SAINTS AS A SIGN OF THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD'S PROMISE TO MAN

The essence of religion is usually and rightly seen in the unity of man with God, of the human spirit with the Spirit of God. Each religion indicates a certain way to achieve this goal, and offers appropriate means. However, the postulate of the general religious consciousness about the need for the spiritual unity of man with God in order to achieve Eternal Life always remains unshakable. This idea runs like a red thread through all religions of the world, embodied in various myths, legends, dogmas and emphasizing in different planes and from different sides the unconditional significance and primacy of the Spiritual Nature in man's acquisition of eternal good and, consequently, the final determination of the meaning of life. The very fact of the universality of religion in the history of mankind and its primordial nature testifies not only to the theoretical satisfactoriness of this idea, not only to God as the unconditional Source of all life and all good, but, hence, to the profound correspondence of religion to human nature, to its all-round justification in historical, social, and individual experience.      Divine Revelation, only partially given in the Old Testament and partly transmitted by the Old Testament righteous, appeared to be utterly complete in God the Word incarnate. With His coming, God's action in the world became especially clear and tangible. And this effect on a person directly corresponds to the power of the believer to receive the Word of God into his heart, his mind, his soul (Mark 12:33). At the same time, with the coming of Christ, there is no longer an individual believer, but there is the Church, the Body of Christ, in which the Christian is one of its members. In this unity of the individual and the general (the Church) is hidden the solid foundation of Christian life and Christian perfection.      But the Church lives by the Holy Spirit, and every Christian can be a living body of the Church only through participation in the Holy Spirit. This thought may seem somewhat strange and illogical: isn't entering the Church by faith through Baptism and other sacraments already communion with the Holy Spirit? And if there is, then what other communion can we talk about? This question is of fundamental importance for Christian life and theological science. In short, it could be answered as follows.      Christ, having "corrected in Himself" (in the words of St. Athanasius the Great) the human nature damaged as a result of the fall of the forefathers, became the Second Adam (1 Cor. 15:47), the progenitor of the "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). If the old nature (Ephesians 4:22) was inherited by the descendants of Adam in the natural order, then the communion with the race of Christ (cf. Acts 17:29) takes place in the opposite direction – through a certain conscious-volitional process of personal activity. This process has two fundamentally different stages.      The first is when the believer is spiritually born in the sacrament of Baptism, receiving the seed (Matt. 13:3-23) of the New Adam and thus becoming a member of His Body – the Church. As St. Symeon the New Theologian, "who believed in the Son of God... repents... in his former sins and is cleansed of them in the sacrament of Baptism. Then God the Word enters into the baptized as into the womb of the Ever-Virgin, and abides in him as a seed." That is, with the coming of Christ through faith and Baptism, a Christian receives in the seed given to him the opportunity to transform his old nature ("the old man" – Ephesians 4:22) into a new one ("the new man" – Ephesians 4:24), but he does not "automatically" become that perfect man, to the measure of his stature, which every Christian is called to attain (Ephesians 4:13). At this stage, the baptized person, being cleansed of all his sins and thus becoming like the first-created Adam, nevertheless preserves the nature inherited by him from his ancestors, subject to illness, death, and susceptible to sin, that is, everything that arose as a result of the first Fall.      Therefore, the problem of the conditions and means of salvation from sin and the development in the soul of a new beginning received in Baptism and the subsequent sacraments arises in all acuteness, in other words, the problem of translating into the real life of every believer the possibility of recreating human nature revealed by Christ. This is the second stage of the right (righteous) spiritual life. For the seed of the grace of Baptism in some Christians, "wicked and slothful" (Matt. 25:26), can remain unsprouted and therefore barren (John 12:24). In others, when it comes to good ground, it sprouts and bears the corresponding fruit. That is, the active striving of the believer to be depicted in him Christ (Gal. 4:19) is necessary for the revelation in him of the gifts of grace received in the sacrament. This revelation signifies the sought-after communion with the Holy Spirit. The parable of "the leaven which the woman took and put into three measures of flour, until all was leavened" (Matt. 13:33), clearly expresses the nature of this mysterious communion of man with the Holy Spirit in the Church and the real significance of the sacraments in this process. Just as leaven put into dough can exert its effect gradually and under very specific conditions, so the "leaven" of the grace of the sacrament, in other words, the Holy Spirit can "leaven" into "new dough" (1 Cor. 5:7) and change, making His partaker of a once carnal, albeit baptized, person into a spiritual person (1 Cor. 3:1-3) not instantly, not magically, but when he fulfills quite specific spiritual and moral requirements. indicated in the Gospel. On the Christian, who has thus received the talent of grace of justification freely (Romans 3:24), depends both the multiplication of this talent, which is communion with the Spirit of God, and the destruction of it in the ground of one's heart (Matt. 25:18).      From this it becomes clear what it means that a Christian who has already received His gifts in the sacraments must commune with the Holy Spirit. This is not a tautology, but the main principle of the Orthodox understanding of spiritual life, Christian perfection, and holiness. This principle was simply and briefly expressed, for example, by one of the greatest Russian saints, St. Seraphim of Sarov (+1833), when he said in one of his discourses: "The goal of the Christian life is to acquire the Spirit of God, and this is the goal of the life of every Christian who lives spiritually."      Thus, it turns out that the believer, who has received all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments, still needs the acquisition of this Spirit, and, moreover, it is precisely in this acquisition that the whole purpose of his life should be contained.      ("All the efforts and all the feat of him (the Christian – A.O.) must be directed to acquire the Spirit of Christ and thus bring forth the fruits of the Holy Spirit, for this is the spiritual law and well-being." Prep. Symeon the New Theologian. The second word.)      But if this is true, then it is logical and justified to speak of the very nature of this special communion of the Christian with the Holy Spirit, of Christian holiness.      2. There is, at first glance, a kind of discrepancy between the concept of holiness in the Holy Scriptures, especially in the New Testament, and the tradition of the Church. The Apostle Paul, for example, calls all Christians saints, although in their spiritual level most of them were far from perfect (cf. 1 Cor. 6:1-2). On the contrary, from the very beginning of the Church's existence and in all subsequent times, Christians who are distinguished by special spiritual zeal, podvig of prayer and love, spirituality, martyrdom for Christ, that is, Christians who have shown their faith by the loftiness of their lives, have been called saints.      However, both uses of the term do not mean a difference in the understanding of holiness, but only an assessment of the same phenomenon from different angles. The New Testament use of the term proceeds from what believers are called to be, as having received the gift of the grace of Baptism and at the same time having given "a promise to God of a good conscience" (1 Pet. 3:21), although at the moment they are still carnal, that is, sinful and imperfect. Church tradition, accepting this New Testament name, crowns with a halo of glory Christians who have fulfilled their calling by the life of the Gospel (James 2:17). And this is not only a pedagogical step by the Church, it is also a doctrinal act.

What faith? It is to this that the Church bears witness with her saints.      In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the words of the Savior, which lie at the foundation of the Church's understanding of faith: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord! Lord!" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord! God! Have we not prophesied in Thy name? And have you not done many miracles in your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of iniquity." Whosoever therefore heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man... And whosoever heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man...", the economy of whose salvation fell, "and his fall was great" (Matt. 7:21-27). With these words, many parallel passages from the Holy Scriptures could be cited, expressing the same idea. It is expressed in the most concise way by the Apostle James: "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead" (2:26). The essence of this thought consists, of course, not in the fact that man "earns" the Holy Spirit for himself by his works, but in the fact that communion with God is possible only in a free act of spiritual tension, which is manifested in various types of podvig. The power of faith is also revealed in the degree of podvig, although the podvig itself is by no means always an indicator of the true zeal of a Christian, for very many so-called good works, even among Christians, stem not from the striving to fulfill the commandment of love for God and neighbor, but from completely different motives. But the main thing that happens during the spiritual growth of a person is his inner change in the image of Christ, and, hence, his otherness in comparison with the image of this world (1 Corinthians 7:31).      ("Christians have their own world, their own way of life, and mind, and word, and activity. Such are the way of life, and the mind, and the word, and the activity of the people of this world. Christians are one thing, and peace-lovers are another. The distance between the two is great." Pdp. Macarius of Egypt. Discourse five.)      There is a beautiful Russian word "monk" (from the word "inoi"), which is used to call monastics and which very accurately emphasizes the main feature of those who have made special vows in following Christ, in achieving the ideal of Christian holiness. The saints are first of all different people from those who live according to the elements of this world, and not according to Christ (Col. 2:8). They are not carnal, they conquer that which enslaves others: "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). It is precisely in this separation of the saints from the world of threefold lust, that is, the atmosphere of sin, that one can see that fundamental unity in the understanding of holiness, both New Testament and ecclesiastical-traditional. By being called in faith to another, new life – in Christ – the Apostle calls all Christians saints, by which name he emphasizes the opportunity that has opened up for all believers, still carnal and sinful, to become a truly new creation (Gal. 6:15). To a predominantly degree, those who have become different in relation to the world, who have acquired the Holy Spirit and manifested His power in our world, the Church calls saints from the very beginning of her existence. Thus, despite the difference in the approach to the use of the term "holy", in both cases it is about the same thing – about the saint's participation in the Spirit of God and, hence, about his radiant otherness in comparison with other people. This point is fundamental in the Christian understanding of holiness as such.      3. The interpretation of the concept of "holy" was originally and profoundly developed by the priest Professor Pavel Florensky (+1943). His reasoning on this question is so important that we consider it necessary to quote here at least his most basic thoughts.      "When we speak of the Holy Font, of the Holy Myrrh, of the Holy Gifts, of the Holy Repentance, of the Holy Marriage, of the Holy Oil... and so on, and so on, and, finally, about the Priesthood, which word already includes the root "holy," then we first of all mean precisely the non-worldliness of all these Sacraments. They are in the world, but not of the world. They act on the world and can be assimilated by the world, but their being is not in the world, not worldly, not dissolving, not spreading in the world, not identifying with the world. And this is precisely the first, negative facet of the concept of holiness. And therefore, when, after the Sacraments, we call many other things holy, we have in mind precisely specialness, isolation from the world, from the everyday, from the worldly, from the ordinary that which we call holy... A saint is, first of all, a "not". This "not" in the concept of holiness corresponds to the very production of the Hebrew word "kodesh" – "holy" or "kadosh" – "holy". The verbal root "kdsh" is close to the root "hdsh", so that both are ascribed the meaning of "otherness", "Andersein" (German "other being" – Ed.). The first is the opposite of what is usual, the second is the opposite of what was. Therefore, when God is called Holy in the Old Testament, it means that we are talking about His pre-worldliness and His supra-worldliness, about His transcendence to the world...      And in the New Testament, when the Apostle Paul calls the Christians of his time saints many times in his Epistles, this means, first of all, that Christians are singled out from all mankind. Christians are the New Israel, the spiritual Israel, the very essence of the people of Israel.      Being an object of faith, the Sacrament is an invisible thing... But this invisible holiness, in order to be, must be something, something: being "not" in relation to the worldly, it must be something in itself, in its spiritual domain. The holy is singled out, but singled out for the sake of other, new definitions. Undoubtedly, in the concept of holiness, after its negative side, the positive side is conceived, which is revealed in the holy reality of another world. Our modern thought is inclined to equate this reality with moral force, meaning by holiness the fullness of moral perfections. Such is Kant's detour of the cult from the rear, so to speak, for morality is thought of as a force of the same world, and a subjective one at that. But in vain are the impotent attempts on the concepts of holiness... The very use of words testifies against such attempts: when we speak of holy garments, of holy vessels, of holy water, of holy oil, of the holy temple, and so on and so forth, it is obvious that here we are not talking about ethical perfection, but ontological perfection. And, therefore, if in these cases the positive side of holiness is the ontological superiority over the world, the ontological existence outside of this world, then, consequently, in general, the knot of connection between this concept of holiness is not in ethics, but in ontology...      And if we call a person a saint, then by this we do not indicate his morality – for which indication there are corresponding words, but to his peculiar powers and activities, qualitatively incomparable with those inherent in the world, to his supermundaneness, to his sojourn in spheres inaccessible to ordinary understanding... the morality of such a person, not itself being part of the concept of holiness, partly serves as one of the favorable conditions for his supermundaneity, and partly manifests itself as a consequence of it. But the connection between these two concepts must be established by threads that are delicate and very flexible... Thus, therefore, if it is said of a moral deed that it is "a holy deed," then what is meant here is not its Kantian moral orientation, immanent in the world, but the anti-Kantian one, the world's transcendental co-existence with the unworldly energies. Calling God Holy, and Holy par excellence, the source of all holiness and the fullness of holiness... we glorify not His moral, but His Divine nature...      The same is evidenced by the etymological consideration of the Hebrew word "kadosh", "holy"... This etymology establishes more definitely what exactly is the peculiarity of the saint. It is that which is above the ordinary and which is in the ordinary, coming out of itself with its light, its radiations, its luminiferous energies...      The concept of holiness has a lower pole and an upper pole, and in our consciousness it constantly moves between these poles, ascending up and descending back. Taken in its inner movement, the concept of holiness can be represented as a ladder with approximately the following steps: non-existence – the world – exclusion – election – purification – redemption – Light – God. And this ladder, traversed from the bottom up, is thought of as the path of the negation of the world, as via negationis (Latin "the way of negation"), as odoz auw (Greek "the way upward") from the world to God, as the landmarks of apophatic theology. But it cannot be regarded as passable in the opposite direction. And then it will be thought of as the way of affirmation of the world reality through the consecration of the latter, as via positionis (Latin "the way of position, affirmation"), as odoz katw (Greek "way downward") from God to the world.      4. Summing up the above thoughts of Father Pavel on holiness, the following main points can be noted in them. The first, so to speak, apophatic moment: holiness is alienation from the world of sin, its complete negation. The second, cataphatic point: holiness is not just a pure negation, but also a concrete positive content. The nature of holiness is divine. Holiness is ontologically affirmed in God, and therefore it is not simply moral perfection, although it is inseparably united with it, but "co-existence with non-worldly energies." The third, synthetic moment: holiness is not only the negation of all evil of this world and not only the manifestation of another world, the Divine, but also the unshakable affirmation of "the world reality through the sanctification of this latter." This third point speaks most fully of the character of holiness. Holiness is not something self-contained, but an active force that has a profound transformative effect on man and the world as a whole, and therefore it directly responds to God's promise of peace. This final promise, classically expressed in the Apostle Paul: "God will be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:28), means that the ultimate goal and perfect meaning of all that exists, and first of all man, consists in his transformation in such a way that it can be in God. This abiding in God is the ideal good, for God is the Good itself in the true and full sense of the word. But the attainment of this good is a gradual process that has its own direction, its own conditions, and its own criteria. Therefore, the cognition of this process and of the totality of the conditions necessary for its normal course constitutes the most important Christian task standing on the path of the sanctification of the entire world reality. In the final analysis, the whole world, and not only the saints, must become different ("And I saw the New Heaven and the New Earth" – Rev. 21:1). He must be all God. That is, humanity and the entire cosmos must be sanctified and transfigured in the image of the Risen Christ. But in this process, only man can play an active role on the part of creation, and therefore he is entrusted with the full responsibility for creation (Romans 8:20-21).      And here the significance of holy people is manifested with special force, as those who already acquired the Holy Spirit in the conditions of earthly existence and thereby became the beginnings of the future universal and complete sanctification. On the one hand, they are proof in the face of the world of the reality of the other world and its eternal blessings. On the other hand, through their podvig, prayer and spiritual influence, they pave the way for many to the Kingdom of God. Not only does their perfect moral life prove to be a light that bears witness to the Heavenly Father (Matt. 5:16), but to an immeasurably greater degree their grace and visible gifts of the Holy Spirit, as real signs of "what God has prepared for them that love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9), are a great stimulus to spiritual life for those who are being saved.      In this regard, I would like to draw attention to the term "deification" constantly used in Orthodox theology, which most accurately and fully expresses the essence of holiness and the ultimate goal of human life in general. Deification is that transfiguration of a Christian through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, of which St. Seraphim of Sarov speaks. The saints often had the Spirit of God in them, acting in them through miracles, insights, and various signs. And these deeds of theirs can be called natural for Christians rather than miracles, since their level of faith corresponds to the norm of transfigured creation, about which the Savior said to His disciples after the Resurrection: "These signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out demons, they shall speak with new tongues, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not harm them, they shall lay their hands on the sick; and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17-18). On the contrary, the majority of Christians therefore have an inferior faith, although they are also called "to the honor of the highest calling" (Phil. 3:14) and have the earnest of the Holy Spirit, given to all believers in Baptism.      Thus, the saints, by their very presence in the world, bear witness not only to the norm of Christian faith and life, but also give all Christians the opportunity to realize their deep imperfection and hence the need for God the Savior, which is the most important moment in spiritual life and a necessary condition for salvation. Therefore, if the greatest promise of God to man was the promise of Christ the Savior (2 Corinthians 1:20), then the saints carry out the great mission of educating Christians for the spiritual-psychological, and not only intellectual, acceptance of the Promised One as their only savior from the abyss of the fall.      The saints, being visible signs of the fulfillment of God's promise to man, indicate to everyone by their lives and words that deification is necessary for every Christian, for without a real experience of the Spirit of God there can be no knowledge of Christianity, that Christianity is a new life, life in Christ, but that this new life is impossible without new qualities. "They don't pour ... new wine into old skins... But new wine is poured into new skins, and both are saved" (Matt. 9:17), that is, only with the acquisition – through the fulfillment of the commandments of the Gospel and repentance – of the qualities of a new person can one pour into a Christian a "new wine" – the Holy Spirit, Who gives the believer to taste "how good the Lord is" (Psalm 33:9). In this way, the true significance of the entire Christian podvig is indicated, which is only a necessary means for deification, and not a self-sufficient source of holiness. For high morality and asceticism are possible outside of Christianity. Venerable Seraphim says so: "The true goal of our Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. Fasting, vigil, prayer, almsgiving, and every good done for Christ's sake are the means for acquiring the Spirit of God." He continues: "Notice that it is only for Christ's sake that virtue brings forth the fruit of the Holy Spirit... so that it is not a matter of virtues, but of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which is given to us through them."      