Today comes to life eternal.
You’ve built boundaries between yourself. We have had to endure this problem for many years. We could not travel, meet, admire the new and unknown, enjoy friendships with others. This statement applies not only to material and material life but also to the spiritual. Man – Adam built a line between God and people with his sin. Sin brought death to humanity. Sin caused painful parting, the rupture of love and friendship’s shackles, often quickly and without a word of farewell. Those who were here yesterday are no longer alive. With their life-saving body and their grave, many rightly ask the question: What is after death?
Today, as we remember those who have prevented us from eternity and realize the importance of the Lord Jesus’ teachings on death, let us stop by the words of the parable of the ten virgins, where wise virgins say unwisely: “Perhaps neither we nor you are little, let us go to the salesmen and buy!” (Mt 25.9).
Jesus brings a new and clear view of death and everything related to it. Jesus, not only in his word but also in his life, proves his love for us. It accepts man’s form, and although God is in the human body, he also accepts death. He agrees with the punishment that a man has drawn upon himself. He dies to rise from the dead on the third day and to fulfill the words of the Prophet Hosea: “I will free them from the power of the underworld, I will redeem them from death. Where’s your plague, death, where’s your infection, the underworld? Compassion is in my sight” (Hosea 13.14). And so, quite differently, Paul and the Apostle are looking at our resurrection. “Not all of us die, but we all turn: once, at one point, into the sound of the last field. Because when he hears, the dead will be resurrected and inviolable, and we will be transformed. After all, this intrusive must wear invincibility and fatally wear immortality” (1 Cor 15.51-53).
After death, life doesn’t end. After death, we only go to where God wanted us to be, if Adam—the Father of all people, stood the test. Jesus will become a Judge of believers and infidels. He is a righteous God and rewards everyone according to his deeds. His father left him a trial over the world. “Before him, every knee bends in the sky and on the ground” (Philip 2.10). Our first meeting at death with Jesus-Judge is not the last. We know there’s one more, the last one at the end of the day. That’s when Jesus comes as the Judge of the World. That’s when everything comes to an end. The living will not die; they will only pass from this world into a state of bliss or damnation according to the state of the soul in which they will be present at that moment. The dead get up the same way. No longer in the mortal body, but the new – glorified. That’s when purgatory loses its meaning. There will be the most significant division of humanity. “That’s when all the nations gather in front of him, and he separates one from the other, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the caps. The sheep will build from the right and the caps from the left. Then the King will say to those on his right: Come, bless my Father, take the kingdom that is prepared for you from the creation of the world” (Matthew. 25.32-34). And he’ll name the deeds that decided their reward. They are acts of bodily and spiritual mercy. He’ll say, “Whatever you did to one of my littlest brothers, you did to me” (Matthew. 24.40). And these same deeds, but unenforced, neglected, and underestimated, will become a condemnation for them when they are told, “Whatever you did not do to one of these little ones, even to me, you did not do it to me. And they will go into eternal misery while righteous into eternal life” (Matthew. 25.45-46). Today, therefore, we are also aware of the acts that decide. It is the love of a neighbor in these acts of bodily mercy:
1. Hungry to feed,2. thirsty to provide,3. naked look,4. road to take hold,5. prisoners redeem 6. sick to attend,7—dead bury.
And also acts of spiritual mercy:
1. Sinners admonish,2. Unconscious of teaching,3. Doubtful well advises 4. Saddened to enjoy,5. Wrongs patiently endure 6. Hurtful forgiveness,7. For the living and the dead to pray.
And this is the last one that is most up to date with us today. Our visit to the church and cemetery today must not and cannot be just a manifestation of external attention, respect, and love for the deceased. That would be very little and insufficient for us Christians.
Today we realize the size of prayer. Yes, we can stop over the grave, remember them, imagine their face, hands, eyes, recall their words, wishes, pleas that concerned perhaps us when they feared for the salvation of our soul. But this isn’t enough today. Neither flowers nor candles nor tears are enough today. Today, our prayer is decided. If we want to break what separates us from them today, let us pray. In those pleas to God for their mental peace, the best of our love will manifest, thanks to what we owe them, what we are obliged to show them today.
A scoop of clay hides body remains, but not the soul. The sky is not up, but everywhere. And so, at the grave today, we can indeed make direct contact with our deceased through conversation– prayer. They died only physically, but the soul lives to them as ours lives in us. And that’s why we can say: Today, eternity comes to life. Although it is said today that no one has come back from there, even if it is not the Church’s teachings, we still have more evidence from the biographies of saints that God has given some souls the grace to express their status. We know from St. Don Bosco’s biography that a friend came to tell him he was damned. St. Margita Maria Alacoque assured her co-sister not to worry about her father. Her father avoided purgatory on his deathbed with noble acts of love for the poor. It was revealed to the same saint that a certain lady would suffer for a long time in purgatory, even though many holy Masses were served for her, because the Lord of the Holy Mass, which had done for her soul, credited her poor maid, to whom the lady in person was hard and ruthless. Behold, acts of mercy.
In the Saints’ biography, we read about a little boy, Peter, who died by his parents. He had older brothers. One of them, who had his parents’ property left, took charge of his brother. The other was a priest and lived far away. At the time, communication was very difficult for distance. Boy Peter had to spend days with cattle. One day, a time-old man walked past. When he passed, Peter found the golden duke. He didn’t know who the duke belonged to, so he didn’t know who to return it to. Because he loved his parents very much, he decided and brought his treasure to the priest to serve as his parent’s Holy Mass. The priest listened to the boy. He saw that he was a smart and pious boy. He decided to help him. He wrote a letter to Peter’s distant brother-priest.
He took care of his brother. He put him on the studios, and Peter became a priest, then a bishop and a cardinal, and after death a saint. It’s Saint Peter Damian (1007-1072). In his life, Peter often mentioned that the souls of his parents, for whom he gave his golden duke for holy Mass, had given him the priesthood calling.
With this example, today, we also recall another fact that we can help souls in purgatory, but souls in purgatory can help us. May our hearts, reason and will be convinced at this moment that heaven is tilting and connecting with us today. Our deceased, who have left this world associated with Jesus, live in a state of celebration, possibly, in a state of cleansing and want to cooperate with us. Those in heaven will be to stand our way to eternity in our trials. We don’t have to help those in heaven anymore because they’ve already received a reward. Then our prayers may God give to those souls that no one remembers and deservedly suffer for their sins in purgatory. And when our dears, before they enter a state of salvation, suffer from a form of cleansing, let our cause find according to Jesus the grace of shortening the punishment they did not serve here on earth. But let us ask the souls of the dead in both heaven and purgatory for help. They can help us.
Today, let us realize that although sin has laid a line between the living and the dead, and we do not see our eyes, we do not hear our ears, but we can also overcome this limit in our hearts through faith. From today, our present day, the daily “eternal rest” may become a binder and a source of grace for both parties.
