"People Don’t Die. They Fall Asleep Until the Second Coming"

"People Don’t Die. They Fall Asleep Until the Second Coming"

Talking to ELDER PAVLOS (Bougiouras; † March 1, 2020) - excerpt

Cell Phones Steal Our Freedom in Life

—We are very concerned about the issue of the “seal of the antichrist.” What should we do to not accept it?

—Has that moment that the Sacred Scriptures tell us about in the Apocalypse really come already? It clearly says there that some will believe in the antichrist and follow after him and receive the mark on the hand and the forehead. Has this really happened already? When this hour comes, our faith will be revealed. We will have to say then: No.

If only man were not so closely bound to things and comfort! Half of Greece—no, probably three quarters—is gathered in Athens today! We’re all Athenians now. People have left the beauty of Greece—its seas and mountains. In the villages, we slept under pine trees and our lungs were full of oxygen. We were the happiest people in the world! This is no more. My father and I went to our plot of land and spent the night there—in the mountains, in the quietness. It was a paradisiacal sleep—in the fragrance of pines and thyme! That was life! Now we’re all crammed into Attica for so-called “comfort.” Is that really comfort?!

Every child already has a cell phone now. Either we buy them or we give them money to buy them. We pester them not to lose it. But is a telephone really so vital? After all, it’s not only the radiation (cell phones may harm people physically), but the main thing is that a phone deprives your soul of peace. Wherever you go, you have your phone with you. There’s no freedom left in your life. And this is a true “seal.”

People Don’t Die. They Fall Asleep Until the Second Coming

—What do the reposed need most of all—to be commemorated at memorial services, panikhidas at their graves, or alms on their behalf?

—First of all, we shouldn’t call them dead, but asleep. The first Christians didn’t call the burial places of the dead “graves,” but resting places, because the person didn’t die, but fell asleep.

The thing that helps our reposed the most is the Divine Liturgy. When a priest serves the proskomidia and takes out the particles for the reposed, this is the most important thing. Alms also help the soul of the reposed.

But there’s another thing that really helps—the attitude of our soul to God. For example, if a loved one leaves too early—a brother, a child, some accident occurs—we must never attribute what happened to God. This thought weighs on the soul. St. Anastasius of Sinai, a great saint, who became the Patriarch of Antioch, says that the soul can leave this world pure, and we torment it with our questioning God: Why? Why did God take this person from us? This harms your soul! It’s better to say: “My God, Thou gavest this person life, and Thou didst take it away. Thou didst move as Thou didst desire”—resembling the much-suffering Job—“blessed be the name of the Lord!”

—What happens to a person after death?

—Those who live in sin on earth already taste hell here. What do you think? Life in sin—that’s hell. Those who live in faith taste Paradise already in this life. That is, even before the final judgment some taste hell, and others Paradise. And after the Second Coming we will finally partake of the glory of God—or the opposite (may the Lord not allow this to happen to any of us!).

If You Can’t Fast Bodily, Fast Verbally

—I can’t fast because I’m sick. Can I commune without fasting?

—If there is a serious reason why you can’t abstain from non-fasting food, observe a different fast—verbal. Watch what comes out from your heart, from the depths of your soul, because this is what contaminates most of all. Try not to talk too much, not to condemn others. This will be the greatest fast for you. The Church doesn’t want to harm someone, and if he can’t fast, what should he do now, die? The Church is like a mother. But he who truly can fast—let him not seek excuses for himself. Don’t slander, don’t gossip, don’t upset anyone with your words—this is your fast, and you’ll commune with a pure heart. ...

From the Article "Archimandrite Pavlos (Bougiouras; † March 1, 2020): “Do Not Judge!” Life and Counsels of the Confessor of Mt. Sinai" by Alexandra Nikiforova:

https://www.mountsinaimonastery.org/news-blog/archimandrite-pavlos-life-and-counsels-of-the-confessor-of-mt-sinai