“In Your Kingdom remember us, O Lord, when You come into Your Kingdom” (Divine Liturgy)
It was a village church in central rural Russia where we stopped by to visit and pray. There was nothing really extraordinary about the sensibly constructed square wooden church, but it was the cemetery surrounding the temple that caused me to reflect on how far even we Orthodox Christians in America have gone in our relationship to our beloved ones departed this life. I imagined the local congregation who worshipped in the church several times a week and on Sundays. They would leave the narrow path to the walkway leading to the vestibule and pass through the graves containing their loved ones. How could they not recall the memories of those beneath the earth with their souls somewhere else? Better stated, the souls of their family members accompany the living to celebrate the sacred services with them. They pray not just for them, but with them.
In our land it’s just not done anymore. Our cemeteries are miles apart from our churches. We Americans especially have sanitized the entire funeral process. We consider it therapeutic to move quickly beyond the experience of dealing with the funeral and the aftermath. Put it behind you and get on with your life, the family members are advised. Out of sight, out of mind.
The rationale for processing outside the church on great feast days, notably Pascha, is to proclaim the presence of the risen Lord Jesus to our loved ones in the graves. It’s why we say they are asleep in the Lord—not because we shy from speaking of death, using the terminal term, but precisely to affirm our bond with them though they are departed. “Love is as strong as death,” the Song of Songs reminds us: God’s love for us affirmed in Christ, and our love for those who were and ever will be part of our lives.
Consider the progressive detachment of the living from the dead. Remote cemeteries making frequent visits difficult. Closing of caskets in church, reduction of the period of mourning, ever shorter burial services, the challenge of cremation as a less expensive and expeditious means of putting even the memory of the loved one behind.
How contrary to the new American way of death is the tradition of the Orthodox Church. Begin with the most relevant spiritual fact of God’s Kingdom. God who is everywhere present and fills all things transcends space and time. We need not wait for the Kingdom to come at some future date; the Kingdom of heaven is breaking through into the present time—or better stated, God brings the Kingdom into the lives of those who eagerly seek Him. The Church is in that sense ahead of the world outside, because our Lord encounters us in the temple par excellence. Of course it’s not the only place where we meet the Lord, but it’s the preeminent location to do so. There it is where we experience an invasion of grace, as we make ourselves ready to receive the Holy Spirit. “In Your Kingdom remember us, O Lord,” is not a prayer sent like a spiritual airmail message to some remote location. His Kingdom is everywhere, because there is nowhere He is not present. Turn the words around and you will grasp another aspect of what you are asking for: Help me remember, O Lord, that Your Kingdom requires my life in Christ, aware of all that He did for my salvation, building on that realization to hone and shape my soul with the presence and grace of the Holy Spirit, so that I apprehend that reality and rise in spirit to appreciate and celebrate His invitation to enter the Kingdom although I am still on the earth.