Life After Death According to Orthodox Tradition by Dr. Jean-Claude Larchet

This book is available from Amazon

Again Dr. Jean-Claude Larchet, the author of the celebrated 3
volume set Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses, offers us another
masterpiece; Life after Death According to Orthodox Tradition.

Dr Larchet's knowledge of the patristic teaching on death is 
impressive. This work is comprehensive in its scope. It is
written according to very high academic standards but it is
very accessible to the lay reader as well. For example, the
following passage concerning the Roman Catholic innovation
of 'purgatory' is pretty straight forward;

"As we have seen in the preceding chapter, for the Orthodox
Church there are only two conditions in which souls are to be
found while awaiting the Resurrection and the Last Judgement:
paradise and hell. The Orthodox Church rules out any third, 
intermediate condition, as the Roman Catholic Church believes
which designates it under the name Purgatory and which, in its
most precise formulations, see in it an independent place
characterized by the activity of a temporal 'purifying fire'."  

from 'Life After Death According to Orthodox Tradition' p.171,
Jean-Claude Larchet, Translated by G. John Champoux, 
Orthodox Research Institute 2012 ISBN 978-1-933275-62-8
 

Table of Contents

Foreword

Chapter One 
      Death: Origin and Spiritual Meaning
Chapter Two
      The Moment of Death
Chapter Three 
      From the First to the Third Day Following Death:
      The Separation of the Soul from the Body
Chapter Four
      From the Third to the Ninth Day: 
      The Traversing of the Aerial Toll-Houses
Chapter Five 
     From the Ninth to the Fortieth Day:
     The Introduction into the Other World
Chapter Six 
     The Fortieth Day: The Particular Judgment
Chapter Seven 
     From the Fortieth Day to the Last Judgment:
     The Intermediate State
Chapter Eight   
     Purgatory
Chapter Nine  
     The Relations Between the Living and the Dead
Chapter Ten 
     The Resurrection and the Last Judgment
Chapter Eleven 
     Eternal Life: The Kingdom of Heaven and Hell
Chapter Twelve 
     Preparing Oneself for Death and Life in the Hereafter

Bibliography

The Mystery of Death, when the State of the Heart will be Revealed-Part1

The Repose of St Theodora of Thessaloniki

When my father Jose died, in the morning of the 6th of July 
1998, I had the blessing of being with him until the end.
I had been praying and reading the scriptures to him, as I 
painfully watched his struggle to get some air into his lungs.
According to the doctors, he was in a deep coma but I could
not help thinking that he was able to hear me.
And the portions of scripture I read that morning, still
resonate in my ears;
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth....,
 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.....,
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying ...but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for
in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. So when the
woman saw that the tree was good....she took of its fruit
and ate. She also gave to her husband...and he ate. Then the
Lord God called to Adam, where are you? ..the Lord God said
to the serpent..And I will put enmity between you and the
woman and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise
your head and you shall bruise His heel...Then to Adam He
said,... In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you
return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust
you are and to dust you shall return....

Man who is born of woman is of a few days and full of trouble.
He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a
shadow and does not continue...

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth before
the difficult days come...For man goes to his eternal home,
...Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,
 ..then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the
spirit will return to God who gave it...
O Lord do not rebuke me in Your anger,..Have mercy on me,
O Lord for I am weak...O Lord my God in You I put my trust..
What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man
that You visit him?...

The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament
shows His handiwork...
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want, ...Yea though I
walk through the valley of shadow of death, I will fear no
evil; for You are with me,...and I will dwell in  the house
of the Lord forever.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him and apart from Him
nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men.....
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw
His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of
grace and truth....
Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that His
hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the
Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He
loved them to the end.


So the Roman cohort and the commander..arrested Jesus and
bound Him...And when they had come to the place called
Calvary, there they crucified Him.... Then Jesus said, "Father
forgive them......He said Father, into your hands I commit
my spirit. Having said this, He breathed His last....
But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping;...
..she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did
not know that it was Jesus.... Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabbonni!" (which
means, Teacher). Jesus said to her..."go to my brethren
and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father,
and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came, announcing
to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said
these things to her.
Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death
and upon those in the tombs bestowing life! Paschal Canon
I will lift up mine eyes  to the hills from whence comes my
help. My help comes from the Lord ...
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness....

Father I have sinned against heaven and in your sight...
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your
lovingkindness"...After reading this last Psalm, I felt
totally identified with my father in his confession of sin
and prayer of repentance as I prayed;
"Oh Lord hear my prayer,my God, I am the flesh of his flesh,
the blood of his blood and the bone of his bones, Lord Jesus,
hear my prayer. His sin is mine, I am responsible. Have mercy
on us and forgive us our sins"

By then, my father's breathing had become very shallow
and irregular. Only my mother and I were present. Dad laid
very quietly. It almost seemed that time itself stood still
around us, as we were overshadowed by eternity. 
Then it happened, my father exhaled for the last time.
I saw and I heard. Deep within me, I felt my heart collapse
and in that instant I was embraced by the grace of God which
strengthened me beyond my human frailty. And I felt right
then, that God had heard my prayer. "Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" Psalm 32:1


The moment was very peaceful and holy. Never before or
since have I been so aware of the great dignity of man. I
drew near to dad and held his hands, those strong hands
that so often picked me up and held me when I had fallen.
"I love you dad" I said. I closed his eyes and kissed him and
entrusted his soul to the mercy of God.

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of
God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who
are alive and remain shall be caught up with them in
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall
always be with the Lord."1 Thess. 4:16-17
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there
shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall
be no more pain, for the former things have passed away"
Rev. 21:4



Glorified and sanctified be God's great name through-
out the world which He has created according to His
will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime
and during your days, and within the life of the entire
House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all
eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled
and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the
Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and
hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken
in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life,
for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may
He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say,
Amen.
MOURNER'S KADDISH
An English Translation
Source

The Cultivation of the Heart by the Grace of Mindfulness of Death

Tomb of St Justin Popovich in the monastery of Chelije Valjevo, Serbia

The Grace of Mindfulness of Death

In the book, “Christ Our Way and Our Life”, Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou writes about many of the stages of the spiritual life, including, remembrance of death. He is an Archimandrite in the monastery of St John the Baptist, in Tolleshunt Knights near Maldon, Essex in England. Archimandrite Zacharias spent decades under the spiritual direction of Elder Sophrony of blessed memory, whom, we know, was himself the disciple of St Silouan the Athonite. Here are some passages from his book;

"Considered within the whole mystery of Christ, death is transformed into a challenge on a sublime and metaphysical level, which inspires ‘repentance unto life’, and mindfulness of death proves to be a gift of the Holy Spirit…The purpose of his (man’s) pre-eternal destiny is the acquisition of eternity as an inalienable possession. ..If life comes to a definitive end with death, it has absolutely no meaning. Awareness of our mortality poses the problem of eternity without accepting concession to anything except God. The grace of God, which seeks out the lost sheep wherever he may be, is able to provoke man'seizing him by the throat’, and intensifying his quandary by bestowing a mindfulness of death, which – according to the experience of Fr. Sophrony – proves, as scalding as a ‘mass of molten metal’. 

The remembrance of death, when it takes the form of awareness of eternity in a negative form, is a remarkable ‘calling’ of man to his pre-eternal destiny to become á ‘partaker of the divine nature’ (2 Pet.1:4). This remembrance, which is activated by the grace of God, is a spiritual phenomenon entirely set apart from the natural or psychological knowledge that man is mortal. Charismatic mindfulness of death is a reality of another order, ‘non-earthy, incomprehensible’. It visits man with sovereign might and prepares him to accept the revelation of the Living God. In his heart a new interior sensitivity is born, which changes his spiritual outlook. It is a spiritual state, which assist man, who is as yet unable to contemplate God, in his quest for eternal truth.

Awareness of death is accompanied by ‘a vision, difficult to explain, of the outside world’. This vision reveals the futility of this world and its transitory ephemeral form which lies in the power of the evil one….remembrance of death brings and interior apprehension of the great chasm separating man from the Holy God. When man realizes that he is condemned to die, he becomes terrified, he suffers unbearably. With his spirit he beholds the bottomless pit and remains in this mysterious, indescribable sphere, whilst his mind and affections live normal everyday life.

