Dear Fellow Parishioners,

   We are heading into that three-day celebration of Hallowe’en, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days, perhaps the greatest mixture of Christian spirituality, pagan roots, and past and present custom to be found in the Church calendar. Put somewhat differently, it’s not immediately clear what Celtic folklore, carving pumpkins, honoring the saints, praying for the dead, and collecting Snickers bars from your neighbors have to do with one another, but it’s somewhat in the nature of customs to be formed out of many different elements.

   Like many gray areas between authentic Catholic devotion and pagan superstition, the Day of the Dead requires a much broader discussion than is possible here. The Catholic Church approves (or at least allows) honoring one’s ancestors – even with altars, incense, images, etc. – so long as it confers respect and affection that does not rise to the level of “latria,” i.e., worship. (“Latria” is the root of the word, “idolatry,” forbidden by nothing less than divine law.)

   In the 1930’s, Pope Pius XI issued a response to an inquiry – and my faulty memory prevents me from naming it here – regarding the Chinese custom of honoring ancestors. To make a long story short, the rescript (in Latin) said that ancestor veneration was fine so long as it was not inconsistent with Christian devotion and did not approach the degree of worship that we owe to God alone. I believe the same principle applies here.

At the same time, we must also square any notion of a “Day of the Dead” with Scripture. Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” (John 11:25-26). Strictly speaking, in the Risen Christ, for the believer there can only be life, and “life more abundantly” (John 10:10).

   The Solemnity of All Saints acknowledges the whole company of saints that has gone before us in history, and who can intercede and pray for us now. That may sound strange to some ears, but the barriers of time and space, even life and death, do not limit God or his saints. We can ask for their intercession, just as they can pray to God for us.

   The Commemoration of the Holy Souls naturally implicates the reality of Purgatory, not as a physical place, but as a process of purification. In Catholic doctrine, Purgatory refers to the final cleansing of those who died in a State of Grace but leaves in them only the holiness necessary to enter the joy of Heaven.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church). As a pastoral reality, the notion that we can help our beloved departed by praying for their continued purification, continues to be a powerful reality for us, who remain. This connection to our beloved departed is perhaps most powerful in our experience of their continued presence among us.

   The great theologian and Jesuit spiritual master, Karl Rahner, wrote these beautiful and reassuring words: “The great mistake of many people – among them, even pious persons – is to imagine that those whom death has taken, leave us. They do not leave us. They remain! Where are they? In darkness. Oh, no! It is we who are in darkness. We do not see them, but they see us. Their eyes, radiant with glory, are fixed upon our eyes full of tears. Oh, infinite consolation!  Though invisible to us, our dead are not absent. I have often reflected on the surest comfort for those who mourn. It is this: a firm faith in the real and continual presence of our loved ones; it is the clear and penetrating conviction that death has not destroyed them or carried them away. They are not even absent, but living near to us, transfigured.”

Blessings,

Fr. Bill Donahue