Pascha mortis. Śmierć człowieka jako wydarzenie paschalne

Abstract

Many attempts have already been made in the present-day Christian eschatology to reinterpret the event of human death in a larger perspective of christology and soteriology. The author tries to elucidate this difficult problem ecumenically in the light of Christian paschal theology. He shows first that death is not a punishment inflicted by God upon the whole mankind as a consequence of the original sin, but a truly sacramental and paschal event, an act of divine mercy /St. Irenaeus/. The presence of sin in human life makes the experience of death painful, bitter and frightening. To accept death as communion and sacramental Passover means to accept it as a holy initiation in to the new way of existence with Christ. Everyone is "the priest of his own death" /P. Evdokimov/. The death is a kenotic event, present throughout the whole of human life. It is also a personal act of man, a supreme act of fulfilment of human person. The theory of the final decision, developped by some contemporary Roman-Catholic theologians has in this respect some undeniable values. The structure of human existence is paschal, dialectic and exstatic. The kenosis is only one dimension of the exstatic way of being. It is closely linked with moment of fulfilment, regeneration and resurrection. Man is not only "abeing towards death", but at the same time , a being to wards resurrection. The death is in fact the passageway /Pascha, transitus, transcensus/ toward stransfiguration and the encounter with the Divine Light. The Christian faith is no easy consolation. By the power of Christ’s resurrection, the fear of death can however be transformed into confidence. The memory of death should not become an aim in itself. It should prompt us to attach ourselves to the faith in the resurrection, and to celebrate it with the depth of our being .