The Liturgy of Death

Fr. Schmemann, Journals, Sept. 16, 1974 ~

During these days I read and worked preparing for a new course — the Liturgy of Death. At first, it seemed rather easy and straightforward but then became complex and quite profound. Death is the center of religion and of culture, and one’s attitude toward death determines one’s attitude toward life. Any denial of death only increases the neurosis (immortality) as does its acceptance (asceticism, denial of the flesh). Only victory over death is the answer, and it presupposes transcendence of both denial and acceptance — “death consumed by victory.” The question is “What is this victory?” Quite often the answer is forgotten. Therefore one is helpless in dealing with death. Death reveals - must reveal - the meaning not of death, but of life. Life must not be a preparation for death, but victory over death, so that, in Christ, death becomes the triumph of life…

Again, the middle road.

… We teach about life without relation to death, and about death as unrelated to life. When it considers life only as a preparation for death, Christianity makes life meaningless, and reduces death to “the other world,” which does not exist, because God has created only one world, one life. It makes Christianity and death meaningless as victory; it does not solve the neurosis of death…

Considering life only as a preparation for death, 1) makes life meaningless, and 2) makes death meaningless. Life becomes the “phase” of mortality, death the “phase” of immortality — which makes no sense! Not to mention, there is no “other world” because “God has created only one world, one life.” If life is mere preparation for death, and death is the “final phase”, then do we not have the victory of death over life? It becomes clear why this whole view of reality is the fabrication of a “neurosis”. But how else to think about it??

… Interest about the fate of the dead beyond the grave makes Christian eschatology meaningless. The Church does not pray about the dead; it is (must be) their continuous Resurrection, because the Church is life in death, victory over death, the universal Resurrection…

Now eschatology becomes meaningless (on the same view, i.e. “interest about the fate of the dead beyond the grave” — note the assumption: they are dead). If death is the end, if death is meaningless, then eschatology (about the end) is meaningless, too. How to clear up the confusion? The Church is continuous Resurrection. The Church is life IN death, victory over death, the universal Resurrection. The world is dead. The Church is life IN the world (in death). It is victory.

From yesterday:

The church is not a religious establishment, but the presence in the world of a saved world.

We always see life and death as a temporal progression. It’s not, not first and foremost. Rather, we in the Church are IN both life and death simultaneously: in the Church, which is learning to live, is creation fully alive in Christ; and in the world, which is dying. As the Church is victorious - as Christ is victorious - death is conquered in life, for all creation, for all “phases”, for all “time”.

… What disappears in death [bodily death]? The experience of the ugliness of this world, of evil, of the fluidity of time. What remains is the beauty that gladdens and in the same moment saddens the heart. “Peace.” The peace of the Sabbath which opens the fullness and the perfection of Creation. God’s peace. Not of death, but of life in its fullness, in its eternal possession.

Bodily death is the completion (graduation) of learning to live in the Church. It is entering into the fullness of life where there is no more dying world. One passes into creation perfected, perfect life. Bodily death in Christ is the total, culminating victory of life over death.