“Both Life and Death Are Mysteries”Death is a phenomenon that is ordained for us from above, which means it is good.
“>Part 1
Archbishop Theodosius (Bilchenko) of Polotsk and Glubokoe. Photo: Vitvesti.by
What is life?
—After it’s buried, the human body decays and dissolves into the environment in the form of separate atoms and molecules. Many people with a purely scientific worldview, including some believers, are perplexed: how can it be restored and resurrected?
—Let’s start with the scientific, fundamental field. Let those who ask about this answer a single question: where does life come from? Where does a person come from? I know that so far no biologist in the world can say what life is. There are numerous theories about the origin of life on earth—for example, the panspermia theory, which argues that life is originated in space. But still, they do not answer this question. Moreover, they contradict each other. Thus, we are talking about hypotheses and assumptions, but there is still no clear answer to the question, “What is life?”
Even in terms of the second law of thermodynamics, how can life exist if there is the law of death, the law of destruction in the world? Modern biologists have come to the conclusion that life is the greatest miracle! Because in order for you and me to move, for the smallest molecule of living matter to live, required are unique conditions, unique parameters, such incredible coincidences, millions of coincidences that are unfathomable to the mind! In this regard, both physicists and biologists cite such analogies: Tell me, what is the probability that if we throw the parts of a color TV onto a conveyor, a brand-new color TV will be assembled? You know that’s impossible. Or imagine an airplane graveyard. A hurricane sweeps by, and suddenly as a result, a new superliner appears. It is clear that it’s impossible. So, the emergence of life is just such a miracle.
Take genetic engineering. Humanity is close to the possibility of creating artificial beings. But that doesn’t mean anything. We are just using the “bricks” of life that the Creator has given us. We build a palace or a hut out of these bricks, but where these bricks came from, we don’t know.
When spacecraft were sent to the Moon and soil samples were taken there, it turned out that there were no new elements there, but only those that we know from the periodic table. This indicates a unified structure of the world. The organic and inorganic world came out of God’s hands. Therefore, when our body is buried in the ground, it easily decomposes in a homogeneous environment, because it consists of the same substance as the world around us.
You ask: How can human beings be resurrected? But tell me, which is easier: to create life out of nothing, or to create a living being again from the molecules, from the substance that had made up the body of a person? I think it will not be hard for the Creator to “assemble” a new human body from the components it had decomposed into, only in a different property and in a different form than before.
On the fear of dying and the memory of death
—Man does not know his last hour. Or would it be better if we knew when we are going to die?
—If a person knew the day and hour of his death, it would be a huge psychological burden for him. And the final years of his life would be unbearable for him. But God knew what He was doing. His wisdom and His love for us are beyond comprehension. And without knowing his last hour, man lives, rejoicing in life, full of hope and stamina.
However, a true Christian remembers that What Do I Want to Be Like at the Moment of My Death?Death will take life from our bodies, but our souls’ eternal life will continue. And it is this eternal life that we must implore the Lord to grant us every day, every hour, and with every sigh.
“>death can come at any moment, because the Lord has promised us mercy, but He has not promised us a tomorrow. So, he will lead a chaste, abstemious, and wise life, without overindulging in earthly blessings and always bearing in mind that all these things are only glimpses of the riches and glory that await him in Heaven. Rejoicing in life, he will always think about the things above, about the eternal and the imperishable. And this will make his life meaningful and deep not only in the earthly sense, but also in the eternal one.
—However, the fear of death is inherent in every person, both believers and non–believers. Is there a difference in the way both die?
—This transitional state from biological life to biological death, from the state of life of the soul in the body to the life of the soul without a body, is the most frightening and unexpected for someone who does not live a spiritual life and lives without faith in God and in the afterlife. Conversely, faith in the afterlife and preparing for it make death absolutely different. There are examples of this in Church history, such as the deaths of the martyrs, confessors, and people of holy life.
If a person has devoted his life to the flesh, the world and the devil, he may die a cruel death, as the Holy Scriptures say (cf. Ps. 33:22). If he served God all his life, aspired to goodness and light, then his death marks his life path and is easy, conscious, and sometimes even without fear, although every person has the fear of death. This is understandable: a new state and a new transition, when the soul does not know where it will go, always worries and troubles a person. That is why at every Divine Liturgy the Church prays to God for “a Christian ending to our life, painless, blameless, peaceful.”
—Indeed, Evil shall slay the wicked. But now I recall the Gospel verses about how in the final minutes of his life Following the Example of the Good ThiefMay God grant us all to try to justify people, pray for them and implore God, saying, in Thy Kingdom remember us, O Lord, when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom.”
“>one of the thieves crucified next to the Savior repented.
