Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, as well as with the feastday of St. Anna of Kashin!

Quite often there are cases when Orthodox Christians repose, but do not leave a will and do not indicate where they are to be buried. Sometimes the family decides to cremate the deceased. This is a sad state of affairs because this contradicts church traditions and Christian teachings about man, death, and the general resurrection. Christians, like the Jews in the Old Testament, never burned their dead, but always buried them, remembering God’s words spoken to Adam after his fall: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3: 19). It seems to me that it would be a good idea to deliver a series of sermons on death, the transition from temporal to eternal life, and about the church rites appointed for such occasions. Before discussing subjects tied to the death of a person, it would of course be helpful to remember what a person really is; therefore, today let us examine this question.

To start, let us remember the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, which tell us about the creation of man. Let’s remember that man is a mixture of the earthly, the physical (God molded the first man from the earth) and also the spiritual (God breathed the breath of life into the lifeless human body and only then did it begin to live). Let us also not forget that man is made in the image and likeness of God. The image of God means that a person is somewhat similar to God. He may be similar to God in that he has an immortal soul, that he has an inner thirst to unite himself with God, that he can create something new, be it to build a house or create a computer program, etc. Man acquires the likeness of God when he is sanctified, cleansed of sins, and becomes holy.

A few weeks ago in my sermon I explained that a person is composed of three parts, that is, he or she has a body, a soul (that life-giving power that animates the body), as well as the spirit, the higher part of the soul (that part which at least in some way is similar to God; perhaps we could way that the spirit is that part of a person in which the image of God is preserved). That week we took note that God is awaiting that people will serve HIm with all their being: with their body, their soul, and their spirit. This is very important because if we forget this, or give one part of our nature too much attention to the detriment of the other parts, we could fall into different types of extremes.

What type of extremes could we fall into if we forget that we have a body, soul, and spirit? All of us probably understand that the most common extreme into which we fall often is favouring our bodies. We enjoy to sleeping for a long time in a comfortable bed and eating tasty foods. This, of course, distracts us from our spiritual life. Most believers continually fight this tendency.

There is also the possibility of falling into another extreme – becoming too engrossed in our soul, that is, being overly emotional and sensitive. When we fall into this condition, we not only harm the higher part of our nature (our spirit), but can also bring harm to our body. We all know that when we are especially emotional, our physical health can be ruined.

We can also give too much attention to our spirit to the detriment of our body and soul. You might be surprised by such a statement, but it’s true. During the first two hundred years of Christian history, the faithful encountered not only persecutions, but also heretics, some of whom taught that there is a good, kind, spiritual god (the god of the New Testament) and also a bad and evil god (the god of the Old Testament) who created the physical world, including our bodies. These heretics taught that our goal in life is to break away completely from the physical and visible world and, in such a way, free our souls or spirits from the prison of our bodies. Of course, we cannot agree with such an extreme teaching, for there is but one God, Who created everything, and everything that He made, including the physical world, is wonderful. Christians of our time perhaps rarely fall into this extreme, except when we discuss or are brought into contact with death. Sometimes when we try to comfort someone who has lost a close friend or a relative, we say things like this: “Don’t be sad or upset, everything will be okay. Your husband has left this evil world, is no longer suffering, and is now with God.” Although to a certain extent these words maybe correct, how can we say that everything is fine and there is no need to be upset, when emotions are natural to people since they have a soul?

We also fall into an extreme if we think that our physical body is unimportant. This extreme is sometimes evident with death. Examples of this is when we do not bring the departed to church for a funeral, when we refuse to have an open casket, when we do not approach the coffin or bid farewell to the departed, when we forget to visit cemeteries, when we are disrespectful at gravesites, when we burn the dead instead of burying them, etc. It is, of course, very important how we deal with the bodies of the departed, because the body is an inalienable part of a person. There is no full-fledged person without a body. There is no full-fledged life without a body.

Today let’s remember that a person has a body, soul, and spirit and that it is wrong to consider one or another part unnecessary for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself showed this. He ate and drank, showing that even the most-holy, sinless person, the God-man, cannot but pay at least some attention to His physical condition. Christ also was emotionally moved and wept when He came to the grave of his dead friend Lazarus, showing us His human soul. With His intense love for prayer and Holy Scripture, He showed us His spirit. In such a way, we see the full-fledged human nature of Christ. Let us, from the beginning of our own lives until our final moments on earth, be like Him and give the appropriate attention and care to each part of our human nature.

priest Alexis