379. Слово в неделю двадесять четвертую по пятдесятнице, по случаю поминовения покойного действительного тайного советника 1 класса графа Александра Сергеевича Строганова в четыредесятый день по его кончине

(Said in the Lazarevskaya Cemetery Church, in the Alexanderevskaya Lavra, November 5; printed separately). Do not cry: I do not die, but sleep 912 (Luke 8:52). You can wish yourself misfortune in order to have such a Comforter. One word from Him turns death into a light, short-term sleep: “I will not die, but sleep.” To bring comfort to those who mourn, He himself is subjected to ridicule: “I reproach Him” (Luke 8:53). He touches the dead body and returns its soul: “and he rose again” (Luke 8:55). But blessed is the Lord, whose gifts are the more abundant and universal, the more desired and necessary! “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, the same and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Until now, He both creates and speaks - both creates in word and speaks in deeds. The son of the widow of Nain, the daughter of the prince of the host, Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, who were called from death to life during the days of His sojourn on earth, are not the only partakers of His favor; but only early harbingers of our bliss in Him. Resurrecting them, He preaches to us that “he who believes..., even if he dies, will live” (John 11:25) and with this triple sign inspires the expectation of a triple resurrection, so that, according to the prophetic desire of the Apostle, “our spirit and soul is perfect and without blemish” at his glorious coming... will be preserved (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Thus, exhausting the dominion of death to its foundations, He does not leave it below the name: “I shall not die, but sleep.” And from ancient times natural man had the fortune-telling that the grave was not the final limit of his existence. Peering into the book of truth that was open before him, written by the finger of God externally - in visible creations, and internally - in himself, he read in it a prediction about his immortality. Truly, all of nature cries out against the terrible thought of destruction. Plants wither and vegetate; the grain dies to give life to the tree or grain; the reptile falls asleep and wakes up winged; the grossest essences are resolved into the subtlest; the light goes away and returns; times end and begin; disappearing voices are resurrected in echoes; everything is destroyed in order to be recreated, dies in order to live, perishes in order to be preserved: will one person - such a loud name - make a momentary sound, and not respond again? On the contrary, even if the existence of the visible world could be reduced to the limits of human earthly life, it would not be characteristic of the existence of the human spirit to be constrained by the existence of the visible world. Sensible beings are improved hastily and reach their destination: man, growing unceasingly and always feeling an inner appeal to the highest perfection, continues to try to get closer to heaven until he descends to the earth; and is it possible that this son of heaven was born only for infancy and education? Animals, driven by sensuality, find their happiness and peace in satisfying needs limited to the preservation of being. A person controlled by higher motives lives more in the future than in the present, and cannot satisfy his endless desire. Is it really in this case that the ruler of the world should be more unhappy than those who are subjugated under his feet? Will he never comprehend this future, which he so tirelessly pursues? Could this infinite desire really be implanted in finite nature? What will these high motives of love for God and neighbor be if one of these objects is never achieved, and the other always disappears? What will meek virtue be like if daring crime, which sometimes forestalls it in acquiring earthly blessings, mingles with it in the dust of the grave and perhaps survives it in the memory of posterity? – The Lord of order, truth and goodness lives, and in Him our soul lives after death! However, no matter how natural this conclusion is, we admit that natural reason cannot become the conqueror of death. Like a cowardly warrior, he is proud of his brilliant weapons as long as he is out of danger; but at the sight of the enemy he trembles and drops it from his hands. Approaching the longed-for immortality, he encounters the unknown, which amazes him as much, and sometimes more, than death itself - and is drawn back by the passion for life, which is most caressing when it must be abandoned. Due to his tendency to boast, he can at this time produce in a person desperate composure, but not peace of mind. Moreover, apparently, it was necessary to ensure the law against death, revealed by God to the chosen people. In it, the eternal Lawgiver, pointing to His commands and destinies, assures with the omnipotence and greatness of His being that life will be the inalienable property of those who fulfill them. “He that hath created that man shall live in them: I am the Lord your God” (Lev.18:5). And in order to bring this lofty promise down to the understanding and sensation of even sensual people, He paves the way for them to hope for eternal life through the hope of rebirth in numerous descendants. “You will live and multiply” (Deut. 4:1). But what should a person feel when heeding the blessing of life proclaimed by the law, then, as this same law thundered with a curse on everyone who deviates even one line from it; Then how could a person, looking at his deeds, not fail to realize that no one living will be justified before the judgment of the Lord? He saw death at the right hand of the law of life, and was forced either to constantly tremble before it, or to flee from the law itself and seek other consolation. Jesus alone “delivers those who are guilty of the fear of death because of their work” (Heb. 2:15), and dispels the horrors that surround it. He combines all our deaths into one own death; lifts them up with him to the cross; He plunges into his coffin and, upon his resurrection, leaves in it a single vestment, in order to show that in our coffin only the outer vestment of our being, woven from the rough elements, will remain, and man will soar to the highest heavenly life. Jesus in the light shows believers the immortality into which the mind sees in the darkness. In Jesus, the distant promise of the law of life is presented in tangible materiality, so that the Holy Spirit uses a simple human oath when he wants to assure us that the death of those united with Christ is no longer death, but a blessed rest from the labors of life. “Blessed are they that die in the Lord from now on: unto her, saith the Spirit, Let them rest from their labors” (Rev. 14:13). Let us note more carefully, listeners, in the verbs of the Spirit the property of sowing blessed death. “Blessed are the dead and dying...” Who are these dead who are dying? - Those who were “buried in Christ by baptism into death” (Rom. 6:4), for against the universal and inevitable mortal disease after sin, the only cure is to instill in oneself the saving death of Christ; – those who “have crucified the flesh with passions and lusts” (Gal.5:24); - those who “live” no longer, but “Christ lives in them” (Gal. 2:20). In proportion as their “outward...man decays,...the inward is renewed” (2 Cor. 4:16): why the perfect deposition of the dead remains of the former will be the perfect triumph of the latter. With joyful submission to the will of the Lord, they will take off the clothing of the body and rest in peace until He, having washed it away in the stream of corruption, returns it to them incorruptible and bright. “Let them rest,” says the Spirit (Rev. 14:13). Oh, blessed Saturday for those who did not destroy the days of work! They bore the heat of the day and the cold of the night, worked until they sweated, fought until they bled, watched until they were exhausted: now they will no longer bear any burdens imposed by the world and the flesh; They will not go out to gather food for themselves, but will eat from the manna prepared by the Lord; no passion will kindle fire in them, except that which burns before the Lord; no enemy will reach them. “Let them rest from their labors” (Rev. 14:13). The only companion that follows them into their rest is conscience, pacified by the merits of the Savior: “for their works follow with them” (Rev. 14:13). She unrolls the scroll of her past life before them; shows them the bright features placed in him by grace; fills them with sweet hope, until the Firstborn finally appears among the brethren with the blessing of His Father and solemnly introduces them with Him into the inheritance of the Kingdom. It is not to the glory of those who have died in the Lord, but to our consolation, that we must add that, moving toward closer union with God, they are not separated from us, if we also live in the Lord. Their souls are in the same hand of God, which opens and fills us with goodness; as members of the one body of Christ, we have with them one head and heart, one life and light. The Church every day renews this sacred union of the living and the dead, when, at the hour of the universal sacrifice, once offered on the cross and still continuing mysteriously on our altars, it immerses both of them together in the life-giving blood of Christ; when, with the voice of pious love, he cries for the living, that they may rest in peace, and for those who have passed away, that they may rest. Rest in peace, she cries to you today, blessed soul, whom this entire city recently accompanied on your peaceful departure! According to our earthly reckoning, in your departure from earthly existence you have now completed fourty times, a miraculous journey filled with wonders. I said: earthly; for we do not know the days of heaven, and the measure of eternity, always present. We believe that, coming from the world, from this gloomy Egypt, from this spiritual crampedness, you are ready to enter into the promised peace: for we saw how you passed the spiritual path of purification, once sensually formed by the wanderings of Israel. You were baptized not only externally in the water of the font, but also internally in the cloud of faith; you listened with reverent fear to the voice of the law of God on the holy mountain; Even from the land of your coming, you saw the land of promise and, when flesh and blood feared the difficult ascent into it, you tamed their rebellion by the power of your faith, you labored valiantly for the glory of God and your neighbor; and, looking at the faithful leader Jesus, with quiet feet she passed beyond the bounds of time. This inner path, destined for four decades of wandering Israel, we have outlined for ourselves in fourty days of memories and prayers for your visible exodus and, being shouted by your and our faith, without ceasing to accompany you - ascend, we cry with hope, ascend in peace into the full joy of your Lord and ours, and as a testimony of our love and gratitude for your exploits, accept also our spiritual the kiss that we send you in Him! And you, who in this famous Man have lost a tender father, a faithful friend, a meek ruler of the house, a caring boss, a firm protector, for he was all of these things, by nature, by duty, by heart, accept the consolation that the Church gives you from the lips of the Lord himself: “Weep not: you shall not die” (Luke 8:52). Moderate your grief over such a loss, which for the one you mourn is a gain. Because Christ “lives”, for this “he has gain” (Phil. 1:21). There is no other way for us to make up for the loss of those who have died in the Lord than to follow them along the path of truth to life. Amen. These words are read in the Gospel of week twenty-four. The fortieth day from the death of the deceased happened exactly this week. – Approx. author You might be interested in: