Following the holy fathers... is an expression which commonly introduces official documents of the Church. The Orthodox look to them as the supreme expositors of the Christian Faith. As expositors or exegetes (interpreters) of the holy Scriptures there is no higher authority than the fathers. So it is that Fr Seraphim turned to them in order to find support for his opinions on life after death. We, too, must look to the fathers, not only to show how the hieromonk of Platina has shamelessly misused them, but also to discern what is the true doctrine of the fathers on the question before us.
A few examples should suffice. Several times Fr Seraphim calls for support from The Spiritual Homilies of St Macarius the Great:
"Like the tax-collectors sitting in the narrow ways and laying hold upon passers by, and extorting from them so the devils spy upon souls and lay hold of them; and when they pass out of the body, if they are not perfectly cleansed, they do not suffer them to mount up to the mansions of heaven, and to meet their Lord, and they are driven down by the devils of the air. But if whilst they are in the flesh..."(1)
Reading this version of the Saint's discourse, one would probably agree that he taught the toll-house theory. But let us look at the entire passage:
"Just as the winds, blowing powerfully, shall all creatures in the sky, produce a very loud sound; likewise does the power of the enemy shake our thoughts, and carry them away, stirring the depths of the heart at will while scattering those thoughts for his own purposes. Like tax-collectors [Gr., telonai] who sit along the narrow street, extorting money from passers-by, so also the demons watch carefully and grab hold of souls. And when the thoughts pass out of the body, if they have not been completely purified, they are not permitted to reach the heavenly mansions to meet its Master. Rather they are driven down by the demons of the air. If, however, they are yet in the flesh, they shall..." (Sp. Hom. 43:9 PG 45 777BC).
Clearly St Macarius refers to the soul which, through its thoughts, seeks to transcend the limitations of the human body. Thoughts are born in the soul or, more precisely, the spirit (See chap. 5, endnote 10). Thus, the devil and his demons "watch carefully" or "spy" upon the soul in order to discover some weakness in it. In that way, the demons can prevent our thoughts from soaring to "heavenly mansions."(2)
Fr Seraphim draws once more upon St Macarius. Using the Mason's less than accurate translation, he quotes the twenty-second homily:
"When the soul of a man departs out of the body a great mystery is there accomplished. If it is under the guilt of sins, there comes a band of devils and angels of the left hand, and powers of darkness take over the soul, and hold fast on their side. No one ought to be surprised at this. If, while alive in this world, man was subject and compliant to them, and himself their bondsman, how much more when he departs this world is he kept down and held fast by them."(3)
Now a correct translation from Migne's Patrology:(4)
When the soul of a man departs his body a great mystery occurs. If he is yet under guilt of sin, bands of demons and angels of the left, powers of darkness, descend upon the soul and drag it as prisoner to their own place. None should be surprised at this. For if, while in this life, a man lives in subjection to them and was their obedient slave, how much more when he leaves this world shall he be captive to and controlled by them. When the righteous leave their bodies, bands of angels receive their souls and carry them to their side, to pure eternity. And so they are with the Lord (Spir. Hom. 22 PG 34 660AB).
There is no mention of toll-houses here. But more important than this, why did Fr Seraphim omit the last few sentences of the homily? Why did he not inform us that St Macarius believed that, while evil spirits will claim their own, the angels of the Lord will take the righteous (i.e., believers) to dwell with the Lord?(5) In other words, the latter do not pass through a gauntlet of demons before they reach "pure eternity." Of course, the wicked have no need to do so, for they have already chosen to belong to Satan.
Let us take two more examples before presenting the Christian doctrine of the fathers - from St Gregory the Dialogist and St Anthony the Great.
In the second book of his Homilies on the Gospel (39, 8 PL 76 1298D-1299D), Pope St Gregory urges his listeners to ponder what verdict the "Strict Judge" might render concerning our lives. The translation is from the Latin:
"We should think very seriously about that dreadful hour of our resolution, think of it with trepidation of mind, recalling our many evils, with apprehension of the strict Judge. How can we delight in this present life when we know that everything passes away. What we love shall perish; it begins where sorrow never ends. Then, too, shall the wicked spirits look for their own works in the soul as it goes forth; then will they display the evil deeds which they instigated in us, so that they drag it down with them to torment. The perversity of the demons may even touch the elect as they depart this life, seeking in them something of their own, if they are able. Among all men there was One Who said before His Passion, `I will no longer...' Thus, in our concern we must reflect daily with many tears upon how dreadful will be the claims of `the ruler of the age' on the day of our death..."
Here is Fr Seraphim's English translation of Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov's Russian translation of the same passage (Fr Seraphim's unique version appears in The Soul After Death, p. 81):
"One must reflect deeply on how frightful the hour of death be for us, what terror the soul will then experience, what remembrance of all the evils, what forgetfulness of past happiness, what fear, and what apprehension of the Judge. Then the evil spirits will seek out in the departing soul its deeds; then they present before its view the sins towards which they had disposed it, so as to drag their accomplice to torment. But why do we speak only of the sinful soul, when they come even to the chosen among the dying and seek out their own in them? Among men there was only one who before His suffering fearlessly said, `Hereafter I talk not much with you. For the prince of the world cometh, and hath nothing in me' (John 14:30)..."
Compare the wording in the first translation, especially So as to drag their accomplice with them to torment to the Seraphim Rose translation - so as to drag their accomplice to torment. He has maintained all the time that those who fail the toll-house interrogation are "dragged" into hell.
If we accept Fr Seraphim's English wording, there is surely an allusion to the toll-houses; but his "from Latin to Russian to English" translation is faulty. The words "so as to drag their accomplice with them (was this intentionally excluded by him?) to torment" refer to The Judgment Day of the Second Coming, when the devil and his human accomplices will go away into Gehenna.
Fr Seraphim is wrong for another reason. That the demons "seek something of their own" in the departing soul, even the righteous, is hardly something new. It is their pleasure, their reason for being, not only to lead us into sin, but to accuse falsely of sin every soul whether "in the body" or "out of the body." The demons want human company in hell. But Fr Seraphim implies much more. He believes that the toll-houses exist "to determine the fitness of the soul to dwell in heaven."(6)
Fr Rose was just as wrong about St Pope Gregory as he was about the other holy fathers. He nevertheless manages to convince himself that, one way or another, they support his Gnosticism. He is persuaded, also, that there is an experience of the toll-houses not only after death, but before death. He gives us one of "the many and clear examples" from St Athanasius' Life of St Anthony.
During prayer, St Anthony "was seized by the Holy Spirit and raised up by the angels into heights." His ascent was opposed by "demons in the air." They accuse him of many sins, "but the angels closed the mouths of the slanderers." "Immediately Anthony came to himself and found himself standing in the same place where he had stood for prayer." He forgot about everything and remained all night in prayer with tears and groans, "reflecting on the multitude of man's enemies, on the battle against such an army, on the difficulty of the path to heaven through the air, and on the words of the Apostles, Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood... (Eph.6:12; Rm.2:2). St Paul, "knowing that the aerial powers were seeking only one thing," hope to impede "our free passage to heaven..."(7)
How does Fr Seraphim describe this event? "We have seen above that the experience of St Anthony the Great with the toll-houses was during an `out of body' experience..."(8) These remarks are important. They illustrate the "care" with which he does his research.
Nowhere in St Anthony's encounter with the demons is there any mention of the toll-houses; nor is he detained, nor does he see souls detained by them. Fr Seraphim labels the saint's experience as "out of body," but it was not his soul, but he himself, St Anthony, who was carried to the "heights" - not to invisible realms. He was slandered by the demons whose mouths were shut by the angels - an aspect of the After-life experience not mentioned in Rose's definition of the toll-house theory.
Apparently, it is unthinkable that the influence of the "aerial demons" exists only in this world; and that St Anthony had an "in the body" experience with the demons in the "heights" of the air. They will accuse all men at the Final Judgment, as they do now and at the hour of our death. But this is not the same as stopping the soul at the toll-house, or "custom houses," as some Gnostics call them, adjudging the soul worthy or unworthy of heaven, releasing it or casting it into hell.
"Falling asleep" is the Christian phrase which describes death, the separation of body and soul.(9) At the moment of death, the individual is prejudged by God: the body goes into the ground and the soul, now without any senses or physical instrumentality, is sent into a temporary state of joy or grief.
Listen to St Gregory the Theologian's oration at the funeral of his brother, Caesarius:
I believe the words of the wise, that every fair and God-beloved soul, when set free from the bonds of the body, departs hence, and at once (Gr., euthus) enjoys a sense and vision (Gr., theoria) of good things to come, inasmuch as what was dark in it has been purged or laid aside...and feels a wondrous pleasure and exultation, and rejoices in the Lord. Then, a little later, it will receive its flesh, which once shared in its pursuit of things above... And, as it shared the hardships of the body through a common life (Gr. sumphyan), so also is bestowed upon the body the joys of the soul hereafter, gathering it up into itself, and becoming with it one in spirit and mind in God... I await the voice of the Archangel, the last trumpet, the transformation of the heavens... Then shall I see Caesarius himself, no longer an exile, no longer spread on a bier, no longer the object of mourning and pity, but brilliant, glorious, heavenly, such as in my dreams I have often beheld thee, dearest and most loving brother, in very truth if not by my desire (Oration VII, 21 PG 35 781BC).
In the words of St Ambrose, "Body and soul are judged together" (De Ex. Frat. sui Satyrus, II, 8). If for no other reason, Fr Seraphim's toll-house theory is false: it does not recognize the common judgment belonging to body and soul. Christ alone judges all men.
As the body decays in the grave, the soul immediately enters hades - "to the left" or "to the right" - to await judgment with its body. Thus, as the corpse must remain in the grave until the general resurrection, when it reunites with the soul, so the soul must remain where it has gone until it rejoins its body. As St John Chrysostom says:
Nor indeed is it possible for a soul, torn away from the body, to wander here any more. For the souls of the righteous are in the Hand of God (Wisd. 3:1)...and the souls of sinners are also led away hence. This is evident from the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man; and elsewhere also Christ says, This day your soul will be required of you (Luke 12:20). Therefore, when the soul has gone forth from the body, it cannot wander here; nor is the reason hard to understand: for if we, going about in the earth which is familiar and well know to us, as once we did when encompassed with a body, journeys down a strange road, know not which way to go unless guided; how should the bodiless soul, having lost her accustomed condition, know where to walk without someone to show it the way (Commentary on Matthew, Homily 28, 3 PG 57 373-374).
To be sure, God may cause us to have visions of a departed person, even as St Columban "appeared" to St Brendan or the Three Hierarchs to St John of Euchaita; but these occurrences involved no "disincarnate spirit," to use Fr Seraphim's Theosophic language,(10) wandering the earth - no, not in this world nor the next; neither does the soul float, like some ghost, around its dead body - not for three or nine or forty days.(11)
The soul resides where it is taken; it "slumbers." Fr Seraphim is wrong to identify "the sleep of the soul" with the vulgar doctrine of modern sectarians.(12) He is right, however, to insist upon the soul's awareness of its new existence.(13) "Although sleeping soundly, the soul, as if in a dream," exclaims St Aphrahat the Persian, "sees something of what the Lord has promised to give it, and (if righteous) exults and is gladdened" (Select Demonstrations, VIII, 8-20).(14) The soul "either rejoices or laments after death," writes St Anastasios of Sinai (Answer, 89).
Also, judging from the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, even those in "the place of torment" recollect their life on earth. The Rich Man, cognizant of his earthly life, pleads with Father Abraham to send someone to warn his five brothers about the fate that awaits them. The Patriarch replied that they have Moses and the Prophets to help them avoid the "torment" which he endures (Luke 16:28).
Moreover, the dead may be affected by the prayers of the living. "We pray for the departed," writes St Peter of Damascus, "that they may receive salvation."(15) And, of course, the Theotokos and the Saints "hear" the living and intercede for them as well as the prayers they offer for the departed. This they do by the Will of God and not by virtue of some power inherent to the soul.
Thus, the holy fathers teach that God controls the destiny of the soul, where it shall dwell, what powers it retains, after its separation from the flesh. The devil has no authority over the soul, asserts St John Chrysostom, "having not the power to bring violence upon the soul, whether in the body or after its departure from it, but, according to the words of the Lord, the beggar died and was carried away by the angels. Not only the souls of the righteous, but also the wicked are carried away" (On Lazarus and the Rich Man, Hom. 2 PG 48 984).
Both the righteous and the wicked abide, in a conscious but immovable state, in hades, with the exception of the glorified Saviour, the Mother of God and the Saints. The Church prays for her dead, her members who have gone over to the other side. They are still her sons and daughters. By her pleadings He forgives their sins and alleviates their pain. More about this matter later.
1. The Soul After Death, p. 257 (A.J. Mason translation. Willits, 1974, p. 274).
2. This in itself condemns the heretical teaching of "out of body experiences." If one reads the Philokalia, one will find many warnings against allowing the thoughts or imagination to depart "outward," where they pass into the realm of demonic delusion. This is the whole purpose of prayer of the heart. St Gregory Palamas says, in this context: "To cause the mind to abide outside the body itself, so as there to chance upon noetic spectacles, is the root and source of the very worst of Hellenic [i.e., pagan] errors and of all heresies, an invention of demons, an instruction engendering folly and an offspring of senselessness..." (Response to Barlaam).
3. Ibid., pp. 257-258 (Mason, p. 171).
4. In the last century, the French scholar J.P. Migne made a collection, in the original language, of fathers and other church writers. The books of the Greek authors is cited PG with the volume number and page; and of Latin writers the same way, but as PL.
5. It is important to pay attention to this aspect of Fr Seraphim Rose's writing. He has no conscience at all about "selectively editing" the fathers that he quotes, or even distorting their words to suit his purposes. One must seriously ask: why was he not rather instructed by the holy fathers instead of attempting to correct them?
6. The Soul After Death, p. 136. The Synod of Constantinople (1672) defines the Particular Judgment another way: "We believe that the souls of the departed are in either repose or torment as each one has wrought, for immediately after the separation from the body they are pronounced either in bliss or suffering and sorrow; yet we confess that neither the joy nor the condemnation are yet complete. After the general resurrection, when the soul is united to the body, each one will receive the full measure of joy or condemnation due to him for the way in which he conducted himself, whether well or ill" (in Frank Gavin, Some Aspects of Contemporary Greek Orthodox Thought, Milwaukee, 1936, p. 395f). Fr Seraphim's conclusions are incredible. No one other than the Gnostic "Mystic Masters" ever afforded such authority and power to demons.
7. Taken from Bishop Ignatius' Works (vol. 3), pp. 138-139; and Life of St Anthony, Eastern Orthodox Books, ed., p. 41 (in The Soul After Death, pp. 79-80).
8. Ibid., p. 90.
9. "Sleep," writes Archbishop Lazar, "is the metaphor used to describe the condition of the person after death." There is an exceptionally good discussion of this matter in Chapter 3 of the third edition of The Soul, the Body, and Death, p. 22f.
10. Whether Fr Seraphim was aware of it or not, his idea of the soul is Greek and Gnostic (See St Gregory Palamas, Hagioretic Tome PG 150 1233BD). He seems to believe that the soul is imprisoned in the body and death a blessing which frees it to dwell in an atmosphere more amenable to its spiritual nature (Ibid., p. 36, 106, 123-124, 141, 128). The credibility of the "out of body" experiences rests on the body/soul dualism, with the soul as the true self whose home is heaven, a home it cannot find until released from the prison of the body. Fr Seraphim's teaching about the relationship between soul and body is so patently heretical, and has been so often condemned by several fathers of the Church that his ignorance in the matter is astonishing.
11. The popular notion that the family must offer Kolyva on the third, ninth and fortieth days for the rest of the soul, hovering over the body from which it had been separated in death, has no basis in Christian belief. The practice is Gnostic in origin. See Archbishop Lazar's discussion of St Symeon of Thessalonica, On Things Done for the Departed in The Soul, the Body and Death, pp. 51-52, 1st edition. The Constitutions of the Holy Apostles gives the same reasons as does St Symeon. The Church's commemoration of the reposed is in fact a prayer for the renewal of human nature.
From where did the Gnostic doctrine of the commemoration of the dead come? Perhaps, the earliest record of it is a clearly Gnostic document entitled, "The Revelation of an Angel about Apocryphal and Ineffable Mysteries about the Commemoration of Those Fallen Asleep" falsely ascribed to St Macarius of Egypt and attached to his Fifty Spiritual Homilies. That St Macarius lived in Egypt is not without significance, for in this land are found the non-Greek roots of Gnosticism. Pagan Egyptian mythology teaches that the soul cannot rest until the body has been properly buried and, therefore, the soul must wander until the embalming ritual for the dead is completed. During this period, the soul is judged and weighed by forty two nome-gods (See M. Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas [vol. 2], Chicago, 1982, pp. 403-407; and chap. 1 above, note 11).
12. Ibid., pp. 249-253.
13. Fr Seraphim was unfair to accuse "the Critic" of describing the souls of the departed as "narcoticized and unable to perceive anything." He clearly states quite the opposite (See The Soul, the Body and Death, p. 14, 1st edition). Fr Seraphim was apparently simply prevaricating for political reasons.
14. Quoted in Archbishop Lazar Puhalo's The Soul, The Body and Death, where he gives a soundly patristic explanation of this.
15. Philokalia (vol. 3), trans. by G.E.H. Palmer, P. Sherrard, K. Ware. (London, 1984, p. 200).