July
30, 2013 Martin
Mallon (Ireland) Martin's
previous articles
Why pray for our faithful dead and not just the dead
Is
the Catholic Church condemned by our liturgy; is it Christian?
May
the Divine assistance remain always with us and may the souls of the faithful
departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace, Amen.
No-one
has objections to praying for our faithful dead, however, we believe that
if they are faithful that they are either in purgatory or Heaven. In other words
their eternal bliss is assured in Heaven. If they are in purgatory our prayers
may help ease the journey to Heaven, but the final destination of those in
purgatory is assured anyway. In addition, if the prayers are not needed they
will not go to waste and God will answer them.
That
deals with our “faithful departed”, but what about the unfaithful
dead, the ‘mortal’ sinners, those we are sure are bound for hell and,
let’s face it, many of us are certain that hell is full of sinners and more
are entering hell all the time.
Why
do we as a Church not pray for the
unfaithful dead? Jesus came to save sinners, or so he said: “I
came to call not the upright, but sinners.” (Mk 2:17) Has
he failed? Are we neglecting Jesus’ desire by failing to pray for the dead who
really need our prayers? Or do we really believe that our prayers can only help
the faithful dead and cannot help those who are headed to hell? Are we saying
God’s power is limited or is our Church condemning the unfaithful sinner to
hell if they do not repent before they die?
I
am sure that theologians have written many a word on this topic and have
probably concluded, as our Liturgy suggests, that if you are not saved before
you die that hell is the only option. In other words the mercy of God is
limited. Is that possible?
Julian
of Norwich, that amazing fourteenth century mystic, received sixteen visions and
then spent twenty years contemplating the meaning of these visions. We read the
results in her book Revelations
of Divine Love, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1987 the introduction of
which points out that Thomas Merton, in his book Seeds of Destruction
(p. 275), considered Julian, with Blessed John Henry Newman, as “the greatest
English theologian”.
Julians’
visions seem to cover our topic of reflection. In one vision Christ said to her:
I
may make all things well, I can make all things well, I will make all things
well, and I shall make all things well. You will see for yourself that all
manner of things will be well.
(p. 60)
Julian
goes on to write:
As
I see it, there still remains one deed which the blessed Trinity will do on the
last day...the reason why he wants us to know that this deed will take place is
because he wants us to be less anxious and more at peace in love, and to stop
looking at all the worrying things that hold us back from truly enjoying him.
This is the great deed ordained by our Lord God from the very
first, treasured and hidden within his
blessed breast, and known only to himself, through which he will make all things
well.
For just as the blessed Trinity created all things from nothing, so the
same blessed Trinity will make well all that is not well.
I wondered a great deal at this, and looked at our faith, thinking: our
faith is grounded in God’s word, and part of this faith is our belief that God
will keep his word in every detail. One article of our faith is that many
creatures will be damned:...
In view of all this, it seemed to me to be impossible that all manner of
things should be well as our Lord had revealed to me at that time. But the only
answer that God gave me in this Revelation was this: ‘What is impossible to
you is not impossible to me. I will keep my word, in every detail, and I shall
make all things well.’ So God taught me by his grace that I should stand fast
in the faith as I had understood it before, and believe firmly that all things
will be well, as our Lord had revealed to me. (pgs.
62-63)
“All
manner of things will be well”, wonderful, what a God we have who will make
sure all is well. This confirms that “God is love” (1 John 4:16) and loves
without limit. Alleluia!
We
read in Luke’s Gospel that the angel Gabriel tells Mary “With God nothing is
impossible” (1:37) and Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel says “for God all things
are possible” (19:26) which confirms the truth of Julian’s Revelation from
Jesus that ‘What is impossible to you is not
impossible to me.’
In
an earlier Revelation Julian asked why “in God’s foreknowledge, his wisdom
could not have prevented the origin of sin”? Jesus answered her:
Sin
is necessary, but all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of
things will be well....sin is the cause of all this pain, but all will be well,
and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.
(pgs.55-56)
According
to Julian's Revelations ‘sin is necessary’ and ‘all will be
well’. If sin is necessary it is logical that a God of love will ensure that
all will be well for everyone.
This
leads us back to our original question; why does the Catholic Church, in it’s
liturgy, only pray for the faithful dead as this appears to be contrary to the
original mission of Jesus “to save sinners”? “I
came to call not the upright, but sinners.” (Mk 2:17) and “Here is a saying
that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners.” (1 Tim 1:15) In John’s Gospel we read “For God
sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the
world might be saved.” Could God fail? Of course not and as Christ revealed to
Julian:
‘What is impossible to you is not impossible to me. I will keep my word, in
every detail, and I shall make all things well.’
We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful God and how could we ever cease to sing his praises.
------
Comments
welcome here