Homily on Bright Friday, When We Honor the Theotokos of the Life-Giving Spring
By Saint Innocent, Archbishop of Kherson and Tauride
Christ is Risen!
This week, brethren, is in itself very abundant in streams of grace flowing from the tomb of Christ, therefore the Church invites us daily to a new delight, exclaiming: "Come, let us drink a new drink!" But behold, at the end of the bright days, when one should expect a decrease in the streams of grace, a new, life-giving source of mercy and generosity is revealed from the person of the Mother of the Risen Lord. Truly, amidst so many celebrations in honor of the Son, there ought to be a celebration in honor of His Mother, who, at Golgotha, just like the Son, had her own "sword" pass through her heart (Luke 2:35), as Symeon foresaw. The triumph of the Son is all for our good, and the triumph of the Mother is all for us and our salvation. This feast is called the Life-Giving Spring because the Most Holy Virgin once gave to a spring near Constantinople the power to heal all kinds of illnesses and to pour out life and consolation for all who suffer.
This source is in one place, and acted with special power at a certain time; but the grace and power of the Acting One are not limited by any place or time. Where there is living faith in the Son of God, where there is warm love for the Mother of God, there are living streams of grace, and a healing source of miracles. Therefore, everywhere and always, that which happened especially at a certain time and in a certain place is celebrated.
How many springs are there in our Fatherland, where the gracious power and help of the Ever-Virgin has been or is still being revealed? It can be said that the multi-faceted element of water has been especially appropriated by Her to mark Her varied generosity to all who suffer and are burdened. Therefore, our Fatherland now celebrates not a foreign feast, but on the occasion of a foreign one (although it is not foreign in many respects), it remembers and celebrates many of its own joyful events. Especially for this monastery, this celebration is not foreign: for the miraculous face of the Mother of God (the icon “Bratskaya”, so named from the name of the monastery in which it is located), adorning this temple, showed its miraculous power for the first time, as they say, on the currents of the river, floating to this city for salvation at a time when the enemies of the name of Christ wanted to use it for crossing to the other bank to the destruction of the Orthodox people of Russia.
But how can we draw from the spring of miracles? Ancient Israel once drank from a miraculous spring in the desert, while many of those who drank not only did not receive special grace, but also suffered severe punishment for their folly. The same may happen now. How, I say, can we worthily use the grace that flows from the tomb of Christ through the prayers of the Most Blessed One? The Holy Church very strongly and clearly indicates this when it calls the present feast either the Life-Giving or the Life-Receiving Spring. In order for the source of grace to be life-giving, it is necessary for it to be life-receiving; for whom it is not life-receiving, it is not life-giving.
For whom is it life-giving? For those who receive the water of grace with living faith, and not with doubts about its reality, not with questions about how, for example, holy water can act on the soul? For those who draw from the Life-Giving Spring precisely with the goal of becoming alive in spirit, correcting their heart and conscience, quenching the eternal thirst of their being. For those who, receiving the grace of God through the prayers of the Ever-Virgin, do not hide it under a bushel, but turn it into life for themselves and others, constantly expressing it in good deeds. But whoever draws from the Life-Giving Spring without faith and pious feeling, not to quench the thirst of the spirit, not to cleanse the conscience, but for earthly purposes, to achieve some temporary benefits, whoever drinks the water of grace, but does not show the fruits of grace in his life, for him the Life-Giving Spring is not Life-Receiving, and therefore not Life-Giving.
Is there a need for a more immediate and detailed instruction on how to worthily use the grace from the Life-Giving Spring of the Mother of God? This instruction will be, one might say, before our eyes. In this city healing waters are prepared for bodily ailments: how do they usually begin to use these waters, and how do they behave during and after their use? First, they carefully examine (both themselves and through doctors) their illness; secondly, they ask for advice on how, how much and when to use the healing drink; during use they abstain from various kinds of food and from all strong movements of the soul: the angry are meek, the proud are humble, the stingy are generous and, having abandoned healing process, they continue for a long time to adhere to a special, strict way of life, so as not to weaken the effect of the waters, to prevent the chance of the illness returning.
Let us, brethren, act in the same way in the use of the waters of grace. Let us show at least half the attention and zeal to our soul in its ailments, which we always show to our body in its infirmities. And first, let us pay as much attention as possible to the state of our soul. Let us penetrate with all impartiality into our heart and its inclinations; let us examine, in the light of the word of God, all our behavior and all our relationships, in order to see what is damaged in us and what is whole, what is excess and what is lacking, where is the danger and harm, and where is salvation. Let us begin with such knowledge of ourselves and our poverty: for this is what we lack most of all. “In the night the land of Moab shall perish” (Is. 15:1), the Prophet once cried, wishing to show the suddenness of destruction and the extreme carelessness of those perishing. The same can be said about us: we perish without thinking at all about the danger, without knowing how and from what we perish, and this is because we neglect the state of our soul, never look into the mirror of conscience, do not know and do not want to know whether there is at least some spiritual life in our heart. Therefore, for our salvation, first of all, it is necessary to pay attention to ourselves and to our life. Having done this, we cannot help but see that there is extremely much evil and ungodliness in us, that our soul and conscience are covered with wounds, and having learned this, we will involuntarily come to horror, and will seek means for our purification and healing.
Secondly, brethren, let us not be ashamed to come to spiritual physicians for advice and help. We ourselves can and must do much for our salvation, but we cannot do much that is necessary ourselves, and therefore we must accept it from those who have been appointed by God Himself to heal our souls. Good instructions from the lips of a pastor of the Church, who has seen and sees many sinners, knows the nature of spiritual illnesses, and has healed them more than once and in various forms, already mean much to us. But even more significant is the grace with which the pastors of the Church can bring down upon repentant sinners that oil and those duties which were composed for the wounds of the soul by the hand of the heavenly Physician Himself, and by their hands are only applied to our sores. For we must not deceive ourselves, brethren, our sinful injury, no matter how small it may seem to us, is always such that complete healing can in no way be expected from our own efforts and human means. For this the all-restoring power of God's grace is necessary, but the streams of this grace, although they flow to the whole human race, flow especially in a certain place - at the throne of grace, in the Church of Christ, and flow, so to speak, through certain pipes - through the Mysteries of the Church, which are given only by the ministers of the Mysteries.
Finally, when using the means of grace, one must be persistent and patient. Chronic ailments require a necessary duration of treatment: and what could be older than our spiritual illness, our inclination towards sin? We emerge from our mother's womb with it; we spend our infancy in it; we youthfully mature and grow with it: is it surprising that the poison of sin, having penetrated our nature, does not yield immediately to the strongest remedies? If we were creatures devoid of freedom, our correction could be accomplished quickly and at a set time: but with our freedom, with its deviations and unfaithfulness, even grace itself must operate gradually and imperceptibly. Remembering this, let us not be disheartened in spirit if, in our struggle against sin, we do not always emerge as victors, if our own heart may at times betray us and secretly side with vice, even as our mind and will remain bound by the law of God. It is sufficient for our comfort that Almighty God promises us healing; with Him, "no word will fail" (Luke 1:37); His "promises" are "yes and... amen" (2 Corinthians 1:20). Each of us must say, like David, "With my God, I can scale any wall!" (Psalm 18:30). Amen.
Source: From the book Discourses for Bright Week, Discourse Ten. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
