Column: Why Do We Pray for the Dead?

In the Catholic Church, the month of November is traditionally dedicated to praying for the dead. This past week, on November 1, we celebrated the Solemnity of All Saints, a Holy Day of Obligation celebrating all of the saints of the Church, known and unknown. Then, on November 2, we celebrated the Commemoration of All Souls, praying in a special way for all the holy souls in Purgatory.

This tradition raises a question: Why do we pray for the dead? We believe that each soul faces particular judgment at the moment of death and is admitted to eternal blessedness in God’s presence (either immediately or after final purification in Purgatory) or to everlasting damnation and exile from God. So why should we pray for those who have already been judged?

Praying for the dead and our belief in Purgatory are rooted in sacred Scripture:

The second book of Maccabees tells how Judas Maccabee, the Jewish leader, led his troops into battle in 163 B.C. When the battle ended, he directed that the bodies of those Jews who had died to be buried. As soldiers prepared their slain comrades for burial, they discovered that each was wearing an amulet taken as booty from a pagan Temple. This violated the law of Deuteronomy and so Judas and his soldiers prayed that God would forgive the sin these men had committed (2 Maccabees 12:39-45).

This is the first indication in the Bible of a belief that prayers offered by the living can help free the dead from any sin that would separate them from God in the life to come. It is echoed in the New Testament when Paul offers a prayer for a man named Onesiphorus who had died: “May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day” (2 Timothy 1:18).

– excerpt from “Why Do Catholics Pray for the Dead?” by Father Joe Scott, CSP, on bustedhalo.com

It is also helpful to recognize that God receives our prayers outside of time. We may pray for the someone hours, days, or even years after his or her passing, but our prayers echo through eternity, so that, at the moment of death, God “hears” all our petitions—even those that have not yet been spoken.

Father Scott continues:

Our prayers for the dead begin at the moment of death. Often family members will gather in prayer around the bedside of the person who has died. The Order of Christian Funerals includes a Vigil Service for the deceased, which can be held in the home, in the church, or in a funeral home chapel, the funeral Mass and the Rite of Committal (which generally takes place at the burial site). The prayers express hope that God will free the person who has died from any burden of sin and prepare a place for him or her in heaven. Death remains a mystery for us–a great unknown. Yet Christian language evokes a hopeful imagination in the presence of death, an assurance that our love, linked to Christ’s love, can help bridge whatever barriers might keep those whom we love from fully enjoying the presence of a loving and life-giving God.

We pray for the dead because we are a people of hope. No one is beyond God’s mercy, if only they are open to receive it.