Kingdom of heaven let the earth. Priest Alexy Pluzhnikov: "Let the earth rest in peace for them?"

Probably, there is nothing in our life that would be more mythologized, saturated with superstitions than the death of a person and the rite of his burial.

The Orthodox perception of death and burial of the body of the deceased is radically opposite to the perception that, unfortunately, exists in our post-Soviet country among yesterday's atheists who overnight became "Orthodox", that is, resorting to the Church in extreme cases of birth (baptism), illness and death of a person. These "raids" on the Church are so massive that they gave rise to their own "funeral" tradition, which is now widespread in the popular consciousness.

From the Orthodox point of view, the death of a person (a believer, a church person, of course) is a “dormition”, falling asleep, hence the “departed”, fallen asleep. Death is a transition to another world, birth to eternity. Our deceased is dear to us (after all, he did not disappear, was not destroyed, he fell asleep in his body, and in his soul went on a long journey, to meet God), he really needs our prayers, church funeral services, alms, good deeds done in his memory.

The human body in the Orthodox tradition is understood as a temple of the soul (“Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)). The reverent attitude towards the body of the deceased is directly related to the main dogma of Christianity - the dogma of the Resurrection. We do not believe that our souls will be resurrected (we know that the human soul is immortal), we believe that at the Second Coming of the Savior our bodies will be resurrected (where and in whatever state they are) and united with our souls, and we will we are whole again.

Therefore, it is customary in the Church to carefully prepare the body for burial: wash it, dress it in clean clothes, cover it with a white shroud, and bury it in the ground as in a bed, where the body sleeps, waiting for the sound of the Archangel's trumpet. Thus, taking care of a worthy burial of a person, we express our faith on Sunday. Therefore, the priest puts on white robes for the funeral, showing the faith of the Church in this dogma.

Outside the Church, the attitude towards death is completely different. The death of a person is a catastrophe, a natural disaster. I had to hear this: “Our grandfather died suddenly, unexpectedly! He was 80 years old…”. Despite turning to the Church for a funeral service, in reality the relatives of the deceased do not believe that he is "deceased", "dead" (i.e., one who is "at rest", "at rest with God"). The dead for them is a corpse, a dead man. Ideas about the soul are the most vague. They talk about the soul, but more because “it is customary”, in fact, no one believes in the posthumous existence of the soul.

And since there is no faith in eternity and on Sunday, then there is a panicky fear of death and everything connected with it. Death for unbelievers is a bony old woman with a scythe, who came for her prey, and at the same time does not miss the opportunity to frighten the living with her hoarse laughter and the fire of empty eye sockets. What stays alive? Hurry to throw her victim into her mouth and pay off with something (“what is supposed to”), just not to think about her evil grin.

Where there is no faith in the Resurrected God, there is a desire to push death (more precisely, thoughts about it) to the periphery of consciousness. The fear of death in society is reflected in the whole culture: in literature, art, cinema, and so on. Note that in a society where they are afraid of death, they are very fond of humorous programs, comedy, adventure films. In literature, "life-affirming" genres are valued: novels about love, about sex, detective stories. On the other hand, all the motives that make one think about the meaning of life and death are being squeezed out of culture. Try to offer someone to read Dostoevsky - a litmus test by which you can check whether a person is serious about the problem of life and death, or is trying to hide from it (“yes, your Dostoevsky, mortal longing!”).

When death does come, and a dead person appears in the house, the relatives begin to look for ways to “correctly” see him on his last journey. A neighbor grandmother (who knows “everything” and has been going to church for three hundred years) explains “how” and “in what sequence” one must act. Here are some "grandmother's" tips...

"Grandmother's" and "father's" advice

Of course, it’s impossible for me to know all the variety of grandmother’s advice (there are many grandmothers and they live a long time). Here are just a few that I have encountered myself.

So, when a person dies, what is the first thing to do? That's right: hang mirrors. What for? So that the soul wandering around the apartment until the 40th day (remember: not until the third, but right up to the fortieth! Poor relatives, at least move out of the apartment for a month and a half ...) does not see itself in the mirror. Probably, she will faint, or be embarrassed by her unsightly appearance ...

This superstition works absolutely. During the four years of my priesthood, I none of the apartments didn't see it not done Golden Rule funeral. To the question: “why and why” - everyone shrugged their shoulders: “it seems to be necessary, my grandmother said ...”.

True, there is a positive moment in this golden rule. Some also hang up the TV and do not watch it for 40 days! Commendable zeal, you need to advise only another year not to remove the curtain from the TV box - just in case. Whoever knows her, this soul, suddenly hangs around nearby - maybe, after all, they will be frightened by the news from NTV ...

The next unshakable rule: a glass of vodka (for a man) or water (for a woman) and a piece of bread (they put more sweets, cookies). The soul, therefore, not only walks around the apartment, it also wants to eat. True, it is not clear why so few? Already then all three dishes, but with a bottle ... (At the commemoration, by the way, a plate with borscht is always placed for “our dear ...”).

One priest told such an episode: they called him to the wake. He sits and eats a pancake. Suddenly he feels that everyone is looking into his mouth... He felt uneasy, sitting, choking... When he finally finished eating, everyone breathed a sigh of relief - it turns out that if the priest finishes the pancake to the end, then everything will be fine with the deceased there...

The ancient pagans, performing feasts, were still more consistent than our contemporaries: at least they clearly knew why they performed this or that rite, everything had a symbolic meaning. Modern "Orthodox pagans" are distinguished by extreme stupidity when this seemingly simple question arises: "well, why, citizens?!"

An important point is the question after the removal of the deceased: from what(from the door or from the window) "wash" the floors? Do not know? Okay, I’ll answer: floors, citizens, need to be washed out from dirt!

Well, there are still small tips on how to distribute cups with spoons after the deceased; bring a soup set for him to church; handing out the belongings of the deceased. If the deceased dreams of requests, then these requests must be fulfilled literally: he asks to dress - take some junk to the church. He asks to eat - to bring tea with a loaf on the eve ... But why does no one want to see in these requests a call to pray, to correct their lives, to become closer to God, so that prayers for the deceased reach faster? Why is everyone trying to pay off the dead? The answer is simple: because there is no faith in heaven and hell, and there is no love for the deceased.

Yes, I recently learned that there is also the most important rite of seeing off the soul on the fortieth day. You need to read something, go out to the gate with a candle, open the door, in general, perform mysterious actions that unequivocally hint to the soul that, they say, it’s time and honor to know, get out ... (Another version of the wires: you need it on the fortieth day at 9 pm open the window so that the soul floats smoothly towards the cemetery ...)

The saddest thing is that these superstitions are so tenacious that one gets the impression that few priests fight them. Almost always I hear from people at the funeral service: “Father, this is the first time we hear this from you!”. Priests do not preach at the funeral, they do not explain to people that these are not harmless folk traditions, but traditions that contradict the Orthodox faith. But many priests prefer to remain silent and not get involved. And some (especially "Soviet") priests themselves also contribute to the spread of obscurantism, you can't call it otherwise.

The story of one bishop: “The other day I received a denunciation: the parishioners are complaining about their rector, accusing the priest of the most terrible sin that can be ... They write that their father did not let their soul into paradise. Created a commission, sent to understand. It turned out that until that time a priest from Western Ukraine served in this parish, who was quite artisan in his work. Under him, the following tradition was formed there: after the funeral, the deceased is taken out of the temple, placed in the churchyard, the gates leading from the temple grounds to the street are locked, a glass of vodka is taken out, and the priest must drink this vodka, and then throw the glass into the iron gate with the words : "Oh, the soul rushed to heaven!". After that, the gates swing open, and the coffin is taken to the cemetery. And the new priest, young, after the seminary, turned out to be very literate - and did not do this. The parishioners were offended and wrote a denunciation…”. ( Deacon Andrey Kuraev. Non-American missionary. Saratov, Publishing house of the Saratov diocese, 2006.)

It would be funny if it weren't so sad. Is it any wonder that normal thinking people, young people go around the temples a mile away, where the dark, suffocating spirit of “Orthodoxy from Baba Yaga” lives ...

One of the vicious advice coming from the priests is the persistent advice to consecrate the apartment after the deceased, to “clean it up”. Of course, the desire of the priest to earn an extra hundred on human grief is understandable ... But in this way a pagan teaching is created that the dead is a filth, disgust, after which it is necessary to sanctify the dwelling. The relics of the saints lie in shrines in churches and exude currents of healing and grace, and the relics of our Orthodox departed are, for some reason, the desecration of our homes! This is a very important issue and, I think, it would be worthwhile to apply strict disciplinary measures to such priests who spread "Orthodox" paganism.

