The Church calls us to prayerful remembrance of all those who have “fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and life everlasting.” This is a great day of prayer for the departed members of the Church. In order to understand the connection between Great Lent and prayer for the departed, we must bear in mind that Christianity is a religion of love. Christ did not leave His disciples a teaching about individual salvation; rather, He gave them a new commandment “that they love one another,” adding: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Love constitutes the foundation and the very essence of the life of the Church, which, according to the words of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, exists in the “unity of faith and love.” Sin is always the absence of love and therefore separation, isolation, and a war of all against all. The new life given to us by Christ and transmitted to us through the Church is, above all, a life of reconciliation — the “gathering into one of those who were scattered,” the restoration of the love that sin had destroyed.
But how are we even to begin our return to God and our reconciliation with Him if we do not restore within ourselves that unique and new commandment of love?
Prayer for the departed is an essential expression of the Church as love. We ask God to remember those whom we also remember — and we remember them because we love them. In praying for them, we encounter them in Christ our Lord, who is Love. In Christ there is no distinction between the living and the dead, for in Him all are alive. He is Life, and that Life is the light of humanity. Loving Christ, we love all who are in Him; loving those who are in Him, we love Christ. This is the law of the Church and the evident reason for her prayers for the dead. The Great Vigil for the Departed on the eve of Meatfare Saturday serves as the model for all other commemorations of the departed. It is repeated on the second, third, and fourth Saturdays of Great Lent.
These words are further confirmed by a patristic triptych of teachings on the importance of prayer for the departed:
Venerable Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia: In the Person of Christ, Human Nature Has Risen
By the grace of God, I “see” how those who have fallen asleep in the Lord live and rejoice in the light.
How wondrous is that other life!
“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.”
Have you ever reflected on this phrase, “bring with Him”?
God will not gather there bodies without spirit. He will gather the living unto Himself! In the Person of Christ, human nature has risen.
Venerable Iakovos (James) Tsalikis: The Liturgy Is the Most Efficacious Prayer for the Departed
From childhood I have gone to the cemetery every day and reflected on death.
All my relatives have reposed. Among them, I also commemorate one of my aunts in prayer.
My aunt appeared to me and said:
— Ah, my nephew Iakovos, thank you for what you send me. You send me much; but you know, there are also other people who have no one in the world to remember them or to care for them. That is why we observe Memorial Saturdays — they are for all Christians.
And I said to her:
— How am I to know who is in need?
— You know, she told me, what hunger they have; as you send to me, send also to others who are in need and who lack something, for they have need of prayer and they have need of the Holy Liturgy. Everything is good — almsgiving and memorial services — but above all the Holy Liturgy is what helps.
Saint Athanasius the Great: Oil and Candle Are an Offering, but the Divine Liturgy Is Propitiation
Do not neglect to offer oil and to light candles for the departed, invoking Christ God, even if the one who has reposed ended his life piously and has taken up dwelling in the heavens.
For this is pleasing to God and brings great reward from Him; for oil and candle are an offering, while the Divine Liturgy is propitiation.
And beneficence, in the end, brings an increase of every good recompense. The intention of the one who offers for the soul of the departed is the same as that of one who has a small child, sick and weak, and who in the holy temple offers candles, incense, and oil with faith, dedicating all this for his child. He holds and offers them with his own hands, as though the child himself were holding and offering them.
“By the depth of Your wisdom You lovingly order all things and grant what is profitable to all, O only Creator: give rest, O Lord, to the souls of Your servants; for in You have they placed their hope, our Maker and Creator and our God.”
(Troparion from the Service for the Departed)
Source: Kinonia
