By Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern)
Only the Christian, Orthodox worldview offers a correct, and therefore calming and soothing, perspective on this issue, guiding us along the path of even more fervent prayer. But first, let us turn to the view that prevailed in this regard in the Old Testament. Let us consider God’s command to Moses: “Say to them, ‘They shall not defile themselves by touching (this word is not found in the original text) the dead of your people'” (Lev. 21:1). A Jew is also forbidden from touching his own people, and only touching close relatives was not considered defiling and impure (vv. 2-3). For the high priest, any touch, even of a deceased father or mother, was considered defiling (v. 2), a position later confirmed (Num. 6:7). The Prophet Ezekiel confirms the same commandment of God, forbidding approaching a dead body lest one become unclean, making, however, the same exceptions as the Book of Leviticus (Ezek. 44:25). We find the same in Sirach (Sirach 34:25). Only the Passover feast exempts one from purification in the case of defilement by contact with dead bodies. And then they were to celebrate the Passover on the fourteenth day of Nisan according to the established custom (Num. 9:10-12). This is the Old Testament law: a dead body is unclean; touching it defiles a person, and a lengthy and complex ceremony is required to cleanse a person of this defilement. Not only is a person who touches a corpse defiled, but everything around it becomes unclean: the tent, the vessels, and everything in the tent (Numbers 19:2). The New Testament law also brought with it a new perspective. For Moses, any contact with the body of a dead person was defiling; the corpse was considered a source of impurity and corruption, and the dead body was seen as a constant reminder of original sin and its mortal consequences.
Ancient philosophy saw the body and matter as the source of evil, from which the soul must be freed through reincarnation. This was the basis for the philosophical justification of Gnosticism and Manichaeism. Christianity brought a new perspective on the body and matter. The body is not a dark and vile prison for the soul. In addition to the need to struggle with our passions and lusts and crucify them, Christ brought the joyful news of the resurrection of our bodies. On Mount Tabor, He showed us the glorified state of the human body in His future Kingdom, the message of eternal life not only for souls but also for bodies. Therefore, Christianity is a religion of the glorified body. Moses forbids touching a corpse, seeing in it a reminder of the sin of the first Adam. The Apostle Paul teaches of glorified bodies, a reminder of the redemptive work of the new Adam—Christ—and of the deification of our bodies through His incarnation.
And therefore, in Orthodox worship, the body of the deceased is no longer considered a defiling and unclean corpse, shunned by all. The Book of Needs everywhere refers to the body of the deceased as “relics.” Now these are relics, which we reverently and lovingly kiss and venerate as the body deified by Christ the Lord. For if the deceased “undoubtedly believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the Trinity in Unity, and venerated the Unity in Trinity”—that is, if he was a member of the Orthodox Church, one of the members of the Body of Christ, and fell asleep in the Eucharist—then his body is worthy of being venerated as relics, destined for glorification on the Day of Judgment. And that is why the Church’s view of suicides, who have separated themselves from communion with the Church, seems so strict: the Church does not pray for them. For a Christian, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16) and further: “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which dwelleth in you, which ye receive from God, and do not have your own?” (1 Cor. 6:19). Washed by the water of baptism and sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit, we venerate our bodies as sacred. We venerate them not as an ancient object of worship, but as a temple of the Holy Spirit and as members of Christ’s Body, the Church (1 Cor. 6:15), for in our bodies we must glorify God (1 Cor. 6:20).
The Apostle Paul teaches us about the resurrection of our bodies along with our souls, about their glorification in the future life: “For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. For this mystery I tell you: For we shall all not sleep, but we shall all be changed, quickly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed, for this corruption must put on incorruption” (1 Cor. 15:50-53). Before our mental eyes is always the image of the Lord in His glorified Body, possessing bones and flesh (Luke 24:40), but at the same time overcoming impenetrable matter and entering the upper room “through the closed door” (John 20:19). Therefore, the August day of the Transfiguration is close to us, on which boundless horizons are opened again and again. The body of sin becomes a glorified body. Death is conquered by resurrection, corruption by transfiguration; the incorruptible bodies of our holy saints become relics as a pledge of our future glorification of bodies. All philosophy falls silent before Orthodoxy, for everything is poor and wretched before the boundless expanse of the immortal chambers of paradise, before the before the incomprehensible depth of Christ’s Truth:
“Peter orates, and Plato is silent; Paul teaches, Pythagoras is ashamed; the rest of the apostolic council, the theological council, buries the dead teachings of the Hellenists.”478
Our burial rite, too, is entirely imbued with this faith in the incorruptible flesh. It is not a gloomy and mournful funeral rite, as it seems at first glance, for it reveals joy, a hymn to the future, incorruptible existence, and one involuntarily wants to remember: “Christ is risen!” Even though “the beauty of the face has bent, and all the flower of youth has faded to death,”479 the Church nevertheless calls: “Come, all ye who love me, and kiss me with the last kiss…”480 “Come, let us give the last kiss, brethren.” Though “like a flower fades, and like a son passes away, and every man is destroyed, yet again, at the sound of the trumpet, even the dead, all will rise as in timidity to meet Thee, O Christ our God…”481 and further: “Christ, having reigned, crucified and risen, has given us the incorruptibility of the flesh, which raises us up, and grants us resurrection, and makes all worthy of that glory with joy.”482
And indeed, let us consider carefully: what died, and what will then rise again? Is it not the body? Therefore, the resurrection will be for the body.483 Death produces only a change in the body, but its substance continues to exist, and it, according to God’s promise, will be restored to life.484
Here is the answer and consolation to our question and sorrow about the decay and corruption of the body! This is only temporary decay and disintegration, necessary for a new life, but this time for an eternal, incorruptible life in the never-ending day of Christ’s Kingdom.
“The all-wise Paul clearly foretold the end, teaching all that the dead will be raised incorruptible, but we will be changed by God’s command. Therefore, the trumpet will sound terribly, raising from sleep those who have slept from eternity. But give rest, O God, to him whom You have received with Your saints…”485
How powerful is the premonition of the general end in modern people, and how wonderfully our liturgical consciousness, in which the eschatological moment is vividly expressed, responds to it.
“Behold, the elements—heaven and earth—are changed, and the whole creation will be clothed with incorruptibility; “Corruption will be destroyed and darkness will perish at Your coming: for You will come again with glory, as it is written, to render to each one what he has done”486…
And again the thought reaches for the August feast, the Transfiguration, where the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 16:28) and the glorified form of man are revealed to the disciples on the mountain. Moses and Elijah, standing, demonstrate that the Lord in His glory possesses both the living and the dead, and the Savior Himself, Who sanctified the entire universe with His light487, showing us “the original beauty of the form,”488 calls us to His Kingdom. “Today on Mount Tabor, transfigured, revealing the original form, radiant with rays…”489, “…revealing the radiance of the Resurrection,”490 for Adam’s human nature, darkened by original sin, was here, in the Divine Body of the Savior, transfigured, glorified, and revealed as pure and deified.
“Transfigure our confusion, O Savior, by co-embracing it with Thy divine flesh, and bestow upon it the first inheritance of incorruptibility.”491 And we believe that we too will be radiant with “divine changes.”492
Just think… What depth and majesty of Divine Love!
“Thou hast clothed thyself in the whole of Adam, O Christ, and by the change of Thy appearance hast Thou madest Him divine.”493
God clothes Himself in the body of man in order to deify man. Indeed: “Great is the mystery of piety: God was revealed in the flesh.” It is a mystery, for reason, even enlightened by all the sciences and wisdom of this age, can never comprehend it. Our hearts and minds are drawn from death to resurrection, and with it, transformation is inextricably linked in our consciousness. It is the greatest consolation in death…
In Orthodoxy, there is no place for death, for death is but a narrow boundary between this life and the life of the age to come; death is but a temporary separation of the soul from the body. There is no death for anyone, for Christ is risen for all. With Him is eternity, eternal peace, and eternal memory.
Unfading Light in the unfading day of Christ’s Kingdom. Eternal communion with bliss, an eternal liturgy, where the Cherubic Hymn is sung no longer by human voices imitating the Cherubim, but by the choirs of the Cherubim and Seraphim themselves. Eternal Liturgy, Eternal Memory of God and with God.
Source in Russian: “Посмотрите на лилии полевые…” : курс лекций по литургическому богословию / архим. Киприан (Керн). – Москва : Образ, 2007. – 128 с./ “Look at the lilies of the field…”: a course of lectures on liturgical theology / Archimandrite Cyprian (Kern). – Moscow: Obraz, 2007. – 128 p.
