[stephenkhoo]

Wednesday, 02 November, 2011, Commemoration of All Souls
CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S MERCY AND VICTORY
SCRIPTURE READINGS:

Yesterday, we celebrated all Saints Day, which is a celebration of all the faithful departed who have won victory over sin and death. As we rejoice with them, we are also immediately reminded of those departed faithful who are still struggling to embrace the love and mercy of God. They are still not in complete union with God even though they are so near to Him.

Why are they struggling? Often, non-Catholic Christians who do not believe in purgatory ask why it is necessary for them to remain in purgatory when God’s mercy is infinite and Christ has already paid for our sins. The truth is that Catholics understand salvation as a process and not simply a juridical act of God. Unlike Protestants, we do not say that a justified person is saint and sinner simultaneously. This position is possible only if, like Martin Luther, we say that God forgives us our sins by not imputing the sins to us even though we remain sinners. Forgiveness is not to be seen in an extrinsic way, but also intrinsically. Catholic understanding of forgiveness is not merely that God forgives but that the person is also healed both body and soul. The Catholic notion of justification is both the forgiveness of sins and the inner renewal of the whole person.

Accordingly, a person who has died and is not yet purified because of attachment to the residues and effects of his sins, although forgiven by God, will need to grow out of them. Obviously not all of us at the point of death have completely died to ourselves and our sins so that we can embrace God completely and be in full possession of God. This could be due to a few reasons. Firstly, this is because they realize the love of God for them and as a consequence, in their pride, cannot accept this mercy of God. They continue to remain attached to their sins and the world. The Devil is in hell precisely because of His pride of wanting to merit heaven on his own account rather than accept heaven as a gift from God. So, too, there are many of us who, because of pride, refuse to surrender ourselves to God’s mercy and forgiveness. Instead, we want to earn heaven on our own rights and not by grace. Secondly, perhaps upon death they still could not let go completely of those who have hurt them or those whom they have offended. Many continue to harbor anger and resentment against such people, especially their loved ones. They are not satisfied till they see evil befall upon their enemies. Their vindictiveness and inability to forgive hold them back from God’s love. Most of all, many are unable to forgive themselves for the immense sufferings they had inflicted upon others when they come to the full realization of the gravity of their sins. This is particularly true of those sins that have destroyed life e.g. abortion and suicide; rapes and molestations; gambling and divorce.

Thus, this process of letting go, of purification, continues even after death. As they remain separated from their fellowmen and also from God, this separation causes pain, since we are created for love and communion. The pain of purgatory lies in this nearness to God’s love and mercy and the concurrent inability to surrender completely. Such pain can analogously be explained in terms of our separation from our loved ones. Love needs to be purified before full union is possible. This pain also comes about because all growth involves pain. To arrive at perfection requires our cooperation with the grace of God.

So purgatory is not so much a place of punishment but a state of continued purification. Purgatory is truly a grace from God for it is God’s way of allowing us to cooperate with His grace in overcoming the residues of selfishness and sins so that we can be ready to meet God face to face. God respects our free decision and treats us as persons, not as dumb sheep where we are forced and overwhelmed by His power to accept His love. St John’s gospel makes it clear that salvation requires us to believe in Jesus. We must choose Jesus and His message if we are to be saved. He said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I shall not turn him away … Yes, it is my Father’s will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and that I shall raise him up on the last day.”

That is why we must underscore that purgatory is not a state of unhappiness even when there is suffering. The latter is the result of love whereas the misery of hell is because of selfishness and pride. But for the souls in purgatory, they are already happy knowing that they are loved by God because they already are sons of God in the Holy Spirit and yet they suffer because of their incapacity to accept His love as a totally free gift and their inability to let go of all that prevents them from being in union with God. So as they grow in union with God, they must die with Christ until they fully possess Him. The souls in purgatory are not in despair unlike those in hell.

Today, we can be comforted by the fact that God wants all of us to be saved. As Jesus said, “Now the will of the one who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, and that I should raise it up on the last day.” Indeed, salvation is willed positively by God. Christ assures us that He will not turn away anyone who comes to Him. That is why we are so full of confidence that the souls of the departed will come to the kingdom that Christ has won for them. And that He will be merciful to us all, not in spite but because of our sinfulness and wretchedness. All we need is humility to acknowledge and confess our sins and accept His love and mercy.

Yes, we take confidence in God’s victory over sin through Christ’s death on the cross. We can be sure that God is faithful to His promise and His promise is that He will raise us from the dead, just as He raised Jesus from death. The victory of sin and death won by Jesus is ours if we give ourselves to Him. Yes, as the prophet promised, “on this mountain he will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the shroud enwrapping all nations. He will destroy Death forever. The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek.” This is Christian Hope, a Hope based on the mercy of God manifested on the cross and in the resurrection.

As St Paul tells us in the second reading, this “hope is not deceptive, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts.” Yes, “we were still helpless when at his appointed moment Christ died for sinful men – but what proves that God loves us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.” So we can be sure, as St Paul says, “having died to make us righteous, is it likely that he would now fail to save us from God’s anger? When we are reconciled to God by the death of his son, we were still enemies, now that we have been reconciled, surely we may count on being saved by the life of his Son!”

How can we help the souls in purgatory? Through prayers, good works and sacrifices! How is this possible? Through such means, we can bring them into union with God because as members of the communion of saints, we help each other to grow in grace and love. In showing our solidarity with them, we help them to surrender themselves to the love and mercy of the Father. Through our love and prayers, God will give them the capacity to respond to His forgiving love and mercy. So, we must continue to assure them of God’s forgiving mercy in Christ and remind them that God’s love has been poured into their hearts at their baptism. In this way, they will be empowered to let go and be healed of their pain, unfinished agenda and attachment to the world.

For ourselves, commemorating All Souls day must also remind us that our life is short and only a sojourn on this earth. We are exiles on this earth. Knowing that our time is short, we are challenged to live the fullness of life. Knowing that our homeland is in heaven, we will also see death and life in perspective. It also puts the question of suffering in perspective, for life is beyond this world. Indeed, St Paul tells us that the glory that is to come is beyond comparison to this world. In the face of the death of our loved ones, we must allow them to return to the Lord and not hold them back because of our attachment to them. We must not make them sad by prolonged grieving for them, since they want us who remain behind, to continue their legacy of giving our life fully to what the Lord wants us to accomplish on this earth. We cannot live in the past but in the present, for the future. As for those in the face of imminent death, especially those suffering from terminal illness, they must use such time to let go slowly of all that prevents them from surrendering so that when the time comes for them to return to the Lord, they will be ready.

For now, this life is a life of purification. We must already begin to live a life of detachment so that when the time comes, we will be free to let go of this earthly attachment and the desires of the body. If we cannot free ourselves from worldly pleasures and attachment to wealth, how can we let go when the time comes. And the truth is that generosity just at the moment of death, or after death, is not counted because we are forced to let go of them reluctantly. Hence, we must free ourselves from sin and the temptations of the world. Of course, this victory can only be won with and in Christ. By entering into the paschal mystery of Christ and uniting ourselves with Him each day, we will be ready for the time of departure to be with Him.

Perhaps, we can take a leaf from St Ignatius of Loyola to prepare for death. He recommends that we picture ourselves at our deathbed at the end of a long life. As we lay on the bed, evaluate our life decisions from that perspective. When we do that, everything that we live and work for will fall into place, for we see clearly what truly matters in life and what is truly important. By seeing the real purpose and meaning of this, we can begin to let go of all that hinder us from the life before us, especially our unforgiveness and our attachments to the glories and wealth of this world.