ALL SOULS' DAY
By- Fr. Mervyn Carapiet
"It is all Souls' Day.
Have you forgotten me, dear earthly friends ?
Have you a prayer to spare for one you once loved well ?
Do you still remember the happy hours we spent together in the past ?
Have you forgotten the scalding tears you wept when I was dead ?
The promises you breathed over my still form ?
The Masses you had intended to have offered up for me ?
Across the eternal silence I lean forward now to remind you !
Think of me, help me, and when your last hour comes, you will find your
goodness to me has not been in vain.
For the dead forget not; the dead are never untrue; they live forever in the
changeless love of God, which permeates all, sanctifies all, immortalises
all.
The flowers of his heaven are your fervent prayers ! For your loved and
seeming lost, then, make a wreath of them for me to lay at his holy feet."
(from "Prayers of an Irish mother")
When we who are now on earth have died, we will in our turn need
to make that entreaty. During our brief sojourn here we remember the
departed. This age-old tradition of praying for the dead is rooted in the
early Church's trust in the mercy of God and faith in a personal
resurrection with Jesus Christ. We pray for the faithful who 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. We don't quite know the nature of this purification, but it
certainly has to do with the advent of God's purifying love. Today's
commemoration is, in fact, an extension of yesterday's feast of All Saints',
since the faithful departed also belong to the Communion of Saints, which is
animated and electrified by divine love. It is a truth that is based on the
teaching of Scripture, namely, that the Church is Christ's body. Christ has
only one body, not one on earth and another in heaven. Christians are not
separated from one another by a death that makes no difference to their love
and service of one another.
One day, during a catechism class on All Saint's Day, the teacher
asked, "Who or what are the saints ?" One youngster stood up and looked at
the stained glass window that had a saint portrayed, with the sunlight
streaming through. The little fellow got a bright idea and answered, "The
saints are those who let in the sunlight." Splendid answer, the teacher
thought. The saints let the light of Christ into our life by their prayer
and example. But what happens when there is no sunlight, the outside is dark
and we are seated in a well lit church ? That is when we send our light and
prayer to our friends in the semi-darkness as they walk towards the pearly
gates, grateful for our prayers and sacrifices that serve as so many points
of light on their way to the perpetual light of the Heavenly Jerusalem.
PRAYER
Lord God, we thank you for your ineffable gift of eternal life in you. We
thank you for inviting us to pray for our loved ones who wait to enter
there. Grant them a speedy entrance into your joy forever. We beg to
intercede also for those who have no one to pray for them. Grant them
eternal rest. Amen.
Fr. Mervyn Carapiet,D.Th.,
Morning Star College,
Barrackpore 743 101
