TESTIMONIES OF THE HOLY FATHERS DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES ON DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
TESTIMONIES OF THE HOLY FATHERS DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES ON DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

Summary/Abstract: Confronted with mystery of death, human behaviour reacted socially with mourning rituals, which do not attempt to remove death, but rather to achieve a realistic acceptance of it and to promote getting over the shock, looking for the meaning both of death and of the life which goes on. Thus, there is community conscience of being part of the living and of the dead; the relationship with those who are no longer with us continues after death and there is a feeling of their presence and actions. Therefore, the dead are still alive. The Proskomedia and the Holy Liturgy, the Saturdays of Souls in Orthodox spirituality, as well as the Sunday of All Saints both with the Orthodox, and with the Catholics, transform fear of death into a celebration of the sacrament of death and of the hope for eternal life. The Christian proposition regarding the victory over the reign of death comes out of the Easter experience, when the God of life, and loving life, unites mankind to the point of vanquishing the reign of their mutual enemy, but exceeding it by Christ’s resurrection, who becomes an archetype for the entire humanity. The faith in resurrection bestows meaning upon this great Sacrament of life: namely that death is not destruction, disappearance, but meeting again.

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