Today, November 2, the Catholic Church celebrates All Souls’ Day, wherein we commemorate and pray for all the faithful departed. All Souls’ Day is a day especially set apart that we may remember and pray for our dear ones who have gone for their eternal reward and who are currently in a state of ongoing purification.
Offering prayers for those who have died is ancient in origin. People of all religions have believed in the immortality of the soul and have prayed for the dead. The Jewish catechism Talmud states that prayers for the dead will help to bring greater rewards and blessings to them. The Fathers of the Church encouraged this practice. The liturgies of the Mass in various rites dating from the early centuries of the Church include “prayers for the Dead.” St Augustine remarked that he used to pray for his deceased mother, remembering her request: “when I die, bury me anywhere you like, but remember to pray for me at the altar.” The Synods of Nicea, Florence and Trent encouraged the offering of prayers for
the dead.
According to Revelation 21,27: “nothing unclean shall enter Heaven.” 2 Maccabees, 12:46 is the main Biblical text incorporating the Jewish belief in the necessity of prayer and sacrifice for the dead. St Paul seems to have shared this traditional Jewish belief: “May the Lord grant him mercy on that Day” (2 Timothy 1:18). The Church’s official teaching on purgatory is plain and simple. There is a place or state of purification called Purgatory, where souls undergoing purification can be helped by the prayers of the faithful. The Catechism of the Catholic Church recommends prayer for the dead in conjunction with the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice and also encourages “almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead (CCC 1032).
What makes us to pray for the dead, the faithful departed? It is necessarily in the co-relationship that all human beings share with each other. We do pray for the people who are in need, when they live on this earth. We do seek intercessions on their behalf to God, when they are with us. When a person dies, his/her existence ceases only in our sight. They still continue to live in God’s sight. The dead are not dead for God. This is what Jesus says in Luke 20,38, “…he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive”. Therefore, it is logical and reasonable that we pray for the faithful departed (CCC 1030). Therefore, it is a duty on our part that we pray
for the purification of these Faithful Departed.
This commemoration of the All souls Day, is also a reminder of our own Death and the death of our close ones. True, that as frail humans, we may have a natural fear and even a sort of phobia of death. But our Christian love, faith and hope must gain the upper-hand in us. Death is the most feared, most hated, most painful reality on earth. Because death causes separation from our loved ones, it brings untold grief, it creates void, it ends our existence, and it brings life to a standstill. Hence we abhor death. Neither we want to think of it, nor do we want to speak about it. Death is considered something as bitter and negative. That is the half-truth regarding death. There is also
the sweeter side and positive
part of death.
Death is an interval between earthly life and eternal life. In this sense death becomes the prelude to glory and a gateway to heaven just as it became for Christ who rose from the dead. Without dying how can we come to God? Death puts a halt to our earthly pilgrimage and sets us on our heavenly journey. Death is inevitable. When God sends we have to embrace it. How, when, where, to whom, this is destined by God. We only have to wait for our turn. We are the only creatures on earth who know that we have to die one day. Let’s make sure that we die being good and not being sinful.
Love never dies. The person might have died but still he / she lives in our hearts and in our memories. Relationship never ends. The thought that the
loved person is no more with us brings us pain but the thought that the person is with God may bring us comfort.
Death is a reality. No amount of reflection or sermons can substitute the pain of this reality. Sometimes, in such situations, silence is the only answer that we can provide. But this silence ought to be a silence of hope, a silence of trust and a silence of faith. When we love God deeper, the fear of death decreases. When we have an unshakeable hope in God, the anguish of death subsides. Death is hard. But the Lord has conquered this death. Let us look on to Him, on the Cross, and find greater meaning and hope in life. In the Lord, the faithful departed are “faithful returned”. In the Lord, our loved ones do not leave home, “they go home.”
Today, let us not forget to pray for our dear departed, have Masses offered for them, visit their graves, and make daily sacrifices for them. God can foresee and apply the merits of our prayers, penances and works of charity. By pleading for them, we are inspired to lead purer lives. Priests are authorized to say three Masses on this holy, somber day.
“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”