What is the dialogue that takes place between the soul and the body at the moment of their separation?

St. Ephrem the Syrian proffers us a wonderful image of the unity of the soul with the body, and their state at the moment of death when the soul departs from the body. The soul that is sanctified in the Lord feels that she is indebted to the sanctified body; and the sanctified body feels that it is indebted to the sanctified soul. Each was a helper to the other in their striving on earth through the work of divine grace in them. With the eyes we read the word of God; with the hands we offer loving services to others; with the feet we walk towards the house of God; and the person with all his body practices prayer, fasting, worship, and prostration before the Lord. Truly, these are happy moments when the body works in union with the soul, and the person in his entirety becomes like an angel of God in heaven, and the body presents no impediment to the soul’s eternal glory.

“The soul having left the body,

Is in great suffering, And feels much grief; And she is distracted Hither and thither, As to her destination; For the evil spirits desire That she should go with them Into the midst of Gehenna; And the angels also, That she should journey with them To the region of light.

“In that moment, The soul lightly esteems Her beloved friends and brethren, Those whom she held dear,

1284 See Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty, The Book of Corinthians 1: A Patristic Commentary (undated) Chapter 15.

1285 The quotes in this section are all from St. Ephrem the Syrian, Selected Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem Syrus , trans., Henry Burgess (London: Robert B. Blackader, 1853) 12 The Parting of Body and Soul: pp. 29–30 amended.

And her neighbours,

And those with whom she was familiar.”

This is how St. Ephrem the Syrian sees the wrestling between the forces of darkness and the angels of God: the former make every effort to attract the soul to themselves, and find their pleasure in dragging it into the fires of evil and darkness. On the other hand, the angels’ happiness and joy is to find a soul that has clung to the Lord, going out to meet the One with whom it lived while it was in the world, and then entering into the place of light or the divine abode. The love of the heavenly ones for us is manifested powerfully when the soul departs from the body, as they carry the soul to the divine presence: just as they carried the soul of the beggar Lazarus (Luke 16:22). As such, the angels praise the Creator who saved humanity from death and corruption and prepared an eternal inheritance for us.

While the holy soul is preoccupied with the angels who come to carry it to God and welcome it, St. Ephrem believes that the soul, as it departs, grieves for its sisters, the souls that cling to earthly matters and disdain the eternal. St. Ephrem says:

“In that hour she despises Whatsoever appertains to riches. Or worldly possessions But respecting her trespasses She has great anxiety, They being so many.”

The saint imagines a farewell speech of the soul:

“Then the soul standing separate Above the body she has left. Speaks thus to it,— ‘Death has dismissed me Remain here in peace For I am going away.’ Then the body replies,— ‘Depart in peace, O soul tenderly loved! The Lord who has fashioned us. He will procure our deliverance From Gehennah!’”