At his ordination

The sermon “On his ordination” (another name is “On the Divinity against Evagrius”) was delivered by St. Gregory of Nyssa in May 381 at the Second Ecumenical Council. In it St. Gregory, refuting the opinions of the pneumatomachians, speaks of the deity of the Holy Spirit. Serving the spiritual feast has reached us, who are more capable of using the services of others than offering ourselves as a service to others. And I begged in every possible way to be freed from such tributes due to my poverty in speech, referring to a certain law of feasts. For I hear that when a circular feast with a common dinner is being prepared, the stewards of the institution, if anyone on the list of those being treated is poor, invite him to dinner, exempting him from the general contribution. So I would like to be satisfied with the food of the rich. But since this wonderful and rich founder of the feast does not spare us, but commands us to serve, I will say to him: “Friend, give us in return ... your bread” (Luke 11:5), and I call bread the assistance of prayers. For your hearing, delighting in these spiritual honeycombs, can it be satisfied with a wretched and meager word? Perhaps it would be better if, just as in the physical struggle (and there the field belongs to the strong alone, while others are spectators of those who struggle), so in this spiritual field only those filled with the strength of the saints were prepared to become ascetics. And if anyone is like me, whose hair is gray, whose strength has weakened over time, whose speech falters and trembles, let him be allowed to have fun with the exploits of wrestlers. Therefore, we will not prolong this introduction for you, brothers; you are filled with wonder at your predecessors. “Behold, you are full, behold, you are rich” (1 Cor. 4:8), you are filled with sweets because the previous word fed you with them. Therefore, perhaps, it would add useless satiety to satiety, in addition to golden speeches, burdening the memory with lead coins, unless the worst substance, mixed with the best, often serves to promote beauty, the proof of this is close. Do you see this vault above your head? How beautiful to look at! How beautifully the gilding shines on the carving! And this vault, apparently all gold, is covered with some kind of circles with polygons covered with azure. What does this azure produce in the artist? I think that gold, when we see that it is mixed with paints, shines more. Therefore, if azure, mixed with gold, shows its radiance as the most beautiful, then perhaps it would not be untimely to attribute our black feature to the lightness of the speeches spoken before. Here's our introduction. Now listen. I hear that the great Moses, when he erected the tabernacle among the Israelites, and this Bezaliel, who from the “Spirit and I am of God” (Ex. 31:3) had the wisdom of architecture unexplored by science, offer the rich and the poor to make a donation together, and collect gold, scarlet and expensive stones from the rich, but do not reject the trees, skins and goat hairs donated to the poor. And not untimely, maybe be a reminder of this legend. For the thought that came to my heart, I want to propose to the whole congregation: By the Spirit of God, from an unlearned person, He became wise, for this is what history says. Therefore, let the Dukhobor believer: He who called the Holy Spirit God, whose descent, as it were, imprints the grace of wisdom on the soul, does the name of God insult the dignity of the Spirit? humiliating? Which of the creatures is signified by this name? Doesn’t he think that the Divine is acquired by the Spirit? Doesn’t he imagine the simple and uncomplicated as something twofold and complex? On the contrary, he also admits, of course, that the Spirit, being God, exists and is called such by nature. Do you see how the truth reveals itself to you? But Christian preaching does not know the many natures of God, otherwise, out of necessity, you will invent many Gods, because it is impossible to imagine many Gods if the plurality of Gods is not proclaimed by the otherness of nature. Therefore, if, according to the belief of all, the nature of God is one and the Holy Spirit is by the nature of God, then why do you separate in the word what is united by nature? But who will give me the power of that word, the end of which is the salvation of those who hear? Peter proclaimed one word to the people of Jerusalem, and so many thousands of people were caught in the fisherman’s snare by the word extended to them. And so many such words are wasted by our teachers, and what an increase in those saved! What disappears disappears, says one of the prophets, what dies dies (Zech. 11:9), the lost does not return, the union of love is dissolved; the world has been stolen