By Fr. George Dorbarakis
It is known that for our Church, although every Saturday is dedicated to the holy martyrs and the faithful who have fallen asleep, there are two Saturdays for souls: that of the eve of Meatfare Sunday and that of the eve of Holy Pentecost. That is why on both of these days we hear the Synaxarion note: “On this day, the most divine Fathers have established that we remember all those who have fallen asleep piously from the beginning, that is, those who have departed from this world in the hope of the resurrection of eternal life.”
For the Church, the deceased are not part of the world that “has ended and is gone” – as many believe, who have enclosed their existence within the suffocating framework of this world, because they have erased God and Christ from their lives. The deceased constitute an organic part of the Church, that is, part of the Body of Christ, because death is not the door that leads to nonexistence, but the door that leads to the embrace of Christ. Just as we believers live in this embrace in this world, the same and even more so happens at the time of our death and afterwards. The Apostle Paul tells us this in a direct way, based of course on the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: “Whether we are in this life or whether we depart from this life, we belong to the Lord."
And it is understandable: the Lord as Almighty, as Creator and Provveditore and Governor of the entire world, as “the One from whom and through whom and to whom all things are created,” gives us the opportunity to live here in this world psychosomatically, but also after our death as souls, much more so after His Second Coming which will resurrect our bodies to be united again with our souls, so that we may live whole in His presence, either positively (Paradise) or unfortunately negatively (Hell). In other words, if life exists and endures, as it actually does, this is due to its source, which is God Himself. “For with You is the fountain of life.” “I am the way and the truth and the life.” The Lord is the God of the living and the dead.
Therefore, we remember these deceased, especially those who died in faith, on Saturdays and especially on Saturdays of the Soul, like today, with the aim, on the one hand, of praying for their rest in the Lord – as humans they may not have completed their repentance – and on the other hand, of challenging those of us still in the world to deepen our repentance, to feel in view of the threshold of death that true life is the life that has an eternal character and is not the one that simply feeds our passions, especially selfishness and any of its offshoots – to orient our hearts and thoughts to the Lord’s commandment “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (all the necessities of life) will be added to you.”
And we must emphasize that these two: prayer for the dead and a challenge to truly repent, are not simply additive situations in the sense of doing one, but an opportunity to do the other. And this is because one constitutes a prerequisite for the other. Repenting means that I change my mind, I change my way of seeing things, I change my life – I return to God by remaining in His holy will, love. And this will mean that I begin, in proportion to my repentance, to love correctly both God and my fellow man, my fellow man in fact who is found anywhere on earth and in any depth of time. Let us not forget that according to our faith, the Christian constitutes an “imitation of Christ” as created in His image, therefore the mind of Christ that encompassed all of humanity within Him, locally and temporally, constitutes a limit for every Christian, so the repentant Christian encompasses any fellow human being, in any local and temporal extent, in his existence, considering him an organic part of himself. Thus, his prayer for the departed is not merely a desirable state, but a given reality of his consciousness, a duty that, without it, he nearly falls away from his faith. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
And so our Church, on the occasion of the limit of death, as we have said, calls us to repentance, to this immensity of its experience in the Lord, to true life based on the commandments of God. Because it is unfortunately very easy in this world that we find ourselves in, having fallen into sin, to deviate from the Way of Christ and to cling to our passions that are attracted by the allure of the world's carnal worship. One hymn, in fact, among the many that the Church offers us, is very characteristic of shaking off the delusion of the senses and opening our eyes to the true reality of God.
All who are engrossed in mundane existence, come and be amazed as we look within the caskets. Behold, the illusion of the world and its deception. Where is the beauty of the body, and the glory of wealth, where is the pride in one’s position? Truly all this is vanity. Therefore let us cry out to the Savior: “To those You chose from what is temporal grant repose, because of Your great mercy.”
It refers to all of us who are not at the proper level of true sons: to be attached to the Lord by our love for Him. Often attached - or perhaps constantly? - to the cares of life, captivated by our passions, we forget what is most essential for our salvation: eternal life as a living relationship with God. And our contact with the graves comes, because of the day, to remember that ultimately everything we do and pursue in this life, if it is not colored by Christ, is in vain (beauty, wealth, positions, offices). How much we should remember the words of Scripture already from the Old Testament: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” And: “Remember your end and you will never sin.” If we are not moved by the love of God, at least let the fear of death move us. It may not be the best, but at least it can be a salvation.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
