-It is known that suicide is the hardest sin. But how about a man, who has committed it, but he was a perfect righteous in his life?

- What does that mean – “was a perfect righteous”? If he had been the righteous, kept the commandments of God, of course, he would not have made such a thing. The point is that he was a false righteous.

Who is a false righteous? This is, for one, the Orthodox, who goes to the Church, accepts the sacraments, makes charity deeds, observes fasts, kills no one, does not steal, does not commit an adultery, that is - performs all the external side of the Church life and sees this his “righteousness” , boasts with it in his feelings and thoughts, and sometimes before the people, but he does not notice his inner passions: pride, vanity, envy, unlikeness for the neighbours, anger, hypocrisy and etc. This is an awful condition, as in it a worm of an elevated opinion about himself is being brought up, from it, if you don’t notice it in time, a serpent of pride grows up. In this inner condition were and are the “perfect righteous” condemned by God, - Jewish and Christians: lawyers, scribes, hierarchs. These false righteous rejected Christ, crucified Him. Such false righteous may result in the most sad consequences: delusion, heresy, suicide.

The true righteous always sees his sinfulness, sees his full non-righteousness. In one of the letters saint Ignatius ( Brianchaninov) cites the following vivid example of the genuine righteous: “To-day I’ve read the pronouncement of Sisoy the Great, which I especially like, it was always dear to my heart. Some young monk told him: “ I incessantly keep remembering God”. Venerable Sisoy answered him: “This is not great; the great thing will be when you consider yourself worse than any small creature”. A high thing, - continues the saint, - to keep remembering God incessantly! But this height is very dangerous, when the ladder to it is not placed on a firm stone of humility”¹²⁵.

Saint fathers used to say that the height of the righteousness is evaluated by the depth of humility. And the true “humility does not see itself humble”.

-What is the state of the soul of a man, who died the death of a martyr, but over whom the funeral service was not performed?

-What is funeral service? This is the service when certain Church prayers for the departed are performed by clergymen and his relatives. The funeral service as well as other funeral services and prayers are the means of aid to the soul of the dead, but not a church procedure without which the soul will perish. Where do these superstitions arrive from? How many people perished during the calamities, internecine wars, military actions, how many died in deserts, forests, mountains, saint hermits, over whom no one performed church service! And they may be higher us, at least many warriors, who gave their lives for their friends. Shouldn’t we pay so much attention to the funeral service? This service, I repeat – is a pray, but not a magic key to the Kingdom of God. Clergymen are not shamans, who, as soon as they read a prayer – the dead is saved, if they didn’t read it – he goes to the hell. You mustn’t think of a funeral service as of an unconditional requirement for the salvation of the departed. But , of course, if there is an opportunity, you must perform this funeral service. By all means.

-My uncle was a remarkable man: he was a doctor, who helped many and many. A long, hard illness - during 10 years, - preceded his death. He died after hard sufferings. Could these good deeds and sufferings be credited to his belief? He baptized during his illness and he didn’t live a Church life.

- A man is credited not with labour, not sufferings, not illnesses, but with the degree of his awareness of his spiritual poverty, and from here the power of appealing to Saviour. I happened to quote saint Isaac of Syria, who pronounced the following remarkable words: “The rewards occur due to not virtues or labour for the sake of it, but to the humility, which is born from them. But if it is lost, the former will be in vain”¹²⁶. You see everything – both the virtues and labour, of course, illnesses – all looses its significance, if a man does not acquire humility.

The example of that is the two criminals, crucified together with Christ. Both suffered equally and these sufferings were horrible. Cross sufferings are awful unbearable torments. And look what different ways into the eternity were in store for one and another. You remember, the right one was told: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke, 23, 43). And the left one perished. So the point is not in the sufferings, but to what measure the person cognizes his sinfulness, humbles and repents.

We may hope, that God let your uncle humble through the sufferings, let him understand that all good deeds are nothing taken separately. Then this state, undoubtedly, became the earnest of his salvation.