Tomorrow is the Super Bowl, Groundhogs’ Day, Candlemas, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple and my sixty-second birthday.
This past week I’ve been in Florida helping my sister-in-law, Candy, with my brother who came down with a blood infection that nearly killed him. That sort of gets your attention and pushes you to think about getting your affairs in order. After Dennis was past the critical point in healing, had gotten some clarity of thought, he phoned a couple of friends to make arrangements for after he passes into eternity. Good thinking! Since I’m three years younger, I’ve also been thinking of these things.
None of us know the hour nor the day Christ will return. Neither do we know the hour or day when we will pass into eternity. Every year we pass the anniversary of our future passing totally oblivious to that fact. Why does this matter?
Orthodox Christians remember the anniversary of the repose of Christians as their name day, especially of those Christians who have been officially canonized as saints in the Church.
So, I have read and been told by my elders to remember my death. How can I remember that which hasn’t occurred? What can I do to remember the end of my life here?
As I think about this I want to recount what my role has been in recent years. I love the saint who is mentioned in the Orthodox wedding ceremony who was the encourager of other saints who were about to be martyred. Procopius became a martyr but not before he showed up to encourage other Christians to keep the faith despite their impending martyrdom. They were imprisoned because of their faith in Christ Jesus, our God.
Why is Procopius featured in the Orthodox wedding ceremony? As Christians, we are to die to self. We are to die to our will, die to our desires every single day. As a Christian couple, we should each be a martyr every single day of our life.
The couple is crowned at the end of the wedding ceremony with actual wedding crowns joined together by ribbons in a sub ceremony to indicate their entering into not only their God ordained domestic kingdom but also the entering into the remembrance of their death. Their death to self, their daily martyrdom is good practice for the future. So, Procopius is an encourager of saints who would be martyrs. May we ALL be encouragers of the saints. May we all die to our own will so that we may accomplish God’s will, not just in our own life but in the life of our spouse, our children, our community and in our sphere of influence, our world. I fail at this goal every day but my first desire is to be an encourager of those in my community.