Praying for the living and the dead.Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

 

Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

    It is more often in prayer for the living that our heart finds grief transformed into joy. But something similar occurs also with prayer for the dead - even the long ago dead. It is a wonderful experience to meet in spirit with souls long since departed, whom we may not even have known when they were alive. Such contact with the other world occurs particularly in prayer to the saints. But it can happen, too, though not often, in prayer for the departed, whether we knew them or not, that the heart is informed of their condition, be it good or bad. Real unity in the Holy Spirit with the souls of people who died recently or hundreds of years ago testifies to their personal immortality in our God. The encounter of our love with the love of them who are in our mind in the hour of prayer imparts unto us some spiritual gift, to the end we may be established

Since my young days I have watched in sad bewilderment the scene unfolding before my eyes. But there have been hours of strange triumph when the extreme folly of it all assured me of the inevitable presence of another 'pole' in the existence of the world - Wisdom. I did not attain to this Wisdom but it would flood my soul with hope of transfiguration for all creatures, and prayer for the whole world would revive in my heart, and undying Light heal my soul.

In praying for people one's heart often senses their spiritual or emotional state. Because of this the spiritual father can experience their psychological state - contentment and hap­piness in love, exhaustion from over-work, fear of approach­ing hardship, the terror of despair, and so on. Remembering the sick before the Lord, in spirit he bends over the beds of millions of people at any moment looking into the face of death, and suffering agonies. Turning his attention to the dying, the priest naturally enters mentally into the other world, and participates either in the soul's tranquil going to God or her apprehension of the unknown which shocks the imagination prior to the actual moment of departure from this world. And if standing at the bedside of only one person dying in agony affords us a vision shattering in its contrast to our conception of the first-created man, the thought of all the suffering on earth is more than our psyche, even our body, can endure. For the priest-confessor this is a crucial threshold - what must he do? Shut his eyes on it all, obedient to the instinct for self-preservation natural to all of us? Or continue further? Without the preliminary ascetic effort of profound repentance, the gift from on High, this “continuing” is beyond man. In actual fact it is already a question of following Christ to the Garden of Gethsemane and on to Golgotha, in order to live with Him, by His strength, the tragedy of the world as one's own personal tragedy; of, outside time and beyond space, embracing in spirit, with com­passionate love, our whole human race bogged down in insoluble conflicts. The fact that we have forgotten, even rejected, our primordial calling lies at the heart of the uni­versal tragedy. The all-destroying passion of pride can only be overcome by total repentance, through which the blessing of Christ-like humility descends on man, making us children of the Heavenly Father.

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne".

This amazing itinerary is unknown to all except the Christ­ian. At first departure from the narrow prison of the indi­vidual can seem paradoxical: we ourselves feel crushed by our own sufferings - where shall we find the strength of spirit to embrace in compassion all the millions of people who at any given moment are suffering like us, and surely even more than we are? If we feel joyful, we can manage it better somehow but when we cannot cope with our own pain, sympathy for the multitudes only increases our already unbearable torment. Nevertheless, try this, and you will see how with the profound weeping of prayer for all suffering humanity energy will appear, of another order, not of this world. This new form of compassion, coming down from on High, differs from the first impulse shut tight inside oneself, in that now, instead of destroying, it quickens us. The horizons of our own individual life are immeasurably widened, and many passages in the Gospels and Epistles we can interpret as applicable to our own case - even what we might remark ourselves. For instance, “Now no chasten­ing for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.?" Or, “... Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God .. ” By opening ourselves to greater suffering in spirit, we surmount our individual ordeal. Especially will it be like this at the end: death overcomes death, and the power of Resurrection prevails.

It is vital that we should all pray long and hard; that through years and years of fervent prayer - prayer of contrition, particularly - our fallen nature may be so transformed that it can assimilate the Unoriginate Truth made manifest to us. And-this, before we depart from this world. Christ - Who showed this Truth to us in our flesh - draws us to Himself and calls us to follow after Him. Our eternal abiding with Him in the unshakeable Kingdom depends on our response to His summons. The measureless grandeur of the task set before us inspires heart and mind with fear - the fear of love, since we may prove utterly unworthy of God. Fear because we are confronted with painful ascetic effort - the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence. The battle is indescribable. “Outer darkness” threatens those who are mastered by pride or base passions. On the other hand, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith”(Rev3: 21-22).

 

 

 

 

Reference:

“On Prayer”. Archimandrite Sophrony(Sakharov). 1996.