Speech on the occasion of the 1600th anniversary of the Edict of Milan

When Moses was tending the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he once saw a bush. The bush burned with fire and did not burn out. There was a time when people of peaceful pursuits could observe a similar miraculous phenomenon for years and even centuries. This time is the first three centuries of the existence of the Church of Christ on earth. Then the Church itself, like a bush, burned with fire, burned and did not burn. When the Church began to spread throughout the world, this pagan world and its powerful rulers said threateningly to Christians; “You should not exist - either worship our gods or die!” Christians could worship only the one true God and turned out to be criminals. The then cruel state had at its disposal many terrible weapons to combat the rebellious. Trial and persecution, terrible interrogations and torture, fire and hot iron, beatings and mutilations, deprivation of property, damp and gloomy dungeons, exile in the mines - this hard labor of the ancient world - even the death penalty - all this, like one fiery river, rushed towards Christians at the behest of state power. Not only that. The cruelty of the torturers invented special terrible executions for Christians. They were doused with tar and burned like torches. Whole crowds of them were brought out to the spectacles, and wild, hungry animals tormented the defenseless for the amusement of the idle, cruel and bloodthirsty crowd. Truly, the sevenfold furnace is a furious tormentor for the Church of Christ. And the Holy Church burned in this Babylonian cave for almost three hundred years, until the blessed and Equal-to-the-Apostles Tsar Constantine, who stopped the persecution of the Church and gave freedom to Christians. This was 1600 years ago. We dedicate this day to the special solemn remembrance of that great event when the powerful emperor, by his decree, declared his good will for Christians. A gratifying event! A joyful event! In the person of Constantine, state power abandoned the persecution of the Church. The former enemy becomes a friend of the Church, the persecutor becomes a patron, the tormentor becomes a defender. Sorrow gave way to joy, disaster to prosperity, confusion to silence and peace. Give thanks, people, to the Lord God for His great mercy, which He showed to His Church through His servant Constantine! But why did the Lord allow His Church, in the early days of its existence, to suffer so much from state rulers? Why were thousands of martyrs shedding streams of blood? This was, of course, God’s special will. The Seer of the New Testament, St. John the Theologian saw before the altar of the Lamb the souls of those killed for the testimony of Jesus. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying: “How long, O Lord, Holy and True, do you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And white clothes were given to each of them, and they were told to rest for a little while, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who would be killed like them, would complete the number (Apoc. 6:9-11). Thus, according to the word of Scripture, a known number of those killed and beheaded for the testimony of Jesus was to be added to God alone. Ancient Christians, Greeks and Romans, did not call martyrs anything other than witnesses. 0 what did they testify to? They testified with particular conviction to the same thing that the entire early history of the Church of Christ testified to—that He who promised is faithful (Heb. 10:23), the Lord is faithful to His promise to be with His Church relentlessly. Think, brothers, to whom was Christ given His Church? To people powerful and strong? No, to ordinary Galilean villagers. Maybe they had invincible weapons in their hands? They only had thin fishing nets, and even those they left behind when they followed Christ. Maybe they were supported, patronized by kings and state authorities? But these very authorities for centuries only shed Christian blood with inhuman cruelty. So what? Has the Church died? Has it decreased? Have you become impoverished? Not only did it remain indestructible, but it invariably grew all the time, spreading everywhere, like a fat field fertilized with blood, bearing rich spiritual fruits. And did Constantine give triumph to the Church of Christ? Is church history just beginning with him? Yes, he himself came to the Church when it already embraced the entire old world, had many glorious names and itself received good fame even among pagan society! Perhaps this is why the Lord God delayed for three whole centuries to call upon a powerful king to protect the Church, so that it would be clear to the whole world and for all time that the Church grows and prospers not from the disposition, not from the assistance of state authorities, but only by the power of almighty God. The bush burned and did not burn out. This was because God was present in it, appearing to Moses. The Church burned in the flames of torment and bloody persecution, but at the same time it only grew and became stronger - is there really a need for an even clearer sign that the Lord God inseparably abides in it with His grace-filled powers? From Him the Church received and always receives its spiritual strength. She lived and lives by Him, and is nourished by Him. He alone strengthened it. He alone saved her. The martyrs testified to this great truth with their blood. The number of faithful witnesses appointed by the Lord has been fulfilled, and on the day of this celebration we can exclaim with a loud voice: God is with us! Understand the Gentiles! As we now worship the cross of Christ and the passion of Christ, let us worship the sufferings and the ancient Church for the testimony of Jesus. It was fitting for Christ to suffer and to be brought into His glory (Luke 24:26). It was fitting for the Church of Christ to suffer, and she triumphed, adorned, like scarlet and fine linen, with the blood of the holy martyrs. Glory and thanksgiving to the Lord God, who always creates us victorious! Let us now glorify Constantine Equal-to-the-Apostles! He was the first of the proud rulers of the world to understand the power of Christ’s humility, and he bowed before the cross of Christ, the one before whom the peoples of the earth bowed. He put an end to the terrible injustice that had dominated the relations of the state and the Church for centuries. Who was being persecuted? Who was being persecuted? Were Christians rebels and rebels? Were they enemies of the state system and state power? But isn’t it for their edification? Peter wrote next to “Fear God” “Do you honor the king?” Weren't they the ones who were instructed by the ap. Should Paul, first of all, make prayers, supplications and petitions for the king and for everyone in power? Didn’t Christ Himself teach them to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s? Was it not in their sacred books that the doctrine was proclaimed as a great truth that there is no authority other than from God and that the existing authorities were established by God? And did Christians stop obeying the authorities, did they stop praying for the authorities, despite the endless insults that the authorities inflicted on them? Who was being persecuted? Who was being persecuted? The state executed its friends and persecuted its prayer workers. What injustice! What ingratitude! The state, brothers, is not so much needed by the Church as the Church is needed by the state. The Church knows that it can do without the state; she remained unshakable even when the state persecuted her. But without God, without faith, without conscience, without virtue - in a word, without the Church, will not the most important foundations of the structure and order of the state always waver? Is it really not clear to anyone that the enemies of the Church and the enemies of the state are the same people? Saint Constantine was the first of the emperors to understand this. He himself spoke of his respect only for the legitimate Catholic Church and considered it a state misfortune; he grieved and worried when he learned that “some restless people, with shameful deceptions, dare to corrupt the people in the bowels of the most holy Catholic Church” (N. E. V, 6). In these same thoughts and feelings, may the rulers and legislators of the state now be confirmed by the example of the Great Constantine, who, for the benefit of the state, defended and supported the one true Church! Let our prayer be about this too on this day of church celebration! You might be interested in: