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Fr. Robert Manansala Reflections

LOVING THE DEAD BEYOND THEIR EARTHLY LIFE, by Fr. Robert B. Manansala, OFM

The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day),
Cycle B
Wis 3:1-9; Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6;Rom 5:5-11 or Rom 6:3-9; Jn 6:37-40

The Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed echoes a very important message: no human life is perfect, not even Christian life. And the Good News on this Commemoration of the Dead is that God in Jesus loves us, even as we are not perfect, and that the love of God does not abandon the souls of our departed brothers and sisters in the faith, even as they did not measure up to the ideals of Christian perfection. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in Me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were none, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be” (Jn 14:1-3). The redemptive and loving action of God in Jesus extends beyond death.

The Commemoration of the Dead is very much connected to two articles of faith in our Christian tradition: the Communion of Saints, and the Doctrine of Purgatory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the belief in the Communion of Saints in the following words: “We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and His saints is always [attentive] to our prayers’” (CCC 962).

On All Saints’ Day we honor all the saints, the blessed, the venerable and the holy who are with God in heaven. There they intercede for us, assisting us by their prayers. On All Souls’ Day we remember all the faithful departed – those who have died, and are being prepared for their entrance into eternal glory by being purified in purgatory.

Again, we read in the Catechism: “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…” (CCC 1030). The same Catechism describes purgatory as the “final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (CCC 1031).

Some modern theologians suggest that purgatory may be an “instant” or progressive purification immediately after death varying in intensity from soul to soul, depending on the state of each individual.

The teaching on purgatory as the final purification is based on the practice of prayer for the dead. The Book of Maccabees describes how Judas, the military commander, discovered those of his men who had died in a particular battle had been wearing forbidden pagan amulets. His men at once “prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out” (2 Mc. 12: 42). Judas then “took up a collection from all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for the expiatory sacrifice” (2 Mc. 12: 43). The narrator continues, ”If he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be absolved from their sin” (2 Mc 12: 44-46).

The above verses clearly illustrate the existence of purgatory that, at the time of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the Books of the Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine. Not only can we show that prayer for the souls of the departed was practiced by the Jews at the time of the Maccabees, but also we can show it has been retained by Orthodox Jews today. They recite a prayer known as the Mourner’s Kaddish for eleven months after the death of a loved one, so that the loved one may be purified.

As Christians, we believe in the so-called Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. Purgatory is not mentioned as one of the “last things,” because, strictly speaking, purgatory is a part of heaven. Purgatory is the “remedial class” for heaven-bound souls. Souls who go to purgatory are those who have been judged worthy of heaven, but not straight away. They still need some purification or purgation before they are ready for heaven because, according to Revelation 21:27, “nothing unclean shall enter it.” A very good illustration for this is the set-up in many churches in the west. Before we get to the main church, we have to go through the vestibule first. We are already in the church but not yet in the main church.

In James Boswell’s famous biography of Samuel Johnson, a great eighteenth century British author, a passage deals with purgatory and Masses for the dead. Boswell writes that the idea of purgatory made eminent sense to Johnson. His reasoning is that the vast majority of people who die should not be judged so bad as to deserve hell or so good as to deserve heaven. So, he concluded, there must be a kind of state where some sort of cleansing takes place before one finally enters heaven.

When asked about Masses for those in purgatory, Johnson replied that praying for them is as proper as praying for our brothers and sisters who are alive. Praying for the dead, like praying for the living, is a manifestation of love. St. Augustine noted: “If we had no care for the dead, we would not be in the habit of praying for them.” For us, believers, praying for a loved one is a way of bridging any distance, even death. In prayer we stand in God’s presence in the company of the people we love, even as these persons have gone before us.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church recommends prayer for the dead in conjunction with the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice (CCC1032). Pope Leo XIII, in his 1902 encyclical Mirae caritatis, states: “The grace of mutual love among the living, strengthened and increased by the Sacrament of the Eucharist, flows, especially by virtue of the Sacrifice [of the Mass], to all who belong to the communion of saints.”

The Catechism also encourages “almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.” All these prayerful acts are to be conducted as matters of faith, and not as something magical. The greatest act is to offer Mass for the dead, because in this One Sacrifice, the merits of our Lord Jesus are applied to the dead. Hence, this reconciling offering of the Lord is the greatest and most perfect prayer we can offer our dead in their state of purification. Let us not forget to pray for our dearly departed, have Masses offered for them, visit their graves, and make daily sacrifices for them.

Our prayers and other sacrifices for the dead are capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective. The Church chooses the entire month of November for increased prayers on behalf oft he souls in purgatory. Our ideas about purgatory are usually frightening. This should not be the case. Fr. Leonard Foley, a Franciscan theologian, gives us a very good insight on purgatory in terms of God’s purifying act of love. He writes, “We must not make purgatory into a flaming concentration camp on the brink of hell – or even a hell for a short time.’ It is blasphemous to think of it as a place where a petty God exacts final punishment… Saint Catherine of Genoa, a mystic of the fifteenth century, wrote that the ‘fire’ of purgatory is God’s love ‘burning’ the soul so that, at last, the soul is wholly aflame. It is the pain of wanting to be made totally worthy of One who is seen as infinitely lovable, the pain of desire for union that is now absolutely assured, but not yet fully tasted.”

Purgatory may be a form of “blazing enlightenment” which penetrates and perfects our very being. God can anticipate and apply the merits of our present and future prayers for the dead in favor of the souls we pray for at the time of their purification. Purgatory is thus “the fringe of heaven, a state where heaven’s eternal light has a refining effect on the “holy souls” (not ‘poor souls’), who are held in the arms of Divine Mercy.”

Let us end with something to keep us reflecting. The Church has a rite declaring someone is in heaven. This is officially the meaning of the process of canonization. This is also in essence what we celebrate on All Saints’ Day. Also, the Church has a special day dedicated to those who are heaven-bound– all souls in purgatory, those in transit to heaven. November 2nd, All Souls’ Day, is especially dedicated to this. A good thing about our November 2 commemoration of the dead, like our November 1st commemoration of all the saints, is that we pray not only for our dead relatives and friends, but also for all the dead. We remember even those who have no one to pray for them.

Let us take note though that we do not have any rite or ceremony declaring someone is in hell. The Church can never and should never do this– not even for the most despicable person in the world. We leave it to the merciful prerogative of God. Thus, our prayers should be for all the dead – including those who may have lived despicable lives here on earth.

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Reflections

“Commemoration of the faithful departed: (john 14: 1-6) Life as a Pilgrimage”, A Sunday Gospel Reflection By Fr. Baltazar Obico, OFM

INTRODUCTION:Because of its proximity with the feast of All Saints, today’s feast of All Souls has not been given its due importance; specially because as early as Nov.1, people already troop to the cemeteries November first we celebrate the feast of All Saints; our communion with holy people and holy things; with the teaching of the apostles, fellowship in the Spirit and communion in the sacraments. Today, November two, we commemorate our faithful departed as one family of God. We remember and pray for all our loved ones who have gone ahead of us. Culturally we are attuned to communion with all our faithful departed as we cherish the memory of the dead with great piety, offering prayers for them.

GOSPEL:The gospel today belongs to the so-called farewell discourse of Jesus. Jesus knows the pain and anxiety that his departure will bring to his disciples. He knows the lacuna their separation will bring to them. It is as if the disciples’ world would cave in; their world is going to collapse. At such time there was only one thing to do…. to trust in God and trust in Jesus. There comes a time when we have to believe where we cannot prove, and accept where we cannot understand; that life has a meaning, a purpose in the midst of the certitude of death. Jesus assures them that his death is not so much a departure; it is an arrival; not only a going away but a going back; not only an ending but a fulfillment. The image created by Jesus is life as a pilgrimage, a journey that has its origin in God and will also culminate in him.

WORD: If life is a pilgrimage, we are reminded of a very basic fundamental truth. All of life comes from God. Life proceeds from Him. This is a truth, which we have aggressively set aside or conveniently taken for granted. If life comes from God, it has its own laws and dynamics independent of what we wish or what we want. Life is God-governed and God-constituted. We were not consulted whether we like to be born and what other specifics we should have. (Tall, dark and never mind.) It is amazing to watch a child grow; the ordered unfolding of his physical and mental powers and attributes. How the hair grows, teeth appear, knees becoming strong that begins to walk. These are things which we not only don’t have to make it happen nor can we prevent it to happen. It is life’s God- giveness!

If life is a pilgrimage then, death is coming home to the Father. Jesus used the imagery of “my father’s house.” What awaits us through death is union with the father. Today we celebrate the sacred memory of the faithful departed. Yes, they have departed from us and in this world, but they have returned to the Father’s house. Our faith calls us not only to lament our loss but to celebrate their gain. Home is synonymous to peace, security and rest. The English word “ END” sums up aptly the double signification of the reality of death in our lives; first, it means, it’s over and done; it is finished. On the other hand, the end refers also to purpose. (What is the end of your life?) It means death not as ending but as fulfillment. This world says death is an ending, a decay, corruption. From the perspective of faith death is coming home.
If life is a pilgrimage, it is not a continuum of birth and death, but of beginning and ending, and in between, an ongoing journey and lastly a coming home. We are all pilgrims in this world on our way to the Father with Jesus as the Way.

As pilgrims in this world, we traverse A series of dying; times of letting go, renunciation of wealth and power and in the end even of space. We move from the wide arena of active involvement in the world and society to the limited space of occupation of home and garden, then of the room until finally restricted to the narrow confines of a bed. Each of these small steps of dying can help us break through the deeper meaning of life, which we have myopically seen in its material dimension of health and wealth. These little deaths strengthen the inner person in us. In each we can open spaces in our being to receive God and the new life that awaits us. Death therefore need not take us by surprise. The whole of life is filled with opportunities to rehearse the final passage. Letting go of youth, health, plans, friends when this is asked of us can all become a preparation for the last great renunciation we have to make.

Brothers and Sisters, take time to recall how God has held us through these little deaths of life and any fear should be allayed. We know that He will sustain us just as surely in the last moments of our demise.

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Fr. EJ Reflections

Reflections on the Feast of All Souls By Fr. Efren ‘EJ’ Jimenez, OFM

• No doubt, the observance of the feast of all souls here in the Philippines is most unique – flowers, candles, food and drinks, and even music are part of the celebration. One cannot separate the bonding of the living and the dead, and among the living. Prayers and incensation are made and on top of these are the celebrations of the Eucharist. As if one can hear the very words of Jesus in one solemn tone: “do this in my memory!”

• The theological underpinning of the feast is the acknowledgment of human frailty. Since few people achieve perfection in this life but, rather, go to the grave still scarred with traces of sinfulness, some come face-to-face with God. The Council of Trent affirmed this purgatory state and insisted that the prayers of the living can speed the process of purification.

• Superstition still clung to the observance. Medieval popular belief held that the souls in purgatory could appear on this day in the form of witches, toads or will-ó-the-wisps. Graveside food offerings supposedly eased the dead’s rest.

• Observances of more religious nature have survived. These include public processions or private visits to cemeteries and decorating graves with flowers and lights, recitation of the Holy Rosary and celebration of the Holy mass.

• Whether or not one should pray for the dead is one of the great arguments which divide Christians. Appalled by the abuse of indulgences in the Church of his day, Luther rejected the concept of purgatory. Yet prayer for a loved one is, for the believer, a way of erasing any distance, even death. In prayer we stand in God’s presence in the company of someone we love, even if that person has gone before us into death.

• The deeper religious truth – these are those things we confront in death – loss, change, and transformation. The common denominator in these three realities is the fact that one must give up something. It is possible for both loss and change to lead for transformation to occur unless something is lost and something is changed. Life is a continual process of losing. But in Jesus there is time for change towards transformation, a time comes for throwing stones away, for letting the water go so that it might be made into wine. For giving away five barley loaves so that a multitude may be fed, for the wheat to be crushed and become the Bread of Eternal Life.

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Reflections

“All Souls” Day

Readings:Is 25:6-9; Rom 5:5-11 (or Rom 5.17-21); Luke 7:11-17
The Lord of the Living
Or, the triumph of life over death
(the resurrection of the son of the widow)

1. This gospel passage – the resurrection of the dead son of a widow – would be better understood and appre-ciated if taken together with preceding story – the heal-ing of the servant of the Roman centurion. Both stories constitute an instructive response to the question posed by John the Baptist in Lk 7:19: “Are the One who is to come, or are to wait for another?” (Are you the Messiah?). These stories reveal to us who Jesus is, and therefore, also his mission.

2. The healing of the centurion’s servant informs us of the universal scope of the mission of Jesus – he offers sal-vation not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles, meaning to all humankind. The true miracle in the story is the faith of the centurion. He understood and accepted that Jesus comes from God, offering healing and salvation to the world, symbolized by the cure of the pagan servant. The fullness of our humanity begins with good works and ends with openness to the saving mystery of God’s love, as it happened to the Roman centurion.

3. On the other hand, the resurrection of the son of the widow reveals Jesus Christ as the Lord of the living. He brings to us the ultimate triumph of life over death.

