On Tuesday November 5th, we celebrated the Commemoration of All the Deceased of the Seraphic Order. On that occasion we recalled to mind and, especially, to our prayers, all those who followed the Lord Jesus in the footsteps of St Francis.
We, in the Franciscan Capuchin Province of Malta, had the grace of celebrating this day by going to the Addolorata Cemetery in Paula to pay homage and to pray for our brothers who passed away. It was a beautiful moment of great reflection, recollection, appreciation and solidarity shown to our brothers who went before us and are with the Lord. They too had their struggles in life however, as the Book of Revelation tells us, these are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:14). And if these people, in the process, need some purification, here are we to care for them in that respect.
St Francis in the Canticle of Creatures welcomes death with the following words: Praised be You, my Lord, through our Sister Bodily Death, from whom no one living can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin. Blessed are those whom death will find in Your most holy will, for the second death shall do them no harm. The inescapable reality of bodily death is the definite end, and eternal ‘death’ for those who are obstinate in their sins but life to others who carry out God’s will in their lives.
Commenting on the Commemoration of All Souls in his Angelus address on Sunday, 2 November 2008, Pope Benedict XVI said: Today we renew the hope in eternal life, truly founded on Christ’s death and Resurrection. “I am risen and I am with you always”, the Lord tells us, and my hand supports you. Wherever you may fall, you will fall into my hands and I will be there even to the gates of death. Where no one can accompany you any longer and where you can take nothing with you, there I will wait for you to transform for you the darkness into light. Christian hope, however, is not solely individual, it is also always a hope for others. Our lives are profoundly linked, one to the other, and the good and the bad that each of us does always effects others too. Hence, the prayer of a pilgrim soul in the world can help another soul that is being purified after death.
On our way to the tomb of the Province we all sang the Miserere, or Psalm 51 which is about repentance, for which a commemoration like this calls. By praising God’s most holy name we open ourselves to the cleansing we all need to praise him from a pure heart. In verse 15 we find: O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Such an affirmation is so important that the Divine Office always starts with it. The official English translation is Lord open my lips, and we shall praise your name.
Psalm 51 is powerful because it asks God for both deliverance from sin and its disastrous consequences. Then, concerning the second part of the Psalm we find the theme of nearness to God. This psalm is really a great resource for penance and reconciliation with God. Verse 10 of Psalm 51 offers also a magnificent antiphon in the liturgy. It says: A pure heart create in me O God, and put a new and right spirit within me (Ps 51:10). The cold shower Psalm 51 gives us is really a blessing because it makes us reflect that we too are sinful and need redemption from sin.
A transforming reality emerges in Psalm 51. The Miserere invites us to reflect on the deliverance the psalmist is looking for. It also reminds us of the infinite goodness of God in which we put our hope. Being helped by such a reality, the psalmist presents the following petition to God: Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me (Ps 51:11). Now, that hope is reinvigorated, the psalmist is encouraged to make the subsequent demand to the Lord: Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Ps 51:18). Is this not what we have demanded of Our Lord for, that our brothers who have passed away be admitted to the Heavenly Jerusalem wherein they are rebuilt forever?
In the Gospel reading of the day, which we read at our Għajn Dwieli Capuchin Church in Paula, was taken from John 6:37-40, Jesus is solemnly stating that whoever goes to him will be greatly welcomed to the point of being saved. This was the sole reason why Jesus came to us and our world: to do the will of the Father to save us all. Not only but, when sister death visits us, in Jesus we are raised up like him to live with him forever more. Hence, by believing in Jesus, the Son of the Father, we should have the very same life as his, eternal life.
Let us make our own Prayer for the Dead written by the Passionist priest Fr Antonio Rungi. May such prayer fill us with the hope that in Jesus nothing is lost, first and foremost we who believe in him.
God of infinite mercy, we entrust to your immense goodness all those who have left this world for eternity, where you wait for all humanity, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ your Son, who died as a ransom for our sins. Look not, O Lord, on our poverty, our suffering, our human weakness, when we appear before you to be judged for joy or for condemnation. Look upon us with mercy, born of the tenderness of your heart, and help us to walk in the ways of complete purification. Let none of your children be lost in the eternal fire, where there can be no repentance. We entrust to you, O Lord, the souls of our beloved dead, of those who have died without the comfort of the sacraments, or who have not had an opportunity to repent, even at the end of their lives. May none of them be afraid to meet You, after their earthly pilgrimage, but may they always hope to be welcomed in the embrace of your infinite mercy. May our Sister, corporal death find us always vigilant in prayer and filled with the goodness done in the course of our short or long lives. Lord, may no earthly thing ever separate us from You, but may everyone and everything support us with a burning desire to rest peacefully and eternally in You. Amen.