Halloween is a weird holiday, isn't it? I just came back from the bank today (October 31), where a cackling witch served me from behind the teller's window. As I write this, I'm having lunch at a restaurant where the waiter is dressed as a vampire, fangs and all. "Goood Eeevening!" he intones solemnly. "My name is Drac, and I'll be your waiter today." Who says Halloween is just for children?

This holiday has become so secularized, it's easy to forget that the day's original designation was "All Hallow's Eve," with "Hallow" as the old English rendering of the word "holy," in reference to All Saints Day on November 1. That holy day is followed, of course, by All Souls Day on November 2. Some people find Halloween's infatuation with dead and creepy things morbid, but All Saints Day and All Souls Day help put death in perspective.

These three days are concerned, in their own unique ways, with our ultimate destiny. Death is the doorway, and the liturgy expresses our faith-filled hope at this impressive time of ultimate transition.

Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended.
When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death
we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.
(Preface for Christian Burial)

While All Saints Day is a celebration of the eternal reward for those who lived lives of total dedication to God, All Souls Day is related to it as a day of hope. On this day, we pray for our relatives and friends who have gone before us in death, with the hope that our prayers will assist them to reach eternal life if they are experiencing purgatory.

Non-Catholics wonder about the Church's hierarchy of the afterlife: heaven, purgatory and hell. Purgatory is not named in the Bible, but neither is the Trinity, along with so many other aspects of our faith. Like the Trinity, purgatory is implied throughout scripture, and it has become a teaching of the Church after centuries of reflection and tradition. Nobody but Jesus Christ has actually come back from the dead to explain to us what it's like in the afterlife. Our terms of heaven, purgatory and hell are convenient names to help us understand what they signify. We have no clear idea of what the afterlife will hold for us, although many imaginative Christian writers have tried to describe it.

Simply put, purgatory is a state of God's divine mercy. God truly loves each one of us from the moment our parents conceived us. God grants us the gift of free will, so we can choose to accept or reject God. We spend our lifetime learning about God, learning about love, and trying to live in peace with all people. Because of free will, we may sometimes turn away from God and all that is good. We may do harm to others and to ourselves. And yet, God still holds out hope that we will turn back to him, no matter how sinful we might become.

At the time of death, those who have lived a life of holiness, repented of their sins and made amends for any personal injustices on earth will be called to heaven with all the saints in God's eternal glory. But many people will still have sins to repent, and the effects of those sins may continue to linger even after repentance, even after death. God loves us so much that he is willing to give us ONE MORE CHANCE to accept his invitation to eternal life. Purgatory is our one final opportunity to repent of our sins and choose God's way of love. And our Catholic tradition holds that we can assist our beloved dead in their purgatory experience through our prayers. This is consistent with the Church's teaching on the communion of saints. We are the Body of Christ: the living on earth, the saints in heaven, and the saints-in-waiting in purgatory. Even death will not separate us from the community that we share.

The Church's teaching on death and eternal life fills me with great hope. I know I am not perfect, and I've done a lot of things in life that I regret. I try to make amends and seek forgiveness from God and those that I may have hurt. God's divine mercy, as expressed in the Church's teaching on purgatory, helps me to persevere, no matter how challenging my life may become. And so, I gladly pray for the dead: for my friends and relatives who have died, and for all those I did not know. And I am affirmed by the hope that the community of the Church will be praying for me in the afterlife to support me in my efforts to choose God completely. I may not have what it takes to be a saint on earth but, with God's help and the Church's prayers, I look forward with hope to the life of eternal glory with all the saints.

Related Link:
Franciscan Father Pat McCloskey's excellent scriptural explanation of the Catholic church's teaching on Purgatory and Praying for the Dead.

Song for Reflection:
Curtis Stephan's In Paradisum, a contemporary setting of the church's traditional farewell chant at the liturgy of Christian burial.