Омилия XXIII 96 .

On the 10th morning Sunday Gospel 97; it also speaks of the battle that lies before us, both in the sensory realm and in the spiritual 98 The so-called “Sunday morning Gospels”, i.e. excerpts from the Gospels telling about events related to the Resurrection of Christ, which are celebrated at matins on Sundays, although they are called “morning” - at dawn, i.e. in the morning hours of the day, however, does not mean that they are talking about events that took place in the morning hours. They are still called “morning”. So the appearance of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ after the Resurrection to the holy Apostles, for the sake of verifying this event, which, although designated “morning,” occurred, however, not only in the morning hours, but also at noon and in the evening and even after the evening; so, when He approached Luke and Cleopas, marching to Emmaus, He went with them, then it was not early morning. When they approached the village to which they were going, then “That thing was happening further away. And His need, saying: Join us, for it is evening” (Luke 24:28). After He broke and distributed the bread to them, they recognized Him, and He became invisible to them; They got up, returned to Jerusalem at the same hour, and told the other Disciples what had happened to them on the way. While they were speaking, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them; and this was, of course, at the end of the day, after that evening. Another time, again, after the meal, He speaks to Peter and appoints him as our Shepherd of His verbal sheep. For - “When you had dinner,” says the Evangelist, “the verb was to Simon Peter: Simon of Jonas, do you love Me?” ; when he answered this in the affirmative, he hears in response: “Feed My lambs, feed My sheep” (John 21 et seq.). So, how could this also be a “morning” phenomenon, and be called that, when in fact it did not occur in the early hours of the morning? (And yet the appearances of the Risen Savior, no matter what part of the day they occur, are called “morning”, or better – “dawn”, and such are the essence in reality. The reasons for this are as follows) 99: The Sun of Truth Christ, being beginningless and eternal, motionless and unchangeable, as having no change or shadow of change, knows neither the end nor the setting, emitting true and premium light and producing the non-evening (endless) day in which the souls of the righteous dwell together with the good Angels. After the end of this age, the righteous, together with their bodies, will be, as it were, heirs of the Light and sons of the True Day. So, this Day, being non-evening and inseparable in the concept of time, does not and did not have a morning, because it is beginningless. But we are enveloped by night and surrounded by the shadow of death, we have fallen into sin and, as a result, have lost the visual power that, by grace, was inherent in us from God, thanks to which we perceive the Light leading to true life. So, death also brought night to our nature; not in the sense that the True Light turned away from us, but for the reason that we ourselves turned away and on our own were powerless to look at that life-giving Light; but the Source of the ever-present Light and the Originator of true life, having mercy on us, not only at the end of the centuries came down to us for our sake, becoming the same Man as we are, but for our sake he accepted the Cross and death, and by His death, destroying the hellish kingdom, the third day was resurrected, again revealing in our nature the Light of pure and immortal life, having assimilated to it the radiance of the Resurrection. Since His Resurrection became the Firstfruits for the departed, and at the time of His Second Coming the light of immortal life will embrace His disciples and then the true and inseparable, in the concept of time, Day will shine for everyone - then for this reason the Lord's Resurrection became the concept of the Dawn and Morning of that coming Day, and therefore all the Gospel readings telling about the Resurrection are “dawn” and “morning”; That is why all those appearances of the Risen Savior, which, regardless of when they occurred, whether in the morning or in the evening, in the concept of the time of the sensory day, are equally “morning” and are called so. But that morning Gospel, which was read publicly today, is doubly “morning”: because it not only sets out what relates to the Resurrection of the Lord and His appearance after this, but also speaks about the events that took place at the dawn of the sensory day. “The morning came,” says the Evangelist, “Jesus was a hundred with the breeze: not knowing the Disciple that Jesus is.” Meanwhile, at the beginning, the Evangelist says that Jesus appeared to His Disciples, rising from the dead, on the Sea of ​​Tiberias. Yes, indeed, He appeared, but since they were in a boat on the open sea and moved away from the shore and were absorbed in fishing, they did not yet recognize Him. So, Jesus says to them: “Children!” - Oh, what humility, what love, what tenderness this address is filled with! - So, He says to them: “Children, what food can you eat?” He asks not out of ignorance, but providentially, as if opening the door to a miracle; for when they answered Him: “No,” Jesus said to them: “Cast the ship on the right hand, and you will find it”; By saying, “You will find,” He showed that He knew that casting their nets all night, they found nothing. Since from this they saw that He knew what was going on with them, although He was not with them, they easily believed His words, and, obeying, cast down the net. When they not only found the fish, as He said, but also in such a multitude that they could not draw the net into the boat ("whoever has no fish," says the Evangelist, "draw it from the multitude of fish"), then John, most of all the others ready for divine knowledge, especially loved by the Lord and Teacher, probably remembered then the wonderful fishing of fish that took place in the beginning on the Lake of Genesaret, when, According to the word of the Lord, the cast nets caught so many fish that it was surprising: how with so many fish the nets did not break. So, “the verb of the disciple whom Jesus loved, Petrov: the Lord is”; in turn, the warmest and most ready for activity more than all the others, Peter, “hearing”, says, “for the Lord is, he girded himself with ependy, because he was naked: and he was cast into the sea.” Ependyma is a kind of outerwear that the Syrians and Phoenicians wear over the rest of their clothing, which is why it is called “ependyma”, “ependitis”. It happens that it wraps itself directly over a naked body, like the young man who followed the Lord, arrested by the Jews, was dressed in a veil directly over his naked body, which, leaving it in the hands of the soldiers who grabbed him, fled naked. Peter, being naked, did not put on this ependyma, but, folding it, girded himself with it, although he had to swim, because he was 200 cubits far from the land. So, in this way, Peter, being the most ardent of all, arrived before everyone else; other disciples arrived on a boat, dragging a net with fish, also as if in order to bring it to the Giver and be able, as it were, to utter to Him this sacred expression: “Yours are from Yours.” “When the slayer climbed down to the ground,” it is further narrated, “I saw a fire lying, and fish lying on it, and bread.” Some believed that this refers to heat 100, about hot coals of fire on which the fish were laid; but from what follows, others say, the word “heat” is not allowed to be understood in the literal sense, because the bread would not have been put on the fire. Therefore, they say, the Evangelist did not say: “burning fire,” but “lying fire,” therefore, here “heat” is called a certain skin that travelers used instead of a table (by spreading it on the ground and placing food on it). Consequently, when the Apostles went ashore, they saw another miracle, greater than the one that happened on the sea: because they saw bread and fish, taken not from the depths of the sea, but created out of nothing, lying and prepared for food, and at the same time with a joyful vision of the Lord - and all, overwhelmed with delight, they forgot about the fish they had caught; Therefore, the Lord says to them: “Bring from the fish that you caught today,” thereby returning them to their concern, so that they take their catch ashore and measure it, so that no one says that they only imagined a lot of fish (kata phantasian). “Simon Peter climbed in,” they say, “and took out a pile of fish on the ground, full of great fish, a hundred and fifty and three: and only those that exist, without bursting into the pile.” The Power of Christ, which preserved the strength of the net, of course could have given strength to those pulling it and made the weight light, but it did not do this so that the Apostles would feel the miracle more; Therefore, Peter had to enter the boat to help the others, who were unable to do it themselves. The Lord, wanting to be revealed to each of them separately, says to them: “Come have dinner”; With His own hands He gives them the spoken bread and fish, revealing through this service also that He Himself is the Sorrower and Provider of both the present and the future pleasure, the pleasure that will come after catching the Apostolic net, i.e. after the Apostles, through the Gospel preaching, gather into true worship of God all the worthy from every nation; among these (gathered) then 153 great ones will be visible - counted in thousands or in tens of thousands - that He Himself knows, He who works miracles, and He who does this is filled with mysteries; and fruitless labor throughout the night symbolically showed the fruitlessness of the teaching that existed before His appearance. And the casting of the net at the right hand of the ship, which happened in the morning, and the catch of fish - showed the success of the Gospel preaching that happened after His Coming (to the world); for for this reason it was in the morning that the Sun of Righteousness Himself appeared to us in the flesh, and the teaching was favorable 101 and successful, gathering and extracting multitudes of those being saved. After he spoke about the distribution of bread and fish, the Evangelist says: “Behold, for the third time Jesus appeared as His disciple, rising from the dead”; for the first time He came to them, gathered in the house, on the evening of the very day on which He was resurrected; then, after eight days, He came again, while Thomas was with the others; and, behold, for the third time He did not come to them, but revealed Himself to them, showing that He was always with them, although He was not visible with sensory eyes. He allowed them to see Him whenever it pleased Him, because immortal bodies have this ability. This means, brethren, that He is with each of us, even if we do not see Him; why, as He ascended, He said to the Apostles: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Therefore, as He is present with us, let us reverently honor Him every day and do what is pleasing to God (ta aresta) in His presence. Even if we cannot see Him with our fleshly eyes, but - under the condition of abstinent life - we can constantly contemplate Him with the eyes of thought, and not only contemplate, but also gather great fruit from there: because the very contemplation of God is the elimination of all sin, the cleansing of all wickedness, alienation from all evil. Such contemplation is the creative beginning of all virtue, the parent of purity and dispassion, the giver of eternal life and an endless kingdom. Having concern for such sweet contemplation and fixing our mental gaze on Christ, as if present with us, each of us says, as David said: “If an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear; if it rises up to fight against me, I will trust in Him” (Ps. 26:3). We also, brethren, have a war - driven from outside, which is expressed in the attraction, through the (five) feelings, to the sin of those who do not offer valiant resistance (coming from tempting impressions from outside), but this type of war against us does not always happen, because, firstly, our feelings do not continuously function 102, and, in addition, it happens that even when the feelings are in action, sin, nevertheless, does not done, whether due to a lack of material for committing a sin or - unfavorable circumstances or place, without the presence of which - neither a thief, nor a robber, nor a fornicator, nor an adulterer, nor a predator, nor an oppressor - does not bring about a lawless act. There is another kind of warfare - spiritual warfare, which occurs through thoughts within ourselves; warfare, which is much heavier than that which comes from outside through the senses: because this (spiritual) warfare always occurs and does not need either matter, favorable circumstances, or place to commit evil. And that, I mean, the battle against sin in the field of feelings, has its origin (reason) from things and the auditory or visual and similar impressions associated with them; and this, a spiritual battle within ourselves, is aroused directly by evil spirits, as a result of their attacks (attacks) and instigations; and even if someone turned out to be the winner in that sensory battle, it does not mean that he would be invincible in this spiritual battle. But the one who prevails in internal warfare powerfully defeats his enemies in external warfare; and this is what the Apostle says: “Walk in the Spirit, and do not commit carnal lust” (Gal. 5:16). The Ancient Law, by commanding the avoidance of committing sins, largely armed man in relation to external and emotional warfare; in relation to the internal warfare that is within us, we are equipped by the Law of Grace, the Gospel teaching, which prohibits anger in the heart, adultery in the heart, lust in the heart, aroused as a result of the devil’s attack, and arming us and raising us up to repel it, just as the Apostle in the Epistle to the Ephesians says: “Put on the full armor of God, for you are able to stand.” against the wiles of the devil: for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, and against the authorities, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:11-12); because these creatures endure hard for anything to escape them, and furiously wage war against us, who, in the aspiration of our minds to God, have residence (or “citizenship”) in heaven. Therefore, with all diligence, I pray, let us refrain from drunkenness and pleasures, words and hearings and shameful sights: for this excites our flesh, calls us to a fight that is completely inappropriate for us, and does not allow us to correctly see and conduct our inner battle; For this reason, it is necessary for us to be defeated and fall, and usually or for the most part to be captured by sin, we who are blind to internal enemies, while we are entirely devoted to external enemies. But we, having removed ourselves from the ugly and unnecessary pleasures of the flesh, will rebel against the principles, against the rulers of terrible darkness, who inspire passionate thoughts and bad lusts into our hearts, and who, of course, are demons, the leaders of gloomy evil, as the first to love it, and the rulers of the world, but only the rulers of the world over those to whom the word of the Master has nothing to do with it, that “You are not of the world, but I “I chose you out of the world” (John 15:19), and having been regenerated by His grace, I adopted it for myself. So, over such people, to whom the above cannot in any way apply, the spirits of evil are rulers, as over those who submit to them of their own free will. But we, if only we are vigilant and our eyes are fixed on the Master who redeemed us from the bitter slavery of the devil, and we listen to Him, as if He were always present with us, “we will not fear,” as the Psalmist says, “from the arrow that flies in the days, and from the thing that comes in darkness, from the cloak (attack) and the demon of the midday” (Ps. 110:6 ); but those who try to approach us will fall, but they will not approach us and will not shake the foundations and refuges that virtue has created, just as the Psalmist himself says about himself: “I have seen the Lord before me, as if he is on my right hand, let me not move” (Ps. 15:8). So, if we, as if existing before us, always look at Him, then chanting Him, then praying, and at other times, according to our strength, giving thanks, then He will take the right hand of each of us, and lead us according to His will and power, and deliver us from the power of darkness, and elevate us into His kingdom, giving us true and eternal life, which may we all receive for His glory and His Beginningless Father and the Co-Eternal and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:297–308. Homilia XXIII. In decimum matutinum Evangelium; et de bello tam sensibili quam spiritali adversarium nostrum committendo. We translate the beginning of this omilia in a free translation for greater clarity of the lay reader. For clarity, we added this phrase on our own. In Church Slavonic "fire"; Greek "anthracia" - "heat". Epidexios – right, favorable, successful. Those. perceive external sensations that do not always exist. You might be interested in: