2

Великое заблуждение царит среди христиан, которые думают, что исповедавшись и причастившись в эти святые дни, они исполнили раз навсегда свой долг и что они опять свободны делать прежнее и даже худшее. Это происходит от того, что они не знают, что значит причастие и что делается с душой по причащении. Это — гибельное заблуждение, потому что после исповеди и причастия, наоборот, должно жить с большим благоговением и осторожностью.

Моисей сошел с горы Синай, держа в руках своих две скрижали завета, на которых было написано десятословие. Его лицо сияло таким светом, что ни брат его Аарон, ни прочий народ израильский, пораженный сильным блеском, не могли смотреть на него. Поэтому он положил на лицо свое покрывало, чтобы они могли к нему приблизиться, — «и виде Аарон и вси сынове Израилевы Моисеа, и бяше прославлен зрак плоти лица его; и убояшася приступити к нему. И… возложи [Моисей] на лице свое покров» (Исх. 34:30–34). Откуда же такой сильный свет на лице Моисея, что ослеплял смотревшего? Моисей много дней пробыл на горе Синай в беседе с Богом лицом к лицу, от долгого собеседования воспринял Божественное сияние, которым и оказалось столь прославлено лицо его. Великая разница — беседовать с Богом в образе и гадании, как Моисей, или же истинно и вещественно принять Самого Бога в свои уста, внутрь себя, как приемлет каждый причастник. Моисей, только беседовал с Богом, и лицо его так сильно просияло. Как же должна сиять душа того, кто причастится Тела и Крови Христовых в Пречистых Тайнах?! Божественное Писание говорит, что евреи не в силах были смотреть на лицо Моисея, сиявшее как солнце; а божественный Златоуст уверяет, что демоны не могут видеть лица причастника, трепещут и убегают от него, ибо тогда из уст его исходит Божественный огонь — зрелище, чудесное для ангелов и страшное для дьявола. «Отходя от святой трапезы, мы как львы дышим огнем и делаемся страшны для дьявола». Никакая звезда на небе так не светится, как во время причащения сияет душа причастника Божественной благодатью. Причина в том, что Божественное причащение есть, по словам Симеона Солунского, не иное что, как «наше обожение и общение с Богом». Когда причащаемся, свидетельствует Григорий Богослов, мы получаем участие в благодати, которой обладает Христос, как Бог и как человек. «Через бескровную жертву мы причащаемся Христу и делаемся участниками Его страданий и Божества». И с этой благодатью мы восходим на такую высоту святости, что, если бы мы в тот миг умерли, наша душа обрела бы себе место в ликах мучеников, девственников и подвижников, мы в одно мгновение достигли бы того, чего они удостоились в столько времени и с такой борьбой. Боже мой, Избавитель мой! Пусть я умру, когда будет на то Твоя святая воля, в пустынном месте, в лесу, на горе, — для меня безразлично, — лишь бы только перед смертью я удостоился причаститься пречистого Твоего Тела и Крови. Если в тот миг я буду с Тобой, я не боюсь погибнуть. Я уверен, что с таким Спутником достигну пристани небесного Твоего Царства.

Итак, христианин, причастившись, берегись, как бы не потерять приобретенное. Держи хорошо, как бы у тебя не выпал из рук драгоценный жемчуг. Остерегайся отовсюду, чтобы лукавый не похитил его у души твоей. Ты освятился Святыми Дарами? Живи, как святой. Ты вышел чистым из бани Божественной благодати? Не впади опять в тину твоих прежних грехов. Исцелился душой? Не заразись опять прежней болезнью. Соединился с Христом? Пребывай с Христом и говори: «Осанна, благословен Грядый во имя Господне. Тому слава во веки. Аминь».

Слово в Великую пятницу. О спасительном страдании

Каким Бог создал человека, и чем воздал человек Богу! В раю сладости, взяв прах от земли, Своими руками образовал Бог тело человека, вдохнув в него дыхание жизни, почтил его Своим образом и создал его человеком! Человек на Голгофе так поступил с Господом, что Он стал без вида, бездыханным, весь — в крови, весь — в язвах, пригвожден был к кресту… Там, в раю, я вижу Адама, как создал его Бог, оживотворенным образом Божиим, увенчанным славой и честью, самодержавным царем над всеми созданиями в поднебесной, в наслаждении всем земным блаженством. Здесь, на Гологофе, я вижу, до чего довел Иисуса Христа человек — без красоты, без вида, увенчанного тернием, осужденного, обесчещенного, посреди двух разбойников, в подвиге, в агонии ужаснейшей смерти. Сравниваю тот и другой образ, Адама в раю и Христа на кресте, и в глубине души размышляю, каким дивным творением создали Адама щедрые руки Божии и каким достойным жалости позорищем сделали беззаконные человеческие руки Бога! Там, при создании человека, я вижу дело, которым Бог увенчал все дела рук Своих; здесь, в страдании Христа, узнаю такое беззаконие, каким дополнил и завершил человек все свои беззакония. Там усматриваю беспредельную любовь Божию к человеку; здесь — беспредельную неблагодарность человека к Богу. И я недоумеваю, чему мне больше изумляться… Одно вижу — мне одинаково надо плакать и о том, как безмерно много пострадал Господь, и о том, как страшно много дерзнул человек!.. И, горько плача, не отличаю одно от другого: проливая слезы о страстях, тут же представляю себе виновника страстей, исчисляя раны, вижу руку, их причинившую. Взирая на Распятого, тут же вижу и распинателя, и в смерти неправедно убиенного Господа я вижу и человека–палача.

In the midst of the many sufferings of Jesus Christ, there is one bitter of all, it pierces His head more than a crown of thorns, it pierces His heart deeper than a spear, it tears Him more terribly than the nailing itself; it grieves His lips more bitterly than gall, it weighs Him down heavier than the cross; it kills Him faster than death... It is suffering to see man as the culprit of His passions and death, the work of His own hands! That is why we must shed tears, because we have crucified, we have killed our Lord. If someone else, and not us, were the author of His passions, we would have to grieve terribly, because no one else has suffered so much. How should we suffer and be crushed, knowing that we are the cause of His suffering?! We must weep both for His passion and for our ingratitude, we must shed tears – tears of compassion and contrition – and thus weep both for Christ and for ourselves... However, it is not for this purpose that I have ascended this sacred cathedra today... I know well that Christians, who now weep over the passions, await the resurrection of the Crucified One, in order to nail Him to the cross again.. And therefore I have not come here at all to stir up Christians to weep. I do not appreciate these fleeting tears, which do not flow from the depths of the heart and are not the fruit of true contrition... Let Christians better save their tears, so that they may weep for some damage in their affairs, or for the death of relatives, or out of envy of the well-being of their neighbors... Jesus does not need such tears! There is someone to grieve for Him for Whom Christians do not grieve! For Him the heavens mourn and cover its radiant face with the deepest darkness, for Him the sun mourns and darkens its rays. The earth grieves for Him, and in terror it trembles to its foundations, and opens the tombs and tears the veil of the temple from top to bottom. The crucifiers themselves grieve for Him... They flee, "beating their faces" (Luke 23:48)... No, I have not come to you to stir you up to weep! I intend only simply to explain to you the passion of Christ in three main senses. First: Who was the sufferer, then how much He suffered. If you listen, you will see infinite condescension in the face of the Sufferer, amazing long-suffering in the abyss of suffering, and boundless love in the very cause of suffering. And if you are not amazed at this condescension, if you are not filled with compassion in this long-suffering, if you remain insensible and ungrateful in the face of infinite love, then I will say that your heart is truly a stone, more cruel than those that fell apart at the death of Christ!

Let us now ascend to the mountain of the Lord, to the summit of Golgotha, in order to behold there a terrible sight. And in the midst of this terrible darkness that covers the face of the universe, may the most honorable tree of the life-giving Cross stand before us and show us the way! Where art thou, O three-blessed tree, watered with the life-giving blood of God nailed and increased our life? The altar of infinite price, on which the redemption of human salvation has now been accomplished! The most honorable throne, on which the new King of Israel triumphed over sin! The ladder of heaven, from which the Author of our salvation showed us the ascent to paradise! A pillar of fire that leads "many people" into the blessed land of God's promise! The Most Holy Cross, the confirmation of the Church, the praise of our faith! Once you were a tree of dishonor and death, now you are a tree of glory and life! The tormenting instrument of Christ's passion is now the three-blessed instrument of our salvation! Come and be with us in this sorrowful conversation — as our Jesus is nailed to you, so may our whole heart be nailed to you!

1

The whole foundation of our Orthodox faith is that He Who suffered, Who was nailed to the cross, Who died, was truly the Son of God. Let it be madness for the Greeks, let it be a temptation for the Jews — "we preach Christ... and He was crucified" (1 Cor. 1:23; 1 Cor. 2:2), according to the words of the Apostle. God incarnate was crucified for us! True, He suffered in the flesh – only in a human way, because as God He could not suffer. But since the flesh was hypostatically united to the Word of God, the human to the Divinity, and the flesh itself was masterfully deified, then the man who suffered for us was truly God! Truly, He was the Son of the Virgin and the Son of God – one Jesus, the God-Man. Therefore, just as it is true that He suffered as a man, it is also true that the man who suffered for us was God. The Most High God, the King of the ages, nevertheless deigned to receive the image of a slave, "being in the likeness of a man" (Phil. 2:7). The Most Holy God deigned to bear human sins and appear as a sinner. God, full of glory, full of power, full of immortality — and yet exhausted Himself, in the words of the Apostle Paul, appearing on earth without all the riches of His Divinity, in the weakness and poverty of human nature — "even unto death" (Phil. 2:40)... And this exhaustion is called by Gregory the Theologian as a kind of weakening and depreciation.

But was it really necessary to suffer, to be nailed to the cross, and to die to the Lord of glory? Was there no other means to save the human race? Truly amazing is the boundless condescension of God.. Zaleucus, king of Locrius, among others, made a law to deprive adulterers of both eyes, the law of just retribution: the light of the eyes, the most precious good of life, was to be deprived of him who encroached on the honor of another, also the most precious good. The first to break this law and be caught in adultery was the king's own son. And the most just sovereign sentences him to the punishment prescribed by law. Then all those close to him, the nobles, all the people begin to ask him to have mercy on his son, his successor and the heir of the kingdom. But the king stands firm in his decision and wishes to preserve the law rather than his son. The intercessions and requests, however, were so persistent that the tsar began little by little to soften and listen not only to the voice of justice, but also to the voice of fatherly love. Justice, he said, reasoning with himself, requires that my son, who turned out to be a lawbreaker, be blinded. But fatherly love disposes me to pity, because he is my child. If I neglect justice and do not punish properly, I will be an unjust judge. And if I suppress the feeling of fatherly love and punish him according to the law, I will turn out to be a heartless father. Oh, fate! If I was to be a father, why did you appoint me as a judge? O nature! If I am to be a judge, why did you give me a son? What is it? I hesitate... I am a fair judge, and the truth is blind and does not see the face of the criminal... What then must I condemn? I am a loving father, and love is also blind and does not look at the guilt of the criminal. I am a king... I can punish whenever I want, but as a king I can also forgive. How do I keep the law? How can I save my son? What should I do as an unfortunate judge and father? Is there any way to preserve the law and save my son? Eat! It is necessary to gouge out two eyes. Let one of my eyes be gouged out, and the other of my son. Let him give one eye as guilty, and the other I as a father! In this way, I will satisfy my truth, and calm the love of my father, keep my law and save my son from losing his sight, I will be both a just judge and a loving father!" Here it was necessary to gouge out two eyes; But in order to preserve the law and punish the crime on the one hand, and to spare the feeling of paternal love and preserve the sight of the criminal son, a solution was found that the father would give one eye, and the son the other. This is the most beautiful of all examples of the highest royal justice and paternal mercy. However, as a human example, it is infinitely far from being comparable to what the just and merciful God has done for our salvation!

From time immemorial, from the very beginning, in the paradise of sweetness, God's decree was inscribed on the tree of knowledge: if a person eats of it and thus violates God's commandment, death will immediately overtake him — "in the next day you take away from it, you will surely die" (Gen. 2:17). In the person of the forefather Adam we have all sinned — [in Adam] "all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). We have sinned by our forefathers and in addition by our own voluntary sin, so that we are all subject to God's curse, all are worthy of eternal torment. It remained for us to suffer the punishment we deserved, to lose both eyes, that is, both lives, physical and spiritual, if a way of deliverance had not been found. But what could this method consist of, when our duty to God is infinite? If thousands of such men as Moses or any of the prophets came to redeem us, if thousands of angels were incarnate and died for us in order to satisfy the truth of God, then the sacrifice of their blood, for it is also the blood of created beings, would not be sufficient, would be of limited and small value in comparison with our debt to the infinite Divinity. "There remained to be accomplished," theologizes St. Proclus, "one of two things: either all were to be condemned to death, because all had sinned; or a recompense of such a price as would be sufficient satisfaction of the debt. Man could not save himself, because he himself was subject to the debt of sin; nor could the angel redeem mankind because of his limitation for such an atonement. Man alone could not be saved, and God could not suffer." Two natures were needed – human and divine. Not only human, because it could not save by its suffering and death. Both the human and the Divine nature had to be united in one Person of the God-Man. This Person had to suffer and die according to His humanity, which is subject to suffering and death, but as a result of the union of the Divinity and the human in the one Person of the God-Man, this suffering and this death receive an infinite dignity, an infinite value. In this way, the payment of an endless debt could take place. So it had to be, and so it happened. On the one hand, God has given heed to His righteousness, which demanded retribution for our sin, because we have transgressed His commandment. "I will consume man, whom I have created" (Gen. 6:7). But, on the other hand, God heard the voice of His mercy, interceding for our forgiveness, because we are the work of His hands. "I live in Az... I do not desire the death of a sinner" (Ezek. 33:11). God, as the righteous Judge, wants to preserve His law, and at the same time, as the humane Creator, desires to save His creation. What will He do, Judge and Father, God and Creator? His infinite wisdom found the means to preserve the law and save His creation...

Here, He said, two natures are necessary: the Divine and the human. May mankind give one thing with mortal flesh, and I will give another, God's Word. From the union of the two natures will come one Person – the God-man: the perfect man and the perfect God. Let him suffer, let him die! He will die as a man, and His shed blood will be the wages of sin; but since the dying man will also be God, this retribution will be of infinite value. In this way, My mercy will rejoice, because by the blood of man alone the rest of mankind will be redeemed. My truth will also be satisfied, because by the blood of the God-Man an endless debt is redeemed. And I will be both the Judge of justice and the Creator of mankind. "This is the reason why the God-Man had to suffer and die, so that, as a man, He could pay the debt and, like God, pay it in full... Here, I repeat once again, Christians, here we need two eyes, two natures. We, the guilty, the transgressors of God's commandment, have given us, as it were, one eye, human nature. God and the Father gave something else, as it were, the Divinity. In the human Christ we were threatened with the death penalty, but in His Divinity death was abolished. We paid with the Divine flesh, united with the Word of God, and were delivered from the condemnation of death by the Word of God manifested in the flesh, as the great Athanasius explains it in the highest way: "It behooved both to be gloriously together, so that the death of all was fulfilled in the flesh of the Lord, and the same death through the Word of God, united to the flesh, was destroyed." Oh, God's infinite condescension to us! But, O Most Merciful, Most Merciful God! Could it be that Thy omnipotence had no other means — to save man without betraying to death Thy Only-begotten Son, the right eye of Thy Divine Countenance? Without a doubt, Almighty God, just as with a single word "spoke, and" (Psalm 148:5), in the same way could command with one word, and the salvation of man would be accomplished, He could forgive an endless debt without any payment, He could forgive man's sin without the death of His Only-begotten Son, He could extinguish the flame of eternal torment without the blood of Jesus Christ...