Похвала на зачатие святого Иоанна пророка – Предтечи и Крестителя **

1. The great Moses, the servant of God, the head of the prophets, who walked on the sea, the pilot of the air, who gave manna for food, God's lawgiver, who accepted the sacred tablets, the first introducer into life of what is useful, this such a great man built a tabernacle for the people of Israel according to the model that he was taught from God on the mountain. And he arranged everything, both holy and sacred separately, that was contained inside - in a fenced place; the innermost place between this was both an impregnable and inaccessible place, the so-called “Holy of Holies.” Based on this model of the tabernacle, Solomon built a church that outshone all the churches that were on earth, not only in the preciousness of the material and not in the subtlety of the art, but also in the type of construction, so that one would never have thought of coveting those that the Egyptians had. And he makes a church in the likeness of the whole world, both sensory and spiritual. Just as there is earth and sky, and the middle partition is the firmament; This is how God commanded it to be, and having divided this church into two parts and lowered the curtain in the middle, he allowed everyone to enter the part that was outside the curtain, but the inner part was inaccessible to everyone and invisible to anyone except the high priest, as the angel commanded, who told Moses to tell the children of Israel: “In the seventh month, on the tenth [day] of the month, ye shall humble your souls” (Lev. 16:29); this is said about the construction of the tabernacle, because then, on the day of the erection of the tabernacle, once a year only the high priest entered the Holy of Holies to burn incense. So, on this feast of the construction of the tabernacle, Zechariah also entered into the rite of his ritual and saw an angel standing “on the right side of the altar of incense. Zechariah, seeing him, was embarrassed, and fear attacked him. The angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will call his name John; and you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord; He will not drink wine or strong drink, and will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb; and he will go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to restore the hearts of the fathers to the children, and to the disobedient the minds of the righteous, to present to the Lord a prepared people” (Luke 1:11-15, 17). Have you noticed a promise beyond prophetic power? This prophecy bound and loosed the tongue of Zechariah: it bound when he did not believe the birth; It untied him when the birth took place. Oh, miracle! John from the womb is an evangelist, from the womb is a wonderworker, fed in the desert and leading an equal life with the angels, who was among the prophets after the law, the second Elijah and the truest messenger, casting out error with the zeal of the Spirit, the Forerunner and Baptist, saying: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2); the son of Zechariah and the fruit of the barren, and the finished work of the prayers of the people; a sincere herald of repentance and protector of the faithful - those who confess; the fulfillment of the law and the leader of grace, and the exposure of the wickedness of the Jews; affirmer of heavenly dogmas and incorruptible judge of the people's misdeeds; born, beyond expectation, from a barren, barren woman and by grace the marriage friend of Christ, who brought water out of the rock; curber of the Jordanian waves and leader of the cleansing of sinners; who foreknew the incomprehensible mystery and the prophet of the manifestation of the One who is invisible: such is John, in accordance with the proclamation, born to Zechariah in extreme old age. Oh, miracle! These very deeds confirmed those joyful movements of John that were in the womb, which he discovered. The world saw the joy that the Forerunner painted with his feet in the womb. But what honor will we give to the righteous man, surrounded everywhere by his excellent exploits? He, being in the womb, preaches the gospel, when he is born, he works miracles, laboring in desert places, he prospers; brought up, led forward by the Spirit, serves as a mediator between law and grace, proclaims a baptism of repentance, baptizes the revealed Lord, baptizing, contemplates the glory of the Trinity and truly testifies to grace, invoking, pointing to the One proclaimed by the prophets, confessing a Master greater than himself; He guides believers to Him, teaching many people what is useful, instructs baptized tax collectors, denounces Herod who acts illegally, and finally accepts the One who bestows bliss. Therefore, what words can we use to express our surprise? What language will we set in motion in this case? What of this will we pass in silence and what will we be able to say about it? The sea of ​​praise is great, and the breadth of excellent feats is great; and just an acquaintance with the affairs strikes the speakers with amazement. But may Zacharias come now, the father of the righteous, condemned to silence and beginning to speak again; he will tell us more clearly about his deeds, how he spoke after his tongue was tied, how John is born and the sentence pronounced by the