- Fr. Jacob Anish Varghese, Bombay. The question is a pertinent one and it is a difficult one too. There are not many explanations about the 'state after death and the ones that are present are quite confusing to the lay- reader. Unfortunately, most of the answers we hear from our Achens, seniors, etc. on this topic is not Orthodox in nature, but quite influenced by Protestant thoughts. It is also wrong to say that we have the same faith as the Catholic Church. There are similarities in the faith but one of the major points of difference is Purgatory and the concept of salvation. Let me try and answer the question in a more holistic sense. I will try and be as simple as possible and hope that you can follow my line of thought. Any confusion can be discussed and debated.
First we need to understand what is death? Is death the plan of God? No it is not. We believe that death is a direct result of sin and hence not the plan of God at all. The Author of life, the creator of all goodness cannot design a tragedy as death. The revelation of His name to Moses at the Burning Bush is very relevant and telling; ‘I AM…” which means that He is existence in itself.
Second, Christ in His death has conquered Death itself. He pointed out the Life that is kept in promise to those who believe in Him and the Father who sent Him. His sacrifice on the Cross offered humanity a refuge from corruption. This was accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who “has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor 15:20-26). Finally, our hope as Christians is to share in Christ’s victory over death: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jn 11:25-26).
Thirdly, we need to understand the Orthodox understanding of death. It is interesting to note that in the Genesis story, God does not tell Adam and Eve, ‘if you eat of the tree, I will kill you’. Instead he says ‘you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’. This is an instruction and obedience or disobedience is up to them. The rider is that ‘for when you eat of it, you will surely die’. It is the disobedience to the instruction of that God that will kill them, because it is a break in the wonderful relationship that they were having with their Creator. So God does not kill anyone in the literal sense, we kill ourselves. So the minute we take our life in our own hands to do what we want to do, and do not obey God, basically we commit suicide.
Where are the dead and what are they doing?
Let me try and answer this question in the simplest way I possibly can. We do not know what the dead are doing, and I do not think anybody knows exactly and clearly. However, there are some things that can be said, and I think that what we have to say is for us who believe death is already destroyed in Christ. The last enemy has already been destroyed. Christ is Risen and life lives, as the last line of St. John Chrysostom's homily for the Paschal night says. "Christ is Risen and the demons shudder, Christ is Risen and no one is in the grave. Christ is Risen and life reigns"
Rom 6.4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” So as recipients of the Sacrament of Baptism and the Holy Qurbana, we are in a sense already dead to the world and alive in Christ right from our infancy. It is our teaching that we Christians who die, we die in the hope that we will enter into the glory that Jesus already has at the right hand of the Father and that we will be alive in Him until the end of the ages. Because Christ, the Son of God, has taken on human life and died, every man/ woman who dies is also raised up to be at the right hand of the Father in Christ. We say that when a person dies, they already enter into the presence of God by being spiritually raised in Christ. If they love Him, they already experience the end of the ages, the joy of heaven and the presence of God. If they resist and do not want it, that very same experience is torment. They are tormented by the evils that they cling to, tormented by the devils they serve in place of the living God, and they are tormented by all of the evil spirits instead of the Holy Spirit that are in their life. Furthermore, they are even tormented by the presence of Christ who loves, forgives and invites them into Paradise. Yet they do not want to come still thinking that they belong there. That is how they are not there with the just and righteous. That seems to be the picture that we have from the Holy Scripture.
The concept of ‘Aerial Toll-houses’
This concept, though prevalent in some Orthodox writings, has its share of critics who vehemently oppose it and even call it a heresy influenced by ‘gnosticism’ To put it simply and in brief, Aerial toll- houses refer to the teaching about the immediate state of the soul after death. According to this doctrine, "following a person's death the soul leaves the body, and is escorted to God by angels. During this journey the soul passes through an aerial realm, which is ruled by demons. The soul encounters these demons at various points referred to as 'toll-houses' where the demons then attempt to accuse it of sin and, if possible, drag the soul into hell. Though not officially promulgated at any Synod, this concept appears extensively in hagiographical and other texts, especially in the prayers for the departed.
St. John of Damascus, in his canticles refers to this concept of toll- houses. An example is the prayer at Matins of the Greek Orthodox Church: “O Virgin, in the hour of death, rescue me from the hands of the demons, and the judgment, and the accusations, the frightful testing, and the bitter tollhouses and the fierce prince, and the eternal condemnation, O Theotokos”
To conclude, death has a much more far- reaching effect than we normally think. Death though a physical separation is only one aspect. Spiritual death due to the ignorance of the presence of God is the more damning one. The dead who have died in Christ are in the bliss of the ‘bosom of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’. Those who die in hopelessness and with the unrepenting ignorance of the grace of God have already lost the right to the Kingdom of God. There are many questions that this brief piece might raise up in our minds. Let us try to think together and learn together in the Wisdom of the Holy Spirit.
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