"Fear is a life-giving, God-given gift, essential for survival. It is an evolved capacity in the human being, so science tells us. But like other God-given gifts and drives, which I inherently have as a human being, fear becomes harmful to me when it is divorced from God; when it is not “of God” and takes on a life of its own. Inherent, human fear in a life not God-focused is crippling, existential anxiety in the face of the many uncertainties and ambivalences that are part-and-parcel of any human life." (Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin)
“Death and loss is an existential confrontation with who we are and our meaning in life…For the committed…Christian…Christ is the meaning of life: God's Love, Mercy and Will, and the grace we receive to respond with hope and trust, is the foundation life's meaning.” (Fr. George Morelli)
“On a very basic, human level, we all wrestle with pain. It’s the great existential problem with which mankind struggles: we’re trapped between God’s comforting assurance, as He created the world, that “it is good,” and the awful reality that the good gifts of creation are all doomed to death and decay. We fully experience the brutal, numbing terror of the grave because we intuitively feel the unbridled joy of birth and creation. On a visceral level, we know the world was made for something better than the tomb. The world is a good thing; its big problem is that it doesn’t last. Yet we see the world as it was meant to be in the light of Christ’s victory over death.” (Steven Christoforou)
“When we enter into the realm of Christ’s truth we enter into the realm of freedom - freedom from ignorance and fear, from existential vacuum and metaphysical chaos, from guilt, sin, and evil which ruthlessly plague humankind…It is unfortunate, or rather tragic, that many people, especially the young, ignore this integration of truth and fife, truth and freedom that knowledge of Christ produces. Despite their advanced knowledge and how astonishingly informed they are in every conceivable field, they are extremely poor in knowing the wholeness of truth revealed by Jesus. As a result they turn to other sources, even to therapy, in order to obtain answers to crucial existential questions. Saint Paul knew this need as well as the immense, incomparable value of sharing in the wholeness of truth revealed by Christ. He therefore uses extremely intense language to underline this point when he writes to the Philippians: “I count everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of the knowledge of Christ.” (His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis)
“…our understanding of “dying with Christ” has been grievously complicated in the modern world. We no longer understand death as a spiritual reality, “of which one can partake while being alive, from which one can be free while lying in the grave…” Death is reduced to a mere biological event. We have lost sight of the reality that death means separation from God, with attendant physical, psychological, and spiritual corruption…Christ Jesus longs to free us from spiritual death. The Lord Jesus embraced death and overcame it so that He might end that creeping death in our hearts. (Dynamis 1/31/2015)