Word to the Wise
Thursday, November 2, 2006 - Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day)
[Wisdom 3:1-9; Romans 6:3-9; John 6:37-40]The souls of the just are in the hands of God and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the the view of the foolish to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.
When I was pastor at St. Ann Parish in San Antonio, the parish had a bereavement committee. They would visit the home of a deceased member of the parish to console the family and members would attend the funeral. This is not unusual in many parishes. It is a sign of concern on the part of the community for those who mourn. Indeed, I think All Souls Day (which now has a rather lengthy title that is perhaps more accurate but not more consoling) is a way in which the whole church "reaches out" to both mourner as well as mourned. We Catholics pray for our deceased! It may put things into perspective if we remember that we pray for those who are still on earth with us also. In short, we don't really pray for the "dead" but for the living who have died! That may seem a strange way of putting it, but if we see death as an event in a life that continues, then we recognize our continuing obligation to pray for one another, whether living on earth or living beyond death! The pragmatic American mentality might ask, "Why? What difference can it make to them?" Traditional Catholic belief includes the possibility that the deceased person may still be "working on" getting ready for the beatific vision, a process we call "purgatory." But we cannot be certain of any person's relationship to God in either this life or "the next." What we CAN be certain of is that our relationship TO them is expressed in the way we pray FOR them. This is a matter of love of neighbor! Those who remember their Baltimore Catechism will recall that one of the "spiritual works of mercy" is "to pray for the living and the dead." Our respect for the "deceased living" is simply a matter of love of neighbor. The celebration of All Souls Day is a universal community expression of this love. We visit the cemeteries and place flowers on the tombs. (In San Antonio, this was a spectacular scene!) If perhaps on All Saints Day we tend to look at saints as distant from ourselves, at least on All Souls Day we can do something that we hope others will do for us no matter what - pray for us! AMEN
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