Building a Culture of Death: All Souls

Because of the fact that All Souls falls on a Sunday this year it is transferred to Monday, at least where liturgical thinking is consonant with sound theology. Sunday is the commemoration of the Resurrection and as such, there is never any occasion in which I am aware of when Requiem Masses are ever said or Black vestments ever worn on Sunday. In the Novus Ordo, where All souls is not transferred for some inane reason, this is not the case, but as they expect that no one uses black vestments they saw no need to make any legislation on it no doubt.

There is a lot of misinformation and mischief with regards this particular feast. There are Catholics who will receive in their bulletins this weekend some nonsense about All Souls Day being a way for the Church to adapt the Mexican Day of the dead.

WRONG

There is getting it wrong, and getting it really wrong. The introduction of All Souls day to the liturgy pre-dates the discovery of America by 1000 years. The compilers of these increasingly banal bulletins need only conduct five minutes of research to discover this! Nevertheless that is what we have and that is what many Catholics will be treated to, some multi-cultural masses in their parish which will really come down to an excuse to expose everyone to mariachi music, and not merely the local hispanic following.

Although, even as I criticize this modern misconception, one must wonder if in some capacity, the Mexicans haven't got this one right? Admittedly, I approach a study of the Mexican dia de los muertos as an outsider. I am of mixed English and Italian heritage, and can scarcely claim any knowledge or affinity with this Mexican celebration. Nevertheless, there are certain elements of it which I find highly praiseworthy and this helps one to understand why the great missionary padres who brought the true faith to the Americas did not make any attempt to suppress this tradition. In particular, there is an emphasis on the deceased members of ones family, and a commemoration of them on the day. Altars are prepared, and great reminders of death are prevalent.

The presence of skulls, skeletons, and the reminder of death are wonderfully beneficial. There are of course pagan elements and less than savory things connected with the dia de los muertos that a Catholic would be wise to weary of. Yet when we look at the celebration of All Souls, the Church is not merely directing us toward death. She is not directing us toward contemplation of death, as she does with a requiem mass. All Souls rather directs our thoughts, as well as our prayers and intentions, our benefits, our mortification towards particular souls in purgatory.

This is such an important teaching that is glossed over in Novus Ordo Institutions. I recall when I taught religion in diocesan schools working overtime to disavow children of the idea that purgatory was a waiting room until God decided what to do with you, or that it was some kind of second chance if God changes his mind about your place in hell. No doubt this idea got there by means of some well intentioned but incompetent volunteer in some foolishly directed program (ill) preparing them to for confirmation. Purgatory as anyone with a basic catechetical instruction knows, is a place for those who die who have not yet done proper penance for the temporal punishments of sin. In a sense they are already saved, in as much as there will be a time that they are no longer in purgatory.

But that time is not now. This is why a priest wearing white vestments declaring that all souls go to heaven (and even all dogs to boot!) does little to educate the Christian about the nature of the Church suffering, let alone inspire prayers for the same. That is what this day is about. It is for us, the Church militant, to apply the merits gained by works of grace toward the satisfaction of their temporal punishment, so as to alleviate their suffering. This so-called is an act of true charity, since it is something done not only for the soul in purgatory, but for the sake of Almighty God as well.

Dom Gueranger declares:

Every supernatural act of virtue brings a double profit to the just man: it merits for his soul a fresh degree of grace and it makes satisfaction for past faults, in exact proportion to the value, in God's sight, of that labour, privation, or trial accepted, or that voluntary suffering endured by one of the members of His beloved Son. Now, whereas merit is a personal acquisition and cannot be transferred to others, satisfaction may be vicarious; God is willing to accept it in payment of another's debt, whether the recipient of the boon be in this world or in the next, provided only that he be united by grace to the mystical Body of Our Lord, which is one in charity. This is a consequence of the mystery of the communion of saints.

-The Liturgical Year, All Souls Day

There are thus, great and beautiful traditions of purgatory confraternities which prayed the Holy Rosary for souls, offered penances, Masses, etc. There is the tradition of the Gregorian Mass, three Masses right in a row, which is to apply the graces of the Cross to the souls in purgatory to make satisfaction for the temporal punishment from sin. Now a days with rare exceptions in the Novus Ordo this is done exclusively by traditional priests. The modern prelate does not understand it, let alone the average Catholic in the pew. "What, three masses? If we offer one, the grace from that should be enough." (That is a real quote from a priest by the way) If that were the case, why offer Mass at all? The first Mass, from the last supper to our Blessed Lord's death on the cross would suffice. "Black that is so morbid". As it should be, to remind us not only to offer up sacrifices and mortification for those in purgatory, but to remind us that one day we may require the same from the Church militant.

There is a certain species of Traditionalist, who knows well these traditions, and even trumpets them, but does little to practice them. His Catholicism is merely intellectual, he might even go to the All Soul's day Mass and be proud of the fact that his priest didn't wear white vestments. When he goes home, or goes to work, how many sacrifices does he offer for the deceased, even among his own family? NONE. That's sad. Such a man if he gets to purgatory at all, will be there for a long time.

Thus if Trads are really going to be at the forefront of a restoration of the Church, they need above all the Theological virtue of charity, which they are not getting merely by attending Mass, but by living the faith. When that faith is real, tangible and visible, it is something which can be brought to those poor Catholics who have been deprived of all of it through a generation of madness. This is the place to start if one hasn't done so. I can't go to Mass today because I have to work, and sadly my job requires an almost 24 hour presence at this time of year, but, that does not mean I can't offer up the many penances, pains, annoyances, mortifications and complaints from demanding women with butch hair cuts! This is likewise the case for any Catholic.

There is a great prayer that the Church offers today:

Hostias quaesumus, Domine, quas tibi pro animabus famulorum famularumque tuarum offerimus, propitiatus intende: ut quibus fidei christianae meritum contulisti, dones et praemium. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, et reliqua.

We beseech thee O Lord to look down upon the sacrifice we offer to thee for the souls of thy servants, whereupon those to whom thou has granted the merit of the Christian faith that thou might give their reward.

Pray, save souls!