Поучение на Обрезание Господа Бога и Спаса нашего Иисуса Христа, месяца января, в 1 день («Дали Ему имя Иисус» (Лк. 2:21))

Godly listeners! Both the New Testament and the new summer begin with the name of Jesus. All the old things, having reached the name of Jesus, ended, but the new things received their beginning from the name of Jesus: “The old things have passed away, and now all things are new” (2 Cor. 5:17). It has become new, for this name “Jesus” is new, as it is said: “I will write the name of my God, a new name” (Rev. 3:12). This new name was brought from heaven and called by an Angel before conception in the womb (see Luke 1:31). This new name is recorded both in the church books and in the civil books at the very circumcision and naming. It is recorded in the church books, for after performing the usual act of circumcision in the church, the archpriest immediately took the inscription book and wrote in it the following: on the first day of the month, called in Hebrew “Sevat”, in Greek “Lidineos” and in Roman “Januarius”, the Son of Joseph and Mary, from the tribe of David, was circumcised, and His name was called Jesus. This name is also recorded in the civil books, for, due to the census of the people and the collection of tribute from each person at that time, at the command of Caesar Augustus, the following was recorded in Bethlehem: on the first Kalends of January, Joseph with Mary and the newborn Baby Jesus, belonging to the royal family, paid tribute to Caesar. I, a sinner, would like to write this new glorious name Jesus now for the new summer not only in the book of my heart, but also in the hearts of everyone, as if in worldly and spiritual books, and, moreover, to write not with any simple ink, but with various paints and colors. In the hope of God’s help, I begin this planned work: let your love open the books of your hearts. But you, co-essential and co-natural with the Holy Son of the Soul, be for me “the scribe’s reed of the scribbler” (Ps. 44:2). First of all, let this new blessed name Jesus be written as a royal name in the royal books. Jesus is a royal name, for he reigns both in heaven and on earth: in heaven he co-reigns with the Father, on earth he receives gifts from kings with the title of royal, for they asked about Him: “Where is he who has been born a King?” (Matthew 2:2). Let this royal name be written for the new summer, first of all, in the great book of the heart of the Most Illustrious and Most Powerful Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Peter Alekseevich, of all Great and Little, and White Russia, Autocrat. And let it be written in letters of gold, following the example of the most ancient centuries, when, according to the testimony of Jerome, it was not allowed to write the name of God except in gold. But it is also known that in the heart of one of the God-bearers, whom Christ God held in His arms as a child, after his death the name Jesus was found written in gold letters. And since “the heart of the king is in the hands of God” (Prov. 21:1) and is controlled by God, then in the heart of the king, as God-bearing, let the name Jesus be written in gold. I don’t know why in the Divine Scripture gold is an image of mercy, mercy, kindness, love for mankind, and now I don’t have enough time to talk about this in detail. I know this, and now I will say about it, that all this is fitting for the royal throne, as the Tributary says: “Mercy and truth preserve the king, and righteousness will go around his throne” (Proverbs 20:28). Another translation reads: “Charity and truth preserve the king, and mercy establishes his throne.” What a blessing this is, we will now see. In the days of King Vespasian, when idolatry still prevailed, there was a dispute about the gods in the Roman Senate: which of the gods is the best and by what honorable name should he be properly called and praised? Some said: “That god is better who is richer than all, and it is appropriate to praise him as the richest, calling him: rich god.” Others said: “The best god is the one who is wiser than all, and it is worthy to praise him as the wise one, with the name: wise god.” Still others said: “The best god is the one who is stronger, more powerful than everyone else, and he should be praised as strong, strong, calling him: strong, strong god.” The fourth, discussing everything said by others, said: “If that god who seems stronger and stronger than others is recognized as the best of all gods, then only strong, strong, brave and courageous people will have their own god. And the weak and fearful will have what god for themselves? If the god who seems to be the wisest of all gods is recognized as the best of gods, then only wise people, philosophers, theologians and other wise people will have a god. And simple, ignorant, unlearned people, what kind of god will they acquire for themselves? If we recognize the best god as the one who seems to be the richest, then only the rich will have a god for themselves. And the poor, the wretched, where will they go, what god will they boast about? One must choose a god who would be equally needed by everyone: the poor as well as the rich, the weak as well as the strong, the ignorant as well as the wise.” While they were ranting, bickering and disagreeing, one noble man stood among them (he was, I think, a secret Christian), who had on his chest the image of the True God. His image was as follows: there stood a certain Face, the most beautiful, with arms outstretched crosswise. On His right hand was written: “I promise,” and on His left: “I wait.” His side was open, and on it was written: “I forgive.” The inscription on this image was: “God of mercy.” The senators, taking this image in their hands, examined it, discussed it, and then unanimously exclaimed: “Truly, this is the image of the True and best of all God, Who promises the good a worthy reward of reward, expects conversion and repentance from the evil, and forgives those who sin and repent from the heart. That True God is the best and greatest more than all, who is the God of mercy, love for mankind, kindness, the God of mercy. Such a God is equally needed by everyone.” All this befits a royal person, who after the Lord God is, as it were, an earthly god: “I said: you are gods” (Ps. 82:6). The royal throne does not lack either in wealth, or in wisdom, or in strength and strength, for the king, as one of Darius’s bed servants says, “conquers all and rules over all” (2 Ezra 4:3). But it is necessary that the royal mercy does not become scarce, for mercy establishes the royal throne. Let us remember the following here. The King of kings and Lord of lords appeared to His beloved confidant and secret leader of His royal affairs, Saint John the Theologian. He appeared like this: “Dressed in a podir,” which was a sign of purple and royal power, “girt around the chest with a golden belt,” i.e. a sign of His royal mercy (Rev. 1:13). For just as the belt of a girded man has two ends that meet in one place, so the royal mercy brings human discord into harmony and unites and unites broken hearts. “He held in His right hand the seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sword sharp on both sides” (Rev. 1:16). Anyone who wants to examine this wondrous appearance of the Heavenly King with a reasonable eye will be surprised most of all by the fact that He has stars in His hands and a sword in His mouth. According to our feeble-minded understanding, this is not correct, for it would be more fitting for the stars to be in the mouth, and the sword in the hand. But who will dare to correct the All-Wise Lord, Who does not do everything in vain, and “His understanding is incomprehensible” (Ps. 147:5)? Holy theologian! You are closer to Him than everyone else, you are more kind to the Lord and more bold towards Him. Tell Him: “Lord! This is a new, unusual fashion for wearing a sword in the mouth: a sword befits the hands. Change, Lord! Place the stars near Your mouth, for Your words emanating from Your mouth are like stars that illuminate the universe; and take the sword in your hands to smite your enemies with it.” But the Lord does not listen to the Theologian: “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who was His adviser?” (Rom. 11:34). Let us seek an understanding of this mystery, why the sword is not in the hands, but in the mouth of the Lord, and why the stars are not in the mouth, but in the hands? The sword signifies the punishment of those who sin, while the stars signify the gifts given to the worthy. Usually, people in charge wear stars, that is, gifts, in their mouths - in word, not in deed, they promise, but do not do. The sword, that is, punishment, is held in the hands and applied in practice without delay and without leniency. But our Lord appeared in a different form, with a sword in his mouth and stars in his hands, teaching those in power not to immediately take up the sword of punishment, but to first show it in their mouths, that is, in a formidable word, admonition, teaching; do not take it into your hands, unless the guilty person remains uncorrected. He teaches us to wear stars, that is, gifts, not in our mouths or in words, but in our hands, that is, to actually give them. Is anyone asking? On! Here they are, in your hands, hands ready to serve. So, without continuing any further, I will say: all this is an instruction towards mercy, designated in Divine Scripture by the image of gold and corresponding to the royal person, as establishing the royal throne: mercy establishes the