AD TE OMNIS CARO VENIET

 
    This weekend and week mark our parish’s special commemorations of our dearly departed beloved—family, friends, acquaintances (perhaps even strangers and enemies).  We take the time, especially in November, to pray for all the deceased (“…whose faith You [God] alone have known”), as our liturgy reminds us.  
 
    The title of this essay is the Latin for what was part of the old Tridentine liturgy, and it comes from Psalm 65 (back in those days, listed as Psalm 64):  “To you we owe our hymn of praise, O God, on Zion…To you all flesh will come with its burden of sin; too heavy for us, our offenses, but you wipe them away.”
 
 It is a sober reminder that we are a broken people, sadly capable of hurting and being hurt.  It reminds us of our need for healing, for mercy, for forgiveness.  And as we recognize this need in us, we are called to recognize this need in others.  Do I dare to pray for God’s merciful and healing touch on my parents, for example, and then refuse to pray for it for you or your parents?
 
 There is an inherent need in us as humans to pray for the dead.  We can see this even in II Maccabees 12:38-46, and we long to believe that our prayers and sacrifices can help others in their own paths to purification and entrance into the joys of the Beatific Vision—the totality of loving and being love by Love.  This is the essence of Colossians 1:24, which I have referenced before in homilies.
 
 Yes, eternity and time are two separate realities.  That’s why we can stand in solidarity with the dead.  I like the quote from CS Lewis (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, chapter 9):  “I would say that from before all worlds His providential and creative act (for they are all one) takes into account all the situations produced by the acts of His creatures.  And if He takes our sins into account, why not our [prayers]?”
 
 We also love gathering on special days for celebrations, and this is surely the origin of our liturgical calendar, especially for feasts of the martyrs—we mark the day of their entrance into eternal life.  Pagan Romans would gather at the graves of family members on their anniversaries to celebrate a “refrigerium”—a meal of remembrance.  Christians could do the same, celebrating Eucharist at the martyrs’ tombs, looking for all the world (safely!) like typical citizens.  It was a great cover.
 
 This month our Book of Prayer Intentions is replaced by our Book of the Dead.  Let’s pray fervently for our loved ones (and even those we do not love).  May all harms and ills be healed in the grace-filled hands of our Lord—for everyone.                                                                                       -Fr. David