Love the dead
Wis 3:1-9; Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6; Rom 5:5-11; Jn 6:37-40
One of the most important features of the Mass for All Souls Day is the choice of readings and prayers. Whereas the Mass for All Saints has fixed readings that are proclaimed on Nov. 1 of every year, the Mass for All Souls has numerous options for the readings; in fact, they are the same choices available for any funeral Mass. Similarly, the preface for the Eucharistic prayer is chosen from among the options for the regular funeral Mass.
Thus, to a great extent, a parish liturgist who is planning the All Souls Mass is preparing a standard funeral liturgy of the same type that would be celebrated numerous times in that parish throughout the year. I feel that this gives All Souls Day a degree of familiarity and communion between ourselves and all those souls who have preceded us in death. We are praying for them in almost the exact same liturgical ceremony that we would use at the funeral Mass for any of our deceased loved ones.
If the liturgy itself invites such an intimately shared connection between ourselves and the souls of the deceased who are still anticipating full union with God in heaven, then we should feel encouraged to adopt a similar intimacy in our personal prayer. While the common phrase we often hear is that we should “pray for the dead,” I would invite us to also pray to the dead.
If our immortal souls have any capacity at all, they must at least have the capacity to give and receive love. Otherwise, how could they ever exist in heaven, where their only mission is to love and adore God, and receive God’s love in return? This means that we should continue to extend our love to the souls of the deceased, and we should also keep our hearts open to let ourselves be loved by them.
By offering our love to the souls of the faithful departed, we can help them through the process of conversion that we call purgatory. I do not consider purgatory a “place” so much as a state of imperfect receptivity — our hearts are not yet capable of unconditionally receiving the love that God is unconditionally offering to us.
But it is possible to love an unreceptive heart into being more receptive! We do this all the time in our interpersonal relationships. Think of people who are trapped in an attitude of bitterness or despair. They certainly do not have hearts that are freely open to receiving love. But we can still love such people, regardless of their reaction.
Over time, our loving presence can often begin to have a softening effect on their hardened hearts. I have seen cases in which angry people have literally been “loved” into becoming calmer and more loving. Perhaps you have as well.
There is no reason to think that this dynamic ceases to be possible for a soul after the death of the physical body. It is with our souls that we love, whether the body is living or dead. Thus, by loving the souls “in purgatory,” we can help them to become more receptive to God’s love. Eventually, they attain the capacity to freely receive all that God is freely offering them. At this point they are fully with God for eternity.
These sentiments come through in several of the reading options for the All Souls Mass. One Old Testament option, from the Book of Wisdom (Wis 3:1-9), begins: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead … and their going forth from us utter destruction. But they are in peace.”
One of the New Testament options reads: “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14). These texts underscore the belief that, even after death, our immortal souls are fully capable of feeling loved and peaceful.
So, for this All Souls’ Day, take the lead from the church’s liturgical texts and express your love to the deceased. Help “pray them into heaven.”