The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls)

 Lectionary: 668

The souls of the just are in the hand of God,
    and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead;
    and their passing away was thought an affliction
    and their going forth from us, utter destruction.
But they are in peace.

The Catholic Church's lectionary offers a great variety of suggested readings for wakes and funeral masses; and those suggestions can be expanded with particular passages favored by the deceased or their loved ones. But I often hear the above passage from the Book of Wisdom as the first reading. 

It is a word of comfort especially to those who, like myself, grew up in a church that only reluctantly assured anyone of salvation. There were always a host of provisos in our promises of eternal life; foremost among them, Purgatory. To this day I hear some wits suggest they'll be happy to get to that gloomy place, since they will at least have greater assurance of eventual deliverance into heavenly bliss. 

I appreciate hearing, "But they are in peace." We pray for our beloved dead, "the souls in Purgatory," because we cannot stop praying with and for them. They have gone away but they have not gone far. And we still grieve over their departure, we can believe and hope they are in peace. 

More importantly, if our grief is complicated by regret over things we said to them, or wish we had not said, or wish we had said -- or done for, with, or to them -- "they are in peace." 

I think of the priest poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and his grief as he mourned the death of a Catholic blacksmith: 

FELIX Randal the farrier, O he is dead then? my duty all ended,
Who have watched his mould of man, big−boned and hardy−handsome
Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it and some
Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended?
Sickness broke him. Impatient he cursed at first, but mended
Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart began some
Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom
Tendered to him. Ah well, God rest him all road ever he offended! 

This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears.
My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears,
Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal; 
How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years,
When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers,
Didst fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal.

The sonnet reminds me of the many Veterans I have accompanied to death's door, and those who left the hospital never to return. "O he is dead then? my duty all ended?"

...and friends, family, and friars. Is my duty all ended?

I still pray for them, and surely they pray for me, for I need their prayers more than ever. 

"This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears." 

There is only one Church. It is not torn apart by death. That cannot happen for Jesus has defeated death. And so we pray for and with and to our loved ones, as they rest in peace.