Behold, I
tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed -- in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will
sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality. So when this corruptible
has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in
victory." "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your
victory?" The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the
law. But thanks be to God, who
gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is
not in vain in the Lord.
1st
Letter to the Corinthians, 15: 51-58
If then
you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
is, sitting at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died,
and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life
appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Letter to the Colossians 3:1-4
St Anthony the Great
(ca. 330 ad)
Life is the union and
conjunction of [1] the mind, [2] the soul. [3] and the body. Death, on the other hand, is not the destruction
of these conjoined things, but the dissolution of their union. For by God we are preserved after the
disolution, too.
Philokalia #93
Mortal beings are sorry because they know in advance
that they will die. Immortality, being good, comes to the holy soul. Mortality, on the other hand, comes to the
foolish and wretched soul.
Philokalia #169
Paschal Troparion (ca 500 ad)
Christ is risen from the
dead,Trampling down death by
death, And upon those in the
tombs, Bestowing life!
Pentecostarion
In the year AD 302, Diocletian issued an edict that every Christian soldier in the army should be arrested and every other soldier should offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods of the time. However George objected and with the courage of his faith approached the Emperor and ruler. Diocletian was upset, not wanting to lose his best tribune and the son of his best official, Gerontius. George loudly renounced the Emperor's edict, and in front of his fellow soldiers and Tribunes he claimed himself to be a Christian and declared his worship of Jesus Christ. Diocletian attempted to convert George, even offering gifts of land, money and slaves if he made a sacrifice to the Roman gods. The Emperor made many offers, but George never accepted. Recognizing the futility of his efforts, Diocletian was left with no choice but to have him executed for his refusal.
Source
Fr.
John Romaindes (1955 ad)
St. Paul
clearly says that "the sting of death
is sin," that "sin
reigned in death," and that death is "the last enemy that shall be destroyed." In his epistles,
he is especially inspired
when he is speaking about the victory of
Christ over death and corruption. It would be highly illogical
to try to
interpret Pauline thought
with the presuppositions (1) that death
is normal or (2) that at
most, it is the outcome of a juridical decision of God to punish the whole human race for one sin, (3) that happiness is the ultimate destiny of man, and (4) that the soul is immaterial, naturally immortal and directly created by God at conception and
is therefore normal
and pure of
defects (Roman
scholasticism). The Pauline doctrine of
man's inability to do the good which he is capable of acknowledging according to the "inner man" can be understood only if one takes
seriously the power of death and corruption in the flesh, which
makes it impossible for man to
live according to his original destiny.
The moralistic problem raised by St. Augustine concerning the transmission
of death to the descendants of Adam as
punishment for the one original
transgression is foreign to Paul's
thoughts. The death of each man cannot
be considered the outcome of personal
guilt. St. Paul is not thinking as a philosophical moralist looking for the cause of the fall of humanity and creation in the breaking of
objective rules of good behavior, which demands punishment from a God whose justice is in the image of the justice
of this world. Paul is clearly thinking of the fall in terms
of a personalistic warfare between God and Satan, in which Satan is not obliged to
follow any sort of moral rules if he can
help it. It is for this reason that St. Paul can say
that the serpent "deceived Eve" and that "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the
transgression." Man was not punished by God, but taken captive by the
devil.
It is only when one understands
the meaning of death and its
consequences that one can understand the
life of the ancient Church, and especially its attitude toward martyrdom.
Being already dead to the world in
baptism, and having their life hidden with
Christ in God, Christians could not falter in the face
of death. They were already dead, and yet
living in Christ. To be afraid of
death was to be still under
the power of the devil--II Timothy 1:7: "For God hath not given
us the spirit of fear, but of power, and
of love, and of sound mind." In
trying to convince the Roman Christians not to hinder his martyrdom, St. Ignatius wrote: "The
prince of this world would fain carry me away, and corrupt my disposition
toward God. Let none of you therefore,
who are in Rome, help him." The
Cyprianic controversy over the
fallen during times of
persecution was violent, because
the Church understood that it was a contradiction to die in baptism and
then to deny Christ for fear of death and torture.
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