Беседа, произнесенная на Святой Праздник Светов (Богоявление)

It also contains a feasible explanation of the mystery of Christ’s Baptism 559 1. Yesterday, having gathered together with you in church, when we celebrated the Day of Lights (Feast of the Epiphany), I explained what followed, speaking to your love about baptism in Christ, which we have been awarded and which is the knowledge of God and the acceptance on our part of obligations towards Him: by faith and knowledge of the Truth, which is in God; by agreement and promise on our part to have deeds and words and a way of life pleasing to God - which is accomplished through symbols (at baptism). But while teaching about this, we immediately added that these sacred symbols and through them and together with them the obligations assumed in words, if they are not fulfilled in practice, not only do not benefit a person, but will also rightly bring condemnation upon him. Then we explained to the people the teaching of John the Prophet and Baptist and Baptist, which in itself determines the essence of his baptism: because it consists in the knowledge of God, as we said; The Forerunner and Baptist of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, with His teaching, introduces us to the knowledge of Him, proclaiming Him to be the Eternal and Ruler of all (the world), the Judge of the living and the dead, by His power introducing the worthy into the everlasting abodes, and expelling the condemned to Gehenna, and testifying that He is the Lord and the Angels, and counting Himself among the last servants (of Him). Since baptism is not only the knowledge of God, but also our obligation to have good behavior and do deeds pleasing to God, therefore Christ’s Forerunner and Baptist led not only to the knowledge of Christ, but also preached repentance and demanded fruits worthy of repentance: - righteousness (justice), giving alms, moderation, love, truth; and showing that taking on an obligation, if not accompanied by deeds, does not at all provide any benefit, but also exposes a person to condemnation - he threatened with an ax (cutting) and represented an unquenchable fire and said: “Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). In addition, we also interpreted to your love the words addressed to the Lord Himself, coming for Baptism, spoken by the Baptist, who did not dare, evaded, asked to be released from this matter and rather sought to receive baptism from the Lord. But (we also interpreted) the answer to him from the Lord, as the words of the Master commanding the servant, and at the same time as a friend and relative in the flesh, revealing to him the secret and showing plausible reasons (for this Baptism); and in our speech we then reached the place where John, having submitted, admitted the Lord to Baptism. All that remains is to listen to the current Gospel reading, which tells this: “When Jesus was baptized, he went up from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and John 560 saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming on Him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:16–17). 2. Great and sublime, brethren, lies in these few words the mystery of Christ’s Baptism: difficult to consider and difficult to explain, and no less difficult to comprehend; but since it is of very great importance for salvation, then, having submitted to the Encouraging One to search the Scriptures 561 and having dared, let us undertake to investigate, as far as we can understand, the meaning of the mystery. How, behold, at the beginning (of the world), after God said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26), having created our nature in the person of Adam, He, through the life-giving 562 Spirit implanted in him, revealed and given to him, revealed at the same time the Trinity of the Creative Deity, while all other creation was brought into being and revealed as if by a single word of the Word and the speaking Father; So now, during the re-creation of our nature in Christ, the Holy Spirit, appearing from the heavenly regions by descending on Him, baptized in the Jordan, revealed the secret - saving for rational beings - of the Highest and Almighty Trinity. For what reason does the mystery of the Holy Trinity appear during the creation and re-creation of man? – Not only because he is the only one on earth who is a secret lover and admirer of Her, but also for the reason that he is the only one in Her image. Because the sensual and dumb creatures of the animal world have in themselves only the spirit of life, and even that on its own is not able to exist 563, and are completely devoid of an immortal mind (“well”) and the gift of speech (or: reason); beings that exist above the entire sensory (material) world - Angels and Archangels - although spiritual and rational, have an immortal mind and word (reason), but do not have a life-giving spirit in themselves, and therefore do not possess a body, which receives life from this life-giving spirit; man, the only one created in the image of the Trinitarian Nature, has an immortal mind and the gift of speech (or reason) and a spirit that gives life to the body (associated with it), and therefore has a body that has life from it. Since during the re-creation of our nature, the Most High and Almighty Trinity revealed itself on the Jordan, like the prototype of Her image imprinted in our souls, those who are baptized into Christ after Christ are baptized by three immersions in water; John baptized with a single immersion. And signifying this, the Evangelist Matthew says: “When Jesus was baptized, he rose up abiye (immediately) from the water.” 3. “And behold,” he says, – i.e. while He had not yet completely emerged from the water, but was just emerging from it - “the heavens were opened to Him.” But strain your thoughts, brothers, I pray, and listen with all your mind to what is being said, in order to understand the meaning of the mystery of Baptism in Christ. Thus, Christ’s descent into water and immersion in it foreshadowed His descent into hell; just as His ascent from the water revealed His Resurrection from the dead. Therefore, naturally and accordingly, the heavens immediately opened for Him, rising from the water; since at His descent into hell, He, having been under the earth for our sake, coming out from there, opened for Himself, as well as for us, not only everything earthly and connected with the earth, but also the highest heaven, where He then ascended with His body, He is “the forerunner of us in the deep” (Heb. 6:20). Because, just as He presented His saving Passion through the mysterious Bread and Cup and then transferred this Sacrament to the faithful to perform it for salvation (Matthew 26:26-29), so His descent into hell and ascension from there was mysteriously presented through this Baptism into Him, He then transferred this to the faithful to perform it for salvation: He gave Himself pain and heaviness, while granting us from the very beginning communion in His Passion, but without testing their torment, and making us, according to the word of the Apostle, united with Him in the likeness of His death, in order to make us worthy in due time of the promised Resurrection (Rom. 6:8). Because having a soul and body like ours, which He took from us for our sake, with His body He lifted up the Passion and death and burial, and by His very Rising from the grave He proclaimed the immortality of the body itself, and in memory of these events He handed over to us to perform the Bloodless Sacrifice, and thanks to it, as its fruit, to receive salvation; with his soul He descended into hell and ascended from there, giving everyone a share in the ever-present light and life, and to demonstrate this He gave us to perform divine baptism, and thanks to this, as the fruit of this, to acquire salvation: - thanks to both the sacraments and thanks to both: His Soul and His Body, deified and containing in themselves the seeds of true life. Because our entire salvation is based on these two Sacraments; the whole work of the Divine economy 564 is concentrated in these two (sacraments). 4. “The heavens were opened to Him,” not “heaven,” he says, but “the heavens were opened to Him,” that is, all the heavens: all that exists, so that, not seeing anything that belongs to the heavenly world and lies above us, you would not think that there is something lying higher and higher than the one who is now baptized (Christ); but would understand and know the One Nature and Dominion, from the heavenly circle of His inherent infinity, reaching to the centers of everything and to our present extremes, that is, fulfilling everything and leaving nothing behind, so that it would be outside of Him and savefully contain and embrace and extend over everything, while existing in Three Persons, an ineffably cognizable Constellation. “The heavens were opened to Him,” so that He might be revealed in the clearest way: Who is before the creation of the heavens, - it is better to say: Who is before all things that are, and who is with God, and who is God and God’s Word and Son, having a Father not before He came into being, and having with the Father a name, which is above every name (Phil. 2:9) and every word (or: reason): because among all manifested creatures Him and His Heavenly Father, creations belonging both to this world and to the higher world, which are separated and not connected with each other, He alone revealed Himself united with the Father and the Spirit, as Being with Them even before the creation of the world. 5. “The heavens were opened to Him,” while Mark says: “they were opened.” Because he says this: “As (Jesus) ascended from the water, he saw the heavens parted (opened)” (Mark 1:10). Why did one Evangelist say: “they were opened”, and the other: “they opened up”? - So that the deep meaning of the secret does not escape those who listen attentively. Thus, with the expression: “they were opened,” he showed us that they, due to our sin and disobedience to God, were locked. Because for Adam, after he disobeyed God and heard from Him: “As you are earth, you will go back to earth” (Gen. 3:19), according to what is written, the heavens closed. Therefore, it is fair that Christ, who showed Himself obedient to God in everything, and, as He Himself said to John: “Who fulfilled all righteousness,” and through the Baptism now taking place, the heavens were opened. Since, as the Forerunner of the Lord himself says: “God does not give the Spirit in measure, but the Father loves the Son and gave all things in His hand” (John 3:34–35), it is obvious that Christ, even in the flesh, received all the immeasurable and limitless power and action of the Spirit. Heaven has shown in practice that it is impossible for all creation to contain all this power and action of God’s Spirit, which is why when these forces and action of God’s Spirit revealed themselves and, as it were, transferred to this Divine Flesh, the heavens, unable to bear it, opened up (torn). It is wonderful, therefore, that someone said to God: “Neither heaven is pure before You” (Job 15:15), calling “heaven” the Angels in heaven, the Archangels, the many-eyed Cherubim, the six-winged Seraphim, and all other premium nature. Therefore, it is true that neither the sky, i.e. The Angels present on it are not pure before the God of heaven, because from the highest and most sovereign hierarchy they are constantly purified and illuminated 565, inferior to a more perfect Purity. Only the one human (“katimas”) nature in Christ, existing divinely hypostatic and deified, richly possesses the most perfect purity and is capable of containing all the radiance and luminosity, so to speak, and the power and action of God’s Spirit. Therefore, behold, the heavens not only opened, but the Angels themselves yielded to such a descent of the Divine Spirit upon him. 6. “When Jesus was baptized, he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him” (Matthew 3:16). Luke says that when Christ prayed, the sky was opened. Because he says this: “When Jesus was baptized and prayed, the heavens were opened” (Luke 3:21) 566.. Because both during baptism and when descending and ascending from the water, He prayed, teaching by deeds that not only the priest and the performer of the sacraments should pray, but also the one at whom the sacrament is being performed should also pray at every sacred rite, even if the performer of the sacrament was more perfect in virtue and would send up more fervent prayer; through him grace descends on the one being sanctified; when the one being sanctified is more worthy (than the celebrant of the sacrament) and prays more earnestly (than that one), the Desirer of mercy (oh, what ineffable goodness!) does not refuse, thanks to him, to give participation in grace to the celebrant of the sacrament himself, which is clearly now fulfilled by John (the Baptist), which later he himself openly testifies, saying: “We have all received from His fulfillment” (John 1:16). 7. Why was heaven opened only to the praying Jesus, and to no one before Him? -What are you saying? – The one who, being (still) in his mother’s womb, understood the Divine economy 567 of the hypostatic Word of God, and not only leaped in the joy of the God’s Spirit, which he had from his mother’s womb, but also bestowed grace on the womb 568, the one who, having been released from the womb, allowed the paternal lips, because of him was punished with muteness by command Angela, the one who was a pet of the desert, greater than all those born of women and superior to all the Prophets from the ages, however, was not sufficient to loosen the strap of Christ's sandal (whatever this strap meant) 569, from among those inferior to him in dignity, who would have been sufficient to open the sky, or better yet: - the super-celestial spheres? But in order for you to know the height of the superiority in comparison with all of Him who is now being baptized, consider also this: how “the heavens were opened to Him,” as it is written; we are actually shown that not just the heavens, but the very depths of the Heavenly Father were opened for Him; because from there comes the Spirit and the voice, testifying to the relationship of sonship (Matthew 3:17); the heavens, being the announcers of Him (Ps. 18:1), opened as if some universal lips, and not only to the Angels who are in heaven, but also to people who are on earth, they announced to everyone that the Son of God has equal honor in His nature and in power and in dominion over everything with the Heavenly Father and the Spirit originally descended from Him. So, it is true that only for Him, the one who prayed, the heavens were opened, since the sealed book, which can be used to designate this heaven that was previously closed for us, according to the Revelation of John, no one could open or read from all those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth. “But he alone prevailed,” he says, “to open the book and read it (it), the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5). Who is this Lion, descended from the tribe of Judah, the Patriarch Jacob taught us, saying: “Thou didst ascend from the tribe of the lions of Judah, my son, from the tribe 570 of mine: he lay down and fell asleep, like a lion, and like the rampart: who will awaken him? The prince will not fail from Judah, nor the leader from his feet, until what is set aside for Him will come: and He is the desire of the tongues” (Gen. 49:9-10); those. - He who has now clearly opened everything super-celestial, alone read the words of Providence that have existed from time to time, hidden in the depths of the Fathers, the treasures of wisdom, the incomprehensible depths and secrets of the Spirit. 8. “When Jesus was baptized, he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him.” Do you see that holy baptism is the gate of heaven, leading those baptized there? Because it is not simply said: “they were opened,” but “the heavens were opened to Him”; everything that happened for Him came true for us. So, thanks to Him, the heavens were opened for us, and having the gates wide open, they await our entrance. And before others, the first Passion-Bearer and Martyr, Stephen, testifies to this. Kneeling down, He prayed and, looking up, saw something that no one had seen before the Baptism of Christ; because: “having looked... in the sight... the heavens were opened and Jesus in the glory of the Father” (Acts 7:55–56); he saw not only the ineffable glory and the super-heavenly place, but also the Desired One Himself in the glory of the Father, because of which he was the first of all who were after Christ to blissfully contemplate what no one had seen before Christ, into which even the Angelic armies themselves are afraid to enter (1 Pet. 1:12); because he was attracted by his beloved Jesus, wanting this Deacon to be first in heaven and much higher in standing than the ministering (angelic) spirits, since he was the first Martyr for the Truth. So, for His sake the heavens were opened for us, and through Himself He cleansed us: because He Himself did not need either cleansing or the opening of heaven. 9. And John saw everything coming true during the Baptism of Jesus, in order to subsequently be able to say to those who questioned him: “And I saw and testified that this is Christ the Son of God”; John saw the Spirit of God descending in the form of a dove and remaining on Him (John 1:32–34). The appearance of a dove also testifies to the purity of Him upon whom He descended: because this bird does not fly to unclean and fetid places; At the same time, he testifies to the voice of the Father from above. “And behold,” it is said, i.e. together with the appearance of a dove and - “a voice from heaven, saying: This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), this One, whom My Spirit now points out, descending and abiding on Him, as on My Co-essential Son; because the Father, as if with an index finger, using the Spirit that is peculiar to Him and Co-essential and Consubstantial and heavenly, speaking together and pointing from above, and at the same time revealing unity with Him, clearly showed and announced to everyone that the One who at this time is baptized by John in the Jordan is His Beloved Son. 10. Then, the Spirit revealed Himself not only as if by a certain finger pointing to the Father, but also descended to Him, pointed by the Father’s finger, as if touching Him, and not only this, but also remained on Him; because it is said that: “John testified (verb): that he saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and remained on him” (John 1:32); and not only: “on Him,” but also “in Him” (to which he is a witness, saying: “From the fulfillment of Him we have all received” (John 1:16); but even before the obvious descent on Him, He was invisibly in Him; and this is evidenced by the disembodied and heavenly Angels, through the mouth of the Archangel, who said to the One who conceived Him in virginity: “The Holy Spirit will come upon You” ( Luke 1:35); as well as the Angel telling Joseph regarding Her that: “That which is born in Her of the Spirit is Holy” (Matthew 1:20) 571. Then, this proclaims not only unity, but also a kind of mutual connectedness, wonderful and at the same time inseparable, complete and unfused; and this One God appears to us in the trinitarian and omnipotent Divinity, as He then deigned to reveal Himself: the Heavenly Father, the Consubstantial Son, the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father and resting in the Son, having inseparable (with Them) unity and inseparable (from Them) difference. Two are the Witnessers (i.e., the Father and the Holy Spirit); The One is the Witnessed (Lord Jesus Christ); They testify to Their Divinity and mutual unity and difference: Divinity - on the basis of super-peaceful dominion, by virtue of which all the heavens suddenly opened up; unity is based on extreme and inextricable cohesion and harmony; the difference is based on the difference in hypostatic names and hypostatic properties. 