St. Mary Parish, Manchester at 210 West Main Street, Manchester, MI 48158 US - Why Do Catholics Pray for the Dead?

If you pay close attention, you will notice that in the sacred liturgy of the Mass there are various times that the Church prays for the dead. The main place that this occurs is in the Eucharistic Prayer. There is also usually a special petition offered in the Prayer of the Faithful for the dead. Why do we do this? Obviously there must be a need for prayers offered for the souls of the dead. Let us think about this for a moment.

When a person dies, their soul leaves their body and goes immediately before God for judgment. There are two places that the soul, (ultimately reunited with the body after the General or Last Judgment) will spend its eternity: heaven or hell. If after death and personal judgment the soul is destined for hell, there is no need for prayers for these souls for they can never leave; they cannot benefit from our prayers. Hell is permanent separation from God and the Communion of Saints for all eternity. If the soul goes immediately into heaven after death, it has no need of prayers for it is sharing in the glory of the risen Christ. Heaven is permanent union with God for all eternity.

But there is one final place where the soul can go after death which is not a permanent place but rather a transitional place, a place of final purification; that place is called purgatory. When the Church prays for the dead, she is praying for those souls that, while still in God's friendship at the moment of death, have residue of venial sin remaining on their soul. When the Church prays for the dead she is praying for the souls in purgatory. Purgatory is a transitional place for those souls destined for heaven; it will not exist in eternity. The final destination for the souls in purgatory is heaven; they cannot go to hell.

HOW DO WE KNOW WHO IS IN PURGATORY?

We do not know who is in purgatory. We know that purgatory exists for it is a doctrine of the Church. Personally I believe that the majority of the souls of Catholic people who die go to purgatory. How do I know this? Well, let me just say that the number of people attending sacramental confession on a regular basis (monthly) does not bear witness to a majority of Catholic people striving for personal sanctity.

The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is the main means that Christ has given to his Church to assist her members in the ongoing need for lifelong conversion, to break their attachment to sin, and to restore sanctifying grace to the soul that is lost through mortal and venial sin.

If a person is not going to sacramental confession on a frequent basis, if they are not taking seriously the lifelong process of purification and they die in a state of venial sin, their soul cannot enter heaven; it will go to purgatory. If a person dies with mortal sin on their soul, that soul will go to hell. There is no chance for purification or redemption at this point; it is final. As you can see the state of our soul should be a constant concern.

LET'S REFRAIN FROM CANONIZING THE DEAD

I can't tell you the number of times that I have heard Catholic people at the funeral home declare that their relative or friend went right to heaven when they died. This kind of talk, while filled with hope, is maybe jumping the gun a bit and certainly not beneficial to the soul of their deceased loved one. Declaring that a soul went immediately to heaven, while possible, I would dare say is more uncommon than common, and it certainly is not reflective of a Catholic understanding of the spiritual life. We can only hope that the soul went to purgatory and not to hell.

Let's face it, while there are many good people who die, that does not mean that we can assume that their souls were pristine upon their death. We must stop assuming that everyone goes immediately to heaven upon their death. If we do not stop this, we might be denying these souls the spiritual assistance that they can no longer accomplish for themselves and delay their entrance into heaven.

Let us give the souls of our beloved dead the benefit of the doubt that they are in purgatory and in need of our prayers. If these souls do not need our prayers, the prayers will not be wasted. God will apply our prayers and the Masses that we have offered for the souls of our beloved dead to those who are most forgotten in purgatory. This is called a spiritual work of mercy, a work that all Catholic people are called to practice on a regular basis.

On a personal note, while I am attending to the purification of my own soul and take this charge very seriously in this life, I also know that when I die (hopefully in a state of grace), that I will enjoy the benefit of having at least 93 Masses offered for its purification if need be. One of the many benefits that we enjoy as priests in the Diocese of Lansing is that when a brother priest dies every parish of the diocese is required to offer a Mass for his soul. I know what you are probably thinking: well, Fr. Tim (or any priest for that matter) is going to really need it! And you would be right! But in reality we all are going to need this.

As we enter into the month of November and are reminded about the last things: heaven, hell, death, and judgment, let us take these things to heart, and take even more seriously the need to attend to our souls, as well as the need to assist the souls of the Church in purification, the holy souls in purgatory.                                                                                          

—Fr. Tim