Homily — All Souls Day, 2003

Fr. Timothy W. Castor

We are being pursued by an enemy. This enemy is mysterious and frightening because we cannot see it and because it takes many different forms. In our imagination and our fantasies we picture this enemy sometimes as a ghostly wraith or a ravening wolf. But most often we imagine this enemy to be a skeletal figure shrouded in black and carrying a scythe. This enemy, of course, is death. And I call it an enemy because that is what St. Paul calls it in the second reading today. It is an enemy because, as human beings created in the image and likeness of God, death is foreign to our nature. We are not made for death—we are made for life. And yet, because of sin, death is an all too present reality. Because of original sin and actual sin, our enemy, death, pursues us and will overtake each one of us. For many people, this is a terrifying truth, and one which they try to deny and ignore.

But believers in Jesus Christ know something about this enemy, death, that the world does not know. We know that this enemy will be defeated. Saint Paul, speaking of Christ in his second coming, writes, "he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." Jesus already conquered this enemy once on the Cross and in his glorious resurrection. And, in the resurrection at the end of time, death will be conquered once and for all. This assurance should give us great hope and encouragement—even though death seems to keep winning its battles, even though the present score seems hopeless: death with its countless billions of victories; life, so far, with only two—our Lord and our Lady, the only two individuals who have triumphed over death in all of human history. But their victory is our promise and our hope.

We know something else about death the world does not know. We know that this life is not all there is. When death comes for God’s faithful people, the liturgy tells us that "life is changed, not ended." The human person is a body-soul composite. Death is the separation of soul and body. After death, the body rests while the soul goes on living. If a person dies in God’s friendship, the soul goes to live with God in heaven until the resurrection of the body. Or, if it is in need of further purification, the soul goes to Purgatory where it is refined and cleansed of all sin and the punishment due to sin.

Because life is not ended, there continues to be a blessed Communion among the souls in this world and in the world to come. We are united in God’s love as we continue to pray for one another. Ordinarily, the souls of the departed do not speak to us (despite the claims of charlatans like John Edwards). Still, we are bound together in a most intimate union in the Lord—the souls in heaven pray for us and we can pray to them. Moreover, both we and the souls in heaven can pray for the souls in Purgatory and help them as they undergo the passive suffering of purification. This is how the communion of saints works.

And that’s what this day is all about. The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed—All Souls Day—is our annual reminder to pray for the dead. We remember our loved ones who have died, family and friends, and we offer sacrifices and prayers on their behalf, begging the Lord to lessen their sufferings and bring them into eternal happiness. But this day is also a reminder to pray for the souls that are most abandoned, those souls who have no one here on earth to pray for them. This day and this month of November are traditionally set aside to pray for the dead. We should do so gladly, not only now but every day of the year, remembering that it is to our own advantage that we pray for the dead. Because those souls whom we have helped to free from Purgatory will be eternally grateful to us and will pray for us when they enter the joys of heaven.

We need those prayers, because we must never forget that there is another destination for departed souls—not a temporary place of suffering like Purgatory, but a permanent place of eternal punishment. "Do not be amazed at this," Jesus himself tells us in today’s Gospel, "because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation." Yes, hell is a real place, and real human souls go there. Mercifully, however, we do not know who those souls are, and so we continue to pray for the dead trusting in God’s love and forgiveness. But in his justice, he must reject those who have rejected him. Despite his great love for us and all the opportunities he gives us to say "yes" and to embrace his love, there will still be souls who, in their pride and hardness of heart, say "no" and persistently turn their backs on God. These are the souls which will be condemned to hell—the second death which will last forever.

But none of us needs to be among that unhappy number. That is why we beg the prayers the saints that we may always follow God’s call. That is why we prepare for death, which must come for each one of us (unless we live to see the Second Coming) And while we prepare for our own death, we offer our prayers for the souls who have already died that they may be freed from their sins and enter speedily into God’s kingdom. Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

© 2003, The Rev. Timothy W. Castor