266. Слово в день Успения Пресвятой Богородицы

(Said on August 15th; printed in the Works of the Holy Father, 1851 and in the collection of 1861) Therefore say to them: Lazarus is our friend in success (John 11:11). We now remember the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos reverently and solemnly. What does “dormition” mean? According to the power of the word: going to bed. And this signifies the end of the earthly life of the Mother of God. – It is noticeable that the Holy Church wanted to avoid calling death when speaking about the Mother of Life. But where did the name “sleep” come from to mean death? One must think that it comes from the lips of Christ the Savior. “Lazarus is our friend,” He said to the Apostles, when, by the power of His omniscience, he announced to them about the death that befell Lazarus, being far from the place of his death. It is clear that this was a new language: because the Apostles did not understand it, and the Lord found it necessary to translate His saying into their ordinary language: “Lazarus died” (John 11:14). What does this new language mean? Why do Christ and the Church call death a sleep? What thoughts do they want to give us through this? Now it is neither untimely nor useless to give an answer to this. Why the death of the righteous Lazarus is called a “sleep” is not difficult to understand. It had the distinctive feature of a dream that it would soon end with awakening, that is, with the return of its former life. In the word: “success”, together with the notification of the death of Lazarus, there was a prophecy that he would resurrect in four days. In a similar way, one can understand why the bodily death of the Mother of God is called “dormition.” And it has that distinctive feature of a dream that it soon ended in awakening, that is, a perfect resurrection into eternal life. The word “dormition” contains an indication of church tradition that on the third day after Her repose from the earth, the Mother of God appeared to the Apostles in heavenly glory and it was not Her spirit alone, but together with the resurrected body, which therefore was no longer found in Her tomb. However, in the Writings of the Apostles one can see an established custom - not only in special significant cases, but also in general, of calling death “dormition and sleep.” Thus, the Apostle Paul writes about the eyewitnesses of the risen Lord: “many of them remain until now, but few are numbered” (1 Cor. 15:6). He also writes regarding the resurrection of the dead: “we will not all fall asleep, but we will all change” (1 Cor. 15:51). That is: we will not all die, because the last day of the world will find those living on earth; but we will all change, because those whom the last day of the world finds alive will have no time to die and be buried; their bodies, without undergoing death, will change from corruptible to incorruptible, which those resurrected from the dead will have. By renaming death as dormition and sleep, the God-wise Men, no doubt, wanted to inspire their followers that a Christian should look at death not “like others who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13), that death is not a decisive denial of life and the destruction of personality and being, that just as someone who falls asleep in the evening awakens in the morning with renewed strength of life, so he who has fallen asleep through bodily death will awaken into a new immortal life on the day of general resurrection. Thus, if we are attentive: then by pronouncing the word “dormition”, we remind ourselves of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and confirm ourselves in the hope of the resurrection of the body. Turning from the New Testament Scriptures to the Old Testament, we note that this comforting concern is not there - to clothe the thought of death with bright clothes. The death of even the righteous and saints there is not called dormition, but death. – In the book of Genesis about the Patriarchs of the first and second worlds it is written in the same way: “you may live and die” (Gen. 5:5). About the Father of believers himself it is written: “Abraham died weak” (Gen. 25:8). Likewise about the Prophet Samuel: “Samuel died” (1 Samuel 25:1). Patriarch Jacob himself spoke even more sadly about his death: “I went down to my son lamenting into hell” (Gen. 37:35). Why, in Old Testament times, did even the saints have such an unhappy view of death, although they, no doubt, just like us, believed in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the next century? - Because then, as the Apostle says, “royal death” (Rom. 5:14), has not yet been defeated by the life-giving death of Christ; - because then “the way was not revealed to the saints” (Heb. 9:8), the entrance to the sanctuary of heaven was not yet opened, “where Jesus was the forerunner of us” (Heb. 6:20); - from the fact that the Old Testament Patriarchs, Prophets, and righteous people - “all these died by faith, not receiving the fulfillment of the promises, but seeing from afar and kissing” (Heb. 11:13); and therefore they showed more strongly the near darkness of death than the distant light of resurrection. From the contrast between the New Testament state of humanity and the Old Testament, a new reason for that view of death is revealed, before which it ceases to seem like death and turns into a dream. If we, who were already condemned to death in our first ancestors, and who daily confirm our own condemnation by arbitrary sins, were not redeemed from mortal condemnation by the suffering and death of Christ, then temporary death would carry us into eternal death without the hope of awakening to life. It would be perfect death. But when “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8); when we are “reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Rom. 5:10); when “God... who is rich in mercy, loved us for His abundant love, and made us alive through our sins while we were dead” (Eph. 2:4–5); when, as a result of this, “just as ... in Adam all die, so in Christ will all come to life” and after death (1 Cor. 15:22), and they come to life into eternal and blessed life, which life in Christ cannot but be: then death really ceased to be death and turned into a dream. This is a short-term sleep in comparison with the subsequent eternal life, a peaceful sleep, like rest from work, like relief from sorrows, like peace in the conscience of those pacified by Christ, a dream that is not unconscious - for the body sleeps, but the soul does not sleep - but consciously sweet, like a foretaste of future bliss. At the same time, we must not forget that the advantage of the New Testament grace-filled state of humanity, although open to everyone, is available to everyone; however, it does not belong to each of us simply because we live in New Testament times. There were people from distant Old Testament times who also belonged to the New Testament in spirit. Such was Abraham, who “was glad... to see the day” of Christ, “and saw and rejoiced” (John 8:56), and, of course, enjoyed all the benefits open to humanity in Christ. On the contrary, there are also people in the New Testament times of grace who, by their internal disposition, do not belong to the gracious Testament of God, although outwardly they are adorned with the name of Christians. The door of grace is open to everyone in Christ, who said: “I am the door, through me whoever enters will be saved” (John 10:9). But you must enter this door; but they enter into it by faith, and, moreover, by living and active faith. “I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal.2:20), says the Apostle. He who arouses and preserves this life in himself will not even in the grave “sleep into death” (Ps. 12:4), but from the bed of corruption he will rise into incorruption, into life, into heaven, into bliss, into glory. But whoever, without striving to penetrate into the higher, blessed life of the spirit, lives the life of the old Adam, leads a carnal, sensual, sinful life, driven by thoughts of passions and lusts: among the signs of life, he plunges into actual inner death, because “sin... of the deeds gives birth to death” (James 1:15); then, if he does not turn and repent, he dies the visible death of a “sinner”, which is “fierce” (Ps. 33:22) - because with it, finally, he passes into eternal death 727, which no matter how much he would like to turn into a deep sleep in order to forget from its torment, but he will not be able to, because they will constantly wake him up - an unquenchable fire, an undying worm, a bogeyman boiling, and they will awaken not to life, but always to a new death. Mortal brother! Let your life be as long as possible: however, our deathbed is not far, and, as often happens, probably closer than we think. Think in good time, what do you want to find on it - a peaceful dormition, or a fierce death? And you will find the right thing that you choose and prepare. “For whatever a man sows, that will he also reap” (Gal.6:7). Let us stop sowing death and torment for ourselves through our sins. Let us sow life and peace for ourselves through repentance, faith and virtue. Amen. Handwritten Author: "second". You might be interested in: