Ancestors and faith

BY SIMANGALISO MAGUDULELA

Before Christianity came to our land, Africans believed in the continuity of life after death and that is by moving into the spirit world. However, not everyone who is dead would qualify to be an ancestor (idlozi). According to Dominique Zahan, an ancestor is first of all, a man who has reached a great age and who has acquired along with longevity a profound experience of people and things.

One day I heard an expert on such topics saying on the radio that an ancestor cannot be an unmarried person and also a young person.This means that many deceased people are excluded from being ancestors because of their marital status and by their age, irrespective of their conduct in life. This also means that those who are excluded from being ancestors cannot mediate on behalf of their loved ones.

Strangely, most of those who practise this belief ignore the original meaning of the ancestor by making people ancestors whose lives were not commendable. After all it doesn’t make sense to ask someone whose life was lived carelessly and without any form of respect for life to be your mediator, let alone believing in God.

Africans are not alone in this belief. Many early Christians were persecuted for their faith, leading many Christians in Rome to hide in the catacombs (an underground cemetery consisting of tunnels). As a result, they found themselves praying and worshipping God surrounded by the tombs and bodies of the dead. When possible, they sought to pray among the bodies of dead Christians, sometimes using a coffin or tomb for an altar on which to celebrate the Eucharist.

From the early apostolic times, it appears the Church held a respectful veneration for the dead. They reported witnessing healing miracles in connection with the bodies of dead Christians, or observing sweet-smelling myrrh exuding from their bones. This, combined with their belief in the Resurrection of Jesus and future resurrection of all Christians (the Resurrection of the Dead), eventually led to the veneration of saints and of their relics.

Here at home, you find people being told by izangoma, abathandazi or any kind of traditional fortune tellers to go to the wilderness and call upon their ancestors to come with them to their homes. When they do this, all the demonic spirits found on wastelands would join them because they want a home too, because their spirits have never been committed to the Lord after death. This results in people facing problems of evil spirits in their homes which causes them to suffer a great deal.

Even Christians forget that the souls of their loved ones are entrusted to God and therefore cannot live with them in their homes.

The term ancestor worship is a misnomer in many ways. In English, the word worship usually refers to the reverent love and devotion accorded to a deity or divine being.

In other cultures, this act of worship does not imply the belief that the departed ancestors have become some kind of deity. Rather, the act is a way to respect, honour and look after ancestors in their afterlives as well as seek their guidance for their living descendants.

The Bible takes a negative view of necromancy, or attempts to communicate with the dead (Lev 19:26-31; Deut18:10-11; Job 7:7-10; Is 8:18-20; Lk 16:19-31).

Jesus’ account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke provides further insight into the condition of the dead and what happens after death. It clearly indicates that it is impossible for the living to communicate directly with the dead.

From this, it is evident that there is a clear divide between the righteous and the unrighteous dead, and that the dead do not have freedom of movement, as is suggested by the underlying beliefs of ancestor worship or veneration.

Clearly then, the dead are not able to exert an influence on the lives of the living.

Christ tells us that the dead cannot communicate with the living on any matter. Clearly then, the Bible does not encourage or support a relationship between the living and the dead. Furthermore, these scriptures indicate that the fear of the ancestors is unfounded.

As John Samuel Mbiti, a Kenyan Anglican theologian concedes, most, if not all, of these attributive deities are the creation of man’s imagination.

If we believe that the dead have the ability to intercede for us to God on our behalf then there would be no need for us to believe in Jesus Christ.

While we know that Christ is our intercessor, we are also joyful to know that the saints whom God had sanctified are able to pray to him on our behalf (Rev 8:3-4).

St Cyril of Jerusalem said: Then during the Eucharistic prayer we make mention also of those who have already fallen asleep: first, the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, that through their prayers and supplications God would receive our petition…

Whatever we may believe, we must have faith in the Holy Trinity, knowing that our direct prayers to God are heard and are answered by him through Christ’s intercession.

Simangaliso Magudulela belongs to Holy Cross Anglican church in Orlando West, Soweto. This is an adapted version of an article that first appeared in Southern Anglican magazine.