Teachings and words for the feasts of our Lord Jesus Christ. Issue VI

Let us continue in prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4) Lesson for the Week of the Holy Forefathers Now put aside everything: anger, rage, malice, slander, and foul language of your lips; do not tell lies to one another ( Col. 3:8 ). Let us now, my brethren, according to the guidance of St. Apostle Paul, for our spiritual benefit, about avoiding the now indicated vices that prevail in us. The Apostle fatherly exhorts the newly enlightened pagan Christians, residents of the city of Colossae, to put aside (that is, to reject from themselves, to completely throw away, just as we throw away dirty and stinking clothes): anger, rage, malice, slander, foul language of the mouth, lies, and first of all, He commands to mortify the earthly members, that is, passions that have become, according to long-term habit, as if natural members: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust, or anger and covetousness, which is idolatry; for, he says, for their sake the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience (Col. 3:6). So let's talk about how to avoid anger, rage, malice, slander, foul language, and lies. Whose passions are generated in us? The spirit of malice, and a person carried away by these passions and working with them, is the pitiful play of the devil. A Christian is obliged to dominate these deadly passions, not to succumb to them, and to uproot them from his soul. That is why we became Christians and members of the Holy Church, to fight passions and defeat them. What would our Christianity be, its saving, renewing, perfecting power for man, if we had not curbed anger, rage and desecrated our soul and mouth with lies, slander and foul language, or body and soul with lusts and corruption, being carried away either ourselves or also by attracting others? If we paid for anger with anger, for rage with rage, for slander with slander, we would be real pagans, bearing only the name of Christian without meaning or strength, even worse than pagans, who sometimes curb anger through reason and the strong character of the will. But we must respond to the anger of our neighbors with meekness and gentleness, without getting angry or irritated; to anger - with a kind and heartfelt prayer, may the Lord soften the heart of our enemies and correct them with His grace; in case of mistakes and malfunctions of your neighbors, be forgiving, patient and long-bearing with them. After all, evil, anger, rage are illness and free madness of the soul, its ignition with hellish fire, is, as I said, the product of the chief of evil - the devil. We must strictly condemn ourselves for the angry movements of our hearts or for the evil and unclean thoughts and desires that arise in us, and not at all give them a place or outcome in ourselves, suppressing and killing them at the very beginning. We must also love our enemies, for this is what the Lord commanded: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you (Matthew 5:44), and He Himself was the first to fulfill His words; for being slandered, He did not slander each other; while He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed it to the righteous (1 Pet. 2:23). The faith of a Christian should turn wolves into gentle lambs, or brutal morals into meek ones, unclean ones into immaculate and pure ones. How will we prove obedience, faith and love for our Savior, who redeemed us with His suffering and death and gave us all the strength for holiness and pious living, loyalty and devotion to Him, His teaching, and true, unfeigned love for our neighbor, if we do not extinguish passions and do not get carried away by them? How can we deny ourselves, according to the teaching of Christ, if we do not deny every passion from our hearts? They offend you, scold you innocently, hate you without any good reason on your part; God be with them! You pray for them, saying: God! let them go, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34), enlighten the eyes of the heart, blinded by the primordial enemy; they do not know my sincere, good intentions, my extreme needs. But what inner triumph, what joy there is in the soul when we overcome evil, sin in ourselves and in others, by the grace of God, patience, prayer, kindness, or extreme struggle against internal and external evil and temptation! Then the Christian becomes a winner, and the angels invisibly rejoice with him, as a Christian hero and martyr. But let’s take the opposite case as an example: what if you cannot bear the insult, error, severity, disobedience or malice of your neighbor and you will respond with insult for insult, evil for evil, or succumb to a tempting thought? There will be a quarrel, confusion, enmity or a frantic flame of passion that devours the soul, the fire will engulf both sides, or you alone, and the consequence of this will be moral devastation of souls, deprivation of grace, torment of conscience, sorrow, oppression, heart wounds. It hurts, you say, for your pride to endure insults from others. But it’s good for the soul; Through grief she is being treated for the disease of self-love. And it is painful to endure insults as long as the soul suffers from pride and pride, and when it is healed of these ailments, then insults and curses will be like infantile arrows. I dwelled on the sins indicated by the Apostle because they strongly dominate among us, especially slander or curses and foul language among common people and among the so-called lower ranks. It’s a shame to hear the rotten words of our common people and these lower ranks; and an educated or generally modest woman or girl, although do not walk along some streets at all, due to the extreme offensiveness to the ears of peasants or soldiers. These ignoramuses brazenly and impudently swear by their birth, the very thing that should be most revered for us, that which should be revered, and that out of reverence we should always honor and sanctify with the secret of silence. So, my lost brethren, from now on completely stop swearing, and since this most often happens to drunk people, then stop drinking and becoming like dumb beasts; since neither drunkards nor troublemakers will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), and endless, joyless torment, prepared from God’s justice, undoubtedly awaits them. But why else does a Christian need to throw away: anger, rage, malice, slander, foul language, lies, and to this fornication, uncleanness and covetousness? Because, answers St. Ap. Paul, that you have put off, that is, in baptism and repentance, the old man with his deeds, that is, iniquities, passions, vices, and have put on the new, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created him (Col. 3:9,10). And so here is one last reason: in baptism we threw off this stinking, vile robe of the soul woven from the devil, and put on the pure, bright robe of the truth of God. How will we dress in shameful clothes again? And so, it is necessary for us to put aside rage, anger, malice, swearing, foul language because they are the product of the devil, deprive a person of the grace of God, combine a person with the enemy of God, make him a playground for demons, disgrace and torment a person, do not bring any benefit, and cause an abyss of harm, destroy mutual peace and love and good relationships. Further, it is necessary to leave them for the sake of our Christian calling, for the sake of the fact that we have put off the old man in baptism and become children of God and members of Christ, members of each other, and together one body, and must live in love, adorned with goodness, meekness and humility; Meanwhile, with these passions we disgrace our Christian calling, we bring reproach on our most holy and all-saving faith from the Gentiles, and through us the name of God is blasphemed. Let us, with God's help, beware of these outrages. Amen. Homily for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers A certain man created a great supper, and called many, and sent his servant at the hour of the supper, saying to those who were invited, Come, for the whole essence is already ready. And we began to deny everything together. (Luke 14:16–18). Today, my brothers, the Gospel parable was read about a very rich and hospitable man who hosted a magnificent evening or dinner and invited many to it. Only, despite the kindness and hospitality of this dinner host and the richness of the dinner itself, those invited, as if by agreement, all began to refuse for various, however, very disrespectful reasons. One responded by saying that he had bought land and was going to see it; another that he bought five pairs of oxen and goes to test them; the third, that he got married and therefore cannot come. This parable or, as it were, a riddle needs to be solved. That's what it means. The rich and hospitable man who gave the feast is the Lord God; a big dinner or feast is eternal bliss in heaven; those invited or invited to a feast are you and me; the slave sent with an invitation to the feast is not a simple slave, but the Son of God Himself, who took on the form of a slave, that is, incarnated and became a man for our sake, the Son of God. Oh, what an honor for those invited! – You will exclaim involuntarily. The Only Begotten Son of God himself invites us to the great supper of the kingdom of heaven; but those invited refused on various pretexts. Don't you notice that the parable is aimed squarely at many of us, if not all of us? Let's explain. Here we are now standing in the church, everyone was listening to mass. Mass is a sample of the future supper and is itself a great supper, for the Lord offers us His most pure, life-giving body and His most pure, life-giving blood as food and drink under the image of bread and wine. I alone, and then more out of the duty of priestly service, dined with the Lord, and all the others present here did not approach God’s supper; but let us assume that this was done out of consciousness of unworthiness. But very, very many do not come to mass, even to participate in the Divine Supper with their eyes, ears and spirit; and they don’t come very often because of empty reasons: some because of negligence and laziness, some because of some worldly pursuits or vanity, but all in general because of some kind of frivolity, because of some very superficial, easy and careless attitude towards our most important work on earth - the matter of our spiritual education and salvation, and due to various earthly attachments and sinful habits, in a word: they tie themselves hand and foot. feet and do not want to come to the church - to this kingdom of God on earth - to this wondrous, all-saving, all-life-giving, all-joyful supper of God, at which the Son of God offers us such wonderful meat and drink - His own life-giving body and His own life-giving blood - this is the sacrament of rebirth and immortality. The Kingdom of God has approached us, descended from the heights of heaven, entered our churches, our very homes, so that no one can say: who will ascend to heaven to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss to raise Christ from the dead (Rom. 10:6,7)? for Christ is both in our mouths and in our hearts, especially when we partake of His Holy Mysteries: so what? – And the very proximity of the kingdom of Christ does not convince us to take two or three steps to come to the call of the Church to the Holy Liturgy. – If we do not appreciate such great gifts of God, offered to us with such love, with such condescension here on earth, in these churches and in these homes, and do not want to get a taste of them, then how can we prepare ourselves for the inheritance of eternal ineffable blessings, the firstfruits of which the Lord offers us here as a guarantee and assurance of the future? What should we do in heaven when we do not find the sweetness and consolation of being in the church, listening to the word of God, or participating in the Supper of the Lamb? Think: to what degree of dullness we have reached in our sins, how they have darkened us, bound us, killed us, depriving us of spiritual understanding, spiritual taste and spiritual freedom; We, as it were, convulsively, involuntarily, out of habit, extend our eyes, our ears, our lips, our arms, our legs, and all our feelings only to earthly things, to earthly goods, and turn away from heavenly goods; whereas those deceive us only for a moment, but these are eternal and truly life-giving. What, brothers, do we need? Faith and spiritual meaning or understanding, insight into the essence of the matter and, most importantly, repentance: for we were blinded and drowned out and overpowered by our sins. Repent, says the Lord, the Kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15), and go quickly, all of you, to the supper of God, to the supper at which the meal of immortality is offered, the meal of unspeakable sweetness. Amen. Word of the week Holy Forefather Come, for the whole essence is already ready (Luke 14:17). The current Sunday is called in the church order the week of the Holy Forefathers, because the Holy Church, before the approaching feast of the Nativity of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, finds it fair to honor the memory of His Forefathers according to the flesh: Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and others; The Sunday following this is called the week of the Holy Fathers, that is, those closest in time to Jesus Christ in the flesh (and mainly the Holy Fathers Joachim and Anna). Today the Church is supposed to read the Gospel about those called to the supper, because Jesus Christ, whose coming in the form of a slave to earth or His birth we will soon celebrate, is that servant sent from God according to humanity, who continually invites us to the great supper. By the great supper we mean the future blessed kingdom, which very many Saints have already been rewarded with; it is called supper or supper because it will come at the end of this short and changeable age; great because the bliss will be indescribably great; and by those called to this supper we must mean, brothers, Christians, because all of us, from the time the sacrament of baptism was performed on us, have been written in the book of life, from which, however, we can very soon be erased if our deeds are inconsistent with our calling. But let us tell this formidable and instructive parable in the words of the Gospel. “One man made a big dinner and invited many. And when the time for dinner came, he sent his servant to say to those invited: go, for everything is already ready. And everyone, as if by agreement, began to apologize. The first one said to him: I bought land and I need to go look at it, please forgive me. Another said: I bought five pairs of oxen and am going to test them, please forgive me. The third said: I got married, and therefore I cannot come. And when he returned, that servant reported this to his master. Then, angry, the owner of the house said to his servant: go quickly through the streets and alleys of the city and bring here the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. And the servant said: It has been done as you ordered, and there is still room. The master said to the servant: Go out along the roads and hedges and persuade them to come, so that my house may be filled, for I tell you that none of those who are invited will taste my supper. For many are called, but few are chosen” (Luke 14:16–24). Here is a terrible parable about those called to the supper, about the many called and the few chosen. The man who established the supper is of course God the Father, and the sent servant is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who took on the form of a servant. The apologies of those called mean various excuses from fulfilling the commandments of Christ due to various worldly addictions. The city beggars are simple people who, in their simplicity, are more capable of listening to and following the Gospel. The people whom the master sent to search along the roads and hedges are those joining the Church from pagans and various tribes and faiths. The meaning of the parable is that God calls everyone to His heavenly kingdom: but very many will lose it for their addiction to worldly goods, for their unbelief, for their lawless and unrepentant life. Now let’s apply this parable to ourselves. Do not very many of us refuse the supper of the kingdom of heaven, one way or another, under various pretexts, not in words, but in deeds? The image of the visible kingdom of God on earth is the Church of God and worship in the church of God with its Sacraments. Don’t many Christians leave the churches of God and the service of God, some because of various everyday vanities, some simply out of laziness, some out of lack of faith and free-thinking, some due to various passions, for example, for the theater, for gambling, for feasts and fun, and so on and so forth? And in fact, among Christians, even in our God-protected city, there are so many who justify the words of the Gospel now read; and they respond to the Lord’s call to the Great Supper with action: I can’t come, I ask You, forgive me, and even, as if in opposition to the Lord Himself, who invites His servants to the Great Supper, they invite, and even in print, Christians and, moreover, during fasting, to a worldly, vain supper, for example, to horse races. Where is there even a shadow of reverence for His saving institutions on earth? Where is the respect for church statutes? – What do the preparations for the great Christian holiday and these spectacles have in common? But let's leave them. Let's turn to ourselves again. Don’t you and I sometimes all, one way or another, refuse the Great Supper? Are we not resisting the Lord, who calls us into His kingdom to enjoy spiritual, eternal, perfect blessings? Oh, how often we resist the Lord, who thirsts for our salvation! Which of us keeps His commandments perfectly? Who keeps himself carefully from all sin? Who tries to practice every Christian virtue, or who is a Christian, although he practices primarily and diligently in one virtue? We all slumber and sleep spiritually. When will we wake up? Then, when a voice is heard: Behold the bridegroom is coming! Go out to meet him (Matthew 25:6). Let us arise, let us arise, my brothers and sisters, from the heavy sleep of sin and let us be awake, sober, constantly testing our faith and our deeds: is faith in Christ alive in us, or has it not died long ago? Are our deeds good, meaningful, Christian? Can we give a good answer to them at the judgment of Christ? Let us especially beware of being partial to worldly, so-called goods: for addiction to them extinguishes the lamps of our souls, cools our hearts towards God and neighbor, and is the cause of many sins. So, be careful: soon the Messenger of the Heavenly Father, His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, will come to us from heaven to earth, in the form of a slave, in the shrouds of the poor. Why will he come? Invite us to the great supper prepared by the Heavenly Father in His kingdom. Do not be ashamed of His wretched shrouds, and when He invites you, leave for the sake of His kingdom your addiction to wealth, to luxury, to worldly amusements; Don’t someone say: excuse me, I don’t want to listen to You, I don’t want to leave my addiction, I don’t want Your poverty, I don’t want to be merciful, I want to live in luxury, I want to grow rich in myself; for this will mean renouncing God, eternal bliss and showing daring resistance to God. And so soon the servant sent from God after his incarnation will come to us, the Son of God, to invite us to God’s supper: go: everything is ready. Let us then answer Him in word and deed: let us go, Lord, let us go. Our hearts are ready! Amen. He (Jesus Christ) is our peace (Eph. 2:14). A great holiday is approaching for all Christians - the feast of the Nativity of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ from the most pure, brideless Virgin Mary; the holiday of the greatest, wondrous and all-saving event, many times predicted by the prophets, destined in various images and likenesses for the people of the Old Testament. Soon the Holy Church with the Angels will sing: glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14). But where, someone will ask, are the blessings of God’s peace, heavenly silence on earth, when wars have not stopped on it from the beginning until now, when the earth has so often been and is now a terrible disgrace of slaughter and bloodshed; when human passions, both during war and in peacetime, continually produce storms and turmoil both in the masses and in individual human individuals? Where are the blessings of the heavenly world, brought to earth by the incarnate Only Begotten Son of the beginningless Father, by the quiet Light of His holy glory? – Angels undoubtedly proclaim the truth. Peace has been brought and given to the earth; but since this heavenly, holy, priceless treasure requires a reliable guardian, preserver and distributor, so that people, in the outbursts of their passions, do not drive it out again from the earth: then the King of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, left the world to His Church, or to the comfortable, grace-filled society of those who believe in Him, especially to the faithful shepherds of His flock, and He instructed the Church through them to give saving peace to all who seek it. What is the peace brought by Jesus Christ to earth? The fact that God, through His only begotten Son, was reconciled with people; that the indestructible barrier between Him and lawless people has been destroyed, the curse has been destroyed, the sinful handwriting has been torn to pieces, death has been struck on the head; Saving grace has been given to everyone who wants it, all divine powers have been given for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:2,3); free access to God was opened to everyone, the full opportunity was opened to everyone to receive the forgiveness of sins, to become saints and, among all the storms and worries of the sinful world, to be calm. Come to Me, all who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28), that is, come to Me by faith and repentance, all who are weary and burdened with sins: and I will remove the burden of sin from you, I will drive away the storm of passions, I will turn the storm into silence; and you will know by your experience that I brought peace to earth to all who desire and seek peace - under the condition of faith in Me and unfeigned repentance. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:30). And so the peace brought to earth by Jesus Christ and sung by the heavenly angels is contained and preserved on earth in the grace-filled kingdom of Christ or in the Church of God; here all sincere believers and sincerely repentant sinners can draw it in abundance. Don’t you hear how often the Church, in the person of the clergyman, teaches peace to all those who are present, who, in turn, send the good wishes of the world to himself? Oh, how blessed and sweet is the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ given to the Church and all the faithful! Truly, a soul that has been rewarded with the peace of God experiences heavenly bliss in communion with God. And who among us would not desire this world? After all, sins and passions rage disastrously in the souls of sinners, tormenting, oppressing, scorching, tearing apart, so to speak, the poor soul. Come, sinners like me, to Christ the Savior with faith and unfeigned repentance, and He will give you peace. I have repeatedly been subjected to a destructive, deadly rebellion of passions: and each time, in countless cases, I received from the Lord quick deliverance and freedom from the spiritual storm and blessed heavenly peace. This is the kind of peace the incarnate Son of God brought to earth. The sinful world does not know and does not seek this peace, which is the forerunner of eternal peace in heaven. The people of this world know the earthly world, the charming, momentary world - a world that comes from the success of self-interest and acquisitions, from the success of self-love, ambition, carnality and voluptuousness; peace that comes from the charm of spectacles, from the satisfaction of feelings of revenge, etc., etc. This is not God’s world, but a carnal, sinful, devilish world. This is not the kind of peace the Son of God brought to earth. That is why He Himself says: peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives, I give to you (John 14:27), that is, I do not give you the peace that the world that lies in evil gives (1 John 5:19). And so that we can all joyfully and sincerely sing soon with the Angels: glory to God in the highest and peace on earth, let us be reconciled with God, with our conscience, with people in unfeigned repentance; then we will cheerfully glorify the blessings of the world of God, just like the Angels themselves who possess this peace. Amen. Lesson for the week before Christmas The book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). Today the Holy Church celebrates its week-long holiday - the Resurrection of Christ and together celebrates the Nativity of Christ; therefore, during the all-night vigil the Gospel about the Resurrection of Christ was read, and during the Liturgy - about the ancestors of Jesus Christ according to humanity. The liturgical Gospel begins with the words: the book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham. Let us dwell on these words and make them the subject of a real word. What are they telling us? The fact that the Son of God is the only begotten, consubstantial, co-eternal with God the Father, all-good, omnipotent, the hypostatic Wisdom of God, who created the world and everything in the world, the Almighty Himself, containing all visible and invisible creation, - having assumed human nature, entered into kinship with people, created by Himself in His own image and likeness, but who sinned in an impudent manner disobedience and extremely corrupted due to countless crimes; The Son of God became the son of man, that is, a man similar to us in everything except sin, without ceasing to be God without beginning and omnipotent; the full - exhausted Himself, the rich - became poor, the inviolable being - became touchable to us for the sake of our salvation. What kindness! What mercy, what extreme condescension! What voluntary impoverishment! Having accepted our nature, impoverished by sins, He is born in poverty, from a poor, albeit royal family, and a most pure Virgin, in a wretched den! Human! Awaken from your sinful slumber and think about what it means to see God’s wondrous looking at you, this wondrous exhaustion of the Son of God for your sake, and respond to the loving voice of God. What is he saying? He says: I came to seek and save you, a lost (Matthew 18:11) sinner. Repent, correct the ways of your heart, correct all your behavior, be renewed, put aside the oldness of sin, love righteousness and hate iniquity: for only those who fulfill His commandments are akin to the Son of God. Just call on Me with all your heart, and I will help you in everything; in My Church I have laid down all the means for your salvation; use them with all care and you will be saved comfortably. Book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham. Jesus Christ in the flesh came from Abraham and David. What great ancestors! What venerable names! Abraham was a friend of God, to whom promises were given from God that the Savior of the world would be born from his seed (Gen. 22:18); from Him the Lord made nations according to the promise, like the sand of the sea and like the stars in the sky, so numberless (Heb. 11:12). David was the King of Israel, a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), meek and gentle, who also had a promise of the birth of the Savior of the world from his descendants. And so the Lord fulfilled His promise: the Son of God was truly born according to humanity from the tribe of Abraham and David. You, children of Abraham by faith and children of God by the grace of Christ, try to imitate the great ancestors, the forefathers of Jesus Christ. Abraham - in faith, simplicity, hospitality, obedience to God and cutting off one’s will from all worldly attachments, in hospitality, friendship, constancy in faith, hope and love, in patience and long-suffering. David also in faith, hope, meekness, gentleness, in repentance, in fervor of love, in prayer, praise, thanksgiving and in patience in sorrows and troubles. Book of the kinship of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. - Hearing about the kinship of the Lord in the flesh and in the spirit with Abraham and David and with the other forefathers, among whom there were not sinless people, remember brother, remember sister, that the Lord entered into a close relationship with you: He became not only our God and Savior, but our brother in humanity, for it is said: He is not ashamed to call them to the brethren (Heb. 2:11). He became ours of the same blood and body, so that we are His soul, from His flesh and from His bones (Eph. 5:30) and when we are alienated from Him by our sins, He again invites us to restore unity with Him, calling us to repentance and those who repent sincerely, again accepting us into spiritual communion with Himself, communicating to us His Holy Spirit, for Him we cry out to God, Abba Father ! (Rom.8:15) He renews his union with repentant sinners in an indescribably loving manner, giving us His flesh and blood to eat and proclaiming with immeasurable meekness and love: take, eat, this is My Body (Matt. 26:26); and: drink of it, all of you: this is My Blood of the New Testament (Matthew 26:27,28). What condescension, what salvation, what an honor to eat the Most Pure Body of the Lord Jesus Christ and drink His Most Pure Blood! This is the highest honor! This is a marvelous salvation! For every time he who sincerely receives communion, being dead in spirit, is quickened, freed from sins, sanctified by the Holy Spirit and deified with glorious deification. Remember, Christian man, your relationship with the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation, and try in every possible way to hold yourself worthy of your calling, flee sin in all its forms, resist all sin, as a faithful warrior of Christ, be zealous for holiness in all your life, as it is said: be holy in all your life (1 Pet. 1:15,16). He who sins and does not repent with all his heart is related to the devil, a murderer. The Holy Forerunner of Christ John called such people brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7), and the Lord Jesus Christ said about the Jews: you are of your father the devil, and you want to do the lusts of your father (John 8:44). May God deliver us all from such a terrible relationship with sin and its culprit. And so, no matter how many times you sin, immediately repent in secret before God, break your alliance with the devil and restore your alliance with God at certain times before your spiritual father. Amen. She will give birth to a son, and you will call his name Jesus: for he will save his people from their sin (Matthew 1:21). The world-saving feast of the nativity in the flesh of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is approaching, beloved brethren. The Holy Church has been celebrating this wondrous sacrament for several days now in Her daily services and in spiritual songs. In them, the Church reminds us of our birth from God, of the loss of sonship through sins; about his return through repentance about our mutual spiritual kinship and about the spirit of love and mutual assistance. But, so that we do not celebrate this great holiday of God’s boundless love for us and God’s extreme condescension only according to the carnal, but rather to celebrate spiritually, let’s talk a little about why God became man, remaining God, and what does God’s incarnation require of us? Having posed these two questions, I answer the first of them, in accordance with the words of the Archangel to Joseph the betrothed of the Blessed Virgin: for this purpose God became man in order to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). That is why He is called Jesus, which means Savior. So, for our salvation, the Lord came down to earth and became man to restore the fallen image of God in us. The Son of God became the Son of man in order to make us sons of God from the children of wrath and eternal destruction, as St. Apostle says. John the Theologian, that we may be called children of God (1 John 3:1); man is God and Adam makes God 1. Oh, the ineffable love of God! - Oh, the unspeakable bounties of the Lord! And He, the most good One, did this: He deified humanity in His chosen ones, cleansed them from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, sanctified them, glorified them, raised them from corruption to eternal life, and honored them with a blessed presence before the terrible throne of His glory. He deified you and me, brothers; He regenerated us with water and the Holy Spirit, sanctified us, adopted us as sons, gave us the promise of eternal life and eternal blessings, surpassing all description, all imagination - and as an assurance, as a pledge of future blessings, He gave us here, in our hearts, the Holy Spirit: He sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts crying out, Abba the Father (Gal. 4:6), says the Apostle, - He feeds us with His flesh and blood, this pledge immortality, for the Lord says: He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day (John 6:54). And so, my brethren, the feast of the Nativity of Christ reminds us of our birth from God, of our adoption to God, of our deliverance from sin and the promise to live for God, and not for sin, not for flesh and blood only, not for the world that lies in evil (1 John 5:19), not for the corruption here, but for the incorruptible inheritance of heaven (1 Peter 1:4). And so you, who are preparing to celebrate the Nativity of Christ, ask yourself: is that spiritual birth from God, which we all received in baptism, intact in you, do you always value adoption to God, the shrine of the Spirit, accepted by you in baptism, have you approached God with faith and love, like His beloved children, have you loved each other, as the children of God should, have you hated all-ugly sin, all-evil, all-destroying—have you loved truth and all virtue? – Have you loved the incorruptible, eternal life prepared in the land of incorruption, to which He who has now come to our corruptible land is calling us all? These are the questions that we must pose to ourselves now and resolve not only with our minds, but especially with our hearts and deeds. – And in general, we should not allow ourselves to celebrate or celebrate any Christian holiday without deep reflection about what its essence is and what its purpose is, and what our duty to it is, that is, we must know the Christian meaning of every holiday. And then every holiday will be soul-saving for us. Otherwise, the enemy of our salvation will rob us and turn the holiday of God into a holiday of flesh and blood, into a holiday of lawlessness, as often happens. Having resolved the first question: why did God become man, we came to the solution of the second: what does the incarnation of the Son of God require of us? It requires us to remember and sacredly honor our own birth from God, and, if it is defiled and suppressed by our sins, to restore it through the tearful bath of repentance; so that they restore and renew the fallen image of God in us or the broken union of grace, truth and holiness with God. The incarnation of the Son of God requires from us especially mutual love, humility, mutual help and mutual services: for how can we not love each other, seeing such love from God for us? How can one not humble oneself, seeing such humility, such humiliation, free for our sake, of the Son of God? How can we not serve one another in every way, when the Son of God Himself came to serve us and give His soul as a redemption for many? (Matthew 20:28) Let us, brothers, prepare gifts for the newborn King, like the Magi, and instead of gold, frankincense and myrrh, we will bring Him faith, hope and love. Amen. Give birth to a son and call his name Jesus: for He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Thus, in a wonderful dream, the Angel of the Lord announced to Joseph, the imaginary father of the wonderful Child, the Eternal God Jesus Christ: “Do not be afraid,” he said, “to accept Mary, your wife, that is, betrothed to you only for safekeeping; for that which is born in Her is of the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you will call His name Jesus: for He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:20,21). The power lies in the fact that the righteous elder Joseph, not knowing the divine secret of the Ever-Virgin, conception from the Holy Spirit, thought about Her unworthily, considering Her to have been robbed of marriage and intended to release Her from Himself secretly in order to avoid criticism. But, as soon as He thought this, the Guardian Angel of St. The Virgin, appearing to Him in a dream, brought Him out of bewilderment, dispelled His doubts regarding the purity and immaculateness of the Most Pure and Immaculate One, declaring that the fruit conceived by Her was from the Spirit Himself - God, the Creator, the life-giving and sanctifying of all, and that He who was born of Her, as sinless and all-holy, had already sanctified His Mother with the Spirit for ever and ever. Saint, making Her more honorable than the Cherubim and more glorious than the Seraphim without comparison, as having surpassed them in purity, and will save those who believe in Him from their sins. The thoughts that overwhelmed Joseph’s soul were driven away. He was confirmed unshakably in the faith of a wondrous birth and received a wonderful Mother and Virgin; She gave birth to a firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus, as was foretold by the angel. As a sinner, I greet sinners like me with the wonderful gospel of the Savior and the coming of the Savior into the world. What joy could be more pleasant than the joy of the Savior - we are often overcome with sadness and sorrow for our sins, which give birth to death, for the patterns of sin are death (Rom. 6:23). Having received from the Creator the greatest gift of life, we all want to live, and live not only in time, but in eternity; but this is eternal life, so that we may know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent; for He is the true God and the eternal life. Life has appeared, says the Holy Apostle John the Theologian, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you this eternal Life, which was with the father and appeared to us (1 John 1:2). I want to talk to you, beloved brothers, about the name Jesus, about its meaning and power, and about what kind of sinners He came to save. The name Jesus means Savior. This name was given to Jesus Christ because He came into the world to save sinners - that He has the power and strength to save from sins all who believe and repent in Him and bring them into the kingdom of heaven, into eternal life. There is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved (Acts 4:12), says the Holy Apostle, except the name of Jesus Christ. For He alone is the Lamb of God, who, by the will of God the Father, took upon Himself the sins of the world, suffered and died for us in order to deliver us from eternal torment, destroyed the all-evil hell, brought eternal prisoners to the eternal light, rose from the dead and corrected death, gave us resurrection and eternal life, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God and the Father and again coming with glory to judge the living and the dead. And so, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, He is the Doctor of those suffering from passions and iniquities, mental and physical ailments; - but He came to save sinners who repent and who diligently desire correction and renewal; humble sinners, crying over their sins, zealous for meekness and gentleness, hungry and thirsty for the truth of God or justification in Christ; those who strive in mercy towards their neighbors in order to obtain for themselves, by faith in Christ, great and rich mercy both here and at the Last Judgment - striving to acquire purity of heart through constant self-examination, repentance, and tears of tenderness; those who take care of peace with their conscience, with God and their neighbors; zealous for the truth and ready for all kinds of suffering for the sake of Christ. Christ came to save such people and will save them. But for the unfaithful and unrepentant, the proud, the crafty, the evil, those who live in uncleanness, the intemperate, the deceitful, the perjurers, the unmerciful and the hard-hearted, He came to judgment. I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see will be blind (John 9:39). Let us all hasten to repent, so that we may be saved. The Lord Jesus Christ is ready at all times to save repentant sinners – and he does. Amen. In this Gospel we read the genealogy of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. A wondrous miracle, a wondrous sight of God’s goodness over the fallen human race! The only begotten Son of the heavenly Father, omnipotent, co-originating, Creator of the world, source of light, wisdom, self-good, infinite, enters into kinship with the human race, the Son of God becomes the son of man, the brother of men, the brother - I will say closer - yours, mine. Oh goodness, oh generosity, oh immeasurable condescension! Oh, free impoverishment! What fruits from such a relationship of the Son of God with us are for us, what qualities, what deeds does such a high, noble relationship of ours with God require from us? Let's talk about this now. – We, my brothers, are called Christians, that is, children of Christ, members of His most holy body, as the Apostle says: You are His body, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. 5:30), members of His Church. Don't you see that we are adopted into the closest kinship with the Son of God, through His incarnation. But if in the world those who are noble, or noble by blood, want to have noble relatives and do not want their relatives to dishonor their nobility with some immoral actions, although it is only external, temporary, from this world; then tell me, what kind of nobility in thoughts, feelings, desires, intentions, in words, in actions does the only begotten Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), a perfect Participant of the Father’s shrine, infinite holiness, require from us? Yes, brethren, our relationship with the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, requires from us great nobility and good behavior in life; It won’t be too much if I say that Christians should live on earth like angels in the flesh - and that’s why virginity in the Christian world is of high importance. But purity and chastity are not the only virtue required of us by kinship with the Son of God. Simpleness of heart is required of us: if your eye, that is, your heart, is simple, your whole body will be bright (Matthew 6:22), i.e. all life; kindness of heart, humility, kindness are required, as the Savior said: learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matthew 11:29); mercy towards others is required, as He said: be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful (Luke 6:36); abstinence is required: take heed to yourselves, says Jesus Christ, lest your hearts be burdened with gluttony and drunkenness (Luke 21:34); What is required is impartiality towards earthly goods: food, drink, clothing, the glory of this world: do not worry about your soul, what you eat or what you drink, nor about your body, what you put on, for the soul is greater than food, and the body is clothing (Matthew 6:25); seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this will be added to you (Matthew 6:33); patience is required: in your patience gain your souls (Luke 21:19); obedience, submission of Christians to the Church: for the Lord said: tell the Church about the one who has sinned, and if the Church disobeys, make you like a pagan and a tax collector (Matthew 18:17). You see what properties our kinship with the Son of God incarnate for our sake requires of us! Let us value our kinship with Christ and let us not consider anything in the world more valuable than this kinship - no ranks, no worldly distinctions, no worldly nobility, no wealth, nothing: for everything in the world is transitory, everything is temporary, and most importantly, everything is vanity, if a person who has the blessings of the world - nobility of origin, high rank, or wealth, or worldly education, does not have faith in Christ and does not follow the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel of the kingdom of God, the eternal, holy, blessed kingdom, then he will not correspond to his Christian title. Let us take care of acquiring holiness, as the Lord said: Be holy, for the Lord your God is holy (Lev. 11:41; 19:2), or, as the Apostle says: Have peace and holiness with everyone except them, that is, without whom no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). Let us acquire, with the help of the grace of Jesus Christ, simple-heartedness - this is a quiet disposition of the soul, called meekness, which does not allow one to be irritated with anyone or anything, not to become embittered; We acquire humility, which always humiliates ourselves and elevates others, calls ourselves sincerely the first of sinners, and even though our conscience does not reproach him for any sinful act, however, he does not justify himself by this either: I know nothing in myself (I know), but I am justified in no way (1 Cor. 4:4); Let us acquire mercy for the poor, who are not only our brothers, but also the brothers of Jesus Christ; Let us not be ashamed to call those whom Christ, the Son of God, is not ashamed to call brothers and sisters (Heb. 2:11); let us cast aside our vain and deceitful grandeur, which humiliates the nobility of our soul, and which the devil teaches us within us, and give a helping hand to those whom the goodness of God, just as we have made, participants in His grace, all the gifts of Christianity, and to whom the kingdom has been given more preference than the rich; Has not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom he promised to those who love Him (James 2:5). Wealth puffs up, thickens, hardens the heart and removes it from God: because the heart of a rich man is attached to wealth, and not to God; and poverty, endured for the sake of God, humbles and softens the heart, often shedding tears of repentance at the thought of poverty and extreme poverty of our soul with good dispositions and deeds, at the thought that we are rich in sins and terribly poor in God, His grace, which will help to dwell in the body and in the heart involved in sin, attached to earthly goods. Let us acquire constant abstinence, and especially during the fasts established by the Church. The Holy Church established to prepare us for the worthy celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ by fasting for fourty days; and this fast must also be strictly observed, like a great one. If anyone has not abstained until now: from now on, at least for the rest of the week, curb your belly for the sake of saving your soul: for gluttony earthens, so to speak, the soul, makes it very accessible to various passions and incapable of holy thoughts about God, about His economy of our salvation, about the mystery of the coming of the Son of God to earth, about our final goal on earth, about the necessity virtues, about the resurrection of the flesh, about eternal judgment, about eternal bliss, etc. And fasting, together with prayer, cleanses, enlightens, humbles and strengthens the soul. May God grant us all to meet the upcoming holiday of the Nativity of Christ with dignity, in peace and with heavenly joy. - One more word: in order to honor, as it should, the feast of the Nativity of Jesus Christ, for the sake of him who was poor, so that through his poverty we may be rich (2 Cor. 8:9), - let us show, each according to his strength, before the feast of mercy to the poor: let some give to the beggar for shoes, some for rags, some give rent for housing, some give for bread. When we see the poverty of our neighbors, let us think that we ourselves are the deepest beggars in our souls (Rev. 3:17): for who among us is not sometimes aware of pride, and malice, and envy, and ill will, and stinginess, and the love of money with covetousness, or greed and gluttony, and some of the impurity of the flesh, vile fornication? You see, my brothers, that we ourselves are being consumed by poverty, more terrible and shameful than the poverty of the physically poor. Who knows, maybe the soul of another beggar is higher than all of us in the eyes of God and shines before Him like gold in a furnace. This is hidden from us. Let us not despise any of them, despite their sometimes unseemly appearance. Let us leave judgment to God, and we ourselves will condemn ourselves for various passions and addictions, for excess in food, drink, clothing, room decoration, etc. This will be much more useful. Let us not forget the following words of Jesus Christ: once upon a time the many will be first and last, and the last will be first (Matthew 19:30). Let these words humble our pride and inspire each of us to take care of acquiring poverty of spirit, that is, humility: for blessed are the poor in spirit, for of them is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 3:5). Amen. Word for the week before Christmas. – (Holy Fathers) With these words begins, beloved brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel. A book, i.e. a list, a list of kinship, the ancestors of Jesus Christ according to humanity, the son of David, the son of Abraham; it names all the fathers according to the flesh of Jesus Christ, starting with Abraham, who lived more than two thousand years before the birth of Christ, and to whom was given a promise from God that the Savior of the world would be born from his seed, and ending with Joseph, the betrothed of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from whom Christ God was born; – The Lord was first called the Son of David, and then Abraham, because the people expected in the Messiah or Christ the descendant of King David, the son of David according to the prophecies, and because the Most Holy Virgin Mary was indeed by birth the daughter of King David, according to her Father the righteous Joachim. Archangel Gabriel, preaching the good news of the conception of the Son of God from Her, said that God would give him the throne of David, His father (Luke 1:32). At the end of this Gospel, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Blessed Virgin is also narrated. So, beloved brothers and sisters, God Himself took upon Himself our nature and our infirmities, except for sins; God Himself became man, without ceasing to be God, and communicated His Divinity to our humanity, so that we became, by His ineffable mercy, sharers of the divine nature. Wonderful relationship! Wonderful nobility of man! God became our brother by becoming man: and therefore he is not ashamed to call us brethren, saying: I will proclaim Your name to My brethren (Heb. 2:11); He, the God-man, even calls those who keep His commandments friends: you are My friends if you do what I command you (John 15:14). Thus, we have become, by the grace and gift of Christ God, sharers of the divine nature, friends of God, and not strangers. But what duty does this relationship with God impose on us? – If the Lord has shown us such infinite condescension, such mercy, such good deeds, then, of course, we, for our part, must sacrifice something to God; for our faith is a holy covenant and an eternal, indissoluble union of souls with God, and in the covenant, certain conditions are invariably observed on both sides. On our part, to maintain and strengthen our union with God, it is required, brethren, sincere, constant, firm faith, unchanging trust in God and sincere, unfeigned love for Him, or the fulfillment of His commandments; love for each other, expectation of the fulfillment of His promises, such as: the resurrection of the dead, the future judgment and righteous reward to everyone according to the deeds and life of the next century; What is required is sincere, constant repentance and correction of life, an immaculate life, kindness, meekness, humility, abstinence, purity of soul and body, works of mercy, in general - a holy life. The Apostle Peter teaches: as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts that were in your ignorance; but, following the example of the Holy One who called you, be holy in your actions (1 Peter 1:14-16). For it is written: Be holy, for I am holy. So, if God united with us and became man, then we will avoid sin in every possible way, shun all lawlessness; for what has light in common with darkness, righteousness with lawlessness, Christ with Belial or the devil (2 Cor. 6:14,15). Only he will be united with God forever who sincerely hates all sin and loves all truth. In such thoughts, with such and similar feelings and heartfelt dispositions, we will look forward to the upcoming great holiday of the Nativity of Christ. Amen. Lesson on Christmas Day Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, because today a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, has been born to you in the city of David (Luke 2:10–11). I greet you, beloved brethren, with the indescribable gift of God’s love and mercy for us sinners - with the appearance of the Son of God on earth, who came down from heaven according to the all-good will of God our Father for the sake of salvation, and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. Christ was born - glorify; Christ came from heaven - welcome; Christ is on earth - ascend. So, Christ is on earth, and you ascend from the earth with your thoughts and hearts to heaven; for Christ came for us to lead us from earth to heaven, to the eternal abode of paradise. For this reason, the high God came down to earth, so that he may lead us to heaven, 2, our holy mother, the Church, tells us. Sing with joy people the Nativity of the Savior Christ. But so that our joy may be more sublime, clearer and firmer, let us reflect, brethren, on the greatness of Him who was born of the Virgin; and to this we will add how we can meet Him worthily. So, who is this Baby, whom the Most Holy Virgin Mary holds in Her most pure hands? This is God, the Existing One Himself, who brought everything from non-existence into existence, who by His power supports all creation and by His providence builds the world. This is the highest Artist who, having created all visible creation from the four elements, composed an annual circle of four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. This is the Creator and God of spirits and all flesh; All the angelic powers tremble with him; The sun sings Him, the moon praises Him; The stars are inherent in him; The light listens to him; The abysses of water, and air, and the abysses of hell tremble; All water sources work for him. He spread out the sky; He founded the earth; He fenced the sea with sand; He decorated the earth with flowers; He produces all the grain and all the fruits of the earth; He poured out the air for the creatures to breathe; He forms babies in the wombs of mothers; He is the Nourisher of every creature! He is served by angelic powers; The faces of the Archangels worship Him out of fear of His unapproachable glory; the many-eyed Cherubim and six-winged Seraphim, standing and flying around His throne, cover their faces... This God, indescribable, beginningless and unspeakable, has now come to us on earth, taking on the form of a slave. Amazing miracle! God took on the nature of man's slave and became exactly like us, except for sin. Why such condescension, such extreme humiliation? For our sake of salvation, (responses the Church). We perished under the dark power of the devil, we sat in fear and the shadow of death; we were kept in the bonds of hell... And now the most merciful Master, who created us at first in His image and likeness, unable to bear to see how the devil torments the human race by removing it from God, darkening its mind and heart, attachment to earthly things, various sins and iniquities and the charm of idolatry, came to sovereignly deliver us from working with the enemy. Oh, our most merciful Lord! For the sake of our salvation, now born in the den and reclining in the manger, we glorify Your unworthy servants, Your saving providence for us, - we also worship Your Most Pure Mother in the flesh, who served such a terrible sacrament. But how should we, brethren, take advantage of such a sublime gift of love and mercy to us from the Heavenly Father for our salvation? How can we worthily receive the Son of God? What do children do when their parents bring them some precious, beautiful and brilliant gift? They throw away their old toys and cling with all their hearts to this precious and wonderful gift, not counting their old favorite things at all. What does a merchant do when he searches for good beads and finds one bead of great value (Matthew 13:46)? He goes and sells everything he has and buys it. This is what we, beloved brethren, should do: in Bethlehem, in a den, the only begotten Son of God reclines, having taken on human flesh and become incarnate for the sake of our salvation; there lies our precious bead - Christ. Just as children leave their former amusements at the sight of a new and precious gift, so we will try to leave our attachments to earthly things, characteristic of only foolish children, and cleave with all our hearts to God, the Source of life. Like a merchant looking for good beads and finding one valuable bead, he goes and sells everything he has and buys it: so we will exchange all earthly goods for one precious bead - Christ. Let us all, with the Apostle, consider it trash (Phil. 3:8), so that we may receive Christ and indwell Him in our hearts. The gift is priceless: it is worth exchanging the whole world for it; for, having acquired Christ, we acquire eternal life and eternal bliss; and having lost Him, we will lose everything: we will not see the eternal life, and the wrath of God will remain on us forever and ever. So, brethren, be wise on things above, not on earth ( Col. 3:2 ). Christ on earth: ascend with your thoughts and hearts to heaven, and do not cleave to earthly things, do not serve carnal lusts. Otherwise, woe to us for our negligence about salvation. The more means of salvation were given to us, the more will be exacted from us for negligence about salvation, for unwillingness to use these means. How can we escape from the wrath of God (Luke 3:7)? Oh, how many are careless about salvation, to the great sorrow of the Holy Mother of the Church! How many perish by will, who reject the Savior and by their deeds impute His descent to earth, His life on earth, His teaching, His miracles, His suffering and death for us. The proud and following their arrogant mind impute His descent to earth as nothing, considering His coming unnecessary in the blindness of their proud mind and heart; non-believers place His coming at nothing; those who are devoted only to earthly things with all their hearts, those who love money, those who are envious, those who are at enmity, those who are drunkards - they place His descent on earth into nothing; all uncorrected and unrepentant sinners impute His coming to nothing. But woe to those who trample the Son of God with their lack of faith and unbelief and addiction to earthly things: they will be consumed by the eternal fire of Gehenna; all the unbelievers will have their share in the lake that burns with fire and a bogeyman (Rev. 21:8). Now I see you in everything as pious and celebrating the Nativity of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh, if only everyone would truly celebrate! Oh, if only everyone would spend the coming holiday in abstinence, purity, thought of God, in works of mercy, and not in drunkenness, carnal impurity, not in idle talk, in idleness and lasciviousness, not in gluttony and other various sins! Brethren, it is time for us to celebrate the holidays wisely, piously, and not madly, not in wickedness of any kind, not in a pagan manner. May the Lord protect us all on this holiday from every sinful deed. May our holiday be pleasing to the Savior, so that the born Child Christ may appear as our Savior through faith in Him, through our repentance and through our good deeds. Amen. Word for Christmas Day For this reason, God came down to earth and raised us to heaven (Akath. God. Mat. Cond. 8). These words of the church song indicate the purpose for which God - the Word - came to earth in the flesh - precisely that purpose, so that man, created for heaven and fallen and mortified by sin, enslaved by earthly passions, would be raised to heaven again under the just condition that if he, realizing his extreme error and the ruin of his chosen path, turns with all his heart to God, from whom he fell, repents with all his heart, rejects worldly passions, will love God and live heavenly on earth, as much as possible with the help of divine grace. This is the purpose of the coming of God to earth in the flesh that we now celebrate. He came to turn away from us the extreme dishonor of sin and passions, to which we enslaved ourselves of our own free will, to deliver us from the disastrous slavery of the devil, from righteous damnation and eternal death, to revive us by the grace of baptism, to adopt us and give us the Holy Spirit, with the help of which we could live on earth worthy of our high calling - children of God. And divine intentions, divine plans regarding our rebirth, sanctification and renewal were accomplished in people, that is, in the multitude of saved people who obeyed the voice of God calling them to salvation, and followed the saving path. Countless saints have justified with their lives the divine plan for the salvation of mankind. Divine wisdom was justified from her children (Matthew 11:19). This wondrous divine plan of salvation is being accomplished even now in all who are submissive to the loving voice of God, calling them to salvation and to the eternal inheritance prepared for them in heaven. The Lord founded His Church on earth, to which He entrusted the heavenly, saving teaching, His saving sacraments, gave His teachers and shepherds, to whom He entrusted the guidance of redeemed humanity to heaven. But how many understand and accept this wise and at the same time simple plan for our salvation? How many people accept the means to their salvation given by God? How many people renounce worldly addictions that darken and bind the soul? How many people value the name of Christians and children of God; How many people think about the heavenly inheritance prepared for them by the goodness of the heavenly Father for the sake of His only begotten Son? We see that modern man has fallen extremely deeply, has completely immersed himself in sensuality, has bound himself entirely to worldly passions and sensual pleasures, has perverted the order of life indicated by the Creator, and thus not only does not follow the divine plan of our salvation, but, as far as this plan concerns him, destroys it. Such will be the fruits of a reckless life. A person who tramples on God’s gifts with such recklessness and such audacity is deprived of all God’s promises and gifts. Look attentively at the life of modern man, how unnatural it is, not to mention how ungraceful it is, and how it is not led in a Christian way. Look how he perverted the most sensual pleasures. For the sense of smell and taste, and partly for breathing itself, he invented and burns almost constantly a pungent and odorous smoke - bringing this, as if a constant censer, to a demon living in the flesh - infects the air of his home and the external air with this smoke, and first of all, he himself is saturated with this stench - and here is the constant coarsening of his feelings and his heart; The constantly consumed smoke cannot but affect the subtlety of the heartfelt feeling: it imparts to it solidity, coarseness, and sensuality. The womb has become an idol; Many people do not keep fasts at all, considering them burdensome; feasting and drunkenness became constant phenomena; money has become a positively modern idol, and in order to easily acquire it, people do not neglect any means, no matter how ignoble or dishonest they may be; all thoughts, worries, amusements, including play, in a word, pleasures, searches, intentions, enterprises, even teaching, are directed towards the earth; There is no mention of heaven, of the heavenly title, of heavenly teaching and life in many homes. Man has become all the earth, all dust! Meanwhile, God came down to earth precisely to raise man to heaven. Adam, where are you (Gen.3:9)? Christian man, where are you? How deep you have fallen. What darkness did you enter into voluntarily? Arise, come into the light of God, know your divine nobility, your heavenly title, return to God, give up sensuality, which deadens the spirit, begin to live according to the spirit of virtue, kill carnal passions, repent and unite with God, so that He will take you to heaven and seat you with Him on the throne of His kingdom. Speaking about the earthly, passionate, unworthy direction of people’s lives, I do not lose sight of the many bright sides in the lives of many Christians and the virtues of truly Christian people, but this is a weak minority. God grant that this minority is superior to the majority. Amen. Word for Christmas The word became flesh (John 1:14). The Word became flesh, i.e. The Son of God, co-originating with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, became man, incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. A wondrous, terrible and saving sacrament! Beginningless, - accepted the beginning according to humanity. The incorporeal one became a flesh-bearer, God became a man, without ceasing to be God - unapproachable, whom the Seraphim and Cherubim tremble, covering their faces, accessible to everyone in the form of a slave. Why and for what purpose is the Creator’s condescension towards His criminal creatures; – to humanity, which voluntarily fell away from God, its Creator? According to the greatest, unspeakable mercy of the Master towards His creation, who could not see the entire human race, created by Him, endowed with wondrous gifts, enslaved to the devil and forever doomed to suffering and torment. And the word became flesh!.. In order to make us earthly heavenly, sinners saints: to lead us from corruption to incorruption; from earth to heaven; from slavery to sin and the devil - into the glorious freedom of the children of God, from death - to immortality; to make us sons of God and seat us on the throne as royal children. Oh, the immeasurable mercy of God! Oh, the ineffable wisdom of God! Oh, a miracle that horrifies not only the human mind, but also the angelic one! Let's give glory to God! With the coming to earth of the Son of God in the flesh, after He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sinful human race instead of the curse that was pronounced in the beginning by God, people who believe are given the blessing of the Heavenly Father; they receive adoption as sons and the promise of an everlasting inheritance of life; To humanity orphaned due to sin, the Heavenly Father returns again through the sacrament of rebirth, that is, through baptism and repentance. People are delivered from the most painful and deadly power of the devil, from the torment of sin and all passions; a human being is adored for the sake of the immeasurable mercy of the Son of God, and his sins are forgiven seventy times seven; sinners are pardoned, the unclean are cleansed, the defiled are sanctified, the weak are healed, the dishonored are given immeasurable honor and glory; the darkened are enlightened by the divine light of grace and reason; The human mind has been given the mind of God - the mind of Christ imams, says St. Apostle Paul (1 Cor. 2:16); to the human heart - the heart of Christ; the corruptible is immortalized, naked and wounded by sin and passions is adorned with divine glory; the hungry and thirsty is saturated and quenched - by the word of God that nourishes and strengthens the soul and the most pure body and divine blood of Christ; those who are inconsolable are consoled, those who were raped from the devil are delivered and are being delivered. What is required of us, brothers, in order to take advantage of all the grace brought to us from above to earth by the Son of God? What is needed, firstly, is faith in the Son of God, in the Gospel or in the saving heavenly teaching; true repentance of sins and correction of life and heart, communication in prayers and sacraments; knowledge and fulfillment of the commandments of Christ. Virtues are needed: Christian humility, almsgiving, abstinence, purity and innocence, truthfulness, simplicity and kindness of heart. Let us bring these virtues, brother and sister, as a gift to the One who was born for our salvation - instead of the gold, frankincense and myrrh that the Magi brought to Him, as a King, as God and as a Man who came to die for us. This will be the most pleasant sacrifice from us to God and the Baby Jesus Christ. Amen. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14). This is a hymn to God made man, the infant Christ, sung by a host of Angels on earth at His Nativity. The song is short, but its meaning and meaning are wise and rich in content. It contains and reveals to us the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God for the salvation of the world. Every angelic nature was amazed at this mystery, according to the Church. But where is the peace on earth that the Angels announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem? In Jerusalem itself, the city of David, in which there was a church to the living God, there was no peace, and when the wise men who came from the east to Jerusalem asked: where is the born King of the Jews, then from this one news both King Herod and all of Jerusalem with him came into confusion. There was no peace in the world power of Rome at that time. Contemporaries describe in gloomy colors the moral decline of peoples, the distortion of the image of God in people. All kinds of filth and lawlessness were happening. Idolatry replaced service to the One God. Lawlessness, shame, satiety, drunkenness, constituted earthly blessings and the goal and aspirations of humanity. Enmity, civil strife, and disorder reigned everywhere. Pride, inhumanity, and all types of vice corrupted social and family life. In subsequent times it was no better: terrible persecution of believers in Christ for three centuries flooded the entire earth with the blood of Christian martyrs: brother betrayed brother, father betrayed his wife and children, children of parents to torture; human relationships, blood ties, kinship, everything was desecrated and trampled upon. In Jerusalem itself was the abomination of desolation. And in our times, societies and kingdoms are shaken, international and internecine disagreements and wars, heresies and schisms continue; conspiracies, criminal, harmful doctrines, intensifying to overthrow centuries-old government institutions and the foundations of community life: family; civil and religious. Villainy extends its sacrilegious hand to God’s anointed ones, to whom God himself has entrusted the nations; the monsters want to establish unbelief on their sacred ashes, to destroy the state, family and law under the guise of equality and brotherhood. Where is the peace on earth proclaimed by the Angels? Where is the peace brought by the God-man to earth? Where is the peace that proclaims the Gospel and the preaching of the Apostles, carried by them from end to end of the earth, between all nations and kingdoms? He is not in the world: the whole world lies in evil, said the Apostle (1 John 5:19). This is the mystery sung by the Angels: with the coming of the Son of God, peace reigned on earth, first in the small chosen flock: in His Church, in the Apostles, to whom He repeatedly taught this peace, and then in the entire kingdom of grace or His Church, which spread throughout the whole earth. Yes, brethren, the Lord founded on earth the whole kingdom of the world of God, an eternal, universal, well-ordered kingdom, with laws, statutes, sacraments, with an order of service, rules of life, mutual relations; this kingdom is the holy, Orthodox Apostolic Church, in which peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father always rest. True, the Church of God on earth has always been under the cross, always persecuted, embittered; but nevertheless, she always possessed an inner, grace-filled peace, even in the midst of the greatest persecution; because God has always been and will be in her; delivering her from all disasters, according to His word that the gates of hell will not prevail against her (Matthew 16:18); and therefore, every true believer and fulfiller of the commandments of Christ, every truly repentant sinner has within himself the peace of Christ, which no external disturbances of this world can disturb, unless he himself, of his own free will, again enters the path of lawlessness and sin. Therefore, if the kingdoms of the earth and civil societies in general want to achieve and establish peace brought to earth by the King of truth, peace and love, the Lord Jesus Christ, then they must be in close union with the kingdom of the Lord, or with His holy church on earth, must obey the commandments of Jesus Christ and the statutes of His church; and if they are violated, immediately correct themselves, after sincerely realizing their mistakes and iniquities. Members of the state who profess the Christian faith must be good, honest and sincerely devoted members of the church. Violation of this union between the church and the state, or its citizens, neglect of faith, commandments and the Gospel give rise to unbelief and all sorts of disorder in society, all sorts of vices, plunge society into moral or political impotence, and deprive it of heavenly blessings. Our fatherland, great Russia, has always been in close union with the church, and only in this union has it grown, strengthened and ascended to a high degree of power and glory. May God grant that this union of the state with the church, with this kingdom of peace, continues uninterruptedly, then Russia will always be the kingdom of peace, and God’s blessing will rest on it; then no sedition in Russia will be terrible, because it will not find a place or shelter anywhere. May Christ the Lord reign in our hearts and may peace and goodwill reign with Him. Amen. Lesson on the third day of the Nativity of Christ - Sunday Now we have two holidays: the holiday of the Nativity of Christ is joined by the holiday of the Resurrection of Christ; one holiday is annual, and the other is weekly. In both holidays, beloved brethren, our own Christian triumph is hidden: Jesus Christ was both born and resurrected - for us - born in order to die for us and rise again. Such is the love of God the Savior for us: He gave Himself to us, just to make us blessed forever, just to bring us into the abode of the Heavenly Father. The life of our Lord Jesus Christ - from His birth to suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, is, so to speak, a mirror in which everything that happens and will happen to His followers is reflected, or in other words, His entire earthly life is an example of our life as it should be. Therefore, His birth is, as it were, our birth - and it is, exactly, only for us - His resurrection is our resurrection. Through the birth and resurrection of the Savior, we are all, beloved, called to eternal life, to an incorruptible inheritance, kept in heaven for our sake. Without the Savior, without His birth, our birth would only be a curse, so that our resurrection without Him would be a condemnation to eternal torment. By His birth, Jesus Christ sanctified our birth, lifted up our horn; through His resurrection He rejoiced us with the hope of our resurrection. Christ has risen from the dead, becoming a firstfruits to those who have died (1 Cor. 15:20), that is, he laid the foundation for our resurrection. Here is our triumph in the birth and resurrection of Christ! But why do we celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Christ once a year, and the Feast of the Resurrection many times, and one of them - annually - so lightly, with such solemnity, that its light seems to outshine all other holidays? – To solve this question, let’s take another one to explain it. Is it necessary to assure a person several times that he was born? It is not necessary: ​​because everyone believes it without certainty. Does a person need to be assured many times that he will be resurrected? It is necessary: ​​because the resurrection will still happen and we have it only in hope; then we need to resurrect more often, revive our fading faith in the resurrection and hope in it; and the more so, the fewer examples of resurrection we see before our eyes, while examples of birth are always before our eyes. To this reason we must add the fact that a year represents a human age, and how the Son of God Jesus Christ became both the Son of man and the flightless one was subjected to the measurements of earthly years: then once a year we remember all the great events in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, as once they actually happened, and this single memory is enough to revive our faith in them - and the Resurrection of Christ, in addition to its all-blessed, annual celebration, is celebrated many more times a year - in order to more often revive in people faith in the general resurrection, which is the great triumph of our faith: because Christ’s resurrection is our resurrection; you will be resurrected with Christ (Col. 3:1), says the Apostle, that is, you are, as it were, resurrected together with Christ. And so glory to the Lord who was born for our salvation, and glory to Him who rose from the grave and raised us with Himself. What should I say to you in conclusion? Everyone remember with each coming resurrection that you will be resurrected and, having risen, appear at the judgment: and therefore, everyone take care to arrange their lives in such a way that at that terrible judgment they will not be put to shame and not be sent into the outer darkness, and so that the holidays of the Nativity and Resurrection of Christ will not condemn us in that century for our inattention and disrespect for their verbs. Amen. Lesson for the week of the Nativity of Christ A voice was quickly heard in Rama, weeping and sobbing and much crying: Rachel weeping for her children, and not wanting to be comforted, for they are not (Matt. 2:18; Jer. 31:15). The Holy Church now honors the memory of fourteen thousand infants beaten by King Herod in Bethlehem and its environs. This bloody event was predicted 500 years ago by the prophet of God Jeremiah in these words: a voice was heard in Rama, weeping, and much lamentation and crying: Rachel wept for her children, and did not want to be consoled, as if they were not. By Rama or Arimathea we mean the entire area stained with the blood of infant martyrs, and by Rachel, who was the wife of the patriarch Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, we mean all the mothers from whom the babies were snatched away by Herod’s executioners and slaughtered. A terrible, inhuman spectacle! This is what a person’s unbridled passions, his pride, pride, ambition, lust for power, anger, envy lead to. - And generally speaking, no matter what atrocities the earth has not been filled with, this is the abode of the human race during its almost eight-thousand-year existence! History reveals before us terrible pictures of terrible atrocities in ancient and modern times. In our times, the atrocities of Turkish Muslims against Christian children, fathers and mothers are still fresh in our memories. O earth, earth soaked in human blood, filled with indescribable atrocities, until you cry out to God for vengeance on the evildoers? How long will you stand and not undergo fiery purification? – How long will God’s truth not pay final retribution to the villains who have stained their hands with the blood of so many victims of inhumanity? – But the truth of God assures that the blood of all the righteous will soon be required, starting with the blood of Abel, and begs us who are impatient to endure a little longer (Rev. 6:11). But when I talk about Herod’s murder and murders in general, which filled the whole earth with horrors, I bring to mind spiritual murder, of which we are all more or less guilty: this is the murder by each of us of our soul, and often our body by our sins, or the murder of the souls of our neighbors, through temptation, or by teaching others to sin. Who among us is not guilty of this spiritual murder? Which of us is free from passions, sinful habits and inclinations? Who has not killed his soul or the soul of his neighbor with pride, or pride, or guile, lies, or envy, or gluttony, satiety, drunkenness, or love of money and stinginess, or hardness of heart, or carnal impurity, or anger, or suspicion, or partiality, or laziness and negligence about salvation, unbelief, etc.? So, my brothers, we often kill our own souls or the souls of our neighbors with countless sins and negligence about correcting our hearts, our lives, our morals. And this spiritual or mental murder, with which we kill our souls, created in the image of God, is even more guilty than bodily murder; because here the soul, which has to live forever, is killed, and there only the body, which will rise in the general resurrection. The souls of the infant martyrs, beaten by Herod, all rest in the bosom of Abraham, are consoled in the kingdom of heaven, and in due time their bodies will be resurrected - but the soul of Herod is in eternal torment, and Herod, having beaten the innocent infants, killed his soul with his shameful passions even before they were beaten, and soon his body, which experienced terrible torment before his death. And so let us not be the murderers of our souls, these priceless souls, redeemed by the infinitely dear sacrifice of the Blood of the Son of God - we will revive and preserve them, we will adorn them with repentance and virtue. What can we say about modern murderers and suicides? This is a terrible sign of the age, a terrible time of unbelief, depravity, falling away from God. Murders and suicides are frequent everywhere, and human life is not valued at anything: so it has become petty, empty, insignificant, aimless. But what can we say about the regicides who, in their madness, attempt the most precious life of the kings of the earth themselves? If it is terrible and inhumane to kill an ordinary person, then to kill the king, the head of state, the father of millions of subjects, the patron of the Church of God, for whom she always prays with the greatest love and maternal care, day and night, that the Lord may hasten to Him in everything and subdue under His feet every enemy and adversary - to attempt the life of the king is the most disgusting crime, and whoever touches him touches the apple of the eye of God. Our Russian ancestors always revered their kings, as God’s anointed, and were ready to endure anything, any disaster, rather than raise a daring and sacrilegious hand against their king. And fair enough. The heart of a king, according to Scripture, is in the hand of God, and what it desires, it will turn away (Proverbs 21:1). Do not touch My anointed (Ps. 104:15), says God. So, let us not kill our souls with our sins, let us revive them through diligent repentance, if we have killed them, while we still have time for repentance, and we will always have an aversion to the very thought of murder and suicide; Let us have disgust for people who attempt regicide. – One God is the Lord of life and death; He alone has the power to both kill and give life. The Sovereign is your shield, the keeper of our security; both of the entire Russian land, the Faith and the Orthodox Church, and in particular the keeper of the security and peace of each of us. Amen. The Son of man came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). So we waited for the feast of the Nativity of Christ and worshiped the eternal Child with His Most Pure Ever-Virgin Mother, and together with the Church we sang of God’s extreme compassion and condescension towards us: for the Son of God became the Son of man in order to save perishing man. But we have not yet done a great thing by worshiping the divine Infant: for many of us worshiped only with the body, and worship of the body without worship of the spirit is a sacrifice far from pleasing to God; and His ineffable compassion and condescension towards people, in fact, was sung by the Church, and not by us: we were only listeners. I want to ask you and myself: are we doing anything on our part in response to such an unspeakable condescension of the Son of God to us? For such an extreme and astounding exhaustion of the Son of God for the salvation of perishing humanity requires, my brothers, an urgent and intensified work of salvation from us. The Incarnation of the Son of God, I use a comparison, is like a strong and reliable rope given from heaven by the Heavenly Father to us who are perishing in the abyss of sin. Whoever grasps this rope with all his might and holds on to it throughout his entire earthly voyage, despite strong waves and gusts of wind, will not drown in the abyss of sin, but will reach the quiet haven of heaven; and whoever neglects this saving rope, who, fearing the winds and waves, weakens in spirit and lets go of the tangled rope of faith, hope and love, whoever falls away from the Church of Christ through schism or unbelief and other faiths and a corrupt life, will perish forever. Therefore, I will say with the Apostle: let us hold fast the confession of hope without wavering: for He who promised eternal life is faithful. Let us be attentive to each other, encouraging each other to love and good deeds. Let us not forsake meeting ourselves together, as is the custom of some; but let us exhort one another, and all the more so as the Day of Judgment is seen approaching. For we all, having received the knowledge of the truth, sin voluntarily: there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrible expectation of judgment and the fury of fire, ready to devour our opponents. If he who rejects the law of Moses, in the presence of two or three witnesses, is punished without mercy with death, then how much more severe punishment do you think will be guilty of the one who tramples on the Son of God, and does not consider as holy the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and offends the Spirit of grace? We know the One who said: Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord. And one more thing: The Lord will judge His people. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb. 10:23–31). Please note, my brethren, that the incarnation of the Son of God, His coming to us on earth, or better yet, the Christian faith, is, so to speak, a saving rope, which we must grasp and hold on to with all our might from the beginning to the end of our lives. This means: each of us must believe with all our hearts in Christ as our only Savior from the devil and from sin, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which it is fitting for us to be saved (Acts 4:12); with all your heart to adhere to His Church, the only ship of salvation, and not to be seduced into schism: for a schismatic, as a disobedient to the Church, is imputed to God as a pagan and a tax collector; to constantly study the Word of God and the commandments of Christ, and to rule your life according to the commandments; try by all means to correct the thoughts, aspirations and inclinations of the heart; adhere to unceasing repentance before God; to visit the temple of God without laziness, to unite with the Lord in the sacrament of communion for the cleansing of sins and to receive spiritual strength in the fight against sin, and to live in mutual love and in all virtue. This is what the incarnate God – the Word – requires of us! – The incarnation of the Son of God is the only extraordinary means that God, in His eternal counsel, determined for our salvation. And what does a dangerously ill man do on the edge of his grave, when a skilled doctor offers him the last and most powerful means of saving him? The patient accepts it with joy, although with effort, and thus is often healed. And we are all dangerously sick spiritually - because we are all sick with sin, this terrible illness that corrupts the entire being of a person, soul and body, we are sick so much that, like patients with consumption, we often do not realize our dangerous illness and do not imagine the eternal death that follows it; we dream that we are healthy - and like crazy people imagine that they are not only healthy, but that they are kings, and generals, and princes, or something else, which is similar and we, not jokingly, often imagine ourselves not at all what we really are, and in one way or another we disguise ourselves - we imagine ourselves to be God knows what great people, whereas in the thing itself we are great sinners. And so what remains for us to do, brother sinners, when the heavenly Doctor, with such love, with such selflessness, offers us such a strong and extraordinary medicine for our salvation - His incarnation, His incarnation, His humiliation, His teaching and miracles, His cross and His death? “Nothing more than urgently and with all diligence to use this medicine and live according to the instructions of this heavenly Doctor, and not live as carelessly in this world as we lived, especially not to spend these holy days carelessly.” For some, like madmen, dressed up in different costumes that are not typical for their face, walk like ghosts from house to house, allow themselves obscene movements, obscene words and obscene laughter, and turn such a great and holy holiday into sinful idleness and service to Satan. When will we celebrate the Lord's feasts in a decorous and holy manner, as Christians should? When will these immodest fun stop? when we remember whether to keep holy the Sabbath or the day of rest (cf. Ex.20:8), to rest from the works of sin with the rest of the Lord: for every Christian holiday should be a Sabbath to the Lord; When will the Lord rest in us, having no place to lay our head in our hearts, because of our constant slavery to sin? Oh, how we constantly humiliate our human dignity, which the Son of God so exalted and deified with His incarnation! At least we would be ashamed, at least horrified to do such shameful things and humiliate our nature on days like these on which we celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God! In the presence of the king of the earth, we are ashamed and afraid to indulge in immodest amusements, especially vices, or to stain his portraits with dirt; but now, in the presence of the heavenly King, who has taken our image, we shamelessly and fearlessly distort and stain His living image, our souls, with the dirt of passions; many indulge in drunkenness, gluttony, uncleanness, and inappropriate amusements; the living put crazy masks on their faces, women dress in men's clothes, and men in women's clothes, contrary to the words of the scripture: let not a man put on a woman's robe, nor let a man's utensils be on his wife (Deut. 22:5). At least these people were ashamed, at least they blushed for their deeds! And there is no shame! Oh, shameless faces! Oh, images of the enemy! I pray to all those present here, as I pray to God, to admonish the disorderly and not to accept them into your home, to frighten them with God’s terrible judgment. Beg all the disorderly to spend these days of God holy - holy: for among us is God in the flesh. God is with us: understand, O Gentiles, and submit, for God is with us (Is. 8:8-10). Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Herod, seeing that he had been insulted by the wise men, became very angry and sent to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all its borders. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: a voice was heard in Rama, weeping, and sobbing, and much crying: Rachel wept for her children, and did not want to be comforted, for they were not (Matthew 2:16-18; Jeremiah 31:15). This, beloved brethren, is the main content of the Gospel read today. - The brutal and ambitious Herod, who sought the death of the born Savior of the world, seeing that the Magi laughed at his wickedness and did not inform him, according to the condition made with him, about the place of birth of our Savior, in rage at them and the divine Child, he sent his executioners to beat all the babies in Bethlehem and its environs, from two years old and below according to the time that he found out from the Magi, hoping, among other things, to kill Christ; - and imagine - innocent babies, numbering up to 14 thousand, were inhumanly killed. The houses and streets were filled with crying and sobbing and the soul-piercing screams of fathers and mothers who had suddenly lost their dearest babies. – This is the bloody, terrible sight the Holy Church is remembering this week: we remember the violent death of 14 thousand babies: martyrs for Christ, we sympathize with the plaintive crying and sobbing of mothers and fathers. – It would seem that the faithful children of the Church of Christ will also sympathize in these days with this misfortune of people like themselves, unheard of in the history of the human race, and will not spend time in frivolous games and amusements and in unbridled laughter, in fulfillment of the Apostolic commandment: weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). But in reality, what do we see? These days especially, due to some diabolical action, we indulge in frivolous games and amusements, laughter; Nowadays, especially, like some kind of general disease, the game of artificial faces is rampant: some self-moving statues, true idols in appearance, and of course in soul, go from house to house like Herod’s executioners, who invaded the houses of the unfortunate Bethlehem parents to kill innocent babies - arouse the idle, and, consequently, sinful curiosity of idle people, unbridled laughter, and fear in innocent children; they speak incoherent and crazy words in an artificial, deceptive voice, like real idols, and turn the holy holidays of the Lord into true satanic holidays. – Are these Christians, a holy people, renewed people? Was it for this reason that the Church prepared us for this great holiday with a forty-day fast, so that her children would laugh so boldly and sacrilegiously at the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God? – Is this why the current Gospel tells about the flight of the Savior into Egypt from the hands of the bloodthirsty Herod, so that some Christians would idly and frivolously run from house to house in the form of idols, while others would gladly accept these idols? - Be horrified, beloved brethren, at your devilish works. I say: devilish, because these masks blaspheme the natural face of man, the human face of our divine Savior, which He took upon Himself for the sake of our salvation, is blasphemed. Is it for this reason that the Son of God, the Creator of man, diminished Himself, taking on the form of a servant, being in human likeness, and being found in the likeness of man (Phil. 2:7) - so that those who call themselves Christians would disfigure their natural, God-created face with artificial faces and use them for deception, idle curiosity and ridicule? Was the idolatrous charm abolished by Christ so that the Christian of later times could restore it again, and, moreover, on such holy days? Christian brothers! Don’t you yourself call these great and holy days Christmastide? How dare you conduct them not only unholy, but in an excess of sin? – Don’t you notice that you serve the devil, who laughs at holy days, through your frivolity? ABOUT! who will mourn enough for this frivolity and madness of Christians, just as the fathers and mothers of Bethlehem once mourned their babies beaten by Herod’s executioners? But then the innocent babies were sprinkled with their blood and became heirs of the kingdom of heaven. – And today’s lawless Christians have been killed spiritually by the devil and are being dragged by him into the abyss of hell. Fathers and mothers cried for them. For these the Church is sick and crying; Angels and Saints mourn and cry for these. Brethren! Let's give up pagan life: we will be Christians not by name alone, which will not bring us any benefit, but by deeds; let us give up our idolatry and idolatry. Otherwise, alas, we will be condemned not only as idolaters, but much worse, as Christians who have humiliated Christ and trampled on their Christian faith, which there is nothing more honest and dearer in the world. Amen. Lesson for the week before the Enlightenment The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths right (Mark 1:3). When they expect the arrival of a king somewhere, they usually take care to prepare his way, that is, to level or clear the road. If the king is expected to arrive in a city, they usually sweep the streets, whitewash or illuminate the houses, and hang flags as a sign of greeting to the dear guest; if the arrival of the king is expected in the village, then its inhabitants all dress in clean, festive clothes, go out into the street, and persons elected from the society bring bread and salt to the distinguished visitor. This is what happens when meeting an earthly king. But we, brethren, are about to meet the heavenly King: for Christ, the King of heaven and earth, is coming to every Christian soul to dwell in it and establish His kingdom in it, the kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of heaven. What should we do? How to meet such a Visitor to our souls, such a King? - Prepare, says the Prophet, the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. The Spiritual King must prepare the spiritual path. In the east, to meet kings, roads were straightened and leveled so that the path for the traveling king was as straight, smooth and comfortable as possible; and now we have railways almost everywhere, and not only for the Tsar, but for all of us, they make the path straight and even, like on glass. Let us take this straightness and smoothness of earthly paths as an example and likeness for the spiritual path. We await the coming not to the city, but to our souls of the heavenly King Christ. Let us make the spiritual path straight and smooth, that is, let us remove from our souls all crookedness and roughness of sin: for your streams are crooked, says the Prophet, and your paths are obstinate and sharp. How do we delete it? Sincere repentance for sins, correction of heart and life and good deeds. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2). Let the one of little faith remove the crookedness of his unbelief or lack of faith and may he acquire the simple, unsophisticated faith of the saints, or the faith of God, about which the Lord said: have the faith of God (Mark 11:23); let the proud one remove his pride and acquire God-loving humility; let him who is at enmity leave enmity to his brother, and let him humble himself and henceforth live lovingly, heeding the commandment of the Apostle: love one another diligently from the bottom of your heart (1 Peter 1:22). Let the fornicator wash away his uncleanness with tears of repentance and henceforth let him not return to it, like a dog to his vomit, and let him live chastely, remembering that our bodies are members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:30; 1 Cor. 6:19); let the intemperate and drunkard leave his intemperance and henceforth be zealous for abstinence: for drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:10), and drunkenness is idolatry. Let the lover of money and the hard-hearted towards the poor leave his passion for this dear or precious land, like a crooked and rough path, on which he himself is often wounded internally, and which blocks the way into his soul for the King of Heaven: for what kind of communication does the Merciful have with the hard-hearted, the Lover of Mankind with the lover of money, the King of Heaven with the dust of the earth? - And so let the money-loving and the stingy prepare the way into their hearts for the King of Heaven with alms and generosity to the poor. Let us all take away wickedness from our souls and acquire the God-loving simplicity of virtue. This is how to prepare the way for the Lord; This is how to make His paths straight! When we prepare the way for the Lord in this way: He will, without a doubt, come to us and dwell in our hearts, as He himself promised: I will dwell in them and walk around (2 Cor. 6:16), and in us there will be the kingdom of heaven still here on earth, the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Amen. Word in the week before the Enlightenment And he preached (John) saying: He who is mighty is coming after me, Who is not worthy to bow down to loosen the thong of His boots. Because you baptized with water, you also baptize with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:7–8). Happy New Year of the Lord’s nearness, I greet you all and wish you all, from a sincere heart, renewal in spirit, in faith, in hope, in love, in all life, so that everyone may become a new creation, according to the Apostle: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The bright holiday of the Nativity of Christ has passed; Another bright holiday of Enlightenment is approaching - the Baptism of Christ, which took place 30 years after the birth of Christ. From this time on, Jesus Christ had to enter into His open, glorious service for the salvation of the human race. To prepare people for the reception of such a glorious King of heaven and earth, the Creator of ages, the only begotten, co-originating with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Son of God, a great herald and prophet, the Forerunner of the Lord and the Baptist John, a man of extremely strict, righteous and holy life, was sent. He was commanded by God in the desert in which he lived to go to the banks of the Jordan and there preach to the flocking people the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. This great Forerunner and angel in the flesh was foretold by the prophet Malachi, whose memory was remembered on the third day: behold, I send My angel before Thy face, who will prepare Thy way before Thee (Mal.3:1). And then John appeared, baptizing in the desert and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the whole country of Judea and Jerusalem came out to him and were all baptized by him - in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Mark 1:4,5). Sinners like us were baptized by John; but why, you ask, was the sinless, most holy Lord baptized by John? - In order, my brothers, to sanctify the waters for us with His baptism, to establish and legitimize for us the sacrament of Holy Baptism, through which we are all cleansed from the filth of sin and reborn into a new spiritual life of grace - we are sanctified and become children of God, a holy people, a royal priesthood, heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ. You see how many and what great gifts we are made partakers of through baptism! Remember this and cherish, firmly cherish the fact that you are a baptized people, the people of God and Christ, and conduct yourself worthy of the high title of Christian, living in virtue and avoiding all sin. So, this is why the sinless Christ Jesus was baptized by John; This is what and how great a gift was given to us all from God in baptism, and how we should value it and how worthy we should be of it! John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance to the people who came for the forgiveness of sins, and the people confessed their sins to him. This, brethren, is where our repentant confession begins. John was commanded by God to accept the confession of sinners. Priests are also given the power by the Lord Jesus Christ to confess and loose or bind repentant sinners. St. Evangelist Luke narrates that John the Baptist sternly, strongly, accusatoryly and harshly said to the people who came to be baptized by him: you are brood of vipers! Who inspired you to flee from future wrath? Create worthy fruits of repentance and do not think of saying to yourself: “We have Abraham as our father”; for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Already the ax, that is, the mortal ax, lies at the root of the trees (under the root of the tree we mean human life): every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire (Matthew 3:7-10). Why did John the Baptist so strictly and sharply, although with great love, rebuke the people and force them to repentance? Firstly, because he himself was the greatest righteous man, he deeply loved God and the truth of God and hated untruth, being zealous for the truth; and secondly, because the people, due to their deep moral corruption, due to their extreme untruth and lawlessness, had a need for a strict and harsh word: like those infected with Anton’s fire, they require cauterization and cutting or excision. Here it is also necessary to note that John was a seer and saw the depth of the hearts of the people who came to him, all their disgusting untruth and deceit; and therefore he could not speak to the unrighteous otherwise than strictly, in order to frighten them and correct them with fear, therefore he did not value their origin from Abraham, saying that the omnipotent God can raise children for Abraham from stones: and he brings to their memory a mortal ax, ready to cut down the days of life, as fruitless trees are cut down. Now I ask myself and those like me a question: why are we, preachers of repentance, weak and extremely lenient towards repentant sinners, almost to the point of indulgence in all kinds of sins? Because sinners themselves did not love truth with all their hearts and did not hate untruth and do not have divine zeal for truth. We quickly lay our hands on the heads of sinners with the grace of permission and forgiveness and often join in the sins of others, contrary to the apostolic instruction: do not quickly lay your hands on anyone (1 Tim. 5:22). My brothers, be strict with yourself, with your weaknesses and sins, examine yourself more strictly, more accurately, and demand a strict confession for yourself in order to quickly improve, and so that we, for the weakness of confession, do not be condemned by God as being careless about repentance. How did the preaching of the great preacher John the Baptist affect the people? It had a very saving effect: the people woke up, woke up from their sinful sleep and asked them: what should we do (Luke 3:10)? John pointed out to him works of love and mercy, which serve as the best fruit of repentance: he who has two coats, He says, give to the poor, and he who has food, do the same (Luke 3:11). To the tax collectors, covetous people and soldiers, who also demanded his instructions on works of repentance, he answered: first: do not demand anything more than was determined for you (Luke 3:13), - and second: do not offend anyone, do not slander and be content with your salary (Luke 3:14). Thus, John demanded from everyone the fruits of repentance, and calling the truly repentant the wheat of God, and the unrepentant - straw or chaff on the universal threshing floor of God, he threatened the latter with unquenchable fire, and about the former he said that the Lord would gather them into His eternal granary after His universal terrible judgment, which he calls likewise - winnowing on a shovel of bread in the threshing floor. This is how John prepared the people to accept the universal Savior Jesus Christ. For us, Jesus Christ has already come a long time ago, and we only annually remember His wondrous, saving appearance and the wonderful, saving events from His life. But, brethren, from us, who have tasted the ineffable blessings of Christ, were baptized in the Holy Font and become children of God, the fruits of repentance, the fruits of love and mercy for each other are all the more required. The Spirit of Christ's grace is mutual love: this I command you, that you love one another (John 13:34). Amen. This Sunday is called, beloved brothers and sisters, the week before the Enlightenment or - all the same - before the Epiphany, before Baptism. From the Gospel today we are supposed to read the first chapter from Mark, from verses 1 to 9. The Gospel contains prophecies or predictions of the prophets of the Lord Malachi and Isaiah that just before the coming of the Lord to earth in the flesh, that is, before the first, and not the second coming, a Forerunner will be sent who will prepare His way; in Malachi the prophet, whose memory is celebrated today, this Forerunner is called an Angel ( Mal. 3:1 ) of God, after the angelic, holy, impassive life of John the Baptist; and in another prophet - Isaiah - it is called the voice of one crying in the wilderness, that is, the Jordan, saying: prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight (Isaiah 40:3). The Gospel further says that these prophecies were fulfilled, for indeed, just before the appearance of the Savior of the world, the great prophet and Forerunner of the Lord John appeared, baptizing in the desert and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and all the inhabitants of the country of Judea and Jerusalem came out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Mark 1:4,5). Next, John's lifestyle is described, his exalted, divine character, his complete impartiality to everything that we are seduced by, to which we sinners passionately cling; - it is said that he wore the simplest, roughest, harshest, and not soft and thin clothes - made of camel hair and a leather belt around his loins, and ate locusts and wild honey, that is, raw vegetation at hand, and honey from wild, not domestic bees. And He preached to the people this: He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down to untie. I baptized you with water, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:7,8). This is the entire Gospel of this Sunday. Let us delve deeply and think about him for our common spiritual benefit and pay attention to the predictions of the two prophets about John the Baptist - what they predicted about him, about his position in the kingdom of Christ. He, they say, will prepare the way for the Lord, he will cry loudly to the people: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight (Is. 40:3), so he did, and so he prepared the people to receive the Lord. The words are very important, you need to understand them, interpret them thoroughly in order to understand their meaning and do business based on them. Their meaning is this: I, the Forerunner of Christ, preach to all of you, great and small, people of every rank and condition, gender and age, that the King of heaven has come to earth, the only begotten Son of God, Christ God, who in everything is like us in humanity, except for sin, to which He has nothing to do with it; He came for the salvation of each of you, and He wants to enter each of you into the spiritual home, into the heart, where His throne should be, as our King and God; but you, people, are not ready to accept Him because of your sins, because of your spiritual impurities: for others, the path to the heart is blocked by ignorance or unbelief; another has anger, envy, pride; this one - greed, stinginess, hard-heartedness towards neighbors and unmercifulness; for another - voluptuousness and lustful impurity; for others - intemperance, drunkenness, foul language; for others - incorrect, clouded by passions, false scholarship prevents them from believing and accepting the Lord with a sincere heart - learning about which God said through the prophet: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and reject the understanding of the prudent (Is. 29:14); For some, spectacles and games prevent them from accepting the Lord into their spiritual home, because other people are addicted to them and they have no place in their hearts for the heavenly Visitor and Savior of our souls; in general, various passions and vanities of life greatly hinder you from receiving and hosting the Lord. Prepare the way for the Lord: - firstly, sincerely believe in Him, secondly, sincerely repent and completely cast off your sins, your passions, sinful habits, inclinations, evil lusts, cleanse yourself, wash yourself, correct yourself, adorn your souls with virtue - simplicity, meekness, humility, kindness, self-control, purity, mercy, mutual sociability, friendliness, hospitality and hospitality, truth, faithful service, honest trade, honest work, obedience to parents, the king, superiors, good teaching, diligence, good behavior. This is the meaning of the prophetic words and the sermon of John the Baptist. – It is my duty to address you with the same words: Christ, the Heavenly King, has come to us on earth and wants to enter the spiritual home of each of us. Let us prepare to immediately receive Him: let us repent sincerely, leave behind our sins - evil, envy, pride, intemperance, drunkenness, foul language, fornication, hard-heartedness and stinginess, and let us adorn our souls with faith, love, meekness, mercy, self-control, righteousness, obedience, mutual respect and communication: - and the Lord will come to us along the path prepared for us, the straight paths, - and he will dwell in us and live and walk in us, as it is written in the Apostle: I will dwell in them, and will walk in them, and will be their God, and they will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty (2 Cor. 6:16-18; Lev. 26:12). Amen Word on the day of the Holy Epiphany of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ Today, beloved brethren, the Holy Church has offered us a very edifying reading from the Apostle, namely, from the letter of the Holy Apostle Paul to Titus. This is the reading: “Brothers! The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, teaching us that, having rejected ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live chastely, righteously and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us in order to deliver us from all iniquity and to purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good works. Speak, exhort and reprove this with all authority, so that no one despises you. Remind them to obey and submit to superiors and authorities, to be ready to do every good work, to speak evil of no one, to not be quarrelsome, but quiet, and to show all gentleness to all people. For we too were once foolish, disobedient, erring, we were slaves to lusts and various pleasures, we lived in malice and envy, we were vile, we hated each other. But when the grace and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we had done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Tit. 2:11-15, 3:1–7). Here is today's reading from the Apostle. The Apostle speaks of grace or mercy and the power of God, that is, of Christ, saving for all people, not excluding anyone who receives this grace. If this saving grace had not appeared through Jesus Christ and only in Him, then no one, not a single person, would have been saved, and everyone would have perished forever in sins: for sin naturally gives birth to death - temporary and eternal. But now saving grace has appeared to all people, and all who believe and submit to it can be saved; no one can make the excuse of impossibility or inability. This saving grace is found in the Church of Christ; adhere to it, fulfill its instructions and commandments, participate in its sacraments and Divine services, and you will certainly be saved. And so the saving grace of God requires of us that we, having rejected ungodliness, i.e. coldness and alienation from God, self-love and all sorts of worldly and carnal lusts, tried to live righteously, chastely and piously in the present age, awaiting the blessed hope and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Speaking about the present age, the Apostle means another age, a future one, which has no end, as can be seen at the end of this reading, and in the words that follow now; for further he says that we must all expect the blessed hope, that is, the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, the life of the next century and the appearance of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, meaning by the appearance of the glory of Christ His second coming in the terrible glory of the Heavenly Father, when all the nations and tribes of the earth will see His eternal glory and cannot help but recognize Him as God, although then He will be for many only a vengeful and terrible God I judge. The Apostle further says that Jesus Christ gave Himself for us, i.e. Having appeared into the world in the form of a man, he fulfilled for us all the truth of God, taught us piety, suffered, died and rose again for us, and gave us all the strength for a righteous life in order to deliver us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good deeds. So you and I, brothers and sisters, have the happiness of being a special people - the people of Christ. But, I ask, are we really a special people in life and deeds: are we zealous for good deeds? Are we not hasty and zealous for sin? - Quite often. - But may God save us from haste to sin in the future, may this not happen to any of us. Further, the Apostle reminds us of the good deeds that Christians should perform, namely, obedience to superiors and authorities, readiness for every good deed, for example, self-sacrifice out of love for God and neighbor, mercy and mutual help - about not slandering, not scolding, not blaspheming others with abusive words in anger and malice, not being grumpy or contentious, unyielding, but quiet and meek towards everyone. For this, the godly Apostle confesses the great mercy of God over himself, that the Lord saved him not for the works of righteousness that he had previously done, for he too was once foolish, i.e. when he was still a persecutor of the Church of God, disobedient, lost, a slave of lusts and various pleasures, he lived in malice and envy, [he was] vile and hated Christians - [but] by His mercy the Lord took him out of the abyss of destruction and washed him in the bath of regeneration, that is, baptism and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which the Heavenly Father poured out on him abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior - so that, being justified by His grace, both he and all Christians may become, according to hope, heirs of eternal life. So, away from us the dark senselessness in matters of piety, characteristic of unenlightened pagans walking in darkness and the shadow of death, let us cast far away from ourselves disobedience, lusts and various unauthorized, stupid and rude pleasures, malice and envy, all sorts of vile deeds and hatred of each other; and we will live in love and mutual assistance and in all piety and purity; Let us be a special people, zealous for good deeds. Let us always remember that a holy life is required of us - our life must differ from the life of the Mohammedans, for example, and the Jews, like heaven from earth; we must live on earth heavenly, as children of God, our love for God and neighbor must be ardent, unfeigned, selfless, firm, constant; we must constantly maintain purity and chastity, abstinence, create all truth, hate lies; show meekness and patience to everyone. “Have peace and holiness with everyone, and no one else will see the Lord.” Amen. Word for the Day of Epiphany The beginning of today's reading from the Apostle points us to the appearance in the world of the grace of God, saving for all people, and its end to eternal life, which will be inherited by all those who in this life hasten to take advantage of the grace of Christ for their salvation 3. - So, listen, Christians, incline your ears, sinners like me! We have now been sent down to us from God the Father bounties and all consolation, saving grace or saving power, with the help of which we can all be saved, and not one of us will perish, if only we diligently use it in time. This grace teaches us and together helps us to reject ungodliness or various worldly passions and lusts to which we have enslaved ourselves, to live chastely, righteously and godly in this short, preparatory age, in anticipation of the blessed hope and the appearing of glory, i.e. the second glorious coming of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us as a cleansing and reconciling sacrifice to God the Father, suffering and dying for us - in order to deliver us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a special people, zealous for good deeds, as a Christian people should be, that is, all of us, Orthodox Christians. But are we really like that? Are we a special people from all other non-Christians: Jews, Mohammedans, idolaters? Are we zealous for good deeds? Are there not among us Christians the same or greater sins as among non-Christians? To our shame, they are found everywhere; I will not name these sins, because they are obvious to everyone, obvious to everyone. Looking at our lives, or at some who call themselves Christians, sometimes you think: these are people of renewal, sons of God, royal priesthood, Christians, a special people, different from others! - But alas! It’s scary to say special, but only in the wrong sense, special - because of ignorance, because of rudeness, because of insolence, because of unbelief, because of drunkenness and debauchery, because of disrespect and contempt for the gift of life, the greatest, invaluable gift of God, because of disrespect for chastity, because of loose morals, because of disrespect and ingratitude for parents, for God-appointed authorities; - due to disrespect for the gift of speech, insanely, unchastely and seductively squandered in the press and in mutual communication. Let us come to our senses, Christians, and look around where we are going! What do we say and do? – Where is our guiding light? Where is the Gospel by which we must live? Do we listen and read it diligently? – Do those who have received education remember what they read, what they learned from this holy book of books? The uneducated, illiterate and illiterate are often more eager to hear and fulfill the Word of God than the educated; and the educated are often worse than the uneducated, because they distort their education, giving it a purely secular, worldly, and not Christian, not church, not spiritual character; They read only secular books and never the Gospel or other spiritual books. And without spiritual reading, as well as without Divine services, without participation in the Christian sacraments of confession and communion, without deeds of Christian virtue, can Christian life develop, prosper, and strengthen? So, Christians, let us try to be truly Christians, a special people, to strive for truth and holiness and for eternal life, to which we are called, out of zeal for good deeds, and not for vicious ones. Next, the Apostle Paul instructs Bishop Titus, to whom he is writing his epistle or letter, to remind Christians to obey and submit to the authorities and authorities, to be ready for every good work, not to slander anyone, not to be quarrelsome, but quiet, and to show all meekness to all people. This admonition must be addressed loudly and with special force in the present time to many lost and perishing Christians, who boldly rebel against the trampling of the authorities established by God, and against the most sacred life of God’s Anointed. But where are they? How will the word of the Church, the word of Christ, reach them? They also reject the Church. But the word of God in its action and in its very procession and spread is unlimited. It will reach them too, and may it enlighten their darkened meanings and hearts. But you, brethren, beware of such, and submit uncomplainingly to the authorities and authorities and be ready for every good deed; leave slander and foul language, abuse and quarrels; be meek, quiet in everything, following the example of the quietness and meekness of Christ. Brothers and sisters! If we have been given from God the grace and special power of God for salvation and for a holy Christian life, then we will be exacted much more severely at the Last Judgment of Christ if we neglect the grace of Christ and live in negligence. Let us always remember the grace given to us, let us diligently cultivate in ourselves the guarantee of grace, let us always remember that eternal life awaits us ahead if we use grace for the glory of God and for our salvation, or eternal torment, certainly eternal torment, if we reject the grace of God. Amen. A Word a Week on the Enlightenment The people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and to those sitting in the land and the hay of death, light was given to them (Matthew 4:16, Isaiah 9:2). This is how the prophet Isaiah once spoke, foreseeing by the Spirit of God the coming into the world of the non-evening Light - Christ. Five hundred years after this prophetic vision, people sitting in darkness actually saw a great light, and a great light actually shone on those sitting in the land and canopy or shadow of death. But what is this darkness and what is this light that the Prophet speaks of here? – The darkness mentioned in this prophecy is spiritual darkness, much worse than ordinary darkness; the darkness of ignorance of the true God, the deep darkness of superstition and idolatry. Before the appearance of the luminous Sun of Truth on earth, all idolaters, and once our Russian ancestors, all people, excluding the people of God, the chosen people, the Jews, were enveloped in such and such spiritual darkness. These people, sitting in darkness, saw, with the coming into the world of the Son of God, that great light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not embrace it (John 1:5), they saw that life-giving Source of all light, which is Christ the Lord, who by His coming to earth dispelled the deep darkness of ignorance of the true God everywhere and called people out of darkness into the wonderful light of the true Divine knowledge. And what, my brothers, were the terrible consequences for the human race from this dark night of ignorance that covered the ancient world for so long! Running through the time before the birth of the Savior, we meet here people who are led in life and faith by their own darkened minds and corrupted hearts, by their passions, immersed in wickedness and depravity. At that time, according to the word of the Prophet, they were likened to foolish cattle and became like them (Ps. 48:13), among them there was no one who did goodness, there was not even one (Ps. 13:3). Faith in the one true God, the Most Holy Being, had no place, with the exception of the Jewish people, among the people of these times. The glory of the incorruptible God was changed into the likeness of the corruptible image of man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things (Rom. 1:23). People did not know their Creator and gave due honor to Him to various creatures, which themselves must serve their Creator. Instead of worshiping and serving with fear and trembling the Lord and Judge of the world, man bowed to the creature, said to the tree: you are my father, and to the stones: you gave birth to me (Jer. 2:27). Having been so grossly mistaken in their faith in God, people were no less mistaken about themselves, putting the purpose of their lives in pleasure - as many do now, only with perishable and fleeting goods, not knowing why they are called to live in the world, not knowing about the dignity and high purpose of their soul. That is why they had a wicked and depraved life, similar to the life of senseless cattle. The devil, this primordial enemy of human salvation, has exhausted all his hellish cunning, all his evil efforts in order to pave the way from his dark region for all vices into the poor human race, which loved darkness rather than light (John 3:19). According to the word of the Apostle, people at this time walked in uncleanness, in lust, in drunkenness, in goat-speaking, in covetousness and in godless idolatry (1 Peter 4:3). And this wickedness, this debauchery made them the sons of destruction, the prey of hell. There was no deliverer; he hasn't shown up yet. The best of the people of that time, however, sometimes rose significantly above their contemporaries by some purity of their thoughts and feelings, by some knowledge about the true God, about the purpose and purpose of the human soul, and therefore they even tried, in their own strength, to please Him. But they were not alien to errors and vices of a different kind, inseparable from the everywhere darkness of idolatry. And most importantly, they could never, through their own efforts, achieve proper knowledge of the true God; they did not have faith in the future Redeemer of men, which alone justified a person before the court of God’s truth; there was no light that enlightens every person coming into the world (John 1:9), and therefore there was no opportunity for salvation for them. These, my brothers, are the truly terrible and deplorable consequences of this terrible night of ignorance! But now comes the predetermined end of times. The corruption of people has reached the last extreme. Man himself feels complete powerlessness and exhaustion in the fight against sin and strongly desires and expects help from above - and the merciful God sends His Only Begotten Son to earth: to give all-powerful help to completely exhausted and needy humanity, to disperse the thick darkness that covered humanity and to illuminate those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death with the light of His God-Mind. Here He resolves the coming condemnation of the primordial Adam 4, whose crime cast all his descendants into this darkness, and Himself, as God, not needing purification, cleanses fallen man in the Jordan, in which, having killed the enmity that separated man from God by an impenetrable abyss, He gives people peace that surpasses all understanding. They are enlightened by holy baptism and are already beginning to taste that spiritual, heavenly peace that the Savior promises to all those who work and are burdened in this world. People are no longer led by their own passions in their lives and, like lost sheep who have again received the good Shepherd, they follow His voice and walk in Him. Instead of the former likeness to cattle, the lost likeness of God now appears in them in all its purity and strength; instead of the distorted image of God, there appears an image restored in all its greatness, so that people are made a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy tongue, people of renewal (1 Pet. 2:9), and become capable of demonstrating virtues in their own lives. Faith in the one, true God is established in the human race; quickly spreading throughout cities, entire kingdoms, throughout the world. Already the Apostle of Languages ​​thanks the Roman Christians for the fact that their faith is preached throughout the world (Rom. 1:8); already the other Apostles greet their numerous Churches with joy with the knowledge of the Light of truth. All peoples try to worthily worship the one, incorruptible, invisible, immortal God and, having come to know His infinite greatness and holiness, they no longer change His glory into the likeness of the corruptible image of man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things (Rom. 1:23). People now recognize themselves well, their soul, its heavenly origin and high purpose in the future; they know that God has given them eternal life to eat, and this life is in His Son; that great and precious promises have been given to us, so that through them we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4). The world, lying in evil (1 John 5:19), with the coming to earth of the Source of all good, begins to gradually emerge from the depths of evil. The darkness is passing, and the true Light is already shining (1 John 2:8); people in joy rush to be enlightened by Him and seek to enjoy His saving fruits. The works of the devil are destroyed; the days of his dark dominion over the world are over; heaven has reconciled with earth; the kingdom of God has come near for people; instead of children of wrath they are called sons of God. Man has been granted all the Divine powers, including life and piety (2 Pet. 1:3), and it depended and now depends solely on his will to be either a member of the heavenly kingdom or a prey of hell. Such are truly the most salutary and comforting consequences of this heavenly Light, which shone upon those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death! My brothers! At our very entry into the world, we are enlightened by holy baptism; From birth we bear the sacred name of Christians, we are called sons of light. It seems that none of us wants to count ourselves among those poor people who once sat in darkness and of whom there are still some; no one thinks of himself that, despite the high title of Christian, he remains in darkness, especially the so-called enlightened people, with the modern gloss of education. But, brethren, the Word of God also points out among us those who, even though they are Christians, remain in darkness. Who are these unfortunate people? These are those of us who hate our brother (1 John 2:9)! Yes, brethren, this is a truly bitter truth, and it seems difficult to believe that we, in the light of the knowledge of God, would remain in darkness. Nevertheless, however, this is an undoubted truth. Not to mention whether we accept with our minds and hearts and with all our souls all the dogmas of our holy faith, whether we try to multiply with our good deeds the grace imparted to us in the sacraments of the Church, or whether we criminally abuse these sacraments and thereby, therefore, condemn ourselves to remain in darkness, because we do not do works of faith; - without talking about all this, let us listen to what Christ’s beloved confidant John says this time, and whom he places in darkness: Say to yourself in the light of being, says the Apostle of God, but hate your brother, he is in darkness until now (1 John 2:9). We are all brothers with each other in Christ! Who will not agree that the sin of hatred of one’s neighbor is almost the most common, very often, much more often than other sins, repeated among us? How many different types of this sin are there? Do not envy, blasphemy, slander, murder and many others stem from one main root - hatred? Yes, these sins reign most in the human race. If we add to this the fact that love for one’s neighbor is closely connected with love for God, so that whoever, according to the Apostle, does not love his brother cannot love God, then we agree that all those who hate their neighbors remain in darkness until now. Terrible truth! What should we do, brothers, so that in all justice we may belong to the flock of Christ, to people walking in the light? What means will we choose for this? Mental illnesses, as well as physical illnesses, are for the most part cured by means that are directly opposite to them. Therefore, a real disease - hatred - can and should be treated in the same way. If hatred of our neighbor is the reason that we remain in darkness, then love is a virtue completely opposite to hatred and can place us in the light. Love is the beginning and soul of all virtues, and therefore the one who has it will do everything necessary to remain in the light, to fulfill the whole law: because love, as the Apostle Paul says, is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:10). And whoever fulfills the law of Christ is the gracious son of God, and, therefore, the son of the gracious Light. Christ the King, Holy Light, turn those who praise You from darkness of ignorance to faith! Enlighten us with Your commandments and the light of Your face, and grant Your peace to us who cry out to You from the darkness of sin. Amen. This Sunday day is called the week of the Enlightenment, or a week's day on which one should not engage in ordinary everyday affairs, worldly, earthly, but do the work of saving one's soul - according to the Enlightenment, that is, after baptism, which both before and now was and is called Enlightenment, because through baptism spiritual light is given from God to our souls, the light of the knowledge of God and piety, a sign of which hitherto are lamps or wax candles lit at the font, as well as lit candles in the hands of the recipient and recipient. This spiritual, imperishable, eternal light, communicated to our souls, is Christ our God Himself, the true Light, enlightening every person who comes into the world; spiritual darkness is sin, or the culprit and leader of sin, the prince of darkness, the devil, darkening and seducing the human race with sin, teaching every sin and dragging a person into eternal destruction. In accordance with this meaning of this Sunday, the Gospel is read at mass about the coming of Jesus Christ from the city of Nazareth, where He lived and was raised, into pagan Galilee to the people sitting in darkness in the land and shadow of death, and about their enlightenment, as the prophet Isaiah predicted 700 years before the coming of Christ to earth, saying: the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali are on the way seaside, beyond the Jordan, pagan Galilee, the people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and light dawned on those sitting in the land and shadow of death (Matthew 4:15,16; Isaiah 9:1,2). And since spiritual enlightenment is accomplished through sincere repentance of sins, which are real darkness, eternal darkness and eternal torment, then the Lord, who settled in this land of darkness and the shadow of death, began to preach and said: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). So, true repentance drives away the darkness of sin, sin and the culprit of sin, the devil, who lives and reigns in the hearts of sinners, and establishes in the heart of the believer and the repentant the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of truth, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, the kingdom of Christ. This is the content and meaning of the current Gospel; it speaks of our spiritual enlightenment, of repentance for sins, of the closeness to us now, with the coming of Christ God to earth - the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of grace, which is His Church - this kingdom of grace on earth - in which all Divine powers are given to us for life and piety (2 Pet. 1:3): therefore the word should be about Christian enlightenment. –Are we all enlightened Christians? Do we all live in constant, sincere repentance, like eternal sinners, guilty of the judgment of God, if we add sins to sins; Are we diligently trying to do good deeds, for which we were created, or have we become fussy, crushed and chasing the dreams of our hearts? I asked myself and you these questions in order to show that true Christian enlightenment consists in knowing oneself or that: who are we, and what are we for? what we were in the beginning when we were created by God; what we have become by committing sin, and what we must certainly be; further, true Christian enlightenment consists in sincere, active, and not empty, formal, false repentance, served by many of us every year on the indicated days and not subsequently accompanied by the fruits of repentance - a good life, deeds of truth, mercy, abstinence, purity and holiness, a zealous desire for Christian perfection, according to scripture: be you perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48), - further, in order to show - that true Christian enlightenment does not consist only in literacy, or the study of various sciences, about the earth and what is on earth, or about heaven and celestial mechanics concerning, - and not even in the study of the Christian science of knowledge of God - because you can be literate and a theologian and not have true enlightenment in your soul, you can even be, as happens in reality, a person completely darkened by the darkness of passions; and it, i.e. Christian enlightenment consists in enlightening the eyes of the heart with the light of the Gospel of Christ, in removing with the help of the grace of Christ through repentance and prayer from all darkness of passions, in removing from oneself wickedness, unbelief, self-love, conceit, malice, pride, anger, hatred, envy, condemnation of others, hard-heartedness and greed, in removing from idleness and vanity, or from the destructive art of passing and killing time, for example, in playing cards and various shows such as theaters and circuses; from untruth and covetousness - from an unclean, adulterous life, from reading empty books, which may contain skillful cunning fabric and wordplay and the art of language, but in their essence do not contain any edification and leave only regret for the time spent on them. So, Christian enlightenment, beloved brothers and sisters, consists in sincere faith in Christ, in self-knowledge, in unfeigned repentance and removal from evil, and in the constant pursuit of Christian virtue and perfection for the sake of eternal bliss in God and with God. If you have realized that you are dust and dust, that you are the stench of sin, that you are a sinner, always worthy of God’s punishment; if you are kind and simple-hearted, meek, humble in heart, peaceful and peace-loving, patient and selfless, love the truth, stand for it and despise untruth; if you are sincerely benevolent, merciful and compassionate; if you are temperate, sincere, respect purity and innocence, hate idleness and idle amusements, and study day and night in the fulfillment of the Gospel - this wise, life-giving, righteous, eternal science-sciences; then you possess incorruptible Christian, and not illusory worldly, enlightenment that disappears like a meteor, and you are not far from the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of God is already within you (Luke 17:21); What God forbid we have time to congratulate ourselves on. Amen. Today, beloved, I want to offer you my word on the Apostolic and Gospel readings set for this Sunday, called the week of Enlightenment, that is, after the Baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ. Reading from the Apostle, specifically from the epistle of St. The Apostle Paul to the Ephesians had the following content: “Brethren, writes the Apostle, each of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore it is said: He ascended on high, took captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And He ascended, what does it mean if not that He had previously descended into the underworld of the earth? He who descended is also He who ascended above all the heavens to fill everything. And He appointed some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be shepherds and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:7-13). Here ends the reading from the Apostle. – It talks about various grace-filled gifts to Christians, necessary for the salvation of the soul and in order for them to be mutually useful to each other, as members of the great body of the Church of Christ. Who gave these grace-filled, spiritual gifts? The Lord Jesus Christ, about whom it was predicted in this sense by the king - the prophet David: “having ascended to the heights, that is, to heaven, he took captivity captive,” that is, the captivity of the enemy, warrior and destroyer of the human race - the devil, captivity, which he owned for too 5000 years, and gave gifts to people. What gifts exactly? “The Apostle speaks about these gifts in his letter to the inhabitants of the city of Corinth, who were converted to the Christian faith from pagans and Jews: “I do not want,” he says, “brethren, to leave you ignorant of spiritual gifts. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and the services are different, but the Lord who works in the servants is one and the same; actions are different, but God is one and the same, producing everything in everyone. But everyone is given the manifestation of the Spirit for their benefit. To one is given the word of wisdom by the Holy Spirit, to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to others gifts of healings by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another divers tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He pleases” (1 Cor. 12:1-11). Here we are talking about special, extraordinary gifts of grace that were given by the Holy Spirit to the first Christians for the speedy spread and establishment of the Church of Christ between Jews and pagans. But many of these gifts of God have not become scarce even now, just as they will not become scarce until the end of this age; for the Lord says: Behold, I am with you to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20); and if He is always with us, then His gifts are always with us. So, each of us has been given so much grace from God that with its help everyone can save his soul and be useful to others. No one is deprived of the gift of God; therefore, each of us must work out our salvation with fear and not be excused by inability or impossibility. The Apostle further speaks of the all-powerful power of the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, on earth and in the underworld, that He fills everything with Himself as unlimited; - and that He is the omnipotent Head of the Church or Christian society, and He appointed in the Church some as Apostles, others as prophets, as they were in the primal Church, others as Evangelists, others as shepherds and teachers, for the perfection of saints, that is, for Christians to achieve a holy life, for the work of service, that is, in the Church for the Body of Christ, that is, believers: for we are all one spiritual body under The head is Christ until we all come into the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph. 4:13), of course, not bodily, but spiritual. So, the all-holy, all-powerful, all-wise, indescribably loving Lord founded on earth the Church or society of believers in Him and in this Church established, among other things, the sacred rank of rank or church hierarchy, i.e. shepherds and teachers: bishops, priests and deacons to guide Christians to holy life, to perform Divine services and sacraments, to preach the Word of God and to govern the believers. Listen, brothers, to your shepherds, accept from the heart their soul-helping advice, instructions and admonitions, and sometimes penances, and do not separate from the Church, lest the enemy and sin overcome you; beware of communicating with schismatics, blasphemers of the Holy Church and its shepherds, who have neither real shepherds and teachers, nor the Holy sacraments, nor grace-filled powers for salvation, and who are like lost and lost sheep, wandering in strange pastures, unfenced, without shepherds and without nutritious and saving food, hungry and miserable, prey to wolves and eternal destruction; especially the imaginary leaders of the schismatics. Tell them on behalf of the Church that they are perishing through knowledge or ignorance through their stubbornness and ignorance and through distance from the Church of Christ, from its true shepherds and teachers. – Everyone adhere sincerely and firmly to the Church of God, the only saving, immaculate one. If anyone says that the shepherds do not satisfy us, do not give us verbal food, do not feed us with words of faith, then I will answer this: urgently demand from us this spiritual food, without which the soul dies of hunger. We are always ready to preach the saving Word of God to you, just listen with your heart and try to fulfill what you hear. I also repeat: adhere with all your heart to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, and the Lord will always be with you. Now a word on the Gospel reading. In the Gospel today we read that our Lord Jesus Christ, after His baptism and temptation in the desert from the devil according to humanity, and after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, withdrew from Nazareth, where he was raised, to the seaside city of Capernaum, to the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, to the Galilean pagans, as was predicted by the prophet Isaiah 700 years ago. before the Nativity of Christ - and brought with Him the Divine light; the people sitting in darkness saw a great light, and light dawned on those sitting in the land and shadow of death (Matthew 4:16; Isaiah 9:1,2). We do not envy you, Galileans, but we rejoice with you: for we ourselves, former pagans, have long been worthy of accepting the Christian faith, through the Equal-to-the-Apostles Russian Prince St. Vladimir, and have been illuminated abundantly with its heavenly light; The only question is, do we have sufficient fruits of the faith of Christ - are we saved through it, are we perfected - do we bring Christ the fruits of repentance and virtuous living? Are we being sanctified, are we living holy? – The solution to these issues lies on the conscience of each of us. The Apostle implores us all to act worthy of the calling to which we have been called. – Further, Evangelist Matthew in today’s Gospel narrates that from the time of his settlement in Capernaum, Jesus Christ began to preach and say: repent, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near (Matthew 4:17). Why did the Lord begin his sermon with a word about repentance? Because sinners need nothing more for salvation than repentance and faith; Without repentance, pardon and reconciliation with God are impossible: for sin is the greatest enmity against God; darkness that does not allow the communication of the light of God; impurity that does not allow the most pure God to dwell in the heart. Repent, says the Lord, for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near, because God Himself came to earth in the flesh to seek and save the lost (Matthew 18:11): it was not we sinners who first approached God, but God Himself who approached us with the strongest love and took pity on us who were perishing. In fact, judge and consider: can the kingdom of heaven be even closer to us, as after the coming to earth of the Heavenly King Himself, the Only Begotten Son of God? Look: He, unapproachable to angels, walks the earth, deals with sinners, is accessible to everyone; teaches, works miracles, eats and drinks with people, calls those faithful to Him brothers and friends; grieves with our sorrows, suffers with our illnesses; takes upon himself our ailments and illnesses; rejoices in our joys, suffered for us and died for us, in order to save us from eternal suffering and put to death our universal death, in order to deliver us from the righteous curse of God and grant to all reconciliation with the Heavenly Father and His eternal blessing. – And not only then – He is always close to us, according to His promise: behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). He is close to us in the Church, in which He eternally abides: in its hierarchy, in its Divine services and sacraments, in God’s Gospel Word, in the wonderful gifts of grace, - and personally, by His very Being, both in His omnipresence, and especially tangibly, life-giving and miraculously in His most pure Mysteries, in His body and blood, in which all of His essentially rests Divinity and humanity. In these St. Secrets enter our homes, communicate to the sick, miraculously healing their mental and physical ailments. He is close to all who live in faith, truth, peace and mutual love. The kingdom of heaven is so close to us! Why is it so, so far away for some? - Because they themselves are very, very distant and do not want to approach Him through repentance and faith. So, all of you, repent sincerely: and the kingdom of heaven will draw near to you and dwell in you, and make you blessed on earth and in heaven. Amen. Lesson per week on the Enlightenment From there Jesus began to preach and say: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near (Matthew 4:17). After baptism in the Jordan River by John and after temptation in the desert from the devil, Jesus Christ solemnly revealed Himself to the world, beginning to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and perform countless miracles for the benefit of needy people. His first word to sinful people was a word about repentance and the approach of the kingdom of heaven. From there Jesus began to preach and say: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near. For what could be the first word from the Savior to sinners if not a word about repentance and strict, sincere self-condemnation and recognition of complete guilt before the all-holy God? And what word, first of all, could be addressed to those who have departed immeasurably from God and His life, His righteousness, if not the joyful news about the approach of the kingdom of God to them? For what is the kingdom of God? This is the same as the kingdom of Christ, or Christ Himself, who came in the flesh, the kingdom of truth and holiness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins; sonhood or adoption of us sinners - through faith and baptism and other sacraments - to God; boldness before God; removal from all earthly attachments and looking up to God; ardent love for God and neighbors; strength and power over passions and over demons, who constantly plot intrigues over people and seek to plunge them into all sorts of sins and destroy them; The kingdom of God is a constant ascent from virtue to virtue, from earth to heaven, from corruption to incorruption, from death to immortality, from temporary and disappearing life to life without end. – Since in the beginning we were created immortal in our souls, with the ability for immortality and in the body, and declined into death, destruction, and corruption through our own fault: through sin, through the abyss of our sins, it is clear in itself that when we are again given the opportunity for justification, sanctification and immortality in Christ, our justification must be accomplished through repentance of sins, through unceasing repentance, through a multitude, an abyss of repentance, so to speak. The number of times you fall into sins, the more you will rise through repentance and be saved, says the prophet. Repent! Without repentance it is impossible to be worthy of the kingdom of God: for what fellowship is there between light and darkness, righteousness with lawlessness, Christ with beliar (2 Cor. 6:14,14)? Your sins separate you from God (Is. 59:2), says the prophet Isaiah. Like connects with like. And the whole order of nature is structured this way: the homogeneous tends to the homogeneous. It’s the same with people. A sinner, as long as he remains stuck in sin, is a child of the devil, for through sin he carries his likeness in his soul and strives for every sin. Thus, an evil person is like the evil devil; evil is the likeness of him, the chief of evil; envious - the likeness of the original envious man, who through envy destroyed the first people; unclean - the likeness of the unclean and all-filthy devil, who taught and teaches people all kinds of uncleanness and abomination; the wayward and adversary of good is a similarity to the first adversary of God. You cannot work with God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). We must sincerely condemn everything in ourselves that is bad and contrary to God, sincerely hate every sin, every passion, every malice, every earthly addiction, and carefully move away from evil. Then the Lord, seeing in us the fight against evil and love for good, will hasten to us, recreate His likeness in us and with favor, as the all-good and loving One, will dwell in our hearts. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him (John 14:23). “So the kingdom of God is approaching us!” It comes to us, dwells in us - through sincere repentance and fulfillment of the will of God. Repent, the kingdom of heaven is drawing near. The kingdom of heaven, or the grace of Christ our Savior, secretly and openly follows us everywhere during our earthly life and is ready to dwell in us, in our heart, if it finds in us the disposition and readiness for it. Behold, I stand at the door (of the heart) and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with Me (Rev. 3:20), says the Lord. Grace everywhere, at all times, seeks the salvation of the sinner: for our salvation was bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23). With you and at home in solitude, she secretly illuminates your mind, your heart, at times disposing it to repentance or to gratitude for the countless blessings of God - she talks with you on the road, knocks on you both in public meetings, and during your mental and physical labors, and everywhere she is ready to open her holy motherly arms to you, if only you would come to your senses, feel, believe, soften, enlightened. – And many, many are saved secretly and openly by the grace of God, extracting them from the abyss of sins in various ways known to God alone. The kingdom of God is always so close to us, and salvation is so convenient for us everywhere, if only we wish to live by faith and value our salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ, through His incarnation, through His life on earth, through His teaching, miracles, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, poured out on the earth, or better yet, on the Church, the entire abyss of His grace: enlightening, merciful, cleansing, sanctifying, renewing, affirming, guiding, saving; poured out a whole sea of ​​grace; Come everyone and draw the water of salvation as much as you want. Draw water with joy from the fountain of salvation (Isaiah 12:3), cries the prophet. He who believes in Me, says the Lord, will have rivers of living water flowing from his belly (John 7:38). Such were Chrysostom, Vasily, Athanasius, Gregory. - Now, in the times of the New Testament, not like in the times of the Old Testament, - and visible signs and containers of the kingdom of God - the churches of God are everywhere; they are even placed in public and sometimes private houses - among noble people; The kingdom of God is established, so to speak, under the roof of our houses. What is more convenient? – Come and draw the grace of salvation that flows abundantly in the Church. Use the grace of repentance, approach the Mysteries of Christ with tenderness and boldness; study the dogmas and sacraments of the faith in church and at home; listen and read scriptures; Sing, praise, give thanks to the Lord, speaking to yourself in psalms and songs and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19), and behold, you are in the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is in you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age, says the Lord (Matthew 28:20). And He is really with us always, in every place He hears, has mercy, saves us, cleanses our sins, sanctifies, revives, heals ailments, delivers from the snares of the devil, helps in labor, comforts the poor, the mourning, the sick, either Himself invisibly, or through His Saints, and through good people - He has mercy on everyone, but also reproaches everyone, admonishes and punishes, as God and Judge righteous, who searches hearts and bellies (Ps. 7:10). – The kingdom of God is so close, the kingdom of heaven on earth: it lives with us, knocks on our doors, enters those who wish and repent and brings its pure, incorruptible, life-giving benefits of truth, peace and spiritual bliss. “But if the kingdom of heaven is so close to us and is so ready to always embrace us and dwell in us, then we will be irresponsible before God if we move away from the kingdom of God, if we cast it away from ourselves with a bold hand.” God is not mocked (Gal.6:7). A certain expectation of judgment and fire of jealousy, ready to devour opponents (Heb. 10:27), says the Apostle Paul, is terrible. Brethren! repent, the kingdom of heaven is drawing near. - Amen. Teaching on the Day of the Presentation of the Lord Now do You let Your servant go, O Master, according to Your word, in peace (Luke 2:29). The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord is so called because the righteous elder Simeon, who lived in Jerusalem, met the fourty-day-old Infant, the Lord Jesus Christ with His Most Pure Mother, in the Jerusalem Temple, took Him in his arms and said: Now do You let Your servant go, O Master, according to Your word, in peace: as mine eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all people: light in the revelation of tongues, and the glory of Your people Israel (Luke 2:29-32). This old man was marvelous both in his holiness: for the Holy Spirit always abided in him, both in his enlightenment and in his old age - he was three hundred and sixty years old. We can say that, beyond the law of nature, God’s grace miraculously preserved him for so long. This is what church history tells about this St. old man When Ptolemy, the king of Egypt, who lived almost 300 years BC, the founder of the glorious Library of Alexandria, wanted to translate the Bible from Hebrew into Greek, he sent a request to the Jewish high priest. The high priest chose from among the Israelites seventy men who were wise and skilled in both languages. Among them we find the righteous Simeon. While translating the book of the prophet Isaiah, when Simeon reached the prophecy: behold, a virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son (Is. 7:14), he doubted and stopped, reasoning with himself, how can a virgin give birth to a child? Then he took a knife and wanted to erase the prophecy in his manuscript. Suddenly an Angel of the Lord appears to him and, holding his hand, says to him: believe what is written. You yourself will see the event of the greatest sacrament, for you will not see death until you see Christ the Lord having to be born from the Most Pure Virgin. Having established himself on the words of the Angel and the Prophet, from that time Simeon awaited the coming of Christ with ardent desire: he lived righteously and chastely and constantly prayed to God. When the born Savior, after fourty days, was brought to the Church by the God-Blessed Mother, then Simeon, knowing from above that this Child is the promised Savior and His Mother is the Holy Virgin, on whom the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled, with reverence and joy accepted the Lord into his arms and uttered the spoken words. Then, having given thanks to God, who had given consolation to Israel, he gave up his spirit. That is why the Lord so unusually continued his days, that is, in order for him to live until the summer in which the flightless, beginningless God was born in the flesh. We have happiness and bliss no less than Simeon, even more; for with our hearts we accept the Lord Jesus Christ when we partake of His Mysteries. On what occasion was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord established? For not soon after the Ascension of the Lord into heaven and after the descent of St. Spirit was established like some other holidays: Easter, Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension and Pentecost, and almost 500 years later after the Nativity of Christ. Here's the occasion: during the ill-fated year of Justinian's reign, in the last days of October, a pestilence broke out in Constantinople and surrounding countries and raged so strongly that finally a thousand people died, 10 per day, and in some places there was such desolation that there was no one to bury the dead. And in Antioch, in addition to this plague, terrible earthquakes continued, destroying houses and churches every year, and many people died under their ruins. By the way, the church building collapsed when Euphrasius, Bishop of Antioch, made a bloodless sacrifice in it. The city of Pompeopolis was half destroyed, and the other half of it was swallowed up by the earth with thousands of inhabitants. To avert this wrath of the Lord, according to the special revelation of a certain saint. man, the solemn celebration of the Presentation of the Lord was established. And as soon as, on the 2nd day of February, they began an all-night vigil with a procession of the cross, at that hour the plague passed, the pestilence ceased, and the earthquake was tamed. This is the kind of wrath of God that our iniquities, our unbelief, our negligence about salvation, our ingratitude, ill-will and hard-heartedness bring upon us and upon the earth itself. Oh, terrible monster - sin! O all-destroying monster - sin! Let us run at all costs from this hundred-headed hydra, the snake. Let us kill the sins within ourselves! Let us continually repent. Beloved, without fasting, repentance and prayer, like a warrior without a weapon, a Christian cannot defeat the sin that lives in him. Amen. Now, O Master, dost let Thy servant go in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation (Luke 2:29). Thus, before the end of his life, the holy elder Simeon proclaimed, taking in his arms the forty-day-old Child, our Lord Jesus Christ, Whom, according to the custom of the law, which also remains with us, the Most Holy Virgin Mary brought into the church. Joyfully She held in Her arms the One who contains all creation; Elder Simeon joyfully looked at his approaching death: because in his arms he saw the One who reassured him in safety and blissful life and after death. But we are not jealous of you, righteous elder! We ourselves have your happiness - to lift up not only the Divine Jesus in our arms, but with our lips and hearts, just as you always carried Him in your heart, not yet seeing Him, but devouring Him - and not once in your life, not ten, but as many times as we want. Who will not understand, beloved brethren, that I am talking about communion of the life-giving Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ? – Yes, we have greater happiness than St. Simeon: and the righteous elder, one might say, embraced the Life-Giver Jesus in his arms as a sign of how those who believe in Christ in the future, all the days until the end of time, will lift and carry Him, not only in their arms, but in their very hearts. Not only in their arms, I say, because the priests who perform the Divine Liturgy lift Him in their arms during each Liturgy with their actions, and then - oh, immeasurable mercy - they embrace Him in the arms of their hearts! O Jesus, the Son of God, an abyss of goodness and generosity! How do You not scorch us, unclean in heart and lips, always unworthy of Your most pure and life-giving Mysteries? But what am I saying? You scorch our unworthiness when we do not bring to You, reclining on the throne, firm and unshakable faith and contrition of heart, but you also immediately revive us, give us peace and joy when we are corrected from the disease of doubt and lack of faith: - for You are the Truth and will not allow even the slightest shadow of doubt to be in us unpunished. And so we lift up the Lord, like Simeon, in our arms every liturgy, but you, at least most of you, are granted the happiness of lifting up your Savior only once or several times a year, and then always after worthy preparation for this? God grant that everyone approaches such a terrible sacrament with proper preparation. One must be surprised at the lack of faith and coldness of Christians towards Christ, the Giver of Life and their Lord! The fountain of immortality flows daily: come prepared and drink; especially since many are sick in spirit and body, have a lot of free time, and many spend it in idleness. And what do we see? Despite the fact that we all feel in our souls the burden of sins and passions, our guilt, our repentance before God, our powerlessness in the fight against passions: we come to the Lord, who offers Himself daily as food for the faithful and is ready to show all help to the needy and burdened. We see, and even then not always, almost only unconscious infants drinking from the immortal Source; and even those sometimes - alas! brought to St. The secrets are not fathers, not mothers, not nurses, not grandmothers, but women taken, as they say, from the wind, sometimes beggars. What inattention to the greatest shrine! Lord Life-Giver Savior! What have we come to? – You come out every day to meet us at the gates of Your church, and we respond to You with indifference and even the most senseless negligence. How long do you tolerate our untruths, our coldness, our insensitivity, our pride? The Lord is patient with us, brethren, not even though some will perish forever, but may all come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9), so that sooner or later they will turn from their insensibility. Thus, most Christians coldly greet the Lord in the church - in His Holy Mysteries, they rarely approach the Holy Mysteries - to taste their Lord, but at least, even in their illness, or before their death, like Simeon, they all wanted to joyfully lift up the Lord and see His salvation. - No: many run away from Him even in illness and, when they are offered immortal food and drink and together with the all-healing healing of the Body and Blood of the Life-Giver, they put it off until the future, which they cannot have for sure: because our life is in the power of God; and many have the secret thought that they receive communion only as if before death. Christ God! Didn't You say with Your pure lips that You came to earth so that people would have life, and have it in abundance, and not to destroy them? The Son of Man did not come to destroy the souls of men, but to save (Luke 9:56). I came to death, and they had belly, and they had more (John 10:10). And in St. In the mysteries do you not grant life to all who receive them with faith? Don’t you often miraculously heal diseases? Don’t you always resolve and cleanse us from sins? How long will we be foolish, unfaithful and blind? And with what joy would each of us say before death after a worthy acceptance of St. Thy mysteries: now dost thou release thy servant, O Master, according to thy word, in peace, from this short-lived, vain age: as my eyes have seen thy salvation, here in the first fruits, but I hope that I will see it accomplished there, in eternity. Now, even if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me (Ps. 22:4). Receive my spirit in peace. But behold, brethren, the meeting of the Lord will come for all people - for Christians, Jews, Hagarites and pagans, that is, for the entire human race: if you have not learned here to meet Him meek and humble, how will you meet Him in unapproachable glory? Where will we end up then? Where will I end up with my current carelessness and coldness towards the Lord? Will not the sons of the kingdom be cast out into utter darkness, where there will be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42)? The Apostle says it will happen! How do we escape, i.e. from future torments, about the total carelessness of salvation: the hedgehog began to receive the words from the Lord, who heard the message in us? (Heb.2:3) Brethren! In order for us to joyfully meet the Lord at His second, glorious coming, we will learn to meet Him here - annually on the feast of the Presentation and especially in the Holy Mysteries, that is, we will approach the Holy Chalice with great faith and a contrite and humble heart. For those who are accustomed to meet Him worthily here, in the present century, there will be no fear in meeting Him at His second and glorious coming. God! Although you may come again to judge the universe with righteousness, deign me also to seat You on the clouds of my Judge and God, so that I may endlessly glorify and sing Your praises with Your beginningless Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen. Teaching on the Transfiguration of the Lord The Holy Church is now celebrating, and we are celebrating with her, the blessed feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor and the glorification of our human nature in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will repeat in Russian speech the Gospel or the all-joyful gospel of the Evangelist Matthew about the present day, telling about the event of transfiguration. - “At that time, Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and led them up to a high mountain alone. And He was transfigured before them: and His face shone like the sun, His clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. At this Peter said to Jesus: Lord! It's good for us to be here; If you want, we will make three tabernacles here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice from the cloud said: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were very afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said: Arise, and do not be afraid. Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus alone. And when they came down from the mountain, Jesus rebuked them, saying: Tell no one about this vision until the Son of man rises from the dead” (Matthew 17:1-9). Here is the end of the Gospel story. So, the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ consisted in the fact that during His prayer on Mount Tabor, as another Evangelist supplements this legend, His face suddenly shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as snow (Luke 9:29). At this time, the disciples appeared: the ancient prophet and legislator of the Jewish people Moses and the prophet Elijah, who was once taken alive to heaven on a chariot of fire and on horses of fire; They appeared in glory, that is, in heavenly light, and talked with the Lord about the coming suffering and about His death on the cross in Jerusalem, as Evangelist Luke complements this legend. Why did the Lord show the Apostles His heavenly glory, the lordship of His Divinity as much as they could contain, no more, because otherwise they would not have survived? Man cannot see My face, God said to Moses in the Old Testament, and remain alive (Exodus 33:20). In order, again and again, after countless miracles, to show them in the most obvious way His Divinity and His oneness with the Father, so that they would not waver in faith during His suffering and death, but would understand and understand that He suffered and died voluntarily, for the sins of the world, and boldly preached about Him to people that He is truly the Only Begotten Son of God, the eternal Creator of the visible and invisible, or angelic world. Why did the prophets appear, Moses, who lived before Jesus Christ for one and a half thousand years, and Elijah - almost a thousand years? And what is the glory for? – They appeared to testify to the Apostles that Jesus Christ is the one predicted by the prophets of old, the true Messiah, the Savior of the world, possessing the living and the dead, and to instruct the disciples in the urgent need of His suffering and death for the redemption of the world. They appeared in glory in order to assure the disciples that the same or even greater glory awaited them for their exploits on earth as the disciples and friends of Christ. The prophets talked with the Lord about the terrible suffering of the Lord for us in Jerusalem; and Peter, who did not know what he was saying, wanted to enjoy bliss on Tabor in the presence of the Lord: it is good for us to be here, says, Lord: let us make three tabernacles, i.e. tents of green branches, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. No, Peter the Apostle, it is not the place or time for you to be blissful here; but I insist that you endure severe suffering and the most blasphemous death. Didn't you hear what Moses and Elijah talked about with the Lord during His transfiguration? Not about bliss, but about the suffering and death that He had to endure. But Peter himself did not know, as it is said, out of great joy and happiness what he was saying. It was necessary to enlighten him and the other disciples from above, and Peter had not yet finished his words when a voice was heard from heaven: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to Him (Matthew 17:5); that is, do not follow what pleases you, what is pleasant: but listen to Him, My beloved Son. – What did He say so recently? – If anyone wants to come after Me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Me (Luke 9:23). This is where you need to obey Him. And we, brothers and sisters, should not look for joys and bliss on earth; here is not the place and time for bliss, but the place and time of tearful repentance and purifying sorrows. Bliss will be there, in heaven, forever and ever for all who truly believed and labored here. The disciples were afraid of the voice of God because they were still imperfect and earthly. The Lord took away fear from them with His touch and the word: Do not be afraid. Opening their eyes, they saw only the Lord and in his usual form. When descending from the mountain, He did not allow them to tell the people about this vision until He rose from the dead; Why? - because the Lord had to suffer and die for the salvation of the world and you and me, brothers, and he did not want His Divine glory to be glorified before suffering and the end of the work of redemption, and to give us an example of humility, so that we would not seek glory from people, but from God. So, brothers and sisters, let us not seek joy and bliss or vain glory on earth, but let us constantly change for the better through deep and unfeigned repentance, firm and unceasing and diligent doing of good deeds - let us endure with patience and hope the sorrows, adversities, and sufferings that are sent. – If we live this way, then a wonderful transformation will come for us, when the Lord will transform our humble body so that it will be consistent with the glorious Body of Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:21), as Scripture says. This will happen after the general resurrection of the dead. Amen. Word on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord Be transfigured before them (Jesus) and make His face shine like the sun; His garments were white like light (Matthew 17:2). Today we remember and celebrate the glorious transfiguration of the most pure flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. This transfiguration took place in the presence of three earthly witnesses - the Apostles Peter, James and John. Jesus Christ, as usual, went up the mountain to pray, like a man, to the Heavenly Father. While He was praying, His Divinity suddenly shone through His body: His face became as bright as the sun, and His clothes, from the inner light of the Divinity and the light of the body, became white like light - so white that no whitener could whiten them. Moses and Elijah, the ancient great Prophets, appeared: they spoke with the Lord. What were they talking about? – They talked about the suffering that the Savior of the human race had to endure for the sake of our salvation in Jerusalem. The speaker was His exodus, which He wanted to die in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). The Apostle Peter, seeing the Lord and the Prophets in such glory, said to the Lord: Lord! It is good for us to be here: if you want, we will make three canopies (tents) here: one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice was heard: This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased: Hear Him (Matthew 17:5). The voice was from God the Father. Hearing the divine voice, the disciples of the Lord fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. The Lord came up to them, touched them and said: stand up and do not be afraid. They lifted up their gaze: there was no one else but Jesus Christ. When they began to descend from the mountain, the Lord told them not to tell anyone about the vision until He rose from the dead. So imagine, beloved brethren, the glorious sight of the most pure flesh of the Lord, like the sun shining on Tabor, and enjoy longer, longer this heavenly spectacle; imagining it, triumph in your spirit and rejoice: it is our human face that shone in such glory, in its closest unity with the essence of God Himself - the Word. Triumph and rejoice in the hope that if you are obedient in this temporary life to your Lord, follow His Divine commandments: then He will one day transform your bodies with the same glory - so that they will be consistent with His glorious body; The Lord Himself assures us of this when He says that the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43); and St. Apostle Paul, who says that the Lord will transform our humble body so that it will be consistent with His glorious body (Phil. 3:21) - But why was the Lord transformed in glory on Mount Tabor and only before His three disciples? Brethren! The Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer for us and be so humiliated and humiliated that if His disciples, before His suffering, had not been confirmed by various signs and wonders in their faith in Him as the Son of God, they could have been tempted regarding His face, fallen away from Him and scattered, each in his own direction. It was necessary to assure them by some astonishing miracle that He is truly the Father’s radiance, light from light, the Son of God, willingly coming to suffer for us. By such a miracle, by the way, the Lord chose to transfigure His body on the mountain: and behold, His face shone like the sun, and His clothes shone like light, and God the Father Himself spoke from the cloud: This is My beloved Son, in Him I am well pleased: Hear ye Him (Matthew 17:5). And so the disciples of Christ, by the transfiguration of the Lord, were prepared in advance so as not to be tempted by the suffering and death of their beloved Teacher and Lord. – As for why the Lord was transfigured only before three disciples, this is for the reason that according to the law, three witnesses were enough to verify any truth. Brethren! The Lord also bequeathed to all His followers sorrow and suffering in this world: in the world you will suffer (John 16:33), He said to the disciples before His suffering: whoever wants to follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after Me (Matthew 16:24). So, endure without complaint all the sorrows God sends to you. But do not be afraid of suffering and sorrow: for they will lead you to eternal joys in heaven; just as the Lord, after His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection, entered into the eternal joy of the kingdom of heaven and according to His humanity. Just as gold is purified and enlightened in a crucible, so the human soul in the crucible of sorrow and suffering is also purified and enlightened. And this is why the Lord left many different sorrows for His followers in this adulterous and sinful world: they serve as a great benefit for the sufferers themselves and as a deposit of their future eternal bliss. Your sorrow will be turned into joy (John 16:20), says the Lord. – Which of the saints, beginning with the most blessed Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ to the last righteous man, did not grieve in this life and did not enter the kingdom of heaven through sorrow? Nobody. All entered the kingdom of glory through many sorrows. – So, spiritual sorrows transform us, cleanse and enlighten our souls, which is also why the Lord, coming to our free passion for the sake of our salvation, was transformed in glory: He wanted to show all His followers who had to suffer for Him that their suffering would lead them to heavenly glory, that they themselves would be enlightened, like the sun, in the kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43). What else does the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord oblige each and every one of us to? He obliges us all to transform ourselves internally. There is no need to talk about how everyone needs to transform, change themselves for the better; just look impartially, each one into your own heart, look at your thoughts, desires, intentions, undertakings, words and deeds: - and it will immediately become clear how necessary it is to immediately begin to transform your heart. What fills our hearts almost every day and hour? Knowing all the secrets of human hearts, the Lord Jesus Christ says that from the human heart come evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, murder, theft, extortion, insults, deceit, flattery, deceit, the evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness (Mark 7:21,22). And each of us, attentive to himself, cannot help but admit that his heart almost constantly gives rise to sinful abominations: lack of faith, doubt, self-love, coldness towards God and neighbor, anger, condemnation, gloating and malice, envy, pride, arrogance, disobedience, false shame, contempt, addiction to earthly life and insatiable greed for earthly things. benefits, often combined with resentment towards one's neighbor (namely, greed for money, for food and drinks, especially for wine and various sweets, also for shameful deeds, addiction to clothes and shiny jewelry), laziness, especially in the important matter of salvation, and idleness with all idle activities, such as: cards, smoking, playing musical instruments that is completely useless for the soul, elevated to a scientific the art of dancing and reading books filled with idle talk, oral idle talk and foul language, etc. Until now, almost every one of us has thought very, very little, and some have not thought at all about heavenly things, but have thought everything about earthly things, and had in themselves not the spirit of Christ, but the spirit of this world, cared about the body and despised spiritual needs; He valued earthly, perishable things dearly and neglected the heavenly and eternal, he was filled with pride and had little, little love of God and brotherly love. Who, after this, will deny that each of us needs to immediately begin to transform our hearts and our lives, which were hitherto contrary to the Gospel? So, brothers and sisters, for the glory of the Lord who was transformed on Tabor, calling upon His Grace for help, let us begin today to transform our heart dispositions and our vain lives. Let the difficulty of this transformation not frighten anyone: the grace of God is omnipotent: let us relentlessly ask God for it; let's say: Lord! without You we cannot do anything (John 15:5); Correct our steps to do Your commandments. Let us not forget that the kingdom of heaven is acquired through effort, and only strong seekers acquire it (Matthew 11:12), according to the words of the Lord Himself. Let those of little faith work to acquire faith by diligently reading the Word of God and the lives of the Saints; let him who is cold in love for God and neighbor ask God for love: for every gift is perfect, much more, the most perfect gift of love is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17), and let him exercise himself in love; the proud and arrogant one, let him put aside his pride and arrogance and with all his heart, let him devote himself to humility; evil and contemptuous, let him put aside his malice and contempt and look at each and every one with respect and love; the envious one, let him leave his envy; stingy - his stinginess, lazy and careless - his laziness and negligence; idle - your idle activities; lover of money - his love of money; drunkard - drunkenness; a glutton is his gluttony; thief - your thief; the fornicator is his fornication, the vain is vanity, everyone is all evil. When we behave in this way, then we will worthily, as true followers of Christ, celebrate the feast of the transfiguration of Christ. Then, having been transformed and spiritually enlightened on earth, we will be enlightened like the sun in the Kingdom of the Heavenly Father (Matthew 13:43). Amen. Teaching on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord And He was transfigured before them (the disciples): and His face shone like the sun, and His robe was white like light (Matthew 17:2). This is how the Lord was transformed according to His humanity on Tabor. And this gives us to know that He can miraculously transform and enlighten us, our nature darkened by sin and the passions of life, our soul and our body, just as He really transforms, transforms, enlightens. You don't need to look far for examples. They happen every day to every praying and sincerely repentant believer. I will ask each of you: tell me, what happens to you when you, burdened with some sin, come to this church, approximately, with sincere repentance and fiery prayer to God and His Most Pure Mother? Or, when some strong sorrow and melancholy oppresses you: and with tears will you pray to the Lord so that He will ease it, destroy it, drive it away? Didn't you notice soon after that a great change in your soul? You sincerely repented of your sin, condemned yourself, reproached yourself, looked soberly at your disapproving thoughts, feelings, actions, gave your word to change: your sin was forgiven, you became calm; your soul is light, free, quiet and grace. “And if you greatly grieved and yearned for something,” and expressed your sorrows and misfortunes with submission to the will of God before God or the Mother of God, the joy of all who mourn, tell me, didn’t you then soon feel a change in your soul? Peace and quiet tenderness settled in your soul with hope in the fatherly providence of God, and you left after your prayer comforted and encouraged. - This means that there is a transformation in each of us, - that is, from sincere, fervent prayer we are amazingly transformed for the better: we become calm and sober from the sins that intoxicate us: truly, sins, no matter what, will make us drunk, and we will feel disgust for sin, and we will abandon sin, and we will feel a disposition towards virtue and we will become closer to God. Otherwise, evil sin would completely remove us from God if we did not pray, did not repent, and did not experience sorrows. But we, brothers, are people of little faith, weak both in prayer and in deeds of virtue, and in us, therefore, the spiritual change or internal transformation is not as noticeable, not as bright and glorious as in the holy saints of God. It was in them that the grace of God accomplished a wonderful transformation, renewal, and enlightenment. They were people subservient to us, but look: what the grace of God made of them with their faith and fervor for God, with the mortification of everything carnal and sinful in them: from sinful people they became like holy angels, from the weak - strong by the grace of God, from the ignorant - glorious, and many - from stinking vessels of all sin, from vessels of the devil - all-fragrant vessels of grace God's and all virtue. This is the miracle of transformation that the grace of God produces in people. And this is only the beginnings, only a weak shadow of that glorious transformation that the Lord will perform on those who love Him at His second terrible coming, when He carries out the final judgment on the world: then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). It is this transfiguration, this glory for today’s feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord that I wish and pray to all of you, my brothers, from the Lord. Only in conclusion of my short word, I wish in advance for myself and all of you to be transformed in souls, and namely: to change self-love and love of peace for love of God, love of voluptuousness and love of money for brotherly love and mercy, hostility for love, cruelty for meekness, pride for humility, envy for goodwill, intemperance for temperance, foul language and idle talk for good talk and God's praise, vanity for good deeds, uncleanness for holiness. Amen. Word on the Day of the Ascension of the Lord The Lord, then, when He spoke to them, ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). The Holy Church now excites all earthly beings to joy and says: all nations clasp their hands for joy, for Christ has ascended where He was first, 6 that is, all nations clasp their hands for joy: because Christ has ascended to where he was before, i.e. to the sky. And so on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord all Christians should rejoice. What is there to be happy about? - It would seem that it was rather necessary to grieve and grieve: because our sweetest Savior Jesus Christ left us with His visible presence and ascended to heaven, from where he will come again, but he will come as a formidable Judge of all earthly beings. No: on the day of remembrance of the Ascension of the Lord there are more reasons for joy than for sadness. Let us only consider why the Lord ascended into heaven from us. The Lord ascended from us into heaven not in order to sadden us with His departure, but in order to arrange what was most beneficial for us. His whole life, all his deeds were for our benefit, for our salvation; in the same way, His ascension was for our good. As He loved us, He came down to us from heaven and, having lived with people, laid down His soul for them on the cross: so, loving us, He ascended into heaven, doing good to us. Thus He Himself spoke to His disciples: It is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; and if I go, I will send Him to you (John 16:7). So, the Lord ascended to heaven in order to send instead of Himself equal to Himself - the Comforter of the Holy Spirit, Who would comfort the Holy Apostles and all true Christians in their sorrows, troubles and persecutions. - This is the first reason for joy. Come, come, Lord Jesus, and send us the Comforter! Further, the Lord ascended from us into heaven so that He could look down on us from on high, like a Father on his children, like a Shepherd on his sheep, like an Eagle on his chicks, like a Leader on his army, so that he could see everyone and consider the needs and requirements of each of us, and give help to everyone. Like some king, having gathered his numerous troops for war and wanting to see all his regiments, for this purpose he ascends to a high place - a mountain or some building, and looks from above and arranges them, and when he sees that they are victorious, he rejoices over them; and if he notices that they are overcome, he sends them ambulance: so our Lord, the King of Kings, having His Church militant on earth, that is, His faithful Christians, ascended to heaven, as if on a mountain, so that from above he could see the feat of everyone and weave crowns for those who struggle, and give the hand of ambulance to those who are exhausted, - in order to restore the fallen and make them stronger against enemies, and to believe in those who persecute us obstacle. The Holy Protomartyr Stephen labors in a suffering feat: the Jews stone him, and our Lord, having opened heaven, looks at him from the height of His glory, so that the sufferer, seeing this, exclaims: I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). The Lord ascended from us into heaven in order to, like the sun, shine upon us all with His grace from the heights of heaven. As the sun, having hidden in the west, produces darkness of night throughout the whole of heaven; and when he rises and rises to the heights: then from all over the heavenly darkness runs away, and the rays of the sun illuminate the universe with wondrous light: so our mental Sun is Christ, until, living on earth, as if in the west, he showed His luminous Divinity to people, until then throughout the whole earth there was darkness of ignorance of God; and when, shining from His tomb, He ascended into heaven, then lightning illuminated His universe and His name became famous from the east of the sun to the west, throughout the whole earth - the whole universe was enlightened by the knowledge of God. The Lord ascended from us to heaven in order to arrange for us the path to heaven and to be our leader in the highlands. There was no path to heaven for man until the Lord’s ascension to heaven; No one has gone up to heaven except he who came down from heaven (John 3:13), says the Lord. He who descended is also the one who ascends above all the heavens (Eph. 4:10). So before no one could ascend to heaven, although he was righteous and holy; - and when our Lord, clothed in human nature, ascended to heaven, then the path to heaven was made for the entire human race, and along this path the souls of the Holy Forefathers and Prophets, brought out of hell, followed Christ; Apostles, Saints, martyrs, confessors ascended to them; Even now, worthy ones ascend to them - righteous people who follow Christ’s footsteps; Now everyone knows the path to heaven. Just don’t be lazy to ascend to it, Christians! So the Lord ascended from us into heaven - in order to open the doors of heaven for us - for unrestricted entry there. Our forefather Adam was about to close the door of heaven to the entire human race, and at the door of heaven stood a Cherub with a flaming weapon; Adam, I say, closed paradise and the entrance to life, but opened only the entrances to death and hell; but the Lord did the opposite: He closed the entrances to death and hell, and opened heaven - and first of all to the thief, to whom he said: today you will be with me in heaven (Luke 23:43); then to everyone; and, finally, He opened heaven itself with His ascension. What all-joyful reasons for the Ascension of the Lord from us into heaven! Next, the Lord ascended from us into heaven to intercede for us before God the Father. This is what the Holy Apostle John the Theologian says: if anyone sins, the imams intercede with God the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and by Him there is cleansing for our sins (1 John 2:1,2). So, we, sinful people, will not despair of our salvation, but will be trustworthy: we have a good Intercessor for us to God the Father - Christ our Savior Himself, Who intercedes for us, but let us not be lazy and, at the intercession of Christ, send our warm prayers to the Heavenly Father; - yes, the Lord Jesus Christ intercedes for us to God the Father and propitiates Him. But who is he interceding for? about sinners. What sinners? about the repentant; and for them He propitiates His Father; but about unrepentant sinners he does not propitiate: because they crucify the Son of God within themselves for the second time with their grave sins, by their obstinacy in unrepentance, and they trample on the blood of the Son of God with their unrepentance. So be afraid, sinner who remains unrepentant, lest God’s punishment suddenly befall you and you be consumed from the land of the living, and be condemned along with the murderers who crucified the Son of God. Finally, the Lord ascended from us into heaven, so that in heaven he could prepare for us a place where we would live forever and co-reign with Him, our Lord. So He Himself says: I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself; yea, where I am, you also will be (John 14:3). What a joyful reason for the ascension! The Lord ascended from us into heaven to prepare for each of the righteous and pious people a place in heaven, as well as for us sinners, if we turn and repent with all our hearts. Where is the place for the Apostle Peter, who rejected the Lord and wept bitterly over it afterwards, where is the harlot wife who wept at His feet, where is the prodigal son, where is the publican, where is the thief: there will be a place for us; Let us only weep bitterly for our sins, like Peter, let us fall at His feet with repentance, like the harlot, let us turn to Him, like the prodigal son, let us humble ourselves, like the tax collector, let us be crucified with Him, like the prudent thief. Let us repent and we will be saved. Let us all rejoice in the Ascension of our Lord and Savior. Amen. Be wise on things above, not on earth, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God ( Col. 3:1–2 ). Beloved brothers and sisters! Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ascended from earth to heaven. Let us also follow Him. For for this purpose He came to earth, lived, taught, worked miracles, did good to people in every possible way, suffered, died and rose again, and ascended again to the Father and sat down at His right hand in order to lead us to heaven. For this reason, the high God came down to earth, so that he may lead us to heaven, 7 says the Holy Church. But how to follow Him to heaven? – To live as He lived, to imitate Him to the best of your ability, to follow His teaching and life means to follow him. Let us hate all lawlessness, let us love truth and virtue, and let us love God with all our hearts. Let us be humble, low-minded, meek, kindly, temperate, hardworking, like bees and ants, pure in soul and body, sincere and unhypocritical, courageous and patient, faithful and honest, simple-hearted and peace-loving, merciful and compassionate, impartial to anything earthly, i.e. let us use earthly gifts with thanksgiving the Generous Giver, as His gifts, necessary for us in temporary life; - reasonably and with extreme caution, without clinging to them with your heart, like to disappearing smoke. Following this path, we will acquire an active living faith, trust, unfeigned love for God and neighbor, we will love every virtue, honoring in this an eternal, unshakable acquisition and actually trying to succeed in every virtue, and we will follow Christ, and Christ God will lift us up to the same place where He Himself. Where I am, there will My servant also be (John 12:26), He Himself said in the Holy Gospel. So, remember more often about Christ, Christian, how He lived, loved people, taught them most of all - love, holy, heavenly love, how He came down from heaven out of love for you, His lost sheep, how He worked for you, walked the earth until tired and exhausted, how He suffered for you before the cross and on the cross, in order to deliver you from your sinful passions and sensual addictions of life, in order to bring you to reason and put on the path of salvation; how he died in agony for you and rose again with the glory of the Divine; - and little by little, love for God, your Savior, will rise in your heart; you will turn away and lag behind sin, which has caused so many troubles on earth and is now bringing countless troubles upon us, and you will love the holy and life-giving law of the Lord; and you will fulfill it to the best of your ability; You will rise with your thoughts and heart desires from earth to heaven, and then with your mind and heart you will live more in heaven than on earth - and the Lord, seeing you ready and worthy of His co-creation, will take you to Himself. Where I am, there will My servant also be. - This is how the saints reached their heavenly fatherland. At first, little by little, and then much, they hated sin with all their souls, passionately loved the one Lord with all their hearts, sought Him alone, found Him, placed Him in their hearts and ascended with Him to heaven. Amen. Word for the Day of the Ascension of the Lord For this reason, the high God descended to earth, so that he may lead us to heaven. (Akath. Mother of God Cond. 8). Although man was created in body from the earth, he was created for heaven. The earth was given to man as a temporary home, as a place of preparation for a higher, heavenly life. But the destructive violation of the first commandment by the first people bowed both soul and body to the earth and perverted the entire mental, moral and physical structure of human life. Earthly aspirations, temporary, bodily, legal and illegal, took precedence over heavenly, eternal, spiritual aspirations. Human nature and human life have become perverted and corrupted, and the human race has corrupted its nature and ruined the divine gift - its soul, which God breathed into its nature in paradise. In order to renew the physical and spiritual nature of man again, to purify, sanctify and direct him onto the path of salvation, it was necessary for the Son of God Himself to descend to earth, to become a man - and with His word, His life, and His example to show him the true path of life, and with His blood to renew our nature, corrupted by sin, in order to ascend it to heaven. For this reason, the high God descended to earth, so that he would raise us to heaven. The Apostle says: if you have been raised with Christ, then set your mind on heavenly things and not on earthly things (Col. 3:1). And the Lord raised into heaven countless councils of saints after His resurrection from the dead and after His ascension into heaven, freeing from hell all who believed in Him and all who later lived on earth, who believed in Him and labored truly for the sake of His name even to our times and days. Countless Souls of people who lived on earth in faith and piety and were redeemed and justified by the blood of Christ are now installed in heavenly villages. And you and I, beloved brothers, have been shown the way there, and we must urgently strive there with all our thoughts, desires, intentions, concerns, and deeds. We must not apply our minds and hearts to dust and dirt, but to God and His eternal truth, to His eternal kingdom, for which He created us, redeemed us, and included us in His Church on earth. Finger is earthy, that is, the body, and God is heavenly, that is, soul; the body, this earthly church, will collapse and turn into earth, and the soul must return to God, who gave it (Eccl. 12:7), says Scripture. - So, do we always strive diligently to go to the place where Christ God, our Hope, our Life, has ascended? Do we strive with our thoughts, desires, and deeds? - If our thoughts, desires, words, deeds are only worldly, carnal, earthly, - if both in reality and in dreams we are occupied most of all and control our heart, our soul by belly and in general carnal pleasure, or only earthly acquisitions and self-interest, only earthly benefits, earthly treasures, distinctions, speeches only earthly, then we are still earthly, have not loved Christ, our Redeemer, and are not in a hurry to Him, to be with Him forever, to see Him face to face; – we also love the world, which lies in evil, we are still slaves of sin, and not sincere servants of Christ. The Apostle says: if anyone loves the world, there is no love for the Heavenly Father; for everything that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but from this world. And the world passes away, and so does its lust, but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15–17). So, for whom the womb is God, he is not yet God and works in vanity and corruption, for whom self-interest and acquisition, excess, are the work of life and the passion of the heart, and love for God and neighbor, help and alms to those in need are an extraneous matter; for whom earthly treasures, decorations, distinctions, advantages, conveniences serve as the edge of desires and the duty of the heart, he is not yet Christ, does not love Christ with all his heart, does not strive for Him, does not want to see Him and live with Him forever. – If we want to be with Christ, then let us try to strive in heavenly virtue, in faith, in hope, in patience, in meekness, humility, kindness, mercy, abstinence, purity and chastity. God! Having ascended from us to heaven, lift us, earthly ones, with You and shake off from our hearts the extreme cares and worries of life, the strangling passions! Grant us, before leaving here, to acquire the skill of every virtue, so that we may appear before you in this imperishable robe. Amen. Teaching for the Day of the Ascension of the Lord In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Magnify, my soul, who ascended from earth to heaven, Christ the Giver of Life. So, our Lord and Savior ascended from earth to heaven. – Why did He ascend to heaven, why didn’t He apparently remain with us until the end of time? Firstly, by His ascension from earth to heaven, He showed the image and path of our ascent from earth to heaven, secondly, in order to send down to us the consubstantial and one-powerful Spirit of the Holy Comforter; thirdly, to prepare a place for His faithful followers. The Lord, by His ascension from earth to heaven, showed us the image and path of our ascent to it. The Lord was an example for us in everything: an example of holiness, meekness, humility, kindness, patience, unceasing prayer, dispassion, complete love for God and humanity, unquestioning obedience to His heavenly Father; He needed to serve as an example for us in this too, that is, an example in ascending to heaven. For why did the Son of God come to earth? To take us to heaven. – So, my brothers, while living on earth, try to ascend more often to heaven with your mind and heart, to where our Lord and Savior ascended; do not cleave to anything on earth, for the earth is not a fatherland, but a place of wandering, a place of struggle and exploits, and earthly blessings are not our life, not objects of love of our heart, but only necessary aids for our flesh; try to always be in spirit above the earthly, all earthly things; do not immerse yourself in them, do not merge with them: but the one who has an addiction to them immerses himself in them and merges with them. Now this addiction to earthly life, to its pleasures, and at the same time the alienation of hearts from the high heavenly fatherland has especially intensified among Christians: Christians forget the purpose of their life, they forget the Christian title, Christian duties, the vows given at baptism to be fulfillers of the commandments of Christ all the days of their lives. - Ascend, my brethren, ascend from earth to heaven, to your true fatherland, the eternal fatherland: look with your intelligent eyes at the one who is ascending: this is your path laid to heaven, the path that was previously impassable from the prince of the power of the air, the devil and his hasty power of the spirits of evil, and now for those who believe in the Lord and keep His commandments has become free; This way, many Christians - ascetics of piety - have already ascended to heaven. The Lord ascended from earth to heaven in order to send down to us the consubstantial and only powerful Comforter of the Spirit. - The Lord Himself spoke about this to His disciples before His sufferings: if I do not go, that is, if I do not ascend to the Father, the Comforter will not come to you; if I go, I will send Him to you; and when He comes, He will convict the world about sin and about righteousness and about judgment (John 16:7,8), and He will remember everything that was spoken to you (John 14:26). And so, soon after the Ascension, the Lord sent His disciples and Apostles and everyone who then formed the small flock of Christ the Divine Spirit, who filled them all with extraordinary gifts: holiness, wisdom, the gift of tongues, purest and fiery love, zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of human souls, peace, joy, boldness, dispassion for all earthly vicissitudes, dispassion for everything earthly, love for heavenly. - So accept the Comforter of the Spirit, may He be with you forever, and may he guide you into all truth, but remember that Jesus Christ, who ascended into heaven and sent down the Comforter of the Spirit, is never separated from us in Divinity, but remains relentlessly, crying out to those who love Him: I am with you and no one is against you. Finally, the Lord ascended to prepare His followers a place in heaven. I am going to prepare a place for you (John 14:3), He says to His disciples: seeing from the holy heavens all the spiritual exploits of His followers and evaluating them according to their merit, He prepares reward for everyone, as a righteous Judge, and each of us will receive his; sow with poverty, and you will reap with poverty; and if you sow with blessing, you will also reap with blessing (2 Cor. 9:6). Another is the glory of the sun, and another is the glory of the moon, and another is the glory of the stars; some flesh is cattle, some fish, and some birds; both the heavenly body and the earthly body: but one is the glory of the heavenly, and another of the earthly (1 Cor. 15:39–42). So it is in court: everything will be appreciated. So, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended in order to prepare each of us his place, to take us to Himself. I will bring you to Myself, so that where I am, you too will be (John 14:3). Are we really better off on earth and not in heaven? Oh no, no! Away with all the delights of the world! Amen! Now the Lord, when He spoke to them, ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). The Lord has vouchsafed us, my beloved brothers, to celebrate and celebrate the all-saving holiday of Easter; deigned us to wait for His all-joyful, Divine Ascension and to worship Him, ascending from earth to heaven. “But let us not, my brothers, spend the Lord’s holidays only in idleness and sins, but in the thought of God and in the virtues characteristic of Christians; Let us ponder why the Holy Church solemnly remembers and glorifies the wonderful and saving deeds of Christ, what does she want to teach us by telling us about His life, teaching, miracles, deeds, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension? Now, on the feast of the Ascension of the Lord from earth to heaven, the Holy Church wants to inspire us so that we, too, should more often ascend with thoughts, faith, hope and love, desires, sighs from earth to heaven - to where the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). If you have been raised with Christ, then seek those things that are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God; Set your mind on things above, and not on earthly things (Col. 3:1,2), says St. Apostle Paul. But what does it mean to think about things above and not about earthly things? – Let us now think about this for the glory of Him who ascended from earth to heaven and for our spiritual benefit. What does it mean to think about things above and not about earthly things? - This means living with your body on earth, but soaring in heaven with your thoughts and heart; means to have nothing in common with the sin that reigns in the world, or with the lust of the multi-passionate flesh, with the lust of the eyes and the pride of life; despise the pleasures of the belly and loins - diligently cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, creating holiness in the fear of God (2 Cor. 7:1), according to the words of St. Apostle Paul; it means to love the Lord who loved us with all our hearts, with all our thoughts, with all our strength; always think about Him, remember His life, His teaching, commandments, miracles, suffering and death for us, with all your heart always be where He is, fulfill His commandments and consider it a great happiness to fulfill them, according to the word of the Psalmist, who considered keeping them a great reward. To think about heavenly things means to love truth with all your heart and for the sake of truth to be ready to endure persecution, ridicule, slander, reproach - to hate lawlessness, no matter how much it tempts us with any earthly benefits, for example, wealth, honors, pleasures. To think above, to think above, means to always manage to love your neighbor as yourself, sincerely, unhypocritically, not according to the earthly and sinful calculations of pride, greed, carnality and man-pleasing, that is, not because such and such a person brings us benefit, benefit and pleasure, or we like, or our relative, friend, buddy, fellow countryman, acquaintance, a comrade, a peer, a co-worker - or a kind person, smart, rich, cheerful, healthy, beautiful, etc., but if he is not like that, if he does not bring any benefit at all, and does not please your pride or your corrupted taste, if he is not a relative to you, not a friend, and not a friend, but a direct enemy, etc., to love only for God, for the sake of God’s commandments, for the sake of the fact that he is a man, one with your nature, from the same blood with you - Adam, and even much, incomparably more, higher - from the flesh and blood of Christ: for we are His members from His flesh and from His bones (Eph. 5:30). This means that when you love, you should not look at their faces, but honor everyone equally, not be servile and kind-hearted before some, but be proud and arrogant before others, or blaspheme others for guilt and not for guilt, and scold them angrily, remembering that we are all equal before God, that we all have the same nature and all have common infirmities, weaknesses and stumbling blocks. To think about heavenly things or to philosophize on heavenly things means not to cleave to anything visible, earthly, as perishable and temporary, but to cleave to the heavenly as to the eternal, according to the word of the Apostle: we look not at the visible, but at the invisible: for the visible is temporary, but the invisible is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18); - means not to love money, not to collect for oneself, but to become rich in God by good deeds; - do not cling with your heart to earthly beauty, sweetness, joy, to earthly well-being, but to the beauty, sweetness and joy of heaven and to eternal life. To think about things above means to always walk in the presence of God, in the remembrance that He sees, hears, and will reward all our thoughts, feelings, lusts, words and deeds on the day of judgment; - to think about heavenly things means to despise so-called entertainment and games, worldly amusements, combined with sin, distracting from God and leaving only emptiness in the heart. - To think about things above means to think and reason not in the image of this world, which thinks and reasons and acts craftily, perversely, and ungodly, but to think, reason and act according to the mind of God, holy and pleasing to God. - To think about things above means not to seek worldly honor, glory, as vain, often unrighteous, enchanting and enchanting the soul, but to seek the honor of a heavenly calling, for, says the Savior, how can you believe when you receive glory from each other, but do not seek the glory that is from God alone (John 5:44)? - To think about things above, finally, means to think and firmly believe that our fatherland is in heaven, to await the second glorious coming of the Lord Jesus Christ for the judgment of the living and the dead, it means to patiently carry out the labors and exploits of a pilgrim’s earthly life, in anticipation of a reward from the righteous Giver. This is what it means to think about heavenly things. Let us, with God’s help, try to think and do as the word of God teaches us: and we will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension in a God-pleasing manner. Amen. Word on the Day of the Holy Trinity In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Do you not know that you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Cor. 3:16). What is the current holiday? The fact is that our Lord Jesus Christ, who ascended from us into heaven, although He did not leave us, sent, according to the promise, on the fiftieth day after His resurrection from the dead from God His Father - God the Holy Spirit - the third person of the Most Holy Trinity to the Apostles and other believers who were with them in the Jerusalem upper room, in which they remained in unanimous fervent prayer. God the Holy Spirit, the life-giving one, who comes from God the Father, and is worshiped with Him and the Son and is always glorified together, descended on the Apostles and others in the form of tongues of fire; from which they were suddenly reborn, illuminated, enlightened, wiser and began to speak in different languages, which they did not know before - about the great deeds of God; but let us listen to how St. Luke the Evangelist, the writer of the Acts of the Apostles, reports about this greatest event. “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all with one accord together. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as if from a rushing strong wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And cloven tongues as of fire appeared to them, and one rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now in Jerusalem there were Jews, pious people, from every nation under heaven. When this noise was made, the people gathered and were in confusion; for everyone heard them speaking in his own language. And they were all amazed and amazed, saying to one another, “Are these not all Galileans who speak?” How do we hear, each of us, our own dialect in which we were born... hear them speaking in our own languages ​​about the great deeds of God? And they were all amazed, and perplexed, they said to each other: What does this mean? And others, mocking, said: they got drunk on sweet wine. Peter, standing with the eleven Apostles, lifted up his voice and cried out to them: men of the Jews and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words: they are not drunk, as you think, for it is now the third hour of the day; but this is what was foretold by the prophet Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; and on my menservants and on my handmaids I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on earth below” (Joel 2:28-32)… Then, the Apostle Peter, having mentioned in his speech how the Jews unrighteously and wickedly treated the Lord and Christ Jesus, killing him on the cross by the hands of the pagans, and how He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out that what they themselves see and hear. When the people listened to the entire speech of the Apostle, they were moved and said to Peter and the other Apostles: “What should we do, men and brethren?” Peter said to them: Repent; and let each one of you be baptized into Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit... And those who gladly received his word were baptized, and about three thousand souls were added that day” (Acts 2:1–41). This is the story of the great event that we are celebrating today. This event is immeasurable in importance, fruitfulness and salvation for the entire Christian Church: this day is the day of the actual foundation of the Christian Church, or the Christian society of those saved in Christ; on this day the first shepherds, the Apostles, were consecrated by the Holy Spirit, from whose succession we, your shepherds, received the grace of the priesthood; On this day, the saving sacraments that are still performed in the Church through your priests received effect. The apostles and other believers were given the gift of speech and wisdom for preaching the Gospel to all nations and an abundant gift of wondrous miracles, with which they, both at that time and subsequently, attracted to faith in Christ and saved many human souls. From that time on, the Holy Spirit descended into the world, another Comforter besides the Lord Jesus Christ, equal to Him, equal in glory and co-essential with Him and God the Father. Jesus Christ, having completed the work of saving the human race - through His incarnation and life on earth, through His preaching, countless miracles, benefits to the suffering, through suffering, death and resurrection from the dead - ascended to heaven to the Father and instead of Himself sent from the Father the Spirit-God, so that He arranges the work of human salvation, for the three persons in God are consubstantial and indivisible, and each equally participates in salvation of the human race. And so the desert of the human race flourished, as the Church sings, and from this event, which we celebrate today, the Holy Spirit, having revived it, showed sovereign, fruitful and irresistible power in the militant Church: in the exploits of the Apostles, martyrs, Hierarchs, strengthening them with joy and joy to courageously endure countless hellish sufferings for Christ and performed innumerable miracles in them and through them. From this event, the Holy Spirit, through the Apostles and their holy successors, spread the preaching of the Gospel throughout the world and through this preaching increased and expanded the Church throughout the universe; made St. wise Fathers to overthrow all the errors of heretics, compose God-wise scriptures and preserve our faith holy and immaculate to this day. The Holy Spirit made Saints and glorified countless people who pleased God with miracles and incorruption of relics, and to this day contributes to the salvation of each of us. My brothers! without the Holy Spirit there is no true life in man, no peace in the soul, no light of God, no truth, holiness, true joy and bliss. Without the Spirit of God there cannot be in us and there is no true faith, hope and love; holy simplicity, purity of heart, no true virtue - and there is no salvation. Let us always earnestly pray to God the Father, so that he will not reject us from His presence and may not take His Holy Spirit away from us. Amen. Lesson on the Day of Pentecost Now we celebrate the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - the One God in three Persons: the Father, who sent His Holy Spirit in the form of fiery tongues on the holy disciples and Apostles, the Son - who begged the Father to give the Apostles and all who believe in Him another Comforter, consubstantial with Himself, and - the Holy Spirit, who descended on the disciples of Christ. In church language, the current holiday is called the Feast of Pentecost, because our Lord Jesus Christ, having ascended into heaven, sent down from God the Father to His Apostles the Holy Spirit on the fiftieth day after His resurrection from the dead. You have heard more than once, brethren, the short church hymn at the all-night vigil, that by the Holy Spirit every soul is alive and exalted by purity 8 . Yes, brothers, we are all made alive and raised up in holiness by the Holy Spirit. This life-giving Spirit is now, as always, near us: because He fills the universe with Himself; but in order for Him to dwell in us, to revive our souls, deadened by sins, for this we must each cleanse our hearts through prayer, sincerely desire to partake of His holiness, His life, and diligently try to receive Him. When the All-Holy Spirit sees hearts ready to receive Him and thirsting for His acceptance, then He Himself will purify them with His inspiration and dwell in the church of your body: do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit living in you (1 Cor. 6:19)? And whoever neglects now to cleanse the heart, that is, from evil thoughts and earthly attachments, will not be worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit, will not receive life-giving power in his heart and will remain dead in sins. Have all your hearts and minds, and, having cleansed yourself with prayer and heartfelt contrition, firmly hope that you will be worthy of receiving the Holy Spirit: you will hear His breath in your heart - a subtle, sweet, calming, joyful breath, and from the church you will take away such a treasure that you will not receive in the world for any treasures; because He is not in the world. Try, brothers and sisters, in the future, when you come to church, to cleanse yourself at home with prayer and heartfelt repentance; and thus prepare yourself to receive the Holy Spirit in the Holy Church during the service. Turn your ears to these words of mine, accept them with your heart; for otherwise your visits to the church will be fruitless if the Holy Spirit has no place in your hearts; and the Holy Spirit in no way can communicate with the filth and darkness of sin. The Holy Spirit is always with us until the end of time, and His acceptance can be achieved both in the Church during Divine services and at home during prayer, especially in the sacraments of the Church always, as you sincerely wish! Let us pray with one mouth and one heart to the Holy Spirit: Treasure of good things and Giver of life, come and dwell in us 9 . Amen. Homily for the week before the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of Christ God so loved the world, as He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but may have eternal life (John 3:16). This Sunday, my brothers, is called in short the week before the exaltation, that is, the erection of the Honorable Cross, and today we are supposed to read the Gospel about God’s endless love for the perishing world or the human race and about sending it the Savior - the Only Begotten Son of God. The Gospel reads in Russian like this: “No one ascended into heaven except the Son of man who came down from heaven, who is in heaven: and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:13–17). – This is the end of today’s Gospel. Let us interpret it, with God’s help, according to the wisdom of the Holy Orthodox Church. No one has ascended to heaven, says the Lord, except the Son of Man who descended from heaven, that is, Jesus Christ who is in heaven. - None of the people ascended to heaven, because sin did not allow anyone to ascend to the most pure, bright, righteous heaven, on which is the throne of the Lord God Almighty, and for sin, from the beginning of the world until the coming of the Son of God to earth, the sacrifice of the cross was not yet offered for the redemption of the world from sin, for the reconciliation of people with God, angry with iniquities, for the purification and sanctification of those who believe in Him and for the opening of righteous judgment God's heaven, imprisoned by human sins. The sky was inaccessible to any people. It became available to the righteous and repentant sinners only from the time of our death on the cross, for our sins, of the Son of God. The Lord Himself said about this: from now on you will see heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51). This mystery, this joyful news that heaven is now open to us, is announced to us every day by the opening of the royal doors at Great Vespers and the All-Night Vigil, and especially at the Liturgy - when the royal doors are opened at the small and great entrance when the Holy Gifts are brought out for communion. So, no one ascended to heaven until the death of the Son of God on the cross, and from the time of His death and resurrection, heaven became open to all believers and after death all those justified by the most pure blood and grace of the Son of God are free to enter into it. So I will also say: the kingdom of heaven is open, paradise is open again, try to enter it by faith, repentance, and virtue. – Now there is no longer a cherub with a flaming sword standing at the door of heaven, prohibiting entry into it. - And how many people have entered heaven since the death and resurrection of the Son of God - until now! Countless. And we, following their example, will go there. But it is necessary, we must go and fight our way with all our might - if we don’t get out, then we’ll end up in hell - nowhere else. Go, go quickly, cheerfully, firmly, without looking back. The days are evil (Eph.5:16), and they are short; (today he is alive, and tomorrow - perhaps - they will put him on the table in a large corner). And what does this mean: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life”? Here the Lord points to the action of the prophet Moses in the Arabian desert, namely, to the ascension of a copper snake onto a tree, at the command of God, so that the Jews mortally bitten by snakes would look at this copper snake and be healed. This ascension by Moses of the copper serpent on the tree prefigured the ascension, elevation to the cross of the Redeemer of the world, Jesus Christ and His victory over the tempting serpent or the devil and our deliverance by the cross of the Savior from eternal death, for the seed of the woman, i.e. Christ, had to erase the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), i.e. the devil under the image of the deceiving serpent Eve. Look, sinner, what a terrible bloody sacrifice was required by the justice of God to redeem you from sin and eternal destruction: the most painful, most blasphemous death on the cross of the Only Begotten Son of God. And you still live carefree, unrepentantly, sin without fear, do not correct yourself, do not shed tears of repentance, do not rejoice in good deeds, crucify the Son of God within yourself?.. But for those who have trampled upon the blood of the Son of God there is no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrible expectation of judgment and the fury of fire ready to devour opponents (Heb. 10:27,28). Fear, tremble, sinner! God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. This is how God loved the world, that is, with an infinite love that surpasses all reason: for he gave an infinite sacrifice for our sins - His Son, co-throne with Him, God the Father, co-original, co-natural. Oh, the wonderful, glorious, sweet, eternal love of God! If God had not given His Son as a sacrifice for our sins, then the whole world would have gone into eternal torment, and no one would have been saved. All who are saved were saved by the blood and death of the Son of God, all are justified by His grace; the saints became holy with His holiness, righteousness, wise with His wisdom, strengthened with His power, adorned with His incorruptible beauty, achieved incorruption with His incorruption; all those who are being saved now are saved only by the blood of the Son of God, or by water and the blood of His pierced side: blood and water flowed out, meaning two sacraments: baptism and communion; for without baptism and communion no one will be saved - of course, and without repentance and other sacraments. The Lord Himself says: repent; Unless you repent, you will all perish (Luke 13:3); If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you will not have life in you: whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up at the last day (John 6:53,54). – Whoever has faith and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16). For God did not send His Son into the world, as the Gospel says earlier, to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him (John 3:17). But how do we read in the Creed: I believe in the Lord, who will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; and the Gospel says that God the Father gave all judgment to the Son (John 5:22). The current Gospel speaks of the first coming of the Son of God - for the salvation of the world, and the Creed speaks of His second coming; the first time the Lord came to save the world, and the second time he will come to judge the world. – And now, indeed, anyone who desires salvation can be saved through the Son of God, and if now, during earthly life, with such an abundance of grace, with such sure and all-powerful means to salvation, a person neglects salvation and lives unrepentantly and fearlessly, then after death and at the terrible judgment of Christ he will be judged without mercy. Save yourself, brothers, while there is time. We will lose time and we will destroy salvation. It is said to the foolish virgins: truly I say to you, I do not know you (Matthew 25:12), although they knocked and said: Lord, Lord, open to us. - Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man will come (Matthew 25:13). Amen. Teaching on the Day of the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord We worship Your Cross, Master, and we glorify Your Holy Resurrection. The cross of the Lord is erected! How many important memories, sad, terrible and at the same time joyful, awaken in souls at the sight of the erected cross of Christ, at the mere sight of the cross! The God-man, the Only Begotten Son of God, was crucified on it, deigning to redeem the human race from eternal torment through his suffering and death on the cross; he was stained with the most pure blood, of which a single drop is purification for the world! For three hundred years he was hidden in the ground; for three hundred years the Church of God, believers in the Lord, were under a terrible cross; For three hundred years the earth was flooded with the blood of Christians: they were crucified on crosses, and often upside down, cut, burned, drowned in whole crowds, torn apart piece by piece. The swords became dull and the hands of the executioners weakened - so many heads, arms and legs, and various members of Christian bodies had to be cut off. This is how Satan armed himself against the Church of Christ, acquired by the blood of Christ: the blasphemous and terrible death of Christ on the cross was, as it were, a forerunner and indication of the death of His faithful servants. O terrible mystery of the cross! - O all-destroying sin, which brought down the Son of God Himself to earth, may He become incarnate and suffer in His flesh for us. O immutable, eternal truth of God, which demanded such a terrible sacrifice for the sins of the world! – Glory to Thee, most righteous Master, who punishes sin and has mercy on repentant sinners! So repentance and repentance! No one is stuck in a single sin! - Bring ardent repentance immediately, so that you may bow to the mercy of the merciful God and not perish in your sins! Three hundred years of persecution have passed - and the persecution is over. The pious Tsar Constantine appeared on the royal throne of the Roman Empire, with his mother Helen, he favors Christians, accepts the Christian faith himself, zealously honors the Crucified One, and not only allows, commands everyone - both the clergy and his ranks, the army and the people - to reverently worship Christ. Churches were erected; rushed to the heavens of praise and thanksgiving. - Queen Helena forced herself to find the cross of the Lord in Jerusalem, and it was solemnly raised from the ground, erected and - oh joy! The life-giving cross raises up the dead, for soon after being found, placed on a dead man, the cross revived him, heals the sick, drives away demons, a sick woman was healed by laying it on him. For who was raised to the cross? Himself the King of glory, Himself the Creator of heaven and earth, the Only Begotten Son of God. For whom? For the sinful world and for you and me: although we were not in the world then, the Lord knew that we would be, and what kind of damned sinners we would be, and therefore he suffered for all of us; You and I have added a lot, a lot of bitterness into the cup of His suffering. Amazing miracle! The King of Truth, Almighty God, having taken upon Himself human flesh, suffered execution for us, for our sins! And what kind of punishment? The most diarrhea, painful! O terrible mystery! O sacrament that brings forth tears of tenderness and gratitude! For how can one not be horrified at the sight of the execution not of a criminal, but of the greatest Righteous One, meek, humble, kind, and merciful, who has performed countless good deeds to people and has not committed a single evil? It was not in vain that the sun darkened, the earth shook, the veil of the church was torn, stones disintegrated, coffins were opened, and the dead were resurrected! All insensitive nature shuddered and sympathized with the Creator of everything. But the stone-hearted Jews had no compassion! And the frivolous people shouted, walking around the cross and saying: oh! destroying the church and creating it in three days! save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross (Matthew 27:39–40). O dearest Redeemer of the whole world! People did not know that You were burdened with the sins of the whole world! Why do You endure, innocent and sinless execution for us! They did not know that God Himself enters into a fight with hell and crushes its power, and wants to remove from hell the souls kept in its bonds for centuries, and deliver us from its terrible torment! Oh, how dear to God are the souls of men, redeemed by the blood of His Son! How precious are souls nourished by His flesh and blood! Oh, what a bliss it is to partake of the most pure body and blood of the Lord and God our Savior Jesus Christ! Oh, how terrible and destructive is sin, for the cleansing and eradication of which the death of the Son of God was necessary, and the death of the cross! Oh, how certain is the eternal punishment prepared for the unrepentant! For if they did this to the green tree - Jesus Christ, then what will happen to the dry and barren one? How miserable are sinners who, in their blindness, do not know the full destruction of sin! How terrible is hell, pitch darkness and gnashing of teeth, Tartarus of the underworld, torment with demons! Brethren! Let us repent soon, let us hate sin, love righteousness, let us cleave with our hearts and lips to the cross of the Lord and cry out earnestly: Lord! Who suffered for us and shed His most pure blood, and died on the cross, with their own destinies, turn us all to the path of salvation and save us! Amen. Beloved brethren in Christ! We now celebrate the erection of the honorable and life-giving cross of the Lord. When Patriarch Macarius raised in the presence of Queen Helena and a multitude of people the life-giving cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, which the queen had found, - then the queen and all the people, looking at him with reverence and as if seeing the Savior hanging on him, all bloody and in unspeakable torment, living out the last hours of His suffering life for us - fell with fear and love on their faces and cried out unanimously: Lord have mercy! Brothers and sisters in the Lord! Before us now is the cross of our Savior. Let us remember and imagine how we can be more alive than the Lord of glory crucified for us and let us shed tears for our sins with which we daily crucify the Lord; let us shed tears about our disobedience to our Savior, about our earthly and material wisdom and neglect of heavenly things, about our many different worldly passions, about the lack of love for God and neighbor, about our pride and all the other passions that stem from it, about our idleness, laziness, and from the bottom of our hearts we say with tears: Lord, have mercy on us! Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who shed His blood for our salvation, have mercy on us, those of little faith, the proud, the evil, the envious, the money-loving, the stingy, the peace-loving, carnivorous, gluttonous, lazy, careless, especially about our salvation, the sad, cowardly, murmuring, and turn the hearts of all of us to You, our Giver of Life. - so that we do not love anything in the world and do not seek more than You, more than the eternal blessings of Your kingdom, purchased for us by Your blood. God! Nail our flesh to Thy fear. God! Turn our hearts away from the charms of this world. Amen. Word on the day of the erection of the honorable and life-giving cross of the Lord The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved the power of God is (1 Cor. 1:18). What is the word cross or the word about the cross? This is the word about the salvation of a world perishing in sins through the suffering and death of the Only Begotten Son of God; this is a word about the infinite love of God for the world: for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to eat, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but to have eternal life (John 3:16), this is a word about the infinite truth of God, which demanded an infinite sacrifice for the countless and grave sins of the world and for the infinitely offended holiness of the Divine by creatures created in the image and likeness God, for the desecration of the most holy laws of God, for the corruption by sin of the animated tabernacles of God, the souls and bodies of men. The Word about the cross, further, is the word about the grant to all believers - eternal life for the sake of the suffered, dead and risen Christ; a word about crucifying the flesh with passions and lusts; the word is about the mutual love of people for each other; about selflessness for the sake of love for God and neighbor; the word is about enduring sorrows, illnesses, reproaches, slander, persecution, and torment for the sake of Christ. This is what the word cross means. How can such a word be, was and is foolishness for people who are perishing, and the power of God for those who are being saved (1 Cor. 1:18)? “We’ll talk about this today in honor of the feast of the exaltation of the cross of Christ.” Lord, bless this word and may it be a power for salvation for me and for all who listen to me. Who are these lost ones, for whom the word about the cross of Christ is madness? – The Holy Apostle calls perishing those who did not believe his sermons, Jews and pagans, who were tempted by the teaching of the crucified God - the Messiah and the new Christian teaching, which condemned all human sins and iniquities, all carnal passions and demanded true repentance, correction and complete renewal of the lives of all who believed in Christ: be renewed in the spirit of your mind (Eph. 4:23); He who is in Christ is a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), says the Apostle. - Why was the word about the cross foolishness or madness for them? – Because they were devoted with all their hearts and all their being to sin, sinful habits, passions, customs, a corrupt mind, they loved lawlessness and despised the truth of God, they changed the truth of God into a lie (Rom. 1:25); and faith in Christ crucified, which demanded a holy life, contrary to their passions, which received in them the power of habit and the law of sin, condemned all this and seemed to go completely against their desires, their whole life, and the word about the cross did not fit into their concepts, since it contradicted the entire structure of their life and customs. How could God endure such suffering and such death, they said? – Why is this suffering and death? Why the cross, this blasphemous execution of slaves endured by Christ? Couldn't the salvation of humanity have been accomplished otherwise than by such a shameful death? Such and similar questions circulated in their hearts and heads, they could not solve them in their darkening from passions, and so the teaching about Christ crucified was temptation and madness for them, and with fierce hatred they persecuted all the followers of Christ, harmful dreamers, as having been subjected to a dangerous error, as stubborn enemies of the state and pagan gods, as contrary to them in their different way of life and instead of to be saved by faith in Christ crucified - they perished in their unbelief and in their hatred of Christ crucified and His followers, remaining in sins, adding sins to sins and, due to unbelief, not having a Deliverer and Savior. Now another question: how is the word about the cross for us being saved the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18)? For us, who have experienced and are constantly experiencing the saving power of the cross of Christ, the solution to this issue is very easy. Who was the victim on the cross? – Son of God, God’s Power and God’s Wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24). For whom did he suffer, die and be buried? - For us, to put to death our passions that killed us with the cross, to trample on the devil who trampled us down, and to destroy hell that held men, to put to death our death by His death, to reconcile us, the enemies of God, with God and make righteous sinners and by His resurrection to give eternal life to all who believe in Him. For this purpose, the omnipotent God underwent infirmities and sufferings and death itself according to the flesh, in order to heal our infirmities, for by His stripes we were all healed (Is. 53:5; 1 Pet. 2:24), so that we, who believe in Him, could be given invincible strength in the fight against sins, against demons, against temptations, in persecutions, in torments, in order to turn our death into a restful sleep. And look, what was the power of the cross of Christ in the Apostles, in the martyrs, in the Christian ascetics? “They drove away demons with the sign of the cross, healed diseases, took away the power of poison, crushed idols, tamed animals, turned fire into cool dew; with the sign of the cross they disarmed and defeated enemies; tamed the movements of passions. The cross was the power of God in all the sacraments, as until now it serves as a seal and miraculous power in all the sacraments; cross - consecration of air, water, earth, all earthly elements; to them our houses, fields, meadows, and fruits of the earth are consecrated; the cross begins or presanctifies the battle with the enemies of faith and fatherland; the cross defeats invisible and visible enemies; the cross delivered from mortal danger; the cross raised the dead. When the cross of Christ was acquired by St. Queen Helena and placed on a sick woman near death, she suddenly became healthy; when it was placed on a dead man, he came to life. And now all true believing Christians, who use the sign of the cross with faith and reverence, very often experience its saving power; they are healed from sorrows, from passions, from illnesses. Ask all sincere believers about the power of the cross that they experience every day. They will tell you that the cross of Christ is for them an everlasting triumph, an everlasting victory, a joy; that faith in the Crucified One is their life, deliverance from all worldly troubles, justification, sanctification, correction of life, that the thought of the Crucified One is inseparable from their breathing, since for them it is always life-giving, joyful, and comforting. Let us try to delve deeper into the mystery of the cross, into the mystery of God’s endless love for us and to love God and our neighbor with all our hearts; Let us learn in practice self-sacrifice and mortify our carnal passions - and then we will all learn by experience that for us, too, the cross is God’s power and God’s wisdom. Amen. Teachings on the erection of the Holy Cross If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and come after me. (Mark 8:34). So the Lord assigns us each to bear our own cross. If anyone wants to come after Me, He says, let him take up his cross, that is, the cross of various misfortunes and sufferings, and come after Me. Yes, to achieve the kingdom of God, the cross is necessary for everyone, and without the cross, or, which is also without sorrow, without hardship, no one can enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord paved the way for us to heaven with the cross, and we must go there with that cross. Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22), says the Apostle. The way is narrow, lead us into the belly (Matthew 7:14), says the Lord. “But why, it seemed, not to expand the path to the kingdom of heaven, to make it easier, why not to eliminate various sufferings from it? How many would then be going to heaven? The long road would then seem to be full of people hastening to heavenly Jerusalem, just as it is now full of people going to hell. - But to say so means not knowing the essence of the matter, not knowing oneself, not knowing what the kingdom of heaven is. It is an impossible task, brethren, for there to be a broad and smooth path to our heavenly fatherland. Why it is impossible to have a broad and smooth path to the kingdom of heaven, but must be narrow, cramped, or - which is also - a cross, sorrowful, I will explain to you now, beloved brothers and sisters, on the basis of the Word of God. The path to the kingdom is narrow, or - which is the same thing - the way of the cross lies to the kingdom of heaven because we are sinners, and extremely sinful: sin is innate to us from the womb, we live in sins; we are saturated with sin, so to speak, sin moves us, we breathe with sin, so to speak, we eat and drink with sin, we stay awake with sin, we sleep with sin, we talk with each other with sin, we carry sins into the churches of God, we think about sinful things in the church of God, and everything and everything in us is sin, but purity and holiness are either not in us at all, or few of us have it, with grace They only begin to gain God's grace through careful observation of their hearts, and through fasting, prayer and almsgiving. But God, brothers, is an endless holiness, and created us in the beginning righteous and holy; man arbitrarily fell into the defilement of sin, just as you and I also arbitrarily defile ourselves with all sorts of sins; and God, being righteous and holy, cannot help but abhor all sin, all iniquity: an abomination to Him and one unrighteous thought (Prov. 15:26). The wicked one will not dwell in you, says the Holy Scripture, the wicked will abide below your eyes (Ps. 5:5,6), nothing vile or unclean will enter the kingdom of Christ God (Eph. 5:5), says the Scripture; but to be accepted into the kingdom of heaven means the same thing as to be accepted into communion with God and with His saints, as the Holy Apostle John the Theologian says: that you also may have fellowship with us: our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3). Therefore, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven, or to be accepted into communion with God, one must certainly be cleansed of sins, and for this one must be cleansed gradually throughout earthly life. Is it an easy task, brethren, to cleanse your heart from sinful defilements? Is it an easy thing to not allow sin to nest in our heart, when it has, so to speak, grown into it, become, as it were, a second nature, when we (often) love sin as our child, as a part of ourselves; even if we don’t love it, because sin torments us and the passions of the heart torment us; then how long after repentance do we not return to them again? Only until a new case occurs. – So, everyone’s experience testifies to all this. This, brethren, is the reason for the way of the cross to the kingdom. Yes, sin has taken deep and wide deadly roots in us, and it is necessary to use a lot of pious labors, a lot of effort in resisting the sins that defile our soul; to endure a lot of sorrows, to shed many tears of heartfelt repentance and heartfelt contrition, to endure a lot of persecution of the unrighteous from the people of this age, also from the spirits of wickedness in high places, opposing all good, we must endure a lot of sorrows willy-nilly, we must fast and pray a lot, we must endure a lot of heavy blows to the heart in order to drive sin out of its nest; - and what to do? After all, sin is not someone else’s, but our own child, the product of our will, receptive to evil. If we did not have our own free will, there would be no sin, there would not be such difficulties in reaching the heavenly fatherland. But then there would be no paradise for us, there would be no eternal bliss. How can anyone be blissful without putting in, without using any attention, effort, labor, patience to preserve the commandments of the Creator, to maintain fidelity to Him? It’s a shame to eat free, undeserved bread, but it’s pleasant and healthy to eat bread from labor. Is it possible to enjoy eternal bliss without the labor of self-examination, self-purification and pleasing the all-holy, all-perfect, all-loving Creator and our heavenly Father! So do not blame the Creator, brethren, you are earth and ashes - do not say to the Skudelnik, you are clay: why did you create me like this (Rom. 9:20)? Why did he give us freedom? He gave you the will in order to give you the opportunity to earn endless bliss through your free will; and how great will our bliss be when we realize that it is not only the mercy of the Master, but also deserved by us? Imagine how the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints and all the saints rejoice - those who have reached the kingdom of heaven through the cross, through labors and sorrows, and do not be lazy and each of you work to cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and create holiness in the fear of God; do not be discouraged when you are subjected to various sorrows due to your sins, but pray and thank God for everything; say: sorrow and illness have come; and I called on the name of the Lord (Ps. 115:3,4). Obey God, resist the devil: and he will flee from you: draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse the sinner's hand, correct your double-minded hearts. Suffer and weep and cry: your laughter may turn into mourning and your joy may turn into lamentation. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you (James 4:7–10). Don’t give yourself the slightest room for sin, but crowd it out and drive it out of your heart as much as possible; resist him, if necessary, to the point of bleeding, crucify your flesh with its passions and lusts (Gal.5:24): and this will mean that you took up your cross and followed the Savior. And the Savior will in due time seat the crusaders on the throne of His kingdom, as He Himself promised: to the one who overcomes I will give to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also conquered and sat with My Father on His throne (Rev. 3:21). May none of us, brethren, be afraid to take up our cross, deny ourselves, that is, all our sinful, corrupt things, and follow the Savior. Amen. A verse in praise of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Akathist to the Mother of God Cond. 8. 1 Irmos Epiphany hymn 5. Last prays for Holy Communion. 3. Symeon Metaphrastus. 1st verse. on the “Lord I cried” holiday. Ascension. Akathist to the Mother of God Kontakion 8.