Dear in Christ Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord and of Saint Anthony of the Kiev-Caves Monastery, the father of Russian monasticism!

Last week we quickly looked at a passage from the Gospel according to Matthew, where at first glance it seemed that there are such sins, like blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, that are not forgiven. With the help of some of the holy fathers, we saw that all sins, even the most grievous, are pardoned, if only a person has a strong will to change. Today, let’s once more discuss a passage from Holy Scripture that, if we don’t properly understand it, could harm us on our path to repentance.

Saint John the Theologian, in his First Catholic Epistle, writes the following: “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16). Having read these words, we see that there are two types of sin, sins unto death, or mortal sins, and ones that are not unto death. Perhaps you have never noticed these words from Holy Scripture before, but without a doubt you’ve heard that there are mortal sins. Sometimes we can even find a list of these sins in Orthodox prayerbooks. The second conclusion that we can come to is that there is no point in praying for people who have fallen into sins that are unto death, because such prayers will not help the sinner at all; a mortal sin will not be forgiven. We could also think that there are minor sins about which there is no need to worry because they are not deadly. God one way or another will forgive them and we will squeeze into the Kingdom of Heaven. All of these conclusions are not exactly correct; therefore, today let’s see what St. Seraphim of Sarov and St. Justin Popovich, a Serbian theologian and saint of the second half of the 20th century, have to say about these words.

St. Seraphim of Sarov says that despair is a sin unto death and the complete joy of the devil. St. Justin Popovich interprets the words of the Apostle John in more detail. He notes that it is God’s will that everyone would seek Christ and that all would wish that their neighbours be saved. When a person consciously sins, he commits spiritual suicide, while he who wishes that his neighbour fall into sin is a murderer of another’s soul. Every sin brings about a small death, which separates a person from God. A mortal sin is an unrepented sin, and not just any unrepented sin, but one to which a person firmly, stubbornly, and consciously clings. St. Justin teaches that it’s not worth praying for the forgiveness of such a sin because God gave each person the free choice to live according to their own wishes; that is, it is wrong to trample on choices made by someone else. If a mortal sin is one in which a person consciously refuses to repent, any other sins, that is ones of which we repent, are not unto death. St. Justin beautifully explains repentance. He says that if every sin is a small death, repentance is a resurrection from the dead.

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Anthony of the Kiev-Caves, Seraphim of Sarov, and Justin Popovich, may the Lord God protect us from despair, and grant us to see all our sins so that we can, from the depths of our heart, repent and not die, but spiritually resurrect.

priest Alexis