Слово 41

(1) About holidays, and how should they be celebrated? – (2) Against those who boast of festivities. – (3) What does it mean that what happens during them? – (4) To those who partake of the Most Pure Mysteries worthily and unworthily. – (5) How does it happen that someone is united with God through Holy Communion, but another is not united? – (6) What difference do those who partake worthily have from those who partake unworthily? 1. Whoever knows well and understands that he was created from nothing and that he entered this world naked, he will know his Creator, and He alone will fear and love, and He alone will serve with all his soul, preferring nothing of visible things to Him. Convinced from self-knowledge that a wanderer is for everything earthly, or, better to say, for everything heavenly, he devotes all the zeal of his soul to the service of his Creator and God. For if he is a wanderer for the earthly, from which he was taken (at creation), among which he lives and spends his life, much more is he a wanderer for the heavenly, from which he is so far both in the way of his being here and in the way of his life. Who will be convinced in this way from the knowledge of himself that there is a stranger on earth, and will keep in mind that just as he entered this world naked, so he will come out of it naked, what lies ahead, except for crying and sobbing, not only for himself, but also for all the people related to him and servile to him? In the same way, whoever loves and fears God, and His alone, tell me, I ask you, will agree to shine with something carnal and material? Or, if he has to celebrate a holiday, will he celebrate and triumph according to the common custom of all people - meaningless and useless? Or how is it possible for him to think anything or do any deed, knowing that it is displeasing to God? Also, whoever is convinced that he is a wanderer, poor, naked of everything, even if he possessed a lot, is it possible for him to begin to boast of his wealth? Or is it possible to become proud of what you do on your holidays? To rise in height because of the multitude of candles and lamps he lit, or because of the perfumes and aromas, or because of the large number of people gathered and the rich and expensive meals? Or to boast of the nobility of friends and the visits of famous nobles? No, he won’t think much about himself because of this, because he knows that all this exists now, but tomorrow it will pass away, now it occupies, and tomorrow it will disappear. Such a one, knowing what a godly celebration consists of, does not at all have in his mind and in his feelings that which usually happens sensually on holidays (for only those who do not think about anything higher than visible are usually occupied with this), but with a wise mind he gives birth to spiritual thoughts and is delighted to contemplate the festive joy that is to take place in the future life, and he heartily enjoys it, no matter how there is already was the very thing and spiritually celebrated with the Angels and saints, who always have a holiday in heaven. Such a one does not look at candles and lamps, nor at the multitude of people, nor at the gathering of friends, but he directs his mind to that which will soon continue to happen, when, that is, all the material lights and the very light of the eyes will go out, and everyone will go to that house for eternal sojourn. 2. So, do not count for me, beloved, the years, months and cycles of holidays, and do not say: I celebrated the Nativity of Christ, the Epiphany, the Presentation, the Resurrection, the Ascension and Pentecost. Don’t say this, my brother, don’t count the holidays celebrated and don’t think that this is enough to save your soul. Also, do not think that if there are bright clothes and decorations, food and drink, valuable fragrances, candles and lamps, and a lot of people, then the whole holiday is here. This is not what makes a holiday bright, and this is not what the celebration consists of: it is only a festive appearance. What benefit will I give myself if I light, I don’t say, a lot of candles and lamps in the church, but if I light so many lamps so that they emit as much light as the sun is bright in the sky, and instead of lamps I insert stars in the church vault, and thus create a second heaven on earth, I will admire the light from all this and be an object of surprise and praise from those who come to the church? What, I say, will be the benefit of this for me when, after a little while, all this goes out and I remain in darkness? Or what good is it for me if today I anoint myself and all those celebrating with various perfumes, and tomorrow I again become filled with the stench of the flesh? Say, you who boast of bright festivals, tell me, if, according to the word of the Wise One, you have reason, what is the use of this? Of course none, even though you remain silent, overcome by the truth. For if today I am flooded with light, and tomorrow I will be surrounded by darkness, if today I am overflowing with joy, and tomorrow I will be burdened with sorrows, if today I am healthy, and tomorrow I will be sick, tell me, what profit will I get from this? And what is the consolation in all this? These are not the kind of holidays the Lord loves. Who is this delight from your hands? - He asks (Is.1:12). Christ did not ordain that we should celebrate our holidays in this way. How? Listen carefully. However, I will say in advance what some say in defense of this. - What do you think? Do not light lamps or candles? Do not burn incense or any incense? Not to convene the people for holidays and not to invite singers, friends and acquaintances, or noble people? Is that what you're saying? Is that what you say? - No, I'm not saying that. It won't happen. On the contrary, I advise you to do all this, even on a large scale. I completely agree with you on this. But I want you to know how, despite all this, Christians should celebrate their holidays. And so I will explain to you the mystery of the Christian festival. 3. What kind of sacrament is this? – What figuratively represents what you do on holidays. The lamps you light represent a mental light to remind you that just as the church is all in the light of many lamps, so the house of your soul (which is also God’s), more honorable than a church made by hands, should be entirely in spiritual light, that is, all spiritual virtues should shine in it, having been kindled by the divine fire of grace, and illuminate the whole of you so that not a single place remains unlit in your soul. Many lighted candles mean bright thoughts that should shine in you like candles, so that there is not a single dark thought in the house of your soul, but so that all are fiery and shine with the light of the Holy Spirit, and you do not lack any of the luminous thoughts of reasoning. The fragrant ointments pouring out incense point you to the spiritual ointment, that is, to the grace of the Holy Spirit, and by the fact that they are composed of different spices, they teach that you should also acquire this spiritual ointment so that it is varied, that is, composed of various gifts of the Holy Spirit. Pre-depicting this spiritual ointment, the prophet calls it in the psalms either the dew that descends on the mountains of Zion, or the ointment that descends on Aaron’s cloth and on the sweeps of his clothes (Ps. 133:2,3). Such is the Holy Spirit, Who descends from the Father of lights on worthy spiritual men, and from them is transmitted to others, and refreshes everyone like dew. The incense incense, which, when burned, emits fragrant smoke, points you to the same grace of the Holy Spirit, but in the same respect as it rises from within the mountain, or as it flows out from someone who has received the action of the Holy Spirit, like a source of water flowing into the eternal belly. Here it illuminates radiantly, and at the same time ennobles the senses with a spiritual fragrance: it illuminates like the light visible to those who are pure in heart; it smells fragrant like the tree of life, which, mortifying carnal desires, spreads everywhere the fragrance of spiritual aspirations and feelings and gladdens the hearts of all the faithful with pure joy. – And not only does it mean what happens on holidays, but it also gives rise to many other spiritual thoughts. So, if God so decorated and glorified this soulless ointment with its fragrance, then will He not also decorate you, whom He created in His image and likeness (of course, if you want), with various types of virtues and glorify the Holy Spirit with the fragrance? These ointments, composed by human hands and delighting your senses with their fragrance, wisely represent the creation of yourself, for just as these ointments, composed of different aromas, are prepared by the hands of peacemakers, from different spices making one fragrant substance, so you were created by the hands of God and wisely harmonized with the spiritual views of the spiritual world, that is, with the gifts of the Life-giving Spirit. And you must be fragrant with the aroma of reason and wisdom, so that those who listen to the words of your teaching will be fragrant in the feelings of their souls and rejoice with spiritual joy. – And the crowds of people gathering for the holiday and loudly singing the praises of God mean the heavenly ranks and countless armies of Angels who sing and praise the heavenly Lord for the great salvation arranged for your sake. The praise and song sung by the people represent this mysterious singing, silently performed by the Angels, in order to teach you to become an earthly angel and to sing mysteriously and silently with the immaterial lips of the heart of God who created you. “Friends and acquaintances, and the nobles who have gathered for the holiday, teach you by their presence that you too should be zealous to be numbered and become cohabitants with the apostles, prophets, martyrs and all the saints by doing all the commandments and through the wealth of virtues. If this is how you celebrate your holidays, beloved, and if you yourself are like that, as my word showed, then you are celebrating a truly spiritual celebration and celebrating the Angels. If you do not celebrate this way and have not set yourself up as such, as we said, then what benefit do your celebrations bring to you? I am afraid that you would not hear from God, like the ancient Jews: I will turn your holidays into pity, and all your songs into lamentation ( Am. 8:10 ). Maybe you ask me: so, in your opinion, if we are not like that, as your word showed, then we should not celebrate holidays, even physically and sensually? - No, brother, I’m not telling you this. Celebrate diligently and do everything that relates to the reverence of God and honoring the Angels as best you can. Invite everyone to the holiday, if you can - kings, nobles, bishops, priests, deacons, laymen, so that through you God may be glorified by everyone, and may this glory sent to God by them be imputed to you as the culprit of it, and may you appear pleasing to God. But do not think that this is all you have to do to glorify God and in honor of His Angels, and even more so, as if through this you are adding something to the glory of the Most High or the saints. For, as the Apostle says, that which is glorified is not glorified for its surpassing glory (2 Cor. 3:10). And the saints have no need for human earthly glory. And celebrate, so that you will find mercy from God through the prayers of His saints, but at the same time, again, do not think that the visible and sensory thing that you do for the holiday is a real celebration, but that it is only a shadow and image of the celebration. For, tell me, I ask you, this visible, soulless and having no feeling in itself, what kind of communication does it have with the invisible, divine, spiritual - living and life-giving? “Therefore, if you want to celebrate the holidays wisely and piously, let your celebration not be the light of the lamps, which go out a little later, but the pure lamp of your soul, that is, the knowledge of heavenly and divine things, which is given by the Holy Spirit to the one who is an Israeli, a person of high and contemplative mind. May it shine in you all the days of your life more than the rays of the sun. Let it shine in all Christians with the pure light of the word so that by the grace of the Holy Spirit the commandment is fulfilled in them: so let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16). Instead of many lamps, let there be in you luminous thoughts, from which the fabric for decorating the virtues is made, and through which all the beauty of the spiritual church of your soul becomes apparent to those who have right mental vision. Instead of fragrant incense, may the inexplicable fragrance of the Holy Spirit perfume you. Instead of a multitude of people, may there be with you a host of holy Angels who would glorify God for your good deeds and rejoice over the salvation and prosperity of your soul. Instead of friends, nobles and kings, let them celebrate you, like your spiritual friends, saints, and more than venerable nobles and kings. Let these saints be your beloved, preferably before all, so that after your death they will receive you into their eternal homes, just as Abraham received Lazarus into his bosom. 4. Instead of a meal laden with various dishes, let you have one animal bread, which to the senses is seen as bread, but mentally is the Body of Christ. This is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, from which the one who eats is not only nourished, but is also given life and raised as if from the dead. Let this bread be both food and delight for you, insatiable and inexhaustible. May the wine, which in this sacrament truly is the Blood of God, be for you an inexpressible light, an unspeakable sweetness, an eternal joy. If you drink from this wine worthily, then you will not get thirsty forever, just drink with a feeling of soul and with a peaceful mood of spiritual strength. - And carefully understand the meaning of the verb. If you partake of heavenly bread and wine, that is, the Body and Blood of Christ, with the feeling and consciousness of what they are, then know that you partake of them worthy; If you do not receive communion in this way, then you are eating and drinking unworthily. By receiving communion with a pure heart and faith, you are worthy of the mystical meal, but if you are not worthy of this, then you do not have unity with Christ. 5. Those who partake of the Divine Mysteries unworthily should not think that through them they are so easily united with God, because this does not happen to them and can never happen while they are like that. Only those who, through the communion of the Divine Flesh of the Lord, are worthy to see with the intelligent eye, to touch with the intelligent touch, to taste with the intelligent lips the invisible, intangible and intasteable Divinity - these alone know that the Lord is good. They eat not only sensual bread and drink sensually wine, but at the same time they eat and drink mentally God, with two senses - soul and body: they eat flesh sensually, but God mentally, and thus unite both physically and spiritually with Christ, Who is dual in nature, like God and man, and are co-partners with Him and accomplices of His glory and Deities. In this way, those who partake worthily of communion are united with God—eating from the bread and drinking from the cup, with knowledge and contemplation of the power of the sacrament, and with a feeling of soul. And those who receive communion unworthily are empty of the grace of the Holy Spirit, and feed only their bodies, and not their souls. 6. But, O beloved, do not rebel against me when you hear the truth that I proclaim to you, for it is the truth. For if you believe and confess that the Body of Christ is animal bread and gives eternal life to those who eat it, and that His Blood for those who drink it is a source of water flowing into eternal life, then tell me, I ask you, why, when you partake of these Divine Mysteries, you do not accept into your soul anything special in comparison with what you had before communion. But even if you feel a little joy when you receive communion, then after a little time you again become the same as you were before, and you do not feel any influx of life or any influx of light in yourself at all. This bread for those who have not risen above the sensual is simple bread, although mysteriously it is an inconceivable and unapproachable light, just as wine is mysteriously light, life, fire, living water. So, when you eat this divine bread and drink this wine of joy, and yet you do not feel that you have lived an immortal life, having received into yourself the power of light and fire, as the prophet Isaiah received a burning coal in his mouth, and that you have drunk the Blood of the Lord as living and gladdening water, if, I say, you do not feel in yourself that you have received something of what I have said now, then how Do you think that you have partaken of eternal life, have entered into the unapproachable light of the Divine, have become partakers of the unceasing light? No, my brother, no; nothing like that happened to you, since you don’t feel anything of what was said in yourself. But this light shines on you, but you are blind and are not illuminated; and this fire emits warmth on you, but you remain cold; and this life entered into you, but you do not feel and remain dead; and living water flowed through your soul like a trench, but did not remain in you, because it did not find in you a worthy container to dwell inside you. Therefore, if you partake of the Most Pure Mysteries in this way, without feeling any grace in your soul, then you partake only in appearance, and you do not accept anything into yourself. For those who worthily approach these sacraments and are duly prepared to receive the Son of God in them - this animal bread coming down from heaven - He touches them tangibly and unites with them indissolubly, allowing them to tangibly experience His gracious presence. So, if you celebrate the holidays, as I depicted for you, and you partake of the Divine Mysteries, as I indicated to you, then your whole life will be one continuous celebration, one unceasing Easter - a transition from the visible to the invisible, to where all the images, canopies and symbols of the festivities that occur in real life will cease, and where the eternally pure will forever enjoy the purest sacrifice, Christ the Lord, in God the Father and the consubstantial Spirit, always contemplating Him and being visible by Him, co-abiding and co-reigning with Him - higher and more blessed than which there is nothing in His kingdom. To him is due all glory, honor and worship, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: