Chapter VI Veneration of Saints in the Orthodox Church

… pray for one another...:

the fervent prayer of the righteous can do much.

James. 5:16.

About the prayerful appeal to the saints and the Virgin Mary, Pavel Rogozin writes: "With the death and resurrection of Christ, we have only the "One Mediator" and the "mediator of the New Testament of Jesus." Christ acquired this intercession at a high price: by His sufferings and death on the Cross. Thus, there is only "one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" (Heb. 9:14-15; 1 Tim. 2:5-6)"112. The following conclusion is drawn below: "All other mediators have become superfluous from the moment Christ ascended, sat down at the right hand of God the Father, to intercede for us".113 Here we see another confirmation of Rogozin's ignorance of the Church's teachings. The Orthodox Church does not teach that the Mother of God or the saints replace Christ or participate in the work of redemption as co-redeemers. Rogozin writes: "People began to turn to the Virgin Mary with prayers as a faithful "mediator", "intercessor and intercessor" of the human race before God. And strange as it may seem, the slightest deviation from such a view is considered "sectarian," "heretical," and even "blasphemous" even in our time."114 Calling the Mother of God the Intercessor and Intercessor of the Christian race, turning to the saints in prayer for intercession, the Church by no means puts them in the place of Christ. The mediation of Christ is not abolished by the Church's faith in the help of the saints. If we read more attentively those verses of the New Testament to which Pavel Rogozin draws the reader's attention, we will notice: when we say that "there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself up for redemption (emphasis added). – M.O.) of all" (1 Tim. 2:5-6),115 the Apostle has in mind the mediation of Christ in the great work of the Great Redemption. Indeed, in the mystery of the Redemption, in the matter of reconciling man with God, Christ is the only Mediator, He is the only intercessor in the sacrificial feat, but not in prayers. Confirmation of the correctness of this understanding of these passages can be seen in the same Apostle, when he asks entire Christian communities to pray for him: "I beseech you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, to strive with me in prayers for me to God" (Romans 15:30); "Brethren! pray for us" (1 Thess. 5:25). The Apostle hopes that the prayers of his addressees will contribute to his deliverance from death: "In Whom we hope that He will deliver him again, with the help of your prayer (emphasis added. – M.O.) for us, that for what has been given to us, through the intercession of many, many may give thanks for us" (2 Corinthians 1:10-11). These words could not have been written by the Apostle if he had not recognized any other intercession, understood here as prayerful assistance, no one's prayer except the prayer of Christ. Thus, the interpretation of 1 Tim. 2:5-6, and also: "He is the mediator of the new covenant, so that because of [His] death, which was to atone for the transgressions committed in the first covenant, those who were called to the eternal inheritance should receive the promised things" (Heb. 9:15)116 in the sense in which Paul Rogozin understands them, is incorrect, since in this case all prayers, including the prayers of living Christians for each other, should be excluded. Let us now dwell on the question of why it is possible to venerate the departed saints.

In his book, Pavel Rogozin writes: "The Word of God says that even the Old Testament mediators could only be people who were alive and by no means dead. In the Old Testament we find many mediators: Moses, Aaron, chief priests, priests, kings, prophets, and others, but all of them carried out the mediation entrusted to them while they were alive. When one or another mediator died, no one thought of turning to him for anything,"117 "Scripture tells us that after death the saints no longer take part in earthly affairs (Rev. 2:10). 14:13; Hebrew. 4,10; Dan. 12:13) and that they should not be disturbed (1 Samuel 28:15)".118 First of all, we note that the passage of 1 Sam. 28:15 describes the result of King Saul's appeal to the Witch of Endor, who summoned the spirit of the prophet Samuel at his request. An attempt to draw a parallel between the practice of sorcery, forbidden by God: "Whether male or female, if they summon the dead or perform sorcery, let them be put to death: they shall be stoned, their blood be upon them" (Lev. 20:27)119 and prayer addressed to the saints, if only because we are talking about completely different things, especially since the Holy Scriptures in one of their canonical books directly speak of the prayerful intercession of the same prophet Samuel as something completely natural: "And the Lord said unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stand before me, my soul shall not bow down unto this people" (Jeremiah 15:1). We are talking here about the Jewish people, whose moral decline during the reign of King Manasseh was so deep that it would have been impossible to pardon this people even if pr. Moses and prk. Samuel, who had long since died, would have interceded for the Jewish people before God, therefore, otherwise the intercession of the righteous would have been heard. In the second book of Maccabees120 there is also direct evidence of the existence in the Old Testament of faith in the intercession of the righteous dead. Judas Maccabee had a vision of the deceased high priest Onias, who himself prayed "for all the people of Judah" (2 Mac. 15:12) and who, pointing to the long-dead priest. Jeremiah, addresses Judas with the following words: "... he is a lover of brothers, who prays much for the people and the holy city, Jeremiah, the prophet of God" (2 Mac. 15:14). "Then Jeremiah, stretching out his right hand, gave Judah a golden sword, and giving it to him, said, 'Take this holy sword, a gift from God, with which you will crush your enemies'" (2 Mac. 15:15-16), the prayer of "the dead of Israel" is spoken of in Book II. Pph. Baruch (3:4). The testimony of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament does not allow us to agree with the above assertions of Pavel Rogozin that the Old Testament did not know the prayerful intercession of the dead righteous. In the Apocalypse we find a description of an angel placing incense on the altar before the throne of the Lord with the prayers of all the saints (and not only those who lived during the life of Apostle John): "And a great quantity of incense was given to him, that he might with the prayers of all the saints (emphasis added. – M.O.) He laid it on the golden altar that was before the throne. And the smoke of incense went up with the prayers of the saints from the hand of the angel before God" (Rev. 8:3-4).

As mentioned above, the veneration of saints dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. The fact that prayers addressed to the dead of the Christian community were widespread in the early Church is evidenced by the inscriptions of the catacombs.121 The invocation of the dead is rooted in faith in the communion of the saints in Christ, whose prayers for one another, the bond of love between which is not broken by death, since God has no dead, but all are alive: "But God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. For with Him all are alive (emphasis added. – M.O.)" (Luke 20:38). If the most important commandments are the commandments of love for God and neighbor: "Teacher! What is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt. 22:36-40), then love becomes the basis of the whole life of a Christian: "... if I give away all my possessions, and give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3). Saints are, first of all, people who have acquired love, and, therefore, they cannot remain indifferent to their brothers in Christ who have not yet finished their earthly journey, since nothing, not even death, defeats love: "Love never ceases (emphasis added. – M.O.), although prophecy will cease, and tongues will be silent, and knowledge will be abolished" (1 Corinthians 13:8). Up. Paul compares the rest of the righteous with the rest of God on the 7th day: "For whoever has entered into His rest has himself rested from his works, even as God has from His" (Hebrews 4:10). But just as God's rest at the end of the days of creation is not inactivity: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17), so the repose of the righteous is not sleep and indifference to the earthly path of Christians. The veneration of the saints manifests our faith in the unity of the Heavenly and earthly Church. At the same time, confessing the grace-filled power of the prayers of the Mother of God and the saints, the Church teaches to call upon them not as the primary source of grace, which is only God, but as friends of God, who have fulfilled His will: "You are my friends, if you do what I command you" (John 15:14), who have realized the goal of a Christian's life - the attainment of likeness to God: "... I do not live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20), who by grace became "... partakers of the Divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4) and therefore having special boldness before God in their prayers for us: "the fervent prayer of the righteous can do much" (James 5:16). The need to honor their memory and imitate their life and prayerful podvig is told to us by St. John. Scripture: "Therefore I beseech you: follow me, as I follow Christ" (1 Corinthians 4:16),122 "Remember your leaders who preached the word of God to you, and considering the end of their lives, imitate their faith" (Hebrews 13:7).

Следующий аргумент Павла Рогозина, направленный против обращения с молитвой к святым, вызывает смешанное чувство неловкости и стыда перед теми, кто не исповедует христианство, за христиан, которые могут приводить подобные «аргументы» и верить в их убедительность. Итак, Павел Рогозин пишет: «Вездесущ только один Творец, всякое творение, находящееся в пространстве, занимает определенное место и, следовательно, не может слышать молитв, обращенных к нему одновременно из многих пунктов земного шара. Если даже допустить, что Сам Бог, будучи Всеслышащим и Вездесущим, слышит наши молитвы, обращенные к святым, и передает наши молитвы святым, после чего святые и начинают ходатайствовать пред Ним, то и тогда разум требует, чтобы мы обращались непосредственно к Богу, давшему нам это право молитвы»123. На наш взгляд, разум, в первую очередь требует от нас признания той простой истины, что нам неведома райская жизнь, мы не можем знать в точности образ бытия святых, как и образ бытия ангелов. Как известно, ангелы не вездесущи, но для них не существует пространственных ограничений: «Я — Рафаил, один из семи святых Ангелов, которые возносят молитвы святых и восходят пред славу Святаго» (Тов. 12:15) 124, почему же наши пространственные условия должны ограничивать тех, кто уподобился в своей жизни Самому Богу? Мы отнюдь не хотим сказать здесь, что святые вездесущи, но нам хотелось бы подчеркнуть, что Священное Писание устами ап. Павла говорит о недоступности для нашего разума представления об уготованном Богом вечном блаженстве праведников: «не видел того глаз, не слышало ухо, и не приходило то на сердце человеку, что приготовил Бог любящим Его» (1 Кор.2:9). Было бы ошибочно пытаться измерить небесную жизнь земными мерками, проецируя не Небо наши земные ограниченные условия существования. Такая попытка напоминает вопрос саддукеев, заданный Христу: чьей женой в жизни будущего века будет женщина, бывшая женой каждого из семи умерших братьев? (Мф. 22:24-28). Вспомним ответ Христа: «заблуждаетесь, не зная Писаний, ни силы Божией» (Мф. 22:29).

В заключение данной главы остановим внимание читателя еще на одном аспекте православного почитания святых и Божией Матери. Как уже было замечено нами выше, почитание святых и Приснодевы Марии не является тем всецелым служением, которое воздается лишь Богу. Благоговейное лобызание икон, преклонение колен пред мощами и иконами святых всегда богооцентрично, так как относится прежде всего к Богу, прославившему, явившему Себя в них: «дивен Бог во святых своих» (Пс.67:36)125, так же почитание воздается святым как верным служителям Божиим в знак благоговейной памяти об их подвигах. Поэтому говорить о том, что православные поклоняются святым, считая их посредниками в деле Искупления: «Мы не имеем права избирать или поставлять других посредников, кроме Единого. Дева Мария, угодники или угодницы, не искупляли нас, грешников, своею смертью и, следовательно, не могут претендовать на новозаветное посредничество. Будучи только людьми, они сами лично спасались искупительной кровью Христа и нуждались в посредничестве Христа»126 значит не знать православного вероучения. К счастью, некоторые протестанты осознают, что «…резкое неприятие евангельскими христианами почитания святых основывается на недостаточном понимании этой практики»127.

Глава VII Почитание Божией Матери в Православной Церкви