LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT STEP SIX REMEMBRANCE OF DEATH

LADDER OF DIVINE ASCENT STEP SIX

STEP 6  “REMEMBERING OUR MORTALITY”

This brief step considers a rather simple but essential practice of the desert fathers; to remember not only that one will die, but what death brings – judgment (Hebrews 9:27)  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment……  Such a thought spurs one on to repentance and conversion, prevents laziness, makes dishonor and indignity sweet, banishes worries and anxieties, and deters sin.  This alone is enough to make John call it the "most essential of all works."

Remembrance of death is defined, including how one recognizes it in others; John discusses how remembrance of death leads a monk to conversion and repentance and the practice of specific ascetical disciplines; John shows how remembrance of death prevents spiritual laziness and deters sin; John warns against excessive trust in the leniency of God and exhorts his monks to embrace this holy practice. The word “leniency” defines that God is not harsh or severe.

Each day, in our morning and evening prayers, as we pray for the purpose of our departed loved ones, we are introduced to the theme of St John of the Ladder’s sixth step: The remembrance of Death. He has powerful things to say about this:

Every word is preceded by thought. And the remembrance of death and sins precedes weeping and mourning…(1)

The remembrance of death is a daily death: and the remembrance of our departure is an hourly sighing or groaning…(2)

It is not about remembering death for death’s sake, or just to remind ourselves that we are mortal. It is about remembering death for the sake of detaching ourselves from the world. (1 Cor 15:31) I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. I die daily.(Romans 14:8) For if we live, we live to the Lord: and if we die, we die to the Lord.  (Gal 2:20) I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live… In this aspect, we are to “die daily” to our flesh. (Romans 6:1-14) see passage..

Fear of death is a natural instinct that comes from disobedience, but terror at death is evidence of unrepented sin…..(3)

Let this truth sink into your heart.. In this appointment, we are to be ready and not fearful due to unrepented sins..

Christ fears death, but does not show terror, in order to demonstrate clearly the properties of His two natures. (3)

There is a big difference between a respectful fear and a terrorized fear..

Matthew 26:37 “And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.”

Just as bread is the most necessary of all foods, so the thought of death is the most essential of all works…(4) 

The man who lives daily with the thoughts of death is to be admired, and the man who gives himself to it by the hour is surely a saint…(7)

We must remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return. Daily meditation on these realities have long been held up by the Desert Fathers as essential for the spiritual life and as a means of avoiding sin; but most of all as way of heeding the words of our Lord who warns us that we know neither the day nor the hour. Life is a gift, but we must not take it or our salvation lightly

Our mind is so darkened by the fall that unless we force ourselves to remember death we can completely forget about it. When we forget about death, then we begin to live on earth as if we were immortal, and we sacrifice all our activity to the world without concerning ourselves in the least either about the fearful transition to eternity or about our fate in eternity. Then we boldly and peremptorily override the commandments of Christ; then we commit all the vilest sins; then we abandon not only unceasing prayer but even the prayers appointed for definite times—we begin to scorn this essential and indispensable occupation as if it were an activity of little importance and little needed. Forgetful of physical death, we die a spiritual death.

On the other hand, he who often remembers the death of the body rises from the dead in soul.  He lives on earth like a stranger in an inn or like a prisoner, constantly expecting to be called out for trial or execution. Before his eyes the gates into eternity are always open. He continually looks in that direction with spiritual anxiety, with deep sorrow and reflection. He is constantly occupied with wondering what will justify him at Christ's terrible Judgment and what his sentence will be. This sentence decides a person's fate for the whole of eternity. No earthly beauty, no earthly pleasure draws his attention or his love. If the thought comes to him to be proud of virtue, at once the remembrance of death rushes against this thought, puts it to shame, exposes the nonsense and drives it away.

Ephesians 2:1-6 (NIV)  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,  in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

2 Cor. 4:10 (NIV) We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

The remembrance of death – a sure and constant remembrance that I must die, that my death may come at any time, and that after death I must give an account for how I lived this life – is a powerful incitement to godly living. John records the story of Hesychius the Horebite for our edification:

All his life he was careless and he paid not the slightest attention to his soul. Then a very grievous illness came on him, so that he was for a whole hour absent from the body.  After he revived, he begged us all to go away at once, built up the door of his cell, and remained twelve years inside without ever speaking to anyone and taking only bread and water. He never stirred and was always intent on what it was he had seen in his ecstasy. He never moved and had the look of someone who was out of his mind. And, silently, he wept warm tears. But when he was at the point of death, we broke in and asked him many questions.  All he would say was this: “Please forgive me. No one who has acquired the remembrance of death will ever be able to sin.” (18)

As we think about those who have gone before us, let us always remember that very soon we shall join them in the grave. Death comes to all, and to many it comes early. In the grave, all the distinctions between men are obliterated. Where is the strong and where is the weak? Where is the rich and where is the poor? Where is the beautiful and where is the ugly? Where is the Ph.D and where is the high school drop out? Do they not all look the same as they decay in their graves? Will we not join  them?

This life is very short. Why then do we spend so much time trying to make this short, passing life comfortable and happy? Why do we not spend more time preparing for the life which will follow? That life is eternal. That life will never end. And either we will enjoy Paradise because of how we labored here, or we will endure the fires of hell because of how we did not labor here.

We often live as if we will never die. We act as if we are immortal and there will always be time enough for God later.  This is monstrously stupid! Let us embrace true wisdom. Let us remember our death, and in remembering our death, let us repent of our preoccupation with this world.

The Fathers warns us of the need to repent of our preoccupation with the world.  As the psalmist says: “As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” Psalm 103:15-16

Someone has said that you cannot pass a day devoutly unless you think of it as your last… This, then, is the sixth step.  He who climbed it will never sin..  “Remember your last end, and you will never sin” (24)

Ecclesiasticus 7:36  (1611 King James Bible) “Whatsoeuer thou takest in hand, remember the end, and thou shalt neuer doe amisse.”

Sirach 7:36 (The Apocrypha)  “In all you do, remember the end of your life, and then you will never sin.”