For that reason, the Lord hides from us the time of our death; yet we should be ever mindful of it. St. John Climacus gave a brilliant rule to be given to a priest, a pastor. "Don't ever miss an opportunity to remind someone that he will die." Our culture today follows quite the opposite. We are constantly told, "We try not to talk about death." For example, in the past, how were coffins carried? In the village, a respected person was hand-carried, no? Later, they began to carry people by car, transporting them across the city, along with an orchestra. And now, they close him up in a "pazik" [a little minibus] with shades drawn so that nobody might see him, and they are off!

I am often called to deal with the dying and the deceased. It is interesting to see how often people try to avoid staying with the deceased! This has to do with their being afraid of thinking about death. In fact, they are taking an entirely incorrect approach. A normal Christian should strive to often follow King Solomon's advice that "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting..." (Ecclesiastes7: 2). This is why it is very useful to visit the cemetery..

Our seminarians used to like to visit morgues. I remember that I used to go. It is a very sobering experience; you come to your senses very quickly. In their cells, some of the saints used to keep skulls, coffins, and other reminders of death. Many would dig graves for themselves.

-- Why do infants die?

For this reason. The Lord sees that a baptized infant can now enter the Kingdom of God, but if left to live, will become a robber. Here is a well-known story: An angel took an infant's life. A certain monk wanted to know God's Judgment; it was revealed to him that in time, the child would have grown up to be the leader of a gang of thieves, but that now he would enter the Kingdom of God. An infant's death can also be explained by the fact that a person can attain the heights of righteousness very quickly. Take the example of Cyricus. How old was he? Holy Martyr Cyricus was three years old. He is a great Righteous One in the heavens. How about the Infants of Bethlehem? The Lord knows what paths man will take. The Lord is able, as they say, to calculate. God sees man's exercise of free will, but does not decide it for him; He uses the exercise of free will by murderers and other people in order to accomplish what He has decided. By violating God's Commandment, a murderer commits a sin; however, he is incapable of violating God's will. Understood? For if the Lord does not find a given murder not in accordance with his wishes, He will not allow it to happen: there will be a misfire, a bomb will fail to go off, etc. There are many examples...

I happened to be watching the news, and there was a report of a terrorist attack in India in which 65 people perished, but in which two explosive devices did not go off. It was the Lord's will that certain people perish, and others not. Statistics demonstrate that on flights that crash, there is a one-third greater number of people than usual who are either late for the flight or have given up their tickets. You see, everything happens according to God's will. However, in no way does that justify the evil done. Man's evil will is used to accomplish God's good will, but one can in no way justify doing evil. God simply uses those people, and that is all.

An Ideal Death- An Awful Death

Now, what kind of death is best.? For a Christian, the best death is to be martyred for the sake of Christ the Savior. That is the best possible way for man to die. Some people sent condolences to Optina Hermitage after the murder of three monk [on Pascha, 1993], but for a Christian, that kind of death is a very great joy. In the ancient Church, they would never send their condolences when someone somewhere was killed. All of the churches would immediately send out congratulations. Imagine, to congratulate them with having a new defender in the Heavens! A martyr's death washes away all sins except for heresy and schism. All other sins - fornication, murder, adultery - are washed away.

Heresy is distortion of the teachings of the Church, a distortion made not out of ignorance, but a conscious distortion, going against the will of God. Is that not so? Schism is an organized rebellion against the Church. All other sins are washed away. Remember the martyr St. Boniface! The Slavic language is always letting us down. Ever since the Slavs mistranslated the word "martyr," we have always misunderstood it. We should not read the word "martyr" as commonly understood [one who has been tortured.] A martyr is a witness, a term Arabs correctly render as "shaheed." Except that the shaheed is a witness to evil, the spirit-Allah, while for us, a martyr witnesses that Christ is good, and that He conquered death.

Thus, a martyr is one who by his death has borne witness that Christ conquered death, that He rose from the dead. That is the meaning of "martyr," a witness, not someone who was tortured. We have martyrs who died natural deaths. Take the example of the Protomartyr St. Thecla, who had a natural repose, but is still a martyr. Other examples are the martyrs St. Golindukha and St. Shushanika. We know that although they endured torture, they died natural deaths. Yet, they are martyrs, for they bore witness to the the Word of God with their lives and their deaths.

Now: of course, we pray always. I think that when each of us signs himself with the sign of the Cross and makes a prostration at the prayer asking for "a Christian ending to our life, painless, blameless, peaceful, and a good defense at the Dread Judgment of Christ," it is a heart-felt and sincere plea. I hope that each of us sincerely desires these things. It is interesting to consider that when talking about the end of life, of all the possible ways for life to end, the best death is one we can anticipate. For this reason being ill with cancer is often thought to be a kind mercy from God, for one knows that in several months, he will die. He can prepare, he can become reconciled to others, he can somehow correct himself, and can prepare himself for eternity.

The most awful death that can befall a Christian is a sudden death, for then he goes off into eternity unprepared.