From Athanasius’ On the Incarnation:
“All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take the
offensive against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign
of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on
something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the
Saviour even the holiest of men were afraid of death,
and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now
that the Saviour has raised His body, death is no longer
terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it
underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to
deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when
they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and
become incorruptible through the resurrection. But
that devil who of old wickedly exulted in death, now
that the pains of death are loosed, he alone it is who
remains truly dead. There is proof of this too; for men
who, before they believe in Christ, think death horrible
and are afraid of it, once they are converted despise it
so completely that they go eagerly to meet it, and
themselves become witnesses of the Saviour’s
resurrection from it. Even children hasten thus to die,
and not men only, but women train themselves by
bodily discipline to meet it. So weak has death become
that even women, who used to be taken in by it, mock
it now as a dead thing robbed of all its strength. Death
has become like a tyrant who has been completely
conquered by the legitimate monarch; bound hand and
foot as he now is, the passers-by jeer at him, hitting him
and abusing him, no longer afraid of his cruelty and
rage, because of the king who has conquered him. So
has death been conquered and branded for what it is by
the Saviour on the cross. It is bound hand and foot, all
who are in Christ trample it as they pass and as
witnesses to Him deride it, scoffing and saying, ‘O
Death, where is thy victory? O Grave, where is thy
sting?’”
The death of death
by
Tags: