On the memory of death

 

On the memory of death

An Orthodox Christian is obliged to remember the inevitable death that awaits him very often during the day, and as such, to receive a constant reminder of it in due time.

Our mind is so darkened by the fall that, unless we force ourselves to remember death, we can forget it altogether. When we forget death, we begin to live on earth as if we were immortal, sacrificing all our activity to the earth and not caring at all about the terrible transition to eternity or about our share in eternity. We resolutely and fearlessly trample on the commandments of Christ and commit the most terrible sins, we abandon constant daily prayer, we begin to neglect this essential and necessary occupation, as if it were some unimportant and unnecessary work. Forgetting about bodily death, we die the death of the soul. On the contrary, he who often mentions bodily death, comes to life with the soul. He lives on earth as a traveler in an inn or a prisoner in a dungeon, who is constantly waiting to be brought out of it for trial or to be punished. Before his gaze the door to eternity is always open. He constantly looks in that direction with spiritual concern, deep sorrow and thought. He constantly thinks about how he will justify himself at the judgment of Christ and what decision will be made for him. This decision decides a person's share in the entire boundless afterlife. No earthly beauty or earthly scandal attracts his attention and love. He judges no one, because he does not forget that at the judgment of God he will be pronounced the same sentence as he pronounced here about his fellow men. He forgives everyone and everything so that he himself may be forgiven and inherit salvation. He is lenient and merciful to everyone so that he himself may be worthy of lenience and mercy. He joyfully accepts and loves every sorrow that comes as a punishment for his sins in time, since it will free him from punishment in eternity. If the thought occurs to him to be proud because of his virtue, the memory of death will immediately turn against that thought and shame it, expose it in its unseemliness, and banish it. What significance can your virtue have at the Judgment of God? What value can your virtue have in the eyes of God, before whom even the heavens are unclean (see Job 15:15)? Constantly remind yourself: "I shall surely die! My fathers and my forefathers are dead, no one remains on earth forever. And the fate that has befallen and befalls everyone awaits me." Do not waste the time given to you for repentance, or conversion! Do not gaze upon the earth, where you are only a temporary worker, where you are an exile and where, by the mercy of God, you are allowed to reflect and to convert or repent, in order to escape eternal prisons and tortures therein. Use the short period of life on earth to gain a peaceful refuge, a refuge of bliss in eternity. For the acquisition of eternal wealth, beg by renouncing all temporary wealth, by renouncing everything physical and mental in the realm of fallen nature! Beg by fulfilling the commandments of Christ! Beg by sincere repentance for the sins committed! Suppress with gratitude and glorify God for all the sufferings that have been sent to you! Suppress with abundant reading of the psalms and prescribed prayers!Beg with the Jesus Prayer, uniting with it the memory of death! These two actions, the Jesus Prayer and the memory of death, easily merge into one. As a result of prayer, a living memory of death appears, like a presentiment of it, while the presentiment of death ignites prayer more strongly. It is necessary for a Christian to remember death! This memory is necessary because it protects him from the injury and perversion of pride to which even a Christian's careful life can lead, if he is not surrounded by the memory of death and the judgment of God. It is a great spiritual misfortune if a man attributes any value to his life's feat and if he considers it his merit before God. Consider yourself worthy of every earthly punishment and worthy of eternal torment. Such an opinion of yourself will be the truest, the most salutary for the soul and the most pleasing to God. Often list the eternal misfortunes that await sinners. By frequently listing these misfortunes, make it seem as if they are standing before your eyes. Get a presentiment of the torments of hell, so that your soul, at the vivid memory of them, would tremble, so that it would tear itself away from sin and come to God with a humble prayer for mercy, trusting in His infinite goodness and not trusting in yourself in the least. Remember and imagine the immense, terrible underground abyss and dungeon that make up hell. This abyss is called the abyss. In relation to people, it is exactly that. The vast hellish dungeon has many compartments and many different sufferings and torments, with which every person is paid for the deeds he committed during his earthly life. However, in all compartments the confinement is eternal, just as the torments are eternal. There reigns a painful, opaque darkness, and at the same time, an unquenchable fire burns, which is always equally strong. There is no day there, because eternal night reigns there. There is an unbearable unpleasant smell there, which cannot be compared with any earthly unpleasant smell. The cruel hellish worm never sleeps and never slumbers, it bites and bites, devours the prisoners of hell, but does not violate their integrity and does not annul their existence, and it itself is not satiated. All hellish torments have such characteristics, they are more severe than any death, but they do not bring death. In hell, death is desired as much as life is desired on earth. For the prisoners of hell, death would be joy. However, it does not exist for them, and their portion is an endless life for endless suffering. They are tormented in hell by unbearable punishments, such as the eternal dungeon of those rejected by God abounds with. They are tormented there by unbearable suffering, they are tormented there by the most cruel mental illness or despair. Consider yourself condemned to hell and eternal torment, and from this awareness such irresistible and powerful prayerful cries will arise in your heart that they will inevitably lead God to have mercy on you, and God will lead you, instead of hell, into Paradise. You, who consider yourselves worthy of heavenly and earthly rewards, are more threatened by hell than by obvious sinners, because the gravest of all sins is pride, haughtiness,a sin of the spirit that is not visible to the senses and is often concealed by the mask of humility. The remembrance of death and contemplation of it were practiced by the greatest among the God-pleasing Fathers of the Holy Church of Christ. The writer of his biography of Pachomius the Great says that: "By remembering eternal torment and endless suffering, that is, by remembering the unquenchable fire and that worm that never dies, he constantly lived in the fear of God. In this way Pachomius refrained from evil and encouraged himself to do better." Amen!