Why Seek Ye the Living Among the Dead?

Every year at Pascha, Father preaches a homily about how the Resurrection bears special meaning for those of us who have lost a loved one. Although it always makes me cry, this homily is incredibly comforting to me, for in it are reiterated truths so powerful and a hope so joy-filled that one cannot but be filled with the certainty of eternal life.

The dead have not "died," but have "fallen asleep in the Lord." Christ destroyed death by His own death and Resurrection. Therefore, death has no power over us or those we love. We miss our loved ones, but we know they are in God's hands, that He is with them and protects them as He loves and protects us. We know that because of Christ's death and Resurrection, our loved ones will rise again. Having been baptized into Christ, they and we have been baptized into His death. And because mankind have been baptized into His death, mankind of necessity have also been baptized into His Resurrection. Our dead have gone before us, but they only go where we are also going, so in the end, we shall be with them again, and in our Lord's mercy, "we shall see Light."