Therefore, not every manifestation of piety and ascetic life in itself is considered in the Orthodox tradition as unconditionally positive phenomena. In the final analysis, true holiness is evidenced not by outward piety or asceticism, but by God-like qualities, as obvious signs of the promised state of a Christian.      5. By His Ascension, the Lord showed to what height of likeness to God man is called and, consequently, capable of being created in the image of God. Human nature turned out to be above all creatures. The Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, more honorable than the Cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the Seraphim, confirmed this by the greatness of Her spiritual beauty already on a purely human plane. The assembly of saints forms a new living ladder of Jacob, the top of which is the God-Man Christ Jesus. This is the ladder of God-likeness, to the fullness of which God-created man is predestined. Likeness to God is God's promise to man, for it is the ultimate deification, the sacred acquisition of the Holy Spirit, the complete transformation of the old man into the new, it is God-manhood, inasmuch as God-like man is a full-fledged member of the divine-human organism – the Church.      Naturally, the likeness to God presupposes the maximum fullness of likeness for man to the Divine attributes, many of which are open to us and to varying degrees accessible to human perception, but many are also inexpressible (2 Corinthians 12:4).      ("I... mourned the human race, since, seeking extraordinary proofs, people cite human concepts and words and think that they depict the Divine nature, that nature which neither angels nor men could see or name. And indeed, what could be called the Creator of all?.. His name is unknown to us, except the name 'He Who Is,' the ineffable God, as He said (Exodus 3:14)." Pdp. Symeon the New Theologian. Divine Hymns).      These qualities, which are also called virtues, are acquired in the process of the spiritual development of a Christian gradually and in a certain sequence, forming a kind of hierarchy hidden from the eyes of "others" (Luke 8:10).      ("The exercise in virtue is likened to a ladder, the very ladder that Jacob saw, with one part being close to the earth and touching it, and the other stretching above heaven itself."      The interdependence and a certain regularity in the acquisition of these God-promised qualities is shown in the Gospel "Beatitudes" (Matt. 5:3-12). The ascetic works of the Holy Fathers, based on the long-term experience of many ascetics, offer an already developed system, a ladder of spiritual life, and at the same time point to all the pernicious consequences of deviation from it in spiritual podvig.      ("The All-Wise Lord was pleased that we should eat this bread in sweat. And He did this not out of malice, but that we might not be indigested, and we should not die. For each virtue is the mother of another virtue. Therefore, if you leave the mother who gives birth to virtues, and go to look for daughters before you find their mother, then these virtues turn out to be vipers for the soul. If you do not reject them, you will soon die." St. Isaac the Syrian. Homily 72.)      The world transfigured, promised to man, is a world of perfect beauty and order. The saints, as contemplators of this beauty, express it to a predominant degree through their spiritual experience.      ("Asceticism, as an activity aimed at contemplating the ineffable Light by the Holy Spirit, was called by the Holy Fathers not a science or even moral work, but... "art of arts", "art of arts"... the contemplative knowledge given by asceticism is Filagalia "love of beauty", "love". Collections of ascetic works, long called "Philokalia", are not at all the essence of the Philokalia in our, modern sense of the word. "Kindness" here is taken in the ancient, general sense, meaning beauty rather than moral perfection, and Filagalia means "love of beauty." And in fact, asceticism does not create a "good" person, but a "beautiful" one, and the distinguishing feature of the holy ascetics is not at all their "kindness," which is found in carnal people, even in very sinful ones, but spiritual beauty, the dazzling beauty of a radiant, light-bearing personality, which is in no way accessible to a white and carnal person." Priest Pavel Florensky. Pillar and Ground of Truth).      Therefore, their virtues, or gifts of the Holy Spirit, or attributes (except, of course, for individual personal qualities) are the qualities of the new man, the inhabitants of the New Heaven and the New Earth, promised to the new creation (Gal. 6:15). And their path of inner life is a kind of ideal for all Christians in their attainment of those promises of God to man, the real signs of which are the saints even now, in the conditions of our lower world. From this it becomes obvious how vital it is to study the path and laws of spiritual life discovered by the saints, to study that strict system of spiritual growth which is realized in the gradual eradication of passions and the consistent acquisition of God-like qualities – witnesses of the promised state of the Christian. But the study of these questions is, of course, a special, independent topic. We will dwell only on individual moments of the two most important virtues of the saints, which constitute the beginning and the end of that perfect good which God has prepared for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 2:9).      Humility is the first of the virtues on which the entire edifice of the perfection of the saints rests, without which neither the correct spiritual life nor the acquisition of any other God-like qualities are possible. One of the most profound experts on the ascetic works of the Holy Fathers, the Russian ascetic of the nineteenth century, Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, wrote: "All passions yield to humility... All virtues are seen as following him...", "All the saints recognized themselves as unworthy of God: by this they showed their dignity, which consists in humility." (Soch. SP b., 1905, vol. 2, pp. 72, 126). Humility, or, according to the Gospel, poverty of spirit (Matt. 5:3), is a natural expression of the vision of one's fall, of one's sinfulness. This vision precedes the other gifts of God.      ("According to the immutable law of asceticism, the abundant consciousness and sense of one's sinfulness, granted by Divine grace, precedes all other grace-filled gifts," Bishop Ignatius, vol. 2, p. 334) St. Peter of Damascus even calls this vision "the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul." He writes that with the right podvig, "the mind begins to see its sins – like the sand of the sea, and this is the beginning of the enlightenment of the soul and a sign of its health. And simply: the soul becomes contrite and the heart humble, and considers itself truly inferior to all..." (Creations, Kiev, 1902, Book One, p. 33). This state is always associated with a particularly deep and sincere repentance, the significance of which is invaluable in the spiritual life. Bishop Ignatius exclaims: "The sight of one's sin and the repentance born of it are deeds that have no end on earth" (vol. 2, p. 127). The statements of the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church about the paramount importance of seeing one's sinfulness, repentance, and the new attribute born of them – humility – are innumerable, and there is no need to cite them here. It is important to emphasize the main thing that is contained in this fact.      Humility is the only virtue that allows a person to be in the so-called "non-falling" state. We are especially convinced of this by the tragic story of the fall of the primordial man, who possessed all the gifts of God (Gen. 1:31), but who did not have experienced humility and therefore fell away. Only humility, which stems from the knowledge of oneself, that is, the knowledge of the complete powerlessness of one's nature in its separation from God, creates a solid psychological basis for man's eternal acceptance of God as the only source of life and all good. For only it can completely and finally exclude the possibility of a new proud dream of becoming like God (Gen. 3:5) and a new fall. In essence, true regeneration begins in the life of a Christian only when, in the struggle with sin, he sees the full depth of the damage of his nature, its fundamental inability in a purely natural order, without God, to accomplish full-fledged good and achieve the desired good. Self-knowledge reveals to man the One Who is willing and able to save him from the state of perdition, it compels him to turn to Him. Psychologically, only those who are perishing and aware of their death feel the need for the Savior. Therefore, in Christ, too, only the one who has experienced his true powerlessness, humbled himself and with all his heart cries out: "Lord! save me" (Matt. 14:30). It is precisely this spiritual and psychological moment that can explain such an exceptional importance attached to humility by all the saints. St. Macarius of Egypt says: "The humble never falls: and where can he fall when he is lower than all? The great height is humility. And honor and dignity are humility." St. John Chrysostom calls humility the main of the virtues, and St. Barsanuphius the Great teaches that "humility has primacy among the virtues." St. Symeon the New Theologian asserts the same thing: "Verily, there is only one seal of Christ – the illumination of the Holy Spirit, although there are many types of His actions, many of His signs. The first and most necessary of this other is humility, since it is the beginning and the foundation." Humility in all its power and significance is, in fact, a new property, unknown to the primordial Adam, and it is the only solid foundation of the non-falling state of man in life, both earthly and eternal.      ("Let us observe moderation in all things, and put humility as the foundation of our deeds, so that we may safely build up the edifice of virtue. Virtue is the same, when it is combined with humility. He who has laid humility as the foundation of his virtue can safely erect a building to any height he pleases. It (humility) is the greatest fence, an indestructible wall, an insurmountable fortress. It sustains the whole edifice, not allowing it to fall from the gust of wind, or from the pressure of the waves, or from the force of storms, but it places it above all attacks, makes it as if built of adamant and indestructible, and brings down upon us generous gifts from the loving God." St. John Chrysostom. Creations, v.4. SP b., 1898.)      This virtue was manifested with special depth and power by the saints, and with it they showed where lies the unshakable foundation of the real fulfillment of God's promise to any person who sincerely seeks salvation.      6. But if the whole ladder of virtues is built on humility, then it will be crowned with the one that is greatest of all (1 Corinthians 13:13) and which calls God Himself (1 John 4:6) – Love. All the other qualities of the new man (for example, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, mercy, faith... – Gal. 5:22, etc.) are only elements that enter into love, but in no way exhaust it. It is the ideal summit of all human aspirations and his perfect good. God calls man to it, it is promised to him in Christ. The saints were most glorified by it, they conquered the world with it, and with it they showed the invisible greatness, beauty and goodness of the Divine promises to man.      But there is also a question of fundamental importance related to this highest spiritual quality of a Christian.      Two substantially coinciding outwardly but essentially mutually exclusive states of a Christian are possible, both of which are called Christian love in ascetic literature of different trends. One of them is the "soul" (Jude 19; 1 Cor. 2:14) feeling. It arises as a result of the wrong ascetic feat of a Christian, whose goal is to arouse and develop in himself a feeling of love for Christ. This love is achieved mainly through continuous concentration of attention on the sufferings of Christ (especially those on the cross) and the Mother of God, by imagining various episodes from Their lives and mentally participating in them, by dreaming and imagining Their love for themselves, and by direct conversations with Them.      Such self-inspired love is, of course, purely emotional (and not spiritual) in nature, often associated with pathological changes in the psyche and nervous exaltation, reaching hysteria, fainting, prolonged hallucinations, the occurrence of bleeding wounds (stigmas) and, at the same time, love experiences, and often openly sexual sensations. Vivid examples of such phenomena can be many of the most famous Catholic saints, such as: Bl. Angela, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, etc. And Francis of Assisi, who lived in the XIII century, became the first carrier of stigma in the history of Christianity. Artificially induced exaltations often reach great strength and are accepted by the spiritually inexperienced as a manifestation of genuine Christian love. In fact, it "is nothing but a deceptive, forced play of feelings, an indistinct creation of dreaminess and self-conceit" (Bishop Ignatius, vol. 2, p. 57).      In Orthodox asceticism, this state is regarded as prelest, that is, as the deepest self-deception. The reason for such an assessment of this feeling is that true love, spiritual love (1 Corinthians 14:1), according to the Holy Scriptures, is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and not the result of the nervous and psychic tension of the fallen nature. The Apostle Paul writes: "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us" (Romans 5:5). This spiritual love is "the sum total of perfection" (Col. 3:14), the highest virtue. It "is," in the words of St. Isaac the Syrian, "the abode of the spiritual and dwells in the purity of the soul," which gives the mind the opportunity to contemplate the spiritual world. "And this contemplation," he writes, "is the food of the mind, until it is able to accept the higher contemplation of the first contemplation, because one contemplation transmits a person to another contemplation, until the mind is brought into the realm of perfect love." The attainment of this love is impossible without the prior acquisition of other virtues, especially humility, which is the foundation of the entire ladder of virtues. "If the highest of virtues, love," writes the Russian holy bishop Tikhon of Voronezh, "according to the words of the Apostle, suffers long, does not envy, is not arrogant, is not irritated, falls away, then this is because it is supported and aided by humility." That is why in the "old" imperfect Christian, who does not have sufficient experienced humility, love is changeable, inconstant, often mixed with vanity, egoism, voluptuousness, etc. For he who strives to abide in love, but who has not previously known the full depth of the damage of his nature, his spiritual impotence, is at best similar to the first Adam, who easily and quickly dreamed of becoming like God and fell away from God. Without victory over all passions, a Christian cannot have perfect love (1 Pet. 4:8) and mercy, which are the result of forcing himself to fulfill the commandments of the Gospel. This compulsion and these works are necessary in the acquisition of spiritual love, but they are not yet the final sign that the Christian has acquired it. For according to the word of the Lord, he loves Him who keeps His commandments (John 14:21). But only those who are spiritually perfect achieve the perfect fulfillment of the commandments. Therefore, where there is no vision of one's sinfulness, there is no repentance, consequently, there is no humility and the dispassion it engenders, there is only "soulfulness" and dreaminess, but not Christian spirituality, not true love.      ("One of the saints writes: "Whoever does not consider himself a sinner, his prayer is not accepted by the Lord." If you say that some Fathers wrote about what is purity of soul, what is health, what is impassibility, what is contemplation, then they did not write so that we would seek this with expectation before the time, for it is written that the Kingdom of God will not come with the observance (Luke 17:20) of expectation. And in those who have such an intention, they have acquired pride and fall. And we will bring the region of the heart into order by works of repentance and life pleasing to God, and the Lord will come of its own accord, if the place in the heart is pure and undefiled. What we seek with observance – I mean God's lofty gifts – is not approved by the Church of God; those who accepted this acquired pride and fall. This is not a sign that a person loves God, but a mental illness." St. Isaac the Syrian. Homily 55).      St. Isaac the Syrian, responding to St. Simeon the Wonderworker, wrote, in particular: "There is no way to arouse Divine love in the soul... if it has not conquered the passions. Thou hast said that thy soul has not conquered the passions, and has come to love the love of God: and there is no order in this. Whoever says that he has not conquered the passions and has come to love the love of God, I do not know what he says. But you will say: I did not say "I love," but "I loved love." And this is not the case if the soul has not attained purity. If you want to say this only for the sake of words, then you are not the only one who speaks, but everyone says that he desires to love God... And everyone pronounces this word as his own, yet when pronouncing such words, only the tongue moves, and the soul does not feel what it is saying." Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, summing up the teaching of the Fathers on this issue, writes: "A premature striving to develop in oneself a sense of love for God is already self-deception... One must attain perfection in all virtues in order to enter into the perfection of all perfections, into their merging, into love." In this regard, one can note one very indicative stroke in writings on spiritual love: they say least of all about the need for self-knowledge, struggle with passions, and repentance. And this is quite understandable, since the building of salvation here begins to be built from the upper floor, and not from the foundation, and therefore the latter is least known to its builders. The result of such house-building is always sad. (According to the Russian ascetic bishops of the 19th century, Ignatius Brianchaninov and Theophan Govorov, the famous Catholic book "On the Imitation of Christ" by Thomas of Kempis, for example, was written from the state of delusion).      Thus, Christian love, as a human attribute found in the saints, is not an ordinary earthly feeling, not the result of a systematic nervous and psychic arousal in oneself of a special attraction to God and to people, but a consequence of the fulfillment of the commandments (John 14:21), the highest gift of heaven, the gift of the Holy Spirit, sent only to humility. Only saints can have pure Christian love, spiritual love. For only "they, being vessels of the Holy Spirit, together saw, acknowledged, confessed themselves to be the greatest sinners, worthy of temporal and eternal punishments."      On the pages of this lecture it is not possible to touch upon other qualities – the virtues of the new man, the saint, which in the conditions of the earthly existence of a Christian are obvious testimonies to the abundant goodness of the Divine promises to man. Therefore, we will cite only as a small illustration of them an extract from the conversation of the great holy Elder Seraphim of Sarov with N. A. Motovilov, during which, through the prayer of the Venerable Monk, his interlocutor was able to feel and experience the beginnings of some of these good gifts of the Holy Spirit and tell the world about them.      "Then Father Seraphim said: 'We are both with you now, father, in the Spirit of God... Why don't you look at me?" I answered: "I can't look, because lightning is falling from your eyes. Your face has become lighter than the sun, and my eyes ache with pain." He answered: "... and now you have also become bright. What do you feel now?" – Father Seraphim asked me. I answered: "Unusually good!" – "How good?" I answered: "Such silence and peace in my soul that I cannot express it to you in any word." – "This, Your Love of God, is the peace," said Father Seraphim, "about which the Lord said to the disciples: 'My peace I give unto you...' – What else do you feel?" – Father asked me again. I answered: "Extraordinary sweetness." – "This is the sweetness about which it is said in the Holy Scriptures: "From the fat of Thy house they shall be drunk, and with the stream of Thy sweetness I shall drink..." (Psalm 35:9). It is as if our heart melts from this sweetness, and we are both filled with such bliss that no language can express... What else do you feel?" he asked me. I said, "A great joy in my heart." And he continued: "When the Spirit of God comes to man and overshadows him with the fullness of His inspiration, then the soul of man is filled with inexpressible joy, for the Spirit of God rejoices in everything that He does not touch... What else do you feel?" I answered: "Extraordinary warmth..." – "Like warmth? Why, we're sitting in the woods. Now it's winter outside and there is snow under your feet – what kind of warmth can there be here?" – "And such a warmth," I answered, "as there is in a bathhouse." – "And the smell," he asked me, "is it the same as from a bathhouse?" – "No," I answered, "there is nothing on earth like this fragrance..." And Father Seraphim, smiling pleasantly, said: "The Lord said: 'The Kingdom of God is within you,' and under the Kingdom of God He understood the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is now within us, and the grace of the Holy Spirit illuminates and warms us from without, filling the air with a manifold fragrance... delights our senses with heavenly delight and fills our hearts with unutterable joy..."      Light, peace and silence, special sweetness, warmth, fragrance, joy, of which we read here, of course, do not exhaust the fullness of spiritual and bodily experiences of a person who abides in the Spirit of God. These are only some signs of the fulfillment of God's promise in those whom the Church calls saints. But the whole human race is called to this royal sanctification (1 Pet. 2:9), and everyone who strives for the truth can become a chosen, beloved child of God (Col. 3:12), having all the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, for God is Love.      Spiritual life is not just piety, not just prayer, not even podvig or renunciation of the world. It is first of all beauty, that is, first of all, a strict order in development, a special consistency in the acquisition of virtues, a regularity in achievements and contemplations. And here the experience of the saints, who are obvious and indisputable signs of the fulfillment of God's promise to man, will undoubtedly serve as the most reliable source.    

The article was published in the prayer book

"WONDROUS IS GOD IN HIS SAINTS"

Moscow, Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, 1994.

 WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY?

     Christianity is completely inscribed in one word – Christ. But what does this mean? This is the sacrifice that Christ made for the sake of the human race. It is the taking upon oneself of all human nature, of all our damage, of all the distortion that befell Adam and then of all his descendants by virtue of falling away from God. Christ became a curse and a sin for us (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the most essential thing that distinguishes Christianity from all other religions.      In other religions, the founder was nothing more than a preacher of the doctrine of the new or the old and long forgotten. Therefore, in all other religions, the founder does not have the same exceptional importance as the Lord Jesus Christ has in Christianity. There the founder is a teacher, a herald of God, proclaiming the way of salvation. And no more. The teacher is only the trumpet of God, and the main thing is the teaching that he transmits from God. Therefore, the founder in other religions is always in the background in relation to the teaching he proclaims, the religion he founds. The essence of religion does not depend on it, it is, so to speak, replaceable. Religion would not have suffered in the least if it had been proclaimed by another teacher or prophet. For example, Buddhism could exist peacefully if it were proved that the Buddha never existed, but that there was another founder. Islam could have existed peacefully if someone else had appeared instead of Muhammad. This applies to all religions, because the functions of the founders of these religions were in their teachings, which they offered to people. Teaching was the essence of their ministry.      Could Christianity have been founded, for example, by St. John the Baptist? He could have spoken about moral teaching, about some truths of faith, but there would have been no most important thing – the Sacrifice! Without the Sacrifice of the Cross of the God-Man Jesus Christ, there is no Christianity! One can now understand why all the fire of negative criticism was directed at the abolition of Christ as a real person! If He wasn't there, if there wasn't One Who suffered for us. Whoever accepted death on the cross – Christianity crumbles immediately. The ideologists of atheism understood this very well.      Thus, if we want to express the essence of Christianity not just in one word – Christ, then let us put it this way: it consists in the Cross of Christ and His Resurrection, through which humanity finally received the possibility of a new birth, the possibility of rebirth, the restoration of the fallen image of God, of which we are the bearers. Since, according to the so-called natural nature, we are incapable of union with God, since nothing damaged can be partaker of God, then for unity with God, for the realization of God-manhood, a corresponding recreation of human nature is necessary. Christ restored it in Himself and made it possible for each of us to do the same.

 Another important aspect that makes up the essence of Christianity is the correct spiritual structure of man. And here Christianity offers something that fundamentally distinguishes it from the teachings of all other religions. Firstly, the teaching about God, secondly, the understanding of the essence and purpose of man's spiritual life, then the teaching about the Resurrection and much more.      So, the first thing that is inherent only in Christianity, and not in other religions, is the assertion that God is love. In other religions, the highest attainment of religious consciousness in the natural order is the conception of God as a righteous, merciful judge, just, but no more. Christianity asserts something special: that God is love and love alone. Unfortunately, this Christian understanding of God finds it difficult to find its way to the consciousness and heart of man. God-love is not perceived by the "old" human consciousness in any way. Moreover, the image of God the Judge is found in the Gospel, and in the Epistles of the Apostles, and in the works of the Holy Fathers. But what is the specificity of the use of this image? It has an exclusively edifying and pastoral character and relates, in the words of St. John Chrysostom, "to the understanding of coarser people." As soon as the question concerns the exposition of the essence of the understanding of God, we see a completely different picture. It is stated with complete certainty: God is love and only love. It is not subject to any feelings: anger, suffering, punishment, revenge, etc. This thought is inherent in the entire Tradition of our Church. Here are at least three authoritative statements. St. Anthony the Great: "God is good and impassible and unchangeable. If anyone, acknowledging as benevolent and true that God does not change, nevertheless wonders how He, being such, rejoices over the good, turns away from the evil, is angry with sinners, and when they repent, is merciful to them, then it must be said that God does not rejoice or be angry, for joy and anger are passions. It is absurd to think that the Divinity is good or bad because of human deeds. God is good and only does good. To harm no one harms anyone, always remaining the same.      And when we are good, we enter into communion with God by similarity to Him, and when we become evil, we are separated from God by dissimilarity to Him. By living virtuously, we are God's, and when we become evil, we become rejected from Him. And this does not mean that He had wrath against us, but that our sins do not allow God to shine in us, but unite us with the demons, tormentors. If later by prayers and benefactions we obtain absolution from our sins, this does not mean that we have blessed or changed God, but that by means of such actions and our conversion to God, having healed the evil that exists in us, we are again made capable of tasting God's goodness. So to say, "God turns away from the wicked," is the same as to say, "The sun hides itself from those who are blind."      St. Gregory of Nyssa: "For that it is impious to consider the nature of God to be subject to any passion of pleasure, or mercy, or wrath, no one will deny this, even those who are not attentive in the knowledge of the truth of the Eternal. But although it is said that God rejoices over His servants and is angry with wrath against the fallen people, because He has mercy (Exodus 33:19), yet in each of these sayings, I think, the generally recognized word loudly teaches us that by means of our qualities the providence of God adapts itself to our weakness, so that those who are inclined to sin for fear of punishment may restrain themselves from evil, those who were formerly carried away by sin did not despair of returning through repentance, looking to His mercy."      