June 1, 1948

"Verily, truly, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death." The Jews said to Him: "Now we know that the demon is in You. Abraham died, and the prophets, and Thou sayest, Whosoever keepeth My word shall never taste death. Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets are dead: what do you make yourself?" (John 8:51-53.)

They did not understand, did not understand at all, what kind of life, what kind of undying Christ spoke to them about. To this day, very many people do not understand this. A. we need to understand this. There are two deaths: the first death and the second death.

The first death is the death that inevitably befalls every person, a natural death. And the second death, immeasurably more terrible than the first death, is eternal death, spiritual death, to which the Lord Jesus Christ will condemn sinners when He judges the whole world with His Dread Judgment – those who do not stand before the entrance to the Kingdom of God.

The second death is the eternal torment of sinners, eternal communion with the devil and his aggels, with all sinners, with all demons. May the Lord our God Jesus Christ deliver you all from this second death!

These words of Christ lift for us a heavy veil over what happens to the souls of the dead. It is wrong to say that there is no eternal life, that there is no resurrection: a person will die, and everything is over. No, no, it is not all over: the immortal spirit lives on forever. We know this from the words of the Savior Himself: "God is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living" (Mark 12:27).

We know that on the day of the Transfiguration, the greatest prophets – Moses and Elijah – appeared and talked with Jesus about the last events of His life. If they appeared, if they conversed with Him, it means that they knew how the earthly life of the Savior would end, it means that their spirit lived, it means that they did not dwell in the darkness of their souls, but lived an intense spiritual life. This is confirmed by the words of our Lord Jesus Christ about Abraham our father, that Abraham would have been glad to see His day, the time when He lived on earth among us, when He redeemed the human race by His death on the Cross.

Abraham would have been glad to see this, Abraham knew about this day: he knew the prophecies and revelations about Christ. And he saw the day of Christ, saw what was happening in Jerusalem and in all Palestine during the days of the Lord's earthly life, and he saw and rejoiced. And if so, it means that His spirit continued to live uninterruptedly, He did not die an eternal death, He was, so to speak, aware of all the events of life. And this is very important for us to know. If so, if Abraham lived such a deeply conscious life, how can we deny that all the righteous, and perhaps all the unrighteous continue to live after death, continue to be aware of the events of earthly life, the life of the human race?

This is also confirmed by the indubitable facts of the appearance of the dead to the living, facts that are very frequent and absolutely reliable. Our dead, our loved ones, appearing to us, talk to us about our life, they guide our life, sometimes they rebuke us, keep us from the wrong path of life, sometimes they point out how our vices should be corrected; If so, it means that they know everything that concerns our life, it means that their souls are immortal, they continue to live an intense, intense life.

They are alive, and the spirit of righteous people already lives in the light. The joy in which the righteous live, their blessedness is darkened by what they see and know about our earthly life: all the terrible wars between Christian nations, the inhuman crimes and unrighteousness that they see in our deeds. We torture them, especially close relatives; they are tormented, tormented by our dark deeds, our sins.

Let us cease to torment them, let us cease to insult the Lord God, Who gave eternal life to all the friends of Christ. Let us fear the second death, eternal death, and let us not fear the first death: the first death is terrible only for the wicked, for blasphemers, for grievous sinners.

Let us live such a life that death will not be frightening. Amen.

"Lay down your life for your friends" (John 15:13)