Metropolitan Hilarion discusses the topic of Christian burial and commemoration. Many Protestants would disagree with the practice of commemorating the departed by praying for them. But Christ Himself teaches us that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – that is He is the God of the living, not of the dead (†John Chrysostom). Whether we are alive here or departed there Christ still recognizes and arranges for our need of continual communion and prayer for the absolution of our sins through the Church supplications to God and virtue practiced for the dead. Unlike Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox Church prays for all people, whether Orthodox or not, whether holy or not. We just finished the Sunday of Pascha when we celebrate and sing that the iron gates, the bars, and the barriers of Hell are broken. St. Jerome teaches along with many holy fathers that the fires of Gehenna are quenched and the demons are in anguish. St. John Chrysostom’s paschal homily teaches that all can come to the feast no matter what hour they arrive, and that Hades has been embittered. Roman Catholicism at least since the scholastic period has divided hell (infernum makes no difference between hell and hades) into different parts: limbus patrum, limbus puerorum, purgatorium, and infernum. The Orthodox Church teaches that all of th need prayers for purification to move closer to God in rest. The Papal Office teaches that only those in purgatory can receive prayers that would alleviate them and in a sense absolve sins beyond the grave, since those in hell are already judged, and our prayers cannot help anyone there. Similarly to Protestantism, the Papal Office also by the same logic teaches that those in paradise don’t need our prayers because they are already saved. These differences between Western Christianity and the Orthodox Church is partly the result of the Council of Ferrara-Florence. In the 15th c. there was an attempt to discuss differences in belief and practice so that there might be a reunion. Interestingly, there isn’t a major distinction in Orthodox teaching between the Western Christian purgatory and hell. There isn’t, according to Metr. Hilarion, a separation between purifying fire, which is a related to theme constantly repeated through the entire scriptures recalling that God is fire, and the idea of eternal punishment for sinners. In fact, he shows that many of the prayers for the dead and the burial orders are founded on the teaching that people can be delivered from “eternal torment” by the prayers of the Church. So, his chapter begins with these foundational beliefs and some differences between Christians who aren’t in the Orthodox Church. A question that goes beyond the semantics of the word hell or hades is why have the Christians since the existence of the eastern and western parts of the Roman Empire believed that fire was somehow purificatory for salvation at all? What we do know is that prayers are purificatory, and God’s word is a consuming fire. Metr. Hilarion returns to this theology near the end of the chapter. He refers to the teaching of Abba Macarius of Egypt from the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, “Whenever you feel compassion for those in chastisement and pray for them they are a little relieved.”
Liturgical worship is commemorative, and the service books celebrate the feast days to saints and martyrs. Metr. Hilarion gives us many examples of prayers for the dead, and shows how they help us receive the forgiveness of sins after death. The basic concept of praying for the dead is apostolic and scriptural. 1 Timothy 2 teaches that we should pray “for all men.” St. Mark of Ephesus teaches that praying for the dead benefits all, and are meant for not only “the faithful” but for those who haven’t been in the faith. He says, “This is so even for those sinners confined in Hades, that they may obtain some relief” and that they may have a better stand at the judgment. St. Mark of Ephesus was involved at the Ferrara-Florence Council, which discussed certain aspects of purgatorial fire. He doesn’t seem to disagree that fire can be purifying in some way. How that works isn’t discussed. But he does argue against the idea that only the departed in purgatory need and can receive our prayers, and that there are some strictly separated parts of hell or hades that are limited by our prayers as taught in Roman Catholicism.
The ancient Church practiced commemoration of the dead by remembering them in prayers. The tombs of martyrs and saints are connected to the liturgy and the altar, and to the teaching of the resurrection, of which they are living proof, even after death. In Russia, during the persecutions, living priests would sometimes lie down and become the altar for a liturgy, when altars were absent. Christians have always remembered the dead. The Advesary has been planning to use persecutions, torments, setbacks, and martyrdom to traumatize us and trip us up. But Christ has literally made it our path to victory so that we can learn to deride these temptations of the Accuser and any temporary sufferings in hope of the resurrection. St. John Chrysostom teaches this many times. If we remember the martyrs, we can carry them with us everywhere, he says, and we can conquer all of our fears, especially the deepest one – death itself. St. Augustine of Hippo teaches that the eucharist is offered as a prayer. This mystery is a powerful way of receiving forgiveness when done to remember the departed. The liturgies of St. John Chrysostom and St. James have prayers for the dead and commemorations that “the Lord might show them forth worthy of remission of sins.” The liturgical worship of the Orthodox Church covers all kinds of sin: sins known and unknown, concealed out of shame, sins of ignorance, and transgressions. So important was praying for the dead to be forgiven by God that St. Dionysius the Areopagite called it a sacrament. It’s a way of practicing love and almsgiving.
The Book of Needs contains an order for the burial of the departed. It says, “Thou art the God who descended into Hell and loosed the bonds of the captives.” We pray that the departed receive “rest” in the sense that the freedom of passions and from the tyranny of the Serpent is the ultimate meaning of “free.” The resurrectional troparia and various psalms are sung. At the person’s coffin and after the last kiss, the words are sung, “eternal be thy memory, O our brother/sister, who are worthy of blessedness and ever-memorable.” The prayers after this are also sung for the departed who ask for our prayers. The Church anticipates this need and does it for us when we are no longer present here. There are orders for burial for monks and priests. Some of the major aspects of these prayers of burial and commemoration is remembrance and the forgiveness of our sins after death. The memory of the saints and martyrs outlasts anything on earth.
An important consideration is that none of the prayers for the dead in the Orthodox Church, as given in this chapter, presume that the departed, whether righteous or sinner, will reject these prayers based on their sins. Instead, it assumes that we will want forgiveness of sins and we will receive some benefit. It seems that “all men” will want freely to take these prayers after death, will need these prayers, and we hope confidently, will be forgiven by these prayers to God. The only creatures who are adamantly against forgiveness is the Enemy of all mankind, as it seems from these rites of burial and comemmoration. If the belief in Noah’s time was that no one will be saved from the flood, the whole world will perish, and all sinners will be destroyed, it would seem heretical to say that God would actually save mankind when Christ descended in Hades and preached to those waiting there since the flood. What we’ve learned through the years reading this five volume set and attending the divine services here is that whatever we deserve, whatever weaknesses we have and plots set against us the Holy Trinity can overturn that and renew us. Like in the Old Testament by water, we might wonder how the world could be saved when it’s destroyed by fire. These basic elements have an instructive value for us in the scriptures and these chapters that help us connect the mysteries, scriptures, and realities of the rituals of the Orthodox Church. Water has been worshipped, feared, studied, and given philosophical aspects. Water can represent death, but also life and cleansing just like fire. So, in the next chapter, we will outline the Blessing of Water.