Поучение на день памяти святых Первоверховных апостолов Петра и Павла, месяца июня, в 29 день («Бог водил их днем, столпом облачным показывая им путь; ночью же столпом огненным светил им. И не отлучался столп облачный днем и столп огненный ночью пред всеми людьми» (Исх. 13:21–22))

Blessed were those people who, during their forty-year wandering through impassable deserts, were guided, showing the way, by the pillars of heaven, built by God, beloved listeners! Blessed were those eyes that constantly, day and night, saw one miracle, never seen before. Have you looked at night and seen a pillar of fire reaching from the earth to heaven; If you looked during the day, you saw a pillar of cloud walking in front of the regiment. He directed them with a cloud during the day and illuminated them with fire all night. Blessed were those feet that knew whom they were following, that knew that they did not wander and were aware that they would one day reach the promised land boiling with milk and honey. However, we do not envy, Israel, your bliss, we do not envy your prosperous path, we do not envy your wonderful pillars, for we have our own, the New Testament’s two mental pillars, the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul, whom we now commemorate in honorable memory and to whom the Church sings at the litany the words: “Disciples of Christ, foundations of the Church, true pillars firmament." Guided by these pillars, we will not stray from the right path, and looking at them, as if at some kind of spectacle, we will see enough of wondrous things and, following them, we will truly achieve the kingdom of heaven, prepared and promised to those who love God and filled with indescribable sweetness. I, a sinner, wishing to praise the memory of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul on the day of their celebration, even if not with cunning words and as if alive to present them before your mental eyes, will take as an image those two pillars from the old law - the cloudy one and the fiery one, by which the people of Israel were brought out of the slavery of Egypt and brought to the Promised Land. Presenting them to your mental eyes, I will begin, with the help of God, to liken those pillars of the two holy supreme apostles now celebrated and to show that these two apostles are two pillars in the Church of Christ, like pillars of cloud and fire, leading us to heaven. And this is in honor of Christ and praise to His holy apostles, but for our spiritual benefit. Go, Israel, with God from Egypt to your appointed path! You, the element of fire, together with the cloud, prepare to be a guide. Stand up, I say, in front of the regiment, both you, the pillar of cloud, and you, the pillar of fire, stand both together and lead the people of Israel! We, O listeners, will place our now celebrated spiritual pillars next to them in front of us, and consider whether ours are similar to those, or those to ours? But when I want to begin to compare our pillars with what is said in Divine Scripture, one word of Holy Scripture from the story of Moses presents me with considerable difficulty. In the XIV chapter of Exodus I read the following: “The Lord looked upon the Egyptian army in a pillar of fire and cloud and threw their army into confusion” (Exodus 14:24). Discussing these words: “I looked in the pillar of fire and cloud,” I ask why in the pillar and not in the pillars, why in the singular and not in the plural? Then, a whole series of expressions in the history of Moses, describing the passage of Israel across the sea, indicates that when the people came to the sea, the pillar that led them and walked in front returned back and stood between the Israeli and Egyptian regiments, separating them from one another. And while that pillar was behind, there is no mention of another pillar in front of the Israelites in Scripture. He speaks only of one pillar standing behind, and calls it cloudy and fiery: “The Lord looked in the pillar of fire and cloud.” But if there was only one pillar, then will it be possible to compare our two spiritual pillars in any way? So, I will pose this question: were there two pillars - cloud and fire - or one? If I look with my mental eyes, I see only one, although I hear about two. If I look during the day, I see a pillar of cloud, but the one of fire is not visible, and if I look at night, then I see a pillar of fire, and there is no cloud, but with a pillar of fire illuminating far around, one could also see the cloud. What we ourselves don’t know about, let’s ask people, and knowledgeable, reasonable people. But who could be more knowledgeable than the interpreters of Divine Scripture, penetrating into unknown mysteries? I will turn to them. I see two sides sitting in a dispute: one side is the Jewish rabbis, the other is our interpreters. Rabbis interpreting the books of Moses say that there were two pillars: a special one - cloudy, during the day and a special one - fiery, at night. And it seems to me that this is correct, for one is the element of fire, the other is a cloud, which consists of a watery nature, and water with fire and fire with water can never be together in peace. And if the fire and the cloud were in one pillar, then considerable enmity would arise between them (it happens that a small fiery lightning strikes a water cloud, and what kind of thunder it produces is scary to even hear!). And then this would happen: having come together in one pillar, the fire and the cloud would overcome each other: either the water cloud would extinguish the fire, or the fire would dry up the cloud moisture and destroy the cloud. The Israelis would have been filled with considerable fear here if the fire had begun to fight with the water, similar to what we see during a thunderstorm, when there are terrible flashes and thunders in the dark water clouds, as it is said in the psalm: “They will be afraid at the voice of Your thunder” (Ps. 103:7). The other side, or our Christian interpreters, say that there was only one pillar, and not two: the cloudy one is the same as the fiery one. During the day the pillar was a cloud, and at night it was fire. And when on that night in which the people crossed the sea, the pillar stood behind, between the Israeli and Egyptian regiments, then on the side where the people of Israel were, it was fiery, shining for them so that they could see the divided sea, the dry path along the bottom of the sea and the other shore of the sea. On the same side where the Egyptians stood, it was cloudy and dark, giving no light, so they could not see anything. And there was a cloud there, united with fire in one pillar: one half of the pillar was fiery, the other cloudy, as the Holy Scripture says: “And there was a dark cloud, shining at night” (Ps. 104:39). The pillar was both light and dark: dark, like cloud, and light, like fire, so that it could shine at night. Perhaps someone will ask: how did fire and a cloud, consisting of the watery nature, unite? How did one not interfere with the other? How did the cloud not quench the fire, or the fire not dry up the clouds? To this we answer: the Lord Himself performed these miracles here, and in miracles it is always seen that they are performed beyond nature. It is not a miracle that happens by nature, and no one could be surprised by it, but a miracle is something that happens beyond nature, and everyone is surprised by it. Supernaturally, God made three days into one night to frighten the Egyptians. Supernaturally he transformed water into blood. Supernaturally, he divided the sea and showed people a dry path in it. Supernaturally, He united in one pillar the cloud of water with the element of fire, so that people would see His miracles and believe in Him. Moreover, among this pillar was God Himself, as is clear from Scripture: The Lord descended in the pillar. And Moses says to God: “You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night” (Numbers 14:14). And since God Himself dwelt in the midst of this pillar, the cloud of water and fire were in the world; the presence of God reconciled irreconcilable things. Likewise, in Noah’s ark among the animals there were many animals hostile to each other, such as the wolf and the sheep, the bear and the ox, the lion and the donkey, the hawk and the hen, the eagle and the dove, but since they felt Noah’s authority over them, they sat quietly, not daring to harm one another. They feared and trembled at Noah's presence. The same thing happens among people between princes and boyars: they are at enmity with each other, they annoy each other, they do not tolerate each other, and when they are in the face of the Tsar, they stand quietly, like like-minded friends, looking at the Tsar alone and listening to his words with silence and meekness. Likewise, in the pillar of Israel, in the midst of which God was present, the hostile elements were at peace. Let's think about this: where God is, everything is peaceful, but where there is no God, there is strife, warfare and disagreement everywhere. But it’s time to turn our eyes to our spiritual pillars, now celebrated as the supreme apostles Peter and Paul. And first of all, we will see in them that they are two and at the same time one, one and two, as the Church sings about them: “Divided bodies and united in spirit.” The miracle was that fire and a water cloud were combined in one pillar. Consider it a miracle when you see among people two friends of one mind and like mind, for truly, it is as if fire has been fused into one nature with water, when a friend is truly and constantly unanimous with each other. And just as once only, during the days of the exodus of Israel, such a miracle happened in the heavenly places that the opposing elements were united in one pillar without hostility and in peace, so it is not often, but very rarely, that true friendliness and harmony occur between people. So, here is the first quality of the holy supreme apostles, worthy of countless praises: two persons, although separated in bodies, are united in spirit, have one spirit. They were unanimous to the extent that the Hellenic (albeit pagan) philosopher Aristotle once defined friendship: “A friend is one soul in the bodies of two.” Two special names: Paul and Peter, but one thing in them is like-mindedness in the apostolic work. There are two highest apostles, but they have one agreement in supremacy. Wanting to celebrate this in them, the Holy Church unites the celebrations of their memory on one day, honoring not only Saint Peter, but also Paul, and establishing a single celebration for them. However, at first, when Peter was still called not Peter, but Simon, and Paul was called Saul, there was such a great difference between them as between fire and water. One with a net on the river, the other with a book in Gamaliel’s school: “Raised at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3). One followed Christ, and the other went to the Pharisees: “according to the teaching of the Pharisee” (Phil. 3:5). One is a zealot for Christ, the other is “an immoderate zealot for the traditions of our fathers” (Gal. 1:14). One drives out Malchus, cuts off his ear, the other persecutes the Church of Christ: They heard, he says, “about my former way of life in Judaism, that I cruelly persecuted the Church of God and devastated it” (Gal. 1:13). How great is the difference - like between fire and water! When our Lord called them both to the same leadership, they immediately became, separated in body and united in spirit, as if they were a single pillar of Israel, composed of two opposite elements - fire and water. Learn here, all warring, discordant friends, true unanimity and friendship from the example of this united apostolic duo, and you will reach the promised land, the kingdom, I say, of heaven, prepared for true lovers of each other. Go further, O Israel, coming from Egypt following your pillar or pillars to the country appointed for you! Let us, the listeners, follow our spiritual pillars, taking a closer look at their morals and deeds! Whether there was one or two pillars leading Israel, God knows! We, counting the two faces of the apostles, call them two pillars, adhering to this name by Saint Chrysostom, who in his word on this supreme apostolic holiday says: “The pillars of the church are the lamps of the universe, equal to each other and greater than all creation.” The nature of the pillar or pillars of Israel was fire and water-cloud. But what do we spiritually call water and fire in our spiritual pillars? Let us consider a number of their deeds and indicate the time when they were a cloud of water and when they were fire. First of all, we see Saint Peter when, having got out of the boat, he rested his foot on the water, as if on something solid, and walked on the water, as if on a stone: “Coming out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to come to Jesus” (Matthew 14:29). Who wouldn’t be surprised to see him walking on the waters and say: “Look! Saint Peter is light, like a cloud rushing over the sea. There is no human heaviness in him, for he walks on the waters. He is a cloud! But just as happiness is changeable, so is human opinion! For the one who was light as a cloud suddenly unexpectedly became heavy, like a stone drowning in water: “He began to drown” (Matthew 14:30). Do not rely, saint, on your holiness! Don't consider yourself better than people! Look, destruction is under your feet! You won’t see how you will slip, fall, and begin to drown: “By starting to drown. Let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). It is not at that time that Saint Peter appears as a cloud, when he walks on the waters, when he thinks that he is superior in holiness to all the other apostles who were in the ship, not at that time. We'll tell you later when. We see Saint Peter standing by the fire and warming himself: “It was cold, we stood and warmed ourselves. Peter also stood with them and warmed himself” (John 18:18). One would think that, having warmed himself here in body, Saint Peter would warm himself in spirit and would burn like a flame with love for the Lord; he would remember his zeal in the garden, when, taking a sword, he wanted to enter into battle for his Lord. And then he suddenly cooled down, froze by the fire: “I don’t know,” he said, “This Man” (Matthew 26:74). At first he was very brave, was not afraid of the detachment of soldiers sent by the bishops, but then suddenly he was afraid of one woman - the bishop’s slave! And here Saint Peter was not a pillar of fire, starting to talk with a woman. Whoever does not fade away from women’s conversations, who does not destroy spiritual warmth of the heart, which is love for God. But I will defend Saint Peter in such cases: after all, he had not yet received the Holy Spirit, which fills what was missing, and therefore, like a weak man, he slipped. Besides this, and for another reason, such an opportunity was allowed to him so that he would be careful in advance. It was as if God’s discretion indicated to him: Peter! A command awaits you, you will be elevated to the level of supremacy, you will be entrusted with tending the sheep! Remember at that time that you are a weak person, and if you surpass others in honor, but in human weaknesses you are equal to them, then only in title you will be the holiest, but in human weakness you can be the most sinful of all. Do not be arrogant over others! But leaving this aside, let us consider the fire and the cloud in our spiritual pillars. Let everyone think as they please, but I will say that spiritual fire is nothing other than Divine love, seraphimically flaming. In the same way, the spiritual and water-bearing cloud is nothing more than tears of tenderness. Both are united together, as in the pillar of Israel, for where there is fire of love, there, of course, there will be tears of tenderness. We see this first of all in our Savior Himself. The Lord weeps over Lazarus, and people say: “Look how He loved him” (John 11:36). Through tearful eyes we knew the love of the heart. It is known that in a person, the heart is a mysterious furnace from which the flame of love emanates, and his eyes are a mysterious cloud from which tearful rain pours out. The heart and eyes of one person are the same as fire and cloud in one pillar of Israel. Let's look here at Saint Peter, who came out of the bishop's house and somewhere in a special place, sitting and crying: “When he went out, he wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). Tears pour from his eyes like rain from a cloud. I call tears rain, according to Saint Chrysostom, who, looking at the crying David, said: “David’s cheeks were decorated, as if with beads, with rain of tears.” Looking at Saint Peter weeping, we can say: Petrov’s cheeks were adorned, like beads, with rain of tears. This is when Saint Peter is a spiritual cloud shedding tearful rain. But, O holy Peter! Why are you crying? Is it because he renounced Christ? After all, you were not the only one who rejected Him, but many others: Judas rejected Him, but does not cry, although he repents; Pilate rejected, but does not grieve; The bishops and princes of Israel, the scribes, the Pharisees and the whole multitude of the people rejected Him, shouting: “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” (Luke 23:21). They all rejected Christ, but they do not weep, but rejoice even more. And only you, Saint Peter, mourn Him! Where did you get such contrition of heart? “I cry,” he says, “because I have denied my Beloved.” Judas does not cry, for he did not have such love for Him; Pilate and all the others do not cry, for not only did they not have love for Him, but they also hated Him. But I loved Him, and my very love grieves within me without the Beloved, and my conscience looks at me and crushes my heart, and sheds tears from my eyes. You say: “Look how Peter loves Him”! Here is Saint Peter, full of the fire of Divine love, seraphimically flaming! And for the threefold rejection of the Lord, Saint Peter repays with a threefold declaration of his love: “So, Lord! You know that I love You” (John 21:16–17). So, Saint Peter is our spiritual pillar, the pillar of cloud and fire. Let us now look at the holy Apostle Paul and ask him himself: Saint Paul! In what place can we call you a pillar of fire? Is it on the island of Milite, where you “gathered a lot of brushwood and put it on the fire?” Do you remember - where “a viper hung on your hand”, you, “shaking the snake into the fire, suffered no harm” from it (Acts 28:3, 5)? Truly, it would be appropriate to call you a pillar of fire here, where people considered you not a man, but a god: “They said that he was a god” (Acts 28:6). But I fear that you might, with our praises to you, do what you did together with Barnabas in Lystra: There people, having brought an ox and brought wreaths, wanted to make a sacrifice to you, but you “torn your clothes and, rushing into the people, loudly said: “Men! What are you doing? And we are men like you” (Acts 14:13–15). Where, Saint Paul, do you want to be a pillar of fire? Isn't it near the fire of love? Truly so. Let us listen to what he says: “Who will separate us from the love of God: tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? We overcome all this by the power of Him who loved us. For I am confident that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God” (Rom. 8:35, 37-39). Oh, how great and unquenchable is the flame of St. Paul’s love for God! It is well said in the Song of Songs: “Much water cannot quench love, and rivers do not drown it” (Song. 8:7). So this is where Saint Paul is the pillar of fire. But where can he be the pillar of cloud? Where he reaches the third heaven. “I know,” he says, “a man who was caught up to the third heaven. I can boast about such a man” (2 Cor. 12:2, 5). If he is caught up, then only by a cloud, for the rapture happens on a cloud, as he himself says: “We will be caught up in the clouds” (1 Thess. 4:17). And when at that rapture Saint Paul was surrounded by a cloud, he truly became a pillar of cloud reaching to the third heaven. So, our spiritual pillar, the holy Apostle Paul, revealed himself to be a spiritual pillar of fire and cloud. It would also be necessary to explain the walk of these two pillars of ours, the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul, and the reasons for that walk in the image of a pillar or pillars in the desert, which either moved or stood still. And when they moved, they moved quietly so that the people following them could keep up, and when they stood, they stood for as long as it was necessary for the people to rest. They walked at night to give light to people, and during the day to show the way, and at the same time to protect them in a hot country from the heat of the sun with a cloudy shadow. It would be appropriate to liken our spiritual pillars to all these actions in praise and explanation of their actions, but I don’t have enough time for this story. Therefore, I will end my words with a humble prayer to them. O holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul! Be for us the pillars of a fortress from the face of the enemy, unshakable pillars, strengthening our often falling weakness. Especially be strong pillars that establish the Christian Fatherland. Saint Peter! Be a pillar and affirmation of the Pious Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Duke Peter Alexievich, who bears your honorable name, of all Great, and Little, and White Russia, the Autocrat, and His great army. When the pillar of fire and cloud walked before the people of Israel, these people were brave, terrible for their enemies, and courageously defeated their adversaries. O spiritual pillars! Go ahead of our great Sovereign, against the adversaries who fight, and before His regiments, create victory and victory, crush the regiments of the adversaries, like the chariots of Pharaoh in the sea, so that, with your help, having crushed the heads of the enemies, we will sing a victorious song to our God, glorifying Him forever. Amen.