Prologue in Sermons: March 11

In What State After Death Are the Souls of Sinners, and in What State the Souls of the Righteous

March 11

(Instruction of the Holy Fathers concerning the need of death.)

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

In what state after death are the souls of sinners, and in what state those of the righteous?

What shall be said about this?

Let us anticipate, brethren, says the word of the Church, our death by repentance and let us hasten to it before the end, for our life is short in time, but the torment is long. The end is near and the fear is great, and there is no one there who forgives. Consider in what a terrible condition the sinners are in hades. While living on earth, they forgot the fear of God and did not fulfill the commandments. And now, in hades, what then? They ask God for even the smallest relief, but they do not receive it and in the lower parts of the earth they weep. They remember their sins: sloth, gluttony, fleshly sins, and various evil deeds, and they repent of them, but they do not receive forgiveness, for after death there is no repentance.

But how do the righteous live in that world?

We bless, continues the same word of the Church, the righteous and the infants who die. For us the cup of death is heavy, but for them it is saving. For us all here it is fearful, but for them there it is joyful. We here taste beforehand the beginning of torment, but they there have entered into the beginning of salvation. They say to us: “The angels peacefully separated our souls from our bodies, and we without sorrow and without delay passed the aerial toll-houses. The demons did not find in us what they sought and what they hoped for. Seeing our pure body, they were ashamed; seeing our holy and pure souls, they left us; seeing our tongue not defiled, they fell silent. We passed by and fled from them, praising the Lord, saying: Blessed be the Lord, Who did not give us as prey to their teeth! The snare is broken, and we have been delivered. The angels met us and rejoiced for us; the righteous greeted us; the venerables rejoiced in us and said: ‘Well have you done, servants of Christ, that you have come here and have become heirs of the Kingdom of God.’”

Thus, as you see, brethren, sinners, after the separation of their souls from their bodies, are in darkness, in removal from God, and hopelessly repent of their sins, but the souls of the righteous are in light, in rest, and in the fore-beginning of eternal blessedness. What follows from this? That, in order to avoid the lot of sinners, we must reflect on their eternal torments, on their removal from God, on the eternal darkness in which they will be, and on their fruitless repentance. What is needed in order to be with the righteous? It is also necessary to reflect on their blessedness, where, as Saint Ephraim the Syrian says, there is unapproachable light and inexpressible joy, where there is neither lamentation, nor death, nor sorrow, nor care; but where there is joy and peace, rest and exultation, where there is the voice of those celebrating, where the unknown treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. There are myriads of angels, the thrones of the apostles, the chief seats of the prophets, the scepters of the patriarchs, the crowns of the martyrs, the praises of the righteous; there the reward is laid up and a place is prepared for every beginning, authority, and rank (From the Homily on the Second Coming of the Lord). Such is the blessedness of the saints in the day without evening of the Kingdom of Christ! Hearing all this, let us also run after the saints, that we may attain the Kingdom of Heaven. And so run, that you may attain. Amen.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.