Омилия XXIV 103 .

About the manifestation and distribution of the Divine Spirit that took place on the day of Pentecost; it also talks about repentance Recently, with the great eyes of faith, we contemplated the ascending Christ, and then - no less than those who were honored with their bodily eyes to look at Him, and, by no means, inferior to them in bliss; for the Lord said: “Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believed” (John 20:29) - and these are those who are convinced by hearing and see through faith. So, recently we contemplated Christ taken up from the earth with his body, but now we see, on the basis of His sending of the Holy Spirit to the Disciples, where, having ascended, Christ preceded, and to what (great) dignity he elevated our nature, assumed by Him: for there, of course, He ascended, from where the Spirit sent by Him descended. From where the Spirit descended, the Speaker revealed through the Prophet Joel: “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28), and to whom David turns: “Thou shalt follow Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and renew the face of the earth” (Ps. 103:30). So, having ascended, Christ ascended to the Most High Father and into the very Fatherly bosom, from where the Spirit has its being, and showed Himself to be a participant, even by human nature, of the dignity inherent in the Father, in that He also sent from heaven the Spirit, proceeding and being sent from the Father. But hearing that the Holy Spirit is sent from the Father and the Son, let no one think that He is not of the same dignity as They; for He is not only one of those who are sent, but He Himself is one of those who send and are well pleased. God, speaking through the Prophet, makes this clear: “With My hand (Is. 44:24) I established the earth and laid out the heavens (Is. 45:12), and now the Lord has sent Me, and His Spirit” (Is. 48:16). And Christ, through the same Prophet, in another place, says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for the sake of My anointing, to bring My messenger good news to the poor” (Is. 61:1). So, the Holy Spirit is not only sent, but He Himself sends the Son, sent from the Father, from which it is clear that He is of the same dignity and nature and has the same action and honor as the Father and the Son. So, by the favor of the Father and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, according to the immeasurable depth of love for mankind, the Only Begotten Son of God, bowing the heavens and descending from on high, was visible on earth as a Man and was in our midst, and did and taught what is wonderful and great and sublime and truly befits God, and for those who listen to Him, divine and saving. Then, having voluntarily suffered for our salvation, and was buried and resurrected for three days, He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, and there he facilitated the descent of the Divine Spirit on the Disciples, co-sending Him along with the Father, as He had promised them. He, sitting there in the highest, seems to be calling out to us from there: if anyone wants to join this glory and become a participant in the Kingdom of Heaven, and be called the son of God, and gain immortal life and ineffable glory and pure pleasure and inexhaustible wealth, let him obey My commandments and, according to his strength, imitate My way of life, and let him live as I, Who, having come in flesh to earth, he created and taught, laying down saving laws and presenting Myself as an example; for by His deeds and miracles the Lord made the Gospel Teaching reliable; He sealed it with His Passion; He showed the great benefit and saving power of the Gospel Teaching by His Resurrection from the dead, His Ascension into heaven and the completed influx of the Divine Spirit from heaven onto the Disciples, which we celebrate today. For after the Resurrection from the dead and the appearance to His Disciples, He ascended and said to them: “Behold, I will send the promise of My Father to you: but you sit in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high, (for) you will receive the power that the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and even to the last of the earth.” (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8). When it was 50 days after the Resurrection, which we now commemorate, when all the Disciples gathered together and were unanimous in the upper room of that holy place, as well as in the upper room of their souls, each concentrating in spirit, because they had given themselves over to prayer and sacred hymns to God, “there was,” says the Evangelist Luke, “suddenly there was a noise from heaven, as if I were carrying a storm of breath, and all the house where he sits" (Acts 2:2). This is the noise that Anna the Prophetess predicted when she accepted the promise about Samuel, saying: “The Lord ascends into heaven, and we will roar: He will give strength and lift up the horn of His Christ” (1 Samuel 2:10). This noise was also foreshadowed in Elijah's vision; for it is said: “Behold a thin voice of coldness, and there is the Lord” (1 Kings 19:12); for the “voice of thin cold” is the sound of the wind. You can also find a pre-image of this voice and breath in the Gospel of Christ. For on the last day of the great Feast, i.e. on Pentecost, Jesus stood - as the Theologian and Evangelist John narrates - and cried out, saying: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. This is what is said about Dus, whom those who believe in His name want to receive” (John 7:37-39). But even after the Resurrection, He breathed on His Disciples and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Thus, this voice foreshadowed this noise, and this breath - this breath, which now violently spreads from above, emitting a great and powerful noise from the sky, calls upon the whole earth under the sun and grants grace to all who come in faith and dwells in them. He appears with power, like everything that conquers and tramples the walls of the evil one, destroying cities and all kinds of strongholds of the enemy, and humbling the arrogant, lifting up the humble in heart, and fastening what was broken in a bad way, breaking the shackles of sins and loosening the bonds of slavery. It filled the house where they were, making it a spiritual font, and thereby fulfilling this promise of the Savior, which, as He ascended, He spoke to them: “For as John baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not after many these days” (Acts 1:5). But He also showed the name that He gave them as fair: for by the power of this noise from heaven, the Apostles truly became “Sons of Thunder.” “And he appeared to them,” it is said, “and the nations were divided as if they were fire; and they sat upon one of them, and were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit had given them utterance” (Acts 2:3-4). Those wonderful deeds that the Lord performed in the body, demonstrating that He, in His Hypostasis, is the only begotten Son, united with us at the end of time, have come to an end; (now) those things begin to happen that reveal the Holy Spirit, who exists according to His Hypostasis, so that we know and also assimilate the great and worshiped Mystery of the Holy Trinity; for even earlier, truly, the Holy Spirit acted - because He spoke through the Prophets and foretold the future - but now through tongues of fire He appeared to everyone in His Hypostasis, and in a Masterly manner, as if on a throne, sitting on the Disciples of Christ, He made them instruments of His power. But for what reason did He appear in the form of tongues? - In order to show that He is akin to the Word of God; for there is nothing more related to the word than language. But also for the sake of the grace of teaching: for a teacher of Christ needs a grace-filled tongue. Why - tongues of fire? - Not only because of the consubstantiality of the Spirit with the Father and the Son, - for our God is Fire, and that is Fire, consuming iniquity - but also because of the severity of the action of the Apostolic sermon: for it was supposed to both do good and punish; just as fire is designed to both enlighten and scorch, so the word of the teaching about Christ enlightens those who listen, but consigns those who stubbornly resist to fire and eternal torment. These tongues, says the Apostle Luke, were not “fiery,” but “as if they were fiery,” so that no one would think that this fire (in the “tongues of fire”) was sensual and material, but it is said so, so that on the basis of the example we would have an idea of ​​the manifestation of the Spirit. Why did tongues appear to them divided? - Because Christ alone, who came down from heaven, was given the Spirit from the Father in excess, for He, also in the flesh, possesses full power and action; The all-encompassing (Pasa Horiti) grace of the Spirit rested on none of the others, but in part each - one receives one thing, the other receives another from the gifts of grace, so that no one would think that the grace given from the Spirit to the Holy Ones is not His action, but His very nature. The expression “sede” not only denotes the Sovereign dignity, but also the unity of the Divine Spirit. “And he sat upon one of them, and was all filled with the Holy Spirit”: for having been divided according to His various powers and actions, the Holy Spirit in each action appears whole, inseparably divided and fully given into participation, in the image of a solar ray. “Verb in other languages” i.e. in different dialects to those gathered from all nations”, “as the Spirit gave them utterance”; for they became instruments of the Divine Spirit, acting and moving according to His will and power; Every instrument that is externally acceptable becomes a participant not of nature, but of the energy of the active, which is received from it; this also happens in relation to the instrument of the Holy Spirit, just as David, speaking in the Holy Spirit, says: “My tongue is the reed of a scribe” (Ps. 45:2). Consequently, the writing cane is the instrument of the writer, becoming involved, of course, not in the nature of the scribe, but in his energy, and then inscribing it, which the writer would like and could. But how is the Holy Spirit “the promise of the Father”? – Because through His Prophets He was promised; so through Ezekiel He said: “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you, and I will put My Spirit in you” (Ezek. 36:26). And through Joel: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28). And Moses, desiring Him, foretold it, saying: “Whoever will cause all the Lord’s people to be prophets, when the Lord gives His Spirit on them” (Num. 11:29). Since there is only one favor and a promise with the Father and the Son, then Christ says to those who believe in Him: “Whoever drinks of the water, even I will give to him, there will be in him a fountain of water flowing into an eternal life” (John 4:14); and: - “Believe in Me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living waters will flow out of his belly” - which, interpreting, the Evangelist says: “This is speaking about Dus, whom those who believe in His name want to receive” (John 7:38-39). And going to the Saving Passion, the Lord said to His Disciples: “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:15–17); and again: “These are the words spoken in you: But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, by Him you will teach all things” (John 14:25–26). And again: “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and will guide you into all righteousness” (John 15:26). Now the promise has been fulfilled, and the Holy Spirit has descended, sent and given from the Father and the Son, and enlightening the holy Disciples and completely divinely kindling them as lamps, or better yet, revealing them as supra-worldly and universal Stars, containing the word of eternal life, through which He enlightened the entire universe. And just as if someone lights from one lamp to another, and from another to a third, and by transmission from one to another, maintaining constant light, so through the ordination of the Apostles to their successors, and from them, in turn, to others, and then subsequent ones, the transferred grace of the Divine Spirit flows through all generations and enlightens all those who entrust themselves to spiritual shepherds and teachers. Thus, each Bishop comes in his own time, bringing this grace and gift of God to the city and, through the Gospel, the enlightenment of the Divine Spirit; those who reject any of them, as far as it is in their power, interrupt Divine grace and dissolve Divine succession, and separate themselves from God and betray themselves to destructive situations and all kinds of disasters, which you also recently learned from experience. But now, having turned to the Shepherd of your souls who comes from God, if you obey me, who advises you what serves for salvation, then you will truly wonderfully celebrate the annual commemoration of the coming of the Divine Spirit, Who came down for the sake of our salvation, out of ineffable love for mankind, for which and as a result of which the Only Begotten Son of God, bowing the heavens, descended and took flesh from us. Because if He Himself had not ascended in flesh to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to strengthen His Disciples and abide with them, and the same for their successors from generation to generation and teachers of the Gospel of Grace, the preaching of the Truth would not have been proclaimed to all nations, and would not have even reached us. For this reason, the most loving Master has now revealed His Disciples as participants and fathers and givers of light and eternal life, giving birth to eternal life and making worthy children of light and fathers of enlightenment, because in this way He Himself will remain until the end of the age, as was promised due to the (eternal presence in the Church) of the Holy Spirit: for He is One with the Father and the Spirit, not in concept Hypostases, but - Deities; The Holy Spirit has always been and was together with the Son in the Father. For how could there be a Father and a Mind Without Beginning without a Son and a Word without Beginning? And how could there be an Ever-Essential Word without a Co-Essential Spirit? So, the Holy Spirit has always been, is and will be, co-creative with the Father and the Son during creation, and co-renewing what was damaged, and maintaining what remains; being everywhere and fulfilling everything, and managing everything and observing everything. For: “Where shall I go,” the Psalmist turns to God: “from Thy Spirit? and will I flee from Thy presence? (Ps. 139:7). Not only everywhere, but above everything; not only in every age and time, but also before every age and time; and not only will he be with us until the end of the age, as promised, but much more will the Holy Spirit be with those worthy in the next century, immortalizing them and filling their bodies with eternal glory, which the Lord revealed to the Disciples: “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever” (John 14:16). For it is sown, says the Apostle, i.e. a dead spiritual body is buried and consigned to the earth - this is the same as saying: physical, composed of soul and body, having together to exist and move; it rises up, i.e. comes to life, a spiritual body - this is the same as saying: supraphysical (above nature), as composed and guided by the Divine Spirit and by the power of the Spirit, clothed in immortality and glory and incorruptibility. “The first man was Adam,” says the Apostle, “I live in the soul, the last Adam is life-giving in the spirit; the first man from the earth, ringed; the second Man, the Lord from heaven. Like the earthy one, so are the rings: and like the one who is in heaven, like those who are in heaven” (1 Cor. 15:45–48). Who is this? - Constant and unshakable in faith, and always fruitful in the work of the Lord, and bearing the image of Heavenly, in their obedience to Him, within themselves. Because, “whoever does not believe in the Son,” according to the Evangelist John, says the Lord’s Forerunner, “will not see the life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36); But can anyone withstand the wrath of God? - It is scary, brothers, to fall into the hands of the living God; for if we fear the hands of enemies, while the Lord says: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body” (Matthew 10:28), then whoever has understanding will not fear the hands of God, rising in anger against unbelievers? For the wrath of God will be revealed against every soul of those who live their lives in debauchery and violence, without knowing conversion, and “they suppress the truth through unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:18). Let us therefore flee from this wrath; and, through repentance, we strive to receive the mercy and compassion of the All-Holy Spirit. If anyone has hatred towards someone, let him make peace and return to love, so that his hatred and enmity with his neighbor do not serve as evidence against him that he does not love God: for if you do not love your brother whom you see, then how can you love God, whom you do not see? Having love for each other, we have true love, unfeigned, and we demonstrate it by our deeds: in not saying or doing anything - moreover, not even allowing ourselves to listen to that - that is offensive or harmful to our brethren, as the beloved Theologian of Christ taught us, saying: “Brethren, love not in word and tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). If anyone has fallen into fornication or adultery or similar bodily uncleanness, let him retreat from this disgraceful defilement and cleanse himself through confession, tears and fasting and similar deeds: because God will judge and condemn fornicators and unrepentant adulterers, and send them away from Himself and give them over to hell and unquenchable fire and other eternal torments, saying: Let the wicked and the damned be lifted up, and let him not see and enjoy the glory of the Lord. A thief or an obvious predator and rapist, let him no longer steal, do not rape, do not kidnap someone else’s property, but let him give from his own to the poor. And - to express this in one word: if you want life, to see good days, and to get rid of enemies visible and invisible, then from the now pressing barbarians and from other torments prepared for the evil one and his angels - turn away from all evil and do good. “Do not flatter yourselves: neither harlots, nor adulterers, nor wicked women, nor homosexuals, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor molesters, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9). He who does not have participation with God is not God, nor does he have God as a Father. But we, brothers, I pray, will distance ourselves from deeds and words that are hateful to God, so that we can boldly call God Father. Let us turn to Him in truth, so that He may turn to us and cleanse us from all sin and make us worthy of His Divine grace. For in this way and forever we will triumph and celebrate the God-inspired and spiritual fulfillment of the Divine Promise - the Coming of the All-Holy Spirit to people and His resting upon them, the result and fulfillment of the blessed hope, in Christ our Lord Himself: for to Him belongs glory, honor and worship with His Beginning Father and the Most Holy and Good and Life-Giving Spirit, now and ever and to the ages. centuries. Amen. PG.151:308–320. Homilia XXIV. In manifestationem divini Spiritus in Pentecoste peractam; aditur etiam de poenitentia. You might be interested in: