The Church teaches us that the human soul comes into existence at the moment of conception, that the physical body cannot live without the soul. But at physical death, the soul lives on without the body, and this separation of soul and body is not natural. It is a difficult thing. And at this point, the soul then begins a difficult journey, a journey it has never made before. And so our guardian angel comes to accompany us on the journey. So it’s very important that we strengthen the bond between ourselves and the guardian angel in this life, through the way we live.

But it isn’t just our guardian angel that then comes to us. In Ephesians 2 we read of the aerial spirits, the demons of the air, those who would seek to prevent us from making this journey. In the Life of St. Antony, St. Antony the Great of the Desert, we read of a vision he had of souls ascending, beginning this journey, when their bodies died, and how a demon tried to prevent them from making the journey. Those who were righteous were able to pass unhindered by the demon; those who were still weighed down by passions were not able to pass. So it’s very important that we all pray for the dead, particularly in those early days when the soul leaves the body. Accompany our loved ones with our prayers; strengthen them on their journey. As St. Macarius says, each of us then goes to a foretaste of our eternal reward, to either heaven or hell. And he makes it very clear: there is no purgatory. We will have a foretaste of our eternal reward.

Before Christ’s incarnation, of course, everybody went to Hades, the righteous and the unrighteous. But this does not mean that everyone was in the same place. Even within Hades, there was a separation so that some had a taste of torture and torment, others consolation. We see this in the parable that Christ taught, of Lazarus and the rich man, who cried out from his torments in hell. So it’s very important that we pray for our dead, particularly at the Liturgy, when we put the particles into the chalice. Make sure we take a list of our loved ones to the priest before the Divine Liturgy. St. John of Kronstadt says to us, “When we commemorate the dead, they commemorate us. They pray for us. So let us strengthen also our union with those who are in the Church, in paradise, in heaven.”

It’s very important that we pray and strengthen of course the union between the whole Church, as we ask Christ for his forgiveness. Our longing is to enter heaven. God will judge us, but we must never lose hope. So long as we are moved to pray for our loved ones, we know there is hope. We believe that God can move the souls of the dead from hell to paradise. He can show mercy. This is not something we can take for granted, but it means we can have hope. We must always have hope. We must persist in our prayer.

The thief on the cross cried out to Christ, having lived a sinful life, and in that moment Christ overcame his justice with mercy. And this is our hope, that Christ will show mercy, too, for us. Just as Christ was moved by the intercession of the centurion or the mother and father for their daughter, Christ responds to prayers of intercession. God would forego punishment of a whole city for the sake of a few righteous people. Let us pray for our loved ones, however sinful we may believe them to be, and let us hope that our loved ones after us will pray for us. And the thief on the cross, then, was offered a moment of repentance.

Christ was willing to show mercy rather than judgment and righteousness at that moment, and so, too, he offers us moments of repentance, every one of us, but we do not know when will be our last. So when we are moved to repent, when we sense that God is calling us to repent, let us take that opportunity, for none of us knows when it will be the last.