LIFE AFTER DEATH By Saint John Maximovitch

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God and Savior,

CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.

LIFE AFTER DEATH
By Saint John Maximovitch

Limitless and without consolation would have been our sorrow for close ones who are dying, if the Lord had not given us Eternal Life. Our life would be pointless if it ended with death. What benefit would there be from virtue and good deeds? Then thy would be correct who say: "Let us out and drink, for tomorrow we die!" But man WAS CREATED FOR IMMORTALITY, and by His Resurrection Christ opened the gates of the Heavenly Kingdom, of Eternal Blessedness for those who have believed in Him and have lived righteously. Our EARTHLY LIFE IS A PREPARATION FOR THE FUTURE LIFE, AND THIS PREPARATION ENDS WITH DEATH. "It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment" [Hebrews 9:27]. Then a man leaves all his earthly cares; the body disintegrates, IN ORDER TO RISE ANEW AT THE General Resurrection.

But HIS SOUL CONTINUES TO LIVE, and not for an instant does it cease its existence. By many manifestations of the dead it has been given us to know IN PART what occurs to the soul when it leaves the body. When the vision of its bodily eyes ceases, ITS SPIRITUAL VISION BEGINS.

Bishop and Saint Theophan the Recluse, in a message to a dying woman, writes: "You will not die. YOUR BODY WILL DIE, but YOU WILL GO OVER INTO A DIFFERENT WORLD, BEING ALIVE, REMEMBERING YOURSELF AND RECOGNIZING THE WHOLE WORLD THAT SURROUNDS YOU." After death THE SOUL IS MORE, NOT LESS, ALIVE AND AWARE THAN BEFORE DEATH. Saint Ambrose of Milan teaches: "Since the life of the soul remains after death, there remains a good which is not lost by death but is increased. THE SOUL IS NOT HELD BACK BY ANY OBSTACLE PLACED BY DEATH, BUT IS MORE ACTIVE, BECAUSE IT IS ACTIVE IN ITS OWN SPHERE WITHOUT ANY ASSOCIATION WITH THE BODY, WHICH IS MORE OF A BURDEN THAN A BENEFIT TO IT."

Saint Abba Dorotheos, the 6th century monastic Father of Gaza, summarizes the teaching of the early Holy Fathers on this subject: "For as the Fathers tell us, THE SOULS OF THE DEAD REMEMBER EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED HERE–THOUGHTS, WORDS, DESIRES–AND NOTHING CAN BE FORGOTTEN. But, as it says in the Psalm, "In that day all their thoughts shall perish" [Psalm 145:4]. The thoughts he speaks of are those of this world, about houses and possessions, parents and children, and business transactions. ALL THESE THINGS ARE DESTROYED IMMEDIATELY WHEN THE SOUL PASSES OUT OF THE BODY…But what he did against virtue or against his evil passions, he remembers, and nothing of this is lost…In fact, THE SOUL LOSES NOTHING THAT IT DID IN THIS WORLD BUT REMEMBERS EVERYTHING AT ITS EXIT FROM THIS BODY MORE CLEARLY AND DISTINCTLY ONCE FREED FROM THE EARTHLINESS OF THE BODY."

The great 5th century monastic Father, Saint John Cassian, sets forth quite clearly the active state of the soul after death of the body, in answer to the early heretics who believed the soul was unconscious after death. "SOULS AFTER THE SEPARATION FROM THE BODY ARE NOT IDLE, DO NOT REMAIN WITHOUT CONSCIOUSNESS; THIS IS PROVED BY THE GOSPEL PARABLE OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS [Luke 16:22-28]…THE SOULS OF THE DEAD NOT ONLY DO NOT LOSE THEIR CONSCIOUSNESS, THEY DO NOT EVEN LOSE THEIR DISPOSITIONS–THAT IS, HOPE AND FEAR, JOY AND GRIEF, AND SOMETHING OF THAT WHICH THEY EXPECT FOR THEMSELVES AT THE Universal Judgment THEY BEGIN ALREADY TO FORETASTE…They become yet more alive and more zealously cling TO THE GLORIFICATION OF GOD. And truly, if we were to reason on the basis of the testimony of Holy Scripture concerning the nature of the soul, in the measure of our understanding would it not be, I will not say extreme stupidity, but at least folly, to suspect even in the least that THE MOST PRECIOUS PART OF MAN (THAT IS THE SOUL), in which, according to the blessed Apostle, the image and likeness of God is contained (I Corinthians 11:7; Colossians 3:10), after putting off this fleshly coarseness in which it finds itself in the present life, should become unconscious–that part which, containing in itself the whole power of reason, makes sensitive by its presence even the dumb and unconscious matter of the flesh? Therefore it follows, and the nature of reason itself demands, that the spirit after casting off this fleshy coarseness by which now it is weakened, should bring its mental powers into a better condition, should restore them as pue and more refined, but should not be deprived of them."

Only in the grace-given visitation to the righteous, when Saints and Angels appear can we be certain that is actually beings from the other world who come. In the ordinary cases when the dying person begins to see departed relatives and friends, the experience is perhaps only a kind of "natural" introduction to the unseen world which he is about to enter; the actual nature of the images of hte departed which then appear is perhaps known to God alone.

Apparently God grants this experience as the most evident ay to inform the dying person that the other world is not, after all, a totally strange place, that life in the other world is also characterized by the love that one has for one’s close ones. Saint Theophan the Recluse expresses this touchingly in his words in the dying woman: "THERE YOU FATHER AND MOTHER, BROTHERS AND SISTERS WILL MEET YOU. BOW DOWN TO THEM, AND GIVE THEM OUR GREETINGS, AND ASK THEIR PRAYERS FOR US. YOUR CHILDREN WILL SURROUND YOU, WITH THEIR JOYOUS GREETINGS. IT WILL BE BETTER FOR YOU THERE THAN HERE." [Source: The Soul After Death by Father Seraphim Rose)

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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+ Father George