One “zealous” priest (who had served in the rank for 30 years!) even demanded from the young rector that he “sprinkle the benches on which the coffin with the deceased stood with Epiphany water, so that those who would later sit on these benches would not have illnesses”! And then we still wonder why our people are so superstitious ... What is the pop - such is the parish.

Where did the ... burial ground come from?

Conversation in the temple: “Our grandmother died. We were told that she should be handed over to the landowner. Can I buy land from you?..”

Think you can't? How else can you! In some temples, she already lies stocked up in heaps, waiting for her dead. Most importantly, pay the money, and you will immediately silently be given "tradition to the earth." And you can go with a sense of accomplishment...

Isn't it a common situation? But do people (and the priests themselves, who practice this) think about it: why is this land needed?

Where did this "land" rite come from? In Russia until 1917, almost every cemetery had a church, it was quite common for an Orthodox person to be buried in such a church. After the funeral, the priest went along with everyone to the grave, and when the coffin was lowered into the grave, the priest took the earth with a shovel and threw it on the coffin, reciting a prayer: "The earth is the Lord, and the fulfillment of it, the world, and all who dwell in it." Thus, this symbolic the action showed everyone around us that we were created from the earth and we are returning to the earth. That is: think about the frailty of your being. Everything. There is no other meaning than a symbolic reminder to the living of death.

In Soviet times, the situation became more complicated. With temples, and with everything else related to Orthodox burial, it became problematic. An absentee funeral arose, after which consecrated land was given out so that believing relatives could perform this themselves. symbolic rite, reminding myself about the fate that awaits us all.

But in the future, due to the catastrophic decrease in both believers and literate priests, this action turned into a self-sufficient one, broke away from its edifying, pedagogical symbol, and became meaningless and harmful. The earth itself began to be considered the main moment, replacing even the funeral service.

For example, in a modern brochure published by the Sretensky Monastery, we read:

“Eternal memory is proclaimed over the coffin. The priest sprinkles earth crosswise on the body of the deceased with the words: "The Lord's earth, and its fulfillment, the universe, and all who live in it." The rite of burial can be performed both in the temple and in the cemetery, if a priest accompanies the deceased there. (p. 26)

(..) In our time, it often happens that the temple is located far from the house of the deceased, and sometimes even absent in the area. In such a situation, one of the relatives of the deceased should order an absentee funeral at the nearest church, if possible on the third day. At the end of it, the priest gives the relative a whisk, a sheet of paper with a permissive prayer, and earth from the funeral table.

(..) But it also happens that the deceased is buried without church parting words, and after a long time, relatives still decide to bury him. Then, after the funeral service in absentia, the earth crumbles crosswise on the grave, and the aureole and prayer are either burned and also crumble, or buried in the grave mound. (p. 26-27)

(..) If the funeral service takes place before cremation (as it should be), then the icon must be removed from the coffin, and earth should be scattered over the coffin. If the funeral was performed in absentia and the urn is buried in the grave, then the earth crumbles crosswise over it. If the urn is placed in a columbarium, then the burial ground can be scattered over any grave of a Christian, as usual, with the reading of the Trisagion. The chaplet and permissive prayer are burned along with the body. (p. 32)". ("On the path of all the earth." M., Sretensky m-r, 2003).

And that's all. Not a word explaining the meaning of these land movements. Reading this text, I can only draw one conclusion: the main thing is earthworks and witchcraft with “burning” and “burrowing”. The advice to scatter earth on other people's graves looks especially wild! Well, why?! Who needs it? Deceased? Deeply doubtful. Relatives who will stupidly dig in other people's graves, scattering ashes and thinking that they are doing surprisingly reasonable actions? Or priests who receive income from land trading and do not want to explain to people that the deceased needs only our prayers and good deeds, correction our life, our approaching God?

And yet, one may ask: what to do, how to break the established false tradition? Sermon, tireless explanation to people (both at the funeral service and outside it) that the main thing is spiritual (prayer, repentance, correction of life), and everything material (earth, halo, shroud, candles, etc.) is secondary, has only symbolic, pedagogical meaning, and becomes meaningless in isolation from a reasonable understanding of this action.

Where to sing?

In Orthodox pre-revolutionary Russia, this issue was not even raised. Any Orthodox Christian buried either in his parish church, to which he was assigned all his life (that is why the words of permissive prayer were full of such a deep meaning, which the confessor of the deceased said: “Child, your sins are forgiven you”; and therefore they are so meaningless now, when a priest sees a person already dead for the first time) or in a cemetery church. The refusal of relatives to bury the deceased in the temple could be regarded as an act of renunciation of their faith. The funeral service in absentia was possible only in connection with the death of a person “in a country far away” (at sea, in war).

In Soviet times (especially before the war), of course, the main way of funerals for believers (and unbelievers were not buried) due to persecution was an absentee funeral, at best - in an apartment.

But by the time of perestroika and by our times, the situation has seriously changed. They began to bury everyone in a row, according to the “tradition” (if only he was nominally baptized), and the dying believing grandmothers mostly had unbelieving relatives. And now, when church life is stabilizing, many difficulties arise with the funeral service.

A person dies. Relatives have a problem of choice: how and where to bury? There are options: in absentia (to go for a country house) - the simplest and most common option; to call the priest to the house is expensive, but solid; taking them to the temple is almost an unrealistic option, especially thanks to the predatory policy of funeral homes, which charge a lot of money for every minute of downtime.

In the Church, there is now an attempt to revive the old traditions of funeral services only in churches, even more severely: only in cemetery churches. This tradition in itself, of course, is legal. That's just dead. Such a tradition will really live only in an Orthodox state, where the overwhelming majority of citizens recognize this tradition as their own. We, it turns out, impose our tradition on unbelieving people. The deceased grandmother is a believer, and she would like to be buried in the temple, but we forget that the goal of her relatives is to quickly and, most importantly, get rid of the old woman at no extra cost. Therefore, they will take the path of least resistance: they will either buy a piece of land, or the funeral home will bring on them some kind of “autonomous” priest-defiant, moonlighting on the religious illiteracy of the people. At best, they will still bring the old woman to the cemetery church, where these old women have long been put on stream. (Fathers of the cemetery, do not be offended, I am not talking about everyone!).

Do you know how long a normal funeral lasts, in full order? About two hours. Usually they serve for a short time - about half an hour. Have you ever seen a funeral in twelve minutes? I have seen. I saw how a deeply believing deceased person (who died a few hours after the next communion) was insulted when the priest (what else would you call him ?!), muttering something under his breath and literally running, fanned everything that he thought he needed to fan with a censer . This was called the burial service "in the cemetery." This is the main trouble with funerals in cemetery churches: the complete indifference of the priest (not all, of course!) To the next (twentieth today) deceased. Such a "funeral" only contributes to the rejection of people from the Church.

Therefore, in our current situation, the funeral service at home seems to be the most realistic. On the one hand, this is a departure from buying land. On the other hand, unbelievers will be able to touch the beauty of the Orthodox funeral service for at least half an hour at home in a familiar environment. And most importantly: the sermon. It is at the moment of seeing off the deceased that people are most open to the word of the priest, most capable of thinking about the frailty of their lives. You can't deprive them of this opportunity. They still do not have the strength to cross the threshold of the temple, and the priest, as a missionary, will legally come to their house and say something about the salvation of the soul.

Of course, it’s great when people understand the need for a funeral service in the temple, but when this is not the case, it’s better to meet them halfway (them, and not their land superstitions!), Enter their house and show that the priest is not an appendage of ritual services ( many are sure of this), but a man appointed by God to comfort the mourners and admonish the lost.

Conclusion

Once, at the funeral service, I gave a long sermon, talking about the importance for the deceased of everything spiritual (prayers, good deeds) and the unimportance of everything external (land, hanging mirrors, etc.). Explained the meaning of "earth". In response, one intelligent-looking aunt remarked to me:

You're all right, of course, okay. Only one thing is not good: in vain you brought some land into the house, it’s not supposed to.

And to my question: where did she get such deep knowledge of theology, she answered without embarrassment:

How from where? From the church, of course, we heard it from there!

What could I say to her? Yes, to our misfortune, people bring superstitions from our temples. Of course, the priests themselves are rarely to blame for the spread of ignorance (although it happens), most often the grannies, “the main ones in candlesticks” and in “correct” piety, are to blame. But, where is the priest at this time, why is he not in the temple? Why, instead of dense pagan women, young, knowledgeable guys are not on duty in the temple, who, in the absence of a priest, can explain in a clear and accessible form to those who come the elementary concepts of Orthodox life?

And, of course, I repeat again: preaching is very important, not only from the pulpit, but everywhere - at trebes, at catechumens, and just on a bench near the church. And it is very important that all priests do this, because only then there is hope that the faith of our people will be Orthodox, and not "grandmother's."

2008 r.