Visiting our dearly departed loved ones in our cemeteries during the All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day celebration is part of our age-old Catholic tradition. It has been there since time immemorial, and we continue this noble tradition up to this day. This is the time in a year when we pray, as a family, in their final resting place asking for God’s mercy for the salvation of their souls.
It is a fact, a sad fact though, that we will all die. Part of our human nature is the indisputable reality of death. Of course, we have learned to accept this truth that there is, indeed, a time to wrap up and gave it all up in our own death. However, part of our Catholic faith is the belief that only our mortal bodies will go back to what it was before, and our souls will continue to live. Well, the destiny of our souls after our death will depend on the way we lived our earthly life.
Heaven is the reward for the beautiful souls who did nothing but simply to follow the commandment of our Lord, especially the commandment to “love one another as I have loved you!” Heaven is reserved for those who died without any stain of sin and for those who were declared by the Church as Saints for living their faith in an exemplar way through their earthly lives. Well, there are “saints” in heaven, those who lived their lives by simply imitating the ways of our Lord. The Church authorities may have never known them, but God sees everything in secret, and so it is very much possible that God may have granted them access to his paradise.
Purgatory is the state of expiatory purification. Here, the souls of those who died in God’s grace may make satisfaction for past sins and so become fit to eventually enter heaven. This state is temporary because after the purification process, they will also enter God’s kingdom. This may be a state or a place of punishment and misery but there is a clear hope of finally resting in God’s kingdom. This is also the reason why we must pray and pray for our dearly departed loved ones. So that, in God’s time, they will be able to finally rest in God’s peace and enjoy the eternal happiness as promised to us by God.
Hell is the nether realm of the devil and the demons in which condemned souls suffer the eternal fiery furnace. There is no hope for souls condemned in hell and they will be there for eternity. These are for people who despised and rejected the grace of God repeatedly especially in their dealings with other people. It is my fervent belief, though, that there is no single soul in hell, except for Satan and his devils, because of the immensity of God’s grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness.
Given all these contentions, it is but just fit and proper for us to always pray for our dearly departed loved ones. Nobody among us can be so sure as to the final destiny of those who have died ahead of us, except for the Saints declared by the Holy Mother Church. We are not sure as to the whereabouts of anyone who have died, not even those individuals who were notorious for their abuses and inhumane character. Still, we must pray for them because it not only a part of our noble Christian tradition, but it is our obligation to always pray for them. Our prayers will always help them ease their misery and suffering and we believe that without any pinch of doubt.
It is a possibility that we may have some hurt feelings on some people who have died. We might have even wished for their death and rejoiced when they died. But I still believe that there is, at least, one good thing in every person simply because we were all created in the image and likeness of God who is all-good! How I wish that with that single goodness, it can be our reason to pray for them, and eventually learn to forgive them. After all, praying for the dead, the good ones and the bad ones, will never diminish our personality and it will even deepen our relationship with God.
So, my dear friends, let us take on the challenge to always pray for our beloved dead every time we remember them as part of our lives. They were not perfect creatures that is why we need to pray for them, now that they can only rely on us for help regarding their own salvation. Let this be a challenge for all of us to do every good that we can do for each other so that, when we die, people who will be left behind will never have second thoughts but to pray for our salvation.