When the Homily is about Immunology

Memory Eternal

I'll not forget the Divine Liturgy I attended shortly after the September 11th attacks when a large candle was placed in front of the Iconostasis and Fr. James processed around it, censing it, and singing the Orthodox funeral hymnn: "Memory Eternal." I was not yet Orthodox at the time and I found myself abit overwhelmed by the symbolism and the mournful tone of the chant. Quite simply it was beautiful.

But, for the life of me, I could not figure out what was meant by the term: "Memory Eternal." Were we simply asking that we remember those we lost? No.

A very interesting article answers my question (and some) by examing the concept in the context of Dostoevsky's great novel The Brother's Karamazov. Check it out here.

Recall what the wise thief asked of Christ while they were being crucified together: "Remember me when you come in your Kingdom." In the article Donald Sheehan (himself a convert to Orthodoxy) quotes Fr. Pavel Florensky:

And in answer, in satisfaction of his wish, his wish to be remembered, the Lord witnesses: "Verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise." In other words, "to be remembered" by the Lord is the same thing as "to be in Paradise." "To be in Paradise" is to be in eternal memory and, consequently, to have eternal existence and therefore an eternal memory of God. Without remembrance of God we die, but our remembrance of God is possible only through God's remembrance of us.

And so you will often hear the Orthodox say of those who have died: "May their memory be eternal." And on this profound day, the rememberance of the meaning of this prayer seems very appropriate.