Answers of the Great Masters of the Spiritual Life to the
Questions of Their Disciples.
Macrina: (Shaking her finger,
interrupted) Is this the cause of your fears that the soul
does not last forever?
Gregory: (Answering
boldly) The Divine Word forces us to believe that the soul
exists forever; we do not believe this through logic. As a
result, our grief increases since we do not know exactly if the soul
exists, where and how.
Macrina: Those
who doubt the existence of the soul are alienating themselves from
virtue and show they are lovers of the pleasures of the
moment.
Gregory:
How can we be steadfast in or believe in the
immortality of the soul? Virtue will always be deficient if we
don't believe in this. Virtue really cannot exist in those who
do not believe in the immortality of the soul.
Macrina:
Let us discuss the matter; you take the opposing
view then I shall present the truth.
Gregory:
Dear sister, I present the opposing view not out of conviction but
so that the truth might all the more stand out. Let us
proceed. When someone dies, we see his body return to its
elements. But we see the soul return nowhere. But what
is nowhere certainly does not exist.
Macrina: (Groaning)
To think this way, as the Stoics and Epicureans, is to stay inside
the house and miss the beauty of the stars outside. The defect
is not in the stars; the defect is in the small confines of the
mind. Seeing a garment, one reasons there is a weaver;
seeing a ship, there is a ship builder, seeing a house, there is a
house builder. Yet, seeing the vast universe, the same mind
cannot say, "There is a creator of the universe."
They say that the water in man continues to exist after death but
the soul does not? To such minds, the reality of the divine
and spiritual cannot exist.
Gregory: Many
men doubt the existence of a divine reality underlying
nature.
Macrina:
Such foolish assumptions are unworthy of a
response. "Answer not a fool according to his
folly." "For the fool says there is not
God." Surely "the heavens declare the glory of
God." The harmony in nature, the heavens and the wonders
on earth and under the sea, the balance of nature, the life cycle.
The leaves fall down while vapor, contrary to gravity, rises
up. The eyes cannot but deny of a divine power, skillful and
wise and in complete control.
(03-02-05) |