Prayers for the Deceased

Homily for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

The Church has encouraged prayer for the dead from the earliest times as an act of Christian charity. “If we had no care for the dead,” Augustine noted, “we would not be in the habit of praying for them.” Yet pre-Christian rites for the deceased retained such a strong hold on the superstitious imagination that a liturgical commemoration was not observed until the early Middle Ages, when monastic communities began to mark an annual day of prayer for the departed members.

In the middle of the 11th century, Saint Odilo, abbot of Cluny, France, decreed that all Cluniac monasteries offer special prayers and sing the Office for the Dead on November 2, the day after the feast of All Saints. The custom spread from Cluny and was finally adopted throughout the Roman Church.

The theological underpinning of this commemoration is the acknowledgment of human frailty. Since no one achieves perfection in this life but, rather, goes to the grave still striving for perfection, some began to imagine a period of purification necessary before a soul comes face-to-face with God. However, all of these thoughts come about because of the fact that we mortal creatures who are left behind are still trapped in that philosophical fiction called time. Time does not exist in God; God is eternal. There is no way to measure eternity. So, prayers for the dead do not speed up the process of purgation. When we see God face to face, we will finally truly realize how greatly God has loved us. When we compare that to our feeble attempts to love God, we will realize that we have not done enough. The disappointment that comes when this reality is made known to us will purify us and make us ready for heaven. Our prayers today are, therefore, prayers of thanksgiving for the gift of God’s love and mercy.

While some superstitious practices evolved over time about the deceased who were still waiting to enter heaven, observances of a more religious nature have survived. These include public processions or private visits to cemeteries and decorating graves with flowers and lights.