At the end of the Church year we focus on “the Last Things.” These readings are actually funeral readings. Well not so much the first one but definitely the second two, I’ve used both at funerals recently, in fact the reading from Paul’s 1st letter to the Thessalonians was read at my funeral (today/yesterday). (In my green funeral book they are numbered E12 and G3.)
One funeral used both of them. A friend of mine from the radio station named Jackie died very young, very suddenly at age 51. She was a parishioner and actually was the motivating force for starting the Community Gardens by the office. She had recently won the lottery, a six figure win, so she went out and got all of the materials and then she planted it and watered the vegetables, and we had a good harvest this year.
A couple weeks after Jackie died her mom died, she was 85, and we used (that E12 reading,) our second reading for her as well. So I have been thinking about these readings a lot over the last five weeks and I’m just going to share a little bit of my thoughts.
In that second reading St. Paul said, “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”
Funerals can be bleak events. But Christians are a people of hope, Jesus died to free us from our sins and rose from the dead to show us there was more than just what we see here. The Resurrection is at the center of what we believe, so when we grieve, we grieve for ourselves, not the deceased, right? They are where we ultimately want to be!
And notice that St. Paul doesn’t even use the word “death,” he just says “fallen asleep” - to him it’s like falling asleep in the airplane and waking up in another place, a much more beautiful place in this case. Heaven is often thought of as Paradise, that’s where we all want to be… the question is how do we get there? We all want to go to Paradise.
At the end of that reading it said, “Thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, console one another with these words.” “We shall always be with the Lord.” If we are with Him now, we will be with Him then. It’s an eternal relationship that starts here. This relationship was a big part of our Gospel reading. The Parable of the Ten Virgins, five foolish, and five wise.
Basically, the lamp in the parable is the person’s baptismal candle, their faith, lit by their parents when they were young, while the extra oil is the good works they’ve done in life. These wise women who brought oil with them - they had lived their life not just believing in God, they had lived their lives doing good things, doing good works.
The foolish ones had not, they brought their baptismal lamp, they believed in God enough to be in the wedding party, but not enough to bring extra oil, which means they weren’t doing anything to prove their love later in life, or they did it in the wrong way, it’s another parable twist - who goes shopping for oil in the middle of the night?
So maybe they only loved and served those who loved and served them back, but clearly they went about their lives the wrong way and the Lord responded to them “I do not know you.” They were in the wedding party, they must have met Him at some point, yet the Lord denies them entry. Maybe it’s like meeting a person one time for five minutes and going around saying we know them, it just isn’t true, we don’t know them at all. A few weeks ago I met Brock Purdy and George Kittle after they played the Vikings. I talked to them for a few minutes but that doesn't mean I really know them. See the difference? It shows that getting baptized and then doing nothing with our faith after that is not enough.
Yet another twist in the parable, they weren’t going very far, it would have been easy to share. Some people will get mad at this parable, like, “why don’t the wise ones just share?” But the twist shows us it isn’t oil we are really talking about it - it’s spiritual - I cannot give you my relationship with Jesus Christ. I cannot give you the good works I have done in my life. We cannot share spiritual things. You have to have your own relationship and do your own good works.
This is further touched upon later in this chapter, Matthew 25, where Jesus talks about separating the sheep from the goats based on if we did the “Corporal Works of Mercy.” We will have that Gospel in two weeks and we will discuss that more then, (in fact, that was the Gospel reading for today’s funeral).
That’s a quick take on this parable. Belief is not enough, we’ve gotta live it. Jackie lived it, feeding the hungry with the garden was only part of it, she lived it in other ways too.
But even if we live it for the most part, we are still sinners… What if we aren’t perfect at the moment of our death? Because we must be perfect to enter heaven.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1030) teaches: “All who die in God’s grace, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.”
Scripture is very clear when it says, “But nothing unclean shall enter [heaven]” (Revelation 21:27). How many of us will be perfectly holy at the time of our deaths? How many of us will have no attachment or no desire to sin in even the smallest ways? I dare say most of us, myself included, will be in need of further purification in order to enter the gates of Heaven after we die.
Now at Jackie’s mom’s funeral, I did something I don’t normally do for a funeral homily, I talked about *Purgatory. Jackie’s mom was a real “tell it like it is” person, so I thought it would be appropriate if I “told it like it is” as well.
As Catholics we believe that God has saved us, is saving us, and will save us. We don’t believe that everyone goes directly to Heaven. We don’t believe we have absolute assurance about our salvation, and actually this is why we have a funeral Mass is to pray for our beloved dead, that just in case they are still in purgatory, they would be cleansed of any remaining attachment to sin and released as quickly as possible.
In fact, one of the things that Jackie did every day, and I am guessing that her mom did too, was to pray the “St. Gertrude prayer for the Holy Souls in purgatory.”
The prayer goes like this, “Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal Church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen.”
Jackie prayed this twice every day, with the goal being to help those people stuck in purgatory. The card says that every time it is prayed, one thousand souls get released into Heaven. The tradition is that because St. Gertrude was so close to God, so holy, that every time she prayed it 1,000 souls were released, so it is hard to say how many are released when we pray it, but the point remains, we should pray for our loved ones.
Also, it somewhat becomes a prayer for ourselves, to clear out the queue before we get there. One of our parishioners often says, “If I am blessed enough to make it to purgatory, I want that place cleared out before I arrive!”
The Holy Souls in purgatory cannot pray for themselves, we have to pray for them. So, knowing that, in order to help you help them, I bought everyone a St. Gertrude Prayer card, and I’d like to ask the Ushers to come forward to pass those out, one to everyone who would like one.
My bet is that if you pray this twice a day, after a while you’ll have it memorized. But I believe this falls into the Corporal Work of Mercy category of burying the dead - we attend a funeral Mass to pray for their soul, we have Masses celebrated for them, and with this card we are also praying for those holy souls.
A week and half ago, at the Mass of Remembrance on All Souls for all of the Nativity folks that had died this year, I likened Purgatory to getting stuck in an elevator. I said Purgatory is just a stop on the way to Heaven. Some people misunderstand this… It is not like a decision for God, like “well, maybe they might go up, maybe they might go down,” no, they are going up, they are going to Heaven, they just got stuck in the elevator on the way.
And much like getting stuck on an elevator, they can’t free themselves, and that is where we come in to help. Talking about Purgatory at a funeral isn’t popular because everyone wants to believe their loved one is in Heaven, but what if they aren’t?
This is why I still pray for my mom, this is why I still offer Mass for her, my private Masses are often offered for my mom, especially when I am with my dad, he asks me to do that, so I honor my father, and my mother in that way.
I believe, and the Church teaches, that it is a good and Holy thing to pray for the dead, so please make it part of your routine, we’ll help to clear that place out for each other, and so be with God in Heaven forever!
*The word “Purgatory” is much like “Trinity” where although it is not mentioned specifically in the scriptures, it has been believed and taught by many Church Fathers. Compiled by Dave Armstrong, other scripture verses which indicate the existence of Purgatory are:
Psalm 66:12 (RSV) Thou didst let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet thou hast brought us forth to a spacious place. This verse was considered a proof of purgatory by Origen and St. Ambrose, who posits the water of baptism and the fire of purgatory.
Isaiah 4:4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. (cf. 1:25-26; 6:5-7; Ecclesiastes 12:14) St. Augustine, in the 20th Book of his City of God, chapter 25, interprets this as purgatory. The preceding verse refers to the saved (“called holy” and “recorded for life”) and verses 5 and 6 describe the repose of the blessed.
Micah 7:9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light; I shall behold his deliverance. (cf. Leviticus 26:41, 43; Job 40:4-5; Lamentations 3:39) St. Jerome considered this verse a clear proof of purgatory.
Malachi 3:3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD. Origen, St. Irenaeus, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and St. Jerome all thought this was a description of purgatory.
2 Maccabees 12:44-45 For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin. (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:29) The Jews offered atonement and prayer for their deceased brethren, who had clearly violated Mosaic Law. Such a practice presupposes purgatory, since those in heaven wouldn’t need any help, and those in hell are beyond it.
Matthew 5:22 But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, “You fool!” shall be liable to the hell of fire. St. Francis de Sales commented, “It is only the third sort of offense which is punished with hell; therefore in the judgment of God after this life there are other pains which are not eternal or infernal — these are the pains of Purgatory.”
Matthew 5:26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny. The “prison” alluded to in verse 25 is purgatory, according to Tertullian, St. Cyprian, Origen, St. Ambrose and St. Jerome, while the “penny” represents the most minor sins that one commits.
Matthew 12:32 And whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. If this sin cannot be forgiven after death, it follows that there are others which can be, and this must be in purgatory: precisely the interpretation of St. Augustine, Pope St. Gregory the Great, the Venerable Bede and St. Bernard, among others.
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 For no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw — each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. This is a clear and obvious allusion to purgatory. Thus thought St. Cyprian, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, Pope St. Gregory the Great, Origen, and St. Augustine, who wrote with his usual insight: “Because it is said, he shall be saved, that fire is thought lightly of. For all that, though we should be saved by fire, yet will that fire be more grievous than anything that man can suffer in this life whatsoever.” (Expositions on the Psalms, 38, 2)
Hebrews 12:14 Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (cf. 12:1, 5-11, 15, 23, Ephesians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 1 John 3:2-3) St. John Henry Cardinal Newman (as an Anglican) observed: “Even supposing a man of unholy life were suffered to enter heaven, he would not be happy there; so that it would be no mercy to permit him to enter . . . There is a moral malady which disorders the inward sight and taste; and no man labouring under it is in a condition to enjoy what Scripture calls the fulness of joy in God’s presence ...” (Sermon on this verse: “Holiness Necessary for Future Blessedness,” 1834)
Revelation 21:27 But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. The abundance of scriptural evidence for purgatory led to a consensus among the Church Fathers, which was summarized by Protestant Church historian Philip Schaff: “These views of the middle state in connection with prayers for the dead show a strong tendency to the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.” (History of the Christian Church, vol. 2, “Ante-Nicene Christianity: A.D. 100-325,” 5th edition, New York: 1889; ch. 12, sec. 156, 604-606)
From https://www.ncregister.com/blog/25-descriptive-and-clear-bible-passages-about-purgatory