Поучение на Рождество Христово («Таинство странное вижу и преславное: небо – вертеп, Престол херувимский – Дева»)

God has ceased to be hidden from people. Everything mysterious in the Holy Scriptures became clear. This is not surprising, for He appeared among people: “He appeared on earth and lived with people” (Bar. 3:38), and what can be hidden between people? Nothing is hidden. While God was in heaven, while He rested in His omnipotence, Sitting in glory on the Divine Throne, until then no one knew His secrets, His secrets, not even His closest holy Angels, who always stood before Him, knew: “The mystery hidden from the ages and unknown to the Angel.” When He descended from heaven to earth, when He began to dwell among people, then not only pious people spoke about His hidden things, about His secrets, such as Saint Joseph, righteous Salome, not only important persons, for example, the three eastern kings, but even common people shepherds talk, talk and talk about the hidden: “They told about what was told them about this Child” (Lk. 2:17). Only the ox and the donkey are silent, although they have long tongues. But who knows? If the donkey had a human mind, would he not have thought, standing at the manger, thus: “What if my ancestor had been here, that donkey who carried the prophet Balaam and spoke humanly? Of course, he would not remain silent here. What would he say? Most likely, what he heard with his own ears when that prophet, sitting on him, said: “A star will rise from Jacob, and a man will arise from Israel” (Num. 24:17). If the donkey had a human mind, he would also think like this: “When that donkey that Ezekiel saw between the six cherubic wings with the face of a calf was here, he would not only speak, but would even sing the mystery of God’s incarnation: “The four living creatures sang” (Ezek. 1). So, God’s hidden secrets have been revealed, and the church now sings: “I see a strange and glorious mystery.” What can compare with this sacrament? The whole sky with the sun, moon and stars, with all the power of God, fit into one small Bethlehem den! "The sky is a den." The whole face of Cherubim, the number of which is infinite, thousands upon thousands, the darkness of those on whom God rests, they all gave up their position to one Maiden, the Most Pure and Most Blessed Virgin Mary! “The Throne of the Cherubim is the Virgin.” All of God's treasures and riches are innumerable, priceless, and cannot be contained in any place, all of them are placed in a cramped manger, all contained and covered with a handful of hay! “The manger is a container.” Oh, truly, the great, wondrous and glorious sacrament was revealed to the world on the current feast of the Nativity of Christ, revealed not so that people would remain silent about it, but would speak, for only the secret of the king of the earth should be kept secret, but the sacraments of the Heavenly King or the works of God should be preached and glorified. The mysteries of God, in their wondrous properties, are not at all the same as human mysteries. A human secret only needs to be told once or twice, to one person or another, and everyone will know it completely. The sacraments of God, the more you think and talk about them, the more you preach about them, the more hidden, difficult and incomprehensible they become. “How incomprehensible are His destinies and His ways cannot be explored!” (Rom. 11:33). However, it is necessary to preach about them. Even if a stone were in front of you, cry out, do not be silent, preach and glorify the wondrous and glorious mysteries of God. Leaving aside the other wondrous and glorious mysteries of God that appeared at the Nativity of Christ to shorten the time, we will turn our attention to only one thing and explain only the following mystery: why the den became heaven, how it could become heaven, what this secrecy means and what are the secrets in that heaven. This secrecy is a considerable mystery that we do not comprehend, namely: how did the earthly den become heaven? Has the earth here turned into heaven, or has the sky changed into earth? But both of these understandings do not fit here. As for matter, there are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies, but there is another glory for the heavenly, and another for the earthly. Heavenly matter is one thing, earthly matter is completely different. Just as celestial matter cannot be earth, so terrestrial matter cannot be heaven. However, bearing in mind the sacrament now being performed, we will not sin if we allow both. Looking not at the walls of the den, looking not at the matter of the earth, but at the mystery taking place in the den, we can safely say: the earth has become heaven, and the sky has become earth. Two guests have now found shelter in the den, they came from earth and heaven. “The first man from the earth, earthy” (1 Cor. 15:47) is one wondrous guest, He came from Nazareth, brought in a virgin’s womb. The second person – “the Lord from heaven” (1 Cor. 15:47) – is a different guest. He is marvelous in that he did not come from any nearby place, but from heaven. In the first - nature, taken from clay, this is earth. In the other there is a nature that has descended from above, heaven, let’s call it heaven: “The Lord from heaven.” God became Man, and man became God. The sky becomes earth, and the earth becomes sky. But heaven does not become earth so that it ceases to be heaven, and earth does not change into heaven so that it ceases to be earth, that is, just as God, having become Man, did not cease to be God, so man, having become God, did not cease to be man, but both of them were so united with each other, as in that sacrament about which the Apostle says: “The two shall become one flesh” (Eph. 5:31). Here both were united even into one person, as Damascene beautifully writes: “Not divided into two persons, but unmergedly cognizable into two natures” (Dogmatist, voice 6). Where else, in what place, besides the Bethlehem den, did such a mysterious union of heaven and earth, God and man take place?! So, the den became the sky, and the sky became the den. The nativity scene became heaven when it received the Heavenly God and all His Powers. Now God is in the den with the whole sky, and through this the cave is the sky, and the sky is the den. There was once a time when the sky looked like a cave, like a den, and even like a den of thieves, namely when that crafty robber was hidden in it, whom the Gospel calls “a murderer” (John 8:44); hid, for he said in his mind: “I will ascend into heaven” (Is. 14:13). He secretly, secretly hid this in his thoughts in order to steal and kill with abuse, villainously and banditry. He also carried considerable power with him: “His tail carried away a third of the stars from heaven,” that is, Angels (Rev. 12:4). Until this was not noticed, until that robber with his power was cast out of heaven and destroyed, until then the sky looked exactly like a den of robbers. Now, thank God, the earthly den is much like heaven: “Heaven is a den.” Where there are ears of corn, there is bread. Where holy people live, there is paradise. Where the robber hides, there is a den. Likewise, heaven will be where God dwells. God is in the den, therefore, the den is heaven. Paradise, too, was once like a stable, namely, when the man who lived in it transgressed the commandment of God and “became like foolish cattle” (Ps. 48:13), and heaven, as I said, was like a den. About the den of Bethlehem, what can you think in this case? It is now better than in heaven, it is now like heaven itself. Now look at anyone in the Bethlehem den - all people are saints. Holy Joseph, holy Elder Salome, consider the shepherds and kings of the East also among the saints. In addition, here is the Holiness of all saints herself - the Most Pure and Most Blessed Virgin and, finally, Christ Himself - the Tree of Life, from which I will never die if I eat. O wondrous nativity scene! You are more beautiful now, containing Christ, than the Edenic paradise that Adam had. However, why should we call you paradise, when the Church calls you heaven itself: “Heaven is a den.” Heaven is the Throne of God, but even in the nativity scene God sits on His holy Throne, in the arms of the Virgins. Why is the nativity scene smaller than the sky now? After all, where God is, there is heaven. This is evidenced by one pre-festive three-canticle, read at Vespers. At the end of it there is the following verse: “I walk around the angels like the throne of the cherubim manger, for the den is in vain; the Lady lies in it.” Let us pay attention to these words: “The den is the sky, the Lady lies in it.” While there was no Lord Christ in the den, the den was a den, but since the Lord Christ was placed in it, the den is no longer a den. But what? He is heaven. Even the angelic eyes themselves were convinced of this: “The den of heaven is in vain, the Lady lies in it.” It is beautifully sung in the Epiphany hymns: “Where the king comes, there His order comes.” The Heavenly King entered the earthly den, and all His army and His heavenly order entered with Him, and heaven entered with Him with all its heavenly majesty. At that hour, God Himself moved from the airy sky into the Bethlehem den, for here is not only the begotten God the Son, but here is God the Father, who first gave birth to the Son, for the Son Himself says: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Here is the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the wondrous and indescribable Nativity of Christ. So, here, in the den, the whole Holy Trinity is the King of Heaven. What's next? Right there with Him is His heavenly rank, a heavenly escort, twenty-four elders, like important senators, venerable old men who sit worthily around the power of God, around the Throne of the Lamb, and hold the harp in their hands. They, seeing their Lord the Lamb, who at this hour chose for himself the den of Bethlehem instead of heaven, instead of the throne of heaven - a manger, seeing that the Lamb, born of the Immaculate Lamb, was laid in a den, in a manger, on hay - they all fit in there with their entire congregation. They surrounded the manger and honored their newborn King with worthy worship. Twenty-four elders fell, bowed down and, taking their harp, played the little Child, comforted the crying one and sang like this: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power” (Rev. 4:10–11). Where else, if not in the den, could they honor the Lamb with a song worthy and befitting the Lamb? Where, if not in the den, did the Son of God begin to be the Lamb? After all, He wasn’t the Lamb in heaven, was He? In heaven He was not a Lamb, but a terrible lion, before whom the mountains trembled, according to what is written: “If you open the heavens, the mountains will tremble” (Isaiah 64:1). The foundations of the earth shook before Him: “He will look at the earth and make it shake, he will touch the mountains, and they will smoke” (Ps. 103:32). The same is true at Sinai, where the Israelites asked Moses: “Let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die” (Ex. 20:19). He was a strict lion while living in heaven. Where did he become the Lamb? On the ground. In what place? In the Bethlehem den, where he was laid on hay. There, for the first time, the song was composed: “Thou art worthy, O Lord,” and so on (Rev. 4:11). Not in heaven, but in the den, she was first sung by the heavenly senators, and then by the servants and the army. Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel, one as the first guardian of God's honor, the other as the first messenger of God's incarnation, both of them are here, and not even alone, but with all the Heavenly Powers: “A large army of heaven appeared with the Angel, glorifying God and calling out” (Luke 2:13). We should pay attention to these two words: “military and glorifying.” There was an army, singers, musicians, and regiments: a harp in one hand, a sword in the other. Likewise, David says: “The praises of God are in their mouth, and two-edged swords in their hands” (Ps. 149:6). Some sing heavenly hymns, and the choir is led by the Holy Archangel Gabriel, giving a sign with a lily that does not fade even in winter. Others are ready for battle, ready to take revenge, having as their leader the Holy Archangel Michael, giving signals with a drawn sword. Who is here if not God incarnate? So the holy Angels glorify their Creator, born of the Virgin, the purest of the Angels, so they protect His health in the newly adopted human nature, so they are ready to take vengeance. Beware, you, Herod, beware, for more than twelve legions of Angels are represented here! So, when with the newborn King of Heaven in the den, His entire heavenly rank arrived here, and the sky was empty, may you, the sky, at this hour be an empty den, and you, the den, may you be a full sky. "The sky is a den." As for other celestial decorations, such as the sun, the month and the stars, all this at this hour can be found in the Bethlehem cave, as in the real sky. The baby in the manger is our sun, our light, “the radiance of glory” (Heb. 1:3) Father: “We bow down to you, the Righteous Sun.” The Most Holy Theotokos is at the manger - here is the month, it is young and at the same time full. Young, for new, as the Scripture says: “The Lord has created a new thing on earth: the wife will save the husband” (Jer. 31:22). What is new is that the Unwed Virgin gives birth and remains a Virgin at Christmas. Once and for all, such a Maiden is new, Who, being the Mother of God, was a Virgin at Christmas, and remained a Virgin after Christmas. The Virgin gave birth to a Child: this is virginity and motherhood. Virginity is above the Angels, but motherhood is also near the Throne of God: “The Queen has appeared at the right hand” (Ps. 44:10). This young month is at the same time full, for the Virgin is filled with the grace of God. There are also Saint Joseph the Righteous and Elder Salome, also not one of the sinners - these are the stars worthy of the sky, not to mention the star that was above do not consider this den to be a simple or ordinary den, but consider it to be the true sky, for it contains the Sun, the month and the stars: “The sky is a den.” Consider the den a sky, and at the same time a mysterious sky, for I see mysteries and secrets in this sky. How can we comprehend