Christ and Christian
Children, when analyzing prayers, we many times called Almighty God our Creator, and meanwhile we talked about the fact that man is weak and cannot live safely on earth without outside help, that he is more inclined to listen to the evil spirit than to follow the suggestions of his Guardian Angel. How so? Couldn't Almighty God have created man more capable of good than he is now? Now I will tell you why a person is more inclined to bad than to good, and who is to blame for this?
We call God the Creator of man. So, there was a time when there was no man, but there was One Triune God? Yes. And this Triune God, eternally blessed in Himself, wanted to make many others blessed - to share His bliss with those who would be able and worthy to bliss with Him. And so, according to the omnipotent word of the Triune God, countless numbers of the purest spirits - Angels - appeared in heaven, and on earth - man in a beautiful world given to him at his complete disposal. At first everything was fine, everyone was blissful, glorifying God: Angels in heaven, man on earth...
But, children, what soon happened in heaven. One of the Angels closest to God dared to disobey God and even persuade many of the other Angels to do so... For such an act, he was immediately deprived of the honor of being with the luminous Angels in heaven and expelled into the abyss.
Instead of repenting of his bad deed against God, the fallen angel, who seduced many angels in heaven and on earth, also seduced man into disobedience to God... The first man also sinned, and was immediately expelled from his beautiful home. From being pure, holy, obedient to God in everything, man became nasty, disobedient to the Creator, prone only to bad deeds. Where did everything go in him?.. Before sin, man’s highest pleasure was to think about God, to do everything that God commanded, and even to talk with God face to face. But as soon as a person sinned, he began to hide from God, because being with God became unbearably difficult for him, his conscience tormented him for the sin of disobedience he committed against God. Having moved away from God, the source of all good, man fell under the power of his seducer and began to obey him in everything... People began to multiply, but they lived in enmity among themselves; so, for example, the eldest son of the first man killed his own brother... Foreseeing all this, God could then destroy the man, destroy him.
But God is good, He took pity on man, because man did not disobey God on his own - he was seduced by an evil spirit, the devil. Moreover, even after sin, man did not completely lose the desire to do good; he regretted the lost bliss with God, but his tendency to sin and the tempter - the devil - removed him more and more from the Creator. Therefore, as soon as God punished the first man for disobedience, He immediately showed him His mercy, promising the fallen salvation in the future.
To maintain faith in the Redeemer, God was pleased to gradually reveal the secret of salvation to certain virtuous men, who were called prophets. In the name of God Himself, the prophets, long before the coming of the Savior, predicted: Who will be the Redeemer of man from the power of the devil, where He will be born, where He will live, how He will teach people good, how He will suffer for them, how He will be resurrected, ascend to heaven and send the Holy Spirit to people. In a word, the prophets said everything that people needed to know about their Savior in order to believe in Him when He appeared on earth. In their predictions, all the prophets called the Savior Christ.
What, children, does Christ mean? - Probably, this is an important, meaningful name that we are all, in His honor, called Christians! Great is the name Christ: it means anointed one. Previously, only the king, the high priest and the prophet were anointed with fragrant oil, and they were anointed as a sign that special power was given to them from God. This Divine power was given to the king because he had to rule the whole people; to the high priest because he had to pray for the whole people; and a prophet because he had to teach a whole people. The One who came to deliver all people from the power of the devil, to ask God for the forgiveness of sins and to teach all people truth and goodness, had to unite in one Himself the power of a king, a high priest, a prophet, and not just one people, but the whole world of people forever, forever. This, children, was impossible for any person except God, Who was the Son of God, our Savior Jesus Christ (as you know from past conversations). In order to explain all this to people, so that they would wait for a Savior not from their midst, but from God, the prophets called Him Christ.
And in relation to the Savior, who appeared to people in the form of a man, the name Christ means: having received Divine power without measure, all Divine power, all filled with grace-filled gifts to communicate them to people. Now, children, you can probably guess for yourself why all those who believe in Christ are called Christians? Yes, because through Jesus Christ they receive the grace-filled power needed for a good and pious life, as much as they can accept. Christian means a person who lives according to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
How much we need the grace-filled power of Christ, you, children, know, because although you have lived a little in the world, you have already experienced how difficult it is to become smart, kind and obedient, and vice versa, how easy it is to remain stupid, disobedient and evil... All this, children, is because the evil tempting spirit is still trying to remove us from Christ in order to deprive us of His Divine help, to leave us with our weak forces and thus take possession of us and destroy us forever.
Now judge for yourself who is to blame for the fact that even now many people live badly, commit crimes and sin. God created man for bliss with Him. Man, by disobedience, angered God and became incapable of bliss with Him. For the salvation of man, God sent His Son to earth, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who through His suffering acquired Divine powers for people to fight sin, and man only has to believe in the Savior and pray to Him with all his heart in order to receive this Divine help to resist the devil. But many people do not want to do this either: they do not want to appear before the Divine image of Christ and in heartfelt prayer ask themselves for everything necessary for a virtuous life... So, children, a person can forget that he will not be able to feel how great mercy the Savior - Christ - has done for us. Beware of such terrible insensitivity.
To arouse in yourself an ardent faith in Christ, pray more often and more diligently before His holy image at home, and especially in church, firmly remembering: then you learned prayers in order to ask God for everything we need for a prosperous life here on earth, and for an eternally blessed life there in heaven.
What did we children have to say about a person when studying prayers? Has there always been a person in the world? Why did God create man? How did a person lose his bliss? What change happened to a person when he disobeyed God? Why did God show His mercy to man? What was this mercy? Did the first man know who the Savior would be? How did God maintain people's faith in the Savior? What did the prophets say about the Savior? What did they call the Savior? What does Christ mean? Why are those who believe in the Savior called Christians? Who is really a Christian? Who is to blame that some Christians live badly? Why is Divine help necessary for them? What should a Christian care about first of all? What should we do to awaken our heartfelt faith in Christ? How should we use the prayers we have learned?
Reprinted from: Explaining Church Prayers to Children. First year of study in primary schools. Vologda, 1884.
Christ (Greek); Messiah (Heb.); Anointed (Russian).
When naming us, the Holy Church prays to God like this: “Grant, Lord, that I will not deny Your Holy Name to come upon him, we unite during the time of good need for Your Holy Church, and celebrate the terrible mysteries of Your Christ” (prayer when naming the name on the 8th day).