The charismatic gift of mindfulness of death is essential for the spiritual development of the Christian. It is the starting point of his rebirth in God. When his awareness of death intensifies, man despises all the visible world and all the events of life- even intellectual assets, for they are unable to afford an answer to his search. Whatever does not remain for all eternity has no value and ceases to attract the attention of man. This grace given awareness brings with it a revelation which, although in negative form, is effective and reveals the depth of Being. In an eschatological perspective, the material world loses its consistency , and time loses its duration, the revelatory experience of this captivates the spirit of man, and casts it into a newly revealed and somber realm where time does not exist. 

In this unstable and painful state, man will find rest and support only in the evangelical revelation of the Word of God…The Lord, however hides Himself, with wisdom and love teaching man until such time as he deepens his experience of the mystery of death, and contemplates it ‘not only in the body, in death terrestrial forms, but in eternity’. 

He understands the fearful dimensions of death and suffers dreadfully inside the gloomy abyss of the Eternal absence. He looks for a way out. In essence, however, everything, even while it is proclaiming vanity, corruption, and death, is directing him towards knowledge of another Being and its depths. To someone in this sacred state of mind, God is announcing His very Self. Although initially man can see no way out, in fact it all depends on how he directs his spirit at this point. …two apparent solutions may suggest themselves. The first is to treat death as an inevitable fact of nature, of no account, utterly insignificant – one less man on earth. The second way of thinking rejects the first out of deep feeling, desire and yearning that man has in himself for life….

This is where he finds the true solution, as long as he avoids the temptation to blame God for his spiritual suffering, for this would engulf him utterly in the abyss of darkness. If he instead resorts to prayer, he will be born anew….mindfulness of death ..brings about a divestiture of the mind from everything created, concentrating its attention within. This is the most precious condition for ‘re-clothing’ and further development in godliness.


The horror of mindfulness of death gives a foretaste of Gehenna: man is humbled, broken. (It) inspires prayer that vanquishes even the most persistent passions. Remembrance of death teaches man to live without earthly cares, eschatologically, and to find his wealth in all the charisms bestowed by God. …man learns…to feel ontologically united with all the human race. Later, in the ultimate perfection in Christ, this negative experience is transformed into a positive knowledge of the resurrection of the soul and prayer ‘for all Adam’.” Christ Our Way and Our Life, selections from p.71 to p.82 by Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou, St Tikhon Seminary Press, 2003


After reading the above passage is clear that the spiritual state described by Elder Sophrony and Fr Zacharias is beyond the comprehension of anyone that has not gone through it. In the pages following this passage, Fr Zacharias explains that the state of mindfulness of death in its deepest form immediately precedes the vision of the uncreated light, by the soul thus initiated in eternity!

This book is available from Light & Life Publishing at

http://www.light-n-life.com/
ISBN: 1-878997-74-2

For God So Loved The World, That He Gave His Only Begotten Son! John 3:16

Judas Betrays Our Lord-Mural in the Church of Panagia Dexia, Thessaloniki, Greece

The Orthodox Christian Faith views all the work of Christ as an outpouring of Grace, and not in legalistic terms. Christ fulfills the law and dies on the cross, as an indictment against Satan and not because God needed to be appeased; "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham" Hebrews 2:14-16. It was not God the Father, who was holding us captive, but the evil one (Death and sin were the instruments of his tyranny). All the manifestations of God in the Old Testament are manifestations of the Second Person of the Trinity, the
Son. YHVH is the same Person as Yeshua, our Lord Jesus Christ.


Our Saviour exposes the deception of the accuser when He said; "He ( Satan) was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it". John 8:44. The so called doctrine of atonement is a western view of the cross, and it is not Orthodox. This western heretical view of the atonement is formulated by Anselm of Canterbury ( 1033-1109) in his Cur Deus Homo. Jonathan Edwards's "Sinners in The Hands of An Angry God" is a most grievous slander against the love of the Father. "If God is for us, who can be against us?. He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom.8:31-32. Christ did not die on the cross to appease an angry God but to destroy the work of our enemy, the devil. Our Lord 'destroyed Death by death'(from the Paschal Canon). The cross is a most elocuent love letter from the One and only God "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" 1st Tim. 2:4.


Read also, "Once Delivered to The Saints" by Fr. Michael Azkoul, ISBN: 0-913026-84-0 p.128 and note 47 , on the bottom of the page. and in page 133,D "His lost honor must be recompensed or punishment must follow, lest he be unjust to Himself". How far removed is this from the Faith once delivered to the saints!


1)St Gregory the Theologian, in Oration 45:22 states; "Now we are to examine another fact and dogma, neglected by most people, but in my judgment well worth enquiring into. To Whom was that Blood offered that was shed for us, and why was It shed? I mean the precious and famous Blood of our God and High priest and Sacrifice. We were detained in bondage by the Evil One, sold under sin, and receiving pleasure in exchange for wickedness. Now, since a ransom belongs only to him who holds in bondage, I ask to whom was this offered, and for what cause? If to the Evil One, fie upon the outrage! If the robber receives ransom, not only from God, but a ransom which consists of God Himself, and has such an illustrious payment for his tyranny, a payment for whose sake it would have been right for him to have left us alone altogether. But if to the Father, I ask first, how? For it was not by Him that we were being oppressed; and next, On what principle did the Blood of His Only begotten Son delight the Father, Who would not receive even Isaac, when he was being offered by his Father, but changed the sacrifice, putting a ram in the place of the human victim? Is it not evident that the Father accepts Him, but neither asked for Him nor demanded Him; but on account of the Incarnation, and because Humanity must be sanctified by the Humanity of God, that He might deliver us Himself, and overcome the tyrant, and draw us to Himself by the mediation of His Son, Who also arranged this to the honour of the Father, Whom it is manifest that He obeys in all things? So much we have said of Christ; the greater part of what we might say shall be reverenced with silence. But that brazen serpent [Numbers 21:9] was hung up as a remedy for the biting serpents, not as a type of Him that suffered for us, but as a contrast; and it saved those that looked upon it, not because they believed it to live, but because it was killed, and killed with it the powers that were subject to it, being destroyed as it deserved. And what is the fitting epitaph for it from us? O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? You are overthrown by the Cross; you are slain by Him who is the Giver of life; you are without breath, dead, without motion, even though you keep the form of a serpent lifted up on high on a pole". As quoted by Felix Culpa in ORA ET LABORA here


2) St Nikolai Velimirovich, from the Akathist To Jesus Conqueror of Death, Translated into English from the original Serbian by St Paisius Monastery, Safford Arizona, 2009, Ikos Three p.18 "Dulled by sin, the people supposed that Thou were fighting against them, so they rejoiced when they raised Thee on the cross, rejoicing as victors over their enemy. But Thy battle was not against man, O Lover of mankind, but against the prince of this world and his myriad of legions who hold mankind in their chains, who play a foolish game with every human body, immorally pouring poison into human souls...Thou didst Thyself descend onto the battlefield; to reveal the weakness of the evil spirits Thou didst choose death as a weapon in the battle against them. Having gained the victory over evil spirits Thou didst destroy sin, having destroyed sin Thou didst trample down death, having trampled down death Thou didst dispel fear, and that prison of slaves, the world, Thou has proclaimed to be the home of freedom, O Jesus my Freedom, Jesus my Courage, Jesus my Light, Jesus my Friend, Jesus my Saviour, Jesus my Conqueror, have mercy on me".

3) St. Ireneus, “Against the Heresies,” Book 3, Chp. 23 "For if man, who had been created by God that he might live, after losing life, through being injured by the serpent that had corrupted him, should not any more return to life, but should be utterly [and for ever] abandoned to death, God would [in that case] have been conquered, and the wickedness of the serpent would have prevailed over the will of God. But inasmuch as God is invincible and long-suffering, He did indeed show Himself to be long-suffering in the matter of the correction of man and the probation of all, as I have already observed; and by means of the second man did He bind the strong man, and spoiled his goods, and abolished death, vivifying that man who had been in a state of death. For at the first Adam became a vessel in his (Satan’s) possession, whom he did also hold under his power, that is, by bringing sin on him iniquitously, and under color of immortality entailing death upon him. For, while promising that they should be as gods, which was in no way possible for him to be, he wrought death in them: wherefore he who had led man captive, was justly captured in his turn by God; but man, who had been led captive, was loosed from the bonds of condemnation". 

4) St John Chrysostom, 6th Homily on Colossians. '…he means that the devil held possession of it, the bond which God made for Adam, saying, "In the day thou eatest of the tree, thou shalt die.” (Genesis 2:17.) This bond then the devil held in his possession. And Christ did not give it to us, but Himself tore it in two, the action of one who remits joyfully'. Source

5) St. Nicholas Cabasilas. Tr. Carmino J. deCatanzaro. The Life in Christ (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1974.) pp.162-4. Against the Western Concept of Atonement: Turning Man who Believed Himself the Object of Hate“Just as human affection, when it abounds, overpowers those who love and causes them to be beside themselves, so God's love for men emptied God (Phil 2:7).... He seeks love in return and does not withdraw when He is treated with disdain. He is not angry over ill treatment, but even when He has been repulsed He sits by the door (cf. Rev 3:20) and does everything to show us that He loves, even enduring suffering and death to prove it....It was necessary, then, that the greatness of His love should not remain hidden, but that He should give the proof of the greatest love and by loving display the utmost measure of love. So He devised this self-emptying and carried it out, and made the instrument [i.e., Christ's human nature] by which He might be able to endure terrible things and to suffer pain. When he had thus proved by the things which He endured that He indeed loves exceedingly, He turned man, who had fled from the Good One because he had believed himself to be the object of hate, towards Himself....What could be equal to that affection? What has a man ever loved so greatly? What mother ever loved so tenderly (Is. 49:15), what father so loved his children? Who has ever been seized by such a mania of love for anything beautiful whatever, so that because of it he not only willingly allows himself to be wounded by the object of his love without swerving from his affection towards the ungrateful one, but even prizes the very wounds above everything?” Source

6) And St Silouan,( He entitles his poem Ádam’s Lament) at the realization of such a wondrous love, weeps with great sadness! :“The desert cannot pleasure me; nor the high mountains, nor meadow nor forest,nor the singing of birds.I have no pleasure in anything.My soul sorrows with great sorrow:I have grieved God.And were the Lord to set me down in Paradise again, there too, I would sorrow and weep-Oh why did I grieve my beloved God?” From St Silouan, The Athonite by Archimandrite Sophrony, p.450

7) St Symeon The New Theologian, Hymns of Divine Love, Trans. by George A. Maloney,p 45-46“And being in the middle of my cell, I see Him who is outside of the world as here present,I see Him and I converse with Him and, dare I then to say it!I love Him and He loves me.I eat, I nourish myself with only this contemplation.And being made one with Him, I am transported above the heavens.That this is true and certain I know. I know that He who remains immovable descends.I know that He who is invisible appears to me.I know that He who is separated from all creation takes me within Himself and hides me in His arms.….And I know that I will not die because I am inside of Life,and that I have the entire Life that completely flows out from within me.He is in my heart.."


"Christ's victory over the grave is now, today as the Feast of Pascha ecstatically proclaims. He is already the 'firstfruits' of the Age to Come, the first man of the new creation. The last enemy, death, is already destroyed( 1 Cor.15:26). The creation is already offered and accepted by God the Father as a 'sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor' Eph.5:2, meaning that 'the remission of sins' has been achieved, the regenerated creation has been offered to the Father, and the risen Lord, re-presenting mankind, ascends to the Right Hand of Majesty. Finally, the Holy Spirit is sent by Christ to His people. "The Church is the Age to Come,"St. John Chrysostom said. Nothing any longer impedes the koinonia (communion) between the Creator and the creature, save disbelief". From Once Delivered to The Saints" by Michael Azkoul, St Nectarios Press 2000, p.130


And St. John the Apostle , joins the choir of the redeemed saying;
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain [Rev.5:12]
and has redeemed us to God by His blood [Rev.5:9]
To receive power and riches and wisdom
And strength and honor and glory and blessing. [Rev.5:12]
Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him,
Who sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb
forever, and ever [Rev.5:13]
..Amen! [Rev.5:14]