Smrt kao eshatološko-istorijski izazov

Abstract

Since the eschatological-historical perspective of existence is the foundation of the existence of the Orthodox Church, death as a historical "phenomenon" certainly represents the greatest challenge to such a way of existence. Unpleasant associations and discomfort in our mental confrontation with death arise on the one hand from the fear of bodily pain that often accompanies the post-mortem states of a person. However, negative associations in relation to the notion of death most often have their origin in the ideological approach to death. Death, in this sense, is the last enemy that is identified with the terrible "reality" that somehow happens in space and time against the will of man. From a different perspective, we note that the mystagogical approach to death begins with the awareness of its association with man from the act of his creation, so that in divine mystagogy death becomes undoubtedly recognized first as a condition for the possibility of our repentance. Therefore, in the mysterial axiological dimension of life, death as a historical reality does not represent an ideological danger to existence, but a kind of path to the divine salvation of post-fallen man. The threat of death enables man to renew his life in a God-human manner according to eschatological-historical patterns by which man acts as an icon of God. To that extent, the way of researching our topic must be related to the Church as a liturgical-symbolic community on which the world rests, since it acts as the Body of Christ in which mortal man and creation with the help of divine actions are directed towards God as the Cause of immortality.