Глава двенадцатая Христианские мистерии святы и спасительны

§ CXVIII. Charybdis and the Sirens So, let's run away from custom, let's run away from it, like from a dangerous cape, like from the threat of Charybdis, or like from the mythical sirens: it strangles a person, it is a trap, an abyss, an abyss; he is insatiable: Your ship is at a great distance from the waves and smoke Let us run away, let us run away, O companions, from that wave: it spews fire. The island is ominous: it is littered with bones and corpses. A pretty slut, a delight, sings on it, seduces with vulgar music: Hey, Odysseus of great fame, great power of the Achaeans, To hear the wonderful singing, send your ship towards them! The harlot praises you, O sailor, and calls you famous; trying to seize the glory of the Hellenes. Let her feed on the dead. The divine breath helps you: pass by pleasure - it misleads you. May your mind not be deceived by the fidgety creature that whispers slyly Words dear to the heart, to rummage in your barn. Float past the singing - it causes death. If you only want, you will overcome death and, tied to the tree, you will be freed from all defilement. The Word of God will govern you, and the Holy Spirit will lead you into the heavenly port. Then you will see my God and you will be initiated into the holy mysteries, and you will taste of what is hidden in heaven, stored up with me, which no ear has heard, and which has never entered the heart of anyone, And it seems that I see two suns, Double Thebes is a vision before me... - said someone, driven into a frenzy by idols, drunk with the undiluted wine of ignorance. I, most likely, will take pity on him, who is raging in intoxication, and will call him who is out of his mind to sober salvation, because the Lord rejoices in repentance, and not in the death of a sinner. § CXIX. Conversation with Tiresias Come, O madman, without leaning on the thyrsus, without a wreath of ivy; throw away the miter, throw away the deerskin, come to your senses! I will show you the Word and the mysteries of the Word, telling you about them according to your ideas. This is a mountain dear to God, which did not give plots to tragedies, like Cithaeron, but was intended for the actions of truth; a mountain where there is no wine, a mountain covered in the shadow of sacred forests. And it is not the sisters of the thunder-stricken Semele, the maenads who grab pieces of meat in an unholy mystery, who rejoice on it, but the daughters of God, dear sheep, proclaiming the sacred actions of the Word and convening an immaculate round dance. It is made up of the righteous. The song is a hymn to the King of the Universe. Girls pluck strings, angels sing praises, prophets speak; a musical echo echoes. Those called run after the procession, hurrying, passionately wanting to find the Father. Come, leaving Thebes, and you, O old man, and, having rejected the gift of the soothsayer and the Bacchic frenzy, let me lead you by the hand to the truth. Here I give you a stick to lean on. Hurry, Tiresias, believe, and you will receive your sight. Christ, through whom the eyes of the blind are opened, shines brighter than the sun. The night will flee from you, the fire will be afraid, death will recede: you, who have not seen Thebes, will see heaven, O old man! § CXX. About Christian mysteries O truly holy mysteries, O pure light! I carry a torch to see heaven and God; By dedicating myself, I become sinless, but the Lord performs the sacred act and, leading him to the light, marks the initiate with a seal and gives the believer to the Father under the protection of forever and ever. These are my “Bacchanalian” mysteries. If you want, accept initiation too, and you will dance in a circle with the angels around the unborn and imperishable and truly only God, and His Logos will sing hymns with us. This eternal Jesus, the only great High Priest of the only God, who is also His Father, prays for people and commands them: Hearken, countless nations, especially those endowed with reason - both barbarians and Greeks: I call the entire human race, of which I am the creator according to the will of the Father. Come to Me to stand in line under the authority of one God and one Word of God, and not only in reason are you superior to dumb animals - I give you, the only one of all mortals, immortality, because I want, I want to partake of this grace, giving you the most perfect gift - incorruptibility, and I present you with the Word, the knowledge of God, of all Myself. Here I am, here is what God wants, here is consonance, here is the harmony of the Father, here is the Son, here is Christ, here is the Word of God, the hand of the Lord, the power of the universe, the will of the Father. O people who formerly were images of God, but now not all correspond to the original! I want to improve you by turning to the prototype so that you become like Me. I will anoint you with the oil of faith, by which you will cast off corruption, and I will show you the naked outline of righteousness, by which you will rise to God. “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). § CXXI. Christ is our helper Let us hasten, let us run, O beloved and God-like images of the Word! Let us hasten, let us run, let us take His yoke, let us accept immortality, let us love Christ, the good Driver of humanity! He led the young donkey along with the old one under one yoke and, putting a collar on the people, directs the cart towards immortality, hastening to fulfill in the face of God in a clear manner what he had previously only hinted at, and forcing us now to run to heaven, just as he previously directed us to Jerusalem - the most beautiful sight for the Father - the eternal victorious Son. Let us strive for beauty, as we strive for honors, let us become people whom God loves; let us acquire the greatest of blessings - God and life! The Logos is our helper: let us boldly rely on Him, and never let the desire for silver, gold and glory, equal to the desire to hear the words of Truth, visit us, for God is in no way pleased if we attach less importance to those worthy of greater things: we highly value our obvious sins, the essence of which is ignorance, ignorance, negligence, idolatry and extreme wickedness. It is not without reason that philosophers consider everything that unreasonable people do to be impious and blasphemous and, even classifying ignorance itself as a form of madness, claim that the crowd is in a state of insanity. Reason tells me not to doubt what is better: to be reasonable or crazy. It is necessary, leaving error and holding a stranglehold on the truth, to follow God with all our strength and consider everything to belong to Him, as it really is. In addition, we need, having learned that we are the best of His treasures, to entrust ourselves to God, loving the Lord God and considering this the work of our whole life. If friends have everything in common, and a person is friendly to God (after all, he is a friend to Him through the mediation of the Logos), then everything becomes the property of a person, for everything is God’s, and two friends have everything in common: man and God. The time has come for us to call only the pious rich, and prudent, and noble, and therefore - the image of God, created in His likeness, and also to affirm and believe that, thanks to Christ Jesus, he who became rationally just and rationally pious, became in the same measure like God. The prophet does not withhold grace, saying: “I said that you are gods and sons of the Most High” (Ps. 82:6). After all, He adopted us, it was us, and He wants to be called only our Father, but not the Father of the disobedient. So, our affairs as Christ’s companions are as follows: such are the desires, such are the words, such are the words, such are the deeds, and such are the actions, such is life: the whole life of people who know Christ is good. Enough, I think, words, although I have already gone further in my reasoning, obeying philanthropy and pouring out what I received from God, as calling with all my might to the greatest of blessings - salvation. For when you talk about a life that has no end, the words that perform the sacred act do not want to stop. Now you just have to choose a goal that is beneficial - whether it is justice or mercy. But I believe that one should not doubt which of the two is better: in fact, one cannot compare life with death.