Беседа 4. На слова пророка Исаии: «В год смерти царя Озии видел я Господа, сидящего на престоле высоком и превознесенном» ; похвала городу Антиохии и вдохновенное обличение запрещающих брак

1. We have a wonderful spectacle and a brilliant meeting today. What is the reason for this? Today's harvest is the fruit of yesterday's sowing. Yesterday we planted, and today we collect the fruits. We do not cultivate the soulless earth so that it lingers in its fruits, but intelligent souls. Here it is not nature that is slow, but grace that makes progress. We are a well-ordered people, obedient people. Yesterday they were called, and today they receive crowns. Today's obedience is the fruit of yesterday's exhortation. That is why we willingly throw seeds because we see a clean field, not choking thorns, not a trampled road, not a barren stone, but deep and rich soil, which, receiving the seeds, immediately brings us an ear. I constantly say and will not stop saying: praise to our city is not because it has a Senate - and we can list consuls, has many statues, extensive trade and an advantageous location - but because a people who love to listen lives in it, the churches of God are filled, the Church finds more and more joy in the word that flows every day and never satisfies the thirst of the listeners. A city is made worthy of surprise not by its buildings, but by its inhabitants. Do not tell me that the city of the Romans is great in its vastness, but show me the people there who love to listen. And Sodom had towers, and the tent was the dwelling of Abraham; but the Angels who came passed by Sodom and went to the tent, because they were not looking for the splendor of houses, but they went and looked for virtue and beauty of the soul. And again: the desert had John, and the city Herod; and the desert was superior to the city. Why? Because prophecy is not in buildings. I say this so that we never extol a city in which morals are corrupt. Why are you telling me about buildings and pillars? They are destroyed with real life. Enter the church and here look at the nobility of the city. Come in, look at the poor who stay here from midnight until dawn, look at the all-night sacred vigils that connect day and night, at these people who are not afraid of the violence of sleep, day or night, or the needs of poverty. This is a great city and the capital of the universe. How many bishops, how many teachers come here and, having received edification from the people, leave so that the rules that have taken root here can be transplanted to other places? If you talk to me about external virtues and the abundance of wealth, then you will begin to praise the tree by its leaves, and not by its fruits. I say this not wanting to flatter your love, but to proclaim your virtue. I am blessed by you; blessed are you in yourself. “Blessed,” says Scripture, “is he who has acquired wisdom and imparts it into the ears of those who listen” (Sir.25:12); That's why I became blessed. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). Do you see how blessed you have become by yourself? Blessed is the man who loves spiritual sayings. This distinguishes us from the dumb. What distinguishes us from them is not physical properties, not food, not drink, not housing, not life: we have all this in common with the dumb; but how does man differ from dumb people? In a word. That is why man is called a verbal animal. As the body is nourished, so is the soul: the body with bread, and the soul with words. If you saw a man eating a stone, would you say that this is a man? So exactly, if you see someone feeding not on the word, but on objects alien to the word, you will say: he has ceased even to be a man, because the nobility of a person is proven by what he is fed with. So, when our spectacle is complete, when the troubled sea has calmed down and the raging waves have subsided, now let us set out the ship, spreading the tongue instead of a sail, calling on the grace of the Spirit instead of the wind, using the cross as a ruler instead of the rudder and helm. In the sea there are salty waters, but here is living water; there are dumb animals, and here are rational souls; there those who swim strive from the sea to land, and here those who swim strive from earth to heaven; there are ships, and here are spiritual speeches; there are ship planks, and there are word combinations; there is a sail, and here is a tongue; there is the blowing of the wind, and here the influx of the Spirit; there the helmsman is a man, but here the helmsman is Christ. Therefore, although this ship is tossed by waves, it is not sunk. He could sail in peace, but the Pilot does not allow this, so that you can see the patience of those sailing and fully know the wisdom of the Pilot. 2. Let the Greeks hear, let the Jews hear about our deeds and the superiority of the Church. How many enemies have rebelled against the Church, and yet it has never been defeated? How many rulers? How many military leaders? How many kings? Augustus, Tiberius, Caius, Claudius, Nero, educated, strong people, rebelled so much against her, while she was still infancy, and yet did not eradicate her; but those who rebelled are no longer remembered and are consigned to oblivion, and the one against whom they rebelled is exalted above the sky. Do not look at the fact that the Church is on earth, but at the fact that it lives in heaven. Where can you see this? The deeds themselves show. There was a war against the eleven disciples; the whole universe fought against them; but those against whom they fought were victorious, and those who fought were defeated; the sheep overcame the wolves. Do you see the shepherd sending his sheep into the midst of wolves, so that they do not seek salvation even in flight? What kind of shepherd does this? But Christ did this to show you that these things are accomplished not according to the natural order of things, but supernaturally and above the ordinary order of things. The church is established greater than heaven. A pagan may perhaps accuse me of arrogance; but let him wait for proof, and learn the power of the truth that it is easier for the sun to go out than for the Church to be destroyed. Who do you say proclaims this? The One who founded it. “Heaven and earth will pass away,” He says, “but My words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). He not only said this, but also fulfilled it. Why did He found a Church harder than heaven? Because the Church is more precious than heaven. What is heaven for? For the Church, not the Church for heaven. Heaven is for man, not man for heaven. This is also evident from what He himself did. Christ did not take on a heavenly body. However, so that, by spreading the speech, we will not again remain in your debt today (you know how much we promised you yesterday), we are ready to pay the debt. I postponed the speech for the sake of those who were absent. But since those who were absent fulfilled their duty and by their presence provided us with a complete meal, now we too will offer dishes, dishes that are not outdated; after all, even if they were yesterday, they do not become obsolete. Why? Because they are not meat that can spoil, but thoughts that are constantly blooming. Meat spoils because it is a body; and thoughts, remaining, become more fragrant. What did we talk about yesterday? Yesterday we enjoyed our meal, and those who were absent suffered no loss. “In the year of the death of King Uzziah I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted.” Who says this? Isaiah, a contemplator of the Seraphim, who was married, and yet did not extinguish the grace within himself. You listened to the prophet and heard today from the prophet: “Go out, you and your son Shear-yasub” (Is. 7:3). This should not be ignored either. “Go out, you and your son.” So the prophet had a son. If he had a son, then he also had a wife, so that you know that marriage is not evil, but adultery is evil. Meanwhile, when we talk to many and say: why don’t you live well, why don’t you lead a strict life? - then they answer: how can I, if I don’t leave my wife, if I don’t leave my children? Why? Is marriage an obstacle? Your wife was given to you as a helper, not as a pest. Didn't the prophet have a wife? And yet marriage was not an obstacle to the Spirit; he lived with his wife and was a prophet. Didn't Moses have a wife? And yet he cut stones, and changed the air, and talked with God, and appeased Divine wrath. Did Abraham not have a wife? And yet he became the father of nations and the Church; he had a son Isaac, who was also a reason for him to do good deeds. Did he not offer up his son, the fruit of marriage? Was he not both a father and a lover of God? Was the priest who sacrificed his own womb turned out to be a priest and a father? Did you not show in yourself a conquerable nature and conquering piety, a conquerable natural affection and conquering pious actions, a conquerable father and a crowned lover of God? Don't you see him completely, both loving his son and loving God? And did marriage hinder him? What about the mother of the Maccabees? Wasn't she a wife? Didn’t she add seven sons to the ranks of saints? Didn’t you see them as martyrs? Didn’t she stand there as unshakable as a mountain? Did she not stand suffering martyrdom with each of them and, like the mother of martyrs, did she not endure sevenfold martyrdom? After all, when they were tortured, she herself took the blow. She accepted this not without pain, because she was a mother, and the torment of nature exerted its force; and yet she was not defeated. There was a sea and waves, and yet, just as a raging sea is tamed, so the disturbed nature was subdued by the fear of God. How did she oil them? How did you raise them? How did she imagine seven churches to God, statues of gold, or better - the most precious gold? 3. And that gold is really not as precious as the soul of martyrs, listen. A tyrant appeared, but, having been defeated by one woman, he left. He struck with weapons, and she won with fortitude; he lit the stove, and it glowed with the virtue of the spirit; he moved the army, and she rushed towards the Angels; I saw the tyrant below, and thought about the Reigning Mountain; I saw torture on earth, and counted rewards in heaven; saw present torment, and imagined future immortality (2 Macc. 7). That is why Paul said: “Not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (2 Cor. 4:18). Was marriage any obstacle for her? And Peter, the founder of the Church, an extreme zealot of Christ, who did not study eloquence and defeated rhetoricians, who was not a scientist and stopped the lips of philosophers, who tore apart pagan wisdom like a web, who traversed the universe, did he not have a wife? Yes, I did; and what he really had, listen to the evangelist. What is he saying? Jesus came to Peter's mother-in-law “with fire” (Matthew 8:14). Where the mother-in-law is, there is the wife; Where there is a wife, there is marriage. And Philip? Didn't he have four daughters (Acts 21:9)? Where there are four daughters, there is a wife and marriage. And Christ? Although He was born of a Virgin, He came to the wedding and brought a gift. “They have no wine,” they told Him, and He turned water into wine (John 2:1-11), honoring marriage with His virginity and approving the matter with His gift, so that you would not abhor marriage, but hate adultery. I, although with danger, promise you salvation if you have a wife. Be attentive to yourself. Your wife, if she is kind, can be your helper. What if she's unkind? Make her kind. Didn’t others have wives, both good and evil, so that you would not have an excuse to justify yourself? What was Job's wife like? On the contrary, Sarah was kind. I will point you to a thin and evil wife. Job's wife did not harm her husband. She was thin and angry, and advised him to blaspheme. What then? Has she shaken this fortress? Did she crush this adamant? Did you overcome this rock? Did she hit this warrior? Has this ship been overthrown? Has this tree been uprooted? Not at all. She attacked, and the fortress became stronger; she raised waves, and the ship did not sink, but sailed calmly; the fruits of the tree were plucked, but the tree itself did not move; the leaves fell, but the root remained solid. I say this so that no one refers to the wife’s anger. How bad is she? Fix her. She, you say, deprived me of Paradise. But she also took you to heaven. The nature is the same, but the mental mood is different. How bad is Job's wife? But Susanna is good. Shameless Egyptian? But Sarah is modest. Do you see that one? Look at this one too. And some of the husbands are evil, and others are good. Joseph was beautiful, but his elder brothers were shameless. Do you see evil and virtue everywhere, not originating from nature, but receiving their distinctive properties from the mood of the soul? Don't give me excuses to justify yourself. However, let us hasten to the debt and its payment. "In the Year of the Death of King Uzziah". I intend to talk about why the prophet means the time of the event. Yesterday we asked why, while all the prophets and even this same prophet in other places speak about the time of the life of kings, here this custom is violated, and he does not say: in the days of Uzziah, but: in the year of the death of Uzziah? Today I want to solve this. Although now there is great heat, there is even greater dew of the word; although the weary body becomes weary, the waking soul rejoices. Don't talk to me about heat and sweat. If you sweat with your body, you are washing your soul. The three youths were in the oven and did not suffer any harm, but the oven was like dew to them. When you think about sweat, think about both reward and retribution. The diver dares to plunge into the depths of the waters for nothing other than pearls, which are the cause of war. However, I do not condemn the substance, but the corruption of the soul. But in order to receive an unfailing treasure and grow grapes in your soul, do you not want to endure heat and sweat? Do you not see how those sitting at the spectacle sweat and receive the rays of the sun on their naked heads in order to become prisoners of death, slaves of a harlot? They work for their destruction, but you don’t want to work for your salvation? You are a warrior and a warrior. So, who is this Uzziah, and why did the prophet speak about his death? This Uzziah was a king, a righteous man and adorned with many good deeds; but then he fell into pride, into pride, the mother of vices, into arrogance filled with confusion, into arrogance that destroyed the devil. Truly, there is nothing worse than pride; That’s why yesterday we talked all about this, destroying pride and teaching humility. 4. Shall I tell you how great a good thing is humility and how great a bad thing is pride? The sinner defeated the righteous, the publican defeated the Pharisee, words were higher than deeds. How are the words? The publican said: “God! be merciful to me, a sinner! ; and the Pharisee said: “I am not like other people,” a predator or an unrighteous man, but what? “I fast twice a week, and give a tenth of everything I acquire” (Luke 18:11–13). The Pharisee exhibited righteous deeds; the publican uttered words of humility, and words turned out to be higher than deeds, and such a treasure was scattered, and such poverty turned into wealth! Two ships arrived with cargo; both approached the pier, but the publican entered the pier safely, but the Pharisee was shipwrecked, so that you know how great an evil is pride. Are you righteous? Don't humiliate your brother. Are you adorned with good deeds? Do not vilify your neighbor and refrain from praising yourself. As high as you are, humble yourself. Listen carefully to my words, beloved. A righteous person should fear pride more than a sinner - I said this yesterday, and I repeat it today for those who were not there yesterday - because a sinner necessarily has a humble conscience, but a righteous person can be proud of his good deeds. Just as among seafarers those who have an empty ship are not afraid of a gang of robbers, because they do not attack an empty ship, but those who have a ship filled with cargo are afraid of robbers, because the robber usually appears where there is gold, where there is silver, where precious stones are, so the devil does not quickly attack the sinner, but the righteous, where there is a lot of wealth. Pride often comes from the slander of the devil; therefore you need to stay awake. As high as you are, humble yourself. When you ascend to a height, then you need to be careful not to fall. That is why our Lord says: “And you, when you have done everything commanded you, say: we are worthless servants, because we have done what we had to do” (Luke 17:10). What do you think a lot about yourself, being a man akin to the earth, consubstantial with ashes, both by nature, and by thoughts, and by will in deeds? Today you are rich, tomorrow you are poor; today healthy, tomorrow sick; today he is happy, tomorrow he is sad; today in glory, tomorrow in dishonor; today young, tomorrow old. Is anything human durable, and does it not flow like river streams? It has only just appeared, and is already leaving us faster than a shadow. Why do you exalt yourself, O man, smoke, vanity? “Man is like vanity: his days pass away like... a shadow” (Ps. 143:4). “The grass withers, the flower fades” (Isaiah 40:7). I say this not to humiliate the human being, but to curb pride. A great creature is man, and a venerable being is a merciful man. But this Uzziah, being a king and wearing a diadem, began to exalt himself because he was righteous, and, puffed up more than his own dignity, he entered the sanctuary. And what does Scripture say? “He entered the church of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense” (2 Chronicles 26:16). As a king, he steals the privilege of the priesthood; I want, he says, “to burn incense,” because I am righteous. But stay within your limits; other limits of royal power, and other limits of priesthood; the latter is greater than the former. The king is distinguished by invisible things; The king must not be judged by the stones attached to him or the gold with which he is clothed. He received the power to manage earthly affairs; and the ordinance of the priesthood takes the place of grief. “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven” (Matthew 18:18); the king was entrusted with the things here, and I with the things in heaven; when I say: to me, I mean the priest. Therefore, when you see an unworthy priest, do not blame the priesthood, because it is not the object that needs to be condemned, but the one who makes bad use of a good object. And Judas became a traitor; but this is a disgrace not to the apostleship, but to his spiritual mood; not the fault of the priesthood, but the evil of the spiritual mood. 5. So, condemn not the priesthood, but the priest who makes bad use of a good object. Therefore, when someone, talking with you, says: have you seen such and such (priest) a Christian? - answer: I’m talking to you not about persons, but about objects. How many doctors have become executioners and given poison instead of medicine? But I do not condemn art, but the one who uses art poorly. How many pilots have sunk ships? But it is not the art of navigation that is bad, but their spiritual mood. If he was a bad Christian, then condemn not the teaching and the priesthood, but the one who makes bad use of a good subject. The king is entrusted with bodies, and the priest with souls; the king forgives monetary arrears, and the priest forgives sinful arrears; this one forces, this one convinces; the one acts by command, the other by advice; he has a sensual weapon, this one has a spiritual weapon; he wages war with the barbarians, and I wage war with demons. The latter power is greater; That’s why the king bows his head under the hands of the priest, and in the Old Testament priests always anointed kings. But King Uzziah, having gone beyond his limits and transgressed the measure of royal power, decided to appropriate the excess for himself and boldly entered the sanctuary, wanting to burn incense. What about the priest? It is not permissible for you, Uzziah, he said, to burn incense. Look at the boldness, at the unservile way of thinking, at the tongue that touches the sky, at the freedom that is not constrained by anything, at the body of a man and the mind of an angel, at the one who walks on earth and dwells in heaven. He saw the king, and did not look at the purple; saw the king, and did not look at the diadem. Don't talk to me about royal power where there is lawlessness. “It is not for you, King Uzziah, to burn incense for the Lord,” in the Holy of Holies; you transgress the limits, you appropriate what is not given to you; therefore you will lose what you received. “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense for the Lord; this is the work of the priests”; it's not yours, it's mine. Did I steal your purple? Don't steal my priesthood. “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense for the Lord; this is the work of the priests, the sons of Aaron” (2 Chronicles 26:18). This happened long after Aaron's death. Why didn’t he just say “priests,” but also mention the forefather? Something similar happened at that time. Dathan, Abiron and Korah rebelled against Aaron; but the earth opened up and swallowed them up; fire came down from heaven and consumed them (Num. 26:9–10). Therefore, the priest, wanting to remind the king from the history of that time that the priesthood had been attacked before, but it was not humiliated, and many people rebelled, but God avenged it, said: “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord; this is the work of the priests, the sons of Aaron." He did not say: remember what those who did this suffered then; did not say: think that the rebels were burned; but he named Aaron, for whom it was avenged, and brought this event to the king’s memory, as if saying: do not dare to do the deeds of Dathan, lest you suffer the same thing that happened under Aaron. But King Uzziah did not listen, and, puffed up with pride, entered the sanctuary, opened the Holy of Holies and wanted to burn incense. What about God? When in this way the priest was despised and the dignity of the priesthood was trampled upon, and the priest could no longer do anything - after all, the priest’s job is only to reprove and show boldness, and not to use weapons, not to take up shields, not to shake a spear, not to draw a bow, not to throw arrows, but only to reprove and show boldness - when the priest rebuked, and the king did not listen, but took up weapons, shields and spears, and used with his own authority, then the priest said to God: I have done my job, I can do nothing more; help the trampled priesthood; laws are broken, rules are overthrown. What about the Lover of Humanity? He punished the impudent one. “Leprosy appeared on his forehead” (2 Chronicles 26:19). Where there is shamelessness, there is punishment. But do you see love for mankind in God’s very punishment? He did not send lightning, did not shake the earth, did not move the sky, but “leprosy appeared,” not in some other place, but on the forehead, so that the face bore traces of punishment, like letters inscribed on a pillar; this was done not only for him, but also for those who will come after him. Having the power to send another worthy punishment, He did not send, but as if inscribed on some high place a law that said: do not do this, lest you suffer the same thing. The animate law came out, and the forehead emitted a voice louder than a trumpet. The writings were written on the forehead, writings that could not be blotted out because they were not written in ink so that they could be blotted out, but were natural leprosy that made the king unclean in order to make others clean. And just as those condemned to execution, when they are given a rope, are led out with a rope in their mouths, so this one walked around with leprosy on his forehead instead of a rope, because he had insulted the priesthood. I say this not condemning kings, but those who are mad with pride and anger, so that you know that the priesthood is greater than royal power. 6. So always, when the soul sins, God punishes the body. This is what He did with Cain. His soul sinned, committing murder, and his body was weakened; and very fair. Why? “Weaning and shaking, 7,” said God, “you will be on the earth” (Gen. 4:12). And Cain went around proclaiming this to everyone, telling it silently, teaching without words. The tongue was silent, but the limbs cried out and told everyone why he was groaning, why he was shaking: I killed my brother, I committed murder. Moses then spoke in writing, but this one went around and actually said to everyone: “Thou shalt not kill.” Do you see the lips that were silent and the work that cried out? Do you see the animated law carried everywhere? Do you see the pillar moving from one place to another? Do you see vengeance for vengeance? Do you see the punishment that served as the basis for edification? Do you see the soul that has sinned and the flesh that is being punished? And quite fair. So it was with Zechariah: his soul sinned, and his tongue was bound. Zechariah, who gave birth to the voice (crying in the wilderness), was indeed punished when his instrument of the word became incapable of use. And Uzziah, when he sinned, was struck with leprosy on his forehead, so that he might come to his senses. Thus the king went out, becoming an example to everyone, and the church was cleansed; he was expelled, although no one expelled him, and, wanting to appropriate the priesthood to himself, he lost what he had. And he left the church. In ancient times there was a law - to expel every leper from the city; but now it’s no longer there. Why? Because then God treated people like children; Then there was physical leprosy, but now there is mental leprosy. So, the king came out with leprosy, but they did not expel him from the city, fearing his purple and royal power, and again he took his place contrary to the law? What about God? Angry with the Jews, He stopped prophesying. I said all this about the prophet’s saying to pay off the debt. But let's return to the subject. The king left the church as a leper. According to custom, he should have been expelled from the city as unclean; but the people allowed him to remain inside the city, and did not dare to do anything proper, neither small nor great. And therefore, since they left the king in the city, God turned away from them and stopped the grace of prophecy; and very fair. Because they violated His law and were afraid to cast out the unclean, He stopped the gift of prophecy. “The word of the Lord was rare in those days, visions were not frequent” (1 Samuel 3:1), i.e. God did not speak to them through prophets; They had no inspiration from the Spirit by which they spoke, because there was an unclean one among them, and the grace of the Spirit did not work among the unclean. That is why it was not inherent, did not appear to the prophets, but was silent and hidden. To make what was said clear to you, I will explain with an example. Just as a person who has love for someone, having been cruelly offended by him in some way, says to him: I will no longer show myself to you, I will not speak to you - this is what God did then. When those who did not expel Uzziah angered Him, He said: I will no longer speak to your prophets, I will not send down the grace of the Spirit. See the punishment full of mercy. He did not send lightning and shake the cities to their very foundations; but what? You, he says, don’t want to avenge Me? And I will not talk to you. Could I not drive him out? But I wanted to leave the rest to you. Don't you want to? And I will not talk to you and I will not inspire prophets. And the grace of the Spirit did not work, there was silence, enmity between God and people. When the king later died, the cause of uncleanness was also destroyed. Thus, the prophet did not prophesy for a long time, but while he did not prophesy, the wrath of God ceased and the prophecy returned. By this necessity, the prophet means time and says: “In the year of the death of King Uzziah I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted.” When he died, then I saw the Lord; I had never seen God angry with us before. The death of the unclean came and stopped this anger. Therefore, he, everywhere mentioning the life of kings, here spoke about the death of Uzziah. “In the year of death,” he says, “I saw the Lord King Uzziah, sitting on a throne, high and exalted.” But here again one can see God’s love for mankind. The unclean one died, and God was reconciled with people. Why did this happen, when there were no good deeds on their part, but only the king died? Because God loves mankind and is not strict with such people. The humane and good God demanded only one thing, that the unclean one should leave. So, knowing this, let us drive away pride, love humility and give the usual glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. In Russian translation: “When you cultivate the land, it will no longer give its strength to you.” You might be interested in: