Омилия XV 42 .

“I have listened to you in a pleasant time, and in the day of salvation I have helped you” (Is. 49:8), God said through Isaiah. Therefore, it will be good today to turn to your love the words of the apostles: “This is a favorable time, this is the day of salvation: let us therefore put aside dark works, and put on the weapons of light. Let us walk gracefully in the days” (2 Cor. 6:2; Rom. 13:12) - since the memory of the saving Passion of Christ is approaching, the new and great and spiritual Easter is approaching, the palm tree (victorious reward) for dispassion, the beginning of the next century. This was announced by Lazarus, ascending from among those in hell; by the sole command and word of God, who has power over life and death, the four-day-old man rose from the dead. And, by the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, children and good-natured people sing the praises of the One who delivers from death, raises souls from hell, and bestows eternal life on the soul and body. And if anyone desires life and wants to see good days, “let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking flattery. Let him turn away from evil and do good” (Ps. 33:13-15). Evil is gluttony, drunkenness and debauchery; evil is love of money, greed and injustice; evil is vanity, insolence and pride. Let everyone avoid such evils and do good. What is good? - These are abstinence, fasting, chastity and righteousness, mercy and generosity, love and humility, only with which we can worthily participate in the Lamb of God slain for us and thereby accept the guarantee of immortality, which we will preserve with firm hope of the inheritance promised to us in heaven. But perhaps you will say that good is difficult to do and that virtues are more difficult than evil deeds. – I don’t look at it that way: for a drunkard suffers more troubles from himself than a temperate one, and a libertine than a chaste one; one who hungers for wealth rather than one who lives with what he has; and who desires to gain glory for himself, rather than he who spends his time in obscurity. But since, because of our love for pleasure, virtues seem to us more difficult than evil deeds, we will restrain ourselves: “The kingdom of heaven is taken by force,” says the Lord, “and those who use force take it away” (Matthew 11:12). So, in order to remove evil lusts from our souls and instead introduce the order of virtues, all of us - noble and simple, princes and subjects, rich and poor - need prudence and sobriety. And the farmer and the tanner, and the builder, and the tailor, and the weaver, and in general all those who, through their efforts and the labor of their hands, earn their living, are truly blessed, if only they reject from their souls the lust of wealth, glory and pleasure, for they are the poor in spirit, of whom the Kingdom of Heaven is, which is why the Lord said about them: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). The poor in spirit are those who modestly, without arrogance and without seeking pleasure for the soul or mind, endure poverty either by will or in a noble frame of mind, although they endure poverty involuntarily. The rich, those who enjoy and delight themselves with temporary glory, and all those who perceive in their souls the desire for such things, are close to more terrible passions and fall into greater, more numerous and disgusting snares of the devil. For the passion to get rich does not leave the one who has become rich, but it grows even worse, demanding even more than before. Such are the lustful, the greedy, the dissolute, and the incontinent - their vices become even worse, and are not rejected by them. Those in power and glory also have the power to commit even greater untruths and lawlessness. Therefore, it is difficult for those in power to be saved and for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. “As much as you can believe in Me, I accept glory from men, and do not seek glory from God alone,” says the Lord (John 5:44). But let him not worry who is rich and noble or who is a prince, for he can, if he wants, seek glory from God, and by restraining himself and putting an end to doing evil, he can perform great good deeds and eradicate great crimes not only from himself, but also from many others who themselves do not want to do this. He can act truthfully and chastely not only himself, but he can also restrain in many ways someone who wants to live dissolutely and unrighteously; can not only make himself submissive to the Gospel of Christ and his words, but also to subdue the daring to the Church of Christ and those who rule it in Christ, acting not only with the power and authority that he received from God, but also with his own example in all good deeds for those less than him, for the subject imitates the ruler. Everyone needs diligence, effort and attentiveness, but not everyone to the same extent, because for those who are clothed with fame, wealth and power and who diligently apply themselves to the sciences and the possession of wisdom, effort and diligence are needed to a greater extent if they want to be saved, since they have become, as it were, more indomitable. From the Gospel of Christ, read yesterday and today, this becomes obvious. For when the miracle happened over Lazarus and when Christ clearly revealed that He is God, the people were convinced and believed, and some princes, i.e. The scribes and Pharisees were so far from the faith that they recklessly plotted evil against Him and, out of madness, wanted to put to death the One who, through what he said and through what he created, revealed himself to be the Lord of life and death. For would not everyone say that they could easily understand that He is equal to the Father: when Christ lifted up His eyes to heaven and said: “Father, I give You praise, because You heard Me.” For He Himself explains at the same time: “I knew that you always obey Me: but for the sake of the people standing around, I cut them down, so that they may have faith, because You sent Me” (John 11:41-42). In order for them to know that He is equal to God, appears from the Father and does not oppose Him in anything, but works miracles at the will of the Father, He raised His eyes to the Father in front of everyone and addressed these words to Him, so that they would understand that He, Who speaks on earth, is equal to the Most High Father, Who is in heaven. For the meeting preceded both the beginning of the creation of man, who was about to come into being, and now the re-creation of man in the person of Lazarus. But there, intending to create man, the Father said to the Son: “Let us make man” (Gen. 1:26), and the Son listened to the Father, and thus man came into life. Here, now, when the Son spoke, the Father listened, and thus Lazarus came to life. Do you see equal honor and equal advice here? The image of the prayer was for the sake of the people present, but its words were not words of prayer, but of power and autocracy: “Lazarus, come out” (11:43) - and immediately the four-day-old dead man appeared to Him alive, so were they not one: the command of the Living One and the prayer of the Life-Giving One? He exclaimed with a great voice, and this was for the sake of those who were coming, for He could not only resurrect him with a moderate voice and will alone, but also when he was far away and when the stone lay on the tomb. But He came to the tomb and spoke to those present, and they took the stone away and felt the stench (of decay), and He cried out with a great voice and called on him, and then he was resurrected; all this so that through their own eyes, for, standing before the coffin, they saw, and through their own sense of smell, for they smelled the stench of the dead man, since it was four days old, and through their own touch, for with their own hands they touched first the stone, taking it away from the coffin, then to the shroud and to the master on the head, untying them, and through their own hearing of the voice of the Lord, which reached the ears of everyone, - they all knew and believed that He is the One who calls “the things that are out of the things that are not” (Rom. 4:17), Who bears all things by the word of His power, and Who in the beginning with one word created everything from the things that are not into the things that are. Thus, as a result of everything that happened, the common people believed in Him so much that they not only had faith in silence, but began to preach His Divinity in both deed and word. For after the resurrection of the four-day-old Lazarus, the Lord, having found a donkey prepared in advance by the Disciples, as the Evangelist Matthew says (Matthew 21:2-3), and sitting on it, entered Jerusalem, according to the prophecy of Zechariah, who predicted: “Fear not, daughters of Zion; Behold, your King is coming to you, righteous and saving, He is meek and always on the yoke and the young stallion” (Zechariah 9:9). The Prophet with these words revealed that this prophesied King is the only true King of Zion. For your King, he says, is not terrible to behold, and not cruel in any way and doing evil, leading behind him shield-bearers and swordsmen, or a multitude of foot soldiers and horsemen, living by greed and demanding taxes and taxes, slavery and service, which are both low and harmful, but His sign is humility, poverty and modesty, for He enters sitting on a donkey, not leading any human crowds. Therefore, He is the only righteous King who saves in righteousness; and He is meek, having deliberate meekness, as the Lord Himself says about Himself: “Learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29). So, having raised Lazarus from the dead, the King, riding a donkey, thus entered Jerusalem; yet all the people: children, men, elders, laying out their clothes and taking date branches, which is a symbol of victory, immediately flocked to Him as to the Life-Giver and Conqueror of death, prostrated themselves, and then followed Him, not only outside the city, but also to the most holy place, chanting in agreement: “Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest” (Matthew 21:9). The song of praise “Hosanna” is sent to God, for in translation it means: “Lord save.” By adding “in the highest,” they showed that He is sung by heavenly Angels not only on earth and not only from people, but also in heaven. By chanting Him in this way, they only proclaim Him as God, but they also oppose the sinister and godless plans of the scribes and Pharisees and the murderous pretexts put forward by them. For they madly said about Him: “This Man is not from God, and because He does many signs, if we do not take Him and kill Him, then everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away our place and language” (John 11:47-48). What are the people saying? - “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” thereby demonstrating that He is from God and the Father and came in the name of the Father, just as the Lord Himself said about Himself: “I came in the name of My Father, I breathed out from God, and I go” (John 5:43, 16:27-28). By the saying: “Blessed is the coming kingdom... of our Father David” (Mark 11:10), means the kingdom in which, according to prophecy, the pagans, and especially the Romans, are destined to believe 43 . For this King is not only the hope of Israel, but also the hope of the pagans, according to the prophecy of Jacob, “bind your lot to the vine,” i.e. the people punishing Himself from the Jews, “and bring your donkey to the stallion’s stallion” (Gen. 49:11). The branches of the grapes are the Lord’s Disciples, to whom the Lord said: “I am the Vine—but you are the birth” (John 15:5). Through this birth, the Lord attached to Himself “His donkey stallion,” i.e. The new Israel of the Gentiles, who by grace became the sons of Abraham. If this Kingdom is the hope of the pagans, then, they seemed to say, why should we, who believe in Him, be afraid of the Romans? So, not with their minds, but according to the concept of goodness, 44, in infancy, inspired by the Holy Spirit, they sang to the Lord the most perfect and complete hymn, testifying that He, as God, revived the four-day-old dead man Lazarus. And the scribes and Pharisees, seeing such miracles and those youths singing in the church and saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David,” were indignant and said to the Lord: “Have you heard what these are saying?” (Matthew 21:16). How well could the Lord say to them: “Don’t you see, don’t hear, don’t you understand?!” - Therefore, He, who accepts the appropriate chanting, turning to those who reproached Him, could say: Yes, in an invisible way I hear those who talk about Me, as well as those who sing of Me, but if they are silent, the stone will cry out. You still do not recognize the prophecy: “Out of the mouth of a child and of those who piss, you have brought praise” (Ps. 8:3, Matt. 21:16). - For it was a great miracle that both simpletons, children, and ignoramuses perfectly theologized God who became incarnate for us, receiving the angelic hymn on their lips. For just as the Angels at the Nativity of the Lord sang: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth” (Luke 11:14), so these now, at his entry into Jerusalem, sang a similar hymn, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest.” But, brethren, let us also be as good-natured as infants, 45 - both youths and elders, as well as princes and subjects - so that we, being strengthened by God, may receive the trophy and bear the symbol of victory not only over evil passions, but also over invisible and visible enemies, and so that by the grace of the Word we may receive timely help. Because that one young lot, on which the Lord deigned to sit for our sake, foreshadowed His subjugation of the nations, among whom we are all located, both princes and subjects. Just as in Christ Jesus, as the Divine Apostle says, there is neither male nor female, neither Greek nor Jew, but all are one (Gal. 3:28), so in Him there are neither princes nor subjects, but by His grace we are all one by faith in Him; we are contained in the Body of His Church, having one Head - His; and we are gathered into one spirit by the grace of the All-Holy Spirit; and we all received one baptism; and the same hope in all; and our God is one, above all, and through all, and in all of us. Let us therefore love one another, and accept one another, and take care of one another, as members of one another. For the sign by which we are known that we are His disciples is love, and the paternal inheritance that He left us from this world is love. And the last admonition that He gave us, ascending to His Father, confirms our love for each other. Let us try to follow the Father’s admonition and not reject His inheritance, nor the sign 46 that He gave us, so as not to reject us - neither sonship, nor blessing, nor discipleship in relation to Him, and in such a way that we do not happen to fall away from the hope placed and exclude ourselves from the spiritual bride. But just as before the Passion of the Savior, on the way to Jerusalem for the descending Lord, not only the people, but, truly, the Princes of the nations (I’m talking about the Apostles of the Lord), spread their clothes, so we, both the princes and the subordinates, will spread these clothes inherent in us, namely, our flesh, punishing its desires for the spirit; so that we may not only be worthy to see and worship the Saving Passion of Christ and the Holy Resurrection, but also enjoy participation with Him. “If we were conformed,” says the Apostle, “to the likeness of His death, then we will, of course, also be resurrected” (Rom. 6:5), which may we all meet - with the grace and love of mankind of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, to Whom befits all glory, honor and worship with His Beginning Father and the Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:177–188. Homilia XV. Dicta in Dominica Palmarum. Lat. lane “and especially the Jews” - probably according to different readings. Original: “infancy in evil.” Original: “infancy in evil.” Those. be as gentle as babies. Lat. lane "kingdoms", but such a reading is erroneous. You might be interested in: