Let Us Think About Our Soul

by Schemamonk Savva

 

 

St. Macarius the Great says: “Go out into the open air and bare your chest and try and stop the wind! Can you restrain the wind, not letting it blow upon your chest? This is how Satan troubles the entire world with his evil designs.”

Each one of us is involved in a struggle, whether we are going to accept or reject these designs. We have a Guardian Angel given to us by God at Baptism; he guards us, helps us to save ourselves, keeps us from misfortune — but only if we ourselves appeal to him for help.

It is said, “The Angel of the Lord will encamp round about them that fear Him [God]” (Ps. 33:8). If we love God and fulfill His law, then our Angel is with us. Let everyone ask himself, “Have I prayed to my holy Angel who was given to me by God at holy Baptism?” We must pray without fail, “O holy Angel, my Guardian, help me to save myself.” All the holy angels have great boldness before God. They did not join with Lucifer against God; therefore the Lord rewarded them with unfailing grace. They stood their ground, and now they will eternally rejoice, glorifying and hymning God, the Creator of all. This is why they have great love and great boldness to pray for us.

If we haven’t been praying to our holy angel as we should, let us begin. Let us assiduously ask him, “O Angel, my guardian, help me, pray to God for me.” You will immediately become joyful, because you have a helper given to you by God for the protection of your life. And not only for your life, but he is also your helper in death. He will help you through the “toll houses,” he will lead your soul to worship before God. On the fortieth day, the Lord will give you a place, based upon your deeds, until the dread Last Judgement, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. As we sing in the Symbol of Faith, “I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the age to come. Amen.”

But what if what actually happens, is not what has been said here? In the Lives of the Saints, we read that a certain saint was walking about a city and saw an angel weeping. The saint asked, “Why are you weeping?” The holy angel answered: “The Lord appointed me to this man at holy Baptism; now he has gone into a brothel.” The saint said, “Punish him!” The angel replied:

“The Lord gave man free will. There are two paths: the narrow one, leading to the Heavenly Kingdom, and the vast, wide one, leading to ruin. The Lord gave laws, the most important being: ‘Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.’ The second is like unto the first: ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’”

“When the Lord explained the task of salvation to the apostles, He gave them the parable of the tares. A man planted wheat, but Satan, the enemy, planted tares among the wheat, and the two grew together. The servants of the householder asked him: ‘Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?’ But he said: ‘Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn’ (Mt. 13: 24-30).”

The holy apostle Paul told us that we must all appear before the judgement of Christ. He also wrote that when the repentant sinners are counted, neither fornicators nor adulterers will inherit the Kingdom of God. This is why the angel was weeping. He saw the man to whom he was entrusted, committing a sin, and he was not repentant. The angel was weeping because such an unrepentant sinner, after the Last Judgement, will eternally suffer. This sort of person commits sins and does believe that God exists and also the eternal torment and unending fire. When such a man dies unrepentant, then the demons will take his soul and lead it to their dwelling place. Then the holy angel will leave the unrepentant sinner who did not listen to the suggestions of the angel when he told him to repent! This is what St. Macarius the Great wrote about the soul of the unrepentant sinner.

What did our Lord Jesus Christ say concerning the Final Judgement? What will He say to the unrepentant sinners? He will say, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

As one holy bishop wrote: “The time of mercy has passed,’ the Lord will say, ‘the time of judgement has come; tears will not help you now, the time of repentance has passed. Go away from Me, ye damned, into the everlasting fire.’ What is eternal punishment? First, it is excommunication from God. Second, it is the eternity of fire. Third, it is co-habitation with the devil. You cannot imagine nor depict nor comprehend it!” wrote the bishop about the lot of the unrepentant. The unrepentant will be with those of whom the Lord said, “The prince of this world is judged” (John 16:11). What is said of those who are seduced by him? “And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them” (Apoc. 20:9). Their fate will be the same as those who seduced them: “cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Apoc. 20:10).

The souls of the ungodly are immortal. Their bodies were given over to the earth to decompose. But the souls of all of us are immortal. On the Last Day, all will live again. The soul of every person will re-unite with its body, for we must all appear before the Christ Who judges. And the Lord will say to the evil ones, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” These angels were once warriors in heaven. They were holy angels, but they listened to Lucifer and when he conceived the thought: “I will place my throne and, ascending above the clouds, I will be like unto the Most High,” they ceased to worship God. Lucifer knew Who God is, yet he wanted to make himself a god like Him. But the godless do not accept God! What will happen to them? Excommunication from God forever, never seeing the face of God, from Whom they will be separated; their destiny will be to suffer together with the demons.

Satan tempted Adam and Eve not to listen to God and to eat the forbidden fruit. They ate and died. But their souls are eternal. “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,” concerns the body. Their souls went to Hades; all the souls were in Hades until the resurrection of Christ, when the Lord came and set them free.

Satan and the demons know that they are sentenced to eternal suffering. As the demons once asked the Lord, “Don’t send us to suffer before the time,” or in another place they asked that they might be sent into a herd of swine. Demons don’t even have the power to enter into a herd of swine without the permission of God. The Lord made all and directs all things: “Through Whom all things were made.” Without Him nothing would be that is. The Lord allows us to be exposed to all sorts of temptations. Let us remember the Apostle Paul who said, “There was given to me…the messenger of Satan to buffet me.” Three times the apostle asks the Lord to rid him of it. What did the Lord answer? “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” And what did the Lord say would be our lot? We must experience many sorrows in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

When St. Eustathius Placidas became a believer, the Lord asked him when he wished to endure his suffering — now or at the end of his life? Eustathius answered, “If it cannot be avoided, then now.” When he was to go aboard ship, his wife was left on board when the ship sailed away, while he and his sons were stranded. The sons were then abducted by animals; only later did the Lord re-unite them.

And what did the Lord tell the Apostle Paul about his shortcomings? What does the apostle himself tell us? “There was given to me…the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” This means that he loved the Lord and wanted to be saved, but first, one must be humbled. The Lord has told us that He looks only upon the meek and humble and those who hear His word. How does St. John Chrysostom teach us to pray? “Lord, give me humility and chastity and obedience.” He asked and the Lord gave. Let us also ask, that the Lord may give these to us.

Whoever wants to pray purely to God must, without any evil thoughts or distractions, chant or says in himself, “Thy Cross do we venerate, O Lord, and we glorify Thy holy Resurrection.” And, “Guard me, O Lord, by the power of Thy Cross and keep me from all evil.”

Protect yourself with the sign of the Cross; not only once, but frequently and fervently, as the Orthodox Church teaches: on the forehead, the lower chest, and on the right and left shoulders, saying either from memory or reading it, “By the power of Thy Cross, O Christ, establish my thoughts so that I may hymn and glorify Thy holy Ascension.” Repeat other troparia and sticheras to the Cross. For instance, “Today the Master of creation and the Lord of Glory is nailed upon the Cross.” Or you may limit yourself to that one prayer, “Thy Cross do we venerate, O Lord, and we glorify Thy holy Resurrection.” Read or sing this prayer three or even six times, and you will want to sing or read it more and more. As the Church chants in the fourth tone for “Lord, I have cried”: “Unceasingly venerating Thy Cross, O Christ God.”

Why do Satan and his angels endeavor to tempt us? Because of envy, so that we, by not listening to the Lord and by not fulfilling His laws, will not be saved, but earn the judgement and share the same fate as the prince of this world.

For us who are baptized, the will of God is our joy, for we want our dear ones and ourselves to be saved.

Arise, O sinners, and go to the Heavenly Father!

 

Translated from Pravoslavnaya Zhizn, 1963, No. 11, pp. 21-24, by Michael Krassovsky.

Source: Orthodox Life, Vol. 33, No. 2, March-April 1983, pp. 37-40.