Беседа 2. На слова пророка Исаии: «В год смерти царя Озии видел я Господа, сидящего на престоле высоком и превознесенном» (Ис.6:1). И о том, что не должно оставлять без внимания ни времени, ни даже единой буквы Божественных Писаний

1. I rejoice to see you gathered to listen to Divine sayings, and I consider this the greatest evidence of your success in God. Just as appetite serves as a sign of physical health, so love for spiritual sayings serves as a sign of mental health. Therefore I rejoice; but together I am afraid that I will not be able to give you anything worthy of this desire. Likewise, a loving mother grieves when, having a nursing baby, she cannot provide him with sources of milk in abundance; but, although she does not have enough of it, she nevertheless gives the breast, and the baby, taking it, pulls and stretches it, and, warming the cold nipples with his lips, tries to extract more food for himself than there is in them. The mother feels pain from the torment of the nipples, but does not push the baby away, because she is a mother and is ready to endure anything better than to upset her child. If mothers have such love for their children, then all the more we need to have such a disposition towards your love. The sorrows of a spiritual birth are more ardent than the sorrows of a natural birth. So, although our meal is very meager, we will not hide it either, but will bring everything that we have into the middle and offer it to you. Although it is small and meager, we offer it. So even though the one who was entrusted with the talent was condemned not for not presenting five talents, but for burying the one he received in the ground - for this he was punished. Both God and people require not little or much, but that the offering be in no way less than real strength. You heard before when we were honored to talk with your love, when we read that psalm which, casting out the sinner from the sacred enclosure, called upon the Angels and the powers on high to praise the God of all. Do you want to hear the most angelic song today, standing somewhere close? I think you do. If worthless people, forming choirs in the square and in the midst of deep darkness and untimely at night singing prodigal songs and seductive poems, raise and attract our entire city to themselves, then when the heavenly hosts, the heavenly faces sing the King of the Universe, will we really not gather to listen to their divine and blessed chant? Otherwise, how can we be forgiven? But how can you say, listen to them? Having entered heaven itself, if not with the body, then with the mind, if not with a visible presence, then with thought. Our body, being earthy and heavy, naturally remains down; but the soul is free from such necessity and easily flies to the highest and most sublime regions; Whether she wants to reach the most extreme limits of the universe or ascend to heaven, she does not encounter any obstacle: God gave her such light wings of thought! And He not only gave her light wings, but also endowed her with eyes that look much sharper than the eyes of the body. Physical vision, when rushing through empty air, penetrates a great distance; but when it encounters a small body, then, like a stream stopped in its flow, it turns back. And the vision of the soul, even if it encounters walls, fortresses, huge mountains and the very bodies of heaven, easily penetrates everything. However, with all its speed and sharpness of vision, the soul by itself is not able to comprehend celestial objects, but has a need for a guide. Let us do what those who want to look at the royal palaces do. What are they doing? Having found the one who has been entrusted with the keys to the doors there, they approach him, talk with him, beg him, and often give him silver to win him over. Let us also approach one of those who are assigned to the gates of heaven, we will talk with him, we will ask him, we will show (good) will and sincere disposition instead of silver. If he accepts this reward, then, taking us by the hand, he will lead us everywhere, showing not the royal palaces, but the King himself seated, surrounded by armies and military leaders, tens of Angels and thousands of Archangels; He will show us everything in detail, as much as we can see. Who is this? To whom has this ministry been entrusted, through which we now want to enter? Isaiah, the loudest of the prophets. So, you need to enter into a conversation with him. Follow with quiet steps, in complete silence. No one should enter here with worldly worries, no one with absent-mindedness and confusion, but let us leave all this behind the first doors, and thus we will all enter here. We enter the royal palaces of heaven, we enter the bright regions; inside they are filled with great silence and unspeakable secrets. 2. But listen carefully: the reading of the Scriptures is a revelation of Heaven. “In the year,” says the prophet, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted” (Is. 6:1). Do you see the helpfulness of the benevolent servant? He immediately brought us before the royal throne, without leading us through long rounds, but as soon as he opened the doors, he showed us the Tsar sitting upright. “Around Him,” he says, “stood the Seraphim; each of them had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And they called to each other and said: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts! the whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isa.6:2-3). Truly holy is He who has honored our nature with so many and such great mysteries, Who has made us participants in subjects so incomprehensible. Fear and trembling surround me during this song. And is it surprising that I, mortal and coming from the earth, feel this, if even the highest forces are constantly enveloped by the greatest horror? That is why they turn away their faces and use wings instead of a fence, unable to bear the rays emanating from there. But, you say, what was shown was condescension: how could they not bear it? Are you telling me this? Tell those who explore the incomprehensible and blissful nature, who dare to do what should not be dared. The Seraphim did not even dare to look at the condescension of God: how did a man dare to say, or better yet, how did a man dare to think that he could accurately and clearly know that pure nature, which is inaccessible to contemplation even of the Cherubim? Tremble the sky, be terrified the earth; this insolence is greater than their (the Jews') insolence. As they acted wickedly then, so these people act wickedly now. They worship the creature equally; but what these people came up with now, none of the people of that time dared to say or listen to. What are you saying? Was the phenomenon an indulgence? Yes, but by God's condescension. If Daniel, who had great boldness before God, could not look at the Angel who descended to him, but fell and lay bowed, since the connections of his vision were weakened by this glory, is it surprising that the Seraphim were horrified, unable to bear the contemplation of that glory? Not so much the distance between Daniel and the Angel, but between God and these forces. However, so that we, by dwelling too long on these miracles, do not bring horror to your souls, let us turn to the beginning of the story and let us edify the soul with less lofty objects. "In the Year of the Death of King Uzziah". First of all, we need to find out why the prophet means time to us, since it is not without reason and not in vain that he does this. The mouths of the prophets are the mouths of God; but these lips say nothing in vain. Let us not listen without attention. If those who dig up metals do not neglect even small particles, but when they attack a gold mine, they carefully examine its branches, then should we not do this much more with the Scriptures? It can be very difficult to find what you want in metal ores, because metals are earth, and gold is nothing more than earth; the common nature of the sought-after substances deceives the eye, and yet, despite all this, gold miners do not abandon their work, but show every care, and, peering, they learn what is really earth and what is really gold. But this is not the case with Scripture. What is offered here is not gold mixed with earth, but pure gold. “The words of the Lord,” says the psalmist, “are pure words, like molten silver, tried in the earth” (Ps. 11:7). Scriptures are not metals to be worked; but they deliver a ready treasure to those who seek the wealth contained in them. It is enough just to touch them in order to move away, filled with all benefits; It is enough just to open them to immediately see the shine of these expensive stones. It was not in vain that I said this and it was not without reason that I spread about it, but because there are treacherous people who, having taken Divine books in their hands and seeing the counting of time or the listing of names, immediately abandon them and say to those who reproach them: there are only names here, and there is nothing useful. What are you saying? God speaks, and you dare to say that there is nothing useful in what is said? If you see only one simple inscription, then tell me, will you not stop at it with attention and begin to explore the wealth contained in it? But what am I saying about times, names and inscriptions? See what power adding just one letter has, and stop neglecting whole names. Our Patriarch Abraham (indeed, he belongs to us, not to the Jews) was first called Abram, which translated means: “wanderer” 1; and then, being renamed Abraham, he became the “father of all nations”; the addition of one letter gave the righteous such an advantage. Just as kings give golden tables to their governors as a sign of power, so God then gave this letter to the righteous as a sign of honor. 3. However, I will talk about names at another time; and now we need to talk about how useful it is to know the times of events, and how harmful it is not to know them. And, firstly, I will prove this with everyday deeds. Agreements and records of marriages, debts and other obligations have no force unless the time of the consulate is written on them at the top. It gives them strength; it prevents disputes; it gets rid of judgments and makes enemies friends. Therefore, those who write them, in the title of the papers, display the consulate, like a candle on a lamp, so that it can be seen by all subordinates. If you destroy this, you will take away the light and fill everything with darkness and great confusion. Therefore, every matter of giving and receiving, both with friends and with enemies, and with slaves, and with trustees, and with stewards, requires this certification; and we always write months, years, and days below. If this note has such power in everyday affairs, then in spiritual matters it is much more important and useful. In prophecies she shows that they are prophecies. Prophecy is nothing more than a prediction of future events. Therefore, whoever does not know the time to which what was said or happened relates, how can he prove to the disputant the merits of the prophecy? Hence we have a struggle and victory over the pagans, when we prove that our teaching is older than theirs. Hence we have evidence of the truth against the Jews - against the pitiful and unfortunate Jews, who, due to ignorance of the times, fell into the greatest error. If they had listened to the words of the patriarch: “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until the Reconciler comes, and to Him is the subjection of the nations” (Gen. 49:10), and if they had carefully studied the times of His coming, they would not have fallen away from Christ and given themselves over to the Antichrist, just as Christ himself, instilling this in them, said: “I have come in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me; But if another comes in his own name, you will receive him” (John 5:43). Do you see how you will fall from ignorance of the times? Do not neglect this benefit. Just as in the fields, boundaries and pillars do not allow arable land to be mixed up, so times and years do not allow one event to be confused with another, but by separating them from each other and arranging them in the proper order, they save us from great confusion. So, we need to tell you who this Uzziah was, when he reigned, over whom he reigned, how long his reign lasted, and how he ended his life. It would be better to remain silent, because it is necessary to plunge into the boundless sea of ​​historical narratives. But those who intend to go to this sea need to set off with swimmers, not with tired, but with fresh strength. This is why there are piers and islands everywhere on the sea, so that both the helmsman and the rower can rest: one by putting down the oar, the other by leaving the rudder. This is why hotels and inns were invented everywhere on the roads, so that both pack animals and travelers could rest from their labors. For this reason, a time of silence is assigned to the word of teaching, so that we do not exhaust ourselves, and we do not tire you with the length of speech. Solomon also knew these times, who says: “A time to be silent, and a time to speak” (Eccl. 3:7). So, let there be a time of silence for us, so that for the teacher there will be a time of speaking 2. Our words are like wine freshly drawn from the winepress; and his words are like old wine that has stood for a long time, which brings great benefit and strength to those in need - so that today the well-known gospel event was repeated: after the worst wine, the best is brought (John 2:10). And just as that wine did not come from grapes, but was produced by the power of Christ, so his speech is not poured out by the human mind, but by the grace of the Spirit. If its streams are abundant and spiritual, then let us receive them carefully and store them sparingly, so that, constantly watered by them, we can bear ripe fruits to the God who bestows them, to Whom belongs all glory and honor with His Only Begotten Son and the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. here is St. I. Zl. obviously means Gen. 14:13, where the Hebrew “ibri” - Jew, attached to the name Abram, in 70 is translated not “Jew”, but c.-sl. "alien". those. for Bishop Flavian, who spoke teachings sometimes before and sometimes after St. Chrysostom in the Antioch Church. You might be interested in: