In this video, Fr. Theodore of Georgia talks deeply about afterlife and how an Orthodox Christian can prepare for life after death. Archpriest Theodore Gignadze is the rector of the Elevation of the Holy Cross Orthodox Church (JC), Tbilisi, Georgia. This sermon was recorded on April 2024 at the Elevation of the Holy Cross Church Complex.
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Fr. Theodore:
Life after death – I think this is a very difficult topic to discuss because it is something beyond our experience. We can only speak of what Christianity teaches, based on the Holy Scriptures, the Church, the Holy Fathers, and the 2000-year experience [of the Church]. The key thing here is that if life is not eternal, then everything loses meaning. Any value, even the value of human life itself, loses meaning, because everything valuable that exists – exists in conjunction with life.
Human life cannot be a form of being like that of a stone, or that of an animal, even a highly developed animal. Human life can only have value if life is eternal, and life can only be eternal if God Himself is life. Eternal life and God don’t exist in isolation [from one another]. As an example, matter, space, and time don’t exist in isolation. Matter, space, and time are a whole. In the same way, God and eternal life are not two separate things. God is eternity. God is life. Therefore, if we say and believe that we are eternal, this means that there is God, and that I am a being bearing His likeness – a theological being of God.
In other words, it means that God dwells within me, and that a human being cannot be conceptualized as something without God. This means that death, as we see and know it, the bodily death, is something unnatural for us. It is natural for our fallen nature because we separated from God and rejected Him. However, in essence – in terms of why and how a human being was created, for a being created in the image and likeness of God, this is unnatural because if I am a being possessing the qualities of God, and if God is with me, (because I am a theological being, as Simeon the New Theologian says, a human being is God, soul, and body), if this is what I am, then what does death have to do with any of this?
Indeed, what does death have to do with this? However, due to our separation from God, death exists in me. However, ever since God became incarnate and allowed death to enter Him, [and He did this] for my sake, in this way, He, Christ, killed death within Himself. How does life die? Life dies when death enters life. And how does death die? Death dies when life enters death. Death died – He let life enter death and in this way, killed death.
Ever since Christ, in human form, in His human nature, which He has united into Himself, and which He took on, eternally, inseparably, without mixing, but without separation, He, in this human nature, killed death, and after this, He tells me: “My believer will not die, but will pass from death into life.” Therefore, for a Christian, death no longer exists. For a Christian, there is only passing [from death into life]. And, as it pertains to bodily death, if one is a Christian, despite the fact that a Christian has no easy life in this world, a Christian realizes and is aware of [the reality] that: “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”
We live a life resembling the life of Christ, which is narrow and thorny, a path of Golgotha and a path of crucifixion. We know, understand, and realize this. We have many afflictions, and among them: sickness, old age, and bodily death. This is our path to walk on, but God will be there for us in all these places. God was there in every place. When God became man, He was there in every point of human life, including sickness, powerlessness… you remember how He was beaten and wounded, you remember His suffering… And He was there even in death. Christ will be there for us in every place. Even in hell… He even went down into hell.
We need to descend into our own hell, into our own godlessness, and we will find God even there, and it is precisely from there that God brings us up. Therefore, any place where God is there for me… I descend into my own hell – God is there for me. I have trials and tribulations, I experience injustice – God is there for me. He is everywhere. And when I die, I find that even there, Christ is there for me. And so, let us ask the question: Any place where Christ will be there for me, surely, there will no longer be hell, suffering, or death, will there? This is why a Christian is invincible.
This is why the martyrs had tears of joy as they were being tortured, [this is why] they kept glorifying God and kissed the hands of the torturers. This is Christianity. And therefore, if I realize this, then I am able to understand the meaning of the words “trampling down death by death”. I begin to understand the words of Christ, who tells me: “my believer will never die, but will rather pass from death to life.”
Does the Church truly have such an experience? [Is it really possible for a person] not to experience death in the same terrible way that a non-believer experiences it? A non-believer sees a catastrophe, doesn’t he? Of course, the Church does have this experience. Let’s put it this way: When a person begins learning the noetic prayer… The noetic prayer, the hesychastic practice – this is a simulation of bodily death. A person is left one on one with the name of Christ. He is disconnected from this world. This is a simulation of death. Nothing else exists for him, nothing but his personal decision to be with Christ. Nothing else.
A human being, who learns this kind of seclusion with Christ… And if this state becomes ceaseless for him… What does it mean to have this ceaseless state? It means that no matter when bodily death comes to a person, he will be in a state of prayer. This kind of person does not experience death. His soul departs from the body with great joy. As the great Apostle Paul says: “My heart is telling me to leave the body and go to the Lord, but for your sake, I am staying.” [The soul] comes out of the body, with a smile, to put it this way, and with joy. [The soul] ascends to the Lord and goes into an expectant and blissful state – a pre-heavenly state, and waits for the universal resurrection, where we will all be gathered.
Therefore, this is an experience that does exist in the Church. And I would like to tell you that any person that learns and teaches oneself the [process of] passing from this world to Christ, through the means of noetic prayer, will gradually approach a state that he will be in at the time of passing when this world will darken, when the body will no longer be needed, when [the body] will become helpless, and doing outward divine services will become impossible, communication with human beings will become impossible, all interest in this world will be lost and only one thing will remain: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” “Jesus”, “Jesus”, “Jesus”, Nothing else.
This state of being will be familiar to him. And the joy and happiness he experiences being with God while learning the noetic prayer, he will have the same joyous and happy state at the time of passing, because finally, he has reached the point he was striving for all his life: “Lord, it is only You [I desire], and nothing more”.