THE BREVITY AND PASSING OF OUR EARTHLY LIFE

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.

THE BREVITY AND PASSING OF OUR EARTHLY LIFE

“As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is
gone,
And it will no longer know its place.
But the mercy of the Lord is from age to age unto
them that fear Him, and His righteousness is upon
sons of sons; (Psalm 103:15-17).

Father Aimilianos of Simonopetra at the Holy Mountain in Greece in his book Psalms and the Life of Faith writes, “In these lines, the eternity of God stands in stark contrast to the fleeting nature of human existence. Human life is of limited duration, “but the mercy of the Lord is from age to age.” God’s love is Eternal, because God is Eternal, and God is agape (love). Man, on the other hand, is a creature of the moment; his love is weak, wavering , fickle, and often false. If we were to translate verse 15 literally, it would say; “Man, like grass, his days”, and this absence of syntactical order expresses the confused and chaotic nature of our existence, through which we stumble broken and breathless.

“He blossoms like a flower of the field.” Who does not rejoice at the sight of a young person? It’s like seeing the beginning of a glorious day, like a rising sun radiant with possibilities. But this rising sun, this lovely flower of youth, is but a “flower of the field,” and no sooner does it reach its meridian than it begins to whither and fade. The so-called best years of our life, when we are prospering and flourishing, when we were at the height of our powers, were nothing more than a fleeting moment, with no greater reality than that of a distant dream. Thus the Psalmist says that the life of every human being IS LIKE A FLOWER, “A FLOWER OF THE FIELD.” And what is the fate of such flowers?

“When the wind passes over it, it is gone.” When the wind blows, the petals of the poppy are scattered far and wide, and all that remains is a dark stem, which itself will soon succumb to the elements. The “wind pass over it,” it is broken and scattered, and there is no longer any sign that once, on this spot, a flower stood. In the morning you go for a stroll and you see a stretch of hillside covered with beautiful flowers. You walk by there again in the afternoon, but a strong wind has been blowing, and all the flowers are gone. You look closely at the hillside, but you can’t be sure where exactly the flowers were before they were swept away by the wind.

The Hebrew says “And its place will no longer know it,” or “His place will no longer know him.” You see someone as a young man, and then you see him after he’s spent five years drinking and carousing. His face is no longer the same, for each of his sins has left its mark there. You hardly recognize him, and you wonder if this is really him. The flower of youth fades so quickly that the people in the town where he was born may not be able to recognize him, and so “his place will no longer know him.”

“But the mercy of the Lord is from age to age unto them that fear Him.” From this experience of human transience king David is led to reflect on Divine Eternity. The contrast is strong, but by no means is it negative or pessimistic. David sense the love of God for human beings, and so his description of the human condition is immediately followed by the affirmation that the mercy of the Lord is forever. Though his life on earth is tragic, MAN WILL LIVE. God’s hands shall lovingly take up the dust of the earth, and the fleeting and the finite will be wedded to the eternal and the infinite. The life that ends in death WILL BE GIVEN A NEW LIFE, AND THAT WHICH APPEARED TO VANISH FOREVER SHALL REAPPEAR IN ETERNITY. Just as we await the appearance of “new heavens and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:13), so too do we await the Advent of a new human being, a new mode of human existence, which will emerge through the life OF THE NEW CREATION, FOR GOD THE CREATOR IS “STILL WORKING, EVEN IN THIS PRESENT MOMENT” (cf. John 5:17). God, as Father, never ceases to generate and create. If God were to cease generating and creating, He would cease to be the Father, and thus cease to be God, which is impossible.

The phrase “from age to age unto them that fear Him” does not refer merely to the life of a particular human being, neither is it limited to the succession of generations. Instead, it encompasses all time, including the endless age before time itself, when the timeless God conceived within Himself the creation of humanity. And because God WILL NEVER CEASE TO EXIST, THE HUMAN PERSON WILL ALSO EXIST “FROM AGE TO AGE,” SO CLOSELY BOUND TOGETHER ARE DIVINITY AND HUMANITY.” [Resources: Psalms and the Life of Faith]

The wisdom of Archimandrite Aimilianos which I have shared with all of you is apparent and most inspiring. As we continue our Lenten journey, I feel, every Orthodox Christian ought to have in mind that our earthly life is transient and brief. Our focus is not in the now, on this earthly existence, but our eternal life with God, our Creator. Our earthly life is an investment for the attainment of our heavenly one. The greater our investment, the greater is our return. Our life is a gift from our Creator to be used according to His commandments and Divine Will. Our stay here on earth is temporary as all of us know, from seeing parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends that are no longer with us. Our time too will come when we will be simply a memory. Therefore, our spiritual preparation during Holy and Great Lent should be more than blindly following a tradition that may or may not have any meaning for us, or a lasting impact in our lives. While we may make a concerted effort to fast, to pray, to repent, we need also, to use this opportunity to reflect and prepare ourselves for our future life in God’s Kingdom. Should that not be our first and foremost priority in life?

No human being can avoid the end of this life on earth. No one person can predict when this end will arrive either. Therefore we must be ready and prepared when that final day comes. The tendency for people is to believe foolishly. that because they are young and healthy that death is far away and that only the old people die. The reality, however, is that death can come any time and without any notice or warning. Our Holy Orthodox hymnology reveals this fact at the funeral service when we chant the following hymns:

“What pleasure in life ever remains unmixed with grief? What glory endures immovable on earth?
All things are feebler than shadows, all more elusive than dreams. In a single moment all are supplanted
by death. But in the light, O Christ, of Your Countenance, and the sweetness of Your Comeliness, rest the
one you have taken, like a true Friend of man.”

“Like a flower it withers, and like a dream it vanishes and dissolves away, every human being. Yet, at
the call of the trumpet, all the dead, as if in an earthquake, shall rise to meet You, O Christ our God; at
that time, Lord, rest the spirit of the one You have taken from us, in the dwelling of the Saints, O
Christ our God.”

“All human things are vanity, which do not survive a person’s death; riches do not go with us, nor
does glory accompany us on the way; for when death comes upon us, all of these shall vanish, indeed.
Therefore, let us cry to Christ, the Immortal King: Give rest to him (her) who is departed from us, in
dwelling place of the blessed.”

“Blessed always be the way you travel on today,
because for you a place of
eternal rest has been prepared.”

__________
“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