Ecclesiasticus I: Introducing Eastern Orthodoxy
Ecclesiasticus II: Orthodox Icons, Saints, Feasts and Prayer
|
Our
earthly existence is misery filled. We look for the weaker beauty of the
night: we delight in the society of fools and weak and sinful persons; we
laugh at sin, and contrive mischiefs which affect the eternal destiny of
our soul: the body rebels against our soul's admonitions to do good; we
do not think of God; our soul refuses its affections: our hearts are hard
to the soft whispers of love and mercy, having no love for anything except
strange flesh, heaps of money and popular noises, for misery and for folly.
Here on earth we are a huge way off from God, whose excellencies, whose
designs, whose ends, whose constitution is spiritual and holy, and sublime,
and perfect, and eternal.
It is only death that can close the door of all these worldly cares and
worries behind us and introduce us to a whole new way of life that is both
never ending and soul satisfying. It is no wonder then, that the Apostle
proclaimed "We know that we have passed out of death into life,"
when he thought of what awaited the faithful Orthodox Catholic after departing
this life. Every member of the Church agrees with this exultation which
provided the inspiration and the courage which imbued the Apostles to preach
Christ and Him crucified. They firmly believed Isaiah's prophecy that the
Lord "will swallow up death in victory and will wipe away the tears
from all faces." Death is man's triumph, death is the door to Christ,
and to the kingdom He prepared for us.
In heaven, in that place of God, there is no want, there is no deficiency,
no ending, no failure, no death, no termination, no old age. There is neither
hatred nor wrath, nor envy, or weariness, nor toil, nor darkness, nor night,
nor falsehood. There is not in that place any want at all; but it is full
of light, of life, and grace, of fullness, and satisfaction, and renewal
of love, and all the good promises that are written by God. In heaven, there
is that "which eyes hath not seen and ear hath not heard, and which
hath not come up into the heart of man, that which is unspeakable and which
a man cannot utter." The Apostle Paul has revealed to us -"that
which God hath prepared for them that loved Him."
In heaven, men shall be like angels, that soul shall be empowered with new
senses, the body will become spiritual, the eye shall perceive the glory
of God; the mouth will feed upon hymns and glorifications of God: the stomach
shall be satisfied only by the fullness of righteousness, and the tongue
shall speak nothing but praises and wisdom. Our society there will be a
choir of singers, chanting to God's eternal glory. Contemplation of the
holiness of God will be our food; love will be the wine of God's holy ones.
There will be no earthly desires, the appetite will not want; it will be
only a faculty of delight.
In heaven there will be understanding surpassing everything we know today,
love, wonder, joy; everyday shall be the same forever. This shall be the
state of those who are accounted worthy of resurrection to eternal life;
where the body shall no longer be a servant, but a partner of God, to live
with Him forever, where it shall not have work of its own, but shall rejoice
with the soul, where it will bask in the presence of God's infinite beauty,
where the soul shall rule without resistance. In this great place where
we shall be fitted to see and enjoy His unlimited beauty, our countenances
will be radiant because we shall have the company of our loved ones as well.
The pious Orthodox Catholic is drawn towards this unending existence. The
soul of man yearns to be united with its Master. That is why we do not fear
death, but patiently await it. We live each day as if it were our last.
We not only prepare ourselves to successfully graduate from the high school
of life to the university of God, but do our best to guide others. By our
lives we show others our love for Christ. It is God's wisdom, then, that
urged St. Paul to proclaim, as we should with him:
"For me to live is Christ and to die is gain."
From Word
Magazine
Publication of the Antiochian Orthodox
Christian Archdiocese of North America
December 1962
p. 11
|
