Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, I'm glad that you're tuning in. I'd like
Speaker 1: to say a word to you about this icon and death.
Speaker 1: This is one of my favorite icons. It's called the
Speaker 1: Plundering of Hades. It has a picture of Our Savior.
Speaker 1: This is great and holy Saturday, the day after the Crucifixion,
Speaker 1: an icon of our Savior descending with great speed and
Speaker 1: force into the lower regions of the earth into Hades.
Speaker 1: You can see his clothing just blowing in the back.
Speaker 1: He has his hand out. Bless him because these are
Speaker 1: all the righteous who have been waiting for the coming
Speaker 1: of Christ to deliver them from death. And over here
Speaker 1: is this nasty demon who's holding a collection of our
Speaker 1: record of our sins. And notice Christ is tearing it
Speaker 1: in half, the Certificate of Cancelation. Saint Paul describes this
Speaker 1: in his Epistle to the color Aussians, that Jesus tore
Speaker 1: it up atoning for our sins on the cross and
Speaker 1: erasing our debt. He's coming to knock down the doors
Speaker 1: of hell and to pull everyone up and out. He
Speaker 1: is our champion. He's the only one who has gotten
Speaker 1: into the ring with death, and one he crushed it.
Speaker 1: This day is that I'm giving you this reflection. This
Speaker 1: is the day we call the Saturday of Souls. It's
Speaker 1: the Saturday before the Sunday of Pentecost, the outpouring of
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, and the Saturday of Souls takes place
Speaker 1: two days in the year, one before the Great Judgment
Speaker 1: Sunday and then one before Pentecost. On this day, we
Speaker 1: gathered together this morning for the liturgy, and we made
Speaker 1: a universal commemoration for all our forefathers in the faith,
Speaker 1: for righteous and pious kings, patriarchs, bishops, priests, hiro monks, deaconshirodeacons, monks, nuns, forbears, parents, grandparents,
Speaker 1: great grandparents, godparents, and all the faithful from the beginning
Speaker 1: unto the end of time. Orthodox Christians all over the
Speaker 1: world turn in the names of their loved ones, their
Speaker 1: friends who have gone to the next life, and they
Speaker 1: give these papers to the priests full of names, and
Speaker 1: the priests spend hours making commemorations by name of all
Speaker 1: of our departed. Death and facing death is something that
Speaker 1: the Church insists that her children do. We don't do
Speaker 1: it except in the context of the conqueror of death.
Speaker 1: I remembered this morning, as I was coming into the
Speaker 1: church to celebrate the service. I was stopped by one
Speaker 1: of our elders in the church, a beautiful woman of
Speaker 1: our parish, dearly loved, and she had tears pouring down
Speaker 1: her face because her beloved sister in law had fallen
Speaker 1: asleep just this morning. We came into the church and
Speaker 1: we liturgized and drew near to the throne of God,
Speaker 1: making commemoration of all our departed loved ones. This is
Speaker 1: our honest Christian life. We follow a principle, a central principle,
Speaker 1: and the principle is this, the way up is down.
Speaker 1: Jesus was very clear, if you want to be great,
Speaker 1: become small. If you want to be exalted, humble yourself.
Speaker 1: This is our principle, and of course he modeled it.
Speaker 1: No one is more humble than the Lord Christ, who,
Speaker 1: being in the form of God, did not consider his
Speaker 1: divine stature to be held onto, but humbled himself, taking
Speaker 1: the form of a man and becoming obedient even to
Speaker 1: the death on the cross. He saved us by his
Speaker 1: great descent, his humble descent to save us, and God
Speaker 1: highly exalted him and gave him the name that's above
Speaker 1: every name, that at his name, every niece should bow,
Speaker 1: and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
Speaker 1: to the glory of God, the Father forever. This is
Speaker 1: the future. This is the exaltation He was given by
Speaker 1: the Father for his incredible humility. And that's the pattern
Speaker 1: for us as Christians. The way up is down. If
Speaker 1: you want glory, embrace humility. This is also the case
Speaker 1: with regards to physical life. If you want to inherit
Speaker 1: the kingdom of God. If you want to go up
Speaker 1: in the resurrection, which we believers do and we're confident
Speaker 1: of doing it by being attached to Christ, the conqueror
Speaker 1: of death, first we have to dissolve. This is the
Speaker 1: Christian attitude towards death. Death for us is not what
Speaker 1: it was before the coming of Christ. Death is a
Speaker 1: conquered folk. Death has been dissolved. Death now has become
Speaker 1: a door for us. Every move that we make towards
Speaker 1: death and the providence of God should not be resisted.
Speaker 1: It should be interpreted, it should be understood. Saint John
Speaker 1: Chrososten puts it this way. He says, every new gray hair,
Speaker 1: I can pull one on, every new gray hair that
Speaker 1: you see, receive it. Dance for joy and leap because
Speaker 1: it is a witness that you are one step closer
Speaker 1: to the resurrection from the dead. Dear ones, Spiritually we
Speaker 1: go up by going down. Salvation is the same way
Speaker 1: the resurrectional body is given to us when we embrace
Speaker 1: its dissolution, when we cooperate with God in the medicine
Speaker 1: of decomposition and death. We don't resist it. We trust
Speaker 1: God about it. We embrace God's will, knowing that we
Speaker 1: first must be dissolved so that we can be remade
Speaker 1: gloriously resurrected in what's coming. And keeping this in your mind,
Speaker 1: keeping the reality of death, instead of being a typical
Speaker 1: person of the secular falling West that tries to run
Speaker 1: from death, pretend it doesn't exist, spend a fortune on
Speaker 1: trying to keep your skin from getting wrinkled or your
Speaker 1: hair from turning gray. Give it up. Die to that nonsense,
Speaker 1: all born of the fear of death, with no gospel
Speaker 1: in it at all. Instead, we believers, We trust God.
Speaker 1: We trust God. Embrace humility as the path of glorification.
Speaker 1: Embrace God's providence in your life. He's numbered your days.
Speaker 1: You don't have to fear. Death has been conquered. We
Speaker 1: can live in the light of the Resurrection. This last week,
Speaker 1: a dear friend of mine and a dear friend to
Speaker 1: many believers and unbelievers all over America passed away. He
Speaker 1: was an incredible person and a devoted Orthodox Christian who
Speaker 1: helped so many people become Orthodox Christians. I was very
Speaker 1: touched to read a number of eulogies and articles written
Speaker 1: about his life. And in one of the articles it
Speaker 1: had a touching word in which his son, who was
Speaker 1: speaking to him about whether he was ready to die
Speaker 1: and what did he think about dying. He had received
Speaker 1: a diagnosis is only about a week previous, a very
Speaker 1: serious diagnosis, and his son wanted to know what his
Speaker 1: father thought about dying. And he said to him, son,
Speaker 1: I have lived my whole life in the light of
Speaker 1: the Resurrection, for the Resurrection, and I'm not going to
Speaker 1: stop now. This is the Christian mentality. This is why
Speaker 1: if you read the Ladder of Divine Ascent, you'll see
Speaker 1: that the very seventh step is the remembrance of death.
Speaker 1: It's impossible to live the Christian life a single day
Speaker 1: if you don't consider that it may be your last.
Speaker 1: This is the teaching of the church. This is the
Speaker 1: teaching of Saint John of Sinai in the ladder of
Speaker 1: divin ascent. This is how we live, dear ones, So
Speaker 1: don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Instead, trust God with
Speaker 1: your life. Recognize that the way up is the way down.
Speaker 1: Live by the principle of your faith. I'll end with
Speaker 1: just the word about the epistle Lesson today Today in
Speaker 1: the church was the last reading from the Acts of
Speaker 1: the Apostles, all through Poscletide from Pasca until today, the
Speaker 1: Saturday of Souls before Pentecost. For fifty days we've been
Speaker 1: reading lesson after lesson from the Acts of the Apostles,
Speaker 1: because the Acts of the Apostles show us the impact
Speaker 1: that Jesus's death and resurrection had on the community of believers.
Speaker 1: His disciples were completely changed by his death and his resurrection,
Speaker 1: and you see the life of the Christian Church laid
Speaker 1: out very clearly, and it's very potent the witness of
Speaker 1: the Christians towards death. The reading today was Saint Paul
Speaker 1: on his way in a boat to Rome, where he
Speaker 1: would stand trial and ultimately give his life. The boat
Speaker 1: ran aground. Everyone was frightened because they thought they were
Speaker 1: all going to die by shipwreck, but Paul was very
Speaker 1: calm and he prayed, and God sent an angel to
Speaker 1: tell him that they were going to be completely fine.
Speaker 1: Paul was untraumatized by death. When they got out on
Speaker 1: the island, Paul was making a fire and a serpent
Speaker 1: came and bit his hand, wrapped itself around his hand,
Speaker 1: and everyone thought that he was a murderer, that he
Speaker 1: was going to die, and he just shook off the serpent.
Speaker 1: And then people who were on the edge of death
Speaker 1: brought their sick and dying people, and Paul laid his
Speaker 1: hands on them and cured them. God was using an
Speaker 1: apostle to proclaim the reality of a new relationship to
Speaker 1: death in the church. And then the account ends with
Speaker 1: Paul fearlessly in prison awaiting his trial in Rome, and
Speaker 1: we know how it ended with his own martyrdom and beheading.
Speaker 1: He wrote just before he died, he wrote from prison
Speaker 1: to his spiritual son, and he said that the time
Speaker 1: had come and that there was laid up for him
Speaker 1: by the Lord a crown of righteousness which he was
Speaker 1: going to award him. He had no fear. He trusted
Speaker 1: in the Lord God. This is the way up, dear ones,
Speaker 1: the way up is now. God be with you. Hey everyone,
Speaker 1: I hope you've downloaded the Patristic Nectar app on your phone.
Speaker 1: It is a treasure trove of soul nourishing content, and
Speaker 1: I hope you'll consider becoming a regular donor to patristic
Speaker 1: Nectar today