Day 8
A reading from the Book of the prophet Ezekiel (37:1-14)
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath:* Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath,* and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.
Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.’
From the Panegyric for his brother Caesarius by St. Gregory Nazianzen
I believe the words of the wise. I believe that every fair and God-beloved soul, when it has been set free from the bonds of the body, departs hence, and at once enjoys a sense and perception of the blessings which await it. It enjoys this inasmuch as that which darkened it has been purged away, or laid aside—I know not how else to term it.
And it feels a wondrous pleasure and exultation, and goes rejoicing to meet its Lord. For it has escaped, as it were, from the grievous poison of life here, and has shaken off the fetters which bound it and held down the wings of the mind. And so it enters on the enjoyment of the bliss laid up for it, of which it has even now some conception.
Then, a little later, it receives its kindred flesh, which once shared in its pursuits of things above, from the earth which both gave and had been entrusted with it. And, in some way known to God, who knit them together and dissolved them, the soul enters with the flesh upon the inheritance of the glory there. And, as it shared, through their close union, in its hardships, so also it bestows upon it a portion of its joys, gathering it up entirely into itself, and becoming with it one in spirit and in mind and in God, the mortal and mutable being swallowed up of life.
Hear at least how the inspired Ezekiel discourses of the knitting together of bones and sinews. Hear how after him Saint Paul speaks of the earthly tabernacle, and the house not made with hands, the one to be dissolved, the other laid up in heave. Hear how Paul alleges absence from the body to be presence with the Lord, and bewailing his life in it as an exile, and therefore longing for and hastening to his release.
Why am I faint-hearted in my hopes? Why behave like a mere creature of a day? I await the voice of the Archangel, the last trumpet, the transformation of the heavens, the transfiguration of the earth, the liberation of the elements, the renovation of the universe.
Then shall I see Cæsarius himself, no longer in exile, no longer laid upon a bier, no longer the object of mourning and pity, but brilliant, glorious, heavenly.
Musical Selection (Melissa Dunphy)
Prayer
Lord,
in our grief we turn to you.
Are you not the God of love
who open your ears to all?
Listen to our prayers for your servants,
whom you have called out of this world:
lead them to your kingdom of light and peace
and count them among the saints in glory.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.