The Relationship Between the Living and the Deceased (Part 2)

 

As we observed, when a man dies, the properties of the soul which are not connected with bodily functions and life in the perceptible world remain and retain their capacity to be exercised. Conversely, the reposed can no longer do anything spiritually that would contribute to or exclude his salvation, [1] nor can he sin, [2] nor, of course, can he do anything for the healing of his passions and the forgiveness of his sins, which accompanied him at his death and continue to exist even after the event that has occurred. After death, as many Fathers affirm, repentance is impossible. [3] The reposed who did not repent at the moment when he ought to have done so resembles, as to his condition, the foolish Virgins, who, when the Bridegroom arrives, no longer have oil in their lamps nor any means by which to obtain it (Matt. 25:1–13). [4]

Indeed, from the hour of death, only the prayers of the living and the supplications to God can accomplish something for the reposed, so that the soul may become worthy to pass into a better condition. For this reason, the prayers of the living on behalf of the reposed are of great importance and constitute a great responsibility for the living with regard to the condition and the final lot of the reposed.

Saint John Chrysostomos invokes, on this subject, the solidarity that unites all the members of the one body of Christ, as well as the fact that, according to the words of the Apostle Paul, within the bosom of this body certain members who are stronger can and ought to hasten to the aid of the weak (1 Cor. 12:12–26). They have the ability to entreat God, Who bestowed these graces upon them, to grant them also to those for whom the stronger and the saints pray through their intercession.

“For God is accustomed to grant benefits to some for the sake of others. And Paul shows this when he says: ‘So that the grace given to us may become an occasion for many to give thanks to God for us’ (cf. 2 Cor. 1:11). Let us therefore not grow weary of helping those who have departed from life and of offering prayers for them. For this reason, we pray with boldness for the whole inhabited world and commemorate them together with the martyrs, together with the confessors, together with the priests. For we are all one body, even if some members are more glorious than others. And it is possible to secure forgiveness for them from every side, through the prayers, through the offerings made for them, and through their communion with those who are commemorated together with them.” [5]

The prayers and other “supplications” of the living on behalf of the reposed certainly cannot be imposed against their will. Respect for the freedom of each person is an invaluable principle for Orthodox theology and anthropology, since it is emphasized that God does not wish to impose upon man anything that is contrary to his will. In this spirit, the reposed can benefit from the supplications of the living or, more precisely, from the grace that God grants in response to these supplications, only to the extent that such a thing does not oppose their will or their deeper desires. This framework is analyzed by Dionysios the Areopagite, when he explains the nature of the priest’s prayers on behalf of the reposed during the funeral service:

“Then the divine hierarch approaches and performs a sacred prayer for the reposed. This prayer entreats the divine goodness to forgive all the things in which the reposed sinned through human weakness and to number him in the light and in the land of the living, in the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the place where every pain, sorrow, and sighing have fled away. But someone might wonder why the hierarch entreats the divine goodness to grant the reposed forgiveness of his sins and to bestow upon him the luminous and Godlike state of the saints. For, if each one is to receive from divine justice the recompense of the deeds he did in this life, whether good or evil, and since the reposed has now completed his actions on earth, how is it possible, through a priestly prayer, for him to pass into a different state from that which he deserves?  I, however, following the divine Scriptures, know that each one will indeed receive the corresponding recompense. For the Lord says that ‘he shut against him,’ and also that each one will receive the things he did through the body, whether good or evil. But that the prayers of the righteous, during the present life and much more not after death, act only on behalf of those who are worthy of such sacred prayers, this is taught to us by the true traditions of the divine Scriptures.

Was Saul benefited by Samuel? Did the prayer of the prophet benefit the people of the Hebrews when they were unworthy? Just as, if someone seeks to partake of the light of the sun while he himself is destroying his sight, he cannot enjoy the gift of light which the sun offers to healthy eyes, so also he who seeks the prayers of the saints without being suitably prepared nourishes vain and unprofitable hopes, since through his indifference to the divine gifts and the good commandments he removes himself from the natural energy of grace.

I say, therefore, according to the divine Scriptures, that the prayers of the saints are entirely beneficial in this life in the following way: if someone desires the sacred gifts of God and has a suitable spiritual disposition to receive them, while at the same time recognizing his own weakness, and approaches some holy man and asks him to become a fellow-worker and supporter in his supplications, then he will certainly be benefited with this supreme benefit. For he will obtain the things he asks, since the divine goodness accepts both his own humble self-knowledge and his reverence toward the saints, as well as his praiseworthy desire for the sacred requests and his Godlike disposition. As for the aforementioned prayer which the hierarch addresses for the reposed, it is necessary to set forth the tradition which we received from our God-taught teachers. The divine hierarch is, as the Scriptures say, an interpreter and revealer of the divine ordinances; for he is ‘an angel of the Lord Almighty.’ He has therefore been taught by the God-given words that to those who lived in holiness the most radiant and divine life is justly rendered, according to the just measures of the divine judgment, while the man-loving goodness of God overlooks the stains that came from human weakness. For, as Scripture says, no one is completely clean from every defilement. The hierarch, therefore, knows that these things have been promised by the true divine words. For this reason, he prays that they may be fulfilled and that these sacred recompenses and rewards may be given to those who lived in holiness.” [6]

 

1. See THEOPHYLACT OF BULGARIA, “Commentary on the Gospel According to Luke,” XXII, 13, PG 123, 880.

2. See JOHN CHRYSOSTOMOS, “On the First Epistle to the Corinthians,” XLI, 5.

3. See THEOPHYLACT OF BULGARIA, “Commentary on the Gospel According to Luke,” XXII, 13, PG 123, 880. Confession of Faith of Peter Mogila, corrected by MELETIOS SYRIGOS (1643), Part I, questions LXIV–LXV; MELETIOS SYRIGOS, Against the Calvinist Chapters and Questions of Kyrillos Loukaris, p. 141 ff.; JOHN OF KRONSTADT, My Life in Christ, Bellefontaine 1979, p. 55.

4. JOHN CHRYSOSTOMOS, “On the Gospel According to Matthew,” LXXVIII, 1.

5. JOHN CHRYSOSTOMOS, “On the First Epistle to the Corinthians,” XLI, 5, PG 61, 361.

6. “Ecclesiastical Hierarchy,” III, 4, PG 3, 560–561.

 

Greek source: https://entoytwnika1.blogspot.com/2026/05/2.html