Let’s give an example of the foremother Eve, who was led into self-delusion – she saw what is not there, and what happened to her as a result of being in such a state. But before we consider this example, let’s show that precisely seeing with bodily, fleshly eyes (not enlightened by the Holy Spirit to the height of contemplation) the performance of the sacraments leads to delusion.
What is a sacrament? A church sacrament is a sacred act, through the mediation of which a believer who approaches the sacrament with faith, reverence, with a sense of his own unworthiness to approach the Sanctuary, receives (is sent) invisibly (to the eyes!), mysteriously the gift of the grace of the Holy Spirit. The very definition of the sacraments speaks against video recordings and broadcasting. Any further explanation, justification may have Catholics with their notorious formula – ex opere operato, i.e., the sacraments are valid and effective by virtue of the correctly performed sacred act. Those who, with this understanding of the sacraments, watch their performance, precisely know that with the visible sacred act, the gift of the Holy Spirit is definitely given to a person, without any ‘buts.’ That is, they, looking at the visible, discern the reality of the invisible, the inner content somehow identical to the form. They are in double delusion! And that this is so, we will see from what the holy fathers say about the effectiveness of the sacraments. St. Cyril of Jerusalem says: ‘If you are hypocritical, then people will baptize you now, but the Holy Spirit will not baptize you.’ St. Theophan the Recluse: ‘In the sacraments, nothing happens mechanically, against the will God cannot enter the soul.’ St. Seraphim of Sarov: ‘It happens that here on earth they commune (of the Eucharist), and in the Lord they remain not communed with the Sanctuary.’ We see that it can be so: people perform a sacred act over you (because only God performs the sacrament, the priest only acts sacredly), that is, they immerse or sprinkle you in baptism, anoint you with chrism in chrismation, lay hands on your head in ordination, etc., and the gift of the Holy Spirit is not given to you! This patristic thought we can confirm by the parable of the sower (Mt. 13: 1-9; Lk. 8: 5-15). The seed of the same quality, but the fruit is brought only when it falls on good soil, and then one brings forth fruit in 30, 60, or a hundredfold. Everything depends on the soil, on which the seed falls, that is, on the soul, how it is prepared to receive the Word, the grace of the Holy Spirit.
Already by virtue of the fact that we do not know whether a person has partaken of grace or not, even though the sacred act was performed correctly,
– the person is already facing a temptation – he will never see the truth, the reality, which only the saints see, with his fleshly eyes. The sacraments are performed correctly, and a person, seeing this, thinks that it also happened on the spiritual level, but it may turn out that everything is the opposite. And it turns out that a person sees what is actually not there! Which is the greatest evil, as we will show below.
When we gave the traditional definition of sacraments, we said that grace is given mysteriously, invisibly to the eye and incomprehensibly to the mind. So what is the benefit of broadcasting on television and watching the performance of sacraments?!
Someone will say, but do not those who are present, for example, at the performance of the sacrament of baptism, and at all other sacraments, also peek?
A sacrament cannot be observed – it can only be participated in. All sacraments are ecclesiastical, in which the entire Church participates. They baptize someone individually, but the act of the whole Church takes place, everyone participates in the sacrament, so not over one does the sacrament take place, and all others are just spectators – a new member is born in its body, for whose proper growth the whole church is responsible. There are no non-ecclesiastical sacraments, that is, those that take place in an individual order, not as an act of the whole Church (in this case, the parish). Therefore, those who are present at the sacrament, they are not peeking, but are participants in it.
And since there is no benefit from seeing the performance of the sacraments (it is not a mission, not preaching, not teaching – the task of the sacraments is absolutely different; someone will say: ‘what about the baptism of Rus and the visits to Sophia, isn’t that a mission?’ And we will consider this below, although the reader can give an answer himself, even at this stage) and there is no intermediate state, purgatory, as the Lord says: he who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters (Mt. 12: 30), he who is not against you is for you (Mk. 9: 40), then let us show what evil it is to look with uncleansed and dark (cf. Lk. 11: 34) eyes, to peek at the mysteries of God.
And now, in the spirit of the patristic thought, in the catholic consciousness of the Church, let’s look at the events that took place in paradise at the dawn of history, and take a great lesson for spiritual life. The fall of the foreparents is directly related to this topic, as we will see by analyzing and reading the first chapters of the book of Genesis in the key of patristic understanding of the Bible.