Слово пятое в Великую Субботу

We do not know, brothers, where your thoughts are inclined from this Shroud, and ours - towards our own tomb. And our life, we think, will pass just as Pentecost has passed now; and for each of us then the great heel of death will come; and after this - the Great Saturday of tranquility in the bowels of the earth - Great - by its very continuation for us. For the Lord descended into the grave for only three days; but we will have to stay underground for a long, long time. Thinking about this is so beneficial for our soul that some good Christians consider it a duty to have their coffins ready and in sight, but we, at least today, will be transported in thought to our coffin, and see what will happen to us then. And on our head, when we lie in the tomb, they will place a crown; for the Church does not deprive the very last of her sons of this sign of the end of earthly exploits. What would you like this crown to be made of for you? From roses and crins of paradise? Let the worthy be decorated with them! As for us, it is better that this crown, like the Savior’s crown, be woven from thorns, that is, from sorrows and hardships, which were suffered in His name. As long as we walk in the flesh, these thorns are disgusting to our outer man, for they gore his head: and at the hour of death - this is the best decoration for the soul! By these sacred thorns on the head, the Angels of God will most likely recognize us as true followers of the Crucified One and will open to us the paradise acquired by His Cross. There will probably be plagues on us in our tomb. Oh, if only they did not come from the hand of a doctor, and not only from the ferocity of the disease! If only among these wounds there were at least a few of those ulcers with which St. Paul once boasted, saying: “For I bear the wounds of the Lord Jesus on my body!” (Gal. 6:17). Alas, we too carry many ulcers throughout our lives, both mental and physical, but they cannot be called the Lord’s! - For who places them on us? Or our own flesh with its passions and intemperance; or the world for our subservience to its insane rules and whims. Do not appear before the Lord with such wounds! They must be healed by repentance as long as we remain on the land of the living. Some Joseph and Nicodemus will probably appear at our grave to repay the latter’s debt to us. Whoever they are, may they show their zeal for us and may they honor our memory not with many aromas, not with the unnecessary expenses of decorating our coffin and grave, but with the aggravation of our prayers to the Church and deeds of charity about our sins. For what benefit is there to the soul in the splendor of funeral decorations? Before the throne of the all-seeing Judge, she will need not the perishable cover of gold and silver with which coffins are covered, but the precious robe of Christ’s merits, the only one that can cover spiritual nakedness. Finally, our coffin, like the coffin of our Savior, will be sealed with a seal. Thank the Lord that this is no longer the seal of Caiaphas, but of our mother, the Holy Church! But in order for this sacred seal of hers to have all the power over us, and to be able to keep our ashes unapproachable to the spirits of wickedness in high places, this requires that throughout our lives we inviolably preserve that seal of sanctification with which she, the Holy Church, sealed us at the font of Baptism, and that we act in everything like her true and faithful children. And if we are Christians only in name, neglecting the fulfillment of the holy Rules of the Church; if we do not have an internal spiritual union, kinship and one spirit with this Mother of ours, then her holy seal will not have power over our tomb; will fall off from him, just as seals fall off from substances that cannot hold them on themselves. These, my brothers, are the thoughts with which we stood over this Shroud in the morning, singing the original songs to the Creator of our salvation. Whoever wants, let him share them with us and continue them for himself. At the tomb of the Savior, after His death, one cannot think about anything closer and more decent than the end of one’s own life on earth. Amen. You might be interested in: