When we pray for the departed, we engage in an activity that brings the essentials of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the fore. First of all, we stand on the central fact of all facts; namely, that Jesus died and rose again. Saint Paul tells us that if Christ is not raised, the dead have indeed perished, our faith is vain, and we are still in our sins. But Christ is most certainly risen from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

In praying for the dead, we ask God to complete and bring to perfection the good work he began in them while they were here on earth, to cleanse them from every stain, and to prepare them for the Beatific Vision of Heaven.

In commending the departed souls to God, we do so in the knowledge that Christ, who himself descended to the place of the departed before his Resurrection, is the Lord of all the goodness and truth there is in the world. Even those who did not explicitly know or confess him, inasmuch as they did justice, loved mercy and sought God's goodness, those also will find their eternal destiny with Christ.

In all these actions, we know that we ourselves, when our own death comes, by God's grace will be reunited and introduced to those who have gone before us, and that in the end the risen Lord will return in power and glory to judge the world, to banish and triumph over all evil, and to commence the beauty and perfection of his new heaven and new earth. AI have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day.

The dead are not at all out of Jesus' reach, not one of them. Listen to this solemn pronouncement: Truly, truly I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and him who comes to me I will not cast out. That voice penetrates, with grace and power, the realms of the departed souls and spirits; and those who hear it, those who love his appearing, will live.

Let us hold the departed in our love and prayers and thanksgivings. Let us bless them and cherish them in our hearts, and let us receive in our turn their graces and virtues as well. For this is the mystery of the Body of Christ. The Altar is the Meeting Place. The Lord is the living God, and Christ is risen. And since we know that Jesus died and rose again, we also know that through Jesus God will bring with him all who have died. They are safe and sound.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father's house; I am going now to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too. - John 14:1-3

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