In this video, Elder Ephraim of Arizona recounts the encounter between Saint Macarius the Great and the skull of a pagan priest in the desert. Elder Ephraim explains the spiritual mystery revealed through this dialogue, highlighting the reality of the afterlife, the power of prayer for the departed, and God’s boundless mercy toward souls.
Elder Ephraim has built eighteen Orthodox Christian monasteries in North America and fell asleep in the Lord on December 7, 2019.
Romanian translation by Elena Dinu
Audio source: Cell of Saint John the Theologian, Nea Skete, Mount Athos, Greece
Άγιος Δημήτριος Ορθόδοξη Παρουσία (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dewAJ1Lflrg&t=445s)
Elder Ephraim:
Saint Macarius the Great, walking in the desert, found in his path a human skull. He struck the skull with his staff and asked it: “Who were you in life? What kind of person were you?” A voice was heard from the skull, saying: “In life I was a pagan priest.”
And that voice added: “You are Macarius, the man of God, and your prayers reach even me, who am in hell.” And the Saint, being amazed, asked: “How, then, do idol-worshippers benefit? And what is the benefit of my prayers?”
The other replied again: “Your prayers reach so far as to bring a little light to the place where we dwell, to this dense darkness in which each one believes that he is alone in hell”—another measure of hell as well: for a person to think that he is alone in hell and that there are no others, for to believe that there are others is also a small consolation.
“And your prayers bring a little light, and we see that beside us there are others condemned to hell; and for us this is a consolation.” And immediately the Saint struck the skull again with his staff and said: “God forbid that such a situation could ever be a consolation: for a man to see those who are tormented together with him in hell!”
And through all the signs and proofs of the ascetic Tradition, clearly and beyond all doubt, is fully confirmed the teaching of our Church concerning eternal hell.
What remains for us, if we Orthodox Christians firmly believe that, if we sin, if we do not repent, if we do not weep, if we do not change our lives, we shall go to hell, and our hell will be that dreadful hell, that eternal hell, that eternal death and separation of our soul from our sweetest God, is to compel ourselves and take heed to our life, so that it may be fitting for salvation.
As human beings, we all err, without exception, however great and powerful we may be. To be without sin belongs only to God alone. Every person is sinful. More or less, we all have sinned; we have grieved, embittered, and wounded the heart of God.
Now we must restore it, sweeten it and gladden it through repentance and change. And at each of our sins, at each wandering astray, we must immediately turn our mind and our word, both spoken and inward, toward saying: “My God, I have sinned; forgive me, I have erred!”
And immediately, if possible, let us shed tears, for this repentance and these tears receive power; they receive God’s forgiveness. And when we come under the epitrachelion, we receive forgiveness in deed. That is, we receive perfect forgiveness from God.
And if you have known, and surely you have known, the joy and rest of the soul at the moment when we confess and receive forgiveness. And merely with the concern for all that I have said, all in which I have erred, all by which I have embittered God, at this moment I receive the remission of sins, I receive forgiveness, the gate of Paradise is opened to me, I am set free, at the hour of death, from despair and hopelessness.
For how will a man despair and lose hope when his conscience will testify for him, saying: “Yes, I have sinned, but I repented and received forgiveness according to the law”? Since the sinner receives forgiveness according to the law, there should not be, at the hour of death, despair and hopelessness.
Hopelessness and despair follow and grievously afflict the one whom the hour of death finds unrepentant and uncorrected. Hopelessness and despair are the fruit of this life. Therefore, not only do we receive forgiveness, the remission of sins, and become blessed, but we also gain deliverance from despair and hopelessness at the difficult hour of the separation of our soul from the body.
For the separation of the soul is grievous. We have not tasted this separation. We perceive it in imagination and in theory, but not in reality. Those who have died have tasted this separation, but they were not permitted to convey it to us, to tell us what this pain is like, this grievous and terrible pain of death.
We understand it from the expression of the face. We see people at that hour when they surrender their soul to God; we see it in the features of their face. If you have known, if you have seen, most often it becomes very grave. But this does not mean that the person has gone to hell. Yet this is how things are. It is their nature.
If the Christian becomes conscious of these realities, these truths which we see in practice, internalizes them, and reflects upon them and lives them, then from these is born the light of the fear of God; and when the light shines, a man walks uprightly.
And I must humbly pray that not only we, but all our Christians may be made worthy of this saving preparation for death. For, as we have said, after death there is no repentance.
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