Омилия XVI 47 .

About the Economy of the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and about the grace-filled gifts that resulted from this for those who truly believe in Him; and about why God, Who could free man from the tyranny of the devil in numerous ways, used precisely this economy. This Conversation was said on Holy and Great Saturday 48 The eternal and indescribable Word of God and the Almighty and Almighty Son could, even without becoming incarnate, in every possible way deliver man from corruption, death and slavery to the devil - for everything is held together by the word of His power and everything is obedient to His Divine power, as Job says: “Nothing is impossible for Him”; because the power of the Creator cannot be resisted by the power of creation, and there is nothing that would be stronger than the Almighty. But more consistent with our nature and weakness, and most responsive to the Perfecter, was the method that was due to the Incarnation of the Word of God, as a method that also contains the principle of justice 49, without which nothing is accomplished by God. “God is righteous and loves righteousness, and there is no unrighteousness in Him” (Ps. 10:7), according to the Prophet Psalmist. But since man at the beginning was rightly abandoned by God, because he was the first to abandon Him, and voluntarily flowed to the leader of evil (the devil), trusting him, who fraudulently advised the opposite (of God’s commandments), then he was rightly given to him; and thus, through the envy of the evil one and through the just permission of the Good (God), man introduced death into the world, which, due to the superior malice of the evildoer, became extreme: because not only did it become natural, but also, according to his action, every death was violent. So, since we were justly handed over into slavery to the devil and death, it was, of course, necessary that the return of the human race to freedom and life should be accomplished by God according to the principle of righteousness. But not only by Divine Justice was man given into slavery to the devil who envied him, but the devil himself, having removed righteousness from himself, lawlessly becoming a lover of power and autocracy, or better yet, tyranny, opposed to truth, acted against man with violence. So, God was pleased first to overthrow the devil by the principle of truth, precisely as he is its violator, and then by force (to overthrow him) on the day of the Resurrection and Future Judgment; for this is the best order: for truth to precede power, and this is a matter of truly divine and good dominion, and not of tyranny, where truth could only follow power. A well-known parallel occurs: - just as from the beginning the murderer the devil rose up against us out of envy and hatred, so the Author of life fought for us out of an abundance of philanthropy and goodness; just as he lawlessly thirsted for the destruction of God’s creation, so the Creator strongly desired to save the work of His creation; just as he, acting in lawlessness and deceit, brought about victory for himself and the fall of man, so the Deliverer, in righteousness and wisdom, inflicted a complete defeat on the leader of evil and brought about the renewal of His creation. So, God could have acted by force, but did not do this, but acted in the way that suited Him - namely, acting by the principle of truth 50. On the basis of this, the very principle of Truth (Justice) acquired special significance, precisely for the reason that it was preferred by the One who possesses invincible power; It was also fitting to teach people so that through works they would demonstrate righteousness now in this perishable time, so that during immortality, having received strength, they would have it unlost. Moreover, it was necessary that the vanquished should become victorious over the victorious, and that the outwitted should be outwitted. For this, it was necessary and necessary that a person become not involved in sin. And this was impossible. For – “no one is without sin,” says Scripture, “even if his life is but one day” (Job 14:4–5), and – “Whoever boasts of having a pure heart” (Prov. 20:9). And no one is sinless except God. For this reason, the one who exists from God, God the Word, who exists from Him from eternity, but also abides in Him - because it is impossible and unthinkable to ever imagine God without the Word - and existing with Him, being the One God - for, just as the sun’s radiance is not another light, but precisely the light of this sun, nor the sun’s ray is a manifestation of any other sun, but definitely one... 51, so, for this reason, the one sinless Son and Word of God became the Son of Man, unchangeable in Divinity, blameless in humanity: “Who,” as Isaiah foretold, “thou shalt not commit sin; We are pregnant with sins, as David testified about himself, or better yet, about every person. Because carnal desire, being independent of the will and clearly hostile to the law of the spirit - although among the chaste, through the power of will, it is kept in slavery and relaxed only for the purpose of procreation - somehow from the beginning introduces condemnation, being corruption, and is called so, and gives birth, of course, for decay, and is a passionate movement of a person who is not aware of the honor that our nature has received from God, but then became like animals. Therefore, God not only became Man, but was also born from the Holy Virgin - the Virgin of the highest evil thoughts arising from the flesh - as was predicted by the Prophets - in Whom it was not the will of the flesh that produced the conception, but the influx of the Holy Spirit; the annunciation (of the Archangel) and faith (of the Blessed Virgin) were the reason for the indwelling of God, and not consent and the experience of passionate lust; for something of this kind was completely removed from the Most Holy Virgin by Her prayer and spiritual joy. For - “Behold the Servant of the Lord, be unto me according to thy word,” said the immaculate Virgin, who conceived and gave birth to the evangelist Angel: so that the Conqueror of the devil - Man, being the God-man, would receive only the root (i.e. only the very nature) of the human race, but not sin, being the only one who was not conceived in iniquities, and not pregnant with sins, that is, in the carnal pleasure of passion, and unclean thoughts of (human) nature, polluted as a result of crime, in order to be in the full sense of the word completely pure and immaculate, and not because for His own sake He had a need for this purity, but for our sake He is all wise received - and thus was truly called the New Adam, by no means aging, and recreated the old Adam in Himself and through Himself, and kept young forever, being strong to completely drive away old age. For this first Adam, in the beginning, was created by God immaculate and was young, until he voluntarily trusted the devil, and turning to carnal pleasures and falling into the filth of sin, grew old and fell into a state that was contrary to nature. Therefore, not only with his hand did the Lord miraculously renew it, but he also assimilates it in Himself, not only taking on human nature, saving it from the fall, but also completely putting on it in an incomprehensible way and inseparably uniting with it, and being born, being God and at the same time Man; having, in fact, been born of a woman in order to exalt that nature, created by Him, but stolen through the malice of the evil one, but of the Virgin (born) in order to make a new man; for if He came from a seed, then He would not be the Head and Leader of a new and by no means ageless life, and being of an old coinage, it would not be possible for Him to perceive in Himself the fullness of pure Divinity, and to make (His) flesh an inexhaustible source of sanctification, so as to wash away the ancestral defilement with an excess of power, and become sufficient for the sanctification of all subsequent ones. Therefore, it was not an Angel or a man, but the Lord Himself to such an extent that He deigned to save us and recreate us by mercy, remaining unchangeably God, and becoming perfect, in our image - Man. Thus, he is born from the Holy Virgin, the only one from all eternity innocent of sin, the only one who exists, worthy of in no way being abandoned by God. And before knowing evil, He chooses good, as it is said in the prophecy; and lives a completely blameless life. He who justly and deservedly did not deserve to be abandoned by God, since He Himself did not abandon God, as the first Adam abandoned Him, having transgressed the commandment, but He, being the Executor of every God’s commandment, of all the law of God, was thereby justly free from the slavery of the devil. And thus, the devil, who once defeated man, is defeated by Man, and the once victorious nature created in the image of God, and for this reason was very arrogant, is overthrown from his arrogance, and, behold, man rises from spiritual and true death; the death that he died immediately after he ate from the forbidden tree; death, which God threatened Adam and Eve before disobedience, telling them: “If you take away the day from it, you will die” (Gen. 2:17); therefore, after disobedience, we were condemned to the death of the body, since then God said this to Adam: “You are earth, and you will go back to earth” (Gen. 3:19). For just as the abandonment of the body by the soul and its separation from it is the death of the body, so the abandonment of the soul by God and its separation from Him is the death of the soul, although in another way it remains immortal: for although it, being separated from God, becomes vile and inextricable, even more than a corpse, but at the same time, it does not dissolve after death, as happens with the body, because it has its existence independent of the composition of the elements. The same can be seen by anyone in inanimate things: for those that are simpler are also more durable. Therefore, the rational soul, being separated from God, not only becomes inert in relation to good activity, but also in itself becomes active in a bad way, living, unhappy, to such an extent disorderly (and then also continuing to live in separation from the body) that, finally, during the judgment, together with the body, in an insoluble and unbearable connection, it will be given over to eternal torment, prepared for the devil and his angels; because they are all dead, although active in evil, because they were rightly rejected from God, Who is Life Itself. The first who brought about this death was Satan, as rightly, as a result of disobedience, rejected from God - who then, through malicious advice, having drawn us into disobedience to God, made us along with himself participants in it. But Christ, by His life as a man, having demonstrated all obedience through works, freed our nature from this death. It was fitting, of course, not only that very human nature that was perceived in Him, but also the entire human race to be immortalized and brought into communion with this life, which over time and for the body will be the intercessor of eternal life, just as (on the contrary) this death of the soul was the cause of death for the body. Therefore, it was both very necessary and very useful both to show this economy and to present His way of life for imitation: for God is subject to contemplation for imitation of Him, both for man and for good Angels. Since from the height of this contemplation we once fell asleep, depriving ourselves of this, then, out of an abundance of love for mankind, the highest God descends to us, without at all diminishing His Divinity; and, having lived with us, presents Himself as an example of a return, upward path to life. But not only this: He also becomes our Teacher, with a word showing the path leading to life, and with the greatest miracles making the words of the teaching reliable. And thus human nature is justified: that it does not have evil (corruption) from itself; God is also justified: that he is not the culprit and creator of any evil. For if the co-eternal Word of the Father had not become man, then it would be obvious that by nature sin itself is in man, since since the beginning of time there has not been a man free from sin, and the basis for the reproach could be attributed to the Creator, allegedly He is not the Creator of good, or He Himself is not good; also - that He is also an unjust Judge, as having unjustly condemned a person who was already created by Him as deserving of condemnation. Therefore, God perceives human nature in order to show to what extent it is beyond sin and so pure that it was possible to unite it with Himself by hypostasis, and so that it can inseparably co-eternity with Him; and thus, in fact, make it clear to everyone that God is good and righteous, and the Creator of good and the observer (Ephogos) of a just verdict. For although Satan and the angels who retreated with him fell from heaven, however, on the basis of the Angels who retained their rank, one can see that the evil in the Angels is not by nature, but on the contrary, that by nature there is good in them, and their Creator, by nature, is Good, by which Satan, by a righteous verdict, is condemned to eternal darkness, as having become, by his own will, the author of evil, by that, that he has shied away from the beautiful Good. After Adam fell, by deviating from good to evil, there was no one who was steadfast to evil, and after Adam no such person was found. Therefore, the New Adam appeared - Christ, Who, as Isaiah says, did not create sin and did not think, how much more - and did not say (anything sinful), for in His mouth no deceit was found. He did not say: “Out of his mouth,” but “in His mouth,” in order to make clear the impeccability of (His) thoughts, as in another place he (Isaiah) says that before knowing evil, He chose good. And thus, God was justified, as was said above, and was shown to be truly good and the Creator of good deeds, since man was created sinless, and in Christ the purity that appeared was assigned by Him to human nature itself. So, since it was fitting to reveal and make clear this ineffable economy, God sends John from the desert, symbolically called the Forerunner, baptizing those who come to him and proclaiming that they would be ready to believe in the Coming One, who, he says, baptizes them in the Holy Spirit and fire, which, at the same time, is as much greater than him as the Holy Spirit is superior to water. For He is the Lord, John testifies, and the Creator of all things, and the Ruler of Angels and men, and His spiritual field is all people, and the winnowing shovel, i.e. service forces are in the hand and in the power of the One Who Comes Himself. Not only does the Lord's Forerunner testify on his own behalf, saying that such is the One who comes, but he also brings Isaiah, who foretold Him as the Lord, and declares himself a servant sent to announce His coming and to admonish the believers, so that they prepare to receive (Him), saying: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord” (Luke 3:4; John 1:23). It testifies, moreover, that even before he was conceived and born, He (already) was. “He who came after me was before me,” he says (John 1:15), although His conception and birth were later than John’s. So, if He was first, then not according to the flesh, but, therefore, before He became Flesh. By adding, he testifies that He is the Lamb of God, who took away the sin of the world, foretelling that He is the Sacrifice and the slaughter for the remission of our sins; but it also testifies that He is the Most High God, and came down from heaven, and is infinitely powerful, just as He received the Spirit from the Father beyond measure. And He promises eternal life to those who believe in Him; non-believers are threatened with the inevitable wrath of God. Having been questioned by his disciples about himself, he says: “It is fitting for him to grow, but for me to grow small” (John 3:30). And showing why not only he himself, but also everything is as inferior to Him as the earth is less than the super-heavenly, he says: “He who comes from above is above all” (John 3:31); beyond the ranks of all, and preserves the Father’s perfection in its entirety, like the Beloved Son. And again: “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things in His hand. Believe in the Son and have eternal life: but whoever does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:35-36). So, Christ comes to baptism, firstly, in fulfillment of obedience towards Him who sent John, as He Himself said: “For it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15); secondly, for the sake of His appearance; moreover, in order to lay the foundation for the path of salvation and make it reliable for those who follow and are baptized; in addition, He Himself set an example and presented that (in this) the Holy Spirit is given, and He established baptism as a cleansing medicine for the defilements that appeared in us as a result of passionate birth and life. He Himself, even as a Man, did not need cleansing, as He was born of an immaculate Virgin, and throughout His life He was not involved in sin, but for our sake He was born and for our sake He is cleansed (in baptism). Therefore, he is baptized by John, and as he ascends from the water, the heavens are opened to Him, and, behold, then the voice of the Father is heard: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), and like a dove, the Spirit of God descends on Him, revealing to those present the one witnessed from above. And thus He becomes manifest as the true Son; the Father is made manifest in heaven as the true Father; The Holy Spirit also becomes manifest, proceeding by being from the Father, but by nature resting on the Son of the Father; present in the water of baptism is His grace and His Father and Spirit, so that, in His image, then assimilated in those who are baptized, this grace would divinely regenerate them and renew and mysteriously recreate them, as being no longer from the old Adam, from whom they brought upon themselves a curse, but having been born from the New Adam, from whence they would have the blessing, no longer being children of the flesh, but children of God, who are not of blood, nor of the desires of the flesh, not from the desires of men, but from God. For although for the sake of exercise, for testing, for correction, for comprehending the meagerness of this age, they are also burdened with the weight of this perishing flesh, however, they are clothed in Christ, for the purpose of making it possible for them, showing diligence, to become participants in His way of life here, and after leaving here to become partakers of His bliss and radiance and incorruptibility; and just as through the one Adam, by the way of origin, the punishment of death passed on to the descendants, so from the one God-man Word the grace of eternal and heavenly life passes on to all those reborn by Him. Therefore, heaven is open for them to receive them at the proper time, if, fed by faith in Him and the righteousness corresponding to faith, they become heirs of God, in order to receive power and be joint heirs of Christ, becoming participants in His ineffable life and immortality, and remaining with Him inseparably and enjoying His glory; for previously heaven was closed to us and we were the sons of wrath, which consisted in the fact that we were justly abandoned by God as a result of our sin and unbelief; but for the sake of the sinlessness of our nature in Christ and obedience to God - we have become children of favor, united in one with Christ, and beloved sons and heaven is open for us, so that the Spirit of God may descend on us and abide in us, and at the proper time we will be taken up by Him to heaven, when He who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken our mortal bodies, through His Spirit dwelling in us, transforming the body of humility ours and making it conformable to the body of the glory of Christ, through whom we were enriched with immortality and called up to heaven, where above all beginning and power, at the right hand of the Majesty, our nature is enthroned. Oh, the depth of the wealth and wisdom and love of God! To such an extent God knew how to remake our crime, which occurred through voluntary evasion (from Him), into an incomparably better one, by His wisdom, and strength, and love for mankind! After all, if the Son of God had not descended from heaven, it would have been hopeless for us to return to heaven; If He had not become incarnate and suffered in the flesh, and had not been resurrected and ascended for our sake, we would not have known the abyss of God’s love for us: for if even at the time when we were wicked, He had not become incarnate for us and had not suffered Suffering, we, who were raised by Him to such a height, would not have been restrained from base pride. Now, when we have brought nothing from ourselves, we are raised to a height, we remain in humility and, consciously looking at the magnitude of the promise and good deed, we always become more humble, which is where salvation lies. So, the Son of God became man in order to demonstrate to what height He raises us; so that we do not be proud, as if by our own strength we are winners; so that, being the Sublime, truly be a Mediator, uniting into one, through each (of these two natures of His God-manhood), both parts; to loosen the bonds of sin; to cleanse the filth that came from the sin of the flesh; to show God's love for us; to show to what depths of evil we have fallen, so that for our salvation there had to be an incarnation of God; to become an example for us of humility, which includes the flesh and suffering, and which is the healing medicine of pride; to show that our nature was created good by God; to become the Chief and Certifier of the Resurrection and eternal life, destroying hopelessness; in order to become the Son of Man and become a participant in mortality, to make people sons of God, making them sharers of divine immortality; to show how much human nature, above all creation, was created in the image of God: for he had such closeness to God that it became possible for him to come together with Him into one Hypostasis; to honor the flesh (and even its mortal nature), so that arrogant spirits do not consider themselves and would not be considered more worthy of honor than a person, and idolize themselves because of their incorporeality and apparent immortality; in order to combine people and God, who are separated by nature, by Himself by nature becoming the Greater Mediator. And what is the need to say a lot - if God’s Word had not become incarnate, then neither the Father would have appeared as truly Father, nor the Son as truly Son; neither the Holy Spirit, and Himself originating from the Father, nor God in essence and hypostases, but would appear to the creation as a certain Power, exactly as the crazy ancient sages said, and now followers of the views of Varlaam and Akindinus. So, with this the Lord revealed Himself and His Economy, showed how much, as we said, this was possible; He also revealed the Father as the truly existing and highest Father. He showed those who wished, both at that time and for future generations, the path of ascent (or “return”) to Him, motivating and calling and guiding with His own way of life and teaching and miracles and prophecy, or better yet, with wisdom and knowledge that is truly divine and higher-natural, for which nothing is hidden, neither the future nor the present invisible movement in the depths of the heart. So, those who listened (to Him) had to be made free from the slavery of the devil; since man, having experienced the wrath of God (the wrath of God consisted in the fact that man was rightly abandoned by the Good), was handed over into captivity to the devil, then man had to be reconciled with the Creator, for otherwise it would not have been possible to free him from this slavery. Therefore, there was a need for a Sacrifice, reconciling us with the Highest Father and sanctifying those who were defiled by communication with the evil one. This means that there was a need for a cleansing and pure Sacrifice, but there was also a need for a Priest, and that too – pure and sinless. There was also a need for us in resurrection, not only in resurrection in spirit, but also in body, for the sake of future people, in the resurrection that will come later at the proper time. So, it was necessary not only to grant us this liberation and resurrection, but also to certify (or “guarantee”); in addition, to grant us restoration (or “ascension”) and endless citizenship in heaven. There was a need for all this not only for those who were at that time and for future people, but much more for everyone (before) born from the beginning of time: because there were many more people in hell than there will be people in the future, many more people than those who will believe and be saved; Therefore, I think, Christ came at the end of the ages. Thus, there was a need for the Gospel to be preached in hell and this great Dispensation (salvation) to be revealed, and complete liberation from the captive demons and sanctification and future promise to be granted. So, of course, Christ had to descend into hell, but all this was in the spirit of justice and truth (meta dikaeosinis), without which God does nothing. In addition to all that has been said, it was necessary to rightly outwit the deceiving devil and nullify the wealth he had accumulated, which he acquired through deception, while defeating with wisdom the evil in which the evil one had arrogantly achieved perfection; and he would not have been knocked down from his pride if he had been broken by Divine power, and not by wisdom and justice deprived of dominion. Since all people, having strayed into evil in deed or word, or thought, or all or two of these, have polluted the purity given by God to human nature, there was a need for sanctification, and sanctification from the very beginning is accomplished through the sacrifice of each individual person to God; the sacrifice had to be pure, but we did not have to offer such a sacrifice to God; therefore, the one pure Christ appeared and offered Himself to the Father as a Sacrifice for us and the First Fruits, so that by looking at Him and believing Him, and through obedience to Him, those united with Him, through (or - “for the sake of”) Him, would appear before the face of God, and having received mercy, all would be sanctified. This is what the Lord says in the Gospel: “For these I will sanctify myself, that they also may be holy indeed” (John 17:19). Because not only the Sacrifice, but also the Bishop offering the Sacrifice had to be pure and sinless, as the Apostle says: “Such is a Bishop who is fit for us, reverent, gentle, without defilement, excommunicated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens” (Heb. 7:26). So, for the sake of this and the like, the Word of God not only became Flesh, and dwelt in our midst, visible on earth and circulating among people, but also took on flesh, such as we have, and although completely pure, it was, however, mortal and painful, and with it, as a godly “bait,” having caught the incipiently evil serpent with the Cross, freed the enslaved entire human race from it; for when the tyrant fell, everything that was tyrannized was freed; and this is exactly what the Lord Himself says in the Gospels: the strong man is bound, and his vessels are plundered. What was captured by Christ was liberated and justified and filled with light and enriched with divine gifts. Therefore, David sings: “Having ascended to the heights” - to the heights of the Cross, of course, or - if you want - to heaven - “he took captivity captive, and gave gifts to people” (Ps. 67:19). Thus, therefore, through the Passion and the Flesh, He put the devil to flight; Offering her to God and the Father as a Sacrifice, as an immaculate and all-sacred Slaughter - oh, indescribable generosity! - reconciled us with God, who became with Him (the God-Man) of one kind. Since He raised passions according to the will of the Father, He became an example to us, who, through their disobedience, destroyed themselves, but through the obedience of Christ were saved. He revealed that His death is much more precious than the immortality inherent in the devil, worse than ten thousand deaths and subject to future punishment, because His death was the culprit of truly immortal life, and not the second and eternal death, but it (i.e., the death of Christ) abides in the heavenly tabernacles with Christ; for He Himself, having risen three days from the dead, and after presenting Himself alive to the Disciples, ascending into heaven and remaining immortal, granted us resurrection and immortality in heaven, eternal and unshakable and truly blessed life and made it certain; by the single death of His Flesh and its single resurrection, healing us from the deep death for us (soul and body) and freeing us from the deep captivity, namely, the captivity of the soul and body. For the evil one became a dead spirit when, as a result of conscious sin, according to his will, he was rightly abandoned by God, True Life; being full of evil and an envious, deceitful, and incipiently evil prince, he could not bear the fact that human life was spent in a place of pleasure, I say - in paradise - but by deceiving him with disastrous advice, he made him a partner in both sin and death in the spirit. This same death of the spirit was necessarily followed by the death of the body; and thus the evil one, through his own single death, brought us deep death, and having fallen - even below himself - he, imagining himself, seemed great and lofty, as if he had outwitted us by plan and enslaved us, and, like an immortal, alas, he seemed to us like a god; and even after death, having become the owner of our souls, as abandoned (by God) and having brought them to hell, he imprisoned them in a prison that seemed insoluble. But the God who created us, taking pity on our misfortune, deigned to descend to where we had fallen, in order to call us from there, as the only free man who appeared among the dead, descending there in a living spirit; but more than that - illuminating with Divine light and emitting life-giving power, in order to enlighten those sitting in darkness, and to revive in spirit there (in hell) those who believed in Him, and to also revive the bodies of everyone on that day on which he established to revive and judge the entire human race, as Corypheus teaches us through the Epistle of the Apostles: “For this is the gospel to preach to the dead, and judgment to come.” For they will take after man in the flesh, but they will live according to God in the Spirit” (1 Peter 4:6). A little higher in the same epistle, showing who, and how, preached the Gospel to the dead in hell, he says: “Christ alone suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, for having been put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: for them and those who are in spiritual prison (i.e., to the souls of the dead from eternity) came preaching” ( 1 Peter 3:18–19). So, just as the Evil One, through His single death in the spirit, brought about a complete death for us (i.e., the death of both soul and body), so the Good One, through His single death in the body, cured the complete death in us, and through the single resurrection of His Body, gave us a complete resurrection, through (His) bodily death, deposing the one who, by virtue of death, had power over ours. soul and body, in both ways freeing us from his tyranny. The evil one takes on the form of a serpent in order to deceive man through this, and the Word of God perceives human nature in order to outwit the deceiver through it, and He perceives it as unapproachable to deception and pure, and preserves it to the end, offering it to the Father as a Sacrifice (Firstfruits), for the sake of sanctifying us through our own human nature. If the Word of God took on a body not subject to death and suffering, then how could the devil, the very essence of evil, be deceived and touch Him? That is why he did not touch until he learned that Christ has flesh subject to suffering (Paphiton soma); for, having fasted in the desert for forty days and without fasting - for even if he had a body capable of experiencing suffering, but then he would not have done it and would not have endured it if the power of the Almighty, combined with the body, had not allowed this - He, as the Gospel says, then became hungry. Then, for the first time, the evil one, daring and approaching, brought temptations, trying to penetrate His soul. Since he was rejected with force, and having approached again, tempting with all kinds of pleasure in general, he was powerfully defeated, then, weakened and defeated and ashamed, he fled and retreated. Why did the tempter, who dared to proceed because the body (the God-man) was so painful, turn out to be defeated? – Because he encouraged a sinless Man to commit sin. So, he flees in this way, shamefully repulsed, but Christ did not weaken in his pursuit, expelling him from the souls of those possessed by him, healing those possessed by diseases with a single command, raising the dead, not only those who had recently died, but even those already decomposed; moreover, preaching repentance and declaring that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and leading souls to faith and to a way of life opposite to what the adversary taught; then, converting and accepting sinners; and not only this, but also granting His Disciples power over demons. Was this really bearable for Satan and the angels who retreated with him? Would he, thinking about how to crush such a force hostile to him, not do anything? Could he bear it that such a Man lived who expelled him from people and overthrew him from his many forms of tyranny over them? Therefore, behold, being furious with Christ - but since he knew from experience that This God-given Soul is unapproachable to any passions, of which he himself was the leader, and completely impervious to death, of which he, in himself, was the creator for people, while His body is subject to illness and death, then not being allowed to inflict such a death on Him (i.e., bodily death, A.A.), - he moves the souls of unfaithful Jews to kill Him, arousing in them envy and indomitable rage against Him, because Christ denounced and rejected them as evil. So, he moves and excites them to kill Him, to execution that is dishonorable and applied only to villains and wicked people, thus deeming to remove Him from the earth and make His very name blasphemed. He was boldly confident that when He died, then His soul, like the souls of all from eternity, would be imprisoned in hell. Thus, the deceiver was deceived by attacking the flesh of Christ as subject to disease and death, and, behold, against his will, he brought Light into the dark and desired underworld, and presented the Giver of life to the souls tyrannized by him through spiritual mortification; not only this, but also the Body, from which the resurrection and immortality proceeded, he mixed with the dead, hastening to consign it to death and the grave. The Lord, truly, could have destroyed these evil intentions of his, but he did not; on the contrary, he wished even more to raise the Passion for our sake, for which he became a Man. For if He were not a Man, it would not have been possible for Him to suffer; and if he had not been God, remaining dispassionate in the Divinity, he could not have accepted in the flesh for our sake such a death, thanks to which he granted us rebellion, or, better to say, resurrection and immortality; and it would not be believed (if He were not God) that He really could not experience suffering, but that He voluntarily deigned to suffer in order to show that His humility had to liberate and raise us up, and teaching, in fact, to reveal that He must fight for righteousness to death, and to proclaim to believers the power (meaning) of immortality - immortality, which will consist not only in eternal existence, but in abiding not involved in eternal destruction, - I’m talking about this terrifying torment (punishment) prepared for the devil - in a stay that will be expressed in co-eternity with the good Angels, in co-enjoyment of the beautiful and endless Kingdom. That is why, for the sake of this, He subjected Himself to death, which He did not have to, but which He underwent for our sake, so that we, who were subjected to death by virtue of duty (Epofilomenos), could free (or “redeem” - Litrosite) from slavery to the devil and death; death, I mean, both in spirit and in body, in time and in eternity; because for us—guilty because of sin—by ​​giving His blood—innocent because of sinlessness—in redemption, He redeemed us from guilt, forgiving us of our sins and tearing up their handwriting on the Cross, redeeming us from the tyranny of the devil. For he, having been seduced and, as it were, opening his mouth wide and hastening to shed That Blood of the Lady, (Which is our Redemption), not only innocent, but also rich in divine power, not only gained nothing from this, but, on the contrary, found himself tightly bound, exposed to reproach by the Cross of Christ; and thus we were plucked from his slavery and transferred to the Kingdom of the Son of God, we who were previously vessels of wrath (of God), and now, thanks to Him, became vessels of mercy (of God), who bound the strong (strong in comparison with us) devil and plundered his vessels; Who then justly, as unjustly killed at the suggestion of the devil, reigned over us, with justice mysteriously defeating the evil one, and clearly showing omnipotent power, and overcoming death in the body, and rising from the dead for three days, and ascending into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of the Father in the very flesh that he bore for us and according to which he died, making the resurrection from us certain for us. the dead and the return to heaven and the inheritance of the Kingdom - if only we, imitating Him, will overcome the prince of sin with righteousness, repelling his attacks and incitements to evil passions, and valiantly enduring his evil tricks. That is why, although the Lord revived us through divine baptism and sealed us through the grace of the Holy Spirit on the day of Redemption, He still left us with a mortal and passionate body, and although He expelled the leader of evil from human souls, He nevertheless allows him to attack from without, so that man, renewed, according to the New Testament, i.e. The Gospel of Christ, living in good deeds and repentance, and despising the pleasures of life, enduring suffering and being tempered in the attacks of the enemy, prepared himself in this century to accommodate incorruption and those future blessings that will correspond to the future century. Therefore, the faithful should rejoice in hope; and since this life will end, one must prudently and with faith expect the bliss that the future life will contain endlessly. In the understanding of faith, one must endure with steadfastness the unhappiness that this life worthily carries in the form of punishment, and through inflexibility to sin, if necessary, resist to the point of bleeding the boss, the collaborator of sin and the tricks constructed by him; because, with the exception of sin, nothing in this life, not death itself, is a disaster, although it would resemble a disaster. Therefore, behold, the face of the Reverends - they themselves caused grief (disaster) to the body; The martyrs made the death forcibly inflicted on them by others very glorious and the bringer of life and glory and the eternal and heavenly Kingdom, using it (death) valiantly and godly; because precisely for this purpose, and after He abolished death by His Resurrection, He allowed it to still remain for Him (the faithful), and along with it He allowed other disasters to happen in this world, so that a person in Christ in these circumstances, fighting for the Truth, revealed in the way of life and in the dogmas of faith of the New Testament, prepared himself (or - “was prepared”) for that future new and ageless age. So, adversities themselves bring benefits, with faith enduring them steadfastly: for the repayment of sins, for exercise, for testing, for real comprehension of the misery of this life, for the fiery motivation of spiritual thirst and the constant search for it, which endures forever, adoption and Redemption and truly new life and bliss. And since our adoption in Christ and renewal of body and soul is multifaceted, having a beginning and an end and that which is between them, then, as a beginning, He established for us the grace of baptism, which grants remission of all sins and punishment due to the curse, and is called the “Wash of Regeneration”; completion will grant the resurrection, in which the faithful hope, and the promised life in the future age 52; and between them is life according to the Gospel of Christ, with which, a person prospering in God, is nourished and grows from day to day in the knowledge of God, in righteousness, and sanctification, not much less than (the state of) the Angels 53, driving out from himself the addiction to base things, and moving the attraction from visible and carnal and temporal things - to mental and spiritual and eternal things. These three stages of renewal in Christ, the Spectator of the ineffable mysteries of the Spirit, the Chosen Vessel, the great Paul, teaching us, outlines in the Epistle to the Romans: “As we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into His death. Let us therefore be buried in Him through baptism into death” (Rom. 6:3–4). This is the beginning of our renewal: for Christ tore up the handwriting of our sins on the Cross, and through baptism made those who were buried with Him innocent. Listen to the middle that follows the beginning: “Even as Christ has risen from the dead, so we too will begin to walk in newness of life” (ibid.); and then adds the completion of renewal, revealing: “If we were conformed to the likeness of His death, then we will also have a resurrection” (Rom. 6:5). And then more clearly showing the beginning and type of renewal and adoption, he says: “We ourselves are the firstfruits of the Spirit, and we groan within ourselves, longing for sonship” (Rom. 8:23). “The firstfruits of the Spirit,” calling sanctification and the grace of the Spirit, which we receive in divine baptism, being freed from sins and renewed, and then (without any merit on our part) we are justified by the grace of Christ: for this is the firstfruits of these future blessings. Saying “waiting for adoption,” he, showing that he is not talking about adoption on the basis of baptism, but about its future and perfect and lasting adoption, adds to what was said: “deliverance (hoping) for our body” (ibid.), i.e. – deliverance from passions (or – “painfulness and passion”) and its destruction (corruptibility); for here adoption often fails; while it exists in rebirth and resurrection from the dead, it is perfect and truly lasting. In his Epistle to Philippisi, he sets out even more clearly the completion (ultimate goal) of this renewal, saying: “We are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humility, so that he may be conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:20-21); for just as Christ died in weakness and dishonor of the body, but rose again in power and divine glory, so those who have lived in Christ are sown into death, let us say again in the words of Paul, in weakness and dishonor, but will rise in power and glory, having received the body glorified and pure, which Christ had after the Resurrection, becoming the Firstfruits of the dead and the Firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. But this renewal of the body, so to speak, is now seen by faith; not by the vision itself, not by the thing itself, but by hope; and renewal itself begins, as was said, in divine baptism, through the remission of sins, but it strengthens and grows through righteousness in faith, becoming more and more renewed in the knowledge of God and in the corresponding virtues; will take its completion sometime in the future - face-to-face with the sight of God; for now he sees (as if) through a mirror and in fortune telling; Therefore, John (the Theologian), who is very beloved to Christ, unites both renewals into one, i.e. renewal of the body and renewal of the soul, “Now,” he says, “I am a child of God.” This is the beginning of adoption, but “not having appeared, that we will be: but we know that when He appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). This is the completion of the adoption of God and renewal given to us through Christ (or “thanks to Christ”); about which he also says in the Gospel: “Christ gave to those who believe in His name to be children of God, not of blood, nor of carnal lust, nor of manly lust, but born of God” (John 1:12–13); for by saying that we were not born of the flesh, but of God, He reveals rebirth and adoption through divine baptism, about which he says in the letter that we “are now children of God.” Saying that He gave us the power to be children of God, as if we were not yet such, he showed the completion of adoption; for as a newborn child has the power by nature to become wise, and potentially he is wise; over the course of the years, if at the same time the circumstances conducive to development descend, then, indeed, he will be wise - so he who was reborn through divine baptism truly received the potential power to become conformed to the body of glory of the Son of God; so that if he walks in the newness of life, living according to Christ and according to His Gospel, then in the resurrection, with the power for perfection that comes from this, no longer by faith and hope, but by the truth and the thing itself, he will take on a glorified and purest body, which the Lord Himself had after the Resurrection. The dead bodies of the wicked will also be resurrected, but not in heavenly glory, because they will not be conformed to the body of the glory of Christ; they will not see the vision of God promised to the faithful, which is also called the Kingdom of God; for it is said: “Let the wicked be lifted up, and not see the glory of the Lord” (Is. 26:10). But those born and nurtured in Christ and who have come, as far as possible, to the measure of the age of the fulfillment of Christ, will blissfully be granted divine radiance and themselves, according to what is written, will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Adam, having been a participant in the same divine radiance and luminosity before the crime, as if, truly, dressed in the solemn robe of glory, was not naked and was not ashamed of being naked, but was much more, so that it is impossible to express, adorned than those who now wear diadems, decorated with a lot of gold and precious stones. This nature of ours, shamefully exposed as a result of crime, this divine radiance and luminosity, the Word of God, having had mercy and received it out of love for mankind, showed at Tabor to those chosen from among the Disciples - again and to an even stronger degree clothed in this divine luminosity than we once were, and clearly presented what we, who believe in Him and receive perfection in Him, will be in the future century. You will find that the guarantees of this perfection, which belongs to those who live in Christ, were clearly given already here (in this life) to the Saints of God, already now enjoying the good of the future age. And beforehand, this was revealed by Moses, at the glory of whose face the sons of Israel could not look, and after him the Lord Himself showed it even more clearly, shining on the mountain in the light of the Divine to such a luminous degree that even the chosen ones from the Disciples, although they had then received spiritual strength, could not stand it when they looked. Stephen’s face, as it is written, looked like the face of an Angel, and he himself, looking from the earth beyond the heavens, where Christ sat at the right hand of the Majesty, saw the heavenly glory of God. And would it be enough to then list and cite all those who are still here who have received the pledges of future blessings and have blissfully received this divine radiance and luminosity, which may we also receive by grace and love for mankind, for our sakes, who became incarnate, and suffered, and was buried, and was resurrected, and who ascended our fallen nature into heaven and honored us by being with the Father - Jesus Christ our Lord, To Whom belongs glory, honor and worship with His Beginning Father and the Most Holy and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:189–220. Homilia XVI. De dispensatione incarnationis Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et de gratiis per eum vere in ipsum credentibus concessis; necnon quia Deus cum posset multimode hominem a daemonis tyrannide liberare potius hac usus est dispensatione. Quae sancto majoreque Sabbato habita fuit. This omilia is essentially a treatise on the Atonement. “And dikeosini” – which means: “justice, righteousness, fairness, truth.” Here the original (and even the Latin translation) would be difficult to understand in a direct translation of the text, and we considered it best in this case to convey the thought of the Saint in a free presentation. We have translated this phrase freely. We borrow the last part of the phrase from the Latin translation because the original Greek is difficult to understand: “and the promises according to the age to come.” Minh's Greek text is defective; We borrow from the Latin translation. You might be interested in: