Омилия V 7 .

On the Meeting of the Lord and God and our Savior Jesus Christ, it also talks about chastity and the evil opposite to it Before the coming of Christ, we all had it, which was from the Forefathers, a curse and a common and the same condemnation, implanted in everyone from one Forefather, as if transmitted from a family root and co-inherited along with nature; everyone, for what he himself individually accomplished (for life), received praise from God in his own person or was subject to censure, but no one could do anything against this general curse and condemnation and from the beginning to it and through it to the further offspring of the passing evil inheritance. But Christ came, the Liberator of nature, turning the common curse into a common blessing, and from the Immaculate Virgin, having received our guilty nature, and presenting it in Himself in a new face, having no participation in the ancient seed, he revealed it innocent and justified, so that from Him those then born in the Spirit would remain free from that ancestral curse and condemnation. Thus, is there something that prevents every person from being a participant in His grace? Is there anyone who does not receive remission of his sins from Him? No, this can't be true. Because He did not receive a separate part from us, but, having received our (full) nature, He created (renewed) it anew, uniting with Him according to His Hypostasis; and thus He, truly desiring the salvation of all, bowed down to the heavens and came down (to earth) for the sake of all; and through deeds and words and the Passion, having revealed the entire path of salvation, he ascended to heaven, drawing there those who believed in Him. So, not only to the very nature, which He had from us by indissoluble union, but also to everyone who believes in Him, He granted perfect redemption, which He truly created and creates without ceasing, through Himself reconciling with the Father, and by virtue of (His) obedience, returning us each and healing all our (which was in paradise) disobedience. For this reason, He commanded divine baptism and laid down saving laws, and announced repentance to everyone, and handed over His Body and Blood; for it is not just nature in general, but precisely the personality of each believer who receives baptism and lives his life according to the divine commandments, and becomes a participant in the God-creative Bread and Cup. With the help of this above, Christ justifies us as individual individuals (υποστατικως) and returns us to obedience to the Heavenly Father; and the very nature that He received from us, He recreated and revealed it as sanctified and justified and obedient to the Father in everything, for the sake of which He Himself, by hypostasis, united with it, acted and suffered according to it, which also includes His entry into that church, which we celebrate today, or presentation for the sake of purification and the divinely inspired Meeting of Simeon and the confession of Anna, who held the church throughout his life. For after the Birth of the Savior from the Virgin and after Circumcision according to the law on the 8th day, as the Evangelist Luke narrates: “When the days of her purification were fulfilled, according to the law of Moses, he was taken up to Jerusalem, to set him before the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord” (Luke 2:22-23). He receives Circumcision according to the law, is brought according to the law, we imagine it happens according to what is written in the law of the Lord, the sacrifice is made according to what is said in the law of the Lord. Do you see how the Creator of the Law and the Master was obedient to the Law in everything? What did He do because of this? - He made our nature obedient to the Father in everything and through him healed our disobedience, and turned the resulting curse into a blessing; for just as our whole nature was in Adam, so it is in Christ; and how through Adam, who came from the earth, we all, who received existence from him, returned to the earth, and were sent, alas, to hell; so through Adam, who is from Heaven, according to the word of the Apostle, we are all again called to heaven and awarded the glory and grace there, although now this is shrouded in mystery; for it is said: “Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ appears, your Life, then you will all 8 appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4). Who is “everyone”? – These are those who were adopted by Christ in the Spirit and in fact showed themselves to be His spiritual children. “When the days of their purification were fulfilled, they brought Him to present Him before the Lord.” Whom? – The Word of the Law speaks of those born, and together with those who gave birth in marriage, as those who must be cleansed; Therefore, the Psalmist says: “I was conceived in iniquity, and my mother gave birth to me in sins” (Ps. 50:7). But when on the face are not the parents, but the only One who gave birth, and She is a Virgin, and the birth of a child conceived without seed, then, of course, there was no need for cleansing, but this was also a matter of obedience, returning the disobedient nature, and correcting the guilt for disobedience. So, when the days of their purification were fulfilled, they brought Him to present to the Lord: to consecrate, to reveal as the firstborn, according to what is written in the Law of the Lord: “Every male who opens the womb of his mother will be called holy of God” (Luke 2:23; Exodus 13:2). And truly He was the only one Who, in His conception, opened the falsehood, incongruously carried the womb by the power of one word and the sign of God, as the Virgin through the Angel received into the ears. So why does the Law say: “Every male sex, open his lies”? – This is similar to how many were called prophets and many Christs (anointed ones), as God says through the Psalmist: “Touch not My anointed, and do not act deceitfully against My prophets” (Ps. 104:15); but there was only one truly Christ (the Anointed One), and only one Prophet, namely He; so, although it is said “every firstborn” opens the falsehood, but in truth only He is the opener, the only Holy One of Israel. – They brought, it is said, “to give a sacrifice, according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, two turtle doves or two chicks of a dove” (Luke 2:24; Lev.5:7). The presence of a pair of turtle doves seemed to demonstrate the chastity of the parents and at the same time had a certain relation to those living according to the law of marriage; and two pigeon chicks, as strangers to marriage, clearly foreshadowed the Virgin and the One born from this Virgin and Virgin to the end of things. And pay attention to the perfection of the Law, for he spoke of a pair of turtle doves, as signifying those who are united in marriage; Regarding the chicks, this concept did not take place: because neither the One who gave birth, nor the Born knew the yoke (marriage). But having long foreshadowed the virgin nativity, the Law prefigures and delineates this through these images; after being miraculously born and now brought to the church, the Spirit prepared other turtle doves and other pigeon chicks - more worthy. Who is this? - Simeon and Anna, whom if anyone were to call: either dove chicks, due to their complete infancy in relation to evil (sins), or turtle doves, due to extreme chastity, he would rightly say. But Simeon, truly, so that we can quickly go through the words of the Gospel, being righteous and God-fearing, and used by the Holy Spirit and now moved by Him, came to the church and hurried towards and accepted into the arms of this Heavenly and at the same time the Earthly Child, bringing Him, as God, a hymn and prayer, praying to be released from the body in peace, proclaiming to everyone and affirming that He is the Saving Light, Who will be a fall for those who do not believe and a rise for those who believe in Him. Then he also foretold to the Virgin, the Mother of the Child, revealing that on the basis of the grief that She would experience at the Cross of the Son, she would have to become (especially) the revealed Mother by nature of the present God-Man-Child, and the unsteady thoughts of hearts regarding this would have to be revealed 9: for Simeon testified perfectly that because of the grief brought by the suffering of the Son and the greatest sorrow and compassion, She is the true, dear Mother of this wonderful Son. The prophetess Anna, daughter of Phanuel, a widow, 84 years old, diligent in fasting and prayer and not at all leaving the church, then especially filled with the Divine Spirit, thanked God and announced that redemption had come for those who were waiting, revealing that this Redemption is this Child. The Holy Spirit sent such spiritual turtledoves for the Presentation of Christ ascending into the church, and showed us what women who are deprived of their means of life with the loss of their husbands, and men who have lost their spouses should be like. For this Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, was a widow, but also a Prophetess. For what (she received this gift of prophecy)? - Because, leaving worldly and everyday worries, she did not leave the church; for the fact that by staying daily and nightly in fasting and vigils, and prayers and psalmody, she led an immaculate life; That’s why she naturally recognized the Lord, to Whom she was devoted in her deeds, when He came (to the church), just as the Psalmist-Prophet said to Him: “I sing and understand in a blameless way when you come to me” (Ps. 100:2). Such should be those who, from the state of marriage, through honest widowhood, chose to begin the virgin life and live it. So, if you look down on a second marriage because it is not of high quality, then, see to me, hold fast to your intentions and follow in the footsteps of those who were virgins from beginning to end. And although the Apostle Peter, indeed, had a mother-in-law, he did not lag behind John the Virgin, running to the life-giving Sepulcher (of the Lord), but also (the first) to enter there, therefore, he was made the Corypheus of the luminaries by the common Lord. Love for God elevates to such a height, transferring from flesh to spirit! Make sure that by moving away from the first (i.e., marriage), as from a base thing, and not encroaching on the second (i.e., virginity), as something that is higher than achievement, you do not go astray, and having fallen, do not forget yourself, living no longer according to the law, or - above the law, but - illegally. If those who are in widowhood, if they do not live chastely (i.e. do not want to remain in a state of forced celibacy), we condemn, and even if they legally bound themselves to a second marriage, we do not consider them completely blameless, because they, as Paul said, rejected the first faith - how much more condemnation do those who prefer lawless pleasure to legal marriage deserve?! Because of fornication, this worldwide Flood came for those who were at first called “the sons of God,” and fire came down from heaven on the Sodomites, and troubles befell the Israelites who sinned with the Moabite women. Fornication was the cause of their destruction in large numbers, and for us now, I think, it is the cause of defeats from the barbarians and all kinds of internal and external evils and misfortunes. Scripture calls the subsequent descendants of Enos “sons” of “God,” who was the first to hope to call on the name of the Lord. He was the son of Seth, whose family was different from the family of the cursed Cain, and he lived chastely, and for their sake the world still held on until, as it is written, he saw “the daughters of men” i.e. - from the family of Cain, that they were beautiful, and being defeated by dissolute beauty, they did not take for themselves whichever one chose, and did not learn their deeds, and the earth was filled with atrocities, then the Flood came and destroyed everyone; and if it were not for Noah and Noah’s sons, who lived chastely - and it is clear that they lived chastely, from the fact that each man had one wife, with whom he entered the Ark - then there would have been no root or beginning left for the revival of the world. Do you see that because of fornicators this world once almost perished if it had not been preserved thanks to the chaste? Those who are unworthy of the present world, as those who bring it into disorder, will they really not become outcasts from the next century, being consigned to the fire of Gehenna, as they did not at all resist the fire of carnal pleasures, unless they tried to extinguish it through repentance, and wash away the past defilements here with tears?! And let them not know that if, having shown diligence through repentance, they do not resist passion, then even worse in nature than what the previous ones experienced, they will be given over to shame, which is the offspring of this dissolute lust; and the fire of Gehenna takes hold precisely here (on earth), as it will subsequently engulf the shameless for eternal punishment (torment). Who doesn’t know about the Sodomites and their unnatural fornication, and then about the subsequent fiery rain on them and their death? Often a whole city suffered because of one libertine, as, behold, the Shechemites happened to be completely exterminated by the sons of Jacob, because Shechem dishonored Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. But leaving what was before the (Mosaic) Law, let’s say: doesn’t the Law itself command a bride, if her virginity is not observed, to be stoned? Should the priest's daughter, who has fallen into bodily sin, be burned with fire? Doesn’t it forbid that the reward of a fornicator be brought into the church of the Lord? And thanks to the Israelites who committed fornication with the Moabite women, did not 23,000 of their men happen to be destroyed by the sword in one day? Therefore, the great Paul tells us: “Let us commit fornication, as some have committed theft from them, and fell in one day twenty-three thousand” (1 Cor. 10:8). So before the (Mosaic) Law, during the Law, and after the Law, there were punishments for fornication. What can we say about us, who have the commandment to crucify the flesh with passions and lusts, and, however, we again fall into that for which the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience? We are admonished to put to death the members that are on the earth, and fornication, uncleanness, evil passion and lust, and yet we pay no attention to the admonitions? Shall we not finally fear, if nothing else, then at least the wrath of God, which threatens us from heaven and earth, with both here and eternal torment? Shall we not feel reverent fear before the appearance in the flesh of the Sun of the Truth of Christ, and shall we not, as in the day, walk reverently? Shall we not tremble at the apostolic threats, sentences and exhortations? “Do you not know,” the speaker says, “that you are the church of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? If anyone corrupts God’s church, God will corrupt him” (1 Cor. 3:16–17); and again: “Fornication, uncleanness, adultery, and the like have been revealed, which I have spoken to you, just as I also predicted, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19, 21). And again: “For this you know, that every one who is fornicating, or unclean, or covetous, even if he is an idolater, shall have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5). And again: “This is the will of God: your holiness (Greek text “ours”), keep yourself from fornication... For God did not call us to uncleanness, but to holiness. Likewise, when you sweep away, you do not sweep away man, but God, who gave His Holy Spirit in us” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8). And could anyone count all the sayings of the Apostles and Prophets regarding this? And, behold, to those who are chaste, and therefore made members of Christ, what does the Apostle prescribe? - “The letters are written to you, so that you will not be mixed up with a fornicator” (1 Cor. 5:9). Because since they are not ashamed in themselves, he exhorts others to turn away from them and (by this) put them to shame, saying to them: “If a certain brother is called a fornicator, it is lower to eat with him” (1 Cor. 5:11). Do you see that he who wallows in fornication is a common defilement for the Church, and therefore everyone should turn away from him and drive him out? Paul himself even betrayed the one who had committed adultery to Satan in Corinth, showed no love for him, and did not accept him back until he sufficiently demonstrated his repentance. Save your soul with all your might from such evils, O man! - present and future evils, and even worse ones: both in the future and in this century. So the race of Esau became rejected for the reason that he was a fornicator and a defiler, and Rehoboam is deprived of most of the kingdom because he was a lover of women, like few others; Solomon, who gave birth to him, departed from this life without suffering the same calamity, for the sake of David, who, although he once committed a crime, nevertheless cleansed himself with streams of tears and other deeds of repentance. Flee from fornication, brothers,” the Apostle again commands. If Sampson had fled from fornication, he would not have ended up in the hands of Delilah, and along with the hair of his head he would not have lost his strength, and his eyes would not have been gouged out, and he would not have died a cruel death along with the foreigners. If the rulers who were under the leader and lawgiver Moses had fled from fornication, they would not have sacrificed to Baal-peor and would not have eaten sacrifices for the dead, and would not have fallen as much (or “in such numbers”) as they did. If Solomon had fled from him, he would not have retreated from God, who gave him kingdom and wisdom, and would not have erected a church to idols. Do you see that fornication leads a person even to wickedness (i.e., sin against faith itself)? Neither the beauty of Susanna, having captivated the elder judges in Babylon, would have triumphed later and beaten them with blows of stones, if they had fled from this hateful passion from the very beginning, and had not previously unchastely observed it every day. Neither Holofernes would have perished in a pitiful manner if first the sandals of Judith, as it is written, had not attracted his gaze, and her beauty had not captivated his soul. Therefore, Job says: “I have made a covenant before my eyes, that I will not think upon a maiden” (Job 31:1); not even more so for a woman of easy virtue, divorced or married? So, oh, lover of God, either live in celibacy or in a God-given marriage! Drink water from your reservoirs, or more correctly, from your single reservoir, and then chastely; absolutely abstain from illegal drinking; This is disgusting water that falls into the course of the (hellish river) Acheron, is filled with deadly poison, contains the power of poison, because it drags those who drink it into a snare, or better said, into the very depths of hell. Flee from honey on slutty lips; because it is recognized as causing death to the libertine, which is expressed in moving away from God, to whom David says: “Thou hast required every fornicator from Thee” (Ps. 73:27). Therefore, for one whose body has become the church of God because of the Spirit and in which the Spirit of God dwells, it is necessary to be pure, or at least to tame oneself, and thus constantly remain unspotted, restraining manifest passions, and to show diligence to acquire holiness and chastity and to flee from all fornication and uncleanness, so that we all, with joy, may forever dwell with the Imperishable Bridegroom in pure Marriage The palaces - with the prayers in virginity of the One who gave birth to Him for our salvation, the Ever-Virgin and Most Immaculate and Glorious Mother, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. PG.151:64–76. Homilia V. In presentationem Domini et Dei et Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi; necnon de castimonia vitiique ei contrario. The word “all” is not in the Apostolic Letter; probably gleaned from different readings. You might be interested in: