"And Nathanael answered, and said (to Jesus): Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel" (John 1:49)

When, through pious contemplation, I imagine the beginning, growth, and consolidation of our Orthodox faith, I rediscover mysteries, I find miracles, on the one hand, so numerous that words cannot describe them, and on the other hand, so sublime that it is impossible to comprehend them by thought. Therefore, struck with amazement and joy, I glorify the Most High God, Who taught such faith, exclaiming with David: "Great is our Lord, and great is His might, and His understanding is innumerable" (Psalm 146:5), and I bless the Orthodox people who profess the faith with the words: "Blessed are the people who have the Lord their God" (Psalm 143:15). And so I dare now to ascend this sacred ambo in order to proclaim the glory and greatness of Orthodoxy as much as I can, although the highest word about the Orthodox faith, in order to triumph with its characteristic invincible power, should have been pronounced by the lips of some apostle and disciple of Christ or a divinely enlightened teacher of our Church: they were the chosen trumpets with which the Holy Spirit filled the whole earth from the very beginning with the solemn sounds of the Gospel truth.

On this great day dedicated to the Lord, the day of the gathering in honor of the victory won by Orthodoxy over its enemy, heresies, my thought dwells on the confession of the guileless Israelite Nathanael, who recognizes the One about Whom Moses wrote in the Law and the prophets, and confesses Him in the words to the God-Man Lord: "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel" (John 1:49). This is the first confession of Orthodoxy. But what can be more beneficial and useful than a word about Orthodoxy, proclaimed (oh, if only daily!) by Orthodox teachers to Orthodox listeners? Then the God-planted tree of faith will take root more deeply in the hearts of the faithful, will be watered more often by the pure stream of the Gospel truth, and will bring forth as many pure fruits of eternal life as possible.

O All-Holy Soul, Soul of wisdom and understanding, grant today the light of reason to my mind, that I may understand, and the power of words to my lips, that I may proclaim to others the greatness of Thy miracles, manifested in the Orthodox Christian faith! O Good Comforter, Soul of truth, without Whose help the human tongue cannot theologize, guide my tongue to preach about how this greatest, most miraculous and most divine work of Thy Divine wisdom and power began, how Orthodoxy developed, and how it was established. With this help of the Holy Spirit, for which I pray, I will set forth the word on Orthodoxy, Orthodox listeners, in three chapters. In the first I shall prove that it is all divine from its very beginning. In the second, that it is divine in its development; and in the third, that it is divine in its triumph. From this you will understand that Orthodoxy is an invention and the work of God alone. Therefore, it is the only true doctrine that we must believe, the only true way by which we can be saved.

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Whoever imagines this kingdom of nature, i.e., the general order, heaven and earth, and all that is heavenly and earthly, and discovers so many miracles there, must necessarily admit that only God could have done this. And this is for three reasons. First, because of its miraculous beginning: all this came to be from the bearer, from nothing; no matter preceded it. Secondly, because of its boundless extent: there are so many stars shining in the sky, so many kinds of birds in the air, so many kinds of animals and plants on the earth, so many monsters in the sea. Thirdly, because of its stable equilibrium: all this is observed and preserved with uninterrupted succession, in steady motion, everything is established in a firm order. And only God could have done all this. Therefore, the prophet exclaims in amazement: "For Thy works are magnified, O Lord; Thou hast created all things in wisdom" (Psalm 103:24), and the Apostle testifies: "For His invisible essence from the foundation of the world is conceived, and His eternal power and Divinity" (Romans 1:20). St. Basil the Great says in the Six Days: "The Almighty created the greatest, the Most Wise the best, the Good the useful," and therefore adds that this kingdom of nature is "the school of the knowledge of God and the place of education of rational souls." In the same way, whoever imagines the kingdom of grace, i.e. the assembly of the Orthodox, the Church of Christ and the Christian faith, and discovers here such a loftiness of theology, such a depth of the sacraments, so much light of divine revelations, so much truth in teaching, so much holiness in the law, so many feats in the apostles, so many virtues in the martyrs, so many miracles of the saints, cannot but confess that all this could be done only by God alone.

Before the creation of this kingdom of nature, heaven and earth, what existed? Chaos, abyss, nothing. Only the all-powerful hand of the Most High could extract this great spectacle of miracles from this chaos, the abyss, from non-existence, "the right hand of the Lord create power" (Psalm 117:15 and 16). And before the creation of the kingdom of grace, i.e. the Church of Christ, before the emergence of faith and Orthodoxy, what happened? The chaos of wickedness, the abyss of perdition, the complete absence of righteousness and holiness. With the exception of a small part of the earth, Judea, where the true God was acknowledged, though it is true that this part was much defiled by the neighboring tribes, the whole world was full of idols and their worshippers. Egypt, Greece, Rome – these noblest countries were like that. Kings and their subjects, wise and unlearned, men and women, old men and children, forsook the Creator and served creatures, some to the sun, some to the moon, stars, animals, plants; everyone revered what he wanted, mainly idolizing his passion. But faith is the main rule of life. Judge, then, what was the life of these people? Who was afraid of murder? Who was ashamed of fornication or adultery? Their gods themselves were bloodthirsty, like Areus and Hercules; fornicators and adulterers, like Zeus and Aphrodite. Who could have an incentive to do good if there was no hope of paradise? Who would try to avoid evil if there was no fear of eternal punishment? What kind of morals could people have who did not know God, and even if they did, they did not recognize Him? Evil became universal and had a long past, so it became nature itself. Firmly on earth stood the kingdom of Lucifer, to which people completely surrendered and devoted themselves. It was then that "the Lord from heaven spoke of the parable of the sons of men, seeing if they understood it, or they sought God. All deviated from it, together they were inconsistent; do not do good, not to one" (Psalm 13:2-3).

Now measure with your mind all the depth of error and destruction in which the world has been plunged; measure also the height of the knowledge of God and holiness, to which he had to ascend with faith in Christ. Idolatry, so deeply rooted in the hearts of men, had to fall, and faith had to rise in one God, Who exists in heaven in one nature and three hypostases (but these three hypostases are one God), and in God, Who appeared on earth in two natures and one hypostasis – the God-man and the man who died on the cross. The temples of the idols, which covered the whole earth, were to fall, and in their place a new Church was to arise, in which, as in a sheepfold, the lost sheep would gather. A doctrine had to be preached that was completely opposite to worldly wisdom, and people who had been earthly demons through malice were to be turned into earthly angels by virtue. In short, the world, decrepit in sin, was destined to be renewed in holiness, completely changed and changed in faith and life.

And indeed, the world has changed. Whose right hand could this miraculous change have been? Of course, only the right hand of God. Only the Most High God, who did not need any means for action, could create this miraculous deed out of nothing. Which of the creatures appeared for the organization of the Church and the preaching of the faith in Christ? Neither angel nor archangel descended from heaven to impress people with the supernatural power of great miracles. Here, on earth, there did not appear a courageous commander, a wise knight, or any famous rich man, who would either force by force of his arms, or persuade by his skillful eloquence, or, finally, by the multitude of his gifts, attracted people to the new faith. Quite the opposite; and as Blessed Paul says, "God chose the mighty in the riot of the world, that He might put to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world, that He might put to shame the strong; and God hath chosen the wickedness of the world, and the despised one, and the bearer, that he may abolish that which is" (1 Cor. 1:27-28). Who is it? The Jews, i.e., the disgrace and reproach of all nations; fishermen by occupation, which means that they are poor and unenlightened people; and twelve in all, very few. It is these whom God has chosen and sent to preach the Gospel throughout the whole world: "Go ye into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). It is as if I see them – here they are coming out of the upper room of Jerusalem to disperse to different countries of the universe. Stop, stop a little, men of Galilee, wait a little while, please, and tell me, what kind of work are you starting? We have been sent, they answer, some to Rome, the capital of the world kingdom, some to Athens, where all the wisdom of the earth sits, some to the Indians, some to the Scythians, savage barbarian tribes — in short, we have been sent even to the last countries of the universe to expel all other faith and to persuade people to accept a new faith — in the God-man, Who was born without a father, only from one Mother — the Virgin; A poor man, who died in the time of Pontius Pilate on the cross between two thieves; We are going to persuade people for the sake of love and faith in Him crucified to be ready to renounce the world, fatherland, parents, children and their own lives, to prefer poverty and humiliation to all the treasures and kingdoms of the world, to all the riches and kingdoms of the world, to harsh life to all pleasures, to love one another in return, to love even one's enemies, to answer their battle with prayer, to repay hatred with beneficence. We go to preach this new doctrine not only to ordinary people, but also to military commanders and kings, knights and sages; we want them to leave their rods and crowns and take up the cross, and others to submit their minds and wills to faith in the Crucified One. We are coming to bring the world to a new faith and life, to make the pagan world Christian. The wicked is holy.

Ok. You, of course, are embarking on a great and difficult enterprise. Where is your army? "There are only twelve of us. "Where are your weapons?" "The one who sent us forbade us to take even a rod with us. "Then you intend to attract people to your teaching with wealth?" — No, I don't. We are so poor, and even the little wealth that we had, we have left. "But perhaps you have the gift of speech, perhaps you are eloquent, and thus persuade people to accept these strange dogmas, contrary to all natural sense?" — Not either. We do not know what the wisdom of the world is and speak only our native language. "With what do you hope to convert the whole world to the faith that is being preached?" We do not rely on any human power, only on the power of the Teacher who sent us, and we believe that we will do all things, "through Christ who strengthens us" (Phil. 4:13).

What do I hear, brethren? Everything that these people wanted to achieve, they achieved. Now, please tell me, who could have done such a great thing, to create this Orthodox Church from the very beginning from the "bearer," with the help of such instruments of "bearing," as Paul calls them, who could have done it but Almighty God? Yes, "the right hand of the Lord create power" (Psalm 117:15 and 16). Not angelic, not human, but the mighty right hand of God, which extracted the kingdom of nature from the bearer, also created the kingdom of grace from the bearer. Therefore, Orthodoxy is all divine from the very beginning.

The Christian faith is a heavenly teaching above nature, word and reason, it contains mysteries that are unprovable and incomprehensible. It is, according to Paul's definition, "the knowledge of those who trust, the endowment of things invisible" (Hebrews 11:1). This is faith in one God, but a triune God in the persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; in three hypostasis, but one in essence and nature; faith in one Lord Jesus Christ, both God and man, special in nature and one in hypostasis. "Who... wise, and will he understand this?" (Jeremiah 9:12). To see bread at the holy table and to believe that this is the true body of Jesus Christ, an animate body, a whole body, limited to a place but not describable, broken up but not divided, eaten but not depended upon, which at one and the same time in heaven and on earth, and in all Orthodox churches, is one and the same body. To see natural water in the holy font washing the body, and to believe that this is a spiritual bath that cleanses the soul. It is sensual to see and mentally believe in the mysteries in such a way that the mind renounces feeling, even renounces faith in itself. "Who... wise, and will understand this?" — All these are dogmas, incomprehensible to the human mind. On the other hand, the Christian faith is a law, all spiritual, all holy, a law that commands poverty, celibacy, fasting, abstinence, humility, and love so perfect that it would extend even to enemies. This is the law that requires that man be spiritual in the flesh and holy in the world, a law contrary to the law of the world and the flesh. These are all things that the human will is reluctant to accept. And yet this doctrine, so incomprehensible to the mind, the law, so heavy to the will, was strengthened, spread throughout all the countries of the earth, among people of all conditions. But how? Perhaps with the help of some human power? No. On the contrary, all human strength, aided by the power of the demons, offered him militant resistance.

Imagine, Christians, that there are few sheep in the field fighting with wolves, lions, dragons and other beasts, numerous, wild and bloodthirsty. What will you say if you see that these few sheep will conquer, drive away, and scatter wolves, lions, dragons, and all other beasts, and, dispersing to the various countries of the earth, will multiply so much that they form one numerous flock? Of course, you will say that this phenomenon is unnatural, that it is an outstanding miracle. This is truly what happened to the Church of Christ. So I see the twelve apostles as twelve sheep sent by Christ to preach the world, as on the battlefield. "Behold, I send you," He Himself foretold, "as sheep in the midst of wolves" (Matt. 10:16). There are not only wolves there – Jews, persecutors of Christians; there are lions – tormenting kings, persecutors of the faith, there are also apostate dragons and demons who are antitheists. An innumerable multitude of beasts, visible and invisible enemies, with irrepressible force and fury attacked the sheep of Christ, the young Church. But what a wonderful sight I see! These few sheep overcame, drove away, and scattered wolves, lions, dragons, and all other beasts, Jews, tyrants, demons, and all enemies. I see how the humble have triumphed over the proud, the unarmed over the strong, the poor over kings, the unlearned over the wise; the twelve became innumerable, increased, multiplied, filled the whole earth. "Their proclamation went forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" (Psalm 18:5). I see how the Cross of Christ has risen above the trophies of the Roman Capitol; I see that in Athens the altar dedicated to the "Unknown God" has fallen, and the Crucified One accepts worship. I see that, in the words of Chrysostom, "in a short time the fishermen and tax collectors reached the very top of the cities, and the tentmaker converted all Greece." I see that the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light; every mountain and hill was humbled, the crookedness was corrected, the irregularities of the paths were smoothed out; all flesh sees the salvation of our God. I see barbarian tribes baptized, cities, regions, kingdoms – Orthodox. The deserts were filled with ascetics, the monasteries with holy virgins. I see an innumerable multitude of martyrs, out of love for Christ, going to torment, like sheep to the slaughter. I see how the world, hitherto godless or polytheistic, hitherto impious and impure, has become pious, holy, Christian. Everywhere the Gospel is preached, everywhere faith wins. "This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith" (1 John 5:4). "Whose business is this change?" Of course, of course, the right hand of the Most High. How was this great deed accomplished? Of course, "create power with the right hand of the Lord." Yes, the right hand of the Most High has multiplied Orthodoxy. "Not in the words that are contrary to the wisdom of men, but in the manifestation of the Spirit and of power" (1 Cor. 2:4). The right hand of the Most High arranged it so that the single preaching of the apostles was heard by various nations, that pagan temples fell at the hands of the apostles, idols were destroyed, and their worshippers were converted to faith. "And by the hands of the apostles there were signs and wonders among many people" (Acts 5:12). Signs are the healing of the sick, the cleansing of lepers, the resurrection of the dead, the casting out of unclean spirits. Miracles – lions kissed the feet of holy people, martyrs remained unharmed in the fire, virgins fought with beasts and tamed them, motionless hills moved away, stormy seas calmed down by the prayer of a Christian. "There are many signs and wonders among people."