REMEMBERING ALL SOULS

Wednesday - 2nd November 2005

ALIVE ALIVE-O!

If we say that we believe in “ the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” (the Apostles’ Creed), then that means that those who have gone before us are - in one sense - more alive than we are!

If we’ve been praying for friends or relatives as part of our usual prayers, it makes no sense to stop remembering them before God merely because they’ve changed branches of the Church! So traditionally the Church has continued to pray for those whom we love but see no longer, who are separated from us by the veil of death. But how should we pray? and what should we pray for?

GETTING READY...

The Church and Christian tradition has long talked about some kind of preparation for meeting God face to face. If our life can be understood as a journey of development and understanding this side of death it makes sense that the journey continues the other side of death. Lots of people have taken up this idea and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress is perhaps the best known illustration. There have also been some unhelpful images and ideas surrounding what is effectively torture - but this doesn’t seem to fit with the Christ we meet in the gospels.

Others object to any idea of “purification” saying that faith in Jesus’ atoning death on the cross has done all the work for us. Whilst that may be true theologically and absolutely, the making of that a reality in our lives and experience has already proved a life time’s experience, and I suspect that few of us here would claim to be perfected in grace just yet... If you are invited to a wedding, you could come exactly as you are now: you could even borrow an outfit from the host. Or you could spend ages getting ready, bathing, shaving or putting on make up, dressing carefully, choosing a buttonhole, polishing shoes etc. Part of the occasion is in the preparation - maybe we should see the after-death journey more in these terms

FLUFFY CLOUDS, HARPS AND BOREDOM?

So how should we pray? One old prayer for the dead is “may light perpetual shine upon them, may they rest in peace and rise in glory” If that is a helpful and comforting image, then well and good. It does however suggest that the afterlife is a rather passive existence... an eternal Bank Holiday...

However, if God calls us in this life to work with him to establish and further the kingdom of God, is it not logical to assume that when we get to heaven we may well still be working with God in some way to help the realisation of that work? Notice that even in the Garden of Eden, Adam had a job - even if it was naming the animals... so working with God is what we were made for, so it makes sense to imagine that this will continue in some way.

THREE HINTS...

So perhaps we can start to say two things about our beloved departed ones: that they will be involved in some kind of on going journey of purification and that there will be some kind of work in which God will ask them to be involved.

And in addition to that, the various hints which Jesus gives in the gospels strongly suggests a party connection! There are many images of the Kingdom of Heaven as being a wedding feast, or a celebration, a banquet...

In a way that only small children can catch you out James caught me out a few months ago. He’d been asking about what heaven would be like... so I’d said that Jesus had talked a lot about parties, to which he hummed and said “So there’ll be shops in heaven will there?” “Errr...” says I “Shops?” thinking of some celestial retail therapy experience “I’m not sure..” “Well” he says with impeccable logic “There must be - otherwise where would you buy the presents for the party?”

So already we are beginning to piece together some hints and glimpses which may begin to inform us in our praying for those whom we love but see no longer.

GROWING INTO OURSELVES

It might help our praying too if we recognise that in this life we are often hampered by circumstance, by the unhelpful restrictions of others, by a lack of opportunities to develop our gifts or vocation, by poor health etc. One way of understanding the process after death which I’ve found helpful is to pray that the departed person may become more fully the person God made them to be.

WHAT WILL HEAVEN BE LIKE?

So what is heaven like? We don’t know!... The bible writers stretch every image... heaven is water to the thirsty, rest to the weary, light to the blind, security to those under threat - because God himself is all these things. Jesus said there were many rooms in his Father’s house, so may be there is a great variety of work to do, and maybe that work is worship and prayer, maybe we get to join in with the work of God...

Today, as we celebrate and pray for those whom we knew and loved in this life who have literally gone before us, let us remember that at this Eucharist we too are drawing near to the throne of grace and joining our worship “with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven...”

And as we live to God’s glory both as inhabitants of earth and citizens of the commonwealth of heaven, let’s remember that old German proverb “Those who live and love in the Lord never see each other for the last time...”

SOME PRAYERS WHICH MAY HELP...

O God, the King of saints, we praise and glorify your holy Name for all your servants who have finished their course in your faith and fear: for the blessed Virgin Mary; for the holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs; and for all your other righteous servants, known to us and unknown; and we pray that, encouraged by their examples, aided by their prayers, and strengthened by their fellowship, we also may be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Remember, Lord, those who have died and have gone before us marked with the sign of faith, especially those for whom we now pray.... May these, and all who sleep in Christ, find in your presence light, happiness, and peace. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, we remember this day before you your faithful servant N; and we pray that, having opened to him/her the gates of larger life, you will receive him/her more and more into your joyful service, that, with all who have faithfully served you in the past, s/he may share in the eternal victory of Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Fr Andrew J Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea