Why pray for the dead?

Today’s Feast of All Souls gives us answers to questions we have inside of us. Why pray for the dead? Why offer Mass intentions for them? Why visit graveyards? These make sense only if we believe the foundational truth of Christianity: “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too, might live in newness of life.” As Jesus is raised into newness of life, there is hope for us to enter into fullness of life.

John’s Gospel echoes that truth: “It is the will of my Father that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have eternal life.” Primarily, that raising up is God’s action in our lives. It is the raising up of our hopes and dreams and sadness and tears. It is that end time summation of all we are and hope to be. The will of the Father is to have us with Him. But there is a second raising up that we celebrate today. It is the raising up of our prayers for the deceased.

Because we love them, because they have been so much a part of our lives, we raise them up in prayer to God, hopeful that just as our love made a difference in their living, just as our care raised them up to “all that they could be” on this earth, so our love will raise them up to union with God. It becomes not just Jesus’ desire that he should lose nothing of what God gave him, but our desire that God should lose nothing of what we surrender back to him. So we visit cemeteries, we offer Masses, we pray the rosary. We “raise up to God” the gift of our family members, friends, and neighbors.

So today and during this month that is dedicated to remembering and praying for the dead, spend some time in prayer lifting up those who have gone before you. Spend time being lifted up by their lives and love. Let their continuing care for you lift you up to all that you can be.