Introduction:
I weep and I wail when I think upon death, and behold our beauty, fashioned after the image of God, lying in the tomb disfigured, dishonored, bereft of form. O marvel! What is this mystery which doth befall us? Why have we been given over into corruption, and why have we been wedded unto death?...[1]
These are the words of our holy father among the saints, John of Damascus. It is one of the hymns of the funeral service that aptly describes the confusion of man concerning death. This mystery infected man somehow; a mystery that every nation discussed and tried to solve.
Every known civilization had a theory about death: about this silent moment when the body does not move anymore, when our loved one is gone forever. The philosophy of every nation has tried to deal with the problems associated with death, the mourning of the loved ones, the fear of the unknown and other problems.
Some of these philosophies accepted death with joy and dancing, like the Orphic. The Orphic thought that the soul is of divine descent. They mourn birth because it is the descent of a divine person into this sinful world, and they praise death since it is the return of the soul to its original state.[2] On the other hand, some nations considered death to be a great evil. The Greeks of Homeric times believed that “Death thrusts man into dark hades, whose dominion is far from desirable.”[3] Other nations looked at deceased people as a great help for their land. The Mycenaeans believed that the dead possessed a supernatural power that was useful for the living and protected the fatherland.[4]
The closest belief to the truth was that of Plato. He got as close as any human being could get to understand such a mystery without divine revelation. Unfortunately, he still believed that the body was the prison of the soul. He said: “So long as we have the body, and the soul is interwound with such an evil, we shall never attain completely what we desire, that is, the truth. For the body keeps us constantly busy by reason of its need of sustenance;... if we are ever to know anything absolutely, we must be free from the body and must behold the actual realities with the eye of the soul alone.”[5] Plato did not know that soon after him the Truth would take a human body and reveal Himself. This is why the mystery of death should be understood with the help of the Divine. If God does not reveal death to us, we cannot begin to understand such a secret.
Fear from Death:
Why do we care about death? Why do we study it? What is it that makes us fear it? Death for most ancient philosophies was the end: the unknown that they feared and tried to explain. Even to this day, Christians still fear death. But what is this fear? Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos teaches that there are three kinds of fear: the first is the Godly fear which is inspired by God so that we can have a good ending to our lives. This kind of fear is borne out of respect for God and love for Him, and encourages us to obey the Almighty. The second fear is a demonic fear which caused by the devil, which causes stress and disturbance. The third fear is the emotional fear because man feels insecure.[6]
His Eminence explains that the meaning of fear is different. The atheist fears the non-being, pre-Christian cultures feared the unknown, but the Christians fear God. St. John Chrysostom teaches that we fear God because we have sinned against Him, and thus have an unclear conscious.[7]
This great fear from death makes us wonder why God allowed death. How did death come into the world? Was there a better way to create us, or was death the best choice we have? We will examine the subject closely so that we can begin to understand this phenomena.
First, what is death?
In this essay, thus far the word death has been used to mean the departure of the soul from the body; the mysterious occurrence that happens at the end of our lives. However, according to the Holy Tradition, this is a secondary type of death. It is the result of the first kind of death: spiritual death. In order of us to understand the departure of the soul from the body we have to understand the cause of it; we have to understand spiritual death.
According to archbishop Christodoulos, spiritual death is the separation of the human from God. The reasons for this death are sin and not repenting. St. Symeon, the new Theologian, says: “if Adam answered God: Yes, truly, Lord, I disobeyed Your commandment, I have sinned, I listened to the advice of my wife and I have made a serious mistake in doing her word and breaking yours. Have mercy on me, Lord, forgive me... he would not have suffered all the evil things that he did.”[8]
His Beatitude spent so much time explaining that death did not come to the world as a punishment from God as western scholastic teaching interprets punishment. It is not the wrath of God that made him punish Adam. St. John of Damascus says in the funeral hymn: “...For which cause[9], O Lord, thou didst condemn him to return again unto the earth whence he was taken, and entreat repose....”[10] It is man who choose death, but God did condemn Adam to death. This condemnation was not out of wrath and anger but love and wisdom. To understand this mystery we have to begin with creation, the fall, and finally, death.
Why do we die?
How were we created?
Adam was created according to the Image of God. Adam was called to grow into the likeness of God and partake of the Grace of God. He was created with an immortal soul and a body that could potentially grow into immortality but could be mortal as well. St. Gregory of Nyssa writes: “Our nature is dual. One aspect, the soul, is fine, spiritual, light and agile; the other aspect, the body, is thick, material and heavy.”[11] That is not to say that the body is less important than the soul; for the body is the most perfect material creation.
In order for Adam to grow into the likeness of God, he has to have free will. He has to choose by himself and by his own will to follow God and His commandments so that he could be god by Grace and completely immortal. A robot or an animal could never be God-like since they do not have the same free will as a human.
By understanding the importance of free will one can understand why God created us with an immortal soul and a body that can grow into being immortal but also with the potential to die. If God created us with an immortal body and soul and did not give us free will, then we would be immortal robots who could never develop into anything more. If He created us with immortal body and soul and gave us free will, He would have permitted evil to be eternal. If man was immortal and chose to do evil, evil would likewise become immortal and we would live with the tragedy of sin eternally. If God had created man to be mortal, then God could have been the cause of death. St. Theophilos of Antioch says:
God Created man neither mortal nor immortal, but susceptible to both conditions. Thus, if he were to incline himself toward those things that have to do with immortality, having kept the commandment of God, he would receive his reward of immortality from God and become god by grace. But if on the other hand, he would incline himself toward those things that are related to death, having disobeyed God, he himself would be the cause of his own death. For God created man free and the master of his will.[12]
The way we were created with the possibility of death proves that God is merciful and loving; His wisdom is infinite. In addition to the state man had in paradise, God gave man wisdom and prophecy. In paradise Adam had a marvelous happiness. St. Symeon the New Theologian said: “unspeakable abundance, that ineffable charm and beauty of the flowers of Paradise, that unconcerned and untroubled life, that companionship with angels”[13] By this we could see that God created man in the best state giving him every possible opportunity to grew into His likeness. Man ignored all that; he decided that he want to be away from the Life and live, he decided to be away from the Truth and know the truth. Man brought death to himself.
Man's disobedience:
In order for Adam to practice this free will there should have been something that Adam could chose between. The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, which gave Adam the choice, was bad for Adam when he was still child in the likeness of God but it could have been a great blessing if Adam had grown up. It was also great to have in the garden of Eden for Adam to grew in his obedience to God and to partake from it when he was ready.
God created the devil. He created him as an Angle but he fell. He became the devil and he was very jealous of man and God St. Maximus the confessor teaches: “Since the devil is jealous of both of us and of God, he persuaded man by guile that God was jealous of him (cf. Gen. 3:5) and so makes him breaks the commandment. The devil is jealous of God lest His power should be seen actually divinizing man: and he is jealous of man lest through the attainment of virtue man should become a personal participant in divine Glory”[14]. So the devil deceived Adam because he wanted him to fall into sin. God could have stopped the devil and even remove him from existence and being, but in doing so He would have denied Adam free will, albeit indirectly. Adam had the strength to say no. Eve had the chance to ignore the devil, she answered what the commandment was. She told the devil that he was wrong. She accepted to be deceived by him.
It is Adam's obedience that made him lose his state in heaven. He practiced his free will in the wrong way. He attached himself to earthly desires and passions and removed himself from the Life. Vassiliadis records: “with that imprudent act, man showed a criminal ingratitude and an irreverence toward God. He rejected by his own will the source of life. The act of Eve was the first apostasy, the first rebellion that took place on earth. It was, we could say the first atheistic act of rational man.”[15]
As mentioned before, it was not only the sin that made man lose Paradise. Man continued in his betrayal by lying to God and then giving excuses about his crime. Man did not ask for forgiveness, he did not repent. He practiced his free will again to be further from God who is the Truth, the Way and the Life.
You shall surely die (Gen 2:17)
God told Adam that he shall surely die if he ate form the fruit. Adam lived a very long time after his mistake. He saw his son being killed before he died. He was not the first person to physically die.
Adam did not die physically, but he did die spiritually after his rebellion. The second kind of death came later. St Gregory of Nyssa teaches:
Adam, immediately after his sin, “died to the higher life”, because he exchanged “the more divine and blessed life of paradise for the irrational and beastly life”. Since then a “dead life has come upon us and our very life has, in a sense, essentially died. Deprived of immortality, life stands before us as dead”.[16]
This death was the second fruit of disobedience. Sin preceded death. When spiritual death occurred; man's life itself died. Evil entered into the world with its manifold expression, its fearful and horrible consequences: fear, grief, pain, many diseases, bitter and acute accusations of conscience... but the most bitter fruit of sin is death. This spiritual death caused a confusion of the law and a complete reversal of all good things in life according to St. Basil the Great.[17]
That explains the statement: “you shall surely die”. Adam left Life by his own decision and when someone leaves the Life, he dies, because God is the only true Life. When Adam decided to abandon God and make his own decisions he killed himself. St. Maximus said:
death in true sense is separation from God, and the <sting of death is sin>(I Cor. 15:56). Adam, who received the sting, became at the same time an exile from the tree of life, from Paradise and from God(cf. Gen. 3); and this was necessarily followed by the body's death. Life, in the true sense, is He who said <I am the Life>(John 11:25), and who, having entered into death, led back life him who had died.[18]
This is what happened to Adam, it was not the wrath of God or His inability to change it. Rather it was Adam, allowed by God, chose to leave the Life and die, who striped himself from the garment of immortality.
More about spiritual death.
Spiritual death is the truly fearful death. St. Makarios says: “this real death is hidden inside the heart, and man has died within.”[19] More dangerously, this death will never end if we do not repent. St. Gregory Palamas teaches: “Sin is spiritual death. Now bodily death will be done away with when the future kingdom of God comes, while spiritual death will be imposed upon all those who transgressed the law of God here on earth and left earth unrepentant.”[20] Archbishop Christodoulos teaches that God separated the two kinds of death out of mercy so man could repent and come back to God. If the two deaths were simultaneous man would, like demons, die with no chance of repentance.[21].
we could summarize spiritual death with the words of St. Justin Popovic: “The evangelical divine truth is this: holiness is life sinfulness is death; piety is life and impiety is death; faith is life and disbelief is death; God is life and the devil is death. Death is separation from God and life is return to God and life in God”[22]
The second kind of death is just the natural consequence of the first kind. The great agony of man is the result of his original sin; because man decided to live by himself away from God.
The departure of the soul from the body:
Adam did not keep his Creator's commandment and therefore died spiritually. Adam destroyed his relationship with God and by this he destroyed all other connections and relationships in nature. Every good thing in life was revised, including the psychosomatic unity in man. A separation between the body and the soul was established. Man lived in a dead life; a life away from the source of life. Physical death became necessary for man.
As St. Paul teaches “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” (Gal 5:17) and the unity of the two was destroyed; The body and the soul were in confusion. St. John Chrysostom teaches: “A great multitude of passions entered the body and interrupted the harmonious relationship between the body and the soul resulting in a relentless war”[23] Therefore physical death became something unavoidable.
The soul is living in a dieing body. The physical death of the body does not start at the time of the separation of the soul but since the fall every body is dieing. Our cells die everyday. Our tissues our organs everything in us is getting older and dieing daily. The seed of death has been planted in man, and the clock of cessation is counting down from the time of our birth. The moment of death is the moment when everything is magnified; when death takes over the body completely. The kernel of death has been there since the beginning of life. The fall did not give us to death at the moment of death but planted this spore in Adam and his descendants from the beginning of their lives.
This was not the only destruction caused by the fall. All the cosmos became disrupted and corrupted. All natures; animals die, plants die every creature has an end. In Cheesefare Sunday we sing: “The sun hid its rays, the moon and stars turned to blood, the mountains were afraid, the hills trembled, when Paradise was shut...”[24] The fall of the highest creation of God brought death and destruction into the universe. Death became something natural to everything. The irony of death is that it disturbs man the most, for animals it is a natural cycle of life; but for man, the intelligent being, it is the horrible result of his fall, the going into the unknown and the pain of the soul leaving her dwelling place that was created for her.
Man can not blame God for such a tragedy. St. Basil teaches: “Later, because he alienated himself from God the Logos and became a-logos (with no reason), unthinking, ungoverned like a sheep with no shepherd, the enemy found the opportunity, and snatched him away, throwing him into Hades and giving him up to death, to be shepherded by him”[25]
In Adam, all die.
My father's fault is my father's fault; why must Adam's descendants pay for his fault?
All men have sinned, not merely Adam. Everyone of us sin everyday and in doing so we repeat Adam's sin. St. Paul said: “Death spread to all men because all men sinned” (Rom. 5:12). We are all sinners and have fallen. On the other hand, Adam did give us something from his sin. He gave us the consequences of sin as well as the passions and a disturbed will.
For example, an adulterous woman sins daily with her body. She caries her own sin. Let us imagine that the result of her sin is AIDS. Her children will inherit AIDS. They are not sinners. They did not commit her bodily sins but they are sick. Their sickness was their mothers fault. Mankind is the same. Adam sinned and the result of his sin is a sick will, one that is inclined toward sinfulness. The other result of his sin is death, i.e. separation from God. It is like a man leaving his father's house and living in the wilderness learning from the beasts how to live, his sons and daughters will learn how to live from the beast and they will not know their grandfather's house or the way he lives. Mankind inherited a wrong behavior and a dieing body. No one inherited the ancestral sin but everybody inherited its consequence. St. John Chrysostom says: “Since corruption reigned over the body of the first humans, its biological inheritance by their descendants is in every way natural and right.”[26] He also teaches: “since the first humans became mortal they naturally beget mortal children”[27]
Since Adam learned sin and his children were inclined to sin, death was necessary for them to eliminate evil. God did not ignore Adam and his descendant but sent his only begotten son to rescue the human race from corruption and sin. Biological death has nothing in itself that is worthy of reproach. It is spiritual death that is dangerous and need to be taken care of. The biological death has benefits that would be discussed later in the paper.
In all cases let us keep in mind the words of our holy father Gregory Palamas: “as sickness is not a creation of God, even if the creature suffering is a creation of God, so also sin is not a creation of God, even if the rational soul deviates toward sin. The sin that is done by our will, our apostasy from life, creates death, because it alienates us from God.”[28] Therefore, we are solely responsible for our own mistakes.
The situation of the soul and the body after the separation:
In the funeral service we sing: “O what agony the soul endure as it is separated from the body? Alas, how it cries then, but there is none to show mercy?”[29] This hymn describes the horrific times when the soul depart from the body, which was its companion for many or few years. The departure of the soul from its corruptible companion is a terrifying trial that no mind could imagine. The body that lived with the soul for many years and struggled with it. The body that cried in difficult times and enjoyed the happy times with the soul. The body that the soul loved so much is now being held apart from the soul; is now being given to corruption. This is a hard experience for the soul.
The body which kept the soul within for many years now is dead. St. Photios the great describe the situation of the body saying:
the mouth is silent with that long and undesirable silence, and the lips are shut and withered, not relating or reciting any longer their respectable and honorable character, as they are drawn toward decomposition; what about the eyes? Alas, the passion that overcomes silence and yet cannot bear words! How can I say anything about the eyes? The have emptied every bit of their living moisture, and with dead eye lashes they cover the relics; the cheeks, instead of the natural pink color, are covered by a dark and dead color that eradicates the comliness pf every form. Because of all these, the whole face presents, to those who look upon it, a horrible and fearful sight.[30]
This is the situation of the body and the soul after the death. But on the other side we have to remember the words of our savior. Matthew records in his gospel: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. ”(Mat. 22:32). Although the souls of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob left their bodies God called them living, not dead. This is to reminds us that these righteous men lived a life of communion with God; and life with God. The death of the body does not separate us from God. It separate the body from the soul, but the righteous soul goes back to its resting place, the bosom of Abraham.
This separation of the soul from the body over all is not the worst evil. God uses everything for His Glory and for the glory and aid of man. God does not punish people but he permitted death for their own benefit. Overall death was not a bad thing but rather a good one that will help man in many ways. Death will help man in ending the sinful state they are in. Death will restrain pride. Death will help one obtain an undefiled body by decomposing the current body and rebuilding it at the day of the last judgment. God chastised man as a father chastises his children so they could have a better life.
The benefits of physical death:
death is an end to sin.
One of the most important things that we get out of death is a cessation of sinning. If man had lived eternally after his separation from God his passion and soul sickness will live with him for ever. Evil would become eternal. This makes death a satisfaction of divine justice but as proof of divine love. St. Cyril of Alexandria teaches:
The divine lawgiver uses death to cut the way of sin and thus proves the punishment to be philanthrophy. Because Adam transgressed and received the punishment foretold to him by the Creator, the benevolent God provides things so that the punishment becomes salvation! For death dissolves sinful man and puts an end to his evil activities. At the same time it releases the griefs and the cares and puts an end to the various passions of the body... The heavenly Judge mixed so much love for man with his punishment.[31]
St. John Chrysostom goes further teaching that God exiled Adam and Eve from Paradise lest they eat from the fruit of the tree of life and become immortal. He describes that this will be the great agony of mankind. That is to be immortal sinful beings. God insisted that man leave Paradise since he showed evidence of intemperance. For this reason St. John Chrysostom sees that death is not something to be mourned. He says commenting on Psalm 114: “God calls death an advantage and you morn? If there is anyone who should mourn, it is surely the devil, since we, thanks to death, journey toward the greater benefits. For death is a repose and a calm harbor.”[32] Overall, we have to understand that God works for the good of man kind. Death exists so that evil may become mortal. That is our God who we worship.
Death kills our pride:
In the funeral service we sing:
I called to mind the Prophet as he cried: I am earth, and ashes; and I looked again into the graves and behold the bones laid bare and I said: who then is the king or the warrior, the rich man or the needy, the upright or the sinner?...[33]
Without death, man will have nothing to care about. Death humbles man. Every time we think that we are just earth and dust; that one day everything earthly will vanish, we remember that we are the small humble creatures of the most high God. When we know that titles, money, positions, and power will hold nothing after death we are humbled. In Death all pride and selfish achievements are equal. No matter how rich or poor, how famous or anonymous man will always end disfigured under the ground when his soul leaves. With all the passions and without death man will think that he is God. Man will act with no respect for anything in life. Thank God that he allowed death so we could always meditate and humble ourselves.
Death reshape the body.
St. Gregory of Nyssa teaches saying: “In order for the evil that has developed in man to be restrained and kept eternalization, the vessel, that is, the body is dissolved temporarily through death. This is done by the grace of God's wise, good and loving providence.”[34]
Death crushs our body and dissolves it into earth so that God can build it again without the passions and sickness; without the element of sin. Just as man breaks the vessel down to rebuild it again when it goes bad, God gives our body to corruption so that he could rebuild a better one from the same material.
Conclusion:
From this study, we can conclude that God is not the founder of any evil; He is not the creator of death. The western scholastic tradition deviated from the teaching of the true faith. Although the Holy Fathers had the notion of God's punishment, but for them it was more chastisement and correction so that we could continue our journey to deification.
Death is man made phenomena used by God for the good of mankind. God uses everything to his glory and to the benefit of his creation. The devil planted the seed of death in man by planting sin in man. God used the result of this seed to kill the seed itself.
References:
Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death: Athens, Greece, The Orthodox Brotherhood of Theologians, 1993
Antiochian Orthodox Archdioceses, Service Book, New York 2006
St. Tikhon Press, Lenten Triodion, South Canaan PA 2002
Rose, Fr. Seraphim, The Soul After Death, Platina, CA St. Herman Press 1995
St. John Chrysostom, do not mourn for the departed. (online article could be found in Arabic www.orthodoxonline.org)
Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, The Mystery of Death, P1. And interview with his Eminence at St. Cathrin Hospital in Romania (found at www.orthodoxlegacy.org in Arabic)
Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, Life after Death, Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, Greece 1996
[1] Antiochian Orthodox Archdioceses, Service Book, P194
[2] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P31
[3] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P34
[4] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P33
[5] Plato, Phaedo 66 B,D. Quoted in Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P41
[6] Hierotheos of Nafpaktos, The Mystery of Death, P1. And interview with his Eminence at St. Cathrin Hospital in Romania (found at www.orthodoxlegacy.org in Arabic)
[7] St. John Chrysostom, do not mourn for the departed. P.6 (online article could be found in Arabic www.orthodoxonline.org) it could be found in Greek on P.G. 63, 801-812
[8] Archbishop Christodoulos, Life after Death P2, posted in Arabic at the website www.orthodoxlegacy.org
[9] The cause is the sin of man
[10] Antiochian Orthodox Archdioceses, Service Book, P194
[11] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 56
[12] Theophilos of Antioch, To Autolycus II, 27 BEΠEΣ 5,39 quoted in Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 61
[13] Symeon the New Theologian, ˜Аπαντα, (Complete Extant Works), Athens, Part I, Homily 66,4 P. 347quoted in Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 59
[14] St. Maximus the confessor, Philokalia Vol. II P. 248
[15] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 66
[16] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 69
[17] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 70
[18] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 70
[19] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 73
[20] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 72
[21] Archbishop Christodoulos, Life after Death P2, in Arabic at the website www.orthodoxlegacy.org
[22] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 75
[23] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 79
[24] St. Tikhon Press, Lenten Triodion, P 169
[25] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 80
[26] John Chrysostom, On Romans, Homily 10, 2-3 PG 60, 477f
[27] John Chrysostom, On Psalm 50,5 PG 55, 583.
[28] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 89
[29] Antiochian Orthodox Archdioceses, Service Book, P194
[30] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 94
[31] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 100-101
[32] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 102
[33] Antiochian Orthodox Archdioceses, Service Book, P194
[34] Vassiliadis, Nikolaos P., The Mystery of Death. P 100
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