22.

 Summarize the importance of the Name Day.

            A Name Day is the festival of one's patron saint whose name one is given at Baptism. The saints are holy people who pleased God by a righteous life while they were on earth, and they are an important part of our family — a worldwide Christian family of people from all nationalities, stations in life and positions. Therefore, Orthodox Christians honor all the saints, but they also have a special devotion to their patron saint. For this reason, they consider their Name Day far more important than their birthday.

            The celebration of the Name Day demonstrates the reverence Orthodox Christians have for the saints. In their understanding of the communion of saints, Orthodox do not look upon God's favored ones as being remote and obscure figures from another era, but they see them as being their contemporaries and friends, and as intercessors before the throne of God.

            In addition to what was explained in the previous answer concerning Orthodoxy's veneration of the saints, Archimandrite Panteleimon of Jordanville gives the following helpful explanation:

How can we not appeal in prayer to the saintly righteous, who have already entered the heavenly mansions, when we know that even while living on earth they had the power to intercede before God for sinful people”! God Himself commanded a king to entreat the righteous Abraham to pray for him, saying: For he is a prophet, and shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live (Gen 20:7). The Lord commanded the friends of the long-suffering Job, who had offended him, to ask his prayers: Go to My servant Job, and he shall pray for you, for him will I accept, lest I deal with you after your folly (Job 42:8). Because of the prayers of the righteous, the Lord often spared people who had sinned. Moses prayed for the Hebrew people who had fallen into the sin of idol-worship and were already doomed to destruction by God; the Lord accepted the prayer of the holy man and pardoned the stiff-necked people (Exodus 32:9-12). The Lord once said to the prophet Jeremiah: Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people [the Hebrews].... Who shall have pity on thee, 0 Jerusalem, or who shall bemoan thee? (Jer 15:1-5). This means that Moses and Samuel, though already departed by the time of Jeremiah, can intercede for sinful people. Judas Maccabeus saw a vision of the departed high priest, Onias, who was “praying for all the Hebrew people,” and, pointing to another man who was with him, said to Judas: This is Jeremiah, the prophet of God, who prays much for the people, and for the holy city (2 Mac 15:12,14). And the Holy Apostle Peter clearly promised his disciples that after his death he would remember them: Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance (2 Peter 1:15).

In the Book of Revelation, the visions of St. John the Theologian demonstrate the saints do pray for us, and their prayers, like smoke from a censer, rise before God, and He receives them with favor. Thus, the Word of God clearly teaches us to call upon the saints in our prayers, and affirms that they send up their prayers to God for us; and that He, the most gracious, receives their intercessions [A Ray of Light: Instructions in Piety and the State of the World at the End of Time, pp. 12-13].

While Protestants divide and separate people into the living and dead, Orthodox Christianity knows no such divisions, nor do such divisions exist with God. “With Him [God], all are alive” (Lk 20: 38). There is also a tight bond of unity between all the members of the Church: all are tied together by a common concern and love for one another. Therefore, all the members of the Church, both the living and the dead, pray for one another.

            The saints hear our prayers and are always prepared to pray for us since we are all members of the one and same Body of Christ, the Church. Members of a body help each other, and both commiserate and rejoice together. As the Apostle Paul teaches: “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the Body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Cor 12:26-27).

            Therefore, the saints rejoice with us or they commiserate with us in our misfortune. It would not be commiseration if they did not come to help us.

            The saints once lived on earth and suffered the same afflictions that we know here. They know from personal experience how difficult it is for people to struggle with worldly calamities and grief, and they know how necessary heavenly assistance is in the battle here on earth. Although the saints reside in Heaven now, they always remember their homeland and are interested in the salvation of the world. The saints are always ready to intercede before God on our behalf. They love us spiritually, for they descend from the same ancestors as us and are related to us. They are our brothers and sisters in the faith. They are also aware of our condition because they love God and are in communion with Him. By the grace of God, and because of their union with Him, they hear the prayers from the members of the Church Militant, and they receive those prayers and come to our aid with the compassionate and heartfelt lifting up of those prayers to the one Intercessor and Intermediary, Christ. If we, sinners that we are, can assist our neighbors, all the more can the holy ones in Heaven do so for us, for they are not disinterested observers of our troubles. They have a more complete and pure love than ours, and they can and do pray and intercede for us before God. Moreover, God listens to their prayers for us, for through their exploits while they lived on earth, the saints earned for themselves God's eternal good will. They are God's favorite ones who have gained ready access to Him. As the Word of God says concerning the effectiveness of the saints' prayers for us, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:15).

            Regarding those who scoff at the idea of prayer, Metropolitan Gregory of St. Petersburg stated:

There are people (who are unworthy, however, of the name) who, not being able to understand how the Lord can hear and answer our prayers, do not fully believe that He does hear and answer them. Do not pay attention to them. We do not understand how we live, but we certainly do live.

The same may be said about prayers to the saints. The saints do hear and answer our prayers.

            Because of the prayerful intercession of the saints, the Church ends its every service with this appeal to Jesus Christ, that He save and have mercy on us, “through the prayers of His Most Pure Mother and all the saints.” Also because of the saints' loving intercession for us, Orthodox Christians always turn to the saints in prayer, and they give special honor to their patron saint on their Name Day. To revere God's righteous servants in this way is entirely proper. Christ regarded as His friends all those who fulfilled His commandments, and He said to His disciples: “He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me” (Mt 10: 40). In these words, Christ is clearly showing that the honor rendered to His faithful servants and friends is imparted to Himself. Thus, in honoring the saints, Christians honor God Himself, Whom the saints pleased in their lives here on earth, and Whose grace resides in them.