Honoring the Dead

September 14, 2017 · Robert Arakaki

Radiant Pascha!

and other weird orthodox stuff

For Protestant inquirers, Orthodoxy is more beautiful, glorious,
wilder, and weirder than they would imagine. They hear ancient
prayers chanted in dark churches illuminated by candles while
 smelling the scent of incense drifting in the air. If they attend the
Orthodox services on special feast days, they will see other surprising
rituals: the priest and congregation processing around the church
building with the symbolic funeral shroud of Christ on Holy Friday,
the priest flinging flowers all around the main sanctuary on Holy
Saturday, and the joyous shouts of “He is Risen!” at the Easter
midnight service. They will see priests handing out bottles of holy
water on the feast day of Christ’s baptism, and priests blessing
baskets of fruits and jars of honey at the start of the Dormition fast in
August. They will also witness strange things like miraculous icons
and people kissing the relics of dead saints.

These Orthodox practices will seem strange to most Protestants. But

before discussing these Orthodox practices below, let’s first look at
some common Protestant or at least American practices regarding
loved ones who are no longer with us. In other words, how does one
of the premiere Protestant countries, the U.S.A., treat their departed
loved ones?

Memorial Day at the

National Memorial Cemetery, Honolulu HI Source

Those who criticize Orthodoxy for the importance we give to the relics
of the saints might want to take into consideration the priority the
U.S. government gives to locating the remains of the fallen soldiers in
far-off battle sites. In 2015, the U.S. government allocated $80
million for the Senator Daniel K. Inouye Defense POW/MIA
Accounting Agency buildingin Hawaii. This forensic laboratory will
help identify bone fragments and return them properly to loved
ones. Would Protestant critics be willing to say that the $80 million
 could have been better used elsewhere? Similarly, there is the local
custom in Hawaii of placing flower leis on the graves in the National
Cemetery on Memorial Day. Would Protestant critics be willing to
say that the time put into making the leis and the hours the local Boy
Scouts put into placing the leis on the graves would be better used
elsewhere? If they are willing to grant that it is very much worth the
time and trouble to remember and honor those who gave their lives
for their country, how much more would it be worth the time and
trouble for Christians to honor those who gave up their lives for
Christ?

Memorial Day tradition at

Ft. Snelling, Minnesota Source

Many Protestants have the custom of visiting the graves of their loved
ones – spouses, children, parents, and relatives – on the
anniversaries of their death or on special occasions like Christmas,
Easter, or Memorial Day. It is a widely accepted practice to place
flowers on the graves. Many will even talk with their loved ones
voicing their regret, their loss, and sometimes the hope of being
reunited in the future. What these Protestants are doing is quite
similar to how Orthodox and ancient Christians remember the
dead. I urge Protestant readers not to be hasty in judging how
Orthodox Christians honor the dead but to consider the Orthodox
point of view.
Memorial Service

From time to time, Orthodox parishes will hold memorial services for
someone who has died. For this service a small table is placed before
the icon of Christ. On the table is a plate with a small mound of
boiled wheat and two candles on the right and left. The boiled wheat
symbolizes Jesus’ remark about the grain of wheat that is buried
(John 12:24). During the Memorial Service we lament our fallen
state:

I am an image of Your indescribable glory, though I bear the

scars of my sins. Master, take pity on the work of Your hands,
and in Your loving-kindness cleanse me. Grant me the home
land for which I yearn, making me once again a citizen of
Paradise.

And we celebrate Christ’s victory over death:

 God of spirits and of all humankind, as You trampled down
death, overthrowing the Evil One and granting life to Your
world, will You, Lord, grant rest to Your servant(s) (N.) now
asleep in death, in a place of light, a place of renewed life, a
joyous place, shunned alike by pain and sorrow and sighing.

During the Memorial Service we do more than remember our loved

ones, we also pray for them. We ask God:

Every sin he (she, they) may have committed, in word or deed

or thought, as our good and loving God forgive; for no one can
live and not sin.

The Memorial Service culminates with the priest and the

congregation singing several times: “May their memory be eternal.”
[video] The website for St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox
Church in Portland, Oregon, gives this explanation for the Memorial
Service:

The Orthodox Church teaches that through our prayers, those

“who have fallen asleep in the faith and the hope of the
Resurrection” continue to have opportunity to grow closer to
God. Therefore, the Church prays constantly for her members
who have died in Christ. We place our trust in the love of God
and the power of mutual love and forgiveness. We pray that
God will forgive the sins of the faithful departed, and that He
will receive them into the company of Saints in the heavenly
Kingdom. The Orthodox Church remembers the departed in
the prayers of every Divine Liturgy, but also has a special
Memorial Service, said on numerous occasions.

Whereas the Memorial Service takes place as the need arises, there
are in the Orthodox calendar several days designated “Saturday of the
Souls.” On these days we remember those departed and pray for
them. This is so different from my former Protestant home church,
where deceased church members are pretty much forgotten after their
funeral.
There is in our modern culture a deep-seated fear of death. We don’t
like to contemplate our mortality. We avoid talking about death and
dying. Evangelical worship services, on the other hand, tend to focus
on spiritual uplift or on how being a Christian can result in a happy,
fulfilling life. In Orthodoxy there is a more frank acknowledgment of
our mortality. In every Sunday Liturgy we pray for a good Christian
death and a good defense before the dread judgment seat of Christ
several times. Every year on the Sunday of the Final Judgment we are
reminded that we will have to give a reckoning for how we lived our
lives. All this is spiritually healthy. In the early Christian classic, The
Ladder of Divine Ascent, one important step is “Step 6 –
Remembrance of Death.” The Orthodox remembrance of death can
lead to practices that Protestants may regard as weird, unseemly, or
even grotesque. But it should be kept in mind that the cross which at
one time was a means of inhumane punishment and an agonizing
death was transformed into a symbol of hope and Good News by
Christ’s resurrection. Each bedside death becomes a battle field
where we come face-to-face with our final enemy Death and those
who are faithful to the end become more than conquerors (1
Corinthians 15:28; Romans 8:37).

Orthodox Monasteries

Monasteries are very rare or non-existent in many Protestant

denominations. Many Protestant inquirers are not sure what to make
of monasteries. One very important thing to keep in mind is that
monasteries are not places of normal Orthodoxy. Monasteries are
places where certain people devote their entire lives to prayer and
spiritual growth. [video] To visit a monastery is like visiting a
training camp for professional athletes with high-tech equipment and
strict training regimens. Not everyone is called to be a full-time
athlete, but we are all called to live a healthy, active lifestyle.
 Orthodox nuns sing
in the ossuary at the Pasarea monastery, Bucharest, Romania Source

Part of the monastic calling is preparing for death. In some

monasteries monks will actually sleep in coffins in order to prepare
themselves for death. In ancient monasteries monks will go into the
ossuary, the place where the bones of earlier monks are kept, and
rearrange the bones to make room for those who will die in due time.
[video – see 34:27] To modern Americans fearful of death such
practices are gruesome. However, the monastic discipline of
preparing for the moment of death is an act of realism and
courage. We are all going to die sooner or later. Many modern
Americans have become obsessed with getting the most out of this
life. They make bucket lists of all the fun and exciting things they
want to do before they die, but they do so with little heed or
preparation for the account they will have give to God after they die
(Matthew 12:36; Luke 12:13-21).

Ordinary Orthodox laity will from time to time visit a monastery for
spiritual renewal. They take part in the prayer routines of the
monastery in order to deepen their prayer life. A Protestant visitor
who lacks an empathetic understanding of Orthodoxy will often see
monastic practices thru the lens of the original Reformers who
reacted against medieval Roman Catholicism’s works
righteousness. One should not be surprised if Protestants visiting an
Orthodox monastery are offended, even shocked, by what they see
there. Protestantism and Orthodoxy represent two different
cultures. Visitors need to be respectful of these differences and not
seek to judge the other by arbitrary standards. The best way to
navigate the differences is through Scripture and church history. Late
innovations should be regarded with suspicion while practices
marked by antiquity and ubiquity can be considered worthy of respect
by all Christians.

Venerating Relics

One common stumbling block for Protestants is the Orthodox

veneration of icons. Often upon entering an Orthodox Church one
will see people crossing themselves then kissing an icon of Christ, the
Virgin Mary, or one of the saints. Another potential stumbling block
is the Orthodox tradition of venerating the relics of saints. An
inquirer might regard relics as something weird and out there, but
there are relics in every Orthodox Church. Every altar contains bits of
relics placed there during the consecration of the church. Canon 7 of
the Council of Nicea II (787) mandates the placement of relics of
saints, particularly martyrs, at the consecration of a church. This
means relics are not something out there but right before us at every
Eucharist! This practice follows Revelation 6:9, which tells of the
martyrs under the altar. The Orthodox belief is that the martyrs are
not far away, but interceding for us before the throne of God.

Making Church History Real

For many Protestants, church history has an abstract

quality. Oftentimes, church history is viewed as a source of
intellectual data, dates and remote historical figures, not as personal
fellowship. In Orthodoxy, the saints are not far away, but very much
with us, even if we cannot see them. Orthodoxy honors the saints
through icons and feast days. It is one thing to admire the saints after
reading about their lives, but it is something quite different to kiss
their icons. Kissing an icon of a saint is an expression of
Christian honor, respect and fellowship. In Hawaii there is the
 widespread custom of kissing people on the cheek when greeting
them. Among Orthodox Christians it’s a common practice to kiss the
hand of the priest as a sign of honor, respect and affection. In light of
the American emphasis on egalitarianism, where one person is rarely
if ever honored above another, and the stress on individualism, such
Orthodox practices often seem not just weird, but offensive.
Thankfully, the ancient Church was not so infected by the habits of
modernity.

Venerating Saint
Nichols’ relics in Moscow 2017 Source

Many Protestants think of Santa Claus as a mythical figure little

knowing that there was a real historical Santa Claus – Saint Nicholas,
bishop of Myra, who was present at the Council of Nicea (325). In
June 2017, the relics of Saint Nicholas were brought to Russia and
some 300,000 people showed up to venerate them. The Voice of
America article quoted a young Russian economist who was among
those who venerated the relics:

“It was tough, but you got a chance to think about your life, all
the problems and the sins you have committed,” economist
Svetlana Dzhuma, 24, said after exiting the cathedral in a
state of elation.

Venerating the relics of saints represents one way of connecting with

the ancient Church. It also represents a way of affirming that the
final word for humanity is not death, but Jesus Christ who will
resurrect our bodies at the Second Coming.
 Icon – Martyrdom of
Saint Polycarp

The Antiquity of Venerating Relics

The practice of venerating the relics of martyrs is an ancient one. It

was mentioned in the early letter The Martyrdom of Polycarp, which
has been dated to mid second century (c. 155 or 166). Here we see the
early Christians drawing a distinction between the worship
(προσκυνουμεν) given to Christ and the honor (αγαπωμεν αξιως)
given to the saints.

For Him [Jesus Christ] indeed, as being the Son of God, we

adore; but the martyrs, as disciples and followers of the Lord,
we worthily love on account of their extraordinary affection
towards their own King and Master, of whom may we also be
made companions and fellow disciples! (Chapter 17)

In the following chapter we have one of the earliest accounts of the

veneration of relics. Bishop Polycarp was sentenced to be burned at
the stake by Roman authorities. Afterwards, the Christians gathered
up his remains.

Accordingly, we afterwards took up his bones, as being more

precious than the most exquisite jewels, and more purified
than gold, and deposited them in a fitting place, whither,
being gathered together, as opportunity is allowed us, with joy
and rejoicing, the Lord shall grant us to celebrate the
anniversary of his martyrdom, both in memory of those who
have already finished their course, and for the exercising and
preparation of those yet to walk in their steps. (Chapter 18)

From this passage we learn also of the early Christian practice of

commemoration of the anniversary of a martyr’s death. What is
significant about Polycarp’s martyrdom was how early it was. The
veneration of Polycarp’s relics was not some later addition but part of
early Christianity. The Martyrdom of Polycarp consisted of a letter
by one church to another. This means it was not the personal opinion
of one individual but reflects the collective thinking of the early
Christians.

It is important to understand that the honoring of the saints and the

venerating of their relics, while an integral part of Orthodox
Tradition, do not comprise the core of Holy Tradition. They can be
seen as out-workings of the core dogmas of the Christian Faith: the
Incarnation, Christ’s saving death on the Cross, and his triumphal
third day Resurrection. The Orthodox understanding is that, because
the Son of God took on a human body, our fallen bodies can become
redeemed vessels filled with divine life. Christ’s descent into Hades
and his triumphal resurrection means that the faithful departed now
stand before the throne of God. This belief in the unbroken
fellowship between the Christians here on earth and those who have
passed on is found in the Apostles’ Creed: “communion of the
saints.” What may seem to be foolish superstition or arbitrary
tradition to skeptical Protestants have their basis in the deep truths of
the Gospel.
Calvin’s Argument Against Relics

John Calvin

Calvin’s critique of relics is found, not in his Institutes, but in an

essay: “On the Advantages of an Inventory of Relics.” This essay is a
fifty-page rant filled with lurid examples. It is not the coherent
theological argument one would expect from a well-respected
theologian of his stature. There is no denying the rampant
corruption, frauds, and abuses in medieval Roman Catholicism. But
that still begs the important question about the theological basis for
rejecting the veneration of relics. Calvin’s argument consists of
unsupported assertions. He writes:

But the first abuse, and, as it were, beginning of the evil, was,
that when Christ ought to have been sought in his Word,
sacraments, and spiritual influences, the world, after its wont,
clung to his garments, vests, and swaddling-clothes; and thus
overlooking the principal matter, followed only its accessory.
(p. 289)

He goes on to explain his rejection of venerating relics:

 In short, a longing for relics is never free from superstition,
nay, what is worse, it is the parent of idolatry, with which it is
very generally conjoined. (p. 290)

A more theologically coherent argument against relics can be found in

Peter Leithart’s article “Why Protestants Still Protest.” Leithart,
echoing Calvin, argues that icons and relics have no basis in Scripture
and that they comprise a veil that distracts people from an encounter
with Christ. What we have here is a succinct summary of Calvin’s
position, but what is still lacking is a sustained theological argument.

An Orthodox Response to Calvin

One important difference between Orthodoxy and Protestantism is

Orthodoxy’s belief that physical matter is capable of conveying divine
grace. We believe that in the Eucharist the bread and wine become
the body and blood of Christ. We believe that in the water of baptism
our sins are washed away and we are united to Christ’s death and
resurrection. During the sacrament of baptism the priest blesses the
water that will be used for the sacrament. What starts off as ordinary
water becomes blessed and sacred means of grace. A painted image
(icon) through prayer becomes a window allowing us to perceive the
kingdom of God.

Underlying the Protestant rejection of relics is a metaphysical

dualism that assumes a separation between physical matter and
divine grace. The early Gnostic heretics viewed physical matter as
inferior and corrupt in comparison to the spiritual. While not the
same, there is within Protestantism a secular worldview that confines
God’s grace to the interior world of thought (doctrine) or feeling
(spiritual experience) while viewing external ritual as optional and
physical matter as neutral or unspiritual. This secular approach to
religion has resulted in a disembodied, intellectualized
Christianity. The experience of personal conversion to Christ has
been elevated as the core of Christianity while other elements like
Church, the sacraments, the Creed, the Liturgy, and the ordained
priesthood are relegated to the status of optional, non-essential
aspects of Christianity. What for the early Christians was an integral
package that comprised life in the Church have become in
Protestantism broken fragments scattered all over the ground.

The early Christians, on the other hand, in light of the Incarnation

and the Resurrection saw physical matter as capable of being
sanctified and transformed into means of divine grace. This
Christianized worldview would give rise to the sacraments of the
Church, which took the stuff of creation and transformed them into
entry ways into the kingdom of God. This sacramental worldview was
the historic Christian worldview shared by all Christians until the
Protestant Reformation.

There is within some modern Protestant circles an attempt to return

to the sacramental worldview. Ted Olsen described how N.T. Wright,
the widely-respected Anglican theologian, changed his
thinking. In The Way of the Lord (1999) Wright wrote about:

… his slowly turning away from various forms of dualism, to

which evangelicalism is particularly prone, and towards a
recognition of the sacramental quality of God’s whole created
world. … With the incarnation itself being the obvious and
supreme example, and the gospel sacraments of baptism and
eucharist not far behind, one can learn to discover the
presence of God not only in the world, as though by a
fortunate accident, but through the world: particularly
through those things that speak of Jesus himself, as baptism
and the eucharist so clearly do, and as the lives of holy men
and women have done. (Emphasis added.)

Apparently, N.T. Wright still holds to the Protestant understanding of

the sacraments in which God’s grace is conveyed principally through
the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. However, his insight
into the sacramental potential of creation provides a bridge to the
Orthodox sacramental worldview in which icons, relics, and other
physical stuff sanctified by the name of Christ can become channels of
divine grace. This has biblical support. We read in the book of Acts
how the Apostle Paul’s body became a vessel of divine efficacy.

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even

handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to
the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left
them (Acts 19:11-12).

The Apostle Peter’s body likewise demonstrated a similar sacramental

grace.

As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid
them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might
fall on some of them as he passed by. (Acts 5:15)

The notion of miraculous relics and icons might seem farfetched to

Protestants, but there is ample support for these supernatural
phenomena in Holy Scripture. There is the account of the woman
with the issue of blood who was healed upon touching Jesus’ clothes
(Mark 5:28-30). Her personal faith made her receptive to the divine
grace emanating from Jesus’ person while the others who were
jostling Jesus were left unaffected. That Jesus’ clothes conveyed
some spiritual power can be seen in Mark’s writing: “At once Jesus
realized that power had gone out from him.” (Mark 5:30) In the Old
Testament, we read how Elijah’s cloak had the power to divide the
Jordan River upon contact (2 Kings 2:8). In 2 Kings 13, we read
about how Elisha’s bones had the power to bring a dead man back to
life (2 Kings 13:21). Normally, the bones of a dead person are
unclean, but under some circumstances they can become holy objects
capable of effecting miracles. Modern Protestants might not be
comfortable with such a world, but this is the world of the New
Testament, as well as the world Christians inhabited before the
Reformation.

A modern-day Protestant might find the notion of a dead person’s

bones being holy and grace-filled ludicrous, but Scripture clearly
supports it. Thus, what is puzzling is not the Orthodox veneration of
the relics, but rather the Protestant aversion to this
practice. Protestants who reject the Orthodox veneration of relics
need to put forward a theologically-coherent and biblically-based
argument. To sum up, where the Orthodox veneration of relics has
biblical support and is consistent with the witness of church history,
Calvin’s polemical essay comes across as an unhinged, emotional
harangue that soon wears on the inquirer looking for solid theological
reasoning. More recent Protestant objections have failed to do any
better than Calvin.

The Orthodox practice of praying for the departed and venerating

relics of the saints is grounded in the sacredness of our whole
humanity (body, soul, and spirit), the power of Christ’s resurrection,
and the sacramental understanding of creation, that is, material
matter is capable of conveying divine grace. It reflects an ancient
worldview that challenges the secular metaphysics of modernity. The
discomfort felt by Protestants towards the veneration of relics is a
sign of the cultural gap between Protestantism and the early
Church. Ted Olsen, in his Christianity Today article “Wrestling With
Relics,” wrote: “My own views would have been terribly out of step in
the church’s earliest centuries.” This forces Protestants to choose
between Protestantism’s modernity and Orthodoxy’s roots in ancient
Christianity,

A Protestant Relic?

Probably the closest thing to a relic in Protestantism is the printed

text of the Bible. There is something neat and soothing about the
black ink on thin paper encased in black leather and embellished with
gold leaf. Evangelicals are proud to carry their bibles under their
arms into neat church buildings with four bare walls on Sunday
mornings and listening to didactic lectures (sermons) about the
biblical text. There is a certain Muggle-like neatness to this
worldview. So it comes as no little surprise when a Protestant
stumbles into the enchanted world of Orthodoxy with weird, wild
stuff like icons, relics, incense, holy virgins and victorious martyrs
they experience feelings of surprise, shock, discomfort, or the joy of
having come home at last to the ancient Church.

Robert Arakaki

References and Recommendations

Robert Arakaki. “Early Evidence for the Veneration of the

Saints.” OrthodoxBridge

Robert Arakaki. “Calvin Versus the Icon.” OrthodoxBridge

John Calvin. “On the Advantages of an Inventory of Relics” In Tracts

and Treatises of John Calvin (vol. 1 of 3) pp. 289-341 and “Inventory
of Relics” www.mongergism .com

Fr. Stephen Freeman. “Soul Saturday — And Forty Days Plus” Glory
to God For All Things

Vincent Gabriel. “Early Christian Worship and the Bones of the

Martyrs.” OrthodoChristian.com

Peter Gillquist. The Physical Side of Being Spiritual.

Peter Leithart. “Why Protestants Still Protest.” First Things (August

1995)

Martyrdom of Polycarp

Ted Olsen. “Wrestling With Relics.” Christianity Today (February

2009)

Fr. John Whiteford. “What is the Basis for Venerating Saints’

Relics?” OrthoChristian

N.T. Wright. The Way of the Lord

Video: “A Thousand Years are as One Day.”