St. John Chrysostom: "When you hear the words 'rage' and 'wrath' in relation to God, do not understand anything human by them: these are words of condescension. The Divinity is alien to all such things, and it is said so in order to bring the subject closer to the understanding of coarser people."      You can cite as many such quotes as you like. All of them say the same thing as the Apostle James: "In temptation, let no one say, God tempts me; for God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself tempts no one, but every one is tempted, being carried away and deceived by his own lust" (James 1:13-14).      This is a completely new understanding of God, unique in the history of mankind. Truly, only the Revelation of God could give such a teaching about God, for nowhere in the natural religions do we find such a thing. In natural religions, this was unthinkable. And although Christianity has existed for two thousand years, even among Christians it is unacceptable. The old, passionate man who dominates our soul seeks earthly truth, which punishes evildoers and rewards the righteous, and therefore God's greatest revelation that God is love and only love is not accepted by human consciousness in any way. Out of love and only out of love, and not for the "satisfaction" of the so-called Truth of God, not for "ransom," God sent His Only-begotten Son.      The second feature of Christianity (at present, it is more correct to say Orthodoxy) concerns the essence of the spiritual life of man. Christianity is entirely aimed at the healing of the soul, and not at earning bliss and paradise. St. Symeon the New Theologian points out: "Careful fulfillment of the commandments of Christ teaches a person (i.e. reveals to a person) his weaknesses." Let us pay attention to what St. Simeon emphasizes: the fulfillment of the commandments makes a person not a miracle worker, a prophet, a teacher, not worthy of any rewards, gifts, supernatural powers – which is the main consequence of the "fulfillment" of the commandments in all religions and even the goal. No. The Christian path leads a person to something completely different – to a person to see the deepest damage of the human being, for the sake of healing of which God the Word was incarnate, and without the knowledge of which a person is in principle incapable of either a correct spiritual life or the acceptance of Christ the Savior.      How different Christianity is from other religions! How short-sighted are those who speak of a common religious consciousness, that all religions lead to one and the same goal, that they all have a single essence. How naïve all this sounds! Only a person who does not understand Christianity at all can talk about this.      In Christianity, "deeds" reveal to a person his true state – the state of the deepest damage and fall: no matter from which side you touch me, I am completely sick. Only in the consciousness of this weakness does a person have the right spiritual strength. Then man becomes strong when God enters him. How strong did the Apostle Peter feel? So what? What does the Apostle Paul write about himself? "I prayed to God for the Three Times." Result: "My strength is made perfect in weakness." It turns out that it is only through the knowledge of oneself as I really am that the Lord enters into a person, and then a person truly acquires strength: "Even if heaven falls on me, my soul will not tremble," said Abba Agathon. And what is promised to man? St. John Chrysostom says: "God promises to lead us not into paradise, but into heaven itself, and He does not proclaim the Kingdom of Paradise, but the Kingdom of Heaven." St. Macarius of Egypt writes: "The crowns and diadems that Christians will receive are not creations." It is not something created that the renewed man receives, he receives God Himself! Deification is the name of our ideal. It is the closest unity of man with God, it is the fullness of the revelation of the human personality, it is the state of man when he truly becomes a son of God, God by grace. What a colossal difference between Christianity and other religions!      Perhaps the most important thing that Christianity speaks of and what distinguishes it from other religions and without which Christianity cannot exist, is its greatest dogma, expressed in the most important Christian holiday, Easter, the dogma of the Resurrection. Christianity does not simply say that the Christian soul unites with God, that the soul will experience certain states. No, it asserts that man is a soul and a body, a single spiritual-bodily being, and deification is inherent not only in the soul, but also in the soul and the body. In a renewed person, everything changes, not only the soul, mind, feelings, but also the body itself.      Christianity speaks of the resurrection as a fact that will follow as a consequence of the Resurrection of Christ. Every Christ cannot but be resurrected! Remember how provocative the Apostle Paul's sermon in the Areopagus about the Resurrection sounded. The wise men perceived it as a fairy tale, a fantasy. But Christianity affirms this as one of its central dogmas. The news of the Resurrection has permeated the entire Christian consciousness for all 2000 years. The greatest saints, who attained the illumination of God and the enlightenment of the mind, affirmed this truth with all force and categoricality. It is unique in the history of the religious consciousness of mankind.      Christianity is a religion that is not outside of us, and which we can contemplate as a speculative object, considering the similarities and differences between it and other objects. Christianity is inherent in man by nature. But a person becomes a Christian only when he sees that he cannot get rid of the passions and sins that torment him. Remember, in Dante's "Inferno": "My blood burned with envy so much, that if it were good for another, you would see how green I am." Here it is, torment. Any passion brings suffering to a person. And only when he begins to live a Christian life, then he begins to see what sin is, what passion is, what horror it is, he begins to see the necessity of God the Savior.      In human consciousness there is a constant struggle between the old and the new man. Which God will man choose: the God of Christ or the god of the Antichrist? God alone will save and heal me, give me the opportunity to become a true son of God in unity with the Son the Word incarnate. The other falsely promises me all earthly blessings for a moment of time. What will you choose, man?      But in any case, remember that it is not rose-colored glasses and not the "wisdom" of an ostrich that buries its head in the sand in imminent danger that will save you from the world of passions (i.e. sufferings) living in your soul, but only a courageous and honest look at yourself, at your so-called powers and awareness of your deep spiritual poverty will reveal to you true salvation and the true Savior – Christ. in which is contained all your good of eternal life.

Alexei Ilyich OSIPOV, Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy