Why a Priest Will Mention Purgatory in a Funeral Homily

 

(Twenty-fifth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on September 22, 2024 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Wisdom 2:12, 17-20; Psalm 54; James 3:16-4:3; Mark 9: 30-37.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-fifth Sunday 2024]

Every once in a while after a funeral someone will come up to me and ask me why I mentioned purgatory in my homily.  Now I should mention that most of the time when this happens, the questioners are not angry or combative; they’re simply curious—and somewhat confused.  You see, in their minds their recently-deceased friend was a good, caring, faith-filled person; consequently they think that I should have focused my remarks exclusively on heaven.

They really didn’t see the need to mention purgatory, since, from their perspective, their deceased friend couldn’t possibly be anywhere other than in God’s eternal kingdom.

Now there are several problems with that line of reasoning, not the least of which is that it violates a command of Jesus Christ: the command not to judge!

When we hear Jesus say, “Stop judging, that you may not be judged,” we usually interpret that to mean, “Don’t condemn another person to hell in your mind or heart.”  And that’s right; that’s definitely a valid way to interpret our Lord’s words.   But it’s also only half the story.  Jesus is also warning us here against “judging” others in the opposite way, by personally declaring them to be in the kingdom of heaven.  No, we should never condemn another person to hell, but neither should we presume that they’re going to heaven immediately when they die; nor should we presume that our deceased relatives and friends have already passed through the pearly gates.

The Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has the power to canonize people; we, as individuals, do not.

We can speak of our hope that our deceased relatives and friends have already arrived; we can express a very confident hope that they’ve already made it into the kingdom of heaven.  But we must never say “we know,” because we don’t (unless, of course, they’ve been canonized; then we do know).

And this is precisely why we pray for the dead!  We pray for the dead because we realize that some people die in the state of grace—in friendship with God—but are not quite ready to see the Lord face to face.  They don’t have any mortal sins on their souls when they leave this life, but they may still have some venial sins that they need to be forgiven for, and they may still have some sinful attitudes that they need to get rid of.

Or they may need to make reparation for some of their already-forgiven sins.

It says in the Book of Revelation, chapter 21, that “nothing unclean will enter [heaven].”  NOTHING!  That means you’re not ready for heaven, even if you have just one, little, unforgiven venial sin on your soul—or just a teeny, tiny bit of anger or pride or lust or some other sinful attitude in your heart.

In Hebrews, chapter 12, we are told to “Strive for that holiness . . . without which no one can see the Lord”—indicating that we need to attain a certain level of holiness before we can experience the beatific vision.  Basically, that holiness needs to be attained in this life (meaning that we need to die in Christ, in the state of grace); but some of that holiness can be attained after death, which is what Jesus was getting at when he said in Matthew 12:32 that some sins can be forgiven “in the age to come.”

So even though—as many Protestants like to tell us—the word “purgatory” is not found in the Bible, the truth about purgatory and about the need for a final purification after death is clearly present in the Sacred Scriptures.  One of the most important passages in this regard is found in 1 Corinthians 3, where St. Paul says that some people who have lived mediocre Christian lives will be saved, but they will first need to pass through “fire”—hence one of the ways purgatory is sometimes described is as a “holy fire.”

It’s not the destructive fire of hell; rather, it’s a fire that purifies us and cleanses us and makes us radiant with God’s grace.

The need for purgatory is illustrated quite well by the apostles in today’s gospel story from Mark 9.  It says there that when they arrived at their destination in Capernaum Jesus asked them a question.  He said, “What were you arguing about on the way?”

They were fighting, of course, about who was the greatest; about who was “numero uno” among them.

Now I ask you, if these men had died of natural causes at that precise moment, would they have been ready to pass through the pearly gates of heaven?

I don’t think so!  They clearly had some pride in their hearts—and perhaps a little arrogance and self-centeredness as well.

All of that would have needed to have been washed away, before they could have entered the Lord’s eternal kingdom.

And so it is for many—perhaps most—souls after death.

Which is why I mention purgatory in every funeral homily I preach!  Every deacon, priest or bishop should. 

I think that some people react negatively when purgatory is mentioned because they think that purgatory is a bad thing, and that the priest is implying something negative about their deceased relative or friend by making reference to it.

But it’s not a bad thing!  It’s a great thing.  Remember, the people in purgatory are saved; their salvation is secured; they’re on their way to heaven, and there’s no possibility of them ever going to hell.

They just need to be cleaned up a bit before they meet the King of kings and the Lord of lords!  And the good news is that we can help them to pass through their purification process more quickly by our prayers, and sacrifices—and especially by having Masses offered for the repose of their souls (since the Mass is the most powerful prayer of all, given the fact that it’s the prayer of Christ himself).

Many of you I’m sure remember Monsignor Struck, who helped out here in his retirement years until he passed way in 1997.  Monsignor Jack Struck was one of the holiest people I’ve ever met in my life, but he always used to say, “When I die, all I want is to get through the back door of purgatory.”

He said that because he was holy and humble—and because he knew that if he got through the “back door” he was eventually going out the “front door” and into the eternal kingdom of heaven!

Let me conclude today by reading to you a small part of the Church’s official teaching about purgatory, which is found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, beginning in paragraph 1030.  There we are told:  

All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. . . . The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire . . .

This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture [in the Old Testament Second Book of Maccabees].

From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.  The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.

So if I mention purgatory at the funeral Mass of one of your relatives or friends sometime in the near or distant future, please do not be confused or offended.  Remember, saying that they might be in purgatory is just another way of saying that they’re on their way to heaven.

But do remember to pray for them!—because if our loved ones are indeed in purgatory that’s what they want from us most!  Not words of praise, but rather prayers and sacrifices and Masses for their souls, so that they can get to that “front door of purgatory” more quickly.

“But, Fr. Ray, what if my relative or friend is already in heaven?”

Well, then the prayers you offer will go to help another needy soul.

No prayer for the dead is ever wasted.

 

Simon Peter: Quick Fall and Quick Rise

 

(Twenty-fourth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on September 15, 2024 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Isaiah 50:5-9a; Psalm 116:1-9; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-fourth Sunday 2024]

Because we are sinners, here are the choices we constantly face in our lives: it’s either “quick fall, no rise” or “quick fall, slow rise” or “quick fall, quick rise.” 

Life involves many quick falls—quick falls into sin!  The Bible tells us that even the just person (not the scoundrel, the just person) sins seven times, so nobody is exempt from this phenomenon.  In fact, you can come to church, make a good confession, and sin again in your thoughts or your words before you exit the parking lot afterward!  It can happen that quickly!  This is one reason why Simon Peter is such a lovable and attractive character as the Scriptures portray him.  During our Lord’s three-year ministry Peter turned the “quick fall” into an art form.  He was extremely adept at it.  He could go from the highest of heights to the lowest of lows in a matter of minutes.  

We see a classic example of this in today’s gospel reading.  When Jesus asked the twelve apostles that decisive question, “Who do you say that I am?” only Peter answered.  And he gets an “A” for his response.  He said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  In Matthew’s account of this scene, Jesus then said, “Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah!  No mere man has revealed this to you—my heavenly Father has.”  Can’t you just see Peter lifting up his head and sticking his chest out with joy at hearing those words?  Then, of course, Jesus went on to tell his apostles what kind of Messiah he would be—not the great military leader and earthly king they and the Jewish people were expecting, but a suffering Messiah who would go to the cross for the salvation of the world.  That, I’m sure, didn’t sit too well with any of them, but once again Peter was the one to speak.   He said, “Oh no!  Not to you Jesus!  May that never happen to you!”  Our Lord then snapped back, “Get behind me—Satan!”  Peter went from being the most blessed of all the apostles, to the very mouthpiece of Satan—all within the span of one, short conversation.   He was truly and unquestionably the master of the quick fall.

In the aftermath of the quick falls that all of us take every day, we can (and we do) respond in one of three ways.  I made note of these a few moments ago.  The first possible response is what I would call the “quick fall with no rise.”  This is the response of those who sin, and then give up.  They throw in the towel—they despair—even though they could be forgiven, even though they could be washed clean in the blood of Jesus and make a fresh start.  Sad to say, the classic example of the quick fall with no rise is another apostle, namely Judas.  Judas went from being a future bishop, a future pillar of the church, to an evil and deceitful traitor in a matter of a few days.  His fall was total, it was quick, and it was decisive.  But, as Bishop Sheen once said, the real tragedy of Judas is that in spite of his terrible sin, he still could have become Saint Judas, if he had only turned back to the Lord and sincerely asked for forgiveness.  The “quick fall, no rise” scenario should never have happened to him.  It should never happen to anyone.

The second possible response to a quick fall into sin is what I call the “quick fall, slow rise” response.   Now unfortunately this is very common.  It occurs whenever a person sins, and then for some reason delays his repentance.   Because of fear, or for some other reason, he puts off dealing with it.  Now the sad aspect of this scenario is that if the sin isn’t dealt with right away, it very often gets worse, and the consequences of the sin get more severe, until the person finally makes the decision to take it to confession and make the changes that are necessary in his life.  Let me give you one example from my own experience.  I have a friend—a married man with a beautiful family—who almost lost everything: his wife, his kids, his house—everything, because of a gambling problem.  He first called me after he had lost several thousand dollars.  I told him what he needed to do to deal with the problem, but he delayed in making the changes I told him he needed to make.  He delayed until he lost several thousand more dollars.  Well finally he came to his senses, thanks be to God.  But I’m sure if you talked with him today he would tell you that he wishes he had risen out of his sin and addiction more quickly than he did.  He would certainly have had a much smaller debt than he ended up with! 

For anyone who may have a tendency to be a slow riser I would say, “Ask St. Augustine to pray for you.”  Seek his heavenly intercession.  Augustine is the patron saint of all those who fall quickly and rise slowly.  His mother, who prayed for his conversion for 30 years, would certainly agree with that assessment.  Augustine as you will recall was the great playboy of the 4th century, whose famous prayer was, “O Lord, make me chaste, but not now.”  Years after his conversion he wrote a beautiful prayer to the Lord which begins with the words, “Late have I loved you”.  In it you can sense the sorrow he had in his heart that he had wasted so much time delaying his conversion. 

Which brings us to the final possible response, which is a quick fall with an equally quick rise.  This also brings us back to Peter, because Peter is the patron saint of all those who don’t delay their repentance.  In other words, he’s the patron saint of all those who rise out of their sin as quickly as they fall into it!  I would ask you this morning to put yourself in Peter’s position after Jesus called him “Satan”.  Can you imagine how Peter must have felt?  He must have been devastated!  But there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever anywhere in Scripture that he walked away from the Lord!  There’s no evidence that he went away and sulked.  He stuck with Jesus.  He was anxious to have the Lord raise him up again—which incidentally Jesus did do, literally, a few days later when he took Peter (along with James and John) up a high mountain to give them a little glimpse of heaven in the Transfiguration.

And so it was with Peter’s other well-known falls.  For example, when he began to sink after walking on water, Peter immediately reached out his hand to Jesus so that our Lord would save him, so that our Lord would raise him up out of the sea. And Jesus did!  And then there’s the best example of all: after denying our Lord three times on Holy Thursday night, Peter jumped at the first opportunity he had to recommit himself to Jesus.  In one of their first encounters after the resurrection, Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  ‘Yes, Lord.’  “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  ‘Yes, Lord.’  “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  ‘Yes, Lord, you know everything, you know well that I love you.’  Three professions of faith made by Peter through which he, in effect, repented for his three denials.   I suppose you could say that this was Peter’s first confession—complete with a penance given by Jesus who told him to go out and “Feed my lambs.”

And so today, at this Mass, let us humbly acknowledge ourselves to be what we are: quick fallers! But let us also confidently seek the powerful prayers of the very first pope: “St. Peter, pray for each of us present in this church this morning, that whenever we fall into sin we will have the courage, the wisdom, the desire—and the good sense—to rise up as quickly and as decisively as you always did.  Amen.”

 

 

The Feast of Mary’s Assumption: A Time to REFOCUS

 

(Assumption 2024: This homily was given on August 15, 2024 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Luke 1:39-46.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Assumption 2024]

Refocus.

That’s not a word that we normally associate with Mary’s Assumption into heaven.

But I think we should!

We celebrate this feast on the 15^th of August—which means that summer, sad to say, is now more than half over.

For most people summer is an enjoyable time, given the fact that the weather is usually a lot more pleasant than it is in January and February.  For many people it’s also a restful time, a time for them to get their physical and emotional “batteries recharged,” so to speak; although for some others it can be a season of great stress—especially on those days when they have more than one social event scheduled.

But for almost everybody living in our fast-paced society right now the summer can also be a very DISTRACTING TIME!

All those enjoyable, restful—and stressful—things can, unfortunately, get in the way of our relationship with the Lord.

And so the Church gives us this feast in the middle of August: a feast that can help us to REFOCUS our attention on God and on those things that are most important in life.

Let me give you a few examples.

The feast of the Assumption, first of all, reminds us of our mortality.  It reminds us that we’re not here forever; that, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us, we do not have on this earth “a lasting city.” 

We can sometimes forget that—even in the winter.

The Assumption marked the terminal point of our Blessed Mother’s earthly life; although the Church leaves open the question of whether Mary physically died or simply “fell asleep” before she was taken, body and soul, into heaven.  In the official teaching of the Church, given to us by Pope Pius XII in 1950, it says, “when the course of her earthly life was finished [notice there’s no specific mention of death there], [Mary] was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.”

So the Assumption focuses us on the fact that our lives on this planet will have a terminal point and that we should live them accordingly.

It reminds me of a saying I once heard: Live every day as if it were your last—and one day you’ll be right.

This brings us to the second truth that the Feast of the Assumption focuses us on (or rather refocuses us on), namely, that the goal of this life is heaven!  The goal of this life is not to get rich, or to accumulate more “stuff” than everyone else, or to win an Olympic gold medal or to become the president of a company—or the President of the United States for that matter.  The goal of this earthly existence is eternal life with God in his Kingdom.

Mary has already reached the goal.  We celebrate that fact at this Mass.  As she now is, so all those men and women who die in the state of grace will someday be.  For us, however, the sequence of events will be a little different.

That’s important to mention.  Our Blessed Mother already has her glorified body in the kingdom of her divine Son.  Those of us who die in the state of grace and whose souls go to heaven (either immediately after death or after being purified in purgatory) will have to wait until the end of time to receive our risen bodies.

That’s one big difference between Mary and us.

But the goal for everybody—Mary and us—is (or at least is supposed to be) the same. 

Another truth this feast refocuses us on is that our physical bodies are holy.  They’re holy because they’ve been redeemed by Jesus Christ, and are made to live forever in heaven in their glorified state.

This, incidentally, is why sins of impurity and violence are so wrong: we’re using something which was made for heaven (our body) to put us on the road to hell!

Thankfully the sacrament of Confession is always available to put us back on the right road.

Finally, this feast refocuses us on the fact that we need Jesus Christ in our lives, and that we need to make every effort to stay connected to him (regardless of what season of the year it is!).

Mary did not save herself; she was saved by her divine Son.  (Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters don’t think we believe that, but we do!)

In her Magnificat (which we heard in our gospel reading a few moments ago) Mary says, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my Spirit rejoices in God, MY SAVIOR.”  The Lord saved our Blessed Mother by preserving her from original sin in that event we call “the Immaculate Conception”.

He saves us in a different way: by delivering us from original sin, as well as from our personal sins.

But then Mary went on to nurture her relationship with the Lord by living a sinless life of perfect love and perfect virtue: a life which was rooted in prayer.  In other words, she always maintained a close and intimate connection with her God.

This means our Blessed Mother never, ever got “distracted” spiritually in the summer—or winter—or spring—or fall for that matter!

What about us?

How has your prayer life been lately?  How has your Mass attendance been this summer?  Have you taken a “vacation from God” (even a little one)?  Have you been to Confession if you’ve needed to go?  Have you been to Eucharistic Adoration recently?  Has the Bible been on your summer reading list?  Have you maintained your connection with Jesus since the warm weather set in?

Today is a day for all of us to make the personal commitment to “refocus” to the extent that we need to: the commitment to refocus our attention on the things that really matter in this life.

Mary, of course, had no need to refocus, simply because she was always focused—PERFECTLY focused!

May her prayers from heaven help us all to be more like her, not only during the summer months but throughout the entire year.

 

Recognizing the Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist

 

(Eighteenth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on August 4, 2024 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Exodus 16:2-16; Psalm 78: 3-4, 23-25, 54; Ephesians 4:17-24; John 6:24-35.

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Eighteenth Sunday 2024]                                                              

When I was first ordained back in 1985, I remember a man coming up to me one day after a Sunday Mass, carrying his two children.  He had one in each arm.  The oldest was four years old; the other was two.  The man said to me, “You know, Fr. Ray, when I came up to you to receive Communion today my four-year-old son wanted to know if he could say ‘Hi’ to Jesus.  I told him, ‘No!’”  “Wow,” I said to him, “You mean that your son already understands that what I give out at Communion time is really the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ?”  I was impressed.  But the father replied, “Oh no, Fr. Ray, you don’t understand.  My son said that because he thinks that YOU look like Jesus!”

So much for my brilliant deductions.

Naturally it is extremely difficult for any child of four to recognize the Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament.  But of course it’s also just as difficult for the rest of us.  Sadly, age does not necessarily increase the quality of our spiritual awareness and vision.  And spiritual vision is what we need in order to be aware of the fact that the Eucharist is not a symbol, but is truly the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Savior of the world.

In a sense you could say that we need to put on “spiritual glasses” if we want to be able to see Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.  But those glasses are not easily acquired. 

Maybe part of the difficulty we have in recognizing the Lord’s presence in this sacrament is that we don’t expect the Almighty, omniscient, eternal God to be present in such a small “package.”  As Mother Teresa once put it: “How much smaller could he have made himself than a little piece of bread—the Bread of Life?  How much more weak and helpless?”

The idea that God would give himself to human beings in this way can be difficult to grasp and understand.  But we’re not the only ones in history who have had this problem.  The crowd that Jesus faced in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel (where today’s gospel reading is taken from) also faced this difficulty.

I find it interesting that the crowd back then had no trouble whatsoever accepting the miracle of the loaves.  That didn’t challenge their faith at all.  As we heard in last weekend’s gospel reading, after they ate the meal Jesus gave them they were so happy that were ready to carry our Lord off and make him their king!

It was only when Jesus began to instruct them on heavenly food (i.e., the Holy Eucharist) that the trouble began.  We see the conflict between our Lord and the crowd beginning to develop in this week’s reading.  But it gets even worse in the later verses of John 6.

Our Lord first of all said to the crowd, “I know why you want to see me again.  It’s because I fed you with earthly food.  It’s because I gave you all a good meal of bread and fish.  But now I want to tell you about another kind of food—another kind of bread—a ‘heavenly’ kind of bread.”

Of course, as happened so often in our Lord’s ministry, the crowd misunderstood him completely.  They thought he was going to give them a new kind of manna, akin to what the Hebrews got in the desert at the time of Moses (we heard about that in our first reading today)—except that this manna (this new manna) would never spoil.  Well, they thought that sounded like a great idea, so they said to our Lord, “Sir, give us this bread always!”

Jesus responded by setting them straight.  He said, in effect, “I’m not talking about manna like the kind Moses gave you; I’m talking about myself.  I am the Bread of Life!”

That’s when the trouble began.  This was a truth that this particular crowd could not accept.  That’s clear from what we’re told in the rest of John 6.  Finally it came to the point where some of them said, “This sort of talk is hard to endure!  How can anyone take it seriously?”  And many walked away from Jesus at that point—even some who had previously been his loyal followers.

There’s an old hymn that has the line in it: “Look beyond the bread you eat; see your Savior and your Lord.”  That’s the challenge of faith that faces each and every one of us.  It’s the challenge to recognize the presence of Jesus Christ—Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity—in the Holy Eucharist.

And it is possible to do.  Whenever I brought my grandmother Communion in the latter years of her life, she would always say to me before I left, “Thank you, Raymond, for bringing God to me.”  Not “Thank you, Raymond, for bringing ‘the bread’ to me”; not “Thank you, Raymond, for bringing ‘the host’ to me”; rather “Thank you, Raymond, for bringing GOD to me.” 

My grandmother was a woman who had a simple—but a very deep—faith. My grandmother was a woman whose spiritual vision was 20/20, especially when it came to the Holy Eucharist.

Let us pray today at this Mass, that our spiritual vision will be the same.