"Your thoughts are acceptable, if only you discard the mystical fog: it reminds me of something theosophical. But the way of presentation, the terminology, the language are simply unbearable."

93. In empiricism, the all-unity of the individual is not realizable; and even the empirical personality of Jesus is only a symphony of hierarchically interrelated qualities approaching all-unity (§§ 52 f., 85), although it is possible only as "flowing" from its true, empirically undetectable all-unity. In the same way, in the imperfection of being, true duality with Jesus is not attainable, but only loving agreement with Him, conforming to Him. However, precisely because this co-formation is only an empirical revelation and realization of duality, it is not an external repetition, assimilation, or "imitation." But not "imitatio", but "conformatio Christi".

In order to conform oneself to Christ Jesus, one must know Him, which is possible only through loving self-giving (cf. Chapter III), one must constantly listen to His words, peer into Him, empathize with His suffering; greedily catch the most inconspicuous features. There is nothing "unnecessary" or "unimportant" in Him: everything is equally and infinitely valuable. It is possible to "get to know" Him for a long time and still not know Him at all, to be far from Him. But then one of His words suddenly wounds your heart – it was spoken for you – and the miracle of all-unity takes place: His entire image, He Himself, immediately rises before you. Features that have hitherto been disparate agree of themselves. He comes to life, is resurrected in us. And you already know infinitely more about Him than you know. You know whether this or that tradition tells the truth or falsehood about Him, whether He could have done so or not. You know what He would have done in "that" case, though He never had such a case; you know how you, conforming yourself to Him, should act, for He is already with you in the most authentic way. By really accepting Him into yourself, you conform to Him, not in order to "repeat" what He has done and said, but in order to freely and joyfully "continue" His work in the conditions of your existence. The O lives in us, embracing the whole world, spreading out everywhere, continuing "Ours". And we ourselves live as if He lived in us. And it is already clear why "His yoke is sweet and His burden is light." Seek, always seek, tirelessly search for what words He has spoken for you and for you, for there are such words. But beware of being deceived and remember. "Near the transfigured Jesus was not only Elijah, the prophetic spirit, but also Moses, the founder of the Holy Scriptures. And Jesus was transfigured before James, Peter, and John, who were revered as pillars (styloi) of His Church.

But all this is only the ultimate basis, the true duality, which we belittle in empiricism. He who conforms himself to Christ Jesus harmonizes and hierarchically arranges his personal being, just as the moments of the person of Jesus are coordinated. In Him, self-giving of Himself to God is primary, and through God to His brothers and to the whole world. From this "flow" all the "virtues" of Jesus (§ 86), "composing" His Person. Conformity with Him consists in a different individualization of the Universal Christ, by Him, Jesus, who is most perfectly individualized, in the realization under different conditions and in a different concreteness of what He has already accomplished, in the new activity that is set before us in accordance with the spirit of Him. There are no general rules or regulations, nothing abstract, given in advance, for it is not a matter of slavish imitation, but of free, fraternal filial co-education. In the words and deeds of Jesus there is no definite indication of what we should do in this or that case, for he is jealous of our freedom; but in every word and in every deed of Him there is an answer to him who asks Him with love. In the same way, it is impossible to find and should not seek indications of Jesus' attitude to the tasks of our personal, social, and political life, to our states, wars, etc. All this must be resolved by us ourselves in the most inner conformity with Him (§§ 66, 21, 75).

For all the reality of our relationship to Jesus, it is "mediated" (§ 92). Our duality with Him is duality in all-unity (§ 7). On the one hand, duality with Him naturally becomes unity with people, who are also dual with Him. On the other hand, we always communicate with Him through the intermediary of others. In this way, a hierarchy is established according to the degree of mediation and the degree of completeness of real communication. This is the hierarchical system of humanity, fundamentally the Universal Christ, and in opposition to our creation to His Divinity, the Body of Christ or the Church. In its imperfection, humanity (and in it the entire cosmos) is not yet all one in itself and with Christ Jesus, but is only becoming Christ, approaching to the fullness of the Church's existence to varying degrees, dividing into many personalities, hierarchically arranged in themselves and in their relationships. To a small extent, the Church is expressed in all that exists. Imperceptibly and uninterruptedly, it passes to its fullness in the religious existence of mankind, from it to religiosity, which vaguely perceives Christ, anticipates and waits for Jesus. It is fullest of all in those who consciously feel and have the right to confess themselves members of the Body of Christ and who are most really connected with Jesus Christ by the holy sacraments. This earthly Orthodox Church, being the highest individualization and empirical focus of the Perfect Church, is not separated by a clear boundary from other, less perfect individualizations of the Perfect, from the potential-ecclesiastical (§5): so that it is impossible to say where it is not, although it is possible to say where it is. Empirically, the fullness of the Church is no longer realizable, because it has not been realized. Only a greater approximation to it is attainable, however, not by external cutting off everything less ecclesiastical, but only by completing and perfecting it. For in all that exists there is its own specific and irreplaceable, but only potentially ecclesiastical and therefore necessary in the fullness of the Church. Each of its individualizations, no matter how imperfect it may be, not only detracts from the Church's Truth, but is also a potentially special Person of the Church, which cannot but be perfect in the Church. Thus Israel must become a Judeo-Christian church, not by betraying its law, but by obeying it and rejecting only what is known to be erroneous. The misfortune of historical Christianity is that it still does not exist, and that the baptism of the Jews is connected with a depersonalizing renunciation of their law. Thus, the "pagan barren church" must from itself, from its quality, and not outwardly adopting the Jewish or any other foreign law, become true and fruitful. This is the meaning of the words of Paul, the "apostle of the Gentiles," who did not abolish the law for the Jews.

There is no sharp line between the Church proper and the world. The work of the Church is also carried out outside the visible fence of the Church, for it sprouts like a seed (§§ 48, 57). Who can appropriate to himself the mind of the Lord, who alone knows all His faithful and alone sees the soul of the crucified thief? Can we say who and how else will come to Christ, that is, already with Him in His Church? Nevertheless, the establishment of the Church is also the cutting off of the saved from the stagnant in sin, for it can be said where the Church is. Empirically, the Church defines and separates the world from herself, gathering in herself not only "internally" – by a true connection with Jesus Christ, but also "externally" (although she does not judge the external) – by the sacraments, hierarchy, and way of life. The sacrament of baptism, in which, through the realization of the approaching Kingdom of Heaven and repentance (which is universally realized both in baptism and in the sacrament of repentance), the absolution of sins takes place, i.e. the overcoming of ultimacy (§ 87), removes man from the sinful limitation of the world (§§ 78 ff, 85 ff, 71). In baptism "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit descends upon man as upon the newborn of God through the redemptive death of Christ, the Holy Spirit who gives life and perfects him, and man acquires personal existence and the foundation of his spirituality and soul-body, which is confirmed by the naming and the sacrament of chrismation (dissolved with baptism in Catholicism! cf. § 44 f.). Having immersed himself in the element sanctified by the Holy Spirit and having risen from it, man begins his new life in God, that life which the baptism of fire gives to those who have not accepted the "baptism of water unto repentance." "John answered everyone: 'I baptize you with water, but the One Who is stronger than me is coming... He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire. His shovel is in His hand, and He will cleanse His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His garner, and the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire" (Lk. III, 16 el.; Mf. III, 11 el.; cf. I Cor. III, 12 el. — instead of the traditional comparison with Acts. I, 5: — «… whoever has a work burned will suffer loss; however, he himself will be saved, but as if from fire." Wed. §§ 77–79, 74, 60).

If the Perfect Church is the all-unity of those who have perfected their individualizations, among whom the earthly Church of Christ is the first of all, then this earthly Church is also a symphony of its individualizations. It is not an indifferent unity, not an abstract "general" obtained minus everything individual: Byzantine, Roman Catholic, Protestant-Germanic, etc., not an "international", a dead thought of the living dead. Having arisen empirically on the day of Pentecost, affirmed on the "third pillars" – James, Peter, John – it is first of all individualized as "catholic and apostolic" in the Ancient Universal Church. After the separation of heresies from it, and especially after the proud separation of the Church of Rome (§ 89), does it continue its earthly existence, on the one hand and most importantly, in the truly and only Universal Church, in the Orthodox Church, by the main and primary individualization? which is now the Russian Church, the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called, on the other hand, in the churches that have separated from the fullness of unity and are therefore sinfully diminished, among which the Church of Rome rises. The Church is empirically incomplete and limited, remaining immaculately universal only in Orthodoxy. However, all its individualizations are equally necessary, although they must overcome their diminution into a™ spirit of unity and love: not by the establishment of an abstract unity or the subordination of the many who are impersonal to one of all, but by agreement, by the conciliar principle. But the local churches are also real only as symphonic all-unities: as conciliar personalities. Where two or three are truly gathered in the name of Christ Jesus, there He is in the midst of them, and in Him is the Universal Church, her special person, and herself. In a sense, every Orthodox expresses the Universal Church, which is why even one St. Maximus the Confessor could defend the Universal Truth.

In its fullness, the earthly Universal Church is the real unity of Christians with Jesus, the most perfect empirically man and God. Unity with Him is also unity with the Most-Pure Virgin, in whom the Church is most perfectly expressed on earth as the Body of Christ (§ 84). Through our humanity, through corporeality and femininity, we are united with Jesus the God-Man, and in following Him we are born of God. For this reason the Church arises on earth, and the Holy Spirit descends in tongues of fire, dividing when the Apostles "abide with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and with His brethren" (Acts 1-11; Lk. XXIV, 49).

94. Conforming to Jesus, by realizing duality with Him, perfects man. This perfection, by virtue of the inseparably unmerged unity of divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ, is also the deification of man. Man is given something new, "grace-filled", at the same time freely accepted by him, as if created by him. Moreover: "Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature: the old things have passed away, and now all things are new" (II Cor. V, 17; cf. Ephesus. I, 6; Rome. V, 15). A new – strictly speaking: the only true – grace-filled creation of a free man takes place, i.e. his free movement towards God's existence (§ 14); man is born of God.

Благодать Божия, поскольку она осуществляется в человеке, осуществляется им чрез Иисуса, коему сопричастны все единые с Ним (§ 7). И дарует ее Иисус непосредственно, хотя и чрез посредство многих, как бы связующих данного человека с Ним непрерывною связью (§ 93). Таким образом единство с Иисусом всегда есть некоторая устремленная к всеединству и обоснованная всеединством согласованность с Ним, симфоническое или соборное единство, живое — раскрывающее и движущее себя к совершенству (§ 91). Греховного или перстного Адама, как все–единой личности, нет (§ 52): человечество изначала себя обезглавило, и глава Адамова у подножия Креста. Небесный же Адам, истинно–всеединый Христос, «нововозглавляет» род человеческий, пречистою Своею кровью омывая главу Адама. Но в несовершенном бытии истинное всеединство только становит–с я. Оно разъединено на идеальное единство и реальную иерархическую систему — осуществляется в соборном единстве Церкви, венчаемой «архиереем» Иисусом Христом.

Положение в Церкви всякого ее члена определяется степенью близости его к Иисусу. Но в разъединенном мире эта близость необходимо обнаруживается разъединение — в разных качествах, во многих иерархиях (§ 93). Из них особым и первенствующим значением обладает иерархия, построенная на различиях реального единства с благодатствующею деятельностью Иисуса Христа, иерархия благодати. Она не обусловлена другими иерархическими рядами, в частности — иерархиею религиозно–нравственного совершенства, ведомою лишь Богу, хотя более всего связана именно с нею. — Все — дар Божий, и бесчисленны дары Святого Духа. Но, так как Сам Иисус «обложен немощью» и эмпирически осуществляет Свое всеединство только как иерархическую согласованность Своих ка–чествований (§ 53), должно различать благодатные дары или «харис–мы» по их эмпирическому значению и во главу всего поставить «собственно–церковные», т. е. связанные с благодатным обожением человека — с отношением его к Иисусу Христу, к Боговоплощению, к преодолению греховной ограниченности, — харисмы и иерархию, ими определяемую.

Облагодатствование человека объемлет все человеческое естество: и «душу» и «тело», без которого души нет (§§ 34 ел., 83).

С другой стороны, оно не является фактом эмпирического, «естественного» бытия, хотя его преображает. В действительности есть видимое и осязаемое, но есть и тайное, сокровенное от «естественного» постижения и постигаемое лишь верою, так что «естественное» становится «символом», т. е. — реально содержащим в себе высшее. Всякое действие благодати и есть такая мистерия, таинство, чудо.

Современная мысль, рабствуя позитивистической вере, склон–на толковать чудо, как факт «потустороннего», «сверхъестественного» порядка, нисколько не отражающийся на неумолимом течении «законов природы». Иные согласны еще допустить, что чудо — явление духовного мира. Но «естественное духовное бытие», если такое вообще есть, тоже подзаконно: в нем чудо допустимо не более, чем в мире физическом. Озарение ума светом Божьей благодати не менее сверхъестественно, не менее чудесно, чем чудо Иисуса Навина. К тому же, на несчастье подобным теологам, в основе христианства лежит вовсе не «духовное чудо», а — Боговоплощение. Так что старушка–богомолка понимает в чудесах больше, чем ученые теологи.