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Chapter 14MogilaPravIsp.1.14

О двенадцатом члене Символа веры

The Twelfth Article of Faith

This pericope introduces the twelfth article of the Creed, which speaks of the life of the world to come.

Question 124. What is the twelfth article of the faith? Answer. “And the life of the world to come.”✦1

The Nature of Eternal Life

This section explains that eternal life in the age to come is a state of spiritual joy and gladness for God's chosen ones, as confirmed by Scripture.

Question 125. What does the Holy Church teach about this article of faith?2 Answer. That in the age to come God's blessing will come down upon His chosen ones, and eternal life will begin for them — a life full of spiritual joy and gladness that never ends, as Scripture testifies: "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor.3 2:9); and again in another place: "For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17).

The Resurrection of the Body

This pericope addresses whether the soul enjoys eternal joy alone or with the body, affirming that the resurrected body will be glorified, immortal, and spiritual, sharing in the soul's joy.

Question 126. Will the soul enjoy that eternal joy by itself, or together with the body? Answer. Since the soul does good together with the body for the sake of an eternal reward, the soul will enjoy joy and gladness together with the body, and not apart from it. For the soul's joy won't be one thing and the body's another, since the body will be glorified, and the human person will consist of a soul and a glorified body. Then he will be like the angels, in the words of Scripture: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels of God in heaven” (Matt.4 22:30). The body will be glorified, immortal, incorruptible; it won't need food or drink; it will be like spirit, as Scripture testifies: “The dead will rise incorruptible, and we will be changed; for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor.5 15:52–53). And this joy and gladness will consist in nothing other than the contemplation of the Blessed Trinity and in spiritual song together with the angels, as the Apostle says: “For now we see as if in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known” (1 Cor.6

The Beatific Vision

The ultimate joy of the age to come is the direct contemplation of the Blessed Trinity, a vision that satisfies all desires and is the fullness of joy.

13:12).7 And although the Lord said to Moses, "You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live" (Ex. 33:20) — but this is to be understood of our condition before redemption, and in reference to this perishable, not yet glorified body and to the present life. After redemption, in the glorified body, in the life to come and eternal, once the day of the last judgment has passed, God will give us a light by which we will see the light of God, as the Psalmist said: "For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we shall see light" (Ps.8 35:10). That light, once we behold it, will satisfy every desire for all wisdom and all beauty. For every other good is contained in the contemplation of the Highest Good, and to delight in it is the fullness of all joy — as the same Psalmist says: "I shall be satisfied when your glory appears to me" (Ps. 16:15).

Read the original Russian

Вопрос 124. Какой двенадцатый член веры?

Ответ. «И жизни будущаго века».

Вопрос 125. Чему учит Святая Церковь в сем члене веры?

Ответ. Что в будущем веке снидет благословение Божие на избранных Его, и наступит для них вечная жизнь, полная радостей и веселий духовных, конца не имеющих, как свидетельствует Писание: «ихже око не виде, и ухо не слыша, и на сердце человеку не взыдоша, яже уготова Бог любящым Его» (1Кор. 2, 9); а также и в другом месте: «Несть бо Царство Божие брашно и питие, но правда и мир и радость о Дусе Святе» (Рим. 14, 17).

Вопрос 126. Одна ли душа, или вместе с телом будет наслаждаться вечной радостью?

Ответ. поскольку душа вместе с телом творит добро для вечной награды, то и радостию и веселием душа будет наслаждаться вместе с телом, а не раздельно. Ибо не другая радость будет у души, и не другая у тела; поскольку тело будет прославлено, и человек будет состоять из души и тела прославленного. Тогда он будет подобен Ангелам, по словам Писания: «в воскресение бо ни женятся, ни посягают, но яко Ангели Божии на небеси суть» (Мф. 22, 30). Тело будет прославленное, безсмертное, нетленное; не будет требовать пищи и пития; будет подобно духу, по свидетельству Писания: «мертвии востанут нетлении, и мы изменимся: подобает бо тленному сему облещися в нетление и мертвенному сему облещися в безсмертие» (1Кор. 15, 52–53). Радость же сия и веселие не в ином чем будет состоять как в созерцании Блаженной Троицы, и в духовном песнословии вместе с Ангелами, как говорит Апостол: «Видим убо ныне якоже зерцалом в гадании, тогда же лицем к лицу: ныне разумею от час ти, тогда же познаю, якоже и познан бых» (1Кор.

13, 12). И хотя Господь сказал Моисею: «лица Моего не можно тебе увидеть, потому что человек не может увидеть Меня и остаться в живых» (Исх. 33, 20); но сие должно разуметь о состоянии прежде искупления, и по отношению к сему тленному и еще непрославленному телу, и к настоящей жизни, по искуплении же, в теле прославленном, в будущей и вечной жизни, после дня последнего суда, дан будет нам от Бога свет, которым мы будем видеть свет Божий, как сказал Псалмопевец: "Яко у Тебе источник живота, во свете Твоем, узрим свет» (Пс. 35, 10). Сей созерцаемый свет успокоит всякое желание всякой мудрости и красоты. Ибо в созерцании Высочайшего Блага заключаются все прочие блага, и наслаждение оным есть полнота всякой радости, по словам того же Псалмопевца: «насыщуся, внегда явитимися славе Твоей» (Пс. 16, 15).

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Mark.10.30;Luke.18.30 — whoever does not receive a hundredfold now in this time — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, along with persecutions — and in the coming age, eternal life. Luke.18.30 — who will not receive back many times more in this age, and in the age to come, eternal life.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Church Slavonic «жизни будущаго века», literally “the life of the age to come.” Rendered with the familiar English creedal cadence “the life of the world to come” (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, article 12), which preserves both the eschatological sense and the liturgical recognizability of the quoted article.
  2. 2 ↩Church Slavonic 'в сем члене веры' is rendered as 'in this article of the faith'; 'член' here is the technical term for a clause of the Creed, not a body part or member. The archaic demonstrative 'сем' is modernized to 'this' per the no-archaism rule.
  3. 3 ↩The quotation is given in Church Slavonic in the source («ихже око не виде...»). It is rendered here in dignified contemporary English while keeping the familiar triple cadence of eye / ear / heart.
  4. 4 ↩The source quotes Church Slavonic; rendered in solemn, uncontracted English pending Moses resolution of the quoted wording.
  5. 5 ↩The quoted span is Church Slavonic; rendered in solemn English pending Moses resolution.
  6. 6 ↩Slavonic "зерцалом в гадании" is literally "in a mirror, in a riddle"; rendered "as if in a mirror, dimly" for sense. Final wording awaits Moses resolution.
  7. 7 ↩This sentence is only the tail of a scripture citation (1 Cor. 13:12) split across the sentence boundary at the end of the previous section; it carries no translatable prose.
  8. 8 ↩"Сие должно разуметь" is a doctrinal qualifier: the Exodus denial is restricted to the unredeemed, unglorified state, not to the beatific vision. Rendered as an explicit contrast rather than a bare 'but', since the whole force of the paragraph rests on it.

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