The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

Solemn Pontifical Mass

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe

La Crosse, Wisconsin

2 November 2024

1 Cor 15, 51-57

Jn 3, 25-29

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, the Little Flower, true to the Catholic faith regarding death and eternal life, was confident that, after her death, she would continue to fulfill her vocation of love in the heart of the Church.^[1] In fact, since the time of her death, countless faithful have received acts of her love signified by a shower of roses.^[2] The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, today, expresses beautifully and powerfully the truth that, although we suffer the loss of the earthly presence of our brothers and sisters who have died, we remain spiritually united with them. As we have loved them during their days on earth, so we continue to love them. The spiritual and corporal works of mercy, “charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor in his spiritual and bodily necessities,” include praying for the eternal repose of the souls of the dead and burying the dead.^[3] Our deceased brothers and sisters, likewise, continue to love us and pray for us. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, “[o]ur prayer for the dead is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.”^[4]

At the time of death, some of our brothers and sisters are already purified of their sins, and their souls go directly to our Lord in Heaven. Others, especially those who die suddenly, even though they “die in God’s grace and friendship” and “are assured of their eternal salvation,” need to complete the purification of their sins.^[5] There is a temporal punishment associated with our sins which derives from the “unhealthy attachment to creatures,” which even venial sin always involves. Although our sins are forgiven when we confess them with true sorrow, a conversion or purification of all unhealthy attachments must take place in us before we are ready to enter into the company of Christ and all the saints.

What needs to be satisfied through conversion or purification is commonly called the “temporal punishment due to sin.” It is not a matter of “vengeance inflicted by God” but of a total conversion to Christ, which overcomes all sin in our lives.^[6] Through our prayers and Holy Masses offered for the Poor Souls, we assist them in the purification of their sins. Our love of them inspires us to pray for them daily, especially obtaining for them the Plenary Indulgence, and to have Holy Masses offered for their eternal rest.

Regarding the application of indulgences to the souls of the faithful departed, Dom Prosper Guéranger reminds us:

We well know how the Church seconds the goodwill of her children. By the practice of Indulgences, she places at their charitable disposal the inexhaustible treasure accumulated from age to age, by the superabundant satisfactions of the saints, added to those of the martyrs, and united to those of our blessed Lady and the infinite residue of our Lord’s sufferings. These remissions of punishment she grants to the living by her own direct power; but she nearly always approves of and permits their application to the dead by way of suffrage – that is to say, in the manner in which, …, each of the faithful may offer to God who accepts it, for another, the suffrage or succour of his own satisfactions.^[7]

The month of November is a particular time of grace for strengthening our bonds with the Poor Souls in Purgatory. It is a time for us to renew our practice of daily prayers for the dead, especially obtaining for them the Plenary Indulgence, and of having Holy Masses offered for the deceased to whom we are united by bonds of love.

The bond of love, uniting us to our deceased brothers and sisters, is expressed, in a most fundamental way, by the care for the reverent burial of their bodies and by our visits to their tombs. These are fundamental acts of faith, for we firmly believe in “the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”^[8] Saint Paul expresses our Catholic faith in his First Letter to the Corinthians:

Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.^[9]

Our faith assures us that the good which the faithful departed have done in and through their earthly body accompanies them in death and will shine forth in eternity when, at the Lord's Final Coming, their earthly bodies will be glorified like His Risen Body.

Commenting on the text of Saint Paul, Dom Prosper Guéranger teaches us:

The humiliation of the tomb is the just punishment of original sin; but in this return of man to the earth from which he sprang, St. Paul would have us recognize the sowing necessary for the transformation of the seed, which is destined to live again under very different conditions…. The body of the Christian, which St. Ignatius of Antioch calls the wheat of Christ, is cast into the tomb, as it were into the furrow, there to leave its own corruption, the form of the first Adam with its heaviness and infirmity; but by the power of the new Adam reforming it to His own likeness, it shall spring up all heavenly and spiritualized, agile, impassible, and glorious.”^[10]

In the words of Blessed Columba Marmion,

It is not enough for God to satisfy our souls with eternal happiness. It is His will that our bodies, like that of His Son, should share in this endless beatitude. He wills to adorn them with those glorious prerogatives of immortality, agility and spirituality with which the Humanity of Jesus was resplendent on coming forth from the tomb.^[11]

Our care for the dead, body and soul, is full of the sure hope which Our Lord Himself teaches us: “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”^[12] The Savior's words nurture the faith and hope which inspire our celebration today in solemn prayer for all the faithful departed.

Faith and hope in the resurrection of the body certainly exceeds the power of our imagination because it participates in the mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation, the taking of our human nature by God the Son so that we may share in His divine nature, saving us from everlasting death and winning for us eternal life. Yet, it is more real than anything else in our lives, for, from the moment of our Baptism, we are given a share in the Resurrection of Christ who is seated forever at the right hand of God the Father. The rites of the Church which surround the death and burial of her members help us give expression to this reality which is beyond our human imagination. For that reason, the Church is insistent that we reverently prepare the bodies of the dead for burial and that we bring the bodies of our dead to church to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, the pledge of eternal glory which the dead received during their earthly life. Likewise, we bury the bodies of the dead in the ground or in a mausoleum with prayers which express our anticipation of the resurrection of their bodies on the Last Day.

Our participation in the Eucharist today, as always, is the pledge of our future glory. The consecrated bread and wine which become the Body and Blood of our Risen Lord nurture within us the life of the Holy Spirit who will bring us, body and soul, to the eternal life which is our destiny. Nourished here with heavenly Bread, we, like Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, are called to fulfill continually our vocation of love. With her we cannot rest until the end of time, when our salvation and the salvation of our world will be finally complete.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Raymond Leo Cardinal BURKE

^[1] Cf. Sainte Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jésus et de la Sainte-Face, Œuvres Complètes (Textes et Dernières Paroles) Paris: Éditions du Cerf et Desclée De Brouwer, 1992), p. 1050 (17 juillet). [Œuvres Complètes]. English version: St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, tr. John Clarke, Study Edition by Marc Foley (Washington, DC: ICS [Institute of Carmelite Studies] Publications, 2005), p. 422.

^[2] Cf. Œuvres Complètes, p.1013 (9 juin).

^[3] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2447.

^[4] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 958.

^[5] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1030.

^[6] Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1473.

^[7] “On sait comment l’Église seconde sur ce point la bonne volonté de ses fils. Par la pratique des Indulgences, elle met à la disposition de leur charité l’inépuisable trésor où, d’âge en âge, les surabondantes satisfactions des saints rejoignent celles des Martyrs, ainsi que de Notre-Dame, et la réserve infinie des souffrances du Seigneur. Presque toujours, elle approuve et permet que ces remises de peine, accordées aux vivants par sa directe puissance, soient appliquées aux morts, qui ne relèvent plus de sa juridiction, par mode de suffrage ; c’est-à-dire : en la manière où, …, chaque fidèle peut offrir pour autrui à Dieu, qui l’accepte, le suffrage ou secours de ses propres satisfactions.” Prosper Guéranger, L’Année liturgique, Le Temps après la Pentecôte, Tome VI, 11^ème éd. (Tours: Maison Alfred Mame et Fils, 1925), p. 115. [Guéranger]. English translation: Prosper Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, Time after Pentecost, Book VI, tr. Benedictines of Stanbrook Abbey (Fitzwilliam, NH: Loreto Publications, 2000), pp. 94-95. [GuérangerEng].

^[8] “The Apostles’ Creed,” Handbook of Prayers, 4^th ed., ed. James Socías (Princeton, NJ: Scepter Publishers, Inc., 1997), p. 45.

^[9] 1 Cor 15, 51-53.

^[10] “L’humiliation du tombeau est le trop juste châtiment de la faute première ; mais ce renvoi de l’homme au limon d’oi1 il fut tiré, saint Paul nous y fait voir encore l’ensemencement nécessaire à la transformation du grain prédestiné qui doit un jour reprendre vie dans des conditions tout autres…. Froment du Christ, selon le mot de saint Ignace d’Antioche, le corps du chrétien est jeté dans le sillon de la tombe pour y laisser à la corruption ce qui était d’elle ; la forme du premier Adam avec sa pesanteur et son infirmité ; mais par la vertu de l’Adam nouveau le reformant à sa propre image, il en sortira tout céleste et spiritualisé, agile, impassible et glorieux.” Guéranger, pp. 173-174. English translation: GuérangerEng, pp. 137-138.

^[11] “Ce n’est pas assez pour Dieu de rassasier notre âme d’un bonheur éternel ; il veut que notre chair, à l’exemple de celle de son Fils, participe à cette béatitude sans fin; il veut l’orner de ces prérogatives glorieuses d’immortalité, d’agilité, de spiritualité, dont resplendissait l’humanité de Jésus à sa sortie du tombeau.” Columba Marmion, Le Christ Vie de l’Âme. Conférences spirituelles (Maredsous [Belgique]: Abbaye de Maredsous, 1914), p. 522. English translation: Columba Marmion, Christ the Life of the Soul: Spiritual Conferences, tr. A Nun of Tyburn Convent, 9^th ed. (St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book Co., 1922), p. 396.

^[12] Jn 6, 40.