Слово на Благовещение Богоматери. Святителя Илии Минятия Кефалонитского

Behold, you conceived in your womb and gave birth to a Son, and you called His name Jesus. This one will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:31–32). King Solomon, who received from God all the light of wisdom for exploring the secrets of nature, after surveying everything that is in heaven and on earth - past, present and future, finally decided that in the world, under the sun, there is nothing new: nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:10). But God has now created a completely new work, which has never happened in past centuries and will never happen in future centuries: this is a work accomplished in the Annunciation of the blessed Mary, Virgin and Mother, but the Mother of God. A profound miracle, the greatest act of God's omnipotence, the most sublime mystery of our Orthodox faith. Virgin and Mother! What more incredible thing can nature see in creation? Virgo - Mother of God! What more wonderful thing can Divine grace accomplish? One thing exceeds the limits of nature and there has never been anything like it; another ascends to the heights of Divine grace and there cannot be anything like it. This is a great miracle, and this is beyond a miracle: both are incomprehensible and both are completely Divine. Behold, you conceived in your womb and gave birth to a Son, and you called His name Jesus. This one will be great, and the Son of the Most High will be called: and the Lord God will give him the throne of His father David (Luke 1:31–32). I want to announce this new miracle, or better yet, about these two miracles, one about the Virgin and Mother, the other about the Virgin and Mother of God, my listeners. This is how, according to the Gospel story, they happened. When the fulfillment of the time had come, in which God the Father determined to send down here to earth the Only Begotten Son and the Word, so that He would become incarnate and become man, Gabriel, the representative of the Angels, was sent to the Galilean city of Nazareth to the Virgin Mary, betrothed to Joseph, to greet Her with the words: Rejoice, full of grace, and to tell Her that God and the Father had chosen Her to be the Mother of His Son and to give birth to Savior of the world. The Archangel brought the news: Behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus. At first, the Virgin was embarrassed and wanted to know the image of this wonderful event: what will this be like if I don’t know my husband? (Luke 1:34). But when She was informed that this would happen in a completely supernatural way, namely, by the power of the omnipotent grace of the Holy Spirit, She bowed her heart and accepted the command with deep humility: Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be unto me according to thy word (Luke 1:38) - and immediately the Holy Spirit descended upon Her, magnificently preparing a Divine abode. The Divine Word was embodied in Her pure womb, and the power of the Most High overshadowed Her, “strengthening Her, Athanasius the Great teaches, so that, sealed from this time, She could contemplate, as far as possible, the invisible God womb-bearing in Her, and form the conceived Child.” Here is the new miracle that appeared under the sun: the Virgin and the Mother, but the Mother of God; this is the subject of the current celebration. All the circumstances were fully consistent with this Divine Annunciation: firstly, the face of the evangelist, Archangel Gabriel, was consistent, since this mystery is nothing more than a supernatural union of two natures - Divine and human into a single Hypostasis of the Divine Word, perfect God and perfect man; and (name) Gabriel is translated (in words): “man God.” The place was fitting - the city of Nazareth, since the consequence of this sacrament was the sanctification of the human race by the communion of the Divine nature; and the name "Nazareth" means "sanctification." The time was also appropriate - the month of March; At this time the creation of the world took place, and at the same time the re-creation of the world took place. Then the uncultivated land produced (plants) for the first time; and now for the first time the inexperienced Virgin conceived. All the events of the current sacrament are miraculous, but above all the miraculous is the Virgin Herself, who received the gospel. Virgin and Mother, and this is especially fitting for the sacrament, for such must be the Mother of such a Son. The Divine Word became what it was not - and remained what it was, becoming man and remaining God; and Mary became what she was not, but remained what she was, becoming a Mother and remaining a Virgin, as before. The Divine Word became the Son, having been born without a Father, and Mary became the Mother without a husband, having given birth without skill. How different are God and man! But God, having become man, did not abandon the nature of Divinity in the perception of the flesh. And how different are the maiden and the mother! But the Virgin, having become a Mother, did not lose the glory of virginity in maternal pregnancy. What a strange communion of two natures - Divine and human, seamlessly united into one Hypostasis! Divine (nature) adopted human characteristics, and God became a perfect man; the human became involved in the properties of the Divine, and the same man became perfect God. In the same way, what an extraordinary combination of girlish purity and maternal pregnancy, which were strangely combined in one Wife! Virginity gave Matera the purity that the Mother of God should have, all pure, all immaculate, beautiful as the sun, chosen as the moon, as the Holy Spirit calls her in the Song (Song of Songs 6:9). Wombbearing, on the other hand, gave virginity the blessing that the Virgin should have had (according to) how the Archangel greeted (Her): Blessed are You among women. There this wonderful union was born - the God-man; here another connection occurs, also miraculous, - the Virgin Mother. “Strange and wonderful and in many ways deviating from ordinary nature: one and the same Virgin and Mother, abiding in the sanctification of virginity and inheriting the blessing of childbearing” (proclaims the unappearing Basil). Such a Son, I repeat, must have such a Mother; The Son, Who was born a man and did not cease to be God, - the Mother, Who gave birth to the Son and did not cease to be a Virgin. And this sacrament could not have been accomplished otherwise; one and the same God-man is the Son who is eternally born from the ever-present Father, and in time is born from a wife. One Son - and knows the Father in heaven, and the Mother on earth, but in heaven, where He has a Father, there is no place for a mother, and on earth, where He has a Mother, there is no place for a father. There is no place for a mother in heaven, and (the Son) is born dispassionately; there is no place for a father on earth, and he is born without seed; thus the relation of Persons is kept perfect. There is One Son, and One Son has One Father, One Mother, and by nature an inexperienced Virgin. Now, Christian, I also tell you, as Isaiah told King Ahaz: “Ask yourself a sign in depth or height”; look down here at the earth, look up at the sky, explore the present and past centuries, and you will not find another sign like this, revealed by God over many centuries through the mouth of the same Prophet (in words): behold, the Virgin will conceive in her womb and give birth to a Son (Isa. 7:14), and the hay-written in many types: in the burning bush, in the frozen rod, in an uncut stone, in a closed gate facing the east, through which the Lord alone entered and left. Why does Solomon say that there is nothing new under the sun? Here is a new miracle, the like of which has never happened before: the Virgin and the Mother, but the Mother of God. And this new miracle is the like of which cannot exist. Mother of God! I confess the truth that I can neither imagine nor explain the height of this dignity. I turn to the holy fathers in order (at least) to understand in some way, but I find that the holy fathers are just as perplexed and pass over this in silence. The angels themselves, even if they wanted to explain to us, remain silent: and even the Virgin, whose mind was enlightened for contemplation incomparably more than all the angels, (Virgin), filled with the Holy Spirit, bearing the Divine Word, explains it to us in general words: create greatness for Me, O Mighty One (Luke 1:49), and nothing more. If She were the mother of the Messiah (as the Jews believed in Him), that is, only a man, and not God, and if She gave birth to the hope of the ages, the Son of blessing, the Deliverer of Israel: (then and then), as the mother of such a chief king, because of this honor and happiness, She would surpass all the mothers of the world, and for this alone She should be pleased by all generations. But to be the Mother of God, to give birth to the Savior of the whole world, to give birth in time to that Only Begotten Son, Whom God and the Father gives birth to outside of time, is an honor that makes Her godlike. Dennitsa, seeing this honor, when at the beginning of the centuries the great mystery of the economy of the Incarnation was revealed to the angels, was immediately struck by envy, thought vain things, retreated from God and, like lightning, fell from heaven. This is the opinion of Maximus the Confessor, based on the famous saying of (Apostle) Paul: when he again introduces the Firstborn into the universe, he says: let all His angels worship Him (Heb. 1:6; question answer 42 on Heb. 30). Mother of God! The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this is incomprehensible; that this is boundless greatness, which elevates Her to the highest throne of the Tri-radiant Divinity and brings Her closer to God and the Father. Rise to the heights of contemplation, Christians, and think about on the one hand the eternal Father, on the other the grace-filled Mary and in the middle the Only Begotten Son, the incarnate God-man. He has two natures: Divine and human; The divine is the birth of the Father, the human is the birth of Mary; The Son of God, as God, is the Son of Mary, as a godly child. But this Son has only one Hypostasis, which contains two natures unfused. The hypostasis is inseparable, therefore there are not two Sons, one is the (Son of) God and the Father, and the other is the (Son of) the Virgin Mary. This is a single Person in Whom, although the characteristics of the two natures are unfused, yet in this distinctiveness inseparability is preserved and in duality - unity; There is only one Jesus Christ, at the same time God and the same - man. The Father is (is) the Father of Christ and the Father of God and man; Mary is the Mother of Christ and the Mother of man and God, so that whatever relation God the Father has to the Only Begotten Son, the Virgin Mary has the same relationship to the same Son, who therefore in the birth of the God-Man Son has a glory similar to that of God the Father. Gabriel wants to express this in words: Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you will call His name Jesus. He will save His people, and He will be great, He will be called the Son of the Most High (Luke 1:31, 32; Matt. 1:21). Can the mind conceive of a higher greatness?! Now transfer your gaze from such a height to the world below, to all other rational creatures, as far from Her as heaven is from earth, and see how small and insufficient all the grace, all the glory of the Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs is in comparison with the grace and glory of the Mother of God. What does Solomon say, as if there is nothing new under the sun? But here is a new miracle - the Virgin and Mother - (here is a miracle), the like of which has never happened before. The Virgin - Mother of God - is a new miracle, the like of which cannot exist. The Virgin and Mother are a miracle, which for the Virgin is the greatest grace. The Mother of God is a miracle, which for the Mother is the highest honor. This is a miracle of miracles, which no faith can boast of except the Christian faith, in which this sacrament is the beginning and the end of the sacraments. It is quite typical for the God-blessed Lady to have received the grace of being a Virgin and Mother and the honor - to be the Mother of God, and the Mother of Christians at the right hand of the Divine Majesty sits the Queen of heaven and earth, as the Prophet saw Her: the Queen appeared at Your right hand in robes of gilded garments, adorned with gold (Ps. 45:10). She is the Mother of God, Who is Her Son naturally by birth, and the Mother of Christians, who are also Her children by adoption. Interceding before God for Christians, She intercedes with Her Son for Her children; So, She begs God with such boldness as is fitting for a Mother towards her Son, and pleads for Christians with such love as it is fitting for Her to have for Her children. But the boldness and love of such a Mother are limitless: what could She ever ask and not receive from such a Son? What can we ask for and not receive from such a Mother? Orphans, strange, captives, sick, contrite, sinners, do not be sad: you have a mother - the Mother of God! What Alexander the Great said about his mother (Olympiad), namely, that “one mother’s tear clears away many slander,” we will say with great right about the grace-filled Mary, our Mother and Mother of God. Our sins before God are numerous, God’s wrath against us is great; but one tear, one word, one intercession of the Mother of God cleanses our sins and removes the wrath of God. We have such faith, such hope in You, All-Holy Virgin; We confess You as Virgin and Mother; We preach (about You as) the Mother of God, we recognize You as the Mother of Christians, the beginning and mediator of our salvation. O Mother of God and Mother of us Christians! Compassionate Thy Son for us, Thy children, and make Thy children worthy of the grace and kingdom of Thy Son. Amen 153. Sermons of Saint Elijah Minyaty of Cephalonite (Bishop of Kernik and Kalavrita). New translation from Greek. Published. St. Tr. Sergius Lavra. 1902, countries. 253–259. You might be interested in: