The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus About Life After Death

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

We regard Christ's parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus as the most suitable aid for guiding the reader into the subject "life after death". Therefore in what follows we shall analyse this parable in the simplest possible way.

We could make use of many patristic texts that interpret the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus, but we shall not do so, because, as we have said, the aim of all that follows is to introduce the reader to the teaching of the Church on life after death.

Michael Glykas and the Afterlife in Twelfth-Century Byzantium

On the Gehenna of the Wicked (St. Ephraim the Syrian)

By St. Ephraim the Syrian

- My brethren, great is one’s fear at the hour of death, since at the moment of the separation of the soul from the body, there appear before the soul all of the works which it did, both day and night, both good and evil, while, at the same time, the Angels hurry to take the soul from the body. Now, the soul of a sinner, seeing its evil deeds, hesitates to depart. Urged by the Angels and trembling from its evil deeds, it implores with fear, saying: “Leave me for just one more hour, and afterwards I will leave.” But the answer to the soul is given by all of its deeds together — all that the soul has done –: “You created us. Together with you, then, we must appear before God.” So, trembling and wailing, the soul leaves the body and goes to appear before the eternal Judge of divine justice. (The Evergetinos)