Lazarus Saturday

Advances in DNA testing are allowing people to uncover information about their genetic ancestry and find out where their ancestors originated. I was curious by the potential knowledge I could gain from this new generation of tests for genetic ancestry, so I contributed my sample and received my results a few months later. Some of the results were predictable, some were surprising! Through my amateur genealogical sleuthing, I have learned fascinating information about some of the courageous and strong individuals whose DNA flows in me and makes me “me”.

None of us obviously fell from the sky. Behind each of us stands an invisible army: those who gave us life, who fought and survived over hundreds of generations. We do not know all their names and may not remember or be able to identify these people who lived centuries before us. But we are the fruit of their lives, we are connected with them by a million threads, which we cannot sever from the unconscious memory of the past.

For Orthodox Christians, Lazarus Saturday is a type of Day of the Dead. The day of our dead, who are yet alive, because we are alive. They are in us, so the prayer offered for the reposed (panikhida) is not only intercession for them, but also a prayer for ourselves. Because these genetic connections are invisible does not mean they are unimportant. We depend on our deceased ancestors, even if we do not understand this. Our deceased loved ones do not abandon us in our troubles.

But the deceased also depend on the living. In God’s marvelous and mysterious creation, it is established that the human will is connected with the body. A person cannot repent after death, because the person has no means by which to do so. Through the power of our love, by our prayer and charity, we are able to help those who have departed. Remember, we are forever connected, and this interwoven relationship works in both directions.

Today’s holiday is for this reason especially close to our hearts, especially joyful. Before this upcoming week’s commemoration of the suffering, passion, and death of our Lord, we celebrate resurrection. To illustrate how this will occur, how the dead will rise from their graves to the sound of the voice of the Son of God, the Lord raised the four-day dead Lazarus. The feast’s hymn (troparion), which will be sung today and tomorrow, proclaims:

“By raising Lazarus from the dead before Your Passion, You confirmed the universal resurrection, O Christ God!”

—that is, it confirmed that there will be resurrection for all.

Since Lazarus’ resurrection confirmed the universal resurrection, it is said that every person is a “Lazarus” and that the burial garment is called a “Lazaroma,” thus hinting at our own resurrection from the dead at the last trumpet.

By the intercessions of Thy friend, Lazarus, and of all our holy and righteous ancestors, O Christ God, have mercy on us. Amen!

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