We pray together, saints and sinners, and the living and the dead

In the month of November, Christians offer special prayers for the dead. These prayers are also a sign of their love and gratitude towards the dead.

It also means that the church intends to reflect on the interrelationship among the members of the church - both the living and the dead. In the words of St. Paul, just as the body has different members, we are different members of the body of Christ. It is this relationship that makes us to pray for one another. From the same relationship we get the strong confidence that the saints are praying for us. Christ has given his life, and lives within the body of all who opened themselves to that life. The same spirit leads us to the fullness of life.

We begin this month, honouring all the saints and asking their prayers. They are people who are utterly pure, completely permeated by God, and thus fully open to their neighbours—people for whom communion with God even now gives direction to their entire being and whose journey towards God only brings to fulfilment what they already are.

Every one of us who is being one with the body, also sees to the grace-filled status of the other as part of our own heavenly joy. That is why we see that the completion of heavenly joy is when all are united in the fullness of life in Christ. It is a pain for us if any one away separated from the body. There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred and have suppressed all love within themselves. In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word 'Hell.'

If we are one body, united in Christ, where are the saints and the other departed? Are they in a far place away from us - in reward or in punishment? At every step we do chose heaven or hell. The choice is whether we are one with Christ or cut off from Him, open to graces or remain closed, enter into life or embrace death. Growth, renewal, repentance ... are all depending on this choice for Christ.

In sickness we need care and rest. It is a time both of being strengthened and being purified. It is a need, not a punishment. Such purification does happen in us who are alive and in who are dead, both by the flame of Christ's passion, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God. It is clear that we cannot calculate the “duration” of this transforming burning in terms of the chronological measurements of this world. It is the time of “passage” to communion with God in the Body of Christ. As we take care of our sick, it is a care that we can give to the departed in the state of purgation, all our prayers and good deeds where their healing comes from Christ. November is not about what to do, and what prayers are to be said, and how many souls are saved per day, it is the time to test, first of all, our own gratitude and love. Then, to realise the depth of our participation in the body of Christ. We pray together, saints and sinners, and the living and the dead.

At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves.

Ref. Spe Salvi

Please find a Malayalam note on this at 
കല്ലറ, സ്വർഗ്ഗവാതിൽ, പിന്നെ നമ്മുടെ ഹൃദയം: ഏതാണ് തുറക്കേണ്ടത്?