“What is love?” A sermon at the funeral service of the schema monk Eugenia O. Gennady 2010

“What is love?” A sermon at the funeral service of the schema monk Eugenia 
O. Gennady 2010 

And now, my dear ones, we are seeing our spiritual mother off the ground, Schema-nun Eugene, who lived a rather long, arduous life, which helped a great many. 

Mother lived all her life for the sake of God and for the sake of people. She lived in such a way that she begged for love from hell for whom it was simply impossible to pray. For this she received illnesses, for that she received sorrows, reproaches, and anything else. The enemy rebelled and took revenge through the people for those whom she begged for. Mother underwent this quite calmly, because her love was much higher than all the intrigues the enemy was lining up.

We remember the life of Seraphim of Sarov: he saw how the demons dragged the soul to hell. And he was so sorry for this soul, although he never knew him, did not see this man. But, seeing how he cried, how this soul grieves, he began to implore the Lord: “Lord, have mercy on this soul, pluck it from the hands of demons so that it does not suffer so that there is no such torment that it undergoes hell". And the Lord by His grace let the demons of the soul of this man go. For this, the demons, who got angry incredibly for have been taken away the guilty soul, which they wanted to determine to hell, poured all their anger on Seraphim of Sarov. The angry demons scooped up the flames from hell and sealed them on the back of Seraphim of Sarov. He had this ulcer for the rest of his life until death.

Does he need it? After all, he did not know this man at all, he had no idea about him. But he acted out of love and therefore received such an ulcer from demons. He acted out of love and did not regret that he had suffered all this life from this ulcer. 

Mother did exactly the same. Each of us who are here to get help, admonition and real begging of some life situations, diseases or something else. 

She begged for mortally ill people and therefore left us earlier. It happens. 

That's what love is.

When a person has no care about himself. When a person does not even think about his own benefit, he doesn’t care. He loves and therefore sacrifices everything that he has and even sacrifices himself in order to make it better for someone to calm down, to wipe someone's tears, to ease someone's illness. 

And this love is higher than any law. 

Mother always tried to reduce her own desires to a minimum. And just perform obedience. There was no case in life that she did not fulfill obedience. Now there is no such thing, it is difficult to find such obedience. She humbled herself and understood that this was necessary, her meekness, her monastic obedience was so verified, and she always did as she was blessed, accepting everything as the will of God. 

It is a practical and instructive example for us. We communicated practically with the holy man.

Her spiritual father, the schema-monk Mikhail, predicted that before her death she would be taken far, far away, and then returned back. No one could understand where she was going and why. And here she was by the grace of God in Jerusalem. She felt incredible joy there, it is impossible to convey in words. She always rejoiced, stepping in the places where the Lord Himself walked. Seeing all these places where the Most Holy Theotokos was, saints of God - she literally lived by this grace, breathed her and begged even more people.

Once we came to the monastery of Gerasim in Jordan. This is a monastery of amazing beauty, love and grace. This is the very monastery from which the Venerable Elder Zosima went into the wilderness and saw Mary of Egypt. And there, in the monastery there is Starets Alexander, he is always in prayer, does not notice anyone. And suddenly, passing by Mary, he stops and exclaims: “What a beauty you are! You are holy. ” And he began to rejoice at the bells. He ran up to her, took her hand, laid it on his head, began to bless himself with her hand. And he is a priest, archimandrite. He exulted, jumped like a child. He gave the burial cover and the land of Jerusalem, an icon. There was no limit to his happiness and exultation. He saw a person on a level much higher than himself. And he is a very high level old man.

We will not fully understand the level of her angelic ministry and the angelic life she had here on earth. We cannot even fully imagine here now while we live, what kind of person was next to us, and how with her love we begged everyone who came to her. 

She had no disease, and she did not die from the disease. To verify this, she was taken to a doctor before her death. And the doctors said that there are no internal diseases. The demons  burned her, because she begged for the man who was supposed to die. They burned and beat, came to her and tortured her, because she had pulled the prey from their paws, like Reverend Seraphim of Sarov. She did it consciously. She did not spare her life for the sake of other people.

You can not grieve. We all understand that here on earth we are temporary. We learn to love God and people. And our example is wonderful, rare - before our eyes. An example of love. As in the scripture it is said: There is no higher love, than when someone puts down his life for another person. She laid down her life for her neighbor, she fulfilled the law of love. And love is beyond any other law. 

And I think that we say goodbye to her body, and not to herself. Because she will be here, because her ministry is not over. She will pray just as she did. I think she will be not far from the throne of God, not far from Father Makaria, her spiritual father.

Mother descended into hell and pulled out the soul that was there. She pulled the souls of demons. This is a real practice of love that we all lack. 

She was very obedient. She did everything as blessed her, and always cut off her will. And remaining a virgin, from the beginning of her life, she carried the monastic feat clean. She, by her feat, is no less than those hermits who live in deserts, in caves. Because about this says her love and the level of her humility, the level of her obedience. She never imagined anything about herself. She never thought anything worthy in this life. And never insisted on her own will. That's what real monasticism is.

Love must have a mother to ask for salvation, because she is our closest spiritual relative, our mother, who begged us all. Begging for love. 

She is in the hands of God completely betrayed her life. 

Mother passed away earlier than she intended. For her love she begged a man out of mortal danger, and therefore her life was shortened. 

So my dear ones, when we are too lazy to help our neighbor, when we are reluctant to pray for our neighbor — we think — well, then, somehow, we can manage it, we act against love. And when it is absolutely impossible for us to correct, because so much pride and vanity have been caught up - that's when we have to go to her grave. You just need to ask for her help, and she will give it. Because she is still praying for all of us.

Why are there so many people gathered here, to see mother on the last journey? Because she is a spiritual mother, a spiritual relative, a prayer bookcase. And she embodied the love of which the Lord speaks in the Gospel, and carried through her life. And we, like moths flock to the light, flock to this love and grace. We cannot do otherwise. This is the imperative of our heart, therefore we are all here. 

This very leading force that should be in us is love. And through the prayers of mother, God forbid that we should be humbled, abolish our vanity and pride and learn to forgive and love. 

Mother did not have any offense and malice against anyone. Even for those who brought her some kind of sorrow, she prayed, having no offense, realizing that this is the evil one that tempts a person.

To this we must ascend the spiritual ladder, because this is the foundation of salvation, the meaning of the Christian life. 

The bright memory of my mother. She helped us all. After all, all those who read the hymnal for her, themselves haven been helped. We did not beg for her, not for ourselves. And she prayed there for those who read the hymnal for her. Many have felt it. Because the Lord gave her love inexhaustible, because she was so close to the Lord. She was an Angel in life. And we, the sinners, have been honored to communicate with such a person in this life.

We will not be sad, we will not be discouraged and despair. We will know that Easter has come for her! After all, she returned home. She returned to Heavenly Father. There her spiritual father, her relatives will meet her. She returned to the Angels who helped her throughout her life. But, going there, she did not leave us. She was near, was, is and will be. 

She left earlier, fulfilling the duty of love. None of the children expected this , everyone thought that they would live on. Everyone knew that a longer life was predicted. But she also begged for love to those people who were supposed to die. 

Here is the same love. God grant that we be saved by mother's prayers. 

The kingdom of heaven schema-nun Eugenia.