23. Слово Великую субботу (Покой Великой субботы. Размышления при созерцании гроба Господня. Все бывшие, сущие и будущие искупаются ценой этой смерти. В христианстве о чем ни начни рассуждать, всегда придешь в одному: покайся и живи по Евангелию, при помощи Божией)

Behold, the Lord now rests after the labors of redemption, as in the beginning He rested after the completion of creation. The Lord of the Sabbath also keeps the Sabbath, although only in the flesh, for having descended with his soul into hell, he frees all the prisoners there from the ages. There is undisturbed silence around the Holy Sepulcher. The day of that Sabbath was great, and the keepers of the law kept the Sabbath, allowing themselves one permission - to ask and bring the guard to the tomb and seal the tomb. Let us, brethren, enter into this common rest, and, mentally sitting directly at the tomb in the place of the wives, who have now disappeared until the morning, let us mentally contemplate this tomb. Take a closer look! – The coffin has no inscriptions. On the cross they put the inscription unbelief and anger. The inscription on the coffin is given to put faith and love. Let's look for these inscriptions and learn from them. If we could collect everything that was said by the prophets and apostles about the death of the Lord, we could compile a whole book. – But we don’t need much, one inscription for each part of the coffin: at the head, at the feet, on the right and on the left. What would you like to write at the head? I find it appropriate to inscribe the following here: in “the head of the books it is written about me: Behold, I come to do Thy will, O my God” (Ps. 39:8-9), adding to that: “Behold the Lamb... taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29), “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Apoc. 13:8). It is appropriate to place the following inscription at your feet: now what was prophesied has been fulfilled: “He will erase your head, and you will keep his heel” (Gen. 3:15). On the right side we put: “He was ulcerated for our sins and tormented for our iniquities. The punishment of our world is upon him. By his wound we were healed” (Is. 53:5). On the left: “Christ suffered for us; leave us an image, so that we may follow in his footsteps” (1 Pet. 2:21). We've had enough. Now let’s delve into these inscriptions and try to interpret them for ourselves. What kind of book title is this? – This is the Eternal Council of God about the order of all things. Read from this book several provisions in explanation of the mystery of the Holy Sepulcher. - God from eternity laid down the destiny for everything that is now being fulfilled in time. From time immemorial He saw good and evil, happiness and sorrow appearing, and He intended it to be so. Freely He created the world; no one could force Him. I could create it or not. He could create in a variety of ways - differently than how he created. But since, out of all the possible ways of being of the world, He was pleased to choose the one that we see now, then believe and maintain that this is the best way of being that a finite creature can have, revealing its existence in time. What could be, we do not know, but what is, we should be amazed at the incomprehensible wisdom. These are the characteristic features of this existence. The material world has no purpose in itself. It is the home of rationally free creatures and the field of their development and improvement. For the latter, the end is communion with God through godlike virtue, freely acquired at the desire and love of their own, and eternal bliss is the fruit of labor in acquiring godlikeness. See below. At the beginning of creation, in the angelic world, in man and the material world with all the diversity of its creatures, everything was perfect, pure, blissful. “God saw everything and everything that was good” (Gen. 1:31)... God’s eye saw everything that was good; to what extent it was truly good! But the freedom of the most perfect free creature wavers, falls and drags along with it many of its only begotten. After them, from their action, human freedom, which in its friendly flesh had even more opportunities to be darkened and carried away, could not resist. Thus, moral evil entered the world of free creatures, and accordingly, the image of the material world was then changed to a worse one, in the form of healing moral evil. Hence - sins and sorrows, temptations, temptations, troubles, untruths, struggles, falls and uprisings, destruction and salvation. Ascend from this to the Divine foresight of everything and put the changed form of the world in accordance with the goal of free creatures, which cannot be changed - and it will turn out that God wanted the perfection of God-like virtue to be acquired by free, willing, loving labor, among internal temptations and external trials, and so that eternal bliss would be the fruit of valor shown in the fight against evil, to the glory of God Trinitarian. Take a closer look at this disorder. – Spirits, as simple ones, fell irrevocably in one fall, and left in this fall, they constituted the root and productive force of moral evil, and for this reason they became the cause that supports material evil. People, darkened by the flesh in the fall and therefore having the opportunity to come to their senses, come to their senses and turn to the best, have extracted from the infinite goodness of God a dispensation for the restoration of them, the fallen, in which the fruitless opportunity for them alone to rise becomes a thing, and the fallen are restored and saved. This dispensation - a completely free work of God's goodness - is sealed with impartial truth. It required human death with infinite price, on the one hand, and human life with infinite fullness and strength, on the other. And so the Only Begotten Son of God accepts human nature, dies in it and comes to life, and through this makes human death, insignificant in itself, infinitely valuable in His person, and human life, meager in itself, infinitely complete in His person; so that all who were, who are, and who are to come are redeemed at the price of this death, and all who were, who are, and who are to come, draw full life from this life. It is under this banner that all the heroes of virtue stand, in Christ Jesus receiving justification, and strength, and the right to communion with God, the opportunity to overcome evil and succeed in godlike virtue, so that through their labors they can then be blissful in the abodes prepared by Christ the Savior in heaven. This is the meaning of the first inscription on the chapter! The inscription at the feet: “He will erase your head,” means that the Lord defeated the devil and destroyed his kingdom. Satan with all the fallen spirits, freely fallen and stubbornly remaining in evil, became the producer of evil and its supporter. Like the first man, so later he sows evil and sin in the hearts of all his sons. He who freely accepts his suggestions and carries them out becomes his slave. Of all such slaves, the kingdom of Satan is formed - the kingdom of sinners, where he reigns, tyrannically tormenting here and there, preparing eternal torment. He strikes everyone with the fear of despair and powerlessness to resist evil. The Lord and Savior says to sinners: God forgives your sins for My sake, do not despair, approach with boldness. “Those who heed this voice come, repent, receive forgiveness, and at the same time are filled with the power to resist evil and overcome every sin that arises against them. In all such, the kingdom of Satan is destroyed, for they do not work for sin. The Lord erased the head of the serpent through the eruption of sin from the hearts of those turning to Him. The prince of darkness is now at war with the Lord. The battlefield is the human heart. The enemy attracts him to himself with lies, temporary pleasures, lusts and passions. And the Lord attracts to Himself with the light of soothing truth, the undisturbed joy of the Holy Spirit, the undoubted hope of eternal bliss. Nobody is connected. Go wherever you want. But whoever goes where, becomes his slave and will then share his eternal fate with him. The remaining two inscriptions: “that one was ulcerated for our sins and: that one suffered, leave us an image” - I will outline it in one word. “That plague was for our sins.” Know that if sin is such a great evil that the death of the Son of God, the infinite God, is necessary to blot it out, then how will it be blotted out in you if it remains in you not blotted out by the death of the Son of God? - It will be blotted out by eternal torment and will not be blotted out, for even eternal, finite, torment, however, in us, will never become endless. Reading this inscription: “he was ulcerated for our sins and tormented for our iniquities,” be inspired by the hope of salvation and boldly approach the merciful Lord; but do not think that everything has already been done for you, or that sin has already lost its power and flattery for you. Justification is accepted in faith, but with the sign of faith one must engage in exploits. Let no one be tempted by the temporary sweetness of sin. This temporality of sweetness is too momentary; but what is lost is immeasurable, and what this threatens is terrible. Look especially to “Jesus, the author of faith and perfecter, who... endured the cross, neglecting his shame” (Heb. 12:2)... “and leave us an image” (as the fourth inscription says), “that we may follow in his footsteps.” The follower of Christ is not suited to extensive consolation and the height of uncontrollable passions. Let the Christian life inevitably be associated with hardships and sorrows, and voluntary and involuntary. But there is a Judge and a Rewarder, Who rewards temporary patience with eternal glory. “For Christ, who suffered in the flesh for us, arm yourself with the same thought, since you have suffered in the flesh from sin” (Pet. 4:1). We are (quite) overwhelmed by the passing of time. They did the pagan will, walked in uncleanness and lusts. It's time to settle down and stand firmly on the path of Christ. This is where meditation at the grave has led us! Let us now return to ourselves and firmly affirm that in Christianity, no matter what you start to reason about, you will always come to one thing: repent and live according to the Gospel, with the help of God. Help you, Lord, to accomplish this. Amen. You might be interested in: