Слово на день Св. Пятидесятницы (О пришествии Святого Духа и даре языков). Блаженного Августина

With this celebration we glorify the coming of the Holy Spirit, whom the Lord sent from heaven to earth, according to His promise. Because of this promise He thus spoke: if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you: if I go, I will send Him to you (John 16:7): then after the Lord suffered, died, rose again and ascended into heaven, all that remained was for the promise to be fulfilled. Waiting for the fulfillment of this promise, His disciples - in number, it is said, as one hundred and twenty (Acts 1:16), i.e., increased tenfold compared to the number of the Apostles (for the Lord chose twelve to be the Apostles, and sent the Spirit to a hundred and twenty) - stayed in one house, praying; and - because they already expected so - they, by faith itself, by prayer itself, by the most spiritual expectation, created themselves as new wineskins, capable of containing new, heavenly wine. And then it poured out! For the Lord Jesus Christ, this abundant bunch of grapes, was already trampled and glorified. “He did not have the Holy Spirit,” we read in the Gospel, “for Jesus was not glorified (John 7:39). You have already heard what a great miracle this event was marked by. Everyone present there spoke the same language. The Holy Spirit descends, and, filled with Him, they begin to speak in different languages ​​of all nations, hitherto incomprehensible and unfamiliar to them. Their teacher was the One who came to them from heaven; He dwelt in them and filled them. At that time, not only for one hundred and twenty people who were in one upper room, but also for everyone who received the Holy Spirit, the sign of this was that suddenly, being filled with the Spirit, he spoke in different tongues. After a little time, according to the testimony of Scripture, the pagans also believed, were baptized, received the Holy Spirit, and spoke in different languages ​​(Acts 10:44-48). Then everyone was horrified and perplexed..., and they cursed the verbs, as if they were full of wine (Acts 2:12, 13; 10:45), - they mocked, and yet they partly spoke the truth: for new wineskins were filled with new wine (Matthew 9:17). You know from the Gospel narrative that no one pours new wine into wineskins. old things: carnal man does not accept even the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14). Flesh is old, but grace is new; and the more a person is renewed by grace, the more capable he is of becoming wise in the truth; and behold, when the grace of the Holy Spirit was poured out, multilingual verbs poured out! But, brothers, is it really true that the Holy Spirit is not given now? Anyone who thinks this way is not worthy of fellowship with the Holy Spirit. It is still given today. Why doesn’t anyone now speak all languages, as those filled with the Holy Spirit spoke at that time? What is this from? - From the fact that, typified by this gift of tongues, has now come to fruition. Although the Lord answered His disciples, who asked about the time of the establishment of His kingdom: you cannot understand the times and years that the Father has laid down in His power, but then again He promised what He has now fulfilled: you will receive the power that the Holy Spirit has brought upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the last of the earth (Acts 1:7, 8). Soon afterwards the Church, which was then confined to one house, received the Holy Spirit; This church consisted of a small number of members, and in terms of languages ​​it was already universal even then. This served as a prototype of the future state of the Church. In fact, what was indicated by the fact that the primary Church, a small one, spoke in universal languages? Is it not because the present Church is numerous, spreading from the east of the sun to the west, speaking in the languages ​​of all nations? So, now what was promised then is being fulfilled. We hear and see it. Hear, daughters, and see, - it was said to the Queen herself (Ps. 44:11); hear and see: hear the promise, see the fulfillment. Your God is faithful to you; Your Bridegroom is faithful to you; Your Redeemer is faithful to you, having acquired you with His blood; Faithful to you is He who created you from an ugly woman to a beautiful bride, from an unclean woman to a pure virgin. You yourself received the promise in a few children, and its fulfillment in countless children. So, no one says: “If I received the Holy Spirit, why don’t I speak in different tongues?” – Listen to this more, my brothers, who wish to have the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Our spirit, by which we live, is called soul. Thus, our spirit, by which every person lives, is the soul of everyone; and see what the soul does in the body. She animates all his members: she sees with her eyes, she hears with her ears, she smells with her nostrils, she speaks with her tongue, she does with her hands, she walks with her feet. It is common to all members and animates everything; She pours one life into all members, and accomplishes a special work through each member. The eye does not hear, the ear does not see, the tongue does not see, neither the ear nor the eye speaks; but they all live: the ear lives, the tongue lives; Their occupations are different, but everyone has a common life. So the Church of God - through some saints it performs miracles, through others it speaks the truth; in some saints he preserves virginity, in others he preserves marital chastity; in some he does this, in others he does something else. Each member of the Church has his own activities, and still live. But what the soul is in relation to the human body, the Holy Spirit is also in relation to the Church, which is the body of Christ: the Holy Spirit acts in the same way in the whole Church, just as the soul acts in all members of one body. But look what you have to fear; look at what you have to observe; look what you should be afraid of. It happens that some member, a hand, for example, a finger, or a leg is cut off from a living body; does the soul remain in the severed member? As long as he is in the body, he lives; and being separated from the body, it loses life. So a person remains a true believer as long as he lives in the body of Christ - in the Church; and being separated from her, he dies spiritually; the excommunicated one is abandoned by the Spirit of God. So, if you want to live about the Holy Spirit: hold on to love, love the truth, be zealous for unity, so that you can achieve blissful eternity. Amen 117. In the meeting. Words 267. See Sunday. Read IX (1845¬–46), pp. 57–59; compare Sunday Read XII (1848–49), pp. 70–71. You might be interested in: