When the Homily is about Immunology

This isn't morbid...

You know, I sorta have two patron saints. It's a long story, and I'll not bore anyone here and now about it. Suffice to say, I'm quite fond of both St. James, the Brother of God and St. Irenaios of Lyon who apparently lacks a cool descriptive title in his name - save for the geographic one. I like to call him: Hammer of the gnostics but that, I guess, lacks some sense of good christian charity. Oh well.

Anyway, I was thinking last weekend about how I'd never really heard where the relics of my patron - St. Irenaios - could be found today. I posed the question on the Orthodox-Convert list and received my answer rather swiftly: St. Irenaios' relics were kept in the altar of a Church in France until they were destroyed by calvinists in the 16th century. When I read this, it really bothered me...not theologically or even religiously at all. More like one might feel to learn that someone has desecrated the tomb of a loved one...it really stung my heart to hear this nearly 400 year old news. I still marvel at how I felt and feel about it.

Some "dead" (for let us be truthful: there are no dead christians!) guy from 1,801 years ago! And I, in 2003, am saddened to hear that his tomb and relics were destroyed in 1562! It's just some dead guys bones after all, right? Sigh...things have changed in my mind and heart...evidence of "the gap" (I imagine) that my good friend Seraphim mentioned in the comments a few posts back. It is profoundly more than some "dead guy's bones."

I am listening to a lecture series taped during the Eagle River Institute from a few years back in which the topic of "personal eschatology" (I love that phrase!) is addressed...meaning death of course. It is a fascinating talk and one of the things that is emphasized a is the anthropological theology of the Church which affirms that authentic and holistic personhood is found in a united soul AND body. Death is the UNNATURAL rending of the soul from the body and it is understood by the Fathers as a transition which can be difficult or shocking for the person involved - and this is in part why we pray for them.

Therefore, since death is decidedly UNnatural, we should consider shying away from the terminology which makes any reference to a so called "natural" death. And furthermore, we do not toss the body away as if we were done with it or at last free from it (like the wrapper of a candy bar): an attitude rather prevalent in our culture here. Orthodox Christians are generally forbidden from cremating the deceased. (The only exception I know of being the Japanese Orthodox Christians where I understand it is illegal to bury.) The Body is still apart of what makes us the IMAGE and LIKENESS of God and thus we reverence the body we do not "dispose of it."

A new acquaintence from England visited the United States recently in order to assist his brother who was dying of cancer. He happened to be Orthodox and so spent sometime with our Parish and this is how I met him. When his brother finally did repose (may his memory be eternal), he related to us how he engaged in the practice of ritually washing the body and preparing it for burial...it was powerful just to hear him describe it, I cannot imagine how the experience must have impacted him! But it seems appropriate and perfectly in keeping with the most ancient of Judaic/Christian beliefs and customs. Recall why the myrrhbearing women were bearing myrrh? (Speaking of which, today is St. Mary Magdalene's feast day!).

Many of our modern attitudes toward death and dying frankly reeks of gnostic understandings: how often have we heard people say such things which seem to imply that a certain release and freedom is to be found in the soul leaving the body? As if the deceased found death to be a sort of unshackling or an extrication! As I noted earlier, the Church teaches the very opposite, it is a rather shocking and disturbing thing for the soul to suddenly find itself bodiless! Were St. Irenaios present with us bodily today, his battle with gnosticism would not be finished! I seek his prayers for the gnosticism I know sometimes resides in my own thinking!

St. Irenaios, we know for certain, at least knew the venerable Bishop Polycarp and may have actually been one of his disciples. Bishop Polycarp was martyred around 155AD. The following is from the account of his martyrdom after they pagans had burned the Saints body (emphasis mine):

Thus we, having afterwards taken up his bones, more valuable than precious stones, laid them where it was suitable.
There, so far as is allowed us, when we are gathered together in exultation and joy, the Lord will enable us to celebrate the birthday of the martyrs, both for the memory of those who have contended, and for the exercise and preparation of those to come.

Read it again: ...of those to come

Want to know why we keep dead bodies (relics) in our Church, and why we remember the saints and keep their memories alive through our calender? Well, perhaps the best response to such an inquirer is a question more consequential to the situation: "Why did you stop doing so?"