Just as the union of the soul with the body in the womb is mysterious and incomprehensible to the mind, so is the separation of the soul from the body equally mysterious.
God has commanded that every person be prepared for death at every hour. Death is the common lot of humanity, the punishment for sins, and therefore terrible for both the righteous and the sinner. The effect of the mystery of death is the same for both the righteous and the sinner. By commanding us to be prepared for death, the Holy Spirit reveals the circumstances under which the transition to the afterlife occurs for both the righteous and the sinner. The death of the former is beautiful, that of the latter, cruel. The very reality of these words was revealed to certain Saints for our edification.
According to the teaching of our Orthodox Church, “death is the separation of the soul from the body,” after which the soul remains alone with itself, and the body is consigned to the earth and there disintegrates into its component parts (elements). This final fate of man on earth is death, about which St. Scripture testifies: “Then the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
The Universality of the Mortal Law
The law of death is common to all humanity. Death is inevitable for each and every one. God’s Word testifies to the universality of the mortal law: “Who has lived and not seen death?” (Psalm 89:49).
“It is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27).
“In Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22).
Death comes to a person when they have reached the limit of life predetermined for them by God’s righteous judgment to accomplish their destined work; a limit within which everything beneficial to man is provided; therefore, death is beneficial to man.
And we are commanded to give thanks to God, the Provider, for everything; Therefore: glory to Thee, O God, Who hast ordered all things for our benefit… Blessed be Thy Name, O Lord, from now and forevermore. Saint Anthony the Great, penetrating the depths of God’s judgments, once addressed God with this prayer: “Lord! Why do some die in their youth, while others live to a ripe old age?” And God answered him: “Anthony, beware of yourself! Otherwise, these are God’s judgments, and it is of no use to you to experience them” (Venerable Tale of the Apostle St. Anthony).
The soul is destined by God to pass through three states that constitute its eternal life: in the womb, on earth, and beyond the grave. Why then be terrified, when God’s will is in everything, and we are the Lord’s?
We did not prepare for our first birth on earth and remember nothing of our first state; let us now prepare for our second birth, into the afterlife and eternal life. We have guidelines on how to prepare, and we already know what will happen beyond the grave.
Here is what Chrysostom writes about death: “Death is terrible and terrifying for those ignorant of the highest wisdom, for those ignorant of the afterlife, for those who consider death the annihilation of existence—for such, of course, death is terrible; its very name is deadly. We, however, who by God’s grace have seen His unknown and secret wisdom, and who regard death as transmigration, should not tremble, but rejoice and be of good cheer, for we are leaving this corruptible life and passing on to another life, endless and incomparably better (Homilies 83, Commentary on John).
The Cause of Death
The Word of God testifies that God did not create death, but created man for incorruption (Wisdom of Wisdom 2:23), but “by the envy of the devil death entered the world” (ibid., 24), and consequently, sin as well.
If Eve had not entered into a pact with the devil, had not been seduced by his deception, had not fallen away from communion with God, then there would have been no sin. Self-will and disobedience were the cause of the soul’s death. “Righteousness is immortal, but unrighteousness causes death” (Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-16)—these words of Solomon, defining the meaning and origin of the phenomenon of death on earth, also serve as evidence of human immortality, for Solomon says that only the foolish see in death the end, the cessation of existence (ibid., 3:2-4). Consequently, man is gifted with immortality.
The interruption of the soul’s communion with God constitutes death for it.
The Unnaturalness and Necessity of Death
From Holy Scripture (Wisdom of Solomon 1:13) it is clear that death is unnatural for human nature; therefore, life is natural for man. But with the fall, from the very moment man turned his love to the forbidden, love for eternity was replaced by love for the material, the temporal, the soul betrayed itself. It is completely sick, loving and attached to that which is not in accordance with its nature.
God did not create man to offend his Creator by violating His holy will. God’s desire is man’s eternal bliss, as evidenced by human nature itself, which constantly desires and strives only for the pleasant in life, and hates and constantly desires to avoid everything unpleasant, death. Thus, blessed eternal life is man’s destiny, and sin is an unnatural phenomenon; death is the consequence of sin and is unnatural to human nature; man is created immortal in both body and soul.
Punishment, when just, is ultimately good, the cessation of evil; thus, death is also beneficial for man. After the fall of man, our Church teaches, death was necessary as a means to restrain evil from spreading further. If Adam had remained physically immortal after the Fall, then evil would also have been immortal, and there would have been no hope for salvation for man. To prevent hell from becoming eternal with man’s immortality, Adam was forbidden to eat the fruit of the tree of life after his sin (Gen. 3:22, 23).
Now that the power of death has been destroyed by the death of Christ the Savior on the cross, those who believe in Him are redeemed and justified from original sin. The root of evil in human nature lies in the very conception of the flesh, and, consequently, in the union that binds body to soul. It can only be destroyed by breaking this union. Hence the conclusion: no matter how much a person purifies himself on earth, and no matter how he perfects himself in holiness, he cannot completely eradicate the root of evil within himself and reach such a state that he is not burdened by the body and does not sigh with the Apostle Paul: “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24).
