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Man is created by the Lord for life,
and human thought cannot reconcile itself to the thought of death. Death was a
consequence of the first man's sin, for as St. Paul says: sin
came into the world through one man and death through sin (Rom. 5:12).
As a consequence of his sinful disobedience to God, man deprived himself of
paradise and knew death. The Fall deformed man's inner, spiritual nature, as
well as the entire visible world. The accord between human freedom and Divine
Grace was destroyed, an accord through which man was directly called to deification.
This break was so forceful that man could no longer return to this previous
condition by his own power.
By His Resurrection, our Lord Jesus
Christ conquered Death by death, and revealed to man the path leading from
death and corruption to eternal life (Acts 2:24, 27-28; 2 Tim. 1:10).
Although man remains mortal as before, death has no power over him; for it was
defeated by the Risen Christ — the First-fruits from the dead and the Author
and Finisher of our own resurrection. But in fact Christ has been raised from
the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep... [so that] all be
made alive... at His coming (1 Cor. 15:20-23). For this perishable
nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on
immortality (1 Cor. 15:53).
By the words of the 11th Article of
the Creed, “I look for the Resurrection of the dead,” the Holy Church
confesses that through the action of God's omnipotence all the bodies of the
dead shall reunite with their souls, come to life, and be both spiritual and
immortal. The universal resurrection of the dead, as the Bible tells us, is
linked with Christ's second, glorious coming (1 Thess. 4:16).
Resurrection of the dead was known
in Old Testament times, too. The Prophet Job said: For I know that my Redeemer
lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been
thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for
myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another (Job 19:25-27). The holy
Prophet Ezekiel also prophesied the universal resurrection of the dead (Ez.
37:12,14).
By His Resurrection, Christ the
Savior affirmed the truth of the universal resurrection of the dead. All of
Christianity is founded on Christ's Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:14).
Brought into communion with Christ through the Sacrament of Baptism, man
becomes one whole with Him in the body of the Church, which is at once human
and divine. As a result of this union of grace, the Christian partakes in both
Christ's Resurrection and in eternal life. While man's spiritual link with
Christ is established through Baptism, his physical unity with Him is
accomplished through the Holy Eucharist (John 6:54-57). The
Eucharist — Christ's Body and Blood — is a guarantee of resurrection. Christ's
Resurrection is the beginning and guarantee not only of our resurrection, but
of a universal renewal and transfiguration of all creation (Rom. 8:20-21).
The Orthodox Church's prayers for
the dead are based on faith in universal resurrection and on the unity of the
Churches Militant and Triumphant. By His Resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ
showed that death is not annihilation and non-existence, but the gate to life
and immortality. The Christian looks on death as the transition to an eternal
life.
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