The Sacraments of the Orthodox Church take us through every phase of life: our life in Christ begins with baptism, we have sacraments for joyous occasions, such as marriage, and sacraments to help us in the tough times, such as unction. Thus, if baptism begins our participation in the sacramental life of the Church, then the funeral service is how we end it. While funerals can obviously be a difficult time for families, in the Orthodox Church we see the funeral service as “joyful sorrow,” for while we grieve the loss of a loved one’s Earthly existence, we can rejoice in the fact that through the power of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, our loved ones will be united with Christ in His Heavenly Kingdom.
In the funeral service, we pray for those departed from this life, that they might find “rest in a place of light, in a place of green pasture, in a place of refreshment, from where pain and sorrow and mourning are fled away.” We anoint the body with earth and oil, preparing it for burial along with our prayers. In this matter, it is important to be aware of the fact that Orthodox Christians firmly believe in the bodily resurrection of those who have died, hence why we show such reverence to the body in the funeral service, and why we also eschew the practice of cremation. The funeral service, far from being a gloomy affair, honors both the soul and body of the departed loved one, constantly affirming the fact that all of us have been lovingly made in the image of our Creator.
