theROCK

Pray for the Dead

Praying for the dead has long been a tradition of the Church, but recent times suggest we may have fallen out of practice of this beautiful and necessary act of charity.

It is a strange thing to do, to pray for the dead. After all, what are we actually praying for the dead to obtain? The answer to this is based on the reality of Purgatory. Purgatory, another tradition not spoken of much today, is real. But what exactly is it?

To understand this we need to be aware that purgatory is not a necessarily a place but a process. Even here on earth, we are called to live a life of purgatory. The word purgatory means to purify, or in everyday language, to achieve the holiness necessary to enter into heaven. In other words, purgatory is a process which prepares us for heaven. 

When understood this way, purgatory is not just something for those who have died, but for all us living as well. All of us can be striving to prepare ourselves for heaven. However, as we know in our own life, we do not always take advantage of the time given to us here on earth. In fact, I can spend very little time preparing for heaven and rather spend a lot of time preparing for life on earth.

Purgatory is the opportunity given by God to prepare for heaven if we need it. That said, we might be tempted to ask why do we need to prepare for heaven at all?

If I were to die right now and go straight to heaven, I would immediately feel as if I do not belong because there are many things I am still attached to here on earth. Even if I am free from sin, there are still sins I have the desire to commit. I would feel as if I was unworthy as I stood among all the saints who completely entrusted their life to God. If we are honest, we know that even our loved ones who have died were not perfect. To account for this, God gives us the process of purgatory.

Purgatory prepares us for a place in heaven. When we pray for the dead, we are praying that this process may go quick. That they may purify and prepare themselves for heaven as fast as possible. We are encouraging and helping them.

When thought of in this way, purgatory does not seem all that bad or scary, in fact it is a great thing, for it allows us to experience the full joy of heaven.   

Perfection and Mercy

I have always had really high standards, for myself and for others. I have lived my life demanding excellence because, as my father said growing up: “If you are going to do something, do it to the best of your ability or don’t do it at all.” With this mindset, I have lived a great deal of my life as a perfectionist.

Recently, however, I went through a really difficult stretch of life where I couldn’t be perfect, no matter how hard I tried. Due to a series of very unfortunate events all stacked on top of each other, I was actually just trying to make it out of bed every day and keep my family going. Perfection was replaced with survival.

It was in this time of darkness that God worked a wonderful work of healing within me. He showed me the depth of His mercy. That while He does desire Christ-like excellence from us, He sees our heart, the depth of our love for Him. He sees how hard we are trying. God is as merciful as He is exacting.

This tension, between God’s high standards and His mercy, is present in today’s Gospel. He, the King, is throwing a banquet and casting out invitations to everyone and anyone who wants to come. And yet, he casts out the person who showed up without the appropriate attire. Why? Because God doesn’t just want us to show up. He doesn’t want the bare minimum from us. He wants our best. And sometimes, our best is making it to Church in spit-up stained leggings and T-Shirt because we barely made it out the door. And sometimes our best is as close to perfection as a person can get on earth. He knows the circumstances of our lives. He knows the intention of our heart. He is deeply compassionate and merciful. But we also have to do more than just show up. We have to give Him our very best, whatever that may look like.

Before Destruction . . .

I was never an athlete in school. Well, unless you count marching band! It was in my freshman year of high school that we won it big down in Florida: we were the grand champions! Thoughts of the next few years began to form in our collective minds. Yet, that was the highest we would ever attain during the next few years other than an occasional 3rd place finish at state level competitions. Not exactly what you would call a great success. 

But how could this be? After all, aside from the continual stream of seniors graduating every year, we had a solid group of people and we were always coaching up the newest members of the band. Ultimately, our woes can probably be summed up in one simple word: pride. While not inherently a bad thing to have, too much pride can, and has been, the undoer of many people - thinking that they can do anything and not have to worry about shortcomings or failures. Truly, pride can make us seem as though we should always, and are destined to be, first. 

The Gospel tells us that the first shall be last. This resonates in reflection upon those moments of pride, of expectation. To think that we should be given something simply because we believe we deserve it! A book I was recently reading has the essential teachings of Mother Theresa day by day. How fitting, then, that the one I read for today states this: “Many people who have possessions, who have many goods and riches, are obsessed with them. They think that the only thing that counts is possessing wealth. That is why it is so difficult for them to walk each moment of each day with God. Too many of their moments are spent preoccupied with money and things.” 

Wealth comes in many different forms, not just money. If we allow ourselves to be too focused upon the wealth we have in terms of material goods and services, we lose sight of the wealth that we should be attempting to grow and keep and build up: a spiritual wealth that is richly abundant in the love of God. When we allow ourselves to build up wealth in a spiritual sense, the rewards are greater than any material good or service we could possibly possess! How wonderful to know that by building up our own spiritual wealth, we are creating ourselves anew and allowing God to work miracles in us! If there was something to be a little prideful about, I would argue that this it!