Holy Souls November 2022

by Bishop Richard Moth

Holy Souls November 2022

November is the month of the Holy Souls and, for the people of this Land, it is the Month of Remembrance for all who have died in conflict, with its focus on 11th November and on Remembrance Sunday. Why is prayer for the dead an important part of our Christian and Catholic life? We read in the Book of Maccabees, how Judas Maccabeus sent an offering to Jerusalem for a sacrifice to be offered for those who had died in battle. The text reminds us that this would have been a pointless act, had he not had hope in the Resurrection (1). The Christian is marked by Hope. Hope is not something we can create for ourselves. It is a gift and it flows from the Resurrection of Christ Himself, for in Christ lies all our hope. It is this hope that prompts our prayers in this month of November. We exercise this virtue of hope in a particular way, for we rely on the Lord’s mercy to forgive all that would keep those who have died from the Kingdom of Heaven. This hope is only possible because Jesus has died and risen from the dead. He has conquered sin and death. He has won life for us. I reflected at a Mass recently on the theme of

Purgatory. Someone came up to me afterwards and said that they had not heard much about Purgatory recently. Yet Purgatory is a most wonderful expression of Hope. The experience of our recognition of our distance from God – brought about through our sins – is surely a painful thing. We see ourselves as we are and this is not always a pretty picture. Yet this very experience of the truth of things also enables us to recognise the wonder of the love of God. Our pain, in whatever degree it is experienced, gives way to the experience of forgiveness – the love of God that overcomes all things. St. John Henry Newman, in his poem “The Dream of Gerontius” (2) describes Gerontius’

experience of judgement. He leaves the throne of God for the experience of Purgatory, rejoicing that he will know the Kingdom of Heaven. It is at this moment of judgement that, in his Poem, Newman writes the words of the great hymn “Praise to the Holiest.” The angel proclaims: “Praise to His Name! I happy, suffering soul! for it is safe, consumed, yet

quickened by the glance of God. Alleluia! Praise to His Name!” Gerontius’ response is one of Hope and Love: “There will I sing my absent Lord and Love. Take me away, that sooner

I may rise and go above, and see Him in the truth of everlasting day.” This poetic expression is one of Hope and Love. This is why we pray for those who have died, that they may know it is fullness the Hope and Love that is the destiny of those whom God – in love –has created.

FOOTNOTES :

1. 2 Macc. 12:43-45 2. NEWMAN, St. John Henry, The Dream of Gerontius, 1985.