REMEMBERING IN LOVE

In short order we’ll be marking Halloween, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day. November is our month for remembrance of the departed, and we know the celebrations in Mexico, for example, with Dia de los Muertos, honoring all those in our families and of our loved ones who have “…gone before us, marked with the sign of Faith…” It is an ancient custom.

In the Roman Empire of the first centuries BC/BCE and AD/CE, families practiced what was referred to as the refrigerium, the consolation of those who had died. Typically, this involved a meal at the tomb of the deceased, including perhaps a pouring of wine into a pipe from the top of the grave/mausoleum to the burial site below—to allow the dead person to share in the meal. Typically, also, this happened on the anniversary of the person’s death.

It’s not much of a stretch to see how this practice could have been imitated by the early Christians to mark the “birth into eternal life” of the martyrs. This would be (beyond Easter and Sundays in general) the beginnings of what has come to be our “liturgical calendar.” The difference would be that instead of a shared meal, Christians gathering at martyrs’ tombs would be sharing a celebration of Eucharist. In this connection, it is interesting that Pope St Sixtus II and his companion deacons (including St Lawrence) were captured coming from a catacomb, arrested, and executed. Were they coming from the Christian version of a refrigerium? Probably.

Anniversaries are special occasions, whether for birthdays or wedding anniversaries or ordinations or days of death. This past Wednesday would have been my Father’s 101^st anniversary of birth, and I made sure the Mass intention was for him.

One of the most important characteristics of our liturgical Catholic Faith is the idea of memorial or remembrance. Although the word “Eucharist” comes to us from the Greek meaning to give thanks, it’s also a time in which we remember what the Lord Jesus accomplishes for us. Those are the words marking the first part of the Eucharistic Prayer immediately post-Consecration: “Therefore, as we celebrate the memorial of your Son…” Here we might also remember how our Jewish brothers and sisters remember the events of the Exodus during Passover: by remembering, the past is made present and the present is incorporated into the past. Think of Motel’s song in Fiddler on the Roof: “When David slew Goliath, yes! That was a miracle/ When God gave us manna in the wilderness, that was a miracle, too.” It’s not “them”; it’s “us.”

Tuesday’s Holy Day of Obligation will celebrate those whose triumph has brought them, by God’s grace, into joy. Wednesday we will commemorate all those “still on the road to joy,” and we pray for them. On Thursday the 10^th we will mark in a special way those of our parish who have died in the last 12 months. And all during November our Book of Prayer Intentions will be replaced by our Book of the Deceased.

Let’s always remember; let’s never forget.

-Fr. David