Глава XIV. «Ты привел меня к Нему без моего ведома, чтобы Он привел меня к тебе с моего ведома»

(Augustine. Confessions V, 23) In the afternoon, when he was not besieged by numerous visitors, Ambrose, as usual, was busy reading the Holy Scriptures, trying once again to comprehend its innermost meaning, incomprehensible not only to pagans, but also to many Christians. It was “something incomprehensible to the proud, dark to children; a building shrouded in mystery, with a low entrance; it gets higher the further you go.” And everyone “was not able to either enter into it or bow his head to move on” (Augustine. Confessions III, V, 9). Moreover, for many educated people of that era, brought up on the exquisite works of Virgil and Horace, the texts of the Bible seemed not only absurd and rude, but also primitive. Therefore, one of the main tasks of the church and its fathers in the 4th century - the century of Christianization of the Roman Empire - was to adapt the Holy Scriptures to the perception of it both in the intellectual and in the uneducated environment. This problem was solved with the help of symbolic exegesis - an allegorical interpretation of the Bible. Biblical exegesis originates in the works of Philo of Alexandria (c. 25 BC - before 50 AD), who believed that the deepest spiritual meaning of divine revelation is hidden from the uninitiated in Scripture and that this meaning is revealed only to chosen people endowed with divine grace. The method of allegorical-symbolic interpretation of the Old Testament, discovered by Philo, was adopted and brilliantly developed by Christian thinkers in the 3rd century, especially Clement of Alexandria and Origen, and continued in the 4th century. members of the Cappadocian circle Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. In the West, this method was almost unknown until the middle of the 4th century, and among Ambrose’s predecessors, perhaps only Hilary (315–366) can be named, who became quite thoroughly acquainted with the principles of biblical exegesis, thanks to the study of the works of the Eastern fathers, and transferred some ideas of Greek theology to Latin soil. Ambrose’s brilliant knowledge of the Greek language allowed him to quickly master the works of Eastern theologians, including the Cappadocians, whom Hilary could not know. The growing number of newly converted Christians, constantly asking difficult questions concerning a variety of passages from the Holy Scriptures, forced Bishop Mediolan not only to use Eastern exegesis, but also to come to grips with his own interpretation of biblical texts. Ambrose was so passionate about this work that exegetical works occupy the largest place in his creative heritage. Most of these works were written in the 380s, and they were compiled from numerous sermons preached in the church, which were no less popular than his works on the virgin life. Ambrose was the first in the West to try to interpret the events of Old Testament history not in a literal, but in a spiritual sense, and the allegorical interpretation of the Bible that he gave made it understandable and relevant for the most diverse segments of the population of Milan and residents of the provinces who came to this city, including those who had not yet accepted the Christian faith. On that day, Ambrose read the seventh chapter of the second book of Samuel about how the word of the Lord came to Nathan: “Go and tell My servant David, Thus says the Lord: Will you build Me a house to dwell in?” (11 Kings VII, 5), and thought that an Apology for the Prophet David should be written in order to justify some aspects of his life that could raise doubts among believers about his righteousness. At this time there was a knock on the door with some reverent caution, and in response to the invitation to enter, a young man appeared in the room. Ambrose looked carefully at the newcomer. He looked to be about 30 years old, although his thick black beard made him look a little older. He was taller than Ambrose, and his entire appearance indicated that his main occupations were not physical labor or long travel, but eloquence and mental exercises. Ambrose could not help but pay attention to the stranger’s high forehead and the concentrated gaze of his deep-set eyes, filled with common sense and insight, sparkling with some special light. Ambrose had dozens of visitors every day, but for some reason this one made a special impression, and the bishop could not immediately understand what exactly attracted him to this clearly extraordinary man, who seemed to be deliberately taking his time and giving him the opportunity to examine him. Finally, the stranger said: – Greetings, venerable Ambrose. My name is Augustin from Tagaste. - You've come a long way. It seems that your city is located in Africa,” said the bishop, remembering that this town was somewhere near his family’s ancestral estates. -What brought you to Mediolan? “You’re right, bishop, my hometown is in Africa, but I left it a long time ago.” I came to Mediolan from Rome, where I taught rhetoric. I was sent here by the noble prefect Symmachus, who conveys his greetings and this letter to you. With these words, Augustine handed Ambrose the prefect's message. The bishop quickly ran his eyes over the small and, as usual, specific letter from Symmachus, which contained favorable reviews of Augustine and a request for assistance. Ambrose noted with satisfaction that the leader of the pagans did not consider himself personally offended by his defeat in the dispute over the Altar of Victory. In the letter, he did not say a word about the past clash with Ambrose, but, on the contrary, assured him of his good disposition. Only at the end of the letter did the prefect transparently hint that the struggle for the altar of Victory was not over, paraphrasing Plautus: “I will continue my work - my mind demands this” 61. Having finished reading, Ambrose turned to Augustine, who was humbly waiting for him: “I am glad that our brilliant Symmachus appreciated your rhetorical skills.” I hope you will become a good elocution teacher. In our difficult times, not only Mediolan, but the entire empire needs good teachers. And if the prefect was so kind as to provide you with government horses for your trip here, then I, the bishop, will take care of decent housing for you and introduce you to the local rhetoricians and magistrates. Ambrose rang a small bell and his secretary entered the room. “Mark, order on my behalf that they find a suitable home for this young man and provide him with everything necessary for settling down.” – Catching the secretary’s surprised glance, Ambrose added: This is our new rhetoric teacher. And I’m waiting for you, Augustine, tomorrow in the main church of the city, where I will read a sermon. However,” the bishop remarked, “I see that you are not a Christian.” Is that so? “You’re right, bishop,” Augustine replied, slightly embarrassed. – I have not yet fully learned the teachings of Christ and am at a crossroads... Augustine wanted to continue and share some of his thoughts with Ambrose, but a new visitor appeared at the door, who, apparently, was in a great hurry and, shifting from foot to foot, with his whole appearance made it clear to Augustine that he was not the only one who needed a famous and very influential bishop. The young rhetorician hastened to thank Ambrose for a truly fatherly welcome. Saying goodbye, the bishop said: – And still come to the sermon. If you are looking for faith and truth, who knows, maybe you will find what you are looking for here. Also, after the church service, I promise to introduce you to some people. As Augustine left the bishop's house, he thought that Ambrose had been very kind to him: “It will be very useful for my rhetorical knowledge to listen to the most famous Christian preacher in the West. This is truly a man of God! The brilliant Symmachus, to whom my Manichaean acquaintances recommended me, was not as kind to me as the Bishop of Milan. But they, as I was told, come from the same family.” The next day Augustine actually went to church, and then he came again and again. “I diligently listened to his conversations with the people,” he wrote a few years later, “not for the purpose that I should have, but as if looking closely to see whether his eloquence corresponded to his fame, whether it was exaggerated by praise or underestimated; I listened to his words with the greatest attention and carelessly neglected their content. I enjoyed the charm of his speech... Although I did not try to study what he was talking about, but only wanted to listen to how he spoke..., thoughts to which I was indifferent entered my soul at the same time as the words that I accepted cordially. I couldn't separate one from the other. And when I opened my heart to what was said eloquently, then what was said that was true immediately entered into it - it entered, however, gradually... The repeated resolution of the mysterious passages of the Old Testament especially affected me; their literal understanding was killing me. Having heard the explanation of many texts from these books in a spiritual sense, I began to reproach myself for the despair into which I once came, believing that those who despise and ridicule the Law and the Prophets cannot be resisted at all.” (Augustine. Confessions V, XIII-XIV, 23–24). Ambrose's sermons affected Augustine so strongly that he finally decided to break with the Manichaeans, having become disillusioned with their teaching, which he had been passionate about for 9 years and which he began to doubt even before arriving in Milan. “I did not consider it possible during this period of doubt to remain in the sect to which I had already preferred some philosophers,” wrote Augustine, “to these philosophers, however, I refused to entrust the treatment of my weakened soul, because they did not know the saving name of Christ. And I decided to remain a catechumen in the Orthodox Church, bequeathed to me by my parents, until something definite appears before me, to which I am directing the path” (Augustine. Confessions V, XIV, 25). So God himself brought the great Augustine to the great Ambrose without his knowledge, so that Ambrose would bring Augustine to God with his knowledge. Soon after Augustine became a catechumen, his mother Monica, a deeply religious and very pious woman, came to Milan. She made a lot of efforts to introduce her beloved son to the Christian faith and the true church. However, before Augustine met Ambrose, her efforts were unsuccessful. And even at the moment of meeting her son in Mediolan, she discovered that he was still at a crossroads. Augustine wrote about this: “She found me in great danger: I despaired of finding the truth. From my message that I was no longer a Manichaean, but also not an Orthodox Christian, she was not filled with joy... her heart did not tremble in stormy delight when she heard that a significant part of what she prayed to You for every day had already been accomplished; I have not yet found the truth, but I have already moved away from lies. Confident that You, who promised to fully fulfill her prayers, will complete the rest, she very calmly, with complete conviction, answered me that before she leaves this life, she will see me as a true Christian: she believes this in Christ.” (Augustine. Confession V, I, I). Monica fervently prayed for her son and regularly attended church, where her religious soul was captivated by Ambrose. “She loved this man like an angel of God, having learned that it was he who had so far brought me to doubts and hesitations” (Augustine. Confessions VI, I, I). The bishop, in turn, also drew attention to a fiery Christian woman, so pious and righteous that her lifestyle, diligent attendance at church, and good deeds aroused the warmest feelings in him. During meetings with Augustine, Ambrose invariably congratulated him on having such a mother and lavished all kinds of praise on her. And during the conflict with the imperial court over the basilica, Monica, along with other believers, did not leave Ambrose and stayed awake in the church and lived in prayer, “the first in anxiety and vigil.” Despite frequent meetings with Ambrose and regular communication with him, Augustine could not talk enough with him, share doubts, reveal his thoughts and aspirations. “I couldn’t ask him what I wanted and how I wanted, because we were always separated by a crowd of busy people whom he helped in their difficulties. When they were not with him, in this very short period of time he restored his bodily strength with the necessary food, and his spiritual strength through reading. When he read, his eyes ran over the pages, his heart searched for meaning, but his voice and tongue were silent. Often, when I went to see him (access was open to anyone, and there was no custom of reporting someone coming), I found him doing nothing but this quiet reading. After sitting in silence for a long time (who would dare to break such deep concentration?), I left, guessing that he did not want to be distracted by anything during the short time that he managed to seize, amid the deafening din of other people’s affairs, for his own mental pursuits. He was probably afraid that he would have to give explanations to the eagerly attentive listener about obscure passages in what he had read, or that he would have to take up the analysis of some difficult questions and, having spent time on this, read less than he would like. Reading silently was also good for him because in this way he preserved his voice, which often became hoarse. Whatever his intentions, he did so, in any case, he acted for the good. I, of course, had no opportunity to ask in detail what I wanted; how he thought about this in his heart, Thy holy prophecy. There were only short conversations. In order for my anxiety to subside, I needed a conversation at my leisure, and Ambrose never had that. I listened to him among the people, every Sunday, “truly dividing the word of truth,” and more and more I became convinced that it was possible to unravel all the slanderous intricacies that those deceivers wove in their enmity against the Scriptures.” (Augustine. Confessions VI, III, 3–4). And under the influence of Ambrose, Augustine again took up reading the Old Testament. Now, after the bishop’s sermons, he looked at this book with different eyes, and it no longer seemed as absurd to him as when he first read it. “I listened with pleasure to how Ambrose often repeated in his sermons to the people, diligently recommending, as a rule: “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” When, removing the mysterious veil, he explained in a spiritual sense those passages that, being understood literally, seemed to me to be a preaching of perversity, then nothing in his words offended me, although I still did not know whether these words were true” (Augustine. Confessions VI, IV, 6). Step by step, slowly and difficultly, Augustine walked to Christ; his path to Salvation was long and painful. On this path, Simplician, the father “by the grace of God of Bishop Ambrose, who truly loved him like a father,” was his guide (Confession VIII, II, 3). Long, faith-filled and meaningful conversations with Simplician, who was able to devote much more time to Augustine than Ambrose, also played a big role in the formation of the future father of the Christian church. On the path to finding spirituality and truth, Augustine also had stories about the life of the most popular, thanks to Athanasius the Great, Christian hermit Anthony and other monks and hermits; and Old Testament texts, which, thanks to Ambrose, he now perceived completely differently than before; and the letters of the Apostle Paul, who opened the way for Christianity to the Roman Empire. All this led Augustine to the recognition of Christianity as the only true teaching, in search of which he spent his entire previous life. And finally, he made his final choice in favor of Christ, laid down the “burden of teaching” and went to Kassitsiak, his friend’s villa not far from Mediolan. There he indulges in conversations with friends, reflections on faith and spirituality, writes his first philosophical treatises and prepares to undergo the sacred sacrament of baptism. Now unable to communicate with Ambrose directly, Augustine writes letters to him in which he sets out his previous errors and his present desire to become a Christian. He asks the bishop for advice on which books of Scripture he should read to better prepare for baptism. Ambrose, despite his enormous busyness, always answered him and recommended reading the prophet Isaiah, because, as Augustine himself understood, he “speaks more clearly than others about the Gospel and the calling of the pagans” (Confessions IX, V, 13). At the beginning of 387, Augustine, together with his friend Alypius and his fifteen-year-old son Adeodatus, returned to Milan and signed up for baptism. Alypius, in order to tame his body, dared to do an unusual act: “he walked barefoot across the icy soil of Italy.” Finally, on April 24, 387, the long-awaited day arrived, towards which Augustine had been working all his life: “We were baptized, and anxiety for our former life fled from us. In those days I could not get enough of the wondrous sweetness, contemplating the depth of Your intention to save the human race. How much I cried over Your hymns in Your church. These sounds poured into my ears, the truth filtered into my heart, I was overwhelmed with awe; tears ran, and I felt good with them” (Augustine. Confessions IX, VI, 14) 62. After baptism, Augustine decides to return to Africa and soon leaves Mediolan, as it turns out, forever. Fate no longer brought Augustine and Ambrose together; in any case, we know nothing about any contacts between them after 387. Four years later, Augustine was ordained a priest, and in 396 he took the episcopal see of Hippo. Ambrose at that moment had less than a year of life left, and Augustine's star as the father of the church was still rising. From Plautus: “I will continue my inventions - this is what the case requires” (Ghost, 546). Although Augustine in his Confessions does not give the name of the priest who performed the sacrament of baptism on him, the opinion is firmly established in the literature that it was Bishop Ambrose, and there is no reason to doubt this.