| 17 Объяснения рельефов: Huelsen. Das Forum Romanum. Rom, 1904. S. 64, 86—88. 18 Athanasii. Oratio contra gentes, ap. Migne. Pair. gr. T. XXV. Col. 4 (составлено приблизительно в 347 г.). 19 О нем: Clausse. Basiliques et mosaiques chretiennes. Т. I. Paris, 1893. P. 117—120. 20 О положении базилики: Huelsen. S. 194—195. 21 Cod. Theod. XVI. 2. 22 Hefele-Leclercq. Histoire des conciles. I. Paris, 1907. P. 357. 23 Из письма к александрийскому епископу Александру (Vita Const. II. С. 64; Migne. P. gr.). XX. Col. 1038. 24 Loeschcke. Das Syntagma des Gelasius (Rheinisches Mus. T. LX. 1905) приходит к выводу о существовании протоколов. 25 Vita Constant. Lib. III. С. 10. 26 Histoire des conciles. I. P. 431. 27 Burckhardt. Die Zeit Constantins des Grossen. S. 389—390. 28 Ibid., 392. 29 Ammiani Marcellini. XXI. 15, 18. 30 Ibid. 10, 8. Сноски к главе IV 1 Firmicus Maternus, de errore profanarum religionum. О нем: Ebert. Allgem. Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters. Leipzig, 1889. I. S. 130—134; Teuffel. Gesch. der rom. Literatur. 3. Aufl. S. 953. 2 Schiller. Geschichte d. romisch. Kaiserzeit. II. S. 290—292. 3 C. Th. 16, 10, 2—3. 4 C. Th. 16, 10, 4. 5 C. Th. 12, 1, 46. 6 Ammiani Marcellini. 20, 4, 1: «Constantium urebant Juliani virtutes». 7 Дата провозглашения, по новым данным, относится ко второй половине мая. Morey. The date of the election of Julian (Supplem. Papers of the Amer. School in Rome. Vol. I. P. 192—194). 8 Для образца приведем следующие слова (ер. 680. Libanii R. I. 421): «Σμα μεν ανθρπου, ψυχ δε 9εο... των δεν τω μεν στον σ9ειν διστηκεν, εν δε τη της αρετς ασκσει κα τη της ψυχς πιμελεα πλησον αυτν εστν». То есть: «По телу он был человек, а1 по духу бог... от богов только тем отличался, что вкушал пищу, а по упражнениям в добродетели и по душевным свойствам он к ним приближался». 9 Ammiani Marcellini. XXI, 10, 7. 10 XXXII. 4, 3. 11 Cedreni. I. P. 532. Bonn. 12 Ibid.: Εεπατε τω βασιλε " χαμα πσε δαδαλος αλ " ουκτι Φοβος χει καλβαν, ου μντιδα δφνην, ου παγν λαλουσαν " πσβετο και λλον δωρ. |
| The Gospels and the other books of the New Testament contain numerous examples of how the prayers of some helped others. Thus, according to the faith of the nobleman, the Lord healed his son ( John 4:46–53 ); by the faith of the Canaanite woman her possessed daughter was healed ( Mt. 15:21–28 ); by the faith of a father his possessed son, who was deaf and mute, was healed ( Mk. 9:17–27 ); at the request of friends the Lord forgave and healed the paralytic, whom they lowered from the roof with ropes ( Mk. 2:2–12 ); and by the faith of the Roman centurion his servant was healed ( Mt. 8:5–13 ). Furthermore, the Lord performed most of these miraculous healings at a distance, in absentia. The Holy Evangelist John the Theologian urges us to turn to God in prayer, with faith that God will fulfill our request. As he says, «And this is the confidence that we have in Him [the Son of God], that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us» (1 John 5:14). Since prayer possesses the power of grace, it knows no boundaries and does not grow weaker with distance. It is the result of love, and, like a ray of light, it penetrates men " s souls, uniting those who pray with God and with one another. An ancient story teaches a good lesson. Once St. Macarius of Egypt found a human skull while walking in the desert. When Abba Macarius touched the skull with a palm branch, a voice came from the skull. When the elder asked, «Who are you?,» the skull answered, «I was a pagan priest and lived in this place. Abba Macarius, have pity on us who are in eternal torment, and pray for us, for your prayer brings us comfort.» The elder asked, «What comfort comes to you from my prayers?» The skull answered, «When you pray for us, light appears, and we begin to see one another.» Thus, prayer joins our world with another world, where the angels, the saints and our departed relatives and friends dwell. Since the moment of the resurrection of Christ death has lost its former fatality; instead, it has become the beginning of a new life. Now, as St. Paul teaches: «Neither death, nor life...nor height, nor depth...shall be able to separate us from the love of God... For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord " s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living» ( Rom. 8:38–39 ; Rom. 14:8–9 ). For this reason it is not only possible, but even necessary, to pray for the dead as well as for the living; for, according to the words of the Saviour, to God all are alive (cf. Lk. 20:38 ). |
| In other words, what is at the core of the Christian understanding of Pascha is something quite different from what may be viewed as the Jewish roots of Pascha. The Christian Pascha is not a memorial or a celebration of a past event, albeit meaningful and transformative in the lives of those who keep its memory. In the Christian Pascha, it is the Christian who is the protagonist through Christ (“… it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me…” [Gal 2:20]) , and both the Sacrifice and the Resurrection of the Son of God become the very essence of a Christian’s life. Pascha becomes the mode of Christian life rather than a singular transformative event whose effect merely lasts or is reflected. Apostle Paul refers to this mode as the “newness of life” (Rom 6:4). But it is not just the Resurrection—the Sacrifice too becomes the mode of life: the path to the Resurrection always lies through death on the cross. “I die every day!” Paul exclaims (1 Cor. 15:31). Quite apart from any moralistic or behavioral applications of this belief, for Orthodoxy the act of salvation is primarily a Sacrament, and as such, it finds its highest expression and incarnation in the Eucharist through the communion of God and His people within His Body: “…for the purpose of all Christian liturgy is to express in a ritual moment that which should be the basic stance of every moment of our lives” (Taft 52). The Jesus of Orthodoxy is not the historical Jesus, Who failed to complete His social justice agenda because of getting arrested by the representatives of organized religion supported by the imperial Roman temple-state. The Jesus of Orthodoxy is the One Who said: “It is finished” (John 19:30). Taft argues that this very understanding of Christ belonged to the Apostolic Church: So the Jesus of the Apostolic Church is not the historical Jesus of the past, but the Heavenly Priest interceding for us constantly before the throne of the Father (Rom 8:34, Heb 9:11-28), and actively directing the life of his Church (Apoc 1:17-3:22 and passim). |
| By his redemptive sacrifice Christ united heaven and earth, the eternal and the temporal, the Creator and the creation, God and the human person. He has overcome the gulf which since the dawn of human history has separated the first people from their Maker. When they violated the commandments that were given to them and disobeyed their Creator, sin and death came to reign in the world. " When the fulness of the time had come, " says the apostle Paul, " God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as children " (Gal. 4:4-5). Christ, being the Lamb of God " without defect or blemish takes away the sin of the world " (1 Pet 1:19; Jn 1:29). In being obedient to the heavenly Father " to the point of death– even death on the cross " (Phil. 2:8), he brings all of humankind to its Creator, reconciling it with him. Being the Son of God by his nature, he makes us sons and daughters of God by grace. The Lord opens up to us the way of moral transformation and spiritual ascension to life everlasting and blessed with God " in the unfading day of his kingdom " (The Paschal Canon). In freeing us from enslavement to sin, in casting down " the powers of this present darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places " (Eph. 6:12), the Lord is raised up to heaven, where he sits in unapproachable glory at the right hand of the pre-eternal Father. At the same time, he does not abandon us here on earth and abides eternally with his disciples who together form his Body of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Her Head, Christ himself, guides this ark of salvation through the stormy waters of the sea of life to the tranquil haven of heaven where " God may be all in all " (1 Cor. 15:28). We, Christians, who comprise the Holy Church, are to continue his glorious mission in the world. Like the great multitude of brothers and sisters in the faith who came before us – the apostles, the myrrh-bearing women, the martyrs, the saintly bishops, the venerable monks and nuns and the righteous – we are called upon to " give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the people " (1 Chr. 1:8). We are called upon to preach the Son of God and the Son of Man, who in his ineffable love for us shed his most precious blood on the Cross. We are called upon in both word and deed and with our whole lives to bear witness to people of the One who " was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities " (Isa. 53:5) and " was raised for our justification " (Rom. 4:25). |
| By his redemptive sacrifice Christ united heaven and earth, the eternal and the temporal, the Creator and the creation, God and the human person. He has overcome the gulf which since the dawn of human history has separated the first people from their Maker. When they violated the commandments that were given to them and disobeyed their Creator, sin and death came to reign in the world. “When the fulness of the time had come,” says the apostle Paul, “God sent his Son, born of a woman, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as children” (Gal. 4:4-5). Christ, being the Lamb of God “without defect or blemish takes away the sin of the world” (1 Pet 1:19; Jn 1:29). In being obedient to the heavenly Father “to the point of death– even death on the cross” (Phil. 2:8), he brings all of humankind to its Creator, reconciling it with him. Being the Son of God by his nature, he makes us sons and daughters of God by grace. The Lord opens up to us the way of moral transformation and spiritual ascension to life everlasting and blessed with God “in the unfading day of his kingdom” (The Paschal Canon). In freeing us from enslavement to sin, in casting down “the powers of this present darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12), the Lord is raised up to heaven, where he sits in unapproachable glory at the right hand of the pre-eternal Father. At the same time, he does not abandon us here on earth and abides eternally with his disciples who together form his Body of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. Her Head, Christ himself, guides this ark of salvation through the stormy waters of the sea of life to the tranquil haven of heaven where “God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). We, Christians, who comprise the Holy Church, are to continue his glorious mission in the world. Like the great multitude of brothers and sisters in the faith who came before us – the apostles, the myrrh-bearing women, the martyrs, the saintly bishops, the venerable monks and nuns and the righteous – we are called upon to “give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the people” (1 Chr. 1:8). We are called upon to preach the Son of God and the Son of Man, who in his ineffable love for us shed his most precious blood on the Cross. We are called upon in both word and deed and with our whole lives to bear witness to people of the One who “was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5) and “was raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25). |
| What we find in both, however, is clear evidence of the “mind of Christ” (an “Orthodox phronema”). Later theology would come to describe that phronema under the heading of “providence.” St. Paul writes: “…we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Rom. 8:28) That peaceful confidence is echoed throughout his writings. He can say: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ” (Romans 8:31–39) This same unbounded confidence is echoed throughout the Orthodox tradition. The Morning Prayer of the Elders of Optina gives a good example. It reads, in part: O Lord, grant that I may meet all that this coming day brings to me with spiritual tranquility. Grant that I may fully surrender myself to Thy holy Will. At every hour of this day, direct and support me in all things. Whatsoever news may reach me in the course of the day, teach me to accept it with a calm soul and the firm conviction that all is subject to Thy holy Will. Though neither St. Paul nor St. John could see the “big picture” of their current events, their larger picture (the true big picture) was governed by one thing – they knew that God is good and that He is at work in all things , everywhere, and at all times, for our good. This is true despite every action and form of evil. What our adversary means for our destruction, God means for our good (as we see in the Biblical story of Joseph the Patriarch). |
| As St. Paul says, ‘he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in us’ (cf. Rom 8:11). On the radiant day of Christ’s resurrection the souls of millions of the faithful are replete with thanksgiving to the Creator, and our earthly life acquires true meaning. Christ’s Passover is the greatest triumph of life, the triumph over death bringing love, peace and spiritual transformation. In celebrating Pascha we each time open up a new period in our lives, for the risen Lord renews human nature, fortifies us in tribulations, and grants to us the strength to accomplish good deeds. The Paschal message, which has transformed the whole course of world history, encourages us to be morally transformed, to be spiritually renewed, which is so essential for modern-day society. It reminds all people of the sources of Christianity, as well as of the coming eternal Kingdom where ‘God may be all in all’ (1 Cor 15:28). During these radiant days of the Paschal feast we are called upon to share our joy with our relatives and those close to us, to show them active love and mercy. Such are the traditions sanctified over the centuries, and in following them we testify to our participation in Christ’s heritage and belief that the Lord has truly risen. Now, as before, the Russian Orthodox Church diligently carries out her saving mission, tirelessly proclaiming God’s truth, affirming the importance of the Gospel commandments, calling for peace and harmony, serving the spiritual unity of nations living in the countries under the pastoral care of the Moscow Patriarchate. Our special prayer today is for the peoples of Russia and Ukraine that peace will reign in the minds and hearts of our brothers and sisters by blood and in faith so that the ties that have been lost and co-operation which is so needed may be restored. In proclaiming the love of God which surpasses all knowledge (cf. Eph 3:19), Christianity brings people together by overcoming national, cultural and state boundaries, for ‘the light of Christ illumines all’ (cf. Jn 1:9). |
| God fulfilled the promise He had given to people in ancient times: I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death (Hos. 13:14). And in the light of Easter morning we rejoice with St. Paul that death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:54)! From now on, nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God (Rom. 8:39), for the deadly effect of sin is brought to naught by the power of the Risen Lord. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18), reveals to us the true riches of God’s grace – the radiance of eternal life with God and in God, when, according to the prophetic words of the Apostle, God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28). For two thousand years now, the Church has been living in the unfading joy of the Resurrection, striving to make every man that cometh into the world (Jn. 1:9) a partaker of this joy. In the light of Pascha everything is different: we are not afraid of any mundane sorrows, afflictions and worldly troubles, and even difficult circumstances of these troubled times do not seem so important in the perspective of eternity granted unto us. St. Ephraim the Syrian had a remarkable thought that during the creation the Lord had put into the depths of man the entire Heavenly Kingdom which only waits for us to discover it like a precious pearl. The Kingdom is written in the soul and placed therein as a dowry, in order that, when the Heir of the Kingdom comes, He may take it with Him into the bridal chamber (Commentary on “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth…”). And this Heir – Christ – did come and rise from the dead, saving people from sins and giving us power to become the sons of God (Jn. 1:12), that we may walk before the Lord in holiness and truth, live in chastity, worthy to be called Christians, and be the salt of the earth,.. the light of the world (Mt. 5:13-14). To bear witness to the Risen Saviour, we do not have to go somewhere far, like the apostles did, who spread the marvellous Paschal light all over the world. Many people around us are in need of a living model of Christian faith working through love (Gal. 5:6). God does not demand of us some heroic deeds that are beyond our strength. He just asks us to show love to one another, to remember that by doing so we also show love to Him. A kind smile, attention and sympathy to those who are near, as well as timely words of consolation and support can become our most important deeds for the sake of our Lord. |
| Here is a central part of the Good News Jesus proclaimed. In today’s Gospel story, we hear how “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people.” Christ went around teaching and proclaiming a message of comfort in the midst of terrible suffering, a message of hope and light in the midst of despair and darkness, a message of love that will always be greater than the worst hate, a message of ultimate meaning in the midst of a world that seemed so confusing. Each one of us have a choice on how we will live. No unexpected factor in life needs to determine how we face life – not any terrifying illness like cancer, no political craziness like we see in our country, no terrible tragedy that may hit us unexpectedly, and not even the greatest evil like a concentration camp. We can’t control all that happens to us in life, but we can choose how to respond to the deep mysteries of life with faith. Will we give in to despair, or choose to live with hope? Will we allow anger to control us, or choose to forgive and reconcile and maintain peace? Will we be overwhelmed by the problems of life or choose to live each day as a God-given mystery, believing and knowing that He is ultimately in control. As Saint Paisios says, “What I see around me would drive me insane, if I did not know that no matter what happens, God will have the last word.” This is what Saint Paul meant when he said, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28) This doesn’t mean that everything will work out the way we want it to work out. Good in the eyes of God may not always seem good, in the moment, to us. Yet, we must remember and believe that nothing happens outside of God’s control. Life is a deep mystery that we may not understand. Some things happen in life that we simply can’t comprehend. Yet we have a choice, as Viktor Frankl highlighted, and we can choose to believe that God is Good, that He is ultimately Sovereign over whatever happens to us in life, and that no matter how challenging and difficult and even incomprehensible life may seem, everything is still inside the Will of God. |
| It is without a doubt a singular time in which to be called to the episcopate. Seeing the failure of the brutal persecutions of the 20th century to destroy Christianity, the adversary of God and mankind has raised up another pernicious scheme—namely, to pervert and even strip away meaning itself from within Christian words and categories of thought and experience, and to replace the God-created order of things with grotesque deconstructions and shameless mockeries. One cannot help but call to mind the words of the poet William Butler Yeats: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.” (“The Second Coming”) In the face of these adversities, and of all of those which have ever faced Christianity, the Apostle Paul boldly asks: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom 8:35) Our Savior Himself, in the same manner, exhorts us: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28) And again the Lord says: “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Let us not forget that remarkable encounter of two adversaries on a mountain top. To the one, the other offered the glory of all the kingdoms of this world if only the other would bow down and worship him. The other refused. He still refuses. And so must we. Those who are called to take up the pastoral staff in our era must do so with this resolute spirit and clarity of mind. To His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion and the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, whose inspiring example and trenchant confession of faith has followed this pastoral path, I express my great esteem. To you, my ruling hierarch, Archbishop Kyrill—whom I have known since college, and who has paternally watched over me over these many years, Tonsured me to the Mantiya and Ordained me to the Holy Priesthood—I express my deepest respect and filial devotion. To His Holiness Patriarch Kyrill and the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow, I express my great gratitude, noting that, while I am not of Russian descent, I am in my heart a son of Holy Russia and deeply honored to be a member of the Russian Orthodox Church—which has emerged, from what may worthily and justly be described as the holy and great podvig of martyrdom, “as gold tried by fire” (I Peter 1:7) and is now manifesting its much-prophecied witness of authentic Orthodoxy to the entire world. To ponder that my unworthiness is about to be ranked amongst the hierarchy of such a church is astonishing to me. But to this humbling reflection I would nevertheless add another, if only by analogy: “Lord, I am not worthy of You, but I cannot do without You.” |
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