Talk 9

Now we shall speak, brothers, about the second and third days of creation. What, then, did the world become on the second day of its life, or what was created on the second day? The core of the earth was still in the water and was not visible; but light already illumined by day the unformed, shapeless substance of the world. On the second day the world begins, by God’s word, more and more to pass from disorder into order. God creates this visible vault of heaven, called in Holy Scripture the firmament—because upon it, as it were, the heavenly luminaries are made fast—and, at the command of the Creator, the coarser parts of the water-like world-substance strive toward the earth and, uniting with it, disclose its outline, while part of it rises upward, that is, toward the other opaque bodies that are in the heavenly space, for which the firmament likewise had to be opened122. «And God said,—says the holy Narrator,—let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it divide between water and water: and it was so. And God made the firmament: and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament. And God called the firmament heaven: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the second day.» So speaks great Moses about the creation on the second day. What, then, did he wish to say by the words: «and God made the firmament, and God divided between the water which was under the firmament and the water which was above the firmament»? This: that on the second day God created the airy space surrounding the earth, and all the boundless starry space with its enormous heavenly spheres, at that time still dark, separated from one another by the very greatest distances123. On this same day, because of the moving of the Spirit of God over the waters, pouring warmth and life into them, the unformed and unordered earth began to show signs of life and of initial arrangement: from the warmth the water began to evaporate and rise upward toward the sky; clouds appeared and that day began to float through the air. From this day the earthly sphere began to make its revolutions. But there was still so much water on the earth that the vapors could not carry up enough of it with them for the core of the earth to be uncovered: it was still submerged in water.

Thanks be to the almighty Creator, who by His almighty word created the air, pouring out such a fine, transparent, life-giving fluid, necessary for every animate creature and for all plants. Yes, brothers, without air neither we nor the animals could exist for even a few minutes: it is as necessary—and even more so—as food or drink: we breathe it every minute. Fresh air, when in motion, is besides an excellent remedy in cases of mild illness, available to everyone: it refreshes and strengthens our body. But the air can also be a conductor of death, sent by God for our sins: pestilential plagues have their place and path in the air; without a good tempering of the air people sometimes also perish of starvation, or at least often suffer hunger; and that is why the Holy Church daily prays to the Lord, among other things, for the good tempering of the airs. In the air you see and hear, brothers, various phenomena, and among them thunder and lightning. What a menacing spectacle the clouds often present when, having thickened, they seem to belch out of themselves thunder and lightning! The sight of the sky covered with black storm-clouds, shaking the earth with thunderclaps and lighting it up with terribly flashing lightning, has in every age produced in people such dread that they—in their paganism—set over these phenomena a special god and called him the thunderer, Perun. We, thank God, know for certain that everything in the world takes place under the governance of the one Lord God, and that no outsider rules with authority in His kingdom. Some even among Christians thought, and still think, that it is the Prophet Elijah who thunders. But, brothers, this is done by none other than the Lord God, who gave His laws to nature once and for all. This is very easy to grasp. Just as, for example, earthquakes or the eruptions of fire-breathing mountains occur without any outside person, so too the thunder-hurling and fire-breathing clouds occur of themselves, likewise without any outside person, by the sole laws of the Creator who made the universe. Brothers! At the sight of the clouds we can remember that time when the Lord, amid the myriads of His holy angels, will come again to our dark earth for the fearful judgment of the human race; He will come upon the clouds, as the Seer of Mysteries says: «behold, He comes with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him»124; and the righteous at that time will also be caught up on the clouds to meet the Lord in the air125.

«And there was evening, and there was morning, the second day»126. Here already is the evening of the second day of the world, and the earth is still not to be seen.

On the third day of the world the Lord formed special receptacles on the earth for the waters and uncovered the face of the earth in certain places. On this same day the mountains were thrust up out of the earth and raised upon it—because for the water it was necessary to make broad and deep hollows; and to form them, evidently, it was necessary to push up the earth and set in place these mountain masses127. The receptacles of water were called seas, and the dry land was called earth. «And God said,—continues the holy Narrator,—let the water which is under heaven be gathered into one gathering, and let the dry land appear: and it was so: and the water which is under heaven was gathered into its gatherings, and the dry land appeared. And God called the dry land earth: and the gatherings of the waters He called seas: and God saw that it was good»128. And so, this is when the dry land appeared: already on the third day. As yet there are no living creatures either in the air or in the water; but the dry land on this day will already bring forth from itself wondrous plants: out of coarse earth, out of sand, out of clay, out of mud, will come the most delicate, beautiful, and varied kinds of grasses, flowers, and other herbs, as well as all sorts of trees.

But why is it that—compared with the waters—there is so little dry land on the earth, while the creatures that live on dry land are so many? The waters are two-thirds, and the dry land only one-third? Here, brothers, marvel at the wisdom of the Creator. The oceans and seas, serving as a dwelling for a countless multitude of water creatures, at the same time serve as, so to speak, reserve reservoirs for the watering or irrigation of the earth. You know how plants love water, how much of it they draw in through their little roots and conduct through the whole trunk and through all the branches and little leaves—that without water they cannot even feed; you know too what an incalculable multitude there is of plants great and small. Picture to yourselves, then, brothers, how much water is needed for every blade of grass, flower, shrub, and tree—and where such an enormous quantity of it could be found, were there no oceans and seas, lakes and rivers? Thanks to these reservoirs of water, the earth, with its countless families of plants, knows no lack of water: from the oceans, seas, and other reservoirs of water a multitude of vapors rises daily; these vapors, in the form of clouds, circle the earth in the upper layers of the air and rain down upon it, or descend in the form of dew, and thus bring drink to every blade of grass, flower, and tree, which cannot themselves go in search of drink. We say nothing of what a countless multitude there is, on the earth and in the water, of various animate creatures—from man down to the tiniest insects, invisible to the naked eye—and how much water is needed for them as well: each wants to drink and to eat; and the food itself is always, to a greater or lesser degree, dissolved in liquid. Everything that lives has need of water without fail. And with all this, recall what a mass of fire is hidden within the earth’s interior: and after this, surely no one will say that there is a disproportionate amount of water on the earth: there is as much of it as is needed for the well-being of all earthly creatures. The Creator made everything by number, measure, and weight.

Brothers! Although water is a soulless thing, yet, obeying the word of the Lord, it does what we ourselves sometimes do not. You see that it, by the laws of the Creator, rising up from various water-reservoirs in the form of vapors, then descends as rain or dew upon the plants, which cannot themselves change their place—and brings them a life-giving drink, or at least makes the air moist. So let us too always serve our poor and infirm brothers, offering them a word of comfort in their affliction, like a refreshing drink, or such alms as each of us can give.

«And God said: let the earth bring forth the grass of the herb, sowing seed after its kind and after its likeness, and the fruit-bearing tree, making its fruit, whose seed is in it after its kind upon the earth: and it was so»129. It is still the third day. When the water had grown warm and warmed the earth, and from this the vapors began to rise—and when, by the word of the Lord, the water that had covered the earth withdrew into the receptacles appointed for it, and thus the dry land appeared with its mountains, hills, and valleys—then upon the earth, likewise by the word of the Lord, there suddenly appears an endless variety of grasses, each with its own seeds, containing within itself, in the smallest form, a multitude of those very grasses or herbs that bear them upon their stalk; there appears also—together with fruitless trees, which contain within themselves only their own seeds—every fruit-bearing tree that of itself, without any outside teacher, makes beautiful and tasty fruits, likewise with seed, according to the kind of the tree—so that each kind of tree had to reproduce itself and not mix with other trees, or be corrupted in any way.

Here, brothers, is the origin of our varied plant food, which sustains our life and serves for our enjoyment. When we eat it, let us remember that it is the work of God’s goodness and omnipotence; let us know its worth and measure, and never forget to give thanks for it to the Creator. And turning our attention, on the one hand, to the beauty of flowers, and, on the other, to how little they are valued and how they are neglected, let us recall the words of the Savior by which He teaches us to hope in the providence of God: «if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith»130? And let us not be too anxious about clothing, especially fine clothing. We may also learn humility at the sight of the beauty and delicacy of flowers and their swift withering, at the sight of the beauty and stateliness of trees and their falling under the axe of man or from the onslaughts of the wind. Flowers are fair and delicate, but they have nothing to be proud of: they are not their own but God’s, and besides they soon wither; trees are beautiful and stately, but they too have nothing to boast of: God both planted them, and watered them, and made them grow. In just the same way beautiful people and stately men—like the flowers of the field and the shapely trees—have nothing to boast of: their body is God’s creation; there is nothing in it that is their own; God made it grow and gave it food and drink for its nourishment; and of the soul there is no need even to speak: it too is wholly God’s. And besides, both flowers and trees alike fall, though some live less and others longer. So too all people, whatever they may be, will all fall under the axe of death. But let us return to the creation. The Lord God, as we heard, said that the earth should bring forth plants: and it brought forth all the plants after their kind. Wondrous is Your omnipotence, O Lord! As You said in the beginning, so to this day every herb, every little tree and tree obeys You: with the coming of spring, as soon as there is a sufficient amount of warmth for the development of the plants, in Your soulless creature a wondrous work begins, in the modest obscurity of the earth’s interior, and also upon the stalks and boughs of the trees—without noise, without knocking, regularly, evenly. And here they come out into God’s light: not a single blade of grass, not a single little leaf, not a single little tree strays from its path or forgets the pattern (the form) given to it—and behold: from where does it all come? A blade of grass on the earth or a little leaf on the tree unfolds, grows wider and wider, larger and larger, and at last the bare earth is covered with a beautiful, many-colored carpet that draws both the eye and the sense of smell, while the trees deck themselves in a leafy, thick garment and cover their limbs. So everything on our earth is made picturesque and adorned by these plants! And all of this is taken, as it were, out of nothing, by a single word of the Lord, spoken once for all. And are we too, brothers, not likewise raised out of that same non-being into being? What are we in the beginning—in the loins of our fathers131? Is it not evident through this that the Creator gives us to know that in the beginning He brought everything from non-being into being? Brothers, let us look at the plants and be instructed. How evident, how palpable is our Lord, our almighty Father, in these plants! Every blade of grass, every little leaf, every flower seems to whisper to us: «here is the Lord.» Examine, brothers, the wise structure of plants and come to know God in them: plants are available to nearly all of you at all times, both in winter and in summer. But it is time now to bring the talk to an end; forgive me for its length; for it is hard not to speak much of the wise works of the Creator. Amen.