angel is canceled, how vengeance leaves and healing comes. The Evangelist, introducing an abbreviated narrative about Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, first designates their names, family, and dignity, and then adds praise to their way of life and a trophy for their good deeds, while pointing to the condemnation of Zechariah to silence and announcing the restoration of the gift of speech. And then listen to the words of the Gospel: “They had no children,” says Scripture, “for Elizabeth was barren, and both were already advanced in years” (Luke 1:7). And now I not only contemplate their childlessness, but also reflect on the ancient image of the righteous, I mean Abraham and Sarah; I notice both infertility, which gives birth to others, and childbirth with the help of grace and nature, the extraordinary mystery of childbirth: such is the image of this promise. “Then the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Zechariah, seeing him, was embarrassed, and fear attacked him. The angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will call his name John” (Luke 1:11-13). Excellent is the acquisition of the promise, great is the gift of vision, truly Abraham's praise, because just as the conception of Sarah was foreshadowed to him, so to this is the conception of Elizabeth. But, although the prediction is the same, the state of affairs is not the same. While Abraham, as a result of the promise, did not experience anything terrible, Zechariah, after the gospel, finds himself speechless, not believing the faithful angel and accepting the punishment of silence. “And Zechariah said to the Angel: How do I know this? For I am old, and my wife is advanced in years” (Luke 1:18). What is this, Lord? I offer up prayers to God for all the people, propitiating Him, and You yourself proclaim to me the good news that a son will be born to me? This is impossible, because old age is powerless and nature is weakened, and my wife - barren rock. And how will this happen to me? However, even if a son is born to me, as You said, then what will be the benefit of him to the people? The angel answers: through him there will be great salvation for the people and all languages, since he will turn everyone from the path of error and show them the path of salvation, becoming a mediator between God and people. He “will come... in the spirit and power of Elijah... and... he will be called a prophet of the Most High” (Luke 1:17, 76). He will go before the face of the Lord, saying: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). 2. Zechariah, responding to this, said to the angel: “By what means do I know this?” The angel said: since you impatiently desire the sign of birth and do not believe my words, then take a reliable pledge: “I am Gabriel, who stands before God, and was sent to speak with you and bring this good news to you; and behold, you will remain silent and will not be able to speak until the day when these things come to pass, because you did not believe my words, which will come to pass in due time” (Luke 1:19-20). The judgment of the sinner is inexorable and the punishing wrath is immediate. Truly, one should not distrust the angel, one should not have the altar be an object of contempt, one should not think that the time of incense is a time of deception, because when he was incense, an angel appeared. He did not remember the story of Abraham; and then a barren child and an old woman gives birth, and what was said then was met with complete confidence; (Zechariah) received miraculous confirmation of such childbirth. Therefore, the angel says to him: “You will remain silent and will not be able to speak until the day this comes true, because you did not believe my words.” Oh, philanthropic punishment, which quickly brought about correction! The angel admonishes the very voice that Zechariah lost, because “when he went out, he could not speak to them; and they understood that he had seen a vision in the church; and he communicated with them by signs, and remained mute” (Luke 1:22). The evangelist wrote beautifully: “and remained,” because silence awaited the voice that was being born, Zechariah – John, the elder – the baby. Oh, miracle! The word comes and the voice proclaims; The Lord is coming, and the servant is sent forth. But why now am I speaking prematurely about preaching in the wilderness, having some other extraordinary and great preliminary voice? There are earlier deeds that are higher than these speeches. The Baptist, still living in his mother's womb, still held by the bonds of nature, still wrapped in his mother's swaddling clothes, cries out in preaching for the appearance of the Lord. It happened, says (Scripture), that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, “the child leaped joyfully in my womb” (Luke 1:44). Not yet born - and speaks with joyful movements; does not yet have the opportunity to shout - and foretells God. Truly, “others labored, and we entered into their labor” (John 4:38); the prophets foretold and those exposed to blows did not remain silent; the list of patriarchs was in danger: the tyrants formed hostile formations against them; kings fought; the people were inflamed with anger; the whole world opposed the exploits of the ancestors; here they were brought to court, there they were flogged; torture and torment from everywhere! But, preaching to those who experienced such misfortune in life the cessation of winter, John, still bound by the swads of nature, showed us the saving spring; and hastening to proclaim with his voice the One Whom he had announced with his feet, he forcibly tried to transgress the limits of nature, and hurried Elizabeth, who was slowly giving birth; jumped, both having fun together, and being annoyed because he was in the power of the womb; cried out against the period of months; shook the womb, like a prison in which he was unjustly imprisoned, and exclaimed with his joyful movements, thus saying to Elizabeth: mother, you, slowly giving birth, act unfairly, delaying the joy of the universe and preventing the Forerunner from coming out; you carry a prophet in your womb, you hold a royal warrior; you hinder the swift messenger with the preaching of piety; you are acting unfairly, mother; you don’t know the future, you don’t know what is going to happen. The light comes, free the morning; let the sun rise, let the morning star shine; The Word is at the door, and there is already a need for a voice, the Bridegroom is near, and the palace on the Jordan must be opened; the need is for the blood that redeems the world, and I must point in advance to the Lamb. The human race is entangled in sins; the Releaser of the bound has come. The need is for a messenger, so that everyone, having learned, will come out to meet the Lord; and now you hold the Forerunner in the womb. So, mother, think about Adam, who is in the power of hell, about the eternal groans of Eve - after all, the blood of Abel still cries out, accusing Cain of murder; the very elements groan along with her. Therefore, of course, you were freed from the misfortune of childlessness, so that the one born from a barren woman would point to the One born from a virgin; Therefore, I jumped joyfully in my womb, so that the devil would no longer indulge in dancing in the world. This is what the unborn John announced to Elizabeth with his joyful movements. “The time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she gave birth to a son. And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had magnified His mercy over her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the baby and wanted to name him, after his father’s name, Zechariah. To this his mother said: no, but call him John. And they asked his father by signs what he would like to call him. He demanded a tablet and wrote: John is his name. And everyone was surprised. And immediately his mouth and his tongue were loosened, and he began to speak, blessing God” (Luke 1:57–60, 62–64). Verily, a child is born, and the voice of the father returns; thus the exclaiming voice of John is revealed, the strength of the voice indicating the name itself. “I am,” said (John), “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: straighten the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” (Is. 40:3; John 1:23). Having received illumination from the Holy Spirit, he showed the Creator to the creatures and pointed his finger at the Creator to all people, exclaiming loudly: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). “Produce fruit worthy of repentance, and do not think of saying to yourself, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham” (Matthew 3:8–9). But why, along with the child’s hot jealousy, does our word today stretch too long? Let us, if you like, now hold our tongue for a while, which has sufficiently jumped along with the child. It is excellent to adjust your narrative to the convenient time and to find pleasure in what is said, and to expect an exploration of what follows in order. And the baptist, with his joyful jumping, did not forcibly cross the boundaries of nature, but he himself waited for the proper time, knowing that the Lord would fulfill this for us after him, exclaiming: “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakk. 2:14), and “from the east of the sun to the west, great will be my name..., and in every place they will offer... to my name a pure sacrifice” ( Malach.1:11). It is no longer just one church, as in the days of the law, that accepts sacrifices and is proud of them, but throughout the entire universal church they immaculately give glory to God. There was one high priest for each year, mortal and full of all sin; we have now received the High Priest of our souls - Jesus Christ, who “committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth” (1 Pet. 2:22). “Therefore we have,” says (Scripture), “a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens” (Heb. 4:14), our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is due all glory, honor and worship, with the Father and the All-Holy Spirit, now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. These conversations in the Minya edition belong to the category of Spuria, that is, unfoundedly attributed to St. I. Chrysostom. Source: Works of our holy father John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, in Russian translation. St. Petersburg edition. Theological Academy, 1896. Volume 2, Book 2, Works of St. John Chrysostom, considered dubious, Praise on the Conception of Saint John the Prophet - Forerunner and Baptist, p. 848–853.