When Do We Not Pray over the Dead?
When Do We Not Pray over the Dead?
Question
Are there cases in which the Church does not pray over the dead?
And if the Church prays over someone for whom prayer is not permitted, what would be the result?
Answer
The one who dies in his sin, the Church does not pray over him.
And this is a Gospel teaching, forbidding prayer because of the sin leading to death (1 Jn 5:16). And this agrees with the Lord Christ’s words to the Jews: “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come” (Jn 8:21).
And the one who dies in his sins is the one who dies without repentance.
For repentance is necessary for salvation. And the Lord Christ said twice in one discourse: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3, 5). And those whom the Lord judged that they will perish, the Church cannot pray over them, for they are perishing.
And there are types of people who die in their sins.
A monk who breaks his vow and marries, and his marriage becomes a sin in which he lives all his life—over such a person the Church does not pray. And often this type does not marry in the Church, for it does not agree to participate in his breaking of his vow. Therefore, he contracts a marriage the Church does not recognize. And this type often changes his denomination and marries. Thus he has lost his monasticism, his celibacy, his vow, and his Orthodox faith. And if he was a priest-monk, he has also lost his priesthood. And thus the Church cannot pray over him.
Likewise, any person who enters into an unlawful marriage (which is considered adultery) and remains in it until his death—over this one the Church does not pray.
And so also the priest who conducts such unlawful marriages.
He does this breaking the teaching of the Gospel and the canons of the Church, contracting marriage for anyone whom the Ecclesiastical Council refuses to grant permission to marry, challenging his ecclesiastical authority, and permitting people to live in adultery all their lives. He is responsible for this before God and before the Church. If he dies while those families he married are living in adultery, the Church cannot pray over him because he did not correct his errors before his death.
And the one who dies by suicide, the Church does not pray over him.
That is because he committed at the end of his life a crime of killing (that is, killing himself) and died without repentance. The only exception for praying over a suicide is if it is proven that he was of unsound mind at the time of the suicide, for a person is not held accountable for his actions unless he is rational.
As for the one sentenced to execution, he has an opportunity for repentance before his execution.
If he repents in that opportunity, through the priest’s visitation to him in prison and preparing him for confession and communion, the Church can pray over him after his execution.
Likewise the thief who dies during a theft, or the drug dealer who enters into a fight with the police and dies in it.
Each of these two has died in his sin and without repentance.
And similar to them in the Holy Scripture are Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), who died while in a state of theft and had lied to the Holy Spirit.
Also dying in his sin is the one who dies in heresy or false teaching.
This one also the Church does not pray over, for he is cut off from it.
And similar to him is one who persists in attacking the doctrines of the Church and its traditions (as the innovators who rebel against the Church do), insulting the Church and its clergy, and continuing in this without repentance. For the Scripture says: “Revilers will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:10).
Here we would like to mention an important note:
The sinner who dies in his sin—even if the Church prays over him—the prayer will not benefit him at all.
We say this because his family may go to a Church that does not know his life story, or they may pressure some Church clergy with insistence or pleading, or they may appeal out of courtesy to his children and relatives.
If the Church prays over him while knowing, then the priest who prayed is at fault and deserves punishment. And if he prayed out of ignorance, the dead will not benefit from this prayer which is against the teaching of Scripture (1 Jn 5:16).
The Church’s prayer over someone who died in his sin causes many to stumble.
They stand astonished! How does the priest say over this soul: “Open to her, O Lord, the gate of Paradise. And may the angels of light carry her to life!!” while she died in her sin!! And if they think that this is a form of courtesy, they also stumble. Or one might say: Let a person do whatever sins he wants, then die, and the Church will pray over him “and bring him into Paradise”!! And there would be no difference between the righteous and the sinner!
The prayer over the dead carries absolution from sins.
How then does the Church absolve someone who did not repent?! Against the Lord’s words (Lk 13:5). Does not the prayer lose its value in the eyes of the people?! And encourage the careless to continue in carelessness.
Let those who live in sin beware, if they die suddenly,
without repenting and without receiving absolution. The Church will not pray over them.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Mt 13:43).
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Year Twenty-Six, Issues 13 and 14 (10–4–1998 AD)
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