Hiraeth In Exile
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THE SOULS WHO HAVE NO ONE LEFT TO PRAY FOR THEM
Somewhere there is a grave that nobody visits anymore.
Perhaps the inscription has become illegible. The family name may have disappeared from living memory. Those who once mourned beside it have themselves passed into eternity, and the generations that followed never knew the person buried beneath the stone.
The world has forgotten.
The Church has not.
On November 2, the traditional Roman liturgy turns its attention to the faithful departed, particularly those souls undergoing purification in Purgatory. Some were remembered yesterday by grieving children or devoted spouses. Others have scarcely received a prayer in decades.
There are souls for whom no one thinks to request a Mass, no candles are lit, and no familiar voice recites the De Profundis.
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Yet these souls belong to the Church.
They died in God’s grace, destined for eternal happiness, but still require purification before entering the presence of the Blessed Trinity.
Their salvation is assured. Their suffering remains.
And the prayers of Catholics on earth can assist them.
The Church calls this day the Commemoratio Omnium Fidelium Defunctorum, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed.
In the traditional Roman calendar, it is a First-Class observance, celebrated with black vestments and the solemn prayers of the Requiem Mass.
Yesterday, the faithful contemplated the triumph of the saints in Heaven.
Today, they are called to an extraordinary work of charity on behalf of those who have yet to join them.
A MOTHER’S LAST REQUEST
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In A.D. 387, St. Monica lay dying at Ostia, near Rome.
She had spent years praying for the conversion of her son Augustine, whose intellectual brilliance had been accompanied by a prolonged attachment to error and sin.
Her prayers had finally been answered. Augustine had received baptism from St. Ambrose in Milan and abandoned the ambitions and false philosophies that had once dominated his life.
Monica had witnessed the conversion for which she had sacrificed so much.
Now her own earthly pilgrimage was ending.
As she approached death, her family wondered where she should be buried. One of her sons expressed concern that she would die far from her native Africa.
Monica had little interest in such considerations.
She told them to bury her body wherever they wished. Its location mattered far less than something else she wanted them to remember.
Her request, preserved by Augustine in Book IX of his Confessions, was simple:
“Remember me at the Lord’s altar, wherever you be.”
There speaks the Catholic Faith of the fourth century.
Monica understood the value of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. She knew that even a Christian who had lived with extraordinary devotion should desire the prayers of the faithful after death.
Augustine never forgot her request.
In the closing pages of that same book, he implored those who read his account to remember both Monica and his father Patricius at the altar.
The Church’s doctrine concerning prayers for the departed was already deeply embedded in Christian life centuries before the medieval development of All Souls’ Day.
It belonged to the religion of the Fathers.
WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES ABOUT PURGATORY
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The Catholic doctrine of Purgatory has often been caricatured, especially by those who reject the Church’s teaching concerning the consequences of sin.
Yet its essential principles are straightforward.
Nothing defiled can enter Heaven. A soul dying in God’s friendship may still require purification from venial sins or from the temporal punishment remaining after forgiven sins.
The souls in Purgatory are saved.
They can no longer lose the eternal happiness for which God has destined them, but they must be purified before enjoying the Beatific Vision.
The Council of Trent addressed the doctrine explicitly in its twenty-fifth session in December 1563.
Drawing upon Sacred Scripture and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, the Council reaffirmed the existence of Purgatory and the efficacy of prayers offered for its suffering souls.
It gave particular emphasis to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the principal means by which the faithful can assist them.
The Council also directed bishops to ensure that these truths were preached and believed throughout the Church.
There was no embarrassment about Purgatory, no anxiety that the doctrine might offend Protestant sensibilities, and no desire to conceal the Church’s teaching beneath vague assurances about the afterlife.
The Fathers of Trent understood that the doctrine concerned the salvation and purification of immortal souls.
It was therefore a matter of immense pastoral importance.
THE ANCIENT PRACTICE OF PRAYING FOR THE DEAD
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The Catholic duty of praying for the departed reaches deep into Sacred Scripture.
In the Second Book of Machabees, Judas Machabeus arranged an offering on behalf of fallen soldiers, expressing hope in the resurrection and concern for their sins.
The sacred author commends prayer for the dead so that they may be delivered from sin.
The passage has always held an important place in Catholic teaching on the subject.
We find the same conviction reflected in the early Christian centuries.
Funerary inscriptions request prayers for departed Christians. The Church’s ancient liturgies remember those who have fallen asleep in Christ. The Fathers speak of sacrifices and supplications offered on their behalf.
By the time St. Augustine wrote about his mother’s death, this practice had become so familiar that Monica could make her final request without needing to explain it.
The separate observance of November 2 developed later.
St. Odilo, Abbot of the great Benedictine monastery of Cluny, established an annual commemoration of the faithful departed throughout the monasteries associated with his congregation, probably around the turn of the eleventh century or somewhat afterward.
The precise date is disputed among historians, but the influence of Cluny is unmistakable.
The observance gradually spread throughout the Western Church.
Its placement immediately after All Saints possessed profound theological significance.
The Church Triumphant had been honored on November 1.
Now the Church Militant offered her prayers for the Church Suffering.
The three states of the one Church were brought together in an extraordinary expression of supernatural charity.
THREE MASSES FOR THE DEAD
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There is something particularly beautiful about the traditional Roman liturgy of All Souls.
The priest stands at the altar wearing black vestments.
The familiar prayers of the Requiem Mass fill the church:
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
The Mass contains the solemn sequence Dies Irae, with its contemplation of death, judgment, divine justice, and the sinner’s desperate need for mercy.
It confronts the faithful with truths that the modern world prefers to avoid.
Death will come. Judgment will follow. Every soul must answer to God.
Yet the liturgy also expresses tremendous confidence in the merits of Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice opened Heaven to redeemed mankind.
In 1915, Benedict XV issued the apostolic constitution Incruentum Altaris, extending to priests throughout the Church the privilege of celebrating three Masses on All Souls’ Day.
One Mass could be offered for an intention chosen by the priest. Another was to be offered for all the faithful departed, and the third for the intention prescribed by the Roman Pontiff.
The circumstances that prompted the legislation included the devastating loss of life during the First World War.
Europe was suffering beneath the burden of innumerable deaths, shattered families, and the terrible uncertainty surrounding men whose bodies would never return home.
The Church responded through the offering of the Holy Sacrifice.
The faithful departed would be remembered at the altar.
The provision remains part of the traditional Roman liturgy.
THE GREAT WORK OF CHARITY WE HAVE NEGLECTED
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THE GREAT WORK OF CHARITY WE HAVE NEGLECTED
One of the saddest consequences of the weakening of Catholic belief in recent decades has been the decline of concern for the souls in Purgatory.
Funerals increasingly become celebrations of an individual’s earthly accomplishments. The deceased is praised, remembered, and often spoken of as though his immediate entrance into Heaven were beyond question.
Perhaps he was a wonderful father, a devoted mother, or a generous friend. Perhaps he endured great suffering with patience. These are worthy things to remember, but even a person who lived an admirable life may require purification after death.
The traditional Catholic funeral liturgy understood this perfectly.
Its prayers begged God for mercy upon the departed soul. Its black vestments expressed mourning. Its solemn ceremonies reminded the living of death, judgment, and their own need for repentance.
The departed need prayers more than compliments.
There is a genuine cruelty hidden within the fashionable habit of automatically declaring every deceased person to be enjoying Heaven. If that soul is undergoing purification, what benefit does it receive from the confident assurances of those who have ceased praying for it?
Catholic charity requires something more substantial.
A Mass offered for the dead is an act of supernatural love. So is the Rosary prayed for a deceased parent, the De Profundis recited beside a grave, or a small sacrifice offered for a soul whom nobody else remembers.
These acts may be hidden from the world. Their value is known to God.
THE SOUL YOU MAY ONE DAY MEET IN HEAVEN
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Consider the possibility that one of the souls assisted by your prayers today may be someone you never knew.
A forgotten soldier killed in a distant war. A mother who died centuries ago. A priest whose name has disappeared from every surviving record. A poor laborer buried beneath a nameless cross.
Perhaps a soul has endured purification for a period known only to God, awaiting the satisfaction that divine justice requires.
Your prayers may become part of the means by which God’s mercy brings that soul nearer to its eternal reward.
The Church makes no promise that we can identify precisely which soul receives the benefit of a particular prayer. Such matters belong to divine providence.
But the efficacy of suffrages for the faithful departed is Catholic doctrine.
And the charity expressed through them is real.
There is something profoundly consoling in the knowledge that Christian love survives death.
The bonds of the Mystical Body of Christ do not dissolve when a coffin is lowered into the earth.
The faithful on earth remain united to those who have died in God’s grace.
Today, those souls need our prayers.
Tomorrow, we may need the prayers of those we leave behind.
That thought should make us more generous toward the dead, more attentive to our own spiritual condition, and more determined to make good use of the time God has granted us.
REMEMBER THEM AT THE ALTAR
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On this All Souls’ Day, remember your parents and grandparents, your deceased relatives, friends, priests, teachers, and benefactors.
Remember especially those who died suddenly, those who died without the consolation of family, and those whose names have disappeared from human memory.
Have Masses offered for them.
Pray the Rosary. Recite the De Profundis. Visit a cemetery and commend the departed to God’s mercy.
Above all, remember the request of St. Monica.
She had endured years of suffering for the conversion of Augustine. She had witnessed the triumph of divine grace in her son’s life. When death approached, she knew exactly what she wanted him to do.
Remember her at the altar.
It was the final request of a saint.
And it remains one of the most beautiful expressions of Catholic faith in the communion of saints.
The world may forget the dead.
We must remember them.
✠ COLLECT OF THE FIRST MASS OF ALL SOULS
Roman Missal — November 2
O God, Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to the souls of Thy servants and handmaids the remission of all their sins, that they may obtain by our devout prayers the forgiveness which they have always desired.
Who livest and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
✠ A PRAYER FOR THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Requiescant in pace. Amen.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace. Amen.
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