January: Day 11: Venerable Theodosios the Great

 

January: Day 11:
Venerable Theodosios the Great
 
(On the Beneficial Nature of the Memory of Death)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. The Venerable Theodosios, whose memory is celebrated today, was a native of Cappadocia, having received a Christian upbringing, was devoted to the Holy Scriptures from childhood, studied them with love and most of all treasured his visits to the temple of the Lord, where, having a good voice, he was appointed a Reader. He loved this work with all his soul and read with attention and took to heart those words of the Gospel, which command not to be attached to the things of the earth, but to think mainly about eternal life and strive for it. He earnestly prayed to God that He would reveal to him the true path and Himself guide him.

Having achieved a high level of holiness in life, he eventually became the abbot of the famous Lavra he founded near Jerusalem with six hundred brethren (all of his disciples numbered up to 16,000 people during his long life).

The Venerable Theodosios the Great, while showing bodily mercy to all, did not forget the spiritual works of mercy, edifying all with soul-saving instructions. “Brothers,” he often exhorted the monks, “for the sake of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us take care of our souls; let us remember the vanity of our short earthly life and think about the future, eternal life. Let us not be lazy and spend our days in idleness, putting off a good undertaking until the next day. Let death not meet us without good deeds and let us not be driven out of the chamber of joy and weep too late for an unrighteous life. Then repentance will already be useless. Now is the time favorable for him: here is repentance, and there is retribution, here is work and patience, and there is consolation. Here we enjoy God’s longsuffering, and then we will know His justice when we are resurrected, some into eternal life, others into eternal torment.”

Saint Theodosios died peacefully in the year 529, being 105 years old, and was buried in the Bethlehem desert, where he had originally lived as a monk.

II. The Venerable Theodosios the Great, by his life and his teaching, gives us a lesson to have a living memory of death, so as not to become attached to the earthly and not to lose the heavenly kingdom.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk describes the beneficial nature of the memory of death in this way:

a) “This will not allow us to boast of our nobility and to despise others – our brethren. For, remembering death, let us remember that we are earth, and to earth we will go.”

b) “Remembering death, let us turn our hands away from extortion, robbery, but let us also fill the hands of those who demand our property, knowing that everything worldly will remain for the world, and as we entered the world naked, so we will leave naked.”

c) “Remembering death, let us not burden this bodily skin with gluttony and drunkenness, but let us take so much food and drink that we do not weaken, and that we can work, anticipating that we ourselves will become food for worms.”

d) “Remembering death, let us not wish for various and rich clothes, knowing that at burial only a single robe is needed to cover nakedness.”

e) "Remembering death, let us not get many villages, hamlets, lands by malicious intrigue, knowing that after death no more than three arshins of land will be needed. So, remembering death, let us have great fear to avoid the intrigues of the hostile."

f) "And when we remember death, then the terrible judgment that follows death will come to mind, where we will be tormented for a word, deed, and evil thought. So, remembering death, let us prepare for the terrible judgment, and propitiate the righteous Judge with all measures. For if we are called to a human judgment, we prepare ourselves for how to act there, what to say, how to justify ourselves: how much more so for God's judgment, where all our thoughts will be revealed.

From the Last Judgment two paths will come to mind: along one, poor sinners with weeping, wailing and useless sobbing go to eternal torment; along the other, blessed righteous, with inexpressible joy, go to eternal life.

Of these four - death, judgment, hell, the kingdom of heaven, their everlasting memory will not allow us to be seduced by sinful sweetness, according to the Scripture, which tells us to be careful: “Remember your last days, and you will never sin” (Sirach 7:36). (Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk on Eph. 5:15).

g) Many saints, as a living reminder of the hour of death, had a coffin in their cell and the skull of a dead person on the table, which always reminded them of death, judgment, hell and the kingdom of heaven and they constantly supported the holy ascetics in patiently bearing the cross of their sorrowful life on the path to the Kingdom of Heaven.

III. Let us remember our last days, so as not to sin and not to be forever deprived of the Kingdom of God. Let the death of our near and dear ones remind us of our death. Let the sight of a cemetery prompt us to reflect on the fact that there will be a time when we too will rest among the dead. Let the illnesses that befall us be messengers calling us to the afterlife. Most of all, let us pray to the Lord that He will deliver us from the hardening of our hearts and that He will awaken in our souls a living memory of death, which is so beneficial for us. 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.