Homily for Meatfare Parental Saturday
On the Prayerful Commemoration of the Departed
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
On the Prayerful Commemoration of the Departed
By Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all are alive to Him" (Luke 20:38), said Christ the Savior to the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ! The Holy Orthodox Christian Church, firmly believing these true words of the Savior, always publicly confesses the indisputable truth that with the death of a person his life does not cease. What do we see dying? Only the body, which is taken from the earth and again returns to the earth. The flesh decomposes and turns to dust, but the person himself, with all his feelings and with his immortal soul, continues to live, passing only from this world to another, to the afterlife. Consequently, communication between the living and the dead is not destroyed by death, but continues to exist.
On the basis of this truth, the Church has always, since the times of the Old Testament, and especially in the New Testament time – the time of the Apostles, made and continues to make commemorations and prayers for the departed brethren of the same faith. The Holy Church, offering daily prayers for her departed children, encourages all the faithful to do so, so that with one mouth and one heart they lift up fervent prayers to the Throne of God with a request for the repose of their departed relatives in places of blessedness. Christian love prompts us to pray for the departed, which unites us mutually in Jesus Christ into one brotherhood. The deceased of the same faith are our neighbors, whom God commands us to love as ourselves. For God did not say: love your neighbors while they live on earth. Therefore, the Lord does not limit love for our neighbors to the boundaries of earthly existence, but extends it to the eternal afterlife. But how, if not by remembrance, how, if not by prayer, can we prove our love for those who have passed into the afterlife? Each of us would like that after our departure from this life our neighbors do not forget us and pray for us. In order for this to be fulfilled, we too must remember the departed. "With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you" (Matthew 7:2), says the Savior. Therefore, those who remember the departed will be remembered by the Lord, and people will remember them after their departure from this world. Great is the consolation and great is the reward for the one who saves his neighbor from temporary misfortune, but a much greater reward and greater consolation awaits the one who, with his prayers, helps his departed neighbor to receive forgiveness of sins and move from the dark dungeons of hades to the bright, blessed abodes.
Are our prayers for the departed necessary? Yes, they are necessary, because they do them a great favor. The fact is that after death there are two eternities: either the eternal blessedness of the righteous, or the eternal torment of sinners. It is also known that there is no person on earth who would live and not sin. So it is true that we are born in sins, we spend our lives in sins, and we end our earthly existence in sins. But do all those who have sinned bring full and sincere repentance before death? After all, sometimes death overtakes a person in a state of such a serious illness that he loses his memory and his spiritual strength becomes completely exhausted. And it is clear that in such a state a person cannot remember his misdeeds and repent of them - and he dies with sins. Often death strikes a person suddenly, and he, without bringing any repentance, also departs with sins. He himself can no longer help himself by any means. A person can change his fate only when he is alive, doing good deeds and praying to the Lord for his salvation. In such cases, prayer for the deceased is very necessary and brings them the greatest benefit.
Many of our loved ones have long since departed from this earth, but a loving heart cannot forget them, and yearns for them, perhaps even more than for the living. In a similar way, the departed look in our direction from the other world, burning with love for those who were especially close to their hearts here. If any of the dead have attained justification before God, then He, responding to our love with mutual love, sends us heavenly help from above; and for those who have not yet attained justification, our prayer can greatly help in alleviating their fate in the afterlife. The time will come when we will see them. How joyful it will be to hear from them a word of gratitude for the prayer! They will say: “You remembered me, you did not forget me, and you helped me in my time of need. I thank you.” On the contrary, how bitter it will be to hear a reproach for someone who did not pray for the dead! “You did not remember me, you did not pray for me, you did not help me in my hour of need, I rebuke you.”
The state of the departed is like that of a man floating on a very dangerous river. Prayer for the departed is like a lifeline that a man throws to his drowning neighbor. If somehow the gates of eternity were to open before us and we could see these hundreds, thousands of millions of people rushing to a peaceful haven, then what heart would not be struck and crushed at the sight of its fellow believers and blood relatives, silently calling for our prayerful help!
I will now tell you a wonderful but true story about one church of our Russian Church about how necessary prayers for the departed are, and about the existence of communication with the afterlife. In the village of Lysogorka, a priest died. Another priest was sent in his place, a young one, who died unexpectedly during the first service, right in the altar. They sent another priest, but the same thing happened to him: on the first day of his service, after they sang "Our Father" and the communion verse, the priest did not come out with the Holy Gifts for a long time, and when the sexton entered the altar, he saw the priest lying dead in full vestments at the Holy Altar. Everyone was horrified to learn of this mysterious death, and, not knowing the cause, they said that some grave sin was weighing on the parish, if two young, innocent lives became victims for it. Rumors about this spread throughout the entire district, and none of the priests dared to go to that parish.
Only one elder monk expressed his consent: "I'm going to die soon anyway. I'll go and serve the first and last Liturgy there, my death will not orphan anyone."
During the service, when they had finished singing the "Our Father," the sense of self-preservation nevertheless asserted its rights, and the elder ordered that both the side doors and the Royal Doors be opened. During the verse after the Communion, he saw some silhouette behind the High Place. This silhouette became more and more distinct, and suddenly behind the Throne stood out the gloomy image of a priest dressed in vestments, who was bound hand and foot with chains.
Trembling with fear, the monk mixed up the words of the prayer. But after some time he gathered his strength, became stronger in spirit and went out to give communion to the believers. Everyone understood that something was wrong with him.
And the ghost kept standing, clanking his chains, and with his shackled hands pointed to the box standing in the altar.
At the end of the Liturgy, the hieromonk called the sexton, and they opened the box, which contained... memorial notes. The fact is that when memorial notes were given to the deceased priest, he would put them aside for the future without reading them. Now the elder understood the reason for the vision and began to serve memorial services daily and read the accumulated notes.
The following Sunday he was already serving the funeral Liturgy for the soul of the deceased priest. When the verse for Communion was sung, the silhouette of the deceased priest appeared again. But he was no longer tragic and menacing, as he had appeared the first time, but with a bright, cheerful face and without chains on his hands and feet. After the elder hieromonk who was serving received the Holy Mysteries, the ghost stirred, bowed to the ground and disappeared.
We see in this example how prayers for the departed bring them benefit and ease their lot. And it is no coincidence that we are talking about this today. Because today the Holy Church celebrates a special day called Meatfare Parental Saturday and gathers the Orthodox for a joint prayer before the Throne of God for our fellow believers who have departed to eternal life. And tomorrow the Holy Church remembers the terrible Second Coming of the Lord and the end of the world.
Encouraging its members to be prepared for the Last Judgment, the Holy Church asks us to pray to the Righteous Judge for our departed relatives, that all their sins may be forgiven and that the path of transition from the dark dungeon to the bright abodes of the Heavenly Father may be cleared before them.
Let us, dear brothers and sisters, lift up a prayer to Christ God and with all our hearts cry out: With the saints, give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Your servants, where there is no sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting . Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
