Death and Life from a Christian perspective

Within the Sacraments of the Orthodox Church we identify a relationship between death and life. When entering the Church we inevitably enter a different time, where an eternal present is evident. The distinction between the living and the dead Christians is abolished. Due to Christ’s resurrection, the confines of life and death have been broken down. Alexander Schmemann explains:

“Christianity is not reconciliation with death. It is the revelation of death, and it reveals death because it is the revelation of Life. Christ is this Life. And only if Christ is Life is death what Christianity proclaims it to be, namely the enemy to be destroyed, and not a ‘mystery’ to be explained”[1].

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[1] Schmemann, Alexander, The World as Sacrament, (London, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1966), p. 124