Беседа в неделю Ваий. Св. Иакова Саруга

Holy Scripture should not be read with arrogance; and if the soul has not yet risen from the dust, then it cannot contemplate the beauty of Scripture: for it is there that its beauty and its humility are depicted. The Scriptures about the Son of God teach you that you must be humble, and I ask you: do not read this Scripture when you are overcome by pride. The Son of God, who came to us from heaven, superior to all of us, truly humbled Himself, and He Himself spoke to you: learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29). See how He, who renewed the kingdom of the house of David, sits on a despised and unadorned donkey, having no servants who would solemnly lead him into the royal city, and through His humility all the arrogant ones were humiliated, riding in golden and beautiful chariots and not wanting to help the humiliated. Look at this complete humiliation of the King of kings, looking at you and those like you from the clouds; Look at what humility your Lord has condescended to. Come down, young Christian, from your height: for then you will adorn yourself with His humility. Think about what you were made of: from the dust of the earth; if you remember this, you will be able to know the dignity of your Lord and the sweetness of His humility. He humbled Himself for your salvation: for you strongly wanted to lift yourself up high, which is why you fell. If you, whose debt He came to pay, do not feel repentance, then what benefit will He bring to you, Who took upon Himself all your debt and wants to teach you repentance, while you do not accept His teaching? Look: in the Scriptures about Him His humility is revealed; His actions reveal His humility; The Gospel reveals His humiliation; from His words people hear bliss; what about us? – we treat everything said about Him with arrogance and pride, with a hard heart. Let us humble ourselves with repentance, and we will glorify His humility. Let us humble ourselves, listeners, and then let us open our ears with love in order to hear His story about bliss for people. The kingdom of David through our Lord was exalted, and the promise of the Father through the appearance of His Beloved was fulfilled. Therefore, David, consoled by the Holy Spirit, said: Thy throne, God, endures forever (Ps. 45:7): “Thou hast not received it from any one, neither will thou deliver it to any one; Thou art not like me; I received the throne from Saul and gave it to Solomon: Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail (Ps. 102:28). There is no mighty man before Thee, nor above Thee. there is no prince: for Thine is the kingdom." “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until the Reconciler comes" (Gen. 49:10). There is one who not only has power, but also reigns forever: this was also indicated to the patriarch in Revelation. He did not receive by inheritance only the name of a prince, but His throne exists at all times; according to the promise of His Father. Through his reign, He entered into family ties with the house of David and took upon Himself the likeness of a servant, so that the kingdom of David would have such a meaning at all times. However, He did not receive as a reward to rule as a reward, for He truly said: I am the first and I am to this day (Jn. 1:17); and the Apostles testify of Him: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8). Come, see how He entered the reigning city on a despised animal, and how they greet Him with a song of praise. In this case, greatness was united with the humility of our Lord; and from His humiliation His high dignity arose, from His seemingly insignificance His power was revealed, so that wherever they say of Him that He was a man, they believe that He is also God. His animal (donkey) remains despised to this day, but He is glorified by everyone: both behind and in front of Him they shouted: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest (Matthew 21:9). The royal dignity contributed to the fact that, as befits, He was introduced with due honor: clothes were spread along the way, singing was heard in the air, children with palm trees the branches sang: “Hosanna!" The trees gave branches, the people - clothes, the children - an exclamation, the tongues - a song. The elders (high priests and scribes) suppressed the singing, and the children sought to receive a blessing. The Lord of the Law was hated by the lawyers, and loved by the children who had not yet read the books of Moses; pure youths and innocent babies recognized their King and glorified Him worthily. The scribes and judges were filled with wrath, but the pure hearts sought the blessing with love. The elders wanted to break the glorification with silence, but the children continued to glorify longer. Envy made the elders slumber, but love revived the children. His donkey was poor and tired; but through the celebration he too was joyfully welcomed. The greatest Prophet sat on it and rode into the city; He hurried to announce to the Jews so that they would meet their King: Rejoice greatly, daughters of Zion, preach to the daughters of Jerusalem, behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and saving, he is meek and always on the yoke and the young stallion (Zechariah 9:9). Rejoice, daughters of Zion, preach greatly, daughters of Jerusalem, rejoice, and be adorned with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem (Zephon. 3:14–15). The prophet preached, but Jerusalem slept. He shouts near - in front of his gates, but Jerusalem continues to sleep. And Isaiah lifted up his voice, saying: Arise, arise Jerusalem, and put on the strength of your arm (Isaiah 51:9). The prophets, with their speeches, tried to inspire Jerusalem to dispel its sleepy state and to rejoice in its King, but it did not want to listen. The spirit of the adulteress plunged into a deep sleep of serving the pagan gods, and therefore she could not respond with pure love and could not believe that the groom was already approaching the bride’s house. Taurus, who captivated her, tied her to him; she took over the tabernacle of Moloch (Amos. 5:26); She laid her breasts on the idols of Jeroboam, she plunged into the stench of paganism, and therefore she did not strive to awaken to the arrival of the Bridegroom. Isaiah said to her: "Arise, shining in Jerusalem, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord will rise upon you (Isaiah 60:1); but the daughter of Rachel hid her idols, and they looked at the darkness of her uncleanness. Oh, poor one! how drunken you are in your passion! Why are adulterous libertines so much more beloved to you than the Royal Bridegroom? Look, He who is familiar with you have come from Sinai, and Whom you praised there, arise; go and meet Him. Remove idols from you and arise: rejoice in the day of your betrothal. You heard how His Father glorified Him: do not turn away from the Heir. See, the gift of the Bridegroom is in your hands, the chain of His priesthood is around your neck, the robe of His ministry is on your body. Open your chamber for the bridegroom with love: for you followed Him into the wilderness (Jer. 2:2). The Holy Scripture says that when our Lord entered Jerusalem, the whole city rose to meet Him. Why did he get up? The adulteress, truly, saw that the Holy Bridegroom was already coming, Who was speaking to her about Himself, and therefore, she began to prepare for the real wedding day. She who bowed to idols saw that the One who would destroy all idols was coming. The lover of idols was awakened, for He came into the world who was to put all idols to shame. The feeling experienced by the connection of darkness, the connection with the light took over, and she awakened: because she knew that all her bad deeds would be revealed by Him; That’s why the whole city was on its feet when they met Him, and they asked: “Who is He?” Come, pay attention to the voluptuousness of the adulteress and weep over the failure of the crucifier to be healed. Stand up, you who pass along the path near her, and marvel at the Bride, Who, having seen the Groom, wanted to know who He is. Oh, you, who are completely immersed only in pleasures, why don’t you know who He is? Look: the prophets speak clearly about Him as they pass through your streets. Why didn’t you want to find out from their voice who He was? If He is not from the tribe of Judah, then the kingdom of Judah did not give birth to Him; if He is alien to the people of Jacob, then He is not a star, and the rod will not arise from Israel and will not strike the princes of Moab and will not crush all the sons of Seth (Num. 24:17). If His fulfillment had not been tied to the vine tree that came out of Egypt, and if the donkey that carried Him had not come out of Judah’s own house, then it would not have been written about Him: “His kingdom and Israel are His revelation.” If He had not ridden meek and quiet on a donkey’s back, as Zechariah foretold (Zechariah 9:9), then, without a doubt, the city gates would not have been opened to Him: for then He would not there would be a meek Tsar. And look: He appeared as he was described in Isaiah, that is, humiliated and least (Is. 53:3) among people. The donkey was untied from the vine tree that was brought from Egypt (Ps. 79:9), and was brought to Him so that He would not sit on it. And precisely, this was the vine tree to which Jacob’s donkey was tied (Gen. 28:13–15). He entered quietly, as Zechariah testified to this. Why, one might ask, after such proof, there is still the question of the infidels distorted in the heart: who is He? The bride should have (after) been ashamed of her question. She wanted to give her fiance a letter of divorce in order to free herself from Him, and pretending to be one or the other, she constantly asks: who is He? although she could recognize Him from the mysterious meaning of the story about the vineyard, where it is written: when the tenants saw their son, they said to each other: this is the Heir (Matthew 21:38). Although they knew that He was the heir, they nevertheless asked who He was. So is the bride. But our Lord went to His Father’s house, where he found many people selling and buying. He saw that the shrine was neglected, that the church had become a gathering place for merchants and traders, and a place of kidnapping, that prayer was no longer said in it, there were no more earnest petitions in it, the high priest was not in his place, the priests did not try to fulfill their office, the Levites did not follow what they were chosen for; the people do not fulfill their customs and rituals, do not accept priests, are carried away by passionate aspirations and pleasures, and have made untruth the beginning of life; and the church looked completely like a den of robbers. If everything that was written by Moses had been fulfilled in the synagogue, and if it had tried to recognize the spirit that was in the writings of the prophets, and if the will of the Heavenly Father had been fulfilled in it, then everyone in it would have joyfully met the One who came under the name of the Son of God. But because He left the poor Virgin and stepped on the threshold of the adulteress, she asks who He is. She does not rely on God, who entered into a covenant with her, and, on the contrary, turns to false gods. If she had chaste freedom, she would have remained pure and would have awaited the appearance of the Heir with joy. Then, hearing that the Groom was riding on a donkey, She would rejoice and triumph and cry out with all her heart; she would majestically raise her voice and praise, and encourage all the people to triumph over Him; she would put the efud on the high priest, cover his chest with fine linen, and give him the book of the prophet Zechariah in his hands. Then this high priest, dressed in royal attire, would play, like David, before the ark of the covenant and would sing with a high voice to the people the words of the Prophet, read from the book: “Rejoice, daughters of Zion,” for He of whom the prophets spoke has come; The one about whom Jacob and Zechariah prophesied is coming to our city on a despised animal.’ But since she was blinded by her passion, and her feelings were perverted by pleasures, which is why she allowed all kinds of outrages in the church and drove out sincere piety from there, she could not even rejoice about the King, and was even saddened when she heard the song of praise. The groom entered, but found His bride transformed into a money changer. Seeing this, He became jealous of His Father’s house, which house was neglected: its holiness was not respected, and He ceased to be a church. And He entered into the church of God, and drove out all those selling and buying in the church, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves (Matthew 21:12), recalling to the priests what was spoken through the prophets and saying that He does all this not by a power unknown to them. So it is written: “has not this house become a den in the eyes of your robbers, which is called by my name” (Jer. 7:11)? Christ was convinced that those who did not believe in His Father would deny Him all trust; He clearly showed them that due to the fact that they do not honor Adonai, they also hate Him - Christ. He exposed them because He, hated by them, fulfills the will of the Father who sent Him. "The Father has already told you through the prophets: Let my house be a house of prayer, but you have made it a place of robbery and deception; you have not obeyed my Father; therefore you do not receive me. Those who receive me will receive him who sent me" (Matthew 10:40; John 13:20). Our Lord expelled all those who were selling and buying in the church, as if they were not far from robbers: for what the thief wants to acquire, knowing that it is not his property, the merchant also wants to acquire, and in various ways he ultimately strives for the same thing as the thief. The one who buys fraudulently does the same thing: for if he manages to trade well, then the seller gives him the thing at half the price; and the joy of both approaches the joy experienced by a thief, a robber. That is why Christ called buyers and sellers by no other name than the name of thieves, and, as such, expelled them from the church. He condemned the priests, forced the lawyers to fulfill the law, accused those who did not honor the shrine, and confirmed the truth of His words with the words of the prophets of His Father. When, shamed by His strong suggestion and the consciousness of their sins, they heard the song “Hosanna” from the lips of the babies, they burned with envy and therefore became confused: because they did not like the song of praise that they sang. The singers spoke the words: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”; The crucifiers hated the Lord and therefore did not love Him who came in His name: I came in the name of My Father, and you do not receive Me: if another comes in his own name, him you will receive” (John 5:43). That the Son was praised and the Father glorified through singing did not please the elders of the people, and they were irritated against Christ: for they hated the Father and also looked at the Son with terrible eyes; they sought accusations against Christ in these beautiful voices that exalted the Father along with the Son. That is why they came to Christ and said: Do you hear what these are saying? But He answered them: “I hear that the prophets said: out of the mouth of a child and of those who piss, you brought praise!” With these words He declared that His way had been announced by the prophets, and that He was going to the harbor prepared for Him by the Father, since He had conformed His will to the will of His glorified Father. Further, they said to Him: “Tell them: let them be silent!” But He answered them: “If they keep silent, the stone will cry out” (Luke 19:40). Here the Savior, as Omniscient, wanted to show what would have happened if, in fact, those who were supposed to sing had remained silent. It was natural for Him to be glorified at the entrance, and therefore He allowed Him to be greeted with words or a sublime voice. And since He was surrounded by many children who paid tribute to their King, glorifying His humility, He accepted this song of praise from them, without demanding the glorification of lifeless stones for Himself: for many children replaced with themselves any other kind of glory and song. I understand the words of our Lord exactly as He said them, and I believe that if the children were silent, then naturally the stones would sing. If you want to look for another meaning, then I send you to the cross. Here, at the cross, those who sang a song to Him were silent; The disciples fled, and the lips that raised their voices were silent, so that the words “Hosanna” were not heard from them, but what? - we see how lifeless nature uttered words of praise. And since the children were silent, the stones raised their voices; and since the voice of those who sang: Hosanna was silent, the voices of rocks and coffins were heard, falling apart and opening up. And since there were no branches from the tall trees, the sun’s rays were cut off from the heavenly heights and replaced them, so that the sun would not be hidden at the sight of its Lord. Let what happened at the cross with lifeless nature serve to admonish you, if you wish to have any evidence, i.e., that when the children did not sing or praise, the stones did it instead of them, as the True One remarked about this to the liars. And we must glorify and praise God in due measure, so that instead of us, lifeless nature does not render Him what is due from us. We must continually proclaim: "Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: for to Him belongs all glory, honor and worship, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen 168." See Sechs homilien des heiligen Jacob von Sarug. Pius Zingerle Bonn. 1867, 40–62. You might be interested in: