Sermon During the Liturgy on the Day of the Funeral of the Blessed Memory of Sovereign Emperor Alexander II

Whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it. (Mk 8:35).

Brothers and sisters! Today Russia will commit to the earth the mortal remains of her beloved Tsar-Father and greatest benefactor, who died a martyr’s death at the hands of villains. My God! What have we lived to see? What crimes! In broad daylight, in the sight of people on foot and riding, men in human form, but beasts or demons in soul, killed the SOVEREIGN, gentle and without malice, who had shown kindness to millions of his own subjects and to foreigners of our own faith! How many tears and sobs have been poured out before the Lord for the martyr-Tsar, whom we have had to lose so suddenly and unexpectedly! What tsar has ever been so mourned! But let us not grieve beyond measure, like those who have no hope of resurrection (1Thes 4:13). Let us turn to the divine book of the covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ and draw from it some comfort for ourselves in our present sorrowful circumstances. Let us read from it a few words of the Gospel read today, words that hold no small comfort for those who grieve the passing of good men and benefactors, and that bear directly on our present grief over the death of our good and wise SOVEREIGN. The Lord says: whoever loses his life for My sake and the Gospel’s will save it—that is, whoever loses this present, temporal life by violence at someone’s hands, for the sake of the truth, or whoever willingly crucifies his own flesh with its passions and lusts, will save it.

But who would deny, who does not know, that our late SOVEREIGN lost his temporal life for his good deeds, for his love of the people, because he gave his whole life to securing the well-being both of his own people and of kindred nations of our own faith? And so, though his death is the greatest loss for all of us, for him it is gain; having lost his life for this world, he has gained it for the world above, the incorruptible world; having been deprived of an earthly kingdom, he inherits the heavenly kingdom.

Oh, may the Lord grant rest to his soul in a place of light, of green pasture, of peace, from which sickness, sorrow, and sighing have fled away (Is 51:11), but where there is life without end and without sorrow, free of every fear and dread. Would not sickness, would not constant fear and dread, have been the life of our beloved SOVEREIGN, had he continued to live on earth? The enemies of Russia and of the Tsar, as we have read in the published reports, were not idle, either within Russia or beyond her borders, and were continually preparing to strike all Russia a terrible blow. And so the King of heaven and earth, immortal, eternal, all-powerful, all-good, was pleased to call our tsar to Himself after his great labors, that he might be delivered from all his enemies and rest from his labors there, in heaven. Peace to your spirit, Orthodox tsar! Rest in the bosom of Abraham! And You, O almighty King of heaven and earth, keep under Your dominion our new autocratic Tsar for many years, and grant in his days righteousness and abundant peace, tranquility, and prosperity in his royal wisdom.

Let us, then, brothers, learn from our departed SOVEREIGN to live not for ourselves alone, but for the good of our neighbors as well; let us learn to deny ourselves, to deny our deadly, all-destroying passions; let us learn to put to death these passions that war against us, so that we may save for eternity our souls, created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed—at an infinitely great price—by the Blood of the Son of God. Amen.