royal throne. With this mysterious gold, let the new name “Jesus” be written for the new summer, as if in a book, in the heart of our most illustrious Monarch, which we earnestly desire and for which we diligently pray to God. In the heartfelt books of the most illustrious royal council, noble princes and boyars, and all councilors of the Duma, may the new name “Jesus” be written in silver letters for the new summer. Let silver here be an image of good advice, righteous judgments, prudent and useful words, which are designated through silver in Holy Scripture, as we will soon hear. Here I will ask, why do all the kings of the earth have councils and senators with them? Verily, for the sake of good advice and for righteous judgments. For there is no kingdom that is not maintained by the good advice of good counselors and fair courts. The Lord appeared to Solomon at night in a dream and said to him: “Ask whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” And Solomon asks: “Give Your servant an understanding heart to obey, to judge Your people righteously, to discern between what is good and what is evil” (1 Kings 3:5, 9). Solomon’s words: “Give an understanding heart for obedience,” in another translation they read like this: “Give a heart with ears,” but in Hebrew it reads: “Give a hearing heart.” Solomon prays to God that God would give him a heart with ears that can hear. Why does Solomon need a heart with ears? In order for him to be able to distinguish between good and evil with his heart, and to listen to the advice of his boyars with his ears. It was not enough for the wise Solomon to have his own wisdom; he also wanted to have reasonable advisers, and therefore he asked the Lord for his heart and ears. What should be the advice of good advisers? Truly, it must be silver, like the words of the Lord, about which David speaks: “The words of the Lord are pure words, molten silver, tested in the earth, purified seven times” (Ps. 11:7). The senatorial word of advice must be pure, not false, without slander, not deceitful, unfeigned, not flattering, like the words of those for whom they are “softer than oil, but in essence arrows” (Ps. 54:22), but true, sound, pure like silver, and “spread silver”, that is, the word should not be uttered immediately as soon as it comes to mind, as if from the wind, but not just once, and not twice, and not three times, but seven times, to judge in your mind whether it should be spoken and whether that advice would be reasonable? And so, having tested the word seven times in your mind and cleared it of its useless excess, speak it, and then this word will be “pure, molten silver, tested, purified seven times”; and this is for the glory of the name of Jesus, in honor of the royal throne and for the benefit of the entire Fatherland. Good advisers were described by Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, when the latter, although without royal titles, reigned over Israel, and described them in the following words to Moses: “Choose for yourself strong men from all the people” (Ex. 18:21, 25). Another translation reads: choose “men of understanding, those who fear God, men of righteousness and those who hate arrogance”; and according to the third translation: “hating greed,” that is, not judging for bribes, not offending, not robbing. It is not enough for a senator, the royal adviser, to be strong in word and useful in mind and deed, but he must also be God-fearing, and especially in the courts, observe the truth and hate bribery. I say: observe the truth. As soon as my sinful lips remembered the holy truth, my mind immediately saw the prophet Jeremiah, somewhere in the mountains, sitting in a cave, weeping bitterly about the destruction of Jerusalem, and in his weeping uttering the words: “How did the gold darken, the pure silver change, the stones of the sanctuary crumble?” (Lam. 4:1). I listen to these prophetic words and see that the holy prophet calls the kings of Judah, who upset God, darkened gold. He calls the king’s advisers and judges who destroyed the truth “silver.” He refers to the Old Law bishops and priests who led a depraved life as scattered stones. But since we are presented here with a word about silver-like advisers and about judges, then, leaving the gold and scattered stones, I will talk about silver and ask: how has the pure silver changed? At first silver was good, but then it turned evil. Didn't that silver fall into the hands of crafty silversmiths, who were accustomed to thieves mixing copper with silver and rubbing pure silver? No! That silver was in the hands of silversmiths, who add not copper to the silver, but gold or silver, that is, fill the hands of the judges with bribes. And when gold or silver is mixed with silver, immediately that mysterious silver changes and loses its goodness. As soon as, I say, the reward fills the hands of the judges, immediately those judges who were “like fine silver, tested, purified seven times,” change and, having destroyed their kindness, become evil, committing unrighteous judgments. There were such advisers and judges in Jerusalem, and about them the prophet says with tears: “How has the pure silver changed,” that is, the advice of the good? The righteous court has changed, changed, and from righteous it became unrighteous, justifying the guilty and condemning the innocent. For the sake of bribes, for the sake of silver, good silver was changed. Seeing the change in this mysterious silver in his senate, King David exclaimed: “The sons of men are deceitful in unjust balances; because of vanity they are united “together” (Ps. 61:10). That is, as if he said: all together, as if by agreement, deceived by vanity and bribes, they are committing untruth. But I do not think that there was such silver in the silver-like Senate and magistrate of the Christian pious Monarch. That was in ancient Jerusalem, but here, again I will say in the words of David, “pure words, molten silver, purified seven times.” The Royal Senate is a strong wall that protects and protects the royal health. And just as the city wall stops enemy assaults, takes on bullets and arrows, protects the integrity of those in the city, so the senate must protect the king with itself, take on the enemy’s onslaught so that the king is safe and sound. Such a wall is truly worthy of that silver decoration with which the Heavenly King adorns His bride, saying: “If it is a wall, then let us build silver teeth on it” (Song. 8:9). In the same way, the royal senate is the royal wall. Let there be a silver visor on this wall, and a double visor: from the King of Heaven and from the King of the earth. From the earthly is royal mercy, for it, like a covering for a wall, both covers and adorns a senator: like a covering it covers, and like silver, it adorns, for everyone who has been granted royal mercy is protected and adorned by it. From the King of Heaven may the power of the name of Jesus Christ be that silver cover. For what better cover could there be for this wall than the name of Christ? It is a common defense for all, a common cover, I say, a common cover for all. I earnestly wish for such decoration, such protection in eternal cover for all senatorial nobility when congratulating me on the New Year. In the heart books of the entire Christian army, let the new name of Jesus be written for the New Year in cinnabar, cinnabar of the very Blood of Jesus Christ, shed at circumcision. The New Year is like a book, and only God alone, “who numbers the multitude of stars and names them all” (Ps. 147:4), knows how many people will be written in it who will enter life by natural human birth, or who will pass from this life into eternal life. And just as in the book the first letter is written with cinnabar, so in the book of the New Year the first letters of the Most Holy Name of Jesus are written as if with cinnabar - His Blood. The entire Fatherland of the Christian kingdom is also like a book in which mental writing is as numerous as the people in it. And just as in a book the initial letters are cinnabar, so in the Fatherland of the Christian kingdom there are at the beginning the knights, fighting against adversaries, defending the Christian Fatherland from barbarian attacks, standing as if painted with cinnabar, stained with their blood, not sparing to shed their blood for Christ, for the Church, for their Sovereign and for all of Christianity. Truly these writings are cinnabar, worthy of being written in the eternal books of life, at the beginning next to the martyr’s face that is in charge there. They once asked during the time of the Greek king Nicephorus: how should we think about the salvation of those who die in battle for the honor of God and the king and for the integrity of Christianity? And this question was resolved this way: if it is a great thing to die for one person, according to the words of the Lord: “Greater love has no one than this, than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), then it is even more a great thing to die for God and for the King, that is, the Anointed One of God, and for the whole multitude of the faithful. Truly, “there is no greater love than that,” and they are worthy of the crown of martyrdom, as was indicated during the battle of the Grand Duke Demetrius with the wicked Mamai, for then the crowns were seen descending from the heights onto the regiment of Orthodox soldiers who fought bravely, who, “fought a good fight” (2 Tim. 4:7), laid down their souls for everyone. Such is the honor and hope of the Lord