Word on text In. 9:39

“I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see will be blind” (John 9:39) (Regarding the Greek-Bulgarian issue) [Said in the academic church in 1873 on May 13, the week of the blind man, during the church celebration of the Slavic enlighteners] Church remembrance of the Equal-to-the-Apostles first teachers of the vast Slavic tribe, St. Cyril and Methodius, is now involuntarily overshadowed by sorrow, at the thought of the disaster that finally broke out in the long-term strife between the Greek and Bulgarian hierarchies. One of the first-born among the Slavic peoples, earlier than others, he took advantage of the works of the gospel of St. educators and who contributed greatly to the increase of the property inherited from them, was accused of schism and the unfortunate consequences of schism. According to the close union that binds all members of the church together, if one member suffers, everyone suffers with him. According to the saying of the Apostle, God arranged both the physical organism and the church organism so that there would be no discord - schism - in the body, but so that all members would equally care for each other (1 Cor. 12:24-26). And as, according to the popular saying, whoever is in pain speaks about it, then our word is involuntarily drawn to the subject of grief. Now the reading of the Gospel tells us about the schism produced in Jerusalem by the healing of a man born blind. Describing this event with its further consequences, the Evangelist notes twice: and there was strife (σχίσμα) in them (John 9:16, 10:19). But, what is worthy of all our attention, the Lord is in no hurry to extinguish this schism through his own means, to suppress it by any violent or artificial means. In the schism of Jerusalem there was both a threat of excommunication and insane accusations of fury against the Author of the healing himself: but He leaves the matter to its natural course, so that the glory of God will be revealed all the more clearly in due time. May the works of God be revealed in him. For us, who do not know reliably how guilty or innocent those and other participants in the current church discord are, nor how and in what the glory of God should be revealed in this matter, and it certainly must be revealed, it would be premature to talk about this. Therefore, let us look in the words of the Gospel for another subject that is closer to our sphere. Explaining his attitude towards the discord that arose in Jerusalem, the Lord said: I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see will be blind. Before his all-searching gaze, the whole world is divided into two classes: those who see and those who do not see. Here we mean not only contemporaries, but also people of subsequent generations, not only Jews, but also everyone who is reached by the gospel of the Gospel, which must reach all nations. The Redeemer of the human race, who came to liberate it from the darkness of ignorance of God and sin, extending his rays to all times and peoples, sees among them those who see, to whom His merciful love does not hesitate to say: oh, if only you could not see at all - oh, how quickly you were blind! Both naturally look for sympathizers, enter into an alliance with them, act together, and form their own separate societies. Thus, his divine word, like a ray, cutting through this darkness, even before the general judgment, now produces division, judgment between them - and he sets this as one of the goals of his coming to earth. I came to this world for judgment. Who are these unfortunate seers and happy non-seeers? And how is Divine judgment carried out on them? We can see this from the history of the Jerusalem event, so vividly depicted by the Holy Evangelist, and from the history of our time. A beggar, blind from birth, was healed. He was healed by the clay with which his eyes were anointed. He was healed on Saturday, when, according to the rules of the Pharisees, even such an insignificant action as anointing with clay was not allowed. But this insignificant action, combined with the washing in the pool of Siloam, exerted supernatural power. The blind man's sight was clearly miraculous. This is immediately brought to the attention of the Pharisees. And they make every effort to prove that there was no miracle here, and that the Healer is by no means a miracle worker. The healed man is interrogated, his parents are called in, he himself is questioned again - and when nothing justifies their suspicions, when the reality of the event has become obvious to everyone, they drive out the former blind man, with reproach and abuse. These are the seers who would be better off if they recognized themselves as blind. These are the Pharisees who revered and everywhere declared themselves leaders of the blind, that is, leaders of this simple people in matters of faith and piety, a light for those in darkness, mentors of the ignorant, teachers of infants (Rom. 2:19-20). People who are at all familiar with movements in theological science, with the destinies of Orthodoxy, know very well how often pitiful phenomena of this kind have been and are being repeated in the history of the Church and in modern Christian society! The leaders of science, who have a huge store of learning, and as a result have a strong influence on those around them and on distant generations, take on thankless work for them, denying in every way the truth that clearly catches everyone’s eyes. Without extending into the distance, let us at least point out some phenomena. – They begin the work of destruction with the history of the chosen people, to whom were entrusted the covenants and promises for the whole world; they are trying to compare this people with all other peoples of antiquity; explain the divine advantages bestowed upon him by the natural desire in every nation to extol themselves and their ancestors; the extraordinary destinies of this people are attributed to special coincidences of circumstances, and to the historical course of events in general; their sacred books declare them to be half genuine, half forged; prophecies or vague premonitions, or after events recorded predictions. – Having caused such devastation in the Old Testament region, they transferred their weapons to the region of New Testament history. At first, while still maintaining respect for the face of the Savior, even trying to deliberately expose the high dignity of His face, character, teachings - actually moral - at the same time they attack miracles, both theoretically and practically proving their impossibility. Hence, they try to give everything miraculous in the Gospel the appearance of misinterpreted, or even inaccurately conveyed, natural events. With rabbinic sophistication, they come up with all possible combinations in order to present the matter in a completely different way. With success, insolence increases: they begin to undermine the very principles on which the entire Divine economy rests: they deny the fall of man, the necessity, even the possibility of redemption; concern the divine dignity of the Redeemer. They are finally trying to lift into the air the very books that testify before the whole world about the Divine acts and teachings of the Savior of the world... Isn’t this the same story as in Jerusalem? They deny the miracle, try to undermine the reliability of the witnesses, and when they cannot defend their doubts, they condemn everyone with blasphemy! - In a word, without any exaggeration, in the hostile interrogations of the unscrupulous judges of Jerusalem, the entire course of actions of contemporary biased researchers of religion, presenting their decisions as the verdict of science, is depicted. In Jerusalem, starting to investigate whether there really was a miracle, the Jews had already previously agreed that whoever recognized the prophet of Galilee as Christ should be excommunicated from the synagogue (John 9:22). This decision was made due to the fact that Christ did not appear to them as they desired and expected. According to their reinterpretations of the prophets, according to their national prejudices in favor of the exclusive rights of Israel to participate in the kingdom of the Messiah, due to dissatisfaction with the denunciations of the strict Teacher of Israel, His high spiritual demands, the denial of their righteousness - they have long since decided in their supreme court that the Prophet of Galilee is not Christ the Messiah. – Just as precisely, today’s biased science in its Areopagus has long ago decided that it is in vain to think of finding pre-images of the Gospel Messiah in the prophets; rather, on the contrary, in judging the aspirations of Israel, she agrees with the views and expectations of the Jewish scribes, preferring to be guided by the judgments of the notorious enemies of the name of Christ. Considering even the rejected sons of Israel among the members of her scientific court, she declares in advance that faith, which rests on the Gospel, on the writings of the Apostles, on the testimony of the primacy of the Church, has no scientific basis. – As if faith, based on undoubted evidence, justified by the consciousness of its saving effect, confirmed by many extraordinary and beneficial phenomena in the external and internal life of peoples, should not have any significance in the court of science. As if in the relationship between God and man, everything can be determined by science, which cannot extend into the realm of the invisible, without having in itself the tools to clarify the incomprehensible. In Jerusalem they said to the man born blind: give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner. - Impudent unbelief ascribes to itself completely unfairly the reliability of knowledge. With incredible audacity, it places the purest of the righteous along with everyone else: he is a sinner. He is a sinner because he does not keep the Sabbath as established by their petty, meaningless understanding of the letter of the law. “We know,” say today’s like-minded people of the unbelieving scribes and Pharisees. Having proudly rejected faith, they want to base everything on knowledge: but is it worthy of the name of knowledge that it is based only on assumptions - some more arbitrary than others, on guesses - some refuted by others? Where are your new historical sources? What new do you have besides our Gospels? And by what right do you consider one of them reliable, and deny the other? Science has never treated any monuments of antiquity so willfully and unscrupulously as with the artless records of the publicans and fishermen of Galilee, who imprinted the truth of their writings with their blood. “We know that this man is a sinner.” The impudent science of the later Jews is not ashamed to repeat this blasphemy against Christ. - Although, of course, not on those reckless grounds to which the superstition of the Sabbath worshipers resorted. Considering sin to be an inevitability of human nature, they could not free the Son of God, who was humbly called the Son of Man, from our unfortunate fate of being tributaries of sin. And with what tricks, with what dishonesty they attach themselves to His words and actions, protecting all this in the name of impartial science, which should not allow exceptions for anyone. - But an impartial reader of the Gospel, whether he is simple and uneducated, or a highly enlightened man, cannot help but feel the full power of the Divine Word: who will convict Me of sin? One cannot help but be amazed by the truth expressed through the lips of the traitor himself: those who have sinned by betraying innocent blood! In Jerusalem, after all the interrogations and research, and re-examination, they are finally convinced that the healed man was really blind from birth, and, therefore, his healing was truly a miracle: and, however, with obvious disregard for the work of God, they drive away the fearless witness of the truth. We say: they are convinced. For what else do the words mean: you were born entirely in sins? This means that they recognize him as a sinner more than any other person, a sinner from his very birth. On what is this conclusion based? On the same thought with which the disciples thought to explain his blindness: either he sinned or his parents. You were born in sins, and therefore you were born blind: this is the logic of the Pharisees. This means blindness from birth, and according to the Pharisees, is a consequence of his sinfulness from birth. So, the truth begins to reveal itself in the consciousness of its enemies themselves, contrary to their wishes. And yet, they strive to suppress the truth with untruth, to turn the miraculous power of God into a lie; Instead of healing, they are forced to see deceit on one side or the other, a forgery. – If opponents of the truth could act so unscrupulously, in view of the event itself, in the presence of direct witnesses to it, then researchers of the history of the Gospel allow themselves to treat it with greater disdain in both time and place. Under the pretext of impartiality, so as not to seem too carried away in favor of religion - taking advantage of the favorable cooling towards the cause of faith, they give faith to all sorts of absurd rumors, constantly look for new objections, completely distort the nature of events and figures, they see nothing in the sacred - the divine - except everyday human motives and actions; boldly invading the sanctuary of God, they trample under their feet the most precious interests of humanity, the highest manifestations of God's grace to distressed humanity, they reduce them to the level of dreams of self-deluded feelings.... God, the Gentiles have come into Your inheritance; – (Ps.79:1). Here, listeners, is not an imaginary, but really everywhere, under the guise of science, a direction that is intensifying to penetrate, which counts among its leaders many who see. The Lord pronounced his sentence about them: I came into this world for judgment, so that he who sees will be blind. And the same Lord told us, as a warning, how to treat them: leave them: leaders are blind to the blind: but if a blind man leads a blind man, they will both fall into a pit (Matthew 15:14). But at the very time when stubborn unbelief was hardening in Jerusalem to the point of blindness, to our consolation we see how the simple, unprejudiced gaze of faith is increasingly enlightened in the healed person and those close to him. The other, gratifying half of the divine sentence is fulfilled over them: let those who do not see see. A beggar born blind, living on alms, lived in the lowest sphere of Jerusalem society. Without a doubt, rumors also reached him about the Prophet of Galilee, whose appearance in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles caused great excitement in the city. But we would not be surprised if in the capital, whose government was opposed to this prophet, even the beggar heard more rumors that were not in his favor than those that were favorable to him. In Jerusalem and earlier, not many turned to His Divine help. And the Lord himself asked the paralytic, lying in the porches of Bethesda, in advance: Do you want to be whole (John 5:6)? And the Healer’s attention was drawn to the man born blind, not by the requests of the one suffering from blindness, but by the question of the disciples and the mercy of the Healer. However, one cannot deny to a man born blind that he grew up as an unspoiled, conscientious son of Israel. And we can say that when the Lord chose him to show His glory over him, this man did not turn out to be unworthy of such election. The Divine Healer deigned to perform the work of His mercy on him not with a word or a simple touch, but with some special action, which from the very beginning did not promise any healing consequences and did not suddenly have to exert its power. He anointed the eyes of the blind man with clay, and sent him to wash in the pool of Siloam. Shaving itself could clog rather than brighten vision. And it had no effect. Nevertheless, the blind man unquestioningly obeyed the order, and the water of Siloam, combining with the clay placed by the hand of the Creator, opened a new world of impressions to the man born blind. At the same time, this miracle gave the blind man another more important insight, spiritual enlightenment. Having received his sight bodily, he did not look for the reason for his healing either in clay or in the water of Siloam, but only in the power of the One who sent him to the font of Siloam. The man born blind began to reason: apparently, this man, my Healer, is from God (John 9:33); Apparently, He does the will of God, and therefore God listened to his prayer (p. 31). It is clear, however, that He is a prophet, as the people said (p. 17). “For the first time, the blind man’s faith and reasoning did not extend further. But this is enough; it is clear that he made good use of the data. If you are faithful in less, you will receive more in due time. But then a storm of doubts attacks him - from the outside. The Pharisees do not recognize healing as the work of God; they call it an act contrary to God, because it was combined with a violation of the Sabbath law. A man born blind is not skilled in the subtleties of rabbinic learning. He does not know what is permitted and what is not permitted by the Law of Moses. - But according to his reasoning, his Healer is the kind of person to whom Moses must yield: because otherwise such a miracle would not have happened, which has been unheard of since ages. So, the healed man did not waver in his conviction: God will not listen to sinners, he says. How many times, perhaps, did he himself pray to God to deliver him from such a misfortune: but his sinful prayer did not reach God. Not so with the Prophet of Galilee! Confirming his conviction more and more, the man born blind at the same time notices in his judges a very unkind prejudice against Jesus. They decided to deny the natural blindness of man with all their lies; Who better to know than the man born blind himself, all the lies, all the dishonesty of such a court? - And he begins to realize that he has nothing to be embarrassed by their incorrect judgment. The disciples of Moses reproachfully call him a disciple of Jesus: there is nothing to be ashamed of this, he is no longer afraid of the misfortune of being expelled from the society of self-proclaimed disciples of Moses. “You see how his faith grows, how his faith strengthens, how his ties with the synagogue are gradually severed. But for the spiritual healing of the man born blind, the most important thing was still missing. It is necessary that he recognize in his Healer not only a prophet, but also the Son of God. And now the merciful Lord Himself finds him, He Himself reveals Himself to him, as He has never revealed Himself to others in such a light. Do you believe in the Son of God? He asks the one who has received his sight. – For the first time, a man born blind sees his Healer in front of him, therefore he could not recognize Him by his face, but His voice must immediately tell Him who this questioner is. But who is this, the Son of God, about whom He asks? - And I saw Him, answered the Lord, and say to you that He is. And the grateful disciple of the Gospel immediately falls on his face, rendering the Son of God almost the first with such a consciousness in which faith in the Son of God was expressed, rendering him worthy worship. And worship Him. - Thus the Lord creates those who do not see to see. Thus, the Gospel teaches us to ascend from faith to faith and shows everyone the way to this. Listeners! The Jerusalem healing of the man born blind is not an isolated phenomenon in the history of the Gospel, it is not a private matter only between Christ and the healed man. We see that it creates division in the community of Jerusalem, although at the beginning a few joined the ranks of the believers. We read further in the Gospel how it called the Son of God - to openly declare to Israel that He is their good shepherd, that the former leaders of the people of God were either tatii and robbers, or mercenaries - that He is now creating a new courtyard, a new fence for His sheep, and He Himself is the door for them, that He will have other sheep, and you will bring them into His courtyard. You see how far the effect of the Divine sentence extends: let those who do not see see, and those who see will be blind. And all of us, chosen from Israel and chosen from the tongue, were all spiritually blind from birth, and we all owe two spiritual enlightenments to this heavenly Siloam, the Church of Christ. And our great enlighteners, the now revered Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius, are also leaders of Siloam. They lead, and are now invisibly leading, the emerging generations to the same source of light, they lead us, called to serve the spiritual enlightenment of our brethren, they accept under their protection the efforts of new figures in the gospel of the Gospel and attract tribes alien to us into the bowels of the Holy Church. Let us sincerely, whole-heartedly adhere to their powerful guidance in faith, in teaching, in life. - Amen.