Fr. Schmemann on Death

Hat tip: mamajuliana at Abide and Endeavor

–The Church is the entrance into the risen life of Christ; it is communion in life eternal, “joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.” And it is the expectation of the “day without evening” of the Kingdom; not of any “other world,” but of the fulfillment of all things and all life in Christ. In Him death itself has become an act of life, for He has filled it with Himself, with His love and light. In Him “all things are yours; whether…the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s (1 Cor 3:21-23). And if I make this new life mine, mine this hunger and thirst for the Kingdom, mine is this expectation of Christ, mine the certaintude that Christ is Life, then my very death will be an act of communion with Life. For neither life nor death can separate us from the love of Christ. I do not know when all things will be comsummated in Christ. I know nothing about the “whens” and “hows.” But I do know that in Christ this great Passage, the Pascha of the world has begun, that the light of the “world to come” comes to us in the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit, for Christ is risen and Life reigneth.

– from For the Life of the World

Thanks to mamajuliana also for her beautiful follow-up reflection:

…Sometimes it is difficult to understand this but it is truth…that I believe.

Amen.