11. Our nature, accepted by Him, is also elevated to this dignity; nature, which we see inseparably abiding with the Son of God, so that even after His Incarnation, there are Three Adored (Divine) and illuminating Hypostases, in Which we believe, and are also baptized, in divine baptism putting off the old man, putting on Christ, the New Adam, Who made our guilty nature new in Himself, having received him from virgin blood, as he deigned, and with Himself justified him, and freed all those then born of Him in spirit from that ancestral curse and condemnation. So what? Since the Only Begotten Son of God did not receive from us a hypostasis, but, having accepted our nature, made it new, uniting with it according to His Hypostasis, does this mean that He does not make each of us, as an individual person, a partaker of His grace, and not everyone individually receives from Him the remission of their personal sins? And how could He do this, Who “wants all to be completely saved” (1 Tim. 2:4) and Who, for the sake of all, “having bowed the heavens, came down” (Ps. 17:10), and by deeds and words and His Passion, showing us the way of salvation, ascended into heaven, drawing there those who obey Him? - But the nature that He received from us, for our sake, was made new: sanctified and justified and obedient to the Father in everything because of all that, united with him in hypostasis, He Himself accomplished and suffered; He remade each of us believers not only by nature, but also by hypostasis (individual personality) and granted us remission of our sins: through divine baptism, through keeping His commandments, through the repentance that He granted to those who stumbled, and through the Communion of His Body and Blood. 12. The Father, speaking from above concerning Him who was baptized in the flesh: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I was well pleased” (Matthew 3:17), showed by this that everything else that was previously revealed through the Prophets, through statutes, promises, adoptions, was imperfect and was prescribed and was not accomplished according to the immediate will of God, but had a purpose in what is now being accomplished, and due to the fact that now it has been accomplished and it has come to its end. And what am I saying: laws given through the prophets, promises, adoptions? when the creation of the world from the very beginning had its purpose in Him, who is baptized below as the Son of Man, but from above is testified as the one Beloved Son of God, for whom all things were created, as the Apostle says (Col. 1:16). Consequently, for Him, from the beginning, it was the bringing into existence of man, created in the image of God, so that he could one day contain within himself the Prototype; and the law given by God in paradise was for His sake: because He who gave it would not have given it if it had remained unfulfilled at all; and what after this was announced and accomplished by God, one might say, everything was done for His sake; and how beautifully someone could add: - and everything super-mundane, I mean: Angelic beings and ranks and the laws that exist there, had their own purposefulness for this, I mean - the Divine economy, which they served from beginning to end. Because “good pleasure” is the immediate and good and perfect will of God: He is the only one in whom He is well pleased, and in whom the Father rests and is perfectly pleased, “a wonderful Counselor” of His “great counsel angel” (Is. 9:6) 572., Himself obedient to His Father and speaking and giving to those who obey eternal life, which be to all we receive in Christ the King of the ages Himself, to Whom belongs all glory, honor and worship with His Beginning Father and the Most Holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen. According to the 1861 edition, it is listed as No. 60, pp. 246–259. The word “John” is absent from the Gospel text and is an insertion by St. Gregory Palamas for the purpose of interpreting the text. Those. Lord Jesus Christ (John 5:39). Those. being the Giver and Source of life. Those. this spirit of life is so weak that it needs the constant support of God, and this spirit cannot exist on its own, but with the death of the animal’s body it itself comes into oblivion, as St. Gregory the Dvoeslov says. Those. the entire work of salvation of the human race accomplished by the God-man. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have always been together, and it is not that One came into existence earlier or later than the Other. See "On the Heavenly Hierarchy", the work of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, reprinted by the Brotherhood of the Venerable. Job Pochaevsky. Montreal. 1974 “When Jesus was baptized and prayed, the sky was opened”: See the interpretation of the expression above. So St. Elizabeth prophetically greeted the Mother of God. The interpretation of the expression by St. Gregory Palamas is given in the previous conversation. §8. Brackets are in the original. 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