the Father, to whom He appears to be submissive in everything? Such are the works of Christ; but more may be honored with silence. Although the copper serpent is hung against the biting serpents, it is not as an image of Him who suffered for us, but as depicting the opposite, and it saves those who look at it not through the confidence that it is alive, but because, having been deposed (which it deserved), it itself is killed and kills with itself the forces that are subject to it. And what kind of tombstone is suitable for him from us? Where is the sting, death? where is the victory (1 Cor. 15:55)? You are deposed by the Cross, slain by the Life-Giver, lifeless, dead, motionless, inactive, and although you retain the image of a serpent, you are consigned to shame on high! 23. But let us partake of Easter, now for now in a representative way, although more openly than in the Old Testament. For the legal Passover (I dare say and I do) was an even more obscure type of foreshadowing. And later and soon we will partake more perfectly and purer, when the Word drinks this new thing with us in the kingdom of the Father (Matthew 26:29), revealing and teaching what has now been revealed by Him to some extent, for what is now known is always new. What does this drinking and this eating consist of? For us it is to learn, and for Him to teach and communicate the word to His disciples, for teaching is food for the one who feeds. But come, and we will partake of the law, according to the Gospel, and not according to writing, perfectly, and not imperfectly, eternally, and not temporarily. Let us make our head not Jerusalem below, but the metropolis of the mountains - a city not now trampled by armies, but glorified by Angels. We will not sacrifice young bulls and lambs that wear out their horns and wounds (Ps. 68:32), in which there is much that is dead and insensible. But let us devour the sacrifice of praise to God (Ps. 49:14) on the high altar with the high faces. Let us pass through the first veil, proceed to the second veil, and enter into the Holy of Holies. I will say even more: let us sacrifice ourselves to God, or better yet, let us offer every movement every day. Let us accept everything for the sake of the Word, in suffering we will imitate Passion, we will honor the Blood with our blood, we will willingly ascend to the cross. Nails are coveted, although very painful. For to suffer with Christ and for Christ is more desirable than to enjoy with others. 24. If you are Simon of Cyrene, then take up the cross and follow. If you have been crucified with Christ as a thief, then as one who is grateful, know God. If He is imputed with the lawless (Mark 15:28) for you and for your sin, then be you for His sake a doer of the law. And, crucified, worship the Crucified One for you, benefit even from your vicious life, buy salvation by death, enter with Jesus into paradise to find out where you fell from, contemplate the beauties there, and leave the complainer with his blasphemies to die outside. If you are Joseph of Arimathea, ask the crucifier for the body; Let the cleansing of the world be your cleansing. If you are Nicodemus, a nightly reader of God, place Him in a coffin with fragrant ointments. If you are one or the other of Mary, or Salome, or Joan, weeping early, try to be the first to see the taken away stone, and perhaps the Angels, and Jesus himself; say something, listen to the voices; and if you hear: do not touch Me (John 20:17), stand at a distance, almost the Word, but do not be offended. He knows who will appear before others. Renew the resurrection; Help Eve, who fell first, to be the first to greet Christ and proclaim to the disciples. Be Peter and John, hurry to the tomb, flow now quickly, now together (John 20:4), competing with good competition. If they surpass you in speed, then overcome with diligence, not only by pressing into the coffin, but by going inside. If, like Thomas, you are not with the gathered disciples who are Christ, do not be unfaithful after you see. And if you don’t believe it, believe those who say it. If you don’t believe them, be convinced by the wounds of the nails. If he descends into hell, you too descend with Him, and learn the mysteries of Christ there: what is the Economy and what is the reason for the double condescension, does He save everyone without exception by appearing there, or only believers? 25. If he ascends into heaven, ascend with Him and you, be among the angels accompanying or meeting Him, command the gates to be taken (Ps. 23:7), to become higher in order to receive the Exalted One through suffering; perplexed because of the body and the signs of suffering, without which he descended and with which he ascends, and therefore asking: who is this King of glory, - answer: the Lord is strong and strong - strong both in everything that he has always created and is creating, and in the present battle and victory for humanity; and to a double question give a double answer. If they wonder, saying, as in the hypothetical performance of Isaiah: who is this one who came from Edom and from the earthly and why the bloodless and incorporeal one has scarlet robes, like a winemaker who has trodden out a full winepress (Isa. 63: 1-3), - you point out the beauty of the clothing of the suffered body, adorned by suffering and enlightened by the Divine, who is all kinder and more beautiful. 26. What will the slanderers tell us about this, the evil connoisseurs of the Divine, those who blamed the praiseworthy, those who were enveloped in darkness in the very Light, the ignorant in the midst of Wisdom itself, those for whom Christ died in vain, ungrateful creatures, creatures of the evil one? Are you blaming God for His good deed? Because He is small, because He humbled Himself for you; that the Good Shepherd came to the lost one, laying down his life for the sheep (John 10:11) - he came to those mountains and hills on which you offered sacrifices, and found the lost one, and took the one found on the same shoulders on which he carried the tree of the cross, and brought the one taken up again to the heavenly life, and numbered the one brought among those in his rank; that he lit a lamp - His flesh, and swept the church - cleansing the world from sin, and found a drachma - a royal image, littered with passions, and after finding the drachma, he convenes the forces that are in His love, makes participants in the joy of those whom he has made the mysteries of His Economy (Lk. 15:8–9); that the most radiant Light follows the lamp that preceded it, the Word follows the voice, the Bridegroom follows the bridegroom, preparing the Lord’s chosen people (Titus 2:14) and purifying with water for the Spirit? Do you blame God for this? For this reason you consider Him low because He girds Himself with lazyness and washes the feet of His disciples (John 13:4–5) and points out the most perfect path to exaltation—humility; who humbles himself for the sake of a soul that has bowed down to the ground, in order to lift up with Himself that which has been brought down by sin? How can you not blame the fact that He eats with tax collectors and from tax collectors, that He has tax collectors as disciples, and that He Himself will acquire something? What will he gain? Salvation of sinners. Would anyone blame a doctor for bending down to wounds and enduring the stench just to give health to the sick? Will he also accuse the one who, out of compassion, bent down to the pit in order, according to the law (Ex. 23:5; Luke 14:5), to save the cattle that had fallen into it? 27. It is true that He was sent, but as a man (because He has two natures; so, He was tired, and hungry, and thirsty, and was in agony, and wept - according to the law of bodily nature), but if He was sent also as God, what of this? By embassy, ​​understand the favor of the Father, to Whom He refers His deeds, in order to honor the flightless beginning and not seem to be an enemy to God. It is said of Him that He was betrayed (Rom. 4:25), but it is also written that He betrayed Himself (Eph. 5:2, 25). It is said that He was resurrected by the Father and ascended (Acts 3:15; 1:11), but it is also written that He resurrected Himself and ascended again into heaven (1 Thess. 4:14; Eph. 4:10); the first by favor, the second by power. But you present what is derogatory, and pass through in silence what is elevating. You argue that He suffered, but do not add that He suffered voluntarily. How much the Word suffers even now! Some honor him as God and merge him; others dishonor Him like flesh and separate Him. With whom will He be more angry, or, better said, with whom He will forgive their sin? Is it those who drain, or those who dissect wickedly? For the first were to divide, and the last to unite; the first in relation to number, and the last in relation to Divinity. Are you tempted by the flesh? And the Jews were also tempted. Wouldn't you call Him a Samaritan? I won’t say anything about what comes next. Don't you believe in His Divinity? But the demons also believed in Him. O you, who are more unfaithful than demons and more ignorant than the Jews! Some recognized the name of the Son as meaning equality, while others recognized God in the one who expelled Him, for this was confirmed by what He suffered from Him. But you neither accept equality nor confess the Divinity in Him. It would be better to be circumcised and become possessed (I’ll say something funny), than to be uncircumcised and in a healthy state to have evil and ungodly thoughts. But we will either stop fighting with them if they wish, although it is too late, to become more chaste, or we will postpone it until time, if they do not want this, but will remain the same as they are now. We will not be afraid of anything, struggling for the Trinity and with the Trinity. 28. Now we need to briefly present the content of the word. We have come into being in order to prosper; and prospered after they received being. We were entrusted with heaven to enjoy; we were given a commandment so that, by keeping it, we would earn glory - given not because God did not know the future, but because He decreed the law of freedom. We are deceived because we have aroused envy; they fell because they transgressed the law; they fasted because they did not keep the fast, being overcome by the tree of knowledge; for this commandment was ancient and contemporary to us, serving as a kind of nurturer for the soul and a curb in pleasure; and we are rightly subordinate to it, so that by observing it we can regain for ourselves what we have lost through non-observance. We needed God incarnate and killed, so that we could come to life. We died with Him to be cleansed; they rose with Him because they died with Him; They were glorified with Him because they were raised with Him. 29. There were many miracles at that time: God being crucified, the sun darkening and rekindling again (for it was necessary for creatures to have compassion for the Creator), a curtain torn, blood and water pouring out from a rib (one because He was a man, the other because He was higher than a man), the earth shaking, stones being torn apart for the sake of the Stone, the dead rising in the assurance that there would be a final and general resurrection, miracles at burial, which will anyone sing worthily? But none of them compares to the miracle of my salvation. A few drops of blood recreate the whole world and for all people become the same as leaven for milk, gathering and connecting us together. 30. But great and holy Easter and the cleansing of the whole world! I will talk to you as if you were something animate. The Word of God, and light, and life, and wisdom, and power! All your names make me happy. The generation, origin and imprint of the great Mind! The intelligible Word and the intelligible Man, Who bears all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3)! Accept now this word, not the firstfruits, but perhaps my last fruit-bearing; a word of gratitude and prayer at the same time, so that I would not endure other sorrows than the necessary and sacred ones in which my life passed. Stop either the tormenting power of the body over me (for you see, Lord, how great and burdensome it is), or Your sentence, if we are deposed from You. If I am resolved as I wish, and am accepted into the heavenly shelters, then perhaps there too I will lay what is pleasing on Thy holy altar, O Father and Holy Word and Soul. For to You belongs all glory, honor and power forever, Amen. According to the Slavic translation: armed to the army. Actually, a dobroyasnik means heavily armed, and a unipoyasnik means lightly armed.