from our treasuries. Oh, what a disaster! I can’t help but groan from suffering! Our treasure was once love - this is our fatherly heritage, which the Lord made our treasure through His disciples, saying: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another” (John 13.34). This legacy was preserved by subsequent successors, each receiving from their fathers, until our fathers; it was only this corrupt generation that did not observe it. How did this wealth of our life flow and disappear from our hands? We have become poor in love, and others are proud of our blessings. “I was jealous of the wicked,” says the psalmist (Ps 72.3). And I, changing what has been said somewhat, will read it this way: “I was jealous of the lawless,” jealous, “the world of sinners is in vain.” They are closely connected to each other, and we are separated from each other. They protect themselves from each other, and we destroy our fence. Having stolen our property, the robber of souls took it and threw it over to the enemies of truth, not showing them a benefit (let no one think this! The inventor of evil cannot become a benefactor), but in order to bring them into a worse state by agreement in evil. But “what... are... external judges?” - says the one who spoke this (1 Cor 5.12). How can I bear the alienation of my brethren without tears? How did this young brother leave his father's estate? How did this other, after what is described in the Gospel, although he covers his spiritual youth with bodily gray hair, retire “to a distant country” (Luke 15.13), fleeing from the faith? How does he leave, having separated half of his father’s estate for himself by reducing high dogmas to low and swine concepts, wasting his wealth with heretical fornicators? For heresy is a fornicator, with voluptuous favorite pleasures. If he comes to his senses, like that prodigal son, if he again desires his father’s food, if he returns to a rich meal, where there is much daily bread that feeds the Lord’s hired servants (and God’s hired servants are all those who, in the hope of the promise, cultivate the vineyard of God), with what haste not one father will run to him, but so many fathers will come out to meet him, will embrace him, kiss him with love him! The first garment of faith was laid up, which was spent by the three hundred and eighteen souls who labored wonderfully for the Church; there is a ring on the hand that has the seal of faith depicted on it: there are faces, a calf, harmonious singing and everything else that is said in the Gospel, except brotherly envy! But why do we needlessly invent these sleepy dreams for ourselves? The hearts of the brethren are hardened and stubborn, they refer to common fathers and do not accept the inheritance that follows from them, they lay claim to common nobility and shun kinship with us. They oppose our enemies, but they are also hostile to us; having become something in between us and our enemies, they are neither one nor the other; and both together; and they do not profess the right teaching, and they abhor the name of heretics. Strange thing! They equally declared war on both truth and lies, like some tree without a root, easily leaning to one side or the other with opposing aspirations. I hear that the Evangelist John in the mysterious writings speaks mysteriously to such people that they must certainly burn in spirit and be cold to sin. Oh, “so that you are cold or burning!” - he says (Rev 3.15). And whatever is neither warm nor cold, but close to both, causes nausea and vomiting. What is the reason for this, that in ancient times, with the disciples, a great multitude was brought into the Church by the Lord, but now the long and embellished speeches of the teachers remain without result? Another may say: then miraculous deeds assisted the apostles and the teaching acquired credibility due to their gifts. I also agree that the power of deeds serves as a great incentive to trust. But what should we think about what is happening now? Don't you see such miracles of faith? For I appropriate to myself the successes of our servants, who are led by the same spirit in the power of healing. The truth of this word is evidenced by men who came from a foreign land, fellow citizens of our father Abraham, who left Mesopotamia, who also came “from the land ... and from their family” (Acts. 7:3), even from the whole world, looking at the sky, migrating in some way from human nature, having become above natural passionate dispositions, touching as much of real life as necessary, but for the most part soaring upward with ethereal forces, aged in appearance, venerable in appearance, shining with gray hair, blocking their lips with silence, unable to conduct verbal debates, not learning to interrogate with one another - this is what they have They are the power over spirits that perform miracles by sheer will, and demons yield not to the art of inference, but to the power of faith, not brought to the point of difficulty in contradicting, but driven out into utter darkness. This is how a Christian can conclude! Here are the successes of our faith! So, why are we not convinced if the grace of healings abounds, if the teaching of the word abounds? “But all these things work by one and the same Spirit, dividing specially to each one as he wills” (1 Cor. 12:11). Why is there no increase in those who are being saved? And let no one think of recognizing true grace as small! I see a vineyard adorned with many branches, abounding in fruit, I see a field waving with many ears of grain, the harvest is thick, the sheaf is ripe, the crops are abundant. But what is happening to me? My nature is insatiable with such things, and I suffer from the passion of rich people. No limit of abundance stops lust. What continually arrives excites the desire for more, serving under pressure to desire more. What I see makes me happy, I admire what is, and grieve over what is not; some kind of common passion, mixed from opposites, embraces the soul, because pleasure is co-dissolved with sadness. If I turn my gaze to you, I calm the zeal in you; if I think about other things, I do not have the strength to mourn the disaster. People, having left to enjoy the “Lord” (Ps 37.4) and rejoice in the world of the Church, conduct subtle searches about some essences and measure quantities, measuring the Son in comparison with the Father and yielding the excess of measure to the Father. Who will tell them: what is not quantitative is not measured; the invisible is not valued; the ethereal is not weighed; the infinite cannot be compared; the incomparable does not allow itself the concept of more or less, because we know more from the mutual comparison of things with each other; and where the end is unattainable, even more is unthinkable. I heard a psalm, which we chanted together: “Great is the Lord..., and great is His strength, and His understanding is without number” (Ps 146.5). What does this mean? Count what has been said and you will understand the mystery. “Great Lord,” but did not say what His magnitude is, because it was impossible to say its quantity, but by the uncertainty of meaning it raises the thought to the infinite. And he also says: “Great is His strength.” When you hear about fortress, understand strength. Christ is God's power and God's wisdom (1 Cor 1.24). But “His intelligence is without number.” Isaiah clearly interprets the word "mind" by saying: "The Spirit of wisdom and understanding" (Isaiah 11.2). I hear that he who thirsts (Matthew 5.6) for the Lord is blessed in bliss. Therefore, perhaps, what is on my mind is not untimely (accept my word), although, apparently, it does not come to the present. If someone makes a journey in the middle of the day, when the sun scorches the head with its sultry rays and with its heat dries up everything wet in the body, and under the feet of the walker lies hard, impassable, waterless ground, then such a person comes across a source from which a beautiful, transparent, pleasant, cooling stream flows abundantly - then will he really sit by the water and begin to philosophize about its nature? searching for where it comes from, how, why, and everything like that, which idle talkers usually talk about, namely, that a certain moisture distributed in the depths of the earth, making its way up and being compressed, becomes water, or that the veins running through the valley voids, as soon as their holes become free, pour out water? Or, having said goodbye to all reasoning, will he bow his head to the stream and apply his lips, quench his thirst, cool his tongue, satisfy his desire and thank Him who gave this grace? Therefore, imitate this thirsty one. Say: “And it is said,” as indeed it is said: “Blessed... thirsty" (Matthew 5:6), and having found out what and how many good things the Holy Spirit exudes, do the same as the prophet, "opened your mouth and attracted the spirit" (Ps 119:131), "enlarge your mouth, and fill it" (Ps 80:11), having power over the gifts. Do you want to know how many good things pour out from the source? Spirit? Immortality of the soul, the eternity of life, the Kingdom of Heaven, unceasing joy, joy that has no end. But, turning my gaze to what lies before me, I recognize the rest as unimportant. My house is filled with blessings, my treasuries are filled with Arabian gold; and perhaps soon the ambassadors from Egypt will come and warn us to raise our hands to God and the kingdoms of the earth will sing a victory song with us. To Him who calls all into His kingdom, to Him be glory and dominion forever! You might be interested in: