The Reality of Death and the Judgment to Come

(22nd Sunday after Pentecost) (Luke 16:19-31)

Yesterday, Fr. George and I spent some time with a family at a local hospice. We went to minister to the family of a woman, 38 years old, who will die in a few days, maybe even in a few hours. A wife, mother of two children, she was attended by her brother and her mother during the time we were there. There is no doubt that she is greatly loved; and no doubt but that she will be greatly missed.

We don’t like to experience such things; we don’t like to hear about them, or to think about them. We fear death; and all the more so because we usually don’t know the day and hour that has been appointed for our departing from this life. As a result, we tend to delude ourselves, acting as if we will live forever. We will – but not in the way we usually conceive. But our denial of the reality of death means that we do not prepare ourselves as we should for what comes after we depart this life.

The reading today from the Gospel according to St. Luke gives us a great deal of information; and it should spur us on to correct this error on our part. We see that there are two possible destinations for us after we leave this existence. Some will go to a place of blessedness; while others will go to a place of torment. The destination is based on the choices we make in this life, and the way we live. Live rightly, and we have the hope of entering a blessed repose. Fail to live as we should, and the chance of torment in the world to come is very, very real.

Today we remember the martyrs Zenobius and Zenobia, brother and sister, who departed into glory toward the end of the third century – really, 15 years or so before the Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, which ended the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. But these holy martyrs, faithful Christians, who used the wealth they inherited to help those in need around them, were not afraid of death – they remembered well the victory song of Pascha: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb, bestowing life. When arrested and threatened with torture and death, and urged to deny Christ, so that he could preserve his life, Zenobius said, “To live without Christ is death; and to die for Christ is to enter life without end.” His sister Zenobia shared his commitment, and so shared his fate.

We sin because we fear death. Because we fear death, we cling to this world, and its pleasures. Because we fear death, we cling to this life, because we think this is all we will have to enjoy. We need to learn to let go of this life; we need to learn to prepare ourselves for the time when we will leave this world to come more fully into the presence of God. We need to make Christ our greatest desire, and to let go of everything that keeps us from a life with Him.
How do we do this? How do we let go of this world? How do we prepare for death?

We do so by living the life of the Church. In prayer, we draw closer to God, and His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. When we draw closer to God, we experience the richness of His love more fully – and so allow Him to become more to us, while the world fades away. Then we add fasting, which teaches us to turn away from worldly pleasures, and to subdue the habits we have developed for pleasing our flesh, by which we are bound to this world. In giving alms and making offerings, and by tithing, we set ourselves free from our possessions, and allow the love of God to flow to and through us to those in need in the world with us. We struggle against our sins and passions; and we labor to see God’s image in everyone, and respond to them as God responds to us: with patience, and forgiveness, with mercy, and love. Charity can only arise from love; and charity is key to preparing for death.

What would it have been to the rich man if, at just one of the parties he hosted for his friends, he had taken a portion of what was being served, and instructed his servant to take that portion to Lazarus at his front gate? He would never have missed what was sent away; but how much it would have meant to Lazarus!

We may not have a beggar at our front door, or at the end of our street, but we all have seen them on street corners and freeway on-ramps. Even if you’ve never seen one of these, you know they are out there, at the food banks, at the soup kitchens, at the shelters. The sick and the suffering and the dying are all around us; we need but lift up our attention away from ourselves, and we will see the many opportunities we have to show charity to others.

If you knew you were going to die tonight, would you live differently? If you knew you would be taken out tomorrow at noon, and be put to death, or were going to receive a lethal injection at sunset next Sunday, wouldn’t you act to prepare yourself for death? We will all die; and we will all have to give an account for ourselves. Brothers and sisters, let us embrace the grace-filled life of the Church, so that we may set ourselves free from this world; and let us love and care for one another, and those in need, so that the love of Jesus Christ might embrace us all, to the glory of God, and the salvation of our souls.