Слово на поминовение окольничего Тимофея Борисовича, сына боярина Бориса Гавриловича Юшкова («Наступает время, и настало уже, когда мертвые услышат глас Сына Божия и, услышав, оживут» (Ин. 5:25))

As we commemorate in blessed memory the departed servant of God, the okolnichy Timofey Borisovich, we hear the words of the Holy Gospel, clearly telling us that the dead, having heard the voice of the Son of God, will come to life and rise from their graves, Orthodox listeners! We undoubtedly believe these gospel words and the tea of ​​the resurrection of the dead. I say, the time when everyone, like being born from a mother’s womb, will emerge from his tomb for resurrection to immortal life, but no longer as a baby, but as a bridegroom coming out of the palace (see Ps. 19:6), with flesh that is not subject to either suffering or corruption, for “this corruptible will put on incorruptibility and this mortal will put on immortality” ( 1 Cor. 15:54). Then the servants of the Lord, who went “to the resurrection of life” (John 5:29), seeing themselves alive, whole, unaffected by corruption, shining with supernatural beauty, illuminated by the glory of the grace of the Lord and shining like the sun, according to the Scripture: “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43), - having seen this, they will rejoice greatly joy, and not only about themselves, but also about each other: father about son, son about father, mother about daughter, daughter about mother, husband about wife, brother about brother, sister about sister, relative about relative, neighbor about neighbor, friend about friend! All who find themselves in the grace of the Lord will rejoice in one another, for all will have one-hearted love for God and for each other, a love that is indestructible and never fails (see 1 Cor. 13:8). And until the time when, by the mercy of God, we are worthy of this grace of the general resurrection, being now alive, we must both undoubtedly look forward to the general resurrection and remember our death and always learn from this mortal memory. For only those who are now taught in mortal memory will be worthy of such a glorious and joyful resurrection. So, let us offer the above-mentioned gospel words: “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.” Let us offer, I say, these words as a useful teaching for us about the memory of death, “with the Lord’s assistance” (Mark 16:20). In these words, clear and without interpretation, one thing is incomprehensible and requires clarification: “and it has already come.” “The time is coming,” it is said, “the time has already come.” These words were spoken by the Lord Himself with His most pure lips at the time when He lived with people on earth, that is, more than a thousand years ago. How could He then speak about the resurrection of the dead, which should be in the distant future, about their awakening by the voice of the Lord, that is, the trumpet of the Archangel, in the present tense: “and it has already come”? What is the meaning of these words? Interpreters of Divine Scripture give two interpretations to these words: one literal, the other spiritual. In the literal interpretation - according to Theophylactov's understanding - the meaning of the words: “the time is coming and has already come” is the following: the hour of the universal, future at the end of the world, the resurrection of the dead, is coming, and now - the hour of the resurrection is not universal, but the resurrection of some persons, such as the daughter of Jairus, the son of a widow, the four-day-old Lazarus and many others, who will rise later, during the suffering of the cross, when the earth will shake, the tombs will be opened and many others the bodies of the departed saints will arise and enter the holy city, and will appear to many (see Matt. 27:51). This is the first interpretation. The second, spiritual interpretation explains these words as follows: “and it has already come,” that is, real life is the time of spiritual resurrection from spiritual death. For at the present time there are two types of death: especially - bodily and especially - spiritual, except for the third death - eternal death, by which, after the general resurrection at the Last Judgment, sinners will be punished by the justice of God. This death will be together with the death of soul and body in fiery Gehenna, from which may the Lord save us! Physical death awaits everyone in general, as Scripture says: “It is appointed for men to die once” (Heb. 9:27); spiritual - not for everyone, but only for unrepentant sinners. The body dies once, but the soul many times: the number of times it sins, the same number of times it dies, for the Scripture says: “If the soul sins, it dies” (Num. 19:20); without number he sins, without number he dies. For bodies we expect a single resurrection, which will take place at the end of the world, but for dying souls the hour of resurrection has already come. But let us first consider what the death of the soul is and what does its resurrection mean? Death of the soul is separation from God, that is, deprivation of the presence of God’s grace, which occurs through mortal sin. For just as for the body life is the soul, so for the soul life is God. And just as after the separation of the soul from the body, the body dies, so when God’s grace departs from the soul, the soul becomes dead. In agreement with this, Saint Callistus says: “Many have dead souls in their living bodies, as if buried in a tomb.” Let us listen: he calls the body of a sinful person a living tomb for a dead soul. And it's true! For Christ the Lord, denouncing the hypocritical Pharisees, says in the Gospel: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside seem beautiful, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27). If the soul is dead, then you can call the body a coffin full of stinking bones, although it is alive, for every sinful deed of a person, every evil thought emanating from his heart is a stinking bone. Oh, if only it were possible for anyone other than God the All-Seer to look into someone’s heart and see what is in it! How many bones of those stinking ones he would have found in it! The Lord says in the Gospel: “From the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy” (Matthew 15:19), and other unspeakable carrion, stinking and rotten (see Ps. 37:6). And all this deadness appears when the grace of God recedes from the human soul. For what reason does the grace of God depart from the soul, as the soul does from the body, and makes the soul dead? Everyone knows that the reason for this is sin. For just as physical death entered human bodies through the sin of Adam, so through sin spiritual death enters our souls. Physical death entered once through the sin of Adam, and spiritual death enters many times through our sins. How many times we sin, and commit grave mortal sins, the same number of times the grace of God is taken away from our souls, and our souls become dead. This is what spiritual death consists of. What is the resurrection of the soul? The resurrection of the soul is the return of God's grace to the human soul. For just as during the general resurrection, when souls return to their bodies, all bodies will immediately come to life, so in our present sinful life, when the grace of God returns to our souls, our souls will immediately be revived. And this is the resurrection of the soul. What returns the grace of God to our souls and revitalizes them? Truly, nothing less than true repentance. And just as every time a person sins, he dies in soul, so every time a person repents, he is resurrected. And just as sin is to blame for the death of the soul, so the resurrection of the soul is caused by repentance. But what can motivate a person wallowing in sin and despair to true repentance? We know that the bodies of the dead will be awakened by the voice of the Lord, which will be in the form of the archangel’s trumpet, according to Scripture: “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible” (1 Cor. 15:52). What awakens dead souls to repentance? The voice of the Lord, now proclaiming, as the Lord Himself says: “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.” Dead souls will hear and be revived by repentance. What is this voice of the Lord, now raising dead souls to life? This is not the voice of the thunderous trumpet of the Archangel, wanting to raise the bodies of the dead, but a voice that is silent in silence, but by its very appearance crying out in the universe louder than the trumpet, heard not so much by carnal as by heart ears and saying: “Remember your last, and you will never sin” (Sir. 7:39), and in those latter, first of all, death, and then Judgment and everything else that follows it. So first remember death. That voice comes from the Son of God, who possesses life and death, not only through books and teachers preaching the word of God, but also through visible images of death. You, sinful man, will see a dead man being carried for burial, and open the ears of your heart and listen, for this is the voice of God speaking to your heart and saying: “You will die, O man, and you will die!” Why are you negligent about the salvation of your soul? If you see the coffins of the dead, know that this is the voice of God, telling you from each coffin: “You too, man, will die!” Why do you wallow in your sins for so long, like in the mud? If you see ancient buildings, the houses of your grandfathers and great-grandfathers, know that this is also the voice of God calling to you: “You had grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and now they are no longer there, they have died. After all, you too will die; Why aren’t you preparing for your outcome?” Whether you listen to historical narratives, or read chronicles yourself, know that this is also the voice of God, saying to you: “These were kings, some princes, others commanders, others famous, and now they are no longer there, all have died. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was glorious; he died; the glorious king in Persia, Darius, died; Augustus, famous in Rome, died. Everyone died, and you will not find not only the bones, but also the tombs of the dead. You too will die, and just like them, you will turn into nothing. Why do you live without sadness, as if you were not going to die at all?” And the very commemoration of the dead, memorial services, Liturgies for the dead - all these are the voices of God, awakening you to repentance. Do you remember your father, forefather, spouse, son, daughter, brother, sister, relative - this commemoration is the voice of God, saying: “You too will die, and in no way will you escape death, for you are earth and will turn to earth (see Gen. 3:19). Why do you neglect your soul that died through sins? Why don’t you try to resurrect her through repentance?” This voice of the Son of God cries out to us constantly, day and night, cries out every hour, putting into our minds and hearts the memory of death. And this voice of the Lord - if anyone hears it - is truly a strong voice, raising up the lazy, a voice that crushes cedars - proud hearts, a voice that cuts off the flame of sinful fire in us, a voice that shakes and cuts through the desert of the many rebellious cares of life, a voice that strengthens spiritual deer (see Ps. 29:4-9), so that we quickly flow onto the path salvation, if only they wanted to listen to this voice, and did not close their ears from it, like deaf asps. But, oh the grief of our negligence! For we hear poorly with our ears, for our hearts are hardened! But let us see how strong and effective that voice of the Son of God is, I say, mortal, both preached to us by Divine words and communicated to our knowledge by visible images of death, how powerful and effective that voice is in those who listen. This voice is no less powerful than the voice of those trumpets, from the sounds of which the walls of Jericho were crushed, as it is related in Scripture: “The high priests sounded the trumpets, and the walls fell around the city” (Joshua 6:19). A sinful person who remains in unrepentance with a hardened heart, isn’t he, as it were, some kind of insensitive wall? This was expressed in a few words by the Apostle Paul, who said to the Jewish bishop Ananias, embittered by unbelief and anger: “God will beat you, whitewashed wall!” (Acts 23:3), whitened (adorned) with the dignity of dignity, but firm in heart cruelty, insensitive in a dead soul. What can crush such a wall, what, I say, can lead to repentance and tenderness of a hardened person? Nothing. Exhort him with words to stop sinning, exhort him even with prayer and threats, promise the kingdom of heaven from Christ, he, bypassing all this, considers that temporary sinful sweetness is best, and desires it most of all. Didn’t Moses, Samuel, Saul, and Elijah Ahab exhort the Jews with prayer and threat, and what did they achieve? Nothing. They remained soulless, like walls. However, even for such walls, like those of Jericho, there is one means that can crush them. Which? The voice of the trumpet called the memory of death. Hezekiah, the king of Judah, fell ill, burdened with many sins. God’s prophet Isaiah came to him and said: “You too will die. And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and began to weep and pray” (2 Kings 20:1–3). See how the reminder of death, like the voice of a trumpet, crushed this wall, that is, Hezekiah, who was hardened in sins, softened his hardened heart and led to tenderness. Saul, the king of Israel, was also bitter, but when he heard from the resurrected prophet Samuel: “In the morning you and your sons will die, then he fell to the ground in great fear” (1 Sam. 28:19). Look, during his life, the prophet of God could not admonish him with many words and instill the fear of God, but when he appeared to him after his death, with a single word about death he frightened, crushed and led to crying and sobbing. And the hard-hearted Jews in the desert, whom neither Moses nor Aaron could convert to good with many admonitions, were converted by God Himself with the death penalty, as the Scripture says: “When they killed them, then they quickly turned to God” (Ps. 77:34). Seeing the death of their brothers, out of fear they lamented in their hearts and turned to God. If such a voice of the Son of God is so strong and effective, then we will always listen to it, we will have an unforgettable memory of death, and in every deed and in every conversation we will place a coffin before our mental eyes, remembering our death. But let us turn our speech to the present commemoration. By now remembering with requiem and liturgical prayers in blessed memory the deceased, the okolnichy, servant of God Timofey Borisovich, we are doing good for him and for ourselves. Mortal memory benefits us, for when we remember him, we bring to mind our dead man, we remember our own death, and when we see his coffin, we think about our own coffin. The one who is remembered benefits from commemoration, for it intercedes for him forgiveness of sins, rest with the saints and the longed-for sight of God. Amen.