This life

This life is something like going to school.  You go to school in order to prepare you for your life in the world when your schooldays are over.  In school you learn to become a good citizen.  In the same way, we are in this world in order to prepare for our life in the next world when this earthly life is over.  We have to learn here how to be good citizens of Heaven.

Death

If we really love God we need not be afraid to die.  Jesus, who has looked after us all through our life and who loves us dearly, will not allow us to feel lonely or lost as we come to die and pass from this world.  We do not know for sure, but it seems very likely that our Guardian Angel will be there to look after us and will be the very first person we shall see.

We have heard a great deal about Jesus and when we die we shall at last see him alone.  At the moment when we look into his eyes we shall love him more than we have ever loved anyone, and we will know that we shall never be really happy until we are with him for always.  But at the same time we shall be terribly ashamed of all the wrong things which we have done in this life, and we shall know that we are not yet fit to stay with him.  For, just as disease germs make our bodies sick and ill, so wrong thoughts and words and actions make our souls sick and ill.  Only when we are completely free from sin and have lost even the wish to do anything wrong, will our souls be healthy and well.

Purgatory

When people have been very ill they sometimes go to a place called a convalescence home where they can get well and strong again.  While they are still there they still feel the effects of their illness and they may still have some aches and pains, but at the same time they know that it will not be long before they are all right again, and looking forward to that fills them with happiness.

So, when we have seen Jesus, we shall go to a place called Purgatory, which means a place of cleansing, until we are fit to enter Heaven.  While we are in Purgatory we shall still feel the effects of our sins and we shall be more ashamed of ourselves than we have ever been before.  But at the same time we shall know that, after a while, we will be perfect like Jesus himself, and the thought of one day being with him for ever will give us great happiness.  And we shall be freed from all temptations once we have reached Purgatory.

We can compare the Christian journey from earth to Heaven with the game of Ludo. (1) The course round the board is like this life with all its hazards.  Once a player’s counter has reached its final home column, it is safe.  We can compare the home column with Purgatory, the concluding stage of the journey when the soul is safe at last and is peacefully set on the final path to Home.  And Home, at the centre of the board, is like Heaven, the visible Presence of God himself.

The Faithful Departed

Praying for our friends and relations who have died

Now, just as we pray for those who have left home to go, perhaps, to some country across the seas, so we must always remember to pray for our friends and relations who have died.  We say that they are dead, but we know that really they are still alive in that world which lies on the other side of death.  They need our prayers just as much as they did when they were here, for the quicker progress they make, the sooner they will get to Heaven.

What happens when we pray for anyone, whether they are alive on earth or alive in Purgatory, is that we call down God’s strengthening power upon their souls.  You may think, wouldn’t God help them even if I didn’t pray for them?  And one of the things that can be hard for us to grasp is this: that God likes to work with us human beings in bringing about good.  Indeed, he expects us to play our full part in working with him to help other people, and one of the ways we do this is by praying for them.

So God, in his great goodness, gives us the privilege and responsibility of helping to look after our friends and relations as they prepare for the joy of Heaven.  And we should make sure we remember to pray for people who have died who have no one to pray for them.

In Tennyson’s poem on the death of King Arthur, the dying king says to his knight, Sir Bedivere (2):

“I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within Himself make pure!  But thou,
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul.  More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of.  Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep and goats…
If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
For so the whole round earth is every way
Bound by gold chains about the feet of God”

It is a good plan to remember our departed relations and friends every day in our evening prayers. We can thank God for them and then pray for them in our own words, perhaps by saying something like: “Heavenly Father, I pray for (names).  Please may your will be done in them – give them peace and healing and bring them to the joys of Heaven”.

Requiem Mass

The greatest and most powerful act of prayer we can make for them is a Requiem Mass, that is, a Eucharist specially offered for the repose of the souls of the Faithful Departed, for the word Requiem means rest or repose.  But of course, we can and do pray for them at any and every Eucharist.  For at the Eucharist Jesus brings us before the Throne of Heaven, and in his own Person offers our prayers to his Father. 

All Souls' Day

The Faithful Departed is the name we give to people who are in Purgatory, and the day when we remember them all is All Souls’ Day, November 2nd.  We should also remember our own particular departed relations and friends on the day each of them died.  We call this their Year’s Mind, because we have them specially in mind at that time.

The Faithful Departed in Purgatory belong to the Church Expectant or the Church Waiting, that is, waiting to go to Heaven; just as we belong to the Church Militant or the Church Fighting.  But of course we all belong to the Church of God.

SUMMARY

1. Before we can go to Heaven we have to go first to Purgatory.  There our souls, ill with the sins of this life, will be made well and we shall become perfect, and thus fit to live with God in Heaven.

2. We call the people in Purgatory the Faithful Departed, and we remember them all on All Souls’ Day, November 2nd.  We should pray every day for our own departed relations and friends, remember them at every Eucharist we attend and see they are remembered at a Requiem Mass on All Souls’ Day. 

References

1. Wikipedia (2010)Ludo (board game).  Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludo_(board_game) (Accessed 19 November 2010) (Internet).

2. Tennyson, A. (1885) Morte d’Arthur.  Available from: http://www.heureka.clara.net/art/morte-darthur.htm  (Accessed 16 August 2010) (Internet).