Святой Грааль 215 (Опыт догматической экзегезы: Ин.19:34)

In the Gospel of John, in the narrative of the Passion of Christ, we know one feature that is absent from the other evangelists. 216 This is a story about the breaking of the legs of two thieves and the piercing of Jesus’ ribs with a spear: “... one of the soldiers pierced His ribs with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out - αἶμα καὶ ὕδωρ.” 217 At the same time, this message is given special significance: the truth of this testimony is deliberately and solemnly confirmed: “And he who saw (that is, the beloved disciple of Christ. - Author's note) testified, and truly is his testimony; he – ἐκεῖνος – knows 218 that he speaks the truth, so that you may believe” (John 19:35). (And then follows another confirming reference to the Old Testament text: “... let the Scripture be fulfilled”). This event occurred after Jesus “bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30), so that the soldiers, when they came, “saw Him already dead” (John 19:33). The flow of blood and water from a dead body is difficult to explain, although attempts at such an explanation have been made; 219 it is a sign (σημεῖον) in the sense of John’s Gospel, and the special meaning of this sign is determined not only by the fact that blood and water flowed from a dead body, but also by the condition of this body. Although it had already died after the spirit left him, it did not become a corpse with the beginning of decomposition, for “His flesh saw no corruption” (Acts 2:31; Ps.15:10). The death of Christ for His body was only a deep sleep or fainting. Although Jesus “committed His spirit into the hands of the Father” (Luke 23:46), the connection of the Divine spirit with the body was not completely broken. And this, although temporarily abandoned by the spirit, but a living body had blood in it, and it was once again killed by a blow from the spear. The consequence of this blow was the outflow of blood and water; the body for burial remained bloodless and had lost the necessary part of its composition, namely moisture. What does this outpouring mean? We know 220 that in “blood is the soul of animals,” the life force of the body. The outpouring of blood therefore means the separation of the soul from the body, that is, the death of the body. True, even after the bleeding the Savior’s body did not become a corpse, for it did not give in to decay, but it remained in a kind of suspended animation, awaiting its Resurrection. Blood is a completely special substance, which is remarkable in that it unites mental and material, living and inanimate nature, animal soul and body. She mediates between spirit and body, spiritual and material existence, as a living connection between them. Blood, although it is only a special liquid belonging to the physical world, but it also conceals the mystery of life, contains the soul of the body, its animal entelechy. This connection and identification of the principles of living and nonliving (or containing only dormant forms of life) in their indecomposable unity is a creative act of God, a certain primordial gift of life-giving. Natural science comprehends with its methods the how of this act, but not its what, which remains indecomposable in its immediacy: life is life, all living things live, are animated, and the soul of animals is in the blood. Of course, the life of blood presupposes the presence of an organism with all its complexity, but this serves only as a general expression of the basic fact - the animation of matter, which the body represents. In the act of death, there is usually no separation of blood and body; on the contrary, remaining in its inseparability, both begin to decompose, and with the decomposition of the blood, the animal soul dies. The soul living in the blood does not itself possess immortality and does not give it to the body - only the spirit of man is immortal, and it is it that revives the soul, and through it the body. In resurrection, a person receives new soul power to revive a new body, but this, as it were, new soul, due to the self-identity of the spirit that inspires it, turns out to be identical with the previous one, or rather, is a continuation of the same life. The Spirit preserves the potency of the soul (and through it the body), like a seed, according to the explanation of the Apostle Paul (1 Cor: 15). Animals therefore do not know that personal immortality that man has, because they do not have a spirit, but only an animal soul, and it completely decomposes along with the body and blood. Here we can only talk about the immortality of the race (“according to their kind,” as they were created: Gen. 1:21, 24–25). In the death of Christ, after being struck by a spear, there was a separation of the soul-blood from the body, and His lifeless, bloodless body in the Resurrection, of course, again acquired a soul, and therefore blood: we partake of this blood of the glorified body of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. But this blood of the Risen, glorified Body, although identical to the blood of the body that lived on earth, is also different from it, since the flowing blood has already been separated from this body. The very body of the Savior that was in the tomb was resurrected. But in this body the shed blood of the Savior was no longer present; 221 The blood and water that poured out from the rib, as not belonging to the already risen Body, remained in this world. Thus, we stand here before a fact of exceptional significance, solemnly proclaimed and witnessed by the Evangelist: the human nature of Christ, His living, inspired body, was divided on the Cross. He gave His blood and water to the world, and the body, deprived of blood and water, was buried and then resurrected. We are faced with the question of the dogmatic meaning of this fact. What do the shed blood and water signify? Blood, within the meaning of the Sacrament of the Eucharist, is the animation of the body associated with matter, its living soul. It represents, on the one hand, the seat of the spirit, it is, as it were, a body for the spirit (and in this sense, the Blood of Christ corresponds to the Church as His Body), on the other hand, it contains the soul of the body, living by the power of inspiration by the blood (“blood circulation”). We can say that the blood of Christ expresses His humanity (“from one blood God made the whole human race to live on all the face of the earth” - Acts 17:26), its psychobiological substrate. Water is the primary element of the world’s substance, from which the world was originally formed (“and the Spirit of God hovered over the water” (Gen. 1:2), “let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it separate water from water” (Gen. 1:6), “The Voice of the Lord over the waters” (Ps. 28:3)), in a certain sense, the metaphysical primary matter of the world - ὕλη, - and new, renewed ὕλη is baptismal water, Jordan. The Body of Christ, of course, consisted of the same parts and the same elements as the human body in general, but if we express this diversity in unity, then such a unifying, all-dissolving and all-containing primary element of “earth” is “water,” from which the “firmament” arose. 222 The unity of blood and water thus expresses the fullness of humanity as a combination of the spiritual, life-giving, blood principle and the life-giving, passive, material. This is a living physicality that emerged from the body of Christ left by the spirit on the Cross. This separation was not accompanied by the destruction of the body itself, as is specifically indicated by the evangelist, who recalls (John 19:36) the Old Testament image of the Passover lamb. The latter, in the indestructibility of his bones, prefigured the indestructibility of the Body of the Lord: “this happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “... His bone will not be broken” (Ex. 12:46). So, on the Cross, a mysterious division of the physicality of Jesus took place: His unbroken flesh was taken from the Cross, placed in a tomb and resurrected, but earlier His animated physicality emerged from it as blood and water. We find confirmation of this understanding of the body and blood as humanity in general from John the Theologian himself in the famous text 1 John 5: 6–7 (the so-called comma Johannaeum (John’s phrase (Latin) - Ed.), the text about the three testifying in Heaven, absent in the original manuscripts): “This is Jesus Christ, who came by water and blood δἰ ὕδατος καὶ αἵματος (Just as without a member, as in John 19:34) (and by the Spirit), not with water only οὐκ ἐv τῷ ὕδατι μόνον, but with water and blood ἐv τῷ ὕδατι καί ἐv τῷ αἵματι (Here a term appears for greater certainty of the already repeated expression, and the Spirit (τὸ πνεῦμα) testifies (to that), because the Spirit is the truth. For three are those who testify, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and these three οἱ τρεῖς into one εἱς τὸ ἕν – the essence.” This text, which is the crux interpretum (cross (i.e. difficult place) of the translators (Latin) - Ed.), according to its historical meaning, contains a refutation of the teachings of the Docetes. According to the latter, only at baptism, “by water,” did Christ descend on Jesus in order to leave Him during His suffering. Against this teaching about the illusory incarnation, the apostle points out the true completeness and authenticity of the incarnation, which was accomplished “not only by water, but also by blood.” However, regardless of this historical context, although in connection with it, the dogmatic content of this text is that it affirms the necessity (and together with the sufficiency) of blood and water for the completeness and truth of the incarnation of Christ. “The water and the blood” are the true humanity in which the “Spirit” dwells, and the “Spirit” in 1 John 5:8 is obviously the Spirit of Christ, the Logos made flesh and made man. Thus, a tripartite composition of Christ’s nature is obtained: Spirit-Logos, soul (blood), body (water), becoming “one” (1 John 5:7). However, in 1 John 5:6: “The Spirit bears witness of Him”: the Spirit is already, of course, the Holy Spirit. 223 But one way or another, the important thing is that blood and water here clearly have the meaning of true humanity, inspired corporeality, 224 so that blood is the soul, and water is the body. 225 So, according to the solemn testimony of the Gospel of John, the human nature of the Savior was divided in His death, but was inseparable: blood and water, the soul-body substance, poured out from the rib, and the body remained bloodless and dehydrated, although in the fullness of its entire composition. Let us delve into the significant and even, one might say, stunning meaning of this division. Let's start with the simple and more indisputable. First of all, this division is permanent in the sense that nowhere is there any indication that these poured-out Blood and Water would return to the resurrected Body of Christ, and thus their new reunion would occur. Of course, the resurrected Body of Christ had all the fullness of humanity, that is, it was an animated human body, therefore having blood. We have to make a twofold assumption: either there was still some blood (and water) left in the body, as this is quite plausible, because a blow to the side with a spear was not at all an inevitable consequence of the outpouring of all the blood and water from the entire body; or the blood was restored in the resurrected Body along with the returned life of the Body (as it is constantly restored in every living organism). But with both assumptions, there remains a difference between the blood and water poured out from the side of Christ and the Body and Blood taught in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, with their constant identity. What is this difference and what is this identity? First of all, it must be established that the very fact of the outpouring of the blood of Christ along with water from His side remained little noticeable in dogmatic exegesis; as far as it has been noticed, it is understood only Eucharistically. By the way, from this fact comes the cycle of Western legends about the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail, according to this legend, is the Eucharistic Chalice from which the Lord gave communion to His disciples at the Last Supper. Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood (and water?) that poured out of his rib into this Chalice. The legend does not add whether all the blood that poured out from the rib was collected in the Chalice or only part of it (Eastern tradition says that Adam’s head was buried on Golgotha, as is usually depicted on Orthodox crucifixes, and that a drop of Divine blood dropped onto it). Western legend, in its own way, takes possession of the plot of the Holy Grail, complicating and even drowning this theme with various romantic details. This plot becomes the property of chivalric poetry, which the Catholic Church shuns. In general, in the Western interpretation of the Holy Grail, there are two options: according to one, it is the Cup of the Savior’s blood, which came from Joseph of Arimathea to England in Gladstonebury (from here it is woven into the cycle of legends about the knights of King Arthur’s Round Table). 226 The Holy Chalice is hidden from people, but is worthy (Parsifal). According to another version, the Holy Grail is a miraculous stone, on which the holy cup appears - a kind of antimension on the stone (according to Catholic custom), the “alatyr-stone” of the Russian song. Western Christianity was given the opportunity to feel and religiously perceive this theme - and this is the positive meaning of the legend of the Holy Grail - but it was completely unable to reveal it. The East completely passed over this topic as such, except for the fact that some features of the legend of the Holy Grail were woven into the tales widespread in the East about the miraculous appearances of the Infant Christ in the Eucharist. 227 It should also be especially noted that the interpretation of John 19:34, which is in the sequence of the Orthodox proskomedia at the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great. After the removal, the Holy Lamb is pierced by the priest on the left side with a copy with the words: “One of the warriors is pierced with a copy of His rib,” and then, pouring the “holy mixture” (wine with water) into the Chalice, the priest pronounces the words: “and he came forth blood and water,” and after that, pointing his hand at the Chalice, he adds: “and he who saw is a witness, and truly is his testimony.” What does this symbolism mean? Doesn’t it also contain an identification of the blood and water poured out from the rib with the Eucharistic Blood, denying the difference between them? In our opinion, no, it does not. Proskomedia (like the entire Liturgy) generally has a dual content: first of all, it is the Sacrament of the Transfiguration of the Holy Gifts and Communion, but moreover, it is the commemoratively repeated Incarnation of God in its main moments, corresponding to various symbolic actions at the Liturgy. In particular, at the proskomedia, at appropriate moments, the Nativity of Christ, His Passion, and the Resurrection are remembered. But it is precisely in the order of such remembrance that the words of John 19:34 are pronounced, but thereby this moment is not introduced into the Eucharistic action itself. The sacrament is accomplished through the commemorative reproduction of the Lord's Supper itself and the utterance of the establishing words of the Lord, receiving final power in the epiclesis, and here there is no longer any relation to John 19:34. Of course, the Blood of Christ is substantially one and self-identical both in the Eucharistic Chalice, and in its outpouring on the Cross from the five wounds of Christ, and especially from His side. However, it is different in the images of its existence and appearance for humans. And in this sense, first of all, the Blood of Christ differs, intended for Communion and not intended for it, Eucharistic and non-Eucharistic, mysterious and direct. I have already drawn attention to the important circumstance that at the Last Supper the Lord, who was directly present among the disciples with His own earthly body and blood, communed them, however, not with this latter, but with the mystical Body and Blood into which bread and wine were placed. Thus, already here, with the undoubted identity of the Eucharistic elements with the Body and Blood of Christ, the indicated distinction between them was made. We must maintain this same distinction here: the blood and water that poured out from the rib did not have a Eucharistic purpose. Therefore, only by virtue of the general identity of the Blood of Christ, both poured out from the rib and the mysterious Eucharistic, the event on the Cross is symbolically correlated with the corresponding act of proskomedia. The wound with a spear, instead of breaking the legs, is the completion of the saving Sacrifice of Christ for the redemption of the human race. This water and blood washes away human sin and creates the New Testament Church with its grace-filled mystical Gifts, baptismal water and Eucharistic Blood. From the rib of the old Adam, the wife who seduced him into falling was created. But the wound inflicted on humanity by the rib of Adam is healed by the wound from the piercing by the copy of the body of Jesus. Blood and water poured into the world remain in it. They sanctify this world as a guarantee of its future transformation. Through these priceless streams of the Blood of Christ and the water poured out from His side, the entire creation, both earth and sky, our earthly world and all the star worlds, were sanctified. The image of the Holy Grail, preserving the Holy Blood of Christ, expresses precisely the idea that, although the Lord ascended in His venerable flesh to Heaven, yet in the Blood and water that poured out from His side, the world received His holy relic, and the Cup of the Grail is its ciborium and reliquary. And the whole world is this Holy Grail. He is inaccessible to worship; due to his holiness, he is hidden in the world from the world. However, it exists in him as an invisible force, and he becomes visible, appears to pure hearts, worthy of it. This is the Divine vision embodied in the legend of the Grail. If the Holy Grail is the Eucharistic Chalice (according to legend), then the Blood contained in it is not the Eucharist, for the Holy Grail was not given for the Communion of the faithful, but for the sanctification and transfiguration of the world. The Holy Eucharist is served as Divine Food, through the eating of which believers are spiritually united with Christ. However, as food, it also shares its common destinies: the Eucharist does not remain in the world, but after fulfilling its direct purpose - Communion, it ceases (the Holy Gifts are “consumed”). (In the legends about the Eucharistic apparitions of the Divine Child, this is expressed in the fact that Angels take Him to Heaven after Communion). On the contrary, the Holy Grail (as we will conditionally call the Blood and water poured out from the side of Christ) is not served for Communion, but remains in the world as its mysterious shrine, as the power of life, as that fire in which the world will be transformed into a new Heaven and a new earth. For the Church, the Body of Christ, is not only a “society of believers,” but the entire universe in God. Just as man is a microcosm, and the world is an anthropocosm, so the area of ​​the Church and its power extend to the entire universe. All nature thirsts for the Body and Blood of Christ and partakes of them - in the Blood and water poured out on the Cross. Nature also belongs to human nature, the Body of Christ. The Holy Grail is invisible in the world with bodily eyes. The Church did not establish a special holiday for it and special veneration, with which it surrounded the Cross of Christ, and its secret remains undisclosed and even little noticed. However, once you see her, you can no longer forget her and not get enough of her. Ό λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο (The Word became flesh and dwelt in us... – John 1:14). This entry of the Logos into the world, although it constitutes the central fact of the entire life of the world, however, took place in time, at a certain point, and ended with the Ascension. In this sense, it is only temporary in the history of the world and man, like any individual life. The Divine from His transcendental eternity at one point touched the immanent temporality of the world. “The King of Heaven appeared on earth and lived with men,” in order, however, to “ascend to heaven” again, to return to the transcendental, leaving the earth orphaned and desolate... Is this so? And is the Ascension such abandonment? We already know that it is overcome by the miracle of the Eucharist, which expresses the connection of the ascended, glorified Body with this world in the Eucharistic substance, in its mysterious transformation. However, is this connection exhaustive, or, along with the Sacrament, does the world still have a natural connection with Christ, and what is it? As true man and the new Adam, Christ belongs to all humanity. In it He already pre-exists before His incarnation in His ancestors, in that genealogy with which the Gospel begins. But this genealogy is the history not only of His carnal nature, but also of His human soul, which He received along with the blood from the Mother of God. Christ in His humanity is really attached to the human race, like the New Adam, constituting its focus, He is immanent to it. Is this connection of blood revealed after the Ascension, do the sons of men cease to be His relatives by blood through His Mother, and His sisters, and brothers, and relatives, whose existence is so significantly emphasized in the Gospel? It is not enough to answer this question simply by pointing to the Eucharist. In it, indeed, the distance between the transcendent and the immanent is overcome through the transformation of bread and wine, the world's substance, into the glorified Body and Blood of Christ for the consumption of believers, and this overcoming, of course, has its basis in the once accomplished Incarnation. However, this mysterious entry of the transcendent into the immanent, which is each time like a new Incarnation of God, although identical with what was once accomplished, still does not express the immanence of the humanity of Christ to our world and our humanity. And, first of all, a puzzling question remains: if the human blood of Christ constituted the central impulse of the entire life of the entire human race before His coming to earth in His genealogy, made Him “the son of David,” “the son of Abraham,” “the Son of Man,” was it really taken away from humanity through the Ascension, and now, after the Incarnation, it has become poorer on earth than before it? Of course, one can object to the last thought by referring to the Holy Eucharist, which humanity has despite the Ascension and Heavenly glorification of humanity by Christ, who sits with the flesh at the right hand of the Father and thereby elevates this humanity to the highest glorified state. However, it should be pointed out that the highest and most complete does not cancel the lower and preliminary; on the contrary, it includes it due to a certain spiritual phylogenesis. The Divine Eucharist, like the Heavenly glorification of humanity in Christ, differs from the natural connection of Christ’s humanity with the human race, by virtue of which, so to speak, His Body and Blood are immanent. Can the earthly race of Christ fade away and His human genealogy be interrupted? 229 True, Christ brought a new sonship of God, the children of God, who are born not of flesh and blood, but of God, by water and spirit. However, this spiritual birth does not cancel, but presupposes the natural birth and natural life of man, although it crowns it with the grace of God. In a word, the question remains: does the Ascension of Christ interrupt His natural connection with us in humanity, raising it only to a new, mysterious (in the Eucharist) and Heavenly (in the Ascension) image, or does Christ, even after His Ascension, remain belonging to our earthly humanity? Here we must also take into account the fact that the Mother of God in Her Dormition and Ascension was taken away from the world, and with Her, as it were, the very human nature of Christ, which She personifies, was taken away. Thus, here, as it were, the connection between Christ and the world is finally broken, and the chain that began on earth in the genealogy of Christ goes to Heaven. However, through this, earthly humanity is not devastated and is not deprived of what constitutes the hidden source of its life. Here we must take full account of the fact that only two evangelists have a story about the Ascension: briefly in Mark and more extensively in Luke (in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles). The Gospel of Matthew, which is silent about the Ascension, ends instead with the solemn promise of the Lord, which essentially explains and completes his idea: “... and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen". (Matthew 28:20), and in John we have an indication of the departure to the Father only in the farewell conversation, but there is also no story about the departure in the Ascension. This makes us think that both testimonies are in a certain sense equivalent and in any case compatible: the Lord remains on earth until the end of the age, and He, having ascended, sits at the right hand of the Father. 230 The compatibility of being in Heaven, at the right hand of the Father, and some being on earth should not be considered impossible and contradictory at all, after it has already been approved by the Church regarding the Sacrament of the Eucharist. However, there is no reason to associate the words of the Lord about being with us until the end of the age only to the Sacrament of the Eucharist and thereby limit them. The Lord says about her: “...do this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19) and thereby defines its meaning, just like the Apostle Paul: “...every time you eat the bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes” (1 Cor. 11:26). But even this does not yet reveal the Lord’s promises to remain with us until the end of the age, which is, after all, the Second Coming. 231 The Lord dwells with us on earth and at the same time He is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. “Heaven” and “ascension to Heaven” here do not have the spatial meaning of a place - Heaven is not a place located somewhere in astronomical space - but a metaphysical state of perfect glorification and deification of human nature, which thereby becomes inaccessible to human perception. This was how it was already after the Resurrection, even before the Ascension. However, then the Lord appeared to the disciples according to His will. And even after the Ascension, He appeared to the Apostle Paul, therefore, the transcendence of His presence in Heaven does not imply an impassable boundary for His appearance on earth (this also includes the appearances of Christ after the Ascension, preserved by tradition, for example, to the Apostle Peter; similarly, the icon of Christ is the place of His appearance for a prayerful meeting with Him. 232 Thus, the Ascension does not so much mean the removal of Christ from the world - which would correspond to His complete disincarnation (such a thought would constitute the most evil heresy) - how much the glorification of His human nature before His complete deification and sitting at the right hand of the Father. The Ascended Christ remains with us all the days until the end of the age, but His presence became inaccessible to us after the Resurrection, while He ascended, but had not yet ascended to His Father, that is, He had not yet accomplished the full glorification of His humanity. It is even more inaccessible to us now that it is. glorification has taken place. However, this will also change at the Second Coming, when all the tribes of the earth “will see the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:30). And this “coming” does not mean coming from one place to another, from “heaven” to “earth,” but such a change in a person in which the Lord will become accessible to our vision: this is a transition through death or a change equivalent to it: “...we will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet” (1 Cor. 15:51-52). However, change also presupposes unity, the self-identity of the one changing, while the same human being remains, which is not removed from the world, although it is transformed, along with the world itself, becoming “a new heaven and a new earth.” From this it follows that the ascended Christ lives in the world with Christ’s humanity. This life of Christ in humanity (“I live not for this purpose, but Christ lives in me” - Gal.2:20) is the Church, the Body of Christ. This is spiritual communication, in the Spirit of Christ, who is the Holy Spirit who came into the world at Pentecost. The action and revelation of the Holy Spirit in people consists in the fact that He reveals, realizes Christ in them: “...whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is not His” (Rom. 8:9), “through the assistance of the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:19). In this light, the connection and, one might even say, the identification of the Ascension and Pentecost, which constitutes a distinctive feature of the farewell conversation, becomes clear: “... it is better for you that I go, for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7), “He will glorify Me, because He will take of what is Mine and show it to you” (John 16:14), “I will not leave you orphans; I'll come to you. A little while longer, and the world will not see Me, but you will see Me, for I live, and you will live” (John 14:18–19). (And this antinomy of thought is deliberately strengthened by Christ himself regarding the completely natural bewilderment of the disciples (John 16:17–18): “Are you asking one another about this, that I said: “In a little while you will not see Me, and again in a little while you will see Me?”” (John 16:19).) In essence, the understanding of the Ascension as a removal from the world is already denied here (although at the same time, the leaving of the world is also said antinomically: “I came from the Father and I came into the world; and again I leave the world and go to the Father” (John 16:28)), and this removal is overcome by the coming of the Comforter and through Him by communication with Christ. So, although the Ascension is the removal of Christ from the world in the sense of the exaltation of His glorified humanity to His inconceivability in the world, it is not His removal from the world, primarily in the sense of His presence in it spiritually, in the Holy Spirit, through the Third Hypostasis. This presence is even more immediate than bodily presence, for it is not limited by spatiality and manner of being: “The Spirit breathes where it wills, and you hear His voice, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes: so it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). However, this spiritual presence is also not limited to the presence of Christ in the world after the Ascension: there is also His physical appearance, albeit a mysterious, Eucharistic one. But is it the only and exhaustive one? This is a question that is usually not even asked, but it confronts us with all its force when our eyes are opened to the meaning of John 19:34. The Lord abides in the world not only spiritually, and not only eucharistically, but also with His blood, along with the water poured out from the rib, His humanity, as if divided on the Cross: it was resurrected, transformed and ascended to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father in the indivisibility of the hypostasis of Christ, but it remained in the world, on earth, like the poured-out Blood and water. How can we understand this division of the one and indivisible humanity of Christ? Theology does not have the appropriate concepts and terms to express this dogmatic thought. This is quite natural, because this question never arose before him. Of course, at the same time, we must forever remove any thought about the physical or quantitative division of Christ’s human nature, His animated corporeality. However, the idea of ​​some kind of dynamic dual unity of the presence of Christ’s humanity in Heaven and on earth remains quite possible. The dogmatic idea of such duality or bi-presence has already been adopted in Orthodox (and Catholic) theology, namely in the doctrine of the Eucharistic praesentia realis (effective presence (Latin) - Ed.): according to the belief of the Church, the Lord is present “truly, effectively and essentially (vere, realiter, essentialiter)” in the Holy Gifts, persistently residing in Heaven at the right hand Father, and this presence takes place on many altars at the same time, and, moreover, is communicated in communion to every believer. 233 The idea of ​​the dynamic division of the indivisible nature of Christ in the Eucharist can also be extended to this case, in the question of Christ’s presence on earth in His poured-out Blood and water, despite His Ascension from the earth. This thought affirms no more than what is contained in the Eucharistic dogma: namely, that the presence of Christ in Heaven is not an obstacle to the presence of Christ in the world, and this division of the indivisible, this combination of the transcendence and immanence of Christ to the world is precisely what takes place in the Eucharist. Between the presence of Christ in the Eucharistic Blood, as well as the non-Eucharistic, Golgotha, Cross, there is a difference only regarding the image of this presence, that is, modal, not essential. And by the power of this already established possibility of overcoming the Ascension in the Eucharist, we can affirm another way of overcoming, namely through the division of the humanity of Christ, expressed outwardly by the fact that His body was buried, resurrected and ascended, but the Blood and water belonging to His earthly body remained and remain in this world as they were in it during His life. And in them and through them He Himself dwells on earth with His humanity, by virtue of His incarnation already inseparably connected with His spirit (“spirit, water and blood”). After all, if, according to firm church belief, the body of the Lord maintained a connection with His Divine spirit even in His death, then the same must be extended to the Blood and water poured out from the rib. They cannot be considered as an excretion from the body, returned to the world by virtue of metabolism, but as the living and in death itself not dying corporeality of Jesus. Thus, we come to the unexpected conclusion that Christ, who ascended to Heaven, leaving the world and departing from it, remains in it in His Blood and water, and not mysteriously (as in the Eucharistic elements), although it is unknown to man, invisible to his eyes, secretly, but essential and real. Christ, by the power of His incarnation and entry into the world, remains on earth, without being separated from us, although no longer in His personal image, obvious and accessible to everyone, but in His earthly humanity. In blood and water, Christ remains with us on earth, and neither the Resurrection nor the Ascension in glory took this stay from Him. This presence is not a mystery, which, despite all its mystery, is still always known, being confined to a certain place and time, but it is a mystery, a sacred, great, Divine mystery of the world, its treasure, its shrine, its glory, the Holy Grail. This secret is kept and revealed in the life of the Church, not only the past, but also the present and future. It is not at all surprising if it, not hitherto comprehended in theological-dogmatic consciousness, lived only in vague premonitions of Christian legend and poetry, in which the sacred myth was obscured by the attacks of the human imagination, romantic dreams. But in due time it can appear in the consciousness of the Christian world, and then the shrine of Monsalvat will light up with heavenly light and lead the peoples towards the coming Christ. The whole world is the Holy Grail, for it has received and contains the honorable Blood of Christ and His water, it is the Chalice of the Blood and water of Christ, it partook of them at the hour of Christ’s death. And he hides them within himself. A drop of the Blood of Christ fell on the head of Adam and redeemed him, but all the Blood and water of Christ, poured out into the world, sanctified it. They made it a place of presence of the power of Christ, prepared it for the future transformation, for the meeting of the coming in the glory of Christ. The world has not lost the presence of Christ (“I will not leave you orphans” - John 14:18) and is not alien to Him, it carries Him within itself, lives by the power of Christ. The world has become Christ's, for it is already the holy cup, the holy grail. He became indestructible and imperishable, for in the Blood and water of Christ he received the power of incorruptibility, which will manifest itself in his transfiguration. The world is already paradise, for it has grown “the blessed tree, and Christ was crucified on it.” This premonition of the salvation of the world was expressed in the legend of the Grail, according to which the presence of the Grail (according to some legends, a precious stone from paradise) performs miracles in nature, provides wonderful food (therefore Joseph of Arimathea can remain in prison for 40 years without food), and generally contains the power that transforms nature into paradise, making it holy flesh. This supernatural power in nature imparts to her divine humanity and makes all of her the Body of Christ. The accomplishment of this redemption of nature will be the action of the Holy Spirit in the transformation of the world, which has already received power for itself at Pentecost (this is why the ancient icons of the descent of the Holy Spirit also depict the allegorical figure of the world, the cosmos). Thus, we can say that the world, which received Christ into itself, embraced His Body and carried Him within itself, retained His physicality within itself both after His death and after His Resurrection and Ascension. And this humanity of Christ lives invisibly in the world and internally transforms it towards a new Heaven and a new earth. 234 The outpouring of the Blood and water of Christ, further, has not only apocalyptic, but also Eucharistic significance. There is a direct analogy here with the Last Supper: there the Lord himself, being among the disciples in His flesh and blood, communed the disciples with the mystical Body and Blood, through the sharing of bread and wine in them. And now the Eucharistic Body and Blood are also taught through the breaking of bread and wine, but Christ’s own Blood and water remain in the world. More than that, of course, between the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the shed blood and water of Christ there is a certain identity, which is indicated in the symbolism of the proskomedia (see above). The substance of the world, which turned out to be worthy to receive the Blood and water of Christ, is also worthy of the mysterious transformation of its elements in the Eucharist. Particularly noteworthy here is the feature in the symbolism of the Eucharist that the wine for the Sacrament is dissolved with water (“holy union”), in commemoration of the Blood and water poured out from the side of Christ. Therefore, not just wine (the blood of the earth), but also water is transfused into the honest Blood of Christ. Of course, wine, like a liquid, in any case contains moisture. But in the “holy union” water enters both as a special Eucharistic element and as such, obviously, is offered (although this is not expressed in a special Eucharistic proclamation, because when blessing the Chalice it is simply said: “I take this cup, the most precious Blood of the Lord,” etc.). According to the symbolism of the proskomedia, the Eucharistic Blood is placed in direct parallel with the Calvary outpouring of the “blood and water” of Christ. Here, however, we have only allegorical symbolism. Much more significant and significant is that, according to the rite of the Orthodox Liturgy, hot water – “warmth” – is added to the Eucharistic Blood after the Transfiguration of the Holy Gifts, before Communion. How is this possible? How should we understand this mixing of the natural substance of water with the Blood of Christ? The allegorical interpretation, expressed in the words spoken at the same time, 235 does not yet answer the main question. It can only be found in the consideration that the water mixed with the Eucharistic Blood has already been sanctified, as a natural substance, by the outpouring of water from the side of the Savior. She became a participant in His water, and by the power of this participation she is allowed to mix with the honest Blood. And this same meaning of water is indicated by the proskomedia rite through the mixing of water with wine in a holy union. A similar consideration can be expressed not only regarding water, but also wine, to the extent that it is not directly a Eucharistic substance. Not only water in the form of warmth, but also wine is mixed with the Divine Eucharist, precisely at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, where the Lamb, drunk with Blood and, therefore, containing the venerable Blood, is lowered in a combination of water and wine (and this combination in itself is not considered as the Eucharist: if the priest serves alone, then, while receiving communion, he does not drink from the Chalice, according to the instructions of the missal, before consuming the Saints Gifts, so that the contents in the Chalice are equated to him as if “warmth”). Here there is a combination of the elements of wine and water - with the Eucharistic substance, which has its basis in the preliminary outpouring of Blood and water from the side of Christ into the natural world. This outpouring also has another Eucharistic meaning. The Eucharist is a Sacrifice, identical to Calvary, however, it is not its repetition and does not violate its one-time and simultaneous nature, although in it we have the multiple appearance of this Sacrifice for us (and in this sense, as it were, its repetition). In this uniqueness of its objective and plurality of its subjective for us, uniqueness and repeatability, lies a peculiar antinomy of Eucharistic theology, which sometimes becomes exhausted in its vain attempts to rationalize and sublate it. The relationship between the Sacrifice and the victims, Golgotha ​​and the altars is not temporal-local, but dynamic - it is based on the everywhere - and always - presence of Christ in each of the moments of His earthly life. The Calvary sacrifice, once brought in time and in a certain place, is always brought, for a given moment in time lives in eternity, has all its power, and therefore significance forever and ever. This is the basis for its symbolically-real repetition in time, as a remembrance: “Do this in remembrance of Me.” But this remembrance includes not only the transfiguration of the Holy Gifts with the sacrificial separation of the body and Blood (signifying the death of Christ) and their offering, but also the Calvary outpouring of Blood and water, which also, once accomplished, retains its power for eternity. And it is not Communion (corresponding to the Old Testament eating of sacrificial meat), but precisely the outpouring of sacrificial blood, which constitutes an essential moment in the Old Testament sacrifice. Specifically, regarding the sin offering, the law states: “...the anointed priest shall lay on the blood of the bull, and bring it into the tabernacle of the congregation, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall lay the blood (of the bull) before the Lord on the horns of the altar of incense, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation, and the rest of the blood of the bull shall pour out at the foot of the altar of burnt offerings, which is at the entrance of the tabernacle of the congregation” (Lev. 4:5-7, 16-18, 25, 30). This is also more solemnly performed on the day of atonement behind the veil, where the high priest enters with blood (Lev. 16:14–15; Exod. 30:10). And it is precisely this symbolism of representative sacrifices that the Epistle to the Hebrews explains in this way when applied to the atoning Sacrifice of Christ: “...Christ, the High Priest of good things to come... did not once enter into the sanctuary with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, and obtained eternal redemption” (Heb. 9:11-12). If the Eucharist as the Sacrament of Communion is a “memory” of the Last Supper, then, as a Sacrifice, it is a “memory” of Golgotha ​​and the sacrificial outpouring of Blood and water from the side of the Lamb. This is symbolized by the already noted place of the proskomedia, and in the symbolism of the Liturgy, the Eucharistic and Calvary Blood, differing in purpose (as Communion and Sacrifice), do not differ materially in the Holy Chalice, like the Blood of Christ. 236 The outpouring of Blood and water from the side of Christ gives in the symbolism of the Eucharist a special basis for its sacrificial meaning, strengthening it with a corresponding “memory”. By the force of this, the Eucharist becomes not only a commemorative repetition of the Last Supper, but also the Calvary action; the blood (and water) in the Holy Chalice is not only the Blood given for Communion by Christ at the Last Supper in the person of the apostles to all Christianity, but also the sacrificial blood of atonement (this duality in the legend of the Holy Grail is symbolized by the fact that the Chalice of the Last Supper, which ended up in the hands of Joseph Arimathea, also appeared as a vessel into which he received the honest blood that poured out from the wound). The idea that the sacrificial Blood of Christ, poured out of the rib along with water, belongs to this world of ours and abides in it, is further revealed in application not only to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, but also to the mystery of all human life, all of human history, to the “Liturgy” (common cause) church and extra-church, world. Blood and water, according to the above, are the humanity of the Lord Jesus, soul and body, separated from His indivisible human nature, but also inseparably abiding with Him. This is His humanity remaining on earth and being in unity with our humanity. This is the continuing life on earth of the Lord incarnate after His Ascension and despite it. This is Christ in His humanity, with His humanity. The disclosure of this thought must be preceded by one theological consideration. In church circles, the idea of ​​remembrance, of entering into the power of the events of Christ’s earthly life, is generally accepted. In this case, it is implied as a general premise that the events of the life of Christ, once accomplished, retain this power of their accomplishment in time, for the life of humanity. This is the idea underlying the realistic understanding of the Sacrament of the Eucharist as a “repetition”, more precisely, identification with the Last Supper and the Sacrifice of Calvary. The same idea underlies the realistic, perfect meaning of the feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, the “twelve.” We enter into the power of these events and their joy just as we enter into the sorrow of Holy Week and its power. Our divine services are not theatrical performances, devoid of the power of reality and containing only an ideal memory, no, they are accomplishments themselves for us. In them we are contemporaries of the earthly life of Christ; it enters into our own life. It happened not only for a limited circle of people who saw Him with carnal eyes, but it happens for all of Christ’s humanity in the Church (“blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” - John 20:29). But, strangely, this thought, which has a very definite dogmatic content, is not brought to full awareness. It is limited only to those fragmentary applications that are given to the so-called church year. It does not apply to the entire life of all humanity, although the Lord Himself explains it this way, for He testifies in the speech about the Last Judgment (Matthew 25) that He lives in every person and in all humanity. When He lived in the days of His earthly coming, only an insignificant part of the then world saw and knew Him, and neither Rome, nor Greece, nor the entire universe of that time even suspected His existence. And yet, they just did not know what was happening to them: for what happened in Palestine happened in them and for them, as well as for the whole world. The “darkened” sun and the “shaken” earth felt the event of Golgotha ​​and turned out to be more receptive than people, but this did not diminish the true power of the event. “The great master has died,” the human idols were crushed, the world became the kingdom of Christ, and the prince of this world was expelled from it, although he lingers in it for the time being. In the same way, we, who have not seen or known the Lord, are in no different position than these His contemporaries; in this sense, we are His contemporaries, our humanity with His time already belongs to His humanity. And this must be understood even about humanity before Christ, because it also participated in the redemptive power of the Incarnation. Theology sometimes perceives too one-sidedly the idea of ​​the Lord leaving the world in the Ascension, not heeding His words about being with us until the end of the world. It does not sufficiently realize in its constructions the idea that the humanity of Christ, as the new Adam, is pan-humanity, that is, the humanity of each of us and all of us together. The well-known saying “Homo sum et nihil humani a me alienum esse puto (I am a man and I think that nothing human is alien to me (lat.) - Ed.) )" must be understood not only in the sense of belonging to the old Adam - homo, but also to the new Adam - Christ, - not only to natural, but also to Christ’s humanity. The removal of Christ from the world in the Ascension, which refers to the glorification of His humanity but not its abolition, does not destroy the dynamic unity or connection of Christ with His humanity. Only by its power can it be said: “I live not for this, but Christ lives in me.” And therefore, we must take the next step in conclusion and say that even now Christ remains on earth in His humanity 237 at least on the same general basis as He remains in the celebration of the Church. Of course, this abiding is hidden, it is the mystery of God, inaccessible to people, but nevertheless already open and revealed to them. But Christians should better remember the words of the Lord with all their infinite realism: “Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me” (Matthew 25:40-45). Compare also Matthew 10:40; Luke 9:48, 10:16; John 13:20. For this sweet and stunning thought that the Lord always dwells on earth with His humanity, John 19:34, so solemnly attested to its truth by the evangelist as a particularly important and significant broadcast, provides a direct dogmatic basis. As explained above, the outpouring of Blood and water means, in a certain sense, the sharing of the humanity of Christ. It combines being on earth, in the Holy Grail - and the keeper of the Grail, or even the Grail itself, as the vessel of the Blood of Christ, is humanity itself - and passing through death, Resurrection, Ascension and sitting at the right hand of the Father. The outpouring of Blood and water is a clear, tangible evidence of Christ’s presence on earth in them - the non-cessation of His earthly path, but its continuation: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” This truth of Christ’s presence on earth, His inseparability from humanity, is a new testimony of God’s love for humanity. This love is revealed here as an ongoing Calvary, as Christ's compassion for humanity in his human Calvary. In the personal life of Christ all human life is integrated, and in His suffering all human suffering. The theological doctrine of atonement contains, among others, the idea that on the night of the Gethsemane struggle our Lord spiritually accepted, suffered and experienced all human sins and shared all human suffering with a free feat: “not Mine, but Thy will be done,” His sorrow was all-sorrow, His suffering was all-suffering. On Golgotha, He accepted this all-sorrow and all-suffering to the depths of abandonment by God in death as His destiny: “it is accomplished” (John 19:30). But if we understand the Last Supper and the death of Calvary as an abiding all-event, revealing its power to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, then can we also see in Gethsemane’s sorrow and Calvary’s suffering only a one-time event, separating it from all time and its course, and in it from our life? And of course, they are not exhausted by this temporality, but all-temporality belongs to them. If we worship the suffering Christ, then this veneration relates not to mere historical memory, similar to memories of events in the lives of individuals or nations, but to some supra-temporal reality. In the earthly life of the Lord there is no place for the displacement of one moment of time by another, which occurs in our human life, but they are all combined, and not a single one is abolished in the fullness of reality. And just as He remains, according to the testimony of the church song: “in the grave carnally, in hell with the soul like God, in paradise with the thief and on the throne with the Father and the Spirit,” similarly, being in Heaven in the Ascension, the Lord remains on earth in the Blood and water poured out from His rib. Our life also participates in His life in His humanity, our suffering in His suffering... The Calvary mystery continues invisibly in the world. This thought is terrible and stunning in its significance, but it is sweet and uplifting in its consolation. It truly puts us before the face of Christ, makes His presence not distant and abstract, but close and concrete. Christ took upon Himself the sin of the world and its sorrow, He responds to the suffering of people with His own suffering, He, God, thus pays for His work of creating the world for the sake of love for creation. God is with us! I dedicate this wondrous, this holy, this terrible and terrible, this saving thought to you, the suffering Russian people, because you are not alone in your suffering, Christ, who lives in you, suffers with you. Your Golgotha ​​is His Golgotha, with your blood His Blood is shed. This is the secret of your suffering, and the meaning, and justification, because human suffering is also the suffering of Christ. When human eyes are opened on the day of judgment, it will be clear that if such suffering and sorrow were allowed by God, then Christ accepted them to the full extent of His love for humanity, for the Russian suffering people, with His suffering and weeping Mother. And if the suffering of Christ is a saving passion, the path to glory and resurrection, then your suffering and your election as a sacrifice for sin and the mistakes of history are a saving passion, leading to glory. You are not alone in your sorrow, Christ is with you, and He speaks of Himself in suffering: “I am not alone, for the Father is with me” (John 16:32). This thought is the great and only consolation and justification for the fate of the Russian people. In the Blood and water poured out from the rib, this sorrow is quenched, these wounds are washed, light and life are poured out. This life of Christ in His humanity, the fulfillment of Calvary, is included in His work of redemption. God's love for man was accomplished not only in the Sacrifice of Calvary, but is also accomplished in His life with him, in His Way of the Cross. Christ abides in glory in Heaven, but also with us on earth. And His Calvary remains no less than His Nativity and glorious Resurrection. Nothing from the life of Christ became the past for humanity; Christ took upon Himself the burden of human sin and the torment of human sorrow not only as a whole, in the sorrow of Gethsemane and the suffering of Calvary, but also in all their differentiated composition, in the life of humanity. God's love for the world, Divine condescension towards it are not exhausted by a one-time and supra-temporal acceptance of its sorrow and sin, but are also revealed in a temporary process. The Incarnation made the God-man involved in all human life (of course, it is different for each individual person); all human life is embraced in His compassionate love. Of course, this should not be understood in the sense of sentimental-philanthropic or humanistic pity for any suffering, which, on the contrary, is the greatest benefit for man, but in the sense of compassion with humanity on its way of the cross to resurrection. “We bow to Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your Holy Resurrection.” The blood and water poured out from the rib and remaining in peace are the guarantee and power of this sojourn of Christ with His humanity, 238 signifying through it - in fulfillment of His own testimony in matters of the Last Judgment - that He Himself lives in suffering humanity. The Resurrection, in glory, the Ascension from the world and sitting at the right hand of the Father is combined with a stay in the world until the end of the age and with compassion for humanity also until the end of the age: “When all things are put in subjection to Him, then the Son himself will be subject to Him who put all things in subjection, so that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). But Blood and water, the human life of Christ, abides in His humanity not only as compassionate love, but also as the power of Christ with its effectiveness 239 in human history, being built in the visible “invisible Church” - the Holy Grail of human society. The power of Christ acts in the world through the power of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit reveals Christ living in humanity with grace. But the power of Christ abides in humanity naturally, immanently, by the very fact of the Incarnation, through His perception of human nature and being in the world of this humanity in the shed blood and water of Christ. If after the Coming of Christ into the world “the great master died” and all nature changed, having partaken of the humanity of Christ, then humanity itself changed, precisely in its naturalness. She received new forces, new impulses for the establishment of the Kingdom of God not only within us, but also in us, among us, ἐντόὸς ἡμῶν, and, moreover, all of humanity, both belonging and not belonging in consciousness (but somehow already belonging in re (in fact (lat.) - Ed.) to the Church. In humanity, the idea of ​​a universal achievement, a “common cause”, 240 “progress”, a city of God on earth, which is by no means in conflict with the idea of ​​​​Heavenly Jerusalem, lights up; on the contrary, there is an earthly “place” for it, a historical correlate for eschatology. This is the idea foretold by the prophets and announced by the Seer of the Mystics about the 1000-year reign of Christ on earth. There is no need to be embarrassed by the apparent naturalism of this idea, for it is inherent in the very teaching of the Incarnation, of Christ’s acceptance of human nature in general, of its healing and restoration. The fullness of the Incarnation includes its effectiveness in nature (as evidenced by the miracles of Christ and the reciprocal movements of the natural world: the Star of Bethlehem, the eclipse of the sun and darkness at the hour of the crucifixion, the earthquake, etc.). It is absolutely impossible to allow human nature as such to remain deaf and indifferent to the fact of its perception by the God-man. And if we unquestioningly accept this action of his in relation to all non-human nature in its demonism and paganism based on it (“idols cannot tolerate Your strength, fallen one”), then we must accept this in relation to human nature. The latter is healed by the Incarnation from the inside, organically, as if by its new creation, which will be revealed in its power and glory under the “new heaven” on the “new earth”. Blood and water from the side of Christ in the world are the bond of the world, its indestructibility. Pagan naturalism is false, opposing itself to Christianity and thereby becoming anti-Christian, but there is also Christian naturalism, which cannot be eliminated in Christianity itself. Its denial is already Manichaeism, seeping here and there in pseudo-Christian variants of asceticism. The demonic possession of nature (“the great master”) lost its power after the Incarnation of Christ, the spirits of wickedness in high places (Eph.6:12: ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις) - together with the “prince of the power of the air” (τοῦ ἀέρος: Eph.2:2) are expelled from nature and are limited to the outer region of the “heavenly places”, having access to nature only through man, through his deception. The “Antichrist” with his false signs is still a man, although deceived by Satan, hence the power of the “beast” over nature, but “his number is the number of a man” (Rev. 13:18). The human, natural power of man, his power over nature, which he receives in his history by the power of exorcism accomplished in the Incarnation, cannot be considered alien or even hostile to the Christian “impulse” in history, on the contrary, and this is the revelation by man of his humanity, which is also the human nature of Christ. Therefore, the “regulation of nature,” which Fedorov speaks of as a Christian “common cause,” is a matter, although in itself not yet grace-filled, but Christian. It belongs to the fullness of humanity, which is the humanity of Christ; this is already the power of the redemption that is taking place. Of course, it is perverted by human sinfulness, but when this latter is overcome by grace, then this regulation itself becomes a matter of grace, of the church, of the Christian community. The Holy Grail, Blood and water, received and preserved by nature and humanity in its bosom, although invisible and unknown, is the sacred ark of the New Testament, the pledge and banner, the sanctification of our human life, the fulfillment of our human history. It is no longer a barren and sad spectacle of the victory of darkness and the kingdom of the Antichrist, but is filled with tragic triumph, like the struggle of Christ’s humanity for this true humanity with the prince of this world, the spirits of evil in high places and the elements of sin living in created human nature. But this is not defeat, but victory, not the emptiness of failure, but the fullness of a common cause, earthly construction towards the Heavenly. Christ is the God-Man, but also the Man-God (ἀνδρωπο-θεός, as He was originally called in patristic writing). Earthly history is not decay (as it was slandered by false Christian Manichaeism), but creativity, the participation of our humanity, which is already Christ’s humanity, in the saving divine-human work. It, this creativity, is not an idyll, but a tragedy, because it is too serious, and difficult, and important, it is a spiritual struggle, but precisely because of this it is joy and triumph, - the triumph of humanity. And what is symbolically designated in the sacred books as the “Antichrist” (to the appearance of which the Manichaeans reduce the only content of human history) is only an episode of history, the greatest tension of this struggle, but by no means its completion, for this completion on earth is the “first resurrection” and the 1000-year reign of Christ with the saints. The subsequent revolt of Gog and Magog (Rev. 20), although quantitatively extensive, but spiritually powerless, is the last surge of the tragic wave of world history, which ends and is accomplished by the second, glorious Coming of Christ. And all Christian history is a preparation for the meeting of the Coming Christ, and the power and meaning of this preparation, as well as its limits, are revealed to us in the historical process itself, their awareness is the “common cause” of humanity. 242 The humanity of Christ was indivisibly divided on the Cross in the outpouring of Blood and water, which remained on earth as the shrine of the all-human Grail. But it will be reunited in the fullness of time, at the Second Coming of Christ, when the division of Heaven and earth will be abolished, when earth will become Heaven and Heaven earth, for Christ will live on it in His humanity. And then, according to the word of the prophecy cited precisely here by the Evangelist, “they will look upon the nan, his blood is broken” (John 19:37; Zech. 12:10). They will look - and in Him they will recognize themselves, and in themselves they will recognize Him, in their life, in their work, in the secret knowledge of the Holy Grail and serving it. And they will worship Him, who will be with them inseparably. “Both the Spirit and the Bride say: Come. And let him who hears say, Come. Hey, come, Lord Jesus!” ( Rev. 22:17–20 ). Printed according to "The Path"... No. 32. February 1932. P.3–42 – Note. edit However, in some manuscripts the text of John 19:34 is transferred to the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 27:49). Wed. A critical and exegetical commentary on the Gospel according to St. John by J.H. Bernard Edinburgh, 1928. V. IL P.646. By ἐκεῖνος, some commentators here mean Christ Himself. Consumed without a penis. Obviously, the writer meant to indicate the substance of blood and water rather than their identity. Here this feature is not decisive. Wed. also 1 John 5:6. Wed. our essay “Eucharistic Dogma”. "Path". 1930.1-II. Also not present, of course, was “His sweat, like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44), as well as His saliva, from which He created clay when healing a man born blind, and in general all those constituent elements of His body that He received from the world and returned to the world, according to the general law of metabolism. However, there is an essential difference between this metabolism in the act of life and the near-death outpouring of blood and water. This corresponds to the image of the “glass sea” (Rev. 15:1–2), on which those who defeated the beast and his image stand. However, if we insist that the Spirit in John 5:7 is certainly the Holy Spirit, then we can understand Him also as the performer of the Incarnation at the Annunciation: “The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High (Word – Author’s note) will overshadow You” (Luke 1:35). A common interpretation in both church and critical literature sees in water and blood the symbolism of two Sacraments - Baptism and Communion. But this interpretation, more allegorical, is in any case not exhaustive and does not capture the entire context. This is not contradicted by the fact that in John, water in a different context, regardless, means new spiritual power and new spiritual birth (John 3:5, 4:14, 7:38, cf. Rev. 2:1, 2:17). In relation to blood, water is an element of “earth”, the primary matter; in relation to spirit and in combination with it, water is a spirit-bearing, spiritualized substance, and here it is not its cosmic nature that is emphasized, but its spirit-bearing power: the consecration of water is also the consecration of the water element of the world, i.e. already the world itself (and it is remarkable that of all four elements: air, fire, earth and water, it is this last one that is sanctified, as having in a certain sense representative significance for the whole world). See Tennyson's poetic reworking of them - Kings idylls. See N. Tunitsky. Ancient legends about the miraculous appearances of the Child Christ in the Eucharist “Theological Bulletin” 1907. V.S.201–229. Wed. my article “Eucharistic Dogma”. "Path". I. P.30. Perhaps in this formulation of the question others will see hidden or obvious Nestorianism, dividing natures and isolating the human nature of Christ. But the teaching of Nestorius (which, however, generally now requires the most precise presentation and understanding) refers not to the duality of both natures in Christ, but to the duality of the hypostases, Divine and human, with their separation. The authenticity and, so to speak, ontological reality of Christ’s humanity against Eutychianism, which dissolved this reality in the Divinity of His nature, was established by the IV Ecumenical Council with its definition of the non-merger and immutability of both natures in Christ. This same idea is also suggested by some testimonies of the Apostle Paul, who sometimes speaks of his communication with the Lord as if there was no Ascension at all, see, in particular, 1 Cor. 15:5-8, where he lists: “And after all he appeared to me also, as to a certain monster” (Prof. S.S. Bezobrazov drew my attention to the special meaning of this text). The words sound similarly: “...I received from the Lord Himself what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus took bread on the night in which he was betrayed,” etc. (1 Cor. 11:23–25). The Apostle Paul writes here as an evangelist. This same antinomian thought is expressed in the kontakion of the Ascension: “Having fulfilled your watch over us, and having united us on earth with the heavenly, you ascended in glory, Christ our God, in no way departed, but remained persistent, and cried out to those who love Thee: I am with you, and no one is against you.” See my work “Icon and Icon Veneration.” YMCA-press: Paris, 1930. The antinomy of this inseparability-separability is clearly expressed in the words uttered by the priest during the fragmentation of the holy Lamb: “The Lamb of God is fragmented and divided, fragmented and indivisible, always poisonous and in no way dependent.” The outpouring of Blood and water from the side of Christ has hitherto not had a corresponding vision in Orthodox liturgy (except for a symbolic mention in the rite of proskomedia and passing references in connection with the Passion of Christ). Catholic rituale (rituality (Latin) - Ed.) has a special celebration on July 1: the feast of the precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (established on the occasion of the victory with the help of French troops in 1849 over the revolution, during which the pope was expelled from Rome). In special hymns the outpouring of Blood and water is sung, without any special dogmatic explanation, except for the general idea of ​​redemption in His Blood. The special celebration of the outpouring of the Blood and water of Christ into the world in Orthodox liturgics is most appropriate in conjunction with the worldwide exaltation of the Cross, when the Gospel is read specifically about this event, or even better, put it on the after-feast - September 15. However, the dogmatic meaning of this event should not be dissolved and absorbed by the Feast of the Cross, but it should be especially emphasized. “Blessed is the warmth of Your saints” and “fill the warmth of faith with the Holy Spirit.” The prayer of the Liturgy (before the epiclesis) clearly highlights this moment of “remembrance” of Golgotha ​​and the accomplishment of our salvation associated with it: “remembering this saving commandment (the establishment of the Eucharist - Author’s note) and everything that happened about us: the Cross, the tomb, the three-day Resurrection, the Ascension to heaven, the sitting on the right hand, the second and glorious coming again.” In the Latin Mass in the "offertorium" and in the "consecration", in particular in the prayer "Unde et memores". Therefore the poetic verse: All of you, dear land, quote In the form of a slave, the King of Heaven citatâcitata went forth therefore blessing, - can be understood as evidence of some reality, and not simply as poetic license, just as accurately as the full-fledged words of the clergy with which they greet each other at the liturgy: “Christ is in the midst of us,” - “And is and will be.” The question may be raised: how should we understand Christ’s relationship to humanity that lived before His incarnation, and is it not, as it were, deprived of the co-suffering love of Christ? This question can be answered within the meaning of the general teaching about the meaning of the atoning sacrifice for Old Testament humanity. The work of the New Adam extends to the whole of Adam the Old. Likewise, the compassionate love of Christ - in anticipation of the completed incarnation, but at the same time in its fulfillment, already accepted from the ages in the eternal plan of God (“the Lamb of God, slain before the creation of the world”) - accompanies him at all times of his existence, until the incarnation of Christ, as well as the last. Here (as in Eucharistic theology) we must remember that for God Himself there are no boundaries of time for His action, although set in time. “The Impulse of Christ” – Christus-Impuls, as the anthroposophists put it. This idea could serve as one of the foundations for Fedorov’s theology of the “common cause,” which is still missing. Isn’t the theology of Saint Athanasius different from similar naturalism with the doctrine of φάρμακον τῆς ἀθανασίας (the medicine of immortality (Greek) - Ed.). This thought constitutes the main pathos and wisdom of Fedorov’s philosophy: “Truly, truly, I say to you: he who believes in Me will do the works that I do, and will do greater works than these, because I go to My Father. And if you ask anything in My name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:12–13).