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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

St. Gregory of Nyssa The Activity of Death Until the Final Resurrection.



The Activity of Death Until the Final Resurrection.

Death has been conquered by the resurrection of Christ but its activity has not yet ceased. It has been conquered because all men will be resurrected but it is still active because men are dying and will continue to die until the cycle of earthly time is completed. Only then will the succession of the human race come to an end. Our time, which is ephemeral and transitory, will cease because the "need to come into being will be past and no one will ever again be destroyed." "The power which leads us into being and destruction will not exist." At that point the final resurrection will be accomplished and all nature will be transformed into a new mode of life. Until then, however, the activity of death will continue.

Death is the separation of the soul and the body, and when the body has been abandoned by the soul it disintegrates into the elements which originally composed it. Each of its parts returns to its natural element so that not a single part is completely destroyed or turned into nothingness, and the body remains within the boundaries of this world. This is decay but it is not destruction or transition into a state of nonexistence. "The body does not disappear forever but breaks down into the elements from which it was put together. These elements then continue their existence in water, air, earth, and fire. Within these elements the components of the human body which have returned to them remain completely whole and unharmed."

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