Keeping Tradition [Saying the Names]

Today is the Sunday before the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ.  On this Sunday, which we call “The Sunday of the Fathers”, we remember the lives of all of our God-pleasing predecessors, from Adam to St. Joseph the Betrothed.  In our reading from Saint Paul to the Hebrews, we get a reminder of the faith that united them; of the earthly trials this faith often brought them; and of the common reward that await all who put their faith in God first and foremost in their lives.  The reading from the beginning of the Gospel of St. Matthew is the genealogy of Christ; from Abraham to Joseph, the betrothed of the Bohoroditsa and the stepfather and protector of Jesus Christ.  Amongst the 39 some-odd “begets”, this reading gives the names of the patriliniage of Christ, according to the Flesh. [I say “according to the flesh” because Christ is God-Incarnate; the patriliniage of His Godhead is quite short.  It is proclaimed in our Creed.  He is the “Lord Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father before all ages.”]

Names in reading

Let me share some thoughts that some of you may have been having during these readings.  You may be wondering; “why bother with all those names?”  Couldn’t we shorten the Gospel reading a bit and get right to the ‘good stuff’ about the actual birth of the baby Jesus?  After all, no one can remember all those names from year to year?” 

Brothers and sisters, the Church included these names, both in the Gospel itself, and in the Lectionary for this Sunday.  I reckon it did so for a reason, and for the next few minutes, I want to reflect on why.

We Don’t Forget our Family

We have public Panikhidas for our departed loved ones on the anniversary of their repose.  We have public Liturgies committed to their memory and blessed repose on “Soul Saturdays”.  The priest is responsible for keeping the records of the departed and commemorating all of them, regardless of whether they have blood relatives remaining in this parish or even on this earth.  He commemorates the names of the departed before every liturgy and in his daily prayers.  Why do we bother to do this?  Why commemorate people who are already gone?  Why should the parish – through its priest – bother keeping the memory of long-forgotten people alive?  In fact, why do we bother visiting and caring for the graves of loved ones?  Why do we ask a dedicated committee to look after our cemetery in Blackstone?

We remember loved ones who have gone on to their reward before us because they are family.  They were and remain a part of who we are.  The instinct to do this is blessed, formed not just out of blood and genes, but a subconscious recognition of an even greater truth: there is only one Body of Christ.  Last week we learned that His Body is not divided into Gentile or Jew; Male or Female.  Now we learn that it is not divided by time.  Everyone who has “put on Christ” does so for all eternity.  His robe of incorruption is not removed by the decay of the grave.  It is not just their memories that live on, it is their eternal souls.

Segue: Our Traditions

We take the time to list the ancestors of Christ because they are part of us.  Saying their names is part of our tradition, as is going to visit the graves on St. Thomas Sunday, commemorating the dead on their anniversaries with Panikhida’s and koliva or kutia, and praying for (and with) them in our daily prayers.  Like all good traditions, they teach and reinforce fundamental truths, not just in our minds, but in our hearts.   

America is often chided for being a land devoid of tradition; and Americans for being more interested in the immediate future than caring about the past.  At best, this part of our American culture tells us to look to the past in order to learn from its failures and build on its successes.  Many will say that this is why we teach our children history.  This is true as far as it goes, but for Christians, we preserve our traditions for even greater reasons that go beyond such superficial rationality. 

When we took our youth caroling yesterday, it was not just to bring joy to people who cannot join us here in worship; nor was it just to make sure that our youth know more about the “blessed founders and benefactors” of this God-protected parish.  These reasons are important, and these goals were met; but the fact is that we these things like caroling because they are part of our tradition.  They reaffirm the very best of who we are.  And yes, they do this by showing how to share joy with the disadvantaged, and yes they do this by teaching us more about our history.  But our traditions should not just be thought of and valued simply as “tried and true methods” to meet specific “learning objectives”; any more than our praise of God should be summarized as a way to meet the goal of salvation.  It does this, but it also does so much more.  We do these things because they make us more human; and because when we do not do them, we become less so.

The Need for Roots

A rose plucked from its roots will only remain beautiful for a brief time.  Or, to use a more timely metaphor, a tree shorn of its roots will soon lose its vigor (followed by its needles).  A metaphor like this can be scary for a parish formed by immigrants radically separated from their roots. There may be a fear that assimilation will make this community like the plucked rose or cut Christmas tree.  Our decline in numbers over the last couple of generations might further this fear.  But this is a mistaken understanding.  The deepest roots of this community are not in Ukraine; but in Christ.  Ukraine was “good soil”, but there is good soil here, as well.  We foster our good traditions and the memory of those gone before us because this keeps us connected with these deepest roots.  They strengthen this community and they strengthen us with the faith that preserves through all times.

And by keeping our traditions and naming all these names, we are better prepared and more able to celebrate the thing that they have offered up to us: the Nativity of Christ in the flesh, and the Nativity of Christ in our hearts.