Man is made up of soul and body
Our Orthodox faith does not teach the duality of body and soul, but rather that the whole of man is made up of both soul and body. Since the soul is the whole man, we do not put the emphasis of our being on the soul at the expense of the body. Because of this teaching, we see the Mysteries (Sacraments) sanctify the whole person, who is made up of both soul and body. The body is not some sort of housing for the soul, for because of Christ’s resurrection, we have the possibility of resurrection.
In Orthodox soteriology (the doctrine of salvation), both the soul and the body of all will survive after death. Resurrection is not reserved for only for believers, for both saints and sinners will rise from the dead. The importance of life after death is not the prolongation of life, but the transcending of death, which happens through our life in Christ.
The immortality of the soul is not by nature, but by God’s grace. The soul did not exist before the body, but was willed into being by our Creator God. That given, the soul will await the bodily resurrection in order to be reunited with the body. For those who do not have God, eternity will be living without participating in the divinising and illuminating energy of God. Saint Maximus the Confessor says that the righteous will live “ever will-being” (the good eternal life), while sinners will live “ever ill-being” (a tragic eternal life).
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Saturday November 29, 2014 / November 16, 2014
25th Week after Pentecost. Tone seven.
Nativity (St. Philip’s Fast). Fish Allowed
Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew (60).
New Hieromartyrs Theodore Korolev priest and with him Martyr Ananius Boykov and Michael Boldakov (1929).
New Hieromartyrs John, Nicholas, Victor, Basil, Makarius and Michael priests, Hieromartyr Panteleimon (1937).
Martyr Demetrius (1938).
St. Fulvianus, prince of Ethiopia, in holy baptism Matthew (1st c.).
Hieromartyr Hipatius bishop of Gangra (360).
Venerable Sergius, abbot, of Malopinega (1585).
St. Eucherius of Lyons (449).
St. Lubuinus, missionary to Friesland (773) (Neth.).
St. Otmar, abbot and monastic founder in Switzerland (759).
Scripture Readings for the Day
Galatians 1:3-10
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Only One Gospel
6 I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, 7 which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
Luke 9:57-62
The Cost of Discipleship
57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.”
58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”
But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”