In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Yesterday, we rejoiced together with the entire Church over the glory of the Saints in Heaven
that bred a ray of holy souls who now enjoy the presence of God in Heaven
and who reap the reward for their holy lives on Earth.
Today, rather, we look with compassion on all the souls of the faithful deported
who lived faithfully in this world, who died in God's grace,
and yet have not yet entered into the light of God,
precisely because they have to do time, so to speak, for their sins here on Earth.
And so we pray for them in a very special way.
In fact, every priest is allowed on this day to say three Masses
precisely in order to pour out the greatest amount of grace possible upon these souls
so that they might enter into the Kingdom of God.
In our day and age, there's a very dangerous tendency to downplay the role of purgatory
in the Church.
In the life of the Church, I even hear of some preachers who deny the existence of purgatory altogether.
Or some people think that hell is reserved for people like Adolf Hitler
and purgatory is reserved for some handful of mafiosi or whatever
and everybody else goes directly to Heaven.
Well, that's not what the Church teaches.
Sacred Scripture tells us that nothing impure may enter into the Kingdom of God.
In other words, to enter into Heaven,
you have to be pure, holy, immaculate, like our Blessed Mother.
And you can say, well, wait a minute, I'm not pure, holy, and immaculate like our Blessed Mother.
Well, exactly. That's why we have the gift of purgatory.
And that's the thing to remember, that purgatory is something very painful,
a very painful place, but it's also a gift from God.
It's a gift of His mercy because God, by way of purgatory,
has found a way for those of us who are not pure, holy, and immaculate,
like our Blessed Mother, nevertheless, to be purified,
to make atonement for our sins, and yes, to be able to enjoy Heaven.
And so, rather than fearing purgatory or trying to brush it under the rug,
we should rather be thankful to God that He's given us this gift.
That doesn't mean that we should shoot for purgatory.
Obviously, we should shoot for the greatest possible holiness in our lives.
We should try to be worthy to enter directly into Heaven.
Because, as a rule, whatever you shoot for, you usually wind up missing the mark by just a little bit.
If you shoot for a perfect 10, you'll wind up getting an 8 or a 9.
If you shoot for an 8 or a 9, you'll wind up getting a 6 or a 7, etc.
And so, people who just say, oh, well, I'm content to go to purgatory and then get to Heaven,
they might not save their souls at all.
You have to shoot for getting straight to Heaven.
And then, if you have to do time in purgatory, well, okay, thanks be to God.
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You go to a lot of funerals today and very often there's no mention of purgatory whatsoever.
People are afraid to talk about purgatory because they think it's an insult to their faithful departed
who imply that maybe they had some venial sin they have to atone for.
Well, that's nonsense.
Actually, to have that attitude is very uncharitable.
Because what you're doing is you're coaxing everyone present at the funeral into not praying for the faithful departed.
You give them a false sense of security thinking,
well, of course, he was a good person, he must be in Heaven,
and therefore we brush our hands and we don't have to worry about him anymore.
No.
Our faithful departed most often, even when they lived Christian lives,
have to go to purgatory and they are in need of our prayers.
Even if you committed just one venial sin after your baptism,
if you didn't atone for it somehow in this world, you would have to go to purgatory for that.
Okay.
And there's some interesting things.
And there's some interesting stories in the life of Padre Pio which illustrate that.
One that's always struck me is the story of one day a priest friend of Padre Pio approached this saint.
And when Padre Pio saw him, he lit up and he said,
Oh, guess what, I have good news for you.
I saw your father's soul entering into Heaven today.
He left purgatory.
And instead of being consoled, this priest friend looked all distraught.
And Padre Pio asked, What's the matter?
He said, Well, Padre, my father died 30 years ago.
Okay.
In other words, this priest's father had been in purgatory for 30 years.
And probably this priest had assumed decades before that his father was already in Heaven.
And so he had probably slackened in his prayers for his father.
Okay.
And how did Padre Pio respond?
Padre Pio said,
Before God, one has to pay for everything.
Okay.
We have to remember our God is merciful, infinitely merciful.
But he's also a just God, which means we have to pay for everything.
Every little venial sin demands penance.
Someone has to pay for that.
Our Lord, first and foremost, of course, he paid upon the cross.
But we have to do our part.
We have to do penance, too.
And even saintly souls may indeed have to spend some time in purgatory.
I'll give you two examples that illustrate that.
Another story of Padre Pio.
A couple days after the death of Venerable Pope Pius XII,
Padre Pio said that he saw Pius XII entering into Heaven.
And he said,
And what glory!
Okay.
Pius XII was a holy soul.
There's a cause of beatification going for him.
In spite of what some people in the secular media would like to believe.
The stories about what Padre Pio allegedly didn't do during World War II and all that.
For those of you who don't know,
they were invented by the KGB.
And then popularized by a German playwright who himself had been a member of the Hitler Youth Movement.
Very strange.
This very holy pope spent a couple of days in purgatory.
And then when he entered Heaven,
Padre Pio exclaimed,
And what glory!
But the point is, yes, he had to go to purgatory for a little time.
Saint Claude de la Colombière,
who was a French Jesuit of the 1600s,
he was the spiritual director of Saint Margaret Mary à la Coque.
After he died, just minutes after he died,
he appeared to his spiritual daughter, Saint Margaret Mary.
And he was consumed in the flames of purgatory.
And he asked her for prayers.
And so she immediately got on her knees and fervently began praying for her spiritual father.
And a couple of minutes after that,
he appeared to her again bathed in the glory of God.
But the point is, he had a saint praying for him.
Who knows how much longer he might have had to remain in purgatory if not for that.
He also revealed to her the reason that he was in purgatory.
What was that?
He recited the divine office, his bravery, hastily.
Oh boy.
Hastily.
What about those of us who are habitually distracted when we pray the divine office?
How long will we have to spend there?
Denuncia Dio si paga tutto.
Before God, one has to pay for everything.
Okay.
And so if that can be the case,
for a canonized saint,
what about us who are perhaps not worthy to be raised to the altars as canonized saints?
And so one reason to pray for the faithful departed
is also the thought that we ourselves may be among those faithful departed one day.
We ourselves may one day be languishing in the fires of purgatory
looking for someone to extend to us a spiritual work of mercy,
giving a drop to drink to those who are thirsty,
thirsty for the mercy of God,
thirsty for prayers.
And so on this commemoration of all souls,
we should make a couple of resolutions.
One is to pray perseveringly for the faithful departed,
especially those who were entrusted to our prayers in some way,
perhaps our relatives, our friends.
And another resolution,
whenever we pass by a cemetery,
very often when you're out driving on the road,
you'll pass by one cemetery after another.
Each time you see those headstones coming up out of the ground,
you should remember there are people buried there who may be in purgatory.
And so you should pray eternal rest,
grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
We should remember to pray for the departed
during the memento for the dead every day at Holy Mass,
offering by name,
especially those who,
again,
were entrusted to us.
And we should also take advantage of a great gift
that the Church gives us in this week here,
from yesterday,
November 1st,
until next Monday,
November 8th.
And what's that?
The Church says that we can gain a plenary indulgence
for the deceased during this period.
How can we do so?
We have to go to confession within eight days before or after this period.
Okay.
Receive Holy Communion worthily in a state of grace.
And then we have to visit a church or a cemetery.
And while we're there,
we have to recite an Our Father,
a creed,
and a prayer for the intentions of the Pope.
Okay.
So,
and if you do that,
you can gain a plenary indulgence for the faithful departed.
And so I encourage you all to do that.
You can gain that plenary indulgence for them every day during this period.
So you might consider doing it today,
tomorrow,
or up until next Monday.
Because the mercy we extend to them
may one day be extended by some generous soul to us.
This is one of our ways of proving our love for our fellow members of the Church,
for souls.
In the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.