Praying For The Dead
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
11 Nov 2007
In November, Catholics are encouraged to pray for their dead. This is still a lively tradition.
Many of our old people are lonely, rarely visited by their family. If we don’t remember too well those near to us while they are alive, it is doubly useful for the Church to remind us of our obligations in prayer towards the faithful departed.
Occasionally I remind congregations who have a goodly percentage of older people like myself, that it is an excellent long term investment to teach young people about praying for the dead, so that when we are deceased we will have someone to pray for us!
Why do Catholics pray regularly for the dead, sometimes long departed? There is no dispute among Christians about the importance of a dignified funeral service. Human death ought to be surrounded with special honour because every human life is special.
It is sad when someone dies alone and even sadder when there is no one to mourn at a funeral. In one parish I knew with many isolates the parish priest used to organize a group of parishioners, to attend such funerals and accompany the hearse to the cemetery. No one should be sent off unaccompanied into eternity.
But the Catholic practice of praying for the dead extends far wider than funerals.
We pray for the dead because we believe in life after death; not just in the continuing existence of the soul but also in the resurrection of the body. That is another story for another time.
While a yearning for immortality and a revulsion at death are pretty well universal, the dead are completely silent. Christians believe in life after death because this is one of Christ’s teachings and promises.
Catholics also pray for the dead because it is not Christian teaching that everyone has a right to eternal happiness after death. The human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not conclude with a right to heaven. All mainline Christians believe in God’s personal judgement at death and the separation of the sheep from the goats, of the good from the sinners into reward or punishment.
God is love and mercy, but human evil and free will are real. Think of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Some might refuse to turn towards the light.
Catholics and Orthodox believe in a third category of persons as well as the saved and the damned, which Catholics call purgatory, where souls are purified to cope with God’s extreme goodness. It is ancient Christian (1Cor. 3:11-15) and indeed Jewish (2 Macc. 12) teaching that our prayers and sacrifices can speed these souls on their way to God.
An eternity of punishment in hell remains a hard call, but a place of purification before meeting God makes good sense and is justified by Scripture and ancient practice. Hence our prayers for the dead.
