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Pastor Weekly Message For November 7, 2021
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November 7, 2021Jesus Is Lord!
Dear: Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
During the month of November, the Church calls us to remember the souls of the faithful departed. This Sunday at the noon Mass, our parish community welcomes family members who have lost loved ones this past year to our Mass of Remembrance. Pictures of our parishioners who died this past year were presented by their families and are on display in the back of the church.
Prayer for our departed loved ones is rooted in the Bible and is powerful because it brings peace to those on both sides of death. The Second Book of Maccabees (12:45-46) states that it is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they might be freed from their sins. This passage shows that Jews in the two centuries before Christ believed in praying for the deceased.
Our belief in purgatory flows from this practice. If Heaven and hell were the only possibilities after death, there would be no reason to pray for the dead. Those in Heaven do not need prayers, and those in hell are beyond the power of prayer. As a result, the Church acknowledges purgatory as an intermediate state of purification where those who die in God’s friendship are ushered into Heaven more quickly by the prayers of the faithful.
The apostles accepted and taught this belief. For example, Saint Paul's Second Letter to Timothycontains a prayer for his friend, Onesiphorus: "May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day.” As the footnotes in the New American Bible point out, Onesiphorus had died before this letter was written, making Paul's words a prayer for his already deceased friend (2 Timothy 1:16-18).
Christian prayer for the dead continued beyond New Testament times as evidenced by inscriptions in the Roman catacombs. In the fourth century, Saint Monica made this deathbed request of her son, Saint Augustine, "One thing only I ask you, that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be." Monica believed that her son’s prayer could help her into Heaven, and Augustine found that praying for his mother brought him peace and a new closeness to her. This is what we Catholics mean by the communion of saints. May the prayers of our parish community bring comfort to those who are mourning the loss of a loved one, and release of the Holy Souls of Purgatory to the Glory of Heaven.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let the perpetual light shine upon them. And may the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
In Jesus and Mary,
Father Jeff Kegley
Pastor