Какое содействие доставляет ей Божественное миро

Those who are so spiritually created and thus born should receive both action that would correspond to such birth and movement in accordance with it. And this brings us the sacrament of the Divine world, for it makes spiritual actions active, now one, now another, now many, judging by what kind of acceptance someone has for the sacrament. And now with those who were washed the same is done that in former times the hands of the apostles did with those baptized by them, for when the apostles laid hands on those who received the sacrament, it is said that the Holy Spirit was given to them, and now the Comforter descends on those who are anointed. The evidence for this is as follows. First: in the Old Testament, kings and priests were anointed equally, but the law of the church of the first, reigning with peace, lays hands on the priest and prays for the grace of the Spirit, showing thereby that we consider both to be one and the same thing, and that both have the same power. Then they have something in common with each other in names: it is called anointing, this is called the communication of the Spirit. For the most divine of the priests call the ordination of priests anointing, and vice versa, for those who are administered the sacrament of peace, they pray and believe that they are communions of the Holy Spirit, and when they explain to those approaching the sacrament what it is, they call it the seal of a spiritual gift. This is what they sing during the anointing. The Master Himself also became anointed, not because he accepted the poured-out ointment on his head, but for the sake of the Holy Spirit, when he became the repository of all spiritual activity for the flesh he had assumed; and not only by the anointed one, but also by the anointing, for it is said: “thy name is poured out with ointment” (Song. 1:2), one from the very beginning, the other later. Until it became that to which God could impart his gifts, it was a world abiding in itself; when the blessed flesh began to exist, having accepted the fullness of the Divinity, which, as John says, God gave the Spirit beyond measure (John 3:34) and invested all spiritual wealth, then the ointment poured out on it truly became and began to be called anointing. For to be communicated for him meant to become anointed and to be poured out. For he did not change his place, did not destroy the walls and did not trespass through them, but destroyed those dividing him from us by the fact that, having accepted him into himself, he did not leave anything between himself and us. For God, who fills every place, is not distinguished by place from people, but is distinguished by difference, and nature itself separates itself from God in that in everything it has, it differs from him, and has nothing in common with him, because he is only God, and nature is only man. When the flesh was deified and human nature was accepted into the hypostasis of God Himself, the myrrh had already crossed the fence. And this difference no longer has a place when one already existed, and the other became a single hypostasis, which destroys the distance between Divinity and humanity, being the common limit of each nature, and there is no common limit between those standing apart. If alabaster were somehow transformed into myrrh, the myrrh could not remain incommunicable to the outside, neither what is inside, nor in itself; in the same way, when our nature was deified in the Savior’s body, there was nothing left separating the human race from God, which is why nothing prevents us from participating in his benefits except sin. Since there was a twofold obstacle: one from nature, the other from will, the Savior destroyed one by the incarnation, the other by crucifixion. For sin is destroyed by the cross. Therefore, after Baptism, which has the power of the cross and death, we receive the communion of the Spirit in the world. For when both obstacles are destroyed, nothing holds back the Holy Spirit from being poured out on all flesh, as much as is possible in this life. For for direct coexistence with God there is a third obstacle, death, and those who wear a mortal body cannot do without fortune telling and a mirror. So, since people were separated from God in three ways: by nature, by sin and by death, the Savior made sure that they truly communicated and came directly to him, destroying one by one everything that hindered this: one by communing with humanity, the other by death on the cross, and the last mediastinum that was perfect was expelled from nature by resurrection. Therefore, Paul says: “The last enemy that will be destroyed is death” (1 Cor. 15:26). He would have called her an enemy if she had not been an obstacle to our true well-being, for the heirs of the immortal God need to be free from corruption. For “corruption does not inherit incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:50). For after the general resurrection of people, the cause of which is the resurrection of the Savior, the mirror and fortune telling will pass away, and those purified in heart will see God face to face. So, the purpose of the sacrament is to teach the actions of the Holy Spirit, and the ointment introduces the Lord Jesus himself, in whom is all the salvation of people, all good hope, and from Him is the fellowship of the Holy Spirit for us, and through Him is the bringing to the Father. For although the entire Holy Trinity performs the re-creation of people, the active agent is the Word alone, and not just at the time when it was a fellow-member in the lives of people, and brought to itself, says Paul, “to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:28), but from that time and forever, while our nature still bears, for the sake of which we have in Him an intercessor to God, by Himself cleanses our conscience from dead works, by Himself gives us the Spirit. This sacrament in former times imparted to those baptized the gifts of healing and prophecy and tongues and the like, which for all people served as clear proof of the superior power of Christ. For they were needed when piety was established and established. And now the same thing happens to some, the same is said about the past and about the future: they cast out demons and freed them from illness with one prayer, and not only during their lifetime, but the dead could already do the same, since spiritual strength does not leave the blessed ones who have died. And what the ointment communicates to each of the Christians and what is convenient for every time is the gift of piety and prayer and love and Chastity and other things that are beneficial for those who receive. If this is alien to many Christians and hidden from them, they do not know whether the Holy Spirit exists, this is because they received the sacrament at an early age and accepted its gifts unconsciously and, when they came of age, they turned to what they should not and blinded the eye of the soul. Thus, the “Spirit” imparts its gifts to those who receive the sacrament, “dividing power to everyone as He wills” (1 Cor. 12:11), and the Lord did not cease doing good to us, as He promised to remain with us forever. For the sacrament is not in vain, but as from the Divine font we receive remission of sins and from the sacred meal we partake of the Body of Christ, and this will not cease until until the very One who serves as their foundation clearly comes - in the same way, it is absolutely necessary that Christians receive what they need from the Divine world and partake of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For what is the appropriateness for some of the Holy Sacraments to be effective, and this is not at all useful and to know about them that what was announced about them, according to Paul (Heb. 10:22), is true, but one should either doubt about them, or not even think about them. others think the same thing, since the same power acts in everyone, and the one slaughter of the one Lamb and His death and blood brings completion to all. And this is how the Holy Spirit is truly taught to some, so that they may benefit others and, as Paul says, edify the church, foretelling the future, or teaching the sacraments, or freeing them from illnesses with a word, to others, so that they themselves may become better, shining with godliness, or with an abundance of chastity, or love, or humility. For it is possible for one who has received it to be chaste in thought and disposition, and to exercise his disposition in righteousness, and to pray, and to love, and to be zealous in everything else. It is possible for someone moved by God to keep the will from passions, to be humane and fair, and to show other wisdom. For just as in people acting under the influence of evil spirits there are bestial passions, so on the contrary, when God himself moves, there are virtues divine and higher than human law. In this way blessed Paul loved, David was meek, and others of those praised showed a mind higher than human nature. For he wrote to the Philippians that he loved them through the womb of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:8), but God said about David: “I have found... a man after My heart” (Acts 13:22). And faith is a spiritual gift, which the Apostles desired to receive from the Savior, saying: “Add faith to us” (Luke 17:5), and He Himself asks for illumination from the Father: “Sanctify them,” he says, “in Thy truth” (John 17:17). And God gives prayer to the one who prays and “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” (Rom. 8:26), delivering, I think, the power of prayer; in a word, the Holy Spirit is completely the spirit of wisdom, and reason, and counsel, and strength, and piety, and other things, from which those to whom He imparts His gifts receive their names. So, the sacrament communicates its gifts to everyone who comes, but the feeling of gifts and zeal for the wealth that they can take advantage of this is not for everyone, because some, due to age, cannot yet have reason, others are unprepared and do not show the right will, from which some subsequently repent of sins, and tears, and life according to the right word, reveal the grace invested in their souls. Why does Paul, in his letter to Timothy, say: “Do not neglect your gift” (1 Tim. 4:14), since even after accepting the gift, there is no benefit for us if we are careless, and also because those who want to have an active soul in this need work and vigilance: so if one of the zealous appears to be successful in love, or in the purity of chastity, or in an abundance of humility, or piety, or something similar, higher than the nature of these people, the reason for this must be to venerate the most Divine myrrh and believe that such a gift was bestowed upon him at the time when he received the sacrament, and he became active afterwards. In the same way, those who know how to speak correctly about the future and, without the help of art, be saviors for corrupted wills, and otherwise weak, and who show something else, have all this from the sacrament. And if the sacrament, even when it was performed, did not make those who received it active in spiritual powers, and if the sacrament were not the reason for the fact that they subsequently act spiritually, then why would one begin the sacrament? What good will the acceptance of the Divine world serve us if it cannot lead to that for which we desire it? Then it will not be possible to say that if we do not receive this from the anointing, this sacrament could provide us with other help. For if it does not deliver what it promises and what everything is directed towards, and what the performer of the sacrament prays for, and what he assures the recipient of the sacrament that he will immediately receive, the less one should expect from him any other good. If the sacrament, like everything else in Christianity, is not in vain, then “our preaching is not in vain and your faith is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14); then if you can find in people any spiritual power and anything from the range of spiritual gifts, this should be attributed to these prayers and sacred anointing. For there is absolutely no good imparted from God to delivered people, which would be obtained without a mediator between God and people, and finding a mediator and receiving and receiving all the benefits from him does not grant anything except the sacraments. For they make us related to that blood, and those gifts that He received for the sake of the flesh, and sharers of what He wanted to endure. For, therefore, what brings people closer to God and in which the whole salvation of people is twofold - to receive the Sacred Sacraments and to exercise the will in piety, for the second, i.e. for human jealousy, there is no other matter than to preserve what is given and not betray the treasure; Therefore, there remains one giver of all blessings - the power of the sacrament. And of these sacraments, each has a different purpose, and the communication of the Spirit and His gifts depends on the all-holy Peace; Therefore, if someone can show a spiritual gift, even if it was not during the very performance of the sacrament, but much later, he should not remain ignorant of the reason and where this power comes from. Because enlightenment from baptism immediately after baptism enters the souls of those who receive the sacrament, but it is not obvious to everyone at the same time, and in some of the zealous it is revealed when they have cleansed the eye of the soul with much later, and labor, and love for Christ. Through this myrrh, houses of prayer help us in our prayers. For those who are anointed with myrrh are for us what they are, because the poured out myrrh becomes an intercessor for us to God and the Father, because it itself was poured out and became anointing, and was poured out even on our nature. The altars are likened to the hand of the Savior, and we accept the bread from the anointed meal as the body from the most pure hand of Christ, and we drink his blood, like those first whom the Master introduced to the Sacred meal, having preceded the farewell cup full of horror in the evening. Since He is both the Priest and the Shepherd, and the sacrifice, and the one who brings the sacrifice, and for the sake of which he brings the very thing that he brings, he divided this between the sacraments, giving one to the bread of blessing, and the other to the world. For the altar is also the Savior and the one who offers sacrifice through the anointing. For from the beginning he established the altar to be anointed, and for priests to be priests means to be anointed, and He sacrificed through the cross and death, with which he died for the glory of God and the Father, and we proclaim death and sacrifice when we eat, as it is said, this bread. Myrrh is Christ and the anointing through the Holy Spirit, through whom it accomplishes the most sacred of all and illuminates, but is not itself illuminated and does not experience anything like that. This is characteristic of the altar, both of the sacrificer and the one who brings, and not of the one brought and sacrificed. For it is also said about the altar that it sanctifies; “the altar,” it is said, “is a holy gift” (Matthew 23:19); He is bread for the sake of the flesh, sanctified and deified, and having received both, anointing and wounds. For the bread which I will give, my flesh is, which I will give, that is, sacrificing for the belly of the world (John 6:33, 35). Therefore, it is offered as bread, and it brings as ointment, having deified the flesh in itself, and made us partakers of the anointing. Representing the image of this, Jacob, having anointed the stone with oil, lifted it up to God, offering it with this very anointing, and pointed either to the corner stone - the flesh of the Savior, onto which true Israel poured out the ointment of the Divinity, with one mind seeing the Father, or to us, whom He Himself made from stones the children of Abraham, giving us the anointing. For the Holy Spirit, which is poured out on those who are anointed, is something else for us, and the Spirit of sonship also obeys, it is said, our Spirit, as we are children of God, crying in our hearts: “Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15-16). Thus, the most Divine myrrh helps those who want to live in Christ. You might be interested in: