Word on the day of Holy Pentecost

“And you yourselves, like living stone, are built into a spiritual church, a holy sanctuary, offering up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Now solemnly remembering the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost on the disciples and Apostles of Christ, the Holy Church sends out earnest prayers for the sending down of this Spirit to its faithful children. – Let us think, Christians, how lofty the subject of this prayer is, how great the purpose of a Christian, which he must achieve! - We, Christians, are all destined for this - and always, and especially now, we pray that God the Holy Spirit will dwell in us, sinful and unclean people, so that our limitations will become the abode of the Infinite and the container of the Incontainable, we pray that the Holy Spirit will come and dwell in us and that we will become His church, which every true Christian should be, according to the word of the holy Apostle, you are the churches of God alive (2 Cor. 6:16), you are the church of God, and the Spirit of God lives in you (1 Cor. 3:16). In truth, the lofty subject of prayer, in truth, the wonderful purpose of a Christian, comprehended not by the mind, but only by humble faith in the truth of the word of God! Let us also think together that this greatness of the subject of our prayer, this height of our purpose places on us a great duty - to build ourselves into the temple of the Holy Spirit: and build yourself into a spiritual church. How can we be built into this church? All of us, Christians, were created in the baptismal font into the temple of the Holy Spirit, a holy church, which every Christian should be, according to the apostolic word (1 Cor. 3:17). - But who will say, who will dare to think that this church will remain and remain so, so that it will not be damaged or corrupted? By our sins we damage or corrupt this church, and therefore we have the need to continually build it up, and the words of the Apostle always directly apply to all of us: build up into a spiritual church, build up always, constantly, unremittingly. How to create? Man's own strength is poor and insignificant for this great undertaking; Left to himself, he cannot even think about this, but can build his spiritual church only by the power and action of the Holy Spirit. But with this we need our will, our disposition, our activity, in order, with His help, to build our inner spiritual church for Him; Without us He will not build us: and you yourself, like living stone, are built into a spiritual church. Stone is alive, we have our own will, our own desire, our own disposition; It is necessary that we ourselves actively participate in the building of our church: build yourself up too. - How to create? The image of the spiritual church, which a Christian should be, is, according to the Apostle, a visible church. Let us look into this sensual image with our thoughts, for the clearest possible understanding of our mysterious structure in the spiritual church, let us look at its features, and see the features of what is being formed, just as in the visible image we can see the secret of the invisible. The Savior calls him a wise man who builds his church on the rock (Matthew 7:24): for such a church is firm and will not fall from storms. – The Holy Apostle Peter, convincing Christians to build themselves into a spiritual church, points to its foundation, to a living stone. This living, cornerstone is our Lord Jesus Christ, that is: faith in Him as the Son of God, who came to redeem the human race (Matthew 16:16), faith in the power and effectiveness of His redemptive merits, and love for Him based on this faith, and finally, the keeping of His commandments arising from this faith and love. This is the cornerstone, by placing it at the forefront the creation of our inner spiritual church should begin and be completed. And anyone who builds such a church can build it firmly and safely only on this foundation: for no one can lay another foundation than the one who lies, who is Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). Therefore, the work of the dispensation would have been in vain if someone had not laid the foundation stone for this; a vain effort to replace this stone with human wisdom, reason and the like. This would mean building a church on the sand, or not building a church at all for the Holy Spirit: for the Holy Spirit is given to people only by the power of faith in the Redeemer. And the Redeemer Himself, only in the monastery built on this stone, promises the indwelling of the Divine: if anyone loves Me, He says - and it is impossible to love Him without faith in Him, and the measure of love for Him is the measure of faith - if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him (John 14:23). On this cornerstone of the spiritual church should be built, according to the word of the Apostle Paul, the foundation of the Apostle and Prophet (Eph. 2:20), that is, faith in the undoubted truth of their teaching, as the word of God, the fulfillment of which should serve as the foundation of our entire life. Therefore, Christians, let us examine ourselves to see whether we are building our inner church on this foundation: let each one take heed to how he edifies (1 Cor. 3:10), and whether this foundation is firmly laid, and if we see that on this foundation it is firmly laid: let us continue to build on it not wood, hay and reeds, but gold, silver, honest stone - the building of a church of good Christian spirituality life. But sin, the inevitable destiny of man who fell among his ancestors on earth, constantly warring against the spirit, also penetrates into the church of our spirit, which is built on the right foundation. Therefore, the new duty of a Christian who builds a spiritual church from himself is to cleanse and beautify his church with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, just as the outer church, designated for the service of God, is cleansed and beautified according to the dispensation. The Holy Apostle Paul, having told the Corinthian Christians that they are the church of the living God, and confirming this with the promises of God given in the Old Testament, continues: now that we have the promises, in the beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit (2 Cor. 7:1). – The Holy Spirit is the purest Spirit; in order to be an abode, His church must be pure: for there is some fellowship of righteousness with iniquity, or some fellowship of light with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14); Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Purity of body and flesh is necessary; for the Apostle says: Or do you not know that your body is the church of the Spirit living in you; glorify God in all your bodies and in your souls (1 Cor. 6:19-20). All illegal deeds and bodily and carnal desires should not defile a Christian, as incompatible with the purpose of his body - to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. – Having counted the works of the flesh, which are: idolatry, sorcery, enmity, zeal, envy, rage and the like, the holy Apostle Paul adds: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:19-21), and, therefore, cannot become temples of the Holy Spirit. But man becomes even more defiled by the defilements of the spirit, on which the defilements of the flesh depend. Therefore, a Christian who arranges himself in a spiritual church needs to take even more care of cleansing the defilements of the spirit: first cleanse the inner, says Christ Himself, so that the outer also may be clean (Matthew 23:26). Particular care must be taken to cleanse the heart: for from it come all evil thoughts that defile a person (Matthew 15:19-20), and, therefore, it contains that which defiles the sanctity of the inner spiritual church. When a Christian is inattentive to the construction of his spiritual church and is careless, a church is built there: idols of sensuality, wealth, and worldly glory appear there; there are altars of habit and inclination; there their faces appear - seductive images of passions; there are preparations for serving them - thoughts, advice and rules inspired by the world; there a church is being built for another, and not for the Spirit of God. - Therefore, when building a spiritual church, we must constantly take care to cleanse the heart from all filth, and only then can we build a spiritual church in which the Holy Spirit can dwell: blessed, it is said, are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God. – When cleansing uncleanness, a Christian must decorate his church, but not only externally, so that he does not become like a watered-down tomb, which looks beautiful on the outside, but inside is full of the bones of the dead (Matthew 23:27). We must decorate our soul with golden cassocks (Ps. 44:14): decorate our mind with God-thinking - immersion in the contemplation of Divine perfections, manifested and manifested both in the composition of our nature and in the world around us; decorate the heart with love for God, strong as death, and flaming like fire, and love for those like oneself, who bear the image of the Creator. Our will must be decorated with actions directed towards God alone, so that He is the beginning, the goal, and the subject of all its actions. In this way we will prepare our inner church for the infusion of the Holy, Purest Spirit of God. After cleansing and beautification, the physical church is sanctified, that is, it becomes a place of holy service to God and a place of the special presence of God. – This is an image of the new duty of a Christian, who builds himself into a spiritual church, to sanctify himself for the service of God, and to sanctify constantly, since sin lives constantly. The Church of God is holy, as you are, says the holy Apostle to Christians (1 Cor. 3:17), but corrupted by sins, in order to be holy, it constantly requires sanctification. Should we talk about the means of constantly sanctifying our inner church? There are so many of them offered by our holy mother, the Church, that all that is needed is our readiness to use them. The visible church is consecrated through prayers and sacraments; prayer and the sacraments are the most effective means of consecrating our inner church, means that are always open to a Christian, if only there is readiness on his part. All these means, especially the sacraments, and among them the communion of the most pure body and blood of the Lord, mainly, according to the immutable promise of Himself - the author of our sanctification, and according to the teaching of the Holy Church, instill the Holy Spirit in the hearts of those who receive them, and thus the Christian becomes a church of this Spirit - a place of His special presence. It is a great thing, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to build ourselves into the church of the Spirit, but this is not the end of the feat of building our inner spiritual church. A physical church is built and consecrated in order for worship to be performed in it and sacrifices to be offered to God. And in the inner spiritual church, in the likeness of the visible, spiritual service to God must be performed - spiritual sacrifices must be offered to Him: build yourself into a spiritual church, the priesthood is holy, offer spiritual sacrifices. And the holy Apostle Paul, through the mercies of God, begs to present our body as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God (Rom. 12:1). - Every Christian, by his very calling, in his inner church, not only can, but is also obliged to perform spiritual service to God - to offer spiritual sacrifices. What does this mean? To sacrifice means to voluntarily give something to another out of love; to sacrifice oneself means to give oneself to someone or something out of love for it. Therefore, to sacrifice oneself to God means to surrender oneself to Him alone. – When we are devoted to the world, to some passion: we make a sacrifice to this world, to this passion, and commit moral idolatry. When we surrender to the one God, when we dedicate our deeds, intentions, thoughts, feelings, desires to Him, when we consider the blessings of the world that distract from God as nothing, and renounce them for the sake of unhindered service to God, or dedicate these very blessings to Him, then we sacrifice ourselves to Him - and the more complete our devotion, our self-sacrifice, the more perfect the sacrifice. Is it necessary to count the sacrifices that a Christian can offer to God in his inner church? Sacrifice is everything a Christian does for the sake of God, for the glory of God, without any worldly purpose. But for the victim to be alive, holy, and pleasing to God, purity of intentions and desires is precisely what is needed—this is a matter for God alone. Both Cain and Abel made sacrifices, but how different the price of their sacrifices is before God! A Christian must do everything solely out of love for God - in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; then his service is true service to God - a sacrifice acceptable to Him by Jesus Christ. A Christian can perform such sacrifices, such spiritual service in his inner church everywhere and always, and mainly in the church of God, where he comes with the special intention of serving the Lord, and where in everything he can see images of his spiritual service and objects and means for this service. So, Christians, if we, by the power and action of the Holy Spirit, build our inner spiritual church on the cornerstone of Christ and the foundation of the Apostle and Prophet, if we constantly cleanse it from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, adorn it with virtues, sanctify it with sacraments, prayers and piety, and perform divine services by sacrificing ourselves: then we will truly build this church and truly be temples of the Holy Spirit. This action of building the temple of the Holy Spirit into the temple of the Holy Spirit is mysterious and incomprehensible to us, but it is immutably true, just as the Word of God is true, speaking about this. We are weak for this, but the Spirit of God is omnipotent and strong to build this church with our faith, disposition, desire, and aspiration. - Let us be attentive to this: for woe to us if we, who were built in the font of baptism in the temple of the Holy Spirit, live only corrupting it and not caring about creation. There is a terrible word from the Apostle about this: if anyone corrupts the church of God, God will corrupt him; For the church of God is holy, which you are, and you are yours, bought by nature with the price of the dearest blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:17, 6:19-20). – For such corruption we can also hear what the Savior said about the temple in Jerusalem: behold, your house is left to you empty (Matthew 23:38). Heavenly King, Comforter, Soul of Truth, who has been pleased to make man His church, look now upon our prayer, confirm our desire, strengthen our strength, come and dwell in us, and may Thy church be created, cleansed and adorned and holy in us, and may spiritual sacrifices be offered up in it, and save, O Good One, our souls. Amen.