My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

THE GOSPEL ON MANY CARES AND SUDDEN DEATH (St. Luke 12:16-21) (Part III)
By Saint Nikolai Velimirovic

"But God said unto him: 'Thou fool; this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"

Thus spoke the Lord of Life and of the world, the Commander of time and death, "in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind" (Job 12:10). You foolish man, why do you not think with your mind instead of with your belly? As it was not in your power to determine the day of your birth, neither have you control over the day of your death. The Lord lit the candles of your earthly life when it seemed good to Him, and He will extinguish them when He so determines. As your riches could not hasten the hour of your coming into the world, so they cannot delay the hour of your leaving it. Do dawn and dusk depend on you? To the same degree does the span of your earthly life depend on you. And also your granaries and cellars, and your sheepfolds and enclosures. All this belongs to God, as your soul does. Every day and every hour, God can take what is His from you and give it to others.

All is His during your lifetime, and it will still be His after your death. Your life and your death are in his hands. Why, then, do you speak of many hears to come? Your life is counted to the minute, O man, and your last minute could tick away this very day. Do not, therefore, take thought for the morrow: what you will eat or drink, or what your wear; but take thought, far more thought, for the soul with which you come before God, your creator and Lord. Take more thought for the Kingdom of God, for this, is the food of your soul (St. Matthew 6:31-3).

The Lord ended this parable with the words: "So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God." How shall it be for him? He shall suddenly be parted from his riches and his soul from his body. His riches will be given to others, his body to the earth and his soul to a place blacker than the earth, where there is "wailing and gnashing of teeth." No single good work will be there to welcome him into the heavenly Kingdom that his soul might find a place there. His name will not be found written in the book of life, and it will neither be known nor named among the blessed! He has received his reward on earth, and God's heavenly riches will not be revealed to his spirit.

Oh, how terrible is sudden death! When a man thinks himself to be firmly established on earth, it can suddenly open and swallow him up as it swallowed up Dathan and Abiram (Num 16:32). When a God-forgetting merrymaker makes ready to go on as such for many years, fire descends and devours him like Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24). When a man thinks he has well-insured himself with God and man, he will fall dead like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5, 10).

A sinner sustains a twofold loss form a sudden death: to himself and to his family. To himself, for he dies unrepentant, and to his family, for it stuns his kinsfolk with an unexpected blow and he leaves unfinished work behind him. Blessed are they who experience sickness before their deaths, enduring pain, and suffering. Such a one is given the opportunity to look back over the whole of his life, to survey and count his sins, to repent of all the evil he has done and all the good he has not done, to weep with repentance and lament before God, cleansing his soul with tears, and to beg God for forgiveness; also to forgive all who have insulted or done evil to him during his lifetime, to bless all his friends and enemies, to remind his children to fear God, remember the hour of their death and enrich their souls betimes with faith, prayer and acts of charity.

Look how those pleasing to God, the righteous, died in the Old Testament: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David. They were all sick before their deaths, and during their sickness, the name of God did not leave their lips. They all left good testaments to their descendants and blessed them. This is the death of a righteous person. But you will say: have not many of the righteous died unprepared in battle? No; the righteous never die unprepared. They always prepare for death and await from day to day their parting from this life. Their hearts are constantly filled with repentance and confession to God, and the glorifying of His name. The righteous do this in times of peace and prosperity; and even more in times of war, violence and temptation. Their whole life is a constant preparation for death, and so they never die unprepared.

To prepare oneself for death also means "enrich oneself in God." Only those who truly believe in God and in a life beyond this life prepare for death, for that other life. The unbelieving never prepare for death. They prepare for as long a life as possible here on earth. They are afraid of thinking about death and make little effort to enrich themselves in God. He who prepares for death prepares for eternal life, and the nature of this preparation for eternal life is known to every Christian.

A wise man (person) confirms his faith in god every day and guards his heart from unbelief, doubt, and malice, as a wise householder guards his vineyard form destructive midges (small flies) and grasshoppers. A wise man exercises himself every day in the fulfilling of God's Commandments by acts of forgiveness, charity, and love, and he is thus enriched in God....this most precious thing is his soul. It is his greatest possession; the only thing that does not decay and die. A wise man has his accounts with the world balanced every day, and he is ready to lie down and die with the firm faith that he will live and come before the face of God.

Saint Anthony the Great says: "Reflect within yourself and say: 'I shall not remain in this world longer than today', and you will never sin against God."

May God's will be done! We pray our all-seeing God not to send sudden death on us in the midst of our sins and misdeeds, but to spare us as He spared King Hezekiah (Isa 38:1-5), and give us time for repentance. By His mercy, may He give us some indication of our approaching death, that we may hasten to do some further good and save our soul from eternal fire; that our names may be found in the Book of Life, and that our faces may be seen among the righteous in the Kingdom of Christ our God To Him be glory and praise, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit--the Trinity consubstantial and undivided, now and forever, through all time and all eternity. Amen. (Source: Orthodox Heritage)

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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" -- Saint John Chrysostomos

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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God

+Father George