What is the believer’s view of death?

At the death of Caesarius , the first-born son and successful doctor who held the high esteem of the men of the state in the imperial palace of Constantinople, his younger brother St. Gregory of Nazianzus observed their mother’s reaction to such a painful event. He noticed that she entered her bedroom, remained there a while, and then emerged dressed in the garments of a feast, her face beaming with a smile. The joy of her son’s departure to heaven had swallowed up all the painful emotions of her loss. The saint did not marvel at his mother’s behavior, but rather realized how truly she was a witness to the heavenly life.

This heavenly way of thinking was reflected in the life of her daughter St. Gorgonia . Her younger brother, St. Gregory, looked up to her as a living example of a Christian who burns with longing for heaven. In his account of her life, he says: “Gorgonia’s native land was ‘the Jerusalem above’ (Heb. 12:22) … where Christ is citizen, and his fellow citizens the festal gathering and ‘assembly of the first born, whose names are written in heaven’ (Heb. 12:23) … She snatched everything from the grasp of the ‘ruler of this world’ (Eph. 6:12), transferred

1152 See Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, The Gift of Death ( ‘Atteyat al-Mawt, Arabic ) (Sporting, Alexandria: St. George’s Coptic Orthodox Church, 1998).

1153 St. Anthony the Great, “On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life” (attributed to St. Anthony) in The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Volume I , trans., G. E. H. Palmer et al., eds., Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, and Makarios of Corinth (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979) 49: p. 336.

1154 St. Anthony the Great, “On the Character of Men and on the Virtuous Life” (attributed to St. Anthony) in The Philokalia: The Complete Text, Volume I , trans., G. E. H. Palmer et al., eds., Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, and Makarios of Corinth (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1979) 82: p. 342.

it all to a safe storehouse. She left nothing behind on this earth except her body. For everything else, she exchanged the hope of heaven. One form of riches she left to her [spiritual] children: an example to imitate, and the desire to rival her in these things … She longed for her departure: indeed, she spoke her mind freely to the one who would call her to himself, and prized ‘being with Christ’ (Phil. 1:23) before all earthly blessings.”¹¹⁵⁵

That is how the true believer perceives death: a delightful journey to heaven through union with Christ who is risen from death. What, then, are funeral rites but a joyous celebration of a unique feast?

When I began collecting excerpts from patristic writings about “death and what is beyond death” or “eschatology,” I felt a sense of inferiority, for this way of thinking permeated all their writings. The Fathers see the doors of heaven open before them, awaiting their arrival with longing. Theirs is the mindset of those into whose hearts heaven has descended, because the Lord of heaven has descended to their world and lived among its inhabitants as one of them. Whether writing commentaries on texts of the Holy Bible, or defending a doctrine of faith, or recording liturgical texts for worship, or delivering spiritual sermons, or sending letters for one reason or another — they never cease their contemplation and discussion of heaven.