We Are Not Forgotten
A Meditation on All Saints and All Souls
In the West, the Church observes a feast on November 1st known as the Feast of All Saints. Paired with All Souls Day on November 2nd these two days express a devout concern and love for the faithful departed that is present always and everywhere in Orthodoxy. On the Feast of All Saints, the Church commemorates the martyrs and saints that have boldly proclaimed Christ both in word and deed, and she solicits their intercessions before our Father in heaven. On All Souls Day, the Church commemorates all of the faithful departed (even though they be not canonized saints) and she prays for them, trusting in the just promises of God to show mercy to the humble, the contrite, and the lowly both in life and in death.
While this commemoration of the dead is admittedly odd in a world where death is not often a present reality (we seclude it and push it away into hospitals and unvisited funeral homes) and concerning to many non-Orthodox Christians, it is one of my favorite parts of having become Orthodox. Through these acts of faith-filled devotion — praying for and being prayed for — we participate in the great mystery of the Church, the very Body of Christ, a mystery which the Creed calls the communion of saints (the "union-together of the saints").
We believe that in this mystical Body of Christ, we as Christians on earth exist together in perfect union not only with Christ himself, the head, but also with the other members of his holy Body, and that is why we pray: we pray for them and ask for their prayers, and in so doing manifest the mystery of our union in Christ by means of our unity in prayer. And regardless of whether or not certain members have passed on from this present life into the next, this mystical union remains true.
Because of Christ, we do not consider these servants of God merely according the flesh as ones crushed and hard pressed in their mortal bodies, abandoned by God in their graves and doomed to become nothing more than a faded memory on a tombstone. Truly, to be in Christ is to be ever-alive, and these holy ones of God have merely fallen asleep in the Lord, destined to a memory eternal as they rise up and awaken as oaks of righteousness in the imperishable Kingdom of heaven. We as Orthodox proclaim in our commemoration of the dead that we see right through the veil of death, however bitter its taste and sharp its sting — and with joyful, baptismal vision we perceive the mystery of our union with the ever-living company of God's faithful departed in heaven.
The dead, our dear and beloved departed ones are not forgotten. They are not forgotten or cast aside, neither by God our Father nor by the Church, their holy Mother, nor by Her children on earth. And a great comfort is available to us in this truth if we simply consider long enough the extent of this divine remembrance: just as we remember the martyrs, saints, and all the faithful departed while on earth, so too are we remembered by the saints and by God in heaven. They are not forgotten; they are not cast aside; they are not abandoned to suffer in darkness or death. And we are not forgotten; we are not cast aside; we are not abandoned by God or Mother Church to toil in vain, suffer forever under the weight of sin or the pangs of death. We travail in pain, no doubt, but so too in hope and in faith always under the tender, ever-watchful gaze of our God. Though our mortal bodies may fade away evermore, day-by-day. Though our flesh may fail in spite of our willing spirits. Though many bulls encompass us with mouths open wide like ravening lions; though we are poured out like water and our heart be like wax melted within our breasts; though our strength be dried up and our mouths closed shut; though we be surrounded by dogs and encircled by evildoers who pierce, and stare, and gloat, and mock as we lay in the the dust of death; we trust in the sure promises of God. The Lord is not far off, he hears our cries, he remembers his lowly servants on earth just as he remembers his faithful saints in heaven, and he shall come to our aid, together with the great cloud of witnesses, his Church triumphant.
Let us, therefore, take heart and great joy in this the Feast of All Saints and the blessed day of All Souls. Let us pray for the departed and beseech the saints to pray for us, that together we may all as one Body, with one mind, one heart, and in one Spirit attain the everlasting life promised to all who love God and are called according to his divine purpose.
By the mercy of God, may the faithful departed rest in peace; and by the prayers of our holy Fathers, the right and victorious martyrs, and the whole company of saints, may he have mercy on our souls and save us for as much as he is good and loves mankind. Amen.