Living And Dying

Διωκόμενοι ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐγκαταλειπόμενοι, καταβαλλόμενοι ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀπολλύμενοι, πάντοτε τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιφέροντες, ἵνα καὶ ἡ ζωὴ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι ἡμῶν φανερωθῇ. Ἀεὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς οἱ ζῶντες εἰς θάνατον παραδιδόμεθα διὰ Ἰησοῦν... Δείκνυσι δὲ διὰ τούτων καὶ αὐτοὺς ἀσμένως ὑπομένειν ἐθέλοντας τὸν τῆς σαρκὸς θάνατον, διὰ τὴν εἰς Χριστὸν εὐσέβειαν . Σκοπὸς γὰρ αὐτοῖς οὐκ εἰς τὰ παρόντα βλέπειν, προαθρεῖν δὲ μᾶλλον τὰ ἐσόμενα . Τίς δὲ ἡ τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ζωή; Ἡ ἀφθαρσία καὶ ἁγιασμὸς , δόξα τε μεγάλη καὶ ὑπερκόσμιος. Οὕτως γὰρ ἡμῖν ὀφθήσεται κατὰ καιρούς, ὅταν ἡμῖν ἄνωθεν καὶ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καταβαίνῃ κριτής· μετασχηματίσει δὲ καὶ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως ἡμῶν σύμμορφον τῷ σώματι τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ , κατὰ τὴν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ δύνασθαι αὐτὸν καὶ ὑποτάξαι αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα. Ὥστε ὁ μὲν θάνατος ἐν ἡμῖν ἐνεργεῖται, ἡ δὲ ζωὴ ἐν ὑμῖν. Μεμίμηνται γὰρ τὸν ἑαυτῶν Δεσπότην οἱ τῆς ὑφ᾽ ἡλίῳ μυσταγωγοί· τεθείκασι καὶ αὐτοὶ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ψυχὰς , ἵνα ἡμεῖς οἱ ποτὲ πλα- νώμενοι , τὴν ἐκ πίστεως τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν ἀποκερδαίνωμεν ζωήν. Τοιγάρτοι φασὶ διὰ τῆς τοῦ Ψάλλοντος φωνής ὡς πρὸς τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστὸν ὅτι , Ἕνεκεν σοῦ θανατούμεθα ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν, ἐλογίσθημεν ὡς πρόβατα σφαγῆς. Ἅγιος Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας, Εἰς Τὴν Δευτέραν Ἐπιστολήν Παύλου Πρὸς Κορινθίους, Ἐκλογαι Source: Migne PG 74.937b-c

We suffer persecution, but are not forsaken. We are cast down, but we do not perish. We always carry about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given over to death on account of Jesus... 1 With these words he refers to those who gladly suffer the death of the flesh for the religion of Christ. For it is not present things they look to but the things of the future. What is life in Jesus? Certainly it is incorruptible and sanctified, and possessed of great glory far above this world. And so He will appear to us when the time comes, when the judge descends from heaven to us, and 'He shall conform this body of our humility to His glorious body, with that power which is able to subject everything to itself.' 2 'As death works in us, so does life in you.' 3 For those who have imitated their Lord are the spiritual teachers of the world, even those who have placed down their own souls so that we who were once wandering might be enriched in faith by life in Christ. And they say with the voice of the Psalmist to our Lord Jesus Christ, 'On account of you we die every day, and we are reputed as sheep for the slaughter.' 4 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Fragment 1 2 Cor 4.11 2 Phil 3.21 3 2 Cor 4.12 4 Ps 43.22, Rom 8.36

True Life

Vivam, inquit, et observabo sermones tuos. Vivam atque observabo non praesentis temporis res est; sed significatio sermonis hujus in futurum se tempus extendit. Scit enim Propheta quando beata illa et vera viventium vita sit. Nunc enim et in pulvere mortis manemus, et in mortis corpore sumus, a quo se liberari Apostolus orat, dicens: Miser ego homo, quis me liberabit a corpore mortis hujus? Habemus autem etiam nunc admixtam nobis materiam, quae mortis legi et peccati obnoxia est; et in hujus caducae carnis infirmisque domicilio corruptionis labem ex ejus consortio mutuamur: ac nisi glorificato in naturam spiritus corpore, vitae verae in nobis non potest esse natura. Audiamus eum, qui se meminit in corpore mortis habitare dicentem: Quia vita nostra absconsa est cum Christo in Deo. Cum autem Christus apparuerit vita nostra, tunc et vos apparebitis cum ipso in gloria. Hanc ergo retributionem sibi Propheta orat, ut vivat: futurae hujus vitae tempus in loco altero docens, quo ait: Et placebo Domino in regione viventium. Scit hanc mundi istius sedem regionem non esse viventium. Scit nos adhuc secundum praefigurationem legis emundandos esse. Nunc enim admiscemur morticinae: et in lege quisquis mortuum contrectat, immundus est. Sed absit istud, ut quidquam horum in lege corporaliter intelligatur, tamquam per contrectationem mortui quisquam fiat immundus. Joseph ossa egrediens Aegyptum Moyses ipse lator legis abstulit, Eliseus mortuo ut eum vivificaret incubuit: Dominus ipse mortuos manu apprehensos in vitam retraxit: et contrectatio mortui si immundum effectura fuisset, nequaquam a tantis viris, neque a Domino violata lex esset, ipso dicente: Non veni legem solvere, sed adimplere. Sed quia lex umbra est futurorum bonorum; idcirco per hanc praeformatam significantiam docuit nos in hoc terreni et morticini corporis habitaculo mundos esse non posse, nisi per ablutionem coelestis misericordiae emundationem consequamur, post demutationem resurrectionis, terreni corporis nostri effecta gloriosiore natura. Sanctus Hilarius Pictaviensis, Tractatus super Psalmos, Tractatus in Psalmum CXVIII Source: Migne PL 9.517c-519a

'I shall live,' he says, 'and I shall observe your words.' 1 But this living and observing is not a matter of the present time, but the signification of this speech extends itself into the future. For the prophet knows when the blessed and true life of the living will be, since now we exist in the dust of death, and we are in the body of death, from which the Apostle prays to be freed, saying, 'I am a wretched man, who shall free me from this body of death.' 2 Now we have material mixed in us which is subject to the law of death and sin, and in this dwelling place of frail and weak flesh, we borrow the taint of corruption from association with it, and unless the glorification of the Spirit is in the nature of our body, it is not possible for us to have the true life in us. Let us hear him who recalls to himself that he is dwelling in a body of death, saying, 'Because our life is hidden with Christ in God, and when Christ, our life, shall appear, then even you will appear with him in glory.' 3 Therefore this is the reward that the prophet prays for, he who teaches about the time of the future life in another place, saying, 'I shall please the Lord in the land of the living.' 4 He knows that the place of this world is not the land of the living. He knows that we yet need to be cleansed according to the prefiguration of the law, for now we are mixed with perishing things, and in the law whoever touches a corpse is unclean. 5 But let it not be that whatever is found in the law is understood corporally, as if by touching a corpse we are made unclean. The bones of Joseph were taken out of Egypt by Moses, who propounded the law, and so flouted it, and Elisha lay on a dead man to revive him, and the Lord Himself with the touch of His hand drew the dead back to life, 6 and so if the touch of a corpse were to make us unclean, these great men, even the Lord, would have violated the law, even He who said, 'I have not come to set aside the law but to fulfill it.' 7 But because the law is a shadow of future goods, therefore the meaning of prefiguration teaches us that in this dwelling of the earthly and perishable body it is not possible to be clean unless we receive the cleansing washing of the heavenly mercy, because of which, after the change of the resurrection, our earthly bodies will be turned into a glorious nature. Saint Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms, from Psalm 118 1 Ps 118.17 2 Rom 7.24 3 Colos 3.3-4 4 Ps 114.11 5 Numb 19.11 6 Exod 13,19, 4 Kings 4.34, Mt 9.25 7 Mt 5.17

Death And Life

Mortui enim estis, et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo. Apud mundi sensum mortuus Christus videtur, et discipuli ejus, cum constet vivere illum cum his omnibus. Idcirco carnalibus ac mundanis abscondita est vita Christi et suorum in Deo extra mundum, in regno ejus coelesti, in quo vivunt. Cum Christus apparuerit vita vestra, tunc et vos apparebitis cum illo in gloria. Vita nostra Christus est; quia legimus in Actis apostolorum hunc esse vitae auctorem, qui a perfidis non creditur futurus judex. Cum autem advenerit in virtute coelesti, et visus fuerit esse, quod minime credebatur, tunc apparebunt cum illo etiam qui crediderunt in illum; et manifestabitur omni perfidiae, quia vivit cum suis in gloria. Haec consolatio fiduciam spei parit; ut securi de futura vita, omnia postponentes, Christum sequamur. Ambrosiaster, Commentaria In Epistolam ad Colossenses, Caput III Source: Migne PL 17.434b-c

For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 1 According to the understanding of the world Christ seems to be dead, and likewise His disciples, yet it is certain He lives on with all of them. Therefore the life of Christ and His followers is hidden to the carnal and the worldly in God outside the world. When Christ your life shall appear, then even you shall appear with Him in glory. Christ is our life, because we read in the Acts of the Apostles that He is the creator of life, He who the faithless do not believe will be the future judge. 2 But when He shall come in the power of heaven and He is seen, which few believed, then those who have believed in Him shall appear with Him, and every faithlessness shall be exposed, because He lives with His followers in glory. This is the consolation of firm hope, so that confident of the future we may set aside all other things and follow Christ. Ambrosiaster, Commentary On The Letter to The Colossians, Chapter 3 1 Colos 3.2 2 Acts 3.15

The Glory Of This Resurrection

Est aliud in quo resurrectionis hujus innotescat gloria singularis. Quis enim in caeteris omnibus suscitavit aliquando semetipsum? Ineffabile istud est, ut a morte se excitet ipse qui dormit: singulare est; non est qui faciat, non est usque ad unum. Eliseus propheta mortuum suscitavit, sed alterum, non semetipsum. Ecce enim quot annis jacet in monumento, quod a se non potest, sperans ab alio suscitari; ab eo utique qui triumphavit mortis imperium in seipso. Inde est quod caeteros quidem dicimus suscitatos, Christum resurrexisse, qui solus virtute propria victor prodiit de sepulcro: siquidem et in hoc vicit leo de tribu Juda, Quantum poterit, immo quid non posse videbitur vivens, et dicens Patri: Resurrexi, et adhuc sum tecum; qui tam potens exstitit deputatus cum mortuis, sed inter mortuos liber? Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, Sermones De Tempore, In Die Sancto Paschae Source: Migne PL 183.277d-278a

There is something else in which the singular glory of this resurrection is known. Who among all other men was ever able to raise himself? It has never been told that anyone who slept was able to raise himself from death. It is unheard of, there is not one that could do it, not even one. Elisha the prophet raised a dead man, but it was another man, not himself. 1 Behold how many years he lays in the tomb who is not able to raise himself but hopes for another, that is, apart from Him who triumphed over the empire of death in Himself. Hence we say that others were raised up, but Christ has risen, He who alone is the victor, who with His own power comes forth from the tomb. Here the lion of Judah conquers. How much will he be able to do, indeed, what will he not seem able to do, who lives and says to the Father, 'I have risen, and I am yet with you.' 2 Who is so powerful when set among the dead, but he who is a free man among the dead. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for the Year, On Easter 1 4 Kings 4.35 2 Apoc 5.5, Ps 138.18, Ps 87.6

Before The Face Of God

Certe, Fratres, modo pereant peccatores a facie Dei. Modo pereant peccatores et non pereant peccatores. Si incipiant iuste vivere, peribunt utique peccatores, sed non peribunt homines. Homo peccator, duo nomina sunt. Homo unum nomen est, et peccator unum nomen est. In his duobus nominibus intellegimus, quia unum horum Deus fecit, alterum horum homo fecit. Hominem enim Deus fecit, peccatorem se ipse homo fecit. Quid ergo contremiscis, quando tibi dicit Deus: Pereant peccatores a facie mea? Hoc tibi dicit Deus: 'Pereat in te quod tu fecisti, et servo quod ego feci.' Et modo ardet ignis in calore verbi, res est in fervore Spiritus Sancti, sicut diximus iam dudum, quia scriptum est in alio psalmo: Nec est qui se abscondat a calore eius. Spiritus autem Sancti esse calorem dicit Apostolus: Spiritu ferventes. Ergo pro facie Dei, tibi pone interim Scripturam Dei. Liquesce ab illa. Paeniteat te, cum audis haec de peccatis tuis. Cum autem te paenitet, et cum te ipsum excrucias sub calore verbi, cum etiam lacrimae currunt, nonne cerae tabescenti et tamquam in lacrimas currenti similis inveniris? Modo ergo fac quod in posterum times, et non habebis quod in posterum timeas. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Sermo XXIIa, De versu 3 Psalmi LXVII, Sicut deficit fumus, deficiant, sicut fluit cera a facie ignis, sic pereant peccatores a facie Dei. Source: Migne PL 38.151-2

Certainly, brothers, sinners perish from before the face of God. 1 Yet in a way they do perish and in a way they do not. If they begin to live rightly, sinners shall perish but men shall not. A man, a sinner, these are two names. A man is one name, and a sinner is one name. With these two names we understand that God made one of them and man made the other. God made man, man made the sinner. Why, then, do you tremble, when God says to you. 'Sinners shall perish before my face?' God is saying to you, 'Let what you have made perish in you and attend to what I have made.' In one way fire flares up in the heat of the Word, and things themselves in the fervour of the Holy Spirit, as we have already said, because it is written in another Psalm, 'There is no one who can hide himself from His heat.' And the Apostle says of the heat of the Holy Spirit, 'Fervent with the Spirit.' 2 Therefore instead of the face of God place before yourself the Scriptures of God. Melt because of them. Repent when you hear these things said of your sins. For when you repent, when you excruciate yourself with the fire of the Word, when tears run, is it not that you find similarity in the melting of wax and in the flowing of tears? Therefore do now what you fear in the future and in the future you will not have what you fear. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from Sermon 22a, On the third verse of the sixty seventh Psalm, 'As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish, as wax melts before the face of fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God.' 1 Ps 67.3 2 Ps 18.7, Rom 12.11

The Bound Soul

Et tu, fili hominis, ecce data sunt super te vincula, et ligabunt te in eis, et non egredieris in medio eorum. Cum enim praedicator quisque ad conscientiam domus suae reducitur, super eo vincula dantur, et ligatur in eis, quia quanto plus se in cogitatione discusserit, tanto amplius agnoscit justi anima quantis mortalitatis suae infirmitatibus sit ligata. Nisi enim se ligatum conspiceret Paulus, minime dixisset: Desiderium habens dissolvi, et cum Christo esse. Hinc per Psalmistam dicitur: Ut audiret gemitum vinculatorum, et solvat filios interemptorum. Et rursus: Intret in conspectu tuo gemitus compeditorum. Saepe autem cum jam anima ad Redemptoris sui speciem contemplandam exire desiderat, cum coelestibus gaudiis interesse suspirat, ipsa mortalitatis suae vincula conspicit et gemit, quibus adhuc in praesenti mundo ligata retinetur. Hinc est enim quod subtile omnipotentis Dei judicium intuens Jeremias, ait: Circumaedificavit adversum me ut non egrediar, aggravavit compedem meam. Habemus enim compedes, ipsam infirmitatem atque corruptionem mortalitatis nostrae; sed cum tribulatio nobis et gemitus additur, ipsae nostrae compedes aggravantur. Sanctus Gregorius Magnus, In Ezechielem Prophetam, Liber Primus, Homilia XII Source: Migne PL 76.923c-d

And you, son of man, see that chains have been placed on you and you shall be bound in them and you shall not go out into the midst of them... 1 When a preacher returns to the house of his conscience, chains are placed upon him, and he is bound in them, because the more he examines himself in thought, so the much more the soul of the righteous man recognises how much it is bound up in the infirmities of his own mortality. For unless Paul had looked upon himself as bound he would have hardly said, 'I have a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ.' 2 Hence it is said by the Psalmist, 'That He might hear the groans of those in chains and free the sons of those ruined.' And again, 'Let the groans of those who are shackled enter into your sight.' 3 Often when the soul desires to depart to the contemplation of the face of its Redeemer and sigh amidst heavenly joys, it looks on the chains of its mortality and groans that it is yet detained by them in the present world. Hence Jeremiah looking on the sublime judgement of almighty God said, 'He has surrounded me with a wall and I may not go out, He has made my shackles heavier.' 4 For we do have shackles, the infirmity and corruption of our mortality, but when tribulation and groans are added our shackles are made heavier. Saint Gregory the Great, On the Prophet Ezekiel, Book 1, from Homily 12 1 Ezek 3.14 2 Phil 1.23 3 Ps 101.21, Ps 78.11 4 Lam 3.7

The First And Second Man

Ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐκ γῆς χοϊκός, ὁ δεύτερος ἄνθρωπος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ. Ὁ πρῶτος, φησὶν, ἄνθρωπος, τουτέστιν Ἀδὰμ, εἰς ψυχὴν πεποίητο ζῶσαν, τουτέστιν γεώδης καὶ σαρκικός· ὃ γε μὴν δεύτερος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ γέγονε σὰρξ ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, κατὰ τὰς Γραφὰς ἀλλ' ἡ ... καὶ ὁ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἐπαάνω πάντων, κατὰ τὴν Ἰωάννου φωνήν. Οὐκ οῦν ἄμφω μὲν ἤστην, ὡς ἔφην, ἐν γηῖνοις σώμασιν, οὐ μήν καὶ ἐν ἴσοις ἔτι κατὰ γε τὴν γνώμην ἤτοι τὸν τῆς ζωῆς τρόπον· ἤν μὲν γὰρ ὁ πρῶτος ἐν φρονήματι σαρκικῷ, πνεῦμα δὲ ζωοποιοῦν ὁ δεύτερος καὶ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ. Καὶ ὥσπερ ἐφορέσαμεν τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ χοῖμοῦ, τουτέστι τὴν πρὸς Ἀδὰμ ὁμοίωσιν, καὶ παθῶν ἠττώμενοι καὶ ἀσθηνοῦντες εἰς ἁμαρτίας, καίτοι τῆς φθορᾶς ὑπενηνεγμένοι ζυγοῖς, οὔτω φορέσομεν καὶ τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἐπουρανίου, τουτέστι Χριστοῦ· καὶ φιλοσαρκίας ἀμείνους καὶ τοῦ πλημμελεῖν ἐθέλειν ἔτι γεγενημένοι, καὶ αὐτὸν ἤδη νενικηκότες τὸν πάλαι δεινὸν καὶ δυσάντητον καὶ ἀγρίως καθ' ἡμῶν τυραννήσαντα θάνατον. Ἅγιος Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας, Εἰς Τὴν Πρωτάν Ἐπιστολήν Παύλου Πρὸς Κορινθίους, Ἐκλογαι Source: Migne PG 74.909d-912a

The first man from earth, earthly, the second man from heaven. 1 The first man, he says, that is, Adam, was made with a living soul, that is, with one earthly and carnal, and the second was from heaven. For even if the Word of God was made flesh, according to the Scriptures, yet He was from heaven, and superior to everything, as John says. 2 Thus both were, as I say, in earthly bodies, but they were not equal in mind or in way of life, for the first was amid carnal affections, and the second was a living spirit and from heaven. And as we have borne the image of earth, that is the likeness of Adam, bound up in the infirmity of passions and sins and subject to the yoke of corruption, so we should bear the image of heaven, that is, Christ, being made superior in will to lusts and sinning, and finally conquerors of that old and terrible and oppressive and cruel tyrant death. Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the First Letter to the Corinthians, Fragment 1 1 Cor 15.47 2 Jn 3.31

Nothing Better

Deprehendi, nihil esse melius, quam laetari hominem in opere suo. Id est, praesentialiter delectari, sicut carnales faciunt, de quibus Isaiae quinquagesimo sexto: Venite, sumamus vinum et impleamur ebrietate, et erit sicut hodie, sic et cras et multo amplius. Et ista commendatio est erronea, quia non ponit aliam remunerationem nec aliam vitam; unde subdit: Et hanc esse partem illius, quasi nihil aliud exspectet; unde Isaiae vigesimo secundo in persona talium dicitur: Comedamus et bibamus; cras enim moriemur; et Sapientiae secundo: Ubique relinquamus signa laetitiae, quoniam haec est pars nostra, et haec est sors. Et erronea opinio ista ortum suum habet a iudicii incertitudine; propter quod dicit: Quis enim eum adducet, ut post se futura cognoscat? id est, quis ostendet illi, quod futura sint atque bona, quae debeat exspectare? quasi dicat: nullus. Et certe nullus persuadebit, nisi elevetur ad spiritualia contemplanda; non contemplantibus nobis, quae videntur, sed quae non videntur; quae enim videntur temporalia sunt, quae autem non videntur, aeterna, secundae ad Corinthios quarto. Quia vero carnalis homo non respicit nisi visibilia, ideo non exspectat aeterna; ideo primae ad Corinthios secundo: Animalis homo non percipit ea quae Dei sunt. Ideo si vult futura bona cognoscere, necesse est carnalitatem deponere. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Ecclesiasten, Caput III Source: Here, p36

And I found there was nothing better than for a man to rejoice in his work... 1 That is, to delight in present things, as worldly men do, concerning whom it says in the forty sixth chapter of Isaiah, 'Come, let us take up wine and let us be filled with drunkenness, and today shall be like tomorrow and many more.' Thus commendation is erroneous, because it does not consider any other reward nor any other life, whence he adds here, 'And this is his lot.' because they hope for nothing else, as in the twenty second chapter of Isaiah, in the person of such people it is written, 'Let us eat and let us drink, for tomorrow we must die.' 2 And in the second chapter of Wisdom, 'Let us leave signs of our joy everywhere, because this is our part and this is our fate.' 3 This erroneous opinion has arisen from uncertainty in judgement, because of which it is then said here, 'For who shall guide him that he might know the things of the future after him?' 1 That is, who shall reveal to him the future and the things he should expect? As if he said, 'No one'. Certainly no one will be persuaded unless they are lifted up to the contemplation of spiritual things. 'Our contemplation is not of what is seen but of what is not seen, for what is seen is transitory but what is not seen is eternal.' says the fourth chapter of the second letter to the Corinthians. 4 But because worldly men see nothing but visible things, therefore they do not expect eternal things, and thus in the second chapter of first letter to the Corinthians, 'The animal man does not grasp the things which are of God.' 5 Therefore if a man wishes to know future goods he must be rid of worldliness. Saint Bonaventura, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3 1 Eccles 3,22 2 Isaiah 46.12, 22,13 3 Wisd 2.9 4 2 Cor 4.18 5 1 Cor 2.14

Mourning And Healing

Μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται. Ἔστι μὲν οὖν ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου μακαριστὸν ὑπο λαβεῖν ἐκεῖνο τὸ πένθος, τὸ ἐπὶ πλημμελήμασι καὶ ἁμαρτίαις γινόμενον, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ Παύλου περὶ τῆς λύπης διδασκαλίαν, τοῦ φήσαντος, μὴ ἒν εἶναι λύπης εἶδος, ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν κοσμικὸν, τὸ δὲ κατὰ Θεὸν ἐνερ γούμενον. Καὶ τῆς μὲν κοσμικῆς λύπης, θάνατον εἶναι τὸ ἔργον· τὴν δὲ ἑτέραν, σωτηρίαν ἐκ μετανοίας τοῖς λυπουμένοις ἐργάζεσθαι. Τῷ ὄντι γὰρ οὐκ ἔξω τοῦ μακαρίζεσθαι τὸ τοιοῦτον τῆς ψυχῆς πάθος ἐστὶν, ὅταν ἐν αἰσθήσει γενομένη τοῦ χείρονος, τὸν ἐν κακίᾳ βίον ἀπολοφύρηται. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν σωματικῶν ἀῤῥωστημάτων, οἷς ἂν πάρετον ἐξ ἐπηρείας τινὸς γένηταί τι μέρος τοῦ σώματος, σημεῖον τοῦ νενεκρῶσθαι τὸ παρειμένον ἡ ἀναλγησία γίνεται· εἰ δὲ κατά τινα τέχνην ἰατρικὴν ἡ ζωτικὴ πάλιν αἴσθησις ἐπαναχθείη τῷ σώματι, χαίρουσιν ἤδη πονοῦντος τοῦ μέρους, αὐτός τε ὁ κάμνων καὶ οἱ τὴν θεραπείαν προσάγοντες, τεκμηρίῳ χρώμενοι τοῦ πρὸς ὑγίειαν τρέψαι τὸ πάθος, τὸ ἐν αἰσθήσει τῶν δριμυσσόντων ἤδη γενέσθαι τὸ μέλος· οὕτως ἐπειδὰν, καθώς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ἀπηλγηκότες τινὲς παραδῶσι τῷ καθ' ἁμαρτίαν βίῳ ἑαυτοὺς, νεκροί τινες ὄντως καὶ πάρετοι τοῦ κατ' ἀρετὴν βίου γενόμενοι, οὐδεμίαν ἔχουσιν ὧν ποιοῦσιν τὴν αἴσθησιν. Εἰ δὲ καθάψαιτό τις αὐτῶν ὁ ἰατρεύων λόγος, οἷον διά τινων θερμῶν τε καὶ διακαιόντων φαρμάκων, λέγω δὲ τῶν σκυθρωπῶν τῆς μελλούσης κρίσεως ἀπειλῶν, καὶ διὰ βάθους τὴν καρδίαν τῷ φόβῳ τῶν προσδοκωμένων δριμύξειεν, γεέννης φόβον, καὶ πῦρ μὴ σβεννύμενον, καὶ ἀτελεύτητον σκώληκα, καὶ βρυγμὸν ὀδόντων, καὶ κλαυθμὸν ἀδιάλειπτον, καὶ σκότος ἐξώτερον, καὶ ἅπαντα τὰ τοιαῦτα, οἷόν τινα θερμὰ καὶ δριμέα φάρμακα τῷ νεναρκηκότι διὰ τῶν καθ' ἡδονὴν παθημάτων ἐντρίβων καὶ ἀναθάλπων, εἰς αἴσθησιν αὐτὸν ἀγάγοι τοῦ ἐν ᾧ ἦν βίου, μακαριστὸν αὐτὸν ἀπεργάσηται, τὴν ὀδυνηρὰν αἴσθησιν τῇ ψυχῇ ἐμποιήσας. Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος Νύσσης, Εἰς Τους Μακαρισμους, Logos Γ', Μακάριοι οἱ πενθοῦντες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ παρακληθήσονται Source: Migne PG 44.1220d-1221b

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted 1 Firstly, then, one can take that mourning to be blessed which follows the errors of sins, according to the teaching of Paul on sorrow, which says that there is not just one kind of sorrow, but there is one of the world and one that is brought about by God, and the work of the worldly sorrow is death, but the other in those mourning works salvation through repentance. 2 For truly such suffering cannot be excluded from the sorrow that is called blessed when a soul bewails its wicked life because it feels its badness. It is as with bodily disorders, so that if because of some accident a limb of the body has become paralysed, then a lack of a sense of pain is a sign that the afflicted limb has gone dead, but if the physician's art restores to the body the sensation of life, there is gladness over the suffering of the part because it is a sign that health is being restored since the limb can now sense that which causes pain. Thus, as the Apostle says, if people give themselves to sin because they no longer feel pain in it, then they have become truly paralyzed and are dead to the virtuous life, for they have no feeling for what they are doing. But if a healing word lays hold of them like some bitter medicine, and I speak here of the fierce threats of the judgement to come, and it pierces the heart to its depths with the fear of the things that are to be expected, the terror of hell, and the unquenchable fire, and the worm that does not die, and the gnashing of teeth, and the perpetual weeping, and the outer darkness, all these things are administered like bitter medicines so that the man who has died by the passions and pleasures is revived again and senses the sort of life he had been leading, and he is made blessed by the pain he feels in his soul. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, On The Beatitudes, from the Third Oration, on 'Blessed are they who weep for they shall be comforted.' 1 Mt 5.4 2 2 Cor 7.10

Raising The Dead

In repromissione etiam Dei non haesitavit diffidentia, sed confortatus est fide, dans gloriam Deo: plenissime sciens, quia quaecumque promisit, potens est et facere. Ideo et reputatum est illi ad justitiam. Non est autem scriptum tantum propter ipsum quia reputatum est illi ad justitiam: sed et propter nos, quibus reputabitur credentibus in eum, qui suscitavit Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum a mortuis, qui traditus est propter delicta nostra, et resurrexit propter justificationem nostram. Inquirendum sollicite est quid est quod Apostolus in hoc loco Deum nominans cui credimus et cui Abraham credidit, non dixit, credentibus in Deum excelsu, vel in Deum qui feit coelum et terram; sed tantum, qui suscitavit Dominum Jesum a mortuis. Nimirum quia multum magnificentius est in laudem Dei Dominum Jesum Christum suscitare a mortuis quam creare coelum et terram. Illud enim fuit facere quae non erant; hoc autem est reparare quae perierant. Illud fuit nova instituere; istud fuit perdita restituere. Cujus rei mysterium jam in fide Abrahae praecesserat, cum jussus filium immolare, credidit, sicut dicit Scriptura, quia et a mortuis potens est suscitare Deus. Propter hoc gaudens unicum offerebat, quia in eo non interitum posteritatis, sed reparationem mundi et innovationem totius creaturae cogitabat, quae per resurrectionem Domini futura erat. Hoc ergo modo competenter videbitur habita comparatio fidei Abrahae, et eorum qui credunt in Deum, qui suscitavit Dominum Jesum Christum; quia quod ille credidit futurum, nos credimus factum. Qui traditus est propter delicta nostra, et resurrexit propter justificationem nostram. Mors Christi et significat, et exigit mortificationem veteris hominis nostri, et resurrectionem ad justitiam. Propter quod implacabiliter exesum habere debet homo peccatum suum, propter quod scit traditum esse Dominum suum. Nemo ergo fidem quam habet in eum, arbitretur sibi reputandum ad justitiam, nisi depositio veteri homine cum actibus suis, et novo induto, conformem et comparticipem se fecerit mortis ejus et resurrectionis. Alioqui nulla conventio injustitae ad justitiam. Guillelmus S Theodorici Abbas, Expositio In Epistolam Ad Romanos, Liber II, Caput IV Source: Migne PG 180.588d-590a

Indeed he did not hesitate in distrust of the promise of God, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, fully assured that whatever He has promised, He is able to perform. And therefore it was reputed to him as righteousness. And that was not written only for him, that it was reputed to him as righteousness, but also for us, for it shall be reputed to the believers of Him who raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, He who was given up for our sins and rose again for our justification. 1 One must enquire carefully why it is that in this place when the Apostle names God, whom we believe in and whom Abraham believed in, he does not say, 'to the believers in God most high,' or 'in God who made heaven and earth,' but only He who raised up the Lord Jesus from the dead. Certainly it is because it is more magnificent for the praise of God to raise up the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead than to create heaven and earth. The latter is to make what was not, the former to repair what has been destroyed. The latter was to establish something new, the former to restore what had been ruined. Already Abraham had preceded the mystery of this in faith, when he was commanded to sacrifice his son, and he believed, as Scripture says, 'that God can raise up the dead.' 2 Because of this, rejoicing, he offered up his only son, because in that was not the ruin of posterity but he thought of the repair the world and renewal of  all created things, which was through the resurrection of the Lord in the future. This therefore seems to have its fitting comparison with the faith of Abraham, and with those who believe in God, who raised up the Lord Jesus Christ, because Abraham believed for the future, and we believe it as something done. 'He who was delivered up for our sins and rose again for our justification.' The death of Christ even signifies and demands the mortification of our old man, and the resurrection to righteousness. Because of which a man should be implacable in scouring off his sin, since he knows that on account of them his Lord was handed over. No one, therefore, who has faith in Him, should judge himself to be reckoned as righteous unless having deposed of the old man with his deeds, and having put on the new man, he is conformed and made a fellow participant in His death and resurrection. There is no gathering of the unrighteous to righteousness. 3 William of St Thierry, Commentary on Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans, Book 2, Chapter 4 1 Rom 4.20-25 2 Heb 11.19 3 Ephes 4.22, Phil 3.10, Ps 1.5

Good Deaths

Sed, Domine, si fuisses hic, frater meus non fuisset mortuus... Nisi morte gratiae, qua morte debet homo mori carni, mundo, et peccato. Debet enim homo spiritualis mori carni. Hac enim morte voluit nos mortificari ille qui pro peccatis nostris mortuus est, ut nos offerret Deo, mortificatus quidem carne, vivificatus autem spiritu; unde ad Romanos octavo: Si spiritu facta carnis mortificaveritis, vivetis. Debet etiam mori mundo, secundum illud ad Galatas sexto: Mihi mundus crucifixus est, et ego mundo; ad Colossenses tertio: Quae sursum sunt quaerite , non quae super terram; mortui enim estis etc. Debet iterum mori peccato; ad Romanos sexto: Qui mortui sumus peccato, quomodo adhuc vivemus in illo? item in eodem: Qui mortuus est iustificatus est a peccato. Sic ergo debet homo spiritualis mori carni, mori mundo et mori peccato, quod est non retinere motum in illis vel sensum. Sunt autem tria, quae occidunt hominem morte spirituali, scilicet studium contemplutionis , affectus dilectionis, humilitas conversationis. Contemplatio suspendit, dilectio transfigit, humilitas vero sepelit et recondit. Debet ergo homo mori per studium contemplationis, ut sit eius meditatio quasi suspendium; unde lob septimo: Elegit suspendium anima mea, et mortem ossa mea. Debet etiam mori per ardorem dilectionis, ut sit eius affectio quasi transfixa, quia, sicut dicitur Canticorum octavo, fortis est sicut mors dilectio, et dura sicut infernus aemulatio; lampades eius quasi lampades ignis atque flammarum. Hac morte quasi transfixa erat quae dicebat: Vulnerata caritate ego sum. Debet etiam mori per humilitatem conversationis, ut sit eius vita quasi sepulta sive abscondita, secundum illud ad Colossenses tertio: Mortui estis, et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo. Haec mors quaerenda est et amanda, quia placat Deum, aedificat proximum, locupletat defunctum. Mors ista placat Deum; est enim pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors Sanctorum eius; et bene pretiosa, quia pro illa dat regnum caelorum; unde secundae ad Timotheum secundo: Si commortui sumus, et convivemus; si sustinebimus, et conregnabimus. Item, mors ista aedificat proximum; unde secundi Machabaeorum sexto dicebat ille bonus senex Eleazarus: Adolescentulis forte exemplum relinquam , si pro sanctissimis legibus honesta morte perfungar. Item, mors illa locupletat defunctum; unde loannis duodecimo: Si granum frumenti cadens in terram mortuum fuerit, multum fructum affert. Sanctus Bonaventura, Collationes In Evangelium Ioannem, Caput VIII, Collatio XLII Source: Here, p590

But, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died... 1 Unless it is a death by grace, by which death a man should die to the flesh and the world and sin. For a man should die spiritually to the flesh. He wishes us to be mortified with this death, He who died for our sins, that He might offer us to God mortified in the flesh but alive in the spirit, hence in the eighth chapter of Romans, 'If with the spirit you have mortified the flesh, you shall live.' One should die to the world in the sixth chapter of Galatians, 'The world has been crucified to me and I to the world.' In the third chapter of Colossians, 'Seek the things which are above, not the things of the earth, for you are dead.' One should die to sin in the sixth chapter of Romans 'Who are dead to sin, yet we live in Him.' 3 And in the same place 'He who has died is justified from sin.' 2 Therefore a man should die to the flesh, and die to the world, and die to sin, which is not to have any affection or sense of them. There are, then, three ways by which the spiritual death kills a man, that is, by the zeal of contemplation, the affection of love, and humility of life. Contemplation lifts up, love transfixes, humility buries and conceals. Therefore a man should die through zeal in contemplation, so that his mediation is as a thing lifted up, whence in the seven chapter of Job, 'My soul chooses to be hung, my bones death.' 3 He should be dead through the ardour of love, so that his affection is as a thing transfixed, because as it says in the Song of Songs, 'Love is as strong as death, and jealousy as hard as hell, its lamps are as lamps of fire and flame.' With this death he was transfixed who said, 'I am wounded by love.' 4 One should die through the humility of living, so that life is as a tomb or something concealed, according to which it is said in the third chapter of Colossians, 'You are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.' 5 This death must be sought and loved because it pleases God, it edifies neighbours, it profits the dead. This death pleases God, for 'precious in the sight of God is the death of His holy ones.' 6 and it is truly precious because He gives the kingdom of heaven for it, whence in the second chapter of the second letter to Timothy, 'If we are dead with Him we live with Him, if we endure with Him we shall reign with Him.' 7 Likewise death edifies neighbours, as that good elder Eleazar says in the sixth chapter of the second book of Maccabees, 'And I shall leave an example of fortitude to the young, if with a ready mind and constancy I suffer an honourable death for the most venerable and most holy laws.' And this death profits the dead, whence in the twelfth chapter of John, 'If a grain of wheat failing on the earth shall die, it shall bring forth much fruit.' 8 Saint Bonaventura, Observations On The Gospel Of Saint John, Chapter 8 1 Jn 8.43 2 1 Pet 3.18, Rom 8.13, Gal6.14, Col 3.1, Rom 6.2,7 3 Job 7.15 4 Song 8.6, 2.5 5 Colos 3.3 6 Ps 115.5 7 2 Tim 2.11 8 2 Mac 6.28, Jn 12.24

An Earthly Dwelling's End

Ἲδαμεν γὰρ ὅτι ἐὰν ἡ ἐπίγειος ἡμῶν οἰκία τοῦ σκήνους καταλυθῇ κ.τ.λ Ἐπιγεον ἡμῶν οἰκίαν τοῦ σκήνους αὐτὸ περιφραστικῶς ὀνομάζει τὸ σκῆνος, ἢτοι τὸ σῶμα. Γεγραπται γὰρ ἐν τῷ Ἰώβ· Τοὺς δὲ κατοικοῦντας οἰκίας πηλίνας· ἐξ ὦν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ πηλοῦ ἐσμεν. Ἴσμεν οὖν ἄρα, φησὶν, ὡς καταλύσαντος τοῦ θανάτου τὴν ἐπίγειον ἡμῶν τοῦ σκήνους οἰκίαν, τουτέστι τὸ σῶμα, διαδέξεται καὶ οὐκ εἰς μακρὰν, κατὰ τὸν τῆς ἀναστάσεως δῆλον ὅτι καιρὸν, οἰκητήιον τὸ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ, τουτέστιν ἡ ἀφθαρσία. Ἄνωθεν δὲ αὐτὴν εἶναί φησι, πρῶτον μὲν ὅτι δοτὸν τὸ χρῆμα ἐστιν· εἴτα πρὸς τούτῳ διάτοι τὸ πάντας τοὺς τὴν ἄνωθεν οἰκοῠντας πόλιν, φημὶ δὴ τὰ τῶν ἁγιων ἀγγέλων συντάγματα, ἐν ἀφθάρτοις καὶ ἀνθλέθροις εἶναι σώμασιν· ἀπήλλακατι γὰρ τῆς γεώδους ταυτησὶ παχύτητος ἡ ἀγγέλων φύσις. Οἰκοδομὴν τοιγαροῦ ἐκ Θεοῦ καὶ ἀχειροποίητον οἰκον καὶ μὴν καὶ αἰώνιον ὀνομάζει, τὴν ἀφθαρσίαν. Ἅγιος Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας, Εἰς Τὴν Δευτέραν Ἐπιστολήν Παύλου Πρὸς Κορινθίους, Ἐκλογαι Source: Migne PG 74.939b-c

We know that when this earthly dwelling tent of ours comes to an end... 1 Our earthly dwelling tent is a periphrasis for the tent of our bodies. As it is written in Job, 'Those who dwell in houses of mud,' 2 from which even we are constituted, that is, from mud. 3 Thus we know, he says, that when death dissolves this earthly dwelling tent, He shall receive us, and by no means long after, but clearly in the time of the resurrection, in a heavenly dwelling, that is, in incorruption. He speaks of something supernal, firstly because it is something bestowed, then because every dweller in the heavenly city, that is, the orders of the angels, is in a state of incorruption and not in bodies that shall pass away. The nature of angels lack this earthly burden. Therefore he speaks of incorruption as a temple and the house of God, not one made by any hand, but one that is eternal. Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Fragment 1 2 Cor 5.1 2 Job 4.19 3 Gen 2.7

Putting To Death

Tu quoque si propriam deseras voluntatem, si corporis voluptatibus perfecte renunties, si carnem tuam crucifigas cum vitiis et concupiscentiis, sed et mortifices membra tua, quae sunt super terram: probabis te Pauli imitatorem, qui non facias animam tuam pretiosiorem te ipso; probabis et Christi discipulum, etiam illam perdendo salubriter. Et quidem prudentius eam perdis ut custodias, quam custodis ut perdas. Nam qui voluerit animam suam salvam facere, perdet eam. Quid hic vos dicitis, observatores ciborum, morum neglectores? Hippocrates et sequaces eius docent animas salvas facere in hoc mundo; Christus et eius discipuli, perdere. Quemnam vos e duobus sequi magistrum eligitis? At manifestum se facit qui sic disputat: hoc oculis, hoc capiti, et illud pectori vel stomacho nocet. Profecto unusquisque quod a suo magistro didicit, hoc in medium profert. Num in Evangelio legisti has differentias, aut in prophetis, aut in litteris apostolorum? Caro et sanguis pro certo revelavit tibi hanc sapientiam, non spiritus Patris; est enim carnis haec sapientia. Sed audi quid de ipsa nostri medici sentiant. Sapientia, inquiunt, carnis mors est; item: Sapientia carnis inimica est Deo. Num Hippocratis seu Galeni sententiam, aut certe de schola Epicuri debui proponere vobis? Christi sum discipulus; Christi discipulis loquor: ego si peregrinum dogma induxero, ipse peccavi. Epicurus atque Hippocrates corporis alter voluptatem, alter bonam habitudinem praefert; meus Magister utriusque rei contemptum praedicat. Animae in corpore vitam, quam summo studio iste unde sustentet, ille unde et delectet, inquirit atque inquirere docet, Salvator monet et perdere. Sanctus Bernardus Clarae Vallensis, In Cantica Canticorum, Sermo XXX. Qualiter populus fidelium seu animae electorum per vineas significantur ,quarum Ecclesia custos dicitur; et de prudentia carnis, quae est mors. Source: Migne PL 183.938d-939b

You too, if you abandon your own will, if you perfectly renounce the pleasures of the body, if you crucify your flesh with its passions and desires, and if you 'put to death your members which are on the earth,' 1 you will prove yourself to be an imitator of Paul, because you will not account your life as more precious than yourself. You will prove yourself a disciple of Christ by the loss that saves. It is wiser to lose it in order to save it, than by guarding it to lose it. 'For he who wants to save his life, will lose it.' 2 What do you say to this who are so particular about food and careless about conduct? Hippocrates and his followers teach us to save our lives in this world, Christ and his disciples teach us to lose them. Which of the two do you choose to follow as master? He clearly shows who he does who complains, 'This hurts my eyes, and this my head, and this my chest and my stomach.' Without doubt each of us speaks in the manner of the master he has learned from. Did you read of these distinctions in the Gospel, or in the Prophets, or in the letters of the Apostles? No, it was flesh and blood that revealed this wisdom to you, not the Spirit of the Father, 3 for it is the wisdom of the flesh. But hear what our physicians think of that. 'The wisdom of the flesh,' they say, 'is death;' and 'the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy of God.' 4 Should I propose to you the teaching of Hippocrates or Galen, or even of the school of Epicurus? I am a disciple of Christ, I am speaking to disciples of Christ, if I should introduce strange doctrines here, I sin. Epicurus thought the body's sensual pleasure was best, Hippocrates good health, but my Master preaches contempt for both. What with all zeal each one teaches, how to maintain the body's life or to serve its pleasures, the Savior admonishes us to lose. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Commentary On The Song of Songs, from Sermon 30, How the faithful people or the souls of the elect are signified by the vineyards, of which the Church is the guard, and on the wisdom of the flesh which is death 1 Colos 3.5 2 Mt 16.25 3 Mt 16.17 4 Rom 8.6-7

The Body And Death

Ταλαίπωρος ἐγὼ ἄνθρωπος, τίς με ῥύσεται ἐκ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου; Οὐχὶ τὸ σῶμα θάνατον ὑπάρχειν ἀποφαίνεται ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, ἁλλὰ τὸν νόμον τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὸν ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν τοῦ σώματος ὄντα, διὰ τῆς ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ παραβάσεως φωλεύοντα ἐν ἡμῖν, καὶ πρὸς τὸν θάνατον τῆς ἀδικίας τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπισπεύδοντα. Ἅγιος Νειλος, Βιβλίον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΣΜΘ’ Αιλιανῳ Ἀναγηωστῃ Source: Migne PG 79.173d

'I am a wretched man, who shall free me from this body of death?' 1 It is not that the blessed Apostle declares the body to be dead, but the law of sin which is in its members because of transgression, which was in Adam, and is hidden in us, and drives the unrighteous soul to ruin. Saint Nilus of Sinai, Book 1, Letter 249, To Aelianus The Reader 1 Rom 7.24

A Questioning Of Life

Quid enim est quod haec vita delectet, plena aerumnarum et sollicitudinum, in qua innumerae calumniae et multae molestiae, et multae lacrymae eorum qui afflictantur molestiis, et non est, inquit, qui eos consoletur. Et ideo laudat Ecclesiastes defunctos magis quam viventes. Et optimus, inquit, supra hos duos, qui nondum natus est, qui non vidit hoc malum. Et alibi idem Ecclesiastes meliorem longaevo viro eum asseruit, quem abortu ejecit mater sua; quia non vidit haec mala quae fiunt in hoc mundo, nec in has venit tenebras, nec in vanitate ambulavit saeculi; et ideo requiem hic magis habebit qui in hanc vitam non venit, quam ille qui venit. Quid enim boni est homini in hac vita, qui in umbra vivit, nec expleri potest cupiditatibus suis? Et si expleatur divitiis, fructum quietis amittit, quia cogitur custodire quod misera aviditate quaesierit; ut miserius eas possideat, cui prodesse non poterunt. Quid enim miserius quam ut custodia torqueat, quarum abundantia nihil prosit? Itaque si plena oneris vita, utique finis ejus allevamento est: allevamentum autem est bonum, mors autem finis: mors igitur bonum est. Neque enim aliter gavisus est Simeon, qui responsum acceperat non visurum se mortem, nisi prius videret Christum Domini; et cum eum parentes in templum inducerent, suscepit manibus suis, et dixit: Nunc dimittis servum tuum in pace; quasi necessitate quadam teneretur in hac vita, non voluntate. Ita dimitti petit, quasi a vinculis quibusdam ad libertatem festinaret. Sunt enim velut vincula quaedam corporis hujus, et quod est gravius, vincula tentationum, quae nos alligant, et ad injuriam captivitatis astringunt quadam lege peccati. Denique in exitu ipso videmus quemadmodum anima decedentis paulatim solvat se vinculis carnis, et ore emissa evolet tamquam carcereo corporis hujus exuta gurgustio. Denique festinabat etiam sanctus David de hoc loco peregrinationis exire, dicens: Advena ego sum apud te in terra et peregrinus, sicut omnes patres mei. Et Ideo tanquam peregrinus ad illam sanctorum communem omnium patriam festinabat, petens pro hujus commorationis inquinamento remitti sibi peccata, priusquam discederet e vita. Qui enim hic non acceperit remissionem peccatorum, illic non erit. Non erit autem qui ad vitam aeternam non poterit pervenire, quia vita aeterna remissio peccatorum est. Ideoque dicit: Remitte mihi, ut refrigerer, priusquam abeam, et amplius non ero. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Bono Mortis, Caput II Source: Migne PL 14.541a-542a

What is this life that delights, which is full of sickness and care, and in which there are numerous calamities and many troubles, and many are the tears of those who are afflicted with distress, and as Lamentations says, there is no one to comfort them. 1 Therefore Ecclesiastes praises the dead more than the living. And better than these two, he says, is he who was not born, who did not see this evil. And elsewhere the same Ecclesiastes says that a child stillborn from its mother is better than a man who lives long, 2 because he does not look on the evils which are done in the world, nor does he come into this darkness, nor does he walk in the vanity of the age, and therefore the one who does not come into this life has greater peace than he who does. What good is there for a man in this life, who lives in shadows, and is not able to satisfy his desires? And if he comes into riches he loses the fruit of peace because he is driven to guard what he sought with wretched avidity, so that he is more wretched who possesses and it cannot profit him. Who is more wretched than he who is tormented by guarding, when his abundance does not profit him? Thus if life is full of burdens then its end is an alleviation of them, and the alleviation is a good, and death is the end, and therefore death is good. There was no one so happy as Simeon who received the oracle that he would not see death until he had first looked on the Christ of the Lord, and when his parents brought him into the temple and he took Him in his hands and said, 'Now dismiss your servant in peace,' 3 it was as by necessity he was detained in this life and not by choice. Thus he seeks to be dismissed, as if he was hurrying from chains to freedom. Indeed the things of this body are chains, and what is heavier than temptation which binds us and by the law of sin is tightened to the injury of the captive? Finally in our departure we see that the soul is withdrawing itself little by little from the chains of the flesh, and it flies from the mouth as from the prison of its body, and as from a vile little hut. Finally the blessed David hurries to leave this place of pilgrimage, saying, 'I am a stranger on the earth and a wanderer like all my fathers.' 4 And therefore as a wanderer he makes haste to that common fatherland of ours, seeking against the soiling of his tarrying to be forgiven his sins before he is done with life. For he who does not receive forgiveness of sins here, shall not there. He shall not be able to come to eternal life because eternal life is forgiveness of sin. Therefore he says, 'Forgive me, that I be refreshed, before I go from here and am no more.' 5 Saint Ambrose, On the Good of Death, from Chapter 2 1 Lament 1.2 2 Eccles 4.2-3, 6.3 3 Lk 2.29 4 Ps 38.13 5 Ps 38.14

Mindfulness of Judgement

Λάβε δὲ εἰς ἔννοιαν τὴν ἐσχάτην ἡμέραν ῾οὐ γὰρ δὴ μόνη σὺ τὸν αἰῶνα βιώσεις,  καὶ συνοχήν, καὶ πνιγμόν, καὶ θανάτου ὥραν, καὶ ἀπόφασιν Θεοῦ κατεπείγουσαν, καὶ ἀγγέλους ἐπισπεύδοντας, καὶ ψυχὴν ἐν τούτοις δεινῶς θορυβουμένην καὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ συνειδότι πικρῶς μαστιγουμένην, καὶ πρὸς τὰ τῇδε ἐλεεινῶς ἐπιστρέφουσαν, καὶ ἀπαραίτητον τῆς μακρᾶς ἐκείνης ἀποδημίας ἀνάγκην. Διάγραψόν μοι τῇ διανοίᾳ τὴν τελευταίαν τοῦ κοινοῦ βίου καταστροφήν, ὅταν ἔλθῃ ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν τῇ δόξῃ αὐτοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων αὐτοῦ. Ἥξει γὰρ καὶ οὐ παρασιωπήσεται: ὅταν ἔλθῃ κρῖναι ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς, καὶ ἀποδοῦναι ἑκάστῳ κατὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν αὐτοῦ: ὅταν ἡ σάλπιγξ ἐκείνη μέγα τι καὶ φοβερὸν ἠχήσασα, τοὺς ἀπ̓ αἰῶνος ἐξυπνίσῃ καθεύδοντας, καὶ ἐκπορεύσονται οἱ τὰ ἀγαθὰ ποιήσαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν ζωῆς, οἱ δὲ τὰ φαῦλα πράξαντες εἰς ἀνάστασιν κρίσεως. Mνήσθητι τῆς τοῦ Δανιὴλ θεοπτίας, ὅπως ἡμῖν ὑπ̓ ὄψιν ἄγει τὴν κρίσιν. Ἐθεώρουν, φησίν, ἕως ὅτου θρόνοι ἐτέθησαν, καὶ παλαιὸς ἡμερῶν ἐκάθητο, καὶ τὸ ἔνδυμα αὐτοῦ λευκὸν ὡς χιών, καὶ ἡ θρὶξ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ ὡς ἔριον καθαρόν, οἱ τροχοὶ αὐτοῦ, πῦρ φλέγον. ποταμὸς πυρὸς εἷλκεν ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ: χίλιαι χιλιάδες ἐλειτούργουν αὐτῷ, καὶ μύριαι μυριάδες παρειστήκεισαν αὐτῷ. κριτήριον ἐκάθισε, καὶ βίβλοι ἀνεῴχθησαν, τὰ καλά, τὰ φαῦλα, τὰ φανερά, τὰ κεκρυμμένα, τὰ πράγματα, τὰ ῥήματα, τὰ ἐνθυμήματα, τὰ πάντα ἀθρόως εἰς ἐξάκουστον τοῖς πᾶσι καὶ ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀνθρώποις σαφῶς ἀνακαλύπτουσαι. Πρὸς ταῦτα ποταποὺς εἶναι ἀνάγκη τοὺς κακῶς βεβιωκότας;Ποῦ ἄρα ἡ ψυχὴ ἐκείνη καταδύσεται, ἡ ἐν ὄψεσι τοσούτων θεατῶν ἐξαίφνης ὀφθεῖσα αἰσχύνης ἀνάπλεως; Ποίῳ δὲ σώματι τὰς ἀπεράντους ἐκείνας καὶ ἀνυποίστους ὑποστήσεται μάστιγας, ὅπου πῦρ ἄσβεστον, καὶ σκώληξ ἀθάνατα κολάζων, καὶ πυθμὴν ᾄδου σκοτεινὸς καὶ φρικώδης, καὶ οἰμωγαὶ πικραί, καὶ ὀλολυγμὸς ἐξαίσιος, καὶ κλαυθμὸς καὶ βρυγμὸς ὀδόντων, καὶ πέρας οὐκ ἔχει τὰ δεινά; τούτων οὐκ ἔστιν ἀπαλλαγὴ μετὰ θάνατον, οὐδέ τις ἐπίνοια, οὐδὲ μηχανὴ τοῦ διεκδῦναι τὰ πικρὰ κολαστήρια. Ταῦτα φεύγειν ἔξεστι νῦν. Ἕως ἔξεστιν, ἑαυτοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ πτώματος ἀναλάβωμεν, μηδὲ ἀπελπίσωμεν ἑαυτῶν, ἐὰν ἀναλύσωμεν ἀπὸ τῶν κακῶν. Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ἦλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἁμαρτωλοὺς σῷσαι. δεῦτε, προσκυνήσωμεν καὶ προσπέσωμεν αὐτῷ, καὶ κλαύσωμεν ἐναντίον αὐτοῦ. ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ μετάνοιαν καλῶν ὁ Λόγος βοᾷ καὶ κέκραγε: Δεῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς. Ἔστιν οὖν ὁδὸς σωτηρίας, ἐὰν θέλωμεν. Kατέπιεν ὁ θάνατος ἰσχύσας, ἀλλ̓ εὖ ἴσθι ὅτι πάλιν ἀφεῖλεν ὁ Θεὸς πᾶν δάκρυον ἀπὸ παντὸς προσώπου τῶν μετανοούντων. Πιστὸς Κύριος ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ. Oὐ ψεύδεται εἰπών: Ἐὰν ὦσιν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ὑμῶν ὡς φοινικοῦν, ὡς χιόνα λευκανῶ: ἐὰν δὲ ὦσιν ὡς κόκκινον, ὡσεὶ ἔριον λευκανῶ. Ἔτοιμός ἐστιν ὁ μέγας τῶν ψυχῶν ἰατρὸς ἰάσασθαί σου τὸ πάθος, ὃς οὐδὲ μονωτάτης, ἀλλὰ πάντων τῶν δεδουλωμένων τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ἐστὶν ἕτοιμος ἐλευθερωτής. Ἐκείνου ῥήματά ἐστιν, ἐκεῖνο τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ σωτήριον στόμα εἶπεν: Οὐ χρείαν ἔχουσιν οἱ ἰσχύοντες ἰατροῦ, ἀλλὰ οἱ κακῶς ἔχοντες. οὐκ ἦλθον καλέσαι δικαίους, ἀλλὰ ἁμαρτωλοὺς εἰς μετάνοιαν. Tίς οὖν ἐστί σοι πρόφασις, ἤ τινι ἄλλῳ, ταῦτα αὐτοῦ βοῶντος ; βούλεται Κύριος καθαρίσαι σε ἀπὸ τοῦ πόνου τῆς πληγῆς, καὶ δεῖξαί σοι φῶς ἀπὸ σκότους. Σὲ ζητεῖ ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός, ὁ καταλιπὼν τὰ μὴ πεπλανημένα. Ἐὰν ἐπιδῷς σεαυτήν, οὐκ ὀκνήσει, οὐδ̓ ἀπαξιώσει σε ὁ φιλάνθρωπος ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων βαστάσαι τῶν ἰδίων, χαίρων ὅτι εὗρεν αὐτοῦ τὸ πρόβατον τὸ ἀπολωλός. Ἕστηκεν ὁ Πατὴρ καὶ ἀναμένει τὴν σὴν ἀπὸ τῆς πλάνης ἐπάνοδον. Mόνον ἀνάλυσον, καὶ ἔτι σου μακρὰν οὔσης προσδραμὼν ἐπιπεσεῖται ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλόν σου, καὶ φιλικοῖς ἀσπασμοῖς περιπτύξεται τὴν ὑπὸ τῆς μετανοίας ἤδη κεκαθαρμένην. Kαὶ στολὴν ἐνδύσει, τὴν πρώτην, ψυχὴν ἀπεκδυσαμένην τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν ταῖς αὐτοῦ πράξεσι: καὶ περιθήσει δακτύλιον χερσὶν ἀποπλυναμέναις τοῦ θανάτου τὸ αἷμα, καὶ ὑποδήσει πόδας ἀποστρέψαντας ἀπὸ ὁδοῦ κακῆς πρὸς τὸν δρόμον τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς εἰρήνης. Kαὶ εὐφροσύνης καὶ χαρᾶς ἡμέραν καταγγελεῖ τοῖς ἰδίοις καὶ ἀγγέλοις καὶ ἀνθρώποις. Kαὶ παντὶ τρόπῳ τὴν σὴν ἑορτάσει σωτηρίαν. Ἀμὴν γὰρ λέγω, φησίν, ὑμῖν, ὅτι χαρὰ γίνεται ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπὶ ἑνὶ ἁμαρτωλῷ μετανοοῦντι. Kἂν ἐγκαλέσῃ τις τῶν ἑστάναι δοκούντων, ὅτι ταχὺ προσελήφθης, αὐτὸς ὁ ἀγαθὸς Πατὴρ ὑπὲρ σοῦ ἀπολογήσεται λέγων, Εὐφρανθῆναι δεῖ καὶ χαρῆναι, ὅτι αὕτη ἡ θυγάτηρ μου νεκρὰ ἦν καὶ ἀνέζησε, καὶ ἀπολωλυῖα καὶ εὑρέθη. Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας, Ἐπιστολή ΚϚ, Πρὸς παρθένον ἐκπεσοῦσαν Source: Migne PG 32.377c-381b

Since you will certainly not be the only woman to live forever, bring to mind your last day, the anguish, the choking, the hour of death, the looming sentence of God, the angels hastening, the soul fearfully aggrieved, and a sinner bitterly lashed by her conscience, pitifully turning to the things here and to the unavoidable necessity of that long departure elsewhere. Picture for me in your mind the overpowering end of the common life, when the Son of God shall come in His glory with His angels. For He will come and He will not be silent, when He comes to judge the living and the dead and to give to every one according to their work, when the great voice of that terrible trumpet shall wake those that have slept through the ages, and those who have done good shall go forth to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. Remember the vision of Daniel and how he brings the judgment before us, 'I looked,' he says, 'until the thrones were set down, and the Ancient of Days sat, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool, and His throne wheels like burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth before Him, thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The judgement sat, and the books were opened,' 1 clearly disclosing to the hearing of all, both angels and men, things good and evil, things public and secret, deeds, words, and thoughts all at once. What then must be for those who have lived wickedly? Where shall that soul hide which in the sight of all who see it shall suddenly be exposed in the fullness of its shame? With what body shall it endure those endless and unbearable pains where the fire is unquenchable and where the gnawing worm never dies, and where is the dark and horrid depths of Hades, and bitter wailings and loud lamenting, and the weeping and gnashing of teeth and anguish that has no end? After death there is no release from these woes, there is no way or stratagem to come forth from the chastisement of pain. Yet now we can escape. While it is possible let us lift ourselves up from the fall, let us not despair of ourselves, if we depart from evil. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Come, let us worship and cast ourselves down, let us cry out before Him. The Word who calls us to repentance cries aloud, 'Come to me all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest.' 2 There is, then, a way of salvation, if we wish it. Mighty death has swallowed up, but again the Lord has wiped away tears from off all the faces of those who repent. The Lord is faithful in all His words. He does not lie when He says, 'Though your sins be scarlet they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool.' 3 The great Physician of souls is eager to heal your sickness, and not you alone, but all who are enslaved by sin, He who is the eager liberator. From Him are the words, it was His sweet and saving mouth that said, 'They who are healthy have no need of a physician but they do who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.' 4 When He says these things, what excuse do you have, what excuse does any one have? The Lord wishes to cleanse you from the distress of your sickness and to show you light after darkness. The good shepherd seeks you, and has left those who have not wandered away. If you give yourself to Him He will not hold back. In His love He will not disdain to carry you on His own shoulders, but rejoice to have found His sheep that was lost. 5 The Father stands and waits for your return from your wandering. Only come back, and while you are yet far off He will run and fall upon your neck, and now that you are cleansed by repentance, He will enfold you with loving embraces. He will put the finest robe on the soul that has put off the old man with all his works. He will put a ring on hands that have washed off the blood of death, and He will put shoes on feet that have turned from the evil way to the path of the Gospel of peace. He will proclaim a day of joy and gladness to those who are His own, both angels and men, and He will celebrate your salvation far and wide. 'For truly I say to you,' He says, 'there is joy in heaven before God over one sinner who repents.' 6 If any think they can find fault in your quick reception, the good Father will Himself answer for you, saying, 'It was fitting that we should make merry and be glad for my daughter was dead and is alive again, she was lost and she has been found.' 7 Saint Basil of Caesarea, from Letter 46, To A Fallen Virgin 1 Dan 7.9-10 2 Mt 11.28 3 Isaiah 1.18 4 Mt 9.12-13 5 Lk 15.4-6 6 Lk 15.7 7 Lk 15.20-32

Death And Ourselves

Νυνὶ δὴ ἀφεὶς τοὺς θρήνους εἰς ἐμαυτὸν βλέψω, μή τι θρήνων ἄξιον λάθω φέρων, καὶ τὰ ἐμαυτοῦ περισκέψομαι. Υἱοὶ ἀνθρώπων, μέτεισι γὰρ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὁ λόγος, ἕως πότε βαρυκάρδιοι καὶ παχεῖς τὴν διάνοιαν; ἵνα τί ἀγαπᾶτε ματαιότητα καὶ ζητεῖτε ψεῦδος, μέγα τι τὸν ἐνταῦθα βίον καὶ τὰς ὀλίγας ταύτας ἡμέρας πολλὰς ὑπολαμβάνοντες, καὶ τὴν διάζευξιν ταύτην, τὴν ἀσπαστὴν καὶ ἡδεῖαν, ὡς δή τι βαρὺ καὶ φρικῶδες ἀποστρεφόμενοι; Οὐ γνωσόμεθα ἡμᾶς αὐτούς; οὐ τὰ φαινόμενα ῥίψομεν; οὐ πρὸς τὰ νοούμενα βλέψομεν; Οὐκ, εἴ τι καὶ λυπεῖσθαι χρή, τοὐναντίον ἀνιασόμεθα τῇ παροικίᾳ μηκυνομένῃ, κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Δαβίδ, σκηνώματα σκοτασμοῦ καὶ τόπον κακώσεως καὶ ἰλὺν βυθοῦ καὶ σκιὰν θανάτου τὰ τῇδε ἀποκαλοῦντα, ὅτι βραδύνομεν ἐν τοῖς τάφοις οἷς περιφέρομεν, ὅτι ὡς ἄνθρωποι ἀποθνήσκομεν τὸν τῆς ἁμαρτίας θάνατον, θεοὶ γεγονότες; Τοῦτον ἐγὼ φοβοῦμαι τὸν φόβον, τούτῳ καὶ νύκτωρ καὶ μεθ´ ἡμέραν σύνειμι, καὶ οὐκ ἐᾷ με ἀναπνεῖν, ἡ ἐκεῖθεν δόξα καὶ τὰ ἐκεῖσε δικαιωτήρια· ὧν τῆς μὲν ἐφίεμαι, μέχρι καὶ τοῦ δύνασθαι λέγειν· Ἐκλείπει εἰς τὸ σωτήριόν σου ἡ ψυχή μου, τὰ δὲ φρίττω καὶ ἀποστρέφομαι. Ἐκεῖνο δὲ οὐ δέδοικα, μή μοι τὸ σῶμα τοῦτο διαρρυὲν καὶ διαφθαρὲν παντελῶς οἰχήσεται, ἀλλὰ μὴ τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ πλάσμα τὸ ἔνδοξον, ἔνδοξον γὰρ κατορθοῦν, ὥσπερ ἄτιμον ἁμαρτάνον, ἐν ᾧ λόγος, νόμος, ἐλπίς, τὴν αὐτὴν τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἀτιμίαν κατακριθῇ, καὶ μηδὲν πλέον ᾖ μετὰ τὴν διάζευξιν· ὡς ὄφελόν γε τοῖς πονηροῖς καὶ τοῦ ἐκεῖθεν πυρὸς ἀξίοις. Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος ὁ Ναζιανζηνός, Λόγος Ζ´, Εἰς Καισὰριον τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἀδελφὸν ἐπιτάφιος Source: Migne PG 35.784b-785a

But now, putting aside lamentation, I will look to myself, and examine my own state, so that I do neglect anything I bear which is worthy of grieving. 'You sons of men,' for the words befit you, 'how long will you be hard-hearted and dull of mind, so that you love vanities and chase after a lie?' 1 thinking life here to be something great and these few days very many, and shrinking away from this separation, welcome and pleasant as it is, as if it were something grievous and terrible? Do we not know ourselves? Are we not to cast aside things seen? Are we not to look to the things unseen? 2 Are we not, even if we are somewhat grieved, to be on the contrary distressed at our long sojourn, like the blessed David, who calls things here the tents of darkness, and the place of affliction, and the deep mire, and the shadow of death, because we linger in the tombs we bear about with us, because, though we are gods, we die like men in the death of sin? 3 This is what I fear, this is my companion day and night and will not let me breathe, on the one side there is glory, on the other the place of correction. The former I long for until I can say, 'My soul faints for your salvation.' 4 From the latter I turn away shuddering. But I am not afraid that this body of mine should utterly perish in dissolution and corruption, but that the glorious creature of God, for it is glorious if upright, just as it is wretched if sinful, in which is reason, morality, and hope, should be condemned to the same dishonour as irrational things, and be no better after death, something that is due to the wicked, who are worthy of the fire to come. Saint Gregory Nazianzus, from Oration 7, Funeral Speech for his brother Caesarius 1 Ps 4.3 2 2 Cor 4.18 3 Ps 22.4, Ps 119.5, P 81.6-7 4 Ps 118.81

Losing The Soul

Ὂς γὰρ ἐὰν θέλῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ σῶσαι, ἀπολέσει αὐτήν: ὃς δ' ἂν ἀπολέσει τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ καὶ τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, σώσει αὐτήν. Tί γὰρ ὠφελεῖ ἄνθρωπον κερδῆσαι τὸν κόσμον ὅλον καὶ ζημιωθῆναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ; Ὂς γὰρ ἂν ἀπολέσῃ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ, μὴ ὡς λῃστὴς φονευόμενος ἢ ἀπάγχων ἑαυτὸν (τοῦτο γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν ἕνεκεν ἐμοῦ), ὁ τοιοῦτος οὖν εὑρήσει τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν · ὥσπερ αὐθίς ὁ δοκῶν κερδᾶναι , ἀπολέσει αὐτὴν, ὁ ἐν καιρῷ μαρτυρίου μὴ ἀντιστάς. Μὴ γὰρ μοι λέγε, ὅτι ᾿Αλλ' ἐκέρδησε τὴν ζωήν. "Αν γὰρ μετὰ τούτου θήσεις, ὅτι καὶ τὸν κόσμον ὅλον ἐκέρδησεν, οὐδὲν τὸ ὄφελος. Μὴ γὰρ χρημάτων ἔστιν ἀνταλλάξασθαι τὴν σωτηρίαν· ὡς εἴγε τοῦτο ἦν, ὁ κερδάνας τὸν κόσμον, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν ἀπολέσας, ἔδωκεν ἂν τότε ἐν τῇ φλογί τηγανιζόμενος, καὶ ἠθωώθη. Αλλ' οὐκ ἔστι τότε τοιοῦτόν τι ἐκεῖ ἀντάλλαγμα. Καὶ ἐντεῦθεν οὖν ἐπιστομίσαιμεν τοὺς ἀπὸ Ωριγένους, λέγοντας, ὅτι ἀποκατάστασις ἔσται τῶν ψυχῶν μετὰ τὸ κολασθῆναι κατὰ ἀναλογίαν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν. Ἀκουσάτωσαν γὰρ ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκεῖ δοῦναι ἀντάλλαγμα τῆς ψυχῆς. Οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ κολασθῆναι ἔστι τοσοῦτον, ὅσον ἀντισηκωθῆναι τοῖς ἁμαρτήμασιν. Θεοφύλακτος Αχρίδος, Ἑρμηνεία Εἰς Τὸ Κατὰ Μάρκον, Κεφαλὴ Η' Source: Migne PG 123.577a-b

The man who tries to save his life will lose it; it is the man who loses his life for my sake and the Gospel who will save it. How is a man the better for it, if he gains the whole world at the expense of losing his own soul? 1 For He who loses his soul because of me and not as a thief who is killed or a man who chokes himself, for this is not on account of me, he shall find his soul, as contrariwise he who seems to profit destroys it, if he does not stand fast in the time of martyrdom. Do not say to me that you have gained life. For if you added to it in this way, even if you gained the whole world, it would not profit you. Salvation is not bought with wealth but he who gains the world loses his soul, and then he shall be given into the flames for torment, while others are delivered. But there is not then any change there, whence in this place we refute the Origenists who say that in the future life certain souls will be restored after they have had some span of punishment for their sins. Let them hear that there it is not reckoned for souls. There is no more release from punishment, than there is from a reckoning of sins. Theophylact of Ochrid, Commentary On The Gospel Of Saint Mark, Chapter 9 1 Mk 8.35-36 2 Acts 12.1-3

Healing And Hell

Ἐλέησόν με, Κύριε, ὅτι ἀσθενής είμι. Ἁρμόττουσα τοῖς ἡμαρτηκόσιν ἡ τοιαύτη φωνή. Ασθενείας γὰρ ἡγουμένης , ἡ ἁμαρτία νικά. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἀσθενήσει τὸ ἐν ἡμῖν λογικὸν, οὐ στασιάσει τὰ πάθη· ἐῤῥωμένου γὰρ τοῦ ἡνιόχου, καὶ μετ᾿ ἐπιστήμης τοὺς ἵππους καὶ στρέφοντος καὶ ἐθύνοντος, οὐκ ἔχει τὰ σκιρτήματα χώραν. Ἲασαί με, Κύριε, ὅτι έταράχθη τὰ ὀστᾶ μου· καὶ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐταράχθη σφόδρα. Ὀστα ἐνταῦθα τοὺς λογισμοὺς ὀνομάζει· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὰ ὀστᾶ στεγανωτέραν ἔχει τὴν φύσιν, καὶ αὐτὰ φέρει τὸ σῶμα, τροπικῶς τοὺς λογισμούς, δι ' ὧν τὸ ζῶον ἰθύνεται, ὀστᾶ προσηγόρευσεν. Ἠ τούτων, φησί, ταραχὴ ἐκλόνησέ με, καὶ διέσεισε. Διόπερ τῆς σης φιλανθρωπίας ἀπολαῦσαι παρακαλώ, ἵνα διὰ ταύτης τὴν ἴασιν δέξωμαι. Καὶ σὺ Κύριε ἕως πότε; Επίστρεψον Κύριε, ῥῦσαι τὴν ψυχήν μου, σωσόν με ἕνεκεν τοῦ ἑλέους σου. Τὸ, ἕως πότε , οὐχ ὡς ἐγκαλῶν λέγει , ἀλλ' ὡς ἐν ὀδύναις ὢν, ἐπιταχῦναι παρακαλεῖ τὴν βοήθειαν. Αρμοδίως δὲ προσέθηκε τὸ, Ενεκεν τοῦ ἐλέους σου. ἡ Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐμαυτῷ, φησί, θαῤῥῶς οὐδὲ τῇ ἐμαυτοῦ δικαιοσύνῃ τὴν σὴν ἐπιγράφω βοήθειαν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν σὸν ἔλεον ταύτης ἱκετεύω τυχεῖν. Τὸ δὲ, ἐπίστρεψον, Κύριε, ὁ ἀντὶ τοῦ, πρόσχες μοι, καὶ μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἀπ' ἐμοῦ· ἐκ μεταφορᾶς τῶν ὀργιζομένων, καὶ ἀποστρεφομένων, καὶ τοὺς ἑπταικότας οὐκ ἐθελόντων ὁρᾷν. Οτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ ὁ μνημονεύων σου· ἐν δὲ τῷ ᾅδῃ τίς ἐξομολογήσεταί σοι; Διὰ τοῦτο τῆς θεραπείας ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἀπολαῦσαι παρακαλῶ, ἐπειδὴ οἶδα, ὅτι τοῖς τόνος τὸν βίον ἐξιοῦσι μετὰ τραυμάτων, οὐδεμία λαπὸν θεραπεία δοθήσεται, οὐκέτι χώραν τῆς μετανοίας ἐχούσης. Καὶ κάλλιστα τῷ θείῳ Δαβιδ τοῦτο πεφιλοσόφηται· οὐ γὰρ ἐν θανάτῳ, ἀλλ᾽ ἐν ζωῇ ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ μεμνημένος. Οὕτως οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ᾅδῃ τοῖς ἀπελθοῦσιν ἐξομολόγησις καὶ διόρθωσις. Συνέκλεισε γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς ἐνταῦθα μὲν βίον καὶ πρᾶξιν, ἐκεῖ δὲ τὴν τῶν πεπραγμένων ἐξέτασιν· καίγε ἴδιον τοῦτο τῆς ὀγδόης, τὸ μηκέτι καιρὸν εἰς παρασκευὴν ἀγαθῶν, ἢ κακῶν διδόναι τοῖς ἐν αὐτῇ γινομένοις. Ἀλλ ' ὧν ἂν τις ἑαυτῷ καταβάληται διὰ τῶν ἔργων τὰ σπέρματα, τούτων ἀντιπαρέχειν τὰ δράγματα· οὗ χάριν εναταῦθα ἐνεργεῖν νομοθετεῖ τὴν μετάνοιαν, ὡς ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ τῆς τοιαύτης σπουδῆς ἀπρακτούσης. Φησὶ γάρ Ἐπειδὴ μακρός μοι γέγονεν ὁ τῆς μετανοίας καιρός , δέδοικα μὴ φθάσῃ τὸν παρὰ σοῦ ἔλεον ὁ θάνατος, ἐν ᾧ τὰ τῆς ἐξομολογήσεως οὐκ ἔστι· τούτου χάριν ἐπιταχῦναι τὸν ἔλεον αἰτῶ · εἶτα παιδεύει τὸν ἀκροατὴν, ὅτι μετὰ τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίας δεῖ καὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα ἕπεσθαι. Ἄν τε γὰρ τὴν ἀσθένειαν προβαλώμεθα, ἄν τε τὴν ταραχήν, ἄν τε τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν ἀγαθότητα , τὰ δὲ παρ ' ἡμῶν μὴ προστεθή, οὐδὲν ὄφελος ἡμῖν Θεοδώρητος Ἐπίσκοπος Κύρρος, Ἑρμηνεία εἰς Τους Ψαλμούς, Ψαλμός Ϛ’ Source: Migne PG 80.904a-905a

How mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak. 1 Such a cry befits sinners. For with weakness present, sin conquers. If the reason in us was not weak, we would not be cast down by trials. If the charioteer were strong, and the horses were wisely ruled over and controlled, they would have no space to run wild. 2 Heal me, Lord, for my bones are troubled, and my soul is excessively distressed. Here bones mean thoughts. Because bones have a nature that is more dense and they bear up the body, metaphorically he calls thoughts bones, by which an animal is directed. Therefore he says he says that their troubling strikes and shakes him. Whence I pray that I enjoy your benevolence so that I may recover. And you, Lord, how long? Turn, O Lord, seize my soul, save me on account of your mercy. How does not say 'how long' as one who complains, but as one who begs in sorrow that the deed may be done quickly. Rightly then he sets down, 'On account of your mercy,' For I am not confident in myself, nor do I attribute your aid to my righteousness, but it is because of your mercy that I pray to be made well. 'Turn, O Lord,' means attend to me and do not turn your face from me, which image he takes up from those who are incensed and turning away from those who err will not look at them. For in death there is no memory of you. In hell who shall confess you? Because of this I pray in the present cure I enjoy, since I know of those who have passed on from this life with wounds and that there is no medicine that follows, when there is no longer any place of penance. And this is the philosophy of the blessed David, for he who is mindful of God lives and is not dead. So for those who go down into hell there is no confession, nor any correction. For here God ends life and deeds, and then there is an examination of what is done, and this is the true eighth day when there is no more time given to men in their existence, but the seeds of his works which he has cast down shall be bound together in sheaves. Hence he commands here that one should make penance, since in hell all zeal will be stilled. He says, 'While it was still day I made penance, fearing lest death would come before mercy, in which death there is no confession, and I sought to make mercy hasten.' Finally he teaches the hearer that we should seek the benevolence of God, for whether we incline to weakness or are troubled, there is the kindness of God, but even so we should still not set aside the things we can do. Theodoret of Cyrrhus, Commentary on the Psalms, from Psalm 6 1 Ps 6.3 2 cf Plato Phaedrus 246a-b

Death And The Gates

Et ibant cum illo discipuli ejus, et turba copiosa. Cum autem appropinquaret portae civitatis, ecce defunctus efferebatur filius unicus matris suae. Defunctus hic, qui extra portam civitatis multis est intuentibus elatus, significat hominem lethali criminum funere soporatum, eamdemque insuper animae mortem, non cordis adhuc cubili tegentem, sed ad multorum notitiam per locutionis operisve indicium, quasi per suae civitatis ostia propalantem. Qui bene filius unicus matris suae fuisse perhibent, quia licet e multis collecta personis, una sit perfecta et immaculata virgo, mater Ecclesia, singuli quique tamen fidelium universalis se Ecclesiae filios rectissime fatentur. Nam et electus quilibet, quando ad fidem imbuitur, filius est. Quando alios imbuit, mater. An non materno erga parvulos agebat affectu, qui ait: Filioli mei, quos iterum parturio, donec formetur Christus in vobis? Portam civitatis qua defunctus efferebatur, puto aliquem de sensibus esse corporeis. Qui enim seminat inter fratres discordias, qui iniquitatem in excelsum loquitur, per oris portam extrahitur mortuus. Qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, per oculorum portam suae mortis indicia profert. Qui fabulis otiosis, obscenisve carminibus, vel detractionibus, aurem libenter aperit, hanc animae suae portam mortis efficit, caeterosque qui non servat sensus, mortis sibi ipse reddit aditus. Obsecro, Domine Jesu, cuncta meae civitatis portas justitiae facias, ut ingressus in eas confitear nomini tuo, tuaeque majestati, cum ministris coelestibus eam crebrius invisenti, non fetor elati cadaveris occurrat, sed occupet salus muros illius, et portas ejus laudatio. Sanctus Beda, In Lucae Evangelium Expositio, Liber I, Caput VII Source: Migne PL 92.417c-418a

And there went with him his disciples, and a great multitude. And when He came near to the gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother. 1 This dead man who is carried out through the city gates with many looking on signifies a man who is to be buried in the fatal sleep of crimes, but that same death of the soul does not yet touch the inner chamber of the heart, though it it is known to many by word and deed, like something openly paraded through the gates of a city. They well reckon him to be the only son of his mother, for it is possible that with many persons gathered together, one is the perfect and immaculate virgin, the mother Church, and rightly the faithful are spoken as sons of the church, for any of the elect is a son when imbued with faith. When did you imbue others, mother? Is it not that he acted with maternal love who said, 'My little children, who again I birth until Christ is formed in you?' 2 That the one who is dead carried out through the city gates, I think says something about the corporeal senses. For he who sows discord among brothers, he who speaks blatant wickedness, is drawn out a dead man through the gate of the mouth. He who sees a women and lusts for her, 3 brings forth the signs of his death through the gate of his eyes. He who gleefully opens ears with idle tales, or obscene songs, or detraction, he makes the gate of death for his soul, and he who does not guard the other senses, he makes the entrance of death for himself. I beg you, Lord Jesus, make all my gates those of the city of righteousness, so that having gone through them I might confess your name and your majesty, 4 and with the heavenly servants gathered together and watching, may no stench rise from the corpse, but may salvation dwell within those walls and praise within its gates. Saint Bede, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 7 1 Lk 7.11-12 2 Galat 4.19 3 Mt 5.28 4 Ps 117.19