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| “An Angel Frees the Souls of Purgatory” by Lodovico Carracci, 1610 |
Note:
The readings listed below are those suggested by the USCCB. The Ordo for
Dioceses of the United States also offers #1011-1016 (Masses for the
Dead). The
Lectionary for Mass, #668, provides numerous other
options for the Celebrant/Homilist. This post contains links to all of the
texts and commentaries offered to aid the homilist or student.
Readings
and Commentary:[3]
Reading
1: Wisdom 3:1-9
Or:
Wisdom 4:7-14
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 passing away was thought an affliction
and
their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But
they are in peace.
For
if before men, indeed, they be punished,
yet
is their hope full of immortality;
chastised
a little, they shall be greatly blessed,
because
God tried them
and
found them worthy of himself.
As
gold in the furnace, he proved them,
and
as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In
the time of their visitation they shall shine,
and
shall dart about as sparks through stubble;
they
shall judge nations and rule over peoples,
and
the Lord shall be their King forever.
Those
who trust in him shall understand truth,
and
the faithful shall abide with him in love:
because
grace and mercy are with his holy ones,
and
his care is with his elect.
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Commentary on Wis 3:1-9
This passage,
while frequently used on the feasts of martyrs, can be understood as an early
description of the process of achieving a place in the heavenly kingdom by all
those who went before us in faith. The flow of this description provides a good
picture of the purification of all the faithful that takes place in the
transition from life, through purification in Purgatory (“…chastised a
little, they shall be greatly blessed”), to new life with the Father.
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Responsorial
Psalm: Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my
shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R.
Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me.
The
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In
verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside
restful waters he leads me;
he
refreshes my soul.
R.
The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R.
Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me.
He
guides me in right paths
for
his name’s sake.
Even
though I walk in the dark valley
I
fear no evil; for you are at my side
with
your rod and your staff
that
give me courage.
R.
The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R.
Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me.
You
spread the table before me
in
the sight of my foes;
You
anoint my head with oil;
my
cup overflows.
R.
The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R.
Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me.
Only
goodness and kindness follow me
all
the days of my life;
and
I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for
years to come.
R.
The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R.
Though I walk in the valley of darkness, I fear no evil, for you are with me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commentary on Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
Psalm 23 is one of the
most familiar songs in the entire psalter. “God's loving care for the psalmist
is portrayed under the figures of a shepherd for the flock (Psalm 23:1-4) and a host's generosity toward a guest (Psalm 23:5-6). The imagery of both sections is drawn from traditions of the
exodus (Isaiah
40:11; 49:10; Jeremiah 31:10).”[4] While the theme of shepherd is mentioned in the first strophe, the
psalm really speaks to the peace given to those who follow the Lord and place
their trust in Him, even into the “dark valley.”
The reference in the third strophe above: “'You spread the
table before me in the sight of my foes' occurs in an exodus context
in Psalm 78:19. As my enemies watch: my
enemies see that I am God's friend and guest. Oil: a perfumed ointment made
from olive oil, used especially at banquets (Psalm
104:15; Matthew
26:7; Luke
7:37, 46; John
12:2).”[5]
CCC: Ps 23:5 1293
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Reading
II: Romans 5:5-11
Brothers
and sisters:
Hope
does not disappoint,
because
the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through
the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
For
Christ, while we were still helpless,
died
at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed,
only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though
perhaps for a good person
one
might even find courage to die.
But
God proves his love for us
in
that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.
How
much more then, since we are now justified by his Blood,
will
we be saved through him from the wrath.
Indeed,
if, while we were enemies,
we
were reconciled to God through the death of his Son,
how
much more, once reconciled,
will
we be saved by his life.
Not
only that,
but
we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through
whom we have now received reconciliation.
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Commentary on Rom 5:5-11
St. Paul speaks
of the hope of Christians who have been made holy, sanctified, “justified” by
their faith in Christ Jesus. This faith was “poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit” [in Baptism]. (This link between Christ and the
Holy Spirit begins the apostle’s Trinitarian theology.)
Justification was
not through some merit of theirs (ours), but through God’s infinite mercy. The
demonstration of this mercy was Christ’s sacrifice for those who called him
“enemy.” While still burdened by sin (the Law of Moses defined sin, and all
were sinners because of this), Jesus became the sacrifice of atonement. His
blood reconciled us to the Father by removing the sin that kept us apart.
CCC: Rom 5:3-5 2734, 2847; Rom 5:5 368, 733, 1820, 1964, 2658; Rom 5:8 604; Rom 5:10 603, 1825
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Or
Second Option: Romans
6:3-9
Or: Romans 5:17-21
Or: Romans 8:14-23
Or: 2 Timothy 2:8-13
Brothers
and sisters:
Are
you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were
baptized into his death?
We
were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so
that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by
the glory of the Father,
we
too might live in newness of life.
For
if we have grown into union with him through a death like his,
we
shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
We
know that our old self was crucified with him,
so
that our sinful body might be done away with,
that
we might no longer be in slavery to sin.
For
a dead person has been absolved from sin.
If,
then, we have died with Christ,
we
believe that we shall also live with him.
We
know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death
no longer has power over him.
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Commentary on Rom 6:3-9
St.
Paul expresses both the hope and the theology behind our belief in the
resurrection of the faithful with Christ. In Baptism we receive the adoption of
God. As His children we join His Only Begotten Son, and pass, as he did,
through death to new life.
“This
passage of the epistle, which reveals the key truths concerning Baptism, also
reminds us of the profound meaning of this rite which Christ established, its
spiritual effects in Christians and its far-reaching effects with respect to
the Christian life. Thus, we can apply to Baptism what St. Thomas Aquinas says
about all the sacraments: "Three aspects of sanctification may be
considered -- its very cause, which is Christ's Passion; its form, which is
grace and the virtues; and its ultimate end, which is eternal life. And all
these are signified by the sacraments. Consequently, a sacrament is a sign
which is both a reminder of the past, that is, of the Passion of Christ, and an
indication of what is effected in us by Christ's Passion, and a foretelling and
pledge of future glory" ("Summa Theologiae", III, q. 60, a. 3).”[6]
CCC: Rom
6:3-9 1006; Rom 6:3-4 1214, 1227, 1987; Rom 6:4-5 790; Rom 6:4 537, 628, 648, 654, 658, 730, 977, 1697; Rom 6:8-11 1987
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Gospel:
John 6:37-40
Options:
Matthew 5:1-12a
Or:
Matthew 11:25-30
Or:
Matthew 25:31-46
Or: Luke 7:11-17
Or:
John 5:24-29
Or:
John 11:17-27
Or:
John 11:32-45
Or:
John 14:1-6
Jesus
said to the crowds:
“Everything
that the Father gives me will come to me,
and
I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because
I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but
the will of the one who sent me.
And
this is the will of the one who sent me,
that
I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but
that I should raise it on the last day.
For
this is the will of my Father,
that
everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may
have eternal life,
and
I shall raise him on the last day.”
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Commentary on Jn 6:37-40
This Gospel passage is part of the “Bread of Life” section from
St. John’s Gospel. Jesus first clearly identifies himself as having come from
God, his Father, and as heir to the kingdom of Heaven with “Everything that the Father gives me will
come to me”. The
Lord tells those gathered that no one will be rejected that asks to follow the
Son of God. He goes further, telling the crowds that anyone who believes in him
“may have eternal life.” For the faithful, this is an
invitation to participate in eternal life.
We note the humility with which the
Lord makes this offer (I came down from heaven not
to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me). “St. Augustine,
commenting on vv. 37 and 38, praises the humility of Jesus, the perfect model
for the humility of the Christian: Jesus chose not to do His own will but that
of the Father who sent Him: "Humbly am I come, to teach humility am I
come, as the master of humility am I come; he who comes to Me is incorporated
in Me; he who comes to Me, becomes humble; he who cleaves to Me will be humble,
for he does not his will but God's" ("In Ioann. Evang.", 25, 15
and 16)”[7].
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Homily:
The feast we celebrated
yesterday, “The Solemnity of All Saints,” coupled with today’s great
celebration, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls), has
been embraced and twisted by the secular societies of our continent. It is similar in some ways to what has been
done to Christmas and Easter. Christmas
is now more about materialism than faith, and Easter more about candy and eggs
than the Risen Savior. But because this season’s focus is on those gone before
us in faith, the rather dark secular culture that has emerged over the years is
trying to make the current theme of Halloween into a much darker time. It has become a blend of the “day of the dead,”
in some of the Hispanic cultures, and the twisted Voodoo superstitions of the
Caribbean. I’ll borrow some research from popular Catholic columnist, Mark Shea.
Actually, Halloween, or All
Hallows Eve, in spite of what is said by those who enjoy bashing religion, most
especially the Catholic Faith, has very Catholic roots. The All Saints
celebration came about because back in the early Church in Italy there were
numerous martyred saints venerated regionally, where they had the greatest
impact. To allow for unified veneration
of these numerous examples of heroic virtue, Pope Gregory III (741) established
the feast to be celebrated on May 13th. It was later moved it to November 1st,
to coincide with the dedication day of All Saints Chapel at St. Peter’s in
Rome. (You may have heard this was somehow a plot of the Church to supersede or
suppress pagan rituals around the same time in Ireland, but as you can see, at
that time there were very few Druids in Ireland, and Italy is a long way
off.) It was Pope Gregory IV many years
later (841) that extended the feast to the whole Church.
So where did the feast we
celebrate today come from? Well, about a century and a half later, St. Odilo,
the abbot of the monastery at Cluny (in southern France) added a celebration of
All Souls on November 2nd. Because St. Odilo had great influence
over the faithful of the time, the celebration quickly spread. As a result we now have back-to-back feasts
for those in heaven (the saints) and those on the way to becoming saints, those
in purgatory.
What about those in
hell? Around the same time a tradition
sprang up in Ireland (not supported by the Church) that to appease the souls in
hell they would go out on All Hallows Eve and bang pots and pans together, not much more developed until the 14th
and 15th centuries when the “Black Death” took a tremendous toll of
lives. At that time Feast of All Souls
became a huge celebration and the danse
macabre, or “dance of death,” developed featuring the devil leading a chain
of people to the tomb. The dance was
accompanied by the French dressing in costumes.
Fast forward to the 17th
century. We find the French and their traditional costumes and the Irish
mollifying the dead. It all came
together. Around this time we also have
a great deal of anti-Catholic sentiment in the colonies. Much of this revolved around Guy Fawkes, an
English Catholic who allegedly tried to blow up Parliament in 1605. The celebration by the Protestants was on
November 5th, and revelers would show up at Catholic houses
demanding cakes for their celebration, so “Trick or Treat” was likely a very
real threat. When we mash all of those
traditions together over the years, we come up with Halloween, a holiday
inspired by All Saints and All Souls, not suppressing the Druids or the Wiccan
feast of Samhain.
Now we come to the serious
topic of the real meaning of All Souls, in which we remember all those who have
gone before us in faith. Today is the day we celebrate God’s promise of
salvation through the forgiveness of sins, and recall all those who have gone
before us in faith. We believe that our family members and friends who
professed faith in God and his Son have, or one day will achieve, a place in
the heavenly kingdom. We pray that their passage from this life to the next
will not be too difficult.
The promise is made in the
St. John’s Gospel “…everyone who sees the
Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the
last day.” That promise is amplified by St. Paul in his letter to the
Romans, as he defines the opening of that heavenly gate as our Baptism into
Christ’s family. In that baptism, we not only embrace the life of Christ, but
his death. And in dying with him, we will rise with him.
This is our great hope. But
those who have gone before us need our prayers, because we know a few things,
also from scripture. First we know that God’s time is not our time. We also
know that, in order to come before him, we must be completely purified. It is
stated in the reading from Wisdom:
“For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of
immortality; chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God
tried them and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace, he proved
them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.” (Wisdom
3:4)
We see in this verse the
process necessary before we come to that heavenly place. This is stated clearly
in our understanding of that passage as defined in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church:
“All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still
imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after
death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to
enter the joy of heaven.” (Catechism
of the Catholic Church # 1030)
Some time back while
reflecting upon this process of purification, I offered this short poem – Imagining Purgatory.
So today we pray for those
who have gone before us in faith, assured of a place of light and peace, but on
a continuing journey to holiness. We pray especially today that their passage
may be swift, and when our time comes, we also may take that road to life with
Christ.
Pax
In other years on
this date: Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
[2] The
picture is “An Angel Frees the Souls of Purgatory” by Lodovico Carracci, 1610
[3] The
readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the Psalm
and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4] See NAB footnote on Psalm 23
[5] ibid
[6] Letters
of St. Paul , The Navarre Bible, Four Courts Press, 2003 pp. 91
[7] Gospel
and Acts, The Navarre Bible, Four Courts Press, 2008 pp 592
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