About consolation in death

Year and place of pronouncing the treatise of St. John Chrysostom “On consolation in death” (2 Words) are unknown. In the first word (7 chapters) the saint points out that “sorrow is of two kinds: one is good, and the other is evil; one is useful and the other is useless; one is salutary, and the other is destructive.” He recalls the inevitability of death, through which a person repays his debt: “Thus, if we take into account this general condition of our life, the burdened eye of the heart will begin to feel relief, as if from the first lotion applied to it.” After the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ, a new truth was revealed - there is no death: he who believes in Christ and keeps His commandments, although he dies, will live. Having hope, we should rejoice and not mourn. In the second word (9 chapters) St. John speaks of the resurrection of the dead and gives examples of the courage of the saints. He calls to accept saving sorrow - “sorrow for God’s sake”, i.e. repentance for wrongdoing (2 Cor. 7:10). “Test your heart, ask your conscience, and if you find something that requires repentance - and you will find it as a person - then sigh when confessing your sins, shed tears in prayer, lament over true death, over the punishment of the soul...; and do not be afraid of the destruction of this body, which in due time, by the command of God, will be renewed for the better.” 1. Listen, brothers, in silence, so that useful and sometimes necessary words do not fly past you. Then healing is especially needed when there is a serious illness; then it is necessary to carefully apply a healing lotion when the eye suffers from pain. However, even those who do not have this disease should not complain, but it is better to listen, because it is not superfluous for a healthy person to know useful medicine. And whoever’s mental eye is currently upset and suffering from pain, let him be even more attentive to open his eye to receive the medicine of saving conversation, from which one can receive not only consolation, but also relief. It is known that if someone has a sore eye and if the patient does not agree to open it to the doctor to pour in a healing lotion, then the lotion will flow along the outer surface of the eyelid, and the eye will remain sore; so the mind of a person stricken with grief, if, due to excessive sadness, does not open itself to the word, then, without accepting the saving exhortation, it will begin to hurt even more, and, perhaps, will be subject to what is indicated in Scripture: “Worldly sorrow produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10). The blessed Apostle Paul, teacher of believers and beneficial physician, said that sorrow is of two kinds: one is good, and the other is evil; one is useful and the other is useless; one is salutary, and the other is harmful. And so that my words do not seem dubious to anyone, I will quote his words themselves. He says: “Sorrow for God’s sake produces unfailing repentance leading to salvation”; this is good sadness. Then follows: “But worldly sorrow produces death”; this is evil sorrow (2 Cor. 7:10). 2. Let us see, brothers, whether the sadness that now occupies us, which now fills our chest and is heard in our very voice, is useful or useless; can it do any good or harm? Let us imagine that a lifeless body lies, a man without a man lies on a table, limbs without a spirit; they shout at him, but he does not answer; his name is called, but he doesn’t hear; lies with a pale face, with an altered appearance in which death itself is expressed; at the same time, one remembers his continuous silence, the pleasure and benefit that came from him or could have come from him; His relationships with others come to mind, his most pleasant words and long-term treatment of him come to mind. This, without a doubt, is what draws tears, causes weeping and plunges the whole soul into deep sadness! Against this so strong, so strong weapon of grief, it is necessary, first of all, to put forward the idea that everything that is born in this world must necessarily die. This is the law of God and the unchangeable sentence that was pronounced to the forefather of the human race, after his fall, in the words of God: “You are dust, and to dust you will return” (Gen. 3:19). What new has happened if a person born for this fulfills the law and the Divine sentence? What new has happened if one born of mortals conforms to his nature in something that he could not avoid? There is nothing extraordinary about something that has existed since ancient times; there is nothing unheard of in what happens every day; there is nothing special about what is universal. If we know that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers passed this same path of death, if we heard that, finally, the patriarchs and prophets themselves, from the primeval Adam, moved from this world not without death, then we will raise our souls from the depths of sadness; for here a man repays the debt he owed. How can one be sad when a debt is repaid? Truly, this is a debt that cannot be paid with any money - a debt that neither courage, nor wisdom, nor power can relieve, and which, finally, even the kings themselves cannot ward off. I, of course, would advise you to increase your sorrow if this matter were due to negligence or stinginess, then how could you pay off it with your own means or delay it; but if this is God’s determination, firm and unchangeable, then we grieve in vain and ask ourselves: why did such and such die, when it is written: “The Lord’s, the Lord’s gate of death” (Ps. 67:21) 1? Thus, if we take into account this general condition of our life, then the burdened eye of the heart will begin to feel relief, as if from the first lotion applied to it. 3. I know, you will say, that this is a common fate; I know that the one who died paid the debt; but I imagine the pleasure that came from him, I remember his relationship with others, I remember his treatment. If you therefore indulge in grief, then you are acting erroneously and not being guided by reason. You must know that the Lord, Who gave you this pleasure, can give you another, better one; and He who brought you such an acquaintance has sufficient power to reward you in another way. As for the benefit, then, as you look at your own benefit, you should also think about the benefit of the deceased; maybe this is more useful for him, as it is written: “Delighted, lest malice change his mind...; His soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he hastened from the midst of wickedness” (Wis. 4:11, 14). And what can I say about community with him, when the very time brings him into such oblivion, as if he had never existed? Therefore, what time and the change of days produce, reason and sound judgment should produce much more. It is especially necessary to think about what Divine wisdom said through the Apostle: “Worldly sorrow produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10). So, if pleasure, and real benefit, and acquaintance are the fleeting objects of this world and the joys of the age, then, look, for the sake of them, to lose heart and be contrite in heart is not a truly fatal disease? Again and again I will repeat the same words: “Worldly sorrow produces death.” Why does it produce death? Because excessive sadness usually leads either to doubt or to destructive blasphemy. 4. But, someone will say, how do you forbid mourning the dead, when the forefathers cried, and Moses, the servant of God, and then many prophets, especially when the most righteous Job tore his clothes on the occasion of the death of his sons (Job 1:20)? It is not I who forbid mourning the dead, but the enlightener of the nations - the apostle, who says this: “I do not want you, brothers, to be ignorant about the dead, so that you do not mourn like others who have no hope” (1 Thess. 4:13). Those who lived before the law or were under the shadow of the law mourned their dead; but the light of the Gospel cannot be so darkened. And they rightfully cried, because Christ had not yet come from heaven, Who dried up this source of tears with His resurrection. They rightly cried because the death sentence was still in force. They rightly shed tears because the resurrection had not yet been preached. Although at that time the saints were expecting the coming of the Lord, at the same time they mourned the dead, because they had not yet seen the One for whom they were waiting. Finally, Simeon, one of the Old Testament saints, who was also previously worried about his death, after receiving the Lord Jesus in his arms as a baby in the flesh, joyfully welcomes his death and says: “Now, O Master, you are letting your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:29-30). Oh, blessed Simeon! Having seen what he was waiting for, he began to look at his death as peace and tranquility. But, you say, it is read in the Gospel that they wept for the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue (Luke 8:52), and Lazarus’ sisters mourned for Lazarus (John 11:31). But they still reasoned according to the Old Testament law, because they had not yet seen the resurrection of Christ from the dead. True, the Lord Himself wept over Lazarus, who was already buried, but not in order to set an example of mourning for the dead, but in order to show with His tears that He too had assumed the true body; or probably, out of human love, He mourned the Jews, who, despite such a miracle, were not able to believe in Him. After all, the death of Lazarus, about whom Jesus Himself said that he had fallen asleep and promised to awaken him, as he did, could not be the cause of the tears. 5. So, the ancients had their own customs and their weaknesses, like those who lived before the coming of Christ. But when “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), when the sentence spoken to the first Adam was resolved by the last Adam, when the Lord destroyed our death by His death and rose from the dead on the third day, then death no longer became a fear for believers; The West is not afraid when the East has come from above. The Lord Himself, Who cannot speak a lie, cries out thus: “I am the resurrection and the life; He who believes in Me, even if he dies, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25-26). It is clear, most beloved brothers, says the Divine saying that he who believes in Christ and keeps His commandments, although he dies, will live. Accepting this saying and supporting it with all the strength of faith, the blessed Apostle Paul offered the following admonition: “I do not want you, brothers, to be ignorant about the dead, 2 so that you do not grieve” (1 Thess. 4:13). Oh, wonderful saying of the apostle! Even before he expounded his teaching, he already preaches the resurrection in one word. He calls the dead “dead” in order to make their future resurrection certain by speaking of them as sleeping. “Do not grieve,” he says, “for the dead, like others.” Let those who have no “hope” mourn, and we, children of hope, will rejoice. And what our hope is, he himself reminds us of this in the following words: “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then God will also bring with him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:13-14). Jesus is salvation for us while we live here, and life when we move from here. “For to me,” says the apostle, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). Truly, it is a gain, because death usefully ends the disasters and suffering that are associated with long-term life. Then the apostle describes in what order and how our hope should be fulfilled. “For this,” he says, “we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not warn those who have died, because the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first; Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:15-17). His words mean that the Lord, having come, will find many Christians in bodies that have not yet experienced death; and, however, they will not be caught up to heaven before the dead saints rise from their graves, having been awakened by the trumpet of God and the voice of the Archangel. When they are awakened, then, uniting with the living, they will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and thus will reign with Him forever. There is, of course, no doubt that bodies that have heaviness can rise into the air when, at the command of the Lord, Peter, who had the same body, walked on the waves of the sea (Matthew 14:29), and Elijah, to confirm this hope, was also caught up in a chariot of fire through this air to heaven (2 Kings 2:11). 6. But perhaps you ask: what will those resurrected from the dead be like? Listen to your Lord Himself, who says: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43). Do I need to mention the brilliance of the sun? Since believers must be transformed in accordance with the lordship of Christ the Lord Himself, as the Apostle Paul testifies: “Our citizenship,” he says, “is in heaven, from where we await the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body so that it will be consistent with His glorious body” (Phil. 3:20-21), then, without a doubt, this mortal flesh will be transformed in accordance with the lordship Christ, what is mortal will put on immortality, what was sown “in weakness” will then arise “in strength” (1 Cor. 15:43). Then the body will no longer be afraid of decay, will not suffer from hunger, thirst, illness, or accidents, because there is reliable peace and lasting security of life; there is another glory - heavenly; and there will be no lack of joy there. 7. Keeping this in mind and having it before his eyes, blessed Paul said: I would like to “be separated and be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). And again, setting out his teaching openly, he says: “We are always in good spirits; and since we know that, being at home in the body, we are removed from the Lord - for we walk by faith and not by sight - then we are glad and wish rather to leave the body and be at home with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5: 6-8). What do we, those of little faith, do when we indulge in grief and despair if one of our loved ones moves to the Lord? What do we do, comforted by wandering in this world more than by appearing before the face of Christ? Truly and truly, our whole life is a wandering: as wanderers in this world, we do not have a sure shelter, we work, we work until we sweat, walking along difficult paths and full of dangers; From all sides there are intrigues prepared for us - from spiritual and physical enemies, everywhere there are paths of error. And, despite the fact that we are surrounded by so many dangers, we not only do not want to get rid of them ourselves, but even for those who got rid of them, we cry and weep as if they were dead. What has God done for us through His Only Begotten Son if we are still afraid of death? Why do we boast that we have been reborn by water and the Spirit, if we are so saddened by our migration from this world? The Lord Himself cries out: “Whoever serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there will my servant also be” (John 12:26). When an earthly king invites someone to his palace or to a feast, do you think the invitee will not rush to express gratitude? We must strive with much greater zeal for the Heavenly King, Who will make those whom He accepts not only participants in the feast, but even fellow-partners of the reign, as it is written: “If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him” (2 Tim. 2:11–12). And I’m not saying that someone would lay hands on himself or kill himself contrary to the will of the Creator God, or expel the soul from its temporary home - his body; but I want to say that everyone, when they call him or his neighbor there, should go with joy and cheerfulness and greet others who are going. This is the essence of the Christian faith: to expect true life after death, to hope for a return after the exodus. So, having accepted the words of the apostle, let us with faith give thanks to God, who has given us victory over death through Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion, now and forever. Amen. 1. In the previous conversation we spoke briefly about the consolation of death and the hope of resurrection; Now let us hasten to say about the same more fully and thoroughly. If for believers what I said is, of course, undeniable, then for unbelievers and doubters it seems fabulous; We will now turn to them a few words related to the subject. So, unbelievers, all your doubt concerns the bodily composition. For some it seems incredible that a body that has turned to dust can rise again, come to life again. And regarding the soul, no one can doubt: even philosophers do not disagree about the immortality of the soul, although they were pagans. In fact, what is death if not the separation of the soul from the body? When the soul is separated, which always lives and cannot die, since it came from the inspiration of God, then only one body dies, because with us one part is mortal and the other is immortal. When the soul, which is invisible to bodily eyes, is separated, it is accepted by the Angels and placed either in the bosom of Abraham, if it is a believer, or in the underworld prison, if it is a sinner, until a certain day comes, on which it will again take its body and before the Throne of Christ, the true Judge, will give an account of its deeds. If, therefore, all doubt concerns the body, then its infirmity must be defended and the resurrection must be proved. 2. Therefore, if any of the doubters and unbelievers ask me: how will the dead be resurrected and in what body will they appear? - then I will answer him through the lips and words of the apostle: “Foolless one! what you sow will not come to life unless it dies. And when you sow, you do not sow the body of the future, but bare grain, whatever happens, wheat or some other seed, dead and dry grain, without moisture (1 Cor. 15:36-37); and when it decays, it rises again most fertile, clothed with leaves and supplied with ears. So, Who awakens a grain of wheat for you, will He really not be able to awaken you for Himself? Who every day awakens the sun, as it were, from the grave of night, and raises the moon, as it were, from destruction, and calls back the seasons, returning for our benefit, Will He not bring back to life ourselves, for whom He renews everything, will He really allow those whom He inflamed with His breath and quickened by His Spirit to perish forever? Will the person who reverently knew and revered Him cease to exist forever? But again you doubt: how can you be renewed after death, recreated from dust and broken bones? Tell me, man, what were you before you were conceived in your mother’s womb? Nothing, of course. So, God, who created you from nothing, couldn’t it be more convenient to recreate you from something? Believe me, it will be easier to renew what has already happened before for Him who could create what did not exist. Who commanded you in your mother’s womb to grow from a drop of ugly liquid and be clothed with nerves, veins and bones, He, believe me, is able to give birth to you again from the earth’s womb. But are you afraid that your dry bones will not be able to put on their former flesh? Do not judge, do not judge the greatness of God by your own weakness. God, the Creator of all things, who clothes trees with leaves and meadows with flowers, can immediately clothe your bones at a certain time in spring, at the resurrection. The prophet Ezekiel once doubted this very thing, and when asked by the Lord whether the dry bones that seemed to him scattered across the field would come to life, he answered: “Lord God! You know this” (Ezek.37:3). But when he saw how the bones, according to God’s command and his own prophecy, went to their places and compositions, when he saw that the dry bones began to be clothed with nerves, connected with veins, covered with flesh, clothed with skin, then after that he uttered a prophecy about the spirit, and the spirit of each one that came entered into the bodies lying on the ground; they were resurrected and immediately stood up. Thus convinced of the resurrection, the prophet described this vision so that the knowledge of such a subject would reach posterity. Therefore, Isaiah rightly cries: “Your dead will live, your dead bodies will arise! Rise up and rejoice, you cast down in the dust: for Your dew is the dew of plants, and the earth will cast out the dead” (Is. 26:19). Truly, just as seeds moistened with dew vegetate and grow, so the bones of believers will grow from the dew of the Spirit. 3. But do you doubt how a whole person can be restored from small bones? And you yourself produce a big flame from a small spark of fire: will God really not be able to restore the full composition of your small body from the small leaven of your dust? If you say: even the very remains of the body are nowhere to be seen, since perhaps they were destroyed by fire or devoured by beasts, then, first of all, know that everything that is destroyed is stored in the bowels of the earth, from where, by the command of God, it can arise again. And you, when the fire is still not visible, take a pebble and a piece of iron and from the depths of the stone you strike out fire as much as necessary. If you, with the help of your mind and art, which God Himself has endowed you with, bring into light that which was invisible, then will the greatness of God not have enough power to produce that which is not yet visible? Believe me, with God everything is possible. 4. You ask only whether God promised to perform the resurrection; and when you learn from the evidence, so many, that it is promised, when you have the most undoubted assurance of the Lord Christ Himself, then, having become established in faith, no longer fear death. Whoever still fears her does not believe; and whoever does not believe falls into incurable sin, since through his unbelief he dares to represent God as either powerless or deceitful. But this is not what the blessed apostles prove, or what the holy martyrs prove. The apostles, in proof of this doctrine of the resurrection, preach that Christ has risen, and proclaim that in Him the dead will also be resurrected; Moreover, they did not refuse either death, or torture, or crosses. If, with the testimony of two or three witnesses, “every word will stand” (Matthew 18:16), then how can one question the resurrection of the dead, which has so many and such reliable witnesses, about which they testify by shedding their blood? And the holy martyrs? Did they have a sure hope of resurrection or not? If they had not, they would not have accepted death as the greatest gain after so many tortures and executions. They thought not about present executions, but about subsequent rewards; they knew that “what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Listen, brothers, to an example of courage. The mother (of the Maccabees) convinced her seven sons, and did not cry, but rejoiced more; She saw how her sons were tormented with claws, cut with iron, fried in a frying pan, and she did not shed tears, did not let out screams, but diligently convinced the children to be patient. After all, she was not hard-hearted, but a believer; she loved her sons, but not effeminately, but courageously. She encouraged the children to suffer, which she herself accepted with joy, because she was confident in the resurrection of herself and her sons. Why talk about (other) husbands, wives, youths, and young women, how they rejoiced at this death, with what great haste they went over to the heavenly army? They could save real life if they wanted, because it depended on them to renounce Christ and live, or to confess Him and die. But they chose rather to lose temporary life and gain eternal life, to leave the earth and dwell in Heaven. 5. After this, brothers, is there any room for doubt? Can the fear of death still remain? If we are the sons of martyrs, if we want to be their fellows, then we will not grieve over death, we will not mourn those dear to us who go to the Lord before us. If we want to grieve for them, the blessed martyrs will reproach us and say: Oh, believers and those who desire the Kingdom of God, you who bitterly cry and weep for your dear ones dying calmly on couches and soft beds - what would you do if you saw them tortured and killed by the pagans for the name of the Lord? Don't you have an ancient example? Forefather Abraham, sacrificing his only son, killed him with the sword of obedience to God (Gen. 22:10), and did not spare the one whom he loved with such love in order to prove his obedience to the Lord. But if you say that he did this according to God’s command, then you also have a commandment not to grieve for the dead. And whoever does not observe the least, how will he observe the greater? Or don’t you know that a spirit that is crushed in such circumstances turns out to be incapable of doing the most difficult things? Will anyone who is afraid of a stream ever go to the sea? So will the one who impatiently mourns a loss ever be able to undertake the feat of martyrdom? On the contrary, the one who remains firm and magnanimous in such circumstances, by this very fact creates for himself a step towards the most important exploits. 6. This, brothers, would be enough to learn to despise death and be confirmed in hope for the future. But it remains for me to give one example from antiquity, which can provide any consolation and which let everyone listen with the ear of the heart, even if it is a suffering one. The great King David grieved greatly when his beloved son, whom he loved as his own soul, was stricken with illness (2 Samuel 12:15–23); and since human means no longer brought any benefit, he turned to the Lord, putting aside the royal pomp, sat down on the ground, lay down in a hair shirt, did not eat or drink, praying to God for seven whole days, in the hope that his son would not be returned to him. The elders of his house approached him with consolations and asked him to taste the bread, fearing that he, wishing for the life of his son, would not reach the point of exhaustion before him; but they could neither convince him nor force him, because impatient love usually despises danger itself. The king lay in a gloomy hair shirt, and his son was ill; neither words brought him any consolation, nor the very need for food had any effect; his soul fed on sorrow, his chest breathed with sadness, and instead of drinking, tears flowed from his eyes. Meanwhile, what was predetermined by God happened: the baby died, the wife was in tears; the whole house was filled with groans, the servants waited in fear for what would happen; no one dared to inform the master about the death of his son, fearing that the king, who so bitterly mourned his still living son, would take his own life upon hearing about his death. While the servants were consulting among themselves, while in despondency they either advised or forbade each other to speak, David understood and warned the messengers, asking if his son had died. Unable to deny it, they announced what had happened in tears. At the same time, there was extraordinary apprehension, strong expectation and fear, lest the gentle father endanger himself. But King David immediately leaves the hair shirt, gets up cheerfully, as if having received news of his son’s safety, goes to the washbasin and washes his body, comes to the church, prays to God, eats food with those close to him, suppressing sighs, putting aside all lamentation, and with a cheerful face. His family is surprised, those close to him are amazed at this extraordinary and sudden change and, finally, they dare to ask him what it means that during his son’s life he grieved so much, but after his death he does not grieve? Then this man, extraordinary in his generosity, answered them: while the son was still alive, it was necessary to humble himself, and fast, and cry before the face of the Lord, because there was hope for his return to life; but, when the will of the Lord has been accomplished, it is reckless and wicked to torment the soul with useless crying; now, he says, “I will go to him, but it will not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:23). Here is an example of generosity and courage! If David, who was still under the law, who had, I won’t say permission, but the necessity, to cry, if he so restrained his soul from reckless weeping and so moderated the sorrow of himself and those around him, then we, who are already living under grace, who have the sure hope of resurrection, who have received the prohibition of all lamentation, why do we so stubbornly mourn our dead, following the example of the pagans, raise reckless cries, as if in some kind of intoxication, tearing our clothes, baring our breasts, singing empty words and lamentations near the body and tomb of the deceased? Why, finally, do we paint our dress black, if not in order not only to show ourselves as truly unbelievers and pitiful not only with our tears, but also with our clothes themselves? All this, brothers, should be alien to us, impermissible; and even if it were permissible, it would not be decent. However, some of the brothers and sisters, whom their own faith and the commandment of the Lord could make firm, are weakened and crushed by the opinion of relatives and neighbors, lest they be considered stony and hard-hearted if they do not change their clothes, if they do not give themselves up to frantic, insane crying. But how empty, how obscene it is to think about the opinions of erring people, and not be afraid of causing damage to the faith that you have accepted! Why shouldn't such a person learn better patience? Why shouldn't he who doubts learn faith from me? Even if there really was such sadness in his chest, then even in this case he should have tempered the grief in silence with prudence, and not divulged about it with mental frivolity. 7. I would like to offer one more example for the correction of those who think of mourning the dead. This example is from pagan history. There was one pagan leader who had an only and rather beloved son. When, according to pagan delusion, he made a sacrifice to his idols in the Capitol, the news reaches him that his only son is gone. He did not leave the victim that was in his hands, did not cry or even sigh, but listen to what he answered: let them, he says, bury him; I remember that I gave birth to a son to a mortal. Look at this answer, look at the courage of the pagan: he did not even order to wait for himself so that his son could be buried in his presence. What will happen to us, brothers, if the devil, on the very day of Judgment, brings him against us before Christ and says: this admirer of mine, whom I deceived with my machinations so that he would serve blind and deaf idols, to whom I did not promise either the resurrection from the dead, or Paradise, or the Kingdom of Heaven, this valiant man, having learned about the death of his only son, was not saddened, and did not sigh, and did not leave my church at such news; and Your Christians, Your believers, for whom You were crucified and died, so that they would not be afraid of death, but would be confident in the resurrection, not only mourn the dead with both voice and appearance, but then even find it difficult to go to church, and some of Your clergy and pastors even interrupt their service, indulging in weeping, as if against Your will. Why? Because You deigned to call them to You from the darkness of the age. How will we, brothers, be able to respond to this? Will we not be overcome with shame when we find ourselves inferior to the pagans in this respect? A pagan who does not know God must cry, because as soon as he dies, he goes straight to execution. The Jew must also lament, who, not believing in Christ, doomed his soul to destruction. Our catechumens are also worthy of regret if they, either through their unbelief or through the negligence of their neighbors, die without saving baptism. But whoever is sanctified by grace, sealed by faith, honest in behavior or unchangeable in innocence, when he departs from this world, one must please him, and not mourn him; he must be envied, and not grieve greatly for him - however, envy him in moderation, since we know that in due time we ourselves will follow them. 8. So, believer, wipe away your tears, hold back your sighs, stop sobbing, and instead of this sadness, take upon yourself that saving sadness, which the blessed apostle called “sorrow for God’s sake,” which usually brings certain salvation, i.e. repentance for wrongdoing (2 Cor. 7:10). Examine your heart, ask your conscience, and if you find something that requires repentance - and you will find it as a man - then sigh when confessing your sins, shed tears in prayer, lament over true death, over the punishment of the soul, lament over sin, as David says: “I acknowledge my iniquities, and my sin is always before me” ( Ps.50:5); and do not be afraid of the destruction of this body, which in due time, by the command of God, will be renewed for the better. Look how God’s decree prescribes both: “The time is coming, and has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard, they will live” (John 5:25, 28). Here is peace, here is an incentive to despise death! What next? “And those who have done good will come forth into the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil into the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29). This is the difference between the resurrected! Of course, every human body must be resurrected; but the good will rise to life, and the evil will rise to execution, as it is written: “The wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous” (Ps. 1:5). Therefore, in order for us to be resurrected not for condemnation, let us stop grieving over death, but accept the sadness of repentance, take care of good deeds and a better life, let us think about the dust and the dead in order to remember that we too are mortal, and so that, with such a memory, we do not neglect our salvation while there is still time, while it is still possible, that is, either to bear better fruits, or to correct ourselves if we have sinned out of ignorance, so that We, if the day of death overtakes us by chance, did not have to look for time for repentance and not find it, ask for mercy and the opportunity to atone for sins, and not get what we wanted. 9. So, brothers, we have shown the universality of death, explained the impermissibility of tears, shown the weakness of the ancients and its unusualness for Christians, explained the mystery of the Lord, cited the testimony of the apostles about the resurrection, mentioned the deeds of the apostles and the suffering of the martyrs, pointed, in addition, to the example of David and, moreover, to the act of a pagan, finally, we presented both harmful and useful sorrow, the one that harms, and the one who saves through repentance. When all this is shown in this way, what else should we do, brothers, but cry out with gratitude to God the Father: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10)? Thou hast given life, Thou hast established death; You bring into the world, You bring out of the world, and having brought out, You preserve; nothing of Yours perishes, since You said that not even a hair of their heads will perish (Luke 21:18). “If you hide your face, they are troubled; if you take away their spirit, they die and return to their dust; If you send forth Your spirit, they will be created, and You will renew the face of the earth” (Ps. 103:29-30). Here, brothers, are words worthy of believers, here is saving medicine; whose eye is wiped with this sponge of consolation, moistened with prudence by this lotion, he will not only not feel the blindness of despair, but will not experience the slightest suppuration of sadness, but, on the contrary, looking at everything brightly with the eyes of his heart, he will say like the most patient Job: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I will return. The Lord gave, the Lord also took away; [as the Lord pleased, so it was done;] blessed be the name of the Lord!” ( Job 1:21 ). Amen. The paragraphs in the text were arranged by us. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” You might be interested in: