24th Sunday after Pentecost (with 5th Sunday after Epiphany) 8.11.15 Prayer for the dead
The Gospel foreshadows the final judgment (the separation of the wheat and the darnel).
At this time of year we consider more closely the end of things; the end of our lives; the end of the world. We pray for those who have already died that they receive a merciful judgment, and the full purification necessary to enter Heaven.
We believe judgment occurs at the moment of death, but also that prayer can work backwards in time.
So if I hear that X has died last week, I can still pray now that he be judged mercifully. God can see all time at once so a late prayer can still be effective.
When we ask God to be merciful to a sinner we are not asking Him to do something differently than He is already doing. God is merciful anyway!
But we are encouraged to ask, all the same. Our prayer is more to do with the human response than with God's initiative.
We can ask that certain people be forgiven but they may not want to be forgiven. They may have resentment towards God. They may be hardened in sin so that they do not want to give it up.
It is much the same problem as we have praying for living people to convert to a holy life. Many simply do not want to do this.
In which case we are asking for a burst of divine grace and mercy to open the hearts and minds of the dead and move them to true sorrow, a perfect sorrow which grasps the full weight of their sin and leads them to a complete renunciation of it.
This is how we are made ready for Heaven; we have to be transformed to the point that we see things in exactly the same light as God sees them.
When we pray for others we are transmitting the love of God to those other people. It is not that God's love increases – because it is already infinite – but that it is focused on the one being prayed for. (Like magnifying the rays of the sun through a magnifying glass – it can start a fire).
The more people praying the more things will happen.
It is up to each person whether or not he receives the mercy that is being offered. Some will hold out against it. That itself can be overcome with prayer. Many layers of resistance are possible; it just means we have to pray more.
And this at a time when many no longer think they need to pray for the dead. It means we must pray overtime to make up for those who do not pray.
A second aspect of our prayer for the dead is for the souls in Purgatory.
Purgatory is a place for those who have been forgiven but still need perfecting before entering Heaven.
For example, a murder committed in anger could be forgiven, but there is probably still some anger in the heart of the murderer, which would take longer to remove.
It is not so easy to be free of all attachment to sin. And we cannot enter Heaven with any imperfection.
It is one thing to stay out of hell, but not so easy to get to Heaven!
We do not know who is in Purgatory and what each person’s particular need is but we trust that our prayers and sacrifices are helping in some way.
And as we pray for the perfecting of others, of course we take on the lessons ourselves and seek perfection in our response to God’s grace and mercy – before and after death!
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