August 15, 2025

Homily One on the Dormition of the Theotokos (Righteous Alexei Mechev)


Homily One on the Dormition of the Theotokos*

By Righteous Alexei Mechev

(Delivered on August 15, 1914)

The Mother of God lived on earth for 60 years. She eagerly awaited the passage from earth to heaven, to Her Son and God, and She earnestly prayed to Him about this. The Lord heard the prayers of His Mother, and three days before Her departure He informed Her of this. On the day of Her departure, the Most Blessed One wished to see the Apostles: and all of them, except Thomas, were brought from different countries of the world on clouds to Her house. Here all who knew Her gathered. They grieved and wept over separation from Her. She consoled everyone and assured them that She would not forget them, that She would pray to God for them more successfully and ask for mercy and salvation from Him. At the very hour of the end of her earthly life, the Most Holy Virgin cleaned her upper room, lit many lamps, burned incense, lay down on her bed and passed away: the Savior appeared with the Angels, received her Holy soul and brought it to the place of His glory, to the heavenly abodes. The Apostles took the body of the Mother of God, and with singing and prayers laid it in a cave in the Garden of Gethsemane. Three days later, the Apostle Thomas came to Jerusalem; upon learning of what had happened, he wept and grieved. In order to calm him, the Apostles decided to show him the body of the Mother of God, but when they opened the tomb, it turned out to be empty - they found only the vestments of the Most Holy One in it. This surprised everyone. They began to pray to find out what had happened. in the evening of that day the Mother of God appeared in the air with the Angels and said to the perplexed: "Rejoice! I am here and will not stop praying for the Christian world."

Such, my friends, was the glorious end of the Mother of God. What thoughts does the history of this feast lead us to? Does not each of us ask ourselves these questions: what will our end be like? Will a secret messenger come to us to announce our death? Or perhaps death will overtake us like a thief, unexpectedly. Will our end be quiet or will our life end in terrible torment and horror? Yes, my friends, “who is the man that shall live and not see death” (Psalm 89:49). The thought of death is unpleasant, its fact is gloomy and terrible. However, we are not able to either eliminate or avoid it. Death is a common, inevitable lot. What should we do in such a case? Should we constantly forget ourselves in the whirlwind of our everyday affairs or should we constantly think about it, about death? It would be too frivolous and imprudent on our part, constantly hearing about death and seeing its harvest, not to think about it as a true Christian should. Let us not be afraid of death. It is terrible only for unbelievers, but for us Christians it is a bright door to a blessed, eternal life. Let us only remember it more often.

No matter how long you live in this world, you will still have to die, to pass on to another, eternal life. But here is the question: are we preparing for the future life? Has earthly life not burdened us too much? Let each of us give ourselves an account of this. And now let us tell the following parable for our edification and apply it to ourselves: 

"A resident of a certain large city had his own house, but until a certain time, due to circumstances, he could not move into it, and therefore he lived in an apartment, and although he knew very well that he had to leave it, nevertheless, he did not spare anything for the arrangement of his apartment, he thought only about how and with what to decorate and enrich it, and he completely forgot about his own house, and if sometimes the thought of it came to him, then, due to necessary blindness, he drove this reminder away from himself. What came of this? When the time came (and it came suddenly and unexpectedly) to leave the apartment and move into his own house, it turned out to be not a shelter, but a den, for it had been abandoned without any attention, disgusting filth, snakes and all sorts of reptiles had appeared in it, and the unfortunate homeowner was forced to enter such a defiled house, but what was most unpleasant was that he was not even allowed to clean the house or drive out the reptiles that had settled in it. So, from a magnificent apartment, the careless homeowner moved to an endless life in his own house. No doubt, he regretted and grieved over his madness, and reproached and even cursed himself - but all this was a voice crying in the wilderness - time was irretrievably lost and nothing could be done. 

The meaning of the parable is clear: the homeowner is each of us, the apartment is this sinful world, and one’s own home is eternity” ("Soul-Saving Reflections". 1882, Issue 5).

Lord! Through the prayers of Your Most Pure Mother, grant us sinners and those attached to the blessings of this world a constant remembrance of the last hour of our life and that great moment when we must appear before Your face to give a strict account of our entire earthly life. Amen.

Notes:

* Published for the first time from the “Speech Plans” from the archive of E. V. Apushkina.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
 

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