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Death Awaits


[Eph. 1:16-23; Luke 12:32-40]

Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning. We must be ready at every hour — one does not know when the Lord will come, ei‐ther for the Last Judgment, or to take you from here; they are the same for you. Death decides every‐thing. After it comes the results of your life, you can be content with what you have sought to gain for all of eternity. If you sought what is good, your lot will be good; if you sought what is evil, then your lot will be evil. This is as true as it is true that you exist. All of this could be decided this moment — here at this very moment, as you read these lines, and then — the end to all: a seal will be set to your existence, which nobody can remove. This is something to think about! But one never ceases to be amazed at how little people think about it. What is this mystery wrought over us! We all know that death is around the corner, that it is impossible to es‐cape it, but meanwhile almost no‐body thinks about it — and it will come suddenly and seize us. Even then… Even when a fatal disease seizes a person he still does not think that the end has come. Let psychologists decide this from a sci‐entific aspect; from the moral aspect it is impossible not to see here an in‐comprehensible self-delusion, alien only to one who is heedful of him‐self.

Saint Theophan the Recluse


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