those mysteries? Just as a thing is known by name, and from the name one comes to an understanding of the thing itself, so we will well understand and delve into only one word, “heaven,” and then we will comprehend the mysteries. When heaven was created by God, what was it called, what word, what name? Who can know this better than the holy prophet Moses, who wrote the book of Genesis, writing not from himself, but from the mouth of God? There is a tradition of the Holy Church, as it is written about on the 26th day of the month of March, that by the command of God the Holy Archangel told Moses about the creation of the world, and what he told, Moses wrote down. To whom and how else could one know how God created the whole world, if this had not been revealed to Moses by God? Another question may arise: what language did the Angel speak and what language did Moses write? There is a tradition of teachers that the Angel spoke and Moses wrote in no other language than Hebrew, for this language was the most ancient and most worthy compared to others and was most fitting for the writing of Divine books. If it was necessary then to write Divine books for the whole world, then it was necessary to write them in Hebrew. At that time Saint Gabriel spoke Hebrew, and Saint Moses wrote in Hebrew. Tell us, holy Moses, how did you write “heaven” in Hebrew? Moses moves away from the conversation here, and interpreters stand near his books, who say that Moses wrote the word “heaven” in his holy language: “Shamaym.” People called the sky not sky, but “shamaym”. What does the word "shamaym" mean? How to express it in our language? Interpreters say that the word means “watery.” “Shamaym”, that is, “watery” or “watery,” and therefore they reason like this: the bottomless waters over which the Spirit of God hovered are called “shama” in the Hebrew language. God, having separated a certain part from those waters, thickened and hardened it, like a crystal or a transparent diamond: “God said: “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water,” and it became a firmament” (Gen. 1:6). It was this firmament that the Lord called “shamaym,” that is, water, because it was created from water, and therefore it seems to our eyes that the sky is watery in color. So, the sky was first called “shamaym”, that is, wavy. Now let's turn to the mystery of the nativity scene. It is said that the nativity scene is the sky (of course, mysterious, mystical, not material). This mysterious sky also contains other mysterious heavens. Let us divide it all into three heavens, following the example of the Apostle Paul, who was once caught up “to the third heaven” (2 Cor. 12:2). The first, or lower, heaven is the Bethlehem den. Another, higher heaven is the Most Pure and Most Blessed Virgin, as She is called: “What shall we call You, O Blessed One? - Sky". The third heaven is the highest, airy heaven, for from there came God incarnate, lying in a manger in a child’s body and covered with swaddling clothes, like the sky with clouds. As for the first heaven, it is located near Bethlehem, in the Jewish land, not far from Jerusalem, the Jewish capital. If any of the pious, such as Saint Joseph, Elder Salome, shepherds or kings, needed to call this den heaven for the sake of Christ abiding in it, then they could call it nothing other than in Hebrew, for in the Jewish land “shamaym” means watery. This place actually looked like a wavy one, for, as is narrated by persons worthy of trust, at the very hour when our Lord passed through the Maiden Gates, sealed with eternal purity and preserved by virginity (cf. Theotokos of the Resurrection, tone 2), immediately in that den a spring of living water flowed from the earth and remained in it until the Infant Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos and Saint Joseph. That’s why that nativity scene had a wavy sky at that time. As for the other sky, the Most Pure and Most Blessed Virgin Mary, this is the high sky: “Truly you are above all, O Pure Virgin”; the sky is vast, for God “has made Your womb the most spacious of the heavens”; the sky is bright, for it is illuminated by the Sun Christ; the sky is wavy, because it is filled with rain and dew of the Holy Spirit and waters us all with its grace. “Joy to all who mourn” - this is the dew of grace pouring down on us from this heaven. As for the third heaven, the infancy of Christ, this heaven is watery, similar to that watery heaven that was created from bottomless waters, for it contains the likeness of that heaven, and a mysterious likeness: “I see the mystery.” Let us become our minds at the entrance to the den, and let us direct our inner eyes inward, fix them on the Baby lying in the manger and shedding tears from His eyes, and ask ourselves: what kind of Baby is this? This is the source of living waters, flowing from the Father before the age, and in the last years descending into the earthly vale from the most honorable womb of the Virgin. Although He is silent, He already has the words on His lips: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37–38). What I say is that the source is a river, for “out of the belly will flow rivers of living water.” It is even a sea, and a sea of ​​bottomless depth: “O depth of wealth, wisdom and mind of God”! This is the abyss of fate, the abyss of mercy: “I call upon the unfathomable abyss of Thy mercy.” “Shama” – bottomless water! Over these bottomless waters, over this abyss, the Spirit of God floats, for the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, rests on the Son and accomplishes the incarnation of the Son: incarnate from the Holy Spirit (Creed). Further, there is also firmament here, but let’s look at it carefully. Firmament! The abyss of Divine destinies and immeasurable mercy, these bottomless spiritual waters resemble nothing other than His firm love for the human race: Thou hast laid Thy firm love for us, O Lord. Solid is that love for which the Son of God, bending heaven, came to earth, from God became Man, from rich to poor, from master to servant. “I did not come,” He says, “to serve Me, but to serve. God so loved the world” (Matthew 20:28; John 3:16). Firm is that love for which our God, our Creator, is not ashamed to call us brethren: “You are my friends,” He says (John 15:14). The Apostle, describing the Nativity of Christ from the Virgin, says: “Equal to God, but made Himself of no reputation” (Phil. 2:6–7). In Jerome's translation it reads: “He exhausted himself.” God became poor and exhausted Himself, He loved us so much that He lavished on us all the possessions of His heavenly wealth and, as if having nothing more to give, He finally gave Himself to us: “He exhausted Himself.” How did He exhaust Himself? Being an unapproachable Light, He was clothed in darkness. The eternally existing Word of the Father, speaking through the prophets, became mute. The strong and strong deigned to be weak in an infant body. The source of life Himself thirsts. The angel's bread is hungry. “He who is everywhere and does everything has no place to lay his head,” and flees to Egypt. This is how He exhausted Himself and became poor for the sake of love for us. “So I loved.” Some people call extreme love admiration of the mind and delight, because then a person seems to forget himself. But in His exceedingly abundant love, the Lord (I dare say) seems to forget Himself, for, having exhausted Himself and, as it were, abandoning Himself, He entrusted His whole mind, all His understanding, with which He “made the worlds” (Heb. 1:2), sending us His Son for our salvation: “God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son” (John. 3:16). God! What did You find in us, the indecent? You are the eternal Light, illuminating all creation, but we are only darkness, rough, tangible Egyptian darkness. You are the Source of purity, but we are a nasty, stinking stream. You are a splendor that surpasses all beauty: “Beauty is in Your right hand forever” (Ps. 15:11), but we are one vile being, as Jeremiah says about us: “Their face is darker than soot” (Lamentations 4:8). You are what is, and we are nothing: it is as if we do not exist before Your existence. What are we good for for You? His love is so great that, like delight, it does not pay attention to anything and seems to forget itself. Let us be dark, filthy, vile and insignificant, but by His great Divine love - if only we ourselves resort to Him with repentance - we are made holy, bright, pure and higher than the Angels: “For He does not receive Angels, but He receives the seed of Abraham” (Heb. 2:16). This is how firm God’s love is for us: “So He loved!” O Thy love, Lover of mankind! This is His firmament in this abyss - this is His Divine, firm love of mercy for us sinners. So, the firmament is the steadfast love of God for us; she is precisely the sky, and this sky is “shamaym,” that is, water, - Christ the Lord, Who now pours out tears from His eyes, and then on the Cross pours out water from His side, thereby fulfilling the words of David: “Like water is poured out” (Ps. 21:15). And our very nature, which He has now assumed, is like water, as the Tekoitite woman says to David: “We will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up” (2 Sam. 14:14). And all the people for whose redemption the Son of God came, they are all waters: “I heard as it were the voice of a great people, as the sound of many waters” (Rev. 19:6). The wavy sky in the Bethlehem den is the newborn Child in our nature. The reason for this is clear. After all, just as rain or dew fall from the sky, so tears come from the eyes of Christ, crying in infancy. The forefathers once prayed that the heavens would sprinkle dew from above, and now we already have the desired dew - the tears of Christ, flowing from the mysterious sky, from His human nature. When heavy rain comes from the sky, people stop for a while under the roof. So we too, seeing mental rain from the mental sky, seeing tears from the eyes of Christ, will stop here a little in our discussion of heaven, for the tears of Christ are very close to heaven. I would not have asked about the reasons for Christ’s tears if I had not seen His extraordinary Nativity. All born babies tend to cry; they have this property by nature. And the Infant Christ, having taken upon Himself our nature, also cries like an Infant, according to the power of human nature, but He does not cry the same way as all other babies. As I consider His birth, such is His infancy, and therefore His crying is unusual. The little children of this world, if they cry, then they themselves do not know what they are crying about, for they do not yet have reason, they do not understand until, over time, when they come of age, they begin to understand and understand little by little. Christ, crying, although small, already knows what he is crying about. There is a tradition of holy teachers that Christ the Savior, although born with small members, as human nature requires, but with a ready, whole mind, like “God’s wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:24). He grew in body, but His mind did not need to grow at all. He was born with the perfect mind that He needed for earthly life. Impoverished for our salvation before infancy, He far surpassed His peers. That is why Saint Isaiah says about Him: “Unto us a child is born, to us a Son is given, the Father of the age to come” (Is. 9:6). He is both “Baby” and “Father”. “Child” is by infantile nature, and “Father” by perfect intelligence. He is still a “Baby” in body, but already an old man in mind: “The Ancient of Days” (Dan. 7:9) voluntarily becomes an infant. Therefore, the church sings: “Thy Nativity, Christ our God, shine forth the light of reason in the world,” showing by this that our Lord was already born with perfect reason and taught the whole world reason. If the Lord was born with a perfect mind, then, of course, He knows what he is crying about. Let us look for the reasons for His weeping. We can say about small children that although they cry without reason, there is always something that worries them: either the child feels cold, or the diapers are pulled tight, or he is hungry and desires food or his mother’s breasts. Christ, although He was a Child by His will, could and even had to endure according to His human nature. It was cold for His little members, and He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, and His mother’s breasts were necessary for Him. His infant nature forced Him to shed infant tears from His eyes, but His Divine mind, not infantile, but masculine, not without reason brought tears from His most holy eyes. He wept not so much because of any of His sufferings or His infantile worries, but because of our misfortunes and evils. As soon as He looked at the world, full of all evil - after all, “the whole world lies in evil” (1 John 5:19), he immediately burst into tears. And these tears shed in the first days of His life are equal to those tears that He later shed over Jerusalem in half the thirty-fourth year of His life (see Matt. 23:37; OK. 13:34). In the Gospel of St. Luke we read how Christ the Savior rides on a donkey to Jerusalem, how he is already approaching the walls of Jerusalem for free passion, and how a solemn meeting was arranged for Him here. The whole city was in motion, vestments and tree branches were laid under His feet, and little children sucking nipples exclaimed: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the Coming One!” (Luke 19:38; Matt. 21:15; Mark 11:19). During such a magnificent meeting and joyful applause, Christ our Lord began to cry greatly in His thoughts (Luke 19). If someone were to ask: what could our Lord cry about at such a solemn meeting, then someone would probably answer: no wonder, for, as the All-Seer, He sees that in a few days the same people who sing to Him: “Hosanna” will shout before Pilate: “Crucify, crucify” (Luke 23:21). He sees the Cross before His eyes, sees the pillar, sees nails, spears and the coffin. In a word, He sees all His suffering, and that is why He shed tears. But I won't believe such words. I’d rather ask Saint Luke: Holy Evangelist! Although you were not with the Lord at that time, for after His Ascension you were numbered among the apostles, yet from the “eyewitnesses of the Word” (Luke 1:2) you could clearly hear what our Lord wept about when entering Jerusalem? Tell us. Saint Luke refers us to his Gospel book, and in it he writes this: “When he approached the city, he, looking at it, wept for it and said: “Oh, if only you knew on this day that the days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with trenches and surround you, and press you in from everywhere, and ruin you, and beat your children in you, and leave no stone in you.” stone" (Luke 19:41–44). Here, we see the reasons for Christ’s tears: He does not cry for Himself, seeing His Cross and His tomb, He weeps for human misfortune, seeing the approaching destruction of Jerusalem. What should we think about the tears of Christ in His infancy? What is He crying about in swaddling clothes and in a manger? At His Nativity, He also sees, like the All-Seer, His Cross, a cane, nails, a spear, a coffin, and about this, although a Baby, he cries like a completely rational one. And St. Augustine says: “He is more heartbroken over our transgressions than over His wounds. He is more concerned about our calamities, the hellish calamities to which we voluntarily expose ourselves through our sins, than about any of His own sufferings.” As soon as He looked with His eyes at the world, as if into some smoky church, He immediately saw human sins in the world, as if some kind of fiery heap: firewood, hay, reeds, and all this was smoking with sinful fuses. He sees the sorrows, disasters, and vengeance of God emerging from there like smoke, arising from the righteous wrath of God. He also sees the ingratitude and inveterateness of sinners. He sees that His labor will be in vain, the labor of His youth, His suffering will be in vain, the outpouring of His Blood will be in vain - all this the unconscious sinner will trample underfoot. This is what He is crying about: this smoke of ours is eating away His eyes. This light is the edge for Him, for it is written about the sinner: “A sinner cannot grow anything like a sharp thorn.” It is this thorn that pricks His eyes. And David says about sinners: “They have made God sad” (Ps. 5:11), - simply put, both in His heart and in His eyes He is bitter because of us. What we rejoice about is what Christ weeps about. The sorrows of our sinful troubles cause Christ the Savior to shed tears from His eyes. Verily, this watery Heaven pours out rain of tears, and after a while It will sprinkle bloody dew upon circumcision. It is written about heaven like this: “He will receive the early rain and the latter rain” (James 5:7). This is our Heaven, the incarnate Word of the Father, who will now, in His infancy, give the early rain, sprinkled with tears, and at circumcision, with Blood. Then on the Cross he will give the latter rain, when the light has darkened, and He will pour out Blood and water. So, let us not despair, for it is known that both His Blood and His tears were not shed in vain, but for our benefit and salvation. Moses once frightened like this: “There will be a copper sky above your head, an iron earth under your feet” (Deut. 28:23), which was the case for five thousand years and more. God was hard, like copper and iron, but since He has now softened this hardness, clothed with baby flesh and rained with tears, then there is already good hope that “our land will give its fruit” (Ps. 84:13). God says: “As if rain or dew comes down from heaven and does not return until it has watered the earth, so will My word be” (Isaiah 55:10). The rain of tears, now flowing from our mental sky, from the eyes of the crying Child Christ, will water the parched earth of our heart. From this rain, the publican in the church, the sinner at His feet, Peter outside the court of Caiaphas, and the thief on the cross were drunk with tenderness. Tears are a sign of love: Christ shed tears, and the Jews said: “Look how He loved him” (John 11:36)! Jesus weeps in swaddling clothes! Look and know how much He loves us: “He loved those who are in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). There was someone who called tears the drink of angels. The tears of those who repent are the wine of angels, for the Angels rejoice over every repentant sinner (see Luke 15:7, 10). The sinless Lord came into the world to suffer for our sins. “He who takes away the sin of the world” weeps in swaddling clothes, like a sinner; It is these His tears that serve as wine for the Angels. He sees that at His birth He was visited by guests from heaven, holy Angels. He pours out wine for them - His tears, for tears are the wine of angels. The holy Angels rejoiced with that extraordinary wine, started singing and sang with their faces: “Glory to God in the highest!” (Luke 2:14). Here are the tears flowing from the eyes of Christ: this is the rain coming down from the sky, for here are the heavenly sources for our coolness and the quenching of our fire. Our Lord came to lead us to paradise, but he sees that at the doors of paradise there is a flaming weapon, and so He exudes tearful water from his eyes, as from a source, in order to use it to extinguish the flaming cherubic sword. The Church sings: “The flaming weapon gives splashes, and I am satisfied with the food of heaven.” But enough already to talk about the mental rain coming from the mental sky, from the infant eyes of Christ. Let's continue to talk about the sky itself. The sky in Latin is called “celum”, which comes from the word “closing”, “concealment”. He who truly cannot be covered by heaven, God, “who sits on a high and exalted throne” (Isa. 6:1) and surrounded by Seraphim, was hidden by heaven from our eyes. It closed three heavenly hierarchies before us, hid many abodes prepared for the saints, hid the unseen, unheard of riches of God, “which no eye has seen and no ear has heard” (1 Cor. 2:9). Apparently, one would have to be angry with heaven for concealing and hiding such important, wondrous and worthy things from our eyes. But we should thank heaven no less, for it also covers our infirmities, like a veil. What is not being done in the world, and what is not being done by people! And all this is covered by the sky: only heaven and earth know. Thus, the word “sky,” I repeat, comes from the word “closing,” from “concealment.” “I see a mystery: the sky is a den,” or, more clearly, the sky is in a den. What does this den, or spiritual, sky cover and hide within itself? It conceals a mystery within itself, concealing priceless riches destined for our redemption, the Blood of Christ in His infant Body, for Scripture says: “We were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18–19). This heaven hid within itself God with the heavenly ranks - that is the mystery and secrecy. The small den contained great things that the whole world could not contain and were unlimited. Here we can also say about the nativity scene what Saint Macarius of Egypt says about the human heart: “The heart,” he says, “is a small vessel, but it contains all things: there is God, there are Angels, there is life and the kingdom, there are heavenly abodes, there are treasures of grace.” The same can be said about the Bethlehem den. The nativity scene is small, but it contains great things: there is God in the face of Christ, there is life, the kingdom and the treasures of grace. Around Him are holy Angels, and Saint Joseph is pure in soul, like an Angel. There are also the abodes of God in the person of the Most Pure Virgin: “Glorious things have been said about You, city of God” (Ps. 86:3). These are the great things the nativity scene contained, hid and hid. It was hidden in such a way that it was impossible to find out anything, and it was necessary to indicate the way either a star from the sky, like the eastern kings, or an Angel showing the way with signs, like the shepherds: “Here is a sign for you: you will find the Child” (Luke 2:12). That's all there is to say about the nativity scene. As for the other, highest heaven, the Most Pure Virgin, the following must be said about it. Another heaven, the Most Pure Virgin, hid in itself an extraordinary secret, that secret about which the apostle says: “A secret hidden from centuries and generations, but now revealed”; and again: “The great mystery of godliness: God appeared in the flesh” (Col. 1:26; 1 Tim. 3:16). What was hidden from all human understanding was how the Virgin gave birth to God and remained a Virgin herself. Rejoice, O One who gave birth to the Light inexpressibly and who has lost nothing! Heaven hid this secret from the devil, as Saint Damascus says: “The virginity of the Most Holy Theotokos and the incarnation of God the Word was hidden from the prince of darkness.” Finally, as for the third heaven, or, as I said, the infancy of Christ, it also hid a lot in itself: like a veil, it covered our sins and all the countless ulcers of the world. This is because “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” gathered together all human sins in order to become a propitiatory Sacrifice for them before God the Father. Here is the crime of Adam, here is the fratricide of Cain, here is the curse of Ham, here is the filthiness of the Sodomites, the voluptuousness of the Gomorrites, idolatry, fornication and various unheard-of iniquities of the Israelites. Here sinful burdens from all over the world are gathered together, bound and placed on the Lamb wrapped in swaddling clothes, here taking away “the sin of the world.” But all this cannot be seen or discerned with bodily eyes, for it is a mystery. I see the mystery, but I see with an eye enlightened by faith, according to the words of the apostle: “Faith is the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). Amen.