Respect for the Deceased

Yesterday I shared with you some comments about treating the emblems of the sacrament with reverence and respect. I suppose you could consider the following to be "Part 2':

If you want to have an interesting experience, think about two scenarios that prompt some serious questions:

Scenario #1: Sacrament meeting. What goes on in our minds from the time we get up on Sunday morning until the moment we take our seats in the chapel? What do we think about on the way to the church? What do we talk about? After arriving at the meetinghouse, do we merrily “work the room,” socializing right up to the point when the person conducting has stepped to the pulpit and begun speaking? [In my ward there are typically 15-20 people socializing in the aisles when the member of the bishopric begins the meeting.] Do the words of the hymns, sacrament prayers, and sermons leave their footprints on our hearts, or does the weekly routine numb us to their intended effect?

Now hit the “re-wind” button and consider another event.

Scenario #2: A funeral. How does the nature of this event affect what we think about as we prepare for and travel to it? How does it affect what we talk about along the way? How does it affect our attitude and demeanor once we enter the building? Does it affect the volume of our voices? Are we as likely to “work the room” in this setting, or, due to the nature of the event, are we more likely to be subdued, meditative, and reverent? Do the words of the hymns and the spoken words cause us to reflect upon our own mortality, prompting us in significant ways to resolve to be better?

I suspect most people will say they're likely to be more reverent and meditative in the funeral scenario. When you ask them why, their response will be something like this: “Well, naturally, at a funeral my actions and speech will be more subdued -- out of respect for the deceased.”

Interesting -- do we not attend sacrament meeting to honor and worship and pay tribute to the Holy One who was deceased for us? Are not the sacrament table and the linen-covered emblems as real a representation of His body as a casket standing before us at a funeral?

“Out of respect for the deceased” is a very praiseworthy attitude, but shouldn’t it guide our behavior before and during sacrament meetings and not just at funerals?

The Pitfall of Routine

Once we learn how to perform them, many daily tasks become so automatic and routine that we can do them without even thinking. This may be acceptable for menial tasks like mowing the lawn or washing a car, but it becomes a dangerous pitfall if regular priesthood duties are treated as mere routine.

This has become a concern to me as I’ve observed holders of the Aaronic Priesthood and their Young Men leaders preparing the sacrament. Some have done it every week for so long that they seem to have no thought for the sacred nature of the things they are handling and making ready. I try to imagine what an investigator or new convert would think – or the Lord Himself -- as they see these men, young and old, joking, laughing, even whistling as they gather around the sacrament table.

Instead of preparing the trays of bread in the room designated for that purpose, empty trays are brought to the table where a loaf of bread has been casually dropped. A young man reaches into the bag and grabs six slices at once. Then he hands them to another to place into the trays. Throughout this process, they visit and joke. It is such a familiar routine that they perform the assignment thoughtlessly -- without a thought of the sacredness of the assignment..

Contrast that scene with what was observed by a visitor to an LDS chapel in the Ukraine during the preparation of the sacrament:

“Two Aaronic Priesthood members came to prepare the sacrament. I have been a teacher and a teachers quorum advisor. You give me a couple of teachers and a good water faucet and the sacrament can be prepared in just a few minutes. It does not take a lot of attention.


“That was not the case with these young Aaronic Priesthood holders. The first thing they did was say a prayer before they started to prepare the sacrament. I assume they were praying to put themselves in the frame of mind for this holy ordinance. I had never seen this kind of devotion before.


“Then they carefully laid the first linen on the sacrament table. They stood back to make sure all the corners were perfectly correct. They carefully pressed out a few wrinkles. They placed cups in the water trays and with bottled water carefully and uniformly filled each cup. They placed the bread on the table, then reverently and with great solemnity covered the sacrament table as if they were covering the dead body of the crucified Christ. I do not think Joseph of Arimathea and the earlier disciples showed any more reverence when they took care of the body of our Lord.


“Watching these Aaronic Priesthood brethren touched me deeply and caused me to think about the teachings of the Savior.” (Gordon B. Lindsay, “And Always Remember Him,” BYU devotional, 26 July 2005).

In their weekly meetings in the temple, the Brethren partake of the sacrament. But even though some of them have been doing so for decades, it would be inconceivable to think that any of them would treat the sacrament as mere routine. Neither should we. The key, in my opinion, is found in being reverently and purposely thoughtful, not casually and routinely thoughtless.