4. Let us try to deepen our reflection. We believe as Church, as the gathering of believers that the miracles of Jesus, considered in their totality, reflect and antic-ipate the truth of God’s reign, notwithstanding the fact that no one can guarantee the historical basis of each and every miracle. And among those miracles, or signs that best express the identity of Jesus is the resurrec-tion of the widow’s son.

5. Let us look at some of significant elements. The first is that there is a revelation from God. The people cried out: “A great prophet has risen among us. God has visited his people” (7:16). Here we are told something tremendously important: Jesus is the ultimate prophet and he transcends the primitive meaning of the word prophecy. Jesus is not simply one who transmit the word of God, he is the Word of God; Jesus does not only announce the Kingdom of God, he fulfills it by his resurrection and of those who believe in him. Secondly, the young man’s resurrection unveilsthe true meaning of earthly life, namely the beginning of eternal life in God’s kingdom. Heaven begins on earth. And thirdly, the resurrection of the widow’s son gives testimony that Jesus is the Messiah who will guarantee life’s triumph over death.

6. It is life guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, that we celebrated yesterday with all the saints in heaven and that we celebrate today with all the faithful departed, as the community that he has gathered in faith. We remember, we believe.

[2013]

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Reflections

Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

Where Do We Go When We Die?
The souls of the just are in the hand of God (Wis 3:1)
Readings:Different readings can be chosen from the Lectionary

Where do we go when we die? This is not a frivolous question. It has puzzled people of all cultures from the beginning of time, and it continues to puzzle many today. This question in no way suggests a lack of faith. Rather it underscores some of the mystery surrounding death.

In the past, this feast focused on our role in the deliverance of the “poor souls in Purgatory.” They were the “church suffering,” waiting for what we, the “church militant,” would do to alleviate their suffering so that they might join the saints in heaven, the “church triumphant.” We said prayers and made visits to churches in order to gain indulgences that might shorten their stay in that nebulous place of temporal punishment. Without denying our need to be purified of the traces of sinfulness, the readings for today suggest a very different focus.

The passage from the Book of Wisdom is quite consoling. That is why many people choose it as a reading for funerals. It states that the righteous dead are secure in the protection of God. Only the foolish think that “their going forth from us [is] utter destruction.” We grieve over their death; their passing is our loss. But is it their loss? They have hope that is “full of immortality.” In other words, their hope cannot be extinguished by death.

The psalm is also comforting. God, the gentle shepherd, leads the psalmist through the dark valley. There is no fear here, only trust and courage.

Paul too speaks of hope, a hope grounded in God’s love. He insists that we have every reason to hope, for if Jesus died for us when we were still sinners, how much more can we expect from God now that we have been made righteous through the shedding of Jesus’ blood?
The point of the Gospel story is really not the resurrection of Lazarus, which could prompt us to hope that we or our loved ones might be restored to life, but the claim that Jesus himself is the resurrection and the life. After all, Lazarus had to die again, but what Jesus promised was a life that is not subject to death: “…who lives and believes in me will never die.” There is that troubling word again: believe. Do we believe that Jesus can do this? Do we believe that Jesus will do this? Do we believe that our beloved dead are indeed secure in the hand of God?

Dianne Bergant, CSA
Last Updated: Tuesday, 02 November 2010
© America: The National Catholic Weekly, 2003.

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Reflections

Bodies and Souls

Wis 3:1–9; Ps 23:1–6; Rom 6:3–9; Jn 6:37–40

What happens when we die? This is a question most people ask at some point, perhaps especially Christians, who look forward to the resurrection at the end of time. But in the interim, prior to the general resurrection, what happens to those who have died? Where do they go? This is a confusing issue for more people than is often acknowledged. As a boy, I pondered the resurrection and assumed that when I died I would be “resurrected” straightaway into heaven to live with all the other people who had been raised. This is not the Christian view, but many Christians share in another confusion, believing that incorporeal life in heaven, achieved immediately upon death, when the soul is freed from its bodily confines, is the final state for which all human life is intended. The so-called last things are difficult to understand because the evidence in Scripture is scattered and partial, and what little there is about life after death shows evidence of development.

The ancient Israelites focused not on the world to come but on the rewards and blessings bestowed by God, like a long life, numerous children and abundant crops and flocks. The deceased went to Sheol, which was not a place of reward or punishment but the place where the shades of the dead rested.

Resurrection, mentioned rarely in the Old Testament, became a more pronounced hope in later Second Temple Jewish texts. In the centuries before Jesus there had been a development in the understanding of the final destiny of the dead. Later Jewish thought, while not systematic, stressed that the whole person, body and soul, would be raised up at the end of time.

While less thought was expended upon what happened to the dead who awaited the resurrection, the author of the Wisdom of Solomon, a text written in the Greek-speaking city of Alexandria sometime between 30 B.C. and A.D. 40, did reflect on the “souls of the righteous” dead. The author writes that “the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace.” This is no longer Sheol but a place free of torment and filled with peace. The whole passage points to a process of judgment after death and a continuing existence in God’s presence, but it also foresees a future kingdom of God when these righteous souls “will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever.”

For Christians, this “future” kingdom is embodied in the return of Jesus Christ, when all, both living and dead, will participate in the resurrection of the body. Because Jesus Christ conquered sin and death through his own resurrection, the Apostle Paul says that all of us who have been baptized into Christ’s death will also share in the new life: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” The conquering of sin and death, says Jesus, was the purpose of his earthly mission: “This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.”

For those who are still alive in the earthly body, we await either death or the coming of God’s kingdom. But our brothers and sisters, those righteous souls who now exist in the presence of God, also await the fullness of God’s kingdom, when the body and soul are reunited eternally. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, at No. 1005, a section grounded in the teachings of the Apostle Paul, clarifies the Christian hope: “to rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must ‘be away from the body and at home with the Lord.’ In that ‘departure’ which is death the soul is separated from the body. It will be reunited with the body on the day of the resurrection of the dead.” And so we, with all the righteous souls who have died before us, await that kingdom in which all is made whole and God is all in all.

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.

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Reflections

Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls) – A

Job 19:1, 23-27 1 Cor 15:20-23 Jn 12:23-26
Saved, But As Through Fire

Native American tribes are known for their elaborate and colorful quilts. Often the memories of the tribes are woven into large quilts used in religious ceremonies. Native American peoples are believed to be among the best quilt makers in the world. What many people do not know is that they have an unwritten law governing the art of quilting: every quilt must have some flaw. Even when they could easily produce the perfect quilt, they go out of their way to introduce a flaw into it. Since the quilt for them is basically a representation of human life and the human condition, the symbolism is clear: no human life is perfect. In a way, the feast of All Souls which we celebrate today echoes the same message: no human life is perfect, not even the Christian life. The Good News we celebrate today is that God loves us even when we are not perfect, and that the love of God does not abandon the souls of our departed brothers and sisters in the faith even when they did not measure up to the ideals of Christian perfection.

In the feast of All Saints which we had yesterday, we, the saints who are still struggling on earth (the church militant), celebrate fellowship with the saints who have already arrived in heavenly glory (the church triumphant). Today we celebrate our fellowship with the saints in purgatory, a state of temporary suffering for departed souls who are not yet fully ready for full fellowship with God in the glory of heaven (the church suffering).

All Christians believe in the Four Last Things: death, judgment, heaven and hell. Purgatory is not mentioned as one of the “last things” because, strictly speaking, purgatory is a part of heaven.

Purgatory is the remedial class for heaven-bound souls. Souls who go to purgatory are those who have been judged worthy of heaven, but not straightaway. They still need some purification (purgation) before they are ready for heaven because, according to Revelation 21:27, “nothing unclean shall enter it.”

Some Christians have a problem with the teaching on purgatory because purgatory is not mentioned by name in the Bible. Yet the same Christians believe in the Trinity even though the “Trinity” is not mentioned by name in the Bible. We arrive at the doctrine on purgatory the same way we arrive at the doctrine on the Trinity, by making a logical inference from what God has explicitly revealed. We shall take three examples:
(1) The Parable of the Unfaithful Servant, which teaches the need for disciples to be faithful to their tasks till the coming of Christ on judgment day, concludes with these words: “That slave who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating” (Luke 12:47-48). This shows that in the last judgment, even though the results will basically be either pass or fail, go to heaven or go to hell, there may be those who are not bad enough to be thrown into hell and not good enough to be admitted right away to heaven. These then will receive some remedial purification to make up for what is lacking in their faith and good works before being admitted to heavenly bliss. That period of interim punishment before being admitted to eternity with God is what we call purgatory.

(2) Paul compares the different ways in which Christians live their lives to different builders all building on the one foundation which is Christ. They build with different materials: gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw. On judgment day what each person has built will be tested with fire. “If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. If the work is burned up, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Corinthians 3:14-15). How can the soul after judgment “suffer loss” and still get saved “but only as through fire?” The answer is what we call purgatory.

(3) The Apostle John reminds us that a Christian can commit two types of sin: mortal sin which kills one’s relationship with God and venial sins which does not. “If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one – to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal” (1 John 5:16-17). Believers who die without sin go to heaven. Believers who die in mortal sin go to hell. Where do believers who die in a state of venial sin go? The answer is purgatory, where they can make up for their imperfection before being admitted to the company of the saints in heaven.

Even though officially Catholics believe in purgatory and Protestants do not, unofficially almost everyone seems to believe in an interim state of purification before heaven. When we lose loved ones, Catholics and Protestants alike pray for the dead. We all say, “May their souls rest in peace.” Wait a minute. If the souls of are in hell, why pray for them? Our prayers cannot help souls in hell. And if they are in heaven, why pray for them? Our prayers cannot help those in heaven either. They are already in heaven. Any sort of prayer for the dead has meaning insofar as the souls of the dead are in an interim state where they have not yet reached perfect union and peace with God, and where our prayers can help them get there. That is purgatory.

In the feast of All Souls we pray for the souls of the faithful departed who are being purified in purgatory. In this we pro-fess our belief that, just as God has not stopped loving these poor souls because of their imperfections, neither have we. For us the belief in purgatory is Good News: even though we may not in this life be perfect as our heaven father is perfect (Matthew 5:48) we can still hold fast to the hope that there are mansions for us in the kingdom of heaven.

Fr Munachi Ezeogu, cssp

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Fr. Robert Manansala Reflections

“WE WILL BE JUDGED ON LOVE”, A Reflection for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, By Fr. Robert B. Manansala, OFM

Ex 22:20-26; Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51; 1 Thess 1:5-10; Mt 22:34-40

In January 2011, a picture of Dr. Richard Teo circulated in the internet. Together with it, a transcript of his talk on his life experiences went viral as well. He was a general medical practitioner turned cosmetic surgeon and he died of lung cancer on October 18, 2012, nine months after his talk.

Already suffering from cancer in January, he shared his life experiences with a class of students. In the beginning, just like many people, he thought of happiness in terms of success, and success was about wealth. As a young doctor, he saw that becoming a cosmetic surgeon was the fastest way to success and wealth. So instead of healing the sick and the ill, he shifted to glorifying aesthetic looks. True enough, after a year, he was raking in millions and could very well afford the luxuries of life. Then in March 2011, at the pinnacle of life according to the world’s standards, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He got very depressed and realized that his success and everything that he had acquired could not give him genuine happiness and joy.

Dr. Teo recalled a college friend named Jennifer. Whenever she saw a snail on the pathway, she would pick it up and put it along the grass path. At that time, he could not understand what Jennifer was doing, getting her hands dirty for the sake of a snail. It was just a snail. Besides, it deserved to be crushed if it went the pathway of humans.

Dr. Teo said that as a doctor, he should have been steeped in compassion even for non-human creatures, but he was not and could not. In fact, his exposure to sufferings and deaths in the cancer department as a young doctor deadened his feelings and capacity to empathize. Everything became simply a job for him. While he knew all the medical terms to describe the sufferings of people, how they felt and what they were struggling through, in truth, he did not really know how they felt – until he became a cancer patient himself. He said that if he could only relive his life, he would have been a different doctor – a truly compassionate one. A cancer patient himself, he began to understand how other patients felt, something that he learned the hard and irrevocable way.

Dr. Teo reminded his listeners never to lose their moral compass along the way of life and in the practice of their professions, something that he lost as he got obsessed with wealth, viewing his patients as merely sources of income. As doctors, they should serve people and have compassion on the sufferings of their patients. Society and media should not dictate on them how they should live.

True happiness does not come from serving oneself but from serving others. And it comes from knowing God, not simply knowing God but knowing God personally, and having a genuine relationship with God. He said that is the most important thing he learned: to set our priorities at an earlier stage of our lives – to trust in the Lord and to love and serve others, not just ourselves.

Dr. Richard Teo ended his talk with a quote from the book Tuesdays with Morrie. It says: “Everyone knows that they are going to die; every one of us knows that. The truth is none of us believe it because if we did, we will do things differently. When I faced death, when I had to, I stripped myself of all stuff totally and I focused only on what is essential. The irony is that a lot of times, only when we learn how to die then we learn how to live.”

On this 30th Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Jesus reminds us that love of God and neighbors is the summary of all the laws, commandments and teachings of the prophets, the summary of religion itself. It is very significant that we are hearing these two greatest commandments right after All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. The saints are known for the holiness of their lives. As Christians, this is our fundamental calling – this universal call to holiness, which consists in the practice of the love of God and neighbors.

Lumen Gentium, one of the Vatican II documents, tells us that all of us are called to holiness by virtue of baptism. Holiness consists in the perfection of charity – in other words, in the growth and practice of the love of God and neighbors according to our states and circumstances of life. Leon Bloy, a French writer, declares, “The only tragedy in life is not to be a saint.” We may not all become canonized saints, so All Saints’ Day is also for the countless holy men and women who are not officially declared saints of the Church.

A parishioner once remarked that All Souls’ Day is a good reminder to pray for our dead relatives and friends and also of our own mortality. Indeed, all of us will come to the point of our final surrender to the Lord, the final offering of our last breath, of our entire life, of all our deeds and personal history.

St. Francis of Assisi desired to die naked to dramatically show that, like Job of the Old Testament, he came into this world with nothing. He wanted to go back to the Lord in utter nakedness and complete dependence on Him and on His mercy. Everything is grace. Everything and everyone is a gift and there is nothing and nobody that we can really appropriate for ourselves. In Pilipino, “Hiram sa Diyos ang ating buhay.” In fact, “Hiram sa Diyos ang lahat-lahat.” We must be ready to make that final surrender of everything. It is in this light, that we can appreciate the reminders of Dr. Richard Teo, Jim Castle and of all the saints, especially that of St. John of the Cross who said: “In the evening of life, we will be judged on love.”

The scribe in the Gospel was sincere in his questioning of Jesus. He was really searching for the truth that would guide him in living his life and in practicing religion. A total of 613 commandments had accumulated and developed through the years of interpretation of the Ten Commandments and other precepts of the Law and the Prophets. Jesus’ response to the scribe was an invitation to see what was already there in the Scriptures. All they needed to do was to practice them truthfully.

The love of God with all one’s heart, soul and strength is found in the Book of Deuteronomy, and constitutes the Shema, the most important prayer of the Israelite religion (cf. Dt 46:4-5). The love of neighbor as oneself is found in the Book of Leviticus (cf. Lv 19:18). What we find separated in the Old Testament has been put together by Jesus in the New Testament (cf. Mk 12:28-34; Mt 22:34-40; Lk 10:25-28).

Indeed, the love of God and the love of neighbors, though distinct, are interrelated and inseparable. The love of God takes priority over everything else, but it must flow into the love of neighbors, especially the needy, and those suffering and in pain.

When Blessed Mother Teresa accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1979, a part of her acceptance speech went like this: “It is not enough for us to say: ‘I love God, but I do not love my neighbor.’ St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don’t love your neighbor (1 Jn 4:20). How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so this is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt.”

For Blessed Mother Teresa, love is something that is very concrete, something that begins where we are, without ending there. In this regard, she said: “Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor… Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.”

We end with some revealed insights of St. Catherine of Genoa on purgatory. Purgatory, according to the saint, has something to do with the cleaning and purifying love of God upon souls wherein stains of sin still remains. Only a soul purified from all sinfulness can be completely united with God who is Divine Love.

About Fr. Robert and his other reflections.

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Fr. Sergio Santos Reflections

LOVE GOD WITH YOUR WHOLE BEING A Sunday Gospel Reflection for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time By Fr. Sergio Santos, OFM

God has a Divine Plan from the very beginning of time. The Divine Plan of God is like a “tele-drama”. In the “tele-drama”, God, the Father, our Creator is the Producer, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our Savior, is the Director, the Holy Spirit, the Love that binds God, the Father and Jesus Christ, is the Scriptwriter, The Actors were the Old Testament and New Testament people, and now in this digital generation, the actors are us, Christians.

The Old Testament and New Testament actors had 613 precepts, rules or commandments, including the Ten Commandments to act out. The first three of the Ten Commandments pertain to the love of God and the last seven commandments pertain to love of neighbor. With the coming of Jesus Christ, these were simplified when the Pharisees in the Gospel today asked Jesus Christ as to the greatest commandment. The answer was “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is like it”. This clear-cut answer was not only for the Pharisees but an answer and a rule of life for all of us for all time.

What Jesus Christ is saying is that the love of God and neighbor fulfills all of a person’s obligations and carries out all the duties that God’s self-revelation in “the law and the prophets” requires. God in the Old Testament is revealed as our Creator and Divine Benefactor. Out of God’s infinite goodness, God is sharing with humanity the eternal kingdom of bliss; this is the reason why we were created. That is why out of God’s love for humanity, God became flesh and blood in the personhood of the Son Jesus Christ through the Incarnation. In 1 John 4:9-11, it states: “God’s love was revealed in our midst in this way: He sent his only Son to the world so that we might have life through him. Love, then, consists in this: not that we have loved God but that he has loved us and sent His Son as an offering for sins. Beloved, if God has loved us so, we must have the same love for one another”. Through the Incarnation, we have been raised to the status of children of God.

What exactly is this love of God? This means our whole being is directed towards God. All that we say, and do is leading us towards God and none other. And this means also we are open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who will teach us and sustain us with resources to fulfil this commitment of love. Thomas Merton said that if one is committed to God, resources are provided. “God provides”. This, I have personally experienced in my life as a Franciscan religious. Divine Providence is around us.

And what is this loving your neighbor as yourself about? The measure of that love of neighbor is the love one bears toward oneself. The law of fraternal charity, the obligation to love a neighbor, was ordered by God on the Israelites from their very beginning as the chosen people.

Recall that this commandment is like the first. Love of neighbor is a very important obligation toward God. It is a sacred duty. And if we fail to love our neighbor, we also fail in our love for God.

Can we ask ourselves today how seriously we take this law of fraternal charity? Whatever spiritual, psychological, or material help given out of true charity to a neighbour in need, is given to God, and whatever is given to God will be rewarded a hundredfold, including one’s name written in the Book of Life.

About Fr. Serge and his other reflections.

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Fr. Reu Galoy Reflections

Giving What Is Due Is Transforming Conflict Into Connection, A Sunday Gospel Reflection for the 29th Sunday In Ordinary Time By Fr. Reu Jose C. Galoy

Today’s gospel is so rich – there are several issues that can lead us to deeper reflection. For instance, when does our responsibility to society and to God begin and end? Do we really have to put our social and religious obligation in opposition with each other? The Catholic Church Catechism points out that there are three circumstances where citizens are obliged in conscience to refuse obedience to civil authorities. These are in situations when the laws are “contrary to the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons and to the teachings of the gospel.” The principle is clear. However, its application may not be so simple when there is apparent clash of rights.

The realities of life and relational dynamics are not simple black and white categorization. There are aspects that require better comprehension due to inherent complexities. The question put before Jesus whether it is permissible for Jews to pay tribute to Caesar sheds light into the mind and strategy of the Pharisees. They were trying to bring Jesus into a political trap that would set him at odds with the Roman authorities who were the rulers of Israel at that time or else, when this fails, it would discredit him before his own people. To avoid giving rise to suspicion of their intention, they decided not to get themselves involved personally. They sent some of their disciples to Jesus instead. It is quite likely that the leaders of the Pharisees stayed in the background because they wanted the followers of Herod, the Roman appointed tetrarch of Galilee, to take part also in the plot against Jesus even though these Herodians, who openly advocated cooperation with the Romans, were their most bitter enemies. It appears to be a truth-seeking inquiry with malicious intent, to say the least. The religious leaders wanted to hide behind their manipulative action at the expense of Jesus. But we know that any ill intent will never produce good fruit.

For our reflection on this Sunday’s gospel, I wish to humbly invite you to look into the aspect where we try and maybe attempt unconsciously to separate our actions as belonging either to the private or to the public sphere. Such is the case with the social responsibility like paying tax which we might consider as belonging to the public realm, while our relationship with God is considered a private matter and has no significance or no connection to our public life. This dichotomy is an act of denying that everything is a gift from God and belongs to God, including Caesar. This is so because to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s means also fidelity to God since God wills that we be concerned for our society. This in turn is a partial fulfilment of our basic duty, that is, to give to God what is his. Relegating God into the private space of our life and social relationships indicates that social obligation is of greater importance than God – it is tantamount to committing idolatry (a worship of money and power).

To give what is due is to recognize one’s role in promoting the common good. In like manner, it shows the centrality of God in one’s own existence as the Alpha and Omega of everything we do in this life. God establishes connection rather than create conflict. In God there are is no category of private and public for God is all in all.

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