topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
All Souls Day (A)
 02 November 08


Commemoratio omnium Fidelium Defunctorum
(The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed)
 

The reality of living a good life—what we call a “saintly” life—is that it consists of struggle.  Sad but true because it sure would be nice if it were otherwise.  But, to love God and neighbor as we love ourselves in every aspect of our lives requires a very special attitude, what Jesus called the “Be-attitudes,” one that is formed by acting upon principles in the crucible of struggle, where we don’t allow distractions to draw our attention away from what is most important in life and as this is enshrined in those principles and by upholding those principles.  Yet, the simple fact is that we sometimes do forget what is most important and don’t live up to those principles.  Then, all too quickly we discover how far we’ve fallen, especially when everything comes crashing down all around us.

Perhaps the good news is that the saintly person is not immune from these struggles.  But, what makes a person saintly is that he or she didn’t run away from the crucible.  Instead, this person entered into the struggle head on, gradually forming the attitude of a saint so that even when everything did come crashing down (and it does for saints, too!), that person didn’t become distracted from what is most important in life.  Humanly speaking, that would be a formidable achievement!

However, it’s nearly impossible to achieve on our own because it’s really tough when we suddenly find ourselves in the crucible of suffering.  Just think about how easy it is to indulge in self-pity and to point the finger of blame everywhere but at ourselves for all of our woes.  The really good news is that we’re not alone in the crucible of suffering because there’s an entire “communion of saints” who have achieved faith’s goal, namely, their salvation.  Their witness can point us in the direction we need when we find ourselves caught in the crucible of struggle.

Yes, that’s what it’s all about: achieving faith’s goal, our salvation, assisted by God’s grace and the communion of saints as we confront and overcome challenges in the crucible of struggle.

Yesterday, we celebrated the memory of all those women and men who led saintly lives.  They now live eternally in God, but are all but forgotten here on earth.  Through their witness, these women and men did all of those small but good things that taught others—perhaps it was their children, the nieces and nephews, their co-workers and neighbors, or just people they inadvertently ran into by happenstance—what it means not just to be a “good person” but to be a “saintly person.”   Because these women and men rooted their self-identity in being a “child of God,” the didn’t allow anything to distract them from being that in every aspect of their lives.  So, while their names may be forgotten in the annals of history, their lives enriched quite mightily the lives of those who were so blessed to have known those great saints who now live eternally in God.

Reading about and studying their lives—in a book like Fr. Alban Butler’s Lives of the Saints—can provide direction and motivation to people in all generations who find themselves ensnared in the crucible of suffering and not knowing quite where to turn.  The scripture also can provide direction and motivation, for example, as we heard in today’s reading from the Book of Wisdom:

The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them...they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.  Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love; because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect.
 

In contrast to yesterday’s feast, today we celebrate the memory of those women and men who—perhaps like most of us—desired to be a “saintly person” but got distracted from acting as a saintly person would in the crucible of suffering.  None of these were “bad people.”  No, they were “imperfect people” who didn’t always translate their self-identity as God’s child into every aspect of their lives.  Yes, others saw glimmers of their nobility, but when the crucible of the struggles associated with daily life tested the spiritual mettle of the women and men, sadly, they got distracted from what was most important and failed to form that important attitude characterizing a saintly person.  Then, they died, never quite having brought to perfection the life of God―their self-identity as a child of God―during their days on earth.

These people are not without hope, however, because all of them―and all of us, too―have been reconciled with God our Father through the death of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as St. Paul reminded all of us in his letter to the Romans:

God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us....Indeed if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.
 

All Souls Day reminds us to pray for these “faithful departed.”  Although they have been saved, one day will be in Heaven, and belong to the communion of saints, they have yet to be perfected so as to enter into Heaven, that is, to come into full unity with the perfection that is God.  We especially remember the souls of all our loved ones—relatives and friends as well as influential individuals (like teachers, coaches, mentors, religious leaders, public servants and officials, and the like)—by offering prayers and mass for them.  Why?  Their lives have given us glimpse into God’s goodness and our hope is that God will soon accept their souls into Heaven.  However, the fact is that they died not having become saints and God is now purifying their souls—is “cleaning them up” of the lesser faults, failures, and the temporal effects of sin—in Purgatory.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the Church’s teaching about this place of purification:

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.

The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.  The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent.  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, Dialogues, 4,39:PL 77,396; cf. Matthew 12:31).

This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: “Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin” (2 Maccabeans 12:46).  From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.  The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

“Let us help and commemorate them. If Job’s sons were purified by their fathers sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation?  Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them”  (Saint John Chrysostom, Homily on 1 Corinthians, 41,5:PG 61,361; cf. Job 1:5).  (§1030-1032)
 

We say prayers, not only for those whom we have known, loved, and respected but also for what traditionally have been called the “poor souls.”  These are the people who have died and may have nobody else—no family, no children, or no grandchildren—to pray for them.  Prayer for the poor souls is an act of charity, one that we perform as Jesus taught...for the “least of them.”  Some day, it may well be the case that someone was praying for our “poor souls.”

These two days―November 1st and 2nd―are not intended to be characterized each year by maudlin or morose feelings of doom, gloom, and death, like we see on Halloween and which characterized funerals prior to the reform of the liturgy following Vatican II.  Remember the black vestments and the Introit for the day, Dies irae, dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla irae...“Oh day of wrath, oh day that will reduce the world to ashes”?  No, the respect for the dead enshrined in the annual celebration of All Saints Day and All Souls day reflects the respect we as Roman Catholics have for all human life.  God is the Author of human life which makes every human being not only one of God’s children but also makes us very precious and dear to God, just as a child is to one’s parents.  The Church intentionally positioned All Souls Day to follow All Saints Day in order to shift focus from those who have died and are in Heaven to those who have died and are in Purgatory.  All Saints Day recalls the glories of Heaven and the witness of those who eternal home is in Heaven.  All Souls Day reminds us that purification is required of the souls of those who are destined for Heaven but whose witness fell short in the crucible of struggle during their lives on earth.  It is a day filled with hope because, even if we fall short and have not perfected ourselves before we die, God will perfect us and we will rest eternally in God.

Reflecting on what All Saints Day and All Souls Day are about serves to remind us about our obligation to live saintly lives.  To love God and neighbor as we love ourselves in every aspect of our lives requires a special attitude, one formed especially in the crucible of struggle, where we don’t allow distractions to draw our attention away from what counts most importantly in life.  And, this year, the crucible of struggle in which we find ourselves is that of an election.

Let me frame the matter by asking this question: If we are to be saintly on earth and to enjoy eternal life in God in Heaven, what is required of us as we cast our votes on Tuesday?

The transcending issue of our day―the issue at the heart of All Saints Day and All Souls Day―is that of human life, not just the life of the unborn but human life in all of its forms.  At this moment in our nation’s history, those who wittingly or unwittingly are proponents of a culture of death would have us turn a deaf ear to the cries of those who advocate a culture of life.  However, in matters concerning the culture of life, no Roman Catholic can claim ignorance.  As Cardinal Rigali reminded all of us in last week’s Catholic Standard and Times:

When we are faced with every modern means of education and communication, in addition to the law placed in our hearts at creation, no one, and most especially, no Catholic, can ever say, “I did not know.”

The human dignity that we proclaim works two ways: it affords us a great privilege but it also demands a responsibility.  The feeble defense “I did not know” cannot be used by any responsible person in our time….We do know.  We know because we can reason and think and see….It is not a question of politics but a question of the gravest of intrinsic evils; and just as the reality of what [the culture of death] is cannot be explained away, neither can our responsibility.
 

As a priest, it is not my place to tell anyone what, if any candidate they should vote for.  That would be to trespass upon what is sacred, namely, each person’s individual moral responsibility for which each person will stand in judgment before God.  However, it is my place to assist people to form their conscience rightly so that each person—in the crucible of suffering where one must render a decision “render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what is God’s”—will do what is saintly.  This is nothing other than to possess the attitude of Christ, to consider the moral principles taught by the Church, and to evaluate all of this against the policies espoused by any candidate for public office.  As Cardinal Rigali expressed this idea in his recent CST article:

The human conscience is always at the service of truth and virtue, but it must be properly formed in order to function properly.  We believe that because we are made in God’s image we have within our very nature a fundamental understanding of right and wrong.  To us as human persons, this “law of the heart,” as it is sometimes called, requires a responsibility beyond laws enacted by governments.
 

Let there be no doubt about it: immigration reform, health care, the economy and its solvency, care and concern for the poor, and the war on terror are important issues challenging our nation.  As Catholics, we must be very concerned about all of these issues and work very hard to see that just solutions are enacted by governmental officials.  There are many possible solutions to these issues and there can be reasonable debate among Roman Catholics about how best to approach and solve them.  These are matters of what’s called “prudential judgment.”  And, it is our responsibility to identify what prudence dictates and to dedicate ourselves to seeing that its dictates are enacted into law by voting for public servants who understand that they serve those who elected them to office based upon the dictates of prudence.

But, let us not forget what the bishops of Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas recently taught in this regard: “Let us be clear: Issues of prudential judgment are not morally equivalent to issues involving intrinsic evils.  No matter how right a given candidate is on any of these issues, it does not outweigh a candidate’s unacceptable position in favor of an intrinsic evil such as legalized abortion, the promotion of same-sex unions and ‘marriages,’ repression of religious liberty, as well as public policies permitting euthanasia, racial discrimination, or destructive human embryonic stem cell research.”

Roman Catholics who seek to be saints cannot ignore these issues, many of which the Church teaches are “non-negotiable,” because they attack the foundation of the culture of life upon which saints form their attitude.  These issues concern “intrinsic evils,” which is to say that the actions involved in these issues are morally evil in such a way that is essentially opposed to God’s will or proper human fulfillment.  The key consideration here is that intrinsically evil actions are judged to be so solely by their object, independently of the intention that inspires them or the circumstances that surround them (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1756).  In this sense, “intrinsic” does not convey the notion of a particularly heinous act (although all heinous acts are intrinsically evil), but that the act is wrong no matter what its circumstances.  Thus, to eschew this body of moral teaching by voting for a candidate whose policies promote the culture of death is to fail in the crucible of decision making.  Promoting the culture of death when there is an alternative option is nothing other to cooperate in evil, and therefore is morally impermissible.

All Saints Day and All Souls Day remind us about the fundamental value of all human life.  How we live our lives is no small matter; in fact, it is the entire matter...the whole ball of wax, the entire enchilada.  When the day of God’s judgment arrives, as it surely will for each and every one of us, we will find ourselves rendering to God an account not only of how we lived our lives in general, but also of how we exercised our citizenship in the voting booth, in particular.  As Cardinal Rigali has reminded us, no Roman Catholic can say “I did not know” about these issues that are the foundation upon which saints labor day in and day out to construct a culture of life.

This year being an election year, let All Saints Day and All Souls Day also remind us of the primacy of the Church’s moral teaching as each of us endeavors to be faithful citizens...whose respect for life in this “Earthly City” reveals our self-identity as God’s children and our true desire: eternal citizenship as members of the communion of the saints in the “City of God.”

 

A brief commercial break...
 

1) With the commemoration of All Souls today, families might want to introduce an ancient custom for observing All Souls Day into their annual calendar.

First: at some point during All Souls Day (November 2), have each family member remember (or write down) the deceased members of the family, relatives, and friends who have died, who used to be called the "Poor Souls."

Second: just before beginning dinner on the evening of All Saints Day, place a blessed candlesymbolizing "Jesus the Light that has come into the world"in the center of the dinner table and gather the family around the dinner table.

Third: have one family member extinguish the lights and, in the darkness and beginning with the youngest member of the family and proceeding to the oldest member of the family, identify by name each of the "Poor Souls."

Fourth: have the oldest child light the blessed candle as all family members say, "Jesus Christ is the Light that has come into the world."

Fifth: in response, the family prays together:

"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.  And let perpetual light shine upon them.  May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.  Amen."

This very brief ritual reminds everyone in the family that life is immensely precious and death is all-consuming.  With Christ and in the resurrection of the body, there is light, warmth, life, and hope.

 

2) With only 54 days left until Christmas Day, the people at Magnificat® produce a companion edition for the season of Advent.   Similar to a what older Catholics may remember as a "prayer book," the companion edition contains all sorts of prayers, readings, reflections, art, and activities for every member of the family to prepare each day of the season of Advent for the coming of Christ at Christmas.

Grandparents might consider purchasing a copy for themselves and copies for each of their grandchildren.  Confirmation sponsors might consider purchasing a copy for themselves as well as the person they sponsored in the faith.  Spouses might purchase a copy for themselves and use it for daily prayer during the season of Advent.  Parents might purchase a copy for the family and use it to lead prayer before dinner each evening.

At a price of $3.95 for 1-4 copies plus $1 shipping/handling, $2.50 for 5-9 copies plus $3 shipping/handling, and $1.50 for 10-49 copies (plus $5 shipping/handling), the companion edition makes a perfect and very affordable opportunity to prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas as well as an Advent gift to spur family, friends, and colleagues toward greater spiritual growth during the season of Advent.

The companion edition has a limited press run that sells out each year.  Furthermore, orders are filled in the order received.  So, place your order early.

To place an order for the 2008 companion edition of Magnificat® for the season of Advent, call 1-970-416-6670 or email specialissue@intrepidgroup.com for ordering information.

 

 

 

 

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