—This is a truly great example. This thief—a murderer and a robber—saw Christ on the Cross, saw precisely His Divinity, the beauty of His human face and the beauty of the soul of the God-Man, His incomparable grace, His boundless kindness, love and goodness. This cruel soul grieved and shuddered, because he felt so miserable and wretched compared to this light. He came to repentance, and uttered these great, eternal words: Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom (Lk. 23:42). Behind these words there is the transformation of the human soul, the deepest repentance, contrition, recognition of God and regret for having lived his earthly life so unbecomingly. And the Lord accepted his repentance, his confession, and said, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise (Lk. 23:43). This is an example that inspires every person living on earth to rely on God’s mercy and infinite love for every human being.
If he didn’t have time to do it before death…
—Someone has died. The result of his life has been summed up. The Church teaches us that from this moment on there is nothing he can do to be saved. But what if for some reason he did not have time, could not repent before his death?
—The Church believes and knows that through its prayers the Lord gives relief and correction of the afterlife state to those for whom it prays zealously. Therefore, before the Second Coming of Christ we have the profound hope that all the souls for whom we pray in the Church will receive from God alleviation of their sufferings and torments, the elevation from their fallen state and a rank to those who enjoy God’s blessings. It means that the more we pray, the more good and mercy the soul receives in the afterworld.
What do people on earth need? Knowledge of God, participation in the spiritual values of the Church, reform, repentance and preparation for eternity. Some manage to become purified completely, others partially. For the latter, after passing into the realm of spiritual existence, there is one thing left—the prayers of their loved ones. That is, the Lord has provided all the conditions for the salvation of the human soul.
Concerning the salvation of the righteous of the Old Testament: Look at the depth of Divine Providence here, too. St. John the Baptist descended into hell after his death, and what did he do there? He preached Christ to those who had been languishing in the nether world for centuries. Then, when the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ descended into hell following His death on the Cross, they were ready to accept the Savior. And the Lord brought out of Gehenna all those who desired to be with God. And those who rejected Him there remained in hell. Thus, the Old Testament humanity was saved by the descent of Christ’s soul into the Hades.
Now it is a new era. We already know about Christ and must lead such a life so as not to go to hell. But those who do go there have the chance to improve their state through the prayers of the Church. That is, in the Lord we see such a multi-stage work of salvation.
Why do people “yearn desperately”?
—Vladyka, based on what you have said, one can only marvel over and again at the incomprehensibility of God’s work. Indeed, both life and death are mysteries.
—Absolutely! As I have already said, the fact that we live on earth is the greatest miracle. According to all the laws and rules of biology, the world should have ceased to exist long ago. But these laws of nature are continuously overcome by Divine power, which flows into our galaxy and swings the pendulum of life, as it were. We live in the realm of death, and life is sustained and developed solely through the intervention of Divine energies. The Creator swings the pendulum of life continuously, but only until the time He has ordained.
We have the following words in the Vigil service: “Every soul is quickened by the Holy Spirit and exalted by purity.”1 It’s about the same thing: all things live thanks to Divine sources and energies, and our whole life is unimaginable without God. Without God there is only death. But if God cannot abandon the world of nature, because every blade of grass and every bird lives by the power of God, then man—the only representative of nature—can at will leave this Divine realm. That is, the human soul can depart from God. This is the worst thing that can happen in a person’s life. To live without God is to have no life at all, to have no earnest of eternal life, and to doom yourself to a biological death that will ultimately end in spiritual death.
—Unfortunately, this is exactly what we see in the world today: people are losing the source of life within themselves and life is becoming meaningless for them. As a result, the number of On SuicideFather John of Kronstadt once said: ”If anyone should see a departed person in a dream or while awake (the latter case is extremely rare), then he must read the Psalter or the Holy Gospel for the repose of this person for forty days. He must light at least the smallest wax candle for the repose of the soul of the departed and pray for him until the candle burns out. If a person is busy and cannot pray for long, then he may do so piecemeal, by day or by night.”
“>suicides is increasing.
—You know, there is a poem by Fyodor Tyutchev that is remarkable for its content and depth:
Not the flesh, but the spirit is corrupt these days,
And man desperately yearns.
Everything is contained in these few words. Why do people desperately yearn? Because their spirit is corrupt, and they have become spiritless. They have begun to live without God. God is the joy of life. God is existence. God is eternity. God is the sublime good. And when a person’s spirit is corrupt, it means that he is moving away from God, living without God’s Spirit. With the loss of God, the meaning of life is lost as well, “and man desperately yearns.” All the beauty of the world, all wealth is no joy to him, because his soul, spiritual in substance, is starving! Neither gold, nor luxury, nor delicate food can satiate the immortal soul if it is without God. Hence this terrible plague of suicides. Rich and poor, children and teenagers, adult men and women, and old people end their lives in such a terrible way only because their souls have lost God. Outwardly there seems to be no reason; these people are well off and have everything they need. Their relatives come to me and ask me to perform the funeral services over these people. For example, a young woman with two children—her thirty-five-year-old husband who had had a job, a car, and an apartment, committed suicide… It cannot be explained by any social factors. Just recall a few words by Tyutchev: “And man desperately yearns.” His spirit is corrupt, he lives without God, and there is no point in living without God.
