On Friday we began November with All Saints’ Day, celebrating all those who
are now in heaven. Where they have gone, we hope to be one day. Then on
Saturday morning, we celebrated All Souls’ Day, praying for those who are
currently being purified in Purgatory, and are looking forward to heaven.
Unless we are completely free of all sin, we cannot enter heaven. Purgatory is
a great demonstration of the mercy of God, as it means that those who died
imperfectly purified of all sin, can still enter heaven, rather than being kept
out. Of course, prevention is better than cure. Best to avoid sin in the first
place; secondly, it’s better to go to confession now and make good use of
indulgences and the Last Rites of the Church; but thirdly, there is also
Purgatory. We can speculate who might have gone there: I once said to a
Protestant minister that one day in the future I might say to her: see – you
thought this place didn’t exist! And I’m here because I didn’t manage to
convert you. More seriously though, it’s a good thing to pray for those whom
we have known who have departed this life, and also other categories of people
too: some pray for the souls of priests and religious in purgatory, and some
pray for the “forgotten souls” – perhaps their relatives don’t believe in praying
for the dead, or they think that they must be out by now, and so they rely on
other people praying for them to accelerate their purification.
Our readings today speak, rather than about avoiding sin, about the good we
should do instead. The first and most important of all the commandments is to
love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all
your strength. Living that to perfection is a tough calling. “The second is this:
You must love your neighbour as yourself.” We often struggle with that one as
well.
Here in Thame, and also in the south of the Archdiocese, the Catholic faith
doesn’t have quite the same presence as it has done historically in some of the
big cities. In the parish of Holy Family, Small Heath, in Birmingham, it used to
be a big Irish area. It was said, when there was a large crowd in the streets on a
Sunday, you didn’t know if it was the Birmingham City match, or the 10
o’clock Mass. Being a good Catholic often involves a both ... and ... approach
rather than an either ... or ... one. Many a good Catholic in those days would
have gone to both the football match, and one of the Sunday Masses, rather
than allow football to displace it. Sin can be seen as a lack of goodness, a
deficiency in what we are doing. There’s nothing wrong, in and of itself, in
going to a football match. But if we are to love God above all else and put Him
first, Sunday Mass can’t then be relegated to last place.
Who is there who is perfect, who keeps all the commandments without the
most minor transgression? The second reading says that even the priests in the
Old Testament were not perfect. They had to offer sin offerings for themselves,
as well as for the people. Christ, as our sinless High Priest, is the One who has
fulfilled the will of God perfectly. In the Mass, Christ works through the priest;
it is Christ who celebrates the Mass. The priest doesn’t say: this is Christ’s
body; he says “This is my body”. Each priest has his own personal style, and
also idiosyncrasies. I can remember, around twenty-five years ago, a man who
was retired doing impersonations of some of the priests he used to serve Mass
for when he was a boy. Being ordained doesn’t take away your humanity. But
Christ is able to work through your humanity. If the priest supports the wrong
football team, it doesn’t invalidate the Mass. The Mass draws its strength from
the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, because the Mass joins us to Christ’s
sacrifice; it is Christ’s sacrifice. That’s why it’s sometimes called “The Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass”, and that’s why we have Mass intentions: we ask Christ,
in His prayer to the Father on the Cross, to pray for a person, alive or deceased,
or for a particular prayer intention that we might have, such as for peace in the
world, or for the homeless & those in need.
This November, then, let’s renew our awareness of the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
and re-double our prayers and Masses for them. One day, we might need the
same help ourselves.
Curious about exploring things further? If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk