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Friday, November 16, 2012
Friday, November 2, 2012
Why Pray for the Dead?
Lincoln's Log
11-11-12
“Therefore he [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that
they might be delivered from their sin.” (2 Mac 12:45)
“Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our
prayers for them.”
St. John Chrysostom
This
week we celebrated the feast of All Soul's day, a day when we pray
for all those who have died. At our parishes we have “Remembering
Services” and spend time thinking about our loss, our mortality,
and our eternal destiny.
Why
do we pray for the dead? On one level, it is simply instinct. When
someone we love has died, we miss them and long to talk to them.
There is a void in our soul. Something is missing and we are
incomplete, so we reach out with our thoughts and words to connect
with the person who is gone.
Sometimes
we are afraid. The reality of death comes home to us when we are
confronted personally by the death of someone we love. This fear can
move us to cry out to God. We don't know exactly what happens after
death. It is a mystery to us so we try to reach out beyond the
mystery and connect.
On
a purely human level, fear and loss lead us to pray for the dead.
But
there is more to it than that. There is more than psychology. The
fundamental reason that Catholics pray for the dead is because of
love. We know that “neither death, nor life, nor any other
creature will be able to separate us fro the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38). Love conquers all. Death does not
have the power to end a relationship of love.
Just
as we would pray for someone during their lifetime, we can pray for
them after death. We are motivated by love. The mystery of death is
conquered by the mystery of love.
This
month, as we continue to pray for the dead in a special way, let's
always remember that it is love's victory over death that is at the
root of all of our prayers for the dead.
Peace,
Lincoln
A. Wood