God for the Christian army, if only they themselves do not lose their salvation by any evil deeds! Many came from everywhere to the great preacher of repentance, Saint John the Baptist, who preached repentance throughout the country of Jordan and learned virtue. The soldiers also came to him, saying: “What should we do?” And he answered them: “Do not offend anyone, do not slander, and be content with your salary” (Luke 3:14). This great teacher, Saint John the Baptist, gave three commandments to the soldiers: do not offend, do not slander, and be satisfied with your salaries. And first of all: do not offend anyone, because it is usually and as if by nature for warriors to offend others. It is not for nothing that it is said somewhere: if you hear an army anywhere, do not pass there, for they will not rest until they do evil. For those who sit at home, the law is written: “Do not kill, do not steal” and so on (Mark 10:19), but for those who have gone to the army in the regiments, it is as if the law no longer exists; don't ask about him. Here I will remember the tablets of Moses: God commanded Moses to pound two tablets of stone, and the prophet pounded them and brought them to God. God writes the law with His finger on these tablets: “Thou shalt not kill; do not steal; Thou shalt not commit adultery; do not bear false witness; “Thou shalt not covet the things of others” and so on (Ex. 20:13–17). Taking the tablets written by God, Moses descends from the mountain to the Israeli regiments and hears the voices of those rejoicing, sees them jumping around the calf; became angry and threw the tablets to the ground, and the tablets broke (see Deut. 9:17). How did they crash? They broke in half, lengthwise, and the part on which it was written “not”, “not”, “not” fell away. The other part was left without the “not”, with the words: “kill, steal, commit adultery, bear false witness, covet” and so on. Why is this so? Because when the tablets broke, the “no” particle fell away from each commandment. Moses had to make and write other tablets. And the depraved and especially military people, I think, having found those broken tablets that are without “no”, hid them in themselves and even to this day hold on to them, killing, robbing, committing adultery, perjury, coveting what belongs to others, offending their neighbors. Oh, if there were not this obstacle to the salvation of the soldiers, they would truly need to be counted among the martyrs who lay down their souls for Christ and Christ’s people! From now on, let them renew their old morals for the new year, let them change evil for good, remembering the new name of Jesus Christ, and for his sake let them abstain from all evil and strive for every good deed, always bearing the name of Jesus in their minds and hearts and sparingly shedding their blood to the last drop for this name. And with the same omnipotent name, like a strong weapon, let them defeat enemies not only visible, but also invisible, as Saint John Climacus advises: “In the name of Jesus, defeat your opponents, for you will not find a stronger weapon either in heaven or on earth.” And St. Peter says: “There is no other name given to men by whom it is fitting to be saved, but the name of Jesus, at which every knee bows, in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Acts 4:12; Phil. 2:10). How could I write the new name of Jesus Christ for the new year in the heart books of the spiritual order, the bishops, archimandrites, abbots, protopresbyters, presbyters, shepherds of the verbal sheep of Christ? I'm perplexed. I would write with simple ink, since we wear black spiritual robes, but I’m afraid that one of our people will be angry with me, saying: we don’t always wear black; outside the church we wear black robes, but in the Divine altar we wear gold-woven robes; sometimes outside the church we don’t wear poor rags, although black, but velvet or obyar (silk fabric), or something else similar and precious. Do not write the name of Jesus to us in plain ink. I think, how should I write this name to them? I remember that in the book of Sirach the spiritual order is likened to a heavenly rainbow: “Like a rainbow,” he says, “shining on the clouds on the day of rain” (Sir. 50:7). So, with the colors and colors of this arc, may the most honorable and all-holy name of Jesus Christ be written in the hearts of spiritual persons. Here let us remember, as an example, Saint Basil the Great to the entire spiritual rank, and especially to the monks, who always “bear in the body the death of the Lord Jesus” (2 Cor. 4:10), to write the name of Jesus in ink. For all Christians in general, let the name of Jesus be written in whitewash, that is, with a conscience clear as whitewash, whitened from sins by repentance. Amen.