July 30
The Memorial Service in the Greek Orthodox Church
07/30/2017
The Memorial Service in the Greek Orthodox Church
Fr. Al Demos, July 30, 2017
We pray for the souls of our departed loved ones because we believe that at death, the soul receives an interim form of judgement, where the soul foretastes of the Glory of God, either as Heavenly Glory or as Hell-fire, awaiting the final Judgement in the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Several Church Fathers teach us that it is our duty to pray for everyone, because, as Christians, we open our hearts to fellowship in Christ by accepting our prayerful responsibility for all our fellow human beings.
Dionysios the Areopagite, in speaking of mercy, reminds us that “We need to be merciful because we ourselves cannot condemn or damn anyone at all, because our zeal to ‘avenge God’ shuts us into a hell of our own vindictiveness! Jesus prayed for His executioners, He remained close to those who reject him and makes Himself their advocate. In Jesus Christ, God is not the one who hurls thunderbolts (Luke 9:53) but the One Who lets Himself be crucified! During His passion, Jesus implores His Father’s forgiveness. Does anyone have the audacity to dare seek vengeance on God’s behalf or is it one’s own personal revenge? Tell me truly, is it with evil that one avenges Him Who is Goodness Itself?” (Letter to Demophilus)
He goes on to remind us of Hebrews 4:15, “We have a high priest Who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (sins)!” Christ teaches us to be caring, benevolent and merciful because “He is the expiation of our sins!” (I John 2:2)
So therefore, as Orthodox Christians, we accept this sacred responsibility to pray for our loved ones and for others as well; and as Christ taught, especially for our enemies. Actually, we find that by praying the memorial service one can experience both the price of our love for these souls (that price is heartfelt pain), as well as a tremendous sense of spiritual joy in knowing that they are in God’s loving care! The congregation joins hearts in prayer, beseeching Almighty God to hear our prayer and to bless, forgive, have mercy upon and embrace all those for whom we pray.
First, by turning to God, we are proclaiming our love, hope, confidence and trust in the promises of Christ for all those who profoundly believe in Him! With such Faith, we are reminded that as we pray for these precious souls, we have the duty to continually repent of our sins and do our best to live a truly Christian life.
Then we present our loving concern in our prayerful requests for God to embrace and grant eternal salvation to their beloved souls.
Please read and think about the following:
A googolplex is the number 10googol, or equivalently, 10(10100). Written out in ordinary decimal notation, it is 1 followed by 10100 zeroes, that is, a 1 followed by a googol of zeroes. Now, take whatever heartfelt pain and sorrow that you experience when you think of your departed loved ones and hold on to that pain!
Then, realize that your loved ones, in foretasting the Presence of the glory of God, are experiencing Divine Joy - the exact opposite of your pain – but then multiply their joy by the googolplex – and realize that they are experiencing glorious immeasurable joy in the embrace of Almighty God!
My mother’s last words, that we ever heard, were to my sister Helen when she said, “Helen, take that frown and turn it upside down!” Good advice for us all.
So, when we pray for the living and the dead – in our love and concern for others – we need to be reminded that “our frown” – the price of love in our hearts – is multiplied into infinite joyful wonder, as our departed loved ones ‘smile’ in the Presence of Almighty God!
