Articles
All Saints Day’ and ‘All Souls Day’
Opinion | Articles | Benjamin Chang | 01-Nov-2024
Catholic Church observes ‘All Saints Day’ on November 1 as a day to honor all the saints in heaven and ‘All Souls Day’ November 2 to pray for the souls in purgatory.
‘All Saints Day’ is intended to honour the memory of countless unknown and uncanonized saints who have no feast day. On this day, the believers thank God for giving ordinary men and women a share in His holiness and heavenly glory as a reward for their faith. This feast is observed to teach the believers to honor the saints, both by imitating their lives and by seeking their intercession for them before Christ, the only mediator between God and man (I Tim. 2:5).
It may be noted that according to the Church belief all baptized Christians who have died and are now with God in glory are considered saints. The saints put their trust in Christ and lived heroic lives of faith while here on earth. As such, they enjoy heavenly bliss as a reward for their faith in Jesus. Hence they deserve the believers’ veneration (it is different from worship).
The church also teaches the believers that saints are the role model for all those believers who live on earth. They teach the followers of Christ by their lives that Christ’s holy life of love, mercy, and unconditional forgiveness can be lived by ordinary people, of all walks of life and at all times. The Church also teaches the followers that saints are the heavenly mediators who intercede for the believers before Jesus, the only mediator between God and Christ’s. (James 5:16-18, Exodus 32:13, Jer. 15:1, Revel. 8:3-4).
‘All Souls Day’ is a day specially set apart to remember and pray for those who have died and gone for their eternal reward, and who are currently in a state of ongoing purification. This commemoration is a reminder to believers that most often they don’t live as perfect human beings on earth and most often they do not die as perfect human beings. Some who die are imperfectly purified of their sinfulness, and so the Church reminds them of the reality of purgation.
In ancient times, people of all religions have believed in the immortality of the soul, and have prayed for the dead. The Jews believed that there was a place of temporary bondage from which the souls of the dead would receive their final release. The Jewish Talmud states that prayers for the dead will help to bring greater rewards and blessings to them.
Jesus and the apostles shared this belief and passed it on to the early Church. “Remember us who have gone before you, in your prayers,” is a petition often found inscribed on the walls of the Roman catacombs (Lumen Gentium-50).
The liturgies of the Mass in various rites dating from the early centuries of the Church include “Prayers for the Dead.” The early Fathers of the Church encouraged this practice. Tertullian (A.D. 160-240) wrote about the anniversary Masses for the dead, advising widows to pray for their husbands. St. Augustine remarked that he used to pray for his deceased mother, remembering her request: “When I die, bury me anywhere you like, but remember to pray for me at the altar.” The synods of Nycea, Florence and Trent encouraged the offering of prayers for the dead, citing scriptural evidences to prove that there is a place or state of purification for those who die with venial sins on their souls.
In the Bible, the passage from the book of II Maccabees 12: 39-46, describes how Judas, the military commander, “took up a collection from all his men, totaling about four pounds of silver and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering” (II Macc. 12: 43). The narrator continues, “If he had not believed that the dead would be raised, it would have been foolish and useless to pray for them.” St. Paul seems to have shared this traditional Jewish belief. At the death of his supporter nesiphorus, he prayed: “May the Lord grant him mercy on that Day” (II Timothy: 1:18). Other pertinent bible texts: Matthew 12:32, I Corinthians, 3:15, Zechariah 13:19, Sirach 7:33.
According to Revelation: 21:27: “nothing unclean shall enter heaven.” Holy Scripture also teaches that even “the just sin seven times a day.” Since it would be contrary to the mercy of God to punish such souls with venial sins in hell, they are seen as entering a place or state of purification, called Purgatory, which combines God’s justice with His mercy. This teaching is also contained in the doctrine of the Communion of Saints. The Church’s official teaching on purgatory is plain and simple. There is a place or state of purification called Purgatory, where souls undergoing purification can be helped by the prayers of the faithful (Council of Trent).
The importance of praying for the dead is rooted first in the firm and certain belief in the everlasting life promised in Jesus’ teachings, made manifest in his Paschal Mystery, his death and resurrection, and foreshadowed by his disciple’s experience and testimony that God had raised him from the dead. After death, even though separated from our earthly body, we yet continue a personal existence. It is as living persons that God invites us into a relationship whose life transcends death.
The commemoration of All Souls in history: The custom of setting apart a special day for praying for the dead-on November 2 was first established by St. Odilo of Cluny (d. 1048) at his abbey of Cluny in 998. From Cluny the custom spread to the other houses of the Cluniac order, which became the largest and most extensive network of monasteries in Europe. The celebration was soon adopted in several dioceses in France, and spread throughout the Western Church. It was accepted in Rome in the fourteenth century. Although 2 November remained the liturgical celebration, in time the entire month of November became associated in the Catholic tradition with prayer for the departed. Today, this custom is continued by specially remembering the departed persons of their family through special prayers and offering of Masses.
The legend connected with its foundation is given by Peter Damiani in his Life of St Odilo: a pilgrim returning from the Holy Land was cast by a storm on a desolate island. A hermit living there told him that amid the rocks was a chasm communicating with purgatory, from which perpetually rose the groans of tortured souls. The hermit also claimed he had heard the demons complaining of the efficacy of the prayers of the faithful, and especially the monks of Cluny, in rescuing their victims. Upon returning home, the pilgrim hastened to inform the abbot of Cluny, who then set 2 November as a day of intercession on the part of his community for all the souls in Purgatory.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1032) recommends prayer for the dead in conjunction with the offering of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The CCC also encourages “almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.” In Catholic Church, on 2nd November every year, the believers without fail take part in the Solemn Holy Mass and visit the cemetery taking flowers to decorate their loved ones buried in the grave and offers prayers at the tomb as a means to assist those in purgatory. It is also a reminder to the living that life on earth is pilgrimage and their reward depends on their life on earth. In his pastoral letter, Most Rev. Dr. James Thoppil, the bishop of Kohima has exhorted the believers to pray for their dear departed, have Masses offered for them, visit their graves, and make daily sacrifices for them.
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(The Author is a Priest in the Diocese of Kohima, and can be reached on Benjamin.chang24@gmail.com. Views expressed are his personal)
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