This solemnity today brings to me a sense of sadness and yet great joy. On this day, my sister celebrated her birthday. She died on 18 November, 1993, days after her 40th birthday. I especially remember her last birthday celebration where we danced and just had fun, at her expense of course, being her 40th and all.
I can still feel that last hug we exchanged on that day as if it were just yesterday. Memories of my sister linger on in my heart and I pray for her every day as I do my father who died in 1997.
My point is that we are never fully separated from our loved ones, friends, neighbors, even though they have passed away. On This solemnity we are reminded that we can pray for those who have passed away, we can pray for the souls in purgatory. Now there is a word that is much misunderstood, purgatory.
The theological understanding brings the knowledge of human frailty. Since few people achieve perfection in this life but, rather, go to their resting place still scared with traces of sinfulness, some period of purification seems necessary before a soul comes face to face with God.
The council of Trent in 1545 affirmed this purgatory state and insisted that the prayers of the living can speed the process of purification of those souls in purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph 1030-that all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
As the source of all our worship as Catholic Christians, we pause to remember. We remember Jesus Christ and all he did for us. We remember how he suffered, died and rose for us, and in word and sacrament we remember what he did at the table with his friends on the night before he died. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist we remember someone who has died, our savior, our friend and brother, Jesus Christ. And every time we celebrate the Eucharist we remember others who have died, too.
We hear the prayers offered in the Eucharistic prayer at mass for example Eucharistic prayer #2: “Remember also our sisters and brothers who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy, welcome them into the light of your face”. We remember all our brothers and sisters in Christ and not only them but also all who have died.
The first reading for today from the book of Wisdom offers comfort to anyone experiencing loss and grief. It speaks of the foolish, those who lack faith. For those who have faith the passage says; “for if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed because God tried them and found them worthy of himself”. Sounds maybe like a hint of purgatory.
When we pray for those who have died we remember first those whom we loved the most, those whom we miss the most. My sister and father are always in my prayers first then all those relatives, friends, and all who have died. I’m sure there are names of loved ones that come to your heart too, and we pray for them.
Our knowledge of human frailty and our faith in God’s mercy teach us that when we die, God might not be done fashioning us, making us ready for eternal life. Of course we do have a stake in all this, we can work on our readiness before we come to the end of our lives. We can get ourselves ready now!!!
Our whole life on earth is a journey to the dwelling place Christ has prepared and reserved for us in his Father’s house. Naturally, for us as people of faith, we journey with Jesus, we follow his lead. And sometimes we stay right on the path that leads us home and sometimes we take shortcuts or make detours or even turn around and walk in the other direction. That is what sin does to us. This is why we need the Lord to shepherd us from death into life!
Our culture has a hard time coming to terms with the reality of death. We try not to think about it. We as Christians say the person has passed away, left this life, left this earth, gone to a better place but we have a hard time saying a person has died.
Some look at their life as the end of their existence. But we as Christians see death as a transition from this life to the next. The author of Wisdom offered hope to his readers that the wise and righteous may have eternal joy and happiness with God.
Contrary to how people thought at that time, they saw death as the absolute end of a person’s existence. The author of Wisdom insists that the wise and righteous person should hope for immortality, seeing the suffering of the present and even physical death as moments that are a part of the journey and the way to their fullness of life with God.
The Book of Wisdom was written in Alexandria in Egypt about 50 years before Christ and now Jesus Christ reaffirms the message of the writing by telling His listeners that it is his Father’s will that “Everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and he will raise him up on the last day”. That should get all of our attention!!!!
Of course, the result of death, what happens when we die and also the notion of purgatory, is hard to understand. We might even have a false picture of purgatory. It’s not some flaming concentration camp on the outskirts of hell. It is not God’s last chance to make us suffer. After all, He loves us and wants to be with us.
St. Catherine of Genoa, Italy who was canonized in 1737, a couple centuries after her death, spoke beautifully of the fire of purgatory as “God’s love burning the soul until it was wholly aflame with the love of God”. It is like the fire mentioned in the Book of Wisdom: “As gold in the furnace, God will prove us, purify us, and take us to himself…we shall shine and we shall abide forever with God’s love”.
If there is pain in purgatory, it is the pain of longing to be with God, to be worthy of the heaven Jesus won for us. And so we pray for those who have gone before us
4 that God bring to completion the good work begun in their lives while they were
still with us.
We cannot know how or even if time is measured in the purification in purgatory. Perhaps one day, one hour, one minute on our clocks of finally and fully realizing the greatness of God’s love for us and how unloving in return we often were…..perhaps one second will be all it takes to purify us of the sins of taking God’s love and the love of others for granted.
Today and throughout the month of November, we remember those who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again and we pray for all the departed. And we remember Jesus, our brother, our savior, who died for all of us and rose to open the door to his Father’s house to prepare for each of us a dwelling place in his peace.
Heavenly Father, we pray for our loved ones and friends who have gone before us in the hope of rising again and we pray for all those in purgatory that their souls may burn with God’s love. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let the perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace, Amen.