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: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and giving life to those in the tombs” But how can death be trampled underfoot by the death of Christ, when it hitherto tramples down each and every one of the sons of Adam? What kind of life is given to those in the tombs, when they all continue to remain in the tombs, and no one is known to be “returning from hell” (Wis. 2:1)? What kind of defeat is this that the defeated continues to defeat everyone? – What kind of victory is this, that those who belong to the winner themselves go into captivity? Such thoughts, brothers, can easily come to mind and outrage the lordship of these days; therefore, it will not be without benefit to dispel this darkness with rays from the luminous tomb of Christ. That death was truly trampled upon by the death of Christ is clear from the Resurrection of Christ itself: only the Conqueror of death could emerge from the grave forever; Without this, death would have kept Him in its dark kingdom, just as it keeps all the other sons of Adam. – That the defeat of death, committed by our Savior, was committed by Him not for Himself alone, but for the entire human race, this is evident from the rising at the hour of Christ’s death of many departed saints. How could they have risen from the graves if the Lord had risen from the grave for Himself alone? The same thing, that is, the defeat of death, is evident from the resurrection of the dead, which was repeatedly accomplished by the Savior, and then at different times and in different places was repeatedly accomplished by the true disciples and followers of Christ. Such resurrections show that death is now a fortress that has lost its inaccessibility, it is a prison that has turned from eternal to temporary. Finally, the trampling of death is clearly and constantly revealed in the incorruption of the bodies of many of God’s saints, which serves as a sure guarantee that the dominion of death is weakened and the kingdom of corruption is approaching its end. There are so many, brothers, in experience itself, traces of the defeat of death by the death of Christ! Christ’s death, I say: for it was not in the name of anyone else that all the miracles of immortality and incorruptibility were performed and continue to be performed, as in the name of the risen Lord Jesus; and He Himself concluded no other way than the source of death, and opened the source of incorruption and life, as through His death and the Cross: “Trampling down death by death!” “But why do people continue to die after the resurrection of Christ, as they died before the resurrection?” - Because the complete triumph over death should take place not in the middle of the existence of the world, when our Savior appeared on earth, died and rose again, but at the end, and after the fulfillment of all times, for it is fitting for a complete triumph to occur only after the complete end of the battle. “But is it not finished in the person of the Son of God?” It is finished in the person of the Son of God, but not finished in the sons of men. And, firstly, most of the human race still does not have faith in the crucified and risen Lord: in whose name should immortality be granted to them? -Leave mortals and grant immortality to only believers? But in this way, on earth, one half of people would be immortal, and the other half mortal: a strange duality, and, in essence, impossible! -And among those who believe in the name of Christ, many are Christians only in name, but in reality they do the will of the enemy of Christ, give him refuge in their souls, and allow their hearts to become strongholds against the Cross of Christ. How can these false Christians be granted immortality? Leave them mortal, while only Christians will be immortal? But this will again result in unnatural duality. – You will say that if true Christians were granted immortality, then immediately all non-believers would turn to Christ. - Of course, they would apply for immortality, but what would such an appeal be like! – And having accepted immortality, what would many make of it? – Many would have taken this gift from the hands of Christ precisely in order to immediately give it to the enemy of Christ. But we are still standing on the surface of the matter; and she says a lot, but not everything: let's go deeper, let's go further. – We would like to destroy death: but what does it mean to destroy death? – Is it to make our real body, in its present state and form, undying? – But this, firstly, is impossible in itself: for, let’s say in the words of the Apostle: “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; below corruption, incorruption will inherit” (1 Cor. 15:50). The composition of our current body is such that it itself contains the seed of uncontrollable destruction. -Moreover, this would be the immortality of punishment, not reward, when our real body became immortal. For what is this body like? – Isn’t it frail, isn’t it weak, isn’t it painful? And now in many respects it constitutes a burden and a prison for the spirit: even more so it would constitute both, having become eternal. - Therefore, in order to make our body immortal - a blessed and glorious immortality, for this it is necessary to recreate it again. “It’s better,” you say, “to redo it.” But is this possible without a significant change in the entire nature that surrounds us? – We do not live alone or especially, but in close connection with other beings; our life, one might say, is immersed in the life of nature that surrounds us. How can a person’s body be removed from death when everything else around him is dying? And what kind of immortality is this among the deaths and decay of all living things? “So much the better,” you will say again, “if a person cannot be immortal in the body alone, without the spread of immortality to other beings; then - to extend this benefit to everything - to drive out death from the whole world.” - She will be expelled from everywhere; the whole world will be renewed and become immortal, as it once was; only all this will not follow until the end of the world, after the fulfillment of times. - “Why not now?” – Because the real world has its own specific time of existence, necessary for the revelation of all the forces contained in it, for extracting from it, despite its damage, all the good that can be extracted, for preparing it, through constant, internal change, for a new, better way of being. When all this is over, then the great day of renewal of the whole world will come. On the other hand, it is necessary that humanity also have time to assimilate, through faith and life by faith, the redemptive power of the merits of Christ - to be imbued, so to speak, completely with the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be healed through the constant struggle with the temptations of the world from the inclination to sin - to prepare for dwelling on the new earth of immortality. When this necessary preparation is completed, then the time will come for general triumph and tranquility. – Remember, the poison of sin did not suddenly have its effect: Adam, as you know, lived for more than nine hundred years, after eating from the forbidden fruit. It is not surprising if the power of redemption in its action is subject to time: for it restores and heals not only the body, according to the laws of necessity, but also the spirit, and even more the spirit than the body; but the spirit, as a free being, cannot be healed otherwise than through the participation of its own arbitrariness, through the use of its own powers - which necessarily takes time. But you are not satisfied with these reasons either, and you keep regretting why that blessed time has not come long ago when there will be no death? - What if I tell you that if it had come before you, then you would not have been in the world? – It definitely wouldn’t be. Do you remember how the Savior depicted to the Sadducees the future state of people after the resurrection? “In the resurrection,” He said, “they neither marry nor commit violence, but are like the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). Consequently, if immediately after the Resurrection of the Savior the time had come for universal immortality, or, what is the same, resurrection; then at the same time all carnal birth would immediately cease. How then would those people come into being who lived after the Resurrection of the Lord until our times? How could we ourselves, now reasoning about this, come into existence? – By the direct action of creative power, how did Adam come into being? – But in this way the unity of the root in the human race and the unity of human destiny, temporal and eternal, would be disrupted: for those who did not descend from Adam to the flesh would therefore clearly be in many ways different and different from the descendants of Adam. So do you see what the desire not to die is equivalent to? – The desire to prevent the existence of millions of people like you, the desire to deprive yourself of existence! Be patient and generous, just and merciful. Millions of people who lived before you have disappeared from the face of the earth to make way for your earthly existence: go down for a while into the material bowels of the earth for peace, and wait until all your other brothers in flesh and spirit see the light, each tastes his share of life, each cultivates his talents. When the number of the sons of Adam is fulfilled in greatness and all the grains of corn (ears of corn - ed.) are gathered from the field of God, when the earth and heaven are completely prepared for the celebration of the great day of immortality: then the Lord of life and death will not delay the celebration for a single day, will not allow your body to lie in the ground for a single extra hour. Truly, brethren, in the matter of our immortality everything is foreseen and calculated by the wisdom of God with the greatest accuracy. We read from the Apostle Paul that the people who are the last to live on earth will not die, but the living will change (1 Cor. 15:52) miraculously during the general resurrection of the dead. Why will they not be allowed to die and will not wait for their death to begin the general resurrection? Because there will be no need to delay: everyone who had to come into the world has already come; everyone who came had already had time to do their job; therefore, the Conqueror of death will immediately assume all rights over it, overthrow and abolish it, as if it is useless. If, brothers, death is a tribute that people imperceptibly, but nevertheless, as we have seen, really bring to the real continuation of their lineage on earth, redeeming with it at the same time their own earthly existence: then who after this will refuse to pay this tribute? “I feel,” you say, “the justice and necessity of this tribute; but I wouldn’t want to buy earthly existence at such a high price - to pay for life with death.” For this, beloved, is this tribute not rewarded with something else? Doesn't death save us from some important evil? - Remember what we are like when we come into this world! – All with a great inclination towards evil, which, the more it lives, the more strongly it reveals itself in everyone, if it is not destroyed by the power of the grace of Christ. What serves as the greatest barrier to the evil nesting in the soul? Is it not the frailty of our nature? – Death directly stops evil in many forms, and indirectly blocks the paths of sin from many sides, so that if it were possible to put all human virtues into one, it would turn out that most of them in a person owe their origin to the memory of death. “But let’s imagine that the coffin stopped appearing before people’s eyes, that our body became immortal and everyone was convinced that they would live on earth forever.” How many things will change for many at once, and all for the worse! How many plans will suddenly appear! How passions will flare up! Everything will take on a size both great and terrible. There will be no end to self-love, there will be no end to oppression and pride, there will be no end to voluptuousness and luxury. All evil will become immortal; one virtue will appear short-lived and end up in the grave. “Imagining all this, one cannot help but consider it a great blessing of God’s wise love that it does not remove our imprisonment until our spirit becomes capable of enjoying the freedom of immortality. Of course, this is deprivation, but a beneficial deprivation, which comes from love in the deprived, from the need in the deprived: and feeling this, we ourselves should flee from the tree of life, even if it were before our eyes, and no cherub was guarding it from us. “At the very least, we would free from the need to die those who, with the help of God’s grace, during the continuation of their lives, cleansed themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” But are there people who would be completely pure and would not contain anything sinful, and therefore mortal? If you listen to them themselves (and who better to listen to in this case?), then they say something else, they admit that they have “not achieved” (Phil. 3:13), having a need for cleansing. And who knows whether death among the saints of God does not serve precisely to purify that which could not be purified by the spirit - to the final destruction of the ancient poison of the serpent? However, the saints of God receive in this case everything they deserve: death, terrible and bitter for us, is not like that for them at all: which is why many of them called on it as a friend and liberator from bonds. No one would have thought that the time that passes from the death of each day of the general resurrection is lost in inaction. But who tells you to think like that? – Do saints waste time when, with their spirit, like disembodied spirits, they glorify the Lord in heaven, pray for their earthly brothers, and even often descend to earth to provide help? Is time lost for those who, although they departed from this world unpurified, still have faith in the merits of the Redeemer and a firm intention to begin a holy life, when they by faith internalize the prayers offered for them by the Church? - Time is lost only for those who would lose it even more if they continued to live on earth - for sinners hardened in evil. But even for such, death is a gain: being naked from the flesh, which they served like an idol all their lives, they cannot commit many sins, and therefore on the day of resurrection and judgment they will accept a lesser degree of punishment. Thus, brethren, no matter how you look at physical death, it seems, although an evil, but one that, after the fall of man, given the current order (or more precisely, disorder) of things, is necessary and useful. For this reason, death was not destroyed immediately after the Resurrection of the Lord, but was left until the end of the world, as a means for the final cleansing of our sensory nature from sin through its resolution into its component parts, and at the same time as a formidable ghost for the beneficial intimidation of too frisky children and for removing them from harmful and insane amusements. “But what is the power of Christ’s death if we all continue to die as before?” The fact is that we will all one day, like our Savior, rise from the graves. Without the Savior’s acceptance of our flesh, without His death for us on the cross, the death that befell us in Adam would have been eternal death: descending into the earth, we would never have left the earth, to true life, but would have descended through all eternity lower and lower, through the boundless depths of hell; and now we are going down the stairs of death and corruption in order to, having passed through them, go out to heaven. What is our main triumph over death? The fact that it was destroyed by the death of Christ is that even when we die, we do not die forever, we die for the resurrection. Death is now a poison that, having been transformed on the Cross by the Blood of Christ, has become a medicine against itself. Remembering all these truths, the immutability of which is visible to everyone, let us stop, brothers, looking at the tomb with the eyes of people who “have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13), let us recognize God’s love for us in our very death. The Risen Lord has done so much for us that, without a doubt, he would have provided this benefit in order to immediately destroy death if it were useful for us. But the real order of things on earth is such that even He Himself, after His resurrection, could not remain on earth, but ascended to heaven for the time being. Moreover, it is indecent for us to remain in this vale of tears forever without Him. It is better, in every respect better, to go to Him - to heaven, and there, together with Him, to wait until the earth becomes capable of being heaven. Amen. You might be interested in: