230. Слово по освящении храма Святителя Николая, в селе Парфеньеве

(Said on August 26th; printed separately and in collection 1861) She returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. And three days later He was found in the church. (Luke 2:45–46). By the grace of God, having now completed the consecration of the church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, we have reason to bring him the firstfruits of the word. Behold, Saint Father Nicholas, those who revere your holiness, or more importantly, God’s grace in you, have created a church, in memory and honor of your exploits and virtues, in the hope of your prosperous prayers and your gracious protection. Receive with love the offering of faith and love, and present it to the Father of lights, to Whom every godly gift must ultimately ascend, since from Him every perfect gift originally comes down from above. And just as in your earthly life you did good with faith to those who sought your strong God’s protection: so do good to those who created this magnificent church, obviously with a zealous hand, in order, as much as possible, to make earthly things worthy of heavenly things. Do good all the more because your beneficent power is no longer in growth, but in complete perfection, and nothing any longer prevents the manifestation of the grace given to you, which was previously hidden by humility. And just as you have many times turned many from unbelief to faith, from sin to repentance and to spiritual life, healed others from illnesses, delivered them from troubles, and rewarded them with various good deeds: so do not cease to help those who enter this church through your prayer and grace-filled power, so that the ignorant may find good and useful knowledge of the truth, those who have sinned, repentance, those who repent, forgiveness, and affirmation in correction, those who struggle, success in their deeds, those who are ill, healing, those in need, deliverance, those in need of help, those who are sad, consolation, and all this towards complete spiritual salvation. Addressing those celebrating the renewal of the church, I think that this time requires some word about the church; and with this thought, I take as a subject of reflection one of the Gospel narratives, which in a remarkable, but perhaps not noticeable way for everyone, relates to the doctrine of the church. The Holy Evangelist Luke, introducing us to some knowledge about the early years of the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ, spent for the most part in obscurity, tells that He, being twelve years old, with His Most Pure Mother and Her betrothed and guardian Joseph, went to Jerusalem for the feast of Easter. The Evangelist mentions this journey because during it, the twelve-year-old Youth Jesus in the church revealed wisdom that amazed the Jewish teachers. But lest they think that this journey was accidental and one-time, the Evangelist generally says that “His parent went to Jerusalem every summer on the feast of Passover” (Luke 2:41). Do you notice in this story evidence of the importance of the church of God? Why didn't Miriam and Joseph celebrate Passover at home in Nazareth? Why did they need to go to Jerusalem? - Because there was a church of God there. In order for the celebration to be complete and pleasing to God, it was necessary to go to the church of God. It seems that Miriam and Joseph could have spared themselves the trouble of going to the temple in Jerusalem for a very good reason. Their house was no less holy than the church, if not more. The church was holy because it had in itself a prototype of Christ: but they had Christ Himself with them. I don’t know to what extent Joseph meant this; because Mariam composed the mysterious words of the Lord in her heart: but She undoubtedly knew from the very Annunciation of the Archangel that the one born by Her from the Holy Spirit is the “Son of God,” whose “kingdom there will be no end.” See how important the church of God is. And those who have the Lord of the church Himself in their home, however, go to worship the Lord in the church. And even the Lord of the church, Jesus Christ Himself, goes to the church of God along with the worshipers, in order to instill in us reverence for the church of God. Therefore, it is not difficult to judge how unreliable and unsafe is the wisdom of those who shy away from the church consecrated by God, and think to be content with prayer at home, or some place of prayer, arbitrarily arranged and unconsecrated. It is not useless for us to pay attention to the fact that the Church of Jerusalem, to which Miriam and Joseph went to worship, was the only, if we speak our language, both a cathedral and parish church, not only for all of Jerusalem, but also for the entire land of Israel, and for the entire universe. To reach it, Miriam and Joseph and the Child Jesus had to travel from Nazareth for several days. With this memory, how ashamed some of us should be, who, a few miles away from us, or closer, see a church, hear the festive sound of a bell calling into it, and remain at home, either doing something unblessed at this time, or doing nothing at all. Let us return to the story of St. Luke. Having celebrated the festival in the church and in Jerusalem, Miriam and Joseph left there to return to their home. So what happened? “The Child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and Joseph and His Mother knew not” (Luke 2:43). Unexpected case! How could Joseph and Mary become so careless as to lose their priceless, Divine treasure, the Child Jesus? This is partly understandable when thinking about crowds; however, it is also unexpected. What more complete understanding of this case could there be? - The way I think that Providence allowed it, so that later the Spirit of God, through the Evangelist, would bring it into the Holy Scriptures, in which, “as much as was written was written for our punishment” (Rom. 15:4). What kind of punishment or lesson is this for us? – The fact that whoever begins to move away from God’s church and become scattered in the rumors and vanity of the people: he is in danger of losing Christ from his thoughts and his heart. Beware. Christians must have Christ with them and in themselves, according to the power of the Christian sacraments. The Prophet speaks about this: “A Son was born to us from a child, and was given to us” (Is. 9:6). The Apostle testifies to this: “If you were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). This is promised and given by Christ the Lord Himself: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood, He abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:56). Those who have strong faith and pure life feel this inner presence of Christ the Lord as light, as peace, as strength, as life rising above natural human life; That’s why the Apostle says: “I live as no one, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). I leave it to the conscience of everyone to test whether you are taking advantage of the grace-filled proximity and saving presence of Christ the Lord, or whether He has hidden yourself from your carelessness, which is especially the case for those who move away from the Divine Church, either through negligence, or through deviation from the royal path of the church, into the paths of arbitrary human wisdom. There are people who, recognizing themselves as deprived of grace-filled communion with Christ, go to seek him along the obstinate paths of the sons of men, in secret societies, or in well-known societies, who imagine achieving their own holiness without the shrine given by God, without the church, without the sanctity, without the priesthood. If you ask them: why are you turning your spiritual quest in this direction? You often hear the answer: because our fathers, our relatives, our friends are there. What success can such a search for Christ have? – As if on purpose to answer this question, the Gospel narrative, presenting the image of those who sought Jesus with the best intentions, but not with the desired success, says: “They sought Him among their relatives and among those they knew, and not having found Him, they returned” (Luke 2:44-45). Whoever, moving away from the church, seeks Christ from relatives, subservient to their prejudices, or from acquaintances, seduced by cunning words: he will not find Him, and sooner or later he will come to regret the fruitless search, perhaps too late. But whoever you are, Christian soul, tested by the sorrowful deprivation of the grace-filled closeness of the Lord Jesus, whether you removed Him from yourself through sin, or moved away from Him through the path of unjust wisdom, accept the excitement of prevenient grace to sincerely seek Him, and see the most reliable path to finding Him in the holy footprints of His Most Pure Mother and Joseph. It was not so much through their own inadvertence as through the arrangement of Providence that they lost the Lord Jesus and searched painfully to show you the right path to finding Him. “I returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. And it came to pass after three days that He was found in the church” (Luke 2:45–46). So you too, wherever you happen to deviate from Him, return to spiritual Jerusalem, look for Christ the Savior in the church, in her prayers, in her sacraments, in her gospel and teachings, and if not immediately, then over time, as you diligently repent, you will, without a doubt, find His gracious proximity, and in it your joy, and salvation, and eternal bliss. Amen. You might be interested in: