Беседа на третье воскресенье Евангельских чтений по Луке

Concluding summary of the text about the widow’s son resurrected by the Lord; it also says that we should be forgiving and compassionate towards each other 288 1. The great Paul, showing the divinity and general usefulness of faith and proclaiming its works, victorious rewards and fruits and power, begins from the very centuries, which is nothing older than that, “By faith,” he says, “we mean to be perfected forever by the word of God, which was made from things that are not visible.”289 ( Heb. 11:3 ). It concludes with the future general resurrection and, by virtue of which, the perfection of the saints (Heb. 11:40), which there is nothing more final. Counting among those who were glorified by their faith and themselves were witnesses of its power, he also mentions that by faith “the women received their dead raised again” (Heb. 11:35). And this is the Sareptite woman and the Shunammite woman; of which the first received her dead son from the Prophet Elijah alive again (1 Kings 17:23), and the Shunammite received her son from the Prophet Elisha (2 Kings 4:30, 36). Each of them, through their deeds, showed great faith. The Sarepta woman - who took on faith the increase in food products promised by the Prophet, and before feeding the children, fed him a handful of flour and a little oil - all the food that she had, after which she was left to die along with the children. But even when her son, after the arrival of Elijah, fell ill and died, “but his illness was very strong, until his spirit remained in him” (1 Kings 17:17), she did not push the Prophet away, did not reproach, did not deviate from the worship of God, which she learned from the Prophet, but reproached herself and believed that her sins were the cause of misfortune, calling in her very misfortune Elijah “the Man of God,” but rather blaming himself and saying more convincingly than mockingly: “Why have you come to me and to you, O Man of God, to remember my iniquities and to kill my son” (1 Kings 17:18)? You are light, she says, by participating in the light, as a servant of the Sun of Truth, and with your presence you made my invisible sins visible, and they killed my son. 2. Do you see the faith of the foreign woman? Do you see her humility? Therefore, it is natural that she was chosen by God in the beginning and was worthy to become the forerunner of the calling of the pagans and their faith, and then she accepted her son alive. The Shunammite woman, on the basis of the words that she spoke to her husband about Elisha, and on the basis of what she had prepared for the reception of the Prophet, and on the basis of the wisdom that she discovered when her son died, showed her faith: because, silently hiding her grief, she ran to the Prophet and drew him to her house, saying to him: “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, if I leave you” ( 2 Kings 4:30). And for such faith, she received her resurrected son from the Prophet. So this considerable miracle performed by these Prophets was no greater than the faith of these mothers, who perceived their dead sons as resurrected; just as Paul showed this when he said: “By faith the women received their dead raised again” (Heb. 11:35). But although the Prophets had the faith of their mothers and God-pleasing 290 assisting them, however, one of them, Elijah, also resorted to other means, and cried out to God, saying: “Woe is me, Lord, the Witness of the widow, with whom I am now dwelling, You have embittered 291 the hedgehog to put to death her son”; and calling on the Lord, and saying: “Lord my God, let the soul of this youth return to him, and so be it” (1 Kings 17:20-21). The second, Elisha, not only clung to the dead youth, walking around him and walking back and forth in the upper room seven times 292, but also, as it is written, prayed to the Lord, and thus revived the son of the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 32-37). 3. Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel text read today, took pity on the widow whose dead son was just being carried out, and without searching for anything, neither doing nor praying, but by one command giving the weeping mother her only begotten son raised from the dead, he alone showed that He is the Lord over life and death. “It came to pass,” says the Evangelist, “that Jesus went into the city called Nain” (Luke 7ff.). Uncalled by anyone, the Lord comes to perform this great miracle - the resurrection, in order to demonstrate not only His life-giving power, but also out of a feeling of perfect kindness and mercy. The Seraptian woman, as it were, mocked Elijah, urging him to resurrect her son; The Shunammite woman prepared Elisha, who did not foresee the misfortune, and also forced him, saying: “As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, if I leave it to you.” The Lord Himself foreknows and, not called by anyone, goes to the city from which the dead boy was taken out. 4. “Now you go,” says the Evangelist, “for this reason.” And the Evangelist wisely points this out in passing. Because the resurrection of the widow's son represents the renewal of our minds. Because, as it were, our soul also became a widow, which, due to sin, lost its Heavenly Bridegroom, each having as if its only begotten son - its own mind, which, having been stung by the sting of sin, died, deprived of true life; and he is carried out - as if moving even further from God - carried out by the passions fighting him into hell and the depths of destruction. But the Lord, having come to us and already being among us, by His coming in the flesh, renewed and resurrected our dead mind. This coming of the Lord to us in the flesh did not happen from the beginning, but happened later, at the end of the ages (cf. Heb. 1:1). That is why the Evangelist did not miss to say, “He came,” saying, “therefore” Jesus, having to resurrect the widow’s dead son and change her mourning to joy. I pray you, brothers, listen to what has been said. Because each of you, if he realizes that there is a dead thing in himself - his dead mind 293 - and mourns his sins, grieving and lamenting them in repentance, then the Comforter will come to him, giving life and eternal consolation. Because He says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:5). 5. But “As Jesus walked,” it is said, “and His disciples walked with Him, many and many people.” Elijah, preparing to resurrect the son of the Sareptan woman, went into seclusion; and Elisha, going up to the upper room where the deceased lay, as the story goes, “locked the door behind them both,” i.e. for the Shunammite and his disciple Gehazi. Because they needed the most fervent prayer to God, and people, having retired, can more successfully concentrate their minds and completely extend it to God; why for this purpose they moved away from those closest to them. The Lord, as truly having power over life and death and not at all needing prayer in order to resurrect the youth, had with Him not only His Disciples, but also a multitude of people, some of whom were those whom He brought with Him, and others whom He found near the one being carried out (the dead youth). And in the presence of everyone who saw and heard, He raised the dead man by His one command, doing this out of His love for mankind, in order to draw everyone to saving faith in Him. “As if he were approaching the gates of the city,” says the Gospel, “he died in his death,” because foreseeing the very hour of the removal of the body, He appeared on time. “For the death of her mother’s only begotten son has worn out, and she is a widow.” These last circumstances, as much as they increased the grief for the crying mother, also served as the reason for an unprecedented denouement. Because seeing a mother, and then a widowed mother, who placed all her hopes on her only son, and was deprived of him by his untimely death, and following the coffin and sorrowfully beating her chest, the Lord, as they say, “was merciful about her” (Oh, how could He, who is “the Father of orphans and the Judge of widows”?!), not feel sorry for her, “and speak to her,” comforting her and at the same time foreseeing the future - “don’t cry.” Because He knew what He was going to do, but the woman did not know Him, much less what was about to happen; therefore, she neither had faith, nor asked anything from Him, nor did He demand faith from her, but all-powerful, not needing assistance from believers, He “touched the bed” to show that His Body, as combined with the Divine, possesses life-giving power, “and He said: young man, I say to you, arise. And the gray one is dead”: because the senseless dust heard the command of the Caller “not existing, but existing”, heard the One who bears everything with the word of His power, heard the voice, not of a God-bearing man, but of God incarnate. And not only “since dead,” but “and he began to speak.” This was also the case with the son of the widow of Sarepta: when his soul returned to him, the boy immediately cried out, as it is narrated (1 Kings 17:22, according to LXX *. - Editorial “ABC of Faith”); and this was to prove that his resurrection was real. 6. In this way. Elijah, by prayer, raised one dead man, and Elisha then, during his lifetime, raised another dead man, 294 certifying and presenting the life-giving power (“energy”) of Christ; The Lord, before the cross, by His command raised three dead men: this son of a widow, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue and Lazarus of the Four Days. Crucified on the cross, He raised up many, “who also appeared to many” (Matthew 27:53). And then, after His death on the cross, raised for us, He resurrected Himself; It’s better to say that the three-day one rose up, Himself becoming the Head of eternal life. Because all the others, although resurrected, again became involved in this life of ours, subject to death. When Christ rose from death, “death no longer had power over Him” (Rom. 6:9). Therefore, the one Lord is “the Firstfruits of the dead” (1 Cor. 15:20), that is, of the faithful who, in the hope of resurrection and eternal life, departed from here. So He became the “Firstfruits of those who died” and the “Firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18); and he determined and promised us not this life of ours, subject to death and perishable, built not on spiritual principles, but, prepared for us in hopes, divine and immortal and eternal (life): since it is His gift befitting God. Since then He did not give this kind of life to those resurrected by Him (immortal and blessed, which belongs to the future age), but (only) returned them to the same life, interrupted by death, He did not give it to them for their own sake, but resurrected them for the sake of other persons, leading them to faith, which is the provider of eternal life; and in this case, He resurrected the boy not for his own sake, but for the sake of his mother, “over whom he took pity,” as the Evangelist clearly narrates; therefore, having resurrected him, he gave him to his mother. 