Homily for the fifth week of Great Lent

 And  so,  dear  brethren,  we  have  reached  the  fifth  Sunday  of  the  Great  Lent.  Today  the  Holy  Church  offers  us  St. Mary  of  Egypt  as  a  supreme  example  of  repentance.  Not  everyone  is  able  to  understand  why,  precisely,  the  Church  has  chosen  her.  “She  led  a  most  sinful  life,”  -  they  say,  -  “she  was  a  terrible  sinner.”  But  such  words  can  be  said  only  by  those  who  have  not  yet  come  to  understand  the  sacrament  of  penitence.

 Let  us  carefully  consider  this  extraordinary  sacrament.  Let  us  first  look  at  how  it  is  revealed  to  us  in  the  example  of  the  venerable  Mary.  St. Mary  of  Egypt  led  a  dissolute  way  of  life.  Arriving  in  Jerusalem,  even  there  she  continued  to  engage  in  debauchery.  But  when  she  wanted  to  go  into  the  church  and  venerate  the  Lord’s  precious  Cross,  she  was  barred  from  entering.  Gradually  she  understood  why  that  was  happening  and  began  weeping  bitterly.  Catching  sight  of  an  icon  of  the  Mother  of  God,  she  prayed  to  it,  repented  her  way  of  life  and  vowed,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  to  reform  her  life.

 At  first  glance  it  may  seem  an  easy  thing  to  do.  However,  let  us  think,  dear  brethren:   how  many  of  us  have  truly  repented  our  sins?  The Church  calls  us  to  penitence  and  communion.  And  so  we  go,  and  we  confess  our  sins,  and  we  partake  of  the  Holy  Mysteries.  But… during  confession,  do  we  truly  repent?  or  do  we  only  list  our  sins?

 It  is  easy  to  go  to  confession.  When  we  stand  before  the  priest,  there  is  usually  a  list  of  sins  available.  We  can  look  at  it  and  be  reminded  of  our  sins.  An  experienced  priest  will  be  able  to  help  us  by  suggesting  possible  sins  that  we  may  have  committed.  At  the  end  of  confession  the  priest  asks  us:   do  we  repent  of  our  sins?  Note  the  question,  dear  brethren!  We  are  not  asked:   have  you  confessed  your  sins?   But  -  do  you  repent  of  your  sins?  And  when  we  answer:   yes,  I  repent,  -  we  must  feel  complete  remorse  in  our  hearts  and  truly  repent,  repent  in  the  same  way  that  Mary  of  Egypt  repented  her  sinful  life.

 At  least  once  in  our  lifetime  we  receive  encouragement  towards  penitence.  Mary  of  Egypt  was  barred  from  entering  the  church.  She  understood  the  reason  and  spent  the  following  47  years  in  penitence.  For  us  the  doors  of  the  church  are  not  closed;   however,  we  close  them  ourselves.  “How  is  that?”  -  you  may  well  ask.  -  “I  go  to  church,  I  confess,  I  take  communion.”  Dear  brethren!  If  we,  knowing  that  a  service  is  going  on  in  church,  go  out  to  amuse  ourselves  instead,  or  sit  around  the  house  in  idleness,  or  if  we,  having  taken  communion,  immediately  begin  to  pass  judgment  on  others  and  commit  anew  the  sins  that  we  have  just  confessed,  -  we  close  the  doors  of  the  church  upon  ourselves.  Even  if  we  enter  the  church  physically,  our  constant  and  unrepented  sins  bar  from  our  souls  the  grace,  the  purity,  the  comfort  which  we  expect  to  receive  in  church.

 We  must  understand  the  sacrament  of  penitence  and  immerse  ourselves  fully  in  it.  After  St. Mary  of  Egypt  realized  her  sins  and  her  guilt,  the  Holy  Virgin  led  her  out  of  society  into  the  desert,  where  she  became  completely  immersed  in  repentance  and  spent  many  years  in  this  spiritual  labor.  For  her  absolute  repentance,  her  soul  was  totally  healed  and  she  ascended  to  a  level  of  absolute  sanctity.  When  the  venerable  Zosimas  found  her  in  the  desert,  she  was  waiting  for  him.  She  had  become  like  the  angels.

 St. Mary  actually  confessed  only  three  times  in  her  life:   the  first  time  -  before  the  icon  of  the  Mother  of  God,  when  she  became  aware  of  her  sins;   the  second  time  -  in  church  before  her  departure  for  the  desert;   and  the  last  time  -  to  the  elder  Zosimas,  when  she  recounted  her  life  to  him.  But  she  repented  for  47  years.  Through  her  penitence  she  so  purified  her  soul,  returned  both  her  soul  and  her  body  to  such  a  paradisiacal  state,  that  she  lay  dead  in  the  desert  for  a  whole  year,  untouched  by  corruption,  or  beasts,  or  the  burning  sun,  or  the  windswept  sands,  and  when  the  elder  Zosimas  found  her,  a  lion  came  out  of  the  desert  and  helped  bury  her.  Thus  the  Lord  Himself  glorified  her  and  gave  her  to  us  as  an  example  of  supreme  repentance.  

        Five  weeks  of  the  Great  Lent  have  passed  already,  dear  brethren.  Let  us  ask  ourselves:   have  I  begun  to  repent  as  Mary  of  Egypt  once  repented?  Have  I  become  aware  of  my  sins?  Have  I  truly  understood  them  and  have  I  repented  of  them  with  a  sincere  intention  of  reforming  myself?  Let  us  not  come  to  confession  simply  to  list  our  sins,  dear  brethren,  but  let  us  come  and  repent  of  them  in  all  earnestness,  let  us  purify  our  hearts,  so  that  we  could  truly  sing:   “The  angels  sing  in  the  heavens  of  Thy  Resurrection,  O  Christ  our  Saviour,  and  may  we  on  earth  glorify  Thee  with  a  pure  heart.”  Amen.

Father Rostislav Sheniloff

* * *

The time came for the appearance of Christ the Saviour in the world. There were no more princes of Judah left, and the throne of David was occupied by Herod, an Idumean. The decades foretold by Daniel, which indicated the exact time when Christ was to be born, had come to pass. The promise of a Saviour was safeguarded not only among the chosen people, but the pagans also eagerly awaited the arrival of a great messenger from heaven. This was like the early dawn, when the sun had not yet risen, but its glimmering was already dispersing the darkness.

The glorious event of the Annunciation, as described by the holy Evangelist Luke, mentions only its high points. It is very unlikely that the holy Archangel Gabriel appeared and said only the few words reported to us by St. Luke. The Evangelist mentions the most important points, as the entire Gospel generally speaks only of the most important things, because it is said there that if one were to write down all that the Lord Jesus Christ said and did, the whole world could not contain such a vast number of books.

However, the tradition of the Holy Church, together with the writings of the Holy Fathers, have provided us with some additional details of this great event.

In the Holy Land, in the city of Nazareth, there is a certain well to which the Holy Virgin used to go when She was still a young maiden, to draw water as was customary in those times. It is here, at this well, that She once heard a voice saying: “Thou shalt give birth to My Son.” She alone heard this voice. Who said those words? Obviously they were spoken by the One Whose Son was to be born from Her, i.e. by God the Father Himself. And although the words were for Her alone, whenever creation hears the voice of its Creator and Master, it trembles. And thus Her virginal and pure soul began to tremble. In trembling and fear She returned home, and in order to somehow calm Her soul She engaged in Her favorite pastime – the reading of the Holy Scriptures.

However, when She opened the book and began to read, She came upon the passage in Prophet Isaiah which speaks of the Saviour being born of a Virgin.

But so profound was Her divine and fragrant modesty, that despite the words She had heard at the well She never thought of applying this prophecy to Herself, but after having read of the Saviour’s birth from a Virgin She thought very simply: “How happy I would be to be even the lowest servant of this Most-blessed Virgin!” And at this point the Archangel Gabriel appeared before Her, and She heard his words: “Hail, Thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with Thee: blessed art Thou among women!” We know from Her life that the appearance of an angel was nothing new for Her. Angels had appeared to Her many times before while She was living at the temple, but the words which She heard this time disconcerted Her. She started pondering what such a greeting could mean. And She heard the Archangel continue speaking to Her: “Fear not, Mary, for Thou hast found favor with God. Thou shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.”

The church service for this feast has retained the touching tradition that the Archangel’s words were more detailed, and that seeing Her agitation the holy Archangel Gabriel said to the Virgin: “Why dost Thou fear me, Why dost Thou tremble before me, O Mistress, before Whom I myself tremble… I myself stand before Thee in pious awe!”

The Most-holy Virgin believed the Archangel’s words and therefore did not demand any signs from him, as had the high priest Zacharias when he was told of the forthcoming birth of his son (St. John the Baptist). But Her invariable love of chastity encouraged Her to ask the Archangel: “How shall this be, seeing that I know not a man?”

In order to understand this question correctly, one must know that Mary had previously given the promise to remain virginal all Her life, for if She were not bound by such a promise, and was engaged to a man, what reason would She have to question the possibility of bearing a son? But when the Archangel said to Her: “The Holy Spirit shall come upon Thee, and the power of the Highest shall over-shadow Thee,” She understood that this would be a supernatural birth, and quieting down, She said those wondrous words which St. Philaret of Moscow called “glad tidings from earth to heaven”!

The feast of the Annunciation combines two concepts which are incompatible in earthly terms: glad tidings from heaven to earth and reciprocal glad tidings from earth to heaven through the Holy Virgin’s humility. She replied: “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord; be it unto Me according to thy word,” i.e. I am the Lord’s handmaiden, and a handmaiden does not question the Master’s actions, but only submits to His will and follows it.

Humility, total obedience, and complete loyalty to God’s will – such was required in order to achieve total salvation of fallen mankind.

Let this be a lesson to all of us for all time: the humility of the Most-holy Virgin, which at first impeded Her acceptance of the tidings that She would become the Mother of God, and Her obedience to God, which led Her to aver that She was the Lord’s handmaiden and would accept all that would happen to Her in accordance with the tidings of the heavenly messenger. Amen.

Protopriest Igor Hrebinka

Christ is risen!

He  has  become  the  conqueror  of  death.  But  we  ask  ourselves  now:   whom  has  the  risen  Lord  freed  by  His  victory  over  sin  and  death?  People  of  only  one  nation,  or  one  race?  People  of  one  class  or  social  position?  Not  at  all!  Such  a  freeing  would,  in  essence,  be  the  selfish  victory  of  earthly  conquerors.  The  Lord  is  not  called  “Lover  of  the  Jews,”  or  “Lover  of  the  Greeks,”  or  “Lover  of  the  poor,”  or  “Lover  of  the  aristocrats,”  but  “Lover  of  mankind.” He  intended  His  victory  to  be  for  all  men,  with  no  consideration  of  the  differences  that  men  set  up  among  themselves.  He  won  His  victory  for  the  good  and  the  help  of  all  created  men,  and  has  offered  it  to  them  all.  To  those  who  accept  this  victory  and  make  it  their  own,  He  has  promised  eternal  life  and  co-inheritance  in  the Heavenly  Realm.  He  imposes  this  victory  upon  no  one,  even  though  it  cost  so  dearly, but  leaves  men  free  to  make  it  their  own  or  not.  As  man  in  Paradise  freely  chose  the  fall,  death  and  sin  at  the  hands  of  Satan,  so  he  is  now  free  to  choose  life  and  salvation  at  the  hands  of  God  the  Victor.  Christ’s  victory  is  a  balm,  a  life-giving  balm,  for  all  men,  all  having  become  leprous  from  sin  and  death.

 This  balm  makes  the  sick  well,  and  the  well  even  healthier.

 This  balm  raises  the  dead  and  gives  fuller  life  to  the  living.

 This  balm  makes  a  man  wise,  it  ennobles  him  and  makes  him  divine;   it  increases  his  strength  a  hundredfold,  a  thousandfold,  and  it  raises  his  dignity  far  above  all  other  nature,  in  its  weakened  state,  even  to  the  resplendence  and  beauty  of  God’s  angels  and  archangels…

 Come  then,  all  of  you,  my  brethren,  who  fear  death.  Come  closer  to  Christ  the  Risen  and  the  Raiser,  and  He  will  free  you  from  death  and  the  fear  of  death.

 Come  all  of  you  who  live  under  the  shame  of  your  open  and  secret  sins.  Draw  nearer  to  the  living  Fount  that  washes  and  cleanses,  and  that  can  make  the  blackest  vessel  whiter  than  snow…

 Bow  down  before  Him  in  body  and  soul.  Unite  yourself  with  Him  with  all  mind  and  thoughts.  Embrace  Him  with  all  your  heart.  Do  not  worship  the  enslaver,  but  the  Liberator;   do  not  unite  yourself  to  the  destroyer,  but  to  the  Saviour;   do  not  embrace  the  stranger,  but  rather  your  closest  Kinsman  and  your  dearest  Friend.

 The  risen  Lord  is  the  wonder  of  wonders;   but  He  is,  while  being  the  wonder  of  wonders,  of  the  same  nature  as  you  are  -  of  real  human  nature,  the  original  nature  that  was  Adam’s  in  Paradise.  True  human  nature  was  not  created  to  be  enslaved  to  the  irrational  nature  that  surrounds  it,  but  to  govern  nature  by  its  power.  Neither  is  man’s  true  nature  manifested  in  worthlessness,  sickness,  mortality  and  sinfulness,  but  in  glory  and  health,  in  immortality  and  sinlessness.

 The  risen  Lord  has  torn  down  the  curtain  that  divided  true  Godhead  from  true  humanity,  and  has  shown  us  in  Himself  the  greatness  and  beauty  of  the  one  and  the  other.  No  man  can  know  the  true  God  except  through  the  risen  Lord  Jesus;   neither  can  any  man  know  true  man  except  through  Him  alone.

Christ is  risen, my  brethren!

Nikolai Velimirovich,  Bishop  of  Ochrid

Christ is risen!

        The  joyous  days  of  the  bright  paschal  week  have  passed.

 The  Church  has  closed  the  royal  doors  of  its  altars  and  has  directed  our  mind’s  and  heart’s  gaze  towards  seeing  how  the  world  accepted  the  news  of  Christ’s  Resurrection.

 And  the  first  image  that  the  Church  offers  to  us  is  the  image  of  the  doubting  Thomas.

 The  great  and  incomprehensible  truth  of  Christ’s  Resurrection  could  not  be  grasped  by  the  mind  of  man,  and  thus  could  truly  become  for  him  a  stumbling  block  and  a  source  of  incredulity.    But  at  this  point  the  nature  of  disbelief  is  revealed  to  us.

 “Usually,”  -  says  a  Christian  philosopher,  -  “truths  of  faith  are  rejected  in  advance  not  because  of  coarseness  of  mind,  but  because  of   corruption  of  the  will.  There  is  no  heartfelt  attraction  towards  such  objects  as  God,  salvation  of  the  soul,  resurrection  of  the  body;   there  is  no  desire  to  have  such  truths  truly  exist  or,  at  the  least,  to  regard  them  seriously…   Such  disbelief,  essentially  uncertain  of  itself  and,  therefore,  more  or  less  set  against  the  objects  whose  existence  it  denies,  -  gives  itself  away  through  this  hostility,  since  one  cannot  really  be  set  against  that  which  does  not  exist  at  all,  -  such  disbelief  is  unscrupulous…”   But  the  disbelief,  or  rather  the  doubt,  of  Apostle  Thomas  was  quite  different.  He  wanted  to  believe,  he  tried  to  believe,  he  sought  confirmation  of  his  belief.

 And  Christ  the  Saviour,  Who  never  appeared  amid  offensive  and  stubborn  disbelief,  condescended  to  Thomas’  frailty  and  personally  con-firmed  His  resurrection  to  him.

 This  image  is  quite  instructional  for  all  of  us  of  course,  but  it  is  especially  relevant  to  those  who  suffer  disbelief,  who  are  tortured  by  a  weak  and  shaky  faith.

 Above  all  we  must  guard  ourselves  against  allowing  our  sinful  will  to  seek  an  outlet  for  itself  in  this  spiritual  frailty.  After  all,  it  is  much  easier  to  live  without  faith.  Faith  requires  intense  pressure,  requires  spiritual  labor,  while  disbelief  unties  one’s  hands  for  many  things.  

 Thus,  brother  Christian,  if  you  feel  that  your  faith  is  becoming  scarce,  realize  that  the  cause  of  this  lies  not  in  the  objects  of  faith,  but  in  your  own  limitations.  And  if  you  understand  this,  then  God  will  enlighten  you  as  He  had  enlightened  Apostle  Thomas,  and  will  condescend  to  you  as  He  had  condescended  to  the  latter’s  frailty.  Amen.

Hieromonk  Methodius

The spiritual labor of non-condemnation

The venerable  Maxim  the  Confessor  says:  “Should  we  not  tremble,  hearing  how  God  the  Father,  without  judging  anyone  Himself,  ‘hath  committed  all  judgment  unto  the  Son’  (John 5:22)  And  the  Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  says  to  us:   ‘Judge  not,  and  ye  shall  not  be  judged’  (Luke 6:37).  Similarly  Apostle  Paul  says:   ‘Therefore  judge  nothing  before  the  time,  until  the  Lord  comes’  (1 Cor. 4:5),  and  again:   ‘ for  wherein  thou judgest  another,  thou  condemnest  thyself’  (Rom. 2:1).  I  tell  you,  it  is  so:   for  men,  having  ceased  to  weep  over  their  own  sins,  have  taken  the  judgment  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Son,  and  judge  and  condemn  each  other  as  though  they  themselves  were  sinless!  Truly  this  frightens  the  heavens  and  makes  the  earth  tremble.”

 Centuries  pass,  yet  men  still  stand  before  this  unassailable  wall  of  condemnation  and  are  unable  to  overcome  it.  Adam,  justifying  himself  in  paradise  before  God,  condemned  Eve;  Cain,  having  condemned  his  brother  Abel  in  his  heart,  killed  him;   the  sin  of  condemnation  led  the  Jews  to  kill  the  Messiah;   and  we,  modern  Cainites  and  Pharisees,  are  pushed  by  condemnation  to  a  daily  spiritual  execution  of  our  brothers.

 Judgment  tortures  the  doers  of  it  themselves,  takes  away  their  peace  of  mind,  forces  them  to  continuously  monitor  the  actions  of  those  around  them,  and  poisons  their  souls  with  the  bitter  poison  of  suspicion.

 An  elder  once  said:   “It  is  easy  to  step  unto  the   path  of  salvation:   you  must  only  firmly  decide  that  from  this  moment  you  will  no  longer  judge  anyone.”  We  can  understand  these  words  with  our  mind,  but  how  do  we  actually  accomplish  them?  For  this  we  must  understand  why  we  judge  others.  The  reason  lies  in  our  false  self-evaluation:   he  judges  others,  who  feels  that  he  has  a  right  to  judge,  who  places  himself  higher  than  others,  who  sees  himself  blameless  of  the  sins  of  which  he  accuses  others.  Whoever  is  not  aware  of  his  own  spiritual  corruption,  will  never  cease  to  judge  others.

        But  we  are  all  tarnished  by  sin,  we  all  agonize  over  our  corruption,  we  all  hope  for  deliverance  in  eternal  life,  we  all  have  need  of  Divine  aid.  Again  we  know  all  this  theoretically,  but  in  practice  it  is  painfully  difficult  to  refrain  from  judgment;   we  yearn  to  judge  others.  Why?  Because  judgment  has  become  a  passion  with  us  and,  like  all  vices,  it  gives  us  demonic  pleasure,  a  shiver  of  prideful  delight.  How  “delightful”  to  judge  someone  in  the  course  of  a  friendly  conversation,  to  laugh  at  another’s  deficiencies…   But  do  we  not  heed  the  warning  of  the  Gospel  that  some  day  we  will  have  to  answer  for  every single word we  utter,  and  that  includes  this  false  delight  which  is  based  on  condemnation?

 The  struggle  against  the  vice  of  judgment,  like  any  other  vice,  cannot  be  theoretical;   it  must  take  place  every  day,  every  minute,  throughout  one’s  entire  life;  it  must  be  based  on  forcing  oneself  to  be  attentive  to  all  one’s  words  and  thoughts.  In  other  words,  we  cannot  do  without  spiritual  labor.

 But  of  what  should  this  spiritual  endeavor  consist  in  such  a  case?  In  monitoring  oneself  with  utmost  attention  throughout  all  the  various  circumstances  of  life.  Moreover,  we  will  soon  notice  that,  in  the  course  of  the  day,  occasions  for  judgment  surround  us  like  invisible  underwater  reefs  and  threaten  to  destroy  the  ship  of  our  soul.  However,  with  God’s  help,  we  will  gradually  learn  to  avoid  collision  with  these  underwater  reefs:   where  we  formerly  became  irritated  -  we  will  remain  calm;   where  we  became  angry  -  we  will  remain  silent;   where  we  tried  to  justify  ourselves  -  we  will  remain  humble;   where  we  judged  others  -  we  will  pray  for  them  and  for  ourselves,  in  order  to  avoid  similar  sins.

 Very  soon  we  will  notice  that  our  soul,  no  longer  burdened  by  judgment,  will  experience  genuine  spiritual  joy  and  lightness;  and  that  is  only  natural,  since  the  yoke  of  the  sins  of  others  will  no  longer  oppress  us.

 Just  as  judgment  attracts  other  vices:   anger,  quarreling,  enmity,  so  a  victory  over  condemnation  opens  the  way  to  other  virtues:   pure  prayer, tranquility,  a  true  evaluation  of  one’s  sins.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  demons  do  their  best  to  ensnare  the  soul  into  the   nets  of  judgment,  and  to  hinder  its  liberation  from  this  vice.  In  turn  we,  too,  have  no  right  to  delay  our  struggle  with  judgment  for  the  same  reason,  but  must  immediately  begin  to  watch  ourselves  attentively.

 “To  watch  oneself”  is  the  golden  rule  of  Christian  morality,  which  -  alas!  -  is  so  often  neglected  by  Christians.  How  much  effort  we  spend  on  external  activities  and  how  little  energy  we  save  for  the  task  of   monitoring  ourselves.  And  yet,  without  this  internal  endeavor,  nothing  external  will  ever  lead  us  to  salvation…

 Saint  Seraphim  of  Sarov  said  that  the  goal  of  Christian  life  is  the  acquisition  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  to  attain  this  goal  we  must  step  onto  the  path  of  a  spiritual  struggle  with  passions,  and  with  God’s  help,  overcome  them  one  by  one.  But  we  can  begin  the  battle  with  this  same  passion  for  judgment.

 Let  us  remember  the  words  of  the  elder:   “It  is  easy  to  step  unto  the   path  of  salvation:   you  must  only  firmly  decide  that  from  this  moment  you  will  no  longer  judge  anyone.”  

Monk Vsevolod (Filipyev)
(Reprinted from “Orthodox Russia,” No. 20, 2002)

Saint  Tikhon  the  Confessor,  Patriarch  of Moscow.

        On  April  7th  (March  25th,  old  style),  on  the  day  of  the  feast  of  the  Annunciation,  the  Church  also  commemorates  Saint  Tikhon  the  Confessor,  Patriarch  of  Moscow.

        The  holy  Patriarch  Tikhon  was  born  in  1865  in  the  Pskov  province,  in  the  family  of  a  priest.  While  studying  first  in  the  Pskov  Seminary,  and  later  in  the  St. Petersburg  Spiritual  Academy,  the  saint  became  the  object  of  universal  love  for  his  deep  religiousness,  his  affectionate  nature  and  his  readiness  to  help  his  friends.  After  becoming  a  monastic  and  gradually  reaching  the  rank  of  archbishop,  St. Tikhon  was  an  industrious  and  beloved  pastor  of  several  archbishoprics  before  being  elected  to  the  Moscow  cathedra.  Soon  all  of  Moscow  came  to  know  and  love  its  affectionate  and  readily-accessible  archbishop,  which  subsequently  played  an  important  role  when  the  entire  populace  came  out  to  guard  him  from  the  Communists.

 At  the  Holy  Sobor  in  Moscow  in  1918,  St.  Tikhon  was  elected  the  first  Patriarch  of  Russia  after  a  217-year  hiatus.  Taking  upon  himself  the  martyric  feat  of  Church  rule  at  a  time  of  cruel  persecution,  St. Tikhon  fearlessly  looked  after  the  needs  of  his  flock,  and  the  Russian  people,  who  had  just  lost  their  Tsar,  acquired  in  the  Patriarch  a  true  spiritual  father.  St. Tikhon  saved  the  Church  from  the  Renovationist  heresy,  anathematized  the  Church’s  persecutors  and  clearly  showed  the  falsehood  of  entering  into  a  compromise  with  the  godless  authorities.

 The  fearless  confessor  died  on  March  25,  1925.

XII. The Mystery of the Union of the Divine and Human Nature in the One Person of our Lord Jesus Christ

The humanity of Jesus Christ does not have a separate individuality in our Saviour, does not constitute a separate hypostasis, but has been incorporated by His Divinity into the unity of His Divine Hypostasis or Person.

“The Hypostasis of God the Word became incarnated, taking on from the Virgin the foundation of our nature, i.e. flesh, animated by a vocal and rational soul, and through this assimilation of flesh the Hypostasis of God the Word also became the hypostasis of the flesh,” – says St. John Damascene. “The Hypostasis of God the Word,” – continues to reason St. John Damascene, – having become the hypostasis of two natures, does not allow one of the natures to become hypostasis-less, but at the same time it does not allow the two natures to be hetero-hypostatic. The Hypostasis of God the Word does not become the hypostasis of first one and then the other nature, but remains the inseparable and indivisible hypostasis of both natures. Jesus Christ is a single Divine Person, unilaterally perceiving Himself in the duality of His natures. Christ is the true Emmanuel, the God-man.”

This is why the Holy Scripture calls the single Person of Jesus Christ sometimes God, sometimes man, sometimes the Son of man, sometimes the Son of God. It now becomes understandable why human traits are sometimes attributed to Christ as God, or Divine traits attributed to Him as man.

In speaking of Christ as God, Apostle Paul has in mind His human nature, while in speaking of Him as man, he has in mind His Divinity: “But we preach the wisdom of God, which is a mystery, which is hidden, which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:7-8). In the Acts of the Apostles (3:14-15) we read: “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life, Whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.”

Since God cannot be crucified, nor the Prince of life, i.e. God, be killed, the Lord God, our Saviour, being at the same time man, acquired His Church by means of His blood. All of this speaks of the unity of two natures in the single Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only by positing the organic integrity of the two natures – Divine and human – in the single Person of the Lord may one understand how God – the Absolute Spiritual Origin – was able to acquire His Church by means of His blood. Only by positing the unity of the Hypostasis or Person in Jesus Christ does it become understandable how the Son of man (the Saviour), Who was born in the reign of the Roman Caesar Augustus, existed “even before Abraham was.”

The fact that the Divine and human natures in Christ remain an indivisible and single Hypostasis has been clearly confirmed by the Word of God:

The Evangelist John the Theologian says: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld His glory, the glory as the Only-begotten of the Father” (John 1:14).

In his epistle to the Philippians (2:6-8), Apostle Paul attests that “Christ, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Commenting upon these words, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that they represent a clear teaching of the idea of the perfect unity of hypostasis in Jesus Christ. The Apostle would not have said that the Same One Who is in the form of God, i.e. has a Divine nature, has taken upon Him the form of a servant, if there had been two persons in Christ.

Commenting upon Apostle Paul’s words: “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Gal. 4:4), St. John Damascene and St. Cyril of Jerusalem say: “It is not said ‘made through a woman,’ but ‘made of a woman,’ i.e. God did not enter a man created in advance, but Himself in essence and in fact became man; He Himself became the hypostasis for His flesh.”

Thus, according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, the humanity in Christ did not receive a special hypostasis, did not constitute an independent person, but was received by His Divinity into the unity of His Divine Hypostasis, so that even after incarnation He remained the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.

Even from the point of view of common sense one simply cannot agree with the heretic Nestorius who divided Christ into two persons, because if the Son of God, God the Word, united Himself with the man Christ only mentally and not physically, and dwelled in Christ as He had previously done in Moses and the other prophets, then strictly speaking the incarnation of the Son of God would not have occurred, and then it could not be said that “the Word became flesh,” as the Evangelist John the Theologian confirms; it could not be said that God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.

However, despite the obvious truth of the unity of the Divine and human natures in the single Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, there appeared people who in their desire to philosophize about God more than man is allowed to philosophize, and being carried away by the proof that Christ had two natures, began to assert that Christ also had two persons. There emerged the heretic Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who tried to prove that it was a plain man who was born from the Virgin Mary, and that God the Word became united with him only mentally and not physically.

Having condemned the heresy of Nestorius at the Third Ecumenical Council in Ephesus in 431, the Church Fathers composed a hymn of glorification in honor of the Most-holy Theotokos, and anathematized all those who called Her not the Birth-giver to God, but Birth-giver to Christ or man.

Against the heresy of Nestorius, who posited two persons in Jesus Christ, took up arms Archimandrite Eutyches from a monastery in Constantinople, and became so carried away in proving the unity of hypostases in Christ that he also merged the two natures (Divine and human) into a single nature, thereby laying the foundation for the heresy of Monophysitism, which taught that Christ’s Divinity had engulfed His humanity, i.e. that Christ only had a single Divine nature, and that it was only His Divinity which had been crucified and suffered on the cross under the seeming appearance of flesh.

In order to put an end to such a terrible fallacy, the Fourth Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon in 451 clearly formulated the teaching on the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the following words: “Following the Divine Fathers, we unanimously enjoin you to confess the One and Only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, absolute in Divinity and absolute in humanity; true God and true man; One-in-essence with the Father in Divinity and one-in-essence with us in humanity, and like unto us in all but sin; born before all ages from the Father in Divinity, and in the last days, for the sake of us and our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary Theotokos in humanity; the One and the Same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, having two unmerged, immutable, indivisible, and inseparable natures; not separated or divided into two persons, but One and the Same Only-begotten Son, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the ancient forefathers taught of Him, and as the Lord Jesus Himself taught us.”

Thus despite the fallacies of those who divided Jesus Christ into two persons, the two natures in the single Person of Jesus Christ are joined indivisibly and inseparably, while despite the fallacies of those who taught that Divinity engulfed humanity in Jesus Christ, the Church teaches that the two natures are joined unmerged, immutably, and unalterably.

Even from the point of view of common sense, Divinity cannot change, while human flesh is too weak and limited to subordinate Divinity to itself. Only their absolute integrity, preservation, and immutability could effect our salvation: God could suffer on the cross only through His humanity, while infinite value to His suffering could only be imparted by His Divinity. The Divine and human natures were joined in the Saviour’s single Hypostasis from the moment of His inception in the womb of the Most-holy Virgin Mary. From then on these two natures were never separated and will never be separated. Christ arose with His flesh, ascended into heaven with His flesh, and will once again appear as the Son of man to judge the world, as the Word of God tells us: “When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory” (Matt. 25:31).

In what manner the two natures became conjoined in the single Person of the God-man, in what manner Jesus Christ, absolute God and absolute man, remains a single Divine Person – that is, of course, the greatest supernatural miracle of miracles, unable to be comprehended by the limited human mind, and before which the holy Apostle Paul exclaims with all due humility: “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16).

(To be conluded)

Professor G.A. Znamensky

Life on Earth before Deluge

The culture of Adam’s descendants

Here is what is known about the Obeidian culture, about the culture of Eridu and Ur.

“It is important to note that the temple acknowledged to be the most ancient one in Mesopotamia was discovered in 1948 in Eridu, while Eridu is named in the cuneiform tablets as the first residence of the antediluvian kings” (p.37). The cuneiform source lists ten antediluvian kings/patriarchs, attesting to the fact that Eridu was the first residence of the antediluvian forefathers. Moreover, all cuneiform tables of both Sumer and Babylon always divide history into “before the Deluge” and “after the Deluge.”

The Obeidian potters possessed a more sophisticated technique of clay-processing than the potters of the Halafi culture, since their ceramics were distinguished by a great variety of forms. “The clay was mixed with hay and made into bricks, for the purpose of erecting really fundamental buildings.”

Furthermore, the North Obeidian culture represents a singular and late peripheral variant of the culture of Sumer (which had appeared earlier than in other regions), and it was in Sumer that the North Obeidian culture was first discovered. “In fact, in this culture’s most ancient settlement – Eridu, which according to Sumerian tradition was considered to be the first city of the kings, the ancient ceramics were noticeably different from those of southern Babylon.”

We must note yet another essential detail: the Adamites of the Obeidian (antediluvian) period in Sumer had very beautiful painted ceramic pottery made of calcite, as well as mortars made of basalt and small-grained limestone.

“This is easily explained: there were no solid layers in Sumer suitable for such artifacts, but instead there were primarily various thin clays. Jericho, on the other hand, had rich deposits of crystalline layers: calcite, balsamite, and also dense small-grained limestone.

In Jericho there is an empty four-meter layer lying over the layer of the Natufian (antediluvian) culture, above which lie cultural layers containing fragments of ceramic pottery; this means that after the Deluge people from Sumer came to Jericho and brought with them the tradition of making clay pottery. This data allows us to say with certainty that Adamites lived in Jericho and were destroyed there during the Deluge. In Jericho there is a complete break between the Natufian culture and the empty four-meter layer and the layer above, and thus archaeologist Robert Braidwood, who conducted explorations there, believes that the Neolithic culture of Jericho (i.e. the one lying above the empty layer) cannot have issued from the Mesolithic Natufian culture (Gordon Childe, The Most Ancient Near East).

The cultures are provisionally called Neolithic and Mesolithic, in order to denote the epoch and not the stone industry, as is done in Europe.

From whence arose the high culture of the first most ancient settlements in mankind’s ancestral homeland? Gordon Childe does not write about this. It is naturally hard for a scientist reared on firmly entrenched views of man’s evolutionary provenance to explain the sudden appearance of the high culture of the Proto-Obeidian period by its having been brought in “from somewhere.” Who and from where is unknown. An atheist brain cannot think otherwise. To presume that the high culture of the Adamites was worthily preserved by Adam’s family, his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, for Gordon Childe was unthinkable.

Interestingly enough, the Sumerians themselves believed that they came from Delmun, which was located somewhere on the shores of the Persian Gulf, in other words on the territory of Paradise; by the time that written language appeared after the Deluge, the location of Paradise was erased from human memory, and only an approximate idea of it remained.

Thus all the most ancient cultures Halaf, Sumer, and Khasum were offshoots of a single common root – Eridu.

Despite the fact that we do not yet possess complete archaeological data, we may still have a fairly reliable idea of the culture of the Adamites and of the first-created Adam himself.

Adam lived on the shores of the sea, and all his closest descendants founded cities on the shores of the sea, close to each other. They had boats, caught fish, bred cattle, and with great difficulty tilled the earth.

Here is what Gordon Childe writes: “The lands of the Obeidian culture were annually enriched by new deposits of silt, but the exploitation of this natural paradise, this primeval Eden, demanded intense work and the organized cooperation of a great number of people. Arable land literally had to be created out of the chaos of marshes and sandbars” (p. 180).

This fully accords with what God said to Adam: “In sorrow shalt thou eat of it (the earth) all the days of thy life. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (Gen. 3:17-19).

The suitability of the terrain for agriculture became the decisive factor for human settlements. In fact, we will subsequently see that the first civilizations arose in the valleys of the fertile lands of Euphrates and Tigris, Jordan and Nile, along the so-called “fertile crescent” of the Middle East. The other areas were deserts or mountainous regions unsuitable for the first agriculturalists.

The arid climate of these regions forced the residents to make use of irrigation canals and the flooding of the rivers, which each year brought in a new layer of silt.

The Adamites lived in tents or simple adobe homes made of unfired bricks. No caves were found in the area of these cities.

According to the Bible, Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle (Gen. 4:20).

The Adamites had strongly developed arts: they used paints, made colored ornamented pottery and even mosaics, and they had their own music and singing. The only thing they did not know was high technology, but at their level of knowledge it was not even needed.

Of their spiritual culture we may judge only from the Biblical narrative, although archaeology has not produced any information whatsoever that would raise doubt of their profound religious knowledge of the True God. Paganism appeared much later, after the Deluge, among the descendants of Ham who had intermixed with Semites in the Ninevehian and Babylonian cultures.

Adam lived for almost one thousand years, and all the people heard his account of God, the Creator of heaven and earth, of Paradise, of the Fall, of the expulsion from Paradise, of the fiery Cherubim, of the devil, of the fact that a time will come when Adam’s Descendant will strike the devil’s head, and of hope in the afterlife. Were there some among Adam’s descendants with a burnt conscience like Cain’s? Of course there were, and they were apparently becoming more and more numerous, the earth was becoming full of their iniquities, and when sons were born to Noah, God said to Noah about these evildoers: “Behold, I will destroy them from the face of the earth” (Gen. 6:13) – (this was when Noah’s father and grandfather had already died) – “but with thee will I establish My covenant” (Gen. 6:18).

The great antediluvian forefathers lived for over 900 years, but this does not mean that absolutely all Adamites lived so long. Longevity was granted to the righteous as a reward. To depraved people the Lord said: “Their days shall be 120 years” (Gen. 6:3).

After the Deluge even the lives of the righteous became curtailed. Shem lived for 600 years, his sons and grandsons lived for 400-300 years, and afterwards longevity gradually diminished. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived for about 150 years.

(To be continued)

Protopriest Stefan Lyashevsky

CHRIST IS RISEN!

The night still waited for the gift of grace –

A night of mysteries and earthly woes.

A host of stars sailed through the boundless space,

Filling the quiet with their sparkling glow.

Still silent were the celestial lyres’ strains,

And yet an unseen hand had touched their strings,

And down the starry path into the world of  pain

An angel came – tidings of joy to bring

And to erase the brand of evil counsel’s shame.

From the tomb’s entrance he removed the stone.

His countenance shone brightly like the sacred  flame.

His eyes were bolts of lightning in a storm.

Then “Christ is risen!” heard the world for the first time,

That sound ineffable of the heavenly choir,

And on the earth the bells of night began to  chime.

Since that night “Christ is risen!” sings the world entire…

V.  Utrenev
Translated  by  Kosara  Gavrilovic