Death becomes her
Ok, reading in the Prologue of Ohrid today (old calendar-October 19) I came across this passage in the homily part which I thought was appropriate for my recent post.
"...God endowed His angels and saints with strength and life; yet all of it is His, and from Him. When shall I come and appear before God? Here is the irresistible yearning of true love for God. Shame on all who say that they believe in God and love God, while the very thought of death---of leaving this world---drives them wild with fear..."
posted by juliana @ 8:57 AM
6 Comments:
THanks for the encouragement, I was thinking it was maybe time to move on from this blog, but I find now I have more to say. :+)
Must we die to experience "union" with God? I don't think so....
Interesting point for discussion.
Must we die to experience "union" with God? I don't believe we do.
Interesting topic for discussion, Juliana.
Visit my blog.
http://ea12steps.blogspot.com/
Take Care!
-Nur
On Dying Before Dying
He who thinks of himself as other than God is certainly not other than He, because God Most High is free of all existence except His Divine Essence. All, visible and invisible, that exists in Him, with Him, apart from Him, is not other than He, for the other itself is He. Whoever sees himself thus and is endowed with these qualities, has neither bounds nor end.
One dies when, by God's will, one's borrowed time ends. One's material being -- which is called life -- ending at an appointed hour, loses all its character and qualities both good and bad. One who dies a spiritual death while his material life continues also loses his characteristics whether good or bad, and nothing of him remains. In their place God comes to be. His self becomes God's self; his attributes become God's attributes.
Die before dying, meaning, "Know yourself before you die."
It has been revealed through the muslim prophet Mohamed, peace and blessings be upon him, that God said:
My servant comes close to me with the worship of good works until I love him; and when I love him, I become the hearing in his ears; I become the sight in his eyes; I become the words on his tongue; I become the hands with which he holds; I become the strength of every part of his being.
With these divine words the we see that the one who dies before dying realizes his whole being as God's being and sees no difference between himself and God, between his attributes and God's nor does he see any necessity for nor possibility of any change in his state. For if his being were not already God, he could not even know himself.
Thus when you know yourself, your self and selfishness will leave you, and you will know that there is nothing in existence but God.
The condition for self-knowledge is to know that if you had a being of your own, independent of other being, then you would neither have needed to annihilate yourself into God nor to know yourself. You would have been, yourself, a god -- self-existent and without any other existence but you -- while it is God Most High who is free from the existence of any other god but Himself.
And when you come to know yourself, you will be sure that you neither exist nor do not exist, whether now, or before, or in the future. Then the meaning of la illaha illa Llah -- The "I" is but an illusion; God alone is real -- there is no being but His, nor any other except Him, and He is the Only One -- will become clear to you.
Love, Rockin' Hejabi
There have been some interesting comments about knowing God and experiencing God. In the Orthodox Christian Church we are called to crucify ourselves and pick up our crosses. To die to oneself has been explained by the church fathers as cutting off your will and mortifying your fleshly desires. This is always accomplished with the guidance of a spiritual father and the invocation of the Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me a sinner.” It is this along with the participation of the Holy Sacraments which exists only in the Holy Church of Christ that a person is assured of the correct path. This does not mean that God does not extend his Grace as he sees fit, only that full assurance lies in the apostolic church. Thus the work of carrying our cross and purifying our souls is part of the economy of working out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Depression is a tough thing to deal with; I have dealt with my fair share as I am sure almost everyone has who has existed on this earth. The important thing to remember is that God allows all things to help us work out our salvation. He is not the author of evil, but allows us to endure trials to help us struggle a little. This has different results for each person since everyone deals with different passions. But the God who made you and fashioned you in your mother’s womb knew you would come to this point. God is with us! You struggle through the tough times, Gods grace comes to comfort and fortify you and then another struggle comes. That is that way and how it has been for over 2,000 years. That is why the Orthodox Church is called the hospital for the soul.
May this cup pass quickly for you all.
Matthew
Matthew-thank you thank you thank you. Very timely and encouraging words for the moment at hand.
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