7. Do you see how the Lord, taking pity on the widow who was mourning her son, used not only words of consolation, but also actually took care of her? Let us, to the best of our ability, do the same, and not only in words we will sympathize with those suffering, but also in deeds we will show them compassion: because if we show charity with all our might, then God, in exchange for His part, will answer us with good in all ways. Look at this, how great is the superiority and advantage in such an exchange: as much as God surpasses man, so His power surpasses human strength, and the mercy realized by this power is the mercy that we show to people. If someone asked for halki 295 for obols, and gave gold coins for staters, who would not want to take advantage of such an exchange? Nowadays it is not “gilded coppers” 296 that are proposed to be exchanged for gold - both metals are of almost the same value - but it is proposed to give what people can do, and in return to receive what God can give; It is required that we have a humane attitude towards people, which is our natural duty: because we must have compassion for each other and help each other by virtue of the very nature of things. And when, for those manifold mercies that we have seen from God, He does not demand anything more from us, except that we forgive each other, be sociable and philanthropic, telling us: “Let go, and it will be forgiven to you; give, and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:37-38), then if the most pressing need requires it, how can we not show in practice, as far as it is in our power, leniency and mercy towards those brothers who need it? 8. Since not only we were pardoned by God and so favored by Him that it is even impossible to count, but also received a guarantee from Him that for our good shown to our brothers, we would receive retribution from Him in good and shaking measure, then why don’t we try to do good as best we can? Why should we not, if necessity requires it, lay down our very lives for each other, in imitation of the Master, in order to receive eternal life from Him? And this is our duty, even if not equally in relation to each other, but, in any case, in relation to Him who gave Himself to die for our sake, not only as our redemption, but also as an example and instruction confirmed by deeds, incomparably superior to word, deed and all reason. “For this reason,” says the Apostle, “Christ suffered for us; leave us an image, so that we may follow His footsteps” (1 Pet. 2:21); and we will be ready, if necessity requires it, to lay down our souls in fulfillment of His commandments: because in this way we will be participants in the everlasting life in Him and the kingdom, eternally remaining with Him and being glorified with Him. Do you see this Myrrh-Streamer 297, the coming remembrance of whose sacred martyrdom we have begun to celebrate today? The blood of his body, voluntarily shed for Christ, therefore produced an inexhaustible and inexhaustible source of manifold miracles, sanctification for soul and body, (a source of) the most fragrant and most sacred peace. And although the soul of the Great Martyr, having received eternal and unchanging glory, together with the Angels now rightly dwells in heaven, his body has not yet been glorified with it; but what is happening now is the mark and image and foreshadowing of the divine and heavenly glory that is about to be revealed to him. If both the mark and the image are like this, then what can we say about this future perfection?! – Of course, it is indescribable and unthinkable. May we, through the prayers of the Myrrh-Bearer Martyr, just as here we participate in the divine peace flowing from him, so also then be spectators and participants in that glory, through the grace and love of mankind glorified in His Martyrs, Jesus Christ, the God of all, to whom belongs all glory forever and ever. Amen. In Greek ed. 1861 is listed as No. 46, pp. 49–58. “By faith we understand that the ages were framed by the word of God, so that what is visible was made out of things that are visible”: The text leaves it unclear whether this refers to the godly pleasing of these mothers or the godly pleasing of the Prophets themselves. Those. “did evil, caused suffering.” The Greek text that our Slavic translation of the Bible follows differs significantly from the Masoretic text that the Russian translation of the Bible follows. The phrase is translated freely. This is said “during life,” because after the death of the Prophet, the dead man was resurrected by touching the bones of the Prophet (2 Kings 13). Halka is a small copper coin that equals 1 8 obols. Stater is a silver coin. You might be interested in: