During this time of year when Halloween, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day are the focus I figured a bit of history is in order to explain All Souls’ Day. So let’s dive right in! One of the greatest military commanders to ever live was Alexander the Great. Because of his ability to conquer lands and people, his empire went from Greece to Egypt to Northwest ancient India by the time Alexander died in his early 30s in 323 B.C. He had not provided for succession of his rule by the time he died, so his empire went to his generals, who clamored for whatever part of the empire they could get. The part of that empire where Israel was located was snatched by general Seleucus in what came to be known as the Seleucid Empire. In 175 BC, Antiochus Epiphanes IV came to rule that region and began to severely persecute traditional Jewish religion. In 166 B.C., Judas Maccabee, a zealous Jew, led a successful revolt against his Greek oppressors. His campaign resulted in a rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem, which had been desecrated and blasphemed by the Greeks. We now know this event as the feast of Hanukah.
During one of the battles in which Judas Maccabee’s army fought, it was discovered that some of his slain men had hidden in their garments little figurines, idols, dedicated to a foreign god of a foreign religion. These soldiers apparently thought that it wouldn’t hurt to have an insurance policy in case the God of Israel didn’t provide for them enough in battle. Judas was heartsick, so he took up a collection from his remaining men to offer a sacrifice at the Temple in Jerusalem for their sin of not trusting the One, True God.
We know from what Jesus said in the Gospels that there is an unbridgeable gap between heaven and hell. So, if Judas Maccabee was praying for men that were either in heaven or in hell, it would do no good. People who are in heaven or who are in hell cannot go anywhere else. Judas’ prayer presupposes that there is some sort of intermediate state between heaven and hell. Catholics, what do we call that situation? Purgatory. It is interesting to note that this happened before Christ came to Earth, prior to the formation of His Church.
This doctrine of Catholicism is further attested by Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians that we heard from today where he says that a person’s work in life will be tested by fire, and, if found to be deficient because it wasn’t built totally upon Christ, that person could still be saved, but only as through fire. This is reinforced again by Jesus’ words today that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live.
So, we pray for our dead today. I pray for my father and the many relatives and friends I know of that have died. If they are not already in heaven, the Church, through the bible, tells me that my prayers could be beneficial for them if they are in purgatory, just as Judas Maccabee’s prayers were for his sinful fallen soldiers.
Consider this. Grandmas love their grandchildren, right? And nothing could separate them, right? Let’s say the grandchildren are out in the yard playing and get covered, from head to toe, in mud. Now, it’s time for the grandchildren to come into the house to get loved up by Grandma, whose house is fitted all around with white carpet. So, grandma gets out the hose and sprays the mud off her grandchildren and dries them off before they come into the house for the tea party. Is Grandma mean? Unreasonable? Lacking in mercy? No. The grandkids need a little cleaning up before Grandma will let them in the house.
So it is in our relationship with God. Assuming that our inclination has been toward God in this life, whatever sins and sinful tendencies we have that have not been healed of in this life need to be addressed before we will feel truly at home with God in heaven. Sin, by definition, is that which separates us from God. How can we live totally in harmony with God if we still have sinful tendencies in us when we die? That’s what purgatory is: the place where we are given the opportunity to have those dark, hidden, sinful inclinations in us finally repaired, healed, done away with, so that we can finally live with God without the baggage that sin weighs us down with. We wouldn’t yet feel totally at home in heaven, nor would God, until we are purified of what separates us from God. That’s why purgatory is a place of mercy, not a place of retribution for what we have done.
As we know, making a change in your life can be difficult. Those of you who have stopped smoking know this only too well. Changing an attitude or a behavior can be very hard. So, the Church says that we should pray for our dead. Those prayers can help the people who are being purified in the same way that our prayers for people on earth can sometimes make a difference when a person is trying to make some needed changes.
Fellow Catholics, funerals, from the point of view of the Catholic Church are all about praying for the dead. That’s why we have them. Along the way, it is possible that our presence at the funeral will be of some comfort to the family, that we get a chance to say goodbye, that we honor and celebrate the life of the person who died. But these are side benefits. These days, some folks assume that the side benefits are the only things that a funeral is trying to accomplish. I believe one of the reasons for this is that many people automatically assume that when a person dies, they go straight to heaven. But none of us can know that for sure, ordinarily. Common sense tells us that when people like Adolph Hitler died, there is a strong possibility that he went to Hell, however the final judgement for him was between God and him.
Speaking for myself, I have a trust in my heart that I will go to heaven someday. But, knowing myself the way that I do, I also think that there is a strong possibility that I will need to spend some time being purified before that happens. Over the years, the Lord has shown me my own sins and sinful tendencies. I have worked on those areas for years with God’s help, and sometimes, I can see some progress in some of those areas. Perhaps by the end of my life, enough healing will have happened in these areas that I could go right to heaven. But again, I highly suspect that the job won’t be completely done by that time. If any of you here come to my funeral, please don’t assume that I am in heaven at the moment. Please, pray for me, just as I have done for you and people that we have lost as a community at their funerals. If you want to remember funny times with me, and even tell stories about them, that’s great too, but please pray for me, that I may get through whatever purification awaits me, and then I can go home to be with my maker and my friends and relatives who are already there.
I leave with you one last image. Let’s say you’ve been stuck deep in a cave for a long time because of a cave-in and can’t get out. So you dig, and others on the outside are also digging, trying to get you out. Let’s say that at some point, that work is successful and it becomes obvious that you can get out so you start walking in the direction of light. But, the closer you get to the light, the more your eyes start to hurt. Instinctively, you know that you have to stop there and let your eyes adjust to that level of light. You miss your relatives like crazy who are waiting for you on the outside, but you know it could damage your eyes if you just run out there. So you stay put for a while, and let the adjustment happen. That may happen several times before you can actually get out. But finally, you do. This is what purgatory is like. Our eyes have been plunged into the darkness of sin for a long time. Some of us, because of the way we let God into our lives to face whatever challenges have been ours, have been able to see more clearly than others. Mother Teresa. Maximillian Kolbe. John Paul II and so forth. Their eyes were adjusted so that they can bask now in the bright light of God. But, many of us have some more adjusting to do. Perhaps some here on earth. Perhaps some in the next world. God’s love is proven again, by the fact that he gives us a place to let our eyes adjust to the one True light.
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