Слово в день архистратига Михаила и прочих безплотных сил, сказанное в Предтеченской церкви архиерейскаго дома 8-го ноября 1857 года.

“By this, all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, even thrones, even dominions, even principalities, even powers” ​​(Col. 1:16). We live in the material world, we belong to it with the whole half of our being. But we partly live together now, and we will live fully after death, in the invisible, spiritual world, to which we also belong with the whole half of our being. We know little about the material world, although we try to study it and have all the means to do so; Even less, incomparably less, do we know the spiritual world, which is, as it were, closed from us by an impenetrable curtain. Only revelation lifted this veil a little for us and gave us the opportunity to gain some insight into the secrets of the heavenly world. Let us, brothers, now, when we celebrate in honor of the heavenly powers, let us take advantage of this help of Divine revelation and try, at least briefly, although to some extent, to resolve the most important issues regarding the spiritual world. What is the spiritual world? It is completely different from the world around us. Here we see a kingdom of dead matter, in which only mechanical forces act; We also see living beings, but inanimate ones; We also see animate beings, but unreasonable ones; We see one being and a rational one - a person, but clothed in rough flesh. In the spiritual world it is completely different. It is composed of angels - purely spiritual beings (Heb. 1:14), who do not have “flesh and bones” (Luke 24:39), “neither marry nor commit violence” (Matt. 22:30) and cannot even die (Luke 20:35). They are gifted with reason and freedom, they can see the face of the heavenly Father (Matthew 18:10), glorify Him (Isa. 6:3) and fulfill His holy will (Psalm 102:20). In terms of their natural powers, they are more perfect than man, who, in the words of the Psalmist, is “less than an angel,” although “little in number” (Psalm 8:6), and they are even more superior to him in moral terms: for they have already been so established in goodness that they cannot sin and will forever remain “saints” (Matthew 25:31). Such is this world - a world alien to all materiality, a world of reason and freedom, a world pure from all sinfulness! How big and vast is the spiritual world? We are often amazed at the enormity of the material world. Modern science, with the help of a magnifying glass, has discovered that these luminous points, which we call stars, are the greatest celestial bodies; that each of them is several times larger than our planet; that these countless masses are at amazing distances from the earth and from one another, and that the further the armed eye penetrates into the spaces of heaven, the more and more new masses of substances are revealed, so that the material world seems to have no end or limit. But, brothers, no less, and perhaps even much greater, is the spiritual world. Those who were worthy to be raptured into this world testify that “thousand thousand” angels surround the throne of the Almighty and “thick darkness” stand before Him (Dan. 7:10; Rev. 5:11). We can form the weakest idea about the number of heavenly powers on the basis of the Savior’s parable about a man who, having a hundred sheep, leaves ninety-nine not lost in the desert, and “follows the trail” of one “lost, until he finds her” (Matthew 18:12; Luke 15:5). This good shepherd, according to St. Fathers of the Church, is the Son of God himself, who descended from heaven to earth; these ninety-nine unlost sheep are the ranks of angels; this one lost sheep is the entire human race. Imagine how great the entire human race is, bring together all the people who have ever lived, are living and will live on earth for entire millennia from the first man who sinned until the very end of the world - and imagine that all these millions of millions of creatures make up approximately barely one hundredth of the world of good angels. What is the structure of the spiritual world? We see on earth that people, rational beings, do not live separately from each other, but form societies, states, that in these societies they are divided into classes and estates, that God himself appoints over them kings, rulers and other lower authorities, to whom all citizens are obliged to obey, and thus social life flows harmoniously and in order to achieve the final goals of humanity. The same thing, only in its most perfect form, exists in the spiritual world. And there the Lord God, although he reigns directly, established a hierarchy or hierarchy, dividing all the angels into three ranks and subdividing them into nine classes or faces; and there are higher, middle and lower, there are superiors and subordinates, those who lead and those who are led. The highest, closest to God, rank consists of three faces: seraphim, cherubim, thrones; middle rank - the other three faces: strength, domination, power; the lowest – three more faces: principles, archangels, angels. The higher ones rule over the middle ones, the middle ones serve as leaders and secret guides for the lower ones. In all this, the angelic world is the most extensive and most comfortable kingdom, which is called the kingdom of glory. Where is the spiritual world? “In heaven,” answers the Word of God (Matthew 22:30). What kind of sky is this? Of course, not the one we see. Let scientists assume that there must be inhabitants on the stars and on celestial bodies in general, forming entire huge worlds. If there are such inhabitants, then these are, without a doubt, not angels. Only beings clothed with flesh can inhabit bodies; and angels are incorporeal spirits. No, there is another heaven, a higher one, outside the material world and beyond it there is a purely spiritual heaven, which we now, due to our limitations, cannot even imagine, where St. the Apostle Paul and where he heard unspeakable verbs, “which it is unlawful for a man to speak” (2 Cor. 12:4). It is there that the Lord God, the “Father of Spirits” (Heb. 12:9) dwells in all his glory, disembodied angels live there, and all righteous human souls ascend there. But we believe that the Lord God, as infinite, is present in the entire material world, present on earth, especially in his holy churches; We believe that He has repeatedly sent and continues to send His angels to earth, that many of them seem to constantly, inseparably live on earth, with people whom they serve as guardian angels. Consequently, there also exist in the midst of the material world some spiritual spaces in which the Lord God dwells, through which disembodied spirits are transported to us and in which bodiless spirits live around us. What is the relationship of the spiritual world to the material and to us? There are only weak hints about the relationship of the spiritual world to the material world from the seer of the new testament, St. John the Theologian. He mentions an angel who has power over the element of fire (Apoc. 15:18), a “water angel” who is given power over water (Apoc. 16:5), and four angels holding “the four winds of the earth” (Apoc. 7:1). Where did they conclude St. fathers, that the Almighty entrusts angels with the management of parts and elements of the visible world. But the relationship of the angelic world to the human race itself is spoken of in the Word of God in more and more detail. Using all possible means to deliver us from sin and its disastrous consequences, the All-Good One wanted the angels themselves to become “ministering spirits, sent to serve for those who want to inherit salvation” (Heb. 1:14). For this purpose, each of the believers, from the time of his baptism, is given his own special guardian angel, who becomes his mentor throughout his life (Matthew 18:10). For the same purpose, guardian angels are given to entire churches or communities of believers in order to arrange their spiritual well-being and guide them to eternal life (Apoc. 1, 20) and - to entire kingdoms and nations, in order not only to promote their external well-being, but also to lead them to the light of Christ and confirm them “in all godliness and purity” (Dan. 10, 13. 14. 20. 21). In general, the angels of God guide us on the path of truth and righteousness (2 Kings 1:3), lift up our prayers to God and intercede for us (Matthew 18:10; Comrade 12:15-20), protect our souls and bodies from enemies visible and invisible during waking and sleep, and accompany human souls during their transition to eternity (Luke 16:22). Thus, the spiritual world is in the closest, closest relationship to the human race: the Lord uses angels as living instruments of His fatherly providence for us sinners. What, finally, should be our attitude towards the spiritual world? This is already partly expressed by our present triumph in honor of the Archangel Michael and other ethereal forces. We must honor angels as beings more perfect than us both in nature and in moral perfection, as faithful servants of the Almighty, placed in special proximity to Him. We must call upon the angels in our prayers, as our guardians and benefactors, as our representatives before God, and thank them for all their care for us. We must imitate the angels in holiness, as our elder brothers, and take care that the will of our heavenly Father is fulfilled on earth, as it is fulfilled in heaven. In particular, each of us must try to come into close communication with our guardian angel, in order to understand his good suggestions, reveal our needs to him, use his invisible help, not upset him with our sins, on the contrary, please him and reward him for all his concerns about us with good deeds and constant success in a pious life. Such an attitude towards disembodied spirits will, without a doubt, be pleasing to them and to our common Lord and Father. Amen. You might be interested in: