Homily for All Souls’ Day 2017.
Yesterday, on
All Saints’ Day, we reflected that we are never alone. I told you what Pope
Benedict XVI said at his installation of Bishop of Rome in April 2005: “Those
who believe are never alone B neither in life nor in death.@ God never intended us to be Lone
Rangers, I said. In baptism he made us members of his great family, the
Catholic Church. He wants us to support one another. One way we do so is by
praying for one another.
Our present
Pope Francis is quite different from his predecessor. Yet he proclaims the same
gospel. Here is something he said on All Souls’ Day three years ago. “The communion of Saints goes beyond earthly life, it goes
beyond death and lasts forever. This union among us, goes beyond and continues in
the afterlife; it is a spiritual union that stems from Baptism is not severed
by death but, thanks to the Resurrection of Christ, is destined to find its
fullness in eternal life. There is a profound and indissoluble bond among all
those who are still pilgrims in this world - among us - and those who have
crossed the threshold of death to enter into eternity. All the baptized down
here on earth, the souls in Purgatory and all the Blessed who are already in Paradise make up one great family. This communion between
earth and Heaven is brought about especially through intercessory prayer.”
Intercessory
prayer (also called “suffrages) refers to our prayer for the departed, but also
to their prayer for us. He is what the Catechism says. “The Church in its pilgrim
members [that is in us who are still alive], from the very earliest days of the
Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and
‘because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they
may be loosed from their sins’ she offers her suffrages for them. Our prayer
for them is capable not only of helping them but also of making their
intercession for us effective.” (No. 958)
This
is what we do in a special way on All Souls’ Day.
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