Поучение на Воздвижение честного и животворящего Креста Господня. Св. Димитрия, митрополита Ростовского

We bow to Your Cross, Master! It is worthy and righteous, pious listeners, to worship the Cross of Christ: for by this blessed tree death was put to death and life was given. We were killed by the tree of paradise, and revived by the tree of the cross: first we were expelled from paradise, and with this, as if along some kind of ladder, we ascend to heaven; The enemy was the first to defeat us, and with the wood of the cross of the Lord we defeat our enemies. Therefore, this blessed tree is worthy of all veneration. If the weapon with which David defeated and beheaded Goliath was once in great veneration and was kept honestly (behind the altar - in the Solomon Temple), then the weapon of the cross, with which Christ the Lord defeated the infernal Goliath-devil with all his army, is worthy of even greater veneration and worship. The proud Goliath thought that there was no one in Israel who could defeat him, and yet, to his great shame, he was defeated and beheaded by the meek and young David: so the proud devil thought that no one could defeat him; he defeated all people from Adam to the coming of Christ. The adversary of the human race persecuted the holy prophets and patriarchs, imprisoned the dead in the dungeons of hell; none of the people could resist him. But Christ the Lord was crucified on the tree of the cross and, like the meek David, destroyed him with His crucifixion. An unarmed man cannot resist an armed man: wherever the armed man takes him, there he goes, and what he commands him to do, he does. This is also the case before the coming of Christ: people could not resist the devil because they did not have the weapon of the cross. The whole world then worshiped idols, except for one chosen people of Israel, and even among that people (Israel) many fell into idolatry to Baal and the poured-out calf: and they devoured their sons and their daughters to the demon (Ps. 105:37), and not to God, according to the testimony of the Psalmist. People even worshiped reptiles and birds and other dumb, unclean animals; instead of God they revered a soulless creature. So the devil blinded the human race, commanding his captives to retreat from God, and to honor their idols and make sacrifices to them. When Christ the Lord was crucified on Calvary, on the tree of the cross, then all the idols fell, the demons trembled and people turned to the faith of Christ. The earth is no longer defiled by the sacrifices of idols, and the air by the smoke emanating from the victims of demons: for Christ the Lord stretched out his hands in the air, with his feet touching the earth, in order to sanctify the air and the earth with His blood. The priests of Baal no longer cry out with great voices as they did and cut their bodies under Elijah the prophet. People no longer sacrifice their sons and daughters to demons, but make a true sacrifice to the true God, as their only Creator and Creator. True, in the primal Church, Christians had great zeal and love for God, and not only men, but also wives went to suffer martyrdom: having forgotten women’s weakness, they went, as it were, for joy. What labors, what deeds the apostles, saints, and saints undertook for the sake of one love for God! And in modern times, love has faded away in the hearts of men, according to the word of Christ: for the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will dry up (Matthew 24:12); For many, the fear of God will also dry up. Many, for example, come to church not to pray to God with fear and trembling, according to the prophetic admonition: work for the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling (Psalm 2:11), but for ranting, for laughter, for various outrages. A man stands, looks back and forth, behaves as indecently as a decent person would not behave in a neighbor’s house... When a man enters the king, with what fear he enters! Does he dare to turn this way and that, or talk to anyone else, when he speaks to the king or asks him for anything? This is how it should be, because if he had begun to commit outrages in front of the king, he would probably have paid with his life. But then he comes to God, Who is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and is not at all afraid, but is bold; The Prophet laughs at such people: there they were afraid of fear, where there was no fear (Psalm 52:6). People are afraid of a person who can kill the body, but they are not afraid of God, who can throw soul and body into a fiery furnace - they are not afraid of the one who can, in the very place where they are rampaging, command the earth to disperse and swallow them up, like Dathan and Abiron, or consume them in the blink of an eye. Or do they think that only a person becomes angry when someone commits outrages in his house, but God is not angry? But we all know well that Christ the Lord was never as angry as He was for the outrage in the church. And throughout his life, Christ the Lord did not beat anyone: but when he saw that people were engaged in trade and various outrages in the church, he immediately wove a scourge from ropes and drove out all the outrageous people from the church, exclaiming with great zeal: My house will be called a house of prayer: but you have made a den of robbers (Matthew 21:13; Luke 19:46). Oh, Christ the Savior! If You had now visibly entered Your church, if You had seen how they were committing outrages there, would You not have done the same or more? Would You spare anyone? There is great fearlessness in the church today: they are making Your house a den of thieves and a house of dishonesty. Where can I see someone? - in the church. Where to talk? - in the church. Where to laugh? - in the church. Where to greet each other, ask about health, wife, children and other things? - in the church. As if the church was designed for this reason, so that people would come together to riot, to talk, and not to pray to God. The Holy Church teaches us with what fear we should stand in the church: “standing in the church,” she says, “stand in heaven”; that is, in the church every Christian should stand as if he did not know where he stood: so that his body was in the church, and his mind was in heaven, and he would pray as they pray in heaven. How do they pray in heaven? Let us ask the one who was in heaven, or to whom revelations of God were revealed. Saint John the Theologian saw in revelation many of the mysteries of God. Let us ask him, and he will tell us: there was silence in heaven (Apoc. 8:1), that is, great silence: everyone was silent, everyone stood before the throne of God with fear - and the twenty and four elders fell before the Lamb (Apoc. 5:8): they fall and bow to the throne of God. Let us also ask the prophets, so that with two or three witnesses everything will be done (Matthew 18:16). The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel saw with what fear the cherubim stand before God: they cover their faces with two wings, and with two they fly. Such covering of the face and legs, according to the interpretation of the holy fathers, signifies the great reverence of the cherubim before God. The Creator of the Trinity Canons says this about the cherubim: “they fast zealously before the unapproachable light, and sing incessantly cry out: holy, holy, holy is the Lord!” So every Christian should pray, having before his eyes the example of the cherubim, as Saint Chrysostom exhorts: “Think about this, O man: arise, leave the earth, ascend to heaven: and you stand with the seraphim, and you sing with them. If you pray to God, if you praise God, then you are already standing in the sky, standing in the church, with them you spread your wings, with them you fly around the throne of the Tsar.” they cry out in fear: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord," there one talks idlely about purchases, another about horses, another about something inappropriate. Where the cherubim tremble, there mortal man stands without fear; where the saints fall on their faces, there the sinner behaves boldly. In the Old Testament, if anyone committed outrages near the ark of the Lord or only touched it irreverently, then he was executed by death. But the ark of the Lord was only a shadow of the throne of the Lord. Now on this throne Christ the Lord Himself is present in St. His mysteries and, nevertheless, (oh, the long-suffering of God!) He does not execute the outrageous even in St. altar. And such prayer is not prayer, but sin and lawlessness, according to the prophetic saying: and let his prayer become sin (Psalm 109:7). It would be better for such people not to go to church, rather than to anger God and stand before Him without fear: for they rather irritate rather than beg God, and they create an obstacle for others to pray; Others are God-fearing and would like to pray and hear the word of God, but cannot: around him there is idle talk of vain. Who are those like who do not pray themselves and prevent others from praying? I think they are like the devil. But one of my listeners will say: “I would be glad to pray well, but I cannot: the devil tempts me to idle talk." Do not justify yourself, man, with this: you yourself are guilty; the devil cannot force you by force if you did not want: now the devil is already powerless. Before the coming of Christ, he had power, since people did not have weapons to resist the devil; and now we have the cross of Christ: only put the sign of the cross on yourself, and he will immediately run away from you. We hear what Saint John the Theologian says: “Satan is bound for a thousand years” (Apoc. 20:2). He is bound by the power of the cross; and if he is bound, how can he harm you? if it harms you, bind him yourself, that is, put on yourself the sign of the Cross of the Lord, and he will be bound. Does the devil put evil thoughts into your mind? put the sign of the cross on your forehead, and he will run away from you. Does he force you to turn your eyes here and there? make the sign of the cross, and he will depart from your eyes. Does he compel your tongue to rant? drive him away with the cross. Does the vain words of others reach your ears? protect your ears with the cross of Christ. This is also advised to you by Saint John of Damascus, who says: "The cross of Christ was given to us as a sign on our foreheads, just as circumcision was given to Israel. For by this we, the faithful, are distinguished from the infidels: it is a shield, a weapon and a victory against the devil; it is a seal, so that the all-destroyer will not touch us." Saint Ephraim also says something similar: “Let us place the sign of the life-giving cross on our foreheads, on our foreheads and on our lips, and on all our lips; we will be marked with it, we will arm ourselves with it.” Saint John Chrysostom also confirms this, saying: “Let us draw the cross on our foreheads and in our thoughts with great care, and not just imprint it with a finger, but first of all with the disposition of our hearts.” with great faith. And when you depict the cross on yourself in this way, then no unclean spirit will dare to approach you, seeing on you the sword with which he was wounded, the weapon with the edge of which he received a mortal wound. If we, seeing the places where the execution of the condemned is carried out, we feel fear: then think what the devil and demons will experience, seeing the weapon with which Christ crushed all their power? Behold, the whole Church now lifts up and erects the cross of Christ, so that under this sign you too may fight and defeat your enemies: for warriors of the earthly king, when they hold on to the military banner, stand stronger against their adversaries; and the warrior who loses sight of the banner is more likely to die. The sign of the Cross appeared to Constantine the Great in heaven when he was fighting against Maxentius, and he heard a voice: “With this sign you conquer"; and when Constantine ordered the image of the cross to be made on weapons, then he defeated his enemies. So now the cross of Christ appears to us in the church sky, so that with this sign we would defeat our enemies and hold fast to it. The Cross of Christ is lifted up and erected so that the demons fell and were defeated, but we rose up and stood, according to the saying of the Lord: when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everything to myself (John 12:32). The Cross of Christ is erected and lifted up, so that we, wounded by the sting of the serpent - sin, may be healed by looking at it. So Moses commanded the people of Israel, dying from the bite of the serpent in the desert, to look at the copper serpent lifted up on the tree; and those who looked were healed, and those who did not want to look died. This was a prototype of the Cross of Christ now being erected; whoever looks at him with faith will be healed of sin; and whoever does not want to look will perish. The Cross of Christ is lifted up and erected, so that we, looking at it, remember the suffering of Christ, which He endured for the sake of our salvation, and thank His immeasurable compassion for us. The Cross of Christ is erected and lifted up so that we worship Him and know through what we have received salvation. I don’t think anyone from the Christian family will doubt that it is necessary to bow to the Cross of Christ - whether it is only osmic or four-pointed. This is clearly seen from the Holy Scriptures, firstly, the Old Testament - from the Old Testament prototypes of the cross of Christ. Moses, when he stretched out his hands and defeated Amalek, did he not foreshadow the four-pointed cross of the Lord? Didn't Joshua, when he defeated his enemies, foreshadow the four-pointed cross? And the Old Testament patriarch Jacob, blessing the sons of Joseph - Manasseh and Ephraim, offered his hands in the image of the four-pointed cross of the Lord. There is also clear evidence in many places in the New Testament Scriptures. On the day of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord at Matins, according to the great doxology, in the stichera for the veneration of the Cross, it is sung: “The four-pointed world is today sanctified, to Thy four-part erected Cross, O Christ God.” In the canon of the Honest Cross (the work of St. Gregory of Sinaite) it is written like this: “The all-honorable Cross, the four-pointed power, splendor of the apostle. Your height, O life-giving Cross, beats the prince of the air, and the depth of the entire abyss slays the serpent, and imagines the breadth again, overthrowing the worldly prince with Your strength.” “Thou hast raised up our fallen nature by Christ crucified, and having created the Divine height, the unspeakable depth, Thou art the sign of Christ, the richest of the Cross, and the immeasurable breadth, and the sign of the incomprehensible Trinity, the life-bearer.” Behold, in the Cross of Christ the four-pointed, and not the eight-pointed, is glorified: height, depth and breadth - and therefore the cross is called “tripartite”, “treasured”, “treasured”, “image of the Trinitarian Trinity”: for by the height it signifies the Father who lives in the highest, - by the depth of the Son who has descended even to hell, - and by its breadth and depth it signifies the Holy Spirit, who exists everywhere and fulfills everything. That is why, when we signify ourselves with the sign of the cross, we say: “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” To confirm the above-mentioned truth, I will cite more evidence from the holy fathers. Saint Athanasius the Great says: “We worship the Cross, composed of two trees.” St. John of Damascus writes: “just as the center of the cross binds and unites its four ends, so by the power of God the height, and the depth, and the longitude, and the latitude are contained.”... And in our city of Rostov there is a Cross given to St. John by John the Theologian: this Cross is not eight-pointed; whoever does not believe, let him see it for himself. And this visible world was created by God in the likeness of the four-pointed cross: created into four parts - east, west, noon, midnight. And God created man in the likeness of the four-pointed cross: for when a person stretches out his arms, it becomes like a four-pointed cross. These are the testimonies from the holy fathers and from church books about the four-pointed cross! I will also ask the doubting schismatics themselves about the four-pointed cross: with what cross are they baptized? What kind of cross do they put on themselves - four-pointed or eight-pointed? In fact, when they place their fingers on the forehead, they signify the upper end of the cross, and when they place them on the belly, they mark the lower end of the cross; placing the hand on the shoulders, they designate the two ends placed in sprat and longitude. But if they want an eight-pointed cross, then why don’t they cross themselves with an eight-pointed one? Also: if someone blesses, then with what kind of cross - is it not a four-pointed one? And all objects are blessed with a four-pointed cross. I said this about the four-pointed cross not in order to reject the eight-pointed or six-pointed cross of Christ, but in order to stop the lips of those who do not know what the very power of worship of the Cross of Christ lies in. In explaining the worship of the Cross of Christ, it is necessary to especially show how we honor it. For example, we venerate the holy Gospel (which contains paper and ink with which the words and life of Christ are described, and which is sometimes overlaid with silver, gold, brocade), and we worship the holy Gospel: what do we venerate, and what is the power of our worship of the Gospel? Is it to honor boards, or silver, gold, brocade, or paper? I think none of the Orthodox will say this. We honor the words of Christ, the teaching of Christ and the entire history of the life of Christ; and for this reason we consistently honor the entire Gospel. Then, when we venerate a holy icon, for example, of Christ or the Mother of God, or some saint (the icon contains a board, paints with which the icon painter writes, an image of the archetype), what do we venerate? Is it a board, or paints, or an image of a prototype, and for this reason do we venerate the entire icon? If we venerate an icon for the sake of depicting a prototype, then the madness of those people who do not want to venerate an icon if it is new is obvious; but they venerate an icon if it is smoked, or even new, but smoked with smoke. Such people venerate not the image of the prototype, but smoke and blackness, dirt and grimyness; therefore, they are not Christians, but idolaters. It is also obvious the madness of those who venerate an image when it is on a board, but if it is on paper, or canvas, or some other thing, they do not want to venerate it. And such people venerate not an image, but a board and a tree, and become idolaters, not knowing that Christ the Lord Himself gave His image to King Abgar not on a board, but on an ubrus. Let it be known that we also venerate ancient icons, especially miraculous ones; however, we venerate these images not for the sake of blackness and antiquity, but for the sake of God’s miracles (since God can work miracles in new icons). If the ancient icon is old and smoky, then it is necessary to clean, wash or renew it, so that the appearance of the image is clear to everyone who comes: otherwise how can I venerate the icon if I don’t know whose icon it is? To whom should I raise my mind? After all, when we bow to an icon, or kiss it, then we must bow to the icon with our bodies, and raise our minds to the prototype; for example, I bow to the icon of Christ, and my mind soars to Christ Himself; I bow with my body to the icon of the Mother of God, and my mind should ascend to the Mother of God Herself, as if I were standing before Her Who exists in heaven. The worship and honor of the icon, according to St. Basil the Great, goes back to the prototype, that is, to the very one whose icon it is; If the type of image is not clear, then to whom should we bow? (if they depicted the devil and smoked him, then others, out of ignorance, would venerate the devil and bow to him!..). When someone depicts his father or mother, or grandfather or great-grandfather, he does not pay attention to the object on which the image is, but, looking at the image, he remembers his father, what he was like, and lists his virtues. Also, everyone should talk about the image of God, and not pay attention to the colors or the thing on which the image is: the image should be revered for the sake of the prototype and not idolize the icon. Then the worship will be true, Christian, since the seventh council anathematized both those who do not bow to icons and those who deify them. Amen 23. See Works of St. Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov. 1881, Kyiv, part 3, countries. 195–210. You might be interested in: