COMMEMORATION OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEPARTED
2 NOVEMBER 2025
Yesterday,
we celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints – not only the well-known men and
women officially canonized by the Catholic Church, but also all those people
counted among the 144,000 surrounding the throne of God. Today’s Commemoration of All The Faithful Departed
celebrates our connection with the faithful departed as members of the
Communion of Saints. All of us can tell
stories of examples of holiness we have encountered in people close to us who
have died. In this Black Catholic
History month, we recognize signs of holiness in humble people like Julia
Greeley.
Julia was
born into slavery somewhere between 1833 and 1848 in Hannibal, Missouri. When she was young, she lost an eye, either
because her master whipped her, or because she was trying to protect her mother
from a whipping. After the Civil War,
she was freed and settled in Denver.
There she was baptized and began the practice of attending daily
Mass. For many years, she worked for the
wife of Colorado’s first territorial governor.
She cleaned their house, cooked meals, and cared for their
daughter. She became a familiar sight
around town, known for her floppy hat, her simple clothes, and the red wagon
she pulled to transport the many things she bought for the poor. What she could not afford to buy, she begged
for. She was well known at the 20
different scattered across Denver, where she left behind tracts and encouraged
those in this dangerous profession. She
constantly dabbed her ruined eye with a handkerchief. She told no one that she was illiterate and say,
“My glasses don’t work so well,” and recruited them to write things in her
record book. When she died, hundreds
came to her funeral, recognizing in this poor former slave genuine marks of
holiness that affected many people, black and white.
The only
photograph of her shows her holding a young white child. This was the child that Julia had promised to
a couple who had just lost another child to death. Much of her face is hidden by her hat. We have an artistic representation of that
photograph in our parish center.
We Catholics
have a strong tradition of praying for the dead, a tradition that marks the
month of November. As the farmers are
harvesting the crops that they had planted in the spring, we remember and pray
for our loved ones whom the Lord has harvested through death. We need to pray for them, so that we do not
forget them and they ways in which they enriched our lives. That is why I encourage you to schedule
Masses for your deceased loved ones, either on an important day in their lives,
or on a day close to their birth or death or other important dates. The offering for each Mass is $10, and Lisa
will be glad to work with you to schedule the Mass.
But we also
pray for the dead to ask for the Lord’s mercy.
When we die, there are always obstacles separating us from God and other
people. That is the purpose of our
Catholic concept of Purgatory. The Latin
word, purgare, means “to purify,”
with fire as an image. Our deceased
loved ones are being purified by the fire of God’s love, so that they can join
the Communion of Saints where there is no separation whatsoever. That is why artists depict the saints with
haloes. In their absolute transparency, the
fire of God’s love shines through them. We pray for our loved ones who have
been harvested in death, so that the fire of God’s merciful love burns away
whatever may be separating them from the Lord or each other.
Death
cannot separate us from the love of God.
In November, we count on the Saints to intercede for us on our
pilgrimage to the new and eternal Jerusalem.
We are not walking alone. Those
being purified by the merciful love of God count on us to pray for them. If we can trust that our prayers for one
another are effective now, why can’t they be effective for those who have died? We form one Communion of love, engulfed in
the merciful fire of God’s love.
