At the entrance to one of the monasteries on Mount Athos there is a sign that greets pilgrims. It says, “If you die before you die, then you will not die when you die.” We all have to experience an earthly death, but this is something we no longer have to fear because God has already delivered us from it. Christ, being born into this world, lifting Himself up on the cross willingly to be crucified, and rising from the dead after three days, has offered us a new life. All He asks of us is that we follow Him on that same path. Paradoxically, our whole life becomes an act of seeking the end– not an earthly, but spiritual one – and relinquishing our life into the loving hands of our savior. This permeates everything we do in the life of the Church, but it is evident in three major aspects.
It begins with our baptism. We pray the person about to be baptized will become “a partner and partaker of Christ’s death and resurrection.” And that they will be “buried under the waters dying and crucifying the old self” that they might rise out new – newly created, newly born with new life. St. Paul asks, “do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [So that] we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom 6:3-4) Our life begins with death, not in a painful and desolate way, but that we might have His life in us.
The struggle is we still live in a world plagued by sin and corruption.. We perceive life through our earthly senses and are constantly being pulled back into that corruption – often referred to by St. Paul as the flesh. Christ has given us another antidote to this: repentance.
Fr. John Chryssavgis in his book soul mending describes it in this way:
”[It] does not begin with our determination to make changes in our life but with God’s determination that we be saved, so also repentance is not a matter of doing or acquiring something, but of relinquishing our life into the loving hands of our Savior. Repentance, like baptism, is an act of faith and surrender, and this implies a kind of death. It requires unlearning all our self-centered behavior, undoing all our willfulness, and letting go of all our self-conceit. It is an act of trust, a risk.”
Finally, repentance is our preparation for the sacraments of sacraments: Holy Eucharist. Every Divine Liturgy we pray “Let us set aside all our earthly cares that we may receive the King of all.” Put in context, let us deny those things in us that would keep us from Christ. In the Eucharist, we have a foretaste of the end in which we are united with Him physically and spiritually here and now by receiving His body and blood. “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (Jn 6:55-56)
Every day of our life in Christ, we begin at the end. We walk with the ultimate goal in our minds and hearts: Jesus Christ. When we do this it changes the perspective of all that we do. We do not build ourselves up, but instead die unto the passions that would control us and keep us from the One who gives us everything. “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Phi 1:21) So that with God’s mercy, when we do finally leave this earth, we might enter into the joy of His heavenly kingdom now and forever more.