The Feast of All Souls
ONE
Today is November 2, the Feast of All Souls.
Last week we meditated on Purgatory. Today, the need to help those who are there. But first, many people do not believe in Purgatory and that is why we forget to pray and sacrifice and help our family and friends who are in Purgatory.
The Book of Revelation 21:27 says nothing unholy will enter Heaven. For each of us, however, we recognize that given the right circumstances, pride, vanity, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust, gossip, grudges, impatience, and other vices emerge from our hearts. Well, what are we going to do? How are we going to get into Heaven if we have these vices in us when we die? I’m not suggesting that we’ll be excluded from Heaven. But these need to be cleansed before Heaven if we don’t cooperate with the Holy Spirit to complete the job on earth. Thank God for Purgatory where we are purified by the cleansing fire of God’s love.
1030 from CCC teaches:
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.
Most of us focus on the purification part, which will be painful. But what God is really saying is we will be perfect someday, as He is!
TWO
Why might we need to be purified after death?
St. John of the Cross writes; “At the evening of life, we shall be judged by our love.”
If we love God and neighbor above all things then, at the end of our life that is what we will receive, union with God which is Heaven and the communion of Saints, friendship with others.
If on the other hand, when we die, our loves are out of order, meaning we love lesser things more than God and neighbor, then these disordered loves will need to be purified.
Let’s review a hierarchy of loves;
1. Superficial natural goods:
a. The beauty of the human body
b. To be appreciated by others
2. Profound natural goods:
a. Physical goods, nutrition, sleep, exercise, safety, security
b. psychological
c. friendship
d. knowledge
e. achievement
F. beauty
3. Divine Good – Union with God, sharing in His Life
We need all of these, but we must keep them in order.
Love the lesser things less and love the greater things more for virtue is rightly ordered love.
THREE
Purgatory is not a prison and it’s not a place of punishment.
Purgatory is where we encounter the Fire of God’s great love for us. His desire for us inflames our desire for Him. And as we come nearer to Him, we desire Him more and more and we let go, we get rid of our disordered attachments more and more. These are burned away in the fire of God’s love and the fire of our desire for God, which means that our love is perfected by this Divine fire.
Faustina was taken to Purgatory and allowed to speak to the souls there who said their greatest torment was longing for God (Diary 20). Their desire for God was the purifying fire – purging away every disordered love that stood between them and God.
Diary 1185-86 This evening, one of the deceased sisters came and asked me for one day of fasting and to offer all my [spiritual] exercises on that day for her. I answered that I would. From early morning on the following day, I offered everything for her intention. During Holy Mass, I had a brief experience of her torment. I experienced such intense hunger for God that I seemed to be dying of the desire to become united with Him. This lasted only a short time, but I understood what the longing of the souls in purgatory was like.
Here is the key: we travel to God by our desire. So if we want to possess God in this life and immediately after death, with no layover in purgatory.
Then the most important thing is to ask God to give you a greater desire for Him.
We increase our desire for anything by thinking about it. If you want to increase your desire for God, then spend more time thinking about Him and Heaven as the infinite and perfect fulfillment of all good desires.
After that, fast. If we glut ourselves sick with physical things, we’ll have no appetite left for spiritual things. We travel to God by our desire. What do I desire most?
FOUR
We must help the souls in Purgatory.
The Church is the family of God united by the Holy Spirit. In this family God our Father enables His children to help one another by their prayer, work, joy, suffering and almsgiving. God accepts these gifts from his children and uses them to bring grace to our brothers and sisters in need, whether on earth or in Purgatory. In this way we can help the poor souls in Purgatory to reach Heaven.
In her Diary, St. Faustyna relates many instances of helping souls in Purgatory:
When Sister Dominic died at about one o’clock in the night, she came to me and gave me knowledge that she was dead. I prayed fervently for her. In the morning, the sisters told me that she was no longer alive, and I replied that I knew, because she had visited me. The sister who tended the sick [Sister Chrysostom] asked me to help dress Sr. Dominic. And then when I was alone with her, the Lord gave me knowledge that she was still suffering in PURGATORY. I redoubled my prayers for her. However, despite the zeal with which I always pray for our deceased sisters, I got mixed up as regards the days, and instead of offering three days of prayer, as the rule directs us to do, by mistake I offered only two days. On the fourth day, she gave me the knowledge that I still owed her prayers, and that she was in need of them. I immediately (28) formed the intention of offering the whole day for her, and not just that day but much more, as love of neighbor dictated to me. (Diary, 1382)
FIVE
What should we do to help those in Purgatory?
1. Offer the infinite and perfect prayer and sacrifice of Jesus in the Mass for souls in Purgatory
2. Accept with trust and offer with love your own suffering
3. Pray the Rosary for the poor souls in Purgatory
4. Pray the Stations of the Cross and Divine Mercy Chaplet
A resolution: pick at least one of these for the Month of November to offer for the Holy souls in purgatory.