Day of the Dead

Let’s talk Purgatory. We have to, to make any sense at all out of today’s feast. Today is officially “The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed”, but like most folks, I’ll stick with the simple version – All Souls’ Day.

Over the years, I’ve heard numerous homilies and essays that mix this day up with yesterday, All Saints’ Day. Somebody once told me, “they’re basically the same feast”. No.

Yesterday, we celebrated the feast of all the saints – known and unknown – who participate in the heavenly liturgy, while gazing in Beatific Vision at the Eternal and undivided Trinity and basking in the mercy and love of Love itself.

Today, the Church calls us to pray for the dead. This is a venerable tradition, praised in the Second Book of Maccabees (2 Macc. 12:43–45), and continued on in the Christian scriptures (2 Tim 1:16-18) and right to the present day. This is the original meaning of the Hispanic “Day of the Dead”.

But how, logically, can we pray for the dead? Surely their reward is known to them who have already submitted to their judgement? They’re either in heaven or hell, and no amount of prayer is going to change that. And how do we reconcile that with scripture and tradition, which teach us that it is laudable to pray for the dead?

Let us turn to our old friend, the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1030 All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. … The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:

“As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.” (St. Gregory the Great, Dial. 4,39:PL 77,396; cf. Mt 12:31.)

We pray for the souls in Purgatory, who are undergoing this cleansing that they might worthily dwell in paradise: their place is assured, but they are not yet ready to assume it. This is known as the Church Suffering, as opposed to the Church Triumphant (the saints in heaven), and the Church Militant (that’s us).

Light a candle and say a prayer for your beloved dead, that they may soon see the face of God.

The Office of the day is the Office of the Dead, and the traditional Mass of the day is a requiem, so I will leave you with this to begin your prayers.

In paradisum deducant te Angeli;
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat,
et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

May angels lead you into paradise;
upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you
and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem.
May the ranks of angels receive you,
and with Lazarus, the poor man, may you have eternal rest.

(reprint)