Feast of All Souls

The Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of All Souls on November 2nd. This feast commemorates the faithful departed in Purgatory. Abbot Odilo of Cluny instituted this celebration in the monasteries of his congregation in 998 AD. Other Religious Orders took up this observance, and it was adopted by various dioceses and gradually by the whole Church.

The Office of the Dead is prayed by the clergy on this day. Pope Benedict XV granted to all priests the privilege of saying three Masses of Requiem on this day. One mass was offered for the souls in purgatory; one for the intentions of the Holy Father; and one for the priest's intentions.

Understanding Purgatory and Purification
IN THE BEGINNING
In the beginning God created us in his image and likeness. We had a close relationship with him. We were part of God's Holiness. As we all know Adam and Eve sinned against God and as our representatives lost our relationship with God. Humans were doomed to never have that relationship with God again, but God wanted a relationship with his creation and took the means to make us again "in his image."



Saved through the merits of Christ
Having prepared us through many centuries, Jesus was born into our humanity and yet was God. Christians believe that it was the merits of Jesus' dying and rising that allowed us to be saved and again have a relationship with God. It was not by our own merits or any thing that we could have done that we were saved. It was only in belonging to Jesus, and becoming like him that we receive the relationship of belonging to the Father again. To be saved, we must not only accept Jesus as our Savior, but answer his call to live our lives reflective of our new relationship with God. The Church teaches

Once we have accepted the saving grace of Jesus' redemption and continue to work to live in light of that acceptance, we can be assured of being eternally with God in heaven. We are his adopted children. "Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ. They are like God forever, for they ‘see him as he is,' face to face." (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1023)

Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgement that refers his life to Christ: either into the blessedness of heaven—through a purification or immediately,—or immediate and everlasting damnation. (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1022)

That is quite different from those who reject Jesus and his way of life. They, by Christian understanding, have rejected God and eternal life and are doomed to a life of Hell. Again the Church teaches...

We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death." ( Catechism of the Catholic Church 1033)



Call To live AS GOD
Living this way of life of Jesus is a call to become holy. For Christians, Jesus tells us that we "are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect." We know, that though we try, our lives are not always perfect—we often spend a whole lifetime growing closer to being like what he would have us be, but never making it. Our salvation is won by Jesus, but our becoming "holy like God" is our lifetime task. Even in this task, we still don't do this alone, but with God's help. Jesus is our model of love and calls to love in a perfect way as described in the First Letter of John... "God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgement because he is, so are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love." ( 1 John 4:16-18 )

To be holy is to be selfless like God is selfless. In our world, we live in a time when being selfish is almost second nature in our society, it is indeed hard to live like God—even with the great unconditional love of God as our model. Sometimes in human situations, our response is helpful for us to remain faithful to this call of living as God, but at other times our response to situations are not always in a selfless manner. Thus we see that those who have accepted a relationship with God, have tried to live this relationship in a holy but imperfect way, and have been saved by Jesus, yet may still need to be made "holy" as "God is holy." The scriptures remind us that no taint of sin must remain on those who live in the eternal presence of God, since no sin or the stain of sin can coexist with holiness. For these saved (the elect), an additional purification may be necessary to be "holy as our heavenly father is holy." The Church teaches that "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)

What is this purification and what is necessary?
Since no one in this world has ever in this life encountered the holiness of God in this fullest sense of holiness, we do not understand what this purification process demands. The imagery often used to describe this purification is fire. This imagery also confuses many to think that the purification process used in making us holy is like the tormenting fires of Hell. The Catholic Church teaches that is not the case. "The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned." ( Catechism of the Catholic Church 1031)

Perhaps the image of fire was chosen to describe this process because it was a familiar image with our ancestors. Perhaps we can get some insight into the concept of purification by reflecting on the process of the refiner purifying molten metals. Today, most people don't know much of the refining process, but it was common to our ancestors. We know that some jewelry is 16K, 18K, 24K or pure gold, but how is this purification done.



The art of refining precious metals is an example of purification. To refine a precious metal like gold or silver, the metallurgist of old, placed the raw metals into the caldron and heated the metals until they were liquid. As the metals liquefied, the impurities would come to the top of the molten liquid and the metallurgist tediously bent over the hot molten metals to scoop off the impurities. After long hours of purifying, when the refiner could perfectly see his own reflection in the molten metal, he knew the metal was pure.

As scriptures so beautifully remind us God has always cared for us. Before we were born God formed us in our mother's womb and has continually worked in our lives, both our human and eternal life, until he sees the perfect image of himself in us and when he sees that we perfectly reflect him, then we can enter into the eternal holiness of God—for we are remade in his image of holiness.

Is there anything we can do to be purified now?
We can accept Jesus and his way of life. We can do our best to reflect God and his love in our lives. We can take on works of charity to make our words into action. We can take on the daily suffering that comes our way and offer it to God as a participation in the pain and suffering of his Son's passion and death. We can try to do what Jesus would do.

Can we help the purification process for others?
The answer is yes. The Church teaches:

From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, the works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: "Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offering for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them." ( Catechism of the Catholic Church 1032)



The Church teaches that just as we are able to help people here on earth in many varied ways, we can help those members of our church family who have gone before us (the elect awaiting purification). We can do this by the following various means:

1. We can offer prayers, especially by offering the prayer of the Mass (our Eucharistic Sacrifice and Meal) in memory of our loved ones to help their process.

2. We can do charitable works or give to the needy and poor in memory of our loved ones.

3. We can offer indulgences in memory of our loved ones.

4. We can complete works of penance in memory of our loved ones.