August: Day 15: Teaching 2: Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos

 

August: Day 15: Teaching 2:
Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos
 
(The Soul After the Separation From the Body)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. On the icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God, She is depicted as if asleep. Jesus Christ stands at Her deathbed, surrounded by angels and apostles, and receives Her soul into His arms, which flew out of Her most pure body in the form of an infant. So, is this image a dream of icon painters, or does it correspond to a real event?

No, this is not an artist’s dream. Tradition relates that when the time of death approached for the Ever-Virgin Mary, her divine Son, surrounded by the inhabitants of heaven, descended to her deathbed, and she “indescribably rejoiced and, as if falling into a sweet sleep, gave up her most holy soul into His hands. And so, solemnly from the heavenly ones her soul was conducted to the heights, carried by the hands of the Lord. And the eyes of the apostles, who were deemed worthy to look upon that most glorious vision, accompanied her.”

II. The story of how the soul of the Mother of God was received by the hands of the Lord fully corresponds to and gives strength to the ancient belief that “the souls of pious people, upon leaving the body, are received by angels and are accompanied by them to heaven.”

a) This belief was already in the Old Testament Church and was confirmed by the Savior Himself. In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, He described the blessed end of this sufferer thus: "The beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." This is not said about the body, which lay lifeless, but about the soul. Since angels are sent by God to serve, or help, those who in this life strive and labor to inherit salvation (Heb. 1:14), they receive even at the hour of bodily death the soul that has pleased God and lead it into the abodes of eternal salvation.

b) Why, then, when the soul departs, do we not see either it or the one who would accompany it, and conclude that it has departed only because there is no longer breath or other signs of life in the body? That is why we do not notice this, because the essence of the soul is invisible, for it is immaterial and just as it remains invisibly in the body, so it leaves it imperceptibly. But in order to confirm our faith in life after death, there have been, by God’s arrangement, cases when the soul, upon leaving the body, took the form of a baby, or some other shape, for example, a dove flying out of the mouth. Saint Gregory the Dialogist, who was greatly interested in this mysterious subject, testifies that “many of those who purified the eye of the nous by their pure faith and fruitful prayer often saw souls proceeding from the flesh” ("Dialogues", Book IV, Chapter 7). He relates several experiences of this kind, and it is sufficient to relate one of them now. 

Saint Benedict stood at prayer at night. At midnight an extraordinary light suddenly appeared. The Saint went to the window to examine this phenomenon better, and he saw the soul of Germanus, Bishop of Capua, carried by angels in a fiery circle. He quickly began to call to him the deacon who was in another room, who, upon entering, found the vision had ended. They sent to Capua to find out what was happening to Bishop Germanus. The messenger found him already dead, and it turned out that he had died at the very moment in which the holy man saw him being carried up to heaven. ("Dialogues", Book II, Chapter 35).

III. The hour of death is inevitable for everyone, and what believing soul would not wish, upon separation from the body, to be carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham, to the Kingdom of Heaven? How then can we be worthy of this? Let us imitate the holy life of the Mother of God. Let us take as our guide her modest life and contentment with our state, her patience in sorrows, her purity in feelings, thoughts and words, her deep and strong faith. By imitating these virtues of hers, we too will be able, upon leaving this life, to be worthy of the companionship and guidance of angels to the heavenly abodes. Amen. 

 

Source: A Complete Annual Cycle of Short Teachings, Composed for Each Day of the Year. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.