Water leaping into eternal life

Word on the Eve of Epiphany The Lord created water above the firmament and below the firmament, and separated the water from the dry land on earth. This is the primordial element of the world, flowing and all-filling, transparent and all-penetrating, watering and washing, life-giving and entertaining. Water surrounds the earth and is surrounded by it: in the dry land it finds its border, and at the same time its foundation: water cannot be established without dry land and the earth without moisture crumbles into dust. Water extinguishes fire, as an opposite and repelling element, and yet remains in conjunction with it, for water softens the heat of fire and fire diminishes the effect of water, and from their combination the moist warmth of life is generated. Fire and water conceal within themselves the death of the world - in the general flood and the last fire, in which heaven and earth will pass away with noise, but they also renew it through washing and cleansing. Baptism is performed by water and spirit, the Holy Spirit and fire. The fiery tongues of Pentecost also descended on the water element. This happened in the baptism of the Lord. The elements of the world felt the Epiphany of Christ and trembled at Him. The sea ran away, the water element moved, in vain of the approaching Lord, receiving Him into itself and for a brief moment covering His Most Pure Body. The Church testifies to the trembling of the water element with the psalm words: “I saw the sea and ran, the Jordan returned back.” What is it to the sea that you ran away, and to you, Jordan, that you returned back? (prokeimenon) - Today the waters are sanctified by nature, and the Jordan is divided and its streams return, the Lord is baptized in vain” (troparion). In the baptism of Christ, not only a small part of the Jordan, but also all the waters, nature is sanctified: it received within itself the Inconceivable One and covered the Inaccessible One. The waters received the incarnate Word, the Son of God, but together with Him the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, sent by the Father, took place here - the cleansing action of the entire pre-existing Trinity. The blessing of the Jordan was fulfilled by the power, action and influx of the Holy Spirit, which the Holy Church still requests for the blessed waters. The spirit in the form of a dove, which descended on the baptized Lord, also descended on the baptizing water and made in the Jordan new grace-filled spiritual water, leaping into eternal life. You sanctified the streams of the Jordan, sending down Your Holy Spirit from heaven (Trebnik). The Lord said to Nicodemus about this water: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). The water of the Jordan became holy and consecrating, for the baptism of the Lord was the beginning of the baptism of the human race. The Jordanian event was not transitory, disappearing without a trace, but the power of the baptism of the Lord abides in the Church, and the grace of the consecration of the waters of the Jordan abides in it. Every Christian baptism is baptism in the waters of the Jordan, for the baptized waters are sanctified by the blessing of the Jordan. And the great consecration of water, now performed on the eve of Epiphany, was originally such a consecration of the waters of baptism for those preparing for enlightenment and on this day usually approaching St. baptism The sanctification of waters by the power and action and influx of the Holy Spirit is an amazing secret action that penetrates the water element throughout the world. When St. the cross is immersed in water, with the utterance of final prayers, the element receiving consecration trembles and trembles, although it is inaccessible to our eyes to see this movement. But for human needs, only a small part of the water element is taken away for consecration, and it becomes the host of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. water, the great agiasma. What does the consecration of water, this supposedly soulless and dead element, mean? But she is not like that before the Lord, for nothing is dead for the Lord, God did not create death, and the creature became dead only for man, who subjected it to his own sin. Doesn’t the psalmist also appeal to inanimate creatures to praise the Lord (Psalm 148)? Doesn't the prophet (Daniel) call upon all creation to sing and extol the Lord? Doesn’t St. testify today? Church: “The sun sings to you, the moon praises you, the abysses tremble for you, the springs work for you”? And for this reason, the water element, receiving the action of the Holy Spirit, becomes a spirit-bearing substance, and eating it is called a kind of communion. - Create a source of incorruption, a gift of sanctification, a resolution of sins (Trebnik). The consecration of the waters is a mysterious preview of the life of the future age, when God will be all things in all. This is the water of the future age, the source of living water (Rev. 21:6), from the river of water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and the Lamb. This is the sea of ​​glass seen by the seer mixed with fire (Rev. 15:2). This is the spiritual element of the new heaven and new earth, the kingdom of the next century. There is no limit to the all-penetrating action of the Holy Spirit, just as there is no limit separating man from the elements of the world, for he himself is their living concentration, and all of them are like his external, expanded body. Through the consecration of water, a person is sanctified, for for the sake of human salvation the Son of God, baptized in the Jordan, became incarnate and immutably became man, and for the sake of man, water consecration is performed. It is happening, so that all those who draw and receive it will have it for the purification of souls and bodies, for the healing of passions, for the sanctification of houses and for all kinds of good. It is spiritual healing given to a person to preserve his mental and physical strength, to protect and improve his entire life. Let the one of little faith not doubt, saying to himself: is it necessary for the Holy Spirit to dwell in this water when our souls are accessible to Him? But isn’t it madness for a person to deny his dual composition? Does he have a soul without a body? Wasn't the Son of God incarnate? And isn’t He communicated to us in the most holy Sacrament of Communion under the guise of bread and wine, and, uniting with us spiritually, He also unites physically, giving us His Body and Blood to eat? Therefore, a person also needs the communion of holy water to receive the Holy Spirit, to receive the blessing of the Jordan. In this lies the power of deification, the unity of divine and created nature, divine condescension and human acceptance of God. And not only does the person himself partake of it, but he also sanctifies his entire life, home and clothes and all his belongings with it, to drive away all slander from visible and invisible enemies. In holy water, great grace and helping power are given to the faithful. The Holy Church exhorts us to eat it reverently and sprinkle it for sanctification in all places, even “stingy” ones (Typikon). Those who drink the holy water of Epiphany notice that it usually miraculously retains its taste and freshness for a long time. Today is the light and sparkle of the waters, today is their transparent mirror-like appearance, today is their sweet murmur ringing, today is the thirsty desert rejoicing, today is rain falling from heaven and watering the earth, so that it may give birth and vegetate, today dry lips are moistened. The voice of the Lord cries out on the waters, saying: Come, receive all the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of the fear of God, Christ who has appeared.