Where, brethren, are the souls of sinners after they have been separated from their bodies? Let us talk about this for our edification.

There was in the city of Carthage a certain man, named Taksiot, who led a sinful life. One day, Carthage was struck by a contagious disease that killed many people. Taksiot turned to God and repented of his sins. Leaving the city, he withdrew with his wife to a certain village, where he dwelt, spending his time in contemplation of God.

After some time he fell into sin with the wife of a farmer; but after a few days after this, he was bitten by a snake and died.

Not far from that place stood a monastery; the wife of Taksiot went to this monastery and begged the monks to come, take the body of the deceased and bury it in the church; and they buried him at the third hour of the day. When the ninth hour came, a loud cry was heard from the grave: "Have mercy, have mercy on me!" approaching the grave and hearing the cry of the buried, the monks immediately dug it up and found Taksiot alive; Terrified, they wondered and asked him what had happened to him. But Taksiot could not tell them anything because of his strong weeping, and only asked to be taken to Bishop Tarasius; and he was taken to him. The bishop begged him for three days to tell him what he had seen there, but it was not until the fourth day that Taksiot began to talk and related the following: "As I was dying, I saw some Ethiopians standing before me; their sight was terrible, and my soul was troubled. Then I saw two young men, very handsome; My soul rushed to them, and immediately, as if flying up from the earth, we began to ascend to heaven, meeting on the way the toll-houses that restrained the soul of every person and each of them, tormenting us about a special sin: one about lies, another about envy, a third about pride; Thus, every sin in the air has its testers. And behold, in the ark held by the angels, I saw all my good deeds, which the angels compared with my evil deeds. Thus we passed through these ordeals. And when they came to the toll-house of fornication as they approached the gates of heaven, the guards detained me there, and began to show me all my fornicatory deeds of the flesh, which I had committed from my childhood until my death, and the angels leading me said to me, "All the bodily sins which you have committed while you were in the city, God has forgiven you, because you have repented of them." "But when thou hast gone out of the city, thou hast committed a sin in the field with the wife of thy farmer." Hearing this, the angels did not find a good deed that could be opposed to that sin, and leaving me, they departed. Then the evil spirits took me, began to beat me, and then brought me down; The earth parted, and I, being led by narrow entrances through dark and stinking wells, descended to the very depths of the prisons of hell, where the souls of sinners are imprisoned in eternal darkness, where there is no life for people, but only eternal torment, inconsolable weeping and unspeakable gnashing of teeth. There is always a desperate cry: "Woe to us, alas, alas!" and it is impossible to convey all the sufferings there, it is impossible to recount all the torments and illnesses that I have seen. They groan from the depths of their souls, and no one has mercy on them; they weep, and there is no one to comfort them; they pray, and there is no one who hearkens to them and delivers them. And I was shut up in those gloomy places, full of terrible sorrow, and I wept and wept bitterly from the third hour to the ninth. Then I saw a little light, and two angels coming there; I began to earnestly beseech them that they would lead me out of that miserable place to repent before God. The angels said to me, "In vain do you pray: no one departs from here until the time of the general resurrection comes." But as I continued to earnestly beseech and beseech them, and promised to repent of my sins, one angel said to another, "Do you vouch for him that he will repent with all his heart, as promised?" Then they brought me out from there to the ground and brought me to the tomb where my body lay, and said to me, "Enter into that from which you were separated." And then I saw that my soul was shining like beads, and my dead body was black as dirt and gave off a stench, and therefore I did not want to enter it. The angels said to me: "It is impossible for you to repent without the body with which you committed sins." But I begged them not to enter the body. "Come in," said the angels, "otherwise we will take you back to where we took it from. Then I entered, revived and began to cry out: "Have mercy on me!" Saint Tarasius said to him then: "Taste the food." But he would not eat, but going from church to church, he fell down on his face, and with tears and deep sighing confessed his sins and said to all: "Woe to sinners: eternal torment awaits them; woe to those who do not repent while they have time; After his resurrection, Taksiot lived forty days and cleansed himself by repentance, in three days he foresaw his death and departed to the Merciful and Loving God, Who brings down to hell and gives salvation to all, to Whom be glory forever.

Thus, God lives, there is a future life, and the torments of sinners are terrible. And, oh, look, sinners: you would never have had to cry out: "Have mercy on me, have mercy on me!" And you would never have had to hear the voice of Abraham: "A great gulf has been established between us and you, so that those who wish to pass from here to you cannot pass over to us from there" (Luke 16:26)? Pray that the Lord will grant repentance before the end, and correct your life before it is too late. Amen.

On the veneration of holy icons

(Commemoration of our venerable father and confessor Eustathius, Bishop of Bithynia, Prol. Mar. 29)

Our venerable father and confessor Eustathius, Bishop of Bithynia, lived in the time of the iconoclasts, i.e. people who rejected the veneration of holy icons. For his veneration of holy icons he received from them: threats, spitting, beatings, prisons, he saw many rebellions and rebellions in his flock, he was beaten with rods and clubs, and finally he was deprived of his episcopacy and condemned to exile. In the latter he spent many years and was insulted, embittered, deprived, was in hunger, thirst and nakedness, and in such sorrows he died. And Eustathius was not the only one who endured such torments from the iconoclasts. Not only thousands, but also thousands of Orthodox Christians, for venerating holy icons, suffered from them the same thing as Eustathius.

What does it mean that the iconoclasts treated holy icons so viciously? Were they not right in denying them? No, brethren, they are wrong, and we will now prove this to them.

In Orthodox Theology it is written: "Reliable tradition testifies that the Evangelist Luke, who was a physician and painter, painted and left behind him icons of the Mother of God. In the first three centuries of Christianity, although the use of icons was not so universal, due to the narrow circumstances of the Church, it is known beyond doubt that the image of Jesus Christ was in use. In the fourth century, with the triumph of the Church, icons of the saints of God appeared everywhere together with icons of Christ the Savior, as the most splendid decoration of churches and objects of veneration. St. Basil in his homily on the Martyr Barlaam wishes that this martyr be depicted on a board, and together with him, Jesus Christ, crowning him. St. Athanasius calls proud and foolish those who reject the images of the saints. Further, in the unfortunate times of iconoclasm, when a terrible persecution was erected against the venerators of icons, this dogma was sealed with the blood of many great and holy men of the Church, the confessors, and, finally, it was decisively confirmed by the common voice of the Church at the Seventh Ecumenical Council, where excommunication was proclaimed to those who reject holy icons and call them idols (Dogm. Theology of Anthony, p. 25).

Thus, the iconoclasts are wrong, rejecting holy icons and calling them idols. We are not idolaters and we revere icons, and do not worship them? Looking at the holy icons, we venerate them, ascending our thoughts to God and His saints; But we do not honor wood, not paints, not art, but faces - and not in themselves, but for the sake of the creatures they depict. We revere and worship before icons, but we attribute our worship to God and His saints, to our intercessors before Him (St. Eusebius' Homily on Faith, part 3, p. 315). Let the iconoclasts know this, and stop their blasphemy against the holy icons and against us, who worship them. Amen.

Alms to givers return

(Homily to the maiden Mononia, how St. Macarius saved me, who was unmerciful to her)

The Lord says: "Make yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that when ye shall be poor, they shall receive you into eternal dwellings" (Luke 16:9). What does that mean? "This means that with earthly, perishable, transient wealth, it is possible, however, if it is used correctly, to acquire friends who are poor, beggars, who generally require help and assistance here on earth, and they can provide us with eternal abodes in heaven, since such use of wealth is a virtue, for which there will be a reward in the Kingdom of Heaven" (Commentary of Bishop Micah on 9 verse 16 of the chapter of Luke, And St. Chrysostom says: "He who distributes wealth to the poor uses it for the benefit of his soul" (Homily on Avarice, the same truth is confirmed by examples).