The Sánchez Archives ALL SOULS

By
Patricia Datchuck Sánchez

A Requiem

DANIEL 12:1-3
ROMANS 6:3-9
JOHN 6:37-40

Prayerful remembrance of the dead has been an integral aspect of the Judaeo-Christian faith since the second century B.C.E. The earliest, albeit disputed reference to praying for the deceased can be found in 2 Maccabees 12:39-45. Historically, the Jews, led by the brothers Maccabee (properly called the Hasmoneans) were rebelling against the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes IV (Seleucid king of Syria) who were attempting to suppress Judaism and replace it with Hellenism. In the course of their struggle to retain their heritage, many Jews died in battle, whereupon Judas Maccabee ordered their bodies buried and that prayer and sacrifices be offered in expiation of their sins. The inspired author praised Judas’ efforts saying, “he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view” (2 Maccabees 12:43).

Among the Christian scriptures, the only passage that can be adduced as evidence of prayers for the dead is that offered for Onesiphorus in 2 Timothy 1:18: “May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day.” In the second Christian century the custom of praying for the dead is evidenced in the inscriptions on tombs, notably in the Roman catacombs. In his epitaph, Abercius (d. ca. 180 C.E.), Bishop of Hieropolis in Phrygia asked that those who understood and agreed with him should pray for him.

The earliest mention of praying for the dead in public Christian worship can be traced to Tertullian in 211 C.E. He wrote that Christians observed the anniversary day of their departed, and the Canons of Hyppolytus mention prayers for the dead during the celebration of the Eucharist. By the fourth century C.E. the custom was universal, however a special liturgical day for prayerfully remembering the dead was not established until the Middle Ages. The choice of November 2 is traditionally attributed to Odilo, the fifth abbot of Cluny (d. 1048 C.E.). Scholars suggest that the church was hesitant to set aside a particular feast for departed souls due to the tenacity with which superstitious pre-Christian rites for the dead continued to retain their hold on the faithful.

Throughout the Middle Ages, for example, it was popularly believed that the spirits of the deceased could appear on All Souls’ Day as will-o’-the-wisps, witches, toads, etc., to persons who had wronged them during their life. To combat these and other such erroneous ideas, the church encouraged believers to foster a more authentic concern for the dead. The custom of celebrating three Masses on All Souls’ Day seems to have originated among the Spanish Dominicans during the 15th century. Approved by Benedict XIV in 1748, this practice was rapidly adopted throughout the Latin church. Byzantine churches observe a similar feast on the Saturday before Septuagesima and Pentecost, while the Armenian church especially remembers the dead on Easter Monday.

A variety of different forkloric and popular customs are also associated with All Souls’ Day. Of particular interest is the manner in which “El Día de los Muertos” (The Day of the Dead) is celebrated throughout Mexico. Whereas the faithful in other countries may visit the cemeteries where their departed loved ones are interred and bring flowers for their graves, November 2 is celebrated much more elaborately in Mexico. In preparation for the day (actually a two-day celebration, November 1-2), altars are erected in homes, schools or on the tombs of the deceased which are lavishly decorated with flowers (especially marigolds). Fruits, dozens of candles and the favorite foods of the deceased are placed on and around the altar. Children’s graves are strewn with toys and candies. Cakes, cookies and special breads shaped like skulls or mummies are baked for the occasion. Children often dress in costumes and masks and carry pumpkin lanterns through the streets. Midnight processions to the cemeteries are accompanied by tolling bells and many spend the entire night at the graveside praying, singing, eating and reminiscing.

While these customs may seem unusual for those unfamiliar with them, they do seem to affirm the communion which exists among the faithful on both sides of the grave. In his encyclical Mirae Caritatis (May 28, 1902) Pope Leo XIII described this communion as “the mutual sharing of help, atonement, prayers and benefits among the faithful, those already in the heavenly father land. . . and those still making their pilgrim way here on earth. These all form once city, whose head is Christ, and whose vital principle is love.”

DANIEL 12:1-3

Seneca, the first century C.E. Roman rhetorician, described death as “the gift of God” and encouraged his contemporaries with the thought that that day, which you fear as being the end of all things, is the birthday of your eternity. Seneca’s understanding of death as a God-given passage to a different phase of life was one that emerged rather late within the Judaeo-Christian tradition. For the most part, the Hebrew scriptures reveal little hope of individual survival after death. Sheol, or the underworld is mentioned as the place where the dead, both good and evil, vegetate in an inert nebulous state. Although a few texts (Isaiah 26:19, Hosea 6:2, Ezekiel 37) refer metaphorically to the restoration to life of Israel as a corporate entity, belief in individual resurrection appeared only in later Hebrew writings; moreover, the majority of these references were in books which the Jews regarded as non-canonical, e.g. Wisdom, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Enoch. Because today’s first reading from Daniel is the earliest undisputed reference to individual resurrection, it shines brightly (v. 3) as one of Daniel’s major contributions to the Judaeo-Christian theology.

Numbered among the prophetic books, Daniel is more correctly appreciated as an example of apocalyptic literature, written during a time of persecution to encourage its readers with the assurance that goodness will never be overcome by evil. A combination of short stories (chapters 1-6) and visions (chapters 7-12), the book of Daniel was intended to edify and strengthen the persecuted with promises of vindication and victory. By telling the stories of other Jewish heroes who withstood their oppressors, the ancient author wished to bolster his contemporaries to remain faithful to their own religious traditions despite the allure of Hellenism.

In this short pericope, the faithful are assured that they shall survive the “time unsurpassed in distress” (v. 1). Historian and scholar, Arnold J. Toynbee borrowed this phrase from Daniel to describe those recurring periods of suffering in the lives of people of every culture, of every age. As history attests, each generation thinks of its own time as this “time unsurpassed in distress since nations began.” The words of Daniel, which offered comfort to the persecuted Jews of the second century B.C.E., reach out across the centuries to console all who suffer: “At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book,” i.e. of life, as in Exodus 32:32-33 and Psalm 69:29.

A poetic way of expressing God’s gift of life to humanity, this remarkable text offers the faithful further assurance of resurrection unto everlasting life (v. 2). The first reference to eternal life in the scriptures, this belief in Daniel derives from an underlying trust in divine retribution. The righteous who suffer for their faith and whose lives are wrested from them in this world will be gifted by God with life forever in the next. Moreover, their cause will be championed by God’s own emissaries. Michael, the great prince (v. 1), known in the Qumran literature (1QS 3:20, 24) as the Angel of Truth and the Prince of Light, was Israel’s special patron and guardian archangel.

In keeping with his conviction concerning divine retribution, the author of Daniel informs his readers that both the wicked and the just shall be raised. The wicked will reap the everlasting harvest of disgrace which their evil deeds have sown, while the just will “be like the stars forever” (v. 3). A common theme in Jewish apocalyptic literature, the goodness of those whose wisdom derives from God, as opposed to those who pursue wisdom elsewhere, e.g., Hellenism, will be “seven times as brilliant as the sun” (2 Enoch 66:7). These maskillim or these shining wise and just ones will “lead the many to justice” (v. 3) by virtue of their faith-filled words, works and witness to the one true God and source of all true wisdom.

For most of us, this feast of All Souls will be an occasion for remembering in prayer the many, shining, wise and just ones who have gone before us. Their words, works and wisdom have touched our lives; following their lead here on earth, we hope, also, to follow them home to everlasting life.

ROMANS 6:3-9

“Death. . . the undiscover’d country from whose bourn no traveller returns” . . . so wrote William Shakespeare in Hamlet (III,i). Centuries before the great bard of Avon, the authors of Genesis similarly described the finality of death: “for you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3: 19). This same sense of dread and disssolution with regard to death is woven throughout the Hebrew scriptures and has been given eloquent expression in the liturgical and sapiential literatures of ancient Israel (Psalms 90:3, 103:14; Ecclesiastes 3:20, 12:7; Wisdom 15:8; Sirach 10:9, 17:2; Job 10:9, 34:15).

Death was considered to be the work of Adam whose disobedience to God unleashed lethal consequences upon humankind. Earlier in his correspondece with the Roman Christians, Paul affirmed this popularly held belief: “through one person sin entered the world and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned” (Romans 5:12). However, Paul understood that the pall which had hung over the world had been removed in the person and mission of Jesus. By his victory over sin, Jesus robbed death of its dreadful power; by virtue of that victory, all who believe can face death, not as the end of life but as a passage to life everlasting.

Part of a longer text in which Paul details the consequences of Christ’s death and resurrection, today’s second reading focuses on baptism as the means by which believers participate in Jesus’ saving activity. Reminding the Roman Christians of the catechesis which had prepared them for receiving the sacrament, (“Are you aware. . .”, v. 3), Paul explained that catechumens are baptized “eis Christou”, i.e. into Christ. In other words, Christians are not merely identified with the death of Jesus but, through baptism, are immersed in the very process of Jesus’ dying.

The preposition eis, or into, is followed by the noun Christou, or Christ, in the accusative; “this indicates a movement into the person so that one can speak of incorporation” (Eugene Maly, Romans, Michael Glazier, Inc., Wilmington: 1987). Whereas Adam’s death was described as a consequence of sin, the death of Jesus was not. Since he was like us in all things except sin, Jesus’ death was the consequence of his obedience. By so embracing the saving plan of God for the sake of all his sinful brothers and sisters, Jesus gave new meaning to death. Rather than a consequence of sin, Jesus’ obedient death is to be recognized as a rejection of sin. Those who, through baptism are buried with him, are called to similar obedience and a similar rejection of sin. The “old self” (v. 6), viz., the human person affected by and prone to sin must die. “Crucified with” Christ, i.e. crucified to sin and its power, baptized believers are no longer slaves to sin but are absolved from it (vv. 6-7).

A difficult phrase, dedikaiotai (freed, absolved from sin), is derived from a Jewish legal maxim which declared a dead person acquitted of all debts and further litigation. Having thus been declared dead to sin and free of its debts (death, alienation from God, etc.) the believer is also empowered to share in Christ’s resurrection, not only after death but here and now.

Bolstered by our faith in Jesus’ victory over death and in the freedoms he has won for us, Christians need not live in dread of death. Rather, death can be our teacher and mentor helping us to live and love in such a way as to welcome it as an opportunity to fuller life with God and those who have gone before us.

In counselling the dying as regards their final passage, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross once said, “It is those who have not really lived --who have left issues unsettled, dreams unfulfilled, hopes shattered and who have let the real things in life (loving and being loved by others, contributing in a positive way to other people’s happiness and welfare. . .) pass them by-- who are the most reluctant to die.” Today’s feast encourages the reluctant to rethink the real things in life and thereby to make peace with death.

JOHN 6:37-40

“Those who love God never see one another for the last time”; this inscription was found on a tombstone in a cemetary in Leeds, England. For those who grieve the loss of a loved one, this simple statement offers the hope that death’s parting is not final; all who love will indeed meet one another once again in eternity. In today’s gospel pericope, the Johannine Jesus offers his disciples a similar assurance. Those who see him and believe in him will have everlasting life where they will see Jesus and the God who sent him as well as all who are raised up in Jesus’ name for all eternity.

In his gospel, the fourth evangelist employed a series of five verbs which expressed the idea of looking or seeing. In this particular text, the verb used is the Greek theorein. As Raymond E. Brown (The Gospel According to John, Doubleday, New York: 1990) has explained, “Theorein means to look at with concentration.” It implies a look that lingers, studies carefully, considers slowly. As it apears in today’s gospel, theorein (v. 40) means to truly perceive and accept Jesus in faith.

Precisely, what were the disciples to perceive and believe of Jesus? As the remaining verses of the text indicate, Jesus was challenging his own to see and accept him as one who came from heaven to do the will of God (v. 38). The will of God was to give over to Jesus all who would come to him (v. 37) so that none would be lost (v. 39) and that all would be raised up on the last day (v. 40).

Upon reading these verses, twentieth century disciples may be inlcined to wonder how they could possibly look upon or see Jesus. Some may even cast an envious eye on Jesus’ first century contemporaries who had the privilege of being eye-witnesses of Jesus’ works and words. However, as the gospels indicate on numerous occasions, many who saw the wonders Jesus did, did not ipso facto believe in him or accept him. Physical sight evolved to spiritual insight or faith only by the deliberate act of choosing to believe. Seeing and believing led to eternal life.

Contextually, this challenge to see and believe in Jesus was issued within the lengthy Bread of Life discourse (John 6:22-59). The verses which comprise today’s gospel follow immediately upon Jesus’ declaration, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (John 6:35). Throughout the discourse, the term “bread of life” is used in both a sapiential sense, in that it pertained to life-giving bread of Jesus’ teaching, and in a sacramental sense, in that it referred to the life-giving bread of Jesus’ body, sacrificially broken on the cross and eucharistically shared at the last supper for the life of the world. Within this context, Jesus’ invitation to see and believe in him takes on added significance.

Each time the good news of salvation is proclaimed, believers have the opportunity to see Jesus and believe. At each eucharistic celebration, Jesus’ living presence can be seen and accepted in faith. After each proclamation of the good news and each eucharistic celebration, believers are sent forth to accept the Jesus who calls us to see him in the eyes of the poor, homeless, hungry, sick and imprisoned with whom he identified. Those who see and accept him in all his many venues will have eternal life. Those who love him and are united by their faith in him will never see one another for the last time.

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