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Holy Scripture and teachers often have the habit of likening the Creator to created things and ascribing to God the names of created things, calling Him fire, sun, sea, gold. This is not because God would really be like that, but solely for the purpose that a reasonable person, walking as if on steps when considering created things and reflecting on the various perfections of many created things, would realize how infinite the perfections are in God the Creator. That is why David says: “I found instruction in all Your works, I was edified by the works of Your hands” (Ps. 142:5). “From Your creation, O God,” he says, “I have learned to know You, God.” If the sky and the sun, moon and stars visible in the sky are beautiful, then, oh, how more beautiful is He who created all these beautiful things! If the earth is good and there are views that please us, mountains, hills, forests, oak groves, gardens, vineyards, fields, flowers, and besides this, expensive things, silver, gold, precious stones and, finally, beautiful people with faces like angels, then how much better, more expensive and more necessary is He who created all this with His power and wisdom! Learning in this way to recognize the Creator from creation, at this hour we take gold for likeness. Gold is born in the deep, hidden depths of the earth, and it is not found soon, but to whom is the Divinity of the Holy Trinity revealed? Who can seek and know Him? The prophet Isaiah says well: “Truly You are the hidden God, the God of Israel” (Isaiah 45:15). Polished gold shines with a beautiful shine, and sometimes gives off like sparkles of the sun. Likewise, the Divinity of the Most Holy Trinity, oh, how filled It is with the radiant rays of indescribable radiance! - that radiance, which even the small particle shown on Tabor could not be seen by the eyes of the saints, and even the gaze of the sharp-eyed evangelical eagle, Saint John the Theologian, was supposed to be dulled, not being able to see the invisible. Just as gold enriches people, so the Divinity of the Holy Trinity fills the whole world with the wealth of His gifts. Therefore, Saint John of Damascus sings in antiphons: “For every creature is rich, let us serve Him.” Just as everyone loves gold, so does God, oh, how those who have a right opinion about Him love Him: “How good is the God of Israel to the upright in heart!” (Ps. 73:1). Just as different coins are made from the same gold, so in the One Godhead there are three different Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Just as a gold coin is round, so the Divine has His own roundness, for both in a circle and in Him there is neither beginning nor end: He is God without beginning, He is also infinite (1). The olive, or olive tree, is the sign of wisdom in the five wise virgins. It is a sign of mercy in the Samaritan who poured oil on the man wounded by the Jericho thieves. She is a sign of the kingdom in the anointing of David from Samuel, she is also a sign of joy in the psalm of David, saying: “O God, your God has anointed you with the oil of joy” (Ps. 45:8). It is a sign of peace and tranquility in those olive branches with which they met Christ at the gates of Jerusalem and sang: “Hosanna! Blessed is the Coming One! Peace in heaven! (see Luke 19:38). God the Father is the root of all wisdom, all mercy, all kingship, all peace. He is the “King of peace, the Father of the age to come” (see Isa. 9:6) and of all joy, according to the apostle: “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... who comforts us in all our affliction” (2 Cor. 1:3–4). What is God the Son? As a branch born from the root, from the Father, He is one Wisdom with him, according to what is written: “we preach Christ... the Power of God and the Wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23–24). He is mercy itself: “The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him” (Ps. 102:17). He is the King of all creation. “His Kingdom will have no end.” He is our joy, for he says: “I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you” (John 16:22). He is our peace, according to what is written: “He is our peace, having made both one” (Eph. 2:14). The same olive branch that was brought by a dove from Heavenly Noah, God the Father, is the Holy Spirit sent down in the form of a dove. He brought, as it were, an olive branch into the womb of the Most Pure and Most Blessed Virgin, fulfilling the incarnation of the Word in her: “And the Word became flesh” (John 1:14) - and thereby granting salvation to the world, which is also confirmed by the troparion of the Annunciation Feast, saying: “The day of our salvation is chief.” The waters of the national oath, which fell on the human race for Adam’s crime and in which our nature was drowned, receded from the earth; the flood of God's wrath receded, and dry land appeared; the oath, sinful swamp has dried up: “The oath is required” 3 (1). Who is God? God is the Holy Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What is God? God is the Creator of heaven and earth, everything visible and invisible (3). Is God visible or invisible? Invisible, because God is Spirit, God is light, God is spiritual nature. He is incorporeal, unimaginable, indescribable, ineffable (3). God is an original Being and the guilt of all things: original, that is, having no existence from anything else and not created by anyone, but granting existence and existence to all other things. In God there is one being and nature, and there are three Persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit; but these three are one. And in this Holy Trinity there is no first or last, there is no greater or lesser, but three Persons are whole, co-essential with themselves and equal, for which it is necessary to believe that there is a Trinity in unity and unity in the Trinity. In this Holy Trinity, the glorified God is an immaterial Spirit and not subject to any of our feelings. Therefore, one should not think so unreasonably that God is like a human being and has a head, a beard, arms and legs. He is the entire head, for everything has a beginning; the whole eye, for it sees everything; the whole ear, for he hears everything; the whole hand, for it contains everything; the whole leg, because it is everywhere. He is the Wise One, penetrating into the present and future, into angelic and human secret thoughts, understanding thoughts from afar; All-good, incomprehensible and unchangeable in its holiness; Almighty, who created such a world out of nothing, and even with a single Word; all the perfections that there is good, having in Himself... the omnipotence of God must be understood in perfection, excluding any infirmity, for example, God cannot be angry or lie. God is called the Creator because with His one Divine Word He created everything visible in six days, that is, heaven, earth, sea, air, trees, animals and man according to the flesh, as well as the invisible, that is, the soul (3). There are many who are enlightened by Baptism and true believers, but there are few in whom Christ dwells as in His true church. After all, the thief, the robber, and the adulterer are baptized; after all, every villain is enlightened by faith. But don’t ask for Christ in them: He is not here. Has it ever been a long time ago, except when the thief was still in his infancy. When he came of age and began to steal, Christ immediately departed from him: “He has risen, He is not here” (Mark 16:6). Some may seem virtuous in appearance, but God knows what is in his secret places, for in one place the apostle says: “What they do in secret is shameful even to speak of” (Eph. 5:12). Christ will not soon be found in these people either: He is not here. Another is considered a faithful servant of God and a true worshiper, but in reality he honors God only with his lips, but his heart is far from Him (Isa. 29:13; Matt. 15:8). And don’t ask for Christ in it: He is not here. Some are known as pilgrims, some as ascetics, some as fasters, some as lovers of the poor, and some are known for some other good deed. But if they do all this hypocritically, out of vanity, for show to people, then don’t look for Christ here either: He is not here. It happens that someone pretends to be humble, but in his mind he is proud, he pretends to be chaste, but in his thoughts he is unclean, he pretends to be loving, but in his heart he is angry, he speaks peaceably with his lips, he kisses, but at the same time he is deceitful and creates flattery, like Judas. Don’t expect to find Christ here either: He is not here. It is not easy to find precious beads in the depths of the sea, or gold and silver in the depths of the earth. It is also difficult to find Christ in people in whom He could dwell, for in the words of David: “All have turned aside, all have become completely worthless, there is none who does good, not even one” (Ps. 13:3). He's not here. The psalm words: “The Lord is in His holy church” (Ps. 10:4), - in the old printed Psalter, as well as in the Kievan Psalter, it reads like this: “The Lord is in His holy Church” - and this is much more correct, for one thing is a church and another is a Church. The church is built with hands, has stone or wooden walls, it is established and created standing in one place, like this holy stone church. The Church was not created by hands, nor does it have stone walls, for the Church is considered to be a collection of believers who are not located in one place, but throughout the entire universe. That is why it is called and is the Catholic Apostolic Church. It extends from the beginning to the end of the universe and is found in every nation and tribe that truly glorifies Christ God. The foundation of this Church is Christ Himself, the walls are the law of God, the pillars are the apostles, evangelists and teachers; cover - the Holy Spirit. It is about this Church that the Apostle writes: “You are the church of the living God, as God said: I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people” (2 Cor. 6:16). Therefore, if the psalm word says: “The Lord is in His holy Church,” then this must be understood to mean that the Lord dwells in the multitude of His believers, and if, according to the previously spoken words of Saint Stephen, “he does not live in churches made with hands” (Acts 7:48), then, without a doubt, He lives in His Church not made with hands, which He loved to the end, which He redeemed with His Blood and for which He laid down His soul Yours. So, in the Church, in the assembly of believers, one must look for Christ, who dwells after His Resurrection, for He told them: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20) (1). Where then can He [God] be found, God knows. Is the only thing left to do is to lament with Mary Magdalene, who says: “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him” (John 20:13). Our sins have taken our Lord from us, and we do not know where to look for Him now. Someone will say in his mind: “My Lord is with me, and I am with Him, for I believe in Him, I pray to Him and I worship Him.” Oh, if God would grant that it would be so! Oh, that our Lord would be with every Christian who believes in Him, prays to Him and worships Him! But it is not yet known whether He is with every Christian, for for salvation it is not enough for a person to just believe in Christ, for, according to the words of the holy Apostle James, “even demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19), but they are demons (1). You might be interested in: