In this respect, no one can take away another person's death, that is, no one can prevent another from dying his own death, which God has ordained for him. I can die in the place of someone else; I can die for someone else, to save him from death. But this does not mean that I die the death of another. Everyone dies his own death. So man cannot perceive and, consequently, cannot objectively investigate the phenomenon of death as one of the stages of his presence in the world.

The mystery of death is all the more incomprehensible because a heavy and impenetrable veil of doubt and ignorance hides the hour of our death, the place where souls pass, and their way of life. "Where do souls go now? – asks St. Anastasius the Sinaite in one of his hymns († 599). "How are they there now?" They wish to know the mystery, but no one is pleased to tell it." And in another hymn he says that those who depart cannot return to tell us "how the brethren and grandchildren sometimes dwell, there they preceded the Lord. By the same multiplication we ever say: Is there food to see one another? Is there food there to see the brethren? Is there food together with the psalm?" [14]

These obvious questions, just a few of many, show how deep the mystery that envelops the problem of death is, if, of course, one tries to investigate it outside of Christian truth. These questions are natural, since at the time of death the usual ties between people are broken. The departing one is confronted with the stunning event of death. At all other moments of our life, someone can be next to us in order to relieve our pain, console us, support us. But when we find ourselves facing death and taking this great step, all bridges are burned! Those who remain on this side are confused, silent, depressed, and sometimes "more dead than the dead," as someone said in the funeral oration to a friend. And on the other side, on the other side, there is someone who has left this life and who is now in a completely different world..

{p. 15}

In one of the church hymns of St. Anastasius the Sinaite it is said: "What are the bitter words of the dying, brethren, which they proclaim, when they depart: brethren I part, I leave all my friends, and I depart; for we do not know: or how the imam is there, we do not know, but God who called me..." "When the soul is separated from the body, a terrible mystery [...] for the soul departs sorrowfully, but the body is covered with the earth" [15]. That is why St. John of Damascus exclaims in a mournful hymn: "I weep and weep, when I think of death and see in the graves lying in the graves our beauty, created in the image of God, ugly, inglorious, without form." Filled with deep feeling, he continues: "O miracle! What is this mystery about us? How shall we give ourselves over to corruption? How shall we be bound together with death?" [16]

Unbelievers and people of little faith run to sorcerers, soothsayers, mediums, and the like in order to get answers to questions, to find some consolation, or to learn something about their loved ones. We try to penetrate, as far as possible, into life beyond the grave, having Divine Revelation as our guide. For if any religion speaks in one way or another about this important subject, it is the Living God in the Trinity who nourishes and warms our Christian life with faith, hope and love, and especially with the hope instilled by the Lord's vows "for the future and for the last events" [17]. Let us, therefore, set out on our journey with a guide, the Holy Scriptures, with guides, the God-bearing Fathers, who interpreted it, being enlightened by the Holy Spirit the Comforter. At the same time, let us not forget that "the educational wisdom of the Church has always carefully tried to avoid a dogmatic synthesis that would exhaust eschatological views." Apart from the articles of the Holy Creed of our faith, which speak of the Second Coming, the coming Judgment and the Resurrection of the dead, Orthodoxy "does not offer such dogmatic regulations." We know that the sacrament of death, as well as other complex issues, "is treated with trepidation by theologians" [18]. And at the same time, as St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote, "... if wisdom properly belongs to the comprehension of the truth of beings, and prophecy contains in itself the clarification of the future, then he will not possess the full gift of wisdom who does not embrace the future with knowledge with the assistance of the gift of prophecy" [19].

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SECULAR PHILOSOPHY ON DEATH

The Wicked Humiliation of Man

Before proceeding to investigate the mystery of death, guided by Divine Revelation, Apostolic Tradition and the wisdom of the Fathers of our Church, let us see how other religions and secular philosophy understand this problem. All philosophers have spoken about death. Some of them tried to ignore it, but without any success. In fact, it is impossible to engage in philosophy without noticing the phenomenon of death and without delving into its investigation. Here, however, we do not intend to go into the details of the death teachings of other religions, or to penetrate into the dark labyrinth of secular philosophy. We will only glance briefly to see the confusion, the fantasies, and the absurdities into which the human mind has fallen every time it has tried to explain death and to study life beyond the grave on its own expense. Thus, by the example of this problem, we will be able to appreciate even more the truthfulness, clarity and greatness of the word of Divine Revelation.