474. Слово в день Успения Пресвятой Богородицы

(Said in the Moscow Great Assumption Cathedral, August 15). Saint Dionysius the Areopagite was at the burial of the Mother of God, and what happened can be seen in part in his writings. “We,” he writes, “and many of our sacred brothers have gathered to see the life-giving and God-receiving body. God's brother Jacob and Peter also arrived, the supreme and oldest among the high Theologians. After the sight, it was pleasing to all the hierarchs, since each was able, to sing songs about the immeasurably powerful goodness of God’s infirmity” (about the Divine names, chapter 3). By the name of “Divine infirmity,” as Saint Maximus explains to Saint Dionysius, “we must understand the free condescension of the Son of God even to the flesh, except for sin. For, because of his free condescension towards us, He endured everything even to the point of death, death on the cross, and He bore our infirmities.” It is pleasant even to this day to recognize the one, holy, catholic and Apostolic Church, by the way, by the unity of its sacred and Apostolic customs. After so many centuries, from the day of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, and now for this day, “many of our sacred brethren are gathering.” In imitation of the Divine spectacle of Zion or Gethsemane, here too the image of the “life-giving and God-receiving body” 963 is presented for reverent vision, as if on the day of his burial. “The whole hierarchy sings songs,” or, in other words, in word and song they glorify the “immensely powerful goodness” of the Son of God, in His saving incarnation, who through weakness and death paved the way to immortality and Divine glory. Oh, if we could now hear at least one of those very hymns that, at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were brought to the Lord and His Mother in the original Apostolic Dormition Council! But Saint Dionysius only talks about them, and does not retell any of them. I hear at least a kind of hymn appropriate for the present occasion from the lips of the adopted son of the Blessed Virgin and Her closest servant in Her life and burial. “Blessed,” exclaims John, “and holy, is he who first has a part in the resurrection” (Rev. 20:6). Who better can have a share in the resurrection than the one who has not given birth to the Chief of the resurrection? And tradition assures us that She, like Him, on the third day after Her burial, left only burial shrouds in Her tomb. So, first of all “blessed are you” and most of all “holy” are you Mother the Virgin, who first “had a part in the resurrection of Your Son and God!” But what is the “first resurrection”, since many can take part in it? Let us seek an answer to this, not for curiosity, but for the glory of the Resurrector, and for our instruction. Every day we proclaim the resurrection to ourselves and each other when we say in the symbol of faith: “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead.” At the same time, they usually think about only the general resurrection of dead people. But in this mind it is impossible to say: “blessed and holy is he who has a part in the resurrection”; because in the general resurrection not only saints, but also sinners will take part, not only the blessed, but also those subject to condemnation to eternal torment. “The hour is coming,” the Head of the resurrection Himself proclaims, “in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they who have done good will come forth to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil will come out to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29). What kind of resurrection does the seer announce to us, reserved exclusively for the blessed and saints? It is called “the first”: consequently, there is more than one resurrection. If we don’t find the first resurrection, let’s look for another, or the last: won’t the last point to the first? “Whoever sees the Son,” says the incarnate Son of God, “and believes in Him, will have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). The last resurrection has been found: the last because it must take place on the last day of this transitory world. From this limit one must necessarily return back along the path of time in order to seek the resurrection of the first. Is it far? Without a doubt, no further than the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ Himself. For, as the Apostle says, “Christ has risen from the dead, and is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). “In Christ they will all come to life,” he continues, “each one in his own order: Christ is the firstfruits, then those who believed in Christ at His coming will have the same end” (1 Cor. 15:22-24). So, the first resurrection, the resurrection of the blessed and saints, must be sought between the day of the resurrection of Christ and the last day of the world. Where are they? Truly, the taking of the Blessed Virgin with her body into heaven, according to the signs remaining on earth, similar to the resurrection of Christ, is not this the first example of the first resurrection? If the Mother of the Chief of the Resurrection follows him in resurrection on the third day after Her Dormition: then could it not happen that some others, especially saints and worthy of blessedness, such as those who gave their lives for the name of the Resurrectionist, after many, perhaps centuries, but before the last general resurrection of the dead and the change of the living, will receive some preliminary, especially given to them, participation, both in the resurrection and in the glory and bliss characteristic of him? How simply, apparently, and naturally, the words of the seer are expressed in this way - “the souls of those who were crushed for the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, ... came to life; the rest of the dead did not come to life; ...this is the first resurrection” (Rev. 20:4–5)! But “who...understands the mind of the Lord” (Rom. 11:34)? A person who does not know “what the coming day will bring forth” (Proverbs 3:28), can he seek knowledge of what the eyelids, fraught with the secrets of God’s destinies, will give birth to? - “Do not seek those who are superior to you,” teaches the pious sage, “and do not test those who are strong for yourself: even as you are commanded, understand this, for you have no secret needs” (Sir. 3:21-22). I obey an experienced mentor. I leave the test of the mysteries of the future, of which true understanding is not so much necessary as false understanding is dangerous. I seek to understand only what is commanded. “Blessed and holy is he who has a part in the first resurrection.” – Is there anything commanded here? What about holiness? Did not God Himself command about it; “Be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). What about bliss? Are we not commanded to seek it under the name of the kingdom of God? But just as the seer proclaims “blessed” and “holy” the one who has a part in the “first resurrection”: shouldn’t we be afraid that someone who has no part in the “first resurrection” can have just as little hope for “bliss”? This forces us, with concern for ourselves, to resume the question: what is the “first resurrection”? Resurrection occurs from the dead: for whoever is alive does not need to be resurrected. Therefore, correct knowledge of what death is can lead to an understanding of the resurrection. So what is death? Separation of the soul from the body? The concept is common in human language, but alien to the Christian language and to the word of God. Alien to Christian language: for don’t you yourself say, for example: “the Dormition of the Mother of God”? But to say: we celebrate the “death of the Mother of God” - wouldn’t you consider this a rude expression, so to speak, foreign in Christianity, almost reproachful? Foreign to the word of God; for when, for example, it is said to Adam: “If you take away a day from it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:17); and he lived an ordinary, visible life for us, after eating from the forbidden tree, for nine hundred and thirty years: then shall we really say that the word of God was not fulfilled? If, as everyone must admit, it was fulfilled faithfully and accurately, then doesn’t it reveal that death, according to the mind of the word of God, is not at all what we imagine when we see a soulless body? True death was born on earth exactly on the day of the first sin and from that day lived with Adam, participated in his affairs and in the birth of his children, which is why it was born along with the human race. What is death? To answer this, according to the wisdom of God’s word, it is best to use the question: what is life? For death is only the deprivation of life. So come, let us experience life at its source. “In that life was,” says the Theologian, “and the life was the light of man” (John 1:4). There is life in God the Word, and this life is the light of men. Participation in the life that exists in God the Word and His light is the true life of man. It is an active state of light, tranquility, freedom, strength, purity, incorruptibility. Consequently, separation from the life of God the Word, and alienation from His light, is the true death of man. It is a state of darkness, sorrow, anxiety, weakness, impurity, and finally, corruption. Consequently, the renewal of communication with the life of God the Word, and the return to His light, is the true resurrection of man, in which the one who participates is blessed and holy. The last resurrection of the wicked in the bodies of condemnation is not a true resurrection: because they are resurrected not for communion with the life of God the Word and His light, but for a new separation from Him: “Father away from me the curse” (Matthew 25:41); they are resurrected for the “second death” (Rev. 21:8). The final resurrection of the righteous with bodies of glory is a true resurrection, but not initial, but final; it is the solemn discovery in the bodies of the righteous of the preliminary, hidden, spiritual resurrection, just as bodily death is only a visible manifestation of the invisible, spiritual death that preceded it. The power of the final, bodily resurrection lies in the preliminary, spiritual one. The last bodily resurrection of the wicked is therefore not true and blessed, because in them the first, spiritual resurrection did not precede it. Therefore, “blessed and holy is he who has a part in the first resurrection,” that is, spiritual. So, do we want “the will of God, our holiness,” to be fulfilled in us (1 Thess. 4:3)? Are we striving to achieve bliss? At the same time, we must desire and strive so that we too can take part in the first resurrection, in the spiritual resurrection, through the mortification of the flesh by renunciation of its pleasures, through faith in the Resurrector and love for Him, through the constant turning and opening of the heart and mind to Him, as to the life-giving Sun of spirits, to receive from Him rays of light and life. This is what the Apostle did, who with care and solicitude, as if hesitating between fear and hope, says: “If I reach the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. 3:11). He convinces others to do the same when he exclaims: “Arise from sleep and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14). What sleep does it awaken from and what resurrection does it awaken? It is not the Apostolic work to awaken someone from ordinary bodily sleep; but it is also not the apostolic work to initiate for the last bodily resurrection: for then “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a command, in the voice of the Archangel, and with the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16); then “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard they will live” (John 5:25). Consequently, the Apostle wants to awaken us from the sleep of sensuality, from death invisibly infecting and poisoning our entire carnal life; he wants to awaken us to the first, spiritual resurrection. A strange teaching, perhaps people will say, who know no other life except that which moves in flesh and blood with starlight and elemental warmth; a strange teaching that turns the entire world of living people into a cemetery filled with the moving dead, and advises the dead to take care of their resurrection! Yes! This is strange for those who, in the words of the Apostle, “walk in the vanity of their minds, darkened in meaning, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts” (Eph. 4:17-18). But can anyone find this strange to whom the teaching of the Lord Jesus is not strange? Was it not He who turned the holy city into a cemetery, and the venerable and numerous society of the Pharisees into a multitude of moving tombs, when He called them “unknown tombs” (Luke 11:44) and “thrown down tombs, which appear red outside, but within are full of the bones of the dead, and all unclean things” (Matthew 23:27)? Or when a beloved disciple sees Him through spiritual contemplation and says that “thou shalt not love... brother remains in death" (1 John 3:14); and this can be seen by anyone, how many people there are who do not love a brother, that is, who do not love someone: then think how many dead he sees on earth, moving in the form of the living! He who sleeps does not understand at the time that he is sleeping; and in a dream he usually considers himself to be awake, and only upon awakening does it become clear and obvious to him that he was sleeping and dreaming: just as someone dead through sins does not understand in this state that he is dead; and thinks that the dreaming life, carnal and sensual, is the only true life; He needs from the word of the Gospel, by the power of grace, to awaken or be resurrected into spiritual life, in order to find out how hard his sleep was, how false his dreams were, how true his death was, how much he lacked for bliss. And therefore, does this seem strange or troubling to anyone? but we are appointed for this purpose, so that, following the example of the Apostle, we cry out and awaken the sleeping and the dead: “Arise from sleep and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14). If this teaching seems strange, this exposes only the fact that the Christian world has moved away from the true spirit and reason of the teaching of Christ, which is also the teaching of the saints and blessed ones who learned from him. Let us call one of them as a witness and mentor. “True death,” says Saint Macarius, “is located and hidden inside the heart, and a person is internally mortified. If anyone passes from death to the belly through the inner man, he truly lives forever and will not die” (Conversations XV, 37). And in another place: “This body is the likeness of the soul, and the soul is the image of the spirit. And just as a body without a soul is dead, unable to do anything, so without a heavenly soul, without the Divine spirit, the soul is dead in the consideration of the kingdom and cannot do anything beneficial without the Holy Spirit” (Conversations XXX, 3). And again: “when your soul communicates with the Spirit of God, and the heavenly soul enters your soul, then you will become a perfect man, an heir and a son of God” (Conversations XXXII, 6). And again: “in the general resurrection, the very bodies of those whose souls were mysteriously pre-resurrected in advance” (this is the first resurrection) “and were enlightened with heavenly glory, together with them will be resurrected” (this is the last resurrection), “will be glorified and enlightened” (Conversation XXXIV, 2). “Let us also pray,” I conclude with Saint Macarius, “so that by the power of God we too may sacrifice and die to the age of dark evil; destroy the spirit of sin in us, and receive the soul of the Heavenly Spirit, and be transported from dark malice into the light of Christ, and rest in a blessed life forever” (Conversations I, 9). Amen. Dormition, stichera on verse You might be interested in: