Беседа 30

Spoken to the people in the Church of St. Apostle Peter on the day of Holy Pentecost. Reading the Holy Gospel: John 14.23–31. John 14.23–31. Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves Me will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; The word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father who sent Me. I told you these things while I was with you. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I have told you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard that I said to you: I am leaving you and will come to you. If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I said: I am going to the Father; for My Father is greater than Me. And behold, I told you about it before it happened, so that you might believe when it happens. It’s not long for me to talk to you; For the prince of this world comes and has nothing in Me. But so that the world may know that I love the Father and, as the Father commanded Me, so I do: get up, let’s go from here. 1. The words of the Gospel reading, beloved brethren, can be followed briefly, so that later one can continue to contemplate such a great triumph. For today the Holy Spirit with a sudden noise descended on the Apostles (Acts 2.2 et seq.) and changed the hearts of carnal people into love for Him, and from the tongues of fire that appeared from outside, the hearts were inflamed within; because when they accept God in a fiery vision, then they are pleasantly inflamed with love. For the Holy Spirit Himself is love, which is why John says: “God is love” (1 John 4.8, 16). So, whoever strives for God with a pure heart truly already has Him whom he loves. For no one could love God if he did not have Him whom he loves. But if one of you is asked whether he loves God, then he answers with confidence and decisiveness of mind: “I love.” But you heard at the very beginning of the reading what the Truth says: “Whoever loves Me will keep My word.” Therefore, the proof of love is to express it in action. Therefore, the same John in his epistle says: “Whoever says: “I love God,” but hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4.20, sn. 1 John 2.4). For we truly love God when we strive from our pleasures to fulfill His commandments. For whoever still entertains himself with unauthorized desires truly does not love God, because he contradicts Him with his will. 2. “And My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our abode with him.” Imagine, beloved brethren, what a celebration it must be like to receive in the church the hearts of a visiting God. If any rich and powerful friend were to enter your house, the whole house would be cleansed with all haste, so that there would be nothing in it that would offend the eyes of the incoming friend. So let him who prepares the house of his soul for God throw away the filth of evil deeds. But hear what the Truth says: “We will come to him and make our abode with him.” For He comes into the hearts of some, but does not create an abode in them, because, although they accept God with contrition of the heart, during temptation they forget the very thing that they were contrite; and thus again return to committing sins, as if they had never lamented about them. So, whoever truly loves God, who keeps His commandments, the Lord comes into his heart and makes his abode in him, because love for the Divine penetrates him so much that even during temptation he does not retreat from this love. Therefore, the one who truly loves is the one whose mind is not overcome by unholy love. For everyone is further separated from Supreme Love, the lower his love extends. Therefore, it is also added: “He who does not love Me does not keep My words.” So, most beloved brethren, go within yourselves, examine whether you truly love God; However, let everyone not believe that reason will answer him without evidence of the matter. The Creator's love requires: language, reason and life. Love for God is never idle. For if she exists, she does great things; and if she refuses to do them, then she is not love. “The word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” You, beloved brethren, know that the One Who speaks, the Only Begotten Son, is the Word of the Father, and therefore the word spoken by the Son is not the Son’s, but the Father’s, because the Son Himself is the Word of the Father. “I told you these things while I was with you.” When there was not among them the One who, having ascended into heaven, makes a promise, saying: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen" (Matthew 28.20)? – But the Word incarnate both abides and departs; departs with the body, remains as the Divine. So, He appears to be among them at that time because He who always abides by invisible power has already departed from bodily vision. 3. “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I have told you.” Many of you, my brothers, know that the Greek word Paraclete (Comforter) in Latin means Intercessor, or Comforter. He is called an intercessor because he intercedes before the justice of the Father in the case of those who sin. Being one being with the Father and the Son, He appears to be praying for those who sin, because He makes those He fills into prayer. That is why Paul says: “The Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be expressed” (Rom 8.26). But he who asks does less than he whom he asks; How then is the Spirit, who is no less, called asking? – But the Spirit Himself asks because it inflames those whom He fills with petition. The same Spirit is called the Comforter because, by preparing the hope of forgiveness for those who mourn over sin, He eases the soul from the torment of sorrow. The promise is rightly made of him, “he will teach you all things.” Because if the same Spirit is not in the heart of the listener, then the word of the teacher is in vain: So, no one should attribute to a learning person what he understands from the mouth of the teacher, because if there is no One within who teaches, then the teacher’s tongue works in vain from the outside. You still hear one voice of the speaker, but you still don’t understand the meaning of the word you hear. So, if the word is indifferent, then why is the understanding of the word different in your hearts, if not because the word of the speaker exhorts in general, but there is an internal Teacher who privately teaches everyone the understanding of the word? About this anointing of the Spirit it is again said through John: “but this very anointing teaches you all things” (1 John 2.27). So, there is no instruction from the word when the mind does not have the anointing of the Spirit. But why do we say this about human teaching, when the Creator Himself does not speak to teach man, if the Spirit does not speak to this same man through anointing? - It is known that Cain, before he actually committed fratricide, heard: “If you do good, don’t you raise your face? and if you do not do good, then sin lies at the door; he draws you to himself, but you have dominion over him” (Gen. 4.7). But since, according to the effect of his guilt, he was admonished by the word, and not by the anointing of the Spirit, he could hear the words of God, but despised them by fulfilling them. But we need to examine why it is said of the same Spirit: “He will remind you of all things,” whereas reminding is usually a lesser task? - But since “to remind” in our colloquial language sometimes means “to communicate,” the invisible Spirit is called “reminding” not because He communicates the meaning to us from below, but secretly. - “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.” I leave it here, I give it from there. I leave it to the former, I give it to the future. 4. Here we, beloved brethren, have briefly explained the words of the holy reading; Now let us transfer our minds to the contemplation of such a great triumph. But since, along with the reading of the Gospel, you are also offered reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2.1), then from this last one we will extract something in favor of our contemplation. For you have heard that the Holy Spirit appeared over the disciples in tongues of fire and taught them the knowledge of all tongues. What exactly does this miracle mean, if not that the Holy Church, filled with the same Spirit, will have to speak in the languages ​​of all nations? Those who, contrary to God, tried to build a tower, lost the communication of a single language (Gen. 11.7, 8), and in those who humbly feared God, all languages ​​were brought together. So, here humility deserves help, and there pride deserves confusion. 5. But we need to decide why the Holy Spirit, co-eternal with the Father and the Son, appeared in fire? – Why in fire and together in tongues? – Why does He sometimes appear in the form of a dove, and sometimes in fire? - Why did He appear over the Only Begotten Son in the form of a dove, and over the disciples in fire, so that He did not appear either over the Son in fire, or over the disciples in the form of a dove? – So, we will return to solving the four questions we proposed. For the Spirit, coeternal with the Father and the Son, appears in fire because God is incorporeal, ineffable and invisible fire, according to the testimony of Paul: “for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12.29). Because God is called fire because He destroys the rust of sins. About this fire, the Truth says: “I came to bring down fire on the earth, and how I would like it to kindle already!” (Lk 12.49). For earth is the name given to earthly hearts, which, constantly accumulating lower thoughts within themselves, are trampled upon by evil spirits. But the Lord sends fire to earth when, with the breath of the Holy Spirit, he inflames the hearts of carnal people. And the earth burns when the heart of flesh, cold in its wicked pleasures, abandons the desires of the present age and is inflamed with love for God. So, the Spirit appropriately appeared in fire, because He drives away the numbness of the cold from every heart that fulfills it and ignites it to the desire of His Eternity. And He appeared in tongues of fire because this Spirit is co-eternal with the Son, and language has a special closeness to the word. Because the Word of the Father is the Son. And since there is one being of the Spirit and the Word, then this Spirit had to appear in the tongue. Or more clearly: since the word is pronounced by the tongue, the Spirit appeared in tongues because whoever touches the Holy Spirit confesses the Word of God, that is, the Only Begotten Son; and we cannot reject the Word of God, because it already has the language of the Holy Spirit. Or again: the Spirit appeared in tongues of fire because He makes everyone whom He fills fiery and speaking. Teachers have tongues of fire because, preaching what we should love God, they inflame the hearts of those who listen. For the word of a teacher is idle if it cannot ignite love. This ignition of the teaching was received from the very lips of the Truth by those who said: “Did not our heart burn within us when He spoke to us on the road and when He explained the Scripture to us” (Luke 24.32)? Because from hearing a word the spirit is inflamed, the cold of numbness is removed, the soul becomes greedy in a heavenly desire, alien to earthly desires. True love, which will fill her, torments her with sobs; but when she suffers from such a flame, then she feeds on this very torment. She is pleased to hear the commandments of heaven; and how many instructions he receives from the commandments, so much, as if from torches, he ignites; and she who was previously stagnant in desires is then ignited by words. Therefore it is well said through Moses: “at His right hand is the fire of the law” (Deut. 33.2). Because the wicked are called shuytsa, who will be placed “on the right hand,” and the right hand is the chosen ones of God. So, in the right hand of God there is a fiery law, because the elect never listen to the heavenly commandments with a cold heart, but are always ignited with the fire of inner love for them. The word touches the ear, and their soul, angry with itself, burns with the flame of inner sweetness. But the Holy Spirit appeared both in the form of a dove and in fire, because He makes everyone whom He fills both simple and fiery—simple in purity, fiery in zealous imitation. For God cannot be pleased either with simplicity without zeal, or with zeal without simplicity. Therefore, the Truth Itself says: “be wise as serpents and simple as doves” (Matthew 10.16). Here it should be noted that the Lord did not want to give instructions to His disciples, neither from a dove without a serpent, nor from a serpent without a dove, so that the simplicity of the dove would be tempered by the cunning of the serpent, and the cunning of the serpent would be tempered by the simplicity of the dove. Therefore Paul says: “Do not be children in your mind” (1 Cor 14:20). Now we have heard about the prudence of the serpent; Now let us listen to the instruction on the simplicity of the dove: “Be infants to evil” (Ibid.). Therefore, it is said about blessed Job: “And this man was blameless, just and fearful of God, and shunned evil” (Job 1.1). But what is righteousness without simplicity, and what is simplicity without righteousness? - So, since this Spirit teaches both righteousness and simplicity, it had to appear both in fire and in the form of a dove, so that every heart touched by His grace would be both calm, due to the quality of meekness, and fiery, due to zeal for righteousness. 6. But finally, we must ask: why did He (the Holy Spirit) appear in the form of a dove over our Redeemer Himself, the Mediator of God and men, and in fire over the disciples? It is known that the Only Begotten Son of God is the Judge of the human race. But who would have stood before His justice if He, before He gathered us together with meekness, wanted to judge our sins through zeal for righteousness? So, He, having become Man for the sake of men, revealed Himself meek to men. He did not want to smite sinners, but wanted to gather them. He first wanted to correct with meekness, so that he could have those who could later be saved at the trial. Therefore, the Spirit had to appear in the form of a dove over Him who came not to smite sins out of jealousy, but to still endure them through meekness. On the contrary, over the disciples the Holy Spirit had to appear in fire, so that those who were simple people, and therefore sinners, would inflame the spirit of other slaves against themselves and, through repentance, would cleanse themselves from those sins that God spared through meekness. Because even those who were committed to the Heavenly Teacher could not be without sin, according to the testimony of John, who says: “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1.8). So, He (the Holy Spirit) descended on people in fire, and appeared above the Lord in the form of a dove, because we, out of zeal for righteousness, must carefully notice and burn with the fire of constant repentance those of our sins that the Lord condescendingly endured out of meekness. Consequently, the Spirit appeared in the form of a dove over the Redeemer, and in fire over people because the more moderate the severity of our Judge is for us, the more our weakness should be inflamed against itself. 7. About this Spirit it is written: “From His spirit is the splendor of heaven” (Job 26.13). For the ornaments of heaven are the virtues of preachers. It is these ornaments that Paul enumerates, saying: “To one is given the word of wisdom by the 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. Yet one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He pleases” (1 Cor 12.8-11). So, as many blessings come from those who preach, as many are the decorations of heaven. Therefore it is written again: “By the Word of the Lord the heavens were created” (Ps 33:6). For the Word of the Lord is the Son of the Father. But in order to show the entire Holy Trinity acting in the dispensation of these very heavens, that is, the Holy Apostles, it is immediately added about the Divinity of the Holy Spirit: “and by the spirit of His mouth - all their host” (Ibid.). Consequently, the power of heaven is borrowed from the Spirit, because they (the Apostles) would not have decided to go against the authorities of this world if they had not been supported by the power of the Holy Spirit. For we know what the teachers of St. were like. Churches before the descent of the Holy Spirit, and we see how they became strong after His descent. 8. This very shepherd of the Church, whose most holy relics we stand upon, how weak and how timid he was before the descent of the Spirit, let the asked servant at the gate speak about this. For he, struck by one word of the woman, fearing death, renounced Life (John 18.17). And Peter denied on earth when the thief confessed on the cross (Luke 23.41, 42). But let us hear how this such a timid man appeared after the descent of the Spirit. A meeting of authorities and elders gathers, death is declared to the Apostles so that they do not speak about the name of Jesus - Peter answers with great boldness: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5.29). And again: “Judge whether it is fair before God to listen to you more than to listen to God?” (Acts 4.19, 20). “And they went out from the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 5:41). Here Peter, who was previously afraid of words, rejoices in the beatings. And the one who was previously afraid of the servant’s question, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, despises the forces of the authorities under blows. – It is pleasant to lift the gaze of faith to the power of this Artist and to look at the Fathers in various places of the New and Old Testament. Here I am, having opened this very gaze of faith, I see David, Amos, Daniel, Peter, Paul, Matthew, and I want to discuss what kind of Artist this Holy Spirit is; but in my very discussion I weaken. For He fills the youth who plays the harp, and makes him a Psalmist (1 Sam. 16.18). He fulfills the role of a shepherd who gathers the buttocks, and makes him a Prophet (Am 7.14). Fills a chaste youth and makes him a judge of the elders (Dan 13.4–6 et seq.). He fills the tax collector and makes him a preacher (Matthew 4.19). Fills the persecutor and makes him a teacher of languages ​​(Acts 9.1 et seq.). He fulfills the duties of a tax collector and makes him an Evangelist (Luke 5.27–28). Oh, what an Artist this Spirit is! There is no delay for Him in learning anything He wants. As soon as He touches the mind, He immediately teaches, and to touch Him means to teach. For He, by illumination, immediately changes the human spirit: suddenly forces it not to be what it was, suddenly disposes it to be what it was not. 9. Let us think about our holy preachers, what this day has found them to be and what it has made them. Out of fear of the Jews, they were gathered in one room, each knowing only his own natural language; however, even in this very language that they knew, they did not dare to speak openly about Christ. – The Spirit came and taught them the knowledge of various languages, and put the power of boldness into their hearts (Acts 2.2 et seq.). And those who were previously afraid to even speak about Christ in their own language began to speak about Him in a foreign language. For the inflamed heart despised those bodily torments that it had previously feared, and conquered the power of fleshly illness with love for the Creator. And those who previously stood lower than their opponents out of fear became higher than them in boldness. So, what did He do who raised them to such a height, if not to make the souls of earthly people heaven? – Think, beloved brethren, what today’s celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit should be like after the incarnation of the Only Begotten Son of God. For both are venerable. Because in this God, being God, accepted humanity, and in that people from above accepted the descended God. In this God became man by nature; in this, people, by assimilation, became gods. So, if we do not want to remain carnal until death, then let us love the quickening Spirit. 10. But since the flesh does not know the Spirit, then perhaps someone in a carnal mind will say to himself: “How can I love Him whom I do not know?” – We agree to this, because the mind, occupied with the visible, does not know how to see the Invisible. For he does not think about anything except what is visible, and he brings its image inside himself even when he does not act, and when he lies in bodily images, then he does not have the strength to rise to the incorporeal. From this it happens that the worse he does not know the Creator, the closer in his thoughts he surrounds the nature of the body. But if we cannot see God, then we have what we must do to open the way by which the gaze of our knowledge should reach to Him. It is known that whom we cannot see in person, we can see in his servants. When we see that they perform miracles, then we know that God dwells in their souls. But about an incorporeal thing we will draw conclusions from corporeal things. For none of us can clearly see the rising sun, looking directly at its circle, because our intense gaze is amazed by its rays, but we see the mountains, sanctified by the sun, and we know that the sun has already risen. So, since we cannot see the Sun of Truth in Himself, we will look at the mountains illuminated by His radiance, that is, at the Holy Apostles, who shine with virtues, shine with miracles, who are surrounded by the light of the born Sun; since It is invisible in Itself, it allowed you to see Itself through them, as if through illuminated mountains. For the power of the Divine in itself is like the sun in the sky, and the power of the Divine in people is the sun on earth. So, on earth we will look at the Sun of righteousness, Whom we cannot see in heaven, so that, walking with the blameless foot of work through this earthly, we will have time to raise our eyes to heaven to see it. But the path on earth is completed with a blameless foot when we love God and our neighbor with a pure heart. For without God they truly love neither God without their neighbor, nor their neighbor without God. Therefore, as we already said in another conversation (Conversations 26. Part. 3), it is narrated that the same Spirit was given to the disciples twice: first from the Lord who is on earth, and then from the Lord who is present in heaven. Because on earth He is given in order for people to love their neighbor, and from heaven in order for them to love God. But why first on earth, and then from heaven, if not because the disciples are given to understand that, according to the words of John, “Whoever says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4.20)? - So, brethren, let us love our neighbor, let us love the one who is near us, in order to be able to achieve love for the One who is higher than us. Let the mind consider in its neighbor what it should present to God, in order to fully deserve joy in God together with its neighbor. Then we will move on to the joy of the high multitude, for which we have now received the pledge of the Holy Spirit. “Let us strive with all our love to the end where we will rejoice endlessly.” There is a holy society of Heavenly Citizens; there is a decisive triumph; there is safe peace; there is true peace, which is no longer interrupted, but is given through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through all the ages of ages. Amen. You might be interested in: