Eucharistic Revival, How Can We Make It Happen?
All Souls Day—All About Life
One of the most beautiful prayers that we say as Catholics is the Hail Holy Queen. And the reason that prayer is so beautiful is because it is so true.
Remember how in that prayer we call to Mary— and we call her our Life, our Sweetness and our Hope; To her do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To her do we send up our sighs, our mourning and our weeping in this valley of tears.
And who among us could deny that many ways and many times, this life is a valley of tears?. We enter this life struggling and we leave it struggling. Just so much of life is full of pain and sorrow and tears and heartaches.
But is there anyone who could say that God was not with us during our worst moments? Could anyone say that God—through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary-- was not our life, our sweetness and our hope?
And truly God has been with you all this time-- He has never let you go-- He never abandoned you. God has held you close to His heart, and He gives you all the necessary courage and strength to be able to survive the most difficult blow that this life can give us—and that of course is death.
And He gives us this grace—which comes from our faith-- so that we would not surrender to despair.
What a beautiful faith we have—to believe that our parents—our husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, our children or our grandparents – anyone whom we loved and who has died—what joy to be able to say that they are really alive—and they are now with God and simply waiting for us.
And we believe that we—one day-- shall be with God—with them-- in heaven.
Yes it is that simple—it is that beautiful and that is what we believe
I have been a priest for almost fifty years—And if I have learned anything from all my years as a priest it is that when you actually believe in heaven-- eternal life-- you can be strong in the face of death
Think of those who have no faith—who do not believe in God—who pray no prayers and go to no Church—for them death is the end—the bitter end to a bitter life.
And their whole lives? For people without religion, well, all they have is that we are born we die and in between is a dark puzzle and a struggle to survive.
Nothing before and nothing after. And those are the bitter people in our lives—and we all know them. They are the crabs—nothing satisfies them—everything and everyone is wrong. But why should anything in this life satisfy them? If life has no meaning— what’s the point?
our lives are pointless—because-- by definition-- with no God and no heaven-- our lives point to nothing.
Now, do I have proof that there is a heaven? can I prove to you—or to myself that there is a world beyond this world—that there is a life after this life?
Well the proof that there is an afterlife is your hot tears and broken hearts.
In other words-- if you can still love a person after they have died—if the very thought of that person—and that they are no longer here-- can still make you cry— then it is clear to me that that person is still alive—because you cannot love something that cannot return that love.
Your continuing love for the one who has died is the surest sign—that they are still alive
Your hearts—your tears—your prayers and Masses are all proof that they are alive and with God.
And because of that belief-- you are not devastated by death. You are not totally destroyed or driven into the deepest dungeons of despair as would befit those who have no faith.
There is a distinction between sadness and despair—between sorrow and hopelessness. And it is faith that draws that distinction.
And it is an active faith by which we are involved with those who have died-- much as we were involved with them when they were here.
And this involvement is about a place called Purgatory.
Yes Purgatory.
Well I thought they were all in heaven! What is this about Purgatory!
Well Purgatory is where most of us-- I hope—will go to compensate for , make up for-- suffer for -- the sins we committed on this earth.
Every sin that we ever committed---- every deliberate fall where we made ourselves and others suffer has to be paid for by temporal punishment.
Now because of Gods mercy-- and if we asked for forgiveness-- hell is taken off the table-- but because of justice we must still be punished for our sins
Our sins were acts of selfishness - but somewhere-- somehow-- those acts of selfishness have to be balanced by an equal amount of love. That’s purgatory and that’s praying for the dead
We make a prayerful sacrifice on their behalf that shortens their time in Purgatory,
The Poor souls-- cannot pray for themselves--- they are beyond that now-- but they depend upon us who still love them to pray for them--
That is the reason for this day-- All Souls Day-- is to remind us how important it is to pray for the dead-- to teach us that our prayers-for those who have died- our Hail Marys and Rosaries and Masses and Communions are acts of love that are accounted to those souls in purgatory.
Do not get caught up in the modern nonsense about masses for the dead being about remembering our loved one. ‘Do not get trapped in the modern silliness that funeral masses are about celebrating the life of the one who has died.
Of course we remember them in love. But that is not enough
If all we had were memories-- if all we had were recollections-- if all we had were electrical synapses in the brain reminding us of times past and all of it dead and gone-- really then all I can say is that would just not be enough. Certainly not enough for me, but why would it be enough for anybody?
If my mother and father and sister and brother, my grandparents and my aunts and uncles and cousins and many of my friends-- if they are not alive and waiting for me-- and waiting for my prayers for them-- if they are not alive-- then I want nothing to do with all this-- to be concerned with mere memories? Not me-- mere memories are too painful-- and there is no pay-off.
And so we believe that our people are alive-- even if they have died-- that is what keeps us going-
And what’s more-- the people in Purgatory or Heaven are praying to God for us- that God would give us what we need.
And maybe on All Souls Day what we need is an increase in faith-- and an increase in hope and an increase in love. They are praying for that for us!
Your beloved deceased still care about you. God has not set up a wall between them and us which no one can pass over.
Truly if they loved you here—they love you still there!
Death is the gate to the next life and how beautiful that love goes back and forth through that gate endlessly. Our love for them-- their love for us.
I have always had this belief—that all my deceased family—all my ancestors --are with me--all the time-- watching me and watching over me—and praying for me—even if they are in Purgatory. And what a comfort all this is. That nobody has really left-no one has gone-- we are all still around.
So Yes on All Souls Day we mourn again-- so bitter sweetly; and we do remember that this day points to when we finally leave this valley of tears—and meet up-- face to face once against with the truest loves of our life-- God and Jesus and Mary and all the saints and angels—as well as our spouses and brothers and sister and everyone who went before.
Is it any wonder that All Souls Day’s real theme is not so much death as it is life—Eternal life. And because we believe in life in heaven, we can go on living bravely on earth.