DO NOT AGREE TO DEATH

Sermon after the funeral service 16.02.2023.

St. John of Kronstadt Cathedral, the City of Gai

Every one of us, old, middle aged, children, lower our heads and go in one direction, towards death. No one has objected to this and no one has contradicted it. We lower our heads and go meekly into the chasm of this appalling, worthless and disgusting death. We throw our parents, friends, wives, husbands, and even children in this chasm, our heads lowered meekly, and no one tries to change anything.  

Nevertheless, there are people on earth, who objected and said, “No, we do not agree.” These people are Christians who put up with the fact of physiological death, but they do not want to put up with the fact of eternal death. This is why Christians pray for their deceased regardless of this disbelief. They pray and believe that they only came over to another state. They left their physiology, but their soul remained alive and they are waiting for our prayers there.  

Christians are those people who disagreed. They simply disagreed to forget their parents after having buried and let them go to that black hole of nothing. No, they pray. They go to cemeteries on Radonitsa, the Day of Rejoicing, because there is something inside of them, which contradicts the fact of death and makes them sustain their interaction with the dead. Christians do not agree with the fact of their children’s, wives’ or husband’s death. For some reason, there is something in Christians, in their unconscious mind, which works and makes them go to cemeteries and churches. They go there, light candles and involuntarily talk to their deceased. This happens because they do not agree. 

We should not agree. If we agree with the final fact of death, the meaning of our life will be simply lost. Why were we born? What do we live for? To go into a black hole and that’s it? There is no sense in it.  And nonsense leads to distress. It is just unbearable when there is no point. On the contrary, when everything has its meaning, there is hope. 

This is why we have gathered here not only to honor the memory of the deceased and to render homage to his relatives, but we also gathered to be with him. Though physiologically he is not with us any more, he is alive. And he will live forever. We will also go there, but we should not agree to this appalling fact of death so simply, our head down. We should break this certainty despite everything.