(All Souls Day: This homily was given on November 2, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read 2 Maccabees 12: 38-46; 1 Corinthians 3: 10-15.)

What Is The Proper Catholic Response To Death?

When someone dies, how should I respond?

On this All Souls Day, that’s the issue we need to address. Another way to frame the question would be: What is the proper Catholic response to death?

Well, before I go any further, let me mention two very un-Catholic responses. (I mention these because, unfortunately, they’re quite common.) The first un-Catholic response to death is what I would call the immediate condemnation. This is how some people react when they hear of the death of someone they don’t like, or someone who’s committed a horrible crime--like an ax murderer or a serial killer. They’ll say, "Well, he finally got what he deserved! May he burn in hell forever!" My brothers and sisters, let’s be clear about it: a Catholic should never, ever respond in that manner. Why? Because a true Catholic does not judge the eternal destiny of anybody! As the Lord said to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16: 7, "Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart." Only God knows everything. Only he knows a person’s heart. This means that only the Lord knows the level of responsibility a person bears for a given sin. And only God knows whether or not a person has truly repented of a given sin. We don’t. We may think we do, but we don’t. This is why we are told many times in the Bible not to judge. This "judging," by the way, has nothing to do with the action itself. I can certainly judge an action as objectively sinful-- and I have an obligation to do so! As St. Paul put it in Ephesians 4: 15, we are to "speak the truth in love." Of course, the world calls that "judgmentalism." Baloney--that’s being clear about right and wrong. So if Joe commits adultery, I can say, "Joe committed a sin." But what I cannot do is judge Joe’s personal culpability for that sin, or his eternal destiny. Only God can do that. It reminds me of the well-known story about a woman who once came to see Fr. John Vianney--later St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests. The woman said, "Father, my husband has not been to the sacraments or to Mass for years. He has been unfaithful, wicked, and unjust. He has just fallen from a bridge and was drowned--a double death of body and soul." Fr. Vianney answered by saying, "Madam, there is a very short distance between the bridge and the water--but it is that distance which forbids you to judge." In other words, even at that last moment, true repentance was possible.

So that’s the first un-Catholic response: the immediate condemnation. The other un-Catholic response that I’ll mention this morning is the opposite one: the immediate canonization! Remember the world’s reaction to the death of Princess Diana several weeks ago? That’s a perfect example of immediate canonization. But sadly it’s not the only example of the phenomenon. In fact, I’ve attended many Catholic funerals over the years in which the priest has done this in his homily! For example, he’ll say, "Joe was a wonderful man--a loving husband, a good father--and we know that he is in heaven right now with Jesus." No we don’t! Aside from the person being formally canonized by the Church, we do not have an absolute assurance that he’s in heaven. Yes, we can have a deep, inner conviction about a person being in God’s heavenly Kingdom, based on our knowledge of that person’s life--but we do not have an absolute certainty. Why? Because only God knows the heart--only he is qualified to judge any person’s eternal destiny. So we shouldn’t immediately canonize someone for the very same reason we shouldn’t immediately condemn them: because that’s God’s job. And he’s the only one qualified to do it, because only he is omniscient.

When I’ve heard a priest immediately canonize somebody at a funeral, I’ve been tempted to go up to him afterward and say, "Father, why did you say that funeral Mass? You said that you offered this Mass for Joe; but if Joe’s already in heaven, he doesn’t need any Masses said for him. He’s arrived! Offering prayers or saying Mass for a dead person is only effective if the person is in purgatory! If he’s in hell he can’t be helped, and if he’s in heaven he doesn’t need prayers from anybody!" I’ve never actually said that, but I have been tempted.

Which brings us to the proper Catholic response to death. It can be summed up in two words: HOPE and PRAYER. Those, by the way, are the two words to remember from this homily: hope and prayer. And both of these are rooted in faith--faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As St. Paul said to the Thessalonians, "We would have you be clear about those who sleep in death, brothers; otherwise you might yield to grief, like those who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, God will bring forth with him from the dead those who have fallen asleep believing in him." (1 Thess. 4: 13-14) When someone dies, therefore, we need to recall our faith. First and foremost, we need to call to mind what believe. We need to remind ourselves of what Jesus Christ has done for us through his passion, death and resurrection. And then we need to adopt an attitude of hope: specifically hope that the deceased person died in the state of grace. And this hope should lead us to pray--it should lead us to pray that the person will receive whatever final purification his soul might need to be made ready for heaven. The Book of Revelation tells us that "nothing unclean will enter [God’s Kingdom]" (Rev. 21: 27) That means that no human being can come into the presence of God after death unless he’s been completely purified of all sin and all attachment to sin. So a given individual may die in the state of grace (in other words, free from mortal sin), but he may still have some venial sins on his soul or he may need to make amends for some mortal and venial sins that have already been forgiven. This is what purgatory is for, and this is why we pray and offer penances for those who have died. Purgatory is not for those who leave this life with unrepented mortal sins on their souls. Those individuals go to hell. Purgatory is for those who are in the state of grace, but who still need to be sanctified and prepared for God’s presence. In 1 Corinthians 3, St. Paul talks about people who die united to Christ, but whose earthly lives were not everything they should have been. Paul says that these people will be saved, but only through fire! This is not the horrible fire of hell that he’s talking about--it’s the cleansing and healing fire of purgatory. Our Masses, prayers and sacrifices help people to pass more quickly through this experience. In today’s first reading, from 2 Maccabees 12, we heard about a sacrifice that Judas Maccabeus had offered in Jerusalem. Some of his men had compromised their faith slightly by wearing pagan amulets, and they were killed in battle. Because of this venial sin, they needed a spiritual cleansing, and Judas knew it! The author of Maccabees writes, "Turning to supplication, [Judas and his men] prayed that the sinful deed might be fully blotted out. [Judas] then took up a collection among all his soldiers, amounting to two thousand silver drachmas, which he sent to Jerusalem to provide for a expiatory sacrifice. In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the fallen to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin."

Judas Maccabeus certainly did an excellent thing in having this animal sacrifice offered up in Jerusalem. But we can do something even better as Catholic Christians by having the sacrifice of the Mass offered for our deceased relatives and friends, since the Mass is the most powerful prayer of all.

St. Teresa of Avila once said, "How sweet will death be for the person who has fully repented of all personal sins and can leap over purgatory."

We should pray that our deceased relatives and friends have in fact "leaped over" purgatory. That’s the ideal that everyone should strive for. But in case they haven’t, let’s resolve to remember them daily in our prayers and Masses, so that they will run through purgatory at lightening speed, and arrive at the pearly gates of heaven as quickly as possible.