My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The month of November is dedicated to prayer for our departed brothers and sisters.  A reason for praying for the dead is expressed each time we recite the Creed.  We believe in the communion of the Church in heaven with the Church on earth, the Communion of Saints as we properly call it.  More specifically, the Church has three states, those who enjoy full glory before God, those who still live on earth and those being purified by waiting to enter into eternal glory. 

The Communion of Saints joins these three modes of being members of the Church together into one great spiritual solidarity, and for this reason we ask those in glory to intercede for us, as they are the saints, whether officially canonized by the Church or not.  Not only do we share communion and fellowship with one another in our worship, but also we have communion with the dead, those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith, as we pray in the first Eucharistic prayer.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us of the powerful union we have with one another and the necessity of praying for the dead:  “Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also making their intercession for us effective.”  Yes, even those who are being purified and waiting for their entrance into glory can pray for us.  Most especially those already in glory pray for us, and we are united in a bond of communion stronger than we can imagine.

When the Church speaks of purgatory, we remember, as the Catechism tells us:  “All those who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still are 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.”  Being separated from God after death is a terrible pain, it is a pain worse than any fire we can imagine, the desire for God and yet the inability to contemplate Him.

Most recently, the theological advisory commission to the Holy Father gave a recommendation to clarify the Church’s teaching on limbo, which was a theological opinion that those who have died without baptism live in the state without suffering, but still are separated from God.  Theological opinions are not formal teachings of the Church.  In fact, the Church has never formally declared that limbo is another state of being for those who have died without baptism.  A new and better understanding of this area of theological inquiry is that God’s tremendous mercy is beyond our comprehension.  The universal salvific will of God can save infants and fetuses who may die without baptism in a way that we may never fully understand.

Closer to home, this year we commemorated the fifth anniversary of the terrible tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001. We still have sympathy for the great anguish of those who were not able to bury those who died that day, and we still have a great need to pray for them. 

The recent discovery of new remains at two locations near Ground Zero renewed the source of anguish for the loved ones of these departed.  The teaching of the Church has been that the bodies of the faithful departed must always be treated with love and respect.  Every effort should be made to recover the remains and identify them through every scientific means possible, so that these, our heroes and martyrs, will be given a proper place of earthly rest, although they already enjoy eternal rest.

Obviously, when speaking about death we are putting out into the deep, into the depths of which we certainly cannot understand.  This month of November, dedicated to those who have died before us, helps us to recognize our own perils in life and the need to do penance, and to live our lives so that we will not be separated from God when we die. We hope we will enter into eternal glory as soon as possible after death.  Join me in praying for our deceased brothers and sisters that we might understand better this mystery of life and death.

                                                     # # # # #