Do you know how much help the departed
seek! Since there is no repentance after death, and as humans they also
departed with stains and blemishes, and since they see that the help of
the living greatly assists them to be perfected and find rest, they
yearn, seek, and long for someone to commemorate them. They also long
for one of their descendants to become a priest or a virtuous Christian
who will care for them.
Let me tell you about a vision of a
certain bishop which he himself told me while we were serving together
years ego. He told us that there was a priest who had a drinking problem
and often got drunk; this was going on for many years. Other than this,
though, the priest was virtuous and pious.
One day he drank wine as usual and got
drunk, and then before he was fully sober, he went and served Liturgy.
So God allowed an accident to happen: he spilled the holy Body and Blood
of the Lord! The poor fellow froze with fear, while also thinking about
the heavy penance his bishop would give him!
Finally, after he confessed, his
bishop told him, “Go—I will notify you when to return, and then I’ll
give you the penance”. So as the bishop was all alone reflecting and
pondering, and as he picked up a pen to write his decision to depose
him, he saw an endless multitude of people of every age, kind, and class
unwind before him like a movie. The bishop was stunned by this vision
but was also overcome with fear. Then all those people together said to
him, “Your Eminence, do not punish the priest; do not depose him”. Then,
little by little, they disappeared.
Afterwards, the bishop called the
priest to come. The poor priest was terrified, thinking about being
deposed. The bishop said to him, “Tell me something, do you commemorate
many names when you serve Liturgy?” The priest answered, “In the
proskomidi, Your Eminence, I commemorate names for a long time—from
kings and emperors down to the last pauper”. The bishop then said to
him, “Go, then, and whenever you serve Liturgy, commemorate as many
people as you can, and take care not to get drunk anymore. You are
pardoned”. Thereafter, the priest—with the help of God—was delivered
from drinking.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
http://elderephraimarizona.blogspot.gr/2015/06/do-you-know-how-much-help-departed-seek.html
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου