Praying for the dead - a response to an email…
Note:
The following is my response to an email as to why I continue to pray for Jeff Mylett, an actor I knew who died of AIDS. I wasn’t going to publish it because my response is clumsy and very personal, but this morning - to my surprise, I noticed another article about prying for the dead on Zenit, and felt it was more than coincidence. Especially the following quote:
Thus we ask that God’s mercy be expressed in not allowing those who have died to fall into the power of the Evil One. As such, the prayer most likely refers to the moment of judgment itself as the venue where this mercy and this prevention of Satan’s dominion is exercised.
In this way the petition is not essentially different from many other of the Church’s prayers for the departed in which God’s mercy is invoked for the souls of the deceased. That the particular judgment is immediately after death has never impeded the Church recommending prayer for the dead.
God is not limited to our categories of time and space, and even when we pray for those who have passed away long after they have gone, or even pray generically for the dead, we know that God will use the prayer to greatest advantage. - Zenit
The original email question:
Dear Terry, I am pleased that you are willing to converse with me. I was reading your blog and appreciate the fact that you are well versed in your faith. I was wondering how to begin this conversation and I guess I’ll just be direct. You said that you have prayed for Jeffrey since you met him and that you continue to. I know that there is a Catholic premise for praying for those who have gone on before and I was wondering if you could direct me to the Scriptural basis for the practice? I look forward to your reply, God Bless, Beth
My reply:
Dear Beth,
A quick reply to your question. Consider the Gospel passage of the Transfiguration when Christ revealed his glory and appeared with Moses and Elijah (Luke 9: 28-36). Then consider this event in the light of that Gospel passage wherein the scribes and Pharisees sought to test Jesus. They presented him with the story of the wife who had seven husbands who had all died. Those who sought to trip-up Jesus, challenged him and asked, “And whose wife will she be in heaven?” Jesus in turn responded, teaching them that God is the God of the living, and in heaven we are not given in marriage, etc. (Matt. 22: 23-33) I cite these passages to stress the point that when we pass from this life we are not really dead are we, “but all are alive for God” - just as Moses and Elijah were alive and conversing with Jesus.
Now Moses and Elijah were conversing with Jesus on Mt. Tabor before the death and resurrection of Christ took place. Indeed, they were alive, but no longer on earth, although not yet in heaven - so where were they? (Actually, we believe they were in an interim state known as Limbo.) Just so, not everyone who dies since the resurrection of Our Lord goes directly to heaven; some may go directly to hell, while others go to a place of purification, called purgatory. This has been Christian teaching for centuries.
The apostle Paul understood this when he writes, regarding adoration of the Holy Name of Jesus, “every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim, Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2:10-11) Thus we might infer that Paul is referencing both the living and the dead (those under the earth) in this passage. In another place he writes, “You are strangers and aliens no longer. No! You are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God…” (Ephesians 2:19) With these passages and others, I cannot have any doubt as to the doctrine of the Communion of the Saints, or the Mystical Body after that. It is very much contained in scripture, as are all the tuths of our faith, albeit obscurely in certain instances.
Of course, The Catholic Church always cites the following passage from the Old Testament in support of prayers for the dead:
II Maccabees 12:43-46: “And making a gathering, he [Judas] sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” - See also here.
If you are serious about pursuing Roman Catholic teaching regarding the Communion of saints - or “the great cloud of witnesses” as you mentioned in another email, then I suggest you investigate the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which happens to be online here: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/ You will obtain the answer to all of your questions there, without any influence from my personal piety, or anyone else’s personal interpretation of scripture. The Catholic Church contains the full deposit of truth, therefore you cannot do wrong but to educate yourself directly from the source.
Even if you were to remain in whatever Christian denomination you are in, studying the Catechism and Catholic sources will only enhance and deepen your faith. Perhaps if you come to realize the benefits of friendship with the saints, you would also come to understand the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. You do not have to be Catholic to pray before him in the Blessed Sacrament, although you need to be to receive him in Holy Communion.
As for me and my private prayer for Jeff Mylett, I do so out of personal devotion. I have hope that God may anticipate my prayer for His Divine Mercy upon Jeff’s soul and grant him the salvation we all seek in Jesus Christ. With God there is no time, He dwells in eternity, and with Him everything is an eternal present, which is why when he revealed his name to Moses he said, “I AM”. Though I am not a theologian, nor a biblical scholar, I hope in the power of God’s mercy that “can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3: 20) Therefore I pray for the dead - in accord with Church teaching - for all those departed, whose state of soul God alone knows. In doing so I exercise myself in charity, and love for my neighbor, knowing the most important goal and accomplishment of this life is eternal salvation in Jesus Christ.
United in prayer,
Terry
PS: If you don’t mind, I will post this on my blog, that way someone more knowledgeable than I am may have something to add to this.
[Photo: Jeffrey Mylett]
People my age who remember where they were and what they were doing - when Jack Kennedy was elected to the presidency of the United States - pretty much feel we grew up with the Kennedy’s, hence the first name/nick-name familiarity. Teddy, the brother who survived, became a sort of caretaker for the rest of the family; so like him or not, he carried the torch for the entire family all of these years. As the second longest serving senator in US Senate history, he may have wielded more influence on this nation than any president - yes, for better or worse.