Father Ferdinando Colombo: Praying to God for the Living and the Dead

Praying to God. Pope Francis’ message for the celebration of the 2016 World Day of Peace opens with three very significant statements: “God is not indifferent! God cares about humanity, God does not abandon it!”.

God is the wise architect of my life. I cannot make my own plans, act accordingly, and then expect God to come and be the laborer in the construction.

We do the construction together, in “collaboration”. We must become aware of the reversal of perspective that Christianity operates with respect to pagan prayer: the pagan prays to conquer the gods, to win their favor, to draw them to his side.

For the Christian, it is the opposite: I do not need to convince God, because He is already on my side, on the side of my good. It is I who need to convince myself and put myself on God’s side; I do not pray to convert God, but to convert others, and myself with them.

For the living

The work of mercy we are exploring refers in particular to the prayer of intercession, prayer for others. To intercede means to “step between”, to “interpose”, to stand between two parties in an effort to build a bridge, a communication between them.

“To walk in the middle”, ready to help each of the two sides. In intercession, we take upon ourselves the burdens of those for whom we pray: it is a prayer that refers to God’s plan and allows us to participate in His work of salvation.

Recalling an image from the Book of Job, we can say that the intercessor is one who places a hand on God and a hand on man, on God’s shoulder and on man’s shoulder, becoming himself a bridge between the two: “There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand upon us both” (Job 9:33).

Every Christian is called to intercede and play a special role toward all humanity: whoever follows Jesus shares the responsibility for the salvation of the whole world. Therefore, the presence of many intercessors is a means to achieve a community that corresponds to God’s plan and to promote the work of reconciliation between individuals, peoples, cultures, and religions, and between man and his God.

This great river of intercession flows into the ocean of Christ’s intercession.

Jesus the intercessor

Let us think of His position on the cross, when His being between heaven and earth, with outstretched arms to bring all people to God, becomes a narrative of the ultimate outcome of intercession: the giving of life for sinners by the One who is holy, the “dying for” the unrighteous by the One who is righteous.

Jesus’ prayer on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34) synthesizes an entire life spent before God for others and shows a Jesus who has become intercession Himself through His life and death. The Risen Lord continues to intercede for all people from high heaven; Saint Paul writes to the Romans: “He is risen, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us!” (Rom 8:34).

For the dead

The Church has always invited prayer for the departed, particularly by offering the Eucharistic Celebration for them: it is the best spiritual help we can give to their souls, especially to the most abandoned.

In Lumen Gentium we read that the Church: «from the earliest days of the Christian religion has cultivated with great piety the memory of the dead» (LG 50). Praying for the dead, the Church inserts itself into God’s plan of salvation, which has as its end the Kingdom, the final resurrection, and eternal life.

At the heart of this prayer is therefore a bond of solidarity in mutual love: we pray for the dead because we love them. And they too continue to love us, with a love even greater than that which they cherished for us during their earthly life, because they are no longer limited by the frailty of human nature; now they love with the very power of God’s love.

In prayer, we experience communion with them, as we ask them to accompany us from heaven and speak of us to God; we also express the conviction that love is stronger than death. Because physical death cannot sever the bonds of love and charity, which unite us all into one body.

When we pray for the departed, it is enough for us to know that their love of God continues to grow and that they need our support, just as we need theirs.

(Andrea Brandolini Collegiate Church of San Giovanni in Persiceto January 17, 2016 Adult Catechesis)

Prayer of Pope Francis

God of infinite mercy, we entrust to your immense goodness

all who have left this world for eternity,

where you await all humanity,

redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, your Son, who died to ransom our sins.

Look not, Lord, upon our many human poverties, miseries, and weaknesses when we appear before your judgment seat,

to be judged for happiness or condemnation.

Turn your merciful gaze upon us, born of the tenderness of your heart,

and help us walk the path of complete purification.

Let none of your children be lost in the eternal fire of hell, where repentance is no longer possible.

We entrust to you, Lord, the souls of our loved ones,

of those who died without sacramental comfort,

or who had no chance to repent even at the close of their lives.

May no one fear meeting You,

after this earthly pilgrimage,

in the hope of being welcomed into the arms of your infinite mercy.

May sister bodily death find us watchful in prayer

and rich in every good deed accomplished throughout our brief or long life.

Lord, let nothing separate us from You on this earth,

but may all things and all people sustain us in the ardent desire to rest peacefully and eternally in You.

Amen.

(Angelus – November 2, 2014)

Illustration by Sister Marie-Anastasia Carré (Communauté des Béatitudes)