[Слово] в день Благовещения П[ресвятыя] Б[огородицы]

Destroy the mighty from their thrones and lift up the humble. Fill the hungry with good things, and let the rich 982 let go of their vanity. (Luke 1:52) 983 How many times has the Church spoken against love for the world, against attachment to its advantages and pleasures, against slavish adherence to its vain customs! But the words of reproof have not yet driven out the love of peace from the Christian world; on the contrary, the noise of worldly vanities almost more and more from day to day 984 drowns out the voice of truth, those living on earth are getting drunk more and more with the wine of fornication, the great fornicators (Rev. 17:1-2) - the prevailing love for the world! So, it seems that it would not be superfluous if we say something else against love for the world. Will not at least someone become sober from dangerous drunkenness? Or when the day of drunkenness passes one day forever, that is, when temporary life ends in the image of the world and the flesh, let those suffering from a fiery thirst without joy and endlessly complain why they were not sobered up in time. I will introduce you, brethren, to the discussion of the dislike of the world in the same way as the sacred memories of this day introduce me to it. The angel appears to the Virgin chosen by God to be inducted into the unparalleled high rank of the Mother of God, who is therefore unparalleledly worthy of the entire human race. “Rejoice, O Blessed One,” he says, but instead of joy, the Blessed One feels fear. The angel tries to remove her fear: Do not be afraid, Mariam. But Mariam still does not dare to rejoice. The action of the Annunciation began in Her with confusion and fear, and ended with humility and obedience: joy was not visible at all. Since it was necessary that no heavenly word should return empty-handed to the one who sent Him, then, finally, the prophetic joy of the righteous Elizabeth penetrates the soul of the Blessed Virgin and from the depths of her humility raises the high divine joy instilled by the word of the Angel. “My spirit rejoiced in God My Savior,” she exclaims, “as if to look upon the humility of His servant,” adding to the pious joy in God and the grateful joy about myself the humane joy for those who fear God, for Israel. Among the motives of her joy, [She] also puts the fact that God has cast down the mighty from the throne and exalted the humble, filled the hungry with goods and let go of the rich. There is something incomprehensible in these words. It is clear why the Blessed Virgin rejoices that God exalts the humble: this should be so according to Her own humility. It is clear why She rejoices that God fills the hungry with blessings: this should be so according to Her love for mankind. But why does She rejoice that God overthrows the strong from the heights of their power and glory, and that He lets those considered rich go with nothing? How can this stern joy be reconciled with the meekness of the Virgin and the grace-filled love for mankind? Not clear. In order to resolve this bewilderment, one must understand what Mariino’s saying means: Depose the mighty from the throne. Could it not be the same as the saying of Christ: Now is the judgment of this world; now the prince of this world 986 will be cast out (John 12:31). In this case, the joy of the Mother of our Savior is understandable. She rejoices that the spirits of lies and malice that deceived the first people, enslaved the human race, dominating the altars of idols and from there extending their dominion to the thrones and kingdoms of pagans, must be exposed by the light of the truth of Christ, defeated by the power of the spirit of Christ 987, so that people will turn from darkness to light and from the realm of Satan to God ( Acts 26:18). However, it is difficult to assert decisively that this meaning of the Mariins’ words is the closest and only, although it can be assumed as the innermost mind of them. Something else, closer, is revealed when Her sayings are compared, one with the other. The strong, the deposed, are someone in whose place the humble are exalted; the rich who are left lean are someone in whose place the hungry are taken and fed. But since people are undoubtedly humble and hungry, then among people we must look for the strong, whom God deposes, and the rich, whom He sends away as lean. So, is it not the strong that the Humble Virgin threatens with deposition, with whom even earlier God Himself threatened through the Prophet: Woe to the strong in Israel; For my wrath against the contrary will not cease; – and why? - because your princes, Jerusalem, do not submit, the commoners of Tatem, who love gifts and persecute rewards, who do not judge the orphans and do not heed the judgment of widows? (Isa. 1:23) 988. Isn’t it the poor Virgin who proclaims deprivation to such rich people, against whom the Prophet had previously cried out: Woe to those who join house to house and village to village, so that they may take away something from their neighbor? (Isa. 5:8). Yes, now the righteous Judgment of God on the powerful and rich oppressors and lawless people is obviously clear, but in this case, the joy of the Blessed Virgin about their fall is again not entirely clear. The prophet of the strict times of the law with pity pronounces grief on them, and the gracious First Lady of the days of grace rejoices at the sight of their misfortunes, however, with such joy that one cannot dare to condemn, because this joy is God-inspired. The mystery of this not quite 990 apparently humane joy about the fall of the wicked lies in pure love for God and for people and in a dislike of the adulterous and sinful world commensurate with the purity of this love. The world with its wisdom, false and insane, with its passions, lusts, vices, atrocities, before the eyes of the Pure Soul presents such a disgusting, such a terrible sight from which She sometimes suffers almost as if from hell, as it is said about the soul of Lot that by sight and hearing the righteous one, living among the Sodomites, day by day the soul of the righteous is tormented by lawless deeds (2 Pet. 2:8), suffers She is internally rejected for the truth, driven out for virtue, insulted for the glory of God, for the souls of men mutually corrupted and drawn to destruction. Therefore, on the contrary, the spectacle of God’s impending judgment on the world does not so much terrify the pure Virgin, but rather relieves Her of her long-term horror and even arouses in Her holy joy that the truth and salvation of God for the righteous is finally appearing and that the sinners themselves, having been stopped on the path of sin, will at least cease to increase their future condemnation. Not only the Mother of the Lord gives us an example of such joy in the Lord, the Judge of the world. He Himself teaches us all the same joy. Those who begin to experience this, that is, when the signs of the approaching coming and judgment of Christ appear, stand up, He commands, and lift up your heads (Luke 21:28), that is, look at this not with timidity and sadness, but with attention, hope and joy. Christians and by this title are not of the world, if it is not in vain that we are called Christians. Let us test the eye of our heart to see whether it looks at the world as the saints looked at it, as our Lord commanded to look at it. Does your spiritual eye hurt from unclean smoke, does it shrink, does it turn away from the spinning whirlwind of worldly vanities? Does your heart hurt from seeing and hearing the deeds of lawlessness, not out of anger for untruths against yourself, which you must endure with patience, not out of envy for the pleasures of unrighteousness, in which you should not be jealous of the evil ones, but out of zeal for the truth, the law and the glory of God, offended by the untruths and iniquities of men, out of compassion for the misfortunes of your neighbors suffering from the untruths of others and from your own lawless deeds. Is your heart capable of rejoicing when the image of this world passes away and its judgment approaches? Or, on the contrary, the dull shine of vanity attracts your frivolous gaze, the spinning whirlwind of vanity without persistence on your part carries you away and carries you away with it? Not wanting to be in the crowd of the wicked, nor to remain forever among the sinners, do you not, however, sometimes walk the path of the wicked, and do you stop on the path of sinners, because this path is too open and seems quite common? Fearing the mere thought of becoming something like the destroyers or blasphemers of shrines, scoffers of virtue, don’t you sit down, without looking around, on their seat for an unchaste spectacle, for unpious reading, for a game that can only be amusing to you, but to another, to whom your example will present it as excusable, as if destructive. Somewhere in a foreign land, some prodigal son, squandering his father’s estate, some foolish maiden, unable to attract a groom with the adornment of her soul, is trying to let herself be noticed and set as a model for others with frequently changing news in clothing and decoration, usually useless, often indecent; Are there not too many of you among you for whom this foreign frivolity has become not only a pleasant, but also an important occupation and an immutable law, who observe this law more carefully than the royal and God's, who more willingly pay tribute to the whims of foreigners than to the needs of the Fatherland. “What does he want? - peace lovers will say about me if they hear or hear my words 992. “Should we flee from the world or should we become strange and foolish in the world?” Do not rush to suspect that they will demand something absurd or wrong from you when you cannot deny that there are reasons to accuse you of something wrong and absurd. Christ and the Gospel do not drive you out of the world. I do not pray, - the Lord says to His Father in prayer for Christians, - I do not pray, that you may keep them from the world, but that you may keep them from hostility (John 17:15). As for the fear of becoming strange and foolish in the world, I admit that this fear does not terrify me too much, I do not encourage anyone to this foolishness, but I cannot help but remind that there were people who were not afraid and were not ashamed of this foolishness, they even boasted about it, and these people were holy Apostles. We are buoys for Christ's sake (1 Cor. 6:10) 993 - they declare through the mouth of Paul. I do not demand so much, but with the other Apostle I invite you to what you cannot demand less: Do not love the world, nor those in the world (1 John 2:15), do not flee from the world, but from the lust of the flesh that is in it, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, do not attempt to strengthen yourself with cunning and untruth, to exalt yourself with base deeds: for this reason the mighty will be brought down from the throne; Do not increase wealth by oppressing the poor, do not make it food for insatiable luxury and endless whims of this kind: let those who are rich let their vain go. Do not prefer games and fun to honest and useful work. Do not run away from the church to useless and shameless spectacles, do not steal the days of the joy of the Lord or holy sorrow for God into amusements that are alien to the Divine and 994 reason invented for the pagans. Beware so as not to damage the imagination, so as not to give a false direction to the mind through the writings, of which the new wisdom proclaimed freely consists only in not recognizing the dominion of eternal truth over itself, and preaching an unbridled riot of passions; if you do not want these and similar moderate rules, then think for yourself what you want and what you can have if you wish. The Gospel has been spoken and will not change its words: do not love the world, nor those in the world; If anyone loves the world, there is no father’s love in it. And: the world passes away and its lusts, but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15, 17). So, choose one of the two, for you cannot have both together: either not to love the world, or not to have the love of the Heavenly Father in you; either to follow the transitory world and its lust into eternal destruction, or to abide with those who do the will of God forever in bliss and glory. Amen. Miracles Monastery, 1831 OPI State Historical Museum. F. 301. Unit. hr. 3. L. 28–38. So in the text it follows: getting rich. The next 53rd verse is also quoted. The words from day to day originally stood after the words drowned out the voice of truth, and then were placed before them. Words about this are inserted above the line. The word is inserted above the line. Next, the words should be crossed out. Verse 24 is also quoted. The word poor is enclosed in a rectangle. The words were not quite originally placed after the words apparently, and then were placed before them. Next is the crossed out word of yours. The original word was mine. There is a typo in the footnote, the quote is taken from Chapter IV of the message. You might be interested in: