179. Слово на память Святителя Алексия, в субботу первыя недели Великого поста

(Said February 12; printed in the Works of the Holy Fathers of 1844 and in the collections of 1844 and 1848) And I said to them: I desire to eat this Passover with you. (Luke 22:15). Custom considers a festive meal to be one of the accessories of the holiday. A spiritual meal, without a doubt, is especially appropriate for a spiritual holiday. But the holiday, even a spiritual one, does not reject the physical festive meal: because we are not incorporeal; because we are taught to “glorify God,” not only “in our souls,” but “in our bodies as well,” and “whether we drink or drink,” and “do this for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 6:20, 10:31). There was once, and now there is, a solemn meal, bodily, only not just bodily, which I wanted to taste, and even He who had no need for any meal was not ashamed to express this desire, because He Himself gives “food to all flesh” (Ps. 135:25). “With desire,” he says, “I have longed to eat this Passover with you.” Now we celebrate the blessed memory of Saint and Wonderworker Alexy. What kind of meal will we honor this holiday with? Doesn't fasting contradict the care of the bodily meal? Will our spiritual poverty hinder the spiritual meal? - The difficulty is ended by this very rite of church times, which now mainly opens to you a solemn, not only spiritual, but also Divine meal, and of course there is no other day in the year on which so many, close to God, enjoy the Divine meal as on this day. According to the admonition of the Gospel, we will not “be anxious and talk about many things” (Luke 10:41): but, as those who are kindly treated, talk cheerfully, turning especially to the host; So we, with all those who have now partaken of the Lord’s Table, may turn with a joyful thought, a grateful heart, and a glorifying word to the Great Host, Who truly “made a great supper, and called many” (Luke 14:16). And those who have not yet followed this call, let them hear our joyful confession, and let them be jealous of our well-being: let them come and “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 33:9). If a person, superior to you in rank, respected by you and everyone in dignity and virtue, to whom you did not deign to enter into closeness and acquaintance, beyond your expectations, sought you out, received you in a friendly manner, and invited you to his table: how willingly would you hasten to this call, with what joy would you return, with what pleasure would you speak in the circle of your sincere ones about the host and refreshment. What can I say if the King did this, and not with some chosen servant of his kingdom, but with a slave, and also with a guilty person, and worthy of mortal condemnation? But how small are these examples to compare with what happens between Christ and a Christian! The Heavenly King, the Son of God and God, not only sends His slaves and servants, but He Himself descends to earth, for you and for me - for as for all people without exception, then of course for you and for me, and all the same, as if it is precisely and only for you and for me - for us, slaves of the lowest and small region of His immeasurable kingdom, and, moreover, for the slaves of sin, for the descendants of the criminal Adam, who are in iniquities we are conceived, we are born in sins, we naturally live no better than our birth, because our life still in our forefathers, who did not want to be content with the blessed heavenly food, is poisoned by the rapacious eating of the forbidden fruit - the Heavenly Host comes for us, and He Himself institutes not only a nourishing and delightful, but also a healing and life-giving meal, He Himself calls for it, and He Himself teaches us what prepared for us food and drink. “Take,” he says, “eat... Drink all of it” (Matthew 26:26–27). The verb, both now and for us, is what he once spoke to the Apostles: because His word is immortal and always effective. – Here we can ask what is more worthy of surprise, the happiness of those who heeded His voice, or the inattention of those who deprive themselves of this happiness? And what does the Heavenly Host offer us at His meal! “Everything that you would find at the most magnificent meal of the king of the earth, selected products of earthly nature, arranged with laborious art into food and drink, which, however, are elegant only before consumption, and after consumption go into decay, along with the stale bread of the poor - all this would be unworthy of the “King of the ages, incorruptible” (1 Tim. 1:17), Who also eats He wants to spread his incorruption. Well? Will He not gather together everything that, even before the corruption of sin, He Himself, as the Creator, placed in the nature of things, most capable of nourishment and pleasure? Will it not bring from its depths all the treasures of beneficial and healing power, which earthly doctors have been searching for for so many small species for centuries, with difficulty, by guessing? - And this would not be enough, both for the generosity of the Founder of the mystical meal, and for the needs of its participants: because only Divine food can truly nourish, and only Divine healing can heal the ailing soul of man, which in its beginning is the breath of life from the mouth of God. But since the Divine, in its essence, cannot but be hidden for man, it was necessary to invent a means of making Divine food and healing accessible and acceptable to man in the simplicity of faith. And thus the Son of God offers us His Divine body and His Divine blood for mystical food and drink, and for all-healing healing, under the forms of bread and wine. “Eat,” he says, “this is My body. Drink of it, all of you, this is My blood” (Matthew 26:26–28). Perhaps you will imagine something similar to this meal when a mother feeds her baby with her milk, which is separated from her body and blood only for the duration of this feeding. But how small is this likeness compared to the great sacrament! The mother teaches the baby only the excess of her body, prepared for this by nature - she teaches without difficulty, and even to her relief from the excess that could burden her. Our Divine Nourisher teaches us His very body - His whole body - He teaches us with the sweetness of love, without comparison exceeding that of a mother, but at the same time teaches us His body, prepared for us as food through bitter and mortal suffering. “This is,” he says, “my body, which was broken for you” (1 Cor. 11:24). “This is My blood, which is shed for you and for many.” As the wheat suffers in the millstones, and under the hand of the breadmaker, and in the fired oven, let there be bread that strengthens the heart of man; just as the blood of the Grass suffers in the oppression of the winepress, let there be wine that gladdens the heart of man: so the incarnate Son of God deigned to give up His body to the various sufferings of Olivet, Jerusalem and Golgotha, and allowed His blood to be poured out long-sufferingly in the torments of the cross and the torment of the cross, in order in them to prepare for us the food and drink of life and healing, immortality and bliss. The mystery of the body and blood of Christ is so wondrous and incomprehensible that our God-wise fathers, as if fearing for the simplicity and firmness of our faith, want, as if with some kind of support, to support it with their God-wise reasoning. “Even so,” argues St. John of Damascus, “this Adam,” that is, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, “is spiritual; It is fitting for both the birth to be spiritual and for food to be the same: in both cases, since we are aggravated and complex, it is fitting for both the birth to be deep and for the food to be complex. For this reason, we were born by water and spirit, which is holy baptism, given; food is the very bread of animals, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven.” And further: “How will this be for me,” says the Holy Virgin, since I don’t know my husband? And Gabriel the Archangel answered Her: The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You. And you ask in the same way now: what kind of bread is the body of Christ, and wine and water the blood of Christ? And I say to you: the Holy Spirit descends, and this does more than words and reason.” Likewise, Saint John Chrysostom exhorts: “Let us obey God in everything, and nothing contrary to what we say, even if what we say is contrary to our thoughts and visions; but let His truest word be in our thoughts and vision. Let us do the same in the sacraments, not only looking at what is presented, but containing His verbs: for His word is infallible, but our feeling is deceiving; His word never changes, but our feelings are often tempted. Whenever the word is spoken: this is My body; and let us obey, and let us believe, and with our minds let us see with our eyes. Christ gave us nothing sensually, but only sensual things, everything mental.” Because the purpose of our present life is such that we must, as the Apostle explained, “walk by faith, and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7): then the grace-filled gifts given to us in the communion of the Lord’s table, grace-filled nutrition, healing, strengthening, enlightenment, reflection of evil, incorruption, are also most comprehended by faith and embraced by hope, above vision and sensation, although however, according to the degree of faith, according to the need, according to the degree of attention, dignity, purity, both in experienced sensation and in obvious action, are recognized by many in a variety of ways. According to the manifold power of Divine food and drink, according to the manifold wisdom and goodness of the Divine Nourisher, the tangible fruit of partaking of the Lord's table appears to the believer - now inexpressible joy in the heart, now sweet silence in the soul, now lightness in the mind, now deep peace in the conscience, now the calming of overwhelming temptations, now the cessation of mental and physical suffering, and sometimes complete healing, either by a lively feeling of love for the Lord, or by an increase in zeal and strength for spiritual achievements and virtues. But whatever our own experiences in this mystery may be; I will say again with Saint Chrysostom: “Let the most true word of our Lord be in our thoughts and vision.” After He said: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him; If you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you will have eternal life” (John 6:56, 54); - how dare we, even though we are unworthy partakers of His flesh and blood, how dare we deny that He is in us, and we in Him, and that we have eternal life in Him, unless we ourselves move away from Him, unless we cast ourselves back into sinful death? One of the most pleasant proofs of both the necessity for us and the saving benefits of the Lord’s Table is how much our Lord Himself desired it. For what do His words to the Apostles mean: “I longed to eat this Passover with you”? Does He so strongly desire the Old Testament Passover? But until now it was ordinary, as if it were performed annually, and from now on it must completely cease, when the foreshadowing must give way to the truth that has come. So, there is no doubt that He ardently desires the Passover of the New Testament - that Passover in which He sacrifices Himself, offers Himself as food. “With the desire,” he says, “I desire this Easter to eat with you, first I will not even accept torment,” after the representative truth, not only tangible, but also contemplated, not only material, but also spiritual, and Divine, not only slain, but also living and life-giving, beginning before torment, so that it would be an everlasting witness of foreknowledge and free acceptance of torment, but already containing the saving action of the cross for all times, as is characteristic of the eternal principle. With the “desire” of love and mercy “I desire to eat this Easter with you”: because in it all my love for you is imprinted, and all your true life and bliss. Brethren, partakers of the Lord's table! If the Lord, out of His ineffable love, so ardently desired her not for His own sake, but for our sake: how ardently we should desire her, out of love and gratitude to Him, and for our own good and bliss! Let us warm our coldness with the flame of Christ’s love. “Let us not become lazy,” St. Chrysostom excites, “let us be made worthy of so much former love and honor. Don't you see how they grow up, how eagerly they eat the breast, how eagerly they set their mouths there? With so much let us also approach this table and suckle of the spiritual cup, and moreover, with great desire, let us, like pissing babes, attract the grace of the Spirit.” Amen. You might be interested in: